Damn as soon as you buy something Yuri something happens lol. Hopefully this doesn't take off not looking forward anymore hardware shortages. Might even consider buying another SSD now (wasn't really planning to until later this year or next) >_>

For God's Sake! Do they realize that the NAND in those SSDs degrades with each writing, right? And that it becomes useless and they won't be able to sell them later.

Oh, well, I guess I'll get the storage I was planning to get for my next build sooner rather than later (after all, I'm not after speed).

The biggest problems I have with that strategy is that A) Small studios will no longer be able to learn and grow making small scale or even AA games, they'll be used to remake/remaster older games or as an assist studio. In any case, nothing original will come from them; and B) Big scale games need a lot more development time, and that means less first party games per console cycle.

Just look at Naughty Dog, they developed Uncharted 1, 2 & 3 and The Last of Us for the PS3, but the only original games they did for PS4 were Uncharted 4, Uncharted The Lost Legacy (does it count as a full game?) and The Last of Us 2.

Sony needs smaller games to fill the gap between those AAA games that get all the Metacritic Highscores.

Lol yea, some luck. Hopefully it doesn't take off.

Yea pretty much. You look at say Nintendo. They have their big AAA titles but they also have quite a lot of smaller titles in between. I get the feeling that Sony is going the ways of other AAA companies where you will only get big releases that will play it safe instead of having a mix of both. Quite a shame really.

Yup. At the end of the day, it's the games that sell consoles, and the less exclusives you have, the less attractive your machine will end being.

Then again, both Sony, MSoft and most 3rd parties have decided that PC is not only not competing with consoles, but also a necessary source of income given the increasing budget of those AAA games, which is why the "console exclusive" nonsense appeared. But hey, better for a lot of us, that won't have to get their machines and can still get a lot more indie and AA games than them.

The ironic part of this is that it's what Microsoft tried to do early last gen, and it failed miserably as it meant exclusives were few and far between. The fact that the quality wasn't fully on par with Sony and Nintendo didn't help either.

Now Microsoft fully embraced smaller A/AA titles with titles like Wasteland 3 and Cuphead while also developing more AAA due to owning more studios, and Sony is going the other way around.

Sony still has the edge due to it's reputation being a lot better in terms of game quality, but they're playing with fire here and could hurt them in the latter part of the PS5's lifecycle.

Indeed. Aside from Bethesda, most of the studios that MSoft has acquired shine in that market segment. Even Ninja Theory does big games on AA budgets.

As for Sony, they'll have to be careful because one failure can be very costly, not only in terms of money, but also because they'll have no back-up game ready to launch to help them. For example, the whole debate with The Last of Us 2 could damage Naughty Dog's next game and, if they're not careful, kind of kill that franchise.

Here come the Monday new:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

CD Projekt predicts record earnings for 2020, expecting $304M profit
https://www.pcgamer.com/cd-projekt-predicts-record-earnings-for-2020-expecting-dollar304m-profit/
CD Projekt is due to publish its annual consolidated earnings for financial year 2020 on April 22, but decided to give an early preview of how it performed on its investor-focused Twitter account. The answer: rather well, with estimated sales revenues of 2,139 million PLN ($563 million USD), and a projected net profit of 1,154 million PLN ($304 million USD).
That's substantially higher than previous years. For the sake of comparison, off the back of the release of The Witcher 3 in 2015, CD Projekt earned 798 million PLN ($210 million USD) in revenues with a profit of 342 million PLN ($90 million USD).

GOG starts the week with a new sale and three new releases:

• The new Weekly Sale is full of games about solving mysteries with up to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210419_weekly_sale
• The Stellaris Sale with up to 75% discounts from last week will last another 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210415_stellaris
• And these are the new releases:
  • Tales of the Neon Sea launches on the store with a 75% discount until April 26: https://www.gog.com/game/tales_of_the_neon_sea
  • The "game" She Sees Red - Interactive Movie, arrives at the store with a 70% discount until April 26: https://www.gog.com/game/she_sees_red_interactive_movie
  • And Dark Nights with Poe and Munro comes with a 20% discount until May 3: https://www.gog.com/game/dark_nights_with_poe_and_munro

Steam has two new daily deals:

• TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge 2 is 55% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1082180/TT_Isle_of_Man_Ride_on_the_Edge_2/
• And Book of Demons features an 80% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/449960/Book_of_Demons/

The guys at Humble start the week with several new sales:

• The new Humble Down to Earth Bundle features 8 games during the next 11 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/earth-day-bundle
• The first of the sales at the Store is the Raw Fury Publisher Sale, with up to 90% discounts during the next 3 days. All but one key are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/raw-fury-publisher-sale/
• The Assetto Corsa Franchise Sale features up to 80% discounts during the next 4 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/assetto-corsa-franchise-sale/
• The Asmodee Digital Sale comes with up to 80% discounts during the next 4 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/asmodee-digital-sale/
• And The Undead Sale features up to 90% discounts during the next 4 days. Most keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/the-undead-sale/

And Fanatical has three new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Windward, 80% off during the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/windward
• The Bandai Namco Sale features up to 85% discounts during the next 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/bandai-namco-entertainment
• And Frontier Development puts its game up to 81% off during the next 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/frontier-developments

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Widely-publicized Steam Invite hack has been fixed
https://www.pcgamer.com/widely-publicized-steam-invite-hack-has-been-fixed/
Early last week a non-profit group dedicated to software reverse-engineering publicly announced that a dangerous exploit it had found in the Steam backend had gone unfixed for nearly two years, and worse, Valve was allegedly attempting to prevent them from publicly disclosing its existence. The exploit, involving Steam Invites, allegedly allowed a hacker to gain full control of a victim's system via a remote code execution.
(...)
The original finder of the exploit has confirmed the fix and says Valve has provided them with permission to disclose details. They are working on a detailed technical writeup for release in the future.

A recent Windows 10 update is trashing framerates and causing games to stutter
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-recent-windows-10-update-is-trashing-framerates-and-causing-games-to-stutter/
In what has become an all too familiar story, complaints have surfaced of a cumulative update for Windows 10 causing a myriad of problems, including gameplay issues.
"Microsoft forced the April update, but it has the same issues we had experienced with the previous optional update. Random stutter, unstable fps, V-Sync seems broken sometimes—if I screen share on Discord my fps in games becomes very unstable with V-Sync enabled," a user wrote on Reddit (via Computer Base).
(...)
The common denominator in the various complaints is the installation of a cumulative update, including KB5001330 for Windows 10 version 2004 (20H1) and KB5001337 for Windows 10 versions 1930 and 1909. Same goes for some users who installed a preview version of this month's Patch Tuesday rollout, KB5000842, which was made available in late March.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Killzone 3 is playable with mouse & keyboard on PC via RPCS3 & KAMI
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/killzone-3-is-playable-with-mouse-keyboard-on-pc-via-rpcs3/
While Sony does not plan to release Killzone 3 on the PC, Yahfz shared a video that gives us a glimpse at what such a PC version could look like. Yahfz used RPCS3 in order to run the game with 60fps, and used KAMI in order to inject support for mouse and keyboard.
The end result appears to be amazing. Now as you will see, the game still displays the PS3 icons. Still, and given the fact some of the recently released PC ports lack proper K&M icon prompts, this can give you an idea of what a rough PC port of Killzone 3 could look like.

Watch Dogs Legion ScriptHook Mod is now available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/watch-dogs-legion-scripthook-mod-is-now-available-for-download/
NOMAD Group has released an officially Ubisoft-approved mod for Watch Dogs Legion, ScriptHook. This is one of the best mods for Watch Dogs Legion and will let you do numerous things to the game.
Via this mod, players can create unique scenes and unlock a free camera (which is ideal for flythroughs). Additionally, they can spawn any vehicle and object they want. Naturally, players can also change the game’s Time of Day and control the game’s dynamic weather system.
Players can also visit story locations, enable noclip so they can go anywhere they want, and teleport anywhere they want. Moreover, they can create custom license plates, control world traffic, and basically create their own experience.
>> You can download it from here.

Grand Theft Auto 4 gets a new car pack with vehicles from 1950-1993
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/grand-theft-auto-4-gets-a-new-car-pack-with-vehicles-from-1950-1993/
Modder ‘Jjent1’ has released a new cool car pack for Grand Theft Auto IV. As the modder noted, this pack brings to the game cars from the late 1950s to 1993.
Unfortunately, the modder has not shared the complete list of cars that are featured in this pack. Still, you can find below some screenshots that he shared.
(...)
You can download the new/custom car pack for GTAIV from here. In order to install, it, you’ll have to place “vehicles.img” into pc > models > cdimages. Then, you’ll have to place all the other files into common > data.

Mass Effect Restored Light & Illumination Natively Mod available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/mass-effect-restored-light-illumination-natively-mod-available-for-download/
Catachrism has released a must-have mod for the PC version of the first Mass Effect game. Mass Effect Restored Light & Illumination Natively (MERLIN) is a mod that aims to restore dynamic lights and post-processing effects from the X360 version.
In case you weren’t aware of, the PC version of Mass Effect lacked a number of effects that were present in the X360 version. Thus, this mod aims to restores as much of those effects as possible. Moreover, it corrects other things that were broken in the PC port (as well as some things that were broken in all releases of Mass Effect).
>> You'll find it at Nexus Mods.

Duke Nukem 3D: Alien Armageddon V4.0 is now available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/duke-nukem-3d-alien-armageddon-v4-0-is-now-available-for-download/
DukeBoss and a team of modders have released an amazing mod for Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem 3D: Alien Armageddon V4.0. This mod adds many new high-quality enemies, sexy NPCs, and a second playable character.
Version 4.0 adds a new game mode, called Attrition. In this mode, players will battle through a random sequence of some of the best community maps, gaining levels and upgrades as you progress. Attrition features randomized enemies and almost 200 maps to draw from.
Version 4.0 also overhauls some enemies with new art and abilities. Furthermore, it adds some new enemies.
>> Available from ModDB.

Halo 3 goes horror with a Call Of Duty-inspired zombies mod
https://www.pcgamer.com/halo-3-goes-horror-with-a-call-of-duty-inspired-zombies-mod/
Halo 3 might have preceded Halo's own horde mode, Firefight. But a new mod for The Master Chief Collection has given the trilogy-closer its own survival gametype—one inspired by the series' oldest rival.
Released over the weekend by modder Crisp, Halo 3: Zombies brings the slow, terrifying death march of Call Of Duty's Zombies mode into Halo's opening jungle map. Undead Nazis have been replaced with the parasitic Flood, but the format remains the same. Hold out against the horde, raising money with each kill to spend on new weapons, powerups, and new parts of the map. Mystery boxes let you gamble on spicier tools, while some rounds will see more powerful foes drop in from orbit.

GAMING NEWS

Here are 15 minutes of gameplay footage from NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-15-minutes-of-gameplay-footage-from-nier-replicant-ver-1-22474487139/
PlayStation Underground has released a new video, showcasing 15 minutes of gameplay footage from NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139. In addition, Cycu1 released an early graphics comparison video between this remaster and the original PS3 version.
>> And here's another trailer that highlights the extra content.

Petroglyph puts on hold Earthbreakers in order to focus on a new game
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/petroglyph-puts-on-hold-earthbreakers-in-order-to-focus-on-a-new-game/
Petroglyph has announced that it will put on hold its FPS/RTS hybrid, Earthbreakers. According to Petroglyph, it will now focus on an exciting brand new game. In order to finish it, though, it will also need the team that was working on Earthbreakers.

Days Gone – PC vs PS5 Early Graphics Comparison Video
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/days-gone-pc-vs-ps5-early-graphics-comparison-video/
A couple of days ago, Sony and Bend Studios released the first gameplay trailer for the PC version of Days Gone. Thus, Cycu1 released a video in which he compares the PC version with the PS5 version.

New Resident Evil Village gameplay video showcases its environments
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-resident-evil-village-gameplay-video-showcases-its-environments/
Game Informer has released a new gameplay video for Resident Evil Village that showcases some of its environments. This is a short video, however, we are certain that most Resident Evil fans will like it.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Patch 1.2 adds new options, fixes crash
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/the-legend-of-heroes-trails-of-cold-steel-iv-patch-1-2-adds-new-options-fixes-crash/
Nihon Falcom has released a new patch for the PC version of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV. According to the release notes, Patch 1.2 fixes a potential crash issue, fixes some minor translation issues, and adds two new features.

Genshin Impact Patch 1.5 releases on PC on April 28th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/genshin-impact-patch-1-5-releases-on-pc-on-april-28th/
miHoYo has announced that Update 1.5 for Genshin Impact will release on April 28th. In order to celebrate this announcement, the team also released a new trailer that you can find below.

Call of Duty WW2 Vanguard rumored to be significantly held back by old-gen consoles
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/call-of-duty-ww2-vanguard-rumored-to-be-significantly-held-back-by-old-gen-consoles/
Earlier this month, we informed you about a new rumor regarding Battlefield 6. So, time for some rumors about its direct rival, the Call of Duty series. According to Tom Henderson, a well-known Battlefield and Call of Duty leaker, Call of Duty WW2 Vanguard will be heavily held back by old-gen consoles.

F1 2021 PC Requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/f1-2021-pc-requirements/
Codemasters has revealed the official PC system requirements for F1 2021 via its Steam store page. F1 2021 will be using the DX12 API and will support Ray Tracing effects on PC.

Monday news, part two:

Fortnite's Aloy and Lara Croft team-up is delayed to next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnites-aloy-and-lara-croft-team-up-is-delayed-to-next-week/
Earlier this week, Epic announced that Aloy, the heroine of Horizon Zero Dawn, would soon be teaming up with Lara Croft of Tomb Raider fame for a new Fortnite limited time mode creatively entitled Team Up! Aloy & Lara Limited Time Mode. The LTM was set to kick off on April 16, which is today, but after a rough start Epic has decided to put it off until next week.

Call of Duty: Warzone disables contract that turned players into unkillable gods
https://www.pcgamer.com/warzone-invincible-bug-most-wanted/
We may be past the days when Call of Duty: Warzone's infinite stim glitch was ruining matches on a regular basis, but new problems are always emerging. The latest Warzone bug to see swift action from Activision was an exploit discovered yesterday that granted players complete invincibility for the duration of the match. Be it bullets, vehicles, or melee assassinations, players under this spell could shrug it off.
To nip this potentially disastrous bug in the bud, Raven Software announced today in a tweet that Warzone's Most Wanted contracts have been disabled until further notice.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition has a photo mode and it looks pretty sweet
https://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-legendary-edition-has-a-photo-mode-and-it-looks-pretty-sweet/
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is coming in May with a beefy selection of graphical enhancements, including support for 4K, HDR, and ultrawide displays, unlocked framerates, and improved models, lighting, shaders and VFX. On Twitter yesterday, project director Mac Walters confirmed that players will have a proper opportunity to enjoy all that sweet new eye candy, revealing that the Legendary Edition will have a photo mode.

How a reckless lie caused huge internet drama for Path of Exile's developer
https://www.pcgamer.com/how-a-reckless-lie-caused-huge-internet-drama-for-path-of-exiles-developer/
Yesterday, Path of Exile developer Grinding Gear Games and its community were the victims of an extremely asinine hoax. In a thread on the Legal Advice subreddit, a disabled person said they were banned from Path of Exile for using a macro to help them play. That post sparked discussion and outrage that quickly spread throughout Reddit and social media.

Melee battle royale Naraka: Bladepoint is doing an open beta next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/melee-battle-royale-naraka-bladepoint-is-doing-an-open-beta-next-week/
(...)
Unlike most battle royales, where guns reign supreme, Naraka: Bladepoint is built around melee combat and extreme mobility: Players can wall-run and carry a grappling hook that can be used on virtually anything, including other players. Ranged weapons are available, and 24 Entertainment told GamesRadar that players should carry at least one so they can "deal with any complex battle situations that arise." But it also acknowledged that most people in the closed beta seemed to prefer a more hands-on approach to kicking ass.

Change is finally coming to Call of Duty: Warzone's despised Roze operator
https://www.pcgamer.com/change-is-finally-coming-to-call-of-duty-warzones-despised-roze-operator/
If you've played any amount of Call of Duty: Warzone recently, you might've noticed that every other player is wearing the same exact skin-tight black suit. That's the Roze "Near Dark" skin, the most hated face in the game that players can't seem to get enough of. Using the Roze skin doesn't grant any special statistical buff, but her dark attire is essentially the perfect camouflage on a map as dark as Verdansk.

Elder Scrolls Online loot box items will soon be earnable with in-game currency
https://www.pcgamer.com/elder-scrolls-online-loot-box-items-will-soon-be-earnable-with-in-game-currency/
The forthcoming Update 30 for The Elder Scrolls Online, "Tentatively scheduled to launch in June", will add daily and weekly challenges called Endeavors. Completing these tasks will give players rewards like gold, experience, and a new currency called Seals of Endeavor that can be exchanged for items previously only available in crown crates—loot boxes that cost real-world money.

Strategy publisher Slitherine will reveal four new games at Home of Wargamers 2021 Live+ showcase
https://www.pcgamer.com/strategy-publisher-slitherine-will-reveal-four-new-games-at-home-of-wargamers-2021-live-showcase/
In the absence of physical conventions, videogame publishers are continuing to announce online events as a way of revealing and demonstrating future products. The latest is Slitherine, publisher of strategy and tactics games like War in the East 2, Shadow Empire, Panzer Corps 2, and Battlestar Galactica Deadlock.

Barotrauma update beefs up the new player experience and monster count
https://www.pcgamer.com/barotrauma-update-beefs-up-the-new-player-experience-and-monster-count/
(...) The upcoming Embrace the Abyss update will add contextual hints about complex stuff, more information in the—stop me if you know this one—info tab, new interactive previews for navigating the submarine, and difficulty indicators for missions. Bosses have health bars now, too!

Abilities for a steam-themed Apex Legends character have leaked
https://www.pcgamer.com/abilities-for-upcoming-steam-themed-apex-legends-character-leaked/
A dataminer claims to have uncovered the abilities of Pariah, a new legend coming to Apex Legends. (She probably won't be the next legend added to the roster, since details of others characters leaked prior.) According to dataminer Tobias, aka @Biast12, Pariah's tactical ability is a sonar grenade that reveals hidden enemies for 15 seconds—presumably a wallhack effect. Her ultimate, called Sacrificial Romantic, involves setting off a device that releases "a flurry of steam in all directions" but restricts her from moving, and her passive, Aplomb Training, makes her immune to that steam as well as stun effects, and lets her see enemy health bars.

Immortals Fenyx Rising 'The Lost Gods' DLC is basically a different game
https://www.pcgamer.com/immortals-fenyx-rising-the-lost-gods-dlc-is-basically-a-different-game/
Immortals Fenyx Rising gets its final story DLC this week and it sounds like more than just a content dump. Judging by Ubisoft's description, 'The Lost Gods' will share more in common with Diablo or Hades than, say, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with a new "god's eye" top down perspective and a "brawler-inspired" combat system.

Here's 28 seconds of Homeworld 3, two years after the game was announced
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-28-seconds-of-homeworld-3-two-years-after-the-game-was-announced/
It's been almost two years since Gearbox announced Homeworld 3, a follow-up to one of the greatest RTS games of all time. We've seen very little of the game since, but last week the publisher revealed a very short glimpse at the spacefaring sequel.

By the way, the UK government want to make Nvidia sad:

UK Government intervenes in Nvidia's bid to buy Arm for national security reasons
https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-arm-deal-uk-government-intervention/
The UK Government has announced it is intervening in Nvidia's acquisition of Arm on the grounds of national security. The wheels are now in motion for the UK Government's Competition and Market Authority (CMA) to produce a report on Nvidia's Arm deal, which could become a major setback for the US tech giant's acquisition of the UK-based chipmaker.

A notice of public interest intervention has been posted to the UK Government website by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, Oliver Dowden CBE. It announces the UK Government's intention to look deeper into the Nvidia-Arm deal, and whether it will have any negative implications for British national security.