Livestreaming has become a cultural force in the video game business, and that explains why streaming leader Twitch is announcing today that it has raised $20 million in a third round of funding. The investors include Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of big hit Grand Theft Auto V.

Above: Microsoft and Sony are building Twitch into their next-generation consoles.

Image Credit: Twitch

Microsoft and Sony are building Twitch into their next-generation consoles.

San Francisco-based Twitch now counts 45 million monthly unique viewers for its streams, which show videos of players’ sessions in real-time over the Internet. The service has enabled the pastime of game spectating, and in turn, that has helped build huge audiences for professional gaming tournaments, also known as eSports.

People can consume video, such as live tournaments where millions of dollars in prizes are at stake. They can also broadcast their own play for anybody to watch. Content creators can set up their own video channels and make money from ads.

The money comes from Thrive Capital, WestSummit Capital, and the aforementioned Take-Two. Existing investors Alsop Louie Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners joined the round. Kevin Lin, chief operating officer at Twitch, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the firm will use the money to scale its internal sales division and build its infrastructure. That infrastructure supports hundreds of thousands of concurrent (simultaneous) users.

Like other forms of livestreaming, Twitch’s gaming broadcasts require a lot of Internet bandwidth. The company has 15 data centers around the globe to deliver billions of streams per month. The average watcher takes in more than a hundred minutes a day.

Twitch started in 2007 as the gaming component of Justin.tv. The Twitch spinoff officially launched in June 2011, allowing players, publishers, developers, and media companies to broadcast their own live video and then archive the footage as shows. Since that time, industry leaders like Activision Blizzard have built livestreaming into titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Microsoft and Sony are integrating Twitch into their next-generation consoles.

“Twitch is a company that we see riding multiple waves both in gaming and online video,” said Chris Paik, Partner at Thrive Capital. “By providing gamers a new way to express themselves, Twitch has built a strong, passionate, and fast-growing community around itself.”

Over time, Twitch has improved its video quality. But it has had to balance that growth with its ability to make money. Besides ads, the service also has a subscription program that is very important to overall revenue, said Matt DiPietro, vice president of marketing and communications at Twitch, in an interview.

Above: A StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm tournament streaming on Twitch.

Image Credit: Twitch

“We continue to invest in our subscription products,” he said.

“We see many exciting opportunities for Twitch to build upon their global leadership position in this explosive sector of the industry, especially in the innovative and rapidly growing Asia Pacific region,” said Raymond Yang, managing director at WestSummit Capital. “We are delighted to partner with Twitch as the company enters its next phase of growth.”

Twitch will use funds to expand its Twitch Media Group, an internal ad sales force. It will also upgrade its infrastructure to deal with the streaming capabilities of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

“Given the excitement surrounding Microsoft and Sony’s upcoming video game consoles, Twitch will be in a lot of living rooms this holiday season,” said Lin. “Their intuitive and accessible integration of Twitch removes the barriers to entry which casual broadcasters currently face, so we expect traffic numbers to soar when these consoles launch. The trend of video game based content as entertainment is not only here to stay, it’s becoming a critical part of the holistic gaming experience.”

To date, Twitch has raised $42 million. It has 90 employees and is hiring. One rival shut down earlier this year, so Twitch doesn’t have a streaming competitor in the gaming space at the moment, except for game companies that broadcast their own live video.

“Our differentiator is that we were built to be a video game experience,” DiPietro said.

Grand Theft Auto Online has gone live today on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

The online multiplayer mode of Grand Theft Auto V supports up to 16 players in each instance of the dynamic and persistent open-world game. Developer Rockstar North promises to continue and expand the game with content created both by Rockstar and other players.

Above: One of the cars from Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V.

Image Credit: Rockstar Games

Grand Theft Auto V sales topped a record $1 billion within its first three days at retail. That has sent a ton of traffic to Rockstar’s servers. Players have had trouble with Rockstar’s Social Club service (a social network for looking at multiplayer stats and sharing with friends) and the iFruit companion app (training your dog and customizing cars in GTA V) on iOS devices. We’ll see how well GTA Online deals with the crowds today.

Since GTA Online is bigger than any other multiplayer game Rockstar has done before, it’s being cautious, reminding players that they might see bugs and glitches. We’re seeing reports online of people having trouble logging in and getting into the game after creating characters.

“The first couple of weeks we expect to be heavily focused on tuning the experience as it goes from internal testing to the reality of being played by tons of people in the real world, so that all the usual teething problems for an online game are overcome,” the developer said in a blog post last week. “We hope it will all run incredibly smoothly, but please bear with us if it doesn’t, and help us fix any and all problems!”

Giancarlo Valdes contributed to this report.

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of publisher Rockstar Games, could generate $206 million in revenue in the next year from Grand Theft Auto V’s digital content. That’s a big boost in revenue for the year’s hottest video game, which sold a record $1 billion’s worth of games in its first three days.

This estimate includes about $41 million in microtransactions from GTA Online, the online world based on GTA V, according to market researcher SuperData Research. GTA Online is now available as a free download on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live (you need GTA V, of course, to play it). Roughly 20 million players have already bought Grand Theft Auto V. By comparison, Take-Two’s Borderlands 2 generated only $10 million in revenue over a  year. Take-Two’s revenues will be an important barometer for the future of game revenues, SuperData said.

GTA V is an open world game where players can play as criminals in Los Santos, a satirical version of modern Los Angeles. The game was five years in the making at a reported cost of $260 million. It made those expenses back in revenue in just eight hours of sales. It’s extremely popular — especially among hardcore male gamers — because it is a high-quality title, holds nothing sacred, and takes satirical jabs at modern life.

In addition to that, GTA V is expected to reap $165 million downloadable content (DLC) revenue in the next year. Over five years, the game is expected to generate $93 million in microtransactions, such as when users pay real money to get better guns or cars in the game, and $344 million in DLC.

The DLC is expected to add more storylines and experiences through downloadable content. The microtransaction revenue isn’t that high because Rockstar isn’t forcing players to purchase virtual goods. Rather, players can earn items over time without buying anything — they only buy money if they wish to speed up that process.

Take-Two Interactive Software reported record sales and earnings for its third fiscal quarter, which ended on Dec. 31, thanks to enormous sales of Grand Theft Auto V.

Everybody knew it would be a big quarter. Take-Two and its developer Rockstar Games scored a huge hit with GTA V, which launched on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on Sept. 17. The companies previously announced that the open-world crime drama had reached $800 million in sales in its first 24 hours and $1 billion in its first three days. Currently, the game has shipped more than 32.5 million copies to retailers.

The company reported earnings of $1.70 a share on revenues of $767 million (on a non-GAAP accounting basis). Analysts had expected Take-Two to report non-GAAP earnings of $1.37 a share on revenues of $704 million. The company itself had expected earnings of $1.20 to $1.35 a share on $650 million to $700 million. A year ago, Take-Two reported earnings per share of 67 cents on $405 million.

Take-Two also raised its expectations for the coming quarter and the fiscal year that ends March 31.

In after-hours trading, Take-Two’s stock price fell 1.32 percent to $18.65, 25 cents down from the stock market close. The company’s market value is $1.84 billion, and it has now beaten its own guidance for six quarters in a row. It has nearly $1 billion in cash.

GTA V received near-universal critical acclaim, scoring an average 98 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic and 95 out of 100 on GamesBeat. GTA V beat previous records set by the popular Call of Duty games and some of the records set by feature film box office revenues.

Take-Two said that its GTA V, NBA 2K14, and WWE 2K14 were the biggest hits. NBA 2K14 sold more than 5 million units.

Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities wrote in a research note before the earnings call that he had expect strong results not only for Grand Theft Auto V but NBA Live 2K14 as well. Pachter believes the October launch of the GTA Online, the multiplayer mode for GTA V, also helped boost sales. He lowered his estimates for the fourth fiscal quarter ending March 31 because Take-Two hasn’t announced any significant new titles.

GTA V took Rockstar more than five years to make on a reported budget of $260 million. It made that money back in a matter of hours on the day the game debuted.

One of the biggest next-generation video games in development is Evolve, a cooperative first-person shooter coming this fall from publisher 2K Games and Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock Studios.

Above: Evolve developer Phil Robb of Turtle Rock Games

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

The game is a multiplayer-only title where four human hunters search across large 3D landscape for a big monster. It’s like a boss fight in a sci-fi game, only one where the boss, or the monster, is controlled by another human player. I’ve previewed the game, and it takes a lot of skill on both sides. It’s nerve-racking for everyone as each side has its advantages. The human players can track and trap the monster, but the big brute can hide in the alien jungle and toss the humans around like rag dolls.

Evolve had a tough development history as Turtle Rock Studios was making the game for the now defunct publisher THQ. After that company went under, Take-Two Interactive acquired the rights to Evolve for $10.8 million. 2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, is releasing the game this fall.

We caught up recently with Phil Robb, the co-founder of Turtle Rock Studios, at a press event. Evolve will launch on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the Windows PC.

Here’s an edited transcript of our conversation. And here’s our full preview of the game.

GamesBeat: How long have you been working on this so far? It seems like you’ve been preparing it for a long time.

Phil Robb: About three years. Three years of not being able to talk about what you’re working on, it drives you a little crazy. [Laughs]

GamesBeat: Was Evolve always developed with next-gen hardware in mind?

Robb: No, not initially. We were looking at doing it on current hardware. This was before the next-gen stuff was even announced.

GamesBeat: So more with high-end PCs in mind.

Robb: Yeah. But once they announced the new stuff and we saw what it was capable of, we said, “OK, the new consoles are going to be able to do much better at what we want.”

Above: A Goliath vs a gun in Evolve

Image Credit: 2K Games

GamesBeat: It’s very multiplayer-focused. Is there any single-player content at all?

Robb: We have aspects of the game that are specifically going to give people who don’t necessarily want to go online a good experience. It’s somewhere between a tutorial and a campaign. You can go in and meet the hunters and it runs you through a light narrative.

The other thing we have is very similar to Left 4 Dead, where you can set up the game with any configuration of A.I. and human players you want. If you don’t want to go online and play competitively, but you and three friends want to play against the A.I., you can do that. Or say you just unlocked a new monster and you want to try it out before you take it online. You can play that against four A.I. hunters, or any sort of combination in between.

GamesBeat: It’s almost like Left 4 Dead with one big boss to fight against instead of a bunch of zombies. Did you get this idea when you were working on that project?

Robb: Certainly there’s Left 4 Dead DNA in here, yeah. The original idea actually predates Left 4 Dead, though. It predates Turtle Rock entirely. This is something that Chris, my partner, and myself and a few guys have been talking about for a long time. We just never had the hardware to be able to realize the vision.

GamesBeat: What part of it takes all that hardware power?

Robb: In order for the monster to be able to do its thing, it needs to be able to hide. We wanted to have these lush alien environments, full of foliage and stuff like that. Right there, you’ve got a lot of — it’s just pushing a lot of polygons and a lot of objects around. On top of that, besides the monster and the four players, you have a lot of A.I. happening around all the wildlife. That’s expensive as well. In general, it looks like it looks. [Laughs]

We worked on this a long time. It’s one of those things where — once we got it working on the previous generation of hardware, we said, “Well, this looks OK, but it’s going to present itself much better on the next generation.”

GamesBeat: It seems like you can only make a boss so smart. The A.I. is always going to be not quite as good as a human being.

Robb: Fair enough, for sure. We’re certainly doing our best. We felt like we did a pretty good job on Left 4 Dead. We’re trying to push it with this one, to make sure that if you want that experience, it’ll be just as gratifying.

Let’s be honest. This is a multiplayer game. Multiplayer is in its genes. Any multiplayer game is always going to be best when it’s played the way it was envisioned. But we certainly understand that not everyone has that comfort level going online into that competitive environment. We want to make sure that the people with those kinds of tastes who buy the game get their money’s worth.

GamesBeat: The asymmetric quality of it is interesting, too. You expect things to usually be balanced for an even number of players these days.

Robb: Exactly. That’s one of the new things we wanted to try. We’d never seen it done on this level, or done as well as we’re pulling off. That’s what gives it a unique flavor.

Above: Monster prepares to charge in Evolve

Image Credit: 2K Games

GamesBeat: You get a lot of variety with all these things, like weapons and types of monsters.

Robb: Yeah, for sure. We have a lot of environments. We have a lot of different hunters. Like I said in the presentation, each hunter is very distinct. You got to play the monster, but when you go back, you’ll get to play the hunters.

GamesBeat: The medic was pretty annoying for me there. I was trying to kill the medic the whole time.

Robb: For sure. That’s a completely valid strategy. A lot of people use that. It’s particularly valid because she’s really good at keeping people up. The other thing is that she’s very visible. You can see that green beam – oh, there she is! That’s a valid approach.

But a lot of the time it’s going to depend on who’s playing. There are some really good Griffin players out there that are excellent with the harpoon gun. They can get irritating. A lot of people will go after him first because he limits your movement. Once you take care of that, you’re free to move and go after whoever you feel like is the next biggest threat.

We didn’t ever want this to be formulaic – like, “The way to win is to kill the medic first, always.” We want all the players to have to look at the battlefield and see what’s going on. “That guy’s doing really well, I’m going after him.” It’s not always the same.

GamesBeat: The monster in this level couldn’t really kill with one swipe. Is that always the case, that the monster has to get a few shots in?

Robb: When you get to stage three, you’re able to do a lot more damage. But ultimately, just for balance purposes, it wouldn’t be much fun for the hunters if they got one-shotted all the time. If you can get a critical hit, it can take them down a lot. A lot of the time, what monster players do is they focus on one guy and get him down. Once you’ve got a guy down, it’s like in Left 4 Dead. If one of the survivors goes down, the chances of getting to the end get much lower. The team is a balanced chair. Knock one of the legs out, and it starts to go over.

Activision is reportedly spending $500 million on Destiny — and the giant publisher could be making a profit on it by the end of the year.

The sci-fi online shooter could be the biggest video game of the year when it launches in September, based on an analysis of cumulative video game preoders by Cowen Research analyst Doug Creutz. Destiny online shooter game could sell 10 million to 15 million copies, or roughly $600 million to $900 million at retail, which would give it a chance to be the top-selling game of the year.

The analysis is based on Cowen’s Ordometer, which tracks U.S. video game orders before launch and then correlates the result to sales after launch. The analysis is backed by six years of Amazon bestseller data and NPD’s reported physical sales of games. Cowen measures the data every week from the Electronic Entertainment Expo to the end of the year for both Xbox and PlayStation consoles. The results paint an estimate of preorders and are a bit surprising given our own lackluster impressions of Destiny’s recent alpha test.

Creutz said in his report that Destiny has the highest Ordometer score of any game tracked over the past four years, and it could even outsell Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which Activision plans to launch in November. Call of Duty is tracking in-line with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which had a slow preorder start in 2012 but went on to be the highest-selling game in the series’ history. So the “overall trajectory of Advanced Warfare remains up for debate,” Creutz wrote. The fate of Advanced Warfare will be determined in the next few weeks of preorders.

Meanwhile, Creutz said the analysis showed that Electronic Arts’ Battlefield Hardline is unlikely to sell well. That means Creutz favors Activision as a stock over EA at the moment. He said the Ordometer score for EA’s cops-and-robbers version of its shooter franchise is just a fraction of where Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 were in 2011 and 2013, respectively. It is roughly in line with Medal of Honor: Warfighter, a disappointing title from 2012.

Meanwhile, the score for EA’s Dragon Age: Inquisition looks more promising. At the same time, he said preorders are that game are “well but not wildly well.” He estimates the game could sell 3 million to 4 million copies worldwide.

The next-generation console version of Grand Theft Auto V, coming this fall from Take-Two Interactive’s Rockstar Games, should boost the demand for the first-person shooter category. GTA V has become one of the best-selling games of all time, with more than 33 million copies sold on last-generation consoles. GTA V could also offset expected “soft sales” for Take-Two’s Evolve and Borderlands: The Presequel. Creutz thinks those will fall victim to this year’s “shooter glut.”

Cowen believes that GTA V preorders have slowed after E3, with next-generation sales of single-digit millions versus the 8 million to 10 million that seemed possible just after E3. Lastly, Creutz said Ubisoft is in a strong position with Assassin’s Creed: Unity pacing ahead of franchise pre-orders for the last three years, and Far Cry 4 also seeing strong advance interest. However, he said Ubisoft’s The Crew appears likely to be “dead on arrival.”

Above: Ordometer 2014

Image Credit: Cowen

Take-Two Interactive Software chairman Strauss Zelnick can thank Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for this: The publisher reported that it received $22 million as it cashed out its investment in Twitch, the gameplay livestreaming company.

Amazon acquired Twitch for $970 million in September. That means that Take-Two held about 2.3 percent of the ownership of Twitch. No doubt Take-Two is happy with its return, although the company did not say what the initial investment was.

PREVIEW:

Forgive me if I’m seeing the world through a psychedelic miasma. I’ve played a few rounds of combat in the multiplayer game Battleborn, coming soon from developer Gearbox Software and Take-Two Interactive’s 2K publishing label.

2K announced that the sci-fi shooter will have 25 unique playable heroes, a story mode that is playable alone or with up to four other friends, and several types of competitive multiplayer modes. It will have a persistent progression system, which means that Gearbox is investing heavily in this brand new intellectual property. And Gearbox’s last franchise, Borderlands, has sold more than 25 million copies.

I’m not going to argue too much with Gearbox about its creativity. I admire the company’s chutzpah, but I have to say, it’s hard for me to get excited about what I’ve seen of Battleborn right now. The main appeal could be as an esport, with five players challenging five players in the tradition of multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) titles like League of Legends. But in contrast to LoL, this game is a first-person shooter, dubbed a “hero shooter” because it has so many characters. In terms of competition, it is more like a rival to the recently released Nexon game Dirty Bomb.

“We have some very ambitious goals,” said Randy Varnell, the creative director on Battleborn at Gearbox. “We want to mix the types of characters you have in the game with characters with guns, swords, bows, and magic. There’s a lot of variety in the characters and the aesthetics.”

Battleborn is fun, and it has some of that signature humor that Gearbox created with Borderlands, but I’m not sure it’s going to stand out from the pack games that are hitting the market. It’s hard to put my finger on it. The universe of Battleborn is pretty and colorful but in a not so serious way, like Borderlands or Team Fortress 2. The missions are directed, like with Destiny, but the characters are hard to parse and the story isn’t really full of comedy as the whole universe stands on the verge of collapse if you fail.

Battleborn is set in the future where nearly every star in the universe has gone dark at the hands of a mysterious enemy, the Veralsi. Solus, the last star, is the only beacon of hope for the universe’s surviving population. There’s also a betrayer among the ranks of Battleborn, or the heroes. Rather than uniting humanity, the fading of the stars has led to a great war among different factions who are desperate for the remaining resources. The fighting is a combination of melee weapons and long-range shooting.

The mysterious enemy is threatening to extinguish the last star, and the heroes are the only ones who can stop it. The graphics help the game stand out, but not necessarily in a good way. The cartoon style is not bad, sort of like a superhero comic book’s art. But the palette does get a little crazy in the middle of a mission, with an explosion of colors that make you feel like you are in the middle of a druggie fantasy.

“It’s about whether you can live together, or die alone,” Varnell said.

Features and modes

Above: Miko healing in Battleborn

Image Credit: 2K

Battleborn has a story mode that is a narrative experience. You can play it in single-player, fighting with artificial intelligence allies on your side. Or you can play it cooperatively with a total of five players, either splitscreen or online. The story is modular, enabling players to choose which missions to do. You can also complete a mission again to collect better loot.

With 25 heroes, you’ll have a lot to choose from. Each has its own personality, attitude, and weaponry.

Using a “growth system” known as the Helix System, a character can level up from one to 10 in a single story mission or competitive match. Players can earn new capabilities on the fly and unlock new skins as well. I found this to be one of the most enjoyable features of the game.

“Every time you play, you get a choice on how you’ll level up,” Varnell said.

The competitive multiplayer system can handle up to 5-on-5 players with three distinct modes. That includes Incursion, where teams of heroes defend their base from waves of A.I.-controlled minions while working together alongside their own minions to destroy their opponents’ base. Another mode is Devastation, where teams of heroes face off in a fast-paced deathmatch and must capture and hold objectives on the map to win. The last mode is Meltdown, where heroes protect their minions as they march to their death at the center of the map. Points are scored for minions who throw themselves into the incinerator, and the team with the most points wins.

The game has a persistent progression system. All earned experience points contribute to leveling up a character as well as a command rank. That latter part means players can rank up their own player profile, earning badges and titles. Collected loot can be used to benefit any hero that the player chooses to command.

Solus has a numerous factions, including the Peacekeepers, the sworn protectors of Solus; the Eldrid, the preservers of the natural order of the universe; the Rogues, mercenaries only concerned with their own survival; the Last Light Consortium, the war profiteers, exploiting others for their own gain; and the Jennerit Empire, who rule others by force, valuing power above all else.

25 playable characters

Above: Co-op in Battleborn

Image Credit: 2K

The playable heroes belong to the different factions, with huge numbers of choices akin to a Super Smash Bros. title. They all come with their own weapons and powers.

The characters include Montana, a tank-like character who has an awesome minigun. I used this character a couple of times as I was playing cooperative multiplayer. He is very powerful, but he becomes vulnerable when his minigun overheats. He can also run over other enemies with a shoulder dash.

Oscar Mike is a clone character who is built for combat. He uses a cool assault rifle, has battle armor that also serves as a stealth suit, and has “excellent personal hygiene.”

I also played as Teshka Elessamorn, nicknamed ”Thorn” for her short temper. She was the last aelfrin child of her homeworld before it was darkened by the Varelsi. Thorn ranges the jungles of Ekkunar and beyond with her bow ”Kreshek” and her advanced Eldrid magic. One of her skills is “blight.”

Miko is the last surviving bud of a once planet-sized fungal colony. She is widely known as a compassionate and very skilled healer. Now more of a combat botanist, Miko devotes her time to restoring all that can be restored and throwing “kunai” at things that cannot.

Verod Rath is mistaken for a vampire a lot. He is a master bladesmith and swordsman of the Jennerit Empire, once a member of the Keepers of the Blade — the elite guard of Empress Lenore. Rath has three energy blades with lethal efficiency.

The unhinged and unpredictable Orendi channels powerful magic-like energies, striving to test herself against the universe’s greatest foes. She has earned the title “Chaos Witch.”

Marquis d’Caliber is a high-society sociopath who wreaks havoc on the unwashed masses with his sniper cane Bindlebane and his explosively temperamental mechanical owl, Hoodini.

Phoebe is an inventor, adventurer, and heiress to one of the largest family fortunes within the Last Light Consortium. She is known as “Mageblade” among her friends, and she is fascinated with Edrid magic relics. We saw Phoebe in action, and her high-pitched voice was very annoying.

Caldarius won his name and fame in the Jennerit Fighting Pits. Armed in the jet-enhanced J-HTX Assault Frame armor of the Jennerit Shock troops, Caldarius is brutally efficient at hit-and-run close quarters fighting.

Boldur the Unbearable is a stubborn, ax-wielding native of Ekkunar who has survived the last two millennia of interruptions to his quiet forest life through sheer stubbornness and the aid of the civilian militia he leads called the Woodsworn. He’s a dwarf, and he was the least popular of the group.

Hands-on combat

Above: Orendi and Phoebe in Battleborn

Image Credit: 2K

I played a few rounds of combat with several characters, including the tank and the witch-like character Thorn. But there wasn’t as much variety between the two as I expected. In both cases, I was firing at enemies as much as possible, using my special weapons occasionally, and then running for cover when I was vulnerable.

We started out at level four, which meant we could each choose four augmentations to change the way our character played. When you progress through a level, you pick up little yellow crystals, or shards. These are important as currency in the game. You can use them to upgrade your sentry gun, which sprays bullets in a given direction. Battleborn has mini challenges, like requiring the whole team to pick up a bunch of shards in one minute.

That wasn’t much variety. We played the same cooperative multiplayer story mission — “To the Edge of the Void” — a few times, where five human-controlled players had to fight our way into a compound, unlock new areas, unleash a giant walking tank-like machine, and then protect the base from an all-out assault. I found that it certainly paid off to stick close to your friends. Our job was to land on Bliss, a frozen moon. We had to fight off the enemy and then set off a big bomb. We had to deal with taking out guardians and generators and then attack big monsters (Thrall Ascendant), which can spawn additional enemies into the fight during the battle.

I’m not yet seeing the benefits of having so many characters. I hope, in reality, the gameplay variety will be fairly obvious among the characters. Otherwise, the opposite problem will ensue — confusion. Besides firepower, there is also a lot of variety in how fast the characters move. Phoebe can’t jump very high, but Thorn, who can augment herself with a double jump, has no problem vaulting to upper levels.

As a team, we didn’t have much problem winning the round against the A.I. in several rounds of the same mission. Overall, it wasn’t that challenging. And after I played the mission once, I didn’t really want to play it again. But in this demo, I had to.

But Battleborn definitely has some pluses. The sounds are cacophonous and pulse-pounding, adding a lot of drama to the fighting. And it was easy and fun to level up and gain new capabilities in the middle of the match. If that kind of leveling up can tip the balance of power in a battle, that could make the matches much more interesting. Again, the problem was that I played the same way regardless of the situation or which character I was playing.

At the very end of the mission, we were rewarded with a comical explosion that was almost like watching fireworks go off. That was what made me think it was a druggie fantasy.

Conclusion

Above: Rath and Boldur melee in Battleborn

Image Credit: 2K

Battleborn could get better with more revelations in the future. But I’m not sold yet. It has a cartoon art style that will turn off the fans of realistic shooters. And it’s not obviously funny the way that Borderlands was. It does pay off to work together cooperatively to fight the enemies. It felt like the game was a mash-up of a shooter, with a MOBA overlaid on top of it, in an effort to get players excited about playing it as an esport.

But Battleborn seems to be lacking something that would make it stand out from all of the other online shooters and combat games on the market: innovation. I know I haven’t seen much of the game at all, but Gearbox still has a lot to prove to me.

PREVIEW:

The first time I sent out a gunboat to explore the waters of my world in Rising Tide, a giant squid lashed its tentacles onto it and destroyed the vessel.

That’s just one of the dangers from the deep that players face in this expansion for Civilization: Beyond Earth, which debuts on Windows PCs this fall for $30. Published by Take-Two Interactive’s 2K Games label and developed by Firaxis Games, Rising Tide focuses on civilizations with floating cities on watery worlds. The expansion is the first major expansion pack for Beyond Earth, the latest version of Civilization set in a future when humanity colonizes the stars. Rising Tide is an important downloadable content (DLC) addition that is aimed at keeping gamers loyal to Civilization: Beyond Earth well after its initial 2014 launch.

I played the first 150 turns of the latest preview build at the 2K office in Novato, California. Besides the Waterworld-like landscape with floating cities, this expansion offers a new diplomacy system, four additional factions, a new artifact system, two new biomes, and the capability to mix affinities from two different civilizations. All of these changes mean that die-hard Civ fans should have plenty of reasons to pick up this DLC. But I don’t think any of these features will convince new players to pick up the game.

Oceans away

Above: You can create floating cities in Rising Tide, the expansion for Civilization: Beyond Earth.

Image Credit: 2K Games

One of the first things you’ll notice upon touching down on a new planet for colonization is the new graphics. It has plenty of water, and now it is transparent, with shallow parts near shore and deeper parts further out. Resources are visible beneath the surface, as are a variety of sea creatures.

The familiar grid of hexagons still covers the entire map, and you can still build on land and send satellites into the orbital layer above the planet. But now the oceans come into play with creatures such as huge Kraken and sentient and monstrous coral reefs.

“Graphically, we created new shaders, textures and other tech for the water. It’s now transparent and has visual clarity for depth,” said lead game producer Andrew Frederiksen in an interview with GamesBeat. “Some resources appear on different types of water. The tiles have different layers. You have to research technology to go into the deeper ocean. It’s been a lot of work. We wanted to push the envelope more and take these civilizations into new places.”

You still build cities in the traditional way: picking a good site, putting a colonist on the location, and then developing the tiles around it to enable it to gather resources from farms, mines, and solar collectors. Now you can create floating structures to collect the resources on the water around your cities. You can also physically move your floating cities to new locations, too.

How it plays

That becomes important as you deal with alien threats such as the giant coral, which can rope off your city and prevent all movement coming in or out of it. I created a couple of cities on two different maps. Fortunately, the coral didn’t gang up on me even after I started blasting back at my alien attackers.

Besides new sea creatures, this expansion also has new sea vessels. You can build Explorers that go on land or water as well as patrol boats, gun boats, trade ships, and submarines. As you progress and research new technologies, you can build more sophisticated seagoing craft. The submarines have an advantage of being invisible to an enemy’s surface units.

One of the things you have to learn through trial-and-error is just how tough your gunboats and submarines are against the sea creatures. Initial hostilities began and I chose to eradicate alien life on the planet.

In the early parts of my game, I had to make sure that my colony grew and the aliens didn’t eradicate me. Meanwhile, I had to explore the surrounding area and keep enough of a military presence to ward off attacks from the aliens in the water. I set up a floating city, and I kept my gunboats close so that I could bombard alien attackers with my Home City artillery, before committing naval ships to the attack.

I learned that the hardware. I sent some gunboats out into the ocean to survey the area. One of them was attacked by a Kraken and sunk within a couple of rounds of combat. By ganging up on a Kraken, my fleet was able to do enough damage to bring down the giant sea monster.

New faces, new foes?

Above: Duncan Hughes, leader of the North Sea Alliance in Rising Tide expansion for Civilization: Beyond Earth.

Image Credit: 2K Games

You also have to deal with four new factions. A previously announced faction includes Al Falah, from the Middle East. Another being announced today is Duncan Hughes, a late arrival from Earth. He’s a leader of the North Sea Alliance, a collection of Northern European countries. A Scottish sailor, he comes from roots in organized labor. His faction controls the seas. Their cities can move faster and they have a higher defense.

“When they are in the water, they are a force to be reckoned with,” said Frederiksen.

Frederiksen said the new diplomacy system expands your choices dramatically beyond declaring war, making peace, or trading goods.

Now you’ll see what the leaders fear, and the things that cause them to be afraid of your faction, or the things they like. If the other leader cares a lot about a strong economy, you will please that leader if you do things that strengthen your own economy or both economies, such as establishing trade routes. The hope is that the diplomacy of the artificial intelligence leaders will be as interesting as playing against another human.

“The diplomacy changes are big,” Frederiksen said. “You have a wider variety of choices. But you also have transparency into other leaders on fear and respect. That affects the options you have and who you can be friends with. You can try to guide the diplomatic landscape.”

Now you’ll have a better idea of where things stand with an ally and where they are heading. You still won’t know if a faction will attack you in three turns. But you’ll be able

You can also develop hybrid affinities. In the prior game, you could choose an affinity, such as Supremacy, focused on robots; Purity, focused on human development; and Harmony, focused on embracing alien life. You can now mix those affinities as needed and still stay on a particular path toward victory.

“You get some new gameplay out of those hybrid affinities,” Frederiksen said.

Above: Al Falah faction of Rising Tide expansion of Civilization: Beyond Earth.

Image Credit: 2K Games

Correction: I misheard the statement, fixing to future titles in coming years.

Take-Two Interactive Software will release unnamed “triple-A” titles in its future fiscal years, according to a company executive. Karl Slatoff, the president of New York-based Take-Two, announced during the company’s quarterly earnings call today that the company would launch unnamed new games during its future fiscal years. That should get tongues wagging about what those games might be.

The company just reported non-GAAP earnings per share of 31 cents (versus a loss of 14 cents a year ago) on revenues of $366.4 million (up 142 percent from a year ago). Analysts had expected non-GAAP earnings per share of 36 cents on revenues of $351 million.

While analysts expected more, Take-Two’s ability to stay profitable long after the initial launch of a Grand Theft Auto title. In years past, Take-Two would lose money in non-GTA years. The biggest contributors to revenue in the first fiscal quarter were Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, NBA 2K15, Borderlands: the Handsome Collection, and WWE 2K15.

If there’s any title up for renewal, it could be another installment in the Red Dead Redemption, the critically acclaimed third-person shooter set in the Wild West. At least, that’s what I am hoping for.

Take-Two already announced upcoming titles such as Mafia III, XCOM 2, and Battleborn.

Take-Two Interactive has shut down a 150-person game studio in China and stopped development on Borderlands Online, which would have been a free-to-play online game in the Asian market. The move is another sign that taking Western games and developing them for the Chinese market is a tough and expensive task.

China has become the major gaming market in the world, with about $15 billion in sales across online and mobile games, according to market research reports.

The 2K China studio was based in Shanghai, with offices in Shanghai. Take-Two is the publisher of games such as Grand Theft Auto V, and it is the 15th-largest publicly traded game company in the world. Take-Two did not shut down Visual Concepts China, the Chinese studio in Shanghai that created and operates NBA 2K Online, and it is still planning to launch Civilization Online in Korea. 2K also still has a game-testing office in Chengdu, China, which is also not affected.

In a statement, a spokesman for Take-Two confirmed, “We are excited about the opportunities to expand our business in Asia, and we remain committed to delivering triple-A offerings for that region. At this time, we can confirm that we are closing 2K China. We determined that the additional time required to finish current projects at the studio, particularly Borderlands Online, would not yield a favorable return on investment.”

The spokesman added, “We are working with affected staff to identify other opportunities within the company where possible. The costs associated with the closure will not materially impact the company’s financial results. This decision does not affect our team behind NBA 2K Online, which has been and continues to be highly successful for our company. In addition, we look forward to the commercial launch of Civilization Online in Korea during this fiscal year.”

Take-Two Interactive‘s 2K label and Firaxis Games are pulling out a nice surprise for gamers today. They’re announcing that Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is going to ship on the PC on October 21.

The new turn-based strategy game is the next entry in the award-winning Civilization franchise that Sid Meier created 25 years ago. It debuts on the same day as Electronic Arts’ shooter game Battlefield 1, but Civilization has such a following that it may very well hold its own against the Battlefield 1 marketing machine. The Civilization franchise has sold more than 33 million copies, including 8 million for Civilization V, which debuted on the PC in 2010.

Dennis Shirk, an 11-year veteran at Firaxis and lead producer for Civilization VI, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the same team from Civ V is working on the new game. Those who enjoyed Civilization V will notice that many of the changes from that game will carry over like a “warm blanket” to Civilization VI, he said. One of those big changes was to spread the military units out from a giant stack in a single hexagon to a bunch of units spread out across the map.

“We loved how the last product turned out, and we’re moving forward with the same team,” Shirk said. “And everything that Civ fans like about Civ V is going to be in there too. We’ve put some new systems on top.”

Cities spread out across the map

Above: Civilization VI will force you to decide what a particular city will specialize in.

Image Credit: 2K/Firaxis Games

The big difference that fans will notice this time is that the player is being encouraged to “play the land.” This means that the tiles for cities will be spread out across multiple hexagons, in contrast to past games where cities were all concentrated in a single place. You’ll have different districts of your city spread out across different tiles. You might drop a harbor into a tile on the water. If you do, you can’t build something else in that tile, like a Wonder. This reflects the influence of Ed Beach, lead designer on Civilization VI.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that the maps will be huge, with armies and cities spread out. You may wind up with a few cities or lots of cities. The happiness level will be focused on a city level, rather than on a global basis across your civilization.

“One city can only go out three tiles in all directions,” Shirk said. “One city with maximum land can’t build every Wonder. If you build every district in one city, you will not have enough farmland to support your population. You have to make these decisions city by city. We are unstacking the cities and taking that to the nth degree.”

That means you have to spread the different districts across multiple cities. That means you have to be able to defend multiple cities. The idea is to take full advantage of the terrain. Each hex that is near another can modify how your tile grows. You may get a bonus based on what is adjacent to the tile. Before, you could put down a building in a city and be done with it. Your districts can be containers for additional buildings. You can create a holy site that will eventually house religious buildings such as churches or temples. If you have a mountain pass, you may want to put a military encampment there to create an easily defended zone.

You can’t build every single type of district in each city because it causes the city to spread out and bump into its area and population limits, Shirk said. If you are invaded, you may be able to hang on to part of your city while sacrificing another part.

Terrain can also affect your research. If you do research in technology and culture, you’ll unlock new potential, such as boosts that speed your civilization’s progress through history. If you build a city on the coast, sailing technology will come a lot easier. If you build a quarry, you may get masonry much more easily.

A new approach for A.I.

Above: Civilization VI

Image Credit: 2K/Firaxis Games

The artificial intelligence of the computer-controlled players will be different as well. This time, the non-player A.I. will always have some kind of agenda that drives their behavior. You can’t really change someone’s agenda, such as Manifest Destiny. But you can change their attitude toward you very quickly if you invade them.

This means that diplomacy will be dynamic, changing as the ages evolve and as the leaders show their character, said Andrew Garrett, an A.I. expert, in an interview with GamesBeat.

“We have a system that has a historical agenda linked to a leader, but they also have random leaders, chosen game by game, that are hidden from the player,” Garrett said.

You can find out what the agenda of a particular leader is by spying or just understanding their behavior. If a leader is obsessed with Wonders, he or she will strive to out-build the other societies when it comes to creating wonders. If you challenge that leader in the Wonder race, you’ll likely come into conflict. You may even be able to set leaders against each other through careful observation. Civilization VI will have a new espionage system, but Firaxis isn’t describing it yet.

“That’s part of the overall puzzle of the game, making each game unique,” Shirk said.

The art style matches the map changes

Above: Civilization VI has a “color language” for distinguishing buildings and terrain.

Image Credit: 2K/Firaxis Games

The visual style is distinct from past games. Things are spread out more on the map. Every building in the game is modeled. You’ll see birds flying around the buildings. You’ll be able to zoom in and see the fruits of your labor now. The world is more vivid and alive. The leaders will be more expressive and realistic, all with the aim of making you believe the world is real.

“Things have to be a lot more readable, and you need a color language,” Shirk said. “You have campus districts with blue roofs that correspond to the color of science. It’s more expressive, colorful, and alive.” In Civilization IV, you could count individual trees. In Civilization V, the art style was much more realistic. This new game’s art style is geared toward enabling you to zoom all the way on your units and districts.

You can still become ruler of the world, starting out from a humble tribe in the Stone Age and growing your city to the Information Age. You can wage war, conduct diplomacy, advance your culture, and go head-to-head with history’s greatest leaders. You will still have multiple ways to win the game.

The game will have enhanced multiplayer modes, where you can cooperate or compete against your friends in scenarios that can be completed in a single session.

Rockstar Games has shipped more than 65 million units of Grand Theft Auto V worldwide, according to an announcement by Take-Two Interactive today.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said during the company’s analyst call that GTA V had set yet another record, with the 65 million units up from 60 million in early February. A year ago, the game had sold 52 million units. If you multiply the total by $60 per copy at the retail price, you get about $3.9 billion in revenues. That’s pretty amazing.

Zelnick noted that the game just keeps on performing, even though it was originally released in September 2013 on PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The game debut on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2014, and then it hit the Windows PC in April 2015.

One of the things that keeps it going its Grand Theft Auto Online, which has been a cash cow and keeps fresh content coming for the fans.

Take-Two Interactive Software, 2K and Firaxis Games are partnering with nonprofit GlassLab to take a version of Sid Meier’s Civilization V into high schools in North America.

CivilizationEDU will debut in schools in the fall of 2017. The history-inspired, turn-based strategy game has sold more than 8 million copies and is highly educational even in its unmodified state. The award-winning series is now 25 years old, but its basic gameplay hasn’t strayed from enabling players to build and run their own empires from the Stone Age to the modern age.

The companies announced the game at the 13th Annual Games for Change Festival in New York. Developed by Firaxis Games, Sid Meier’s Civilization V was one of the most critically acclaimed PC games of 2010, and earned numerous awards and accolades.

CivilizationEDU will provide students with the opportunity to think critically and create historical events, consider and evaluate the geographical ramifications of their economic and technological decisions, and to engage in systems thinking and experiment with the causal/correlative relationships between military, technology, political and socioeconomic development, the companies said.

GlassLab, a nonprofit that also made SimCityEDU, will add a learning analytics engine to CivilizationEDU to capture students’ progress and assess their problem-solving skills – harnessing the popularity and innovation of interactive entertainment and turning it into a powerful tool for the classroom and alternative to standardized tests. Teachers who use CivilizationEDU will have access to an online dashboard that will provide reports on students’ progress, demonstrating how in-game accomplishments relate to problem solving; developer diaries; gameplay tutorial videos, and instructional resources, including an in-depth gameplay guide and lesson plans aligned to academic and 21st century standards.

“We are incredibly proud to lend one of our industry’s most beloved series to educators to use as a resource to inspire and engage students further,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two, in a statement. “Civilization has challenged millions of people around the world to revisit and experience history, pursue boldly exploration, and create their own societies based on their passions and freedom of choice. I can’t think of a better interactive experience to help challenge and shape the minds of tomorrow’s leaders.”

Civilization VI will be launching on the PC this fall.

“For the past 25 years, we’ve found that one of the fun secrets of Civilization is learning while you play,” added Sid Meier, founder and director of creative development at Firaxis Games, in a statement. “We’ve always focused on entertainment first, but we believe that our players – young and old – enjoy learning, even if they don’t always enjoy education. Civilization players find fun in discovering new civilizations, running into famous historical leaders, and charting their own version of human history. Along the way, players learn valuable lessons from their success and failures and are able to try again, employing different choices and strategies. We’re absolutely thrilled to be partnering with GlassLab and I am excited to see CivilizationEDU in classrooms next year.”

PREVIEW:

Mafia III could be a very short revenge story. Lincoln Clay, the Vietnam veteran whose mobster friends are killed in the first act, could quickly make his way over to the mafia boss and take him out. But the game coming from publisher 2K Games (a Take-Two Interactive division) on October 7 is a very deep open world with some very different story threads that can lead to alternative story outcomes.

The reason that this game is so deep and varied is that Clay’s idea of revenge is so much bigger than just killing crime boss Sal Marcano. It says a lot about Clay, the “gifted anti-hero” of Mafia III, that he wants to take apart Marcano’s criminal organization, piece by piece, district by district. Clay wants to take over all the rackets, taking out the low level foot soldiers, climbing up the ladder, and then replacing them with his own people.

Check out our Reviews Vault for past game reviews. Editor’s note: This story has spoilers for the beginning of the game.

“The characters discuss this in the game a couple of times,” said Bill Harms, lead writer of the game at developer Hangar 13, in an interview with GamesBeat. “That goes to who Lincoln is as a character. He says early on that is not enough. His goal is to systematically destroy, not just Sal Marcano’s life, but his life’s work, which is the Italian mafia in New Bordeaux.”

Above: Bill Harms, lead writer on Mafia III

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

And that is why Mafia III is massive. I was able to get a good look at the whole first act of the game at an event at Hangar 13, a new studio headed by Haden Blackman, in Novato, Calif. In order to move through it fast and absorb the story, I played it on the Easy level. But for a more deliberate game and bigger challenge, I recommend you play it on a tougher level. While the shooting and gameplay wasn’t bad, I found that the story really drew me in to Mafia III.

The open world of New Bordeaux

Above: Mafia III

Image Credit: 2K Games

The studio has created a massive open world with the city of New Bordeaux, which is modeled after New Orleans. The game is set in 1968, a tumultuous year for history that included the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, as well as the major events in the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War.

Those events are mentioned in the game, not to make some statement about the 1960s but because they add to the authenticity. Clay was shaped by his experiences as veteran, and his ideas of loyalty and revenge are unique to his time.

“We wanted to take a gift anti-hero and place him in a specific time and place in American history,” Harms said.

The narrative is told in a series of flashbacks, so you move forward and backward in time. The overall narrative is that the game is part of a modern-day documentary where key figures are interviewed about what Lincoln Clay did when he took on the mob. At some points, the characters are older, and then you see them as younger characters in the flashbacks.

Above: Lincoln Clay is the “gifted anti-hero” of Mafia III

Image Credit: 2K Games

We learn that Lincoln Clay was the son of a white man and a black woman. He categorized as “black” and was given up for adoption when he was a couple of years old. When the orphanage shut down, Sammy Robinson, who runs the black mob, and his family took Clay in as their own. Clay went on to fight in Vietnam and became a Special Forces soldier in Laos, where he earned multiple medals in combat.

He returns to New Bordeaux on February 27, 1968, and goes back to Robinson in a parish known as Delray Hollow. I was immediately transported back in time as the Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil song came on the car radio. I also wanted to stay in the car longer when I heard Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction.

In that car ride, Clay’s friend Ellis asks him what Vietnam was like. Clay relates a story where a woman being evacuated went aboard a boat with a baby and a pig. The U.S. soldiers told her she could only take one with her. So she threw the baby overboard. Clay said that was an example of what happens when you take everything away from someone and their only goal is to survive. It is a story of inhumanity that foreshadows what is to come.

A racist time

Above: The world of Mafia III, set in New Orleans in 1968.

Image Credit: 2K Games

The scene shifts to a heist. (Giorgi apologizes ahead of time for having to go along with that racist banter). The racist moments are disturbing, but it’s part of the time and place.

“We really did everything we could to not climb up on a soap box and preach. There is racism in the game, but the game is not about racism,” Harms said. “The game is about Lincoln Clay, who destroyed the Italian mob in our version of New Orleans. You get a feel for a time and place. We reinforce where the game is set…. We have a term for it. We call it ‘cinematic realism.’ It’s not about those things. Those things are part of the game. It’s authenticity.”

The heist gets going, but hen the game fast forwards to an earlier time. We get some very interesting commentary from Father James Ballard, the parish priest who tries to guide Clay and serves as a kind of narrator.

Above: Lincoln Clay in stealth mode in Mafia III

Image Credit: 2K Games

During the heist, we see the seeds of the story sown. Collaboration. Betrayal. And then revenge. During this storytelling, we see what kind of person Clay has become. Even though he’s violent, he lives by a code.

Above: Mafia III

Image Credit: 2K

Through the action of the heist and the flash backs and flash forwards, the story is set up. Father Ballard rescues Clay, and Clay makes his pledge to take down Marcano’s empire. At this moment, I found the writing to be particularly good. And Clay goes after Marcano from the bottom up.

“In the mafia, it’s all about how the money flows up,” Harms said.

The sit downs

Above: Mafia III sit-down meeting. Lincoln has to choose who gets promoted.

Image Credit: 2K Games

Andy Wilson, executive producer of the game, said in an interview that every player’s story is going to be unique because of the choices that they make during these big “sit down” meetings. After reaching a milestone, Lincoln has to decide which of his three underbosses will take over a territory. If he favors one lieutenant — Vito, Burke, or Cassandra — then the other two are likely to rebel or betray Lincoln. You may wind up finishing the game with only one lieutenant left, or you may finish the game with all three of them alive.

“You can choose to balance it out or trigger one to betray you,” Wilson said.

Toward the end of the game, you’ll have some very wide open world and you can choose from among multiple missions to pursue. I haven’t seen those later missions, but I’m looking forward to playing the full game. The acting is superb, and the writing is good as well. The title debuts on Windows, OS X, the PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One on October 7.

Above: Car chases are a big part of Mafia III.

Image Credit: 2K Games

You can finally start that digital motorcycle gang you always dreamed of.

Developer Rockstar Games noted on its site today that the Bikers downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto Online will become available as part of an automatic update on October 4 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. GTA Online is the multiplayer part of Grand Theft Auto V, the open-world game that’s one of the top sellers in the industry’s history. GTA Online online has generated over $500 million in revenue. Updates like these keep players engaged, which makes them more likely to spend money on in-game purchases.

The update adds Motorcycle Clubs to GTA Online, which enable groups of up to eight players to ride with each other. Bikers will also include new vehicles, weapons, and clothing.

Rockstar originally announced the Bikers update earlier this month.

It’s that time again. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is endlessly addictive and fun, and it pains me to play it only for a relatively short time before moving on to other games.

It launches on October 21 on the PC, and like my colleague Jason Wilson, I’ve been playing it for a press preview. But I must move on to other games before I sleep. I’ve played approximately 30 hours across a couple of campaigns so far. And it’s given me a taste of how this Civilization is different from the others. I found that the building and exploration is fun, but the combat is still frustrating. Veteran Civ players will appreciate just how fast the game runs.

It’s an important release for developer Firaxis Games and publisher 2K Games, a label of Take-Two Interactive. Over the past 25 years, Sid Meier’s empire-building franchise has sold more than 35 million units, including 8 million for the previous Civilization V. It’s a turn-based strategy game where you build an empire to stand the test of time. If you become ruler of the world, you win. But you can also win peacefully through cultural, religious, and other non-violent triumphs. You can wage war, conduct diplomacy with leaders who have their own hidden agendas, and change the way that history unfolds.

Above: America’s Teddy Roosevelt is all about his Big Stick.

Image Credit: Jason Wilson/GamesBeat

Civilization VI is full of historical characters, inventions, and wonderful creations. But nothing about it is historically accurate, as you may find Hannibal born as a military leader in the United States. You have to learn to take advantage of the historical artifacts in your own alternate history to build the greatest civilization ever known.

The biggest change from Civilization V is the way that cities have been “unstacked.” Rather than taking up a single hexagon, the cities and their various districts can now spill across the map. You can add districts for commercial, religious, scientific, and wonder sites that are considered within the city borders, even though they take up surrounding hexagons. It’s almost as if suburbs surround each city.

“I felt very clearly that I wanted to make the map much more important in Civilization VI,” said Ed Beach, lead designer of Civilization VI at Firaxis Games, in an interview with GamesBeat. “If you look at a Civilization V map, there’s so much of the map allocated to farms and trading posts and mines and improvements outside the city.”

With this change, you can take advantage of the local terrain. You can build a harbor on a seaside tile. If you build a university next to a mountain, you can get bonuses for researching astronomy. You eventually run out of space due to urban sprawl. All of the cities on my continent merged into one huge metropolis. I also didn’t have enough space to add multiple districts to a lot of my cities. That was a little annoying.

War with the Scythians

Above: Tomyris is the queen of Scythia in Civilization VI.

Image Credit: 2K

In my first campaign, I played Norway’s Harald Hardrada, the Viking king. I built a strong empire with a lot of cities. I had the highest score based on the strength of my armies, cities, and progress. Then I suffered an invasion by my neighbor to the east, Queen Tomyris’ Scythian Empire. It was a surprise attack, since I had not provoked her that much, except by building cities on her border. That, it turns out, was one of her pet peeves. She was quite bellicose.

I, on the other hand, never really intended to win through war. I’ve learned in Civilization games that war is an economic disaster. While you’re fighting, the other civilizations are advancing. I’m not completely against combat, as I enjoy squashing a barbarian camp like anyone else. I was in a race to grow, and I even created a few Wonders in my biggest city. But Tomyris clearly wanted to fight. I didn’t really want to provoke her, but with my back to the oceans, I only had one direction to expand.

I was caught off guard with a lighter military. But I did have the entire border guarded, including cavalry, field cannon, archers, and a couple of musketeers and infantry. I started shifting my new construction to the military. The Scythians pulled the dirty but smart trick of convincing the nearby city-states to invade me as well. This wasn’t good, since I was surrounded by three different enemy city-states. I held them at bay.

But the Scythians clearly weren’t as weak as I thought, even though I had the larger empire. They started churning out anti-tank gunners, or modern combat units who clearly outgunned my industrial age cannon and cavalry. Somehow, they kept producing new units quickly, and I couldn’t kill them. Perhaps she was spending her treasury buying units. I had to spend a lot of my dollars upgrading units to the modern age.

Above: Civilization VI will force you to decide what a particular city will specialize in.

Image Credit: 2K/Firaxis Games

Nor could I break into the cities that were virtually surrounded by my ranged units. That was frustrating, as I couldn’t take over a city defended by a single unit, because the walls were too thick. With every turn, the Scythians would simply cycle out another unit, or heal the embattled unit. And my siege would continue endlessly. I destroyed some of her improvements to the cities, sacking farms and mines and universities. But it did no good. I was eventually outnumbered by the Scythian anti-tank gunners. She also had a lot of horse units, as her empire can build two for the price of one.

So I cheated. I wound the clock back to before the war started and started preparing early for the inevitable conflict. I built forts on the frontier and turned the three city-states into my friends by sending them envoys. I then took control of those city-states when the war broke out. And I made sure I had more modern artillery and infantry to confront the modern troops of the Scythians.

But it wasn’t enough. I let the clock move forward and played out the alternate history again. This time, I was able to get three city-states to attack the Scythians after they launched their surprise attack. America and the Kongo joined in on the Scythian side, so it was effectively a world war. But those two were on a remote continent. The Scythians lost a lot of troops at the outset.

But the city-states had ancient troops, and they weren’t that effective against modern soldiers. They also didn’t stick around for the duration. After 10 or so turns, they gave up and stopped fighting. All of a sudden, I found that I had weak flanks, and the Scythians pushed back. They took out my artillery and infantry with an army of anti-tank infantry, and pushed me back into my own territory. I should have created some powerful units by combining multiple units into “corps” units. But that was hindsight.

Things were looking grim, but then the Asus laptop I was using permanently crashed … and that was the end of that campaign.

A second campaign with the Greeks

Above: Pericles leads the Greeks in Civilization VI.

Image Credit: 2K Games

I started another campaign as Pericles, the leader of the Greeks. In this campaign, I had the good fortune of having a ring of mountains surrounding my territory. I built cities at the mountain passes, and made my republic into a natural fortress. I had oceans on two sides and built some port cities. And I pushed out aggressively, sending settlers out with warriors or archers to constantly push the borders of my country outward.

I eventually ran into the Kongo leader, Mvemba a Nzinga, who didn’t appreciate my constant northern expansion into territory that he wanted as his own. So he declared war on me. The Germans, led by Frederick Barbarossa, and America, led by Teddy Roosevelt, joined in the war against me. America and Germany were too far to do any harm, but I was able to hijack some of their units.

This time, I simply defended. The Kongo troops were no match for my ranged units. Soon enough, Mvemba gave up and asked for peace. Everyone else settled as well, and I emerged with the largest of empires.

My take on the new gameplay

Above: The Civics tree is a great addition to Civilization VI.

Image Credit: 2K

As always, the user interface is great, as it never really gets in your way. Perhaps the best thing about the game is that it runs fast. You can play in standard mode or fast mode (33 percent faster). I found that it was stable and didn’t crash on my Windows 10 laptop. I used to go take a break in past games when I hit the “next turn” button. But with this one, you can still do things the A.I. takes its turns. I could inspect cities, look at units, and move around the map, all while the calculations were happening. That was wonderful.

I loved the growth and exploration. It was fun watching my cities transition from the ancient world to medieval and the industrial world. It was fun to make progress on the map, doing things such as building two farms next to each other in order to gain an advantage in the development of feudalism. That’s where Firaxis clearly put a lot of thought into the relationship between territory and technology. I also enjoyed the details of the trading in the game. It made sense that the trade routes are the way that you eventually get roads in your empire.

I barely got into the modern age before I had to capitulate. But the art is truly incredible. You see animations of birds roaming the world. There’s a fog of war, and it rolls back as a unit moves. It’s cool to see the colors appear while the old cartography map style retreats.

The music and sound are also superb. John Murphy’s score is truly majestic, and it makes for wonderful listening. It’s really pleasant to play the game with the ambient music and sounds. It never gets really tiring, and that’s important in a game as long as Civilization VI.

I liked the leaders and got to know their personalities. I learned the hard way who not to push toward war. I got access to spies at one point, and that helped me start figuring out the hidden agendas of the different leaders. Sadly, it came very late in the game.

I learned some strategies to speed growth early, like choosing a site near resources, purchasing tiles, and building granaries.

Some flaws in combat and sprawl

Above: Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

Image Credit: Firaxis Games

But there’s things I didn’t like about the game. As I mentioned, combat is very frustrating, as it’s really hard to do something like take over an enemy city.

And the unstacking of the cities, along with unstacking of the combat units (which happened in Civilization V), you wind up with a huge urban sprawl, where the cities simply merge into each other and combat units are littered throughout the map. The city-states wound up having more units than their actual territory, and so they had to send a bunch of units out to sea. When I was at war with them, I used my navy to sink their transports. I think they really ought to go back to a reasonable amount of unit stacking, such as maybe three combat units and three city features per hexagon.

At the same time, I loved seeing features such as my Wonders, like the Forbidden City, clearly visible on the map. So I’m not entirely against the unstacked cities idea. But because of this sprawl, I recommend you play every game on a huge map size.

Conclusion

Above: Civilization VI allows you to spread your cities out across the map.

Image Credit: 2K/Firaxis Games

Overall, Civilization VI is a great game that is worthy of the Sid Meier name. If I had more time, I’d play it endlessly for a few years. I am glad that Firaxis is still trying to innovate with the series, but I would prefer a map that wasn’t so crowded with too many units and too many city tiles. I guess that means we’ll have something to look forward to in Civilization VII.

Here’s my gameplay videos that show an early part of a campaign when I played as Pericles.

Put on your spurs and 10-gallon hat, because it’s time for a little more Red Dead.

Rockstar Games is planning to launch Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2017, and it has rolled out the first new trailer for the game. The developer is promising to get the game out in the fall, and it will likely hit PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. But what about PC and the new Nintendo Switch? Well, let’s see if the trailer has any answers.

You can watch it right here:

Take-Two Interactive shipped more than 4.5 million copies of Mafia III to retailers in its first week, and the company said in its earnings release today that it is the fastest-selling game in the history of the 2K label.

Mafia III shipped after the September 30 close of Take-Two’s second fiscal quarter, debuting on October 7. 2K didn’t provide early copies of the game to the press, and some reviews came in pretty poor. I rated it at 75 out of 100, largely because of bugs and other problems in the execution of the gameplay. But the story about Lincoln Clay, an African-American man who took on the Italian mob in 1968 in a fictional city that resembles New Orleans, was spectacular.

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, estimated before the earnings were released that sell-in to retailers for Mafia III was likely around 3.5 million copies. He noted that negative reviews with lower scores surfaced the week after the launch. Those negative reviews will likely have an impact on preorders by retailers, Pachter wrote.

I’m glad to see that Mafia III sold well at the outset, as the story really gives players something to think about. Were it not for the problems with gameplay and bugs, I would have rated the story at 95 out of 100. It’s a pretty good outcome as the first game from Hangar 13, a new studio in Novato, California, which 2K formed to make the game.

Mafia III is being supported with downloadable add-on content, including a Season Pass, as well as a free-to-play mobile battle RPG game, Mafia III Rivals, for iOS and Android devices.

Take-Two Interactive has acquired Spain’s Social Point, a free-to-play mobile game developer of titles such as Dragon City, for at least $250 million.

The deal is a major step for Take-Two, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto and other big console and PC titles, to move into free-to-play mobile games. Overall, mobile games are a $40.6 billion market, according to a report released today by SuperData Research and Unity Technologies.

The transaction includes $175 million in cash and $75 million in stock, plus an earn-out bonus of up to $25.9 million. The deal draws a nice focus on Spain’s mobile game industry. Spain has 480 game companies and 4,460 people working at them.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, Social Point is a successful free-to-play mobile game developer that focuses on delivering high-quality, engaging entertainment experiences. The company’s most successful games are Dragon City and Monster Legends.

Social Point is led by an experienced senior management team, including Horacio Martos and Andrés Bou, the co-CEOs, and Marc Canaleta, the chief technology officer and cofounder. It has over 270 employees.

The company currently has multiple profitable titles in the market. Its two most successful games, Dragon City and Monster Legends, have been downloaded more than 180 million times to date on iOS and Android. They have consistently been in the top-100 grossing mobile games in the U.S. since 2014.

Social Point’s games are currently ,available in North America, Latin America and Europe, and about half of its revenue comes from the U.S. In 2016, over 90 percent was generated from mobile platforms.

“With the acquisition of Social Point, Take-Two has further diversified its business, expanded its portfolio of owned intellectual property, and significantly enhanced its position in the fast-growing free-to-play mobile gaming space,” said Strauss Zelnick, the chairman and CEO of Take-Two in New York, in a statement. “The experienced team at Social Point shares our commitment to delighting consumers with high-quality entertainment, and we believe that Social Point’s deeply engaging mobile offerings will be a perfect complement to our business.”

He added, “Social Point is one of the few mobile game developers that has a proven track record of growing revenues and delivering multiple hits, and we expect this growth to continue given the company’s exciting development pipeline.”

Take-Two has been making mobile games for a while, but much of its focus in the past has been on selling premium-priced games on mobile. But that’s a fraction of the market compared to free-to-play, where you can play a game for free and purchase virtual items with real money. Social Point focuses on “mid-core” titles, or those with gamer-focused content that you can play in short time periods.

“Take-Two is one of the interactive entertainment industry’s premier publishers, whose labels are renowned throughout the world for their ability to create some of the most successful and beloved entertainment experiences on consoles and PC,” sad Martos and Bou, in a statement. “We are thrilled to have Social Point become part of an organization that shares our commitment to quality and innovation, and we look forward to being part of Take-Two’s continued success for many years to come.”

Take-Two said that the deal could meaningfully enhance recurring revenues. The deal is expected to be immediately accretive to net revenue and net cash and start producing net income in the coming fiscal year ending March 31, 2018.

Social Point has been consistently profitable since 2013 and has grown net revenue at a 29 percent compound annual growth rate from 2013 through 2016. For the trailing 12 months ended December 31, 2016, Social Point generated net revenue of $90.8 million and earnings before income tax, depreciation, and amortization of $19.9 million.