Sony, your first statement after the Activision Blizzard purchase is good news? I’m so proud! So much, that I’ll keep my usual anti-corporate tom-foolery to a minimum… If I can help it.

“We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform” – Sony spokesperson via Wallstreet Journal post.

In addition, Activision claimed no current games will be removed from their platforms (as was the case with Microsoft’s acquisitions of Minecraft and Bethesda via ZeniMax). And let’s be honest, chances of content getting removed are about as low as a contortionist playing limbo… As in limbo, not to be confused with limbo, you see…

Damnit, now I can’t stop thinking about what a contortionist gamer would look like! I’d pay good money to see a cirque du soleil gymnast play Mario Kart with her toes reaching over her back.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbow-flavored orgasms though! Since Microsoft’s acquisition, various Bethesda games still in development at time of purchase have now been routed to PC and Xbox exclusives. These titles include Redfall, Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6. This is combined with reports that Microsoft is moving to compete with companies larger than Sony like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. Possibly even rising to become the Disney of the gaming industry.

But hey, it’s not all plot-twistingly bad news either! Call of Duty is 100% confirmed to avoid Microsoft exclusivity, albeit in large part due to not wanting to miss out on that Dorito and Mountain Dew greenback… And I guess maintaining a good corporate relationship too. I know corporations aren’t your friends, but the little Humphrey Bogart on my shoulder’s telling me a beautiful friendship may be starting with Sony and Microsoft.

“I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.” – Phil Spencer.

In similar news, Ghostwire Tokyo, a HD action FPS for PS5 (God, that’s a lot of acronyms) will be coming to multiple platforms this 2022!

Product Poems:

Cities. I’m hustling and bustling while bussy be bussin. “Daaaamn, Barbie“!

“I’m Lottie, please take me… Wait, wha- NO! Not like that, pervert”!

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The post Sony – Activision, Platforms +More: “Contractual Agreements” first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Hey Sony, how’s that Scrooge McDuckian money pool treating you after all those PS5 sales? Would be a shame if you weren’t able to keep up with the supply-demand ratio… For you at least, for us PS4 owners, this is kind of a win!

On account of PS5 consoles selling out faster than lemon sorbet on a hot summer day, Sony has announced that production of PS4 games will continue, as Sony currently can’t keep up with supply due to component restraints.

This is based on a recent Bloomberg report, which also revealed Sony intended to stop PS4 production last year! Congratulations gamers, sucking at the teet of corporate enterprise actually means the PS4 will stay relevant even longer. I’m not even being sarcastic, when the Wii discontinued it’s WiFi extras, I was mortified! So, glad that seemingly won’t be happening with the PS4 anytime soon.

As PS5 consoles require more advances microchips, PS4 production will be much easier, and we will be seeing around one million new PS4 units launched this year. Bloomberg also notes that this move will likely improve deals with manufacturing partners for Sony, so I guess it’s not a total loss for the multi-BILLION dollar company, everybody wins!

A Sony spokesperson later confirmed the Bloomberg statements of continued PS4 production this year.

PlayStation 4 consoles first released in 2013 and has since sold over 116 million units to date. In contrast, November 2020’s PS5 sales topped 10 million unit sales in a month, faster than PS4 sales in the same time since launch. Despite this, there was a dip in October sales, which lead to Sony’s chief financial officer making the following statement:

“Worldwide, there is a disruption in logistics, and mainly semiconductor device supply being constrained, and this is having a larger impact [than expected], and as you know, the hardware sales in the first quarter were less unit wise and so this is having an impact on us, and likewise for the second quarter […] “But I think that with our efforts and putting in place different measures, the PS platform momentum can be maintained, and especially to the users who are waiting for the PS5, we want to be able to supply as many PS5s as possible to our customers who are waiting – that is our thinking.”  – Hiroki Totoki.

Product Poems:

Transformers. Stylish battlefield. Decepticons go boom, yo.

Aftermath, but before science. Bibs and all. What am I? PE.

Console the console, the con sold the conned soul for consoles!

Racing, so racy, face racers-galore. Love racing, race-rating, ace-racing and more!

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The post PS5 Shortages and Sony’s Peculiar Solution! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

In case my analyses on the Steam Deck controller patent and the Dbrand-Sony PS5 squabble didn’t tip you off, I suppose you could say I have severely Orwellian anti-corporate views on patents in gaming tech and mechanics, to put it mildly.

Sony recently patented a collaborative path-building mechanic that’s reportedly near-identical to the system found in their PlayStation exclusive Death Stranding (Psst, click here if you want to get the director’s cut of the game). The patent is titled “Terrain radar and gradual building of a route in a virtual environment of a video game,” citing Hideo Kojima as the creator, despite having (as far as I am aware of) no mention of any kind of royalties to Kojima for using his version of the system (not that that would make things much better).

In short, this is basically the same debacle as Warner Bros patenting the nemesis system making it so other creatives can’t use it to make games with a new spin on the format. Click here for the full Sony patent if you’ve got a handful of hours to kill and a fetish for dense legal jargon.

The patent’s core features for it’s patent of the mechanic include tracking info on who creates which pathways in-game, how often they’re used, basically all the bells and whistles of Death Stranding.

Speaking of which, Hideo Kojima has gone on record stating his dislike of the PS5 version titled as ‘The Director’s Cut’ because the original experience is a fully complete Kojima-accurate experience anyway, whereas ‘director’s cut’ usually denotes a version where the director has more creative control that wasn’t allowed for during the first release. I rank that three Etymology Points out of 5, for a deeper dive into the use and artistic philosophy of director’s cuts, have a butcher’s at Hbomberguy’s video on the topic… You know, this guy:

Needless to say, this is one of those rare times where I’ll admit that the ‘slippery slope’ argument is actually valid! And if you’ll indulge my intertextual poetic interlude coming up: First they came for the loading screens and I did not speak because… Well, I wasn’t born yet for that one! Then they came for the multiplayer collaborative features, and I 100% spoke the f*ck up because I’m into that shit! Then they came for the first-person shooters and I was like “okay, well I’m none to good at those, whatevs”. Then they came for the soulslikes and I said “who ’bout to catch these hands”, at which point the judge gingerly gestures over to Bobbert Kotique.

Product Poems:

I knew a mug name Tina, she from Shiganshina, cooking rice balls but can kick it back hard on Fifa.

Dying Light implies Living Darkness… Sleep paralysis weird, yo.

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The post On Sony Patent for Death Stranding Pathfinder Sytem! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

No One Expects The Spanish Exposition: Horizon Forbidden West is the upcoming sequel to hit action-adventure narrative game Horizon: Zero Dawn. Developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, who have definitely not engaged in any attempts at unfair threats of legal action to maintain a monopoly on console-customizing skins, ever, not in the slightest, you’ll just have to trust me on that. Horizon Forbidden West launches for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on February 18.

Nadie espera el juego: In addition to Aloy being more realistic-looking and reactive than in the first game, which is no mean feat, Horizon Forbidden West will see a more expansive world. Lead Living World Designer Espen Sogn has claimed players will “encounter a world that feels more alive and more real than ever”. 

In a recent official PlayStation blog post, Bo De Vries (Community Leader at Guerrilla Games) details the game’s design intentions and features. Bo De Vries goes into a level of detail far too girthy for little ol me to squeeze into 600 words or less, but I can summarise some highlights!

The game will explore the cultures between two different in-game tribes, Espen mentioning the tribes’ different customs will play a role in communicating the player’s status in the world.

“The Oseram are a social and historically patriarchal tribe, so their animations are more about shoulder punches and high fives. The Utaru, on the other hand, are laid back, so they will often sit down together and be a bit more touchy-feely”.

In addition to touching on weapon upgrades (you can carry up to 6, including your trusty spear), Senior designer Steven Lumpkin claimed that different clothes you equip have different effects on your interactions between tribes. Clothing will mostly effect what items you can get in places alongside giving unique gameplay buffs, so I think it will mostly function similarly to Ghost of Tsushima (psst! Which we have!). Which is to say, you get to unlock various clothes that offer unique gameplay advantages depending on how sneaky or trigger-happy you want to get!

“Clothing reflects a unique style, as well as the materials a tribe has access to and knows how to use […] Hunters from the Nora tend to favor ranged combat and stealthy hunting. Carja excel at the use of traps and tripwires. The boisterous Oseram love fighting up close and personal with a hammer. The Tenakth and Utaru have their own preferences as well — and the outfits Aloy can acquire from each culture tend to reflect and support these unique approaches to combat” – Steven Lumpkin.

कोई भी मेरे हिंदी पाठकों को तीन चीयर्स की उम्मीद नहीं कर रहा है। यह बिट कहानी पर है: Don’t worry my fellow mono-lingual friends, just run the headings through Google translate and you’ll live! Senior writer Annie Kitain has reiterated this new Horizon world will see you “meet many interesting characters, trade for cool new gear” and prepare for challenges ahead. “When you’re out in the Forbidden West, our hope is that the story is reflected in every detail of the world”.

Product Poem:

There’s an AMIIBO from Tazmilly Village. With magic so strong, he could pillage! With a thrust and some thunder from somewhere down-under, he caught a glimpse of Lottie’s cleavage.

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The post Horizon Forbidden West – Open World Details! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Sony has recently gained a patent that allows allows them to make covers and skins for PS5 consoles. The patent was filed for in 2020 and confirmed under the title ‘Cover For Electronic Device’ this year, including diagrams of PS5 faceplates.

Considering the last time I got talking about patents in gaming, let’s just say there’s a couple potential concerns regarding the practice of patenting certain types of tech, to put it mildly. Mainly how it is arguably a slippery slope to restricting outlines of creative input from people who want to put a new spin on existing tech and game mechanics.

Luckily, the new PS5 patent describes itself as covering “the ornamental design for a cover for an electronic device”, so as long as no one copies that specific design, I doubt you’ll get in trouble for painting ahegao faces on yours and selling it for £69.69 (nice)… Well, that’s what I’d like to say.

The Canadian peripheral firm Dbrand has been in a lengthy legal battle with Sony over its creation of unique version of faceplates known as ‘Darkplates’. Darkplates recently sold out after a successful February discount sale. Unfortunately though, Dbrand has also announced that Darkplates are dead and Sony killed them, which is to say, Sony Interactive Entertainment filed a cease and desist letter that made Dbrand stop selling their product… The aristocrats!

BUT WAIT, there’s more! Not long after Dbrand announced the “death” of its Darkplates, they posted an update to their website. “Checkmate, lawyers” followed by a confirmation of Darkplates 2.0 for PS5 consoles… Yay capitalism!

“You can’t successfully sue someone over an alleged ‘design infringement’ without a registered design patent […] Sony did not have a registered design patent for the PS5’s side panels when we launched Darkplates (or for many, many months following the release). We didn’t think they’d ever get one. They did. Here we are.” – Dbrand.

“[Darkplates 2.0] successfully closes the loop on this dispute and neutralises any future infringement claims from Sony” – Dbrand.

“Happy to license this design to you, Sony, you’ll find that our rates are outrageous” – OOOOH! And the crowd goes wild!

Product Poems:

PS5 Controller. True boulder holder. Like Xbox X.

Bobby Kotick, small streaming stick. Purge from Blizzard like Morty, Rick.

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The post PS5 New Patent and Dbrand Battle: What to Know first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Sony Interactive Entertainment have reportedly made a 5% investment in the US indie game company Devolver Digital!

Devolver Digital has built something of a name for itself in the industry for usually specializing in action-based 16-bit combat games with modern gameplay innovations. A must-play of theirs on all devices (to my knowledge) is BROFORCE (not Broforce, not Bro Force, BROFORCE): A 2D platformer-shooter hybrid wherein you get to play alone or in co-op (online or local) as various “bro”-ified versions of 80s and 90s action heroes from film and TV. And I swear, the one-liners from the bloke in “story” mode are hilarious! And while a VR would require me to sell more kidneys than I physically have to get one, Gorn is also a suitably hilarious action-filled romp from Devolver Digital. Speaking of VR, we have plenty of compatible games here at the store, including Skyrim VR for PS4 and PS5, The Persistence, Here They Lie and more.

Devlolver Digital has recently made a splash in the London Stock Exchange (LSE) according to GameIndustry.biz reports that the company has been trading on AIM (a sub-market in the LSE) after a flotation that values the company at almost… One BILLION dollars. Fieldfisher, a Europe-based advising law firm to Devolver confirmed the company received:

“A significant strategy investment from a key industry player”.

Upcoming titles with gameplay previews and trailers for Devolver include Weird West (think Disco Elysium meets Fistful of Dollars meets Lord of the Rings), Shadow Warrior 3 and Demon Throttle (AKA, “ain’t no school like the old school” The Game). A sequel to the peculiar puzzle game The Talos Principle was also announced for development.

More famous titles from Devolver include Hotline Miami (psst, you can get the Hotline collection HERE), the Takeshi’s Castle-inspired Fall Guys and most recently, the “reverse-horror” game Carrion, seeing you play as a monster based on John Carpenter’s The Thing.

CEO of Devolver Digital Douglas Morin has made the following statements:

“An IPO is the right choice for us to ensure our continued growth and support even more wonderful games”.

“Being a public company gives liquidity to our amazing team, all of whom are shareholders. It also gives us access to capital markets to continue investing in our growth strategy and talent”.

[Becoming a publicly traded company] “means Devolver Digital will be able to continue to invest into all the games we’re working on now, partner on new ones that we’ve previously not been able to consider, and add more of the fine people we love working with into our cadre of consummate video game professionals”.

Sony Interactive Entertainment said last week that its development workforce has grown by almost 20% this fiscal year

Douglas also announced closer collaborative work with developers from companies Devolver has collaborated with in the past, such as Croteam, Dodge Roll, Nerial (who made a game based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm of all things and I am Here For It) and FireFly Studios.

He also highlighted that “full creative autonomy” would continue to be encouraged amongst those working on Devolver Digital projects, which has personally made my art-boner fly high in the sky.

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The post PlayStation’s Latest Investment! first appeared on Get2Gaming.