PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now, which are Sony’s marquee digital games subscription services, have reached new heights in terms of subscribers. As part of a recent investor presentation, Sony announced that PS Plus added 2.7 million subscribers in the latest quarter to reach 41.5 million in total as of March 31.
Sony said it will be important for the company to “expand this increased engagement going forward” as it heads into the PlayStation 5 generation. The company also saw an uptick in PlayStation Now subscribers, which reached 2.2 million for the end of April 2020.
Both PS Plus and PS Now benefitted from how people are spending more time at home during the global COVID-19 pandemic. “At a time when people are voluntarily not going outside, demand for digital entertainment such as games is increasing globally. In this environment, PlayStation users have increased significantly,” Sony said.
Looking ahead, Sony will release the PlayStation 5 later this year. The company has yet to show off the console design or reveal many of its games, but that is expected to happen soon.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
This week in Red Dead Redemption 2 Online, Rockstar is rewarding the collectors in-game and bringing back more limited-time only clothing to the store.
Those willing to search high and low across the map for artifacts and rarities will be handsomely rewarded, with a complete set of American Wildflowers paying out 50% more when handed in to Madam Nazar. This bonus pay out is only available until May 25. Players who log in before then can receive a free American Wildflower map to try their luck.
For those sick of wandering the wilderness alone, the Persistent Posse create fees are being waved through to June 8. Gather your friends and hit the trails together as a band of outlaws or vigilantes, the choice is up to you.
To keep you company at your camp, Rockstar is offering a discount on any Camp Dog or Horse under rank 40 for 40% off. Pick out a new four legged companion to keep you warm during the long nights.
Also on sale this week in-store are the Pennington Field Shovel, Refined Binoculars, and Metal Detector. You can get any of these three items for 40% off in-store.
This week’s limited-time clothing options at the Wheeler, Rawson, and Co. catalogue will be available until May 25. Last week’s limited-time only items are still available as well in-store, so get them while you can. The following items can be purchased:
The Tasman
The Danube
Manteca Hat
Cossack Hat
Boutell Hat
Irwin Coat
Twitch Prime members will receive the Collector’s Bag, the Polished Copper Moonshine Still, and a Reward crediting them with five Moonshiner Role Ranks for this month. This reward can be collected at any point during the month of May.
PlayStation Plus members can receive a fisherman’s starter pack containing 5 special Lake Lures, 5 special Swamp Lures, 5 special River Lures, along with a Treasure Map of the North Clingman area just for logging in this month.
A portion of all online purchases this month will be going towards COVID-19 relief thanks to Rockstar and Take-Two. This includes purchases made in Red Dead Online and GTA Online.
Today in “sentences that fill us with a sense of joy and purpose,” Gary Whitta’s Animal Crossing talk-show, Animal Talking, has announced an upcoming tour of Danny Trejo’s island. Like much of the rest of the world, movie star Danny Trejo has gotten really into Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and we’ll soon get to see what his island looks like, and which animals he has befriended.
In his previous appearance on the show, Trejo talked about his love for cooking, his restaurant chain Trejo’s Tacos, and his new cook book of the same name. For his next appearance, we’ll get to see how he’s living and what decoration decisions he has made.
In other news about cool people playing Animal Crossing, United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently got in on the game, visiting random islands after allowing folks to send her Dodo codes.
The Last of Us Part II is just a month away now, with the long-awaited PlayStation 4 sequel due to finally arrive on June 19, 2020. To celebrate the home stretch, Naughty Dog has today announced that an official emoji for the game is being added on Twitter.
If you use the hashtag “#TheLastofUsPartII”, your tweets will gain a little picture of protagonist Ellie, looking calm and contemplative–which is at odds with the expressions we’re expecting her to wear for most of the game.
You can see the emoji in question below. And if you’re tweeting about the game, be careful–spoilers are out there, and you’ll want to avoid them.
If you’re looking to buy a PlayStation 4 just for this game, Sony has a PlayStation 4 Pro bundle ready for the game’s launch. You should also prepare for the game to take up a lot of space on your hard drive.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Bane masks are selling out amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
With many Americans still required by local governments to wear face masks or coverings while out in public, one of the most popular masks being sold online is of Tom Hardy’s incarnation of the DC supervillain in The Dark Knight Rises.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, both cloth and plastic Bane masks — none of which are medically approved for pandemic protection, mind you — have been selling out online.
The trade claims Costume.com, BuyCostumes.com and HalloweenCostumes.com are all sold out of plastic Bane masks, while Etsy is selling over 150 variations of cloth Bane masks.
“Looking at sales figures, the adult mask had quite a sales spike in April and early May, which is unusual for this time of year,” Costume.com spokesperson David DeJac told THR.
DeJac added there are still full Bane costumes available which indicates that consumers were just interested in having the mask.
Actor Simon Pegg has provided an update on the future of Star Trek movies–and unfortunately for fans, it doesn’t sound like there will be a new film anytime soon. Speaking to Collider, the actor who plays Scotty started off by reflecting on the death of Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the new Star Trek films.
“For us, losing Anton Yelchin the way we did was a real blow,” Pegg said. “And I think it slightly took the wind out of our sails in terms of our enthusiasm to do another one, just because we’re now missing one of our family. He would be conspicuous by his absence.”
Pegg went on to say that he remains in contact with the rest of the Star Trek cast–they are checking in with each other over email. However, no one is pushing Paramount to make more movies right now.
“If they say, ‘We’d like to do another movie,’ I’m sure we’ll all jump at the chance. I miss those guys, and I love making those films. But I just don’t know.”
Pegg went on to speak about how the Star Trek series doesn’t have the same level of pull or broad appeal as the Marvel franchise, so a new Star Trek movie would intentionally try to be “more restrained.”
“I think Star Trek is just a little bit more niche, so it isn’t gonna hit those kind of numbers. So yes, the obvious thing to do would be to not go for that massive spectacle, go for something a little bit more restrained in the vein of the original series,” Pegg said. “Yes, that would be a brilliant thing to do, and I’m sure it probably has been discussed… You specialize a little bit more.”
Pegg closed by saying that the future of Star Trek seems brighter on TV than on the big screen. TV shows these days don’t have to have reduced scope, and this could be a good path forward for Star Trek, Pegg said. Not only that, but it would be a return to the franchise’s origins on TV.
“Maybe television is a better format for Star Trek. That’s where it started, you know,” Pegg said.
Star Trek is thriving on TV right now. Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 is expected in 2020, and it will be followed by another show called Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that will focus on Captain Christopher Pike, Mr. Spock, and Number One. Star Trek: Picard, meanwhile, is returning for second season. These shows air on CBS All Access, which is operated by GameSpot’s parent company, ViacomCBS.
JJ Abrams rebooted the Star Trek series in 2009, with sequels Into Darkness (2013) and Beyond (2016) following in the years thereafter. The movies feature Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, and Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura. Karl Urban played the doctor, Bones.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
What the Golf, 2019’s hilarious anti-golf golf game, is at its best on Switch. Everything that was good in the Apple Arcade and PC versions, which we reviewed last year, remains good here, but the additions and improvements that the Switch version brings make it the definitive What the Golf experience.
The game arrives on Nintendo’s hybrid console with a new two-player “Party Mode” that wasn’t included in the PC or Apple Arcade releases. This mode, which sees you and another player each picking up a Joy-Con and facing off in a series of competitive levels, is an absolute hoot. Both players are made to compete across 11 random levels, each based on levels from the campaign, to see who can get to the hole first. There’s a great diversity across Party Mode’s levels, with some levels feeling more like puzzles, some purely based on skill, and others that could only work in multiplayer, like when you’re both controlling separate items that are tethered to each other or trying to goad the other into tipping over a tower of boxes that the pin is sitting atop. There are lots of levels here, and I still saw new ones pop up after playing for several hours.
In keeping with What the Golf’s style, very few of Party Mode’s levels really feel like golf, which is part of the fun. After you’ve played through 11 stages, you and your opponent compete in one final competitive arena-based game, and the number of lives each of you has depends on how well you did in previous rounds. There are only three types of final competition, but they’re all fun, particularly the combat-based game where you fling around in an office chair, trying to pick up and fire explosive beach balls at your opponent. Your victory depends on how you perform in this final game, and how many lives you have–if you won seven of the previous rounds, you can take up to six hits in the final competition, whereas your opponent can only survive three. A full round of games in Party Mode rarely takes more than 10 minutes, and you only ever need the analog stick and the A button. These are less mini-games, more micro-games, often lasting just a few wild, hilarious seconds.
As an extension of What the Golf’s brand of irreverence and comedy, Party Mode is wonderful. It’s also hugely accessible–I jumped in with my partner, who is not a big gamer and never played the campaign, and it didn’t take long for her to start collecting wins. Granted, it’s not the most balanced experience (one player will start some games with a slight advantage), and it would be nice to be able to toggle certain levels on or off–over time we’ve learned the tricks to overcome the levels that initially caused frustration. One level also seems to award the win to the wrong player consistently, but it’s unclear whether that’s an error or the game trolling players as it tends to do. Yet every time we’ve sat down for a quick session it has turned into multiple rounds, with lots of swearing, shouting, and laughing. It’s rare for competitive party games to be built specifically as two-player experiences, and What the Golf is great for forming an intense rivalry with another person.
The single-player campaign is essentially unchanged from previous versions, at least in terms of levels and layouts, but playing on Switch gives you some extra control options and a few bells and whistles. Players now have the option to use either a controller or the touchscreen, and if you’re playing in handheld mode you can switch seamlessly at any time. You can play through the full game docked, but a few levels that use first-person motion controls will prompt you with a recommendation that you switch to handheld for the best experience–these are also the only levels that require you to have the Joy-Cons connected. I found that I preferred a docked experience for party mode and undocked for the campaign.
While initially I wanted to only use the touchscreen controls, touching the screen and swiping to determine the direction and power of my shot, the more I played, the more often I found myself switching to traditional controls if they suited a level. It’s not that the touch controls don’t work well–they’re responsive and feel natural–but it’s nice to have options. You can change at any time without needing to enter a menu or toggle anything–touch the stick or the screen and the game will immediately switch control schemes. The game supports every configuration of controller the Switch supports, and it’s clear that a lot of care has gone into making this feel like a game that was made with Nintendo’s platform in mind. HD Rumble adds an extra layer to the experience, too–while it’s used fairly sparingly, the little rumble that kicks in whenever you hit the pin is just right and makes completing a challenge all the more satisfying.
As an extension of What the Golf’s brand of irreverence and comedy, Party Mode is wonderful.
All of these extra touches have made replaying the campaign a pleasure, and I found myself more inclined to dig into the extra optional challenges on each hole, switching between touch and stick control methods to see which ones best suited each. There are occasional frame rate stutters and some slight visual glitches in this version, but nothing that impacts the experience in a meaningful way.
What the Golf was already excellent on PC and mobile, but the Switch version is the definitive one, especially if you have another player handy. It’s still wildly funny, weird, and lots of fun, and if it was just the campaign again, it would still be the best version of the game thanks to the ability to switch between touch and stick controls–but the addition of Party Mode really elevates the whole package. In my original review I said, “Like all great jokes, you’ll want to share it,” and now that’s easier than ever.
Cliff Bleszinski is best known for his work at Epic Games, but in a series of recent tweets he’s reflected on another recent game of his that did not do so well. Lawbreakers scored good reviews (GameSpot gave it an 8/10) but failed to attract the player base that a hero-based shooter needs to survive, and Bleszinski believes that one of the issues was that the game was on PS4 instead of Xbox.
He says that releasing the game on Sony’s system instead of Microsoft’s was “a mistake”, as you can see below.
Oh and while I have your attention – yes, it WAS a mistake putting LawBreakers on Playstation over Xbox. 🙂
In a follow-up tweet, Bleszinski suggests that fans of Gears of War, his previous series, and would perhaps be more likely to play his next game. He also said that the decision was based on the PlayStation 4 having a larger install base, and limited resources meant that they could not release the game for both systems at launch. Lawbreakers was also available on PC, but can no longer be purchased or played.
This is interesting, but perhaps not something worth thinking about too deeply, since Bleszinski also said that he’s “not looking forward to clickbait articles” about the things he’s tweeting. He’s also previously said that he made the game “too woke” to succeed.
Bleszinski served as the lead designer on Gears of War 1-3. The outspoken former game director is now working on something new, but it might not be a game.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Cate Blanchett played Galadriel in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings series, but if she had her way, she would have pulled double duty by portraying a second character.
Appearing on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast, Blanchett said she pitched Peter Jackson and co-writer Fran Walsh on the idea of her playing a dwarf woman during a banquet scene in the epic fantasy movie. The Australian actress lobbied to play the role to help create another female character in a film franchise that is focused on men.
“There’s not too many chicks in the Tolkien universe,” she said (via CinemaBlend). “I loved it so much and I did say to Peter and Fran, they were doing a banquet scene with a whole lot of dwarves. I always wanted to play the bearded lady, so I asked them, ‘Could I be your hairy wife woman when you pan across the banquet table of dwarves?'”
Blanchett did not get her way due to the filming schedule changing. Filming on Galadriel’s scenes lasted just three weeks, Blanchett added.
Back in March, the first trailer for Greyhound debuted, and it heavily featured star Tom Hanks talking on a phone on a boat. Originally, the Sony Pictures film was going to theatrically release the movie on June 12. However, it’s now making the move to Apple TV+.
Apple recently acquired the rights to Greyhound, according to Deadline. The upcoming movie follows Commander Ernest Krause (Hanks), a captain of a naval skipper, as he joins forces with other allied boats in order to battle German U-boats during the height of the Second World War. It is unknown at this time when Greyhound will appear on Apple TV+.
This is the biggest and most important “get” for the service, which up until now focused solely on original content like Mythic Quest, Servant, and others. Apple TV+ made numerous deals with high-profile actors and directors–like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who are making a WWII TV series together. Now, Apple TV+ is moving away from the “originals only” model.
In addition to acquiring Greyhound, Apple TV+ is filling out its back catalog with previously-released movies from various studios, according to Bloomberg. Video-programming executives have been in talks with Hollywood studios in order to make licensing deals for the streaming service, adding both movies and TV shows.
With 2020 seeing the release of two different major streaming services–HBO Max and Peacock–Apple is working on being a major player in this space, and the only way to do that is to offer more content to its consumers, like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video already do. The one thing Apple has over competitors is that Apple TV+ costs $5 a month, which is roughly half the price of a Netflix subscription.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
DeJac added there are still full Bane costumes available which indicates that consumers were just interested in having the mask.
