It’s been a busy year for Riot’s new Forge publishing arm, aimed at expanding its League of Legends Runeterra universe in games beyond the popular MOBA. In April, we got The Mageseeker, a hi-bit brawler set in the austere kingdom of Demacia, and in June, we got Convergence, a traditional Metroidvania set in the seedy depths of the city of Zaun. To finish out the year, the company has now published Song of Nunu, a narrative action game developed by Tequila Works, which previously developed RiME back in the early days of the Switch library. We’re pleased to report that Song of Nunu is yet another strong addition to the Runeterra universe, expertly combining a gripping narrative with enjoyable gameplay.
Song of Nunu is set in the Freljord, a harsh, frigid, mountainous region in the north of Runeterra, and follows the adventures of an energetic young boy named Nunu and his affable yeti friend, Willump. Nunu’s mother has gone missing since his camp was attacked by raiders and he keeps having dreams where she tells him to find “The Heart of the Blue” at the Winged Mountain. Aided by Willump’s strength, Nunu sets out on a quest to reach the mountain, where he expects to find some answers about what happened to his mother and hopes to be reunited with her. All the while, however, the two are unknowingly pursued by a dangerous ice witch named Lissandra, who wishes to use Willump’s unique powers to help her fight back against a shadowy force that threatens the whole Freljord.
2023 is finally the year where 2TB PS5 SSD upgrades are actually worth the price. Last year, prices for 1TB PS5 SSDs averaged around $150, whereas 2TB SSDs hovered closer to $300. This year, we’re seeing 1TB SSDs trickle below the $70 price point and 2TB SSDs can drop to $100 or lower (like this Crucial P5 Plus 2TB SSD for $99.74). Note that you can’t use any old SSD and expect it to perform well on the PS5 console. You’ll want to pick up a PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid-state drive with at least a 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive.
TL;DR – The Best PS5 SSD Deals Right Now
Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD and not all SSDs listed here have pre-installed heatsinks. For the ones that do, we’ll be sure to mention it. For the ones that don’t, all you have to do is purchase your own heatsink (like this one for $9) and install it yourself. For our top recommended picks for 2023, check out our full breakdown for the Best PS5 SSDs.
Crucial P5 Plus 2TB SSD for $99.74
Clip the $5.25 off coupon on the product page to get this price. The Crucial P5 Plus meets all the requirements for your PS5 SSD upgrade. It supports transfer speeds of up to 6,660MB/s which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. Yes there are faster SSDs out there, but if your intention is to put this in your PS5, then that extra speed is worthless because you’re bottlenecked by the original PS5 SSD. If you’re worried about opening up your PS5 case, don’t worry it’s very easy. Crucial has an official YouTube PS5 SSD install guide.
Silicon Power 2TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink for $104.97
The Silicon Power XS70 SSD with a preinstalled robust aluminum heatsink costs about $100. The aluminum heatsink is still slim enough to fit in the PS5 without obstruction. It boasts transfer speeds of up to 7300MB/s read and 6800MB/s write, comfortably faster than the 5500MB/s minimum recommended requirement. It actually performs a little better than the Crucial P5 Plus, the original WD Black SN850, and the Samsung 980 Pro, although that won’t make a difference in your PS5.
Adata Legend Max 2TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink for $119.99
The “Legend” is Adata’s newest lineup of high-speed PS5-compatible SSDs, replacing the XPG Gammix S70 Blade and the Adata Premium. The “Max” in the name means that this model has a preinstalled heatsink that’s slim enough to fit in the PS5 drive bay. This is one of the faster SSDs on the market with read speeds of up to 7400MBps and write speeds of up to 6800MBps.
Samsung 980 Pro 2TB M.2 SSD with Heatsink $129.99
Samsung SSDs need no introduction. They’ve made some of the most popular and reliable PS5 SSDs on the market. The 980 Pro has been out for a long time, way back in January of 2020. A testament to its reliability is the fact that Samsung didn’t feel any need to release any newer flagship model until only this year. In terms of performance, it’s no longer the fastest SSD on the market (the 990 Pro is), but it’s still a very fast drive. It certainly more than meets the minimum 5600MB/s speed requirement to be used as a PS5 storage upgrade, with speeds of up to 7,100MB/s.
Nextorage 2TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink for $129.99
There’s an interesting story behind this drive. Nextorage was actually originally created by Sony as an SSD division catered to the PS5 console. For whatever reason, Sony decided to ditch that idea and sold this business to another stakeholder in the company, Phison (they make memory controllers found in SSDs from Seagate, Corsair, and Sabrent, and more). Phison eventually accomplished the goal of releasing an SSD catered specifically for the PS5 console in the form of this product right here.
WD Black SN850p 2TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink for $149.99
WD is the only brand that sells an officially licensed PS5 SSD. The SN850P is physically the same SSD as the SN850X, which is the latest generation of WD’s flagship Black series M.2 SSDs. The SN850P’s upgrades over the SN850 include newer flash chips (BiCS5 vs BiCS4) and an updated firmware, both of which offer improved sequential and random read/write speeds. It’s easily one of the fastest SSDs on the market.
Corsair MP600 PRO 2TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink $124.99
Corsair is a very well known brand for DIY PC builders. Corsair makes some of the best gaming products on the market, and that includes solid-state memory like RAM and SSDs. The MP600 Pro is Corsair’s fastest M.2 SSD and the “LPX” model is “optimized for PS5” because it includes a rugged preinstalled heatsink that is slim enough to fit in the PS5 bay without any issues. We like this RAM so much, we rated it the best PS5 SSD for 2023.
Samsung 990 Pro 2TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink for $144.99
The Samsung 990 Pro is an excellent SSD for your PS5. From a purely performance perspective, it’s overkill; the stock SSD in your PS5 will be the limiting factor. You’ll want to pick up an PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive with a rated 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive and the 990 Pro is much faster. However, at the current price point, this SSD is cheaper than many slower options, so you might as well get it anyways.
What if the SSD Doesn’t Include a Heatsink?
Sony recommends you install an SSD that has an attached heatsink. If the SSD you purchase doesn’t include one, it’s simple enough to buy one for $9 on Amazon and add it yourself. Most of these heatsinks are just attached using an adhesive like thermal tape.
Budget to Best: PS5 SSDs
There may be other SSD deals out there, but these are the PS5 SSDs we’ve tried ourselves and highly recommend. They also double up as outstanding boot drives for your gaming PC, in case you don’t need additional storage for your PS5 console.
How To Install a New PS5 SSD
It’s extremely easy! Removing the case cover is completely toolless. In fact, the only screw you have to remove is the one that keeps the cover for the SSD bay in place. You don’t even put it back when you’re done. Sony has a quick and easy YouTube video guide.
Apologies to the chief, but there’s a not-entirely-accurate bit in Katharine’s post announcing Starfield as October’s RPS Game Club game. I, of the RPS Treehouse, do truly love Starfield, and have only been quiet about it because admitting you enjoy The Grey Bethesda Game but couldn’t get into Baldur’s Gate 3 or Elden Ring feels a bit like going to the Savoy Grill and only ordering chips. No one will ask you to leave, but they’ll probably start questioning your judgement.
But dammit, I like chips, and I like Starfield! I like its roving space captain fantasy, I like its utilitarian aesthetic, and I like how its click-clacking guns sound like extremely violent mechanical keyboards. Especially if I get to fire them at floating pirates, while I’m also floating, and said firing punts me upwards into a ceiling.
A recruiting drive at FromSoftware suggests a major expansion of the Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne developer is underway.
As reported by IGN Japan, FromSoftware is currently recruiting employees across several departments as it works on “several new projects”. The developer currently has no announced games in development beyond the Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree, however, and FromSoftware didn’t share anything more in the job advertisements either.
Roles are available in game planning, research and development, programming, character design, background design, cinematic art, motion design, production, sound design, and more than a dozen other departments, certainly suggesting FromSoftware is looking to expand its development capabilities.
Fans have been calling for new entries in its most famous franchise for years now, of course, with sequels to Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne perhaps the most sought after new games. FromSoftware last released a Dark Souls game, the franchise that properly put it on the map, in 2016, while Bloodborne is fast approaching its ten year anniversary after launching in March 2014.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice also set up a sequel, but these games releasing as solo entries proves FromSoftware isn’t afraid to create brand new franchises. Those who enjoy the tough as nails action role-playing games will therefore just have to wait and see what the developer announces next.
Shadow of the Erdtree currently lacks a release date, with FromSoftware only sharing a handful of concept art images for the expansion when it announced it in February. It more recently released Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon in August, which earned an 8/10 in IGN’s review.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Some people sing the praises of “visceral” games. Others extol the virtues of “immersive” games. Me, I’m increasingly drawn to “perverse” games. No, not like that. Well, not entirely like that. I mean “perverse” more straightforwardly as in deliberately awkward and unreceptive in their core design, almost self-defeating in a way that has you saying “WTF?” and hankering to know more.
Take The Great Below, a new horror… thingmabob from Porto, Portugal-based Dobra Studios. It’s about exploring a strange house full of dreadful paintings in the dark. It’s a 3D game with keyboard move-look controls, but the twist is that you can only move around while looking at a 2D map, with your position marked as a pair of footprints.
This week’s UK boxed charts are in and it has once again been a tight competition at the top of the pack.
Despite picking up the silver medal in its debut chart appearance, Super Mario Bros. Wonder has managed to jump ahead of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 this time around and lands in first place. As word continues to spread, we can see the Flower Kingdom’s latest sticking around in the charts for a while.
When was the last time you played a good 3D character platformer? For me, it was probably Psychonauts 2. But before that? Outside of Mario? I’m not sure I’d be able to tell you. For whatever reason, the 3D character platformer has become an increasingly rare breed, it would seem, which makes them even more heartening to see when they do occasionally poke their head above the parapet and leap onto our screens. Song Of Nunu: A League Of Legends Story is one of them, channelling the joyous, boundless enthusiasm of its late 90s and early 00s predecessors to create a simple, but straightforward adventure that you could just as easily enjoy alone as an adult, or with a child in tow. It did not, alas, quite make me cry as developers Tequila Works intended (that honour still belongs to Rime and Rime alone out of their back catalogue), but there’s much to admire here while having your heartstrings lightly plucked at the same time. And you don’t need to know a jot about League Of Legends to enjoy it.
It’s been six years since the Nintendo Switch launched in 2017, and after a long and successful reign, you may be wondering what new piece of hardware will be next. We’ve seen updates to the current switch with the OLED and Lite models, though we’re still in the dark on what Nintendo’s next-gen offering could be.
After becoming the 3rd best-selling console in history this year, it’s fair to say that Nintendo might want to keep things close to its chest. Yet, even with all the secrecy surrounding the possibility of a new Nintendo Switch, we’ve collected all the details we could find about the mystery follow-up ahead of its eventual official announcement and release.
Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date
While Nintendo hasn’t yet announced any official follow-up to their incredibly successful Nintendo Switch console, there are some rumors swirling about how close we might be to a potential product reveal.
Nintendo’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa, confirmed in an interview with Nikkei, and translated by VGC, that Nintendo will support the current-gen Switch until at least March 2025. This sentiment is also backed up by previous comments Furukawa made regarding the future of the Nintendo Switch in a financial briefing Q&A in 2022. In this interview, he committed to focusing on “building long-term relationships with our consumers (through Nintendo Accounts),” he went on to reiterate “, While continuing to release new Nintendo Switch software for consumers to enjoy, we aim to maintain relationships across hardware generations through services that utilize Nintendo Accounts and by providing opportunities for them to experience our IP through other non-gaming channels.”
During Gamescom 2023, Eurogamer reported that the Nintendo Switch 2 was being demoed at the show, showing off a “souped up” version of one of the Nintendo Switch’s most beloved games, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While a potential demo device doesn’t directly mean a consumer product will be on the market soon, it does indicate Nintendo may be looking forward to what’s next and likely wants game developers to get ready for what the future can offer.
Even with all the juicy gossip, it’s best not to hold your breath on what’s coming from the Japanese tech titan’s next console until there is an official announcement; fingers crossed we’ll get that confirmation soon.
Nintendo Switch 2 Price
There are plenty of Nintendo Switch models to consider while shopping right now, with pricing shifting dramatically depending on the version you’re looking to invest in. Looking forward to a potential Switch 2, inflation and internal specs, amongst other variables, will likely play a part in what we’ll pay for a new console at launch.
It’s hard to know what the pricing of this mystery device will be, but we’ve listed the RRP of the current range of Nintendo Switch models as a reference:
Nintendo Switch Lite: $199.99
Nintendo Switch: $299.99
Nintendo Switch OLED: $349.99
Nintendo Switch 2 Models
With the range of Nintendo Switch consoles currently on the market, you may be left wondering if you’ll have the same number of choices to pick between when the next iteration rolls around.
The latest Nintendo Switch OLED model features a remarkable screen, and it feels like the future of the console, it being the most recent edition to Nintendo’s lineup. However, according to a VGC report, the next-gen Nintendo Switch may potentially feature an LCD screen instead.
The current array of Nintendo Switch models are numerous and were released over the console’s multi-year lifespan, so it’s reasonable to believe there may be several versions of a potential Nintendo Switch follow-up, too.
Nintendo Switch Design – What Will the Nintendo Switch 2 Look Like?
There isn’t a lot of information on how Nintendo’s next-gen console will look, though there are plenty of features in the current-gen Nintendo Switch we’d love to see return for a follow-up console.
VGC reported that development kits for the potential new console are already with partner studios, with sources citing some returning features. According to VGC’s report, the new Nintendo Switch could keep the portability of its predecessor and feature a cartridge slot for physical games.
The patent details a magnetic field for controls rather than the plastic circuit boards seen in the current generation console. However, it’s worth mentioning that patents don’t necessarily translate directly to future products, so there’s no guarantee on whether the Nintendo Switch 2 will feature updated Joy-Cons, and we’ll have to wait for official word from Nintendo on that front.
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Ethan chateaus himself in the creepiest place in the Pokémon world…
Ah, Lavender Town — the place where the journeys of old Pokémon end and the nightmares of young trainers are born. This gothic locale from the original Game Boy titles has transcended its franchise into an iconic piece of pop culture in its own right, and it’s not hard to see why. Between its downbeat aesthetic, its surprisingly forward exploration of mortality, and its plethora of associated internet legends, Lavender Town absolutely deserves its reputation as one of the most memorably spooky places in gaming.
