EA is asking more than 11,000 college football players to opt into being included in the EA Sports College Football roster, with a guaranteed payout of $600. As reported byESPN, the publisher has started sending contracts to players in the hope that they will agree to be included in its upcoming titleEA SportsCollege Football 25. The game will include all 134 schools in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the NCAA, with all 134 agreeing to be officially licensed....

EA has said it’s working on an issue which has seen reports of the PS5 Pro version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor looking worse on the PS5 Pro than it does on the PS5. Star Wars Jedi: Survivoris one of the first batch of games to receive a patch for thePS5Pro, which was planned to improve the game’s inconsistent performance on console. However, earlier this week,Digital Foundry published a videothat claims the PS5 Pro version has “severe image quality problems”....

Development of the upcoming Elden Ring expansion is “proceeding smoothly”. That’s according toFrom Software’s parent company Kadokawa, which provided a brief update on the DLC in its latest earnings results, which were published on Thursday. “The release timing of DLC forElden Ringhas not yet been announced, but development is proceeding smoothly,” it claimed. It later added during a Q&A: “We are currently working hard on the development of DLC for Elden Ring but we have not announced a release date at this time....

Epic is holding an in-game Fortnite event themed around its legal dispute with Apple. The #FreeFornite Cup will celebrate “one more Victory Royale with friends across all platforms” this Sunday, August 23, with prizes including an outfit for Tart Tycoon, a character featured ina parody of Apple’s 1984 ad. Top scoring players across regions (20,000 globally) will receive a real #FreeFortnite hat, which is clearly themed onApple’s classic logo....

The Early Access trial of FIFA 22 is available later today for anyone with an EA Play or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. All achievements and progress are saved during these 10 hours, meaning if players decide to buy the game after the trial period ends they will be able to carry on where they left off. FIFA 22 will be released on October 1 forPS5,PS4,Xbox Series X/S,Xbox One, PC andStadia....

Square Enix has released a benchmark tool for Final Fantasy 14 ahead of its upcoming Dawntrail expansion. Dawntrail, which will be released on July 2, will bring the game up to version 7.0, and will bring with it a major graphical upgrade. Version 7.0 will add greater visual detail to the game, with textures, grass, hair, shadows and reflections among the various elements getting an upgrade. This will naturally make the game more processor intensive, meaning some players who have currently been playing Final Fantasy 14 with more modest set-ups may find it a struggle to play the game after the update arrives....

The recently released PC port of Final Fantasy 7 Remake is “the worst AAA release… on PC in a good long time,” according to video game tech analysis site Digital Foundry. Journalist Alex Battaglia of Digital Foundry initially tweeted his issues with the port on December 17, one day after the game’sPCrelease on theEpicGame Store. As I mentioned - I am not covering FFVIIR - yet the stutters that happen as you immediately get in game rendered graphics are just unacceptable....

Sony opened Wednesday’sPlayStation 5 showcasewith a Final Fantasy XVI reveal trailer. Square Enix‘s standalone single player action RPG will be exclusive toPlayStationconsoles, it announced. DirectorHiroshi Takai(Final Fantasy XIV, The Last Remnant) said: “From the establishment of an all new development environment, to learning the ins-and-outs of the PS5, the team and I have taken on countless challenges during our journey to bring you the sixteenth chapter in the storied Final Fantasy franchise....

Sega has said it’s keen to expand the reach of its biggest franchises beyond video games. In an interview withCNBC,Segachief operating officer Shuji Utsumi said the company wants to build on the success of Sonic’s recent movie and TV outings by adapting some of its other IPs. “We just revived Sonic in a big way, not only through games but also remember movies and TV shows, and actually Sonic is inRobloxtoo, and we’re working closely now with Lego, so now Sonic is reviving,” he said....

Epic has announced that Fortnite Chapter 2 – Season 6 will start on March 16, when it will kick off with a single-player narrative event. Titled Zero Crisis Finale, the solo experience will centre on Agent Jones and act as a bridge between Seasons 5 and 6. “When you first launch into the new Season, you’ll play through the conclusion of Agent Jones’ mission in the Zero Crisis Finale,”Epicsaid. “The aftermath of this event is sure to shape Reality as we know it....

Game console supply issues could continue for some time yet, as Toshiba warns that the global shortage of power-regulating chips could stretch into next year. The corporation has said it won’t be able to meet demand for the chips for another year, and may even struggle to the end of 2022 in some cases,Bloombergreports. Takeshi Kamebuchi, a director in charge of semiconductors at one of the company’s units, told the publication: “The supply of chips will remain very tight until at least September next year....

Retailers in England have confirmed that PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S pre-orders will be available to collect from stores during the impending national lockdown. However, the situation is less clear for those who have not pre-ordered a console, with retailer Game stating on Sunday that, specifically forXbox Series X / S, “we do not have confirmation that we will have stock on launch day for customers that don’t have a pre-order....

The organizers behind Gamescom have claimed “record-high” interest from game companies in attending this year’s event, with exhibitor numbers up 11 percent year-on-year. In addition tothe companies already announcedforGamescom2025, the roster has now added CI Games,Electronic Arts, GIANTS Software, Headup, Kalypso,Konami, LEGO, Level Infinite, Marvelous Europe,Netflix, Paramount,SEGA, andTencentGames. The already-announced exhibitor list includes companies such as2K,Bandai Namco,Bethesda,Blizzard Entertainment,Capcom,CD Projekt Red,Krafton, Level Infinite,Nintendo,The Pokémon Company,Ubisoft, andXbox. This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live show will once again be hosted byGeoff Keighleyon August 19....