You’ve played Destruction AllStars a thousand times. You’ve also never played something like Destruction AllStars. The new multiplayer derby battler from Lucid Games—out today exclusively for PlayStation 5—is both immediately familiar and refreshingly new. After taking it for a spin, my initial feelings for the game…
Following the departure of BioWare's former general manager Casey Hudson and Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah, EA leadership is reassuring investors that it is "very, very confident" in the studio's future.
During the company's Q3 earnings call today, CEO Andrew Wilson responded to a question from an investor about the recent departures by praising BioWare, while simultaneously acknowledging criticism over the studio's output in recent years."I think that from the outside world there have been some blips in [BioWare's] delivery over the last couple of years, but that has come as a result of them pushing deeply into innovation and creativity, and we feel very, very confident about their future roadmap," he said. "And we've talked about games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect in their future.
"With respect to Casey and Mark leaving, both good friends of mine, and we have tremendous respect for both of them. But this happens in the natural course of creative organizations from time to time, and we feel very very good about the ongoing leadership of that studio."
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/11/dragon-age-4-cinematic-trailer"]
Hudson and Darrah departed the studio in December, leaving Samantha Ryan in charge of the studio as a whole, Christian Dailey in the role of Dragon Age executive producer, Matthew Goldman staying as creative director on the same project, and Mike Gamble remaining as the lead on Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
Apex Legends is coming to Nintendo Switch on March 9, developer Respawn announced.
Director Chad Grenier wrote in a blog post that the Switch version of Apex Legends will launch with cross-platform functionality, season 8 content, and “full-feature parity” with other versions.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/26/apex-legends-season-8-mayhem-gameplay-trailer"]Worried you’re already behind during the current season? The good news is that Switch players who purchase the season 8 battle pass will receive 30 battle pass levels for free. Players will also earn double XP during the first two weeks after launch.
Porting Apex Legends to its smallest screen yet is a major achievement, and we couldn’t have done it without our friends at Panic Button,” Grenier said. “We’re very proud of what the team has been able to achieve with some smart optimizations for the Switch port to deliver a full-featured Apex Legends experience on the go.”
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/02/apex-legends-season-8-mayhem-battle-pass-trailer"] Apex Legends season 8 kicked off today, featuring the arrival of its 16th character, demolitions enthusiast Fuse, a new lever-action rifle, and the usual assortment of new cosmetics and battle pass items. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/Crypto main for IGN.This is going to be the least surprising statement I've ever made on Destructoid, but I'm a huge fan of The Legend of Zelda. I have been ever since I was single digits, and over my few years here, I've written about my love and admiration for a few games in the series. I always remember where I was when I first beat Gannon -- which is how his name was spelled back on the NES -- sitting on my parents' bed playing on their tiny 13" bedroom television because that's the only place in the house they'd allow the console to be hooked up.
I have such great memories of nearly all the mainline games, and this month, they're all going to come creeping back into my mind as The Legend of Zelda celebrates its 35th anniversary on February 21. It's one of several games that will celebrate a milestone anniversary this year, and while I'm sure there are other franchises our community would love to gush about in 2021, for February, I want to see what our community has to say about Zelda.
In today's contest you can win a pair of EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid In-ear Earbuds!
If you're sick of using the same crappy, wired pair of earbuds that came with the phone you bought nearly four years ago (I can't be the only one, right?) then today's contest is just for you! Our friends at EPOS are giving us a pair of their fancy new GTW 270 Hybrid Earbuds, compatible with pretty much every mobile device - phone or gaming - still on the market. I think you're gonna like these.
I never thought I'd be the type of person who'd enjoy a game where you pump high school girls full of pheromones to satisfy their needs, but here I am reviewing my third Gal*Gun title. Despite clearly not being in its target demographic, I've always enjoyed the absurdity of it all. It's nice to have something downright outlandish to revel in while the rest of the industry pushes toward that homogenized center.
Of course, that absurdity and outlandishness come at a price, and the Gal*Gun franchise has always been in the middle of one controversy or another. Gal*Gun Returns is no different as a few weeks ago, we learned the Xbox One port of the title had been canceled after some "productive discussions" with Microsoft.
Having seen what this series can do, the move didn't surprise me. But now that I've played it, the cancellation seems even more ridiculous as this is easily the tamest entry in the franchise.
While there had been rumblings about a February release for the Nintendo Switch edition of Apex Legends, the game is launching on March 9, according to Respawn. There's our confirmation!
The Switch version came together with "smart optimizations" from Panic Button (the studio behind the Switch ports of Doom, Wolfenstein II, and Warframe), and it should be the real deal. Expect "full feature parity" with all versions of Apex Legends, including cross-platform multiplayer – a must-have.
If you're wondering what it'll be like to roll in mid-season, you'll be able to start the Season 8 Battle Pass with 30 levels knocked out and everyone on Switch can earn double XP until March 23.
#NintendoSwitch players will earn double XP March 9-23, receive the first 30 levels and all associated rewards immediately with the purchase of the Season 8 Battle Pass.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 2, 2021
It would've been nice for the Switch launch to go hand-in-hand with Season 8, but March isn't bad.
Warning: learning about a potentially cool Quarian who didn't make the final cut might sting a bit.
The post Mass Effect 2 Almost Included a Male Quarian Romance Option appeared first on Siliconera.
BioWare announced late last year that the company was working on Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, a full remaster and enhancement of the beloved sci-fi trilogy set to be released for PC and current-gen consoles. The collection will allow players to re-experience the saga of the Normandy and Commander Shepard, and includes all single-player DLC. However, Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer mode won’t be brought back this time around.
Speaking with Game Informer, project director Mac Walters and environment and character director Kevin Meek explained that it was simply too much work to bring the multiplayer mode back, and would’ve likely delayed the completion of the project significantly.
‘”I feel strongly that we’ve chosen the things that are what the majority of our fans were most passionate about. On the topic of multiplayer, it was just really hard. Getting all of the online systems working and functionality would have been another large chunk to do but at the same time, there are a lot of other logistics involved. The economy is built completely differently. Then questions came up like, “Do we support it post-launch? What about people who are still playing multiplayer today? Do we try to find a way to somehow do crossplay between the PS3 and PS4?”
With the work that would have been put into those logistics, the bulk of the project would have suffered, time-wise, and ultimately it was decided that multiplayer was not the road bump this remaster needed, especially since the studio has been wanting to do this for a long time now.’
Lady Dimitrescu, otherwise known as Resident Evil Village’s Tall Vampire Lady, is very tall. Capcom confirmed yesterday that she stands at nine feet, six inches tall. That got me thinking: How does she compare to other video game characters?
In the spirit of Genshin Impact, employee bonuses were given via Gacha mechanics!
The post Genshin Impact Studio Gives Out PS5s and Switches to Employees appeared first on Siliconera.
Today Genshin Impact developer MiHoYo released another new trailer focusing on one of the characters of the game.
We get to see more of Xiao, one of the latest characters added to the popular action-RPG. Unlike yesterday’s trailer, this one focuses a lot more on a deep dive into Xiao’s gameplay and powers.
You can watch the trailer below.
Publisher Kakao Games and developer Lionheart Studio released a new trailer of their upcoming MMORPG Odin: Valhalla Rising.
The trailer takes us on a tour of the beautiful open world of the game, which is based on Norse mythology.
You can check it out below alongside a shorter version.
If you want to see more, you can enjoy another batch of trailers released at G-Star in Korea back in November.
When the Switch version of Apex Legends was first announced last summer, Electronic Arts said it would be releasing in the fall of 2020. That didn't happen, but a recent post seemed to indicate that Respawn's shooter would be hitting today, February 2, alongside season 8. That also didn't happen. But even if Switch owners aren't claiming their in-game victories today, at least now they know exactly when they can: March 9.
The news came via this post on the game's official site, which finally provided the solid date for the release of Apex Legends on Switch.
In the post, Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier reveals the March 9 release date, and gives credit to the team at developer Panic Button for handling the port to Switch. But that isn't all: Grenier also outlines some of the other features and benefits to expect from this version at launch, including bonuses like free Battle Pass levels and an extra XP boost.
Get out your Kamera and line up the perfect shot in the Genshin Impact Five Flushes of Fortune event.
The post Here’s How the Genshin Impact Five Flushes of Fortune Event Works appeared first on Siliconera.
Today Sony announced its financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2020, which relates to the period between Oct. 1, and Dec. 31, 2020.
First of all, we get an update on PS5 and PS4 units shipped during the latest quarter.
4.5 million PS5 and 1.4 million PS4 units were purchased by retailers worldwide, which means that the grand total for PS4 as of Dec. 31 is at 115 million units.
Below you can check out an overview of the performance of the Game & Network Services business (which includes both PlayStation and PlayStation Network).
As a free-to-play game, Call of Duty: Warzone has a massive following and player base. With that in mind, it’s no surprise to see that this game has had its fair share of cheaters as well. It’s good news, then, that Activision is seemingly taking the cheating problem seriously and is actively clamping down on users who have been found using cheating software.
Activision announced that they’ve banned another 60,000 accounts today found cheating, bringing that total up to 300,000 permabans since the game’s launch. The studio went on to list all of the actions they’ve taken to prevent cheaters from thriving in Warzone since launch:
In addition to all of that, Activision is also “increasing [their] efforts and capabilities in these key areas”:
The studio ended their blog post by concluding that they’re committed to keep looking for vulnerabilities in the game, and to continue shoring those up to provide a fun, cheat-free experience for users.
Call of Duty: Warzone is now available on PC and consoles.
Gearbox Studios, developers of games like Borderlands and also publishers of stuff like the new Homeworld titles, have been bought by Embracer Group, the same Swedish company that owns THQ Nordic and Koch Media.
Today, during Sony’s quarterly conference call for investors and analysts, chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki talked about the launch of PS5.
According to Totoki-san, the company predicts to record its highest profit in PlayStation history this fiscal year despite the hardware transition, as the profitability structure of the business has changed dramatically due to the expansion of network services.
With the 4.5 million PS5 units shipped by the end of December, Totoki-san added, Sony is on track to match its goal of 7.6 million units by the end of March, despite not being able to fully meet the demand from customers.
That being said, Sony is continuing to do everything in its power to ship as many units as possible to customers who are waiting for PS5.
Due the stay-at-home orders and the launch of PS5, a “very high level of user engagement” has been reached. The cumulative PlayStation game time in December was approximately 30% higher year-on-year.
As of the end of December, 87% of PS5 users were subscribers to PlayStation Plus, which is considered an “extremely high level.”
Totoki-san also mentioned that Sony had more games at the launch of PS5 that at any previous console launch in the company’s history, and they have sold well.
For instance, Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales recorded an estimated sell-through (to customers) of 4.1 million units by the end of December.
Sony intends to enhance the appeal of PlayStation Network’s services offering.
Today Square Enix announced its financial results for the first nine months of the fiscal year, related to the period between April 1 and December 31, 2020.
The company as a whole reports substantial growth year-on-year of both net sales and operating income.
The Digital Entertainment segment of the business (which includes games) reports similar results.
If we look at the results of the past quarter, they’re more nuanced, with the Digital Entertainment segment growing revenue but generating fewer profits.
Considering the sub-segments, the HD Games segment shows strong growth in revenue year-on-year for the nine months, but it has actually lost money in the past two quarters following the release of Marvel’s Avengers. Final Fantasy VII Remake and sales of digital catalog games (released in the past fiscal year) helped keep the overall balance profitable.
The MMORPG segment which includes Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X saw a decline in net sales due to the year-on-year comparison against expansion launches, but profit grew year-on-year due to the recurring revenue they generate.
On the other hand, mobile games kept growing year-on-year both for sales and profit due to earnings contributions from titles like Dragon Quest Walk, War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Exvius, and Dragon Quest Tact.
Today, during Sony’s quarterly Q&A for media representatives, chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki discussed the future of PS5 and the interaction between the games business and the anime business.
Totoki-san that Sony expects that the the strong demand for PS5 will continue during the next fiscal year (between April 2021 and March 2022).
The company would like to exceed with PS5 the number of PS4 shipped during its second fiscal year (14.8 million units). The level of demand from customers is very high.
Yet, while Sony is trying to increase its production capacity, the global shortage of semiconductors is creating difficulties.
That being said, Sony is doing its best to exceed the original plan in terms of shipments.
Totoki-san also added that in terms of the next fiscal year, the PS5 will still have a negative margin (basically being sold at a loss), but Sony has other peripherals, devices, and controllers for sale.
Sony thinks in terms of hardware overall, and couniting everything the impact is pretty much neutral.
While negative margins should be avoided, they’re not the only measurement. Software and services are growing, The evaluation is done in aggregate adding those to the equation.
Speaking of the acquisition of Crunchyroll, Totoki-san mentioned that the Anime market has been growing a lot over the latest five years, especially in the overseas market. That’s why Sony wanted to enter that market to accelerate its own growth.
Sony has released a PlayStation 5 system update that sorts out a PlayStation 4 disc upgrade issue.
The PS4 version of a game was sometimes installed from the PS4 game disc even after upgrading the disc version of a PS4 game to the PS5 version. This update, which weighs in at 868.3MB, fixes that issue.
And then we have our old friend "this system software update improves system performance". That's nice and clear.
Back in the 1990s, in that long-ago Pleistocene era when I was at secondary school, we were taken on a trip to the small Peak District village of Cromford. There, aside from pulling strange faces at bemused locals, we were regaled with stories of noted industrialist Richard Arkwright, who in 1771 snapped up a modest section of land in the village and built a cotton mill. People a lot smarter than me argue this was the birthplace of modern manufacturing - triggering a centuries-long chain that led to the creation of... well, pretty much everything we buy today.
But its significance to the industrial revolution is not why I love Cromford. I love it for something much more prosaic: its fabulous little bookshop.
What a place.
Activision last night banned 60,000 accounts for cheating in Call of Duty Warzone amid an ongoing furore over hacking.
In a blog post, Activision said it had issued more than 300,000 permabans worldwide to accounts since Warzone launched in March 2020.
The news follows increasing pressure from the Call of Duty community, and comes after two high-profile Call of Duty streamers announced they had quit the game over cheating.
There's a confidence to Roguebook I really like, which I suppose I should expect from a new game by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield. It's not just in the presentation of the game, though that certainly helps - it's crisp and clear and colourful and characterful - but in the brand of strategy it offers underneath. This is a game made of familiar components and yet it feels satisfyingly new.
The overwhelming inspiration is Slay the Spire, that much is obvious. Not only is it a Roguelike deckbuilder, it goes as far as to copy the Strike and Defend cards in your opening deck. But I think we can probably consider Slay a template for the genre at this point anyway, so let's move on, because it's in the differences where Roguebook becomes interesting.
In Roguebook, you see, you don't control one hero but two. And each of these heroes has their own cards that make up your deck. In order for them to attack, you have to play their specific attack card, and the same goes for blocking. However, block is shared between characters, which means whichever character stands at the front, at turn's end, gets the benefit of the block. This is important, because it's the character standing at the front who takes damage. Positioning, therefore, is vital.
Team Ninja's Fumihiko Yasuda talked about implementing Open World into a hypothetical Nioh 3 in an interview with Famitsu.
The post Team Ninja Interested in Adding Open World to the Next Nioh Game appeared first on Siliconera.
Today, Sony released its financials for the three-month period ending on December 31, 2020. Even with the pandemic and supply issues, it sold 4.5 million PlayStation 5s. The hardware is a big hit! But at this time, making more of them sounds hard.
The already cool-sounding Studio Ghibli theme park now sounds even better. Aichi Prefecture, where it will be located, revealed that a real-life Howl’s Moving Castle will also be built on the grounds.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has released its financial earnings report for the quarter ending December 31, 2020. This particular report is an important one for the industry giant, as it gives the public its first look at the sales figures for the company's next-gen hardware, PlayStation 5.
As of the end of 2020, Sony has shipped 4.5 million PS5 units worldwide. This is a fantastic start for the new platform and one that has given the company confidence it will hit its forecast of 7.6 million units shipped by the end of March 2021, even with global stock shortages. It should be noted that Sony has sold each PS5 unit at a loss when compared to its manufacturing costs, though the deficit was boosted by huge software sales.
Meanwhile Sony's trusty black box, PlayStation 4, continues to enjoy a healthy lifecycle, having shifted an additional 1.4 million units during the final quarter of 2020, which brings the console's lifetime sales to a staggering 115 million units. While PS4 hardware sales have undeniably slowed in recent months, the now eight-year-old platform continues to rake in cash via steady software sales and PlayStation Plus subscription fees.
In regards to said paid subscription service, PlayStation Plus now boasts over 47.4 million subscribers, which is an increase of 8.6 million subscribers over the same period in 2019. Software continues to be the lion's share of SIE's revenue - more important than ever given the PS5's high manufacturing costs. 2020's third quarter saw PS4 and PS5 reach a combined total of 103.7 million software units sold, with the majority of revenue coming from digital full game sales and DLC, continuing the market's pivot from physical releases.
EA has said it will aim to release a new racing game every year following its expected acquisition of Codemasters.
Codemasters currently has numerous racing franchises on its books including F1, WRC, Dirt, Grid and Project Cars.
EA, meanwhile, has Need for Speed, Burnout and Real Racing.
The cancelled GoldenEye 007 XBLA remaster has leaked online.
The remaster, which we reported on over the weekend after a full playthrough was posted to YouTube, is now available to download and play via an emulator.
Digital Foundry's John Linneman has verified the game is playable. It runs at a smooth 60FPS, and you're able to switch between the old and new graphics at any time. Watch him play it in the video below:
A few weeks ago we heard that after a long, long period of Star Wars games being made exclusively by EA, Ubisoft studio Massive Entertainment is working on an open-world Star Wars title, signalling that EA's 10-year exclusivity deal with Disney will not be extended. Despite this, it seems EA still has a number of Star Wars projects in the pipeline - and has no intention of slowing down.
In an earnings call last night, CEO Andrew Wilson said EA's Star Wars titles had made "over $3bn (£2.2bn) in net bookings" and had sold a total of 52m copies. Mobile game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is a franchise worth $1bn (£733m) alone, and Wilson highlighted that EA had created a portfolio of other successful Star Wars titles including "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [sic]... Battlefront, Jedi: Fallen Order and most recently, Squadrons.
"As we've established the very strong part of that franchise, you should expect that we will continue to invest in those as well as some new experiences across platforms for the future," Wilson said. "...I don't think you should imagine that the fact that some other people will build some Star Wars games is going to change our commitment to that IP or our ability to build the appropriate number of games."
UPDATE 1.30pm UK: 2K will continue to publish unannounced but inevitable future entries in Gearbox's Borderlands series, it has said, even though the developer is now part of Embracer.
"As the proud publisher of the Borderlands franchise, we are happy for our partners at Gearbox and this exciting new chapter for their organisation," the company said. "The merger does not change 2K's relationship with Gearbox nor our role as the publisher for the Borderlands IP or any other projects we are currently working on with the studio. We look forward to continuing our long-term partnership with this incredibly talented team and delivering many more exciting entertainment experiences to gaming fans around the world."
ORIGINAL STORY 11.15am UK: Borderlands developer Gearbox has become the latest studio to be bought by Embracer, the enormous umbrella company which in turn owns THQ Nordic, Koch Media and Saber Interactive.
Instead the event will be held online through a special broadcast.
The post Fate/Grand Order Winter Caravan 2021 Kagoshima Event to Be Held Online appeared first on Siliconera.
Sony released its financial report for the third quarter of 2020, revealing that PlayStation 5 sales have hit 4.5 million units worldwide as of December 31, 2020. Additionally, users subscribed to the PlayStation Plus subscription based service has risen significantly. This has helped bolster profits for the company alongside the release of several strong selling titles. [Thanks, Famitsu and ZhugeEx!] These titles include The Last of Us II and Ghost of Tsushima, which helped contribute to Sony seeing increased profit during its third quarter. Despite the scarcity of the PlayStation 5, sales for the console mirror that of the PlayStation […]
The post PlayStation 5 Sales Reach 4.5 Million Units Worldwide appeared first on Siliconera.