Stadia + YouTube + Google AssistantThere’s already an impressive suite of Google tech, and Stadia will be bringing that to bear in its launch. Games are comingThe first game that was announced for Stadia was Doom Eternal, which will be available on the cloud. Former EA and Ubisoft executive Jade Raymond is at the helm of Stadia Games and Entertainment, a first party in-house Google gaming studio. Google promised major multiplayer potential for Stadia, thanks to the limitation of graphical and la

Yesterday Google unveiled Stadia, a new gaming platform based entirely in the cloud. The technology giant’s decision to forego a traditional console has apparently delighted Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox gaming team. In an internal memo, Spencer calls Google’s announcement a “validation.” He goes on to promise big news at this year’s E3 in Los Angeles. “Today we saw a big tech competitor enter the gaming market,” Spencer wrote, “and frame the necessary ingredients for success as Con

Microsoft has a few last-minute additions to March’s Xbox Game Pass lineup. Starting tomorrow, March 21, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the 2016 Deus Ex sequel, and indie darling What Remains of Edith Finch will be added to the Game Pass library. On March 28, Telltale Games miniseries, The Walking Dead: Michonne, and action RPG Vampyr will arrive on Game Pass, followed by dungeon crawler RPG, Operencia: The Stolen Sun on March 29. They join the titles added to Game Pass earlier this month, Just Cause

Cuphead, one of Microsoft’s most critically acclaimed Xbox exclusives, is coming to Nintendo Switch on April 18. The release date was announced Wednesday during Nintendo’s Nindies Showcase, which focused on independent games coming to Switch. In June 2018, Nintendo released a video promoting cross-play on Switch and the Xbox One. In February, Microsoft announced Xbox Live would arrive on iOS, Android, and Switch. Around the same time, rumors swirled that Microsoft could bring its GamePass and Pr

Indie developer Vlambeer is bringing two of its most beloved games to Nintendo Switch, along with a new experimental project, the company announced during Wednesday’s Nindies Showcase. The developer will launch its top-down roguelike shooter Nuclear Throne on Wednesday, arcade-style platformer-shooter Super Crate Box in April, and a new game compilation titled Vlambeer Arcade later in 2019. Super Crate Box will include a multiplayer mode exclusive to Nintendo Switch. Nuclear Throne was originall

Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda was the big surprise announcement at the end of Wednesday’s Nindies Showcase. Unlike the original Crypt of the NecroDancer, Cadence of Hyrule has an art style that resembles recent portable Zelda adventures. The trailer also features a score inspired by the iconic Legend of Zelda cues, with 25 remixed songs packed in the game. It most recently launched on Nintendo Switch in 2018. Cadence of Hyrule will be released on Switc

Blaster Master Zero 2 is now available on Nintendo Switch. The surprise reveal and launch happened during Wednesday’s Nindies Showcase, which focused on independent games coming to the company’s hybrid console. In a nice bit of symmetry, Nintendo announced the original Blaster Master Zero during its first “Nindies” Nintendo Direct in 2017. That game was a loose remake of the original Blaster Master for the NES. Blaster Master Zero 2, developed by Inti Creates, is available now on Nintendo Switch

Oculus’ newest virtual reality headset is called the Rift S. The $399.99 device, which includes a pair of newly redesigned Touch controllers, will offer higher resolutions for PC gaming and not require external sensors. The Rift S will feature a display for each eye that’s 1280 pixels wide and 1440 pixels tall. The original Rift only offered displays that were 1080 pixels wide and 1200 pixels tall. In addition, the Rift S will not require external tracking sensors. Oculus stressed that the new R

The three most recent games from French studio Quantic Dream — Detroit: Become Human, Beyond: Two Souls, and Heavy Rain — are all PlayStation exclusives at the moment, but they’re on their way to Windows PC with the help of Epic Games, the companies announced Wednesday at the 2019 Game Developers Conference. The company “partnered with” Epic to bring the titles to PC, according to the announcement. In January, Quantic Dream announced that it had taken an investment from Chinese internet company

Epic Games announced a batch of new exclusive titles for its digital game store at its annual Game Developers Conference keynote today, including two titles from Take-Two’s Private Division label: Obsidian Entertainment’s sci-fi role-playing game The Outer Worlds and Panache Digital’s Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, the new game from Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Désilets. The Outer Worlds’ exclusivity on the Epic Games Store is limited, however. Obsidian’s game will also be available throu

The Epic Games Store is off to a promising start. But the real news comes from the launch of Metro Exodus, an Epic Games Store exclusive. Metro Exodus has sold two and a half times more copies on the Epic Games Store than Metro Last Light sold in the same amount of time on Steam. “The Epic Games Store will make many hundreds of millions of dollars for developers this year,” Allison said during the presentation. Still, the message is there: There are a lot of players on the Epic Games Store, and

Quest campaignsTall Tales looks like a new way to play Sea of Thieves. The ArenaRare will bundle The Arena, a previously announced PVP expansion, into the anniversary update. What’s especially exciting is that the anniversary trailer showed off what might be a new ship, as well as new ways to damage ships. Some smaller systems were showcased in the anniversary trailer, including fishing and cooking. The anniversary update, another free addition to the current Sea of Thieves game, will be made av

At Epic Games’ Game Developers Conference keynote today, the company gave developers and fans an updated look at how the company’s Unreal Engine is bringing us closer and closer to photorealistic computer-generated graphics. Two short films and a demonstration of Epic’s new physics engine, all of which were rendered in real time, highlighted some of the advancements coming in upcoming versions of Unreal Engine. During today’s demonstration, Epic Games engineer Nick Penwarden noted that “Troll” w

Konami will release three Anniversary Collection compilations in 2019 based on the company’s Castlevania franchise, Contra franchise, and its early arcade games. The Konami Anniversary Collections are timed with the company’s 50th anniversary, and will be released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC via Steam, and Xbox One. Also coming in early summer is the Contra: Anniversary Collection. Confirmed for the eight-game collection so far are Contra (arcade), Super Contra (arcade), Super

The company plans to make a major gaming-related announcement at its GDC 2019 keynote on Tuesday, March 19. Today’s keynote will offer what Google calls its “vision for the future of gaming.” Whatever it’s working on, it’s clear that streaming — specifically cloud-based gaming — will be a big part of it. Google unveiled Project Stream last year, a tech demo that made it possible to stream Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey through a Google Chrome browser. But Google is also reportedly working on

Google’s gaming service and hardware announcement, keynote, and details Everything you need to know about Google’s new gaming-related announcementToday at the 2019 Game Developers Conference, Google will announce a brand new gaming-related project. Details from the keynote are incoming; we’ll update this storystream as Google reveals more information. Today’s keynote will offer what Google calls its “vision for the future of gaming.” While more details are still to be seen, we do know that Googl

Activision and Tencent are bringing Call of Duty to mobile devices in the West with Call of Duty: Mobile, a free-to-play game that will draw inspiration from the Black Ops and Modern Warfare franchises. Call of Duty: Mobile is being developed by Tencent’s Timi studio for Android and iOS devices. Call of Duty: Mobile was revealed during today’s Unity keynote at GDC. The game will offer a “definitive” Call of Duty experience on mobile, Activision VP of mobile Chris Plummer said in a release. Playe

Former Valve writer Chet Faliszek and former Riot Games technical designer Kimberly Voll announced their new studio ahead of this week’s Game Developers Conference. Faliszek is best known for his work at Valve, where he wrote for games like Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life 2. Now he’s teaming up with Voll “to create games that give players a place to breathe and live in the moment. And where AI drives not just the enemies but helps drive the entire experience.”Voll’s work at Riot Games focused

The new driver will allow the GTX cards in question to play games with real-time ray tracing features. Adding RTX support to GTX cards is undeniably a positive step for Nvidia and the advancement of graphics technology. For that reason, it’s a big deal that Nvidia is extending ray tracing support to GTX cards. Without those cores on the silicon, GTX cards will only be able to support a reduced implementation of ray tracing. For instance, Battlefield 5’s RTX-powered reflections are a relatively s

While the most important points of interest (like missions and SHD tech cache locations) are clearly labeled on your map, you’ll have to explore to find most of the game’s other collectibles. Thankfully, a player-made website does all the hard work for you, revealing every location you’ll need to know about in an interactive map for The Division 2. The aptly named The Division 2 Map lets players sort through key locations throughout the game like points of interest, collectible locations, where