gaming

the-ps5-pro-brings-the-game-console’s-disc-drive-era-to-an-end

The PS5 Pro brings the game console’s disc drive era to an end

gaming, PlayStation 5, playstation 5 pro / /

Expensive, shiny coasters —

Sony relegates physical game discs to a peripheral afterthought.

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Notice anything missing from the one and only model of the PS5 Pro?

Enlarge / Notice anything missing from the one and only model of the PS5 Pro?

Sony

Here at Ars, we’ve been publicly musing about whether the world was ready for a disc-free game console since as far back as 2015. Now, though, the better question might be whether the world ever needs a new game console with a built-in disc drive at all.

Yesterday’s announcement of the PlayStation 5 Pro seemed to treat the existence of disc-based games as an afterthought. You had to be watching pretty closely during Mark Cerny’s “technical presentation” video to notice that the coming PS5 Pro is only available in a single disc-drive-free model. And you’d have to read pretty deep into the official PlayStation blog post on the subject to discover that “PS5 Pro is available as a disc-less console, with the option to purchase the currently available Disc Drive for PS5 separately.”

That $80 disc drive accessory was introduced as an optional upgrade to the Digital Edition of the PS5 Slim last year, alongside a Slim model that does have a pre-installed disc drive. But now, just one year later, Sony has decided that it only needs a single “disc-less” model of the PS5 Pro as the default.

Want to let your Digital Edition PS5 Slim (or PS5 Pro) play physical games? An $80 snap-on disc drive can help with that.

Want to let your Digital Edition PS5 Slim (or PS5 Pro) play physical games? An $80 snap-on disc drive can help with that.

On Microsoft’s side, things seem to be trending away from console disc drives as well. The new Xbox models the company is releasing this holiday season include the first “all-digital” edition of its top-end Xbox Series X, available for about $50 less than the standard edition. Microsoft is also introducing a new “Galaxy Black” Xbox Series X model with a disc drive this holiday season, but it will only be available “in limited quantities,” Microsoft said.

Things have come a long way since 2013, when Microsoft privately mulled a disc-free version of the Xbox One before scrapping the plans because of what Phil Spencer called “bandwidth and game size” concerns (the “All-Digital” Xbox One S would eventually limp out in 2019). Things have even changed considerably since 2020, when Gamestop’s initial allotment of PS5 units was tilted 3-to-1 toward standard, disc-drive-equipped model, according to Ars’ analysis.

A shrinking minority

It’s hard to read too much of the disc-free console hardware trend for the moment. The original editions of the PS5 and Xbox Series X still exist with disc drives, of course. And on Sony’s side, that optional disc drive attachment exists as an important release valve for any PS5 Pro customers who want to pay more to enjoy games on discs.

But Sony’s statistics suggest there’s no need to treat physical game discs as the default anymore. Digital downloads represented 70 percent of PlayStation’s full game sales for the 2023 fiscal year (ending March 2024) and nearly 80 percent of such sales for the April to June quarter of 2024. That’s up from downloads representing 53 percent of PlayStation game sales in the 2019 fiscal year and way up from 19 percent in the 2015 fiscal year.

The number of physical console game releases continues to decline even as the number of digital game explodes.

The number of physical console game releases continues to decline even as the number of digital game explodes.

The numbers are similar across the industry. For years now, most distinct console games have not been released as a physical product, a trend that now includes major games like Alan Wake 2. Third-party publishers like Capcom report that 90 percent of their sales now come from purely digital games. In the UK, downloads represented 82 percent of sales for the most popular new console releases in June 2023.

Given trends and numbers like that, why would Sony or Microsoft think a pre-installed disc drive should even be a relevant option for any gaming console going forward? Why would a console maker assume a critical mass of consumers want to spend an extra $50 or more for a disc drive they may never use?

Why not consolidate down to a single, disc-free model as the default and relegate physical games to “needs a weird peripheral” status? The PS5 Pro’s disc-free release suggests Sony is now ready to treat disc-based gamers like virtual reality fans—a small slice of the market that needs to invest in non-standard hardware to play in their non-standard way.

Long overdue

This doesn’t mean physical games are going away soon. There’s still a sizable minority of gamers who want to own their games on physical media for valid reasons, including collectability, accessibility, and long-term preservation. Major publishers and specialist outfits like Limited Run Games will continue to cater to this market segment for the foreseeable future.

This image, like game rentals as a whole, is now a relic of a bygone era.

This image, like game rentals as a whole, is now a relic of a bygone era.

When it comes to gaming hardware, though, the final push away from built-in console disc drives as the standard is overdue. On the PC, Steam made buying a disc drive for your gaming rig feel like an anachronism years ago. In music, the iPod and then streaming services have led stores like Best Buy to stop selling physical CDs altogether (though vinyl sales are a small but growing niche). In film, sales and rentals of movies on disc now represent just 3.6 percent of home movie spending, dwarfed by both digital sales and rentals (a combined 10 percent) and subscription streaming (86.3 percent).

Console gaming now seems poised to be the next media format where physical media no longer drives the hardware market. Soon, the idea of a game console with a disc drive may seem as outdated as a laptop with a disc drive or an iPhone with a headphone jack.

The PS5 Pro brings the game console’s disc drive era to an end Read More »

sony-announces-ps5-pro,-a-$700-graphical-upgrade-available-nov.-7

Sony announces PS5 Pro, a $700 graphical upgrade available Nov. 7

gaming / /

More power —

New unit won’t include a disc drive, but will improve frame rate in high-fidelity games.

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The cool racing stripe means it's faster.

Enlarge / The cool racing stripe means it’s faster.

Sony today announced the PlayStation 5 Pro, a mid-generation hardware upgrade that will play the same game library as 2020’s PlayStation 5, but with higher frame rates and better resolution than on the original system. The new units will be available on November 7 for $700, Sony said.

The updated hardware will come complete with 2TB of solid-state storage (up from 1TB on the original PS5), but without an Ultra HD Blu-Ray disc drive, which users can purchase as an add-on accessory for $80.

In a video presentation Tuesday, Sony’s Mark Cerny said PS5 developers “desire more graphics performance” in order to deliver the visuals they want at a frame rate of 60 fps. The lack of enough graphical power on the PS5 leads to a difficult decision for players between the higher resolution of “fidelity” mode and the smoother frame rates of “performance” mode (with three-quarters of players choosing the latter, according to Cerny).

The goal of the PS5 Pro, Cerny says, is delivering “the graphics that the game creators aspire to, at the high frame rates players typically prefer.” To do this, the new system will sport a larger GPU that can support “up to 45 percent faster rendering,” Cerny said, with 67 percent more compute units and 28 percent faster video RAM than the PS5. This will allow for “almost fidelity-like graphics at ‘performance’ frame rates” of 60 frames per second in many existing PS5 games, Cerny said.

  • The two sides of this comparison are supposed to look comparable in fidelity, but the PS5 Pro is running at 60 fps, as opposed to 30 fps on the PS5.

  • Spider-Man 2 is one of the games that will benefit from smoother frame rates at high-fidelity on PS5 Pro.

  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was shown running much more smoothly on the PS5 Pro.

  • Compared to the high-frame-rate “performance” mode on PS5, many games show increased fidelity on the PS5 Pro.

  • AI upscaling helps Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart crowd scenes look sharped on PS5 Pro.

  • Incidental details like spider-Man 2‘s street traffic look sharper on the PS5 Pro than “performance” mode on the PS5.

  • The PS5 Pro allows for ray-traced car reflections in Gran Turismo 7 while maintaining a 60 fps frame rate.

  • The PS5 Pro allows for “further realism in the casting of shadows” in Hogwarts Legacy, Cerny said.

  • Horizon: Forbidden West get “improvements to lighting and visual effects” on the PS5 Pro, Cerny said.

  • Horizon: Forbidden West cinematics will show “[improvements to] the hair and skin” in cinematics on the PS5 Pro, Cerny said.

The PS5 Pro will also bring what Cerny says is a “streamlined and accelerated approach” to ray-tracing, with individual rays calculated at “double or even triple the speeds of PlayStation 5.” In examples shown on video, Cerny highlighted how reflections between cars are now available at 60 fps for Gran Turismo 7 on the PS5 Pro, and how games like Hogwarts Legacy could have more realistic shadow effects.

An “AI library” called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) will be available on the PS5 Pro to automatically upscale in-game scenes as well. Cerny highlighted how this can make distant crowds in a game like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart to look much clearer.

Titles that can take advantage of the PS5 Pro’s more powerful GPU will be marketed as “PS5 Pro Enhanced.” Titles that will sport that designation include:

  • Alan Wake 2
  • Assassin’s Creed: Shadows
  • Demon’s Souls
  • Dragon’s Dogma 2
  • Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
  • Gran Turismo 7
  • Hogwarts Legacy
  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
  • The Crew Motorfest
  • The First Descendant
  • The Last of Us Part II Remastered

Other titles will be able to take advantage of “PS5 Pro Game Boost,” which Sony says “may stabilize or improve the performance of supported PS4 and PS5 games.”

PS5.5

The upgrade follows the history of the PS4 Pro, which launched almost exactly three years after the PS4 and offered the capacity for higher resolutions, faster frame rates, or both in many PS4 library games. The PS5 Pro comes further into the lifecycle for Sony’s latest console, though, and at a point where Sony has yet to lower the $500 launch price for the console and increased the price of the disc-drive-free Digital Edition last year (though inflation has taken some of the sting out of that nominal pricing).

The PS5 Pro comes after last year’s launch of a redesigned PS5 “Slim” model, which reduced the original PS5’s famously massive bulk while keeping the internal processing power the same while

Microsoft has yet to show any sign of plans for a similar update for the Xbox Series X/S, which also launched in late 2020. Earlier this year, though, Microsoft announced the first disc-drive-free edition of the Xbox Series X for this holiday season.

Nintendo, which launched a Switch with an improved OLED screen in 2021, is widely expected to launch a backward- compatible follow-up to the Switch in 2025.

This story has been updated with additional details and visuals from Sony’s announcement.

Sony announces PS5 Pro, a $700 graphical upgrade available Nov. 7 Read More »

satisfactory-is-officially-released,-officially-a-scary-wonderful-time-sink

Satisfactory is officially released, officially a scary wonderful time sink

coffee stain studios, factorio, gaming, satisfactory / /

What is a “game”? —

Even people with 1,000 hours in the game are still learning about it.

– Updated

Where are the gentle creatures and native plants you first saw when you landed? More importantly, could this conveyer belt run on a shorter path?

Enlarge / Where are the gentle creatures and native plants you first saw when you landed? More importantly, could this conveyer belt run on a shorter path?

Coffee Stain Studios

The company that compels you to industrialize an untouched alien planet in Satisfactory, FICSIT, is similar to Portal‘s Aperture Science or Fallout‘s Vault-Tec. You are a disposable employee, fed misinformation and pushed to ignore awful or incongruous things, all for the greater good of science, profit, or an efficient mixture of the two.

And yet even FICSIT was a bit concerned about how deep into the 1.0 release of Satisfactory (Steam, Epic Games, on sale until September 23) I had fallen. I got a warning that I had been playing for two hours straight. While FICSIT approved of hard work, it was important to have some work-life balance, it suggested.

Friends of mine had told me that they had to stop playing Factorio when it began to feel like an unpaid part-time job. Given a chance to check out Satisfactory, I presumed, like I always do, That Could Never Be Me. Folks, it was definitely me. I’m having a hard time writing this post, not because it’s hard to describe or recommend Satisfactory. I just stayed up very late “reviewing” it, woke up thinking about it, and am wondering whether enough friends would want to join me that I should set up a private server.

  • Up to four players can explore, gather, and argue about optimal workflows together.

  • The exhaust from your efforts surely won’t affect things long-term. Keep building.

  • The control panel for a nuclear power unit. Enough said.

Travel the galaxy, meet interesting creatures, ignore them, and automate

You are a Pioneer, working for FICSIT (motto: “We do anything to find short-term solutions to long-term problems”). You are dropped onto an alien planet, with a first-person view, and your first job is to disassemble your landing craft so you can use its parts for a HUB (Habitat and Utility Base). Your second job is to upgrade your HUB so you can build tools and workshops. Your third job is to upgrade it again, unlocking even more tools and workshops. You’ll need resources to keep building, like mined ore, fuel for a generator, and, sadly, animal parts for research.

How should you feel about the lush landscape you are slowly stripping away and populating with smoke-belching machines? Is there a greater plan for all this stuff you’re making? What is a “Space Elevator” and where does it take things? How bad should you feel about putting down animals that charge you as you invade their space?

You might think about these things, but there’s a stronger pull on your brain. Can you better optimize the flow of ore from a mining machine into the smelter, onto the tool machine (Constructor), and then into a storage bin? What about your power—do you really have to manually feed your system leaves and wood and turn it off between productions? Are we really balancing the wattage input and clock speed of our machines in our spare time, for fun?

5.5 million copies, a thousand hours, no end in sight

Yes, we are. I have only glimpsed into my future in Satisfactory, and it’s already full of excuses for why I didn’t get other things done. People with 540 hours into the game are advising me on how to site my permanent factory while I kludge it out with a “starter factory,” a wonderfully evocative phrase about human nature. Searching for people with 1,000 hours of experience yields a remarkable number of people who are still asking questions and figuring things out.

One of the things being added to the 1.0 release is a “Quantum Encoder.” I have no idea what this is or what it does, but I have a sense of where this is all headed.

Coffee Stain Studios’ 1.0 release trailer for Satisfactory.

Satisfactory launched exclusively on the Epic Games Store and was one of the very few games that earned enough to actually make Epic some money. Its developer, Coffee Stain Studios (maker of Goat Simulator, publisher of Deep Rock Galactic), cites 5.5 million copies sold since it hit early access in March 2019. With its 1.0 release, the developer has promised “Premium plumbing,” such that the toilet in your living quarters “has been updated with an advanced flushing mechanism, providing an extra luxurious worker experience for fans.”

Perhaps my one saving grace is that Satisfactory is “Playable,” not Verified, on Steam Deck. There are some text and input quirks and video efficiencies to contend with, though I fear the active community offers solutions for all of them. It’s up to me, and all of us, to find some work/life/game-work/sleep balance. Time to do your part.

This post was updated at 12: 45 p.m. to modify a reference to the Space Elevator.

Listing image by Coffee Stain Studios

Satisfactory is officially released, officially a scary wonderful time sink Read More »

roblox-announces-ai-tool-for-generating-3d-game-worlds-from-text

Roblox announces AI tool for generating 3D game worlds from text

3D foundational model, 3D synthesis, AI, Biz & IT, game synthesis, gaming, generative ai, machine learning, multiplayer games, online games, Open Source, roblox, world generator, world synthesis / /

ease of use —

New AI feature aims to streamline game creation on popular online platform.

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Someone holding up a smartphone with

On Friday, Roblox announced plans to introduce an open source generative AI tool that will allow game creators to build 3D environments and objects using text prompts, reports MIT Tech Review. The feature, which is still under development, may streamline the process of creating game worlds on the popular online platform, potentially opening up more aspects of game creation to those without extensive 3D design skills.

Roblox has not announced a specific launch date for the new AI tool, which is based on what it calls a “3D foundational model.” The company shared a demo video of the tool where a user types, “create a race track,” then “make the scenery a desert,” and the AI model creates a corresponding model in the proper environment.

The system will also reportedly let users make modifications, such as changing the time of day or swapping out entire landscapes, and Roblox says the multimodal AI model will ultimately accept video and 3D prompts, not just text.

A video showing Roblox’s generative AI model in action.

The 3D environment generator is part of Roblox’s broader AI integration strategy. The company reportedly uses around 250 AI models across its platform, including one that monitors voice chat in real time to enforce content moderation, which is not always popular with players.

Next-token prediction in 3D

Roblox’s 3D foundational model approach involves a custom next-token prediction model—a foundation not unlike the large language models (LLMs) that power ChatGPT. Tokens are fragments of text data that LLMs use to process information. Roblox’s system “tokenizes” 3D blocks by treating each block as a numerical unit, which allows the AI model to predict the most likely next structural 3D element in a sequence. In aggregate, the technique can build entire objects or scenery.

Anupam Singh, vice president of AI and growth engineering at Roblox, told MIT Tech Review about the challenges in developing the technology. “Finding high-quality 3D information is difficult,” Singh said. “Even if you get all the data sets that you would think of, being able to predict the next cube requires it to have literally three dimensions, X, Y, and Z.”

According to Singh, lack of 3D training data can create glitches in the results, like a dog with too many legs. To get around this, Roblox is using a second AI model as a kind of visual moderator to catch the mistakes and reject them until the proper 3D element appears. Through iteration and trial and error, the first AI model can create the proper 3D structure.

Notably, Roblox plans to open-source its 3D foundation model, allowing developers and even competitors to use and modify it. But it’s not just about giving back—open source can be a two-way street. Choosing an open source approach could also allow the company to utilize knowledge from AI developers if they contribute to the project and improve it over time.

The ongoing quest to capture gaming revenue

News of the new 3D foundational model arrived at the 10th annual Roblox Developers Conference in San Jose, California, where the company also announced an ambitious goal to capture 10 percent of global gaming content revenue through the Roblox ecosystem, and the introduction of “Party,” a new feature designed to facilitate easier group play among friends.

In March 2023, we detailed Roblox’s early foray into AI-powered game development tools, as revealed at the Game Developers Conference. The tools included a Code Assist beta for generating simple Lua functions from text descriptions, and a Material Generator for creating 2D surfaces with associated texture maps.

At the time, Roblox Studio head Stef Corazza described these as initial steps toward “democratizing” game creation with plans for AI systems that are now coming to fruition. The 2023 tools focused on discrete tasks like code snippets and 2D textures, laying the groundwork for the more comprehensive 3D foundational model announced at this year’s Roblox Developer’s Conference.

The upcoming AI tool could potentially streamline content creation on the platform, possibly accelerating Roblox’s path toward its revenue goal. “We see a powerful future where Roblox experiences will have extensive generative AI capabilities to power real-time creation integrated with gameplay,” Roblox said  in a statement. “We’ll provide these capabilities in a resource-efficient way, so we can make them available to everyone on the platform.”

Roblox announces AI tool for generating 3D game worlds from text Read More »

no-one-wanted-these-ps5-concord-discs-until-sony-stopped-making-them

No one wanted these PS5 Concord discs until Sony stopped making them

concord game, eBay, gaming / /

Oh, so now you want to buy it —

eBay prices have risen quickly less than a week since online game’s shutdown.

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  • If you paid $40 for the physical edition of Concord, you can make a lot more than that back on eBay.

    Kyle Orland

  • The “Limited Edition” Concord-themed DualSense controller has seen some rapid resale price inflation as well.

    Kyle Orland

As recently as a week ago, a new disc copy of Sony’s team-based shooter Concord on the PlayStation 5 would set you back about $40 at most retailers. Now that Sony has shut off the game’s servers after just two weeks, you might think those now-useless discs would be practically worthless.

Instead, the physical version of Concord on PS5 has become a surprise collector’s item. An Ars analysis of nearly 300 eBay listings completed between September 3–8 shows new copies of the now-defunct game selling for a median price of $100 since the game’s shutdown. That going rate peaked at a median of $118 on September 5, up from $89.50 on September 3, before settling at $110 for eBay sales made on September 8.

Supply and demand

As usual with gaming collectibles, the price increase has less to do with playability and more to do with rarity. GameDiscoverCo analyst Simon Carless told IGN last month that he estimated an underwhelming 25,000 total sales for Concord across PS5 and PC. Even if we assume 80 percent of those sales were on the PS5, most of those console sales probably came as purely digital downloads, given long-running industry trends and the game’s focus on online play.

That means the total number of PS5 Concord discs in the wild could number in the single-digit thousands, easily making it one of the rarest physical first-party games Sony has ever released. And with Sony officially halting Concord sales as of September 3, that number isn’t going to go up anytime soon.

Sony encouraged players who purchased a physical copy of Concord to “please refer to the refund process of the retailer you purchased it from to obtain your refund.” Players who followed that advice missed out on the opportunity to make a pretty quick return on their investment through eBay reselling, though. A couple of lucky eBay sellers even pulled in nearly $500 for sealed copies of the game sold on September 5.

Concord discs ready to flip.” height=”400″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/concorddiscs-300×400.png” width=”300″>

Enlarge / One eBay seller seemed to have a lot of Concord discs ready to flip.

eBay

Even without those kinds of outliers, though, most eBay sellers have been able to get between $87 (20th percentile) and $120 (80th percentile) for new disc copies of the game since it was discontinued. That’s an easy 100 to 200 percent return on a $40 investment in well under a month. And the photos on some of those eBay listings suggest a few sellers were looking to cash in by reselling dozens of copies in individual lots.

The collector’s mania for Concord has seemingly extended to a limited edition-themed controller that Sony was selling for $85 as well. Completed eBay listings for that controller went for a median price of $252.50 on September 8, up from just $132 on September 3. Unlike the game they’re based on, though, those controllers have the benefit of still working with PS5 hardware well into the future.

The <em>Concord</em>-themed DualSense controller at least still works now that the game has been discontinued.” height=”580″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/concordcontroller.png” width=”580″></img><figcaption> <p>The <em>Concord</em>-themed DualSense controller at least still works now that the game has been discontinued.</p> <p>Sony</p> </figcaption></figure> <p>At the moment, it’s hard to tell how long these pricing trends will last. If there’s a wider market of PlayStation collectors looking for a rare piece of Sony history, <em>Concord</em> could become the modern equivalent of <a href=the NES’ Stadium Events—a rare but forgettable game that collectors still value. But if speculators are driving the current mania—hoping to quickly resell it for more to the next person in line—the pricing bubble could burst just as quickly as it inflated.

All that speculation could also come crashing down if Sony decides to relaunch Concord sales in the future. In the game’s shutdown announcement, Sony said it was “explor[ing] options, including those that will better reach our players.” Already, there is a tongue-in-cheek petition effort to convince Sony to do just that, with nearly 2,000 signatories to its name. “We were all busy that week,” the petition’s title reads. “Please release Concord again.”

Listing image by eBay

No one wanted these PS5 Concord discs until Sony stopped making them Read More »

balatro-arrives-on-phones-sept.-26,-so-plan-your-“sick”-days-accordingly

Balatro arrives on phones Sept. 26, so plan your “sick” days accordingly

android, balatro, gaming, iOS, localthunk, mobile games, roguelike deckbuilders / /

The joker is on you —

It has already sold 2 million copies. Now the fun gets even more multiplied.

–

A

LocalThunk, the pseudonymous lead developer of the surprise smash hit deckbuilding/roguelike/poker-math-simulation game Balatro, has long given the impression that he understands that his game, having sold 2 million copies, might be a little too good.

To that end, LocalThunk has made the game specifically not about actual gambling, or microtransactions, or anything of the kind. Shortly after it arrived in February 2024 (but after it already got its hooks into one of us), some storefronts removed or re-rated the game on concerns about its cards and chips themes, causing him to explain his line between random number generation (RNG), risk/reward mechanics, and actual gambling. He literally wrote it into his will that the game cannot be used in any kind of gambling or casino property.

So LocalThunk has done everything he can to ensure Balatro won’t waste people’s money. Time, though? If you’re a Balatro fan already, or more of a mobile gamer than a console or computer player, your time is in danger.

Balatro is coming to iOS, both in the Apple Arcade subscription and as a stand-alone title, and the Google Play Store on September 26. The pitch-perfect reveal trailer slowly ratchets up the procrastinatory terror, with the word “MOBILE” punctuating scenes of gameplay, traditional businessmen crying, “Jimbo Stonks” rising upward (Jimbo being the moniker of Balatro’s joker), and a world laid to waste by people chasing ever-more-elusive joker combos.

Please note in the trailer, at the 36-second mark, the “Trailer Ideas” for Balatro on Mobile, including “Announcing Balatro is now a Soulslike,” “Romanceable Jimbo Reveal,” and “It’s like that apocalypse movie with the meteor but instead Jimbo is in the sky.”

Playstack

Even more Balatro content is coming

The mobile version of Balatro is one of three updates LocalThunk has planned for 2025. A gameplay update is still due to arrive sometime this year, one that will be completely free for game owners. It won’t feel like a different game, or even a 1.5 version, LocalThunk told Polygon last month, but “extending that vision to, I think, its logical bounds instead of shifting directions … [M]ore about filling out the design space that currently exists, and then extending that design space in interesting directions that I think people are going to love.”

What else is coming? Perhaps “Friends of Jimbo,” teased today on Balatro’s X (formerly Twitter) account, tells us something. Notably, LocalThunk says that he developed the mobile ports himself.

As we noted in our attempt to explain the ongoing popularity of roguelike deckbuilders, Balatro is LocalThunk’s first properly released game. He claims to have not played any such games before making Balatro but was fascinated by streams of Luck Be a Landlord, a game about “using a slot machine to earn rent money and defeat capitalism.” That game, plus influences of Cantonese game Big Two and the basics of poker (another game LocalThunk says he didn’t actually play), brought about the time-melting game as we know it.

Balatro, in turn, took off with streamers, who would break the game with seeds, hit scores of 30 quintillion, or just keep coming back with everything they’ve learned.

A number of Ars writers have kept coming back to Balatro, time and again, since its release. It’s such a compelling game, especially for its indie-scale price, that none of us could really think of a way to write a stand-alone “review” of it. With its imminent arrival on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices, we’re due to re-educate ourselves on how much time is really in each day and which kinds of achievements our families and communities need to see from us.

Maybe the game won’t sync across platforms, and the impedance of having to start all over will be enough to prevent notable devolution. Maybe.

Balatro arrives on phones Sept. 26, so plan your “sick” days accordingly Read More »

new-ai-model-“learns”-how-to-simulate-super-mario-bros.-from-video-footage

New AI model “learns” how to simulate Super Mario Bros. from video footage

AI, gaming / /
At first glance, these AI-generated <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> videos are pretty impressive. The more you watch, though, the more glitches you’ll see.” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/MarioVGG_output_grid.gif”></img><figcaption> <p>At first glance, these AI-generated <em>Super Mario Bros.</em> videos are pretty impressive. The more you watch, though, the more glitches you’ll see.</p> </figcaption></figure> <p>Last month, Google’s GameNGen AI model showed that <a href=generalized image diffusion techniques can be used to generate a passable, playable version of Doom. Now, researchers are using some similar techniques with a model called MarioVGG to see if an AI model can generate plausible video of Super Mario Bros. in response to user inputs.

The results of the MarioVGG model—available as a pre-print paper published by the crypto-adjacent AI company Virtuals Protocol—still display a lot of apparent glitches, and it’s too slow for anything approaching real-time gameplay at the moment. But the results show how even a limited model can infer some impressive physics and gameplay dynamics just from studying a bit of video and input data.

The researchers hope this represents a first step toward “producing and demonstrating a reliable and controllable video game generator,” or possibly even “replacing game development and game engines completely using video generation models” in the future.

Watching 737,000 frames of Mario

To train their model, the MarioVGG researchers (GitHub users erniechew and Brian Lim are listed as contributors) started with a public data set of Super Mario Bros. gameplay containing 280 “levels'” worth of input and image data arranged for machine-learning purposes (level 1-1 was removed from the training data so images from it could be used in the evaluation). The more than 737,000 individual frames in that data set were “preprocessed” into 35 frame chunks so the model could start to learn what the immediate results of various inputs generally looked like.

To “simplify the gameplay situation,” the researchers decided to focus only on two potential inputs in the data set: “run right” and “run right and jump.” Even this limited movement set presented some difficulties for the machine-learning system, though, since the preprocessor had to look backward for a few frames before a jump to figure out if and when the “run” started. Any jumps that included mid-air adjustments (i.e., the “left” button) also had to be thrown out because “this would introduce noise to the training dataset,” the researchers write.

  • MarioVGG takes a single gameplay frame and a text input action to generate multiple video frames.

  • The last frame of a generated video sequence can be used as the baseline for the next set of frames in the video.

  • The AI-generated arc of Mario’s jump is pretty accurate (even as the algorithm creates random obstacles as the screen “scrolls”).

  • MarioVGG was able to infer the physics of behaviors like running off a ledge or running into obstacles.

  • A particularly bad example of a glitch that causes Mario to simply disappear from the scene at points.

After preprocessing (and about 48 hours of training on a single RTX 4090 graphics card), the researchers used a standard convolution and denoising process to generate new frames of video from a static starting game image and a text input (either “run” or “jump” in this limited case). While these generated sequences only last for a few frames, the last frame of one sequence can be used as the first of a new sequence, feasibly creating gameplay videos of any length that still show “coherent and consistent gameplay,” according to the researchers.

New AI model “learns” how to simulate Super Mario Bros. from video footage Read More »

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Jack Black stars as expert crafter Steve in A Minecraft Movie teaser

A Minecraft Movie, culture, Entertainment, film trailers, gaming, minecraft, Warner Bros. / /

Kadoosh! —

“Anything you can dream about here, you can make.”

–

Jason Momoa and Jack Black star in A Minecraft Movie.

Minecraft is among the most successful and influential games of the early 21st century, winning many awards and selling over 300 million copies (so far) since its 2011 release. So it was only a matter of time before Hollywood gave us a feature film based on the 3D sandbox game, simply titled A Minecraft Movie. Sure, one might have reservations about yet another video game-based movie, but on the plus side, we’ve got Jason Momoa and Jack Black co-starring. And the first teaser is full of eye-popping candy-colored cubic visuals and sly references to the game that should please fans.

Within a year of Minecraft‘s initial release, Mojang Studios was fielding offers from Hollywood producers about making a TV series based on the game, but the company wanted to wait for “the right idea.” There was a 2014 attempt to crowd-source a fan film, but game creator Markus “Notch” Persson didn’t agree to license that effort since he was already negotiating with Warner Bros. about developing a film based on the game. Thus began a long, convoluted process of directors and writers being hired and leaving the project for various reasons.

When the dust finally settled, Jared Hess (who worked with Black on Nacho Libre) ended up directing. The COVID pandemic and 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike delayed things further, but filming finally wrapped earlier this year in Auckland, New Zealand—just in time for a spring 2025 theatrical release. Per the official synopsis:

Welcome to the world of Minecraft, where creativity doesn’t just help you craft, it’s essential to one’s survival! Four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa), Henry (Sebastian Eugene Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers) and Dawn (Danielle Brooks)—find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master this world (and protect it from evil things like Piglins and Zombies, too) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve (Jack Black). Together, their adventure will challenge all five to be bold and to reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative… the very skills they need to thrive back in the real world.

Game players will recognize Steve as one of the default characters in Minecraft. The teaser is set to The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” and opens with our misfits encountering a fantastical Tolkien-esque landscape—only with a lot more cube-like shapes, like a pink sheep with a cubed head.  We get the aforementioned Piglins and other creatures before Black appears and dramatically announces with great fanfare, “I…. am Steve.” Honestly, we’ll probably watch it just for Black’s performance alone.

A Minecraft Movie hits theaters in April 2025.

Listing image by YouTube/Warner Bros.

Jack Black stars as expert crafter Steve in A Minecraft Movie teaser Read More »

sony-is-shutting-down-concord,-refunding-players-after-just-two-weeks

Sony is shutting down Concord, refunding players after just two weeks

gaming / /

We hardly knew ye —

Team-based shooter eight years in the making had just 25,000 estimated sales.

–

This team-based FPS combat scene was apparently too familiar to attract all that many players to <em>Concord</em>.” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/concord-800×450.jpg”></img><figcaption> <p><a data-height=Enlarge / This team-based FPS combat scene was apparently too familiar to attract all that many players to Concord.

Sony

Sony’s team-based online shooter Concord has been removed from sale and will be taken offline on Friday, September 6, just two weeks after its August 23 launch. Firewalk Studios Game Director Ryan Ellis said in an announcement Tuesday that publisher Sony will offer refunds to all players who purchased the game on PC or PlayStation 5.

Sony may not need to pay out that many refunds. GameDiscoverCo analyst Simon Carless told IGN last week that he estimated an underwhelming 25,000 total sales for the game across PS5 and PC. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, meanwhile, said that just 0.2 percent of all active PS5 players were playing the game last Monday, making it the 147th most-played title for that day.

The Steam version of the game peaked at well under 700 players just after launch, according to SteamDB tracking. On PlayStation, popular opt-in trophy tracking site PSNProfiles logged just over 1,300 players who owned Concord, a relatively small showing compared to popular recent releases like Star Wars Outlaws (4,300 PSNProfiles owners) and Black Myth: Wukong (16,000 PSNProfiles-tracked owners).

“While many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended,” Ellis wrote.

What went wrong?

Suffice it to say, this quick shutdown is not what Firewalk or Sony envisioned for the game. Just under a month ago, Ellis was talking up Concord‘s impending launch by teasing a “major content drop” planned for October and the long-term potential for custom crew buildouts.

“We see launch as just the beginning,” Ellis said in the August promotional post. “The beginning of not only the vision we’ve set out for Concord, but also the beginning of how we support and grow the game with our players.”

Concord was the first game from Firewalk Studios, which formed in 2018 before being acquired by Sony just last year. The game has been in development for around eight years, according to lead character designer Jon Weisnewski, meaning work on the title started when Blizzard’s Overwatch was a hot new concept rather than the aging progenitor of a crowded genre.

Concord was teased at Sony’s PlayStation Showcase last May and was first shown in a rough playable form this May. By August’s launch, though, it was clear there was little market appetite for yet another live service team shooter that didn’t bring much new to the table. Concord was only recommended by 24 percent of reviewers tracked by OpenCritic and is sitting at an extremely underwhelming score of 65 on Metacritic.

Concord‘s fate brings to mind that of Amazon’s Crucible, another newcomer that found it hard to find a place in a crowded shooter market. That game managed to limp along for just six months before being shut down, though it was delisted from Steam well before that death.

Despite Concord‘s quick shutdown, the door has been left open just a crack for a potential revival at some point. Ellis writes that Firewalk and Sony will “determine the best path ahead” and “explore options, including those that will better reach our players” in the future. Perhaps another increasingly common pivot to a free-to-play model is in Concord‘s future?

Sony is shutting down Concord, refunding players after just two weeks Read More »

peglin-is-the-roguelike-peggle-rpg-we-didn’t-know-we-needed

Peglin is the roguelike Peggle RPG we didn’t know we needed

gaming, Peggle / /
The feeling when you know your ball is just gonna get <em>buried</em> in there is so satisfying!” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/peglin10-800×450.jpg”></img><figcaption> <p><a data-height=Enlarge / The feeling when you know your ball is just gonna get buried in there is so satisfying!

Red Nexus Games

Remember Peggle? If you were lucky enough to play this deceptively deep pachinko-meets-bagatelle game in the late ’00s, you know how addictive and entrancing it could be to just watch a bouncing ball ricochet off brightly colored pegs.

While developer Popcap released a few sequels and spinoffs in the years after Peggle‘s 2007 release, the series has largely languished since Popcap’s acquisition by EA in 2011. Today, the only actively supported version of the game is Peggle Blast, a smartphone port that dumbs down the gameplay with frequent pushes to spend real money on needed items, à la Candy Crush and its ilk.

A few other games have tried to capture the old Peggle ball-bouncing magic in the last decade, most notably the excellent but sometimes overwhelming Roundguard. But Peglin—which launched out of an extended Steam early access period and also saw a Nintendo Switch release this week—is my new favorite take on the concept, combining Peggle’s addictive ball-bouncing with just the right mix of roguelike randomization and RPG-style progression.

Take your shot

Every shot in Peglin is akin to a turn in an old-school RPG. Each peg your bouncing ball hits before falling out the bottom of the board contributes a bit to your attack power against a horde of enemies that slowly march toward you in a cute animated strip above.

  • Sliding your ball on patterns like this is one of the most satisfying parts of the game

    Red Nexus Games

  • You don’t always fire from the top of the board, which adds some fun angles to potential shots.

    Red Nexus Games

  • See if you can project where this ball will go just from this screenshot.

    Red Nexus Games

  • Getting your ball to consistently fall down the section you want in this situation is surprisingly difficult.

    Red Nexus Games

  • There’s some real artistry in some pegboard layouts.

    Red Nexus Games

Not all pegs are created equal, though. Each board has two bright yellow “critical” pegs that crank up the attack value of each hit, moving randomly around the board between shots. Green “refresh” pegs are also needed to replace pegs that have disappeared after earlier hits and can lead to some extreme chains when hit at just the right point in a shot. Then there are the bombs, which send your ball flying after being lit and hit while also representing a powerful attack that hits all enemies.

The balls you fire aren’t all created equal, either. There are balls with extreme critical damage, balls that can impart harmful status effect on enemies, and balls that can coat pegs with helpful slime. There are balls that can heal your and balls that activate nearby pegs with each hit. Some balls are extra bouncy, others get attracted to each peg with a weak magnetic force, and still others get split into multiball patterns after being shot. You get the idea.

Building and upgrading a tailored bag of these varied and helpful balls—using coins collected from special pegs on each stage—is one of the most satisfying parts of a Peglin run. But those same coins are the best way of healing in between fights, so you have to manage your resources carefully. Runs can also be enhanced by a wide variety of powerful relics that give permanent stat bonuses or shot effects, though often with a downside that might outweigh the benefits if you’re not careful.

Each Peglin run progresses through a randomized Slay the Spire-style map, which lets you avoid a lot of battles if you’re careful. Amid the usual shops and treasures, you’ll also stumble on quite a few random encounters that let you make simple decisions like trading health for upgrades or risking existing balls for new, more powerful ones.

Peglin is the roguelike Peggle RPG we didn’t know we needed Read More »

asus-rog-ally-x-review:-better-performance-and-feel-in-a-pricey-package

Asus ROG Ally X review: Better performance and feel in a pricey package

ASUS, asus rog ally x, Features, gaming, gaming handheld, Reviews, ROG Ally, rog ally x, steam deck, Tech, Windows / /

Faster, grippier, pricier, and just as Windows-ed —

A great hardware refresh, but it stands out for its not-quite-handheld cost.

– Updated

It's hard to fit the perfomance-minded but pricey ROG Ally X into a simple product category. It's also tricky to fit it into a photo, at the right angle, while it's in your hands.

Enlarge / It’s hard to fit the perfomance-minded but pricey ROG Ally X into a simple product category. It’s also tricky to fit it into a photo, at the right angle, while it’s in your hands.

Kevin Purdy

The first ROG Ally from Asus, a $700 Windows-based handheld gaming PC, performed better than the Steam Deck, but it did so through notable compromises on battery life. The hardware also had a first-gen feel and software jank from both Asus’ own wraparound gaming app and Windows itself. The Ally asked an awkward question: “Do you want to pay nearly 50 percent more than you’d pay for a Steam Deck for a slightly faster but far more awkward handheld?”

The ROG Ally X makes that question more interesting and less obvious to answer. Yes, it’s still a handheld that’s trying to hide Windows annoyances, and it’s still missing trackpads, without which some PC games just feel bad. And (review spoiler) it still eats a charge faster than the Steam Deck OLED on less demanding games.

But the improvements Asus made to this X sequel are notable, and its new performance stats make it more viable for those who want to play more demanding games on a rather crisp screen. At $800, or $100 more than the original ROG Ally with no extras thrown in, you have to really, really want the best possible handheld gaming experience while still tolerating Windows’ awkward fit.

Asus

What’s new in the Ally X

Specs at a glance: Asus ROG Ally X
Display 7-inch IPS panel: 1920×1080, 120 Hz, 7 ms, 500 nits, 100% sRGB, FreeSync, Gorilla Glass Victus
OS Windows 11 (Home)
CPU AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme (Zen 4, 8 core, 24M cache, 5.10 Ghz, 9-30 W (as reviewed)
RAM 24GB LPDDR5X 6400 MHz
GPU AMD Radeon RDNA3, 2.7 GHz, 8.6 Teraflops
Storage M.2 NVME 2280 Gen4x4, 1TB (as reviewed)
Networking Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
Battery 80 Wh (65W max charge)
Ports USB-C (3.2 Gen2, DPI 1.4, PD 3.0), USB-C (DP, PD 3.0), 3.5 mm audio, Micro SD
Size 11×4.3×0.97 in. (280×111×25 mm)
Weight 1.49 lbs (678 g)
Price as reviewed $800

The ROG Ally X is essentially the ROG Ally with a bigger battery packed into a shell that is impressively not much bigger or heavier, more storage and RAM, and two USB-C ports instead of one USB-C and one weird mobile port that nobody could use. Asus reshaped the device and changed the face-button feel, and it all feels noticeably better, especially now that gaming sessions can last longer. The company also moved the microSD card slot so that your cards don’t melt, which is nice.

There’s a bit more to each of those changes that we’ll get into, but that’s the short version. Small spec bumps wouldn’t have changed much about the ROG Ally experience, but the changes Asus made for the X version do move the needle. Having more RAM available has a sizable impact on the frame performance of demanding games, and you can see that in our benchmarks.

We kept the LCD Steam Deck in our benchmarks because its chip has roughly the same performance as its OLED upgrade. But it’s really the Ally-to-Ally-X comparisons that are interesting; the Steam Deck has been fading back from AAA viability. If you want the Ally X to run modern, GPU-intensive games as fast as is feasible for a battery-powered device, it can now do that a lot better—for longer—and feel a bit better while you do.

The Rog Ally X has better answered the question “why not just buy a gaming laptop?” than its predecessor. At $800 and up, you might still ask how much portability is worth to you. But the Ally X is not as much of a niche (Windows-based handheld) inside a niche (moderately higher-end handhelds).

I normally would not use this kind of handout image with descriptive text embedded, but Asus is right: the ROG Ally X is indeed way more comfortable (just maybe not all-caps).

I normally would not use this kind of handout image with descriptive text embedded, but Asus is right: the ROG Ally X is indeed way more comfortable (just maybe not all-caps).

Asus

How it feels using the Rog Ally X

My testing of the Rog Ally X consisted of benchmarks, battery testing, and playing some games on the couch. Specifically: Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and Tactical Breach Wizards on the devices lowest-power setting (“Silent”), Deathloop on its medium-power setting (“Performance”), and Shadow of the Erdtree on its all-out “Turbo” mode.

All four of those games worked mostly fine, but DRG: Survivor pushed the boundaries of Silent mode a bit when its levels got crowded with enemies and projectiles. Most games could automatically figure out a decent settings scheme for the Ally X. If a game offers AMD’s FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) upscaling, you should at least try it; it’s usually a big boon to a game running on this handheld.

Overall, the ROG Ally X was a device I didn’t notice when I was using it, which is the best recommendation I can make. Perhaps I noticed that the 1080p screen was brighter, closer to the glass, and sharper than the LCD (original) Steam Deck. At handheld distance, the difference between 800p and 1080p isn’t huge to me, but the difference between LCD and OLED is more so. (Of course, an OLED version of the Steam Deck was released late last year.)

Asus ROG Ally X review: Better performance and feel in a pricey package Read More »

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EmuDeck coder pivots to hardware with Linux-based “EmuDeck Machines”

gaming / /

How hard could it be? —

Project lead says its “mostly for fun” but “my heart is poured in this thing.”

–

Any resemblance to the Dreamcast is completely coincidental, we're sure.

Enlarge / Any resemblance to the Dreamcast is completely coincidental, we’re sure.

If you’re familiar with the name EmuDeck, you’re likely a Steam Deck owner looking for an easy and user-friendly way to run emulators on your Steam Deck handheld. Now, one of the coders behind that software suite is dipping their toes into branded gaming hardware with the EmuDeck Machines project, now seeking funding on IndieGogo.

The EmuDeck Machines obviously come with EmuDeck software preinstalled to let users easily “play your retro games from your couch.” But they also promise to let you run games from Steam and other popular PC launchers through the Linux-based, gaming-focused Bazzite OS. The vibe is definitely similar to that of Valve’s own aborted Steam Machines effort from years back, albeit in a less “official” capacity.

“I used to be a PC guy but in the last 20 years I switched to the Mac and in the Apple ecosystem choosing a computer is easy,” project lead DragoonDorise told Ars in an email. “But then I found myself wanting a gaming rig so I started my search and boy oh boy I was lost. The PC industry seems to be trying to trick you every step of the way, gazillions of options, hard to understand what’s good and what’s not. If you are tech savvy it’s not hard, you know what to get and what to avoid. Then it hit me, I made emulation easy with EmuDeck, why not make hardware easy too?”

“The idea behind the EmuDeck Machine is to make hardware easy just as EmuDeck did with software,” DragoonDorise writes on the EmuDeck Patreon. “This is not focused to tech savvy people. It’s for people that want a no-hassle experience, just buy and play,” they added on Reddit.

What’s inside?

The EM1 is tuned for older emulators and games, while the EM2 promises to run more recent software.

Enlarge / The EM1 is tuned for older emulators and games, while the EM2 promises to run more recent software.

The EmuDeck Machines come in two promised configurations. On the low-end EM1 model, a $365 early bird price gets you an Intel N97-based system with 8GB of RAM and no dedicated graphics card. That’s enough to run a game on the order of Hades at a smooth 60 fps and run emulators of systems through the PS2/Wii era.

Upgrading to the $676 EM2 gets you an overclocked Radeon 760M GPU and an upgrade to 16GB of RAM. That promises smooth gaming performance for high-end games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Returnal, according to DragoonDorise, as well as support for PS3 and Xbox 360 emulators. If the Indiegogo project is fully funded, DragoonDorise also promises an optional Docking Station will be made available next year to provide “Radeon 7600” graphics power to the EM2.

Both models come with 512 GB of storage, which can be upgraded with external USB hard drives and a Gamesir wireless controller. It all comes packaged in an 8.6-inch square case that’s clearly inspired by the Sega Dreamcast, with four USB ports where the usual controller ports would be.

Caveat emptor

Though DragoonDorise says they currently only have a “working prototype” of the EmuDeck Machines, the IndieGogo project promises an ambitious schedule where hardware will be shipping by December. “The only thing I’m missing right now is the shell, all the rest is already taken care of, ” DragoonDorise told Ars. “Where I’m gonna get my components, cables, etc. all of that is already spoken for. And the times I posted in IGG are according what my manufacturer told me. If we end up having any delay I’ll just be transparent with my backers.”

Should potential backers worry that a software coder is pivoting to hardware for the first time? “I have experience with distribution as I used to run an online store back in the day selling hundreds of devices per month,” DragoonDorise tells Ars. “I’ve never been in the side of the manufacturer though but you know what? When I started coding EmuDeck the most I knew about Linux was how to change directories and little more and that ended up being a big success because I cared about the project, I believed it could be something that people will love to use. This is the same, my heart is poured in this thing.”

The proposed schedule for production and shipping seems ambitious, to say the least.

Enlarge / The proposed schedule for production and shipping seems ambitious, to say the least.

Overall, though, DragoonDorise’s comments make the EmuDeck Machines effort sound more like a fun hobby than an attempt at an ongoing business. “This is a project I’m doing mostly for fun, just like EmuDeck,” they told Ars. “I built a mini ITX PC… and I thought, ‘Hey this is cool, let’s do this,'” they wrote on Reddit. “I’ve always dream[ed] of making a video console, so this it,” they continued in another Reddit comment.

As of this writing, the EmuDeck Machines effort has attracted nearly $13,000 in pledges in just under 24 hours. But DragoonDorise tells Ars he’s making just $50 on each unit sale, and writes on Reddit that they’re “not trying to get rich here with this, I’m not even expecting to make money. I’m doing this because I think [it] is a fun project and I thought people would like it.”

In the Patreon comments, DragoonDorise adds that they tried to make the machines affordable for customers, but that “Indiegogo takes a big cut… they are going to make more money than I will.”

For fans of the EmuDeck software, DragoonDorise also promises on Patreon that work on EmuDeck Machines hardware “doesn’t mean things will change on the software side of EmuDeck, if anything it will bring more features.” In fact, features like CloudSync, ROM Library, and the EmuDecky plugin were added to EmuDeck “because I envisioned the EmuDeck Machine with those features so many months ago,” they write, “and those have ended up being in the regular EmuDeck for every one of you.”

Updated (5: 23 pm) to add emailed responses from DargoonDorise

EmuDeck coder pivots to hardware with Linux-based “EmuDeck Machines” Read More »