Gamer's Outpost Press (archived)

“The President has set forth a reckless and misinformed path regarding our foreign creators and storytellers.”

by Eddie Makuch via GameSpot

Immediately after President Trump announced his controversial travel policy last month, the high-profile video game group, the Entertainment Software Association, released a statement that spoke about how it could adversely affect the US gaming industry. Now, the ESA’s CEO, Michael Gallagher, has released a new, more thorough statement that doesn’t hold back in its criticism.

“The President has set forth a reckless and misinformed path regarding our foreign creators and storytellers, and ESA joined with industry leaders to demand a better approach to security concerns,” he said. “We will be vigilant in the months ahead to guide policies that grow our medium and collaborate with you to repel misguided efforts that dim our frontiers.”

In the ESA’s original statement, the group, which organizes E3 every year and represents the video game industry’s interests in Washington, said the US video game market relies on immigrant talent.

“While recognizing that enhancing national security and protecting our country’s citizens are critical goals, our companies rely on the skilled talent of U.S. citizens, foreign nationals, and immigrants alike,” the statement said. “Our nation’s actions and words should support their participation in the American economy.”

In the new statement today, Gallagher said the ESA will focus on a number of objectives in the future, including educating “key figures” in Washington, DC and around the country about issues such as immigration, trade, cybersecurity, and more. “ESA will champion the innovators, creators, and consumers who make up the video game ecosystem,” Gallagher said. “We are here on behalf of each of you to defend against misguided and harmful attacks as well as supporting and advocating for elements that contribute to the continued positive growth of this great community.”

The ESA also said it will connect with lawmakers to help them understand video games better; one part of this will be the expansion of the GovGames Twitch channel. This is a video streaming site that in the past year featured members of Congress playing video games. Additionally, the ESA said it will lend a hand in the creation of a new Congressional caucus “focused exclusively on virtual, augmented, and mixed reality.”

Also in Gallagher’s statement, he said the ESA hopes to involve more gamers in the political process. Already, 1.7 million people have joined the Video Game Voters Network and the ESA is hopeful that it can work with these people on “important issues.”

“Ours is a great industry filled with finest creative talent in the world, and ESA is proud to advance our collective interests at every turn and in every forum,” Gallagher said. “All of us at ESA consider it a privilege to be the voice and advocate for the most creative, innovative, and engaging of all industries and communities.”

You can read Gallagher’s full statement here.

ESA members include some of the biggest companies in gaming, including Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Take-Two, Warner Bros., Ubisoft, and Bethesda.

by Danny Cowan via Digital Trends

After sinking to a record-low number of boxed releases in 2015, the gaming industry recovered in 2016 with a renewed focus on physical video game sales, a recent analysis on The NPD Group Blog reveals.

Industry analyst Mat Piscatella notes that gaming retail sales saw a steady decline over the last several years, with 2015 producing a total of 230 boxed releases across all platforms. Retail performance rebounded with 271 physical releases in 2016 and this year promises additional gains for an ailing industry.

Gaming’s increasing focus on digitally distributed titles began to take its toll on retail sales as early as 2010, when 742 unique releases hit retail across all gaming platforms, according to NPD’s research. The next year brought this figure down to 584 titles and 2012 saw a further decline, producing only 424 boxed releases in total.

Piscatella attributes 2016’s sudden recovery to GameStop’s newly introduced publishing initiative and the rise of independent boutique publishers.

“There are fewer publishers, and on average those remaining publishers are bringing fewer games to retail than they were at the start of the decade,” Piscatella explains. “This has resulted in a dramatic reduction in release count; one that just so happens to correlate quite well to packaged retail sales.”

Piscatella continues: “The good news is that the decline in packaged release count stopped in 2016. GameStop has proactively taken the steps to enter physical publishing of smaller scale digital games with GameTrust. Its first title, Insomniac’s Song of the Deep, launched in July, was supported with significant presence and promotion at retail and in consumer marketing. GameTrust also has partnerships in place with developers of digital games such as Tequila Works, Ready at Dawn and Frozenbyte.”

505 Games and Soedesco Publishing also led the charge with physical versions of formerly digital-exclusive titles like Rocket League, Terraria, Ziggurat, and Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. 505’s next digital-to-physical release, a retail PlayStation 4 version of the indie farm life sim Stardew Valley, is due to launch in April.

According to Piscatella, niche publishers and retailers alike now stand to benefit from the increased presence and variety of physical gaming releases.

“What these smaller titles can do is generate additional sales of the games themselves while at the same time driving traffic to the video game aisle,” Piscatella projects, “leading to incremental sales of other games while re-engaging consumers that have gaming interests beyond the latest AAA big-budget shooter.”

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Sledgehammer Games is behind this year’s game.

by Chris Pereira via GameSpot

As part of its latest earnings report, Activision confirmed the inevitable Call of Duty sequel that’s due out this year. But what came as a surprise is news that this year’s game will return to the franchise’s “roots,” and now we have some idea of why.

Speaking as part of a conference call with investors, chief operating officer Thomas Tippl first discussed 2016’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. While he described it as “a high-quality, innovative game,” he revealed it “underperformed [Activision’s] expectations.” We already knew sales were down significantly compared with the previous year’s Black Ops III. That was due in part to Infinite Warfare being a new sub-series, making for a difficult comparison with the established Black Ops.

However, the futuristic setting has also been a source of complaints from some longtime Call of Duty fans, a fact that Tippl acknowledged. That doesn’t mean the company necessarily regrets exploring that space.

“[I]t’s clear that, for a portion of our audience, the space setting just didn’t resonate,” he explained. “We have a passionate, experienced studio deeply committed to this direction, and despite the risks we saw, we believe it is important to consider the passions of our game teams in deciding what content to create.

“While it wasn’t the success we planned, it allows us to protect the core tenets of our culture that Bobby discussed: empowering our talented teams to have the chance to pursue opportunities that they are passionate about. Providing an environment that recognizes passion is a critical component of our success, and a process to learn from our mistakes is what makes our company special, and it’s why the most talented people in our industry are attracted to our company.”

All of that said, even with Call of Duty still doing well, Activision is clearly aware of the demand for a Call of Duty game that hews closer to the series’ older titles.

“In 2017, Activision will take Call of Duty back to its roots and traditional combat will once again take center stage,” Tippl said. “This is what our dedicated community of Call of Duty players and Sledgehammer Games, which has been developing this year’s title, are the most excited about.”

Beyond that, no further details were shared. It stands to reason that this year’s game–which was greenlit more than two years ago–will feature a classic or modern-day setting, but that remains to be seen. For its part, Sledgehammer said of the game on Twitter, “It’s our biggest achievement as game makers.”

Sledgehammer previously assisted with the development of Modern Warfare 3 and served as the lead developer of Advanced Warfare. Activision rotates between three main studios–Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer–for its annual Call of Duty releases. Sledgehammer was, at one point, at work on a third-person Call of Duty game set during Vietnam.

We’ll have more on the new Call of Duty as it’s announced. For the full rundown on Activision’s announcement, check out GameSpot’s recap of its earnings.

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by Michael Grothaus via Know Your Mobile

For long being considered an “old school” tech company, Microsoft sure seems to be pushing innovative products out like a startup recently.

First was its excellent Surface Studio all-in-one PC the company introduced last year. Next up is Project Scorpio–the successor (but not the replacement for) the Xbox One. Though Microsoft first announced Project Scorpio last year, details of exactly what improvements over the current Xbox it had were scarce.

Matter of fact, they’re still scarce but that’s changing all the time, as information is leaked online.

Make no mistake: Microsoft is not pulling any punches with this machine. It is going to be full-on impressive and likely unlike anything we have seen before in terms of power.

Microsoft has said on multiple occasions that the Xbox Scorpio WILL BE the most potent games console ever created. It will leave Sony’s PS4 Pro way behind, apparently, and share more in common with high-end PC-gaming rigs.

The fact that it will run Windows 10, Microsoft’s Universal Platform, is also very interesting. As are Microsoft’s plans for how developers will develop and release games for both Scorpio and PC platforms (more on this below).

Here’s everything we know about Microsoft’s Project Scorpio.

Project Scorpio: What Is It?

Project Scorpio is the codename for the next generation Xbox Microsoft is currently working on. It is meant to be in addition to the current Xbox One S, instead of a replacement for it.

Project Scorpio: Specs

All the specs aren’t known yet, but Microsoft sure is hyping the heck out of Project Scorpio, calling it “The most powerful console ever”–so no pressure, engineers. What we do know is it will feature true 4K gaming, 6 teraflops of processing power, 320 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and eight CPU cores. All that, Microsoft says, will enable true 4K gaming and hi-fidelity VR.

It’s also known that AMD will be powering Scorpio. The chipmaker said in a statement: ”We are proud that Microsoft has chosen to expand their Xbox One family of devices with two new consoles featuring AMD’s high-performance semi-custom SoCs that support revolutionary new technologies like HDR, 4K and high fidelity VR to enable the next generation of immersive gaming experiences.”

It’s not known what AMD chip will be in Scorpio, but it’s possible it could be its Vega chipset. It’s also likely Scorpio will have with 12GB of GDDR5 RAM allowing it to hit speeds of 320 GB/s. To contextualize that, the PS4 has speeds of 176GB/s, while  the Xbox One S has speeds of 68GB/s.

“It will also have four times the L2 memory cache of Xbox One and Delta Colour Compression,” reports IBTIMES, “which is also supported by Sony’s 4K-console PS4 Pro. According to DF the document also says that “one 1080p title has transitioned relatively easily to native 4K on Scorpio” a title DF predicts is Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport. It would certainly make sense if it was, as racing games are typically the best showcases for a console’s new-found visual firepower.”

Project Scorpio: VR

Besides 4K gaming, the other star feature of Scorpio will be VR support.  To be clear, Scorpio won’t come with a VR headset and Microsoft isn’t making its own for it (no, the Hololens is an AR headset, and won’t be out by the time Scorpio ships).

Instead Scorpio will support third-party VR sets. Microsoft hasn’t announced which ones, but given the power Scorpio is offering expect the big guns like the HTC Vive and Oculus rift to be interested.

Project Scorpio: Compatibility

Great news for Xbox One fans: Scorpio will be backwards compatible with every Xbox One game. Yep, every single Xbox One game your current Xbox runs will play on Scorpio–and some with even better frame rates and resolutions. One thing which isn’t clear, however, is if old Xbox 360 games that can run on an Xbox One will also be Scorpio compatible.

As for controllers and Kinnect, Scorpio will reportedly work with all accessories that work with the Xbox One.

Microsoft Xbox Scorpio: What’s The Deal With Games?

Will the be compatible with existing Xbox One and Xbox One S consoles? Yes and no – it’s a bit tricky, this one. You see, Scorpio will be both VR and 4K ready and some games will be made with these in mind, meaning some titles, not all, just some, will not work on current Xbox consoles.

Microsoft will keep parity between the controllers, Kinect and Xbox accounts; it’s just that some games will not be suitable for playing on older consoles, either because of the nature of the game play or the hardware required to run it.

Where things get a little more interesting, however, is that Microsoft is aiming to bridge the gap between PC gaming and Xbox Scorpio gaming via its now universal Windows 10 platform. So, if it all goes to plan, VR games for the Xbox Scorpio would work as VR games on PC computers, as long as the user had a supported headset.

How this will work in practice remains to be seen, but Microsoft seems keen on getting developers to see Windows 10/Xbox as one in the same, if only for 4K/VR titles. This is just one of the benefits of running a universal OS across all devices.

Project Scorpio: Price And Release Date

“We’re not ready to announce something right now, but you can imagine at the price point of Scorpio – which we haven’t actually said, but think about consoles and where they live in terms of price point – having something at six teraflops that will get millions of people buying it is very attractive to some of the VR companies that are out there already, and we’ve architected it such that something will be able to plug right in and work.”

Expect this baby to cost AT LEAST £349 when it ships next winter. Spencer told AusGames:

“I want Scorpio to be at a console price-point. I’m not trying to go and compete with a high-end rig. And because we’re building one spec, we’re able to look at the balance between all the components and make sure that it’s something we really hit that matters to consumers and gamers. It will cost more than S, obviously, that’s how we are building it,” he added. “We have not announced the pricing yet, but I want to make sure that the investment we are putting into the product of Scorpio meets the demands of the higher-end consumer and that will be a higher price.”

However, you may not have to shell out the full retail price for Scorpio. Microsoft’s Xbox Services general manager Dave McCarthy told the Daily Star that it is seeking to work with retailers on trade-in programs:

“Some of our retail partners today do trade-in programs and that’s definitely going to be partnerships we continue. We want to to make [upgrading to Xbox Scorpio] as smooth as possible. The compatibility thing is a big deal, because [the] feeling you have to give up your games isn’t a good feeling, so we take that angst out of the equation. We’ll try partnerships with our retail partners to smooth it even more with trade-in programs and things like that.”

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by Danny Cowan via Digital Trends

Microsoft’s consistent mishandling of its exclusive games should have fans worried about the Xbox One’s future.

Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart broke his silence regarding the studio’s canceled Xbox One project Stormlands this week, shedding light on a pattern of executive behavior that has led to the cancellation of multiple Xbox One exclusives over the past several years.

Urquhart’s testimony arrives after the recent cancellation of the Microsoft-funded action game Scalebound and suggests that Microsoft executives are to blame for the Xbox One’s lack of exclusive AAA releases.

Initially slated as a launch title for the Xbox One, Obsidian Entertainment’s Stormwinds was a role-playing game that followed up on the studio’s previous projects Fallout: New Vegas and Dungeon Siege III. Despite a promising start from an established developer, the project was ultimately canned by publisher Microsoft prior to the Xbox One’s retail debut in 2014.

While many games are canceled due to quality concerns or missed milestones, however, Urquhart pins the blame on Microsoft’s executives, who apparently need constant reassurance from internal advocates before they can be convinced to dole out needed funding.

“It comes down to budget and it comes down to having a champion [at Microsoft],” Urquhart said in an interview with IGN this week. “I can see games that had champions and weren’t canceled until $80 million were spent, [and] there’s games that had a $10 million budget and had a champion and ended up the budget was $60 million and it shipped.”

“Why did Stormwinds get canceled?” Urquhart asks. “Stomwinds got canceled because we didn’t have an advocate.”

Xbox One fans recently lost another platform exclusive with the cancellation of Scalebound, a dragon-riding action game from Bayonetta series developer Platinum Games. Given the Japanese studio’s lack of public discussion regarding the cancellation, corporate politics may be to blame.

An Xbox One remake of the card-battling action-RPG Phantom Dust met a similar fate in 2015. Initially granting developer Darkside Studios $5 million to create a multiplayer-only reboot of Phantom Dust, Microsoft later publicly stated that the game would be “a 30-hour [single-player] JRPG.” The team was not notified of this sudden change in scope, nor was its budget increased. The project was eventually canceled and Darkside Studios was later shuttered.

Of the many games Microsoft showcased at its E3 2014 presentation, Crackdown is one of the few first-party, Xbox One-exclusive projects that has not yet been released or canceled. To date, Crackdown has still not been showcased in a playable state.

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by Christopher Groux via iDigitalTimes

PS4 Pro was heralded as a significant leap forward in the PlayStation ecosystem when it was first unveiled in September, but sales stats seemingly suggest consumers are feeling a bit lukewarm on the high-spec console.

Sony has declined to reveal any PS4 Pro-specific sales numbers since the product launched and combined earnings report recaps from SegmentNext, Polygon and GameSpot tell us why. The simple story is this: days before the launch of the Pro on Nov. 10, Sony reported that 47 million PS4s had been sold worldwide. By Dec. 6 that number rose to 50 million and was 53.4 as of Jan. 1. In short, about 6 million PS4s have been sold globally since the Pro came to retailers.

That number is extremely respectable for the holiday season, but we have to consider that it must be segmented if we’re talking about the Pro. We’ll never know for sure what the exact system breakdown is, but let’s just say the numbers were split evenly between Pro and standard PS4. That would tell us the high-sepc offering has sold about 3 million units since November. We’d guess it’s probably closer to 2 million or 2.5 million, though.

Again, the stat sounds nice, but it’s not as good as it seems. Consider that the PS4 sold over 1 million units on launch day in the U. S. alone. Doing the math, PS4 was selling about 1.5 million units a month before the Pro existed. What we can say is that the Pro likely benefited from a strong first few weeks at retail, but its momentum seems to have slowed down some.

While it’s true the standard PS4 and PS4 Pro are two different types of consoles to suit different needs, there are definite signs in the numbers that suggest gamers are a bit tepid on Sony’s mid-gen offering. Not only have we not seen an exact sales breakdown, but Sony hasn’t talked about the Pro much at all. When companies are silent and sales get lumped together, those aren’t positive indicators.

As for why the PS4 Pro seems to be underperforming, we can think of a few reasons. For one, the penetration of 4K TVs simply isn’t high enough yet for a 4K console like the Pro to be successful. Beyond that, reports of incompatibility with certain TVs and worse performance than the standard PS4 don’t help the cause either. That’s not to say everyone that has a Pro hates it, but its launch certainly had a few snags. Is this a sign of trouble for the Xbox Scorpio, or was Sony’s half-step console not good enough?

The PS4 Pro is available now for $399. Standard PS4s are also available for $299.

Are PS4 Pro sales as low as they seem? Are mid-gen refresh consoles a bad idea in general? Tell us in the comments section.

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by Emily Kirkpatrick via People

2016 has taken yet another legend from us. After suffering a serious heart attack during a flight from London to Los Angeles on December 23, Carrie Fisher has died. But the iconic actress, who was never soft-spoken about her life and the things she believed in, leaves behind an enduring legacy that proved that princesses aren’t always damsels in distress, in fact, more often than not, they’re the heroes of their own stories.

While there’s a million reasons to love the unapologetically feminist actress who provided us with just as many quintessential pop culture moments, one that instantaneously found itself in the cinema history books is her appearance in Return of the Jedi wearing that famous metal bikini.

Though the gold two-piece has since found its way from Tatooine to a new home on planet Earth, being auctioned off in October for $96,000 as a part of the “Profiles of History” online auction, Fisher always had plenty to say about that particular “slave Leia” costume. The actress told People in 1983, that it wasn’t exactly the most comfortable ensemble she ever wore, explaining that, “I started checking for any bounce or slip after takes,” adding, “It was, ‘CUT. Hey, how they doin’? The hooters in place?’”

And while that moment may be a fan favorite, she told NPR in an interview, that for her that scene, “was like, ‘Where am I in all of this?’ … I have to stay with the slug with the big tongue! Nearly naked, which is not a style choice for me. … It wasn’t my choice. When showed me the outfit, I thought he was kidding and it made me very nervous. I had to sit very straight because I couldn’t have lines on my sides, like little creases. No creases were allowed, so I had to sit very, very rigid straight.”

But in the end it all paid off, she says, because, “What redeems it is I get to kill him, which was so enjoyable. … I sawed his neck off with that chain that I killed him with. I really relished that because I hated wearing that outfit and sitting there rigid straight, and I couldn’t wait to kill him.”

In a dual interview with Interview Magazine, Fisher also told new Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley not to settle for simply being a sex symbol. “You should fight for your outfit,” she warned. “Don’t be a slave like I was.”

And in the end, per her book Wishful Drinking, the actress had just one wish for her obituary, that it read, “I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.”

What was your favorite Princess Leia moment? What is your favorite quote from Carrie Fisher? Share below.

by Ryan Winslett via CinemaBlend

Microsoft is really moving full steam ahead with its collection of backwards compatible games, this week adding a whole bunch of new titles to the growing list of last gen games now playable on the Xbox One. The even better news is that one of those games is actually free through the month of December.

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by Mike Luces via International Business Times

A disgruntled customer has come out to expose what GameStop did to him on Cyber Monday. According to the client, the retailer overcharged him and even billed for items that were supposed to be for free.

Just this Thursday, a Reddit user with the handle shadesvo shared on the discussion site his disappointing experience early this week. In a post, the Redditor stated that he initially believed that he found the best online deal for a PS4 on Cyber Monday. Unfortunately, the events that took place after ordering the item were not the things he expected.

Shadesvo ordered a “Uncharted 4” PS4 500GB bundle that was supposed to come with “The Last of Us Remastered” and “Ratchet & Clank” free of charge. However, something was off when he received the bundle. Not only was “Ratchet & Clank” not included in the box, GameStop also charged him for “The Last Of Us Remastered.”

Aside from what he thought was just a simple mistake on GameStop’s end, he found out that the retailer actually charged him more when he checked his bank account. The Reddit user even complained that the charges stipulated in the emailed receipt, the receipt that came with the box and the actual amount that was charged on his bank account did not match.

The fiasco did not end there since he also dealt with the “worst customer service” when he phoned GameStop. In the post, the disgruntled customer revealed that GameStop’s rep refused to refund the amount that was overcharged despite offering to show the latter copies of the receipts. His conversation with the rep lasted for two hours, but it didn’t solve the issue. He said the rep did not even let him talk to the supervisor.

When he did visit the nearest GameStop branch, the manager also refused to refund him and even told him that he would be blacklisted if he asked his bank to charge back. Despite the warning, shadesvo talked to his bank and the problem was sorted out in about 10 minutes.

Fellow Redditors who have stumbled upon his story couldn’t help but comment and ask for more details about  what happened. One wrote: “If you check on line [sic] they’re ratings are unbelievably low. I’m surprised they’re still in business.” Another reader chimed in: “Definitely do a charge back. They deserve it.”

When another Reddit user asked if shadesvo inquired to GameStop why “Ratchet & Clank” was not included in the box, the latter revealed that GameStop had told him that it was being shipped separately. When another questioned why he opted to purchase the bundle from GameStop, he said that it was the best deal he found after doing his “weekend price shopping.”

What do you think of shadesvo’s story? Sound off in the comments below.

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by Pras Subramanian via Yahoo! Finance

In the 90s virtual reality was hailed as the next big thing, but the experience was far from perfect. The VR world was buggy and laggy, and the hardware was nowhere near where it needed to be to give viewers an immersive experience. And VR went away quietly, with little fanfare.

Now, as we approach 2017, virtual reality is back in a big way, with companies like Samsung, Facebook, Sony and Google betting big on the medium. In fact, analysts at Goldman Sachs see it as an $80 billion industry by 2025.

Just in the past couple weeks, ahead of the holiday shopping season, Sony released what could be the biggest game-changing product to hit the VR industry: PlayStation VR. Google, not to be outdone, launched its Daydream mobile VR software with its accompanying set of goggles and motion controllers. Samsung, meanwhile, ramped up its investment in mobile VR through its partnership with Oculus and its Gear VR headset.

But a big question still remains: Can the technology live up to its potential?

David Mullett, founder of virtual reality content agency Virtualize, says VR creators are just scratching the surface when it comes to the potential for the platform.

“If you really look deep into what this new phenomenon is all about, you can look back to the early days of human storytelling around the campfire,” he says, adding that like campfire storytellers, VR creators can build vivid worlds in viewers’ minds. But with VR, those images are created in near lifelike simulation in 3D with 360 binaural audio.

The technology isn’t just limited to storytelling, however. VR worlds can become a place where one can create an avatar and have virtual interactions with others in real time, and even conduct business. “It’s something of a digital parallel dimension,” Mullet says, “where commerce, communication, and entertainment take place.”

From a commerce perspective, a select number of advertisers and brands have been creating experiences for viewers, concepts that either tell a story about the brand (for example Patron’s “Virtual Hacienda Tour”) or put the viewer in the eyes of a dynamic performer (with Nike’s soccer’s “Neymar Jr. Effect”).

While brands look to capitalize on VR, it will be the companies behind the hardware, most notably the chip makers, who stand to benefit as VR matures. “The chip makers definitely have an incredible position in the VR ecosystem,” Mullett says.

Can VR live up to the hype?

Ahead of the holiday shopping period, reports on sales of VR hardware point to a slow start. But it’s still in the early days, and the big players behind VR – Sony, Facebook, and Samsung – are vowing to be in it for the long haul. And that could the big difference this time around for the future of VR.

“We’re talking about new hardware, new cloud-based computation systems. We’re talking about new delivery devices,” Mullett says.

And that is the bet – that improving software and hardware technology will keep pushing the VR experience further – making that global campfire that Mullett described bigger and brighter.

“VR is going to change everything,” Mullett concludes. “In a bigger way than anyone can even imagine.”

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