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Sony Reveals It Sold 4.5M PlayStation 5 Units In 2020

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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PlayStation 5 is off to a remarkably strong start as Sony’s financials show the new console sold 4.5 million units before 2020 ended. Early signs of the console’s success came shortly after its release back in November when Sony announced the PlayStation 5’s status as the largest console release in franchise history.

A few weeks ago, PlayStation CEO and President Jim Ryan confirmed what most fans have already predicted based on the PlayStation 4’s achievements in 2013 – PlayStation 5 had the “biggest console launch of all time.”

Prior to the company’s quarterly earnings started making rounds, Sony had been extremely tight-lipped about sales figures for the PlayStation 5. To be fair, though, this release marks the first time that a Sony system has appeared so supply constrained.

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Not everyone who wants to have a PlayStation 5 can get their hands on one at present. In addition, stock for the unit online and at physical sellers is always limited when more systems do become available to buy.

Scalpers continue to aggravate the stock shortage problem, but the parts necessary for both the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 aren’t readily available, either. AMD, which is processing microchips to power the new console, recently predicted that such shortages might last throughout much of 2021.

As posted by Daniel Ahmad, a Niko Partners Senior Analyst, Sony shipped 5.9 million units of the PlayStation 5 in the final three months of 2020. The PlayStation 5 accounted for 4.5 million of said units, while PlayStation 4 constituted the remaining 1.4 million.

Though Sony sells the new hardware at a loss, since the asking price is lower than building costs, it experienced massive revenue growth. Ahmad notes Sony’s Game and Network Services Segment gathered 883.2 billion yen, approximately $8.43 billion, in revenue between October and December 2020, a 40% year over year increase.

Software sales were soaring, too; PS4 and PS5 owners bought 103.7 million games in the last quarter of 2020 alone. 18.4 million of those sales went to first-party Sony games, Ahmad reported. And, based from industry analyst and Twitter user Benji-Sales, Spider-Man: Miles Morales by Insomniac Games sold 4.1 million copies across the globe in just two months.

Such detail says a lot about where the PlayStation 5’s trajectory might take it next. In comparison, the PlayStation 4 shipped 4.5 million consoles by the end of its 2013 release period, as well. The PS4 has since become the second bestselling home console of all time with over 115 million units sold, trailing behind the PlayStation 2’s record of 155+ million units.

Publisher tinyBuild Drops an Announcement Teaser Trailer for Pigeon Simulator

By
Aletheia
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The world of video games has had its fair share of bizarre titles, like Goat Simular and Untitled Goose Game, which makes you commend humans and their creativity. It appears that there’s a new game that wants to take the silliness even higher, though, and it’s called none other than Pigeon Simulator.

Developed by HakJak and published by tinyBuild, the game’s plot seems simple enough. You take control of a notorious pigeon and either steal donuts from police officers, poop everywhere—or perhaps even both. We can’t say for sure what the game’s overall goal or purpose is though, but it gives off the same vibe as Goat Simulator. Besides, not every game has to have rhyme or reason.

In the case of Pigeon Simulator, you have an expansive open-world area you can freely explore, and no one can stop you from causing havoc wherever you fly off to. Publisher tinyBuild released an announcement teaser trailer for the upcoming game recently, and while it doesn’t show much in terms of plot or story, it showcases all the donut stealing and pooping you can do as this annoying bird.

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Despite the fact that the announcement trailer is only over a minute long, there’s… a lot to unpack from it. Pigeon Simulator apparently allows you to breathe out fire, gives you the ability to transform into one huge, super-sized pigeon, and lets you fight off Pigeon Patrol choppers. There are a lot of strange games out there, but Pigeon Simulator is definitely at the top of the list.

That being said, if you want to play a casual and nonsensical video game to simply de-stress, then Pigeon Simulator might be worth a shot. We’re definitely curious to see what other activities we can do as pigeons in the game, and what other kinds of mischief it will allow us to take part in.

Developer HakJak posted an announcement on Steam as well, which stated that “pigeons come back with a vengeance in Pigeon Simulator – the official reboot, reimagining, inspired by, officially approved full-scale production of Bossa’s 2019 prototype.”

That being said, HakJak and tinyBuild might even be familiar to you—the developer and publisher, respectively, were also responsible for the crazy 3D simulation game Guts & Glory. That’s right, the game featuring a father and son who are simply trying to navigate a course that’s covered in deadly traps and other hazards.

Not only that, tinyBuild is also popularly known for the Hello Neighbor franchise, but it has also published other well-known titles like Graveyard Keeper.

As for Pigeon Simulator, its official Steam page only shows TBA as its release date, and neither developer nor publisher have made an official announcement regarding when it’s supposed to be launched. However, the game is expected to release some time this year. So, keep your eyes peeled for more details about this strange, avian-filled game!

Developer miHoYo Confirms That Even More Characters Are Headed to Genshin Impact 1.3

By
Aletheia
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Developer miHoYo has been on a roll when it comes to releasing new playable characters in Genshin Impact, and it appears that more are on the way with the new 1.3 update. For starters, this most recent update will introduce the highly anticipated Xiao, who will be yet another wonderful addition to the game’s ever-growing roster of playable characters.

However, if you consider the previous Genshin Impact updates, those usually revealed more than just one new character—like with the 1.2 update, which introduced both Albedo and Ganyu to the popular open-world action RPG.

There’s a lot to look forward to in Genshin Impact’s 1.3 update asides from the addition of Xiao. For one thing, the game will host several new events for players to participate in, as well as implement a couple of necessary changes and improvements to existing gameplay mechanics. Not only that, but Zhongli—and the Geo element as a whole—will also undergo some changes.

Xiao isn’t the only character who has a confirmed banner for this new update, though. It has also been confirmed that Keqing will also be having a banner, although this may not be as exciting to other players given the fact that she’s an already available character.

One other exciting thing about Genshin Impact’s 1.3 update is that it will be launching an event called Stand By Me, which will give you the opportunity to earn one out of six characters for free if you participate.

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In case you’re interested in checking out all the changes and new features brought about by this new update, miHoYo also released the 1.3 patch notes on its website. Now, there’s one interesting thing on the post which caught the eye of many players, and it’s the statement that goes “more character event wishes to follow during Version 1.3.”

In other words, it would be safe to assume that even more character banners will be released in the following weeks, asides from Keqing and Xiao’s confirmed banners. We have yet to find out if these upcoming banners will feature brand-new characters, but rumors that circulated in the past claim that Hu Tao will be one of the characters to be released in Version 1.3 along with Xiao.

Many fans are hoping that this rumor will turn out to be true. After all, it would make sense for Hu Tao to be released during this patch, seeing as the character is from Liyue and update 1.3 heavily focuses on the Lantern Rite Festival from that particular nation. Banners usually run for only two weeks, so after Xiao and Keqing’s, miHoYo will definitely have to release a brand-new character so that the game has someone new to feature in the next banner.

That being said, miHoYo’s statement in the patch notes itself is a clear confirmation that we can expect another banner in the upcoming weeks. So even though there’s no announcement yet as to who the next banners will feature, we recommend that you carefully think about where you want to spend your Primogems, as the upcoming banners could star a character that you want.

League of Legends: Wild Rift Plans to Include Around 70 Champions at Game’s Release

By
Aletheia
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Fans of Riot Games’ popular online battle arena video game, League of Legends, have been looking forward to the release of the modified mobile title, League of Legends: Wild Rift. While some players from other countries were already able to try out the game’s beta since last year, fans from the United States will only be able to test out the game beginning this March.

Seeing as it’s a modified mobile version from the original PC title, you can imagine that Wild Rift would have major differences and changes to account for the change in platform. However, it has been confirmed that all the champions from League of Legends will eventually arrive in the mobile version.

As a matter of fact, Riot Games stated that it’s currently trying to fit in at least half of the current roster into League of Legends: Wild Rift for its official launch. Even though this highly anticipated MOBA was completely created from the ground up just to cater to mobile devices, Riot Games is committed to providing a similar League of Legends experience to its players.

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League of Legends: Wild Rift is a perfect alternative for those players who want a shorter match time, as the sessions in this mobile title are expected to take around 15 to 20 minutes only. This is already much shorter than the average game of League of Legends for the PC, which ranges from 35 minutes to 95 minutes.

If Riot Games is able to successfully implement streamlining elements to Wild Rift, it could become the perfect game for beginners who want to learn more and test out the different available champions.

Multinational tech company, Apple, recently had a preview for the mobile title as a way to showcase the iPhone 12’s performance. During this time, developer Riot Games revealed that it plans for League of Legends: Wild Rift to include at least 70 champions once it releases in North America next month.

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There are only 47 playable champions in the roster at the moment, so Riot will have to quickly add a huge chunk of champions to the game before next month’s release if it wishes to fulfill its goal of 70. Just recently, the developer added several Yordle champions into the mobile game. Asides from that, though, the roster so far has been comprised of older yet popular champions from the original League of Legends.

As a matter of fact, the only character that was included in Wild Rift that we can really consider as new is Seraphine, who also happens to be one of the singers in the virtual K-pop girl group known as K/DA.

That being said, fans can expect other champions to be included in Wild Rift via the newest patch, namely Xayah and Rakan. Not only that, Riot Games also confirmed that Rammus and Katarina will be appearing in the game at some point as well.

Dedicated League of Legends fans know that by now, the original PC version has about 150 playable champions. As such, we can only guess who else Riot Games plans on adding to Wild Rift. Seeing as the storyline for the upcoming RPG Ruined King will play a major part in League of Legends Season 11, it would make sense if either Viego, Thresh, Senna, or Lucian would be added to Wild Rift.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Online Tournament Will Focus on Projectile-Based Fighters

By
Aletheia
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It appears that the month of February will be starting off strong for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. A recent announcement has been made revealing that Nintendo’s popular fighting game series will be having yet another online tournament this month, and apparently, it will be focusing on projectile-based characters this time around.

The community of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fans never run out of things to be excited about—from creative mods that allow players to enhance their gameplay experience, to simply funny online memes about fan-favorite fighters.

Asides from these, though, there’s one other thing that may bring even more excitement—something that fans from all over the world look forward to. That’s right: official announcements and updates from none other than the game’s development team. It’s one thing to read about fan-made events and projects, but there’s just nothing quite like reading an official post from the studio itself.

In line with this, the official Japanese Twitter account of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate recently tweeted more details about the upcoming online tournament, such as its date and theme. The event will begin on February 5, 2021, and similar to the other online tourneys, it will run for about three days.

The tournament will be named “Barrage,” and aptly so, given the fact that those who decide to participate in the event can only choose characters who utilize 3 (or more) missile attacks.

Along with tweet comes with an image showcasing different fighters available in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, including Animal Crossing’s Villager, The Legend of Zelda’s Link, the titular Mega Man, Metal Gear’s Solid Snake, and Metroid’s Samus Aran, among others. These chosen characters reiterate the fact that the online tournament’s theme will revolve around those fighters who have projectile attacks.

As such, we can imagine that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players who mainly use projectile-based fighters or who have already mastered ranged attacks will definitely enjoy the theme for this particular tourney.

Last time, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate announced a villains-only tournament last year on Christmas Day, which also served as a way for players to test out the recent DLC fighter, Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7. As the theme indicates, participants could only make use of those fighters who embrace the darkness. There’s never a dull moment for these online tournaments, and they’re made even more exciting thanks to the shifting themes.

That being said, there’s always a place for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players, even those who aren’t huge fans of the game’s competitive scene. For one thing, there are Spirit Board events that usually take place on a weekly basis, which are perfect for those players who want to increase their Spirit Board roster in alternative ways.

Even though the most recent event for the Spirit Board has already finished, we don’t think that fans will have to wait a long time for the next event to take place, especially since they’re a fairly frequent occurrence at this point. Just keep tabs on updates from time to time, and there should be a new event eventually.

Activision Hit With Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Character Design

By
PVP Team
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Even though Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War didn’t receive as much hype as the other titles in the long-running franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare still remains to be one of the most popular first-person shooter titles in the industry. Rumors claim that the next DLC for the game will be released very soon, and it’s clear to see that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare—and its counterparts—will only be going up from here.

However, it’s a completely different story on a legal level. It appears that there’s a hurdle to Modern Warfare’s success, and it’s one that surprised many of us in the video game community. A man named Clayton Haugen has filed a lawsuit against Activision for copyright infringement. According to Haugen, the design of an iconic character from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was replicated from a copyrighted character of his.

The character in question is Mara, one of the important characters in not only Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, but in Call of Duty: Mobile and Call of Duty: Warzone as well. Haugen claims that Mara was a ripoff of his character, Cade Janus, to who he has rights.

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The basis of his lawsuit and his claim stems from the fact that both characters are allegedly inspired by the same set of images: a cosplay photoshoot from cosplayer and actress Alex Zedra that was commissioned by Haugen.

Haugen states that the photoshoot was included in a pitch for a movie that was all about Cade Janus, and Activision allegedly copied it after as a basis for the fan-favorite Mara. If Haugen wins this lawsuit, then this could mean that Mara will no longer be available in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare this year and going forward.

The lawsuit further claims that Mara played a significant role in Activision’s marketing for the first-person shooter, and is the reason why the title became so popular. After all, it’s uncommon for the Call of Duty franchise to heavily feature a female protagonist. As such, Haugen claims that the fact that the company made Mara front and center in their marketing campaigns is a major reason why the game is seeing incredible success.

Although the pictures from the photoshoot he commissioned weren’t the exact basis of Modern Warfare’s character, Haugen claims that Activision made Zedra recreate everything that was done in Haugen’s shoot in an effort to create an exact replica of the design or at least the closest possible copy.

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Because of this, Haugen has requested a trial by jury for his copyrighted character. If Activision loses this case, the company could hand over a whole lot of money to Haugen. Even though Call of Duty’s community of fans hasn’t been happy with the ads found in the more recent titles, it can’t be denied that the franchise as a whole has been incredibly profitable for Activision, especially Modern Warfare.

That being said, it doesn’t seem as if Haugen’s claims are rock solid. For starters, it would be extremely difficult to prove that Mara’s character design was a direct ripoff of Cade Janus, especially since both characters are already existing archetypes, to begin with.

Crash Bandicoot: On the Run Will Not Feature Loot Boxes

By
Aletheia
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Crash Bandicoot is a long-running franchise that played a significant role in many gamers’ childhoods. In 2017, a series of Crash Bandicoot titles received remasters in the form of the N. Sane Trilogy. And now, it appears that Activision wants to take things further and fully bring back the hype for the fan-favorite marsupial, especially after the franchise has been dormant for how many years.

After releasing Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, the most recent entry in the series, developer King and Activision are set to release yet another brand-new Crash Bandicoot game for mobile devices, and it’s expected to release very soon—next month!

The upcoming mobile title, Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, is a free-to-play endless runner—somewhat similar to other popular mobile games such as Temple Run and Subway Surfers. As such, you can expect to find the hyperactive Crash and friends traverse through different kinds of levels, crafting weapons, collecting Wumpa Fruit, and taking power-ups along the way. Of course, they will still be trying to defeat Doctor Neo Cortex—that’s a given, no matter what Crash Bandicoot game you’re playing.

That being said, it’s worth mentioning that even though the upcoming title is going to be a free-to-play one, it appears that King won’t be offering any kind of loot box to the players.

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Developer King recently had a Q&A during a hands-off preview event hosted by Apple. During that event, King revealed all kinds of interesting details about Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!. For one thing, you can expect to find a variety of over 100 skins for both Crash and Coco. The most interesting detail of all is King’s confirmation that there will be “absolutely no loot boxes at all.”

These days, many individuals—whether or not they’re a part of the video game community—have begun turning their backs on loot boxes, as they find that it’s too similar to gambling. As a matter of fact, there have been instances where someone even went so far as to file a lawsuit against video game companies that utilized loot boxes.

A game that comes to mind is Star Wars Battlefront 2, an action shooter video game that underwent intense controversy for its loot boxes a few years back, so much so that even politicians got involved in the chaos. With that in mind, fans are curious to know how they will be able to obtain new skins in Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, especially since studios usually include new cosmetic items in loot boxes.

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It’s also worth mentioning that even though it’s going to be a free-to-play mobile title with no loot boxes, Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! will still have microtransactions, as it will feature seasonal events and will even have a battle pass, among many others.

King also talked about Coco’s base in the Q&A, which is a very interesting resource management mode. This mode will give you the opportunity to develop and customize your very own personal space that you can decorate with the different trophies you earn as you progress through the game.

Pre-registrations for Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! are open now for both iOS and Android devices. Doing so will earn you a special Blue Hyena skin for Crash as soon as the game officially launched on March 25, 2021.

Datamine Reveals Pokemon Go Adding Ability To Change Forms

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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Over the existence of its 4 years on mobile devices, Pokemon Go has gotten an immense amount of updates, from the usual seasonal events to the introduction of the franchise’s newest Pokemon, trading capabilities, and lately, new additions to Mega Evolution.

While the first several generations of Pokemon were somewhat straightforward, newer generations shook everything up by adding monsters with various forms based on held items, weather, gender, and other circumstances.

While in the mainline games, players can utilize various items on specific Pokemon to change their forms, Pokemon Go recently avoided this by simply adding the monsters in their various forms at separate times.

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For instance, the game first provided players the opportunity to capture Giratina in its Altered Form back in 2018 through raid battles, and later added its Origin Forme in raid battles last 2019. However, it appears like Pokemon Go might change that method.

After Pokemon Go received its latest update, a group of Pokemon Go dataminers, named PokeMiners, have discovered a myriad of new features arriving to the game. Among features such as giving access to players the ability to put friends as Favorites, new details suggest that the game might also allow players to change the form of their Pokemon at will in a future patch.

The many mentions of form changing in Pokemon Go’s code hint at some kind of cost for doing so. While nothing is officially confirmed as of yet, players will likely have to spend Stardust to change the form of some Pokemon.

This may also work in a combination of certain items used for changing forms, such as DNA Splicers for Kyurem-White and Kyurem-Black, and meteorites to alter Deoxys between its Speed, Defense, Attack, and Normal forms.

It is possible that just like in the mainline Pokemon games, Pokemon Go will not allow players to change the forms of specific monsters such as Shellos or Vivillon, which are based on the region they were captured in respectively.

Although the fifth-generation Legendary Forces of Nature Tornadus, Landorus, and Thundurus arrived in Pokemon Go via raid battles last year, they only appeared in their humanoid Incarnate Formes. Since the three Legendary Pokemon have not yet appeared in the game in their animal-like Incarnate Formes, Pokemon Go might allow players to utilize the Reveal Glass, an item introduced in Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, in order to change their forms.

Call of Duty Warzone Imposes Bans To Over 60,000 Cheaters

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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Since community pressure has significantly increased, Call of Duty Warzone has executed a ban on tens of thousands of accounts supposedly using hacks. These alleged cheaters have had their accounts banned in one of the biggest waves seen to date.

Call of Duty Warzone’s community of content creators, streamers, and players have been putting massive pressure on Activision to move, and many hope that this ban is not the end of the development team’s actions to make the game cleaner.

The chaos inside the Call of Duty Warzone community has been going on for months as hackers grow in numbers across all platforms. Several content creators have threatened to quit the game, while competitive streamers are infuriated by the disturbance of hackers. Many players of the gaming community believe that Call of Duty Warzone is not in good condition, and they are turning towards the development team for answers to the hacking issues.

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Based on reports, over 60,000 player accounts have been banned for cheating. This news comes after a few days after Call of Duty content creator and streamer Vikkstar officially abandoned the game. A lot of content creators have mentioned that cheaters will be the end of Call of Duty Warzone, with Driftor and others threatening to also quit the game. As tensions grow among the community, fans consistently called for action from the developers to do something about the hackers inside Call of Duty Warzone.

This will be the third of massive ban waves implemented by Activision on Call of Duty Warzone hackers. Last April 2020, the company banned more than 70,000 Warzone players in the first official ban wave. In the meantime, another ban was aimed at the famous EngineOwning cheat app, resulting in 20,000 players banned last September.

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News sites reported that the latest ban is once again aiming at EngineOwning users and that anyone using the application has been wiped from the game. Based on EngineOwning’s website, the developers of the hack claim to be updating the cheat because of the increase in player bans in Call of Duty Warzone.

It is unknown if bans will be sufficient to stop cheaters inside the game. In the past, a lot of Call of Duty Warzone cheaters showed disregarded the bans revealing that they have multiple accounts to play with. While bans are certainly the first step towards a clean game, the gaming Call of Duty community is hoping for a more conclusive action towards ending the cheating pandemic inside the battle royale.

The Division x Resident Evil Crossover Event Is Now Live

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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0
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It has been a long and winding road for The Division since it was first released back in 2019, with the title going through various growing pains that other live service titles do. Ultimately, players have received lots of the improvements they demanded, and while there are still a few lingering problems, Ubisoft Massive is adding Resident Evil crossover content which is now available to indulge in.

The event adds a new uniform to the game inspired by Leon Kennedy’s RPD outfit from the classic Resident Evil 2 title. Players don’t need to do any quests to receive the character skin as they will immediately receive it as a login bonus to all players that jump in the game now until February 15. The outfit consists of three pieces of clothing – one for the chest, one for the legs, and some boots. The set is immediately recognizable but blends well with The Division 2’s post-apocalyptic setting.

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Aside from the Leon Kennedy skin, a few others have been added to the game. Players can unlock the S.T.A.R.S uniforms of Rebecca Chambers, Jill Valentine, and Chris Redfield as well as an Umbrella Corporation Operative uniform via caches earned by playing or by spending premium currency during the event. The Resident Evil event also introduces weapon skins and several other rewards for players to redeem.

During the event, players will be able to finish daily projects that will net some of the cosmetic rewards. Every daily task finished will earn players a backpack trophy as well as an arm patch. It’s worth noting that the event will only be available until February 15, so fans will want to obtain as many rewards as possible while they still can. However, there is a closing event phase that will be held from February 16 to February 22, during which time players will be able to use any leftover rewards they have in their inventories.

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Revealed during the Resident Evil Village reveal livestream, the time-limited is part of the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Resident Evil. The Division 2 frequently runs time-limited events but the Resident Evil anniversary festivity is something new for the series. It’s uncertain if this will mark a new generation of crossover events for the title or if it’s just a one-off for all those involved.

Nonetheless, the event is a great way to create hype for Resident Evil Village while drawing fans back into playing The Division 2. In addition, the update included several next-gen improvements for The Division 2, so it’s all-around a good time for returning and new players to see what they have missed out on recently.

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