Review: Nintendo Labo: Toy-Con 01 – Variety Kit (Switch)
Editor’s Note: We’ve reviewed the Toy-Con 01 – Variety Kit and Toy-Con 02 – Robot Kit separately. You can read our official verdict on the Robot Kit in the coming days.
As unusual and ‘out there’ as its concept appears, Nintendo Labo is perhaps the most Nintendo thing Nintendo has ever created. From the safe and rewarding nature of its built-in design suite to the simple pleasure of building its cardboard sets, it ticks all the boxes you’d expect from a company that once made its name in hanafuda cards and toys – all the while offering something no other platformer holder would ever dream of (never mind have the guts to invest so much time and effort into).
And that’s what makes it so special; a core concept that takes the basic principles that make Nintendo Switch what it is – the HD Rumble, the IR camera, the motion controls of the Joy-Cons – and conjures up something so bizarre it somehow works. Whether you’re using Switch’s screen in portrait mode while you use a makeshift fishing rod to dangle a real (and virtual) line to catch fish, or playing a light symphony (with cat meows, naturally) on a homemade keyboard, it’s just the kind of wholesome silliness that follows in the footsteps of Wii Music and 1-2-Switch.
Right out of the box, Nintendo Labo comes in three distinct experiences; ‘Make’ (where you’ll follow on-screen instructions to create the physical Toy-Cons), ‘Play’ (where you can play the games that utilise each Toy-Con build) and ‘Discover’ (and mode that serves as both tutorial, inspiration board and programming suite). Each one weaves into the other, and there’s far more to do here than simply ‘make things out of cardboard’, as some of the product’s critics have stated.
The Toy-Con 01 Variety Kit comes complete with a multitude of flatpack sheets, each one with a symbol, lettering and colouring system to ensure you know which one applies to each of the Toy-Con designs (even if you mess them up – which you almost certainly will in the maelstrom of making them). Each of the five designs included with this kit has a handy rough guide to how long it’ll take, and outside of the Joy-Con holder you make in the tutorial and the RC-Car, most take anywhere from an hour and a half to three-plus hours to build.
The cardboard designs themselves vary in quality – some are thick and pliable enough to fold into their respective shapes, but some are a little too flimsy, so don’t be shocked to make the occasional accidental fold. None snapped or tore during any of our builds, but they’re not built to withstand the usual rigours a children’s toy gets put through.
The builds are chunky too, so it’s probably best to have somewhere to store them (the Motorbike, Fishing Rod and Piano builds are particularly bulky). There are a handful of spare pieces included with each box, although perhaps not enough to justify its hefty £70 price tag. You can use cardboard you have lying around the house if you need to repair or modify these builds, but it’s best to rely on the corrugated stuff Labo uses if you want these additions to last.
The on-screen tutorials are designed to be followed at your own pace, with an on-screen button (which can also be controlled by holding ‘A’ on the Joy-Con) moving the process forwards and back. They’re simple enough for even tiny players to follow, with witty on-screen prompts and words of encouragement showing that Nintendo really is aiming to cater to every age group in a family.
The process is much like putting together a sizeable LEGO build, with each Toy-Con build broken up into sections to make its lengthy creation sessions more manageable for smaller attention spans. The length of each build will make this a tougher sell for those of you with very young children, and it would have made more sense to have had two larger models and three or more smaller-to-medium-sized ones to make its ‘Build’ mode seem less of a slog.
On the plus side, there’s no cutting or glueing involved. Everything just pops out of its cardboard frame and can be folded and slotted into place with relative ease. Bar the occasional piece of string, IR-friendly sticker, rubber band or washer, the process of actually making everything from the simple RC Car to the elaborate Piano is a joy. You can rewind and pause the instructions at any time, and with Switch’s kickstand you can simply take it anywhere, set your console up and follow the on-screen tutorials.
Whether you’re putting these builds together on your own or in the company of a child (we built all the kits with a mixture of the two), it becomes one of the most involving and rewarding co-operative experiences. Which is a strange thing to write for a game based around making things out of cardboard, but it’s a collaborative conceit that’s infinitely more involving than any other toys-to-life concept that’s come before it. Being able to use Switch’s touchscreen to view each step in full 3D simply adds more agency to an already empowering mix.
Initially, the ‘Play’ area of Labo appears the shallowest. The five core games of the Variety Kit (controlling the RC-Car, fishing with the Fishing Rod, interacting with a ball-like creature in the House, riding around a track on the Motorbike and playing a tune on the Piano) are fun, but the basic nature of their premises means they’re unlikely to hold your attention (or that of a younger players) for as long as it took to make the bigger builds. Some do feel like glorified tech demos, but others manage to keep that Labo magic pumping away. Being able to scan objects to create custom tracks for your makeshift Motorbike is a trump card even Mario Kart 8 Deluxe can’t match, although it’s a shame you can’t draw or design them from scratch.
The RC Car (well, it’s more like an ‘RC Bug’, but we’re not going to knock a remote control vehicle that moves without wheels), is more of a toy in and of itself, with Switch’s touchscreen doubling for an RC controller. You can even use the IR camera to see through your new creation. Sure, it looks like you’re trying to view the world through the medium of Game Boy Camera, but it’s just another little dimension that’s both weird and cool all at once. There are three more mini-builds to make (one based on the House design, and another two for the Motorbike) but they don’t add anything particularly groundbreaking to the mix. But that’s not to say Play serves no further purpose past these select experiences. In fact, these games are just the beginning…
It’s in ‘Discover’ mode that Labo’s real genius – and ultimately, its true longevity – really lies. Hidden among the cartoonish mini-game ideas and customisation prompts you’ll find a manhole cover. Give it a tap and you’ll find the Toy-Con Garage. It’s easily Labo’s most important feature, and one that might not be immediately apparent to first-time users (or, in fact, those yet to be convinced its more than a childish fad). It’s effectively a simplified programming suite, which enables you to take the Toy-Cons you’ve already built and make them do entirely new things. And that’s not even touching on the brand new creations you can create with any old cardboard around the house, some sticky tape and a few well-placed nodes.
From a working clock to a convincing Game & Watch build – and so many other things in between – it’s an ideal way to introduce users to the world of programming and simple engineering principles. If you know your way around the world of coding its simple presentation isn’t going to change your world, but it’s the exactly the kind of mode young users need to begin their journey towards anything from engineering to game design. And all from the safety of a Nintendo handheld console.
Conclusion
Nintendo Labo might seem like a gimmick – and it is, to a certain extent – but there’s far more it than at first meets the eye. It’s a collaborative concept as rewarding in its construction as it is in its final result (much like any LEGO build you’ve ever worked on), and one that utilises every facet of Switch’s DNA in a way only Nintendo could pull off. With the unbound potential of Toy-Con Garage at its heart, Nintendo Labo mixes the physical and digital so seamlessly even its hefty price tag shouldn’t put you off.
Turtle helmet will no longer give you particle effects
Turtle helmet will no longer make you absolutely completely 100% invulnerable
Blue ice is now ever-so-slightly less slippery than before. Still pretty slippery!
When water spreads and would later turn into a source block, it now immediately just places a source block
We changed how we calculate the temperature of ocean biomes, which should result in nicer transitions between oceans
Mining coral blocks now requires silk touch
Changed particle effect from the Conduit
Optimized spawn position finding code
Technical: there’s now a distinction between scheduled “liquid ticks” and “block ticks”
Technical: there’s new block & item tags for coral
Lots of bug fixes!
BUFFET WORLDS
All you can pick!
As a popular request, we readded a way to play with single biome worlds
You can check it out when creating a new world by selecting Buffet World as a world type
As a side bonus, we also threw in another way to generate chunks in there
Keep an eye on this screen, there might be more things on their way!
(it’s pretty crazy)
FIXED BUGS IN 18W16A
MC-18903 – Villagers’/ Witchs’ right arm doesn’t have the texture flipped. (Like zombies/giants/players/zombie pigmen/zombie villagers/Illagers’ does.)
MC-83064 – Accumulated fall damage is not reset when levitation starts
[ ] – x25 more bugs fixed
To get snapshots, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).
Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.
Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 1.13 will have a lot of experimental snapshots that may break everything and smell funny. This may be one of those snapshots. This is what happens when Mojang are changing all the things!
Share your thoughts on how 1.13 is shaping up in the comments below!
This week at Bungie, we unleashed teams of six into Iron Banner.
We have a lot to cover. Iron Banner 6v6 is in full swing. Exotic weapon previews have been dropping like loot. We’re following that up with some important info on Power progression and reward changes coming in Season 3. On top of all this, we’re having special guests in the building to give us valuable feedback.
Let’s get to it.
Crucible Recap
Last week, we postponed Iron Banner while we worked out an issue. In its place, we rolled out a six-player version of Rumble based on player feedback. Here is PvP Design Lead Derek Carroll with more info on the state of combat between Guardians.
Derek: How did six-player Rumble treat you? We heard your comments and took action when the eight-player version got too big for its cage, and we hope our work paid off. There are additional map-specific spawning fixes that will be present in the next update, so keep the feedback coming!
By the time you read this, Iron Banner will be well underway. As with everything we do in the Crucible, the true test is when players experience it out in the wild. Once you’ve felt how it plays, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Meet me here in a week or so?
As you may have read last week, we are changing the way Crucible playlists work when Season 3 launches alongside the new expansion, Warmind. Beginning on May 8, all Destiny 2 players will be able to compete on any of the Crucible maps we put in our match-made playlists. (Platform timed-exclusive content will still be limited to that platform, but everything else is fair game.) We believe this is a big win for everyone, since players will no longer need to choose between playing in a limited DLC playlist to see “the new stuff” and playing in a mainstream playlist to get the largest pool of opponents and maps. More fun for everyone!
Weapon Showcase
A few weeks ago, we gave you a preview of upcoming changes to Sturm and Drang. Telling you what changes are coming is important, but the old saying holds true: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Back in February, we told you a few things we had planned for Graviton Lance. Earlier this week, we showed off those changes in action.
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Those poor, poor Fallen. That wasn’t the only video we teased out this week. You also got a glimpse of what Skyburner’s Oath will be capable of in Season 3. Now that we have shown you, here is Senior Designer Jon Weisnewski to tell you more about what is changing about those weapons and another you haven’t seen yet.
Jon: Hello. For some bizarre reason Cozmo asked me to come back and waste some more space on the TWAB. So here I am bloating the internet tubes with more bits and gigawatts. What does that mean for you? Another update on the Exotic weapon tuning headed your way this May.
Today, we’ll talk about two guns: Skyburner’s Oath and Rat King.
A while back, I talked about Graviton Lance and how one of the main areas to improve was the lack of utility within a pretty successful show of spectacle. Skyburner’s Oath almost has the opposite problem: It’s a comparatively strong weapon, effective at multiple ranges, strong in ADS and from hip, with varying fire rates. However, it lacks spectacle to give it that exotic feeling; it kind of plays just like any other gun. To address this, we started with giving the projectiles explosive rounds as their default impact response. In ADS, the weapon will perform the same. Full auto, slow firing, high impact.
When firing from the hip, Skyburner’s Oath now lobs slower projectiles at a faster rate of fire that tracks targets and explodes. The tracking functionality tends to draw projectiles to center mass rather than to precision regions, so we reduced the precision scalar a bit and increased damage to the body (precision hits still do bonus damage; and overall DPS is increased). The end result is a dual utility weapon that fires hit-scan, high-damage projectiles while aiming down sights and rapid-fire, lobbed, exploding, tracking projectiles from the hip. It almost feels like a rapid-fire grenade launcher that can transition to a precision death dealer with the press of a button. Here it is in action.
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Next up is Rat King, which already has something of a fan base, but definitely has room to improve. Of the stats that improve with more fireteam members running Rat King, the strongest is probably the increased rate of fire. Unfortunately, the DPS potential is hard to realize because some people just can’t physically pull the trigger fast enough to cash in on this benefit (or don’t know to try). To make sure this is both felt and used, we made Rat King full auto to ensure the rate of fire increase can make a difference when running in a pack.
Another pain point was that the restriction of having Rat Pack only activate when allies have Rat Kings equipped in-hand felt a bit too situational. Rat Pack perk now triggers when fireteam members have Rat King slotted as their kinetic weapon, stowed or in hand. We also front-loaded the stat benefits of Rat Pack so they increase a bit more drastically with one or two fireteam members—and upped the base invisibility timer of Vermin to seven seconds. Last but not least, and not to overly tease, but why not, I’m gonna tease: the Masterwork upgrade for Rat King is going to put a tasty garnish on this meal you won’t want to miss out on.
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It’s never a waste of space to have Newsk stop by to share what weapon changes he’s currently working on. Maybe we can convince him to come back next week to tell us about some more Exotics we are buffing up for Season 3.
Power Climb
We have received a lot of feedback on rewards, Power, and how you want your actions to be more meaningful in determining how your character performs in the world of Destiny 2. We’re planning some adjustments based on this feedback, and Senior Designer Daniel Auchenpaugh is here to give you the details.
Daniel: Last time I was here, I talked about our adjustments to the Raid rewards. This time, I want to talk about some more broad changes we’re making to the reward structure of Destiny 2. One of the things we did when Destiny 2 launched was make the climb to the power cap fast and easy for everyone. It didn’t matter who you were or what your play style was; the road to the cap was quick and accessible for everyone. The result was that achieving the cap felt less satisfying: It was easy, and there weren’t any activities that dared to require it.
So, with the release of Destiny 2 Expansion II: Warmind, we’re making some changes to the size and frequency of upgrades. These changes will apply to all of Destiny 2—not just the Warmind endgame content. Our goals with this change are to bring back meaning and accomplishment to achieving the Power cap, to give players a sense of progression when they come back to play each week, and to reward players who engage in a broader scope of the Destiny 2 endgame content. We’ve made an effort to de-emphasize grinding public events for Exotics and to reduce the impact of clan engrams on endgame progression.
Before we get into specifics, I want to define a couple terms so we’re on common ground. Soft cap is the point you can climb to easily via drops from any source. The hard cap is the power level you can obtain from weekly reward sources. The soft cap for Warmind is 340, and the hard cap is 380. These numbers don’t consider any +5 mods. Remember that all drops are calculated using your Best Possible Power, regardless of if you have the gear equipped or not. It can even be in the vault or on another character!
Our target is that players who participate in all the weekly activities should take several weeks to reach the hard cap. Raids/Trials grant the largest increases, clan engrams provide very small increases, and the other weekly sources fall between those two. Players who don’t participate in any group weekly activities are unlikely to hit the hard cap before the next release; dedicated omnivore players will hit it before players that just play Raids or Trials exclusively. Additionally, the final 10 points from 370 to 380 will be significantly slower than 340 to 370; we expect it to take players roughly equal time to go from 340 to 370 as from 370 to 380. We decided to make this change because climbing to 370 allows you to tackle endgame content without suffering a severe under level penalty, but creates a significant accomplishment in achieving 380.
Clan engrams offer excellent upgrades while a player is climbing to the soft cap; they should grant awards an average of 15 Power higher than your current best possible while you’re on the way there. This will help players catch up with their clanmates who are completing weekly activities. Once you’ve achieved the soft cap, your progress is going to rely a lot more on your own achievements; clan engrams above the soft cap will grant gear only 0–2 points above your best possible.
In an effort to combat exploits around creating new characters to take advantage of one-time quest rewards, we’ve decided to limit those rewards to the soft cap for the release they first appeared in. This means Destiny 2 launch quests cap at 260 (before mods), Curse of Osiris caps at 300, and Warmind caps at 340. To compensate for their new caps, they’ll give you a large boost (15 Power) when you earn them as long as you’re below that cap. Farming Exotics to increase your Power has been removed; if they drop from a non-weekly source, they’ll come out of the engram at the same Power as a Legendary would after you’ve gotten to the soft cap. We believe the changes to quest rewards and Exotic farming will ensure the most effective way to reach the Power cap is to play the most challenges and social weekly activities.
Thanks for hanging in there through this long explanation. Please let us know any feedback you have about this new way forward for Destiny 2 rewards. We’re going to carefully monitor feedback from this post and our early data after Warmind launches to guide any changes we might make to this in the future. So if you love it, let us know! If you hate it, let us know that too!
High Altitude
The guy who used to write these “weekly blog addresses” (those are his words—he apparently hates the term “TWAB”) wants to hog the mic for just a minute to share some final thoughts on the Community Summit that’s happening tomorrow and Friday at Bungie.
DeeJ: Thanks, Cozmo.
Thursday and Friday, we’ll be honored and humbled to host a small but insightful sampling of the community here in our studio. They’ll be here to give us their opinions on our goals and our plans. Some of them you know. Some of them we know. We want you to know that this is not the only way we’re gathering feedback about Destiny 2, and these are not the only people we’re listening to about the game. This summit will be about collaboration. Our best conversations will be about the future. This isn’t a marketing event. There will be no reveals this week. We’re not streaming while they’re here. They won’t have a wealth of news to report once our time together is over. They’ll be welcome to report on the mood from the gathering and to tell you what they told us. We’d ask you not to press them for promises on what the state of Destiny 2 will be in the months to come. That work will still fall to us, and there is still plenty of time for those things to find their final form. Next week, if they want to, they’ll share some of their own content from the next expansion. For this week, we wanted to give them a seat at our table.
Back to you, Cozmo.
Helpful Hands
Whether its plants, animals, or other oddly named error codes, the Destiny Player Support has the information you need to diagnose any issues you come across in the wild.
This is their report.
Iron Banner Updated
This week marks the first arrival of 6v6 Iron Banner, and is the first Iron Banner post-Update 1.1.4. Listed below are changes that players can expect to see in this playlist, as outlined in the Update 1.1.4 Patch Notes:
Now features 6v6
Time limit is 12 minutes
Score limit is 125 points
Respawn time is 7 seconds
All Control Zones start off neutral
Additional Guardians (max of 3) in a zone increases capture speed
Emperor’s Respite has been removed from the Iron Banner Control playlist
Power ammo
Recurring side crate respawn times reduced from 90 seconds to 45 seconds
Initial side crate respawn times reduced from 90 seconds to 30 seconds
Additionally, all Season 2 Iron Banner weapons will be available from Lord Saladin through either Reward Packages, or direct purchase using Iron Banner Tokens. For more information regarding Iron Banner, players should visit our Iron Banner Guide.
Error Codes
We are still investigating an increase in reports of CABBAGE, COCONUT, CURRANT, LETTUCE, and RABBIT error codes.
We have implemented a fix that should resolve most instances of ZEBRA error codes. Players with a poor connection quality or below minimum spec PC hardware may continue to encounter this error code.
Players who encounter these errors should try relaunching into their activity. Players who repeatedly encounter these error codes should report them to the #Help forum.
Put the Bunny Back in the Box
Get ‘em while they’re hot. We got fresh new movies for you to consume. In case you don’t know how this works, we pick our favorite videos each week and send the creators a special emblem. If you want your shot, send your video to the Creations page. Make sure to put all player names who worked on the video in the description so we know who to send the rewards to.
Here are this week’s winners.
Movie of the Week: New World
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Honorable Mention: Yoga Flame!
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Before we go, here are last week’s Nightfall scores.
You just read over 2,400 words of knowledge. How you feeling? We have more lined up for you next week during the stream. Join us April 24 at 10 a.m. PDT on Twitch to see Warmind and Season 3.
In the meantime, I’ll be playing some Iron Banner 6v6 and finishing up some ornaments. I’ll see you out there.
Tower of Time is a classic RPG with a unique real-time combat system where tactics are more important than equipment. Explore the Tower, buried underground for millennia, and uncover the history of times long gone and the mystery of why your land is dying.
You have 3 weeks to get a date for Monster Prom. Go through absurd and funny situations, raise your stats and seduce one of your classmates. Beautiful art, bold, unapologetic dialogue and hard choices make up this Multiplayer (1-4 players) Dating Sim. Be your worst self.
In this excerpt, Couture chats with P.T. speedrunner luxox18 about some of the secrets hidden in the game, and luxox18’s process for working with other fans to ferret them out.
Secrets have given P.T. an incredible power to frighten, but did we discover them all, yet? What else lies buried in the game’s code, waiting to frighten unsuspecting players?
Luxox18, a data miner who uncovered what may be the last of P.T.’s secrets back in December 2016, just wanted to know what was still lying there that hadn’t been seen.
“Silent Hill is a very important franchise to me. I’ve played the games for years, and just like a lot of players, I want a new Silent Hill too. This new game, P.T./Silent Hills, promised a change in the franchise under the direction of people with a long career and great prestige. Unfortunately, none of this happened, converting the game into a kind of internet legend that was almost buried, generating a special interest in many people,” says luxox18.
“Personally, I love the ambient and mystery that we can see and feel in Silent Hill games, where everything, in the end, is paranormal and there are not answers for everything, contrary to games like Resident Evil where everything has a human origin in its creation (Resident Evil is a good game too [laughs]).”
“Now, based on my experience in game data during these years, it’s very common that developers add content to the final game (intentionally or not) that will not be used. This happens due to multiple factors like time, sudden changes, future plans, lots of people working in the project, large amounts of data, etc. Maybe you know that developers need more storage to create a game than players will need in the final game. For example, Killzone Shadow Fall, a game developed by Guerrilla Games released during 2013, had a size of 45GB approx, but developers needed about 12TB of storage during its creation. That is lot of data discarded that we will never see. Imagine that in famous titles like Metal Gear, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.”
Data for unused objects, creatures, and music is often left inside the game, whether by developers forgetting about it, meaning to use it later, or for any number of reasons that busy professionals might not remove it over. This possibility was tantalizing for luxox18, especially given the already mysterious nature of P.T.
“Obviously, we don’t know if a game has removed content that is still included until we can research the data. This increases the desire to find out their secrets. I would have loved to know the development and have the end of the story told,” says luxox18.
Luxox18 found a few interesting tidbits inside of the game, doing so with the help of many other users and dedicated fans across the world, all of whom played a part in the multiple steps required to crack their way into the game’s code. “The security added by Sony in the PS4 console and in the game packages is very strict, so to data mine the game, it was necessary to obtain a decrypted version. This was finally possible thanks to the members of the PS4 scene that were able to obtain data, bypassing the security measures added by the developers. Otherwise we would have to wait more months or years.”
A level designer’s view of P.T.‘s memorable hallway, extracted from the game’s code by fans
“With the first part solved the next task was figure out the Fox Engine formats,” luxox18 continues, trying not to get too technical. “Fortunately, this was resolved too, because a lot of people developed tools some months before for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain that basically used the same engine with some minimum changes. Then, the most difficult task was converting models and textures, but some people from the Xentax forum (a forum for deep game research) made great discoveries that helped us to find more things and to automate the process.”
This process, while different every time, has allowed luxox18 to make some interesting discoveries in multiple games, some interesting and some silly. “In part, I feel good for find things the devs invested time and effort into, but we will never see due to unknown decisions. Some of the hidden models have amazing details, and I feel that basically means that the time invested was important. Also, there are other models that are used as placeholders, at times. These models have zero relation with the game or ambience, but are sometimes very funny.”
Luxox18 feels that many of these discoveries are important, archiving things that developers put a ton of work into and that deserve to be seen, whether they made it into the full game or not. He often wonders whet these games would have been like with this kind of content included. “I feel bad sometimes, because some of the content is amazing! Imagine what kind of game would have resulted if that content was added (music, models, images, story, dialogues, etc)!”
This attitude led them to work on seeing what they could discover within P.T., hopefully to find even more interesting secrets that still lay buried outside the game. And indeed, they found some, revealing creatures and details that could hint at more of the game’s stories and secrets.
“In mining P.T., it was very interesting to find the monster with the big hand that we can see during the trailer (the one from Tokyo Game Show 2014), or see some extra details in characters. The main character, for example (Norman Reedus), had a phone in his pocket.”
The “gray, humanoid creature” model implemented in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The monster with the large hand, a gray, humanoid creature, and some other details became known through luxox18’s efforts. It was revealed that the inside of the paper bag – the one that talks to the player – is empty, although this may not be for any deep reason. The character models for Lisa and the protagonist were even made available for some people online to make silly videos with. The strange creature, the one we would see in the later trailer, hints that perhaps more was slated to be added to the demo at a later date, or perhaps some features had been cut for various reasons.
Still, many have developed complex theories on the game based on these unveiled secrets, which pleased luxox18, but he remains humble about it. “The questions based on the content that I found and in the content of other people are infinite, basically as far as the human mind can imagine, without receiving official feedback from Kojima. My finds have helped some people develop elaborate theories that are wonderful, but it is not just my own merit. Lots of people have found amazing things in the games and in P.T. I just was the first guy to check the game files – sooner or later, another person would have found the same things.”
Are these all that remain in P.T., though? Do we know everything about it, and can lay our fears of its mysteries to bed? Judging from Lisa’s still-mysterious behavior and some words from luxox18, perhaps not.
When asked what he was looking for, he answers: “I was hoping to find ‘something’. Nothing specific. Maybe a discarded character, some unreleased sounds and/or textures, or an image with a message that we cannot see in game because we are not able to correctly trigger the action. And, yes, basically all that I expected has been found. Except the actions, because I’ve not checked the scripts to find other triggers in-game, so maybe there are more secrets still there.”
There are still some things that luxox18 hasn’t looked into – still some final mysteries that the game holds in store for those who play it. While knowing everything might have eroded some of those fears players get while exploring P.T., even four years later, there are still some questions on how our monstrous ghost behaves, as well as what other behaviors the game has hidden and done. There is still much we may not know about the game, as while we can see all that it holds, we still may not know all of what it chooses to do to us.
With the PlayStation 4 at 73M sold, Sony braces for sales to slow
Sony has sold 73.6 million PlayStation 4 systems since releasing the first version of the hardware back in 2013. And while sales have remained strong for the console in the last few years, Sony’s latest financial statements show that the company is preparing for hardware sales to slow down in the 2018 fiscal year.
Right now, that predicted decline is responsible for a 2 percent decrease in forecasted sales for Sony’s Game and Network Services segment, though rising software sales are expected to help soften the blow.
According to the company’s predictions, hardware sales are expected to fall to roughly 16 million units during the current 2018 fiscal year. For reference, the PlayStation 4 is currently sitting at 73.6 million sold, with 19 million of those systems sold during its last fiscal year, down ever so slightly from the 20 million reported in 2016.
This all comes as the PlayStation 4 edges ever closer to the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 3, which saw roughly 83 million systems sold in just over a decade.
As those sales fall, however, Sony is banking on rising software sales to keep the company’s operating income on the up and up. Speaking during a presentation to investors earlier this week, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki noted that hardware sales fell year-over-year between 2016 and 2017, but that sales overall rose 18 percent thanks to rising software sales. The company’s forecasts for the current 2018 fiscal year show that Sony is banking on this trend to continue.
Sony saw ¥920.1 billion (~$8.4 billion) from game software sales in its 2017 fiscal year, up from ¥718 billion (~$6.6 billion) in 2016 and ¥560.9 billion (~$5.1 billion) in 2015. The company didn’t specifically note where it expects game software sales for the 2018 fiscal year to fall, but did say that it expects PlayStation 4 software, especially digital, to continue to increase.
May Xbox Update Adds Groups, High Refresh Rate, and More
E3 is coming up quick, and the team is hard at work on a bunch of exciting new things that we can’t wait to show you in June. But before E3 arrives, we still have a chance to add in a few more exciting features onto your Xbox One that we think you’ll enjoy. Some of these build on the new features we introduced last month; others are new ideas that the team has implemented for you, the Xbox Insider community. Here’s a quick rundown of what to expect in the coming weeks:
120Hz Comes to Consoles
In April, we added variable refresh rate, 1440p resolution support, and auto low latency mode. But we aren’t done just yet. In May, we’re adding support for additional panel refresh rates. Gamers with gaming monitors and televisions that support a 120Hz refresh rate can now turn on 120Hz support for 1080p and 1440p output resolutions. This high refresh rate option means you can now take full advantage of displays with 120Hz capabilities.
Group Your Games and Apps
Our fans asked for new ways to organize their library of games and apps. In response, we’re introducing a powerful new enhancement to Pins which we call “Groups.” With Groups, you can create multiple collections of content made up of anything from within My games & apps. You can also assign custom names to each Group, organize and order them, and add individual Groups to Home. Groups will appear across My games & apps, Home, and Guide, so you’ll be able to access your Groups at a moment’s notice. Best of all, Groups are tied to your account, so they will automatically sync across multiple Xbox One consoles. We’ve started you off with a Group that should look very familiar — your Pins!
We’re doing something a little different with the rollout of this feature: Groups will not initially be enabled for everyone in the Alpha ring. In order to gauge interest and collect feedback, we will instead gradually roll out Groups over time within Alpha.
Trim Clips Directly in the Guide
Last month, we added a new sharing feature that helps gamers upload their captured screenshots and videos directly to Twitter. This month, we’re improving on the sharing experience even further; you can now trim your recent game captures directly from the Guide, so you won’t need to switch to Upload Studio to make a quick cut to your saved clips.
Improved Family Settings
Xbox One is also helping parents keep their family safe with updates to family settings. We’re adding a “Details” page where parents can easily find and manage all family settings on Xbox One. Parents will easily be able to tell which family and content settings are set up and configured. Important setting that are turned off or require attention will be flagged as well. Some settings, such as activity reports and screen time limits, can only be accessed through the web: We’ll identify those settings and provide links where parents can easily set them up.
Improvements to the Xbox Accessories App
We’re also modernizing the Xbox Accessories app to make it easier to navigate, and to look and feel more consistent with the rest of the Xbox One dashboard.
Intuitive Button Commands
We’re also making changes to some of the button commands throughout the dashboard. For example, you can now use the View button on Home to edit the order of blocks or reorder items within Groups. Pressing the “View” button on the main tab of the Guide will also now display additional capture options. If you group your collections in My games and apps by letter, you will now need to select a letter to view all groups.
As usual, a subset of users may also see additional experimental features that we didn’t mention here. These features are only enabled for a portion of the Xbox audience to gauge interest and collect feedback.
The Switch Port Of Bayonetta 2 Has Outsold Its Sister Version On Wii U
While it may have struggled to keep a place in the charts, that doesn’t mean Bayonetta 2‘s much-welcomed Nintendo Switch port hasn’t performed in terms of sales during the first nine weeks of release – especially so when you compare it to sales of the original Wii U version over the same period.
A report released by Nintendo in the wake of its most recent fiscal results shows just how well the Bayonetta sequel fared during its February release. According to the sell-through figures, the Switch port shifted almost 400K units, while the Wii U version didn’t even break 300K back in 2014. Both figures combine stats from North America, Europe and Japan.
Let us know what you make of these intriguing figures from the big Nintendo financial results. Are you still playing Bayonetta 2? Let us know below…
