Ryo Nagamatsu announced today that he has left Nintendo. This went into effect on April 30, 2023.

Nagamatsu joined Nintendo in 2006 and worked on some of the company’s biggest games as a composer since then. He was the sole composer on games such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes, and Link’s Awakening on Switch as well as Wii Sports Resort and Nintendo Land. He also contributed to Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mario Kart 8, and more.

Speaking about things on Twitter, Nagamatsu indicated that it was an amicable split. He mentioned: “I will work a little wider and more directly to help those who need my help and to help the industry. Thank you all for your kind support! I look forward to serve you in the future!”

We wish Nagamatsu well in his future endeavors.

A follow-up to the Valve Index may be in the works according to a recent interview with Valve.

Acclaimed video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company Valve are currently in the development of new VR hardware, according to a recent report from This Is Game.

During a recent interview with the Korea-based publication, Valve Product Designer Greg Coomer highlighted the company’s excitement regarding VR technology, going so far as to confirm that they are, in fact, working on a new VR headset.

When asked about the rumors of new VR hardware, Coomer stated, “I can tell you for sure that we’ve been working on a VR headset lately. This is because Valve has a lot of expertise in VR devices and has faith in the medium of VR and VR games. We want VR games to remain open to the PC platform instead of existing exclusively on a specific platform.”

“We are continuing development while adhering to this belief,” he added. “However, it cannot confirm the existence of a particular product or reveal when the results will be released. The same goes for game projects. There are obviously several projects in progress within the company, but none can be announced today.”

Valve is coming hot off the heels of the release of the Steam Deck, a portable gaming device that allows you to access a number of popular PC games on the go. Therefore it’s unlikely the company will release a VR headset this year in order to avoid impacting sales of its handheld console.

That said, considering the success of the Valve Index, the company’s original VR headset, it’s likely the company will be following-up with its next VR device sometime in the near future.

Heavy Medal

As always, medals are the name of the game. Complete your favorite activities to earn medallions that can be banked in the Tower. The class with the most medallions at the end of the day wins that day, but it all comes down to who had the most winning days.

Want to put in extra work for your class? We got you. Head on over to the OG of GGs, Eva Levante, to pick up a Contender Card and earn some shiny gold and platinum medals for the squad. The winning class will have bragging rights, as well as a commemorative statue on display in the Tower for the entire year. Go for the gusto. Go for the win.

Bullseye

It’s time now for precision, Guardian. Guardian Games 2023 marks the return of the Supremacy Crucible mode. Steady your sights and strike your target to collect their crest in this high paced returning Crucible mode.

What Are Ya Playin’?

In addition to all your favorite activities rewarding medallions, we’ve got some more ways to band together and earn medallions with your fellow Guardians.

First up, we’ve got the classic Guardian Games playlist featuring Battlegrounds and strikes that should be familiar to veteran players and a new way to play for newer Guardians. The playlist has three different ways to play: Recreational, Training, and Competitive.

Recreational is where you’ll get your bearings and get ready for the trials and tribulations of the other playlists. The Guardian Games: Recreational playlist will be available all week and scoring will be enabled. Once you’ve had enough time to stretch in the Recreational playlist, you’ll want to head over to the Training playlist.

In the Training playlist, you’ll find one strike available each week. Scoring will be enabled, so throw on that build that makes everything explode—looking at you Void Titans—and pump those numbers up.

Not to be outdone, we have the Guardian Games: Competitive playlist. Now this isn’t a playlist to mess around with – this is for those that want a challenge and some extra gear. This playlist is only up during the weekend, scoring is available and here’s the kicker: certain scores mean more rewards. Make your mark in this playlist and take home the hardware back to the Tower to show other classes what they’re missing.

Party Favors

It wouldn’t be a party without gifts, right? We’ve got you covered with new rewards up for grabs:

• Taraxippos – Can you be-weave it? A Strand Scout Rifle locked and loaded just for Guardian Games!
• The Title – You know it, you love it, you might even have one, but if you don’t, you’ll want to pick up this exclusive Guardian Games Legendary Submachine Gun before the event ends.
• New Cosmetics – Show up to the party in new cosmetics and ensure your fireteam will never ask, “Is that what you’re wearing?” again.
• New Armor Ornaments – If you’re going to win, you have to win in style. We’ve got some new threads in the Eververse ready for your perusal.
• And more!

High Role-r, Keep Going

You know your role and play it well. To turn up the heat on the competition a little bit, we’re introducing class-based matchmaking for the event. Whether you’re dicing deep into the Guardian Games playlist or want or showing rival classes how you roll in Supremacy, you can match up with other Guardians in your class.

You Stay Classy, Guardian

Guardian Games is a global celebration of what it means to be a Guardian. From Paris to Texas, Guardians from around the world are going to compete against one another for the ultimate prize: that beautiful statue in the Tower. Oh, and year-long bragging rights, of course.

While banking medallions and grabbing crests will be at the top of mind, remember to have fun. I’ll be out there trying to make my fellow Titans proud. I hope to see you there doing the same for your favorite class.

In a nutshell: Sony once again sits atop the console wars throne. Not only has it more than doubled Xbox Series shipments, but its overall financials are also in good health. Despite a dip in software sales, hardware and overall revenues are up significantly. The company was tight-lipped about its newly launched PS VR2, but outside analysts say it’s on track to being the fastest-selling VR headset on any platform.

Despite a slow start due to supply constraints, Sony has managed to pull off a win with the PlayStation 5. The best-selling home console has sold 38.4 million units since launch, doubling Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S sales of 18.5 million and smashing all quarterly records by moving 6.2 million PS5s in the last quarter of its fiscal year – that’s up from 2 million in Q4 FY2021. Total units shipped for FY2022 were 19.1 million, edging out its beancounters’ forecast of 18 million.

The company notes that its distribution inventories have normalized, allowing it to get consoles to customers without a wait. This turnaround leaves scalpers crying on stockpiles of PS5s that they bought up to extend and cash in on Sony’s initial limitations.

While hardware sales looked great, Sony took a hit in the software division. Game sales for the quarter dipped to 68 million, down from 70.5 million for the same period in 2021. The year’s totals were even worse, dropping from 303.2 million to 264.2 million.

The lack of quality PS5 titles is at least partly to blame for declined sales. Additionally, studios seem stuck in a trend of developing games for the PS4, then sprucing them up for the PS5 rather than working on proper next-gen-dedicated titles.

Despite the decline in software shipments, overall revenues are up for Sony’s combined gaming sector. The division had $7.9 billion in revenue and $29 billion in total sales – up from $4.9 billion and $19.9 billion, respectively. The positive growth has Sony’s accountants forecasting a continued uptick of seven percent for FY2023. They also predict that hardware sales, including consoles and peripherals, will continue to increase next year.

Sony did not single out PS VR2 numbers, instead lumping them into the Game & Network Services category. Perhaps this should not be too surprising considering the company was disappointed with initial sales of the expensive accessory. However, external estimates predict the company moved over 270,000 to 300,000 units in its launch month alone. If those numbers are accurate, it’s an impressive start for any VR headset.

Sony’s first-generation headset sold 915,000 units in its first four months. Likewise, Meta’s Quest 2 moved about one million in its launch quarter (three months). So the PS VR2 is right on the edge of being the fastest selling VR headset ever. Like its PS5 counterpart, it just needs more software to drive demand.

Bigscreen has clearly targeted PC VR enthusiasts who are willing to pay for the best hardware they can get their hands on. And with major players like Meta and HTC focusing heavily on standalone headsets, Bigscreen Beyond could prove to be the best option they’ll find any time soon.

The company has set out to make a headset that’s not just better than what’s out there, but one that’s much smaller too. And while it remains to be seen if the headset will hit all the right notes, my initial hands-on shows plainly the company knows what it’s doing when it comes to building a VR headset.

Custom-made

Bigscreen is building something unique, quite literally—every Beyond headset comes with a custom-made facepad. And this isn’t a ‘choose one of three options’ situation, Bigscreen has a sleek app that walks buyers through the process of capturing a 3D scan of their face so the company can create a completely unique facepad that conforms to each specific customer.

And it really makes a difference. The first thing that Bigscreen CEO Darshan Shankar showed me during a demo of the Beyond headset was the difference between my personal facepad (which the company created for me prior to our meetup) and someone else’s facepad. The difference was instantly obvious; where mine fit against my face practically like two connected puzzle-pieces, the other facepad awkwardly disagreed with my face in various places. While I’ve recognized for a long time that different facial topology from person-to-person is a real consideration for VR headsets, this made me appreciate even more how significant the differences can be.

Shankar says the custom-fit facepad is an essential part of making such a small headset. It ensures not only that the headset is as comfortable as it can be, but also the user’s eyes are exactly where they’re supposed to be with regard to the lenses. For a headset like Beyond, which uses high magnification pancake optics with a small sweet spot, this is especially important. And, as Shankar convincingly demonstrated by shining a flashlight all around the headset while I was wearing it, the custom-fit facepad means absolutely no external light can be seen from inside.

And the custom facepad isn’t the only way each headset is dialed in for each specific customer; instead of wasting weight and space with the mechanics for an IPD adjustment, the headset ships with one of 15 fixed IPD distances, ranging from 58–72mm. The company selects the IPD based on the same face scan that allows them to make the custom facepad. And given the size of the Beyond headset, there’s no way that glasses will fit inside; luckily the company will also sell magnetically attached prescription inserts for those who need them, up to −10 diopter.

Diving In

With my custom facepad easily snapped onto the headset with magnets, it was time to dive into VR.

The baseline version of the $1,000 Bigscreen Beyond headset has a simple soft strap, which I threw over the back of my head and tightened to taste. I felt I had to wear the strap very high on the back of my head for a good hold; Shankar says an optional top-strap will be available, which ought to allow me to wear the rear strap in a lower position.

As I put on the headset I found myself sitting in a dark Bigscreen theater environment, and the very first thing I noticed was the stellar darks and rich colors that are thanks to the headset’s OLED displays. The second thing I noticed was there was no sound! That’s because the baseline version of the headset doesn’t have on-board audio, so I still had to put on a pair of headphones after the headset was donned.

While the baseline headset lacks on-board audio, Bigscreen is offering a $100 ‘Audio Strap‘, which is a rigid headstrap with built-in speakers. As someone who really values rigid straps and on-board audio, I’m glad to see this as an option—for me it would be the obvious choice. Unfortunately the company wasn’t ready to demo the Audio Strap.

Shankar toured me around a handful of VR environments that showed off the headset’s 2,560 × 2,560 (6.5MP) per-eye displays, which offered a level of clarity similar to that of Varjo’s $2,000 Aero headset, but with a smaller notably field-of-view (Bigscreen claims 90°H × 93°V).

On many current-gen headsets like Quest 2 you can’t quite see the individual lines of the screen-door effect, but it’s still clear that it’s there in aggregate. While the Beyond headset isn’t ‘retina resolution’ there’s essentially no evidence of any screen-door effect. Everything looks really sharp. This was best demonstrated when I ran around in Half-Life: Alyx and the game felt like it had instantly upgraded graphics compared to a headset like Valve’s Index.

There is, however, some persistence blurring and glare. Shankar openly demonstrated how the brightness of the display directly relates to the level of persistence. While there’s some noticeable persistence at the default brightness, when overdriving the display’s brightness the persistence becomes entirely unbearable. The reverse is true; turning the brightness down below the default cuts the persistence down noticeably. While it would be nice if the default brightness had less persistence, at least users will be able to trade brightness for lower persistence based on their specific preference.

Best Buy has leaked a new Western Digital storage expansion module for the Xbox Series X/S.

If you’re always running out of storage on your Xbox Series S or Xbox Series X, putting an expensive Xbox expansion card into the back of it is the only way to get more room. That’s still the case, but there’s at least a new, cheaper model on the horizon even if it’s still too expensive.

The only way to increase the available storage on an Xbox Series X/S to date has been to use a Seagate Xbox expansion module with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB options available. But they are all very costly considering how much cheaper PS5 owners have it — they can just put almost any M.2 SSD into their console of choice. Now, a new entry is on the horizon.

Western Digital entered the chat

Now Best Buy appears to have leaked the upcoming Western Digital C50 1TB expansion card and it’s selling for a bit less than the Seagate option. Buying Seagate will cost you $219.99 but Best Buy briefly listed the Western Digital version for just $179.99 before pulling it from its website. We can safely expect it to reappear sooner rather than later, though.

This is of course the first time that we’ve seen a brand other than Seagate offer something like this, suggesting that there is some kind of period of exclusivity that is about to expire. That’s a good thing for Xbox gamers of course, and it’s possible that we will see other storage manufacturers start to get in on the action as well.

There’s no telling when this Western Digital alternative will go on sale, unfortunately. Best Buy’s product page didn’t say even before it was ripped from its website, but the fact it was there at all suggests we won’t have to wait long. If you’re in the market for more storage, we’d suggest holding fire for now.

Cutting corners: What was supposed to be the triumphant return of one of the gaming industry’s biggest annual events has suffered a major blow. E3 2023 will be the first event in the Los Angeles expo’s 18-year history without presentations from any of the major console manufacturers.

IGN sources have confirmed that that Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have declined to participate in the 2023 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The big three console manufacturers won’t hold press conferences or present on the show floor this year.

Microsoft will hold a presentation around the same time as E3, but the recent news makes it the last console manufacturer to cease direct participation in the expo. Sony and Nintendo had already drifted away from it over the last few years.

Nintendo has released pre-recorded presentations instead of E3 press conferences every year since 2013 but maintained show floor presence. Sony declined to participate in E3 entirely starting in 2019, having followed Nintendo’s practice of producing pre-recorded showcases throughout the year. Microsoft released its first pre-recorded announcement reel last week, signaling that all three console manufacturers have found an alternative to physical press conferences.

Losing the big three – previously seen as the centerpieces of the event – won’t help E3’s struggle to recover from pandemic-related cancelations. 2020 saw the event canceled for the first time, while an online-only event occurred the following year. A hybrid E3 was planned for 2022, but it switched to another online-only affair before completely falling through.

Event organizer ReedPop will manage the planned hybrid E3 2023 alongside the expo’s traditional manager, the Entertainment Software Association. Other big game companies haven’t yet announced plans to present at E3 or hold individual events this summer.

Nintendo could still release a “Nintendo Direct” presentation in June regardless of alignment with E3. Electronic Arts hasn’t yet said whether it will hold an “EA Play” this year alongside E3, a practice it started in 2016 but skipped last year. Ubisoft also hasn’t said anything so far, and PC Gamer hasn’t confirmed a PC Gaming Show for E3 2023.

Microsoft’s exit from the event is a surprise because Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently praised E3 in an interview with IGN. He said he wants to help the expo succeed, suggesting Microsoft’s summer event will complement E3, even if the company doesn’t have anything on the show floor this year.

As if on cue, the Twitter account for the Summer Game Fest reminded followers of its planned date for the event, which will host presentations from many major game companies — June 8.

The launch date claim comes from Insider Gaming, which cites unnamed sources. It notes that a recently-published patent by PlayStation architect Mark Cerny suggests Sony will put a lot of focus on better ray tracing abilities in the PS5 Pro. The new console will also come with the usual improvements to visual fidelity and general performance expected in a PS Pro model.

While these sorts of reports should be taken with a pinch of salt, it’s easy to imagine that Sony would want to launch a PS5 Pro during next year’s holiday season. The PlayStation 4 was released on November 13, 2013, with the PS4 Pro arriving on November 16, 2016 – three years later.

The PlayStation 5 launched on November 12, 2020, so we’re closing in on the three-year mark for the PS5 Pro. But the PS4 never faced a global pandemic and an unprecedented chip crisis. Up until recently, buying a PS5 was an almost impossible task unless you were willing to pay scalpers or extra money for bundle packs, if available.

In January, Sony said buying a PS5 should be much easier. It also increased supplies of the console in the run-up to the PSVR 2 launch. Skyrocketing sales gave the PS5 its best quarter to date in Q4 2022 and have helped make Sony AMD’s biggest customer.

On the other side of the argument, the chip shortage isn’t entirely over, and many developers are still releasing games on both PS4 and PS5, limiting how hard they can push the latter’s hardware, so Sony might want to wait a bit longer than 2024 to launch a PS5 Pro.

Insider Gaming also believes that a new version of the PS5 with a detachable disc drive (via USB-C) will land this year, phasing out the current PlayStation 5 model. That would mean two new PlayStation models launching within around 12 months of each other, which seems unlikely. As for the PS6, the publication believes that the next-gen machine won’t arrive until at least 2028, which does sound more reasonable.

Last May, an AMD job listing for a system-on-chip verification engineer suggested it was already preparing for the PlayStation 6’s chip development.

Shigeru Miyamoto has suggested the next Mario game may be revealed in an upcoming Nintendo Direct.

In an interview with Variety, Miyamoto was asked when the next Mario game would be released, given that Nintendo had just launched a new Super Nintendo World theme park in Hollywood and the Super Mario Bros Movie this week.

Miyamoto laughed and said, according to the video’s subtitles: “Well, all I can say is please stay tuned for future Nintendo Directs”.

What Miyamoto actually said was a little more detailed than this, but gives the same general message.

“I can’t say anything in advance, but we have Nintendo Directs every two or three months, so please look forward to those”, he said.

The last entirely new Mario adventure was Super Mario Odyssey, which was released on the Switch in October 2017.

In the six years that have passed, Switch owners have had numerous remasters and ports of previous Mario games, including New Super Mario Bros U, Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Super Mario 3D World (the latter coming with a new mini adventure, Bowser’s Fury).

Our verdicts on the Pull Back Racers, 5″ Figures and Fire Breathing Bowser

The console has also received a number of Mario-themed spin-offs including Yoshi’s Crafted World, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Paper Mario: The Origami King and Super Mario Maker 2.

The Super Mario Bros Movie will release on April 5 in the US and more than 60 markets around the world, including the UK.

The movie stars Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Jack Black as Bowser and Keegan-Michael Key as Toad.