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Ubisoft Squashes Roller Champions Cancellation

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments
Roller Champions

Well that was short-lived. Earlier today — though it was written last night — we reported that Roller Champions was getting the boot after season 3. Apparently, this isn’t the case.

After only a day of speculation, Ubisoft swooped in to refute the rumor. Spearheaded by Jeff Grubb, who was appearing on the XboxEra Podcast, he heard the rumor right before the show. 

Admittedly, we could see the studio pulling the plug on the free-to-play sports game, after all, they did so with the similarly received FPS battle royale, Hyper Scape. The news comes from the Roller Champions official Twitter, but it isn’t all just about refuting the rumor, as it turns out Ubisoft is extending seasons in order to improve the experience for players. 

The studio is planning on patching in cross-invites and implementing fixes while Disco Fever — the current season — is extended.

“We will push out a patch that includes cross-invites so that we can deliver o the game’ promise as being a resolutely social experience. We will announce when this patch comes out as soon as it is validated and good to god.

We will take enough time to solve the issues our players have voice as irritants before we release our new season. The Cross-Invite patch will include fixes, but we will be working on more improvements aft its release before we launch the next season.

As far as content is concerned, we can tell you that we’ve got exciting stuff planned for the next seasons. We strongly believe however, that before we release new content, we’ve got to do right by our players, hence why we are taking the time needed before we do.”

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PUBG Goes Free-To-Play Next Year

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments
PUBG

Who here truly fondly remembers Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, better known as PUBG? Sure, we all probably remember it, and its involvement in blasting the battle royale genre into the mainstream is certainly memorable. But, compared to others, it probably isn’t your first thought.

While the big boys like Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone continue to thrive in the free-to-play market, PUBG never did and that seems to change next year. During The Game Awards Thursday, publisher Krafton announced that their battle royale title is going free-to-play in January.

If you already own a copy of the game, though, ahead of its model change, you do get a Special Commemorative Pack. The pack will instantly upgrade your account to Battlegrounds Plus and include a bunch of cosmetics. It should be noted that its competitive Ranked Mode will remain behind a paywall, but that’s neither here nor there for those just wanting to casually play the granddaddy of popular BRs.

The game has grown substantially since we brought it to Early Access nearly five years ago, and we believe it offers one of the best values in gaming. Whether it’s the game’s eight unique maps, consistently updated features, or engaging in-game partner activations, transitioning to free-to-play is the next step in our journey.”

PUBG will go free-to-play on January 12, 2022.

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PlayStation Release Makes “Perfect Sense” For Roblox

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments
Roblox

Dave Baszucki, Roblox Corporation’s co-founder, has shared during their latest earnings call they might release their mega-popular builder to PlayStation (and Switch) platforms in the near future.

While his statement was short, simply saying it makes sense for them to move in that direction, it still says a lot.

“Switch, PlayStation, Quest – all of these platforms make perfect sense for Roblox.”

This isn’t a new game, Roblox has been around since 2006 and dropped on the Xbox One back in 2015, yet nothing new has come out in terms of updating the game’s platforms.

It isn’t clear when or even if we will see a PS5, or even PS4, version anytime soon.

What do you think? Do you want to see this game come to a PlayStation platform? Tell us below!

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PlayStation Store Top Downloads Of 2019 Revealed

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments
PlayStation Store

Sony has revealed the top PlayStation Store downloads of 2019. The post separated the games into different categories from PS4 to DLC and expansions.

PS4

According to the US blog post, the top downloaded PS4 game was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Second place was taken by Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition and NBA 2K19 took home bronze. In Europe, the top PS4 game downloaded was Grand Theft Auto V and FIFA 20 respectively. Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition was also knocked down a peg as it went from second to third.

PS VR

In a not-so-shocking turn of events, Beat Saber was the top download for PS VR games in 2019. Superhot VR and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR came in second and third places respectively. Beat Saber remained top dog in PlayStation Europe’s list. But, Blood & Truth and Job Simulator took silver and bronze away from Superhot VR and Skyrim VR.

FREE-TO-PLAY

In the free-to-play section, Apex Legends beat out for the number one spot. That being said, Fortnite can take home silver while Dauntless came in third place.

DLC

Speaking of Fortnite, the top PlayStation Store downloads when it came to expansions and DLC is absolutely filled with Fortnite. The Laguna Pack, The Cobalt Pack, Battle Royale – The Wilde Pack were the top three DLC and expansions downloaded.

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Destiny 2: New Light is just Destiny 2, but Free-To-Play

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments
Destiny 2: New Light is coming

It’s true, Destiny 2 will soon be free-to-play. In a newsroom announcement, Bungie revealed the future of Destiny 2, with this being part of it. The announcement, under the name of Destiny 2: New Light, described itself as a new entry point for newcomers.

Destiny 2: New Light is a brand new entry point for newcomers, that puts the worlds of Destiny 2 – and all of its foundational modes, activities, and rewards – into the hands of every player.

This upcoming change only applies to the base game of Destiny 2. It will be applied on September 17, 2019 and will be free-to-play on all compatible platforms.

What do you think of this news? Does this make you want to check out Destiny 2?

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Take-Two Boss On Why Free-To-Play Isn’t A Great Model

Ben-Dutka 7 Comments

It's a hot trend in the gaming industry today, but one executive doesn't think too highly of the model.

Speaking during the Credit Suisse Annual Technology Conference (as cited by GameSpot ), Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick addressed the free-to-play craze. Needless to say, he isn't all that impressed.

One of the biggest problems is the lack of revenue. It works in some instances but for Take-Two, they prefer the fact that 100 percent of those who play Take-Two games pay the company something for their services. As opposed to:

"The problem with the free-to-play model is 95-97 percent of people who engage with your content don't pay for it. 3-5 percent do; on a good day, 10 percent. One of the reasons that free-to-play companies like Zynga did so well for a period of time is they had zero acquisition costs because they could use Facebook as a free acquisition platform. Then Facebook changed that, and Zynga changed."

On top of which, Zelnick says that F2P games simply aren't that good. This is oftentimes the elephant in the room that some industry peeps don't like to address. However, as all core gamers know, it's the absolute truth:

"The other thing that's problematic with free-to-play games is in many instances, although not all, they're vastly less engaging. And if you look at the history of the entertainment business across all media, the only entertainment companies that really succeed over a long period of time are those that surprise and delight consumers with incredibly high quality content.

Most free-to-play games aren't really high quality content at the end of the day. Certain competitors in that space have stated strategies of not making high quality content. And I've never seen an entertainment company–ever, ever, ever–succeed that didn't have a stated strategy of making high quality content. Not everyone can actually achieve it, but you need to at least try."

Do you agree with Zelnick's analysis and comments?

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