The most important news of the week, to know everything, in 5 minutes

The most important news of the week

What are the most important news of the week that is about to end? There has been a lot of talk about the new PlayStation Plus and its more expensive tiers, with the announcement of the rich line-up of PS5 and PS4 games included in the subscription and the facets of the service as regards the classic PlayStation and Ubisoft ones. br>
The first rumors about PS5 Pro and its hypothetical technical specifications began to circulate in the PlayStation field, but the budget available to Sony for new acquisitions and internal controversies about the positions expressed by the company regarding abortion laws.

Meanwhile, the expectation is growing within the Microsoft community towards the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase and Xbox Series S is taking off the whim of beating PS5 at home, selling three times as many consoles in Japanese stores. Incredible, huh?

The new PlayStation Plus

Undoubtedly the most read, commented and relevant news of the week were those related to the new PlayStation Plus, in particular the announcement of the many games included in the catalog for the Extra and Premium tiers: a line-up that makes the Sony service very similar to Xbox Game Pass, net of the well-known lack of exclusive first parties already available on day one.

Gravitano circa to this topic also the news relating to the classic PS1 and PSP purchased in the past, which will remain accessible for free by users even in the absence of a subscription to PS Plus, as well as those on the inclusion of the Ubisoft + Classics catalog in the Extra and Premium tiers, which this point takes on really interesting connotations in terms of convenience.

June 23 will therefore be a very special day for the PlayStation Plus platform, in which we will see the beginning of Sony's offensive with respect to the service sector, which is currently dominated by Microsoft with its Game Pass. How will things change in the coming months? We're about to find out.

Death Stranding 2

Norman Reedus confirmed Death Stranding 2, adding that development on the sequel has just begun - a revelation the actor made over the course of a 'interview, probably without fully understanding the relevance of these words for video game enthusiasts and Hideo Kojima's works in particular. It is no coincidence that the famous Japanese game director decided to "punish" him for the leak.

It is interesting to note how the confirmation took place in the context of a short article on Reedus' extra-television activities, which talked about how Guillermo del Toro told him to accept any offer that Kojima had made him at the time of Silent Hills, a project later canceled by Konami but from whose foundations he started for the realization of Death Stranding (review).

The perfect games for Neil Druckmann

The network is full of videogame rankings drawn up on the basis of industry press reviews or personal preferences, but when the latter come from an important game director like Neil Druckmann, to whom we owe the franchise of The Last of Us, everyone stops to listen to them, and this time there was no exception.

So what are the eight perfect games according to Druckmann? The first ones that came to his mind include Ico, Portal, Inside, Tetris, Street Fighter 2, Monkey Island 2, Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Great classics of the past and a couple more recent, see Portal and Inside, which have certainly had a strong influence on the work of this author and on the gaming industry in general.

Fall Guys goes free-to -play

Fall Guys, one of the game's funny characters The announcement was in the air, but we wanted to wait for the official confirmation from Mediatonic: Fall Guys Ultimate Knockout will become free-to-play starting June 21 , in conjunction with the release of the game also on Nintendo Switch and Xbox, as well as on next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X | S consoles with dedicated versions, equipped with important technical improvements.

The hugely popular and colorful battle platform-based royale will therefore be accessible on all platforms and by all users for free, which will lead to an inevitable relaunch of the brand after the sensational debut that took place exactly two years ago and to a new roadmap of contents designed to keep the interest alive. if of the players.

Abandoned

Abandoned, the protagonist explores a forest This week we have returned to talk about Abandoned, the mysterious Blue Box survival horror that often ended up at the center of rumor and controversy concerning the possible connections with Silent Hill and with Hideo Kojima, although denied on more than one occasion by the developers. This time it was an artwork of the game that warmed the minds that featured a fake Silent Hill 5 logo.

That was enough to push several users to accuse the team led by Hasan Kahraman, who objectively seems to have been looking for a scam on more than one occasion to associate the name of their project with the historic Konami series. Even the well-known modder Lance McDonald seems to have wanted to distance himself from the whole thing, after having initially expressed positive opinions about Abandoned.

The upcoming acquisitions of PlayStation

PlayStation Studios, a official artwork Another very hot topic is what concerns the new PlayStation acquisitions and the 7.3 billion dollars that Sony would have available to complete these operations. A sum in theory destined to the Japanese company in its entirety, even if historically the bulk of the budget is used by the PlayStation division and this time it is unlikely that things will go differently.

Well, an analyst has created an interesting infographic to illustrate which publishers or development teams could be part of Sony's acquisition plans, notably Warner Bros. Games, Square Enix, Ember Labs, Arc System Works, Level-5 and certain licenses currently owned by Konami, Capcom and Take -Two. We will find out in the next few weeks how things really are ...

PS5 Pro

PS5 It seems absurd, considering that PlayStation 5 is still basically nowhere to be found in stores (although it seems that the supply situation is slowly improving) and therefore many users have not yet managed to get their hands on it, but the first rumors have begun to circulate about the possible mid-gen upgrade of the Sony console.

According to these rumors, PS5 Pro will have a double power thanks to a new graphics subsystem that will aim to significantly improve the performance of the platform, with particular reference to the capabilities related to ray tracing: the goal is to obtain 4K at 60 fps with quality ray tracing, without going down to compromise. Ah, and there are also rumors of a new portable PlayStation ...

Sony and the laws on abortion

Jim Ryan As you probably know, there has been a lot of talk about a law in recent weeks just entered into force in Oklahoma which almost completely bans abortion, thus resulting extremely restrictive. Several realities, including videogames, have taken a position on this, but it seems that Sony has taken an ambiguous attitude on this front.

The developers of Naughty Dog have made it clear that they are committed to protecting the right to abortion, by donating $ 50,000 to a foundation that deals with the protection of women, but Sony is trying to pass this initiative on the sly and other studios have not taken it well, such as Bungie. In short, behind the scenes a heated discussion on ethical issues is probably taking place and it will be interesting to understand what will come of it.

Xbox Series S beat PS5 in Japan

Xbox Series S Pur with the many distinctions of the case, the news that Xbox Series S has sold more than PS5 in Japan caused a sensation a few days ago, overturning, even if for only one week (and due to the well-known problems related to stocks) a balance that in the Japanese market it has practically always been in force, and has seen Microsoft consoles in constant trouble.

What happened therefore has no value that is not purely symbolic: a David against Goliath that was consumed in a particularly difficult week for the distribution chain of PlayStation 5, and in which users have fallen back on the next-gen economic console of the Redmond house, which has sold about triple compared to PS5. Who knows when and if we will see it happen again ...

Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase games

Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, the official artwork of the event Let's close ours review of the most important news of the week with a dutiful reference to the games present at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, given that the journalist Jez Corden has drawn up his own list and the expectations towards the event have become substantially higher after the painful postponement by Starfield and Redfall.

So what will we see next June 12 during the show? Obviously the aforementioned Starfield and Redfall, the 1.0 version of Grounded and the next update of Sea of ​​Thieves, but also Avowed, Contraband, Diablo 4, Everwild and several projects currently shrouded in mystery: Project Belfry, Pentament and Project Midnight. Strange there has been no mention of the Master Chief Collection-style remaster of Gears of War!

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