Videogame News Thread [Archive] - Page 60

Sepholio

11-09-2022, 03:27 AM

Well like with me playing switch games via PC, I actually buy like 95% of the games. I still believe in supporting the companies as long as it's a current product (ie I am not going to pay the secondary market for some old SNES or PS1 game I want to play that I have no access to any other way). Occasionally I will pirate a game I am iffy about and try it out and if I like it I will go buy it. If not, I'm not gonna play it anyways and just delete it.

I guess I kinda keep to the grey area of emulation/piracy in a way. If they ever come knocking on my door (which they won't because I don't upload ANYTHING ever and the amount of actual d/l I do is minimal) I'll just bust out the game cart and show ownership. It's not illegal to play your games on another platform if you can use the same files, no matter how much they dislike people doing that.

Sepholio

11-09-2022, 03:29 AM

I used to pirate A LOT more. Denuvo fucked that all up. Seems like almost every game I wanna play that I would consider sailing the digital seas to acquire has that ultimate bullshit DRM that takes a dickyear to crack.

Wanted to try out the new Star Ocean before I bought it considering the series had been on a downward trend and the last one was absolute ass. Denuvo said no.:fu:

Evil Vito

11-09-2022, 08:50 AM

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey claims that he's designed a virtual reality headset rigged with a small bomb that will actually kill you if you die in the game.

He's even said he's exploring anti-tampering technology so you wouldn't be able to take it off, you either beat the game or you're dead.

Woohoo, let's turn real life into a sci-fi.

Sepholio

11-09-2022, 09:01 AM

It has 3 directed charges on the visor that fire into your frontal lobe if you die in the game.

There are pics of this thing, it's real.

Gonna be fucked when someones playing and they glitch through the floor and die.

drave

11-09-2022, 09:09 AM

Dumb.

But maybe a fun way for me to go out with a bang when I'm old AF and have no retirement to live on.

It's like assisted suicide, but I get to go out gaming. Fuck yeah.

drave

11-09-2022, 09:12 AM

This just made me think of Nier Automata. That game will forever stick with me. The game I started playing was not the same game I finished. The way this was presented was unlike any other ever, nor will there ever be another for me. Maybe it's because I often wonder about this existence/life and what it's all about / why we're here.

I couldn't stop playing. I found myself wanting to move forward regardless of what was in front of me. And the "ultimate sacrifice" at the true end (5th play through I think?

That story is unrivaled IMO. I honestly felt a heavy "lift" when I finished the story, exhaled deeply and just kinda sat back and thought about it all. It was incredible, and yet I don't know if I could ever play it again at the same time.

God damnit, and now I'm back listening to the soundtrack. Every aspect of this game is top tier.

I bet I end up playing it again and doing a completionist run because reasons.

ClockShot

11-09-2022, 09:19 AM

I didn't know Zuckerberg got into the weapons business.

Then again, this sounds like something out of Law-Abiding Citizen. The guy's a tinkerer who can kill you with the simplest of things.

drave

11-09-2022, 09:36 AM

Zuckerberg weaponized data ages ago, which is objectively worse than Saw 2022.

drave

11-16-2022, 08:38 AM

Gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure I bring to you all 285 issues of Nintendo Power Magazine.

https://archive.org/details/nintendo-power-issue-128

drave

11-16-2022, 08:39 AM

And here's a page showing you what programs you can use to open .cbr files on your machine of choice

https://fileinfo.com/extension/cbr

Sepholio

11-29-2022, 07:10 AM

Time Magazine did their game of the year awards. Here's the rankings:

God of War: Ragnarok
Horizon Forbidden West
The Quarry
Elden Ring
Stray
The Last of Us Part 1
Sifu
Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

drave

11-29-2022, 08:21 AM

Oh man, I need to reinstall RE 8 for the expansion. Bought it for my son but haven't played it myself.

Destor

11-29-2022, 02:29 PM

I have 5 of those but ive only played 3

ClockShot

11-29-2022, 03:16 PM

I'd switch out Forbidden West with Elden Ring and let them duke it out for #1.

Forbidden West was great. But they botched the end, so it loses a point or two in my eyes.

drave

11-29-2022, 03:35 PM

I have 5 of those but ive only played 3

Math checks out

Sepholio

11-29-2022, 06:50 PM

ruh roh, FromSoftware business practices have come under fire. Employees claiming they deal with crunch, forced overtime that they only receive half their normal pay rate for, low salary in general, no maternity leave. Apparently the average salary for someone at FS is under 25k USD per year, which is laughable, but even worse when you consider they live/work in Tokyo which is on the very high side for cost of living. Not a good look for From.

drave

11-30-2022, 08:08 AM

Under 25k!

That's insane man. I made more my very first job ever :(

Sepholio

11-30-2022, 08:21 AM

Yeah and just imagine that it's under 25k in LA/NYC or something pretty much. Absolute madness.

drave

12-07-2022, 10:16 AM

Microsoft (not a euphemism for Seph's dong), has a plan to bring Cal of Dookie to Nintendo for the next 10 years.

Sepholio

12-07-2022, 12:07 PM

I'M A GROWER NOT A SHOWER

drave

12-07-2022, 02:27 PM

It makes sense why you "like the cold" man.

<3

ClockShot

12-08-2022, 03:20 PM

FTC says "not so fast" and sues to block Microsoft acquisition of Activision.

https://www.ign.com/articles/ftc-sues-to-block-microsofts-activision-blizzard-acquisition

Sepholio

12-08-2022, 05:13 PM

Oh shiiiiiiittttt

drave

12-08-2022, 07:34 PM

lol,

Ticketmaster's fine tho, right

Fignuts

12-08-2022, 11:57 PM

Lots of stuff announced at game awards.

Hades 2 announcement made my fucking week.

Fignuts

12-09-2022, 12:29 AM

Oh my god. Elden Ring won GOTY and some kid went up on stage with the developers and no one realized he wasn't part of the group. After their speech, he takes the mic and thanks Bill Clinton.

Ruien

12-09-2022, 08:19 AM

Hades 2? LETS GO!

drave

12-09-2022, 09:24 AM

Oh my god. Elden Ring won GOTY and some kid went up on stage with the developers and no one realized he wasn't part of the group. After their speech, he takes the mic and thanks Bill Clinton.

How was Let Me Solo Her not present?!

GTFO

ClockShot

12-09-2022, 01:57 PM

Guess I got a lot of stuff to check out when I get home.

Armored Core 6 is welcome news. Fond memories of that franchise.

drave

12-09-2022, 02:38 PM

Diablo 4

6/6/23

Fignuts

12-09-2022, 03:43 PM

The Hellboy game looks really slick.

ClockShot

12-10-2022, 07:19 PM

Downloaded and tried the Forspoken demo.

While the game shows it has some promise, it has really wacky control scheme that the tutorial does piss poor job of explaining. It feels like it'll work well on a PC not so much on the PS5.

With a month before launch, I don't think they'll put it off again unless they get some real negative feedback from the demo.

Fignuts

12-10-2022, 08:34 PM

It looked really fun to play in trailers. That falls apart if the actual feel is awkward.

drave

12-13-2022, 08:45 AM

High on Life is fucking hilarious and also pretty fun to play. Me thinks they have some patching to do, as framerate stutters from time to time, even on Series X.

It's made by the creator of Rick & MOrty (literally never seen a single episode) and the dude who does Morty's voice is your first gun.

Lotsa 4th wall humor too. The "tutorial" assistant from my bounty hunter suit was telling me how to sprint.

"You see that button on your screen? You know you can run right? I'd tell you which button it is, but I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT KIND OF KEYBOARD OR CONTROLLER YOU'RE USING" and just laughs and goes away.

Caution for any houses with lil ones, lotsa talk about "fucking" and they don't care.

Fignuts

12-15-2022, 12:25 AM

I like that the bounty hunter forums reading like old school tpww.

https://i.imgur.com/fS2CEBQ.png

drave

12-15-2022, 07:51 AM

That game man...... seriously.

There are so many hidden gems and it is just really fun so far. Mods really make the guns feel new.

I like Knifey.

ClockShot

12-15-2022, 12:31 PM

Spider-Man 2. Fall 2023.

Sepholio

12-17-2022, 02:08 AM

That game man...... seriously.

There are so many hidden gems and it is just really fun so far. Mods really make the guns feel new.

I like Knifey.

Dude....the movie theatre warp disk. Whole movie of Demon Winds being narrated by 3 aliens sitting in the front row MST3K style. Absolutely amazing. I sat there and watched it lmao

Sepholio

01-03-2023, 01:51 PM

Rumors swirling that Fable has been delayed further...this time possibly into the next console generation.

ClockShot

01-03-2023, 03:22 PM

The new Hitman trilogy is going to be merged into one big game dubbed Hitman: World of Assassination.

New Hitman 1 & 2 is getting yanked from shelves. If you own Hitman 3, you'll get a free upgrade to the new game.

Some of the released DLC will be packaged in while you still have to buy others. Here's the link to the story.

https://www.ign.com/articles/hitman-3-being-rebranded-as-world-of-assassination-putting-entire-trilogy-in-one-package

Fignuts

01-07-2023, 11:29 AM

Open world star wars game being made by ubisoft will reportedly have a seamless universe, similar to No Man's Sky and Starfield.

ClockShot

01-07-2023, 01:09 PM

Wish they included more info on how starships are going to work. You gonna be stuck on a planet and have to work or earn it like Old Republic. Or do you immediately start out with one like No Man's Sky or Elite Dangerous?

rez

01-08-2023, 02:53 AM

Open world star wars game being made by ubisoft will reportedly have a seamless universe, similar to No Man's Sky and Starfield.

Since it's from Ubisoft I expect it's single player and not another MMO. Intrigued...

Emperor Smeat

01-11-2023, 08:08 PM

Ubisoft announced they have cancelled three unannounced games and delayed Skull & Bones again due to financial-related issues affecting the company.

This was stated to be part of their current plans to cut back around 200 million Euros in costs for the company over the next two years.

Ubisoft is making more big shifts to its future plans. The company announced today that it is cancelling three more unannounced games, pushing Skull and Bones further back, and is planning a cost reduction of more than €200 million over the next two years.

The shift to Ubisoft’s future plans was announced today, and the publisher attributes the shift to several factors. Two of Ubisoft’s 2022 titles, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023, underperformed. And Ubisoft also cites worsening macroeconomic conditions as a factor in its new plans.

“We are clearly disappointed by our recent performance,” said CEO Yves Guillemot. “We are facing contrasted market dynamics as the industry continues to shift towards mega-brands and everlasting live games, in the context of worsening economic conditions affecting consumer spending.”

In response, the publisher is focusing its efforts into building its brands and live services. Consequently, this means the cancellation of three additional unannounced projects, on top of the four it already announced as scrapped in July 2022.

Ubisoft also plans a net reduction of non-variable costs of over €200 million over the coming two years. The company aims to achieve this through targeted restructuring, divesting “some non-core” assets, and natural attrition.

Alongside the unannounced games, one other Ubisoft project also got shifted once again. Skull and Bones, the long-in-development pirate sim, is now aiming for a launch in early 2023 to 2024. The game has been delayed several times since its first reveal, with its latest one shifting the target to March 2023.

Link: https://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-cancels-three-unannounced-games-delays-skull-and-bones/

Fignuts

01-12-2023, 01:23 AM

lol @ skull and bones

drave

01-12-2023, 07:23 AM

its like avatar 2 in the game world.

Y'all remember AC Black Flag (Avatar 1)? No, because it came out 10 years ago?! OK.

but skull and bones will suck

ClockShot

01-12-2023, 03:16 PM

I really think that if any more bad news come out from Ubisoft, the vultures will start circling. Stock price might get to the point where somebody goes and makes an offer.

Skull & Bones will be D.O.A. no doubt.

Disney/LucasArts might want to check in on them to see how that Star Wars game is coming along.

Sepholio

01-13-2023, 07:37 PM

I could honestly see Sony making a play for Ubisoft if it comes down to it.

Emperor Smeat

01-17-2023, 06:55 PM

Ubisoft's Paris-based office reportedly is set to go on strike on January 27th. The issue revolves around recent comments made by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot blaming staff for the company's recent financial losses.

France’s Solidaires Informatique union has called for strike action at developer/publisher Ubisoft’s Paris office. The industrial action, scheduled to take place next week on Friday, January 27, is being held in response to comments made by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot over the company’s recent financial losses ...

In an email to all Ubisoft staff, however, Guillemot raised company ire by, in workers’ eyes, blaming the staff for the company’s financial slump. “Today more than ever,” reads the email obtained by Kotaku, “I need your full energy and commitment to ensure we get back on the path to success […] I am also asking that each of you be especially careful and strategic with your spending and initiatives, to ensure we’re being as efficient and lean as possible.”

“The ball is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality, and show everyone what we are capable of achieving.”

The comments were met with disdain by some at Ubisoft, who believe that Guillemot’s email encourages crunch working conditions, while subtly implying that it is the staff who needs to “step up” to turn around company fortunes. Given the aforementioned cost-cutting promises, Ubisoft workers are also feeling a sense of unease about their job security, and the fragility of Ubisoft’s subsidiary studios.

“On several occasions, Mr. Guillemot is trying to shift the blame (once again) onto the employees; he expects us to be mobilized, to ‘give it our all,’ to be ‘as efficient and lean as possible‘,” writes Solidaires Informatique in its call to action. “These words mean something: overtime, managerial pressure, burnout, etc. Mr. Guillemot asks a lot from his employees, but without any compensation.”

“And because Mr. Guillemot and his clique only understand the relationship of power, Solidaires Informatique is calling on the employees of Ubisoft Paris to go on strike”.

The strike is scheduled to take place at Ubisoft Paris on Friday, 27 January, from 14:00 to 18:00.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-paris-workers-to-strike-in-protest-of-ceos-comments/

Emperor Smeat

01-17-2023, 07:01 PM

In some other non-Ubisoft news:

The European Commission is currently expected to reject Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard within the next several weeks.

The rejection is currently expected to be made by April 11th in a form of a statement of objections document and the EC is unlikely to listen to any of Microsoft's offers to remedy the situation beforehand.

Microsoft (MSFT.O) is likely to receive an EU antitrust warning about its $69 billion bid for "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O), people familiar with the matter said, that could pose another challenge to completing the deal.

The European Commission is readying a charge sheet known as a statement of objections setting out its concerns about the deal which will be sent to Microsoft in the coming weeks, the people said.

The EU antitrust watchdog, which has set an April 11 deadline for its decision on the deal, declined to comment ...

U.S. and UK regulators, however, have voiced concerns, with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission going to court to block the deal.

Microsoft was expected to offer remedies to EU regulators in an attempt to avert a statement of charge and shorten the regulatory process, other sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in November.

The EU competition enforcer, however, is not expected to be open to remedies without first sending out its charge sheet, although there are ongoing informal discussions on concessions, the people said ...

The deal has received the green light without conditions in Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Serbia.
Link: https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-faces-eu-antitrust-warning-over-activision-deal-sources-2023-01-16/

ClockShot

01-17-2023, 07:50 PM

Ubisoft's Paris-based office reportedly is set to go on strike on January 27th. The issue revolves around recent comments made by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot blaming staff for the company's recent financial losses.

Link: https://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-paris-workers-to-strike-in-protest-of-ceos-comments/

Someone will snatch them up. Seph might be on to something with Sony making a play as a counter to Microsoft going after Activision.

drave

01-18-2023, 08:02 AM

Emperor Smeat

01-18-2023, 06:41 PM

Microsoft recently announced that they will be laying off around 10,000 people across all of their departments and studios. In terms of workforce, it was announced that this will amount to around less than 5% of Microsoft's entire workforce. It was also announced that these layoffs will be done over the course of the year and lasting until the end of their fiscal third quarter.

In regards to the gaming industry, it was confirmed that Bethesda, 343 Industries, and The Coalition will be getting hit with a wave of layoffs as part of Microsoft's mass layoffs. 343 Industries will also be undergoing some restructuring as well.

Bloomberg reports that the Microsoft layoffs have affected workers at both 343 Industries and Bethesda, according to their sources. The scale of the cuts is not clear, but Bloomberg’s report notes that some of those affected include longtime Xbox veterans, who have been at the company for over a decade. In a follow-up tweet, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier says it sounds like the Halo Infinite team got “hit hard,” citing an email to staff from 343 head Pierre Hintze.

Kotaku also reports that 343 and Bethesda were affected, as well as Gears developer The Coalition.

In addition to layoffs, it seems like movement is also being made around 343 Industries. Schreier reports that Joseph Staten, who was brought on to help bring Halo Infinite development to a close, is leaving 343 to return to Xbox Publishing.

Links: https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-layoffs-10000-employees-shifts-future-industry/ , https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-layoffs-affect-343-bethesda-report-industry/

Fignuts

01-18-2023, 10:28 PM

So good to have Smeat news back again.

drave

01-19-2023, 07:30 AM

I'll drink to that!

drave

01-19-2023, 07:31 AM

Monster Hunter Rise drops on GamePass tomorrow!!!!

I'm way more excited than I should be.

Emperor Smeat

01-19-2023, 07:39 PM

* As noted before (https://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-cancels-three-unannounced-games-delays-skull-and-bones/), Ubisoft recently announced that they have cancelled three unannounced projects as part of their current cost savings measures due to recent financial-related issues affecting the company. The company recently confirmed that one of those cancelled projects was "Project Q" which was an online multiplayer hero-based arena shooter game.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/project-q-canceled-ubisoft-arena-shooter/

* In some more bad news, Google officially shut down all of their servers for their now defunct Stadia gaming streaming service as of last night.
Link: https://twitter.com/GoogleStadia/status/1615804298381725696

* Continuing the trend of Bad News Thursday, a class-action lawsuit was recently filed against Activision Blizzard over their free-to-play Diablo Immortals mobile game. This lawsuit revolves around allegations that Activision Blizzard purposely committed false advertisement over the status of a legendary gem in the game. This gem was advertised to be a benefit to players who purchase it but those who did so later found out that the opposite happens when you level it up to Level 3 and this change was kept hidden from players.
According to a report by Polygon, Washington D.C. law firm Migliaccio & Rathod LLP is considering filing suit against Activision Blizzard over Diablo Immortal‘s Legendary gem “Blessing of the Worthy”, which the firm claims is actually detrimental to the player, rather than a boon, and therefore constitutes a degree of false advertising on the game’s behalf.

According to the firm, “Blessing of the Worthy” was advertised as offering players a 20% chance of doing damage equal to 12% of the player’s total life. But players have been finding that, once the gem hits Level 3, then the gem changes its status, having a 20% chance of damage equal to 12% of a player’s current life. Therefore, if a player is low on life, then the gem is borderline pointless. As this gem is sold as part of Diablo Immortal‘s DLC bundles, players have argued that they have paid money for something that does not, in fact, perform its advertised role.

“Rather than offer refunds or some form of compensation, Blizzard has instead responded to the Blizzard community by stating that they will change the item’s text description to reflect its actual effect, at level three,” reads a statement from the law firm. “This practice essentially amounts to a bait-and-switch, since a purchasable item was advertised with one effect that players wanted and ended up with something completely different.”
Link: https://classlawdc.com/2023/01/12/diablo-immortal-false-advertising-investigation/ , https://www.destructoid.com/diablo-immortal-lawsuit-blessing-of-the-worthy-gem/

ClockShot

01-19-2023, 07:47 PM

Monster Hunter Rise drops on GamePass tomorrow!!!!

I'm way more excited than I should be.

Sorta hoping a demo for Wild Hearts drops. Looks to be an interesting rival to Monster Hunter.

Kalyx triaD

01-20-2023, 04:53 AM

Wild Hearts looks too good to be true.

MH Rise feels smoother and the universal zipline bug things are nice. Gonna give Charge Blade a rest and rock that samurai sword at first.

Emperor Smeat

01-20-2023, 06:51 PM

* Crystal Dynamics announced that they are ending all official support for their Marvels Avengers game at the end of this September. It was also announced that the next content pack for the game this March will also be the last official batch of content to be released. It was also announced that all of the game's DLC will be free to players after the end of this March and the game itself will still be available to purchase digitally until the end of this September.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/marvels-avengers-ending-official-support-new-content-september/ , https://avengers.crystald.com/en-us/final-update-on-the-future-of-marvels-avengers/

* Riot Games reportedly was recently hit with a wave of layoffs affecting around 46 employees, according to journalist Jacob Wolf. It was reported that this amounts to less than 1% of Riot Games' total workforce. The official reason reportedly is due to current restructuring plans.
Link: https://www.jacobwolf.report/p/riot-games-eliminating-46-positions

* According to Variety and HBO, the premiere episode of The Last of Us television series drew over 10 million viewers on HBO and HBO Max within its first two days. It was also reported that 4.7 million viewers watched the show live making it the second highest ever for a new show on HBO's network and streaming service in the past 13 years.
Link: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-last-of-us-premiere-ratings-hbo-1235491303/

Fignuts

01-21-2023, 11:50 AM

lol Avengers

Such a shame. I really thought the gameplay was fun and deceptively deep once you started exploring whats possible with combos.

drave

01-21-2023, 12:00 PM

Wild Hearts looks too good to be true.

MH Rise feels smoother and the universal zipline bug things are nice. Gonna give Charge Blade a rest and rock that samurai sword at first.

I love my Gunlance. Never looking back. Smooth as butter. Took down my first 3 hunts < 10 mins.

Splosions. Shit.... now I kinda wanna cosplay Mr. Torgue in Rise.

drave

01-22-2023, 10:23 AM

You really should get on Rise. It's sooooooooooooooooooooooo good.

It's like world + more. The wirebug movements and being able to add so much to attacks is siiiiiiiiick. took down my first Magnamalo yesterday.

Kalyx triaD

01-22-2023, 02:27 PM

Fignuts

01-22-2023, 08:08 PM

Sepholio

01-22-2023, 09:15 PM

its ok to like what you like edgelord

DAMN iNATOR

01-23-2023, 03:48 AM

R.I.P. Google Stadia—We hardly cared about ye.

Kalyx triaD

01-23-2023, 03:51 AM

Wild Hearts looks edgy.

drave

01-23-2023, 08:54 AM

Three people joined my hunt and we timed out on the 50min mission.

Why?

We fought two other monsters first, thinking that was the main one. Nobody thought to reference the picture in the quest screen. By the time we found him we had 5mins left. Oops.

I don't like the katana's gameplay loop, going back to Charge Blade.

Yeah.... the whole painting style doesn't help much. I've learned if you click Right-thumbstick to track, it almost always tracks the current quest target first if there are multiple unknowns.

Village Quests = half HP monsters
Hub Quests = everything else + player scaling (this is also where you unlock switch stances)

Can't change the item belt order anymore, BUT it does copy the order of your inventory, which you can then save to an "item loadout" if you don't care for a buncha radial menu options.

Sharpen on radial is faster, sharpening while on palamute doesn't stop travel either.

Farmed Magnamalo and have his splody gunlance now. I was breaking 3-5 pieces before, gonna do even more now. I've learned people LOVE a good gunlance player in MP - especially with "Diversion". I take beats all day without flinching.

drave

01-23-2023, 08:57 AM

I've tried and tried, but there's something about that art style , which you see in a lot of jrpg's, that I just don't care for. Aesthetics are important to me in games like this. It's what motivates me to grind.

Call me an edgelord, but when it comes to fantasy, I prefer darker stuff like Berserk and Dark Souls.

Edge!

@Kalyx - Insect glaive is very good too. The sword is a good starter weapon (not too slow//fast, mid dmg). The stuff they added with the webbing is awesome, and as you unlock different switch stances, the style of attack with the weapon can change.

Just got some shit with the gunlance where I can use it like a god damn rocket engine and propel myself across a large area. Bonus, I can reload in air and do it again!

ClockShot

01-23-2023, 06:33 PM

Forspoken getting so-so reviews.

Emperor Smeat

01-23-2023, 07:36 PM

2K Games officially announced that John Cena is the cover star for this year's WWE 2K23 game.

It was also announced that the game is currently set to be released on March 17th for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series.

It was also announced that there will be three different editions of the game available to purchase.

The publisher will release three separate editions of the title, each of which will be sporting the square-jawed visage of crossover star John Cena. This year, as grapple fans will no doubt be aware, celebrates 20 years since Cena’s initial arrival in the WWE. As such, this latest series entry will be focused on the Doctor of Thugonomics, (or is he a marine? or is he a Peacemaker?), with this year’s 2K Showcase mode dedicated to Cena’s astronomical, and incredibly controversial, rise to glory.

WWE 2K23 will feature all of the modes that you know and tolerate — from singles matches and Royal Rumbles, to the returning MyGM, MyFaction, and WWE Universe modes. The Creation mode will receive new options for custom arenas and entrances, (which can now be used in online matches) while the match list will be bolstered by the addition of Dusty Rhodes’ favorite cage match endeavor: WarGames!

WWE 2K23 will be available in several editions that are too boring for me to itemize… Ok, I guess i have to. The Standard Edition will simply feature a copy of WWE2K23 itself, while the Deluxe Edition includes a Season Pass for all five post-launch DLC packs, the MyRISE Mega-Boost and SuperCharger, and a selection of MyFaction character cards.

For die-hard WWE heads, the Icon Edition will include all of the Deluxe Edition content, as well as early variants of Superstars from their rookie days at FCW, including John Cena as “The Prototype”, Bastista as the underwater demon “Leviathan”, and vanilla rookie versions of Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar, who looked much the same except with a higher flattop and no tattoos. All pre-orders will unlock rapper and part-time wrestler Bad Bunny who, I am led to believe, is actually pretty solid in the ring..

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnKsbSqXkAABopY?format=jpg

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">See <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnCena?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JohnCena</a>, beat John Cena and be <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EvenStronger?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EvenStronger</a> than John Cena in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWE2K23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWE2K23</a>, coming soon! <a href="https://twitter.com/WWEgames?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WWEgames</a> <a href="https://t.co/lNAfHOY9FR">pic.twitter.com/lNAfHOY9FR</a></p>— WWE (@WWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1617507440202842113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Link: https://www.destructoid.com/wwe-2k23-2k-games-john-cena-march-17/

Sepholio

01-23-2023, 10:06 PM

bad bunny

Sepholio

01-23-2023, 10:06 PM

:shifty:

drave

01-24-2023, 08:26 AM

booooo at all of that except seph's crusty sock

Emperor Smeat

01-24-2023, 07:43 PM

* Activision Blizzard studio Proletariat recently withdrew their upcoming union election to determine if they will unionize or not. In an official statement, the Communication Workers of America blamed Proletariat CEO Seth Sivak for why the union election will no longer be taking place. Had the vote gone on as planned and the studio voted for unionization, it would have become the third studio under AB's umbrella to unionize over the past year.
Link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/proletariat-unionization-vote-request-dropped , https://www.destructoid.com/activision-blizzard-proletariat-studio-union-election-withdrawn-news/

* Activision Blizzard longtime employee and manager Brian Birmingham reportedly recently left the company, according to Bloomberg. It was reported that the reason was due to Birmingham's issues with the company's current employee appraisal system that he felt unfairly hurts employees due to how the grading curve system is used by company management.
A veteran software engineer at developer Activision Blizzard has quit his role at the studio after reportedly being unable to reconcile with what he calls a “toxic” stack-ranking staff appraisal system.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Brian Birmingham, who has worked with Blizzard Entertainment on titles such as World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Warcraft III: Reforged, departed the company after 17 years of service when faced with the appraisal system, which he says grades teams on a curve, and thus forces the manager to “downgrade” certain employees for little reason other than to maintain said curve.

Birmingham claims that he was asked to change a team member’s status from “Successful” to “Developing”, an act which Birmingham says what done to “squeeze” performances out of his team members. The Bloomberg report notes that around 5% of a team’s staff were required to be “low-scoring”, which would inherently hamper their chances at receiving promotions or bonuses.

“This sort of policy encourages competition between employees, sabotage of one another’s work, a desire for people to find low-performing teams that they can be the best-performing worker on, and ultimately erodes trust and destroys creativity,” wrote Birmingham in an open letter to his team. “If this policy can be reversed, perhaps my Blizzard can still be saved, and if so I would love to continue working there. If this policy cannot be reversed, then the Blizzard Entertainment I want to work for doesn’t exist anymore, and I’ll have to find somewhere else to work.”

Following Bloomberg’s report, Birmingham also took to Twitter to clarify his stance, pointing the finger directly at upper management of Activision Blizzard King (ABK), while praising the talent and work ethic of the hundreds of colleagues that he has worked alongside for the best part of two decades.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-23/blizzard-manager-departs-in-protest-of-employee-ranking-system , https://www.destructoid.com/report-activision-blizzard-manager-employee-appraisal-system-brian-birmingham/

* Riot Games confirmed that a recent hacking attack on the company resulted in hackers stealing the source code for League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics. It was also announced that code for a legacy anti-cheat system had also been among the stuff stolen. It was also announced that the company rejected demands by the hackers to pay a ransom in order for the stuff to not be leaked online.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/riot-league-of-legends-tft-source-code-cyberattack-news/

drave

01-25-2023, 08:45 AM

Re: that appraisal system....

Sounds like every single corpo manager I've ever worked for.

"Well, you're an outstanding performer, but we aren't allowed to give all 10's, but I would if I could" type bullshit

Emperor Smeat

01-25-2023, 07:06 PM

Today's gaming news:

* Nintendo and Microsoft announced that classic N64 game GoldenEye will be arriving on Microsoft's Xbox GamePass and Nintendo's Switch Online services this Friday. Similar to the last time it was announced, only the Switch version will include online multiplayer.
Link: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1618251558046806017 , https://twitter.com/RareLtd/status/1618251876327215104

* Squanch Games announced that Justin Rolland, co-creator of Rick & Morty series, recently stepped down as the CEO of their company following details regarding his arrest in 2020 for domestic battery and other charges being made public recently. Besides Squanch Games, Adult Swim also recently announced that they have severed all ties with Rolland but production for season 7 of Rick & Morty will continue but with new voice actors replacing Rolland on the show.
Link: https://twitter.com/SquanchGames/status/1618049809256185856 , https://twitter.com/RickandMorty/status/1618009508420386817

* A judge in California recently rejected Microsoft's motion to have a class-action lawsuit filed against them over their potential purchase of Activision Blizzard be paused until after their current lawsuit from the FTC is resolved first.
A Californian judge has rejected Microsoft’s request that a lawsuit opposing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard is “paused” until after the publisher completes its pending lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — itself a lawsuit opposing the $68.7 billion merger.

The so-called “Gamer Lawsuit” was filed by Alioto Law Firm and the Joseph Saveri Law Firm in December 2022, and represents a party of citizens who are against Microsoft’s proposed purchase of the World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 developer. As reported by Axios’ Stephen Tolito, Microsoft had attempted to put this particular suit on hold whilst it focuses its efforts on the more prominent FTC lawsuit, but will seemingly have to take on both suits simultaneously.

“The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief to prohibit the acquisition as a violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act and to protect consumers from unlawful concentration of power within the video game industry. Section 7 prohibits all mergers and acquisitions in which the effect ‘may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly.'” wrote Alioto Law Firm of its suit.

“Upon the deal’s completion, Activision would be wholly owned by Microsoft. If allowed to proceed, this acquisition would stifle market competition, reducing consumer choice, lowering quality and output, increasing prices, and preventing future competition within the video game industry.”
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/judge-rejects-microsoft-call-to-pause-gamer-lawsuit-activision-blizzard/

drave

01-26-2023, 08:30 AM

Why they always gun for MS, but no other tech companies doing the same shit? Easy scapegoat perhaps?

Fignuts

01-26-2023, 12:27 PM

Hi Fi Rush getting pretty stellar reviews

Emperor Smeat

01-26-2023, 04:33 PM

Why they always gun for MS, but no other tech companies doing the same shit? Easy scapegoat perhaps?

I'd assume its mostly because of the very high cost for the purchase that set off alarms and everyone believing CoD really is this huge juggernaut that if its owned by someone not named Activision, then somehow a monopoly gets formed in gaming.

Also probably some console war jealously by some of those in charge over the idea they could lose out on playing CoD games on their Playstations if a recent tweet by an EU lawmaker is any indication.

Microsoft really should have waited a couple more years to buy Activision since its only been about 2 years since their big Zenimax purchase. Trying to buy another huge gaming company right after Zenimax did them no favors to those who believe Microsoft is just trying to buy their way into a monopoly.

Emperor Smeat

01-26-2023, 06:54 PM

Today's News:

* During a recent interview with Buzzfeed, Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann stated that the studio currently has no plans to revisit the Uncharted franchise in the future and is currently more focused on their The Last of Us series.
Link: https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/last-of-us-behind-the-scenes

* AEW's upcoming Fight Forever video game recently hit a big roadblock in the form of Yukes & AEW and the ESRB being in a dispute over issues with the game's rating. Yukes & AEW are currently seeking a T rating while ESRB is pushing for a M rating due to their issues with the amount of blood in the game. This issue has also resulted in the game's release date being locked in limbo until it is resolved.
It's claimed that the upcoming wrestling game, AEW: Fight Forever, cannot announce a release date yet, as it has failed to acquire the ESRB rating that THQ Nordic and AEW hoped to acquire.

According to Wrestle Zone, AEW wanted the game to have a T for Teen rating, but the ESRB is pushing for a more mature rating due to the amount of blood and gore in the game.

AEW is known to present a lot of matches that features wrestlers bleeding, and so it would probably want to emulate this in its game. The ESRB hasn't yet confirmed these issues, though, and so nothing is official.

There was a plan for AEW: Fight Forever to release in 2022, but that ship has quite obviously sailed. Without a planned release date even as we come close to the end of the first month of 2023, it seems like we'll be waiting a while longer before we get our hands on AEW's gaming debut.
Link: https://www.wrestlezone.com/news/1341005-reason-why-aew-fight-forever-still-doesnt-have-a-release-date-revealed , https://www.gamereactor.eu/aew-fight-forever-release-date-locked-in-limbo-1235813/

Fignuts

01-27-2023, 12:11 AM

lol

drave

01-27-2023, 08:42 AM

I'd assume its mostly because of the very high cost for the purchase that set off alarms and everyone believing CoD really is this huge juggernaut that if its owned by someone not named Activision, then somehow a monopoly gets formed in gaming.

Also probably some console war jealously by some of those in charge over the idea they could lose out on playing CoD games on their Playstations if a recent tweet by an EU lawmaker is any indication.

Microsoft really should have waited a couple more years to buy Activision since its only been about 2 years since their big Zenimax purchase. Trying to buy another huge gaming company right after Zenimax did them no favors to those who believe Microsoft is just trying to buy their way into a monopoly.

It's hardly a monopoly though, it's one company. I'm not dismissing the size or IP's of the company, but get over it. That's kinda how business works.

CoD already has timed DLC and content, but is anyone trying to sue over that? Same with Destiny 2.

It's dumb. BRB - gonna go sue Sony for not making FF7 Remake on Xbox....

Emperor Smeat

01-27-2023, 04:05 PM

That's basically been the basis of Sony and FTC's arguments against Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard. Biggest counter given to that argument has been Nintendo and they've been perfectly fine without CoD games and minimum AB support for their consoles.

Another issue is just the sheer scale of the price tag since that's unprecedented in video game history and dwarfs what Micorosft paid for Zenimax a couple years ago. That price tag alone was going to set off flags with the FTC regardless of all the monopoly and other stuff talks. For some reference, Microsoft's offer for AB is almost 2/3rd the value of Sony's current net worth.

Real reason is Sony is legit scared over losing a ton of money they get from CoD sales on PSN should the purchase go through and Microsoft pulls the plug on CoD games on Playstation platforms in the future. That was a key reason why they wrestled exclusive content control away from MS when they had the chance to do so and helped shift the perception of CoD now being a Playstation first platform.

Emperor Smeat

01-27-2023, 06:37 PM

Today's News:

* Amazon reportedly is currently working on a new Tomb Raider television series with Phoebe Waller-Bridge recently hired to be its lead writer, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Link: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tomb-raider-tv-show-amazon-phoebe-waller-bridge-1235311582/

* Insider Gaming and Kotaku reported that their sources stated that Ubisoft is currently working on two new Far Cry series games. One of the games was reported to be the next game in the Far Cry series, Far Cry 7. The other reportedly is a multiplayer-only Far Cry spin-off game. Insider Gaming reported that these two new projects were originally planned to be a single game but at some point during its development, Ubisoft made the decision to split it up as two separate games. Kotaku reported that Far Cry 7 will be running on the Snowdrop engine instead of the Dunia engine used in previous games.
Link: https://insider-gaming.com/sources-far-cry-7-and-far-cry-multiplayer-in-development-at-ubisoft/ , https://kotaku.com/far-cry-7-multiplayer-ubisoft-star-wars-snowdrop-1850038103

* For those who like the Like A Dragon series (former Yakuza series) and wrestling (well mostly Kenny Omega), developer Ryu ga Gotoku Studio recently announced that Kenny Omega will be making a cameo appearance in their upcoming Like A Dragon: Ishin game in the form of a free guest Trooper card DLC pack.
While stoic ronin Sakamoto Ryoma has had to wait many, many years for his journey to the west, it seems that he will not be coming alone, as Ryu ga Gotoku Studio has revealed that several celebrities will be making guest appearances in the long-awaited western release of Like a Dragon: Ishin!

The developer announced that the Edo-era epic will feature a selection of new “Trooper Cards” — affording our hero new abilities to utilize in battle. The first two of these cards feature video game-loving pro-wrestler Kenny Omega, and charismatic actor Rahul Kohli (Midnight Mass, iZombie). Omega’s “Essence of One-Winged Angel” will afford Sakamoto the ability to cut down a crowd with a mighty sword swing, while Kohli’s “Essence of Firestorm” will see the lone warrior torch his enemy with an extended blast of flames. Both cards will be available as free DLC on launch day ...

There are still four more “special guest” cards to be revealed. Who could they be? C’monnn Meiko Kaji…

Like a Dragon: Ishin! will finally arrive on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox platforms February 21.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9YiUTyqpGU , https://www.destructoid.com/like-a-dragon-ishin-kenny-omega-rahul-kohli-trooper-cards/

Fignuts

01-27-2023, 06:40 PM

Ugh watch the far cry multiplayer thing be a battle royal.

drave

01-28-2023, 09:03 AM

drave

01-28-2023, 09:04 AM

Speaking of Gamepass- Goldeneye is on it bitches!!!

No multiplayer tho, that's only on Switch.

Kalyx triaD

01-28-2023, 01:34 PM

Perfect Dark came back with multiplayer.

Fignuts

01-28-2023, 04:27 PM

Perfect Dark didn't have a gordian knot of rights issues to get past.

Talking out my ass here, but I'm guessing nintendo had more leverage and exclusivity for multiplayer on switch is a concession microsoft had to agree to, to get it on xbox.

Emperor Smeat

01-28-2023, 07:06 PM

Yeah and it makes sense considering Nintendo's holding on the license was much bigger than MS' once you split up everyone who owned a piece of it.

Plus the original offer from MS was very one-sided in their favor that Nintendo decided to just sit on their hands for years until the scales got tipped into their favor since they correctly guessed MS would grow more desperate over time to get the classic game re-released.

When it came to the remake on the Wii, that one was easier for Nintendo to get on board since it was just a re-imagining of the game and a high profile 3rd party release for the Wii at the time so they didn't have a real problem if it went to other consoles after getting some some timed exclusivity first. Plus the potential licensing nightmare for it was mostly non-existent.

Kalyx triaD

01-29-2023, 06:23 PM

Zelina Vega isn't exactly a ring mistress but I'm very happy she exists.

Emperor Smeat

01-30-2023, 07:38 PM

Today's News:

* According to IGN, this year's E3 expo won't feature press conferences or on-site showcases from Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. In regards to Microsoft, they reportedly are still planning to hold a games showcase event this summer but not as part of E3. In regards to Nintendo, it is currently not known if they will be holding a Direct style show as a replacement for E3 this summer.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-nintendo-sony-skipping-e3-2023

* Based on a recent fiscal report from Capcom, the company is currently expecting to generate a record setting year for this current fiscal year in terms of game sales and profits/revenues with Resident Evil 4 Remake as the main sales driver. The company sold around 29.1 million games for the first nine months but posted a loss in revenues compared to the same time period last fiscal year. They currently expect Resident Evil 4 Remake to not only help break their all-time record for most games sold in a fiscal year but also put them in the black in terms of revenues.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/capcom-says-its-set-to-sell-a-record-number-of-games-for-a-fiscal-year/ , https://www.destructoid.com/capcom-record-sales-year-estimates-2023-resident-evil-4/

* Actress Annie Wersching passed away on Sunday at the age of 45 due to cancer. In regards to video games history, Wersching was most known for being the voice and motion capture actress of Theresa “Tess” Servopoulos in The Last of Us.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/annie-wersching-the-last-of-us-tess-passes-away-rip/

OssMan

01-31-2023, 06:25 PM

final fantasy X HD remake

please make it stop

Update on this post from 9/4/2011 I started the Final Fantnasy X HD Remake yesterday. 15 years of making fun of this game in my head has made it completely unbearable. I can't play it

Emperor Smeat

01-31-2023, 07:14 PM

Today's News:

* For those interested in the new Star Wars Jedi Survivor game, developer Respawn Entertainment announced that the game has been delayed by six weeks. Instead of its planned March 17th release, it is now currently scheduled to be released on April 28th. Official reason given was due to them just needing more time for polish and finishing up development.
Link: https://twitter.com/EAStarWars/status/1620527593580806145/

* Sony recently denied a report from Bloomberg that they have cut back on the production of their PSVR 2 headsets. Bloomberg had reported that Sony had cut back on their initial sales projections from two million PSVR 2 headsets to 1 million due to disappointing pre-order numbers. In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, Sony stated it has not cut back on their production of PSVR 2 headsets but did not confirm nor deny that they have scaled back their sales expectations for the device.
Link: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/sony-slashes-playstation-vr2-headset-output-after-pre-orders-disappoint-1.1877035 , https://www.gamesindustry.biz/sony-we-have-not-cut-ps-vr-2-production-numbers

* As noted before, 343 Industries was among the departments and studios who were recently affected by Micorosft's recent mass layoffs. Bloomberg reported that their sources stated that 343 Industries recently stopped all development for future story content updates for Halo Infinite due to the effects from the recent layoffs. It was also reported that around 95 people from the studio had been laid off. It was also reported that future Halo games from the studio will now be using the Unreal Engine unlike their previous games which used the Slipspace engine.
Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries looks set to stay working on the Halo franchise. But a new report details some big internal shifts at the company, including layoffs and a change in engine. All the while, the studio seems to not be actively working on any new story content for Infinite itself.

Bloomberg reports that 343 Industries will continue to work on Halo. This is in line with a statement from studio head Pierre Hintze, which said 343 will develop Halo now and in the future.

But while the franchise is staying with the studio, Bloomberg’s article suggests that at least 95 people at 343 Industries lost their jobs as part of the recent Microsoft layoffs. This list, according to a spreadsheet seen by the outlet, contained names of staff veterans and contractors alike.

Internally, Bloomberg reports that the head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty assured 343 that, even as it works with partners and outsourcing houses, the studio will stay in charge. But shifts seem to be on the way for Halo, too, as the report suggests that 343 made the decision to pivot away from its Slipspace engine and towards Unreal Engine last year, after Hintze took over.

The engine switch will reportedly take hold with a game code named Tatanka, in development with Certain Affinity. This project apparently started as a battle royale but may evolve elsewhere, according to Bloomberg’s sources. 343 is also apparently not actively working on new story content.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-31/microsoft-studio-343-industries-undergoing-reorganization-of-halo-game-franchise , https://www.destructoid.com/343-industries-halo-changes-unreal-engine-layoffs-report/

Emperor Smeat

02-01-2023, 07:22 PM

Today's News:

* EA reportedly recently cancelled all development for an unannounced single-player game that would have taken place in the Titanfall & Apex Legends universe, according to Bloomberg. This game reportedly was tentatively titled Titanfall Legends and had lead designer Mohammad Alavi as its director until his departure from EA last year.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-01/electronic-arts-cancels-secret-apex-legends-game-in-development

* Besides the cancelled game, EA announced that they will be shutting down servers for their Apex Legends Mobile mobile game and shutting down all development for a Battlefield Mobile game. In regards to Apex Legends Mobile, it was stated that the decision was due to the game not meeting expectations while in regards to Battlefield Mobile, it was stated that they wanted to pivot into a new direction as part of their shift to a new strategy for their mobile division.
Link: https://www.ea.com/news/ea-mobile-strategy-realignment , https://www.destructoid.com/electronic-arts-apex-legends-mobile-battlefield-development-ending-news/

* For those interested, Microsoft announced that 46 games are currently scheduled to be delisted from their Xbox 360's marketplace next week. Some of the games are currently available on the Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles and will remain so on those platforms but select games and their DLC can only be purchased through the Xbox 360 first before being playable on those platforms. Microsoft also announced that those who have purchased the affected games will still be able to download them after next week.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/46-titles-are-being-delisted-from-the-xbox-360-marketplace/

* Continuing today's bad news theme, Epic Games and developer Iron Galaxy Studios announced that they will be shutting down all servers for FTP battle royale game Rumbleverse on February 28th. As part of the shutdown process, the final update for the game will shut down the in-game store but unlock everything for free along with the current Battle Pass being given away for free and double XP for all matches until the shutdown date.
Link: https://www.rumbleverse.com/en/news/sunset-on-grapital-city , https://www.destructoid.com/rumbleverse-wrestling-royale-brawler-closing-doors-february-iron-galaxy/

drave

02-02-2023, 08:33 AM

I've noticed a lot of FTP games doing the thing:

"Well, we're shutting it down, here's everything for free".

That's happened at least twice this week.

Emperor Smeat

02-02-2023, 07:33 PM

Today's News:

* In a recent corporate release, Konami stated that they have slashed their projections for their financial outlook for this year by almost 50%. The company originally was expecting to generate around 76.5 billion yen in operating profit for the year but recently slashed it down to 42.5 billion yen instead. The official reason for this downgrade in expected profit was not given. Unofficial reason is rumored to be due to the very disappointing performance of their eFootball 2023 game.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/konami-slashes-its-profit-outlook-for-2023/

* Sony announced that they will be shutting down and removing their PS Plus Collection for all Playstation 5 PS+ subscribers from PSN on May 9th.
Link: https://blog.playstation.com/2023/02/01/playstation-plus-monthly-games-for-february-evil-dead-the-game-olliolliworld-destiny-2-beyond-light-mafia-definitive-edition/

* For those interested, Frictional Games announced that they have delayed their upcoming Amnesia: The Bunker game from its planned March 2023 release date to a new date of May 16th. Official reason given was due to "a tough winter with a slew of illnesses that has affected the development. We are a small team and things like this heavily impacts production."
Link: https://twitter.com/frictionalgames/status/1620844437961048072

* Sony and developer Sony Santa Monica announced that God of War Ragnarok has sold around 11 million copies since its release this past November and also broke the record for fastest selling first party game in Playstation history.
Link: https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1620874605211848705

* In a recent fiscal report, Sony stated that they shipped around 7.1 million PS5 consoles this past fiscal quarter, up 3.1 million compared to the same fiscal quarter last year. It was also stated that they have also shipped around 32.1 million PS5 consoles since its launch in November of 2020.
https://www.destructoid.com/ps5-shipments-32-million-financial-report-fiscal-year-2022/

Ruien

02-02-2023, 07:38 PM

Wait what? Isn't the PS Plus Collection supposed to be the thing that competes with Xbox Gamepass?

Emperor Smeat

02-02-2023, 09:48 PM

No, PS Plus Collection was a sub-service or add-on to PS Plus that was meant to entice people into buying a PS5 and a PS+ subscription. Sort of like what Nintendo did with the 3DS and Ambassador Program when the 3DS launched.

If you had both, then you got access to a select amount of digital PS4 games on PS5 for free.

Ruien

02-03-2023, 12:00 AM

Ohhh okay

Emperor Smeat

02-03-2023, 10:22 PM

Today's News:

* Add Knockout City and CrossfireX to the growing list of free-to-play games shutting down this year with servers for Knockout City shutting down on June 6th and for Crossfire X shutting down on May 18th. Both games shutting down due to unofficial reasons of not generating enough money to continue support. In regards to Crossfire X, only its multiplayer mode was FTP but since its an "always online" type game, the single player mode will become unplayable as a result.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/knockout-city-will-throw-its-last-dodgeball-this-june/ , https://www.destructoid.com/crossfirex-servers-going-offline-may-18-including-single-player/

* Microsoft announced that a recent message posting on the Xbox Marketplace stating that their entire Xbox 360 store would be shutting down this May was done in error and they do not have any plans of actually doing so this year.
Link: https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/2/23583699/xbox-360-marketplace-microsoft-not-shutting-closing-down

* The Coalition reportedly is currently rumored to have recently cancelled development on two unannounced projects in favor of working on a new game in the Gears of War series, Gears 6, according to GiantBomb's Jeff Grubb. Part of the reason was due to the studio had been working on multiple projects at the same time along with other duties and the other part was the studio being affected by Microsoft's recent mass layoffs.
Speaking on the Game Mess Mornings show, Giant Bomb writer and frequent spoiler Jeff Grubb suggests that the studio had been working on multiple projects, including the aforementioned two new titles, additional support for Halo Infinite, while also helping Epic Games with its Unreal 5 tech demo The Matrix Awakens. Grubb suggests that the team may have been pulled from all of the above projects to start working on Gears 6 — a continuation of the popular and hugely successful Xbox series.

“This was all reflected in the layoffs that happened at Microsoft, which did hit The Coalition a little bit. The studio is now going to move on fully to Gears 6. I say now, it has likely moved on to Gears 6 in full over the course of the last year, but definitely, that will be their next game.”
Link: https://clips.twitch.tv/SpotlessBloodyLadiesPastaThat-ZILmut94jN34KbHa , https://www.destructoid.com/rumor-the-coalition-cans-two-unannounced-titles-to-begin-work-on-gears-6/

* Activision Blizzard recently paid $35 million as a settlement payment to the SEC over its investigation into toxic workplace allegations and violating an SEC whistleblower protection rule.
Activision Blizzard has agreed to pay $35 million to settle charges from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These charges included allegations that it failed to maintain proper workplace disclosure procedures, and violated an SEC whistleblower protection rule.

The SEC investigated into Activision Blizzard, charging that it did not have proper procedures for documenting workplace misconduct complaints. Because of this, it would not be able to adequately disclose whether misconduct problems merited disclosure to shareholders. Additionally, the SEC charged that Activision Blizzard was found in violation of a whistleblower protection rule.

Activision Blizzard agreed to a cease-and-desist order and a $35 million penalty, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.

“The SEC’s order finds that Activision Blizzard failed to implement necessary controls to collect and review employee complaints about workplace misconduct, which left it without the means to determine whether larger issues existed that needed to be disclosed to investors,” said the SEC’s Denver regional office director Jason Burt in a statement. “Moreover, taking action to impede former employees from communicating directly with the Commission staff about a possible securities law violation is not only bad corporate governance, it is illegal.”
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/activision-blizzard-sec-settlement-charges-news/

Evil Vito

02-06-2023, 02:21 PM

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The IGN Hogwarts Legacy review is one of the funniest pieces of games writing ever:<br>* This game barely works<br>* Inventory can hold four items<br>* There are two enemies<br>* The story and worldbuilding make no sense<br>* An inset about how the author is a bigot<br>* But I love Potter so 9/10</p>— gem! (@TheGemAgenda) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheGemAgenda/status/1622591615905792000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

A case study in why buying a game off of a review score is a pointless exercise. Particularly in an age where reviewers literally get death threats for scratching the surface of proper criticism.

Kalyx triaD

02-06-2023, 05:38 PM

Stopped reading reviews over a decade ago, and they got worse since.

But here's a review: Guilty Gear Strive in amazing. Beta ended yesterday, instant purchase.

Fignuts

02-06-2023, 08:01 PM

I thought that came out like a year ago

Kalyx triaD

02-06-2023, 10:37 PM

Beta was on xbox. Crossplay beta, too. Rollback and all that.

Emperor Smeat

02-07-2023, 07:18 PM

Today's News:

* A court in the Northern District of California reportedly dismissed a lawsuit against Nintendo over issues regarding drift in their Switch Joycon controllers, according to Eurogamer. This lawsuit had been filed in October of 2020 by parents on behalf of their 10-year old child claiming that the drift issues "became so pronounced that the controllers became inoperable for general gameplay use." In the official ruling, the court stated that the reason for the dismissal was due to legal issues that arose from the nature of the lawsuit. It was stated that Nintendo's legal agreement to use their products would have been between them and the parents and not the child, who is a minor under the rule of law. It was also stated that due to minors are not legally considered to be parties of EULA agreements, there was never any legal agreement between Nintendo and the minor which meant they did not have to rule on the other issues presented in the lawsuit. The court also stated that "because minors failed to allege ownership of the console and assignment of right to sue, they lack standing to pursue the CLRA and unjust enrichment claims."
Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/american-judge-dismisses-switch-joy-con-drift-lawsuit , https://www.gamesindustry.biz/us-court-dismissed-joy-con-drift-lawsuit

* Nintendo announced that they will be releasing a new Nintendo Direct episode on Thursday that will be around 40 minutes in length and will mainly focus on games for the Switch arriving in the first half of this year.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMdUSVSEp7U , https://www.destructoid.com/a-nintendo-direct-is-happening-this-week-will-deal-with-games-launching-in-the-first-half-of-2023/

Sepholio

02-07-2023, 07:28 PM

cool so they just need to refile the suit and claim themselves as the plaintiff instead of their son or whatever.

Sepholio

02-07-2023, 07:29 PM

because they ain't wrong, I'm on my like 7th set of extremely overpriced joycons at this point and it's fucking bullshit. Shittiest controller ever.

Emperor Smeat

02-07-2023, 07:41 PM

cool so they just need to refile the suit and claim themselves as the plaintiff instead of their son or whatever.

Gamespot's Tom Caswell mentioned on Monday's Game Mess Mornings show on Giantbomb that this type of lawsuit likely would never get ruled in favor of the plantiff just because of how huge of a can of worms it would open for others in the gaming industry.

Not only would it set a new precedent, it also means everyone else who uses the same controller tech in a Switch controller could potentially face similar lawsuits since that tech is currently an industry standard and has been known going as far back as at least the Xbox One/PS4 era of being defective because of an unfixable flaw in its design.

Think you can still send in JoyCons for Nintendo to repair for free (minus any potential shipping fees) but that wasn't the case initially and only changed after Nintendo caught some really serious heat over charging to fix drift they very likely knew would haunt them this gen.

Emperor Smeat

02-08-2023, 06:05 PM

Today's News:

* Nintendo's upcoming Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom game is currently rumored to feature a $10 price hike of $70 compared to the standard price of $60 for Switch games. This price tag was first seen on listings for the game at several retailer sites and Nintendo's own online store before being quickly taken down. Several other retailers had the game priced at $60 before they also took down their listing and pre-orders pages for the game.
Link: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/02/zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-temporarily-listed-on-nintendo-website-for-usd70-usd , https://www.destructoid.com/legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-price-tag-retail-listing-ahead-of-direct/

* Nintendo announced as part of today's newest Nintendo Direct episode that Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is currently scheduled to be released on April 21st and Pikmin 4 is currently scheduled to be released on July 21st.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/advance-wars-1-2-re-boot-camp-release-date-reveal/ , https://www.destructoid.com/pikmin-4-plucks-out-a-release-date-of-july-21/

* Capcom announced that they are currently working on a remaster of classic 2010 DS game Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It was also announced that this upcoming remaster is currently scheduled to be released during this summer.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYp2AGpmsmw

Sepholio

02-08-2023, 10:01 PM

Nintendo price hiking to 70 is garbage. If it was a for a new system, sure, but prices should not be increasing on a piece of tech that is now well beyond the point of showing its age. Too many high profile releases in the last year or 2 have run like utter shit because of the limitations of the system for me to justify paying even more for a game that's gonna run 25fps at 720p. Looks like I'll be waiting for the updated version of tears of the kingdom that will drop a year later as a launch title for the Switch².

Sepholio

02-08-2023, 10:06 PM

Honestly I bet you they already have Tears of the Kingdom ready for the next system alongside the switch version. Feel like it's probably actually designed for the next platform and the switch release is just a "low settings" version of the game they actually made. Assuming they have specs for the next console iteration, and knowing it can't be that far off, as well as Nintendos penchant for releasing cross-gen zelda games, it would actually make sense for them to have just made the game for the new console and dialed it back for Switch now. Saves money on development in the long run because you won't have to update it later and allows them to do the ole double release and milk some extra sales too.

Savio

02-08-2023, 10:25 PM

Time to get your pirate hat on

Sepholio

02-08-2023, 10:59 PM

It never comes off sir. It. Never. Comes. Off.

ClockShot

02-09-2023, 03:18 PM

Watched that Tears of the Kingdom trailer yesterday then read the news it was going to be a $70 game. Unless that comes with hardware and how-to instructions to upgrade your Switch to be on par with the PS5 and SXS, Nintendo is nuts.

I'll cancel the preorder and wait until Black Friday or whatever until it's on the cheap.

Emperor Smeat

02-09-2023, 06:11 PM

Today's News:

* Valve announced that they are currently working on a new "full size" update for Team Fortress 2 that is currently scheduled to arrive this summer.
The last few Team Fortress summer events have only been item updates. But this year, we're planning on shipping a full-on update-sized update — with items, maps, taunts, unusual effects, war paints and who knows what else?! Which means we need Steam Workshop content! YOUR Steam Workshop content!
Link: https://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=189493

* For those interested in purchasing Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom but not fond of its confirmed $10 price hike, Nintendo recently updated the list of games for their newest digital Switch Games Voucher offerings that includes the game. Instead of usual savings of $20 on the purchase of two digital Switch games, this would now be a $30 discount when including the new Zelda game. There is no discount on just buying the game itself though beyond using whatever gold coins you have in your eShop account.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/discount-nintendo-switch-game-vouchers-are-back-in-the-us/ , https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-switch/

Sepholio

02-09-2023, 07:35 PM

Making the "discount" only available to people who go digital is an even bigger bitch move.

Emperor Smeat

02-09-2023, 10:58 PM

In a potential very interesting twist to Microsoft's legal battle over trying to get their purchase of Activision Blizzard approve, there is now a possibility the Call of Duty series could be owned by someone else not named MS or Activision.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recently issued a report stating that their main objection to MS's purchase attempt revolves around ownership of the CoD series. The CMA currently feels MS owning the CoD series on top of everything else from AB is too much in terms of marketshare power for a single company. They hinted that if Activision were to first sell off their CoD series to someone else, then they would have less of an issue of MS buying up AB.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) already expressed concerns about Microsoft’s plans to acquire Activision Blizzard last year, but it now says the deal could harm UK gamers. The CMA has published provisional findings in its investigation into the Microsoft and Activision deal and found that it “could result in higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation for UK gamers.” The CMA has offered up possible remedies that include Microsoft being forced to sell off Activision Blizzard’s business associated with Call of Duty.

The CMA makes it clear that it’s mainly concerned about two things: cloud gaming and game exclusivity. “The evidence available to the CMA currently indicates that Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service (or only available on other services under materially worse conditions),” says the UK regulator ...

The CMA has now suggested a set of possible remedies that Microsoft could take to get approval for the Activision Blizzard acquisition in the UK. They include a suggestion for a structural remedy that involves a partial divestiture of Activision Blizzard in the form of selling off the Call of Duty business. Other remedies include selling off the Activision segment or the Activision and Blizzard segments that would include the business associated with Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and other games.

None of these remedies are favorable for Microsoft, and the company was likely hoping for behavioral remedies like agreements to ensure Call of Duty and other Activision games are available on rival cloud gaming services and limitations on exclusivity for games across consoles. The CMA says “behavioral remedies are less likely to have an effective impact,” and it’s essentially ruling out that route in these provisional findings unless the regulator is “confident that the remedy was capable of effective implementation, monitoring, and enforcement" ...

The CMA does leave the door open for a potential remedy in the form of access to Call of Duty. Microsoft offered Sony a 10-year deal on Call of Duty games, and the CMA says it will consider this and other contractual arrangements as a potential behavioral access remedy. While the CMA clearly favors structural remedies like selling off the Call of Duty business, there could be room for Microsoft to offer up more solutions that the CMA will consider in the coming weeks ...

While the CMA is just a single regulator for the UK, it still heavily influences how US-based companies operate in the UK and Europe. Meta was forced to sell off Giphy following an order from the UK competition watchdog last year. With regulators worldwide looking to take tougher stances on Big Tech acquisitions, the CMA’s findings could influence how the European Commission responds, too.

The CMA is now looking for responses from the industry by February 22nd to its possible remedies, followed by responses to the provisional findings by March 1st. These will all be considered ahead of the CMA issuing its final report, which is due by April 26th.
Link: https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/8/23590700/microsoft-activision-uk-cma-findings-call-of-duty

OssMan

02-10-2023, 06:38 AM

Not really excited for breath of the wild 2... first one was nice and really really long... got kinda bored by the end... dnt want more of it

I loved the "linear" zelda games but diaper babies had to go throw a tantrum after skyward sword...

Emperor Smeat

02-10-2023, 07:53 PM

Today's News:

* In a recent investor's meeting, Remedy Entertainment announced that development for their upcoming Alan Wake 2 game recently reached fully playable stage in terms of the game itself being playable from start to finish but they are still some time away from being able to enter the final stage of its development.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/alan-wake-2-playable-start-to-finish-remedy-news/

* AEW's upcoming Fight Forever game recently was officially given a rating of T for Teen by the ESRB. In their content description for the game, it was revealed that the game features molotov cocktails as a usable weapon, "partially exposed buttocks", and butt slapping taunts. Also the word "shit" but it wasn't stated if Chuckie T will finally be able to mention the word in AEW.
This is a wrestling game in which players compete in matches with wrestlers from the AEW roster. Players use punches, kicks, and grappling maneuvers to drain their opponents' health. In some match types (e.g., Barbed Wire, Stadium Stampede, Unsanctioned) players can use barbed wired, baseball bats, metal chairs, and Molotov cocktails against opponents, eventually resulting in submission and/or knock outs. Blood-splatter effects can occur during matches, staining the mats; video footage of real matches also depicts blood on wrestlers' faces and bodies. The game contains some mildly suggestive material: female wrestlers in revealing outfits (e.g., deep cleavage, bunny outfits, partially exposed buttocks); wrestlers performing taunting gestures (e.g., crotch chop, slapping buttocks). Real footage sometimes depicts wrestlers drinking alcohol and smoking. The word “sh*t” is heard in the game.
Link: https://www.esrb.org/ratings/38936/aew-fight-forever/?fbclid=IwAR0nxHBcYAUdmjuJJ40eHbFmTwZ87UFdwojbpBVuxbMhWGvV33Fyfv7ZzZI

Fignuts

02-10-2023, 08:18 PM

Holy shit at nintendo shadow dropping metroid prime remastered.

Sepholio

02-10-2023, 08:54 PM

Here take this and forget that it's been 6 years since we announced Metroid Prime 4.

Big Vic

02-13-2023, 11:17 AM

Sepholio

02-13-2023, 12:27 PM

That diaper baby Ossman is just throwing a tantrum.

Fignuts

02-13-2023, 01:43 PM

Nah, I know what he means. There's something to be said about a tighter, more focused experience. I enjoy BOTW, but I wouldn't want every game to be open world going forward.

Ruien

02-13-2023, 05:24 PM

Agreed. Feels like we lost the old Zelda format for good :(

Emperor Smeat

02-13-2023, 05:57 PM

SKyward Sword was pretty trash honestly.

I thought it was pretty good and had a mostly great time playing it with motion controls but Nintendo did make two serious flaws with it.

The first being they somehow managed to make a sidekick character way more annoying and worse than Navi.

The other being the first couple hours of the game drags a ton because its very story and setup heavy. Don't remember if its after you leave the sky island or first encounter with the first main bad guy where the game really starts to open up.

Actually three big flaws since I just remember whenever you start a new play session, the game acts as if you never grabbed any items before and plays the music tone with pop up text box. Doesn't matter if its for stuff you already have, the game will still do it for some unexplained reason.

Emperor Smeat

02-13-2023, 08:41 PM

Today's News:

* According to a report from Sky Sports, EA is currently in the process of signing a deal with the English Premier League for the upcoming debut of their non-FIFA EA Sports FC soccer series. EA reportedly is paying around £488 million ($588 million) for a six-year deal with the EPL for their new soccer series.
Link: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12807676/premier-league-closes-in-500m-deal-with-video-games-maker-ea-sports

* For those interested, Deep Silver and developer Dambuster Studios announced that their upcoming Dead Island 2 recently reached gold status and will now be releasing a week earlier than previously scheduled on April 21st.
Link: https://twitter.com/deadislandgame/status/1625147886643150852

* Nintendo is currently dealing with a controversy regarding the recent release of their Metroid Prime Remaster game. This controversy revolves around the exclusion of credits from several of those who had worked on the remaster and original Gamecube games.
Metroid Prime Remastered shadow-dropped as part of last week’s Nintendo Direct. And while players have been enjoying the refreshed version of Samus’ adventure, some developers are calling out issues with credits for the work on both Metroid Prime Remastered and its origins.

Former Prime developer Zoid Kirsch shared this screenshot of the credits over the weekend, which uses a blanket phrase to credit the teams that worked on both Metroid Prime and its Wii version.

“While many studios did amazing work on the remaster, I’m letdown Metroid Prime‘s Remaster does not include the full original game credits,” said Kirsch. “I worked with so many amazing people on the game and everyone’s name should be included in the remaster, not just a single card like this.”

You can see the credits for yourself in uploaded game completion VODs like this one. Though it attributes Retro staff, as well as Airship Images Limited, Gamesim, Iron Galaxy Studios, and others who worked on the project, it does close with one solitary block for the original GameCube game and the Wii version.

Former developer Jack Mathews called it a travesty, not just for his own work on the original that could have been replaced, but for others’ that may have stuck through to the final remaster.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/metroid-prime-original-developers-credits-remaster-news/

Emperor Smeat

02-14-2023, 06:54 PM

Based on a recent report from the The UK Competition and Markets Authority, Microsoft admitted that their Games Pass model has been mostly negative when it comes to long-term game sales for games released on their Xbox Marketplace.

The main issue is while the service has been a big success and great revenues generator for Microsoft, it comes at a big cost for publishers and developers in terms of their game sales cratering after their games are removed from Game Pass rotation.

This contradicts earlier statements made by Xbox boss Phil Spencer who stated that Game Pass would be a long-term benefit for game sales.

Xbox has confirmed that the launch of its hugely successful Xbox Game Pass subscription service has had a notable negative impact on the long-term sales prospects of many of the titles added to its rotating catalog of games.

The admission comes as part of a report by The UK Competition and Markets Authority, (as seen by GamesIndustry.biz) which was commissioned as part of Microsoft’s proposed purchase of publisher Activision Blizzard. According to the report, many titles that were made temporarily available in the Game Pass service then saw a decline in physical/digital sales for the 12-month period following their removal from the service.

The average percentage by which sales have declined was redacted from the record.

While it would make sense that players would leap on the opportunity to play the latest games as part of their subscription, rather than roll out $30-$60 elsewhere, the admission is notable as it contradicts previous comments by Xbox head of gaming Phil Spencer, who had suggested that adding a title to the Game Pass service boosted its long-term sales, rather than reduced them.

“When you put a game like Forza Horizon 4 on Game Pass, you instantly have more players of the game, which is actually leading to more sales of the game,” Spencer told GI.biz back in 2018. “You say, ‘Well isn’t everyone just going to subscribe for $10 and go play this thing?’ But no, gamers find things to play based on what everybody else is playing.”

But it seems, according to the CMA’s report, that the numbers themselves are proving quite the opposite.
Link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/microsoft-confirms-game-pass-cannibalizes-sales , https://www.destructoid.com/xbox-confirms-the-game-pass-model-impacts-long-term-game-sales/

Sepholio

02-14-2023, 08:19 PM

I love gamespass but this was obviously going to happen from day 1. Price increases probably incoming to pay all these people more so they won't quit putting their games on the service.

drave

02-15-2023, 08:32 AM

Guys?! You like Gamepass right? WELL here's ULTIMATE 2.0!!!!

Gamers: YES! WE LIKE GAMEPASS VERY MUCHLY!!

Xbox: No... not like that.

Kalyx triaD

02-15-2023, 04:40 PM

I don't know how an average intelligence person could believe what streaming subscription services did to music and movies wouldn't happen with videogames.

Emperor Smeat

02-15-2023, 06:12 PM

Today's News:

* According to a report from Video Games Chronicle, Activision Blizzard recently sent an internal memo mandating all of their employees to return to a partial in-office work schedule starting this Spring. This reportedly will be done in phases with Activision staff returning to their office workplace this April and Blizzard staff returning this July. All employees reportedly will be required to work at least 3 days a week in their office. It was also reported that this new mandate was made against the wishes of some employees who are still concerned over health issues related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other issues related to costs and stress with daily commutes and office work.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/activision-blizzard-employees-are-being-forced-to-return-to-the-office-soon-its-claimed/ , https://www.destructoid.com/activision-blizzard-return-to-office-mandate-in-april/

* The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund reportedly recently increased their ownership stake in Nintendo from 6.07% to 7.08% within the past month. The announcement was first made by Saudi Arabia's BRHM account on Twitter and later confirmed by financial website Trading View.
Link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/saudi-arabia-increases-stake-in-nintendo-to-708

* Microsoft is currently scheduled to attend a closed hearing with the European Union's Commissioner for Competition on February 21st in Brussels in regards to the ongoing legal issues over their attempt to purchase Activation Blizzard. This hearing had been requested by Micorosft following the EU's recent antitrust warning against the company over their proposed purchase.
Link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/microsoft-to-attend-hearing-with-eu-regulator-on-february-21

* Platinum Games announced on Twitter that Bayonetta 3 has sold around 1 million copies since its launch this past October. This also makes Bayonetta 3 the fastest selling game in series history as a result.
Link: https://twitter.com/platinumgames/status/1625436247601852417

Emperor Smeat

02-16-2023, 06:41 PM

For those interested in the new Wild Hearts game for PC, EA and developer Koei Tecmo recently released the minimum and recommended specs for the game.

In terms of harddrive space, it was stated that the game will require at least 80GB of free space in order to be playable.

Wild Hearts PC system requirements

2023 seems to be the beginning of the end for those who have a PS4, Xbox One, and ultimately an outdated PC. More games like Wild Hearts and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will be leaving earlier platforms in the dust. This means that you may need to beef up your PC if you want to play this epic monster-hunting game. Here are all the Wild Hearts system requirements you’ll need:

OS: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Memory: 12 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce GTX 1060 (VRAM 6GB) / Radeon RX 5500 XT (VRAM 8GB)
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 80 GB

You’ll also need a stable internet connection to get into the chaos of Wild Hearts and join your buddies in their fight against these beasts.

Wild Hearts Recommended Hardware

To experience Wild Hearts in all of its graphical glory, you’ll need an impressive graphics card and 16GB of RAM. Let’s go over all the recommended hardware that should be in your PC for the best performance of Wild Hearts.

OS: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce RTX 2070 (VRAM 8GB) / Radeon RX 5700 XT (VRAM 8GB)
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 80 GB

On the Steam page for the game, EA and Koei Tecmo recommend you also use a surround sound system or headset to get the most immersive experience possible within Wild Hearts.
Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1938010/WILD_HEARTS/ , https://www.destructoid.com/wild-hearts-pc-system-requirements-and-recommended-settings/

Emperor Smeat

02-17-2023, 06:38 PM

Today's News:

* Activision Blizzard is currently dealing with more workplace related issues following the poor reception from employees over a recent internal Q&A meeting, according to Game Developer. This meeting reportedly was led by Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and covered employee issues with stack ranking which Ybarra downplayed as being a problem, AB's newest mandate requiring staff to return to partial in-office work, and staff being told they would only receive 58% of their profit sharing bonus for the year. Ybarra also reportedly managed to upset those in AB's quality assurance and customer service departments after comments he made that was implied to be hinting at potential pay cuts or lack of raises and layoffs in those departments.
Link: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/culture/q-a-with-blizzard-leadership-on-return-to-office-bonuses-leaves-devs-fuming , https://www.destructoid.com/blizzard-workers-voice-frustration-q-a-meeting-report/

* Firaxis Games announced earlier today on Twitter that a new game in the Sid Meier's Civilization series is currently in development.
Link: https://twitter.com/CivGame/status/1626582239453540352

* Firaxis Games also announced that longtime game director Jake Soloman and studio lead Steve Martin both have recently left the company after 20 year careers there. Soloman and Martin stated on Twitter that the reasons for their departures was due to them both wanting to go in a new direction for their careers.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/firaxis/

* Indie developer Ghost Ship Games, developer of Deep Rock Galactic, announced on Twitter that they have recently launched a new publishing department called Ghost Ship Publishing to help publish indie games from outside the company.
Link: https://twitter.com/GhostShip_Games/status/1626153169255297024

ClockShot

02-17-2023, 07:07 PM

Ugggggggggggggggh.

God damn, Firaxis. Can we get a new Pirates! game already?!

Emperor Smeat

02-20-2023, 07:35 PM

Today's News:

* Ubisoft recently clarified comments made by their CEO Yves Guillemot that teased this tear's E3 might not take place due to the high level dropouts by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, Ubisoft stated "E3 is a special moment for our industry and we are excited to showcase our strong line-up in Los Angeles in June. We are still finalizing the details of our plans and look forward to sharing more soon.” The ESA recently stated that this year's event will still be going on as scheduled despite the high profile abscesses.
Link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ubisoft-confirmed-for-e3-2023

* For those interested, Blizzard recently announced that they will be holding beta tests for their upcoming Diablo IV game this March. This upcoming beta was stated to feature most of the game's first act, a level cap of 25, and most of the main and side quests will be playable from this portion of the game. It was also announced that those who pre-order the game will get early access to the closed beta from March 17-19 while the open beta will be available to everyone from March 24-26.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/diablo-4-beta-kicks-off-next-month , https://www.destructoid.com/diablo-iv-closed-open-beta-test-march-invites-blizzard/

* For those interested in the physical version of Metroid Prime Remastered, the physical game includes a reversible cover art.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/metroid-prime-remastered-physical-edition-has-reversible-box-art/ , https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/114tzad/i_got_metroid_prime_remastered_early_at_walmart

Emperor Smeat

02-21-2023, 06:58 PM

ClockShot

02-21-2023, 07:38 PM

Today's News:

* Sony announced that they will be holding a new State of Play episode this Thursday at 4PM EST. It was also announced that this upcoming episode will focus mainly on third party games arriving within the near future for PS5 and PSVR2. It was also announced that the marquee game to be showcased will be Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Link: https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1628077150380363777

* As part of their on-going efforts to convince the FTC, European Commission, and other government bodies to approve their deal to purchase Activision Blizzard, Microsoft President Brad Smoith announced that the company has recently signed a deal with Nintendo to provide 10-year support for the Call of Duty series on Nintendo platforms. This deal also includes future CoD series games to be launched on the same day for Nintendo platforms as is currently done for Xbox and Playstation platforms.
Link: https://twitter.com/BradSmi/status/1627926790172811264

Microsoft also cut a deal with Nvidia to bring all their PC games to Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service. Including Activision-Blizzard games if the deal eventually goes through.

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-strikes-deal-to-bring-all-xbox-games-to-geforce-now

Sounds like Microsoft's plan is to go around to everyone who's against the Activision purchase and cut deals with them so not as many other gaming or tech companies will make a big stink out of it.

Emperor Smeat

02-22-2023, 07:20 PM

Today's News:

* EVO recently released the full list of games and changes for this year's EVO 2023 event. The games announced for main stage tournaments are Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Tekken 7, The King of Fighters XV, Melty Blood: Type Lumina, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, and Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. In regards to changes for this year's event, only the Top 6 fights will be aired instead of the previous Top 8 format in order to cut back on the length of the Grand Final stream over issues with matches for certain games going well past their allocated times.
Link: https://twitter.com/EVO/status/1628212520120094720 , https://www.destructoid.com/evo-2023-fighting-game-tournament-main-stage-lineup/

* For those interested, Nintendo announced they will be holding a special Nintendo Direct episode on March 9 focusing on their upcoming Super Mario Bros film. This Direct will also feature the final new trailer for the film.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66j31wFLB_s

* Capcom announced that they have recently started development for a free VR DLC pack for their upcoming Resident Evil 4 Remake game for PS5 and Playstation VR 2 headset.
Link: https://twitter.com/BIO_OFFICIAL/status/1628309614843559937 , https://www.destructoid.com/resident-evil-4-vr-psvr2-ps5-capcom-virtual-reality-dlc/

* Valve announced that they recently perma banned over 40,000 accounts from their DOTA 2 game via a "honeypot" trap that was specifically designed to catch players who have been using cheats for the game. It was also stated that this trap would not have been accessible to those who have been playing the game normally so there was no potential false positive cases from those caught.
Valve confirms it has permanently banned over 40,000 accounts associated with a known cheat in Dota 2. And it did so by creating a trap laid specifically just to lure users of that specific cheat out.

In a blog entitled “Cheaters Will Never Be Welcome in Dota,” Valve outlines how exactly this came to be. The company doesn’t name the cheat or what it did, but does confirm that the software was able to access information used internally by the Dota 2 client that “wasn’t visible during normal gameplay.”

Though fixing the cheat was important, Valve also decided to remove those using the cheat from the active playerbase. So as soon as the studio understood the methodology behind the cheat, Valve issued a patch that created a honeypot. A section of game data inside the client would never be read during normal gameplay, but it could be read by the cheats.

As you might imagine, this cordoned-off area created a ledger of users who were using the exploit. Valve says it has “extremely high confidence” that every ban was “well-deserved.”
Link: https://www.dota2.com/newsentry/3677788723152833273 , https://www.destructoid.com/valve-dota-2-patch-bans-cheaters-honeypot-news/

Emperor Smeat

02-23-2023, 07:45 PM

Today's News:

* The next game in the Mortal Kombat series, Mortal Kombat 12, was officially announced during an investor's meeting held today by Warner Bros Discovery. It was also announced that this upcoming game is currently scheduled to be released by the end of this year.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/mortal-kombat-12-reveal-earnings-call-warner-bros-games/

* According to a report from Eurogamer, the Ukrainian government is currently planning to send an official letter to Micorsoft, Sony, and Valve asking for the recently released Atomic Heart game to be pulled and sales banned from their online stores due to their issues with developer's Mudfish ties to the Russian government. Besides issues with Russian government ties, the game is also currently dealing with several other controversies including its handling of data collection from players, sexual exploitation and potential homophobic issues alleged to be directed towards an Ukrainian political party leader, and a racist cartoon image of an African tribal person discovered in the game.
Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/ukraines-government-wants-to-ban-atomic-heart-from-countrys-digital-stores

* Valve recently released their full schedule of major sales and fests for Steam for this year.
Link: https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/3645136358931000680

* For those interested, Larian Studios announced that their upcoming Baldur's Gate 3 game will be released on PC, Mac, and PS5 on August 31st.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-KF9iueE0 , https://www.destructoid.com/baldurs-gate-3-ps5-release-date-announcement-trailer/

Emperor Smeat

02-24-2023, 07:16 PM

Nintendo confirmed reports that they won't be participating in this year's E3 event but also stated that this does not mean they are dropping support for future E3 events.

Official reason given for them not appearing this year is due to schedule-related issues.

Nintendo is confirming reports that it will not be attending E3 2023. Today, the company says the event doesn’t fit into its plans for the year.

“We approach our involvement in any event on a case-by-case basis and are always considering various ways to engage with our fans,” said Nintendo in a statement, via IGN. “Since this year’s E3 show didn’t fit into our plans, we have made the decision to not participate. However, we have been and continue to be a strong supporter of the ESA and E3.”

IGN previously reported that Nintendo, alongside Sony and Microsoft, would not be attending this year’s E3. Xbox will be hosting its own event in Los Angeles, but it won’t be on the E3 show floor in the Los Angeles Convention Center ...

The overall wariness is notable, though. It might just be an issue of timing; Nintendo will have launched Tears of the Kingdom already by June, leaving just Pikmin 4 left on the docket. Sony hasn’t been part of E3 for years now. But that does raise the question: who will be at E3 2023?
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-confirms-its-missing-e3-2023 , https://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-confirms-wont-be-at-e3-2023-news/

Sepholio

02-25-2023, 07:53 PM

Between Nintendo Directs and TGS there is no reason for them to do E3 anymore anyways. I loved E3 and used to be hyped for it every year. But now? It's unnecessary.

Emperor Smeat

02-27-2023, 07:20 PM

Today's News:

* Pokemon Company announced they have recently partnered with Netflix for the production of a new series called Pokemon Concierge on the service. It was announced that French animation studio Dwarf Studios is developing this upcoming new series, episodes will be featured in a stop-motion animation style, and a premiere date of "coming soon."
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvgPiewDncQ , https://www.destructoid.com/pokemon-concierge-stop-motion-netflix-animated-series/

* For those that enjoy both sleeping and gaming, Pokemon Company also announced that their upcoming Pokemon Sleep game will be arriving later this year for Andriod and iOS mobile devices.
Shown as part of today’s February 27 Pokemon Presents, Pokemon Sleep is a lifestyle app that tracks your sleep data. By simply activating the app and going to sleep,

You’ll be able to unlock different Pokemon and their sleep styles. You’ll start with styles like Dozing, Snoozing, and Slumbering, and gradually pick up more as you sleep.

This app will also work with the Pokemon Go Plus+ device announced today, helping you track sleep and even hear lullabies from special monsters.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KghsZQSXG8g , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amLQr0l8n5Y , https://www.destructoid.com/pokemon-sleep-finally-arrives-later-this-year/

* For those interested, Bungie recently released the install sizes and server maintenance downtime waits for the upcoming Lightfall expansion pack for their Destiny 2 game for the game's various platforms.
Planned server downtime

To allow for as seamless a process as possible, Bungie has announced that it will be taking the Destiny 2 servers offline for a full 24 hours. During this period, preloading Lightfall will become available. Luckily, Bungie has also detailed the install sizes needed for each platform. Starting at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM GMT on February 27, the Destiny 2 servers will be taken offline, with players being removed from activities 15 minutes prior to this. Players have until this time to wrap up any Season of the Seraph objectives as well as earn the seals for any of the seasons since the launch of The Witch Queen a year ago. This includes Season of the Risen, Season of the Haunted, Season of the Plunder, and Season of the Seraph. After this time, all of this content will be removed from the game.

Lightfall install size

Bungie has warned that the install size for Lightfall will be quite hefty, but following the initial load, the game will take up less space and see improved loading times. Most notably, Bungie has warned that anyone playing the PlayStation 4 version will need additional space to install the game, around 80GB, but that the old files will be removed after the installation is complete. PC users on both Steam and Epic Games Store will need at least 223GB of free space in order to preload Lightfall. There’s a helpful article on Bungie’s website that details this in full.
PlayStation 5

Install size: 102.6GB
Storage space required for the preload: 102.6GB

Xbox Series X|S

Install size: 108.59GB
Storage space required for the preload: 108.59GB

PlayStation 4

Install size: 88.21GB
Storage space required for the preload: 184.64GB

Xbox One

Install size: 89.21GB
Storage space required for the preload: 89.21GB

Steam

Install size: 102.50GB
Storage space required for the preload: 233.2GB

Epic Games Store

Install size: 101.51GB
Storage space required for the preload: 223.3GB

Microsoft Store

Install size: 102.13GB
Storage space required for the preload: 223.3GB

Players should note that the install size may vary dependent on the languages installed, and the install size shown is the maximum that may be needed.

So when can we play?!

Destiny 2: Lightfall servers will go live on Tuesday, February 28 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM GMT. All players are required to download and apply the latest updates available for Destiny on their platform whether they have purchased Lightfall or not.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/destiny-2-lightfall-preload-information-install-size-and-server-downtime/

Emperor Smeat

02-28-2023, 07:34 PM

Today's News:

* For those interested, Bandai Namco and developer Fromsoft announced that the upcoming DLC expansion pack for Elden Ring, called Shadow of the Erdtree, is currently in development.
Link: https://twitter.com/ELDENRING/status/1630478058103734274

* Square Enix announced they will be merging with Luminous Productions, developer of Forspoken, this May. It was also announced that this merger is part of their current medium term plans for the company and to help boost Square's portfolio and production of AAA tier games.
Link: https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/2023/html/20230228_announcement_EN.html

* According to a report from Kotaku, Ubisoft's Montpelier studio is currently dealing with serious workplace related issues. These issues reportedly revolve around overworked employees causing them to take extended periods of time to recuperate and also led to the managing director Guillaume Carmona recently leaving the company. Besides internal workplace issues, the studio is also currently under investigation by French government body Inspection du Travail (Labor Inspection) over possible violations of French Labor laws. For some reference, this studio is the developer of long delayed Beyond Good & Evil 2 game.
Link: https://kotaku.com/beyond-good-evil-2-ubisoft-montpellier-assassins-creed-1850164420

* For those interested, Universal Studios announced that they have pushed up the release date for their upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie from its previously scheduled date of April 7th to a new date of April 5th.
Link: https://twitter.com/supermariomovie/status/1630599058564976641

Fignuts

03-01-2023, 02:10 AM

Woooooooo Elden Ring.

Looks like Miquella ridi g torrent. Makes sense, since there was supposed to be more content regarding Miquella but it got cut.

Emperor Smeat

03-01-2023, 07:30 PM

Today's News:

* The Communication Workers of America (CWA) recently filed charges against Activision Blizzard over claims that the company violated labor laws in regards to their recent firing of two Q&A employees. According to Kotaku, these firings revolved around AB's recent mandate for the partial return to in-office work for their entire workforce which led to two employees having a heated exchange with management that then led to a disciplinary meeting resulting in their firings. The CWA is also claiming that AB fired the two people for engaging in union protected activity and also denied requests for a third worker to be present at the disciplinary meeting. As a result of the CWA's charges, the National Labor Relations Board is currently expected to investigate AB over these issues, according to GamesIndustry.boz.
Link: https://kotaku.com/activision-accused-of-illegally-fired-qa-testers-over-r-1850171073 , https://www.gamesindustry.biz/cwa-presses-charges-against-activision-over-the-firing-of-two-employees

* Telltale Games announced that they have recently delayed their upcoming The Wolf Among Us 2 game to a new date of TBA 2024. The official reason given was due to them changing the game's engine from Unreal 4 to Unreal 5 and wanting to avoid crunch time had they pushed forward with a release in this year.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/the-wolf-among-us-2-pushed-to-next-year-in-effort-to-avoid-crunch

* EA reportedly recently fired around 200 Q&A testers from their Apex Legends game, according to Kotaku. It was reported that these firings targeted all of EA's Baton Rouge-based testing team and was done without prior warning in a Zoom call meeting held yesterday. One tester who was fired stated that they were told by EA that the reason for their firings was due to "QA doesn't currently reflect their demographics, which is a completely insane thing to tell staff from a majority-black city that likely has more black workers than anywhere else in the entire corporation?"
Link: https://kotaku.com/ea-apex-legends-bugs-layoffs-respawn-zoom-1850168472 , https://www.destructoid.com/apex-legends-qa-baton-rouge-layoffs-electronic-arts-ea/ , https://twitter.com/TopMarx420/status/1630658992337829890

Emperor Smeat

03-03-2023, 07:29 PM

Today's News:

* According to a report from Reuters, the European Union is currently expected to give their approval for Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard. It was reported that the reason why the EU did not approve MS's deal earlier was due to similar issues that Sony and others claimed over the worries that Call of Duty's massive status and impact in the gaming industry shouldn't be made exclusive to just one platform or brand. EU ended up being satisfied with MS's recent deal with Nintendo for CoD support and promises to keep CoD multi-platform for at least the next 10 years.
Link: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/eu-unlikely-demand-asset-sales-microsoft-activision-deal-sources-say-2023-03-02/

* Capcom announced that they will be holding a new Capcom Spotlight stream on March 9th on their official YouTube and Twitch channels. It was also announced that this upcoming stream will be around 26 minutes in length and will mainly focus on Resident Evil 4, Exoprimal, Monster Hunter Rise, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, and Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective!.
Link: https://twitter.com/CapcomUSA_/status/1631464405971144705

* Square Enix announced that Yosuke Matsuda will be stepping down as President of the company this June and will be replaced by company director Takashi Kiryu. Official reason given was due to their current restructuring plans for their executive management team.
Link: https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/web_Notification%20of%20Changes%20in%20the%20Representative%20Director%20of%20the%20Company%20and%20 a%20Consolidated%20Subsidiary.pdf , https://www.destructoid.com/square-enix-president-yosuke-matsuda-takashi-kiryu/

Emperor Smeat

03-06-2023, 07:32 PM

Today's News:

* Bandai Namco recently announced that a new game in the Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi is currently in development. No other details regarding the game's official title, release date, nor platforms were given.
Link: https://twitter.com/db_eventpj_jp/status/1632519982478405633

* For those who currently own or are interested in buying Pokemon Scarlet / Violet, a recent update to the game was revealed to cause the possibility for game save files to become corrupted and/or erased. While the exact cause for the issue is currently known nor a work around fix currently exists, some of those affected stated that it happened after they integrated the game with Pokemon Go while at least one person stated it happened after they had purchased and installed the game's DLC.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/pokemon-scarlet-violet-players-report-save-files-lost-news/ , https://kotaku.com/pokemon-scarlet-violet-save-wipe-go-dlc-1850193690

* EA reportedly is currently dealing with new legal issues over their Ultimate Team mode for their FIFA series. This time it involves a class-action lawsuit that was filed in 2022 in Austria against Sony over issues with the sale of FUT packs for Ultimate Team mode on Playstation Store. The Austrian court recently ruled that due to the way its secondary market worked, EA's Ultimate Team mode violated the country's gambling laws and ordered Sony to refund everyone in the country who had purchased FUT packs on their Playstation Store.
The suit is directed at Sony rather than FIFA publisher Electronic Arts because the FUT packs were purchased on the PlayStation Network, which makes the sales contract with Sony, and not with EA itself.

The court decreed that players being able to sell FUT cards on a secondary market added elements of value to many randomized items. The court argued that this action gives FUT players the opportunity to access a profit margin for their randomly accessed products, which is what violates Austria’s gambling laws. As such, the court has ordered Sony to refund Austrian FIFA players who have made FUT purchases on PlayStation Network.

Padronus, a law firm specializing in recovering losses from online casinos, reports that over 1000 FIFA players have contacted them looking for compensation, with individual purchases ranging from three to five figures. It seems, however, that there is a cap on the amount Sony will have to refund any one player, and it should also be noted that Sony has the option to appeal the verdict, which it most likely will.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/fifa-ultimate-team-austria-law-refunds-ea/ , https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/wirtschaft/fifa-lootboxen-sony-klage-gluecksspiel-oesterreich-030323/

Emperor Smeat

03-08-2023, 06:53 PM

Today's News:

* Bethesda confirmed that they have delayed their upcoming Starfield game from a first/second quarter of 2023 release to a new release date of September 6th. It was also announced that they will be holding a Nintendo Direct-like stream for the game on June 11th.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/starfield-has-been-delayed-until-september-6-2023/ , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raWbElTCea8

* In a recent filing to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Sony is currently claiming that Microsoft will release inferior versions of Call of Duty games on their Playstation platforms should they be successful in their purchase of Activision Blizzard. In the filing, Sony is going as far as to claim that MS could push for certain bugs to only be present on non-Xbox versions of the game and would hold back on timely fixes in order to make Xbox versions more enticing for players, especially during launch week. Sony is also claiming that despite MS promising equal support for CoD games on all platforms, they feel CoD games on Playstation platforms will become second fiddle in stature if MS were to own the series. Sony is also claiming that MS could engage in business practices that could hurt the CoD brand but also push players away from PS in favor of their Game Pass service.
In a document submitted to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) filed in late February, as spotted by The Verge, Sony raises concerns about what Microsoft may do with Call of Duty. This includes concerns that Activision could even create a worse COD experience on a competitor’s console. Here’s the slice where Sony lays out this possibility:

“For example, Microsoft might release a PlayStation version of Call of Duty where bugs and errors emerge only on the game’s final level or after later updates. Even if such degradations could be swiftly detected, any remedy would likely come too late, by which time the gaming community would have lost confidence in PlayStation as a go-to venue to play Call of Duty. Indeed, as Modern Warfare II attests, Call of Duty is most often purchased in just the first few weeks of release. If it became known that the game’s performance on PlayStation was worse than on Xbox, Call of Duty gamers could decide to switch to Xbox, for fear of playing their favourite game at a second-class or less competitive venue.”

Though this doesn’t quite allege intended sabotage, the concern seems to be that the PlayStation version would become second fiddle. Sony alleges that even if Microsoft were to operate in good faith, it would be incentivized to support and prioritize development of the Xbox version. Sony also other ways in which Call of Duty could skew towards Xbox, including the price of the series going up and making it available on a subscription service only through Game Pass. It concludes by saying that the transaction should be either prohibited, or subject to a “structural remedy.”
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/sony-concerned-microsoft-worse-version-call-of-duty-playstation-cma-filing/ , https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/8/23630700/sony-microsoft-call-of-duty-sabotage-cma-documents-activision-deal

Sepholio

03-09-2023, 01:37 AM

lol Sony with that BS there, although in fairness MS did spend a shit ton to snatch up Bethesda, the company that is well known for having released inferior versions of games on Sony consoles, fixing all the other versions, and then telling Sony players that it's too hard to fix and to just deal with it *cough* skyrim *cough* and dropping all DLC for the platform.

drave

03-09-2023, 08:18 AM

because the cell architecture was shit and only 256MB of RAM was able to be utilized at the time, that's why.

If you wanna get technical, doesn't every other platform get shit later than PS due to timed exclusives?? Maps and the like. That can be labeled as "inferior".

They're retarded for that statement. It'd be easy to determine if shit was purposefully done.

Sepholio

03-09-2023, 09:24 AM

I don't wanna hear that shit about the cell processor. Was it more difficult to develop for? Sure. But it didn't stop a bunch of other devs from utilizing it correctly and putting out games that ran and looked better than anything the 360 had to offer. Bethesda straight shafted PS3 players because of greed, laziness, lack of programming knowledge or some combination of the 3.

And while timed exclusives are also a shitty practice they can not be labeled as inferior. In the end the product is the same, it just takes longer to get there. It would be like saying a game that gets delayed a few months on one platform is inferior when it ends up coming out in the exact same state as the other versions. I'd label it more as an annoyance.

Fignuts

03-09-2023, 10:07 PM

Going to disappear off the face of the earth when Starfield hits.

Emperor Smeat

03-09-2023, 10:39 PM

Today's News:

* According to a report from Bloomberg, the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was recently hit with another delay by Warner Bros. The game itself was originally planned to be released in 2022 and then was delayed till May 2023. Now the game is reportedly currently planned for a late 2023 release date. The new release date nor official reason for the delay is currently not known.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-delay-report-rocksteady/

* For those interested, Capcom recently released a special "Chainsaw Demo" for their upcoming Resident Evil 4 Remake game on PS4, PS5, PC (Steam), and Xbox Series X/S. This demo release was part of their Capcom Spotlight 2023 stream held earlier today. In terms of content, this demo takes place during the first village battle and first encounter of chainsaw man.
Link: https://twitter.com/RE_Games/status/1633968516486373376

* For those that enjoy eating chicken and playing video games, specifically KFC and the Diablo series, Activision Blizzard & KFC announced that they have recently partnered together for a special promotion for the upcoming Diablo IV beta.
All you need to do to get access to the Diablo IV beta is order a Double Down “sandwich” from KFC.com or their delivery app. No one says you have to eat it. Simply buying the “sandwich” will grant you a code, which you just plug into your Battle.net account. Then, the beta runs from March 17 to March 20. As far as I can tell, this is only for the U.S. I’m in Canada, and I installed the app for “research purposes,” and the Double Down “sandwich” is not even available.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/kfc-and-the-diablo-iv-beta-team-up-to-kill-your-heart/ , https://twitter.com/kfc/status/1633845333061976065

Fignuts

03-10-2023, 12:31 AM

Holy shit @ suicide squad. Gotta say I was pretty let down by the gameplay. I thought it would be arkham style with 4 unique characters. Instead it's just a looter shooter.

Fignuts

03-10-2023, 12:33 AM

Uh...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you're a fan of the Fire Pro franchise, we FINALLY have AI Logic in WWE 2K games. This feature is ABSOLUTELY game-changing for AI matches. You can tweak almost EVERY aspect of what a superstar does in a match now.<br><br>An example, I turned Omos' dives off to a zero and his… <a href="https://t.co/kkyHzoH2AH">https://t.co/kkyHzoH2AH</a> <a href="https://t.co/jOqDe2naL9">pic.twitter.com/jOqDe2naL9</a></p>— Love, Phoenix. (@PhoenixNitro) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhoenixNitro/status/1633140627985645574?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Emperor Smeat

03-12-2023, 08:57 PM

<s>Based on NewLegacyInc's recent pre-release streams for WWE 2K23, this year's MyRise mode has some really wonky issues at least in regards to the Male Superstar story campaign.

Besides the usual glitches issues, the mode is also very picky at times when it comes to its match demands.

Like one instance involved a tag team match with their created player teaming with Roman Reigns and the requirement of Reigns needing to be the person to get the pinfall. So they had the CPU control Roman and got the pinfall victory only to be told they failed the match since Roman somehow didn't get the pin. Turns out you have to be in full control of Roman for the pin despite the game never saying that specifically.</s>

Nevermind, just realized now it wasn't another sneak peak early thing from them and instead just them playing last year's MyRise mode.

Fignuts

03-13-2023, 08:39 AM

Wasn't planning on getting it, but now I'm at least going to wait and see how well the logic works.

Evil Vito

03-13-2023, 11:18 AM

Yeah the logic stuff sounds interesting.

There's actual footage out there of teammates working together in the Rumble and then refusing to fight each other until the end of the match. Which is just an amazing touch I've wanted in games for years.

Emperor Smeat

03-13-2023, 07:27 PM

Today's News:

* During a recent interview with GQ, The Last of Us series game director Neil Druckmann and show director Craig Mazin revealed that they currently have plans for the television series to be at least three seasons total in length.
Link: https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/the-last-of-us-finale-ending-explained-interview

* Capcom announced that the Day 1 patch for their upcoming Resident Evil 4 Remake game will contain a fix for the new rain effects they added to game that led to very divisive reactions over how it was handled.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/capcom-reportedly-addressing-rain-in-resident-evil-4-with-launch-patch/

* Speaking of Resident Evil 4 Remake, the recently released "Chainsaw Demo" was revealed to contain a secret item not found in the original version of the game for the first village encounter section. This involves a hidden weapon and a few key steps needed to be done in order to activate its appearance. It was also revealed that this is a permanent unlock so if you die during one playthrough, you don't need to redo the steps to unlock it for subsequent playthroughs.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/resident-evil-4-remake-demo-how-to-unlock-tmp/

* Square Enix recently released an outline of their investor's meeting from last month that revealed that the company was disappointed over the "lackluster" sales for Forspoken compared to their expectations.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/square-enix-says-forspoken-sales-lackluster-industry-news/

drave

03-14-2023, 08:24 AM

Capcom is great

Emperor Smeat

03-14-2023, 07:01 PM

Today's News:

* During a recent interview with Eurogamer, IO Interactive co-owner Christian Elverdam stated that the Hitman series is currently in hiatus due to the studio focusing all of their efforts and priority towards the development of their new 007 game.
Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/how-io-turned-hitman-around-from-absolution-to-world-of-assassination

* For those interested in WWE 2K23, this year's Showcase Mode featuring John Cena might be one of the weakest in series history in terms of effort and quality by developer Visual Concepts based on NewlLegacyInc's release day stream of it. Besides the order of matches being all over the place that was already known going into its release, VC was pretty lazy when it came to design decisions and attires being off for certain wrestlers like Edge's Rated R persona. Also if you like refs with blurry heads, blurry logos, and other censored stuff, the mode is full of it in regards to the actual video clips shown during it. Also seems the female wrestler story for this year's MyRise mode is plagued with voice acting quality issues based on Destructoid's review in progress for the game. Rest of the game seems to be about equal to better compared to last year's game depending on the mode and feature.
Link: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1764646059 , https://www.destructoid.com/review-in-progress-wwe-2k23-preview-pc-xbox-playstation/

* During a recent interview with AP News, Nintendo of America boss Doug Bowser defended the company's decision for a price hike for their upcoming Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom stating that it was done due to the amount of content they packed into the game. Bowser also stated that this $70 price tag will not be something that will become a standard for all of their first party games going forward, at least on the Switch.
We look at what the game has to offer. I think fans will find this is an incredibly full, deeply immersive experience. The price point reflects the type of experience that fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game. This isn’t a price point that we’ll necessarily have on all our titles. It’s actually a fairly common pricing model either here or in Europe or other parts of the world, where the pricing may vary depending on the game itself
Link: https://apnews.com/article/nintendo-bowser-mario-donkey-kong-universal-interview-8aeaa03f3ad4a3032c08c77945a3e787 , https://www.destructoid.com/noa-boss-doug-bowser-defends-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-70-price/

Fignuts

03-15-2023, 12:15 AM

Yeah, production on the Cena showcase isn't as good as last year. That said, I really like that you play as Cena's opponents. Got sick of playing as Rey last year.

03-15-2023, 10:13 AM

Yeah that was always the downside of the superstar-centric showcase modes, they became repetitive using the same guy and the same move set for 12+ matches. Nice touch this year.

Emperor Smeat

03-15-2023, 07:53 PM

Today's News:

* Filming for the sequel to 2006 Silent Hill film, Return to Silent Hill, reportedly is currently scheduled to start next month, according to Deadline. It was reported that Christophe Gans will be the director and Jeremy Irvine was casted as the lead star portraying James for the upcoming film. In terms of plot, this upcoming film is currently believed to be based on the Silent Hill 2 game.
Link: https://deadline.com/2023/03/return-silent-hill-cast-jeremy-irvine-hannah-emily-anderson-jigsaw-xmen-plot-details-1235299997/

* IO Interactive announced that they have recently launched a new studio in Istanbul, Turkey as part of their current growth plans for the company. It was also announced that this new studio will be helping with the development of their upcoming 007 and Project Fantasy games.
Link: https://ioi.dk/careers/news/2023/announcing-ioi-istanbul

* Studio ZA/UM, developer of Disco Elysium, reportedly recently settled several lawsuits filed by their former employees over claims of unfair dismissals and firings. All of the lawsuits have been or are expected to be dropped and resolved due to lack of evidence issues.
Disco Elysium developer Studio ZA/UM has, to various effect, resolved numerous lawsuits filed against it within the past year. These include a case with the game’s executive producer, Kaur Kender, as well as several Unfair Dismissal suits filed by several key members of the studio, who left the team in fall 2022.

The Kaur Kender lawsuit saw the former ZA/UM producer sue the studio’s majority shareholding company Tütreke, claiming that ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus had essentially “cheated” him out of €1 million, while also trying to illegally wrest control of the studio away from the founding members of the team. However, the case will no longer be progressing, as per a statement from Kompus offered to GamesIndustry.biz ...

The unfair dismissal suits were filed following the revelation that Disco Elysium designer Robert Kurvitz, writer Helen Hindpere, and art director Aleksander Rostov were no longer at the studio, having been “involuntary” pushed out of the company by its owners. While initially offering a more diplomatic statement, Kompus and business partner Tõnis Haavel would eventually allege that the departing members had been “creating a toxic environment”, and “belittling co-workers”, with the party also accused of “intending to steal the IP”.

Studio ZA/UM now says that Kurvits and Rostov have dropped their respective suits, with the studio claiming a lack of evidence prevented the cases from progressing. The studio notes that it expects further accusations and cases to be brought forward by former employees, and it expects these cases to meet similar fates. In addition, Studio ZA/UM has received a €4.8 million payment from its owner, Tütreke.
Link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/zaum-resolves-legal-dispute-with-disco-elysium-producer-kaur-kender , https://www.destructoid.com/studio-za-um-lawsuits-resolved-kompus-kender-disco-elysium/

Emperor Smeat

03-18-2023, 01:56 AM

Belated Friday's News:

* Footwear manufacturer Red Wing Shoes announced that they have recently created Mario themed replica shoes in celebration of the upcoming Super Marios Bros Movie. It was also announced that the shoes are a pixel-perfect replica of the iconic shoes worn by Mario. It was also announced that the shoes are not available for sale because they don't like making a big pile of money or whatnot.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YAm8GK47cDw" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

* As noted before, Studio ZA/UM, developer of Disco Elysium, recently announced that they have settled several lawsuits filed by former employees over claims of unfair firings and dismissals. In a recent update, former employees Robert Kurvitz and Sander Taal stated in an interview with Eurogamer that they currently dispute the claims made by the company over the lawsuits being "misguided" and without real merit.
“The press release quotes Kender admitting that he has filed a ‘misguided’ lawsuit against ZA/UM in late 2022. We disagree,” reads the duo’s response. “Kender’s lawsuit was based on the misuse of ZA/UM’s funds (€4.8m) by the majority shareholders Kompus and Haavel to increase their own stake in the company. In the press release, Kompus and Haavel admit to this misuse, arguing only that the money has been “paid back to ZA/UM”.

“Paying back stolen money, however, does not undo the crime; here, it does not undo the majority that Kompus and Haavel have illegally gained in ZA/UM […] Kompus and Haavel silenced Kender on this matter, but they will not silence us. Unlike Kender, we have not participated in the looting of ZA/UM, and Kompus and Haavel have no power over us.”
Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/disco-elysium-studio-says-lawsuits-from-former-members-have-been-resolved , https://www.destructoid.com/studio-za-um-lawsuits-resolved-kompus-kender-disco-elysium/

Emperor Smeat

03-20-2023, 07:15 PM

Capcom recently released the first episode of a new anime comedy mini-series as part of their promotion for their Resident Evil 4 Remake game.

The first episode is under a minute long and features Leon's quest to find Ashley in the intro village of the game.

As we near the launch of Resident Evil 4, Capcom has released the first episode in a series of (very) short anime (mis)adventures detailing the events of one Leon Kennedy and his journey through the strange, European countryside — For your approval: Leon and the Mysterious Village.

Produced by Nippon Animation and stylized in a colorful & sunny style, not unlike the cheery work of Hayao Miyazaki and classic “globalized” anime shows of the ’80s, episode one “Looking for Ashley” sees Leon stumble across a strange town occupied by a party of friendly locals. It works out incredibly well for our young hero, as you can imagine.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/resident-evil-4-anime-shorts-leon-and-the-mysterious-village/

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lppo5cNxrhk" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sepholio

03-20-2023, 09:40 PM

Biohazard no Kuni

Emperor Smeat

03-21-2023, 07:25 PM

Today's News:

* EA announced that they will be delisting and removing Battlefield 1943, Battlefield: Bad Company, and Battlefield Bad Company 2 from sale from all digital stores on April 28th. The official reason given is due to them shutting down all online support for those games. It was also announced that online multiplayer for all of the games affected will remain playable until December 8th. Mirror's Edge was originally announced to also be among the games getting delisted but was recently removed from the list.
Link: https://www.ea.com/games/battlefield/legacy-sunset , https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1638268889657376768

* During a recent interview with the Financial Times, Xbox boss Phil Spencer revealed that Microsoft is currently in the process of launching a new in-house digital store app for mobile gaming. The official reason is due to the European Union's upcoming new law called the Digital Markets Act which requires Apple and Google to allow third party app stores on their iOS and Android services.
Link: https://www.ft.com/content/7707705e-b288-4531-b30d-7fa993325018 , https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-mobile-app-store-phil-spencer-xbox/

* 2K Games and LEGO recently released a teaser trailer for their upcoming announcement on this Thursday of a new kart racing game currently rumored to be called LEGO 2K Drive. This game has been rumored by Jeff Grubb and others to be a direct competitor to Nintendo's Mario Kart series in terms of gameplay focus and plans from 2K.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We are not supposed to say anything �� but tune in for March 23rd <a href="https://t.co/i0NUiF3bqG">pic.twitter.com/i0NUiF3bqG</a></p>— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) <a href="https://twitter.com/LEGO_Group/status/1637861866931118089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

ClockShot

03-21-2023, 07:52 PM

Tony Todd. Who's doing the voice work for Venom in Spider-Man 2, let slip in a tweet that the game will release this September.

Take it for what it's worth.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looks like September! Massive publicity coming in august. Commercials start dropping in august so I’m told. Hold on to your … and hold breath! Gonna be necessary</p>— Tony Todd (@TonyTodd54) <a href="https://twitter.com/TonyTodd54/status/1638253315136823297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

M-A-G

03-22-2023, 10:43 AM

Sepholio

03-22-2023, 06:40 PM

lol Arkane's lead director might have just thrown a wrench into Microsofts defense in the Activision/Blizzard acquisition.

He was talking about their upcoming game Redfall and stated that they were making that game for PS5 as well. Until Microsoft told them to shut it down. Womp.

Emperor Smeat

03-22-2023, 07:05 PM

Today's News:

* Next Level Games reportedly is currently rumored to be working on a remaster of classic Gamecube game F-Zero GX for the Nintendo Switch, according to Nintendo Prime. It was reported that their sources confirmed earlier rumors about this game being in development and as part of two unannounced projects currently being developed at the studio
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-basID2Qhc , https://gamerant.com/f-zero-gx-remastered-luigis-mansion-developer-next-level-games/

* Activision and Vicarious Visions reportedly were rumored to have been developing a new game in the Donkey Kong Country series in 2016, according to Famiboards.com. It was reported that the reason why there has not been a new game in the Donkey Kong series since DKC Tropical Freeze is due to Nintendo is still undecided over the plans and direction for a new game. Nintendo reportedly had contacted Activision to develop a new DK game that would have been a 3D and not 2D style game with Shigeru Miyamoto helping out its development. Nintendo reportedly decided in 2018 to move the project in-house instead and later shelved it for unknown reasons.
Link: https://mynintendonews.com/2023/03/20/rumour-activision-were-developing-donkey-kong-game-after-skylanders-since-moved-to-epd/ , https://famiboards.com/threads/what-was-the-original-source-of-the-2d-donkey-kong-rumor.5510/page-5#post-594139

* Ubisoft announced that they are currently developing a new A.I.-based scriptwriting tool called Ghostwriter that the company claims will help their writers by providing a first draft of scripts to be used for NPCS in their games.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-ghostwriter-ai-technology-npc-dialogue/

* Valve recently confirmed the rumors of them working on a new Counter Strike game and revealed that its not a remake of Go running on a new version of their Source Engine but instead a sequel called Counter Strike 2. Valve also recently released a few videos showcasing the new changes and improvements made to the CS series for this upcoming new game.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/@Valve , https://www.destructoid.com/counter-strike-2-has-been-announced-for-a-summer-2023-release/

* In a recent interview with Variety, Gears of War series developer The Coalition revealed that Netflix recently hired Dune film writer Jon Spaihts to be the lead writer for their upcoming Gears of War television series.
Link: https://variety.com/2023/film/news/gears-of-war-writer-jon-spaihts-netflix-1235559889/

Sepholio

03-22-2023, 07:12 PM

Holy shit I am totes down for more F-Zero. Loved those games.

Can we get Xtreme G next?

Emperor Smeat

03-22-2023, 07:27 PM

Still regret big time not buying F-Zero GX many years ago when it was like $20-$24 thinking if I waited a bit longer it would go down more to an enticing $15 or under price. Main reason was not being that big of a racing genre fan at the time and still am to this day outside of the Mario Kart series in general.

Instead the game shot up in price around the same time Nintendo games from the GC and N64 started spiking in price.

Same for missing out on buying Tales of Symphonia when it was around $20ish at the time but didn't get it since I'm not that big of an RPG fan and now its one of the most expensive GC games.

Emperor Smeat

03-23-2023, 10:25 PM

During a recent interview with IGN, Arkane Austin director Harvey Smith revealed that their upcoming Redfall game was originally planned to be a multi-platform game prior to Microsoft's purchase of their parent company ZeniMax Media.

Smith stated that the game was originally planned to be released for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC but Microsoft requested for the PS5 version to be dropped from development shortly after their purchase of ZeniMax.

Smith also stated that he thinks dropping the PS5 version from development was actually a good thing in the end since it meant they wouldn't be stretched as thin developing three versions at the same time and would be able to better focus on the remaining two platforms for its development and polish.

Developer Arkane Austin has confirmed that its incoming monster-masher Redfall was initially planned as a multi-platform title, but was asked to drop the PS5 edition once Microsoft acquired the studio in the ZeniMax Media purchase — which took place back in the summer of 2020.

The somewhat unsurprising revelation was made by studio director Harvey Smith in an interview with IGN France. Smith describes the Microsoft purchase as “Change with a capital C”, noting any plans for a Playstation edition of the vampire-hunting multiplayer title were instantly scrapped by the new owners. “They came in and they said ‘No PlayStation 5. We’re focusing on Xbox, PC, and Game Pass.”

Smith notes that he thinks it was a good idea, with the dropping of Redfall on PS5 allowing the studio to focus on one less platform and add further polish to the project. Smith also points to Xbox Game Pass’ 30 million subscribers as a solid install base for the multiplayer-focused shooter, which will hopefully provide Redfall with a ready-made community of players. A Monster Squad, of sorts.
Link: https://fr.ign.com/redfall/64224/news/oui-redfall-etait-initialement-prevu-sur-ps5 , https://www.destructoid.com/redfall-ps5-microsoft-arkane-purchase-zenimax-xbox-exclusive/

drave

03-24-2023, 08:23 AM

c-c-c-c-c-c-c-combo breeeeeeeaker

Fignuts

03-24-2023, 09:41 AM

Emperor Smeat

03-24-2023, 07:23 PM

According to reports, UK regulator Competition and Markets Authority recently dropped most of their objections to Microsoft's attempt to purchase Activision Blizzard.

In an official statement, the CMA stated that Microsoft's purchase would not harm competition in the gaming industry and eased their earlier concerns and issues over it.

Despite them hinting their approval of the purchase, the CMA also stated that they still have some concerns over the potential negative impact MS's purchase of AB would have on the cloud gaming market.

The CMA also became less concerned over MS's purchase after they had publicly pledged a 10 year deal to keep the CoD series on Playstation and also signed a similar deal with Nintendo for it.

Britain's competition regulator said Microsoft's (MSFT.O) 69-billion purchase of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O) would not harm competition in gaming consoles, removing a major obstacle to the deal.

In findings based on new evidence, the Competition and Markets Authority said on Friday that it would not make financial sense for Microsoft to make "Call of Duty" exclusive to its Xbox console, and it would instead still have the incentive to continue to make the game available on PlayStation.

The regulator, however, said it was still looking at the impact of the deal on the cloud gaming market.

The takeover, the biggest ever in gaming, remains subject to the scrutiny of regulators in the United States and Europe.

The CMA had noted Activision's flagship "Call of Duty" franchise was important in driving competition between consoles, and it worried that Microsoft could benefit by making the game exclusive to Xbox, or only available on PlayStation under materially worse conditions.

But Microsoft has since offered Sony a licence deal to address those concerns.

"Our provisional view that this deal raises concerns in the cloud gaming market is not affected by today's announcement," the CMA said, adding that its overall investigation was on course for completion by its April 26 deadline.

A Microsoft spokesperson said: "We look forward to working with the CMA to resolve any outstanding concerns."
Link: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/uk-regulator-drops-some-competition-concerns-microsoft-activision-deal-2023-03-24/

Sepholio

03-24-2023, 09:36 PM

Hasn't sony been in the process of trying to buy rockstar, to add gta to their already extensive list of exclusives? And they're seriously trying to make claims of microsoft having an unfair advantage?

There is no evidence of Sony trying to buy rockstar other than internet rumors that they will as a response to MS getting Actiblizzard. It started with some guy named Rhythian on twitter who suggested it as a theoretical response from Sony to the MS takeover, and then everyone ran with it like it was gospel.

Fact is Rockstar is on record saying they want to remain an independent organization that controls themselves and have no interest in selling to anyone.

Kalyx triaD

03-25-2023, 05:11 AM

This Diablo thingy ain't bad. Just finished the prologue. Gonna try mulyiplsyer questing.

drave

03-27-2023, 09:53 AM

D IV was amazing. They've a lot of work to do in terms of balance. I raised 4 of 5 to level 20+ and ho boy......

The barb needs work, and the druid. It was a fucking struggle (sometimes didn't happen) to beat some bosses with those two classes. Every other class was able to walk around and kinda scratch their butt with one hand and take out demons with the other.

I've played Diablo since it's inception on PC. D4 is the best god damn Diablo since I. To me, it is better than 2 (so far) and makes 3 look very, very silly. Nearly cannot recognize it as a Diablo game (three that is).

6/6/2023. Hit me up anytime.

Sepholio

03-27-2023, 10:04 AM

I feel like no one figured out the build I was using on barb. It took me no effort to roll everything. I mauled the butcher encounter with ease and that's widely considered the hardest encounter in the beta.

Sepholio

03-27-2023, 10:08 AM

Don't get me wrong, it still took me a touch longer to kill bosses, but I also didn't have to constantly run away while dropping hydras and avoiding everything.

Flay with the bleed damage, WW with bleed boost, couple items to boost bleed damage, then stack life regen on items and socket skulls into dual wielded weapons. Regen gave me enough health to tank any aoe ground effects and the like, skulls let me pull even more life off trash mobs, WW for CC, and then quickly stack a bunch of bleed with Flay onto bosses, which look like I'm hardly damaging them for about 5 seconds and then BAM hit em with rupture and they disintegrate as all the stacked bleeding is triggered at once.

Sepholio

03-27-2023, 10:13 AM

I just hope eventually I can feel as powerful as the weird impaler focused DH I used in 3. Ran with a friend with a DH that focused on blasting away packs with ease as I followed behind and whenever we hit a boss he steps back and I walked in and throw a couple daggers and bye bye boss. Killing high level rift guardians in less than a second was awesome lol

ClockShot

03-27-2023, 06:06 PM

Ubisoft backs out of E3.

Which is sad because they always put on a good show. But with all their issues right now, I wouldn't be surprised if the only thing they have in the pipeline is Assassins' Creed: Mirage.

Let's not talk about Skull and Bones.

Emperor Smeat

03-27-2023, 07:20 PM

Today's News:

* Nintendo announced they will be holding a new stream tomorrow showcase around 10 minutes of gameplay and new details for the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom game. This stream will air live starting at 10AM EST/ 7AM PST.
Link: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1640353190414565378

* In an interview with Polygon, Paramount Global Senior VP Doug Rosen announced that a new Teenage Mutant Turtles game based on the TMNT The Last Ronin comic series is currently in production. The game was stated to be planned to be a single player adventure game similar in gameplay style to the recent God of War games. No other details regarding the game were given beyond it being in early pre-production stage.
Released in 2020, TMNT: The Last Ronin tells of a single turtle — wearing a black mask and wielding the iconic weaponry of all four Heroes in an Half-Shell — as they pick their way through a dystopian, futuristic take of New York, seeking revenge for their fallen brethren. The identity of the turtle remains something of a mystery until its revelation further in the tale, making The Last Ronin a particularly grim entry to the TMNT pantheon.
Link: https://www.polygon.com/23645176/tmnt-last-ronin-video-game-graphic-novel-ninja-turtles , https://www.destructoid.com/tmnt-the-last-ronin-video-game-action-rpg-turtles-comic/

* As noted before, Arkane Austin director Harvey Smith stated that the upcoming Redfall game was originally planned to be a multi-platform game prior to Microsoft's purchase of their parent company ZeniMax Media. In a recent statement to Eurogamer, Microsoft denied that they had pushed for the development of the PS5 version of the game to be dropped following their purchase of ZeniMax. It was stated that they have not pulled any games from development that was planned for the PS5 following their purchase of Zenimax.
"We haven't pulled any games from PlayStation. In fact, we've expanded our footprint of games that we've shipped on Sony's PlayStation since our acquisition of ZeniMax, and the first two games we shipped after closing were PlayStation 5 exclusives. We did the same thing since our closing of Minecraft as we extended the reach of that franchise.

All of the games that were available on PlayStation when we acquired ZeniMax in March 2021 are still available on PlayStation, and we have continued to do content updates on PlayStation and PC. We have always said that future decisions on whether to distribute ZeniMax games for other consoles will be made on a case-by-case basis."
Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-hasnt-pulled-any-games-from-playstation-following-redfall-ps5-reports

* Last week's GDC 2023 event reportedly was plagued with multiple instances of people being sexually harassed and abused according to those who had attended the event. There were reportedly also instances of people having their drinks spiked without their knowledge at a karaoke night show held as part of the event. In one instance, two women reportedly were "lured up to a hotel room by a man in a position of power for a ‘pitch’, where he then assaulted them."
Link: https://twitter.com/LeenaVanD/status/1639347400249864193 , https://twitter.com/YugSTAR/status/1639706520052027396 , https://www.destructoid.com/gdc-2023-abuse-report-accusations-assault-drink-spiking/

Emperor Smeat

03-28-2023, 07:10 PM

Today's News:

* This year's upcoming E3 event recently took another big hit in terms of dropouts. IGN reported that Sega, Tencent, and Devolver Digital will also not be attending this year's event and joins the growing list of notable companies who have backed out from having a physical presence at this year's event. It was also reported that more companies likely will also be dropping out soon based on recent contacts with those companies.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/rumors-swirl-around-e3s-future-as-sega-even-more-publishers-back-out

* While Ubisoft is currently not planned to be holding a press conference at this year's E3 event, they recently announced they will be holding an E3-like Ubisoft Forward stream on June 12th to discuss updates for previously announced games current in development and the official debut of new games in development as well.
Link: https://twitter.com/Ubisoft/status/1640747302166884352

* Valve recently announced that they will be dropping official support for their Steam Client for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 operating systems starting on January 1, 2024. Official reason is due to the way certain new features for Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome that no longer works on older Windows OSs.
Link: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4784-4F2B-1321-800A

* The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) recently gave their official approval for Microsoft's attempt to purchase Activision Blizzard. Similar to other government bodies around the world, the JFTC stated in their filing that they believe that MS's purchase of AB "would not substantially restrain competition in any particular fields of trade" nor do they believe that it would violate Japanese anti-trust laws, especially in regards to cloud gaming.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/japan-approves-microsoft-activision-blizzard-purchase/

Sepholio

03-28-2023, 09:47 PM

The Last of Us: Part 1 PC port is getting absolutely destroyed in reviews.

Iron Galaxy is excellent at releasing absolutely terrible ports of great games.

ClockShot

03-30-2023, 05:14 PM

The inevitable has happened as the ESA has cancelled this year's E3.

Emperor Smeat

03-30-2023, 05:31 PM

According Jeff Grubb on yesterday's Game Mess Mornings show, this was pretty much inevitable once the latest batch of dropouts happened.

Grubb stated that his sources told him that the organizers for this year's now cancelled event waited way too long to put things into motion for the plans for this year's E3 which also meant they delayed contacting other companies for their commitments. This is what led to the string of dropouts and non-committals in the end.

One company had even told the organizers that they should have started doing this several months before than what was done since now it meant they no longer had the prep time needed to do an E3 showcase and already had set their work and events schedules for the year in place.

Sepholio

03-30-2023, 07:07 PM

Feels like this is the death of E3. Kinda sad. Used to be so hyped for E3 every year :(

Splaya

04-01-2023, 01:22 PM

The problem would become in my eyes is that these companies would rather use their social media platforms to promote it, rather than go to the event. There always used to be a Final Fantasy exhibit filled with news about future games, and we rarely get that anymore.

Sepholio

04-01-2023, 03:24 PM

I mean I get it. It's good business. Cheaper and a much wider reach just doing your own presentation on social media. Plenty of other big shows throughout the year if you want to do something in person. It just sucks because E3 was a big part of growing up/young adulthood as a gamer for me. Was always excited for it to come around to see what was cooking behind the scenes.

Ah well. RIP E3.

Emperor Smeat

04-01-2023, 04:16 PM

I'm a bit surprised the ESA had any remaining goodwill left with companies for E3 after that massive data breach incident a few years ago.

COVID took a big hit on E3 that it never recovered from but E3 could have easily been done for good back in 2020 after that incident.

Emperor Smeat

04-04-2023, 06:49 PM

Film production studio Legendary Entertainment reportedly recently signed a deal with Capcom for the film & tv rights for their Street Fighter series, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Legendary is ready to unleash a sonic boom, with the studio acquiring the film and TV rights to the classic beat-’em-up game Street Fighter. The studio will work with video game company Capcom on future projects ...

Hollywood has made moves on Street Fighter in the past, with Universal releasing an ill-fated 1994 film that starred Jean-Claude Van Damme as Col. Guile and featured a cast including Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na Wen and the late Raul Julia. More than a decade later, 20th Century Fox released Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009), which starred Kristin Kreuk in the title role. Like its predecessor, it was a commercial and critical bomb. An assortment of animated adaptations have also made their way to the screen.

Legendary, which has a film distribution deal with Sony, has Dune: Part Two due out Nov. 3. Its deal for Street Fighter comes as video game adaptations have found success in recent years, with Paramount’s Sonic films, Sony’s Uncharted and HBO’s The Last of Us all cutting through to various degrees. And on Friday, Universal will try its luck with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the first time in 30 years that gaming giant Nintendo has teamed with a Hollywood studio to put one of its prized properties on the big screen.
Link: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/street-fighter-movie-tv-rights-legendary-1235365168/

Emperor Smeat

04-07-2023, 06:20 PM

As noted before, UK regulator Competition and Markets Authority recently dropped most of their objections to Microsoft's attempt to purchase Activision Blizzard setting the stage for their official approval of the deal for the UK region.

Sony recently issued an official statement criticizing the CMA for revising their earlier stance against MS's attempt to purchase AB. Sony claims that CMA's reason for their reversal is "surprising, unprecedented, and irrational" over them being pleased at MS's 10 year offer to Sony & Nintendo for the CoD series and no longer having concerns that MS owning the CoD series would give them a near monopoly-like status in the console gaming industry.

Microsoft filed a response in regards to Sony's statement stating that they have no financial reason for wanting to purposely "withhold or degrade access to Call of Duty" that would cost them billions of dollars as a strategy to do so.

An official decision by the CMA is currently expected to be made by April 26th.

Sony has issued a new statement regarding the Competitions and Markets Authority, or CMA, and its recently narrowed scope of concerns over Microsoft’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The paper, submitted last month and recently publicized, sees Sony describing the CMA’s “reversal” of its position on its consoles theory of harm as “surprising, unprecedented, and irrational" ...

Sony’s response goes into several errors it believes the CMA has made in its findings, including an assertion that Minecraft, which is already on multiple platforms, says “nothing” about whether Microsoft would pursue Call of Duty exclusivity.

In one instance, Sony cites a recent quote from Arkane’s Harvey Smith to IGN. In it, Smith said that Redfall was in development for PlayStation 5 prior to Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda.

“We got bought by Microsoft and that was a huge sea change,” Smith said. “They said, ‘No PlayStation 5. Now we’re gonna do Game Pass, Xbox, and PC.'”

Sony asserts that this provides compelling evidence of Microsoft’s ability, and incentive, to “foreclose rivals to acquired games.” The company also brings up a point it’s mentioned before: that any degradation of performance or quality of play on PlayStation, or delays in release, would harm Sony’s reputation.

It ultimately calls on the CMA to revisit its analysis of Microsoft’s incentives and partial foreclosure. “In conclusion, SIE respectfully submits that the Addendum does not justify the CMA’s U-turn on the consoles theory of harm,” Sony’s statement concludes ...

Microsoft also had a response, issuing the following statement today (via Eurogamer):

“The Provisional Findings Addendum correctly confirms that Microsoft has no incentive to withhold or degrade access to Call of Duty. As Microsoft has explained throughout the course of the CMA’s investigation, such a strategy makes no commercial sense and would result in Microsoft writing off billions from the deal value.”

The CMA is expected to deliver its final decision on Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard no later than April 26.
Link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642e9aee7de82b0012313735/SIE_response.pdf , https://www.eurogamer.net/sony-pounces-on-redfall-exclusivity-drama-in-latest-response-to-microsofts-activision-acquisition , https://www.destructoid.com/sony-replies-cma-softened-stance-microsoft-activision-blizzard-deal/

Emperor Smeat

04-10-2023, 07:09 PM

Today's News:
* As noted before, Legendary Entertainment recently signed a deal with Capcom for the film & tv rights for the Street Fighter series. Capcom recently confirmed that a new live-action Steer Fighter film is currently in production by them and Legendary.
Link: https://twitter.com/StreetFighter/status/1643660498150227977

* Longtime Halos series developer Joseph Staten announced that he has recently left Microsoft. Official reason given was due to him wanting to go in a new direction for his career. Prior to his departure, Staten had been involved in Halo series since the first game, first as a cinematic director and eventually as the creative director.
Link: https://twitter.com/joestaten/status/1644501906126176257 , https://www.destructoid.com/joseph-staten-halo-veteran-leaves-microsoft-infinite-studios/

* According to Variety, the recently released Super Mario Bros film broke the record for largest ever opening-day box office for an animated film at $377 million in global revenue and is currently expected to become the highest grossing film for this year. The previous record was held by 2019 film Frozen 2.
Link: https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/box-office-super-mario-bros-movie-opening-weekend-record-air-scores-1235577619/

Emperor Smeat

04-11-2023, 06:32 PM

For those interested, Sony will be airing a new State of Play stream on Thursday focusing on Final Fantasy XVI.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">State of Play presents more than 20 minutes of new Final Fantasy XVI gameplay this Thursday. Tune in live at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST: <a href="https://t.co/nOULcwLVnQ">https://t.co/nOULcwLVnQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/vNR9kGbxL6">pic.twitter.com/vNR9kGbxL6</a></p>— PlayStation (@PlayStation) <a href="https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1645894612693688320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sepholio

04-11-2023, 07:30 PM

I hope they sneak in a little something about FF7 Remake 2

Emperor Smeat

04-12-2023, 07:08 PM

Today's News:
* For those interested, Capcom will be holding a new showcase stream on their official YouTube channel on April 20th focusing on their upcoming Street Fighter 6 game. It was announced that this stream will be over 30 minutes in length and starts at 6 PM EST.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow46UZ0CCuQ , https://twitter.com/StreetFighter/status/1646272179590561793

* Also for those interested, Diablo IV associate game director Joe Piepiora stated in a recent interview with PC Gamer that it will take around 80 hours on average to fully complete a Battle Pass season for Diablo IV.
Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-borrows-from-mmos-but-is-still-about-overpowered-builds-and-blowing-up-screens-of-monsters/

* Nintendo announced that they will be releasing their final pre-launch trailer for their upcoming Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom tomorrow on their official Youtube channel. It was also announced that this final pre-launch trailer is around 3 minutes in length.
Link: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1646151322134036488

* Tecmo Koei stated that the recent rumors of Team Ninja currently working on a new unannounced game planned to be released before their Rise of the Ronin game in 2024 are not true. The source of the rumors originated from some confusion over the wording from a recent interview Famiysu had with Team Ninja boss Fumihiko Yasuda.

Following a recent interview with Team Ninja lead Fumihiko Yasuda, reports swirled that the studio had another game in the works, set to arrive before 2024’s Rise of the Ronin. But Koei Tecmo confirms those rumors aren’t accurate to Team Ninja’s plans.

Speaking to Famitsu, Yasuda discussed Team Ninja’s upcoming docket of games. The previously announced Rise of the Ronin is set for 2024. Yasuda also expresses a desire to release something new in 2025. The confusion arises around a certain phrasing, though.

“‘Rise of the Ronin’ has been under development for about 7 years and is scheduled to be released in 2024,” Yasuda said. “This work will be released in 2023, and I feel like I want to release a new title in 2025.”

Famitsu’s interview was published online on March 11, after the release of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty earlier this year. This, alongside mention that the game in question was in development, led to speculation and reports that Team Ninja has another game planned for 2023.

Koei Tecmo clarifies

As noted in Famitsu’s article, though, this interview was conducted on February 14, 2023, prior to the launch of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. And the interview itself is about Wo Long, too.

We reached out to Team Ninja parent company Koei Tecmo to clarify, and a spokesperson confirmed that “this work” refers to Wo Long. The spokesperson also confirms their 2023 game is Wo Long, and Team Ninja does not have another full game planned for 2023.

Which, considering Wo Long still has a season pass’ worth of content on the way alongside Rise of the Ronin and thoughts of a 2025 game, is probably a good thing. Team Ninja has had a steady cadence over the last few years.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/koei-tecmo-clarifies-team-ninja-2023-plans-wo-long/

ClockShot

04-14-2023, 12:19 PM

Like what I saw in the Sony Final Fantasy showcase. Looking like a good preorder right now.

Emperor Smeat

04-14-2023, 07:21 PM

Today's News:
* The National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) recently announced that the theme song to the original Super Mario Bros game will be the first ever game music inducted into the Library of Congress. This song will be part of this year's class of 25 pieces of music to be added to the Library of Congress' music preservation catalog.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/super-mario-bros-theme-library-of-congress-npr-koji-kondo/

* Voice actor Matthew Mercer recently announced on Twitter that he voiced Ganondorf for Nintendo's upcoming Legend of the Zelda Tears of the Kingdom game.
Link: https://twitter.com/matthewmercer/status/1646676756122705922

* A new "Gamer's Lawsuit" class-action lawsuit was recently filed against Microsoft over their on-going attempt to purchase Activision Blizzard. This new lawsuit is an amended version of their original lawsuit that was filed this past January but dismissed this past March due to the presiding court ruling that "The Complaint does not plausibly allege the merger creates a reasonable probability of anticompetitive effects in any relevant market." This new lawsuit reportedly claims to contain redacted documents from Microsoft’s board of directors and also recent statements from Sony over their objections to MS's purchase attempt as part of their claims why MS should not be legally allowed to buy AB. MS recently responded to the new amended lawsuit stating that those involved “waited 11 months after the transaction was announced to file their lawsuit, and then wasted several additional months filing an implausible complaint."
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/gamers-lawsuit-returns-for-another-swing-at-microsoft-activision-sale/

Emperor Smeat

04-17-2023, 07:32 PM

Today's News:
* Super Marios Bros Movie recently surpassed $600 million in box office sales making it the highest ever grossing video game-based film in history. Variety reported that it had surpassed $500 million as of this past mid-week while Destructoid reported that the film added another $100 million this past weekend for a current tally of around $667 million.
Link: https://variety.com/2023/film/news/super-mario-bros-movie-box-office-biggest-video-game-adaptation-ever-1235583559/ , https://www.destructoid.com/super-mario-bros-movie-biggest-video-game-adaptation-ever-box-office/

* Former 343 Industries creative director and Halo Infinite head of creative Joseph Staten announced on Twitter that he recently joined Netflix's Netflix Games studio as the creative director for an upcoming "brand-new AAA multiplatform game and original IP."
Link: https://twitter.com/joestaten/status/1648000044719833088

*GamesIndustry.biz reported that SEGA is currently in the process of purchasing Rovi, Angry Birds developer, for around 706 million euros ($770 million). It was reported that the reason is due to SEGA wanting to boost their mobile gaming development and market presence. It was also reported that the sale is currently expected to be finalized in the second quarter of their current fiscal year.
Link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/sega-to-acquire-rovio-in-706-million-deal

Emperor Smeat

04-18-2023, 07:35 PM

Add South Africa's Competition Commission to the growing list of government agencies that have given or hinted their approval for Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard.

Similar to others, the SACC's main focus was gaming monopoly concerns over MS owning the CoD series but they eventually dropped their concerns due to being pleased with MS intent to provide 10 year support for CoD games on other platforms should their purchase of AB become a reality.

South Africa looks set to be the latest territory to offer its approval in Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The South African Competition Commission has approved the deal without conditions, joining nations such as Brazil, Japan, and Saudi Arabia in backing the deal.

Unsurprisingly, the Competition Commission’s investigation focused primarily on the fate of Activision franchise Call of Duty, and whether or not the industry would be severely hampered by the possibility of the billion-dollar military shooter becoming an Xbox exclusive. The Commission was ultimately satisfied with Microsoft’s intent to approach its competitors with deals pertaining to Call of Duty, and thus offered its approval to the $68.7 billion USD sale.

Of course, there are still many hurdles to clear before Microsoft can pop the champagne corks. The publisher still has to win the favor of other major markets, including Europe and the United Kingdom, and will then face its biggest challenge in the form of the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which has gone as far as to file suit in order to prevent the Activision Blizzard sale from taking place. The case is set to go to court this summer. The option to appeal will also be available to the losing side, suggesting that this ongoing situation is still far from reaching closure.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/south-africa-set-to-approve-microsofts-acquisition-of-activision-blizzard/

Emperor Smeat

04-20-2023, 06:34 PM

Today's News:
* Sony announced that they are currently in the process of purchasing Firewalk Studios for an undisclosed amount of money. As part of this purchase, Firewalk Studios will be separating from their current publisher ProbablyMonsters.
Link: https://blog.playstation.com/2021/04/22/playstation-and-firewalk-studios-announce-publishing-partnership-for-a-new-original-multiplayer-ip/

* Atari announced that they have recently re-acquired around 100 games from their past library from Accolade, Infogrames, and Microprose. While the full list of games was not revealed, it was announced to contain Bubsy, Hardball, 1942: Pacific Air War, F-117A, Demolition Racer series, and F-14 air combat series.
Link: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/04/19/2650476/0/en/Atari-Announces-Acquisition-of-More-than-100-PC-and-Console-Titles-from-the-80s-and-90s.html

* Epic Games announced that they have recently purchased Brazilian studio Aquiris, developer of Horizon Chase, as part of their expansion in the South American market and also to work as a support studio under the new name of Epic Brazil for their Fortnite game.
Link: https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/aquiris-is-joining-epic-and-becoming-epic-games-brasil

Emperor Smeat

04-25-2023, 07:41 PM

Today's News:
* Staff from SEGA's SEGA of America offices recently filed paperwork to the National Labor Relations Board to hold a planned union election to officially determine if they will unionize or not. This potential new union would be called Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS) and they are partnering with Communications Workers of America (CWA) to help out their process. At least two employees spoken to stated that SoA management have not displayed any anti-union sentiments at this time.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/sega-of-america-workers-file-for-union-election-irvine-industry/ , https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/24/23683648/sega-of-america-unionize-cwa

* Deep Silver recently announced that Dead Island 2 has already surpassed 1 million in sales since its launch last week.
Link: https://twitter.com/deadislandgame/status/1650551266337075211

* In a recent official statement to Eurogamer, Metacritic stated that they are currently planning to "evolve" their moderation system for user reviews for games on their website. This decision is related to a recent user review bombing of the recently released Burning Shores DLC pack for Horizon Forbidden West that included a flood of users reviews containing hate speech, tonal abuse, and homophobia being posted. This issue revolved around the DLC pack featuring Aloy spending a lot of time with another woman through out the DLC story and players eventually being given the option of if they want Aloy to embrace and give a passionate kiss or not to this woman character.
The DLC, which was launched by Guerrilla Games on April 19, was generally well-received by critics and Horizon fans — And while some players were left understandably frustrated by Guerrilla’s decision to only publishing the DLC on PS5, (leaving the PS4 community behind), it seems that this is not the main point of contention for a portion of the players who left negative user reviews.

A lot of the negativity, (veiled or otherwise) is weighted toward the fact that, over the course of the story, Horizon hero Aloy meets another woman, Seyka, while on her journey through the new world. As the two characters spend time together over the course of the DLC, Aloy finds herself drawn to the Quen tribe warrior, ultimately resulting in a scene where the player can, should they choose to do so, bring the two characters together for a passionate kiss. And it seems that this, of course, is a cause for concern among the angriest and loudest of the gaming community.

Last week saw the User Review section inundated with both massively negative written and numerical reviews, leading the DLC to sit at a current score of 4.0 (actually higher than it has been previously). While most of the more homophobic of the site’s 254 negative reviews have since been removed, many remaining reviews choose to mask themselves a little better, simply claiming that the DLC is “poorly written” or that “the world is boring”, before following up with a flat score of zero out of ten — somewhat raising eyebrows.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/metacritic-horizon-burning-shores-review-bombing-aloy-moderation/ , https://www.eurogamer.net/metacritic-improving-moderation-after-abusive-disrespectful-horizon-forbidden-west-burning-shores-reviews

Fignuts

04-25-2023, 09:55 PM

Convinced that a large portion of people have become so trigger happy with "woke" accusations, that they don't even know what the word means anymore.

ClockShot

04-26-2023, 08:32 AM

Isn't there already a big video game union out there? Why not just join up with them?

A.E.G.I.S. Someone really wanted this group to sound cool.

ClockShot

04-26-2023, 08:38 AM

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority has blocked the sale of Activision-Blizzard to Microsoft.

And here we go......

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/26/tech/microsoft-activision-blizzard/index.html

Emperor Smeat

05-02-2023, 06:38 PM

Today's News:
* Longtime music composer Ryo Nagamatsu announced that he recently left Nintendo with the official reason due to him wanting to go in a new direction for his career. Prior to his departure, Nagamatsu had spent the past 17 years working at Nintendo.
Link: https://twitter.com/NagamatsuRyo/status/1652991363515047936 , https://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-composer-ryo-nagamatsu-leaves-studio-splatoon-mario/

* Netherealm Studios recently released a video celebrating the 30th anniversary of their Mortal Kombat series. This video also contained a cryptic message at the end teasing the upcoming reveal of the next game in the MK series, Mortal Kombat 12, and a potential story teaser for it. This game was later confirmed to be currently in development from an investor's meeting held earlier today by Warner Bros Discovery.
The video then ends with a cryptic clip, featuring a torrent of sand trickling from the hourglass of the time-twisting boss of Mortal Kombat 11, Kronika. After the final grain leaves the hourglass, its shatters into endless grains, which would perhaps suggest a full restart of the timeline, or even a shakeup into multiple timelines. While Mortal Kombat‘s reboot, which began in 2011, definitely redefined storytelling in the fighting game genre, there’s no denying that the timeline very quickly painted itself into a corner, struggling through the events of MKX and really hitting the wall in MK11.
Speaking on an earnings call today, Warner Bros. head David Zaslav confirms that Mortal Kombat 12 is in the works. The comment arrived during a section where Zaslav was discussing the success of gaming efforts under WB:

“[…] And there’s lots more to come, including the highly anticipated Mortal Kombat 12 and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, games also set for release this year with ambitious launch projections.”
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsX8jGhBHgo , https://www.destructoid.com/mortal-kombat-12-reveal-earnings-call-warner-bros-games/

* Add Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to the list of government agencies that have recently approved Microsoft's attempt to purchase Activision Blizzard. According to GamesIndustry.biz, the main reason for the AMCU's approval was due to them not holding a similar level of concern like the FTC and UK's CMA over potential monopolistic fears of MS owning AB, especially in regards to the cloud gaming market for the Ukrainian market.
Link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ukraine-approves-microsofts-acquisition-of-activision-blizzard

* Variety reported that the Super Mario Bros Movie recently surpassed $1 billion on global box office revenues. It also became the first film this year to surpass the $1 billion mark and one of only a few films to have done it so far since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Link: https://variety.com/2023/film/news/super-mario-bros-movie-1-billion-box-office-milestone-1235598832/

Emperor Smeat

05-03-2023, 07:36 PM

A new game in the Double Dragon series was officially announced to be currently in development by Modus Games and Secret Base.

This upcoming new game is called Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons and is currently planned to be released this summer for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

In terms of gameplay details, it was announced that it will feature 13 playable characters and a "tag team combat" system but it only supports local co-op at 2 players max and no online multiplayer.

Modus Games and Secret Base are teaming up to beat Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons right into our faces this summer.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons brings back the brothers Lee, as well as a couple more dragons to make quadruple dragons. Marian joins the brothers, after becoming tired of bad guys constantly carrying her off. Meanwhile, I hope Uncle Matin is actually their uncle. There’s reportedly going to be a total of 13 playable characters, but the gameplay only supports two-player local coop. That’s probably a bummer for a lot of people, but I’m okay with it. I don’t like playing games with people who are out of Charlie Horse range.

The big combat change here is that it’s all “tag team combat.” You select two characters and can switch between them freely. There are co-op combos and other moves to pull off between your pair.

Secret Base is best known for Streets of Red: Devil’s Dare Deluxe. They’re applying a twist to the main campaign of Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons. You select the order you’ll tackle the levels, and that will affect the length and difficulty of the following stages. You can also gain cash by performing special KOs and upgrade your fighter.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TVvlBr6hVXA" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Link: https://www.destructoid.com/bimmy-and-jimmy-set-to-return-this-summer-in-double-dragon-gaiden-rise-of-the-dragons/

Fignuts

05-03-2023, 08:05 PM

Basing the gameplay on tag team combos and not having any online co-op is a giant fucking L.

Emperor Smeat

05-04-2023, 11:53 PM

Today's News:
* According to a report from the Game Post, Bungie was recently award $12 million by a court over their lawsuit against cheat seller website VeteranCheats and its owner Mihai Claudiu-Florentin. Bungie claimed that the cheat hacks being sold by the website had "caused significant harm to Destiny 2 and its community, frustrating users and undermining the game’s intent" as the reason for their lawsuit.
As reported by The Game Post, Bungie filed suit against Romanian Claudi-Florentin in 2021, accusing the website owner of committing copyright infringement and tortious interference through the development selling of various hacks and cheats, distributed through the VeteranCheats domain. The key software allows players to see through walls and auto-aim, alongside other in-game advantages.

Bungie argued that the sale of VeteranCheats had caused significant harm to Destiny 2 and its community, frustrating users and undermining the game’s intent. Bungie sought default judgment of just over $12 million USD, including statutory damages of $2,000 for each of the cheat’s 5,848 downloads, as well as an additional $146,000 for copyright violation, and payment for the studio’s legal fees.

The District Court of Washington found in favor of Bungie’s claim, and ordered a total damage reparation of $12,059,912.98. In addition, Claudi-Florentin was barred from engaging in any activity that opposes Bungie’s copyright act and DMCA rulings. As of this writing, the VeteranCheats website is still operational, selling cheats for other popular video games including Call of Duty and PUBG. The Destiny 2 hacks, obviously, have since been removed.
Link: https://thegamepost.com/bungie-wins-12-million-lawsuit-destiny-2-cheat-veterancheats/ , https://www.destructoid.com/bungie-awarded-12-million-in-latest-destiny-2-cheat-seller-lawsuit/

* The Strong Museum recently announced that Will Sports, Barbie Fashion Designer, Computer Space, and The Last of Us will be the inductees for this year's World Video Game Hall of Fame class. In regards to games that missed out being selected for this year's class, GoldenEye 007, Quake, and Age of Empires were among the games not selected from this year's pool of candidates.
Link: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/05/wii-sports-officially-inducted-into-the-video-game-hall-of-fame

* Activision Blizzard announced they will be holding a live stream session on May 10th for their upcoming Diablo IV game that will focus on the game's Battle Pass, seasons, and cosmetics systems.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/diablo-iv-live-stream-seasons-battle-pass/

Emperor Smeat

05-08-2023, 07:56 PM

Today's News:
* Plaion (former Koch Media) recently announced that they are currently in the process of restructuring their publishers branches to consolidate them into a new single publisher brand. Publishers Deep Silver, Ravenscourt, and Prime Matter will all be merging into a new Plaion publisher label. The company is also currently focusing on quality over quantity in regards to their yearly game releases. As with all restructuring plans, the company is also currently expecting layoffs to be made affecting those publisher companies as well.
Link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/plaion-is-restructuring-layoffs-planned , https://www.destructoid.com/plaion-merger-prime-matter-deep-silver-ravenscourt/

* Sony-owned PixelOpus studio recently announced that they are shutting down and their employees going in a new direction for their careers. In a recent statement to IGN, Sony confirmed that the studio will be shutting down on June 2nd and revealed that the reason is due to a recent review process of their PlayStation Studios division that resulted in the decision to close down the studio.
Link: https://twitter.com/Pixelopus/status/1654563543386296320 , https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-studio-pixelopus-concrete-genie-shutting-down

* TheWrap reported that Karl Urban is currently in talks to join the cast for the upcoming sequel to 2021 film Mortal Kombat. It was reported that Urban would be portraying the role of Johnny Cage in the film.
Link: https://movieweb.com/karl-urban-mortal-kombat-2/

Emperor Smeat

05-09-2023, 06:56 PM

Private Division announced that they have partnered with Game Freak for the development of a new game currently scheduled to be released in 2026.

It was announced that this upcoming new game will be an action adventure type game and currently has a project codename of Project Bloom.

As part of the announcement, a piece of concept art for the new game was also released.

https://www.privatedivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/PD_GF_ProjectBloom_ConceptArt_3840x2160-1024x576.jpg

Link: https://www.privatedivision.com/2023/05/09/private-division-announces-publishing-partnership-with-game-freak/

Emperor Smeat

05-10-2023, 06:53 PM

Today's News:
* In a recent statement to Eurogamer, Ubisoft stated that they will be doing a round of layoffs in the company. It was stated that due to recent changes made to their Customer Relations department, they currently expect around 60 people to be laid off from the company and primarily from that department. Those who have already been released stated on social media that the company gave no warning beforehand of these layoffs.
Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/ubisoft-customer-service-layoffs-see-up-to-60-lose-jobs , https://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-layoffs-north-carolina-newcastle-industry/

* In a recent fiscal report release, Capcom revealed that this past fiscal year was the sixth year in a row where the company saw a growth in profits and was also the highest ever in terms of game sales at 41.7 million games sold, which was 10 million more than they sold compared to the prior fiscal year. This 10 million increase was also the largest year-to-year increase in company history as well.
Link: https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/data/pdf/explanation/2022/full/explanation_2022_full_02.pdf , https://www.destructoid.com/capcom-record-sales-share-value-resident-evil-street-fighter/

* In a recent fiscal report, Nintendo stated that they have sold over 125 million Switch consoles since its release in March of 2017. It was also stated that they had sold over 3 million Switch consoles this past fiscal quarter, which was a 22% decline compared to the same fiscal quarter last year. Despite the console's ongoing trend downwards in terms of new sales, it was stated that they are still hopefully of selling round 15 million consoles by the end of this fiscal year (March 2024).
Link: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2023/230509e.pdf , https://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-switch-surpasses-125-million-sales-but-decline-trend-continues/

Fignuts

05-11-2023, 08:58 PM

Pretty much gave up on redfall. At it's very best, it's no better than average.

Microsoft has had so many fails lately that when they do get a win (hi-fi rush) no one even notices.

Starfield can't just be a home run. It has to be a grand slam.

ClockShot

05-12-2023, 05:45 AM

:yes:

Emperor Smeat

05-15-2023, 07:40 PM

Today's News:
* Add the EU Commission to growing list of government agencies that have given or hinted their approval for Micorsoft's attempted purchase on Activision Blizzard. Similar to others, the EU Commission did not believe that MS' ownership of AB would give them monopolistic power in the gaming industry but also similar to others, they did have concerns over the impact it would have on the cloud gaming market. MS managed to resolve that issue by offering a 10-year deal as a concession for all European Economic Area (EEA) gamers to play “all current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games” via a cloud service of their choice. This deal for the cloud gaming market will also apply globally as well.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/eu-commission-votes-in-favor-of-microsoft-activision-merger/

* In some somber news, the original voice actor of Crash Bandicoot, Brendan O’Brien, passed away on March 23rd at the age of 60. The reason for the delay between his passing and it becoming public was not given but likely was just due to family privacy-related reasons.
In the video game sphere, O’Brien performed the array of wild and madcap sounds that Crash makes as he barrels his way through the Wumpa Islands, offering the zany hero personality through chaotic screams and yells, as well as the memetic “Whoa” that is still intrinsically linked with the series and its characters to this day. O’Brien would voice Crash and other characters, including Tiny Tiger, Dr. N. Gin, and Dr. Nitrus Brio in earlier Crash titles including Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, CTR: Crash Team Racing, and Crash Bash.

A fascinating element of O’Brien’s legacy lies in the fact that, while he never really delivered any actual dialogue as Crash Bandicoot, he infused the personality and character that would lead to the platform hero becoming a huge success, during an era when many such characters would be left by the wayside. And while O’Brien would eventually leave the character in his past, he helped the franchise — one that shape the formative years of so many players — find the heart and success that endures today.
Link: https://twitter.com/graysonZ80/status/1657782039930650624?s=20 , https://www.destructoid.com/original-crash-bandicoot-voice-actor-brenda-obrien-passed-away/

Emperor Smeat

05-16-2023, 07:33 PM

In a recent investor's meeting, SEGA revealed that they are currently considering the idea of potentially raising the price for their new game releases from its current price of $60 to a new price tag of $70 similar to what other publishers and companies have done for several of their game releases this gen.

Sega Sammy CEO Haruki Satomi and CFO Koichi Fukazawa were asked about the possibility of raising game prices during a Q&A session following the publication of the company’s full-year earnings in April.

“In the global marketplace, AAA game titles for console have been sold at $59.99 for many years, but titles sold at $69.99 have appeared in the last year,” Sega said in a newly published English transcript of the event.

“We would like to review the prices of titles that we believe are commensurate with price increases, while also keeping an eye on market conditions.”

In August 2020, Take-Two’s NBA 2K21 became the first current-gen game to be priced at $70. Sony and Activision quickly followed suit by charging $70 for big new releases, followed by the likes of EA and Square Enix, with the Final Fantasy publisher even bringing the increased price point to some of its PC games.

Microsoft and Nintendo released their first $70 games this month, while Ubisoft has said its long-delayed Skull & Bones will be its first $70 title.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sega-suggests-it-could-become-the-latest-publisher-to-raise-game-prices-to-70/

Emperor Smeat

05-17-2023, 06:50 PM

Today's News:
* NetherRealm Studios recently teased on Twitter that the next Mortal Kombat game will be officially revealed tomorrow.
Link: https://twitter.com/MortalKombat/status/1658880057195233281

* Nintendo announced that the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom recently broke the record for fastest selling game in LoZ history with over 10 million copies sold since its release this past Friday. Besides the all-time LoZ sales record, it was also announced that Tears of the Kingdom also broke the record for fastest selling first party game for the Switch and also the fastest selling first party game ever for a Nintendo console in North America at over 4 million copies sold since its release. For some comparisons, Tears of the Kingdom is already at 1/3 of the lifetime sales that Breath of the Wild did on the Wii U & Switch combined at 30 million.
Link: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230517005400/en/The-Legend-of-Zelda-Tears-of-the-Kingdom-Sells-Over-10-Million-Worldwide-in-First-Three-Days-Becoming-the-Fastest-selling-Game-in-Series , https://www.destructoid.com/legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-fastest-selling-game-in-series/

* Sony announced that they will be holding a new Playstation Showcase stream on May 24th on their Twitch and YouTube channels. It was also announced that this upcoming stream will be a little over one hour in length, will focus on PS5 and PS VR2 games, and will feature several new games reveals.
Link: https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1658834831483060226 , https://blog.playstation.com/2023/05/17/youre-invited-playstation-showcase-broadcasts-live-next-wednesday-may-24-at-1pm-pacific-time/

M-A-G

05-18-2023, 09:33 AM

Ruien

05-20-2023, 10:23 AM

Now that is a hype video. I have not played MK since MK3 and I am all for this.

Emperor Smeat

05-22-2023, 07:52 PM

Today's News:
* AEW & publisher THQ Nordic announced that their upcoming Fight Forever game will be released on June 29th for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
Link: https://www.allelitewrestling.com/post/thq-nordic-and-aew-announce-release-date-for-aew-fight-forever , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JEyDX8vvlw

* FromSoftware is currently rumored to be working on a PC port for Bloodborne based on a recent data mining from a supposed complete build of the game. One of FromSoftware's developers Marcos Domenech recently stated that the company had a PC build of the game going as far back as 2014 but this recent leak is likely from a more complete build with DLC included.
Link: https://twitter.com/manfightdragon/status/1660129358235996161 , https://www.destructoid.com/dataminer-uncovers-evidence-pointing-towards-a-bloodborne-pc-build/

* In a recent fiscal report, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that the company is currently expecting their 2025 fiscal year to "set the new standard" in the gaming industry with them targeting around $8 billion in revenues. Recent rumors have hinted that this will be the year that Rockstar will release their next game in the GTA series, GTA VI.
"Fiscal 2025 is a highly anticipated year for our company. For the last several years, we have been preparing our business to release an incredibly robust pipeline of projects that we believe will take our company to even greater levels of success,” said Zelnick.

“In fiscal 2025, we expect to enter this new era by launching several groundbreaking titles that we believe will set new standards in our industry and enable us to achieve over $8 billion in net bookings and over $1 billion in adjusted unrestricted operating cash flow. We expect to sustain this momentum by delivering additional growth in our operating results in fiscal 2026 and beyond."

Emperor Smeat

05-23-2023, 07:39 PM

Today's News:
* Sega Europe and Relic Entertainment announced that they have recently laid off around 121 employees at Relic. Official reason given was due to current restructuring plans and process that are going on at the studio.
Link: https://twitter.com/relicgames/status/1661060864651452416

* Add China's State Administration for Market Regulation to the growing list of government agencies that have given or hinted their approval for Microsoft's attempted purchase of Activision Blizzard. Unlike other government agencies that had some concerns or are against the deal over potential monopolistic issues in the general gaming and cloud gaming markets, China's government agency had no such concerns and gave their unconditional support for MS' purchase.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/china-approves-microsoft-activision-blizzard-purchase/

* According to Kotaku, Ubisoft currently has tentative plans to release their new open-world Star Wars game by Spring of 2024 but it is more likely that the game will be delayed to a later date of by Spring of 2025 instead. The rumored reason for the potential lengthy delay is due to potential development-related issues over the game's large scope.
Link: https://kotaku.com/star-wars-ubisoft-open-world-division-2-release-date-1850461329

* New York Times reported that Blizzard is currently developing an A.I. tool that would be able to produce concept art and assets for future projects.
In a report from The New York Times, Blizzard’s tool has been trained on assets from games like World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch. The machine, dubbed Blizzard Diffusion, could then produce new concept art for new ideas.

In an email seen by The New York Times, Blizzard chief design officer Allen Adham told employees about the new initiative dubbed last month.

“Prepare to be amazed,” said Adham in the email. “We are on the brink of a major evolution in how we build and manage our games.”

Blizzard Diffusion is reportedly being used to help generate concept art for game environments, characters, and outfits. The internal email also reportedly mentions possible tools for procedurally assisted level design, A.I.-assisted voice cloning, game coding, anti-toxicity, and “autonomous, intelligent, in-game NPCs.”

Blizzard has already been experimenting with A.I. tools in the past. According to the NYT’s report, Blizzard has already abandoned a machine-learning technology it had patented to create environmental textures, as it was taking up too much of artists’ time to be effective. Meanwhile, another tool was assisting with fitting headpieces to players in World of Warcraft.

“The goal is to remove the repetitive and manual process and enable artists to spend more time on creativity,” Blizzard’s vice president of global insights Andrew Guerrero told The New York Times. “Our goal with A.I. has been, and will continue to be, to try to make creative work easier.”
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/arts/blizzard-diffusion-ai-video-games.html , https://www.destructoid.com/blizzard-trains-ai-generator-on-its-own-assets-news/

ClockShot

05-23-2023, 07:49 PM

I thought Ubisoft's plan was to dump more resources into Assassins' Creed. 2025 seems more realistic unless LucasArts strolls in for a visit says they want it done now.

Emperor Smeat

05-24-2023, 07:57 PM

Today's News:
* Ubisoft announced that the development for their Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake is currently in the "conception" stage following Ubisoft Montreal taking over the project last year.
Link: https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/6rk3dzrT4ndn9ofFfZg4GV/an-update-on-prince-of-persia-the-sands-of-time-remake

* Sony reportedly is currently in the process of raising additional funds in order to purchase more studios and companies for their Playstation division within the near future, according to The Financial Times.
Link: https://gamerant.com/sony-acquire-more-studios-playstation

* Some notable highlights from Sony's Playstation Showcase stream today included:
- Bungie is reviving their Marathon series for a new PvP live service style shooter game for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/bungie-marathon-sci-fi-extraction-shooter-pvp-reveal/
- Sony officially announced a new dedicated PS5 streaming handheld device called Project Q.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/sony-announces-dedicated-playstation-5-streaming-handheld-project-q/
- As part of their newest trailer for the upcoming game, Ubisoft announced that Assassin's Creed Mirage will be releasing on October 12th.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G97lx7orMN8
- Konami announced that they are currently working on a remake for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (Steam).
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YDauj2Ayog
- Besides MGS 3 Remake, a new Metal Gear Solid collection called Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 was also announced for PS5 featuring MGS 1, MSG 2, & MSG 3 and is based on the previously released MGS HD Collection set.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/metal-gear-solid-master-collection-vol-1-brings-the-first-three-games-to-ps5/

Fignuts

05-24-2023, 08:43 PM

Some cool looking new ips. Great to see gameplay for DD 2 ans Spider-man. Overall though, it wasn't an amazing showcase. Only big announcement was MGS 3 which we knew was coming.

If xbox had a bunch of big games under wraps, now would be the time to unveil them.

Fignuts

05-26-2023, 12:26 AM

Wait I just rewatched the ps5 project q. It has to stream from the ps5 over your wifi.

This thing is a god damn wiiU.

Emperor Smeat

05-30-2023, 07:27 PM

CD Projekt RED recently denied rumors of Sony being in the process of potentially purchasing the company as part of their current plans to buy more studios as a counter of Microsoft's purchases and attempted purchases in recent years.

In a recent investor's meeting CD Projekt RED's CEO Adam Kiciński stated that their company is not available for sale.

This rumor originated from a screenshot recently posted online from a Destiny leaker claiming that Sony was working on plans to buy the company.

CD Projekt is shutting down any rumors of it being acquired. President and CEO Adam Kiciński said in a recent investor Q&A that CD Projekt is not for sale.

The question came up during the Q&A portion of CD Projekt’s Q1 2023 results. The caller asked about recent rumors that Sony is interested in CD Projekt; for context, they seem to stem from a Destiny leaker, with a screenshot in an accompanying thread alleging PlayStation plans on “buying” CD Projekt Red.

“Nothing has changed on our end,” Kiciński said. “I can repeat what we’ve been saying throughout the years: CD Projekt is not for sale. We want to remain independent; we have–I believe–an excellent strategy. For sure it’s not easy to execute, but it’s very exciting to follow our own path, so it’s a pure rumor.”
Link: https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/investors/presentations/?presentationtype=webcasts , https://www.destructoid.com/cd-projekt-responds-to-sony-rumors-not-for-sale-news/

ClockShot

05-31-2023, 07:46 AM

If Sony wants to look at big name companies, join the other vultures circling Ubisoft.

Emperor Smeat

05-31-2023, 07:07 PM

A new game in the Wolfenstein series, Wolfenstein 3, is rumored to currently be in development based on recent job postings at developer MachineGames.

For all you B.J. Blazkowicz fans out there, it’s possible that Wolfenstein 3 could currently be in development. While Cyberpilot and Youngblood came out in 2019, the last mainline entry in the revitalized series was back in 2017. Since then, many of you have wanted to see more exploits from the Nazi-killing protagonist.

The existence of a new job opening comes from Reddit user Hard2DaC0re, who points to a new vacancy posted by developer MachineGames. The studio has been responsible for the modern wave of Wolfenstein games, so the fact that the company is advertising a new position suggests something is on the horizon (indeed, the MachineGames website shows a number of job openings). The senior animator listing specifically states that applicants must be familiar with the developer’s prior releases.
Is B.J. back?

It’s still early days to say for certain if Wolfenstein is poised for an immediate comeback. At the time of writing, there’s been no confirmation from official parties about whether Wolfenstein 3 is currently in the works. We already know that MachineGames is making an Indiana Jones game. These new positions could be related to that project. But it’s really just a matter of when in terms of Wolfenstein’s triumphant return.
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/13vwnf3/machinegames_wolfenstein_dev_is_working_on_a_aaa/ , https://www.destructoid.com/wolfenstein-3-could-be-in-development-according-to-a-new-job-listing/

Emperor Smeat

06-01-2023, 10:46 PM

Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka reportedly is currently facing a potential prison sentence of two and a half years and a $1.2 million fine over his involvement in a recent insider trading scandal at Square Enix during his time with the company.

Abema Times reported (via VGC) that the reason for the prosecutor’s office at the Toko District Court pushing for a prison sentence of over two years is due Naka had shown no signs of remorse over his crimes.

According to a report from Abema Times, (as translated by VGC) Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka is facing 2.5 years in prison — in addition to receiving a $1.2 million (USD) fine — for his role in insider trading schemes that took place during his time at developer Square Enix.

The punishment is being requested by the prosecutor’s office at the Toko District Court, who argue that Naka had violated Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, stating Naka had shown “no signs of remorse” for the offense. Naka was first arrested in November 2022 under suspicion that he had used insider knowledge in order to draw large sums of money on the stock market. Naka was then re-arrested again a month later on additional charges.

The prosecution argues that Naka, alongside fellow former Square Enix employee Taisuke Sazaki, knowingly invested in Japanese developer ATeam Entertainment, ahead of the announcement that the studio would be developing 2021 mobile release Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. Naka reportedly purchased 120,000 shares in ATeam at a cost of around ¥144.7 million yen (roughly $834,000 USD).

In a separate incident, Naka, Sazaki, and a third employee, Fumiaki Suzuki, were charged with purchasing stock in another studio, Aiming, ahead of Square Enix revealing that it would be working on Dragon Quest: Tact. In this instance, Naka was accused of having purchased ¥47 million (roughly $336,300 USD) of shares before the public announcement. The prosecution believed Naka ascertained the details ahead of time by accessing an internal website containing meeting transcriptions.

Naka’s defense team is hoping to reduce the fine and is currently seeking a suspended sentence in the hope of preventing Naka from serving any jail time. A final verdict is expected in July.

Naka left Square Enix in 2021, following the critical and commercial failure of lurid platformer Balan Wonderworld. After the fact, Naka would also file suit against the publisher, arguing that he had been removed from Balan’s development six months ahead of its much-maligned release.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/yuji-naka-has-reportedly-been-sentenced-to-2-5-years-in-prison-for-insider-trading/ , https://www.destructoid.com/yuji-naka-prison-sentence-insider-trading-square-enix-report/

Emperor Smeat

06-02-2023, 07:26 PM

Capcom recently released a new survey asking fans which game in the Resident Evil series should be the next to get the remake treatment.

This question did not have any games listed as choices to select from and instead was entirely left up to the person to fill in the game name as their choice in a blank text box.

The Resident Evil franchise has been on top of the world lately, especially with the release of the Resident Evil 4 remake. Now, not wanting to stop this juggernaut, Capcom is asking you which other game in the iconic survival horror series you’d like to see get remade, if any.

The recent survey poses a few questions about how well people know what’s happening in the world of Resident Evil. For example, people are asked whether they follow any of the official social media channels, as well as how familiar they are with the entries, be they games or movie adaptations. One of the final questions then gives you the chance to suggest which installment you’d like to see a remake of.

With Capcom flying high in terms of sales, no doubt the studio is interested in where to take things from here. It should be pointed out that the survey results won’t necessarily mean there’ll be another RE remake in the pipeline. However, there have already been rumors that the series’ 2009 release, Resident Evil 5 could be getting reimagined, but there’s no solid evidence for that yet.

Given that the remake of Resident Evil 4 has sold millions of copies, it’s not surprising that Capcom wants to keep bringing back older entries. At this point, however, anything past the fourth entry doesn’t quite fit the “classic” status of the earlier installments. RE5 is certainly a mainline series entry but arguably may not necessarily warrant a full remake.
Link: https://www.enqform.capcom.com/form/pub/form1/rebhportal_en , https://www.destructoid.com/capcom-survey-asks-which-resident-evil-you-want-remade-next/

Sepholio

06-03-2023, 09:33 PM

If Sony wants to look at big name companies, join the other vultures circling Ubisoft.

I've said this for years. Think they could do some amazing work together.

Also would not be surprised if Sony was secretly going after SquareEnix. Imaging a Legend of Dragoon remake being co-developed by Sony/SE. mmmmmmmmmmmmm:drool:

ClockShot

06-04-2023, 08:26 AM

Also would not be surprised if Sony was secretly going after SquareEnix. Imaging a Legend of Dragoon remake being co-developed by Sony/SE. mmmmmmmmmmmmm:drool:

Sony can let Bluepoint handle that.

Emperor Smeat

06-05-2023, 07:44 PM

Today's News:
* Square Enix is currently rumored to be "slightly panicked" over the lower than expected pre-orders for their upcoming Final Fantasy XVI game, according to gaming journalist Imran Khan. Khan reported that even after adjusting their expectations due to FF XVI being PS5 exclusive compared to FF XV, the game is still performing below than expected in terms of pre-orders made. Khan also reported that it is currently rumored that Square's recent announcement of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth still being in development and targeted for this winter was made in reaction to the current situation with FF XVI's pre-orders numbers.
Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/everything-once-83982355 , https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-16-pre-orders-below-15-square-enix-panicking-sales/

* EA announced that they have recently signed a new partnership deal with Nike for Nike-branded NFT gear for their games under the EA Sports label.
Link: https://twitter.com/dotSWOOSH/status/1664286289867444226 , https://www.destructoid.com/ea-sports-partners-with-nike-to-bring-nft-gear-to-games/

* During today's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook officially revealed Apple's new AR/VR headset called Apple Vision Pro that is currently set for an early 2024 release and is currently priced at $3,499.
Today was the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, and as predicted, Tim Apple Tim Cook finished the event with the reveal of the new Apple headset. Called Apple Vision Pro, the headset is more AR than VR, utilizing a system of cameras to project screens and objects into the world around you. It’s arguably the most exciting piece of tech to come out of Apple since the iPod. Looking at the Vision Pro and how it works is some real sci-fi shit, technology I thought was still years away. But it’s actually less than a year away.

There is a lot going on under the hood with Apple Vision Pro, including two chips (the M2 and the R1), 23 million pixels across the device’s two screens, eye-tracking, gesture tracking, and 4K video resolution that will be rendered at scale. As if it wasn’t hard enough to get people to look away from their screens, one device feature is EyeSight, which reveals your eyes when you start talking to somebody else in the room. Because heaven forbid you take it off your head when talking to others.

While the showcase focused more on how Apple Vision Pro will take your apps off your iPhone, iPad, and iMac and display them as virtual screens in your real world, it also emphasized that gaming will be a part of the experience. One hundred Apple Arcade games will be available on day one, and the device is compatible with standard video game controllers. The feature I’m most excited about is being able to watch movies on virtual screens of any size. While I still prefer going to a real theater to watch films, something like that will greatly improve the home theater experience. If you’re wondering about battery life, you can run this thing for two hours before needing to recharge or you can plug it in for continuous use.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX9qSaGXFyg , https://www.destructoid.com/apple-vision-pro-will-give-us-the-future-wall-e-warned-everyone-about/

Emperor Smeat

06-06-2023, 07:49 PM

According to IGN, EA is currently in the process of handing over development and operation of Star Wars: The Old Republic from BioWare to a third-party studio.

This studio taking over was stated to be Broadsword Online Games, developer of Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot, and this deal could be completed as early as by the end of this month.

In regards to the current dev team, it was reported that around 70-80 of the core staff are expected to move to Broadsword while the rest will have the opportunity of seeking new jobs within EA or be laid off if they are unable to do so.

In regards to BioWare, it was reported that the studio will be shifting focus to its current single-player projects including Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next game in the Mass Effect series.

It sounds like things are shifting at Electronic Arts and BioWare. A new report from IGN says EA is nearing an agreement to hand development and operation of Star Wars: The Old Republic to a third-party studio.

According to IGN’s report, Broadsword Online Games—developer of Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot—would take the reins. The deal is expected to be final as soon as this month.

Over half of the 70 to 80 people on the core Old Republic team are expected to move to Broadsword. Those remaining with EA will reportedly have an opportunity to look for other roles in the company, but could otherwise see layoffs.

Star Wars: The Old Republic will keep getting updates, including the upcoming 7.3 patch, and EA would remain publisher.

On the BioWare side, the team will focus its resources on current single-player efforts. This includes both Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next entry in the Mass Effect series ...

Star Wars: The Old Republic has been running for quite a while, having launched back in 2011. It added free-to-play options a year later, and has since rolled on with expansions and content updates.

It’s not surprising that EA wants to keep its Star Wars MMO running. But moving it from BioWare does draw some attention back to the developer.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-the-old-republic-development-third-party-bioware , https://www.destructoid.com/ea-star-wars-the-old-republic-moving-to-third-party-studio-bioware-report/