A demo for Gran Turismo 7.

Sony and Polyphony Digital have announced that My First Gran Turismo, which is essentially a PS5, PS4 demo for Gran Turismo 7, will launch this Friday, 6th December 2024. It's available for free, and lets you try race events, time trials, Music Rally stages, and license tests from the full game. You can get a visual sample of the content in the trailer above.

From the main menu, you'll be able to try three race events: the Sunday Cup, Clubman Cup, and the GT Cup. You can set lap times in time trials on the Kyoto Driving Park, Deep Forest Raceway, and Trial Mountain. Within the app, you can also work towards achievements and a car collection of up to 18 vehicles. As well as flat-screen support, the whole demo can also be played using PSVR2.

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The abyss.

Don't Nod recently released a new teaser trailer for its upcoming teen drama adventure, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage.

The Life Is Strange meets Stranger Things vibes are still present and correct, and this brief trailer delves into some potentially heavy subject matter. It appears the game won't be shying away from themes of bullying and self-harm.

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For the Emperor, etc.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has been granted a two-hour PS Plus Premium trial on PS5, so that more people can sample its superbly chaotic combat.

You'll actually be able to run through a decent chunk of the game's campaign in two hours, so we'd recommend checking it out if you've even the least bit interested. You'll definitely get a feel for the action in that time, which is a hectic mix of third-person blasting and slashing.

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Play has limits.

You're statistically more likely to be watching a video about games than you are playing one yourself, according to a newly published report.

MIDiA Research, which crunches the numbers on various aspects of entertainment, has recently claimed that gamers are spending more of their week watching gaming-related videos on YouTube and Twitch than they are playing games.

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Get ready to dress to impress.

Infinity Nikki, the cosy dress-up RPG from an ex-Breath of the Wild designer, is ready to strut the catwalk on your console, delivering a level of cosiness seldom seen on a Sony system before. To get you prepared for the fashionable outing, this Infinity Nikki guide will include all release times and preload details.

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Whiskey business.

PlayStation is an enormous brand and one of the biggest names in gaming nowadays, but back when it was just getting started, it was of course a different story. In a recent interview, Sony alumnus Shawn Layden reveals how the team secured Final Fantasy VII for PS1.

He recalls his early days when PlayStation was in its infancy, and how Sony Music was drafted in to help win over developers to make games for this burgeoning platform.

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Servers go offline on 3rd June 2025.

Ubisoft has confirmed its online FPS XDefiant will be shutting down and isn't accepting any new players with immediate effect. Anyone who played the game before today (3rd December 2024) will continue to receive access until 3rd June 2025, at which point the servers will be taken offline. A third season of content will still launch for those still active in the game, though no content will be purchasable anymore in the in-game store.

In a message to the XDefiant community from executive producer Mark Rubin, it's said: "Free-to-play, in particular, is a long journey. Many free-to-play games take a long time to find their footing and become profitable. It’s a long journey that Ubisoft and the teams working on the game were prepared to make until very recently. But unfortunately, the journey became too much to sensibly continue."

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Now it's your turn.

Throughout the day, we’ve been recounting our personal PS1 memories. But this is a community site, and we’d be remiss to overlook all of you.

Whether it’s birthdays spent with the DualShock in hand or PS1-sized boxes under the Christmas tree, we want to hear about your memories of Sony’s first ever gaming format. What are the stories that are most special to you when you think of PlayStation?

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Aw sh*t, here we go again.

While you wait patiently for a crucial update on GTA 6, Rockstar hopes to keep you busy with another GTA Online expansion. Due out on 10th December, Agents of Sabotage will see you snap up the Darnell Bros Garment Factory – a location which may be familiar to you from the main campaign – where you’ll set up a new covert ops business.

Returning characters Jodi Marshall and Pavel from The Cayo Perico Heist will feature in this update, as you use the latest “clandestine tech to zero in on some of the city’s pre-eminent scores”. Expect new missions, vehicles, gear, and money-making opportunities.

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You are the weakest link.

I'm only 52 days older than PlayStation, born on 11th October 1994. As such, my memories of the first Sony console are hazy, to say the least — they're more like single snapshots captured in my brain rather than a proper moment I can recall beat for beat. Those sorts of memories are attached to the PS2 as I approached my teenage years.

Still, I have a couple of recollections stored in my memory bank as I learned to walk and talk, and go to school. Probably the most vivid is of me and my family celebrating a birthday by playing the PS1 adaptation of The Weakest Link, with the mean Anne Robinson as the host, recreated in PS1 pixels. I remember my Auntie Katie excelling in her quiz question-answering efforts that evening.

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Sony, please.

Just in case you haven't seen it yourself, Sony released a PlayStation 30th Anniversary update for the PS5 this week, which added themes based on past consoles, and a full-on recreation of the iconic PS1 startup screen.

Players are greeted with said screen upon powering up their PS5 — but there's a catch. Both the themes and the boot screen are only available for a limited time.

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But who could it be?

The Tekken World Tour Finals take place this weekend in Tokyo, Japan, with the globe's best Tekken 8 players vying for victory.

Historically, Bandai Namco has saved big DLC character reveals for the finals, as that's when it's practically guaranteed a hardcore audience of Tekken fans. However, the publisher has preemptively confirmed that this year's event will not feature any character reveals.

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Family ties.

For me, the original PlayStation is linked quite deeply with my immediate family. We'd always had video games in the house; I don't remember a time before we had a SEGA Mega Drive, which was a popular pastime for me, my two elder sisters, and sometimes our parents too. Video games used to sort of be a through-line for all of us, and while our levels of interest would shift over the years (mine only ever grew stronger), my fondest memories of the PS1 are times spent playing with the others.

The first time I laid eyes on the console, I didn't really understand what I was looking at. I wandered into the playroom to discover my Dad playing Actua Golf on our freshly acquired PlayStation and its legendary pack-in disc, Demo 1. I remember being somewhat baffled; the day before I'd probably been playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure on the Mega Drive, and now suddenly games could look like this? My little mind was blown.

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Will be about finding a "balance".

Hermen Hulst, co-CEO of PlayStation, has commented on the rise of AI technology and how it might affect game development in the future.

Hulst, who primarily looks after the platform holder's software business, spoke to the BBC, saying that AI could "revolutionise" gaming, but that it will never replace the "human touch" of game development.

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Too scared to play Tomb Raider.

One of my most prominent PS1 memories is playing through the original Tomb Raider trilogy — except I didn't. I was just a kid at the time — I couldn't have been much older than eight or nine — and simply put, I was too scared to play the series myself.

Not that Tomb Raider was aimed at children, of course — but that made the games all the more appealing to young minds. My friends at school were always going on about how cool Lara Croft's globetrotting adventures were, asking each other for help on how to solve certain puzzles and where to find the best guns.

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Across a variety of genres.

It’s business as usual at developer FromSoftware, while Sony sniffs around parent company Kadokawa. At the PS Partner Awards in Tokyo overnight, where Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree won the Grand Award, president Hidetaka Miyazaki revealed his studio is working on a number of new titles.

“We have multiple projects in the works across a variety of genres,” he said as reported by Game WATCH and translated by Gematsu. “There are titles directed by me, as well as titles directed by those other than myself. In that regard, I think we’ll be able to show you a new FromSoftware in a variety of ways, so please look forward to it.”

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Rally the troops.

Good news for petrol heads, subscription spenders, and those who are a bit of both: EA Sports WRC will soon be joining EA Play.

This officially licensed rally racing game launched in 2023, and has been updated regularly ever since, most notably adding new routes and cars as the 2024 season rumbled on.

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Gotta hand it to them.

There has been a fair bit of noise lately about a potential new portable games console from PlayStation, and now, Digital Foundry has weighed in on the subject.

Speaking in the above video (time stamped), DF's John Linneman comments on the recent reports that Sony is working on a new handheld.

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It's got heart.

Infinity Nikki is almost here, and while previous trailers have focused on the heroine’s various styles and gameplay mechanics, this clip gives us a deeper look at the story. This is a Kingdom Hearts-esque affair, with fantasy worlds, pantomime villains, and proper nouns.

If you’ve not been convinced by previous videos, and you enjoy twee nonsense, then this video may just pull you in – it’s outrageously cinematic, and had our hype juices flowing.

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