For some added context, this means that when it comes to speed of sales, the PS5 is slightly behind the PS4, which had sold around 60 million units in the same time frame. Sony also doesn’t seem to expect the PS5 to outsell the PS4 next year.

Interestingly, the numbers for the last quarter are also much higher than those of Xbox Series X/S, which reportedly only sold around a fifth of the number of units as the PS5, which would put it at an estimated 900,000 units mark.

Other details revealed in the report include sales data, revealing that Helldivers 2 was the fast selling game released by Sony so far. Helldivers 2, which sold 12 million copies in around 12 weeks, also beat God of War Ragnarok in terms of speed of sale. A large part of this can be attributed to the fact that Helldivers 2 saw a simultaneous release on PS5 and PC.

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1790464358599852529

4. The PlayStation 5 has sold in 59.2 million units as of March 31, 2024.

This is slightly behind the PS4 in the same time frame (60 million). They do not expect the PS5 to surpass the PS4 in the next year.

In other words, while console hardware sales are healthy, Sony is… pic.twitter.com/ExaMQZKQfn

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 14, 2024

5. The PlayStation 5 shipped 4.5 million units in the last quarter. According to our estimates, this is almost 5x more than the Xbox Series X|S shipped in the same period.

(This is a bonus one for the console warriors + my rent is due)

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 14, 2024

For instance, there’s the Classic Ladder for running through all four acts as a fresh character. Hardcore Classic Ladder is the same but you get only one life. Expansion Ladder is the same as Classic but includes the Lord of Destruction expansion. Finally, Hardcore Expansion Ladder offers all five acts to play through but with only one life.

Once the season ends, a Ladder character will migrate over to the non-Ladder modes along with any items equipped or in one’s inventory. Players must retrieve any items before the start of the season after next or else they’ll be lost forever. Check out some of the patch notes below and full notes here.

Diablo 2: Resurrected Patch 2.4

QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATES

General

• Added language support for non-ASCII written language
• Added player messaging for when a player tries to launch the game on an out of date patch version
• Added ‘Message of the Day’ capabilities to the main menu to allow us to share important game updates with all players

New Feature – Legacy Graphics Emulation

• There is now an option in the Graphics Settings Menu under ‘Legacy’ that allows you to choose between 3 different emulation options for the Legacy game graphics. The options are ‘GDI’, ‘Glide’, and ‘Resurrected’.
• ‘GDI’ emulates the software rasterization of the original legacy game and does not apply any filtering
• ‘Glide’ emulates the hardware accelerated backend of the original legacy game with bilinear filtering
• ‘Resurrected’ uses the Glide emulation with additional fixes in place to address an artifact that would occur with the original Glide rendering

Developer Comments: We feel ‘Resurrected’ is the definitive emulation mode players should use, but we noticed feedback during PTR that some players preferred the style of legacy graphics released at launch, which did not have any filtering and most closely resembled the software rasterization of the original legacy game. We hope these emulation modes provide players the means to choose the legacy graphics they prefer.

AI

• Improved the reliability of pets, summons, and mercenaries teleporting to the player instead of being despawned

Barbarian

• Updated Barbarian Leap and Leap attack animation behavior to give it a smoother trajectory that should keep the Barbarian on-screen at all times, and reduce jerkiness when he lands

Character Selection

• Newly created characters will now sort to the top of the character selection list

Gameplay

• When holding down a mouse button to target an enemy with a skill, the skill will continue to execute after that target dies
• Minimap will now automatically re-open after death if you had it open prior to dying
• Arrow and Bolt max quantity increased to 500
• Throwing weapon quantity has been increased by 50%
• Blocking will no longer interrupt a player while performing a skill or attack. If a player character triggers a block during this time, the damage will still be negated, but the animation will not play
• Changed how attack speed is determined while dual-wielding weapons. Swapping weapons between hands should no longer result in dramatically different attack speeds
• Character hit recovery will now have diminishing returns when being hit by another player
• Quick cast skills behavior has been unified such that left click quick cast skills behave in the way the right click behavior operated

Developer Comments: We want to fix some of the awkward lockouts that reject player input from casting skills. For PVP, we added a way to reduce hit recovery spam to prevent edge cases of characters being locked out for too long.

Mercenaries

• Mercenary UIs will now display if the mercenary cannot use a skill because they are too low level

For this PTR test, developer is focusing on Ladder’s presentation in the front end and how the new balance changes affect it. Once the Ladder season ends, a character transitions into non-Ladder modes with any items or loot they may have garnered. You’ll then have until the start of the Season after next to retrieve items from a shared stash stab. “For example, once Season 1 ends, you have until Season 3 begins to retrieve items from your Season 1 stash. Any items not retrieved will be lost forever,” says the developer.

As for Uber Diablo, players can continue summoning it by selling Stone of Jordan rings. The difference with patch 2.4 is that it will now spawn for all players within the same region instead of the same server. Summoning progress is also tracked separately for each game mode but new messaging is being added to inform players when Uber Diablo spawns next.

Diablo 2: Resurrected for Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. Check out our review here.

Pointed out by the Twitter account Does It Play?, which comprises of a community regularly testing and checking video games and consoles for playability without an online connection (they maintain a very useful Excel sheet covering the games and consoles they have tested), Diablo 2: Resurrected on consoles has a DRM check where the game needs to go online at least once every 30 days for it to be playable offline. This means that if a user’s console is completely offline over 30 days, the game has to connect to the internet for it to do the necessary security check with the authentication server before it can be played.

This is concerning, given that in a situation where the authentication server goes down, the game will become unplayable. Similarly, if any of the consoles lose their internet functionality, the game is just unusable. The issue plagues both the offline physical disc and the digital version of the games.

As mentioned the aforementioned tweet, it does set a dark future for the preservation of video games, as DRMs like these risk the game into going to obscurity because of an online check.

No official statement by Activision Blizzard has been made about the issue yet.

In more news regards to the company, Activision Blizzard is being acquired by Xbox.

You cannot play Diablo 2 resurrected after 30 days of being offline, one of the first console games to feature check in drm.

It serves no real purpose and can be removed with hacks.

Dark times pic.twitter.com/EVnPVhXisD

— Does it play? (@DoesItPlay1) January 17, 2022

According to the publisher, “combining traditional Metroidvania mechanics with a dynamic branching narrative system, Recompile challenges players to explore, fight, hack and survive. Discover the many secrets beneath the ancient digital landscape, and prepare for system-wide reconfiguration.”

The game promises several playstyle options, several critical paths in which the player’s choices matter, a full compliment of weapons and abilities, and a system in which every game element is systemic and exploitable. “Logic gates can be freely inverted, overridden or disabled entirely, allowing puzzles or other threatening obstacles to be peacefully and safely bypassed. Even the inhabitants themselves can be tampered with, their programming changed to follow the player’s commands.”

You can watch a trailer of the game below, courtesy of GameSpot.

According to the publisher, “Bright Memory: Infinite is set in a sprawling, futuristic metropolis in the year 2036. A strange phenomenon for which scientists can find no explanation has occurred in the skies around the world. The Supernatural Science Research Organization (SRO) has sent agents out to various regions to investigate this phenomenon. It is soon discovered that these strange occurrences are connected to an archaic mystery – an as-of-yet unknown history of two worlds, about to come to light…”

Bright Memory: Infinite is an updated and expanded version of the original Bright Memory, which was originally released in March of 2020 as what was intended to be an episodic series. Instead of creating a second episode, however, developer FYQD-Studio opted to expand the game into a full-length title. Most impressively, the original game was developed by only one person.

Bright Memory: Infinite will release on Xbox Series X and PC via Steam later this year. Folks who already own Bright Memory on PC will receive Bright Memory: Infinite for free.

You can watch a trailer for the game below, courtesy of GameSpot:

That’s according to former head of Guerilla Games Herman Hulst, who is currently the head of PlayStation Studios, who revealed the number in a recent feature from Wired. Sony is working on several sequels, including Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarök, and Gran Turismo 7, but Hulst also stated that there are more than 25 games in development and nearly half of them are new IPs.

“There’s an incredible amount of variety originating from different regions,” Hulst says. “Big, small, different genres.” Sony has recently entered into several partnerships with several AAA studios recently, including with Jade Raymond’s Haven Studios and more recently with Firewalk Studios, both of which are working on new IPs, so there is clearly stuff going on behind the scenes at PlayStation.

Hulst has previously said that he’s very interested in making sure PlayStation has a diverse slate of titles. With games like the excellent Returnal and the upcoming Kena: Bridge of Spirits, PlayStation players should have more than enough new stuff to play until we see what Sony is cooking up down the line.

Sony has revealed the first details for this year’s Days of Play event. The PlayStation player celebration will be a part of the event this year, and players will be able to unlock new avatars and PS4 themes if the combined playerbase plays enough games and unlocks enough trophies across both PS4 and PS5.

After players sign up, any game they play for more than an hour and any trophy they unlock will be added to a cumulative total. If that total surpasses certain goals, players will unlock new PS4 avatars and dynamic themes. If players meet every goal, players will unlock a total of 17 new avatars and 3 new dynamic themes. Not a bad haul.

The competition will occur in three stages, each of which will feature a normal and bonus goal. The dates and goals are:

Stage 1: May 18, 12:00 AM – May 24, 11:59 PM PDT

• Goal: 2.4 million games, 7.2 million trophies. Rewards: 1 avatar, 1 theme
• Bonus goal: 3 million games, 8.8 million trophies. Rewards: 3 avatars

Stage 2: May 25, 12:00 AM – May 31, 11:59 PM PDT

• Goal: 2.9 million games, 8.5 million trophies. Rewards: 5 avatars
• Bonus goal: 3.6 million games, 10.4 million trophies: Rewards: 3 avatars

Stage 3: June 1, 12:00 AM – June 7, 11:59 PM PDT

• Goal: 3 million games, 9 million trophies. Rewards: 1 avatar, 1 theme
• Bonus goal: 3.7 million games, 11 million trophies. Rewards: 3 avatars

If every goal is met, players who took part in each round of the beta will receive an additional dynamic theme. Targets are not cumulative, and will be reset each week. Sony also announced that there would be a Days of Play sale on the PlayStation Store sometime later this month, as well as a free multiplayer weekend on the PlayStation Blog.

The patch notes for Sony’s latest firmware update, Version: 21.01-03.10.00,  consists of a single sentence: This system software update improves system performance. That’s it. The update is 1 GB in size.

One would assume that the update does exactly what it says it does, though details beyond that are unclear. In the past, however, Sony has released updates that have made changes that have not been mentioned in patch notes. This actually happened in the PS5’s first major software update, which was released on April 14 and secretly addressed a loud disc spinning issue.

The April 14th update also addressed several other issues, finally allowing users to move PS5 games to extended storage, adding Share Play compatibility with PS4 (so PS4 players can watch a play games with PS5 users), new accessibility options, and a lot more. For the full details on those patch notes, head over to the PlayStation website. As for this update, all we can do is assume it does what it says it does… until someone confirms otherwise.

Suikoden spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has been on a tear since its Kickstarter campaign launched. It’s recently crossed over $3 million in crowd-funding and there’s still 12 days left. The initial funding goal was $509,713 but that was achieved in a matter of hours.

In terms of stretch goals, Hot Springs, a monster raising minigame called “Catch ‘Em All” and Iris joining the roster have all been unlocked. For those unfamiliar with the title, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a new RPG from Suikoden veterans Yoshitaka Murayama and Junko Kawano. There are battles where six characters can be fielded, graphics that combine 2D sprites with 3D backgrounds and 100 different characters to recruit.

Other features include The Fortress Town, a base that can be upgraded to unlock weapon crafting, granaries and whatnot along with New Game Plus, a fishing minigame, Guild System and more. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is currently slated to release for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox Series X, PS5 and PC in Fall 2022. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.