Month: October 2024

Sony and developer Shift Up are being sued by Louisiana-based film production company Stellarblade, which – in case you haven’t already guessed where this is going – is alleging trademark infringement following the release of this year’s PS5 action-adventure Stellar Blade.

As reported by IGN, the complaint was filed in a Louisiana court earlier this month by Stellarblade LLC and its owner, Griffith Chambers Mehaffey. It’s specifically targeting Sony, Shift Up, and and Sony’s unnamed liability insurance company, amid claims Stellarblade’s business (that’s the film company) is being damaged by Stellar Blade (the game’s) use of the name.

Stellarblade was established to provide “multimedia entertainment services” – including film, documentary, and music video pro…

Sony has announced its PlayStation Plus games for October 2024 during tonight’s State of Play broadcast, pre-empting the usual leak.

With apologies to bilbil-kun, then, next month PlayStation Plus subscribers will be able to play the excellent Dead Space remake and a couple of other games, starting on 1st October and running until 4th November.

Dead Space Remake (PS5)
WWE 2K24 (PS4, PS5)
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! (PS4, PS5)

Let’s Play Dead Space Remake – ISHIMURA THE MERRIER! Dead Space Remake PS5 gameplay

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It’s a pirates life for the Yakuza series. Earlier today, Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku revealed Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.
The upcoming spin-off was announced during the RGG Summit livestream, and features recurring character Goro Majima swashing his buckles as the sole protagonist.
The game appears to take place after the events of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and sees poor ol’ Goro washed up on the sandy shores of Rich Island, unsure of who he is or why he is there. Soon, however, he is embracing his inner-pirate to bombastic effect. I mean, why not! You can check out our first look at Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii in the video below.

Like a Dragon: Pirates in Hawaii | Announcement Trailer

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Square Enix has admitted that profits of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 “did not meet expectations”.
The comment comes from its financial results briefing held in May and finally made public today.
Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu shared the results, stating: “In the HD Games sub-segment, we released multiple new titles, including major titles such as Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but profits unfortunately did not meet our expectations.”

FINAL FANTASY XVI “DELIVERANCE” – PC Trailer

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Bungie’s Marathon reboot will reportedly launch with a $40 price tag, despite the recent failure of Sony’s similarly priced Concord – with development “too far along” to pivot to free-to-play.

That’s according to Forbes’ Paul Tassi, who, citing a “source with knowledge of Marathon”, claims Bungie’s uncertainty around monetisation came to a head after free-to-play live-service shooter The Finals underperformed. The subsequent success of Sony’s live-service shooter Helldivers 2, which launched with a $40 price tag, is said to have ultimately convinced Bungie and Sony this was the right approach for Marathon too.

That, however, was before Sony’s second live-service shooter of 2024, Concord, took the same $40 monetisation approach and proved so commercially disas…

nDreams, the VR-focused developer behind the likes of Far Cry VR and Synapse, has confirmed restructuring and redundancies that could affect up to 17.5 percent of its workforce.

The UK studio, which was founded in 2006, currently consists of four teams – nDreams Studio, Orbital, Near Light, and Elevation – employing around 250 people between them. That means upward of 40 staff could lose their jobs as nDreams’ redundancy process proceeds.

In a statement provided to Game Developer, nDreams CEO Patrick O’Luanaigh blamed the cuts on a “challenging VR games market” requiring a “renewed strategic focus”. O’Luanaigh added that jobs may be cut at all levels, “including senior leadership”.

Powerwash Simulator | VR Official Launch Trailer | Meta Quest Platform

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Having teased The Sims 4’s latest season of content last week, EA has more firmly detailed its upcoming Storybook Nursery Kit and Artist Studio Kit DLC releases, which are both now set to arrive next Thursday, 19th September.

Starting with The Sims 4’s Artist Studio Kit, it includes – as you’ve probably already guessed – a bunch of new furniture items and decorative bric-a-brac that can be combined to make a suitably chaotic space for Sims to unleash their creativity.

“Set up your new easel in the centre of your studio,” EA writes, “surrounded by tools of the trade – a variety of brushes, colourful paint cans and new inspiring still-life objects that Sims can paint from reference or draw creativity from.” Expect drawers and shelves, tubes of paint, sket…

Bungie’s former chief in-house lawyer, Don McGowan, reckons it’s a good thing that Sony is “inflicting some discipline” on the Destiny 2 studio, and helping management “run the game like a business”.
“To be clear: I’m not talking about the layoffs, I’m talking about forcing them to get their heads out of their asses and focus on things like: implementing a method of new player acquisition; not just doing fan service for the fans in the Bungie C-suite; and running the game like a business,” McGowan said on LinkedIn.
“Good. I still have friends in that environment and I’d like them to keep jobs.”

Eurogamer Newscast: When it costs £700, who exactly is the PS5 Pro for?

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