Apex Legends is preparing the launch of Season 2. Respawn has been vocal about learning lessons from its first season, and has already outlined a wide array of changes to expect from the second season. Those include a new character, a revised challenge system, ranked leagues, and more.

Apex Legends Season 2 Start Time And Patch

Apex Legends Season 2 will launch on Tuesday, July 2 at or around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST / 3 AM AEST (Wednesday). Though this time isn’t exact, Respawn has said it will update the community if it changes significantly.

The patch for Season 2 will be larger than usual. On PC it will be more than 18GB, and on Xbox One and PS4 it will be more than 20GB. Respawn says this is to add extra content, but also to add a fresh build of the game that removes outdated parts and replaces it with more efficient code. Respawn says this will not be the norm, but occasionally players may need to download large file sizes.

New Character: Wattson

Just like the last season, Season 2 will introduce an entirely new Legend to play as. This time it’s Natalie Paquette, aka Wattson. The young science genius and daughter of the man who built King’s Canyon grew up around the Arena. She’s important to the lore of the game, and more significantly, she represents a large difference in play style from other characters.

Wattson uses her scientific wizardry to construct defensive electrical barriers and pylons to control the battlefield. You can read more about her playstyle to learn all about the latest addition to the roster.

A recent trailer also appeared to hint at a second playable character coming in Season 2 as well.

How The New Challenges Work

The update will revise how challenges work, with a new series of daily and weekly objectives aimed at keeping players engaged while reducing the grind for rewards. Completing daily or weekly challenges will count toward your Battle Pass, and over half of the challenges will grant a full Battle Pass level. Other challenges will grant Stars which will count as progress towards a Battle Pass levels.

Daily challenges will be groups of three tasks assigned randomly from a pool of 200, such as dealing damage in a particular area or playing as a specific character. Those award 3,000 Stars apiece. Weekly challenges will be doled out insets of seven. These will be much longer and are intended to last multiple play sessions. Four of the seven will reward 6,000 Stars while the remaining three will grant an entire Battle Pass level. An additional three special challenges will also be available and reset on a weekly basis, giving Battle Pass levels and Stars. Read more details about Apex Legends’ Season 2 Challenges.

Ranked Leagues

Season 2 will introduce another new feature, Ranked Leagues. The revised ranking aims to help with matchmaking with a new score system across six competitive tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Apex Predator. Each tier has four divisions, except for Apex Predator. Each ranked match will cost a number of Ranked Points (RP) that increases based on your tier. You earn RP during the match from kills and your overall placement in a match. The maximum you can score in a match is 17 RP.

All players will start in Bronze, and you’ll earn rewards. Respawn has said it is still determining what the rewards will be, but for now it knows it will be giving out special badges based on your highest rank achieved.

Other Apex Legends Season 2 Changes

Season 2 will introduce a handful of other changes. King’s Canyon itself will have landmarks destroyed by invading Flyers and Leviathans, making for a very different map. The L-Star will be added as a Legendary Gold energy-based weapon, paying homage to Titanfall 2. Check out a full wrap-up of Apex Legends Season 2 changes.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apex-legends-season-2-start-time-new-features-char/1100-6468184/

Ys Net, developer of Shenmue III, has detailed how the PC version of the game will be delivered and addressed the controversial switch to Epic Games Store exclusivity. In a post on the game’s Kickstarter page the developer said although it had originally planned to distribute Shenmue III for PC through Valve’s Steam service, Ys Net and publisher Deep Silver agreed to a partnership with Epic Games.

Although the statement doesn’t provide clarity on the reasoning behind this decision, it does say that Deep Silver “contributed not only to sales and marketing, but to scaling up the game so there is more Shenmue III to begin with,” while Epic Games has offered its support throughout the development process.

This is unlikely to be much of a comfort to people that supported Ys Net’s crowdfunding campaign with the understanding that they’d eventually be able to play the game on Steam. However, playing on Steam won’t be possible on launch day.

“In response to backers who have requested Steam keys for their rewards, we discussed offering the keys on the day of release,” Ys Net said. “However, coordination with the sales policies of the involved companies was untenable, and as a result, we are not able to make a day one distribution option for Steam keys available.

“That we are not able to offer Steam keys for Kickstarter rewards at the time of the game’s release is a great [disappointment] and inconvenience for those backers who were expecting to receive them. We deeply apologize for the unrest caused by the announcement.”

At launch, the available options for Kickstarter backers include a PC physical package, a digital key, a PS4 disc, or a PSN voucher code. However, the disk in the PC physical version of the game does not contain the game data and instead just includes the Epic Games Store installer. If you previously selected PC as the preferred platform, you have the option to switch to PS4–or vice verse if you so choose. Those that opt for the PC versions have “an option to also receive a Steam key one year later,” though you’ll need to manually select this option in the survey.

Backers can choose to refund their contribution and Ys Net, Deep Silver, and Epic Games have agreed to honor these requests. Details regarding the refund request process will be announced in the future, but one thing Ys Net notes is that rewards attached to certain backer tiers that have resulted in content being produced and added to the game may not be refundable.

The Kickstarter update also states that some stretch goals that were reached during the crowdfunding campaign could not be implemented–despite reaching the funding milestone set out for their inclusion. However, some features attached to stretch goals that were not successfully funded have been added to the game.

“Development began in line with the stretch goal content, but with the addition of sales partners during production, we were able to increase our development budget,” Ys Net explained. “In order to maximize game quality under the adjusted budget, game planning was fundamentally altered and ultimately allowed us to incorporate a number of different elements beyond our original expectations.”

An overview of the key changes to the stretch goals can be seen in the list below, but you can head over to the Kickstarter page for a more detailed breakdown:

• Character Perspective System: Funded but not implemented as it could not be achieved in this game.
• Skill Tree System: Funded but changed to a Skill Book System to better fit the battling style
• Baisha Area changed: Funded but changed to Fortified Castle area. Mini-games, infiltration event, battle event, investigation, and battle event have been implemented in the Fortified Castle area.
• Choubu Area: Not funded but the area has been expanded with four mini-games, four betting games, kung-fu mastery, part-time job added.
• Bailu Village: Not funded but the area has been expanded with four mini-games, betting games, and kung-fu mastery.
• Non-Stretch Goal Additions: Story improvements, scaled up free-roaming environments, powered up battle systems, game cycle improvements.

Shenmue III’s release date is set for November 19. In 2015, over 69,000 people contributed $6.3 million to fund the development of Shenmue III on Kickstarter. Deep Silver later came aboard as a publisher.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/shenmue-3-dev-details-pc-rollout-and-its-messy/1100-6468182/

Japan’s Osaka Prefectural Police will use Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise to recruit for investigators focused on cyber-crime. According to Capcom, it “aims to contribute to curbing the sharp rise of cyber-crime by utilizing [Street Fighter’s] popularity and image of strength.”

Capcom, which has its headquarters in Osaka, has previously worked with various police departments in the city to raise awareness about crime, but this represents the most significant partnership between the game maker and the law enforcement, and it comes at a time when cyber-crime is on the rise.

Characters from Street Fighter will be featured on 3,000 flyers and 1,000 posters that will be placed at Osaka Prefectural Police stations and police boxes, as well as at train stations, beginning July 2. “The characters will be featured in investigator recruiting advertisements with the aim of boosting awareness of and the number of investigators specializing in cyber-crime–a field that has seen a conspicuous rise in the number of incidents in recent years,” Capcom explained.

“Capcom hopes its characters will contribute to crime prevention activities in Osaka and throughout Japan by broadening the reach of police investigator recruitment. Capcom is committed to serving as a responsible corporate citizen and will continue to conduct proactive CSR activities that include the use of its games to invigorate communities and contribute to society.”

On paper, this is excellent. Street Fighter is an incredibly popular and recognizable franchise that also has a certain inspirational quality to it. All for it. Good stuff. Down with Shadaloo.

However, it’s also a franchise based on characters physically punching, kicking, and spinning piledriving their opponents into the ground. Cyber-crime, meanwhile, is … cyber. You can’t tatsumaki senpukyaku a hacker or flash kick a phishing scam–it’s all digital. It would have made more sense to use Mega-Man–or Rockman in Japan–who has a history of traveling into networks like the internet to combat evil. Additionally, he’s as iconic a character as much of the Street Fighter cast.

I dunno, whatever. It’s fine. Street Fighter is great. The poster looks cool.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/street-fighter-is-promoting-the-cops-and-it-doesnt/1100-6468181/

Sony’s streaming TV service, PlayStation Vue, is raising prices yet again. Every PlayStation Vue multi-channel plan is going up in price by $5 USD.

Those who are existing subscribers won’t be charged extra until their first billing cycle begins after July 31. New customers pay the higher prices now.

PlayStation Vue general manager Dwayne Benefield said in a blog post that prices are going up in response to the rising annual costs of available content. “We constantly evaluate each deal to ensure we continue to deliver the content you want while considering the overall value of each package,” he explained.

Benefield went on to say that Sony is sticking with PlayStation Vue with the ambition of making it “the premier destination for live TV streaming.”

PlayStation Vue, which is only available in the United States, features packages that include major channels such as HBO, FX, ESPN, the NFL Network, and HGTV, along with more than 650 local stations depending on where you live.

This is just the latest price hike for PlayStation Vue. Sony also raised PlayStation Vue pricing by $5 USD a year ago this month. According to Variety, the latest price increase is due to Sony reaching new licensing deals with NBCUniversal, AMC Networks, WarnerMedia, and Discovery.

With the new price increase, the base-level Access package is now $50 USD per month; the Core package is now $55 USD, the Elite subscription is $55 USD, and the Ultra package is $85 USD.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/playstation-vue-prices-going-up-for-second-year-in/1100-6468177/

Fortnite developer Epic Games shook up the video game industry when it launched its own PC store. The Epic Games Store pays developers/publishers 88 percent of revenue, with Epic itself taking 12 percent as the store owner. This is a far more developer-friendly percentage than the industry average of 70/30 that holds on Steam, as well as PS4, Xbox One, and Apple.

Fredrik Wester, the executive chairman of the board at Cities: Skylines publisher Paradox Interactive, said at an event this week that the 70/30 split is “outrageous.” He made the comment at a Gamelab panel in Barcelona this week attended by GI.biz.

“I think the 70/30 revenue split is outrageous,” he said. “I think the platform holders are taking too much money. Everyone in the press here, just quote me on that.”

Wester went on to say that the 70/30 revenue split is antiquated. It might have made sense in an entertainment world dominated by physical media, but now that games are increasingly digital–especially PC titles–the revenue split should change, he said.

“So Epic has done a great job for the whole industry, because you get 88%. Fantastic move. Thank you very much,” he said.

Wester went on to say that Epic paying 88 percent of revenue is advantageous for new, less established studios because they get to keep a larger portion of revenue. Apart from business considerations, Wester said giving developers more money is the decent thing to do.

“I think it’s also a matter of decency. I mean, how much does it actually cost to deliver a game” he said. “When the competition is low, the platform holder can get a big share of the pie; as competition increases, they need to lower their part of the pie, as well. That’s how the market works, right?”

It is a complicated matter. Developers who take Epic’s money are often criticized for doing so, especially in cases where a Steam version was previously promised. But at the same time, taking the money can offer a level of financial stability that is rare in the gaming industry, especially for smaller teams. Qube creator Dan da Rocha said on the panel that Epic’s 88/12 revenue split is a “huge boon” for developers.”

For what it’s worth, Epic has said it will stop pursuing exclusives so aggressively if Steam changes its business policies to pay developers a bigger share. It remains to be seen if any change will happen on console, where store-owners like Microsoft and Sony keep 30 percent of revenue.

Epic Games CEO and founder Tim Sweeney recently defended the company’s exclusivity strategy, saying it is the only way to spur change and encourage storefronts to pay developers a bigger share of revenue.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/epic-games-store-is-a-great-thing-for-the-whole-in/1100-6468175/