Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.
We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.
Xûr's location can be found at The Tower on June 16 through June 20. To reach him, travel to the landing point at The Courtyard and make your way to the Hangar. Hang a left when entering the hangar and you'll come face-to-face with space Amazon.com.
Exotic Engram
Hard Light – Exotic Auto Rifle
Sealed Ahamkara Grasps – Exotic Hunter Gauntlets
Actium War Rig – Exotic Titan Chest Armor
Eye of Another World – Exotic Warlock Helmet
Hunters have quite a nice roll for their gauntlets this week, while Titans have a very high-stat piece that's messed up by a whopping 17 Mobility. Warlocks stand alone with their low-stat, non-spiky roll.
Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon
Dead Man's Tale – Exotic Scout Rifle
Neither of the rolls for these iconic weapons is all that great this week. Probably best to wait for some better options!
Hollow Words – Fusion Rifle
Sailspy Pitchglass – Linear Fusion Rifle
Piece of Mind – Pule Rifle
Disparity – Pulse Rifle
Night Watch – Scout Rifle
No Reprieve – Shotgun
Last Man Standing – Shotgun
My picks this week would be Disparity and Night Watch, which both have fairly unoriginal, but reliably good rolls. I'd also suggest maybe checking out Last Man Standing to get a look at the recently added Discord trait that I think has quite a bit of potential (at least on paper).
For Warlocks, Xûr is selling the Lost Pacific set which includes:
Lost Pacific Gauntlets
Lost Pacific Chest Armor
Lost Pacific Helmet
Lost Pacific Leg Armor
Lost Pacific Bond
Warlocks got quite a few great picks this week, but none more obvious than the absolutely delicious helmet that's got high Resilience, Discipline, and overall high stat totals with low Mobility — beautiful!
For Titans, Xûr is selling the Lost Pacific set which includes:
Lost Pacific Gauntlets
Lost Pacific Chest Armor
Lost Pacific Helmet
Lost Pacific Leg Armor
Lost Pacific Mark
Titans have pretty good rolls this week with the helmet and the Gauntlets, which have some spiky stats and low enough Mobility to be happy. Not as great distributions as the Warlock got, but hard to complain!
For Hunters, Xûr is selling the Lost Pacific set which includes:
Lost Pacific Gauntlets
Lost Pacific Chest Armor
Lost Pacific Helmet
Lost Pacific Leg Armor
Lost Pacific Cloak
Hunters also got a pretty good haul this week! Their gauntlets and chest piece in particular are something to consider.
That's a wrap on Xûr for this week, Guardians! What do you think of the Season of the Deep so far? Have you been to the Guardian fishing hole? Let us know in the comments! For more on Destiny, check out our review of Destiny 2: Lightfall and read about how Sony's purchase of Bungie fits into its larger plans.
Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.
]]>We have gathered all the biggest reveals from the Xbox Games Showcase Extended to ensure you are all caught up on announcements and upcoming games, so check out all the details and videos below and let us know which games you are most excited for!
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty kicked off the Xbox Games Showcase Extended and fans were treated to a deep dive of the expansion and a new look at Dogtown, which is being described as the underbelly of Night City. Dogtown is a dangerous place, and that's saying something as Night City isn't simply a walk in the park, and it features chromed-out vendors who have their own unique mods, including a fancy flamethrower connected to an arm mod.
Keanu Reeves, who is returning as Johnny Silverhand, also stopped by the show to discuss more about the expansion. He confirmed that "s***'s gone down in Dogtown," and that it has a "tension to it" and an "undercurrent of violence."
He also shared some words about Dogtown's ruler Colonel Hansen and Idris Elba's Solomon Reed. Hansen is ex-military and power hungry, and Johnny is not the biggest fan of him. Solomon, on the other hand, appears to have a lot in common with Johnny, according to Reeves. This includes his military experience, sense of duty, his desire to fight for liberty, and his wish to reclaim his life, just like Johnny. His story starts as one of revenge, but Reeves teases it may not end that way.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty will be released on September 26, 2023.
Squanch Games announced High on Knife, a DLC expansion for High on Life that has some serious horror vibes to go with the game's focus on comedy. High on Knife stars a knife called Knifey, who is voiced by Michael Cusack, and players will also run into new characters/guns, including one named Harper, who is played by Saturday Night Live's Sarah Sherman, and another named B.A.L.L., the latter of which is a pinball gun voiced by High on Life narrative director Alex Robbins.
The Lamplighter's League and the Tower at the End of the World got a brand-new look and it gave a glimpse of the game in action. The Lamplighter's League stars a band of outcasts who need to save the world, and gameplay features a mix between "real-time infiltration, tactical turn-based combat, and team management."
The Lamplighter's League will be released on October 3, 2023.
Avowed had its big gameplay reveal at the Xbox Games Showcase, and its game director Carrie Patel was part of the Extended stream to give fans a bit more info on the much-anticipated game from Obsidian Entertainment.
Patel began by confirming fans won't need to know much about the Pillars of Eternity games to enjoy Avowed, but there will obviously be nods to the game in Avowed. What they do need to know is that it takes place in the Living Lands of Eora, which is an "otherworldly frontier" and has not been explored to its fullest yet.
Kai, the Coastal Aumaua who was featured in Avowed's gameplay trailer, was also discussed in this new look, and it was confirmed he will be one of the first companions you run into and that he is a battle-hardened mercenary who also has a great sense of humor.
Patel also shared that the player character will not be a watcher, but they will have a unique connection to the world of Eora. Furthermore, there is a plague devastating the Living Lands and one of you missions will be to investigate what is causing it. Oh, and Patel talked about how Avowed isn't quite open-world, but instead it will have massive zones that are just waiting to be explored.
Avowed will be released in 2024.
The First Descendant, a free-to-play third-person looter shooter build on Unreal Engine 5, announced it would be getting a crossplay beta from August 22-28. We also got a new look at the game that sees humanity trying to survive against alien invaders. In that mission, player and up to three of their friends will be able to take on giant boss raids, use a hookshot to traverse the world, use elements like water to take down foes, and much more.
Towerborne, which is coming from Banner Saga's Stoic, got a big gameplay trailer and discussion at the Xbox Games Showcase Extended and it showed more of the fast-paced action-rpg adventure that can be player online or on the couch with your friends. Towerborne features a grid map and sees players exploring a big world and jumping into fun and fast combat scenarios to gather resources and items.
Once enough is earned, players can go back to The Belfry tower to upgrade their characters and gear, as well as learn more about this world that sees humanity pushed to the brink of extinction.
Towerborne is invited people to join its Towerborne Insiders Program to learn more, and the devs promised the game will be supported well after launch with new storylines, quests, biomes, gears, monsters, and more.
After revealed that Fallout 76 players would be headed to Atlantic City in the future at the Xbox Games Showcase, the Extended show revealed the free Once in a Blue Moon update that will arrive on June 20 and will bring with it werewolves and spookiness to Appalachia.
This free update will contain two public events in Safe and Sound and Beasts or Burden, two cryptids in the Blue Devil and the Ogua, and more. There will also be a new scoreboard called Shoot for the Stars that will reward players with movie-themed gear and items.
Hi-Fi rush will be getting two new game modes on July 5 with the Arcade Challenge! Update!, and they are BMP RUSH! and Power Up! Tower Up!
The first of these modes, BMP RUSH! features high-speed gameplay that is faster than anything seen in the main game, and defeating enemies will cause that speed to skyrocket higher and higher until you are defeated.
In Power Up! Tower Up! Chai will see his skills downgraded to zero, and the goal is to defeat wave after wave of enemies to get powerful once again in this new rhythm tower.
Alongside these new modes, the update will also bring new songs, enemies, rewards, accessories, a costume pack with a retro vibe, and more.
The team behind The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom shared more about the upcoming expansion and why this is a great time to jump into the game.
One of Necrom's key players is Hermaeus Mora, a Daedric god of knowledge who is neither good nor evil. They really just want to catalog the world, and players will be able to learn more about them and the Apocrypha realm. There will also be a new class called the Arcanist that uses the powers of Hermaeus Mora to take down foes.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom launches on June 20, 2023.
The hit horror game Phasmophobia will officially arrive on consoles via Early Access in August 2023. By using real-world ghost hunting tools, you and up to four of your friends can go on ghost hunts and try not to be horrible scared by what your find. The console edition will feature crossplay with PC alongside free content updates, seasonal events, and more.
Exoprimal got a new look at the Xbox Games Showcase Extended, and a new mode called Savage Gauntlet was revealed. This new mode is all about speed and will challenge players to be the fastest to complete a weekly missions. The missions will be the same for everyone, including enemy placement, and the challenge is figuring out how best to tackle it.
We also got a look at Exosuit Variants, which will let players change how a suit plays. One example of these "Alpha" suits is The Deadeye Alpha, which swaps out the assault rifle for a new weapon with both a shotgun and burst fire capabilities.
Exoprimal will be released on July 14, 2023.
ID@Xbox Developer Accelerator Program showcased 11 games at the Xbox Games Showcase, inclduing Drag Her!, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, Sonzai, Slime Heroes, Naiad, Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To, Botany Manor, Despelote, Island of Winds, Psychroma, and El Paso, Elsewhere.
Microsoft Flight Simulator – Dune Expansion got a behind-the-scenes look that saw Academy Award-winning production designer from Dune Part 1, Patrice Vermette, showing a real-life Ornithopter that was used to help create one in-game for this new content. The warehouse in Budapest also housed many of the items used in the Dune Films, and it was a nice glimpse behind the curtain.
We also learned a bit more about the expansion itself, including that players will be a training pilot and will learn how to fly while exploring the world of Arrakis. A secret mission was also teased that will be ending this experience and, we don't know about you, but we're hoping for an appearance from a massive sandworm.
Microsoft Flight Simulator – Dune Expansion will be released on November 3, 2023.
Go Mecha Ball got a new gameplay trailer that showed off the awesome action in this upcoming roguelite that has players shifting from a rolling ball of destruction to a mech taking down foes in the style of twin-stick shooters.
Go Mecha Ball will be released in 2024.
Lies of P, the upcoming soulslike that aims to take the story of Pinocchio turn it "on its head," got a new look at the Xbox Games Showcase Extended. Taking center stage in this new look were some of the features in the game, including the weapon combination system.
Lies of P will be released on September 19, 2023, and a demo is available now.
While Hellblade II's section of the Xbox Games Showcase Extended didn't feature any new gameplay, it did take fans behind the scenes at Ninja Theory and showed how the team's upgraded motion capture tech will help make this an incredibly immersive experience when it arrives in 2024.
The first Hellblade's motion capture was done in a board room, and the sequel has the benefit of having it done in a new state-of-the-art studio. This allows for everything to translate more realistically to the full game, including the smallest of gestures and facial expressions. We also got a look at the props uses by the characters, a full boating rig that can house multiple characters, and more.
Lightyear Frontier looks to be a beautiful mashup of Harvest Moon and mechs, and the new gameplay trailer showed some of the fun it will allow you and up to three of your friends to get into when it launches in Early 2024. Lightyear Frontier features farming, house building, exploration, mysteries, and so much more.
ID@Xbox showcased 10 new games headed to Xbox Game Pass, and they include, Another Crab's Treasure, Litttle Kitty Big City, Techtonica, Sea of Stars, Harold Halibut, Galacticare, Neon White, Mineko's Night Market, The Book Walker, and The Wandering Village.
33 Immortals was the final game shown at the Xbox Games Showcase Extended and it was the only one to feature Xbox head Phil Spencer on-stage playing the game with the developers. Spencer also said, "every year in our Showcase, there's one game that kind of pops for me – something i'm very interested in." That game? 33 Immortals.
We then got to see Spencer and a bunch of the 32 devs from Thunder Lotus play 33 Immortals and showcase the game in action. In the game, players are rebelling against god's final judgment and they will have to complete Torture Chambers to unleash the wrath of the gods in hopes to get to the big final bosses and save everything we hold dear.
This roguelike allows players to spread out across the map to complete objectives, and each one will help further the overall cause. Once that is done, players will be sent to that previously mentioned big boss, and we got a glimpse of one in the demo – a terrifying three-headed skeleton winged demon that didn't look to happy. 33 Immortals will be released in 2024.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
]]>While visiting these subreddits previously would allow users to peruse all the usual conversations surrounding new reveals, highly contested topics, and so on, the Xbox, Nintendo, and PS5 pages are now blank.
Some of these subreddits are going private, meaning only invited members can access them (but no new members will be accepted), while others are closed off altogether. Some, like the Star Wars and Cyberpunk subreddits, are currently still available but won't be soon, either temporarily or indefinitely.
The wave of subreddits going dark comes as a result of a new pricing strategy that raised the cost of Reddit's API, the interface used by third-party developers to access and use Reddit data.
Though announced a few months ago, the severity of the changes only came to light earlier in June when the developer of Apollo, an app used by millions to browse and read Reddit posts, said it would now cost upwards of $20 million a year to run.
Apollo announced it would shut down as of June 30, 2023, prompting the Reddit community to take action. "This subreddit is temporarily private as part of a joint protest to Reddit's recent API changes, which breaks third-party apps and moderation tools, effectively forcing users to use the official Reddit app," reads a message on the PS5 subreddit.
"In solidarity with the rest of Reddit, we will be participating in the API protests indefinitely, at your request," said the Cyberpunk 2077 subreddit. "We were going to open up in private but many people expressed their concerns of that undermining the protest."
It's unclear if or when these protests will end, but Reddit CEO Steve Huffman showed no sign of changing the policy when asked about it on June 9.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
]]>Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.
We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.
Xûr's location can be found at Winding Cove in the EDZ on June 2 through June 6. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Winding Cove. When you arrive, make for the rock cliffs at the far end of the cove and look for a cave winding up to a platform next to some Fallen. There you'll find the retail monster who inspires us all.
Exotic Engram
Sweet Business – Exotic Auto Rifle
Aeon Swift – Exotic Hunter Gauntlets
Lion Rampart – Exotic Titan Leg Armor
Vesper of Radius – Exotic Warlock Chest Armor
The Lion Ramparts roll this week has a high stat total, plus decently low Mobility, making it the best exotic armor option this week. Also, if you don't have Sweet Business — you should definitely have Sweet Business.
Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon
Dead Man's Tale – Exotic Scout Rifle
Both of these exotic rolls are just okay, but we've definitely seen better. Snag 'em if you need 'em, but no big loss if you don't.
Firefright – Auto Rifle
Hollow Words – Fusion Rifle
Deafening Whisper – Grenade Launcher
Recurrent Impact – Machine Gun
Piece of Mind – Pulse Rifle
Seventh Seraph SI-2 – Sidearm
Crown-Splitter/Eternity's Edge/Quickfang – Class Sword
This week we got an absolute God tier sidearm in the roll for Seventh Seraph SI-2. Literally every perk on the weapon is optimized for close-quarters combat that's ideal for using a sidearm. I am in awe. Everyone should absolutely buy this weapon!
For Warlocks, Xûr is selling the Simulator set which includes:
Simulator Gauntlets
Simulator Chest Armor
Simulator Helmet
Simulator Leg Armor
Simulator Bond
Continuing his unbroken streak of providing surprising great armor, Xur has brought a whole host of awesome options for Warlocks, with high stat totals almost across the board and even some great distributions too!
For Titans, Xûr is selling the Simulator set which includes:
Simulator Gauntlets
Simulator Chest Armor
Simulator Helmet
Simulator Leg Armor
Simulator Mark
Holy smokes! Titans not only have some high stat options, but some of their distributions are insane as well — look at those boots!
For Hunters, Xûr is selling the Simulator set which includes:
Simulator Gauntlets
Simulator Chest Armor
Simulator Helmet
Simulator Leg Armor
Simulator Cloak
Hunters also shared in some of the good-Xur-roll love, though to a slightly lesser degree. Still, there's plenty to choose from and it's all a lot better than we're used to getting. Praise be Xur!
That's a wrap on Xûr for this week, Guardians! Have you been going fishing in Destiny 2? Let us know in the comments! For more on Destiny, check out some of the new weapons and gear you can find in Lightfall or our walkthrough of Lightfall's campaign.
Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.
]]>Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.
We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.
Xûr's location can be found at The Tower on May 26 through May 30. To reach him, travel to the landing point at The Courtyard and make your way to the Hangar. Hang a left when entering the hangar and you'll come face-to-face with space Amazon.com.
Exotic Engram
Arbalest – Exotic Linear Fusion Rifle
Lucky Pants – Exotic Hunter Boots
Armamentarium – Exotic Titan Chest Armor
Eye of Another World – Exotic Warlock Helmet
Oooooh, baby! We've got some spicey exotic armor rolls this week. Honestly, all three of these are fantastic options, but the crown goes to the Titan chestpiece, which is not only a great exotic, but has the lowest Mobility possible, and a very high stat total. The distribution could be a bit better (high Discipline on this exotic goes very well with the perk), but I can't really complain — this is a very, very good roll.
Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon
Dead Man's Tale – Exotic Scout Rifle
Neither of the rolls for these iconic weapons is all that great this week. Probably best to wait for some better options!
Gnawing Hunger – Auto Rifle
Judgement of Kelgorath – Glaive
IKELOS_HC_V1.0.3 – Hand Cannon
Shattered Cipher – Machine Gun
Cold Denial – Pulse Rifle
Distant Stimulus – Sniper Rifle
Thoughtless – Sniper Rifle
The roll for Gnawing Hunger is almost a God roll, but Multikill Clip puts a damper on an otherwise ideal set of perks — even so, it's still one of the best rolls we've got this week, so pick it up if you need a trusty auto rifle. Most of the others are honestly pretty not great, in this Guardian's humble opinion.
For Warlocks, Xûr is selling the Braytech set which includes:
Braytech Gauntlets
Braytech Chest Armor
Braytech Helmet
Braytech Leg Armor
Braytech Bond
As a consilation prize for coming in dead last during Guardian Games, Warlocks have a plethora of high-stat armor options this week! Pretty much all of these are good! I don't know what to say — this is pretty unprecedented!
For Titans, Xûr is selling the Braytech set which includes:
Braytech Gauntlets
Braytech Chest Armor
Braytech Helmet
Braytech Leg Armor
Braytech Mark
Titans have some decently high stats on their armor, but they all, without exception, have too high Mobility, so it's a bit of a wash.
For Hunters, Xûr is selling the Braytech set which includes:
Braytech Gauntlets
Braytech Chest Armor
Braytech Helmet
Braytech Leg Armor
Braytech Cloak
Hunters also got a pretty good haul this week! Pretty much any of these could be a great pick for Hunters who care about Mobility.
That's a wrap on Xûr for this week, Guardians! What do you think of the Season of the Deep so far? Have you been to the Guardian fishing hole? Let us know in the comments! For more on Destiny, check out our review of Destiny 2: Lightfall and read about how Sony's purchase of Bungie fits into its larger plans.
Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.
]]>Each of Destiny 2’s three classes will receive a new armor ornament set. The hunter class will get the “Annointed” cosmetic set inspired by Aloy from the Horizon series, while Titans can look forward to equiping the “Godsbane” ornament set based on Kratos from Santa Monica Studio’s God of War series.
Warlocks, meanwhile, will be able to acquire the “Ancestral” ornament set, which is based on the samurai style of Jin Sakai from Sucker Punch’s open world 2020 game Ghost of Tsushima. All three ornament sets will come with a unique finisher move inspired by the PlayStation IPs from which they were conceived.
Fight with the ferocity of warriors from across the ages.
Upgrade your Guardian's look, with a partnership inspired by PlayStation characters and worlds. pic.twitter.com/MJwpz3KxN2
— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) May 23, 2023
“The genesis of any armor set starts with a question, ‘What is the fantasy?'” said Bungie Art Lead Josh Deeb in a new PlayStation blog post. “There were some obvious inspirations – [God of War’s] Kratos is a powerful force leading the way into battle, Aloy [from the Horizon series] is a machine hunter surviving in a harsh world, and [Ghost of Tsushima’s] Jin combined studious training with seemingly supernatural fighting ability.”
Each of the new armor sets boasts an impressive level of design detail that references the protagonists and settings of the PlayStation Studios IP. For example, the Aloy-inspired Annointed armor features an old world focus, and machine plate armour bound and accented by the traditional fabrics and colors used by the Nora tribe in Horizon: Zero Dawn.
And The Godsbane armor makes clear reference to Kratos’ iconic head tattoo, while the wraps and retractable Guardian shield that adorned the Spartan’s arms in Santa Monica’s 2018 God of War can be seen reflected in the new Titan aesthetic.
Destiny 2: Season of the Deep Screenshots
Bungie’s Ancestral armor likewise makes reference to Ghost of Tsushima’s popular protagonist. “With Jin, we had the advantage of having some iconic face masks to work with from the source material,” explained Deeb. “This created an immediate unmistakable impact. We wanted to explore combinations of the elaborate armor sets players can don and build a sci-fi samurai silhouette that felt fitting for our warrior-scholars, the Warlocks.”
Insomniac, working in concert with Bungie, have also created a Ratchet and Clank-inspired emote to go along with the new ornaments. Naughty Dog has also made its presence known by helping design a ghost shell, a sparrow, and a new ship boasting a fungal aesthetic inspired by the cordyceps fungal infection from The Last of Us.
Destiny 2’s Season of the Deep dropped earlier today, bringing with it new exotic gear, post campaign pursuits, and more. Be sure to check out IGN’s Wiki page for tips and tricks on how to get the most out of the 21st season of content.
Correction: A previous version of this story stated that the content was exclusive to PlayStation; it's available for all platforms.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
Image credit: PlayStation, Bungie
]]>All anyone wants to talk about in the games industry is AI. The technology — once a twinkle in the eye of sci-fi writers and futurists — has shot off like a bottle rocket. Every day we're greeted with fascinating and perturbing new advances in machine learning. Right now, you can converse with your computer on ChatGPT, sock-puppet a celebrity's voice with ElevenLabs, and generate a slate of concept art with MidJourney.
It is perhaps only a matter of time before AI starts making significant headway in the business of game development, so to kick off AI week at IGN, we talked to a range of experts in the field about their hopes and fears for this brave new world, and some are more skeptical than you'd expect.
AI Week Roundtable: Meet the Games Industry Experts
Pawel Sasko, CD Projekt Red Lead Quest Designer: I really believe that AI, and AI tools, are going to be just the same as when Photoshop was invented. You can see it throughout the history of animation. From drawing by hand to drawing on a computer, people had to adapt and use the tools, and I think AI is going to be exactly that. It's just going to be another tool that we'll use for productivity and game development.
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games CEO: I think there's a long sorting out process to figure out how all that works and it's going to be complicated. These AI technologies are incredibly effective when applied to some really bulk forms of data where you can download billions of samples from existing project and train on them, but that works for text and it works for graphics and maybe it will work for 3D objects as well, but it's not going to work for higher level constructs like games or the whole of the video game. There's just no training function that people know that can drive a game like that. I think we're going to see some really incredible advances and actual progress mixed in with the hype cycle where a lot of crazy stuff is promised. Nobody's going to be able to deliver.
Michael Spranger, COO of Sony AI: I think AI is going to revolutionize the largeness of gaming worlds; how real they feel, and how you interact with them. But I also think it's going to have a huge impact on production cycles. Especially in this era of live-services. We'll produce a lot more content than we did in the past.
Julian Togelius, Associate Professor of Computer Science at New York University, and co-author of the textbook Artificial Intelligence and Games: Long-term, we're going to see every part of game development co-created AI Designers will collaborate with AI on everything from prototyping, to concept art, to mechanics, balancing, and so on. Further on, we might see games that are actually designed to use AI during its runtime.
I think it's a pretty intriguing direction because it opens up the doors that you wouldn't think of.
“
Pawel Sasko: There's actually many companies doing internal R&D of a specific implementation of not MidJourney especially, but literally just art tools like this, so that when you're in early concept phases, you're able to generate as many ideas as you can and just basically pick whatever works actually for you and then give it to an artist who actually developed that direction. I think it's a pretty intriguing direction because it opens up the doors that you wouldn't think of. And again, as an artist, we are just always limited by our skills that come up from all the life experiences and everything we have consumed artistically, culturally before. And AI doesn't have this limitation in a way. We can feed it so many different things, therefore it can actually propose so many different things that we wouldn't think of. So I think as a starting point or maybe just as a brainstorming tool, this could be interesting.
Michael Spranger: I think of AI as a creativity unlocking tool. There are so many more things you can do if you have the right tools. We see a rapid deployment of impact of this technology in content creation possibilities from 3D, to sound, to musical experiences, to what you're interacting with in a world. All of that is going to get much better.
Julian Togelius: Everybody looks at the image generation and text generation and say, 'Hey, we can just pop that into games.' And, of course, we see like proliferation of unserious, sometimes venture capital found that actors coming in and claiming that they're going to do all of your Game Arts with MidJourney — these people usually don't know anything about game development. There's a lot of that going around. So I like to say that generating just an image is kind of the easy part. Every other part of game content, including the art, has so many functional aspects. Your character model must work with animations, your level must be completable. That's the had part.
Tim Sweeney: It's not synthesizing amazing new stuff, it's really just rewriting data that already exists. So, either you ask it to write a sorting algorithm in Python and it does that, but it's really just copying the structure of somebody else's code that it trained on. You tell it to solve a problem that nobody's solved before or the data it hasn't seen before and it doesn't have the slightest idea what to do about it. We have nothing like artificial general intelligence. The generated art characters have six or seven fingers, they just don't know that people have five fingers. They don't know what fingers are and they don't know how to count. They don't really know anything other than how to reassemble pixels in a statistically common way. And so, I think we're a very long way away from that, providing the kind of utility a real artist provides.
Sarah Bond, Xbox Head of Global Gaming Partnership and Development: We're in the early days of it. Obviously we're in the midst of huge breakthroughs. But you can see how it's going to greatly enhance discoverability that is actually customized to what you really care about. You can actually have things served up to you that are very, very AI driven. "Oh my gosh, I loved Tunic. What should I do next?
Tim Sweeney: I'm not sure yet. It's funny, we're pushing the state of the art in a bunch of different areas, but [Epic] is really not touching generative AI. We're amazed at what our own artists are doing in their hobby projects, but all these AI tools, data use is under the shadow, which makes the tools unusable by companies with lawyers essentially because we don't know what authorship claims might exist on the data.
Julian Togelius: I don't think it will affect anyone more than any other technology that forces people to learn new tools. You have to keep learning new tools or otherwise you'll become irrelevant. People will become more productive, and generate faster iterations. Someone will say, "Hey, this is a really interesting creature you've created, now give me 10,000 of those that differ slightly." People will master the tools. I don't think they will put anyone out of a job as long as you keep rolling with the punches.
Pawel Sasko: I think that the legal sphere is going to catch up with AI generation eventually, with what to do in these situations to regulate them. I know a lot of voice actors are worried about the technology, because the voice is also a distinct element of a given actor, not only the appearance and the way of acting. Legal is always behind us.
Michael Spranger: The relationship with creative people is really important to us. I don't think that relationship will change. When I go watch a Stanley Kubrick movie, I'm there to enjoy his creative vision. For us, it's important to make sure that those people can preserve and execute those creative visions, and that AI technology is a tool that can help make that happen.
Julian Togelius: Definitely. If you have a team that has deep expertise in every field, you're at an advantage. But I think we're gonna get to the point where, like, you only need to know a few fields to make a game, and have the AI tools be non-human standings for other fields of expertise. If you're a two-person team and you don't have an animator, you can ask the AI to do the animation for you. The studio can make a nice looking game even though they don't have all the resources. That's something I'm super optimistic about.
Tim Sweeney: I think the more common case, which we're seeing really widely used in the game industry is an artist does a lot of work to build an awesome asset, but then the procedural systems and the animation tools and the data scanning systems just blow it up to an incredible level.
Michael Spranger: Computer science in general has a very democratizing effect. That is the history of the field. I think these tools might inspire more people to express their creativity. This is really about empowering people. We're going to create much more content that's unlocked with AI, and I think it will have a role to play in both larger and smaller studios.
Michael Spranger: I think what makes this different is that the proof is in the pudding. Look at what Kazunori Yamuchi said about GT Sophy, [the AI-powered driver recently introduced to Gran Turismo 7]: there was a 25-year period where they built the AI in Gran Turismo in a specific way, and Yamuchi is basically saying that this is a new chapter. That makes a difference for me. When people are saying, "I haven't had this experience before with a game. This is qualitatively different." It's here now, you can experience it now.
Kajetan Kasprowicz, CD Projekt Red Cinematic Designer: Someone at GDC once gave a talk that basically said, "Who will want to play games that were made by AI?" People will want experiences created by human beings. The technology is advancing very fast and we kind of don't know what to do with it. But I think there will be a consensus on what we want to do as societies.
Julian Togelius: AI has actual use-cases, and it works, whereas all of the crypto shit was ridiculous grifting by shameless people. I hate that people associate AI with that trend. On the other hand you have something like VR, which is interesting technology that may, or may not, be ready for the mass market someday. Compare that to AI, which has hundreds of use-cases in games and game development.
Luke Winkie is a freelance writer at IGN.
]]>Growing up, we were extremely frugal. We immigrated to the States when I was a baby and we were very poor so we didn’t have a lot of disposable income to enjoy games. When we did stabilize financially I wasn’t allowed to play games since my parents really wanted me to focus on other “productive” extracurricular activities.
I was 20 years old, living on my own in college when I finally got my first console: the Xbox One. Even with a console, then getting a PC, I still couldn’t really afford a lot of the bigger games since I was working and going to college. When I took a break from school to full-time stream, I was able to get more games since it directly applied to my job.
But even so, I found myself wanting to keep up with modern games, not just go back to games I had missed. I wanted to keep up with the games that were coming out, talk to my friends about them, and play them on stream to share with others. I also just didn’t have the means to play older games I had missed since they were locked to consoles I didn’t own.
But so many remakes came out that I was able to snag and play to make up for missing the original game and I loved being able to enjoy it in a modern update. A lot of remakes really just restore the original game to look and feel like how we think we remember it to be. For example, I swear Banjo Kazooie looked exactly like how the remake did on my friend’s N64 as it does now on the Xbox with its remaster. But that’s how memory works and we want to remember the game being the best version it was when we were growing up and just in love with our favorite titles.
So being able to see the difference in the remakes of these games is pretty great to fuel nostalgia while also bringing up the experience to modern standards. I’m pretty sure if I had to deal with the old Resident Evil camera angles I would lose my mind now, so I’m very glad for the remakes. It just restores that memory while bringing it up to speed to current-day controls.
Also, I was able to experience DOOM by playing the 2016 release and realize how much I loved the world building and pure violence of that demon-filled universe through the modern remake. This spiked my interest to then look into the original DOOM classics and try them out on Steam. Then there’s the beautiful collection of Halo games that I would have never touched if it was not for the remastered bundle that I’m playing through now with my best friend from childhood.
I really want to talk about this, and I know I’ve discussed this on Unlocked but not to the extent I want to now. Because I wasn’t allowed to game when I was living with my parents, I really missed out on the prime gaming years. There’s a Korean word for it that perfectly describes how I feel about it but it doesn’t have a direct translation to English. 아쉽다 (ah-shib-da). The best translation for it that I could explain is feeling regret, as if it’s a shame, and just a general feeling of mourning all in one.
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I am grateful that I am now working in a job where I can enjoy games and fuel my inner child but I look back on the years I was in high school, listening to my best friends talk about the latest Assassin’s Creed game and the developments in the Halo storyline while feeling left out and like I was missing something great. I remember my friends pulling their hoods over their heads pretending to be Ezio and not knowing what that was about. I basically got the gist of the stories by listening to them rant about the games they were playing.
I missed the golden years of Master Chief’s adventures and badassery and lived vicariously through my friends who played the series and told me about the latest developments. I would have fleeting moments to play for myself when I would go over to their houses to hang out and get a small taste of what they experienced and I felt slightly more included.
My best friend and I have since then grown and live very busy lives but he and I set aside some time to play the Halo: Master Chief Collection all the way from the first game. As soon as I booted it up I felt this feeling of wholeness as I saw this screen I remembered seeing on my friend’s consoles when I’d visit. When my best friend and I started playing from the start, he was able to share his favorite moments with me, finally, after all those years and play like it was the first time for him through me.
When we got to Halo 2 and entered the chapter where you play as The Arbiter, the bad guy, I was shocked and exclaimed at how cool this was and how I loved it. My friend burst out saying, “Yes! I was waiting for your reaction! That’s exactly what I said and this is so cool seeing you experience this for the first time.” It felt incredible since even modern games don’t tend to pull this move and, this part will sound cheesy but, I felt like my inner child was healing.
But even so, I found myself wanting to keep up with modern games, not just go back to games I had missed.
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I know there are some video game enjoyers who claim something will never be as good as the original but as someone who missed them the first time around, I am grateful for remakes and remasters. I genuinely feel they are a great addition to current games being released. They allow gamers like me who just weren’t able to access them, to go back and enjoy them in a better, updated state.
If I could go and grab older consoles I missed and play the games I wasn’t able to growing up, I definitely would. But remakes and remasters make it easier so I don’t have to. And I know I’m not the only one who’s in a similar situation. Games are awesome and we should be able to enjoy them how we want and I am so grateful that remasters and remakes exist for the sake of letting players who enjoyed them in the past enjoy them again, and for new players to enjoy them for the first time.
It’s a great way to unify gamers and let us all discuss the same game and share stories on our experiences with them, whether it was from the original or the remake.
If you could have any game be remastered or remade, what would you pick? For me, if DICE could make a proper Mirror’s Edge remake of the original, I’d be absolutely set.
Kakarot isn’t perfect, but it’s one of the best representations of Akira Toriyama’s awesome colorful world in interactive form. All the pieces are there for a massive sequel that builds on established systems and mechanics and raises the stakes even higher, probably recounting the events of Dragon Ball Super and its various new hair colors. However, I’m strongly of the opinion that the most potential for a follow-up to Kakarot lies in Goku’s earlier years, a game that retells the original Dragon Ball.
Something that makes Dragon Ball Z so appealing is also something that also often works against it: escalation. It’s all about taking things to the next level. DBZ tackles the afterlife, alien planets, time travel, and androids. Planets get destroyed, characters get killed off, resurrected, killed again and they regularly undergo drastic transformations – in some cases multiple characters get fused together to create new characters. It’s a lot. After a certain point, everyone gets so ridiculously overpowered that it stops being impressive. DBZ is the furthest thing from what you would call “grounded.” In fact, at various points, the ground literally gets blown up, and characters are just beating each other up while floating in mid-air – and maybe that doesn’t naturally lend itself to great gameplay?
Even starting from the beginning, Dragon Ball Z Kakorot feels like you’re jumping into someone else’s save file mid-game and playing as an overpowered character who has a ton of abilities unlocked – and in a sense, it is. You still level up and unlock moves, but at the start of Z, Goku’s one of the strongest warriors on the planet. He can fly and shoot energy blasts without thinking about it, and Kakarot’s gameplay reflects that. It took Goku three episodes to form that spirit bomb he chucked at Frieza, and it’s a two-button combo?
Dragon Ball Z Kakorot feels like you’re jumping into someone else’s save file mid-game and playing as an overpowered character who has a ton of abilities unlocked
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Dragon Ball, meanwhile, starts from square one with good ol’ fashioned martial arts. Early on, Goku relies primarily on his fists, feet, tail and powerpole during combat. He’ll occasionally resort to a Kamehameha wave as a last resort, but something that’s primarily ground-based melee combat could make for a solid beat-’em-up. Make those ranged attacks a special occasion. Or, maybe that’s where side characters come in? Have Bulma whip out an Uzi or make Oolong turn into a missile.
One of the gripes about Kakarot was that the open-ish world felt empty, and while that’s true, it might not have been quite as noticeable if players explored it at a different pace. With the push of a button, Goku can blast off and zoom halfway across the map. It’s fun as hell but also makes so much of the world blur past. In Dragon Ball, Goku spends a lot of the time on foot, or riding in a variety of cool-looking vehicles – many of which are already in Kakarot. Sure, he gets the Flying Nimbus pretty early, but it’s also often out of the picture. I dunno, make Nimbus like Torrent in Elden Ring, your magical ride that sometimes totally bails on you.
Another complaint about Kakarot was that in between epic showdowns against iconic villains, a lot of time was spent fighting the same handful of enemies. Random encounters with Saibamen, pirate robots, Frieza’s henchmen happen constantly. None of these seem like they should actually pose a threat to earth’s mightiest heroes, but you’ve gotta have something to fight in between big story beats. Oh, and since so much of the travel is aerial, all the enemies need to be able to fly. In Dragon Ball, Goku constantly crosses paths with goons, thugs, henchmen, and various other run-of-the-mill bad guys. Honestly, Goku taking on the Red Ribbon army is practically a video game already: he fights his way floor by floor up Muscle Tower, beating up tons of regular grunts, and encountering a new unique boss every few levels.
Something I loved about Kakarot is how much its structure felt like the Yakuza games – the mix of epic story missions, silly side quests, and fun activities. Something the Yakuza series has proven several times over is that as long as there’s new stuff to do in a game, nobody gets too mad that the map is getting reused, and I’d love to see that approach taken here.
Given the massive global success of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super, the power creep clearly isn’t a deal breaker for a lot of fans, and for a lot of folks bigger is always better, period. Kakarot was the third best-selling Dragon Ball Z game to date, so I wouldn’t be shocked if Bandai Namco took the “if it ain't broke, don’t fix it” route – but we’ve gotten SO many DBZ games, it’d be nice to see the OG get some love, perhaps to commemorate some significant milestone… like say, the 40th anniversary next year? It’s not the craziest thing anyone’s wished for.
]]>Immediately after the news, there was a lot of chatter framing it as an immediate, knee-jerk counter to Xbox, as if the two publishing giants were playing a game of tennis (of course, that's not how acquisitions work).
I see Sony’s acquisition of Bungie as a clear encapsulation of Sony’s ambitions for the PlayStation brand we have seen over the last few years, and will likely only continue to see as the years progress.
Before Bungie, Sony’s biggest acquisition was, arguably, bringing Insomniac Games in-house in 2019. But there have been less prolific moves made that speak to a bigger plan, and we can sort them into a few different buckets. Firstly, Sony has been concentrating on sealing the deal with studios it has a long history with to guarantee a steady stream of exclusives, like Insomniac, but more recently Returnal devs Housemarque, the makers of the Demon’s Souls remake, Bluepoint Games, and Firesprite, a studio founded by former Studio Liverpool leads that is already proving to be a big PSVR asset. These purchases are key to assuaging any fan’s concerns: even as PlayStation moves into new spaces, it is by no means giving up on the cinematic and action-focused exclusives that have come to define it.
Secondly, it’s focusing on deals with teams that can help bolster and support PlayStation’s brand both on and off PlayStation platforms, like Nixxes Software and Valkyrie Entertainment. Nixxes is well known for its PC porting prowess (the Tomb Raider and Deus Ex games for Square Enix), and Valkyrie has been supporting Sony studios already with both development on God of War 2018 and God of War Ragnarok. As PlayStation looks to PC as a new avenue for its games, Nixxes can help ensure the quality of those ports, while Valkyrie can assist teams in-house with developing their games and, hopefully, stave off delays or dry spells in the release calendar. Thirdly, it’s made a series of exclusivity deals, which is nothing new for Sony – after all, we’re expecting Forspoken and Ghostwire Tokyo among other console exclusives this year. But the most interesting of the bunch are its deals to actually publish games by new, independent studios headed by veteran talent: Firewalk Studios, Deviation Games, and Haven Studios.
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While the deals with the latter aren’t outright Sony acquisitions, as Worldwide Studios head Hermen Hulst told IGN last year, they allow these studios to work with PlayStation’s tools and services, letting fledgling new teams with veteran know-how gain access to years of refined technology. And in return, PlayStation is building a foundation of game types that aren’t necessarily synonymous with its brand, and offer live-service and multiplayer experiences. Firewalk, a studio made up of Destiny, Halo, and Apex Legends devs, is working on a console-exclusive multiplayer game; Jade Raymond’s first Haven Studios game will be built around some live-service elements; and Deviation Games is founded by former Call of Duty: Black Ops and Zombies leads. All of these studios speak to genres and ideas that haven’t been at the core of PlayStation’s exclusives for quite some time (some excellent multiplayer modes like Ghost of Tsushima Legends notwithstanding).
Internally we’re also seeing that shift into new territory, with Naughty Dog hard at work on a multiplayer experience and London Studio hiring for an online-focused PS5 exclusive. In fact, PlayStation has even confirmed it is aiming to launch at least 10 live-service games in the next four years, and it’s not hard to see why. In the last fiscal year, add-on content, DLC, and microtransactions accounted for a third of PlayStation’s net sales. Not every game can be a Fortnite or an Apex Legends, but if you can widen that slice of revenue with ambitious exclusives, there’s clearly a lot of money to be made. (And it’s good timing, too, since Call of Duty has been such a major piece of the PlayStation pie and its future after the next couple of years is murky at best given the Xbox-Activision acquisition.)
All of this focus on studios that can facilitate PC ports, on live-service games, or even the acquisition of a studio like Bungie, that isn’t going to be making exclusives, may seem antithetical to some of Sony’s messaging in recent years. It is certainly a huge shift from the days of Sony blocking cross-play because PlayStation was “the best place to play”, and Jim Ryan’s 2020 quote that Sony does “believe in generations.” But I still don’t believe that these expansionary moves are evidence of a scramble to match Xbox in every way and nothing else. In the last few years, Sony founded PlayStation Productions in 2019, released the Horizon PC port in 2020 and announced the Days Gone PC port in 2021 before the Nixxes acquisition, and began expanding its mobile interests in early 2021, long before Xbox acquired King (or even Take-Two nabbed Zynga). Sony has been taking small steps toward a bigger future for years; they just weren’t steps that seemed as thrilling for the future or as daring as Xbox’s.
However, in an era where big acquisitions by Xbox can cause massive stock tumbles for Sony, and Xbox games like Halo Infinite and Forza Motorsport are played by 18+ million players in just a few months, I think Sony has absolutely moved from dipping a toe in the waters of a PlayStation ecosystem to diving into it headfirst as it sees the increased competition and a more equal sharing of mindshare.
Compared to Xbox’s recent big swings, it might feel like PlayStation isn’t doing things fast enough (certainly, Xbox’s major acquisitions feel like they happened very quickly, though those deals would have been quietly worked through for some time), but PlayStation has a current reputation as a brand synonymous with quality cinematic action and story franchises, and that didn’t happen overnight, either. After the PS3 lagged behind the Xbox 360 in the mid-2000’s, Sony needed to forge a new identity for the players who did pick up its expensive console. And it spent not just that generation, but also the following, solidifying itself as a home for those iconic franchises. (That's not to say Sony didn't have great exclusives prior to the PS. It did, but the last two generations show a more focused era in this department.) Naturally, it can be said that the recent Xbox era of acquisitions, low-cost Game Pass, and renewed focus on its ecosystem that Xbox has delivered is an incredible course correction to the company’s stumbles at the start of the Xbox One generation. But rather than spend two generations building up new franchises, Xbox smartly invested in its services, and used acquisitions as a means to shore up its list of franchises players love.
So how does Bungie fit in? While it will operate outside of the Worldwide Studios stable, its ownership under Sony does allow it access to all of the development service perks of PlayStation Studios, and Sony now has an in-house partner who has been through the ringer when it comes to developing online multiplayer and ongoing game ecosystems. Though Destiny 2 has found its footing, the early days of Destiny are infamous for the troubles Bungie went through in trying to establish an ongoing, engaging universe, and its comeback is one of the biggest in recent memory. Bungie has learned an incredible amount in almost a decade of Destiny under its belt – that’s learnings and innovations you can’t just create overnight…unless of course, you buy them. As Sony looks to expand what PlayStation means for players with new genres, ongoing games, and more, Bungie is a natural fit to marry that ambition with concrete tools, more revenue, and a dedicated userbase. And that seems to be exactly what Sony’s intentions are given recent statements.
“In addition, we view the deployment of our game IP on multiple platforms as a major growth opportunity for Sony, as has been evidenced by the success of the PC version of God of War and other first-party games. Through this acquisition we intend to acquire new users and increased engagement on platforms other than PlayStation, which will enable us to significantly advance our long-term growth strategy for further expanding the ecosystem of our game business,” Sony’s Hiroki Totoki said in the company’s most recent earnings call.
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On the flipside, it has to be mutually beneficial beyond the obvious $3.6 billion price tag. Bungie has ambitions of its own that PlayStation, and its multimedia arm PlayStation Productions, can help facilitate – namely in making Destiny more than a game.
“Today, Bungie begins our journey to become a global multi-media entertainment company,” is how Bungie’s announcement of the deal reads, while Totoki said “Bungie want to nurture the IP they have in a multi-dimensional manner, and that's their hope. For that, we believe we can help that – we have [Sony] Pictures and [Sony] Music, and Bungie can leverage our platform so that their IP can flourish and grow big” in Sony’s earnings call.
But beyond multimedia ambitions, PlayStation clearly provides Bungie with stability and financial backing to help live up to all its ambitions, as Bungie has noted “the most immediate change you will see is an acceleration in hiring talent across the entire studio to support our ambitious vision.”
IGN’s own John Davison said after the Activision acquisition, these companies are in a war for content, not consoles. And to push it even a bit further, it’s content that will cause audiences to associate their time and money with a brand over a box, and that means competing not just for shelf-space in a TV console table but in mindshare, screentime, and more. It’s why we’ve seen Netflix say Fortnite is a bigger competitor than HBO in the past, or why companies like WB and Disney are doubling down on their biggest franchises as their identities, pumping out universes of content that can keep users not just coming back, but specifically associating their love of a medium with certain brands. PlayStation and Xbox want the same thing, but are going about it in different ways, at least for now.
And, at the moment, the clear gap in its plans is something PlayStation is seemingly planning to address in the near future. Xbox’s attempts to bring people into its ecosystem have been through the tremendously user-friendly Game Pass subscription service. The allure of a program that guarantees every Xbox-owned studio’s games comes to the service day one, along with dozens and dozens of other AAA, indie, and everywhere in between games for a monthly flat rate is currently an unmatched deal for consumers. Xbox’s acquisitions have clearly been in service of, well, this service, and with such a wide stable of teams now under its control, Xbox can ensure there’s a steady stream of games you’d be a fool not to subscribe to Game Pass to play. (And in fact, just a few years ago, Xbox’s Matt Booty told us of Xbox’s intention to have a consistent cadence of exclusives to draw people to Game Pass).
We’re still very much waiting to see PlayStation’s answer to this, and we know some alleged details about Project Spartacus, the codename for PlayStation’s more expanded PlayStation Plus subscription service that we know is in the works but have very few official details on. Supposedly, the higher tiers of the plan will offer somewhat of a Game Pass-like catalog, but it also largely seems aimed at leveraging its legacy library of PS1 – PS3 games than be a driver to bring new players into the PlayStation ecosystem. There's no word yet if day-one launches of PlayStation exclusives will be part of the service, and plans could obviously change when the service is officially announced, of course. But PlayStation just doesn’t have the low-cost, expansive gaming option at the moment that brings players into the PlayStation world, builds allegiance, and retains them with a consistent slate of new releases. This might be a case where Sony needs to have a more direct response to Microsoft depending on how the service plays out.
SIE CEO Jim Ryan has said the hope is to expand the 10s of millions of players to PlayStation exclusives into 100s of millions – and that plan isn’t something the company has rushed together in the days since the Activision acquisition, or even the Bethesda deal. But it’s understandable why some may think Sony hasn’t been making as concerted an effort as Xbox or responding quickly to their moves – the massive amounts of money Microsoft has invested, the justly celebrated low cost of Game Pass, and the volume around the conversations those moves generate. These have all been more consumer-facing moves that the player can immediately see the repercussions of. Sony partnering with studios for games years in the future, or an acquisition that doesn’t necessarily bring more exclusives to PlayStation players? It’s more difficult to parse, but, ultimately, done in service of the same goal: giving more players a reason to invest in the PlayStation ecosystem. We just won’t quite know the full extent of whether Sony’s plans have paid out for years to come, but deals like the Bungie acquisition and Sony’s investment in new and longtime studios the last few years has all been leading PlayStation and its players toward the same destination.
Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior Features Editor, PlayStation Lead, and host of Podcast Beyond! He's the proud dog father of a BOY named Loki. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.
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