Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima was a big hit when it launched for PS4 in 2020 and PS5 the following year. A primarily single-player game won’t expect to see a huge resurgence four years on, but the Ghost of Tsushima PC port has given it a new lease on life. According to market research company Circana, the Steam release helped it become May’s best-selling full-priced game in the US.

How well did the Ghost of Tsushima PC port do?

The announcement of Ghost of Tsushima’s PC success comes from Circana Executive Director Mat Piscatella, who shared some stats on Twitter. The open-world action game was number one in dollar sales, edging out Nintendo’s Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake. He didn’t provide an exact dollar amount or number of units sold. However, the website PlayTracker estimates that around 612,000 players own the game on Steam. The same source reports that the PC port saw an all-time peak of over 53,000 players, with Steam DB reporting a peak of over 77,000.

As stated above, the newly released Thousand-Year Door remake came in second behind Ghost of Tsushima. They were followed by Modern Warfare III, Helldivers II, and MLB the Show 24, rounding out the top five.

Circana’s complete list of the top 20 best-selling premium games in the US is below. Note that states for Paper Mario, MLB: The Show, and Mario Kart 8 do not include digital sales on Xbox and Switch.

1. Ghost of Tsushima
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
4. Helldivers II
5. MLB: The Show 24
6. Sea of Thieves
7. Minecraft
8. Elden Ring
9. Hogwarts Legacy
10. Stellar Blade
11. Fallout 4
12. EA Sports FC 24
13. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
14. Homeworld 3
15. Mario Kart 8
16. Madden NFL 24
17. Rise of the Ronin
18. F1 24
19. Mortal Kombat 1
20. Dragon’s Dogma II

The post Ghost of Tsushima PC Release Made It May’s Best-Selling Game appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Sony is offering select PS Plus members a free 14-day trial of the Premium tier. This time, the offer is being sent via console notifications rather than emails, which can easily be overlooked and missed. Players should check their console inbox before the offer disappears.

Who is eligible for free PS Plus Premium July 2024 offer?

As usual, the offer is being sent out at random. One Reddit user reported that they received the offer when their existing PS Plus Premium membership had been expired for at least two days. They didn’t notice the offer and ended up renewing their subscription.

Do note that PS5 notification pop ups can be a little wonky, so it’s best to manually check via the console’s control panel to avoid the situation above.

Another user said that they received the free 14-day Premium voucher after they renewed their PS Plus Essential subscription for a year. However, Sony also offered to convert their 12 months of Essential to 182 days of Premium. At the moment, we can’t confirm if Sony will allow reverting back to Essential once the 14-day trial is up.

To be safe, we recommend availing the free Premium trial only if your membership has run out and you don’t have automatic billing turned on.

The post Select PS Plus Members Getting Free 14 Days of Premium appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

PS4 emulator ShadPS4 has made some progress with Bloodborne on PC. Its makers have managed to emulate the game’s graphics on the platform, and although they’ve only gotten as far as navigating the main menu, this is considered a breakthrough in light of previous attempts.

Fans hopeful that PS4 emulator will be able to run a playable build of Bloodborne on PC

As shared on ResetEra, a video of ShadPS4 loading into Bloodborne’s menu on PC was uploaded by one George Moralis on YouTube. Moralis’ GitHub profile shows that he has been actively working on ShadPS4.

Apparently, previous attempts at emulating Bloodborne didn’t go too far, with issues surrounding sound and graphics.

Considering how dedicated the emulation community is, we won’t be surprised if a fully playable build of Bloodborne was available on PC in the near future.

All of this seems like a missed opportunity for Sony, who has inexplicably ignored repeated requests to bring one of PS4’s best exclusives to modern platforms. FromSoftware has largely steered clear of the discourse surrounding Bloodborne, but has made it clear that it wouldn’t mind opening up the IP to a new audience.

However, the decision to do so lies with IP owner SIE.

The post PS4 Emulation Community Inches Closer to Bloodborne PC appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Yet another AMD executive has stepped forward to claim that the PS4‘s success saved the component manufacturer from a financial disaster. Yesterday, the LinkedIn profile of a current senior director at AMD made rounds, in which he claimed that the company avoided bankruptcy due to its work with Sony. Now, a 19-year AMD veteran has corroborated the claim.

How PS4’s success averted a financial disaster for AMD

Phil Park, a performance architect at AMD, directly quote tweeted the viral thread that started the discussion yesterday. Park said that the original claim, made by 22-year AMD veteran Renato Fragale, was true to his knowledge.

According to Park, AMD took a hit during the 2008 financial crisis and had to sell “multiple” IPs to raise cash. Park also revealed that “most of us” took pay cuts. It’s unclear if he meant the entire AMD workforce or just senior level executives.

“The 2008 Global Financial Crisis put us in an incredibly bad position, especially after Intel’s recovery with Merom/Conroe/Woodcrest and Nehalem,” Park tweeted. “In 2013, the PS4/Xbox One were released which is what we needed for steady revenue to keep us afloat and invest in future products.”

Although Park mentions both the PS4 and Xbox One, Fragale’s LinkedIn profile specifically credits the PS4’s success.

The post PS4 Did Indeed Save AMD From Bankruptcy, Says Another Executive appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Folks over at Sony and Guerrilla Games have attempted to answer why a Lego Horizon Adventures Xbox release isn’t happening. The game is launching on the PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch, so the absence of an Xbox version does stand out, especially because Lego is a beloved property.

Sony gives non-answer to question of Lego Horizon Adventures skipping Xbox

GameFile‘s Stephen Totilo quizzed Guerrilla Games narrative director James Windeler on the topic, and as we expected, his response was a non-answer. Sony’s reason for releasing Lego Horizon Adventures on the Nintendo Switch is that it targets the “family-friendly” and “younger audience” segments.

But when asked why Xbox Series X|S haven’t been considered, Windeler said that Guerrilla Games is “focused on pushing” the PS5 “to its limits.” He then talked about how the studio aims to make Lego Horizon Adventures look and perform great on the hardware — a bit of an irrelevant answer with Windeler dancing around the actual question.

Totilo said that the reason for not releasing Lego Horizon Adventures on PS4 is the same as above, but it’s not like Xbox Series X|S are last-gen consoles, so the real answer here is platform exclusivity.

Interestingly, Windeler did add that Sony doesn’t have “anything to announce about Xbox right now,” so there’s still a little glimmer of hope.

The post Sony Attempts to Answer Why Lego Horizon Adventures Isn’t on Xbox appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Following rumors that Sony‘s bringing “select” PS3 games natively to PS5, tech experts have said that the task at hand remains a difficult one, and fans should keep their expectations in check. Folks over at Digital Foundry reckon that some popular games will be near impossible to emulate.

PS3’s tech holds back its games from the PS5

Digital Foundry has corroborated what has been a widely accepted reason for why PS3 games can’t run natively on the PS5: the former’s complex architecture. The team says that the PS3 cell processor’s SPUs don’t work well with modern x86 processors, and games with heavy SPU usage will suffer from major performance issues.

The emulation community has aready tried and tested the above. Digital Foundry named Killzone 2 as one of the games that won’t be able to make its way to the PS5 natively.

That said, Digital Foundry thinks that there are some games that Sony might be able to emulate on the PS5. But the keyword is “some.” The team also pointed out that Sony’s existing classics library on PS4 and PS5 is already quite small, so it’s unlikely we’ll see a lot of PS3 games running natively on modern consoles.

The post PS3 Emulation on PS5 Will Remain Difficult, Tech Experts Say appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

A Netflix TV show based on the Horizon series has reportedly been shelved (for the time being at least) as its showrunner has been accused of toxicity and bullying. The show was supposed to be helmed by Umbrella Academy’s Steve Blackman, who has denied the allegations.

Netflix’s Horizon TV show was announced in 2022

According to a report by Rolling Stone, Blackman faces the aforementioned allegations from at least twelve Umbrella Academy staffers. He allegedly engaged in a variety of “manipulative and retaliatory behavior,” including but not limited to firing a writer for taking maternity leave because he felt “ripped off.”

Although Blackman has denied the allegations, Rolling Stone reports that his Horizon and Orbital projects, both of which reportedly came in a development deal worth $50 million, will no longer be moving forward.

Blackman’s representatives have not specifically commented on the aforementioned projects, but have claimed that he has an ongoing relationship with the streaming giant and “continues to work on new projects” for it. However, a Netflix representative declined to comment.

It’s unclear if PlayStation Productions and Netflix will find a new showrunner. The Horizon TV show was announced in 2022 along with God of War and Gran Turismo TV adaptations. No further details have been shared.

The post Horizon Netflix TV Show Reportedly Shelved for Now appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Sony‘s bringing PlayStation back to the Tokyo Game Show 2024 after a hiatus lasting several years. The company has largely moved away from physical events, and will be returning to the upcoming show for the first time since 2019.

Microsoft apparently skipping Tokyo Game Show 2024 as PlayStation returns

In a rather strange twist, the exhibitor list does not include Xbox or Microsoft even though the company has been increasing its presence at physical events. Microsoft has also been attempting to increase its visibility specifically in the Japanese market, where it has always been at a disadvantage.

That said, a month prior to TGS 2024, Microsoft will be setting up its “largest booth yet” in Europe at Gamescom. Neither Sony nor Nintendo will be in attendance.

Other notable companies coming to TGS are Bandai Namco Entertainment, Capcom, Koei Tecmo, Konami, Sega/Atlus, Square Enix, and Ubisoft.

It’s unclear what Sony will be exhibiting but we do know that the company will be sponsoring the Indie Game Project.

In total, TGS will have 731 exhibitors spread across “the largest-ever 3,190 booths,” according to a press release by the organizer. The event will take place between September 26 and September 29 in Mihama-ku, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture.

The post PlayStation Returns to Tokyo Game Show 2024 appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

PS4‘s success helped AMD avoid bankruptcy, according to a senior director at the component manufacturer. Renato Fragale, who has been at AMD for over 22 years now, made this significant claim in his LinkedIn profile, which is still up at the time of this writing.

PS4 ‘one of the most successful launches in AMD history,’ claims director

The LinkedIn profile in question was first spotted by X user Timur222. Fragale, who has held numerous roles at AMD in a career spanning two decades, was a senior product development engineering manager at AMD when he helped lead the production of PS4’s tech.

According to Fragale, AMD’s work with Sony was “viewed as one of the most successful launches in AMD history, helping AMD to avoid bankruptcy.”

Fragale has since moved up the ladder, and is currently the senior director of OEM consumer and gaming client business.

AMD developed PS4’s semi-custom Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). Speaking to The Inquirer back in 2013, the company said that it was the most powerful APU that it had built back then.

“Everything that Sony has shared in that single chip is AMD, but we have not built an APU quite like that for anyone else in the market,” AMD famously said at the time.

The post PS4 Helped AMD Avoid Bankruptcy, Claims Employee appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Sony has said that PS Stars Days of Play 2024 campaigns and their accompanying rewards are no longer active despite the month-long outage. The loyalty program, which is still in the process of being brought back online, went down in the midst of Days of Play.

Missed PS Stars Days of Play rewards gone for good

Shortly after Sony began rolling out PS Stars yesterday, players noticed an FAQ on PlayStation’s website, which attempts to answer some of our most common queries. The good news is that players continued to earn points for every purchase they made during the downtime. The bad news? We won’t get another chance to complete the Days of Play campaigns.

“As Days of Play is over, the Campaigns specific to Days of Play are no longer active,” the FAQ reads. “The Days of Play scene for your Display Case is still available, should you select it.”

The only thing members will get from the Days of Play campaign is a 2024 “Community Challenge” digital collectible. Once the program is back online in your region, go to your “Rewards” tab, select the aforementioned collectible, and hit “Redeem.”

Players are understandably unhappy that they’ve missed out on Days of Play campaigns, but it doesn’t look like Sony is fussed about that.

The post PS Stars Members Won’t Get a Chance to Grab Missed Days of Play Rewards appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.