Tag: gaming news

Sony pushes for a bigger focus on PlayStation Network with Exec changes

Yesterday, Sony announced a change in their executive management for PlayStation. Starting on April 1st, Jim Ryan will become the President and Chief Executive of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). John Kodera, the previous President, will become deputy President. 1

CEO and president Kenichiro Yoshida stated the move will “ensure sustainable evolution of the PlayStation platform and further growth of the network area.” Yoshida believes the change will help PlayStation Network grow as it has 90 million users. With so many users, Sony is looking to add more content for users to access.

Who is Jim Ryan?

Jim Ryan has been with Sony since 1994 and has been overseeing the Europe PlayStation market. He has helped established PlayStation as the dominant console in Europe and was promoted to deputy President for his successes. He is also known for his statement against backwards compatibility for the PlayStation 4 back in 2017.

“When we’ve dabbled with backwards compatibility, I can say it is one of those features that is much requested, but not actually used much,” says Ryan. “That, and I was at a Gran Turismo event recently where they had PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 games, and the PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?”

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Future Changes for Sony

While Ryan hasn’t announced any upcoming changes, Sony will not be attending E3 this year. People are predicting Sony will announce the PlayStation 5 this year and will save it for their own event PlayStation Experience (Which was not held in 2018). Sony may move towards a digital subscription service similar to the Xbox Game Pass which gives players access to the entire Xbox One and 360 libraries for a monthly fee. Subscription services are becoming more popular as it helps bring consistent revenue across the year rather than huge spikes at quarter ends.

Sources:

Polygon

Eurogamer

Times

Stanford Business

PlayStation Plus removes PS3 and PS Vita games

After March 8th, PlayStation Plus will no longer include free games for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. You’ll still keep all your previously downloaded PS3 and Vita games as long as you have a PlayStation Plus membership.

How to merge accounts in Fortnite

You can start to merge your Fortnite accounts across all platforms: PC, Xbox, Switch, and PS4. It will take two weeks for all your in-game items and V-Bucks from other accounts to merge into the primary account. Start Here

Notice: You’ll need to access the emails that are connected to your different game consoles and the account must have been made before September 28th, 2018. 

What items will merge?

Battle Royale players may merge all of their cosmetic items. Save the World players may merge their Llamas, Defenders, Heroes, Schematics, Survivors, XP, Evolution and Perk Materials.

Other Items such as Unreal Marketplace items, Creative Islands, and Save The World account level and progress will not be merged over from your secondary account. So if you’re worried that one account has less progress than the other, make sure your primary account is the highest.

Sources

Epic Games

 

Apex Legends isn’t Titanfall 3 and that’s okay

As a fan of Titanfall 2, I was extremely worried when Respawn was bought out by EA (Electronic Arts). EA has a history of changing the companies they acquire for the worse and their harsh business practices. Many Bioware original employees have left after the acquirement from EA and many studios have been closed down by them such as Visceral (Dead Space series) and Maxis (SimCity). Fans of Respawn were worried when they announced Apex Legends: A Battle Royal class-based shooters with no Titans, double jump, or wall running but was still based in the Titanfall universe.

Fans were devastated. The game didn’t have the same movement or interesting mechanics of Titanfall 2. Most people thought Titanfall 3 was canceled or EA forced Respawn to make a free Battle Royale game to make profits similar to Fortnite.

r/titanfall

It was reported that Titanfall 3 wasn’t in development at all. This only stoked the flames and fans began to crucify EA for ruining another beloved franchise.

Despite all the fan rage, Apex Legends has been doing really well. It’s been positively received by many players for the class-based system, fun shooting, and overall good gameplay design. While the game has only been out for 3 days, it already has over one million players.

Vince Zampella, CEO of Respawn, assures fans that Titanfall 3 will be coming out; just not anytime soon. The studio is currently working on new Star Wars title called Jedi: Fallen Order. There is also a Titanfall game coming out this year, but it isn’t Titanfall 3 according to reports from Eurogamer. They are mainly focusing on improving the Apex Legends experience for players. Hopefully, Apex Legends does well for Respawn to provide assurance that EA didn’t ruin them. With so many players, it allows people to learn more about Respawn and the Titanfall series. Trust Respawn to make a great game. While it isn’t the title Titanfall fans were hoping for, perhaps this game will lead the way to Titanfall 3.

In the meantime, you can play Apex Legends for free for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. Might as well try it.

Sources

EA’s history

Kotaku

Eurogamer

New Titanfall title for 2019