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Upcoming PS5 redesign could feature detachable disc drive

An upcoming PlayStation 5 revision could feature a removable disc drive that connects to the console through USB-C, according to a new report from Insider Gaming.

The report suggests that this refreshed version of the PS5 will launch in September 2024. Sony currently sells two versions of the PS5, including one that features a built-in disc drive ($649) and a cheaper Digital Edition ($519) that doesn’t offer a disc drive.

Though it’s still unclear, it seems like Sony aims to get rid of the disc/disc-less version of the PS5 and plans to sell one version of the console that you can upgrade with an external disc drive.

Given Sony recently increased the PS5’s price in Canada due to inflation in a move that SIE CEO Jim Ryan called a “necessity,” this could be new for Canadian gamers hoping to buy the console at a slightly cheaper cost.

Insider Gaming says that this new version of the PS5 will “completely replace” the current design of the console but that its internal hardware will remain the same. It’s unclear how much Sony intends to charge for this new version of the PS5 or its disc drive accessory.

Though it doesn’t feature the same underlying technology powering it, this rumour reminds me a lot of the ill-fated Xbox 360 HD DVD player that Microsoft released in 2006 and then abruptly cancelled in 2008 when Blu-Ray won the physical format war. While physical discs are still crucial in the gaming space, I’ve shifted nearly all of my gaming to digital. For example, I don’t own a single physical title for the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series x and don’t plan to change that soon.

For more on Sony’s PlayStation 5, check out our review of the console.

Source: Insider Gaming Via: The Verge

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Turtle Beach’s Stealth 700 Gen 2 gaming headset offers great audio at expensive price

Turtle Beach’s Stealth 700 Gen 2 is an excellent high-end wireless gaming headset and a great choice for gamers seeking a richer, more detailed audio experience. It carries an expensive price tag, but the investment is worth it for the level of sound quality, software-based customization and overall performance you get in return.

The hardware is also durable and comfortable to wear, even for extended gaming sessions. The 700 Gen 2s sleek design also means it won’t look out of place when you’re not gaming. I’ve spent dozens of hours testing the 700 Gen Max 2 with several games, so let’s explore all the features that make the Stealth 700s a top pick for gamers and audiophiles alike.

Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max Setup and Device Compatibility

Whether gaming on a single console or multiple platforms, Turtle Beach’s Stealth 700 Gen 2 are compatible with all modern consoles, PCs and many Bluetooth-enabled devices. Even though the 700 Gen 2 Max’s are officially licensed by Microsoft for the Xbox platform, they work great with the PlayStation 4 + 5, Nintendo Switch and PC, thanks to the included mini-USB transmitter.

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 headset

The thumb drive emits a nearly lag-free 2.4GHz wireless signal that keeps up with all the on-screen action. What’s more impressive is that the device connects and pairs with the headset in seconds. No matter if you’re using the Xbox, PlayStation, PC & Nintendo Switch, the experience is seamless.

I was quite impressed when I first plugged it into my Xbox Series X. There were no drivers, no fiddling around with setup menus — the Stealth 700 is true “plug and play.”

Using Mobile and Bluetooth Devices

Turtle Beach’s Stealth 700 Gen 2 also works with a wide range of desktop, laptop and mobile devices as it packs Bluetooth 5.1, which is compatible with iOS, Android, PC and Mac hardware. In addition, you can download the mobile and desktop apps to fine-tune audio levels and remap buttons on the headset. I found the app experience straightforward and quite convenient on my iPhone, easily making adjustments on the fly. Syncing via Bluetooth is a little less intuitive than the “plug n’ play” USB method on gaming consoles, but it’s easily manageable once you get the hang of pairing with different devices.

Speaker Performance

The 700 Gen 2 Max packs 50mm “Nanoclear” speakers that deliver rich and detailed sound, bringing games, movies, and music to life. I tested the headset with various games, including first-person shooters, role-playing games and open-world adventure titles, and the speakers are consistent. I’m impressed with the level of detail and clarity they provided. In terms of pure audio quality, the 700 Gen 2 is one of the best gaming headsets I’ve ever used.

The headset offers distortion-free highs and booming full-body bass that you can feel. I could hear every little detail in the games I tested, and it made for an engaging experience. In Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, for example, I could easily pick up on enemy weapon reloads and footsteps. It made a big difference in being able to locate a for before they were even on-screen.

A Great Microphone for Game Chat

The “flip-to-mute” microphone also offers excellent performance, it’s clear and it picks up your voice well over a lot of ambient noise. The new mic is slightly larger than the previous iteration, offering greater sensitivity to sound. There’s also noise cancellation, so you won’t have to worry about background noise interfering with your gameplay. It’s not perfect, and the Gen 2 still picks up some background noise, but it accurately captures your in-person voice. The mic also features built-in monitoring, allowing you to hear your voice while chatting through the headset. This helps avoid shouting since it will enable you to hear yourself even over multiple voices.

One of my favourite Stealth 700 Gen 2 features is that mic arm conceals into the ear cup body when flipped up to mute. I found this adds a great deal to the device’s versatility as it could go outside the realm of just gaming at home. I was willing to wear it on my commute or out for walks because I didn’t need to contend with an unsightly mic arm. That said, the headset is still relatively large and can’t fold down flatter, resulting in it taking up ample space in your backpack or work bag.

Enhanced 40+ Hour Battery Life

Another area where the Stealth 700 Gen 2 shines is in its improved battery life. It boasts up to 40+ hours of use on a single charge, and the hardware lived up to that claim in my testing. I could go days at a time without charging them, going through several gaming sessions without having to worry. When you do need to recharge, the included high-speed USB-C gets you back into the game faster than ever. The new quick-charging feature offers eight hours of battery life from just 15 minutes of charging using the included USB-C cable. The addition of USB-C also means it was easier for me to complete software updates on both the Mac and PC platforms with the more modern USB interface.

In terms of build quality, the Stealth 700 Gen 2 is rock-solid. It feels like a premium product and easily withstood the rigours of regular gaming sessions. It also survived a road trip with my family, along with extended use by an 8-year-old, for what it’s worth. It shows no signs of wear, or quality degradation even after dozens of hours of use. This is partly due to the “skeleton” of the headset, which is a sturdy yet flexible aluminum band. The headband is easily adjustable, so the headset takes minor tweaks to get it feeling great. Out of the box, it did feel very tight on my head, but after more use, the band and ear cups formed more to my head and were comfortable to use.

The ear cups are made of a black synthetic leather with memory foam cushioning that feels firm and cups your ear well. A layer of “Aerofit” cooling gel is lined into the ear cushion to help keep you cool, but I still found that the ear cups got hot after a while.

An Audio Control Centre Behind Your Ear

Another 700 Gen 2 element I like is the on-ear cup controls. Turtle Beach has managed to pack a lot of switches, buttons and indicators into the sleek design. I also found it easier to access the volume scroll wheel on the back of the ear cup than dangling elsewhere.

Turtle beach Stealth 700 Earcup

The headset features Turtle Beach’s patented “ProSpecs” glasses relief system with dual-foam ear cushions. This is softer foam in the section of the ear cushions that rests against your glasses. I mix my gaming time between contact lenses and eyeglasses and found both ways to play very comfortably. If you’re looking for a great-sounding and well-designed gaming headset, the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 is a great option.

Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max colour options

The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 is available in two colours: ‘Black’ and ‘Cobalt Blue.’ The black model is more understated, while the blue model adds a pop of colour with stunning copper-coloured highlights. The reason I bring up the different colours is because the cobalt model is one of the most striking-looking pieces of audio hardware I’ve ever used. In terms of design, it’s a real head-turner. The copper accents are particularly eye-catching, adding a touch of luxury to the overall look. I’m happy to see more frilly-looking designs usurped by more sleek and mature-styled options.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 is a well-designed gaming headset that’s comfortable to wear for long periods. The ear cups are padded and fit snugly around your ears, and the headband is adjustable to find the perfect fit. I wore the headset for hours at a time, and I never experienced any significant discomfort but did feel my ears and head getting hot. The temperature of the device never spiked, I just found the synthetic leather-lined ear cups got hot. This is a minor nitpick, but it’s worth mentioning if you are sensitive to temperature.

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 on stand

The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 is a great high-end wireless gaming headset. It offers excellent audio quality, a great microphone, and impressive battery life. The only downsides are the price and ear cup heat issues, but it’s still a high-quality headset that I highly recommend.

Turtle Beach’s Stealth 700 Gen 2 headset is currently on sale for $139 at The Source (it regularly costs $139).

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.

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GTA VI footage appears online in massive leak

What looks like very early footage of Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA VI) has leaked online.

A user with the online handle ‘teapotuberhacker’ posted a substantial 3GB zip file containing 90 leaked GTA VI videos to GTAForums alongside the message, “It’s possible I could leak more data soon, GTA 5 and 6 source code and assets, GTA 6 testing build.”

At the time of publication, the link to the zip file is still active on GTAForums.

The clips are now widely available on Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, and show off what seems to be an alpha build of GTA VI that includes voice conversations between characters, gunplay and more.

For example, a video posted to YouTube featuring the early in-development leaked footage shows a female character named Lucia robbing a restaurant. The leaked clips also offer a look at GTA series staples like a seedy strip club, a police chase and the gunplay the series is know for. Overall, the leaked footage hints that GTA VI will likely play very similar to GTA V, though the title’s on-foot controls seem to expanded significantly.

The leak also appears to confirm GTA VI’s fictional Miami setting, Vice City, and that it will feature a male and female main character.

While Rockstar has not officially confirmed this leak is legitimate, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier recently tweeted that his sources at the developer have confirmed that the leak is “indeed real.”

It’s unclear how the videos leaked or who teapotuberhacker is. Rockstar is notorious for its tight security surrounding its in-development games.

Rockstar and its publisher Take-Two confirmed GTA VI is in development earlier this year but didn’t offer a release window.

GTA V was first dropped on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2013 and was recently re-released on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

Image credit: Rockstar

Source: GTAForums ‘teapotuberhacker, @jasonschreier Via: IGN, The Verge

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Let’s not forget about what Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft have done

On September 15th, Activision held its inaugural Call of Duty Next presentation to reveal the future of its massively popular first-person shooter series.

During the showcase, we got looks at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, among other titles. That’s certainly big news for many people, and I totally don’t fault anyone for getting excited. But one thing I’ve noticed that does disappoint me is the complete lack of acknowledgment of what’s the big elephant in the room: Activision Blizzard itself. As a result, I found myself with a rather icky reaction to everything that was revealed.

Bobby Kotick

Bobby Kotick (Image credit: Flickr — Dan Farber)

As you likely know, Activision Blizzard faced a slew of scandals last year. First, the state of California filed a July 2021 lawsuit against the company, alleging that it fostered a “frat boy” work culture in which many employees, especially women, faced sexual harassment, gender discrimination, unequal pay and other forms of mistreatment. One woman was even reportedly driven to suicide by the trauma she faced. In a subsequent report, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick — already known for being gaming’s most overpaid CEO — was specifically accused of knowing about these incidents and even working to cover them up. (One report suggested he actually threatened to have an assistant killed.) Naturally, Activision Blizzard claims it found no evidence that Kotick did any of this, which we all totally believe.

This was a big deal last year. A lot of consumers spoke up against Activision Blizzard, many employees came forward with their own stories and staged walkouts, and the company’s image seemingly took a well-deserved hit. That was great to see! There was a concerted effort to hold the company accountable. But as time has passed, we’ve heard less about the controversy, and now, we see little, if anything, about it. All of the chatter is about these new Call of Duty games, not the poor conditions at the company behind them.

“Even the publications that have blasted Activision before produced coverage of Call of Duty Next without a mention of the company’s work culture“

A similar situation has happened with Ubisoft. In 2020, multiple reports came out about sexual harassment and other abuse at several Ubisoft studios, including those in Toronto and Montreal. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot later said he was making some changes, including firing a number of alleged offenders, but employees have since come forward to say they’ve seen minimal improvement. This sentiment was echoed earlier this week in a new Axios report, mere days after Ubisoft revealed a slew of upcoming titles, including several entries in the Assassin’s Creed series. The Gamer also reported that developers at Ubisoft Quebec don’t want to work on that studio’s Assassin’s Creed “Project Red” because creative director Jonathan Dumont, who was accused of harassment in 2020, somehow remains in charge there.

Of course, scenarios like these aren’t black-and-white. I understand that you can simultaneously be against the wrongdoings of those in power while being excited for the work that the frontline developers have been pouring blood, sweat and tears into. I understand that gaming sites both provide coverage to help inform consumers’ purchasing decisions and to help stay afloat, especially as we continue to see layoffs at prominent sites. I understand that many players (the ones who aren’t cold and uncaring, anyway) legitimately don’t even know much, if anything, about what shady sides of gaming publishers as they’re casual gamers at best. I understand that the world sucks in a lot of ways and people justifiably turn to games for escapism. That’s all reasonable!

But when I look at Twitter and see people who know full well what Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft have done but are still just blindly and uncritically hyping up everything the companies are doing? Well, that’s disappointing. Even the publications that have blasted Activision before produced coverage of Call of Duty Next without a mention of the company’s work culture (To be fair, some did still mention it, like Rock Paper Shotgun, so shoutout to those outlets). It’s not at all difficult to address in some form, especially when people have the time to tweet about the promotional swag they receive from these companies. In fact, I’ve heard more from people about Sony and Microsoft’s public battle over the latter’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard than I have about the Call of Duty maker’s own transgressions (Because we all know it’s the billion-dollar corporations who are the victims here).

Now, to be clear, I’m not condemning individual fans or media. So many people in this day and age are judgmental about others, especially in situations where you have to walk a tricky line. There’s no “easy” answer here. Personally, I’ve gone back and forth about what I should and shouldn’t cover from these companies. Ultimately, I did decide to give coverage to last year’s Call of Duty: Vanguard and Far Cry 6 and this year’s Modern Warfare II, but I did so by framing it all from the perspective of celebrating the Canadians who worked on these titles and — as best as I know — had nothing to do with the larger scandals. More importantly, I still at least addressed said controversies in my pieces. I felt this was the least I could do (And even then, I know I haven’t been as consistent in that regard as I could have been).

Activision Blizzard deal

There are still so many question marks surrounding Microsoft’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard. (Image credit: Xbox)

I even genuinely wonder if there’s some unspoken assumption that Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard will magically “fix” everything, but even if that’s what people are thinking, it’s certainly misguided. For one, the deal is still subject to significant regulatory probes, so it may not even be approved. And even if it does successfully close, major systemic change doesn’t just happen overnight. We can’t be sure of what Microsoft may do. Hell, we still don’t even have a clear answer about what will happen with Kotick post-acquisition, so it’s way too early to view Microsoft as some big saviour.

No, we have to hold companies accountable ourselves — consumers, media and the like. Because really, is it a lot to ask that we don’t just forget about these issues? Sure, no one is expecting that we individuals on the public side of things can singlehandedly “fix” these publishers. But even still, can’t we at least do something? That we take even a few sentences of a single article or tweet to point out these problems? Not every story or tweet about these games has to be a larger commentary on the companies that make them — that would be ridiculous to expect — but even a few?

“There will always be selfish and entitled gamers, but it’s definitely been reassuring to see larger public recognition of the issue”

People get the most random and trivial things trending on Twitter every day — how about doing the same once in a while for company misconduct? Alternatively, why not at least follow along or even promote the great work of advocacy groups like ABetterABK and A Better Ubisoft to stay informed? Regardless of what action you take, developers give so much of themselves to make the games we love, and the least we can do is continue to call for their employers to give them the treatment they deserve.

It’s especially a shame because we’ve seen how improvements can happen in the industry when people collectively put pressure on companies. Take crunch, a major issue in the gaming industry that relates to prolonged overtime during development. After extensive coverage of Rockstar’s crunch culture surrounding games like Red Dead Redemption 2, the company has reportedly made meaningful strides toward fostering a healthier development environment. That seemingly came about, in no small part, due to many people coming together to point out “wow, crunch is bad.” Of course, there will always be selfish and entitled gamers, but it’s definitely been reassuring to see larger public recognition of the issue, like when The Callisto Protocol director Glen Schofield was widely criticized for recent comments that glorified crunch. It sends the message that it isn’t okay, and, hopefully, helps companies follow Rockstar’s suit.

Ultimately, I just hope that people don’t completely stop talking about these sorts of issues, which sadly seems to be the case much of the time with Activision and Ubisoft. Because in the end, we’re fortunate to be able to enjoy something like Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed without worrying about the publishers behind them abusing us. Why not try to make sure those who made these games get to do this as well?

Image credit: Activision Blizzard

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Overwatch 2 details Battle Pass and new support hero, Kiriko

At Tokyo Game Show 2022, Blizzard showed more of Overwatch 2‘s newest hero, explained more about the game’s battle pass and revealed more details about season one.

Firstly, Sojourn and Junker Queen are free for everyone who downloads Overwatch 2 before the end of season one. Following that, Kiriko, the newly announced support Hero, will be free for everyone who owns the original Overwatch.

With the free battle pass, you can earn the new hero (if you didn’t already have the first Overwatch) and also get two new epic skins, two souvenirs, one weapon charm, and 15 additional rewards.

The premium tier of the battle pass offers Kiriko as an instant unlock; you can also get a 20 percent season experience boost (presumably to help you gain levels) a new Mythic skin, five legendary skins, an additional epic skin and 66 additional awards, which includes emotes, victory poses, player icons, sprays and more.

This Battle Pass’ Legendary skins follow a cyberpunk theme, and there are skins for Hanzo, Junker Queen, Sojourn, Kiriko, Zenyatta and Roadhog. Future battle passes will have other themes.

The Mythic skin for Genji changes colour and is pretty animated.

Additionally, the new Overwatch shop will have a ‘Just for You’ section with personalized offers based on what you prefer to play and equip in-game. You can also purchase new bundles weekly in the in-game store and complete weekly challenges to earn coins.

The update also revealed that the Halloween event this year has changed and will take place from October 25th to November 8th. 

Source: Overwatch

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Canada’s largest independent developer celebrates 30th anniversary, expands into Toronto

Behaviour Interactive turns 30 this month, and as part of its celebrations, the Montreal-based video game company has opened a new office in Toronto.

During a September 14th press conference, Behaviour CEO Rémi Racine and Toronto Mayor John Tory came together to officially launch the new studio, which began operations in April.

While Ontario is already home to around 300 game companies of varying sizes, Behaviour’s expansion into the province is particularly notable as it’s actually Canada’s largest independent gaming studio. According to Racine, Toronto was a natural choice for a new office, given the Dead by Daylight maker’s past business in Ontario.

“Before the pandemic, we were hiring in Ontario, we were doing all sorts of stuff with local schools in Toronto, Greater Toronto and Southwest [Ontario]. So basically, [people] were moving to Montreal to work for us,” Racine tells MobileSyrup. “But Ontario is close to Montreal, they have talent, and we were always hiring in Ontario. So why not have an office in Toronto and try to hire more?”

He adds that while talent can also be found elsewhere, like in the U.S., they’re still fundamentally different countries, as opposed to being different teams within Canada. “As Canadians, we’re very similar to one another, so there’s also a cultural fit for us.”

Having such similarities will no doubt help with the collaboration between Behaviour’s Canadian studios. To start, Racine says the Toronto office — which is currently home to about 65 employees — will support the Montreal flagship on its various projects, including its recently announced new I.P., Meet Your Maker, a first-person building-and-raiding game coming in 2023. However, he notes that the Toronto studio could branch into its own projects down the line as it hires more people.

Dead by Daylight key art

Dead by Daylight is one of the most popular ongoing multiplayer games on the market. (Image credit: Behaviour Interactive)

Even now, though, Behaviour’s overall workforce is massive, surpassing 1,000 people across all locations. This includes Seattle-based Midwinter, the developer of the free-to-play shooter Scavengers, which it acquired in June. And while Behaviour is best known for the massively popular survival horror multiplayer game Dead by Daylight, which topped 50 million players earlier this year, the veteran company has worked on countless other titles. This includes producing original games for such media giants as Warner Bros. (Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time) and Disney (Kim Possible: What’s the Switch?) to supporting development on the likes of Xbox’s Gears 5, Ubisoft’s Far Cry 5, PlayStation’s Days Gone and Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 HD.

And yet, while many other gaming companies have been bought out over these years, including Activision, Behaviour itself has impressively remained independent. When asked about how the company has avoided the acquisition craze that’s taking over the gaming industry, Racine quickly notes that he’s never actually been interested in selling.

“This is something that I enjoy doing — it’s still a lot of fun. I want to compete in the world markets, and I’ve always tried to do this. And I’ve had many offers over the years. But the way to not sell is that you don’t want to hear about it. So basically, if somebody calls you, you say ‘I’m not interested,’ and that ends the discussion,” he says. “I want to build something and I’m building it. So some people, they sell because they want to do something else, or they’re tired of running the business — there’s a reason behind it. But I like it.”

Remi Racine and John Tory at Behaviour Interactive Toronto

Behaviour Interactive CEO Rémi Racine with Toronto Mayor John Tory. (Image credit: Behaviour)

Another trend in the gaming industry is “crunch,” a term that refers to prolonged periods of overtime in game development. It’s a widespread issue among game makers, plaguing the likes of Rockstar (Grand Theft Auto), BioWare Edmonton (Mass Effect) and Naughty Dog (The Last of Us). In a pre-recorded video played during the press conference, Racine admitted to Behaviour also having a “crunch culture” in its earlier years, noting that he’d come in and find developers still in the office after they’d slept overnight by their desks. But it’s also something that he and Behaviour have actively worked to improve upon over the years — so much so that the company has recently won workplace awards from Deloitte and GamesIndustry.biz.

According to Racine, creating a healthier, crunch-free workplace all comes down to efficient management.

“The way to not have [crunch] is to better plan projects — everything needs to be perfectly planned. So when you’re at that last minute on anything, then crunch time happens. We made an effort — it didn’t happen over time, this took us years to do this — but the goal was clear,” he explains. “At some point, we’re going to go to overtime, so we got to have a system, the way to work, so that’s how we did it. We’re basically forcing people not to do overtime. That doesn’t mean that [overtime] never happens, but if it’s part of the culture of the business, then that’s [bad]. And I think that people appreciate it.”

And on a personal level, Racine says he never stops to appreciate the fact that a game as massive as Dead by Daylight is being made by Canadians. “It makes us very proud that it’s made in Canada,” he says. “If you look at our staff, and especially our senior staff, they’re very Canadian. All of them. We never to shout at each other, there’s no political thing within the office — it’s a culture that I’m proud of.”

And as he reflects on the new Behaviour office and the company’s continued plans for growth, he says he’d like to see other homegrown companies follow suit.

“My hope is that there are more Canadian-owned companies that grow. It doesn’t mean that foreigners won’t have bigger studios in Canada. When they announce that a foreign company opens in Montreal or in Toronto, I’m happy because creates a lot of opportunities for our people, but at the same time, I say ‘there was an opportunity that we didn’t take as Canadians into that market.’ I think there’s more equity in the market, so it should help Canadians to grow.”

Image credit: Behaviour Interactive


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Elden Ring, NBA 2K23 and Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Xbox Series S bundles available at Walmart

While Sony is busy increasing the price of the PlayStation 5 in Canada, Walmart is currently offering a free game with the purchase of an Xbox Series S console, as first shared by @Lbabinz on Twitter.

Listed for $379.96, you have the option to go with an Elden Ring, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga or NBA 2K23 bundle.

It’s worth noting that the free titles aren’t physical discs, and you’ll receive a code via email to download the game through Xbox Live. All three bundles come with the 512GB version of the Xbox Series S, an Xbox Wireless Controller and a high-speed HDMI cable.

Learn more about the Xbox Series S here.

Follow the links the purchase the Xbox Series S Elden Ring bundle, NBA 2K23 bundle or the LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga from Walmart for $379.96.

Image credit: Walmart

Source: @Lbabinz

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PlayStation offering up to 75 percent off hundreds of ‘blockbuster’ games

PlayStation is once again running a ‘Blockbuster Games’ sale on its digital storefront, offering up to 75 percent off hundreds of big titles.

See below for some of the highlights:

The full list of Blockbuster Games deals can be found here. The sale runs until September 29th.

Image credit: Warner Bros.

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Xbox confirms several new Game Pass titles during ID@Xbox Fall Showcase

Xbox’s latest indie game-focused stream, the /twitchgaming: ID@Xbox Fall Showcase, has come to a close.

Over the course of the show, a variety of titles were featured, with several of them confirmed to be coming to Xbox Game Pass. See below for a round-up of all of the featured games. It’s important to note that some of the titles don’t yet have release dates; those that do are marked accordingly.

  • Amazing Cultivation Simulator (Gamera Game/GSQ Games) — Available now with Game Pass
  • The Big Con (Skybound Games) — Coming to Game Pass
  • Born of Bread (WildArts Studio)
  • Call of the Wild: The Angler (Avalanche Studios) — Available now
  • Cities Skylines: Plazas & Promenades (Paradox Interactive) – Available now
  • Eville (Versus Evil) — Coming to Game Pass
  • Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed (IllFonic, Inc.) — Pre-order available now
  • Homestead Arcana (Skybound Games) — Coming to Game Pass
  • Let’s Cook Together 2 (Yellow Dot)
  • Metal: Hellsinger (Funcom) — Available now, coming to Game Pass on September 15th
  • Moonscars (Humble Games) — Coming to Game Pass on September 27th, 2022
  • Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan (Skybound Games) — Coming to Game Pass
  • Shoulders of Giants (Moving Pieces Interactive)
  • Song of Iron 2 (Resting Relic)
  • Spiderheck (tinyBuild)
  • Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (Graffiti Games) — Coming to Game Pass
  • Valheim (Coffee Stain Publishing) — Coming to Game Pass
  • The Walking Dead: The Final Season (Skybound Games) — Coming to Game Pass
  • Ynglet (Triple Topping) — Available now
  • You Suck at Parking (Happy Volcano) — Available now with Game Pass

It’s worth noting that The Big Con was developed by Toronto’s Mighty Yell, while Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Levithan was made by Montreal’s Manavoid Entertainment.

Image credit: Illfonic

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Vancouver’s The Coalition pledges 1 percent of all Gears of War revenue for suicide prevention

Vancouver-based The Coalition has pledged to donate one percent of net revenue from all Gears of War games and merchandise to suicide prevention.

To coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th, the Xbox-owned developer says it’s launching this multi-year ‘Never Fight Alone’ initiative, starting with Crisis Text Line. The New York-based global non-profit provides free, 24/7 text-based mental health support and crisis intervention in Canada, the U.S., U.K. and Ireland using trained volunteers.

The Coalition says it aims to partner with additional mental health advocacy groups in the future. In the meantime, the studio is also inviting people to share their stories and words of support via the official Gears of War Twitter channel and/or using the hashtag #NeverFightAlone. You can also purchase a special ‘Never Fight Alone’ t-shirt from the Xbox Gear Store, and 100 percent of the proceeds will go directly to Crisis Text Line.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, there are a number of organizations in Canada that offer 24/7 support, including Talk Suicide Canada (1-833-456-4566), Kids Help Phone, the Hope for Wellness Help Line, and, for Quebec residents, 1-866-APPELLE (277-3553).

Source: Xbox