Category: Games

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Daily Deals: Tons of Savings On Figurines, Statues and Amiibo

Hello and welcome to our Sunday deals page. It’s a great day to be a figurine collector, because GameStop is running a huge sale today only, where you can get various figurines and statues for up to 30% off. This includes some great ones from the Marvel and Star Wars lines, as well as various videogames. Best Buy got in on the action as well, adding some nice Smash Brothers Amiibos to the mix, and of course there’s tons of awesome deals on various games and software down below.

The Best Daily Deals for January 22

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Cyberpunk 2077 Had Biggest Digital Game Launch Ever – Report

Cyberpunk 2077’s launch may have been a mess for CD Projekt Red, but the game still managed to sell an incredible number of units–and many of those were digital. According to the analytics company SuperData, the game had the biggest digital game launch of all time, even when factoring in refunded copies.

SuperData estimates that Cyberpunk 2077 sold 10.2 million digital units during its launch period, making it the biggest game launch based on both digital revenue as well as overall units sold. This number does not take into account the refunded copies, but SuperData said the difference would not be significant enough to overturn the record. SuperData has occasionally had its data disputed, as was the case with Epic Games in early 2020.

The report said about 80% of the digital sales were on PC, which could account for why the refund totals didn’t make much of an impact on this record. The game’s worst problems were predominantly on PS4 and Xbox One, where crashing issues and poor performance led CD Projekt to apologize and even offer its own refunds in case retailers would not accept them. The game is not currently available to buy digitally for PlayStation systems. However, you can still find retail copies.

CD Projekt Red has a long road ahead in terms of adding content to Cyberpunk 2077 as well as fixing its issues. The game’s first major patch just arrived last week and appears to have introduced some new bugs. The next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions also aren’t going to be ready until late this year at the earliest, and it looks like the multiplayer component won’t arrive until at least 2022. It remains to be seen if interest for the franchise will still be there by that point, seeing as the launch hype has died down significantly.

Now Playing: Cyberpunk 2077 Review

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Godzilla Vs. Kong Trailer Rises Into View–Watch It Here

As promised earlier this week, the trailer for Godzilla Vs. Kong has arrived. Watch it in all its epic, heightened kaiju glory below, and then get excited thinking about the fact that GVK is currently scheduled to hit theaters and HBO Max on March 26.

Legendary Pictures teased the trailer earlier this week when they tweeted the first image of the movie’s poster, to which fans reacted positively. The studio also posted a sneak peek teaser of the trailer on Saturday, because it’s 2021 and teaser trailers for movie trailers is definitely a thing.

The trailer itself gives us our first real glimpse at the brewing battle between Godzilla, a giant lizard, and King Kong, a giant ape. According to the film’s official plot synopsis, “an enraged Godzilla” is “cutting a swath of destruction across the globe” when King Kong, on a spirit journey to find his true home with his orphan friend Jia, gets in its way. Unsurprisingly, the legendary monsters subsequently collide “in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.” But “the epic clash between the two titans–instigated by unseen forces–is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth.”

Interestingly, Godzilla Vs. Kong is being represented as a standalone picture, but it’s also definitely in the continuity begun by the 2014 Godzilla movie and continued in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Today’s trailer features Kyle Chandler, who reprises his role from King of the Monsters as reluctant scientist Dr. Mark Russell, as well as Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown as his daughter, Madison Russell–alongside new characters played by Alexander Skarsgård, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and others.

The trailer features some classic images of Kong sedated and in chains, before Godzilla arrives to ruin his vacation–and plenty of action-packed shots of the two enormous CG monsters exchanging blows, including one climactic moment where Kong slam dunks Godzilla’s own energy beam back into its scaly face. If you’re anticipating Godzilla Vs. Kong solely for the kaiju battles, it looks like you won’t be disappointed.

Godzilla Vs. Kong is currently scheduled to be released in theaters March 26, and–in the US–on HBO Max the same day, where it will stay for 31 days. However, conspicuously, this trailer and Legendary’s tweets only mention 2021, so we might have another impending COVID-related delay soon. After all, it’s no secret that Legendary is not happy with Warner Bros.’ decision to release the movie on streaming simultaneously with its arrival in theaters.

Cyberpunk 2077 Reportedly Had the Biggest Digital Game Launch of All Time

Cyberpunk 2077, despite all of its launch issues and refunded copies, reportedly had the biggest digital launch of all time based on digital revenue and digital units sold.

As reveled by SuperData’s worldwide digital games market report for December 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 sold over 10.2 million digital copies, with PC accounting for around 80% of those sales. It’s important to note that Sony removed Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store in the middle of December 2020 following the performance issues that are especially prevalent on base PS4 and Xbox One consoles.

SuperData notes that these estimates do include the digital copies that have been refunded but that its “data shows that refunds did not substantially affect the game’s aggregate sales.”

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Cyberpunk 2077 helped digital game sales reach $12 billion in December, which is a 15% increase year-over-year and made December have the highest monthly total revenue ever. While console earnings year-over-year jumped 16%, PC saw a 40% increase when compared to 2019.

SuperData also reported that Fortnite earnings on PC and console were at their highest since August 2020 and player numbers were larger than at any point since August 2019.

Grand Theft Auto V’s Cayo Perico Heist’s release resulted in GTA V’s highest monthly digital earnings ever, and although Among Us’ player numbers fell from November’s “roughly half a billion users,” it was still “2.8 times as popular as the next-popular game, Roblox.”

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Among Us also launched on the Nintendo Switch in December and is said to have sold 3.2 million copies, which made it the highest earning version of the game for that month.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

New Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic Game Reportedly Being Made Without BioWare

BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is widely considered to be among the best Star Wars games ever made, as well as one of the best licensed role-playing games. Since the second game released in 2004, we’ve been in the dark on any follow-ups, but a new game is reportedly coming from a completely different company.

That’s according to VGC as well as Star Wars insider Bespin Bulletin and Nate Najda–better known online as Shinobi602–the new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game isn’t being made by Electronic Arts or BioWare. Those sources didn’t say who would be developing the new game, though Najda seemed to indicate it wasn’t going to be a well-known studio.

Electronic Arts had been publishing console and PC Star Wars games exclusively for the last several years, beginning with Star Wars: Battlefront in 2015 and eventually leading to games like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars: Squadrons. The company seemed to be finally hitting its stride with the franchise, though it had also canceled several Star Wars games. However, with Ubisoft’s Massive studio now creating an open-world Star Wars game, it appears nearly anyone could be in charge of this apparent new Knights of the Old Republic.

Knights of the Old Republic began as an Xbox exclusive, as BioWare hadn’t been acquired by EA yet. Its sequel was handled by Obsidian Entertainment, a company that has since been purchased by Microsoft. However, its plate is currently quite full, with work on games like Grounded and Avowed meaning it almost certainly isn’t working on Star Wars.

Now Playing: Star Wars Squadrons Video Review

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Hacking Expert Reacts To Hacking Clips In Games

From Cyberpunk 2077 to Watch Dogs: Legion, many games feature hacking mechanics to let the player conduct covert espionage, steal important data or turn technology against their enemies. But how close do these games get to the way hacking works in real life?

In the above video Sean Melia, an ethical hacker, breaks down the hacking mechanics in some of our favorite games to tell us how realistic – or unrealistic – they really are.

Check out more of our Expert Reacts series right here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BeJdQfEp40&list=PLpg6WLs8kxGMgYb13XjPgOKbm5O-CDq7R

Stardew Valley Update 1.5 Submitted For Certification On Consoles

After arriving to PC players in December, Stardew Valley’s big update 1.5 is nearing release on consoles, as well. Developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone shared the news on his Twitter account, saying he has submitted the update for certification on the platforms. Once that process is complete, it should be available.

Barone stressed that this process doesn’t always take the same amount of time, so it will likely still be either late January or early February when players can enjoy the new content. Given how long it took to develop Stardew Valley in the first place, however, what’s another week or two on this update?

Stardew Valley’s update 1.5 is the biggest update for the game to date. It includes new character creation options, a new Beach Farm, a variety of advanced game options like remixed bundles, new hairstyles, split-screen cooperative play, new music, home renovations, and many more additions. Since it came out, the update has received a few patches to fix some newer issues, which will hopefully already be fixed when the content comes to consoles.

Barone hasn’t figured out exactly what’s next for Stardew Valley after the current update is finished rolling out. He told Game Informer last year that a full sequel is a possibility, as is continuing to update the existing game with new content. It has been a runaway success for Barone, who became a millionaire after releasing the game.

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Tencent Acquires Majority Stake in Don’t Starve Developer Klei Entertainment

Tencent has acquired a majority stake in Klei Entertainment, the studio behind such games as Don’t Starve and Mark of the Ninja.

Klei Entertainment founder Jamie Cheng took to the the studio’s forums to announce the news and to assure its fans that “as part of this agreement, Klei retains full autonomy of creative and operations across all aspects of the studio, including projects, talent, and more.”

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As for what’s going to change, Cheng mentions that while there are some “boring accounting changes” that will need to be adjusted to, he will still be running the studio as before, with “no changes to staffing, projects, or other operations.”

Cheng continued to discuss why this decision was made and, among other things, how it will help Klei Entertainment continue to do what it does best – “making unique experiences that no one else can.”

“Klei has been around for 15 years, and we have made many changes over the years in order to respond to a changing world,” Cheng wrote. “Consistently, my wish has been to enable people to do their best creative work, to learn and grow, to not have to worry about finances, and be able to enjoy their lives outside the studio. This has not changed. This partnership helps us navigate a changing industry, and helps us focus on what we do best: making unique experiences that no one else can.”

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Tencent, which has invested in other companies that have produced such titles as Path of Exile, League of Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Clash of Clans, Fortnite, and more, helped Klei distribute its games in China in 2016. Furthermore, Don’t Starve Together was the first game to launch on Tencent’s WeGame platform.

These past collaborations helped make the decision for Klei to allow this acquisition, as Cheng feels that it is the only company that “would let us retain the level of control that we demand.”

Klei Entertainment’s newest title, Griftlands, is currently available on PC in Early Access and is also expected to be released on Nintendo Switch later this year.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Remembering 2011: The Biggest Games That Turn 10 This Year

Resistance 3 | September 6

Resistance 3 | September 6

Resistance is an oft-forgotten shooter franchise from developer Insomniac, but it remains one of my favorites on PS3. As a passionate fan of the first two games, I had high hopes for the third entry in 2011, especially after Resistance 2’s shocking ending, which effectively killed off its main protagonist. So, when Insomniac confirmed that you’d be playing as Resistance 2 supporting character Corporal Joseph Capelli in Resistance 3, I was already pretty eager to see how the series’ bleak world war against the Chimera would turn out. And after playing the six-hour campaign and a smattering of its multiplayer, I admit that I didn’t come away feeling as floored by it as I’d been by its predecessors.

At that point, Resistance 3 was staying in line with its core tenets, supplying you with a uniquely varied arsenal of weapons and testing your ability to use them effectively against overwhelming odds. Though, playing it safe wasn’t necessarily a bad thing: it’s actually what makes the game so endearingly serviceable. Shooters of the early 2010s were already fast-adopting the two-weapon cycling mechanics made popular by the Halo series–heck, even Resistance 2 adopted it for a hot minute. So to have a shooter that still emphasized classic FPS design with a weapon wheel’s worth of guns, high enemy counts, and frantic action was something I deeply valued in Resistance 3.

The shift in art direction also helped amplify the game’s high stakes, with grim, oppressive No Man’s Land-like landscapes, which made for a fitting backdrop for the conflict at hand. And remembering those Chimera strongholds and the hidden abominations that lay within them still gives me sweaty palms and cold shivers. Resistance 3 even brought back the first game’s unshakeable sense of dread, like nothing you did ever made a meaningful enough impact against the Chimera, at least, not until the very end.

Looking back now, I got everything that I wanted from Resistance 3. It’s an appropriate bookend to a franchise that began its life alongside the PS3’s launch, and while it may not be the best of three, Insomniac certainly didn’t hold back, making it a riveting, worthwhile conclusion. Here’s to hoping that Sony remasters the Resistance games someday because if it did, I guarantee you that the first one I’d boot up would be Resistance 3. A decade on since playing it, I’m past due for a revisit. I Matt Espineli

Here’s what George Clooney Learned After Batman & Robin Bombed

1997’s Batman & Robin, which was director Joel Schumacher’s second Bat-flick and star George Clooney’s first (and only) at-bat playing Bats, was a box office bust that killed off Warner Bros.’ first Bat-franchise, ending the run that began with Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989.

Recently, George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer, who both starred together in 1996’s One Fine Day, appeared together for Variety’s Actors on Actors, and during the chat Clooney told Pfeiffer, who herself was in Batman Returns from the same franchise, what he’d learned from being in such an expensive flop.

Clooney, who’s insisted for many years that his performance was also a big part of the movie’s failure, even going so far as to tell Ben Affleck not to play Batman when he was first offered the role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, decided to go forward focusing on entire projects and not just his role in them.

“After Batman & Robin came out, and it was a big bomb – you learn from your failures; you don’t learn from successes,” he said. “So then I thought, I have to focus really on the script. It’s not just about my part; it’s about the whole movie. The next three films I did were Out of Sight, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Three Kings, which were really great screenplays. They didn’t all do very well financially, but they were all critically well received.”

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“It became clear to me that you can make a bad film out of a good script, but you can’t make a good film out of a bad script,” Clooney added. “I gravitate toward pieces that interest me. They don’t always end up working, because there are so many things that can go wrong, including me.”

You can read the IGN review of The Midnight Sky here, George Clooney’s latest film, which is available to stream on Netflix.

Meanwhile, Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which has had a turbulent production schedule this past year due to the pandemic, is now due out in 2022, as the movie industry continues adjusting its schedule. And in other DCEU Bat-news, Michael Keaton’s Batman is expected to make an appearance in The Flash movie, opposite Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen.

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.