Commander Fury

Today we’re pleased to announce a new Sharefactory update – v3.00 – which includes new themes and a variety of features requested by the community, including camera effects and text/sticker animations. First – we’re happy to add two new themes with this update. The first theme is a “comic book-style” theme, which is packed with content including three intro, title and outro clips, eight transitions, three backgrounds, 39 stickers and a comic style font. The second theme is a special one for our PlayStation fans. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Uncharted franchise from Naughty Dog, we’ll have a dedicated theme to honor this critically-acclaimed franchise. The new update also includes seven new camera effects. You can use the new “Hollywood-style” effect to add more flair to your edits. Add quake, bounce, stomp, pulse and more to enhance your best gameplay achievements. Additionally, Sharefactory’s 3.00 update allows you to add custom animations to your text and stickers. You can choose from many different types of beginning, middle and ending animations on your overlays, as well as control the duration of your text and stickers. Other features in this update include: Improved video USB import feature to support more videos Over 20 new transitions and two new filters Audio ducking to automatically lower game clip volume when Commentary is present on Track 2 Improved load times New Project view options including Zoom for easier editing UX improvements We appreciate the feedback from our fans and we’re always working to update the service by adding new features and enhancements that are highly requested by our fans. It’s always exciting to see how creative PlayStation fans are using Sharefactory, and we look forward to more epic videos from the community. Have fun and happy editing! View the full article

Announced during PlayStation Experience 2017’s opening presentation, Firewall Zero Hour will deploy 4v4 tactical FPS action to the PS VR battlefield. My hands-on demo pointed to an extremely promising game — in fact, perhaps the most promising and exciting VR game I’ve played. If you’ve ever loved a Rainbow Six or SWAT game, you’ll immediately understand the appeal of Firewall. The pacing is deliberate and methodical; the action quick and decisive. It’s a tense game of cat-and-mouse between two (human) teams. Player communication is paramount, and quick wits will get you further than a quick trigger finger. I played a series of matches set in a shadowy mansion. I quietly crept from room to room with three teammates en tow. Our objective: a laptop hidden somewhere in the house. The other team lay in wait, ready to spring an ambush or ward off our attack. We activated our flashlights, the beams casting realistic-looking shadows on the walls, and slowly navigated the darkened rooms. As we inched our way closer to the objective, we kept up a stream of tense chatter, speculating where the opposing team might be lurking and calling out safe zones. While passing through a gloomy hallway, a burst of gunfire roared from the top of a nearby stairwell. The guy next to me dropped like a rock. I spun to my left, raising my PS VR Aim Controller at the shadow I spotted at the top of the stairs, and let loose with my shotgun. I clipped him, but he slipped back around the corner before I could finish him off. I tossed a grenade up the staircase to buy some time, then turned to move quickly towards the objective. Being in PS VR expanded my sense of spatial awareness, and I found myself carefully checking corners and blind spots. Ahead, our point man traded shots with two hostiles who were holed up in a dining room. Instinctively, I went for the flank, slipping around the corner and making for the back door I had noticed. I pushed through the doors, tossed a frag grenade, and hip-fired until both figures crumpled to the ground. We pushed on to the objective and the win. We’ve all played games like this before. But in VR, the experience feels completely fresh and exciting. Pinned down by enemy fire? Peek out from behind the corner — or over a countertop — to trade shots. Fleeing some determined pursuers? Slipping into a sneaky hiding spot or ambush position feels far more intuitive. The build I played was still early: just one map, three character classes, and three weapons (rifle, shotgun, silenced SMG). The good news is, developer First Contact Entertainment has confirmed that the final game will have more weapons and maps, as well as weapon attachments and character progression as they prepare for launch in 2018. The game technically supports both DualShock 4 and the PS VR Aim Controller, but if you’ve got the choice I strongly suggest going with the Aim Controller for a more immersive feel. The controls are well laid out: the front analog stick handles movement and sprinting; the rear stick handles quick-turns. Frag and flash grenades map to the front two triggers, while reloading, crouching, weapon swapping, and interacting with objects are assigned to the traditional face buttons on the stock of the Aim Controller. As in Farpoint, you can raise the Aim Controller up to aim down the sight, or fire from the hip. I generally opted for the latter. Firewall Zero Hour is shaping up nicely — I’m eager to get more hands-on time and learn more about the final game, so stay tuned to PlayStation.Blog for more updates. View the full article

A Long Time First item, top of the page. This version of Papers, Please was announced over three years ago. That’s a long time brewing for a relatively simple pixel-art game. There’s a few ingredients in the mix for this delay but the main fault lies with me. I had a great bunch of people to help with this project — all the port programming was handled by James Gray and others, engine support from WayForward, testing by Ratloop Asia, and submission assistance from Coatsink. My responsibility was gluing it all together and in the long tradition of “one simple job”, the best I could manage was the slow-setting kind of glue that takes forever to dry. Working as a single developer has its advantages but managing multiple projects is not one of them. Unfortunately it was Papers, Please on PS Vita that suffered the most and I apologize for that. The Game Ok, the game is available today so let’s turn this around and segue into what we’ve got here: Papers, Please on PS Vita. The most portable version yet, document inspection and stamping in the supple palms of your capable hands. Content-wise, this version has all the features of the desktop and tablet versions. All 31 days of singleplayer story mode with branching narratives, 20 endings, “endless” mode with online leaderboards, and stamping so much stamping. The Squeeze Even though it’s a low-resolution pixel-art game, Papers, Please was originally designed to be played on a big screen. When I wrote it back in 2013 I’d just come off a mobile-only project and wanted to rebel against the low-density large-touch-target design necessary for mobile. So the game packs a lot of small stuff into a big space. There’s three separate sections of the screen that need to be visible at all times: booth, desk, and checkpoint. The big challenge in making it work well on PS Vita was fitting everything onto the smaller screen without sacrificing the core document shuffling mechanics. Luckily Vita has a great touchscreen and, critically, nearby physical controls. For this version we increased the desk size slightly, floated the booth over the border view only when needed, and added vertical scrolling to shift between the booth+checkpoint and the desk. The analog sticks and directional buttons can be used to quickly scroll up/down and after a small adjustment it feels completely natural to use your left thumb for scrolling and your right fingers for touching (or vice versa, no preference, left=right, all love.) The Tech Papers, Please was developed in a programming environment called Haxe/OpenFL. Haxe is the language and OpenFL the engine that enables Flash-like applications to run natively on desktops (PC/Mac/Linux) or mobile devices. When taking a game from desktop to console, it’s not uncommon to just rewrite everything with a more console-friendly engine. I had a few offers for that sort of thing early on but as a hopeless engineer it felt like a waste to ignore Haxe/OpenFL’s inherent multi-platform capabilities. A few years ago there was no way to build Haxe/OpenFL projects for consoles but with a little time, money, the hard work of James Gray, Lars Doucet from Fortress of Doors, OpenFL’s Joshua Granick, Nilsen Filc, and the generous contribution of WayForward’s engine tech, we were able to create a console target for Haxe/OpenFL. One of our goals with all that extra work is to hopefully benefit other games in a similar situation. The Destination, Finally This version was a long time coming and I appreciate your patience. Thank you to all the fans of the game that have encouraged me over the years and I hope you enjoy playing it on PS Vita too. Glory to Arstotzka. View the full article

Discover The Creators is a PlayStation Store curation program in which we’ve asked some of the biggest names in the biz to pick their favorite PS4 games in order to help your find your next game to play. Browse Kodaka-san’s Full List at PlayStation Store Hello, I’m Kodaka Kazutaka. I am the game creator and the person in charge of the scenarios for the Danganronpa series. Lately, I wake up and play games, and play games before I go to bed. My days begin with games and end with games. On that note, here are my favorite picks for PS4 games. Life is Strange The pure entertainment of walking around in an American school is fun in itself! I’ve seen plenty of American schools in movies and dramas, but those were purely backgrounds in a movie. By being able to walk around the school environment, it made me realize once more how different American schools are structured from Japan. Of course, the story and effects were wonderful. As these types of works that don’t exclusively involve intense action get more popular, I feel that the game genre as a whole has steadily gotten larger. On a tangent, Danganronpa is set inside a school too, but those sorts of schools do not exist in Japan so please don’t misunderstand. Until Dawn Back in the day, there was a genre called “Sound Novels” in Japan. Unlike visual novels, such as Danganronpa for example, these were much simpler. The most renowned entry in this genre is a title called “Banshee’s Last Cry” —a suspense game where the main character starts off stuck in a blizzard on top of a snow-covered mountain. When playing Until Dawn, I felt that this was an evolution of the Sound Novel genre. I would love to make a game like this! Nier: Automata I’ve been a big fan of the Nier series from its previous entries. In my opinion, it’s the most violent and bloody work available, and to think that a game like this has sold so much, it must be the end of this world. We live in such a nice time. The PS3 version, Nier Replicant, portrayed the relationship between siblings, and the Xbox 360 version, Nier Gestalt, described the relationship between father and daughter. The unraveling of these stories always fascinated me. But since this is a Sony blog I shouldn’t dig much deeper into this topic. A fun fact, I go out on drinks with the director Yoko Taro a lot, but we always end up losing our memory. Gravity Rush 2 In Japan, the release date was very close to Danganronpa V3 and it’s actually a game that I was very conscious about. The directions of the two games are different, but I think that both Danganronpa and Gravity Rush have a very Japanese-like game system. It takes a while to get used to the game, but once you get the hang of it, it feels so good to play. It has a slightly high hurdle, but I believe that you need a little bit of a hurdle for entertainment, this gives a good impression. Another fun fact, I also go drinking with the director, Toyama, but we always end up losing our memories, too. Everybody’s Golf This title has been a long running series in the PlayStation lineups, but this was actually the first time I played it. I personally don’t play a lot of games that are heartwarming, but this one I catch myself playing again and again. The detailed character creation is one thing, but whenever I find some free time, I find myself with this game in my hands. What’s intended to be a little break from work ends up being something I find more absorbing than work… it’s such a scary game! Inside Although it’s mentioned everywhere, the artwork for this game is awesome. I think the game does a superb job in conveying the game in 2D and surpasses 3D in its sense of conveying the environment. Also in regards to storytelling, while playing the game, it stirred my imagination. For example, it made me want to make a visual novel that has absolutely no words. I’m not sure how to make this, but if I can come up with this, I’ll have less work to do, and that will be awesome. Persona 5 Everyone has been talking about how good this game is, and I, with my warped personality obviously would want to say it’s boring but, unfortunately I can’t find a single thing that’s boring in it. I’m hoping that people will get bored with this game and want something that‘s more exciting so they play Danganronpa, but they don’t seem to be getting bored of the game, which puts me in a fix. But! I think Danganronpa still wins in the number of people dying in the game. This game gets me so jealous and worked up that even though I’m supposed to be writing a recommendation on this game I keep writing about Danganronpa. Head over to PlayStation Store to browse Kodaka-san’s list as well as picks curated by Tim Schafer, Yoko Taro, the team behind Inside, and more. View the full article

Ark: Aberration is launching on PS4 today, and the Studio Wildcard team can’t wait for you to experience the latest chapter of Ark’s gameplay and lore. We have been hard at work building an entirely new world for you to explore and survive in, with fresh challenges and twists on Ark’s core mechanics everywhere you look. Much of Aberration is a cave world, but from the very beginning of the design phase we strove to create something that could never be described as “just a cave”. Free-floating through space, this Ark has malfunctioned, and beneath the radiation-baked surface there are many new biomes full of plants and animals unlike anything you have seen yet. The lush and vibrant Fertile Chamber is the beginning of your journey, where hostile sunlight filters through dense hanging plant-life into something tolerable and life-giving. Exploring the giant, ancient ruins of a technologically advanced civilization will lead you to the Biolum Chamber, home to glowing creatures, beautiful plants and stunning underground waterfalls. Along the way, you’ll want to tame a “Lantern Pet” or two, who can protect you from some of the stranger and more aggressive lifeforms using their organic “Charge” emitting properties (you’ll need it and have more ways to use it later). Venturing deeper down into the Element Chamber, you’ll learn more about the Ark’s dark secrets and gain access to valuable resources – but watch out! Truly terrifying creatures inhabit the Element Chamber, such as chest-impregnating “Reaper” Queens and scores of swarming “Nameless”, whose grotesque humanoid appearance is nothing short of unnerving and a little too familiar. You’ll need to get crafty with tons of new items to help you traverse the terrain, including ziplines, glide suits, and climbing picks, along with new weapons and outfits to keep you safe from hazards such as earthquakes, radiation zones, poison plants, noxious gas and an erratic day cycle. Make it through, however, and you’ll discover a deep trench that is home to the Rock Drake – one of Ark’s most unique and powerful creatures to date! Possessing the ability to climb nearly anything, glide long distances, and cloak itself and its riders at will, Rock Drakes are one of the keys to survival. Aberration is Ark’s second huge Expansion, and we’re taking the lore further than ever before. What are the Arks? Why are we here? Where is all of this advanced technology coming from? What does it mean to be human, and where does the story go from here? Explorer Notes scattered around the Ark from old and new characters provide some answers, and the environment and end game bring it all to life. As always, the Studio Wildcard team is never content with creating “just more of the same” content. Expect something new, different, and exciting at every turn, like the first time you woke up on the beaches of The Island or the desert of Scorched Earth. Whether you prefer to play solo, co-op or online PvP and PvE, if you play Ark, this Expansion is for YOU. See you on the Ark, Survivors! View the full article

When the stakes are this high, who else can you trust to save the day but the craziest criminals ever to grace the Los Santos underworld? The risks are colossal, the enemies all but unstoppable… but the rewards are mouth-watering and a massive adrenaline spike is absolutely guaranteed. Assemble your crew for the biggest Online adventure yet, across 3 sprawling acts – The Doomsday Heist is now available to play in GTA Online on PlayStation 4. The Doomsday Scenario Billionaire entrepreneur Avon Hertz and his pet neural network Cliffford have stumbled upon evidence that nefarious outside forces are working on a plan so diabolical it could end life as we know it. Somehow, Lester Crest is tasked with assembling a team deadly enough – and crazy enough – to do what it takes to bring them down. That’s where you come in. It’s going to take some luck, some firepower and some serious teamwork to take this threat head-on, assisted by Avon’s access to the latest in lethal blue-sky tactical hardware. The Weird Turn Pro It’s time to assemble your Organization or Motorcycle Club and prepare for a new kind of war. First, one member of your crew needs to own one of the previously undisclosed IAA facility hidden under Southern San Andreas, giving you access to the new advanced planning room where you will map out the steps to launch and complete each mission. This time, operations will run a little differently: crews of 2-4 players will now be able to work together to complete every mission. Bigger, Deadlier and More Complex than Ever Each of the three massive Heist acts that comprises the story of The Doomsday Heist involves negotiating multiple ruthless freemode prep missions, tactical setup operations, and experimental weapons and vehicles – each ending with an over-the-top finale that brings a payoff big enough to comfortably share with your fellow crew members. Some missions may involve competition for resources with other crews in Freemode, and MC Presidents can even enlist additional club members, boosting your squad to up to 8 players to help secure your objective in these missions. A New Set of Tools If you’ve been drafted to prevent the end of the world, you better have access to the finest technology available. MKII upgrades are now available via the Mobile Operations Center or Avenger’s Weapon Workshop for the Pump Shotgun, Special Carbine, Marksman Rifle, Heavy Revolver, Bullpup Rifle and SNS Pistol. The Doomsday Heist also brings access to the ultimate in offensive weaponry: from the futuristic fury of the Khanjali tank, to the long-awaited madness of the Mammoth Thruster personal jetpack, you’ll have everything you need to bring down a small army. Speaking of small armies, purchase of the Facility includes the optional ability to have your own Strike Team on call, or an Orbital Cannon capable of immolating any patch of ground that incurs your wrath. Slow to arm and reload but devastating when deployed tactically – at the moment a gang of rivals is clustered on the same area of the map, for instance – the Orbital Cannon is less a weapon of last resort and more the ultimate revenge, served ice cold. The Avenger So you’re an aspiring criminal and you and your crew have been tasked with staving off an existential threat, but you need just the right vehicle. How about a vertical take-off, turreted, flying fortress/experimental weapons lab in the sky/death-spitting collateral damage producer that practically flies itself? The Avenger is all these things and more. Store it in your Facility, get it fitted out with a Vehicle Mod Shop, a Weapon Workshop, and a suite of ferocious weapon upgrades, and you’ll soon be wreaking a whole new level of havoc without ever having to land. Return of The Mastermind Challenge The Doomsday Heist offers a new set of brutal challenges, all with some serious financial payback for any teams hardcore enough to complete them. All three finale missions have Elite Challenge objectives for those in search of a seriously high bar, and for the perfectionists, the Criminal Mastermind challenges are back across all three acts of the heist for teams of 2, 3 or 4 players along with a brand new suite of trophies. New Vehiceles, Weapon Customizations and More And we’ve barely scratched the surface – discover dozens of new vehicles, new weapons, new clothing and personal customization options, as well as a surprise new radio station just in time for your fight to save the world. It’s all available to play now, free inside the world of GTA Online – with much more still to come. For more information about The Doomsday Heist, visit rockstargames.com. View the full article

“Morning, sunshine. Good to see ya again. We’re going to play a little game…” When is a movie more than a movie? That was the question posed back in 2002 when an intense, memorable live-action promo helped pioneering open-world crime saga The Getaway jostle its way onto PlayStation 2. Sure, the popularity of the British gangster movie had been reinvigorated by Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels but that kind of widescreen Cockney swagger was very new to the world of video games. Whereas Hollywood-grade production values are taken for granted in AAA video game development today, that gruff two minute promo was a revelation, promising an all-action, open-world London, recreated on your TV screen thanks to the power of PS2. So, it only seems fitting that we celebrate The Getaway’s 15th anniversary with a few of the original developers from what was Team Soho (now Sony London Studio) to get beneath the gritty fingernails of a PlayStation classic… London calling “I’m not sure any of us actually knew what we were getting ourselves into,” remembers Gavin Moore, The Getaway’s Director of Animation (now Creative Director at Sony Japan Studio). It’s easy to see why – before it became a massive, photorealistic game map taking in 10 square miles of London, The Getaway started off as a spiritual successor to PS one hit Porsche Challenge. Merging that game’s open-world driving concept with The Italian Job-inspired gameplay (nicknamed “Minis in a Field”), the core idea took shape. “It was a mission-based game where you were a getaway driver for hire on different robberies around the world,” explains Gavin. “Brendan McNamara, head of the studio, saw the potential of a massive, narrative-driven open world on PlayStation 2 and suddenly a small heist/getaway driver game became a giant gangster action movie where the real star was the city it was set in, London.” “Hang on lads, I’ve got a great idea…” As the team expanded to over 60 people, so did the technology required to fulfil their ideas. “We didn’t want to break the recreation of London into areas and impose loading times,” says Gavin. “We wanted the player to remain immersed in the game. But there was no hard drive on the PS2 and no way to load the whole city into memory. “So the engine was completely rewritten to stream geometry and textures of areas that the player was close to, which was ground-breaking at the time. To load and stream the data that fast put a lot of pressure on the PS2 disc drive, so the data for the city was burnt onto the disc in sequential order to reduce the strain.” Similarly, the game was also one of the few titles at the time to favor a minimalist on-screen user interface. There was no visible health bar, ammo counter or map, meaning you had to pay careful attention to subtle cues like the blinking indicators on the back of the car to guide you to your destination. “I loved the opening and how you transitioned straight from intro to gameplay,” says Will Burdon, Technical Director (now at Sony London Studio). “This wasn’t a typical game with loads of cluttered graphics on the screen. It just felt very cinematic from start to finish – it was hard work, but ultimately very rewarding.” When black suits meet blue uniforms There were long nights involved to make the action adventure look and feel the part, but there were also plenty of memorable moments during its development. It was the first time any game studio had done full face, body and voice motion capture of seven actors at once and Gavin remembers some of the more comedic elements of being part of such a new set up. Actor Ricky Hards in full prosthetic mask, as gangster Charlie Jolson Actor and model Anna Edwards, as female assassin for hire Yasmin “All of the actors who played the gangsters in the game were big men,” he recounts. “But I used to have a good laugh – in secret, of course – watching them in the motion capture studio acting out intense, often violent scenes, with a lot of colorful language… dressed in these skin tight, black suits.” And then there were the jokes that came with the live action commercial, which was given a VIP movie-style premiere at Leicester Square’s Odeon cinema. “I was dressed as a police woman and riding around in one of the stunt cars in-between takes on London Bridge,” recalls animator Tara Saunders, now Head of Studio Operations at London Studio. “We pulled alongside a van driver who was drinking from a soft drink bottle and shouted ‘you shouldn’t drink and drive’. The van driver looked at me in uniform and gushed ‘I’m really sorry ma’am, I won’t do it again’. Then we sped off with blue lights to do the chase sequence!” A London landmark played across the world The Getaway went on to become one of PlayStation 2’s biggest and most popular games, its slick cinematic style influencing the third-person action adventure genre in the following years, although very few titles attempted to ape its London-based flavour. In fact, it was the same team that ended up carrying the torch for the gaming-based Cockney capers that came after, creating the commercially successful PS2 sequel, The Getaway: Black Monday in 2004, and its PSP spin-off Gangs of London in 2006. 15 years on from its launch, The Getaway and its team still casts ripples throughout the games industry, with key members of its staff delivering acclaimed games such as Puppeteer (Gavin Moore) and L.A. Noire (Brendan McNamara), while Designer Dominic Robilliard is now Creative Director on highly anticipated PS4 exclusive Concrete Genie, recently unveiled during Paris Games Week. Not only that, but both Will and Tara are working on the action-packed PlayStation VR exclusive, Blood & Truth, which looks to recapture the same London crime thriller feel of its PS2 forbearer. It’s been emotional Given its legacy, it’s easy to see why The Getaway still has a faithful following, especially amongst those that spent years of their lives working on it. “The Getaway was my first project and also still one of the largest and most successful franchises I’ve worked on so it will always hold a special place in my heart,” says Tara. “For me personally, still being part of the studio after 15 years and seeing us return to some of our London crime scene roots with Blood & Truth is very exciting! It’s incredible watching the action narrative genre be re-invented for virtual reality.” “It was my first big project,” recollects Will. “It seems strange today with how far games have come along in 15 years, but for its time The Getaway was very cutting edge. “As the development process for Blood & Truth shapes up, everything that comes with the experience of making a game of this scale – the anticipation, the energy – reminds me of my Getaway days. Its spirit definitely lives on in PSVR.” “I’m very proud of the Getaway and what we achieved at the time,” says Gavin. “Even though the process of creating the game was long and hard, I look back on those times with great fondness. “In London Studio, if your game sells a million copies you get a plaque with a platinum disc. I brought mine to Japan and it’s hanging in my house in Tokyo. It’s a good reminder of my roots and that however impossible the task looks, you can make it happen. Happy 15th anniversary to everyone who worked on The Getaway!” 6 things you didn’t know about The Getaway The team took over 500,000 reference images to capture London streets and locations used in the game. The large scale led to one of the team’s artists being banned from local planning offices, as he spent too much time looking at reference material. The grooves on the back of The Getaway disc are a digital map of London. Some of the art team were chased by club bouncers whilst on a reference photoshoot around Soho. There’s a secret first-person drive mode in the game involving Free Roam mode, a pink shop front, Charing Cross Road and a very tight time limit – can you figure it out? The character Eyebrows was played by Paul ‘Fish’ Burfoot, who has a successful hair product company based in London’s Soho neighbourhood. Other actors in the game went on to star in both Hollywood and Bollywood movies. The Getaway was the 100,000,000th disc to go through Sony’s DADC (Digital Audio Disc Corporation) supply chain – a big milestone for the company. View the full article

Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Google or RSS, or download here Phew, that’s a wrap on PSX 2017! We’ve been awfully busy for the past few days. We didn’t want to leave our loyal Blogcast listeners hanging, though, so we made time (and wrangled one very special guest!) to record an on-location episode for you. Enjoy! Stuff We Talked About PSX 2017 Dreams Firewall Zero Hour Uncharted The Last of Us Part II Lots, lots more! Recent Episodes 271: The Original AC 270: PSXCellence 269: Skeleton Crew The Cast Sid Shuman – Director of Social Media, SIEA Justin Massongill – Social Media Manager, SIEA Ryan Clements – Sr. Social Media Specialist, SIEA Kristen Titus – Social Media Specialist, SIEA Greg Miller – Kinda Funny Send us questions and tips! blogcast@sony.com Leave us a voicemail! (650) 288-6706 Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. [Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.] View the full article

PlayStation Experience 2017 has come to an end, which means Capcom Cup 2017 has crowned a champion! Whether you visited our booth at PSX, attended any match at Capcom Cup, or were watching it all from your couch at home, thank you for the support as we bid 2017 farewell. It’s been an incredible year for Street Fighter V as we brought Akuma back for Season 2 and introduced five brand new characters to the series, each with their own unique stories, designs, and playstyles. Season 3 will add all-new fighters to the roster, but we’ve also got four familiar faces that should make all Street Fighter fans excited for 2018! In the past, we ended each year by showing silhouettes of the characters for the following year’s Season, but this time, we revealed all six for Season 3 at once using the cinematic opening for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition! Fan-favorites Sakura, Blanka, Cody, and Sagat will return in 2018 and will be joined by newcomers Falke and G – two mysterious fighters we can’t wait to show you more of. Coming up first is the exuberant youth herself, Sakura! Making her first appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 2, she has now graduated from high school and searches for a deeper meaning of life, all the while continuing to challenge her rival, Karin, and her idol, Ryu. This time, Sakura has a few new moves in addition to her signature emulation of Ryu’s playstyle. Sakura will be available on January 16, 2018, the same day Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition comes out. If you purchase the Season 3 Character Pass, you’ll receive not only Sakura, but her Battle Costume with colors 3-10 and Default Costume colors 3-10 unlocked! Season 3 Character Pass holders will automatically get Blanka, Falke, Cody, G, Sagat, and their Battle Costumes and colors when they’re ready to join the fight in 2018. Beginning with Season 3, if you purchase each character individually with real money, you’ll also get the same Battle Costume and colors as you would if you have the Character Pass. We also announced the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, a tribute to how far the series has come after being introduced in 1987. This collection contains 12 iconic titles in the series that each have their place in Street Fighter history: Street Fighter Street Fighter II Street Fighter II: Champion Edition Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting Super Street Fighter II Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Street Fighter Alpha Street Fighter Alpha 2 Street Fighter Alpha 3 Street Fighter III Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike If you have ever wanted to test your classic arcade skills against fighters around the world, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II: Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike are all playable online! Each of these four titles will have their own global leaderboards to prove you really were unbeatable in your local arcade. Online play features new “rewind” technology that provides low-latency matches with the ability to adjust your own input latency! Journey through the Interactive Timeline where you can browse all 30 years of Street Fighter and see how the series has evolved. The Museum contains stunning concept art, pitch documents, and little-known facts behind each game’s release. You can also explore all your favorite character’s bios and discover the story behind the fighter. Finally, sit back and let the nostalgic notes of memorable Street Fighter tracks flow through your ears as you imagine yourself watching each fight in person. We’re incredibly excited to bring you this collection so you can celebrate Street Fighter’s 30th anniversary with us! We have much more to share, so here’s to 2018! The Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection will be available for MSRP $39.99 in May 2018 on PlayStation 4. View the full article

Breakpoint was created a little over a year ago, with the goal of creating a studio specializing in developing sports simulations, particularly tennis simulations… hence the name! This dedicated structure was built around talents who had worked on the Top Spin licence, starting with its director and founder. By the way, our director was the associate of the director of PAM, who created the licence. In addition to the company’s director, we have notably worked with Pierre André, who presided over Top Spin 3 and 4 as Lead Game Designer, as well as Jan Zamecnik, who was the Lead Animator on Top Spin 4. The rest of the team is made up of industry veterans, who all share a similar passion for the sport. Several factors pushed us to work on a new tennis game. There hasn’t been a game like this for a long time, and so there’s a big expectation from the fans. Additionally, current generation consoles are more powerful, which allows us to offer the players many new things, especially in terms of gameplay. And finally, the chance to work with a publisher like Bigben who wants to get involved in the creation of various sports games is a great opportunity. One of the key aspects of the game which we paid particular attention to is the creation of animations for the tennis players. A tennis match is a very specific choreography of movement: player movements, inertia from running, the different strokes with which you can hit the ball… Reproducing animations that are as close as possible to reality was a huge undertaking, which required numerous steps on the way. Once we defined the strokes, the movements, and the effects that we wanted to add to the game, we moved on to an important analysis phase where we deconstructed all the movements we needed to reproduce using videos of professionals: what are the different movements to hit the ball in every direction, how high do you need to raise your shot, how much power do you need to put in every shot… It is tantamount to thousands of movement combinations to recreate. Each operation must be listed and referenced for one of the key steps of our work: the motion capture phase. We did these motion capture sessions with professional players on real courts so that they could reproduce as faithfully as possible all the movements and sensations of tennis. Each movement is played and saved, in order to be integrated in the game. We’ve also given a lot of thought to how to deconstruct the animations so that they can be chained one after the other. Each movement is progressively integrated and tested in order to see if it corresponds well with the game mechanics. It was a long, drawn-out part of the development, because the more animations we integrated, the more the possibilities multiplied. A new motion capture phase is planned, in order to complete all of the different moves already available. Some of them are very rare, such as the between the legs shot but we know that with this kind of movement, players will be able to really deep dive into the tennis experience we want to offer. It’s a progressive project, which takes a lot of back and forth. We’re already very happy with the results, but we still have some adjustments to make, for example with the physics controlling clothing and hair. We have room to improve the animations and we correct everything by hand to ensure the final quality of the game in the end. Our goal is to obtain a result that will give players an experience close to what they see during professional matches. We want Tennis World Tour to meet all the players’ expectations and fill the void that’s been left in tennis games for the last six years. We’re passionate about it, and it’s a real opportunity for us to work on such a fun and demanding game. We hope that tennis fans and players in general will be as excited to play the game as we are to work on it day after day. View the full article

There are two ways to approach game development, especially for VR. You can do a survey of what exists and iterate on a proven concept; ramping up the dramatic stakes or rendering better-looking graphics or intensifying the combat. Or you can imagine what should exist – we all have hopes and expectations for what VR will be one day – and see how close you can get. Well, we didn’t name the studio Highwire because we wanted to take the safer path… So, what do we want from virtual reality? One of the most powerful VR experiences is the human connection we feel to virtual characters. When a well-realized character looks you in the eye for the first time, it is as breath-taking as any traditional action scene. In Golem we focused on telling a very personal story about an injured child learning to explore the world through her magical gifts, with help from her fearless older sister and their over-protective father. With talented actors and MocapNow’s cutting-edge performance capture techniques, we have tried to bring this family and their struggles to life with subtlety and nuance that would not work outside of VR. Locomotion is a complex problem for VR games, but what we all want is to smoothly and freely explore virtual worlds. So rather than reverting to an analog stick or artificially teleporting through space, we’ve developed an entirely unique way of moving through the world. We call it “Incline Control” and it allows you to move as you would naturally, by slightly leaning your body as if you were about to take a step and start walking. The result is an intuitive control scheme, one that gets out of the way and lets you immerse yourself in the world. Once you master it, you can move effortlessly through the abandoned ruins of the Endless City, exploring the large open environment full of mysteries, hidden shortcuts and dangerous enemy golems. The final component of Golem’s gameplay was obvious to anyone that has ever spent any time in VR. As soon as the system is tracking your hand, you want to try and punch someone. And as soon as the game gives you something to swing, you want to swing it at someone. Ideally, the game gives you an 8-foot broadsword with a razor-sharp edge. One-to-one melee combat has always been core to Golem’s gameplay, and it is really only possible in VR. Unlike a traditional game, where each swing is controlled by an animation and blocking is as simple as holding a button, in Golem every attack and parry is under the player’s direct control. If they don’t manage to get their sword above their head in time, they won’t block that overhead smash. And if they miss a cut at an exposed limb, it won’t do any damage. It takes practice, but landing a successful counter-attack is incredibly satisfying. Golem has been a challenging and rewarding project for us, and we’re happy to announce that it will be available March 13th exclusively on PSVR. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we have enjoyed making it! And in the meantime, check out the musical prequel to Golem from award-winning composer Marty O’Donnell at “Echoes of the First Dreamer”. View the full article

Last November PlayStation 4 fans got their first taste of Tripwire’s seminal co-op action sci-fi horror shooter franchise with Killing Floor 2. It’s been wonderful for the team at Tripwire to see how well the game has been received by the millions of PlayStation gamers that have picked up the game since launch. Three years ago, we announced that game at PSX, and we’re excited to be back again this year to announce our next game for PlayStation 4 – Killing Floor: Incursion for PlayStation VR! The first thing to know about Killing Floor: Incursion is that it was created from the ground up for virtual reality. We believe the best VR games are made specifically with the VR platform in mind, so we set out to create something that was unique and truly played to VR’s strengths. Scale and heights can be incredibly powerful tools to elicit emotion from a player in VR and Incursion uses both to great effect. The player may find themselves standing in front of something gigantic, or standing on a high ledge. These dramatic moments can only be experienced in VR and are exciting and memorable. Next players should know that Incursion is a very tactile game – the player uses both hands to physically manipulate items in the world, to swing axes and knives, and to duel wield weapons like the star of your own action movie. The gunplay was designed from the ground up to be the most immersive and rewarding shooting experience players have ever experienced in VR. Features such as a procedural recoil animation system allowed us to model all the power and nuance of firearms while keep the action fluid without breaking the sense of presence a player only gets in VR. Killing Floor: Incursion includes a full story based campaign with four to six hours of gameplay. The campaign takes the player through diverse environments fighting through a cast of mutated creatures that range from shambling zombie-like monsters to massive biomechanical abominations. Keeping the player company on this journey is NODE, a helpful robot companion that not only shares transmissions from the outside world, but also can be ordered by the player to hunt out ammo, health and more. A large part of the fun of Incursion is being able to bring a friend to fight alongside you in co-op. As we were developing Incursion one of the surprising things we discovered was just how connected you feel to the other person you are playing with in VR. So much more than in a standard shooter, in VR you truly feel like you are standing next to the other player. You can hear their voice, but also you see every nuance of their movement. Players can literally point at things with their hands, and toss each other weapons (or detached monster parts…). This is great because the story-based campaign and the new Holdout game mode can both be played solo or in co-op. Holdout is an endless game mode where the goal is to survive as long as you can against an ongoing onslaught of enemies. As the match progresses more powerful weapons appear, but more powerful mutated creatures appear as well. Leaderboards show the world if you have survived the longest. As a special bonus for PlayStation VR players, the game will include an all new Holdout mode level to battle the zed hordes in! Tripwire can’t wait to unleash Killing Floor: Incursion for PlayStation VR. So get those virtual axes sharpened, because Incursion is coming for you in 2018. View the full article

Patapon 2 Remastered SIE Japan Studio Patapon 2 Remastered – the beloved second entry in the Patapon series – is marching its way to PS4s everywhere in 2018 in resolutions up to 4K*! Separated from their Zigaton compatriots, the Patapon tribe arrives on a strange new island, fighting through mysterious new enemies and creatures as they search for Earthend! With a whole slew of new features, including 8 drum rhythms, new Patapon types and evolutions, brand new mini-games and the ability to create your own Patapon Hero, Patapon 2 Remastered is sure to keep you bobbing to the beat for hours on end. *PS4 Pro and 4K display device required to view in 4K. Shooty Fruity nDreams & Nearlight Shooty Fruity, a manic mash-up of immersive job simulation and gunplay, is coming to PlayStation VR on December 19. Scan, serve & pack produce whilst shooting guns to defend your store from a mutant fruit uprising. Pre-order or purchase early for exclusive juicy content! 20XX Batterystaple Games and Fire Hose Games We’re excited to announce the hit indie roguelike platformer 20XX is coming to PS4 in early 2018! Jump and shoot your way through ever-changing levels, collect awesome new powers, and battle mighty bosses in the name of saving the human race maybe! Full co-op means you can play with a friend on the couch or online. Children of Morta Dead Mage Inc. Become a member of the Bergson family as you hack and slash your way through hordes of enemies in this procedurally generated, narrative driven roguelike either alone or cooperatively. Experience not only what it means to be a hero, but to be part of a family. Available in 2018. Fantasy Strike Sirlin Games Argagarg the Water Shaman joins the diverse cast of Fantasy Strike at PSX, alongside a gambling panda, a wise master who transforms into a massive dragon, a quirky painter girl and others in this vibrant and colorful fighting game designed by ex-Street Fighter dev David Sirlin. Flipping Death Zoink Games Welcome to Flatwood Peaks, a small whimsical town with a problem – death is on vacation! Help the ghosts with their curious problems while also solving the mystery surrounding your own demise in this new puzzling adventure from Zoink Games. Coming to PlayStation 4 spring 2018! Guacamelee! 2 Drinkbox Studios We’re excited to show a playable demo of Guacamelee! 2 for the first time at PSX! Play 4-player co-op as Juan, Tostada, X’Tabay and Uay Chivo. Meet the Chicken Illuminati and unlock cool new chicken abilities. Confront El Muñeco in an epic boss battle. Hope you can stop by! Gungrave VR Iggymob Gungrave is coming alive from the dead after 13 years, in PS VR! We introduced new system “cooling” and “bullet time” to “full-break gun action” which received high evaluation at the time! The freshness of action, make your brain work for the strategic battle! Horizon Chase Turbo Aquiris Thrilling arcade racing game, inspired by Outrun, Top Gear, Lotus Turbo Challenge and the whole generation of super-fun-straight-to-the-point racing games. Hover Midgar Studio & Fusty Games Experience the thrills of a fast-paced single and multiplayer Parkour game. Join the Rebellion and deride the security forces of an anti-leisure tyranny. Rise up to the many challenges of a futuristic Open World, enhance your gear and perform incredible tricks and combos. Knockout League Grab Games We’re excited to announce that Knockout League is coming to PS VR. Train with a speed bag, step up your skills with the focus mitts, or see how long you can survive in Reflex Alley. Fight your way through nine crazy characters to become the Knockout League champ. Moonlighter Digital Sun Moonlighter is an Action RPG with rogue-lite elements that demonstrates two sides of the coin – revealing everyday routines of Will, an adventurous shopkeeper that secretly dreams of becoming a hero. Coming to PS4 in 2018. Mothergunship Grip Digital s.r.o. Coming in 2018, Mothergunship is a bullet-hell FPS where you can craft gun monstrosities that no reasonable person could ever lift, fight gigantic bosses, play together with your friends and defeat a robotic armada that conquered Earth! Omen of Sorrow AOne Games Clear your mind, clench your fists and get ready for a wicked battle. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, Omen of Sorrow delivers a deep 2D battle system inspired by the classics, bringing back the edge, mindset and philosophy rooted in the genre’s arcade legacy, taking it to the next level with innovative features and fighting mechanics. Join the battle, conquer darkness. Get the demo now! The Church in the Darkness Paranoid Productions What happened to Alex? To find out, travel to South America and infiltrate the Collective Justice Mission, a secretive cult where nothing is what it seems. Find the answers in one of the many ways the story can play out in The Church in the Darkness, coming to PS4 in 2018. The Forest Endnight Games We are extremely excited to bring ‘The Forest’ to the PlayStation platform in 2018! Craft weapons from sticks and stones. Chop down trees to make a base. Fight to stay alive against a vicious enemy force. Although a harrowing experience in single player, you can now team up with a friend or two and even the odds. Our latest trailer showcases the cooperative multiplayer aspect of the game, surviving with a friend, exploring caves and building a base. The Persistence Firesprite Time to steel yourself! The procedurally generated horrors of The Persistence are coming to PlayStation VR in July 2018! Tower 57 Pixwerk Tower 57 is a fast-paced neo-retro shooter where cooperation is as important as your ammo capacity. As a member of an extraordinary task force fight your way through a dieselpunk megatower and uncover its hidden secrets. Coming to your PS4 in 2018. Wattam Funomena Wattam is the latest game from Katamari Damacy creator, Keita Takahashi. Grab a friend and join the mayor to explore the world of Wattam together as you run, jump, climb, hold hands, explode, and more with colorful characters that will surprise you at every joyful turn. Wattam will be coming to PS4 in 2018. View the full article

Hello PlayStation fans and welcome to launch day for LocoRoco 2 Remastered! We’re delighted to bring you our final trailer today, as well as a few tips and tricks to help you get the most out of the big, beautiful world of LocoRoco 2 Remastered! As you can see, there are plenty of high-flying, fast-rolling and crazy-bouncing adventures that await you, so here’s a few tips to help you along the way! Check everywhere for hidden areas The world of LocoRoco 2 Remastered is packed with secrets. Every wall you see, every crack in the ground, every odd-looking leaf and unique area likely holds some kind of reward, so make sure to get as close as you can and investigate! Look into their eyes As if their cute songs weren’t enough, the LocoRoco are also really great about telling you when there’s secrets nearby. If you see your LocoRoco’s antennae start to wiggle and notice them looking at something, set your controller down for a moment and let them investigate! (That’s right. They’ll approach the area on their own!) The MuiMui House is the Key ~ Every MuiMui you rescue in a stage will make their way to the MuiMui house – an ever-growing utopia for MuiMui, LocoRoco and all of their friends! New to LocoRoco 2 Remastered is the ability to collect items throughout the game and use them to continuously build new rooms and furniture for your MuiMui residents. The bigger the MuiMui house becomes, the more items you’ll receive from the MuiMui, some of which will allow you to access hidden stages! But wait! That’s not all. Those who manage to 100% complete the MuiMui House will receive an EXTRA special reward, so make sure to do your best! Get rid of the Bunyo! Throughout every stage in the game you’ll find Bunyo – little bits of black muck formed from the songs of the Moja. Bunyo actually suck the life out of the stages they inhabit, so do your best to clear every Bunyo out of all of the stages! Some are hidden quite well, so you’ll have to search high and low, but a special challenge awaits those who manage to do so. As a final reminder, those who pick up LocoRoco 2 Remastered throughout this PSX weekend will also receive a special Holiday Theme! This theme features a brand new music track and is only available for a very limited time, so don’t miss out! We hope you enjoy LocoRoco 2 Remastered, and have a wonderful holiday! View the full article

Competitive players, we’ve got a major update for you. For the first time, Call of Duty: WWII players in the Americas and select Asian territories will be able to register for and manage MLG GameBattles tournaments directly from their PS4 start menu beginning today. Because Call of Duty: WWII’s new update is tightly integrated with MLG GameBattles at the PS4 system level, managing your Call of Duty: WWII qualifying matches and tournaments is easy and seamless. Starting December 10, we will be opening registration for the first wave of Call of Duty: WWII competitive events. Starting events will be a mix of classic 2v2 to 6v6 Call of Duty competitive game types including, Hardpoint, Search and Destroy and Call of Duty World League events. To bring this awesome new feature to our fans, we worked hand in hand with teams at Activision, Sledgehammer Games, High Moon, and MLG to craft a world-class tournament system for Call of Duty. The new platform and title-level integration for MLG GameBattles and Call of Duty: WWII makes jumping into competitive gameplay simple and fast whether you are new to esports or a seasoned veteran. Let’s look at some of the features that we have built for you. System-Level Teams Through the PS4 Events and Tournaments platform, you can now create and manage teams of up to 100 members including your friends, family, and favorite players on PlayStation Network. Once you setup your team, registering and participating in any of the featured Call of Duty: WWII events is as quick as a few button presses. Included in your team setup is team-specific chat, unique banners and logos, and complete tracking of your gameplay history and events you and your team have participated in. Direct Integration into Call of Duty: WWII Once you have chosen an event, registered, and checked-in, getting into gameplay is completely automated. Call of Duty: WWII and the Tournaments platform will automatically match your team with your opponent, setup the match types (including map rotation, rule set, etc.), and place you directly into the game lobby after you click “Join Match” from the PlayStation Tournaments section or directly within Call of Duty: WWII’s menu screen. But what about when the match is over you ask? Again, the integration work done between our development teams ensures that your results are automatically reported, verified, and finalized without ever having to enter the results. This makes moving to your next match (Hopefully you won!) smooth, quick, and accurate, with no manual input or verification needed. Along with this comes integration directly into the Call of Duty: WWII menus from the teams at Sledgehammer Games and High Moon. Here you can find tournaments, see the events you have upcoming, and join any of your matches that are about to start. As you can see, the teams at Activision and PlayStation are committed to offering the best place to compete in Call of Duty tournaments. Whether you want to climb the ranks to a CWL pro, or just enjoy casual competition with fellow Call of Duty: WWII fans, we have built a system that makes it as easy as possible. So, grab your friends, create your teams, and we’ll see you online! View the full article

Though we have repeatedly confirmed that Shadow of the Colossus on PS4 is a full, ground up remake of the all-time classic, it is a fact that is harder to communicate via text or stills. To make it more clear, we have created a comparison video, which you can watch above, that shows the amount of work that has gone into this project to fully leverage the horsepower of modern gaming consoles. Gallery of new 4K screens For the first time, we are also happy to confirm that PlayStation 4 Pro users will benefit from two play options: Cinematic, which emphasizes image quality, and for owners of compatible 4K HDR displays, boasts a beautiful dynamic 4K image targeting 30 fps Performance, which delivers an extremely fluid frame rate targeting 60 fps Shadow of the Colossus has never looked this good, or moved with this much fluidity. To give you more information about the PS4 Pro enhancements, check out this video feature: Lastly, we are also proud to reveal a Special Edition release, which will include the following bonus items: Steelbook Collector’s Case with outer sleeve, Artist Postcards, Printed Manual, In-game Digital Extras (Ancient Bow, Cloak of Fate, “Spotted Steed” Agro skin), Two Custom PS4 Themes, Colossi Avatar Set for PS4, Physical World Map, and Colossi Stickers. Shadow of the Colossus is as much a prized part of our library as we hope it is yours, and so we wanted to make something special for you, its fans. The Special Edition will also be available on February 6th with an MSRP of $49.99. View the full article

Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality is a great way to question your self worth, and we’re excited to give PlayStation VR owners the chance to do just that in 2018 when Virtual Rick-ality comes to PS VR. Virtual Rick-ality is a fully-voiced VR game featuring Rick, Morty, and oodles of iconic stuff from the TV show. In the game, you play as a Morty clone on a journey that’ll take you across multiple dimensions and to places like Purgatory and even the Smiths’ bathroom. Along the way, you’ll solve puzzles and experience a great Rick and Morty story. One of our favorite things to talk about is the sheer amount of stuff you can do in Virtual Rick-ality. To name a few: You can listen to Rick’s instructions (or, don’t!). Walk through portals into space. Or other dimensions. Flip knobs. Press buttons. Wear hats. Throw and break stuff. Drink detergent. Combine objects in the Combinator to make new objects. Control your own Youseeks. Make him explode. Experience death. Raise a pet. Feed a monster. Eat fruits and vegetables. Learn how to fix an intergalactic car. And you can do all of that without leaving the comfort of your PS VR in your living room. Or den? Or basement? We don’t know your life. But Virtual Rick-ality is the most immersive way to get into the world of Rick and Morty. If you’d like to get your hands on the PS VR version before 2018, your first chance will be at PlayStation Experience! We’ll be there with a few stations offering demos. Come check it out! Wubba Lubba dub dub! View the full article

That’s another PlayStation Experience in the books! And we’ve been holding onto some especially exciting news. Hot on the heels of this year’s smash hit Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, we’re making another PlayStation fan dream come true: a proper, PS4-grade resurrection of the original MediEvil just in time for the game’s 20th anniversary. If you’re not familiar with the MediEvil series, it’s a colorful action-adventure game originally released in 1998 for the original PlayStation system. As the resurrected Sir Daniel Fortesque, players defend Gallowmere from the evil forces of Zarok, a sorcerer with the power to control the dead. The game is noteworthy for its unique horror-comedy tone and its early contributions to the world of 3D gaming. It’s still a fan favorite, and I’m proud we can resurrect Sir Daniel once again. Have a happy and healthy holidays — see you in 2018! View the full article

It’s been a while since I’ve been on PS Blog. The last time I was here with an original game it was for Lumines Electronic Symphony on PS Vita, a project I loved working on. What I’m really excited about now and the reason I’m here today is to lift the lid off my labor of love project, called Jupiter & Mars, a game that my former mentor from Q Entertainment, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, once told me “this is the game you were born to make.” Jupiter & Mars is a game set in a near-future Earth that displays one possible outcome originating from the excesses and abuses we inflict on the planet today. You see, after moving back from Japan, where I was lucky enough to work at both Q Entertainment and Q-Games (unrelated to each other), I had just had my second child, a son. With two children in my family, I began to have serious concerns about the world they’d be growing up in. Plastics are found in nearly 90% of all the drinking water we consume, which leads to all sorts of health issues. We’re polluting our oceans at a prodigious rate that is unsustainable, and it’s possible that future wars will be ignited by a power-grab for the Earth’s remaining resources. I don’t know about you, but this isn’t the world I want for my children. So I pondered leaving the games industry and moving into conservation-related efforts. But while movies like The Cove and Racing Extinction made me burst into happy/sad tears, the work of legends like David Attenborough inspired me to stay. I thought “What can I possibly do to change things for the better?” The solution, to me and my partner Sam Kennedy (who I used to work with back in the day at places like 1UP and EGM), was not to throw everything I had learned in the past 20 years away, but to take that knowledge and find like-minded collaborators to create games inspired by and, in their own way, designed by nature. We figured if we can entertain people in that special way that video games can, and perhaps inspire them to educate themselves on a topic, then this would be worthwhile. Although it can be played on all PS4 consoles, Jupiter & Mars was designed for PlayStation VR. You don’t have to go to an alien planet to feel like you’ve visited one. All you need to do is go underwater, which is an entirely different world, with unique demands and creatures and ways of interacting. We sought to bring this element out in the game, to the point that Sam and I got certified in scuba diving while in Sydney, Australia, so we’d be able to bring that authenticity into the game. While Jupiter & Mars setting is inspired by real-world calamities, its gameplay draws inspiration from many of our past favorites, particularly Ico and The Last Guardian for the bond between their main characters. In the game, you control a dolphin named Jupiter along with your AI-companion Mars on an underwater adventure while you help restore life in the oceans. For those of you familiar with any of the games I’ve worked on in the past, you’ll find plenty of familiar elements represented here, too. Our fledgling studio, Tigertron, and the games we make, creates great opportunities to build relationships with and collaborate with some of the greatest talent in the world. We’ll have more announcements in the coming months leading up to the release of Jupiter & Mars, but we’re already working with composers like Jonathan Atkinson, who was a part of the legendary George Martin (The Beatles) production team. We went with Jonathan to London to record our theme song, and the voice that brings it to life is the incredibly talented Nami Miyahara, whose vocals you may recognize from Genki Rockets’ ‘Heavenly Star’ among others. As with everything I work on, music plays an integral, memorable role in the game, and while Jupiter & Mars is not a “music game,” it is musical. Last but not least, we are working with two great Australian teams to help bring Jupiter & Mars to life: Tantalus and Wicked Witch. It’s been great to work with a bunch of like-minded game creators to help us realize our vision of making games that branch out in new directions. We’re 100% committed to creating awesome games inspired by nature, so we may give back to nature, and will do so by donating a portion of our proceeds to organizations dedicated to preserving the planet for future generations to come. Just like my kids. Jupiter & Mars will release in Q2, 2018 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR. View the full article

Donut County is a game where you play as a hole in the ground. It still feels ridiculous to say it, because it shouldn’t have worked. You move around a tiny hole, you make stuff fall in, and the hole gets bigger. Often you have to wiggle things inside that are just a bit too big. Eventually you can demolish buildings, drain rivers, and star in your own adorable disaster movie. It’s as simple as that, or at least… that’s how it started. I’ll be honest. When I first prototyped Donut County in 2012, it started as a joke. It was the weekend of Molyjam, a 48 hour game jam dedicated to making games inspired by jokes inspired by the work of the ambitious game designer Peter Molyneux. The idea was simple, to make a game where you controlled… nothing. Well, the absence of something. Okay, a hole in the ground. I wasn’t sure it would be fun at all, but once I got the hole moving around, collecting things and growing, I fell in love. I needed to get to the bottom of it. I needed to figure out what was so captivating about the hole. Sorry to any preschool teachers reading this, but it’s fun to fit a square peg through a round hole. I love to tip over a nice stack of pots and hear them shatter into bits. It’s satisfying to tidy up every last bit of junk on the floor. Playing as the mysterious little hole scratches an itch that I can’t fully explain… it feels surprisingly human. There’s a lot more to the hole than just collecting things, though. The objects you collect don’t really disappear. Swallow a campfire and your hole catches on fire. Drop some corn inside, popcorn comes flying out. The puzzles only get weirder from there. The most important thing is that in the end, the hole always eats everything. Holes are truly weird. The more you look at one, the more it seems like it’s not there. I realized pretty early on that the game isn’t just about holes… it’s really about everything that goes inside the hole. It’s about the ground that the hole is in. That’s why it’s called Donut County. It’s about a place. It’s about all the people that live there, and all their junk that gets eaten up. It makes sense then that in Donut County you play as the villain: a witless raccoon named BK. BK works for a big raccoon tech company that opens up holes to steal people’s trash. It’s a classic raccoon story. The game takes place six weeks after the hole-pocalypse and everyone from Donut County is sitting at the bottom of the hole, including BK. The Donut County residents take turns telling tales of when BK swallowed them up with the hole. Will BK ever learn anything? Why would he stop when stealing stuff with the hole is so satisfying? In the end, Donut County is about so much more than holes. It’s a story about donuts, tech exceptionalism, and raccoon redemption. It’s inspired by my favorite city, Los Angeles. It’s been a pleasure to make. I’m really grateful that I got to explore such a weird and satisfying idea, and I’m really excited to announce that Donut County is coming to PlayStation 4 next year. View the full article

Hey PlayStation Plus members – we have an action-packed game selection for the PS Plus free games lineup in December. Let’s take a look. Become Death, the most feared of the legendary Four Horsemen, in Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition. The Deathinitive Edition includes all DLC, alongside updated graphics rendering and reworked game balancing. It is instantly playable and sure to make this a Deathcember to remember. In Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends, face off alongside or against Po and other Kung Fu Panda characters in up-to four person battles in the iconic Kung Fu Panda universe. This is the perfect game to bring families together for some friendly rivalry during the holidays. This month’s PlayStation Plus lineup also includes: Syberia Collection PS3 Xblaze Lost: Memories, PS3 Forma.8, PS Vita (Cross Buy with PS4) Wanted Corp, PS Vita As a reminder, we are giving PlayStation Plus members a bonus PlayStation VR game – Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. It’s available now through January 2 for PlayStation Plus members in U.S., Canada, and Latin America. This survival horror arcade shooter will be sure to give you a scare as you blast your way through hordes of enemies. Download it now (if you haven’t already) and buckle up for the most disturbing roller coaster ride you’ll ever take. Monster Hunter: World is rapidly approaching its release, but you can get a taste of the hunt from December 9 to December 12 exclusively as a PlayStation Plus member. In this beta, you’ll be tasked with hunting a Great Jagras and an Anjanath in the Ancient Forest, as well as a Barroth in the Wildspire Waste. While these are your main quest targets, be on the lookout for other deadly monsters roaming each ecosystem. Lastly, for a limited time, PlayStation Plus members can grab the Smite PlayStation Plus Pack for free! The bundle includes 31 Skins, 20 Gods and Voice Packs, plus the Khepri Announcer Pack. The bundle is available from December 12 to January 9. And that’s it for the year. See you in 2018! View the full article

Hello hello! Hard to believe we’re only 9 sleeps away from the kickoff of PlayStation Experience 2017, starting with Friday night’s PlayStation Presents. Gulp! Speaking of PlayStation Presents! The show will commence at 8:00pm Pacific Time next Friday, December 8. If you’ve got an Early Bird ticket, you’ll be able to join us on-site in Anaheim, California. Though PlayStation’s biggest 2017 announcements were revealed at E3 and Paris Games Week, we’ve saved a few stocking stuffers for Friday night. Expect to listen in on candid discussions with some of PlayStation’s top developers, get updates on key titles, and be a part of some special announcements. Even Kinda Funny’s Greg Miller is dropping by! If you can’t join in on the fun in person, you’ll be able to watch the show at live.playstation.com and earn rewards, or stream on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook starting at 8:00pm Pacific Time Friday night. Then, PlayStation Experience will kick off proper. And boy oh boy it’s set to be something special. But we’ll share more details about that soon! I’m also pleased to share our panel schedule. Panels will take place on Saturday, December 9 and will stream live on live.playstation.com, Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook starting at 11:00am Pacific Time on Saturday. We’ll broadcast game updates, previews, and interviews in between, so don’t touch that dial! Read on for full details. See you in Anaheim! PlayStation Experience 2017 Panel Lineup PlayStation VR Game Panel 11:00am Saturday, December 9 We can’t wait to tell you more about this one! Experience a candid conversation between two legends as they discuss developing their new PS VR title and lessons from VR development. Media Molecule Presents Dreams 12:30pm Saturday, December 9 Join Media Molecule studio directors Siobhan Reddy, Mark Healey, and Alex Evans alongside a very special guest to take an in-depth look at the development of Dreams during their exclusive Saturday panel at 12:30pm. IGN Ranks the Top 10 PlayStation Games of all Time 2:00pm Saturday, December 9 IGN’s Podcast Beyond crew is here to figure out the 10 best PlayStation games ever, and they need your help! Uncharted 2 or The Last of Us? Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII, or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? Journey or Shadow of the Colossus? Is it too soon for Horizon Zero Dawn to make the list? Help us build the best of the best that PlayStation has to offer. Help us celebrate 20+ years of PlayStation at PSX! Ghost of Tsushima: From Concept to Reveal 3:30pm Saturday, December 9 It’s been a month since we announced our newest title, Ghost of Tsushima. Here at Sucker Punch, we’ve watched so many reaction videos and read many of your comments with smiles on our faces, so we thought PSX was a great opportunity to share a little more with you all. Join us on Saturday at 3:30pm as Nate Fox (Creative Director), Jason Connell (Creative/Art Director), Billy Harper (Animation Director), Ryuhei Katami (Associate Producer, Sony Interactive Entertainment) and moderator Brian Altano (IGN) discuss how we approached making the debut trailer and what inspired us to make this game. We’ll share epic concept art that’s driving the tone and visuals for the game, and share a little about our reference trips to Japan and working with new team members that are helping make Ghost of Tsushima even better. Also be sure to stop by our signing session after the panel and come say hi. Stay tuned for more info on time and location. Uncharted 10th Anniversary Celebration 5:00pm Saturday, December 9 Join us as we celebrate the Uncharted 10th Anniversary at PSX 2017 with an unprecedented gathering of the cast from throughout the series! Nolan North, Emily Rose, Richard McGonagle, Claudia Black, Laura Bailey, Troy Baker, Graham McTavish, and Robin-Atkin Downes reflect on the series and share their memories with guest moderator Greg Miller (Kinda Funny). We’ll also be hosting a special signing session with the cast prior to the panel. Keep an eye on the PlayStation Experience app for time and location! The Last of Us Part II: Meet the Cast 6:30pm Saturday, December 9 Join Naughty Dog and the cast of The Last of Us Part II as they discuss the making of the cutscene teaser trailer that was revealed just a few short weeks ago at Paris Games Week. Director and writer, Neil Druckmann, co-writer Halley Gross, and key members of the game’s cast discuss the writing process, casting, performance capture, and more. For those attending the event, there will also be a signing session following the panel. View the full article

Several years have passed since we’ve had a full Dead Rising release on PlayStation, and thankfully the wait is over as Dead Rising 4 comes to PS4 on December 5. Since some time has passed, now is a great opportunity to reflect on the series’ history and the road to this release, both in terms of the story and the evolution of the core zombie-slaying, open-world action. Considering we’re offering the original Dead Rising as a gift for pre-ordering (at PlayStation Store or Gamestop/EB Games), you’re invited to take the trip down memory lane with us – from Willamette Mall to the entire infected town itself. Let’s look back through the franchise’s history and how it’s evolved from scavenging for helpful objects in a shopping mall to crafting ridiculous combo weapons and mowing down zombies in an armored Exo-Suit. Dead Rising made its bloody debut in 2006, when the open-world genre was still relatively young. The game stars Frank West, who travels to the town of Willamette, Colorado, to investigate why it’s been quarantined by the government. Frank puts his photojournalistic skills to use in one of gaming’s most memorable introductions – snapping photos of the city’s doomed population as they fall victim to a zombie outbreak. Eventually, Frank finds himself in the Willamette Parkview Mall, where he has three days to investigate the mysterious pandemic before his rescue chopper arrives. The resulting gameplay of the original Dead Rising is a smorgasbord of zombie-slaying variety. Hundreds of objects are available to slice, bludgeon, and explode the undead into itty bits, from flat-screen TVs to full-on battle axes. Dead Rising ratchets up the tension of surviving Frank’s plight by implementing a timer system and dozens of survivors begging to be rescued. Deadly Psychopaths also defend their mall turf, like Adam the chainsaw-juggling clown (who you can slice and dice with in Dead Rising 4’s new Capcom Heroes mode). That terrifying tension was balanced with the game’s quirky sense of humor, helped in part by Frank’s ever-expanding wardrobe – from fashionable skirts to Servbot masks. These elements combined helped it win a place is would-be zombie killers’ hearts. A new chapter opened for the series when Dead Rising 2 hit PlayStation 3 in 2010. Chuck Greene, a former motocross champion, takes main stage as the protagonist this time. Chuck competes in a deadly reality TV show that pits daredevils against the undead, in order to earn cash for his daughter Katey’s Zombrex medication, which she needs to hold her infection at bay. The TV shows’ pen of zombies ultimately breaks free, sparking a new infection in Fortune City – a gambling, vice-driven town that gives Las Vegas a run for its money. The plot thickens as Chuck is framed for the outbreak, and he works with reporter Rebecca Chang to discover the true culprits behind it all. Speaking of journalists, Frank West makes his return to the series in both Dead Rising 2: Off The Record, a reimagining of Dead Rising 2 with West cast as the main hero and in the add-on content Dead Rising 2: Case West, where he makes a colorful ally for Chuck as they dig deeper into the Fortune City incident. Dead Rising 2 adds more to the series’ formula than a new story and setting. While the glitz, glamour, and trained tigers of Fortune City offer an exotic backdrop do the trusty zombie-slaying action, the true evolution of Dead Rising 2 lies in the gameplay. Frank could use nearly any object as a weapon in the first Dead Rising, but Chuck adds more malicious ingenuity to common items with his handyman skills. Chuck can create lethal improvised weapons like the Paddlesaw by combining a paddle with a chainsaw, or the Defiler by crafting a sledgehammer together with a fire axe (Dead Rising 4 expands combo weapon options even wider). Chuck needs all the tools at his disposal to hunt down caches of Zombrex for Katey, which adds another layer of tension to the constant ticking threat and mounting zombie threat. Thankfully, the addition of co-op enables a friend to join you in Fortune City for a bloodbath. Dead Rising 2’s exciting expansion of the original games’ zombie outbreak gameplay makes it a special entry for the series. Both Frank and Chuck sit out for Dead Rising 3, which released in 2013. This entry shifts the setting even further west to the city of Los Perdidos, as the young mechanic Nick Ramos fights for his life in yet another outbreak. The military plans to prevent further infection by bombing the city in a number of days. The stakes may be high, but Nick rises to the occasion by employing his mechanics skill to take the series’ trademark crafting system to the next level. Not only are the combo weapons more sadistic (the Sledgesaw combines a sledgehammer with a cement saw), but Nick’s gearhead nature enables him to create the all-new combo vehicles. The brutally efficient RollerHawg combines a motorcycle and steamroller into a revving, rolling, flame-spewing death machine. Nick knows how to get around Los Perdidos in style. This history of thrilling zombie outbreaks and empowering gameplay evolution brings us to Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package. The man himself, Frank West, returns to Willamette as the unlikely hero of this massive entry in the series. Frank’s comes equipped not only with his grizzled journo veteran status (he’s covered wars, ya know), but also the wealth of gameplay improvements the series has benefited over the last 11 years. Frank’s investigation into a new outbreak in Willamette brings him back to the unforgettable mall, and extends out into the sprawling city itself. Dead Rising 4 touts the iconic hero and setting of the original, the vastly expanded combo system of Dead Rising 2, along with the combo vehicles and open-world exploration of Dead Rising 3. The addition of high-powered military Exo-Suits also gives Frank the hulking strength to wield parking meters as bludgeons or freeze his zombie foes with an arctic vortex by adding an Ice Slushy machine to your Exo-Suit. Taking combo even further from weapons to vehicles, now to “Combo Yourself”. Frank’s Big Package delivers more than just the latest incarnation of the franchise – it also comes with tons of additional content and gameplay improvements implemented since the initial launch. PlayStation owners get every piece of previously released content, like the wacky Super Ultra Dead Rising 4 Mini Golf and dramatic Frank Rising, where Frank finally succumbs to the zombie virus and becomes imbued with powerful abilities. We’ve heard fans’ feedback since the initial launch, and have worked tirelessly to implement improvements to the fundamental gameplay experience. The changes include new difficulty levels, survivor rescue missions, improved Maniac encounters, and more. Most exciting of all is the ultimate experience for Capcom fans: Capcom Heroes. This new mode empowers Frank to take on the appearance of beloved characters from over 30 years of Capcom history. Outfits look great, but when you add the ability for Frank to perform outrageous special attacks from these characters, it make zombie slaying all the more fun. Signature moves and weapons include Dante’s stylish Rebellion sword, Mega Man X’s signature X-Buster, Zangief’s iconic Double Lariat and Pile Driver moves, Ryu’s famous Shoryuken, Amaterasu’s celestial brush, and more. The full lineup includes: Frank West (Classic), your default character Zombie Frank Adam the Clown Mega Man X Bass Ryu Cammy M. Bison Mecha-Zangief Akuma Morrigan Arthur Dante Viewtiful Joe Sissel Amaterasu Jill Valentine Everyone at Capcom Vancouver truly believe that the franchise’s rich history has been building towards Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package. Now is the perfect time to jump in and see how much has evolved over the years. The inclusion of the original Dead Rising game as a pre-order gift also invites players to appreciate the series’ origins and latest incarnation side-by-side, making for the ultimate open-world zombie-slaying adventure. Thanks so much for reading, and even more thanks from the entire Capcom Vancouver team for sticking with us — one zombie outbreak after the other. Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package launches on PlayStation 4 December 5. Pre-order now to receive the original Dead Rising free. View the full article

No wands, long beards, nor drawn out incantations needed here. Wizard of Legend is a no-nonsense, action-packed take on wizardry that emphasizes precise movements and smart comboing of spells in a randomly generated dungeon crawler you can go at alone or with a friend. The dev team of Contingent99 is two high school friends who decided to tackle gamedev co-op style. The two are big fans of action and fighting games, so they’ve made fluid combat the main focus of the game. Think of Wizard of Legend as a pixelated hybrid of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta style hack-and-slash with Street Fighter combos and super moves. Combat in Wizard of Legend revolves around using magical spell cards known as arcana. Each arcana is unleashed with a simple button press. Unleashing them in quick succession to create a combo will become second nature, as you navigate through the challenges of the Chaos Trials. While you begin the game with just a handful of your favorite arcana, you’ll quickly discover more as you progress, boosting your hand and allowing you to pull off longer, more devastating spell combos. With over 100 different arcana to find and master, there are countless combinations of starting hands to suit your playstyle. In addition, you can equip magical outfits and relics that have a wide variety of effects, ranging from summoning helpful familiars, to raining down lightning on all enemies in the area. Each run through the trials will allow you to permanently unlock additional tools that will help you achieve victory, and shopkeepers will help you even further with the different currencies you collect. You can also grab a friend and tackle the Chaos Trials together in Wizard of Legend’s couch co-op mode. While jumping headfirst into the Chaos Trials as a duo will increase the difficulty of the run, it also allows you to come up with strategic synergies only possible when teaming up with another wizard. Also, the fun isn’t over when your friend goes down in battle, as defeating multiple enemies in a show of skill will grant your partner a new lease on life! We can’t wait for you to enjoy Wizard of Legend’s fast-paced spell-slinging, single-player or co-op style, early next year. You can be the first to play the PS4 version at PlayStation Experience this December at booth 101. See you there at the Presented by Humble Bundle booth! View the full article

Hello Playstation Fans! Joe Mirabello and George Mamakos here of Mothergunship, a bullet-hell FPS where you craft your own guns and face off against an invasion of robotic alien monstrosities. First off, we’re excited to announce Mothergunship will be at this year’s PlayStation Experience in Anaheim, where we will be putting the game in front PlayStation fans for the first time! Those of you who are planning to attend can find the Mothergunship booth in Hall A, booth #102 and go hands-on with the game. During the past months, the Mothergunship team has participated in several gaming showcases and the big questions on people’s minds have been whether Mothergunship will include multiplayer action and how the gun crafting system will work. Today, we would like to confirm that multiplayer will be included in Mothergunship when it will launch in 2018 on digital and retail stores. The game will offer an intense co-op action where players can join their friends online on the main campaign, jump into daily missions together, and compete with other pairs on the Leaderboards! Apart from the co-op system, we would also like to talk a bit more in depth about crafting in Mothergunship. We’ve mentioned it briefly here in the past and we knew it was a fun system, but we weren’t expecting quite the reaction that the community has had to the system. At every tradeshow this is the thing people bring friends over to tinker with and it quickly became clear that Mothergunship’s flexible and empowering crafting system is its standout feature. Mothergunship presents the player with a lot of enemies to fight, and those enemies have ludicrous amounts of firepower. Crafting in Mothergunship lets players dance toe to toe with that firepower with its modular system of barrels, splitters, and caps. The player can snap these pieces together like building blocks to create powerful arrangements; letting them change obvious qualities like adding barrels or creating funny shaped weapons, but also letting them manipulate and tailor the very behaviors of the gun. Perhaps you want a shotgun rocket launcher? Perhaps you’re more interested in a triple barreled laser? Maybe you want to make a gun that has barrels arranged in a heart shape, allowing you to profess your love to your Co-OP partner?. Well, more power to you; Mothergunship won’t stop you. Here are some of the recent favorite combinations the Mothergunship team has found. We’re calling this one “the window” Making a grid-gun is an efficient way to make sure you can hit pretty much everything on screen at once. Flamethrowers are always an interesting weapon. Slapping a “bounce cap” on them makes them instantly more glorious though. All these creations don’t come without some careful balance considerations, but here, too, we empower the player to enjoy Mothergunship their way. Every piece added to a gun has a shot cost associated with it. Building an enormously powerful gun is a completely legitimate way to play the game, but you might only be able to fire it once every few seconds… and your ability to respond to situations quickly is crucial for survival in Mothergunship. Fortunately, you can dual wield these contraptions, allowing you to tailor each gun for different circumstances. Crafting is a toy within this game, and we encourage players to really dive in and experiment.We give the player the tools they need to construct the things they want to, and then we get out of the way and let them surprise themselves. We can’t wait to be surprised too. We’re looking forward to seeing you in Anaheim! View the full article