This Week's TOP 6 Biggest Gaming News Stories

With Sony PlayStation’s 30th anniversary on the horizon, Sony shared their plans on how they intend to celebrate this momentous anniversary and the results are kind of “meh”? Sony will be releasing digital versions of classic and fan favorite soundtracks from their library of iconic video games on Spotify for the first time ever from October to January with new track lists added each month.

They also announced a trial version of Gran Turismo 7 under the name “My First Gran Turismo, featuring numerous cars, tracks and events for fans to participate in. There’s also free multiplayer weekends as well as a series of E-Sports Tournaments open for players to earn an exclusive 30th Anniversary avatar in addition to other “game specific” prizes.

Sony is also taking their gaming from the digital space to the physical with “Shapes of Play” which include PlaySation icon stress balls named “Recharge”, as well as Shapes of Play “Create”, a collection of magnetic building blocks in classic Sony colors. And finally, “Battle”, a board game where players attempt to connect different shapes of the same color.

Compared to previous anniversaries, especially the 20th where Sony released a limited edition PS4 and controller designed to recreate the iconic PS1 color scheme, this “celebration” of 30 years of PlayStation history is pretty lacking, especially for such an important milestone.

Hot on the heels of PlayStation’s 30th anniversary “celebration”, Sony officially unveiled their long rumored and often leaked PS5 Pro during a presentation with console mastermind Mark Cerny breaking down the improvements over the original PS5.

The PS5 Pro will finally be the console that capitalizes on all the promises of the original PS5 with higher frame rates and better resolution and in some cases the possibility of 8K and 120FPS. Thanks to the Pro’s larger GPU, players will no longer need to choose between “Fidelity” or “Performance” when booting up their favorite game. Along with increased ray-tracing capabilities, the Pro will also use Sony’s proprietary AI to upscale existing PS5 and PS4 games with what Sony is calling “PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution” with titles that take extra advantage of these features carrying the label “PS5 Pro Enhanced”.

Titles shown off included Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, The Last of Us Part II Remastered along with many others. And well, if someone has to pay for Concord’s failure, it might as well be the consumer. That’s honestly the only logical reasoning behind Sony’s reveal the PS5 Pro would release to an eye-watering $700 price tag. Adding insult to injury, Sony developed the PS5 Pro without a disc drive so anyone looking to upgrade will either have to leave their physical library behind or purchase the disc drive separately for an additional $80.

Mid-gen upgrades are nothing new as both PlayStation and Xbox released more powerful consoles last generation with the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. But even those consoles were more moderately priced than the PS5 Pro. The need for a mid-generational upgrade has also been widely seen as unnecessary as both PlayStation and Xbox have very few truly next gen exclusive titles to take advantage of the Pro’s power.

With much of Cerny’s presentation showcasing improvements to PS4 games rather than anything new or upcoming and with barely any difference between the two, the audacity to charge $700 is yet another seemingly corporate mandated anti-consumer decision. This is also following the bizarre decision to finally release a new portable that can only work connected to Wi-Fi with no option to download games. And don’t forget the need to purchase new $200 earbuds because existing headphones are incompatible.

Many disgruntled fans have made their frustrations known and are quick to recall an over-confident Sony unveiling the $600 price tag for the PS3 back in 2005. It would seem after their undisputed success with the PS4, Sony is returning to their old ways.

It’s not all bad news on the PlayStation front however, as the same day Concord was delisted, Astro Bot flew in to save the day for Sony. Developed by Team Asobi, Astro Bot is a true celebration of PlayStation’s 30 year history and is not only one of the highest rated games of the generation, but one of the best platformers of the last decade.

Much like its pre-packaged PS5 predecessor, Astro Bot makes the best and most use out of the PlayStation Dualsense with every environment coming to life at the player’s fingertips as they rescue numerous PlayStation mascots and their little robotic companions. With all the buzz surrounding Astro Bot, Team Asobi has announced plans to release not only free DLC for the game before the end of the year, but even more iconic PlayStation heroes to recuse.

The announcement also mentions upcoming online leaderboards as well as speedrun challenges and even the possibility of brand new levels to explore. Although we don’t have any release details, many fans have begun to speculate on which iconic PlayStation heroes could be making their debut based on the game’s ending credits. With mentions to the likes of Stellar Blade and Assassin’s Creed, many speculate we could see Eve or any number of the stealth series’ Assassin’s in need of Astro’s rescuing.

Fans are also hoping for the inclusion of any Final Fantasy characters considering the series’ exclusivity to PlayStation during the PS1 and PS2 days. Just let us save Aerith this time Team Asobi. That’s all we’re asking.

It’s no secret Ubisoft has been struggling for quite some time now. Despite the odd success such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the studio has suffered from numerous controversies, cancellations, delays, and just downright duds when it comes to new releases. Finally it would seem the company’s shareholders have had enough.

Ubisoft has long been the subject of ridicule within the gaming community primarily for their “Ubisoft Formula” which permeates throughout the majority of their games, and it would seem that formula is now stale. Sales numbers for their recent release Star Wars Outlaws have been underwhelming and pre-orders for the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows have fallen short of expectations.

Ubisoft’s stock recently saw a 7% dip in a single day, bringing the stock to a new all time low after an 81% decline over the last 5 years. Some shareholders are calling for Ubisoft to make significant changes as the company continues to bleed money. AJ Investments has shared an open letter urging the developer to either go private or sell the company to a “strategic investor” amidst the studio's constant turmoil.

With other major releases such as Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and X-Defiant, as well as Ubisoft’s attempts to break into the NFT marketplace, the company has seemingly been surviving off the Assassin’s Creed series and Rainbow Six Siege. With Ubisoft recently suffering numerous layoffs as well as studio closures, their slate of upcoming titles like the Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia remakes as well as the expected Far Cry 7, could do little to change the studio’s future.

Ubisoft isn’t the only studio struggling as the recently Sony acquired Bungie has announced a new release plan for Destiny 2 after a wave of layoffs. Bungie declared that going forward the team would focus on smaller content drops throughout the year as well as at least two “medium sized” expansions instead of their current yearly expansions. Originally released in 2014, Destiny changed the gaming landscape and became one of the first “live service” titles.

This meant constant stability updates, new weapons and maps, but also building on the story of Destiny with consistent, large scale expansions. Bungie also unveiled a new roadmap for content drops through all of 2025, including the next two expansions, codenamed “Apollo” and “Behemoth” respectively.

They also mentioned experimenting with nonlinear campaigns, giving players new experiences such as metroidvanias, rogue-likes, and survival shooters. Destiny 2 has been struggling to maintain its player base in recent years with each new expansion attracting fewer players.

The option to give players more freedom in how they explore the game’s narrative in addition to the promised new levels, weapons, gear and raids as well as modernizing the game’s interface and UI could prove to be the substantial update the game has been in desperate need of for the last few years.

Microsoft announced they will be laying off 3% of their global workforce or roughly 650 employees, mostly from Activision Blizzard's support and corporate functions. Phil Spencer noted in a memo to those affected that their goal is to minimize disruption and enable the teams to do their best work and organize their business for long term success.

Ever since the acquisition of Activision Blizzard finalized last year, Microsoft has been experiencing several layoffs with 1,900 laid off back in January as well as the closure of numerous studios including Tango Gameworks (who has since been saved) and Arkane Austin.

In total, roughly 2500 developers and employees have lost their jobs with Microsoft this year alone. Phil made sure to clarify in his statement that these layoffs wouldn't affect any video games currently in production and no games have been canceled. And at the very least, no studios will be shutting down due to these cutbacks. With so many layoffs happening across the industry, it’s definitely a worrying time for developers and gamers.