Gaming News

The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced on Tuesday that a ten percent tax on video games and other such consumer electronics has been delayed until December 15th. According to President Trump, the reason for this is to prevent the tariffs from having a negative impact on the holiday shopping season.

Hype is pretty high for The Outer Worlds, which releases on Oct. 25th for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, while a Nintendo Switch version is set to be released at a later date. But while the initial game is being released on various different platforms, you may not be able to play the sequel on anything other than Xbox. At least, that’s the statement from Xbox Studios Head Matt Booty.

For Amazon’s latest video game promotion, they’ve settled on a BOGO deal; the always welcome buy one get one setup. Unfortunately it’s not buy one get one free, but rather get one half off. Still, this is a pretty sweet deal, as a select number of titles from both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are available. The number of titles to choose from is varied, ranging all the way from nostalgic classics to the most recent big hits of 2019. There are even some pre-order only games you can take advantage of with this deal.

During E3 of 2019, Microsoft unveiled a few interesting details about its next generation Xbox, codenamed Project Scarlett. They didn’t show any actual hardware during the event, but the few details they provided did give us an interesting glimpse into what the Xbox of the next generation would provide. Like Sony’s PS5, it’ll get a solid state drive, and will allegedly be four times more powerful than the Xbox One X, which is currently the most powerful console on the market.

At some point, it was announced that the ever popular Minecraft was going to get a massive graphics update, dubbed the “Super Duper Graphics Pack.” However, Minecraft developer Mojang is apparently cancelling the overhaul effort, axing the smooth and improved new effects because they are “too technically demanding to implement.”

On August 11th, previous Twitch and popular Fortnite streamer Tyler Blevins, more commonly referred to as Ninja, gave out his phone number on Twitter. Ninja asked his fans to text him and fill out some info so they could stay in contact, through a video that he posted alongside the tweet. He claimed that he would personally respond to some of the fans, and that he would team up with some of them to play Fortnite later in the week.

With streaming growing in popularity by significant margins in recent years, many different platforms have sought to take advantage of the opportunities that came with it. There’s a lot of money to be made in streaming, but everyone knows Amazon and Twitch command most of the spotlight. Microsoft Mixer has its following; but it was never as large and influential. Microsoft has taken a major step in fixing that issue by signing on the popular game streamer Tyler Blevins, better known as Ninja.

Back in May, Epic Games acquired both the popular title Rocket League and its developer Psyonix. That being the case, no one is really surprised to learn that the game quickly began enacting loot box practices and mechanics that are almost identical to the ever popular Fortnite. However, Psyonix recently announced that loot boxes will be replaced later this year, with a system that “shows the exact items you are buying in advance.”

Mostly due to the extremely successful release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch, the long-running fighting franchise is still looking good even in 2019, with no real end in sight. It even broke EVO 2019 records by hitting the highest peak viewership that the event has ever seen in all of its days. While the game goes all the way back to the Nintendo 64, a lot of fans got their start in Super Smash Bros. Melee for the GameCube. Many of those players prefer GameCube style controllers over the Switch Pro controller, either for nostalgia or intuitiveness. That being the case, such controllers are pretty easy to find on the market, but rarely can you find them at a price as good as this.

The tragic shootings of last weekend made a profound impact on the country, raising many questions, giving rise to many fears, and reigniting the controversy regarding video games and their link to acts of violence. While the research and statistics claim otherwise, many still cast the blame on video games when it comes to mass shootings; even when the shooters themselves claim completely different motives.

Microsoft and its major gaming platform may be best known for multiplayer games, but it’s possible that they are looking to diversify their offerings in the near future. Allegedly, more single-player titles are in the works at both Microsoft and its umbrella studios.

The Nintendo Switch Online service offers many free games to its players, often once a month. These titles are usually NES, giving players a retro throwback to the old days of gaming. The new NES titles coming to the service on August 21st promise to be good, as one of them is quite rare; it’s never officially been re-released prior to now.

Everyone in the know about gaming and streaming has likely already heard about Tyler Blevins and his big defection to Microsoft’s Mixer. The streamer, more commonly referred to as Ninja, recently quit Amazon’s Twitch to exclusively stream with Mixer, a bold and daring move that was met with almost immediate success. He’s already garnered over one million active subscribers within a week of the change.

While Fortnite is one of the most popular battle royale style games now, PUBG, or Player’s Unknown Battle Grounds, was the game that started the whole craze in the first place. That said, some people thought that PUBG had been knocked from its pedestal indefinitely, but it turns out that PUBG Lite has topped the free game charts on the Google Playstore. Perhaps it is the shift it made to mobile that helped it maintain some of its popularity and strength.

With Mixer getting a huge boost in the defection of popular streamer Ninja, there’s no doubt that Twitch is going to keep up its nice benefits for its prime members to try and keep the scales from tipping even further. This is all great news for Twitch Prime members, as they get access to even more nice things from their membership, such as free games and free in-game loot. This month’s freebies are available until September 3rd, so you’ve got the better part of the month to cash in.

Anthem was off to a rocky start back when it first released; initially excited players quickly found that there wasn’t exactly a lot to do once you really got past the story and into the nitty gritty of things. Quests were repetitive and took place in the same pretty yet retreaded over world. Weapons were scarcely that different from each other in any distinguishable way, and there were only three raids available for looting anyway. All in all, it wasn’t pretty, but BioWare and EA have stayed committed to their promise of post-release content, and with patch 1.3, that content is finally here.

Once a game franchise has more than a dozen titles in it, you can rest assured it’s a keeper. Nintendo’s long-running tactical turn-based RPG...

Nothing beats free. Games are an expensive investment, with the only cheap ones generally being unimpressive. But right now two more PC games are free in the Epic Games Store; action fighting game For Honor and Mystery Thriller Alan Wake, both offering action and suspense in different ways.

Tyler Blevins, better known as “Ninja” to Amazon Twitch audiences, has defected to Microsoft Mixer; something that carries a lot more weight than one might think. Ninja has a huge following and a lot of influence in the streaming community, and him joining Mixer will greatly bolster Microsoft’s relatively fresh and fledgling streaming service.

Ever since games like Doom came into existence, with its pixelated ultra-violence, people –politicians especially- have been trying to link virtual bloodletting with the real world equivalent. This ridiculous conclusion has never been collaborated by any studies or research, but the claim is still made all the same.