To find out more about the decision to hop on over to Microsoft’s side of town, I sat down with marketing manager Archer Wang. We also discussed what the studio hopes to gain from dropping Naraka: Bladepoint on Game Pass, and how the team aims to balance the game now that they’ve got a whole new audience to worry about. VG247: So, Naraka: Bladepoint is coming to Xbox! Why bring it to Game Pass alongside a typical Xbox release?...

If you are still playing NBA 2K18, you will no longer be able to take it online after January 18. According to 2K Games, any mode that earns or uses VC will be affected. This includes other online functions such as MyTEAM mode and online matches against other players. You will still be able to play offline quick games along with MyGM and MyCAREER modes. Doing so will earn you SP instead of VC....

Need for Speed Heat’s newest update just went live on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. The biggest addition in today’s patch is cross-play, making Heat the first ever EA game support the feature. Players on all platforms can opt into the cross-play, which allows them to play with friends on other platforms. To facilitate this, you’ll find a new EA Friends tab, a system-agnostic account that appears across all platforms....

Last night, the Square Enix Twitter account posted a new trailer for the game that showed off some new elements and gameplay – but there was one little morsel it seems they didn’t intend to share: the confirmation that a demo is coming to the game. A splash screen at the end of the video in the now-deleted tweet read “Play the demo now!” Oops. Following the apparently accidental sharing of the video, the company released the final version of the trailer – which you can see below....

A recent Reddit post from “jaleCro” drew attention to the mishap. “Apparently Niantic thinks that Split belongs to Italy like it did during WW2, and we got our raid day canceled without notification,” the post reads. “Jokes aside, they seem to be using cells that are too big, since Split is 200km away from Italy. I guess this was the cell, based on reports.” As you can see, the cell in question encompasses both the east coast of Italy and Split, Croatia’s second-biggest city....

The new information came to light on Twitter, where a user who goes by the handle Storm Yorha shared details sourced from a page collecting the latest Nier news from Japanese games magazine Famitsu. You can check out the tweet below. According to this new information, Replicant is “much more than a remaster” and features gameplay designed to accommodate players whose first experience with the series was Nier: Automata. It has also been confirmed that staff members from PlatinumGames have been consulting on Replicant....

While the format of this battle is a little different to what you’ve come up against so far - there’s still a fair amount of cross-over in the attack patterns. Because of the Daidara Bocci’s unique size - even bigger than the Gyuki - you need to finesse your positioning more than usual. If you try to square up to this big boy then you’re just going to get squished....

As per an announcement on the Oculus site, the headset will soon enjoy a suite of upgrades that’ll allow you to use it untethered from your PC – meaning you can enjoy virtual reality with no strings attached, so to speak. Previously, it was only possible to play games wirelessly with an Oculus Quest 2 if they were installed natively on the device. When this new update rolls out, though, you will be able to opt into an experimental new feature called Air Link which the company bills as “a completely wireless way to play PC VR content on Quest 2 using WiFi”....

In a tweet on Saturday, Destiny 2 developer Bungie noted that Trials of Osiris had been taken offline “due to an issue with fireteam rejoin functionality”. This isn’t the first time this has happened, either: the game was taken offline last weekend in the wake of match-fixing issues that were spreading through the PvP end-game challenge. Basically, players are exploiting bugs that allow them to trade wins for easy Flawless runs and net the end-game Osiris gear in without winning against other players like you’re supposed to....

There’s no wonder the muddy streets of these forsaken Paris suburbs are deserted, it’s not even safe for me – Aegis, Marie Antoinette’s personal clockwork bodyguard – and I’ve got a bag full of swords and a gun that shoots ice bullets. So as I naively rounded the grimy corner into a head-on ambush by a wind-up spearman with limbs like Jack Skellington but without the sense of humour, was I really surprised when a pair of mechanized big cats appeared behind me to complete the trap?...

Outriders has found itself in a rather nice spot. April is barren of new releases until the very end of the month, giving the People Can Fly shooter a nice bit of runway to establish itself with a gaming community eager for something new. Early impressions suggest Outriders might be worth the investment (or download on Xbox Game Pass), but boy does it get off to a rocky start. Everyone can point to a game with a memorable opening....

According to the developer, there were some issues with connectivity over the launch weekend of Outriders (thanks, Massively OP). People Can Fly said the issue stemmed from the externally hosted database seeing issues that only appeared at extreme loads. “After working on Outriders for more than five years, we were as disappointed as you that the launch weekend did not go as planned,” said People Can Fly. “We ran into connectivity issues, [but] our team worked throughout the Easter weekend and around the clock to resolve the server issues players were experiencing....

Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can play three games for free this weekend. The games are Overwatch: Origins Edition, Wreckfest, and F1 2020. The free period kicks off today and runs through Sunday, August 23 at 11:59pm PDT. That’s Monday, August 24 at 2:59am EDT, 7:59am BST. Overwatch progress and items you earn during the trial will carry over after your game purchase. Plus, the Overwatch Summer Games event is currently going on until August 25....

Overwatch Season 21 has started, and with it is the implementation of Hero Pools. As previously detailed, Blizzard will disable a few heroes from Competitive Play for a given week, and each week will feature a new pool of heroes. Each hero selection is curated by the design team instead of randomly, and again, it only affects competitive play. The studio is trying out the new system for this season, and depending on how it performs, it may or may not stay active past the end of the season Blizzard’s goal with the new system is to allow more hero diversity in matches by allowing the meta to change weekly....

If you have a linked console account, you will be prompted at login to “identify, select, and confirm” the accounts you want to merge. Once approved, Blizzard will prepare your accounts to be merged during the release of Overwatch 2. The platforms included in account merge are Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC. To play Overwatch 2, you will need a Battle.net account to play the game regardless of the platform....

The rules for the Appalachia Marathon, as outlined on Reddit, are as follows: The event organizer, Marine_Mustang, has also listed their own result of 17 minutes and 10 seconds, beating current world record holder Eliud Kipchoge’s real-world time by a whopping 1 hour, 42 minutes, and 30 seconds. You want proof? Check out the video below. Marine_Mustang also listed their marathon build. Remember, the rules state that performance enhancing drugs are not only allowed but are actively encouraged in the Appalachia Marathon....

Sony appears to have brought the release date of its various PlayStation 5 accessories forward in the UK, allowing eager players to get their hands on the hardware from November 12. The PS5 itself isn’t actually scheduled to launch on European shores until a week later – on November 19 – but it seems Sony has allowed retailers to start selling off peripherals on the US console launch date. So if you’re particularly desperate to get your hands on a PlayStation 5 pad, the console’s HD Camera, a Media Remote, or the 3D Wireless Pulse Headset you’ll be able to nab them earlier from some retailers, as SimplyGames states above....

This is according to journalist Jeff Grubb speaking in a Giant Bomb video, who stated that “Wild is dead.” It seems that with the retirement of studio head Michel Ancel, the “project got shut down,” and the “team that was working on it was looking at maybe trying to stay together and work on other projects.” “I don’t know what happened with that, but they were like, ‘we’re not working on [Wild] anymore, but we do have a lot of talent here, so maybe we can work on some stuff’”, said Grubb (via VGC)....

Sony’s first quarter of FY2020 (April-June 2020) has been PlayStation’s best ever in terms of revenue, at $5.63 billion. During the quarter, PS4 shipped 1.9 million units, bringing total lifetime shipments to 112.3 million. The figure is certainly up over last quarter’s 1.4M, but significantly down compared to the same period last fiscal year (3.2 million). This downturn in hardware sales is expected, as the console approaches its final days ahead of the launch of PS5....

If you’re unfamiliar, Jump-Start Research is a single special research task that’s designed to help players that are new to the Pokemon Go experience, or lapsed players that are returning after a while away. The six-part Jump-Start research quests introduce you to all of the key aspects of the game - from hatching eggs and taking snapshots to doing battle in raids or against other trainers. Meanwhile, its rewards help you to get some decent-quality iconic Pokemon like a Dragonite, Lapras, and a shiny Eevee....