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Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo agree to disclose loot box odds
Loot boxes have been a source of controversy in recent years. They offer gamers a way to snag virtual items, but because the rewards are typically randomized and players can buy them with real money, they've been called as a form of gambling. Some jurisdictions have banned them completely, and others have looked into them. The games industry is attempting to soothe those concerns. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have agreed to disclose the odds of obtaining highly-sought-after gear inside loot boxes.
'Borderlands 3' will arrive September 13th on PC, PS4 and Xbox One
Gearbox and publisher Take Two will release Borderlands 3 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One September 13th, confirming the date mentioned in a deleted tweet earlier this week. On PC, the RPG/shooter hybrid will be a digital exclusive through the Epic Games Store until April 2020, when it will arrive on other digital storefronts.
'GTA Online' cheat creator ordered to pay $150,000 in damages
Game publishers are still using lawsuits to take down cheaters, and their latest move could deal a particularly serious blow. A court has ordered Florida resident Jhonny Perez to pay $150,000 in damages (and $66,869 in attorney fees) for creating and sharing Elusive, a paid cheating tool for GTA Online that allowed infinite money and other cheats. Perez allegedly violated Take-Two Interactive's copyright, disrupted gameplay balancing, threw off its in-game purchase model and soured the experience for honest players.
'Red Dead Online' beta test launches on November 27th
You're about to learn how well Red Dead Redemption 2 works as a multiplayer game -- as hinted back in September, Rockstar Games is launching the beta for Red Dead Online this week. Just when you can play will depend on how eager an RDR2 player you are, mind you. Anyone who bought the Ultimate Edition will get first crack on November 27th. After that, it depends on when you've played. People who've played RDR2 on November 26th will get to try Online as of the 28th, while those who played on the game's launch weekend (October 26th through 29th) can take their turn on the 29th. Everyone else will have to wait until November 30th.
Start your 'NBA 2K19' MyCareer before the game is even out
NBA 2K19 doesn't come out until September 7th (Anniversary Edition), but those of you who are impatiently waiting for the game can get a good taste for it starting today. Thanks to the Prelude demo, you can can play the first chapter of this year's MyCareer mode on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, and you'll be able to take any progress you make with you once you get the full copy. In 2K19, the story mode is called "The Way Back," which will let you take your custom player on a journey from China to the G-League and, finally, the NBA.
Watch the first-ever NBA 2K League draft right here at 1PM ET!
Interested in watching the first-ever NBA 2K League draft? Then tune into NBA TV or Twitch today at 1PM from the Hulu Theater at New York's Madison Square Garden. Each team in the league will pick six players. Pre-show coverage including a press conference with commissioner Adam Silver, Brendan Donohue from 2K League and Take-Two Interactive (2K's publisher) CEO Strauss Zelnick will live on NBA TV as well, with the NBA's website and 2K League's Twitter account doling out additional updates. However, only the first round will be broadcast on NBA TV -- you'll have to peep Twitch for the rest.
Lindsay Lohan's ‘Grand Theft Auto’ suit is on the road to nowhere
Lindsay Lohan has lost the appeal for her lawsuit against Take-Two Interactive, which alleged that the company's studio Rockstar Games used her likeness without permission for a character in Grand Theft Auto V. The case was originally dismissed back in 2016 because, well, it's legal to parody people in video games.
'Grand Theft Auto' publisher Take-Two opens an indie label
Take-Two is the latest major games publisher to open up an indie label. From the sounds of it, Private Division will operate like a smaller scale version of Take-Two itself, giving developers leeway to work on things at their own pace and not worry about pumping out a sea of annual sequels.
The NBA’s big eSports push begins in May 2018
The line between eSports and traditional sports is blurring, and organizations like the National Basketball Association are looking to stay ahead of the curve. Seventeen teams from the NBA will be part of the upcoming 2K League, a competition it created in partnership with Take-Two Interactive, the developer of the popular NBA 2K series. And that league is going to have its first season next May, NBA 2K League Managing Director Brendan Donohue revealed to Engadget in a recent interview.
GTA modding tool quietly reappears after legal threats
The popular Grand Theft Auto V modding tool OpenIV now looks to be back in action, just weeks after its creators found themselves in a whole heap of legal trouble. Last month GTA publisher Take Two Interactive sent the creators of the modding software a cease and desist letter, claiming that the tool allowed users to bypass the game's security features and violated the publisher's rights. Unsurprisingly, this forced OpenIV to remove the mod's download link from its site on June 14th, resulting in a huge community backlash. Now, that link is back up and fans can once again download the modding tool directly from OpenIV's website.
In the NBA's eSports league, diversity means a new kind of athlete
With millions of gamers willing to watch people play League of Legends or FIFA for fun, major players in the entertainment industry see eSports as an intriguing business opportunity. Earlier this month, the NBA announced a partnership with Take-Two Interactive, developer of the renowned NBA2K franchise, to create a one-of-a-kind eSports league. This new professional gaming competition, known as "NBA 2K eLeague," will be the first owned by a major US sports organization when it starts in 2018. That's assuming the NFL, MLB or MLS don't make any sudden moves before then.
Three years later, 'Grand Theft Auto V' hits 75 million shipped
Grand Theft Auto V launched over three years ago, yet it's still a big money-maker, proving that — at least in some small way — crime does pay. The popular open-world action game has now shipped 75 million copies, publisher Take-Two Interactive revealed today during an earnings call.
NPD finally adds digital tracking to its game sales reports
For years, the NPD Group has tracked and reported video game sales figures. Every month, the company issues an email to the media detailing the top ten selling games for the month prior, total amount spent on games, hardware and accessories and year-over-year and generation-over-generation growth or decline. The glaring hole in those reports is that they didn't account for digital game sales from places like Steam, PlayStation Network or Xbox Live. But that's changing and with this month's data, we'll finally have steps toward a true, comprehensive picture of how much a particular title has sold, both from retailers and digital distribution.
JXE Streams: 'Grand Theft Auto Online,' heists and you
The best laid plans of crooks and thugs lead us to nothing but loot and hugs! At least that's what we're hoping happens when we play the newly released heists in Grand Theft Auto Online on JXE Streams. Nearly 18 months after Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto V, the game's online multiplayer mode finally has heists, new missions in which you and a crew of other players try to execute multi-tiered virtual crimes. Think Ocean's Eleven but with markedly less George Clooney and markedly more video game violence. We'll be playing through the very first of the heists to give an overview of how they work on today's show.
Bizarrely, the next Borderlands game is for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
The hugely popular first-person shooter series Borderlands is getting a new entry in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, a game set between the story of previous two games. Not exactly shocking, but neat nonetheless. What's shocking is where we'll play Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel when it arrives this fall: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Despite the Xbox One and PlayStation 4... ya know, existing, the next major Borderlands game apparently isn't headed their way. That said, there's one other platform that fans can snag it on: PC. And given the PC-like architecture of the new consoles, you'll forgive us if we don't feign surprise when the game eventually arrives on newer platforms. The game's development is being handled by both the series creators at Gearbox Software and 2K's Australian arm. Thus far, the only footage available is pre-Alpha (read: early), but, well, it looks an awful lot like the Borderlands games you already know and love. Perhaps you don't already know and love the series? We've got a trailer below the break that'll help get you up to speed.
The studio behind BioShock Infinite is no more
The studio responsible for both BioShock and BioShock Infinite is breaking up, according to a note from creative lead Ken Levine on the company's website. Following the final content release this past month for Irrational Games' latest work, BioShock Infinite, the company's head (Levine) and a group of "about fifteen members of the Irrational team" formed a new, dramatically smaller venture within the parent company that owns Irrational (Take-Two Interactive -- the same folks who own Grand Theft Auto-developer Rockstar Games, among others). That's from a crew of nearly 200 at the peak of Infinite's development in Summer 2012. It's not clear if Irrational will still be the name of the studio; either way, Levine said, "I am winding down Irrational Games as you know it." Levine and his new splinter crew will focus on one goal: "To make narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable." In that vein, he's "handing over the reins" of BioShock to Take-Two and going head down on his new, digital-only project(s). It's also likely that Levine needs extra time for his non-gaming work, such as helping pen the remake to Logan's Run. Though BioShock 2 was developed by another Take-Two studio (2K Marin), both the original BioShock and BioShock Infinite were crafted in-house at Irrational Games; it's unclear if the franchise will continue, but we've reached out to Take-Two for comment. Update: Take-Two told us, "At this point 2K and Take-Two are directing all inquiries to the Irrational Blog for details on today's announcement." Update 2: More from Take-Two just came in, somewhat confirming the continuation of the BioShock franchise: "BioShock is one of our most beloved and critically acclaimed franchises, and we are indebted to Ken and the talented team at Irrational Games for their contributions to the series with BioShock and BioShock Infinite; the latter being one of the most decorated games of 2013. The BioShock universe remains a rich creative canvas for many untold stories, and we look forward to exploring the next BioShock experience."
Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best-selling game of 2013
Between a $1 billion debut and rave reviews, it's probably not a huge shock to you that Grand Theft Auto 5 was the best-selling game of 2013. Regardless, Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive confirmed suspicions today in its financial earnings release. "Grand Theft Auto V finished as the best-selling video game of 2013," the release states, attributing that claim to NPD. "To date, Grand Theft Auto V has sold-in more than 32.5 million units." Even with the game's mass popularity and somewhat staid approach to world-building, we can't help but commend Rockstar Games on the achievement -- we loved our time in GTA5's single-player and (occasionally troubled) online worlds. Now all we can do is hope for an even prettier version on these new game consoles (or PC, for that matter) in 2014, though we don't expect a repeat performance in the "best-selling game" category. Let's not get too crazy.
Grand Theft Auto Online players start getting virtual payouts for their troubles
Rockstar promised that it would compensate GTA Online players for their service problems during October, and it's (somewhat belatedly) making good on its word. As expected, the developer has started paying these early adopters $500,000 each in virtual currency to keep them organizing heists and racing cars. All the handouts should wrap up within the next two days, Rockstar estimates. There should also be fewer hiccups in the future -- the company is already rolling out a fix that prevents cloud sync outages from erasing progress. GTAO members aren't entirely out of the woods, but the bonus cash may give them a good reason to stay in Los Santos.
Rockstar gifting Grand Theft Auto Online players $500K (in online cash) for ballin'
Rockstar Games sympathizes with your GTA Online woes, folks. The company's dropping two massive deposits of cash ($250K apiece) into player accounts in the coming weeks, and the first could be coming "by the end of next week." After those pesky issues with game progress and content disappearing are solved (again, hopefully "by the end of next week"), the deposits are scheduled to begin. Not every single person who owns Grand Theft Auto V will get the cash, but anyone who logged in and played GTA Online "during the month of October 2013" is qualified. After scooping the next title update (1.04), Rockstar will tell people via its newswire website when the deposits are going in -- and just like that, magically, said deposits will appear in-game for qualifying players. After that, you may commence with the ballin'. Or maybe just buy yourself a Burger Shot franchise and settle down, get a nice condo in the outskirts of Los Santos. The choice is yours!
Like BioShock? Thank Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand isn't a name you typically associate with videogames. At least, we never thought it would come to pass before someone finally green-lit the long awaited The Fountainhead: The Video Game. And yet, Wired has taken up the headline that "BioShock owes more to Ayn Rand than DOOM." Given that the pursuit of personal happiness is the ultimate goal of Rand's philosophy, we'd be hard-pressed to disagree. After all, we can't imagine anything making you happier than escaping Rapture alive, right? Just remember, from a Big Daddy's point of view, nothing would make him happier than seeing you dead. In all seriousness, the point of the article is that there is more to BioShock than shooting everything that moves. In fact, if you've been keeping up with the game, you'll know that it is actually heavily influenced by Rand. Still, if you find yourself with an unexplainable desire to become an Objectivist after playing BioShock, now you know why.
