We all know, at this stage, that rumours of the death of the console were greatly exaggerated. This narrative took hold pretty strongly for about a decade, fuelled by the introduction of various smart devices – smartphones, smart TVs, and so on – and by some fairly optimistic notions about 5G and internet speeds in general.

The logic was simple; the world was filling up with devices that you could play games on, and with the potential for streaming games in ways that didn't require a device at all looming on the horizon, selling consumers an expensive, dedicated gaming console seemed like a tougher prospect with every passing day. Even as each successive generation of console hardware boomed, confident prophets told us that decline into irrelevance was inevitable for this sector.

Ultimately, those people who predicted the end of consoles were wrong (so far, at least) for a very simple reason: they didn't actually understand the appeal of consoles in the first place.

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PlayStation 5 has now sold through four million consoles in the UK, GfK data reveals.

It's the ninth console to achieve that feat in the UK, but took 31 weeks longer to get there than PlayStation 4.

It's the fifth-fastest selling console in the UK, although it has a comparatively much higher price point than those ahead of it. PlayStation 1, for instance (which is the fourth-fastest) dropped to £129 after 76 weeks on sale and was under £100 by the time it reached four million sales.

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PS Plus members have renewed calls for more notice on games leaving the service. This has been a recurring complaint since the revamp because Sony often gives players as little as one week to wrap up their progress, which isn’t enough when it comes to lengthy games. There have also been occasions where Sony didn’t announce a departure until the very last minute.

When does Sony typically announce the list of games leaving PS Plus?

Sony provides a preliminary list of games leaving the service shortly after a catalog refresh. As an example, September 2024’s departures were announced today after new games were added to the service this morning.

However, as emphasized above, these are preliminary lists. Sony may remove games without a warning — like it has done so in the past — or give as little as a few days notice.

Players refreshed their demand for more notice after they discovered that Sea of Stars and Lost Judgment — both lengthy games — were added to PS Store’s ‘Last Chance to Play’ section with barely two weeks’ notice. Forums like Reddit and ResetEra saw members asking fellow players if there was a way to expedite their progress before the games left the service.

Given that there are hundreds of games in the catalog, Sony should endeavor to provide one-month notice for departures. We don’t see a good reason why this isn’t possible or why this shouldn’t be the case. Random updates with little notice are quite a nuisance.

The post PS Plus Users Continue to Demand More Notice for Games Leaving Service appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Until Dawn‘s PS5, PC price leaked over the weekend, earning sharp and unanimous rebuke from players. Ballistic Moon’s enhanced version of the 2014 Supermassive Games title will launch on October 4th, and reportedly has the same price tag as Astro Bot: $60 (£60 / €60 / AU$110 / CA$80).

Until Dawn’s PS5 and PC price isn’t justified, players say

The aforementioned leak comes from none other than Dealabs user billbil-kun, who has a pretty stellar track record. According to them, Until Dawn’s PS5 version will also get a disc release but regardless of the format players purchase and what platform they make a purchase on, the price is the same.

If this leak is accurate (we hope it’s not), this is a baffling move by Sony. For comparison purposes, The Last of Us Part II Remastered cost $50 and, as previously mentioned, a brand-new full-fledged Astro Bot costs $60. With Silent Hill 2’s remake releasing just four days after Until Dawn, we’ll be surprised if Sony manages to sell many copies at this price.

I personally loved Until Dawn, but it’s pretty much a one-and-done game, so I can’t imagine people will be paying $60 for it regardless of how “enhanced” it is. As one player said it, “Until Sale,” then.

The post Sony Blasted Over Until Dawn PS5, PC Price Following Leak appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Sony has quietly updated its list of PlayStation Plus games leaving the service in September. According to the current list, 12 games will be gone next month, including the first-party open-world action game Horizon Forbidden West.

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Bungie has announced it is laying off 220 staff, approximately 17% of its workforce, across all levels of the company including leadership roles. Pete Parsons, CEO of Bungie, has released a long statement for the reasons why 220 will be losing their jobs at the development studio. This includes the economic downturn of recent years, and costs relating to Destiny 2 and Marathon exceeding the financial limits of the company.

Pete Parsons has also confirmed that Bungie will become more integrated into Sony Interactive Entertainment, with 12% of roles being moved over to Sony. In addition, Bungie is spinning off a yet unnamed project into PlayStation Studios with the establishment of a new studio to continue work on the project. The full statement can be read below.

This morning, I’m sharing with all of you some of the most difficult changes we’ve ever had to make as a studio. Due to rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions, it has become clear that we need to make substantial changes to our cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon.  

That means beginning today, 220 of our roles will be eliminated, representing roughly 17% of our studio’s workforce.   

These actions will affect every level of the company, including most of our executive and senior leader roles.     

Today is a difficult and painful day, especially for our departing colleagues, all of which have made important and valuable contributions to Bungie. Our goal is to support them with the utmost care and respect. For everyone affected by this job reduction, we will be offering a generous exit package, including severance, bonus and health coverage.  

I realize all of this is hard news, especially following the success we have seen with The Final Shape. But as we’ve navigated the broader economic realities over the last year, and after exhausting all other mitigation options, this has become a necessary decision to refocus our studio and our business with more realistic goals and viable financials. 

We are committing to two other major changes today that we believe will support our focus, leverage Sony’s strengths, and create new opportunities for Bungie talent.   

First, we are deepening our integration with Sony Interactive Entertainment, working to integrate 155 of our roles, roughly 12%, into SIE over the next few quarters. SIE has worked tirelessly with us to identify roles for as many of our people as possible, enabling us together to save a great deal of talent that would otherwise have been affected by the reduction in force.     

Second, we are working with PlayStation Studios leadership to spin out one of our incubation projects – an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe – to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue its promising development.   

This will be a time of tremendous change for our studio.  

Let’s unpack how we ended up in this position; it’s important to understand how we got here. 

For over five years, it has been our goal to ship games in three enduring, global franchises. To realize that ambition, we set up several incubation projects, each seeded with senior development leaders from our existing teams. We eventually realized that this model stretched our talent too thin, too quickly.  It also forced our studio support structures to scale to a larger level than we could realistically support, given our two primary products in development – Destiny and Marathon.  

Additionally, in 2023, our rapid expansion ran headlong into a broad economic slowdown, a sharp downturn in the games industry, our quality miss with Destiny 2: Lightfall, and the need to give both The Final Shape and Marathon the time needed to ensure both projects deliver at the quality our players expect and deserve. We were overly ambitious, our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded, and we began running in the red. 

After this new trajectory became clear, we knew we had to change our course and speed, and we did everything we could to avoid today’s outcome. Even with exhaustive efforts undertaken across our leadership and product teams to resolve our financial challenges, these steps were simply not enough.   

As a result, today we must say goodbye to incredible talent, colleagues, and friends. 

This will be a challenging time at Bungie, and we’ll need to help our team navigate these changes in the weeks and months ahead. This will be a hard week, and we know that our team will need time to process, to ask questions, and to absorb this news. Today, and over the next several weeks, we will host team meetings and town halls, team breakout sessions, and private, individual sessions to ensure we are keeping our communication open and transparent.  

Bungie will continue to make great games. We still have over 850 team members building Destiny and Marathon, and we will continue to build amazing experiences that exceed our players’ expectations.    

There will be a time to talk about our goals and projects, but today is not that day. Today, our focus is on supporting our people.  

-pete 

Source: Bungie

A new God of War game from Santa Monica Studio is almost a given, but it looks like the studio’s next release will be its new IP. Sony Santa Monica has been a single-project studio for almost the entirety of its existence (not counting external projects), but the developer has been working on its mystery new IP for quite some time.

Why fans think Santa Monica Studio will release a new IP before a new God of War game

Santa Monica Studio has been hiring for its new IP for a while, but over the weekend, a ResetEra user spotted evidence of major recruitment activity. Sony veteran Glauco Longhi, who has previously worked for both Naughty Dog and Santa Monica, returned to work for the God of War developer in April.

On his LinkedIn, Longhi confirms that Santa Monica Studio offered him an opportunity to return, and he’s now overseeing the entire character development pipeline of the new IP. From the sound of things, the studio is firing on all cylinders now and its next release is likely to be this project.

Rumor has it that the mystery game’s development is being led by Cory Barlog, and it will be a sci-fi game possibly with RPG elements.

The post New God of War Might Not Be Santa Monica Studio’s Next Release appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

HBO Max has released The Last of Us Season 2 teaser trailer, setting the stage for what’s coming in 2025. The clip is only 24 seconds long, but those who’ve played The Last of Us Part II will note that it packs a lot, starting with a memorable scene of Ellie in Jackson. There’s also a glimpse of Abby that you’ll miss if you blink.

What we’ve learned from The Last of Us Season 2 trailer

The teaser can be viewed below. This article may contain spoilers so proceed beyond the teaser at your own risk.

In the teaser above, Joel claims that he saved Ellie, which forms the basis of the events that unfolded in the second video game. In TLOU 2, Ellie’s relationship with Joel becomes strained when she realizes that he lied to her about the events that took place in the hospital.

The bloodbath at the hospital is also why Abby comes into the picture. She is seeking revenge for her father’s murder, and, well… players know the rest.

It remains to be seen how the show tackles the entirety of TLOU 2 — including that controversial Joel and Abby scene — as it is a pretty narrative-heavy game.

The post HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 Teaser Flashes Memorable Game Scene appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

A damning new report claims that Bungie mislead Sony about its financial position ahead of its acquisition by PlayStation. The studio’s management has come under scrutiny following a second round of mass layoffs within a year that didn’t even spare long-time senior executives. Now, many former employees are laying the blame solely on CEO Pete Parsons.

Sony spent $3.6 billion acquiring Bungie — was it worth it?

The aforementioned report comes from veteran journalist Stephen Totilo, who spoke to former Bungie employees to get to the bottom of things. At least one of them addressed what many analysts and the gaming community have been left puzzled by: Sony spending $3.6 billion to acquire the studio.

The employee reckons that Sony overpaid for Bungie after the studio misled the PlayStation maker by selling “things they were just not able to deliver.” While Destiny 2: The Final Shape has been widely praised, Totilo has been told that the latest cuts were being planned long before the expansion released.

What’s even more interesting is that it seems Bungie was a bit desperate to strike a deal with Sony. One of Totilo’s sources said that if Bungie hadn’t been acquired, it may have gone bankrupt. “The alternate history is insolvency,” they said.

Bungie had thousands of employees at one point, which have now been reduced to 850 following the latest round of cuts. The studio hasn’t released anything outside of Destiny and its sequel over the last decade, and has gone through high-profile splits with both Microsoft and Activision in the past.

It has also emerged that senior Destiny executives Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy have been let go. Suffice to say, the common denominator here is Bungie’s management.

The post Bungie Misled Sony About Its Financial Position Ahead of Acquisition – Report appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Astro’s Playroom August 2024 update has gone live, bringing with it special bot #3. Players have to find a total of four special bots in the lead up to the release of Astro Bot. Doing so will pop five additional trophies in Astro’s Playroom, with players being able to carry the bots over to Astro Bot on September 6.

How to unlock Astro’s Playroom special bot 3 (August 2, 2024 update)

Two of the four special bots in Astro’s Playroom have already been found. The first one is Hunter from Bloodborne, and can be found in GPU Jungle’s first stage, Renderforest (note: players need to complete 1994 Throwback first). The second special bot is Selene from Returnal, who can be found in the Deep Dataspace section of the SSD Speedway.

The third bot, which is out today, is related to Gran Turismo and can be found in Cooling Springs. Rescuing the bot, which is trapped on the beach, will net players the Grand tourist trophy. As for how to find the bot, here’s the solution courtesy of PSNProfiles user Computer_Cat:

Step on the teal stars in this order:

1. Under the pier at the beginning
2. On the beach to the left
3. Under the palm tree to right
4. Then go all the way forwards to the left

Happy hunting!

The post Astro’s Playroom Update Adds Special Bot 3, Here’s How to Unlock It appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

The Last of Us Multiplayer game’s cancellation may have partially been triggered by some ‘helpful’ and honest feedback that Bungie provided Naughty Dog. That’s according to journalist Jason Schreier, who had previously said that Bungie’s internal review of the multiplayer project led Naughty Dog to re-evaluate things.

Bungie didn’t demand the cancellation of The Last of Us multiplayer

Schreier made his comment in response to a follower on X who had misconstrued his original report. The user claimed that Bungie “told” Naughty Dog to cancel TLOU multiplayer, and bemoaned that a studio with few acclaimed games would dictate Naughty Dog, a developer known for making highly-rated games.

In the conversation that followed, Schreier clarified that Bungie provided “helpful” feedback to Naughty Dog, who then made the “smart” decision to cancel TLOU multiplayer.

It’s hard to disagree with Schreier here. Naughty Dog’s expertise certainly isn’t live service, and dedicating resources to the project may have backfired and bled money. Although TLOU fans would have liked an online aspect similar to TLOU 1, that was never supposed to be the series’ main attraction.

Times have changed, and slapping on multiplayer portions to primarily single-player games is mostly a thing of the past.

The post The Last of Us Multiplayer Cancellation Was Triggered by Bungie Feedback appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Bungie is laying off 220 developers. That's 17% of its overall headcount.

Bungie boss Pete Parsons says the cuts are needed "to make substantial changes to our cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon."

"This morning, I’m sharing with all of you some of the most difficult changes we’ve ever had to make as a studio," Parsons wrote in a statement posted to the studios' official website.

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The phrase that gets thrown around the games industry a lot right now is 'Survive until 2025'.

The hope, or even the expectation, is that next year will see the games business bounce back after two years of faltering sales and mass redundancies.

There are a few reasons for this expectation. First, there's the belief that we'll see continued economic recovery and falling inflation rates, which should result in increased consumer spending and investment. Second, the launch of a new Nintendo console should spark increased interest and sales of new games.

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It’s been a helluva week for video games, with mass layoffs at Destiny 2 studio Bungie, and a few hands-ons for upcoming high-profile releases like Marvel Rivals and Star Wars Outlaws. As usual, we weighed in on the goings-on of the week, so click through to read all of our big opinions and spicy takes.

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This week, Destiny 2 maker Bungie was hit by massive layoffs, leaving the future of the company’s popular looter shooter in some doubt and spurring waves of criticism of its CEO, who remains at the studio. We also saw streamer Dr Disrespect once again posting online, just 36 days after he confessed to sending…

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Sony purchased Bungie, the original studio behind Halo and the maker of Destiny 2, for a whopping $3.6 billion in 2022. Following the sale, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons purchased over 20 classic cars in online auctions costing millions of dollars, according to his account on the website Bring A Trailer. He continued buying…

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Sony Pictures Entertainment has confirmed that an Uncharted film sequel is in the works.

The news was shared by Variety last night, after Sony made mention of the Uncharted sequel at CineEurope 2024.

The first Uncharted film released back in 2022, starring Tom Holland as treasure hunter Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his mentor Sully. While the film received mixed reviews on its debut, with words such as "tedious" and "colourless" being bandied around, it still managed to do well enough at the box office. It opened at the international box office to a respectable $21.5m from 15 overseas markets.

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Open-world zombie adventure Days Gone might not technically feature any zombies, but at least the discourse around a potential sequel is constantly reanimating. Via Xitter, the original game’s creative director John Garvin has encouraged fans to "never say never" about a Days Gone 2, while reminding us that a full outline for the game had already been completed prior to his departure from developers Bend Studio in 2020.

Even with the caveat of "I’m not holding my breath", Garvin’s take is an altogether more hopeful one that that of fellow Bend alumni and Days Gone game director Jeff Ross, who in May tweeXed a collage of popular PlayStation characters – sans his own post-apocalyptic motorcycling hero, Deacon St. John. "A lot of people still ask me if there will ever be a Days Gone sequel, so I submit this poster as evidence it will never happen", Ross wrote, along with an apparent pop at Sony Interactive execs (including Hermen Hulst, co-CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment) for never being "fans" of the game.

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Open-world zombie adventure Days Gone might not technically feature any zombies, but at least the discourse around a potential sequel is constantly reanimating. Via Xitter, the original game’s creative director John Garvin has encouraged fans to "never say never" about a Days Gone 2, while reminding us that a full outline for the game had already been completed prior to his departure from developers Bend Studio in 2020.

Even with the caveat of "I’m not holding my breath", Garvin’s take is an altogether more hopeful one that that of fellow Bend alumni and Days Gone game director Jeff Ross, who in May tweeXed a collage of popular PlayStation characters – sans his own post-apocalyptic motorcycling hero, Deacon St. John. "A lot of people still ask me if there will ever be a Days Gone sequel, so I submit this poster as evidence it will never happen", Ross wrote, along with an apparent pop at Sony Interactive execs (including Hermen Hulst, co-CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment) for never being "fans" of the game.

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Fear The Spotlight is vibey as hell from the outset, like plunging into a wormhole that sends you straight onto the set of the ‘90s cult horror classic The Craft. Grainy, VHS-esque visuals, narrative-driven gameplay, and simplistic puzzles are reminiscent of early PlayStation horror titles or point-and-click PC…

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Sony has certified a PlayStation VR2 PC adapter in South Korea, as the company readies its plans to make its latest VR headset compatible with computers.

The gadget was approved by South Korea at the end of March for use in the country. As yet, however, Sony is yet to announce it publicly.

A report on the device by UploadVR speculates that the gizmo will allow the headset to simply plug into your PC via the adapter device.

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Update Saturday 25th May 2024: Naughty Dog co-studio head, Neil Druckmann, has pushed back on claims he said Naughty Dog's next project "could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming", saying his "words, context, and intent were unfortunately lost" in an interview with Sony.

In an image appended to his message, Druckmann highlighted the eyebrow-raising phrase, "[Naughty Dog's next game] could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming", and then appended his original response to the interview question "is there a personal vision or dream you hope to see realised in the realm of entertainment", which I've written out in full below:

"Well, I've been very lucky, in that I've already had that. I got the chance to make several of my dream projects. I am working on a new one right now. And it's maybe the most excited I've been for a project yet. I can't talk about it or our bosses will get very mad at me. And I guess in general, there is something happening now that I think is very cool. Which is there's a new appreciation for gaming that I've never seen before. Like when I was growing up, gaming was more of a kid's thing. Now it's clearly for everyone. But it's like, if you're a gamer, you know about the potential of games, and non-gamers, they don't really know what they're missing out on.

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PlayStation revealed a new Astro Bot game at the end of its May State of Play showcase, and it looks just as delightful as its predecessor. Astro’s Playroom was a wonderful platformer pack-in for the PS5, but it also was full of references to PlayStation’s history. It features robot versions of characters from every…

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On May 30, 2024, Sony treated PlayStation fans to a brief-yet-packed showing of some games it has around the corner. Some of these titles are expected to arrive this year on PS5 (as well as PC), while a few others are likely to arrive next year.

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Sony finally pulled back the curtain to reveal what Concord is actually about. It’s giving Guardians of the Galaxy vibes mixed with a traditional competitive shooter. The PvP FPS was first teased a year ago and will be coming to PlayStation 5 and PC later this year on August 23.

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Sony recently held a business briefing for investors where it painted an incredibly rosy picture around the PlayStation 5 and its future outlook. Despite recent layoffs and failing to reach its sales goals for 2023, the company seems confident that the console’s best days are still ahead.

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Destiny 2: The Final Shape isn’t out until June 4, but after some PlayStation 5 players were seemingly able to access the expansion early using Sony’s cloud gaming services, some of its biggest secrets are already spreading across the internet. Full screenshots of new loot, raid exotics, and even partial cutscenes are…

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Sony’s big summer PlayStation showcase has turned out to be a smaller State of Play event scheduled for May 30. The company announced it will include updates on new first-party games coming to PlayStation 5 as well as PS VR2.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week, we celebrate one of the best characters in the Uncharted series, and perhaps in games; we live out our Star Wars fantasies; and we try a new Metroidvania in a well regarded series.

What have you been playing?

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week, we celebrate one of the best characters in the Uncharted series, and perhaps in games; we live out our Star Wars fantasies; and we try a new Metroidvania in a well regarded series.

What have you been playing?

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

Read more

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week, we celebrate one of the best characters in the Uncharted series, and perhaps in games; we live out our Star Wars fantasies; and we try a new Metroidvania in a well regarded series.

What have you been playing?

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

Read more

Developers from the original PS1 classic WipEout have formed a new studio, with a futuristic sports game on the way.

Starlight Games is a new studio based in Liverpool, UK, founded by former Psygnosis developer Gary Nichols.

He's joined by co-creator of WipEout Nick Burcombe, and Skate co-creator and former Horizon: Call of the Mountain director Andy Santos.

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The PlayStation Portal has been out of stock virtually everywhere else as of late, electronics retailer Best Buy recently had PS Portals in stock. They’re now sold out again online, but it might be worth checking your local stores just in case.

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Neil Druckmann, the co-president of Naughty Dog and creative director of The Last of Us, is tired. From the sound of it, he might be looking to change his career up so he doesn’t have to deal with the stress of leading a AAA team that puts out games on the scale of Sony’s flagship studio.

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Ten minutes into a mission on the planet of Malevelon Creek, my squad and I emerge from a swampy treeline to finally catch sight of our target. This time it's a scientific base, and we're here to destroy it entirely. After clearing the area of enemies, I summon a hellbomb – one of the largest payloads in our arsenal – and manually arm the device.

We quickly move away, making space for the massive explosion that is to come. Yet as we scurry back towards the bushes, I spot a neighbouring facility that could be destroyed with a simple airstrike. The temptation of completing two objectives within twenty seconds proves difficult to resist, and I bring up my stratagem list to input the combination.

As I pull back my arm to throw the beacon, several things happen at once. The hellbomb behind us explodes, triggering a massive shockwave that rocks my screen. This diverts the aim of my throw ever-so-slightly to the left - instead of gracefully arcing through the air towards the robot facility, the beacon bounces off a large rock, drops to the floor, and lands at the feet of my squad. Before we know it, explosions are raining down around us, and we're all swiftly turned into jam by my airstrike.

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The PlayStation Portal is a cool device that solves a unique problem: playing games in a shared household with one console. But Sony’s $200 handheld can only stream games from a connected PlayStation 5, making it more of a remote-play system than a full-fledged, standalone piece of gaming hardware like the beloved PS…

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