With GTA 6's physical edition now confirmed to be nothing more than a code in a box, you'd be forgiven for fearing that every AAA game is set to follow suit. Well, it seems Marvel's Wolverine is at least safe from that particular mark of shame. In the wake of a new wave of concerns from game collectors, developer Insomniac Games has confirmed, thankfully, that the physical version is a real one.

"The physical version will include a disc in box," Insomniac says on Twitter, making its stance perfectly clear in response to a question from one concerned fan. In fairness, first-party, Sony-published PS5 games have shown no signs of ditching discs just yet, but here in 2026 you can never be perfectly certain.

GTA 6 (like Mario Kart World before it) has also seemingly opened the gates for $80 games, but that's another path Wolverine won't be following. In response to another player begging the studio not to charge more than $70 for Wolverine, Insomniac simply tweeted a link to the game's PlayStation Store page – where it is, of course, listed for $69.99. You can pay $80 if you really want the Deluxe Edition, though.

Rockstar's next game was likely always going to sell boatloads regardless of price, and it seems unlikely that what's effectively a digital-only launch will slow down GTA 6's momentum at all. Physical game sales are actually slightly up in 2026, but disc-buying hold-outs are still a far, far smaller audience than the one GTA 6 is courting.

Multiple retailers drop GTA 6 after physical version is confirmed to be a code in a box.

Josh Sawyer, best known for his work on RPG gems like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, says Sucker Punch Productions and Sony Interactive Entertainment created some of the greatest armor sets he's seen in video games.

To be precise, the developer and publisher did so in Ghost of Tsushima and its more recent sequel, Ghost of Yotei.

Speaking in a new Q&A on YouTube, Sawyer admits as much, first explaining that artists gain far more freedom during development when they don't have to "worry about every single part of the body" separately or "follow very strict rules for where every part of armor is broken up."

Not only does it look great, though, but it's technically more practical as well. "The stat bonuses are all built into one suit of armor, and the themes can be just built right around that," Sawyer describes. "All the stats just grow in a very straightforward way."

He does go on to share the appeal of other systems, in which armor sets are "divided" differently and allow the players, rather than the artists, "a lot more freedom," too, though.

Honestly, I feel as though varying armor systems fit well in their respective games – much like Ghost of Tsushima and Yotei's do. It's part of the core identity that titles, especially RPGs, carry with them… and there's no one right way to do it.

Itching to play something fun yourself? Browse through our roundup of the best RPGs out there, or check out a few of the most exciting new games coming this year and beyond.

It seems like it's been an eternity since PlayStation and Xbox were both moving toward multiplatform releases for big first-party titles. As Xbox seemingly returns to the idea of good old-fashioned console exclusives, reporting from Bloomberg suggests PlayStation is doing the same on PC, opting for first-party releases that stay on PS5 permanently instead of coming to other platforms after a period of timed exclusivity. Now, we have comment from PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino that seems to add further weight to that reporting.

In the latest issue of Japanese magazine Famitsu, spotted and machine-translated by Resetera user Red Kong XIX, Nishino responds to reports that PlayStation is stepping away from releasing first-party single-player games on non-PlayStation platforms.

As we've come to expect from CEOs of massive companies, his words are vague, and there's an inherent fuzziness to machine-translated quotes, but the implication reads pretty clear to me and mirrors Bloomberg's reporting: first-party single-player games will be PS5 exclusives, while live-service games will continue to be multiplatform. Still, it sounds like Sony will consider each release on a case-by-case basis.

The machine translation reads:

"We've always determined platform selection based on the characteristics of each title. If releasing a title on PC would maximize the gaming experience, we'll continue to consider that option. Our current main policy is that, for single-player games developed in-house, we will further refine the value of the gaming experience that PlayStation can offer.

"At the same time, we believe it is important for live-service games to reach a wider audience through online multiplayer, so we continue to view releases on both PS5 and PC as the standard. Regardless of the platform, we will make decisions based on the principle of delivering the best possible gaming experience that maximizes each title's unique features."

Commenting on Nishino's remarks today, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier adds, "there's no 'case by case' here" and PlayStation Studios' single-player swings will all be PlayStation exclusives.

Sony never embraced multiplatform releases to the same degree as Xbox, which ported major first-party Xbox games like Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and others to PS5 before the foundational leadership shakeup in February 2026 that saw longtime Xbox boss Phil Spencer and president Sarah Bond leave the company.

PlayStation warmed up to PC with ports of big games like Horizon, The Last of Us, and Marvel's Spider-Man, but straight-up Xbox versions of PlayStation games never became commonplace, and it sounds like even PC is being reconsidered now, at least when it comes to the sort of big-budget, narrative-driven titles the PlayStation brand is synonymous with.

Releasing PlayStation games day one on PC isn't "a good strategy" for its AAA titles, former Sony head says, but he hasn't seen proof its abandoning the platform altogether.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 seemed to have been put to bed as developer Insomniac switched its focus to the upcoming Marvel's Wolverine, but apparently there's at least one more surprise in store. Alongside the release of today's Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer, Insomniac revealed that Spidey's new look is coming to the game in a free update on PS5 and PC.

"Get a fresh start in Marvel's Spider-Man 2," the studio exclaims in a tweet. "Swing across skylines in Peter Parker's 'Fresh Start' suit inspired by the upcoming film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in theatres July 31! The suit will be available in-game via update July 28 on PS5 and PC at no additional cost!" You can get a very brief look at the new suit at the end of the trailer below.

The game already features an array of suits paying tribute to Spider-Man's varied appearances across different media, including designs inspired by both the Sam Raimi films and the modern MCU movies. But this update is particularly notable simply because it's the first major change to the game in over a year.

In fact, the last update of any kind for Spider-Man 2 appears to have been a May 2025 hotfix for the PC version. That version, of course, launched some time after the PS5 original, and brought with it the sad news that no story DLC was planned for the game, despite some seemingly obvious teases for it in one of the side stories.

With that in mind, it's notable that Spider-Man 2 is getting what's likely its final update in time for the upcoming film. Any excuse to go swinging through digital NYC again is a good one in my mind.

These are the best Marvel games of all time.

This Summer Game Fest graced us with our first look at God of War Laufey, a brand-new God of War title from Santa Monica Studio and Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The big reveal came during the PlayStation State of Play showcase, promising a game that places us in the shoes of Kratos' late wife Faye rather than the demigod son of Zeus.

It's undeniably stunning, but a quick watch of God of War Laufey's new trailer sparks a very important question – might we see gods that Kratos himself killed in the series' past titles, judging by the new deities we'll evidently run into?

GamesRadar+ had the opportunity to ask director Ariel Lawrence if allowing players to run into previously butchered gods is something Santa Monica has considered at all – and, yeah, the future looks bright.

"I think that's definitely the kind of long-term potential for a franchise that has killed as many gods as we have," explains the lead, "being able to see what happens in a place where those folks could come together."

Understandably, though, Lawrence doesn't want to give away too much – although it sounds like whatever gods we do bump into will have to fit into the grander story.

"But we also want to make sure that the people that you're running into, that all [is supported] in the story," she says. "I'm not going to make promises about how many of those people we may or may not come in contact with, but yes, I think as a possibility… absolutely."

That's certainly exciting to hear – heck, it almost sounds like God of War Laufey itself could perhaps re-introduce some of these older gods… but I suppose that only time can tell now.

Thankfully, there's likely not too long left to wait. Judging by all of the gameplay that Sony highlighted during its event, the new Santa Monica title appears to be quite far in its development already. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a 2027 release, personally.

Until then, there are plenty of brutal beasts and gods to take on in God of War Laufey's iconic predecessors… so I'll be doing just that for the time being.

As God of War Laufey puts Kratos to one side, its director hopes "we can keep telling stories about everybody going forward."

Devastating news, folks: They did not, in fact, perform motion capture on a cube for God of War Laufey. At least not in a way that was critical for animating The Boys star Jack Quaid's geometric character Phranque.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, God of War Laufey director Ariel Lawrence said the ridiculous-looking PVC mocap rig Quaid wore in the Meet the Cast video was mostly for show.

"We mocap a little bit, like we have a marker for him to be able to be directional on set," she explained. But instead of actually translating the rig into a 3D model, it helps the team figure out the blocking, or where the actors should be standing, for each scene.

Regardless, Lawrence said strapping a bunch of PVC pipes to Quaid is "not super required, but it is a lot of fun."

I can't blame Sony Santa Monica for that. If you have the opportunity and the resources to do that to a Hollywood actor, you might as well. Say what you will about Sony's obsession with cinematic storytelling in its games, but you can't deny that it commits to authenticity no matter what.

And you can already see it in the relatively small bit of God of War Laufey that we saw earlier this week. Doborah Ann Woll plays Faye as a stubborn warrior who has no sympathy for the nasty gods of the afterlife, even spitting in their faces when she has no upper hand. The fact that Sony went through the effort to put the actors behind the talking cube and sword in the same room is impressive and grounds an otherwise absurd group of characters.

Frankly, I need to know how many hours Quaid spent looking like he's wearing a work-in-progress Halloween costume. The PVC wouldn't weigh you down much, but it certainly might cause some problems maneuvering around groups of people. We can only hope Sony is filming a full documentary so we can see more.

God of War Laufey director Ariel Lawrence hopes Faye is a character "we can keep telling stories about"

The first lesson you learn when reading about mythological gods is that a lot of them are self-centered jerks. God of War is basically an entire series about this fact, and God of War Laufey will be no different.

"They're all assholes," Sony Santa Monica's head of creative Cory Barlog told IGN of the gods you'll meet in the upcoming game. It's not just the towering Mongolian god of war and his violent Egyptian partner who we saw in the initial footage that will be a thorn in your side. Everyone with a divine past in the Everywhen, God of War Laufey's new setting, will be insufferable to be around.

Barlog compares it to an island full of billionaires: "They think they're gonna have a happy life. No, they're all going to fight each other, they're all going to be in this strange sense of conflict because they're locked in a prison."

It probably won't help that the Everywhen is the afterlife for gods, a big bucket of bitter beings who didn't all die willingly. On some level, I can understand why it might be frustrating to have to deal with a stubborn woman and her talking cube and sword friends on top of everything else. Like a ridiculous sitcom plot, I fully expect their refusal to communicate will be the reason protagonist Faye's journey will be dozens of hours longer than it needs to be.

Nobody playing a God of War game will complain if that also means taking these miserable gods on in one-on-one combat, though. Part of the pitch for God of War Laufey seems to include the catharsis of putting some of these gods in their place. That Mongolian brute Begtse absolutely deserved everything Faye did to him in the boss battle we saw.

All of this begs the question though: If Faye isn't technically a god but a giant, does she count as one of them? I imagine we'll learn a lot about her past when God of War Laufey comes out and that might include some things that aren't necessarily flattering.

"God of War Laufey can be enjoyed completely standalone," says Sony, but you should play 2018 God of War and Ragnarok "to fully appreciate the world"

The recently revealed State of Play showstopper God of War Laufey is the upcoming third game in Sony Santa Monica's Norse Era, serving not as a prequel but as a continuation of the saga running in tandem with the first game, and PlayStation is handing out the green light to play Laufey without knowing anything about its predecessors.

Obviously, PlayStation is the expert on its own games – and has a commercial interest in making its new releases look approachable – but I'm gonna go ahead and say you should probably disregard its guidance here and just play 2018 God of War and God of War Ragnarok before Laufey.

In the FAQ section on the official PlayStation website, Sony says "God of War Laufey can be enjoyed completely standalone," but even the publisher itself can't deny the status of the previous two games. "To fully appreciate the world and characters, players should play both God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarök – both of which are available on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles, and on PC." (Laufey, however, seemingly won't come to PC, just like every other future, major, first-party, single-player PlayStation game.)

That is the way. As hyped as I am for God of War Laufey – and I really am excited – you'd be doing a disservice skipping the other games, both from a narrative perspective and simply because they bang. Chiefly, though, new protagonist Faye's journey through the the afterlife of the gods, Everwhen, will surely feel more impactful if you understand the weight of her relationship with Kratos and Atreus, which serves as the emotional bedrock of the first game and is a major narrative thread in Ragnarok as well.

As if I haven't already pitched you a lot of God of War to play, I'd also make the argument that the old Greek games are worth playing ahead of God of War Laufey if you have the time. They're not nearly as crucial as the Norse games, but playing them will definitely add some color and history to the world, and to Kratos, and give you an added layer of appreciation for Laufey's more acrobatic fighting style.

God of War Laufey is exactly how I want the series' combat to evolve, from the return of aerial combos to hitting dudes so hard their souls fly out.

Everyone clowned on him. No one took him seriously. Phranque, the talking cube guy from the God of War Laufey reveal trailer took a lot of crap for cramping everyone's otherwise pristine style with its gelatinous spatial symmetry, but I knew all along there's more to Phranque than meets the eye. Even here at work, watching the showcase with my normy peers, I was forced to defend him from all sorts of slander. "Everyone hates Frank the gelatinous cube," said one GR+ news editor Iain Harris. I seethed, praying for cube's redemption, and it came quicker than I expected.

All over the internet, hardworking amateur historians are piecing together the puzzle like a mythological Rubik's Cube, and miraculously, a genuinely convincing theory has emerged. The first, as highlighted by GameSpot, is that the cube is a physical manifestation of Metatron's Cube, a device used by Archangel Metatron of Jewish celestial tradition to oversee the flow of energy bridging the mortal Earth and the immortal wisdom of the divine.

According to Learn Religions, in the field of sacred geometry, Metatron's Cube "represents the patterns that make up everything God has made" and "contains every shape that exists in the universe God has created, and those shapes are the building blocks of all physical matter."

More importantly, the publication points to works such as Doreen Virtue's 'Archangels 101'; which says Metatron uses his cube "for healing and clearing away lower energies" and that "you can call upon Metatron and his healing cube to clear you"; and 'Metatron: Invoking the Angel of God's Presence', in which Rose VanDen Eynden writes that the cube can be used to facilitate "human spiritual progression." Both of those uses sound pretty, well, useful to God of War protagonist Laufey as she finds herself trapped in the horrible afterlife realm of Everywhen.

Still not sold? "The geometric perfection of Metatron's Cube represents the underlying order of the cosmos," per Pardesco. Everywhen, essentially the afterlife for the gods, is frequently described as a chaotic realm of disorder where power-hungry gods vie for control in a constant state of disarray. Something like Metatron's Cube could really come in handy there, don't you think?

Again, this is just a theory, and there are certainly others that make some sense, but my money's on Phranque being some sort of representation of Metatron's Cube. He's clearly positioned as a companion to the player character, offering up assists in battle, but PlayStation says he'll also "do whatever it takes to protect his friends and the creatures of the Everywhen." Seeing as Metatron's Cube is frequently cited as a symbol of protection in ancient geometry, and, you know, it's a cube, it seems a reasonable enough stab in the dark while we wait for the game to release and answer all of the universe's mysteries.

God of War Laufey's release reportedly isn't "years away," but don't expect a PC launch

While Marvel's Wolverine clearly builds on developer Insomniac's previous Spider-Man games, there's one key area where it's very different: this is not an open-world game. Insomniac has now fully confirmed that Wolverine is a linear game, and that decision is to ensure that the story properly captures Logan's essence.

"We did not set out to make an open world game or a sandbox game," game director Mike Daly tells IGN. "What we really wanted was high octane, high intrigue, linear single-player adventure, and the missions reflect that in their structure."

I think that's a very good thing. The Marvel's Spider-Man games are excellent in part because of their open worlds, as getting to explore the digital New York City makes it feel more real, and Spider-Man's speedy web-slinging makes the checklists breezy and entertaining to complete. But not every AAA game needs to offer an open world, and doing it here wouldn't really serve Wolverine's character.

"Going back to the beginning when we asked ourselves, how do we make the best Wolverine game possible that represents that character?" Daly muses. "We thought about, Logan's a character who basically travels the world, has traveled the world many times over. He's pulled by a search for his past. He's pushed by a sense of duty. And to that end, we decided that a globe-hopping adventure was the right take for this game. Logan is not a character that's anchored in a particular place and spends a lot of time on it."

Daly adds that the trailer we saw at PlayStation State of Play is "representative" of the pacing of the action in the full game. "Logan's got a lead, he's got a direction, but he has agency in how he decides to approach it," the director explains. As we see in the video, you'll have the option of whether or not to engage in stealth, and perhaps some different ways to approach a given encounter, as well as "some optional content and collectibles along the way."

The devs are also making sure that there are "different flavors of gameplay" along the way, too, where some "are more about observation and traversal, some are more about finding characters to interact with, and a lot of them are about stalking enemies and taking them out."

Spider-Man's open world made sense, since he's a character known for sticking to one place and becoming a part of its identity. For Wolverine, who we more often than not see on the road, rambling from place to place, sticking him on a roller coaster feels a lot more natural.

Marvel's Wolverine lets you turn off the extreme blood and gore proudly shown at PlayStation's State of Play: "We didn't want to go over the top."

Sony Santa Monica stole the show at last night's State of Play with 20 minutes of gameplay footage from the newly announced God of War Laufey, the next installment in the studio's reboot series. The not-prequel stars a brand new protagonist in Kratos's second wife and Atreus's mother, Faye, and her distinctly agile move set was put on full display toward the end of the showcase, revealing a huge contrast with Kratos's brawny, lumbering movement.

In a 'meet the cast' video accompanying God of War Laufey's announcement, Faye actor Deborah Ann Woll compares the two protagonists' very different playstyle's, describing Kratos as "a heavy hitter" and Laufey as "acrobatic."

"I love how acrobatic Faye is. I think the Kratos gameplay is so fantastic because he's such a heavy hitter and he has that brute force," she says. "And Faye is just as strong and just as good a warrior, but her gameplay is spinning and whipping and flipping, and it's in the air, and we can show that there are so many ways to be a warrior."

As someone who generally prefers fast, fluid, theatrical combat to the high-gravity feel of 2018 God of War and Ragnarok, I'm absolutely psyched for Laufey. Don't get me wrong, those previous games both have great combat, but I played them more for the worldbuilding and lore, and now Laufey looks like it offers a fresh perspective on that universe as well as a combat system that's a little more up my alley.

Talking to IGN, God of War Laufey director Ariel Lawrence explains how the upcoming game and new hero's combat were influenced by Santa Monica's long history with the series, including the Greek-era God of War games, which featured much more hack-and-slash-style combat compared to the 2018 reboot and Ragnarok.

"Kratos is like a brick wall, and he's a little stoic, but it's just that his brutality is different," Lawrence says. "How do we show somebody who's his equal as she is? So when we looked, we got to think about all the [Santa Monica] games. The Greek era had an influence on Faye. The Norse era has an influence on Faye. So going to our more agile combat roots but also retaining our companions, our gritty closer combat. How do those marry together and then make something that's uniquely Faye-feeling while still being a Santa Monica game?"

God of War Laufey's release reportedly isn't "years away," but don't expect a PC launch

God of War Laufey will be the first time the series abandons its titular god Kratos and focuses instead on someone else's magic – in this case, Kratos' dead wife Laufey, or Faye, as the giantess navigates the perilous afterlife run by power-starving deities. The 20 minutes of footage developer Sony Santa Monica shared at PlayStation State of Play June 2026 makes the game look prettier than usual, with so many sparkles, purple flowers, and exceptionally cool aerial combos, but head of creative Cory Barlog says it's not really a series "departure."

He elaborates in a conversation with God of War Laufey game director Ariel Lawrence recently posted on the PlayStation Youtube. Barlog acknowledges that zooming in on the soft, kind, formidable mother Faye is "a different thing" than focusing on the permanently scowling dad Kratos, but God of War Laufey is "still part of the larger tapestry of what we truly, really want to explore, all of these different characters in there."

Crucially, for fans who already miss their frowning father, Barlog confirms that "there's always going to be Kratos games." He reiterates this in a new IGN interview, too, reminding fans Sony will "always tell stories about Kratos."

But with Kratos being a given, God of War Laufey instead gives "us some place" for the now nearly 10-year-old reboot series to make us "surprised and see how things connect," Barlog says. "So for us, it's not a departure; it's more of an expansion."

Nevertheless, even game director Ariel Lawrence says she was "a little shocked" to learn she would lead a game about Faye rather than "another Kratos game," since she had assumed "I would be telling stories about [Kratos] for the rest of my life."

But Barlog says, "For me, it's really exciting because, again [...] Kratos is sort of the" – "the trunk of our tree," Lawrence interjects. Barlog agrees, describing stoic Kratos as the 1,000-pound truck that "drives the franchise forward, and we want to follow him. But there are so many interesting characters that we created along the way."

I think Laufey, in particular, has been a looming shadow for so long, it's made me desperate to know her. It's her death that sets Sony Santa Monica's God of War series in motion, after all, and other characters speak of her with such reverence, I feel like I have to experience what she's like for myself. So I see God of War Laufey as finally addressing that need, at the perfect time (because I'd find any time perfect).

God of War Laufey is exactly how I want the series' combat to evolve, from the return of aerial combos to hitting dudes so hard their souls fly out.

Sony's State of Play is set to return next month, and it looks like Marvel's Wolverine is taking top billing among all the other updates on PS5 games, old and new, we'll see.

That all comes from Sony itself, which says the showcase will take place on June 2 and feature "60 minutes of updates, announcements, and gameplay reveals from top studios around the world."

As for what you can expect to see, you'll largely have to wait and find out. To tide you over until then, though, Sony does reveal we're getting a closer look at Marvel's Wolverine ahead of its September 15 release.

"Insomniac Games will share more from its upcoming third-person action-adventure game, showing off Logan's brutal and relentless combat along with some new details," the PlayStation maker teases.

If you're keen to get that in your calendar, Sony says the State of Play kicks off at 2pm PT – that's 5pm ET / 11pm CEST if you're elsewhere in the world. As ever, you can watch it on YouTube and Twitch, and expect the whole thing to last around an hour.

It's been a long ol' road for Insomniac's Wolverine game – in fact, one voice actor says he's been working on it nearly as long as his son has been alive. We've seen periods of silence followed by a substantial data breach before the game showed itself off good and proper – and officially.

Marvel's Wolverine is currently set to release this fall. That said, if recent reports are to be believed, I wouldn't hold out on that one coming to the likes of PC.

As Halo and Forza Horizon 6 prepare to jump ship to PS5, Xbox fans use new community voting tool to tell Microsoft they want their exclusives back.

New comments from PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst reportedly confirm the end of Sony's major single-player games coming to PC, affirming earlier claims that the company is pulling back from the platform.

Reiterating the outlet's March report, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier says on Bluesky: "PlayStation studio business CEO Hermen Hulst told staff in a town hall Monday morning that the company's narrative single-player games will now be PlayStation exclusive, confirming Bloomberg's reporting from earlier this year."

Hulst's exact words are unknown, but the message seems clear. Going forward, games like God of War, Marvel's Spider-Man, The Last of Us, and Horizon Zero Dawn – all previously released or remastered on PC sometime after their PlayStation console debut – will no longer be available outside PlayStation hardware.

However, multiplayer games like Helldivers 2 – the crown jewel of Sony's largely disastrous live service push – and upcoming spinoff Horizon Hunters Gathering can still seemingly come to both PC and PlayStation consoles. Helldivers 2 is also on Xbox, which is a non-trivial detail here. PlayStation-backed games in the same vein could potentially come to other consoles in the future as well. Just look at Marathon, a multi-platform shooter made and published by Bungie, a studio that Sony owns.

This decision seems to extend only to major PlayStation studios and single-player IP, not every single-player game that Sony touches. Naughty Dog's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is the obvious example; we can seemingly give up on that ever coming to PC, even years down the road like the Uncharted series.

Recently released PS5 shooter Saros also will not come to PC, Schreier affirms in a separate reply, even though developer Housemarque's previous title, Returnal, did (and plays best on PC).

Another useful corner case is found in Kena: Scars of Kosmora, successor to Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Scars of Kosmora is a single-player game but will be published by PlayStation Publishing on Steam and the Epic Games Store. On the PlayStation Store, its publisher is listed as Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Made by independent studio Ember Lab, the subject of considerable promotion by Sony, the single-player Kena duology began on PS4, PS5, and PC in 2021. Bridge of Spirits was later brought to Xbox and Nintendo consoles (published by Ember Lab on all platforms), and the second game is still eyeing PlayStation and PC.

This should not be confused with timed, third-party console exclusives like the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. That also goes for games like Stellar Blade, a once PS5-exclusive, independently made game which was published – and on PC, co-published – by Sony. In this case, developer Shift-Up has actively pushed to publish Stellar Blade 2 itself.

Horizon Hunters Gathering, a cartoonish take on Monster Hunter, also provides some clarity here. Like Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, it's made by Guerrilla Games and published on PC by PlayStation. It will seemingly come to PC as planned, not by the same rules as Kena, but because it's a multiplayer game. However, a hypothetical third entry in the mainline Horizon series starring protagonist Aloy would not come to PC under Sony's new direction.

This news also rules out ports for games like Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima, which was released on PC in 2024. Yotei was released on PS5 in October 2025, so if PC Tsushima fans want to see what developer Sucker Punch cooked up next, they'll have to buy a console. The same goes for Marvel's Wolverine, Insomniac's next superhero action game after Marvel's Spider-Man.

Releasing PlayStation games day one on PC isn't "a good strategy" for its AAA titles, former Sony head says, but he hasn't seen proof its abandoning the platform altogether.

FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa has just released new financial results revealing the Dark Souls developer is committing to more self-publishing and self-funding while it works on converting video game IP to big deal movies like Elden Ring's.

The Elden Ring movie is already in production under A24 and 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland, who is serving as both its scriptwriter and director, and it's due to release on March 3, 2028. But 2028 feels so far away when Kadokawa predicts 2026 profits will drop something like 40.3％ "due largely to ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN main game and DLC," the company exclaims in its financial report. So, since FromSoftware's catalogue is getting stale, Kadokawa wants another round of everything – more game IP, more film adaptations – as it relies on the Dark Souls developer for business.

"FromSoftware will steadily advance initiatives aimed at maximizing earnings by developing titles using its own capital and optimizing the business scheme including its publishing structure," says Kadokawa. "We are making steady progress in strengthening the ability to develop IP in games and the cultivation of human resources."

On that last point, Kadokawa later explains in its report that it's beginning to roll out a "special early-retirement program" for employees aged 45 and older.

It seems the aim of this program, which will begin on July 31, 2026, is to cull staff numbers, but in a nicer way. Anyone who meets the age and job rank requirements, and has been with Kadokawa for at least five years, will, seemingly, be helped to retire extra early.

"This initiative is expected to optimize fixed costs and improve productivity, directly contributing to improved profitability," says Kadokawa. The company doesn't explicitly state if the program is exclusive to parent company employees, or if it will extend to properties like FromSoftware, too.

Kadokawa is clear, however, in saying it wants FromSoftware to "make further advances in the development of the media mix, including adaptation into videos." Several projects have already been announced in pursuit of this goal: in addition to the Elden Ring film, FromSoftware has a Sekiro anime coming to Crunchyroll this year, and there's an R-rated Bloodborne animated movie in the works.

Side note: I consider myself a Tier 1,000 Bloodborne fan, and even so I'm skeptical when I say fellow superfan and YouTuber JackSepticEye is producing the movie. I'm curious about why Sony prefers a, however well-meaning, gaming personality to manhandle its beloved IP rather than another studio. But, you know. At least we're getting more Bloodborne.

A strong message throughout Kadokawa's report is, go big and FromSoftware. The parent is eager to "further expand the fan base globally," it says, while "FromSoftware is making steady progress in revamping its business model to maximize earnings."

The developer, an expert in punishing dark fantasies, is a strange cash cow with weird lumps and boils. But Kadokawa is clearly hoping that's what game and film audiences want – and, based on all the hours of the day I've lost to Yharnam, I'm inclined to agree.

They can never compete with Elden Ring, but FromSoftware owner says Nightreign "performed strongly" and The Duskbloods is still coming in 2026.

Sony's latest financial report is in, and would you believe it? The company is keen to tell investors just how much its business is going to be improved by AI. PlayStation is just one part of the larger Sony business, but sluggish PS5 sales and big losses around Marathon and Bungie are having their effects. Don't worry, though – PlayStation's investment in AI is going to make it all better, and we've gotten some specifics about how the tech is being used in games like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.

"At PlayStation, our goal is always to be the best place to play and the best place to publish," according to Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino, whose statements during the earnings call were transcribed by Yahoo Finance. "We see AI as a powerful tool to help us in this mission."

Those are pretty standard vagaries about AI, but Nishino did offer some specifics. Notably, he says, "game developers are automating repetitive workloads, improving software engineering productivity, and accelerating areas like quality assurance, 3D modeling, and animations through new AI-powered tools."

That includes an animation tool called Mockingbird, which "quickly animates 3D facial model based on the performance capture." Nishino emphasizes that this is not a replacement for human performers, but it optimizes "how we process the data from these live captures. With Mockingbird, animation work that would have taken hours can now be completed in a fraction of a second."

This isn't purely theoretical, either. "We have already seen the teams at Naughty Dog, San Diego Studio, and other adopt the tool, including in released titles like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered," Nishino explains.

While the stink of purely AI-generated content looms large, this is – in theory – the kind of thing AI is actually useful for, helping to automate tedious tasks so that developers can focus their attention on more creative work. That's why you won't find an AI disclosure on Horizon's Steam store page, as Valve doesn't require devs to be up front about "efficiency gains" from AI, as opposed to fully AI-generated content.

Nishino also cites the machine learning-driven PSSR upscaling tech available on PS5 Pro as another example of AI wins, offering improved resolution and performance for games like Saros and Ghost of Yotei. And, more broadly, he says players will get "more immersion, more adventures, and fresh ways to enjoy their favorite characters" thanks to the emerging tech. Simultaneously, AI will offer publishers a "more efficient production environment and a better discovery to ensure their games reach the right audience."

Of course, the reality of these assertions remains to be seen. The biggest effect AI has had on the gaming world so far is making consoles and PCs dramatically more expensive, as data centers gobble up RAM in absurd volumes. That's not Sony's fault or responsibility, of course, but the notion that the tech pushing the game industry's head underwater is the same thing that will save it from drowning is difficult to reckon with in the short term.

PS6 price and release window is still undecided, but Sony reports "an increase in investments" into the next-gen PlayStation.

Guerrilla Games has confirmed another playtest for its Monster Hunter-like co-op Horizon game Hunters Gathering, but the developer warns you probably won't be making it into this playtest, either.

The second batch of Horizon Hunters Gathering playtests are set to take place between May 22 and May 25 on PS5 and PC. Over on the PlayStation Blog, Guerilla detailed what to expect, promising "implemented player feedback" set to be revealed at a later date. There's also more to play with this time.

There will be two new Hunter characters: Ensa – "a charismatic Oseram smuggler with a mercenary past" and Shadow – sadly not the hedgehog, but "a Carja covert operative who commands a fearsome Stalker machine." Plus, another Monster Hunter staple (well, in Sunbreak and Wilds, anyway) is joining the game in the form of Hunter NPCs during Episodes or Machine Incursion modes – the latter of which sounds like a take on Rise's Rampage missions.

Aside from all of that, there's going to be a new Episode added to the game's narrative campaign, as well as new difficulty modes for the Machine Incursion and Cauldron Descent missions found in the previous playtest, and a training mode to help you tackle them. Finally, there's a new area called Breakers' Bounty, which features "dense jungles and ravaged ruins bordering a scorching desert home to dangerous machines."

However, Guerrilla doesn't seem to be adding a significant amount of players this time around, saying, "We want to emphasize again: Horizon Hunters Gathering is a game in development; we choose to playtest early and with small numbers to focus on the core experience and implement player feedback before opening to bigger groups of players. We learn a lot from each playtest and this second one is no different; we appreciate each of you who take the time to leave us your honest thoughts."

When Hunters Gathering was announced a Horizon lead said "we absolutely love making single-player games, and we're going to keep making them," although reports soon surfaced that Horizon 3 is probably not coming for a long time, as "most of the studio" is reportedly working on Hunters Gathering. I'm as skeptical about Sony's live-service ambitions as any, but the Monster Hunter-like genre is woefully underutilized, and if it can result in a Horizon game that I actually like, I may be down.

The Last of Us Online was "the best multiplayer game" many Naughty Dog devs had "ever played," ex game director says.

Xbox Game Pass doesn't have many friends left. Once Microsoft made Game Pass Ultimate 50% more expensive in 2025, fans declared themselves betrayed, and even Xbox co-founder Laura Fryer was shocked by the company's apparent allegiance to "greed over gaming." Former Sony Interactive Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden now thinks Xbox should just let the floundering subscription service die with dignity, but new Xbox lead Asha Sharma seems to want more time.

This tension between old and new gaming guards unfolded as a LinkedIn drama, as it was always destined to. Layden commented on a post by games industry researcher (and friend of GamesRadar+) Joost van Dreunen sharing that Sharma, in a leaked memo to Xbox staff, agreed, "Game Pass has become too expensive for players." Layden's solution is to smother it with a pillow.

He says about Xbox, proliferating the metaphor, "They are trying so hard to will this into health, despite unfavorable diagnostics and a grim prognosis. A clarifying post mortem would do the entire industry some good."

Former PlayStation head of strategy and development Gabriel Pessah adds, "I second that."

Then Sharma replies two days later, "I would love to chat sometime." It's her first LinkedIn comment in four months, which doesn't necessarily reveal the urgency or tone of her offer – maybe she just forgot her password three-and-a-half months ago – but it does suggest the Xbox lead and games industry newbie is serious about veterans' opinions.

And that, I think, is a good thing for consumers yearning for a time when life was simple and the Xbox Series X wasn't $650. In the leaked memo from Sharma to Xbox employees, the CEO acknowledged this, as she said about Game Pass, "We need a better value equation. Long term, we will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system which will take time to test and learn around."

It remains to be seen, in a time when life is complicated and everything is an Xbox, if Game Pass is even worth a makeover. But it seems Sharma is going to find out.

You can discover the best Xbox Game Pass deals in April 2026 while we wait.

Shuhei Yoshida, former lead helming Sony's first-party PlayStation Studios, explains he was "fired" from his role for not listening to ex-boss Jim Ryan.

Speaking at Australian festival ALT: GAMES this year, as reported by This Week in Video Games, Yoshida recalls his time at PlayStation Worldwide Studios.

"I helped Santa Monica to make God of War, Naughty Dog to make Uncharted and The Last of Us, and Sucker Punch to make the beautiful Ghost of Tsushima," he says. "Ghost of Tsushima was one of the last games that I worked on as the president of Worldwide Studios."

After helping work on the action-adventure game, Yoshida alleges that's when he was "fired" by Jim Ryan. "But in 2019, after 11 years leading the first-party development, I was fired from the role," he claims – albeit seemingly all in good humor.

"Jim Ryan wanted to remove me from first-party because I didn't listen to him. He asked to do some ridiculous things, and I said, 'No.'" I'll stress the whole "good humor" thing here, though.

After all, Yoshida goes on to look back on how well he and Ryan knew each other: "Because I grew up with Jim from the PS1 days… you don't want to have one of your friends as one of your subordinates."

I do suppose that's true – and Ryan did offer Yoshida his role to improve PlayStation's support of indie development, "because everybody in the company knew how much I loved indie games," as the industry legend puts it.

All in all, Yoshida spent a whopping 31 years at PlayStation in total, retiring in early 2025 after saying, "It may be about time for me to move on."

Searching for something to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of the best new games set to launch this year and beyond for great titles to look forward to.

The sex scenes in the original God of War trilogy are equal parts horny and corny, and the question of whether or not they'll return in the upcoming remakes has been hanging ever since the project was first announced. Original Kratos actor T.C. Carson, who's returning to the role in the remakes, thinks those scenes will return.

He was asked about the return of those "intimate romance minigames" during a panel at MegaCon Orlando. In a clip shared by IGN, Carson responded with a smile: "You know what? All you dudes – all you men – I think so."

Instantly realizing the implications of that comment, he quickly emphasized: "I said 'I think so.' I said 'I think so.'"

So no, this is not confirmation that the sex scenes will be back, but it does seem that Carson believes they'll be in keeping with whatever tone the remakes take. And really, I think tone has been the crux of the question here. The modern God of War titles have been grounded, introspective adventures through the fantastical, while the originals were campy bloodbaths unafraid of throwing in doses of prurient titillation between all the violence.

Naturally, mature storytelling doesn't preclude sex and nudity, as evidenced by games like Baldur's Gate 3. But Larian's RPG offers up steamy romance scenes as a, ahem, climax for a relationship with a fully-formed character. Old God of War's sex takes the form of a baser male-focused fantasy about nameless women throwing their perfect bodies at a chiseled hunk of masculinity.

Is that kind of thing core to the original God of War's identity, or simply a byproduct of the '00s assumption that gamers were mostly teenage boys? That's a question that I suspect Sony is still trying to figure out the answer to as the remake trilogy starts to take shape.

"The God of War sex mini-games were designed by women," former Sony Santa Monica writer says, which is why Aphrodite's bed looks "like a labia."

Sony appears to be attempting its very best Hideo Kojima impression as it announces plans to scan PlayStation fans into its games, so if you're lucky enough, maybe you'll soon have a lookalike living their best life in Gran Turismo 7. For a while, anyway.

In a PlayStation Blog post today, Sony Interactive Entertainment's vice president of global marketing, Isabelle Tomatis, unveiled The Playerbase – described as "a unique opportunity for PlayStation's biggest fans to step into some of the biggest game worlds by having their likeness scanned and appear within a PlayStation game." This idea is first being rolled out to Gran Turismo 7, but "we'll be looking to expand and include fans in additional PlayStation Studios titles in the near future."

Now, as you might expect, this isn't a privilege Sony is granting to literally everyone. In fact, it's incredibly limited, but it's not just a case of being picked in a lucky draw. If you're interested, you'll need to submit an application (which will ask you about your "experiences on PlayStation"), before finalists are selected to participate in video interviews to learn even more about them and their "connection" to the brand. Only then will one person be selected to be given "a special limited-time appearance as an in-game character portrait, similar to how characters are presented throughout the game."

This first example of The Playerbase being used in Gran Turismo 7 doesn't sound nearly as in-depth as, say, the celebrity cameos Kojima put into Death Stranding and its sequel (which include but are no means limited to The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley and VTuber Usada Pekora). In fact, quantity-wise, Kojima put so many famous faces in Death Stranding 2 that the devs apparently ran out of space and ended up having to turn people down.

Compared to those, I imagine that the "limited-time" part of this Gran Turismo 7 fan appearance is going to sound very underwhelming to some after what appears to be such an in-depth application process. But, at the very least, whoever gets picked will also get "invited to a visual arts studio in Los Angeles for a scanning day," and they'll also get to "collaborate with a designer" to make a custom Fantasy Logo, as well as a "one-of-a-kind vehicle livery which will be added permanently to the Showcase menu."

It's got to be said though, it sounds like Sony's bar is extremely high for whoever its winner is. Looking through the frequently asked questions about its criteria, it's stated that a successful application will have to demonstrate your connection to PlayStation, as well as passion for both it and Gran Turismo 7 developer Polyphony Digital, evidenced by "ownership of PlayStation products, subscriptions, games played, hours played, etc.," and things like "ownership of games from those studios, hours played, number and type of game trophies obtained," respectively. This is based both on your initial application and your PlayStation account history.

What's more, anyone who gets through to the video interview stage will have to express an "authentic love for PlayStation" and Gran Turismo 7, and will be judged on how much their interview "includes shareable and entertaining content, while demonstrating that your story is suitably interesting to make further compelling content," amongst other things. I guess it's a positive thing that a huge fan will, in theory, be rewarded for their dedication, but that's a lot of pressure for anyone who wants to throw their hat in the ring.

Anyway, perhaps Sony's Playerbase cameos will become a bit more expansive as time goes on. After all, Tomatis reiterates the plan is to feature fans in "ways that fit each game's own style and world" in the titles of studios that participate in the future. Hell, maybe Death Stranding 2 could even be on that list, considering Sony is the publisher – I'm sure Kojima would be able to show 'em how it's done. For now, though, anyone eligible is able to apply via the official site.

The Last of Us Part 3 hopefuls are convinced Naughty Dog head Neil Druckmann is hinting at another sequel as he teases "the few stops that remain on the road ahead."

The developers behind PS3 emulator RPCS3 have made a breakthrough in their handling of the console's notorious Cell CPU. This is already resulting in notable performance benefits when running some of the PS3's most intensive games, including the 2012 Twisted Metal reboot. Nobody seems more impressed than James Stanard, who served as principal engine developer on the original game.

A big part of the reason PS3 emulation has proven so difficult – and why so few PS3-exclusive games have official modern ports – is because of that complex Cell processor. Our friends at Tom's Hardware have a more technical breakdown, but in essence, the Cell uses up to seven Synergistic Processing Units, and the instructions run by those SPUs have to be translated into a form that modern CPUs can understand.

"We have achieved a new breakthrough on emulating PS3's Cell CPU!" the RPCS3 devs exclaim in a recent tweet. A developer known as Elad has "discovered new SPU usage patterns and coded ways to generate more optimised PC code from them – benefitting all games! Twisted Metal, one of the most SPU-intensive games, sees a 5-7% Average FPS improvement."

You wouldn't necessarily be able to notice a 5% performance increase in the course of normal gameplay, but each incremental improvement to the quality of the emulator compounds with previous gains. For Twisted Metal, the devs say "we're close to achieving 60 FPS on the highest end hardware that exists today – double the console performance that is locked at 30 FPS." And while low-end CPUs might not hit that frame rate target, they also stand to benefit from these improvements.

"I wrote 90% of the SPU code in Twisted Metal," according to James Stanard, responding to RPCS3's demonstration of the performance gains. (Thanks, Time Extension.) "I'm proud that it got called out for being SPU-intensive. It sure was! We basically maxed out the PPU, SPUs, and RSX all at the same time."

Addressing the RPCS3 devs directly, Stanard adds, "Amazing work. I was convinced at the time that PS3 would never be emulateable!"

Certainly, the difficulty of emulating PS3 games has been a thorn in the side of preservationists and publishers who simply want to resell their old games. The upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid 4 as part of Konami's next MGS Master Collection is a moment I wasn't sure would ever come, but I think the continued breakthroughs in RPCS3 emulation are likely far more important to making sure the PS3's library is preserved for the future.

It's getting easier than ever to enjoy the best PS3 games.

PlayStation's PS PC unit earned only a total of $300 million between 2021 and 2023, former PC planner and insights manager Jerry Liu reveals.

Liu added the detail to his LinkedIn profile, spotted by industry sleuth Timur222 on Bluesky. Liu's profile now explains he helped PS PC "grow from $0-300M in Net Revenue for Sony in 3 years" by, among other things, convincing "leadership to pursue more aggressive pricing strategy that helped to increase gross revenue of the business unit by 25%+." But while PlayStation continues to use – let's say it politely – asseritve pricing with console sales, it's reportedly retreating from PC altogether.

That rumor is less surprising when you compare Liu's PC sales numbers to Sony's public sales data; it took PS PC three years to go from 0 to $300 million, while total software sales for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 reached $303 million in just 2021. In 2022, the consoles made $264 million for the year, and $286 in 2023 – all of which adds up to nearly triple the amount of revenue PS PC was able to squeak through in the same amount of time.

When you factor in PlayStation hardware sales, too – the PS4 sold more than 117 million units worldwide as of 2022, and the PS5 sold over 92.1 million units by 2025 – PlayStation on PC looks even more like an unappetizing hunk of bread.

Still, Liu's revelation helps us complete our imperfect understanding of PlayStation's motivations lately. The publisher might fear the flexibility of hardware rivals like Valve and its all-purpose Steam Machine, but it's also been shutting down first-party, AAA studios and walking away from mobile with less obvious direction besides the desire we also observe in other developers: dump everything except what could make the most impossible sum of money. And PS PC doesn't make money on the level that Sony's looking for.

Epic Games lays off "over 1,000" people, CEO Tim Sweeney says "I'm sorry we're here again" and blames "the downturn in Fortnite engagement."

"The biggest goal was to make it more of an evolution," says Saros lead game designer Abebe Tinari when I ask about developing a spiritual rather than direct sequel to Housemarque's electric PS5 launch window title. The aim has been to "build off what Returnal established and add elements like the shield, different types of bullets, take the bullet ballet formula, but then bring something new to it."

Central to this vision was "Evolutionizing our gameplay, [and] being more cinematic, as well," adds narrative designer Khalil Osaimi. Specifically, how the team was to "drive the story" through this new, theatrical lens. The result stars Rahul Kohli as Solatari Enforcer Arjun Devraj, on a mission to find out what happened to a lost colony on alien planet Carcosa – and, already, there's more immediate cinematic flair to this tale than Selene's often isolated journey on Returnal.

Prestige power

For starters, Arjun has other survivors of his spaceship crash to talk to between roguelike expeditions into the dangerous world. Each run is designed to last about 30-minutes, there's more narrative hooks for those who want them, and a dedication to "coming back stronger" means Arjun can power-up permanently after each run. Returnal could be challenging to the point it was tough to get into, and while Saros is still difficult, it's aiming to have more options to embrace any players interested.

Going hands-on with the first three hours of Saros for myself, just beating one boss fight after a half an hour run already made me feel tense enough to need a break. I really like having the option to nip back to homebase The Passage to take a breather and level up, and then be able to teleport right back into the action to continue pushing deeper.

"I want to get the player back into the action, but I think that even just speaking personally as a player of Returnal, there were times that after a multi-hour run after dying, my hands were kind of shaking, you know? It was a bit difficult to kind of be like: OK, I'm gonna get right back into it," says Tinari. "I appreciate having that beat to go back to The Passage, talk to some people, get a bit more of that story context, and that allows me just to get into the headspace of going back out there, right? That's reinforced by the Armor Matrix to get a bit stronger, and then you feel like: Yeah, I'm ready for another run."

Having spent three hours playing Saros, I definitely agree. The average time out playing levels in Saros can be shorter (though you can still run environments back to back if you want), but that doesn't necessarily mean my full play sessions will be. If anything, almost like binging a short TV show, the prospect of dipping back in for one more half-hour run feels conducive to engrossing me for many hours. Those three hours flew by.

Thinking about that TV episode-like length, I ask Osaimi if that helps with storytelling. "Yeah – pacing, and finding that line between gameplay and when do we want to introduce a story beat. There is the main [story]line to understand what's going on, to evolve with Arjun as a character as his layers unravel," he says. "Then, right back to the high-octane action."

Arjun's power progression, alongside his bullet-absorbing shield, feels like a major differentiator between it and Returnal. "It's this constant design space we're trying to explore – how do we keep the edge of the difficulty while also allowing more people to enjoy the game?" says Tinari. "For me, the most important feeling is when you're facing an enemy you've died to several times. You know it's coming. You arrive, you die a couple times. Then, eventually, you overcome it. That feeling – [Oscar,] I think you mentioned your hands were shaking. That's the feeling we're going for, and how do we bring that to more people? The Armor Matrix is one aspect of that"

Right where you also access the World Dial to teleport to the start of each level, Soltari AI overseer, Primary, can also upgrade your armor's power to access new abilities. The currency for Armor Matrix skilltree unlocks are found throughout runs in caches, or from defeated enemies, and retained when you die and return to The Passage. Though, beating each boss is eventually required to clear a node on the skilltree, meaning there's a limit to the boosts you can get for each chunk of the game.

Armor up

"The game doesn't solve itself for you – you still have to dodge, you still have to absorb, you still have to shoot with a good timing – but it just gives you a little bit of a step up each time," says Tinari of the Armor Matrix's role. "In the early part of the tree, you unlock the ability to get power from corrupted bullets. So when you first play in the Eclipse, you're getting this corruption, and it feels like you're way at a disadvantage. When you unlock the node that gives you power from corrupted bullets, you're still in danger [...] But now you just have that way of punching back with the power weapon."

Arjun gaining the power to use the corruption that would otherwise kill him, at the risk of it temporarily draining his max armor, is almost as much of a character story beat as it is an upgrade – Saros may be "gameplay first" as Housemarque describe it, but both play and narrative are very much in sync.

Ensuring Arjun's progression of power can still create that feeling of tension, however, has been a balancing act. "[It's not] invalidating the difficulty, but giving people ways to overcome the challenge," says Tinari. "The other aspect of that was briefly shown in one of the gameplay trailers – the Carcosan modifiers, our approach to: how do we let players control difficulty without saying 'I just can't handle it, I'm going to stop', or 'I'm going to make it easy mode.' It's more about, 'Where do I want that difficulty to be? What are my strengths as a player?'"

At the end of my hands-on with Saros I got to play around with these modifiers a little bit to replay a couple of levels. Also accessed alongside the Armor Matrix and the World Dial, these toggles present a range of buffs and debuffs that apply to the world for your run, balanced as a semi-circular dial. Each selected buff pulls it towards the left, and debuffs tilt it to the right. You might choose a wider radius for sucking up those all-important upgrade resources at the cost of enemies dealing more damage – and more modifiers seem to be unlocked as you progress.

"It's always fun to try and challenge conventions of a genre. With Returnal, it was very much this roguelike structure, but you had third-person shooting [that] was this new challenge, new frontier for it. We have this basis now, so we're asking ourselves: what aspects of the roguelike do we like, and what do we want to augment?" says Tinari. "One thing for us was to keep the feeling of danger when you're on a long run, where you don't want to lose your progress; but also reduce the feeling of helplessness when you know there's a potential like three hours to get back to where I was, right?" Returnal's sense of danger was great, but I have to admit it could be disheartening to lose due to some rotten luck deep into a run.

"There's no objectively right answer, but we tried to strike this balance [in Saros]. For example, you have teleportation unlocked after you get to the second biome, so you have this option," says Tinari. "Do I want to do the whole run from the first biome into the second to reach the second boss, and have all the artifacts and weapons that I've gained along the way, which will give me kind of a head start against the boss? Or, do I want to save time? Maybe I want to practice the fight, learn the enemies, learn the boss's patterns."

Giving players that freedom when it comes to Saros' structure and progression "helps with pacing", says Osaimi. "But I think it also [...] promotes the replayability aspect as well. With shorter runs, being able to go back and experience those in a shorter time frame adds a lot." I agree – even when Saros meets me with failure, it's much easier to dust Arjun off to get back into the fight once again, to dive into Carcosa for just one more run, to scoop up enough resources for more unlock, or simply to run head long into danger for one more shot – or, of course, the hot pursuit of revenge.

Take a look at our best roguelike games ranking for more!

Even though I've only gone hands-on with Saros for three hours so far, blasting and shielding my way through the Returnal spiritual successor's first two levels, it's already shaping up to be one of the best PS5 games of the year. While Returnal was an impressive release, Saros is shaping up to really reflect how much better Housemarque have gotten at getting the most out of the console. I liked Returnal a lot, but I felt like I didn't love it as much as everyone else. But, that makes it even more exciting that I love Saros so much, and it's well worth making sure this roguelike shooter is on your new releases radar.

Saros really feels like a refinement, both of the foundations Housemareque laid with the mysterious, arcadey, "gameplay first" Returnal, but also with the roguelike genre in general. With action dubbed by the developer as "bullet ballet", it's all about weaving through challenging waves of enemies through a beautiful but dangerous alien planet, Carcosa, as it transforms and reshapes across each run. There's a lot to love, but these seven Saros features are the ones that I'm digging the most so far, and really help it stand out as having the potential to be one of the best roguelike games I'll keep coming back to long after its April 30 launch.

7. Absorbing bullets

While Returnal was all about running away from and weaving through massive patterns of bullets, Saros adds a new option – why not run into them? Not quite counter-intuitive, but instead a sort of new third thing, using your shield to negate damage costs energy, but absorbing bullets rewards you with greater energy than you expend. That means once you start sucking in bullets you can keep going as long as you're not keeping it active for too long between shots. It also means you can spend the overcharged energy on brutal power shots. These special attacks come in several weapon varieties – but they all have explosive results. Sometimes, with absorbing corrupted shots, that means temporarily risking lowering your maximum armor health as well, meaning how you choose to dodge, jump, or plow into each wave of enemy fire has a real tactical edge.

6. Enter the matrix

Saros is far from the first roguelike game to feature a permanent progression mechanic that helps you get stronger with each successive run, but I really love the way Housemarque has carefully balanced maintaining challenge while also allowing players to make the action a little easier. The Armor Matrix is a skilltree that raises hero Arjun's base powers, and also unlocks new abilities to give him an edge in tough encounters. After defeating a couple of bosses, Carcosan Modifiers can be activated, allowing you to balance buffs and debuffs, exchanging a higher difficulty in areas you may feel more confident for benefits elsewhere – like increasing enemy damage to balance taking on a wider pick-up radius (which, in turn, can help you upgrade faster). Saros still feels tough, but less off-puttingly punishing when you fail – instead it really encourages me to dive back in for another run.

5. Shorter sprints

Returnal's roguelike runs could be lengthy, sometimes lasting well over an hour (and it didn't have an autosave at launch). Saros still allows you to tackle environments sequentially once unlocked, but also gives you the option to return to base with a teleporter function that also means you can start off at later areas as well. Housemarque has told me it's specifically aiming for runs to average about 30-minutes of playtime, which feels perfect considering the shield-based combat can feel a lot more intense than Returnal. Rather than having me play for less time, I've so far found the shorter bursts of play actually encouraging me to dive back in for one more run, rather than leaving me too exhausted to continue.

4. Arjun's journey

Sure, I loved the quiet mystery of Selene's more isolated adventure in Returnal, but so far I'm enjoying that Saros sets itself apart from its predecessor with an easier-to-follow narrative. Played by Rahul Kohli, there's star power here – but only as much as you want it. Audio logs, crew conversations, and investigating Carcosa's ruins aren't mandatory, but how can I say no? I'm already loving the cinematic flair to the handful of cutscenes I've seen so far, and it just makes it a lot easier to get hooked into Saros' narrative. Replaying levels across my three hours with the game, I've already found new bits of lore and information that's rewarded my return visits, and I'm looking forward to unpicking it all in due time.

3. Graphite is beautiful

Saros is a gorgeous-looking game, and Housemarque has taken the time to highlight to me that's partially due to Graphite. This proprietary VFX and Graphics framework leverages the Finnish studio's rich 30-year legacy, and in an introduction to the technology by VFX architect Sharman Jagadeesan, I get the sense we'll be hearing more about it in the future. Not a game engine in and of itself, Graphite is more part of the visual identity of Saros, and is responsible for how the game handles things like particle effects – vital with all the bullets on screen at once. Yes, it has its own global illumination system. No, they're not going to detail how they did it. Take it in, though – because Saros is a stunner. Housemarque has emphasized that while both Saros and Returnal are PS5 games, this new title leverages five more years of experience developing specifically for Sony's powerhouse console.

2. Going the distance

Saros' firefights can get chaotic with loads of orb-shaped bullets flying across the screen at once. So could Returnal, but there, you often had the binary challenge to simply put distance between yourself and the oncoming danger. I really like how Saros encourages me to take risks and to toe the line, often surrounding unblockable lasers with bullets that can be absorbed, daring me to get close to a deadly strike in order to charge up my own powerful counterattacks. Almost like a near miss in something like Crazy Taxi or Burnout, the temptation to stunt on foes really encourages player expression in a neat way, and as I've grown more comfortable with enemy attack patterns, I can already feel myself getting better at assessing when I should take the risk.

1. Watching the Eclipse

Partway through each area I've explored in Saros so far, Arjun has found his progression blocked unless he interfaces with a Carcosan device to activate the planet's strange Eclipse. This lunar energy courses down onto the world, changing the environment around him. So far, this has been the most striking in the Ancient Depths, an abandoned and silent factory that's brought into motion once again, pistons creating new paths forward while also forcing me to avoid re-activated laser cutters and greater numbers of machine enemies. It might be more dangerous, but the Eclipse also brings greater rewards, from upping dropped resources to bigger stat boosts – but they can also come at the cost of accepting debuffs, whether that's adding fall damage or straight up removing an auto lock-on feature of a gun in exchange for much higher damage.

Saros is all about deciding in the heat of the moment just how risky you want to play. It's almost irresistible to not jump straight into the fray, meeting danger head-on – and it's a big reason I'm eager to keep coming back for one more run.

Check out our upcoming PS5 games calendar for what to play next!

Saros sees Soltari Enforcer, Arjun Devraj, fighting through alien planet Carcosa to find out what happened to a lost colony, but its deadly wildlife isn't the only thing that puts him through his paces. The world itself is dangerous. Arjun's expeditions put him out of sync with how time flows for his crewmates at operating base, The Passage. Each roguelike-style run also sees the planet's environments twist into new layouts. The planet's frequent, strange Eclipses, too, increase Arjun's ability to power-up, all while also adding greater risk to each expedition.

The result is that Carcosa as a planet feels not only dangerous, but that it's tempting Arjun with the power to rise up to meet it. Compared to Returnal, which was equally challenging, during my hands-on with Saros I find myself encouraged to play riskier, to get more aggressive, to be less cautious (recovery is less punishing as well, thanks to some permanent progression options, and the ability to teleport directly to each new level). For instance, Arjun's shield can absorb enemy bullets to shoot the overcharge back as a power shot. During an Eclipse, these shots can be corrupted, still giving him that power at the cost temporarily depleting his max armor.

Forever's gonna start tonight

Encouraging an aggressive playstyle comes through in the storytelling as well. "I think Arjun as a character has a sense of more aggression, being a Soltari Enforcer," says Khalil Osaimi, senior narrative designer, cinematics. "He's no nonsense. Run at the bullets. It enforces the use of the shield and absorbing this power, and what that does to him coming back stronger after every run as well. We try to complement narrative and gameplay as much as possible."

Housemarque describes Saros, and all of its portfolio, as "gameplay first", but that doesn't mean a well-told story isn't there – just that it's up to you how much you want to explore it. The mysteries of Carcosa go beyond what you're told in cutscenes, woven into environment design whether that's ancient murals you can look over, or simply the construction of a space.

Across the two levels of Saros I play, there always comes a different point at which Arjun has no choice but to activate the Eclipse to progress. It reminds me of how in Returnal some of the environments felt paired with one another – such as a desert that becomes frozen over. Here, these flip sides are within one single run, the Eclipse transforming an area as you're becoming used to it. The Ancient Depths, for instance, is an abandoned factory that becomes reactivated with the Eclipse's energy, the mechanical enemies whirring to life; cutting lasers and spinning gears becoming new hazards for Arjun to navigate.

"From a narrative perspective, I consider the Eclipse one of the most interesting characters of the game, because no matter if you're on the surface or if you're underground, that haunting presence is always looming," says Osaimi. "It's not just to open up paths. It's not just to change the visual direction. It's the gameplay aspect of the corruption bullets [as well]. But, what is that corruption also doing to our character and the characters in the game?"

"With this kind of stuff, we try and make sure it has both a gameplay purpose and a narrative purpose," says lead game designer Abebe Tinari when I ask how the Eclipse mechanic came to be. "Our challenge as the enemy designers was, OK, it's the Eclipse now, how do enemies change? For a long time, we were prototyping various ways of making enemies more difficult. You know, [increasing] health, more damage. But, it didn't really feel immediately like an escalation, which is what it had to be. The answer that we came to was the corrupted bullets. When you start the Eclipse, they're shooting different bullets – that was the most immediately recognizable change we came to."

In fact, the ability to absorb corrupted enemy bullets is actually an upgrade you buy back at homebase, The Passage, part of Saros' new permanent progression system. Unlocked via the Armor Matrix powered by sassy, hyper-corporate machine Primary, who posits itself as a manifestation of the Soltari company's will, this is more than a simple skilltree but a part of Saros' worldbuilding just like Carcosa's Eclipses.

It's all in aid of "crafting a haunting narrative", Osaimi tells me. "Take Returnal, for example. You're Selene, and you're in isolation. Here, Arjun, how he reacts to the things that are happening with him – whether it's through the world of Carcosa, the enemies, the Eclipse itself – how does that affect him as a character? What is the perspective of the rest of the characters that he's around as well? [...] The concept of corruption definitely affects the character."

After all, it might be a neat upgrade that Arjun can use the power of corruption for himself, but then also, erm, is it really OK to constantly be steering him into the path of this deadly power? Aesthetic changes, like a gradually growing goopy appendage help to highlight how full of corruption Arjun is at any one time before he blasts it back out with a power shot.

"There's a lot of subtle things in there too. I'm not sure if you noticed when you get artifacts, you get [more] Resilience, Command, [or Drive], right?" says Tinari. "We call them growth attributes that tie into your weapon stats. It's, of course, a gameplay rich system, but the names of those attributes are not arbitrary. We tried to kind of tie that into Arjun's character, how he develops."

Saros might be aiming to be gameplay first, but that doesn't mean that the story or worldbuilding aren't there, or even that they're sidelined. It's there all the time, through how you play as Arjun, or even the way his stats are expressed. The real question is really: how much will you notice? In a way, that's a storytelling mechanic in and of itself.

Take a look at our best roguelike games ranking for more!

Saros isn't Returnal 2, but this roguelike follow-up still takes the foundations introduced there as its primary point of inspiration. On the surface, the shared DNA is obvious, but just a few subtle changes mean that the deeper you get into Saros, the more different you realize it is – to the point where my hands-on with Saros didn't click until the game's first boss, Prophet, shook me hard enough to stop trying to play it like Returnal.

"It is a skill check, yeah," grins lead game designer Abebe Tinari when I relate that my hands were shaking by the time I eventually beat it. "We tried to really tailor that early experience, but not in the way of adding more text tutorials or making people read a bunch of long explanations. It was more – how can people organically discover these mechanics?" says Tinari. "With the very first mech enemy, here's this long line of bullets. What do you do with it? Well, you have to dodge it. Or, you could pop your shield and run into it."

Shot through the heart

Tinari is, of course, right – I began my demo instinctively dodging to the side of these long lines of orbal bullets, but noticing they would linger in the air, I switched to running through them with my shield like I'm munching Pac-Man pellets, using the energy boost to charge my power shot. This high-impact super weapon is one you're encouraged to keep using when your shield is overcharged, momentum in play seeing me topping it off constantly in firefights for a ready supply.

"You have this flying enemy that has this nice curving arc of homing bullets, right? So, in Returnal, you have to dash," says Tinari. These shots, like Dio's daggers from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, hover briefly in the air before hitting at high-speed, requiring solid timing to get out of the way in both Saros and Returnal. But, the shield option in Saros turns the bullet pattern on its head, from highly deadly to highly useful. "Those come right to you, and turn into power," he says. "We tried to space out those beats so that before you get to the first boss, you're introduced to all the tools you need to defeat it. Hopefully!"

As well as getting me used to using my shield to absorb bullets, Saros' first area also introduces me to the planet Carcosa's strange eclipses. Activated partway through a level, this changes the biome visually, the way enemies act, the risk-reward factors of loot, and adds corrupted enemy bullets to the mix. Yellow rather than the standard blue, Arjun learns how to absorb these early on, but the stored energy temporarily reduces his maximum armor until you blast out the power shots.

"You can't actually die from corruption. There is a limit, I think it's about 90% of your integrity. that it won't go beyond," says Tinari. When battling the first boss, I end up on the very edge of death as I exchange fire with it, using my shield as much as possible. "It puts you in the red health state, where one more hit will take you out, right? So if you're willing to kind of take those bullets, you get the power, but then it gets more and more dangerous," he says.

Saros encourages an aggressive playstyle that rewards taking risks. While that's not totally absent in Returnal, it did feel like the best option was often to stay as far away from enemy bullets as possible. Saros, on the other hand, deliberately complicates this dynamic, and it's not just about the shield removing damage, but how far you want to go in using it to strike back. Battles might look similar at a glance, but it completely changes how you approach firefights in Saros compared to Returnal.

"The biggest one was to account for the shield," says Tinari. "Just for some context, I arrived here a year and a half ago, so I've been working on the enemies since then, and we made pretty much every bullet pattern you see within the last year and a half. It was a really fun process. But it was difficult. The shield on paper, it's like one thing – OK, they have the dash, they have the jump, now they have the shield. One more thing, right? That one thing changes everything. Because you have this option of just standing still and popping the shield, and all the bullets, if they're homing bullets, they all come to you. It completely changed how we make patterns."

The addition of the shield simply gives you so many more options for Arjun to tackle foes. "There's an enemy in the second biome, this giant mech, it either opens sideways and fires a tunnel of bullets, or it has a little cannon that pops up from the top and fires a big, fast moving burst of bullets," says Tinari. "With the top one, you're encouraged to dash quickly to avoid it. With the tunnel, what we wanted to do is kind of challenge you to shield the edge of it, to get the power from it. But it has one – we call it a nova bullet – a red bullet in the center that will break your shield. That, in Returnal, would not make sense, because you have no reason to challenge yourself to get inside the tunnel. You would just dash away from it, right? But, because we now have these mechanics, we can layer these different bullet types in ways that tempt you to do those tricky things."

Likewise, second boss Bastion allows me to approach it like I might a firefight in Returnal, thanks to its wider arena, but constantly presents intriguing ways to use my shield to get the upperhand.

"There's one attack that – I totally see what you're saying about how it's more about dashing and jumping, like Returnal – but there's one attack I really am proud of, which is a big laser attack," says Tinari. "It's a laser with a spiral of bullets around the outside. The idea there is that you can just run away from it. You're fast enough to outrun it. But if you walk slowly on purpose while your shield is active, you can just absorb all the bullets off the side without the beam touching you, and then get this massive charge of power all at once."

I compare the approach, daring Arjun to get close to enemy fire without getting hurt, as being like Crazy Taxi. "I was playing it two weeks ago!" says Tinari (the Dreamcast is his favorite console, which is correct). Drive close to oncoming traffic in that Sega classic, and the Crazy Through gives you a speed boost. "Classic, like, Burnout-style," Tinari adds. "A near miss!"

The approach gives Saros an extra dimension of creativity and player expression. Even though you could stay on the move as far away from enemy fire as possible, it's clear that's sub-optimal. How far do you want to go in order to play Saros better? To finesse it?

"One of the coolest action mechanics is [what] I think of as analog interactions. So, a binary interaction is like: you jump or you don't. But analog is more like, how much do you feather the stick?" says Tinari. "Going back to Bastion's beam – do you dash away from it? It might be challenging in a timing sense, but it's just one decision you make. This act of regulating how much your thumb is moving on the stick to kind of just get the right distance, that's the real depth."

Take a look at our best roguelike games ranking for more!

My hands are shaking, eyes wide as I try to pirouette through a barrage of swirling multi-colored bullets from a hulking, rooty tree thing called Prophet. About 30 minutes into one of my early runs in Saros, the spiritual successor to Returnal – a roguelike shooter Housemarque calls "bullet ballet" – this boss is putting me through the wringer, whipping at my pointed toes as I desperately try to survive through a surprise second phase with dwindling health. This ain't no Swan Lake. I dodge, I weave, I ease the DualSense triggers to use alt-fire blasts when I have space. Finally, it falls. Then… it gets back up. Come on, a third phase?

As someone who felt like they mastered Returnal's third-person shooting well enough to consistently bash through runs, in this moment Saros begins to feel like a gargantuan challenge. Sweating it up in Housemarque's Helsinki office, a fizzy orange drink the only way to calm my nerves, I'm getting nervous. Let loose on the first three hours of the game from the very start, I'm told I have two whole levels to play through. What if this is where it ends for me? What if I can't get past the first level? Saros is a wonderful spiritual sequel to Returnal, but it's a different, evolved beast at the same time – with well-judged difficulty providing an excellent challenge that's satisfying to overcome. Forget being a PS5 must-play, Saros is feeling like game of the year material already.

Bullet sponge

Funnelling me into a small corridor, walls of roots restricting movement, it feels like Prophet is issuing me a direct challenge: stop trying to play Saros like Returnal. So I do. With dodging in such a small space feeling like a death sentence, I instead have the tenacious Soltari enforcer Arjun Devraj (Rahul Kohli) square up to the lightshow-like display of bullets, readying his shield to meet the threats of alien planet Carcosa head-on.

Using this piece of megacorp tech from back home depletes the energy levels of Arjun's armor. But, absorbing compatible bullets restores even more of that energy, able to be overcharged and blasted out to deal devastating damage. Blue bullets do this unhindered, but yellow bullets – corrupted by the Carcosa's frequent, strange Eclipses – spread that corruption through Arjun's suit, reducing his armor capacity until I cleanse it with each power blast.

During the climax of my duel against Prophet, my health already dwindling, playing it safe – as I might have done in Returnal – isn't going to cut it. Fully embracing the utility of Arjun's shield, I accept that from this point on, health doesn't really matter. Constantly swarming me with corrupted, yellow bullets as well as the safer blue ones, I push through them all with no distinction.

Hold, release, blast. Hold, release, blast. Mistiming getting that shield up will see Arjun obliterated: too late, and the final 10% dregs of his armor will be shredded, but too early and I won't have enough shield energy recharged to even begin sucking them in. By the end I'm not dodging at all, deliberately making myself a target to ensure as many bullets pepper into me as possible. With this long, narrow arena, it becomes a tennis match, a volley of bullets that I keep throwing back into Prophet's face – a proper duel.

When Prophet crumbles, I'm exhausted. Even though it's one of the best PS5 games, Returnal's runs could take well over an hour, seeing how far into each sequence of levels you could get, unsure how far you'd make it. In Saros, I'm relieved to see that after this first boss I activate a teleportation shortcut back to Arjun's base of operations – The Passage – which I can use to return to tackle the next level immediately, or start from square one to hoover up upgrades through levels and bosses back-to-back if I so wish.

Housemarque tells me that aiming for these chunks of play to average about 30-minutes in length is deliberate, and it feels like a smart move, giving me much needed time to breathe and let that stress out. Clashes in Saros, rewarding you for risky manoeuvring close to enemy fire, can feel so much more intense than Returnal where staying on the move was often the catch-all strategy.

Safe Passage

Soltari, the megacorp that sent Arjun and his crew off to shipwreck on Carcosa, are eager to get their hands on the planet's enigmatic, eclipse-fueled natural resources – though the preceding expeditions have seen each colonization attempt go mysteriously missing. Arjun's unit is specifically geared up to find out why – and for some that mission is much more personal than the clinical profit margins Solatari are chasing. That tension is already a highlight, and best observed through Primary, an almost snake-like, mechanized artificial intelligence unit that can improve Arjun's gear. Teleport back to base camp for the first time and it'll briefly be confused before scanning you, declaring the technology now property of Soltari, and notifying Arjun he'll have a bonus in his payslip while our main man just rolls his eyes. It's charmingly HAL-ish.

Primary's upgrades aren't all talk, either. Besides Arjun's shield, permanent upgrades through the Armor Matrix are the biggest way Saros diverges from Returnal. Scooping up resources from destroyed enemies or caches, they can be traded in to progress up a big skill tree, primarily giving Arjun stronger starting stats or for gear rolls to have a higher base level. In my demo, some nodes on this tree are locked behind defeating certain bosses, so there's a cap on how many upgrades Arjun can accrue that's tied to progression, but there's plenty up for grabs if you want to focus on getting stronger to get a leg-up in those boss fights.

Similarly, Carcosan Modifiers allow for further, world-altering tweaks, and are also set at Primary before an excursion. Split between positive and negative modifiers that you aim to balance, you may trigger, for instance, a wider collection radius on resource drops, but then need to counteract by setting enemies to do more damage. Not simply a difficulty mode, it allows you to explore adding your own layer of risk-reward.

Saros' roguelike structure means there will be plenty of time to experiment as you fight through each of Carcosa's environments, even if teleportation means you can now start directly at each newly unlocked area if you wish. Between deaths, the planet reforms and shapeshifts so that Arjun will have to battle through a freshly formed sequence of rooms. It's a similar approach to Returnal, but, like with the more focused runtimes, feels tightened up.

Each handcrafted chunk of level feels well-designed, especially when it comes to presenting interesting spaces for intense shootouts with foes, mixing together different elevations with spaces for Arjun to run rings around enemies or deftly dodge their huge bullet barrages in close confines. Compared to Returnal, I find myself getting stuck on bits of level geometry far less across the first two levels.

Beyond each of Saros' rooms feeling well-designed, so too does the experience of moving between them. Some areas have multiple exits to progress forward, and whether one leads towards the main objective or is a side-route is marked clearly on Arjun's mini-map. These side spaces are always worth exploring if you're able to – some are locked and require collectible keys, or sometimes whole new traversal upgrades you presumably get later.

Unlike Returnal, these side-paths are all slight, quick diversions, but I think this really helps with Saros' fast-paced expeditions. It's so much easier to quickly assess the risk-reward value of going off the beaten track in Saros, while in Returnal I often found the lengthy side-paths not worth the backtracking time by the late-game. While Arjun's base levels are upgraded between each run, he'll still be stripped of power-ups each run, so hoovering up number-juicing upgrades as you plunge once more into Carcosa's depths is vital.

Saros' eclipses even make for a cleaner indication of that risk-reward ramp up, too. Housemaque calls Carcosa's lunar phenomena an "escalation" in just about every sense. Arjun begins exploring each environment as normal, but always comes up against a progression blocker that he'll need to remove by interfacing with strange alien technology that initiates an Eclipse. Under this phenomenon, new life is breathed into this otherwise almost dead-world – ancient forests stir once again, abandoned factories whirr back to life, allowing for new ways to progress with new dangers to match, from tougher beasties to having to move between laser-cutting tools.

Pressure is added just about everywhere during an Eclipse. Beyond just adding corruption to enemy blasts, it seeps into all things – gear too – teasing power at a cost. A huge power surge may now saddle Arjun with a decrease in power if he shoots while stationary (why are you stopping, anyway?), or, much worse, introduce fall damage. I will never look before I leap. Likewise, a hefty new gun may come at the cost of stripping away auto-aim capabilities. Saros is constantly making me think which debuffs I'm willing to handle in order to become vastly more powerful, and weighing up the cost of playing it safe versus feeling underpowered.

I've yet to get a full sense of Saros' broader structure, but getting to run a few loops across two levels (including beating them front-to-back one after another) is enough to convince me this quicker, more intense play is absolutely the evolution of the Returnal formula I wanted to see. Just three hours has been enough time to get me comfortable with when to embrace the Eclipse, which side-paths to poke through, and which gear I want to pocket on each randomized run. But it's also made it clear there's so much more to experience as I find new layers of depth.

Arjun's starting pistol is a punchy, shotgun-like handgun I don't think much of at first, but when I grow comfortable with its half-trigger pull alt-fire – which removes its fire-rate limit completely to simply shoot as fast as you can mash the trigger – I begin to love it. Only at the end of my time with this early look at Saros do I even begin to really click with all the nuances of the Soltari shield. My first victory against Prophet was dicey, empowering, and edge-of-my-seat, but on repeat encounters with the boss I begin to grow more comfortable with scooping up corrupted shots only when I have to, easing my way through to the less dangerous blue ones.

Meeting that danger head-on, and growing comfortable with it, is all part of Arjun's journey. The second boss I face plays with this, blasting out waves of bullets that mix blue and yellow shots together, teasing me with potential non-corrupted paths to weave through for optimal damage. Then, there's a laser blasting out unblockable damage in its center, but surrounded by absorbable bullets. Play it safe, and just run? Or ride the very edge of the danger zone to blast all that energy right back out? It's possible to play cautiously in Saros, but the allure of embodying Arjun fully, and learning how to blast right through, is hard to resist.

Want more loops? Check out our best roguelike games ranking!

Earlier this week, reports emerged that Sony was shutting down Dark Outlaw Games, a first-party studio led by Call of Duty: Black Ops veteran Jason Blundell. Today, Blundell confirmed the news on a Twitch stream hosted by another member of the Dark Outlaw Games team, JCbackfire.

"We have to respect confidentiality so we can’t go into every gory detail," Blundell said during the stream, as highlighted by Kotaku. Neither dev revealed much about the project, but JCbackfire did confirm that it was not a live service game.

Despite promises for extensive live service games, Sony seems to have been backing away from those ambitions in recent years. A multiplayer The Last of Us title went on ice in 2023, Concord had its disastrous launch in 2024, and live-service titles from Bluepoint and Bend Studio were reportedly canceled in 2025.

It's unclear what PlayStation, a brand that had cemented a reputation for fantastic single-player narrative games before its live service pivot, is building its portfolio around now. But one thing is clear: Dark Outlaw Games will not be a part of the lineup.

"I can reassure you – and it’s been reassured to me – it’s just times change, focus changes, but the project we were doing and what we were doing, fans would have been very excited," Blundell said. Either way, both Blundell and JCbackfire agree that getting the news "fucking sucked."

Before Dark Outlaw, Blundell had previously founded Deviation Games, which, while not a first-party studio, was building a game in partnership with PlayStation. He left that studio in 2022, and it was eventually shut down before the game could be released.

"The question will be, 'Oh, that's two down. Maybe it's time for you to retire?'" Blundell mused with a bit of gallows humor during the stream. "You would have to put me in the goddamn ground. And by the way, I'll do the next one, and when that fails, guess what I'll do after that? The next one. And you know what I'll do after that? The next one. And then once they bury me, I'll still be trying to effing do the next one."

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says latest layoffs will result in "a stream of resumes of once-in-a-lifetime quality folks" because the downsizing "wasn't a performance-based 'rightsizing.'"

Just as God of War fans suspected, developer Sony Santa Monica considered taking its 2018 reboot series to Egypt before ultimately deciding to center it around Norse mythology, original God of War programmer Tim Moss confirms.

Fans found what appeared to be evidence of Sony Santa Monica's flirtation with the great gods of the Nile earlier this year, while spelunking in the 2022 God of War Ragnarok files. Unused scenes reveal a companion for Atreus who can only repeat its own name, "Mau," which is also the ancient Egyptian word for cat, or a manifestation of the sun god Ra. It's compelling evidence for the rumored direction of the God of War franchise, but Moss' memories recounted to Retro Gamer help make it a little more convincing.

He recalls, while working on the 2018 reboot as development support, "The main myths we looked at were the obvious ones: Egyptian and Norse." Ultimately, Sony Santa Monica chose to explore Norse mythology after determining "it was familiar but not familiar."

Moss continues, "I think the plan was to do Egyptian [mythology] at some point." It's never too late for "some point" to arrive…

But Moss doesn't seem as concerned with the future of the God of War franchise as he is just glad to have been involved with its creation. Speaking about God of War 3, the 2010 game on which he served as director of technology, Moss says, "I'm proud I got to make something that will probably outlive me."

God of War actor Christopher Judge says he hopes a potential sequel will take place in Egypt, but "I have no doubt that no matter what pantheon it is, it will be great."

PlayStation has reportedly closed Dark Outlaw Games, a first-party studio led by Call of Duty: Black Ops veteran Jason Blundell. The studio had been working on a new, AAA IP since 2025. The closure is said to be part of wider layoffs at the company, some of which also affect mobile development.

"PlayStation is closing Dark Outlaw Games, a studio formed last year by former Call of Duty lead Jason Blundell," according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, posting on Bluesky. Schreier adds, "PlayStation is also making other cuts including in mobile development. Around 50 people laid off."

Schreier's post follows an apparent leak on the forum ResetEra, which made similar claims, and added that PlayStation is scaling back on mobile development outside of "a few select high impact projects."

Little is known about Dark Outlaw's game, other than the fact that it would have been a "AAA console title," according to a job listing. That listing for a senior concept artist created some controversy when it surfaced, since it called for someone with "advanced expertise in using generative AI tools such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, ChatGPT, or similar platforms" to help conceptualize the game.

Blundell is best known as one of the leads behind the Zombies modes for Black Ops. He worked at Treyarch for over a decade before leaving in 2020 to found Deviation Games, which was set to make a new title in partnership with PlayStation. Blundell left Deviation in 2022, and the developer was eventually shut down in 2024 – a few months after he'd founded Dark Outlaw Games as a first-party PlayStation studio.

The report comes just over a month after Sony shut down remake and remaster maestro Bluepoint. A few years ago, the company announced extensive plans for new live service games, but killed Bluepoint's live service God of War title in 2025.

Epic Games lays off "over 1,000" people, CEO Tim Sweeney says "I'm sorry we're here again" and blames "the downturn in Fortnite engagement."

God of War and its sequel are some of the best PS2 games ever made, but Sony's Santa Monica Studio didn't really know what it was getting into when development on the epic mythological action game got underway. The studio's story was similar to many in the era: a lot of missed deadlines and intense overtime.

"We started God Of War in 2001, but we didn't start with the idea that it would ultimately take four years," lead coder Tim Moss explains in the latest issue of Retro Gamer magazine. "We crunched like motherfuckers. We were young and enthusiastic, and we didn't know any better, so we worked hard and kept moving the deadline. That was the way it got done."

Prior to God of War, Santa Monica Studio developed the moderately horny racing game Kinetica, and its engine both of Kratos' PS2 games – so technically, the development lineage stretches back even further than those four years. That might sound like nothing today, when games like The Elder Scrolls 6 are stretching fandom patience to the breaking point, but it was pretty unusual for a game in the PS2 era to take that long to make.

Progress on the sequel was quite a bit faster, Moss says, but it doesn't sound like it was anything smoother. "We made God Of War II in two years, but really most of the game was finished in the nine months up to its completion," Moss says. "We were very time pressured. I mean the crunch was even worse than the first one."

Moss singles out God of War 2's Pegasus sequence – where you ride atop the back of the mythical winged beast and do battle with enemies in mid-air – as a particular challenge. "Pegasus was one of the new things that we did," Moss explains. "Pegasus was difficult because it was completely different than everything else. Really it was asking for something that was slightly outside the capabilities of the engine that we had."

Studios and developers alike have thankfully pushed to reduce crunch in recent years, but as working conditions improve AAA games have simultaneously been increasing their scope to unprecedented levels. It's now been four years since the launch of God of War Ragnarok, and we have nothing more than rumors about what the next entry in the series will be. Some elements of the PS2 era – crunch included – are best left behind, but there's gotta be a happy medium in there somewhere.

Final Fantasy 14 boss man Yoshi-P says younger players "haven't really had the chance to connect" with the JRPG series as "the release intervals for new titles have gotten longer."

We got a preview of PSSR 2 with the launch of Resident Evil Requiem a few weeks ago, but today marks the wider launch of the improved upscaling tech on PS5 Pro. The upgrade lands as part of a system-level update that can apply to all games, but some specific titles – including the likes of Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Monster Hunter Wilds – are getting their own special patches, and arguably the tech's most notable test will be the launch of Crimson Desert later this week.

"PSSR is an AI library that analyzes each frame pixel by pixel as it upscales game visuals," as Sony explains in its announcement. "With this latest evolution, image reconstruction is more precise, motion stability is improved, and developers have greater flexibility to balance performance and fidelity on PS5 Pro."

The original version of PSSR often did provide major visual upgrades for certain titles on PS5 Pro, but the machine learning-based upscaler sometimes introduced distracting graphical artifacts in certain games. PSSR 2 – simply the "new" or "improved" PSSR, as Sony prefers to call it – builds on an upgraded algorithm that should both eliminate those sorts of artifacts and offer better results across the board.

A new Digital Foundry analysis breaks down some of the big improvements to existing games. Silent Hill f, for example, no longer has the shimmering, pulsing visual noise it once displayed on PS5 Pro. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth offered one of the better PSSR 1 implementations out there, but it's also been improved, cutting out the soft film grain-like effect that once overlaid the screen.

It's not all perfect, as DF highlights that Dragon Age: The Veilguard sometimes showcases odd, dot-shaped artifacts with PSSR 2 on certain textures. But all the games tested are definitively better under the new tech. "This is a big improvement over PSSR 1," Digital Foundry's Oliver Mackenzie believes. "So big that it justifies the existence of PS5 Pro almost on its own."

Silent Hill f, Silent Hill 2, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Control, Alan Wake 2, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Nioh 3, Rise of the Ronin, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Dragon's Dogma 2 have all been specifically upgraded for PSSR 2. The new PS5 Pro update, which launches today, also introduces a system-level setting to enable or disable the feature across all games on the console, though we don't yet know what sort of improvements – or flaws – may be introduced with this more general setting.

"Moving forward, most new PS5 Pro titles will launch with support for this enhanced PSSR, ensuring players continue to see improvements in image quality and performance," Sony explains in its announcement.

One of the key upcoming PS5 games with PSSR 2 support is Crimson Desert. The long-awaited open-world RPG looks so visually impressive that console players had begun to grow skeptical of how it would run at launch, but the devs finally released some PS5 Pro footage last week that looked darned impressive – and that was without the new PSSR. In theory, it should be even better with PSSR 2.

Sony has also confirmed two other notable PSSR 2 patches arriving "in the coming weeks": Assassin's Creed Shadows and Cyberpunk 2077. PS5 Pro's impact was greatly diminished by a number of games – I'm looking at you, Silent Hill 2 – that straight-up looked worse than they did on the base console thanks to poor PSSR implementations. While I wish things had been different at launch, I'm glad Sony is finally making efforts to set things right.

These are the best PS5 games you can play in 2026.

The original God of War trilogy is both a great set of video games and a perfect example of the M-rated excess the industry often aspired to in the post-GTA 3 glow of the '00s. The sex minigames alone are pretty grotesque reminders of the series' devotion to male power fantasies, so they'll surely be cut from the upcoming trilogy remake, right? Not so fast with those assumptions, says one former Sony Santa Monica writer – those sex scenes were, after all, largely designed by women.

"Fun fact: the God of War sex mini-games were designed by women," according to Alanah Pearce, who was a writer at Sony Santa Monica for several years, speaking in a recent stream. "In fact, I worked with one of them. They were largely worked on by women on that dev team. In fact, when you walk into, I think it's Aphrodite's chamber, this was designed – again, including a group of women – to look like a labia. It's literally designed to be evocative of a vagina. And the women were the ones who did that. When you look at it, it makes sense, but I feel like a lot of people didn't notice that. I worked with one of the women who worked on these, and she was very proud of it, and it was really fucking cool."

Pearce later identifies the woman she worked with as Ariel Lawrence, who served in production roles across the original God of War trilogy and Ascension. There's a bit of making of footage (I'll give you an obvious NSFW warning here) showcasing the motion capture process for the Aphrodite sex minigame, which takes place in God of War 3, and Lawrence speaks quite unashamedly of it there.

In that scene, you, as Kratos, walk into Aphrodite's chambers, where she's making a vaguely depicted form of love with two handmaidens – all three women are, naturally, topless – on top of a bed with very yonic curtains. She sends the handmaidens away as she propositions you. If you accept, the camera swings over to the two still-topless handmaidens, as you press buttons and swing the analog stick around while the women react to Kratos' stunning demonstration of male virility. At the end, the handmaidens are so overcome by lust at watching this display that they leap on each other with the enthusiasm of horny teenagers.

"I recognize that in God of War, like, it's a little silly the way it was in those games," Pearce admits. "But again, I think it should still be in those remakes. I think it belongs there. I don't think it was disrespectful to women. I think that, if anything, those games are quite critical of who Kratos is as a person. The rage is clearly not fulfilling to him. It almost serves the journey that he ends up going on in 2018 and Ragnarok better if you have that version of him to begin with. I don't think it should be changed personally. I definitely think they should be there."

It's worth noting that the sex scene with Aphrodite is immediately preceded by a sequence where Kratos 'rescues' a half-nude female prisoner, angrily shoves her around for a bit, and ends up wedging her into the gear works of a massive door so that he can calmly stride through. Is that a depiction of a man holding a tragic amount of rage in his heart? Sure, but the woman is also presented in a titillating enough way that the line between "story about a misogynistic act" and "pure misogynistic fantasy" gets pretty blurry.

Either way, the sex scenes in the first two God of War games are substantially tamer, and probably less of a concern for whoever has to make a decision about whether to include them in the trilogy remake. The real question is what form that remake will take. We don't yet know whether it'll be an all-new game telling the same story as we see in the first three God of War titles, or a simpler visual upgrade that keeps the original gameplay and pacing intact. Personally? I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the remake continues to show a few nipples besides those belonging to Kratos.

God of War ranks pretty highly on our list of the best PS2 games.

After almost five years and a few ups and downs, Bungie's Marathon is now publicly available. As people check out the FPS, fans of Arc Raiders are trying to quell tribalism within their community in the name of simply enjoying more variety on the market.

Marathon and Arc Raiders invite some comparison, with both being sci-fi extraction shooters. They offer a blend of PvP and PvE, have distinct structures for their progression, and use futuristic settings for their backdrops, albeit to very different ends.

You could easily imagine players being entrenched in one or the other, like Battlefield and Call of Duty, but the fanbase of Embark's release is being less combative.

"Two beautiful games can coexist without all this hate for each other," a Redditor says. "If I want an experience more focused on PvE and finding people to socialize with, I will go to Arc, (but I have to admit I preferred the PvE missions in Marathon than in Arc). If I want a fast game with adrenaline-filled PvP, I will go to Marathon."

They include a meme of someone enjoying Arc Raiders and Marathon as if they're both delicious desserts. "Holy shit! Two cakes!" they're exclaiming. The comments are filled with people agreeing.

"If Marathon does well, Embark cannot grow too complacent with Arc Raiders," replies one commenter. "We want this competition, it's good for both us and Marathon players at the end of the day."

People don't even necessarily agree that they're similar experiences. "Embark are putting the focus on PvE and the 'don't shoot' mentality. Marathon is the complete opposite; the devs encourage PvP heavily," as another Redditor adds.

For those who've dedicated themselves to Arc Raiders, Marathon provides a welcome reprieve without losing the social aspects. "After 300h [in] Arc Raiders, Marathon is a nice new game," one commenter states.

Whether you enjoy a game or not, success should always be the hope, especially in the current industry where games and teams can be shut down in the blink of an eye. If you had a problem with Arc Raiders, Marathon might be more your speed, and vice versa, and variety is truly the spice of life.

Arc Raiders was recording private Discord DMs in plain text, engineer claims in report on "serious privacy and security violations," which prompted a hasty hotfix from Embark

What began as a, perhaps mischievous, but otherwise innocent fan challenge for Helldivers 2 developers to play their own game on the highest difficulty in exchange for a $1,000 charity donation has turned into a quagmire. Both developer Arrowhead and publisher Sony are putting on their wading shoes in an effort to rid it of weeds.

Arrowhead and Sony both addressed all players in a joint statement posted on official Helldivers 2 social channels March 5, making it clear that "Arrowhead Game Studios and Sony Interactive Entertainment are tracking the situation currently unfolding surrounding the Dev D10 challenge which started on Reddit."

The initial post issuing the challenge, made about a week ago, establishes "A SERIOUS OFFER" to donate $1,000 to Arrowhead's preferred charity in exchange for "a video of 4 of their developers playing an entire operation on Oshaune on difficulty 10." Another player took it upon themselves to assign specific loadouts to Arrowhead staff, too, including CEO Shams Jorjani, for an additional $1,000 – and Jorjani has recently been flirting with the idea of accepting the expensive wagers.

But other Helldivers 2 players have been informing Jorjani that, within the playerbase, people are torn on the so-called dev D10 challenge. Some people have even decided to retaliate against the original challenge issuer with apparent death threats and phone calls to his employer, as one fan even tells Jorjani in a March 3 Discord message, "The guy who issued the challenge to you guys got doxed today is a sad day."

Jorjani replied at the time, "Yeah. Helldivers treat other helldivers with respect."

Today, Arrowhead and Sony echo this sentiment in their joint warning, stressing that "humans are not the enemy, Helldivers, your fight is elsewhere."

"We do not tolerate threats of violence, harassment, or doxxing toward anyone: players, creators, developers, moderators, or our teams in any community spaces," the studios say. "While we understand that /r/Helldivers is a community-owned and operated channel, it should be a safe and welcoming place for all people to voice their opinions and frustrations in a productive and respectful way. This kind of toxic behavior is unacceptable and not something we will ever condone."

"We are continuing to monitor and review this situation internally and with our external partners," Arrowhead and Sony continue, "but in the meantime we are asking that our players practice kindness and respect towards one another."

Through a top comment with nearly 3,000 upvotes as of writing, reacting to the statement on Reddit, players seem to rally behind the hope that "those involved in the harassment can be tracked down and banned from the game permanently."

Helldivers 2 retires gratuitous 154GB Steam build this month in favor of "slim" PC version after Arrowhead confirms players are still "having a great experience" on "smaller build."

Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke developer Shift Up has revealed new plans to increase its efforts in self-publishing in job postings first noticed by South Korean gaming website GameMeca.

This apparent decision to self-publish comes at interesting timing – ahead of the Stellar Blade sequel's planned release window sometime before 2027. Notably, Sony published the original horny action-apocalypse Stellar Blade in 2024, but the in-progress sequel Shift Up hopes will be an "even greater success than the original" does not have a publisher attached to it yet.

Instead of spending time looking for a publisher, Shift Up is publicly recruiting for a number of jobs across multiple departments – including PR and, according to Google Translate, designers for the Stellar Blade sequel. As part of its search, it's telling candidates in descriptions translated by Automaton that it's "preparing for a new leap forward in the global market."

"Beyond the worldwide success of Goddess of Victory: NIKKE and Stellar Blade," the company continues. "We aim to expand our self-publishing capabilities to support internally developed titles across consoles and PC." Shift Up last self-published the popular Korean visual novel The Reason Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion in 2021 – but its stuffed coffers now likely allow for even more, and even bigger, projects. Stellar Blade's PC launch alone sold one million copies in three days on the market, but even before that, Shift Up was giving its employees free PS5 Pros for a job well done on the game.

In a statement to GameMeca, also translated by Automaton, a Shift Up spokesperson explains that the company is indeed trying to capitalize on its recent global growth, and it aims to support its own titles long-term. That said, Shift Up's upcoming, self-described "EASTERN Fantasy" game Project Spirits is getting published by Tencent. Its characters also have physiologically improbable boobs.

Stellar Blade lead believes AI is essential for South Korea to compete with studios in the US and China, with the government to provide financial backing to support the use of the tech.

A Bloodborne remake could've happened at Bluepoint, according to a new report.

The now-disbanded Sony subsidiary known for its excellent remakes allegedly pitched a Bloodborne remake last year, which was subsequently shot down by FromSoftware itself.

In early 2025, in the wake of the reported cancellation of its live-service God of War game, Bluepoint pitched Sony on a Bloodborne remake, according to Jason Schreier at Bloomberg. The studio was reportedly told that "the numbers made sense" for the project, but original creator FromSoftware didn't want the project to go forward for unspecified reasons.

The report goes on to suggest that Bluepoint subsequently pitched Sony on new projects for existing PlayStation franchises, including a Ghost of Tsushima spin-off, as well as an updated version of its 2018 Shadow of the Colossus remake. Earlier this month, Sony shut down Bluepoint entirely, even as it continues to publicly weigh remake demands from fans.

The reasons why FromSoftware might have declined Bluepoint's proposal are unclear. Studio boss Hidetaka Miyazaki has said in the past that he's "very happy" such a big appetite for a remake exists, and that he's not "opposed" to a PC port, at a minimum.

But last year, former PlayStation Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida offered an additional bit of insight, suggesting that, perhaps, Miyazaki simply "doesn't want anyone else to touch" Bloodborne. While Bluepoint's PS5 remake of Demon's Souls, another beloved FromSoftware classic, was broadly well-received, some specific art changes in the game were criticized for straying too far from the spirit of the original designs.

Maybe FromSoftware didn't want a repeat of that situation, or maybe the studio didn't anyone – Bluepoint or otherwise – taking any creative control over arguably its most beloved game. The one thing we know for sure is that the wait for Bloodborne's return continues to drag on.

"Are you serious?": Dev claims Sony lawyers killed their Bloodborne ARPG, and now they're extra devastated with hopes for a Bluepoint remake crushed by its closure.

By the time Marvel's Wolverine finally hits shelves, it'll be five years since the superhero action-adventure was first announced. That's quite a wait, but as excited as we are to see Wolvie's new game, the man behind the claws is even more eager.

See, Liam McIntyre, the voice actor bringing the legendary Marvel hero to life for this particular venture, has quite literally watched his son grow up while partaking in the release. "I've been working on this for almost as long as my son has been alive," he posted on Twitter, retweeting someone hyping Wolverine's arrival.

"I've been waiting for this day for a long time," he adds. "Not long now!!!" I can only imagine. Although Wolverine was announced by Sony back in September 2021, it had been in the works for some time before that. How long exactly? We can't say for certain, but we know this game was pitched by Insomniac on the back of 2018's Spider-Man.

Ergo, you can safely put another year or two on the overall development time. Five years is a stretch, seven is the bones of a decade. McIntyre likely wasn't there that long, but it sounds like he arrived pretty early in the process, and has been contributing his lines and however else Insomniac would like him to, ever since.

Wolverine arrives just three years after Spider-Man 2, as well, continuing Insomniac's trend of shipping a major game every two-to-three years. The Spidey installments have set a high bar for the adamantium-clawed mutant, but if there's one thing Logan's good at, it's surpassing expectations. Or chopping it down to size. Either way, it arrives on September 15, 2026.

Marvel wanted the new Wolverine game to bring Logan back in "spectacular and visceral fashion," and Insomniac was "the perfect choice" after the Spider-Man games

The latest PlayStation State of Play arrived tonight, providing us with plenty to look forward to this year and beyond – including one very surprising shadow drop, in the form of a 2D God of War spin-off, dubbed Sons of Sparta.

Sure, the God of War Greek trilogy remake is exciting, but Sons of Sparta is something entirely new... and entirely different, to boot. As per Sony's accompanying blog post on the upcoming game, it's a 2D action platformer following Kratos' youth as he trained at the Agoge alongside his brother, Deimos. Although it's visually different from the mainline series, the studio points out that its story is 100% canonical.

Not only that, but God of War Sons of Sparta is available right now on PS5 via the official PlayStation Store, with the standard edition coming in at $29.99 and a digital deluxe version priced higher at $39.99. For anyone interested in the more expensive version, it comes with a digital artbook, soundtrack, and a PlayStation Network avatar of young Kratos looking especially serious.

As for how God of War Sons of Sparta plays, Kratos will be employing the use of his trusty spea rand shield while also harnessing powerful divine artifacts called the "Gifts of Olympus" to take on various formidable foes. As Sony describes it, the new 2D gem "features the return of iconic classics recreated" with "stunning hand-drawn pixel animation" – but also creatures fans haven't seen before.

It is inspired by Greek mythology, after all, so expect some very cool beasts. Seeing as it's coming from the OG writing team at Santa Monica that worked on God of War and Ragnarok, as well as Mega Cat Studios, I'm certain that Sons of Sparta won't fall short of impressing the community. It's not like we have to wait to play it, either... so, boot up that PS5 and start downloading for more Kratos in 2026.

Looking for something else to wishlist? Be sure to browse our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond for even more to anticipate.

The new PlayStation State of Play has arrived, gracing us with a plethora of trailers and big announcements – and release dates, as is the case with Pokemon developer Game Freak's stunning upcoming RPG, Beast of Reincarnation.

Announced publicly last year during an Xbox Games Showcase, Beast of Reincarnation is a breathtaking new title from Game Freak – and more significantly, it's the studio's first-ever AAA game outside of the Pokemon series. Although it's not open world, it's got plenty to boast with its "wide variety of different environments," as director Kota Furushima previously put it... and much more.

As per today's showcase, fans won't have to wait long to discover it all for themselves, either, as Beast of Reincarnation is set to release this summer on August 4.

If you've been out of the loop, Beast of Reincarnation is somewhat GameFreak-like in that you're traveling a map with a companion at your side, though the similarities end there, really. Gone are the turn-based battles of Pokemon, and in their place is the kind of hack-and-slash action you'd see in something like Nier.

That said, don't expect anything like a Soulslike. It's not that much of a departure at all. As we previously reported, Game Freak has previously said that the provided difficulty options will ensure you can have as hard or easy a time as you'd like.

"We've made it so that it's enjoyable for even those who aren't good at action games," director Kota Furushima says. "You can choose your difficulty level, so I recommend choosing a lower difficulty if you're unsure. Personally, with the skill trees and the support that Koo offers, I think that people can enjoy finding their own approach that essentially reduces the difficulty."

Looking for something else to wishlist? Be sure to browse our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond for even more to anticipate.

Upcoming Bungie shooter Marathon has played host to its fair share of controversies, facing indefinite delays and an increasingly wary community – but it's still underway nonetheless, and it's set to make an appearance during tonight's PlayStation State of Play.

Marathon has had quite the history so far, between its stolen art debacle and the endless sea of release date questions – but it seems Bungie's luck has been turning, with reports from Sony that it's "very confident" in the shooter after playtests revealed "good points" and some that needed fixing, too.

On top of that, fans themselves will finally get a fresh taste of the game as developers have announced it's coming to today's State of Play.

"Hey everyone," they write in a new Discord message, sent last evening. "We're excited to share we'll be a part of the PlayStation State of Play tomorrow, February 12, starting at 2 pm PT! Come join the stream and help us share the excitement for Marathon." That's not all, either, apparently.

"Once the show ends, check in for a gameplay livestream with some special guests and our game director, Joe Ziegler, that will kick off around 3 pm PT."

The devs then address circulating rumors: "Finally, we've seen some speculation about a surprise preview weekend drop. It's not coming this weekend – we'll let you know the dates in advance so you have some more time to plan around them."

Although there are no dates yet, I get the feeling we might hear them during tonight's State of Play showcase. I could be wrong, of course, but the Discord announcement has me leaning that direction.

Unsurprisingly, fans have been letting their wildest theories run free on the server following Bungie's message. "Imagine they just unlock the playtest after the State of Play," one speculates. Another writes, "We're getting a new trailer at State of Play."

Others state they're simply just "wondering" what the devs will reveal later today – and honestly, so am I. Here's hoping it's one heck of a good showcase, regardless.

Need something else to look forward to? Browse through our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond for more.

When there's a cryptic Hideo Kojima post, there's a legion of Death Stranding diehards preparing to decode it. In this case, some people are certain Kojima's latest vague references to "editing" mean a Death Stranding 2 PC port is shooting down fast through the pipeline.

Kojima writes casually in a February 9 Twitter post, "Didn't have much time today for editing." It's similar to a post he made last week, where he cries about "Editing for the first time in…8 months?" Notably, the first Death Stranding game from 2019 got its PC port eight months after launching as a PlayStation exclusive, with its definitive Director's Cut arriving around a year later. So this timeline's starting to look prescient…

Sony has also just confirmed its rumored next State of Play is, indeed, happening on February 12 at 5pm ET. Very interesting timing, very interesting.

Even more damning, Kojima's February 9 post includes a photo of his computer displaying some very Death Stranding 2 font advertising "a Hideo Kojima game." Underneath his monitor, Kojima displays a themed Death Stranding calendar for 2026. OK, I think he might be trying to tell us something.

Though, I'm also eager for more news about OD, Kojima's Xbox-exclusive horror collaboration with the great Nope director Jordan Peele. Kojima said – again, cryptically – in December about OD that "I can't say exactly what it is yet, nor do I know if it will work out." Since the project is seemingly Kojima's first horror game since the abandoned Silent Hills in 2015, I'm eager to learn the answers to both those quandaries.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes producer says Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto's secret isn't just their "genius", it's that they work "really f**king hard."

Fans of Horizon Zero Dawn and sequel Horizon Forbidden West have been waiting for news of a threequel now for a few years – but with Horizon Hunters Gathering underway, it seems the community might have to wait a bit longer.

Developer Guerrilla and publisher Sony's beloved post-apocalyptic action RPG series is on the minds of many a fan now, with news of multiplayer spin-off Horizon Hunters Gathering having just surfaced days ago – out of the blue, too, as many folks would argue.

With the new title coming, what's happening with the unannounced third mainline project? According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, it's likely not a priority at the moment.

I believe most of the studio is on this

— @jasonschreier.bsky.social (@jasonschreier.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-02-09T10:41:21.731Z

Over on Bluesky, a Horizon player asks Schreier if a "separate team" from the one working on the series' main entries is working on Hunters Gathering. In response, he explains that he believes "most of the studio is on this" – which, unsurprisingly, would make the spin-off the priority right now, in terms of development.

Another fan chimes in with an "Oh no!" After all, this would also likely mean a delay in a third Horizon title's progress.

"I expected they're working on Horizon 3! I assume we can't expect for it to launch before a long time then," their frantic response continues. Schreier simply responds, "Yup."

Other folks don't think Hunters Gathering has that much of an impact on the threequel's own timeline, though. "I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve with this comment," as one fan puts it. "Horizon 3 is already in development. Forbidden West came out in 2022."

Yup

— @jasonschreier.bsky.social (@jasonschreier.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-02-09T10:41:21.791Z

They continue, describing how AAA games usually take five or more years to develop, which makes a third Horizon's later launch not "some kind of a delay" but rather its normal course of progress.

Honestly, I'd say it's likely a mix of both arguments here – Hunters Gathering is potentially the focus right now, but a Horizon Forbidden West follow-up was probably not in the cards for quite some time. It is only 2026.

"Slavish" Horizon clone removed from Steam and Epic Games Store as Tencent and Sony reach out-of-court agreement over survival game Light of Motiram

After launching in October, Ghost of Tsushima sequel Ghost of Yotei has managed to soar the charts and outpace its predecessor in sales – and it's doing big numbers on its own for Sony as a company, it seems.

Chief financial officer Lin Tao discusses this during Sony's recent quarterly financial call, in which sales are compared on either end, for both Ghost of Tsushima and its successful sequel.

The supplemental information accompanying the conference shows that, after its 2020 launch, Ghost of Tsushima managed to sell 2.4 million copies in just three days. After 128 days, it sold around five million – no small feat, of course.

However, Ghost of Yotei is pulling up – and fast. In just 32 days, the follow-up to Sucker Punch and Sony's action-packed gem boasted over 3.3 million sales. In other words, when lined up with Ghost of Tsushima's own numbers, the more recent entry has exceeded its predecessor in sales.

It's not too surprising, really. After all, it was evident that Ghost of Yotei was matching Ghost of Tsushima right around the time it released.

Tao notes the sequel's performance herself (as translated by Genki), saying, "Ghost of Yotei, a tentpole title we released in October, exceeded the sales of the previous title in the same period of time and significantly contributed to the financial results of the quarter."

It does beg the question, though, as Sony's released info doesn't yet clarify: Just where are Ghost of Yotei's sales numbers sitting at right now?

Chances are (and judging by the CFO's words), they're still steadily surpassing Ghost of Tsushima's own. I personally wonder what's next… which game will be the highlight of the following quarter?

Final Fantasy 14's Yoshi-P calls Ghost of Yotei "outstanding" and says it's "the one I still find myself playing" from 2025: "It's a game I learned a lot from."

In case no one's said it yet, welcome to hell. Now, please remove your hat and enjoy AI Astro Bot's podcast about why the Ghost of Yotei should stick her dual katana in your mouth. Or, something like that – publisher Sony has just patented its idea for bespoke AI-generated podcasts.

These would be "LLM-BASED GENERATIVE PODCASTS FOR GAMERS," as indicated by the title for the concept in the World Intellectual Property Organization database (VGC spotted it). They'd provide what Sony vaguely calls "unique, personalized podcasts of news that a particular gamer would find interesting," and while the patent for the concept was published at the end of January, Sony's has apparently had this revelation for a while. Its patent application dates back to 2024.

The patent imagines a world where the PS5 start screen advertises something like "Your Personalized Podcast Is Available For Today," and people actually want to click on it. Sony says weakly, "The podcasts can present the news in a voice of a video game character of a video game already played by the respective gamer."

So Imagine Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn laying down her spear for a bit and giving you precious advice such as, as Sony writes as an example, "Also, Try A Spin Move On The Boss Next Time!" You might need to feed her "the data associated with the video game player's profile" – your profile – but please don't worry about privacy, security, or anything like that. Sony seems to suggest that, by buying its console hardware, you're OK with giving it up.

"In certain instances, the audio may include a joke at the video game player's expense," Sony says. Hopefully that makes you feel better.

"We do not police how developers make their games": Epic Games Store boss says "we let players decide" on games that use gen AI.

There are many reasons why I've decided to keep to myself instead of making a new friend out of a stranger, and while "I'm scared" is all the way at the top of the list, "they have a beard" sometimes comes in fifth, or like, 25th. So I can sort of relate to original Raiden studio lead Hitoshi Hamada, who found some Sony employees' facial hair extraordinarily off-putting 30 years ago.

Localization veteran Richard Honeywood shares the anecdote with Time Extension while recalling his time with defunct Raiden developer Seibu Kaihatsu around the time of the first PlayStation. Along with "pocketing my Japanese Nenkin, which I guess is like social security or basically your pension system in Japan, because they thought that foreigners would never use their social security in Japan," Honeywood says Seibu Kaihatsu was skeptical about beginning what would ultimately become a beloved collaboration with Sony.

"Sony Music approached us; it wasn't even PlayStation or Sony at the time," he says. "Some executives came to the office, and they brought international staff with them. So that's why I was called into the meeting, too."

"They were talking about creating the PlayStation, and they wanted us to port [Raiden and Raiden 2] as a launch title for the console," Honeywood continues. This ultimately led to the still-coveted compilation scrolling shooter The Raiden Project, which launched in 1995 on PS1.

But it doesn't sound like Hitoshi Hamada was concerned about legacy. He was more disappointed by hundreds of errant hairs…

"We talked about it, and our boss Hamada-san said he'd think about it," says Honeywood. "He shook hands and saw them out the door, and then he turned around and said, 'What do you think? Should we even try doing this PlayStation title?'

"Everybody was a bit skeptical of it, and even he was like, 'I don't want to work with them because they've got beards.' He said, 'Japanese people shouldn't have beards. Sending out someone with a beard to do business like that is bad.'" I'd say you can't argue with that logic, but Honeywood clearly did – "we went back and forth," he says, "and we eventually agreed that we've got nothing to lose."

Metal Gear Solid 2's big Raiden twist was a surprise to Solid Snake's voice actor, who only found out while he was recording for the game: "Okay... well, we'll see how people feel about that."

There have been a variety of developments in the PS5 hacking scene over the past handful of days, and it's all pointing to a happy new year for jailbreakers – and owners of the disc edition of Star Wars Racer Revenge for PS4. This game is at the center of a new exploit allowing PS5 and PS4 jailbreaks, and the news has sent prices for the game skyrocketing on eBay.

PS5 and PS4 jailbreaks have been possible for years, but most of them have some serious caveats, requiring you to start from a console running old firmware. An exploit called mast1c0re allows hackers to jailbreak these consoles through the relatively modern 12.0 firmware series, which means much more recent consoles can be hacked.

There's just one problem with mast1c0re – it requires you to own the PS4 version of the PS2 game Okage: Shadow King, which is a digital-only release. You can't download software without signing into the PlayStation Network, and you can't sign into PSN without a firmware update which, in turn, would break the exploit. Unless you already had Okage installed on a 12.0 system, mast1c0re is out the window if you want to jailbreak your console.

Since mast1c0re relies on Sony's PS2 emulator, the real magic bullet would be a version that could be used through a disc-based PS4 version of a PS2 game. You'd be able to install a disc-based game on either a PS4 or PS5 without having to connect to the internet.

That, of course, is what's just happened for Star Wars Racer Revenge. On December 31, a member of the PlayStation hacking scene called Gezine posted a video demonstrating mast1c0re running through the 2002 Star Wars racing game. This version of the hack has not yet been released publicly, but it represents what could be a far more accessible way of jailbreaking PS4 and PS5 consoles.

But there is a catch: the physical PS4 version of Racer Revenge was issued through boutique publisher Limited Run Games. The game is no longer being manufactured, and it's estimated that less than 10,000 copies of the disc are out there.

Prior to news of this new exploit making the rounds, copies of Racer Revenge were regularly selling for about $30. Now, sales have exploded in volume and value, with some prices reaching as much as $300. Some listings have gone up for as much as $400, and while buyers aren't yet biting at that price, it's clear that anybody who happened to add the PS4 version of Racer Revenge to their collection ages ago are now sitting on a gold mine, all because of the promise of an exploit that hasn't even yet been released to the public.

That's not even the only jailbreak news for Sony consoles this week. The end of 2025 also saw the leak of the PS5 ROM keys which, as our friends at Tom's Hardware note, could open the door to even easier hardware exploits in the future.

Our list of upcoming Star Wars games includes a major new addition to the galactic racing lineage, but I'm guessing Sony would be happier if it didn't have anything to do with this whole jailbreak thing.

While it may have been glossed over at the 2024 The Game Awards, Stellar Blade now has a rare distinction of recognition from a political office. The game's director, Hyung-tae Kim, who also runs developer Shift Up, has received a nod from the president of South Korea for his contributions to video games.

Yes, on December 10, Hyung-tae Kim was given a Presidential Commendation for helping to enhance and grow game development in his home country. Per Daum, as translated by Automaton, the award was given out during the 2025 Korea Content Awards, an event overseen by the Korea Creative Content Agency through the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.

As you can probably gather, these awards are a way of honoring people who make cultural contributions within South Korea on a national level, and Shift Up has been developing successful games on a global scale for several years now, demonstrating South Korea’s value to the industry over and over.

Beyond Stellar Blade, which was published by Sony and had sold over three million copies by the summer of this year, Goddess of Victory: Nikke in 2023 helped establish Shift Up's profile outside of South Korea. As of now, the studio has a further two releases in the works: A Stellar Blade sequel and another title codenamed Project Spirits, due in 2027.

In accepting the award, Kim drew attention to his team, who truly brought his vision to life. "This Presidential Commendation is thanks to the development team and fans who believed in and supported Shift Up," he said. "We will continue to do our utmost to further showcase the competitiveness of Korean games on the global stage."

Stellar Blade Eve actor Rebecca Hanssen says she was "totally wowed" by the game's success: "When I was recording it, I had no idea how big it was going to become"

The Game Awards 2025 brought us a new trailer for Saros, developer Housemarque's spiritual successor to the excellent Returnal, giving a taste of the story and action in the upcoming roguelike. You might not have noticed, however, that the release date at the end of the trailer is new – and a month delayed from the game's previously announced launch day.

Saros is now set to launch April 30, 2026, and while the trailer doesn't acknowledge the delay, that's just over a month after the previously announced March 20 release. Deep in a PlayStation Blog post, the devs say the delay is to make sure the game "exceeds our vision," but they do not elaborate further.

The devs also note that Saros features the studio's "biggest and most ambitious story yet," and the trailer focuses on many of the characters who drive that story. The action continues to look pretty familiar after Returnal, with similar fast-paced shooting against monstrous enemies firing a bullet hell's worth of projectiles at you. But the new video's plainly focused on teasing the plot.

"You will meet our ensemble cast of NPCs in the Passage," the developers explain, "our hub where you start each run, or in the world where you explore and discover their haunting stories through conversations, Soltari Hologram logs or audio logs." The devs also tease that the corridor and bedroom that appear in the trailer will play a major role in the game, but they're keeping the details of that mystery a secret to be solved at the April launch.

Saros throws anything that slowed Returnal down out the door, meaning it'll be tough for other games to keep pace with my most anticipated PS5 game of 2026.