Former head Sony Interactive Entertainment and an industry veteran Shuhei Yoshida, who recently left the company after more than 30 years of work, shared his opinion on current trends in video game development. In an interview for Kinda Funny Gamescast, he noted that the growing development cost single-player games are forcing companies to resort to releasing remasters, remakes and PC ports to recoup costs.

Yoshida emphasized that such a strategy allows funding for the development of new AAA titles without compromising their quality. This explains Sony's policy in recent years: regularly releasing updated versions of hits such as The Last of Us и Horizon: Zero Dawn, as well as porting exclusives to PC. However, some projects, such as Bloodborne, still remain outside this scheme, which causes confusion among fans.

Interestingly, Yoshida also touched on fate Bloodborne, the legendary game from FromSoftware. According to him, its future depends on the head of the studio Hidetaki Miyazaki, who is said to be too busy with other projects at the moment. However, fans continue to hope for the return of this cult title.

Yoshida thus revealed important aspects of the modern industry, where additional income from remasters and ports is becoming an integral part of the strategy of major gaming companies. This once again highlights how much the approach to creating single-player games has changed in recent years.

Add a comment

Bioware Edmonton, known for its work on iconic game series, may be closed. As reported by Mark Kern, former head of development for World of Warcraft, management Electronic Arts is considering disbanding the studio. The decision is linked to its poor commercial success. Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Amid this news, the head of development left the studio Corinne Boucher, who has announced that she wants to focus on new projects. Her social media accounts have been set to private, leaving open questions about the reasons for her departure.

Sales Dragon Age: The Veilguard, according to rumors, turned out to be below expectations, which was a key factor in Electronic Arts' decision. An official statement about the possible closure of BioWare Edmonton could appear as early as February, before the publication of EA's financial report. This time was chosen to explain to investors the reasons for the low sales figures.

Mark Kern has commented on the possible closure of BioWare Edmonton, noting that the studio's problems are related to its focus on promoting activists instead of professional developers. He also criticized the script and characters Dragon Age: The Veilguard, calling them "terrible" and adding that the departure of the development director left the studio's staff without support.

BioWare Edmonton is still operating, but the studio's future remains in question. If Electronic Arts does decide to close, it would be a major event for the industry and could threaten the development of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series.

Add a comment

Developers from Square Enix released a new trailer demonstrating the high scalability of graphics in the version Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for PC. The release will take place in a week, and the game promises to satisfy the requirements of gamers with different systems, be it minimum settings or ultra-graphics.

The trailer shows the game running on three graphics presets: Low, Medium and Ultra. For minimum settings (30 FPS), an Intel Core i3-8100 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 are used. Medium settings (60 FPS) require an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and RTX 2070, and the ultra mode at 60 FPS is shown on an Intel Core i7-10700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Official System Requirements:

Minimum (Low, 30 FPS, 1080p):

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1400 / Intel Core i3-8100
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6600 / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
• RAM: 16 GB
• Storage: 155GB SSD

Recommended (Medium, 60 FPS, 1080p):

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X / Intel Core i7-8700
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
• RAM: 16 GB

Ultra (High, 60 FPS, 2160p):

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X / Intel Core i7-10700
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
• RAM: 16 GB

All versions require 155GB SSD, DirectX 12 Ultimate and a video card with support for Shader Model 6.6.

It is also confirmed that the game will be compatible with Steam Deck from the first day of release. This is great news for those who prefer portable gaming.

Pre-order bonuses and discounts:

Before February 5 the game is available on Steam and Epic Games Store with a 30% discount. Pre-order buyers will receive:

• Matter for summoning "The Muggle Trio"
• Armor Shinra Bangle Mk.II
• Armor Midgar Bangle Mk. II

Add a comment

Players in Delta Force will have to wait a little longer to enjoy the long-awaited story campaign of Black Hawk Down, the development team announced Team Jade, the campaign release has been postponed to a later date. The reason for the delay is the need to focus on optimization and debugging to meet fan expectations.

The developers have confirmed that the campaign will be released in season "Starfall", however, the exact date is promised to be specified later. In the official statement, the team expressed gratitude for the support and patience, emphasizing that they want to present the players with a product that meets their high standards.

"We understand how much you are looking forward to the campaign and want to make it the best it can be. We need a little more time for final optimization," the statement reads. Black Hawk Down promises to be a significant part of Delta Force, where players will be able to immerse themselves in an intense story with exciting missions inspired by real events.

Initially, the developers stated that it would be possible to play the story campaign after the game's launch, but now it is clear that they will need a few more months. However, such a delay may work in the project's favor, since additional time for development will eliminate Errors and offer players a truly high-quality product.

Players will have to be patient and wait for more updates from Team Jade. As with the multiplayer mode, the story component promises to be an important part of Delta Force, preserving the spirit of the original and bringing new opportunities for modern gamers.

Add a comment

Analysts have released fresh statistics showing the dominant role of PCs in the video game industry. According to data published by Epyllion, spending on content in the PC gaming segment has grown by 65% morethan in the home console segment. This is equivalent to $30 billion, which is 225% more than total console spend.

Against the backdrop of slowing growth of other platforms, the PC continues to steadily strengthen its share. For 2024 53% All non-mobile gaming content spending comes from PCs, while consoles, including handhelds, account for the remaining 47%. Back in 2004, PCs accounted for only 29%, but in 20 years, they have almost doubled, while consoles have been stagnating since 2021.

At the same time, mobile games remain the largest segment with growth of $ 83 billion since 2011, but the PC remains the main platform for premium gaming and eSports. Virtual reality (VR) is gradually finding its audience, adding $1-2 billion in 2024. However, traditional platforms such as arcade machines and portable consoles are showing negative dynamics: $ 9 billion losses in portable devices and $ 2 billion at the arcades.

Add a comment

It’s hard to find a game more iconic to the shooter genre than Half-Life 2. And now, years after its release, the modding community, with the support of the Nvidia team, has decided to breathe new life into it with the Half-Life 2 RTX Remix project. As part of this initiative, the classic world of City 17 is getting photorealistic lighting thanks to new ray tracing technologies, and in recent days, another key improvement has become known. In addition to the already impressive ray tracing, the game is adding Neural Radiance Cache – a special system for processing indirect light using artificial intelligence. This technology not only creates realistic shadows and global illumination, but can also “guess” several forward reflections of rays, forming an even deeper and more natural picture.

In addition to the elaborate lighting, the developers are also implementing other cutting-edge solutions that should turn Valve's cult game into a real "showcase of the capabilities" of the new Nvidia graphics cards. First of all, we are talking about RTX Skin, responsible for detailed modeling of materials with translucent properties and subsurface scattering (light penetration through thin surfaces like skin). This creates a stunningly realistic effect of lighting and reflections on living creatures, such as zombies with headcrabs or people in science suits. As a result, dark corridors light up exactly as they would in reality, and on the streets of City 17, in the sunlight, nuances of textures and character details become visible.

An equally important part of the Half-Life 2 RTX Remix technology is support DLSS-4, which now allows not only to increase the resolution without losing clarity, but also to use the Multi Frame Gen function. Thanks to this innovation, owners of Nvidia video cards can get a significant increase in frame rate, and at the same time, smooth gameplay. However, the most interesting part of the presentation at CES was testing the game on the new RTX 5090, where all these developments have become the cornerstone. Modders report that thanks to Neural Radiance Cache, it is possible to achieve even deeper and more accurate lighting effects with a relatively small load on the system, because most of the calculations concern the work of neural networks to “complete” the remaining rays. For fans of Half-Life 2, this means one thing - we are waiting for an almost perfect remaster, which, while preserving the gameplay of the original, adds the latest graphics standards. And, judging by the first impressions, the future of classic games with RTX Remix support really promises to be bright.

Add a comment

The start of 2025 for Microsoft was marked by another wave of layoffs, which affected several areas of the company at once, including the gaming industry, sales and security-related divisions. The first notice employees began receiving notices of layoffs on Tuesday, with corporation representatives stating that the scale of the cuts is “insignificant.” The exact number of those laid off is not yet known. voiced, but, according to insiders, they could affect hundreds of people.

These events are a continuation of a continuous series of reorganizations at Microsoft. Back in January 2024, the company fired 1900 employees from the gaming division after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard was completed. Cuts and studio closures soon followed, peaking in May 2024, when four teams were eliminated at once, including arkane austin и Tango GameworksTango Gameworks was subsequently bought out by Krafton Corporation, which allowed it to retain some of its staff and resume operations under new management.

Now the wave of layoffs has affected not only the game development direction, but also related segments of Microsoft's business, raising the question of further development prospects for specialists. trend to process optimization and staff reduction in the gaming industry became one of the most discussed in 2024: about 16 thousand employees from 160 companies were left without work. Alas, 2025 did not bring relief: in the first two weeks of the year, more than 10 cases of dismissals and closures were recorded, affecting the fate of at least 160 specialists. The real number of victims, according to experts, may be even higher - probably over 200 people.

According to some estimates, amid high-profile deals and large investment capital, the game development industry is continuing to “cleanse” the market of unprofitable or duplicate studios. Microsoft, despite all its efforts to adapt, has not been able to avoid this Reduce staff. Interestingly, some of the lost positions were in the sales and security departments, indicating a large-scale internal restructuring of business priorities. In official statements, the corporation emphasizes that it strives to provide support to laid-off specialists when moving to new jobs, but for many gamers and analysts, this is only confirmation that the wave of global changes in the industry is far from over.

Add a comment

Last week NVIDIA officially unveiled a new technology RTX Mega Geometry, which is designed to significantly increase the efficiency of ray tracing and raise the quality of graphics in modern games to a new level. One of the first projects confirmed to support this innovation will be Alan wake 2 – a mystical thriller from Remedy Entertainment. According to the "green team", RTX Mega Geometry allows hardware acceleration of BVH (Bounding Volume Hierarchy) construction, which enables "rays" to process up to 100 times more triangles than now. Relatively speaking, this opens the way to more detailed scenes with large-scale lighting and shadow effects without overloading the processor and video card.

The gist of RTX Mega Geometry is that triangles in a scene are grouped into clusters and “updated” in batches directly on the graphics processor, which not only reduces the load on the central processing unit (CPU), but also optimizes the use of video memory. NVIDIA assures that, thanks to this scheme, developers will be able to more confidently use higher detail models, textures and shadows, especially in projects with dense use of ray tracingIn the long term, this is also expected to reduce power consumption while maintaining (and sometimes improving) overall image quality.

Concerning Alan wake 2, then in addition to RTX Mega Geometry, Remedy developers are integrating a new Ray Tracing Ultra quality mode. This mode will offer fully traced ray-traced reflections and refractions, as well as improved indirect lighting. According to NVIDIA, this level of graphics is currently only available on devices of the class NVIDIA RTX – we are talking about the most current generations of video cards, capable of processing large-scale calculations associated with real-time tracing. However, to guarantee a stable frame rate and smooth gameplay, you will have to use scaling technologies, including DLSS.

One of the key points of the announcement was that both RTX Mega Geometry and Ultra Quality Mode will be available on the entire line GPU RTX family. This means that it’s not just the owners of high-end cards who will be able to enjoy cutting-edge visuals: many models of the past and current generations that are capable of working with the RTX API will also benefit from the new technology. For Remedy, this is a great chance to demonstrate the full power of its engine, enhanced with global illumination and a variety of graphic effects, and for NVIDIA, it’s an opportunity to clearly show gamers how far the industry has come since the first experiments with ray tracing.

Final tests and exact specifications of this updated mode in Alan Wake 2 have not yet been revealed, but given that the release is scheduled for 2025, the studio has plenty of time for polishing and optimization. Gamers from all over the world are waiting in anticipation, because it is these steps that will shape the future of the market, where the aesthetics of realistic lighting are becoming more important than ever. If RTX Mega Geometry and Ultra Quality Mode is indeed capable of delivering the promised quality without excessive performance losses, we may be witnessing a new era of ray tracing implementation.

Add a comment

Tencent Holdings and the Guillemot family, founders of Ubisoft Entertainment, are considering creating a new company that could include certain Ubisoft assetsThe move is aimed at boosting the value of the French video game developer, which has struggled in recent years, the sources said.

Chinese tech company Tencent and the Guillemot family are exploring what assets to include in the new venture. The deal would not only allow Tencent increase your share, but also to gain greater control over Ubisoft's intellectual property, which will strengthen its position in the global gaming industry.

As of March, Tencent and the Guillemot family owned 25,4% of shares Ubisoft controlled 29,6% of the voting rights. However, The company's shares have fallen over the past year by almost 50%, reducing its market value to $1,6 billion.

Ubisoft has previously announced that it is taking drastic steps to reorganize. On January 9, the company appointed advisers to study possible ways to increase its value, including a potential partnership with Tencent.

Add a comment

NVIDIA has announced a list of games that will receive DLSS 4 support in the coming weeks. The new technology will improve frame rates, image quality, and performance through neural rendering. Here are the main projects that will be updated:

Assetto Corsa EVO (Early Access Release January 16):

Popular racing sim to be updated to include DLSS Super Resolution, delivering high performance even on triple-monitor systems. The game features dynamic weather, a 24-hour racing cycle, and ultra-realistic physics.

DYNASTY WARRIORS: ORIGINS (released January 17):

The legendary tactical action series returns with support DLSS Frame Generation, which will provide smoother gameplay during massive 1 vs 1000 battles.

Honkai: Star Rail 3.0 (updated January 15):

The "Paean of Era Nova" update adds a new world, characters, and storylines. DLSS Super Resolution, players will be able to enjoy maximum detail and high frame rates.

SMITE 2 (coming out in January):

The sequel to the popular MOBA from Hi-Rez Studios will support DLSS Super Resolution, DLAA and NVIDIA Reflex, which minimizes latency and improves overall performance.

TankHead (release in January):

Tactical shooter with unique drone control mechanics to receive support DLSS Frame Generation, ensuring smooth and high performance even in intense battles.

Updates with DLSS 4 support will allow these games to take visual quality to a new level, and Multi Frame Generation will provide up to 8 times more framesNVIDIA continues to expand the list of supported games, giving gamers more ways to enjoy modern technology.

Add a comment