While I still shed a tear every year when there’s no E3 to bring Christmas to gamers in the summer, I’m happy that we still get these streams from major publishers to fill the gap. In the spirit of that, we’re here to look at Sony’s June 2022 State of Play! Now, normally we would just discuss the big highlights, but this time we’re going to do things a little differently. We’ll still discuss the big news, but I will be providing a little more input and opinion on everything, including rating each of the announcements on a scale from one to ten, culminating in a final score for the stream. We’ll base these scores on the hype level of the announcement, the quality of the content shown, and my overall excitement for the game or DLC. It is a review after all. Alright? Alright. Let’s get started! Rating the Announcements From Sony’s June 2022 State of Play! We’ll start with the full stream if you’d prefer to watch yourself before reading on. No worries, by the way, I watch the stream before doing anything else myself. I’ll wait. All set? Let’s talk announcements! Resident Evil 4 Remake It’s real! The RE4 remake is happening and we got to see some snippets of gameplay. They showed some iconic scenes in the latest engine and confirmed it’s coming 2023. It will also feature some PSVR content, which is nice! Hype level on this one comes in at a 8.5 out of 10. I’m a fan of RE4 and for some people this announcement is a ten, and I am happy for them to be sure! RE Village is Coming to PSVR 2 I was honestly hoping for news on the DLC here, but yeah, I would play RE Village again in VR, so this is cool, but it’s not amazing. No news if it’s free for current owners or how that will work. Going to give this one a hype score of 7 out of 10. Walking Dead Saints and Sinners Retribution Coming to PSVR 2 The original version of this game is a VR classic and the sequel is looking good! Coming to PSVR 2 sounds good to me, and interestingly it’s coming in 2022, so that kind of gives us an idea of PSVR 2 coming this year? Hype level is 7.5 out of 10 here. Would have liked to see more of what makes this unique to the first one. No Man’s Sky Coming to PSVR 2 Listen, I love how far No Man’s Sky has come and I will probably play it in PSVR 2, but this is nothing groundbreaking. We knew it would happen, it’s already on PSVR after all. I give this a five out of ten on the hype scale. Horizon Call of The Mountain The PSVR 2 Horizon game got some gameplay and it looks excellent. It preserves the action of the regular game while offering superb graphics. Horizon Forbidden West also got … Read More
Take-Two Purchases Mobile Gaming Giant Zynga For $12.7 Billion
Despite the chaos of our modern world, business is booming in 2022. We’ve seen mergers and acqusitions across numerous industries this year. The gaming industry has been quite busy as well, with notable purchases like Activision Blizzard and Bungie to name a few. In late May of 2022, the next big purchases came to light. This time, the publisher of games like Grand Theft Auto, Bioshock, and Red Dead Redemption, Take-Two, announced they will acquire the mobile gaming giant Zynga for a cool $12.7 billion! Another Merger, and Another Reminder of How Big Gaming Has Become While this news broke in January of 2022, the deal is now official as of May 23rd, 2022. For those who don’t know Zynga’s portfolio, this means that mobile titles like Farmville, Words With Friends, and Zynga Poker will join Take-Two’s portfolio. Take-Two’s chairman and CEO, Strauss Zelnick, commented on the deal closing with the usual fanfare, saying: We are thrilled to complete our combination with Zynga, which is a pivotal step to increase exponentially our Net Bookings from mobile, the fastest-growing segment in interactive entertainment, while also providing us with substantial cost synergies and revenue opportunities. As we bring together our exceptional talent, exciting pipelines of games, and industry-leading technologies and capabilities, we believe that we can take our portfolio to another level of creativity, innovation, and quality. While the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft is still going through approvals, this acquisition will temporarily be the largest of its kind in all of gaming. Once the Microsoft deal completes, however, it will take the crown as that deal is valued at $68.7 billion. With the global gaming market set to reach $256.97 billion by 2025, these kinds of acquisitions and mergers will no doubt continue. As to whether or not this deal will result in the inevitable Grand Theft Auto Mobile, or mobile versions of Take-Two’s other popular properties? Time will tell. Let us know which of Take-Two’s games you’d like to see get the mobile treatment in the comments! Article by – Bradley Ramsey Insert date – 5/27/2022
This War of Mine: Final Cut Review – Close to Home
I’ve followed This War of Mine for a long time as a gamer, but never had the chance to really sit down and play it until now. It’s hard not to associate this game with current events in the world. Indeed, the game’s developer, 11 Bit Studios, recently donated £520,000 to the Ukrainian Red Cross using sales from the game. Playing a game like This War of Mine: Final Cut comes with its own emotional attachments, but knowing that this is reality for many people right now makes it even more haunting. There’s no other game quite like this this one, so does that make it a must-play? Let’s find out. War Through The Eyes of The Innocent This War of Mine: Final Cut, is coming to PS5 on May 10th and brings with it a collection of DLC that adds three story-driven campaigns to the freeform base game. The PS5 enhancements include 4K resolution and sharper graphics, all of which look exquisite with their washed out pencil-drawn style. For the uninitiated, This War of Mine: Final Cut is a survival game at its core, but it has a setting wholly unique in the genre. Where most games that even contain a hint of war place you in the shoes of soldiers and super-powered secret weapons, This War of Mine places you in the shoes of everyday civilians who are caught up in the chaos and the horror of war. This is survival at its most basic, and its most human. The procedurally generated areas are always some sort of dilapidated structure, bombed out house, crumbling apartment building, or the like. You start with very little, and unlike other survival games, you won’t ever find that things get better. At least, not significantly. Each day in This War of Mine involves managing the needs of your people, or in some cases your children. Things like hunger, thirst, and rest are all factors you need to account for, but mental states come into play as well. Characters can become sad, depressed, or worse. It’s an important dimensions to highlight in a game like this, because war and survival is mentally taxing in addition to being physically exhausting. During the day, you can navigate your shelter, make or eat food, craft new items at your workbench, or rummage through unexplored rooms. When it’s time to end the end, you assign roles. Who will get to sleep? Will they sleep on the floor or in a bed? Will someone go out to scavenge for valuable items and crafting material? If so, will they go with any weapons or supplies, or carry as little as possible to maximize their inventory space? Scavenging itself is a tense and unpredictable part of the experience that really brings home the atmosphere and tension in This War of Mine: Final Cut. One night while scavenging, I came across a young man who was hiding from a sniper in the nearby park. Without spoiling the rest of the scenario, … Read More
PlayStation Launches Game Preservation Team For Titles Dating Back to 1994
With news emerging of the old Wii and 3DS eShops closing, numerous digital games are going to be lost forever. Even Sony caught flack last year when they initially tried to announce the closure of the PS3, Vita, and PSP stores. They’ve since reduced this to just the PSP store, but all of this has sparked a conversation about game preservation. I love digital downloads as much as the next person, but what happens when those servers are gone? Up until now, the games are gone too, save for that SD card or external drive you have, which in and of itself could go back. It’s scary to think about, but it got a little less scary in April of 2022 when news came out that Sony is starting up a game preservation team. Let’s dive in and see what the new team has planned! New PlayStation Roles Point to Game Preservation Team A tweet from a new PlayStation employee by the name of Garrett Fredley announcing his new role revealed the existence of this new team. This confirms other roles spotted on platforms like LinkedIn that pointed to the formation of a game preservation division. On a personal note, I’m not jealous at all. He describes the team’s focus will be preserving PlayStation IPs, and ensuring that “our industry’s history isn’t forgotten.” Today is my first day as a Senior Build Engineer at @PlayStation, working as one of their initial hires for the newly created Preservation team! Game Preservation was my first career passion, so I'm ecstatic that I get to go back to those roots 😊 — Garrett Fredley (@SomeCronzaGuy) April 25, 2022 PlayStation Studios’ global QA manager, Mike Bishop, hired Fredley and went on to further describe the new team in a LinkedIn Post saying “the day-to-day focus is on IP Preservation for the business, ensuring the titles of today are captured, catalogued, and secured for the games industry of tomorrow.” While the team seems to be in the early stages of hiring, the goal seems to be on preserving games from the entirety of the PlayStation catalog, dating back to 1994 when the first PlayStation was released. All of this comes as PlayStation recently unveiled project Spartacus, which includes new tiers of PlayStation Plus and access to classic titles via download and PlayStation Now game streaming. What do you think about game preservation? Are you a diehard fan who wants access to classic titles through means other than things like piracy and emulation? Let us know in the comments! Article by – Bradley Ramsey Insert date – 4/26/2022
Sony Continues Acquisition Streak With Jade Raymond’s ‘Haven Studios’
The word of the year is “acquisitions.” Between the bombshell news of Microsoft acquiring Activision-Blizzard and Sony acquiring Destiny 2 developer Bungie, it seems like billions of dollars are being thrown around on a weekly basis. Must be nice. At the tail end of March 2022, a new studio joins the PlayStation Family. Haven studios, recently launched by studio veteran Jade Raymond, has been officially acquired by Sony. Let’s dive in and see what the studio is working on for the PS5. Jade Raymond of Assassin’s Creed Fame, Helms a New Original IP When I think of Jade Raymond, I immediately go back to the original announcement of the first Assassin’s Creed game. She was a major player in launching that series. I still recall her E3 presentation where she asked the team not to pause the game because it would spoil something. That something, of course, being the Animus interface. Since then, Jade has come up in the news working as the head of gaming for Google Stadia, but with that idea inevitably being abandoned by Google, she went off to form her own studio, Haven. In 2021, Sony started working with Haven Studios to develop a new and original IP for PlayStation. Now, almost on the eve of their first year working together, the studio is being acquired. We don’t know much about the project, but it looks to be a AAA multiplayer title that PlayStation Studios Head, Herman Hulst, describes as a “a modern multiplayer experience that brings gamers together in positive and meaningful ways.” Time will tell what the studio brings to the table, but one thing is certain: Sony isn’t done buying studios. Stay tuned here for all the latest PS5 news, and let us know what you think Haven Studios is working on in the comments! Article by – Bradley Ramsey Insert date – 3/22/2022
Ghostwire: Tokyo February Showcase: New Details and Release Date!
Sony is hosted a livestream for Ghostwire: Tokyo on February 3rd, and we were eager to see some new details! The title comes to us from the developers of The Evil Within, so horror seems like a safe bet, but let’s dive in and see what the stream revealed! Highlights from the Ghostwire: Tokyo February 2022 Stream! Among all of the new horror titles coming to PS5, Ghostwire: Tokyo has stood out for its focus on Japanese horror, and the pedigree of Tango Gameworks who developed The Evil Within 1 and 2 prior to this title. The first thing that caught my eye again during the showcase were the enemy designs. Not only are they 100% terrifying, but they showcase a lot of variety in their designs. Whether it’s the classic woman with long black hair covering her face, or the girl in a yellow raincoat, or the headless schoolgirl dancing around the environment. The Slender Man-esque enemies in business suits with a blank slate of a face are really unsettling as well. The game goes beyond style though, and as part of the opening moments in the showcase, we learn about a number of mechanics and the first-person combat. Tango Gameworks describes the game as an action-adventure thriller with paranormal elements, but it still feels like a horror game to me based on the visual alone. You seem pretty powerful to fight back, however. The combat focuses on a power called “Ethereal Weaving” which has you channeling elements like fire, water, and air to chain together impressive looking attacks. The animation during the combat is stunning, and it makes me hope the combat is as fun to play as it is to watch, because it’s thrilling in motion. The storyline takes place in Tokyo after the population vanishes and a mysterious fog sweeps through the city, bringing all manner of supernatural monsters with it. You are possessed by a spirit who gives you your powers, and gameplay seems to be fairly open world with a grappling mechanic and Tori gates to cleanse to remove fog from areas that are infested and will drain your health. In addition to the combat, they also mention strange distortions that mess with time and space, which you’ll need to enter as part of the story. I could see these being more traditional horror and maybe less combat focused, but we shall see. The stream above eventually shows a chunk of gameplay before showing interviews with the developers. Seeing everything in motion is truly impressive and gives me high hopes for how the combat will look and feel in the finished game. We also know that the release date is soon! March 25th, and preorders on the PlayStation Store get you 3-day early access. I’m not totally sold on the main character or story just based on how rigid the cutscenes felt, but I am all in on the style and setting. What did you think of the stream? Are you picking up Ghostwire: … Read More
Sony Acquires Bungie For $3.6 Billion, Studio to Remain ‘Independent and Multi-Platform’
Just when you thought it was going to be a normal, boring Monday… Just before the end of January 2022, A news bomb dropped that Sony is acquiring Bungie in a deal valued at $3.6 billion! While it’s not quite the sticker shock of the Activision Blizzard deal with Xbox, this is still another big move for the industry, especially when you consider Bungie’s history with Xbox. These types of deals take months or years to come together, so this isn’t some big response to Microsoft’s acquisitions, but it does show that Sony is hungry for more studios. Even so, the fine print of this deal wasn’t quite what I was expecting. Let’s dive in and check out the details. Bungie to Remain an Independent Subsidiary Post Acquisition Normally, these types of acquisitions are meant to secure new exclusives, but Bungie has been focused on Destiny 2 for several years now, which is a multi-platform giant of a game that has more expansions releasing in 2022. Whether or not your play Destiny 2, it’s not a stretch to think that Sony would leverage this deal to make it a PlayStation Exclusive. That’s…apparently not the case. Reading the fine print of the announcement, and checking out Jim Ryan’s post on the PlayStation Blog, it’s emphasized from the get-go that Bungie will still release games for multiple platforms. According to he post, PlayStation Boss Jim Ryan wants the community to know that Bungie will sit alongside PLayStation Studios and take advantage of synergies and collaboration, but will otherwise enjoy the backing of Sony Interactive Entertainment to do what they do best, which is *checks notes*, “Build incredible worlds that captivate millions of people.” Was This a Reaction to Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Acquisition? Given the timing of this, you would be forgiven for thinking this was Sony’s answer to Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion, but it’s not quite that simple. Acquisitions take months to finalize and don’t happen overnight. Christopher, Dring, of GamesIndustry.biz, explained this on Twitter the day of the Bungie announcement, and said that PlayStation Boss Jim Ryan told him this wasn’t the end for Sony’s acquisition plans: And Jim Ryan told me 'We should expect more' when it comes to further PlayStation acquisitions — Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) January 31, 2022 What’s Next For Bungie? One thing that’s interesting about acquisitions like these is that they make a big splash in the moment, but the true effects take years to really develop. Destiny 2 isn’t going anywhere, and it sounds like it won’t be PS5 exclusive, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see some PS5 exclusive events or content down the road. As far as Destiny 3 goes? That one is up in the air in this writer’s opinion. What makes this entire thing really interesting though is that Bungie put Xbox on the map back in the day when they released Halo: Combat Evolved. Now, they’re working for PlayStation. Funny how the world works. What … Read More
Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard for $70 Billion
For some people, January 18th is a Tuesday, but for us in the gaming world, it’s another massive announcement out of left field. News broke on this day that Microsoft, fresh off of their recent Bethesda acquisition, is now set to acquire Activision Blizzard for a staggering $68.7 billion dollars! This is pending final approval from regulatory bodies, but if this goes through, it will make Microsoft the third largest gaming company in terms of revenue, beaten only by Sony and Tencent. Of course, you’re probably wondering why this matters to a PlayStation gaming site. For starters, a lot of games you may play on PlayStation could be going exclusive to Xbox now, not to mention the ongoing harassment investigations and toxic culture at Activision Blizzard. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s dive in. Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard: Could Call of Duty Become an Xbox Exclusive? Getting past the huge amount of money changing hands here, what does this mean for Activision Blizzard’s catalogue? We’re talking about Call of Duty, Overwatch, Diablo, and yes, Candy Crush. This is one of the biggest companies in gaming that’s merging with Microsoft, so does that mean some of your favorite titles are going to go exclusive to Xbox? Right now the best answer is “maybe.” We had a similar line of questioning when Microsoft acquired Bethesda. As it turned out, Starfield is going to be exclusive to Xbox. This may not be a blanket policy for Bethesda titles, but the other options aren’t much better for PS5 gamers. Future Bethesda studio titles could be timed exclusives that come to PS5 a year after Xbox, or they could have exclusive content, which brings us back to Call of Duty. Call of Duty games have often had PlayStation exclusive content or modes in the multiplayer. Obviously, if this deal goes off without a hitch, that’s no longer going to be the case. What could happen is that Xbox enjoys that type of content and COD remains a multiplatform title. My gut says this is how it will be, only because of things like Warzone being multiplatform and Call of Duty being such a decidedly multiplatform title. Of course, $70 billion is a lot of money, so maybe Sony needs to bring back something like Resistance or Killzone to fill the gap if COD goes Xbox exclusive. Without more detail, we can only speculate here, but it’s safe to assume that at least a few big franchises won’t be on PlayStation going forward. Addressing the Kotick in the Room Now, something that cannot be left off the table is the ongoing accusations of harassment and toxic culture at Activision Blizzard. The entire scope of this ongoing investigation is worthy of its own entire article and discussion, but you can get caught up on everything with this piece from PC Gamer. In addition to the horrible stories coming out of Activision Blizzard since last year, it’s curious that just one week prior to this … Read More
Sony Announces New Tiers For PlayStation Plus, Confirming Spartacus Rumors
Say what you will about Xbox and Microsoft, they’ve got a good thing going with their Game Pass subscription. It was only a matter of time before Sony decided to jump on board the same train. I’ll admit that, at first, I didn’t think Game Pass would be sustainable. I was worried titles would be too sparse, or would come and go too quickly due to licensing. So far though, neither of those things seem to be true, and I’d welcome a similar service on PlayStation in a heartbeat. On March 29th, 2022, the rumors became fact! Sony is launching a new tiered PlayStation Plus subscription service in June of 2022. Let’s check out the official announcements and see how close the rumors were to the actual plans! May 2022 Update: New Titles Confirmed For Each Tier! As we approach the release of this new PlayStation Plus program, Sony is finally trickling out some new information on what titles we can expect. You can find the full rundown on the PLayStation Blog, but we’ll highlight some of them here as well. One of the confirmations that some people will be happy to hear, is that anyone who purchased the digital version of select games from the PlayStation and PSP generations will not need to sign up for PS+ or buy them again to download them on the PS4 or PS5. Also announced in mid-May was the inclusion of the Ubisoft+ Classics catalog, which is a reduced collection of titles from the publisher pulled from their subscription service. These will be available to Extra and Premium tier PlayStation Plus subscribers. The most recent example on this list is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but other titles include Watch Dogs, Far Cry 4, Child of Light, and Steep. Those who opt for the second tier or higher (Extra or Premium) will get access to a catalog of PS4 and PS5 games. The exclusives here leave a little to be desired, but do include Returnal, Destruction AllStars, and the Demon’s Souls remake. Oddly enough, Spider-Man’s PS5 version and the recent Ratchet and Clank did not make the cut here. Other titles in this PS4/PS5 collection include, but are not limited to: Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (A hidden gem!) Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut Death Stranding Control: Ultimate Edition Red Dead Redemption 2 God of War PS4 Outer Wilds Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy This collection also includes the aforementioned Ubisoft titles. Once we move into the classic games for PS3, PS2, PS1, and PSP, that’s when things begin to lean into the streaming aspect and also require higher tiers of PS+ membership. In terms of the classics, you’ll need the “premium” subscription for these. Sony promises to continue updating the catalog on a monthly basis, but these are a few of the PS1 / PSP highlights: Ape Escape Hot Shots Golf Jumping Flash! Syphon Filter Super Stardust Portable Worms Armageddon (loved this one as a kid) Moving on to the PS2 catalog, this also … Read More