Yesterday’s PlayStation State of Play revealed a collection of new and upcoming games coming to PS5 and PS VR2, one of which is Ghost of Yotei, the newly announced follow-up to 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima. Ghost of Yotei is and isn’t a sequel to Ghost of Tsushima but don’t let that deter you from being interested. If you played the original game, whether on PS4, PS5, or the more recently launched PC port, then have faith that Sucker Punch is going to knock it out of the park again with this next game.

Sucker Punch confirms the game will be launching in 2025, however, the studio has not given out a specific release date.

Recently announced Ghost of Yotei is not a true sequel, and that’s perfectly fine

While the game isn’t a true sequel, it is the continuation of Sucker Punch’s Ghost series. The game sees a new protagonist, Atsu, taking the reigns in place of the first game’s main character Jin Sakai. And there’s a very good reason for that. Ghost of Yotei takes place a few hundred years after the story events of Ghost of Tsushima. If the name didn’t give it away, Ghost of Yotei also takes place in a new setting. The game will still be set in Japan. However, it’s much further northeast of Tsushima Island in the region of Ezo, which is known as Hokkaido today, and is where you’ll find Mount Yotei.

The game also takes place in the 1600s, specifically 1603. This puts the game’s getting at the very beginning of the Edo period in Japan. And it’s likely that this fact will play into the narrative somehow. Having said that, Sucker Punch isn’t sharing a whole lot of detail about the game currently. Nothing about the narrative has been mentioned. The studio does show off a trailer that has a mix of cinematics and gameplay footage.

Based on Ezo’s (Hokkaido’s) size compared to Tsushima and other regions of Japan, we’re hoping the size of the game’s map will be just as big if not bigger than that of Ghost of Tsushima. Additionally, the game features several new gameplay mechanics. Sucker Punch says it’s being built from the ground up for PS5. That means we’ll no doubt see some PS5 Pro features being taken advantage of.

Prepare for new combat mechanics, new weapons, and more

While the trailer doesn’t reveal loads of information, you can pick out some details about new gameplay mechanics. There will be new weapon types to use and most assuredly new combat tactics or abilities that go along with them. A big part of Ghost of Tsushima’s combat was the way you could unlock a variety of abilities through different sword stances. As well as the various “Ghost” abilities that leaned more heavily into stealth combat.

In Ghost of Yotei, Atsu is given some shiny new ways to fight enemies. The two most obvious additions are the ability to dual-wield katanas, and the kusarigama. At the end of the trailer, you can also briefly see Atsu use a rifle of some kind. We also see Atsu carrying a Shamisen on her back, which I’m hoping is used in some way to hide another set of weapons to use at her disposal. However, it’s likely this could be used as the new instrument to change the weather. Similar to how Jin Sakai used a flute in Ghost of Tsushima.

If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, you can view it below. Or you can watch the entire State of Play here.

Although Meta Connect 2024 lacked a marquee high-end product for the holiday season, it still included a new budget VR headset and a tease of the “magic glasses” Meta’s XR gurus have been talking about for the better part of a decade. In addition, the company keeps plowing forward with new AI tools for its Ray-Ban glasses and social platforms. Here’s everything the company announced at Meta Connect 2024.

Orion AR glasses

Today’s best mixed reality gear — like Apple’s Vision Pro and the Meta Quest 3 — are headsets with passthrough video capabilities. But the tech industry eventually wants to squeeze that tech into something resembling a pair of prescription glasses. We’ll let you judge whether the Orion AR glasses pictured above pass that test, but they’re certainly closer than other full-fledged AR devices we’ve seen.

First, the bad news. These puppies won’t be available this year and don’t have an official release date. A leaked roadmap from last year suggested they’d arrive in 2027. However, Meta said on Wednesday that Orion would launch “in the near future,” so take what you will from that. For its part, Meta says the full-fledged product prototype is “truly representative of something that could ship to consumers” rather than a research device that’s decades away from shipping.

The glasses include tiny projectors to display holograms onto the lenses. Meta describes them as having a large field of view and immersive capabilities. Sensors can track voice, eye gaze, hand tracking and electromyography (EMG) wristband input.

The glasses combine that sensory input with AI capabilities. Meta gave the example of looking in a refrigerator and asking the onboard AI to spit out a recipe based on your ingredients. It will also support video calls, the ability to send messages on Meta’s platforms and spatial versions of Spotify, YouTube and Pinterest apps.

This year’s new VR headset focuses on the entry-level rather than early adopters wanting the latest cutting-edge tech. The Meta Quest 3S is a $300 baby sibling to last year’s Quest 3, shaving money off the higher-end model’s entry fee in exchange for cheaper lenses, a resolution dip and skimpier storage.

The headset includes Fresnel lenses, which are familiar to Quest 2 owners, instead of the higher-end pancake ones in Quest 3. It has a 1,832 x 1,920 resolution (20 pixels per degree), a drop from the 2,064 x 2,208 (25 PPD) in the Quest 3. Meta says the budget model’s field of view is also slightly lower.

The Quest 3S starts with a mere 128GB of storage, which could fill up quickly after installing a few of the platform’s biggest games. But if you’re willing to shell out $400, you can bump that up to a more respectable 256GB. (Alongside the announcement, Meta also dropped the 512GB Quest 3 price to $500 from $650.)

The headset may outlast the Quest 3 in one respect: battery life. Meta estimates the Quest 3S will last 2.5 hours, while the Quest 3 is rated for 2.2 hours.

Those ordering the headset will get a special Bat-bonus. Quest 3S (and Quest 3) orders between now and April 2025 will receive a free copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow, the VR action game coming next month.

The Quest 3S is now available for pre-order. It begins shipping on October 15.

Out with the old

To celebrate the arrival of the Meta Quest 3S, Meta is kicking two older models to the curb. The Quest 2 and Quest Pro will be discontinued by the end of the year. The company says sales will continue until inventory runs out or the end of the year, whichever comes first.

The company now views the Quest 3S, with its much better mixed reality capabilities, as the new budget model, so the $200 Quest 2 no longer has a place. The Quest Pro, which never gained much traction with consumers, has inferior cameras and passthrough video than the two Quest 3-tier models. The Pro launched two years ago as a Metaverse-centric device — back when the industry was pounding that word as hard as it’s pushing “AI” now. The headset launched at a whopping $1,500 and was later reduced to $1,000.

Although the hardware stays the same, Meta is adding new AI features to its tech-filled sunglasses. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses will get an updated AI assistant.

The assistant will now let you set reminders based on objects you see. For example, you could say, “Hey Meta, remind me to buy that book next Monday” to set an alert for something you see in the library. The glasses can also scan QR codes and dial phone numbers from text it recognizes.

Meta’s assistant should also respond to more natural commands. You’ll need to worry less about remembering formal prompts to trigger it (“Hey Meta, look and tell me”). It will let you use more casual phrasing like “What am I looking at?” The AI can also handle complex follow-up questions for more fluid chats with the robot friend living in your sunglasses.

According to Meta, the glasses’ live translation is also getting better. While last year’s version struggled with longer text, the company says the software will now translate larger chunks more effectively. Live translations will arrive in English, French, Italian and Spanish by the end of 2024.

The company said Met AI now supports voice chats. Although this capability existed before, it was limited to the Ray-Ban glasses.

Meta also partnered with celebrities to help draw customers into its chatbots. That’s right, folks: You can now hear Meta’s chatbot responses in the dulcet tones of the one and only John Cena! Other celebrity voices include Dame Judi Dench, Awkwafina, Keegan Michael Key and Kristen Bell.

Meta’s AI can now edit photos with text prompts, performing tasks like adding or removing objects or changing details like backgrounds or clothes. AI photo editing will be available on Meta’s social apps, including Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.

Meanwhile, Meta’s Llama 3.2 AI model introduces vision capabilities. It can analyze and describe images, competing with similar features in ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.

Catch up on all the news from Meta Connect 2024!

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan wants to bring the famed accelerator’s Demo Day presentations back as in-person events by the end of the year.

During Tan’s opening remarks during Wednesday’s YC summer cohort Demo Day, he said this week’s Demo Day presentations will, “knock on wood,” be the final ones held entirely online. Tan added that the accelerator’s first fall cohort Demo Day, which will take place on December 4, will include an in-person element.

Demo Days are like the graduation events for startups that complete its program, where they pitch their products to investors and others in the tech ecosystem. Tan said that in-person seats will be limited and reserved for decision-making investors who have invested at least $50,000 into YC companies within the last two years.

“Think about it this way, you all now have four must-be-at events per year in San Francisco where you can catch up with friends and see the future all at the same time,” Tan said of the planned in-person event to the VCs watching online.

This switch back to in-person Demo Days is a logical move. While both the accelerator program and its Demo Days went to an online, virtual format in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program itself returned to being an in-person event and has been so for two years now. Meanwhile, YC has been an instrumental part of encouraging more startups to locate themselves in the Bay Area generally, and San Francisco in particular. In addition to its accelerator program, it throws numerous other in-person events for its alumni and the startup community.

Y Combinator recently expanded the number of startup cohorts each year from two to four, adding both a fall and spring batch. The first fall cohort kicks off on September 29. YC’s first spring program will launch in 2025.