Xbox is doing great heading into the launch of the Xbox Series X and S consoles in November. Microsoft announced its earnings for the July-September period, and Xbox was a bright spot.Gaming revenue rose year-over-year by $550 million, or 22 percent, due in part to increased spending on games and services. The content and services department of Xbox specifically saw its revenue rise by 30 percent, which works out to a whopping $649 million increase.This growth was driven in part by third-party games, Microsoft said, though it did not mention any by name. As a platform-holder, Microsoft gets a 30% cut of every game sold on Xbox, and with games overall flourishing right now during COVID-19, Microsoft is making big profits. The growth was also fueled by an increase in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, along with first-party game sales.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

2K Sports has released a new gameplay trailer for NBA 2K21 that showcases the professional basketball game's next-gen edition, and, generally speaking, it looks very, very good.In the video, executive producer Erick Boenisch and gameplay director Mike Wang show off NBA 2K21's PS5 edition and provide commentary for a game between the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans. The first thing you'll notice in the video is how NBA 2K21 loads into a game almost instantly--this is made possible by the SSDs in the new consoles. Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Keanu Reeves is currently filming The Matrix 4, which has resumed production after a COVID-19 shutdown. Much is still unknown about the film, since--without spoiling the sequels--there are some difficult questions that a fourth movie must answer to justify its existence. Now, a new shot from the film set has revealed an interesting detail for us to speculate over.While usually we have little reason to report on paparazzo photos, this shot of Keanu Reeves arriving on the set on The Matrix 4 from People reveals something very interesting--Neo's buzzcut is back. This is the hair that his character had in the original film, after he emerged from his pod in the "real world".This is interesting, because as Screenrant points out, when filming was underway earlier this year on Lana Wachowski's sequel, Keanu showed up on set looking a whole lot like John Wick. This could have something to do with plans to shoot John Wick Chapter 4 at around the same time--at one point, these two movies were due to release on the same day. It seems Keanu Reeves walked into a hairdresser and said "yeah, I'm thinkin' I'm short back and sides" (and then also on top). What this actually means for the film isn't entirely clear, but if they're trying to get Keanu looking like he's recently emerged from a pod again...well, that's interesting. The Matrix 4 will release on December 22, 2021. John Wick Chapter 4 arrives in cinemas on May 27, 2022. Info from Gamespot.com

It seems like Netflix is in the news more for cancelling shows than it is for making them lately, but the streaming giant still has tons of stuff in the works. Netflix announced five new anime this week along with some data that points to just how well the medium is doing for the company."In just four short years since launching our creative team in Tokyo, Netflix has expanded the reach and overall audience of anime--a category conventionally seen as niche," said Taiki Sakurai, Netflix's chief anime producer, at the two-hour Netflix Anime Festival 2020 virtual event, embedded below.The company has seen 50% growth year-over-year, and Netflix subscribers in 100 million households watched anime through the service in the last year, with anime titles making Netflix "top 10" lists in almost 100 countries. Netflix has also grown its Japanese acquisition staff from just one person in 2016 to ten at the current point.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Microsoft's new gaming strategy isn't focused on Xbox hardware alone. Microsoft is releasing its games on PC, too, and Xbox boss Phil Spencer has now reiterated Microsoft's stance on bringing its first-party games to PC and explained why the company isn't focused on one platform in particular.Spencer told GameReactor, "If we are shipping a first-party game, it's coming to PC. If we are shipping a first-party game on PC it's coming to Steam and our own store."This is a big change for Microsoft, as the company did not previously release all of its games across console and PC. Microsoft was criticized in the past for its stance on PC gaming, and Spencer acknowledged that this criticism was valid.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Mobile developer King has announced Crash Bandicoot: On The Run!, a new mobile runner starring the freshly-revitalized Crash Bandicoot. Hot off the heels of Crash Bandicoot 4, this new title will look a lot like a classic Crash title, but Crash will run automatically and you'll control him with swipes.Crash will have to deal with various enemies who try to impede him, including Neo Cortex, Nina, and Fake Crash (who looks a lot less funky than he did in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped). There will be levels based on the Crash Bandicoot platformer series, and it seems like this won't be an infinite runner, so you can reach the end of levels.The game will have crafting and base-building elements, so you can work towards goals outside of the levels. What exactly these systems will look like is unclear, however. There are also unlockable challenge runs that can be found by heading down hidden paths.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Like Call of Duty: Warzone, Activision's Call of Duty Mobile is getting in the spooky spirit with its own Halloween events. The game's Halloween events are available right now, and they seem pretty great.First off, a new game mode called "Pumpkin Confirmed" is available. This is the standard Kill Confirmed mode, but the twist is that players must collect jack-o-lanterns instead of dog tags. An eerie new map variant, Halloween Standoff, has also been added to the mix for the event.Finally, zombies are coming to the battle royale mode on October 30 to mix up the gameplay in a scary way. You can check out a teaser for the Halloween events below.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Stories Untold, an anthology of four horror-tinged narrative games, has surprise-launched on PS4 and Xbox One. The title, which released on PC back in 2017 before coming to Switch earlier this year, is now available for new audiences to check out.The four smaller games included are:The House AbandonThe Lab ConductThe Station ProcessThe Last SessionAs a remake of an earlier title, The House Abandon is the most well-known game in the collection--a metatextual text adventure with a cool, dark twist.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

No Man's Sky has released a new update for Halloween, and it adds numerous new cosmetic items to the game to celebrate the season. It'll also enhance the wrecks from the Desolation update with new materials, and bring a few other changes to the space-faring game on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.The new update notes explain that you can now find Tainted Metal and Quicksilver on abandoned freighters, so it's worth visiting them and dealing with the alien menaces within to get your hands on some. Watch out, though--the aliens have been mutating, and are stronger than ever.Tainted Metal can be traded to a scrap dealer for new base decorations and customization options, the wildest of which is the "Horrific Flesh-Helmet". That's the in-game name for the item you see below. It's...well, it's a horrific flesh-helmet. The mouth moves. It's a lot.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Netflix has acquired a new movie starring Tenet's John David Washington and Oscar-winning Lara Croft actress Alicia Vikander. The streaming network has purchased the movie Born to be Murdered, which follows a couple--played by Washington and Vikander--who go on a lovely vacation in Greece only to get swept into a "violent conspiracy with tragic consequences," according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie was filmed on location in Greece in 2019, but it only just sold to Netflix, according to the report.In addition to Washington and Vikander, Born to be Murdered will feature Boyd Holbrook (Logan, Narcos) and Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread). The film is produced by Luca Guadagnino, who directed the Oscar-winning 2017 drama Call Me By Your Name, and it's expected to debut in 2021.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

With the RTX 3080 as the introduction to Nvidia's new generation of video cards, we saw what the next wave of high-end cards is capable of. Relatively speaking, the RTX 3080 offers an intriguing value proposition for enthusiast-level performance at $700 USD MSRP (if you can even find one), outclassing any video card that came before it. But not everyone needs or wants to go for the high-end and, as is tradition, Nvidia likes to roll out lower-spec SKUs over time--so now, we have the RTX 3070, which is a truly impressive card in its own right.Nvidia has touted the RTX 3070 as performing around the same as the RTX 2080 Ti, which was last generation's top-tier consumer-level video card. And that's largely true based on our results. The RTX 3070 carries a $500 MSRP, which is less than half of what a 2080 Ti goes for, so to get that type of performance at a much more approachable price makes high-end PC gaming less of a pipe dream. Especially when factoring in the growing popularity of RTX ray tracing capabilities and the increasing usage of DLSS as a great alternative to antialiasing, the RTX 3070 makes a strong case for those who are still holding out with GTX 10-series (or older) cards.For the purposes of this review, Nvidia provided the Founder's Edition of the RTX 3070--keep in mind that board partners' performance and pricing can vary. We followed a similar structure to our RTX 3080 review to keep a consistent comparison between the other Nvidia cards included in our tests, but focused our analysis on how the 3070 fares against the 2080 Ti, given Nvidia's claims of how the 3070 stacks against it.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Dave Kosak, the principle narrative designer for Blizzard's Hearthstone, has left the developer. Kosak worked at Blizzard for 12 years, but has now said his goodbyes."After 12 remarkable years and countless adventures, I am moving on from Blizzard Entertainment," Kosak said in a short Twitter thread. "I will very much miss all of my Blizzard colleagues."Big announcement time!After 12 remarkable years and countless adventures, I am moving on from Blizzard Entertainment. The other week I bid a fond farewell to the orc, who is dutifully wearing his mask. I will very much miss all of my Blizzard colleagues. pic.twitter.com/FJmDxFKhqN — Dave “Fargo” Kosak (@DaveKosak) October 27, 2020He went on to reminiscence about his time at the company, and promise fans that further updates were coming to Hearthstone. The game recently received a new expansion, Madness at the Darkmoon Faire.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Sacha Baron Cohen's new Borat film is a huge hit for Amazon. "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" drew in tens of millions of viewers on Amazon's Prime Video service throughout its opening weekend, the company announced.That's a global number, Amazon says. Here in the States, Variety reports that TV analytics provider Samba TV estimates viewership for Borat 2 at around 1.6 million homes, though Amazon apparently disputes that number, preferring less-specific statistics. Samba TV notes that based on their estimates, Borat beat out Disney's Mulan, though it's important to note that Disney asked its paying Disney+ subscribers to shell out an extra $30 to watch its latest live-action adaptation."During its opening weekend, [Borat 2] was streamed by tens of millions of customers," Amazon wrote in a press release. "Within the first few hours of the watch party on Thursday night, a million plus fans tuned in to interact live with Borat himself and participate in a dance party with fans around the world."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Developer Obsidian's sandbox survival game, Grounded, is still in early access, but it's continuing to build the world with new environments and features. With the next update, that world will include underwater exploration, with the new addition of a backyard koi pond.The koi pond update adds an area teeming with new wildlife, including non-hostile creatures like the tadpole, water boatman, and water flea. All of those help build out the biodiversity of the new area, but lest you get too comfortable in the water, the update also adds a new breed of spider. A spider that swims. And not only does the diving bell spider swim, it will follow you underwater. Also, the new koi fish can just swallow you whole. Pleasant dreams!The update adds a few new crafting recipes to help you deal with the underwater world, like flippers, a diving mask, and koi scale armor. The studio noted that bigger weapons aren't as effective underwater, so you'll probably have to rely more on smaller ones like daggers.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The next update to sandbox survival game Grounded will add a koi pond area, new crafting recipes and base-building elements, and pond-based wildlife--including swimming spiders that will absolutely ruin your watery getaway plan. The game is still in early access, but these progressive improvements that continue to flesh out Grounded's world are part of Obsidian's plan to build out the entire sandbox before creating a full-fledged story for it. GameSpot spoke with creative director Adam Brennecke about the update, how the studio brainstorms new biomes and creatures, and what the future holds.What do you see as the finish line for going into full release? What are you hoping to accomplish while you're still in early access?Brennecke: I think we're still quite a ways away from a 1.0 release. I see that as when we are story complete, so when you can go from the beginning to the end and complete a really cool and enriching storyline. Until we're at that point, I don't really consider us to be 1.0. There's still tons of stuff on our side that we want to do before we're at that point. But right now we're just building out all the bits of the backyard right now. That's what we're working towards is, what we we're calling is, the act one of the story.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com