Xbox and Bethesda will hold a games showcase on June 12th

Although there’s no E3 this year, you can still expect a ton of gaming news to emerge in the coming weeks. Microsoft has announced an Xbox and Bethesda games showcase, which will take place on June 12th (yes, that’s a Sunday) at 1PM ET.

The event will include information on games from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda and some of Microsoft’s partners. It sounds as if it’ll be pretty comprehensive, with the promise of details on “everything you need to know about the diverse lineup of games coming soon to the Xbox ecosystem.” That includes projects on the way to Game Pass for both Xbox and PC.

As for what to expect, it’s a safe bet that we’ll get a fresh look at Starfield. I’m hoping to hear more about Redfall, a vampire shooter Bethesda showed off last summer and hasn’t said a whole lot about since. There will surely be trailers and teasers for previously unannounced games too.

The event will be broadcast in 30 languages (including American Sign Language) on platforms including YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. 

In terms of other gaming events, Summer Game Fest will return this year. THQ Nordic has also set a showcase for August 12th.

Bethesda PC Launcher users can now start migrating to Steam

The time has come to say farewell to Bethesda’s PC games launcher. Starting today, players can transfer their games library, as well as DLC, virtual currency, in-game items and their friends list to their Steam account. Users still have until May 11th to play their heart out on the Bethesda PC launcher. On that date, the PC launcher will no longer allow access to any games. But users can still access their Bethesda.net accounts and transfer their games over to Steam after May 11th.

Players who are ready to migrate should make sure to read the detailed instructions on Bethesda’s website first. Any games users already own or purchases they’ve made will be available free on Steam. But keep in mind that the transferring process could get a bit hairy. While most game saves will automatically transfer, some will require players to manually transfer them over to Steam. For example, DOOM Eternal players will have to manually copy their saved files to their Steam folder. Bethesda has some updated instructions for DOOM Eternal players here. Fallout 76 players should note that there’s a special tool available to help make the migration easier, as well as an extensive FAQ they should read first. Wolfenstein: Youngblood at present isn’t available for transfer, so players won’t be able to carry over their progression on that game to Steam. But in-game skins and DLCs should transfer normally.

While migrating your library may seem annoying, Bethesda is sweetening the pot by making a number of new games available on Steam for the first time. These include The Elder Scrolls Arena, The Elder Scrolls Daggerfall, Creation Kit for Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition, and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Fallout 76’s Public Test Server is now available on Steam as well.

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Sony is building a game preservation team

When Sony’s expanded PlayStation Plus service starts rolling out next month, it will fold in PlayStation Now, which offers access to hundreds of games from older console generations. Now, it seems the company is getting even more serious about game preservation.

According to Twitter and LinkedIn posts spotted by Video Games Chronicle, Sony has hired at least one engineer (Garrett Fredley, a former build engineer for mobile developer Kabam) to work on a new preservation team. “Today is my first day as a Senior Build Engineer at @PlayStation, working as one of their initial hires for the newly created Preservation team! Game Preservation was my first career passion, so I’m ecstatic that I get to go back to those roots,” Fredley wrote. “Let’s go and ensure our industry’s history isn’t forgotten!”

It’s not entirely clear what the preservation team will be working on or what Sony’s goals are for it. Engadget has contacted Sony Interactive Entertainment for clarification.

Sony hasn’t always done an bang-up job of preserving games. Many PS1 games worked on PS2 and the original PS3 models could run many PS1 and PS2 games, but you were unable to play discs from older generations on PS4. The PS5, however, supports all but a few PS4 titles.

The company shut down the digital PSP storefront last summer, though it backtracked on a plan to close the PS3 and Vita stores after a significant backlash. There’s no guarantee that every PS3 and PSP exclusive will be added to the new PS Plus service, which won’t include Vita titles, so some games will be lost to the sands of time.

In a 2017 interview, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan talked about seeing Gran Turismo titles on PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 at an event, and said something that has dogged him ever since: “The PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?” Ryan clarified last year that he was trying to make a point about how good the more modern entries in the series look and that he didn’t intend to be disrespectful to the history of PlayStation. Still, many took his initial comment to mean that Sony didn’t care about older games.

It’s good to see Sony putting more emphasis on game preservation. Non-profits and fan-led projects have led the charge on that front. PC gamers, of course, have access to titles dating back several decades (for instance, I’ve been dipping in and out of Half-Life recently). 

Microsoft understands that folks still want to be able to play old games on modern platforms and has put more emphasis on backward compatibility in recent years. Xbox Series X/S can run games from as far back as the original Xbox.

Like Sony, however, Nintendo hasn’t exactly been great at game preservation. It will shut down the 3DS and Wii U stores next year, and likely won’t port every game from those consoles to Nintendo Switch. Many of those games will be inaccessible to future generations of players.

Update 2:05PM ET: Noting that PS1 games ran on PS2.

Sony is reportedly telling developers to create time-limited demos for their games

Sony is gearing up to roll out the revamped PlayStation Plus in the coming weeks. Ahead of the new tiers being introduced, the company is reportedly placing more demands on certain developers. According to Game Developer, it’s asking studios working on games with a price point of at least $34 to create timed trials that last at least two hours.

The report suggests that Sony informed studios of the directive through its developer portal and without advance warning. They can reportedly release their timed trial (which will need to be available for at least a year) up to three months after their game hits the PlayStation Store. The policy is said not to apply to previously released games, titles that will be sold for less than $34 or PlayStation VR2 games.

The highest tier of the overhauled subscription service, PS Plus Premium, will include access to time-limited game trials. Sony started testing such trials on PS5 in October. It granted players access to Death Stranding: Directors Cut for six hours and Sackboy: A Big Adventure for five hours at no extra cost.

While many folks appreciate game demos and being able to try out a title before paying for it, this move will require studios to dedicated precious time and resources to create the timed trials. That’ll surely put more strain on smaller developers. 

It’s not clear why Sony decided on a $34 threshold for this policy, but there’s a case to be made that developers selling games at a higher price point are more likely to be larger studios with more resources. Engadget has contacted Sony Interactive Entertainment for comment.

Sony will be aware it has to make sure PS Plus Premium delivers good value to users. That tier will cost $18 per month, $50 per quarter or $120 per year (the lowest tier is the same as the current version of PS Plus and won’t have a price increase).

The new PS Plus service is different from Xbox Game Pass in that none of the tiers will offer first-party games on their release day. Offering trials of many new and recent games on top of a library of several hundred games from every generation of PlayStation may make up for that, at least to some extent.

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‘Elden Ring’ is getting the Game Boy demake treatment

Elden Ring is famous for its rich open world, but it just got turned into an 8-bit rolling adventure demake that’s… kind of amazing? It was created by Reddit user Shintendo, who showed off an early demo set in Elden Ring‘s Chapel of Anticipation. There, a Tarnished faces off against the infamous Grafted Scion boss (and loses, again). Gameplay is still pretty rough, but it captures the spirit of the game along with the nostalgic feels of the Game Boy era. 

The rolling animation style is a chef’s kiss, with the main character doing adorable little rolls through terrain just like in the big game. Meanwhile, the “press B button to attack” and other screens prompts are pure Game Boy callbacks. It also captures the battle style from iconic GB titles like Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

Shintendo explained that the demake was created using GB Studio 3.0 and said that it would be playable on real hardware. He’s aiming to release a demo by the end of May on Itch.io, the same storefront that hosts the Bloodborne PC demake that reimagines the game as a PS1 title.