90°

Earthlock: Festival of Magic Gets New Trailer Ahead of Retail and PS4 Release

Today, developer SnowCastle Games and publisher SOEDESCO released a new trailer for their RPG Earthlock: Festival of Magic, which released earlier this year onto Xbox One and PC, but is set to makes some waves in 2017 as well by releasing onto PS4, Wii U, and potentially Switch.

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dualshockers.com
70°

Game Developers Have Begun Confirming Nintendo Switch 2 Support

Game developers have already started to confirm that they will support the Nintendo Switch 2 with their future titles.

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twistedvoxel.com
310°

Microsoft Is Finally Ending Its Focus On Big Budget Gaming Nonsense

Back when the Xbox 360 launched, Microsoft pushed the big budget game as a differentiator. Following all the recent layoffs, it’s clear this strategy has run its course.

Einhander19727h ago(Edited 7h ago)

The Microsoft shill take on the Microsoft causing the death of big budget gaming...

The whole driving force for growth in gaming both technologically, creatively and financially was all nonsense, and it was definitely not because Microsoft ran the industry into the ground with obviously bad decisions and creating an unprofitable business model that massively disrupted consumer spending habits. /s

RpgSama6h ago

First, F**** Forbes and their shill take, I hope the money cleared by now.

Second, Which big budget games I might ask? Microsoft has been in a rut for like a decade now, with no big publisher and developers puechases they would have not released anything in the last 5 years but the new Halo and Forza.

Eonjay3h ago

Fortunately for us, since we know this message is basically coming from Microsoft, we can read into their motives. Why are they trying to turn people against big budget games and who would it help.... hmmm.

neutralgamer19922h ago

GP is like any content service it needs new content. AAA games take 100 plus million (low end estimates since most AAA games take double that) and it 4-5 years to develop. That’s why there were 2 god of war games instead of 3 because Cory felt like it would take too long

I am not defending MS. That’s just the reality when you put all your eggs in one basket (gamepass) and now they need content. Sadly that’s what we all said would happen and is happening. GP will be a service for AA games with 1-2 AAA games on yearly basis. And I am all for AA games because to me that’s where developers can take chances on smaller budgets but MS has mismanaged this whole situation from the beginning. Their messaging needs to be clear and it’s not

They own so many studios and IP’s they just need to get everyone on schedule so that there are games releasing every few months on GP. But I don’t even think Phil knows what he wants. It seems his goals change constantly

Game pass is not a sustainable and take two ceo was right when he said that it doesn’t make any business sense to release huge AAA games day one on GP. Just like call of duty shouldn’t be on GP because why give up on 15-20 million sales

S2Killinit1h ago(Edited 1h ago)

Right on.

Hahaha MS has ended “focus” on games? Lol when? 3 generations ago maybe?

Hofstaderman6h ago

Ah Forbes. One of the prominent MS mouthpieces....

Luc206h ago

Microsoft is finally... ahhh I've never heard this one before!

Petebloodyonion6h ago

LOL, this article is a big pile of dog crap...
Spencer has been constantly telling ppl that NO they would not go the route of having games like TLOU, Uncharted, etc because Playstation exists and prefers to focus on a diverse portfolio.

How many years have we seen Xbox as no game and we don't want small games like ORI, Pentiment, Grounded, etc.?

That's the real tragedy and why lots of gamers are mad at MS right now
because they have been championing smaller titles and yet fired the ppl delivering exactly what they were proning about.

So no the only nonsense is that MS seems now to be going BACK to AAA popular titles..sorry, I meant refocusing effort on core established IP where broken GAAS might be rewarded versus praised and rewarded work.

Einhander19726h ago(Edited 6h ago)

https://media1.tenor.com/m/...

You read an article cheerleading the end of big budget games and all the other articles about problems and this is what you have to say? That's what you think "the real tragedy" is?

I thought that xbox fans might finally "get it", but no, it seems they don't even understand what is happening and what is at stake.

Petebloodyonion3h ago

Please tell me what's happening and what is at stake

Since it's not big companies closing small studios, killing innovation while refocusing assets on big ongoing projects and core IP?

Let's See MS Close Tango Studio mentions that they are too thin on key project
Sony Close London Studio and make massive cuts in Firespite will reallocate resources to core project
EA will focus on Core project
Square will focus on big established IP
.....
.....

crazyCoconuts6h ago

Hurray! No more big gam.... wait... what??

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290°

Ninja Theory trends on X as gamers fear for studio following Tango Gameworks closure

Following the closure of 4 studios, many are now worried for the future of Ninja Theory once Hellblade 2 is released.

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videogamer.com
Sonic188111h ago(Edited 11h ago)

How is it going to sell well when it's also releasing on gamepass 🤔

Sephiroushin11h ago

Meant better to sell the studio and not closing it 🤦🏻 not to sell more games….
and games are sold anyways, you can buy it on xbox (not recommended if you got gamepass) but many pc gamers prefer to buy on steam than deal with the xbox app or pc gamepass!

On a side note to OP, the sales of studios wont happen though, especially when they want to retain the IPs, and well nobody is gonna buy a studios without its IPs; the other publishers that want a certain dev from the studio that are closing on their team can try to grab them as soon as they see they notice of the studio.

RaidenBlack9h ago(Edited 9h ago)

@Sephiroushin
Well hypothetically speaking, Ninja Theory can be sold to Sony at a lower rate sans the Hellblade IP.
Sony can then welcome them to work on the Heavenly Sword IP, which they still own.
Will be a nice proposition for Sony who can continue to offer a God of War-like hack n slash in their portfolio via Heavenly Sword 2, whilst Cory Barlog & co. decides to take a break from the God of War IP & venture some other genres.
On top of that, Ninja Theory was also interested in a sequel to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and such Sony can come to a deal with Namco Bandai regarding the Enslaved IP.

Lightning771d 5h ago

Because they're next come next year. HB2 won't hit some impossible metric within MS so they're getting axed in 2025. Leave gaming now MS.

XiNatsuDragnel20h ago

Ninja theory might as well be gone in 2025 at this rate

notachance12h ago

Every xbox studio is in danger now because there’s just no way they’re gonna rake in big money from game sales because of gamepass, even CoD was rumored to not come to gamepass because it would canibalize their sales number.

neutralgamer199210h ago

If they are smart they don’t put COD on GP day one. It’s one of the best selling games on yearly basis

Hofstaderman10h ago

Satya will make sure that doesnt happen. As you rightly put it; why kill the cash cow?

But then again, it is MS after all.....

thesoftware7306h ago

I agree and disagree. They should not put it on GP, but CoD makes real money from the overpriced MTX that people buy for over a year. They also have it all linked up to the Mobile CoD, which will incentivize Twitch spending from consumers.

neutralgamer19921h ago

Software

That’s true but keep in mind COD is the best selling or top 3 selling game every year. So yes micro transactions money is there but so are billions more

They should have tiers of GP subscriptions and the higher end tier received AAA games while everyone else gets them in 60 days

-Foxtrot7h ago

Also if you punish a studio for releasing a great critically acclaimed game which won some awards then what chance does anyone have

Elda6h ago

After this mess, I highly doubt the next installment of COD will be on Gamepass day one. It'll probably land on Gamepass 6 months after release date.

Noskypeno1h ago

Like I said earlier, I wouldn't even mind. There's a good selection of games on GP already, and it gives me time to play my backlog of games while allowing the games that need to sell millions of copies to make a profit a chance to succeed, a win win scenario.

Rynxie12h ago(Edited 12h ago)

Ninja theory games were never big sellers. I could be wrong, but I doubt hellblade 2 will sell millions. I would rather they go independent and make heavenly sword 2.

solideagle12h ago(Edited 12h ago)

heavenly sword is Sony owned IP. this will never happen as original didn't sell enough...

Wikipedia: "In 2008, it was reported that a sequel to Heavenly Sword was in-development at SCE Studio Cambridge, but was canceled due to Sony no longer seeing it as a commercially viable product"

Flewid6385h ago(Edited 5h ago)

I remember. I feel like the amount of time & technology that has passed would make a sequel a big seller now. The game has enough legacy recognition to build hype.

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