Final Fantasy XVI is due to hit PlayStation 5 in the summer of 2023 — and Square Enix has a hot new trailer to prove it. The title's first gameplay trailer showcases the massive monsters called Eikons and the Dominant humans that inhabit them, and presents chaotic, cinematic battle scenes in a medieval-inspired world.

FFXVI was officially revealed in September 2020 and developers promised to drop more information about it by the end of the following year. But in December 2021, the development team announced the game was nearly six months behind schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that we've waited an extra half a year, the gameplay trailer is finally here.

"In our latest trailer, we’ve introduced several new Eikons, as well as provided a more detailed peek at our action-packed battle system and the freedom it gives players," FFXVI director Hiroshi Takai said on the PlayStation blog. "As for development progress, I’m happy to announce that the game is fully playable from start to finish; though, from optimization to brush-up, there is still a mountain of challenges to tackle as we head into our final push."

It seems like Square Enix is back on track with its FFXVI development timeline, aiming to release the game on PS5 next summer. It's set to be exclusive to PS5 for a limited time.

Capcom's oft-rumored, much-anticipated remake of Resident Evil 4 is officially a thing and it's heading to PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam on March 24th, 2023. The studio debuted a trailer for the project during the PlayStation State of Play live stream.

The game will be a revamp of the original, beloved 2005 title starring Leon S. Kennedy and the president's daughter, Ashley Graham. And, of course, a bunch of homicidal infected villagers.

"We aim to make the game feel familiar to fans of the series, while also providing a fresh feeling to it," a Capcom producer said. "This is being done by reimagining the storyline of the game while keeping the essence of its direction, modernizing the graphics and updating the controls to a modern standard."

Capcom also teased some Resident Evil 4 content built specifically for PlayStation VR 2, the incoming version of Sony's console VR headset. 

On top of all the remake goodness, there's a PSVR2 version of Resident Evil Village, the latest Resident Evil game, on its way. The first trailer for this bit of content features scenes from early sections of the game, focusing on everyone's favorite tall vampire lady.

A dozen current and former Activision Blizzard employees have formed a committee aimed at protecting workers from discriminatory practices at the studio, outlining a list of demands for CEO Bobby Kotick, newly appointed diversity officer Kristen Hines and chief human resources officer Julie Hodges. 

As detailed by The Washington Post, the group's demands include ending mandatory arbitration in discrimination cases, improving on-site lactation rooms, protecting workers from retaliation, increasing support for trans employees and instituting independent investigations in cases of discrimination, including sexual harassment. The employee group, called the Worker Committee Against Sex and Gender Discrimination, submitted their demands to the studio's leadership team today.

The committee specifically demands private lactation rooms and appropriate storage spaces for breastmilk and pumping equipment. Breastfeeding workers at Activision Blizzard have documented their issues with the studio's lactation rooms, describing them as filthy, uncomfortable and poorly secured. Employees said fridges for breast milk were also used to store beer, that people pumping often had to sit on the floor and that breast milk was sometimes stolen. In regards to trans rights, the group demands the creation of a trans network similar to the in-house women's resource network and for software tools to be wiped of employees' deadnames.

In response to the formal call for change, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told the Post that the studio appreciated hearing employees' concerns, and outlined a few changes that had already been made to improve lactation rooms, the arbitration process and channels of communication.

Activision Blizzard executives have been accused of cultivating a sexist, discriminatory workplace in multiple lawsuits over the past year. California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing first sued Activision Blizzard in July 2021 after conducting a two-year investigation into allegations of unchecked sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination and a pervasive "frat boy culture" at the studio. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal group, followed up with a similar lawsuit against Activision Blizzard in September 2021. Activision Blizzard settled the federal EEOC lawsuit this March, agreeing to establish an $18 million fund to compensate employees who experienced discrimination at the studio.

Backed by the Communications Workers of America, Activision Blizzard employees have been advocating for change and unionization — to some degree of success — since the lawsuits were filed. CWA called the $18 million settlement "woefully inadequate," arguing it would provide the maximum compensation to just 60 workers, when there were likely hundreds of claimants. 

Former Activision Blizzard employee and campaign organizer for the tech-industry group CODE-CWA, Jessica Gonzalez, appealed the $18 million settlement this week, seeking an increase in compensation. Gonzalez is one of the 12 employees in the Worker Committee Against Sex and Gender Discrimination. 

An additional lawsuit accusing Activision Blizzard of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation was filed this week by a current employee. And there's the wide-ranging investigation into the studio's workplace practices currently underway at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

More than a month after revealing the revamped version of PlayStation Plus, Sony has shared the initial lineup of games heading to its new service, covering everything from original PlayStation classics and PlayStation Portable titles to modern hits. The new PlayStation Plus has three tiers, each at a discrete price point and offering varying levels of goodies, and it’s all set to go live on June 13th in the Americas.

Now that we know which games will be included in each tier — PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra and Premium — it’s easier to directly compare Sony’s service with that of its biggest competitor, Xbox Game Pass from Microsoft.

The new PlayStation Plus

Sony’s subscription service is segmented into three parts, with different games and features available depending on how much you pay. PS Plus Essential costs $10 a month or $60 a year, and it’s basically the Plus we know now, offering two games to download each month, access to online multiplayer features, cloud storage and discounts.

PS Plus Extra costs $15 a month or $100 a year, and provides everything in the Essential tier plus a library of up to 400 downloadable PS4 and PS5 games.

Bluepoint Games

The final option, PS Plus Premium, costs $18 a month or $120 a year, and adds up to 340 games from the original PlayStation, PS2, PSP, PS3 and PS4 eras. This is also where streaming comes into play: Sony is folding its existing cloud service, PlayStation Now, into the new Plus ecosystem, but only at its most expensive level. Premium adds the ability to play a selection of PS3 titles from the cloud, and stream or download lower-tier games from original PlayStation, PS2, PSP and PS4 eras (cloud play is only available in territories where PS Now is already live). Streaming will work on PS4, PS5 and PC, while native cloud gaming on mobile devices isn’t possible on Sony’s network.

Now, the games. Sony confirmed just over 100 titles heading to PS Plus Extra and Premium, including Demon’s Souls, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Remastered, Gravity Rush Remastered, The Last Guardian, Tokyo Jungle, Ico, Tekken 2, Asura’s Wrath, Ape Escape and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. That last game is included in the list as part of a deal to offer a few dozen Ubisoft+ Classics games to Extra and Premium subscribers.

Most of the games on Sony’s list are from the PS4 and PS5 generations, which is good news for Extra subscribers. However, Sony’s initial lineup of old-school games feels thin, even though they’re a crucial feature of the Premium tier. There’s an emphasis on PS3 games, with 29 available to stream, and relatively few titles from earlier eras. While there are some PS4 remasters of PS2 games on the list, including Rogue Galaxy and the Jak and Daxter series, so far Sony’s service has zero original PS2 games.

There’s still hope for nostalgia seekers out there — Sony said its list of classic games is an “early look at a selection of games that will be available,” so there should be more to come.

Japan Studio

However, don’t look to PS Plus for new, blockbuster Sony games. PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan told gamesindustry.biz in March that new, first-party titles won’t hit PS Plus on day one, meaning subscribers will have to pay separately for them. This is notable because Microsoft has made a big deal out of offering its in-house titles to Game Pass subscribers at launch.

Ryan said his stance on day-one drops could change, but for now, don’t expect titles like Spider-Man 2 or God of War Ragnarök on PS Plus at any tier.

Xbox Game Pass

On the surface, Game Pass has been a successful endeavor for Microsoft, with 25 million monthly subscribers and counting. Game Pass unlocks access to a large library of old and new games, including day-one releases of first-party titles like Halo: Infinite and Starfield (eventually); it functions across Xbox consoles and PCs, and it includes cloud features that make the included games playable on mobile devices.

The Game Pass library has around 300 games, even though Microsoft continues to market the service with a lowball figure of “over 100” titles. The lineup spans the original Xbox to current-gen, and the main tier adds Xbox Live Gold and access to EA Play. Game Pass has heavy hitters like Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo: Infinite, the original Doom and its modern follow-ups, Forza Horizon 5, Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Microsoft Flight Simulator, as well as indie games including A Memoir Blue, Kentucky Route Zero, Outer Wilds, Death’s Door and Spelunky 2.

Microsoft has sole access to some of these games because it owns a significant portion of the video game industry. Xbox Game Studios comprises 23 development teams, including id Software, Bethesda Softworks, Arkane, Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Double Fine and Mojang. All of this ensures Game Pass has a bank of exclusives to draw from — in practice, PS Plus won’t get games from these studios unless Microsoft allows it. The inverse is also true for Sony’s roster of exclusives, but Microsoft simply has more to work with in this regard.

343 Industries

Game Pass has PC-only and console-only tiers providing access to the library and not much more, and these cost $10 a month each. Neither option includes cloud gaming or Xbox Live Gold, which is necessary to play some titles online and costs $10 a month on its own. Microsoft doesn’t do much to market these standalone tiers, instead directing players to Game Pass Ultimate, the main focus of the Xbox subscription scheme.

Game Pass Ultimate costs $15 a month and offers Xbox Live Gold, cloud gaming features, and access to every game in the console and PC lineup. This is the all-inclusive option, operating on Xbox consoles, PCs and mobile devices via the cloud.

PS Plus vs Game Pass

There are a few glaring differences between the new PS Plus and Game Pass. Sony’s subscription plan has fewer games (for now), it doesn’t include mobile streaming and it won’t provide day-one access to new first-party titles, meaning serious PlayStation fans will have to pay for these big drops separately.

In terms of pricing, let’s focus on the top tiers: PS Plus Premium runs $18 a month or $120 a year, and Game Pass Ultimate is $15 a month. The cost is comparable, but at its most flexible pricing level, Sony’s plan is $3 a month more than Microsoft’s. That’s an extra payment of $36 a year. Annually, though, PS Plus Premium is $60 less than Game Pass Ultimate. 

Of course, cost isn’t the only consideration here. With rival subscription services, Sony and Microsoft are doubling down on exclusives as a main source of momentum, and maintaining a rich and unique library will be key to the success of these schemes. Xbox may own more than 20 studios, but Sony can still provide games that Microsoft can’t, and titles like Demon’s Souls, Gravity Rush Remastered, Tokyo Jungle, Ico and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla are a significant draw for longtime PlayStation fans.

That said, the decision to not include first-party games day-one in PS Plus could lose Sony subscribers, as well as some goodwill. The new PS Plus also seems to be missing some meat from its classics catalog, a move that could turn off potential Premium subscribers, but Sony is just getting started and there’s plenty of room to grow. That is, if Jim Ryan and his team see the value in adding content to the service.

Google Wallet is coming back as a standalone feature. Wallet will be the place to store digital versions of cards and other personal documents, while Google Pay will remain the place for contactless payments. Wallet will store payment cards, transit passes, memberships, tickets, airline travel information and vaccine passports. Google will start rolling out the new Wallet to Android and WearOS devices in the coming weeks.

Google has plans to add digital IDs and driver's licenses to Wallet later this year.

Since going live in 2011, Google Wallet acted as a storage space for digital cards and as a hub for sending and requesting money. Google essentially killed Wallet in 2018 when it consolidated its digital payment services under one app, Google Pay. The company revamped Google Pay in late 2020 as it attempted to compete more directly with services like Venmo, but there was no word about a separate Wallet at the time.

Rumors about a revamped Wallet dropped in April, so today's news isn't a complete surprise.

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!

Google is rolling out auto-translated video captions for YouTube on mobile devices, with support for 16 languages. The feature is live now. Additionally, YouTube video transcripts are now available to all Android and iOS users.

This is all part of Google's work to make YouTube videos easier to navigate and search, building on existing features like auto-generated chapters. Google has a plan to increase the number of YouTube videos with auto-generated chapters from 8 million to 80 million by the end of the year. 

Next month, Google plans to add auto-translated captions to Ukrainian YouTube content.

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!

My love of indie games and weird hardware is well documented, but I have to admit it here: The game I’ve sunk the most hours into is Overwatch. I’ve been playing since it came out in 2016, mostly on PlayStation, but I also have accounts on Xbox and PC. I main Mei, D.Va and Moira, with a side of Symmetra and Orisa, and to this day I play competitive mode about three times a week.

I’ve been desperate to get my hands on Overwatch 2, especially since Blizzard has been teasing it for more than two years. This week, the Overwatch 2 beta went live and I finally got to see how this thing plays, complete with the new damage hero, Sojourn, and a fresh 5v5 format.

Let’s call it like it is: Overwatch has grown stale over the past year or so, with minimal updates and an unofficial freeze on new heroes, maps and modes. This isn’t just opinion, either – it got so bad that game director Aaron Keller actually apologized for the lack of Overwatch content and communication back in March.

The beta is by no means a finished product, but it features all the things Blizzard is trying to tweak, including updates to audio cues, crisper animations and environments, and complete reworks for some longtime heroes. Overwatch 2 looks and sounds great already, and I don’t think it’s just because we’ve been starved for new content for so long. Gunshots and explosions carry more bass and cut off cleanly, while the sound of a headshot breaks through the chaos with a sharp, satisfying ping.

Alongside visual and lighting improvements to existing maps, Overwatch 2 adds a new scoreboard when pressing tab that shows stats for all players in the game, listing out kills, assists, deaths, healing and damage output. I appreciate the transparency, but even with all the data laid bare, I don’t think this will stop toxic players from yelling at their healers every time they lose a round, and even when they win. (Seriously, chill out – we’re playing with literal kids half the time.)

Overwatch 2 introduces four new maps and a new game mode called Push, which replaces Assault in competitive and quick play. That means there are no more Assault maps in standard rotation, and honestly, I’m happy to say goodbye to Hanamura, Temple of Anubis, Volskaya, Paris, and Horizon Lunar Colony. These maps feel static and restrictive, and I particularly enjoy the action built into Toronto and Rome, the new Push environments.

Blizzard

In Push, teams attempt to take control of a large robot and make it move a barricade toward the enemy base; both Toronto and Rome have multiple stairways, bridges and platforms to scale, with a wide, winding path for the robot to walk down. The maps are filled with idle vehicles, pillars and streetlights, offering cover and stumbling blocks in equal measure. Toronto and Rome feel more alive than the former Assault maps, and the pacing of these Push matches evolves deliciously as the game progresses. In well-balanced matches, ownership of the robot swaps back and forth like tug-of-war while a timer ticks down, and the team that’s pushed the barricade the farthest wins. But even in one-sided rounds, as the robot gets closer and closer to the enemy base, the walk back to battle for the winning team becomes longer and longer, increasing the stakes of each death.

In terms of gameplay, the most notable feature of Overwatch 2 is the shift from 6-player teams to 5, losing one tank role in the process. That means two healers, two damage heroes and one tank per team. I’ll be honest, I barely notice the reduction in player count in any mode, and matches are still packed with plenty of movement, strategy and danger. Playing as a tank doesn’t feel overwhelming, either. Blizzard adjusted the stats of all tank heroes – and Doomfist, who moved from damage to tank – to compensate for the roster change and it seems to be shaking out just fine.

Speaking of heroes, Sojourn is the first new character to hit Overwatch in two years, and she’s a ton of fun to play, if a little basic. Sojourn is another transhumanist hero and her main weapon is a big ol’ gun. Her primary ability is a railgun that fires energy projectiles and it’s similar to Soldier 76’s main weapon; her secondary option is a single, high-impact shot that hits exactly where it’s fired, no leading required. This shot isn’t automatically available – it charges up when Sojourn lands hits with her primary weapon, and the charge disappears if she stops dealing damage, incentivizing action at all times. Swapping between projectile and hitscan abilities is tricky, and this adds a lovely layer of complexity to Sojourn’s skillset. Otherwise, she’s able to slide a significant distance in any direction and she can throw out an energy orb that pulls enemies in and damages them in a circular area. Her ultimate is fairly lackluster, basically adding a buff to her railgun for a short time. I assume Blizzard will swap out this ability down the line, maybe even before the full game launches. Remember, this is all still a beta and rumor has it Overwatch 2 won’t actually come out until 2023, so I’m banking on a few significant overhauls.

Blizzard

In total, 26 existing heroes have been updated for Overwatch 2. Orisa saw some of the most drastic changes: Her shield and gravity orb are gone, replaced by an incredibly satisfying javelin. She can throw the spear straight at enemies for ranged skill shots and a powerful knockback, or spin it in front of her, deflecting incoming projectiles, and damaging and knocking back any enemies she runs into. Her ultimate is much improved, too – instead of offering a buff to the team, Orisa stands in place, pulling in enemies and gathering power before releasing it in a wave of damage. I tend to play every tank like a dive tank, and especially with the spinning javelin and her fortify ability, Orisa is actually up for the challenge.

Not every Overwatch 2 rework is successful, in my book. Mei is one of my mains and she’s been nerfed within an inch of her life – her endothermic blaster doesn’t actually freeze enemies any more, instead slowing them down at a constant rate with no build-up. Her ice wall is weaker and can’t travel as far, her cryo-freeze won’t protect her from Sigma’s gravitic flux, and her ultimate is harder to unlock. Blizzard, why do you hate Mei? I’m asking for a friend. That friend is Mei.

Overall, this feels like the Overwatch revamp we wanted. In beta, Overwatch 2 looks and sounds better than the original, and its new game mode, hero and maps feel great, even with one fewer player per team. Now just buff Mei and get this game to the masses, Blizzard. We’ve waited long enough.

Playdate shouldn't be able to do the things it does. It’s tiny enough to fit in the too-tight front pockets of my skinny jeans, it’s lighter than a deck of cards and it has a 1-bit black-and-white screen. It feels like a relic of the '90s, at least until you power it on – Playdate supports smooth, densely pixelated animations, it connects to Wi-Fi and it has a library of exclusive games from top-tier indie developers, all available for free. The small crank attached to its side is the icing on the yellow cake, adding a layer of sweet innovation to every experience on the system.

Playdate is my favorite handheld device since the Vita. It’s a love letter to indie games and creativity, and I think it’s exactly what the industry needs right now.

Playdate is the brainchild of Panic, the Mac developer and publisher behind Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game, with hardware crafted by Teenage Engineering. Its specs are appropriately adorable, with 16MB of RAM and 4GB of flash storage, an accelerometer for motion-based input, a 400 x 240 1-bit display, a built-in mono speaker, condenser mic and stereo headphone jack, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities. The Bluetooth function wasn’t available to test for review, but connecting to Wi-Fi was a painless, and even cute, process.

Panic

Admittedly, most things about Playdate are cute: Its size, the crank, the audio cues, the way each game is presented as a little gift to unwrap and how the screen looks like a winky face when you wake it up. There’s so much personality packed into Playdate’s monochromatic screen that even interacting with the Settings page is enjoyable. Of course, playing games on it is even better.

Playdate comes with a lineup of free games, each one made exclusively for the system and most of them taking full advantage of the crank mechanic. These are automatically added to the library in batches – once a Playdate is activated, it’ll receive two fresh games each week for 12 weeks, for a total of 24 titles in the device’s first season. There are plans to offer games for purchase on Playdate down the line.

Some are definitely more replayable than others, but I haven’t found a bad game on Playdate yet. They span genres and lengths, capping out at a few hours, but there’s at least one moment of pure delight in each experience. Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure, for instance, is a sidescroller starring a hopeless romantic who’s just trying to meet his date on time, and his movements are controlled entirely by the crank, steps reversing and accelerating depending on the direction of the rotation. It’s a simple concept with a singular input method, but the crank makes it challenging in a way I’ve never experienced before, and it’s instantly addictive.

Panic

Spellcorked is my favorite game on Playdate so far, largely because it so cleanly captures everything the device has to offer. It’s a potion-making game with a romantic subplot and a sassy cat, and every time I boot it up I’m impressed by the amount of fine detail that fills the screen. It has dialogue, character icons, an email interface, and environments filled with spiderwebs and nicknacks, but nothing gets lost visually. Each frame is crisp and the actual potion-making process involves every input method Playdate offers: pressing buttons while turning the crank to grind ingredients, lining up a blade with the crank and chopping in a back-and-forth motion, and tilting the entire device to the side to pour a finished potion into a vial. Each new mechanic is so delightful, so initially surprising, that it adds an extra layer of magic to an already spell-heavy game.

The Playdate crank isn’t a gimmick. It’s a fundamental aspect of the system, transforming it from a revamped Gameboy into something entirely new, a mobile device with a peculiar and joyful edge. The crank, much like the lo-fi restrictions of the hardware, is an invitation for developers to think deeper about the way they develop games, to try new things and to innovate on old ideas. Playdate’s first season is already filled with fresh concepts; I haven’t felt this spark of intrigue from a handheld since my fingers brushed the back of the Vita for the first time.

Panic

I believe the ideas generated by Playdate games won’t be trapped in a crank-only bubble, either. This kind of creative thinking naturally bleeds into the wider game development cycle, with designers testing out weird mechanics on the handheld and then transferring these concepts to traditional consoles, PCs and phones. The Vita eventually transformed into the DualSense, after all, and developers of all sizes regularly find wells of inspiration in new input mechanics. As ridiculous as it may seem, the Playdate crank can be a boon for the entire industry. All hail the crank. Amen.

There are few downsides to the Playdate. It’s small enough to be unobtrusive but unique enough to be a conversation starter; it’s packed with exclusive games from amazing indie developers; its battery easily lasts two days with intermittent play; it costs a reasonable $180 and it has a crank. My one complaint would be screen brightness – it’s not backlit, but instead uses a super-reflective system that requires light in the room to play, and at times the screen appears dull. It’s not unplayable, but I’ve caught myself squinting a few times, particularly in direct light.

Panic

It’s also very, very small, which works just fine for my hands, but people with large mitts might have issues with the size. But hey, if you can use a Joy-Con, you should be able to handle a Playdate. Plus, with the Playdate mirror app, you're able to stream the device's screen in real-time to a PC or Mac and play with traditional gamepads. This also helps anyone who wants to go live with Playdate games on Twitch or YouTube, and should be useful for developers.

Playdate looks like a cross between a Game Boy and a business card, but it feels like a modern system. Part of that is the speedy-enough processor and feather-light feel, but it’s also the sense of innovation built into the hardware. There are plenty of devices out there promising gorgeous graphics and outrageous processing power, but Playdate is a glaring reminder that there’s more magic to a good game than bleeding-edge performance. This is something indie developers have known for decades, and Playdate distills this philosophy into a cute-as-hell package, complete with a crank.

I loved the Vita. I have vivid memories of playing Persona 4 Golden for hours in the dark on my dad’s couch in Chicago flying around the world of Gravity Rush from an airplane seat and playing Murasaki Baby before bed. The Vita felt good and it made me happy. And then, Sony killed it.

For the past seven years, I’ve been wondering why the Vita had to die. So today, we’re finally going to grieve and analyze together: What happened to the Vita, and what if it were still around today?

It’s been difficult to not think about the Vita recently. The mobile market is on fire right now, with Valve’s Steam Deck shipping out, the Playdate on its way from Panic, and of course Nintendo’s Switch and Switch Lite at the top of the charts. Not to mention, Microsoft is courting the handheld space with Cloud Gaming and Game Pass, and mobile gaming represents the largest and fastest growing segment in the industry. From consoles to PC, it seems every company is investing in handheld play. Every company except Sony.

To be clear, Sony doesn’t have to compete in the handheld market just because everyone else is doing it, but the tragedy here is they were doing it with the Vita – and as LL Cool J would say, they were doing it well. Even with an embarrassing amount of options in the handheld space, I still want a new Vita. I want one in black and another in a peach colorway; I want the entire back panel to be a touchpad with DualSense-style haptics and I want a little hole in one of the corners so I can attach charms, just like I did on the original. And, charm-hole aside, I don’t think I’m alone here.

Atlus

So, why don’t we all have shiny new Vitas in our hands right now? Basically, I think Sony got scared and scattered, and not necessarily in that order.

The Vita was a commercial failure, but its numbers weren’t completely tragic and there were even bright spots in its sales history. The Vita was an evolution of Sony’s successful PlayStation Portable line, with enhanced input mechanics, an OLED touchscreen and upgraded guts, and it first hit the market at the end of 2011. This was just before the launch of the Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One, and right after Nintendo dropped the 3DS.

As another handheld device, the 3DS is a good comparison point for Vita sales, and it doesn’t end up looking good for Sony. In 2012, Nintendo sold more than 13 million 3DSes, and that same year, Sony sold about 4 million Vitas. Sony stopped reporting Vita sales figures on their own after its first year on the market, and despite a few hardware iterations, the studio stopped building new devices in 2015. Sony essentially wrapped up support for the Vita by 2019, and best estimates place total global hardware sales around 16 million units. The 3DS, meanwhile, is at more than 75 million.

That’s the surface-level analysis, but I think comparing the Vita to the Wii U actually offers more insight into Sony’s mindset at the time, while offering a clear picture of what could have been.

By the beginning of 2013, the Vita and the Wii U were on shockingly similar trajectories. They were both iterations of previous hardware, trying new things and fumbling along the way. Nintendo’s Wii U came out in late 2012 and wasn’t nearly as well-received as its predecessor, the Wii, offering players a bulky gamepad with an uncomfortable UI and crappy battery life. In its five-year lifespan, Nintendo sold about 14 million Wii U consoles – 2 million fewer than the Vita's estimated total, even.

Here’s where Nintendo and Sony pivoted away from each other. In classic Nintendo fashion, the designers of the Wii U kept their heads down and continued building their vision of a hybrid console. The Wii U wasn’t perfect, but that didn’t mean the entire concept was trash, and Nintendo’s blind focus eventually resulted in the Switch, a console with an emphasis on mobile play. Today, it’s one of the best-selling systems in history.

But where Nintendo chose to stay the course, Sony decided to turn around and go back home. It simply killed the Vita – and I think this was the result of internal turmoil at Sony proper. There was a disconnect in the way Sony marketed the Vita to different regions, and even in the way it explained basic ideas behind the hardware itself – like with its confusing and expensive memory card plan.

Since Sony stopped divulging Vita information early on, I’m using stats compiled by a self-professed data nerd at Kresnik258Gaming for this bit: The Vita sold best in Japan, where it enjoyed a sweeping marketing campaign complete with unique hardware bundles, models and games. The North American audience didn’t get the same attention, with limited advertising, few hardware bundles and only a couple of half-hearted attempts at regional software. By the time the second-generation Vita and Vita TV came out in 2013, Sony seemed barely interested in explaining the benefits of these systems to US and Canadian players, and Redditwasfilled with complaints about the company’s lack of support.

Ovosonico

This regional disparity happens to align with some major managerial shifts at Sony, and a larger change in its approach to players and developers. With the launch of the PS4 in 2013, Sony was on top of the world – interactive entertainment president Jack Tretton obliterated the Xbox One during an iconic E3 show, and once both consoles hit the market, the PS4 emerged as a clear winner in terms of sales numbers. Then, Tretton left Sony in 2014 and Shawn Layden took his place. By this point, the Vita was clearly an afterthought in North America. With Layden at the helm, Sony’s E3 shows took on a more business-oriented tone, and by 2016, it felt like an entirely different company on-stage. And this wasn’t just external: Sony had been saturating its systems with innovative and award-winning indie titles throughout the 2010s, but in 2016, two of the company’s pivotal indie evangelists, Adam Boyes and Nick Suttner, left, and indie developers said they felt abandoned by Sony’s system.

Honestly, it seems like Sony had too much going on internally to properly focus on the Vita, and in the chaos, it lost its sense of experimentation. Since this time, Sony has doubled down on the things it knows, like upgrading its console hardware and releasing first-party games, and it’s simply following the crowd when it comes to things like PlayStation Plus and streaming. I guess PSVR is cool, but it certainly doesn’t have the same impact as the Vita once did.

Or, as the Vita could still have. Imagine if Sony had a sequel to the Vita around today to market alongside the PS5 as a connection point for its streaming ambitions and an attractive hub for developers of all sizes. While Microsoft is busy buying up every mid-tier studio in town, a Vita would offer Sony a chance to collaborate in unique ways with smaller developers, giving the company even more exclusives, the currency of the modern market. We know that players today appreciate a sleek handheld component to their consoles, and Sony could use something to compete with Microsoft’s vast cloud capabilities and funding in R&D. It could use something that Microsoft doesn’t have. PSVR can’t fulfill this role – but Vita totally could. 

At least, that’s how I feel. Let me know if I truly am alone here, or if you also want a handheld system from Sony – only rule is, you have to say whether you want the charm hole.

It was silly of us to think the ending of The Stanley Parable was actually the end of the game. Ridiculous, even. Catastrophic, possibly. 

Nearly 10 years after the award-winning indie game's debut, original creators Davey Wreden and William Pugh are back with an upgraded, expanded and even stranger version called The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. It's been in development for more than three years, and it's finally due to hit Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles on April 27th.

The Ultra Deluxe edition includes expanded storylines, plus new content, secrets and choices. The release date trailer teases employee number 427's revamped office space and the reality-bending physics at work in the new game. It looks familiar with flashes of the unknown; basic graphics with quietly trippy mechanics. And over the top of it all, a soothing voice narrating your every move.

Crows Crows Crows

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is a collaboration between Pugh's studio, Crows Crows Crows, and Wreden, while narrator Kevan Brighting is back as well. The script for the new content is longer than the original game script, and the developers said they tried to implement the fresh mechanics in unexpected ways — which is entirely expected for The Stanley Parable.

“Early in development, the plan was just to bring The Stanley Parable to consoles with a few small tweaks, but as time went on we kept getting more and more excited about what else we could do with the game," the developers said in a press release. "We learned what we wanted it to be as we were making it."

Crows Crows Crows

It almost sounds like the new game built itself — but that'd be impossible, right?

... Right?