News Mash-Up - Week # 28

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    • Google announced 70% of the subscription money from Stadia Pro will be split amongst any publisher whose game is played on the service at the Google for Games Developer Summit 2021. Google is also reducing its commission for those games sold on Stadia platform with publishers keeping 85% of revenue. This split will only apply up to the first $3 million. In addition to the new revenue splits, developers will be encouraged to convert players into game buyers with a $10 reward for every new user they help to convert to a Stadia Pro subscriber. 
    
    
    • In a surprise announcement, Valve released details of its new handheld Steam machine called Steam Deck. The Steam Deck starts at $399 for the 64GB version, $529 for the 256GB version and $649 for the 512GB version. Steam Deck will come pre-installed with the Steam O/S and Steam games are accessible by a Linux based Proton emulator. A separate dock will be sold as an accessory facilitating a keyboard, mouse and monitor (or TV) set up, like a conventional desktop. The Steam Deck is expected sometime in 2022. 
    
    
    • Electronic Arts will be rolling out dual entitlement for FIFA 22 for those who purchase the Ultimate Edition. For those who purchase a standard edition for the PS4 or Xbox One, they will not be able to play the game on the PS5 or Xbox Series with the same disc. 
    
    
    • Nvidia's new technology, DLSS, Deep Learning Super Sampling, which uses AI to upscale games to a higher resolution with no extra coding, got released for Red Dead Redemption 2 for the PC. Nvidia announced that performance has increased by 45%. 
    
    
    • AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution is now available to all developers via the GPUOpen platform. This means it is open to Unity and Unreal game designers to implement the technology into their games or to patch existing games. 
    
    
    • Microsoft have released an app called “Xbox Family Settings” which will enable parents to add funds to a virtual wallet, set spending limits and add a “Ask to buy” functionality to prevent any purchases without parent consent.
    
    
    • Niko Partners games analyst, Daniel Ahmed, has picked up news that Tencent has obtained a patent that will enable digital item inheritance using “digital asset certificates".
    
    
    • Netflix has hired former Facebook and EA executive Mike Verdu as VP of game development. It is expected Netflix will enter the games market as part of their subscription model.  
    
    
    • Battlefield 2042 will enable PC and console cross-play on both PS5 and Xbox Series copies of the title, with the option of running servers just for console gamers to alleviate any advantage PC gamers will experience using mouse/keyboard controls. 
    
    
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Week commencing Monday 19 July 2021