Gaming News - Page 1

Microsoft is set to close the Xbox 360 Store on July 29, 2024, almost 19 years after the console first debuted in November 2005. Quite possibly the most popular Xbox console of all time, both in terms of sales, market share, and iconic games like Gears of War, Halo 3, and Fable 2, sunsetting the Xbox 360 Store isn't necessarily a doom-and-gloom scenario.

From July 2024, players can no longer purchase new games, DLC, and other content from the Xbox 360 Store and Xbox 360 Marketplace. The Movies & TV app is also going away, with Microsoft and the Xbox team confirming that "TV and movie content will no longer be viewable on your Xbox 360."

The good news is that you will still be able to play Xbox 360 games and DLC that you have already purchased, not only on Xbox 360 consoles but also via backward compatibility on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles.

Skywind is one of the most ambitious mod projects currently in development. It presents a complete remake of Bethersda's classic Morrowind in the Skyrim engine. The mod has been in development for well over a decade, since Skyrim was released in 2011.

Over the years, the team has been providing updates on the game's progress, with the latest outlining that it's shaping up to be a bigger game than Skyrim, with over double the NPCs and four times as many voice actors.

To put that into context, Skyrim has around 1,100 NPCs voiced by 70 actors, while Skywind has 3,000 NPCs voiced by 300 actors. The 2024 update video goes into great detail, outlining all aspects of the ambitious mod and its development progress. Covering everything from animation to art and level design, it's a fascinating insight into the mod creation process.

Resident Evil 9 will apparently take some cues from Dead Island when it releases in 2025.

New reports from insider DuskGolem may shed new light on Capcom's plans for the next mainline Resident Evil game. According to inside sources, Resident Evil 9 has been in development since 2018 and has had the longest dev time of any game in the series (7 years). Sources also say RE9 has the biggest budget out of all of the zombie-infested survival games.

But what about the locale? It sounds like Resident Evil 9 could be similar to Techland's 2011 hit Dead Island. DuskGolem further states that RE9 will take place in a "fictional rural town on an island in the Southeast Asia Sea inspired by Singapore specifically."

Sony's new PlayStation 5 Pro won't have a unique devkit design, Digital Foundry reports.

The PS5 Pro makes some big leaps over the base PS5 that was released in 2020. The mid-gen upgrade is a combination of brawn and brains, complete with a new RDNA 3.0 GPU with a +45% uptick in power alongside new AI-powered image reconstruction technology to deliver more convincing 4K visuals from 1080p inputs. While the specs are pretty different, there's one area where both the PS5 and PS5 Pro will stay the same: Their devkits.

According to Digital Foundry, who has received info from Sony's developer portal, the PS5 Pro devkit is identical to the original PS5's. You know, that V-shaped manta ray design that popped up everywhere--including in watermarked patent images.

Sony's new mid-gen PlayStation 5 Pro upgrade is expected to have an AMD RDNA 3 GPU that's capable of max speeds of 2.35GHz.

New reports from Digital Foundry highlight new upgrades in Sony's upcoming PS5 Pro. More documentation for the PS5 Pro has been leaked via Sony's developer portal, and this time we have new info on the PS5 Pro's GPU solution.

According to the reports, the PS5 Pro's GPU will have 60 RDNA 3.0 Compute Units (CUs) and can boost to a whopping 2.35GHz, which indicates a max 36 TFLOPs of compute power. That's a 5.4% increase over the PS5's 2.23GHz max GPU speeds. This boost will be hard to achieve and maintain, though, and only certain games are expected to really push the PS5 Pro to its 2.35GHz GPU speeds.

After days of review bombing, Sony has officially reversed its controversial decision with Helldivers 2.

Good news for PC players: Helldivers 2 will no longer require a PlayStation Network account in order to play. Sony had originally mandated that all Helldivers 2 users on Steam would have to make a PSN account and link it to their Steam account by June 4 or else they wouldn't be able to keep playing.

This caused massive backlash, leading to over 100,000 negative reviews for Helldivers 2 on Steam. Valve also started to delist Helldivers 2 in the dozens of countries that couldn't make a PSN account, and lots of refunds were issued. Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead tried to triage the issue, working with Sony behind the scenes and promising updates soon. Now Sony has made the decision to just scrap its original mandate altogether.

Apple has today announced five new games for Apple Arcade subscribers to download with games compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and Mac - and one is even available for play on the Apple Vision Pro.

Rabbids: Legends of the Multiverse, Return to Monkey Island+, Tomb of the Mask+, Fabulous - Wedding Disaster+, and Apple Vision Pro spatial title Where Cards Fall will all launch in Apple Arcade at some point in the next month. And because these games are Apple Arcade titles they won't have any ads or in-app purchases and they're all available for download for free so long as you're an Apple Arcade subscriber.

Where Cards Fall is the Apple Arcade title and a 202 Apple Design Award winner. The game features tactile, accessible controls that have been designed for the Apple Vision Pro and will see players use gestures to manipulate and bring houses of cards to life, Apple's press release says.

Helldivers 2 PC players are returning back to the Steam listing to celebrate their voice being heard by Sony regarding the publisher's recent decision to make PSN account linking mandatory.

Sony recently announced via its official PlayStation X account that it will be rolling back the announced changes that stated Steam players would be required to link their account with a PSN account. This change had the Helldivers 2 community up in arms as some countries around the world don't have access to the PSN network, meaning they wouldn't be able to play Helldivers 2 at all.

Some others found it a major problem to force players to sign up to the PSN network when Sony has been hacked several times in the past, exploiting user information. For all of these reasons and more, Helldivers 2 players review bombed the title on its Steam listing, resulting in more than 200,000 negative reviews since Sony announced the incoming changes.

The Helldivers 2 PC controversy has seemingly ended after PlayStation announced it was going to backpedal on forcing Helldivers 2 players to connect their Steam account to a PSN account to be granted access to the game.

Only a matter of hours ago PlayStation took to its official X account to announce it has heard the feedback from the Helldivers 2 PC community regarding the linking update and has decided it "will not be moving forward". This change will cover both existing Helldivers 2 players and new Helldivers 2 players.

Arrowhead Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt has since taken to his personal X account to praise the efforts of the Helldivers 2 community for collaborating their efforts to get what they want and to thank PlayStation for their decision to leave PSN linking optional. Notably, PlayStation wrote in its post that it's still learning "what is best for PC players".

The debacle between Helldivers 2 PC players and the game's developer and publisher has reached new heights, with the developer Arrowhead Studios's CEO now blaming the publisher, Sony Interactive Entertainment. 

The Helldivers 2 controversy began when Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) announced on the Helldivers 2 Steam blog that Helldivers 2 PC players would be required to link a PlayStation Network (PSN) account to their Steam account to access the game. The community entered into an uproar at this news as many gamers in various countries around the world don't have access to the PSN network in their region, meaning they would get locked out of Helldivers 2 as soon as the change was implemented.  

Helldivers 2 was bombarded with more than 100,000 negative reviews, driving its review description down to "overwhelmingly negative". The CEO of Arrowhead Studios, Johan Pilestedt, apologized for the events that transpired and said the decision wasn't the developers - it was Sony's. In response to the community uproar, Helldivers 2's Steam listing was removed from more than 170 regions, as selling the game to consumers who won't be able to play due to a lack of PSN access is simply fraudulent.