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Ubisoft+ now has a single Premium plan for all platforms, Classics plan also launches on PC by John Callaham Game publisher Ubisoft is once again altering its game subscription service that started out as Uplay+ in 2019, and later got renamed to Ubisoft+ in 2020. Starting today, Ubisoft+ Multi-Access and PC Access will be merged and renamed as Ubisoft+ Premium, while there will also be a cheaper Ubisoft+ Classics on PC. In a blog post, Ubisoft stated that the newly named Ubisoft+ Premium will still cost $17.99 a month and will offer all of the publisher's new games as day-one releases, and sometimes as early releases. That includes Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown which is now available on Ubisoft+ Premium three days before it is generally available on January 18. The service will still offer players access to lots of older games from Ubisoft's library of titles, which will include premium editions of those games and DLC content. It's available for Xbox, PC, and Amazon Luna users, and one subscription will allow gamers to play those games across all those platforms. The Ubisoft+ Classics plan is now also available for PC users costing $7.99 a month. That service only contains older games from the publisher like Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Siege, and Watch Dogs: Legion. Ubisoft+ Classics has been available at no extra cost for PlayStation+ Extra and PlayStation+ Premium subscribers since last year. There's no word on if Ubisoft+ Classics will be made available for Xbox and Luna users at some point. While the publisher has not revealed subscriber numbers for Ubisoft+, the blog post claims that in 2023 "we're above projection in terms of subscribers joining the program" and that in "October alone we reached the highest month since launch in terms of monthly active users" That was likely due to the release of Assassin's Creed Mirage, which Ubisoft said was its biggest game launch for current generation consoles.

Intel's latest Windows WHQL driver supports all 14th Gen CPUs, the new Prince of Persia game by Sayan Sen At CES 2024 this past week, Intel completed the unveiling of its 14th Gen Raptor Lake-S refresh (desktop) lineup with the release of its locked non-K lineup which performs fairly close to the unlocked K models while also not being super-power hungry. This includes the Core i9-14900, i7-14700, and more. On the mobile front, Intel also released its 14th Gen HX SKUs and Core Series 1 U SKUs. The flagship HX part, Intel says, is even faster than AMD's Ryzen 9 7945X3D in most cases. Today, with the latest Windows WHQL driver, versions 31.0.101.5085 and 31.0.101.5122, Intel has added support for these new processors. And in terms of game support, the driver is said to be optimized for the new Prince of Persia title The Lost Crown. The full changelog is given below: HIGHLIGHTS: Support for 14th Gen Intel ® Core™ S/HX-Series processors. GAMING HIGHLIGHTS: Intel® Game On Driver support on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics for: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown KNOWN ISSUES: Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics Products: Alan Wake 2* (DX12) may exhibit white corruption on reflective surfaces when Transparency is set to Off. A workaround is to set Transparency to Low or High. Dead by Daylight* (DX11) may experience an application crash during gameplay. Topaz Video AI* may experience errors when using some models for video enhancement. Intel® Smooth Sync may not work as expected with certain DX11 games. Intel® Core™ Ultra with Intel® Arc™ Graphics Products: Diablo 4* (DX12) may exhibit corruption on the terrain during gameplay. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection* (DX12) may experience application crash after loading into gameplay. The Talos Principle 2* (DX12) may experience an application crash during gameplay with certain Upscaling Presets. Autodesk Maya* may experience application crash while running SPECAPC* benchmark. Blender* may experience application crash while rendering some scenes on certain system memory configurations. Topaz Video AI* may experience errors when using some models for video enhancement. Intel® Iris™ X e MAX Graphics Products: Driver installation may not complete successfully on certain notebook systems with both Intel® Iris™ Xe + Iris™ Xe MAX devices. A system reboot and re-installation of the graphics driver may be required for successful installation. Intel® Core™ Processor (12th -14th Generation) Products: Dragon Quest X Online* (DX9) may experience sporadic application crash during gameplay. INTEL® ARC™ CONTROL KNOWN ISSUES: Using Arc Control Studio capture with certain games may incorrectly generate multiple video files. The “Connector” type in the Display page may incorrectly show DP* when using an HDMI* display connection. Arc Control Studio capture recording file may become corrupted when the mouse cursor is enabled during HDR capture. Camera preview may turn off after the system goes into connected standby mode. To download the latest Intel driver, versions 31.0.101.5085 and 31.0.101.5122, head over to this page on Intel's official website. The driver is compatible with Windows 10 20H2 (October 2020 update) and newer. It supports Intel 11th Gen and newer processors, as well as the DG1 (Iris Xe Max) discrete GPUs; essentially everything that's based on the Xe-LP architecture (Arc GPUs are Xe-HPG).

Star Wars Outlaws is set for release in 2024, according to Disney blog post [Update] by John Callaham Update: 1:45 pm ET - The Disney Parks post has now been updated, stating only that Star Wars Outlaws is due in 2024, with no specific time frame. Original story - While we knew that Star Wars Outlaws, the open-world game set in the Star Wars original film trilogy timeline, was scheduled to come out sometime in 2024, a new article posted today on the Disney Parks blog seems to narrow that release time frame a bit more. The blog post mentions that the game "is set to release late this year." That would mean that Star Wars Outlaws will likely compete with a number of other major titles that will likely be released during that time frame, including the next Call of Duty title, Hellblade 2, and others. Star Wars Outlaws was officially announced in June 2023 during Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase. Publisher Ubisoft then posted a gameplay trailer and more info on the title which will be developed by the publisher's Massive Entertainment team. The game will be set in between the films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. As the name of the game indicates, Star Wars Outlaws will focus on the movie universe's gangsters and smugglers. The player will control the character of Kay Vess, a smuggler in the vein of Han Solo who has to think on her feet in order to complete her missions and, more importantly, get paid by her rather shady employers. Ubisoft claims the game will allow players to "explore distinct planets with bustling cities and cantinas" and the gameplay trailers also showcase some space travel and battles as well. Star Wars Outlaws is definitely not the only upcoming game set in a galaxy far, far, away. We are still awaiting a status update on Star Wars: Eclipse from developer Quantic Dream that's set in the High Republic timeline. It was first announced over three years ago. Electronic Arts has some Star Wars games in development as well, including a first person shooter from developer Respawn, and a strategy game from developer Bit Reactor.

Ubisoft delists the first game in The Crew racing series; servers will shut down March 31 by John Callaham The final races for players of Ubisoft' first game in The Crew franchise are now in sight. The publisher has confirmed that the racing game has been delisted from its various digital stores and that its online servers will shut down after March 31, 2024. Ubisoft stated the reason for this decision in a blog post: We understand this may be disappointing for players still enjoying the game, but it has become a necessity due to upcoming server infrastructure and licensing constraints. Decommissioning a game, and especially our first one, is not something we take lightly. Our goal remains to provide the best action driving gameplay experience for players and to deliver on it, we are continuing to provide new content and support for The Crew 2 and the recently launched The Crew Motorfest. Depending on the refund terms of the digital store, players may be eligible to get a refund if they have recently purchased The Crew. The game was originally developed by Ubisoft Ivory Tower and released by Ubisoft in December 2014 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC. The Crew was notable for offering racing game fans a persistent open world. It was set in a smaller virtual version of the United States, and used RPG elements in its single-player campaign, where your character has to infiltrate criminal groups. Multiplayer modes support up to eight players in various racing modes. The game had two post-release expansion packs. The Crew ended up being successful, and Ubisoft launched a sequel, The Crew 2, in 2018. Earlier this year, the third and latest game in the series, The Crew: Motorfest, was released, with a virtual open-world setting of the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. Ubisoft says players of that game can expect "new seasons, content, vehicles, playlists, and more" for that game in the months and years to come.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora review: A gorgeous but generic experience by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe It was 14 years ago that Ubisoft first let gamers enter James Cameron's sci-fi universe with Avatar: The Game. Movie tie-in games like that have all but died out since then, but all these years, and another movie, later Ubisoft is taking another crack at it with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Round two isn't a tie-in like last time either, with Division veteran studio Massive Entertainment taking the reins of the project as lead developer for a full-fledged, AAA, open-world adventure that's canon to the movie universe but follows its own storyline. From the moment I saw the game in action during Ubisoft's initial gameplay reveal, I was convinced that it was going to be an Avatar flavored Far Cry game, and I was also quite ok with that. Pandora's guerilla warfare-style action felt appropriate for the kind of experience that Far Cry offers. Massive says it has collaborated heavily with James Cameron's production company Lightstorm Entertainment as well as Disney to make sure that the experience is both authentic to the ongoing big screen journey while also being independent enough to show off its world building skills. Now that I've put a couple of dozen hours into the game, it's clear that the experience has taken inspiration from multiple open-world entries for its gameplay systems, but the Far Cry comparison is the most apt. If you've played a game from the Ubisoft action series, you'll be right at home in Massive's take on Pandora. Unfortunately, it's something I started wishing wasn't the case as my hour count increased. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora PC version is what got the chance to experience for this piece. I've kept story details to a minimum in this review to make it free from spoilers as much as possible. The attached screenshots are also mostly of environments and wildlife. Here are my thoughts on Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment's newest open world adventure Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. A new but familiar side of Pandora I'm willing to bet that a majority of people jumping into this game are interested in simply entering the alien world of Pandora and exploring its vistas. This is where this game excels at. The spectacle that is the Avatar universe is always on full display, from lush jungles covered by mist to giant windswept plains and the floating mountains, I'd say Massive delivers enough eye candy to probably fill out three games, not one. Being a first-person game, you're up close and personal with everything it has to offer. The starting region is essentially the first movie but in video game form. The absolutely massive Kinglor Forest feels like it goes on forever, with only rivers, waterfalls, and roots of ancient trees managing to cut through the landscape. Another neat element is being used to the size of the Na'vi and their habitats, then going near human-made structures and realizing just how small everything is. Crouching through "regular-sized" doors, seeing tiny furniture, and looking down on humans like they are children is humorous. The iconic alien flora and fauna from the big screen have been translated to our more interactive medium with impressive detail too. Running through fields of spiral "weeds" have them ducking out of sight, helicopter-like bugs (or seeds?) hover lazily beneath thick canopies, lit up, neon-like vines grow out of the earth inside caves. At the same time, getting chased by giant alien wildlife the size of dinosaurs through the forests as you hear the everything being trampled behind you feels appropriately scary. The game makes it a spectacle when you finally get to move on and experience a brand-new area, and the second region, the Upper Plains, quickly became my favorite. The much more open-ended grassy plains with scattered treacherous cliffs and its unique "bent" landscape that has formed due to eons of high winds are a sight to look at. I should mention that each region has its own flavors of biomes, plants, wildlife, as well as resources to gather. As expected, once you unlock your flying Ikran mount, the exploration possibilities become endless. The tops of massive waterfalls, floating mountains, or airborne RDA platforms that felt impossible to each are suddenly just a quick jaunt on your Ikran away. Something I really appreciate is the game having no issues with me using the mount to skip platforming puzzles in the open world to get upgrades and collectables. If I'm in no mood to run and jump through a maze of caves and mountains, I can simply swoop to the item directly, grab it, and swoop back out without any issues. There is technically another type of "biome" that appears in all regions: Polluted areas that humans have built RDA facilities in. You can spot these from quite a distance away thanks to the huge amount of smoke they emit. The environments surrounding these locations are essentially poisoned and dying until our Na'vi protagonist does something about that. There is a day-night cycle too, meaning every piece of gorgeous scenery has plenty of more to offer in other lighting conditions, especially during the night when the nearby gas giant and other its moons become much more prominent in the sky. Thankfully, the quickly accessible photomode has a slider to change the time of day if you're curious. Story and missions While we are on the same moon where the movies take place in, the focus is on the Western Frontier, an entirely new continent where the battle between the native clans of Na'vi and the Resources Development Administration (RDA) human forces continue. We play the role of one orphaned Na'vi kidnapped, raised, and trained by humans to be soldiers/ambassadors, but due to the events of the first movie, plans fall through, and we return to the jungles of Pandora to join the resistance, kicking off the adventure. Three Na'vi clans occupy this side of the moon, each with their own unique customs, skills, and methods of living with nature. For being a part of an almost extinct, but highly respected, clan of Na'vi named Sarentu, we are given the important job of gaining favor and uniting the trio against the RDA and cleansing the continent. As you can expect, not everyone is very keen on an all-out war against the "Sky People". Convincing the heads of clans that it is possible to beat the humans, their machines, and polluting factories, is what you will be doing in the main quests, while side stories involve helping with minor community squabbles and research involving Na'vi and allied humans. The main storyline is a simple one, and you can see the twists coming from a Pandoran mile away. Still, with compelling characters, it would have sufficed to deliver a strong narrative. Unfortunately, the missions mostly involve talking to NPCs before running off to do the given errand, with a short cutscene at the beginning and end. I had trouble connecting with any of the Na'vi clan members or human allies. Despite there being a resistance force that we are somehow expanding rapidly, there is no concept of working alongside an ally during a mission or receiving help while exploring the open world. This has been an issue with Far Cry games as well, but at least they have evolved to include dynamic interactions like calling in help from a companion in later entries. Radio conversations and small scripted sequences are the sole interactions you have with NPCs in Frontiers of Pandora. For being a living breathing world, it can certainly feel quite lonely here. Having access to such a massive open world with a focus on exploration also backfires in this situation. I sometimes spent hours in between missions hunting animals for materials, gathering skill points from far away points, and simply wandering around (totally not because I got lost) before jumping back into a main mission. By that time, I had forgotten where I left things off. Even the main villains from the RDA, John Mercer and Angela Harding, barely get any screen time after the introductory cutscene. I had to remind myself "oh yeah, they are the big baddies" whenever they have a line or two over the radio in missions much later. Gameplay If you've played a Far Cry game before, that's basically the gameplay loop in Frontiers of Pandora, just in the body of a giant blue alien. You'll be hunting wildlife for upgrade materials, upgrading skill trees, cooking food, finding collectibles, and calling your flying mount like a taxi whenever it's needed. Thanks to the human training our protagonist has received, we also have access to some heavy human weaponry like machine guns and RPGs, but I found myself ignoring most of these in favor of the Na'vi's more primitive but powerful armaments. Just like in the movies, the primary opponents the Na'vi face in the game are humans, which come in a few flavors: regular soldiers with guns, the mech suits, as well as flying machines that serve as air support with machine guns or reinforcement troop deployers. Taking down puny humans with bows, that basically fire small trees as arrows, is satisfying. However, while different variants of these troops show up as the story progresses to offer more of a threat, fighting waves of soldiers and mechs become stale quite quickly. The variants mostly arrive with more plates of armor on their weak points, simply making them bullet sponges (or arrow sponges) instead of offering anything creative. Ubisoft games are well known for their "clear this area and take back the land" objectives. Unfortunately, the outpost missions here don't feel very fleshed out. You must either kill everyone and then flip highlighted switches or sneak around and flip the switches. Something like turning Pandora's nature against the human forces, converting wild animals to fight for you, or calling in allies from the tribes you've allied with, all of which actually transpire in the movies, would have made these sections much more exciting and varied. Instead, fighting becomes a game of hide and seek while continuously crafting arrows to spam into the same RDA units that become increasingly bullet spongy. Frontiers of Pandora does not feature an XP system, and killing RDA provides no rewards for players. Considering the Na’vi position in this war, it’s a good way to emphasize that this is a freedom fighter story. The game always pushes you to craft or buy the latest gear and earn more skill points by presenting a Combat Strength system, which compares your health and damage output against upcoming quests’ enemy power. This is basically instructing you not to speed run the game and have a bad time. Skill upgrades do add a few interesting things into the mix, like being able to pull out pilots from stunned mechs for an instakill and air takedowns for your flying mount. But in the five trees of unlocks available, there are simply too many that offer percentage-based stat upgrades or stuff like extra inventory space for ammo and resources. Now we come to the minigames, a way too common feature for a game touting so many speedy traveling systems and freedom. The pacing issues this causes was definitely a frustration. Every time you pick up a resource, you’ll be doing a mini-game. Need to unlock an outpost as a fast travel point? Mini-game. Want to take down a mech without alerting enemies? Why not a maze clearing mini-game while enemies still roam around. Thankfully, several accessibility settings in the options allow you automate these interactions. But they still take time to finish, just without the complexity. Perhaps my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be, but I also found difficulties with following objectives and finding quest givers, even with the “Guided” mode enabled. Having Guided mode points out objectives with a hovering light whenever you use your “avatar vision” technique, and without it, you must use the quest’s written descriptions (like south of a certain river next to a specific tent) to find your way through the massive regions. It’s very easy to get disoriented on where you need to go due to the density of the jungles, even NPCs and traversal points blend into the greenery quite easily. I was spending more time deciphering the map than traveling there. If you think having Guided mode enabled would be the solution, there is a slight issue. While you do receive a marker to follow, it disappears when the objective is in the vicinity, and if it’s a base with multiple floors containing a wealth of NPCs, it takes much longer than it should to simply accept or finish a quest. Performance To put it simply, you need a powerful rig to run this game well. My Lenovo Legion 5 Pro housing an RTX 3060 Laptop GPU with 6GB VRAM, an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, and 16GB of RAM (running on an NVMe) is barely able to hold an average of 60FPS in 1200p (1920x1200, 16:10 display). I have embedded results of the built-in benchmark runs below, which were performed with each graphics preset while having all upscaling options disabled. While there aren’t any explicit ray tracing settings to enable or disable, turning up specific graphics options does kick these intensive options into high gear, at least according to the tooltips, as I couldn’t tell the difference in most cases. The good news is that the game manages to look good even on low graphics, and a lot of the performance issues are in the starting region. Like with most games nowadays, upscaling tech from all three major graphics vendors are available to help with reaching stable frame rates. This includes AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), Nvidia Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), and Intel Xe Super Sampling (XeSS). AMD’s solution is the most advanced option available, with even the latest FSR 3 frame generation tech being available. Unfortunately, using this in sub-60FPS situations made the game feel both smooth and jumpy to play, with artifacts also appearing whenever one of the many screen distortion effects would show up in-game. DLSS and XeSS both presented a picture with a much blurrier and shimmering presentation compared to FSR 3, which I would describe as being not great to look at. The extensive use of particle effects in Pandora meant artifacts were a common occurrence whenever it rained, fog rolled in, while swimming, or any kind of shimmering showed up. However, it seems that this is the original version of DLSS and not DLSS 2 or 3 with their huge optimizations and the latest frame generation tech. For most of the game, I stuck to using a mix of low-medium settings with FSR 2 set to Balanced, averaging around 60FPS. I also ran into texture streaming issues. Skins and clothes of characters, assets, and ground textures would get stuck in a muddy state without displaying any detail for extended periods of time, even during cutscenes. You might catch the effect in action in some of the screenshots I’ve embedded too. I expect this is why even the minimum for the game requires 8GB of VRAM. Conclusion Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a mixed bag. The dense jungles are a joy to explore a feast for the eyes, with Massive managing to capture the feeling of exploring an alien world effectively. The freedom while flying, exploration elements of diving into caves and climbing floating mountains, as well as the movie-authentic flora and fauna all combine for an optimal experience for a fan of the franchise or someone who simply loves exploration. At the same time, the predictable storyline, the tiny amount of enemy variety, stale missions, and momentum breaking mini-games make the rest of the experience a boring one. The uninteresting supporting characters and forgettable villains also make the main storyline a chore instead of something to look forward to. Things I expected to see in an Avatar open world game like using nature and wildlife against the invading humans, or calling in allied Na’vi for battles, or even having companions are simply not there. Instead, it’s filled with quests that have you clearing outposts by flipping levers, fighting waves of repetitive enemies, and plenty of “go here and scan that” or “collect this much of this” missions. With so many open-world games under its belt, it’s bizarre for me to see a Ubisoft-published come out that feels like it has forgotten all the lessons from the last decade. There is a in-game cash shop to buy cosmetic items though. Saying 2023 has been an awesome year for gaming is an understatement. Month after month we've been getting blockbusters from all sides. While Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora probably won't be on be on my mind when I look back at this year's greatest games, this is easily the best option for fans of the Avatar universe to experience the alien world and its vistas first-hand, even with its sour points. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora launches on December 7 across Ubisoft Connect, Epic Games Store, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 for $69.99. It will also be available on Ubisoft+ subscription service on day one across PC and Xbox. This review was conducted on a pre-release PC copy of the game provided by the publisher.

AMD releases driver dedicated to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora support by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Ubisoft next major game is only a week away from launch and AMD has already prepared a special driver for it. The AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.30.13.01 for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora driver is now available for Radeon users. Set in James Cameron's Avatar universe, Frontiers of Pandora will be a canon experience developed by Massive Entertainment. Players take the role of a Na'vi soldier trained by the humans who are now fighting back with local tribes against the RDA. The first-person experience is similar in scope and gameplay to a Far Cry entry, though with a more sci-fi flair. The title is launching on December 7. AMD has not detailed any specifics on the release notes as to what sort of improvements can players expect to see with the dedicated driver in Frontiers of Pandora . However, it is a recommended install for anyone jumping in on day one. The recently shared system requirements for the title revealed some hefty hardware being needed to hit even the minimum 30FPS targets. Being an AMD-backed game, the company's latest frame generation tech FSR 3 will be available from launch. The driver doesn't have any new bug fixes. The known issues are these: Audio may intermittently become out of sync with video when recording from AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition with AV1 codec. Intermittent corruption may be observed on the racetrack while playing EA Sports WRC. Stars may intermittently fail to appear while playing Crysis Remastered. Intermittent micro-stuttering may be experienced when running Chromium-based browsers on systems that pair a Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPU with a secondary display connected to an AMD Ryzen™ 7000 series processor. The AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.30.13.01 driver can now be downloaded via the standalone download link in the official release notes page here. This is not a WHQL-certified release, so expect a standard driver launch to arrive with support for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and other fixes soon.

The Beyond Good and Evil 20th Anniversary Edition was briefly listed on the Xbox Store by John Callaham Update: 10:50 am Eastern time - Ubisoft has officially posted word on X that the Beyond Good and Evil 20th Anniversary game is indeed in the works, but we will have to wait until early 2024 to learn more: Well, looks like the cat’s out of the bag, dagnammit. Happy 20th anniversary to Beyond Good & Evil! While we cannot wait to show you more about this special edition, more news to come in early 2024! pic.twitter.com/cNxHGTnmdU — Beyond Good and Evil 2 (@bgegame) November 29, 2023 Original story - Ubisoft has not officially announced this game yet, but for a brief few minutes on Tuesday evening, Microsoft's Xbox Store had an listing for Beyond Good and Evil 20th Anniversary Edition. As noted by "Wario64" on X (formerly Twitter) the listing also had a description of the critically acclaimed action-adventure game, which first debuted in November 2003: Beyond Good & Evil - 20th Anniversary Edition listed on Xbox Store: https://t.co/xDHeD3JJWC Swoop into the marvelous world of Hillys as action-reporter Jade to investigate the mysterious DomZ alien attacks alongside colorful characters, like her adoptive uncle Pey’j or the… pic.twitter.com/zcuRkZbEFx — Wario64 (@Wario64) November 29, 2023 Swoop into the marvelous world of Hillys as action-reporter Jade to investigate the mysterious DomZ alien attacks alongside colorful characters, like her adoptive uncle Pey’j or the valiant Double H. Embark on this epic adventure in up to 4K, 60 fps with improved graphics, controls, and audio, along with brand-new autosave and cross-save features. Enjoy exclusive new rewards as you explore the planet and discover more about Jade’s past in a new treasure hunt throughout Hillys. Put your skills to the test thanks to the new speedrun mode and updated achievements, and learn more about the game’s development and secrets in the anniversary gallery! The game's listing shows that it will be released for the Xbox One console as well as the Xbox Series X and S consoles. In addition, the game was briefly available to download and play via the Ubisoft+ subscription service. While the game was taken down from the Xbox Store and Ubisoft+ pretty quickly, it still allowed some gamers to download it and play it. However, people who have tried to post videos of the game on YouTube have been hit with copyright notices from Ubisoft, according to Eurogamer. The fact that the game was indeed briefly available indicates Ubisoft will almost certainly make an official announcement for the title in the very near future.

Ubisoft is giving away Assassin's Creed Syndicate for free on PC by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe As almost every platform around begins offering discounts and offers for its wares in this major sales season, Ubisoft has begun a giveaway amongst its own promotions, and it's for one of its mainline Assassin's Creed games. The 2015-released Assassin's Creed Syndicate is the entry available, and you have a week to claim it to your Ubisoft library. This is not the first time this game has gone free for PC gamers, with the Epic Games Store offering the title as one of its weekly freebie promotions back in 2020. For those who missed out on that, this is another great opportunity to grab a copy. Arriving as a sequel to Unity, Assassin's Creed Syndicate takes place in Victorian-era London, where players take control of two twin assassins: Jacob and Evie Frye. Aside from the usual stealth action gameplay, the title introduced traveling systems such as carriages for hijacking, as well as a grappling hook for hasty ascending purposes. The game also features flash-forward sequences where players are thrust into a World War 1 conflict in London. Here's how the studio describes the setting: London, 1868 - The Industrial Revolution fattens the purses of the privileged while the working class struggles to survive – until an Assassin emerges from the underworld to rally to their defense. Rise to lead the world’s first organized crime family. Conquer the streets of London. Bring the ruling class to their knees. This was also the last game in the classic series to feature its original action-adventure gameplay. The series pivoted to being open-world RPG experiences with Assassin's Creed Origins' soft reboot in 2017. However, the most recent entry into the series, Assassin's Creed Mirage, did bring the original formula back for a more compact, one-off venture. Ubisoft is offering Assassin's Creed: Syndicate for free to players on Windows via its Ubisoft Connect platform. The giveaway will run until December 6, giving plenty of time to spread the word about the promotion.

Some Assassin's Creed players saw an in-game pop up ad; Ubisoft blames a "technical error" by John Callaham Hey, we know that you see Black Friday 2023 ads and posts all over the internet, and that's to be expected. However, it's definitely not expected when you just want to play your game on your Xbox console. That's what happened to some people who played games in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series on Thursday. In the middle of a game session, when you pause the game or try to go to it Map feature, an ad to help promote the Black Friday discount for Ubisoft's latest game in the series, Assassins Creed Mirage, showed up on the screen. This was shown by X (formerly Twitter) user @Fab_XS_ in a video posted on his account. He stated the add came up on both Xbox and PlayStation platforms. Il semble qu'Ubisoft expérimente la publicité en jeu chez certains utilisateurs (Xbox et PS). Vous êtes au milieu de votre jeu, accédez à la pause ou à la Map et vous avez pendant 3sec. une pub pour un autre jeu qui s'affiche. Suffisant pour désinstaller ? 😅 pic.twitter.com/m5S4rEXas5 — Fab ✨ (@Fab_XS_) November 23, 2023 Eurogamer got a statement from a Ubisoft spokesperson who blamed the ad on something other than trying to get gamers to stop what they are doing to buy a discounted Assassin's Creed Mirage game. "We have been made aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin's Creed titles yesterday," a Ubisoft spokesperson said. "This was the result of a technical error that we addressed as soon as we learned of the issue." Of course, this sort of situation has happened before in another form. Microsoft made a number of Xbox console gamers upset a few weeks ago when it put in a popup ad screen for buying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III when they powered up their consoles. Microsoft did something similar with the launch of Starfield earlier this year as well.

Rainbow 6 Siege is getting a cosmetics marketplace run by players by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Ubisoft today unveiled the next seasonal update incoming for Rainbow Six Siege. Dubbed Operation Deep Freeze, this Year 8 Season 4 update has a brand-new Operator with a freeze ability, a new map, and even a way to buy and sell cosmetic items straight from Valve's playbook. The new Operator is Tubarão, a specialist that's joining the defending side. His unique gadget is the Zoto Canister, a throwable that freezes an area around it causing all gadgets to be disabled and foes to be slowed. Adding another layer, opponents hit by the freeze effect also leave behind footsteps on the ground for keen-eyed defenders to follow from lower floors. If enemies don't shoot or disable it in some way, Zoto Canisters eventually run out of juice and stops emitting its cold waves, bringing the nearby gadgets back to life. Like usual for new Operators, Tubarão will first be available through the Premium Battle Pass, followed by Renown and R6 Credits options two weeks later. At the same time, Lair is the new map joining Siege, which is a super-villain's bunker-like arena built into a cavern. Catch the gameplay overview video above to get a good look at the map in action. Another big change hitting the game sometime this season is the Marketplace. Akin to popular Valve multiplayer live-service titles like Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike 2 and Dota 2, Siege players will soon be able to buy and sell cosmetics straight from other players. The currency in use for these "trades" will be R6 Credits, the premium credits that Ubisoft sells in-game. It's unclear how the prices will be set for items, and how much of a cut will Ubisoft take from each transaction. Rainbow Six Siege Marketplace will be going live sometime in 2024 via a mobile app and website. For those that want to try it out early and offer some feedback to the developers, a beta sign-up page for the upcoming service can be found here. Other changes incoming with Operation Deep Freeze includes new PVE game modes for new players to learn maps, removal of Terrorist Hunt, and removing the ability to cook grenades before throwing them. Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 Season 4: Operation Deep Freeze is hitting test servers on Monday, November 13. All players will be able to jump in on November 28 when it hits live servers, if the schedule holds up.

Ubisoft's Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora PC system requirements reveal a demanding game by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the Massive Entertainment-developed action game set in James Cameron's Avatar universe, is finally coming out in December. Ubisoft has now revealed what sort of hardware PC players will need in their systems to experience the Na'vi adventure, and it's painting a demanding picture. The title's minimum specifications are targeting 30FPS at 1080p resolution with FSR2 upscaling enabled. This will ask players to have at least an RX 5700 8GB, NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB, or the Intel Arc A750 8GB GPU, paired with a Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel i7-8700K CPU. In the highest-end specification listed today, Ubisoft says players will require an AMD RX 7900 XTX 24GB or an NVIDIA RTX 4080 16GB to reach 60FPS in the game at 4K, with this also requiring FSR2 upscaling. Here are the full requirements: MINIMUM Visual setting: 1080p, Low Preset with FSR2 Quality/30 FPS CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 /Intel i7-8700K GPU: AMD RX 5700 8GB /NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB /Intel Arc A750 8GB (REBAR ON) RAM: 16 GB dual-channel Storage: 90 GB SSD Operating System: Windows 10/Windows 11 with DirectX12 RECOMMENDED Visual setting: 1080p, High Preset with FSR2 Quality/60 FPS CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X / Intel i5-11600k GPU: AMD RX 6700 XT 12GB/ NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti 8GB RAM: 16 GB dual-channel Storage: 90 GB SSD Operating System: Windows 10/Windows 11 with DirectX12 ENTHUSIAST Visual setting: 1440p, High Preset with FSR2 Quality/60 FPS CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X/ Intel i5-11600k GPU: AMD RX 6800 XT 16GB/ NVIDIA RTX 3080 10GB RAM: 16 GB dual-channel Storage Space: 90 GB SSD Operating System: Windows 10/Windows 11 with DirectX12 ULTRA Visual setting: 4K, Ultra Preset with FSR2 Balanced/60 FPS CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D/ Intel i7-12700k GPU: AMD RX 7900 XTX 24GB/ NVIDIA RTX 4080 16GB RAM: 16 GB dual-channel Storage: 90 GB SSD Operating System: Windows 10/Windows 11 with DirectX12 Raytraced reflections and shadows, support for ultra-wide monitors, and an extensive built-in benchmarking tool are also confirmed for the PC version. As for upscaling solutions, Ubisoft is implementing FSR 2 and 3 at launch, with the latter offering AMD's latest frame generation tech. NVIDIA's DLSS and Intel's XeSS solutions are also being included. The game is being developed using Massive Entertainment's in-house Snowdrop engine, the same one powering The Division franchise, Star Wars Outlaws, and other Ubisoft games. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is coming out on December 7 across PC (Ubisoft Store exclusive), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. Ubisoft has not yet revealed what sort of performance the console players will receive for the open-world title.

Ubisoft delays Skull and Bones again, will soon close online services for some older games by John Callaham Ubisoft first announced its pirate-themed game Skull and Bones over six years ago in June 2017. Since then the game has suffered through a long series of delays. This year, it felt like we were actually getting close to a launch, as Ubisoft held a closed PC beta test for the game in August. Unfortunately, it looks like Skull and Bones will take a bit more time to hit the virtual seas. As part of Ubisoft's quarterly financials results this week, the publisher said it would be launched in its "Q4 2023-24" fiscal time period. That means Ubisoft plans to release the game between January and March of 2024. In addition, another unnamed "large" game which was supposed to be released before March 31, 2024, will now be launched sometime in Ubisoft's next fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2025. It's not all about game delays at Ubisoft. The publisher says it has seen early sales successes for Assassin's Creed Mirage, along with The Crew: Motorfest. In December it has another major game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, due for launch. In a separate announcement from Ubisoft this week, the publisher stated it would be shutting down the online multiplayer services and features for a number of older games for several platforms on January 25, 2024. Officially, Ubisoft's support page for this event states that owners of the following games "will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Additionally, the  Ubisoft Connect rewards  will be unavailable." Assassin's Creed II - Xbox 360 Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - MAC Assassin's Creed Liberation HD - PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Assassin's Creed Revelations - PC Ghost Recon Future Soldier - PC Heroes of Might and Magic VI - PC NCIS - PC R.U.S.E - PC Splinter Cell: Conviction - XBox 360 Trials Evolution - PC Ubisoft stated that owners of these games will still be able to play them offline after January 25.

Ubisoft believes physical game disks will never completely go away even wth cloud gaming by John Callaham Microsoft was able to close the deal today to purchase Activision Blizzard because it agreed to let another game publisher, Ubisoft, get the cloud gaming rights to current and future Activision Blizzard games outside of Europe for the next 15 years. Today, we learned a bit more about those plans. In an in-house interview, the company's Senior Vice President Chris Early stated that the agreement will allow Ubisoft to add Activision Blizzard titles to its own Ubisoft+ service, along with a way to "license the streaming access of these games to cloud gaming companies, service providers and console makers". The deals will also include all of the extra DLC, expansion packs, and other in-game content with those titles. Early was also asked how cloud gaming could affect the future of physical game disks. He stated: Some people will always want to own the physical disk. I just don't think it's going away. Do I think physical sales might get lower over time? Sure, but will it ever completely go away? I don't think so. He also provided an explanation of why Ubisoft's cloud gaming rights to Activision Blizzard games will not extend to much of Europe: In the European Economic Area, the European Commission required Microsoft to allow cloud streaming services to let anybody who owns the games in that territory to play the Activision Blizzard games via streaming for free. For example, a company in France could come to Microsoft and say, ‘I want to stream the gameplay of Call of Duty to people who own Call of Duty already,’ and Microsoft is required to license those rights for free to that company so players can stream games they own. It's known as “bring your own game,” and that’s why the rights are non-exclusive in some regions. Early did not offer a specific timetable for when Activision Blizzard games would be available on Ubisoft+ to stream, saying only that the company would be taking the time to work on the cloud back-end technology so it can support "the experience we want players to have."

Assassin's Creed Mirage becomes Ubisoft's biggest launch on current-gen consoles by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Assassin's Creed Mirage, the latest entry in Ubisoft's long-running action series, released on October 5, and it's selling quite well according to the publisher. The title has already become its most successful launch across current-gen consoles, with player numbers also matching some previous series highs. "Thank you for joining us on this incredible journey that celebrates, honors and builds upon the 15-year legacy of the Assassin's Creed series," says the company in an announcement via Twitter. "We could not have been happier that our back to the roots experience has been embraced by the community." While no firm numbers were shared today, the number of Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 version units sold for this release has made it Ubisoft's "biggest new gen launch." The number of players across all platforms have also been "in line with past successful launches such as Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Odyssey," according to the company. While Ubisoft did not mention their sales performances, keep in mind that Assassin's Creed Mirage also landed on last-gen consoles Xbox One and PlayStation 4 alongside modern platforms and PC. Speaking of which, the publisher also did not reveal anything regarding the PC version's sales in today's announcement. The game is available via the Ubisoft Connect and Epic Games Store platforms on PC. While Ubisoft has been returning to Steam recently with some of its older games, newer titles from the publisher have remained elusive. Ubisoft also shared some fun stats players have earned in Mirage in the six days since launch. This included 479 years worth of parkouring across Baghdad rooftops, 60 million leaps of faith, and 1.2 million street cat pets. While Assassin's Creed Mirage has already launched on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 platforms (alongside Amazon Luna and Ubisoft+ subscriptions), Ubisoft also has an iPhone 15 Pro launch planned for 2024.

Ubisoft delays XDefiant preseason launch indefinitely due to issues found in last play test by John Callaham Ubisoft has hit another roadblock in releasing its long-in-development free-to-play shooter XDefiant. It has just been announced that the presearch launch of the game has been delayed due to issues found during the game's latest public test session. An update on XDefiant- pic.twitter.com/3orSnspmp6 — XDefiant (@PlayXDefiant) October 9, 2023 In a post on the official XDefiant X (formerly Twitter) account, Ubisoft expressed gratitude for everyone who played the game in its recent playtest. It added: But it also surfaced some inconsistencies in the game experience that we need to address prior to launching our Preseason. So we’ve made the hard decision to delay the Preseason of XDefiant. The team will continue working to address these issues and testing them to make sure we deliver on our goal of being a best-in-class arcade shooter. We will share more information about Preseason and testing as it comes. XDefiant, which was first announced over two years ago under the name Tom Clancy's XDefiant, seemed to be on the right track to finally launch this year. After holding some closed beta tests for the game earlier this year, Ubisoft held a public test in June, and said the game would finally launch in the summer of 2023. However, in September, Ubisoft announced that the game had failed its first certification tests for Microsoft's Xbox consoles and Sony's PS5 console. The team said it would try to send the game back for a second try to pass those tests, and predicted that XDefiant would finally launch no later than early to mid-October. However, this latest delay in its launch would seem to indicate that the game has even deeper issues than what was previously made public. The fact that Ubisoft didn't even offer an estimated new release date time frame shows we may have to wait a much longer time for XDefiant to get its official launch date.

Amazon Luna now allows users to buy games directly, but only if they are Ubisoft games by John Callaham We have not heard a lot about the Amazon Luna cloud gaming service lately. The last major news item we reported on was last June, when the company quietly killed off its dedicated Windows and Mac apps in favor of people using its website to use the service on their PCs. This week, Amazon also quietly announced an interesting new feature. It now allows users to purchase individual games directly from the Amazon Luna service. The catch is that those games must be published by Ubisoft. In a Medium post, Amazon stated: Customers can now search for a specific game, like The Crew Motorfest, and purchase that game directly within Luna using their Amazon account and linking their Ubisoft account. When customers purchase through Luna, they own the game license, and they will be able to play on Luna or download for offline play via the Ubisoft Connect PC launcher. Purchases will automatically show up in customers’ Luna library and stay up-to-date across all compatible devices. The post adds that the people who purchase Ubisoft games via Luna can stream them forever as long as they remain either an Amazon Prime member or a Luna+ subscriber. This new feature was enabled on the same day that Assassin's Creed Mirage, the latest game in Ubisoft's action series, was released. Obviously, this feature works because Amazon and Ubisoft made an arrangement for users to link their accounts together. There's no word on if Amazon plans to expand this feature to any games that are not published by Ubisoft. Amazon Luna officially launched in 2022 and allows users to stream over 100 games on PCs, iPhones, and Android devices via a web browser, along with apps for its Fire tablets and Fire TV products. It also supports playing on Samsung and LG smart TVs. The Luna+ service allows users to play a selection of games for $9.99 a month. It also sells its own Amazon Luna controller for $69.99. As an Amazon Associate when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Several former Ubisoft executives arrested on sexual harassment allegations by John Callaham French police have arrested at least five former and major Ubisoft executives, following an investigation into sexual harassment at the France-based game publisher that began at least three years ago. In 2020, Ubisoft's chief operating officer Serge Hascoët resigned from the publisher after numerous reports of sexual misconduct at the company came to light. Other executives, including its VP of editorial and creative services Tommy François, also departed from Ubisoft following similar allegations against them. Today, the French newspaper Libération reported that both Hascoët and François were arrested this week as part of its ongoing investigation into these issues at Ubisoft. The other three former Ubisoft executives who were arrested this week were not named in the report. After the executives resigned from Ubisoft in 2020, two unnamed victims of their alleged harassment, along with the Solidaires Informatique union, filed complaints to the public prosecutor's office in Bobigny. The investigation by the prosecutor led to this week's arrests. The newspaper quoted the plaintiffs' lawyer, Maude Beckers, saying (translated): In most cases of aggression and harassment, it is a person sometimes covered by their superior, it is not as established as it was at Ubisoft. To the point that we feel like it had become something necessary for creativity. HR knew all this and systematically suppressed business. What is exceptional in this matter is the complicity of the company's white-collar workers.. In 2020, Yves Guillemot, co-founder and CEO of Ubisoft, addressed the sexual harassment allegations at that time, stating: Since late June 2020, allegations of inappropriate behavior and harassment have been made against certain Group employees. The Group reacted immediately and has been carrying out a rigorous inquiry in order to take all the necessary actions. Today, Gamesindustry.biz got a comment from Ubisoft about the arrests of its former executives stating, "Ubisoft has no knowledge of what has been shared and therefore can't comment."

Ubisoft doesn't want you to reveal any spoilers about Assassins Creed Mirage by John Callaham In September 2022, Ubisoft officially revealed the next game in its long-running Assassin's Creed series. The game, titled Assassin's Creed Mirage, is supposed to bring back the action-adventure parkour-style gameplay that was found in earlier titles in the franchise. As the game's release date of October 5 gets close, Ubisoft is trying to keep the mystery of what's actually happening in the game, in terms of its story, from leaking out. In a post on the game's official X (formerly Twitter) account, it pleads with gamers to "refrain from posting or sharing unmarked spoilers that would impact their experience." ❌ NO SPOILERS! ❌ With the launch of #AssassinsCreed Mirage upon us, we would kindly ask you to consider your fellow Assassins and refrain from posting or sharing unmarked spoilers that would impact their experience. Thank you! The wait it almost over. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/IvNSVqAb8i — Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) October 1, 2023 The request for no spoilers reminds us of the launch of the first game in the series, way back in 2007. Before the game launched, it was assumed that it took place in the Middle East in 1191. However, there were hints that there was something else going on in the game's marketing material. It was eventually revealed that the game was set in the future, with the main character accessing his ancestor's genetic memories of that earlier time period. Whether or not that kind of plot twist is coming to Assassin's Creed Mirage is something we will have to wait and see. Ubisoft has stated the game takes place in 9th-century Baghdad as Basim Ibn Ishaq, who was seen previously in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, learns to become a member of the Assassin Brotherhood. The game is being released on the PC, Xbox and PlayStation platforms, and you can pre-order the console versions on Amazon. All preorders will get an extra quest, The Forty Thieves. The game will also be released in 2024 for the Apple iPhone 15. As an Amazon Associate when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Far Cry 7 reportedly coming with a new engine and a timer-based non-linear campaign by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Ubisoft has been quiet about its high-octane action series Far Cry since the release of its latest installment in 2021. However, a new report has emerged stating that the next mainline entry is slated to arrive in 2024 sporting a brand-new engine and a new style of campaign. Some details about the storyline is included too. The report arrives from Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, with his sources revealing that the next entry in the series is planned for a fall 2024 release. Internally dubbed Project Blackbird, the game is said to be developed using Massive Entertainment's Snowdrop Engine, the same one powering releases such as The Division franchise, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. According to the new report, developer Ubisoft Montreal is taking a new approach to the campaign. The storyline is reportedly non-linear, letting the player choose how and when to complete the primary objectives in any order. While the series has always been open-world adventures, the campaigns have been, for the most part, a linear affairs telling a set story, with perhaps a couple of secret endings. Far Cry 6 The new game's plotline reportedly revolves around a kidnapped family taken by a group named Sons of Truth, with the player character having to save each member in any order. The story will also be tied to a timer apparently, giving players only a specific amount of hours (72 in-game and 24 in real-time) to try and rescue all family members and complete the game. Players can also mess up and let the kidnapped members die, per the report, which can affect the story in some way. The report adds that a new interrogation mechanic is also being introduced, which can help players in gaining information from enemies to track down objectives, though it may not always be successful. As usual though, take this report with a grain of salt until Ubisoft comes out with some official information about the future of Far Cry. If a new entry is coming next year though, an announcement may arrive sooner rather than later. The company even unveiled The Division 3 recently, though that release seems to be years away. Source: Insider Gaming

Master Chief drops into Rainbow Six Siege as part of a Halo crossover, but he's pricey by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Halo fans may not be receiving a new game anytime soon, but if they want to be an elite tactical operator as Master Chief, Ubisoft has provided an answer. The company has announced a brand-new crossover event for its tactical shooter Rainbow Six Siege, and it's bringing everyone's favorite Spartan, plus an iconic weapon, into the Tom Clancy universe. Rainbow Six Siege's attacking operator Sledge is the one transforming into Spartan-117 Master Chief with the Elite skin on this occasion. The skin comes in two pieces, the Spartan-117 headgear and armored uniform, letting players mix and match the helmet and suit with any other customization they already own. Sledge's unique trait, his breaching hammer, is also getting a Halo-inspired skin. With the pack, he can now wield a Banished Gravity Hammer from Halo Infinite while devastating walls, gadgets, and other players as usual. There's a sleek cinematic trailer attached to the release showing off the skins too, watch it below. Ubisoft has also designed custom skins for Sledge's M590A1 shotgun, L825A2 assault rifle, and P226 MK25 pistol loadouts to go with the crossover, as well as operator cards, a unique victory celebration, and a Cortana Chibi charm to hang off weapons. However, for anyone looking to grab the skin, it will be a rather pricey venture. The Spartan-117 Elite Bundle comes in at 2670 R6 Credits to purchase from the Rainbow Six Siege in-game store. This translates to $26.95 if players opt for the R6 Credits package the game recommends. The higher price may be due to licensing fees to Microsoft for borrowing the iconic character's likeness. The price also makes it the most expensive Elite Bundle to be featured in the game. Other skins from crossovers, such as 2B from NieR: Automata or Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher, come in at 2160 R6 Credits, while standard Elite skins cost 1800 R6 Credits.

Ubisoft announces The Division 3, Massive Entertainment is developing by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe The Ubisoft franchise Tom Clancy's The Division is officially coming back with a new entry. The publisher announced today that Massive Entertainment will once again be taking the reins to build the next game in the hugely popular post-disaster action RPG franchise. To accomplish this, Ubisoft has appointed The Division veteran Julian Gerighty as Executive Producer for the brand. Julian Gerighty has served as a creative director for both The Division (2016) and The Division 2 (2019). He is currently overseeing Star Wars Outlaws, another Massive Entertainment project offering a single-player action adventure experience, as its Creative Director. Massive also has a third project in-development: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which launches this December. His role as Executive Producer for The Division brand also means managing the spin-offs and mobile entries set in the same universe. This includes the currently announced, but still unreleased, iOS and Android game Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence as well as the PVP focused survival shooter Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland. The bad news for fans is that The Division 3 is probably years away from making an appearance. One of the roles of Gerighty will be to build and grow a team within Massive to develop the project after shipping Star Wars Outlaws. Details like where the game will be set, platforms, or a release window were not shared today. "We may have over 40 million players, but The Division is still in its early years as a franchise," said Gerighty in a statement regarding the franchise's future. "There are so many incredible stories to tell, places to explore and people to protect. There are a huge number of talented developers currently working on the brand, and I think that having more consistency can only make everybody's work sing." Ubisoft also added today that Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 will continue to receive support. Massive restarted its content update cycle for the title in 2022, with Year 5 Season 2 kicking off this October.

Assassin's Creed Mirage PC system requirements announced; DLSS and FSR not supported by Omer Dursun Back in September of last year, Ubisoft announced it is taking Assassin's Creed back to its roots with the next entry in the franchise. Today, the company has revealed the PC features and system requirements for the upcoming Assassin's Creed Mirage. According to the official blog post, Mirage won't require too beefy of a system to run. For 1440p at High settings, Ubisoft recommends at least an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT. To run the game at 4K Ultra, a GeForce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 6900 XT is advised. In terms of graphic technologies, Mirage on PC will include ultrawide monitor support, HDR, and uncapped framerates. One notable inclusion is XeSS Super Sampling, Intel's AI-powered upscaling solution. Ubisoft has partnered with Intel for Mirage so that XeSS will be the only upscaling tech supported at launch. Competing options like NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR are not mentioned, which means the game doesn't support them. While DLSS and FSR could still be added later, Ubisoft's silence implies XeSS will be the sole upscaling option for now. 1080p, Low Preset, 30 FPS CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K (Intel Core i5-8400 for Intel Arc with ReBAR)/AMD Ryzen 5 1600 GPU: Intel Arc A380 6GB/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB RAM: 8GB (dual-channel mode) OS: Windows 10/11 SSD Storage: 40 GB 1080p, Hight Preset, 60 FPS CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K/AMD Ryzen 5 3600 GPU: Intel Arc A750 8GB/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB/AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT 6GB RAM: 16GB (dual-channel mode) OS: Windows 10/11 SSD Storage: 40 GB 1440p (2K), Hight Preset, 60 FPS CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K/AMD Ryzen 7 3700X GPU: Intel Arc A770 8GB/ NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB/AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB RAM: 16GB (dual-channel mode) OS: Windows 10/11 SSD Storage: 40 GB 2160p (4K), Ultra Preset, 60 FPS CPU: Intel Core i5-11600K/AMD Ryzen 5 5600X GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 3080 10GB/AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB RAM: 16GB (dual-channel mode) OS: Windows 10/11 SSD Storage: 40 GB Assassin's Creed Mirage is set in 9th-century Baghdad and returns to the stealth-focused roots of earlier franchise entries. In August, Ubisoft moved a release date forward for Mirage. The game launches on October 5 for PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4. You can pre-order the Standard or Deluxe Edition for $49.99 and $59.99, respectively. As an Amazon Associate when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.

iPhone 15 Pro will be able to run Assassin's Creed Mirage, Resident Evil Village and more by John Callaham Apple officially announced the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max today during their streamed press event today. The higher-end versions of the iPhone 15 smartphone lineup will include the A17 Pro chip, which will include a new GPU design that will support hardware-accelerated ray tracing. During the presentation, Apple had a number of game developers show off the graphics that are possible with the iPhone 15 Pro phones. They included the full versions of Capcom's recent Resident Evil Village, and the Resident Evil 4 remake, both of which will be released for the iPhone 15 Pro sometime in late 2023. Ubisoft will also release the full version of its upcoming game Assassin's Creed: Mirage sometime in early 2024 for the iPhone 15 Pro. Also, its upcoming mobile game The Division: Resurgence will launch for the phone sometime in 2025. Aside from the support for high-end graphics for gaming, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will have a 48MP main real camera. The Pro model will have a 3x optical zoom while the Pro Max will get 5x optical zoom support. Later this year, the Pro models will also add support for spatial video. It will be able to capture 3D videos that can be viewed with the company's upcoming Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset when it launches sometime in early 2023. The iPhone 15 Pro phones add a new Action button that can be customized so owners can use it to switch between camera and light modes, activate Voice Memos and more. The phones will use a new titanium body that is both strong and light and will be available in a number of colors, including black titanium, white titanium, blue titanium, and natural titanium finishes. The iPhone 15 Pro models will be available in 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch sizes. Prices for the iPhone 15 Pro will begin at $999 and it will be sold in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage models. The Price for the iPhone 15 Max will start at $1,199 and it will be available in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage models.

Ubisoft delays launch of XDefiant after failing Xbox and PlayStation certfication tests by John Callaham Ubisoft has been working on its upcoming free-to-play arena shooter XDefiant for quite a while now. Indeed, it was first revealed over two years ago under another name, Tom Clancy's XDefiant, with ties to Ubisoft's Tom Clancy-branded games like Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell. In 2022, the Tom Clancy name was removed from the game. In 2023, Ubisoft held some closed beta tests for xDefiant and they ended up being very popular viewing on Twitch. The publisher held an open beta weekend in June and said the full game would officially launch later this summer. With summer officially ending in just a few days, the game's leader Mark Rubin posted a lengthy blog entry on the xDefiant site this week to offer an update. After a long explanation of how they submit the game to Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation divisions for compliance testing on their consoles, Rubin admitted that the game did not pass certification in August for the Xbox Series S and X and the PS5 consoles. Rubin stated: We realized then that we had more work related to compliance than we had anticipated. If it HAD passed, then we would have been able to ship at the end of Aug. But it didn’t and so we have spent the last 3-4 weeks fixing those issues and getting ready to do another submission. We are currently in the CM prep part of that process and will hopefully be submitting to 1st parties in a little less than 2 weeks. He added that if the game does pass, xDefiant could launch sometime in mid-to-late September. If Microsoft and Sony allow it to pass on the condition that any final bugs would be fixed in a Day One patch, the game's release would be pushed back to early to mid-October. The game is also coming to PC as well via UbiSoft Connect.

Chromebook users can now get free NVIDIA GeForce NOW Priority memberships for three months by Anushe Fawaz There’s good news for folks with Google Chromebooks wishing to get free access to NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW cloud gaming service. Google has announced in an update today that it is teaming up with Nvidia to offer free membership for NVIDIA’s cloud gaming service for three months. Chromebook users can access a GeForce NOW Priority membership and users who purchase any of Google’s Cloud Gaming Chromebooks can get GeForce NOW Ultimate. Both offers provide a free trial for three months. These memberships from the “Priority” and “Ultimate” tiers are the highest ones offered by NVIDIA which provide higher quality to customers. While GeForce NOW is generally free for everyone, the waiting queues are extra long with tight time limits however the membership offers up to six-hour gaming sessions and faster access to GeForce gaming servers in the cloud than for Free members. Moreover, with an NVIDIA GeForce NOW membership, users can access a GeForce RTX gaming rig to stream their own video games. These include games purchased from Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store, Ubisoft, and more. Additionally, Priority members can access NVIDIA technology like RTX ON allowing them to experience the best graphics and real-time cinematic lighting, as well as, 1080p streaming. As for the “Ultimate tier,” users enjoy up to 4K streaming with higher framerates up to 120fps. Google also emphasized the recent release of Baldur’s Gate 3 and commented on its latest offers for Chromebook users by stating: “With no download times to install patches and no need to tweak graphics settings to match your device, the age-old question of choosing your character’s starting class should be the hardest part of your journey when booting up Baldur’s Gate 3.” To access the free trial, Chromebook owners must redeem the limited-time offer here, create a GeForce account, and download the application from the Google Play Store. Then, they can sync their existing gaming accounts on platforms like Steam and choose the game they would like to play from the game library. For more advanced players looking for enhanced resolution, Google suggests its latest Chromebook lineup offering gaming of up to 120 Hz.