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Category: Gamespot

  • Xbox One February System Update Goes Live

    Microsoft has begun rolling out its Xbox One February system update, following a closed beta test, which makes a raft of improvements and tweaks to the platform.

    Included in the new update are the previously announced controller tweaks, along with info hubs for each game and tile transparency on the Dashboard. Also included is new party chat functionality featuring better descriptive icons and improved stability.

    The February system update is the first of 2015, following a string of upgrades in 2014, and continues Microsoft’s pledge to regularly improve its Xbox platform.

    “Since Xbox One launched, we made a commitment to listen to feedback from the Xbox Live community and we continue to deliver on that promise,” the company wrote on the Xbox Wire.

    A full list of changes, written by Microsoft, can be found below.

    Controller Improvements

    • Quick Connect – Previously, controller connections to Xbox One took approximately four-to-five seconds when powering on a controller. Now, it will only take about two seconds.
    • Stability improvements – The update also provides a number of fixes that address some of the controller disconnect issues reported by Xbox One owners.

    Game Hubs

    These are the go-to centers for interesting content, tips and tricks for your favorite titles. Every Xbox One game will have a game hub where you can see which friends are playing the game, compete with your friends in game leaderboards, dive into the coolest game clips and game broadcasts, and follow the game’s top broadcasters and clip creators.

    On the game’s activity feed, game developers can share interesting content with anyone who follows the game. You’ll be the first to get news on upcoming updates and DLC, featured game clips and trailers, behind the scenes content and more. All the news about your favorite games is delivered right to your console. Additionally, you can now choose to Follow a game from a game hub, which will incorporate the game’s activity feed content into your activity feed.

    Party Chat

    • Chat connection status – New icons have been added to let you know the current status of a chat connection in your party. A clock icon means the connection is being made. A Squawker Ring icon indicates the connection was successful, and actively shows who is speaking. An X icon means that networking limitations (such as a Strict NAT) are preventing the chat connection from completing for specific participants.
    • Improved connectivity between multiple participants with Strict or Moderate NATs – We also made some connectivity improvements to party chat in partial mesh situations when multiple participants are behind moderate or strict NATs with their home gateways/routers.
    • Game and party invitations – To help you more quickly know who is inviting you to what, we made improvements to game and party invitations. Now, you can see which of your friends is inviting you and what party or game the invite is for, without having to wait for the text to scroll on the notification.
    • Performance improvements – We also decreased the time it takes to set up person-to-person (P2P) connectivity for party chat and streamlined the retry logic for setting up party chat sessions.

    Custom Backgrounds and Tile Transparency

    We’ve added tile transparency to the Home tiles to make your background images more visible. As a reminder, to set a custom background, go to Settings > My Xbox > My background. Note: some items can’t be made transparent due to usage rights/restrictions for certain images.

    TV updates TV trending in OneGuide

    As you scan the OneGuide TV listings, you can see which shows are trending with a “Trending on Xbox” or “Trending on Twitter” note and icon within the details for each show. Currently, Xbox TV trending is available to all Xbox One owners in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, and Twitter trending is available in the United States.

    • Live TV trending (new countries) – France, Germany, Brazil and Mexico now have the ability to see live TV trending data in Xbox OneGuide.
    • Improved control of TVs, set-top boxes and audio/video receivers – Xbox One works better with more devices. Updates to the IR blasting database for new models have been added and address issues reported by our fan community.
    • “Trick play” with Xbox One Digital TV Tuner – Xbox One Digital TV Tuner owners in supported countries (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) are now able to see video frames when fast-forwarding or rewinding paused TV on Xbox One consoles.
    • Live TV streaming on Windows Phone and Android – Live TV streaming on Windows Phone and Android devices for Xbox One Digital TV Tuner owners has been added in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
    • OneGuide for the Netherlands – Support for OneGuide is being added for Xbox Live members in the Netherlands.

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  • MGS 5: Ground Zeroes PC Sales "Solid," Konami Says

    MGS 5: Ground Zeroes PC Sales "Solid," Konami Says

    Konami on Thursday reported earnings for the nine-month period ended December 31, and, among other things, the company stated that sales of the PC version of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes were “solid.” A specific unit sales number was not provided.

    Following its million-selling release for consoles in March 2014, Ground Zeroes launched for PC through Steam in December 2014. The game is available today on Steam for $20.

    Konami’s video game division, called Digital Entertainment, saw total revenue decrease slightly, coming in at around $580 million for the three-quarter period. 

    Operating income, however, hit $70 million, achieving a climb of about 40 percent compared to 2013’s performance.

    Meaningful contributors to Konami’s video game revenue this year were strong sales of an array of mobile games, including Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu and World Soccer Collection S in Japan. On the console side, Konami said Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 did well, while Ground Zeroes, as stated above, saw “solid” sales on Steam.

    In terms of unit sales by platform, the PlayStation 3 led the way during the quarter, accounting for 35 percent of total units sold. PlayStation 4 was the next closest, making up 20 percent, followed by Xbox 360 at 11 percent and PC at 10 percent. Xbox One sales accounted for 6 percent of all Konami units sold during the quarter, the same figure as the PlayStation Vita.

    Looking ahead, Konami also confirmed Thursday that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain remains on-track to launch later this year for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC. The publisher has not yet announced an official launch date for the open-world title.

    Overall, Konami’s revenue for all businesses (including slot machines, health products etc) during the nine months was flat, coming in at $1.3 billion. Profit, on the other hand, climbed to $42 million.

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  • Persona 5 World Premiere Gameplay Trailer

    Developer Atlus has released its Persona 5 reveal trailer, offering a first look at the game’s principal characters and a fleeting glimpse of the gameplay.

    The video, above, confirms that Katsura Hashino, whose first game in the Persona series was released in 2006, is onboard as director. The video showcases the game’s unique look, achieved by mixing cel-shaded graphics with more traditional animations.

    Meanwhile, to mark the occasion, Sony Japan has announced a limited-edition Persona-themed PlayStation Vita.

    Persona 5 is expected to ship on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 at some stage this year.

    In September 2013, Atlus was acquired by Sega, which is now tasked with publishing the game across Japan and North America. However, Sega itself is entering a phase of corporate downsizing, with at least 300 staff set to leave the company, as it transitions its focus to PC and mobile..

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  • ‘Threes!’ Dev Puts PS4 Project On Hold

    ‘Threes!’ Dev Puts PS4 Project On Hold

    Asher Vollmer, the indie developer behind the multi-award winning puzzle game Threes!, has suspended work on his next project, Close Castles.

    The non-traditional real-time strategy game was being developed for PlayStation 4, with other platforms likely to follow, and offered a unique fast-pace spin on the genre. Each match of Close Castles, played via local multiplayer, is expected to last around three minutes. Players would dash to build cities, castles, and roads as quickly as they could on a small square grid, with the objective being to destroy your opponent’s castle before they would take yours.

    However, on Thursday Vollmer made a surprise announcement on Twitter that the project had been suspended. In a series of messages, he wrote: “Close Castles is currently on hold. I am working on a new mobile game now. Turns out I reeeally missed making mobile games.”

    Close Castles is currently on hold. I am working on a new mobile game now.

    — Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) February 5, 2015

    Answering questions from his followers, Vollmer went on to explain reasons why the project is on hold.

    “I designed myself into a corner. I need to take a step back for a while,” he said.

    “I’m taking a break because Close Castles needs a fundamental overhaul! We’ll see how I feel about it in a few months. I don’t particularly enjoy the game in its current incarnation. And few people outside of myself [don’t] enjoy it either!

    “This leaves me pretty much unable to continue until I overhaul the game and bring it up to a minimum level of quality.”

    Threes!, a mathy puzzle game that can be played with a single thumb, was a popular finalist for GameSpot’s Mobile Game of the Year Award. Among a growing number of accolades for the game, Apple announced that Threes! Would be a 2014 recipient for the Apple Design Award.

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  • Watch Destiny Players Beat Toughest Raid Without Firing a Gun

    Watch Destiny Players Beat Toughest Raid Without Firing a Gun

    While they aren’t the first to take down Destiny‘s newest raid, Crota’s End, a new fireteam appears to be the first to have done so without firing a gun.

    That’s right, a team of level-32 Titans (“TITANS ARE AWESOME!!” they say) has brought down Crota on Normal, not Hard mode, using only melee attacks, grenades, super abilities, and blinding bubbles.

    The impressive feat, achieved on Xbox One, is chronicled over three separate videos. Be sure to watch through the end to witness the team’s pure elation as they take down Crota, launching into an impromptu dance party to celebrate their achievement.

    In other Destiny-related news, details about the game’s next expansion pack–House of Wolves–recently leaked. Read all about it here.

    Via: Reddit

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  • Pillars of Eternity Team Ready for Work on Sequel

    Key developers behind Pillars of Eternity, the isometric-view RPG that generated about $4 million on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter, will begin to discuss ideas for a sequel within a matter of weeks.

    Though the Pillars of Eternity release date is just over a month away (March 26), the development team at Obsidian Entertainment has completed the main bulk of work and is already eager to discuss future plans.

    “We’re going to do some expansions because we said we would as a part of the Kickstarter,” said studio chief executive Feargus Urquhart, as quoted by Polygon.

    “We’ve already started working on artwork [for the expansions]. So we’ve already kind of figured out where we want to go in the world and the artists are doing some tests.”

    He continued: “But with Pillars of Eternity 2, that’s the next thing. Probably at the end of this month, Josh [Sawyer] and Adam [Brennecke], the key guys on the team are all going to sit down. They’ve already come up with a list of what they want to do, kind of new game systems and that kind of stuff. We’re going to try and get going on that as soon as we can.”

    Pillars of Eternity thrived on Kickstarter and immediately attained cult status specifically because of its spiritual link to old Infinity Engine games such as Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale.

    Now Urquhart is pondering whether Kickstarter is the right path to take for the sequel.

    “I think so, I think that’s what we’ll do,” he said.

    “It’s not 100 percent. The reason is because first we didn’t want to do it until [Pillars of Eternity] came out. The second thing is that the Kickstarter stuff is kind of up and down here and there. But the Shadowrun guys look like they’re pretty successful, they’re like one and a half or two million. I know if we put exploding kittens in it we could make billions.”

    Obsidian is now applying finishing touches to the Pillars of Eternity PC build, including gameplay tweaks and balancing; issues which are being discovered via developer playthroughs.

    “We told the entire team that no one works for a week and instead they just play the game,” Urquhart said.

    “It gave everyone a chance to be proud of what they had done and to figure out what they wanted to fix and change. This whole process has been great.”

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  • Square Enix Profit Doubles

    Japanese video game publisher Square Enix–which is behind franchises like Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider–on Wednesday announced sales results for the nine-month period ended December 31, showing year-over-year gains for total revenue and profit

    Revenue was ¥118 billion ($1 billion), up 16 percent compared to last year when company posted ¥102 billion ($870 million) in sales. Profit also showed year-on-year gains, more than doubling from ¥5.2 billion ($44.4 million) last year to ¥10.9 billion ($92.9 million) this year.

    Meanwhile, Square Enix’s game-specific division, called Digital Entertainment, posted revenue of ¥75 billion ($639.6 million), up 33.4 percent year-over-year. Operating income also jumped, rising 107.6 percent to ¥14 billion ($119.4 million).

    Square Enix called out smartphone and PC games such as Sengoku IXA and Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light as games that “continued to show strong performance.” Meanwhile, other smartphone games such as Schoolgirl Strikers, Final Fantasy Record Keeper, and Kai-ri-Sei Million Arthur also were meaningful contributors to Square Enix’s bottom line.

    In the home console space, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX sold well, and catalog sales were also “strong,” Square Enix said. Meanwhile, the publisher added that Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X are “making favorable progress.”

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  • Despite PewDiePie Backlash, Nintendo is Flooded With YouTube Partner Requests

    Nintendo says it has been inundated with requests from YouTube personalities who want to strike partnership deals.

    The backlog of requests has become so long that the 72-hour wait time for video approval has been extended, the company claims.

    “Due to your enthusiasm for the program, we’re receiving a higher volume of applications to register channels & videos than expected,” the company announced on its website. “It is taking longer than we anticipated to confirm the applications. We appreciate your patience as we work through them as quickly as possible.”

    The apparent flood of requests for video approval come days after prominent YouTubers, including PewDiePie, criticised Nintendo for the terms and conditions of its partnership program.

    Nintendo has the authority to take all the ad revenue (after Google’s cut) from any YouTube video that features its copyrighted content. However, if YouTubers send their videos to Nintendo for approval, the ad revenue will be split.

    While some complain that Nintendo is one of the first companies to take a slice of the content creators’ ad revenue, others take issue with Nintendo rewarding positive coverage (or, content it approves) with cash.

    That Nintendo Creators Program is just… shudder. Newp. Nope. Nah. No.

    — Jim Sterling (@JimSterling) January 29, 2015

    “I think this is a slap in the face to the YouTube channels that does focus on Nintendo game exclusively,” PewDiePie wrote recently.

    “The people who have helped and showed passion for Nintendo’s community are the ones left in the dirt the most.”

    He concluded: “There’s just so many games out there to play. Nintendo games just went to the bottom of that list.”

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  • How Call of Duty Zombies Was Almost Canceled

    How Call of Duty Zombies Was Almost Canceled

    Today at this year’s DICE developer summit, Treyarch’s Mark Lamia revealed the time he almost cut the zombies mode from Call of Duty: World at War.

    While World at War was in development, a small group of programmers spent their off-time working on a Nazi zombies prototype just for fun. Since the game was in crunch, and zombies didn’t fit with the franchise’s setting, Lamia considered telling them to stop wasting time and focus on the primary game. It was a move he described as something “that would have been the biggest mistake of my career.”

    In the end, he calmed down and tried out the mode himself. It turned out to be really fun, and Lamia felt it would be a worthwhile addition to the game. But trying to convince the franchise’s leadership was another uphill battle and some people even thought it would be a “disgrace to the franchise.” The team continued working on the mode in the background, and tried using word of mouth to spread how enjoyable the mode was, rather than pitching it directly to higher-ups at the studio.

    However, Call of Duty’s marketing and PR teams felt it was confusing and too off-brand to fit with the Call of Duty franchise. Back then in 2008, Lamia sad trying to sell a Call of Duty Zombies game would have felt like the series had jumped the shark. That’s why it was put in World at War as an easter egg that could only be accessed by players who had beat the main campaign.

    Eventually after launch, the zombie mode became so popular that it was unlocked through a patch. The fiction for the zombie universe evolved over time and was driven in a large part by fans and their speculation and message board posting.

    But even with Black Ops, there was no branding, PR, or marketing around the game’s zombies mode. Lamia described it as a blessing in disguise, since it gave fans of the game a way to continue interacting with the game in a more viral sense. Kind of like the zombie virus itself.

    Lamia didn’t reveal any details on what type of Call of Duty Treyarch is working on next, but given the nature of the talk, it’s safe to assume there will be zombies.

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  • 18th Annual DICE Awards Game Giveaway — Day Two

    The 18th Annual DICE Awards are in full swing and we’ve been giving away tons of codes! Each giveaway will last only 24 hours, so sign up quickly.

    Today (Wednesday, February 4th) we’re giving away the following games:

    • Wolf Among Us on Steam
    • Hohokum on PS4
    • Shovel Knight on Steam
    • Sound Shapes Bundle on PS4
    • inFAMOUS: First Light on PS4
    • Never Alone on Steam, Xbox One and PS4 (Europe)

    In an effort to be transparent, these codes were provided to GameSpot by DICE. As such, the parameters for the giveaway were put in place by them. That being said, Never Alone will be available in Europe as well as South America. The next giveaway will be available on February 5th at 12:00pm PST. Good luck!

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