Both Activision games and Blizzard games see a firm drop

Taking a look at the very last table in Activision Blizzard’s financial report for Q1 2023 on BusinessWire, there were 368 million monthly active users during the quarter, compared to 389 million in Q4 2022.

That might not sound like too much of a decline, but Activision and Blizzard games have taken quite a hit. The monthly active users for Activision games dropped from 111 million to 98 million, while those for Blizzard games were cut almost in half from 45 million to 27 million. Some of this isn’t too surprising, since most games lose a good portion of its userbase after launch, be it Call of Duty, Overwatch, or otherwise.

For wider context, the 45 million figure for Blizzard games last quarter was definitely a surge. Back in Q1 2022, there were only about 22 million monthly active users, so the launch of Overwatch 2 helped elevate interest. It’s a bit hard to tell whether the drop in activity for Overwatch 2 is to blame, though, since the active player count figures since the game’s launch have been quite consistent according to ActivePlayer.

Perhaps some of this overall drop for Activision Blizzard might be due to the successful Diablo 4 beta possibly grabbing players from Diablo 3 and Diablo Immortal, or an overall drop in player count for Warzone 2 and other Call of Duty games.

The post Activision Blizzard Player Count Drops by 20 Million Since Last Quarter appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Alan Wake 2 is the last phase of full production

In the comment section of the new statement to investors, Virtala reveals that both Control 2 and Max Payne 1&2 Remake have moved to the proof-of-concept stage. In particular, the development team has worked on the world building and gameplay mechanics of Control 2, while the studio expects to grow the size of the team behind the Max Payne remake gradually towards the end of the year. It hopes that the remake will be at a “high quality to today’s consoles and PCs.”

Remedy will also continue development on Codename Condor, a co-operative multiplayer game set in the world of Control, as well as Codename Vanguard, a F2P co-operative game that has gained more momentum with new key hires. Codename Condor is a part of Remedy’s plans to “expand the Control brand.”

Meanwhile, in line with our prior report, Alan Wake 2 will be releasing this year. Remedy is focusing its efforts on its upcoming launch, with the game starting its “last major phase of full production.”

The post Control 2 and Max Payne Remake Have “Progressed Well” Says Remedy appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Ubisoft says it needed to work on Avatar and Star Wars at the time

Specifically, Banchereau says in an interview with MP1st that The Division 2 updates were planned to end due to the studio’s obligations with other projects at the time:

Yes, the plan was after Update 12, at the end of 2020, the plan was to stop supporting the game… We started working on the Star Wars game, we have the Avatar game. Everybody’s very busy at Massive and the idea was that we just need the people on those projects.

He clarifies that this isn’t because Ubisoft thought “The Division was bad,” though after the release of the Warlords of New York DLC, the game was “probably more successful” than the publisher had anticipated.

Since Ubisoft didn’t want to pull people already assigned to other projects, it decided to team up with Ubisoft Bucharest. It took a while for the studio to learn everything about The Division 2, but he believes Year 5 content will impress fans.

Accordingly, The Division 3 is apparently not in development, though that’s not too much of a surprise considering that they have plenty of work to do with The Division Heartland and The Division Resurgence.

The post The Division 2 Support Was Meant to End Two Years After Release appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Getting the Platinum Trophy will still require a lot of effort

The full list of trophies for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor can be found at PSN Profiles, which reveals the names and descriptions for all of the hidden trophies (so fair warning, some minor spoilers could be there).

Among all of the trophies, it looks like the most difficult or the most effort will be ones that require you to collect or complete every last particular thing. For instance, the “Blood, Sweat, and Tears” trophy requires you to complete all Force Tears. These transport Cal to special challenges where there can be enemies or platforming puzzles.

A few more examples are the “Gambler” trophy that requires you win every holotactics match and the “Reconnaissance” trophy that has you scan every type of enemy to fill out the Tactical Guide. Last but not least is the “I’m a Living Legend” trophy that forces Cal to defeat every legendary foe in the game.

As previously reported, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has a massive download size on PS5 and physical copies will still require an internet download.

The post Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Trophy List Can Be Completed in a Single Playthrough appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Burnings Shores average user score is now much higher than 4.8

As noted by a PushSquare article published at about 6 am today, the average user score for Burning Shores was “at 4.8 and dropping” on Metacritic. Some time after that, the site has removed enough user reviews so that the score is now back up in the green at 8.0 out of 10.

Earlier in the day, there were “significantly more negative reviews than positive ones,” but at the time of this writing, it has around 7,500 positive user reviews and about 1,600 negative ones.

Most of the remaining negative reviews complain that its gameplay is too boring, its graphics are not optimized for PS5’s performance mode, and its world feels too empty. Meanwhile, the Metascore for the game is at a solid 88 with 118 positive critic’s reviews, 8 mixed reviews, and no negative ones.

Horizon Forbidden West was also review-bombed on Metacritic during its release back in February 2022, while the Resident Evil 4 Remake was also review-bombed for being “woke.”

The post Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores Gets Review-Bombed, But Metacritic Fights Back appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

The game’s 4K texture files likely can’t fit on the disc

As noted on a Star Wars Jedi Reddit, photos from retailer Mighty Ape show that the very small words “Download Required” are on the PS5 cover above the age rating. Since a Ultra-HD Blu-ray disc can only hold about 100 GB of data, it’s no surprise that players will need to download the rest of the game off of EA’s download servers. That said, it’s unclear if the disc even holds a part of the game at all or whether the disc just has a download key.

Either way, this means that if the servers for the game ever go down, players who haven’t installed the game already can’t play it off the disc. (If you want to sell the disc, you’ll probably need to do so before then.) Of course at that point no one else can download the game either.

At any rate, all of this trouble with physical copies for games over the last few console generations have made many players, by force or not, become more comfortable with digital downloads. The vast majority of players will want the day one patch anyway and access to future updates for any game, so an internet connection is mainly assumed at this point.

PS5 players will be able to start pre-loading the game on April 25-26, about two days before the game’s full launch.

The post Star Wars Jedi: Survivor PS5 Physical Copies Still Require a Download appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

PlayStation Showcase air date predictions

Grubb’s May prediction on a GiantBomb podcast falls in line with his prior statement in February that the PlayStation Showcase would be before E3 2023. Now that E3 has been canceled, it’s only fair that the Summer Game Fest take its place (in more ways than one).

Since PlayStation State of Play events typically fall on a Thursday, May 25 would seem the most logical choice for when the PlayStation Showcase will air. The Summer Game Fest will begin on June 8, so the May date would provide some breathing room for the showcase, hopefully without it being bombarded by other developer livestreams that are likely planned around the same two weeks or so.

While the latest State of Play focusing on Final Fantasy 16 was a success, the one in February with Suicide Squad was a disappointment for most fans. So whether the next State of Play is in May or early June, let’s just hope that Sony takes as much time as it needs with it.

The post PlayStation Showcase Could Arrive in May Before Summer Game Fest – Report appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Older gamers feel like an afterthought to the games industry

As noted near the end of the AARP study, about 66% of older gamers say that games aren’t designed with any thought to their age group. They believe some games are at times “too complicated to understand” and that many “need tutorials to play effectively.”

They also think that they are not reflected in game marketing (69%) or within the games themselves (64%). Certain features like having a range of difficulty settings are important to them, and they are particularly annoyed with forced ads and push notifications in games.

Meanwhile, older gamers say that games have been beneficial to their lives, whether it’s helping them to relax or stay mentally sharp. As such, their top preferred genres are puzzle and logic games, card and tile games, and word games. Overall, they view gaming as “an important aspect of healthy aging.”

The post Gamers Over 50 Feel Like Games Aren’t Designed for Them appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Diablo 4 “Server Slam” beta will make Ashava world boss harder to beat

As the name of the beta suggests, it will primarily stress test cross-play and cross-progression across PS5, PS4, PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. This will surely help Activision Blizzard in making sure that it has enough servers at launch when it arrives on June 6 to reduce as many login errors as possible.

This new Diablo 4 beta will feature the Prologue and the entirety of Act I, allowing players to try five classes up to Level 20: Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Rogue, and Sorcerer. All character progress from the prior Early Access and Open Beta weekend will not carry over to this beta, nor will any progression from this beta be carried over to the full release. The drop rate for Legendary items will be in line with how it will be in the final game.

Because characters can’t go past Level 20 in this playtest, defeating the Ashava world boss will be quite difficult. This behemoth will appear on May 13 at 9 AM PDT and every 3 hours thereafter until May 14 at 9 AM PDT. Killing her will give you the Cry of Ashava Mount Trophy, which will carry over to the main game.

The post New Diablo 4 Beta for PS5 and PS4, Start Date and End Time Revealed appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

This date is shared between all platforms, including Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam or EA App, which hopefully won’t clog the download servers too badly. This will give players about two days before the game officially comes out on April 28, 2023.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor download size for PS5

As reported yesterday, the download size for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for PS5 is expectedly massive. Players will need to make sure they have at least 147 GB of free space on the console’s hard drive.

That’s somewhat less than the 155 GB of space required for the PC version of the game, but it’s not by much. To put this file size into context, God of War Ragnarok is only 80 GB, so we imagine that the texture files and character models for Jedi: Survivor must be ridiculously large.

On top of that, since the game version for the download is listed as 1.000.001, there will likely be a day-one patch that players will need to get as well.

The post Star Wars Jedi: Survivor PS5 Pre-Load Date and Time Revealed appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.