EA, Xbox, Naughty Dog, Star Wars, Marvel, And More Call For End To Racism
EA Sports was scheduled to formally announce Madden NFL 21 on June 1, but the developer has changed plans in response to recent events in the world. Not only that, but Xbox, Bethesda, Riot Games, and Summerfall Studios have responded as well.
EA Sports said in a statement on Twitter, “We stand with our African American / Black community of friends, players, colleagues, and partners. Our immediate attention is on actions we can take to drive change against the unjust treatment and systemic bias that is plaguing the nation and our world.”
The statement goes on: “We’ll find another time to talk football with you. Because this is bigger than a game, bigger than sports, and needs all of us to stand together and commit to change.”
PlayStation CEO Believes That PS5 Game Development Will Cost Slightly More
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are set to release this year, kicking off the next generation of consoles, and our first look at what the PS5 will be capable of came from a demonstration of Unreal Engine 5. But producing such highly detailed graphics will not come cheap, and could lead to an increase in the development cost of AAA games.
Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan has talked to gamesindustry.biz about the cost of creating a game that will look like the Unreal Engine 5 reveal video, “Lumen in the Land of Nanite” (below), will cost a lot.
“I think, to the extent that the technology enables the graphics side of it to become more interesting and life-like, [the games] will become slightly more human intensive and capital intensive to produce,” Ryan told the site, noting that there will “probably will be an increase in development budgets.” However, he doesn’t expect these changes to be too extreme. “We don’t see it as being a massive increase,” he says.
Fallout 76 Refunds Now Available In Australia After Retailer Misleads Consumers About Getting Their Money Back
People in Australia who bought Fallout 76 and felt misled by a refund policy can now request one from one of the largest retailers in the country.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced that EB Games–which is owned by American games retailer juggernaut GameStop–has begun to send out refunds to customers after admitting that the store “likely” misled consumers. Specifically, the ACCC’s announcement states that EB Games acknowledged that it was “likely to have misled consumers about their consumer guarantee rights in relation to faults with the online video game Fallout 76.”
The issue here is that EB Games reportedly told consumers who asked for a refund that they were not allowed one after they experienced bugs and other issues with the always-online RPG.
The Outer Worlds On Switch Features Optional Motion Controls, And More Details Have Been Revealed
The Outer Worlds is coming to Switch on June 5, and we’re starting to get some idea of how Obsidian’s RPG will run and play on Switch. Although we have not seen footage of the game running on Nintendo’s console yet, we now know that it will target a frame rate of 30FPS, and a few other facts about the port.
Speaking to Nintendo Everything, the game’s production director Eric DeMilt spoke about the changes being made for the Switch version. To aid accessibility and the ease of playing, the developers “tuned sensitivity, exposed some inputs to users in the settings menu, tweaked and iterated aim assist values, and added support for gyro aiming, and sticky targeting.”
Gyro aiming has been featured in a few Switch FPS ports, including Doom, Wolfenstein II, and the recently released Borderlands games. DeMilt added that Obsidian is “very happy with how the game looks and plays”.
PGA Tour 2K21 — New Details Revealed About Cross-Play And More
The first-ever PGA Tour 2K game, PGA Tour 2K21, releases this year, and developer HB Studios has now announced some new details about what to expect.
The developer answered fan questions on Reddit, and started off by confirming that there will not be cross-play support for multiplayer. However, the courses made with PGA Tour 2K21’s level editor can be shared across all systems. The game is releasing on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, and Stadia.
Additionally, PGA Tour 2K21 will allow players to import their custom courses from The Golf Club 2019 to the new game and use its new tools and assets with the new game.
Halo Infinite — Watch The Developers Blow Stuff Up With TNT To Record Sounds
Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has posted its latest behind-the-scenes video that shows how the audio team captured sounds for the next-generation Halo game.
The team used the industrial explosives ANFO and TNT to capture sounds for the game. They planted the charges six feet underground inside of barrels that were blown to bits, leaving giant smoke plumes and pieces of the barrels launching high into the sky and crashing back down to Earth.
Captain America Actor Chris Evans Addresses Whether He Would Play The Character Again
Chris Evans, who has played Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, recently passed on his shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Now, over a year later, Chris Evans has reflected on wrapping up his iconic role–and it doesn’t sound like he’s keen to return to it anytime soon.
On the May 29 episode of The Graham Norton Show–as reported by Digital Spy–Evans said that because he “went out on such a high note” with the character, he’s unlikely to play him again. “It was a great run and we went out on such a high note that it would be risky to revisit it in my opinion,” he told the talk show host. “It was such a good experience and I think it’s better left that way.”
The writers of Endgame, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, have previously said that Steve Rogers returning as Captain America in a future film would effectively damage their work.
Halo 3 Multiplayer PC Images Released, Beta Test Detailed
Halo 3 will be added to Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC soon, and now developer 343 Industries has shared some of the first images of the game running on PC.
Two of the images showcase the multiplayer map Snowbound, and it looks very crisp. Another image shows off the Avalanche map with a super-sized Elephant vehicle on it. The fourth image reveals what looks like the Foundry multiplayer map in the Forge map-making suite. You can check out all the images in the gallery below–click each image to see it in full-size.
343 Industries also outlined what fans can expect from the update Halo 3 PC beta test, or “flight.” The Forge mode will be available, along with Theatre, which is a feature that lets you watch past gameplay clips. The beta test will also show off new customization options and a new “challenge” system that calls on players to complete certain objectives.