Articles by Jennifer Locke

This was revealed in a confidential document unveiled as part of the ongoing Epic vs. Apple trial.

What you need to know

A confidential document has come out of the Epic vs. Apple court case revealing that Epic offered Sony millions to bring its PlayStation games to the Epic Games Store.
Epic wanted at least four PlayStation exclusives to the tune of $200 million.
This follows emails that revealed Epic had once offered to make a game for PS5 VR in exchange for cross-play support in Fortnite.

Epic isn’t afraid to spend millions to take on the competition. PC Gamer reports (via The Verge) that a 222-page confidential document filed as part of the Epic vs. Apple trial revealed that the company had apparently offered Sony $200 million to bring PlayStation exclusives to the Epic Games Store. Since the document came out, The Verge has confirmed its authenticity.

This appears to be a larger effort by Epic to compete with Steam, Valve’s online storefront juggernaut. It’s unclear what…

“It’s not that scary!” you say. Counterpoint: It is.

There are plenty of games I would love to play but don’t for a number of reasons. Maybe I don’t like the genre. Maybe it’s just too difficult for me to make any meaningful progress. And maybe, despite the trailers looking incredibly interesting, I just find the actual gameplay boring. The worst reason of all, though, is that a game is scary. I want so badly to be into horror games, but I just can’t do it. This has made me feel left out over the years as social media gravitates toward the next big horror thing — whatever it may be — and I’ve never felt it so much as now that Resident Evil Village is out.

From the moment Lady Dimistrecu was revealed, I knew I was going to have a problem. It’s oddly heartwarming to see the gaming community come together and joke around with Tall Vampire Lady memes, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to experience it fully when the game came out. While I continue to retweet memes and videos, …

This isn’t the news anyone wanted to hear, but it isn’t surprising.

What you need to know

The PS5 has been incredibly difficult to buy since its release in November 2020.
Sony stated in a private briefing that it expects supply shortages to continue into 2022.
These comments come amid rumors that manufacturers are bracing for a PS5 redesign.
The alleged internal redesign will supposedly feature a 6nm AMD chip as opposed to a 7nm AMD processor.

Sony’s PS5 has been an elusive console since its debut in November 2020, and the company expects that to continue. According to a Bloomberg report, Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki said that despite an attempt to increase supply, demand is not waning and a console shortage will likely continue for at least several more months. These remarks were made in a private briefing following Sony’s financial call in April.

“I don’t think demand is calming down this year and even if we secure a lot more devices and produce many more units of t…

With an 825GB SSD, every gigabyte of space on your PS5 is precious. That’s why you don’t want to waste it with PS4 games, especially when PS5 games need to be played from their internal SSD. To make your lives easier so that you don’t have to constantly transfer games back and forth, you can set an external hard drive as your default drive for PS4 game downloads. Doing so is easy, and it should save you a lot of time. It may not be as fast as the PS5’s SSD, but an external drive can play PS4 games just fine.

Turn on your PS5.
Plug in a compatible external hard drive into one of the back USB Type-A ports (the front USB port will not work because it is not Superspeed).
Go to Settings.
Select Storage.

Select USB Extended Storage.
Toggle on Always Install PS4 Games to USB Extended Storage.

Can I select a default hard drive for PS5 games?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like you can select a default hard drive for PS5 games at this time. While a recent update finally made it po…

There’s a lot to love about the PS5 DualSense controller, but it isn’t perfect. Even the best PS5 accessories have their faults. One of the biggest issues plaguing the DualSense is thumbstick drift, and some people have other issues in addition to that, including with its internal battery. We’ll run down a few of the most common you may experience and how you can fix them. There’s no one size fits all option, and your mileage may vary, but these methods have proven to work in some instances.

How to fix PS5 controller drift

DualSense drift usually happens because of general wear and tear on your controller. Its thumbsticks are soldered to the main controller board and are connected to potentiometers that detect movement. As you constantly use your controller, friction can wear them down. This is the most difficult problem to fix because the best method to do so would be to take apart the entire controller and replace the offending parts, and not everyone is equipped to do that.
…

This is a bad look for Sony.

What you need to know

Epic’s lawsuit with Apple has revealed emails and documents dating back to 2018 showing Epic in conversation with Sony regarding Fortnite cross-play on PlayStation.
PlayStation had wanted publishers to pay royalties on cross-play titles determined on the PSN Revenue Share divided by PS4 Gameplay Share.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has now stated in court that his company is forced to compensate Sony for Fortnite’s cross-play.

Epic’s lawsuit with Apple has unearthed a lot of information as the trial began today. When Epic CEO Tim Sweeney was asked to take the stand, he revealed that his company pays Sony for cross-play support on PS4 and PS5, making it the only platform holder to require additional compensation (via The Verge).

“In certain circumstances, Epic will have to pay additional revenue to Sony,” he said. “If somebody were primarily playing on PlayStation but paying on iPhone, then this might trigger compensation.” Epic also con…

Outriders is just the latest game to include cross-play across multiple platforms.

After a series of blunders, Sony seems to be making some smart moves.

Sony announced today that it has partnered with Discord to bring the popular chat service to the PlayStation Network. This news comes only weeks after reports that Microsoft was in talks to acquire Discord. Besides just a good move for Discord users, it proves that Sony is finally getting serious about cross-play.

Sony was far behind the competition regarding cross-play for a few years, actively blocking it in games like Fortnite, Rocket League, and Minecraft. Though no one from the company is on the record as to why it had such an anti-cross-play stance, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida (via The Verge) said that cross-play wasn’t needed because PlayStation 4 was the best place to play, indicating the company felt superior to the competition and would be “lowering itself” by enabling cross-play. User experience, apparently, was best when …

It looks like we’ll have a lot of fun hopping between dimensions very soon, and the power of the PS5’s SSD is on full display.

What you need to know

Today’s State of Play showcased 15 minutes of new gameplay from Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.
We recently learned that the female Lombax is named Rivet.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart will launch on June 11, 2021 as a PS5 exclusive.

Insomniac unveiled over 15 minutes of new Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart PS5 gameplay during today’s State of Play. The game’s looking gorgeous and seems to be a potential hit for PlayStation this summer, when so many games have already experienced delays.

The demo showcased gameplay between Ratchet and Rivet as Insomniac explained the benefits you’ll receive from the DualSense and PS5’s SSD. Though we only got a taste of the early game, there’s plenty to look forward to with puzzles to solve, open areas and pocket dimensions to explore, and armor to collect. There’s also a ton of accessibility optio…

Get ready to murder your friends on console. Don’t act sus.

What you need to know

During today’s State of Play, PlayStation revealed that Among Us is coming to PS4 and PS5.
It will hit PlayStation consoles sometime this year.
Among Us became a smash hit online in 2020, nearly two years after its initial release.

Before Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart took the stage at today’s State of Play livestream it was revealed that Among Us will be coming to PS4 and PS5 sometime later this year.

The PS4 and PS5 versions will include an exclusive Ratchet and Clank skin, hat, and pet. It will also feature cross-play and online multiplayer (of course) according to the developer. New content is constantly being added as the studio wants to support Among Us for a very long time.

The social deduction game became insanely popular in 2020, nearly two years after its initial release. It became such a huge hit that the studio cancelled a sequel in favor of supporting the first game. It’s already…

Every PlayStation Now game is available to stream to your PC, meaning over 800 games are at your fingertips if you’re a subscriber. For anyone starting these games on PS4 or PS5 and then wanting to pick up on PC where you left off, you’ll need a PlayStation Plus membership to transfer your cloud saves. Though you can access these saves through the PS Now app on PC, you’ll need to transfer them from the console first in order for it to work. It’s a quick and easy process once you know what to do.

How to transfer PS4 & PS5 saves to PlayStation Now on PC

Hover over the game on your home screen.
Press the Options button on your controller.
Select Upload/Download Saved Data.

Next to Console Storage, select Upload.

Either choose Upload All or Select and Upload to upload specific game saves.

How to transfer multiple PS4 & PS5 saves to PlayStation Now on PC in bulk

Now, if you have a lot of game saves you’d like to transfer over and don’t want to go through each game to d…