Embracer Group AB (”Embracer”) has entered into an agreement to acquire the development studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix Montréal, and a catalogue of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain and more than 50 back-catalogue games from SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD. (“Square Enix Holdings”). In total, the acquisition includes ~1,100 employees across three studios and eight global locations.
That's great news. Hopefully the Coalition can smooth some of those edges from the last Avowed reveal.
Well I'm annoyed. Especially at all the ppl who said the graphics sucked. It's your fault they probably shifted the game to unreal so it could look more fancy for you. I was ok with it and hoping to actually play it sometime soon. Now it's like 99% chance it's delayed.
Edit: effing graphics whores
"Well I'm annoyed. Especially at all the ppl who said the graphics sucked. It's your fault they probably shifted the game to unreal so it could look more fancy for you."
What the hell are you talking about dude? Avowed was already in development using the UE5. The Coalition is just helping Obsidian in the transition to its latest version (5.3)
Probably not even that big of a difference. Coalition might only have helped because they got a deadline to meet.
Unreal isn't nearly as bad as Unity when you update a project. Though it obviously depends on the project. But unity generally gets an aneyurism if you threaten to update, where Ue is usually less stingy.
Latest build is 5.4 and it's better than previous iterations, particularly in animation and performance.
Apparently the latest build looks way better graphically. This rumor from Jez Cordin (who's credible) pretty much confirms it.
Interested in seeing more on Avowed in a few weeks.
UE 5.3 has been out since September of last year. I can't believe this is news or that anyone is hyping this up.
As Hellblade failed to set the world on fire, just like Halo Infinite and Starfield before it, it's time to look forward to the next Game of the Decade candidate.
Of course it needs to be hyped up ahead of time 😏
I didn't mean the game itself. I can't believe there is a news article about an Unreal Engine update that launched a year ago.
Reading comprehension is tough for fanboys on N4G.
@MrNinosan I just want to see what Obsidian can do with a real budget and development time. They have a made a some memorable games with massive time constraints an lackluster funding.
Many games stick to a specific version of the Engine they had already been using to avoid delays, problems with migrations to newer stuff etc.
The version being released in September isnt really relevant, just that they decided to make the jump to it at some point in development, which is arguably good news since we know with each iteration, performance has been getting much better
@got_dam
I actually look forward to Avowed, and hope that's the game that finally make my purchase of Series X in 2020 worth it.
The game I actually bought Series X for was Starfield, but sadly it didn't do it for me.
Avowed however has the potential to be incredible.
I liked the games unique artstyle when It was revealed. I hope they're not making the migration based on criticism. It's only a rumor anyways
I imagine the art style will stay the same. But there'll probably be some visual upgrades here and there.
This was the only game I was jealous of, but It's a wait and see game now. Plus, I can wait until they release it on PSN.
Right!!! Obsidian is like only XB GS that I wanna play there games . Pillars of Eternity is one of my fav game franchises and I'd love to step back into the world of Eora . Their world building and rpg systems are one of the best , I hope XB higher ups don't get in the way of them. If they released it on ps I would definitely buy it day 1
In case you were curious, a Steam account transfer via will is not permitted according to an official response from Valve.
Would be nice if the article's writer looked into and reported whether other digital game libraries could be transferred over via will (Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, EGS, EA app, GOG, Ubisoft Connect, Rockstar Launcher etc) instead of this half-baked piece but it's probably the same for all of them anyway
This seems like a way bigger issue than mandatory PSN account linking for PlayStation games.
So where is the outcry?
It's not like PlayStation is doing any different.
"You may not sell, buy, trade, or transfer your Online ID, Account or any personal access to PSN Services through any means or method, including by use of web sites."
https://www.playstation.com...
So you are that saying Steam is being very anti consumer with its policies. That's why I'm so baffled by the lack of outcry from the PC audience.
It's not like your account just stops working when you die. Include your email, account id, and password in the will (including the password to your email) and your survivors should have no problem using your games.
PC gamers are a different lot. They don't mind renting their games forever, they don't mind spending money on overpriced equipment, and they don't mind fiddling with settings for hours before they even play the game, but linking a PSN account demands a riot. This is hard to understand, but then again, we all have to draw our lines somewhere.
You sure talk a lot of nonsense.Go look up the percentage of digital sales compared to physical sales of PS5 games, then tell me again about "renting" games.
There is no option at all to buy a physical copy of a PC game... And more people game on consoles for the reasons that make PC gamers a different lot.
it's not so much the linking but the fact that certain countries aren't allowed to access psn...
@anast I have a disc ps5 since launch, initially I bought some disc games, but I can't be bothered to walk to a physical store nowadays... I just buy the titles when they go on special sale or gray market store like CDKeys...
PSN was a different story altogether. It kept people who bought the game from playing in countries that PSN wasn't supported. I never understood the issue anyway.
I don't know if PC stuff is overpriced considering that you can buy a new video card with the same amount of money you'd spend over 5 or 6 years paying to play games online with a console. I'll never pay double to use the same connection. That is what I'll never understand about console gamers. "let me pay an extra hundred & twenty dollars a year to use the same internet I pay for monthly and use on literally every device in my home for free....except for my Playstation"
@Skuletor about 50-60% of sales are digital for most games. Meaning 40-50% are physical....
@Extermin8or3_
Right and where are you getting that information from?
https://www.statista.com/st...
@anast
"Renting games"
In the fourth fiscal quarter of 2023, approximately 77 percent of Sony Corporation's PlayStation gaming sales were generated via digital downloads.
"overpriced equipment"
Some people are willing to pay a premium for better performance, the way you keep talking about the PS5 Pro on N4G proves you're a hypocrite in that regard but whatever, lol
"fiddling with settings for hours before they even play the game"
Most pc games will give the option to scan your system to choose recommended settings or start with moderate settings that will run the game fine but you're free to mess around at your own leisure, to improve performance or quality if you wish to. For those that don't want to, there's free software that can do that for you, such as Nvidia's Geforce or AMD's AMD Catalyst. Geforce Experience even gives you the option of choosing whether to prioritize performance vs image quality with a simple slider for easy optimization, it's not rocket science, like you try make it out to be.
"linking a PSN account demands a riot"
Playstation selling Helldivers 2 in regions without the legal means to create a PSN account by Sony's own standards, then telling people in those regions that already bought the game that they can no longer play the game, isn't a cause for concern? Though you've already heard about that but keep going along with your own narrative because of your weird vendetta against PC on here.
This is hard to understand, but then again, we all have to draw our lines somewhere.
I don't rent I torrent to keep, if they take them down that's ok I don't care I have them LOL. I do buy PC games but very little as I want full control which is why I torrent to keep them in my collection, and I do not give a fuck what the devs or publishers want. I never did never will.
The only way they will know is when an account is active for 300 years, lol.
The next Witcher game will still be an RPG but players can expect new things as CD Projekt Red want to push boundaries and discover new ways of storytelling.
They were different because they went from being a port studio with there last port being the god awful saints row 2 pc port to making the witcher one.
The first witcher was there first actual game with there own engine the 3rd one showed there years of experience/in house engine improvements.
This witcher game has very very few of the original people behind it and its using unreal engine like so many other games.
The big elephant in the room is that they are now proudly esg supports and go to a panel of esg reps to approve there games now.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
The is cdpr 2020's not the 2010's cdpr we used to know.
https://www.gamesradar.com/...
Take the blood/sex/nudity/adult humor/combat system/rpg mechanics/writing/story charecters/art/design and there passion/drive from the first 3 games throw it in the fucking trash there now you got what they have right now for the witcher 4.
New engine new writing team new everything even esg leadership so yeah "Witcher 4 will be different from Witcher 3"
Didn't know that, disgusting, so i'm going from day 1 purchase to wait and see until i know how bad this gets.
I'll say that cyberpunk 2077 is a great game. Witcher 1 is my favourite game in the series with the 3rd being my least favourite.
We'll see how the new team does.
@risenshine
Never buy day1 regardless of studio
Uggh thanks for pointing out. Didn't realize they sold out to the esg crowd. Too bad, I thought they were one of the few untouched "gamer" developer. Poland was one of the last non-woke countries left but appears they too have caved to the ESG money.
It’s common for people to shit on games before they come out. We haven’t even seen anything of Witcher 4. It could be great it could be mediocre etc. I’m not going to prejudge just because the company has interests in other areas. I only care if the Witcher 4 is good or not.
@jzn
I think you need to look at the games dei/esg have been involved in/ help fund like sr/ss
True but anyone that thinks witcher 3 2.0 combat is bad would never get past the first section of witcher one.
I felt 3 was ok took a long for it to click but I tried 2 and I found combat controls to be my biggest barrier to actually enjoying it was about 50 times clunkier than 3
I thought the weakest point was the copious amount of dialog. Sometimes less is more. I remember clicking through just to get to the objective.
I loved it despite the combat so if they can get that right it'll be an incredible game. The other thing I wasn't fond of was being deluged with loot, quality over quantity for me.
Can someone tell me what they didn’t like about the combat? Was it the pace or something? Because I didn’t have any problem with the combat once I realized it wasn’t a button mashing type of combat…
I honestly like to know.
Weightless, floaty, without impact and generally unsatisfying.
Also on the hardest difficulty you could literally get one shotted by a dwarf with a wooden club despite max gear so there was a hell of a lot of dodging and rolling, as in almost constantly, which didn't add to the fun.
@Nacho: I haven’t played on the hardest difficulty truth be told so I can’t comment on that part.
My build however was a dual wield/aard sign build; knock back enemies and hit them hard + ranged got deflected. I did dodge and roll a lot anyway with this build so it didn’t really bother me, so yeah, fun for me, not for you I guess.
Thx for sharing your thoughts tho.
I would say that, for me, it was the silly cutscenes in the middle of boss fights that didn't match the fight itself.
Example: I mastered the combat early. In one boss fight, I was untouched, flawless. Then a cutscene shows me barely beating the boss toe to toe.
Ciri vs 3 witches. I took down the one from the cutscene first. She's dead. I blink away. Fight, defeat the other two. And blink to the entrance before the cutscene triggered. Suddenly, I'm in the middle of everything with a crone who has long since been defeated and, instead of blinking away, Ciri becomes the dumbest character ever, and stoops to let the very precious token dangle in front of the crone.
Both of those are narrative breaking.
It’s the best of the series. Of course it could improve but at least it’s not Elder Scrolls combat which hasn’t changed since ever.
Bethesda seems like a studio that is "stuck in the same spot". Development wise. Glad CDPR are wary of that element in game design.
They have actually declined from all the systems they had in Morrowind. Acrobatics Athletics is gone. Spells are simpler. Combat hasn’t changed at all. They added a strip of sprint button and you only have enough stamina to run for 10 seconds but you can kill dragons and powerful beings. I could go on but yeah they are stuck in reverse
That is on your mobile device they copied pokemon go few years back
https://www.thewitcher.com/...
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
It was such a flop they removed the videos and removed the link to that article but its still on there servers.
300m for all of those studios and IPs seems like a complete steal. Crazy.
"These are some of the best PC IPs of all time and SE somehow has no idea how to make them successful according to their ballooned expectations. Please sell." ~ Digital Foundry's comment on the news.
Sounds like good news for us for now, let's see if it changes in the future
What a steal honestly, wouldve preffered sony or microsoft to be the ones buying but hey atleast its not tencent.
300 million for all that is a great deal for embracer and I mean what are you thinking SE? Those are some valuable IP's
I really thought they were the acquisition Sony would have made but now I am puzzled by this. So many publishers would have paid more than 300 million for all that. I mean Sony paid over 3.5 billion for Bungie(and before someone comes in and says Sony over paid, Bungie can make Sony a FPS that can compete and beat halo and compete in live service market)