PlayStation 5 has been announced:
Some big ole news has swung our way, and it seems like it has come out of nowhere, Sony has announced the PlayStation 5. In an exclusive article with Wired (the link to which can be found below), Mark Cerny announced the next-gen console along with its specifications. The thing, unsurprisingly, appears to be something of a beast.
It finally has a built-in solid-state hard drive, which means decreased loading times, especially with those gigantic games. It also has upgraded audio support so that subtler noises can be heard, it’ll have a powerful AMD CPU and there’ll be backwards compatibility for PS4 games. So there’s a lot of stuff to love in this new device, but it does sound like it may be a bit of an expensive machine. However, we don’t have any actual information on pricing.
So with this development, next-gen has officially been announced. We’ll have to see what it can do and whether it will live up to the hype that will no doubt come its way. Sadly, the jump from PS3 to PS4 was not particularly impressive and I somehow doubt another jump on par with the jump from PS2 to PS3 (or PSOne to PS2) will happen, but only time will truly tell!
Sources:
- Eurogamer – Sony reveals first PlayStation 5 details
- Eurogamer – Spec Analysis: Sony’s surprise PlayStation 5 tech reveal
- Gamasutra – Sony teases next-gen PlayStation specs in new interview
- IGN – Sony reveals next-gen PlayStation details
- IGN – PS5 details: specs, backwards compatibility, rumors, and more
- Kotaku – Sony Reveals First PlayStation 5 Details
- Polygon – PlayStation 5: Sony outlines next-gen console plans
- VG247 – PlayStation 5 features GPU that supports ray tracing, high-speed SSD
- Wired – Exclusive: What to expect from Sony’s next-gen PlayStation
Ridiculous reactions abound regarding one guy’s cocaine usage:
A Japanese actor by the name of Pierre Taki has been at the forefront of a ludicrous barrage of punishment over something that seems immensely disproportionate to what he did. The guy was arrested for alleged drug use, and while they found nothing on him, they did find traces of cocaine in his system. Okay, so he was doing some coke. So what? Well, if you know anything about Japanese culture you’d know that they take drugs very seriously. They take drugs so seriously that this guy has been replaced in many projects.
He was the face and voice actor of a character in Sega’s Yakuza spin-off Judgment (which hasn’t been released worldwide yet), and he has since been replaced. They re-recorded everything just because the guy had a sniff of cocaine. The game’s sale was actually halted to deal with the issue. That is how seriously they take this problem. His voice has even been retroactively removed from Kingdom Hearts III. These companies have actually put themselves through additional expenses just so they can exclude someone who did some drugs.
So what’s the point of this? Why remove people just for drugs? The guy wasn’t some junkie who couldn’t do his job because he was high all the time. It seems to be for nothing. This is just the way things are. It does clearly show the difference between Japanese and Western culture; we’re quite happy for celebrities to get high… even if it is just so we can read about it in trashy tabloids and feel morally superior. This fear of drugs is old-fashioned and the punishment vastly outweighs the crime.
Sources:
- Eurogamer – Yakuza spin-off Judgment reveals new-look for crime boss Kyohei Hamura
- IGN – Judgment: Sega reveals replacement character model after drugs scandal
- Kotaku – Sega Game Character Has A New Face Following Original Actor’s Drug Arrest
- Polygon – Sega gives Judgment character a new face after actor’s arrest
Twitch bans a cosplayer for doing blackface:
Okay… so there’s been a bunch of blackface stuff happening recently, what with a bunch of American politicians doing it back in their college days, and now Twitch has decided to temporarily ban a Lithuanian streamer who goes by the name “Karupups” because she did a blackface cosplay of the Apex Legends character Lifeline. She showed off her look on her stream and then got banned for what is perceived as offensive by mainstream culture (and by Twitch). She has since denied the cosplay as being intentionally offensive and stated has that it was never meant to considered derogatory in any way.
Now, I personally tend to be on the whole “don’t do blackface” side of things, but even if you are fine with it surely you must realise that this has gotten so many people in trouble. Just this year there were multiple politicians that had to apologise for the blackfacing they did decades ago. Surely you must realise that this is a stupid thing to do? Even if this streamer didn’t intend for the look to be offensive, she must have known that this has been considered culturally insensitive for quite a while now.
Judging by the images and her responses, it seems possible that she really did meant it as flattery, that she was just trying to dress up as her favourite character from the popular battle royale game, but that does not excuse it as an action. Intention, in cases like this, does not matter. If you do something offensive, even if you didn’t have a single offensive thought in your head when you were doing it, you need to understand the wider social context of your decisions. You can call it “political correctness gone mad” all you like, but the fact is that Twitch banned her. They don’t care about arguing over political correctness. This does not look good on their service, and it doesn’t look good on any service. So why do it? Why? What the hell is the point?
Sources:
- IGN – Twitch temporarily bans white steamer after Apex Legends cosplay
- Kotaku – Twitch Punishes White Apex Legends Cosplayer Who Painted Her Face Black
Ubisoft is donating a tidy sum to the Notre-Dame:
The Notre-Dame, one of the most gorgeous structures in the Western world and a mainstay for practically all Parisian tourism, went up in flames early in the week. Not only was this a massive travesty, but it was also the perfect time for some well-placed PR. Ubisoft put out Assassin’s Creed Unity for free (it’s set during the French Revolution so I suppose they felt it was thematically consistent) and they’ve pledged over half a million dollars towards the restoration efforts. So that’s quite nice of them.
A hell of a lot of money has already been raised towards the restoration so I think the famous church will get the best restoration money can afford. Hopefully the historic structure will make it through intact, but at least we know that loads of ordinary people and a couple billionaires are sending tons of cash towards the Catholic Church so they can fix something… because that organisation definitely doesn’t have the cash to do such things themselves. No… not the church. Where would they get such massive sums of currency anyway!?
But joking aside, it is a great thing they’re doing. This is a piece of French culture and it needs to be protected.
Sources:
- Eurogamer – Assassin’s Creed Unity is currently available to download for free on PC
- Gamasutra – Ubisoft pledges over $500,000 to Notre-Dame restoration efforts
- Kotaku – Ubisoft Pledges More than $500,000 To The Notre-Dame Cathedral Restoration Effort
- VG247 – Assassin’s Creed Unity free on PC, Ubisoft donating €500k toward reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral
Apple is investing quite a bit into Apple Arcade:
Apple’s new Apple Arcade thing is their big move towards properly entering the gaming industry, and it’s been met with a bit of a mixed reception. But Apple is taking it seriously and will be investing half a billion dollars into it. That’s about half their present budget for their TV and film streaming. So they are expecting growth out of this new project of theirs and it should be interesting to see where it’s going and what they’re actually going to do with it long-term.
Sources:
WailingWolf 
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