Kotaku recently confirmed with a Sony representative that the company has no plans to charge customers for 4K/HDR upgrade patches despite comments made by one of its executives, Masayasu Ito. Previously, Ito indicated to Japanese-based Game Watch that customers may have to pay Sony to upgrade existing first-party PlayStation 4 games to 4K and HDR through patches on the PlayStation 4 Pro. That also included vanilla PlayStation 4 owners who will soon receive new firmware that supports HDR-capable displays.
Ito previously told Game Watch that some of Sony’s own published games will feature a surcharge for upgraded PlayStation 4 Pro content, while other titles will be upgraded for free. He also indicated that third-party publishers may charge for the visual upgrades too, depending on the game and the publisher.
Noting that fees for PlayStation 4 Pro-specific upgrades “will depend on the thinking of each licensee,” Ito raised new concerns over content that many believed would be free. In addition to paying a suggested retail price of $400 for upgraded hardware, PlayStation 4 Pro owners may be required to pay for graphical upgrades across individual game titles in order to get the most out of their investment.
Revealed earlier this week, the PlayStation 4 Pro is an upgraded version of Sony’s PlayStation 4 gaming console. Compared to previously issued PlayStation 4 hardware, the PS4 Pro features a faster GPU and improved processing power. The console additionally offers support for high-dynamic range color and 4K resolution, though Sony declined to include a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray drive as part of the package.
Sony later announced that some games – including Rise of the Tomb Raider and Call of Duty: Black Ops III – will offer faster framerates when played on PlayStation 4 Pro hardware. Multiple publishers assured that such performance improvements will not give players an advantage in a multiplayer context, however.
During this week’s interview with Game Watch, Ito stated that all Sony-published games going forward will offer improved visuals on PlayStation 4 Pro hardware. Some games will be updated for free, while others will require players to pay a fee for forthcoming software patches. Ito did not reveal which games specifically will carry the additional fee.
The PlayStation 4 Pro console arrives at retail on November 10 while the firmware update adding HDR support to the original PlayStation 4 arrives next week.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.