Time war.
We are mere hours away from Splatoon 3‘s “biggest Splatfest yet” as the Grand Festival is finally set to kick off tomorrow (or today, for those in North America).
This 72-hour-long event pits the Splatlands’ biggest musical icons against each other in a battle over “Which is the most important to you?“, with the Squid Sisters’ Team Past facing off against Off The Hook’s Team Present and Deep Cut’s Team Future.
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Today, we’re happy to announce a new PS5 system software update that introduces a number of new features, including:
Welcome hub: a new personalized space with customizable widgets and backgrounds in your PS5 home screen. Welcome hub is a reimagined version of the Explore tab, which was previously only available in the U.S. It will roll out globally over the next few weeks, starting today for select players in the U.S.
Party share: the ability to share party voice chat links on messaging and social media apps will roll out globally in the coming weeks.
Additionally, thanks to support from our beta participants, the following features that were tested in our latest PS5 beta will be released globally, starting today:
Aside from adaptive charging for your controllers, all PS5 system update features mentioned in this blog post are available for all PS5 models. Let’s take a deeper look at what’s included in this update:
We are introducing a new personalized space in your PS5 home screen called Welcome hub – a dedicated space you can customize with widgets, allowing you to see information at a glance before you begin your gaming sessions. For players in the U.S, Welcome hub will replace the current Explore tab with enhanced customizability and an upgraded user experience.
You can easily customize your Welcome hub by selecting from a variety of widgets*, including console storage, battery levels for accessories, online friends, trophies, and many more. Use presets to quickly change your layout, and simply select and arrange a variety of widgets as you see fit. You can change the size of your widgets, expanding or shrinking them to give more focus to the features that are most important to you.
In addition, you can also change your Welcome hub’s background. Choose from a range of designs, including some with cool animated effects, or pick out a screenshot from your own Media Gallery for a truly personal touch.
Welcome hub will become available to select users in the U.S. starting later today. We will gradually expand support in other regions over the coming weeks, starting with players in Japan, followed by select countries in Europe, and finally releasing worldwide.
In the next few weeks, we’ll also add the ability for you to share party voice chat links on any messaging or social media app. This will allow you to invite a friend whom you’re chatting with on any messaging app to join your party voice chat, even if you haven’t added them to your friends list on PlayStation Network.
To create a party link, open the voice chat card in the Control Center on PS5, select [Invite Players], then click [Share Party link] to generate a scannable QR code. Recipients can open the link on their mobile device and seamlessly join the party on their PS5 or from PlayStation App.
In the coming weeks, we will also release an update for PlayStation App which will allow you to similarly generate a shareable party link from your mobile device.
Here’s a closer look at some of the PS5 beta features that are rolling out globally today, including personalized 3D audio profiles for headphones and earbuds, the ability to enable Remote Play access for individual users, and adaptive charging for your controllers.
In this generation, 3D audio is one of the key ways that creators have enhanced the immersive quality of games. As individuals, we all hear sounds differently based on the size and shape of our head, ears, and ear canals.
We’re pleased to introduce a feature that lets your PS5 console create a personalized 3D audio profile just for you. With a set of headphones or earbuds, you can run through a set of sound quality tests to analyze a vast number of factors to create an audio profile that best fits your hearing characteristics. For example, your personalized 3D audio profile may enable you to better sense the positions of characters and objects in a game world more clearly than before, making the experience more immersive.**
To create a personalized 3D audio profile for your headphones or earbuds, go to [Settings] > [Sound] > [3D Audio (Headphones)] on your PS5 console, and follow the steps displayed on the screen. Your audio profile will be saved on your PS5 per user, and you can also still select from 3D audio presets like before.
This feature builds on the 3D audio enhancements we’ve introduced to PS5 since launch, including 3D audio support for built-in TV speakers and support for compatible Dolby Atmos-enabled audio devices. These features give you additional options to immerse yourself more deeply in the rich variety of soundscapes in PS5 games, powered by Tempest 3D AudioTech.
PS5’s Tempest 3D AudioTech was tested and refined using audio rig setups like the one depicted here, featuring PS Blog’s very own Sid Shuman.
You can now adjust Remote Play settings per user and choose who is allowed to connect to your PS5 console using Remote Play. So, if your friends or family members come over and sign in to your PS5 console with their account for PlayStation Network, you can easily modify who can continue to access your PS5 console using Remote Play when they leave.
To adjust these settings, go to [Settings] > [System] > [Remote Play] > [Enable Remote Play], and choose which user you want to enable access to your PS5 console through Remote Play.
Adaptive charging for the DualSense wireless controller, DualSense Edge wireless controller, PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers, and Access controller is now available for the slimmer PS5 model, when the console is in rest mode (and will also be available for PS5 Pro when it launches).*** Adaptive charging helps save power by adjusting the length of time that power is supplied to your controller based on its battery level.
To use adaptive charging, go to [Settings] > [System] > [Power Saving] > [Features Available in Rest Mode], and then select [Supply Power to USB Ports] > [Adaptive]. After your PS5 enters rest mode, if a controller isn’t connected, the power supply to the USB port will stop after a certain period of time.
We will continue to enhance your gaming and social experiences on PS5 by listening to community feedback on features and improvements. Let us know which features you’re most excited to try!
*Widget availability may vary by region.
**Personalized 3D audio profiles are not supported during PS5 cloud game streaming. 3D audio is not supported during Remote Play.
***Adaptive charging works with the DualSense wireless controller, DualSense Edge wireless controller, PS VR2 Sense controllers, and Access controller when connected to the USB Type-C port on the slimmer PS5 console (CFI-2000 model group – slim) or PS5 Pro, using the USB Type-C cable included with your PS5. PlayStation Portal remote player does not support adaptive charging.
Microsoft is laying off a further 650 staff from its gaming business, according to a memo sent by Xbox chief Phil Spencer to staff today, September 12, and obtained by IGN.
In the memo, Spencer said the roles affect mostly corporate and support functions, and were made “to organize our business for long term success.” He clarified that no games, devices or experiences are being canceled and no studios are being closed as part of these cuts.
These latest layoffs mean Microsoft has let go of 2,550 staff from its gaming business since acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in 2023.
Phil Spencer’s email to staff is reproduced in full below:
For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work. As part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure and managing our business, we have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming — mostly corporate and supporting functions — to organize our business for long term success.
I know that this is difficult news to hear. We are deeply grateful for the contributions of our colleagues who are learning they are impacted. In the U.S., we’re supporting them with exit packages that include severance, extended healthcare, and outplacement services to help with their transition; outside the U.S. packages will differ according to location.
With these changes, our corporate and supporting teams and resources are aligned for sustainable future growth, and can better support our studio teams and business units with programs and resources that can scale to meet their needs. Separately, as part of running the business, there are some impacts to other teams as they adapt to shifting priorities and manage the lifecycle and performance of games. No games, devices or experiences are being cancelled and no studios are being closed as part of these adjustments today.
Throughout our team’s history, we have had great moments, and we have had challenging ones. Today is one of the challenging days. I know that going through more changes like this is hard, but even in the most trying times, this team has been able to come together and show one another care and kindness as we work to continue delivering for our players. We appreciate your support as we navigate these changes and we thank you for your compassion and respect for each other.
Phil
These cuts follow the already eye-watering 1,900 layoffs Microsoft made to its gaming business earlier this year, and continue the video game industry’s torrid time of late. Microsoft closed Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall developer Arkane Austin as part of those cuts. Speaking to IGN in June, Spencer said: “I have to run a sustainable business inside the company and grow, and that means sometimes I have to make hard decisions that frankly are not decisions I love, but decisions that somebody needs to go make.”
While Spencer has insisted Microsoft’s video game franchise “are getting stronger”, and Xbox console players “are as high this year as they’ve ever been,” the gaming business is now bringing a number of its games to rival platforms, including PlayStation 5.
Speaking in August, Spencer said that Xbox’s multiplatform push is in part about bringing in more money to Microsoft’s gaming business — with the pressure now on to deliver following Microsoft’s eye-watering $69 billion acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard last year.
“And we run a business,” Spencer said. “It’s definitely true inside of Microsoft the bar is high for us in terms of the delivery we have to give back to the company. Because we get a level of support from the company that’s just amazing and what we’re able to go do.
“So I look at this, how can we make our games as strong as possible? Our platform continues to grow, on console, on PC, and on cloud. It’s just going to be a strategy that works for us.”
Microsoft is set to launch Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in October as the first mainline Call of Duty game to hit its Game Pass subscription service day-one. It is heavily rumored to be preparing an Xbox handheld for release, and has announced plans to release next-gen Xbox consoles.
Image credit: Microsoft.
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.
Sony has released a significant update for the PS5 that adds a Welcome hub, Party Share, and more new features. Unfortunately the update does not add themes or folders, two of the most-requested features from PS5 owners.
VP of product management at Sony Interactive Entertainment Hiromi Wakai unveiled PS5 system software update 24.06-10.00.00 on the PlayStation Blog, with its patch notes, below, published to the PlayStation website.
The Welcome hub is a new personalized space with customizable widgets and backgrounds in your PS5 home screen. Welcome hub is a reimagined version of the Explore tab, Wakai said, which was previously only available in the U.S. It will roll out globally over the next few weeks, starting today for select players in the U.S.
Elsewhere, Party share will roll out globally in the coming weeks. This will allow you to invite a friend you’re chatting with on any messaging app to join your party voice chat, even if you haven’t added them to your friends list on PlayStation Network.
To create a party link, open the voice chat card in the Control Center on PS5, select [Invite Players], then click [Share Party link] to generate a scannable QR code. Recipients can open the link on their mobile device and seamlessly join the party on their PS5 or from PlayStation App.
Wakai outlined more features released as part of today’s update, previously tested in beta:
This PS5 update comes hot on the heels of Sony’s controversial announcement of the PS5 Pro, which launches November 7 priced $700. The PS5 Pro, which does not come with a disc drive, has sparked a sales jump for the existing PS5 Disc Drive.
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.
Better check those desert dunes again Caravan SandWitch, someone’s buried the lede. An open world you can explore in a few relaxed evenings? One that favours the joyous freeform sightseeing of an Elden Ring or Breath Of The Wild; where you’ll scramble up vast industrial concrete ruins on scavenging missions for inquisitive frogs, instead of being nagged by bothersome checklists?
Ok, rain check on that last point. SandWitch can’t help but eventually funnel the freedom of ambling around in your chuffy yellow van into restrictive collect-a-thons. Still, for much of its breezy runtime, this one’s a real panacea for gaming’s more bloated map-scourers. Plus, even when you are sent off to hamster-cheek scavenged components before making progress, there’s very little in this world that doesn’t feel intentional. Sidequests and storytelling crumbs are deliberately scattered throughout, and each building is a thoughtful concrete puzzle box. It is, in brief, a nice time.
You play as Sauge, a spacefarer returned to her planet of Cigalo after receiving a distress signal from her missing sister. Cigalo’s a cheery place, though economically and environmentally devastated after being exploited by an evil spacecorp named The Consortium. It’s populated by small settlements of people, some large talking frogs named the Reinetos, and the occasional friendly robot. Everything’s friendly, as it goes – even gravity itself. There’s no danger, no death, no damage from flinging yourself off the tallest building you can find. Just helping out your desert buds, upgrading your van with more gadgets to solve puzzles, or working on finding exactly where Sauge’s sister has go to.
Steam’s family sharing feature Steam Families is now available to everyone on the platform, letting up to six total people share games from a single library, with each individual having access to their own saved games, achievements, and workshop files.
This means that, yes, when you all sit down together in the evening, you can enjoy a hearty family meal in the knowledge that between you, you technically own six copies of the Cities Skylines Big Butt Skinner Balloon.
Each person on the account will have one of two roles: adult or child. Adults can manage parental controls, set hourly or daily playtime limits, approve purchase requests, and control store access. Valve appear very proud of making it easier for parents to spend money, streamlining the “time-consuming” task of buying games for their kids.
There are cold opens and there are freezing ones. Sci-fi roguelike shooter Wild Bastards doesn’t start on its strongest cowboy boot. You are dumped into the middle of an interstellar chase and summarily shown the ropes. The guns feel simplistic, the arenas bare, the loot vanilla, and the entire loop of beaming down to a planet and getting into small-scale “showdowns” threatens to become stale within the first hour or so. But then you find an outlaw buddy who offers a new way to shoot human dirtbags. Then another fellow bandit. And another. By the time your spaceship is half-filled with scoundrels and weirdoes shouting at each other, the game has warmed up enough to reveal its central idea. This ain’t no grand FPS campaign, nor is it quick as roguelikes go. It’s a snacky shootout sim with tumbleweed towns that feels best when you savour the pre-fight suspense.
Go on, tell us.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is finally available on the Nintendo Switch eShop today.
It’s had some impressive reviews so far, including our own here on Nintendo Life (we gave it an “excellent” nine out of ten stars). This package includes a total of seven classic fighting games, rollback netcode, bonus fighters, museum content and much more. Here’s a snippet of our thoughts:
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Download it now.
Apart from Splatoon 3, Nintendo has also rolled out a new update for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe today. Yes, after several months of silence, Version 3.0.3 is now available to download.
This update includes the following changes, according to Nintendo’s official patch notes. It’s also jumped from Version 3.0.1 to 3.0.3!
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Space Marine 2 is off to a great start. Yesterday, Saber Interactive announced that its Warhammer 40K action game reached 2 million players, and it has retained consistently high concurrents on Steam.
Now Saber Interactive CEO Tim Willits, who served as studio director at id Software until 2019, is claiming that Space Marine 2 is selling many of the games in id’s famed franchises. He’s backed up by former CEO Todd Hollenshead, who departed id Software in 2013 and currently works with Willits at Saber.
Todd Hollenshead (former CEO of id Software) and I believe that Space Marine 2 is the fastest selling game we’ve ever worked on, including all the Quake, DOOM, Wolfenstein, and RAGE games over the years. #SpaceMarine2
— Tim Willits (@TimWillits) September 11, 2024
“Todd Hollenshead (former CEO of id Software) and I believe that Space Marine 2 is the fastest selling game we’ve ever worked on, including all the Quake, DOOM, Wolfenstein, and RAGE games over the years,” Willits claims.
IGN has reached out to id Software for a response.
Willits departed id Software in 2019, meaning he would have had at least some oversight over 2020’s Doom Eternal. Both Willits and Hollenshead spent many years at id Software, joining in 1995 and 1996 respectively, which was the heyday of games like Doom 2. In the years that they were with id Software, the studio developed the Quake franchise, various Doom sequels and reboots, and Rage and its sequel.
While the actual sales data around its various games are a bit hazy, 2016’s Doom was able to sell at least 2 million copies by 2017. Doom Eternal, meanwhile, was estimated to have reached 3 million at launch.
One way or another, Space Marine 2 is doing well for itself, buoyed by strong reviews and player sentiment. We recently called it an “Xbox 360 shooter in the best way possible,” writing in our review: “Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is a terrific third-person shooter with a compelling story, loads of weapons that are a blast to use, and a healthy variety of enemies to use them on,” It once again borrows many of its ideas from the Gears of War series, but they’re good ideas, and Space Marine 2 does a fine job of making them its own.
“And while the Operations PvE mode that accompanies it doesn’t currently offer enough to keep me coming back, the deep customization options for your Space Marine do look promising if it’s supported in post-launch updates as planned. Besides, when you’re eviscerating aliens on planets as pretty as these, it’s hard not to leave satisfied.”
For more, be sure to check out guide to Space Marine 2’s multiplayer as well as campaign tips and tricks and much more. Space Marine 2 is out now on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
