multiplayer gaming
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Leak suggests 'Halo Infinite' multiplayer will be free-to-play
Halo Infinite could follow Call of Duty’s lead with a multiplayer component that is free-to-play. As The Verge reports, a webpage on the Irish version of Smyths — a popular toy and video game retailer in the UK — momentarily referenced a “groundbreaking free-to-play multiplayer experience” in relation to Halo Infinite. In a tweet, the leaker said 343 Industries was aiming for 120 frames per second in its arena mode, and would offer both a battle pass system and customization options that are “completely new to Halo.”
'Cyberpunk 2077' will have multiplayer, eventually
One of next year's biggest games just got bigger. Today, CD Projekt Red (CDPR) confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077 will eventually get a multiplayer component. In a tweet, the studio said: "The plan for now is to deliver Cyberpunk 2077 in April, then follow up with DLCs (free!) and single player content, and — once we're done — invite you for some multiplayer action." CDPR had previously said the mode was "in R&D." Few thought it would materialize in the final game, though, given the single-player campaign -- like the Witcher titles before it -- is supposed to be absolutely massive.
Sony rolling out PlayStation Home 1.5 update with real-time multiplayer support
Earlier this morning, Sony lifted the floodgates on its 1.5 update for PlayStation Home, bringing with it real-time multiplayer support, improved physics and more realistic graphics, among other goodies and graphical tweaks that we're slightly less excited about (like, umm, "better furniture management"). Also hitting the PlayStation Home Mall this week is Sodium Blaster's Paradise personal space and TankTop 1.0, a mini-game which appears to take advantage of the improved graphics promised in Home 1.5. Of course, the big news here is the real-time multiplayer support, which Sony says will pave the way for first-person shooter and racing games, making it even easier to terrorize other players from the safety of mom's basement. So, what are you waiting for? Hit the source link for all the saucy details.
SnOwned tries multiplayer snowball on the iPhone
I kind of like the idea behind snOwned, a new wintry app on the App Store that claims to be a "multiuser, online snowball fight." I think there is some great multiplayer gaming to be had with the iPhone, and, if enough people are interested, there might be some in snOwned.You download the app from the App Store (it's 99 cents, which is cheap but maybe not cheap enough for what it is), and then sign your email up along with a username. Once you've activated, you can then "throw snowballs" (which consists of three little fun minigame steps) at anyone else with the app installed on their iPhone or iPod touch around the world. And they can throw them back at you, you can play a short game to defend, stats are kept on the site, and so on. As with most social games, it all depends on who's in the game with you -- if you've got friends along to keep up rivalries with, it could be fun. But just throwing random snowballs at random people around the globe, as I did (my ingame name is "toucansamurai") isn't really worth the dollar's admission.Still, it's a start -- the game can also track your location when you throw, so you can see where your snowballs are going on the globe, and who's throwing at you. I think there will eventually be a runaway game of this kind, where we're all playing with each other socially on our own phones in different places all over the world (Loot Wars is another game that's interesting in this vein, even if it's not quite there yet). And snOwned is another step closer to that. But as any MMO company will tell you, the only way to make a social game great is to have everyone playing it, and I'm not sure there's enough going on in this one to pull in a lot of really interested players.
Online gaming to decide next console war?
In their just-published April report, market research and consulting firm DFC Intelligence asks whether the online services associated with the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Revolution will be a major factor in the console war between Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.DFC's take is refreshingly contrarian. Rather than endorse the view that Sony's PlayStation 3 console is gearing up to compete feature-for-feature with the Xbox 360's Live service, DFC writes that the PS3's online service "looks a lot like the PlayStation 2 with an online store and some inexpensive community features added on." If DFC is right, and if Sony's PS3 service does mimic the PS2's service, then the Sony publicity machine may have already oversold the PS3's online capabilities, because PlayStation partisans on Joystiq have been quick to cite Sony's early announcements as proof that Sony is going to dominate in the online space.(UPDATE: Image link has been corrected.)
