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The decade-long wait for another game in BioWare's epic fantasy series has paid off big time as the newly released Dragon Age: The Veilguard is already breaking records.

After its own rocky development journey, Dragon Age: The Veilguard finally released just yesterday to both solid reviews and a record number of players on Steam. According to SteamDB estimates, the fourth Dragon Age game pulled in more than 70,000 concurrent players who were fighting to protect the Veil all at the same time. The RPG has also topped the platform's 'Top Sellers' chart and even passed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on the list.

Publisher EA is probably chuffed since The Veilguard is now its one of its biggest single-player launches on the platform, narrowly passing Star Wars Jedi Survivor's peak concurrent numbers, which were already impressive a year ago, but not quite reaching The Sims 4's 96,000 peak record - and who can blame 'em? It's The Sims.

Developer BioWare can still throw a party and call the game a record-breaker since it did set a new record for the studio itself. The Veilguard overtook Mass Effect: Legendary Edition's 59,000-player peak to become the company's biggest Steam release of all time.

We don't fully know how The Veilguard is stacking up alongside BioWare's biggest hits, however. EA famously stopped releasing games on Steam in 2011, and only began again in 2019, so we don't actually have a concrete idea of how big the crowds were for Mass Effect 3 or Dragon Age: Inquisition on launch day. Either way, after a decade of low points from Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda to internal troubles and layoffs, it's good to see the storied studio find success doing what it does best.

I haven't personally played it yet but I'm hearing a lot of mixed reactions. Mostly about inclusion and diversity related things. Anyone play? What are your thoughts?

After a year on sale, Alan Wake 2 is finally close to recouping the money Remedy spent on developing and marketing the game...

Assassin's Creed franchise boss Marc-Alexis Coté has addressed the online backlash which has swirled around the main characters of Assassin's Creed Shadows, the subsequent impact it has had on the game's development staff, and the attempts by bad faith commenters to disrupt and dissuade creative teams from telling stories featuring diverse and inclusive characters in general...

Ubisoft has released its first-ever blockchain game, the tactical NFT battler Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles.

The company announced the game last June after years of dabbling in blockchain, but has only now quietly launched it.

The game is on PC and free to start, though players can purchase figurines with which to battle using either in-game gold or cryptocurrency. These figurines are NFTs and can be bought on the game's marketplace from anywhere between $7 to $64,000 (almost £50k).

It appears to be possible to play the game without purchasing figurines, though those willing to pay the extortionate prices will surely have more success in battles.

Battles themselves are turn-based affairs against other players with squads of three figurines.

Francois Bodson, studio director at Ubisoft Paris, told IGN the game "offers deep strategic gameplay featuring unique in-game assets and several exciting innovations", comparing it to a physical trading card game.

Here's the statement in full: "The team inside the Ubisoft Paris studio developing Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles partnered with Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovation Lab and Oasys to ensure that our use of blockchain was done in service of delivering new and innovative gaming experiences for our players. Our shared goal is to explore new ways to play alongside bringing more value to players based on empowerment and ownership. Champions Tactics offers deep strategic gameplay featuring unique in-game assets and several exciting innovations. These include millions of procedurally generated figurines, each with distinct stats, assets shaped directly by players' choices, and an open marketplace letting players compose their teams on a peer-to-peer basis - much like a physical trading card game. For months, we have collaborated closely with our community through events and beta phases to build and refine Champions Tactics. We’re excited to keep expanding and enhancing the experience together."

Ubisoft did not comment on the game's Adults Only rating, presumably for its blockchain basis and use of cryptocurrency.

Back in December 2021, Ubisoft launched its own NFT platform called Quartz, with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint as the first game to offer a beta trial. It did not fare well, appearing to have initially only sold 15 NFTs.

Still, Ubisoft's NFT bosses stated in an interview afterwards that players just "don't get it".

It's interesting, therefore, for Ubisoft to have still released this project, considering other developers have slowly backpedalled on their enthusiasm for cryptocurrency.

That includes EA boss Andrew Wilson, after describing NFTs as "an important part of… the future of our industry".

"I believe that collectability will continue to be an important part of our industry and the games and experiences that we offer our players," he later said during an earnings call in February 2022.

"Whether that's part of the NFT and the blockchain? Well, that remains to be seen. And I think the way we think about it, is we want to deliver the best possible player experience we can. And so we're going to - we will evaluate that over time. But right now, it's not something that we're driving audience."

I'm a huge fan of the series so I'm glad to see if is getting some good reviews. I just wish the combat was more like Origins. Most seem to love it though.

Starbound, originally releasing on Steam in 2016, launches for the first time on Xbox with full controller support, and a toggleable auto-aim accessibility feature. Players can explore the universe of Starbound with a crew of up to 4 friends. Futhermore, Starbound will also contain all the free content updates which are carried over from the …

The post Starbound launches for the first time on Xbox appeared first on XboxEra.

The launch trailer has arrived.

Yep, after a decade of waiting, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is almost here - BioWare's latest epic is coming to Xbox Series X|S on October 31st. As expected then, the team has just dropped the game's final launch trailer ahead of next week's release, and it's getting us well and truly hyped for the full thing.

We've thrown that pre-launch trailer up above for you to all enjoy - with the team's upcoming RPG looking and sounding pretty bloody good so far. Here's how EA and BioWare are setting up the next instalment in this now age-old franchise:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Yep, it's still planned for this year!

It was back in June that The Thing: Remastered was first announced for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and although we hadn't heard much since, Nightdive Studios has treated us to a brand-new trailer this week!

You can check out that trailer up above, which includes snippets of cutscenes and raw gameplay. Nightdive is the studio behind many incredible remasters (Quake 2, Dark Forces, etc.), and apparently The Thing: Remastered features some of the company's "most impressive visual upgrades to date". Here's a bit more about what to expect:

Read the full article on purexbox.com

Microsoft laid off more than 2,500 people working in its games division this year, but the trillion dollar company still scrounged together enough spare change under the couch to give its CEO an even bigger bonus.

In its most recent regulatory filing from last week, Microsoft revealed that CEO Satya Nadella's total compensation for the 2024 fiscal year amounted to $79.1 million. Most of that money comes from performance-based stock awards, however, as the executive's base salary stayed the same, sitting at $2.5 million, and his cash bonus came to a still-whopping $5.2 million.

What's more surprising, at least in these gamified lands, is that Nadella's compensation is actually 62% higher than last year's $48.5 million package. For a company that laid off 1,900 Xbox and Activision Blizzard employees, then shut down a handful of beloved, seemingly successful game studios without any clear reason, and then laid off a further 650 workers in its games division - you'd be forgiven for thinking Microsoft was implementing cost-cutting measures because it absolutely needed to.

Where's all this extra money coming from then? Well, Microsoft just reached an eye-watering market cap of $3 trillion for the first time this year, mainly due to its investments in AI and how it continues to dominate workplace software. The people love Excel, I guess. Of course, Nadella's bonus wouldn't have funded those laid off employee's salaries for too long, and some layoffs are to be expected after an acquisition as beefy as the Activision Blizzard deal, but it's still frustrating that Microsoft won't use some of its new AI money for good - to keep people employed and create interesting art, say.

Alan Wake 2’s 2nd expansion, The Lake House, is here and I did not enjoy any part of it. As one of the base game and first expansion, Night Springs, biggest supporters it pains me. The Lake House takes place shortly before Janina Gavankar’s character shows up in the main campaign. A Federal Bureau of …

"So long and thanks for all the brains!".

Undead Labs has announced that, with the help of support team Wushu Studios, Legacy Awaits will be the final major content update for State of Decay 2. Launching as a free patch across PC and Xbox — including Game Pass — the title's 38th update brings a collection of new and returning outfits, vehicles and weapons, some big quality-of-life improvements, a selection of 'game adjustments' and some major bug fixes to the zombie-slayer.

The team's list of changes has been fully explained in a detailed Steam blog post, where we get early looks at some of the big updates being made in State of Decay 2's final patch. Here's how Undead Labs introduces its Legacy Awaits update:

It only took me two weekends to get through the whole thing, and now that it's over. Wow!

It resembles Slay the Spire, where you choose your path, and collect cards and powers, but the matches are more like puzzles. Your opponent creates scenarios and how you pay your cards determines if you move on or perish.

Now a big reason why I loved this game is the weird shit that happens, and weird shit isn't fun when you know it's coming, so that's all I'm going to say about that.

If you like puzzles or cards games or a story that makes you say WHAT THE FUCK?!? start downloading it now, it's free on Gamepass!

The spooky season is finally here, and to celebrate, Microsoft has slashed the prices of hundreds of Xbox games, DLC expansions, and more in the huge Xbox Shocktober Sale 2024. Microsoft has discounted some games by as much as 90%, so make sure you have a good look through everything on offer and pick up a bargain before the sale ends on October 31.

For those looking forward to heading back into the rather surreal and twisted world of Alan Wake 2, you will soon be able to do just that, thanks to the imminent arrival of its Lake House DLC.

Presented amusingly by YouTuber ‘Dunkey’ of videogamedunkey fame, Animal Well is making the move over to Xbox, and in even better news, it’s available today for you to pick up and play. Animal Well was developed by Billy Basso and is published by Bigmode. In Animal Well, you’ll “explore a dense, interconnected labyrinth, and unravel …

Alan Wake and Control developer Remedy has revealed FBC: Firebreak, a three-player co-op multiplayer spin-off set in the same universe.

Check out the updates from the event!

It's been a very long wait for the arrival of Stalker 2 on Xbox Game Pass, but we're in the final stretch now, which is very exciting indeed. The open world shooter is about a month away from launching, and today, a bunch of early previews have dropped - with the game sounding like a real treat to play.

We'll round up a bunch of these early impressions down below, so you can get a flavour of what's being said about the upcoming Game Pass title ahead of its November 2024 launch.

Microsoft’s determination to destroy the great reputation of Game Pass continues apace, with the news that the corporation has suddenly pulled its years-long offer of a two-week trial subscription for a dollar, just a week before it adds Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to the subscription.

Dick move.