Daily Briefing: Wednesday 24th February

Sony say they underestimated PS5 demand

The admission comes courtesy of Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan, who told The Washington Post that high demand mixed with "supply chain issues" are what has caused the widespread shortage of PS5 units since the console's launch in November 2020.

• Ryan did confirm that console production is "ramping up steadily" though and, in a separate interview with the Financial Times, said that Sony are intending to produce "really decent numbers" of consoles in the second half of 2021. While Ryan would not guarantee that all demand would be satisfied by the end of the year, he did confirm that things will "get better every month throughout 2021."

Ongoing Fallout DLC lawsuit could delay Microsoft's Bethesda acquisition

The lawsuit in question dates back to July 2019 when the X-Law Group filed against Bethesda over the way they sold Fallout 4's Season Pass. The lawsuit, still in the discovery phase, could seek damages exceeding $1bn and lawyers are reportedly attempting to delay Bethesda's sale to Microsoft, which would allow Bethesda to escape liability.

• The crux of the lawsuit is that Bethesda initially promised in 2015 that Fallout 4's $30 Season Pass would entitle players to access "all of the Fallout 4 DLC [Bethesda] ever [did]" but that changed with the introduction of the Creation Club in 2017. The lawsuit accused Bethesda of breach of contract and fraud, among other things.

New reports emerge of "total chaos" at Techland

TheGamer interviewed current and former staff about the goings-on at the Dying Light 2 developer and testimonies were less than glowing - with several accounts blaming the zombie sequel's troubles on a chaotic iterative design process and "a production pipeline that changes so quickly and rapidly that it might as well not exist."

• There are appears to be a longstanding issue of creative decisions being overwritten by higher-ups "because of some bullshit reason." It's apparently a well-known joke at Techland that nothing is ever really approved, and plans can change in a literal instant. Are we ever going to see Dying Light 2, do you reckon?

Genshin Impact studio details game's ongoing development budget

According to miHoYo President Cai Haoyu, it cost $100m to make Genshin Impact initially and it will cost a further $200m each year to keep up continuous work on the successful title - that's double the game's entire initial development budget for each year the project is being worked on

• miHoYo are obviously investing heavily in Genshin Impact, with around 700 of their 2,400 total staff currently working on the free-to-play title. The investment has been paying off though, Genshin Impact exceeded 17m mobile downloads in its first four days on the market and cleared $100m in revenue within its first two weeks. More, please, say miHoYo.