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.

Team Asobi launched a new Astro’s Playroom update, with the second of four new Bots available now. Players who unlock these new bots can bring them into the upcoming Astro Bot, which releases on September 6.

What’s in the new Astro’s Playroom update?

Team Asobi’s studio head, Nicolas Doucet, reiterated in Monday’s PlayStation Blog post that the upcoming Astro Bot game sees players rescuing 300 bots scattered across multiple galaxies. Half of them are cameo Bots referencing other PlayStation games. These include Bloodborne and Returnal, from which Astro’s Playroom got the first two new Special Bots. Players have been able to unlock Lady Maria since last month, with the Bot version of Returnal protagonist Selene arriving in the second update.

As with the previous Astro’s Playroom update, the studio tasked the player with finding Selene somewhere in the game and then completing a puzzle to rescue her. According to Team Asobi’s Studio Head, Nicolas Doucet, players found and freed Lady Maria in under three hours. The next new Bot arrives in August, with the fourth coming in September. Based on the trophy names and teasers, they will be based on Gran Turismo and Ape Escape.

How to unlock Lady Maria and Selene

To unlock Lady Maria, Astro’s Playroom players need to head to the Render Forest area in the CPU jungle. Maria’s capsule will appear when players climb to the top of a large plant behind the Bloodborne Hunter Bot. They then need to search the trees above for a clock symbol matching the one on the pod. Standing near the clock and pressing the Options button brings up a screen where players must enter the date 24/11/2015, the release date for Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters DLC. Doing so unlocks Lady Maria and the Hunted Down trophy.

Meanwhile, the Selene Bot is in the Deep Dataspace of Astro’s Playroom’s SSD Speedway. To the left of the buried Ball Shooter chest is a swirling vortex. Players must jump toward the vortex to land on the hidden platform to reveal Selene’s pod. Then, they must proceed through the shooting section, stopping in the room with the low-hanging lights. They will find a small astronaut doll on the walkways above. This being a Returnal reference, players then need to die and respawn to free Selene.

The post Astro’s Playroom Update Adds New Bots You Can Bring Into Astro Bot 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.

LA Noire 2 began trending in gaming circles over the weekend as a rumor made rounds that its former developers are making a new thriller set in the 1940s. The rumor stemmed from an Instagram post by Australian composer Freyja Garbett, and while she did indeed work on an LA Noire based project, it wasn’t quite what we thought.

Fans renew demands for LA Noire 2

In a now deleted Instagram post, Garbett uploaded photos of a recorded session for something called “Sowden House.” “From the creators of LA Noire comes Sowden House, a psychological thriller set in 1940s LA that will have you questioning your sanity,” she wrote, expressing excitement for working on a video game.

Sowden House is a reference to Black Dhalia murder as its prime suspect once owned the residence in LA.

The studio behind the project, Video Games Deluxe, is exclusively working for Rockstar Games. Unfortunately, however, an official statement debunking the rumor revealed that Sowden House was just a tech demo.

“We commissioned some music from a local composer Freyja Garbett for a VR project that we were working on a number of years ago when between projects,” the statement reads. “It is based on a case from LA Noire that did not make the cut but was more of a tech demo than anything else. We have no idea whether this will ever see the light of day but we decided to finish the score commission to support a local composer.”

Garbett has since deleted the Instagram post.

The post L.A. Noire Devs Debunk Rumor of New 1940s Game 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.

BioShock 1 and The Darkness fans are getting their hopes up after the discovery of an unannounced 2K remake in the works. The revelation comes from the LinkedIn profile of Brett Shupe, a motion capture animator at 2K.

BioShock 1 and The Darkness considered prime candidates for a remake

As spotted by MP1st over the weekend, Shupe’s now-edited profile mentioned that he’s worked on an upcoming Mafia game, the new BioShock game, a canceled Supermassive Games project code named Erebus, a new 2K sports title as well as an unannounced non-sports title, and last but not least, “an upcoming unannounced remake.”

That last bit above has generated quite a bit of excitement. Fans are speculating that the original BioShock is possibly being remade from the ground up to drum up interest in the series ahead of BioShock 4. The infamous (and accurate) Nvidia leak did mention a BioShock remaster, and fans believe that 2K may have switched to a remake considering we already have a 2016 collection of the BioShock trilogy.

However, there’s some hope that a remake of The Darkness is in the works as Nightdive CEO has previously hinted at bringing the game back to life. Some folks are even rooting for Spec Ops: The Line!

Noticing all the chatter, Shupe edited his profile and scrubbed any mention of the canceled Supermassive Games project as well as the unannounced remake. However, screenshots of his profile are already making rounds.

The post BioShock 1, The Darkness Fans Excited as Unannounced 2K Remake Leaks 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.

BioShock fans have finally received a small BioShock 4 update (or whatever the next game is called) after a lengthy silence. It was in 2019 that 2K announced the establishment of new studio, Cloud Chamber, to take the series forward. And it looks like the developer is finally ramping up production.

BioShock 4 dev team is bulking up

As spotted by folks at Wccftech, Cloud Chamber has opened up a large number of job vacancies. Over on LinkedIn, senior cinematic designer Jeff Spoonhower stated that the vacancies are specifically for the BioShock team.

“The BioShock team at 2K Cloud Chamber is ramping up!” Spoonhower wrote. “We have many positions open across a variety of disciplines including art, animation, engineering, design, narrative, and production. We are working on a really awesome project, and our studio is remote-friendly.”

There are 30 job opportunities available, including critical roles like senior writer, executive producer, and producer.

While this is great news for those worried about the project, given the number of vacancies and nature of the roles, it looks like BioShock 4 has either yet to enter production or is in very early stages of development. We won’t be surprised if the game releases on the PS6.

The post BioShock Fans Finally Get Some News After Lengthy Silence 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.

Exoprimal post-launch content support has ended, Capcom has announced. The “not Dino Crisis” multiplayer game released in July 2023 on current and last-gen platforms to a mixed reception. Despite launching on a number of platforms and on Xbox Game Pass, Exoprimal didn’t quite take off.

When happens after the end of Exoprimal post-launch content?

Capcom has said that Exoprimal Season 4 will come to an end on July 11, following which the game will revert back to Season 1. A new “Season” will begin on the first of each month for the foreseeable future, but it won’t contain any new content. In other words, everything that’s been released thus far will simply get recycled.

Exoprimal Season Passes 1-3 will be going on sale again, allowing players to grab all the premium items that they want. As for Savage Gauntlet ranks, they will no longer be tabulated after trial 41.

Capcom has stressed that everything Exoprimal has to offer will remain online and accessible… at least for now. “If you’re playing alone or match with only a few other players, Bots (AI-controlled Exofighters) will still be added so that you can fully enjoy the Hammerheads’ story and reach the ending,” the publisher added.

For more information, head over to Exoprimal’s official website.

The post Exoprimal Content Support Ends a Year After Launch appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.