Month: March 2018

State of Decay 2 will buck an industry trend and not feature any microtransactions, apparently. Jeff Strain, the studio head of developer Undead Labs, confirmed this to IGN in an interview. The story doesn’t feature any quotes from Strain, but the report says “there won’t be any microtransactions” in the zombie game.

This is notable because many games, from developers big and small, feature microtransactions as a way to pull in more money beyond the initial purchase price.

The original State of Decay for Xbox 360 features some microtransactions; one of these is the “Prepper’s Pack” for 99 cents. It includes a gun, an SUV, and a melee weapon. While not a microtransaction per se, State of Decay also offered extra content to buy in the form of the Lifeline expansion (which was later bundled with the Year One Survival Edition for Xbox One).

There is no word on why Undead Labs is electing not to offer microtransactions in the sequel. But it may have something to do with the controversy around the business practice that re-emerged after Star Wars: Battlefront II last year.

State of Decay 2, which launches in May for Xbox One and PC, will also sell multiple DLC packs after launch, while those who pre-order will get “exclusive” items. The game’s standard edition goes for $30, while the Ultimate Edition (which includes the expansions) will sell for $50. Xbox Game Pass subscribers will be able to play State of Decay 2 at no extra cost, as all Microsoft-published games going forward will launch into the Xbox Game Pass library.

While State of Decay 2 may not feature any microtransactions, plenty of other games do, and the business practice is not going away. For lots more on everything you need to know about microtransactions, you can check out GameSpot’s explainer here.

The Farming Simulator franchise, which has sold millions of copies, continues this year with Farming Simulator 19. Now, the first screenshot has arrived–and it looks lovely.

What you see below is the first in-game image from Farming Simulator 19, which promises to allow players to “farm like never before.” It also aims to be the “richest and most complete farming experience” ever made for consoles and PC.

Farming Simulator 19 is due out in late 2018 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Series developer Giants Software is behind the game yet again. For this year’s game, Giants has reportedly completely revised the graphics engine, and, well, farming has never looked so beautiful.

In terms of gameplay updates, the developer says Farming Simulator 19 will have “many exciting new features” that will be announced in the coming months. Specifics are being kept under wraps, but the developers are teasing a “huge announcement” at E3 this year.

Farming Simulator puts you into the shoes of a modern farmer in an open world where you can do farming things like raise livestock and cut wheat.

Fortnite: Battle Royale is immensely popular, and it’s growing bigger still. The game has truly broken out, becoming popular beyond gaming circles alone. The latest example of this comes in the form of celebrations from National Rugby League (NRL) players in Australia.

The first weekend of NRL just wrapped up, and, amazingly, three players–on three separate teams–each celebrated tries by imitating a popular animation from Fortnite. Check out the clips below to see players like Josh Dugan of the Queensland Cowboys and Blake Ferguson of the Sydney Roosters pretending to bandage themselves up as one does in Fortnite. New Zealand Warriors player Bunty Afoa did this as well.

Kotaku AU, which spotted the celebrations, wonders if the three players are squadmates and coordinated their celebrations this weekend. That does seem possible.

Whatever the case, Fortnite has become something of a phenomenon. Seemingly more of the talk and buzz surrounding the battle royale genre lately is about Fortnite rather than PUBG, the game that inspired it. We’ve even begun to wonder if PUBG could be in trouble as a result.

In other Fortnite news, Xbox boss Phil Spencer and developer Epic want to see cross-play support between PS4 and Xbox One added to the game. Unfortunately, Sony apparently will not allow it. Additionally, Fortnite is coming to mobile devices with 100-player battles and cross-play support with consoles.