Bungie has acknowledged the fact you can currently play with people from platforms other than your own in Destiny 2 - all a little earlier than planned.

Reports of Destiny 2 crossplay being possible emerged last night, and were picked up by Destiny community manager Cozmo.

Describing it as an unintended "sneak peek", Bungie said that crossplay was officially still in development, and would be disabled again in the coming days.

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Pokemon Sword and Shield came out in November of 2019, and my how time flies.

I mean, adding two very spread out DLC campaigns will extend the life of your game fairly well, and I think at this point I prefer that single SKU additive approach over starting all over with a "third or fourth" version of the game: hopefully it continues! But despite how additive Game Freak was, there is still a laundry list of things fans want them to add, namely the National 'Dex.

Over 200 creatures were added via the expansions, but it still wasn't a true National 'Dex. So when I saw that Pokemon Sword and Shield was updated this week, I did a double-take and quickly dove into the patch notes...only to be greeted by sweet sweet stability.

This latest update "fixed the issue where some Pokemon icons were not properly displaying during online or local wireless battles" and adjusted "several issues have been fixed to improve gameplay experience." So if you were having problems playing the game recently, the new version might have shored things up for you.

Maybe Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will add more into the mix? Or Legends will do something? Surely they must be planning around the backlash if nothing changes.

Version 1.3.2 [Nintendo]

It seems brave to stamp a date on anything happening this year, but Valve have announced that their Dota 2 tournament of tournaments, The International, will be held on August 10th in Stockholm this year. The teams will be going through the group stages between August 5-8th before battling it out for a chunk of the $40,018,195 prize pool. That prize fund was left over from last year's cancelled tournament.

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Apex Legends' Legacy update has now been live for over a week - after a somewhat wobbly start - and Respawn has already rolled out some balance changes for two weapons. The Spitfire and newly-added Bocek Bow, both considered overpowered by the player community, have been adjusted to make them a little less lethal.

As explained on the Legacy patch notes page, the Spitfire's bullet damage has been reduced from 19 to 18, while gold and purple magazines will now hold 50 bullets instead of 55. The Bocek seems to be getting a much more severe nerf, with maximum damage decreased from 70 to 60, stack size decreased from 16 to 14 and inventory slot count decreased from 48 to 28. The Bocek's charge up time and Deadeye's Tempo hop-up charge time are also being increased by 0.2 seconds. I imagine this is all to prevent this sort of thing from happening:

The update also brings a number of fixes to the game - including one for those low-detail character models ("goodbye derpy blob Legends, you will be missed" say the patch notes). At one point Valkyrie's passive was highlighting players that were "not alive and/or in spectator mode," something that has also been fixed. Creepy. More importantly, the update brings some general stability improvements, which should hopefully help prevent some of the server issues we saw last week.

I'll get this out the way first. I understand there are people who may not want more Assassin's Creed Valhalla. It is an enormous game and, for sure, Wrath of the Druids is no minor DLC. To those people, I hear ya, and thank you for your time here today! Lovely. To those who are hungry for more Eivor and to hang out in a new country's history, welcome. Ireland offers lots of familiar things to do across a beautiful new landscape, and some fun fresh additions.

Here's the top-line stuff. Wrath of the Druids adds around two-thirds of Ireland to explore, with an enjoyable self-contained campaign, some interesting new enemies, a major new trading system and, fans will be pleased to know, a boatload of fresh armour sets and cosmetics to unlock and upgrade. This is an adventure focused on Eivor - and while things do skirt very slightly into the supernatural, there's no major modern day or Isu plotline here.

Designed to be played at any point of your Viking adventure, Druids introduces a new cast of characters led by your hitherto unmentioned cousin Barid, who has wound up becoming King of Dublin (where was he when we were trying to sort out England, eh?). Barid calls for aid via his trade envoy, the intriguing one-eyed Azar, who turns up in Ravensthorpe to rope Eivor in. From there, the action heads across the Irish Sea to a fresh map accessible via your Atlas, akin to Vinland and Norway, and the start of a sprawling new adventure.

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An official time for the broadcast has been revealed.

The post Dead by Daylight Resident Evil Collaboration Broadcast Schedule Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

Valve president Gabe Newell has hinted that his company has plans to return to the console market, with further news currently scheduled for release later in 2021. Newell made the obscure teaser during a recent Q&A session held at, of all places, a high school assembly.

Taking the opportunity to quiz Newell on Valve's future plans, one student asked "Will Steam be putting any games on consoles, or will it just stay on PC?"

"You will... uh... get a better idea of that by the end of year," hinted the Valve boss, amusingly offering up the sort of teasing tidbit that reporters would kill for at an E3 or a Gamescom — but during a small school assembly. The Q&A was partially recorded by student Odysseic, who has since uploaded the footage to Reddit.

Valve's last console release was tactical shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), which arrived on PS3 and Xbox 360 way back in 2012. Perhaps the publisher's best-known console release remains The Orange Box, a stellar compilation from 2007 which included Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, and a debuting Portal. Since then, Valve has remained focused on its PC platform Steam, though its recent wares — such as the fantastic Half-Life: Alyx — would undoubtedly be welcomed back into the console market.

Late last month, 27-year-old Kazuhiro Arita traveled from Osaka to Fukuoka. While there, according to News 24 and ANN, a 55-year-old man warned him about not wearing a mask, provoking Arita to allegedly punch him repeatedly in the head.

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EA has discussed how Battlefield 6 will benefit from its development focus having been on current-gen consoles - PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S - even though it will also launch on last-gen hardware - PS4 and Xbox One.

The fact Battlefield 6 will not be exclusive to current-gen consoles seems somewhat obvious, in the grand scheme of things - with scalpers and low stock still prevalent and a huge, active install base for PS4 and Xbox One. But EA only made it official for the first time last night, in an earnings call to investors.

"So yes, Battlefield will be available for both current-gen and next-gen as will our sports titles," EA boss Andrew Wilson said.

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Amazon UK have added some more great SSD deals to their Gaming Week sale today, with new low prices to be found on three of Samsung's best SSDs for gaming. Chief among them is the 1TB 860 Qvo, Samsung's budget-friendly high capacity SSD that's dropped to a record low of just £70, making it almost as good as yesterday's (sadly now defunct) Crucial MX500 deal.

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The Nanbu Ironware teapot will be handcrafted by artisans in Japan, using a thousand year-old forging method.

The post Bandai’s Mobile Suit Gundam Zaku Teapot Is Surprisingly Traditional appeared first on Siliconera.

In case you missed it, a few years ago Image & Form Games merged with Zoink under the banner "Thunderful," an arrangement that continues to this day. In fact, the new conglomeration actually acquired Headup Games, so they're continuing to grow! And a Twitter update today is now reminding us of what's to come.

So the official Image & Form account (which still exists) is teasing out "several new SteamWorld games." That's nice! We knew they were coming, but it's good to hear that they're still in the works as of today and moving full (don't say it) steam...ahead. Images for the entire SteamWorld universe were shared in the tease.

But the account also talks a little shop, explaining that Thunderful is indeed the daddy of the situation, directing folks to that handle, while telling fans that Image & Form is still under their purview. Here's the rub: "The Image & Form teams are part of Thunderful since a while back. While we're no longer a separate studio from Thunderful, you can count on quality games from the same people (and new faces) for years to come! Thanks for all these amazing years. We can't wait to show what's next!"

That said, the Image & Form account has 22K followers, it wouldn't make much sense to trash it. According to the tweet this morning, they're "dedicating this space to SteamWorld games old and new." Fine by me! It's the thing that interests me the most out of all of Thunderful's offerings by far.

"New SteamWorld games" could include any number of new subfranchises, as well as sequels to Dig 2, Heist, Quest, and even SteamWorld Tower Defense, if they really wanted to get retro.

Not real rabbit holes, of course - although I assume they're fascinating. Maybe I will look them up at some point. Maybe I will become engrossed. No! Today I'm talking about rabbit holes, as in research, as in esoterica, as in one of the only really great idioms - pins-and-needles is also a delight - and as in one of the things that often open up when we're trying to do something else.

Someone should make a game about rabbit holes. I say this because this week I realised that rabbit holes are the only way I ever actually learn anything. Yes, rabbit holes can be how people come to believe that the moon is hollow or that World War 2 is still taking place on Mars, and rabbit holes can lead to a Goop shopping cart, but they're also more simply how a lot of fairly standard learning journeys take place following the advent of hypertext and online catalogues and all that jazz. Regardless of the topic, and with me it's always trivial - a cake recipe, a funny spelling - I like a bit of spelunking in my fact-finding, I like to feel the rope give way and hear the distant sound of trickling water. I like to look up and think: Jeepers! How did I get here? Why have I got tabs open on Dupuytren's Contracture and deep water drilling and Hubert Julian, a legendary aviator who once skydived over Manhattan in the 1920s dressed in a red leather devil costume? Oh, rabbit holes!

There is a proper way to learn things, isn't there? Systematic, a bit at a time, follow the curriculum. A phrase returns from my younger years, a phrase that ended promising conversations. "Oh them," I would say. "We haven't done them in school." End of story. Come back later. Come back when I've done them in school.

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We sit at the eve of the newest beta for the complex and attractive fighting sequel Guilty Gear Strive. The latest playtest, which kicks off on PS4 and PS5 tomorrow, May 13, will feature GG's sexy starting roster in its fullest, including latter-day reveals Anji Mito and I-No.

As such, publisher Arc System Works has fired up its "Starter Guide" series, giving players a quick crash course on each and every one of the game's highly skilled warriors. This morning sees the arrival of Anji Mito, the handsome, fan-waving fighter of questionable loyalties and those abs. Anji Mito returns to the franchise after successful prior appearances in previous iterations such as Guilty Gear Xrd and Guilty Gear XX.

Long before brands were falling over themselves to get a jelly bean version of their mascot in Fall Guys, Doritos and Microsoft were partnering up to bring you the actual best Takeshi’s Castle game: Doritos Crash Course.

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We tend to associate video game intros with lavish, pre-rendered cinematic sequences. Something to help kickstart the story, set the tone. Which is fine, but there’s been a video game intro stuck in my head for over a decade now, and it wasn’t trying to tell me a story. It was trying to teach me something.

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Despite its limited availability, Uma Musume Pretty Derby is already making its way to the top of the world.

The post Uma Musume Pretty Derby is 3rd Highest-Grossing Mobile Game appeared first on Siliconera.

Florent Auguy is an artist from France who has worked on stuff like Into the Spider-Verse and Detroit: Become Human.

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Xbox insiders can now access the original Xbox dashboard animation as a dynamic background called "The Original" pic.twitter.com/Nvh6D8iw2X

"There is no longer singing in the village BGM."

The post Yoko Taro Suggests Wild Plot Twists for Monster Hunter Rise appeared first on Siliconera.

She’s as big as a truck and can kick your ass if she gets anywhere near you, but Resident Evil Village’s Lady Dimitrescu’s relentless pursuit can be rendered powerless by a single artefact: a...coffee table.

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Smash Remix is a popular ROM hack that takes the original Super Smash Bros. and cranks the mayhem to 11 with new characters, stages, and moves. Ganondorf and Bowser were added to the popular platform fighter in previous updates, and earlier today, the developers revealed none other than Conker as a playable character…

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We can’t wait to get back to Dallas with our QuakeCon family, but for the continued safety of our staff, the volunteers, and the community, this year’s QuakeCon will once again be a digital-only event. We’ll have all the Peace, Love, and Rockets – remotely – August 19-21. pic.twitter.com/8EaM7EY5Sv

What if Robin Hood but moodier than a mid-2000s Warped Tour ticket line? That’s the premise of Hood: Outlaws and Legends, a class-based multiplayer heist game based on a dark and stormy version of the Robin Hood folk tale, officially released yesterday for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. (Over the weekend, those who…

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Hey Sonic fans - I appreciate you all reaching out with concerns over fan games and monetization!

Ubisoft is going to focus more on producing "high-end free-to-play games" in future - sort of. In an investor call earlier today, chief financial officer Frederick Duguet said that the company's focus on releasing 3-4 premium games per year "is no longer a proper indication of [Ubisoft's] value creation dynamics."

That doesn't mean they're going to stop making games with an entry fee, but it means that free-to-play is becoming a larger part of their business. The comments come after Ubisoft announced a new free-to-play game, Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland, earlier this week.

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Many of us know how difficult it’s been to buy an Xbox Series X/S or PlayStation 5. A global computer chip shortage has put a bottleneck on console production and whatever stock becomes available is quickly scooped up by bot-using scalpers. In an effort to circumvent scalpers and get the new Xboxes into the hands of genuine customers, Microsoft has announced a new pre-order initiative using its Xbox Insider program.

Per The Verge, the program is called the Console Purchase Pilot. It gives Xbox One owners signed up to the Xbox Insider program a chance to both reserve and purchase an Xbox Series X or Series S through the console itself. For those unaware, Xbox Insider is a free program that allows members to test software updates before Microsoft releases them to the public and also grants access to certain game betas as well. 

"With tremendous engagement across our portfolio, we delivered a record year for Electronic Arts," says EA CEO Andrew Wilson. ...

This is a big year for Resident Evil. Not only did Resident Evil Village just come out – which is great, by the way, and you should definitely play it – but the series just passed its 25th anniversary. Two-and-a-half decades of zombies, questionable characters, and midnight scares. This calls for a celebration. Or a video essay, at the very least. 

We decided to take a look back at the entire Resident Evil series, highlighting which games have meant the most to the overall franchise and the game industry at large. From the original Resident Evil popularizing survival horror as a genre and inspiring countless imitators, spin-offs, and homages, to Resident Evil 4 revolutionizing the third-person shooter and nearly tanking the entire series, to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard taking the series in an entirely new direction, and more, watch above to learn about the developments, circumstances, and impacts of some of your favorite Resident Evil games. 

The original Subnautica is one of those games I wish I could wipe from my memory so that I could plunge in and comb its depths for the first time all over again. No one’s worked out how to do that without some pretty severe side effects, but Subnautica: Below Zero is the next best thing: even though it’s a bit smaller, it gives us a whole new watery sector to explore, survive, craft, and build awesome bases in, and it’s just as exhilarating.

Quakecon 2021 will take place this August, and like last year it will be an online-only event. In today's announcement, Bethesda said that they'll have more to share about the lineup in June.

"We can’t wait to get back to Dallas with our QuakeCon family, but for the continued safety of our staff, the volunteers, and the community, this year’s QuakeCon will once again be a digital-only event," says the brief statement.

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Right, this is a big one - and I mean that quite literally. The Samsung CRG9, one of hardware honcho Katharine's favourite ultra-wide monitors, has seen a massive discount in Amazon's Gaming Week Sale, a reduction so large that the monitor itself appears small by comparison.

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My partner and I have been looking for our dream home, and I think we found it. It’s somewhere in Eastern Europe—possibly Romania—it’s probably owned by a shady government agency, and I have it on good authority that its previous occupants won’t be coming back any time soon. I’m talking about Ethan Winters’ house in …

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PerBlue is looking for a talented Director of Product Strategy to join its growing independent studio. ...

External hard drives are one of the best ways to quickly and cheaply add game or media storage wherever you need it - but they can be slow. That's why, as internal SSDs have become table stakes for gaming machines, external SSDs have also started to become quite popular. By pairing fast flash memory with a high-speed USB connection, you can get storage that feels just as rapid as the best SSDs for gaming, but can travel with you to be used with desktops, laptops, TVs and game consoles. Amazon's Gaming Week sale includes quite a few of these modern marvels, so we're going to break down the best buys available from the likes of WD and SanDisk.

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What is a skull if not a bone? A bone structure? Either these pirates are pedants or they should have named their game Bones & Bones.

Perhaps it's questions like these that have led Skull & Bones, Ubisoft's seafaring adventure, to be delayed yet again. This time it's been pushed until sometime after March 2022.

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