Monthly Archives: June 2018
Minecraft Trailer Highlights Nintendo and Xbox Cross-Play Following Continued PlayStation Backlash
Nintendo has released a new trailer that focuses on Cross-Play between the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, and PlayStation is still notably missing.
The trailer features two players, one holding Switch Joy-Cons and the other holding an Xbox One controller. Both players are seen working together in a rare promotional video featuring hardware, imagery, and more from both companies.
The video ends reinforcing this message of unity by stating "Create Together, Explore Together, Survive Together, Better Together."
This latest piece is the next entry in a much deeper story about PlayStation’s insistence on not allowing Cross-Play between Xbox One or Nintendo Switch.
Last week, Fortnite was released for the Nintendo Switch and it was quickly confirmed that if you had linked your existing Epic Games account to a PlayStation 4, you would not be able to log in or carry over any of your purchases or progress to the Switch.
Complete Guide to Octopath Traveler Preorder Bonuses
If you buy something through this post, IGN may get a share of the sale. For more, read our Terms of Use.
Octopath Traveler is Square Enix's return to the JRPG days of the Super NES, with modern gameplay sensibilities blended with a gorgeous tilt-shift amalgam of pixel-art and 3D effects. It's absolutely charming, and if you haven't tried the 3-hour long demo, it's definitely worth picking up. The best part is all your progress from the demo carries over Octopath Traveler when it releases on Nintendo Switch July 13.
Octopath Traveler Preorder Bonuses
For the time being, the only preorder bonus comes from GameStop. If you preorder Octopath Traveler you get a set of stickers and eight character cards from the game.
Update: Fortnite Players Discover New TV Message After Altering the Date on PC
Update (June 28): The countdown has officially gone live in Fortnite and you can currently view it on every TV on the map. The hologram at the villain's lair also shows the countdown.
It's not clear what will happen when the countdown ends in two days, but we do know the launch message discovered last week has yet to appear. Players near the surrounding area of the rocket will now occasionally hear a missile siren. Both changes started alongside the release of the Week 9 challenges early this morning.
Original story follows:
Fortnite fans have discovered a new message on every TV on the map by changing the date and time on PC.
Epic Games Striving to Make Fortnite Endgame More Interesting
To currently win Fortnite, you'd better know how to build.
If you've ever been skilled, or lucky, enough to get to the top five in a Fortnite Battle Royale game, you know that the strategy of the endgame shifts pretty dramatically. You have to hurriedly slap together complex forts, attack other forts with shotguns and rocket launchers, or both. It gets pretty predictable. In a blog post today, Epic Games said it wants to change that.
"We are going to continue to make changes to evolve the game to give players multiple ways to counter each other in combat, and create more strategies to win the game," the blog post read. "It’s important to support a variety of late game strategies, that don’t boil down to 'just build lol.'"
AT&T Launches WatchTV, a Low-Cost Live TV Service
AT&T announced Thursday the launch of a new, low-cost live tv streaming service, WatchTV, just shortly after it's merger with Time Warner. The lower-priced option compared to AT&T's DirecTV, will have a set price at $15 per month, but will also be available to bundle with AT&T wireless plans.
Customers will be able to access over 30 live TV channels from popular cable networks including A&E, AMC, Animal Planet, CNN, Discovery, Food Network, Hallmark, HGTV, History, IFC, Sundance TV, TBS, TNT, VICELAND, and others.
Shortly after launch, AT&T will add BET, Comedy Central, MTV2, Nicktoons, Teen Nick and VH1 in the line up.
Twitter Acquires Smyte, Immediately Shuts It Down
Update: Shortly after announcing its acquisition of Smyte, Twitter reportedly disabled access to the trust and safety service’s application programming interface (API) with "very little warning" to its existing customers.
According to TechCrunch, Smyte’s many former clients — Indiegogo and GoFundMe, among others — were left without anti-abuse and anti-fraud protections, as the unexpected move gave companies little time to transition to a new provider.
"We had a 3 years contract with them and they just disappeared overnight," wrote a reported former Smyte client on Twitter. "No communication at all, they just turned their servers off, closed our shared support channel and walked away."
How Good Is the PlayStation Hits Lineup?
Earlier this week, Sony announced PlayStation Hits, a collection of PlayStation 4 classics that will be available for $20 USD each beginning June 28 in North America and July 18 in Europe. The lineup includes tentpole PlayStation 4 exclusives, such as The Last of Us: Remastered and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, as well as third-party standouts, such as Doom and Metal Gear Solid V.
To see just how good Sony’s curated PlayStation 4 collection is, IGN has compiled its reviews of all 15 PlayStation Hits. With review scores ranging from 6.8 to 10, and an average score of 8.5, our review scale would consider this lineup "Great."
Soulcalibur 6 Producer Discusses Single-Player Modes
Bandai Namco Producer Motohiro Okubo has shed some light on Soulcalibur 6's single-player modes. As was first reported by Destructoid, Okubo told Japan's Famitsu magazine that Soulcalibur 6 features a story mode called "Soul Chronicle" with an interactive timeline starring the entire cast of fighters.
Soul Chronicle is set between A.D. 1583 and 1590, making it both a Soulcalibur origin story and a continuation of the events that have unfolded in previous games. The story mode's first events will offer up some backstory taking place before the tale told in the original Soulcalibur, but the story will continue forward from there. Players will be treated to illustrated and 3D cutscenes while they battle through the critical moments that shaped the fates of Soulcalibur's cast of fighters.
Controversial School Shooting Game Can No Longer Be Bought
Controversial school shooting game, Active Shooter, can no longer be purchased online as PayPal has shut down the account of publisher Acid Software.
Earlier this week, Acid Software tweeted it was experiencing a "few issues" with PayPal which were preventing Active Shooter from being purchased. A follow-up tweet announced the publisher has disabled purchases of all their titles until it can "figure out the whole situation with PayPal."
The Walking Dead Season 9 Will Have a Time Jump
The Walking Dead's new showrunner has confirmed Season 9 will feature a time jump. This news seems to confirm fans' suspicions that The Walking Dead will follow the narrative pass of its comic book counterpart, which featured a substantial time jump at around this point in time in the story.
Showrunner Angela Kang revealed revealed during a Kick-Ass Women of AMC panel the new season will jump forward in time, per The Hollywood Reporter. "We're playing with time in the season, so we get to jump forward in the story," Kang said.
Though Kang did reveal how far the time jump will be, the comic did fast forward two years after the end of the Rick and Negan feud. This follows Season 8, which jumped between present and "future" timelines. After the conclusion of Season 8, it became very clear that The Walking Dead needed to follow Robert Kirkman's story and deliver a time jump for viewers, the argument for which you can watch below: