Month: October 2017

Panelists including Tekken player Abi Adegbola, BezerkDC, and Netherrealm Studios’ Derek Kirtzic talk about what makes an incredible fighting game.

The much-anticipated reboot of the classic ’80s sci-fi action movie Predator is released next summer, and although we’re yet to see any footage from The Predator, a few details have started to emerge. A cool motion poster was revealed via the franchise’s official app last week, and now star Thomas Jane has been speaking about the movie.

In an interview on Shadow Nation, Jane provided the first clue as to what The Predator is actually about–and it sounds amazing. The actor explained that the film will focus on a group of “shellshocked” soldiers, who are arrested and are in the process of being transported to an army hospital. However, one of the soldiers is being targeted because he has seen the Predator ships come to earth.

“They’re going to take that bus, drive it down to a ditch and shoot us all just to get rid of this one guy,” Jane explained, via AVP Galaxy. “But, of course, we take the bus over. We’re all like, ‘Let’s go kill these f***ing Predators ourselves!’ And we’re just crazy enough to believe that this guy really did see a UFO and there’s these aliens out there. So that’s kinda cool!”

Jane went on to talk about working with director Shane Black, who previously helmed Iron Man 3 for Marvel and last year’s comedy thriller The Nice Guys. “I can just say I had a blast,” he said. “We had a great cast, with this terrific ensemble with all these great actors. And Shane Black wrote and directed it, so it has that kind of Shane Black humor. We had a blast. It was funny.

“You know the Predators, you know they didn’t f*** those up. They’re still Predators and they’re pretty much the same Predator as always. I think it might be great. I tell you the acting is going to be pretty good. I’m going to be good in it!”

The Predator was originally set to arrive in March but will now hit theaters on August 3. It also stars Boyd Holbrook (Narcos, Logan), Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight), Keegan-Michael Key (Keanu, Key & Peele), Sterling K. Brown (The People v. OJ Simpson), Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse), and Jacob Tremblay (Room).

With a handful of games like Uncharted 4 and Horizon: Zero Dawn supporting photo modes, the panelists discuss why it’s such a good thing for gaming.

The SNES Classic is really popular. Nintendo announced today that it sold 2 million units worldwide, which is remarkable given that the $80 system only launched at the end of September. Clearly, there is demand for retro consoles, which is no surprise given how popular and in-demand the NES Classic was.

Presumably due to this incredible demand, Nintendo is re-launching the NES Classic in 2018, and Nintendo said about this, “We are hoping that consumers eager to purchase this system will wait just a short while longer.”

A recently discovered trademark filing suggests that a Nintendo 64 Classic might be next. It remains to be seen if this will happen, but given the enormous success of the NES Classic and the SNES Classic, we wouldn’t exactly be surprised to see that happen.

The SNES Classic comes with 21 games, including the previously unreleased Star Fox 2. GameSpot’s review of the system praised it for being an “easy, accessible, and convenient” way to play classic SNES games.

The system outsold the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in the US during September, despite only being available for two days in the month.

Far Cry 5 presents you with a difficult task: a fanatical doomsday cult has taken over a county in Montana, and it’s up to you to free the area from its clutches. However, as Ubisoft showed off in its Paris Games Week trailer, you don’t have to go it alone: the entirety of Far Cry 5’s campaign is playable in co-op.

This means that you’ll be able to explore the Montana wilderness with a friend, and the video shows off a few of the possibilities. You can joyride in a pickup truck, wreak havoc in a plane, or take on actual story missions. Check out the video in the embed above.

You’ll also be able to join forces with some of the other townsfolk who aren’t as zealous about the cult’s cause. Called “Guns for Hire,” you can enlist the help of three NPCs who each have different strengths and weaknesses.

Ubisoft also recently revealed the game’s composer, Dan Romer. Best known for his work on Beasts of the Southern Wild as well as his solo compositions, Romer states that he’s brining in a lot of American folk inspiration into Far Cry 5’s soundtrack. This means that you can expect banjos, fiddles, and dobros.

Far Cry 5 launches on February for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. For more, you can check out all of GameSpot’s previous coverage here.

Xbox One X‘s release is just days away, so now could be a good time to pick up some games in preparation. With that in mind, Microsoft has revealed which games are on offer as part of this week’s Xbox One Deals with Gold and Spotlight sale. We also now know what Games With Gold titles that November will bring, if you’d prefer something free.

Some of the discounted games this week include XCOM 2 (US $24 / £18 / AU $28), EA Sports UFC 2 (US $20 / £15 / AU $26.23), and Styx: Shards of Darkness (US $16.50 / £13.20 / AU $25.64). In addition, The Escapists: The Walking Dead is currently on offer for US $15 / £11.24 / AU $20.21 for Gold members to celebrate the new season of the Walking Dead TV show. All these deals are available until 3 AM PT / 6 AM ET / 11 AM GMT / 10 PM AET on November 6–check out the full list here.

Outside of the regular weekly deals, Microsoft is also holding a special Halloween sale right now. For one more day, you can grab scary games like Resident Evil 7 and Zombi for cheap; check out all the Xbox One and Xbox 360 games on sale for Halloween.

In other news, Xbox Live Gold members can pick more free Xbox One and Xbox 360 games right now through the Games With Gold program. Free games for subscribers right now include Gone Home and The Turing Test for Xbox One, as well as Medal of Honor: Airborne on Xbox 360 (playable on Xbox One through backwards compatibility).

Super Mario Run has now passed 200 million downloads worldwide, up from 150 million. That’s a massive number, but Nintendo doesn’t see the game as having an acceptable level of financial success yet. As part of its latest earnings report today, Nintendo said that Super Mario Run has “not yet reached an acceptable profit point.” This follows comments from Nintendo about how the game had not made the kind of money that it hoped.

Despite that, Nintendo said the game has helped the company learn “a lot” about mobile game development, knowledge it will use with its other projects going forward.

Also in the report, Nintendo clarified that downloads in the company’s home country of Japan amounted to only 10 percent, or 20 million, of total worldwide downloads.Nintendo added that it’s goal with Super Mario Run is to make it the “definitive Mario application for smart devices.” As part of its effort to do this, Nintendo mentioned the game’s big 3.0 update that came out in September and added a new modes, stages, and a character.

“We also ran campaigns to foster more interest, including a special price offer for a limited period, to commemorate the release of the new version,” Nintendo said. “Although we have not yet reached an acceptable profit point, we have learned a lot in terms of game development and deployment that we want to take advantage of moving forward.”

Additionally, a slide showed that the September update for Super Mario Run helped bring players back to the game. As you can see, the “weekly user trend” figures jumped significantly following the release of the update.

Super Mario Run is a “free to start” game that lets you play some levels, before asking you to pay $10 to unlock the rest.

Super Mario Run is available on iOS and Android phones. GameSpot awarded it a 7/10 in our Super Mario Run review. Critic Peter Brown said the game “offers great platforming and that distinct Mario charm that Nintendo’s perfected over the years” but was “on the easy side and bereft of a long-lasting platforming adventure.”

PAX Australia played host to a heap of great esports this weekend as video games fans from around the country converged on Melbourne’s Convention and Entertainment Centre. The esports presence at the show has grown as this year’s PAX Aus featured two stages and literally hours of fantastic competition. Multiple teams secured trips to overseas tournaments at the convention — and the stakes made for some extremely entertaining match-ups.

Make sure you check out the rest of the esports hub, we’ve got all the details on Blizzcon’s Schedule too! Remember you can email tips to me esportsau@ign.com or you can just click to send me an email. If you want, you can tweet suggestions at me as well, my twitter is down the bottom of this article.

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Sony today reported earnings for the quarter ended September 30, and among the notable takeaways for gaming is the fact that the PlayStation 4 has now shipped 67.5 million units worldwide. Sony shipped 4.2 million units during the quarter to boost the new total to that figure. 4.2 million is up from the 3.9 million units that Sony shipped during the same period a year prior, so the business is growing.

It’s the highest quarterly shipment figure for PS4 since the holiday period last year, when Sony shipped 9.7 million units. Last quarter, shipments stood at 63.3 million units.

This slide also shows that Sony is now predicting to ship 19 million PS4 units by the conclusion of its current fiscal year, ending March 31, 2018. This is up from the previous forecast of 18 million. Whatever the case, this is down compared to last fiscal year, when Sony shipped 20 million systems.

Sony’s Game & Network Services division, which houses the PlayStation business, saw its sales rise 35.4 percent year-over-year to ¥433.2 billion. Sony attributed the uptick in sales primarily to stronger PS4 game sales, including digital, as well as the uptick in PS4 hardware sales. Operating income for the division came in at ¥54.8 billion, up by a significant ¥35.8 billion compared to the same quarter a year prior.

“This significant increase was primarily due to the above-mentioned increase in sales, partially offset by an increase in selling, general and administrative expenses. During the current quarter, there was a ¥3.1 billion positive impact from foreign exchange rate fluctuations,” Sony said.

When looking at all of Sony’s various divisions together, the company had a strong quarter, with sales rising 22.1 percent and operating income jumping by a massive 346.4 percent. Check out the chart below to see a further breakdown of Sony’s earnings.

Sony was not the only big game company to announce earnings today. Nintendo did as well, reporting strong surges in revenue and profit, while also stating that the Switch will outsell the Wii U after just one year on the market. Electronic Arts will report earnings later today, October 31, so keep checking back for more.