Daily Briefing: Tuesday 13th April (Patreon)
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CD Projekt Red won't abandon Cyberpunk 2077
That comes directly from studio head Adam Kiciński who, speaking in a new interview with Reuters, confirmed that he doesn't think it possible to "shelve" the game. Instead, the studio are confident that they will be able to improve Cyberpunk 2077 to the point where they can sell it for "years to come."
- It's encouraging to see that CDPR are still dedicated to fixing Cyberpunk 2077, which launched with so many issues across different platforms that it certainly would have been easier to just draw a line under the whole business and move on. CDRP's attempts to bounce back have prompted all-new studio plans, so it'll be interesting to see what the future holds.
Naughty Dog sadly aren't making a new Jak & Daxter
Studio co-president Evan Wells recently took part in a discussion for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Science's Game Maker's Notebook series, where he confirmed that the studio still get fan requests and campaigns for a new Jak & Daxter title. Sadly, Naughty Dog aren't working on a new instalment - but Wells wishes that they were.
- Zak & Daxter, despite obviously still being a rather beloved series, has lain dormant for quite some time. The three mainline games released during the PS2 era and were followed up by racing spin-off and a few handheld outings. There was an HD re-release on the PS3 and PSVita in 2012 and again for the PS4 in 2017 - but there hasn't actually been a new game in 12 years.
Outriders devs are working on a fix for that inventory wipe issue
Outriders had a bumpy enough launch despite its popularity and, while the initial server issues were dealt with quite quickly, an inventory-wiping bug has proven more persistent. Luckily, devs People Can Fly are narrowing in on a fix, and have rolled out "additional preventative measures" to protect against future wipes.
- A statement released by the devs outlines that these server-side improvements should "drastically reduce" the appearance of the bug, and confirms that the team will continue to monitor the situation. Timelines are still a little sketchy, but the studio are working on a full patch and have stated that addressing the bug is their "top priority."
PS4 won't even be able to play physical games if its internal CMOS battery dies
This notion has been kicking around for a while now but it appears to have just been confirmed, to a degree. Twitter user Forest, following a call for help from game preservation account Does it Play, removed the CMOS battery from a PS4 slim and found that the console was unable to play any physical or digital games without connecting to Sony's servers.
- While some of the coverage of the experiment spins the findings as rather apocalyptic, they really aren't that bad. All internal PS4 batteries will die eventually, but they can be replaced and synced with PSN easily enough. The problem is, in a hypothetical future where Sony for some reason deactivate PSN, 115m PS4 consoles could become entirely useless once their internal batteries die.