According to a GameDeveloper report, PlayStation has updated its developer guidelines to state that a game demo lasting at least two hours will now be required for any title which costs $34 or higher (around £27). This rule is not retroactive, so will only apply to games currently in development and not yet released. Additionally, developers will have a three-month grace period after a game launches before this trial must be made available....

In a hand-on preview, The Verge noticed that battery life was noticeably worse than the base DualSense controller, and this was later confirmed to the publication in a statement. “The DualSense Edge wireless controller’s operating time is moderately shorter than the original DualSense wireless controller,” a Sony spokesperson said. “We wanted to strike a good balance between wireless operating time and delivering robust, high-performance features.” This shortcoming is noticeably absent from the official PlayStation Blog post on the controller....

All of which makes the reveal, heavily rumoured and highly billed by some insiders for months beforehand, feel somewhat underwhelming. The new PlayStation Plus is not a game changer. It’s not about lowering the barrier of entry, aggressive user acquisition or expanding the market beyond its current boundaries; it’s merely a bundle, and further affirmation that Sony firmly believes in its time-honoured model of big-ticket, triple-A games with a £70 price tag for its fancy £500 machine....

As of today, Spiritfarer has been updated to its all-encompassing Farewell Edition, which includes all free updates and DLC released so far. Today brings two new spirits to your ship plus a number of other additions - all detailed in our original story below. ORIGINAL STORY 6/12/21: Spiritfarer will get its final slice of extra content next week, in the shape of its free Jackie and Daria Update. Look for it next Monday, 13th December, wherever you own the game - PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox (including Game Pass) or Stadia....

How would you go about convincing someone that the one thing missing from the recent crop of first-person shooters is the star of GLADoS’ malevolent funhouse, the portal gun? Me, I don’t think I’d even try - and I’m not sure anyone could have convinced me, either. Well. Until I actually sat down and played Splitgate, that is. For what it’s worth, there’s a part of me that instinctively (read: stupidly) pushes back against fads and “viral” games....

In a New Year’s letter, Matsuda expressed what he believes will be major areas of growth for the industry in 2022, including cloud gaming, AI, and blockchain games. The latter “are built upon the premise of a token economy and therefore hold the potential to enable self-sustaining game growth,” said Matsuda. “NFTs were met with a great deal of enthusiasm by a rapidly expanding user base. However, we do observe examples here and there of overheated trading in NFT-based digital goods with somewhat speculative overtones, regardless of the observed value of the content provided....

The complete schedule spans three days - running from Friday, 1st October, to Sunday, 3rd October - and kicks off with a big one-hour showcase at 7pm JST (that’s 11am in the UK) before shifting the focus to individuals titles. You can also expect a handful of special events, including a live concert and the aforementioned jazz live painting, along the way. As far as headline reveals go, Square promises new looks at the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Nier creator Yoko Taro’s Voice of Cards - The Isle Dragon Roars, and Chocobo Racing successor Chocobo GP....

Those wielding an Xbox Series X/S controller, for instance, now have the option to bind the device’s share button; additionally, more than four controllers can be used simultaneously on Steam, should you have that particular need, and trigger rumble is now supported in games using the Windows.Gaming.Input API. Valve has also been tweaking its support for the Xbox Elite controller, with users now able to bind the rear paddles as they see fit....

As per SteamDB, on Sunday there were 30,032,005 users online - a new all-time peak. Steam numbers have been rising since the pandemic began in 2020, with a previous peak of just under 30 million back in March this year. Watch on YouTube Eurogamer Newscast: Will Konami succeed bringing Silent Hill back from the dead? The most played game during this new concurrent players peak was Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with over 1....

This event, which is often lauded as being one of PC gaming’s most important and beloved annual sales, runs until 7th July, with thousands of games waiting to be snapped up at a discounted price. While an annual event, this year’s is a particularly special one as it is the Steam Deck’s first. It also got its own new trailer to mark the occasion, with games ranging from Western epic Red Dead Redemption 2 and the unnerving Phasmophobia to the delightful, GOTY winning It Takes Two all featured....

You’ll watch your child grow, but, before they can join your family, you need to ensure you meet the various child requirements or else you’ll be childless for quite awhile. If you’re still looking for a romantic partner, check out our marriage candidates guide or, if the family life isn’t for you, our guide on divorce in Pioneers of Olive Town. On this page: The first is to obviously get married to any of the 10 marriage candidates found in Olive Town or any of the six additional candidates introduced through the Expansion Pass....

Lego Star Wars: Castaways is described as an “online social, action-adventure” game in which you get to build and customise your own in-game Lego minifigure character. It launches exclusively on the Apple Arcade subscription service on 19th November. Here’s the official blurb: “A new tropical destination filled with adventure awaits you and your friends in Lego Star Wars: Castaways. For the first time, players can customise their character with hundreds of Lego Star Wars pieces and discover a hidden planet, in the latest online multiplayer Lego Star Wars game....

But what if you were to throw a load of zombie-like monsters into this experience, and then proceed to turn out the lights, leaving the exit near impossible to find? Well, one developer has decided to answer that question in its upcoming game: The Store is closed. The Store is Closed is a haunting mash-up of Endnight Games’ The Forest (which incidentally saw its sequel, Sons of the Forest, recently delayed) and the humdrum of everyday life, and comes from indie developer Ziggy (thanks, PCGamesN)....

It has since transpired that some members of the gaming community have even been sending unsolicited pictures of their private parts to members of the God of War Ragnarök team. They somehow believed that this would suddenly make Sony Santa Monica give the world an update on the game’s release date… How they came to this conclusion is beyond me. Since all of this has happened, prominent members from the industry have been making their voices heard and have called out the toxic behaviour of these so-called fans....

Which works quite well, really, given its premise: you’re a highly strung New York photographer Naomi Hayward, who’s somehow inexplicably found herself in a mountain of debt to an English newspaper and so settles down into the town of Rainy Woods (a name that’ll be familiar, I’m sure, to fans of Swery’s wider oeuvre) to unearth its secrets and earn back some of that cash by taking photos of its people and places....

Being a from-the-ground remake for the current generation of consoles - and given Naughty Dog’s reputation for attention to detail - everyone assumed that this release would be full of new improvements and fun inclusions along with the core gameplay. Now, these assumptions have been proven true, with The Last of Us Part 1’s community sharing some of their recent discoveries online. Please note there will be spoilers for The Last of Us Part 1 in the article below....

The retro handheld throwback launched at the end of last year for £45 as part of the jolly red plumber’s 35th-anniversary shindig. On it, you can play Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and a Mario version of the classic Ball game. The Game & Watch also functions as a digital clock with 35 different animations and a few neat little easter eggs. If that’s not enough of a selection, some enterprising folk have also got Doom running on it....

Murder on Eridanos, which follows on from last year’s Peril on Gorgon expansion, sets players the task of uncovering renowned actress Halcyon Helen’s killer, an investigation that takes them all across a luxury resort of drifting islands caught in a perpetual storm. There are clues to find using the new Discrepancy Amplifier tool, alibis to scrutinise, and witnesses to interrogate - including some of the planet’s biggest stars - and Obsidian maintains The Outer Worlds’ choice-driven action by giving players a broad range of options when it comes to identifying the culprit....

The Steam Deck is Valve’s most recent – and most competent – foray into PC hardware. It’s a big, burly, Switch-looking handheld, which promises PC gaming on the go. It delivers in spades. Since it started shipping earlier this year, people have been putting it through its paces, feeding it Cyberpunks and Flight Simulators and watching the custom AMD processor work magic. And it really is magic. Although the software has a few kinks, plonking the Steam Deck in your lap and booting Elden Ring feels like a childhood daydream come true....

The official, Sega-backed project lets you play as Sonic and race against friends through various worlds. Regular weekly updates will add more to the game over the coming weeks. It also marks the first time a well-known AAA game character has been officially featured in Roblox. A press release sent to Eurogamer this morning notes that Sonic Speed Simulator is the work of “professional game developer and publisher Gamefam”, a company wholly dedicated to development on the Roblox platform....