Even though Ubisoft seems to have completely abandoned Watch Dogs as a potential video game franchise, the publisher still appears to have high hopes for it on the silver screen. A movie adaptation of the first Watch Dogs was announced all the way back in 2013, with Zombieland and Deadpool writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Rheese on board to write the movie's screenplay.

After almost a decade of development trouble, and the replacement of Wernick and Rheese with French genre director Mathieu Turi and writer Christie LeBlanc, it now appears as though the project is making some progress. In a new tweet by the official Ubisoft account, the publisher announced that filming has now wrapped on the Watch Dogs movie, sharing a picture of some of the crew behind a camera.

That's obviously great news for a project that's had such a troubled past, though we have no idea how long post-production will take. It can vary depending on the amount of editing needed, though you'd assume a grounded movie like Watch Dogs wouldn't need all that much. Still, we have no idea what it's like behind the scenes, and projects like the recently released disaster that was the Borderlands movie have spent years in post-production.

The main worry surrounding Watch Dogs at the moment is its potential quality. Having spent over a decade in the works, it's very possible Ubisoft could be about to deliver a potential stinker, though the publisher does have varied levels of success when it comes to adaptations.

Ubisoft is working with production company New Regency for Watch Dogs, which just so happens to be the same company behind 2016's woeful Assassin's Creed adaptation. Not a great sign, but the company does have quality titles like 12 Years A Slave, The Revenant, and Birdman under its belt. Ubisoft also managed to breathe new life into Rayman last year too, with the fairly well-received Captain Laserhawk Netflix series.

Unfortunately, there are too many unknowns with Watch Dogs to get a decent picture as to how it will turn out, though Ubisoft and New Regency will be hoping they can avoid pulling off another Borderlands.

A startup is a dynamic and innovative venture designed to develop unique solutions and achieve rapid growth. Despite the inherent risks and challenges, startups play a crucial role in driving innovation, creating jobs, and contributing to economic growth. With a focus on scalability, lean operations, and securing investment, startups strive to disrupt markets and bring novel ideas to fruition.

A few days ago, it was revealed that Flappy Bird will be getting a brand-new game, courtesy of "the Flappy Bird Foundation." At the time, it was confirmed that the Foundation acquired the rights to the game, but it was unclear what role, if any, original creator Dong Nguyen would play. Nguyen has now confirmed that he has no involvement "related with their game." In a post on X/Twitter, Nguyen stated that "I did not sell anything. I also don't support crypto." As reported by Insider Gaming, the new Flappy Bird website has some hidden pages that contain references to crypto currency.

While Nguyen has no involvement with the new Flappy Bird, the Flappy Bird Foundation's founding member is Kek, the developer of the 2011 game Piou Piou vs. Cactus. Following Flappy Bird's explosion in popularity, the original game began to draw comparisons to Piou Piou vs. Cactus, with many outlets noting similarities in both gameplay and character design. Speaking to Pocket Gamer in 2014, Kek pointed out these similarities, and seemed to be frustrated about the situation. However, he noted that he would not be pursuing legal action because he was unsure how strong the case might be.

Fast forward a decade, and Kek is now the owner of Flappy Bird. As Nguyen noted, he did not sell those rights; Nguyen's rights to the game lapsed earlier this year, which is how Kek ended up with them in the first place. The announcement of this new Flappy Bird wasted no time establishing a connection to Kek's 2011 game, with Kek noting in the press release that "It's so cool to see how influential Piou Piou has been for developers and hundreds of millions of gamers over the years." The trailer for the new Flappy Bird even shows playable characters flying over cactuses, just like in Piou Piou vs. Cactus.

It remains to be seen how the new Flappy Bird game will turn out, but the situation has resulted in strong feelings from gamers. Some fans of the original Flappy Bird argue that this is Flappy Bird in name only, while others are hopeful that the resulting game will be as addictive as the original.

Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 7 released last week via PC with a massive amount of changes. Unfortunately, the update remains unavailable on console. This also means console players have no ability to interact with mods. The Mod Manager was one of the highlights of Patch 7, giving players the ability to browse, install, and use mods created by the community. And since then, lots and lots of mods have been created and download by players. How many downloads? Millions

The BG3 Patch 7 went live on September 5, and players on PC wasted no time downloading the best and most interesting mods. To this end, a developer on the game revealed, back on September 7, that in the last 24 hours alone there had been a million mods installed. How many have been created, we don't know, but that is a ton of downloads for a game over a year old.

Modding is a pretty substantial part of PC gaming, so it is no surprise to see BG3 players gravitating towards mods in a major way. What remains to be seen is whether or not Larian Studios will implement a similar mod manager on console, and if it does, how popular it will prove in relation to how popular it is proving to be on PC.

For those interested in the most popular mods, there is an in-game filter when using the mod manager that will sort by the most-downloaded. Of course, the more popular the mod the less likely it is to break elements and functions of other parts of the game as it has been tested more and passed the quality test.

Baldur's Gate 3 is available via PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X.

When Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 became available in early access for Gold and Ultimate Edition owners last week, it became instantly clear that the action title was going to attract quite the audience, seeing a peak of over 134,000 concurrent players on Steam. Now, having launched today in full for everyone who purchased the game, the game has seen even more impressive player numbers.

As per SteamDB, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 saw a peak of 225,690 concurrent players on Steam on the day of its full release (with over 183,000 concurrent players on the platform at the time of writing). That’s the highest peak concurrent count to date for a game developed by Saber Interactive, as well as for a Warhammer title, surpassing Sega and Creative Assembly’s Total War: Warhammer 3’s peak of over 166,000 concurrent players.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

A new Sony patent outlined an intriguing new prescription lens feature, potentially hinting at the company's research efforts regarding an all-new VR headset. This feature would require hardware that's not currently supported on PlayStation VR2, the current-generation VR headset from Sony.

Sales of the PlayStation VR2 waned in the months following its launch on February 22, 2023, leading many to theorize that Sony was planning to scale back its VR development efforts. Many attribute the VR headset's lackluster sales to its $549.99 price at launch and a shortage of compelling first-party and third-party titles during the launch year. In March 2024, a Bloomberg report claimed that Sony was halting production of PlayStation VR2, nearly a year after the VR headset's launch. This was due to low interest from players, leading Sony to hold onto a great amount of unsold PlayStation VR2 stock. Despite this, the VR headset has experienced a resurgence of sorts in recent months, thanks to steep discounts and the release of PlayStation's official PC adapter for PlayStation VR2.

According to a new patent from Sony, the company has researched a system that will detect prescription lenses added to a new VR headset. This patent was filed back on March 4, 2023, and made public a year and a half later, on September 5, 2024. As shown in the patent, the main goal of this system is to reduce the bulk and overall weight that comes with wearing vision correction eyeglasses and a VR headset like the PlayStation VR2 at the same time. In an effort to increase comfort and overall convenience, the system lets users insert prescription lenses into the sockets in the head-mounted device (HMD), instead of wearing traditional eyeglasses. Features like eye tracking and foveated rendering would still be supported on this new VR headset, as the HMD carries out many of the processes found in the PlayStation VR2.

It's worth noting that the headset shown in the patent is not a PlayStation VR2 headset, since Sony's current VR headset does not have a socket for interchangeable prescription lenses. It's possible that the patent could be describing a feature for an all-new revision of the PlayStation VR2 to capitalize on some of its newfound success from the summer, or the patent could be referring to a next-generation VR headset that's currently in R&D at Sony.

Despite PlayStation VR2's poor performance in its first year, the patent reassures fans that Sony is still working and trying to innovate in the VR space. Features and hardware shown in patents are not guaranteed to come to fruition, but this could be a sign that PlayStation fans may have more VR devices to look forward to in the future.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has broken multiple records for the franchise, with the recent beta being the biggest beta in the franchise's history. These records could be a sign that the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will set a new precedent for the Call of Duty franchise going forward.

The Black Ops 6 open beta was held from September 6 to September 9, giving all players the opportunity to try out the game's multiplayer a month before launch. In the open beta, players had access to a slew of weapons and gear, eight multiplayer maps, a few game modes like Mosh Pit and Face Off, and a max level of 30. While leveling up, Black Ops 6 beta testers unlock exclusive rewards that become available at launch on October 25, including a new weapon blueprint and emblem. In addition, Treyarch implemented various changes to the open beta based on player feedback from the Black Ops 6 early access beta, including a nerf to the powerful Jackal PDW SMG. This free open beta proved to be quite enticing to new players and returning Call of Duty fans, according to stats that Treyarch shared on September 10.

Activision's official Call of Duty Twitter account revealed that the Black Ops 6 beta was the biggest Call of Duty beta to date, breaking several records for the franchise. The beta experienced the largest number of total players to date for the franchise, with the most hours and matches ever played for a Call of Duty beta as well. Further, Treyarch confirms that the Black Ops 6 beta had the most playtime per player, setting another new record for the franchise.

Data from the Black Ops 6 beta was gathered during the early access and open beta periods by the development team at Treyarch. It's worth noting that exact statistics for each record were not disclosed by Activision and Treyarch, however. Nonetheless, the developers are excited for players to discover "more to come" when Black Ops 6 launches next month.

At launch, Black Ops 6 players will have access to 16 multiplayer maps, alongside various modes and a full suite of weapons, gear, and more. What's more, the game will feature an in-depth campaign mode and a traditional round-based Zombies mode, which are signature features of Treyarch's most beloved Call of Duty games. Players can also expect a year of post-launch support over the course of multiple seasons for Black Ops 6.

Sony’s just-announced PlayStation 5 Pro console will also offer performance improvements for PlayStation VR2 games.

That’s according to architect Mark Cerny, who told Cnet that the $700 console’s improved GPU power will allow for higher-resolution games on PSVR 2.

Eventually, PS5 Pro’s AI-assisted upscaling mode, called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, will also work on PSVR 2 games in the future, according to Cerny.

At the time of publishing, no specific PSVR 2 upgraded games have been announced and it’s not clear what kinds of improvements developers would make.

PS5 Pro will launch on November 7, 2024, with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $699.99 / £699.99 / €799.99 / ¥119,980.

According to a report earlier this year, Sony had paused production of PlayStation VR2, just one year after launch, so that it could deal with a backlog of unsold units.

PlayStation VR2 was released in February 2023 at a price of $549.99 / £529.99, but Sony has still yet to officially confirm how many units it has sold to date.

The PlayStation VR2 is getting PC support next month. The PlayStation VR2 headset PC adapter will be required.

We have good and bad news for Sonic Adventure fans. Well, we actually have two rounds of bad news, so let's get that out of the way first: Sonic Adventure 3 isn't in development right now, and the team doesn't think a solo Chao Garden game would work.

The good news? Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka would "love" to make Sonic Adventure 3 at some point. This comes from an interview with VGC, in which Iizuka touched on the possibility of a third Sonic Adventure game after all of these years.

The possibility of another Sonic Adventure game came up when Iizuka was shooting down the idea of a Chao Garden spin-off.

"It’s not a standalone game, it’s integrated into the whole Adventure series gameplay, so we can’t just break it off and make it a thing," says Iizuka. "If you’re asking for Chao Garden and Adventure 3, then that’s pretty much asking for Adventure 3."


Of course, many fans are asking for Sonic Adventure 3, to which Iizuka has more positive thoughts to share. "I think at some time I’d like to say ‘Hey, yeah, we’re making Adventure 3’, but we don’t have plans for that yet," he explains. "It’s just one of those things that, if the stars align and it can all happen, then yeah, we’d love to make it."

So, if we get Sonic Adventure 3, then it's looking like we'll get another Chao Garden as well. But we also know that one was considered for Sonic Frontiers before being scrapped, so it's possible that future non-Adventure games will include one too.

In the meantime, the next game will be Sonic X Shadow Generations, which launches on October 25.

#sonic #team

We have good and bad news for Sonic Adventure fans. Well, we actually have two rounds of bad news, so let's get that out of the way first: Sonic Adventure 3 isn't in development right now, and the team doesn't think a solo Chao Garden game would work.

The good news? Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka would "love" to make Sonic Adventure 3 at some point. This comes from an interview with VGC, in which Iizuka touched on the possibility of a third Sonic Adventure game after all of these years.

The possibility of another Sonic Adventure game came up when Iizuka was shooting down the idea of a Chao Garden spin-off.

"It’s not a standalone game, it’s integrated into the whole Adventure series gameplay, so we can’t just break it off and make it a thing," says Iizuka. "If you’re asking for Chao Garden and Adventure 3, then that’s pretty much asking for Adventure 3."


Of course, many fans are asking for Sonic Adventure 3, to which Iizuka has more positive thoughts to share. "I think at some time I’d like to say ‘Hey, yeah, we’re making Adventure 3’, but we don’t have plans for that yet," he explains. "It’s just one of those things that, if the stars align and it can all happen, then yeah, we’d love to make it."

So, if we get Sonic Adventure 3, then it's looking like we'll get another Chao Garden as well. But we also know that one was considered for Sonic Frontiers before being scrapped, so it's possible that future non-Adventure games will include one too.

In the meantime, the next game will be Sonic X Shadow Generations, which launches on October 25.

#sonic #team #head #would #love #to #make #sonic #adventure