Good morning all. Yes. That’s enough chit-chat we think, so we’ll get the news underway.
Games
Rockstar Games has announced a number of updates for GTA Online. First up is the Deathmatch and Race Creators Beta which arrives this week (today most likely). As the name reveals, players can create and customize Jobs for the following modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Race, GTA Race and Rally Race. This update will be followed (in December) by the addition of ‘Capture’, a “proper GTA twist on classic capture the flag”. Rockstar is also promising more in 2014, including GTA Online Heists, GTAV Story Mode Updates and “much more still to be announced.” [More on Rockstar Newswire]
The Assassin’s Creed IV multiplayer DLC, Blackbeard’s Wrath, is available for Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC from today and for PS3 and PS4 from Wednesday.
Peggle 2 is available from today for the Xbox One. The game will cost you $11.99 and weighs in at 1.72GB.
Payday 2 for PS3 and Dead or Alive 5 Plus for the Vita are the two games on sale in the 12 Deals of Christmas PSN promotion. Payday 2 is €14.99/AU$17.95/£11.99, while Dead or Alive is €19.99/AU$24.95/£14.99, with both discounted an additional 10% for PS Plus subscribers.
Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program ‘day one parity’ requirement means that Australian developer Witch Beam’s twin-stick shooter Assault Android Cactus will not release on Xbox One, but will be available on PC, PlayStation 4, Vita and Wii U. According to the developer: “our plans wouldn’t meet the launch day parity requirement of the ID@Xbox program. We started development on our other console versions long before self-publishing was an option for Xbox One and the only way we could meet that requirement would be to delay the other versions of Cactus.” [More on Eurogamer]
An image leaked on NeoGAF suggests that Alien Isolation may be Creative Assembly’s new game.
Another Battlefield 4 update has been released for the PC version of the game. Several multiplayer bugs including physics improvements, client crashes and frame rate optimizations are fixed by the patch.
Infinity Ward has announced a free ‘Festive Personalization Pack’ for Call of Duty Ghosts. The pack includes weapon camo, player card, reticle and more. The DLC is available for Xbox 360 and PC on 12 December and all other platforms on 18 December. [via eSports Nation]
Hardware
The PSN maintenance conducted yesterday has raised the number of PSP and Vita systems users can tie to their PSN account from two to three. [More on PlayStation Forums]
Do not believe a set of instructions doing the rounds on the internet which claim to be able to make your Xbox One backward compatible with Xbox 360 games – following the instructions will break your console. Major Nelson warned via Twitter: “To be clear there is no way to make your Xbox One backwards compatible & performing steps to attempt this could make your console inoperable”.
Industry
Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, AOL and Yahoo have teamed up to call for “wide-scale changes” to US government surveillance practices. [More on Reform Government Surveillance]
A Guardian article, based on new documents obtained from the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, claims that US and UK spy agencies have assembled technology that collects data from Xbox Live, as well as infiltrating online games like World of Warcraft, to monitor for terrorist activities.
Microsoft has deployed new security features for users. Microsoft Account users (including Xbox Live) will have access to a new menu which will list all recent account logins, with date and time, location, as well as the device and browser logged. The menu will also show successful and unsuccessful account logins – including if an incorrect password was used – and users will let you report any suspicious activity listed via a ‘This wasn’t me’ button. [More on CVG]
The Xbox One sold over 65,000 units in Australia within three days of launch making it the most successful console launch in the country’s history. Apparently, this is all due to Microsoft “listening to the Australian community”. Meanwhile, Australia is facing PS4 shortages due to the demand, however no sales numbers have been revealed for Sony’s console.
Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima says he thinks that the series will live on after he steps away from it, and that he hopes it will go on for “another 25 years”. He also said in the Q&A session with Xbox Wire that Kiefer Sutherland will help them “raise the bar” following his addition to the franchise. [More on Xbox Wire]
Visceral Games is currently hiring for an ‘exciting new IP’. According to job listings, the Dead Space studio is looking for a technical art director and environment artist.
Harmonix – the studio behind Rock Band and Dance Central – has suffered staff cutbacks due to “shifting staffing priorities for future projects”. [More on Gamasutra]
“Konami has requested that Skullgirls be delisted from PSN on December 17… As far as Xbox goes, they have also requested that it be pulled from Xbox on the 31st.” That is the word from Mike Zaimont, design director of the game. This appears to be due to the fact that the studio will soon “not be associated with Konami”. [More on CVG]
Gran Turismo 6 has only sold just over one fifth of its predecessor’s first week numbers in the UK. [via CVG]
EA has donated over $10 million to five different charities from the revenue made from the sale of their Humble Bundle. The American Cancer Society received $1.65 million of it, while the rest was split between the Human Rights Campaign, Watsi, San Francisco AIDS Foundation and American Red Cross. [More on CVG]
GOG.com has introduced a money-back guarantee for its entire catalogue where you can claim a full refund on any title for which your PC meets minimum requirements but you can’t – for whatever reason – properly play the game. The guarantee is valid for 30 days after the initial purchase of the game. [More on Eurogamer]
Videos
Halo: Spartan Assault has been dated for release on the Xbox One and Xbox 360. The Xbox One gets the game first on 24 December at a price of $14.99, while the Xbox 360 version arrives in January 2014. Anyone who has purchased Halo: Spartan Assault for Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 (before 15 December) will be eligible to purchase the Xbox One version of the game at the discounted price of $4.99.
The LEGO Movie Videogame trailer featuring a number of cameos from licensed characters. The game is out February 2014.
A short teaser from Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead: Season Two.
eSports
Riot Games has backtracked on their policy of preventing pro gamers from streaming games that are rivals to League of Legends. You may now – under your LCS contract – stream any game you like. [More on Eurogamer]
