gaming

From the PlayStation blog:

With continued pressures in the global economic landscape, we’ve made the decision to increase the prices of PS5, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal remote player globally. We know that price changes impact our community, and after careful evaluation, we found this was a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide.

The PlayStation 5 Digital launched in the UK at £359.99 in November 2020. The same console is currently £389.99 on Amazon. The new RRP is £519.99, a £160 increase over its launch price from almost six years ago.

It’s easy to think that this price increase is simply a result of RAM shortages, but Sony’s CFO, Lin Tao, said they’d secured sufficient supply, via Outlook Respawn:

Speaking during a Q3 fiscal earnings call this week, Sony Chief Financial Officer Lin Tao addressed the industry-wide panic regarding the global RAM shortage. Tao assured investors and fans alike that the company has secured the minimum memory inventory needed to meet demand for the next fiscal year, effectively shielding the PS5 from the skyrocketing component costs currently plaguing the tech world.

That was just six weeks ago. More likely this increase is due to the US-Israel conflict with Iran, and the pressure it is placing on the semiconductor supply chain. Sony attributing the increases to the global economic landscape gives them just enough cover to say nothing at all.

These price increases are effective from 2^nd April. If you’re in the market for a PlayStation 5, now’s the time to get it.

I have mixed feelings about Halo: Campaign Evolved. The trailer looks and sounds excellent, the gameplay is both improved and familiar, and the nostalgia vibes are strong.

And that’s the problem: this is the third version of the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign (Halo: Combat Evolved (2000); *Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary *(2011); and now Halo: Campaign Evolved (2026)).

I really hope *Halo: Campaign Evolved *is good. But it’s trading entirely on nostalgia.

That leaves me with some obvious questions:

• How does Halo: Campaign Evolved move the franchise forward (excluding the fact that it’ll be on PlayStation)?
• Can a 26-year-old game hold its own against modern FPS games or is this going to be like the Goldeneye64 remake?
• Split-screen local co-op, online co-op, and no multiplayer…there’s more to announce, surely?

For years, both at home and at work, I’ve used headsets with built-in microphones that sit uncomfortably close to my mouth. They’ve always irritated me, especially when drinking coffee and the mug inevitably whacks the mic arm mid-sip.

To address this horrific shortcoming, I added a Shure MV6 microphone to my desk and now I have a new hobby — streaming games at @flywithstuart on YouTube (things are just getting started). Predominantly, the current focus is the recently released Battlefield 6, with some Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 thrown in for good measure. I’m considering doing a NetNewsWire bug fix stream in the future (when I setup OBS on my Mac).

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