Ubisoft has released its financial report for the first quarter of this year, and narrowed the release window for some of its upcoming titles.
The report shows that in the three months ending June 30, Ubisoft saw sales of €76 million, which is down 42% compared to the same period last year, when the company posted €131 million.
Despite this, Ubisoft announced sales in this period were higher than its target of €70 million thanks to a 56% increase in back-catalog sales to to €60 million, including Far Cry 3, Assassin’s Creed III, Just Dance 4, Rocksmith and Rayman Origins.
Games seem to be thinking a bit more about killing lately, or at least they’re trying to make us think about it a bit more. Spec Ops: The Line earlier this year used the conventions of the first-person shooter to question how the genre encourages us to think. Far Cry 3’s traumatic first-kill moment kicks off a narrative that muses on what kind of person you become if you’re willing to murder for the sake of your friends. Tomb Raider, too, has shown us a character driven to kill by necessity, in self-defence, almost retching over the corpse of her assailant after she fights him off.
These moments puncture the feeling of power and cool that games usually associate with killing. But what happens after that pivotal moment? How can you possibly have a transition from that first kill to games’ usual shooting gallery approach that feels at all believable? Continue reading… Source: IGN Video Games
Microsoft is offering Xbox Live Gold for free this weekend in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Japan. According to Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, beginning today and running until Monday, April 22nd at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (10:00 a.m. Pacific), all Xbox owners will be upgraded to Gold regardless of their current status.
During the weekend, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Assassin’s Creed 3 and Far Cry 3 will all offer double XP, and players will also be able to enter a tournament with FIFA 13, NBA 2K13, Madden 13 and NHL 13.
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is nothing like I expected it to be. For starters, don’t let the “3” in the title fool you — there’s no sign of Jason Brody, Vaas Montenegro, or tropical islands to be found. Unless Blood Dragon turns out to be one of Dr. Earnhardt’s LSD trips, this game is in no way related to FC3. What the Ubisoft Montreal team has created here is a downloadable, kinetic ball of ’80s nostalgia that exists within in the confines of Far Cry‘s mechanical skeleton.
You’re bombarded with Reagan-era references the moment you load up Blood Dragon. Cutscenes come across in 8-bit fashion, neon lights ripped straight from Miami bombard your senses, and the theme of mechanically-altered super soldiers absolutely screams “Terminator.” Hell, the main character is even voiced by Michael “Kyle Reese” Biehn. I’d be willing to bet that an “All Your Base…” joke pops up at some point, and honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about that. Like 2012’s Retro City Rampage, it’s clear that the team behind Blood Dragon grew up with their hands glued to NES controllers and their eyes fixated on cheesy action movies. The question is, can Ubisoft back up their pastiche with any real substance?
Ubisoft Entertainment said Wednesday it took its Uplay download service offline until it fixes an issue that reportedly allowed hackers to download games, including one yet to be released.
Uplay is Ubisoft’s platform for buying and downloading the company’s games. Ubisoft said no personal information was compromised in the attack and that all other Uplay services would remain online.
The company did not specific the problem in Uplay, but Gameranx reported that a vulnerability within the uPlay launcher allows hackers to trick the software into thinking a user owned a game that had not been purchased.
Hackers were apparently able to obtain an unreleased game, “Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon,” although Ubisoft would not confirm that claim. Footage from the first-person shooter game was briefly posted on YouTube, but it has been removed.
Hackers have cracked Ubisoft’s uPlay PC download services, enabling them to download all of the publisher’s games for free – including the unreleased Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
This explains how footage of the game has leaked online, and why the game itself is purportedly circulating illegally on torrent sites already. The Russian hackers have discovered an exploit that makes the uPlay service believe that you already have the game you’re trying to download, enabling them to obtain it for free. Gameranx published the below screenshot, showing Blood Dragon in the process of downloading.
Ubisoft’s massive ShootMania tournament and AMD Fan Day happened over the weekend, and so did a bunch of video game news. Did you miss it? Watch the Fix because we have big things to talk about like Xbox 720 rumors, an iOS game giveaway and me wearing what is quite possibly the best t-shirt ever made in the history of mankind…well, pretty close anyway.
Also, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is happening for real! Let’s all rejoice in the ’80s-style hot pink cyborg-infested world on May 1st. Woo!
Screenshots from Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon have leaked online. Found hosted on xbox.com, the images show off a nuclear missile, a chain gun and much more, suggesting that the expansion could be even stranger than we thought.
Looks like Tim is hosting The Fix again. Or, is he? You’ll have to click the video to find out. And what happens when a developer decides to release a game on April Fool’s Day? The obvious – a lot of people believing none of it’s real. But, we promise all of the news mentioned in today’s Fix is in fact 100% real and requires no acts of suspicion. Of course, the key word here is “most”. It wouldn’t be April Fools without some fooling, right? Let’s see if you can decipher what is real versus what isn’t by leaving comment a below. Did I say I was in the process of buying myself a wombat? Because I am totally in the process of buying myself a wombat.
Here are the stories covered in today’s Daily Fix:
With Ryan out, Mitch Dyer and Destin Legarie recruit Rich George and Marty Sliva for an off-the-rails (and spoiler-free) discussion of BioShock Infinite. From there, the Locksmiths hit on Battlefield 4’s disappointing reveal, the magic of Fables (and Telltale’s potential in the upcoming Wolf Among Us game adaptation) and the future of Far Cry.
Rumors surrounding a Far Cry 3 expansion called Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon for some time now, but a new Ubisoft-branded teaser site — which arrives just in time for April Fool’s Day — seems to confirm the downloadable spinoff. The tone and presentation of the teaser site seems to align with previous 80s-inspired themes rumors suggested.
A fake merch shop within the website links out to the leaked Achievement list, which tells me this is more legitimate than its timing would have us believe.
PC gaming is poised to break free from the desktop—it just needs a device that delivers fast frame rates and lush graphics in an affordable, portable package. Enter the Razer Edge Pro, a Windows 8 tablet built expressly for playing PC games on the go. The hardware even comes with an optional controller accessory that turns the tablet into a handheld game console.
But Razer’s pitch goes way beyond gaming. The company is marketing theEdge Pro as a multi-purpose machine that can replace your laptop, desktop, tablet, and, yes, even your Xbox, PS3 and Wii. After using the premier version of Razer’s new tablet as my primary device for a week, I think it comes close to delivering on its multi-disciplinary promise—if you’re willing to make some compromises.
First, the good news: It works. Thanks to a Core i7 processor and discrete Nvidia graphics, the tablet is powerful enough to run Far Cry 3 and Dishonored at decent frame rates. And thanks to Windows 8 Pro, it can run legacy desktop applications, including essential gaming utilities like Steam, uPlay and the launchers for World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2. The Edge Pro also easily chews through productivity applications, handling the processor-intensive Photoshop with aplomb.
The bad news: Whether you’re playing games, watching movies, editing images, or writing tablet reviews, the Edge Pro requires significant compromises. In terms of raw processing performance, sure, the tablet can do everything. But in terms of ergonomics, convenience, display quality and price, the tablet falls short of more specialized, cheaper devices. We reviewed the highest spec’ed version of the Edge Pro, and at $1450, it proved to be a luxury product for hardcore PC gamers only.
Blood Dragon‘s achievements reveal a few key things – including the fact that, yes, you’ll be battling dragons. Other points are earned by rescuing hostages, hunting animals, unlocking weapons attachments and finding VHS tapes. Nothing in the listing references any characters or settings within Far Cry 3, reinforcing the fact that despite sharing a name, Blood Dragon appears to have nothing to do with Rook Island or its inhabitants.
At first glance, the Razer Edge Pro is indistinguishable from other Windows 8 tablets: it’s 2.2 pounds of matte black metal with a 10.1-inch screen and a single Windows button. It feels heavy in your hands, a little bulkier than the Surface Pro and much, much hotter.
That heat flows from the powerful components nestled inside, including an Nvidia GPU and an Intel Core i7 CPU that render Razer’s tablet capable of competing with similarly-priced ultrabooks in terms of performance. I haven’t spent enough time with the tablet yet to know whether or not it delivers on that potential—look for our full review next week—but Razer’s latest leaves a strong first impression the moment you pull it out of the packaging.
Playing PC games on a tablet is fantastic
The most important thing you need to know about the Razer Edge Pro is that it works—you can use it to play contemporary PC games at decent settings, and the battery lasts long enough to let you play for at least 2-3 hours at a stretch before you need to recharge.
Having complex PC games like Civilization 5 at your fingertips is amazing.
You can augment that with the extended battery pack in the Edge gamepad chassis—which Razer sells separately or as part of a bundle with the Edge Pro— but there’s a better reason to accessorize: most PC games suck if you can’t use either a mouse and keyboard or a gamepad. I’ve spent a few hours playing PC games with the Edge Pro, and I’ve had a blast playing 3D games like Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider and XCOM while curled up on the couch with the gamepad chassis resting on my lap. Being able to play complex PC games from the comfort of my couch is amazing, but it wouldn’t work without the gamepad accessory.
A logo for “Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon” has been spotted online, indicating that a spinoff could be on the way. The logo was originally spotted by XBLA watchdog lifelower on Twitter and later made its way to the NeoGAF forums. While it hasn’t shown up on Xbox.com just yet, the image bears the “Arcade” banner typical of Xbox Live Arcade and could suggest that a downloadable spinoff is set to be released soon.
It was a big night for thatgamecompany at the BAFTA Video Game Awards in Central London today as Journey picked up five awards for Original Music, Artistic Achievement, Game Design, Audio Achievement, and Online Multiplayer.
IGN‘s 2012 Game Of The Year was pipped at the post for Best Game overall by Dishonored in a night that also saw Telltale’s The Walking Dead pick up two awards (Best Story, Best Mobile/Handheld), The Unfinished Swan pick up two gongs for Best Debut and Game Innovation, and Far Cry 3 win Best Action.
Surprise winners of the night include mobile football sim New Star Soccer which fended off challenges from FIFA, F1, and Forza Horizon for Best Sports/Fitness Game, and mobile puzzler The Room, which won Best British Game ahead of big guns Need For Speed: Most Wanted and Forza Horizon.
Tonight the 10th BAFTA Video Games Awards will take place, hosted by the rather funny Dara O Briain. There’s lots of great games up for awards, from big-budget blockbusters to small indie titles.
Before the event kicks off tonight at 9pm (GMT), you can peruse the worthy nominees below, place your bets, and watch or read our interview with Dara. If for nothing else, tune in to see Gabe Newell receive the prestigious BAFTA fellowship.
