Sony Interactive Entertainment Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Sega has joined a number of other game publishers in missing E3 this year, leading to the game industry questioning whether the Los Angeles convention will still go ahead.As reported by IGN, Sega said that “after careful consideration, we have decided not to participate in E3 2023 as an exhibitor. We look forward to sharing more information on announced and unannounced projects in the future.”IGN found that Tencent will also be skipping E3 2023, and claimed that more publishers will not be attending but are yet to make an announcement.The news comes just days after Ubisoft confirmed it would not be attending E3, with the Assassin’s Creed developer deciding to “move in a different direction” and host its own live event in June.Both companies join Xbox and Nintendo in skipping E3 2023, while it’s been reported that Sony will also miss the convention.

Arrowhead Game Studios has promised Helldivers 2 players will be able to utilise mechs in the near future, but has denied rumours Sony is acquiring them.Helldivers 2 was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and quickly became their biggest ever PC launch last month, but creative director Johan Pilestedt has taken to social media to deny rumours they’re set to become part of the official PlayStation family.“We are not owned. We are independently owned,” he wrote, before clarifying the founders own Arrowhead.

Arrowhead Studios has said the ongoing issues with players accessing Helldivers 2 can’t be fixed by simply buying more servers.Helldivers 2 was released earlier this month and quickly became Sony Interactive Entertainment’s biggest ever launch on PC. It went on to rack up over one million sales in a handful of days.

Palworld could be coming to PlayStation soon, per a post on X (formerly Twitter) from PlayStation head of indies Shuhei Yoshida.Yoshida replied to a post which asked for the team to “support SIE [Sony Interactive Entertainment] so that the PS5 version can be released as soon as possible”.Yoshida tagged the development partner at PlayStation in the reply, writing “Yes”.Previously, the community manager of Palworld posted that the title “won’t be on PlayStation” and will only be available on “Xbox and Steam“. However, on January 21 the community manager posted on X to state that Palworld may still come to PlayStation.“The above post said Palworld may release on PS4, PS5, Xbox or PC.

God Of War franchise has criticised the direction that the newer games have gone in.Jaffe – who led 2005’s original God Of War title and 2007’s sequel – shared a video onto his YouTube channel, titled “God Of War – does it need to be so… personal?” last week and in it, shares his thoughts on the 2018 reboot and last year’s Ragnarok.Responding to comments that animation director Bruno Velazquez in the past about the franchise mirroring people’s growth from youth to adulthood, Jaffe said: “I don’t want these characters to grow. I don’t give a fuck what you’re going through at the studio.”“If you’re going to build a brand new IP, or you’re going to build a character into the God Of War lore, and that character is struggling or dealing with your problems that a lot of you at the studio have dealt with, that’s great.“But don’t take the character Kratos and go, ‘I’m older now and I’m really into family and I wanna tell stories about fathers and sons’.

Sony has responded to potential criticism of the cost of PlayStation Plus, arguing that the price hasn’t moved in “many years”.In an interview with Barron’s, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s marketing, sales, and business operations head Eric Lempel was asked how the company calculated the recent rise in the cost of the subscription service.“We want to make PlayStation Plus great. With our reboot last year and introducing the tier system, a lot of consumers have recognised that there’s a lot of value in PlayStation 5,” replied Lempel.“I’m happy to say, unlike a lot of other subscription services out there, we haven’t touched the PlayStation Plus pricing for 85 per cent of the world in many years.

The Last Of Us Part 2 might become a part of PlayStation Plus‘ Premium collection of titles that are playable for the cost of a monthly subscription.PlayStation Plus Premium has all of the features of Essential and Extra like a new free PS5 and PS4 game each month, access to online modes in the player’s games, cloud storage, store discounts and more.However, it also allows subscribers to download and play PS1, PS2 and PSP games and stream PS3 games. Lastly, it offers players the opportunity to test games out with limited time trials and carry their saves over should they purchase the entire game later.A change to the PS5’s PlayStation Plus display shows The Last Of Us Part 2 in the promotional imagery for the subscription tier, as well as Hogwarts Legacy and Horizon Forbidden West. Check it out below:Yall grabbing it on plus

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 shoes that mix both Peter Parker’s suit and the Symbiote infection in their design, priced at $219.99.“A thrilling and fashionable footwear choice for fans of the iconic Marvel superhero. These sneakers feature eye-catching designs that pay homage to the web-slinging hero, often incorporating Spidey’s signature red and blue colour scheme and iconic spider symbol,” read the description of the shoes that are now currently sold out.It does not mention the creeping Symbiote strings on the soles of the shoes stretching up into the rest of the design, which is evidently one of the unique selling points.Gear up for Marvel’s #SpiderMan2PS5 in style with the new Peter Parker Advanced Suit and Venom collection by @adidas! Shop the Ultra 4D sneakers, sweatshirts, Adizero 12.0 football cleat, and more on October 20.

Insomniac Games showed off how New York City has evolved in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 in Sony’s State Of Play livestream last night (September 15), as well as a whole lot of new Spider Suits.Senior creative director Bryan Intihar Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 narrated a new trailer which was a deep dive into the open world of the game and spotlighted iconic locations like Midtown High and Brooklyn Visions Academy. Check it out below:Intihar shared that with the inclusion of Queens and Brooklyn across the East River, the map of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is double that of the original game.

Microsoft has alleged that Sony is planning to launch a slim model of the PlayStation 5 before the end of the year, according to a court filing in the continuing case between the technology corporation and the Federal Trade Commission.IGN noted that the document’s argument is that the Nintendo Switch is a competitor to the Xbox Series consoles and the PlayStation 5, based on the upcoming handheld PS5.“PlayStation likewise sells a less expensive Digital Edition for $399.99, and is expected to release a PlayStation 5 Slim later this year at the same reduced price point,” claimed Microsoft. “Sony is also anticipated to release a handheld version of PlayStation 5 later this year for under $300.”Late last year, when Famitsu pressed Sony’s vice president Hideaki Nishino on the possibility of a console upgrade, he did not outright deny it.

Marvel’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales have finally received the long-awaited first look at gameplay for the eagerly anticipated Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 ahead of its Fall release.For the May 24 PlayStation Showcase, Insomniac Games put together a 12-minute cut of in-game cutscenes and gameplay from the upcoming game to give gamers a taste of what’s to come later this year.After being teased in the 2021 announcement trailer for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, gamers are finally introduced to Kraven the Hunter, who kicks off the gameplay trailer with his sights set on Manhattan, Peter Parker and Miles Morales in search for his “equal”.We then see Kraven’s goons on the hunt for Dr. Curt Connors (the Lizard), while Parker – now donning the slick black symbiote suite – fights them off, snarling dark comments their way.

Metacritic has confirmed it will be implementing “stricter moderation” going forward, after Horizon Forbidden West‘s Burning Shores downloadable content was review bombed due to an LGBTQ+ relationship with the game’s protagonist.Although Burning Shores holds an aggregated Metascore of 82 among critics, its user-submitted reviews score currently sits at 3.9 out of 10.While some of the negative reviews criticise the game’s story and brief length, others have scored the review negatively purely because of a dialogue option that results in a kiss between the game’s protagonist, Aloy, and her companion Seyka.The inclusion of an LGBTQ+ relationship has resulted in a number of bigoted reviews flooding the Metacritic page, with users taking aim at the game’s perceived “agendas” and “woke propaganda”.In a statement sent to Eurogamer, Metacritic and its parent company, Fandom, confirmed that it would be taking steps to crack down on the “abusive” reviews.“Fandom is a place of belonging for all fans and we take online trust and safety very seriously across all our sites including Metacritic,” wrote the site. “Metacritic is aware of the abusive and disrespectful reviews of Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores and we have a moderation system in place to track violations of our terms of use.”“Our team reviews each and every report of abuse (including but not limited to racist, sexist, homophobic, insults to other users, etc) and if violations occur, the reviews are removed.

PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2) and third-party games, including Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. To catch every announcement live, here’s where and how to watch today’s State Of Play.The State Of Play will begin today (February 23) at 9PM GMT / 10PM CET / 4PM Eastern, and will be available to watch on PlayStation‘s Twitch and YouTube accounts.

Sony has said he believes indie developers have been “waiting for this next VR boom” as the company prepares to launch its PlayStation VR 2 headset.The PSVR2 is due out early 2023 and speaking at GI Live 2022 earlier this week, PlayStation’s head of independent developer initiative Shuhei Yoshida spoke about what the new headset will offer (via VGC).“There are big games like Horizon: Call of the Mountain and Resident Evil Village and yes, they’re amazing, but it’s the indies, in my mind, that really take the risk because they want to make games on VR,” he said before adding that “indies have been waiting for this next VR boom.”He went on to say how “the VR market is small. It’s still growing thanks to Meta doing a great job promoting the Quest, so more people are coming into trying VR for the first time, but still, compared to console gaming, it’s a subset and a growing market.”Speaking to NME last year, Bithell Games’ Nic Tringali said he believes studios are “only just scratching the surface of what VR can do.”“There are so many different experiences being made possible right now.

Sony has revealed a new PS5 controller at Gamescom, as the DualSense Edge aims to be the console’s “ultra-customisable controller.”This new wireless PS5 controller will let players create custom controls, and change the layout to benefit their playstyle.Buttons can be remapped, specific button inputs can be deactivated, and stick sensitivity and dead zones (distance a stick moves before the game picks it up) can all be changed. The triggers can also have their own travel distance and dead zones edited, which Sony says can help across multiple genres.Check out the DualSense Edge reveal trailer from Sony below.“For example, you can manually reduce travel distance of the triggers for faster inputs in competitive FPS games or reduce the dead zone for precise throttle control in racing games.”Settings for different genres or specific games can also be saved and swapped between on the fly, making precise controls that much easier.

Sony, who acquired Evo last year.Below, you can find an outline of which pools each stream will cover on every day. Each day’s stream begins at 6PM BST (10AM PDT) and while most end at 6AM BST, some of the later tournaments can run until 8AM.

Insomniac Games has made the upcoming PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man cheaper in seven regions, due to the game being “incorrectly priced” when it was announced.Today (August 2), a blog post from Insomniac revealed that regional pricing for Marvel’s Spider-Man has been adjusted in the following seven regions:This has translated to Marvel’s Spider-Man on PC becoming cheaper for buyers in those regions. While the game was originally priced at £54.99 in the UK, the adjusted price means it now costs £49.99.The blog post shares that the game was “incorrectly priced” in the above markets, and notes that no other regions were affected.

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.

Sony Interactive Entertainment, including this new controller, suggest that a new style of hardware could be on the horizon for PlayStation fans.Following an interview with Jim Ryan in October, where the Sony head announced he wants PlayStation games to “be enjoyed by an almost limitless audience“, a number of patents have been discovered which hint at plans by the company.Last week (November 23) a patent was found for a new UI which allows players to switch between functions without entering

Sony Interactive Entertainment patent has been found which details plans for a new UI. It is possible that the PlayStation 5 interface could be getting an upgrade.Japanese gaming blog Game Jouhou & Blog 2.0, which gathers gaming information and rumours, has found a new patent registered by Sony.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has released a new PlayStation 5 update aimed at making the wishlist feature more helpful.Sharing on Twitter, Sony announced that along with the ability to already wishlist items on the console’s integrated PlayStation Store, the latest update will now offer several new features.Players will now be able to enable push notifications for Wishlist Updates on the PlayStation app or PlayStation 5 consoles.In addition, players will also get notified when a game on their

PlayStation 5 supplies are likely to be even slimmer than before, with Sony reportedly cutting its production plans by around one million consoles.As reported by Bloomberg and spotted by VGC, Sony has reduced its PlayStation 5 production outlook for the fiscal year ending in March 2022 from 16 million units down to around 15 million.That’s because of increasing problems sourcing parts and logistical issues, but such explanations won’t help players desperate to get their hands on the

The Tomorrow Children, developed by Q-Games and Japan Studio, will reportedly make a comeback following an announcement that Q-Games have reacquired the IP.Set in a Soviet-themed post-apocalyptic dystopia, The Tomorrow Children was originally released as a PlayStation 4 exclusive free-to-play title back in October 2016.

Devolver Digital became a publicly-traded company this morning (November 4) as it entered the London Stock Exchange valued at $950 million.According to GIBiz, this value makes the video game publisher the largest American company to ever be traded on the London Stock Exchange.

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.

Gran Turismo 7 director and professional racer Kazunori Yamauchi sat down and spoke about the various elements of car culture the latest gamewill allow players to immerse themselves in.“I think the car is one of the most beautiful industrial products,” said Yamauchi in a new behind-the-scenes video.