The developer of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is in talks with Sony over the game’s potential support for the upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro.

PS5 Pro, due out in November priced $700, has an AI-powered upscaling feature called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) that can automatically improve the image clarity of games.

In an interview with IGN, Saber Interactive Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits said he’s hopeful the PS5 Pro will improve Space Marine 2 by default via PSSR.

“What I’m excited about is the AI upsampling of the graphics,” he said. “So I have my kickass AMD machine, a kickass Nvidia machine right there. And the game looks f***ing great. But when I play on the PS5, I play performance.”

Space Marine 2 has two display modes for PS5 and Xbox Series X: ‘Quality’ offers higher resolution, a stable 30 frames per second, and better graphics, whereas ‘Speed’ drops the resolution in a bid to hit 60fps.

However, Space Marine 2 has performance issues on PS5 relative to the Xbox Series X version. According to the tech experts at Digital Foundry, Space Marine 2 impresses on Xbox Series X and S, but “flags” on PS5. Here’s DF’s analysis:

“In testing Space Marine 2 on PC, it’s clear that the game’s encounters with alien swarms pushes the CPU hard – and at least as of patch 1.02, that results in lop-sided performance on consoles in the 60fps speed mode. Series X typically outperforms PS5 by around 10 to 15fps, despite both machines using the same settings and resolution targets. The lowest drops come when taking a flamethrower to the encroaching horde, where PS5 drops to the mid-30s while Xbox Series X is in the mid-40s.”

Willits’ “hope” — he admits he’s not a technical person — is that Space Marine 2 in Speed Mode on PS5 Pro will look better than Quality Mode does on the base PS5.

“So what I hope — and it’s just me, I don’t know anything technical — but what I hope is with the PS5 Pro, with the AI upsampling, that players will be able to play Space Marine 2 in Performance [Speed] Mode, and it’ll look better, hopefully — hopefully, I don’t know — it’ll look better than it does in Quality Mode now.”

It true, it means those who play Space Marine 2 in Speed mode on PS5 will benefit from its higher frame-rate (hopefully locked to 60fps this time, but no guarantees as the issue on the performance side — hitting 60fps — is the CPU limitation) and improved graphics. The game will have a higher resolution owing to the PS5 Pro’s faster GPU (more pixels) and then PSSR upscaling (better upscaling of those more pixels).

But what about a PS5 Pro Enhanced patch for Space Marine 2? Sony has said several games will be patched with free software updates for gamers to take advantage of PS5 Pro’s features (IGN has a list of all the confirmed PS5 Pro Enhanced games so far). These games can be identified with a PS5 Pro Enhanced label within their title.

Willits said Saber has no plans right now for Space Marine 2 to join the PS5 Pro Enhanced list, but did confirm that the company’s engineers are in talks with Sony to work out if it’s something they want to support.

“So we’re actually in discussions with Sony to figure out what we want to do,” Willits said. “Sony’s really happy about the game. Microsoft is happy about the game too! But yes, our engineers are discussing what we can do. We have no plans right now. We’re still trying to figure that out. Again, the PS5 Pro is brand new, our game, we’re just trying to catch up. So we just have to be patient with our official plans.”

Sony is set to host a State of Play broadcast today, September 24, at 3pm PT / 6pm ET, with news on more than 20 upcoming PS5 and PS VR2 games “from studios around the world.” Perhaps we’ll get a clearer idea of what to expect from the PS5 Pro at the show.

Meanwhile, we have plenty of Space Marine 2 coverage to check out, including Willits on the record-breaking success of the game and what it means for a potential story DLC or even Space Marine 3. Warhammer 40,000 superfan Henry Cavill has also been playing Space Marine 2, and we also have details on what fans can expect from Space Marine 2’s seasonal post-launch content model. Season 2 runs from October until the end of 2024, and includes a new Operations map, a new enemy, a harder difficulty level, a new weapon, and various other improvements.

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.

For a limited time, Amazon is offering the 2TB SK Hynix P41 Platinum PCIe 4.0 NVME solid state drive (SSD) for only $135. That’s one of the best prices we’ve seen for a 2TB PS5-compatible SSD from a reputable brand. It also happens to be one of the fastest PCI-E 4.0 SSDs on the market right now. This is an outstanding candidate for your PS5 or gaming PC rig.

SK Hynix P41 Platinum 2TB M.2 SSD for $134.99

SK Hynix might not be a brand that the consumer recognizes as much as Samsung or Western Digital, but make no mistake that they are a major player in the flash memory market. SK Hynix is a South Korean DRAM manufacturer and one of the world’s largest memory chipmakers and semiconductor companies. They supply components for many reputable brands you’ve probably heard of, like Corsair and G.Skill.

The Platinum P41 is SK Hynix’s highest end SSD. It boasts sustained read speeds of 7,000MB/s and sustained write speeds of 6,500MB/s. It also boasts random read speeds of 1.4 million IOPS and random write speeds of 1.3 million IOPS. In terms of reliability and stability, the SSDs have been tested and validated through 1,000 hours of stress testing with MTBF reaching 1.5 million hours or up to 1,200TB written. SK Hynix backs it all up with a 5 year warranty. The P41 Platinum uses an Aries controller with 176-layer TLC NAND flash chips, both of which are manufactured in-house.

Of course, in terms of real world performance, the vast majority of users won’t be able to tell apart the speeds between the highest end PCI-E 4.0 SSDs. Some of these SSDs include the SK Hynix P41 Platinum, the Samsung 990 Pro, and the WD Black SN850X. Therefore, it all comes down to the price. At its current price point, the P41 Platinum isn’t just one of the fastest drives on the market, it’s also cheaper than any competitor that can come close to its performance.

This is a great PS5 SSD, but you’ll want to get a heatsink

The SK Hynix P41 Platinum does not come equipped with a heatsink. That’s because this SSD is catered to PC gamers looking to add storage to their desktop computer. Many motherboards come equipped with built-in SSD coolers and will only accept bare SSDs. It’s generally harder to remove a heatsink than to apply a new one. If you plan to use this for your PS5, rest assured that’ it is 100% compatible (in fact, it’s overkill). Although some people have gotten away with an SSD with no heatsink, we recommend you install one for peace of mind. You can easily get a PS5 heatsink for under $10.

Looking for more options? Check out the best M.2 SSDs of 2024.

X/Twitter will have to comply with a subpeona regarding the identities of several Genshin Impact leaker accounts after a federal judge ruled against the social media platform’s attempt to throw it out.

The news comes from Torrent Freak and Stephen Totilo’s Game File newsletter, detailing the latest in miHoYo’s crackdown on leakers. Cognosphere, the miHoYo-owned publisher of Genshin Impact, filed the subpeona last fall, attempting to force X Corp. to “disclose the identity, including the name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), and e-mail addresses(es)” behind four popular leaker accounts: @HutaoLoverGI, @GIHutaoLover, @HutaoLover77, and @FurinaaLover.

NEW(ish): A court has ruled that X/Twitter must comply with a subpoena issued last fall to unmask the identities of accounts leaking Genshin Impact info

X had raised 1st Amend. and California right of privacy concerns it wanted a court to weigh in onhttps://t.co/euVcwG9w8w pic.twitter.com/YSsPX2p4PI

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) September 23, 2024

As Totilo notes, three of the accounts are currently suspended. The only one that isn’t, @furinaalover, has deleted all but one of the posts on their X/Twitter account. According to Torrent Freak’s report, Cognosphere believes that one person controlled all four leaker accounts.

In filing the subpeona, Cognosphere argued that the leakers had infringed on its copyright in the publishing of previously unreleased material. X/Twitter, however, attempted to quash the subpeona on First Amendment and privacy grounds, asking the court in a previous filing if Cognosphere’s request was “sufficient to satisfy any First Amendment free speech safeguards applicable to the anonymous speakers.”

X/Twitter asked for a legal process that would ensure the leakers’ First Amendment and privacy rights were not being infinged upon, mantaining “that a Court needs to decide these issues.”

U.S. magistrate judge Peter Kang, however, ruled for the Northern District of California that X/Twitter must comply with Cognosphere’s request, saying that there is “no First Amendment right to commit copyright infringement.”

It’s only the latest in MiHoYo’s handling of leakers. Last February, miHoYo filed a separate subpeona targeting three other other leaker accounts on similar copyright infringement grounds.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.