Gaming - Page 969

Microsoft is busily preparing its new "monster" Project Scorpio console, which will be the world's first enthusiast-grade console that continues blurring the line between desktop PCs and traditional consoles. But where is the "beast"? Microsoft still isn't ready to unveil the system just yet, but we should see it showcased at E3 2017 in June.

Based on what we've heard about Project Scorpio's progress, the system should meet its original Holiday 2017 release date. In fact, Xbox division head Phil Spencer says the Xbox design team is making strides on the system. When asked if Project Scorpio will be revealed pre-E3 2017, Spencer said: "Really wish I could, design team is doing their "thing" again, really happy with what they've been able to do."

Besides the actual hardware specifications and onboard SoC power, one of the main mysteries behind Project Scorpio is it's outward appearance. Given the impressive design of the Xbox One S, I think Microsoft should go all out with Project Scorpio; I still contend it needs to have a specific color scheme that differentiates it from its predecessors, but it'd be super neat to have a clear window on the console and maybe some RGB/lime green/white/silver lighting effects to boot.

Although the Nintendo Switch tablet handheld comes with two JoyCon controllers on its side, it's 6.2-inch 1280 x 720 display is actually a fully-fledged touchscreen with 10 points of capacitive touch, and it even has built-in haptic feedback technology. So why is Nintendo being so quiet about it?

Nintendo hasn't really talked about the Switch console's touchscreen panel very much. YouTuber GamingWithMe captured footage of the Nintendo Switch's touchscreen in action at the official console reveal in New York. The touchscreen functionality was demonstrated by a Skylanders: Imaginators representative, who showed that the touchscreen could be used to sort through items within the game.

UPDATE: Capcom has officially fixed the issues on Windows 10 PCs and has delivered the following statement:

Original story is as follows, but note it's not 100% accurate and was written before the fix was available.

Early builds of Microsoft's "monster" native 4K-ready Project Scorpio console have been fired up, and Xbox division head Phil Spencer got first crack on the system.

Now that AMD's Ryzen CPU and high-end Vega GPU architectures are starting to mature, especially the Raven Ridge APUs that combined both potent technologies in a single scaled chip, Microsoft's Project Scorpio console is starting to take shape. In fact, the team just tested out one of the very first Project Scorpio builds, and Xbox's Phil Spencer took the "beast" for a ride and played some Xbox games on the high-end system for the first time. How was it?

"Great day, Scorpio update w/ team. Played my first games on early Scorpio unit. Games played great, console looked right, proud of the team," Spencer Tweeted a bit ago.

Sony has been doing extremely well with the PS4 so far, with a great software to console attach rate that has beaten the PS2 at the same point in their sales milestone.

So far, Sony has sold 53.4 million PlayStation 4 consoles - a number provided by Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai. During the current Taipei Game Show opening ceremony, Asian general manager of Sony Japan, Hiroyuki Oda, said that have been over 400 million PS4 games sold so far. The number has been confirmed by a Sony Interactive Entertainment Australia spokesperson, who said cumulative sell-through figures for PS4 software has reached 409.1 million.

At these numbers, the attach rate is around 7.51 games for every PS4 sold. This number, according to analyst Daniel Ahmed, is higher than both the PS2 and Nintendo's super-popular Wii consoles - the two all-time best-selling consoles. PS2 sales were at 50 million when the console reached 308 million games sold, while Nintendo reached a 7.1 attach rate at the same milestone.

Resident Evil 7 was meant to be a fresh change for the franchise, and it seems Capcom weren't lying - with the initial wave of reviews for Resident Evil 7 being overwhelmingly positive.

For the first time in the Resident Evil series, the game is 100% in the first-person perspective - with many gamers wanting to see Capcom keep the first-person style starting with Resident Evil 7. First-person horror games are quite big right now, but with a massive franchise like Resident Evil entering it - in a sea of some very good indie devs and smaller studios with first-person horror games, this is a great thing to see.

Better yet, Resident Evil 7 works on PlayStation VR - an exclusive to the PS4 for now, before it heads on over to the VR headsets on the PC. Our friends over at UploadVR reviewed the game, with David Jagneaux saying:

Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid might only have a total of fourteen games when it launches on March 3, 2017 (half of them being Japanese), but Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima wasn't kidding when he said the Switch would have a "full software library."

We've seen lots of lists of confirmed Nintendo Switch games, but sometimes a visual aid is needed to truly underline the scope of the hybrid console's software library. Nintendo America President Reggie Fils-Aime has confirmed that "over 50 developers are working on more than 80 games for the Switch," many of which haven't been announced. But when we take a look at all the confirmed announced titles, it certainly adds much-needed perspective to the Nintendo Switch's games lineup.

The above visual aid was crafted by Twitter user Dystify, and if you're keen on more Switch news, you should definitely give them a follow. It's also interesting to note that publisher and developers are revealing even more Switch launch games as time goes by, so this list could continue to grow. For example, Square Enix today announced that I Am Setsuna would be a day one Switch game. So by no means are online lists like IGN's Switch games lineup list 100% complete.

Today Bandai Namco revealed Tekken 7 has been delayed to June 2, 2017 on all platforms. June is a far cry from the original "Early 2017" timeframe touted by the publisher, with the game now releasing in Summer 2017 instead, but the publisher has stepped in to answer for the cause of the delay.

Although Tekken 7: Fated Retribution has been out since 2015 in Japan, the console and PC port is much different than the arcade version. The NA and European Tekken 7 will have a multitude of features that aren't available in arcades while also retaining much of the same content of the Japanese version.

"The console version of TEKKEN 7 contains features, tuning, characters, and modes that are not found in the arcade version," a rep from the publisher wrote on Bandai Namco's Facebook page.

Dark Souls 3's second and final DLC pack The Ringed City will release on March 28, 2017 on all platforms, Bandai Namco today revealed.

This is it, folks: this is the final ride in the Souls universe. The Ringed City will be a story-based content expansion that fully expands on the series' macabre weirdness, and serves as the actual final chapter of the series as a whole. Hidetaki Miyazaki has already confirmed that Dark Souls 3 is the final chapter in the franchise, and this bit of DLC will be the setting sun point for the series. So let's hope it's a good story.

"At the close of the Age of Fire, as the world ends and all lands converge upon themselves, a lone adventurer descends into the madness of the earth and uncovers the secrets of the past. As players make their way to the fabled Ringed City they will encounter ancient beasts, a new cast of characters teetering on the edge of insanity, new armor, weapons, magic, and at the bottom of it all, a long lost city filled with new horrors for players to overcome."

The Wii U is all-but dead: when Zelda: Breath of the Wild rolls out onto the system on March 3, 2017, the console will be effectively retired in terms of software--Breath of the Wild will be Nintendo's last game on the Wii U, and their entire focus will shift to Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid. Now Nintendo is started to pull attention away from the retired system in an effort to push its hot new hybrid.

The Wii U is no longer a major focus on Nintendo's official website. The Switch has taken its place, and for good reason: the Switch represents the total culmination of everything Nintendo has ever done in the games industry, and is the combination of all its hardware. The Switch is a huge deal; the Wii U sold terribly and had awful third-party support. In many ways, the Switch is the polar opposite of the Wii U (at least in Nintendo's mind), so it's doing everything it can to distance itself from the Wii U, and distance the Switch from the dead system.

Now Nintendo hasn't completely scrubbed the Wii U from its online site. The Wii U still has its own tab at the top of the screen that links to the Wii U's dedicated section. While I can say the Wii U is dead, it's still being supported by Nintendo's eShop and the company has been rolling a steady stream of Virtual Console games onto the system...but that's probably the extent of any future game support from anyone.

EA Access and Origin Access members will get try out a 10-hour demo of Mass Effect: Andromeda five days before the game comes out, the publisher has announced.

The 10-hour Mass Effect: Andromeda Play First Trial will be available on March 16 for all regions, a full five days before the action RPG's multi-platform launch on March 21, 2017. Remember that EA Access is console exclusive for Xbox One systems and isn't available to PlayStation 4, so PS owners will be left out of the trial.

BioWare has confirmed that all your progress from the trial will carry over to the main game, too.

Bandai Namco today revealed that Tekken 7 will blast into battle on June 2, 2017 on Xbox One, PS4, and Steam...but the publisher also revealed some worrying details too.

Tekken 7 will have characters locked behind paid DLC in a season pass format. I can't say I'm surprised given the nature of Bandai Namco's current business model, but I do think this has absolutely no place in Tekken; Tekken has always been about earning the extra characters with time, not money. And if that wasn't enough, the publisher is also locking a character, Eliza, behind a pre-order paygate.

As a hardcore Tekken fan, I don't agree with these changes. I don't like them. And I'm wondering how Harada feels about it. This move has to bee quite awkward, and it might be the right one in terms of money and investment on Bandai Namco's part, but it just feels so wrong in terms of a fan perspective.

The PC gaming hardware market's total earnings for 2016 broke through the $30 billion barrier for the first time, analyst firm Jon Peddie Research has announced, showing that PC gaming is alive and well.

According to JPR's findings, the PC gaming hardware market's $30 billion earnings are mostly due to enthusiast gamers--but mid-range and entry-level gaming solutions are a huge part of the spend as well. JPR reports that the global PC gaming's $3 billion 2016 earnings are broken up into three categories: the high-end enthusiast market, which comprises 43% of the overall spend at 13,045 million ; the mid-range market which comprises 35% of the total numbers at 10,617 million; and the entry-level market that makes up 22% of the spend at $6,684 million. The Asia-Pacific market "leads the world in both growth and market size," and

JPR predicts that the PC gaming hardware market will continue to grow at a 6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2019.

Considering the main selling point of the Nintendo Switch is taking your "console-quality gaming" on the go, battery life is extremely important. While Nintendo has delivered basic battery life ratios, no in-depth specifics were really given. In an attempt to get more perspective on the Nintendo Switch's battery and usage life, we analyze information gleaned from FCC filings and Nintendo's own website.

Based on our analysis findings, we've concluded the Nintendo Switch doesn't support USB Type-C quick charging capabilities for dramatically faster recharges, although the actual USB Type-C protocol supports USB Power Delivery 2.0, which can transmit up to 100W of power over a Type-C cable. We've also concluded that the Switch will charge faster when directly hooked to the AC adapter versus cradled on the dock.

Nintendo's Japanese site revealed that the Switch has a non-removable 3.7V/cell 4310mAh battery. This capacity isn't bad, but it's not necessarily great; a dedicated gaming system with a 10-point capacitive touch 6.2-inch 720p display would benefit from a ~5000mAh+ battery for optimum battery life.

Resident Evil 7 will soon terrify millions of Biohazard fanatics across the globe, but Capcom has no plans to bring the game to Nintendo's new transforming Switch handheld-console.

Although Capcom is one of the dozens of third-party publishers and developers who have pledged to bring their games to the Nintendo Switch, it appears that its new high-profile triple-A Resident Evil game won't make the jump.

"I think it's a very unique piece of hardware," producer Masachika Kawata told Express UK in a recent interview. "I'm looking forward to the possibilities of the system itself, but we have no plans at the moment regarding Resident Evil on Switch."

Zelda: Breath of the Wild is likely Nintendo's biggest game of 2017, and represents a massive new undertaking for the series. It's the first fully-fledged open-world Zelda game Nintendo has ever made, and offers players a new kind of experience--in many ways, it feels like the ultimate Zelda, the kind of game that represents everything that Eiji Aonuma has wanted to do with the series.

As such, Breath of the Wild will be massive in scale and scope--so big that it even ousts Skyrim's huge hyborean landmass.

According to Reddit user's HylianWarrior impressive Breath of the Wild map, the in-game world is an estimated 60% bigger than Skyrim. The map--which isn't completely accurate, mind you--pinpoints Breath of the Wild's open-world Hyrule at 61.2 square kilometers, whereas Skyrim checks in at 36.72 square kilometers.

Ubisoft today announced the PC spec requirements for its upcoming online-only game For Honor, and they're not too demanding.

For Honor looks awesome in theory, and the premise is certainly interesting--gamers take on the role of Knights, Samurai or Vikings and battle each other in a never-ending war triggered by a malevolent god--but I'm not too enthusiastic about the game being online-only for one reason: no dedicated servers. That's right, For Honor will require a persistent internet connection for its dynamic PvP battling, and will be powered by peer-to-peer networking. Oh, and For Honor has a solo campaign, but that will apparently need an online connection too. But in any case, let's get on to the specs!

The following AMD and NVIDIA desktop video cards will be supported when For Honor releases:

Engineer Fritzchens Fritz has peeled off the Xbox One's APU cap to take a look at the scintillating die beneath, giving us an interesting look at the SoC that powers the original fat "Durango" Xbox One model.

The Xbox One's customized APU is based on AMD's Jaguar microarchitecture, and features a 1.75GHz AMD Jaguar CPU with two quad-core modules alongside a customized Radeon GPU clocked at 853MHz with 14 GCN compute units at 1.31 TFLOPs of power, which sits it around an HD 7870 (Pitcairn). The die also houses 47MB of on-die RAM, which boosts the die's actual size.

The die is 363 mm sq, and we can see some of the integral microarchitecture that powers the system: the system memory controllers at the top left and bottom left, the two quad-core Jaguar CPUs that sit below either memory controller, the SRAM module in the middle of the Jaguar CPUs and on the top and bottom right of the die, and the AMD Radeon GPU cores in the middle.

Can you believe that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was the #1 game of 2016? I can't either, but according to NPD Group's latest monthly report, which tracks sales in the US only. This isn't global, but the US is a pretty big market for gaming.

Battlefield 1 was in second place, but whimpered just 10% more sales than EA's last Frostbite-powered game, Star Wars: Battlefront. This is also a sign that BF1 wasn't the massive game EA and DICE, and gamers were hoping for. Surprisingly, The Division was in #3 - but Ubisoft has been making some large and swift changes to the game since it launched.

My favorite, Overwatch came in #7 place, while even Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 was in the top 10 sitting in #8. Remember that NPD Group doesn't consider digital sales in Battle.net titles, so Overwatch would be much higher on that chart if they did.

I hate to be the ringer of bad news, but the entire gaming market - both consoles, and PC - dropped 12% in the United States in 2016 compared to 2015's numbers.

The latest report from NPD Group said that PC software sales increasing by 5% in 2016 - compared to the 13% drop in 2015 - while console and portable software dropped 6%, hardware dropping by a larger 24% chunk, and accessories with a 6% drop. Overall, the gaming industry in the US dropped 12% to $12.1 billion.

Do you think the release of the Xbox Scorpio and Nintendo Switch will help console hardware, software, and peripherals sales this year? What about the next-gen Ryzen CPU from AMD, RTG's upcoming Vega GPU, NVIDIA's new graphics cards - and hopefully a tease of Volta at GTC in May? And, what games are looking to be big sales - because 2016 was filled with massive AAA titles, but 2017 isn't looking as lucrative to game publishers in terms of large sequels.