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Revealing Rise of the Ronin, a new action-RPG from Team Ninja

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Here at Team Ninja, we are incredibly excited to introduce our very latest action RPG game which takes you on an epic and unfettered journey as a Ronin at the dawn of a new era in Japan. It was seven years ago when we first began this project. And since then, the development has progressed slowly and freely, much like the spirit of a Ronin. It is with great pleasure to finally bring this title to light, and we are filled with gratitude on being able to make this announcement with PlayStation who have supported us and this project throughout these many years.

Revealing Rise of the Ronin, a new action-RPG from Team Ninja

Rise of the Ronin is a combat focused open-world action RPG that takes place in Japan at a time of great change. It is the very end of a 300-year long Edo Period, commonly known as “Bakumatsu”. Set in the late 19th century, Japan is facing the darkest of times as it struggles with its oppressive rulers and deadly diseases while western influence permeates as civil war continues to rage between the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Anti-Shogunate factions.

Here in this time of mayhem, you embody a Ronin character, a warrior bound to no master and free to make choices of its own. Rise of the Ronin is a new Team Ninja experience that will immerse you in an historically inspired world while bringing together its renowned combat action with Katanas and the likes, with new firearm weaponry that depicts the unique personality of its time period.

We at Koei Tecmo, have had many titles in the past that were based on history. But with Rise of the Ronin, we set out to take the next big step. By harnessing all the skills and knowledge we’ve gained over the years we really wanted to take things to the next level by attempting to thoroughly portray the most critical revolution in the history of Japan including the darkest and ugliest chapters that many will shy away from. This is undoubtedly the most ambitious and challenging project for Team Ninja Studio to date. Yet we will allow our experience in creating samurai and ninja action games to guide us through this journey.

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New story trailer revealed for Stellar Blade, formerly known as Project Eve

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New story trailer revealed for Stellar Blade, formerly known as Project Eve

This is our second encounter since the PlayStation Showcase back in September 2021. I am beyond ecstatic to reveal the official name for our game, previously called Project Eve, and share new trailer unveiling new characters and their roles in this story.

And I present to you the official title that encompasses Eve’s stylish action and her long and winding adventure…

The meaning of Stellar Blade

The title is a combination of “Stellar,” which signifies stars in Latin, and “Blade,” which defines Eve’s existence.

Where the point of that blade will lead you to, that’s entirely up to you. 

Mankind’s last remaining city on Earth, Xion

Eve and her comrades land on the surface to reclaim the extinct Earth and cross paths with a survivor named Adam. Eve is then led by Adam to the last surviving city, Xion, where she meets the elder of the town Orcal and is told many stories. In order to serve her mission to save Earth, Eve develops close relationships with the key members of Xion and contributes to rebuilding the city.

On a mission to save Earth from the NA:tive, Eve is also faced with helping out the citizens of Xion. Whether you will help the survivors or not, depends purely on your decision as the player.

Action-packed battles against fierce bosses

Stellar Blade introduces action combat that require deflecting and evading the NA:tives’ attack at a precise timing that will also connect to combos and unique skills. Throughout the game, you will arm yourself with unique Beta Skills and intense Burst Skills, which I promise will be pleasing to the eye.

Brace yourselves… Bosses’ strengths are on a completely different level compared to the common NA:tives, offering a challenging and strategic combat encounter. 

First look: Digital collectibles coming to PlayStation Stars

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Hi everyone! As you have just seen on State of Play we’re pleased to share an update on our brand-new loyalty program, PlayStation Stars.

First look: Digital collectibles coming to PlayStation Stars

Today, we provided a first look at the digital collectible rewards that you can earn through PlayStation Stars – which will be free to join. Digital collectibles represent the things that PlayStation fans enjoy, including cherished devices that tap into Sony’s broader heritage in consumer electronics. 

These first look examples include a scene with Punto the gondolier from Ape Escape 2, PlayStation 3, PocketStation, Toro and Kuro celebrating a birthday, Chord Machine, and Polygon Man.

Created just for PlayStation Stars, these digital collectibles can only be earned through our loyalty program. In some instances, collectibles will be provided as a way to commemorate past activities, achievements, or product ownership. They range in rarity, just like the actual products on which they are based or the effort required to earn them.  Once you’ve earned collectibles, you can arrange them in a virtual display case within the PlayStation App and, if you choose, you may display your collectibles case within your PSN profile to friends. There will be different ways to acquire or earn collectibles – the primary way will be through completing campaigns. 

The campaigns in PlayStation Stars will be fun, delightful, and yes, sometimes challenging to complete.  A campaign may be a point-earning or collectible-earning activity.  One of our first campaigns is “Hit Play/1994,” where members who correctly launch games that match song-based clues receive a special collectible. More campaign details to come.

PlayStation Stars will first launch on the PlayStation App and expand to our console platform in the future. We will launch PlayStation Stars in most markets starting later this month with Asia (including Japan), and the Americas and Europe to follow at a later date.

We look forward to welcoming fans to PlayStation Stars.


State of Play: All Announcments


A dark secret awaits in Hogwarts Legacy’s Haunted Hogsmeade PlayStation exclusive quest

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The past few weeks have been exciting for all of us here at Avalanche Software. We have announced Hogwarts Legacy will launch on February 10, 2023. We officially opened pre-orders and revealed the different editions you can get. And we set the mood with a trailer that shows you a glimpse at just how dark Hogwarts Legacy can get when you explore what lurks in the shadows.

We also attended the Wizarding World’s Back to Hogwarts celebration to announce the much-requested ability to bring your house and wand into the game by linking your Harry Potter Fan Club and Warner Bros. Games accounts, which will also unlock some exclusive fan cosmetics. I’m eager to be seamlessly sorted right into Slytherin in the game without question, along with getting my wand—a 14” pliant beech wood with unicorn hair core, if you were wondering.

Before we get into new announcements, I want to talk a little bit about Sebastian Sallow’s Dark Legacy.

Sebastian Sallow’s Dark Legacy

Sebastian quickly became a beloved character since he was first revealed as a classmate in the Hogwarts Legacy State of Play last March. We’ve been thrilled with the reaction to this charismatic Slytherin. If you’re a fan of Sebastian, you’re not alone. Nearly everyone at Avalanche loves Sebastian, too. Creating the Sebastian Sallow’s Dark Legacy trailer gave us the opportunity to show a darker side of Hogwarts Legacy while giving you another glimpse into Seb’s — as we at the studio have come to call him — story.  

A dark secret awaits in Hogwarts Legacy’s Haunted Hogsmeade PlayStation exclusive quest

After we showed Avada Kedavra in March, many of you wondered if the other Unforgiveable Curses would be in the game. This trailer highlights the Cruciatus Curse in an ominous decision that you’ll need to make as a player. Will you be the one to cast Crucio (the Torture Curse) on your friend, or will you have Sebastian cast it on you? What circumstances lead you to this moment? Undertaking Seb’s companion questline will put you in these harrowing situations where no choice is an easy one. 

Moreover, Sebastian’s companion questline, like those of Natsai and Poppy,

State of Play returns tomorrow, September 13

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With Tokyo Game Show just around the corner, it’s almost time to celebrate the amazing creative contributions of the Japanese game development community. And it’s also a perfect time to kick off another State of Play.

State of Play returns tomorrow, Tuesday, September 13, with a new live broadcast at 3:00pm Pacific Time / 6:00pm Eastern Time / 11:00pm BST. You can watch it live on Twitch and YouTube.

For tomorrow’s show, we’ll have some great updates from our amazing Japanese partners, along with a few other surprises from developers all around the world.  

Expect about ~20 minutes of reveals, new updates and fresh gameplay footage for 10 games coming to PS5, PS4, and PS VR2.

See you tomorrow!

Regarding Co-streaming and Video-On-Demand (VOD)

Please note that this broadcast may include copyrighted content (e.g. licensed music) that PlayStation does not control. We welcome and celebrate our amazing co-streamers and creators, but licensing agreements outside our control could interfere with co-streams or VOD archives of this broadcast. If you’re planning to save this broadcast as a VOD to create recap videos, or to repost clips or segments from the show, we advise omitting any copyrighted music.

A brand new island is coming to Toem

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Helloooooooo! Something We Made here coming at you with a brand new PS.Blog post! We’re so excited to have Toem on PS5 as part of PlayStation Plus Essential this month and see so many new players experience the game for the first time.

A brand new island is coming to Toem

We wanted to use this opportunity to introduce you to the free content update we’ve been working on for some time that is coming very soon for Toem: a brand new region called Basto!

How do you access the new content you ask? You’ll automatically unlock it once you complete the base game, then all you have to do is visit Nana back home in Homelanda!

So what is Basto? It is Toem’s biggest region yet! Filled with brand new content like treasure hunting, minigames and spooky stories!

We have been hard at work on this one, gathering up ideas that we didn’t have time to finish for the base game as well as new ideas for the region! New quests, NPCs, and Compendium critters to find! All in all, around 1-2h of playtime!

Basto also brings a new camera attachment to the game! 🎈

With this new water popper, you can interact with the world of Toem in a whole new way, splash your way into stamps and new adventures! It’s also kinda funny looking!

We really wanted to add more interactions to the world to make it feel even more alive! The big bushes, the many objects that react to the water popper, the day & night change that changes where you can go, it all works together to give Basto more life.

Launchable Socks & Jamal Green have also whipped up some brand new tracks to the game, 6 of them in total! We couldn’t be happier that they wanted to help us set the atmosphere on Basto with their music!

This update will be a gift to all our players, as thanks for playing. We sincerely hope you enjoy all its changes! We don’t quite know exactly when it will drop, but keep Toem installed on your PS5 and you’ll be reminded when it does.

💖 Hugs and kisses,
💋 Toem Development Team

How Forspoken fuses fast-paced spellcasting and magic-imbued parkour for its combat thrills

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We’ve met the cast, seen action-packed trailers and been tantalized with a closer look at the game’s central villains. Today we can detail how the moment-to-moment gameplay of Frey’s journey unfolds by way of a recent hands-on with Forspoken. 

That time is spent in a sprawling valley that’s ripe to play – and explore – with mystical parkour and test multiple magic spells unlocked for this demo. There are five objectives dotted around the map, coaxing players towards mission-based tours of Frey’s skills and the challenges she’ll face. Yet the region’s topography is an open invitation to deviate: mountain pathways, floating rock chunks, gigantic bridges, lakes and ravaged villages. A brief tutorial at the valley’s entrance aside, free exploration awaits.  

A spellcaster with speed 

That tutorial introduces Frey’s magically-imbued mobility, combat options and crucially how the two are interlinked. A few slow-moving humanoids to test these abilities allow for relaxed experimentation. By demo’s end, a tense battle against a ferocious and fast alligator-type being tests everything learnt up to that point. Juggling attack and support magics and knowing when – and how – to cast them, precise use of parkour to accent those spells and dodge out of harm’s way. 

Enemy design even in this short slice of gameplay is varied, though you’ll need to either Cuff Scan or activate Photo Mode to halt their aggressiveness long enough to admire their look. 

Between these clashes that bookend my play time, a slew of enemy types dot the land, ready to be fought or raced past: wandering crowds of corrupted souls and herds of aggressive stags, gold horned crocodiles, winged aggressors. One objective directs Frey to a bridge patrolled by bow-wielding fiends who, once downed, give way to a larger mini-boss opponent. These are servants to the Tantas, Athia’s malevolent rulers, who Frey will eventually face one by one. Whatever shape those confrontations take, conquering each will see that Tanta’s power added to your arsenal. At the demo’s start, I can tap into two sets: Frey’s earth-based magic as well as Tanta Sila’s fire spells. 

The demo culminates in a boss fight against an Altered Quinka

Share of the Week: The Last of Us Part I

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Last week, we asked you venture into The Last of Us Part I and explore the rebuilt game’s photo mode using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

Ayghan shares Joel and Tess wearing gas masks in a spore-ridden building.

gamingbyframe shares a full body portrait of a Bloater against a black backdrop.

josetheduuudee shares a head-on portrait of Ellie in the sunlight.

RevolutionAndre shares Joel and Ellie walking amongst abandoned cars covered in overgrown weeds as they approach the walls of a collapsed Pittsburgh.

lostenoki shares Tess and Joel leading Ellie through the raining outskirts of Boston.

kyle68677215 shares the light streaming into a beautiful church in Bill’s town.

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? 

THEME: The Last of Us Part I – Portraits
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on September 16, 2022

Next week, we’re sticking close to Joel and Ellie with photo mode portraits. Take advance of that rebuilt lighting system and share poignant portraits from The Last of Us Part I using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Elden Ring composer Tsukasa Saito on creating the game’s score and his favorite track  

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I’m happy to announce that today the Elden Ring soundtrack is available on streaming services worldwide. This 67 track album includes all the music we composed for the game, which saw full-scale production begin when first composing the score to be used in the E3 (2019) debut trailer.

Elden Ring composer Tsukasa Saito on creating the game’s score and his favorite track  

During production, we were highly conscious of key words and phrases such as “an epic tale,” “composure and resilience,” and “eloquence,” as we wanted the music to reflect the fact that this was something different from the Dark Souls series or Bloodborne.

For much of production, the process starts with a brief provided by the director. The brief describes the mood and imagery desired for the piece, including information about a character’s background, or the location/situation envisioned for battle music. We refer to this text, concept designs and in-game screenshots, allowing us to expand on the original vision and build out the track. Once the track is finished, it’s submitted to the director for feedback. Through multiple retakes we can then take our ideas further, refining the composition and adjusting until its complete. We also recorded with a full orchestra and singers for Elden Ring’s score. The orchestrator and performers did an absolutely wonderful job.

One track, “Song of Honor,” plays at Redmane Castle before the Radahn Festival. We originally intended to record this track with only the choir members. However, we realized that a gathering place for many mercenaries and soldiers wouldn’t necessarily be filled with skillful singers. We wanted to try a direction that wasn’t specialized in vocal music, so as a hasty request, we asked the members of the brass section if they could perform the part for us. They gladly went along with the idea, and I’m enormously grateful they did, as we ended up getting a fantastic recording from them that was very fitting for a warriors’ song.