Month: January 2019

Fighting game Dead or Alive 6 won’t launch on time. Developer Team Ninja and publisher Koei Tecmo announced today that the title has been delayed to March 1, 2019. It was previously scheduled to be released on February 15, so the delay is only a couple of weeks.

Producer and director Yohei Shimbori said in a statement that the team needed more time to focus on polishing “balance, gameplay, and expressivity.”

“The title’s development is already near complete; however, we would like to take more time to further polish its balance, gameplay, and expressivity,” Shimbori said. “In return for your patience, we commit to bringing you the best Dead or Alive gaming experience.

“I am truly sorry for the inconvenience caused by the release delay of Dead or Alive 6.”

Dead or Alive 6 will launch for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. In other news, a tweet from the game’s channel might be teasing that a demo for Dead or Alive 6 is in the works. The message states, “Perhaps the time has come to give our fighters a chance to TEST their skills.” The mention of “test” might be in reference to a demo, but no official announcements have been made at this stage.

Sony provided a new sales update for the PlayStation 4 today, and things are going quite well, it seems. The console has sold 91.6 million units worldwide as of December 31, which includes 5.6 million units sold during the holiday season (November 19-December 31).

Additionally, Sony announced that Spider-Man for PS4 has sold 9 million copies physically and digitally as of November 25. The Insomniac-developed PS4 exclusive launched in September, selling 3.3 million copies in its first three days to set a new sales record.

Another big number was 50.7 million, which is the number of PS4 games (physical and digital) that were sold during the holiday season. This boosts the total number of PS4 games sold globally since the console launched in 2013 up to 876 million across physical and digital as of December 31.

Sony also announced that the PlayStation Network had 90 million monthly “active” users as of the end of November 2018.

“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our passionate community around the globe, and our partners, for helping us achieve these milestones,” Sony Interactive Entertainment president John Kodera said in a statement.

“This year, we will bring more enhanced experiences to our fans along with a highly anticipated lineup of games that are only possible on PS4. As we look toward the next PS4 milestone, SIE will continue to evolve, and we will further expand the platform to deliver the best interactive entertainment experiences to the world.”

The PS4 is doing extremely well in the market, but it still has a lot of work to do to match the sales of the PlayStation 2. That console sold more than 150 million units.

Back in May 2018, Sony said the PlayStation 4 was entering the end of its lifecycle. In October, the company for the first time acknowledged it might make a PlayStation 5.

There are a number of exciting PlayStation 4-exclusive games in the works, including Death Stranding from Hideo Kojima and The Last of Us: Part II from Naughty Dog.

There’s still no word on when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will start filming, but that’s not stopping Dave Bautista from signing on for more work. The actor, who plays Drax in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has joined the cast of the Dune reboot from director Denis Villeneuve.

As reported by Variety, the former WWE superstar will star alongside Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson in the film. Villeneuve, who last directed Blade Runner 2049, is co-writing the script with Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts.

Villeneuve’s reboot will be the second time a Dune film has hit the big screen. Adapted from the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert, the first film was released in 1984 from writer and director David Lynch. Prior to that, Alejandro Jodorowsky attempted to adapt the book to film, but the project was ultimately abandoned. The 2013 documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune revisited the writer and director’s failed venture and examined the impact it had on science fiction franchises like Alien and Star Wars.

Dune is set in the future in space, following the fall of the Atreides family, who ruled the planet Arrakis. Chalamet will play Paul Atreides, who attempts to regain his family’s place of nobility on the world, with Ferguson set to star as his mother. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bautista will play “Beast” Rabban, the nephew of a Baron that now controls the planet.

There’s no set release date for Dune just yet. However, Bautista will soon be back in theaters as Drax when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26.

Rockstar Games has announced job listings for new, unannounced titles, which the company has described as “next-generation” projects. Whatever the creators of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto V have planned next, it looks like we won’t see it until the release of whatever comes after Xbox One and PS4.

First noticed by Gear Nuke, Rockstar India is hiring for technical artist positions, including a senior environment artist, to join a team tasked with creating “next-generation worlds for some exciting upcoming projects.” The India branch is also hiring a vehicle artist, and the description sounds like it could be for something like GTA 6. Also, Rockstar New York is looking for a MoCap tools developer to help create and build “upon the next generation of MoCap tools and pipeline,” as well as a technical face developer to “help research and develop new technology for future titles.” Rockstar Toronto is also hiring for projects that use next-generation technology.

For fans of Rockstar or people familiar with the process with which the company makes games, these announcements might not be a surprise. Rockstar spends many years developing new titles–the original Red Dead Redemption and its sequel released nearly a decade apart–and the company still hasn’t finished with Red Dead Online. Both Microsoft and Sony have hinted at their next consoles possibly being announced by 2020 and released soon after, so Rockstar pushing out another game before the end of the Xbox One and PS4’s lifecycles seems unlikely. It makes sense for the company to be looking ahead to whatever is next.

Rockstar’s last game, Red Dead Redemption 2, is our Game of the Year for 2018. When describing the title, our senior reviews editor Kallie Plagge wrote, “It’s hard to shake the kind of connection you develop with Red Dead Redemption 2’s world and characters. It’s a game that can try your patience, for sure, but it simply wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t. It’s an unforgettable experience that challenges your expectations as often as it meets or exceeds them, and there’s no question that it’s our Game of the Year.”

CES 2019 is underway, giving us a glimpse at some of the new tech products that are on the way in the coming year and beyond. HTC was the latest company to host its CES press conference, and it made a number of big announcements during the event, from revealing a new Viveport subscription model that offers unlimited access to VR games to unveiling its next VR headset, the Vive Cosmos.

If you weren’t able to follow along with the press conference, we’ve rounded up all of the major news from HTC’s CES 2019 event below so you can catch up on the company’s biggest announcements.

Vive Pro Eye

HTC kicked off its press conference by announcing the Vive Pro Eye. Described as “an evolution in the enterprise VR space,” the headset is geared more toward business than gaming and integrates eye tracking natively to give users “greater accessibility, gaze-oriented menu navigation.” No release date or pricing details have been announced. [Full story]

Viveport Infinity

HTC announced it is launching a new model of its Viveport subscription streaming service, dubbed Infinity. As its name suggests, the service will offer subscribers unlimited access to the Viveport catalog for a monthly fee. Infinity is scheduled to launch on Vive Day, April 5, although no pricing details have been announced yet. [Full story]

Vive Reality System

Viveport Infinity wasn’t the only VR service HTC announced during its press conference. The company also revealed the Vive Reality System, a “reimagining of Vive core software” reminiscent of the PlayStation Home social space. Users will be able to to connect with each other and watch videos, play games, and do “other creative experiences” together. No launch details were announced. [Full story]

Vive Cosmos

HTC capped off its CES 2019 press conference by unveiling the Vive Cosmos, the company’s next VR headset. While very few concrete details were announced, it appears the goal of Cosmos is to address some of the flaws most VR headsets have faced. HTC also says the Cosmos will provide “absolute comfort” and be “easy set up.” As with its other announcements, no release date or price point were shared, although the headset’s reveal trailer teases it’s “coming soon.” [Full story]

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Veteran Elder Scrolls composer Jeremy Soule is “currently not involved” with The Elder Scrolls VI. Responding to questions from fans, Soule said on Facebook that he “would never turn [his] back on [The Elder Scrolls],” but at this stage he is not lined up to do the music.

It sounds like it is still very early days for The Elder Scrolls VI, so it might be the case that Bethesda hasn’t yet approached any composers to do the music for the game.

“While I’ve not said much about this out of courtesy to Bethesda, I would never turn my back on TES, and I believe that my involvement would hinge on a creative decision on their part and where they want to take the franchise,” Soule said. “To confirm, I am currently not involved with TES VI.”

Soule composed the music for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, while he also contributed to the score for The Elder Scrolls Online. So it makes sense that fans would be wondering if he would also do the music for The Elder Scrolls VI.

Outside of The Elder Scrolls series, Soule did the music for the Guild Wars series and multiple Harry Potter games, as well as BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. In November, Soule said he would like to work on the music for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show.

The Elder Scrolls VI was announced at E3 2018 alongside another new Bethesda game, the single-player RPG Starfield. That game is coming first, and then The Elder Scrolls VI, but Bethesda hasn’t announced any release dates.

“[The Elder Scrolls VI] is big and it’s ambitious, but also … the most important thing to underscore is that the timeline between products that you get from BGS is not any different than it has been historically just because we’ve talked about two games after Fallout 76,” Bethesda boss Pete Hines told GameSpot.

“I try really hard to manage people’s expectations. It’s not like ‘Fallout 76 this year, Starfield next year, and then TES6 the year after.’ The timeline isn’t any different. What’s different is just trying to be transparent and say, ‘Don’t freak out, the next thing we’re doing is single-player [in Starfield], [and] we are making TES6.”

The Elder Scrolls VI may be so far off that it won’t launch until a new wave of consoles is released, though nothing is certain at this stage.