cloud saves
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Cloud saves are coming to ‘Animal Crossing’ on July 30th
'Animal Crossing' adds Island Backup & Restoration Services to protect players' islands and user save data.
Epic's latest store update brings cloud saves to more games
Epic has rolled out cloud save support for a slew of new titles in its store. The latest update has the feature included for 17 different games, including World War Z and Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter. The game developer began expanding cloud saves last month and hopes to unveil more titles in the future
Epic Games Store cloud saves roll out for two games
Cloud saves are making their way onto the Epic Games Store, but they're only available for a couple of games so far. The first titles to support the feature are Moonlighter and This War of Mine, which are currently available for zilch via Epic's rotating lineup of free games.
Now Amazon's Twitch Prime comes with a year of Switch Online
Amazon keeps tweaking the benefits of its Twitch Prime package for Prime customers with moves like adding free games and taking away ad-free streams. The latest change will be particular appealing to certain gamers, as it's teamed up with Nintendo to dangle up to a year of free Switch Online service with the package.
Diablo 3 enables cross-platform saves as Ultimate Evil looms
Blizzard has implemented cloud saving in its latest update for the console versions of Diablo 3, allowing players to transfer their character data across platform generations for the upcoming Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition. Diablo 3's cross-manufacturer cloud saving feature allows players to transfer their data from a PlayStation 3 to an Xbox One, or from an Xbox 360 to a PlayStation 4. The process, outlined at Blizzard's blog, involves installing the latest Diablo 3 console patch, exporting save data to Blizzard's cloud service, and linking a user's Sony Entertainment Network and Xbox Live accounts via Battle.net. Diablo 3 does not currently support save transfers between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, or between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. PC saves are also incompatible with the console versions of Diablo 3, and Sony-exclusive Diablo 3 content (including Drake's Amulet and other items) will not transfer to Xbox platforms. Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition launches for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PS4 on August 19. [Image: Blizzard]
Google Play Games leaks out, will feature matchmaking and achievements
The Android answer to Apple's Game Center app on iOS will be Google Play Games, according to information obtained by Android Police from a Play Services APK teardown. The service will bring lobbies and invites for matchmaking, in-game chat, cloud game saves, achievements and leaderboards to the platform for developers to make use of. The APK Android Police pulled apart is a file package primarily used to update Android apps, so this update was riddled with code that indicated what features would be coming to the platform down the road, but aren't accessible just yet. There is certainly a good chance Google Play Games will be fully unveiled at Google's I/O event next week in San Francisco.
PSA: ME3 on the 360 can't import ME2 saves in (or transferred by) the cloud
Despite Mass Effect 3's impressive mastery of the atmosphere, it still can't quite handle clouds. EA is "aware of an issue" that prevents Mass Effect 2 save files that either exist in the cloud, or were transferred to a new 360 through the cloud, from being imported into ME3.EA's help guide for the problem makes no mention of plans to implement such functionality, but it does offer solutions, provided you still have access to the 360 that birthed your ME2 save. If your ME2 save exists in the cloud and you're playing from its original console, simply move it back to your hard drive and it should import fine.If it exists on a new console and was transferred through the cloud, it'll need to be moved back to its original 360, and then re-transferred to the new system using a memory card or USB thumb drive. If you no longer have access to that original 360, it looks like you're going to be spending some time on the character creation screen. But hey, don't feel guilty, all right? Shepard would have wanted you to love again.
Kojima using 'Transfarring' cloud data for all future games
Hideo Kojima said during a recent Kojima Productions podcast that the cloud data sharing system he created from dragonscales, Old Snake's mustache trimmings and cardboard boxes -- "Transfarring" -- will be available for every title his studio releases in the future. That means all of its games going forward, including the Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders re-releases, Metal Gear Solid Rising and the new Fox Engine game, will all presumably provide some connection between the PS3 and PS Vita. Does this mean a version of Metal Gear Solid Rising for the PS Vita? We'll have to wait and see. More importantly, perhaps, we're wondering how long it will take for someone to tell Kojima that cloud saving has been around for a while -- just so he can stop using that very silly name.
Xbox Live adds cloud saves, 'beacons' that tell friends what you want to play
These may not have made the cut to appear in Microsoft's E3 keynote earlier today but gamers will probably appreciate two new features mentioned in a letter from Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten. "Cloud Storage for Game Saves and Live Profiles" is first up and provides access to ones profile and saves from any console, at any time with the option to save to XBL servers instead of a memory unit or hard drive. It all sounds very similar to the service offered for PlayStation Plus but as Joystiq notes, so far exact details are scant. The other feature mentioned is support for "Beacons" which go one step further than broadcasting what you're playing or watching right now by allowing users to flag what they want to play, and lets friends on XBL or Facebook see that so they can meet you for a game. Check out the full letter after the break or over on the 'stiq, we'll sit back and dream of a future world where bringing our XBL profile by a friend's house to keep track of our beatdowns is as easy as just logging in.
