Ubisoft promises a “much more next-gen” Assassin’s Creed sequel

And possibly a "shared world with other players"?

In an interview with GameReactor, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag lead designer Jean-Sebastien Decant promised that the next game in the franchise would be "much more on the next-gen side."

He described Black Flag as being "on the edge," as it was developed before the next-gen systems were released. When Ubisoft began working on the title, they had no idea what the system specs would be for the Xbox One or Playstation 4, making development more geared towards current generation.

Decant also discussed the possibility of a more multiplayer-focused sequel: "I think we're going toward a gaming place where the open world will be shared with other players. More and more. Socially speaking, but also maybe multiplayer stuff. And we will have to consider the open world much more like a platform that we could sustain for years."

Ubisoft has yet to officially announce a new Assassin's Creed title, but given that a new entry for the series has been released every year since 2009, it is extremely likely that a new installment is in the works.

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DICE aware of Battlefield 4 issues

DICE working to fix problems with the game, including DDoS attacks, crashes and disconnects.

DICE and EA have both stated that they are working hard to fix problems that have been affecting Battlefield 4 across the PlayStation 4 and PC.

Sunday saw many players unable to connect to the online portion of the game at all. Those that could connect reported numerous problems, including perks and weapons being reset. DICE blamed the issues, which carried over until Monday, on a distributed denial-of-service attack. Though they couldn’t identify who was carrying out the DDoS attack on the PC servers Ali Hassoon, a producer at DICE, confirmed that they were working to fix the problem quickly.

"Hi guys, we are being targeted by a DDOS, but working on fixing it asap. I'm sorry somebody is ruining your and my day. Rest assured we are doing our best to mitigate the situation though."

It wasn’t just PC gamers experiencing difficulties either. Both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 4 users suffered from disconnections and crashes. But the developer has announced that an Xbox update will release very soon as it is in final testing, while a PS4 patch is in the works.

"We are aware of the frequent crashes in Battlefield 4 on PlayStation 4. We are hard at work identifying these issues and are hoping to get a game update out early next week. Stay tuned for more details as we can confirm them, and thanks for your patience!"

Battlefield games have been well known to suffer server issues near launch so fans of the series will no doubt have been expecting some issues. With more gamers playing online than ever before its becoming more and more important for developers to have games ready for large number of players going online at launch.

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Microsoft discuss their Game DVR feature

The publisher details how their video recording and sharing system works on Xbox One.

Microsoft recently announced that the Twitch streaming service, along with a number of other apps, will not be available at launch. However they have detailed another way for gamers to share and record video of their games.

Game DVR allows users to capture video of gameplay in two different ways. They can either set the app to record for the next five minutes or at any time use it to record something that has just happened, for up to 5 minutes.

“You can snap it to the side of your game to begin recording up to five minutes of footage at any time. You get to choose whether you want to capture the last five minutes of gameplay or quickly capture the last 30 seconds simply by saying “Xbox, record that.”

Upload Studio then offers a number of editing options, including picture-in-picture, trimming and combining different clips. Once finished video footage can be shared over Xbox LIVE with your friends and the community at large.

Additionally Microsoft has incorporated their cloud-based storage system, SkyDrive, where users can save their footage in 720p quality. Videos on SkyDrive can then be viewed on other devices, such as mobile phones and PC’s.

“Thanks to SkyDrive on Xbox One, you can save your edited game clips directly to the cloud and share the way you want to share without any restrictions or limitations.”

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PS4 to outsell Xbox One, consoles irrelevant in 10 years, says Pachter

Anaylist Pachter believes the PS4 will come out on top in retail sales.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter recently made a statement in which he believes the PlayStation 4 will outsell the Xbox One at retail due to the PS4 price point and other factors. He said in the end it won’t matter, however, as in 10 years time consoles would be irrelevant.

While speaking at the London Games Conference today, Pachter said he expects the PS4 to sell 100 to 120 million units in its lifetime, with the Xbox One only selling between 90 and 100 million units. He also stated the Wii U will only sell around 30 million units in total during its lifetime on shelves. Pachter said:

We think 30 million is where [Wii U] is set. If you are a Nintendo fan bitching about my opinion on Wii U, stop, put your money where your mouth is and buy a Wii U.

Pachter said the PS4 will have an edge at retail due not only to is price, but also because “gamers do not want Kinect,”; though he did state that the Xbox One’s TV functionality could become the system’s killer app with various TV services.

Pachter also believes that console gamers will stop increasing overall. The market will hit a high point of between 220 and 260 million users and stop. He continued:

I don’t think the console market will get any bigger. The console installed base has peaked. Consoles may not be relevant in 10 years. We have expanded the market beyond the hardcore console owner. We now have ten times the audience over the internet, six times the audience over mobile.

And I think one day you’ll get to play any game, anywhere on any device.

Sony is currently working on a system, which allow users to play PlayStation games on any device, even non-Sony technology.

The only reasonable question is why should we listen to Pachter? These seem like some outrageous claims, especially console gaming dying out. No doubt the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will have their time frame and ten years seems pretty good, that will be a little longer than this generation.

The PlayStation 4 will be released tomorrow, November 15th in North America. The Xbox One will launch next week on Friday, November 22nd.

Sony has confidence in their launch tomorrow, how do you feel about the next-gen console hitting the gaming world at midnight tonight? Let us know in the comments below.

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GTA Online Beach Bum update coming next week

Rockstar have announced that the Beach Bum pack will be coming to GTA Online next week via a title update.

Rockstar have confirmed that the anticipated Beach Bum pack for Grand Theft Auto Onlinewill be released via a title update (1.06) next week on Tuesday November 19th. They have also announced what the pack will contain:

New Jobs:

• "Grass Route II", an off-road race, from Zancudo River through to the beach in North Chumash
• "Survival on Del Perro Pier", a survival match on... Del Perro Pier.
• "View of Vespucci", a parachuting job that sends you down from 2,980 feet, through Vespucci Beach to the basketball courts of the rec center.
• "Paleto Beach", a team deathmatch that takes place in... Paleto, for 4-8 players.
• "Sundae Driving", a bike race that takes you true Vesupucci Beach

New Vehicles:

• BF Bifta dune buggy
• Canis Kalahari off-road truck
• Bravado Paradise beach camper van
• Speeder speedboat

New Weapons:

• SNS Pistol
• Broken Bottle

New Customisation Options:

• Board shorts
• Neon surfer attire
• Wild tribal tattoos
• Shaggy hair
• And more

If you're already getting bored in GTA Online, then I have a feeling this will be a cure to that boredom.

Rockstar have also said that they'll have information to share with us about the forthcoming Content Creator, Heists and Capture the Flag, which are all updates planned for the future for GTA Online. They also hinted at "some exciting new Story Mode updates as well", so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what comes out of that...

Grand Theft Auto Online is the multiplayer mode to the highly-successful Grand Theft Auto V, developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games on September 17th, 2013, for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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3D Blu-Rays Not Supported by PlayStation 4

According to the PlayStation 4 online user guide, the console will not initially support 3D Blu-ray discs.

As reported by The Sixth Axis, the PlayStation 4 online user guide confirms that 3D Blu-rays will not initially be supported by the console, following a recent move from Microsoft concerning the Xbox One.

This is an odd move from Sony, as the hardware is surely capable of playing 3D Blu-rays, since it supports the relevant HDMI 1.3 standard, as well as the power in the box. The PlayStation 3 console handled 3D Blu-ray playback, so this could be a feature that will be later included to the PS4 as a patch.

The confirmation itself is listed under the Video/TV section of the user guide, along with the previously known fact about the absence of MP3 and CD support, which will be patched in later. The section also gives a list of discs that should not be inserted into the console, so I recommend checking it out, just to be on the safe side. Obviously, it also gives a list of discs that the console actually supports, so go check it out, and you might find out that you can do more with your console than you were expecting.

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