Sony just announced a ton of new features currently under development. Features such as support for 1440p output have been teased for some time while others, such as the ability to join a Discord voice chat natively, feel like they should have been announced sooner than several years into the console’s life cycle.
You won’t be the first to access these features unless you’ve been selected for the beta, but they seem fairly promising. You’ll finally be able to make Discord calls directly from your PlayStation 5 and display the game that you’re playing to whoever you’re talking to (just like the mobile and desktop versions).
The PS5 will get other notable social features too. You’ll finally be able to request screenshare directly from your friends’ profiles, join gaming sessions through “Party” chats, and see which games that your friends also own on their account. If you’re picky about who gets to join your games (like me), don’t fret: Sony is giving PS5 owners the ability to dictate who does and doesn’t get to join your games.
These additions are potentially huge boons to the multiplayer ecosystem that Sony has been trying to build out ever since it acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion. And according to a financial call from last year, multiplayer was the biggest reason that PlayStation Plus users kept paying to use Sony’s gaming subscription service every month.
Even if you’re not big on multiplayer, Sony is developing features that are applicable to all PlayStation owners. The one I’m most excited about is the ability to use a voice command to capture video. You wouldn’t fiddle with details manually either; you can make presets for how long an average clip should be.
If you upgraded to a current-gen console recently, you probably remember game save transfers being a huge pain point. Currently, the only way to shuffle your PlayStation 4 saves to your new console was to dig into your cloud storage. PlayStation Plus subscribers will eventually be able to transfer save data automatically. Even if you’re not paying for Sony’s gaming subscription service, you’ll soon be able to transfer data between individual PS5s. You know, now that it’s supposedly possible for the average person to secure more than one console.
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If you’re lucky enough to receive a beta sign-up email, then you can preview these features before anyone else. So check your inbox carefully.
Things haven’t been going great for Xbox recently. Microsoft is facing stiff resistance in its attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard. It released hardly any big exclusive blockbusters last year. And it just cut over 10,000 jobs last week, including many senior developers at Halo Infinite studio 343 Industries. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer tried to remain upbeat and do damage control on each of these points and more in a new interview with IGN.
“Every year is critical,” he said. “I don’t find this year to be more or less critical. I feel good about our momentum. Obviously, we’re going through some adjustments right now that are painful, but I think necessary, but it’s really to set us up and the teams for long-term success.”
This week captured both the peril and promise facing Xbox right now. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a drop in net-income of 12 percent for the most recent fiscal quarter compared to the prior year. Xbox gaming hardware and software were down by similar percentages, and Microsoft said nothing about how many new subscribers its Game Pass service had gained since it crossed the 25 million mark exactly a year ago.
Then on Wednesday Microsoft provided a sleek and streamlined look at its upcoming games in a Developer Direct livestream copied right from the Nintendo playbook. Forza Motorsport was seemingly quietly delayed to the second half of the year, but looked like a beautiful and impressive racing sim showpiece. Arkane’s co-op sandbox vampire shooter Redfall got a May 2 release date. Real-time strategy spin-off Minecraft Legends will hit in April. And to cap things off Tango Gameworks, maker of The Evil Within, shadow-dropped Hi-Fi Rush on Game Pass, a colorful rhythm-action game from left field that’s already become the first undisputed gaming hit of 2023.
Screenshot: Tango Gameworks / Bethesda
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“2022 was too light on games,” Spencer confessed in his IGN interview. 2023 shouldn’t be thanks to Redfall and Starfield, Bethesda’s much-anticipated answer to the question, “What if Skyrim but space?” But both of those games were technically supposed to come out last year. Meanwhile, Hi-Fi Rush, like Obsidian’s Pentiment before it, is shaping up to be a critically acclaimed Game Pass release that still might be too small to move the needle on Xbox’s larger fortunes.
Spencer remained vague when asked how successful these games were or their impact on Game Pass, whose growth has reportedly stalled on console. “I think that the creative diversity expands for us when we have different ways for people to kind of pay for the games that they’re playing, and the subscription definitely helps there,” he said.
Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall, Starfield, and a new The Elder Scrolls Online expansion due out in June are also all from Bethesda, which Microsoft finished acquiring in 2021. The older Microsoft first-party game studios have either remained relatively quiet in recent years while working on their next big projects, or, in the case of 343 Industries, were recently hit with a surprising number of layoffs.
Following news of the cuts last week, rumors and speculation began to swirl that 343 Industries—which shipped a well-received Halo Infinite single-player campaign in 2021, but struggled with seasonal updates for the multiplayer component in the months since—was being benched. The studio put out a brief statement over the weekend saying Halo was here to stay and that it would continue developing it.
Image: Bethesda / Microsoft
Spencer doubled down on that in his interview with IGN, but provided little insight into the reasoning behind the layoffs or what its plans were for the franchise moving forward. “What we’re doing now is we want to make sure that leadership team is set up with the flexibility to build the plan that they need to go build,” he said. “And Halo will remain critically important to what Xbox is doing, and 343 is critically important to the success of Halo.”
Where Halo Infinite’s previously touted “10-year” plan fits into that, however, remains unclear. “They’ve got some other things, some rumored, some announced, that they’ll be working on,” Spencer said. And on the future of the series as a whole he simply said, “I expect that we’ll be continuing to support and grow Halo for as long as the Xbox is a platform for people to play.” It’s hard to imagine Nintendo talking about Mario with a similar-sounding lack of conviction.
It’s possible Microsoft’s continued struggles with some of its internal projects is partly why it’s so focused on looking outside the company for help. Currently that means trying to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion and fighting off an antitrust lawsuit by the Federal trade Commission in the process. Microsoft had originally promised the deal to get Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush would be wrapped up before the end of summer 2023. That deadline’s coming up quickly, even as the company continues offering compromises, like reportedly giving Sony the option to continue paying to have Activision’s games on its rival Game Pass subscription service, PS Plus.
Spencer told IGN he remains bullish on closing the deal, despite claiming to have known nothing about the logistics of doing so when he started a year ago. “Given a year ago, for me, I didn’t know anything about the process of doing an acquisition like this,” he said. “The fact that I have more insight, more knowledge about what it means to work with the different regulatory boards, I’m more confident now than I was a year ago, simply based on the information I have and the discussions that we’ve been having.”
Sucker Punch hasn’t announced what it’s working on, but has confirmed what it isn’t working on.Image: Sucker Punch Productions
Sony’s San Diego Studio is a multiplatform studio now that MLB The Show is available on Xbox and Nintendo platforms. So while it won’t be a PlayStation exclusive, expect an MLB The Show 23 later this year. God of War Ragnarök was one of the biggest games of last year, and was also one of the last big games in 2022, having only launched about two months ago. Sony Santa Monica also doesn’t seem to have plans to make DLC for Ragnarök, so it’s probable the team goes mostly silent in 2023.
Sucker Punch could be a wildcard in 2023, as it’s been about three years since Ghost of Tsushima, but the studio also seems to be working on a sequel to its open-world samurai game rather than a new IP or a sequel to its previous series Infamous and Sly Cooper. The gap between Infamous: Second Son and Ghost of Tsushima was about six years, but if the studio is iterating on old systems, we may hear about the new samurai sequel sooner rather than later. Finally, Valkyrie Entertainment was a more low-key acquisition for Sony, and the team has acted primarily as a support studio as recently as God of War Ragnarök. That being so, the team is likely helping out with other projects that launch in 2023.
Whew, I think that’s everything on the PlayStation radar so far. Has anything got your interest piqued, or are you hoping Sony will announce some more enticing projects in the coming year?
Justin Roiland is leaving Squanch Games just a month after comedic shooter High on Life became 2022’s most popular Xbox Game Pass launch. The studio co-founder who voices many of High on Life’s characters is currently facing two felony domestic abuse charges from 2020.
Squanch Games announced the news late on Tuesday, shortly after Adult Swim revealed that it was dropping Roiland from Rick and Morty as well. But the CEO’s resignation apparently actually occurred over a week ago on January 16, four days after news of the domestic abuse charges first surfaced (which Roiland pled not guilty to), and three days after Kotaku first reported on a 2018 lawsuit accusing the studio of workplace harassment and discrimination (and which it settled in 2019).
“The passionate team at Squanch will keep developing games we know our fans will love while continuing to support and improve High On Life,” the studio tweeted yesterday. Squanch Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why Roiland resigned, whether it was aware of any other allegations related to him or the studio, and whether he still holds any equity in Squanch.
Co-founded by Roiland and former Epic Games executive producer Tanya Watson back in 2016, Squanch Games’ early projects included virtual reality games Accounting and Dr. Splorchy Presents: Space Heroes. Those were followed in 2019 by action platformer Trover Saves the Universe. Each of them leaned heavily on voice performances by Roiland that were heavily reminiscent of his work on Rick and Morty.
Last year’s High on Life, which began as a Google Stadia exclusive, was the studio’s biggest game by far, however. In Kotaku’s own review, writer Alyssa Mercante found the humor grating and felt that the running gags overstayed their welcome, but she was pleasantly surprised by the visual style and gunplay. The game similarly divided other critics, but audiences flocked to it on Xbox and PC where it was available day-one on Game Pass.
Whether because of the game’s own merits or the fact that it showed up at the tail end of an otherwise anemic year for Xbox exclusives and blockbusters, it immediately shot up to the top of the charts on Game Pass. Shortly after release, Microsoft crowned it “Xbox Game Pass’ biggest launch of 2022, the biggest 3rd party Game Pass launch of all time, and the biggest release of a single player-only game in the service’s history.”
That accolade came after a big promotional campaign for the game on the platform, including a podcast interview between human Xbox mascot Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb and Roiland, where the latter discussed the game and its influences. That’s gone quiet now, with the Xbox Game Pass Twitter account not tweeting about High on Life since news of the domestic abuse charges first broke.
Warhammer 40K: Darktide released on PC late last year, a dark and chunky take on Left 4 Dead set in Games Workshop’s grim, distant future. It was OK! Had its problems, but was OK. Those problems have persisted into 2023, though, and so the developers are shelving an Xbox version of the game while they get to work fixing them.
In a statement released earlier today, Fatshark say they set out to “create a highly engaging and stable game with a level of depth that keeps you playing for weeks, not hours”, but “fell short of meeting those expectations”.
As a result, they’re not only delaying “seasonal content” for the PC version, but will be delaying the release of the game on Xbox Series X|S as well.
OPEN LETTER ΤΟ OUR PLAYERS
We take enormous pride in our ability at Fatshark to deliver a game that millions can enjoy. This was what we set out to do with Warhammer 40,000: Darktide to create a highly engaging and stable game with a level of depth that keeps you playing for weeks, not hours.
We fell short of meeting those expectations.
Over the next few months, our sole focus is to address the feedback that many of you have. In particular, we will focus on delivering a complete crafting system, a more rewarding progression loop, and continue to work on game stability and performance optimization.
This also means that we will delay our seasonal content rollout and the Xbox Series XIS launch. We will also suspend the upcoming releases of premium cosmetics. We just couldn’t continue down this path, knowing that we have not addressed many feedback areas in the game today.
Thank you for playing and providing feedback. We really appreciate it. It has and will continue to help shape the game we love.
Martin Wahlund CEO & Co-Founder of Fatshark
I didn’t think the PC version was that bad! Sure it had problems, but online games from smaller teams like this often do. Then again smaller teams often don’t have the resources to do everything at once, so if this is what they want to do with what they’ve got then this is what they’re going to to do with what they’ve got!
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer juxtaposed the joys of gaming with the current sense of despair in the world after accepting the Andrew Yoon Legend Award at the 12th Annual New York Game Awards on Tuesday night. He also applauded creators who still release “their visions” into the world in the “current culture of criticism and cancellation,” a loaded line at a time when debates are raging about the ethics of boycotting certain games like Hogwarts Legacy.
“As world builders our greatest responsibility is to inspire and invite joy,” Spencer said. The veteran executive who spearheaded many of Microsoft’s gaming acquisitions from Minecraft to Bethesda, spoke about what games meant to him growing up, and about the increasing difficulty of tapping back into that in the modern world. “It feels like today seeking joy is an act of defiance,” he said.
Spencer continued:
We, all of us here today, all of our teams around the globe, we are all a part of creating this echo effect of joy. Our creators who bravely and intentionally release their visions to the world, particularly in the current culture of criticism and cancellation; our players who bravely and intentionally carve out time for our games to invite, rest, and rejuvenate their lives; and business leaders. We are called upon to have the courage to protect and nurture this collective joy.
While the Microsoft Gaming CEO has been an outspoken advocate for making Xbox a more diverse and inclusive force in the world of gaming, the line about our “current culture of criticism and cancellation” could be interpreted as an “anti-woke” dog whistle, and strikes an unusual note at a time when increasing numbers of developers and players expect game companies to be held accountable for their political views and ethical shortcomings.
Just last month, Microsoft was in promotion mode for Justin Roiland and Squanch Games’ comedy shooter High on Life. The company even interviewed Roiland and later hailed the game as the biggest Game Pass launch of the year. Last week, however, it was revealed that the Rick and Morty co-creator was facing two felony domestic abuse charges from 2020, and that Squanch Games had settled a sexual harassment lawsuit a year prior in 2019.
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The “culture of cancellation” could just as easily apply to the debate currently unfolding among some players and content creators as to whether they can support transgender rights and still buy Hogwarts Legacy. Despite J.K. Rowling, who is currently waging a crusade against trans women, having no involvement in the game, the author still collects royalties off the license and is impossible to disentangle from the larger Harry Potter brand.
One of the game’s voice actors, Sebastian Croft, recently apologized to anyone hurt by the announcement of his involvement in the game. The game’s developers at Avalanche Software have also sought to distance themselves from Rowling, and included a transgender option in the character creator. The studio also parted ways with one developer over his YouTube videos containing support for GamerGate and other controversial views.
It’s not clear if Spencer meant to take issue with people holding game creators guilty by association in some instances, to imply that game creators are sometimes subject to unfair and bad faith criticisms, or if he was referencing how easily developers become targets for harassment by so-called fans and players.
Microsoft also won’t be the only company to indirectly profit off Rowling’s work with Hogwarts Legacy. The game will be available on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC as well. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decade-old PlayStation 4, released all the way back in 2013, has continued to receive big, new exclusives from Sony, even if those old-gen ports feel outdated or inferior. But now, it finally seems like Sony is ready to move on and leave the aging PS4 behind. Well, almost ready…
It’s somewhat hard to believe, but the PlayStation 5 was released over two years ago on November 12, 2020. Yet, the last few massive Sony exclusives—Horizon: Forbidden Westand God of War: Ragnarök—were released on the PS5 as well as the elderly PS4. And while it was nice that more folks got a chance to play these big games, it also felt odd to see Sony still supporting this weird era of cross-gen games into 2023. This was the same company whose boss, Jim Ryan, infamously said in 2020 that Sony had always believed in “generations” in response to Microsoft promising long-term support for cross-gen games, meaning you can only be in one era at a time. Fast forward to early 2023, and while Microsoft in 2022 failed to really ship…anything for any generation of Xbox, Sony did publish a few big titles. But most launched on both PS4 and PS5, seemingly going against Sony’s belief in separate, distinct generations.
Sony / PlayStation
However, that finally seems to be changing based on a new trailer from PlayStation. In the new video published yesterday, we see a montage of 23 games coming out in 2023. And only eight of them are coming to both PS4 and PS5. And all of Sony’s exclusive games, including Spider-Man 2 and the Horizon VR spin-off, are skipping PS4 entirely.
Here are all the games and DLC expansions shown in the video:
Final Fantasy 16 – PS5 Only
Horizon 2 DLC – PS5 Only
Spider-Man 2 – PS5 Only
Assassin’s Creed Mirage – PS5/PS4
Resident Evil 4 (Remake) – PS5/PS4
Forspoken – PS5 Only
Suicide Squad – PS5 Only
Dead Space – PS5 Only
Stellar Blade – PS5 Only
Street Fighter 6 – PS4/PS5
Star Wars Jedi Survivor – PS5 Only
Alone In The Dark – PS5 Only
Firewall Ultra – PS5/PSVR 2 Only
Pacific Drive – PS5 Only
The Lords of the Fallen (2023) – PS5 Only
Horizon VR: Call of the Mountain – PS5/PSVR Only
Destiny 2: Lightfall – PS5/PS4
Eternights – PS5/PS4
Tchia – PS5/PS4
Season A Letter To The Future – PS5/PS4
SynDuality – PS5 Only
Hogwarts Legacy – PS5/PS4
Wildhearts – PS5 Only
If you’ve been paying attention over the last year, you’ve likely noticed that many third-party publishers and developers are starting to make the transition to the current-gen, leaving behind the Xbox One and PS4 in the process. So on the one hand, it’s not surprising that Sony is too.
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But then again, it was just a few weeks ago that Sony released one of the biggest games of 2022—the new God of War—for both its shiny new PS5 and the aging PS4. And sure, the PS4 port of the game was great. In fact, it might be one of the most technically impressive games released on the old console, a perfect swan song for Sony’s machine. But after playing it for a few hours, it felt like the PS4 (and its fans) were struggling to keep up. So while I’m not shocked to see Sony signaling so publicly that it is finally ditching the PS4, I’m still happy about the news.
I have to imagine many devs are also ready to move forward, without having to balance so many different console specs among the PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, One X, One S, and Series X/S, and just focus on a few, bigger, nicer-looking versions of games that are becoming increasingly difficult to make for even one platform.
It’s likely that Sony was hesitant to move forward into a PS5-only future while it was impossible for most to even buy the console. Things are starting to change on that front, and it’s getting easier and easier to snag a PS5. And as more people buy the upgraded console, it becomes easier and easier to finally look forward into the next generation of gaming.
Now that 2022 is over (thank God), the NPD group has done its thing, collecting and processing all the resulting sales data. Now we can look back at the last 12 months and see what games and consoles sold best, and how much money people spent on this stuff. Shocking nobody, Nintendo had another successful year while Elden Ring nearly topped the charts, beating out both God of War and Madden.
Yes, it’s once again that time of the year when the NPD Group—a decades-old retail tracking and market research company—releases data on what people bought last year. While the group tracks and monitors many different industries, since 1995 it’s monitored the sale of video games and consoles in the United States, and usually publishes some of this data every month.
Nintendo is likely pleased to see that in 2022 the top-selling video game console in the United States was the Nintendo Switch. The NPD doesn’t release specific sales numbers publicly, so we don’t know just how many Switch consoles were sold this year, but Nintendo’s aging console outperformed the PlayStation 5, which was the second best-selling platform last year, and Xbox Series X/S, which came in third. It should also be noted that the Switch was the best-selling console of December 2022 so it appears the Switch is still the hot item to get around Christmas. And two new Pokémon games in 2022 (even if they were buggy) probably helped, too.
Late last week, the NPD Group also released its list of the 20 best-selling games of 2022. Before we jump into the list, remember that Nintendo doesn’t share its digital numbers with the NPD, potentially hurting its own games’ rankings. But anyway, here’s the NPD top 10:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Elden Ring
Madden NFL 23
God of War: Ragnarök
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Pokémon Scarlet/Violet
FIFA 23
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Horizon Forbidden West
MLB The Show 22
While Elden Ring was on a roll this year and still ends up as the second best-selling game of 2022, it wasn’t able to defeat the juggernaut that is Call of Duty. There’s a reason Activision continues to focus almost all of its resources and studios on Call of Duty: because it makes a lot of money. And as always, some big-name sports games and console exclusives fill out the rest of the list. This data is also a great reminder that most folks outside of the people reading this or commenting below don’t care about bugs, as Madden NFL 23 and the new Pokémon games launched in fairly rough states yet they still cracked the top 10.
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Now that 2022 is over and done with, it’s time to place your bets for the best-selling game of 2023! The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom seems like a solid bet…assuming it releases this year.
Recently, there’s been some concern about whether or not PS5’s are safe to stand vertically. Videos and observations from independent console technician TheCod3r and a followup article from Wololo that quoted one such video out of context led to palpable worry among some that standing the PS5 in a vertical position could put it at risk for damage. While the original video documents a potentially very real point of failure in PS5s, it’s not something that is destined to harm your PS5. So, yes, as many have noted, you are probably safe leaving yours in a vertical position.
In a video from September of last year titled You Won’t Believe WHY This PlayStation 5 Stopped Working! Can I Fix Sony’s Catastrophic Mistakes?, third-party repair technician TheCod3r discovered a somewhat alarming issue in a PS5 on his bench for repairs. The liquid metal thermal paste that covers the PS5’s processor spilled out to the surrounding area. Such an issue can clearly lead to problems and will cause a PS5 to not function properly, leading to electrical issues or an inability for the PS5 to properly manage the high levels of heat it produces. This issue doesn’t discriminate between the digital or disc-based versions of the console either. Based on the direction the liquid metal spilled out, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that, as TheCod3r said in one of two follow up videos concerning this issue, under certain circumstances “gravity takes over” and might cause the liquid metal to drip through the seal meant to keep it in place. But while this might explain how this happens in specific cases, it does not explain why, meaning that it wasn’t clear vertical orientation inherently causes this to occur.
Unfortunately, fear of a rather expensive machine dying (which is only now much easier to get) mixed with vague language, led to misunderstandings. In the original video, TheCod3r can be heard saying the notorious console with leaking liquid metal had “never been opened.”
This was what Wololo misquoted and has since issued a correction for. It was mistakenly believed that TheCod3r was referring to the console’s packaging, that it perhaps had never been taken out of the box. This is not true. TheCod3r was referring to the console itself, physically, being opened, likely for repair. But of course, when you consider the language of the original YouTube video itself, referring to “Sony’s Catastrophic Mistakes,” and ending with TheCod3r flipping off the camera as a “fuck you” gesture to Sony, and at least one other repair technician reporting similar discoveries, it’s easy to see how this story got mangled into assumptions that this is an inherent design flaw of the PS5 that other users might need to watch out for.
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But how we got here, and the nuances of how consumer electronics work and fail can get us separated from the question likely on many PS5 owner’s minds: Should you use your PS5 in a vertical position? Fortunately, that answer is pretty clear.
Is it safe to keep my PS5 in a vertical position?
Short answer? Based on what’s known right now, yes. It’s safe.
But if you’re still reading and haven’t closed this tab to go back to God of War on your tower-positioned PlayStation, you might want a somewhat longer explanation of what’s going on. So let’s break this down.
The PlayStation 5 was designed to be stood vertically. Recent revelations, like TheCod3r’s discovery, don’t indicate that the console is inherently prone to this failing because of vertical orientation. What these videos document is one such way a PS5 could fail—because all consumer electronics can fail. Furthermore, as a device that has been out in the wild for two years, the PS5 seems to be operating within standard rates of success and failure, particularly around heat. As GamersNexus documented in one case a few years ago, a full year of “constant thermal cycling” showed no alarming issues. Though, GamersNexus did note that the PS5 does seem to use an awful lot of liquid metal, an amount that you shouldn’t match if you’re building your own computer.
What TheCod3r’s video reveals is that, when a PS5 fails, it could be due to liquid metal leaking out—just as much as it is at risk from a power supply failing or some other similar issue. There are other variables to consider beyond vertical orientation, like whether or not the console has been opened previously by a third-party repair technician for example.
TheCod3r’s follow-up video stresses that this is something that, at most, they’ve seen in one out of every 10, or even 20, PS5s that have come in for repair. Remember, that’s at most, one out of every 10 units that he has seen and has worked on, which are already broken—not one out of every ten PS5s in total. It is enough of an common failure that TheCod3r describes it as the first issue he’ll check for when a non-functional PS5 arrives on his bench, but only because the problem is relatively easy and cheap to fix compared to other issues.
TheCod3r states that replacing the liquid metal is one of the cheaper repairs. If swapping out and sealing in some new thermal paste does the job, it’s more affordable and quicker than actually pulling something off the PCB, finding a replacement part, and then resoldering it.
There will always be some percentage of devices that’ll die, and right now it seems that of the PS5s that do die, sometimes the liquid metal covering the processor leaking out is to blame. But other times it might be an issue with the power supply. Or, as TheCod3r mentioned in his video, something like the wifi chip, another common failure point.
Should I keep my PS5 in horizontal position just to be safe?
If you’re like me and are prone to anxiety, keeping yours horizontal might just be worth the peace of mind it’ll afford you. You might also want to throw salt over your shoulder and spin around three times after talking about ghosts. That said, given the rate of failure due to liquid metal leaks being on par with other ways the console might fail, you are perhaps just as likely to have your console die from a PSU issue or some other malfunction, and such a failure would hit a PS5 in a horizontal position just as much of a vertical one.
Read More:The Red Ring Of Death Stalked All My Friends, And Then It Came For Me
Unless new information arises, it’s safe to say that this is not a problem on the scale of the Xbox 360’s red ring of death. Far from it: For now, the liquid metal issue appears to be within acceptable failure rates that all consumer electronics have. Yes, your PS5 is safe to tower over everything else in your entertainment center. And hey, if it does fail, I bet you could anchor a small boat with that thing too.
If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you’re in for a pretty sweet time starting on January 17. And if you’re not, the first catalog update for 2023 is tough to say no to. The latest injection of games to Sony’s subscription service features some undead co-op slaying, Super Saiyan shenanigans, a couple of classic games, and much more.
The PlayStation Plus subscription service, much like other gaming subs, regularly updates with new games every month. The service is spread across three tiers, Essential, Extra, Premium, which each cost $10, $15, and $18 a month respectively. Premium gets you the largest catalog (it’s the only tier that nets you access to PSX games) as well as letting you take advantage of Sony’s game streaming service (once known as PS Now). This month’s highlights include Back 4 Blood, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Devil May Cry 5, Just Cause 4, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, and Syphon Filter 3, among others.
In a blog update, Sony laid out the following additions to PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers:
PS Plus Extra and Premium PS4 games
Back 4 Blood Dragon Ball FighterZ Jett: The Far Shore Just Cause 4: Reloaded Life Is Strange: Before the Storm Life Is Strange Sayonara Wild Hearts Omno Erica
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PS Plus Extra and Premium PS5 games
Back 4 Blood Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition Jett: The Far Shore Just Cause 4: Reloaded
If you’re on the Premium tier, you’ll also get the following PlayStation One classics:
Syphon Filter 3 Star Wars Demolition Hot Shots Golf 2
If you haven’t played Devil May Cry 5 yet and you like stylish hack-and-slash action, it should probably be your first download of the lot. Otherwise, I definitely recommend giving Syphon Filter 3 a spin. The stealthy action series never reached critical acclaim quite like Metal Gear Solid did, but it’s definitely a pleasant trip down PlayStation memory lane. Let’s not resurrect the Snake vs. Gabe wars in the comments though, please. (Obviously Snake wins.)