Grave Gamer News & Views — sony

Sony’s Selling All of its Square Enix Shares to Return to Profitability

But, hey, the PlayStation 4 is still killing it

Japanese juggernaut Sony, most famous for the globally known PlayStation brand – and for also making, I don’t know, headphones and a few movies now and again – is dumping its entire financial stake out of publisher Square Enix.

Sony holds 9.52 million shares in Square Enix, a sensual tryst that began in the early 2000’s. Once upon a time ago, before the word “timed” preceded “exclusivity,” Square’s Final Fantasy brand was nearly synonymous with PlayStation, especially helping Sony claim the dominance in Japanese households it still enjoys to this very day.

Sony’s equity is priced at ¥4.8 billion yen, or $47 million. The deal is expected to be closed as soon as tomorrow. The decision is the next of several moves the company has made to return itself to profitability. Since 2014 began, Sony has laid off thousands of workers, sold two corporate offices, and has even axed its PC division.

On the upside, the Sony PlayStation 4 has reveled in sales success, having sold 7 million units worldwide since launch, surpassing its next-gen competition, the Xbox One, by a slim margin. As an aside, I am currently a happy member of that 7 million club and I sing my PS4 into a gentle sleep, nightly.

The Last of Us is Bound for PS4

I’ll get through the bad news first: The Last of Us 2 ain’t happening anytime soon. Hey, come on. Don’t make that face. We pretty much knew that already.

Here be the good slice of news: A Sony higher-up has stated that the original Last of Us, including its sublime piece of DLC, Left Behind, is heading for the PlayStation 4 in all of its post-apocalyptic, giraffe-petting glory.

The news comes way of an attentive NeoGAF user (but doesn’t all juicy news, though?) who spotted a Mr. Sercan Sulun, PlayStation Eurasia’s Software Market Manager, giving an interview to CNN Turk. Thirty-six minutes in, Sulun fielded a question asking whether or not we’d see The Last of Us 2 (aka The Next to Last of Us) anytime in the near future.

“There is no information about a new The Last of Us game,” said Sulun, “But I can share this knowledge; as of this summer, The Last of Us will be on the PS4. Both on PSN and physically.”

Naughty Dog’s instant classic and the freshly released single-player DLC will be graphically enhanced for the PlayStation 4. It’s currently unknown if the port will take advantage of any PS4 specific features such as the touchpad. Honestly, I could give a shit if they program horse farts through the controller’s speaker; I’m just beyond stoked to see this brilliant masterpiece brought to the next-gen.

Stay tuned for more official news (or the Shakespearean tragedy of an official debunking).

Major Improvements to Sharing and Streaming Coming to the PS4

Power to the people! Or, rather, power to the players! Wait, shit, that’s Gamestop’s slogan, isn’t it? They’re gonna be up my ass if I use that and they’ve already sued me the one time… Whatever, moving on. Point is, thanks to the PlayStation Nation’s feedback – as in your feedback – some pretty serious improvements are hitting the PS4’s Share functionality.

Coming soon via a patch, the PlayStation blog reports that a new video editor will be added that’ll let you “personalize your video clips” through use of a simple tool. Better yet, the update allows you to export screenshots and gameplay clips to a USB drive. Just hit share, choose your device, and you’re ready to rock. Hopefully this means we’ll have more avenues to share content than just Facebook.

Those who have been wishing for an alternative to capturing and streaming gameplay than the built-in Twitch/Ustream suite will be pleased as hell to learn that this very same update includes an “HDCP off” option, finally allowing gameplay capture via HDMI. The blog also promises even more unannounced features are being worked into this patch.

Sometime after that patch, Sony is planning yet another system software update that’ll integrate the ability to archive Twitch broadcasts. No more going live and having your sessions disappear into the ether. Additionally, Sony is looking to enhance streaming resolution to 720p. PC-less and capture device, uh, -less, I’m most excited by these upgrades (commence shameless plug: follow The Red Herb on Twitch!).

More info on these updates are said to follow in the weeks to come.

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition Spreads to PS4 in March

From Super Stardust to Resogun, it seems Sony exclusive developer Housemarque doesn’t know how to do wrong. Few studios are able to take such simple gameplay concepts and create massively addictive experiences out of them.

Case in point: Dead Nation, a top-down, twin-stick shooter that has you blasting apart waves of the undead either solo or with a wingman. Released when download-only titles were nowhere near even half as prolific as they are today, the quality behind Dead Nation kept it atop the PS3’s sales charts for a ragged chunk of time.

Like the festering corpses roaming the game’s decrepit cities, Dead Nation cannot be killed – enter Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition, a remaster of the original game made specifically for the PlayStation 4. This resurrected edition features touched up graphics – in full on 1080p – tweaked controls adding a new quick weapon select, and comes packaged with The Road to Devastation expansion, previously only available as DLC, worked into the campaign.

It ain’t over till the fat lady shrieks. In addition to second screen implementation thanks to the PlayStation App, a new Challenge mode is being thrown in for expert zombie smashers, where you can dole out your best level runs to friends or play against an in-game avatar representing your buddies’ top hunts.

But the coolest new feature has to be Broadcast+. While streaming the game live, as you are want to do on PS4, viewers can actively vote on whether they want to positively or negatively impact your game. Maybe they throw you a bone and have extra ammo drops at your feet. But they’re way more likely to toss some shade your way and sic a horde of walkers on your ass. And it gets even funnier when they can activate “modifiers” like disabling your sprint button. Apparently in-game zombies fitted with viewers’ names can be shot at, so feel free to make frequent examples.

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition re-releases March 4th and will be $14.99 on the PS Store or absolutely free with PlayStation Plus.

PS Vita Slim + Borderlands 2 Bundle Incoming This Spring

The slimmer, redesigned PlayStation Vita, already available in Japan and having just launched in Europe this month, is inbound for North America this Spring.

Right around the Vita Slim’s launch, a bundle featuring Borderlands 2 portable port and the remodeled handheld will be made available. No specific pricing or date has been announced for the system solo or bundled (though it’s likely the latter will come in at $199).

So how different is a Vita Slim? Well, for one, it’s cheaper thanks to some cost cutting maneuvers. The handheld’s thickness is reduced by twenty percent and the overall weight is fifteen percent lighter than the original Vita, making it a bit easier on the hands (though, in my opinion, the first model is still a sight more comfortable to hold than either 3DS model – i.e. my wrists’ mortal enemy).

The only trade-down would be the swap from that beautiful OLED display to a more standard LED screen. Perhaps a gig of internalized memory will assuage you. No? Yeah, same here. But, hey, cheaper!

A decidedly soft lineup of software has stayed my wallet when it came to Sony’s second foray into the handheld market. Which is a shame, because whenever I got my hands on the Vita, I loved the shit out of it – its interface, its button placement, its generously sized screen. I already own Borderlands 2 on two separate consoles but… goddamn if one more won’t hurt. Looting on the go is too hard to resist, and Sony’s handheld struggles definitely aren’t because they produced a bad system. Far from it.

Come Spring, if you’re like me and have been living life without a Vita (get it?), the Slim may be the way to go, LED and all.