Sony Days of Play Sale Is Live Now: Save on PlayStation Games With These Deals

If you’ve been paying attention over the last few years, you know Sony kicks off a pretty massive sales event every year in the lead-up to E3, and this year is no exception. The annual Days of Play savings even is live right now, and you can save big on PlayStation games to add to your backlog.

The Sony Days of Play sale runs from now until June 9, and features really awesome deals on PS4 and PS5 games alike. You can also save on accessories like the PS5 HD camera, and get PlayStation Classics for just $9.99.

Given how massive these sales are, we’ve linked to the Days of Play event pages below, with all the sales, and pulled out a few highlights from each retailer. For those in the UK, check out the best Days of Play deals in the UK.

PlayStation Plus 12-Month Deal

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Best Buy Sony Days of Play Deals

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Amazon Sony Days of Play Deals

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Walmart Sony Days of Play Deals

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GameStop Sony Days of Play Deals

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PlayStation Direct Days of Play Deals

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Perhaps it comes as no surprise, but this year there isn’t a special-edition Days of Play PlayStation 5. Given the fact you probably still can’t get a PS5, with shortages predicted into next year, it’s understandable. We’re watching out for PS5 restocks and sharing them on the IGN Deals Twitter account, but even the most vigilant of PS5 watchers are having a hard time getting one. They come and go quickly.

Maybe next year we’ll get our first special edition Days of Play PS5. We can certainly hope. I wouldn’t mind if it’s just a variation of the new DualSense controller colors, to be perfectly honest.

We’re updating this page as more retailers go online with their Days of Play deals, so keep checking back.

Crysis Remastered Trilogy Announced for Fall 2021

Crytek has announced that remasters of Crysis 1, 2, and 3 will be bundled together as the Crysis Remastered Trilogy and as standalone purchases in Fall 2021.

Crytek shared the details of this new and enhanced collection that is being optimized in partnership with Saber Interactive, revealing that it will be available on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC. All three Crysis games will play “even smoother” on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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Crysis Remastered was released in 2020 after a delay due to mixed fan reaction to leaked footage of the game. Many reacted positively to the improved visuals, and it’s safe to assume these new remasters will benefit from the troubles of the first.

In addition to a number of visual improvements, the first Crysis also included “high-quality textures up to 8K, HDR support, temporal anti-aliasing, Screen Space Directional Occlusion (SSDO), Global Illumination (SVOGI), state-of-the-art depth fields, new light settings, motion blur, parallax occlusion mapping, Screen Space Reflections and Shadows (SSR & SSS) as well as new and updated particle effects and more.” Furthermore, Crysis Remastered featured ray tracing on PCs with Nvidia RTX GPUs, Xbox One X, and PS4 Pro.

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In our review of Crysis, we said in 2007 that was “one of, if not the, most stunningly beautiful games we’ve ever seen. But even beyond that, it’s a pretty fantastic shooter.”

In our review of Crysis 2, we said that “It plays well, encourages creative problem-solving, and confidently delivers a series of escalating and changing encounters and scenarios that will push you to think in a way few shooters have in an era of increasingly funneled experiences.”

In our review of Crysis 3, we said that it is “a highly polished shooter experience that doesn’t so much reinvent the FPS wheel as give it a slicker set of tyres.”

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Battlefield 6 Reveal Coming June 9

Battlefield 6, or whatever the new Battlefield game is called, will be announced on June 9. The official Battlefield Twitter channel offered the tease today, saying viewers can tune in at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET / 4 PM CEST to see the reveal.

Developer DICE previously said it would announce the new Battlefield game in June, so this is not a surprise. Electronic Arts, which owns DICE, is not participating in E3 2021 in an official capacity, but this reveal is happening just days before the show begins on June 12.

EA’s own EA Play Live 2021 event is slated for July 22, so viewers can presumably expect more details on the new Battlefield game at that time.

After Battlefield I and Battlefield V took place during World War I and World War II, respectively, it’s rumored that the new Battlefield game will return to a modern-day setting. Just recently, EA said it will deliver all-out warfare and is being worked on by the biggest development team ever across four studios.

“I can tell you it is a bold step. It has everything we love about Battlefield–and takes all of it to the next level. Epic scale. All-out military warfare. Crazy, unexpected moments,” DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson said. “Game-changing destruction. Massive battles, packed with more players and mayhem than ever before. All brought to life with the power of next-gen consoles and PCs.”

When it’s released this holiday, the new Battlefield will go up against the next Call of Duty game from CoD: WWII studio Sledgehammer Games.

AMD’s DLSS Competitor, FidelityFX Super Resolution, Launches This Month

Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is one of the most important PC gaming tech innovations in recent years, as it greatly increases accessibility to running games at high frame rates and high resolution, even with ray-tracing turned on. The only catch is that, as an Nvidia product, it’s been limited to Nvidia GPUs. Now, AMD has announced that its answer to DLSS, called FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), is coming on June 22.

According to AMD, FSR essentially uses high-tech upscaling algorithms to allow for massive performance boosts for games that support it. It’s basically fancy dynamic resolution scaling: It intelligently reduces a game’s resolution at certain times in order to preserve framerate.

Breakdown of FSR's four graphics options.
Breakdown of FSR’s four graphics options.

The biggest difference between FSR and DLSS is that AMD’s tech is built on GPUOpen, meaning that it’ll be free to developers and released in open-source form. It also does not use deep learning tech or hardware–FSR doesn’t involve tensor math. What this means in implementation is that FSR will be supported on far more devices than DLSS. It’ll work on AMD, Intel, and Nvidia products, and you won’t even need a dedicated graphics card to see advantages from it.

Despite it not using deep learning, AMD promises that FSR will provide massive performance boosts to games. The company states that it’ll give, on average, two times faster 4K performance than running a game in native 4K. In addition, FSR will have four different modes that change the tradeoff between image quality and performance.

Although the feature technically launches on June 22, it’ll take a while for it to be supported by developers. AMD promises that the tech will be implemented by “over ten” studios and engines in 2021. Godfall is one of the first games that will incorporate FSR.

Cyberpunk 2077 Dev’s Profit Falls Big Time

Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher studio CD Projekt has released its latest earnings report for Q1, and total profit dropped substantially.

CD Projekt made a profit of 32.487 million zloty, which is down sharply from the 91.979 million zloty that the company made during the January-March period of 2020. Total revenue, however, climbed to 197.632 million zloty for Q1 2021. The profit decrease was attributable in part to an increase in the cost of goods sold.

CD Projekt also reminded people that 2020’s Q1 results were the strongest in the company’s history, fueled in part by stay-at-home orders that saw people turn to games. Not only that, but in Q1 2020, The Witcher game sales rose by 500% thanks to Netflix’s hugely successful TV show, while The Witcher 3 for Nintendo Switch was just recently released at the time, all of which contributed to strong results for CD Projekt at the time.

These factors have since “subsided,” CD Projekt said.

For Q1 2021, CD Projekt said the majority of its revenue came from Cyberpunk 2077 and sales of The Witcher 3 and its expansions. Gwent and Thronebreaker also contributed to sales during Q1 2021, as did The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and the original Witcher game.

According to Reuters, CD Projekt financial boss Piotr Nielubowicz said on a conference call that around 60% of total sales in Q1 came from Cyberpunk 2077.

The studio also addressed how Cyberpunk 2077 remains unavailable on the PlayStation Store. An official for the company said there is no change from last week’s update.

“The general situation as long as we are not back on the Sony store has not changed. One of the leading marketplaces for us is not available and we generate most of the sales on the PC/digital channels,” the person said.

Despite the delisting, Cyberpunk 2077 managed to sell 13.7 million copies across all platforms in its first 21 days.

Finally, CD Projekt management confirmed on the call that it will begin developing multiple “high-budget” games at the same time starting in 2022. Additionally, the company is on the lookout for M&A (mergers and acquisition) possibilities going forward, though the company did not offer any specifics about what it’s looking for in that department.

CD Projekt management has said it will not abandon Cyberpunk 2077 and will instead continue to support the game with patches and updates to help improve the experience so the game can continue to sell for a long time.

Seemingly as a result of the issues with Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt adjusted its plans for a multiplayer offering, and now it’s unclear if that standalone game will ever release.

More recently, CD Projekt was revealed to have paid its executives millions in bonuses that were tied to the commercial performance of the game. Developers, too, received bonuses thanks to Cyberpunk 2077’s strong sales.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

E3 2021 Hype, Speculation, What We Want To See | GameSpot After Dark

In 2021, more so than any other year, it’s difficult to predict what games and announcements will be made—but that won’t stop the GameSpot After Dark team from trying. In this video Tamoor, Jean-Luc, Lucy, and AbleGamers’ Steve Spohn discuss some of the things we can reasonably expect to see at the show, including Halo: Infinite, which is pretty much a dead cert for the Microsoft and Bethesda showcase. The team has a little fun with the prediction and try and come up with fun crossover opportunities they’d

On top of that, there’s the potential to see Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, but then again WB may be saving those for its DC Fandom event. For Square Enix’s part, the next entry in the Final Fantasy series could make its return to the press conference stage. Other games the team would love to see are the Dragon Age and, if the announcement gods will it, the next Mass Effect.

Tamoor, Jean-Luc, Lucy, and Steve also throw out some of their fantasy picks for what they want to see, which includes some expected but also very unexpected picks.

AMC, Regal, Cinemark Theaters No Longer Requiring Masks

Major movie theater chains including AMC, Regal, and Cinemark will no longer require patrons who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to wear face masks, according to Variety. Instead, masks will now be considered optional for immunized moviegoers. Employees at each major chain will still be required to wear a mask, along with unvaccinated patrons.

“Consistent with the latest CDC guidance and following consultation with public health experts, AMC Theatres guests who are fully vaccinated are no longer required to wear face coverings at AMC locations, unless it is mandated by state or local ordinances,” AMC said in a statement. “Guests who are not fully vaccinated are asked to continue wearing masks. All other aspects of the AMC Safe & Clean policies and procedures, including seat blocking, remain in place at this time.”

Regal has updated its website to now read that “vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks or socially distance… masks will not be required unless mandated by state and local guidelines.” At Regal theaters, masks can only be removed “while eating and drinking while seated in an auditorium.

These announcements find the movies following other major chains where many people gather. For example, Walgreens, Whole Foods, and Kroger-owned stores have recently joined the growing list of businesses that say fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks in their stores, honoring the CDC’s recommendations. Walgreens, Whole Foods, and Kroger-owned stores themselves follow in the footsteps of Walmart, Trader Joe’s, and Costco.

With so many movies delayed due to the pandemic, 2021 is shaping up to be a year filled with must-see movies. Check out our running list of what worthwhile and exciting movies have recently and will soon be coming to a theater near you this year–stay safe out there.

Gaming Chair Deal: SecretLab Mid-Year Sale Is Now Live

If you’re in the market for a new gaming chair, and you’ve had your eye on one of SecretLabs’ many models, now’s a great time to finally pull the trigger and secure one for yourself. It might be hard to believe, but we’re already halfway through 2021 and SecretLabs is celebrating with a Mid-Year sale on gaming chairs right now.

SecretLabs Gaming Chair Deal

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Here are the details: Right now, SecretLab is offering “$30 off select Secretlab 2020 Series PRIME 2.0 PU Leather and SoftWeave Fabric models,” along with $110 off its 2020 Series NAPA models. Excluded from the sale is the Game of Thrones Iron Anniversary edition, which is a bummer, but if you absolutely MUST sit in a Game of Thrones branded gaming chair there are plenty of other options to choose from during the sale.

The sale is pretty substantial, with gaming chair deals on Team Liquid, WoW Horde, Dota 2 and tons more branded chairs falling under the savings umbrella.

SecretLab also offers free shipping on all models sold direct from its storefront, which is a big bonus. Be warned, though: the state of logistics in the world economy still hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic and so SecretLab says you might experience some delays.

But if you’ve been sitting on a plastic patio chair for your PC gaming, what’s a few extra days?

SecretLab chairs feature prominently in our round-up of the overall best gaming chairs, and as someone who reviewed the Titan a few years back, I give them my personal recommendation.

The sale runs for the next 2 weeks, so if you don’t have the cash right now, you can always wait until the next payday. But just barely.

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Seth Macy is IGN’s Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. You can follow him on Twitter.

PlayStation Announces Evo Online Community Series With Over 120 Worldwide Competitions

After co-acquiring the major fighting game tournament this past March, PlayStation has announced plans for the 2021 Evolution Championship Series, beginning with the Evo Community Series on June 10.

The Evo Community Series will include over 120 regional tournaments across the world, offering a total of $74,000 in prize money throughout the competition. The Community Series will consist of three core events–FGC Arcade: Evo Edition, the Evo 2021 Online Warm-up, and the Evo 2021 Online Side Tournaments. All tournaments will be run on either the PlayStation 4 or PC version of each game.

FGC Arcade: Evo Edition will offer a $20,000 prize pool and run from June 10 to June 22 in North America and Europe. The games involved in this event are Granblue Fantasy: Versus, Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, and Tekken 7.

The Evo 2021 Online Warm-Up is scheduled for June 26 to July 13 with a $19,000 prize pool up for grabs. The Evo 2021 featured games–Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, and Tekken 7–will also be featured during this online series.

Finally, the Evo 2021 Online Side Tournaments will play out July 8 to August 3, with a $35,000 prize pool available to players. Games that are not included among the featured Evo 2021 titles will be highlighted here instead, with the lineup including BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Granblue Fantasy: Versus, Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. Maxi Boost ON, Skullgirls 2nd Encore, Soulcalibur VI, and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r].

Players interested in signing up for any of these official Evo events–or the main Evo event taking place August 6-August 8 and August 13-August 15–can do so at the official Evolution Championship Series website.

The Evolution Championship Series is the longest running fighting game competition in North America, beginning in 1996 under the name “Battle by the Bay.” The last Evo event, Evo 2019, featured Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mortal Kombat 11, Soulcalibur VI, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], Dragon Ball FighterZ, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, and Samurai Shodown in its lineup.

A Quiet Place: Part 2 Includes Easter Eggs for a Third Movie

John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place franchise has been spawned two movies so far, but the writer-director at the helm has already made it loud and clear that a third movie could be up for discussion.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Krasinski, who directed and co-wrote 2018’s A Quiet Place, and is the sole credited screenwriter of its sequel, revealed that he had a few ideas about where the story would lead whilst he was developing the second movie, so he laid the groundwork for a potential third installment just in case he ever had the chance to make a trilogy.

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“So a lot of the things I had thought were interesting to think about on Part I ended up being in Part II,” Krasinski explained. “And then on Part II, I learned my lesson very quickly. Any time I had ideas like that, I wrote them down in case there ever is a Part III or a third one. So I would be able to reference some of these things if there is a Part III. And we even went so far as to put in a couple easter eggs, so that if I did do a third one, they would connect back to the second one.”

Krasinski is already attached to produce a third movie in the Quiet Place franchise, but it is described as a spinoff rather than a direct sequel to Part 2. The spinoff is being helmed by Jeff Nichols, the director of Midnight Special, who is also in charge of penning the script from an idea by Krasinski. The movie is currently said to be targeting a 2022 release date.

Serving as both a prequel and a sequel, A Quiet Place: Part II follows the remnants of the Abbott family as they face the terrors of the outside world and continue their fight for survival in silence. However, when they are forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

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The movie received largely positive reactions from its advanced screenings, with some critics addressing the unrelenting tension and suspense of the story whilst others heaped on the praise for the soundscape and the performances of new-to-the-series Cillian Murphy and the returning Millicent Simmonds, hailing the sequel as a worthy and terrifying successor.

IGN awarded A Quiet Place: Part II an 8/10, and commended Krasinski and Co. for broadening the world with “a larger cast, bigger action set-pieces, and more monster scenes” without ever losing sight of “emotional intimacy between the characters that made the first movie work so well,” making it a movie that almost “stands toe-to-toe with its predecessor.”

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.