Tag: Playstation

Sony may be making another PlayStation handheld system

A new round of rumors suggests Sony may have another PlayStation handheld system in mind, but don’t get your hopes up for a new PSP just yet

A new round of rumors suggests Sony may have another PlayStation handheld system in mind, but don’t get your hopes up for a new PSP just yet. The rumors say Sony is working on a handheld to rival the likes of Logitech’s G Cloud, one that only plays games via cloud streaming.

Speculation about new hardware should always be viewed with a measure of suspicion. Plans can change, and sometimes, rumors are exactly that – with no basis in truth. However, former VentureBeat reporter Jeff Grubb lent an element of credence to the idea in a brief comment on Twitter.

“I am traveling to Super Nintendo World, but I see the reports about a potential Vita 2, and I would definitely scope down those expectations,” Grubb said. “I’ve only ever heard about a cloud-streaming handheld.”

“Sounds disappointing enough to be what ends up happening,” one Twitter user responded.

Sony has a checkered history with its handheld systems. The PlayStation Portable rivaled the Nintendo DS when Sony launched it in the mid-2000s, with a fair amount of first-party support and ports of classic PlayStation games such as God of War. The PlayStation Vita, the PSP’s successor, launched with a bevy of new technology, but while third parties, indies, and smaller studios continued supporting the system for nearly a decade, Sony quickly stopped making games for the platform.

If the new handheld does exist, some speculate Sony might tie it to its existing cloud and streaming offerings as part of the PlayStation Plus subscription program.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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PlayStation’s Shuhei Yoshida will receive a BAFTA fellowship

Longtime PlayStation executive and producer Shuhei Yoshida will receive an honorary BAFTA Games Fellowship for services to screen arts

Longtime PlayStation executive and producer Shuhei Yoshida will receive an honorary BAFTA Fellowship for services to screen arts. A fellowship is the BAFTA’s highest honor, and Yoshida will be presented with it during the BAFTA Game Awards on March 30, 2023, at 6:50 p.m. British Summer Time (Eastern +5).

“Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working with incredibly talented teams who’ve developed some of the best games in the industry,” Yoshida said in a statement. “I’ve always celebrated alongside these developers as their games have received well-deserved awards – it is an amazing honor for me to receive an accolade of my own.”

While Yoshida built his career as one of the pioneers of the PlayStation project, he has since developed a reputation as a champion of independent developers. In 2019, Sony chose Yoshida to lead the company’s Independent Developer Initiative, a project to help make game development accessible to smaller teams and to help with promotion and other aspects of publishing.

“Shuhei Yoshida is a pioneer in the games world and is hugely deserving of a BAFTA Fellowship,” BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip said. “His collaborative, supportive approach continues to drive progress within the industry, using his platform to promote the voices and craft of others and champion the work of independent designers, studios and creatives. We look forward to honoring his contribution to games at the ceremony.”

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Final Fantasy and Uncharted headline PS Plus games for March

Sony announced the full list of PS Plus games for March, with Uncharted, Final Fantasy, Ape Escape, and Ghostwire leading the pack

Sony announced the full list of PS Plus games for March, with Uncharted, Final Fantasy, Ape Escape, and Ghostwire: Tokyo leading the pack. The PS Plus games for Premium and Extra subscribers will be available to download starting March 21, 2023, and as always, they stay in your account so long as your subscription to that tier remains active.

First up is Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection, a two-game bundle featuring Uncharted 4 – the end of Nathan Drake’s saga – and The Lost Legacy, which follows series deuteragonist Chloe Frazier on a quest to recover important artifacts. 

Tchia, a 3D exploration game from new studio Awaceb, joins the lineup on its launch day and sends you across a beautiful, stylized island chain based on the team’s home of New Caledonia. If you want something a bit less peaceful, though, Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege and Tango Gameworks’ Ghostwire Tokyo are also on the list.

Square Enix has a hefty presence in March, with Life Is Strange 2 and Life Is Strange: True Colors in the mix, alongside NEO: The World Ends With You, and Final Fantasy Type-0, the military school spinoff where a chocobo bleeds to death in the first five minutes. Nothing says “war is cruel” like watching your fantasy bird friend die, but if you prefer your birds alive and honking, you may want to check out the indie hit Untitled Goose Game for some more laid-back, mischievous fun.

Premium subscribers get three new classic games in March: Ridge Racer Type 4, Syphon Filter, and Ape Escape 2. Maybe. The description Sony provided for Ape Escape 2 is actually for Ape Academy 2. That might actually be what you’re getting and not the original Ape Escape 2, though released for the PS1, as the listing says.

The PlayStation Blog has the full lineup.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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PlayStation’s February 2023 State of Play: where and when to watch

Sony will show off some highly anticipated and new games, so don’t miss it.

It’s almost time for PlayStation fans to see what the future holds, as Sony is gearing up for another State of Play showcase later this week.

On Tuesday, Sony announced the February 2023 State of Play is happening Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. It’ll show off (at least) five PlayStation VR 2 games, and there will also be a 15-minute gameplay demo for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League from Rocksteady – so this is a can’t-miss. We’ll list the actual start times below.

State of Play start time and where to watch

As always, the broadcast will stream on PlayStation’s Twitch and YouTube channels. Here is the complete list of start times in each time zone:

February 23:

  • 1 p.m. PDT
  • 4 p.m. EDT.
  • 9 p.m. GMT.
  • 10 p.m. CET

February 24:

  • 7 a.m. Eastern Australia AEST.
  • 10 a.m. New Zealand NZST.

There’s also a spiffy sizzle real for the show, which you can check out below.

Beyond the titles mentioned above, we don’t know what other games might be in this State of Play. It’ll likely mostly be PlayStation VR 2-centric as the device comes out this week in most regions. 

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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The Last Guardian studio teases next game reveal

GenDesign teases a potential video game reveal in 2023.

It’s been a hot minute since we’ve heard anything from GenDesign, the studio behind The Last Guardian, regarding upcoming projects – though substantial updates are seemingly coming soon.

On Saturday, GenDesign posted a statement suggesting that we might see the studio’s next game sometime in 2023 (thanks, VGC).

“It’s finally a year where we can deliver a lot of topics to everyone,” reads the message on Twitter. “We are doing our best, so please look forward to it. Thank you for your continued support [throughout] the year.”

It’s not much to go on, but this is unquestionably the biggest teaser from GenDesign in recent years. Back in 2022, the studio entered a publishing deal with Fortnite creator Epic Games – likely over whatever title GenDesign is teasing here. That’s just us speculating, mind you.

Many of GenDesign’s employees are former Team Ico staff, the developer responsible for PS2 classics like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Most notably, Fumito Ueda, director of the titles mentioned above, and The Last Guardian. 

Back in 2018, Ueda told Japanese games publication Famitsu that GenDesign’s next project will be massive.

“What we’re making now doesn’t feel like an indie game. We’re ultimately aiming for something on the scale of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian,” Ueda said via Gematsu. “This will be a completely new title, not a sequel.”

Whatever this game is, it has a lot of pre-release hype already.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Sony has patented PlayStation NFT technology

Sony is, or was, apparently considering blockchain technology, as a new patent for PlayStation NFTs shows

Square Enix isn’t the only giant in the games space still exploring blockchain technology, as a new patent suggests Sony is looking into PlayStation NFTs. The patent, which Eurogamer first spotted, is called “Tracking Unique In-Game Digital Assets Using Tokens on a Distributed Ledger,” and it seems Sony is using “digital assets” as a broad term to include a range of possible token-tracked items.

In the patent, Sony says these assets may include anything from characters and in-game items to specific moments captured via screenshots and video grabs. If there was any doubt that the patent referred to NFTs and blockchain technology, the remaining description in the patent puts that to rest.

“A unique token for the digital asset can include a unique identifier and metadata identifying properties of the digital asset,” the patent description reads. “Changes to properties of the digital asset, such as ownership, visual appearance, or metadata, can be identified in a request to update the history. A new block can be generated for, and appended to, the distributed ledger identifying the changes to the history of the digital asset.”

In other words, each asset is minted with a unique token, and any exchanges – which typically involve real-world money – would result in a new entry on the blockchain that keeps track of ownership.

Aside from concerns over environmental effects thanks to the energy required to process just one blockchain transaction, there’s also the question of whether PlayStation NFTs would even appeal to consumers. So far, Ubisoft is the only mainstream game publisher to experiment with NFTs in their games, and they shut the project down almost immediately after it started owing to a lack of interest.

Square Enix also recently announced an upcoming NFT project, Symbiogenesis, though details on it remain thin at the moment.

How Sony would plan to implement these tokens and assets in a game, or indeed, whether they’ll ever be implemented, remains uncertain. Currently, the closest thing Sony has is a range of digital trophies as part of its PlayStation Stars program, though the platform holder explicitly states these aren’t NFTs. It’s also worth noting the application was filed in July 2021, at the start of the blockchain trend.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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PSVR2 release date and price announced – more expensive than a PS5

The second generation of the PlayStation VR system has a release date and a price, but you’ll need to shell out more than for a console.

While Virtual Reality isn’t the future of gaming that some thought it might be a decade ago, there are still a lot of awesome gaming experiences that only VR can provide. The folks at PlayStation have been keen to continue to development of VR technology, with the PS VR2 having been in the works for quite a while now. This will connect and use the PS5’s power to provide even better VR experiences than before.

Sony has announced on the PlayStation blog today that the PS VR2 will be launching on February 22, 2023, meaning it is just under 5 months away. Pre-orders will open on November 15, 2022, and you’ll need a pretty penny to reserve one. At $549.99 for the headset and controllers, it out-prices the PS5, even after the price was raised earlier this year. You can get it bundled with Horizon: Call of the Mountain for $599.99, and a charging station for the controllers will set you back $50.

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While it may seem expensive, it puts it leans more toward the cheaper end of the top VR headsets. While the Meta Quest 2 (formerly the Oculus Quest 2) costs just $399.99 for the 128GB version, a Valve Index will set you back just over $1,000 and the Meta Quest Pro costs a staggering $1,500.

Sony has also revealed the specs for the console:

  • Panel resolution – 2000 x 2040 per eye
  • Panel refresh rate – 90Hz, 120Hz
  • Field of view – approximately 110 degrees
  • Sensors – Six-axis motion sensing system and IR proximity sensor
  • Cameras – four cameras for headset and controller tracking and IR camera for eye tracking.

A decent-sized lineup of games are already coming to the console at launch, including 11 newly announced titles:

  • The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR
  • Crossfire: Sierra Squad
  • The Light Brigade
  • Cities VR – Enhanced Edition
  • Cosmonious High
  • Hello Neighbor: Search and Rescue
  • Jurassic World Aftermath Collection
  • Pistol Whip VR
  • Zenith: The Last City
  • After The Fall
  • Tentacular

Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.

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November PS Plus games include Nioh 2 and Lego

Sony announced the first batch of November PS Plus games, and headlining the bunch is Nioh 2, Team Ninja’s thrilling action RPG

Nioh 2 headlines the first bunch of PS Plus November games, Sony announced in a new PlayStation Blog post, with a handful of other notable titles joining it on the lower tier of PlayStation’s subscription service. The Lego Harry Potter Collection, which includes Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7, and the unique physics puzzler Heavenly Bodies from indie team 2pt. Interactive are the other two free November games you can get if you’re at the $9.99 tier.

All three games will be available to download starting Nov. 1, 2022, and will remain in your library as long as your PS Plus subscription is active. The Nioh 2 download includes the original game on PS4 and the remastered version for PS5.

Sony said they will announce the PS Plus Premium titles for November soon, though whether November will actually include PS3 games is another matter. October’s PS Plus collection offered over a dozen games, though few retro classics and no PS3 titles.

Nioh 2 pits you against a new hoard of Yokai, mythical spirits drawn from Japanese folklore, during a fantasy spin on Japan’s Sengoku period and manages to cram even more over-the-top action into its combat than the original game. Heavenly Bodies is a more sedate experience, one that tasks you with navigating the confines of a spaceship as a cosmonaut, completing duties, making repairs, and even watering your space plants with no gravity and only some very floppy limbs for help.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Sony wants to push the boundaries of VR with new patent

A new PlayStation patent suggests Sony is looking to expand its haptics technology beyond PS VR 2 and the DualSense

A new PlayStation patent shows Sony wants to continue investing in haptic feedback beyond the PS5 DualSense controller’s current capability and create a new type of immersion not beholden to a VR headset or AR glasses. The patent, published on Oct. 13, 2022, (which SegmentNext first uncovered) outlines Sony’s plans to create haptic vibrations in midair using ultrasonic soundwaves, possibly for the PS VR 2 or potentially for other, non-gaming uses as well.

You can view the full patent on Scribd.

“There is a need in the art for a mid-air haptic interface that imparts a degree of realism equal to that implemented by an immersive computing experience without the need for complex physical installations or other custom-designed venues,” Sony said in the patent application.

Rather than emitting these waves from a controller, Sony plans on creating some kind of projection and tracking device. The patent includes an image showing a person interacting with a virtual object whose parameters are, presumably, defined by the haptics. 

Another image shows the user interacting with objects in a larger room, and it seems Sony is looking further than just gaming applications for this new device. In the application’s background section, Sony outlines gaps in VR, AR, and traditional gaming technology – including the DualShock controller and Nintendo’s Joy-Cons – that make its new device worth creating, along with needs it can help meet in immersive cinema and other areas.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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PlayStation isn’t giving up on single-player games

Sony Interactive Entertainment chief Hermen Hulst reassures fans that live service expansion will not impact what the company does best.

There’s been some concern that Sony might be moving away from single-player games toward live service multiplayer titles, but PlayStation studios chief Hermen Hulst insists that isn’t the case.

During an interview with Axios, Hulst spoke on PlayStation’s reputation for prestige story-driven titles and how the company isn’t typically known for multiplayer games like Fortnite or League Of Legends.

“We have a history and a reputation for building these incredible narrative-driven single-player games, such as The Last of Us and Horizon and the upcoming God of War Ragnarok,” Hulst said. “We’re also diversifying now. And we have stood up 12 projects in total in the live ops multiplayer space.”

Back in February, PlayStation announced plans to launch 10 live services titles over the next few years. An effort that Bungie, the Destiny 2 studio that Sony acquired for $3.6 billion, will help bring to fruition. When successful, persistent multiplayer games tend to make more money than single-player affairs — but that isn’t always the case.

“Some of our biggest titles in the single-player narrative-driven space are also our most profitable titles,” Hulst continues.

Despite the commitment to single-player, it seems PlayStation might turn some of its current franchises into live service games.

“We’re not excluding bringing some of our beloved existing franchises into live games,” Hulst says.

This statement lines up neatly with the rumored PS5 re-release of Horizon Zero Dawn that allegedly contains a multiplayer component.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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