Nexon To Invest Roughly $900 Million In Sega, Konami, Bandai Namco To “Develop And Sustain Strong, Globally Recognized IP”

It does not take much effort to recognize Japanese publishers Bandai Namco, Konami, and Sega. The trio of companies have issued notable franchises and pushed sales across multiple systems and even console generations to note that. Presumably, the momentum from the talent at these Japanese firms are not to simmer anytime soon. And to jump aboard before it is too late, online game conglomerate Nexon has announced to be investing into the three firms combined. In addition to other companies like toy manufacturer Hasbro, the total combined between the four is said to be approximately $874 million. In long term, the board of directors at Nexon plans to invest roughly $1.5 billion into the entertainment market. From a report by gamesindustry.biz, the current deal is told to be only 58 percent of the firm’s ambitions from Nexon. The deal is said to be followed up by other announcements to invest the remaining $600+ million that has yet to be issued by the company as of yet. We believe companies with strong, well-managed global IP are often overlooked and undervalued in a market that is narrowly focused on introductions of new IP. These investments reflect our respect for management teams that create and grow global properties over a period of years and decades. We believe that each has potential to capitalise on the secular shift from linear formats to interactive entertainment. Owen Mahoney, Nexon President & CEO To understand the firm’s interest in what capital gain there is from the three publishers, there are some stagnating reports to back up Nexon’s interest to invest. One being Sega’s continued ambitions to further remaster and port its older titles to new systems. Namely Atlus-developed games, there is a certainty this will also expand to other studios as well. Additionally, Konami is in the middle of a major claim which indicates that the Japanese company is outsourcing a developer to work on a new Silent Hill game. The unannounced project is told to be revealed later this summer. You can read the full report by heading here. What are you hoping to manifest from the investment? Source: gamesindustry.biz

The Falconeer Receives Free DLC ‘Atun’s Folly’ Today

Trotting back just about a handful of months ago, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S arrived to store shelves. But while the systems at the time and are still difficult to acquire due to market limitations, players can still enjoy most of the releases that arrives to the latest machines. One being platform exclusive The Falconeer. As suggested by the name, players pilot a falcon and go on limitless adventures and dog fight in the skies. However, Rectify Gaming’s David Rodriguez had more to share on his take with The Falconeer. “The work of Tomas Sala is truly insane, as Falconeer is the latest in the one developer game miracles we’ve come across over the last decade”. Rodriguez adds, “The Falconeer is fun ride, and a great title to showcase the new Xbox Series S/X with. The great flight and combat scenarios overcome a lackluster story to create a memorable experience.” Now in a new update that drops today, players can indulge in new missions and take one fresh-faced foes in ‘Atun’s Folly’ today. You can watch the launch trailer in the video below: “Live the pirate life with ‘Atun’s Folly’, a free new update for The Falconeer,” the description for the release trailer reads. “Navigate the perilous waters of the Great Ursee, discover Atun’s Folly, a Pirate settlement and take on missions to raid the Imperium’s wealthy traders, with fearsome new enemies to defeat!” Do you own The Falconeer on Xbox or PC? The Falconeer is out now for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Review: Evil Genius 2

Developer –Rebellion Developments Publisher – Rebellion Developments Release Date – March 30th, 2021 Platforms – PC After a long stay in a villains only super prison, Evil Genius 2 has finally escaped. The world is different, but the name of the game remains. Build an evil lair, recruit henchmen, and try to takeover the world. In the time since Evil Genius released, the entire Tycoon genre pretty much took a long hiatus. RTS and Sim games went into extinction warning levels of scarcity, and it seemed to remain that way for a while. Thankfully, that all went away, and like poetry, we’ve come full circle. Evil Genius was a fun but flawed title, and with the resurgence of the genre, it would need to be more than a fun concept to have any chance in a suddenly crowded genre. Evil Genius released on the tale end of the Tycoon genre with a great take on the formula. Instead of a mayor, business manager or small family, you played as a dastardly criminal mastermind. Think classic 60’s James Bond and less Austin Powers, and you have the right idea. Playing as the three different leaders provided a unique choice of henchmen. This henchmen actually provided the bulk of the game’s variety. Each one had a special look, voice, and a multitude of different buffs and areas of expertise that touched the entire span of the game. Alas, despite it’s unique flair and outstanding visual presentation, Evil Genius did have some clunk areas and the two halves of the game, lair management and world domination, both felt lacking a depth needed to truly sink lots of time into the game after a single playthrough. Right away the Villains themselves stand out more. In the first game they never amounted to enough differences to warrant replayability. More unique traits and flair help them standout compared to their primary henchmen. The minions that work inside your base. Whether they are building new rooms or getting beat up by good guys truly stand out due to the excellent visuals. The entire game essentially follows on the original premise. Lair management is akin to Dungeon Keeper. Expand your island, and set traps and devious schemes to thwart any good guys or Super Agents who try to stop you. As you generate schemes and build up infamy, you get more heat from local law enforcement. As your heat rises, more frequent attacks and tougher agents will get sent in to stop you. It’s a fun mechanic, and it really provides a bridge that make the two different forms of management come together. Every choice in one area will have an effect on the other. Even more than different villains and islands, those choices are what drive the gameplay variety and already want me to experiment with completely different builds and playstyles for subsequent sessions. The end game is a lot of fun, and as the base grows and the traps grow more intimate, I would still enjoy watching Super Agents trying to thwart my actions. Even better is the different leaders truly lend themselves to more than one sessions worth of fun. Unique buildings, henchmen and gameplay styles don’t change much early, but by mid to late game you will almost guaranteed have a completely unique set-up than the first time through. Evil Genius 2 is a marked improvement from the original. It’s not perfect, and some bugs did crop up although they never caused an real issues. If you enjoyed the original, despite it’s flaws, then Evil Genius 2 is a great entry for old fans and newcomers to the thriving tycoon genre.

Review: Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods

Developer –id Software Publisher – Bethesda Game Studios Platforms – PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch The Ancient Gods has reached it’s finale with the release of Part 2 of this DLC. Going far above a typical DLC release, Ancient Gods confidently moves the story towards a finale worthy of the game it’s built off of. I don’t need to say much about Doom Eternal. It’s one of my favorite games of 2020 and is a blistering and fast based experience. If you like, feel free to read my full review of it right here. The Ancient Gods picks up where Eternal left off. Without giving too much away, you will dive deep into the heart of Hell, with tons of revelations and some pretty major story beats. Enough to warrant a Doom 3 but instead it’s tackled in this huge expansion. The Ancient Gods also introduces a decent amount of new enemies and variants of pre-existing ones. That’s right, for those who hated the polarizing Marauder, more of him where that came from and it’s just as brutal as before. It’s tough to review this honestly, as the new story, locations, weapon and encounters are all top notch. If you even had mild interest in Doom and it’s gameplay, this expansion us a no brainer. I would say that it doesn’t do much to change it’s style for those who couldn’t get into it before. That was my favorite part of The Ancient Gods. It’s unapologetic. They heard all the complaints about certain enemies, and tripled down on them. They ramped up the difficulty and the combat puzzle by a significant margin. I have tremendous respect for choosing to go into the deep end of the difficulty scale and putting the conclusion of the Doom story behind that kind of content. I really enjoyed The Ancient Gods. The lore, locations and fights were blistering and fast paced, and both parts together creates a compelling and tightly paced follow-up to a great game. For any Doom fans, this expansion is a must play.

File Size Decreases To Be Issued To Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare & Warzone In Coming Update

While Call of Duty’s main focus is still pinned on the latest entry in the series, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, there are still a myriad of players that are still populating the lobbies of last year’s game, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare. What is very similar between the two games is the file size. Although both Infinity Ward and Treyarch are aware of the grossly large amount of hard drive space these games take up, not much has been done to reduce that just yet. In the past, the studio for 2019’s game did issue a 25 GB reduction to Modern Warfare which did alleviate some weight of the file size, but, Warzone still continued to grow tremendously. Not only that, but Treyarch also clarified that users deciding to keep all games installed might quickly eat up the 500 GB hard drive on base PlayStation 4 systems very quickly. But in a new update, it is indicated that both Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare & Warzone are to receive a decent reduction in each respective file sizes in the approaching update for the games. You can view the reduction for the each supported system in the list below: PlayStation 5: 10.9 GB (Warzone Only) / 30.6 GB (Warzone and Modern Warfare) PlayStation 4: 10.9 GB (Warzone Only) / 30.6 GB (Warzone and Modern Warfare) Xbox Series X / Xbox Series S: 14.2 GB (Warzone Only) / 33.6 GB (Warzone and Modern Warfare) Xbox One: 14.2 GB (Warzone Only) / 33.6 GB (Warzone and Modern Warfare) PC: 11.8 GB (Warzone Only) / 30.6 GB (Warzone and Modern Warfare) In the blog post, Activision presses that there will, however, be a significantly larger update for Black Ops Cold War as a result of the reduction. “Enhancements to the overall content management system has been made possible through data optimization and streamlining content packs needed for individual game modes. “This will come after a larger than usual, one-time update for Season Two Reloaded, which will include these optimizations and is necessary in order to reduce the overall footprint; future patch sizes for Modern Warfare and Warzone are expected to be smaller than the one set to release on March 30 at 11PM PST. “Along with the ability to remove individual modes that are no longer played, owners of the full Modern Warfare experience will see more space freed on their platform of choice. However, those who want to continue playing Campaign, Multiplayer, and/or Special Ops will need to reinstall the optimized Content Packs, which will be released.” Believe it or not, discussion for 2021’s Call of Duty has already surfaced. In a report from Modern Warfare, the Call of Duty website shares from sources that the next installment will return to World War II. Even more, the project will once again be helmed by Sledgehammer Games. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you happy with the file size decreases? Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare is out now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Source: Activision

Insomniac Games To Issue 60 FPS Patch For Ratchet & Clank (2016) Next Month

For PlayStation Studios team Insomniac Games, the developer after finishing one big plate is onto the next. This past November with the launch of the PlayStation 5 was also accompanied alongside the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. However, the tale does not end there. In that, Insomniac Games is planning to ship Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart later this June in the coming months. But outside of primary development, Insomniac Games does also work on additional support for its previous titles as well. Namely, the developer has worked on a previous patch which enabled cross-generation save for Marvel’s Spider-Man from PlayStation 4 to the remastered version on PlayStation 5 which shipped back in late November. Now a similar story can be said about Ratchet & Clank. But instead of the ability to transfer save progress, the 2016 title is welcoming a nice 60 frames per second patch next month the team announced on Twitter. What is more convenient about the announcement for Ratchet & Clank (2016) is the timing. And that is because of Sony’s Play at Home 2021 initiative: kicking off the program, all PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 5 owners can install Ratchet & Clank (2016) for free. However, the game is still up for grabs until this coming Wednesday. March 31. In other exciting news for Insomniac Games, long-time developer Drew Murray announced his return to the game studio. After two years since the founding of Xbox Game Studios’ The Initiative, Murray makes his way back to the PlayStation Studios team once again. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you thinking to play the Ratchet & Clank next month when the update drops?

While Xbox Users Gets Smart Delivery For Wreckfest For Free, PlayStation 5 Owners Are Asked To Pay For The Newest Version

Although both Xbox Series X|S & PlayStation 5 offer their own unique perks that make owning either a pleasure, the offer is more convincing for Xbox with one feature: Smart Delivery. Since its inception, Microsoft revealed to collaborate with more than one hundred game studios to make the implementation a reality. And the feature has proven to do justice for its users. Either through free upgrades or simply transitioning to the newest Xbox – players on Microsoft’s console have less to worry about. And while PlayStation 5 offers the same support to some extent, it is not perfectly executed. One instance being the next-gen version of Marvel’s Avengers: PlayStation 5 users discovered there were hoops to jump through while Xbox Series X|S owners simply started playing. Now, another symptom of Smart Delivery has proven to be beneficial for its users. While the feature offers a 4K, 60 frames per second upgrade for Bugbear Entertainment’s Wreckfest on the latest Xbox, PlayStation 5 owners are to pick up the enhancement for and additional $9.99. “The PlayStation 5 version offers the best Wreckfest experience on consoles ever and takes full advantage of the PlayStation 5’s hardware power,” the announcement post reads. “Not only does the new version offer enhanced visuals such as dynamic dirt on vehicles, better textures, and improved visual effects. Additionally, it also runs with a wonderful 4K resolution at a smooth 60 frames per second.” When skimming through the finer details of what upgrades Wreckfest has to offer, the differences are strikingly similar to the upgraded Xbox One version for Xbox Series X|S. While PlayStation 5 does not offer its own version of Smart Delivery, perhaps users would not have to pay the additional $10 alike Xbox owners that don’t have to. Surrounding Wreckfest as of recent, it was discovered that the title also happens to be one of the first inaugural titles on Xbox Series X|S to support Dolby Vision. The feature is to be enabled for Xbox Insiders alongside other namely games like Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Borderlands 3. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you planning to get Wreckfest for PlayStation 5? Wreckfest comes to PlayStation 5 on June 1, 2021; out now for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PC. Source: THQ Nordic

After PAX East 2021 Gets The Boot Due To COVID-19 Concerns, PAX Online Is To Take Place On July 15 To July 18

While COVID-19 is still a large concern for many organizers around the globe, there is a shot for hope (literally). Millions are receiving vaccinations at an accelerated rate beyond what U.S. President Joe Biden could expect. So when Penny Arcade planned to kick off 2021 with PAX East this June, it was a shoe in for the event, right? Well, that does not happen the case anymore. Although the group did plan ahead in anticipation to hold PAX East 2021 at the Boston Convention Center later this summer instead of the traditional early spring show, the organization alongside partner ReedPop decided to pull the show altogether after reviewing the current concerns for possible spread of COVID-19. Although PAX East is out of the picture for this year, Penny Arcade plans to host PAX Online as a replacement later this July as stated in a press release. While we hoped PAX East could safely take place, we remained realistic and did not sell any tickets or space to exhibitors to avoid significantly inconveniencing our friends and partners. As we have shown via our actions throughout the pandemic, our utmost concern is the safety of the PAX family — from attendees, exhibitors, and show staff to media and content creators — as well as the local communities that host our celebrations of all things gaming. We will only move forward with a live PAX once we are confident the show will be safe for everyone. For those that might not recall from this past September, Penny Arcade introduced PAX Online as an alternative to PAX West following the show’s cancellation as COVID-19 was still a concern back in the fall. Similar to that show, this coming virtual event scheduled for the summer is to be a further extension on the progress made before. “We hope to build on the success of last year’s record-breaking event and also engage with our community in new ways, such as the Indie Showcase that will take place between now and PAX Online”. Were you planning to attend PAX East this year? PAX Online is to take place from July 15, 2021 to July 18, 2021. Source: Penny Arcade

Official: Sony To Shut Down PlayStation 3/PSP/PS Vita Stores Later This Summer, Can Still Access Purchases After

Upon viewing over towards PlayStation 5’s backwards compatibility library, the platform is only a fraction of what the latest iteration could offer if bridging all previous systems. For now, PlayStation 4 is the only available system that supports the feature. Remaining titles from prior generations are playable via PlayStation Now, but, is not genuinely considered backwards compatibility. While concerning why, that hole in support for a handful of platforms are: PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita. But the issue becomes even more troubling following a recent report from The Gamer that issued the PSP, PS3, and PS Vita stores are to effectively shutdown later this summer. Now, that is confirmed. In a new update over on PlayStation Support, Sony Interactive Entertainment verifies that the respected digital stores are shutting down – PlayStation 3 & PlayStation Portable for July 2, 2021 and PlayStation Vita on August 27, 2021. One namely problem the original report worried users is that purchases cannot be retrieved after the storefronts close. Thankfully, Sony clarifies that your purchases can be accessed after the closings. How do I access my owned games? You can download your owned content onto your PS3, PS Vita or PSP device by accessing the Download List on the respective device. Will the closure of PlayStation Store and purchase functionality on PS3, PS Vita and PSP devices have any impact on titles that I’ve claimed through my PlayStation Plus membership? No, you will still be able to re-download and play claimed game titles through PlayStation Plus as long as you remain a member of the service. Will I still be able to download owned video content following the closure of PlayStation Store and purchase functionality on PS3, PS Vita and PSP devices? Yes, you will still be able to download and stream owned video content following the closure of PlayStation Store and purchase functionality on PS3, PS Vita and PSP devices. Video content that you own can be streamed on PS3, PS4 or PS5 through the My Videos app, or on mobile devices through the PlayStation Video app. Previously, Sony Interactive Entertainment also closed support for one feature on the PlayStation Store on the current storefront for PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 5. In that, the ability to purchase film and television is said to be scrapped later this August. And like on the respected storefronts closing in this report, purchased content is still accessible. On the bright side for what could come to PlayStation 5, a new patent was uncovered over on ResetEra by one poster surfing through PatentScope to discover a patent to unlock trophies for games that didn’t have the feature. The finding suggests that backwards compatibility for older generations might be in the works for PlayStation 5. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you planning on making some last minute purchases before the respected PlayStation Stores close? Source: PlayStation Support