Daily Briefing: Friday 9th July

Suda51 and Swery65 are still working on that horror game...kind of

Goichi Suda and Hidetaka Suehiro (just in case you didn't know their real names) announced back in 2019 that they wanted to make a horror game Hotel Barcelona. They also mentioned that they wanted Devolver Digital to publish it, something Devolver had no prior knowledge of but were keen to hear the pitch at the very least.

• We haven't heard anything about the game since that "announcement", but Suda recently confirmed that it is still a thing. He said that he contacts Swery every couple of months about how to make Hotel Barcelona happen but, ultimately, getting the game together "really depends on the timing." It's certainly a collaboration to keep an eye on given the pair's release history. Hotel Barcelona will reportedly feature a "100% evil protagonist", multiple timelines, and a murder-mystery element tied to the titular hotel.

Bloober Team debunk Silent Hill rumours

Rumours that the horror specialists are working on something Silent Hill-related have been swirling about since their partnership with Konami was announced last month. These weren't helped by fans noticing a few Bloober Team projects archived with the European Commission, but Bloober Team CMO Tomasz Gawlikowski tried to put the rumours to bed this week.

• Gawlikowski mentioned three different games by their respective codenames: H20, Black, and Dum Spiro. H20 ultimately became Layers of Fear 2, while Dum Spiro has apparently been shelved following "numerous iterations." Black, meanwhile, is still being worked on but has changed drastically since its initial idea stage. At any rate, Gawlikowski says that Bloober Team currently have two projects in the works - one in pre-production and one in full production. And, while both are "bigger in scope" than The Medium, neither seem to have anything to do with Silent Hill.

Sony pull television ad thanks to PS5 mix-up

The PS5 having been part of our world for a good few months now has really normalised just how weird it looks. Sony got a decent reminder recently though when they had to pull a PS5 television ad because the console was, well, upside-down. Sony didn't give an official reason for the ad being removed, but seeing as the removal coincided neatly with a couple of pointed questions on Twitter, there's no prizes for guessing why.

• It may seem like a funny thing to be news worthy but it's honestly a pretty big gaff for Sony. Their marketing has had to go into overdrive to convince players of the PS5's bizarre form factor, and it has been made very clear that the console's disc drive should be on the bottom when placed horizontally. It's a mistake that has been made before, too, by none other than PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst. He also removed his video shortly afterwards, but maybe Sony's marketing department need to send a few more explainers?

Death Stranding Director's Cut releases in September

An impressive chunk of yesterday's PlayStation State of Play livestream was dedicated to a new trailer for a somehow more uncut version of Hideo Kojima's latest work - and went into detail on the kinds of features PS5 players can expect when the game launches later this year. The remastered version includes haptic feedback support and also leverages the PS5's SSD for quicker load times. There are two picture modes - a performance mode that targets 60fps at upscaled 4K, and another with native 4K. Both modes support HDR.

• But there's quite a bit of new content coming to the Director's Cut. The game's combat looks to have been significantly expanded - with a whole host of new weapons and equipment making the most of all-new shooting and melee mechanics. Delivery methods have also gotten an upgrade to integrate everything from jump ramps for crossing chasms to and honest-to-goodness catapult. There's also a racing mode for...some reason. Death Stranding Director's cut releases on September 24th for PS5 - and PS4 owners can upgrade for $10.