Author: Trafficblast

Pokemon Go is a game that thrives on people going outside, so you might not expect it to do well during a pandemic when players are stuck indoors. And yet, despite COVID-19 forcing people worldwide to self-isolate, Pokemon Go’s revenue has gone up recently, according to a report from gamesindustry.biz.

For the week ending March 16, according to data taken from Sensor Tower, Pokemon Go’s gross revenue hit $23 million–a 67% increase on the week before. In fact, 13% of revenue earned by the game so far in 2020 was earned during that week, despite people not being able to play as they usually would.

It was by far the biggest week of in-game spending the game has had in 2020, and it indicates that the game will continue to turn a profit as the way it is played necessarily changes.

Pokemon Go has made some changes to account for the current state of things, with bonuses being handed out to players, and you’ll soon be able to do raids from home. A Lugia raid was canceled due to the pandemic, but adapting quickly has allowed the game to remain successful and popular.

Pokemon Go is also adding a Today View tab to make events easier to track. It should come to the game soon.

One enduringly controversial topic for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is that, despite the game using a skill-based matchmaking system, there is no ranked mode. Call of Duty professional player Nadeshot stoked the flames of this debate recently when he spoke openly about his frustration with the lack of a ranked mode. And now, former Call of Duty executive Michael Condrey has responded, saying he, too, was frustrated by some of the decisions about Call of Duty that were made outside of his control.

“I’ll never understand why Call of Duty goes through all the trouble to implement skill-based matchmaking but won’t add a ranking system,” Nadeshot said. “If you’re going to match me up against better players, why can’t I have a rank to be proud of and work towards?”

For his part, Condrey said it was never his decision to not include a ranked mode. Instead, decisions about analytics, skill-based matchmaking, monetization, and dedicated servers, came down from Activision corporate. Condrey said he had “frustratingly little influence” on those decisions, “despite their impact on our games and the Call of Duty community.”

Activision has not officially announced that Modern Warfare uses a skill-based matchmaking system, but tests from various YouTubers have shown that this is likely to be the case. Anyone who has played Modern Warfare might agree that matches are generally even, with some anomalies.

Nadeshot observed that the new battle royale mode, Warzone, also probably uses skill-based matchmaking. He said he consistently plays against people he knows to be top Call of Duty players. Out of a pool of 30 million players, it’s “beyond coincidence,” he said.

As for Condrey, he’s able to speak openly about his frustrations now because he’s no longer working for Activision. During his run there, he started Call of Duty: WWII studio Sledgehammer Games before moving into a corporate position at Activision HQ. He has since left Activision, and he now is heading up a new Silicon Valley studio for 2K Games, 31st Union, which is making a brand-new IP.

Total War: Three Kingdoms has a new patch, and hotfix 1.5.1 is available in beta right now. The update, which is not live in the full game yet, introduces several changes and fixes, including displaying titles correctly and allowing players to seek confederation once they’ve been declared King of Emperor.

To access the beta, you can right-click on the game in your Steam library, click on Properties and then the Beta tab, and select the 5.1 option in there. This will update your build to 1.5.1, and allow you to test out the update.

Here’s the full update notes, which are also available in simplified Chinese and Korean through the Total War website.

Total War: Three Kingdoms 1.5.1 Patch Notes

• Fixed an issue where Titles were not unlocking correctly once a save had loaded
• Confederation is available again as a diplomatic option once you become King/Emperor
• Fixed an issue where effects from buildings and assignments to reduce Fervour weren’t working in the Mandate of Heaven campaign
• Fixed issue where some Yellow Turban buildings in Mandate campaign required some techs from the main campaign
• Bandit minor settlements can now gain population properly
• Fixed a bug where if Yan Baihu was attacked while using Poison Volley ability he became stuck and unable to move or fight for the rest of the battle
• Fixed an issue where the political influence bars were not showing up for Liu Hong on his court screen
• Fixed an issue where if Lü Bu has administrators and accepted an event to move to Liu Bei’s territory those administrators were unassigned
• Fixed a crash caused by Requesting Tribute from a faction which is the target of a Mercenary Contract
• Tao Qian set so he can no longer spawn into the A World Betrayed campaign (as he’s absolutely meant to be dead)
• Cheng Yu will no longer leave Cao Cao in A World Betrayed on turn one if the player starts a legendary campaign
• Pang Ji will no longer leave Yuan Shao in A World Betrayed on turn one if the player starts a legendary campaign
• Cai Mao has been added to Liu Biao’s faction in A World Betrayed

Total War: Three Kingdoms was a big success, selling over 1 million copies in the first week on sale. The game earned an 8/10 in GameSpot’s review, and reviewer Ginny Woo had a lot of nice things to say about it. “By harkening back to the intricacies of older titles and builds on some of the foundations laid by Thrones of Britannia, it offers a distinctly contemporary and thorough experience,” she wrote. “This is the most ambitious that Total War has ever been, from the variety of different ways that you can enjoy the game to the sheer scope of the stories that they’ve weaved around each unique character’s playable experience.”

Fortnite has another update coming as Chapter 2, Season 2 continues on into its second half. While Epic Games is holding with their tradition of not releasing patch notes, there is some speculation about what update v12.30 will contain.

Last week’s 12.21 update added new challenges and rewards, as well as bug fixes. It’s likely that v12.30, being a more major update, will add more in the way of new content.

Fortnite’s community Trello board also gives us an idea of what bugs are being addressed in the new update. Cards marked as ‘fixed in next update’ include issues with the Harpoon Gun catching loot inconsistently, as well as problems with Auto Pick Up. Also marked for this update is a bug with Spy Games where players would get stuck at the “Select Tech” screen. An issue with tournament scores displaying incorrectly in the lobby and in-match will also be addressed, as well as a number of minor issues with Creative Mode, Save the World and mobile versions of the game.

As with all Fortnite updates we can never be sure what will be added or taken away, but we can be sure to see some new challenges to take you through this week.

Downtime for the update is scheduled for March 31 at 2 AM ET, for an unspecified amount of time. Updates during this period can be found at the Epic Games status page.

Check out our Fortnite Season 2 roundup to make sure you get the most out of Epic’s battle royale game this season.

CD Projekt Red have released a shiny new Cyberpunk 2077 wallpaper featuring protagonist V chilling on the Night City metro, as a riot unfolds on the station outside. Aside from giving fans a tantalizing taste of a game that’s still almost six months out from release, the poster is full of tiny world-building details just waiting to be discovered in high resolution.

The new wallpaper gives us a better look at the metro, the city-wide transport system that players will be able to use to travel around the city’s districts.

The main details of the picture are immediately obvious–V, sitting nonchalant with his gun out, a sleepy businessman beside him. Behind him the people of Night City clash with heavily armored Arasaka employees. As one fan on Reddit pointed out, the helmets on the police look like a callback to the Nilfgaardians of CD Projekt Red’s Witcher series.

The smaller details require zooming in to see–the faint bloody footprints leading from the body to V’s metro seat, the detailed metro map and numerous stickers, slogans and graffiti. One by the businessman’s knee references Pulp Fiction, saying “does he look like a b___?”

Now all we need is the female V version of this image. Please, CDPR?

Cyberpunk 2077 is due out on September 17, 2020 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.