Daily Briefing: Thursday 21st October

Xbox want to make PlayStation-style blockbusters

That's directly from Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty who, speaking in a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, said that Xbox want to get better at making the kinds of immersive blockbuster titles synonymous with PlayStation. Booty says that Xbox are focused on creating a diverse and engaging software portfolio and that Game Pass has created the kind of environment that has "room for everything from Halo to smaller games like Grounded."

• However, Booty went on to acknowledge the need for Xbox to deliver the kinds of big-budget, AAA blockbusters that competitors Sony have become known for. Booty, responding to a question about whether these types of experiences were on the cards for Xbox, started off by crediting Sony's output before going on to say “I tend to come at that, less of ‘one of those’ and more making sure that we are paying attention to fan expectations. I think that there’s a certain kind of game that generates an anticipation that kind of becomes this big tentpole moment, it’s a game that fits that intersection that everybody can play and it’s also a big world that you feel like you can inhabit, and I think those kinds of games are important."

Next-gen upgrades for Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 delayed

This week has been quite a roller coaster in terms of news on Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3's upcoming next-generation upgrades. Their receiving an official classification earlier this week lead to rumours that a release was imminent, only for developers CD Projekt Red to come out and confirm that both upgrades have been delayed into next year. In a statement, CDPR apologised for the delay but emphasised that the decision was made based on "recommendations supplied by persons supervising development."

• Both upgrades were originally due to release before the end of this year, but now Cyberpunk 2077's upgrade will arrive in Q1 2022 while The Witcher 3's has slipped to Q2. Cyberpunk's delay honestly isn't a huge surprise considering CDPR recently told investors that there was no guarantee the update would release this year, but The Witcher 3's upgrade also slipping is a bit of a surprise. It's being developed externally by Sabre Interactive and received its official PEGI classification this week.

God of War coming to PC in January 2022

Sony made the confirmation this week that 2018's God of War will arrive on PC on 14th January 2021, carrying on their proud and lucrative tradition of double-dipping big first-party exclusives on PC. In a new update posted to the official PlayStation Blog, Santa Monica Studio senior communication manager Grace Orlady said player's will "be able to enjoy the full potential of our cinematic, no-cut camera as it follows Kratos and Atreus across the realms with the option of true 4k resolution, on supported devices, and unlocked framerates."

• The PC version sounds like the definitive way to experience was is really a very good game from the Santa Monica team. Orlady's post goes on to say that PC players will be able to fine-tune their graphical performance based on their own preferences and system capabilities, as well as get access to a decent amount of fancy gear from the word go. Sony also announced that the PC version of God of War will have "full integration with NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) available on RTX." This means that players "won't have to sacrifice high graphical settings and outputs resolutions for high performance in God of War." Neat.