I typically drop news updates a little later in the week, but I made the mistake of not publishing last week’s update, so this week will be jam packed with some highly anticipated info such as Dying Light getting a release date, gameplay from Horizon Forbidden West, Sony’s development of AI companionship and more! So, without further ado, let’s go over the latest news updates in PlayStation gaming!
Mentioned above, we finally have a release date for Dying Light 2: Stay Human! I have to admit, I was beginning to get a little concerned that this game was going to be another couple of years or possibly longer. Dying Light 2: Stay Human is slated to release on December 7th, 2021. Super fans (such as myself) have been waiting for this for a long time! Those of us on PS5 should be extra excited to finally play the long awaited sequel on next/current Gen consoles. I think it’s gonna be great!
Last year I wrote an article about Sony having a patent for an AI companion that could play PlayStation games with you. Like a little robot you sit next to you on the couch and it becomes your player 2. Not only that, it can learn how to play games better, root you on, play with or against you and probably a lot more that I’m unaware of. Sony wants to help make things a little more social in part due to the world pandemic. Where I scratch my head is, isn’t replacing a human with an AI companion kind of antisocial in itself? Who am I to ask such daft questions? I’ll buy it anyway.
In other news, Sony’s network sales are up nearly “10 fold” over the last seven years. The biggest contributor being PS Plus with more than 47 million subscribers in March of 2021, I’m sure they’re pretty smitten right now. While that is great news, you really have to wonder what’s up Sony’s sleeve to fight back against Microsoft’s Gamepass. We heard very little about what the future holds for PS Plus, but we do know that Sony is working on something as they have said, we just have to wait a little longer and see.
We were treated to some Horizon: Forbidden West gameplay yesterday during PlayStations State of Play and I’m not gonna say much more than wow. It was beautiful and while we know demos are polished extra shiny for these events, I can’t wait to see the full product. I loved the first entry in the series and I am sure the second one will offer just as much if not more satisfaction. This is another title us PS5 owners need to be extra hyped about, but we still don’t have a release date, so hopefully we’ll be hearing about a holiday drop, but there is a good chance it could land in the Spring of 2022. Guerrilla Games has confirmed release date info is coming soon.
Moving onto the PlayStation 5, Sony has some serious goals with their latest console. The company is planning to hold 50 percent of the market share by selling more than 23 million PS5 consoles in the 2022 financial year. Considering the world wide shortage of semiconductors which in turn creates a shortage of console production, it almost sounds like a stretch, but these folks have been in the business a long time and they would have a better idea of what’s possible than I do. Let’s not forget the fact the PS5 has a redesign slated to release in 2022, so that could also play into the companies expectations. In the meantime, let’s just hope things pick up and those still trying to get a PS5 can purchase one with less hassle at some point. I don’t see it simply happening until sometime in 2022 because of the upcoming holidays that are sure to sell out quickly, but time will tell.
And last but not least, Sony has reported that 41 percent of PS4 and PS5 owners are females. This is an incredibly important piece of info. In my mind, it really shows the barriers being broken down by female gamers. Growing up, I had no issue with females playing video games. As time has gone on, not only have more male gamers begun to get over the fact that females like video games too and even accepting that females can also be better at games than their male counterparts, but female gamers have reached a point where they realize they don’t need anyone’s approval. Just play and send those whiners home crying after they lose a match. I am all for this.
Thank you for reading last week’s news update today! I’ll be back in a couple of days with this week’s actual update, so please join us for that read and many more to come as the things shake up with shows like E3! As always, I will see you online!