The Entertainment Software Association today released a new report that talks about the “economic contributions” that the video game industry makes to the US economy.
The report, Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2017 Report, features a number of standout statistics, including the average salary for US-based game developers. According to the ESA, in 2015, the average compensation–including “wages, salaries and employer contributions for pensions, insurance, and government social insurance” was around $97,000. For California, which is a hotbed for game development in America, the average compensation was higher, at $113,000.
The number is an average across seven disciplines: visual arts, programming, game design, audio, production, quality assurance, and business and legal.
“The 21st century knowledge economy demands a creative and innovative workforce,” ESA CEO Michael Gallagher said in a statement. “The interactive entertainment industry is powered by real jobs that develop the most innovative and remarkable technology and entertainment in the world. These high-paying, creative careers build communities all across the US.’
Some of the other key takeaways from the ESA’s report is that there are 2,322 game developer “locations” in all 50 states and the District of Columbia; there are 526 publisher locations in 44 states. In terms of total workforce, there are 65,678 people working in the game industry in the US. As for the economic impact of gaming, the ESA estimates that games added $11.7 billion to the US GDP in 2015.
The report looks at the economic contributions of the gaming market from 2012-2015, making use of game developer databases and “online tracking resources,” as well as data collected by the ESA and the US Census Bureau. Here are some other stats from the report (read it here):
Some new screenshots of Mass Effect: Andromeda have come online. Posted by Twitter user shinobi602, the images show off the main and supporting cast and more.
As outlined on the official Battlefield website, the Winter Update sees the return of ribbons from past Battlefield games. Additionally, Class Rank caps have jumped from 10 to 50, and you can earn new stuff for reaching your max class rank. Today’s update also makes changes to Battlefield 1’s rent-a-server program, tweaks weapon and vehicle balances, and includes a number of bug fixes.
Additionally, you should no longer get killed by a horseback rider using a saber from “multiple meters away,” while the gas duration has taken a big hit, dropped from 22 seconds to 15 seconds.
You can see the complete patch notes below, as written by DICE.
Battlefield 1 Winter Update Patch Notes:
MAJOR UPDATE: RIBBONS
You will now be able to collect Ribbons as you play. There are 20 different Ribbons to collect, and each time you get a Ribbon you also receive a 300XP. The Ribbons are designed to promote good teamplay and playing the objective. If you have suggestions for other Ribbons you’d like us to add, we’re always listening! This is just the beginning.
MAJOR UPDATE: ELITE CODICES
It is now possible to unlock an Elite Codex for eight of the available primary weapons in the game. All you need to do is get 500 more kills per applicable weapon. Not only will you get a shiny Elite Codex, but you will also be awarded 25,000 bonus XP. Not bad when you’re chasing those new Class Ranks.
MAJOR UPDATE: CLASS MAX RANKS
The new max Class Rank will now be 50. At every 10 new Class Ranks you’ll receive a Battlepack, and when you hit 50, you will be granted some extra nice Class flair in the kill card to taunt your fallen foes. There will also be Dog Tags that you can unlock as you progress towards max Class Rank 50.
MAJOR UPDATE: SERVERS
With the Winter Update we’re releasing some highly anticipated rent-a-server features. RSP admins will now be able to kick players from their server using the in-game UI, or swing a mighty ban hammer if someone is misbehaving. RSP admins will now also have prioritized access to their server.
On top of this, we’ve added the feature to vote for the next map after a match is over. Players on the server will get two options to vote for, and whichever alternative gets the most votes will be the next map. The options will be randomly selected from the server’s map rotation. This is done during the end of round screen, so no extra time between rounds has been added.
GAME IMPROVEMENTS
VEHICLES
Fixed some parts of vehicles that were improperly placed in front of 1p cameras when taking or repairing damage to them.
Fixed tank driver weapon visuals not functioning correctly for other players when the driver uses a 3p camera.
Fixed an issue where the Heavy Tank would not show on the minimap when firing.
Reduced the cooldown of gas abilities on vehicles from 30-32s to 25 seconds to make up for reduced gas duration.
Fixed issue where multiple tanks could become available to a team when they shouldn’t be.
UI
Fixed an issue where the Warbond symbol overlapped the amount of available warbonds in Arabic language.
Fixed an issue where the kill log would be visible in the deploy screen in Hardcore mode.
Fixed an issue where player nametag would not show in the kill log for some type of kills.
Improved the logic for fading out crosshairs and UI when aiming down sights.
Fixed English spelling error for magnification.
Kit rank progress bar now becomes invisible once you reach max rank.
Vehicle selection is now disabled while the preround countdown is running in order to provide a more fair selection process for vehicles.
Increased the time for re-selecting invalid deploy points from 3 to 10 seconds to avoid 100% automatic reselection when squad members are under fire.
Fixed issue where amount of warbonds could overlap UI container.
Fixed issue where XP boost could overlap UI container.
Fixed an issue where players would join an Operation when it had progressed too far, almost at the end.
Improved performance in the menu system.
Tweaked design of friends list.
Player will now track first medal by default.
RSP server information will now display owner of server.
Now sorts regular servers below RSP servers in the server browser.
Added server information in …-menu.
Fixed a bug where joining server animation started twice when joining server.
Fixed a bug where the user remained in hang after failing to join a server.
Fixed a bug where the tracked medal was not highlighted.
Fixed a bug where players were unable to see the highlighted text in end of round.
Fixed a bug where players were prompted with “Matchmaking failed” when switching between Quickmatch modes.
Fixed a bug where the party hub did not update party members.
Fixed a bug where stats required reentering the weapons page to update.
Fixed a bug where players were unable to invite to party from comcenter after booting the title via party game invite with a 6+ people party.
Fix animation issue on personalized recommendation cards.
Fixed a bug where personalized recommendation cards would not fade.
Fixed a bug where the context menu was misaligned when the user clicked on it for the first time.
Fixed a bug where the highlight was broken after the user selected a vehicle with service star in the vehicle tab.
Fixed a bug where players were left in hang when dismissing the “Matchmaking Failed” while the “you have no scraps” prompt was active in loading screen.
Fixed a bug where players could scroll using “R” in the comcenter on console.
Fixed a bug where the end of round countdown stopped when quickly navigating through the tabs.
Fixed a bug where the mouse scroll did not work in list of recommendation cards.
Fixed a bug where content moved around in the menu when players were spamming down on the d-pad.
Fixed a bug where players entered an unplayable state when attempting to join a game session via the Xbox friend’s tab.
Fixed a bug where it was not possible to inspect skins in the Inventory.
Fixed a bug where Standard Battlepack real-money price sometimes did not show up.
Fixed 7 UI related crash bugs.
Fixed several localization issues.
MAP ADJUSTMENTS
Fixed an issue with floating debris after destroying a table.
Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in a table.
Player will no longer clip through the visual mesh of windmill interiors.
Grenades and dynamite will no longer fall through the floor of the windmill balcony.
Removed flickering effect on tall wooden fences.
Destruction fixed between tall wooden fence parts.
Fixed Conquest spawn locations on Suez. Moved one up so player no longer spawns underground, moved another out of a tree.
Fixed issue where underwater sounds could get stuck on land.
Fixed issue where the player could move on top of the map on Argonne Forest.
Fixed issue where Hint Line for train did not disappear after performing indicated action or even leaving the behemoth on Conquest, Suez.
WEAPONS
Side gun meshes weren’t rendering for 3p spectators depending on which weapon was used and if that particular seat was spectated.
Fixed an issue with the “Tankghewehr 1918” Elite weapon replenished ammo after picking up any dropped weapon kit.
Bayonet charge kills should now properly award service stars.
Fixed illogical behavior when using K Bullets with the Martini-Henry.
Tweaked post reload delays to better match animations on the following weapons:
Cei-Rigotti 0.4 to 0.6 s.
Mondragon 0.5 to 0.5667 s.
Selbstlader 1906 0.8 to 1.0667 s.
Bodeo 1.1 to 1.0 s.
Bulldog 1.0 to 1.1 s.
Increased long reload time of Autoloading 8 .25 Extended from 2.9 to 3.066 s.
Improved Selbstlader 1906 aimed accuracy, reduced recoil and decreased spread.
Increased horizontal recoil by 14.3%:
Automatico Trench
Hellriegel Factory
M1909 Storm
Madsen Storm
MG15 Storm
BAR Storm
Increased horizontal recoil of Lewis Optical and M1909 Optical by 10% when ADS.
Reduced horizontal recoil of some self-loading rifles:
Autoloading 8 0.6 to 0.4.
Cei-Rigotti 0.64 to 0.56.
M1907 SL 0.84 to 0.7.
Upped recoil decrease of “Low Weight” SLRs from 6 to 7.
Increased damage of the Martini-Henry between 30 and 80 meters slightly.
Reduced the damage of impact grenades from 80 to 72″
Tweaked the damage behavior of the 12 g Automatic shotgun to balance all variants better against each other:
Extended: Increased pellet cone from 1.6 to 1.8 degrees. Should now two hit kill a healthy target up to about 18 meters.
Backbored: Reduced pellet cone from 1.28 to 1.2 degrees. Should now two hit kill a healthy target up to about 19 meters.
Hunter: Reduced pellet cone from 1.28 to 1.2 degrees. Should now two hit kill a healthy target up to about 21 meters.
All: Moved out damage dropoff by 1 m and added damage curves.
Model 10-A Slug changes:
Reduced aimed dispersion from 0.3 to 0.24 when stationary and from 0.50 to 0.48 when moving.
Increased muzzle velocity from 380 to 420.
Reduced damage against gut, arms and legs.
Added ability to kill a healthy target with shots to the gut or upper arms within 8 meters.
Increased lethal range from chest shots from 10 to 11 meters.
Evened out recoil direction.
Increased No.3 Revolver rate of fire in ADS from 119 to 138.
Added missing tiered reloading to flash flares.
Fixed Selbstlader 1906 and GasserM1870 last round fired animations for accuracy.
Fixed Gasser round-in-cylinder rotation during reload loop.
Fixed slide travel on several automatic pistols during fires and reloads.
Fixed hammer position of Mars pistol during reload.
Fix of Auto Revolver reload interrupt tiers and speedloader visibility.
Removed visual recoil from ADS fire anims on Mle 1903, Pieper Carbine, 1903 Experimental.
Fixed issue with tiered reloading in the Mle 1903.
Corrected Frommer Stop Auto magazine capacity from 14+1 to 15+1.
Corrected errors in moving dispersion for crouched hipfire on shotguns.
Retune of Revolver No 3 reload audio to match new animation. Added hammer cocking to ADS firing animation.
Retune of Luger1906 Reload Audio to match new animation.
Automatico M1918 sometimes showed the wrong name (it was called Modello 1918 in a few places).
The Tankgewehr now resupplies 4 rounds at once.
Made damage of the Russian 1895 Trench and Horse drop slower to give them a slightly better 2 hit kill range.
Retuned audio on Gasser reload to match new animation. Added hammer cock/decock to Deploy and Undeploy to match animation.
SPECTATOR
Fixed an issue in Spectator where a 1P overlay appears for spectators viewing players in fortress guns in 3P or when spectating the artillery truck driver in 3P while the driver zooms.
New button added in Spectator mode to view the gamer card of a spectated player.
Added button labels to the view modes in Spectator mode for PS4/Xbox One.
Bayonet recharged sound could trigger from any soldier on spectator clients. This should now only occur for spectated soldiers.
Added extra check for “not team neutral” to gate announcer VO when in Spectator mode Freecam or Tabletop views.
Added gates to Impaired Hearing Mixer, Low Health Mixer, Gas Supression Mixer to not activate for spectators in freecam/tabletop view.
Added extra checks for Low Health and Gas Supression SFX/mixers to start if spectator enters player view while SFX/mixers should be active.
Possession announcer VO will now not play for freecam and tabletop spectators.
Fixes Pre-EOR music not activating for spectators (all game-modes).
Gated “Lost Objective” VO to not play for spectators in Conquest/Operation/Domination.
Fixed corrupted VFX when players shoot the Flare Gun in all camera modes.
Fix for parts of the train disappearing while spectating a player in the train in 3rd person or director.
Fixed the Spectator boundaries to be the same as the plane boundaries on Giant’s Shadow.
Fixed a spectator bug with the behemoth icon staying at the center of the screen if you exit player view mode before it is moved to the final position at the top of the screen.
Fixed an issue where the option “show player outlines”/Squad Pin stopped working when switching through players.
Fixed an issue where the player could not select the numbered freecam they were just on from a drop camera.
Fixed a bug where Battlepacks and Medals were present in loading screen when joining as Spectator.
Fixed a bug where players did not receive the option to join friend as spectator on consoles from comcenter.
GAMEPLAY
Improved cavalry victim experience. You should no longer get killed by cavalry using a saber from multiple meters away.
Fixed errors where Elite Kits had unintentionally high health regeneration delays and carried too many grenades.
Increased the threshold for suppression effects to prevent suppression from occurring too early.
Reduced gas duration from 22 to 15 seconds.
Tweaked suppression effects and low health visuals.
Fixed VO issue in Rush when defenders have interacted with telegraph to send enemies coordinates.
CONTROLS
Fixed PC custom keybindings not properly remapping for Behemoths.
NETCODE
Reduce maximum displacement of high ping players when missing updates.
Fixed huge extrapolation times for good connections after frame spikes.
CUSTOM GAME
Added custom game setting to toggle Behemoth.
Added custom game setting to toggle Squad Leader Only Spawn.
“In terms of being together online in virtual reality, I think a lot of the problems have been solved or are starting to be solved,” he explained. “This is something that we’re looking into, too. But when I see people play virtual reality, it makes me worry, just as for example if a parent were to see their kid playing virtual reality, it would probably make them worry.”
He added: “Another issue and challenge that I think everybody faces is how to create an experience that’s both short enough while also fully fleshed out in virtual reality.”
“When you think about what virtual reality is, which is one person putting on some goggles and playing by themselves kind of over in a corner, or maybe they go into a separate room and they spend all their time alone playing in that virtual reality, that’s in direct contrast with what it is we’re trying to achieve with Wii U,” he said, at the time promoting that system. “And so I have a little bit of uneasiness with whether or not that’s the best way for people to play.”
Here is a picture of Miyamoto trying Oculus Rift at E3 2014:
Nintendo’s next home console is the Switch, which comes out on March 3. There have been rumors and reports that claim the system may support virtual reality in the future, but Nintendo has not made any official announcements.
Banned Footage Vol. 2 includes two new missions to play through: 21 Scenario, in which Capcom says you must “gamble life and limb in a deadly game run by Lucas Baker;” and Daughters Scenario, which acts as a prequel to the main game.
In addition, the DLC includes a new mode, called Jack’s 55th Birthday. This is described as a “comical game mode” that involves feeding the game’s villain, Jack Baker, “tons of food.”
The DLC is a timed exclusive on PS4 until February 21, when it will arrive on Xbox One and PC.
As of February 11, all future development on the free-to-play game will be handled by My.com.
In a statement (via Polygon), Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart said his studio was grateful to have worked on Armored Warfare for the past four years and is happy to transition development to My.com.
The actor who will play R2-D2 in the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been named. Scottish actor Jimmy Vee has taken over from Kenny Baker, who died last year.
The news was confirmed by talent agency Oh So Small. In a statement, Vee said: “It’s been an absolute pleasure to have worked alongside the legendary Kenny Baker. Kenny was a fantastic actor and taught me all the ‘tricks’ on how he brought R2-D2 to life which I will continue to portray in his honor.
“I’m so excited to be a part of the Star Wars universe and can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve been working so hard on for the last year.”
Vee portrayed R2-D2 in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but was not credited. While no actor was listed for the iconic role, Baker was credited as ‘R2 Consultant.’ Vee also appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Pan, and episodes of Doctor Who.
The movie is directed by Rian Johnson and arrives in theaters on December 15, 2017. It also stars John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Laura Dern, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis. Carrie Fisher filmed her Leia scenes for the movie before she passed away in December.
Call of Duty fans hoping to see Black Ops II added to the Xbox One‘s backwards compatibility catalog this week are out of luck. Responding to a fan’s question, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer said on Twitter that rumors of the game joining the lineup this week are “not true.” Someone else asked if Black Ops II might be added this month, but Spencer said he can’t share that kind of information ahead of time.
“I can’t comment on later releases on [third-party] games but rumors on this right now aren’t true. Sorry. I wish I had better news for you,” he said.
Black Ops II is the most-requested game for backwards compatibility on the Xbox Feedback site. It has more than 211,000 community votes, which is well ahead of the No. 2 game, Skyrim, which has 173,000. Votes on the Feedback site guarantee nothing, but clearly there is demand.
Call of Duty games make up four of the top five most-requested games to join the backwards compatibility lineup, with Modern Warfare 2 (168,000), Modern Warfare 3 (119,000), and Modern Warfare (114,000) rounding out the top five in terms of votes.
Hannibal and Casino Royale actor Madds Mikkelsen is in Hideo Kojima’s mysterious new game, Death Stranding. A trailer from The Game Awards revealed that Mikkelsen plays some kind of alien bad guy. Now, the actor has spoken a bit more on working a video game for the first time.
In the newest episode of Kojima’s “HideoTube” series, Mikkelsen said he’s enthusiastic about working with a veteran game developer like Kojima and trusts that he’ll deliver a great product in the end.
“Everything is created by you guys,” Mikkelsen said to Kojima in the video, referencing the development team. “We [the actors] are there as a base, but everything else will be created. So obviously we have to trust you a lot because we have no idea what it’s going to be–we can only imagine it. We only have our imaginations to work with. No sets. No nothing.”
Mikkelsen also shared his first impression of the Kojima Productions studio, which the developer recently shared numerous pictures of. “It’s amazing. Everybody is sitting there being creative,” he said. “It’s very overwhelming to see. I know it’s a very difficult process to make a game like this, but it is also very creative, I can tell.”
The interview is a treat. Mikkelsen also talks about his first impressions of Kojima and spoke a bit about how Kojima is similar in his artistry to Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn. These are just a few of the topics that get discussed; you can watch the full video above.
“Of course, with Sonic involved, who knows what other surprises might be in store?” reads a line from the panel’s description. Sonic voice actor Roger Craig Smith and Dr. Robotnik voice actor Mike Pollock will attend the panel as well.
The Sonic panel takes place on March 16, starting at 3 PM PT / 5 PM CT / 6 PM ET / 11 PM UK. It’s not clear right now if it it will be streamed, but we’ll have all the news for you as it’s announced.
Sonic Mania is scheduled to come out this year for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. As for the brand-new Sonic game, almost nothing is known about this, but we do know it’s coming to the same platforms and is also due out this year.
