Jam City, the studio behind Disney Emoji Blitz, will celebrate its mobile game’s sixth anniversary with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ice Age, and Hocus Pocus 2 content.

Players can expect a new collection from the popular Disney franchise The Jungle Book. The new game mode will run from August 3 to August 7, and players will have the opportunity to unlock Disney emojis such as Bagheera, Mowgli, and Baloo.

In addition to The Jungle Book, players can look forward to Bruno and Luisa from Encanto. Players can unlock both emojis in another in-game event that’ll take place from August 10 to August 14, and it’ll also be available in the diamond box during the event.

Disney Emoji Blitz is free-to-play.

Disney Emoji Blitz is a puzzle-matching mobile game in which players have to match the corresponding emojis to clear the stage while building up combos for high scores. Since its release, players have spent over 88,000 years in-game solving puzzles.

Disney Emoji Blitz is a free-to-play mobile game. You can download it now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

For more mobile gaming news, check out these stories:

Thatgamecompany’s Jenova Chen Sees Sky: Children Of The Light As More Virtual Theme Park Than Video GamePUBG: Battlegrounds And New State Mobile Are Getting An Assassin’s Creed CollaborationBackbone One PlayStation Edition Turns Your iPhone Into A PS5 DualSense ControllerRead MoreGameSpot – Game News

Sky: Children of the Light, thatgamecompany’s follow-up to Journey, released three years ago for iOS devices before making its way to other platforms and the developer is celebrating by holding the biggest event the game has ever experienced. There are special birthday themed events, new areas to explore, performances from the thatgamecompany band, and more.

To mark the occasion, we spoke with Jenova Chen, thatgamecompany’s co-founder and the director of Flow and Flower, as well as Journey and Sky: Children of the Light. We talked with Chen about potential regrets in launching exclusively on iOS, whether the game will make its way to more platforms, why Twitch is crucial to the success of modern games, and the potential of future collaborations, like the one it recently did with The Little Prince, based on the classic children’s book and the 2015 film adaptation.

Is this the biggest event that Sky has put together?

Yes. Unfortunately, we had COVID, so when we first launched the game back in 2019, I met quite a few groups of fans in Japan while I was visiting there. It was a very recharging experience to meet the people who really, really enjoy your game and hear their stories. And then COVID happened and we never get to meet anyone in real life for a couple years. This is the first time we are doing an anniversary where we actually also have a physical gathering. That happened yesterday.

We are also setting up a virtual music festival within the game, so people can come to our office on-game. It’s kind of breaking the fourth wall. We have a one-to-one office built within the game, so players can come to our office space and see the employee hanging out and celebrating the anniversary. It’s a very meta thing, now that the game is more of a service rather than just a console premium title where you play it, and that’s it. We’re now having a more of an ongoing relationship with our player community.

Sky allows players to used all kinds of instruments.

Can you explain the birthday performance by the thatgamecompany band?

Music is a big part of the self-expression in Sky. We have almost all the instruments you can imagine, from classics to electric, and the player can use these instruments. This is not like Guitar Hero, where you’re just trying to hit things on time. You have a real instrument, so you can perform in the virtual space. And so, we developed our system to enhance people to fully express themself, but at the same time, we also can allow player characters, like our staff members, to actually perform music for the player.

We have about 10 different performances, each from one of our designers. My performance is pretty simple. I just play the guitar and say thank you, but some of our designers’ performances are pretty crazy, where he would turn everybody in the rooftop concert into tiny little people, so they can all get on the stage, the size of a mouse, and then they can dance together. We have some funny performances.

It’s very much like the variety show. Each person gets to say something to the players and do their own tricks, whether it’s magic or humor. It’s very much like a potluck of our employees if they have anything to say and to show the players. Gratefulness is the theme of this little music festival on the rooftop, and that’s just for this birthday event. But we have lots of cool stuff we’re working on that we will reveal very soon to the players that’s coming to Sky.

I played Sky right when it came out, finished it, and I enjoyed it, but I haven’t checked in since that initial playthrough. What does this anniversary event look like for a player like me? What’s the big incentive to return?

It’s funny because we are all console players. Once you see the credits roll, you think the game is over, and what happens with Sky is we make content every month. Every month, we have new events. Every quarter, we have new story. Sky is like a theme park–like Disneyland. So when you first played back in 2019, we probably only had a third of the park. When we launched the game, we had maybe 20 levels. Now, we have 61 levels. So every quarter, we tell a new story, we expand the game place.

Initially, you could only run and fly. Now, you can dive into the deep ocean. There was one season dedicated to swimming, and then we had one season dedicated to platforming challenges. It was called the Season of Prophecy, where you played more traditional, very hardcore platforming games. And then we had a season where we collaborated with the Little Prince IP. We brought the entire novel into the land, so you get to interact with the Little Prince, befriend him, hold his hands, take him to places, and hear him talking about those philosophical ideas, and eventually see him through to return to the stars.

We’ve done 14 different seasons since the game launch, so just the season content alone is twice the size of the original game and we try to make things different. Sky is not like an RPG game, where if you are away for two years and you come back, you’re like, “Oh, your friends are at level 90 and you are only level 30. There’s no point in playing.” Sky is more like a real park. So you can come back, check it out, and see what happened–see what has changed in Sky.

And it’s also year round. In the spring, we have cherry blossoms. Around the time where real cherry blossom happen, we will also have trees growing and flowers blooming in various parts of Sky. And in the winter, our home space will become snow covered. And now we have a summer coming, in which we have some of the characters setting up summer camp in one of the locations. You can go there and fish and cook some marshmallows. It’s really not designed to be narrative content consumption. It’s more designed to be a space that is always changing.

You can now visit a version of the thatgamecompany offices in Sky.

Where are people are playing Sky? And on what platform are they playing?

We have, right now… our daily active users is about eight million. Most of them are on mobile, and a lot of them are from Asia. China, Japan, Taiwan, and the US are the top four countries. And we have Switch right now as the only console. Switch is probably less than 10% because of the vast number of mobile players.

Do you see Sky coming to Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5?

We’re certainly interested in bringing it to every platform. Because the game was really made on a console engine. And it looks amazing in 4K at 60fps.

I personally wanted to play Sky on a console when it launched. Do you ever wish it came out on a console at launch? Was it the right call to make it a mobile exclusive at launch?

Looking back, I think the best launch strategy would have been to launch on all platforms at the same time. You can see what happened with Genshin Impact, which really is a mobile game in Asia, but they were able to launch on PC and console at the same time. And so, it was really maximizing all the press releases at the same time. When we tried to do mobile, we did things the wrong way. We launched on iOS first, which is a very niche market for mobile gaming when it comes to number of users. And it doesn’t really go viral, because imagine if you go to a class and maybe one kid out of five has an iOS device. And so, even if they like the game and they introduce it to their friends, their friends can’t play it.

We didn’t see major user growth until the Android version launched. What happened is, when we first launched the game on iOS, Japan was the only country to grow very, very quickly because our game is about 70% women. In Japan, I think over 86% of women use iOS devices. So, they tell their friends and they all get the game. It went viral very quickly. In 2019, we had already identified Japan as our number one market.

But then, once we launched on Android, China just massively grew in terms of players, because of word of mouth. And with the launch of Switch, we saw more Japanese players and European players start to come because of the platform. What I learned is, in the United States, at least so far, almost everything that goes viral comes from Twitch, whether it’s Valheim, or PUBG, or even Among Us. It didn’t become viral until someone was playing on Twitch. And so, we felt like Sky really went viral in Asia because of the accessibility. But in the Europe and the US, we can’t really rely on it going viral until we have a PC build.

The Switch version is probably the easiest way to stream it right now.

Yeah. So there’s more platforms we need to work on. Sky is really a social space. I really see it as a park operation rather than just content telling a story. It’s quite exciting, because with the amount of people who are coming to this virtual realm every day, we are planning to do things that nobody has ever done in history. You probably will hear about that later this year.

Can you share any examples of that?

I’m sure we will get back to you once we are ready to announce it.

Sky: Children of the Light launched in 2019 on iOS. It is now also available on Android and Switch.

What is That Sky Story?

We found our inspiration from Journey. When Journey came out, the fan community was really, really blossoming and a lot of people shared their story of what the game has done to them. I had people writing to me about someone who had fallen into a frozen lake when they were 14, and when he was brought up by the ambulance, he was medically dead for two minutes, and then the nurse was able to bring him back He saw what it’s like at the end of that tunnel, and he was brought back. So a lot of people ask him about what he saw when he was dead. He said he looked at a lot of literature, music, and movies, all about the depiction of near death experiences, and he told me that the experience he had at the end of Journey was the closest to what he saw when he was dead. And that’s just something I never would have expected. It’s an amazing story. And there’s other players who have lost their parents and were in a lot of pain and grief, and somehow, they felt the other players they met was their parents, and it was able to take them out of the grief.

We had so many very dramatic, extreme stories that players decided to start a website called That Journey Story. We started to see all kinds of stories shared by the players. And Sky, as the sister to Journey, had a similar healing effect. So we see a lot of people sharing their stories about what happened in Sky. And this time, even more stories are about what happened between them and the other players in the world of Sky. We just thought it’s such an inspirational story from the players that it would be kind of a crime to not share these stories with other people. And that’s why we felt like we had enough interesting stories that we wanted just to share with other players.

Do you see Sky doing other collaborations in the future with other IPs like you did with The Little Prince?

Yes. The strange thing I find in most of the mobile games is people talking about predatory monetization. We spend a long time trying to find ways where the monetization will feel family-friendly, like if I’m taking my kids to play this game together, I wouldn’t be bothered by the techniques they’re using. And so, we spend a lot of time researching business models and trying different ways. Our focus is to make the payment to be something the parents can be proud of rather than feel taken advantage of. A lot of the spending is actually giving. In our game, there’s many purchases you can make to share with others, and those are the more popular ones.

So, over the three years of operation, I started to realize the business is really a theme park business. Half of the revenue goes for content, like the tickets. Half of the revenue goes to social lubricants, like if I have a birthday celebration, I will buy some birthday hats, and I would take my friends to the most beautiful place, and maybe we’ll share t-shirts. Social spending.

And the other part I learned from looking at the theme park business model is they would collaborate with IPs to create new reasons why you want to return to the park. Disneyland, for example–they are very specific about the values they believe in: courage and hope. They would pick the IP that fits with the ethos of the park.

For us, Sky is a game about human connections. The Little Prince, to me, is about human connection, as well. Particularly, the game was inspired by some of The Little Prince’s concepts, like if you have passed away, you become a star. And in the Sky universe, you connect with other players through the stars. So that just felt like the perfect match of our ethos, so we brought The Little Prince in.

But I could say there are many other IPs that I think are the original inspiration for the game that we can potentially collaborate in the future. But we are trying to make sure it’s not becoming just a showcase of other IPs. We are still developing the story of Sky, so we will choose our collaborations very carefully.

Follow the link to read GameSpot’s Sky: Children of the Light review.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

It appears that the end may be in sight for Intel’s beleaguered Optane memory business. Tucked inside a brutal Q2’2022 earnings release for the company (more on that a bit later today) is a very curious statement in a section talking about non-GAAP adjustments: In Q2 2022, we initiated the winding down of our Intel Optane memory business.  As well, Intel’s earnings report also notes that the company is taking a $559 Million “Optane inventory impairment” charge this quarter.

Beyond those two items, there is no further information about Optane inside Intel’s earnings release or their associated presentation deck. We have reached out to company representatives seeking more information, and are waiting for a response.

Taking these items at face value, then, it would seem that Intel is preparing to shut down its Optane memory business and development of associated 3D XPoint technology. To be sure, there is a high degree of nuance here around the Optane name and product lines here – which is why we’re looking for clarification from Intel – as Intel has several Optane products, including “Optane memory” “Optane persistent memory” and “Optane SSDs”. None the less, within Intel’s previous earnings releases and other financial documents, the complete Optane business unit has traditionally been referred to as their “Optane memory business,” so it would appear that Intel is indeed winding down the Optane business unit, and not just the Optane Memory product.

Intel, in turn, used 3D XPoint as the basis of two product lineups. For its datacenter customers, it offered Optane Persistent Memory, which packaged 3D XPoint into DIMMs as a partial replacement for traditional DRAMs. Optane DIMMs offered greater bit density than DRAM, and combined with its persistent, non-volatile nature made for an interesting offering for systems that needed massive working memory sets and could benefit from its non-volatile nature, such as database servers. Meanwhile Intel also used 3D XPoint as the basis of several storage products, including high-performance SSDs for the server and client market, and as a smaller high-speed cache for use with slower NAND SSDs.

3D XPoint’s unique attributes have also been a challenge for Intel since the technology launched, however. Despite being designed for scalability via layer stacking, 3D XPoint manufacturing costs have continued to be higher than NAND on a per-bit basis, making the tech significantly more expensive than even higher-performance SSDs. Meanwhile Optane DIMMs, while filling a unique niche, were equally as expensive and offered slower transfer rates than DRAM. So, despite Intel’s efforts to offer a product that could crossover the two product spaces, for workloads that don’t benefit from the technology’s unique abilities, 3D XPoint ended up being neither as good as DRAM or NAND in their respective tasks – making Optane products a hard sell.

As a result, Intel has been losing money on its Optane business for most (if not all) of its lifetime, including hundreds of millions of dollars in 2020. Intel does not break out Optane revenue information on a regular basis, but on the one-off occasions where they have published those numbers, they have been well in the red on an operating income basis. As well, reports from Blocks & Files have claimed that Intel is sitting on a significant oversupply of 3D XPoint chips – on the order of two years’ of inventory as of earlier this year. All of which underscores the difficulty Intel has encountered in selling Optane products, and adding to the cost of a write-down/write-off, which Intel is doing today with their $559M Optane impairment charge.

This is breaking news and will be updated with additional information as it becomes available

Read MoreAnandTech

Annapurna Interactive is becoming known for publishing unique games off the beaten path, like the recently released Stray that has quickly gained mainstream attention as the cat game. It’s in that environment that the studio released its latest Annapurna Showcase, debuting a number of new games and sharing more details and release dates on announced titles. Here’s everything we saw during the showcase, including a handful of games and demos that are out now.

Thirsty Suitors

We got a closer look at Thirsty Suitors, the upcoming game from Outerloop Games. The lengthy gameplay demonstration showcased how battle works by focusing on one suitor in particular, your third-grade boyfriend Sergio. The demo detailed how you can use a taunt to put opponents in a “thirsty” mood, how battles can shift mid-match to require special abilities like calling his mom, and finally, how you can reconcile and become friends. We also got a brief look at the skateboarding action. Thirsty Suitors is coming to Steam, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox, and will come to Game Pass.

Hindsight

The showcase delivered a fresh look at Hindsight, the cinematic adventure game in which a woman sorts through boxes left behind and reminisces about her own memories of the past. It’s coming on August 4.

Kentucky Route Zero studio’s next game

In a developer spotlight, we saw the heads of Cardboard Computer talk about how the studio was formed and their plans for their next game. Though not much was shown of the new untitled project, they did say this next game will focus on performance, and will have a funnier, quicker tempo. Though they said Kentucky Route Zero also had comedic elements, it was ultimately a tragedy, so this one seems to be lighter in tone.

Bounty Star: The Morose Tale of Graveyard Clem

Developer Dinogod debuted its next game, a Western sci-fi mash-up called Bounty Star. The trailer showed the female heroine and a dusty, Old West tone, before shifting to hulking mecha suits with missiles and melee attacks. It’s coming in 2023.

Outer Wilds

The developers of Outer Wilds appeared in the showcase to give a status update. The Switch version is still in development, and apparently taking longer than expected. But the studio did announce that new-gen upgrades are coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. A brief trailer showed them running at 60fps. The updates will be available on September 15.

Flock

We saw the debut of a cute flight game called flock, filled with colorful, cartoony creatures. You appear to be a rider on the lead bird, guiding your flock around in formation. You can “gather your friends” on Xbox, PS4, PS5, and Steam, and it’s coming to Game Pass.

Katamari creator’s next game

We saw a very brief teaser for the next game from the creator of Katamari Damacy, from a new studio called Uvula. The teaser showed what appeared to be a young person’s face, opening their eyes and then being licked by a dog. That was the whole thing. Your guess is as good as ours about what the game will be.

The Lost Wild

A new trailer for the first-person survival horror game The Lost Wild closed out the showcase. We saw your character navigating the jungle, gathering supplies from abandoned buildings, stumbling across a stegosaurus, and coming face to face with more carnivorous breeds of dinosaurs. No release date has been announced.

Developer Spotlights

In addition to Cardboard Computer, we got brief developer spotlights on a handful of other studios. Yarn Owl is working on an unspecified game. Third Shift is making a game called Forever Ago, a story-driven road trip adventure game in which you play as an elderly man who goes on a journey in a van and records his time on the road. Finally, If Found developer Dreamfeel talked a little about its next unannounced game, including the fact that it stars a bunch of anthropomorphic cats standing on two legs.

Games Coming To New Platforms

The presentation also took a moment to highlight some of its existing library that will be coming to new platforms soon. Those included release windows for a few games, including two that will be part of the Game Pass subscription.

The Pathless – winter on Xbox and SwitchMaquette – winter on Game Pass and SwitchSolar Ash – December 6 on Steam, winter on Game Pass

Everything Out Right Now

In addition to all the upcoming games, Annapurna showed a few games that you can get your hands on right now. Those include a demo for the upcoming Thirsty Suitors, as well as a Steam release for Hohokum and new-gen upgrades for the critically acclaimed What Remains of Edith Finch.

Hohokum – now available on SteamThirsty Suitors – demo available on SteamWhat Remains of Edith Finch – PS5 and Xbox Series X|S upgrades now availableRead MoreGameSpot – Game News

Fall Guys‘ latest event, the Clan of Yeetus, is all about the Big Yeetus itself. For anyone unfamiliar with the Big Yeetus, it is the nickname of the large, white, gold, and pink hammers found in certain Fall Guys levels. This event honors the big hammer with new map variants featuring even more Big Yeetuses and unlockable rewards themed after the hammer. Here’s everything you need to know about the Clan of Yeetus event.

Fall Guys Clan of Yeetus challenges and rewards

All of the challenges in the Clan of Yeetus event are centered around the event playlist of the same name. This event features multiple rounds of different minigames, each featuring an increased number of Big Yeetus hammers than normal. Unlike other shows, Clan of Yeetus doesn’t feature a traditional final round where only one person wins. Instead, the final round is a normal map and every player that completes the map gets the victory. There are 10 challenges, each worth 100 points. The Clan of Yeetus event runs from July 28 to August 1.

Here are all of the Clan of Yeetus challenges:

Play Clan of YeetusGet hit by hammers in Clan of Yeetus 15 timesGet hit by hammers in Clan of Yeetus 30 timesBe airborne for 20 seconds in Clan of YeetusBe airborne for 50 seconds in Clan of YeetusFly at top speed in Clan of Yeetus three timesFly at top speed in Clan of Yeetus five timesReach round 2 in Clan of Yeetus four timesReach the final round in Clan of Yeetus three timesWin the Clan of Yeetus show

Completing all ten challenges will award you the 1,000 points needed to earn all of the free rewards.

The Packing Yeet backpack lets you bring the power Yeetus with you wherever you go.

The reward items are:

Clan of Yeetus Nickname – 100 Points200 Kudos – 200 PointsYeetus Pass Nameplate – 500 PointsAspiring Yeeter Pattern – 700 PointsPacking Yeet Wearable Backpack – 1,000 Points

During the Clan of Yeetus event players can also purchase the full Big Yeetus costume from the store for 1,200 Show-Bucks.

You can now bumble your way through Fall Guys as one of your favorite WWE Superstars.

Coinciding with the Clan of Yeetus event is the Fall Guys X WWE event, which adds a few WWE-themed items into the show. Players can pick up the Undertaker, Asuka, and Xavier Woods from the shop from July 28 to August 1. Each costume is available for 800 Show-Bucks (about $8) and there is a complete bundle featuring all three costumes along with a special celebration and emote for 2,000 Show-Bucks.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Coffee Stain Publishing has revealed that Goat Simulator 3 will be released on November 17 for PC, Xbox, And PlayStation. In case you missed the first game–and only that one–Goat Simulator gives you full control of nature’s perfect eating machine and sets you loose inside of a sandbox where you can run free as the GOAT agent of chaos.

Most people still want to know why Goat Simulator 3 skipped a number, and in a PS Blog post, Coffee Stain Publishing revealed several reasons for the game’s name. These aren’t good excuses, but they are excuses nonetheless.

According to developers at Coffee Stain North, some of the reasons boil down to a lingering typo, temporary amnesia, and Sony Santa Monica selfishly hogging God of War: Ragnarok’s title. Other excuses include Goat Sim 4 being left on the cutting room floor, placing the blame on Call of Duty: Black Ops memes, and not wanting to correct the publishing team’s mistake.

Goat Simulator 3 will be available in several different editions, ranging from a standard version to a “Digital Downgrade Edition” which comes with a selection of remastered items from Goat Simulator, and a special collector’s Goat In A Box Edition that’s exclusive to Europe and Asia Pacific regions.

Goat Simulator 3: Goat in a Box Edition

Coffee Stain North appears to be going all in on the meme potential for Goat Simulator, as the game announced itself in June with a trailer that skewered the iconic teaser for Dead Island 2.

The game is confirmed for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PS4, and PC via the Epic Games Store. According to its store page, it includes features such as local or online co-op, customizable goats, NPCs to mess with, physics, status effects, collectibles, easter eggs, lies, betrayal, and heartbreak.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Call of Duty: Warzone received a major weapon balancing pass and content update on July 27 with the start of Season 4 Reloaded, but now the developer has released a new update on July 28 to bring a buff to the sniper class, and there are a few bug fixes included in the patch notes as well.

According to Raven Software’s patch notes, all sniper rifles received a buff to their maximum damage range with around a 35% added bonus. The developer says this change will allow the lighter rifles with a damage range build to now more reliably cover the typical sight lines found on the smaller maps of Rebirth Island and Fortune’s Keep.

This change should make once-popular snipers like Black Ops Cold War’s Swiss K31 viable again, as the maximum damage range increased from 42 to 57 meters. The change should also feel significant for Vanguard’s Kar98k sniper rifle, which received a maximum damage range increased from 48 to a whopping 72 meters.

While snipers received a buff, Warzone’s Serpentine perk got nerfed. The perk’s ability to reduce damage while sprinting is now decreased from 20 to 15%.

The patch notes also include a few bug fixes. This should correct a bug on Fortune’s Keep that previously caused the gas to be more difficult to see than intended. The developer also fixed issues that allowed players to exploit Warzone’s Weapon Trade Stations and Deployable Buy Stations.

The full patch notes can be found below, as shared by Raven Software.

The Season 4 Reloaded update added plenty of new content, so make sure to check out our Rebirth of the Dead LTM guide, and the new Vargo-S assault rifle is now available with an unlock challenge.

WEAPONS

Weapon Adjustments

We’ve seen a positive change in kill metrics since the update to Snipers in Season Three. The intent was to lean into smaller maps favoring the Aggressive Snipers vs Heavier being more suited for the large map. Our data shows that despite a smaller adoption rate (~9.5%) Snipers are still being accredited with a competitive amount of kills vs the more popular class of Weapons.

However, we’d like to lean into the Weapon to map identity harder, and as such all Snipers are receiving roughly a 35% bonus to their maximum damage range. Lighter rifles, with their damage range builds, will now more reliably cover the typical sight lines found in Rebirth Island and Fortune’s Keep. The goal is to not return to the fastest ADS Snipers being the dominant Weapon in all scenarios – so if things begin to trend that way we will make targeted changes to other statistics of those stand-out Weapons.

» Sniper Rifles «

Kar98k (VG)Max Damage Range increased to 72 meters, up from 48 metersType 99 (VG)Max Damage Range increased to 50 meters, up from 37 Meters3-Line Rifle (VG)Max Damage Range increased to 111 meters, up from 82 MetersGorenko Anti-Tank Rifle (VG)Max Damage Range increased to 127 meters, up from 94 metersSwiss K31 (BOCW)Max Damage Range increased to 57 meters, up from 42 MetersSniper Rifle Charlie (MW)Max Damage Range increased to 117 meters, up from 87 MetersSniper Rifle Alpha (MW)Max Damage Range increased to 55 meters, up from 41 MetersHDR (MW)Max Damage Range increased to 117 meters, up from 87 MetersRytec AMR (MW)Max Damage Range increased to 80 meters, up from 59 MetersPelington 703 (BOCW)Max Damage Range increased to 58 meters, up from 43 MetersZRG 20mm (BOCW)Max Damage Range increased to 137 meters, up from 102 MetersSP-R 208 (MW)Max Damage Range increased to 45 meters, up from 33 MetersLW3 – Tundra (BOCW)Max Damage Range increased to 61 meters, up from 45 MetersSniper Rifle Charlie (BOCW)Max Damage Range increased to 92 meters, up from 68 MetersMarksman Rifle Charlie (MW)Max Damage Range increased to 49 meters, up from 36 Meters

PERKS

Serpentine

Damage Reduction decreased to 15%, down from 20%

We’ve seen a positive adoption of Serpentine in Loadouts, and as such average encounter time has crept up. We’re reducing the bonus damage mitigation so that it’s still a valuable perk, but has less of an impact on average TTK. We’ll be watching this space closely and will make further adjustments as necessary.

BUG FIXES

Fixed an issue on Fortune’s Keep causing the gas to be more difficult to see than intended.Fixed an issue that allowed Players to exploit Weapon Trade Stations.Fixed an issue causing Deployable Buy Stations to remain active in the gas – allowing for unintended exploits.Fixed an issue that caused the Skål Crusher (VG) to not have a Zombies Mastery Camo section available.Fixed an issue causing incorrect unlock criteria to appear for the “The Vault” Vehicle skin in the Vehicle Customization menu.Fixed collision issues with the AI mercenaries during the Cash Extraction Event on Fortune’s Keep.Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

The trailer for Apex Legends Hunted debuted today, showing off the abilities and backstory of new legend Vantage, as well as announcing the dates for a gameplay reveal.

The trailer begins with new character, Vantage, in a squad with Fuse and Horizon. At first she struggles to fight, being saved by Horizon and scolded by Fuse. The battle in the Apex arena is intercut with Vantage’s conversation with her mother in jail. As she earns the trust of her teammates, her mom claims innocence, but also prevents Vantage from attempting to break her out. Upon exiting the jail, she sees a broadcast of an Apex Legends match, inspiring her to take to the games. At the end of the trailer, her squad stands victorious and she explains to the camera drone that she did this for her mother Xenia.

In terms of potential game teases, the trailer shows Vantage whistling for her bat, Echo, to distract an enemy. She then dons a visor, which highlights enemy positions and taps a pad on her arm, activating a jetpack to get to high ground. Afterwards, she uses a unique sniper rifle, which she took apart and put in her pack earlier in the trailer, to eliminate a multiple enemies. While the exact details are still yet-to-be-announced, this footage reflects the leaked information about her kit from earlier this year.

In previous teases, Vantage fought for Echo’s inclusion in the games (apparently pets aren’t allowed) and described her childhood in the outlands of the planet Pàgos. Her diary was even put up on Twitter. The trailer also announced that the gameplay reveal for the season would debut on August 1, just 8 days before the season begins on August 9. Here’s everything we know about Season 14 so far.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Pokemon Go developer Niantic’s next game Peridot has kicked off its latest beta, but it’s currently only available to players in Norway.

Niantic announced the news through the official Peridot Twitter account, saying “Peridot Beta is now live in the majestic land of Norway! Download to adopt your first Peridot today!” Previously the game has been available to try out in Malaysia and Singapore, making Norway the first European territory to have access to the game.

Peridot was revealed back in April and borrows from the breeding aspects of Pokemon Go. There are Tamagotchi influences in there too, as it is more about raising the titular creatures than making them fight.

Like other Niantic games, it will incorporate alternate reality features, letting you take the Peridots on short walks, exploring new places, and you can play and train with them too. Apparently each Peridot has “its own unique DNA,” and can even recognise what kind of land is beneath its feet. Depending on where it is, it can forage for different types of food.

As an example, if it’s around water, it can find kelp, whereas a sandy area might produce prickly beets. Weather isn’t planned to be taken into account for the most part, though for the more snowy months of the year there are some plans for some features.

Essentially, it sounds like what every Sonic Adventure fan wants more than anything else: a Chao garden mobile game.

Currently, Peridot doesn’t have a planned full launch, and is likely to gradually roll out in various territories like all of Niantic’s previous games. You can head to the official site to sign-up to take part in a beta, but no guarantees you’ll get picked.

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Destiny 2 developer Bungie has been less active on social media lately, due in part to encounters with people who have harassed the studio’s employees. With some people resorting to threatening language when interacting with Bungie, the company decided to scale back on communications so that it could protect its staff and the Destiny 2 fandom.

“Here’s the thing, the harassment we’ve spoken to isn’t just rude replies on Twitter or vague comments,” Bungie community manager Dmg04 wrote in a Reddit comment, replying to someone lamenting the lessened presence of Bungie staffers in the subreddit. “There have been real threats towards our people and our studio. We’re taking them seriously, which is leading to an amount of reduced communications as the team plans future protections [and] strategies to help avoid these sorts of things.”

According to Dmg04–who was on the receiving end of serious harassment towards him and his family–the new communications strategies in development aren’t being designed to punish players who are respectful to the developer and offer constructive criticism, and its implementation will take time. “The team is planning ways in which to communicate with you all, some of these plans I’m really looking forward to when I get back in,” Dmg04 explained.

Bungie is currently suing a toxic Destiny 2 player, accusing him of regularly breaking the terms of the game’s license agreement and threatening Dmg04. The studio is requesting for $150,000 in damages and is also urging the court to prevent them from “harassing, stalking, or otherwise engaging in unwanted or unsolicited contact with Bungie, its employees, or Destiny 2 players.”

Bungie has joined a number of other developers in the gaming industry, who have begun speaking up about harassment that they regularly deal with online.

In more positive Destiny 2 news, Season of the Haunted is capping off three months of spooky action with the Solstice event. That festival has seen its ridiculous hand cannon nerfed, but at least there’s a goofy Sparrow to collect ahead of the next Destiny 2 showcase on August 23.

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