Games

An apparent bug was causing game art backgrounds to be replaced by promotional messages and news posts on the PlayStation 5 dashboard for some people on Monday. The images they saw featured promotions for long-expired discounts and ads for new games. 

People lamented the change in forums and on social media, saying the game art that previously showed up when they highlighted a game was gone. Instead, the image that would ordinarily show up as a news post in a separate section of the PS5 UI was splashed across the screen behind games like Miles Morales, Hi-Fi Rush, and Final Fantasy VII Remake.

In a since-deleted post, Daniel Hiatt, product lead for Game Hub and Activity Suggestions with PlayStation, wrote Monday afternoon that the change was a “(new) bug with an existing feature.” Then, by 6PM ET, those game pages are back to normal, as we confirmed on our own PS5s.

It is at 361,826 out of 1,000,000 signatures with the remaining trickle after the initial spike nowhere near the pace needed to hit the mark before the 31st of July 2025.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/StopKillingGames/comments/1flaevi/let_me_put_the_current_campaign_progress_into_a/)

I interpret the state of Ross Scott's SKG campaign like this:
It's pretty clear that democratically speaking, we do not object to companies arbitrarily removing access to purchased video games. Only a minority objects to it.

While it will stay up and get more signatures, there will ultimately be no follow-through to this campaign. The reality is that it's not politically sound, it's not built on a foundation of a real public desire for change. In other words, voters don't want it. You might, but most of your family and friends don't want it.

In a new Sony Corporate Report, Sony has revealed that PlayStation will use AI and machine learning to speed up its game development.

On page 16 of the report, Sony had that “bolstering technologies that can help creators engage in maximizing the value of their IP in efficient, high-quality ways, including sensing and capturing as well as real-time 3D processing, AI, and machine learning,” and that these technologies will help to deliver its IP “rapidly and at low cost to a broader range of fans.”

The report reveals that PlayStation used machine learning in the production of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 by applying voice-recognition software in certain languages. This process allowed the company to automatically synchronize subtitles with each character’s lines to “significantly shortening the subtitling process.”

Astro Bot is stuffed with little robot guys cosplaying as gaming icons from across PlayStation history, but the game's lead has now opened up about the one essential character that's missing.

Sure, Astro Bot's 300 collectible bots don't cover every single notable game from the platform's three-decade run. Twisted Metal and SOCOM aren't included, for example, despite being PlayStation staples for a time. But the big boys are all here. Whether that's Sony's own God of War, Ape Escape, and Shadow of the Colossus - or famous faces from other companies, like Tomb Raider and Crash Bandicoot.

Since the joyous platformer jumped onto store shelves, however, more than a few players have complained that Cloud Strife is missing, in spite of how monumentally important Final Fantasy 7 was on the PS1. In fact, publisher Square Enix has no presence in the game, with Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and Nier all omitted, which is particularly strange since the game's free predecessor Astro's Playroom at least makes reference to Cloud's big buster sword.

In an interview with Game File, Team Asobi studio head Nicolas Doucet hinted that the development team had eyed up a Cloud cameo that never got approval from Square Enix. "It's difficult to comment on that," Doucet said. "We really respect the choice of each publisher."