Helldivers, do you ever find the squad standing before a towering foe with impenetrable fortifications and wish you had something to smash through them? The Ministry of Defense has just the Warbond for you. Let’s get to smashing, divers!

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Hello PlayStation Blog community, my name is Kenny Sun and I’m the lead developer of the Ball x Pit, and I’m here to share with you development on the game’s concept, inspiration as well as what players can expect in the first content update that releases today for FREE for all owners of the game!

This journey begins back in November 2021, and while I was on the subway, I saw an ad on my phone for a game called Punball. It looked like a roguelike version of Holedown, a game I enjoyed a lot, so I decided to give it a download. Fifteen minutes later, I looked up and realized that I had missed my stop. I knew that the core of the game had something special, but as I continued to play it I felt that there were a number of elements I wished were different. So, a few weeks later, I decided to make a version of my own. The gameplay for the prototype that would become BALL x PIT wasn’t too different from its original inspiration. But, there were a few key moments in its development that shaped it into a unique fusion of mechanics.

Initially, gameplay in Ball x Pit was turn-based. You would fire a series of balls, they would bounce at incoming enemies, and after all bouncing was complete, enemies would advance and a new row would spawn. I thought the gameplay was fun and wasn’t really considering ways to improve it. But, in February 2022, I downloaded Vampire Survivors, and the idea to try making it into a real-time action game was sparked. I made the change a few weeks later, and immediately the gameplay clicked, I knew I made the right decision.

Another important mechanic in Ball x Pit is the fusion system, where any ball can be combined with any other ball to synergize their abilities. This stemmed from the way I coded the ball mechanics. In code, each ball has 3 categories of ability types: status effects, area-of-effect, and unique effects. So, it was obvious that combining status effects and area-of-effect abilities would be a great way to power up the balls. And naturally, an alternative to this was the evolution system, which combines certain sets of balls into a whole new one. This new stronger ball in turn can be fused with any other ball. For inspiration of different evolutions, I looked at online guides for games in the Doodle God series to see what combinations they had.

The last defining system of Ball x Pit I wa

Capcom recently invited me to go hands-on for a few hours with Resident Evil Requiem. The new sections are set in Rhodes Hill hospital and feature series icon Leon S. Kennedy, playable for the first time since being confirmed last December. My mission going in was to examine what’s new with Leon’s combat options and compare to his past blood-drenched outings like Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Resident Evil 4 (2023). 

Grace Ashcroft vs. Leon S. Kennedy: To understand Leon’s place in Requiem, we must understand his counterpart, Grace Ashcroft. Capcom is very up front that the two playable protagonists offer very different experiences. Grace’s sections focus heavily on evasion, puzzles, and resource management. She can aptly fight back with crude melee implements and firearms, but she’s still new to the whole “battling bio-engineered monsters” thing. By contrast, Leon’s sections focus heavily on the intense combat and improvised crowd management fans loved from RE4. The result feels like a balance between the horror of RE2 and the white-knuckle action of RE4.

“The team gave [Leon aging] a lot of thought. He’s been fighting biohazards since RE2 where he got his sudden start there. Now it’s been close to 30 years of Leon’s life that he’s been doing that. He’s seen a lot of sacrifice, a lot of tragedy. He couldn’t save everyone in RE2 or RE4. He’s seen a lot. He’s been through a lot. So that’s a weight that weighs down on him. So you’ll see that Leon that that weight is something that the development team wanted to express with Leon’s appearance and personality in Requiem. So you’ll notice he does carry that weight, and he’s maybe a little bit more pessimistic.”

– Kōshi Nakanishi, Director

Leon’s signature sass: The Leon S. Kennedy we meet in Requiem is a little older with some extra gravel in his voice, but he’s got his trademark charm. When confronted with an infected, chainsaw-wielding doctor he calmly mutters “I want to get a second opinion.” 

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Hey, everybody! Sid, Kristen, and I are back this week to talk about the new Marathon DualSense and all the new info surrounding the title, a look at how remakes and remasters have brought many respected classics to the forefront, and our current gaming adventures.

Stuff We Talked About

• Next week’s release highlights:
  • Cairn | PS5
  • Code Vein II | PS5
  • I Hate This Place | PS5
  • Highguard | PS5
    
    
• Marathon pre-orders and DualSense — A plethora of Marathon content dropped this week, including the limited edition DualSense controller, Destiny 2 crossover content, a new gameplay trailer, and more details on the extraction shooter ahead of its March 5 release date.
  
  
• Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake Interview — We speak to the game’s Directors, Hidehiko Nakajima, and Makoto Shibata on revitalizing a PS2 classic for the modern audience, coming to PS5 March 12.
  
  
• Fable is coming to PlayStation — The action role-playing franchise is coming to PlayStation with its latest entry that will be a new start for the series.

The Cast

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Last week, we asked you to focus on the characters of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and share detailed portraits using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here’s are this week’s highlights:

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sorathluna shares Lune weaving a lightning attack in an elaborate crowned outfit

techanako shares Gustave crying out to something out of frame

gh_holy_mash shares Sciel in the swing of an attack

__Auron__ shares a black and white close up portrait of Maelle’s expressive face

forgottenjasmine shares Verso with a glowing halo around his head

kerplaaaah shares a black and white moment of Alicia looking downcast

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme, or be inspired by other great games featuring Photo Mode. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?

THEME: Speed
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on January 28, 2026 

Next week, we’re speeding away. Share quick and speedy moments from the game of your choice using  #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured. 

For the first time in the franchise’s history, Fable is coming to PlayStation 5 in Autumn 2026. Today we’re excited to reveal the most detailed look yet at our fresh take on Albion – a world that’s familiar in spirit, but newly reimagined for modern RPG players.

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Salutations, budding crocksmiths, and welcome to the world of Kiln! A game that we like  to refer to as a ‘pottery power-fantasy.’ It celebrates both Creativity and Destruction: the pleasure that comes from both making beautiful things…and then smashing those beautiful things to smithereens!

In Kiln you’ll join a team of colorful spirits, and then you and your friends will face off against opposing teams in online arenas, where the ceramic creations you sculpt on a pottery wheel become the bodies you bring into battle.

But before you can head into the fray to smash up the opposing team’s pots, you’ll have to create your very own ceramic masterpiece. And you’re in luck, because Kiln features a best-in-class pottery wheel simulation experience for you to make all kinds of vessels, each one just as special and unique as you are (and perhaps even more so).

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Remastering Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water and Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse was just the beginning. When Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja began crafting a full remake of the survival horror classic Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, the mission was clear: keep what made the PlayStation 2 original so popular, while elevating it for a modern audience.

Directors Hidehiko Nakajima (action gameplay) and Makoto Shibata (story) took us through their journey of reconstructing Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly’s haunting atmosphere, its new features, and some of the challenges they faced ahead of the game’s March 12 launch on PlayStation 5.

What elements of the original game do you feel made it such a fan favorite?

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Shibata: I think it was because it evolved what was introduced in the first Fatal Frame game while placing greater emphasis on the story. By creating an experience that was frightening yet compelling enough to make players want to see what comes next, I felt that many players were able to enjoy its beautiful yet terrifying world through to the end.

In what ways did the power of the PS2 contribute toward the original Fatal Frame 2 design and visuals?

Shibata: We took advantage of the hardware’s specs and rendering capabilities to help depict spirits as semi-transparent and distorted. In addition, being able to apply screen-wide filters — adjusting noise, contrast, and color tones — at a low processing cost was extremely useful for creating visuals reminiscent of old film stock.

What were the essentials of the original that you needed to retain in this remake?

Shibata: Our main focus was the protagonist’s actions and Camera Obscura combat. Since the world and story are maintained, we focused on how players interact with that world.

From a visual standpoint, atmosphere is key. By carefully adjusting lighting, shadows, fog, and effects, we create a humid, unsettling environment where it feels as though spirits could appear at any moment. Exploring within that atmosphere is central to the series. And of course, the background music, filled with sounds that are barely audible or ambiguous, is also a crucial element.

Hi Pilots, We’re Turtle Juice, a small indie studio based in the interior of Brazil. Being far from the industry hubs has its challenges, but it’s also our advantage; it drives us to innovate, work harder, and prove that great games can come from anywhere. As a tight-knit team of 23 developers we believe we’ve managed to achieve that with our newest game – Mechborn.

Mechborn is a roguelike deckbuilder inspired by classic ’90s mech anime and Greek mythology. Earth and its colonies are under siege by Kaiju, and humanity’s last hope lies with the Mechborn: elite pilots capable of surviving Mech-Synchronization. But there’s more to Mechborn than just the pilots and mech you take into battle. I want to briefly showcase the systems and mechanics that define every run, every decision and every moment of tension you’ll face each run.

Your Mech is your deck

The core idea behind Mechborn is simple: your mech is your deck. Every mech is built from four parts: Head, Torso, Arms, and Legs. With each part adding cards to your starting deck.

This means deckbuilding begins before your first battle. Swapping out a part doesn’t just change stats, it fundamentally changes how your deck plays. On top of that, each mech comes in three distinct models: Original, Spartan, and Olympian – each with its own mechanical identity. Maybe you lean into mobility, heavy offense or focus on equipping a full matching set to gain a powerful HP bonus – the decision is up to you.

A new way to play cards: the conveyor belt

One of the biggest departures from traditional deckbuilders is our Conveyor Belt combat system.

What happened to humanity’s lost interstellar expedition, and why are the UESC trying to keep Runners out? You can start unraveling the mysteries of Tau Ceti IV when Marathon releases on March 6.

Marathon is the upcoming PvPvE survival extraction FPS from the creators of Halo and Destiny. Play as a bio-cybernetic Runner and team up in crews of three or run solo as you take on hostile security forces, rival Runners, and unpredictable environments. Scavenge derelict facilities and rugged landscapes for valuables, weapons, and information about what happened to the lost colony lightyears from Earth.*

Explore the secrets of Tau Ceti in the new gameplay trailer

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