Blizzard has just made a major change to how World of Warcraft Classic: Wrath of the Lich King’s economy works, and the community is completely furious. Yesterday, it introduced WoW Tokens into Wrath Classic.
On its face, the announcement looks relatively innocuous:
“The WoW Token is now available in Wrath of the Lich King Classic,” it reads. “This in-game item is a great way to exchange gold for game time in a convenient and secure way.”
Blizzard first introduced the WoW Token to World of Warcraft retail back in 2015, during the Warlords of Draenor expansion. Here’s how it works: players can buy a WoW Token with real money, and then sell the WoW Token in World of Warcraft to other players for in-game gold, effectively allowing them to “buy gold” in a legitimate and authorized way. Players who purchase WoW Tokens with their in-game gold can then exchange a token for a month of game time, effectively letting them spend in-game gold to avoid paying a regular subscription fee with real money.
The idea at the time was to curb illegal gold farming operations by offering a legitimate way for players to sell in-game gold, while also letting those who had time to play but were low on real-world funds continue spending time in WoW. While the move was somewhat controversial within the community at the time, and it was never fully able to stop the illegal gold selling economy. Plus, there was a significant upheaval of the system again in 2017 when Blizzard started letting players exchange WoW Tokens for Battle.net balance, temporarily throwing the in-game economy into chaos.
Not So Classic After All
WoW Tokens did eventually become a normal and accepted part of World of Warcraft’s economy and community, and the economy stabilized around them. But now, with their introduction into World of Warcraft Classic: Wrath of the Lich King, the community seems even more torn over the issue than when the token was first introduced.
While WoW Tokens in Wrath of the Lich King Classic work exactly the same as they do in the retail version, there are a few key differences that have the Classic community in turmoil.
For one, Blizzard neither hinted nor otherwise communicated that this change was coming — many players have expressed feeling blindsided by the news and are angry that the in-game economy is going through such a significant upheaval without warning.
But the bigger issue is that many players feel the “integrity” of World of Warcraft Classic is being thrown aside for a quick cash-grab on Blizzard’s part. Blizzard gets a cut of every WoW Token purchase, so adding the tokens to Wrath Classic is a pretty obvious additional revenue source for the developer. But the original Wrath of the Lich King expansion, released in 2008, didn’t have WoW Tokens. And while Blizzard has made some changes to how the expansion works for its Classic release, up until now its most significant shifts were largely quality of life adjustments that the playerbase (largely) was fine with. But it doesn’t seem like many people asked for WoW Tokens.
Wow – in response to the token added to Wrath Classic, the mods of /r/classicwow are now condoning the promotion & use of unofficial private servers: pic.twitter.com/mYvLJCAsLi
The frustration is so palpable that yesterday, the official World of Warcraft Classic subreddit “officially suspended” its rule prohibiting discussion of private servers and cheats for older versions of the game, resulting in a wave of advertisements for alternative playing methods. It’s a bit ironic, given that World of Warcraft Classic originally started as Blizzard’s answer to players creating private servers because the original version of WoW was unavailable in an official capacity.
All that said, not everyone is angry about the tokens. Some people within the community are pointing out that World of Warcraft Classic has had a severe botting problem for some time now, and given that bots tend to be associated with gold farming, this is a logical way to reduce that issue. They also point out that if gold farms were so successful as to need curbing, people who play the game were clearly buying enough gold to warrant them in the first place. Those who are angry, however, have countered that Blizzard didn’t appear to be doing enough to address the major botting problems prior to this, and feel frustrated that seemingly the developer’s first resort was to introduce monetization, rather than using other methods.
While previous upheavals around WoW Tokens have eventually settled, the issues with this specific rendition of it seem poised to change the Classic community for the long haul, though it remains to be seen exactly how. We’ve reached out to Blizzard for comment on the issue and will update if we get a response.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
Tears of the Kingdom is without question the game of the moment, impossibly huge in both scope and scale, as well as sales numbers. With so much to see and explore, with so many options at the fingertips of every player, the opportunity for spectacular moments is limitless. Ask a dozen people how they solved a particular shrine and you’ll get a dozen different answers. But for each person, there’s at least one moment in Tears of the Kingdom that stands above the others, whether it’s a crazy creation, a puzzle solution that seemed like it just shouldn’t work, or an impactful story beat.
The wider NVC crew shares their favorite moments below, but be advised, this is spoiler territory. But if you haven’t played yet, what’s your deal? This game rules!
ALSO: Unsurprisingly there are SPOILERS for the game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom below. If you don’t want anything spoiled, you’ve been warned.
Kat Bailey
Ultrahand has justifiably received the Lynel’s share of attention as fans assemble everything from killer mechs to podracers, but Tears of the Kingdom’s lesser-known abilities have done just as much to enhance my moment-to-moment exploration of Hyrule.
The Ascend ability is pure joy, forcing me to think in three-dimensional terms
To wit, the Ascend ability is pure joy, forcing me to think in three-dimensional terms as I examine ceilings and pillars for entry points. It’s an ability that ties in well with Tears of the Kingdom’s overall design philosophy, which makes a firm point of introducing the Z-axis wherever possible. I especially love the visual of Link swimming through a wall and emerging with an audible “shmmp” before pulling himself out of the floor.
Tears of the Kingdom’s puzzles are designed to encourage use of these abilities whenever possible, and they’ve quickly become second nature. As Seth alludes to in his own answer, the Wind Temple almost feels like a final test, encouraging you to use your full set of abilities as you ascend into the heavens. It was this sequence in particular that really drove home Tears of the Kingdom’s scale, making it my favorite so far, and it’s all thanks to Tears of the Kingdom’s well-designed abilities.
Peer Schneider
My favorite thing about the game so far isn’t any one specific moment – though dropping out of the sky all the way down into the “Mines of Moria” is quite special – it’s those moments when you feel like you’re the only person to solve a puzzle a certain way. We wrote an article about people building long bridges, so I know I’m not special. But my sons watching me play were dumbfounded when they saw me glue together an implausible amount of tree trunks just to cross the chasm to Rito Village. “If you talk to that NPC, they’ll tell you an easier way to get over there,” they said. “I don’t take directions from NPCs”, I said.
We’re still so used to limitations in games that when something like this works, we can’t help but be impressed. Someone programmed this, someone made the game systems flexible enough for it to work. It’s not long ago that characters in open world games were stopped dead in their tracks by tiny fences. Or you failed a puzzle not because you didn’t understand it, but because you didn’t stand in exactly the right place when hitting the button.
There’s no better feeling than playing a game that removes those age-old limitations and just lets you go wild.
There’s no better feeling than playing a game that removes those age-old limitations and just lets you go wild. My favorite moment in Tears of the Kingdom is that sense of freedom and how it beckons players to experiment. It instantly turns side quests and minor diversions into a crucial part of the experience – and the player becomes the story, instead of just witnessing it.
Brendan Graeber
I’ve been relentlessly bombarded by favorite moments for over 100 hours now, but let’s go back to one of my first: The Depths. Every time Nintendo showed a glimpse of Hyrule, or teased a few sky islands, I knew they were holding something close to the chest, but I only had guesses at what. When we finally got a few glimpses of dark underground areas in early leaked commercials, I thought I had it all figured out. I still wasn’t ready.
There’s so much about this place that is wild to me. The fact that something this big is introduced as some small side plot to the main quest. The fact that they just ask you to jump down a hole with not even a hint or warning of how massive and foreboding this literal dark world is. The fact that hours later, I still get a chill down my spine each time the loud horn heralds my arrival.
I thought I had it all figured out. I still wasn’t ready.
I could handle the altered terrain of Hyrule’s surface, and I could deal with a collection of strange floating islands. But getting my first look at The Depths was when it really hit me that Nintendo wanted me to stop focusing on what had carried over from Breath of the Wild, and start focusing on how much the rules had changed.
Seth G. Macy
The wait for Tears of the Kingdom was almost unbearable for me, a fully grown man who otherwise leads a normal life. I was beyond excited when I finally started it up and set out on my new journey, but there was a problem. Breath of the Wild has been my favorite game, period, ever since its release, but Tears of the Kingdom was only meeting, not exceeding, my love for its predecessor.
That is, until I hit my first dungeon.
I had read, and heard, dungeons were back for Tears of the Kingdom, something everyone had said they wanted for years. But I had also heard they weren’t “Zelda” dungeons in the traditional sense. There was no secret item locked away you had to first uncover before you could solve the puzzles, no iron boots to allow Link to sink to the bottom of a water hazard or hookshot to swing across open gaps.
I felt a level of satisfaction that I didn’t know I needed in my life.
That remains true, but I would argue the dungeon are as “Zelda” as they come, but they smartly use the vocabulary of Tears of the Kingdom and all its varied powers and abilities in a way that makes them feel perfectly familiar without feeling tired. As I made my way through my first one, using the powers of Ultrahand and Ascend and Rewind, I found puzzles requiring me to use the special powers of my companion, which is what makes these classic dungeons afterall. “How do I get there?” was a question I found myself asking quite a lot, but the solution was always within my reach, it just wasn’t always immediately apparent to my mental grasp.
Once I completed my first dungeon (I’ve taken great pains not to say which one I did first), I felt a level of satisfaction that I didn’t know I needed in my life, and I looked back at my time with Breath of the Wild with a touch of sadness. It was a bittersweet realization that Tears of the Kingdom is now my all-time favorite game, but I don’t know if I have any reason to return to a post-Calamity Hyrule in Breath of the Wild ever again.
Reb Valentine
When I first played Breath of the Wild, I liked the game immediately. But I didn’t love Breath of the Wild until a magical moment early on when I, with only a few hearts and a smattering of stick and rusted weapons, followed a series of quests and landmarks to the top of a mountain where I met the dragon Naydra. She was covered in Malice, and despite being weak and barely able to handle the cold around her icy form while stuffing my mouth full of peppers, I fought off the Malice and saved her.
Nothing about this game is as memorable to me as the sudden and unexpected moments of pure magic born out of nothing more than curiosity.
Once she was set free, I flew with her across the plains below, riding on her icy updrafts, surrounded by frosty magic and wonder. The encounter with Naydra, totally organic and born of my own curiosity, was the first moment of pure magic I experienced in Breath of the Wild, and it colored my experiences of the entire game from then on.
A few nights ago in Tears of the Kingdom, I was trying to sneak around a guy who wouldn’t let me explore some ruins in Kakariko Village when I suddenly saw her: Naydra. She was descending into a nearby chasm. I immediately dove from the nearest cliff after her, riding in the winds alongside her snake-like body until we arrived in the Depths, where her blue glow was the only light around.
I drifted onto her snout and sat there, transfixed, as we floated through almost total darkness for several minutes, before finally riding straight up through another chasm for a patrol around eastern Hyrule. After some time, she looped back to Kakariko Village, and I said my goodbyes.
I could praise the puzzle design, or the open world, or the witty NPC writing, or the music, or anything else about Tears of the Kingdom all day. But nothing about this game is as memorable to me as these sudden and unexpected moments of pure magic born out of nothing more than curiosity and a world that moves on its own, with or without my input. Thanks for the ride, Naydra.
Brian Altano
Diamonds are one of the rarest and most valuable resources in Tears of the Kingdom, and while selling them off to buy armor sets or upgrades for Link’s house is certainly a good bet, fusing them to certain weapons can create some really strong and durable results. Unless you’re an idiot like me. Early on in my adventure across (and above and below) Hyrule, I got my hands on a Royal Shield, a fairly tough shield with good defense.
There’s always a chance your really great idea turns out to be a really dumb one.
At this point I had already experimented with lots of creative weapon fusions and had mostly gotten lucky with the outcomes so I confidently tried sticking my one and only diamond to my shield thinking it would create some incredibly shiny, beautiful, and super tough shield that would last me for hours against hordes of Bokoblins and even a Stone Tallus or two. Instead I got a.. Shield with a big ass diamond stuck to the front of it. It made no sense and it made perfect sense at the same time, and it’s stupid to part with or destroy, so I’ve kept it 90 hours later as a reminder that not all fusions are created equally and to never get too cocky or confident in Tears of the Kingdom because there’s always a chance your really great idea turns out to be a really dumb one.
So there you have it, our favorite moments so far. Feel free to share yours in the comments, I read them. Seriously!
Sega Europe has laid off 121 employees at Relic Entertainment, while blaming the “incredibly difficult” decision on “external factors” affecting the games industry.
“Relic Entertainment and SEGA Europe want to share the difficult news that our studio has been impacted by layoffs, affecting 121 employees,” read a Twitter statement from the Vancouver-based studio.
“This comes at a time when external factors are challenging our industry more than ever, and we made this decision to restructure our organisation to ensure maximum focus is placed on our core franchises.”
The newly announced layoffs affect a significant proportion of the studio’s workforce, spanning from concept artists to audio and VFX designers. Over the years, the workers at Relic have developed a number of well regarded strategy games in the Company of Heroes, Homeworld, and Age of Empires franchises.
“Relic and SEGA remain fully committed to supporting and investing in our titles, including the recently released Company of Heroes 3,” continued the studio statement. “We’re confident that following this necessary restructuring, Relic will be in a position of strength to continue delivering outstanding experiences to players all over the world.”
Sad to announce that I was laid off this morning in a mass reduction at Relic, a week before my one year anniversary. Wishing the best to my colleagues that we all end up okay. I am heartbroken, and devastated.
In the wake of the announcement, many members of the gaming community reached out with messages of support for those who had found their professional lives upturned by the layoffs, while some industry professionals extended leads where former Relic employees might find new employment.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
May 18 marked the 12th annualGlobal Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), a day to celebrate and raise awareness for accessibility across varying industries. Not only does it help to highlight new innovations, it also continuously reinforces the notion that disabled people need assistive tech to thrive. For games, studios regularly refine and create new options and design practices seeking to eliminate as many barriers as possible.
2023 is already off to a strong start, with options and design practices pushing accessibility beyond some of last year’s biggest hits. It’s quickly becoming apparent that disabled players no longer need to hope for accessibility to be included in a game, but rather can comfortably join in the excitement of new titles. But beyond adding features, many of 2023’s announcements and releases demonstrate the necessity to explore new types of accessibility and even open entire systems to a significant group of disabled players. To celebrate GAAD, let’s explore some of my favorite accessibility highlights from the past five months.
Access Controller
In January, during PlayStation’s CES conference, the studio revealedProject Leonardo, an adaptive controller designed for physically disabled individuals. With approximately eight customizable buttons, a control stick with three different shapes and sizes, and even four 3.5mm AUX ports, PlayStation finally addressed its lack of accessible hardware.
This is my most anticipated release, and arguably, my favorite announcement from this year. Despite the software accessibility that PlayStation studios like Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, and Insomniac Games regularly incorporate into their titles, I’ve never been able to play a PS5 game. And several years after the release of the PS4, I lost the ability to hold standard controllers, meaning that I haven’t been able to experience PlayStation’s accessibility efforts, even in games like The Last of Us Part II. The Access Controller is what I’ve been wanting, and quite frankly needing from a studio that actively shut physically disabled players like me out for years. While it’s still too early to know information like cost, and even button and stick sensitivity, its announcement is indicative of PlayStation’s continuous growth in accessibility.
Dead Space
Motive Studio’s remake of the original Dead Space includes common accessibility options like customizable controls, subtitles, and colorblind settings. Yet, the extensive content warnings and censors are why I’m choosing to highlight this game. Content warnings in games aren’t new – Arachnophobia Modes in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Grounded, warnings of self-harm and suicide in Doki Doki Literature Club, and even Chicory: A Colorful Tale lets players skip scenes that deal with depression. But Dead Space seamlessly integrates mental health accessibility while still maintaining the core themes of isolation and fear.
Traumatic images and themes can be censored, like suicide, or even specific phrases that deal with self-harm in text logs. Yet, Isaac Clarke still must survive within the abandoned halls of the USG Ishimura. What makes Dead Space stand out amongst incredibly accessible games is the fact that it chooses to incorporate and highlight mental health accessibility in a way that doesn’t diminish the fear that players feel. Horror, like all genres, can be accessible for those with varying mental health disabilities, and Dead Space demonstrates how horror can be both entertaining and accessible.
Forza Motorsport
Xbox recently announced a new set of accessibility features for its flagship racing series. Blind Driving Assists offer numerous audio cues and steering assists that seek to remove barriers for blind/low vision players when racing. Whether turning, driving on straightaways, or even when changing speeds, each action is conveyed through aural messages.
Forza’s accessibility efforts are in line with the greater accessibility movement. However, blind/low vision players still cannot fully enjoy most titles in this industry. What makes Blind Driving Assists one of my favorite reveals of this year is that it opens a new genre to a group of disabled players. Despite my disability, I still have my preferred franchises. I can usually purchase a new game and complete it without assistance. Blind/low vision accessibility still seems like it’s in its infancy despite the continuous rise and acceptance of accessibility in this industry. While we still don’t know how effective Blind Driving Assists will be for disabled players, Turn 10 Studios’ attempts to eliminate unintentional barriers is worthy of mention.
The Last of Us Part I Remake
On March 28, PlayStation released The Last of Us Part I on the PC. Not only was it the first in the series to become available to PC players, but it also featured extensive accessibility settings. When discussing accessibility, we often ask questions pertaining to software. How are studios implementing accessible options and designs? What settings are necessary for players with physical disabilities? A key aspect that is often overlooked in these conversations are talks about hardware. For the first time since the original release in 2013, I was able to play The Last of Us.
Yes, the port was filled with numerous bugs, even those affecting accessibility. In my playthrough, I constantly encountered key binding issues that absolutely increased my physical exhaustion. And yes, I frequently witnessed visual bugs that were regularly shared on social media sites. Even though it’s a shame my first experience with The Last of Us series was marred with baffling glitches, I was finally able to experience an iconic game for myself.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day shouldn’t be a singular day just to highlight new announcements. We should celebrate by examining the industry’s successes throughout the year. It should also be a day to remind the greater gaming industry that disabled people exist. Disabled writers and reporters, content creators, and developers are active participants alongside disabled consumers. It’s one thing to be able to play games, but to be able to unapologetically be ourselves in an industry that is still unsure of how to properly treat disabled people is proof that more work is required. If anything, this GAAD demonstrates that accessibility is a continuous journey, one that gets even more exciting with each passing year.
Grant Stoner is a disabled journalist covering accessibility and the disabled perspective in video games. When not writing, he is usually screaming about Pokémon or his cat, Goomba on Twitter.
After launching a new generation of desktop graphics cards last December, AMD has officially announced the third GPU in the Radeon RX 7000 line — the RX 7600, succeeding the Radeon RX 6600.
The Radeon RX 7600 features 8GB of GDDR6 memory, a board power of 165 watts, and 32 unified RDNA 3 compute units. AMD’s latest GPU is designed for players that prefer gaming at 1080p resolution. AMD claims the Radeon RX 7600 touts that the RX 7600 performs 34 percent better on average than Nvidia’s RTX 3060 8GB model and 17 percent better than the RTX 3060 12GB model for 60+ FPS and 1080p resolution.
Here’s a highlight of the specs:
AMD RDNA 3 Architecture
8GB of GDDR6 Memory
2.25GHz Game Clock
Up to 2.66GHz Boost Clock
32 Compute Units & Ray Accelerators
165 Watts of Total Board Power
Support for AV1 HW. Encoding
The RX 7600 is designed to be a budget-friendly 1080p GPU and is a good competitor to Nvidia’s recently-released RTX 4060 Ti. While most GPUs today are typically aimed at 1440p or 4K gaming, AMD explains how 1080p is still relevant to the market, citing Steam’s April 2023 Hardware and Software survey, which shows that 65 percent of gamers are still playing games at this resolution.
The Radeon RX 7600 will launch on May 25 for a starting price of $299.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Street Fighter 6 and Chipotle announced that they have formed an official partnership to bring players exclusive rewards and prizes in the game starting on June 2. Later in the year, the game will also add Chipotle Daily Brackets, Battle Hub signage, and Chiptole-branded avatar items.
Those who place qualifying digital orders through the Chipotle app and the chipotle.com website using the promo code HDKN236* will receive a code for 250 Fighter Coins, Street Fighter 6’s in-game currency. These coins can be used to purchase characters, outfits, alternative colors, stamps, avatar emotes, and gear in the in-game shop. Additionally, Chipotle Rewards members can redeem 250 points in exchange for 250 Fighter Coins.
“Our FGC partnerships closely align Chipotle to a passionate and competitive community of gamers who are looking for convenient, delicious, and healthy options while playing titles like Street Fighter 6,” explained Chipotle chief marketing officer Chris Brandt. He continued, “We’re thrilled to be able to enhance gameplay and unlock fun experiences for gamers.”
Chipotle will also be a presenting sponsor for EVO 2023 and a sponsor for Combo Breaker. The Chipotle Challenger Series will return on June 17, where community members can compete for cash prizes, a year’s supply of burritos, and more. The top two teams in the tournament will also win a free trip to EVO 2023
Over on Twitch, Chipotle will give out a total of 500,000 free chips and guac offers to Chipotle Rewards members in the community who watch one hour or more of live streams on participating channels.
Street Fighter 6 launches on June 2 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. In IGN’s Street Fighter 6 preview, we said, “Street Fighter 6 is shaping up to be the whole package, and certainly the most fully featured a Street Fighter game has ever been at the beginning of its lifecycle.”
The PlayStation VR2 is off to a stronger start than previous reports indicated as Sony has revealed the virtual reality headset had a better launch than the original PSVR.
Shared in a business presentation, Sony revealed that the PSVR 2’s first six weeks outperformed the original PSVR’s first six weeks, coming in at just below 600,000 units sold. Specific numbers are unclear on the provided graph (below), but the original PSVR came in closer to 500,000.
In our 9/10 review, IGN said: “With top-notch visual quality and immersively tactile Sense controllers, PlayStation VR2 represents a quantum leap over its predecessor, setting a new standard for console VR gaming.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Mortal Kombat 1 has been announced, and it’s bringing its unexpected title to next-gen consoles in September. Meanwhile, Alan Wake 2’s voice actor may have just spoiled the release date for Remedy’s upcoming survival-horror sequel. We discuss these two games, along with the Fall release calendar for Xbox that’s now starting to come into focus. Plus: we’re not buying the idea that GTA 6 might be out next year, and more!
Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out our interview with Todd Howard, who answered all of our Starfield questions after the big reveal at the Xbox Showcase:
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum launches this Thursday, May 25, but the entire game has been leaked online ahead of release.
We won’t share or link to any spoilers here, but someone posted a video walkthrough of the whole game on YouTube. The video has since been taken down, but it stayed online for several hours before it was removed. There are threads on both Reddit and resetera discussing the leaked footage. IGN has reached out to developer Daedalic Entertainment for comment.
On Thursday, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will launch on PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. A Nintendo Switch version is scheduled for sometime later this year.
Players will sneak around Middle-earth while making choices to align with either the darker Gollum or gentler Sméagol. The gameplay will also feature elements of stealth and parkour.
It’s been a long road to release for Gollum, as the game was originally scheduled to come out in 2021. After a pile of delays, we learned of its current release date earlier this year.
We went hands-on with the game back in March, and we said, “The Lord of the Rings: Gollum does at least make a good first impression, outlining a solid case for piloting one of the strangest and yet most important characters in the lore.”
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
It may be hard to believe, but the first PlayStation Showcase since April 13, 2021, is nearly here. Sure, we’ve had State of Plays and other presentations, but Sony seems to save these showcases for the biggest of moments. I mean, the last one had God of War: Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake, Wolverine, and so much more. So, this is probably one show PlayStation fans don’t want to miss.
This guide will provide you with everything you need to know to watch the latest PlayStation Showcase, including when it starts, a list of places you can watch it with us, and what you can expect.
PlayStation Showcase May 2023 Start Time
The newest PlayStation Showcase will take place on Wednesday, May 24, at 1pm PT/4pm ET/9pm BST. If you live in Australia, this translates to 6am AEST on Thursday, May 25. We may not know exactly what games will be featured in the show, but Sony did confirm the PlayStation Showcase will run for “a bit over an hour.”
The crew of IGN’s Beyond! will also be hosting a special pre and post-show for the PlayStation Showcase that will take place 30 minutes before the start of Sony’s stream and will continue right after it ends. It’s an exciting time as the PlayStation Showcase will also kick off IGN’s Summer of Gaming coverage, and you can check all the details on that right here.
Where to Watch the PlayStation Showcase May 2023
If you’re interested in watching the PlayStation Showcase broadcast yourself, we’ll host the stream here and across our many channels like YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Here’s the full list of places you can watch the PlayStation Showcase on Wednesday, May 24.
PlayStation isn’t confirming any single game that will be part of the a bit over an hour-long showcase, but it did confirm it will focus on “PS5 and PS VR2 games in development from top studios around the world.” We can also expect “several new creations from PlayStation Studios, as well as spellbinding games from our third-part partners and indie creators.”
We’re also waiting to hear our next update on third-party exclusives like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which currently has a release window of Winter 2023/2024, and more details on Death Stranding 2, Silent Hill 2 Remake, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
PlayStation also tends to feature big third-party games that also appear on other consoles, so we could learn more about games like Mortal Kombat 1, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Call of Duty, Alan Wake 2, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, any of the many Star Wars games in development, and more.
As for PS VR2, there are a lot of questions in regards to its future and how much PlayStation is going to support it from its first-party studios. PS VR2 launched with Horizon: Call of the Mountain, but will we get VR experiences from PlayStation’s other biggest franchises? We know many would love a sequel to Astro Bot: Rescue Mission and other big hitters from franchises like God of War, The Last of Us, Uncharted, and others. However, big third-party support can be just as valuable, as an announcement the caliber of Half-Life: Alyx would be a big deal.
We’ve mentioned a lot of games here, and hopefully the PlayStation Showcase is filled with many of them and even more surprises. Let us know below what you are most excited to see at the show, and stay tuned to IGN for our coverage of the PlayStation Showcase and all the biggest news, trailers, gameplay, and more!
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
