Sucker Punch cofounder Brian Fleming to step down:

After nearly three decades helping bring to life iconic franchises like Sly Cooper,inFAMOUS, Ghost of Tsushima, and Ghost of Yōtei, Brian Fleming has announced he’s passing Sucker Punch studio leadership on to a new generation.

and

Starting January 1, longtime creative and technical leaders Jason Connell and Adrian Bentley will step into new roles as studio heads, continuing to guide the team’s focus on ambitious, character-driven experiences that define PlayStation Studios. 

Jason and Adrian have been instrumental in shaping the creative and technical direction of Sucker Punch in recent years. Jason, who served as Co-Creative Director on the Ghost franchise, has helped define the studio’s visual identity and storytelling style, bringing cinematic depth and emotional resonance to PlayStation players around the world. 

Adrian, as Technical Director, has led the studio’s engineering and production efforts, driving innovation across development tools and game systems that make Sucker Punch’s worlds so immersive. Together, they represent the perfect blend of creative vision and technical excellence that has always set the studio apart. 

Nate Fox will continue as Co-Creative Director to complete the overall creative leadership team.

The end of an era.

To celebrate it’s ‘Game of The Year’ Award at The Game Awards 2025, Sandfall release a ‘Thank You’ update for Clair Obscur:

Today’s free game update is rolling out now across all platforms and regions, and will introduce a host of much-requested new content including:

• A new, playable environment, taking the characters of Expedition 33 to ‘Verso’s Drafts’ - a whimsical storybook adventure with ties to a young Verso. Players will encounter celebratory Gestrals, surprising new locations and an encounter with a sinister, powerful presence…

• New music tracks by Lorien Testard, the award-winning composer behind the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 soundtrack, which are also now available on digital streaming platforms.

• Challenging boss battles for late-game players to overcome within the Endless Tower. Besting these powerful adversaries will reward players with powerful new Pictos, costumes and gear.

• A much-requested official Photo Mode, allowing players to pause the action and commemorate their favorite moments from the game’s story and battles.

• New text and UI game localizations into Czech, Ukrainian, Latin American Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian, bringing the total number of supported languages to 19. 

• New Quality of Life improvements, other new features and further improvements to the game’s performance across platforms, including on handheld PC systems.

Big sweep for Clair Obscur, full winners list below:

Game of the Year

• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Donkey Kong Bananza
• Hades 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

Best Art Direction

• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2 On the Beach
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Hades 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong

Best Audio Design

• WINNER: Battlefield 6
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Silent Hill f

Best Game Direction

• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Hades 2
• Split Fiction

Best Multiplayer

• WINNER: Arc Raiders
• Battlefield 6
• Elden Ring: Nightreign
• Peak
• Split Fiction

Best Narrative

• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
• Silent Hill f

Best Performance

• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Jennifer English
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Ben Starr
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Charlie Cox
• Ghost of Yōtei - Erika Ishii
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - Troy Baker
• Silent Hill f - Konatsu Kato

Best Score & Music

• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Hades 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong

Best Action

• WINNER: Hades 2
• Battlefield 6
• Doom: The Dark Ages
• Ninja Gaiden 4
• Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Best Action/Adventure Game

• WINNER: Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• Split Fiction

Best Family Game

• WINNER: Donkey Kong Bananza
• Lego Party
• Lego Voyagers
• Mario Kart World
• Sonic Racing Crossworlds
• Split Fiction

Best Fighting Game

• WINNER: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
• 2XKO
• Capcom Fighting Collection 2
• Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection
• Virtua Fighter 5 REVO

Best Independent Game

• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Absolum
• Ball X Pit
• Blue Prince
• Hades 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong

Best Mobile Game

• WINNER: Umamusume: Pretty Derby
• Destiny Rising
• Persona 5: The Phantom X
• Sonic Rumble
• Wuthering Waves

Best Ongoing Game

• WINNER: No Man’s Sky
• Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail
• Fortnite
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals

Best RPG

• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Avowed
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• The Outer Worlds 2

Best Sports/Racing Game

• WINNER: Mario Kart World
• EA Sports FC 26
• F1 25
• Rematch
• Sonic Racing Crossworlds

Best Strategy/Sim Game

• WINNER: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
• Civilization 7
• Jurassic World Evolution 3
• The Alters
• Tempest Rising
• Two Point Museum

Best VR/AR Game

• WINNER: The Midnight Walk
• Alien: Rogue Incursion
• Arken Age
• Deadpool VR
• Ghost Town

Best Adaptation

• WINNER: The Last of Us season 2
• A Minecraft Movie
• Devil May Cry
• Splinter Cell Deathwatch
• Until Dawn

Community Support

• WINNER: Baldur’s Gate 3
• Final Fantasy 14
• Fortnite
• Helldivers 2
• No Man’s Sky

Debut Indie Game

• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Blue Prince
• Despelote
• Dispatch
• Megabonk

Innovation in Accessibility

• WINNER: Doom: The Dark Ages
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Atomfall
• EA Sports FC 26
• South of Midnight

Games for Impact

• WINNER: South of Midnight
• Consume Me
• Despelote
• Lost Records: Bloom and Rage
• Wanderstop

Best Esports Game

• WINNER: Counter-Strike 2
• Dota 2
• League of Legends
• Mobile Legends Bang Bang
• Valorant

Best Esports Athlete

• WINNER: Chovy
• Brawk
• Forsaken
• Kakeru
• Menard
• Zywoo

Best Esports Team

• WINNER: Team Vitality (Counter-Strike 2)
• Gen.G (League of Legends)
• NRG (Valorant)
• Team Falcons (Dota 2)
• Team Liquid PH (Mobile Legends Bang Bang)

Content Creator of the Year

• WINNER: MoistCr1tikal
• Caedrel
• Kai Cenat
• Sakura Miko
• The Burnt Peanut

Most Anticipated Game

• WINNER: Grand Theft Auto 6
• 007 First Light
• Marvel’s Wolverine
• Resident Evil Requiem
• The Witcher 4

Players’ Voice

• WINNER: Wuthering Waves
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Dispatch
• Genshin Impact
• Hollow Knight: Silksong

Game Changer Award

• Girls Make Games

With THE FORSAKEN HOLLOWS, Nighfarers will see their ranks grow, with two new playable characters joining the roundtable to see the hunt to its end: Scholar and Undertaker.

Scholar: A trained academic excelling in the art of spellcasting; he boasts impressive arcane knowledge and gains incredible advantages on the battlefield through keen observation.

Undertaker: Driven by faith and strength; she was mandated by her monastery to slay the Nightlord. She is an unassuming gatekeeper to the afterlife using her uncanny strength to annihilate her enemies with ruthless efficiency.

Available now with the November 1.54 Update:

2. PlayStation®5 Pro

• PlayStation®5 Pro support has been added, with the following features:

  • Added a mode that combines higher image quality and frame rate performance by fully utilising the PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) for PlayStation®5 Pro;

  • Ray-tracing for reflections has been implemented during races. (Please note ‘Prioritise Ray Tracing/Resolution’ must be selected in the Display settings);

  • Support for 8K resolution;

  • Improvements to rendering quality in VR Mode;

  • Smoother video motion in VR Mode by utilising the VR Positional Reprojection function.

Without much fanfare, Sony seemingly has released a major update to the PS Portal, enabling direct Cloud Streaming.

Cloud Streaming will initial be in beta, and only open to PlayStation Plus Premium members. Those in the beta will be able to stream PS5 games from the Plus Game Catalog directly, without needing a console.

Features available during the Beta

Stream select PS5 games in the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog Over 120 PS5 games from the PS Plus Game Catalog, including Dave the Diver, Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Monster Hunter Rise, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, will be accessible on PS Portal via cloud streaming

Streaming up to 1080p/60fps

DualSense wireless controller features, including haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, speakers, touchpad (emulated on the touch screen for PS Portal), and motion sensor

PlayStation Plus Cloud storage Save data and game progress can be stored up to 100GB and will be automatically synced with your PS5 console, making it easy to switch seamlessly between local and streaming gameplay, and between multiple devices.

9 years after its release, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate gets an update unlocking 60 fps:

PlayStation (~0.75 GB)

• PS5 and PS5 Pro
• 1080p resolution at 60 fps
• 4K resolution at 60 fps

Update v3.2.1:

PERFORMANCE ON PLAYSTATION®5 PRO

• Sea of Thieves utilises the enhanced hardware of the PlayStation®5 Pro to offer performance improvements during gameplay, providing a more stable 60FPS in 4K resolution. Players utilising Performance Mode on supported TVs will also experience a more stable 120Hz refresh rate at 1080p resolution.

Available now with the Season 1 update:

PlayStation 5 Pro Updates Black Ops 6 and Warzone are optimized for PlayStation 5 Pro:

Launch Features

Using Sony’s PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Black Ops 6 supports a higher image quality when running at 4K and 60 Hz.

New PlayStation 5 Pro quality settings: higher quality shadows, ambient occlusion, reflections and screen space global illumination (unique to Quality Mode).

Players can also opt to play at 120 Hz for greater performance; on the PS5 Pro 120 Hz mode has the same image quality as the PlayStation 5 running at 60 FPS.

With Season 01

New variable refresh rate mode that with the allows our highest image quality mode to often exceed 60 Hz on compatible display devices (120 Hz VRR).

Dying Light 2: Stay Human, Grand Theft Auto V and Like a Dragon: Ishin being the standouts.

Edwin Evans-Thirwell, writing for Rock Paper Shotgun:

Paradox Interactive delayed jail management simulator Prison Architect 2 indefinitely this August, commenting at the time that the game had notable performance issues, and that its system-led design was proving tricky to tinker with.

Speaking to me at Paradox’s Media Day last week, deputy chief executive officer Mattias Lilja offered a shade more insight on the decision, suggesting that hard-up players have “higher expectations” at present and are less trusting that developers will fix problems.

Also, regarding Cities: Skyline 2:

When I spoke to him separately, Fåhraeus admitted that Paradox knew that Cities: Skyline 2’s performance needed improvement before launch - they just miscalculated how much players would care.

and

“We were aware that performance was not great, but we underestimated how it will be perceived by players - how serious the player perception would be,”

It amazes that Publishers still think they can release buggy, broken games and people will just be thankful that it released at all.

I don’t think expecting a game to run well, be as promised and something worthy of the price paid is “high-expectations” surely thats just the bare minimum.

Considering Paradox chose to release a paid DLC for Cities 2 before fixing any of the actual real issues within the game, it seems correct to be skeptical that Publishers will actually start to put performance and quality before profit.

I doubt this is the hardware announcement many where expecting.

The UI looks interesting but who uses alarm clocks anymore? wouldn’t it be better implemented as an application?

343 Industries are no more, now renamed to Halo Studios. Not just content with a name change, they are also changing engines, from the Slipspace Engine to Unreal.

A newly released report conducted by Midia Research:

AAA developers on console and PC are continuing to chase the live-service jackpot, but single player remains the favourite way to play for most (53%) gamers.

and

While new live-service games have floundered, new single-player games have continued to smash records and generate hundreds of millions – or more. And it is not just juggernaut IP like Zelda and Spider-Man proving successful but also new franchises like Elden Ring (25 million copies sold) and Black Myth Wukong (20 million).

The report seems to outline that the majority of gamers who prefer single-player games are those aged 25+ with live service games skewing younger.

It’s also worth noting that whilst gamers prefer single-player, successful live service games make the most money, by a long way, which is why Publishers prefer them.

Confirmation coming from Rod Fergusson, SVP and GM of Diablo at Blizzard.