We're probably still a ways out from playing Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but Naughty Dog's given us a little tease about what to expect. According to studio head Neill Druckmann, it's an amalgamation of many of the company's biggest series thus far, which sounds rather exciting.

"We used to have another game franchise called Jak and Daxter," he said on Comic Creators Block Party 2026 with Patton Oswalt. "And with this one, we really wanted to take everything we learned from that franchise, which is sci-fi fantasy, the action-adventure stuff we learned with Uncharted, the more kind of serious drama we got for The Last of Us, and it really is a combination of those three franchises."

He goes on to mention that the team wanted to test themselves on what they could accomplish mechanically. "We wanted to expand our deep gameplay systems," Druckmann explains. "Can we sustain the cinematic storytelling we're used to doing and go even deeper with gameplay systems?"

Honestly, referencing Jak and Daxter is enough to pique my interest. That series of mythical platformers wound up sidelined once the Uncharted games started taking off, leading us to The Last of Us. Much as I enjoy battling the Cordyceps, I miss the bounciness of Jak and Daxter, and I hope this means Intergalactic won't be quite so self-serious.

Druckmann mentions Naughty Dog is heading into the "last stages of production" with Intergalactic right now. "We can play it, and we're refining and polishing it," he says. We've seen remarkably little of the project since the reveal trailer at The Game Awards 2024, and that only really introduced the main character, Jordan A Mun, and made it clear we're in the far future.

His candor may suggest another trailer is on the horizon. It being Naughty Dog, I won't hold my breath, but it seems like this is a game that'll appeal to fans of almost every era of the company. No bad thing when you have that team's track record.

The Last of Us directors used to say "nobody" was making "character-driven survival action games" like them – just don't tell that to Resident Evil

Sony has confirmed that the PS5 has shipped over 100 million units, with it on the way to catch up with the PS1 and PS4.

In a new update to its "Business Data & Sales" page, Sony confirms that as of November 10, 2026, the PS5 has shipped more than 100 million consoles to retailers. This makes it the fourth Sony console to pass this milestone following the PS1, PS2, and PS4.

This means the console has hit the 100 million mark just shy of its sixth anniversary, which is tomorrow on November 12, 2026. For comparison, the PS4 took five years, eight months, and 15 days to hit the milestone, while the PS2 took five years, eight months, and 26 days. This is, however, faster than the PS1, which took nine years, five months, and 15 days, becoming the first console to ever pass the milestone.

Obviously, the impending release of GTA 6 likely helped proceedings, but the PS5 hitting this number just shy of the PS4 and PS2's records is perhaps more impressive given the massive hardware shortages that plagued the beginning years of its lifespan. Not to mention Sony has increased the price of the PS5 significantly since launch – with the cheapest digital version being £519.99 / $599.99 compared to its launch price of £359.99 / $399.99.

And, to put it politely, it's not exactly like the PS5 has had the most impressive lineup of exclusives either. Even excluding the games that eventually came to PC, a ton of the early exclusives were also available on PS4, while this generation has been tested with long exclusive droughts thanks in part to the publisher chasing the live service dragon.

Naughty Dog worked on a multiplayer The Last of Us project for years only for it to be canceled, and Horizon Hunters Gathering is reportedly Guerilla Games' top priority, meaning the next entry in that series is also a while out. This in turn has made the disappointments like Marvel's Wolverine hit harder for PlayStation fans. But when consoles are shifting as fast as this, maybe Sony doesn't see that as a major issue – and it's not like Xbox is putting up much competition, is it?

God of War Laufey delayed – Sony Santa Monica says "we appreciate your patience" as PS5's early 2027 hitter slips.

Sony has dug up another plot in its expanding live-service graveyard, and is lowering the still-warm corpse of Haven Studios' Fairgames into the dirt. The shooter, which was revealed in 2023, has been canceled, though PlayStation says there will be no layoffs as a result of its decision to end the project.

"The studio will shift its focus to collaborating with other development teams across PlayStation Studios, while also exploring new creative opportunities," a PlayStation representative tells Bloomberg, who first reported the news.

Fairgames was revealed in a 2023 trailer which stylized the title as "Fairgame$." The trailer featured no in-game footage, but presented a stylish version of a Payday-style shooter focused on heists. But the game never materialized again. The last major news on the project came in 2025, when Haven Studios founder Jade Raymond – a veteran Ubisoft producer who'd worked on Assassins' Creed – left the company.

Bloomberg reports that Fairgames was ultimately canceled after a poor showing during a recent test session with thousands of players. "While the test demonstrated strong operational excellence, live ops readiness and community engagement, player feedback and retention results were mixed and fell short of the goals we had set," according to an internal memo.

PlayStation had apparently reworked the game multiple times since it was first revealed, and prior to the test had planned to showcase it again under a new title, according to the report.

While PlayStation once had extensive plans for live-service games, it's canceled so many of those projects that it's now difficult to keep track of them all. The death of Concord just two weeks after launch is perhaps the highest profile example, but that's just the most memorable corpse among an extensive trail of bodies.

A multiplayer God of War title from Bluepoint and a live-service game from Bend Studio were canceled in 2025. A multitude of unannounced projects were iced amid mass layoffs at PlayStation in 2024, including a Twisted Metal game and an original project from the publisher's now-defunct London studio. Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer game died in 2023. Bungie has reportedly had numerous projects scrapped since it was acquired by Sony. PlayStation has even killed not just one, but two projects helmed by Call of Duty veteran Jason Blundell.

Sony's biggest live-service hit in recent years is certainly Helldivers 2, but it's struggled to replicate that success – heck, it's struggled to release other online games at any scale. The publisher's annual MLB The Show series remains a staple among baseball fans, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls seems to have found a niche among fighting game aficionados, and Marathon is continuing to survive, but these aren't the Fortnite-level hits Sony is clearly gunning for. I guess we'll never know whether Fairgames could've been a hit.

Ghost of Yotei developer Sucker Punch reportedly hit with layoffs, despite selling millions and "significantly" contributing to Sony's financials

Choice, an Australian consumer rights organization, has named Sony Interactive Entertainment as one of its annual "hall of shame" award winners. Alongside a vocal group of gamers, Choice is calling out PlayStation for failing to give players ownership rights to digital games, a problem that will be much worse with the impending end of physical games on the platform.

PlayStation wins "the Shonky Award for asking us to pay to play, but not own," Choice says in its write-up. According to Sony Interactive Entertainment, the organization argues, "you don’t actually own the movies and games that you buy as a digital download instead of a disc. Instead, you’re buying a license to access the content via Sony’s various digital storefronts, such as the PlayStation Store."

In effect, PlayStation is offering nothing more than long-term rentals for digital games, since it can simply revoke those licenses at any time. That fear will be intimately familiar to players who've been following campaigns like Stop Killing Games, and it's not an arbitrary concern – after all, as Choice notes, Sony did just delist several hundred digital films, revoking digital purchases with no refunds as they did so.

"You can't protect your licensed media based on the current EULA, and there won’t be any alternatives once the discs go away," Choice concludes. "You'll own nothing."

That lack of ownership may be a feature, not a bug, of PlayStation's planned end of physical media. The company still makes significant money on physical releases of its biggest games, but analysts argue that it's more interested in "control" of the market. No discs means no used games, which means Sony can take a cut of every transaction and set prices – alongside third-party publishers – without worrying about competition from secondhand markets.

Choice's Shonky Awards have been ongoing since 2006, and have sporadically included gaming companies in the annual hall of shame. In 2023, it named and shamed the Xbox Mini Fridge for failing to actually cool anything while drawing more power than a full-sized fridge. In 2013, when EA's always-online SimCity reboot launched to global server issues, Choice called out a problem particular to Australian players: the support line charged $2.48 per minute, "making people pay to complain."

"There is no game preservation with DRM": Why GOG's leaders have spent 18 years fighting for classic games

Rumors have been swirling for almost a year now that the next generation of Sony hardware will include both a standard PS6 home console and some sort of handheld device, but according to someone with a whole lot of knowledge and insight into PlayStation hardware launches, that's a recipe for failure.

Shawn Layden, former chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, recently appeared on the Trophy Room: A PlayStation Show podcast, and he cautioned his former employer against releasing both a handheld and home console at the same time. Having been with PlayStation through the launch of the PSP and PS Vita, Layden says "it was difficult to support both a console and a handheld at the same time," adding, "you almost have to create two companies."

"While they are complimentary, they can also be intention in where you're going, what you're trying to say. And the console, which is the bigger dollar, the bigger audience, has more weight in the marketing room. And you see PSP marketing dollars just like go away," Layden says.

He then goes into a lengthy anecdote (timestamp) about being admonished by Sony's CFO for failing to sell enough PS3s even though PSP sales were "off the chart," but Layden eventually returns to his central point: Sony can be successful in the next console generation, but only if it can focus on supporting just one platform at a time, rather than trying to juggle two distinct machines, i.e. PSP and PS3.

"If Sony only does a handheld next, then I think they have a good chance of winning," says Layden. "But if they're going to launch a handheld and a console at the same time, the company just doesn't have - I don't think any company has the ability to be successful with both."

This isn't the first time Layden has tried to sway PlayStation from launching a home console and handheld in the same generation, having previously attributed the problem to "development resources" as well as "marketing resources."

PS6 development is "progressing as scheduled," Sony assures – even if PlayStation is battling against the RAM shortage and balancing "memory procurement"

My kingdom for Sony and FromSoftware to do anything with Bloodborne. There's been no remaster, no PC port, and also no sequel. We do have an excuse for that last one, because apparently bureaucracy is constantly getting in the way.

At least, that's what Shawn Layden, ex-president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, suggests on The Trophy Room podcast when asked about why it's been all quiet on the Yharnam front. "Bringing back old games has a certain challenge to it," he starts.

"Can you do something that is not only respectful of the original, but can you recreate the phenomenon?" he ponders, responding to the notion of a Bloodborne remake. After the successful Demon's Souls redux from Japan Studio and Bluepoint Games, people have been hoping for other FromSoftware releases to get the same treatment.

Bloodborne doesn't appear to be a likely candidate from what Layden has to say, nor would a sequel be straightforward. "There's a lot of involved rights associated with it," he explains. "And it's something like that where Sony is in there, and [FromSoftware] is in there, and From's parent company is in there, I think just getting everyone to sign off on everything is probably the biggest challenge there."

Such things are major roadblocks in many creative endeavours. I'm going to guess the fact it was co-developed with Japan Studio is what's causing some of the complications here. The company was unfortunately closed in 2020, leaving its IP or stakes therein wherever.

But that's just speculation. The fact is, Sony likes making money, and Bloodborne would be an easy win, and I suspect if these hurdles didn't exist, we'd have seen activity there by now. Alas, the hunter's dream remains just that for now. Good thing the game is still just as satisfying to replay as it ever was.

Sony adds new PlayStation Plus "perks" like free trials for YouTube Premium and a sleep app, players respond "the only perk I want is discs."

Sometimes giving Malibu Stacy a new hat works, sometimes it doesn't. Sony is learning that offering discounts and other initiatives for PlayStation users isn't enough to make people forget about the corporation stopping physical discs come 2028.

In a social media post, Sony highlights the various perks to being a subscriber to PlayStation Plus. These include a free trial for meditation app Calm, reductions on Audible, and discounts across various other products in Sony's expensive range.

Most lucrative is the three-month free trial for YouTube Premium. Given how that platform is now an enormous part of the world of streaming, that's a decent added incentive for signing up to PlayStation's service, on top of all the games you get immediate access to.

But none of this stacks up to what players are losing in the coming months. This year, Sony announced it would be ceasing production of discs for new games on PlayStation consoles come January 2028.

That includes PS5 and PS4. Their libraries are becoming all digital, and fans aren't happy, because such practice raises legitimate concerns over ownership. This has led to PlayStation's replies being lit up over demand for disced games.

"The only perk I want is discs," writes one fan. "Do the trials come on disc?" asks another, incredulously. "The only perk I need to enjoy is physical discs," adds a third.

Those are just the ones for this tweet. Similar replies follow every PlayStation tweet in recent weeks.

You get the point. This has become background radiation for Sony, and I don't see it dying down any time soon. The company will have accounted for pushback, but to what degree is another question. I'm not sure I see them rolling back the decision completely, but if enough people vote with their wallets in terms of cancelling PS Plus subscriptions and getting their games elsewhere, it may force some sort of change. Physical forever.

"No disc, no buy" protest and PlayStation boycott don't bother Sony, which reports increased playtime and record-high users for September.

Welcome back to Conformity Gate. With Stranger Things Day sending us all back to the Upside Down today, Sony has the headphones to pair with that world-saving Walkman. The brand has just announced a Stranger Things edition of the new MDR-3R wired headphones, now available with bold red cushions (and a black set included in the box). The $79 / £59 Stranger Things variant bumps up the price of the new release a little (the standard model starts at $59 / £49) but maintains a style fit for Hawkins.

The Sony MDR-3R headphones are being described as "Newtro" by the brand, combining more modern audio handling (and a USB-C connection) with the instantly recognizable retro aesthetic. Sony has faithfully reconstructed the MDR-3 design, with that skinny band, chunky silver driver plate, and simple design. If we ever needed another reason to start running up that hill, this is it.

So what does the Stranger Things edition bring to its higher price tag? It's a subtle one. The blue / orange cushion color options of the standard model are replaced with a deep Upside Down red and black pairing with a Stranger Things logo stamped at the top of the headband.

If you're going for the full '80s aesthetic, you'd be better off with the orange base option, saving yourself some cash in the process. If you're going like-for-like with Max herself, you'll need the limited edition to get access to those black pads.

The headphones themselves are constructed from a lightweight aluminum and stainless steel, powered by that USB-C connection for a charge-free experience, and still feature an inline remote with an integrated microphone for media control and calls.

Sony says it's kept the MDR-3R sound profile as close to the original as possible, while still elevating sound with some more modern features. That open-back design is still going to give your music plenty more breathing space, but the brand has extended both lower and upper ranges for a more dynamic quality.

While the absence of that ninth episode still continues to hurt, at least we've got some tunes to see us through. Plus, with Maya Hawke joining the Magic: The Gathering movie there's still plenty from the series stars in the works.

More Stranger Things:

• Stranger Things: The Complete Series 4K Blu-Ray | $269.95 $150.99 at Amazon
• Care Bears x Stranger Things | $12.97 at Amazon
• Stranger Things Upside Down Board Game | $54.99 at Amazon

If you'd prefer something a little more Steam focused, check out the best gaming headsets we've tested so far. Or take a look at the best gaming earbuds for more on-the-go options.

Sony says that work on its "next-generation platform" – AKA the PS6 – is "progressing as scheduled," while sales of the PS5 keep on trucking, but at a pace that's lagging behind the PS4 at the same point in its own lifecycle amid the ongoing RAM crisis.

During the company's FY2026 Q2 earnings call today, chief financial officer Lin Tao makes multiple references to the company's next console and its plans going forward.

"Looking ahead to next fiscal year, we aim to continue to enhance user engagement and further strengthen monetization through the release of strong titles and the expansion of our service. We also intend to make solid progress in preparing for the next generation platform," she says in comments transcribed by Sony.

But that's not to say that progress isn't already being made. During the Q&A section of the earnings call – transcribed by Seeking Alpha – Tao says "we are progressing as scheduled" on research and development of the next-generation platform, reiterating: "The development itself is on schedule."

She elaborates on future plans in a later question, noting that there will be "investment for the new platform" starting in the next fiscal year and continuing beyond. "For future growth, we have to attach great importance to our new platform," she continues. "We have to make the necessary investments for that. But we have to support this soundness of our platform and try to think how rationally we can invest in our platform."

This is something that Sony will announce at an "appropriate" time in the future.

But how about those PS5 sales? Tao acknowledges that they're "gradually declining as expected in this stage of the console life cycle," but "the PS platform continues to expand and grow in a stable manner."

To get into the numbers, 2.6 million additional PS5 units were sold in the last quarter, bringing the total to 97.9 million. However, that also means it's not selling as well as the PS4 did at the same point in its lifecycle – the previous-gen console had already surpassed 100 million sales by then.

Perhaps that's unsurprising amid ongoing challenges for the PS5, though. Beyond the uproar Sony itself caused by announcing the end of physical PlayStation game production, the ongoing RAM shortage has been having a major impact on hardware prices. During the call, Tao notes that in regard to the PS5 specifically, "we have been able to offset the rise in memory prices through adjustments to promotions and pricing, as well as additional cost-reduction, and we expect hardware profitability for the current fiscal year to remain on par with the previous fiscal year."

Furthermore, she reveals: "Regarding memory procurement for next fiscal year, based on discussions held so far with various suppliers, we have aligned on the quantity of memory needed for our projected hardware unit sales."

Here's hoping, then, that we won't see any more nasty price increases for the PS5 in the months to come – let's face it, they've shot up enough as is.

Fans might not "pull out $1,000" for PS6 and Project Helix if all they can offer is marginal improvements, says ex-PlayStation boss.

Marvel's Wolverine has had a shaky debut, to say the least, having already stood as Insomniac's worst-reviewed game in years on Metacritic in September – so it's not all that surprising that it isn't selling too well, either.

Or, at least, not as well as other Marvel superhero games. New financial results from Sony prove as much, showing that the Wolverine-inspired title has sold just 2.4 million copies in the few months since its release.

That might sound like a solid number right off the bat, but it's not all that great when you compare it to, for example, Marvel's Spider-Man, which mustered up more sales in far fewer days.

A quick look at our trusty ol' PlayStation 2018 Year in Review highlights how the older game saw a whopping 3.3 million sales in just three days. And, as a post over on X points out, this number rose quickly to nine million copies within the first 90 days – so, the same time that we've now seen between Marvel's Wolverine launching and its newly reported 2.4 million figure.

In other words, from a sales point of view, it's alright but not great.

Our own Marvel's Wolverine review outlines why the game "lacks the depth, nuance, and variety you'd expect" of an Insomniac title, with an overly messy story, boring combat, and "inconsistent features."

Others have evidently felt the same, actually prompting the developers to respond to all of the negative feedback shortly after release. Folks complained about everything from how the game "plays itself" to its janky physics.

Interestingly, however, it hasn't all been doom and gloom. Marvel's Wolverine actually beat NBA 2K27 as a PlayStation 5 top-seller in the US and Europe despite the mixed reviews – but it's clear that's not enough to boost it too high re: overall sales.

Marvel's Wolverine star Debra Wilson isn't sure why Insomniac used her likeness for Callisto: "I honestly love games where they don't look like me at all"

Despite massive pre-release sales in China, Phantom Blade Zero's success is proving to be worldwide following positive reviews.

When a major new AAA release comes out of China, gamers in the region have been massive supporters. We saw this with Black Myth: Wukong, which did incredibly well in its home country, and ahead of launch it was pretty much a given that Phantom Blade Zero would be the same. Anilea Analytics head of market analysis estimated that, ahead of launch, the game had already sold "well past" 1 million copies, with 62.5% of those sold at that point coming from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

However, following the game's release, Elliott has taken to Twitter to shut down the idea that it has only become a hit because of its home country. He notes, "Markets outside of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan account for 55% ($123M) of Phantom Blade Zero revenues across Steam and PlayStation."

Elliott notes that in August, when the pre-orders went live on Steam, China accounted for nearly 70% of the revenue, but as the game got closer to launch, the gap closed.

Elliott notes that the tipping point came when Phantom Blade Zero reviews arrived with its positive reception, landing it as one of the best Metacritic scores of the year. Elliott notes that "US daily revenue went from $106K on October 25 to $230K when the embargo lifted," with the game amassing "nearly 8.5x more revenue in four days, boosted by the positive reviews and subsequent word of mouth."

"On launch day, the US and the rest of the world combined out-earned China for the first time in Phantom Blade Zero’s whole pre-order history" Elliott notes, citing that while the Chinese sales were still great, everywhere else just showed up a bit later, with a lack of what he calls the "hometown-hero effect" in play.

Granted, I don't really see why it would be a big deal if the game only did well because of Chinese players; sales in one region are still sales at the end of the day. As Elliott puts it: "However you look at it, Phantom Blade Zero has quickly become one of this year’s highest-grossing premium games."

Here's our list of 12 Phantom Blade Zero tips and have the solution to Phantom Blade Zero's Nimble Thief questions while you're at it!

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End marks a high point for the series in terms of emotionally resonant storytelling, capping off a rollicking, action-packed adventure with a surprisingly poignant epilogue showing Nathan Drake's comparatively mundane life as a father 15 years after the events of the main story. I've played that game so many times I've lost count, and the ending never fails to wet my eyes just a little. That's why I was shocked to hear creative director Neil Druckmann put together the rough outline within weeks, according to a developer who was working with him at the time.

Ryan Trowbridge, who was character technical director on Uncharted 2 through 4, tells Kiwi Talkz that Druckmann ran an "efficient" ship at Naughty Dog when he took over as creative director from Amy Hennig, who left the studio abruptly in early 2014 during Uncharted 4's development.

"He was put forth with probably what felt like a very arduous task of 'how do you take this IP and make number four of Uncharted, and breathe more life into it, and keep going, and also take over a project that's already been in production for a while'," says Trowbridge. "And he so quickly took what was there. In my recollection, it seemed like it took him only a couple weeks to regather himself."

Trowbridge says it's possible Druckmann knew about his new role for longer than was apparent, which would've given him more time to prepare a new story for Uncharted 4, "but he went and he had written a new" plot for the game. Druckmann had "adjusted to the story, took advantage of a bunch of things that he had already done, added some other things that he felt were needed, and very quickly got us on track."

Druckmann and game director Bruce Straley definitely had big shoes to fill in the wake of Hennig's departure, which itself sparked major controversy when IGN reported that Druckmann and Straley forcibly removed Hennig from the project. Naughty Dog immediately denied that claim and it was officially retracted by IGN years later, but Druckmann's role as successor to Hennig on Uncharted 4 remains one of the most controversial topics in the Naughty Dog pantheon to this day. The fact that the game itself is nothing short of a gameplay and narrative triumph is a testament to Druckmann and Straley's perseverance in the face of intense scrutiny.

Uncharted star says a new sequel would be "one of the biggest games ever," but "it just depends if Sony wants to make money"

Phantom Blade Zero has likely sold over one million pre-release copies, according to estimates from the market research firm Alinea Analytics.

The Wuxia action RPG Phantom Blade Zero is set to release in under 24 hours, and with one of the best Metacritic scores of the year – including a four-and-a-half stars out of five in our Phantom Blade Zero review – it's shaping up to be a big release that most will want to pick up before GTA 6 takes over the world in a few weeks' time. Although you'll want to make sure you have the hard drive space since the developers suggest having 300GB free for the install process.

Rhys Elliott – head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics – posted a newsletter with sales details ahead of the RPG's release tomorrow. According to their estimates, Phantom Blade Zero has already sold 850,000 copies across Steam and PS5 – with 80,000 being sold after the review embargo lifted earlier this week. On top of that, Elliott notes that "A significant number of Phantom Blade Zero copies" will have been sold on Tencent and WeGame, so "It’ll be WELL past 1M at this point."

Phantom Blade Zero is developed by Chinese dev S-Game, and it has seemingly done very well in its home country – much like the support Chinese gamers gave to Black Myth: Wukong in 2024. Elliott also notes that 62.5% of copies sold so far have been in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, accounting for 75.9% of Steam sales and 24.9% of PlayStation sales.

However, Elliott insists, "It won't hit the highs of Black Myth's insane sales, but it'll sell a lot of copies this year in a crowded market." Earlier this year, reports emerged that Black Myth: Wukong has sold over 30 million copies since its launch in 2024, making it one of the 50 best-selling games of all time. On top of that, it picked up Ultimate Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards 2024, and nabbed Game of the Year nominations at The Game Awards, D.I.C.E Awards and GDC Awards.

The Golden Joystick Awards 2026 are open, with Phantom Blade Zero as one of the nominees, so vote for your own Ultimate Game of the Year now.

26 people at Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yotei developer Sucker Punch have been laid off, according to a new report. Sony had previously spoken in glowing terms of Yotei's financial success, and the developers had just launched a major new expansion in Echoes of Sekigahara a few weeks ago.

"After carefully observing the challenges in the market and reviewing the team needs for our next project, we've decided to make some staffing reductions," Sucker Punch leadership says in an email to staff published by Aftermath, which first reported the news. "Several positions across Sucker Punch will be eliminated as a result."

The email insists that studio leaders "did not make this decision lightly" and "have given this a lot of attention and worked to support our affected colleagues during this transition as well as we can." Employees will apparently be given "more details about the future" next week.

Ghost of Yotei sold 3.3 million copies within its first month, performing better than Ghost of Tsushima did in the same period. Sony was keen to brag about how the game "significantly contributed" to its financial results in the period. Sucker Punch even managed to make the game for a much cheaper price than many of PlayStation's other massive PS5 games.

But we've seen again and again how little a game's success has to do with the fortunes of the developers who made it, despite how billionaire publisher bosses might suggest otherwise. Xbox offered a stunning example with Hi-Fi Rush in 2023, which the company described as a success "in all key measurements" and shut down the studio that made it a year later.

The Hi-Fi Rush devs would eventually get a second chance, and it doesn't sound like Sucker Punch as a whole is going anywhere. But if critical acclaim and financial success aren't enough to keep the Sonys and Microsofts of the world from laying off their developers, it's tough to imagine what criteria devs can now look toward for success.

PlayStation creator says games have stagnated, urges developers not to lose their "curiosity" as the industry reaches a major turning point ahead of the "next stage."

Silent Hill Townfall director Jon McKellan says Konami did not let the dev team know about all of the other Silent Hill projects that were in the works concurrently.

After about a decade in the bin, with the wound of the Hideo Kojima-led Silent Hills being cancelled still fresh on the minds of horror fans, Konami decided it was back. This happened in a single stream announcing Silent Hill 2 Remake, Silent Hill f, Silent Hill: Townfall, and the duo of things we didn't know would be awful at the time – Silent Hill Ascension and Return to Silent Hill.

While the Bloober Team collab on Silent Hill 2 was long-rumored, the announcement of three other Silent Hill games (if you can call Ascension a game?) was a total shock for a franchise that had been as dead as whatever James Sunderland most recently bashed with a big stick.

Speaking at MCM London Comic Con (via VGC) McKellan – the founder of Screen Burn – revealed how he and the development team first found out that there were other Silent Hill games in the works alongside Townfall, saying, "We found out about a lot of those projects when everyone else did. When they announced them." He adds, "we were kind of kept in the dark, which was kind of exciting as a fan to not see behind the curtain too much."

Even after the cats were out of the bag, Konami didn't give the team much insight into what the others were doing either. McKellan says, "[Motoi] Okamoto-san, who's the series producer, was very keen to not let projects influence each other, and not compromise too much." Even without the knowledge of other games in development, if there was too much crossover, the Konami team would step in, he explains.

"They'd not necessarily tell us what it was, but just be like 'there's another thing that's doing something similar, so maybe veer off from that direction.'"

Despite Konami's wishes to keep the three games unique, McKellan stresses it wasn't a restrictive environment either, saying, "It wasn't like a Marvel phase where it would be like 'know your slot and stay within that.'" He adds, "We got to be very creatively free, just with the knowledge that Konami and the team there would step in if they felt they had to."

So what did get changed through this process? Not much from the sounds of things. "I think only once did we have a thing," McKellan explains, "they felt 'this is maybe a little too close, you may want to pivot and just go in a different option' for one of the enemy designs."

The '90s are a "perfect time for horror," says Silent Hill: Townfall dev who wants the game to make you feel technologically vulnerable.

Wuxia action RPG Phantom Blade Zero's Metacritic score has the game looking likely to be one worth adding to your backlog's ever-growing list of 2026 bangers.

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but there's been a lot of good games this year. And while the early months were filled with some pretty substantial hits like Mewgenics, Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata, and Pokemon Pokopia, the last couple of months have been non-stop thanks to the impending GTA 6 launch leading developers to drop everything as soon as possible.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, and Star Wars: Galactic Racer all dropped within a month of each other; and I'm both happy and sad to announce it looks like another banger has dropped into the backlog.

Phantom Blade Zero's Metacritic score has debuted at 88, which places it at 21 in the overall top games of 2026 list – although that top 20 is also filled with Switch 2 ports like Elden Ring, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and the Resident Evil Remake trilogy, as well as some DLC, so in reality it's closer to 13th. Meanwhile on OpenCritic, the game sits at a 91, tying it with Forza Horizon 6 and Mina the Hollower as the second-highest rated game of the year behind Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter remake.

This score also has it beat out Nioh 3 (86) and Onimusha: Way of the Sword (85), making it the top dog of sword fighting this year – at least as far as review scores go, it'll have to be something special to beat Onimusha in my eyes.

In the GamesRadar+ Phantom Blade Zero review, freelance writer Luke Kemp gives the game four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "With fights that feel great and flow smoothly, Phantom Blade Zero proves itself as one of the best action-adventures of the year." Elsewhere the game received full marks from the likes of TheGamer, But Why Tho, and PCGamesN, with only two reviews being dubbed "Mixed" by Metacritic's standards.

PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not.

Ever since Sony raised its prices on PS5 consoles earlier in the year, I've been shouting about refurbished stock. With a console now costing you a minimum of $600 in the lead-up to GTA 6, it's the only way I recommend upgrading in 2026. PS Direct is usually the go-to here, with its sturdy supply of stock and 'Certified Refurbished' designation. Today, it's sweetening the deal a little further.

Here's the offer: buy a certified refurbished PS5 and DualSense together from PS Direct, and you'll save $40 on your total order. That essentially nets you a second gamepad (because one automatically comes in the box anyway) for an extra $20. It's certainly among the cheaper PS5 bundle deals we've seen since those prices increased, but whether it's worth it for you ahead of Black Friday PS5 deals will depend on your setup.

Here's how the same cart would look if you bought everything brand new. A digital edition PS5 costs $599 box-fresh (Amazon), with a DualSense controller sitting at $74 (Amazon). That drops us off at $673 - $155 more expensive than buying everything in PS Direct's current refurbished offer. Swap out that digital edition for a disc version, and you're looking at $723 all in.

As it has been for most of the year, it's pretty clear refurbished PS5 consoles are the way to go if you're upgrading for GTA 6.

Whether or not Sony's current offer will cut the mustard, enough to keep you from waiting until Black Friday later in the year, will depend on whether you actually need that second controller. It's only adding an extra $20 to the final price, but $20 is $20 (that's a full game on a really good day), and without it, the cheapest PS5 stays under that $500 bracket.

Do you need two PS5 controllers?

As the owner of far too many DualSense controllers, I'm going to sound a little hypocritical here. You don't need an extra DualSense controller in your setup. So long as you're conscientious about charging (and assuming you don't play couch co-op), the refurbished DualSense you'll find in the box with your console will do you just fine. The battery life on these things isn't great, lasting about seven hours on average. Unless you're marathoning, though, it's pretty easy to manage with the supplied cable.

Adding that extra controller to your setup does feel nice, though. Unless you're looking for the absolute cheapest way to buy a PS5 ahead of GTA 6, the extra $20 for a spare gamepad is solid value. It's not going to give you the extra features of the best PS5 controllers, but it does have its benefits in battery management and overall longevity.

Being able to keep one charged up while playing with another will make a larger difference for those playing over longer sessions. However, it also spreads your wear and tear across two devices.

The only fault I've noticed with my longstanding gamepads is a slightly stuck Options button. I've personally never experienced drift from DualSense controllers (and I've had one going since 2020), but many have - and picking up refurbished stock is going to put you further down that path than a new device. That's partly why I generally only recommend going straight to Sony for renewed gamepads, after all.

For $20, you're getting a whole second controller to spread that action across, as well as the obvious battery life benefits.

• See all PS5 deals at Amazon

We're also bringing you all the best PS5 accessories available in 2026 and rounding up the best PS5 gifts this holiday season. Check out the best PS5 headsets if you're kitting out a whole setup ahead of GTA 6.

Off the back of Insomniac's three Spider-Man games, the critical response to Marvel's Wolverine is decidedly mixed. That didn't stop people from picking up the mutant action game, however, as it topped the PlayStation 5 charts for September.

Sony's just released the top-selling digital games across the US, Canada and Europe on PlayStation systems for September. There are a few obvious pulls, such as the sports games FC 27 and the new NBA release, and Halloween: The Game, which came out just in time for the namesake holiday. Almost all of them have been trumped by Wolverine.

The X-Men's coolest character (don't at me) is comfortably atop the list for digital sales in the United States and Canada. It outdoes both FC 27 and NBA 2K27, an impressive feat given the gigantic install bases for those series.

In fourth, you have Michael Myers in Haddonfield for the asymmetrical multiplayer game Halloween, and The Blood of Dawnwalker, the new historical horror RPG from Rebel Wolves. Over on the European side of things, Wolvie is down to second, behind FC 27 - it's hard to top a major football game over this side of the pond. You've got the Premiership, the Bundesliga, LaLiga, and all the other big national leagues across the continent, each with a fervent fanbase.

The Blood of Dawnwalker and Halloween are in the next two spots, and then GTA 5 sits at fifth. The perennial. A truly unstoppable game since it first arrived back in 2013. At this rate, I'm not even sure GTA 6 will slow it down much. Yes, that's the newer, bigger, better game, but Grand Theft Auto 5 will be even cheaper, making it even more appealing to anyone who doesn't already have it.

Regardless, whatever you may think of Marvel's Wolverine, the game appears to have done fine business for all involved. Never count Logan out, even if his latest outing occasionally plays itself.

Marvel's Wolverine star Debra Wilson isn't sure why Insomniac used her likeness for Callisto: "I honestly love games where they don't look like me at all"

Months after announcing its departure from physical PS5 games in 2028, it looks like Sony just signed the death warrant for another physical media stalwart. The UBP-X700 standalone Blu-ray player will be phased out starting from today, reports Japanese partnered retailer Kunkoku, with only the PS5 Disc Edition remaining in the brand's Blu-ray repertoire.

Recent trends have seen physical media on the rise, with vinyl shelves also now welcoming CDs, DVDs, and even VHS in the homes of those fed up with current streaming service offerings. Coming in the same week Xbox announced its own refinements to streaming pricing, those tired of paying for media they never own will have some new battles to fight in the near future.

As originally noted by FlatPanelsHD, who broke the story earlier today, Sony's departure from the Blu-ray market leaves only Panasonic in charge of mainstream brand offerings. Remaining stock of the 4K UBP-X700 is holding firm at $328 at Amazon while Panasonic's own UB420 4K player comes in at $299.99 (was $369.99). While supplies are still kicking about, there's not much of a price difference between the two brands, though Panasonic's cheaper HD options can undercut Sony at $117.99 (Amazon).

Compare that to the $649.99 cost of a PS5 Disc Edition console, and even those previously sitting firm in Sony's entertainment camp should be jumping ship. Yes, gamers will get the full benefits of the PS5 system (in disc game format, while we're still lucky), but ultimately spending double the price of Panasonic's 4K player if you haven't already been interested enough in Sony's games to warrant the upgrade is going to be difficult to justify.

The removal of Sony's UBP-X700 isn't surprising, but that doesn't make the brand's culling of physical media hurt less. It's more an additional nail in an already pretty secure coffin than an extraordinary business move. While Blu-ray and DVD sales have seen a steady decline since the rise of streaming services, those pushing back against the domination of Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, and all the other subscription names you see on your bank statement every month are growing in number.

It's not just a TikTok trend; collecting and curating owned physical media is a viable step off the wheels of streamers. With Sony setting out its clear priorities, it seems it's down to its competitors to keep those discs spinning.

• See all Blu-Ray players at Amazon

New to discs? Rosalie's sharing top tips for Blu-Ray collectors.

Did you forget that Gran Turismo 7 existed? Because the PS5's premier racing game is still alive and kicking, to the point where you can now buy a Limited Edition GT7 DualSense controller. Why is it launching four years after the game's release? Because other, bigger games had more popular licenses first, okay? And maybe because it's helping to mark 30 years of this in-depth racing game simulator franchise.

The Limited Edition DualSense is available pretty much wherever you would normally go to buy a PS5 controller - great news! A collectible bit of hardware like this might seem a bit niche, and so you may think it'll be an easy one to find, but remember that Gran Turismo is one of PlayStation's classic franchises that has a pretty quiet but cult-like following. If you're keen to get your hands on this colorway of the DualSense, don't underestimate its potential popularity.

The GT7 Edition of the PS5 controller isn't quite as flashy as some of the other designs for this gamepad we've seen, but it still has plenty of character to it, and a signature pop of color that fans of this franchise will appreciate. It actually looks more like a standard, white DualSense that's had some stickers slapped on it, going hand-in-hand with the game it represents, which sees you collect bits of motoring history in highly polished digital rooms.

Of course, all jokes and smooth Japanese jazz aside, the controller is here to celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary, and there's an almost retro, nostalgic charm to the design here. It's available for pre-order ahead of its December 10 launch for $84.99 / £74.99, like all limited-edition DualSense controllers before it. It's now available in the US and UK, so let's see what retailers are stocking it.

Where to pre-order the Gran Turismo 7 Limited Edition DualSense in the US

US retailers have pulled up to the Grand Prix! What? Too much of a racing pun? I can't promise I won't keep them up for the rest of the article.

You can, of course, grab the new DualSense from PlayStation directly, and that would probably be the safest port of call. Best Buy and Target are also celebrating.

• ✅PlayStation Direct: $84 to Pre-order from Sony
• ✅Best Buy: Pre-order for $84.99
• ✅Target: $84.99 but no collection options

You might be surprised not to see Walmart, Amazon, or GameStop with stock, but I'd keep an eye on these retailers throughout the day, as they usually arrive at DualSense launches in their own time. Thankfully, stock seems to be plentiful, so there's no mad rush to find it.

Where to pre-order the Gran Turismo 7 Limited Edition DualSense in the UK

The GT7 30th Anniversary DualSense is already available in the UK. Hop to the links below to grab one.

• ✅PlayStation Direct: £74.99, straight from the horse's mouth
• ✅Argos: Pre-order for £74.99
• ✅Very: In stock for £74.99
• ✅Currys: £74.99 with store collection options
• ✅Smyths Toys: Pre-order for £74.99

The other retailers to look out for are obviously going to be Amazon, as well as places like TheGameCollection, ShopTo, and even places like O2 and EE. Bizarrely, I've seen B&Q stocking a lot of gaming hardware and controllers lately, so that could be one to watch in a pinch too.

Amazon hasn't joined the launch yet, and that's pretty usual for this sort of thing. Often, its stock allocation will be bigger but will drop after the first batch of retailers. If you're waiting for that sweet, sweet Prime benefit of free delivery, fair dues. I'll update you when you earn your new racing stripes at Amazon. If you're not a Prime member, you're just as good buying from one of the available retailers now while there's plenty of stock.

My take: is it worth pre-ordering the new Limited Edition GT7 DualSense?

Like every limited edition PS5 controller drop, there's going to be two sides to the story. On one side, it's a celebration of a franchise you may be a big fan of, and that's great. If you're a long-term PlayStation gamer and you remember the good ol' days of the original GT games on the first PlayStation consoles, it might be one you're clambering over other shoppers to get - or maybe... racing them to the checkout to buy?

Still, the PlayStation controller reviewer in me feels obliged to tell you there isn't all that much you're going to gain in a practical sense from buying this GT7 one. It's like the other Limited Edition colorways in that it's a cosmetic, collectible timepiece that's going to set you back more money than a regular colorway would. You likely understand that already, but it bears repeating that if you'd rather put your money into more specs, buttons, and features in a controller, there are third-party licensed options that'll give you more bang for your buck.

Remember also that there's a plethora of sim racing wheels you could buy to enhance your enjoyment of the game more than a stock gamepad would allow.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if I had to be honest, even with its roadster, flight case-adorned sticker aesthetic, the GT7 colorway is a bit of a plain Jane in the pantheon of DualSense colorways, so you could also get a flashier version if you want something bolder.

Again, though, this is a controller that's designed to appeal to long-term Gran Turismo fans, so if you want to celebrate the 30th anniversary of your favorite racing franchise, start your engines.

Hunting for a new gamepad? Seek out the best PC controllers, the best TMR controllers, or the best Xbox Series X controllers with our handy buying guides.

Come January 2028, Sony will be out of the physical games market, ceasing production on new discs for PlayStation consoles. There's been fervent outcry since this was announced, with studios across the industry reacting to the shift. As loud as the pushback seems, one analyst believes it's really the smaller half of the overall audience.

In a newsletter examining Sony's push toward digital, Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, examined the market forces that led to the choice. He looks at the sales percentages across a number of best-sellers on the PS5.

Resident Evil: Requiem and Marvel's Wolverine boast strong disc sales: the former saw just over 30% of its copies shift through physical on PlayStation 5, while the latter saw over 32%. Pragmata and Onimusha: The Way of the Sword are above 40% in physical sales, whereas 007: First Light, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, and Crimson Desert all come in under 30%.

There's a spectrum, but the point is disced games do account for a lot of copies sold for single-player releases. Multiplayer is a different story. Discs for FC 27, Madden 27 and MLB The Show 26 are all below 10% on PS5.

Those may not seem as prominent, but they're huge money-spinners, and the disparity points to differing behaviours across particular communities. People who enjoy big single-player experiences are buying more discs, but sports fans and live-service players are almost completely digital in how they pick up games.

That matters significantly to Sony's bottom line, Elliot points out, because producing discs requires a pricy pipeline, from manufacturing through to the final purchase. Digital negates all of that, on a marketplace Sony has much more control over.

"The backlash is mostly a vocal minority of a revenue minority," he writes. "But it’s a minority that really matters, and a minority that spends a lot of money on PlayStation." You're talking about longtime fans and fervent collectors here. People who actively pre-order, often on collector's editions, and who remain engaged in the months and years after a game's release.

He points out "some will walk," but the corporation knows many will just buy their games through the PS Store, however begrudgingly. The big issue, he believes, is an underlying cynicism because of the messaging.

"Sony is usually quiet and doesn’t talk much, which can sometimes be a strength. It hasn’t been a strength here," he adds. I'd agree. Physical forever - keep buying PS5 discs while you can.

"The physical element of gaming will always, always be there": Bloober Team and Broken Mirror Games want to make physical media "for as long as possible"

The CEO of Silent Hill 2 Remake developer Bloober Team has spoken out on his commitment to physical games media as PlayStation pledges to cease disc production by 2028.

"If we are able to produce a [physical] retail version of our games, we would like to make them for as long as possible," Piotr Babieno tells GamesRadar+ in an interview. Joined by Tymon Smektala, Broken Mirror Games' new executive director and former Dying Light franchise director, the duo take a moment to appreciate the roots of their passion for games as the Bloober publishing subsidiary embarks on a journey to discover "the next Kojima" of horror.

"Both me and Piotr, we are from the era where being a gamer meant you are a collector of stuff," Smektala says, gesturing to the room behind him during the video call. "Like, if I could unblur my screen, you would see lots of stuff behind me and I have lots of stuff that's not even in the camera, so this is what gaming is to us. This is the gaming I know, and this is the gaming I expect. And as long as it will be possible, and as long as the big decision makers will allow us to have that, then of course I'll be into that."

The topic came up when asked about Onyx: The Dark Grip, an upcoming horror game developed by Bloober Team and published by its in-house horror subsidiary Broken Mirror Games. It'll be one of the first Switch 2-exclusive third-party horror games ever, and the very first to be built entirely for the console's handheld mode. In the age of DLSS-5 and the worrying encroachment of generative AI in game development, Babieno considers where consoles have left to go.

"We have reached a moment where you can't really do much more in that direction [of visual and auditory fidelity]. Like, okay, the game can have a slightly higher resolution and maybe better lighting and whatever, but will it make it a more engaging game? I don't think so."

Whether players even know or care about these minute changes to the lifelikeness of a game is a question unto itself. "If you even look at the stats, a majority of players are playing on hardware which is five, seven years old, if not older, so they don't even get to experience those high-level settings at all," Babieno muses. "But are they less interested in games because of that? I don't think so.

"I think, especially in the age of AI, it's actually quite interesting to start thinking about other senses." This is one of Onyx's core motivations in being a Switch 2 handheld-only game – it's "putting horror back in your hands" in a physical sense, says Babieno, using the device as a conduit for the game itself as part of the experience. "As humans, we have four other senses, and AI can deliver something for what you see, for what you hear, but why not touch? I think the physical element of gaming will always, always be there."

And what of physical games themselves – discs, cartridges, not just consoles? From a business standpoint, Babieno understands why publishers like Sony are going digital – "we do know how P&L works and that digital distribution is much easier, much cheaper, and will be more profitable for everyone," he says. But, echoing Smektala, there's another side to that coin.

"Collecting games also [made] an emotional connection between the game and me, between the studio which produced the game and me," Babieno says. "This little emotional touch is so important that, I think in some way, we would lose the opportunity of being closer with our fans [without it]. So, if we are able to produce a [physical] retail version of our games, we would like to make them for as long as possible."

Check out the other upcoming Switch 2 game while you wait for Broken Mirror's Onyx: The Dark Grip.

PlayStation's decision to end disc production for games in 2028 has unsurprisingly led to a massive amount of backlash, largely due to the implications an all-digital future holds for entitlements and actual ownership of a library of games. There have been notable voices in the industry expressing support, or at least trying to explain Sony's stance amid ongoing component shortages and related hardware price pressures, and you can key PlayStation architect Ken Kutaragi among them.

Kutaragi tells VGC at the Game Republic New Horizons event that he understands the pushback to Sony's decision, but ultimately sees it as a necessary step to navigate difficult economic headwinds.

"I understand that physical discs have become a metaphor for 'owning' games. I really understand that mentality," he says. "But nobody thinks [physical media] is necessary for a networked device like a smartphone, for example, because people feel that they will keep their content. So it’s a mentality.

"I really understand [why some people are upset], but I don’t think it’s economically reasonable. Maybe it’s a mentality issue."

There's no doubt Sony and every other hardware manufacturer in business right now is under intense pressure to keep prices as low as possible despite an unprecedented economy squeezed by AI data centers and US tariffs, but many PlayStation users see the availability of physical discs as non-negotiable, leaving Sony and others in a real predicament going into the next console generation.

Kutaragi has no direct insights into Sony's plans as he left the company in 2007, but he says he has an idea of the company's thinking in terms of hardware going forward.

"I'm not the CEO at PlayStation anymore, but we still have some common [viewpoints]. Right now, Sony Interactive Entertainment has many people who have come from outside, like from Gaikai or streaming companies," says Kutaragi.

"So it’s understandable that by utilizing network connectivity [they may see] PlayStation as not just a game console, but also a content terminal. Maybe that’s how those people are thinking. But this has caused some friction with game enthusiasts."

I'd say "some friction" is an understatement, but it remains to be seen how Sony responds to what's become a public relations fire for the company. Some experts have suggested it's possible the conversation is evolving within Sony, but so far the company hasn't announced any plan to reverse course, nor has it shared additional details or assurances on how digital games will be handled going forward.

Fans might not "pull out $1,000" for PS6 and Project Helix if all they can offer is marginal improvements, says ex-PlayStation boss

Although two of his upcoming games are now at Microsoft, Hideo Kojima seems to still have a lot of love for Sony. One of his latest Twitter posts shows him with his old industry bestie, proving that a changed publishing deal hasn't ruined years of partnership.

Just today, October 16, Kojima tweeted a stylish image of himself in a rather nice-looking lounge. He's in an all-black outfit, and behind him, a large, LED Sony logo sits in the windows. Just in case you were wondering where he is.

It's unclear which office of the corporation he's in, but he's definitely visiting one of them, and clearly being treated quite well. And why shouldn't he? Metal Gear Solid, Death Stranding; these two have sent shockwaves through the industry together.

He's been frequenting the corporation's halls of late. Just a few days ago, he posted more pictures from what was, presumably, a separate excursion.

There was a split in recent months after Sony decided not to publish Physint following the project's reported failure to meet multiple deadlines. Within days, Kojima had secured a similarly sized deal at PlayStation's rival, Xbox, through which he announced that Bill Skarsgård would be in the lead role.

His reaction isn't surprising, since OD, his mysterious new horror game starring Sophia Lillis and Hunter Schafer, was already in Microsoft's corner. Turns out keeping his options open was a smart move in more ways than one.

Whether this picture means another deal for one of his other latent Kojima Productions ventures remains to be seen. I wouldn't count on it, since he seems to have his hands full. But it's good to know the friendship isn't done. I mean, who else is going to handle Death Stranding 3 when it happens?

Hideo Kojima shares native PC port of P.T., leaving the modder who made it "speechless"

Destiny 2 and Star Wars Jedi star Debra Wilson says she prefers playing characters who aren't modeled after her, and questioned why Marvel's Wolverine developer, Insomniac, made Callisto use her likeness.

Despite a film and TV career dating back to 1992, Debra Wilson has become one of the most prolific video game actors of all time in the last decade. While she did have roles in the likes of Metal Gear Solid 4 and Halo 3, Wilson has been in a huge number of games as of late – 10 in 2019 alone and a further 27 games since 2023 – including major roles in Death Stranding 2 and most recently Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve.

Speaking on a June 2026 episode of Hyperfixated with Joseph Shepherd (which has since resurfaced on social media), Wilson was asked by the host why so many characters she plays feature her likeness.

She explains: "The game designers do that. I don't do that," recalling that this was the case with Star Wars Jedi's Cere Junda, Marvel's Wolverine's Callisto, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's Amanda Waller – the latter of which she notes, "I am so grateful that I've played Amanda Waller from the Suicide Squad in three different iterations and only one of them looked like me."

Wilson adds, "I honestly love games where they don't look like me at all," and asks, "If it just looks like me, then how do you get a chance to really escape into a character?" For her recent role in Marvel's Wolverine, Wilson notes that Callisto "is a known character in the world of X-Men" and thinks, "Why make it look like me when there are so many iterations?"

Wilson also notes that she's been cast as "European character with foreign accents," saying "I love doing those characters." She adds that when she returns to do pickup lines "I go back in to do that to look at them and see me, and not see me," explaining "I look at it, and again, feel me in that: I am in there like I'm really in there."

I realize the irony of saying this as a Hideo Kojima fan – with Death Stranding filled with actors' likenesses, including Wilson – but I totally agree. I think there is an element of bespoke character design that is lost when something like Marvel's Wolverine uses Troy Baker's face for Mister Sinister, and it almost feels like the AAA game trend of trying to be films, when some of the most iconic game characters of all time look nothing like their actors at all.

Sony is still selling tons of the discs it plans to kill off: Marvel's Wolverine launch sales were reportedly 35% physical, showing a huge appetite for a non-digital future

An unofficial store with over 1,600 free game downloads for jailbroken PS5s was taken down this week, but – please, pretend to be shocked – it's already been reinstated by someone else, with Pandora's box well and truly open.

The store, known as Overdrive, went viral a few days ago – it arrived following a new PS5 jailbreak, which, as reported by Tom's Hardware, was compatible with all consoles except those that'd been very recently updated.

Obviously, Sony was never going to be happy about users being able to access hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games without spending a penny, so when Overdrive abruptly disappeared from GitHub shortly after its release, there was an assumption that the PlayStation owner had taken legal action to strike it down, but those claims remain unsubstantiated. Some have claimed that the creator of Overdrive actually just decided to quit of their own accord, but – you guessed it – there's no evidence to back that up, either.

One thing is for sure, though, regardless of how or why Overdrive was killed (visiting the original page results in a 404 error), it's already risen from the dead. While we're not going to link to it here for obvious reasons, one user on GitHub has allegedly rebuilt the app using a decompilation of the previous build, and now it apparently boasts 1,800 games to boot, adding more salt to the wound for Sony.

This development is hardly surprising. In 2024, Nintendo took legal action against Switch emulator Yuzu, but it took barely 12 hours for replacements to start appearing online. A couple of months later, the company hit a whopping 8,535 clones with a DMCA takedown. You can understand why folks compare this sort of thing to cutting off a Hydra's head and seeing two more sprout in its place.

Even if it wasn't Sony behind the initial removal of Overdrive's GitHub page, I can't imagine that the company isn't aware of the situation and preparing to take action against further clones. Separately, the recent jailbreak has also seen a new development that lets users play Steam games on their PS5. The GitHub page is seemingly still active for that one – between that and the Overdrive store, it looks like Sony is going to have a serious game of whack-a-mole on its hands.

PS5 emulator updates have 6 games "fully playable at 60 FPS," and Demon's Souls isn't far behind.

God of War Laufey is getting a pricey collector's edition with some fancy goodies – but it's bad news if you actually wanted to play the game itself.

The year is 2026, and you expected to get a copy of a game included with the expensive special edition you're buying? Preposterous! But no, seriously, this trend of collector's editions being sold without the games they're for – not even including a download code – is a baffling one, and after GTA 6 did the same thing earlier this month, Sony is continuing it with its upcoming God of War title. Not exactly a great look with everyone still annoyed about its plans to kill physical discs.

Revealed by PlayStation today, the £129.99 (PS Direct UK, we're still waiting on US pre-orders to drop) God of War Laufey collector's edition, or rather the "Collector Box" as Sony is calling it (perhaps to better reflect the lack of actual game), includes just three items – a mini artbook and a 51-card "Oracle Deck" being two of them. The star of the show, and undoubtedly the thing that puts the cost of the box as high as it is, is a light-up statue of Faye.

The store page doesn't say how large this statue is, but it's made of resin, and shows Faye attacking some foes while her trusty cube companion Phranque smiles on in the background. At least, I assume he would be if he had a face.

Strangely, the Collector Box hasn't yet been listed in the US at the time of writing, but in the UK, it'll cost you £130. Without the game included in that price, that essentially means fans are going to be paying a minimum of £200 for their full God of War Laufey experience next February.

At least God of War: Laufey is actually getting a physical disc release, even if you won't be getting it in a fancy box with a statue. Sony has announced that it's killing physical releases for new PlayStation games starting in 2028 – a decision that's gone down horribly and is continuing to see backlash months later.

And fans aren't happy with Sony for leaving the game out of Laufey's Collector Box, either. The God of War Ragnarok Collector's Edition also didn't come with a physical disc, but it did at least include a download code, which was something. This time, not so much.

"I remember when collector's editions used to come with games. Not liking this new trend," one responds on Twitter. "Doesn't even come with a sad little code," says another.

Well, one saving grace is that it's significantly cheaper than GTA 6's own Collector's Box, anyway. Similarly not including a game code, Rockstar's box of merch costs £350 / $400, but hey, at least you get an ugly gator statue with it, and that's obviously what fans have been waiting the last 13 years for.

The Last of Us director apologizes for using God of War Laufey as an example of "lack" of innovation in AAA: "This isn't the team's fault."

• UK pre-order | £129.99 at PS Direct
• US pre-order | Check PS Direct

Being part of a corporate structure can be frustrating, because there's always someone else to answer to. When it came to leading PlayStation, one of the former CEOs of the console juggernaut took to just shrugging off orders from Sony brass if necessary.

Kaz Hirai, who oversaw Sony Computer Entertainment from 2007 to 2012, discussed his tenure in that position with Takaya Awata, CEO of Toridoll Holdings, in a conversation published by Nikkei Xtrend. "When I was president of Sony Computer Entertainment handling the PlayStation home console business," he starts, as translated by Game Observer.

"Whenever Howard [Stringer] and the other executives told me this or that, I went my own way, saying, ‘What the headquarters says is irrelevant. We are PlayStation,'" he says, laughing.

That's definitely one way of navigating bureaucracy or managerial oversight. To be fair, though, the results speak for themselves during this period.

Despite the struggles, PlayStation 3 itself shifted plenty of consoles, accruing over 87 million in lifetime sales. You had games like the original Uncharted trilogy, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid 4, and the Ratchet and Clank series that were platform-exclusive, along with a huge library of indies on the nascent PS Store.

Considering the competition from the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, PlayStation not only held its own but ultimately won the war, as the PS3 outsold Microsoft's console overall.

Funnily enough, there's form for this within the brand, since a lot of Sony brass were resistant to entering the games business in the '90s. Ken Kutaragi was PlayStation's main cheerleader at the time, going against the tide to get the first system out the door.

For his tenure, Hirari mentions part of his strategy as boss was to regularly visit offices in other cities to maintain a sense of personal presence. "During the six years I served as president, I visited over 20 countries and close to 50 cities, perhaps? Going just once isn't enough,” he states.

He found there was initial cynicism the first time, but doing it over and over demonstrated that he cared about the teams and what they were up to. "It was like, 'He really came back, this old guy!'" Hirai finishes.

He then moved higher up the food chain at Sony, before fully retiring from the company in 2024, ending a 40-year run.

Nintendo has "no plans to ditch physical games," exec says amid PlayStation disc backlash: "We go off of what the consumer prefers"

Nintendo's vice president and general manager for Latin America, Bill van Zyll, says that the company has no plans to ditch physical media.

Physical media has become a big talking point in the last couple of years. Last year, Nintendo caused preservation concerns thanks to the introduction of Game Key Cards – physical cartridges that allow you to download a game, while not holding any of its data. However, Game Key Cards are very much in the rear view window this year with Rockstar Games' decision to ship GTA 6 exclusively as a code in box release, swiftly followed by Sony announcing it's killing off discs for new PlayStation games in 2028.

Speaking to YouTube creator Coelho no Japão (via Nintendo Everything), Van Zyll is asked about Nintendo's stance on physical media in the wake of PlayStation's decision, with him responding, "Historically, we've been very agnostic, right? We go off what the consumer prefers, and take that into account very heavily."

He then cites that "we also have a platform that was just launched," noting the Switch 2's ability to play both physical and digital games.

"There's no plans to ditch physical," Van Zyll explains. "We know how much the fans like it as well, so our position has been to be agnostic."

However, unfortunately, that's of course only the stance right now, and there's no telling what the future holds, but hopefully Nintendo will stick with it for a while longer. Given that every first-party release except for Pokemon Pokopia and the upcoming Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity – Definitive Edition have been actual physical releases instead of Game Key Cards, it may be a good sign for now.

Sony is still selling tons of the discs it plans to kill off: Marvel's Wolverine launch sales were reportedly 35% physical, showing a huge appetite for a non-digital future

It is absolutely no surprise to anyone in the market for a new gaming console that prices have risen rather sharply in the last year-and-change, but fresh insights from a trusted industry analyst put some context into just how bad things have gotten.

The ongoing RAM shortages, coupled with tariff-driven increases in hardware prices, have driven each of the three big console manufacturers; Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo; to drive up console prices numerous times in less than two years. If you want a brand-new PS5 Pro, you're looking at $900, while the disc version of the Xbox Series X is now priced at $800. Meanwhile, Nintendo's second Switch 2 price hike means you'll need to drop $500 on the base model of the current-gen system.

Circana's Mat Piscatella, citing data from the company's US retail tracking system, says these price increases have, unsurprisingly, resulted in slowed sales for both Sony and Microsoft. Specifically, "For 2026 YTD ending August, Xbox hardware unit sales are down 33% versus a year ago in the US, while PlayStation hardware units are 25% lower," says Piscatella on Bluesky. "Xbox YTD US hardware unit sales are at an all-time low, while PlayStation is at lowest point since 2013."

Looking at year-to-date console price changes in averages and percentages, Piscatella says "the average price a consumer has paid for a new Xbox console in 2026 YTD ending August is $529, 26% higher than a year ago, while the average PlayStation console has sold for $597, 20% higher than last year.

"Both prices are at all-time US highs. Price sensitivity is becoming a real problem."

Perhaps the release of the Big Video Game in November will help ease at least some of these declines.But this will also depend on product availability given the RAM and component crisis. And pricing, of course.The US hardware market has not been in a more precarious position since the early 80s.

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-10-09T18:15:04.217Z

"Price sensitivity is becoming a real problem" just might be the most broadly relatable sentence possible living in the US in 2026, but Piscatella shares a small glimmer of hope in a certain video game that rhymes with Grand Theft Auto Fix. "Perhaps the release of the Big Video Game in November will help ease at least some of these declines," Piscatella says, clearly alluding to GTA 6, but even that is a big uncertainty. "This will also depend on product availability given the RAM and component crisis. And pricing, of course," says Piscatella, concluding with a dramatic contextualization of the current environment:

"The US hardware market has not been in a more precarious position since the early 80s."

Of course, Piscatella seems to be referencing the historic video game crash that happened from 1983 to 1985 and saw revenue attributed to US home video game sales fall 97% from about $3.2 billion in 1983 to $100 million in 1985. We haven't quite reached that level of catastrophe yet, and there's hope component shortages and tariff-related costs will eventually stabilize and ease some of the pressure on the console market, but going into the holiday season, console shoppers shouldn't expect substantial relief outside of big sales like Black Friday.

"Supply has been consistently available" - Acer's CEO says it's "impossible" for the memory shortage to last until 2030, but that average PC prices will still increase by 5-20% by the end of 2026

Although Bloodborne isn't officially available on PC – and at this point, might never be – a good few fans have worked to port it over themselves… including those behind The Hunter's Dream, a multiplayer emulation that might not be as ambitious as it seems.

The PlayStation 5 is seeing various emulation projects take off, finally allowing PC players access to Sony exclusives – but Bloodborne's own The Hunter's Dream might not really be that.

As per its official website and posts over on Twitter, it supposedly supports quite a lot, from multiplayer to keyboard and mouse controls and much, much more. Heck, it apparently works on both Windows and Linux (Steam Deck included), with all bells and whistles included.

While it sounds impressive on paper, there's a chance – like, 100% – that the Bloodborne port was made using generative AI… and, a whole lot of it, too.

We're living in the (unfortunate) era of AI-powered crossovers and such, so it's not all that surprising, but still. If you take a look at the creator's GitHub page, you'll see that Claude, as in the AI bot, is credited as one of the "people" who worked on pretty much every single aspect of the project.

It's understandable, then, that many comments on the social media post unveiling the project aren't exactly positive. "It's not really a native port btw," reads one. "AI just slopped stuff from the emulator." Another declares, "NOT PLAYING THIS AI SLOP I WILL JUST USE THE EMULATOR MADE BY HUMANS!"

Further down, the sentiment remains the same, with folks warning The Hunter's Dream stems from "fucking Claude."

There's also the fact that, as one person points out, "you still fucking need the original copy of Bloodborne and an e-boot from your PS4" – but that makes sense as it'd be *cough* illegal *cough* otherwise (not that it's totally clean now by any means, for what it's worth).

All in all, I'd personally advise perhaps giving this one a miss, but if you're hoping for something more official, I'm sadly not sure it'll ever happen.

Heck, even former PlayStation chief Shuhei Yoshida doesn't know why Bloodborne hasn't been remastered or released on PC, having called it "a complete mystery" – and that checks out. I'll forever look forward to one myself, but… I wouldn't hold my breath.

Bloodborne movie producer Jacksepticeye admits "80% of the responses were critical" of his involvement, as he reassures fans he's "trying to honor the universe."

In January of 2028, Sony will end production of physical discs for PlayStation systems. Though the choice hasn't been popular, the corporation has stuck to its guns.

Nonetheless, figures for Marvel's Wolverine suggest a substantial amount of the audience for that game picked it up physically, making the decision seem even more retrograde.

Numbers from Ampere Analysis (courtesy of The Game Business) for the month of September have Wolverine at second for overall sales on PS5. That's not surprising, since it's one of the biggest first-party releases of the year, and a highly-anticipated one at.

But what's interesting is that, of the 2.16 million copies that were sold, some 35% were boxed. That's a lot of physical copies of a game, in a market that's become increasingly digital. It's closer to half than I would've initially guessed.

Wolverine isn't the only one touting such sales either. Onimusha: Way of the Sword and The Blood of Dawnwalker are both around the same, 30% and 36% physical, respectively, for the same month. Silent Hill: Townfall sold 45% in physical copies on PS5.

Clearly, people are still buying discs, and in considerable numbers. "People have a need to collect. That's where physical sales are still incredibly relevant for the consumer market," as Joost van Druenen, analyst and NYU adjunct lecturer on the games industry, tells The Game Business.

"The industry is ready to move on, but not so fast. This is increasingly a big part of it."

There's an argument some of those players are probably emboldened to invest in circular pieces of plastic because of Sony's choices, but I don't believe such a surge would stretch to a third of copies sold across multiple big releases.

To me, this suggests the physical market is healthier than you might think.

It's definitely got more life in it than the 82% figure Sony's thrown around for how much of its business stems from digital sales. These are all games available digitally, and yet people who wanted to play them made a choice. And that's despite Wolverine suffering middling reviews.

Lots of us have been left disappointed by Sony pivoting away from disc production, and we drive more sales than the corporation might have you believe off hand. Physical forever.

After Zelda: Ocarina of Time, "Nintendo should be even more focused on remakes" to avoid PS5-like game droughts, ex-marketing leads say: "You'll be Sony, you'll have a problem"

With The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake on the way, Nintendo of America's former PR leads say the company should put more remakes in development to help fill out the Switch 2 library.

Nintendo has a bit of a weird relationship with remakes when compared to other major publishers.

Capcom is out here remaking every Resident Evil, Sony is probably already developing a third remake of The Last of Us, and Xbox recently released its second remakes of Halo: Combat Evolved and Gears of War.

However, outside of the Pokemon games, Nintendo remakes are seemingly at random, with only a few dropping in each console generation; and, as over the last decade, they've felt like ways to re-introduce somewhat dormant series' such as Metroid, Star Fox, and Advance Wars, as opposed to being remakes of "bigger" games.

The Ocarina of Time remake is naturally a bit of a break away from this as it's a remake of what is perhaps Nintendo's biggest game ever – but a duo of former Nintendo leads hope it's the beginning of a wider initiative.

In an new episode of their podcast, former PR leads Krysta Yang and Kit Ellis discuss as much, with the latter saying "Nintendo should be even more focused on remakes." He cites Star Fox and Ocarina of Time's 2026 returns as "really proving that there is a significant audience" and "significant interest when these games are handled in a premium way."

Ellis also notes "if you're Nintendo, nobody has a library that's as deep as you" while stating that the original Switch lineup was bolstered by a plethora of Wii U ports throughout its life.

He adds, "it's really an important thing for them to be able to keep the lineup strong throughout the year; not everything needs to be from the ground up original game. We can supplement that with these remakes."

Granted, Ellis does say "you need to be careful" when it comes to what the percent of remakes vs original titles is in a given year, as to not be seen as relying on remakes and remasters.

However, he reckons Nintendo could make the remake percentage a bit higher and "not face any significant pushback."

Yang agrees, noting that these projects that need less resources will be a good way to supplement a lineup of "the big games," saying "no company can survive if they only do like the crazy big like AAA innovative experience for every single game."

"You'll be Sony," she adds. "You'll have a problem." She's referencing the PS5's long-term exclusive droughts that have been the subject of player complaints here, although Sony is also very keen to release a ton of remakes and remasters.

However, Yang points out the "dangerous thing" is "they're getting such positive reinforcement from these remakes." And, when Ocarina sells well, there could be the thought of "that was a way easier way" to sell 10 million copies of a game, as opposed to taking a risk with a new out-there Zelda game.

She explains, "that is the danger of this path that they're going down, I think, is you could overindex on that pretty easily because you're getting so rewarded for it, making tons of money for very little work."

Saying that, Nintendo has been supplementing its series in other ways too, with the likes of Splatoon Raiders and the Mario Sports titles, which are smaller entries to help bridge the gap between major releases.

Having unique spins on existing franchises is a far more interesting prospect to me than endless remakes of games I can already play, but hey, people love a remake.

Castlevania Belmont's Curse skipping Switch 2 also baffles former Nintendo marketing lead: "The way Konami has handled this game has been a little weird"

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says too many developers are too focused on trying to make a hit game, as opposed to chasing the ideas they care about.

I don't think it's a particularly original take to say AAA games have gotten a bit safe in recent years. As budgets balloon, we're seeing games follow the same formulas of proven success, while the 'out there' experiences are typically relegated to indie developers. It's how we get the yellow paint, most PlayStation Studios games being a third person cinematic focused adventure game, and every Ubisoft open world feeling the same.

And at the same time, companies are chasing the Fortnite money at every waking moment, resulting in failed live service game after failed live service game because nobody has the time to play five of them at once.

Speaking to The Expansion Pass (below), former CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America Layden says that Rockstar and Take-Two "know what they're doing [and] they're fine. But other places…"

Layden hesitates to say "pander" as it's perhaps "too harsh of a term," but he believes that a lot of developers are just "trying to build the thing that they think is just going to hit" as opposed to building "the game that someone in there just has bursting out of their brain" with a feeling of "'I need to build this game or I can't sleep at night.'"

Granted, I get what Layden is saying, and generally agree with it. But the reality is not quite as simple as that. I'm sure there are hundreds of developers dying to create the idea "bursting out of their brain," but getting a publisher to greenlight a risk in this day and age is a whole other kettle of fish. The host points out that Xbox has shuttered or divested from studios who were making their own creative visions, like Double Fine and Compulsion Games

Layden notes, "I do feel that artistic vision still requires guidance." He refers to titles with "strictly artistic vision with no guard rails," saying he won't name specific games, but "you know the ones I'm talking about, which just kind of came out to the market and you go, 'what were they thinking when they built that thing?'" He reiterates, "You still need to have guardians in the room."

Unfortunately though, it doesn't feel likely that many places – outside of the likes of Capcom and Nintendo – are too keen on even trying with those guided projects, either. Especially not when millions that could fund an entire game budget is being wasted on the likes of CEO bonuses.

PlayStation creator says games have stagnated, urges developers not to lose their "curiosity" as the industry reaches a major turning point ahead of the "next stage."

The Last of Us 2 has the perfect video game ending for my money. Without spoiling anything in case you've yet to experience this masterpiece of a game, it's bitterly unsatisfying but somehow, thematically and narratively, the only way to wrap up the story in a way that does justice to the characters, who they are, and what they've all been through.

OK, now I will get into spoilers, so again, if somehow The Last of Us 2 has eluded you in the six years it's been out, go play that darned game and come back here when you're done so we can pick up the pieces together.

The very final scene of The Last of Us 2 is a heart-wrenching conversation between Joel and Ellie, obviously from before Joel was murdered by Abby. In it, Joel and Ellie attempt to reconcile their relationship, which is in tatters following the events of The Last of Us 1, when Joel saves Ellie from scientists trying to sacrifice her for the good of humanity. By doing so, Joel dashes hopes for a vaccine and Ellie is less than thankful to learn she could've saved humanity but didn't because of Joel's intervention.

This final conversation before Joel's death sees the father and adoptive daughter duo wrestle with their feelings for each other, but it's inconclusive. "I don't think I can ever forgive you for that... But I would like to try," Ellie says. "I'd like that," Joel responds, fighting back tears. It's an incredibly emotional moment that reminds you of a love between found family that both father and daughter wanted to salvage, but would never get the chance.

"God damn, [Ellie actor] Ashley Johnson," a tearful Troy Baker says in a Party Chat interview in which he reacts to the scene six years later. "We spent all day on that scene ... Originally, [game director Neil Druckmann] had scripted that Ellie hugs Joel, and Ashley was like, 'I'm not there yet, I can't.' It's not that she was right, but it's better that they don't get that hug, that we leave it in the tense, we leave it unresolved.

"And originally, that scene was supposed to play right before everything goes down, and to put it at the end, it's just like, 'Oh god,' it's so good." Baker adds that he had "no idea" the scene was going to play at the very end of the game until "afterwards."

One of the things I love most about Ellie and Joel's story is how many different meanings can be extrapolated from it, and how it's possible that none of them were the developer's intention. For me, having that scene play at the end of the game adds a final bit of emotional reasoning to Ellie's revenge spree. As the main sympathetic character of the story, Ellie's rage is understandable just knowing that Abby killed Joel so gruesomely, but it makes even more sense when you learn that Abby also robbed Ellie of the chance to tell Joel she loved him before he was killed. It's a farewell reminder that, as healthy as it is to let go of grudges, as humans our hands are often tied when it comes to matters related to people we love or loved deeply.

Anyway, writing this story has reminded me I need to play through the entire Last of Us saga again, right from the beginning with Part 1 on PS5. Typically I only play horror games in the month of October, but I'd say The Last of Us is adjacent enough to qualify.

New Last of Us projects have stories "worth telling," Naughty Dog boss Neil Druckmann promises: "We wouldn't return to it unless we had something meaningful to say"

Although Sony's decision to end all physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028 has proven quite controversial, to say the least, not everyone thinks that a digital-only world would be all bad.

One such person is Hiroshi Matsuyama, CEO fo CyberConnect 2 – a studio best known for its manga and anime-based fighting games (think Naruto: Ultimate Ninja and the like) as well as its .hack series made in collaboration with the ever-beloved Bandai Namco.

He makes his stance clear in a new post over on X (as translated by Automaton), stating that a complete shift to digital game distribution and no physical would be "nothing but a positive thing."

That is, from the perspective of developers themselves. He explains that digital games are more profitable, using his own studio as an example. It has to purchase discs and/or game cards directly from manufacturers at companies like Nintendo and Sony to produce physical copies for their respective platforms, adding an extra layer of expense to the whole process.

Going digital would eliminate this pricey layer, of course.

Matsuyama understands why folks prefer discs and such, as "culturally, physical copies were a normal thing" – but "nowadays, they can't win in terms of convenience."

He also cites Capcom and Square Enix here, stating that over 90% or so of their sales are digital. In that case, it doesn't make financial sense to continue producing physical editions of games. "Developers work for their salaries," after all – and profit is undeniably important.

"If you want to release physical games even if it means that salaries will be reduced," as the dev describes, "then sure, I can make it happen – but I don't think there's anyone willing to do that."

In short, he doesn't think continuing to support physical copies "for a minority of collectors and enthusiasts" is realistic or plausible, but he's not sure they'll disappear suddenly now, either.

There'll still be codes in boxes yet. Discs specifically, though? Those "are doomed to fail."

Matsuyama then brings Rockstar Games' own GTA 6 up, noting how it's digital-only because it's "too big to fit on a physical disc." In fact, most games in general now "are too large to fit," according to the CyberConnect 2 lead, and "that's why they're shifting to digital releases." And, again, that's apparently a good thing.

"It's important to make that shift," as he concludes. As for what kind of impact it will make…" Well, "there will be nothing but positive things. Profitability will rise much faster, and developers will get more bonuses."

I'm not sure it's a good shift myself, but hey – at least he makes some valid points from a dev's point of view.

PlayStation is "hearing the feedback from customers" on discs, says JRPG boss whose business is built on physical games

A newly published Sony patent could theoretically see future PlayStation games adapting boss fights in real time based on how you deal with their moves, and I sincerely hope FromSoftware isn't listening.

As highlighted by Patentlyze (thanks, Wccftech), the patent for an "AI-adapted non-player character for video game system," AKA US-20260295429-A1, was first filed in the US last March, but was more recently published on October 1. The patent opens by stating that "as video games increase in complexity, there exists a need for continued development of more efficient rendering engines, improved real-time physics simulation techniques, and scalable systems capable of supporting increasingly detailed virtual environments and lifelike NPC interactions."

How does Sony propose doing this? Basically, collecting player data and using it to train a machine learning model to generate content that can then be incorporated into games. It suggests this could be used in several ways, including making NPCs more realistic. It mentions data related to NPCs including "emotional characteristics," suggesting they could have "voices that can shift in pitch, volume, and rhythm depending on the situation, conveying urgency, calmness, fear, aggression, warmth, encouragement, connection, and the like."

Perhaps most interesting to action game enjoyers, however, is the suggestion that this tech could be used to shape boss battles, too. The patent says that Sony could collect "data representing the player's reaction time to NPC/boss attacks or environmental hazards, the timing of their actions (e.g., attacks, defensive maneuvers, or counters), and the frequency and success rate of dodges, blocks, or parries, and the like." In addition, it mentions "boss interaction data," including attack patterns and "how often they were avoided or countered by the player," as well as the changes to their health and "the use of environmental elements."

The patent puts forth a wide range of ideas, including how the proposed machine learning could be incorporated into games – it could "generate NPC content before game play (e.g., before a video game is executed), in real-time (e.g., during execution of the video game which causes the player data and video game data to be generated), and/or after game play (e.g., after a video game is executed)," Sony says. Basically, it could work in real time, or it could not – Sony is covering its bases for both versions of that idea.

There's no denying that the concept of boss fights being able to adapt to player behavior as it happens is interesting – imagine a harder version of Elden Ring's Malenia who learns to avoid your staggering moves and uses nothing but Waterfowl Dance because she knows you can never avoid it properly. The horror.

With that said, would totally unpredictable enemies really be a good thing? When it comes to Souls games specifically, learning a boss fight and the different enemy attack patterns is a huge part of the entire process. Mastering your responses and learning from defeat after defeat is what makes those hard-won fights feel satisfying. Would you feel that same sense of progress and like you're inching closer and closer to a win if it felt like you were taking on a top-level, human fighting game player every time you went into a boss battle?

At this point, there's no telling if Sony will actually incorporate this technology at all, let alone in this specific way. I just hope Hidetaka Miyazaki takes mercy on us if it does.

Even after Elden Ring exploded, Hidetaka Miyazaki says FromSoftware doesn't make games for anyone: "The motivation is that this is a game I want to see exist."

Making AAA games is only getting more expensive, particularly in North America, where many of the industry's most prestigious studios are based. With so many companies pouring their big budget development resources into live-service games that can generate infinite profits, how are studios like Naughty Dog allowed to continue investing years into one-and-done single-player games? Probably because Sony needs those games to keep selling PS5s.

"My understanding is really that Naughty Dog exists to sell Sony hardware," Matt Radford, a former VFX artist on The Last of Us and Uncharted 4, says in an interview with Kiwi Talkz. "The reason Naughty Dog is so wonderful is that they aren't as profit-driven as other companies, because they exist to be a flagship to sell the hardware. Sony makes their money on the hardware, and I think it's working."

If you've ever wondered why first-party games from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo tend to look better and offer more polish than third-party titles, this is at least part of the reason why.

Exclusive, first-party games help make a console more attractive to prospective buyers. You can't get a platformer as good as Mario on an Xbox. You can't get a shooter as good as Halo on PlayStation. And you can't get a narrative action game as good as Uncharted on Nintendo.

At least, that was always the theory. If developers were most interested in selling copies of their games, they'd sell more copies by default by releasing those titles across multiple platforms – just as Microsoft has now begun to do (Halo is now on PlayStation). But for Sony, a core part of the value of a PlayStation console is that it's the only place you can get games like God of War, The Last of Us, or Spider-Man. And with those releases getting even fewer and further between, each one better be good.

"I just hope it gets to keep happening, because the real beauty in this is that this even exists," Radford continues. "One day maybe there won't be the ability to spend $600 million or some astronomical figure to make a really cool action game with a good story. Friends of mine talk, and we're often like – insert your Naughty Dog game, Uncharted 4, Last of Us 2, whatever. Is that the best video game that'll ever be made?"

Radford points to the examples of ancient cathedrals and other "architectural marvels" around the world, all of which exist as evidence of a very particular time and place where artists and craftspeople had developed very particular skills and were afforded the opportunity to use them in creating works that have withstood centuries.

You can decide for yourself how The Last of Us compares to the Sistine Chapel, but the point is that the great works of architecture will never be made again "because the talent doesn't even exist," Radford says. "The people have moved on, the process, the expertise. We have better ways of making a building now, and yet none of the buildings look like some of those old architectural marvels."

Radford wonders "if games will be that way as well. Like we'll look back at a game like Intergalactic, at a game like Uncharted 4 or Last of Us 2 and see the amount of acting by people, by humans. The acting and writing, modeling, sculpting, painting, you know, and we'll marvel at it like, 'Wow, can you believe that was all done by hand?' Like a guy painting the top of that church."

Sony says AI is "exciting," great for "synthetic assets," and an "important foundational technology supporting our strategy."

PATCH NOTES v10.06.2026 – Both Microsoft and Sony have fallen from grace in the eyes of console gamers, but one smart decision has turned PlayStation's fumble into Xbox's biggest gain.

What's going on in gaming this week?

• Hideo Kojima took to his radio show to discuss OD and Physint, both to be published under Xbox Game Studios
• He is drawing out the mysterious, unknown quality of each, saying that he "doesn't want to reveal too much" though the games are progressing as planned

Why is this happening now?

• Sony allegedly canceled plans to publish Physint as a PS5-exclusive, with Xbox picking it up instead
• Sony is moving toward a digital-only future for PlayStation, while Xbox has announced no such plans

Meta Shift

• Xbox doesn't have to own Kojima Productions to benefit from its star power

The console wars are supposed to be long behind us, but Kojima having two partnerships with Xbox seems to have reignited it in Xbox's favor.

Xbox had already partnered with Kojima to publish his upcoming horror game OD (Overdose), so adding the detective thriller to its litany of upcoming Xbox Series X games doubles down on the partnership. It turns Sony's loss into a great boon for Xbox; Sony is cast off an exclusivity deal with one of the industry's most prominent visionaries, leaving it primed for Xbox to take over and come out looking somewhat virtuous in the eyes of Kojima fans.

Xbox has become known for its high-value mergers and acquisitions, with its $75 billion purchase of Call of Duty punisher Activision Blizzard being its biggest to date. But Xbox doesn't need to own Kojima Productions to benefit from its star power. We are used to Hideo Kojima being a mysterious and tight-lipped figure, so each and every non-comment from the creator is another reason for his loyal fans to follow him from PS5 to Xbox. As Xbox steers itself into a murky new future, having an unpredictable companion like Hideo Kojima along for the ride feels rather poetic. At the very least, it will keep us entertained while the corporate cogs keep turning in the background.

Platform Stability

Aligning itself further with gaming's most interesting creator means Xbox has bought back some of the goodwill it lost through the confusion generated by CEO Asha Sharma's ongoing "Xbox Reset". As part of a larger Microsoft-wide restructure, it has so far resulted in the divestment or disbanding of in-house developers like Ninja Theory and Undead Labs, while others such as Bethesda and Obsidian have merged.

Meanwhile, Sony earned the ire of many PS5 owners who went as far as staging a PSN blackout to protest the publisher's decision to cease physical disc production as of 2028. When Kojima alleged that Death Stranding publisher Sony had canceled its Physint deal with Kojima Productions, fans were outraged – and Xbox swooped in to save the day (and the game) after Kojima pitched them instead.

Patch Notes summary

Kojima has become a master at using a lot of words to say very little, but Xbox partnering up to publish two upcoming Hideo Kojima games says it all: The publisher is abandoning its heavy M&A push in favor of strategic partnerships.

This latest one with Kojima has the twofold advantage of pitting it favorably against Sony, hitting the PlayStation publisher at its most vulnerable in terms of player approval, while proving an effective distraction technique to help weather the storm caused by ongoing restructures and the devastating impact they have had on key studios.

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Shawn Layden joined Sony in 1987, eventually taking on leadership roles at the company's burgeoning video game development studios that led to him becoming chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, a position he retired from in 2019. He knows what it's taken to build the PlayStation brand, and his feelings about the company's decision to end physical discs hold more weight than most.

Layden understands the convenience of digital games, as he explains in an interview for The Expansion Pass podcast. But if a rough estimate suggests that 80% of people download games and 20% buy them physically, then Layden says "that's a super important 20%." These are the most "faithful of the faithful" players, who'll show up to buy multiple copies of an individual game to keep in their collection.

For that reason, Layden says, "I don't agree with that decision." He caveats all this with the acknowledgement that he has no idea what the situation looks like on PlayStation's spreadsheets, or the specific financial realities that led Sony down this path.

"But at the same time – I think this is probably the more insidious aspect to it – it changes the conversation from 'do you own a game?' Or 'do you have access to a digital asset?'" Layden says.

"If you can't sell a thing, that means you don't own a thing. And if you don't own it, then what are you buying? If you're buying access, that doesn't quite sound as sexy, to be honest. And people, as people tend to do in their mind, they'll game out the worst-case scenario. That's a whole lot of brand hit and reputation bite that, as I said, I don't have any visibility on the financials around it, but that's a significant brand hit and I hope it made sense to them."

While I'm one of those gamers who does love collecting for collecting's sake, the issue of game ownership has always been my biggest concern about PlayStation's impending all-digital stance. Market experts have noted that a substantial portion of Sony's biggest games continue to make dump trucks of money on disc, but the company is apparently more concerned about control of the market than the physical-first audience.

Layden has expressed his skepticism about PlayStation going discless in the past, noting that "the market has said they will continue to buy them," and suggesting that it could "heavily influence" Xbox and Nintendo's approach to physical games in the future. Either way, Sony's gonna have a rough time selling a PS6 for $1,000 if the next-gen can only offer modest improvements in its discless future.

PlayStation is "hearing the feedback from customers" on discs, says JRPG boss whose business is built on physical games.

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says Xbox's current issues have mostly been down to the publisher's inability to pick a lane and stay in it.

Whether you're an Xbox diehard or not, there's no denying that Microsoft has been pretty confusing over the last few years, with the company seemingly changing its strategy on a whim constantly – which really hasn't helped it catch up on PlayStation's massive lead. Most prominently has been the company's approach to game exclusivity since it purchased Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, where for a bit there every Xbox game was also coming to PS5, and then sometime this year it decided, 'actually, no we're doing exclusives again'… at least for some games.

Speaking to The Expansion Pass (below), Layden – the former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America – notes, "I think Microsoft never really picked a lane. Or if they picked a lane, they didn't stay in it very long." He notes the aforementioned flip flopping between being a publisher on all platforms vs wanting to be an exclusive platform, saying, "a platform needs exclusives or the platform has no meaning," but "if you're the biggest publisher in the world, you almost have to be on every platform, because that's how the business model works. You can't be successful at both."

There's also the Xbox Game Pass issue, wherein Microsoft is inherently devaluing its big titles by offering them as part of a subscription service on day one. Layden says, "If you're going to do that, then are you expecting people are going to buy content if they can get it on a subscription service".

He notes "the math doesn't" work with trying to be everything at once with Game Pass, adding, "if you're sitting on a big bunch of Microsoft money perhaps you don't feel that tension until, you know, slowly slowly slowly and then all at once where it becomes very hard to ignore. And I think they've got themselves in a pickle, to be honest."

Layden says new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma "is doing her best to try to right the ship", adding, "I hope she does it. Though I don't know what that looks like."

PlayStation creator says games have stagnated, urges developers not to lose their "curiosity" as the industry reaches a major turning point ahead of the "next stage."

PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi reckons that games have stagnated creatively despite their graphical flourish, though that doesn't mean he's not optimistic about the state of the industry. In fact, Kutaragi reckons it's poised to advance to the "next stage."

Speaking at Japan's University of Electro-Communications, Kutaragi weighs in on the evolution of the gaming industry, where it's headed next, and why human "curiosity" remains vital.

As reported by 4Gamer – and translated by Automaton – Kutaragi doesn't consider the gaming space a mature industry, even though its value has propelled it past the likes of film, television, and music. All of that is to say, we've yet to reach our limits and there are still significant breakthroughs to be made.

Mind you, that's not to say the state of the industry is perfect. For Kutaragi, modern games have stagnated despite the growth they've undergone in scale and graphics. In fact, he believes the approach to creating content hasn't really changed from his time spearheading the original PlayStation project.

But that doesn't mean things won't get better. Kutaragi believes the industry is at a major turning point and ready to advance to the "next stage." To get there, though, we must first look back. Kutaragi says the team behind the OG PlayStation created the machine with the intent to "change the world," which tapped into the spirit of the industry at the time. One that "created the world’s most cutting-edge technology" rather than following everyone else.

It's at this point that Kutaragi urges developers and students in attendance to adopt a mindset of leading rather than following. The message especially applies to those who are younger. For Kutaragi, you set your habits in your formative years before following them into your elderly years.

"The moment you lose your curiosity and think, this is probably as good as it gets, it's all over," he says.

As someone who spends much of their working life keeping up with and reporting on gaming news, I find it evident that the Western gaming industry can't continue as it is. You don't need another reminder that companies overspent during the COVID-19 years and that AI is making everything more expensive, though what Kutaragi speaks of does link back to what we're hearing from other leading industry figures. Advancements in gaming technology aren't that interesting anymore, since people can't afford what they bring, and those who do won't notice them much anyway.

Rather, moving forward, it's making something impressive yet accessible that seems a better bet of winning out. To Kutaragi's point, some bright ideas on how to do that and fix this mess won't go amiss right now.

Fallout co-creator tells new devs terrified of layoffs they're "wrong" to expect making games to be a "stable job": "Art itself is inherently unstable."

For almost two years, I've watched various friends, family members, and co-workers adopt the PS5 Pro, and I've largely been managing my jealousy with one notable exception: PSSR. The PS5 Pro's AI-powered upscaling tech is genuinely next-gen stuff, and makes games that already look exceptional on the base PS5 appear noticeably sharper and more detailed. It's not so impressive that I want to spend $900 to upgrade to the PS5 Pro, but it's enough to make my six-year-old PS5 look even dustier than it really is, and let me tell you folks, it's pretty dusty up in there.

Anyway, my face turned an ever-so-slightly milder shade of green today when Sony announced that "AI upscaling is coming to PS5." At first, I thought, the PS5 console family already has AI upscaling, it's just limited to the PS5 Pro, but no, Sony is bringing the tech to the base, vanilla PS5. It's not PSSR though, it's "a new performance tier of AI upscaling" called QSSR, which stands for Quick Spectral Super Resolution.

"Since the launch of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) on PS5 Pro, players and developers have asked whether similar image-quality improvements could be brought to the PS5 console," says SIE principal engineer of graphics R&D, Daniel Craig in a new PlayStation Blog. "PSSR analyzes game images pixel by pixel and uses AI to upscale them with more detail and stability than conventional approaches; until now, its computational demands made bringing that experience to PS5 impossible."

Sony says QSSR is made possible by two key innovations: a "streamlined neural network architecture" and "a hand-tuned implementation that maximizes performance on PS5," which work together to provide "some notable improvements to both image detail and image stability on PS5."

If you, like me, are keen to know exactly how "notable" these improvements are to the naked eye, here's a good comparison video showing Marvel's Wolverine in Fidelity Mode with and without QSSR. Watching the video, I'm encouraged that I don't have to squint even a little bit to see a very obvious increase in detail and clarity in background environments.

Only two games are confirmed to be taking advantage of QSSR right now: Marvel's Wolverine and Ghost of Yotei, which Sony says are both getting patches today. No other titles have been confirmed for QSSR support.

"QSSR adds more pixel-level clarity and stability to our environments, bringing out extra detail amidst the busy streets of Madripoor, the dense alleyways of Shinjuku, and many other areas across Logan’s epic journey," says Mike Fitzgerald, head of technology at Insomniac Games. "It's a perfect companion to the launch of Marvel's Wolverine, and it brings a great taste of the PS5 Pro experience to our players on PS5."

Meanwhile, Sucker Punch lead rendering engineer Jasmin Patry says "QSSR excels at resolving the fine details in our characters and environments and does so with a level of temporal stability that hasn't been possible on the PS5 console until now." You can see how the tech upgrades character models and environments in Ghost of Yotei in the below video:

I'm eager to see how quickly other games and developers adopt QSSR and how widely the tech is applied to the PS5's back catalog, but for now I'm giving Sony its flowers for what seems like a genuinely meaningful upgrade to the base PS5 even as it nears its sixth birthday. It's not all too often you see a hardware manufacturer add new features to a console with a newer, pricier successor, as usually they want to encourage people to adopt the most current version, so I'm tentatively encouraged by this.

It's also worth drawing a very significant distinction between PSSR and QSSR and something like Nvidia's DLSS 5, which is rightfully drawing sharp criticism for using gen-AI to dramatically retool a game's actual assets, lighting, character designs, environments, etc. Basically, PSSR and QSSR sharpen up what's already there, while DLSS 5 can tinker with artistic intent, which is where the controversy comes from. The fact that all three of the above-listed features are AI upscalers has the unfortunate effect of tarring an otherwise innocent and impressive console feature with the muddy, stinky brush of gen-AI.

Amid PS5 Pro shortage, Sony implements a lottery system in Japan that requires 60 hours of playtime

PlayStation and Xbox are both pulling back from multiplatform releases and reemphasizing exclusive games. At the same time, Sony recently dropped Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear successor, Physint, leaving Microsoft to pick up the project. The console warriors might be drawing battle lines, but Xbox CEO Asha Sharma says the publisher's collaborations with PlayStation will continue.

Xbox still has several ongoing projects with PlayStation. Forza Horizon 6 and Fable are both set to come to PS5, and franchises like Call of Duty and Minecraft remain multiplatform affairs. As Sharma tells the New York Times: "Competition and collaboration can coexist."

According to the NYT write-up, Sharma "laughed" at the idea of apologizing to Sony for the whole kerfuffle over Physint which, hey, fair enough. The outlet additionally reports that Xbox's agreement with Kojima was "substantially below" development costs for a AAA game, and includes film and TV rights for the project.

Rumors have been floating around that Kojima was seeking something in the neighborhood of $400 million for Physint, but a new edition of The Game Business suggests that "Xbox is paying far, far less than that number," potentially less than $200 million.

For years, Xbox had been pursuing a multiplatform strategy that ultimately culminated in several major first-party games receiving ports to PS5. That strategy was one of many things that turned around when Sharma took over Xbox leadership from Phil Spencer, but there are still plenty of games under the Xbox banner which are still set to come to PS5.

For its part, PlayStation never embraced multiplatform the way Xbox (briefly) did, though a certain few games – like Bungie's Marathon – were released on the competing console. But Sony's big experiment was on PC, which is a platform it's now pulling back from. Competition and collaboration can, indeed, coexist, but it continues to feel like both concepts are a little one-sided in the modern console war.

Here are the PS5 exclusives and Xbox exclusives you need to know about.

As Sony reportedly pulls back from bringing its new major single-player PlayStation titles to PC, former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida suggests the company's thinking has reverted back to the "older days."

Earlier this year, it was reported that PlayStation's studio business group CEO Hermen Hulst had told staff that Sony's narrative single-player games (like Saros and Ghost of Yotei, for example) would be PlayStation console exclusive going forward. Speaking in a new episode of The Verge's Vergecast (below), Yoshida, former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment worldwide studios, gives his thoughts on this apparent decision, which comes despite how some PS5 titles have "sold really well" on the platform and how "easy it is to port" them in the first place.

He explains that when he was at the company during the PS4 generation, "Sony didn't choose to release AAA games, first-party games on PC because they thought making it really PlayStation exclusive was important to appeal to console gamers."

Then, during the PS5 era, when some online games arrived on PC at the same time as they did on Sony's console (like Helldivers 2), but big single-player games instead had a tendency of showing up a while after their initial launch (like Horizon Forbidden West and Marvel's Spider-Man 2), the company seemed to be appealing to everyone in one way or another. Creating timed console exclusivity threw a bone to those PS5 users who care about getting their hands on games first, and PC players would eventually be rewarded for their patience, too.

"They felt that would be good enough to appeal to PlayStation users, but at the same time, by releasing first-party games [and] IP to PCs and [reaching] new users potentially… those users playing first-party games on PC might become a fan of that IP, [and] might in the future come to PlayStation," Yoshida says. "That kind of thinking I think they had."

Now though, Yoshida suggests Sony's thinking has reverted back to what it was in the "older days," with the company leaning more into the idea of pushing its platform with exclusives rather than simply trying to get its first-party games in the hands of as many fans as it can. Acknowledging he doesn't know for sure since he's no longer at the company, he suggests: "Probably, that first-party business versus platform business… now, platform business side is kind of winning the argument, I guess. Platform side always [wants] something exclusive, right?"

It's not surprising to hear Yoshida suggest the apparent move is a bit old-school – the former lead previously said that porting games to PC is "almost like printing money." It seems strange to leave all that behind, but then again, it's definitely more incentive for those without a PlayStation console to buy one.

Ex-PlayStation lead thinks Sony and Nintendo "should try to keep the current generation as long as possible" amid hardware price hikes: "People are very happy using PS5 and Switch 2."

Sony is skipping the Consumer Electronics Show in 2027, which marks the first time the PlayStation maker has not attended the show in its history.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, after only appearing at this year's show as part of its joint venture with Honda, Sony is skipping the 2027 event. A Sony spokesperson tells Bloomberg the decision is based on its current focus on "entertainment, intellectual property, and technology geared to support creators," adding, "We continuously and strategically evaluate our approach to events and communications based on the needs and priorities of our diverse business."

While CES isn't as big an event for PlayStation and games, Sony has been part of the show since its inception in 1967; it has been the site of historic announcements. Notably, in 1991 Sony announced the SNES PlayStation – and thus, the birth of the PlayStation – before Nintendo announced the following day it was not going forward with it; in 2020 Jim Ryan unveiled the PS5 logo, and in 2022 the PSVR2 and Horizon: Call of the Mountain were announced.

Sony has seemingly been stepping back from these sorts of events, as the company hasn't been present at Gamescom – the world's largest gaming convention – since 2019, while Xbox and Nintendo have been a near-constant presence at the shows. In an era when PlayStation State of Play and PlayStation Showcase streams are drawing millions of viewers, it's very likely that whenever new PlayStation hardware is announced, it'll be at one of these shows.

Ex-PlayStation lead thinks Sony and Nintendo "should try to keep the current generation as long as possible" amid hardware price hikes: "People are very happy using PS5 and Switch 2"

Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida reckons that platform holders like Sony and Nintendo should keep their current hardware generations going for as long as they can as prices continue to surge.

Speaking in a new episode of The Verge's Vergecast (below), Yoshida – former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios – is asked about the potential business models and pricing strategies we could see from platforms like Xbox in the next console generation. As everything continues to get more expensive, it sounds like this is a conundrum that the former PlayStation boss reckons platform holders should avoid for as long as they can.

"Sony and Nintendo have sold enough" of their current-generation hardware, he begins, before adding: "Because of the cost of goods, they might be looking [at] pushing back the launch of next gen, and I think they should try to keep the current generation as long as possible, because I think people are very happy using PS5 and Switch 2.

"People have [a] finite budget, and it feels like PC and consoles, the components very specific to these devices have increased [in] price way more than all the other [forms] of entertainment," he continues. "People who have systems like PS5, Switch 2, or PCs – you know, good enough PCs – probably will be happy to play games on them and not necessarily consider replacing."

Yoshida acknowledges his own situation, noting that he bought a new gaming PC five years ago, and more recently, when considering upgrading again, "this price hike happened. So I was late to replace it." Understandably, he regrets not making that move a year earlier before things started to surge.

"I think that kind of thinking will happen to many people," he continues. "I don't think lots of people are asking for, 'more power, we need more power!' Or even [developers], I don't think developers [are] asking, you know, 'We need better hardware!'"

With all that in mind, Yoshida muses: "I think that means that the current generation, Sony and Nintendo are going to do pretty well for many years to come, still." Xbox's circumstances are different, he acknowledges, calling the company "a team who wants to change the competing landscape, so it's going to be hard for them, but it's their time to play." He seems optimistic though, adding, "It's very exciting, you know, what's going to happen next year?"

Whether platform holders have the same idea as Yoshida remains to be seen, though. Nintendo is in a pretty different position, having only just released the Switch 2 last year and still supporting the Switch 1, but for Sony and Microsoft, the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will turn six this November.

Looking at Sony, historically, the major new PlayStation releases that mark a new generation have arrived every six or seven years, so if the company were to follow that pattern again, we should expect to see the PS6 very soon. A release coming later than next November would be unprecedented, but it's fair to say that the times we're in are weird enough that it might just warrant it.

Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida's highlights of Tokyo Game Show include Sonic's new indie spinoff and a game about removing hair.

Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida's big Tokyo Game Show recommendation is a game about removing hair.

During his time at PlayStation, Yoshida produced some of the most iconic games for the original PS1 console, but in his later years, he was known for very much being a champion of indie games at the publisher. While still at Sony, Yoshida would tweet out indie recommendations constantly, which led to him being added as a playable character in Capybara Games' Super Time Force Ultra. And since leaving Sony in 2025, this has continued, with Yoshida championing indie development in a ton of interviews.

In an interview with 4Gamer (translated by TheGamer) Yoshida drops his list of favorites from Tokyo Game Show. This includes the delightful looking Finding Polka, first-person horror Haunted Streamer, and the new Sonic the Hedgehog indie collab Sonic Pico Park.

However, Yoshida gives special props to Hair Removal Salon Simulator, which is a… hair removal salon simulator. The game features a ton of men coming into your salon and through means such as sticky tape, swords, burning, and sending out a mini goat, you help them remove all sorts of body hair.

Yoshida describes the game, saying "It's like Power Wash Simulator except you relentlessly remove hair from hairy men. It's creepy, but it feels good," adding that he "liked how the setting and the grotesque appearance were built on top of the basic feeling of satisfaction from making someone clean."

As much as I do not really vibe with the 'do a menial task you don't want to do in real life' simulator genre, this one at least seems to be somewhat funny. At the very least, I'm glad Yoshida is still keen to push indie games so prominently.

13 years after famous Microsoft dunk, ex-PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida says Xbox disc-to-digital feature is "a great move."

Nearly two years have passed since Naughty Dog lifted the veil on its ambitious new sci-fi project, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet – but we've not seen much of it since then.

So, when will we? Well, according to studio lead Neil Druckmann, we've still got a while to go before the developers are ready to show the mysterious game off some more.

He reveals as much in a new post on Naughty Dog's official blog, explaining, "The team is heads down on what is shaping up to be Naughty Dog’s most ambitious game yet" – and, yes, he does indeed mean Intergalactic here, which makes it all the more exciting.

"There's an electricity around the studio right now as all the pieces come together, and we're stoked to finally unveil Intergalactic in all its glory," he continues… but not yet.

"We need to cook for just a little bit longer. So we want to set expectations: we're going to be quiet for the rest of this year. In 2027, that changes. We'll fully reveal Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and give you a proper look at Jordan's wild sci-fi adventure."

Jordan is the intriguing Intergalactic protagonist, just to be clear, played by the ever-talented Tati Gabrielle. And, yes, this means we won't see more of the action-adventure gem until next year, but Naughty Dog is well aware of how lengthy our wait has been.

"We know it's been a long time since we've had much to share with you," as Druckmann states. "We don't take your continued support for granted." The devs need the time, though.

"We're working incredibly hard to make something worthy of your patience," after all, as the blog update concludes. "Until then…" Until then, I'd wager we'll be waiting with bated breath – I mean, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet doesn't appear to be a small game by any means.

The last big news we got about it was at the tail end of August, when Naughty Dog teased that it finished filming an "ambitious" cinematic shoot with Gabrielle.

Here's hoping Intergalactic's 2027 drop arrives earlier in the new year rather than later. We're only months away from it if so – I know I'll be keeping my own fingers crossed.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet "might need to be edited" to avoid "another Last of Us 2 situation," former Naughty Dog dev warns

Since the RAM shortage seems to be neverending, PlayStation has had no choice but to separate the Real Gamers from the boys while preparing its PS5 Pro lottery system in Japan. Anyone who participates will be required to have at least 60 hours of playtime on their Sony account since 2024.

Video game industry update account Genki translates a Japanese PlayStation blog that went live on September 27, explaining that "PS5 Pro is also facing stock shortages in Japan." The latest GTA 6 reveal in August decimated PS5 Pro stock here in the US, and scalpers worldwide are responding by pricing the upgraded console as nefariously as possible.

So, according to a machine translated version of PlayStation's blog, only those with at least 60 hours of playtime on PS5 or PS4, or both, earned between September 27, 2024 and September 27, 2026 can purchase a PS5 Pro through its lottery system. This modest proof of being a Real Gamer will also need to be reflected on your online Sony account.

Eligible gamers in Japan can apply to purchase a PS5 Pro now through Wednesday, October 7, and Sony will start notifying "winners" (winners of the chance to spend 137,980 yen, slightly less than the PS5 Pro's $900 price tag in the US) on October 26.

Act fast. PlayStation is also enforcing a deadline for lottery winners to swipe their credit card – PS5 Pros need to be bought by November 2, or else successful lottery spots gets thrown back into a re-draw scheduled to happen later this year.

The whole thing is giving global PlayStation fans some ideas.

"I hope this is what they do for the eventual PS6 release," says a top comment in a related Reddit thread. Since these console shortages are more about missing parts than players clamoring to spend all their money on a machine that can't even play discs, PlayStation might have to, no matter what you think of it.

PlayStation is "hearing the feedback from customers" on discs, says JRPG boss whose business is built on physical games.