The long-awaited PS5 Slim pre-orders may go online soon, according to prominent source @RishiAlwani on X. In an official tweet posted by him, Alwani stated that PS5 Slim has its stock in India, and the pre-order banners go live this week. The post states that the sales may go live from April 5, 2024, for Rs. 55,000 for the disc version, and Rs. 45,000 for the digital version. The original PlayStation 5 consoles will be on the shelves as long as the stocks last. In the X tweet, Alwani also mentioned that the Cricket 24 PS5 bundles might go as low as Rs. 47,000.

Also read: PlayStation 5 Console Disc Edition Bundle Sale For Cricket 24 Indian Edition

PS5 Slim Pre-Order Banners Reportedly Set to Go Live This Week 

So far, there have been no official announcements from Sony regarding the PS5 Slim pre-orders in India, however, recent reports from sources suggest a pre-order banner soon. The sources have also suggested that the console may launch in India in May 2024.  The PlayStation 5 Slim has been available in various regions worldwide for about seven months now. So far, the Slim version has received positive responses from fans, including the digital version. However, Indian gamers have yet to try out the version. 

Another leak from a Reddit user named r/Alternative-Edge-330 also suggested a listing on Flipkart a few months back. Soon after the listing was removed, another handle by the name of SheenuGameCenter posted a leaked report with more details, which also listed the April 10 launch date, alongside the Flipkart listing and the console's price. This source has initially also stated that the PS5 Slim Digital Edition will cost 44,990, as also mentioned in Alwani's recent report. 

PlayStation 5 Slim Specifications

Indian gamers who will get their hands on the PS5 Slim can enjoy the powerful x86-64-AMD Ryzen “Zen 2”, 8 Cores / 16 Threads, Variable frequency, up to 3.5 GHz CPU, alongside an AMD Radeon RDNA 2-based graphics engine, Ray Tracing Acceleration, that also delivers a powerful variable frequency, up to 2.23 GHz. 

For the memory, one can expect a 16GB size with 448 GB/s Bandwith. Both regular and digital edition have the same specifications, except for the size and weight. While the regular PS5 Slim comes at a 358 × 96 × 216 mm size and weighs 3.2 KG, the digital console is slightly smaller at 358 × 80 × 216 mm and weighs 2.6 KG. With the pre-order banners yet to go live, gamers will have to wait before they can order themselves a PS5 Slim this year. 

If we look at the upcoming slate of zombie games, arguably the most hotly-anticipated is State of Decay 3. Fans have been patiently waiting for Undead Labs’ ambitious third entry in the series, but as the months pass by, patience is becoming thinner.

Now is the time for Undead to put everything it has behind its next game, but unfortunately, that also marks the end of the line for its beloved State of Decay 2, which today gets its last ever update.

Thankfully, this 38th and final patch will see the State of Decay 2 go out in style. This substantial update essentially sets it up for the future and gets it in the best possible shape with quality-of-life improvements, balancing changes, adjustments to event rewards, and some bug fixes.

Also Read: Star Wars Outlaws Finally Gets A Steam Release Date

What Does Update 38 Bring To The Game

One of the biggest changes in Update 38 is the addition of community inventories. From the community screen, users will now be able to access the stashes of all other survivors in their base. This makes swapping, organizing, and storing gear so much easier.

For people trying their hands at the State of Decay 2, they also need to factor in a new momentum mechanic that will slow their vehicle if they drive through water. While 4x4s will be affected less by the water resistance, it is an added splash of realism that players will need to watch out for.

Apart from the gameplay changes, Undead Labs has not only added some brand-new clothing items but it has also generously unvaulted any past time-gated content. It mostly has seasonal gear for events like Halloween and Christmas. Several weapons and vehicles have also been added to the world spawn pool.

Also Read: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 To Launch On January 2025 For PC

Will the State Of Decay 2 Go Offline?

Update 38 is currently live in the State of Decay 2. Users will be able to check out every single change in the full set of patch notes here. Although this is the last update for the game, Undead Labs has already assured it won’t be taken offline.

While State of Decay 2 is still worth your time, the home stretch of the agonizing wait for the State of Decay 3 release date now starts. For players suffering from State of Decay fatigue, there are several other zombie games to try out for now.

The team responsible for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has been disbanded, as per a report from French media outlet Origami. In a video posted, Origami reports that the team behind The Lost Crown was disbanded despite seemingly positive reports from developers on their experiences working on the game.

Per a tweet by Gauthier Andres: "I've heard and read 'It was the best game production in my entire life' three or four times in a single weekend while getting information on the game's development. One after the other I was told it was seen as a beacon of hope to create a safe space for people that were burnt out by Beyond Good & Evil 2. The team has been disbanded by Ubisoft."

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Now Sequel For Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown

The video also states that the game’s fate was effectively decided just a few weeks after its release. The core game development team reportedly fought to get a sequel or at least more expansion beyond the single “Mask of Darkness” expansion, but Ubisoft allegedly needed more help on other projects that had better sales potential.

According to the report, The Lost Crown did not meet the company’s expectations, and executives expressed concerns that a sequel would cannibalize long-term sales of the first game. The game was developed at Ubisoft Montpellier, which employs hundreds of people and was last known to be working on the infinitely-in-limbo Beyond Good and Evil 2.

Also Read: Black Myth Wukong PS5 Physical Editions Coming ‘Very Soon’

The Team Has Shifted Focus To Other Games

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Senior Producer Abdelhak Elguess sent the following statement to IGN, "I'm extremely proud of our team's work and passion at Ubisoft Montpellier to create a game that resonated with players and critics alike, and I am confident in its long-term success. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is now at the end of its post-launch roadmap with three free content updates and one DLC that was released in September.”

"We are now focusing on making the game available to more players: it was recently launched on Steam, and will be available on Mac by this winter. Most of the team members who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have shifted to other projects that will benefit from their expertise. We know players have a love for this brand and Ubisoft is excited to bring more Prince of Persia experiences in the future." 

The doors on The Wolf Among Us 2 haven’t been closed yet, despite rumors suggesting otherwise. Recently, a whistleblower claimed development of The Wolf Among Us 2 was in peril, and the team at Telltale was at a "critical point where they might have no choice but to shelve it."

In a statement shared with Eurogamer, Telltale has ensured that work on the game continues. "As a rule, we don't comment on rumors and unsubstantiated Reddit threads," a Telltale PR told us. "But development on The Wolf Among Us 2 continues and we're excited to share more about the game with Telltale fans and our community when the time is right."

Also Read: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Release Date: Preloading, Platforms, and More

When Is The Wolf Among Us 2 Coming?

The Wolf Among Us 2, will be set in the world of Bill Willingham’s Fables comics - was originally announced back in 2017, but development was stopped when Telltale Games faced significant lay-off and was shuttered in 2018.

It seemed like the end for the sequel; however, a little less than a year later, it was announced Telltale was being resurrected under new management - a surprise development that would eventually see The Wolf Among Us 2 re-announced, with the project kicking off in pre-production.

Also Read: Delta Force: Hawk Ops PC Open Beta Coming In December

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 To Launch On January 2025 For PC

With the first anniversary of Spider-Man 2’s PS5 launch just a few days away, developer Insomniac has announced the acclaimed superhero sequel will launch for PC on 30th January next year. Insomniacs isn’t ready to make platform-specific enhancements just yet, but it has confirmed Spider-Man 2’s PC port will come with all the extra content released through the game's various free post-launch updates. 

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 comes to PC in two versions. One will be the standard variant, which comes with all the above, plus a pricier Digital Deluxe Edition. The latter packs everything that the standard edition offers, alongside ten exclusive suits - five for Peter and five for Miles - plus early unlocks for Peter's Arachknight suit, Miles' Shadow-Spider suit, and the Web Grabber gadget.

The Deluxe Editions also offers +5 skill points and some extra photo mode items. It’s imperative to note that anyone who pre-orders the base game also gets the Arachknight suit, Shadow-Spider suit, Web Grabber, and +3 skill points.

Netflix’s push into gaming might not be going as planned. First reported in Game File and confirmed by Netflix, the streaming giant has discreetly shut one of its studios, the first in three years since it started foraying into gaming.

According to Game File, the shut studio was known as Blue. In 2022, the company announced it hired former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny to run the studio.

Since then, Blue has roped in several game industry veterans with experience working on high-profile franchises including Halo and God of War.

Also Read: Disney To Follow Netflix And Restrict Password Sharing

Netflix AAA Game Studio Shut Without Launching a Game

If reports are to be believed, Blue was developing a multi-platform AAA game for an original IP but was shut down before the could be announced or launched. Netflix has released a steady stream of games on its platform since the start of its gaming experiment in 2021.

Though it started with a small handful of hyper-casual mobile games, Netflix’s offerings have expanded to include mobile exclusive ports of iconic games like Grand Theft Auto and Hades its own internally developed exclusives like Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit and Oxenfree II: Lost Signals.

Netflix also acquired several studios to support its gaming arm. The most recent additions were a mobile game studio in Helsinki, a new studio in southern California, and Cozy Grove developer Spry Fox. But with the closure of Blue, Netflix’s trend of expansion might be over as well as its grander AAA ambitions.

Also Read: Netflix Begins Testing Game Play on TV, PC and Mac

Netflix's Latest Game Will Take You Back To Your Childhood

Netflix is launching Minesweeper as part of its selection of subscriber-only games, and the game is now available for iOS as well as Android users. The classic puzzle game that most people know from Microsoft Minesweeper, available in Windows 11 and versions dating back to 1990, has fresh colorful graphics and new modes.

Netflix’s take on the classic game looks a whole lot like the old Minesweeper, but it adds a Journey Mode that takes players to different levels across world stages as well as unique daily challenges.

While looking for and flagging sea mines on a grid is a logic puzzle that’s often cloned in plenty of money-seeking games on the Play Store and App Store, Netflix subscribers will not find any in-game ads or microtransactions in the streaming service’s new edition.

Games might not be the biggest reason subscribers come to Netflix, but a lot of indie games, aged triple-A titles, and now Minesweeper’s S-tier idle time-killing abilities coming to the service continue the company’s attempts to maintain the stickiness of its service with subscribers.

Naughty Dog’s next title will reportedly focus on giving players more freedom. Well, that’s what minnMax founder Ben Hanson said. He claims to have received some information about the secretive project from “somebody very in the know, who worked on the game.”

“The tone was like, you are all not ready for how amazing this thing is going to be, and the tone was—I’m not going to say the game that they referenced to compare it to because I don’t want people to be like, MinnMax said it was going to be exactly like this—but they compared it to a game with a lot of player freedom.”

Also Read: Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Open Beta was the Biggest in Franchise History

Naughty Dog Not Focused On Traditional Narrative

Hanson added that Naughty Dog’s upcoming game was compared to Hitman. In 2023, Naughty Dog head Neil Druckmann said that he would like the studio to focus less on traditional narrative in future projects.

“I’m more recently intrigued by stuff like Elden Ring and Inside, that don’t rely as much on traditional narrative to tell a story,” he told The Washington Post. “I think some of the best storytelling in The Last of Us – yes, a lot of it is in the cinematics – but a lot of it is in the gameplay, and moving around a space, and understanding a history of space by just looking at it and examining it.

“To me that, right now, is some of the best joy I get out of games – [those] that trust their audience to figure things out, that don’t hold their hand. That’s the stuff I’m really intrigued by going forward.”

Also Read: Annapurna Interactive Team Resigns Following Owner Dispute

Many Games Under Development At Naughty Dog

Druckman added: “I think those are tools in your toolbox and it’s about how to use all these different aspects – some of it from other media, some of it [as] found notes and environmental storytelling.

“I think there’s a way to push that stuff forward, at least, for the kind of games we make at Naughty Dog. I’m really intrigued – again, [we’re] never resting on our laurels, and trying something a little bit new, a little bit different, that not everyone’s going to like, but that’s okay.
 

“And again, it’s stuff that we’re working on now – I can tell you that the teams are very excited by the different projects we have at Naughty Dog.” In July, he said that there are several games under development at Naughty Dog. These games include “multiple single-player projects,” but he emphasized that while they won’t all be The Last of Us titles, they will have a similar goal.

“We create experiences that are steeped in story and character, especially relationships,” he told the LA Times. “The stories have some sort of philosophical core that everything is going to revolve around and feed into.”