Author: Game Infliction

The Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo update set for February 21 also addresses performance concerns with the game, Square Enix has announced.

Revealed in a post on X/Twitter, the update will upgrade Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s Performance Mode, both in the demo and the main game.

Players had raised concerns over the quality of the PlayStation 5 exclusive, with IGN’s own performance review saying Performance Mode comes with a “drastic clarity and detail reduction” compared to its Graphics Mode counterpart.

Square Enix appears to have taken this feedback on, and has implemented an update coming as early as next week, before the full game even launches on February 29. “The update to the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo scheduled for February 21 will apply improvements to the visual quality when selecting Performance Mode from the graphics options,” the post said. “The same improvements will also be applied to the full game.”

Fans will need to wait until then to see if the changes result in a significant improvement, but Square Enix certainly has high expectations to meet for what’s arguably the most important chapter of its Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy.

The demo is available now and lets players explore the opening chapter of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, playing as either protagonist Cloud or antagonist Sephiroth in the Nibelheim chapter.

Developer Square Enix hasn’t been shy about sharing details of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth so far, releasing huge dumps of information on several occasions. It’s highlighted characters like Cait Sith and Vincent, plus iconic returning locations like Gold Saucer and Junon. The game will feature brand new locations not in the original Final Fantasy 7, too.

Square Enix has added new playable characters, plus a card game akin to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Gwent, and impressive fast travel. An ESRB rating has otherwise teased deep cleavage, pools of blood, and a clue to Aerith’s fate.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Despite what previous rumors suggested, the director of Dragon’s Dogma 2 has clarified that the upcoming action RPG will not be locked at 30 frames per second but rather will feature an uncapped frame rate.

In a post on X/Twitter, Dragon’s Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno confirmed the game would feature an unlocked frame rate and support for variable frame rate (VFR).

ドラゴンズドグマ 2 は可変フレームレートに対応していますよ！

Dragon’s Dogma 2 will release with an uncapped framerate!#DD2、#ドラゴンズドグマ2、#dragonsdogma2 pic.twitter.com/NXID8FZWCL

— Hideaki Itsuno (@tomqe) February 13, 2024

While Itsuno did not specify whether these features are available on all the platforms Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to release on, they should be on PC and consoles alike, as Itsuno liked a reply a fan posted when asking if uncapped frame rates and VFR were coming to the console versions, too.

Unlike variable refresh rate (VRR), variable frame rate (VFR) is when the the video display adjusts the frame rate depending on certain factors such as how much action is going on in a scene or the hardware the game is running on. In contrast, VRR is a technology that will automatically sync a display’s refresh rate to match whatever the game is outputting.

Uncapped frame rates can be a double-edged sword depending on the situation, mostly concerning the stability of a game’s performance. As Digital Foundry’s John Linneman points out, from what he has seen, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is “wildly unstable,” with hopes that there will be a Performance Mode or at least an option to lock the game at 30 frames per second.

In IGN’s final preview of Dragon’s Dogma 2, we wrote: “In the 10 hours I played, these were very compelling decisions to have to make, but the real test will be whether those decisions remain compelling or turn exhausting in hour 20 or 30 when the map has expanded dramatically, and you still have quests remaining to complete in a town you’re super far away from.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is out on March 22 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Sony boss Hiroki Totoki has offered what he called his “frank impressions” of the PlayStation business, suggesting its studios can do more to cut development costs.

Rising development costs and increasing development schedules are two of the hottest topics within the video game industry right now. As huge layoffs devastate developers, the triple-A business is seen as under threat, with fears of a market crash.

The release of data stolen from Sony-owned developer Insomniac late last year revealed internal concern at the growing cost of the studio’s games. According to Kotaku’s report on the breach, Spider-Man 2 development costs ran $30 million over the original $270 million budget, and ultimately needed to sell 7.2 million units to break even. The latest sales figures suggest Spider-Man 2 has now veered into profitable territory, although Sony has yet to confirm that itself.

Responding to a question from an analyst during a financial call viewed by IGN, Totoki reflected on his four month-tenure as chairperson of Sony Interactive Entertainment, a role he took on following the announcement that previous SIE boss Jim Ryan was leaving the business.

“I’m trying to demonstrate leadership, and trying to have as many meetings as possible with the management team,” Totoki said. “Also visit studios. Everyone is working really hard to fulfill their responsibility, to try to optimize the business, and I understand that.

“But overall growth and sustainable profitability, or increasing margin, how will that translate to these goals? I don’t think people understand that deeply. I think that is the problem of the organization.

“So as far as I am concerned, I’m trying to understand what is happening in the company, in the industry, and also the perspective of analysts, and try to explain in a transparent manner so people can recognise and notice these issues, so we can have a harmonized approach going forward. That is a very general comment since I became the chairperson.

“There are concrete points, which I will not go into today.”

Totoki then went into more detail on what he called “room for improvement” at PlayStation studios, specifically calling out development costs and scheduling.

“Now, about visiting the studios, I’ve had meetings with leaders at the studios,” he said. “People who work in the studios are very highly motivated, they’re very good people, and they’re very creative people, they have great creative minds, and they also have knowledge about live streaming.

“However, having said that, when it comes to the business itself, I think there is room for improvement. And that has to do with, how do you use the money? Or about the schedule of development, or how to fulfill one’s accountability towards development. Those are my frank impressions.

“So I will continue to engage in dialogue with the people so we can find the right way to proceed.”

Following the release of the data stolen from Insomniac, files revealed Sony-owned studios were put under pressure to make staff cuts. As reported by Kotaku, the files contained meeting notes that claimed “there will be one studio closure” at PlayStation Studios. It is currently unclear if this claim remains valid. Sony and Insomniac are yet to comment.

Elsewhere, the files showed Insomniac was under pressure to make budget cuts, with 50-75 layoffs earmarked for the studio. Insomniac staff reportedly discussed how to “remove 50-75 people strategically”, as requested by Sony, with the best option supposedly to “cut deeply” into the Wolverine and Spider-Man 3 teams, and replacing staff with team members from the unannounced new Ratchet & Clank game and a new unannounced IP.

According to the leaked documents, Sony called on staff cuts across its first-party studios. Officially, we know of a number of layoffs at PlayStation Studios, including a wave of redundancies at Dreams developer Media Molecule, significant cuts at Destiny developer Bungie, and layoffs at The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog.

During the financial call, Totoki said Sony would try to improve PlayStation game margins by leaning further on non-PlayStation platforms, such as PC and mobile.

“In the past, as you all know, we wanted to popularize console and the first-party titles main purpose was to make the console popular,” Totoki said. “It is true, but there is a synergy to it. So if you have strong first-party content, not only with our console but also other platforms like computers, first-party can be grown with multiplatforms, and that can help operating profit to improve. So that is another one we want to proactively work on.

“I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margins, so I would like to go aggressive on improving our margin performance.”

Sony has already demonstrated a willingness to release its big first-party PlayStation exclusives on PC some time after they launch on console, although has so far resisted following in Microsoft’s footsteps by launching its games day-and-date across console and PC. However, it has released some of its multiplayer-focused games on console and PC at the same time. The recently released Helldivers 2, for example, launched on PS5 and PC via Steam on the same day, and has become Sony’s biggest game ever on Valve’s platform with over 200,000 peak concurrent players.

Sony has revised its PS5 sales forecast for the current financial year, down from its lofty target of 25 million consoles sold to 21 million. This despite a year-on-year increase in PS5 sales for the holiday 2023 quarter, from 7.1 million sold to 8.2 million. Elsewhere, Sony has said it will not release any major existing PlayStation franchise games before April 2025, ruling out big sequels in the God of War and Spider-Man franchises any time soon.

Image credit: Sony

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.