Good afternoon, and welcome to Replay, WIRED’s rundown of all of the week’s big videogame news. This week, we’ve got updates on the PlayStation 5, as well as news about Crysis and Cooking Mama. Here we go!
Sony’s PlayStation 5 Might Be Hard to Find at Launch
Yes, as the headline indicates, picking up a PlayStation 5 as soon as they’re available isn’t going to be easy—and it’s not even the coronavirus that’s to blame. As reported by Bloomberg, Sony plans to limit the initial production run of the gaming console, and, apparently, that’s due to its—as yet unknown—price point, which is expected to be high enough to limit consumer demand at launch time. Ominous news for wallets everywhere.
The estimate for that price, from game developers interviewed by Bloomberg, was between $499 and $549, steep costs for a new console. The high-spec components of the machine are apparently pushing up the value, forcing Sony to move toward undesirable price points to break even. What has been derailed by Covid-19, however, is Sony’s promotional plans, which are sort of a mess right now. The controller reveal last week was apparently a fairly last-minute decision to prevent leaks.
Crysis Is Returning From the Past to Shame Your PC’s Graphics Card Again
But can it run Crysis? That was the question asked about any high-end computer until about two years ago, when the rest of gaming finally caught up with how ridiculously demanding Crytek’s tech showcase/alien first-person shooter was. Well, prepare for even more of that, because it’s been leaked and then confirmed that Crytek is making Crysis: Remastered, a new version of the game with enhanced technology, built for modern consoles and PC.
As Kotaku reports, the PC version will include all the modern bells and whistles you’d expect from a high-end game, including ray tracing, HD textures, temporal anti-aliasing, etc. It’ll also be coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch, a move which is certainly making some port developers really, really stressed out right now. It’ll be out this summer.
Mama Mia, Something Weird Is Happening With Cooking Mama
Cooking Mama, a wholesome videogame franchise about cooking with the Cooking Mama, is now, in 2020, a baffling rights nightmare. As recapped by Engadget, a new Cooking Mama game, Cooking Mama: Cookstar, was released on the Nintendo Switch in March and then, swiftly afterward, pulled. Its reason for being pulled was a mystery until, this week, Office Create, the company that owns the Cooking Mama license, issued a statement saying that the publisher, Planet Entertainment, breached its contract by releasing the game without addressing a number of issues raised by the rights holders. In return, Planet Entertainment said it was well within its rights to publish the game. Meanwhile, Office Create is considering legal action to stop Planet from doing anything else with the game, so, uh, maybe we’ll find out what rights Planet actually has. Just when everyone could really enjoy some wholesome cooking …
Recommendation of the Week: Overcooked 2 by Team17, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC
If you do want to cook in a game and also enjoy stressing out your loved ones, maybe try Overcooked 2 instead. This frantic cooking simulator combines all the whimsy of Animal Crossing with all the stress of being a short-order cook at a fairground. Collaborate with your friends and family to get orders done in tense but wholesome-looking kitchen situations, and try not to yell at each other, because, oh my God, Steve, it’s just a game, honey we can just do something else really it’s fine.
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