Xbox games reach rivals in a year of few launches – 02/28/2024 – Tech

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Xbox’s announcement on the 15th that the company’s games would no longer be exclusive on its platforms gained momentum less than a week later.

What’s new: the four games published by Xbox Game Studios in recent years have been revealed and will be available on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation in the coming months.

During Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct (21), the Japanese company announced that “Pentiment”, one of the main games of 2022, could be played on the Nintendo Switch from the following day, exactly one week after the Xbox announcement.

However, “Grounded” gained more prominence at the event, a 2020 survival game in the style of the film “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” Due to hardware differences, the game has undergone significant graphical changes and will be available from April 16th on Switch.

Nintendo’s announcements were soon followed by Xbox’s own revelation that the two games will also be available for PS4 and PS5 on the same dates.

In addition, PlayStation’s latest console will also receive “Hi-Fi Rush”, a rhythm-based action game that was an unexpected success in 2023, and the multiplayer “Sea of ​​Thieves”. These will arrive on the platform on March 18th and April 30th, respectively.

Xbox games will reach rivals in a year in which they, at least for now, will not have major proprietary launches like last year.

• PlayStation recently announced that the company’s major franchises will not have new titles this year.

• In 2023, the PS5 received “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” and a free “God of War” expansion.

Nintendo, on the other hand, is coming off a year that supplied what seemed like the last Switch cycle with great games like “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom”, “Pikmin 4” and “Super Mario Bros. Wonder”.

It seemed so, because the company’s shares fell by 6% on the 19th and returned to the level at the beginning of the month after specialized websites stated that the successor to the Nintendo Switch should only be launched in 2025, not this year.

So far in 2024, the company has released the remake of “Mario vs. Donkey Kong.” It will also release “Princess Peach: Showtime!” and new versions of “Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door” and “Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon” are planned, but nothing that compares, for now, to the magnitude of those from last year.

In addition to the Xbox games, Nintendo announced “Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance”, an expanded version of the 2021 game that will have subtitles in Portuguese for the first time; “Arranger”, an adventure on a map that resembles a Rubik’s cube; “Ender Magnolia”, sequel to the metroidvania “Ender Lilies”; a new game in the “Fantasy Life” social RPG franchise; and ocean exploration’s “Endless Ocean: Luminous.”

The Switch will also get a new version of “Monster Hunter Stories”, “Star Wars: Battlefront” and “Epic Mickey”. Its paid Nintendo Switch Online service will receive classic games from Rare, which currently belongs to Microsoft. With or without a new console, Nintendo took advantage of the first Direct of 2024 to present a varied menu for the year.

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PLAY

game tip, new or old, for you to try

Persona 3 Reload
(PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC; available on Game Pass)

The remake of one of the most beloved games by fans of the Persona franchise is a good option to satisfy the nostalgia for “Persona 5”, from 2016. “Persona 3 Reload”, released at the beginning of this month, offers new visuals, more dynamic combat and several elements from the previous game. Furthermore, it was the first in the franchise to mix elements of traditional RPGs with social simulation. Read more in the review published on Sheet.

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UPDATE

news, launches, business and what matters most

• The Brazilian esports team w7m won this year’s “Rainbow Six Siege” world championship on Sunday (25), held for the first time in Brazil, at the Ginásio do Ibirapuera, in São Paulo. The championship awarded the winner US$1 million (R$4.9 million). The runner-up, also Brazilian FaZe Clan, received US$450,000 (R$2.2 million).
• Bandai Namco released last Wednesday (21) the trailer for the long-awaited expansion of “Elden Ring”, one of the main games of 2022. “Shadow of Erdtree” will be released on June 21 and is now available for pre-order on Xbox (R$ 214.90), PlayStation (R$ 199.50) and Steam (R$ 154.90). FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki told the Eurogamer website that this is the biggest expansion the company has ever worked on. The update will offer more than 10 new bosses, weapons, skills and equipment.

• Riot Games has announced that the project previously known as “Project L” will be titled “2XKO.” It is a fighting game with characters from “League of Legends” with a focus on doubles matches, and is scheduled for 2025.
• “Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth”, the second part of the remakes of the PS1 game, arrives this Thursday (29) on PS5 with a focus on expanding the regions of the original 1997 version and exploring the open world. In an interview with the official PlayStation blog, director Naoki Hamaguchi explained the role of the console’s hardware in the development of what is the main exclusive of the year so far.
• “Helldivers 2”, published by Sony for PS5 and PC, received a series of updates last week to fix instability issues and increase server capacity. On Steam, the game reached a peak of more than 450 thousand simultaneous players over the weekend.
• The 11th edition of the Game Brasil Survey (PGB), released on Tuesday (27), shows that 73.9% of respondents said they play video games. Smartphones continue to be the favorite platform for this activity, with 48.8% preference. Computers and consoles appear next, with 22.6% and 21.7%, respectively. PGB 2024 interviewed 13,360 people in Brazil, between December and January.
• In the wake of the end of exclusives, PlayStation announced on Thursday (22) that it is testing the compatibility of its PSVR 2 virtual reality headset with the PC. In a note on the official blog, the company said it wants to make it available on the other platform later this year to offer its owners “a greater variety of games”.

• “Palworld” took a month to gain 25 million players, Japanese studio PocketPair announced on Thursday (22). The game sold 15 million units on Steam (R$88.99) and attracted another 10 million players on Microsoft platforms, where it is available through Xbox Game Pass. One of the biggest commercial successes of 2023, “Hogwarts Legacy” sold 22 million units throughout the year.
• Abragames (Brazilian Association of Digital Game Developers) will represent Brazil at the Global Play Showcase exhibition, which brings together games from ten countries and regions. The event will be held in March, during this year’s GDC (Game Developers Conference), in San Francisco.

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download

games that will be launched in the next few days and promotions that are worth it

Feb 27

• “Terror at Oakheart”: price not available (PC)

Feb 28

• “Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake”: price not available (PS5, Xbox Series, PC)
• “Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster”: price not available (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch and PC)

Feb 29

• “Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth”: R$ 349.90 (PS5)

1st.mar

• “Uforia: The Saga 2”: price not available (Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series, PC)