Author: Game Infliction

EA and Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has been slammed with several negative reviews on Steam as users report performance issues.

Survivor, the galaxy-spanning sequel to 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order, currently has a Mostly Negative rating on Steam with only 31% of 1,216 users recommending it.

“Game is extremely fun but performs terribly,” said Steam user Doctor TacoChocolate. “I’m using a 3090 FE and 5700x and getting a consistent 30 fps in some areas. Other areas give me a mostly consistent 45. This is at 1440p.”

Users have also taken to Reddit to voice their complaints, with Delicious_Pea_3706 saying “the concerning comments on performance for PC are true”. Running Survivor on an RTX 4090 and AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D saw it crash not only itself but the entire PC, they said.

“Running a 4090 with Epic Settings and Ray Tracing was getting me around 90 FPS, which is pretty good, but the frame stutters were way too frequent. I don’t want to imagine how bad it must be for mid range hardware.”

Other users reported crashes too, alongside graphical issues, and an “unexpected error” that saw the player bypass story elements without seeing them, forcing them to either continue in a broken game state or load a previous save and hope it worked the second time.

Other users have said that performance issues are mitigated once the player moves on from the first main area of the game, however. “After the first world it ran perfectly fine,” said Steam user bike._. Another user, Al Falsafchy, said: “story [and] combat compensates the lack of performance in the first area”.

There are also users experiencing no issues. “Currently three hours into the game and haven’t had any stuttering while playing on a 3070,” said gildner99 on Steam. “Not sure if I got lucky or what but I have been loving the game.”

Respawn released a day one patch for the game that appeared to address a lot of performance issues, though it also said that more are on the way in the coming weeks.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Sony’s PlayStation 5 has just wrapped its best year on the market so far and has crossed 38 million units sold as a result.

Revealed in Sony’s latest financial earnings report, the PlayStation 5 sold 6.3 million units in the fourth quarter (Q4) of financial year 2022-23. This was more than three times stronger than its sales in Q4 the previous year, where it sold just two million units.

Having sold 32.1 million units as of the end of Q3, the PS5 has now reached 38.4 million units sold. Sony also sold nearly as many units in financial year 2022-23 as it had prior to that point, rounding out the year with 19.1 million PS5 consoles sold compared to the 19.3 million sold beforehand.

The 6.3 million fourth quarter wasn’t its strongest, however, as 7.1 million PS5 consoles were sold in Q3. This is a fairly regular trend, however, as Q3 includes the holiday period which usually leads to significant sales boosts for video game hardware.

The increase in sales overall is likely connected to the fact that PS5 consoles are now readily available as Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan said in January that the stock shortage is essentially over.

The PS5 had encountered significant production issues due to component shortages that plagued the video game industry and beyond, forcing Sony to re-evaluate its sales forecast for the 2021-22 financial year.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has a complicated day one update situation that might mean users have to download a hefty patch whether you’re on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, or PC.

EA announced on Twitter (below) that it’s releasing a day one patch for Survivor that address some performance issues, but some PC players are reporting colossal file sizes. Even some players who pre-loaded the game on Steam are reporting a launch day update of up to 128 GB.

EA also released patches throughout the week before launch, meaning that, depending on when users pre-loaded, there might be some updates that were missed. IGN’s day one update on PC came in at 46.5 GB, for example, and while this is a lot less than some PC users’ experience, it’s still a hefty addition for those looking to enjoy the game on launch day.

Cal’s newest journey in a galaxy far, far away has begun and we’re excited for you to experience it!

Our first patch will arrive on launch day across all platforms. In the weeks ahead, we’ll deploy patches that will:

– Fix bugs
– Improve performance
– Add more accessibility… pic.twitter.com/pUtyoGopP5

— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) April 26, 2023

Those who have pre-loaded the game on PS5 and Xbox Series should have the smoothest experience, as the day one patches here are only a few GB each (though there may also be a mid-week patch to download too that adds a few GB).

Buying Survivor on disc is a completely different story, however, as a significant download is required before users can start playing the game. This is because the file sizes of the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Survivor exceed the 100 GB that can be stored on the Blu-ray discs used for games.

The PS5 base install size is 147.9 GB while the Xbox Series X is 134 GB, with the remaining data being added to the game through a separate download. Essentially, it’s the same as when Red Dead Redemption 2 or Grand Theft Auto 5 came with an install disc and a play disc, except the install disc is now a download. This also means that, despite being a solely single player game, Survive cannot be played without an internet connection.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor shipping this week! https://t.co/p27lVlwrQl pic.twitter.com/0YY6rbsvSe

— Mighty Ape Games (@MightyApeGames) April 23, 2023

While this is advertised on the front of the box in some regions (like in the tweet above), it’s kept to the small print in others. “Internet connection required to download mandatory content updates required to play the game,” reads the terms and conditions on the back of the UK version. “Mandatory content updates require internet connection.”

This is reiterated in the game’s official FAQ, that states: “Players who purchase a physical copy of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be required to connect to the internet to install a Day 1 patch but can play offline after that.”

It’s unclear how big this download is for disc players, but based purely on the math, it will be a minimum of 47.9 GB on PS5 and 34 GB on Xbox Series X. IGN understands it to be a substantial figure, but EA declined to comment when asked for a specific number.

As noted in the previously mentioned tweet from EA, these complicated day one updates won’t be the last of Survivor’s stream of patches. “In the weeks ahead, we’ll deploy patches that will: fix bugs, improve performance, [and] add more accessibility features,” it said

That being said, it should return to a more familiar (and simple) process after it’s all installed on day one. These patches should also be fairly small on console, though PC could be a different story. The PC version of The Last of Us Part 1 just received its seventh update in a month, for example, which came in at a pretty big 25 GB.

Once Survivor is all installed and players can finally start playing, however, they should have a pretty good time. IGN gave the game a 9/10 in our review, saying: “If Respawn makes a third game like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Fallen Order, it’ll complete the best Star Wars trilogy in 30 years, hands down.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

More details have come to light about the decision to halt Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard from from the recent UK Competition and Market Authority (CMA) report. Along with the extensive examination of Microsoft’s current business practices and plans, including its advantage in cloud computing, the CMA also raised concerns about how an increased library of video game content could potentially open the door for Microsoft to make things more costly for consumers.

Detailed in the 400-page report, which gave an extensive and highly detailed overview of Microsoft’s current business plans and how it would affect competitors, the CMA committee highlighted its belief that the Xbox Game Pass service would see its value heightened following potential additions from the Activision Blizzard library — which would give Microsoft an incentive to raise the price.

In the report, the CMA detailed that adding new games into the Microsoft library wasn’t the issue, but rather how having Activision’s games specifically – such as Call of Duty – would influence the catalog.

Having Activision’s content on Game Pass would represent a new option to pay for content that is already available on a buy-to-play basis on Xbox, and it would only represent better value than the status quo for some consumers (which, in any event, would only start to accrue some time after the Merger completes). Moreover, we expect Microsoft to have the incentive to increase the price of Game Pass commensurate with the value enhancement of adding Activision’s valuable content to it, and we found that even a modest price increase would significantly reduce or eliminate any potential RCB (relevant customer benefits).

In its investigation, the CMA committee explained that the gains of relevant customer benefits (RCBs) for this merger, such as the benefits of being able to access Call of Duty via Game Pass, would not outweigh the losses. Not only would the expanded Game Pass post-merger potentially make for a pricier service for consumers, this would also give Xbox more significant edge against the likes of Sony and Nintendo, both of which do not have services as extensive as Microsoft’s Game Pass and its other products.

We recognise that having Activision’s content available on Game Pass is an attractive prospect to some customers and something that, based on the comments we received from the public during this investigation, seems to explain much of the support for this Merger by those in favour of it. On balance, we found that having this new option to pay for content that is already available on a buy-to-play basis on Xbox would not outweigh the overall harm to competition (and, ultimately, consumers) arising from this Merger in the sizeable and rapidly expanding market for cloud gaming services.

As of now, Microsoft is seeking an appeal for the CMA decision to halt the merger, which has steadily been gaining traction ever since its announcement in February 2022. In addition to the details about the potential of Game Pass, the CMA report also included mentions of Nintendo’s current hardware, and how it would likely not be able to play current-gen Call of Duty games, which representatives from Activision Blizzard claimed that it could do.

For a more detailed breakdown of the current about the recent halt to the Microsoft / Activision Blizzard merger, do check out IGN’s explanation detailing everything you need to know.