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I’m a no-name nobody who enjoys observing the games industry, and blogging about Xbox (mostly). About.

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    PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection

    As we continue our celebrations leading up to the 30th anniversary of the first PlayStation console launch, we have a special treat to reveal today that brings the past together with the present.

    Introducing our PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection to celebrate this wonderful milestone.

    PlayStation has absolutely nailed this vibe, with the classic PS1 grey theme and iconography.

    But if you thought the PS5 Pro RRP was eye-watering, get a load of the inclusions for this special edition:

    • PlayStation 5 Pro Console – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition BundIe
      • Includes the limited edition PS5 Pro console with 2TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7 in territories supporting this standard, and matching limited edition accessories – DualSense wireless controller, DualSense Edge wireless controller, DualSense Charging Station, and a Console Cover for a Disc Drive (Disc Drive sold separately).
      • It also includes a Vertical Stand and special collector’s Items:
    • Original PlayStation controller-style cable connector housing
    • Four PlayStation Shapes cable ties
    • PlayStation sticker
    • Limited Edition PlayStation Poster (1 of 30 possible designs)
    • PlayStation Paperclip

    Still no disc drive (lol) but the Dualsense Edge alone is already already a $199 item, not to mention the charging dock and other inclusions. USD $999 would be a nice looking price point, but tbh it’s possible this pack will break well into the thousand dollar range.

    With only 12,300 units available, good luck getting one, even if the bank approves the loan.

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    Sony belches the PS5 Pro into the world

    They are high on some crazy shit if they think I’m dropping 800 euros for a standless, digital console with a blink and you’ll miss it graphical boost during a console generation that’s been so stale in terms of first party exclusives that most of the games they used to promote this are on fucking PS4.

    What the fuck, Sony?

    – d0ntm1ndm32 (Reddit)

    Sony finally presented their long-rumoured PS5 Pro, and the response from gamers seems to range from bemusement to outright astonishment.

    Keep reading

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    Rumour: Forza Horizon 5 is coming to PlayStation (updated)

    Note: This post has added updates.

    Reddit: eXtas1s: Forza Horizon 5 is the next Xbox game coming to PlayStation.

    The rumour is that this will be announced next week, with a launch date to follow.

    This rumour certainly tracks, imo. Like Sea of Thieves, FH5 is a years-old game, with a very active player base, it recently crossed 40M total players, and has no real competition (first or third party) on PlayStation.

    This rumour has already kicked up all sorts of reactions about The Future of XboxTM, and in particular has re-stokesd a general ‘uncertainty’ around knowing what games will be Xbox exclusives or not, and for how long.

    Xbox is still in the experimenting phase when it comes to porting games to ‘rival’ platforms. The console base is stagnant (like PlayStation), which means they’re looking for growth opportunities where they can.

    Sea of Thieves was in the top sellers on PlayStation for 2 months, and no doubt FH5 would land near the top in sales charts on PS5 too.

    But the strategy is a balancing act – Xbox want to leverage revenue growth opportunities, but if these moves come at the expense of engagement (monthly actives) or on-platform activity, they may well pull back or adjust.

    In the meantime, Forza Horizon 5 is an absolute banger of a game; it’s great news if more gamers get to experience the festival!

    Update 1: Jez Corden for Windows Central Gaming:

    My sources indicate that Forza will not be announced for PlayStation next week. Although I can’t yet confirm what game, if any, will be announced as a port next week.

    Update 2: eXtas1stv (translated):

    On the one hand, calm for Starfield, there are no active plans for it yet.

    However, for Forza Horizon 5 there are, and it will be released in the not too distant future. The announcement? It doesn’t matter if it happens this week, next week or the week after, but it is coming to PS5 in the next few months as I confirmed in my [post] and as many colleagues have already confirmed.

    Some of our colleagues believe that the announcement will be imminent, others not so much, but it is coming.

    Update 3: Next Xbox game on Playstation is going to be Flight Simulator

    Via comments by a user from earlier this year, which have proven to be 100% accurate so far:

    Flight Sim will be multiplatform, and a few other older 1st party IPs are also going to be multiplatform

    (Of note from the leak, and that hasn’t been shown to be correct yet: Xbox have been in discussions to move to a ‘licensed device’ model, where 3rd party manufacturers can build consoles that will play Xbox games.)

    Update 4: After all that, it was Indiana Jones.

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    Huge news: Tango Gameworks and the Hi-Fi Rush IP have been saved

    Tango Gameworks will live on, as Microsoft has reached an agreement with publisher Krafton to maintain the studio. Krafton Inc, known for games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has fully acquired Tango Gameworks from Xbox, as well as the the rights to recent action hit Hi-Fi Rush. 

    Full report: Windows Central Gaming

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    Flight Sim 2024 is looking kinda nuts

    In an interview with pcgamer.com today, Asobo’s Jorge Neumann gave some extra detail of what to expect from Flight Simulator 2024, when it launches later this year.

    Here’s a quick review of the key features that were discussed:

    • Flight Sim 2024 “see[s] every tree on Earth” using an AI tool, and can guess the tree species.
    • FS24 will use a “thin client architecture” with much more of the game offloaded to the cloud, reducing the game install size to around 50GB.
    • They added “every oil rig” and “every lighthouse”. “It feels like whatever comes to your mind you can actually do now, if you embrace the cloud.”
    • “Every ship on Earth” is represented in the game in real time via transponder tracking. You can “land on every ship”.
    • “Hundreds” of new animals have been added to the game.
    • “You can now exit the plane [and] walk around[…] You can literally walk your favorite mountain path to your favorite hut in the mountains. Sit on the lake. See the sunset. It is truly a digital twin you can absorb.”

    Read the full interview at pcgamer.com.

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    Balatro has sold 2M copies

    The breakout hit, and my early contender for if-this-game-isn’t-nominated-for-game-of-the-year-then-what-the-fuck-are-we-actually-doing-here-people, has officially sold 2 million copies.

    The first major update will come to the game in 2025 and will “bring new ideas and strategies to the game”.

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    PlayStation’s Astro Bot controller clears a low bar

    On Monday PlayStation revealed a themed PS5 controller for their highly anticipated Astro Bot.

    Keep reading

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    More game dev unionisation at Microsoft

    World of Warcraft workers have voted to unionize the popular video-game franchise, expanding organized labor’s new foothold at Microsoft Corp. by around 500 employees…

    Their organizing effort, which brings the number of unionized US gaming employees at Microsoft to around 1,750, was buoyed by the company’s unusually union-friendly stance…

    Rather than campaigning against unionization on its gaming teams, Microsoft continued its recent practice of staying neutral and agreeing to voluntarily recognize and negotiate with the group if it secured majority support, according to the CWA.

    – Bloomberg

    This follows previous unionisation at Bethesda Game Studios where over 200 employees voted to form a union, which was similarly voluntarily recognised by Microsoft.

    Excellent news for employee rights and advocacy in game dev at one of the world’s biggest companies, Hopefully the momentum continues to build.

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    Generative AI in gaming development is already here, and it’s going to get messy

    Brian Merchant for Wired:

    A recent survey from the organizers of the Game Developers Conference found that 49 percent of the survey’s more than 3,000 respondents said their workplace used AI, and four out of five said they had ethical concerns about its use.

    Brian’s piece is thoroughly reported, and presents a messy, transitional state of affairs, as the gaming industry navigates a new reality where automated creativity (gross did I really type that) has become available during a shaky economic period.

    Managers at video game companies aren’t necessarily using AI to eliminate entire departments, but many are using it to cut corners, ramp up productivity, and compensate for attrition after layoffs. In other words, bosses are already using AI to replace and degrade jobs. The process just doesn’t always look like what you might imagine. It’s complex, based on opaque executive decisions, and the endgame is murky. It’s less Skynet and more of a mass effect—and it’s happening right now.

    Though many of the game workers and artists were queasy about this proliferation, and some were even afraid for their livelihoods, few spoke out. “I think we all didn’t talk about it much for fear of losing our jobs,” Noah says. He claims Activision assured its artists that generative AI would be used only for internal concepts, not final game assets—and importantly, that AI would not be used to replace them.

    Yet by the end of the year, Activision made an AI-generated cosmetic available for purchase on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 store.

    Essential reading.

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    Predicting the updated Xbox Dashboard

    Keep reading

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