Gaming - Page 966

Although the Nintendo Switch isn't fully backward compatible with Wii U games, and won't play the games in your existing Wii U games library, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima confirms the handheld-console hybrid can indeed emulate Wii U games...and we could even see Wii U game "remasters" on the Switch.

When asked by TIME if the Switch would ever get Wii U game support, Mr. Kimishima confirmed that Wii U games must be "remade" to be playable on the Switch: "We can take games and bring them and make them playable on Switch. So they can be remade for Switch, yes."

The Nintendo President goes on to iterate that the games must be remade...however those remade Wii U games could get "enhanced" to benefit the Switch's beefier NVIDIA Tegra processor, similar to how older PS4 games get PS4 Pro enhancement patches to leverage the system's beefier hardware.

Today I've seen reports that Red Dead Redemption 2 will be delayed possibly as far as September 2018. I'm quite confident this is wrong, and here's why.

Yesterday Take-Two Interactive announced its third-quarter earnings for 2017 (which were quite amazing, read more here), and re-confirmed Red Dead Redemption 2's release for 2017. "Looking ahead, our Company has a robust long-term development pipeline and is better positioned for success than at any time in its history," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said. "We expect to grow both bookings and net cash provided by operating activities in fiscal 2018, driven by our release slate led by Rockstar Games' highly anticipated launch of Red Dead Redemption 2."

Red Dead Redemption 2 is slated to release in Fall 2017, which usually translates to September or October. Fall 2017 is part of Take-Two's Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018); the FY2018 fiscal year starts on April 1, 2017 and ends on March 31, 2018. Now if Take-Two had delayed the game to September 2018, as this article postulates, that would be the next fiscal year, FY2019, not FY 2018. This would clash with the CEO's statements about high profitability for FY18, which would damage shareholder outlook.

Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive is keen on pushing farther into the mobile gaming market, which pulls in an estimated $40 billion a year.

So far Take-Two has had moderate success in mobile games with its NBA 2K companion app and the WWE Supercard free-to-play card game. Both apps have generated an impressive and consistent flow of earnings, but the company wants to penetrate the market in a more direct way. Take-Two already understands microtransactions and "recurring consumer spending" all too well: a sizable chunk of its earnings are from microtransaction purchases in games like GTA Online and NBA 2K games.

But mobile gaming is different, and takes a more seasoned push. That's where Social Point comes in.

Over three years after its original release, Grand Theft Auto V continues to push boundaries and earn serious cash for Rockstar and Take-Two.

Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive today revealed their Q3 2017 earnings, and GTA V as well as its online component was a big earner. In fact, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that Grand Theft Auto V has sold-in (shipped) more than 75 million units and was the sixth highest selling game on all platforms in 2016.

"GTA V and GTA Online continue to outperform our expectations, as they have in every quarter since their release. GTA V remains the highest rated game of the current console generation with sell-in amounts surpassing 75 million units. According to NPD which combines digital and physical sales, GTA V was the sixth highest selling game in all games on all platforms in 2016," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said during the company's Q3 2017 earnings call.

Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive today revealed strong third-quarter 2017 financials bolstered by repeated success of Grand Theft Auto V and its monetized engagement-driven online GTA Online component.

The earnings call made one thing clear: like EA, Take-Two has a potent formula regarding engagement and recurring consumer spending. This money-making strategy has manifested strongest with GTA Online, which continues to pull in quite a bit of earnings for Take-Two and Rockstar.

Sales and earnings were up in the three-month quarter, and recurrent consumer spending grew to a record high of 55%, signalling that tons of GTA Online, NBA 2K and mobile players continue to spend their money on in-game microtransactions, DLC content, and other in-game based purchases.

UK-based Playground Games is best known for its high-profile Forza Horizon racing series, but the team has opened up a separate games studio to work on an entirely different project.

Playground founder Ralph Fulton confirmed that the new game wouldn't have anything to do with racing. In fact, it'll be an open-world type of game set in an entirely different genre than the studio is used to, and the project might even be the new Xbox IP that Microsoft exec Phil Spencer recently teased.

Microsoft's Xbox brand has worked closely with Playground for the Forza Horizon series, and this could be a unique opportunity to create something fresh.

Since Nintendo's new Switch hybrid system is an all-in-one combination of the 3DS' handheld mobility with a Wii U's centralized console-and-tablet hardware, 3DS owners have been worried that their beloved handheld's days are numbered. While Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima says the systems will continue to live on, he also delivers some clues that this competing hardware relationship will come to an end at some point--possibly sooner than we think.

"We believe the 3DS can coexist with Nintendo Switch for the time being," Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima said during the company's recent Corporate Management Policy Briefing.

Just let that sink in a bit...especially that last part, that whole "for the time being" part.

Nintendo has made a strong effort to ensure its new Switch handheld-console hybrid supports modern games engines and APIs like Unreal Engine, Unity and Vulkan, giving developers tons of powerful and flexible options. Nintendo exec Shigeru Miyamoto affirms that porting cross-platform games onto the Switch can be done 'easily,' and adapting a PC game to the Switch would only take a year.

"Third-party developers who are making software for PC can now easily adapt that software to work on our platform. In the current development environment, Iʼd say that it would take less than a year for them to port a PC game to Nintendo Switch," Miyamoto said during Nintendo's Corporate Management Policy Briefing.

Miyamoto goes on to proudly state that the company's devs have "mastered" the flexible toolsets like Unreal Engine, and that Japanese devs are now on par to Western games developers:

Square Enix recently published its third quarter earnings report, and things are looking good for the Final Fantasy publisher. Total nine-month net sales are up by 24% year-over-year thanks to strong game sales, but the most interesting tidbit is the rather massive earnings spike the publisher expects to see at the end of the fiscal year. In fact, corporate expects net sales to rocket in just three months time, pushing its net sales to just over $2.2 billion.

In a nine-month period from April to December 2016, Square Enix generated a total of 190 billion yen in net sales, or about $1.68 billion USD. Three of Square Enix's four yearly quarters have passed, leaving the last three-month quarter (Q4 2017) which ends on March 2017. The publisher's forecast for the entire net sales of Fiscal Year 2017 is 250 to 270 billion yen, which is at least approximately 60 billion yen over their current nine-month earnings.

The timing is key here: Square Enix will have a three month period from Jan. 1 to Mar. 31 to generate that 60 billion yen, or about $533.4 million dollars.

Final Fantasy XV took quite some time to develop and represented a big investment on Square Enix's part. We don't know exactly how much the publisher spent to make the game, nor do we have official details on the game's regional sales figures--there's been speculation that it didn't meet its sales projections in Japan despite strong interest in the West. What we do know for sure, however, is that the game isn't being sold at a loss.

Hajime Tabata, who oversaw Final Fantasy XV's development, recently told DualShockers' Giuseppe Nelva that the experimental action RPG recouped Square Enix's full investment cost in its first day. In lieu of official figures, Square Enix confirmed Final Fantasy XV shipped 6 million digital and physical units across the globe to become the fastest-selling game in the entire franchise.

Square Enix has also just announced its Q3 2017 earnings so we can get a better picture on how its major flagship games like Final Fantasy XV performed during the quarter.

Bethesda have released their new High Resolution Texture Pack for Fallout 4, which weighs in at a damn hefty 54.7GB - but there are some people, myself included, who can't download it.

Fallout 4's own DLC tab doesn't appear for me, but those with mods installed have no issues. If you're having a problem finding, or being able to download the 54GB high-res texture package, here's a trick that should help you.

Right click 'Fallout 4' in your game library, and click 'View Downloadable Content'.

Bethesda has confirmed that the upcoming High Resolution Texture Pack for Fallout 4 will be a massive 58GB, and is now available to download on Steam.

The developer explains the new patch as: "Experience the wasteland like you've never seen it before with the Fallout 4 High-Resolution Texture Pack! From the blasted buildings of Lexington to the shores of Boston Harbor and beyond, every location is enhanced with ultra-deluxe detail".

We reported on the High Resolution Texture Pack a week ago now, as the developer had listed an AMD Radeon RX 490 8GB as a recommended GPU - something that was quickly fixed.

Cloud Imperium Games will have regional servers for Star Citizen available earlier than previously expected, with Chris Roberts saying that regional servers will be moved up into Alpha 2.6.1 patch.

The new regional servers will let Star Citizen players choose a server that is in their geographic location, with servers for the US, Europe, and Australia. Roberts explained: "Once these are running, we'll be able to run more tests to assess whether more locations will be needed".

Star Citizen's upcoming Alpha 2.6.1 patch will bring a few things, with Roberts saying that it's "progressing nicely". He added: "There's still some UI work to complete and stability issues to iron out, but, as you can see in our updated production schedule report, we're almost ready to get this latest patch into the players' hands".

For Honor enjoyed a closed beta a few days ago, and now Ubisoft are ramping up towards the open beta, before the full game is released on February 14. Now, we have a new trailer to enjoy: check it out below.

The new 'In the Battle' video from Ubisoft throws you into the middle of a three-way battle between the factions in For Honor. The motion captured 360-degree battle looks amazing, with sheer madness happening on screen. Ubisoft has started pre-loading the For Honor open beta has begun, with the open beta taking place between February 9-12.

For Honor will feature 12 playable fully customizable fighters, a single-player campaign, and five multiplayer modes. The game launches on Xbox One, PS4, and PC on February 14.

Square Enix is experimenting to see how high-end PC hardware can push Final Fantasy XV's internal game engine in a series of closed-doors technical demos. This could very well be the foundation for Final Fantasy XV's PC port, which would be a technical feat tailor-made for high-end rigs.

According to reports from DualShockers' Giuseppe Nelva, Square Enix is actively experimenting with powerful NVIDIA GTX 10-series video cards within Final Fantasy XV's beefy Luminous engine. To conduct these tests, Square Enix's Business Division 2 paired dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs together in SLI in the test bed system to see how far the hardware could push Final Fantasy XV's engine's performance and visual fidelity.

Nelva was shown the internal tests during a visit to Square Enix's Tokyo offices and actually saw the test in action:

Nintendo has released even more info on its new Switch handheld-console hybrid, and now we know the full battery capacity of all the components, including the detachable JoyCon controllers.

According to freshly updated specs from Nintendo, JoyCon controllers each have a 525mAh rechargeable lithium-ion cell battery. The detachable JoyCon controllers have about 20 hours of battery life apiece, and take about 3.5 hours to fully recharge to maximum capacity.

The devices are only recharged via Nintendo's unique rail system, so they can only receive power when attached to the Switch console itself or when attached to a JoyCon Charging Grip.

Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid is all about one thing: giving players freedom to play games on a console and a handheld in one device. Major players in the games industry including Microsoft and Sony have taken notice--and even Metal Gear Solid creator Hide Kojima has said the Switch is the "gamer's dream."

As someone who owns a PS4, Xbox One and a PC, I know all to well the frustrations of re-buying multi-platform games. Microsoft has made great strides for consumers by giving free Xbox One copies of Windows 10 games with Play Anywhere, but all-in-all publishers love the idea of you re-buying games on a different platform (look at Rockstar with GTA V).

But Nintendo has just disrupted the market with its new transforming console-and-handheld Switch games system, and this disruption could trigger a massive change to gaming platforms as a whole, ushering in a new wave of unified hardware and software.

Based on the cryptic and eerie teaser clips starring Mads Mikkelsen, Guillermo Del Toro and Norman Reedus it's easy to think Death Stranding will be some dark alter-reality story with horror themes. But Hideo Kojima says his new creation won't actually be a haunting journey in the darkness of his mind--in fact it'll have a little humor.

Death Stranding might be one of the most unique-looking games I've seen in a long time...but we haven't actually seen any real gameplay footage for it. Alas I'm intrigued, and I think a lot of people feel the same way. According to Hideo Kojima, who's new studio Kojima Productions has found a home at Sony Interactive Entertainment, the main reason for the teasers was to show us something that breaks the mold and makes us think. But don't expect it to be a horror game--it'll be a "different kind of game than we're used to" with action elements thrown into the mix.

"I don't have a dark mindset in particular. Death Stranding is not a horror game. I just wanted to make something that looks very unique, something you haven't seen before, something with a more artistic slant to it. I'm not pursuing a dark aspect to the game," Kojima said in a recent interview with Glixel.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild isn't just open world, but open altogether. There's no set path or set road, or one way to do something. It won't have any one equation to solving puzzles, tackling quests, or besting baddies in battle: the game will offer tons of different ways to experiment, ensuring that players do things their own way.

Now that Breath of the Wild is finished and ready to be shipped alongside the Nintendo Switch on March 3, game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi has delivered some interesting answers in a recent Famitsu interview.

We haven't heard anything from Fujibayashi on the project--likely because he's been busily working on the game for the past five years--so this is a rare treat, one that really highlights the core tenants of what Breath of the Wild actually is.

Nintendo's second mobile game Fire Emblem: Heroes is already swinging out of the gate, and has already raked in $2.9 million in its first day of availability.

Nintendo continues to make paradigm shifts towards a more profitable and open-ended business structure, and its budding smartphone gaming focus will be a big part of that. The company's second major mobile game, Fire Emblem Heroes, is proof that the once-ailing Japanese games-maker is keen on turning everything around. In just a few short months Nintendo learned from its mistakes with Super Mario Run and pulled a complete 180 reversal to enable a more traditional free-to-play microtransaction-laden "freemium" type of focus, and it's paid off in dividends.

While Fire Emblem Heroes only earned 1/4th of Super Mario Run's day one earnings, the former game is a much more lucrative long-term strategy. Nintendo listened to shareholders and investors and implemented the "gacha" business model, which is essentially built around gambling: players buy in-game "orb" currency priced at $1.99 to $74.99 and redeem orbs for packs without knowing what will be in them, counting on luck to unlock key characters. This system is responsible for the long-term success of most major smartphone games especially in Japan, where Fire Emblem Heroes is off to a roaring start.