Surprised to see the game based on Made In Abyss receiving an adults-only rating? If you’ve seen the anime, you might not be. The video game adaptation has just been given a CERO-Z. That’s Japan’s adults-only, 18-years-old-and-up rating.
Today, Nintendo announced that Chris Meledandri will join the Nintendo board as an Outside Director as of June 29.
The Epic Games v Apple trial is continuing to surface interesting titbits of information about the inner workings of the games industry, and the latest is that Microsoft has never made profit from the sale of console hardware. This may not be the most surprising news of all time, given consoles are in the games industry have traditionally been sold at a loss - but you rarely hear companies admit this out loud.
Xbox vice president Lori Wright was called in as a third-party witness for the trial, where she was asked questions about the console market. In response to a question from Epic lawyer Wes Earnhardt asking "how much margin" Microsoft earns on the sale of Xbox consoles, Wright said: "We don't. We sell the consoles at a loss". Asked if Microsoft has ever earned a profit on the sale of an Xbox console, Wright replied: "no" (via Protocol).
Ahead of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition's launch on 14th May, BioWare has made a treasure trove of bonus content available to freely download.
This includes bits and pieces previously packed in the deluxe edition versions of Mass Effect 2 and 3, such as digital art books for each game and the first issues of both Mass Effect: Redemption and Mass Effect: Invasion comic books.
An 88-track soundtrack for the entire trilogy is also featured, including a new track for the Legendary Edition titled Resynthesis.
Patch 1.3.3 for PlayStation 5-exclusive roguelite Returnal was pulled by developer Housemarque last night after it was found to have corrupted saves.
Housemarque later released a follow-up patch (1.3.4) that fixed the save-related issues caused by the previous update, but the developer said those affected by the previous update (you'd get the CE-100028-1 error popup) would have to re-download the game.
"Our sincerest apologies," Housemarque tweeted.
A buried treat in the Apple Arcade launch line-up, the paper plane "metaphorical journey" Lifeslide is headed to Steam on the 6th of August.
Lifeslide's a game about controlling a paper plane as you rush over beautiful, ever-shifting low-poly landscapes. It's a game about life, but it's also just a delight to play, riding the currents, managing speed and height, and making sure you don't park yourself in a metaphorical tree.
This sentence is here because the ad on desktops messes things up otherwise.
There's been a recent rise in Afrofuturist stories. Authors such as Nnedi Okorafor, N.K. Jemisin and Rivers Solomon have become wildly popular, and Marvel's Black Panther celebrated an African perspective on science fiction on the big screen. Games are set to follow - Furi by The Game Bakers and Beautiful Desolation by the Brotherhood are two examples of games interested in the culture and visuals of a continent that too often gets overlooked. Similarly, We Are The Caretakers, which entered Steam Early Access on April 21 (and which will also be released for Xbox Series X|S), actually isn't set in Africa, but a whole new world called Shadra, an analogy for real places and events, that focuses on telling a story about poaching and conservation efforts, a hitherto unique topic for a game.
We Are The Caretakers offers XCOM as a point of comparison, but while there are similarities in the hub and squad management, what I played felt like a squad-based CRPG, first and foremost. Combat is round-based, and exploration on the map involves your squad leader leading the way, with the rest of the group trailing behind. The game's character design is immediately striking - everyone wears large, colourful masks of gleaming metal, shaped in intricate ways, as well as matching, sleek suits. I can't help but wonder how these characters see, or move with these massive things on their heads, but they look beautiful and strong. You take control of the fittingly named Conductor, the freshly minted head of the Caretakers, a unit dispatched around Shadra to stop poachers in their tracks. Early on, your squad gains a Raun, a rhino-dinosaur(?) hybrid, and member of the species you're committed to protect. It is of course unbearably cute.
Nintendo's 2020 was one for the record books. The company earned its best ever operating profit of $6bn, and its second-best year of revenue, at $16.6bn.
Nintendo Switch now sits at 84.59m consoles and 587.1m games sold. (By comparison, Wii, Nintendo's top-selling home console, shifted 101m consoles. Wii U struggled to hit 14m.)
But Nintendo also expects a decline in profit and revenue for the current financial year, ending 31st March 2022, unable to match the same level of pandemic-boosted sales seen by Switch and its breakout success Animal Crossing: New Horizons over the past 12 months.
We're but a mere eight days away from the release of the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. In writing that, it's just dawned on me how close I am to seeing my hi-res alien pals and bombing around in the improved Mako. To tide fans over until the remaster's launch, BioWare have released a free content package containing loads of Mass Effect's iconic music, as well as digital art books and comics. They've also created an online tool that lets you select your favourite squadmates to make some personalised cover art.
Outriders launched with some of the worst bugs imaginable for a looter shooter, leaving some players unable to connect to the game and others with loot being lost from their inventory. After weeks of testing, developer People Can Fly have finally released an update to redress the problems. Though they can’t guarantee a complete restoration of items to those affected, they're promising to return the most valuable items plundered by the evil bug.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons continues to be a top seller for Nintendo.
The post Animal Crossing: New Horizons Sales Reach 35.9 Million Units Worldwide appeared first on Siliconera.
Nintendo has officially broken their own record due to strong Nintendo Switch sales.
The post Nintendo Switch Sales Have Reached 84.59 Million Units Worldwide appeared first on Siliconera.
The CEO of Illumination Studios will become an Outside Director for Nintendo in June, 2021
The post Minions’ Chris Meledandri To Become Outside Director at Nintendo appeared first on Siliconera.
The launcher trailer for Resident Evil Village is here, and while its short it does have some major spoilers
The post Resident Evil Village Launch Trailer Focuses on Key Story Moments appeared first on Siliconera.
In 2020, Nintendo saw huge profits, likely boosted by people quarantined at home, playing video games.
Two years ago, Sony stopped selling digital download codes for its games through retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. And now the gaming giant has been hit with a class-action lawsuit.
Devolver Digital has announced that hyper-gooey FPS sequel Shadow Warrior 3 will be blowing up on PS4 and Xbox One when it launches later this year. While the bombastic action game had been previously revealed for PC, console editions were yet to be confirmed.
In addition to the announcement, developer Flying Wild Hog released a new video — exclusively to IGN — that shows off some of the hellish encounters, locations, enemies, and weapons that will be entering the life of long-sufferin', hard-rockin' hero Lo Wang.
IGN's video spotlights the "Double Trouble" gore weapon, the gross "Gassy Obariyon" enemy, and finally the "Doomsday Device" map, which unfortunately appears to have little-to-nothing to do with clotheslining a man off of another man's shoulders. More's the pity.
While Shadow Warrior 3 is yet to receive a release date, it is on track to launch in 2021.
It looked pretty good, didn't it? The Mortal Kombat movie made all the right noises ahead of release. Ultra gore - check! Fatalities from the games - check! Loads of characters from the convoluted Mortal Kombat universe - check! Unfortunately the finished article - out today to rent in the UK priced £15.99 - fails to live up to the hype.
Mortal Kombat starts strong, with a fantastic fight starring Joe Taslim's Bi-Han - a ninja who goes on to become the frosty Sub-Zero - and Hiroyuki Sanada's Hanzo Hasashi - a ninja who goes on to become the fiery Scorpion. There's wonderful fight choreography to be seen as Hasashi flings a kunai attached to a rope (a cool origin story for one of the most iconic video game weapons of all time) through the heads of Bi-Han's goons. It's a fast, fresh action scene, and you can watch it in the video below:
And Mortal Kombat finishes strong, too, with a decent fight to bring the conflict to an end (for now - a sequel seems certain). But everything in between the top and tail of Mortal Kombat's gory innards is a badly-paced snore-fest.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla files reference a third mystical realm - the fiery world of Muspelheim - to potentially be included in a future expansion.
The mention of Muspelheim as a DLC location, spotted by reliable Assassin's Creed leaker J0nathan, lines up with early concept art for the hellish world released by Ubisoft and made for Valhalla - even though the realm does not feature in the final game.
In Norse mythology, Muspelheim is home to fire giants and the demonic Surtur. (If you've watched Thor Ragnarok, Surtur is the big flaming guy with the horny helmet.)
The Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit is impacting the gaming industry dramatically as the topic of what constitutes as a monopoly comes center stage. Earlier this morning, we shared how Sony is being sued over PlayStation Store exclusivity, and now Valve is being sued for the same regarding Steam.
The Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit's epicenter is antitrust violations. Antitrust laws are in place to protect consumers from companies owning a monopoly over their given market, as well as protection against predatory financial practices. The court proceedings have the interest of the entire gaming community, and now Valve is the latest to get swept into the bigger conversation about its placement in the gaming "hierarchy."
As reported by Ars Technica, “Valve abuses its market power to ensure game publishers have no choice but to sell most of their games through the Steam Store, where they are subject to Valve’s 30 percent toll,” said indie game developer and Humble Bundle creator Wolfire Games, in the lawsuit against Valve.
Yesterday, a new update was pushed through and quickly taken back down for Returnal when it was revealed that the patch was corrupting player saves. Given the nature of Returnal saves in itself, this update upset a lot of players, especially regarding the game's notorious difficulty. Now, a new update is live for Returnal that reverts it to a previous build pre-corruption while also addressing known issues like Trophies and the keyboard cheats exploit.
Patch 1.3.4 allows for all save games to be safe to play once more. The studio also outlined steps that players can take that were hit with the corrupt data issue:
Some game saves will have become corrupted with Patch 1.3.3, but maintained their file size. Players with those save games are able to safely continue their progress after installing Patch 1.3.4, without the need for using a backed-up save game.
Unfortunately other save games will have been effectively "deleted" by Patch 1.3.3, with their file size reducing to 0KB. These save games are not directly salvageable by Patch 1.3.4, without a backup save game available.
In those cases, please try using a backed-up save from PS+ if available, after installing Patch 1.3.4. With an intact save game from PS+, players can safely restore and continue playing with Patch 1.3.4 installed.
Back in August 2020, Epic Games ignited the fires for a legal battle that would be one for the edges. When Epic Games circumvented iOS storefront policies for in-app purchases by sneaking in a hotfix that cuts out Apple's 30% fee and allows players to purchase directly from Epic instead, the tech giant responded by immediately delisting Fortnite from its storefront. The company also revoked access to developer accounts through Apple, though that has later been reinstated by the court. Epic responded with a 1984-inspired Free Fortnite campaign, which evolved in a document-off between the two corporations. The trial officially kicked off on May 3, 2021. This is the recap of what's happened so far as we go into day four of the Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit.
The gaming industry is known for its secrets: embargoes, first-party deals, rights to certain crossovers. The court presiding over this case wasn't quite prepared for how much those secrets are to be protected, resulting in a lot of private information suddenly being made public. Before continuing on, check out our previous coverage here for the first two days:
Sony is facing a class-action lawsuit over PlayStation exclusivity through its digital storefront. The claims against Sony Interactive Entertainment are alleging that Sony is operating under a monopoly in the digital space regarding download codes for games through third-party retailers.
In a new report by Bloomberg, the class-action lawsuit centers around third-party digital sales through the PlayStation digital storefront, making the selling process by Sony Interactive Entertainment in direct opposition to antitrust laws, effectively making it a monopoly. According to the lawsuit, consumers cite Sony's restriction of third-party retailers from selling digital download codes for PlayStation games starting back in 2019. This includes popular retailers like Best Buy and Amazon. This move has put the PlayStation Store at the epicenter of digital-only purchases, which has caused legal action to be put in motion by consumers.
According to the proposed class-action lawsuit, "Sony's monopoly allows it to charge supracompetitive prices for digital PlayStation games, which are significantly higher than their physical counterparts sold in a competitive real market, and significantly higher than they would be in a competitive retail market for digital games."
The lawsuit goes on to claim, according to Bloomberg, that there is up to a 175% increase for downloadable digital games over their physical counterparts.
From the beginning of its inception, Yakuza was a game made for the adult male audience in Japan. It’s a point that its creators have previously brought up when interviewed about the games.
Yet, as the entire mainline series is finally available on PC, Yakuza has become an international hit for Sega, and I’m thrilled that many new converts and some of the most vocal cheerleaders are women. Coming to the latest entry, Yakuza: Like A Dragon (LAD for short), there are a lot of drastic changes to the formula, from new protagonist Ichiban to a turn-based JRPG battle system - but one notable shift is its relationship with women.
It's been a little while since Call Of Duty: Warzone Season 3 nuked Verdansk into the 1980s, and we've had time to get used to the two new weapons. They're both okay bits of kit, but haven't had a huge impact on the meta. So it's good to know that there's a new gun dropping tonight that'll likely shake things up nicely.
A class action lawsuit against Sony has been opened by consumers for the distribution of PlayStation games.
The post Consumers Open Lawsuit Against Sony for Restricting Sales of Digital Games appeared first on Siliconera.
Revenue for the Evangelion movie surpassed Shin Godzilla after almost 2 months in Japanese theaters.
The post Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Has Become Hideaki Anno’s Most Grossing Movie appeared first on Siliconera.
This new version puts a spin on a classic Vocaloid song.
The post Project Sekai Music Video Features Collaboration with Megurine Luka appeared first on Siliconera.
The perfect pocket companion for your desk!
The post Re-Ment Pokemon Bonsai Figures Fit in Your Palm appeared first on Siliconera.
It’s Nintendo Download day, the day when we get a look at the *checks list* 30 new games coming to the Switch eShop over the coming week. This week’s activities include chilling on a skateboard and playing poker with those boom anime babes that make you think the wrong thing.
Zynga has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire mobile monetization and advertising platform Chartboost for $250 million in cash. ...
Amidst the turmoil of Mega-MAU M& As, privacy changes and the uncertainty on re-targeting, studios may benefit from well-planned and executed community and retention strategies. ...
Switch hardware sales increased by 37.1 percent year on year to 28.83 million units, pushing the console to 84.59 million lifetime sales. ...
We've been talking about how Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been doing well for roughly a year, but now Nintendo has the data to prove it.
Just this morning they released their latest fiscal year results (ending in March 2021), and the results are just as we expected. In the 2020 fiscal year, hardware sales were at 21.03 units: but in FY 2021, they hit 28.83 million, a 37.1% increase. The Switch and Switch Lite managed to both improve here, with 20.32 million Switch units sold in FY 2021 (up from 14.83m), and 8.51 million Lites (up from 6.19m).
For those keeping track, the grand total of public Switch hardware sales as of March 2021 is 84.59 million. That puts Switch as number eight in the all-time best-selling system list, surpassing the Xbox 360 by roughly half a million in sales. The Lite continues to be a sound investment by Nintendo to continue to penetrate homes that favor portable gaming.
In terms of software, Nintendo boasts 36 Switch games that managed to hit a million-plus in sales in FY 2021, and that list has 22 Nintendo games on it. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the top of the pops, with 20.85m, followed by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (10.62), Mario 3D All-Stars (9.01m), and Ring Fit Adventure (7.38m). Animal Crossing is just shy of beating Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, only needing less than 3 million more units in sales, to take the top software spot.
The full million-seller list is below, consisting mostly of proven big names like Mario (or Luigi!), Zelda, and Pokemon titles. But there's a few success stories too, including Clubhouse Games and the aforementioned Ring Fit Adventure: a Cinderella story of sorts amid perfect timing.
The German Games Industry Association has officially confirmed that Gamescom 2021 will follow a fully digital streaming format this summer, abandoning previous plans to showcase this year's iteration as a hybrid online/physical event.
Previously, Gamescom had hoped that the situation regarding the global COVID-19 pandemic would have settled enough to allow for a small-scale live show. But despite the global rollout of vaccines and steadily declining infection numbers, the organizers have decided that it remains too late-in-the-day for companies to commit to travel and marketing plans, as well as designing programs and displays for the show floor. Thus the decision was made to replicate 2020's online-only format.
"Together with game — The German Games Industry Association, we have put all our energy into making Gamescom 2021 in a hybrid format possible for fans and industry alike," said Koelnmesse CEO Oliver Frese. "However, even though the hybrid concept was very well received by the partners, we had to recognize that Gamescom still comes too early for many companies in the industry due to the required planning reliability."
Gamescom 2021 will kick off on August 25 with Geoff Keighley's Opening Night Live stream. From there, Gamescom will run until the evening of August 27, showcasing a slew of announcements, trailers, developer interviews, Q&A's, and much, much more. This year's event will also see the debut of "Gamescom Epix", a community-driven experience that will allow viewers to team up for "quests" on social media and the new-and-improved Gamescom hub.
