Author: Trafficblast

Discord has announced that in 2019, the launcher will offer 90 percent of the revenue share made off of game sales to developers. That deal undercuts every offer on other major online PC game stores.

“Players really want to have one library –one place to manage their games,” wrote Discord CEO and founder Jason Citron. “Unfortunately, because existing stores charge 30 percent per sale, developers are creating their own platforms to avoid this fee. We totally understand that developers are tired of sharing profits.”

Steam is one of those stores that Citron references, taking 20-30 percent from developers on a tiered earning structure. Discord’s announcement comes in the same month that Epic undercut Steam with the reveal that its store would only take 12 percent of a game’s revenue share and have no tiers to the profit-sharing. Certain PC games are also being offered exclusively through Epic’s store–like Hades and Journey, and Discord has a 90-day exclusivity on some titles through the “First on Discord” program as well. For the first time in a while, Steam has some serious competition.

Citron cites Discord Nitro’s growing success as the reason for why Discord doesn’t need to compete with developers for revenue. Nitro is a Netflix-like service for PC games, offering players a library of 60+ titles for $10 USD. Although the service mostly offers indie games, such as Inside and Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut, there are triple-A titles like Metro: Last Light Redux and Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition as well. Discord has plans of adding more games to the service in the coming months.

Discord did not provide a specific date for when its store will start offering developers 90 percent of their game’s revenue share.

The end of the year is almost upon us, and Google has released its annual “Year in Search” data to provide a look back at the trends that defined 2018. In the realm of video games, at least, it’s not terribly surprising which ones made the list.

The top video game search term of 2018 was Fortnite, which exploded in popularity this year. Rounding out the rest of the top five were Red Dead Redemption 2, Fallout 76, Far Cry 5, and God of War. Expanding to the top ten includes a handful of other popular games, along with some surprising inclusions like Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Zombs Royale, the browser-based game.

Fortnite’s popularity actually transcended the video games category, and was the most popular gif search as well. Presumably lots of people wanted to learn how to floss this year.

This is all according to the US data, whereas the global search data contains fewer and mostly broader categories. That list includes search queries like actors, movies, and bands, along with celebrities who have passed away in the last year like comics legend Stan Lee. Last year’s global data also had a category for consumer tech, which showed the Switch beating Xbox One X.

Shooter fans, if you’ve been holding off for a discount before picking up this year’s Call of Duty, now is probably the time to pull the trigger (please excuse the pun). As part of Best Buy’s Nick of Time sale, which runs through December 17, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is down to $30 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Better yet, Amazon is matching the price on most platforms. We probably don’t have to tell you that getting one of the biggest games of the year for half off just two months after it launched is a remarkable deal.

This discount arrives during a string of massive sales that seem to represent one final push to sell as many video games as possible in the lead-up to Christmas. You can find other killer deals at GameStop, PlayStation Store, GOG, and other retailers.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is this year’s installment in the annual franchise. Developed by Treyarch, it comes with the traditional multiplayer and Zombies modes, but no single-player campaign. Instead, it has Blackout, a battle royale mode similar to PUBG and Fortnite that finds around 100 players dropping onto an island as a deadly storm shrinks the playing area, pushing everyone together. The last person or team standing wins the round.

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In GameSpot’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 review, critic Kallie Plagge wrote, “Black Ops 4 isn’t short on content, and its three main modes are substantial. Multiplayer introduces more tactical mechanics without forcing you into them, and it largely strikes a good balance. Zombies has multiple deep, secret-filled maps to explore, though its returning characters don’t hold up and prove distracting. Finally, Blackout pushes Call of Duty in an entirely new direction, making use of aspects from both multiplayer and Zombies for a take on the battle royale genre that stands on its own.”

Star Wars Battlefront II is now available in the EA Access vault, publisher EA has announced. That means EA / Origin Access members can play the game at no extra cost for as long as they’re subscribed.

The full game is included in the Vault version, though paid DLC is sold separately. Otherwise, you can play both the single-player campaign and the extensive multiplayer portion to your heart’s content.

Battlefront II’s launch was marred with microtransaction controversy after some fans labeled the game as “pay-to-win.” Developer DICE has since revamped the game’s progression system and continued to add more content.

We awarded the shooter a 6/10 at launch. Critic Alessandro Fillari wrote: “While its main narrative feels unresolved, and the general loop of the multiplayer carries a number of issues, Battlefront II still manages to evoke that same sense of joy and excitement found in the core of what the series is all about.” Read more in our full Star Wars Battlefront II review.

EA Access members can play a number of games for no extra cost, in addition to receiving discounts and free trials for other EA titles. The service costs $5 / £4 per month or $30 / £20 per year, and is exclusive to Xbox One and PC.

The NES and SNES Classic consoles will end production in the Americas soon, Nintendo has confirmed. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Nintendo of America president reggie Fils-Aime stated no more of the mini-consoles will be produced, and that those already on store shelves will be the last ones sold.

“We’ve been clear that, at least from an Americas perspective, these products are going to be available through the holiday season and once they sell out, they’re gone,” the executive said. “And that’s it.”

It’s unclear what this means for the two devices in other territories, since Nintendo of America, Nintendo of Europe, and Nintendo of Japan do not always necessarily operate together. It’s also worth noting that Nintendo did discontinue the NES Classic once before, only to bring it back into production this year.

Elsewhere in the interview, Fils-Aime claims Nintendo currently has no plans to make Classic versions of other consoles, such as the Nintendo 64. Responding to a question to that effect, he stated: “We’ve said that the current systems are the extent of our classic program.” Finally, Fils-Aime said he’d “absolutely love” Red Dead Redemption 2 on Nintendo Switch, but explained it’s probably unlikely to happen.

The SNES and NES Classic were hugely successful, and Sony followed suit this year with the PlayStation Classic. We didn’t think Sony’s attempt was as good as Nintendo’s two efforts, however–read our thoughts on that mini-console in our PlayStation Classic review.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 developer Treyarch has rolled out Holiday events and promotions across the game. These include a seasonal makeover for Blackout, the game’s battle royale mode, which has had environments spruced up with lighting and decorations. There’s also snowballs in the game now and Supply Stashes are holiday themed too.

Blackout players also have a new limited-time mode to check out called Close Quarters Frenzy. “Fight to outlast a faster Collapse using close-quarters weapons–shotguns, SMGs, pistols, and melee are your only means of survival,” Treyarch said, describing the mode.

In the Black Market, meanwhile, there’s a large selection of new themed items to unlock. Since Activision has a timed exclusivity deal for Black Ops 4 with Sony, these items are currently only available on PS4, but will arrive on Xbox One and PC on December 20. In Zombies, meanwhile, there’s the Winter Calling event, which gives players a unique set of challenges to complete, in exchange for special unlocks.

Players on PS4, Xbox One, and PC will also get double experience points in multiplayer and Zombies, starting December 14 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM EST / 6 PM GMT / 5 AM December 15 AEDT, and lasting throughout the weekend. If you’re playing Blackout during this period you’ll get double merits.

Treyarch has also detailed various changes it has made to all versions of the game in the latest Black Ops 4 update. The patch notes are fairly lengthy, containing information on how its addressed various exploits, improved stability in multiplayer, mixed up playlists, and tweaked Operators. You can see the full patch notes here.

Black Ops 4 takes some big departures from the traditional Call of Duty formula. Not only did it drop the single-player campaign in favour of a more robust multiplayer offering, but it also introduced the new Blackout mode in response to the popularity of the battle royale genre. In her review, Kallie Plagge gave Black Ops 4 an 8/10.

“Black Ops 4 isn’t short on content, and its three main modes are substantial,” she said. “Multiplayer introduces more tactical mechanics without forcing you into them, and it largely strikes a good balance. Zombies has multiple deep, secret-filled maps to explore, though its returning characters don’t hold up and prove distracting. Finally, Blackout pushes Call of Duty in an entirely new direction, making use of aspects from both multiplayer and Zombies for a take on the battle royale genre that stands on its own. Sure, there isn’t a traditional single-player campaign, but with the depth and breadth of what is there, Black Ops 4 doesn’t need it.” Read GameSpot’s full Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 review for a deeper analysis of the game.