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New Overwatch Patch Gives Sombra Infinite Invisibility

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Blizzard is employing an update that once again will alter one of the most difficult characters to master, Sombra.

Blizzard is hoping to make her less challenging to use with their new update as players are pushing for the character to be more balanced and more creative.

The new update is giving her infinite invisibility, a drastic change to her character that will likely have a major impact on gameplay for everyone.

“The Sombra changes, I was a little surprised with the feedback online where people thought it was an overall nerf,” lead designer Geoff Goodman said, according to VG247.

“We gave her a lot of buffs and a lot of nerfs at the same time. The Sombra changes are a lot about giving her more flexibility in how she plays, and that flexibility gives her a lot more power.”

“It just seemed like this intense game of micromanagement and these timers, and you often have these situations where you slightly mistime something,” Goodman said. “None of that is the fun of being invisible and shooting people and hacking people.”

“The way it originally started, I was like, ‘How far can we actually push this invisibility?’,” Goodman stated. “So we doubled it and tried that, but we was like, ‘Is this really much different to being infinite?’ Even though infinite invisibility sounds really powerful, you do need to come out and build your ultimate, harass them, hack the right targets. So we tried infinite on both the translocator and the stealth, to take those timers out of your mind so you can focus more on the timing of when you hack or do damage to people, and it was just so game-changing for her – the ability to stealth, get where you want and be in position.

“Because she’s so much about timing – you get that hack just as your team are coming in or you get that damage on an enemy Zenyatta just after he takes a sniper body shot. You can pop out because you’re right there, not waiting for your stealth to recharge. It’s so much more fun to play her this way.”

Although the changes seem quite significant, Goodman says it’s still the same character.

“She kind of felt the same, she just kind of pops out and does her thing,” Goodman says.

“You don’t really get the feeling she’s been there the whole time – from your perspective she doesn’t feel hugely different or hugely more powerful. It was a win on that side too.”

Goodman also understands the pushback on most of their tweaks to Sombra.

“I kind of understand where some of the feedback is coming from, where they’re worried about how she moves a little slower now because she can stealth permanently,” Goodman explained.

“It used to be more of a burst of speed. You still move a lot faster, you move 50% faster, but it used to be 75% faster, so some people are worried about those changes. But I think when people play her they will realise she’s a lot more powerful, more useful, and more flexible.”

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Patreon Hires Twitch’s Adiya Taylor as New Corporate Communications Lead

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Content creation platform Patreon has officially tabbed Adiya Taylor as their new corporate communications lead, effective in February, according to an official announcement.

Taylor worked for Amazon’s video game streaming platform Twitch for three years in a variety of roles, most recently serving as the company’s senior monetization communications manager prior to her departure.

Taylor’s hiring comes after Patreon brought on Brielle Villablanca as Vice President of communications and creator advocacy back in November 2023.

“I’m thrilled to begin crafting and implementing a communications strategy around policy, trust and safety, product and more,” Taylor said during an official post on the networking platform LinkedIn, adding that she believes Patreon is a “true advocate” for creators.

“I’m looking forward to more storytelling around how we’re fostering fandom so that creators own long-lasting businesses built around their artistry,” Taylor added.

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Microsoft Bringing Four Games to Rival Consoles

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Microsoft has responded to recent reports that there will be changes to it’s first-party strategy and has confirmed that four game titles will be released on rival consoles.

More specifically, Xbox head Phil Spencer said that ‘Starfield’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ will not be among the four titles heading to other platforms. Both games had a number of candidate platforms, per reports, adding that this is “not a change to our fundamental exclusive strategy.”

“We don’t damage Xbox and we can grow our business using what other platforms have to help us with that,” Spencer said, according to GamesIndustry.biz.  “Looking forward, I think there is an interesting story for us of introducing Xbox franchises to players on other platforms to get them more interested in Xbox. We think there’s a good brand value for Xbox there.”

Xbox president Sarah Bond announced that Activision Blizzard games would begin to be added into Game Pass offerings, starting with Diablo 4, which will be added on March 28th.

Additionally, Bond said that Microsoft is still working on hardware for the future and that their focus regarding the future is “delivering the largest technical leap you will ever have seen in a hardware generation.”

 

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Sega’s Revenue See Rise to $27 Billion

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Sega Sammy has released its financial report for the nine-month period that officially concluded on December 31st, 2023, and that report that demonstrated a rise in overall sales and profit despite a decrease in sales for Sega’s new titles.

That decline was offset by growth in pachislot and pachinko machines, however Sega had lowered its sales forecasts for the full financial year.

Here is a breakdown, courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz.

  • Net sales: ¥349.9 billion ($2.3 billion, up 28.7% year-on-year)
  • Operating income: ¥54.4 billion ($364 million, up 42.4% year-on-year)
  • Ordinary income: ¥57.2 billion ($383 million, up 42.7% year-on-year)
  • Net sales were up 130.3% to ¥120.2 billion ($805 million) in this segment
  • Ordinary income increased by 521.3% at ¥45.7 billion ($306 million).
  • Entertainment Contents segment, which includes video games, net sales were up 4.2% at ¥219.3 billion
  • Profit decreased by 52.5% to ¥19.7 billion ($131.8 million) as a result of weak game sales

You can read a breakdown of the entire report at GamesIndustry.biz here.

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