Sony Interactive Entertainment: Last News

Square Enix’s recently sold Eidos-Montréal studio has said that the Japanese company may have sold its western developers to gear up for a Sony acquisition.Stephane D’Astous made the comment on Tuesday (July 26), after resigning from Eidos-Montréal in 2013 due to the “lack of leadership, lack of courage and the lack of communication.”D’Astous has said that he’s heard Square Enix sold off many of its western IP and studios like Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montréal and Eidos-Montréal to Embracer Group to make itself more palatable for a potential Sony acquisition (via GamesIndustry.biz).“If I read between the lines, Square Enix Japan was not as committed as we hoped initially. And there are rumours, obviously, that with all these activities of mergers and acquisitions, that Sony would really like to have Square Enix within their wheelhouse,” explained D’Astous.

Build A Rocket Boy, the studio founded by former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies, has hired a number of high profile industry veterans.The new hires are former Codemasters and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe vice president Mick Hocking, former 2K VP of publishing Murray Pannell and former SVP of publishing at NCSoft Randall Price (via VGC).Hocking is now chief development officer, with Pannell taking up SVP of global marketing and Price now chief publishing officer.Regarding the new hires, Benzies said: “Since 2016, Build A Rocket Boy’s team has been quietly growing and today we’re delighted to publicly welcome Mick, Murray and Randall to the studio.“Each of them brings a huge amount of experience, knowledge and passion to Build A Rocket Boy as we continue development on Everywhere, and we’re looking forward to having more to announce from the team later in 2022” (via GamesIndustry.biz).Build A Rocket Boy appears to be stacking up its development talent for its first project, Everywhere, which is set to be a “real-life Ready Player One” multiplayer title.

PS5, and dubbed it the console’s first Slim model.The entire insides of the PS5 were rearranged and some even changed to bring it down from its mammoth size and scale to just 2cm thick, a similar size to a DVD case.You can check out the half-an-hour-long DIY Perks video below:After a few hiccups, viewers can see at the 26-minute mark that the “PS5 Slim” actually works as it’s hooked up to a screen that shows the start-up sequence for the console. Horizon Forbidden West was left running for several hours on the console, with the temperature of the console read throughout to make sure it didn’t overheat.Since the PS5’s release in 2020, Sony has not announced any sort of new model of the console, and instead has released new plate colours that can be interchanged with the current white model.There’s currently no indication when, or if, Sony will release a newer model of the PS5.

Sony has announced that the PlayStation 5 has reached 20million units sold worldwide, confirming it is planning on ramping up production this year.As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Sony revealed the news on June 3 saying the PS5 would’ve reached the milestone far earlier if it was not for the global shortage of console components following its launch in November 2020.“We are thrilled to share that Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has sold more than 20 million PlayStation 5 consoles globally,” said Veronica Rogers, senior vice president, head of global sales and business operations at Sony.“Since PS5’s launch, our teams have worked tirelessly to deliver a truly next-gen gaming console that has won the world over and we want to take this time to thank the fans for their support.“Your passion for the PlayStation brand is what drives us and what inspires us to innovate new technology, engineer the future of gaming, and continue creating the best place to play,” Rogers added.The head of global sales and business operations also went on to address the PlayStation fans who have yet to get their hands on the current-gen console, confirming that the company is planning on producing more this year.“To those fans who have yet to get their hands on a console, please know that we are planning on a significant ramp-up in PS5 production this year and we are working endlessly to make sure that PlayStation 5 is available for everyone who wants one,” Rogers said.In other news, sources close to the lead developer of Abandoned, Hasan Kahraman, have claimed that progress on the PlayStation 5 title has stalled, but Blue Box Games has said otherwise, saying: “It is in development.”

PSVR2 could be entering production as early as this year, claims an analyst via Twitter.The information was reported by GamesRadar, and comes from TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who states, “My latest supply chain check suggests that the assembler and several component providers of PS VR2 will start mass production with about 1.5M units shipments in 2H22.”Kuo claims that Sony may be planning to launch the headset by Q1 2023, although this may depend on the development schedules of PSVR 2 games. Sony recently confirmed during an investor’s meeting that the hardware would launch with over 20 first and third-party titles, with Horizon Call of the Mountain being pictured.

Sony’s new game preservation engineer at PlayStation has clarified what his role at the company means after the preservation team was unceremoniously revealed earlier this week. Officially a “senior build engineer” at PlayStation, Garrett Fredley announced earlier this week that he was hired for the company’s “newly created game preservation team”. The announcement can be found on both his LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.Yesterday (April 27) Fredley decided to clarify what his role actually means, as he said he “broke the internet” when announcing his new job.Whilst it was assumed that Fredley’s work concerned emulation when his job was first announced, he said in a tweet thread that this isn’t the case at the moment.According to Fredley, it is yet to be decided “on whether I’ll have much of a role to play personally in any emulation work, although I’ll share what I can if it comes up,” with him adding that “it’s only my second day” at the company.So apparently I broke the internet announcing my work with PlaystationFor anyone asking what Game Preservation is / what I do, I did a GDC talk a few years ago on the subject when I worked at EA.

Sony has confirmed that Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support will be coming to the PS5 this week, with developer support also coming to a few select titles.As outlined in a blog post yesterday (April 25), VRR will come to the PS5 via a global update over “the next few days” which will automatically enable it with compatible games, and if the console is connected to an HMDI 2.1 VRR-compatible TV or monitor.Sony claims that VRR will be coming to “Call Of Duty: Vanguard, Destiny 2, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Resident Evil Village,” and many more “in the coming weeks”.VRR can also be enabled for any game on the PS5 in the console’s settings, but Sony warns that the experience can vary dramatically due to the game being played, its own settings, the TV being used and any potential visual modes selected in the game itself.VRR operates independently from a game’s frame rate, and essentially allows the console and game to dynamically alter how often it refreshes an image. This helps prevent in-game stutter and screen tearing as VRR interacts with potential changes in the game’s frame rate, which makes the visuals much smoother.To check VRR is working on the PS5, or to turn it off, players can go to the screen and video tab under system settings.More details about VRR on the PS5 can be found here.In other news, it looks like Sony Interactive Entertainment has formed a “preservation team”, and it will likely focus on keeping older PlayStation games available on current consoles.

PlayStation is making significant changes to its staff as it removed several sales and marketing positions, costing 90 people their jobs.As reported by Axios, planned cuts took effect this week with PlayStation shutting down its merchandiser team in the US. Those in these roles would visit retail shops to train staff on selling PlayStation products and ensure they knew details about inventory.

PlayStation has apparently cut nearly 90 jobs related to sales and marketing in its North American branch.This comes via a new Axios report from yesterday (March 31), which claims that a number of sales and marketing roles in the North American branch of PlayStation are being laid off in what the company calls a “global transformation”.The cuts apparently took place this week, says an impacted worker who spoke with Axios. The merchandiser team is allegedly being closed in the US, which includes PlayStation representatives who would go to retail stores to inform staff about the company’s products.Another worker said that they were disappointed by how Sony Interactive Entertainment – the brand that owns PlayStation – didn’t give them much forewarning, adding the company could have done more to find people alternate jobs.Exactly what the cuts, and the potential shift, mean for Sony’s overall strategy with the PlayStation brand remains to be seen as of publication.Sony has also made no public remarks concerning the apparent cuts.This supposed move away from physical and in-store sales tactics comes the same week Sony announced a new tier system for its PlayStation Plus subscription service.

Gran Turismo 7 Polyphony Digital has announced a collaboration with Sony, and will soon demonstrate its resulting “breakthrough” AI advancements.A short YouTube teaser (which can be viewed below) announced the collaboration.According to a tweet, tomorrow (February 9) will see a full announcement of the “breakthrough project in AI” between Polyphony Digital and Sony Interactive Entertainment. It’s likely that whatever AI tech is revealed will be included in Gran Turismo 7.At a glance, this AI system might be something similar to the Forza Drivatar system at Xbox.

Sony released an earnings report that included details of its recent acquisition of Bungie that revealed employee retention plans.Sony revealed plans to purchase Destiny 2 creator Bungie for £2.6 billion earlier this week, and now an earning report says that a third of the money will be used for “deferred payments to employee shareholders, conditional upon their continued employment, and other retention incentives” (via TweakTown).The deferred payments are planned across multiple years once the acquisition is complete and aim to keep Bungie’s current staff at the company. Sony is prepared to use £582 million in deferred payments in the first two years after the deal completes.The acquisition was announced in a press release which revealed that Bungie would be an independent subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment and run by its Board of Directors, chaired by Pete Parsons and Bungie’s current management team.“We’ve had a strong partnership with Bungie since the inception of the Destiny franchise, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to officially welcome the studio to the PlayStation family,” said Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment.“This is an important step in our strategy to expand the reach of PlayStation to a much wider audience.” Ryan continued, “We understand how vital Bungie’s community is to the studio and look forward to supporting them as they remain independent and continue to grow.

Bugsnax is getting its first expansion in the form of Isle of Bigsnax, according to an announcement at Sony‘s State of Play event last night.Isle of Bigsnax adds a new biome along with plenty of new bugsnax to capture and feed to grumpuses. As the name of the expansion pack suggests, the bugsnax in question are supersized in nature so that also means that players get a new shrinking gun to reduce them.The expansion pack is set for release in early 2022 and will include a dozen new bugsnax, over 100 new challenges, 30 quests, and nearly 200 decorations to customise your hut with.

Ember Lab has announced that the newly released Kena: Bridge Of Spirits will be getting a physical edition later this year.Ember Lab revealed that it’s teaming up with indie game publisher Maximum Games to launch the Deluxe Edition of Kena: Bridge of Spirits for PS4 and PS5.“Our community was extremely vocal about their desire for a physical edition from the moment we first announced the game,” said Ember Lab COO Josh Grier.

PS5 model that went on sale in Australia last week has shown that the model may have cooling issues compared to its previous iteration.That’s the allegation from tech YouTuber, Austin Evans, who procured and dissected one of the PS5s which have been spotted in Australia and Japan.In the video, titled “The New PS5 is Worse”, Evans pointed out an array of changes to the new PS5 model, including changes to Wi-Fi hardware which may tie in with a Sony document that hinted at a “new wireless communication module” (thanks, VGC).The biggest change noted in the video is a reworked fan and cooling system, which appears to have taken the most weight off the revised PS5 console.

Director’s Cut, the original Ghost Of Tsushima has been delisted from the PlayStation Store.As first spotted by Wiredup Report, it looks like Sucker Punch‘s 2020 action-adventure game has been quietly removed from the PlayStation Network Store.

PS5 will finally allow users to make use of console functions that should have been available at launch.Of all the updates, the most significant one is being able to make use of the PS5’s M.2 SSD expansion slot, which means more storage can be added on top of the console’s base 825GB storage.It should be noted that upgrading storage is not as straightforward as the expansion cards for Xbox Series X|S, which plug in similarly to classic memory cards.On the official PlayStation website, users are given a thorough guide on how to add an M.2 SSD to the PS5, which first requires a well-lit room with a table to work on, a #1 Phillips or cross-head screwdriver, and a small flashlight (optional), before detailing a 12-step instruction guide on how

Sony is likely to delay the launch of Horizon Forbidden West to 2022.The news comes from Jeff Grubb, who claimed on his show Giant Bomb that a source told him Sony were likely to delay Horizon Forbidden West to an unspecified 2022 release date.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has sold over 1.1 million units worldwide already.The news comes only a month after the game was released, with the figure equating to roughly 10% of PlayStation 5 owners now possessing a copy of the game.While it’s a far cry from the sales figures of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which has surpassed 6.5 million copies since its launch, it is notable that this is only a month into release.

Gran Turismo 7 appeared on the Experience PlayStation website, despite not yet being announced.As reported by Eurogamer, fans that were on the Experience PlayStation website this morning (July 12) were able to attempt to redeem a beta-test code for Gran Turismo 7.By clicking through “Related Campaigns” and then “Italia Quest”, and watching 10 seconds of the embedded trailer, the option to redeem a beta code was made available.It is likely the page was not yet intended to be made public, as the Experience PlayStation app is not often used by Sony or fans.

Moss: Book II, a direct sequel to its 2018 VR adventure game, the announcement kicked off Sony‘s latest State of Play presentation last night (July 8).Moss: Book II continues the story of a brave mouse hero Quill and her uncle Argus from Moss.

PS3 or PS Vita.Users will no longer be able to purchase games on their PSP directly or purchase DLC for those games. However, users will still have access to their download list, from which they can obtain any previously purchased game.The store availability on the PS3 and PS Vita means that those devices can be used to purchase content for the PSP and then users can hopefully use their download list to install them.Sony originally announced that they would be closing the PSP, PS3, and PSVita marketplaces back in March.