Ironically, Sony didn’t release any 4K photos from the game, opting to instead deliver photos that barely pass for 720p
I’m not saying there is going to be a PS4 4K announced this year but I’m also not saying California is experiencing a drought – and you know what? It is. At a press event in London, series creator Kazunori Yamaguchi took to stage to announce a plethora of new information in regards to the PS4 exclusive. The curious of all the features? The ability to output photos in 4K.
Let’s see, a far lower entry price and a 40 million install base? As it stands, there is no way Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are going to compete with PlayStation VR when it launches this October. All Sony has to do is keep the momentum going and fully empower their developers to produce some unique games and experiences. After all, content is king and the true selling point of VR.
So far the number of VR capable PC’s is less than 20m and so these GPU’s are being positioned as a low cost entry point to premium VR.
— ZhugeEX (@ZhugeEX) June 1, 2016
It’s hard to know the future of VR. Is it going to be a product that brings with it a deep impact onto the tech community as well as our culture like the smartphone? Or is it something more of a fad, perhaps due to technology that wasn’t quite yet ready for primetime like 3D? In retrospect, it’s not hard to look back and think that the adoption of 3D in the consumer landscape would have been vastly different if televisions for example could produce the extra dimension without a need for glasses. In some ways, VR is also a technology that’s also been seemingly coming for the past two decades though this time around, there is far greater support behind the format – yet like 3D, its fortunes are still up in the air.
One thing that is for certain is that VR is in its infancy and needs to be nurtured correctly to ensure a thriving future. Well, perhaps two things are certain, with the second being that Oculus Rift is screwing over its most loyal user base. What can Sony learn with PlayStation VR? A lot.
Nothing gets me riled up more than when companies are seemingly out of touch with consumers and the general marketplace. Square Enix is one such company. The modern incarnation of Final Fantasy which began on PSone with Final Fantasy VII and lasted through Final Fantasy X was nothing short of a miracle. Not only was Square able to release hit after hit, but the public was enchanted with each new title.
Final Fantasy XI aside (which was an MMORPG), something changed with Final Fantasy XII and then went terribly wrong with Final Fantasy XIII. Everything fell off the cliff with Final Fantasy XV which has been in development for nearly a decade. Once again I’m excluding Final Fantasy XIV because that is yet another MMORPG. The culprit? According to Final Fantasy XV Game Director Hajime Tabata, it is the Final Fantasy disease.
I’m not sure if at this point it’s me or there is something seriously lackluster taking place with the creative team behind Gran Turismo Sport. For those unaware, Sony finally announced a November 15th release date for the long time PlayStation-exclusive franchise. The one caveat from all this is that in order to meet the deadline, the game is skipping out on their initially-announced public beta – which seems like a terrible idea to me. That aside, when Gran Turismo Sport was first revealed, I had written how fairly generic the trailer was.
Sadly, from what should have been an easy trailer to nail, we’re left with an awkward piece that fails to thrill and opts to show us a parked Mazda Miata and its interior.
Giving the creative team the benefit of the doubt, I’d hoped for the official trailer to enlist more emotion and excitement. After all, I’m a bit of a petrol head and have played all games (excluding GT6) in the series. Unfortunately I walked away from the trailer wanting to fire up DriveClub instead.
When Sony published their Q4 2015 earnings report in late April, they were forced to delay their FY16 forecast in order to assess the damage caused by earthquakes which struck the company’s image sensor plant in Kumamoto. With the factory beginning to become fully operational again, Sony has now released their forecast guidance for FY2016 and things in PlayStation land are looking good.
A game that’s worthy of selling 10 million copies – or more, frankly. Asad Qizilbash, Senior Director, First Party Games, SIEA:
Millions of fans around the world have already joined Nathan Drake on his final treasure hunt. In the first week alone, I’m happy to report that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End exceeded 2.7 million units in global sales. For the North American region, Uncharted 4 is the fastest-selling PS4 first party title to-date.
Of course as I wrote about here, there will always be a fairly short ceiling for what a game on PlayStation can sell unless Sony redefines PlayStation with PS5. With that, hats off to Naughty Dog for creating such a masterpiece series. It’s worth noting that the 2.7 million copies includes both digital and Blu-ray sales.
Let’s play good news, bad news. First the good news – you can finally rejoice, Gran Turismo Sport has a ship date of November 15th. This means the PS4 is finally getting a very in-depth racer in what’s sure to be a gorgeous game with no shortage of cars, tracks, and customizable options. Now on to the bad news. Because of its ship date, the Gran Turismo Sport beta has been canceled, a move that flirts with disaster. Let me explain.
The number one question I get asked when I’m stopped in the streets is what I think about comments made that there might not be a PlayStation 5. But instead of getting into whether I actually get stopped in the streets to be asked questions about the future of PlayStation, let’s instead start off this topic as frank as possible. Will there be a successor to the PS4? Of course there will be. Sony isn’t leading with the PS4, only to abandon it in the near future. Heck, there is already a successor of sorts in the pipeline in the form of the PS4K/PS4 Neo. Refresh models aside, one of the major pillars of Sony now is PlayStation which continues to be a major revenue and profits driver for the company. It would be pretty silly to abandon that, right? It’s as if Apple is pondering if there will an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7s. Of course there will be until something eventually replaces it.
So who would have made such an outlandish comment? None other than PlayStation president Shuhei Yoshida at a private dinner with Lorne Lanning during DICE. Here is Eddie Makuch who spoke with Lanning and wrote about his meet for Gamespot:
Lanning:
What does the PlayStation 5 look like?
Shu:
You mean if…
Lanning:
Whoa. Are you willing to say that on stage?
Shu:
Yeah, it’s an if.
What an outlandish statement to be made by PlayStation’s president right? Except that it’s actually not – but don’t worry, I’m not contradicting myself.
Just a quick follow up on a post from yesterday. Bungie has now officially released the Destiny Companion App 4.1.0 update which brings with it a host of new ways to connect with new players and form fire teams for raids and Heroic Strikes. The new features are now live for iOS (iPhone/iPad) and will presumably eventually come to Android. For those looking to run The Taken King raid but don’t have a core squad to play with, this update goes a long way towards making that easier on you. Well done Bungie.
What exactly is new in the Destiny Companion App 4.1.0?
Big news for all Destiny players out there. A long time lacking feature of the game, which the developers argue is on purpose, will soon be making its way to the game via the companion app for iOS and Android. Louis Contald writes for DualShockers:
With nearly no in-game option for matchmaking certain events (raids, heroic story missions, and the like), many ambitious entrepreneurs turned to creating their own sites — i.e., DestinyLFG’s .com and .net variations. However, according to Bungie’s weekly update, the official iOS/Android companion app will soon get a new update on the #Recruitment forum.
Sony has officially announced when they plan on holding their PlayStation E3 2016 press conference. Like years before, Sony will be wrapping up all the gaming press conferences come Monday, June 13th at 6:00 p.m. Pacific / 9 p.m. Eastern. Sony will also provide a live stream on their Twitch channel as they have before.
It’s widely expected that Sony will announce what’s been called PlayStation 4K or PS4 Neo. Another sure bet will be a lot of time spent on PlayStation VR. After the jump, a list of all the press conferences and times from E3 2016.
On Tuesday, May 10th, the world awoke to (or refused to go to sleep because of) Naughty Dog’s newest installment in Nathan Drake’s saga, Uncharted: A Thief’s End. This long awaited game is already getting rave reviews, and we want to hear yours. Have you gotten in on the action of Uncharted 4 yet? Let us know in our poll!
I’m really not sure why games developed in Japan tend to work on a near 5 year arc but we’re finally approaching the release of Gran Turismo Sport on PS4. Here is series creator Kazunori Yamauchi:
Hello GT fans! We’re thrilled to announce that on 19th May we’ll be streaming brand-new Gran Turismo Sport footage from an exclusive London event, and sharing new details about the latest entry in Polyphony Digital’s acclaimed racing series. Not only that, but we’ll also be streaming Pre-Season Test of FIA Gran Turismo Championship Cups- the Nations Cup Pre-Season Test and the Manufacturer Fan Cup Pre-Season Test. We will also be lucky enough to have 9 full-scale Vision GT Cars and 2 ¼ size models present at the event, which is a world first!
While lacking the depth of the Gran Turismo series, to me, DriveClub is a game that in many ways was superior to GT as it fully embraced online mechanics in a fun and meaningful way. I also having a feeling that had the Evolution Studios not been disbanded, that we could have seen a second iteration of the game before GT Sport’s arrival, seeing how much regular content they pumped out during the past two years.
Fan films tend to go two ways – they either become cringeworthy spectacle that’s purely an exercise in passion with talent – or something delightful that at the very least is entertaining or at best, like in the case of Severus Snape and the Marauders, an intimate and more revealing look at the worlds we know and love. Luckily, in the case of Uncharted: Ambushed, the Norwegian/Danish short film manages to fall on the latter side of the equation by delivering something quite familiar yet entirely new and satisfying to fans of Uncharted. And it’s not just me raving about the film either. Here is what Naughty Dog co-president Christophe Balestra and Uncharted 4 co-writer Josh Scherr had to say:
Very impressive job @MartinSofiedal! Uncharted fans you have to watch this… http://t.co/SXNT1rbjU6
— Christophe Balestra (@cbalestra) October 23, 2014
Wow, this UNCHARTED: DRAKE’S FORTUNE fan film is *really* well done! Nailed the props, too. http://t.co/oSJjzfgwVQ pic.twitter.com/vva3tnXTi3
— Josh Scherr (@joshscherr) October 23, 2014
With Uncharted 4 now available for PS4, what better way to kick off the journey that started nearly 10 years ago on PS3 than by looking at what happens when you mix fandom and talent? Oh, and if this is how an Uncharted flick could play out, sign me up.
You must be logged in to post a comment.