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In just 24 hours, Sony Santa Monica's God of War reboot has topped over 50,000 concurrent players on Steam. According to SteamDB , the concurrent player count continues to climb since the game was released yesterday and at the time of writing, the record stands at 57,764 simultaneous players - not bad for an entirely single-player experience. In fact, in the 20 minutes since I started writing this article, the concurrent peak has increased four - no, wait, five now - times. As Matt summarised for us yesterday, God of War is the third first-party PlayStation game to launch for PC so far - Horizon: Zero Dawn and Days Gone arrived last year, and the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is still to come . And the good news is Sony Santa Monica has done a cracking job managing the transition to PC, with Digital Foundry calling the port "simply sensational" in its recent analysis . However, God of War's creative director Cory Barlog recently said he had "no idea" if the … [Read more...] about God of War hits a concurrent peak of almost 60,000 players on Steam in just 24 hours

Ubisoft has partnered with Pathe and Jean-Jacques Annaud to create a new VR experience based upon the 2019 Notre-Dame fire. "Notre-Dame on Fire" is an IMAX-shot docu-drama expected to release in March 2022 that details how firefighters were able to control the fire and prevent the entire ancient building from burning to the ground. The VR game of the same name - which puts players directly into the firefighting team the night the famous cathedral caught on fire - will release alongside the movie in March, reusing the assets from Assassin's Creed Unity to create an escape experience. "Like any escape game, it's a question of puzzles and co-operating with your teammates," Ubisoft senior VP Deborah Papiernik told Variety (thanks, The Gamer ). "The idea is to make your way through the cathedral to find relics and to fight the fire, because you have to save Notre Dame." That said, the game will not be a shot-by-shot VR remake of the film, but will instead offer a different, and … [Read more...] about Save Notre-Dame in Ubisoft’s next VR game

Halo's Xbox 360 servers are now offline. "Online services for legacy Halo Xbox 360 titles have been discontinued," confirmed a tweet from the Twitter account Halo Support just before the weekend. "The affected games will remain playable indefinitely, but some experiences will be impacted." Affected games include Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Spartan Assault, and Halo Wars - although only the 360 versions - and while the games can still be played, "online services such as challenges and file share are no longer available". It also affects players playing via backwards compatibility. Online services for legacy Halo Xbox 360 titles have been discontinued. The affected games will remain playable indefinitely, but some experiences will be impacted. https://t.co/DYQjpIPtKT for more details — Halo Support (@HaloSupport) January 13, 2022 This content is hosted on an external platform, which will only display it if you accept … [Read more...] about Halo’s Xbox 360 servers are now offline

Konami's first NFT auction - focused on Castlevania - has reportedly earned the company over £118,500 ($162,000). According to VGC , all 14 NFT items were sold, with the average price reportedly selling for around £8.7K ($12K). The most expensive piece - a digital artwork based upon the Dracula's Castle map from the very first instalment of the franchise - sold for £19.4K ($26,538.96, to be precise).​​ A three-minute video comprised of different Castlevania games secured £12.8K ($17.5K), while digital artwork from Circle of the Moon earned £12.4K ($17K). Konami announced the Konami Memorial NFT Collection to mark Castlevania's 35th anniversary just last week . Artwork, video clips and music tracks were hawked as NFTs on the OpenSea auction site this week, using the controversial Ethereum currency. The digital items included new pixel art and familiar music tracks, plus odd "highlight movie" clips from the series. Each also includes "unlockable content" which reportedly "can … [Read more...] about Konami earned over £118,000 from that Castlevania NFT auction

Speedrunner Olenoname has completed Stardew Valley in just 17 minutes. Playing the game as part of this year's Awesome Games Done Quick charity marathon, Olenoname warned viewers that "this run's gonna move pretty fast and it's gonna get started really quickly" - and they weren't wrong. As spotted by PC Gamer , instead of starting out as carefully as we would, they deleted all their tools - which saw items magically pop up in their inventory - and then threw mega bombs all over the place to chop down those trees and spawn a sneaky fast travel trip. 17 minutes later, they'd finished the game. As you might well expect, this isn't a normal playthrough, though. A clever exploit kicked off by naming the character "a very, very long list of item codes" sees you trick the NPCs into gifting things earlier than they should, such as those handy bombs. I don't want to give away all the tips and cheats here, but if you'd like to see the run in real-time and find out how they were able to … [Read more...] about This speedrunner completed Stardew Valley in just 17 minutes

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries will begin "rolling out changes" to the shooter's in-game store next week, emphasising that it is "focused on reducing pricing across the board". "We've been monitoring the discussions on the Shop, bundles, and pricing closely since launch," explains Jerry Hook, head of design at 343 Industries. "Using data and community feedback, we're going to begin rolling out changes to how we package and price items in Halo Infinite - and it all starts next week." "Starting Tuesday, the Shop experience will vary week-to-week," Hook adds. "We are focused on reducing pricing across the board, providing stronger values in our bundles, starting to put individual items outside of bundles, and more. "We will be trying new things throughout the rest of the season so that we can continue to learn and improve for the future. Please keep the feedback coming during this process and I hope to see you all next week for the Cyber Showdown event!" We will be trying … [Read more...] about Halo Infinite developer is “focused on reducing pricing” in its in-game store

Lego has put plans for an Overwatch 2 set on hold in response to ongoing concerns regarding Activision Blizzard's workplace culture. The Titan set would have been the first Overwatch 2 Lego product, following a series of sets that were created for the first game. According to a statement given to Brick Fanatics by Lego, the Titan set was postponed from its original release date in light of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit and ensuing revelations from current and former employees. "We are currently reviewing our partnership with Activision Blizzard, given concerns about the progress being made to address continuing allegations regarding workplace culture, especially the treatment of female colleagues and creating a diverse and inclusive environment," the statement said. "While we complete the review, we will pause the release of a LEGO Overwatch 2 product which was due to go on sale on February 1, 2022." According to previous retailer leaks, the Overwatch 2 Titan … [Read more...] about Overwatch 2 Lego set “paused” as Lego reviews partnership with Activision Blizzard

Final Fantasy 14 will reveal new info next month preluding update 7.0. The new information was revealed by game director and producer Naoki Yoshida, taking to the new Radio Mog Station show yesterday on January 9, according to the fan translation just below. In his appearance on the show, Yoshida revealed that the end of February will see new information revealed relating to Final Fantasy 14's new story in the aftermath of Endwalker. Yoshi-P says in the Radio Mog Station show that there will be quite a lot of info that will be dumped on us near the end of February that will lead up to 7.0. There might be some drastic changes that'll surprise you.Krile will also have a focus from here on out. #FFXIV pic.twitter.com/GdDy2jVq8B January 9, 2022 See more Endwalker was the conclusion of the ongoing Haedalyn and Zodiark plot arc that originally kicked off with A Realm Reborn over a decade ago. Now that Endwalker has arrived, Yoshida and the development team at Square Enix … [Read more...] about Final Fantasy 14 will reveal brand new story info next month

343 Industries, the Microsft-owned studio behind FPS Halo: Infinite , says it has been "monitoring the discussions" about the game's shop and microtransactions and will be "reducing pricing across the board" from next week. "We’ve been monitoring the discussions on the Shop, bundles, and pricing closely since launch," tweeted 343 Industries' head of design, Jerry Hook, earlier today. "Using data and community feedback, we’re going to begin rolling out changes to how we package and price items in Halo Infinite – and it all starts next week. "Starting Tuesday, the Shop experience will vary week-to-week. We are focused on reducing pricing across the board, providing stronger values in our bundles, starting to put individual items outside of bundles, and more. "We will be trying new things throughout the rest of the season so that we can continue to learn and improve for the future," Hook added in a follow-up tweet. "Please keep the feedback coming during this process … [Read more...] about Halo Infinite will be “reducing pricing across the board” of its cosmetics from next week

Dune Part 2 is officially on its way – though it might not start filming for a while yet. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter if Dune Part 2 could start shooting in spring 2022, director Denis Villeneuve said: "No, that's too soon. We still have a lot of work to do. It'd probably be more toward fall, and even that would be fast." As for how the director feels about Part 2 going ahead with a 2023 release date, Villeneuve shared: "It's fantastic news, but it's also kind of a burden. The good news is that a lot of the work has been done already regarding design, casting, locations and writing. So we're not starting from scratch. "It's not a long period of time, but I will try to face that challenge because it's important for me that the audience sees Part 2 as soon as possible. It's not a sequel where it's another episode or another story with the same characters. It actually has direct continuity to the first movie. It's the second part of the big, huge movie that … [Read more...] about Dune Part 2 probably won’t start filming until fall 2022, says Denis Villeneuve