Technology

2023-08-20 01:28:45

Games don’t get much bigger than that. On September 6th, Bethesda Game Studios, one of the most popular development teams in the world, will bring gamers something completely new for the first time in two decades. A far cry from the elves, orcs, and magic of the Elder Scrolls franchise’s premiere; as well as post-apocalyptic American states from their Fallout games; Starfield will take players into space. Its scope is almost unimaginably vast, featuring over 1,000 explorable planets, moons, and space stations, created through a combination of artists and algorithms to make each feel unique. Image: Starfield boats hundreds of planets to explore. Pic: Bethesda ‘irresponsibly big’ Like Bethesda’s previous role-playing games, Starfield lets players create their own hero, who will meet thousands of characters over the course of their adventure. Some will join their crew to wander the Milky Way – not only following the main narrative, but extensive side missions and other distractions along the way. In fact, Starfield feels comfortable devouring people’s lives. Pete Hines, one of Bethesda’s longest-serving executives, called the game “irresponsibly big” earlier this year. Gamers (most likely their loved ones) will be the judge of that, Pete, but that will likely only serve to reinforce the already huge anticipation surrounding this highly anticipated game. It’s probably the biggest title left on the 2023 release calendar, says Lucy James, games journalist at GameSpot – not even a small feat of Spider-Man and Call Of Duty among its competitors. “Bethesda Game Studios’ games capture the zeitgeist as few games do,” she told Sky News. “They are loved for the depth of their missions, their huge worlds, and these memorable moments, and they can even get away with the kind of mistakes that other developers mightn’t necessarily because their games are so ambitious. “And they’ve been saying for years that Starfield is the most ambitious title they’ve ever worked on.” Image: Starfield will allow players to design their own ships. Pic: Bethesda Why Starfield Means So Much to Xbox First announced in 2018, Starfield experienced several delays before settling on its final release date. The wait got worse since Bethesda’s core team hadn’t released a game since 2015. That was Fallout 4, a segment many players and critics felt fell short of the previous or the studio’s most popular title: Skyrim. Skyrim first came out in 2011, taking the Elder Scrolls niche relatively mainstream. Over 60 million copies have been sold thanks to countless re-releases on modern consoles like the PlayStation 5, virtual reality headsets and even Amazon Alexa speakers. But while the excitement for Starfield is undeniable, it probably won’t even come close to those sales numbers. It might be a big release for gamers, but it might be an even bigger release for Microsoft and its Xbox platform. It may have felt like Skyrim arrived just in time for every power-packed device, but Starfield won’t even appear on PlayStation or Nintendo’s Switch, both of which boast audiences much larger than current Xbox consoles. That’s because Microsoft bought Bethesda’s parent company for $7.5 billion (then £5.8 billion) in 2020. One of the main reasons was to bring some of the biggest franchises in the industry to its Xbox Game Pass service, a Netflix-style subscription that offers not only games on console and PC, but also on smartphones via cloud streaming. James says the service, which has more than 25 million subscribers, has changed the way Microsoft views games. “Microsoft entered this generation on the back – their previous console was a lot less successful than its competitor and they’ve made a lot of changes to how the Xbox works,” she says. “They’ve bought a number of studios and are working on improving their portfolio and their image, but a lot of people are still criticizing them for not having the strongest lineup.” Image: The Starfield is located in the Milky Way. Pic: Bethesda Game Pass Prepares for ‘Massive Influx’ The latest entry in Microsoft’s winning Halo series has disappointed many gamers in 2021, while some of the games that came to them via studio acquisitions – like Redfall Earlier this year – it was a flop with critics. James says there’s “a lot of pressure” on Xbox to find an outcome that will drive Game Pass subscriptions higher – and perhaps Starfield seems better positioned than any game to date to do so. “A massive influx will come in September when Starfield continues,” she says. “You can buy it for £70, or pay for a month of Game Pass (£9 in the UK) to try it out and then get your foot in the door.” Read more:Why the Harry Potter game was so controversialGod Of War’s watershed moment for accessibilityHow the British scandal changed the course of the historic gameStarfield’s impact on Game Pass numbers might also offer a hint at Microsoft’s imminent purchase of Call Of Duty factory Activision Blizzard – the largest tech acquisition in history . No doubt, the company is hoping that the mega franchise will drive subscriptions even more. By the end of 2023, Game Pass might be home to some of the best and biggest titles in the industry, as Microsoft looks to do for games what Netflix did for movies and TV. For now, Starfield is the poster child for this installment. Bethesda’s first foray into the Final Frontier was always a big step for gamers, but it might also be a giant leap for gaming.
1692499234
#Starfield #scifi #epic #means #gamers #key #future #Xbox #Science #technology #news

2023-08-16 10:55:00

Imposing a new social network is not so easy, even for Mark Zuckerberg. Despite a fanfare launch on July 5 and more than 100 million subscribers in just five days – ChatGPT’s record literally exploded – Threads, the new social network supposed to dethrone X (ex-Twitter) from the Meta group (Facebook, Instagram , WhatsApp), is struggling to keep up.

According to internet traffic analyst firm Similarweb, Threads usage fell 79% as of August 7, just over a month following its launch. In other words, almost 8 out of 10 people who have downloaded the application no longer use it. Despite 124 million downloads worldwide – the app is not yet available in the European Union due to legal issues – Similarweb estimates the number of daily active users at 10.3 million as of 7 August, barely 8.3% of registered voters. The drop is drastic: Threads peaked on July 7, the third day following launch, with 49.3 million active users. A week later, on July 14, the new social network had already lost half of its users. Now, he has kept only 20%.

Another disappointment: user engagement, that is to say the time they spend on the site, also continues to fall. This crucial indicator, which reveals the success of apps, fell from 21 minutes a day on July 7, to 6 minutes a week later. As of August 7, it has once more been halved, to 3 minutes per day. Starving. And once more, these engagement numbers were measured only in the United States… Threads’ most dynamic market.

Threads, the “Twitter killer” of Meta and its 30 million users in two days, panicked Elon Musk

Threads has yet to prove its relevance

The question arises: can Mark Zuckerberg contain the bleeding? For now, Threads is less a success than yet another illustration of the ruthless law of social networks. To succeed, a new service must know how to create enthusiasm around it, to constantly recruit new users, in order to reach a critical size that makes it essential. The power of a social network comes from the network effect, that is to say when it becomes essential to register there, because all your friends are there and stay there.

Mark Zuckerberg, who has already experienced this rare success three times with Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp instant messaging, has understood this well. That’s why he decided to interweave Threads with his flagship social network, Instagram, which claims more than 2 billion monthly active users. Threads was started as “ an Instagram app “, to the point where it is possible to register in one click, keeping your Instagram identifiers for both services, and with the possibility of importing your Instagram contacts into Threads, rather than starting from a blank sheet. This trick got Threads off to a historic start, with one million signups the first hour, five million on day one, fifty million by the end of day two, and 100 million by the start of day five. An unprecedented feat in the history of the Internet: ChatGPT, OpenAI’s generative artificial intelligence which held the record for the service which had reached the symbolic bar of 100 million subscribers the fastest, needed two months!

But like the hare and the tortoise in Jean de La Fontaine’s fable, a hot start does not guarantee going the distance. In the world of social networks, it is necessary to bring a real disruption in the uses to convert the curious into daily and assiduous users. Facebook did it in its time, just like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or even TikTok, thanks to a concept and features that were new and attractive at the time. In other words, the power of Instagram is certainly a great help for Threads, but the new social network will have to convince on its own merits to also become a success.

However, this is where the shoe pinches for Threads. The service is perceived, for the moment, only as an alternative to X (the new name of Twitter since the end of July), or even an extension of Instagram. Not enough to maintain the craze. Once the discovery has passed, without any eye-catching and novel element, many users “forget” to reconnect regularly, and the application becomes one of the many unused icons on the phone. Threads still has everything to prove. And it is still far from competing with X despite the setbacks of Elon Musk: the former blue bird claims 237.8 million daily active users, for a daily engagement of 25 minutes according to Similarweb.

A different tone, but no real innovation

Still, it would be unfair to cast Threads as a mere copy of X. Rather, it’s a kind of ideal Twitter, with the mindset of Instagram, designed for Elon Musk disillusioned and Instagram fans alike. . Threads wants to be open to the outside – in reality, especially to Instagram for the moment – while Twitter, which has become X, is closing in on itself. Threads keeps the blue checkmarks. Instead, he verifies identity, when X becomes even more than before a fairground populated by bots and anonymous accounts spouting hate and fake news.

At Instagram, Threads stole the notion of “inspiring communities”in order to personalize the content that appears on the news feed to the extreme… and to recover the bonanza that goes with it, because X lost half of Twitter’s turnover under Elon Musk.

“Threads is not Twitter. But it has the potential to become something different and powerful. It’s Twitter, but with fewer problems, more corporate brilliance, and enough potential to suck what’s left of life from Elon Musk’s struggling social network.summarized in early July the British newspaper The Guardian.

1692498876
#Threads #Meta #app #supposed #compete #exTwitter

2023-08-19 19:21:33

Sega Publishing and studio Ryu Ga Gotoku have released a trailer for the action game Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name – the upcoming Yakuza spin-off, which will connect the seventh and eighth installments of the franchise.

Here’s what we know

In the colorful video, the developers presented the plot of the new game, in the center of which will be a famous character – Kazuma Kiryu.

He tried to get away from the criminal life, but the yakuza, like all other mafias, do not let it go, and Kazuma will once once more find himself in the epicenter of criminal conflicts.

The trailer features other key characters as well as gameplay footage from Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

The game trailer shows that Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name will feature many additional activities such as karaoke, golf, cabaret, etc.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios has announced that all purchasers of The Man Who Erased His Name will receive a demo of the franchise’s next installment, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Yakuza 8). Its release is scheduled for 2024.

When can we expect it?

Like a Dragon Gaiden : The Man Who Erased His Name sortira le 9 novembre sur PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One et PC.

1692498510
#Sega #released #trailer #Dragon #Gaiden #Man #Erased #Yakuza #spinoff #tie #franchises #seventh #eighth #installments