Tag: Industry
News No News on NBA Live 20 Days Before Basketball Season Gets Underway
Don't got next
NBA 2K20 is already the best-selling game of 2019 in the United States – despite it launching less than two months ago. 2K Sports’ stranglehold on the interactive basketball market is pretty much unparalleled, but for the past few years EA Sports has been making strides with its own underperforming NBA Live franchise. Earlier...
News Days Gone Developer in Pre-Production on Next Title
Next-gen beckons
Days Gone was a huge hit for first-party developer Sony Bend, and now the Oregon-based outfit is beginning pre-production on its next project. Senior Staff Lighting Lead Jeremy Vickery – who led the lighting team on Deacon St John’s debut – revealed on his LinkedIn profile that he’s “now involved in the pre-production...
News Insomniac Games Celebrates Sony Acquisition By Partying the Night Away
Shu Yoshida with the goodies
It's been exactly two months since Sony acquired Marvel's Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games, but it appears that the team at the Burbank campus has only just gotten around to celebrating the purchase properly. The studio has put on a special team lunch for all employees, with the likes of PlayStation's Mark Cerny and...
News Fans Want Ex-Ghostwire: Tokyo Director Ikumi Nakamura to Join Sony
Sound the Siren
Ex-Ghostwire: Tokyo creative director Ikumi Nakamura captured the attention (and hearts) of gamers around the world when she revealed Tango Gameworks’ next project at E3 2018 earlier in the year. Unfortunately, she’s since parted ways with the Tokyo-based studio, and fans are hoping that she may have a future with Sony’s...
News Google Stadia Brings PS Now's First Real Competitor on 19th November
The streaming wars start now
PlayStation Now may have been discarded from the conversation, but it’s still the only game streaming service currently on the market. That changes on 19th November, as Google gears up the release of its Stadia initiative. The launch will be limited to begin with, as the search engine giant sells off its Founder’s...
News 'Dozens' of PlayStation Employees Laid Off in Europe as Sony Continues Company Restructure
More changes as PS5 looms
Ahead of the PlayStation 5's full reveal and release in 2020, Sony is clearly busy behind the scenes. The company has been restructuring for a while now, with the likes of former PlayStation Europe boss Jim Ryan taking on the role of Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO back in February of this year, and much more recently,
News PS5 Rumours About Poor Communication Between Sony and Devs Were a Load of Rubbish
Reliable source says otherwise
If you've been keeping a close eye on social media and various forums over the last couple of weeks, then you may have noticed some rumours popping up with regards to Sony supposedly being stubborn with developers. More specifically, these rumours said that Sony's communication with various studios has been poor,...
News Start Saving! Nintendo PlayStation Prototype to Go on Sale
Going once, going twice
Do you think if we have a whip around we can afford this? Cedric Biscay – the founder of Magic Monaco and a key player in the production of Shenmue III – has revealed on social media that Terry Diebold intends to sell the only known Nintendo PlayStation prototype in existence. He happened upon the mythological machine...
News Head of PlayStation Japan Asia Atsushi Morita Retires at 60
All change
Hot off the heels of Shawn Layden's abruptly announced departure from PlayStation, another major player is leaving the company. Atsushi Morita may not be as familiar, but he's been corporate director of Sony Interactive Entertainment and president of SIE Japan Asia for a long time. It's been announced that he'll be retiring from both...
News Sony Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden Leaving PlayStation
He'll be greatly missed
In an unexpected post on Twitter this evening, PlayStation has announced the departure of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios Chairman, Shawn Layden. Those of you who have been following the platform holder over the past five or so years will recognise the executive from various E3 press conferences – including...
News Bungie Plans to Release At Least One New IP by 2025
"One of the world's best entertainment companies"
Ever since leaving Microsoft's first-party line-up, Bungie has been committed to the multi-platform world of Destiny. It entered the looter shooter genre in partnership with Activision, but since splitting ties with the publisher, the team has been talking a big game in regards to its current sci-fi...
News Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment to Be Taken Off the PSN Store Following Publisher Dispute
Leaves on Sunday
If you're at all interested in owning Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment digitally on PlayStation 4, you might want to purchase a copy as soon as possible. The game is about to removed from the PlayStation Store because publisher Focus Home Interactive is refusing to revert the game's rights back to developer Frogwares after...
News PlayStation Partners with UN Environment to Help Combat Climate Change
Going green
Sony has announced a new partnership with the United Nations to help prevent environmental issues. Playing for the Planet is a new initiative formed by the UN Environment committee and leading games industry figures, and it's all in aid of sustainability. As PlayStation president Jim Ryan writes, the company itself has been making...
News Days Gone Rides Off with Three Nominations in This Year's Golden Joystick Awards
Voting is open now
The 37th annual Golden Joystick Awards is on the horizon, and the nominees have been revealed. Unlike other award ceremonies, where the winners are picked by a committee, the Golden Joysticks are decided by public voting, and you can now have your say over on GamesRadar. This year has an interesting mix of titles all vying for...
News Sunset Overdrive Is Now Owned by PlayStation, Sony Confirms
Xbox One exclusive now PlayStation property
As previously expected, Sony now owns the Sunset Overdrive brand. Despite the game first launching as an Xbox One exclusive, Insomniac Games famously retained the rights to the intellectual property. PlayStation has since purchased the Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank developer, but
News E3 as We Know It Is Dead, E3 2020 Set to Be a 'Fan, Media, and Influencer Festival'
ESA outlines E3 rebranding
E3 has changed a lot over the years. What started out as a relatively formal, business-oriented get-together was soon transformed into one giant, hype-fuelled advert for the industry and its biggest players. Over the last decade or so, E3 has established itself as the most important annual event in gaming, but it's no...
News North America Accounts for Nearly a Third of All PS4s with Over 30 Million Units Sold
PlayStation Nation
Not that long ago, Sony reached an important milestone in the PlayStation 4's life -- it reached 100 million units sold through to stores, and it did so faster than any other console. The machine has been a monster in terms of sales throughout its lifespan, starting very strong and somehow going up year on year. Industry analyst...
News Chaotic Dreamcast Puzzler ChuChu Rocket! Makes a Comeback, But on Mobile
Mouse trap
Look, we’ve spent the past 20 years pondering why SEGA appears to have given up on the ChuChu Rocket! franchise, so forgive us one article on what appears to be a smartphone exclusive. Set to release as part of the new Apple Arcade initiative, ChuChu Rocket! Universe is a bonafide spiritual successor to the cult Dreamcast classic, with...
News NBA 2K20 Fans in Frenzy as Title Gets Off to Shaky Start
Pick and damage control
It’s by far the best basketball game in town, but 2K Sports has flown far too close to the hoop with NBA 2K20, and fans are calling for public firings following the release of the simulation last week. Tempers frayed a few weeks ago, when a trailer for the title’s MyTeam mode – essentially Ultimate Team with more New...
News Controversial NBA 2K20 Trailer Prompts Internal PEGI Review
It's a basketball game, apparently
2K Sports' flagship basketball sim franchise is renowned for its flagrant use of microtransactions and gambling-esque mechanics, but NBA 2K20 could be the straw that broke the camel's back. While the latest entry is looking to up the ante in all areas, from character creation all the way through to Hollywood...
Feature Which Studios Could Sony Realistically Acquire?
Expanding the exclusive output
While it’s never made quite the same song and dance about it as Microsoft has in recent years, Sony’s history is peppered with developer acquisitions designed to strengthen its first-party portfolio. It purchased Dutch developer Guerrilla Games in 2004 and long-time partner Sucker Punch in 2011. In the same general...
News Telltale Games Is Coming Back Under New Management
The Wolf Among Us 2, please
Telltale Games was shut down last year, and with the studio's closure, numerous projects were supposedly cast into the void. The Walking Dead's final season was spared limbo when it was revived under Skybound Games,
Reaction Gamescom 2019 Reminds Us That Studios Are Focused on PS5 Right Now
Calm before the storm
It was fitting for the PlayStation 5 devkit to leak this week, as Gamescom 2019 served as an extension of E3 2019 in so many ways. Geoff Keighley huffed and puffed during his Opening Night Live presentation, but once the curtain came down, it was clear that the two-hour stage show was mostly conceived as a screen to get auteur...
Reaction Sony Swagger on Display with Insomniac Games Acquisition
Just like that
Sony working the hype cycle would seriously benefit us at Push Square, but we can’t help but appreciate the organisation’s swagger these days. Case in point: it announced its acquisition of Insomniac Games during Geoff Keighley’s prominently promoted Opening Night Live press conference. Alas, it didn’t confirm the news live on...
News Sony: PlayStation Exclusives May Need to Lean into Wider Install Base
Multiformat moves
Sony has acquired Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games and added the famous studio to its portfolio of first-party teams. This will, unquestionably, strengthen the exclusive library of software on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, but speaking with
News Sony Buys Spider-Man PS4, Ratchet & Clank Developer Insomniac Games
Excelsior
Oh wow, it's finally happened. Insomniac Games -- the developer behind the Ratchet & Clank series as well as Marvel's Spider-Man -- has long maintained a close relationship with Sony, but the studio has always valued its independence. As such, the thought of Sony snapping the developer up has been a consistent talking point, but actual...
News THQ Nordic Acquires Darksiders Dev Gunfire Games, Milestone S.R.L, and a Third Team
One for the future
THQ Nordic is back to doing what it does best - snapping up smaller studios and bringing them under its now gigantic umbrella of developers. The latest acquisitions include Gunfire Games, who developed Darksiders III and are currently working on this month's Remnant: From the Ashes, alongside the likes of Milestone S.R.L and...
News Quantic Dream Reiterates Multiplatform Pledge, Will Publish Other Dev's Games
"All our games will be released on all platforms at launch"
We've known for a while now that French developer Quantic Dream, best known for its work on former PS4 exclusive Detroit: Become Human, wants to release its future titles across all platforms. Following investment from Chinese company NetEase in January, the studio headed by David Cage has...
Probability will no longer be hidden
The ESA - Entertainment Software Association - is the organisation that represents the games industry in the United States. It's a pretty big deal; its members include top brass from PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and many others. Not only is it responsible for E3 every year, it also tackles broader issues...
News PS4 Software Sales Are Tilting Towards Digital
More are opting to download
For the first time in the generation, digital software sales exceeded physical software sales in Sony’s latest earnings report. This means that more PlayStation 4 games were sold through the PlayStation Store than they were in brick and mortar shops around the world. While the result was likely influenced by the time...
News PlayStation Propels Sony to Best Q1 Operating Profit Ever
Back in black
Sony is a much healthier company these days, and it’s posted another sturdy financial report pertaining to the three month period which ended on 30th June. PlayStation was once again the biggest financial driver, with the division helping to propel the Japanese giant to its largest Q1 operating profit results of all-time. The gaming...
News PS4 Has Officially Sold 100 Million Units, and It's Done So Faster Than Any Other Console
PS Phwoar
By jove, they've done it -- Sony has now sold through 100 million PlayStation 4 consoles. The data for the first financial quarter of 2019 has been released, and the Japanese giant managed to sell 3.2 million PS4s between April and June, tipping it over the edge of the milestone. We're sure all the folks at PlayStation HQ will be popping...
News Microsoft CEO: Cloud Partnership Is 'All Driven by Sony'
Companies dependent on each other, says Nadella
One of the year's most surprising turn of events was the partnership formed between Sony and Microsoft. In a "memorandum of understanding", the two companies shook hands on the opportunity to share technology, primarily relating to cloud-based streaming. This shocked many -
News Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Won't Take Away from Sony to Achieve Success
"That's not me"
Xbox's figurehead Phil Spencer is clearly in favour of collaborating with competition rather than keeping them at arm's length, so much so that he wouldn't want to take away anything from Sony or the PlayStation brand in order to better Microsoft's family of consoles. During an interview with Fortune Magazine, when asked if the...
News Bigben Interactive Snaps Up Greedfall Developer Spiders
Makes a change from Microsoft, THQ Nordic
Bigben Interactive has acquired Greedfall developer Spiders for an undisclosed fee. The French studio is perhaps best known for titles such as Bound by Flame and The Technomancer, but its new owner says it will leverage the unit to “increase its know-how in the development of video games in the AA...
News Media Molecule Is Hiring Small Development Teams to Make Games Using Dreams
Dream job
Posting about job listings isn't always that interesting, but Media Molecule isn't your average game studio. The whimsical Guildford developer has updated the jobs page on its official site, and this new opening sounds like an incredible opportunity. In a nutshell, the Sony studio is looking to contract small dev teams to create fresh...
News Sony San Diego Has a Brand New Office and Logo
First-party developer on the move
It’s all change at MLB The Show developer Sony San Diego, which seems to be the latest team under the PlayStation first-party umbrella to be leveling up. The studio – which also houses the Product Development Services Group and, purportedly, an entirely new unit rumoured to be working on an original Uncharted...
News PS Vita's Not Quite Done Yet, Despite Reports to the Contrary
Vitality
Sony’s largely called time on the PlayStation Vita, with hardware and cartridge production mostly over. There are still a surprising number of titles being published globally on the PlayStation Store, however, but there had been some speculation overnight that support may be coming to an abrupt end.
News Alan Wake Seems Set for PS4 After Remedy Acquires Rights
Xbox 360 exclusive on the way
Update: Remedy Entertainment has told Eurogamer.net that it "could bring Alan Wake to different platforms if we so choose", suggesting a PlayStation 4 port could very well happen in the future. However, it added that it has nothing to announce now, and that it's "fully focused" on Control, which is due out next month...
News Sony Looking to Buy Up New Game Development Studios as PS5 Looms
Welcome to the team
Over the weekend, news broke that Sony is looking to double down on its philosophy of producing high quality, PlayStation exclusive titles with the PlayStation 5. With the next-gen console supposedly set to launch in late 2020, you can bet that the Japanese giant is incredibly busy behind the scenes, no doubt preparing itself for...
News Sony Thinks PlayStation Is Too Big to Ignore
Company thinks games will release on PS5 regardless
Sony is investing the bulk of its efforts with the PlayStation 5 into blockbuster games, and according to the Wall Street Journal, that’s left indie developers and smaller publishers feeling like outsiders. But speaking anonymously with author
News Sony: The World Isn't Ready for Game Streaming, Consoles Like PS5 are Still Necessary
The PlayStation maker takes a stab at Stadia
Sony isn't about to go all-in on game streaming. With the PlayStation 5 on the horizon, the company has basically come out and said that it doesn't think the world is ready to fully commit to services like Google Stadia just yet. It chalks this up to the fact that not everyone has a good, stable internet...
News Expect Even More Big Budget Games from PlayStation's First-Party Studios on PS5
Platform holder doubling down
Sony’s already said that it aims to expand upon its wildly successful first-party portfolio through “organic growth and acquisitions”, but a Wall Street Journal report has reiterated that the platform holder intends to increase its exclusive output. The publication claims that the Japanese giant will be focusing...
News Sony Looks to Be Locking Timed Exclusives for PS5
Company wants to showcase major titles
According to an insightful Wall Street Journal report, Sony is looking to make deals with major publishers in order to put the PlayStation 5 in the best possible position when it launches next year. The publication claims that the platform holder is focusing on major, big budget titles – and it’s lining up...
News Sony's PS5 Strategy: Aim to Please Hardcore Gamers, Focus on Exclusives and Big Publishers
In for the kill
With the PlayStation 5 -- or whatever it ends up being called -- supposedly launching late next year, Sony will be in the process of defining its approach to the next console generation. A detailed Wall Street Journal report gives some insight into how this approach is taking shape, and it sounds like Sony wants a clear focus on...
News European Survey Finds Vast Majority of Gamers Not Interested in Streaming Services
70 per cent don't want to stream their games
The reaction to services like Google Stadia has generally been one of apathy -- well, among our regular readers, at least. It seems most people just aren't ready to stream games, Netflix style. Whether that's down to concerns about connection speeds, the cost of entry, or simply the desire to outright own...
News EA Believes Loot Boxes Are Ethical, Deems Them Surprise Mechanics
Surprise, surprise
EA is undoubtedly at the heart of the ongoing loot box row, but the publisher is pleading innocence when it comes to intervention. Speaking with politicians in the UK this week, the publisher’s VP of legal and government affairs Kerry Hopkins likened loot boxes to blind-packed toys, and explained that internally the organisation...
News Some Fans Think Remedy and PlayStation May Be Partnering
Quantum repair
There’s a strange story doing the rounds that PlayStation may be partnering with Max Payne developer Remedy on a new game. It’s worth noting that the platform holder has already been fairly pally with the Finnish studio since it signed marketing rights to upcoming third-person shooter Control, but some feel that the
News PS5 Is 'Hard to Get Excited About', Says Platinum Boss
"It's okay"
Unsurprisingly, we’re pretty hyped for the PlayStation 5 here at Push Square Towers – but Platinum Games boss Atsushi Inaba isn’t sharing our enthusiasm. Speaking with VGC at E3 2019, he told the site that it’s “hard to get excited about” Sony’s next-gen console when it sounds like “more of the same”. He added that...
News Sony Was the Third Most Popular Publisher at E3 2019, Despite Never Being There
Talking itself into third place
Sony skipped E3 2019 completely, and yet it still managed to be the third most talked about publisher at the show. As Hollywood Reporter reveals, the Japanese giant made it on to the podium alongside Xbox in second and Nintendo first. It surely has to be chalked up as a pretty major success for the company, who
