Latest news with #PlayStation4
The Independent
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Walmart to restock Nintendo Switch 2 tonight – and members get an exclusive perk
If you've been searching desperately for the Nintendo Switch 2, look no further. Walmart has confirmed the exact time you'll be able to buy the console online, and you don't have long to wait as it will restock later today. Since launch, the Switch 2 has been flying off the shelves. In the U.S. alone, Nintendo sold 1.1 million units during launch week, breaking the PlayStation 4's long-standing debut record. Globally, it racked up 3.5 million sales in just four days, making it the fastest-selling Nintendo console of all time. It's been near-impossible to find in stock ever since. Most drops sell out within minutes, and Walmart's restock isn't likely to be any different. If you've been refreshing product pages for weeks, or are just fed up watching everyone else play, this might finally be your chance. Walmart has announced it will be restocking both the standalone Nintendo Switch 2 console and the Mario Kart World bundle today Wednesday 25 June. Paid Walmart+ members will have access one hour earlier than everyone else. The early access drop kicks off at 9pm ET. While Walmart hasn't officially revealed when it'll open to the general public, it's likely to be 10pm ET, assuming any stock is left. The bundle includes the Nintendo Switch 2 and a copy of Mario Kart World.
Metro
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
PS Plus games for July includes one of the best dungeon crawlers ever
Sony has announced the new PlayStation Plus line-up, and it's a great month for rock climbers and those with an affinity for fighting games. There's been no shortage of great role-playing games over the past few years between Baldur's Gate 3 and Metaphor: ReFantazio, but one of the best is set to land on PlayStation Plus next month. As announced by Sony, Diablo 4 will be free for PlayStation Plus subscribers across all tiers on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 from Tuesday, July 1. While it was already a great game when it launched in June 2023, it has only improved following all the updates developer Blizzard has rolled out since. Next month's line-up is strong in general. The King Of Fighters 15, an overlooked SNK fighter, will also be available across PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, along with the excellent climbing sim Jusant. All these games will be available to claim from July 1 to August 4, 2025. As always, if you want to play them down the line, you can add them to your library within this window and download them later, as long as you have an active PlayStation Plus subscription. More Trending Next month sees Sony celebrate the 15th anniversary of PlayStation Plus with various special offers as well. These include free trials for WWE 2K25 and Monster Hunter Wilds for premium subscribers, special discounts on Sniper Elite: Resistance, Civilization 7, and Star Wars Outlaws, a free Valorant pack, and special tournaments. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. For anyone who isn't subscribed to PlayStation Plus, a free online multiplayer weekend is taking place from Saturday June 28 at 12.01am BST to Sunday June 29 at 11.59pm BST. So it's a great time to test out any multiplayer games you've been hanging onto. You still have time to pick up last month's PlayStation Plus Essential games, with NBA 2K25, Alone In The Dark, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and Destiny 2: The Final Shape all available until June 30. Earlier this year, Sony announced it will stop offering PlayStation 4 games on the monthly PlayStation Plus line-up from January 2026. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 climbs chart after 'unusual' sales boost MORE: Time Crisis and Point Blank lightgun console smashes Kickstarter goal within hours MORE: EA Sports FC 26 cover star leaks and they've been on before
Metro
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
The 90s and 2000s were the best time for video game creativity
A reader is frustrated that game publishers are only interested in following trends, rather than embracing the more experimental approach of earlier generations. I don't think many gamers understand that video games change in accordance with our culture, just like many industries do. Games were afforded the autonomy to express themselves however they pleased 20+ years ago and although we're still seeing games that are expressive, many now seem tame and risk averse. Trend chasing and attempting to fit cohesively into our culture makes developers and publishers money if they do it correctly, but when they don't pull it off, the developers of those games tend to close down. Meanwhile, the publisher who likely gave those developers the blueprints to make their failed games get away with it – again, likely because they chase the money and can leverage developers to make as much money as they deem satisfactory. The games industry, to me, is marching in lockstep with all the other giant industries, such as Hollywood film-making, the music industry, and the television industry; they're catching what trends are popular and they follow it in the hopes they can get rich, and then they'll repeat the formula because what we want is secondary in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately, many of us decide not to think about this because we've got great games to play, or other media to interact with. I'm a 90s and early 00s child, and I think many agree that back then we had it really good, regardless of nostalgia. Games such as Conker's Bad Fur Day turned up to show us what sheer lunacy looks like and in my opinion that's partly what I want games to be: irreverent and hilarious fun. 2008's Saints Row 2 captured this as well, by allowing players to spray excrement onto suburban houses while driving around in a septic tank. If not humour, then I'd love my games to make me really care about what's going on. Games like The Getaway in 2002 has you play as Mark Hammond, and right at the start your wife is murdered and your son is kidnapped – and you spend the game walking through metaphoric fires to save your son. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. 2013's Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch is another game I love for its story because protagonist Oliver is so endearing, and the story is about his quest to save his mum. These kinds of stories don't seem to happen anymore and thus it's really hard to care about what's going on in them, I feel. Somewhere along the line video game expression became restricted. I blame the start of the eighth generation (the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) for this change of direction. If you go back and play an assortment of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games you should feel how accessible and focused on enjoyment they were. When the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One came about the landscape altered and now it was about huge open worlds, pristine graphics, and continued exploitation of gamers with loot boxes, microtransactions, and pay-to-win schemes. The truly great games these days tend to do things really differently and we celebrate them for it. Last year's Astro Bot is one of the greatest PlayStation games ever made because although it is a nostalgia-fuelled platformer, it reminds us what makes video games such a beautiful hobby. I don't want games like Astro Bot to become flickers and rarities in the grand scheme of modern gaming, I'd rather they were the norm rather than the exception. More Trending Video game expression is very important, and I think we should break the barriers of our culture in order to find a new horizon for video games. There are so many great experiences, as there always have been, but I believe games should be free of the shackles that often bind them. We should see the best of what this industry has to offer without compromise, because otherwise it seems like it's circling the drain – and when that happens is becomes boring. By reader James Davie The reader's features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@ or use our Submit Stuff page and you won't need to send an email. MORE: Unrivalled success has ruined PS5 and the PlayStation brand - Reader's Feature MORE: Playing Gex again is a reminder of a simpler time for gaming - Reader's Feature MORE: Video games are great for my mental and physical wellbeing - Reader's Feature
Metro
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Unrivalled success has ruined PS5 and the PlayStation brand - Reader's Feature
A reader is convinced that the runaway profits of the PS5 have convinced Sony that doing as little as possible is the most reliable route to success. There's a popular meme that's lasted quite a few years now, that's usually applied to China and states simply: 'Does Nothing. Wins.' I don't want to get into the sphere of global politics but it's pretty clear what it means, in that China's influence continues to grow simply as a result of letting the US make mistakes, while it sensibly stays out of it all. I think you can probably see where I'm going with this, but replace China with Sony and the US with Microsoft and I think you've got a pretty good summary of the current video game generation. I've been thinking about the comparison for a while now, but it seemed even more obvious this week, when Xbox blundered its way through another vague and unconvincing hardware annoucement, while Sony did absolutely nothing… except reveal that the PlayStation 5 has been more profitable than all the other PlayStation consoles combined. If we discount the PlayStation 3 (which is the only one not to make a profit) I think I can say with some certainty that nobody is ever going to count the PlayStation 5 as their favourite Sony console. It's increase in power has been almost entirely unproven and the promises about it were pretty sketchy anyway. It's also had far less first party games than the PlayStation 4, despite that being the peak of Sony's internal development – the sort of thing you might have expected them to build on for their next console. Add in the disaster that has been their attitude towards live service games and you'd imagine that they are being badly punished for their inactivity, not to mention their unwillingness to discuss any of this in public. Instead, doing nothing has worked out incredibly well for them. Not discussing things in public, which is always a risk, is going great so why bother doing anything else? The lesson the PlayStation 5 seems to have taught is that the less you do the more profit you make. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. This is because Sony now makes so much money from PS Plus and microtransactions that it literally doesn't have to bother with anything else. With Xbox no longer being a serious rival in terms of hardware, most people play AAA games on a PlayStation 5 and so all those skins and cosmetics and other rubbish from super mainstream games like Call Of Duty and EA Sports FC are being bought on PlayStation 5s, with Sony getting a cut of all of it. The majority of Sony's profits are not coming from anything to do with the things core or hardcore gamers like, it's all casuals wanting to play multiplayer games online, while wasting hundreds on microtransactions and complaining that all other games are too expensive. Sony doesn't need to engage with less casual fans because they already making money hand over fist. In fact, ignoring fans seems to make more (much more) money than even offering the odd olive branch. You want to know why Sony is so obsessed by live service games? Particularly online shooters. It's because they need PS Plus for you to play them and they're easy to fill with cosmetics you pay for with microtransactions. They're the opposite of single-player games, which is why we're not getting more of those and yet Concord's failure barely seemed to phase them. Sony has not stopped making proper games entirely. Ghost Of Yōtei is out this year and clearly they can afford the odd prestige single-player game to show off with and win awards. That sort of thing helps make the PlayStation 5 look more appealing, but with no competition in terms of high end consoles there's barely any choice anyway – it's PlayStation 5 or Switch 2 now and I think it's pretty obvious what the average COD and FIFA player is going to go for. More Trending It's all pretty bleak and depressing really. Good games will continue to be made – this year has been great so far – but not by Sony, or at least not more than once a year or so. The PlayStation 5 has been ruined by its success and, just as everyone predicted, a single format future, with no serious competition, has made Sony complacent and lazy. Unfortunately, the future is now and it's not very good. By reader Ashton Marley The reader's features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@ or use our Submit Stuff page and you won't need to send an email. MORE: Playing Gex again is a reminder of a simpler time for gaming - Reader's Feature MORE: Video games are great for my mental and physical wellbeing - Reader's Feature MORE: I'm going to say it: Mario Kart World is not as good as it should be – Reader's Feature
Metro
20-06-2025
- Business
- Metro
PS5 is more profitable than all other PlayStation consoles combined
Despite being a stunted console generation, the PS5 is Sony's most profitable piece of gaming hardware, and by a considerable margin. Between the lack of games which push the hardware and the unfufilled promises around its technical capabilities, the PlayStation 5 era might go down as the worst console generation ever. The problems have been amplified by Sony's push towards live service games, most of which have either been cancelled or removed from existence – leading to large gaps in the release cycle, amongst Sony's first party studios. Sadly, while the PlayStation 5 has been disappointing when it comes to actual games, it's easily Sony's most profitable console ever. As revealed in the company's business meeting earlier this week, and highlighted by analyst Daniel Ahmad, the PlayStation 5 generation has earned Sony $13 billion (£9.6 billion) in profits since the console launched in November 2020. When you tally up the profits of prior generations, this is higher than all of Sony's prior consoles combined. The original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 took in $3 billion and $2 billion, respectively, while the PlayStation 3 lost Sony $4 billion, and the PlayStation 4 gave the company a $9 billion boost. When tallied together, including the losses, it comes to around $10 billion in cumulative profits. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Another slide in Sony's presentation breaks down where the PlayStation 5's profits are coming from, with a key part being the increase in spend across services like PlayStation Plus and 'game content'. Sony held its Business Segment Meeting today. Here are some key takeaways regarding its PlayStation business. The PS5 generation has generated $13 billion in profits. This is compared to the $10 billion cumulative profit generated during the PS1-PS4 generation (RIP PS3). — Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) June 13, 2025 When compared to the PlayStation 4 generation, the average life-to-date spend per PlayStation 5 console on content (physical and digital games, and add-ons) has increased by 21%. More Trending Spending on services, which includes PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Network, has increased by 63%, while peripheral spend has jumped up 27%. As part of these service profits, Sony states 38% of PlayStation Plus subscribers are now paying for the Premium or Extra tiers, up from 30% two years ago. This is rather discouraging, because it means Sony has little incentive to change its current strategy – even as it continues to fumble with games like Concord and Marathon, the latter of which was recently delayed indefinitely. The big problem for Sony might be when it comes to convincing players to jump to the inevitable PlayStation 6, which Sony recently stated is 'top of mind' at the company. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Every Nintendo Switch 2 launch game reviewed – all 25 games so far MORE: Switch 2 third party games sold 'below our lowest estimates' says publisher MORE: Metroid Prime 4 advert on London tube confuses everyone with 'out now' sticker
