Top Story
Sony’s State of Play Roundup
Sony’s last State of Play – their answer to the incredibly popular Nintendo Direct – of the year is out. Past broadcasts have revealed big titles like Iron Man VR and loads of The Last of Us Part 2 footage, but this is one of the biggest so far. Let’s have a look!
Untitled Goose Game will be flapping and honking its way to PlayStation 4 on December 17th.
Spellbreak is a battle royale with RPG elements from Proletariat Inc, a studio comprised of veteran developers. There will be a closed beta on PlayStation 4 in spring.
Dreams, the game about making games from Media Molecule, will finally be launched on Valentine’s Day, February 14th.
Superliminal, a first-person puzzle game based on optical illusions and perspective tricks that launched on Epic Games Store in November will launch on PlayStation 4 in April.
Paper Beast from Eric Chahi – best known for Another World and Heart of Darkness – and his new studio Pixel Reef is a PlayStation VR sandbox game where you play alongside paper creatures, scheduled for release in the first quarter of next year.
Re Mind, the first DLC for Kingdom Hearts III, is coming on January 23rd and will feature both a new story and new playable characters – including Aerith and Squall from Final Fantasy VII and VIII.
Predator: Hunting Grounds stalks onto PlayStation 4 as well as Epic Game Store on April 24th next year. Pre-order to get an exclusive skin based on the Predator’s appearance in the 1987 movie, and early access to Ol’ Painless, the world’s most famous minigun.
Babylon’s Fall, the new game from Square Enix and PlatinumGames, has a new teaser trailer. There’s not much to go on yet, but a full reveal is expected next summer.
Resident Evil 3 Remake is coming, and while the surprise was somewhat spoiled by leaks, the release date is unexpectedly close: You’ll get to face off against Nemesis on April 3rd next year. It also looks like Project Resistance, the 1v4 multiplayer game set in the Resident Evil universe, serves as Resident Evil 3 Remake’s online mode.
Ghost of Tsushima completes the line-up, following after Ken Kutaragi’s reflections on the last 25 years of PlayStation. There was just a quick teaser for Sucker Punch’s latest, but the full trailer will be revealed at The Game Awards, which airs Thursday 5:30pm PST, or Friday 1:30am GMT.
That’s a pretty strong line-up. Looks like the PlayStation 4 is going out with a bang, and it’s pretty obvious why Sony feels no need to show off the PlayStation 5 yet.
Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?
What is Solid Snake’s real name?
- John
- David
- Jack
- Fred
The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today’s issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be!
News Bits
Tune into Nintendo’s Indie World today
Got 20 minutes to spare? If not, you better find some, because Nintendo’s Indie World live stream starts at 10am PT/ 1pm ET/ 6pm GMT and will showcase all the upcoming indie games for Switch. State of Play and Indie World in a single day? It’s like Christmas has come early!
Minecraft Bedrock for PlayStation 4
Another win for crossplay! Unlike the earlier PlayStation 4 version, Minecraft Bedrock is based on the same codebase as the Xbox One, Switch and mobile versions. That means all platforms are finally joined together as one, and you won’t need to buy a new copy if you already own Minecraft for PlayStation 4. The update should hit PlayStation Network at 8am PST.
Daily Fact
Saints Row had plenty of bling, and was originally codenamed Bling Bling
Saints Row actually started out on the PlayStation 2 back in 2003, before the Xbox 360 was even announced. According to technical director Alan Lawrence, a small group inside Volition was working on a prototype they called Bling Bling.
Apart from the name and technology, Bling Bling hadn’t changed much when it finally released for Xbox 360 in 2006. The demo that hit Xbox Live just before launch reached over 400,000 downloads within a week and Saints Row sold over 500,000 units in its first month – earning developer Volition a fair amount of bling in the process.
Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.
Daily News
Creatures Inc. off partners list?
As reported by Pokémon Matome, Pokémon developer Game Freak has removed all menion of Creatures Inc from its company profile. Game Freak, Creatures Inc and Nintendo are all co-owners of the Pokémon franchise, so this is a pretty strange turn of events.
No-one seems to have any idea why Game Freak’s company information page was changed like this, but judging by comparisons of an archived version of the page from November 18th, the change is pretty recent. Creatures Inc. still has a job advertisement for a Card Production Assistant for Pokémon, so they’re probably still part of The Pokémon Company.
Was Creatures Inc. removed accidentally?
Pokémon Sword & Shield has broken sales records, shifting over six million units in its first week on sale. This is not just the fastest-selling Pokémon game yet, but the fastest-selling Switch game full stop. Despite some controversy surrounding the trimmed Pokédex and some hair-splitting over reused 3D models, fans just can’t get enough Pokémon.
Let’s hope Game Freak makes a statement about the Creatures Inc. business so we can all go back to camping for pocket monsters in Galar.
Windows Central leak the specs of Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox consoles
We might finally know what Microsoft’s next-gen consoles look like on the inside! Senior editor Jez Corden notes that while his sources are pretty strong, the specs are no more than rumours.
Microsoft is looking to launch two versions of their next-gen console, the budget-priced Lockhart and the more powerful Anaconda. While both models appear to be considerable upgrades over the current generation, Anaconda is quite a bit more impressive:
“Anaconda is targeting around 12 teraflops (TF) of computing power, compared to the Xbox One X’s 6TF, and the Xbox One S’s 1.4,” according to the article.
“Lockhart conversely will sport around 4TF, and according to marketing materials we’ve seen previously, it is being positioned as the most-affordable entry point to next-gen experiences.”
The Xbox One X is the most powerful console at the moment, and the Anaconda is supposed to be twice as powerful. Maybe 4k gaming at 60FPS can become a reality after all?
Can Sony blow Anaconda out of the water?
Microsoft has been teasing Project Scarlett since E3 2019, however, it appears that Scarlett is a codename for the Xbox ecosystem as a whole. The idea that Microsoft could release a standard and premium version of the latest Xbox is similar to what they’ve done this console generation with the Xbox One S and Xbox One X.
Sony has been relatively upfront about what gamers can expect from PlayStation 5 and while Microsoft has been talking about Project Scarlett since E3 this year, they haven’t said much about what the consoles will be like. Could the Anaconda be strong enough to choke out Sony and Nintendo?
