Gaming
PlayStation Plus PC app shuts down Dec. 10, used by under 0.4% of eligible Premium members
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Sony is switching off the PlayStation Plus PC app on December 10, ending the only official way for Windows users to stream PlayStation games without owning a console. The company announced the move on November 10 and said it will notify affected users directly.
Why Sony says it is ending the PlayStation Plus PC app
Sony’s explanation rests on a single number. In its announcement, the company said fewer than 0.4 percent of eligible PlayStation Plus Premium members were using the app on PC. Cutting it, Sony said, lets it focus on “high-quality experiences that more of our members want to use.” The app was a perk of the Premium tier, which let subscribers stream certain games to a PC.
Sony did not say what it plans to build with the freed-up resources. It did point to the options that remain: Premium subscribers can still stream games on a console or on the PlayStation Portal handheld.
What PC players lose
The practical loss is flexibility. IGN noted that, apart from the small number of games Sony has ported to Windows, the app was the best way to play PS5 games on a PC, even though they were streamed. After December 10, the only remaining way to play PS5 games away from a console is Remote Play. It requires a console to be switched on and connected to the same network, so it is a different tool from a subscription cloud service.
That contrasts with Microsoft’s setup, where Game Pass subscribers can stream to a phone or PC without a console in the house. IGN’s report also noted a wrinkle: GTA 6 is the exception on Xbox’s service, since Xbox Cloud Gaming will only carry it for Xbox One consoles.
A pattern of stepping back from PC
The shutdown follows reports earlier this year that Sony is pulling back from PC and no longer plans to release PC ports of its exclusive games. IGN said Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Herman Hulst told employees that the PC ports had been “inconsistent” and did not make enough money. The company’s reasoning on the PlayStation Plus PC app is similar: a small audience that does not justify the investment.
Taken together, the moves point to a console-first approach. Sony appears to be concentrating its single-player games and its subscription perks on its own hardware rather than courting players on other platforms.
Timing against rising hardware costs
IGN argued the timing is awkward. Consoles are getting more expensive, and it cited a PS5 Pro price of $1,559 on Amazon at the time of writing. When hardware costs climb, cloud streaming becomes a more attractive way to play, and IGN suggested Sony is backing away from it, “if even just a little bit.”
Sony’s rivals are not offering unlimited access either. IGN reported that Microsoft this month capped Xbox Cloud Gaming for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers at 15 hours of play before they must pay for more time. Nvidia’s GeForce Now also has limits, at 100 hours a month. Sony has so far avoided such caps, but that is cold comfort for PC users who will soon have no app to stream with.
What to do before December 10
PlayStation Plus Premium members who have been streaming on a PC should expect a notice from Sony. After December 10 they will need a console or a PlayStation Portal to keep streaming. With under 0.4 percent of eligible members affected, according to Sony’s own figure, the change will be small in scale. For those users, though, the PlayStation Plus PC app is about to lose its place as the easiest way into the PlayStation library without a console.
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GTA 6 Is the Most Pre-Ordered Game on Xbox and PlayStation, With Pre-Loads Live Nine Days Before Launch
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Grand Theft Auto 6 is now the most pre-ordered game on both of the big console storefronts, according to reports citing Sony and Microsoft. The claim arrives just ahead of the game’s November 19 release, and it comes with a practical consequence: players can download the game now.
Sony made its version of the announcement in a PlayStation Blog post confirming that pre-loading is live. “Grand Theft Auto 6 is now the most pre-ordered game in the history of PlayStation Store,” the company wrote. It said the “unprecedented demand” led it to work with Rockstar Games so players could begin pre-loading nine days early. Sony also urged anyone planning to play on day one to start the download as soon as possible.
What the “most pre-ordered game” claim does and doesn’t mean
The wording is narrower than the headlines suggest. Eurogamer noted that Sony’s boast covers the digital PlayStation Store, not PlayStation as a whole. Physical pre-orders at retailers aren’t part of that record. GamesRadar+ and PC Gamer both frame the milestone as applying to Xbox as well. However, the source material available here didn’t include Microsoft’s wording or any actual pre-order figures from either company.
That absence matters. Neither platform holder has put a number on this record, so it can’t yet be compared with anything outside their own storefronts. For now, it’s a statement about relative demand rather than a measure of total sales.
Take-Two says the numbers are tracking high
The platform announcements follow a Take-Two earnings call, where chief executive Strauss Zelnick said GTA 6 pre-orders are tracking “far above expectations.” He said the numbers would “speak for themselves” before long. He also predicted the game would “set a new baseline” for the company’s success. Eurogamer reports that GTA 6 is widely expected to become the best-selling entry in an already enormous series, though that remains an expectation rather than a result.
What players should know before launch
The game unlocks when each region’s clock passes midnight into November 19. Players in time zones further ahead, such as New Zealand, will get to play before everyone else. Sony’s blog post also highlighted PS5 and PS5 Pro features for the game. Eurogamer’s coverage says the PS5 Pro enhancements will still run the game at 30 frames per second.
On Xbox, cloud streaming is supported, but Rockstar has ruled out streaming the game from an Xbox to a PC. Eurogamer says an older Xbox One can be used as a streaming target instead.
Pre-loading mostly guards against the launch-day rush. With the most pre-ordered game in PlayStation Store history, and by reports Xbox’s too, about to unlock everywhere at once, Sony’s advice to download early looks sensible. Whether the record translates into record sales is something Take-Two will have to show with real numbers after launch.
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Golden Joystick Awards 2026: 25 Categories Decided Live on November 11, and Here’s How to Watch
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The Golden Joystick Awards 2026 arrive this Wednesday, November 11, when winners across 25 categories will be revealed in a live show open to viewers around the world.
When to watch the Golden Joystick Awards 2026
According to TechRadar, the ceremony starts at 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 6PM GMT / 7PM CEST. Viewers can follow it live on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, X and Future Games, among other platforms. Because the stream is free and spread across so many services, there is little reason to miss it, whatever your time zone.
Who is hosting and presenting
This year’s host is actor Alix Wilton Regan, known for roles in Dragon Age: Inquisition and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis. She will be joined by guest presenters from across the industry. The announced names include Rare composer Chloe Kwok, art and creative director Rex Crowle, Paddle Paddle Paddle developer Mateo Covic, and interviewer and presenter AlicesPixels.
The lineup also includes Resident Evil Requiem actor Nick Apostolides, CD Projekt Red production director Malgorzata Mitrega, composer Richard Jacques, and Control Resonant actor Frankie Kevich. The mix of performers, composers, developers and creative directors fits the show’s broad focus on the people behind games as well as the games themselves.
What’s at stake: the nominations
The headline prize is Ultimate Game of the Year, one of the 25 categories up for grabs. TechRadar reports that 007 First Light, Big Walk and Resident Evil Requiem lead the nominations. That puts a licensed spy adventure, a quirkier title and a major horror franchise entry in competition at the top of the field. None of the sources we reviewed lists the full set of nominees or any results, so the winners will not be known until the show airs.
What to expect
PC Gamer and GamesRadar+ have also published their own guides to the Golden Joystick Awards 2026, though the available excerpts mostly contain site navigation rather than extra details. The key facts come from TechRadar’s guide: the date, the time, the streaming platforms, the host, the presenters and the category count.
For anyone planning to tune in, the practical advice is simple. Check the start time for your region, pick a platform, and be ready for a long list of winners. With 25 categories and a crowded presenter roster, the Golden Joystick Awards 2026 look set to cover a lot of ground in a single evening.
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Silksong’s Physical Edition Promises Multiple Free Content Packs, but Sea of Sorrow Still Has No Date
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Hollow Knight: Silksong’s physical release has delivered an unexpected piece of news: the game’s pack-in booklet promises multiple free content packs, alongside the already announced Sea of Sorrow expansion. Fans welcomed the confirmation, though the mood cooled quickly when it became clear that nobody has a firm date for the expansion.
Physical copies were due to be delivered from 10 November, but some early arrivals gave the community a look inside the box. According to Eurogamer, a Reddit user posted photos of their Nintendo Switch 2 edition, including the manual’s section on content packs. “The world of Hollow Knight: Silksong will expand with free content packs,” the booklet reads, promising “new friends, new abilities, and new ferocious foes.”
What the booklet actually says
The same text describes Sea of Sorrow as “the first giant expansion,” in which players will “voyage across and beneath a salt-stricken ocean brimming with mystery and menace.” Two details matter here. “First” suggests Team Cherry sees Sea of Sorrow as the opening chapter of a longer post-launch plan, not a one-off. And the plural “free content packs” is the clearest indication yet that the support goes beyond a single paid or free add-on.
Team Cherry said last year that it planned to keep supporting Silksong after launch but gave few specifics. Sea of Sorrow was later announced with a vague 2026 window. The booklet’s wording is the first printed confirmation of the broader plan, though it doesn’t say how many free content packs to expect, what each will contain or when they will arrive.
Why the excitement cooled
The booklet lists Sea of Sorrow as “Coming Soon” and gives no date. GamesRadar’s coverage framed the news as a rollercoaster: players jumped at the talk of free content packs and a giant expansion, then dropped back down as the expansion’s release date seemingly vanished. The text of that article was not available for this report, so the details of what changed on that front can’t be confirmed here. Eurogamer, for its part, notes that the 2026 window is running short and that there is still no date.
The wait is hardly a surprise. Team Cherry has a reputation for letting projects grow well beyond their original scope. Silksong itself began life as a planned Hollow Knight DLC before becoming a full sequel. Many players will see that history as a reason for patience, given how large and detailed the studio’s worlds tend to be.
There is also precedent for generosity. The original Hollow Knight received a run of free post-launch updates, which is why many fans expected something similar for Silksong. The booklet is the first official sign that this is the plan.
For now, the physical edition’s extras are the tangible part of the story: a large map of Pharloom and booklet art taken from the game. The free content packs and Sea of Sorrow remain promises with no dates attached, so anyone eager to dive back into Pharloom will have to wait for Team Cherry to say more.
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Grand Theft Auto 6 Festival Lands in Miami on Nov. 21, With a Ticket Lottery Closing Tuesday
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The Grand Theft Auto 6 festival is real, and fans have less than a day to enter the lottery for a chance at tickets. Rockstar Games and PlayStation announced a one-night event at Mana Wynwood in Miami on November 21, two days after the long-awaited game arrives on November 19, roughly 13 years after its predecessor.
Who is playing the Grand Theft Auto 6 festival
The festival will run across two stages and draws on the artists tied to the game and its official soundtrack. Travis Scott, Cardi B, Justice and Metro Boomin top the bill. Scott is leading a Cactus Jack showing alongside Don Toliver, Kodak Black and SoFaygo. Rauw Alejandro will front a guest-filled set billed as “Rauw & Friends.”
The Latin contingent includes Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso, Tainy and Suero. French duo Justice, who composed the game’s score and contributed several songs to the soundtrack, will also anchor a run of DJ sets.
The decks lean heavily on electronic music, a nod to the game’s Florida-inspired setting of Leonida and Miami’s dance scene. Billed pairings include Nick León with DJ Python, Prospa with Skream, and The Dare with Fcukers. León is from South Florida, while Kodak Black is another local name on the lineup.
How to get tickets before the lottery closes
Access is by lottery. Fans must register through DICE by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 10. Those selected can buy tickets on Wednesday, November 11, with Rolling Stone reporting a limit of two per person. Further details are on the event’s official website.
Because entry is a draw rather than first-come, first-served, registering matters more than being quick on the day. No capacity or ticket price was given in the coverage reviewed, so it is unclear how many people will get in.
A launch built around music
The event fits a rollout in which music has been central. NME reports that the game will be available to pre-load from Tuesday ahead of its November 19 release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. A companion soundtrack arrives the same day, featuring PinkPantheress, Future, Yung Lean, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Tame Impala, Fuerza Regida and others. Rolling Stone adds that Justice’s score is due separately on December 11.
Rockstar has also promised what it calls “the biggest and widest-ranging” selection of in-game radio music. Six stations have been announced so far, including Bad Bunny’s Cocoteo FM, Burna Boy’s AfroBank FM, Robyn’s Flash FM and a Back Country Radio hosted by Lana Del Rey and her husband Jeremy Dufrene. Slayer’s Kerry King and Tom Araya host The Chamber 106.6.
For Rockstar, the Grand Theft Auto 6 festival works as a live extension of that strategy. It turns a soundtrack that has mostly been discussed as a track list into a single night in a real city that mirrors the game’s world. Whether the lottery demand matches the hype around the game itself will become clearer once the draw closes.
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Master Quest DLC Found in Ocarina of Time Remake Files, and a Mystery Mask Has Fans Eyeing Majora’s Mask
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Less than a week after Nintendo’s Ocarina of Time remake arrived on Switch 2, dataminers say they have found what looks like Master Quest DLC buried in its code, along with an unexplained mask that has fans speculating about Majora’s Mask. Neither discovery is confirmed by Nintendo, but the two finds are very different in how solid they appear.
What the files suggest about Master Quest
The stronger of the two findings comes from dataminer MrCheeze, who located what appear to be Master Quest files in the game. Fellow dataminer OatmealDome says he has confirmed them. Master Quest is the remixed, tougher version of Ocarina of Time that first appeared on the 2003 GameCube release and returned in the 2011 3DS remake. Its absence from the Switch 2 version disappointed many fans.
According to OatmealDome, the mode is set to be unlocked by owning DLC, not delivered as a patch to every player. The data is incomplete, but he says the world is mirrored and dungeons are altered. One example he gave was cows appearing in Jabu-Jabu’s Belly. He also noted that the current patch checks for only one DLC, labeled “MQ,” so the files say nothing about any other add-ons.
Pricing is the open question. Nintendo could release the Master Quest DLC for free, perhaps as a perk for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, or it could charge for it. OatmealDome questioned why Nintendo would build a DLC unlock if it planned to give the mode away through a normal update.
The mystery mask and the Majora’s Mask theory
The Majora’s Mask speculation is far more tentative. It stems from a video by YouTuber Austin John Plays, who tested how amiibo work in the remake. Two figures, Young Link and Young Zelda, are due in 2027 and unlock wearable masks. By editing NFC tags, the creator got both masks working early and saw how NPCs around Hyrule react to each one.
He also found dialogue for a third mask that no known figure accounts for. Characters describe it as “rare,” “strange” and “otherworldly,” and Dampé says, “What’s with that mask? Lookin’ at it makes me feel weird.” The text sounds to many like reactions to Majora’s Mask itself, though the data never names it or says what the item looks like.
Austin John Plays suggests the dialogue could belong to an unannounced Skull Kid amiibo tied to a Majora’s Mask remake. He goes so far as to speculate that such a remake might already be largely finished, helped by work done for Ocarina of Time. Kotaku called it the most convincing hint fans have found so far, pointing also to the remake’s Happy Mask Shopkeeper, a figure central to Majora’s Mask, who appears modeled on his sequel design.
How much weight to give the finds
The sources agree that caution is warranted. Unused dialogue can point to a standalone amiibo, a different unique mask, or nothing at all. The Master Quest DLC evidence looks firmer because the files exist and a second dataminer has verified them, but the data is unfinished and its release terms are unknown.
For now, Nintendo has said nothing about either. What the files do show is that the company appears to have planned for more content than the launch version offers, and fans will be watching for an announcement.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Dataminers Uncover Potential Majora's Mask, Master Quest DLC Hints (IGN)
- Ocarina Of Time Remake Dataminers Find Evidence Of Master Quest DLC And Maybe Majora’s Mask Remake (Kotaku)
- Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake files may hint at Master Quest DLC and Majora's Mask remake (GamesRadar)
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Assassin’s Creed Hexe Reportedly Slips to 2028 as Two Unannounced Games Leak
Assassin’s Creed Hexe, Ubisoft’s long-teased witchcraft-flavored entry in the franchise, has reportedly been pushed from a planned 2027 release to 2028. The claim arrives alongside leaks about two other unannounced games in the series. None of it has been confirmed by Ubisoft, so all of it should be read as unverified.
What the reports say about Assassin’s Creed Hexe
According to Insider Gaming, the internal target for Assassin’s Creed Hexe has moved back a full year. The outlet says the project’s development “had issues,” including the departure of several high-level developers from Ubisoft while the game was in production. Hexe was first teased in 2022 and is meant to have a more magical tone, set in the Holy Roman Empire during the 17th century. Ubisoft has said it will share more next year, but the public has yet to see the game in action.
That long silence helps explain why a delay report feels plausible to many fans, though the sources give no official explanation and no new date from the publisher.
Two new Assassin’s Creed leaks
The delay story landed just after Ubisoft insider j0nathan posted a YouTube video on Nov. 6 teasing two more games. The first, codenamed Mars, is described as a traditional Assassin’s Creed adventure set in Ancient Rome. That is the same era as the franchise’s upcoming Netflix adaptation. The second, Assassin’s Creed Pocket, is a mobile game inspired by the Mastery Challenges in Valhalla and set in Jerusalem.
Insider Gaming said the next day that it had heard of projects with similar codenames. It said it could not verify them well enough to report on them first. What it did verify was the Hexe schedule change, and it added a longer-range estimate: Mars likely wouldn’t be released, or even revealed, until 2029 or 2030 at the earliest.
What it means for the series
If the reports are accurate, the rest of the decade looks busy but back-loaded. A mobile spin-off and a return to Rome would sit alongside a Hexe launch that arrives later than expected. Players would then have a long wait for the next mainline-style release. For now, the current release on the calendar is Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, which is already out.
Ubisoft has not publicly addressed the leaked codenames or the Hexe timing in the material reviewed here. Until the company says more, the safest reading is that Assassin’s Creed Hexe is still in development, the 2028 window comes from sources rather than an announcement, and the Rome and Jerusalem projects remain rumors.
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File photo: Ubisoft Montreal.jpg by Shuichi Aizawa, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Ocarina of Time Remake Broken Within Days as Speedrunners Launch Link Skyward
It took speedrunners only a few days to start taking apart the Ocarina of Time remake. Nintendo’s Switch 2 release launched November 5, and players were already finding glitches that launch Link into the air, bypass sections of the game and warp his character model into something unsettling.
The new jump button is behind most of it. The 1998 original and its 3DS remake never let Link jump on command. Now he can, much as in Breath of the Wild, and the community is testing how far that freedom can be pushed. Reporting from IGN, Kotaku and Polygon shows a scene moving fast, even by speedrunning standards.
Actor jumping and the chest trampoline
The most widely discussed discovery is a trick known as actor jumping. Polygon describes it as a glitched super jump that works with certain aimable items. A player stands on a movable object, or “actor,” such as a chest or a movable tombstone. They fire the item, press the lock-on button before the animation finishes, then jump the moment it ends. The result is a leap far higher than the game intends.
Used in the right spots, the jump can skip large portions of a level. Polygon notes it is easiest with the hookshot, and that it looks easy to repeat. Runner Vespher showed a Nocturne skip using a buffered actor jump, which he jokingly labeled “ez mode.”
Related chest tricks have also spread. Stand in an open chest, make a few sudden movements or drop a bomb nearby, and Link shoots upward like a firework. Kotaku compared the effect to a trampoline. Some classics from the original game, including the building-bounding Hookshot Jump, also appear to work.
Floating, texture horrors and a child-adult mix-up
Other finds are stranger. Kotaku reports that rapidly flipping through inventory items in midair can make Link drift down like a leaf. One player, ORCinfo, said that once you get used to it you can keep jumping in midair and that “this is gonna break speedruns.”
Runner Zfg1 has been documenting what happens when the game is pushed into mismatched states, such as triggering adult Link cutscenes while playing as child Link, or the reverse. The effect is temporary but visually grotesque, with Link’s textures collapsing into something misshapen. Zfg1 also reported beating the Shadow Temple as child Link, which automatically turns the character into an adult. One roadblock remained before it could be used in a run, but he called it a potentially huge find.
Even the sprint button has a challenger
Nintendo added a sprint to the Ocarina of Time remake, apparently hoping to make slow travel a thing of the past. Speedrunners have mostly shrugged. IGN reports that early testing suggests rolling, long a staple of Hyrule traversal, may still be the fastest way to reach Ganondorf. YouTuber KnightPohtaytoe showed a method that target-hops forward into a roll and appears marginally quicker than sprinting. Reddit user Pomps8a showed a similar roll-based option without the hop.
What comes next
None of this guarantees fast times. As Kotaku points out, a glitch that doesn’t shorten a run is just a party trick, and the real prizes are sequence breaks that skip items, temples or story beats. Because the game switches between child and adult eras, there is plenty of room for them.
Polygon notes that Nintendo has not patched actor jumping out so far, leaving the community free to exploit it. Whether the company will respond is an open question. Given the game’s long history of strange speedrunning tech, which IGN counts across 28 years, the remake’s first weekend suggests there is much more to come.
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File photo: Speedrun Ocarina of Time – Team Superplay – Mang’Azur 2013 – P1590504.jpg by Yves Tennevin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Pulse Elevate Delay: Sony Pulls $219.99 PlayStation Speakers Six Days Before Launch
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The Pulse Elevate delay is now official: Sony has postponed its first PlayStation wireless desktop speakers indefinitely, just six days before they were due to go on sale worldwide on 12 November.
The news arrived quietly, as a 6 November update to the original announcement on the PlayStation Blog. Sony says ongoing quality testing “identified a production issue with the product,” and that it chose to delay the launch so the speakers deliver “the experience we intended for our players.” No new date was given. The company said only that it looks forward to bringing the speakers to players “soon.”
What the Pulse Elevate delay leaves unanswered
Sony’s statement is short on detail. It doesn’t say what the production issue is, whether it affects every unit or only some, or how many speakers had already been made. IGN noted that it isn’t clear how the problem might affect units that already exist.
The biggest open question is for people who pre-ordered. Pre-orders opened in September, and Eurogamer said it was unclear what happens to them. Kotaku reported that no refund policy or new timeline has been announced either. Buyers are, for now, left waiting for retailers or Sony to say more.
What the speakers are
Sony revealed the speakers in September 2025 as the latest addition to its Pulse audio line, alongside the Pulse Elite headset and Pulse Explore earbuds. They are priced at £199.99 in the UK and $219.99 in the US. They connect to PS5, PC, Mac and PlayStation Portal through PlayStation Link, and can also pair with a phone over Bluetooth at the same time. A microphone in the right speaker uses what Sony calls “AI-enhanced noise rejection.”
Midnight Black was planned for all markets, while the White version was limited to a handful of countries, the UK among them. IGN, which tried the hardware in June, called the noise rejection “seriously impressive stuff,” so the concern here is manufacturing rather than the design itself.
A pattern for PlayStation accessories?
Kotaku framed the delay as part of a wider run of trouble for Sony hardware. It pointed to the FlexStrike wireless fight stick, which was delayed in July and has yet to ship or receive a new date. It also cited component shortages, rising costs, trade tensions and memory demand driven by AI as pressures on supply. The outlet added that Sony recently launched a trade-in program for used consoles, which it read as an attempt to keep hardware circulating. Those links are Kotaku’s interpretation. Sony’s statement blames only a production issue found in quality testing, and nothing in it ties the Pulse Elevate delay to supply problems.
The timing is awkward either way. Kotaku noted that the holiday season, with Grand Theft Auto VI approaching, should be a strong one for PlayStation. It also reported that some hardware influencers appeared to have received units before the delay.
What to watch next
For now, the practical advice is simple: don’t expect the speakers on 12 November. Anyone who pre-ordered should watch for updates from their retailer and the PlayStation Blog post, where Sony made the announcement. Until Sony shares a revised date or explains the fault, the Pulse Elevate delay is open-ended, and the company has not said when it will provide more information.
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Bit Reactor layoffs hit Star Wars Zero Company team a month after rehiring, despite 1 million sales
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The latest round of Bit Reactor layoffs has landed on the studio behind Star Wars: Zero Company just a month after it began calling furloughed developers back to work. The number of people affected has not been disclosed.
What we know about the Bit Reactor layoffs
News of the cuts surfaced on Friday, 6 November, when several developers posted on LinkedIn that they had been let go. Star Wars outlet Bespin Bulletin was first to report it. As of the reports from Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun, the studio had not commented publicly, and neither outlet could say how many staff were involved.
Those who have spoken up include senior environment artist Ryan Lopez, who spent roughly three and a half years on the game from pre-production through launch. He said he was laid off “after a three-month furlough” and added, “while it stings, I’m really proud of what we built together.” UI engineer Tyler Eichten, who worked on much of the interface for the tactical missions, said his time at the studio had ended “due to a layoff.” Senior QA analyst Ryan Mosher and producer Michael Blackard also reported being let go.
A rocky run from furlough to launch and back
The cuts are the latest turn in a turbulent few months. Bit Reactor furloughed most of its staff in the weeks before Zero Company launched on 27 August. One source put the figure at around 80 percent, and the studio appeared to have run out of money just short of release.
The game did well anyway. It is thought to have sold more than a million copies within a month, and Eurogamer gave it four out of five stars. On 7 October, CEO Greg Foertsch said on Bluesky that the studio had “started the process of returning more of our team back to work.” He called the furloughs “an incredibly difficult decision” but said it was necessary to help bring “as many people back as possible.” A separate report suggested more than half the studio returned, though not everyone went back on full pay.
Unanswered questions
The sources leave real gaps. It is unclear whether any of those laid off this week had been among the staff recalled in October. Lopez’s description of a three-month furlough followed by a layoff suggests at least some of those affected may never have returned. That is an inference from his post, not something the studio has confirmed.
Nor is there any explanation from the studio of why further cuts were needed when the game had sold so well. Without a statement from Bit Reactor, it is also unknown how large the remaining team is.
For now, the Bit Reactor layoffs underline how precarious development can be even for a critically praised, commercially successful release. Eichten’s post voiced the hope that, “in this tumultuous industry,” he and his colleagues will find new work.
- Star Wars Zero Company studio Bit Reactor lays off staff, a month after bringing furloughed developers back (Eurogamer)
- After Star Wars Zero Company dev Bit Reactor brought back an unspecified number of furloughed devs, some of those who weren't have seemingly been laid off (Rock Paper Shotgun)
- After furloughing its developers and then hiring some of them back, Star Wars Zero Company developer has laid off an unspecified number of staff (PC Gamer)
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100 Tokens, 6 Rewards: What Ocarina of Time’s Gold Skulltula Locations Unlock
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Hunting down every one of the Gold Skulltula locations in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the game’s longest side quests. According to Polygon’s guide to the remake, there are 100 tokens scattered across Hyrule, and the payoffs are spread unevenly, with several early rewards and one very long wait for the last.
Why the Gold Skulltula hunt matters
The tokens double as collectibles and as the key to a story thread in Kakariko Village. A family there has been cursed and turned into Skulltulas, and the only way to lift the curse is to find the golden spiders and hand over their tokens. The guide warns that the job is easier said than done, since the spiders are described as extremely difficult to find.
The reward ladder, from 10 to 100
The rewards are front-loaded. Turning in 10 tokens gets you the Adult’s Wallet, which holds up to 500 rupees. At 30 you receive the Giant’s Wallet, which doubles that to 1,000. At 40 you get 20 Bombchus, the wall-climbing explosives that run off on their own before detonating. At 50 you receive a Piece of Heart, and the guide reminds players that four of them add up to a full heart.
After that, the guide says, nothing comes until you hand in all 100. The final prize is unlimited gold rupees. Each time you speak to the Restored Rich Man, he gives you one. It’s a long gap between the 50th and 100th token, so completionists should plan for it.
The Echo Gem is the reward to prioritize
The guide singles out the 20-token reward. The Echo Gem, when equipped, helps you detect nearby Gold Skulltulas through a combination of light and sound. Polygon calls it extremely helpful for finding the rest, so claiming it as soon as you reach 20 is the smartest move in the hunt. Players who skip the turn-in and keep collecting without it are making the remaining search harder than it has to be.
How the guide organizes Gold Skulltula locations
Polygon sorts the Gold Skulltula locations by region, with each section listed in chronological order. The regions are Kokiri Forest, Hyrule Field, Hyrule Castle, Kakariko Village, Goron, Zora, Lake Hylia, Gerudo and Ganondorf’s Castle. Each entry notes whether you need to be young or adult Link, what time of day it is and what items you need, along with the map and a description.
The guide’s first section covers 16 tokens across the Great Deku Tree, Kokiri Forest, the Lost Woods, the Sacred Grove and the Forest Temple. Several of the early entries show the kinds of tricks the hunt demands:
- Inside the Great Deku Tree, one token sits along the southern wall of the compass room, and another crawls on vines right after you land in the water below the giant web.
- One spider in the Deku Tree sits on metal bars by the water. You shoot it with the Fairy Slingshot and then jump at the token to grab it.
- In Kokiri Forest, a bug placed on soft soil east of the Kokiri Shop forces a spider out of the ground.
- Another spider appears on the west side of the Know-It-All Brothers’ house, but only at night.
- In the Lost Woods, two more tokens require placing a bug on soft soil. One is reached by taking the left path twice from the forest entrance. The other is reached by going right, left, right, left and left.
What to keep in mind
The excerpt of Polygon’s guide available here cuts off partway through the Lost Woods entries. It confirms the structure, the total of 100 tokens and the full reward list, but not the exact positions of the later spiders. Players tracking every one of the Gold Skulltula locations will want the complete guide, which also carries a spoiler warning for the remake.
The overall shape of the hunt is clear. Bugs, soft soil, time of day, ranged weapons and a careful search of every room all come into play. The earliest rewards, especially the Echo Gem at 20, make the quest worth starting even for players who don’t plan to hit 100.
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