News Gaming Update : Street Fighter V Will Come With 16 Characters Out Of The Box And Additional DLC Characters

Since the EVO fighting championship is currently on, the hype for the latest Street Fighter is at a record high. Even though fans are going to have to be patient for a little while longer before they get a chance to play Street Fighter V, the developers of the game Capcom released certain details about their latest instalment in the franchise at EVO.

This game is going to launch with sixteen playable characters that is only three characters less than the previous Street Fight IV which came with nineteen characters. You shouldn’t worry too much about this though since Capcom has worked very hard on getting rid of the “clone” characters and have tried to give every character a unique feel which is quite evident from the overhaul Ken has received.

Capcom is going to continue adding characters to the game through the DLC (downloadable content) which can be purchased in-game or even earned while you play. This is wonderful since players who do not want to spend days on the game can still purchase characters and make them usable right away while people who do not want to spend the extra money can rough it out and earn the characters.

Capcom is also going to be getting rid of those stupid re-releases like Ultra & Super which were released by the previous instalment. With Street Fighter V, players are only going to need the original release with every other update coming for free.

Street Fighter V is going to release next year during spring on the PS 4 and the PC. There is also an exclusive PS 4 Beta which is in the making and should be online by the 23rd of July.

Posted by Unknown Sunday, July 19, 2015

News Sony PlayStation : Sony - We Fully Believe in Free-To-Play

The controversial business model wasn't originally part of Sony's plan, but now it's big business--and growing.

Today during a 2015 Game Developers Conference presentation, Sony's Sarah Thompson spoke about the rise of free-to-play gaming on PlayStation 4. In short, she said Sony has seen impressive growth in this area, so much so that the model could be a key component of the company's digital business going forward.

"We're really looking at this as a significant part of our digital business," she said about free-to-play. "I think that it's going to be a really a big chunk of our revenues in the next few years; 3-5 years. And it's already growing at amazing rates that are really quite surprising."

Thompson, whose official title is senior account executive for PlayStation's free-to-play business, went on to explain that Sony had no idea the free-to-play model would even exist just 15 years ago. Times have changed, and free-to-play has emerged as a key strategy for Sony.

"So we think that's great news. I think that it is really stabilizing the business. And I think it's future-proofing us. I think that it's really taking us into where we need to be as a company," she said. "As a company, we do fully believe in free-to-play."

Of course, Sony's investment in free-to-play doesn't mean the company will abandon traditional games anytime soon. The company has a number of marquee PlayStation games due this year alone, including Bloodborne and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, among others.

Also sitting on the panel today was Laura Naviaux, who holds the title of senior vice president of sales and marketing for H1Z1 and EverQuest developer Daybreak Game Company, formerly known as Sony Online Entertainment. Naviaux said she foresees a bright future for free-to-play on consoles, and not just on PlayStation systems, but everywhere.

"It's sort of just the first layer of the onion," she said, referencing that free-to-play on consoles is really just getting started. "Every indication is that there is a tremendous amount of opportunity for growth with free-to-play on consoles."

Splitting off from Sony means Daybreak can now support multiplatform development in ways it couldn't before. The company has said it is interested in bringing games to Xbox, though no specific Daybreak games have been announced for Microsoft's console.

Free-to-play often inspires debate and controversy, but Naviaux said players of games such as DC Universe Online and PlanetSide 2 have embraced the new monetization methods Daybreak has rolled out, especially on the PS4. This may come down to Daybreak's consumer-friendly approach to microtransactions, highlighted in a November Eurogamer interview.

In that interview, PlanetSide 2 creative director Matt Higby (who has since left the company) revealed that the developer purposefully went out of its way to prioritize making the game "fair and equitable" even if that meant missing out on a revenue spike.

"In a lot of cases, with the way we have designed our business model, we are leaving money on the table," he said at the time. "We're doing it for a reason. We're doing it because the trade-off in making sure we have a fair and equitable game will lead to more people playing and enjoying it, than if we were selling items we thought might be more powerful--even if that is a good, incremental and temporary revenue boost."

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 04, 2015

News Gaming Product Update : PS4 Will Continue To Outsell The Xbox One Through 2018

Microsoft has made massive changes to its console strategy over the last two years. The Xbox One is cheaper, less restrictive, and more feature-rich than it once was. But in spite of these strides in the right direction, the PS4 still remains dominant. And if a recent analyst report is to be believed, Microsoft’s console is doomed to play second fiddle to the PS4 well into 2018.

Recently, Strategy Analytics released a report on the sales trends of the current console generation. By the end of 2018, this analyst predicts that Sony will have sold 80 million PS4s. On the other hand, Microsoft will have sold just 57 million Xbox Ones. Neither number is anything to sneeze at, but that estimation puts Sony way out in front.

More than anything, this report just adds credence to the idea that the PS4 is Sony’s return to the glory days of the PS2. Perhaps the sales gap won’t be quite as steep as it was two generations ago, but the Xbox team must be upset that they’ve burned so much good will with early mistakes. Hot off the Xbox 360, this was Microsoft’s generation to lose, and lose it did.

What about the Wii U? Well, it looks like Nintendo’s platform will be hovering between 15 and 20 million if this report is to be believed. Even with last year’s top-notch first-party showing, hardware sales were weak. The Legend of Zelda is supposed to ship sometime in 2015, but even that won’t be able to pull the Wii U out of the gutter. I’m certainly not saying that it will sink Nintendo, but the Wii U continues to reek of failure.

Meanwhile, PS4 exclusives have been few and far between. Even worse, Sony’s The Order: 1886 has received shockingly harsh review scores. At this point, Bloodborne and Uncharted 4 are pretty much the only major exclusives on the horizon. The PS4’s hardware is superior, and Sony’s messaging has been more consistent, but the severe lack of compelling titles could hurt the PS4 in the long run.

So, can Microsoft change its fate? It’s definitely in the realm of possibilities. Redmond has been surprisingly proactive with massive shifts in strategy, and the Xbox One even managed to outsell the PS4 for a number of months in 2014. At this point, what these consoles need more than anything is content. And since Microsoft has Halo, Gears of War, and Tomb Raider on lockdown, the future looks bright for Xbox One owners even if the sales gap never shrinks.

Posted by Unknown Saturday, February 21, 2015

News PC Games Update : Marine Grenadier Loot Coming to 'Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare' This Weekend

Through its official Twitter account, Sledgehammer Games announced that gamers playing Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be able to earn an entirely new set of gear beginning this weekend.

Sledgehammer Games initially made the announcement through a poster that featured the hashtags #AWGearDrops, #OneShotMoshPit and #2XPGunGame.

The video game developer then sent out a tweet containing an image of a preview of the gear drops coming to the game over the weekend.

The new gear set is the Marine Grenadier set, and it will be available for gamers to earn just in time for the weekend's double experience points bonus. 

The new character loot will begin on Feb, 13 as part of AWGearDrops. The game's new gear will be included into the Supply Drop rotations, and gamers logging into the game over the weekend will be earning parts of the gear set.

The weekend will also be featuring two new modes, namely One Shot Mosh Pit and Gun Game. All these things happening all at once makes it very attractive for gamers to dive into Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare over the weekend.

The Gun Game mode was first seen by gamers in a previous iteration of the franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops. The game mode pits six players in a free-for-all duel that does not give the players a choice on their load-out. In addition, all players start the game with only their pistols.

Every time a player kills another player, his weapon will change to another among the 20 listed weapons for the game. The winner is the first player to kill using each of the 20 weapons in the game.

Before Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was released, the developers said that the mode will be included in the title. However, it seems that there was not enough time to complete the Gun Game mode, but it will finally be released this weekend.

Activision said that it has made $11 billion from its Call of Duty franchise since the first version of the shooting game was launched in 2003, showing the value of the video game series to the company.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has received rave reviews and has been one of the best releases of the franchise. Several new gameplay aspects were introduced into the latest version of the game, including the exo-suits and futuristic weapons.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has versions available for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC.

Posted by Unknown Sunday, February 15, 2015

Gaming News Update : Game Of The Month January 2015

If you're a pessimist, you might look at months like January as bone dry when it comes to video game releases. An optimist, however, sees such a month as a chance to pay close attention to games that might have otherwise flown under the radar. And as it happens, January of 2015 had a great many smaller gems worthy of your time and your love. One of them, the beautiful and imaginative Lost Constellation, even allows you to pay what you want, so there's no reason not to engage in its delights. The words "beautiful" and "imaginative" also describe Gravity Ghost, a short puzzle game with an aesthetic sensibility so unique that it's hard to escape its pull once you set eyes on it. Now is the time to catch up on what you're missing, for it's at the fringes that you find games that are truly special.


January also brought us excellent strategy games in the forms of Grey Goo and Blackguards 2. Grey Goo in particular is a return to form for the prototypical RTS formula, harking back to a time when base-building and combat stood on equal footing. With StarCraft II dominating that landscape, and with beloved franchises like Command & Conquer apparently left to slowly die, Grey Goo's traditional gameplay feels remarkably fresh in 2015. Then there is Blackguards 2, rising from the Might & Magic tradition, and making it fun to be a bad guy in a world full of nasty possibilities. If the PC is your gaming home, then January made it perfectly comfortable to remain there.

It was a multiplatform game that most inspired the GameSpot staff, however: Dying Light. Given its flaws, you wouldn't expect it to gain such favored status, but it's hard to ignore the power of good parkour. This is a game in which you're generally best off avoiding the crowds of zombies that fill the streets, and gives you the tools to take to the rooftops and leap above the undead. Dying Light's fun factor is off the charts, coming to a head when day turns to night, and the threat keeps you racing through the streets as well as above them. This is when tensions rise, your heart thumps loudly, and you alternately hide and sprint, knowing that peril is always only a few steps away. We therefore name Dying Light as GameSpot's Game of the Month for January, 2015, due to its uncanny ability to make running for your life so enjoyable.

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, February 11, 2015