Thatgamecompany’s critically acclaimed Journey is now available on Apple devices, and it’s going for a song. The game has been released on the App Store for $5, published through Annapurna Interactive. It uses touch controls for movement, camera controls, and pinging.

Journey was first released for PlayStation 3 in 2012, and has been ported to multiple platforms in the years since. Most recently it arrived on PC through the Epic Games Store.

Journey was thatgamecompany’s follow-up to Flower, a similarly meditative game. It follows an unnamed hooded protagonist in a quest to reach the top of a mountain. It featured online functionality by introducing other players who would seamlessly find themselves alongside you in a given location, and you could choose to take the path alongside them.

It received accolades upon release, and currently stands at a 92% average on GameSpot sister site Metacritic. It is one of a rare handful of games to receive a 10/10 from GameSpot.

“It is possible that Journey will not move you. In such a case, it is simply a beautiful game with a glorious soundtrack, grounded by a wistful cello melody later threaded through a warm quilt of winds and strings. The chance you might be swept away, however, makes it worth plunging your feet into the warm sand,” Kevin VanOrd wrote in GameSpot’s review. “Journey offers you comfort. It gives you companionship in a lovely but forsaken world. It gives you reason to dream even when facing loss.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/acclaimed-playstation-title-journey-now-available-/1100-6468937/

Upon release in September 2018, NBA 2K19 was heralded by critics and fans alike as an excellent professional basketball sim with a microtransaction problem. Despite the controversy surrounding the game’s microtransactions, NBA 2K19 is the biggest sports game success in 2K’s history.

During an earnings call today, 2K owner Take-Two said NBA 2K19 has now shipped 12 million copies; that makes it 2K’s most successful sports game in the company’s history.

Not only did the game ship a record-breaking number of copies, but NBA 2K19’s microtransactions are proving to be incredibly popular. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said NBA 2K19’s “recurrent consumer spending” revenue, which includes microtransactions, was up 140 percent during the quarter ended June 30.

Zelnick said NBA 2K19 is seeing “extraordinary growth in average games played and daily active users.”

NBA 2K19’s microtransactions come in the form of Virtual Currency (VC) that 2K sells in various allotments and corresponding price points from $2 USD to $100 USD. Players can spend the VC to upgrade their custom-created character and buy card packs to fill out their fantasy team.

GameSpot’s review stated that “microtransactions loom over everything” in NBA 2K19. Numerous other reviews from critics and fans alike expressed some level of dissatisfaction with the way in which NBA 2K19 employs its microtransaction system.

Beyond microtransactions, 2K added seemingly unskippable pre-game ads to NBA 2K19 in another move that rubbed some fans the wrong way.

Despite all of the controversy surrounding NBA 2K19, the franchise is praised every year for its impressively faithful representation of the NBA experience with excellent controls and presentation and numerous modes to play.

In the earnings call, Take-Two boss Karl Slatoff said people enjoy the NBA 2K series because it is an “industry-leading” simulation game; players also enjoy the “lifestyle” elements of creating a character and progressing through the career mode, he said.

Zelnick, meanwhile, spoke about the evolution of how players connect with and experience 2K’s NBA games over the years. People are spending more time with NBA 2K games these days, and that in turn creates an opportunity for 2K to encourage players to spend more over time.

“I think six or seven years ago, basketball was a three-month experience. And now it’s a nine- or 10-month experience and we think it’s going to grow to be a full, one-year experience,” he said.

Slatoff added that the 2K League, which is an eSports organization dedicated to the NBA 2K series, has helped promote the NBA 2K video games and draw in new players. Additionally, the game’s mixture of modes and features has gone a long way to attracting and retaining players, he said.

“If they’re more engaged with the game, they’re going to spend more money ultimately,” Slatoff said. “There’s a lot of dry powder there. We’re still in the early beginnings of learning how to do this the best way.”

NBA 2K19’s recurrent consumer spending growth rate of 140% is far ahead of Take-Two’s overall growth rate for recurrent consumer spending. Total recurrent consumer spending revenue–comprising virtual currency, add-on content, and in-game purchases–jumped 31% during the latest quarter and made up 58% ($313.5 million) of Take-Two’s total GAAP net revenue for the period ($540.5 million).

NBA 2K19 was the single-largest contributor to Take-Two’s GAAP net revenue during the quarter; it performed even better than GTA Online and Red Dead Online, according to the company.

Take-Two also measures what it calls “net bookings,” which is the “net amount of products and services sold digitally or sold-in physically during the period, and includes licensing fees, merchandise, in-game advertising, strategy guides and publisher incentives.”

Net bookings from recurrent consumer spending for the three-month period ended June 30 jumped by 55% and made up 67% ($282.9 million) of Take-Two’s overall net bookings ($422.2 million. GTA Online was the biggest contributor to net bookings for the quarter, followed by the GTA V base game, and then NBA 2K19. In terms of digitally delivered net bookings, however, NBA 2K19 was No. 1

NBA 2K19 series producer Rob Jones told TrustedReviews that microtransactions are an “unfortunate reality of modern gaming.”

“Every game, at some point, in some way has currency and they’re trying to get additional revenue from each player that plays the game. You know, the question has to be when does it feel like it’s a straight money grab versus when does it feel like it’s value added, right?”

NBA 2K20 launches on September 20, and given how immensely popular microtransactions have been in NBA 2K19, you can expect them to return in some capacity in the new game. Overall, Take-Two has said it wants to put microtransaction opportunities in every game it makes.

It’s not just the NBA 2K series that is criticized for its use of microtransactions. EA’s stable of sports games, including Madden NFL, FIFA, and NHL, all feature controversial “Ultimate Team” modes that allow players to spend real money to build out fantasy teams. As with the NBA 2K series, Ultimate Team is big business for EA, which makes hundreds of millions annually from it.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nba-2k19s-microtransactions-are-incredibly-popular/1100-6468923/

With crunch becoming an increasingly hot-button topic in the games industry, many developers are speaking out against the ruthless work environments employees at high-profile studios like Epic Games and Rockstar routinely face. The Outer Worlds developer Obsidian Entertainment is one such studio, saying it is “very committed” to keeping its work environment crunch-free.

In an interview with PCGamesN, The Outer Worlds’ senior designer, Brian Hines, said crunch is not in the studio’s development formula. “Obsidian is not a crunch studio, which is one of the things that keeps people staying there for a long time,” Hines said. Though he admitted employees are sometimes asked to stay longer in order “to meet a deadline,” Hines assured that these extra hours were “always [just] a request” and last for only “a week or so.”

Hines also confirmed the individual developers always have the right to exercise their autonomy, declining the request if they so choose. “There really hasn’t been a crunch or a death march or anything like that with the studio for quite a long time, as far as I can remember anyway,” Hines said. “That’s definitely one of the things that as a studio we’re very committed to. [W]e’d rather cut something than try and get people to not have a life outside of the industry.”

The Outer Worlds is set to launch on October 25 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The upcoming first-person RPG is also coming to Nintendo Switch, though no release date has been confirmed as of yet. It might not be “politically charged,” but The Outer Worlds is shaping up to be a modern homage to Fallout: New Vegas.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-outer-worlds-developer-speaks-out-against-crun/1100-6468918/

The Pokemon Company is getting a pop-up store in the heart of London for a limited time, to pair with the UK-inspired Pokemon Sword and Shield. The store will be located in the Westfield London from October 18-November 15.

According to the company, the store will offer a range of Pokemon products, including some exclusives. The announcement states that it is meant to pay tribute to the UK’s role in inspiring the new Galar region featured in Sword and Shield, which will release on November 15.

We’re also going to learn more about Sword and Shield later this week. The Pokemon Company announced a new Galar Research Update coming on August 7. The most recent one revealed Gigantamaxing and Sword and Shield have version-exclusive gyms among lots of other details. We’ll have to see what the company has planned for this next reveal.

Sword and Shield will launch on November 15, just a week after the special “Zacian and Zamazenta Edition” Switch Lite on November 8. These games have been the subject of some controversy upon word that you can’t transfer your entire collection. Producer Junichi Masuda even responded to the controversy in a statement.

For more details on Pokemon Sword and Shield, check out our pre-order guide. And to get your Pokemon fill in the meantime, check out our chat with Pokemon Trading Card Game artist Mitsuhiro Arita.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pokemon-store-coming-to-london-this-fall-to-mark-s/1100-6468917/

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launched with Blackout, Treyarch’s foray into the massively popular battle royale genre. Though the genre is rife with potential, it’s steadily becoming oversaturated with content, something developer Infinity Ward seems to be aware of. As it stands, Infinity Ward is uninterested in a battle royale mode for the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Joe Cecot, Infinity Ward’s multiplayer design director, told IGN that Black Ops 4 and Modern Warfare are different vibes, saying the studio is honing in on the core multiplayer experience. “[We’re] big fans of battle royale. We’re excited for large player counts and things like that, but right now we’re really focused on core multiplayer.”

So it seems Modern Warfare will feature nothing similar to Black Ops 4’s Blackout. Cecot explained, saying, “We really focused on Modern Warfare, authentic and gritty, realistic weapons and it’s a different experience. It’s really… just about pulling back to Modern Warfare and keeping that pure.”

Currently, Modern Warfare’s largest player count is found in Ground War, which supports up to 40 players. When the reboot launches this October, however, the plan is for Ground War to support more than 100 players in a single match. The new Gunfight mode is Modern Warfare’s smallest player count, featuring 2v2 battles reliant on skill and tactical positioning.

Starting in September, Infinity Ward will host private and public betas for Modern Warfare. Scheduled exclusively for those who pre-order on PS4, the first round kicks off on September 12 and 13. The second round, available to all PS4 owners, will run from September 14-16. Those who pre-order on PC and Xbox One can play between September 19-20. It all culminates to the final beta, accessible to anyone with internet access, which is scheduled to run between September 21-23.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-wont-have-battle-royal/1100-6468913/