Month: May 2020

Following a rebranding to Mojang Studios, the Microsoft-owned developer is celebrating over 200 million sales of Minecraft, with over 126 million players logging in monthly.

The milestone was celebrated during a difficult period for Mojang Studios due to the ongoing challenges present by COVID-19. Helen Chiang, Studio Head at Mojang Studios, explains in a Minecraft update that as soon as the pandemic started affecting its players, the studio switched to thinking about how to better support its players.

One of those initiatives was to make Minecraft: Education Edition free until the end of June, helping educators use Minecraft to engage learners remotely. Since March 24, Mojang Studios has seen a big uptake in its educational Minecraft offering, with over 50 million downloads of education content from the Minecraft Marketplace.

Minecraft has also been updated with ray-tracing support on PC, thanks to a collaboration with Nvidia. Minecraft RTX brings accurate lighting to user-created worlds, making Minecraft look better than ever if you have the hardware to support it. Minecraft Dungeons, a Diablo-like spin-off, is also scheduled to launch later this month, as Mojang Studios continues growing the types of experiences Minecraft can deliver.

Microsoft purchased Mojang in 2014 for over $2 billion. It is supported across PC, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices.

Each week, Best Buy has a new batch of deals spanning across gaming, entertainment, and tech. This week’s deals include a bunch of stellar discounts on PS4, Xbox One, and Switch games as well as Blu-rays. There’s also an excellent daily deal on Microsoft’s Surface Pro X, slashing the price of the popular 2-in-1 from $1300 to $900.

One of the most revered action-RPGs of this generation, Nier Automata, is discounted to $25 on PS4. This is the Game of the Yorha Edition, so it includes every piece of DLC released for the Platinum Games hit. PS4 owners can also save on 2019’s Dragon Quest Builders 2, which is 50% off at $20. Dragon Quest Builders 2 melds Minecraft-style building with grand open-world action. Yakuza Remastered Collection–which compiles Yakuza 3, 4, and 5–is $40, the best price we’ve seen so far.

PS4 and Xbox One users can grab Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for $15–a great deal that lets you catch up for cheap ahead of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s release later this year. Additionally, Gearbox’s engaging loot shooter Borderlands 3 is $20.

If you’re looking for something new to play on Switch, several games are getting nice discounts. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020–a fun game for the whole family–is down to $40, which ties the lowest price we’ve seen. Collection of Mana bundles the first three Mana games and can be snagged for $25. Meanwhile, strategy fans can grab Civilization VI for $20.

The wonderful Sega Genesis Mini is on sale for $50. Though we’ve seen it for slightly less before, it rarely dips to $50. If you haven’t picked up the nostalgia-fueled plug-and-play console featuring 42 retro games, $50 is a really great price.

Best Buy also has some good Blu-ray deals this week, particularly when it comes to 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy is $50 in 4K UHD; John Wick: Chapter 3 is $18; and the Harry Potter 8-Film Collection is $130. Avatar: The Last Airbender just started streaming on Netflix last week, but if you prefer physical editions, the recently-released complete series steelbook is on sale for $66 on Blu-ray.

You can browse the full slate of weekly deals at Best Buy and check out our picks below.

Best gaming deals at Best Buy

Best Blu-ray deals at Best Buy

Rainbow Six Siege has been going strong for years, but the relatively recent addition of a battle pass model has been divisive in the community. Ubisoft is happy with the addition, though, stating that it’s performing well in a recent earnings report.

“The battle pass is doing very well,” said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. “It’s a good new addition to the franchise and a new way to play the game so it has good momentum and it’s doing well for the franchise.”

Similarly, Ubisoft mentioned that microtransaction revenue is growing for both Rainbow Six and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

The battle pass was criticized as a step too far in GameSpot’s recently reissued Rainbow Six Siege review. Specifically, reviewer Mat Paget said the addition of a battle pass on top of the annual operatore pass was “egregious” since it can cause you to “play or pay more than you initially wanted or intended to.”

The review was still very positive on the whole, though, earning a 10/10 from GameSpot. This was an improvement from the original 2015 review, which awarded it an 8/10, showing just how far the game has come in the last five years.

Ubisoft has been teasing its next new operators for Siege, Ace and Melusi. The two will get a full reveal soon, but we already know that Ace is a search-and-rescue expert and a Defender class, and Melusi is an stealthy anti-poaching operative and Attacker class.

Here’s something alarming: WB wanted the Doof Warrior cut from FURY ROAD!
“The Doof Warrior tested really badly at first,” Miller told me. “We had temp music, and whenever the Doof Warrior played in the test screening, it was the same riff, so it got annoying.” pic.twitter.com/ndSdOvxD9c

— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) May 15, 2020

It doesn’t seem possible, but one Call of Duty: Warzone squad has set a new world record for most kills in a match, racking up an unthinkable 121 kills in a Quads mode match recently.

Well-known Call of Duty streamers TeePee, Symfuhny, HusKerrs, and DougisRaw set the record. There are 150 players in Warzone matches, so this team took down the overwhelming majority of them by themselves. You can see highlights from the achievement in the video below.

Call of Duty pro player Nadeshot responded to the achievement, writing on Twitter, “Wow, I can’t even fathom how you guys pulled this off. GGs.”

It’s not immediately clear what the previous record was for most kills in a Quads match of Warzone, while the records for Warzone’s other modes, including Solos, Duos, and Trios are also unknown.

In other news, Warzone just recently added a new Operator, Iskra. She is available as a store bundle and comes packaged with two new Legendary weapons, the “Savagery” helicopter vehicle skin, an Epic Finisher, and more.

For more on Warzone, check out GameSpot’s recent interview with Raven Software about the Gulag, which is linked below

Bioware has issued an update on the state of the Anthem overhaul, noting that the revamp is still in the incubation period and that the creation of a new version of the game will be a “longer process.”

In a statement on the Bioware blog, project lead Christian Daley outlined the current state of Anthem 2.0, noting that regardless of the current circumstances, the team is committed to the project.

The 30-strong team behind the game are currently working from home due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Daley notes that the game’s incubation phase has kicked off.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/02/21/anthem-review”]

In his own words, Daley describes the incubation phase as a prototyping period. “We are starting to validate our design hypotheses,” Daley’s statement reads. “We are going back and experimenting/prototyping to improve on the areas where we believe we fell short and to leverage everything that you love currently about Anthem.” According to Daley, the nature of this approach means Anthem 2.0 will “be a longer process,” so don’t expect the new version of the game to arrive anytime soon.

“The team is small but the whole point of this is to take our time and go back to the drawing board,” Daley notes. “A small team gives us the agility a larger one can’t afford.”

Daley also talked about transparency, and assured fans that they would “see things that look awesome but end up on the cutting room floor or things that you might think suck that you feel we are spending too much time on.” In the spirit of experimentation, the team want to bring those interested in Anthem along for the ride, but Daley notes that “seeing how the sausage is made” is not always pretty.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/12/07/anthem-story-trailer”]

Anthem’s overhaul was announced in February, with BioWare general manager Casey Hudson admitting that the game “needs a more satisfying loot experience, better long-term progression, and a more fulfilling end game.” Clearly, much of that is still in the ideas phase, with hands-on development work yet to begin. Daley doesn’t give a sense of how long that might take to begin.

The Anthem 2.0 team is also planning to bring ad-hoc live streams and updates to fans as they follow the game. “Stay tuned as we kick this off and we hope to see/hear from you as we go on this journey (stronger) together.” For more on Anthem, check out our piece on how the game’s first anniversary was celebrated by fans, but not Bioware.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter. 

After a week of players working together to complete the first step of Destiny 2‘s latest story quest, “The Lie,” it appears many won’t be able to finish it. The last step of the quest is bugged, failing to trigger the mission players have to go through to get their reward.

Bungie confirmed the issue Sunday night on Twitter. After completing the other steps of the quest, The Lie directs you to Rasputin’s bunker on the Moon to activate a mission called “The Tyrant.” For many, starting the quest respawns you not at its start, but near bounty vendor Eris Morn at the Moon’s main landing zone. When that happens, there’s no way to advance; you just have to quit the activity and try to load it again. As of this writing, we’ve tried to run the quest roughly 10 times, to no avail.

At first, some players thought Bungie had released a new secret puzzle into the game, similar to Destiny 2’s Corridors of Time puzzle last season, and started a Reddit thread compiling information about it. Since the mission seemingly isn’t loading correctly for anyone right now, it’s not clear yet if there might be more to The Tyrant than just another mission.

On Twitter, Bungie said it would investigate the issue on Monday morning Pacific time, so it seems Destiny players are going to have to sit tight for the time being. That’s frustrating because according to datamining, completing the quest will reward players with Felwinter’s Lie, a legendary shotgun that returns from Destiny 1. The Lie also introduces new story elements about Rasputin, the giant AI character at the center of the current content season. The Lie might not be quite the Rasputin revelation we’d hoped for (at least so far), but it is seemingly linking elements from Destiny 1 to the current story.

Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait to find out exactly what “The Lie” is all about. We’ll update this story as Bungie provides more details.