Tag: Sony - Page 3
News Microsoft Exec on Helldivers 2: I'm Not Sure Who It Helps By Not Being on Xbox
Does this count as port begging?
Microsoft will bring four first-party titles to PS5, but it’s refusing to name which. Said titles will not include Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which will remain exclusive to Xbox and PC, until circumstances change. Xbox bigwig Phil
News Xbox Is Bringing Four Exclusives to PS5, But It Won't Say Which
It's not Starfield or Indiana Jones... Yet
Microsoft has officially confirmed it’ll bring four formerly exclusive games to rival platforms like PS5, but it won’t say which ones. As part of a bizarre podcast featuring executives Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty, the trillion-dollar tech titan danced around the rumours which have been...
Poll What Review Score Would You Give Helldivers 2?
Hell yeah?
Helldivers 2 has been a bit of a surprise hit for Sony and developer Arrowhead Studios. The game's landed with a genuine bang, pulling a huge number of players across PS5 and PC since its launch last week. The general consensus is that — outside of connection issues — it's a damn good time, especially if you can coax a few friends to...
News Cult Spin-Off Resistance Retribution Is Coming to PS5, PS4 with PS Plus Premium
Word up, Grayson
Days Gone developer Bend Studio’s awesome third-person shooter Resistance Retribution is coming to PS5 and PS4 as part of PS Plus Premium from 20th February, 2024. The excellent PSP game, which introduces British protagonist Lieutenant James Grayson and is set in Paris, first launched in 2009 on Sony’s handheld, where it...
News Sorry PvP Fans, Helldivers 2 Will 'Never' Feature Competitive Modes
Arrowhead doubles down on co-op
We suppose this shouldn't be a revelatory statement for Arrowhead Game Studios to make, but its recently released co-op shooter, Helldivers 2, will remain a strictly co-op shooter. The PS5 and PC title has been a big hit so far, with overwhelmingly positive reception, selling over a million copies at this point, and...
News Arrowhead Recruiting Devs to 'Accelerate and Beef Up' Helldivers 2 Content Plans
Massing for invasion
The success of Helldivers 2's simultaneous launch on both PS5 and PC appears to have caught several interested parties off guard, blowing through initial projections with its ludicrously addictive brand of chaotic, cooperative gameplay. That's despite fairly serious server issues since launch on Friday, with multiple patches...
News Sony Refutes Rise of the Ronin Korean Cancellation Claims, Says It Was Never Announced
All part of the plan
Yesterday, we brought you word of a brewing controversy surrounding the upcoming PS5 action game Rise of the Ronin after director Fumuhiko Yasuda made some comments alluding to a controversial 19th-century Japanese philosopher. It was supposed that these comments were why Sony confirmed the game would not be released in Korea,...
News PS5 Is Entering the 'Latter Half of Its Life Cycle', Says Sony
Manufacturer expecting a gradual decline in hardware sales
We don’t know about you, but it feels like the PS5 has barely broken a sweat yet. Despite being over three years old, the system’s lifespan has been hugely impacted by the pandemic, which has seen its first-party software cadence slow to a crawl and its early years massively affected by...
News Sony Plans to Improve Profit Margins with 'Aggressive' PC Release Strategy
Way of the future
Sony president and PlayStation chairman Hiroki Totoki was asked in a Q&A session following Sony's latest financial results briefing why the game division is seeing an increase in gross income but not profits and what the company could do to improve its bottom line. Totoki said that there are two key areas he wants to focus on...
Rumour Astro Bot Will Return for Another PS5 Rescue Mission This Year
Hope they don't bot-ch it
Sony somehow managed to panic the entire PS5 fanbase this week, when it said it won’t release any entries in its “major existing franchises” this year. The wording was always imperative here, however: it appeared to be alluding to tentpole series like Marvel’s Spider-Man and God of War, thus meaning it’ll rely on...
News More Than 2,000 PS5, PS4 Games Discounted in Massive PS Store Sale
Aw sh*t, here we go again
Sony has flagged another 2,000 PS5 and PS4 items for discount on the PS Store, with the price of a variety of add-on packs and full games slashed by up to 90 per cent. Some standouts, after a cursory glance, include the Digital+ Edition of Marvel’s Midnight Suns for a lowly £17.49/$29.99 and Avatar: Frontiers of...
News 13 More Games Coming to PS Plus Extra, Premium This Month
Plenty more Tales to experience
The batch of fresh additions coming to PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium in February have just been revealed by Sony. As usual, there's a good number of new titles joining the party, with 13
News PlayStation Chairman: There's Room for Improvement When It Comes to Business
Praises "highly motivated" studios
Hiroki Totoki has a lot of titles at Sony; in addition to being president, COO, and CFO of the corporation, he's more recently stepped into the role of PlayStation chairman as Jim Ryan winds down his time at the company. He's among the company's top dogs, then — but what does he make of Sony Interactive...
News Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Could Be a Brand New IP from Sony
Trademarked in the US
In case you missed it, Sony says it's not planning to release any existing franchise games this side of March 2025, meaning any first-party output in 2024 will be fresh properties, such as Stellar Blade or Rise of the Ronin. On this point, it's interesting that
News Marvel's Spider-Man 2's PS5 Sales Swing Past 10 Million Units
Series now surpasses 50 million units overall
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has now comfortably surpassed 10 million units sold, accurate as of 4th February, 2024. It took the original game a little under a year to topple 13.2 million units, so this is clearly an exceptional result for the sequel. It’s also worth noting that as around 55 million PS5...
News Sony Predicts Slide in PS5 Sales with No Major Existing IPs Planned Before March 2025
"Focused on producing high-quality works"
Sony will not release any sequels or updates to “major existing franchise titles” before March 2025. The wording is exceptionally important here: this does not eliminate the likelihood of PS5 exclusives entirely, it just means you’re unlikely to see a new Ghost of Tsushima or The Last of Us in the next...
News Sony Slashes PS5 Forecast to 21 Million for Fiscal Year
A decrease of four million units
As reported earlier today, Sony shipped 8.2 million PS5 consoles during the three-month period ending 31st December, 2023 – a very good number which contributed to record-breaking revenue, but not enough to help it reach its forecast of 25 million units for the current financial year. Thus far, it?
News PS5, PS4 Pull in an Incredible 123 Million Monthly Active Users
Up over 11 million year-over-year
Console sales are crucial, and Sony will be pleased it’s shipped almost 55 million PS5s to date – but monthly active users are also an important metric for organisations these days. Platform holders want customers to be logging in often, because when they’re engaged, there’s a good chance they’ll spend...
News PS5 Sales Touch 55 Million As Sony Breaks Revenue Records
But fiscal year target is off
You may not be fully satisfied with how PlayStation is running its business right now, but Sony’s bringing home the big bucks all the same. The firm’s gaming division is printing cash, as it shipped a sturdy 8.2 million PS5 units throughout the three-month period ending 31st December, 2023. That’s an increase of...
News Arrowhead Pledges to Compensate Helldivers 2 Players for Missing Rewards
"Increased reward event" incoming
Arrowhead Game Studios has promised to compensate players who were not adequately rewarded for their heroic service in Helldivers 2, with promised loot going missing amidst a chaotic launch experience. When you can get a game, the cooperative shooter is some of the most outrageous fun on the market, so this is...
News Rise of the Ronin's Korean Release Cancelled Following Commentary Controversy
Pulled from PSN, along with marketing materials
If, like ourselves, you're only passingly familiar with the complex, extremely fraught history between Japan and Korea, you might have missed the significance of specific comments made by Rise of the Ronin director Fumuhiko Yasuda in a behind-the-scenes trailer released last week. We certainly did,...
Review Helldivers 2 (PS5) - The Best Co-Op Shooter on PS5
For Super Earth
Helldivers 2 is some of the best fun we've had with friends on PS5. It's a simple and broad statement to start a review with, but in many ways Helldivers 2 is a simple game. This satirical bug-squashing shooter has its upgrades and customisation, but it's at its best when you're holding the trigger and not letting go. This game knows...
News PS5 Goes for the Kill with New Discounts in Europe
In pursuit of 25 million target
Sony is still aiming to ship an impressive 25 million PS5 consoles this fiscal year, and it’s got a little over a month to achieve the milestone. Right across Europe, it’s currently discounting the price of the remodelled PS5 Slim, where in Italy you can get savings of up to €75 through 25th February. That makes...
News Helldivers 2 Is 'Blowing Through Estimates', Around 1 Million Sales In Less Than a Week
Doing your part
Across its opening weekend, it's clear that Helldivers 2 has been a big success. There are some launch period fires to put out, and developer Arrowhead is working on it, having already released patches for across PS5 and PC. However, despite the early issues, the co-op shooter has made a splash, quickly becoming Sony's biggest Steam...
News Games Should 'Earn the Right to Monetise', Says Helldivers 2 Director
Service guarantees citizenship
With the industry as volatile as it is, publishers and developers must find new ways to monetise and offer value to their players to keep them coming back. Released on Friday, Helldivers 2 from developer Arrowhead Studios had a massive weekend, doing things slightly differently from its competitors in the service...
News PS5 Outsold Xbox Series X|S Nearly Two to One, According to Take-Two Sales Data
The hits keep on coming
According to recently revealed sales data from publisher Take-Two, it looks like Sony's PS5 has outsold Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S by a factor of roughly 2:1. Microsoft stopped trumpeting console sales a while back, so getting to a concrete number requires taking a slightly circuitous route. As reported by GameSpot,...
News Helldivers 2 PS5 Patch Should Alleviate Server Strain, Progression Issue Persists
Stand firm, soldier
Helldivers 2 is proving to be a rousing success for developer Arrowhead Game Studios, but the chaotic cooperative shooter's launch has been marred by some persistent bugs (pardon the pun) and recurring issues; the good news is the recently deployed patch on PS5 and increased server capacity should help with matchmaking, but...
News Helldivers 2 Is Now Comfortably Sony's Biggest Ever PC Launch
Touches 120k concurrent players as weekend gets underway
We’ve got to be honest: this wasn’t on our bingo card for 2024 at all. Helldivers 2 has blown up big time, and it continues to climb the Steam most played charts, now peaking at almost 120k concurrent players – with presumably bigger numbers to follow as the weekend goes on. This means...
News The Last of Us 2 Remastered Europe's Best-Selling New Game of January, PS5 Sales Up
Wasn't for nothing
January seems to have been a strong month for Sony, at least in Europe. According to data pulled together by GamesIndustry, last month saw successes for the platform holder in terms of both software and hardware — not a bad way to kick off 2024. The Last of Us Part II Remastered did very well digitally and physically,...
News Sony Aggrieves Anime Fans by Erasing Digital Funimation Content in Crunchyroll Merger
Gone for good
Sony has single-handedly managed to p*ss off the entire anime community, as it’s announced plans to erase purchased digital content as part of Funimation’s merger with Crunchyroll. The Japanese giant effectively has a stranglehold on the popular form of media, as it owns all of the major streaming services and a chunk of content...
News Glimpse Rise of the Ronin's PS5-Powered Depiction of 1800s Japan
Black Ships on the horizon
Set during the disastrous final days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Rise of the Ronin will take players to Bakamatsu-era Japan and arm them with an arsenal of early-modern weaponry. We got a new trailer and an accompanying PlayStation Blog write-up, shedding further light on the game's depiction of this pivotal moment in...
News Helldivers 2 Is Blowing Up, Sony's Biggest Ever PC Launch
Are you doing your part?
Despite some inevitable technical teething troubles, Helldivers 2 is blowing up on both PS5 and PC – with its Steam numbers outpacing those of even God of War. Not content with being the best-selling game on Valve’s popular storefront right now, the third-person shooter sequel peaked at about 81k players overnight,...
News Arrowhead Confirms Helldivers 2 PS5 Patch, Matchmaking Fixes Inbound
Help is on the way
Helldivers 2 experienced a somewhat chaotic descent from high orbit, deploying onto PS5 and PC simultaneously and paying for it, with players experiencing matchmaking issues and unable to link up with their comrades. Thankfully, developer Arrowhead is doing its part to keep the intergalactic war effort going. Confirmation of a...
Poll Are You Playing Helldivers 2?
Dive in
Helldivers 2 has arrived on PS5 (and PC!) with a bit of a bang. The co-op shooter appears to be quite popular already, rocketing up the Steam player charts and garnering a sizeable audience on streaming websites like Twitch. The question, then, is whether you're joining the Helldiver ranks and taking the fight to those big old bugs. We...
News Helldivers 2 Off to a Strong Start on PS5, PC, Currently Third Best-Selling Game on Steam
Over 50,000 concurrent players already
Helldivers 2 officially launches today, 8th February 2024, and it appears to be opening on a very strong footing. From what we can glean from publicly available data, Arrowhead's sci-fi co-op shooter seems to be performing very healthily on both PS5 and PC at this early stage. On the European PS Store, the...
Interview Shift Up on PS5's Highly Promising Stellar Blade
Korean dev details console debut
PlayStation fans have been frustrated by Sony’s seeming overemphasis on live service game development behind-the-scenes, but that makes Stellar Blade a real breath of fresh air. A staunchly single player PS5 character action title, it marks Korean developer Shift Up’s first foray into the world of consoles –...
News Huge Spider-Man 2 Update Adds New Game+, New Suits, More on 7th March
More features will be detailed soon
Insomniac Games has confirmed the long-awaited Marvel's Spider-Man 2 update that'll add New Game+, new suits, and much more will arrive on 7th March 2024. A tweet states a complete list of features will be shared closer to release, but until then, we know New Game+ and more Spider-Man suits are in. The...
Poll How Do You Feel About All of the Xbox Multiplatform Rumours?
A PlayStation perspective
While we use the word 'rumours' in the headline of this article, the reality of the situation is that it really does look like Xbox is making significant changes to its business strategy. Speculation is absolutely rampant at the time of writing, with numerous reports all coming to the same conclusion: Microsoft wants to...
News Helldivers 2 Pre-Orders Are Big on PS5, PC, Currently Outselling Palworld in US
Orbital barrage
Sony is launching Helldivers 2 this week on 8th February, 2024, and by the looks of it, the co-op shooter might be more popular than you think. From what can be gleaned from digital storefronts, the sci-fi shoot-'em-up seems to be killing it in terms of pre-orders. As noted by X user KAMI, the game is currently the top result for...
News Stellar Blade PS5 Pre-Orders Go Live, Two Versions to Choose From
Ahead of 26th April 2024 release date
Following on from its State of Play showing last week, Shift Up has opened pre-orders for Stellar Blade on the PS Store and at retailers worldwide. The PS5 exclusive is available in two versions: a £69.99 / $69.99 standard edition and also a £79.99 / $79.99 Digital Deluxe Edition. The game releases on 26th...
News PS5, PS4 First-Party Devs Won't Get Complacent Even if Competition Degrades
"We're driven by an internal desire to create the best work possible"
One of the big talking points emerging as part of Microsoft’s rumoured switch in strategy is that a reduction in competition could result in complacency from PlayStation and its army of first-party developers. The issue, according to some, is that if Xbox were to abandon its own...
News More Than 2,000 New PS5, PS4 Deals Dropped Tantalisingly onto PS Store
Cough up
Got a hole in your pocket? Well, over 2,000 fresh PS5 and PS4 deals have been deployed on the PS Store, which means any hopes you had of saving money at the start of the year are likely in tatters right now. The savings do include a lot of DLC, so keep that in mind – but you’re generally looking at some big discounts on slightly lower...
News Stellar Blade Director Says 'Korean NieR' Comparison Is a 'Great Honour'
But stresses that gameplay differs greatly
Even to casual fans of Yoko Taro's esoteric NieR franchise, the similarities to the upcoming and eagerly anticipated Stellar Blade are apparent—both feature flashy, action-based gameplay and buxom, blade-wielding protagonists, for starters. Rather than shy away from these comparisons, director Hyung-Tae...
News Evo 2024 Games Announced, Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6 Headline
A new battle begins
The main games lineup for Evo 2024 has been revealed, and to the surprise of no one, Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 are the headline acts. Those heavy hitters will be joined by Guilty Gear Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Under Night In-Birth 2 , Mortal Kombat 1, King of Fighters XV, and
News Helldivers 2 Outlines the Story So Far in Stylish Trailer, Confirms Post-Launch Updates
For democracy
We're on the verge of launch day for Helldivers 2, the sci-fi co-op shooter hitting PS5 and PC this week. While the emphasis in the game is very much on the action, there is some semblance of a story behind all the carnage, and that's what this new trailer aims to convey, complete with a neat stylised look. The story details touched...
News MLB The Show 24's PS5, PS4 Collector's Edition Is Extremely Unique and Cool
Paper talk
MLB The Show 23 was half annual sports game, half historical documentary – and it looks like San Diego Studio is responding to all the positive feedback from its previous release, and doubling down in MLB The Show 24. Case in point: its extremely unique Collector’s Edition celebrates the voice of black newspapers and writers, who...
News Helldivers 2 PS5 Trophies Will Have You Doing Your Part for the Platinum
For Super Earth
Helldivers 2 is only a couple of days away at the time of writing, and it's looking more and more promising the closer we get. The third-person co-op shooter has players working as a team to eliminate alien threats using an array of powerful weaponry. It looks like it should scratch that mindless shooting-stuff itch, and you can work...
News New PS5 Firmware Beta Improves DualSense Sound, Adds Share Screen Interactions
Starting today
Sony has just announced a new PS5 firmware update that's going into public beta testing today. A selection of PS5 users will be invited via email to try out the firmware's new features before it's rolled out to everybody. Time to check those inboxes! So, what's the deal with this firmware beta? Well, it's not an enormous one, but...
News Stellar Blade Dev Considering Crossover Content with Saucy Smartphone Shooter NIKKE
"If that's what the users want"
NIKKE: Goddess of Victory, Korean developer Shift Up’s saucy gacha shooter, is one of the biggest mobile games on the planet, raking in upwards of $25 million per month according to Sensor Tower data. It’s always felt inevitable, then, that the studio will draw upon the game’s enormous audience to promote...
News Abusive Last of Us 2 Fans Allegedly Levelled Death Threats at Abby Actor's Newborn Son
Truly vile
One of the more heartbreaking revelations of Naughty Dog's recently released Grounded II: Making the Last of Us Part II documentary was the extent to which unwell The Last of Us fans took their grievances. The worst of it, according to Abby actor Laura Bailey, was "real hardcore death threats", some of which were even directed at Bailey's...