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

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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.

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As much fun as players have had with Grand Theft Auto Online over the years, it’s still unfortunate that Rockstar Games never released any GTA 5 story DLC. However, it turns out that the studio was working on single-player content at one point, and Online’s success played a role in its cancellation.

Why didn’t Rockstar make GTA 5 story DLC?

Former Rockstar developer Joe Robino recently spoke with YouTuber StanInPlay about the canceled single-player add-on. As he explained, the studio was working on GTA Online, Red Dead Redemption 2, and the canceled GTA 5 story DLC simultaneously. According to Robino, the DLC project was about halfway done when Rockstar paused development to focus on Online. The multiplayer mode’s success eventually made it difficult to justify continuing to spend resources on new single-player content.

“It was really, really good,” Robino said about the canceled GTA 5 story DLC. “But when GTA Online came out it was so much of a cash cow, and people were loving it so much that it was hard to make an argument that a standalone DLC would outcompete that. I think, looking back now, you could probably do both. But that was a business decision they made. I was a little upset about that.”

“That actually was a lot of the reason for me being a little sour at that time,” he adds. “Because I was like, yo, WTF guys? This s—’s awesome. Let’s keep going. Let’s finish this s—.”

The silver lining is that Rockstar didn’t waste everything from the unfinished GTA 5 story DLC. Instead, Robino says that a lot of it eventually made its way into Online. However, it’s still interesting for fans to imagine what could have been.

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EA is combining two of its biggest franchises with the announcement of a Dead Space crossover event coming to Battlefield 2042. The event runs for one week, starting on July 9, and features unlockable rewards and a new bundle.

What is the Battlefield 2042 Dead Space crossover?

Battlefield 2042’s Dead Space crossover event is called Outbreak and tasks players with surviving “a new and relentless enemy” in the Boreas laboratory. Rather than Necromorphs, the new enemies are more human in appearance and clearly the result of some manner of unethical experiments. They’re also not quite zombies, seemingly possessing the coordination to use guns and melee weapons in combat.

Players who participate in the Outbreak event can unlock rewards, including a new weapon charm, weapon skin, player card background, and tag. Meanwhile, the event also sees the arrival of the Dead Space Bundle to Battlefield 2042. It includes three legendary weapon skins and the Marked Man Operator outfit. The former transforms the player’s guns into weapons from the sci-fi horror trilogy, with the new outfit drawing inspiration from Isacc Clark’s iconic space suit. The bundle costs 2200 BFC from the game’s store.

Battlefield 2042 hasn’t had the best reception since it launched in 2021. The game received mixed reviews at release and an overwhelmingly negative reception from players. Developer DICE made hundreds of changes in subsequent updates to address the criticisms. EA also denied rumors in 2022 that it had reduced the game’s developer to a “skeleton crew.”  

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Rockstar launched Grand Theft Auto Online’s Bottom Dollar Bounties expansion last week, adding a variety of new content. However, while fans were paying attention to the new cars and missions, developers added a sneaky GTA 6 easter egg in the form of a new cosmetic item.

What’s the GTA 6 Easter egg in GTA Online?

Bottom Dollar Bounties adds a piece of jewelry called the Silver Layered Necklace to GTA Online. However, as Reddit user DogWifDreads pointed out, it’s the exact same necklace worn by the bikini-clad woman, widely believed to be co-protagonist Lucia, at the rooftop pool in the GTA 6 trailer.

A few commenters tried to determine if the new item might contain hidden information about the upcoming game. “Considering all last digits [of the price] are 0, we could skip that, and we’ll have 4 digits, a possible date and month – for something,” one wrote. However, even they acknowledged that it could be nothing, and the easter egg probably doesn’t have any deeper meaning. It could, however, indicate that Rockstar will add more GTA 6 items to GTA Online.

In addition to this shiny easter egg, GTA Online’s Bottom Dollar Bounties update adds several law-enforcement-themed missions. Players can complete bounties for Bottom Dollar Bail Enforcement or help Vince with some off-the-books police work. The expansion also adds nine new vehicles to Rockstar’s online open world.

Meanwhile, Rockstar Games’ parent company plans to release Grand Theft Auto 6 in Fall 2025. The upcoming game features two protagonists, Luica and Jason, and takes players to the Miami-inspired Vice City.

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The sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 is in development at the CD Projekt Red studios in Boston and Vancouver. The main reason for creating the Boston studio was to let CDPR develop Cyberpunk and The Witcher simultaneously. However, the developers say it will also help make the game more authentically American.

How is CD Projekt making the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel more authentic?

“I think Cyberpunk is obviously a uniquely American story,” said acting executive producer Dan Hernberg. It’s got a lot of like, punk energy, and [the tabletop game] was written by an American, so it just seems right to do it in America.” He and other developers discussed this and more in a recent episode of the AnsweRED Podcast, as GameSpot reported.

Of course, Cyberpunk 2077 was developed by CDPR’s main studio in Wrocław, Poland. Unfortunately, the European developers overlooked a few subtler cultural markers, which CDPR wants to fix in the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel.

Associate game director Paweł Sasko gave the example of Cyberpunk 2077’s “manhole debacle.” While many players might not have noticed, Night City’s manhole covers are strangely European for a city in California. Other examples include streetlights, the position of garbage bins, the color of street signs, and the design of curbs. “It doesn’t break immersion,” said Sasko, “but it’s just that little thing where you’re like, ‘Well, maybe this wasn’t made by people who live here or people who fully understand all of American culture.’”

It’s not just manholes and street signs, with Sasko also discussing things like movies and music. “I also think that being in America, it allows us to have those cultural touchpoints with the larger American, you know, kind of influence with Hollywood,” he said. “Obviously, Cyberpunk 2077 took place in LA, and so there’s just kind of all these cultural touchpoints and things that we can kind of interact with, whether that’s from music or story or just different parts of America that are interesting to explore.”

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Astro Bot’s file size has been revealed, and it’s not a small game. While Astro’s playroom, which comes pre-loaded on PS5, is only around 11 GB, the sequel takes up more space than the base game of Elden Ring.

What is Astro Bot’s file size on PS5?

Team Asobi’s upcoming platformer weighs in at around 66 gigabytes, or about six times the size of its predecessor. As one Reddit user quickly pointed out, that’s more than Elden Ring, which is only about 60 GB before the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Astro Bot’s file size information comes from a photo of the back of the box shared on Twitter. While most of the text is in Japanese, the file size is clearly shown below the lower-left screenshot.

This file size doesn’t necessarily mean that Astro Bot is bigger than Elden Ring. Still, it’s a good indication of what fans are getting and how much space PS5 users will need to keep clear.

Releasing September 6, Astro Bot is the third game in the series, which started with Rescue Mission for the original PSVR. The second game, Astro’s Playroom, served as a tech demo for the PS5’s DualSense controller. However, while it only had 16 levels, the highly anticipated sequel is a full-length game. It has more than 80 levels split between 50 planets in 6 galaxies. Astro will also have new abilities, and the game features new mechanics like boss fights at the end of each galaxy.

Like Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot also features unlockable “VIP bots” based on other PlayStation properties. Players can recruit over 150 of these crossover robots in the upcoming game.

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FromSoftware’s owner, Kadokawa, recently suffered a massive hack. The ransomware attack has disrupted multiple of the company’s subsidiaries and claims to have downloaded 1.5 terabytes of data.

Did FromSoftware have confidential information stolen in the hack?

It’s unclear to what degree FromSoftware was directly affected by the hack. The Black Suit Ransomware group claims to have accessed Kadokawa’s entire network. However, its primary target appears to have been the Japanese video-sharing service Niconico, which is down until June 8, with partial disruptions to Kadokawa’s book distribution. Therefore, it’s possible that the Elden Ring developer got away unscathed.

Kadokawa issued a statement addressing the attack but did not mention whether FromSoftware was affected by the hack. It did, however, confirm that the breach occurred on June 8. The stolen data reportedly includes both employee and customer information. Other stolen data reportedly includes project information, business plans, financial records, contracts, and legal documents.

While stolen user data is concerning, the company assured customers that their credit card information is secure. “Kadokawa does not retain any credit card information of the Group’s customers, including Niconico service users, in its system, and therefore, no credit card information will have been leaked,” it said. The company also says it is working with “external professional organizations” to investigate possible leaks. It expects the investigation to produce results in July and will make additional statements at that time.

As for the ransom, FromSoftware’s parent company has until July 1 to meet the hacker group’s demands. However, it’s unclear if Kadokawa will comply, given the possibility that the hackers might release the information regardless.

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Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed on Thursday that the company is working on remakes of the early Assassin’s Creed games. He also talked about the publisher’s plans for the series’ future, which include a denser but more varied game lineup.

Are Assassin’s Creed remakes in development?

“Firstly,” Guillemot said about the series’ future, “players can be excited about some remakes, which will allow us to revisit some of the games we’ve created in the past and modernize them; there are worlds in some of our older Assassin’s Creed games that are still extremely rich.”

He didn’t explicitly say the remakes are in development now or say specifically which games Ubisoft plans to remake. That said, a leak in 2023 indicated that a Black Flag remake was in development at Skull and Bones studio Ubisoft Singapore. Rumors also suggest that an Assassin’s Creed 1 remake is in the works, though Ubisoft has denied that in the past. However, it’s unclear when either of these projects might be released, with the Black Flag remake reportedly starting development last November.

As for new games, Guillemot said, “The goal is to have Assassin’s Creed games come out more regularly, but not for it to be the same experience every year.” He gave the example of the upcoming game codenamed Hexe, which he says will be very different from Assassin’s Creed Shadows. “We’re going to surprise people, I think,” the CEO added.

Announced in 2022, Ubisoft hasn’t said much about Assassin’s Creed Hexe. It reportedly takes place in 16th-century Germany, a time of mass hysteria around supposed witchcraft. Hexe also reportedly features a female protagonist named Elsa, who has supernatural powers. However, this information comes from uncorroborated leaks.

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The final season of Telltale Games’ Sam & Max series is back with a new look thanks to indie studio Skunkape Games. The studio announced the release date for Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered on Thursday. While the original was a PC and PlayStation 3 exclusive, the remaster is available on all current and last-gen platforms.

When is the Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered release date?

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse launches for PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on August 14. Skunkape announced the remaster with a new trailer showing off the updated graphics. The studio also released a set of images demonstrating the improved lighting, shadows, and visual effects. The developers also fixed bugs, restored cut content, and overhauled many of the game’s environments. The remaster also features an improved user interface and new accessibility settings.

Originally released by Telltale Games in 2010, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse sees the titular duo caught up in psychic shenanigans. It begins with the unhinged rabbit Max stumbling across a supernatural toy that gives him a vision of the future. Their search for the Toys of Power pits the Freelance Police against villains from across the galaxy.  “As those who seek the Devil’s Toybox close in and Max’s psychic abilities grow beyond his control,” says Skunkape, “the Freelance Police will come up against their most frightening adversary yet: the power of Max’s mind.”

The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered is the third Sam & Max remaster from Skunkape. Made up of former Telltale developers, it acquired the rights to the series following Telltale’s shutdown in 2018.

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