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Grab 12 months of PlayStation Plus Essential via Neowin Deals by Steven Parker Today's highlighted deal comes via our Apps + Software section of the Neowin Deals store, where you can grab a 12 month subscription of PlayStation Plus Essential via Neowin Deals. Get lost with online entertainment thanks to an epic collection of classic PlayStation games. Unleash the power of PlayStation and explore hundreds of incredible games with a new choice of membership plan. With PlayStation Plus Essential, you'll get to enjoy all the core PlayStation Plus benefits: join your friends in online multiplayer, add new games to your collection every month, get incredible deals from PlayStation Store, and more. Relive some of the greatest PS4 games or experience them for the first time with the PlayStation Plus Collection (exclusive to PS5). The selection of games includes a mix of PlayStation exclusives and third-party titles spanning a range of genres including blockbuster action games, first-person shooters, open-world adventures, massive RPGs, fighting games, and more. Monthly games. Expand your collection with new PS4 games every month, plus PS5 games added regularly - yours to play as long as you’re a member. Check what's new this month Exclusive content. Stand out from the crowd with special skins, cosmetics, weapons & more for free-to-play games, exclusive to PlayStation Plus members Online multiplayer. Unleash the full potential of your favorite games & play online, alongside the PlayStation Plus global community on PS4 and PS5 Exclusive discounts. Get exclusive access to the best deals on select games, add-ons, pre-orders and more from PlayStation Store. Browse PS Store Cloud storage. Save up to 100GB of PS4 game data* & 100GB of PS5 game data to the cloud and pick up where you left off on another console Share play. Start a Share Play session with a friend & play multiplayer games together – just as if you were using the same TV The PlayStation Plus Collection**. Relive some of the greatest PS4 games or experience them for the first time Game Help. Get spoiler-free hints & tips while playing supported games on PS5 Important Details Length of access: 12 months Redemption deadline: redeem your code within 30 days of purchase Access options: PS3, PS4, PS5 Max number of device(s): 1 Updates included No extra cost for shipping when buying directly from PlayStation For a full description, specs, and license info, click the link below. These 12-month subscription codes are stackable. Users can apply codes into their account at once to receive more years; or share the codes with friends or family members. NOTE: Playstation Plus is only available to legal U.S. and Canadian residents with a PSN account who are 7 years or older, and legal residents of Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil who are 13 years or older. Children under 18 must have parental consent to establish a PSN account and may not be able to access certain content or services. >> Learn more, or get this deal now << See all discounted Neowin Deals on offer. This is a time-limited deal. Get $1 credit for every $25 spent · Give $10, Get $10 · 10% off for first-time buyers. Although priced in U.S. dollars, this deal is available in select countries (see above). We post these because we earn commission on each sale so as not to rely solely on advertising, which many of our readers block. It all helps toward paying staff reporters, servers and hosting costs. Other ways to support Neowin The above deal not doing it for you, but still want to help? Check out the links below. Check out our partner software in the Neowin Store Buy a T-shirt at Neowin's Threadsquad Subscribe to Neowin - for $14 a year, or $28 a year for an ad-free experience Disclosure: An account at Neowin Deals is required to participate in any deals powered by our affiliate, StackCommerce. For a full description of StackCommerce's privacy guidelines, go here. Neowin benefits from shared revenue of each sale made through our branded deals site.

Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is coming to PC in July by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Despite holding a major games showcase after a two-year year gap and showing off plenty of experiences, it seems Sony had held back an announcement that would have left a lot of PC gamers happy. In a Surprise announcement today with a simple blog post, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is getting a PC port on July 26. Catch the new PC reveal and features trailer of the port above. Released in 2021 for the PlayStation 5 as an exclusive, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart arrived as the ninth entry in the popular third-person platforming series. Franchise developer Insomniac Games returned for this entry too, taking a break from all its Spider-Man duties and delivering a game that was well-received and won several awards. Coming back to the PC version, its development is headed by the now Sony-owned porting specialist Nixxes Software, with Insomniac also lending support. "We are thrilled and honored to bring this iconic franchise to a new audience," said Nixxes community specialist Julian Huijbregts. "If you haven’t played a game from this series before, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is an excellent one to start with. The game is a visual spectacle that is perfectly suitable for newcomers thanks to a standalone storyline and the introduction of two brand new characters: Rivet & Kit." As with most ports of PlayStation exclusives, the PC version touts some new features over the original release too. This includes ray-traced reflections and shadows with multiple quality levels to choose from depending on the hardware. Ultra-wide monitor support extending to 21:9, 32:9, and up to 48:9 aspect ratio setups (for both gameplay and cutscenes) is confirmed too. Nvidia DLSS 3, AMD FSR 2, Intel XeSS, and Insomniac's own Temporal Injection technologies are also included to boost frame rates, which is now uncapped on the PC release as well. Moreover, full mouse and keyboard as well as controller support with rebindable keys are incoming too. Being a Sony game, the DualSense controller is supported as well, with wired connections offering the iconic haptic feedback and dynamic trigger effects. When the game was first released, it used the included SSD in the PlayStation 5 to help it handle its gameplay features, which included warping in and out of different settings with no load times. Sony has yet to reveal the PC specs for the game, but we expect that the PC version it might require an SSD as well Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's July 26 launch will happen on Steam and the Epic Games Store for $59.99. Those who pre-order the title will also receive early access to Pixelizer weapon and Carbonox armor set.

A quick look back at the first major streaming PC game companies, Gaikai and OnLive by John Callaham During Sony's big PlayStation Showcase event earlier this week, it announced "Project Q", the code name for an upcoming portable gaming device. When it's released sometime later this year, Sony says that users will be able to stream and play their PS5 games on their local network with this device, which is basically a DualSense controller with an 8-inch display in the middle. Many observers noted that this device is not designed to play PS5 games by connecting to cloud servers. It's a local remote play product, made for the home Wi-Fi network. That's a bit odd, simply because Sony in fact does offer cloud gaming for its PS4 and PS5 game consoles and even on Windows PCs. It's an aspect of Sony's PlayStation business that the company barely promotes. In a recent official financial overview of the entire PlayStation business by Sony, it mentions cloud gaming as one aspect of the PlayStation Plus Premium monthly subscription service. That's all the attention it gets. While Sony did reveal it has eight million subscribers to PlayStation Plus Premium, it makes no mention of how many of those subscribers use its cloud gaming servers. What's even more ironic is that over a decade ago, Sony's path to cloud gaming began thanks to not one but two competing companies: OnLive and Gaikai. Most people likely think OnLive and Gaikai were the first cloud gaming businesses. However, there was actually a company called G-cluster that was founded in 2000 in Finland, and who made a presentation at that year's E3 trade show. Techinspection.net has posted part of one of G-cluster's presentations, which shows games on a server being encoded and then transmitted to smartphones, tablets, web browsers, and smart PCs. However, the company never really made a big impact in the cloud gaming space. However, a company that definitely wanted to make an impact in cloud gaming was OnLive. It was first revealed at the 2009 Game Developers Conference. The promise was made that PC gamers would not have to buy discs or download huge files again. All they would have to do is connect to OnLive's servers and play games. OnLive launched just over a year later in the US in June 2010. At first, the company seemed to be doing OK. It expanded to the UK and added support for iPad and Android tablets in 2011. At one point in that year, the company's founder and CEO Steve Perlman, when asked when cloud-based gaming will fully take over from all other gaming formats, Perlman stated, "We’ll be there in 10 years — if that." Meanwhile, in 2010, another company called Gaikai was founded with its own game streaming technology. It used web browsers and Adobe Flash to stream games to users but it concentrated on offering game demos, rather than full games. Like OnLive, Gaikai seemed to be gaining traction. In 2011, it made a deal to stream game demos via Walmart.com. In 2012, it revealed a deal to stream demos of games on Facebook. However, it was also in 2012 that the early game streaming trend started to fall apart. OnLive laid off half of its employees, and its founder Steve Perlman departed the company. There were also reports that OnLive's servers only had around 1,400 concurrent users. Meanwhile, Gaikai arguably did a bit better. It got purchased by Sony in 2012 for $380 million. OnLive limped along for a while longer. In 2014 it announced a new business model that would allow users to stream games they owned from Steam. However, in the end, OnLive got bought by Sony as well. Sony used the game streaming technology it acquired, primarily from Gaikai, for its PlayStation Now service, which was first announced in 2013, and launched in open beta in 2014. Yes, Sony had a game streaming service launch years before Microsoft started public testing for its Xbox Cloud Gaming service (aka xCloud) in 2019. However, as we have stated, the streaming service was never really something Sony had much time for. Indeed, in 2017, just a few years after its launch, it actually downgraded the service, as it cut off support for the PS3, PS Vita, Samsung's smart TVs, and even Sony's own Bravia smart TVs. In 2022, PlayStation Now was merged with PlayStation Plus, much like Microsoft made Xbox Cloud Gaming part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. All of this makes you wonder why the UK's Competition and Markets Authority blocked Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard this year because it felt that such a deal would give Microsoft an unfair advantage in the cloud gaming space. The truth is Microsoft is a late comer to the cloud gaming business. It's seen two startup companies get bought by Sony, which since then has not made cloud gaming a priority. Other huge companies have also entered this space like NVIDIA, Amazon, and most notably Microsoft's biggest overall rival Google with Stadia, which flamed out in 2023 just a few years after it launched. So why is there a worry from the CMA that Microsoft will suddenly dominate cloud gaming? The real history of this business shows there is a huge risk of getting ignored or, even worse, shut down.

Here's a quick look at the highlights of Sony PlayStation Showcase today by John Callaham Sony promised it would reveal a number of all-new games during today's PlayStation Showcase, and it delivered on those promises. We've already reported on new games like Helldivers 2, Fairgame$, Marathon, and a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3. We saw a new gameplay trailer for Spider-Man 2, the first trailer for Assassin's Creed: Mirage, and a gameplay trailer for Alan Wake 2. We also got word on some upcoming PlayStation earbuds, and a remote play device, "Project Q". However, there were a lot of other games and trailers shown during the event. Here's a quick look at just some of what else was revealed during the PlayStation Showcase. Keep in mind that many of these titles are multiplatform too. PS5 games Immortals of Aveum - We got new info and a new trailer for this fantasy-themed FPS coming this July. The Plucky Squire - There was a new trailer and additional details on this upcoming 2D game. Teardown - This voxel-based heist game, with lots of destructible environments, is coming to the PS5 this year. Dragon's Dogma 2 - We got the first trailer from Capcom's upcoming sequel to its 2012 fantasy action-RPG. Final Fantasy XVI - We got a new trailer for Square Enix's next game in the long-running RPG series, coming on June 22. Concord - An all-new multiplayer FPS from Firewalk Studios was announced today for release in 2024. The Talos Principle 2 - Croteam's first person puzzle game is officially getting a sequel. PS VR2 Games Resident Evil 4 VR Mode - We saw the first trailer for the upcoming DLC release for people who have the recent Resident Evil 4 remake. Beat Saber - the popular VR music action game debuts today on the PS VR2, with a Queen song pack. Arizona Sunshine 2 - The popular first person shooter for VR devices is getting a sequel, with a first look trailer. There was a lot more shown during the event, but you can go back and watch the entire PlayStation Showcase now, and get more info on the PlayStation blog.

Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake and Classic Collection announced for consoles and PC by Omer Dursun Konami has officially confirmed the long-awaited Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake, titled Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. The announcement was made during the PlayStation Showcase event, revealing that the remake will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Konami also unveiled the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: Volume 1, which includes remastered versions of the original three MGS games— Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Snake Eater. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, initially released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2, is widely regarded as one of the greatest stealth action games ever. Snake Eater follows the protagonist, Snake, on a mission to infiltrate a Soviet military base in the Russian wilderness. Unlike its technologically advanced successors, the game emphasized camouflage and survival mechanics, such as hunting animals to maintain stamina. The decision to remake Metal Gear Solid 3 has generated much fan anticipation, as it presents an opportunity to experience modern graphics, gameplay enhancements, and potentially additional content. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The release date is unknown for now. As for Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: Volume 1,the collection brings together the original three Metal Gear Solid games, offering fans a chance to revisit or discover the series' iconic beginnings. The release date for the collection is set for autumn on PlayStation 5. The announcement of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake and the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: Volume 1 represents a significant step in revitalizing the Metal Gear franchise. Since the departure of series creator Hideo Kojima from Konami in 2015, the franchise has remained dormant.

Sony announces new PS5 earbuds and "Project Q" remote play device for late 2023 by John Callaham Sony made two hardware announcements today during its PlayStation Showcase event. While neither one was a new console, one is designed to let PlayStation 5 owners stream and play games remotely. The device, which was called "Project Q" during the PlayStation Showcase, will have an eight-inch HD screen and all of the buttons of the company's DualSense PS5 controller. It will be able to play PS5 games with remote play or by connecting to the console's local Wi-Fi network. The games must be installed on the owner's PS5 in order to use "Project Q". It also won't play any PS VR2 games. The device was previously rumored back in April, and it would appear that those rumors were indeed correct. It would be a return of sorts by Sony to the portable gaming space, after the launch of the PlayStation Portable in 2004 and the PS Vita in 2011. Sony also announced plans to release its own PlayStation earbuds, which it says will work on both the PS5 and PC. Sony says they will also connect to smartphones via Bluetooth. Sony claims that they will use new technology so that the earbuds will offer "lossless audio with low latency". The video also showed the earbuds being stored in what looked like a charging case. Sony didn't reveal any more info about "Project Q" or the PlayStation earbuds. Thus, we don't know details about the price for either product. We also don't have any more specific hardware specs like their battery life. Sony says both products will be released sometime before the end of 2023. That likely means that the company wants to get them both available in time for the busy holiday shopping season. It will be interesting to see what the reaction will be from consumers, especially for the Project Q device.

Spider-Man 2 trailer has brutal Symbiote action as Kraven and Lizard enters the fray by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Insomniac's delivered the final announcement of today's PlayStation 5 showcase, presenting the first gameplay trailer of Spider-Man 2. As we've already known from the original reveal in 2021, the game features both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, delivering what looks to be a double protagonist story. Watch the trailer above, where the main villains get a reveal too. Popular Spider-Man villains Kraven the Hunter and Dr. Curt Connors, AKA The Lizard have come to New York. It looks like Kraven is hunting all the "super" individuals in the city, and that includes other villains that usually just has Spider-Man to deal with. Of course, the Symbiote is here too, which has already latched on to Peter Parker. It's clear that his personality has already changed from the alien "suit". His special attacks seem much more brutal, and the voice lines taking on a more aggressive notes. Here's how Insomniac described the Symbiote suit's combat: New combat abilities can neutralize our new headstrong opponents with a little finesse. Strike back with aggressive parries to gain the upper-hand, or cast a web to shunt enemies between a hard place and a harder place. You can also activate a classic dodge to get out of danger – but don’t get too comfortable; some attacks can’t simply be dodged and will require a parry to properly evade them! With Miles Morales also joining the mix in this mainline entry, Insomniac is adding fast switching between the two heroes, which is described as "near-instant." He's also getting "Web Wings" to glide across the city using wind tunnels. "You’ll seamlessly switch between both Spider-Men across a variety of story moments in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2," says the studio. "We want players to bask in iconic team-ups elevated by our signature set piece moments, and experience the story from the perspective of each Spider-Man." Spider-Man 2 does not have a release date yet, but it is coming out on the PlayStation 5 sometime in fall 2023.

Sony announces Fairgame$ for PC and PS5, a PVP heist game by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Sony's PlayStation Showcase announced Fairgame$ today, the first project from Haven Studios. The title throws a heisting twisting into the standard competitive PVP formula and aims to bolster Sony's growing live service corner. Watch the cinematic trailer above. The game has players joining an underground movement to destabilize the ultra-rich's hold. This involves robbing them blind with your friends, but it means going through other robbing teams in the process. While gameplay footage isn't here yet, the cinematic trailer does show off gadget usage, highly mobile characters who may have their own specialities, and plenty of vertical gunplay. Haven Studios is the developer behind the game, a Montreal-based studio that joined the PlayStation Studios family just over a year ago. "We founded Haven with the goal of making the kind of games we all love to play," says creative director Mathieu Leduc. "As huge fans of competitive multiplayer experiences, Fairgame$ came from a desire to create a new type of PvP game with emergent sandbox gameplay. We want to deliver a fresh multiplayer experience that rewards creativity and mastery and delivers surprising stories each and every time you play." Fairgame$ is coming out on PlayStation 5 and PC. A release date was not shared today, unfortunately.

Sony claims its PS VR2 sales are actually surpassing those of the first PS VR headset by John Callaham On February 22, Sony officially launched the PS VR2, the virtual reality (VR) headset for its PlayStation 5 game console for the price of $549.99. However, a few weeks later, the research firm IDC said that sales of the headset were far below what was expected. Now Sony has fired back, claiming it has seen sales surpass that of the original PS VR headset in its first few weeks of release. IDC claimed that between the launch and the end of March, Sony would have only sold 270,000 units of the PS VR2. However, in a new financial presentation of Sony's entire PlayStation business (in PDF format), the division showed a sales chart that told a very different story. The chart indicated the first six weeks of sales for the PS VR 2 compared to the first six weeks for the original PS VR headset. While Sony didn't offer specific sales numbers, the chart seems to show that the PS VR2 sold around 600,000 units in its first six weeks since launch. Sony said that was 8 percent higher than sales for the PS VR in the same period of time. It does call into question the methods that IDC has used to predict sales of Sony's next-gen VR headset. We will have to see if the research firm will issue some kind of comment on Sony's numbers. By the way, the entire PlayStation presentation has a lot of interesting numbers. Sony's sales and revenue of its PS5 console are set to surpass those of the older PS4 by the end of the company's fiscal year of 2023. It has also seen sales of the PC versions of older PlayStation games go way up to $450 million by the end of the 2023 fiscal year. As an Amazon Associate when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Here's how to watch today's Sony PlayStation Showcase and what we expect to see by John Callaham As we mentioned in our recent feature article, there will be a ton of big gaming-themed streaming events over the next few weeks. This season of announcements, reveals, and new info on upcoming games begins today with one of the biggest events of them all: Sony's PlayStation Showcase. While Sony has held smaller State of Play online events every few months or so, this will be the first PlayStation Showcase event the game console maker has held since September 9, 2021. Among other things, back then we got our first gameplay trailer for God of War: Ragnarok, and we also got our first looks at not one but two upcoming Marvel games from Insomniac, Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine. Needless to say, this PlayStation Showcase has been a long time in coming, so here's when and where you can stream it, plus some speculation on our part on what we will see during the presentation. When is the PlayStation Showcase? The event is being streamed today (May 24) starting at 1 pm Pacific time (4 pm Eastern time) How can I watch the PlayStation Showcase? You can watch it directly from Sony PlayStation's official YouTube and Twitch channels. Your favorite game streamer might also be co-streaming the event with their reactions as well. What can we expect to see during the event? So far, Sony has only said this: The show will run a bit over an hour, focusing on PS5 and PS VR2 games in development from top studios from around the world. Expect a glimpse at several new creations from PlayStation Studios, as well as spellbinding games from our third-party partners and indie creators. It's clear that we will be getting first looks and announcements from many all-new games from Sony's first party studios during the PlayStation Showcase. That alone will make it worth your time to watch the event. Beyond that, we definitely expect to get new gameplay trailers from previously announced games, along with some release dates. We believe some new footage of the PS5 games Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine from Insomniac will make appearances during the event. We also think we will get new trailers from third-party PS5 titles like Final Fantasy XVI and more. We also think we will see a lot of PS VR2 games get the spotlight during the showcase. Besides all new titles, we expect to see updates and trailers for games like Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, Crossfire: Sierra Squad, the VR version of the recent Resident Evil 4 remake, and more. It's going to be an exciting event, and we can't wait to watch it. What games do you want to see during the PlayStation Showcase today? Let us know in the comments.

Sony's Project Leonardo accessibility controller is now named Access, more details revealed by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Early in 2023, Sony revealed an in-development PlayStation 5 peripheral aimed at offering massively improved accessibility for gamers with disabilities. Dubbed Project Leonardo back then, the controller now has an official name: Access. While the launch date and price are still missing, Sony has shared more details about the Access controller and its accompanying PS5 software today. The highly customizable controller lets players create a custom layout using swappable buttons and stick caps. It can also be mounted on an industry-standard AMPS mount or tripod for securing it at a comfortable angle, while the analog stick's distance from the base can also be adjusted. Similar to Microsoft's Xbox Adaptive Controller, each Access has four 3.5mm AUX ports to connect any custom peripherals players may have. On the software side, Sony will offer players freedom to map each button separately for different PS5 inputs. They can create toggles or disable each input, or even map the same action to two inputs. Control profiles will also be offered, letting players create different layouts for different games and genres to easily swap between them. Deadzone adjustments are also available to finetune how the stick performs in games. Moreover, up to two Access controllers and a standard DualSense (or a DualSense Edge) can be used simultaneously as a single virtual controller for maximum coverage. Sony expects to share pricing and release date details in the coming months for the PS5 Access Controller.

PlayStation Showcase is set for May 24 with "several new creations" from Sony's game studios by John Callaham The summer game announcement season will officially begin on May 24. That's the confirmed date for Sony's latest PlayStation Showcase online streaming event, where it usually debuts new trailers and game reveals for the PS5 and PS VR2 for the next 12 months or so. The official PlayStation blog says the event will begin at 4 pm Eastern time (1 pm Pacific time) and will last for "a bit over one hour" according to Sony. That's more than enough time to pack in a ton of game reveals. Indeed, Sony specifically said we can "expect a glimpse at several new creations from PlayStation Studios" and even the blog post's sub-title says, "A wealth of new games and new IP are headed to PS5 and PS VR2." The May 24 date for the PlayStation Showcase will start up the game reveal season that usually surrounds the E3 trade show before it was canceled for this year. On June 1, the VR-themed Meta Quest Gaming Showcase will be held, followed by the Summer Games Fest on June 8. Microsoft will try to top Sony's event with its own Xbox Games Showcase and the Starfield Direct events on June 11. Ubisoft will also have its own event on June 12, and Devolver Digital has confirmed it will hold one of its usually wild and crazy online game showcases sometime in June. Plus you can look forward to some third-party game streaming events such as the PC Gaming Show on June 11 and the Future Games Show Summer Showcase on June 10.

The Sony PlayStation VR2 headset is now available from many more retailers including Amazon by John Callaham In February, Sony launched the PlayStation VR2. This was the second virtual reality headset made to work with a PlayStation console, specifically the PlayStation 5. However, the headset was initially only available on Sony's store site. That may be one of the big reasons why initial sales of the PS VR2 were reportedly not as high as expected. PS VR2 Update: You can now find PS VR2 in stock at your local retailers, in addition to https://t.co/y9oEB5a3CG. Check your local retailer for availability. More about PS VR2: https://t.co/m7vO4ym1O0 pic.twitter.com/tWJx9LO4Wd — PlayStation (@PlayStation) May 12, 2023 Today, Sony announced on its PlayStation Twitter page that the PS VR2 is now finally available from third-party retailers. That includes the usual suspects like Amazon, Walmart, Target, GameStop and others. Amazon is selling the headset on its own for $549.99, or it's also available bundled with the game Horizon: Call of the Mountain for $599.99. Right now there are over 60 games released either exclusively for the VR2 or support it with virtual reality features. That includes Gran Turismo 7, No Man's Sky, and Resident Evil Village. More games are in the works for the headset, including support for the recent Resident Evil 4 remake, and more. As an Amazon Associate when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Sony may be planning a big PlayStation Showcase ahead of Microsoft's Xbox event by John Callaham Gaming fans will have a ton of major announcements coming one after the other very soon. Today, a new but unconfirmed report claims Sony will hold a major PlayStation Showcase online event on May 25. Game journalist Jeff Grubb first reported on this rumored event on his Twitter account today, and other sites like VGC claimed to have independently confirmed this news. So far, Sony has yet to announce a new Showcase event, so take this info with a grain of salt. If this is true, it would be the first such event for Sony since late February. May 25 could be the kickoff to a ton of similar online events. That includes the VR-themed Meta Quest Gaming Showcase on June 1, the Summer Games Fest on June 8, and Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase and the Starfield Direct events on June 11. An Xbox Games Showcase Extended presentation is also happening on June 13. Ubisoft will also have its own event on June 12, and even more gaming themed online presentations are planned like the PC Gaming Show on June 11 and the Future Games Show Summer Showcase on June 10. It's more than possible we could get even more game publisher online presentations in this time frame. All of these online events are, in a way, replacements for the previously planned E3 2023 trade show. It was originally scheduled to be held in Los Angeles from June 13-16, but the event was canceled in March due to a lack of interest from major game publishers.

Hogwarts Legacy launches on Xbox One and PS4 while new patch adds Arachnophobia Mode by John Callaham Hogwarts Legacy, the Harry Potter-themed game developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Games, has been a big sales hit. It sold over 12 million copies two weeks after its February 2023 launch, and the research firm Newzoo claims it was the top-selling PC and PlayStation game in the US for the first quarter of 2023, in terms of revenue. Today, Hogwarts Legacy finally launches on the last generation Xbox One and PS4 consoles. The game is also coming to the Nintendo Switch, but those owners will have to wait until July 25 to get that port. Also this week, a new and large patch for the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S consoles was released. It has over 500 bug fixes for the game. There's also a new Arachnophobia Mode added to the accessibility options. Here are the details: When toggled on, this mode: Changes all enemy spider appearances Reduces and removes spider skitters and screeches Removes small spider ground effect spawners Makes static spider corpses in the world invisible Collision is still active to prevent players from getting stuck when toggling this setting Note that spider images in the Field Guide remain unchanged With sales that big, we would expect a sequel announcement any day now from Warner Bros. As an Amazon Associate when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Marvel's Midnight Suns Xbox One and PS4 versions launch May 11, but Switch port is canceled by John Callaham Marvel's Midnight Suns, the superhero tactical RPG from developer Firaxis and publisher 2K Games, launched in late 2022 for the PC, Sony's PlayStation 5 console, and Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. Now, the long-awaited last-gen PS4 and Xbox One consoles versions are close to their own launches. In a blog post, Firaxis stated that the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Midnight Suns will launch as digital editions on May 11. If gamers on those consoles purchase the Legendary Edition of the game the Season Pass, they will also get all the previously released DLC content. That includes the all-new and final fourth DLC pack, Blood Storm, which adds the X-Men's Storm to the game, along with new story missions and other content. The blog post also came with some bad news. The previously announced Nintendo Switch version of Midnight Suns "is no longer planned." The blog post didn't offer an explanation for the cancelation of the Switch version. However, it's possible that low sales of the previous ports might have contributed to the decision. As an Amazon Associate when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Sony PlayStation 5 console sales reached 19.1 million in the 2022 financial year by Ishtiaqe Hanif Sony has published its financial results where it showed rapid growth in PS5 sales. Sony started the financial year of 2022 with 2.4 million units of PlayStation 5 sold worldwide in Q1, crossing 20 million units sold to date, and moved on to Q2 with 3.3 million units sold in that quarter. After clearing inventory and parts shortages, PlayStation 5 sales hit a record 7.1 million units in Q3, more than double that of the previous quarter. It ended the year with 6.3 million units in Q4. This totaled 19.1 million, nearly as much as it sold in its lifetime before this year. More about this can be found here in the report. The high volume movement of PS5 inventory has increased the overall PlayStation market share by 23.29% globally to 87.79%, according to Statista. The nearest competitor was Xbox, ending the year with a 12.15% share. During the pandemic, there was a shortage of high-end chips. Sony ramped up the production of PS4 consoles to deal with the PS5 chip shortage. This drove up prices and decreased sales and finding a PS5 was difficult. President Jim Ryan previously told an IGN reporter during CES 2023, "Everyone who wants a PS5 should have a much easier time finding one at retailer globally, starting from this point forward." Overcoming this chip shortage has been a driving factor in the sharp rise in sales and growth. Source: Sony via IGN

Sony acquires new studio working on an upcoming AAA live service game by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Sony is adding another developer to its PlayStation Studios group, with the company today announcing the acquisition of Firewalk Studios. Formed in 2018 and helmed by veteran developers from Bungie, Firewalk Studios was already set to release its first project on PlayStation platforms. Now, it will be a fully first-party release. "I’m excited to announce that we’ve expanded our relationship with Firewalk Studios and are thrilled to welcome them to PlayStation Studios," says PlayStation Head Hermen Hulst. "Firewalk is home to a remarkably talented team of creatives who have launched some of gaming’s most celebrated experiences, and they’re already hard at work on their first original AAA multiplayer game for PlayStation." We're delighted to share that Firewalk is joining @PlayStation Studios! It's an honor to become part of such a talented community of developers and begin the next chapter in our studio's journey. https://t.co/cXHOEgNI0o — Firewalk Studios (@FirewalkStudios) April 20, 2023 Not much information about Firewalk's inaugural game has been released just yet. All that's known is that it will be a AAA multiplayer live service title based on an original IP. "We’re excited for Firewalk to bring their technical and creative expertise to PlayStation Studios to help grow our live service operations and deliver something truly special for gamers," added Hulst. Usually known for its blockbuster single-player campaigns, this is the third recent acquisition, after Bungie and Haven Studios, by Sony to expand its lacking multiplayer market. The company has already revealed that at least 10 first-party live service games are planned to be released for the PlayStation 5 before 2026.

A major photography prize was given to a man who used AI to generate it by John Callaham Earlier this month, it was revealed that the prestigious Sony Photography Awards had named Boris Eldagsen as the winner of its creative open category for an image he submitted called The Electrician. Eldagsen then admitted to Sony that the photo was not a photo at all. It was an image he created via unnamed AI generators. The photo was part of an online art collection from Eldagsen that he called Pseudomneisa. The page states: These images were imagined by language and re-edited more between 20 to 40 times through AI image generators, combining “inpainting”, “outpainting” and “prompt whispering” techniques. So why did he submit one of these images to a major photography contest? In an interview with The Register, Eldagsen stated he wanted to start a conversation about how AI will change how we look at art and photography in the future. He stated: I applied as a cheeky monkey, to find out if the competitions are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not. We, the photo world, need an open discussion. A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not. Is the umbrella of photography large enough to invite AI images to enter – or would this be a mistake? At first, the competition's organizers still named him as a winner even though he admitted the image's true origins. Eldagsen still refused the prize for winning the category, which included $5,000, some Sony camera products, and a trip to London to view the winning photos. A spokesperson for the competition told The Guardian in a statement that it "felt that his entry fulfilled the criteria for this category, and we were supportive of his participation." It added: We recognise the importance of this subject and its impact on image-making today. We look forward to further exploring this topic via our various channels and programmes and welcome the conversation around it. As we see more and more AI image generators launch, like DALL-E, MidJourney, and Microsoft's Bing Image Creator, we are seeing more and more debate about how these services could be used to spread misinformation with "deep fake" photos. Google recently revealed plans to launch its own AI image and video creators, but added that they will not be programmed to create images with humans.

Nintendo ditched E3 but will bring its own live event in Seattle this September by Anushe Fawaz Nintendo is hosting an in-person live event in Seattle, WA, in September this year that will feature Nintendo Switch game-plays for attendees, live-stage performances, photo-ops, and more. This is Nintendo’s own event that first debuted in Japan and is now coming to the US. On February 24, the company announced that it will not participate in this year's E3 event scheduled for June 2023. The event was to be held in Los Angeles – its traditional location – but Nintendo excluded itself from it stating that the E3 shows did not “fit into” the company’s plans. Other companies like Sony and Microsoft also decided to ditch the event. Announcing #NintendoLive 2023, an in-person event for fans of all ages that will take place in Seattle this September! Experience Nintendo Switch gameplay, live stage performances, tournaments, photo ops, and more. Stay tuned for more details: https://t.co/0uePw3LHqS pic.twitter.com/3nqalGUTa0 — Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 11, 2023 That said, US residents will still get the opportunity to attend Nintendo Live 2023, which is directed at people of all ages. The attendees will get a chance to play popular games on Nintendo Switch and participate either in friendly competitions or play them at their own pace. They will also experience live-stage performances and take pictures with their favorite Nintendo characters. Doug Bowser President of Nintendo of America added: “Fans of all ages can currently experience the unique games, characters, and worlds of Nintendo on Nintendo Switch, but we want to expand that scope with a new experience. With Nintendo Live 2023, we’re giving attendees a chance to celebrate together with family, friends, and the broader Nintendo community in the spirit of fun and creating long-lasting memories.” Furthermore, the event will have sculptures on display that will bring Nintendo’s in-game worlds to real-life. Lastly, there will be “high-energy” tournaments where people can cheer their favorite competitors as they compete for awards. While it is being held in September, the date for the event has not been specified yet but Nintendo mentioned that it will be sharing further information soon.

Get the PS5 God of War Ragnarok console disc bundle for $50 off its normal price by John Callaham If you have been waiting to buy Sony's PlayStation 5 console, now is an excellent time to do so. Right now on Amazon, you can get the disc version of the PS5 bundle with a digital code to get the hit action game God of War Ragnarok for just $509.99. Normally, the disc edition of the PS5 costs $499.99 on its own, and God of War Ragnarok costs $69.99 to purchase separately. So this new bundle deal basically cuts the price of the game down to just $20. The PS5 disc edition comes with all of its features, including a DualSense Wireless Controller, a base for the console, an HDMI Cable, an AC power cord, and a USB cable. It also comes with a digital voucher for God of War Ragnarok. In the sequel to the rebooted 2018 God of War game franchise, players can control the mighty Kratos and his son Atreus as they do battle with tons of mythological monsters and characters. Sony PlayStation 5 Disc Edition with God of War Ragnarok for $509.99 ($50 off MSRP) Make sure you also browse through Amazon US, Newegg US, or Amazon UK to find some other great tech deals, or visit the Deals section of our articles to see if there's anything we've posted in the past few days that could be of interest. As an Amazon Associate when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Sony thinks the UK's opinion on the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger is full of "errors" by John Callaham In late March, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stated that in its opinion, Microsoft's proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard would not affect competition in the console gaming industry in that country. Today, the acquisition's biggest naysayer, Sony, published a response to the CMA's report and it pretty much slams its conclusions. Sony's response (via Eurogamer) called the CMA's findings "surprising, unprecedented, and irrational" and claimed the report had "errors" when it came to assessing the economic impact if Microsoft were to make Activision's Call of Duty franchise an Xbox exclusive. While the CMA now says it believes it would not be in Microsoft's best financial interest to keep Call of Duty away from PlayStation gamers, Sony says that if the game was turned into a first-party Xbox title, "Microsoft will not pay a margin to Activision for sales of Call of Duty." Sony also claims that "highly-engaged Call of Duty users (i.e., the users that the CMA says will switch to Xbox) generate significantly higher spending than average platform users." Sony also points to a recent interview with Arkane's Harvey Smith, who stated that Microsoft would not allow a PlayStation version of its upcoming shooter Redfall after Arkane's parent company ZeniMax Studios was bought by Microsoft in 2021. Sony stated, "Even though the studio had already put in the work to make a PlayStation version of the game, Microsoft decided to terminate this work and make the game exclusive to Xbox." Microsoft has since put out a statement saying that it did not pull "any games from PlayStation". Microsoft has pledged to offer Call of Duty games to Sony's PlayStation consoles for at least 10 years following the merger. Sony has stated in the past it doesn't believe Microsoft's word. It has also said previously that Microsoft could release versions of Call of Duty games on PlayStation consoles "where bugs and errors emerge only on the game’s final level or after later updates." That drew a personal response from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who says this was "obviously disappointing behavior" on Sony's part. The UK's CMA is scheduled to issue its final report on the Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard on April 26. Source: CMA via Eurogamer

Review: The Last of Us: Part 1 in ultrawide on PC [Update] by Robbie Khan This review is spoiler-free. Even though the original game came out in 2013, there is no doubt that there are folks who have yet to experience the game, or see the recent HBO TV series. The story follows Joel and Ellie as they embark on an emotional journey through a virus-ridden world where survivors have joined factions, and fight each other to live, whilst dead-zones are occupied by the infected. Think the best bits of 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead. I will focus largely on what the series' first entry onto the PC platform has been like, and the chaos that unpacked on launch day with the PC community. At the time of writing, I have completed both the main story (15 hours), and the 'Left Behind' DLC (2 hours). I have also kept the RTSS overlay in some screenshots, so readers can get a better idea of system resource usage throughout the game. No review copies seems to have been sent out to any outlet before launch, so this is my own personal copy. It is not clear why this has been the case, but we can only speculate from details later in the review. The system I played on has the following specs: CPU: Core i7 -12700KF Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X RAM: 64GB DDR4-3600 GPU: RTX 3080 Ti FE @ 90% power limit Display: 34" ultrawide QD-OLED (3440x1440, 144Hz, G-Sync Ultimate) SSD: 2TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G Input: Xbox wireless controller + Logitech MX Master 3 mouse OS: Windows 11 Pro (build 22H2) My first experience with The Last of Us was back in 2013, buying a PS3 just to play it. Joel and Ellie's epic emotional journey was something I wasn't quite ready for. For years to come I'd always remember this game, and how no other game could quite top it in my books. How Naughty Dog managed to squeeze so much graphical effects out of the PS3 is still a wonder, okay it doesn't quite match up to the graphics we have today, but in 2013 it was way ahead of its time for a console game. Ever since then, I longed for the day I could play it on PC. I skipped the remaster on PS4, I skipped the remake on PS5, I knew ultrawide and higher resolutions/framerates were how I wanted to re-experience this game one day in the future. Ten years later, here we are. The game is priced at £49.99 / $59.99 and is available on both Steam and Epic Games Store. System requirements These are quite heavy requirements which raised a few eyebrows when Naughty Dog posted them. Not long before the launch date, they updated the requirements image to include the Iron Galaxy logo at the bottom as a co-developer. At this point even more eyebrows were raised, and the system requirements made more sense due to the poor performance of previous games ported to PC by Iron Galaxy, such as Akham Knight and UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection. UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PC had to undergo many patches before it reached a widely playable state, yet even to this day has a couple of issues remaining, such as texture pop-in and mouse camera panning judder. At this point, it's worth mentioning that The Last of Us for PC started development in-house at Naughty Dog, but at a some stage received assistance from Iron Galaxy. The fact that Naughty Dog added the Iron Galaxy logo so close to launch, and after many people had already pre-ordered the game, aroused suspicion. We may never know the true answer to this, but we can speculate given the evidence at hand. First impressions Upon booting up the game for the first time, shader compilation is initiated. This is generally great to see, because too many games have released without it, which resulted in stuttering throughout gameplay. However, what was not that great is that compilation took 23 minutes, and my experience was better than what others were seeing, some in upwards or 2 hours for the process. More on this in the performance section of the review. I then went into the display and graphics settings, where there were a plethora of options to toggle and tweak, below is a look at what is available in-game, this is via Nvidia's GeForce Experience app, which shows the most optimal settings for your hardware. Interesting to note that the game defaulted the texture options to the High setting, yet GeForce Experience shows that Ultra is the most optimal setting for my hardware. What's also nice to see is that we are given an indicator of VRAM usage for each setting, along with data on what area of the system is impacted the most for each setting. Some time and effort has been put into these setting screens for PC, which is not something you often see with PC releases these days. With all the settings cranked up to Ultra, turning off motion blur, chromatic aberration, lowering depth of field, I started the game and saw a beautifully crafted world full of little details that few games can match. The water reflections, global illumination, lighting, and ambient occlusion especially are key highlights here. What is clear is that we don't need ray tracing to get this level of visual polish in a game world full of light-reactive surfaces and volumetric effects that combine to create an atmospheric ambiance and clarity. Very few games can manage this, even with ray tracing. The black levels in this, for example, feel naturally excellent, unlike the faded blacks in games like Cyberpunk 2077 which require community mods to tone down, but still not get quite right. On an OLED monitor, perfect black levels in a game are very important, as anything less just doesn't feel accurate. I also noticed some additional features, such as reactive RGB control, so if you have an RGB keyboard, then the colours of the lighting will change depending on damage taken. Really a unique way to be further immersed into the game. HDR is also supported, but unlike Capcom's Resident Evil remakes on PC, the Windows HDR mode is not auto enabled if HDR is toggled in the game. It must first be enabled in Windows, then the game will see HDR available under the Brightness settings screen, which then offers some additional HDR focused controls: Some clarity would have been helpful here, as HDR control is not visible until you go into the Brightness settings screen under Display, whereas other games have HDR logically placed under the root of Display settings. Once enabled, HDR is a truly excellent experience in The Last of Us Part 1. I did not have to adjust anything beyond the defaults, although I had already completed HDR calibration using the Windows HDR Calibration Tool. At 1000 nits, the luminance balance between dark and light scenes, for example, the basement dwelling shown above, are quite breathtaking. Just make sure your display is set up and calibrated correctly to get the best out of HDR. This pre-requisite applies to all supported games in general, though. Performance The two things I immediately noticed were that shader compilation takes ages, far longer than any game I have played to date. I timed 23 minutes on my CPU, and I say CPU because it seems only the CPU is being hammered during compilation, it sat at 100% for all cores for the whole time. Others online were seeing much longer times ranging up to 2 hours (or more) on different systems. The second thing is that the game saves take a long time to load. Before a hotfix patch, it was taking 56 seconds to jump back into a save slot. After the patch, this dropped to 43 seconds. In both instances, there is very little SSD activity, as I observed less than 87MB/s read speeds during loading, which is crazy considering the system requirements recommends a standard SSD which is typically capable of 550MB/s read and write. I opted to stick to "DLSS Performance" mode throughout the second half of the game, whereas I was playing at native 3440x1440 for the first half whilst Naughty Dog sorted out the initial hotfix patches to fix stability when upscaling techniques like DLSS was used. At native resolution, I had to use High for the four texture quality settings, otherwise the game would run into VRAM issues. With DLSS set to Performance, I was able to set them back to Ultra, and the VRAM issue would not be seen due to the lower internal resolution which is then AI reconstructed to the 3440x1440 output resolution. I was getting an average of 60fps at native resolution, whereas with DLSS it was anywhere from 75fps to 120fps depending on the scene. The above screenshot shows one of the framerate variances I also noticed during gameplay. This is an area that has very little in the way of dynamic effects happening, yet the framerate drops from just over 100 fps to 87 whilst looking at this corner of the dark room. This is a trend that continues throughout the game, and whilst for me it was not too concerning as the dipped framerate was still high anyway, others that were unable to run a decent baseline framerate, or don't have a Variable Refresh Rate-enabled (VRR) display, were having a worse experience. Naughty Dog does not list this specifically on their known issues list, but hopefully this is resolved in an upcoming patch as part of the wider fixes being looked into. I recommend gamers submit this as an issue via Naughty Dog's form. The more reports they get, the more importance they should hopefully apply to it. I did start a New Game+ run using DLSS Quality, too, and observed the following statistics using RTSS: Average framerate 109.4 FPS Minimum framerate 82.1 FPS Maximum framerate 143.7 FPS 1% low framerate 71.7 FPS 0.1% low framerate 52.2 FPS This was of course a lengthy run containing explosions, dense foliage from the Ultra settings, volumetric effects from the spore room, light rays casting bounces and global illumination, so a good range of impacting effects on the GPU, CPU and VRAM. The VRAM usage during this benchmark was sat at 10GB total system (9.6GB of which was just the game alone). Even still, I had a random crash to desktop. I also started DLSS Balanced to test some other things out. I experienced a crash to desktop within 10 minutes and gave up proceeding any further with that plan. Checking on forums, I saw others seeing crashes too, even though their VRAM utilisation was well below the amount of VRAM they had. Setting DLSS back to Performance, however, resolved the issue once again, at least for me. Whilst we are on the subject of technical issues, there is also mouse camera panning judder. This is not the same as frametime/framerate stuttering, as I experienced neither of those. Mouse camera panning judder gives the impression of display stuttering as you move the camera at any speed. This phenomenon is not obvious at all times, but mostly noticed in areas of vertical architecture or static props sticking out all around you. This issue does not exist when panning the camera using a controller, which I was able to verify playing portions of the game using a wireless Xbox controller. No amount of changing settings in Vsync, G-Sync, framerate caps and the like were able to reduce the mouse camera judder. This is also the same judder experienced on Uncharted, which to this day remains unresolved. A hotfix addressing jittering on mouse-controlled camera movement, some crashes, and more for The Last of Us Part I on PC is slated for Tuesday. A larger patch with additional fixes will be deployed later in the week. — Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) March 31, 2023 Naughty Dog have made a statement on their Twitter account saying a patch is due on Tuesday that fixes the mouse camera judder, though it remains to be seen if this will resolve the issue for everyone, since patches 1 and 2 were supposed to fix crashing, yet we still see the issue. Gameplay Technical issues aside, what I am happy to report is that the gameplay, mechanics and overall gaming experience is excellent and exactly how I remembered it being back in 2013. As the second patch resolved the crashing issues for my system, I was able to then properly put time into finishing the rest of the game and enjoy it for what it is. The combat works really well with a mouse and keyboard, aiming is more precise with all ranged weapons, and I found myself doing twitch shots much easier than with the controller using an analogue stick. The enemy AI is also quite challenging at times. NPCs will dodge out of the way of your arrows if they see you aiming at them, they will use strategy to draw you out by flanking you from all directions if there is a crew after you, and ammo is littered around sparingly. Every shot has to count whilst praying that a headshot downs someone first time round, and they drop the correct ammo for you to reload with. There is quick weapon swapping via hotkey, but this is still deliberately slower than the insta-swItch found on other games, so doing this whilst running from an enemy could mean the difference between life and death if you run into an obstacle ahead, as you will not have drawn the new weapon in time before they attack you. This was fine with me, as it added an adrenaline rush to the combat. Plenty of times I was having a tense moment with ammo anxiety as a pair of Clickers (virus mutated enemies) marched towards me, or I am being fired upon by NPCs from multiple heights in a building. I ended up enjoying this experience more on PC than I did on console thanks to the higher performance and wider field of view. Even though I never played the remaster on PS4, but I did see it in person, briefly, being able to play on ultrawide OLED, with framerates well above 60fps, and the graphical quality that only the PC can offer, it really was a surprisingly cinematic experience. It saddens me that many PC gamers who have never played the game before, pre-ordered this and are unable to have a similar experience due to the technical issues still being seen, even after hot fixes. Final thoughts I finished the game with a neutral mind but cannot help but feeling it could have been a much more positive one. Steam says I have over 25 hours in the game, yet the game says I finished the story in 15 hours. Those additional 10 hours were mostly spent troubleshooting trying to get to the bottom of the random crash to desktop issues I was facing, and seeing if the mouse camera judder could be worked around. It also took a few hours to determine that using DLSS/FSR was the cause for the crashing on my system before the second patch released. As such, I had to play the first half of the game without DLSS, which meant a framerate ranging from 40-65 on average. Not how I envisioned jumping back into the story after 10 years! This leads me onto the state of new releases on PC now. We live in a time where it has seemingly become apparent that developers are using us PC gamers as testers to find and report all the bugs at launch, and then provide day/week 1 patches to hopefully resolve them. Some games take weeks/months/a year+ to get to a playable state (Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3 Next gen, Sackboy, Resident Evil 2 remake, Uncharted to name a few). A triple-A developer such as Naughty Dog should know better than to sign off on a release that was clearly in a poor state of optimisation, even if the game itself is completely excellent. Technical issues on a PC release do nothing good for anybody, and the first impression sticks with the game forever after, often becoming online memes. Under all the technical issues lies a fantastic game just waiting to be played by newcomers, and rediscovered by those, like me, who have been waiting so long for a superior version of the game on the only platform capable of delivering such an experience. If you really want to play the game now on PC, personally, I would recommend picking it up from official storefronts like Steam or Epic Games Store first, where at least you have refund windows should you have unbearable issues. It seems Valve is even accepting refund requests that exceed their usual 2-hour playtime window. You can then get it later, hopefully cheaper, once the issues are resolved. With these problems ongoing, I don't think the asking price is acceptable. If gamers are to find bugs for developers in this way, and then file tickets, then the game should be significantly cheaper. The Last of Us Part I PC will now be released on March 28. An update from our team: pic.twitter.com/lvApDT71Xj — Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) February 3, 2023 I was going to give this launch a 6/10 score, but as I was reflecting on this review and talking about it on forums, I recall Naughty Dog actually delaying the original launch date of March 3rd , because the studio wanted to make sure the game was "in the best shape possible". If these technical issues were only trivial, such as texture pop-in, or shadows being weird in some areas, then my score would be much higher, an easy 8, 9 or maybe even a 10 out of 10, as they are not game breaking bugs and could be easily missed by any developer. But what we are seeing are a slew of issues that never should have left quality control. I will update this review once the next patch drops with details on what has or has not been fixed. Stay tuned! Update - 2023.04.07 Naughty Dog has released a new patch which addresses many of the technical issues mentioned in this review, and by gamers around the internet. The patch notes can be viewed here. The size of the patch on Steam is 14.2GB. In conjunction with the hotfix Nvidia driver 531.58 beta, I no longer experience random crashes. I also noticed that shader compilation times have been reduced, and saved game loading times decrease. I did, however, notice some performance degrade, average framerates have dropped slightly, but they are still around 100fps average when using DLSS Quality with Ultra settings, so in the grand scheme of tings, it doesn't really matter. The mouse camera panning judder remains unresolved. Naughty Dog made a recent statement on Twitter saying that this particular fix is destined for a future patch. This is a shame to hear because the same was said for the same issue in Uncharted, and that game still has the issue to this day.

A new rumor claims Sony is making a Remote Play PlayStation handheld gaming console by John Callaham If a new report is indeed accurate, Sony is working on a new handheld gaming service in its PlayStation family. However, this unconfirmed rumor says this handheld is not a true stand-alone device like Sony's two previous portable game consoles. According to Inside Gaming, this new handheld, which reportedly has the code name Q Lite, only works as a Remote Play device for Sony's PlayStation 5 console. It will allegedly look much like a PS5 controller but will include an 8-inch display with 1080p resolution support and frame rates up to 60 fps. It adds: The device sports adaptive triggers for haptic feedback and will include what you would come to expect from a handheld – Volume buttons, speakers, an audio input jack, etc. The report says that the "Q Lite" is currently in the QA phase of development. There's no word on an exact release date for the device or a price tag. It's possible Sony could decide to cancel its development while in its QA state. Sony launched its first PlayStation handheld console, the PlayStation Portable, in 2004. The PSP was a big success with 80 million units sold over its lifetime. In 2011, the PSP's successor, the PS Vita launched. It ended up as a sales disappointment, and production was halted in 2019.

Initial Sony PSVR2 headset sales are not good, which could mean a price cut is coming soon by John Callaham On February 22, Sony officially launched the PSVR2, the virtual reality (VR) headset for its PlayStation 5 game console for the price of $549.99. However, sales of the VR gaming headset have not been good, according to the research firm IDC. Bloomberg reports that the firm expects to see only 270,000 PSVR2 units sold by the end of March. This is not good news for Sony, who reportedly expected to sell 2 million units of the headset by March 2024, and then lowered that figure to 1.5 million units. A few weeks before the headset went on sale, there were reports that Sony cut its shipment forecast to just 1 million units, due to poor pre-order sales, which Sony quickly denied. The PSVR2 does has a very high price tag. In fact, its higher than the PS5 console that's required to use it. That price, along with a lower interest in VR content, and the current economic slowdown, have all likely combined to hurt the sales of the headset. Francisco Jeronimo, the VP of data and analytics at IDC, is quoted in the article as saying, "I suspect a price cut on the PSVR2 will be needed to avoid a complete disaster of their new product." If that's the case, it would have to be at least a $100 price reduction, if not more, to get more people interested in buying what is basically a very fancy accessory for a game console.