Gaming News - Page 1

Alan Wake 2 has yet to turn a profit on all platforms, game developer Remedy has confirmed.

After more than a decade of simmering ideas on a back burner, Remedy finally got their chance to make Alan Wake 2 when they purchased the IP and publishing rights to the series from Microsoft. Instead of self-funding the game, Remedy took a lucrative deal with Epic Games. The Fortnite-maker would fund development and handle publishing, and in exchange, Alan Wake 2 would launch on the Epic Store, not on Steam. It would also be digital-only on consoles.

It appears these business decisions have impacted sales of the game. Alan Wake 2 has yet to trigger royalty payments to Remedy, meaning the game isn't yet profitable...although it could be soon. Remedy says that Alan Wake 2 has "already recouped a significant part of the investments made by Epic Games Publishing," and the firm says the game has sold 1.3 million units as of February 2024.

Following the release of Alan Wake 2, Tencent has nearly tripled its investment into Remedy Entertainment.

Chinese games giant Tencent now owns 14.8% of Remedy, the developer of Alan Wake, Control, and the Max Payne games. This is a 289% increase from Tencent's previous ownership of just 3.8% of Remedy's shares.

Remedy has partnered with Tencent on a new free-to-play game codenamed Kestrel, which is a reboot from its previous game, codenamed Vanguard. Kestrel is currently in concept phases of development. Tencent's new share buy-up comes months after Remedy announced the reboot.

Nintendo's new Switch 2 console is expected to have magnetic joycons that snap on and off of the main tablet, new reports indicate.

Not even Nintendo's hardware partners know what its new system looks like. Ever-commited to secrecy, Nintendo has reportedly found a unique way to demo its next-gen Switch console: Through touch and nothing else.

Unnamed manufacturer sources tell Spanish gaming site Vandal about the strange meet-up with Nintendo, saying that third-party partners were ushered to stick their hands in a covered box and feel--not see--the Switch 2. Sources in attendance tell Vandal that the next-generation Switch device would have magnetic joycons.

Square Enix has cancelled $140 million worth of games, and multiple games could have been affected.

Today, Square Enix announced it'll be taking a ¥22.1 billion loss in its Fiscal Year 2023 financials as it cancels content that was in the production pipeline. Last quarter, Square Enix CEO Takashi Kiryu announced plans to prioritize quality over quantity--instead of releasing multiple products that may not do well, the team will try to focus on safe bets.

To put the losses into perspective, Square Enix spent about $792 million on games development throughout FY22 as part of its production budget account. The updated spending for FY23 will be published in May.

Blizzard has officially cancelled BlizzCon 2024, but Microsoft didn't make the decision.

BlizzCon 2024 isn't happening. Instead, the billion-dollar live service guru plans to hold several smaller-scale events throughout the year, including worldwide in-person affairs for the 30th anniversary of Warcraft. There's also digital celebrations being planned. Blizzard plans to focus primarily on The War Within expansion for WoW and Diablo IV's new Vessel of Hatred expansion.

Cancelling the event makes sense. Rising operational costs have forced mass layoffs, and Blizzard even cancelled one of its new games to reduce spending. Since Microsoft now owns Blizzard, some have assumed that the decision came from them, but it was actually Blizzard's choice. This tracks because Activision Blizzard King operates as a limited-integration company within Microsoft, which means they get to call their own shots.

Ubisoft has today confirmed that it will make the Assassin's Creed Mirage game available for download on the iPhone and iPad starting on June 6, although the game's App Store page continued to say June 10. In a press release, Ubisoft confirmed that gamers will need an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max to play the game, while those with iPad Air and iPad Pro tablets with the M1 chip or newer will also be able to get in on the act. With Apple expected to announce new M4 iPad Pros soon, we can expect those tablets to play the new game particularly well.

The game can be preordered from the App Store right now with the title available for all who want to play it for free - although only for the first 90 minutes. After that, unlocking the full version will cost $49.99. Thankfully, that's a one-time purchase that will make the game available for both the iPhone and iPad, so buyers won't have to buy the game twice to play on their phone and tablet.

The Assassin's Creed Mirage game is of course already available for PlayStation, Xbox, and Windows PCs and has been since October of last year. But with the title being such a recent one it's important to note just how impressive it is that Apple's iPhones, albeit its most expensive, are capable of playing these console-quality games. We've already seen games like Death Stranding and Resident Evil make an appearance in the App Store, but those were slightly older titles.

Fortnite is coming back to Apple devices in Europe in 2024, starting first with iPhone and then iPad later in the year.

The European Union's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) has pried open the App Store and forced Apple to allow third-party stores on iPhones. The process isn't perfect, and there's still some compliance issues, but Apple will be forced to comply with the EU's new digital laws if it wants to sell products and services in Europe. Fortnite will come back to iPhone via a new Epic Games storefront that exists outside the App Store.

The European Commission has also found iPadOS to be a gatekeeper, so the DMA also applies to iPads. This means that Apple will need to allow and facilitate outside stores on their line of tablets as well. Thus, Fortnite will return to both iPhones (sometime soon) and iPads (sometime this year).

Manor Lords, which became the most wish-listed game on Steam during its development, is now out - and day one sales reflect its most-wanted status.

For those who missed it, Manor Lords is a medieval-themed city builder that mixes constructing a settlement with a side order of tactical battles - and some seriously nifty visuals.

As publisher Hooded Horse declared in a post on X (formerly Twitter), on the initial day sales topped 1 million copies on Steam. Manor Lords also managed to achieve the highest ever concurrent player count for a city builder on Valve's platform, with some 173,000 PC gamers indulging in being a Lord at the same time on launch day.

MSI's Claw gaming handheld has received a new BIOS and GPU driver update, which boosts performance across the board by 5% to 40%, while 7 Ways to Die gets a huge 150% performance boost.

The company claims it has "smooth gameplay" across 100 of the most popular games on Steam, with MSI's new "106" BIOS also making it easier to update your Claw in the future. You will no longer need to use a USB flash drive to install a new BIOS, which is something you'd expect to be standard at this point... at least it's coming.

All of the benchmarks you can see in the image above are running on the Performance Mode on the MSI Claw at 1080p, with Low in-game graphics settings, XeSS upscaling set to Performance, V-Sync disabled, and the FPS limitation has been disabled.

MSI has made a much-needed move - actually two moves - to improve the performance of its Claw gaming portable.

Firstly, MSI has deployed an updated BIOS and complemented that with new Intel GPU drivers to give a claimed boost of up to 150%.

The updates give the MSI Claw the wherewithal to play the top 100 most popular games on Steam "smoothly" the maker tells us.