Steam has added a big update to its experimental news hub feature: the ability to actually browse gaming news from a list of publications curated by Steam’s Curator system. The first collection of sources includes “top sites serving players across seven languages,” the company wrote in a blog post. And the whole thing is free.
Obviously, the list of publications and sources is customizable…
Fortnite maker Epic invests in accessible game creation tool Core
September 22, 2020
Earlier this year, Manticore Games launched Core, a development tool that aimed to make game creation more accessible. Now, the company is getting an injection of $15 million, thanks to a funding round led by Fortnite creator Epic Games, in order to expand even more.
“At…
Fortnite's Battle Bus is dropping into 'Rocket League'
September 22, 2020
Rocket League is going free-to-play on Wednesday, and Psyonix and Epic Games are marking the occasion with a crossover with the publisher’s other big free-to-play title, Fortnite. Llama-Rama is Rocket League’s first in-game event after the switch, and it’ll drop…
Epic Games invests $15 million in DIY game startup Manticore Games
September 22, 2020
Manticore Games has raised $15 million in a round of funding led by Epic Games as the two companies further pursue their mission of creating an endless gaming multiverse, or metaverse.
The metaverse is the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One. Manticore’s Core platform is a do-it-yourself game-making system that seeks to…
Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division is acquiring The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim publisher Bethesda for $7.5 billion. And it’s difficult to overstate how much this changes gaming. The easiest way for me to think about this is that Xbox just bought one of the only other…
Microsoft keeps the same price for its new wireless Xbox controllers
September 22, 2020
On Tuesday morning Microsoft will start taking pre-orders for its next-generation console family, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. While the consoles will work with existing Xbox One gamepads, if you want a second Xbox Wireless Controller to maintain the subtle tweaks…
The remastered version of Spider-Man on PS5 won’t let you carry over your PS4 saves
September 22, 2020
Insomniac Games’ hugely-successful 2018 hit Spider-Man is being remastered for PlayStation 5 with ray-tracing, faster loading, and support for the DualSense controller’s new haptic feedback. And better yet, it’ll be available on the PS5’s launch day as a pack-in with Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition.
But if you’ve been waiting for the PS5’s new hardware as an excuse to dive…
The Xbox's redesigned Microsoft Store is now available to all
September 22, 2020
With less than 24-hours before Microsoft starts taking Xbox Series X and Series S pre-orders, the redesigned Microsoft Store on Xbox is now available to all users — though not without some launch day issues. The product of what the company says is years of development, the…
Microsoft’s new digital Xbox store now available to all Xbox One owners
September 22, 2020
Microsoft’s redesigned Xbox store rolls out digitally to all users today, after its successful initial deployment to insiders early last month.
As my colleague Chris Welch pointed out in his early review, the new storefront loads dramatically faster than its predecessor.
My impressions of Call of Duty: Black Ops — Cold War multiplayer alpha
September 22, 2020
Activision showed off the multiplayer alpha gameplay for Call of Duty: Black Ops — Cold War this weekend on Sony’s PlayStation 4. It’s coming out November 13, and as I played it, the five maps I played grew on me. But I agree with a lot of criticism on social media that there are tweaks that would improve the balance of the matches.
The alpha test will give much-needed feedback to Treyarch…
