Archive - 2017

Ubisoft Delays Far Cry 5 and More

2017/12/07

PARIS – December 7, 2017 – Today, Ubisoft announced it is investing more time in the development of three upcoming games. Far Cry® 5 is now slated for release on March 27, 2018 (instead of February 27, 2018) and The Crew® 2 will come out in the first half of Fiscal 2018-19 (rather than on March 16, 2018). In addition, one of the three unannounced franchise games initially planned for release in Fiscal 2018-19 now will be released in Fiscal 2019-20.

Christine Burgess-Quémard, Ubisoft’s Worldwide Studios Executive Director, said, “This decision is in line with our strategic vision of developing even more engaging and higher quality experiences for gamers. Taking more time with Assassin’s Creed Origins enabled our talented development team to fully express their creative vision. As expected, this had a very positive impact on the game’s quality and largely participated to its commercial success. Taking a similar approach, we have decided to invest additional development time in three upcoming games.”

This announcement is being made against a particularly favorable backdrop for Ubisoft, with the month of November seeing continued excellent sales momentum both for back-catalog and new releases.

As a result of both the adjusted lineup and the confirmation of the positive sales trends, Ubisoft is updating its financial 2017-18 targets, notably by revising its profitability upward.

2017-18: Profitability target revised upward

Sales: €1,640.0 million versus the previous guidance of €1,700.0 million
Third-quarter sales: €700.0 million versus €630.0 million previously
Non-IFRS operating income: €270.0 million, unchanged
Record-high non-IFRS operating margin: 16.5% versus 15.9% previously

2018-19: Targets confirmed and higher visibility

Sales: €2,100.0 million, unchanged
The Group is standing by its sales target, with a further move towards a more recurring profile which provides additional visibility: higher levels of back-catalog sales and digital revenue and a lower number of units expected for the 4 AAA releases (The Crew 2, Skull & Bones^TM and 2 unannounced franchises). The assumptions underlying Ubisoft’s revenue guidance will be updated at the time of the fiscal third quarter sales release. As a reminder, previously-announced assumptions for 2018-19 were total sales of 28 million units for the four AAA games (3 unannounced franchises and Skull & Bones^TM) and digital revenue accounting for more than 55% of the overall sales figure for the fiscal year.
Non-IFRS operating income: €440.0 million, unchanged
Free cash flow: approximately €300.0 million, unchanged

Alain Martinez, Chief Financial Officer, stated, “Our back-catalog performance throughout November followed the same excellent trends as in the first half of the year and sales for Assassin’s Creed Origins continued their positive launch trajectory. As a result, we are now in a position to both update our financial 2017-18 targets, notably by revising our profitability upward, as well as invest additional development time in our future releases. These positive evolutions, which also give us higher visibility for 2018-19, demonstrate we are successfully transforming our model to make our business more recurring and profitable.”

Ubisoft will publish its sales for the third fiscal quarter on Thursday, February 8, 2018, after the close of stock market trading.

World of Tanks Unleashes Fifth War Stories Campaign

2017/12/07

Jennifer Paxton

Geek News, News, PlayStation 3 News, PlayStation 4 News, Trailers / Videos, Xbox 360 News, Xbox One News

December 7, 2017 – Wargaming has announced the newest War Stories campaign ‘Runaway Tiger’ is available today for World of Tanks on PlayStation®4 Pro, PlayStation®4, Xbox One X, Xbox One S, Xbox One and Xbox 360. The latest War Story on console puts tankers in the driver’s seat of a three-part storyline to infiltrate a “Tiger” production facility located in North Africa and steal a prototype to change the course of events during the Battle of El Alamein.

‘Runaway Tiger’ is an alternate history campaign where the Allies have secretly gained access to a German production facility and are aiming to escape with the German’s heavily guarded secret– a prototype of the Panzerkampfwagen tank. Under the cover of a heavy sandstorm, French resistance fighter Marianne Durieux has been commissioned with the impossible: to capture the well-guarded Tiger tank and break out of the facility.

With the German forces on high alert, tankers will encounter waves of challenges and face off against Tiger prototypes while attempting to escape the facility. Making it to the city of El Alamein will secure the Tiger prototype and subsequently, a legendary victory for the Allies.

‘Runaway Tiger’ also includes new music composed by legendary gaming composer Inon Zur (Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Crysis). Inon’s former service in a tank platoon helps him to create the perfect score for World of Tanks, further immersing tankers in the story-driven experience.

The fifth campaign is available on all consoles free of charge. Altogether, War Stories delivers more than a dozen hours of single-player and coop content for World of Tanks. PlayStation®4 Pro and Xbox One X owners can experience Marianne Durieux’s assignment in 4K resolution and with spectacular HDR support.

For more information on War Stories and World of Tanks on console visit:

Console.worldoftanks.com

Stellaris – Humanoids Species Pack Launch Trailer

2017/12/07

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News

STOCKHOLM — Dec. 7, 2017 — Paradox Interactive, a publisher and developer of games that tell human interest stories, today released a new Species Pack for Stellaris, the sci-fi grand strategy game from Paradox Development Studio. “Humanoids Species Pack,” available today for a suggested retail price of $7.99 on Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs, includes a wealth of new cosmetic content for ambitious galactic rulers. With new species portraits, ship models, music tracks, and voice sets for VIR, The Humanoids Species Pack provides more variety and character to Stellaris’ most-played phenotype, inspired by the classics of Western science fiction.

Follow the ambition of the latest species to explore the stars in a new trailer for Humanoids Species Pack:

Stellaris: Humanoids Species Pack adds new options to Paradox’s empire-building sci-fi strategy title, giving players additional choices for their species that are closer to home – or at least closer to our home galaxy. The pack includes:

Ten New Portraits of Humanoids
New Ship Models Inspired by Humanity’s Imagination
Three New Voiceover Sets for VIR
Three Remixed Music Tracks to Add to the Stellaris Soundtrack

For more information about Stellaris, visit http://www.stellarisgame.com/

EVERSPACE Hardcore Mode Out on Windows 10

2017/12/07

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News

Hamburg, December 6, 2017 – Today, Hamburg-based indie developer ROCKFISH Games launch the standalone Hardcore Mode for EVERSPACE™ players on Xbox One and the Windows 10 Store. This free update to the arcadey roguelike 3D space shooter (Xbox Metacritic 84) provides a brand new challenge for pilots who have successfully surmounted every obstacle the game has thrown at them. Rather than merely being a maddening new difficulty level for the game’s primary story, Hardcore Mode comes in the form of a brand new, standalone experience.

Doing away with the precious permanent ship improvements players have unlocked with credits earned from each run in the normal game mode, Hardcore Mode runs begin with a fixed set of perks that can only be upgraded as sectors are completed. Adding to the constant sense of danger this squishiness affords, players will have to chose from a series of “handicap” modifiers each time they enter a new sector. This could be anything from fuel leaking, combat not pausing while repairing or crafting items, jump suppressors in every location, or even a peculiar retro game mode with visual and sound effects like it’s 1991, again.

This means players will have to contend with more than just their hostile surroundings as they fight tooth and nail on their way to Hardcore Mode’s revamped end sector and final battle. Those who played EVERSPACE as part of Xbox Game Preview may even notice some familiar mechanics in the new final battle, given fans’ passion for a gone-but-not-forgotten encounter from the game’s early days, but it wouldn’t be Hardcore Mode without there being a healthy number of twists.

Whether it’s veteran pilots looking for a challenge worthy of their flight chops, or returning pilots looking to face down some space-faring punishment, EVERSPACE’s Hardcore Mode offers a fresh experience on Xbox One and Windows 10 that’s sure to keep players looking over their shoulders.

“We are excited about Hardcore Mode bringing a fresh challenge to veteran Everspace pilots on Xbox One and Windows 10 including continued XPA support,” said Chris Charla, Director ID@Xbox at Microsoft. “Everspace has come a long way since it launched as Xbox Game Preview more than a year ago and we can’t wait to hear what else Rockfish got up their sleeves for the future of Everspace.”

“By releasing Hardcore Mode on Xbox One, we successfully delivered on our last remaining promise from our Kickstarter in 2015,” said Michael Schade, CEO and co-founder of ROCKFISH Games. “But, there is even more to come. Currently, we are migrating the project to Unreal Engine 4.17 to support Xbox One X in native 4K resolution It will come as another free upgrade right in time when the highly-anticipated EVERSPACE – Encounters add-on will be released on the entire Xbox One family of devices in Q1 next year.”

Arms Race Update Launches for EVE Online with New Ships Trailer

2017/12/06

boothby

Geek News, News, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News

5 December 2017 – Reykjavik, Iceland – Today, CCP announced the launch of the Arms Race update for EVE Online, their in-depth and uniquely player-driven spaceship MMO game, which introduces even greater accessibility and wider gameplay variety to players with free-to-play accounts, known as Alpha Clones. Introduced in last year’s Ascension expansion, Alpha accounts enable players to permanently join hundreds of thousands of established users in EVE Online’smassive space sandbox for free. Now, CCP Games has opened up the ability for Alpha pilots to train many more skills, fly more impressive spaceships and equip more advanced weaponry.

“There has never been a better time to join the universe of EVE and begin your own unique space adventure, or re-join and continue your journey,” said Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CCP’s CEO. “The increased flexibility and depth of the free Alpha Clone experience means that EVE is more accessible than ever. EVE players can return and fly their favorite ships for free, re-uniting with old corpmates or continue forging their own destiny to make their mark on the universe.”

To mark this release, CCP has issued a new video highlighting the vessels now accessible for free here:

The Arms Race update immensely increases Alpha Clones’ options for skill training, allowing them to pilot the mighty Battleship and Battlecruiser classes of vessel, as well as many ships from across all of EVE Online’s stalwart Empires and infamous pirate factions, which represent some of the most popular ships in the game. To supplement this change, free access has also been granted to skills that allow for the use of upgraded weapons systems.

Alpha pilots will now be able to enjoy an even greater feeling of immersion and participation in the universe of New Eden. This update also provides a great incentive for any veteran pilots interested in returning to EVE Online, enabling them to fly powerful ships in their old player groups once again without a subscription.

The Arms Race update also brings a new training option for Alpha Clones, with the ability to accrue skillpoints on a daily, rather than monthly basis using Daily Alpha Injectors. While these injectors can only be used once per day, per Alpha character, they can be activated immediately to add 50,000 skillpoints into a pilot’s unallocated skillpoint pool.

With the release of this update, EVE Online’s players can enjoy an event catered toward the newfound power of Alpha Clones. Running from December 5 – 12, the Arms Race event celebrates free access to Battlecruisers and Battleships, and provides rewards themed around them.

In addition, the Arms Race update includes many other enhancements and refinements for EVE Online. The Resource Wars feature will see the introduction of a new role that allows players to fly as a support pilot, earning rewards by providing remote logistics to fellow players, plus vessels from the Empire that they support. Players will now take on an elevated threat, with Pirate Forward Operating Bases becoming easier to find and engage with. Furthermore, as part of CCP’s ongoing commitment to keeping New Eden as visually stunning as possible, players will be also able to enjoy improved textures on structures found in missions and deadspace areas.

The Arms Race update also sees the appearance of a new in-game monument to commemorate the efforts of all all the EVE Online players who contributed to real science through the development of the Human Protein Atlas as part of Project Discovery.

More details about EVE Online’s past, current and future updates can be found via updates.eveonline.com. EVE Online can be downloaded for free by visiting www.eveonline.com.

Bohemia Interactive Sandbox Game Ylands Now On Steam

2017/12/06

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, News, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News

Prague, Czech Republic, December 6, 2017—Bohemia Interactive, today, announced the official release of its new sandbox adventure game, Ylands, on Steam Early Access. The beautiful open-polyworld of Ylands completely unleashes players’ creativity to craft, explore, and create anything they have ever imagined. Bohemia’s hardcore titles, Arma and DayZ, are known for their huge open terrains, lots of gameplay freedom, many opportunities for content creation, and their involved community. While this family-friendly title might look like a very unusual addition at first sight, Ylands aims to bring exactly those elements that made Bohemia successful to a brand new group of gamers.

The game can be found here on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/298610/Ylands/

Ylands is a unique sandbox game that lets players explore their creativity. Players can seamlessly switch between single and multiplayer modes while exploring uncharted ylands, laying siege to castles, engaging in naval battles, taking part in car races, crafting monumental structures or quirky things like crab armor, cheese walls and much more. Ylands lets you live your childhood fantasies and create your own new adventures.

Another powerful feature of the game is the Ylands Editor. With interactive scripting and thousands of objects to play with, it makes Ylands much more than yet another sandbox game. It’s a platform where players can create their own games and share them with others through the custom-made Workshop.

“You don’t need any special skills or knowledge to become a creator in Ylands – if you have an idea, that one creative spark, you’re all set,” said Aleš Ulm, the Creative Director of Ylands. “We can’t wait to see what players think about our game and hope that together we’ll shape it into something unique” he added.

Ylands is now available for purchase and play, and as a special bonus early birds will get a 20% discount from now on until December 11 (normal price: €15 / $15 / £13). With the core features already implemented, the developers are planning to spend roughly six months in Early Access, mostly polishing gameplay and multiplayer aspects so it can be released later in 2018.

EVGA Unveils GeForce GTX 1070 Ti FTW ULTRA SILENT

2017/12/06

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, Hardware News, News

December 6th, 2017 – Take on today’s most challenging, graphics-intensive games without missing a beat. The EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti delivers the incredible speed and power of NVIDIA Pascal – the most advanced gaming GPU architecture ever created. This is the ultimate gaming platform.

Featuring an all-new 2.5 slot cooler and ultra silent fan profile, the EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti FTW ULTRA SILENT gives you the best of both worlds – Cool, silent running and game-changing performance! The larger heatsink efficiently removes more heat, which allows your fans to run at a lower and quieter speed. Alternatively, the improved cooling gives you more headroom to overclock and improve performance without worrying about heat.

Learn more https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=08G-P4-6678-KR

Assassin’s Creed Origins Photo Mode Contest Announced

2017/12/06

boothby

Geek News, News

SAN FRANCISCO — December 6, 2017 — Today, Ubisoft announced that the Assassin’s Creed^® Origins Photo Mode contest will run from December 7, 2017, at 6:00 am PST to January 10, 2018, at 8:59 am PST. Each week, the Assassin’s Creed Origins dev team will reveal a new theme at assassinscreed.com and Twitter @assassinscreed and participants will need to submit their photo based on the week’s theme on the EasyPromos App portal: https://a.cstmapp.com/p/22408. The Assassin’s Creed Origins dev team will judge the competition and choose five winners each week – one grand prize winner and four runner-up winners. This week’s theme is Wild Life, which will have players exploring the living, breathing world of Assassin’s Creed Origins.

Each runner-up winner will receive a season pass code, or if they already own the season pass, an official Assassin’s Creed shirt. Grand prize winners will receive the same prizes as the runner-up winners, and will also have their photography displayed at Ubisoft Montreal and will receive their own printed version from Cook & Becker, a high-quality online art dealership. For further information about the official rules, please visit:

https://ubistatic2-a.akamaihd.net/gamesites/assassinscreed/origins/photomodecontest/ACO-photo-mode-contest_US-and-worldwide-official-rules.pdf

With more than 20 million pictures taken, the in-game Photo mode feature in Assassin’s Creed Origins provides players with a unique way to capture the beauty of their journey across Ancient Egypt and share their best memories with friends and the community. Photo mode also offers many options to create unique photos with 17 different filters and several parameters to play with, such as exposure, vignetting, color temperature, tint, saturation and noise.

Anyone can see creations from the community directly displayed and geolocalized in the in-game world map. For inspiration, players can also discover original concept art created by the dev team, popping up every day in the world map. The official website also offers a perfect way to browse through a gallery of pictures taken by the community. While the Assassin’s Creed Origins dev team will be judging the competition, players and non-players with a Ubisoft account can “Like” their favorite photos in the gallery on the official Photo mode website at assassinscreed.com/photomode.

For discovering the top fan pictures selected by the Assassin’s Creed Origins development team so far, please visit: https://blog.ubi.com/?p=48400

To see the official Photo Mode website, please visit: www.assassinscreed.com/photomode

For more information about Assassin’s Creed Origins, please visit www.assassinscreed.com.

Antigraviator Teaser Trailer

2017/12/06

boothby

Geek News, News, PlayStation 4 News, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News, Xbox One News

Haarlem, The Netherlands, December 6, 2017 – Publisher Iceberg Interactive is gearing up for the Q2 2018 release of frenetic anti-gravity racing game Antigraviator, which is set to take production on the Unity engine to new heights. Antigraviator is slated for a simultaneous launch on PC, PlayStation® 4 and Xbox® One.

Antigraviator is a sleek new take on the anti-gravity racing genre. Use traps, power-ups and boosts to overtake your opponents and dominate the track. With no speed limit holding you back, Antigraviator aims to deliver the fastest racing experience out there.

Watch Antigraviator teaser trailer showing early gameplay on Iceberg Interactive’s YouTube channel below.

Antigraviator is being developed by Belgian development outfit Cybernetic Walrus. The studio is founded by four alumni from Howest University – Digital Arts and Entertainment, voted the best game design & development school of 2017 by The Rookies. The developer’s use of the Unity engine has garnered them much acclaim, with Unity Technologies recently using their experience and assets for the Unite Austin 2017 training day.

“With Iceberg Interactive on board as publisher of our first game, Cybernetic Walrus is getting its big tusks.” says Mike Coeck, managing director at Cybernetic Walrus.

Erik Schreuder, CEO of Iceberg Interactive, adds”: “We’re huge science-fiction fans, as you might have guessed from our portfolio. A futuristic racing game definitely fits the bill for us and we couldn’t be more excited to publish Antigraviator.”

Future ‘Grav’ racers can sign up to the newsletter, to be notified when the game becomes available. In addition, players can stay up-to-date by wishlisting the game on Steam now through http://store.steampowered.com/app/621020/Antigraviator

The 17th Door Presents Haunted Holiday Treasure Hunt of Absurdity

2017/12/05

Jerry Paxton

Geek News, Halloween, News

December 5, 2017 – The 17th Door Presents “Haunted Holiday Treasure Hunt of Absurdity”! 4 nights only – December 8th, 9th, 15th & 16th (Opening THIS Friday!)

Your favorite holiday takes a demonic turn in this Christmas themed interactive haunted house! Expect this year’s Christmas edition to be scary, creepy, nasty yet fun and freakin’ hilarious!… Not your average holiday activity. (Not recommended for kids or young teens)

Paula has a new cellmate and he wants to watch you be bad or good. Visit Santa and his seedy elves this holiday season at Perpetuum Penitentiary where Santa serves his sentence while his elves continue to ‘serve him’. Santa is making his list and you do NOT want to be on his naughty side. Journey through what will be an unforgettable treasure hunt in search of gifts that will help you make the nice list. Santa may be locked up, but Christmas must go on.

The Treasure Hunt

As a group, you will collect or earn gifts as you proceed through our 17 rooms of terrifyingly intense holiday absurdity. To earn gifts your group will be performing tasks, solving riddles, consuming “treats”, exchanging items with twisted characters, or just surviving something horrible. Each person will be given a stocking that they carry to hold these gifts in their travels. You will win or lose as a group. The more gifts you earn the better your chance at making the “Nice List” and receiving a free prize!