What Is Firesprite Working On
Located in: Liverpool, U.K.
The third acquisition made by Sony in 2021, Firesprite is a U.K. team that, somewhat amusingly, is heavily composed of former developers who worked at the now-defunct Liverpool Sony studio. The studio is divided into sub-teams working on a multiplayer game and a blockbuster single-player title. Firesprite has grown to 265 employees with the acquisition of Fabrik Games.
More Blockbusters Incoming For Playstation 5
While there have been multiple leadership changes at the top of SIE near the end of the PlayStation 4’s lifecycle, PlayStation owners shouldn’t be too concerned about what is in the pipeline. Hermen Hulst, the new Head of Sony Worldwide Studios, has gone on record to say that “big, spectacular experiences” are a huge part of PlayStation and will still be coming in the future.
We’ll be updating this as we learn more about the lineup moving ahead. Regardless of whether you decide to go for a PS5 or PS5 Digital Edition, there will be plenty of good games to grab in the future.
New Consoles Same Old Story
Both new consoles have promised to revolutionise the way we play, but only time will tell if the new features will be enough to change peoples loyalties. Will it be a case of once a Playstation, always a Playstation? Or will the Series X be able to attract any new customers and finally help Microsoft take the title?
Well see this November.
Raw data can be found here
Want to see how we can turn data into stories for you? Get in touch – well put our controllers down and get on it.
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Playstation’s Jim Ryan: Our Games Could Suffer If They Went Straight Into Ps Plus
Whenever a new platform or service gets announced, the focus is inevitably on what’s missing rather than what’s there.
Sony’s new PS Plus subscription offerings boast online multiplayer access, hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games, streaming, retro titles and game trials. But what it doesn’t include, unlike its main competitor, are new first-party games that launch in the service at the same time as they come out at retail.
“We feel like we are in a good virtuous cycle with the studios,” explains PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan, “where the investment delivers success, which enables yet more investment, which delivers yet more success. We like that cycle and we think our gamers like that cycle.”
He continues: ” putting our own games into this service, or any of our services, upon their release… as you well know, this is not a road that we’ve gone down in the past. And it’s not a road that we’re going to go down with this new service. We feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios, that virtuous cycle will be broken. The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible, and we think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want.”
And even if your game doesn’t have microtransactions, Xbox believes that subscriptions — combined with streaming — is the key to finding new console players.
Atari 2600 30 Million*
- Initial release date: September 11, 1977
- Production status: Ended
- Notable games : Pac-Man, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Missile Command
*The oldest console on this list, Atari 2600 sold an impressive 30 million units in its lifetime, according to an archived version of a press release from Atari partner AtGames. The 2600 is by far Ataris most successful console, with none of its successors 5200, 7800, and Jaguar selling enough units to qualify for this list.
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Playstation 5 Steals The Uk With 57% Market Share
On home soil things are pretty even, with Playstation just tipping the scales in its favour with 57% of the market. The nation is split down the middle on how it likes to play, and with both the new PS5 and the XBox Series X set to cost £449.99, it doesnt look like things will get any clearer.
Playstation takes the victory this time, but only by the finest of margins.
Calling Emailing Or Writing A Letter To Playstation
Tip: If you call outside of business hours, leave a voicemail explaining your issue and include your contact information so they can call you back.
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Game Boy Advance 8151 Million
- Initial release date: March 21, 2001
- Production status: Ended
- Highest-rated games: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past , Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 , Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3
This official sales figure comes directly from Nintendo. The company also notes software sales for the handheld closed at 377 million units. The Game Boy Advance line of devices included many different design iterations and form factors, the last of which was the Game Boy Micro in 2005. The top-selling model was the Game Boy Advance SP, with 43.57 million units sold. The Game Boy Micro only sold 2.42 million during its short run.
Higher Frame Rates And Better Performance
While developers are still learning to take advantage of all of the PS5s more powerful graphics technology, the hardware improvements of the PlayStation 5 are noticeable elsewhere. The PS5 has a powerful CPUin the neighborhood of four times as powerful as its predecessor in raw speed and the number of cores and threads, to say nothing of seven years worth of efficiency and other improvements. This means a fast user interface, speedy load times, more sophisticated character and game behaviors, and just more stuff on screen at any given moment than the PS4 or Xbox One could produce.
But the biggest improvements should be most apparent in frame rates, which should hit 60 frames per second much more often than on the PS4. The more frames per second, the more often the controller and the game are communicating, which means more-responsive controls. The more powerful hardware also helps to build bigger worlds and allow more players in a game, as demonstrated in Battlefield 2042 the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S release features larger maps and double the player counts compared with the last-generation version on the PS4 and Xbox One.
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Playstation Also Boasts A 57% Share Of The States
Things are just as tight in the USA, with Playstation owning 57% of the market there too. Its clear that the West prefers Sonys console, but only just. Its certainly not an unachievable lead for XBox to overcome, so well have to see if the Series X has what it takes to win that 7% of gamers over.
Dualshock Sixaxis And Dualsense
Released in 1998, the DualShock controller for the PlayStation succeeded its predecessor, the Dual Analog, and became the longest running series of controllers for the PlayStation brand. In addition to the inputs of the original, digital, controller , the DualShock featured two analog sticks in a similar fashion to the previous Dual Analog controller, which can also be depressed to activate the L3 and R3 buttons.
The DualShock series consists of four controllers: the DualShock which was the fourth controller released for the PlayStation the DualShock 2, the only standard controller released for the PlayStation 2, and the DualShock 3, the second and current controller released for the PlayStation 3, and the DualShock 4, which went through a massive redesign and is the default input of the PlayStation 4, and upon release was compatible with the PS3 originally only via USB and eventually with a firmware update, Bluetooth connectivity was enabled. The Sixaxis was the first official controller for the PlayStation 3, and is based on the same design as the DualShock series .
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What Changed On June 13 If I Prepaid Both Ps Plus And Ps Now Subscriptions
For those who are subscribed to both services and prepaid for them before the big change, Sony converted subscribers to PS Plus Premium with the expiration date being whichever of the two is the farthest out. This means that if you subscribed to PS Now until December 2022, but to PS Plus through December 2023, December 2023 will be the new expiration date for your PS Plus Premium subscription.
Is The New Playstation Backward Compatible With Older Games
The PlayStation 5 is backward compatible with virtually all of the PlayStation 4s library, and some backward-compatible titles see some degree of improved performance. The following games, however, do not work with the PS5:
- Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma Volume One
- TT Isle of Man – Ride on the Edge 2
- Just Deal With It!
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What Is Guerrilla Games Working On
- Located in: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Guerrilla Games, based in Amsterdam and acquired by Sony in 2005, has been responsible for developing the Killzone games and Horizon Zero Dawn. Guerrilla also maintains and improves the Decima engine and has grown to over 300 staff.
Horizon Zero Dawn was released in February 2017, with The Frozen Wilds expansion coming a few months later. Horizon Zero Dawn was well-received critically and has sold over 10 million copies . Job listings indicated that work is taking place on another project in that game’s universe. Meanwhile, new reports indicate Horizon Zero Dawn is now planned as a trilogy. Combined with the success Horizon Zero Dawn has seen, a PlayStation 5 sequel was overwhelmingly likely.
These rumors were confirmed with the announcement of Horizon Forbidden West, a game initially thought PS5-exclusive, is coming to PS5 and PS4 on Feb. 18, 2022.
Before that sequel arrives, however, PC players got to try Horizon Zero Dawn, which was published by Sony on Steam in Summer 2020. In 2019, Guerrilla also hired Simon Larouche, who previously directed Rainbow Six Siege. At the time, Guerrilla also had job listings asking for multiplayer experience. The studio could be working on a new Killzone game or another multiplayer shooter and the Horizon Zero Dawn series.
What Is Sie Bend Studio Working On
- Located in: Bend, Oregon
SIE Bend Studio is located in Bend, Oregon. Acquired by Sony in 2000, the studio has worked on games like the Syphon Filter series, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Days Gone. With several years of developing Days Gone, Bend Studio has grown to over 130 developers.
In April 2019, Bend Studio shipped Days Gone, a game about bikers surviving the apocalypse while hordes of mutants called Freakers roam the highways. While Days Gone wasn’t a hit with critics, it did sell well, staying in the top 10 games sold in North America for several months per NPD charts.
One of the game directors, Jeff Ross, departed Bend Studio alongside John Garvin, another director on Days Gone. In 2021, we learned that Bend Studio is working on a new open-world IP and, at least for now, is not developing a sequel to Days Gone.
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What Is Sucker Punch Productions Working On
- Located in: Bellevue, Washington, U.S.
This studio, located in Bellevue, Wash., was purchased in 2011, making it Sony’s most recent acquisition before Insomniac Games. Sucker Punch is responsible for the Sly Cooper games and the Infamous series. More recently, the studio’s 200-something staff have been hard at work on Ghost of Tsushima.
This new IP was announced in 2017. Players take on the role of Jin, a samurai who has to embrace the ways of ninjas to survive the Mongol invasion of Tsushima island. Ghost of Tsushima originally had a tentative release window in Summer 2020. After being delayed out of June, it arrived on July 17. The team later released a free co-op add-on called Ghost of Tsushima: Legends and a PS5 version of the game called Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut.
Sony Support Email Reportedly Confirms That Players Have To Pay Back Ps Plus Discounts To Upgrade
The new service launched this week in some Asian territories
Jordan Middler
An email which has been posted online seems to confirm earlier reports that players subscribed to PlayStation Plus at a discount may have to pay the discount back to Sony in order to upgrade to PS Plus Extra or Premium.
The revamped PlayStation Plus service launched in much of Asia this week, and is due to roll out in Japan, the Americas, Europe and Australia in June.
Its since been claimed by some Asian players that anyone who purchased PS Plus subscriptions at a discounted price, including those who chose to stack subscriptions before the option was disabled earlier this month, is being charged extra to upgrade to a different PS Plus tier, wiping out any previous savings they made buying reduced cost memberships.
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What Is Bluepoint Games Working On
Located in: Austin, Texas.
Bluepoint Games is located in Austin, Texas. The fourth studio acquired by Sony in 2021, the team primarily worked on remasters and remakes in the past, such as Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Shadow of the Colossus for PS4 and the Demon’s Souls PS5 remake. The team is currently working on something “original.”
Sega Master System/mark Iii 20 Million*
- Initial release date: October 20, 1985
- Production status: Ended
- Notable games : Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Sonic the Hedgehog
*According to a compilation on NeoGAF of available sales data, Master System sold 6.2 million units in Europe. In Brazil, its biggest market, sales reached over 8 million, bringing our total to 14.2 million. Estimates for sales in Japan and the U.S., meanwhile, generally sit around 2 million per territory. Accounting for another 2 million in remaining territories such as Australia and South Korea, where the console reportedly sold fairly well we arrive at our final estimate of 20 million.
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New Uk Studio Ballistic Moon Working On A Triple
A new British developer staffed by a number of Until Dawn veterans is already working on what may be a new horror game for Sony.
The reason Microsoft, Sony, and others are so keen to acquire other developers at the moment is not only so they can get control of existing franchises but because building up a new studio from scratch is a difficult and time-consuming process.
Apart from the cost involved its best if people want to work together, and have already done so, and so it is that new company Ballistic Moon has been founded by a number of people that used to work at Supermassive Games, on games like Until Dawn.
Ballistic Moon is an independent studio, based in Farnborough, but it seems it already has a publishing deal with Sony for an announced AAA game.
Theres no indication of exactly what the game is but they may actually have two projects on the go, with job ads making a somewhat ambiguous reference to a major new project as well as our own IP.
The studios Twitter account has some non-descript references to new offices and a pic of someone trying out a facial motion capture rig, but interestingly one of the only things thats not directly related to the studio is a retweet of the trailer to the upcoming movie Halloween Ends.
However, a forum user on ResetEra has found a connection between one of the actors Ballistic Moon is using and Sony.
Sega Genesis/mega Drive 35 Million*
- Initial release date: October 29, 1988
- Production status: Ended
- Highest-rated games: Ristar , Sonic the Hedgehog 3 , Shining Force 2
*The sales total of Sega Genesis/Mega Drive is a topic of much debate among game historians. The actual figure is impossible to lock down given the lack of concrete data, but estimates generally range from 30 to 40 million units. Aforementioned Sega executive Joe Miller once said system sales were over 40 million, though that number is highly contested and seemingly contradicted by Segas available sales data. Compilations of that data from internet researchers and professional research firms show first-party console sales hit somewhere between 28 and 31 million units.
Add in estimated third-party console sales from companies such as TecToy in Brazil and Majesco in North America, and we arrive at our ballpark figure of 35 million a number seemingly corroborated by a 2017 press release from Sega partner AtGames.
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