Category: Video Games

Why Hasn’t Sony Done Anything More With Bloodborne? PlayStation Legend Shuhei Yoshida Has a Personal Theory

It is one of the biggest conundrums in the video game industry: why hasn’t Sony followed up Bloodborne with… anything? A remaster (Sony loves a remaster)? A sequel? A next-gen update? Fans of FromSoftware’s PlayStation 4 masterpiece have begged for more ever since the game launched to critical and commercial acclaim a decade ago. So, what gives?

Fresh from the reveal of his first voice acting gig following his exit from Sony, PlayStation legend Shuhei Yoshida has delivered his Bloodborne no-show theory. And we must be clear up front: this is Yoshida’s opinion, which in an interview with Kinda Funny Games he stressed is not inside information, or the reveal of the current deliberations within the bowels of Sony itself.

“Bloodborne has always been the most asked thing,” Yoshida began. “And people wonder why we haven’t really done anything, even an update or a remaster. Should be easy, right? The company is known for doing so many remasters, right, some people get frustrated.

“I have only my personal theory to that situation. I left first-party so I don’t know what’s going on, but my theory is, you know because I remember, you know, Miyazaki-san really, really loved Bloodborne, you know, what he created. So I think he is interested, but he’s so successful and he’s so busy, so he doesn’t want, he cannot do himself, but he does not want anyone else to touch it. So that’s my theory. And the PlayStation team respect his wish. So that’s my guess, right? Theory. I am not revealing any secret information, to be clear.”

Let’s unpack Shuhei’s comment here. Miyazaki-san is of course Hidetaka Miyazaki, the boss of FromSoftware. And yes, he’s incredibly successful. Not only for the influential Dark Souls series, but, most recently, the mainstream hit Elden Ring, which propelled FromSoftware to new heights. So much so that it’s getting a multiplayer spin-off this year.

And it seems obvious to say Miyazaki will be incredibly busy with multiple projects to direct and a company to run. After Bloodborne came out in 2015, Miyazaki directed Dark Souls 3, then 2019’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for Activision, then the aforementioned Elden Ring for Bandai Namco. What’s next? Miyazaki has yet to say.

What Shuhei is touching on here is a potential desire from Miyazaki to do something with Bloodborne, but he doesn’t want anyone else to do it. And Sony, Shuhei suggests, respects that wish, despite owning the intellectual property. Certainly Miyazaki has earned that respect and the ability to pick and choose his projects.

The upshot is Bloodborne remains dormant nearly 10 years after the first game came out. But is there hope? In interviews, Miyazaki often deflects questions about Bloodborne, pointing to the fact FromSoftware does not own the IP. But in February last year, Miyazaki at least admitted the game would benefit from a release on more modern hardware.

As for Sony, some Bloodborne fans feel a tad… trolled by PlayStation. For example, last month, Bloodborne fans freaked out over a potential announcement after Sony ended its special PlayStation 30th Anniversary trailer with a clip from the beloved FromSoftware game and the phrase “it’s about persistence.”

Perhaps, given Shuhei’s theory, fans will need plenty of it.

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.

IGF 2025 nominees show what a wild and vibrant place indie gaming is

Last year’s defining indie smash hit, Balatro? Not nominated for the IGF grand prize. Animal Well, which turned damn near every games journalist into a tiresome obsessive? Not nominated for anything. UFO 50, an impressive, important, big boy achievement snubbed by our own 2024 list? It did get a Grand Prize nomination.

I don’t disagree with any of the nominees or absences in this year’s Independent Games Festival Awards, so I don’t mention any of the above to stir up trouble. Instead I look at this list and think: wow, video games are more varied than ever, so much so that there’s no longer a dominant cultural narrative even within the specific niche of indie gaming.

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Lonely Mountain: Snow Riders has a new release date and it’s next week

Lonely Mountain: Snow Riders was one of the best demos I played last year, because it felt so good to gracefully slide down its white-powdered mountains (and clumsily crash into a tree). It might have been one of the best games I played last year, who knows, but it was delayed into 2025. Now it’s got a fixed release date again: January 21st.

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Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP Is Getting A Sweet Photo Mode Update Very Soon

Smile, Juliet.

The Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP developer Dragami Games has not only continued to address various issues with multiple patches but it’s also adding additional content to the game.

With this in mind, Dragami Games company CEO Yoshima Yasuda has now announced the team will be adding a photo mode “soon”. Nothing else was detailed, but typically these modes allow you to take shots of the main character and sometimes even change the outfits and camera settings.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

GTA 5 Liberty City Mod Taken Down by Rockstar Games

A mod dedicated to recreating Liberty City within Grand Theft Auto 5, as a mod, has shut down.

Insider-Gaming reports that the Liberty City Preservation Project, a mod meant to recreate the setting of GTA 4 as a mod for GTA 5, has been taken down at the request of Rockstar Games. In a statement on Discord, user nkjellman said “Due to the unexpected attention that our project received and after speaking with Rockstar Games, we have decided to take down the Liberty City Preservation Project.”

Rockstar is well-known for asking modders to take down various mods like this AI-powered GTA 5 story mode mod, or a VR mod for Red Dead Redemption 2. The Liberty City Preservation Project take down is also not without direct precedent as Rockstar issued a take-down for a mod that tried to recreate Grand Theft Auto Vice City within GTA 5.

One interesting development is that while Rockstar is judicious when it comes to taking down mods, they also sometimes hire those very modders to work at Rockstar Games. And some mods, like the Vice City mod, were taken down only for Rockstar themselves to announce remasters of those very games.

This isn’t to say Rockstar is working on a GTA 4 remaster, by any means, but there’s certainly precedent. Still it may be years away before we get an answer as we know Rockstar is currently hard at work trying to ready the highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 for a 2025 launch.

Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

Save an Extra $50 Off the Meta Quest 3S VR Headset, Includes Batman: Arkham Shadow Game

If you’ve wanted to give VR gaming a try but the cost of entry has kept you at bay, then you might be interested in the first good Meta Quest deal for 2025. For a limited time, Amazon drops $50 off the Quest 3S 256GB VR headset, now only $349. That’s only $50 more than the base 128GB model and a worthy upgrade for storing more games at a time for untethered play. This straight up instant discount is arguably better than the deals that happened during Black Friday, which all involved digital credit or gift cards tied to specific stores.

To sweeten the pot even more, the package also includes a copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow VR game and a three-month trial of Meta Quest+. In IGN’s 8/10 review, Dan Stapleton wrote that “Batman: Arkham Shadow makes most of the Arkham series’ defining gameplay work respectably well in VR, and its mystery story pays off.”

Meta Quest 3S VR Headset with Batman: Arkham Shadow

The Quest 3S is an improvement over the original Quest 2 in every way and, amazingly, without a price increase. It also adopts many of the same features of the more expensive Quest 3, like the new and improved Touch controllers, the upgraded SnapDragon APU, and support for full color AR passthrough. In IGN’s 9/10 Quest 3S review, Gabriel Moss wrote that “raw processing power, full-color passthrough, and snappy Touch Plus controllers make the Quest 3S a fantastic standalone VR headset that also brings entry-level mixed-reality gaming to the masses for – arguably – the very first time.

What really sets this deal above all other VR deals is that the Meta Quest 3S can be played completely untethered. That means you can play games like Beat Saber or Pistol Whip without having to own a powerful gaming PC or a PlayStation 5 console. Try to find another standalone VR headset at this price and you’ll come up empty.

How Is the Quest 3S Different from the Quest 3?

Even at retail price, the Quest 3S comes in at $200, or 40% cheaper than the $500 Quest 3. Obviously, some compromises were made to get the 3S to its competitive price point. The spec comparisons are listed below:

Quest 3S vs. Quest 3 Similarities

  • Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor
  • Touch Plus controllers
  • 120Hz refresh rate
  • Mixed reality passthrough (same cameras, different layout)

Quest 3S vs. Quest 3 Differences

  • Lower per-eye resolution (1832×1920 vs 2064×2208)
  • Fresnel lens vs. pancake lens
  • Lower FOV (96°/90° vs 104°/96°)
  • Smaller storage capacity (128GB vs 512GB)
  • Longer battery life (2.5hrs vs 2.2hrs)

In essence, the Quest 3S is nearly the same headset but with downgraded optics. On the plus side, since both headsets use the same processor, running at a lower resolution reduces the load on the APU, which could theoretically improve performance in games and also account for the increased battery life.

For the price, the Quest 3S is unquestionably a better value than the Quest 3, and a better choice for most gamers, especially if the Quest 3 was completely out of your budget in the first place. Compared to the previous generation Quest 2, the decision is even easier.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Review: CRKD NEO S Purple Wave Edition Switch Controller – Fine For Fortnite Festival, But Not So Rockin’ Elsewhere

Cramp Rock.

It’s not every controller review that we have to start with a rundown of the current state of Fortnite, but bear with us, we promise it’s relevant.

The classic looting and shooting that we all know and love is now just a small part of the “Fortnite ecosystem” *squirms*, a hub-world for games that bundle the battle royale in with the survival sim LEGO Fortnite, the racer Rocket Racing, and the Rock Band-esque rhythm game, Fortnite Festival.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Sniper Elite: Resistance – Here’s What Comes in Each Edition

Sniper Elite: Resistance is set to release for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on January 28 for the deluxe edition, and January 30 for the standard edition. This latest installment of the long-running franchise brings you back to World War II and has you blast Nazis from afar (or close up, depending on how you choose to complete the missions). It’s coming out in two editions and both are now available to preorder. Read on for the details.

Sniper Elite: Resistance – Standard Edition

PS5

PS4

Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One

PC

The standard edition just comes with the game and the preorder bonus (about which, see below). But that’s all you really need, isn’t it?

Sniper Elite: Resistance Deluxe Edition

PS5

Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One

PC

The deluxe edition comes with the game itself, plus the following extras:

  • 2 days early access (January 28)
  • Season pass

Sniper Elite: Resistance Will Be on Xbox Game Pass

If you want a cheaper way to play the game, you’ll also be able to play Sniper Elite: Resistance on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass on January 30.

Sniper Elite: Resistance Preorder Bonus

Preorder any version of Sniper Elite: Resistance, and you’ll receive the following preorder bonuses:

Standard Edition

  • Target Führer – Lights, Camera, Achtung campaign mission
  • 1x weapon skin
  • Karabiner 98 rifle

Deluxe Edition

  • Target Führer – Lights, Camera, Achtung campaign mission
  • 1x weapon skin
  • Karabiner 98 rifle
  • M1911 pistol

What Is Sniper Elite: Resistance?

Sniper Elite: Resistance is a first-person shooter set in the European theater during WWII. You play as Harry Hawker, an agent of the Special Operations Executive, who’s sent into occupied France to fight alongside the French Resistance to stop the Nazis from using a super-weapon that would help them win the war.

Like previous installments, stealth and sniping from afar are key to your success. When you score a kill, you’ll still be treated to a slow-mo X-ray shot of the bullet wreaking havoc on the internal organs of your enemies.

New to the series this time around are Propaganda Missions, which give you a limited amount of time to sneak in and complete tasks. And returning from previous installments is Axis Invasion mode, which lets you invade another player’s campaign as an enemy to take them down. Fun stuff.

Other Preorder Guides

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

Marvel Rivals Gets Suit from PlayStation’s Spider-Man 2 Later This Month

Marvel Rivals players are being treated to an unlikely crossover that brings the Advanced Suit 2.0 from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 into the game as a new skin.

PlayStation announced the news itself in a post on X/Twitter, revealing a first look at how NetEase Games is reimagining the classic video game outfit for its new hero shooter.

This sleek Spider-Man suit made its debut as an original design for Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man, going on to make appearances in all three entries in that series. The main element setting this suit apart from the rest is its now-iconic white spider symbol, with its appearance in Marvel Rivals cementing it as a surprise collaboration with Sony and its console-exclusive superhero game. Expect Spider-Man’s Advanced Suit 2.0 to swing into the in-game store on January 30, the same day Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 comes to PC.

Marvel Rivals launched in December and already offers a smorgasbord of unlockable suits, but this new Spidey suit arrives as an especially unique addition. Along with its ties to the massively popular PlayStation series, the Advanced Suit 2.0 will once again be worn by a Spider-Man who is voiced by Yuri Lowenthal. The actor has played Peter Parker in all three of Insomniac’s Spider-Man games and also happens to have provided his talents for Marvel Rivals’ take on the character. In other words, those who pick up the costume come January 30 should feel right at home as they thwip their way to victory.

NetEase’s decision to bring Spider-Man’s Advanced Suit 2.0 into the fold gives players another piece of content to look forward to among everything that dropped with Season 1: Eternal Night Falls last week. This first season of content added Fantastic Four representatives Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman as new playable characters, with The Thing and Human Torch set to join in just a few weeks. Much more is on the way, too, as creative director Guangyun Chen recently promised to launch at least one new hero every month and a half.

While we wait to try out that new Spider-Man suit for ourselves, be sure to read up on some of the custom skins players have modded into the game. You can also learn about all of the balance changes introduced with Season 1 and how some players are using an Invisible Woman ability to detect what they believe are bot players.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.