Items tagged with Electronic Arts
Amazon Prime Day is right around the corner, and while the usual assortment of discounts and bargains will be in full swing, Twitch Prime is planning to gift subscribers exclusive in-game Apex Legends content. This will include a unique Legend skin and weapon skin, along with three more exclusive Apex Legends skins throughout July and August. So far this year, Twitch Prime has gifted free games and in-game content worth over $2,000. Ethan Evans, executive vice president of Twitch Prime, told GamesBeat that he hopes to "eclipse last year's total" of more than $3,000 before 2019 comes to a close. "Our goal has always been to be the best deal in gaming. Being a subscriber should be a no brainer...
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Another day, another report on vulnerabilities in the software that many of us use on a daily basis. This time around, researchers from Check Point and CyberInt rallied together to detail a number of exploits that they discovered in the Origin client used to deliver games to consumers. Origin is an Electronic Arts property. What makes the latest Origin exploit rather dangerous is the fact that it does not require intervention from the user with respect to handing over their logins or passcode information. In this case, the exploit allows an attacker to steal tokens associated with oAuth Single Sign-On (SSO) and TRUST routines in place with the EA Games user login process. As a result, Check...
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Confession time: I'm an avid watcher of Judge Judy. I think she's rad, and her style of mediating disputes definitely falls into the 'firm but fair' category. One of her favorite sayings is, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining." That's also the title of her book, incidentally, and I'm reminded of it when watching Electronics Arts' Vice President of Legal, Kerry Hopkins, explain that loot boxes are actually just "surprise mechanics." According to Hopkins, Loot boxes (excuse me, surprise mechanics) are "quite ethical" too, akin to Hatchimals, the popular toy that delights kids with a plush toy hatching from a plastic egg. Or if you prefer, substitute Kinder Egg or LOL Surprise, which...
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Apex Legends seemingly came out of nowhere and took the gaming scene by storm, further underscoring how insanely popular the battle royale genre is right now. Even though there was some strategic planning to generate excitement around Apex Legends when it first came out—publisher Electronic Arts paid some notable streamers to play the game at the outset—developer Respawn Entertainment says the launch still exceeded its expectations. Continued success also means a full commitment of time and resources, and so plans to hash out another Titanfall game have now taken a backseat. "Regarding other games in development at Respawn, it is important to understand that there are entirely separate...
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For a Jedi on the run, the rules are rather simple: Don't stand out, accept the past, and trust no one. Instead, put your trust in the Force. Cal Kestis, one of the last surviving members of the Jedi Order after the purge of Order 66, relays these rules in the first official trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which is being developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. Fallen Order takes place after the events in Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith. In Star Wars canon, Order 66 saw almost every Jedi executed, and many of those who survived were subsequently killed in the Great Jedi Purge that followed. It's not clear if Fallen Order will see Cal progress...
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BioWare recently came under fire over a report on the studio's frenzied workplace conditions and the overall culture that negatively affected the release of certain games, most recently Anthem, and the studio's subsequent response to report, which was largely viewed as dismissive. In a follow-up letter sent to BioWare employees, however, studio boss Casey Hudson admitted that the workplace problems are real. Let's back up a moment. Anthem saw its share of bugs on launch day, one of which resulted in level 1 weapons being the most powerful in the game. It still became BioWare's second best game launch ever, though even Hudson said after the fact that "it's been a rougher launch than expected,"...
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Maybe it came down to a licensing issue or perhaps publisher Electronic Arts never considered it, but I can't help but there there was a missed, golden opportunity to play Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire to the new gameplay trailer for Battlefield V's upcoming Firestorm battle royale mode. That's okay, though, because the trailer is pretty awesome in its own right. For the most part, Firestorm sticks to the tried-and-true battle royale script, though instead of a semi-invisible barrier closing in on the action, there is a literal firestorm that encompasses the map. This ring of fire shrinks the playable area like any other battle royale, forcing players into tighter confines until a single soldier...
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After all the bug complaints and performance issues the plagued the launch of Anthem, it still emerged as the overall best selling game in the US last month, ahead of Jump Force (No. 2), Kingdom Hearts III (No. 3), Far Cry New Dawn (No. 4), and Red Dead Redemption II (No. 2), according to data by The NPD Group. In addition, it now officially ranks as developer BioWare's second-best launch month. Anthem was not able to topple Mass Effect 3 to claim the single-best launch month, but coming in second place is nothing to sneeze at, especially in this case—The NPD Group does not include in its numbers players who are enjoying Anthem through the EA Access Premier subscription program, or the...
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Online multiplayer gaming is a beautiful thing, and thanks to high-speed Internet connections, it is a phenomenon that has transformed modern day gameplay. It's why battle royale shooters can exist, and be so popular. Unfortunately, cheating is a real problem, and the only ones who like a cheater are those who are profiting from them. This has created quite the headache for developers like Respawn Entertainment. Apex Legends is the hot new battle royale shooter that has attracted 50 million players in just one month. By all accounts, it is a hit franchise for publisher Electronic Arts, which stands to rake in money hand over fist the way Epic Games does with its also-popular Fortnite game. In...
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Respawn Entertainment developed one of the hottest games of recent memory, that being Apex Legends, a free-to-play battle royale shooter that is presumably proving to be a lucrative franchise for publisher Electronic Arts. Popular streamers such as Tyler "Ninja" Blevins deserve a tip of the hat for hopping on board, and it appears they were paid handsomely for their time. How handsomely? According to Reuters, EA shelled out a cool million bucks (or thereabouts) for Ninja to stream Apex Legends on launch day. While that is an obscene amount of money for a day's 'work' (play), it underscores how much cash these types of games can generate through in-game purchases, and why publishers would be willing...
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Apex Legends has stormed onto the scene and asserted itself as a hugely popular battle royale shooter, hitting 1 million players in just 8 hours after launch, and leaping to 50 million players in its first month. Inevitable leaks come with that level of popularity, and as such, the names of potentially 10 upcoming character additions might now be known. It was already leaked last month that developer Respawn Entertainment would be adding new legends to the game, eight in all. Now, however, a list of player cards has attached names to those upcoming characters, along with two others that were not previously known. That brings the total number so far up to 10 new characters. The names include Rampart,...
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Pitting players in a battle royale scenario where the map shrinks until only one person or squad is left standing is all the rage right now—see the success of PlayerUnknown's Battleground (PUBG), Fortnite, or more recently Apex Legends as evidence of this. Battlefield V will be joining the fray, and a leaked tutorial purportedly gives us a first look at the upcoming mode. It's called Firestorm, and from what I can discern from the tutorial, it will be very similar to PUBG. That's to say you will drop on a map, scrounge around for weapons for yourself and any potentially teammates, and grab backpacks for additional storage capacity on your person. You can also be revived by a teammate while...
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Anthem players who spent hours grinding and leveling up and working towards a potent Masterwork endgame weapon were dismayed to find out that they already possessed the most powerful weapon in the game—a first-level common Defender Rifle. Despite what the numbers show, there is a bug that allows it to kill enemies faster than a level 45 Masterwork Ralner Blaze Rifle. This was put to the test by Reddit user YeetLordSupreme. Out of curiosity, he decided to quantify the damage amounts of different weapons. That's when he stumbled upon the bug. Using the level 1 common Defender Rifle, he recorded a single bullet doing 286 damage against a normal Scar Trooper. His level 45 Masterwork Ralner...
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Apex Legends has been a dominant force in the gaming scene ever since it launched in early February, quickly amassing 50 million players in just a month (far outpacing the performance of the current battle royale champion, Fortnite). With that being said, gamers are looking for the "Next Big Thing" with Apex Legends, and according to new report, Respawn Entertainment is ready to deliver. The first bit of news is the report that the game's first Battle Pass is expected to drop next week; March 12th to be exact. At this point, it's unknown what that battle pass will entail, or how long it will last. And more importantly, we have no clue how much it will cost at this time. “The...
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