Author: Trafficblast

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare’s Battle Pass Launches In December

Unlike previous entries in the series, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is forgoing a season pass and DLC in favor of a new battle pass system, much like Epic’s hit battle royale shooter, Fortnite. The first battle pass has yet to arrive, but according to Activision, it’ll be ready to go next month.

During its latest quarterly earnings call, Activision revealed that Modern Warfare’s first season will kick off sometime in December 2019. The company didn’t pin down an exact date, but it did note that time frame is “later than planned.”

Activision has previously shared a few details on how the new battle pass system will work. There will be both Free and Premium streams of content to earn; the former will let you unlock anything that has an impact on gameplay, such as weapons and attachments, while the latter will only feature vanity items like cosmetics. Players will also be able to earn COD Points with the battle pass.

In the meantime, Activision is rolling out some free new content for the game later this week. Beginning Friday, November 8, players will have access to a new multiplayer map (Shoot House), a new Ground War map (Krovnik Farmland), and another game mode, Hardpoint.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare launched on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 25 and quickly became PS4’s best-selling game of the month in the US. GameSpot awarded the title a 7/10 in our Call of Duty: Modern Warfare review. Critic Kallie Plagge wrote, “The pitfalls of Spec Ops don’t detract from what Modern Warfare does well. Realism mode is an excellent addition to the slate, and although not all the new multiplayer modes are great, Gunfight and the Night Vision playlist are refreshing standouts.”

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GTA, Red Dead Parent Company On Microtransactions: No Toll Booths

Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar Games and 2K Games, makes a lot of money through microtransactions. For the latest quarter, the company pulled in more than $300 million from what it calls “recurrent consumer spending.” Take-Two intends to have microtransactions in every game it makes, and now the company’s chief executive has shared more details on its strategy for approaching the controversial business practice.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the company doesn’t design games with a microtransaction-first mentality. Instead, Zelnick said Take-Two thinks about how to “entertain and engage” players before asking them to spend extra money.

“We only think about monetization after we’ve already focused on that engagement,” he said. “Our approach is that we don’t believe in having toll booths. We want to create a great experience you can enjoy without regard to whether you spend or not.”

Zelnick went on to say that Take-Two understands that players want to be treated fairly when it comes to microtransactions. He acknowledged that Take-Two has stumbled in the past when it comes to this, though he said other companies are more highly criticized.

“We know that, anecdotally, consumers don’t just want to be entertained, they want a fair deal,” he said. “We don’t always get it right but I think compared to the marketplace we tend to get it right more than others. Occasionally we get criticized, but if we are we take a look at the in-game economy and make adjustments.”

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto Online, the multiplayer mode for GTA V, has been a runaway success when it comes to microtransaction revenue. Despite being more than six years sold, Take-Two expects GTA Online revenue to continue to grow in the current fiscal year.

Take-Two has said it wants to have some form of a microtransaction in every game that it makes, whether that be through in-game purchases, subscriptions, add-ons, or some other means of extra sale on top of the purchase price. Take-Two also owns the Barcelona-based mobile game developer Social Point, which makes free-to-play games that are supported by microtransactions.

Take-Two is not the only company to use microtransactions. All of the major publishers–Activision, EA, Ubisoft, and others–implement microtransactions in their games. For comparison, Activision Blizzard just announced that its own microtransaction revenue reached $700 million for the latest quarter.

For more on Take-Two’s earnings report, check out these stories:

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Death Stranding: Here’s How The Social Strand System Works

Death Stranding is built around the idea that everyone is connected in some sort of way, not just thematically, but in its core gameplay, too. It’s the premise that drives its multiplayer component, which is far from what we’d traditionally expect multiplayer to be. In the video above, we explain exactly how multiplayer works in Death Stranding.

It borrows elements of asynchronous multiplayer components from the Soulsborne games where other players who enable online features can leave behind things for you to find in your own game. But Death Stranding takes that idea and runs with it, hence the Social Strand system. You can build ladders, structures, and generators to leave behind for other players, and they can do the same for you–oftentimes, these are lifelines for surviving in the game itself. With traversal at the heart of Death Standing, bridges to cross rivers or ropes to scale hills will make your life easier and perhaps save you in critical situations.

Multiplayer in Death Stranding is certainly unique and it puts these connections at the forefront of the game. So, if you plan on jumping into the game or have started and are still wondering about how the system works, watch our video above. If you want to know more about how the game is as a whole, be sure to read our full Death Stranding review.

Paranormal Activity 7 Has A Release Date

Paranormal Activity, the massive film series that spooked audiences between 2007 and 2015, is coming back for more. A release date has been set for a new film in the franchise, which has thus far brought in $890.4 million worldwide despite every film in the series being made on a tiny budget.

Deadline is reporting that the next Paranormal Activity has been set on Paramount’s schedule. The film will release on March 21, 2021–the same day as the next Tomb Raider movie, directed by Ben Wheatley.

Few other details are known at this point. The film does not have a director or cast yet, and may not actually be called Paranormal Activity 7–the series dropped numbers from their titles after Paranormal Activity 4. It will be produced by Blumhouse (Get Out, The Purge, Halloween).

The most recent film in the series, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, was a huge critical flop and performed worse than any of its predecessors, but still grossed $78.9 million worldwide on a $10 million budget. Earlier entries in the series, especially the first three films, were well-received by both critics and audiences.

Paranormal Activity seems to be following a similar trajectory to the Saw franchise, which ruled the Halloween box office from 2004-2010 (albeit with diminishing returns), before returning to cinemas with Jigsaw in 2017. The next film in the series, The Organ Donor, was developed by Chris Rock and is due to release on May 15, 2020.

The most recent Paranormal Activity branded experience was a VR game, Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul, released for PC and PS4 in 2017.

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Ninja Weighs in on the FaZe Jarvis Fortnite Ban

Fortnite streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has weighed in on the news from this week that Fortnite pro Faze Jarvis received a lifetime ban for cheating in the game. Blevins suggested the punishment was too extreme, especially since Jarvis is a known Fortnite content creator.

“There’s a difference between a content creator who has millions of subscribers, hundreds of thousands of followers, who gets banned from what literally makes him money, and… some kid who is just a piece of shit who has absolutely zero following, has zero money that comes from Fortnite, from gaming, and hacks,” Blevins said.

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Next Hitman Game Is Already ‘Well Underway’

Hitman developer IO Interactive has announced that Hitman 2’s November Update on 11/19 will be the “final major patch” as it turns its sights toward the next game in the series.

“After 13 months of full-time support and content for HITMAN 2 – at no additional cost (besides what we added through the Expansion Pass),” a roadmap blogpost explained, “we’re now at a place where we are looking increasingly to the future.” The post continues by saying that “more and more” of the team working on Hitman 2 is moving on to develop its sequel, which it says is already “well underway.”

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