Asus’ gaming sub-brand Republic of Gamers (ROG) just announced its ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro. Both devices are focused on giving mobile gamers as much performance as possible. But, more importantly, these phones are coming to South Africa.

When they do eventually land here, they will, in all likelihood, be the most powerful gaming phones available to South Africans. Other gaming smartphones from Lenovo and Xiaomi have yet to officially touch SA soil, so ROG claims the crown by default. Still, they’re pretty powerful in their own right.

Cranked up all the way

The ROG Phone 6 series features much of the same design language as the ROG Phone 5 series. So they’re attractive, in an RGB kinda way. Both devices feature some sort of display on the back. On the non-Pro model, expect an RGB logo that supports up to two colours at once. The 6 Pro comes with a customisable secondary display. You can slap in images, animations and text in a few preset scenarios. It isn’t just there to drain the battery. Promise.

It’s a little harder to poke fun at the specs, but that doesn’t mean we won’t try. Both ship with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipsets. It’s arguably the fastest mobile platform for Android currently available. But that alone isn’t going to set the ROG Phone 6 apart from other manufacturers’ devices. That could be the multi-tier ‘Gamecool 6’ cooling system ROG has designed.

You’re getting a special Boron Nitride thermal compound, a 30% larger vapour chamber from the ROG Phone 5 and a new wireless external cooler that attaches to the back of your device. Unfortunately, South African consumers aren’t getting any of the accessories. Just the devices. So it’s hot fingers for us.

It seems like almost every other spec is trying to set a record. The Pro version ships with up to 18GB of LPDDR5 RAM, which is more than some high-end PCs, and 512GB of non-expandable storage.

Pretty pixels pouncing profusely

For visuals, you’re getting a display with enough certifications to hold its own TED Talk. The 6.78in AMOLED display has (mostly) gaming in mind. It’s still pushing a 1080p resolution but very quickly. You can set it to 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz or 165Hz steps. According to ROG, you’re also getting an industry-leading 720Hz touch-sampling rate and 23ms touch latency.

Behind all this performance is a 6,000mAh two-cell battery. Charging speeds aren’t anything special. You’re only getting 65W wired charging but ROG has included battery optimisations that should help with playing while charging. And battery longevity. That’s important too.

This is still a smartphone, so there are a few cameras on the back. There’s a 50MP wide sensor with autofocus, a 13MP ultrawide cam and a 5MP macro cam. On the front, there’s a 12MP wide-angle selfie cam. Again, these devices are more for gaming than for taking pictures. Asus’ ROG phones haven’t had the best track record with their cameras. We’re sure they’ll do fine in a pinch but we wouldn’t enter any photography competitions.

We don’t yet know when exactly these will be shipping out. The estimates look like September for now but that could change. We’ll also only know local pricing when they do get here but if European prices are any indication, you better start saving. The ROG Phone 6 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB storage starts at €1,000 (R17,000), the 16GB/512GB option is €1,150 (R19,450) and the ROG Phone 6 Pro with 18GB RAM and 512GB ROM goes for €1,300 (R22,000). You can expect local prices to be higher.

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They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity. There might be an exception in the case of products so obviously awful that they a) will never come to fruition or b) will blatantly steal your money if they do. Meet the Polium One. The Polium One claims to be a games console. The minds behind it, though, have apparently never seen a console in their lives.

That’s because the Polium One is supposedly the “world’s first multi-chain gaming console”. The big hook is that blockchain support is built into it from the start. Even better, there are multiple blockchains supported. It’ll accept payments, and do all manner of crypto-related things. But the ‘gaming console’ side of things? Yeah, Polium, the company behind this thing, will figure that out later.

Picking on the Polium one

That hasn’t stopped the company from being ambitious. The console will play any games that run on the ImmutableX, Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, BNB, EOS, Wax, and Harmony chains, without needing to switch networks. That’s… round about ten titles, if you’re counting mobile and browser games. But surely developers will create something for the Polium One if the hardware is there?

Yeah, no, probably not. See, the folks behind this blockchain project have no idea what sort of hardware the console will involve. In fact, the community is being asked to build it. That’s… a terrible idea. Getting gamers to agree on anything is hopeless. Asking gamers who are also crypto/NFT die-hards to do so will be even more difficult. Even if a consensus is reached, the results will be… spectacular.

The chaps (and they’re definitely chaps) at Polium also apparently don’t know how gaming hardware works. The plan (following edits — the original idea was extremely vague) is to build “custom hardware” powered by Nvidia GPUs, along with a fingerprint scanner (originally referred to as Touch ID) in the controller. For NFT and crypto reasons, of course.

Read More: The risks of crypto and NFTs (as told by terms of service agreements)

None of this is planned yet. There’s no circuit board schematic or console footprint. Nobody has planned a unified language for placing these games on a console. Better yet, the machine is supposed to “…be powerful enough to run high-performance games and will be easy to use for a traditional gamer who doesn’t understand Web 3”. There’s no explanation of how these folks, who have never built a console before, will craft a Linux-based machine that’ll offer 4K (or 8K) HDR visuals and 120Hz support. The community will vote on all features and inclusions, by the way.

But all of those questions will be answered, apparently, in time for a Q3 2024 launch. Except, they won’t.

Making a games console is tricky. The Ouya was the most recent attempt from an outsider with large ambitions. The Nvidia Shield (which this crypto-monstrosity will probably be based on if it ever makes it to hardware) was never more than a curiosity. Even the Nintendo Switch was considered a terrible risk. Happily, Nintendo has decades of experience making compelling experiences. Polium, here, is counting on someone else doing that work.

Still, if you want to beat your head against the wall, you can buy a Polium One console. The company is accepting pre-orders “…before the console’s hardware is completely built”. You’ll have to buy a Polium Pass (an NFT) to secure one and burn it to redeem your console. But you won’t, because the console will never, ever be made. And if by some miracle it does turn up in hardware form, it won’t do anything close to what is being promised here.

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If the only thing ever stopping you from playing Pokémon Go was the lack of an accompanying social media app, then you’re in luck. Niantic, creator of Pokémon Go has done exactly that – a social media app called Campfire is coming, and it’s coming soon.

After a period of early internal testing, it seems Campfire will make its debut pretty soon. The app was initially announced in May, and has since then undergone rigorous testing amongst the Ingress fanbase since then. The official rollout will start with a select few players of Pokémon Go, before being officially unleashed on the world.

Bonfire Lit

You may be wondering what the point of a social media app for Niantic games is. Well, Campfire is designed to help players find any nearby in-game events. They’re able to organize meet-ups with other players or friends. Of course, if it’s a friend you’re arranging to meet, you don’t really need Campfire…

But that’s not the point. Campfire has private messages, and a group chat functionality. This makes it easier to send over a raid location to in-game friends and plan a meet around it. There’s also the ability to add a ‘flare’ to any location with something of note happening. Of course, a flare will often just mean a pokémon is in the area, which is kind of the point of the game. Nevertheless, there’ll still be a bunch of people using Campfire. For better or for worse.

Another use will be seeing where your friends end up spending all of their time in Pokémon Go. You’ll find the best spots more easily, and can grow your Pokédex at a quicker rate.

Why?

The idea of a social media app for a Niantic game feels odd. When Pokémon Go first launched in 2016, the entire point of the game was to go out and explore the world yourself. On the way, you’d find rare areas for rarer pokémon. The news would spread to surrounding players. Watching the panic ensue was a beautiful sight.

Read More: Sony cements its new friendship with PC gamers with tidings of gaming monitors and headsets

The Campfire app will take that away from the essence of the game. Sure, Campfire may help reignite a spark amongst the fanbase – but at what cost?

There’s also an obvious issue with an app designed to promote gatherings. The game is aimed more towards children, and that’s where the issue comes in. Kids are easily swayed and may be convinced to meet in an empty area without their parents. It’s not a nice thought, but it’s an obvious flaw. No amount of age requirements will prevent the worst from happening.

Surely, Niantic have already thought of this, and will have measurements in place to reduce such a risk. Once the app is officially released, we’ll see exactly how Niantic plans to tackle this problem. The social media app will apparently also expand in other ways following its launch. It’ll probably support a bunch of Niantic’s games, at the very least.

Source: The Verge 

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If you were still on the fence about Sony’s claims that it’s going to be more friendly to the PC, this next bit of news should convince you. The company has just announced a new hardware brand, Inzone, consisting of gaming monitors and headsets.

In both cases, you can see heavy design influences from the PlayStation 5. This makes sense. These peripherals aren’t only for PC gamers but PlayStation gamers as well.

M is for ‘monitor’

Sony’s gaming monitor lineup consists of two models, the M3 and M9, for now. The flagship M9 will ask for $900 overseas which puts it near the top of the premium list. For that, you’re getting a 27in 4K IPS gaming monitor with a max refresh rate of 144Hz. That’s quite fast for a 4K panel. That will be variable for consoles and PCs, through G-Sync support.

Pixel response time is equally speedy at 1ms, according to Sony. You’ll find the usual selection of DisplayPorts and HDMI 2.1 ports around back, with the surprise addition of a USB-C port as well.

The headline feature is probably full-array local dimming with 96 zones. That, together with DisplayHDR 600 certification should mean deeper blacks, brighter highlights and (hopefully) not too much blooming.

That full-array local dimming should play nicely with the smarts from Sony’s TV range. These include auto HDR tone mapping and the ability to automatically switch between picture modes depending on what’s displayed. The former detects when you’ve plugged in a PS5 and optimise HDR output accordingly.

But be warned, Sony won’t include any cables so you’ll either have to reuse or buy some more.

The scaled-back M3 will go for $530 when it launches. Its feature set is largely the same, although as you might have guessed, you won’t get as much fancy. The panel size remains the same but the resolution drops to 1080p, you lose full-array local dimming, and HDR takes a knock down to 400. In place of all that, the refresh rate goes up to 240Hz.

H is for ‘marketing team, Hard at work’

As for the headsets, Sony is launching three of the buggers out the gate. The H9, H7, and H3 will compete at the $300, $230, and $100 price points respectively. Here at home, they’ll cost anywhere from R1,600 to about R5,000. The top-of-the-pile H9 is the only set that will offer active noise cancellation (ANC). These will also support Sony’s spatial audio tech but that means taking pictures of your ears.

The other wireless option, the H7, retains a few features,like dual Bluetooth and 2.4GHz connectivity but drops ANC in favour of longer battery life. It gets an advertised 40 hours compared to the 32 hours of the H9. The wired H3 is for those on a budget. It will connect to your PC or PS5 through a 3.5mm jack or USB adapter. Don’t expect any of the fancy tech from the other two here.

With its new Inzone gaming hardware, Sony makes it clear that its future involves both the PS5 and PC. If things go well, Sony could fill these lineups out even more, or reiterate on them annually like everyone else does. You can expect these to launch overseas before the end of the year. Unfortunately for South Africans, there’s no word of local pricing or availability yet. Hopefully, we get that before year-end as well.

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• Rose Capdevila is a Professor in Psychology, The Open University
• Lisa Lazard is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology, The Open University
• This article first appeared on The Conversation

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The streaming wars are heating up. In March, Disney delayed the release date of Obi-Wan Kenobi to May 27 to coincide with the launch of Netflix’s top show, Stranger Things. This on the back of Google’s announcement YouTube Shorts had matched TikTok’s 1.5 billion subscribers in the short-form video market.

Facing increased competition, falling subscriber numbers and loss of content, Netflix and TikTok are having to diversify. And for this they’re turning to games. With more than three billion players worldwide, and an estimated market share of US$200 billion, the gaming industry is both popular and lucrative.

Netflix introduced mobile gaming last year for all its subscribers. This included two notable Stranger Things tie-ins. Meanwhile, TikTok has offered games to select users since 2019 and seems very likely to expand these offerings.

Retaining existing subscribers

Both Netflix and TikTok have transformed the entertainment business.

They appear diametrically opposed on the surface. The former gets revenue from subscriptions, and spends millions of dollars on licensing or creating content. The latter makes money by linking viewers to advertisers, with the help of streaming “influencers” who have mastered the art of short-form video.

However, the two platforms share some key characteristics. They both:

1. deliver video content via the internet
2. aim to constantly grow their user base
3. benefit from unique and original content
4. collect user data and use it to improve their services, and
5. face considerable and rising competition from other companies and entertainment media.

Many well-loved films and television series are departing Netflix for competitor platforms. At the same time, TikTok is also losing short-form video influencers to other platforms. Both platforms are seeking new strategies for subscriber retention, growth, and original content.

This is where gaming comes in. According to one consumer insights report, 79% of the world’s online population engages with games in some form. And millennials rate gaming as either the most popular, or second-most popular entertainment activity – behind watching other people play games on video platforms.

Why is gaming an attractive space?

Games typically afford longer engagement periods than series or movies. This is due to the psychological principles of motivation that underpin most gameplay.

People invested in games will often seek out additional narrative (or “lore”) in the form of shows and movies. Alternatively, audiences invested in shows may also look to video games to provide alternative narratives and opportunities for world-building. So shows lead customers to games, and games keep them engaged between season releases.

This technique of telling a story across multiple platforms and formats is known as “transmedia storytelling” and has been used with great success by broadcast, social media and gaming companies. This is what platforms are banking on to keep audiences locked into their entertainment ecosystems.

Content creation has boomed since the pandemic, and younger audiences are spending more time than ever watching user-generated content online. They have been particularly tuned into games such as Crab Game (a fan-made version of the popular Netflix show Squid Game) – which also has millions of view hours on the streaming service Twitch.

The rise of Minecraft as a popular “modding” game (in which players can collectively transform the game space through their own modifications) has also helped video streaming and subscription services. Minecraft-related videos have been streamed more than one trillion times on YouTube.

Transmedia success provides additional avenues for companies looking to leverage their licensed or original copyrighted content.

Intellectual property and data analytics

We know games promote attention, motivation, emotion and socialising among players.

Companies such as the game-hosting platform Steam have demonstrated user data can influence the creation of new content by game developers. In fact, this is a market advantage that Netflix and TikTok have over rivals.

For example, one could easily imagine that a character who is popular in a game, as revealed through gaming data, would also be more likely to feature in an upcoming show based on that game.

Netflix and TikTok can lose big

When we speak of the streaming wars and greater competition, it’s not a level playing field. There are crucial differences between Netflix and TikTok, and other players such as Disney+, Amazon Prime, Apple TV and YouTube.

Netflix is in the streaming business, and TikTok in the video-hosting industry. On the other hand, based on revenue Disney is in the theme park and toy business, Amazon the online sales industry, Apple the computing and phone industry, and Google in the search and advertising industry.

For these companies, streaming and video hosting is a small side business that provides useful data to feed a greater machine. So in the “streaming wars” they don’t have as much to lose, as they can run these side businesses at a loss.

Netflix and TikTok aren’t so lucky. By turning to games, they’re grabbing onto a lifeline they really need.

• James Birt is an Associate Professor of Computer Games and Associate Dean Engagement, Bond University
• Darren Paul Fisher is an Assistant Professor, Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University
• This article first appeared on The Conversation

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It’s nearing that time of the year again. The Girl Gamer Esports Festival is nearly upon us. This year the global tournament will be taking place in our very own backyard of Cape Town.

The event has been running since 2017, and is showing no signs of slowing down. As you might have guessed, the goal of the event is to promote competitiveness in the world of women’s gaming. The all-inclusive event is taking place over the coming weekend, 25 June until the 26 June at the ATK Arena in Cape Town.

GO LoL

“A once male-dominated field has shifted in recent years, extending acceptance to women who are equally as interested and qualified,” says Lesego Nyamane, Head of marketing at Acer.

“Female techies and gaming enthusiasts need more representation on an international scale and that’s why we and other sponsors are stepping up. The Girl Gamer Esports Festival is the perfect platform to demonstrate girls’ true gaming skills in a space free from bullying or discrimination.”

The official games of this years event will be Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, paired up with League of Legends. Plenty of partners and sponsors have also been announced with some big names mentioned on the list.

These include Acer Predator, Monster Energy, PUMA South Africa, Logitech, Intel and the City of Cape Town. If you’re a fan of Acer Predator hardware, be on the lookout for displays featuring the Helios 300, 500 and Triton 300SE.

Winners wanted

Throughout the weekend you’ll find plenty of competitions and challenges to keep you busy. There’ll be a giveaway taking place too. You’ll stand the chance to win one of two Galea 311 headsets, courtesy of Acer Predator. For more details on the giveaway, you’ll need to head over to Acer’s social media platforms on how to enter.

Read More: Like to go fast? South African gamers can win R50,000 in this local racing sim tournament

What fun would a gaming weekend be without some sort of challenge? A pretty bad one… Luckily that isn’t going to be an issue here. Besides the local finals taking place over the weekend for League of Legends and Counter-Strike – there will also be the Girl Gamer Challenge. This will be an online competition running alongside the event. Take note that only women-identifying gamers will be able to take part in this one.

The weekend promises to be one of fun for all the gamers and techies in South Africa. If you’re interested and have nothing planned this weekend, definitely give it a look. You can find out more about registering for the event here.

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The week when E3 was supposed to happen has been and gone without an E3. In its place, we got the Geoff Keighley-run Summer Games Fest. This served as a rather wide umbrella for most of the companies that would’ve had showcases at E3. We’ve rounded up the best trailers and reveals, with a few honourable mentions, so you don’t have to slog through a week’s worth of events.

Sony’s State of Play

Sony’s State of Play took place a little before Summer Games Fest kicked off. This is where we heard about the Spider-Man games coming to PC and something new from one of the Dead Space creators called The Callisto Protocol. There was another trailer of that last one at Sumer Games Fest as well. It’s out 2 December 2022 and PC and PlayStation. A gameplay trailer for Final Fantasy 16 was also present, if you’re a fan of the series, as was the reveal trailer for the Resident Evil 4 Remake and Stray. We’re rather keen on that last one.

Summer Games Fest

Here’s where we got our first proper look at the next Call of Shooty game. It’s the sequel to the reboot of the Modern Warfare series from 2019. We have to say this looks… pretty bland. The troops head to an oil rig, kill everyone and then they head to a cargo ship and kill everyone. In the name of freedom or something. It all seems a bit too familiar. Oh, and this one will be $70.

If you enjoy XCOM you might want to take a look at Marvel’s Midnight Suns. It’s from the same studio as the aforementioned turn-based RPG but in this one you need to make friends with and control Marvel heroes to save the world. It’s out 7 October 2022, on PC and console.

The Last of Us Remastered is getting another remaster. The Last of Us Part 1 will be “built from the ground up” for current-gen consoles and will make its way to PC as well, finally. We also heard a bit more about the multiplayer spin-off game that’s in the pipeline. No word on if or when that one will launch, though.

Microsoft & Bethesda

The headline of Microsoft and Bethesda’s showcase was the extended gameplay trailer for Starfield. The much anticipated new title, Elder Scrolls in Space, is from the company that brought you all the other Elder Scrolls and Fallout games. As nice as it was that we saw 15 minutes of gameplay, the accompanying delay to 2023 left a sour taste in out mouth.

Along with Starfield, we also saw trailers of Forza Motorsport, Diablo IV, Minecraft Legends and Overwatch 2. PvP for the latter will go into early access on 4 October and will be free-to-play. Otherwise… Microsoft’s event consisted of a heck of a lot of DLC. That’s… a little less than exciting.

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Microsoft has announced that, from 30 June, Samsung TVs will be able to play Xbox games without the need for another device. This will be achieved through its Xbox Cloud Gaming app.

Microsoft says it will launch the feature on Samsung TVs first and then pursue partnership deals with other TV manufacturers thereafter.

Why can’t we have nice things too, Xbox?

Cloud Gaming, which is still technically in beta, has been available on PCs, Xbox consoles and mobile devices as part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription for a while. But this new collaboration means you can achieve the same result without needing to own a PC or console. You will need to own a Bluetooth-enabled controller, however.

Microsoft says the app will offer “a seamless experience, similar to using other streaming apps on your TV.” All you’ll have to do is launch the app, connect your controller, and get gaming.

Unfortunately for South Africans, while we’ll be receiving Samsung’s 2022 TVs, ours won’t play Xbox games without a console. Not yet, anyway. Microsoft didn’t specifically say the Xbox app wouldn’t work in on Samsung TVs in SA. But because it uses the company’s Cloud Gaming service, which isn’t available here, chances of the app working in SA are slim.

Read More: Microsoft reportedly wants to release an Xbox Streaming Device

That probably won’t stop some from trying. Netflix and Spotify weren’t always available in SA but with the use of a VPN, users with a bit of know-how could make use of those services. We’re not saying that’s possible here, but we aren’t not saying that either.

Together with the announcement, Microsoft also revealed that Cloud Gaming is headed to Argentina and New Zealand. The company is still expanding its list. Maybe support in South Africa isn’t too far away. For now, we can only hope. And jealously watch.

Source: Xbox

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If you like to go round and round really quickly, you might be interested in getting paid for that. Mettlestate, Incredible Connection, and Logitech are all teaming up to launch another All Star Gaming tournament. This one is aimed at sim racers and will take place on virtual tracks within Assetto Corsa Competizione.

Go fast and get paid

Registration for this All Star Gaming tournament opens today, 9 June. There will be three two-hour qualifiers every Saturday starting on 18 June. Each week will feature a different track and a new chance to qualify. If you don’t make the cut in the first week, you can try in the second or third, if need be.

The top teams from each week will progress to the finals held on 9 July and streamed on Incredible Connection’s Twitch channel. They will have to compete in a four-hour endurance race around a virtual Kyalami Grand Prix Circut. The winning team will walk away with the lion’s share of the R50,000 prize pool.

Read More: Mettlestate’s upgraded website hopes to be a South African gamer’s paradise

Assetto Corsa Competizione has been around since 2018. Since launch, it’s been an esports go-to racing simulator. It doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon either. In February this year, it received a sizable update for current-gen consoles.

If you’re looking to get into competitive sim racing we would suggest starting with this one and definitely get yourself a racing wheel. A controller isn’t going to cut it in the big leagues.

If you’re wanting to enter the tournament or just plan to keep track of the goings-on, you can do so on Mettlestates’s website here.

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We’re into the second half of the year and Intel still has not launched its much anticipated Arc Alchemist GPUs. We were beginning to doubt if they were still releasing this year. Fear not, they are. And now we know what they look like.

Intel recently held its Intel Extreme Masters tournament in Dallas, Texas. It was the first American tournament since the pandemic ground life to a halt and it chose this tournament to reveal the cooler designs for its reference Arc Alchemist GPUs.

C’mon Intel, give us the goods

Intel @ @IEM
Look at what made an appearance! 👀
Come by the ARC booth and check it out in action pic.twitter.com/vrscP08rHG

— Bryce_GfxDriverGuru (@theBryceIsRt) June 3, 2022

Intel’s “ARc Community advocate”, who goes by @theBryceIsRt on Twitter, posted a few pics of the card. The card is positioned so as to not give away what display outputs it supports. But we can see a two-fan shroud and eight- and six-pin power connectors. It seems they’re changed somewhat since the reference design leaked last year.

We saw a whole lot of news around Intels GPU offerings at the beginning of the year. Benchmarks comparing the flagship card to Nvidia’s RTX 3070 leaked and a date was given for the launch of the first GPUs. Intel did launch two GPUs on the announced date. But, unfortunately for almost everyone, they were the discrete laptop GPUs that no one asked for.

That bit of trickery didn’t leave a good taste in the mouths of fans. In the following months, things have gone a bit quiet. No big news or any other possible launch dates have turned up. The latest delays are to do with software and driver problems, apparently.

Intel probably doesn’t want to wait too long or it’s going to come up against Nvidia’s RTX 4000 series cards and whatever AMD has in store for us towards the end of the year. That will be quite the risk from Team Blue.

Source: PC Gamer

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• Emma Joy Reay is a Lecturer in Games Studies and Game Design, Anglia Ruskin University
• This article first appeared on The Conversation

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At its State of Play showcase held late last night, Sony revealed that the next PlayStation exclusives to get the PC port treatment are Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and its spinoff, Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Originally launched in 2018, the first Spider-Man game from Insomniac is receiving a few graphical tweaks, presumably to justify the ‘Remastered’ tag that’s been added on the end.

Your friendly neighbourhood PC port

The only other info known is that it will launch on PC on 12 August this year and will contain all the DLC from the PS game. We don’t know how much it’ll cost when it is available on Steam and Epic’s store. Judging from the other ported games, it won’t cost as much as the PlayStation version.

Not shown during the presentation but named in a subsequent blog post, Spider-Man: Miles Morales will also make its way over to PCs between September and November. Or ‘Fall’, if you only recognise Freedom Units.

In the post, Sony says it’ll reveal more technical aspects at a later stage, like minimum and recommended PC requirements. But it mentions that gameplay on mouse and keyboard will be available. Ray-tracing will also be available.

Read More: The first bit of gameplay for the Modern Warfare 2 remake is coming 8 June

That answers some of the questions we had following Sony’s investors’ day last week. During that presentation, Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan said there would be two unannounced games making their way to PC. These seem to be the games in question. The end goal is Sony’s projected $300 million in net sales for PC games for this financial year.

Marvel’s Spider-Man is currently the best-selling superhero game ever made, despite only being available on one platform. Its move to PC will probably help to cement that title.

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After ages of speculation, Capcom has finally revealed its Resident Evil 4 Remake during Sony’s State of Play showcase. That doesn’t mean it’ll be a PlayStation exclusive, though. The game is set to launch on Xbox and Steam on the same day.

Speaking of which, Capcom also offered us a release date – 24 March 2023.  And Capcom hasn’t just left us with an announcement and release date. The company dropped a cinematic trailer to tide us over until we get more news in the coming months.

The trailer was captured on a PS5, and it shows. The game looks absolutely stunning on the newer gaming platform. No word was mentioned of a PS4 version for the RE4 Remake during the presentation. It’s possible that this remake will be reserved for those still-elusive next-gen consoles.

The RE4 Remake wasn’t the only news. Content for the remake is being made for the PSVR2, although no more info was given on that front. We can guess it will be similar to that of the Resident Evil PSVR release in 2017. It worked well for Capcom then, so why not keep it going?

Not a carbon copy

According to this PlayStation Blog post, shared shortly after the trailer’s debut, RE4 Remake will be a “reimagining” rather than a straight up copy. The developer’s aim is to “achieve state-of-the-art quality for a survival horror suitable for 2023, while preserving the essence of the original game.” Capcom has already managed this on more than one occasion, once with the Resident Evil 2 Remake (a spectacular effort) and the Resident Evil 3 Remake (which was… okay).

This means that the storyline will be slightly different. But this isn’t a bad thing. The Remake will keep in touch with how the original game’s story panned out. According to PlayStation’s Blog, the remake will be “…reimagining the storyline of the game while keeping the essence of its direction, modernizing the graphics and updating the controls to a modern standard.”

Going this route seems to make the most sense for Capcom. A reimagining of the story will not only attract newer fans, but also help not bore fans of the original game. It’s a hard line to toe, but Capcom is no stranger to remaking older titles.

Rumours of an RE4 Remake have been around for quite some time now. Back in 2020, a leak from Capcom suggested that a remake was in the works. Since then, Capcom have been awfully quiet about the potential remake, which made the surprise reveal all the better.

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It’s been a little over a week since fans had their first look at Activision Blizzard’s remake of Modern Warfare 2. That was just the reveal trailer however. What everyone really wants is to see some gameplay footage so they can judge if this one is going to be worth coughing up another R1000+ for. Well, we’re getting just that on 8 June at 19h00 SAST.

What kind of a name is ‘Soap’?

This remake of the 2009 game of the same name will presumably follow on from the remake and series reboot Modern Warfare, which launched in 2019. We’ll get to see a few familiar including ‘Soap’, ‘Ghost’, ‘Gaz’, ‘Vargas’ and Captain John Price.

This won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who saw the reveal trailer. In the trailer there’s a brief flash of some text on a cargo container. It reads “J-8-22”. We took that to mean we would be seeing more about the title on 8 June or 8 July. With Summer Games Fest taking place on 10 June that was our bet. Our suspicions were confirmed with a new live-action teaser trailer.

The new entry in the nearly 20-year-old series will reportedly be accompanied by a total revamp of the Call of Duty: Warzone battle-royal which will include a new game engine, according to Engadget. Unfortunately, you’ll need to wait for 8 June for any more info. Only five sleeps to go.

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Wait, it’s June already? What better way to kick off a fresh month than that with a new Xbox Series X or S? Games retailer BT Games, distributor Prima Interactive, and Standard Bank are looking to make you a deal. The month of June means trade-in deals, bundles, and free access to Game Pass Ultimate are being thrown around.

Want an Xbox Series S?

If you’re still stuck with an Xbox One, it might be time to swap it out. BT Games is currently offering a trade-in option for your Xbox One. Once you bring in an Xbox One to trade-in, you’ll be given a value of R2000 off of your Xbox Series S purchase. In total, you’d only be paying R5,000 rather than the usual R7,000.

Of course, you’ll want a subscription to Game Pass Ultimate to help get your game on. Pick up a cheaper Xbox Series S  in the month of June and you’ll score three months of Game Pass Ultimate, worth R360, for free. Not too shabby. There’s a spot of homework needed in order to claim it from Prima Interactive, though. You’ll need to send your name, proof of purchase, the serial number from your new console, and a contact number to xboxseries@primainteractive.co.za.

But wait, there’s more. If you use a Standard Bank credit card to buy a Series S (at full price or trade-in value) on a 24-month budget plan, you’ll be charged 0% interest. This deal, for Standard Bank customers, runs from 1 June till 31 August.

Or perhaps an Xbox Series X

The Xbox Series X is currently the most powerful console on the market. At R12,000, it’s also among the most expensive. But the pain can be relieved, ever so slightly. BT Games is offering a free full year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate along with any purchase of an Xbox Series X in June. Usually, a full year’s access would cost R1,440, but you can skip all that with a quick email to Prima Interactive to claim your voucher.

That’s not all. Purchase an Xbox Series X in June and you can throw in an Xbox Elite Controller for half its regular price. It still ends up costing R2,250, but that’s better than five grand. Even if it’s an amazing piece of hardware.

And if you’re rocking a Standard Bank credit card, you’re got a similar payment plan bonus here. Buy an Xbox Series X, select the 24-month repayment option, and no interest will be added to the purchase. This way, you’ll pay R500/m over 24 months rather than all at once. That should soften the R12,000 blow. As above, the Standard Bank deal runs from 1 June to 31 August.

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Video games are increasingly incorporating blockchains, the decentralised databases that underpin cryptocurrencies, as well as NFTs and other “digital assets”. New games are emerging expressly to support blockchain technology, while traditional games are being updated to incorporate blockchains.

As of October 2021, “crypto gaming” accounted for more than half of the blockchain activity over that quarter. At the same time, a treasury inquiry has led to consumer groups calling for regulation in the crypto market.

Crypto evangelists say blockchains are the future of gaming, and crypto gaming is ushering in “Web3” – the so-called next iteration of the internet built on blockchain technology. How true are these promises?

How video games use blockchains

The advent of crypto gaming roughly coincides with the rise of the Ethereum blockchain, launched in 2015.

Ethereum emerged as a platform for building and hosting of decentralised apps (applications designed to run on a blockchain, rather than a singularly owned computer network), as well as ownership over digital assets within those apps.

Video games have a history of sophisticated virtual economies. Games such as World of Warcraft and EVE Online – where items are bought and sold for virtual currencies – became a popular test case for these Ethereum features.

The promise of ‘retaining value’

A common model in crypto games is to include two types of crypto tokens. One is a governance token, which generally allows players a say in the governance of a game, and in some instances a share in its revenue. The other is a utility token, which is used to perform certain actions within the game.

Game assets (such as a sword or an e-sports trading card) can also take the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with each unique token represented on the blockchain.

It’s common for NFTs and governance tokens to double as speculative assets that can be bought and sold across crypto or NFT exchanges. But it’s questionable whether they have any fundamental value. Many gaming tokens are at best volatile and at worst worthless.

Yet proponents of crypto gaming try to sell it as the future. Take crypto venture capitalist and Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, who says crypto gaming will allow players to “actually earn value” through accruing assets that have some value in traditional or “fiat” money.

In essence, he says people would no longer need to “waste time” gaming for leisure. Crypto gaming advocates often don’t understand why one might play games for no reason other than to have fun or unwind (or myriad other motivations).

In the crypto gaming vision, play becomes the act of seeking “valuable” tokens, and extending the game into a 24/7 market that pressures players to constantly seek profit. This marketisation of all activity is the very thing that has turned so many off of crypto gaming, and crypto more broadly.

The notion of retaining value is also framed in terms of developers and audiences being better remunerated for making and playing games. On game-distribution platforms such as Phantasma, developers deposit a given amount of the platform’s cryptocurrency in exchange for having their game hosted.

But it’s difficult to see how this differs from the current model, in which distributors charge a flat fee. In fact, hosting in exchange for cryptocurrency is arguably more problematic when you consider that token prices are subject to volatility.

Some people, including Web3 advocate Greg Isenberg, believe blockchain-enabled games might redistribute some of the revenue generated by game companies to players.

Players create value for these companies through practices such as “modding” (which refers to modifications, and other in-game activities), and even by contributing to a game’s culture.

Isenberg and others claim blockchains would provide a reliable record of players’ contributions, and therefore help set up a base for remuneration.

Activision Blizzard sold for $70b today and the community is going to see $0 from this

Play-to-earn couldn’t come sooner.

— GREG ISENBERG (@gregisenberg) January 18, 2022

Playing to earn

An increasingly common pitch from blockchain game projects is “if tokens are valuable, then play itself can become a form of work”. Players can “play to earn” (commonly referred to as “P2E”).

The best known example is Axie Infinity, a Pokémon-style game where playing yields tokens that (at least at some point) had a high monetary value.

In one podcast on P2E games (hosted by the venture capital fund Andreesen Horowitz, which has invested heavily in them), Gabby Dizon, the co-founder of a P2E gaming guild, claimed P2E was a “way to escape … economic hardship”.

Like the gig economy, P2E promises convenience, flexibility and prosperity at a time of widespread immiseration. Also like the gig economy, it’s deeply exploitative in practice.

As recently reported, Axie and other companies like it have a setup in which players must buy an expensive NFT before they can even start playing and participating in the P2E model.

A popular business tactic among some wealthy investors is to lease out their Axies (which are linked to NFTs) and take a cut of any money made by players, many of whom are from developing countries such as the Philippines. The result? All but the best players end up earning below minimum wage.

Responses from industry

Some traditional game developers have embraced blockchains. Last year, French gaming giant Ubisoft launched its own crypto gaming platform called Quartz.

Others have been reluctant. Big distributors including Valve have rejected blockchains, whereas Epic Games has embraced them under strict conditions.

Many indie game developers have pushed back, saying blockchains (and particularly NFTs) are scams that have a disastrous environmental impact, and which exacerbate the negative effects of capitalism.

sigh pic.twitter.com/I4PIQB6o1H

— AGGRO CRAB (@AggroCrabGames) January 31, 2022

A crash in the crypto market earlier this month has seen most crypto gaming tokens lose value. Yet this hasn’t deterred fervent investment.

More importantly, ups and downs in the crypto market don’t affect the fundamental problems in the value proposition of crypto gaming.

While blockchains and Web3 are viewed as an investment opportunity by large tech companies and investment funds, ordinary people continue to get scammed out of their money.

• Ben Egliston is Postdoctoral research fellow, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology
• This article first appeared on The Conversation

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When console generations change, there’s a period where the old guard and new blood both receive similar support. Sony’s PlayStation 4 currently occupies this zone, but while still doing well, the console has an expiration date.

Sony has marked this date, at least as far as software goes, as around 2025. That’s a pretty long lifespan, by any metric. It’s also Sony’s “longest ever tail” for hardware. But all good things must come to an end, and it looks like 2025 is the year.

PlayStation 4 remains powerful

In a recent presentation, Sony points out just how well the last-generation console is still doing. The PlayStation 4 accounts for the bulk of in-store game sales. It’s also increasingly being used for digital sales over physical discs. 80% of games sold for the console in 2021 were digital.

The console is a driver for free-to-play games, which collect a fair amount of revenue for Sony. PlayStation Plus subscribers also appear to be hanging onto the console. But that’s not going to be enough.

Sony has plans afoot for various platforms. The company hopes, by 2025, to split available game properties between 50% first- and 50% third-party games. The focus platforms for first-party releases will be the PC, PlayStation 5, and mobile. Over the next few years, first-party Sony games will phase out PS4 releases. God of War Ragnarok will launch for the PlayStation 4 and 5. Newer exclusives, like Marvel’s Wolverine and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, will only launch for the PlayStation 5.

This doesn’t mean that the PlayStation 4’s goose is cooked, of course. It just means that first-party game support will conclude over the next couple of years. You’ll know when the platform is dead when the annual sportsball releases stop being made for it. Football games, for some reason, are almost always the last to go.

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Sony held its annual investor day yesterday. That’s pretty boring unless you’re an investor, or you enjoy playing PlayStation games on PC. A specific chart shown during the presentation says Sony is expecting a massive increase of 275% year-on-year growth for PC sales. And there is little chance Sony reaches that figure without porting more games. A lot more.

Previously ported games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone and God of War have all done pretty well. God of War quickly became the best-selling PS game on PC soon after its launch. With its sequel still slated for a release on console this year, we’re sure a PC port won’t be too far behind. Certainly much sooner than the four years the first one took.

Sony’s playing hide the $300 million

Two more important things to note. Firstly, although the slide above doesn’t explicitly mention it, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) president Jim Ryan said that it doesn’t take into account Destiney 2 sales. Destiny 2 was originally developed by Bungie, which Sony recently acquired. That’s good news. That title has shifted to a games-as-a-service model which could skew the figures. This makes that projected increase even more impressive, if they can pull it off, that is.

While Ryan indicated it would be driven, at least in part, by sales of the already announced Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection set for a 20 June 2022 release, he also mentioned two unannounced games. There’s a little room for speculation here. Could those be two more ports that just aren’t official yet? Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok come to mind. Or are these two completely new games that’ll have a joint console and PC launch? Who’s to say?

Well, Sony is, obviously. But they’re being quiet about it for now.

Read More: A leak from the Nvidia GeForce Now server shows possible God of War PC port

There could be hints at answers to those questions in that infamous Nvidia server leak from last year. It hinted that God of War would be coming, and come it did. It did also say that Returnal and Ghost of Tsushima would be ported, but those dates have flown by without a port in sight.

Sony doesn’t seem like a company without a plan so we’ll have to wait for it to supply more info when it’s ready.

Source: Ars Technica

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Remind your friends to renew their PS Plus subscription and book a week off from work because Modern Warfare 2 is coming this year. This isn’t just some Modern Warfare 2 remaster; this is a sequel to the rebooted Modern Warfare which released back in 2019. Fans have been eagerly awaiting the sequel and can finally rest knowing the release date – 28 October 2022.

The game was confirmed by both Activision and Infinity Ward through tweets that give us a look at the logo and title of the game.

Assemble the Task Force: The new era of #CallofDuty begins on October 28, 2022.#ModernWarfare2 https://t.co/3E0kzUOm83 pic.twitter.com/qEOifrOx3S

— Activision (@Activision) May 24, 2022

A new era of Call of Duty is coming

A teaser was released alongside the announcement, though don’t get too excited, as no gameplay was shown. We did get a good look at some of the characters we’ll be seeing; ‘Soap’, ‘Ghost’, ‘Gaz’, Vargas and Captain John Price will all be included in the game. It wouldn’t be Modern Warfare without them.

We could be seeing actual gameplay pretty soon. In the teaser trailer, we see a flash of text.

The J-8-22 could be hinting towards a date we actually get to see gameplay, 8 June (or July). We’re inclined to think it’s June rather than July because the Summer Game Fest is taking place soon after. 2 days later to be exact. Activision will likely want to show off their game in order to start building some hype and get those preorder numbers up.

The original Modern Warfare 2 is still one of the better Call of Duty games out there, and Activision knows it. Making a game that performs better than ‘well’ is a priority for them right now. Mainly because if the reports end up being true, we might not even see a new Call of Duty in 2023. Activision needs Modern Warfare 2 to sell, and sell well.

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