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Doublejump Digest: December 6, 2020

This week in gaming: More Cyberpunk 2077 news, Activision rakes in billions from Call of Duty, Xbox Game Pass users get another goodie, and more!

In the spirit of keeping our readers up to date with what’s happening in the video game industry, the Doublejump Digest is a brief collection of the major news stories from the past week. Keep an eye out for the Digest every Sunday night, and head on into the archive for news from weeks gone by!

FROM DOUBLEJUMP 

MAJOR NEWS

CD Projekt RED explains Cyberpunk 2077‘s save transfers, shows off Photo Mode, warns against streaming early

CD Projekt RED finally unveiled details about how Cyberpunk 2077 players will be able to transfer their save progress from the previous to the current generation of consoles. As is standard for transitions from Xbox One to Xbox Series X|S, save games will seamlessly transfer using Microsoft’s Smart Delivery feature while PlayStation 4 players can transfer by logging in to the same PlayStation Network account on their PS5, copying their save files onto USB storage, or via a local network.

However, players should not that these methods have not been confirmed for the planned native ports on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S; they only apply to playing the game via backwards compatibility. In related news, CD Projekt RED showcased the game’s Photo Mode in a short video highlighting the various effects and poses available to players.

Finally, the Polish developer also issued the following statement as a warning to players who are considering streaming the game or uploaded “let’s play” gameplay videos prior to the game’s official release.

Activision made US$3B in Call of Duty revenue in just 12 months

In a press release earlier this week, Activision announced that it’s made more than US$3 billion in revenue from its Call of Duty franchise — that is, between Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War, Warzone and the free-to-play Call of Duty: Mobile — over the past year. This figure combines not only game sales, but also licensing fees, merchandise sales and “publisher incentives”, and points to the resounding success of its “shared ecosystem business model”; revenue is up more than 80% on the year before, and sales numbers are up more than 40% to boot.

Activision also boasted that more than 200 million people have played some form of Call of Duty over the past year, with 85 million of those having jumped into Warzone, which will feature shared battle pass progression between Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War from mid-December.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers can now preload games

This past Monday, Microsoft released a console update for the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S that features the ability for players to pre-load Game Pass titles before they actually arrive on the server, saving time and providing more options for bandwidth management. In breaking the update down on the Xbox Wire, Microsoft’s Principal Program Manager of Xbox Experiences, Jonathan Hildebrandt, revealed that this pre-load option will only be available to certain titles, rather than all of them, and that the Game Pass mobile app will be able to queue downloads remotely.

Other updates to Microsoft’s console lineup include more dynamic backgrounds, “Optimised for Series X|S” tags on games that are ready for next-gen play, and an Auto HDR indicator in the Xbox Guide to inform players when the feature is active.

Nintendo makes it easier to share Switch screenshots

Ever since the Nintendo Switch released, sharing screenshots and videos from the console to the world — or just collecting them for review — has been an absolute nightmare, with the only real option being to upload them to a social profile. The latest update to the system’s firmware, however, now makes it possible to “wirelessly connect their smart devices to Nintendo Switch to transfer the screenshots and videos saved within their Album”. You can only wirelessly transfer a maximum of 10 screenshots and one video at a time, but Nintendo has also implemented the ability to connect your console to a computer via USB to copy larger galleries over in one fell swoop.

Also featured in Version 11.0.0 of the Switch firmware is a new feature that automatically downloads backed up save data, a new “Trending” feature on the User Page, 12 new user icons, the ability to prioritise certain downloads over others, and support for Brazilian Portuguese.

NOTABLE GAME RELEASES

  • FIFA 15 (PS5 and Xbox Series X|S)

INDIE SPOTLIGHT

Death Tales out now on Switch, PS5 version coming next month

A follow-up to Plague Road and War Theatre, Arcade Distillery’s new action role-playing game is available on the Nintendo eShop now, and it’s heading to PlayStation 5 in “late January 2021”, with a “limited physical release” slated for later next year. The developer also released a roadmap for updates throughout 2021 that promises two new Tales and an online co-op mode.

Superliminal’s level editor is in beta now

The Somnasculpt Dream Workshop allows players to build their own stages and puzzles using assets and mechanics from the game George called a “fun challenge for most puzzle enthusiasts”. It’s live on Linux, MacOS and Windows (through Steam), and will be available on “other PC platforms” next week. Developer Pillow Castle Games also released a tutorial for the editor, and has also uploaded “a few demo levels” to the Workshop in order to “help players get a sense of what can be done with the editor”.

OTHER NEWS

  • Genshin Impact’s mobile versions have raked in US$390M+ alone: Kotaku
  • People are review bombing Monster Hunter: World’s Steam page over racist joke in the Monster Hunter movie: Eurogamer
  • Oscar Isaac has signed on to play Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid film: Engadget
  • Twitch removed its “Blind Playthrough” tag following online criticism: Kotaku
  • Neil Druckmann is now Naughty Dog’s Co-President: Official
  • More than 15M players turned up for Fortnite’s Galactus battle: Eurogamer
  • Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah have left BioWare: GameSpot
  • Rare is adding a battle pass to Sea of Thieves: Kotaku
  • Fortnite’s latest season is now live: Eurogamer
  • PlayStation Vita users reported that they couldn’t access the PlayStation Network Store: Kotaku
  • Microsoft has acquired Esports tournament organisation platform Smash.gg: Twitter (Official)

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