Sony Studio Firesprite Accused of Alleged Toxic Culture in Exposé | Push Square

Bend Studio's new IP is a live-service game, according to some newly emerged evidence. The Sony subsidiary hence appears poised to join its parent's ongoing live-service foray, which is bound to put Bend Studio well outside its comfort zone.

Rise of the Ronin, the latest tentpole PS5 console exclusive from legendary Japanese developer Team Ninja, has been subject to a colossal marketing push in Asia, where posters and billboards have been spotted around cities such as Taipei for several weeks now. That’s all culminated in an Edo period art exhibition in Huashan 1914 Creative Park – coincidentally, the former home of a Japanese sake manufacturer– where Sony has installed several 19th-century props inspired by the game.

Sony has established a brand new production line for PlayStation 5 discs in Brazil, which should help make it easier for players in Latin America to obtain physical media for the console.

Sony has set up a new production line in Brazil, where it will manufacture physical PlayStation 5 game discs.

Prior to its release, few predicted PS Portal would be successful. Many were baffled by Sony’s decision to release the Remote Play handheld, which streams gameplay directly from a PS5. But as the months wear on, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that Sony’s added a permanent fixture to its hardware portfolio, with the device exceeding expectations.

One of the big stories this year so far has been Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s relative underperformance in its home territory of Japan. Historically one of the region’s most popular franchises, the Square Enix sequel couldn’t even outsell fellow PS5 console exclusive Final Fantasy 16 in its first week on the market – a surprise considering its strong critical reception.

Resident Evil 4’s remake has been a humongous success for Capcom, with sales now topping seven million units since the title’s launch a year ago. At last count, the outing had sold 6.48 million units as of 31st December, so it’s moved another 500,000 copies since then. It did launch on Mac, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPad late last year, too.

Sony may have revised its PS5 sales estimate for the current financial year, which will end on 31st March. But unsurprisingly it still wants to sell as many systems as possible, which means it’s going to make one last push for that all-important 21 million units target it’s been eyeing. And how does it intend to do that? One last round of price promotions.

According to all rumours and reports, Sony is working on its own reconstruction technology similar to DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling. The feature, named PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution according to Insider Gaming, seems like a long-term play by the platform holder, with the first iteration planned for the PS5 Pro.

Sony has reportedly temporarily halted all production of the PlayStation VR2. The company's purported decision to hit pause on PS VR2 manufacturing is said to be a result of the headset's lackluster sales, which caused an inventory buildup.

Sony has confirmed it's cancelled «some» unannounced games at PlayStation Studios, and according to Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, one of them is the long-rumoured Twisted Metal game from Firesprite. The journalist reports the project was in «early development» and hadn't been greenlit by Sony to go into full production yet, according to a source.

Update: Sony has officially released the PS5 Slim, which is slowly starting to replace the original model at retail. All the details and links you need have been added below.