The company states on its new website that it was formed in November 2016, which predates Crytek’s December studio closure announcement, suggesting the shutting of those studios could have occurred earlier than previously thought. The website also confirms that Black Sea Games is currently working on a project, but isn’t yet ready to announce anything.
The studio’s mission statement reads “Our mission is to create hard-core games that will entertain you over and over again. We believe the best gaming experiences are coming from challenging the players with meaningful choices, while giving them the freedom to create (and share) their own in-game stories.”
The new development house is headed up by Vesselin Hanjiev, who was previously managing director when the studio was under the Crytek banner. He served the same role before Crytek purchased the company in 2008, after founding what was then called Black Sea Studios in 2001.
It is unclear how many Crytek staff have remained for the return to independence.
Frontier Developments is pursuing legal action against Atari as part of a dispute over the amount of royalties it was paid for developing Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.
According to TMZ, Frontier asserts that sales of the game were higher than what Atari had led the studio to believe and, as a result, it is owed more money for its work. Frontier developed the core game as well as two expansions for PC and Mac.
According to the report, Frontier was paid $1.17 million for its work and believes it is owed an additional $2.2 million. This is based on claims it has found evidence that the game sold more than what Atari revealed it has.
In a statement to GameSpot, Frontier’s chief operating officer David Walsh confirmed Atari has denied the studio the opportunity to acquire accurate information using its right to audit, and as such is taking legal action.
“We can confirm Frontier is currently pursuing a complaint against Atari,” said Walsh. “We have attempted to resolve this issue without legal action since April 2016. We have so far been denied our contractual right to audit by Atari, and we are unfortunately left with no other way to resolve our concerns. We are unable to offer any further comment while the matter is subject to due legal process.”
Frontier, meanwhile, launched Planet Coaster to critical acclaim. In GameSpot’s Planet Coaster review, Edmond Tran awarded the game 9/10, describing it as “a game focused on the positivity that amusement parks can bring.”
He added: “It’s a game that occupies your thoughts when you’re not playing it, and it’s thoroughly captivating when you are.”
Star Wars: Rogue One might not have made as much money as The Force Awakens, but it was still a huge hit at the box office. It ended 2016 as the year’s second-biggest movie in terms of box office revenue, pulling in $408.164 million in the United States. The top-grossing movie of the year domestically was another Disney movie, Finding Dory, which made more than $486 million.
Rogue One narrowly edged out yet another Disney movie, Captain America: Civil War for the No. 2 position, as that movie made $408.084 million; Rogue One beat it by just $80,000.
The first standalone anthology movie, Rogue One focuses on a band of rebels who are trying to steal the plans to the Death Star. The movie is set before the events of 1977’s A New Hope. More standalone movies are planned, including an untitled Han Solo movie for 2018.
The group says it’s been working on the update since GTA V’s PC release in 2015. It also says Liberty City will not replace Los Santos; instead, it will appear just across the ocean. Take a look at a teaser trailer below.
“Liberty City is finally coming into GTA V in all its glory,” the modders said in a blog post. “Liberty City will not replace Los Santos or Blaine County, but appears across the sea.”
To avoid any potential legal issues, the mod itself will not place Liberty City inside GTA V. Instead, you’ll have to own both games on PC; a downloadable tool will then extract Liberty City from GTA IV and create a custom DLC pack, which can then be patched into GTA V. No release date has been announced for the mod.
The PlayStation Store refreshes for the first time this month today, January 3, ushering in this month’s lineup of free games for PlayStation Plus members.
The PlayStation Store should refresh later today; we’ll update this post when that happens. Until then, be sure to pick up December 2016’s freebies before they return to their normal prices. Don’t forget to take advantage of the PSN Holiday Sale Week 4 deals, too.
If you are looking to take advantage of Sony’s PlayStation Network Holiday Sale, now is your last chance. The fourth and final week of deals wrap up on January 3, so today, January 2, is the last full day to pick up games and movies on the cheap.
Grand Theft Auto V‘s online mode, GTA Online, continues to grow and evolve.
Rockstar today launched a new bike and mode, and rolled out the latest weekly sales. Additionally, now is your last chance to frolic in the snow and claim your GTA Online holiday gift. Today, January 2, is the last day to get your free firework launcher just for logging in. Additionally, snow will stop falling after today, so now is your last chance to pick up snowballs and chuck them at other players.
In terms of new content, the new Pegassi FCR 1000 notorcycle is now available in the game. “An instant classic, this bike will be the envy of your grandpa, even if he did disown you,” Rockstar said.
The new Adversay mode is called Vehicle Vendetta. As its name suggests, this is a vehicle-focused mode in which teams compete for powerups spread across the maps; here’s a rundown of them, as written by Rockstar:
Beast: Automatically transforms you into a Rhino Tank.
Detonator: Removes obstacles and objects from the arena.
Bomb: Place up to three bombs around the map to destroy trailing enemies.
Rockets: Fire rockets at oncoming drivers to incapacitate them.
Repair: Returns vehicle back to max health.
Ghost: Become translucent, allowing you to drive through enemy vehicles to steal their power-ups.
Jammed: Forces the accelerator on for the enemy team’s vehicles.
Flipped: Reverses the enemy team’s steering, acceleration and braking controls.
Zoned: Slows down time for all players.
Deadline: Automatically switches you onto the Nagasaki Shotaro complete with devastating light trail.
Random: Chance to collect any power-up except Detonator.
Vehicle Vendetta pays out double GTA$ and RP through January 17.
You can also earn double GTA$ and RP in some of GTA Online’s Stunt races. Starting on January 3, all 27 of the Rockstar-developed Stunt races will pay out extra. Additionally, this week’s Premium Race is Racing Alley, which pays out triple RP.
As for GTA Online sales, beginning on January 3, you can save on the following:
25% more GTA$ on Vehicle Exports
25% off Special Vehicle Warehouse Renovations & Special Cargo Warehouses
50% off Grenade Launcher
25% off Engine Performance Upgrades
25% off Body Armor, Ammo, Throwables, and Explosive Weapon Ammo
Disney’s live-action remake of its much-loved animated movie Beauty and the Beast is set to hit theaters in March. Following last week’s audio clip of star Emma Watson singing some of the film’s classic songs, two new TV spots have been released. Check the first out below, and the second at the end of this story:
Beauty and the Beast is directed by Bill Condon, who was behind the camera for the final two Twilight movies, as well as the Oscar-winning Dreamgirls. Disney has described the film as a “re-telling” of the 1991 animated favorite, tailored for a “contemporary audience.” It will stay true to the original music, while adding some new tunes as well.
Watson plays Belle, while Dan Stevens portrays Beast. Luke Evans plays Gaston, alongside Josh Gad as LeFou. There are also CG versions of Lumiere (Ewan McGregor), Cogsworth (Ian McKellan), and Mrs. Potts (Emma Thompson), Kevin Kline plays Belle’s father, Maurice.
Disney’s Star Wars: Rogue One continues its box office dominance, expected to rake in as much as $63.6 million in the US for the long holiday weekend to remain No. 1.
The sci-fi spinoff has been the top-grossing movie at the US box office since its premiere on December 16. To date, it’s made almost $439 million domestically alone, according to Deadline.
That makes it the second-biggest domestic release of 2016, behind another Disney movie, Finding Dory ($486 million). Rogue One needed only 16 days to to pass Captain America: Civil War ($408 million).
Rounding out the top five movies at the US box office this weekend were Sing ($54.8 million), Passengers ($20.6 million), Moana ($13.47 million), and Fences ($13 million). All of the numbers here and below are the high-end projections and include estimates for tomorrow, January 2, which is a holiday.
The video game movie Assassin’s Creed came in at No. 8, making as much as $10.4 million. The movie opened on December 21 and opened somewhat sluggishly.
Go to Deadline to see a full breakdown of this past weekend’s box office performance and projections.
Projections for the Top 10 Highest-Grossing Movies at the US Box Office (December 30-January 2)
Megastar Ariana Grande has a role in a Final Fantasy mobile game. The singer announced on Instagram today that a character based on her will appear in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, which came out in 2016 for iOS and Android.
“Pretty lil thing holds her own in a room of men in suits ♡,” Grande wrote in the caption for the Instagram photo below. “I’m SO so excited to finally share that I’ll be featured in FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS *crying*”
Regarding her character, Grande said, “It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life and I’m so excited and in love with it I cannot contain myself.”
Grande’s character, DW, can be seen in the follow-up Instagram video below. The character is wearing Grande’s trademark bunny ears.
Grande played the character Cat Valentine in Nickelodeon’s Victorious before breaking out as a massively popular pop singer.
You can download Final Fantasy Brave Exvius through the links below:
