Watch the world’s top Gran Turismo 7 gamers race live in Milan https://ift.tt/8TzAmlX
Milan, a city defined by style, speed, and motorsport passion, becomes the center of the racing world this weekend. The Gran Turismo World Series 2026 begins inside the historic Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber, just moments from the iconic Duomo. The sold-out event marks Gran Turismo’s first-ever World Series appearance in Italy and opens a new global season where national pride, manufacturer legacy, and elite competition collide. Fans around the world will be able to experience every moment live in Gran Turismo 7, on Gran Turismo Live, YouTube, and Twitch.
The opening round immediately delivers one of the season’s biggest storylines. Former World Champion Valerio Gallo arrives in Milan carrying the expectations of a passionate home crowd eager to see an Italian driver triumph on home soil. But standing in his way is reigning Nations Cup champion Jose Serrano, the Spanish star who established himself as the benchmark in 2025 and enters the new season as the driver everyone wants to beat. And the challengers are already closing in.
Japan’s Takuma Miyazono travels to Milan directly from competing in the famous Nürburgring 24H race. He will be determined to quickly adapt from a real cockpit to the SIM rig as he bids to reclaim the title he won in 2020 and 2024. Spaniard, Pol Urra, continues his rise after another standout season in 2025. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Samuel Moreno, another prodigious talent from Spain, makes his Gran Turismo World Series debut in Milan, introducing a new generation of talent to the sport’s biggest stage.
Round One is about more than early points. It is the first opportunity to seize momentum, establish psychological advantage, and shape the narrative that will define the championship race in the months ahead.
Across both championships, elite drivers representing nations from Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas will compete in front of a live audience in two distinct battles. The Nations Cup transforms national pride and identity into rivalry on track, while the Manufacturers Cup turns automotive legacy and engineering reputation into a fight for global supremacy between some of the world’s most iconic brands.
That manufacturer rivalry brings its own drama into 2026.
Defending champion Team Porsche returns with their driver, Serrano. Once again, Porsche looks to defend its crown against a hungry field. Team Mazda enters the season chasing redemption after narrowly missing last year’s title with Urra leading the challenge, while Team Subaru introduces British newcomer Callum Moxon as fresh talent joins the championship battle.
The World Series experience extends beyond the broadcast inside Gran Turismo 7 itself. Fans who watch the live streams in-game will unlock exclusive Stealth Model race cars, while predicting race winners and taking part in the Lap Time Challenge at Autodromo Nazionale Monza allows players to experience the competition alongside the world’s best drivers. The campaigns transform spectators into participants, bringing fans closer to the action throughout the weekend.
Fans looking to follow every storyline, driver, race, and in-game campaign throughout the weekend can explore the Gran Turismo World Series 2026 Milan Event Page, and follow on Instagram and X. The Manufacturers Cup will start proceedings at 15:00 UTC, and the Nations Cup begins at 17:30 UTC.
After the lights go out in Milan this weekend, it isn’t over. The Gran Turismo World Series 2026 starts here — and every rivalry, title fight, and defining moment that follows will trace back to the first lap in Italy.
State of Play returns Tuesday, June 2 https://ift.tt/It6S3qh
State of Play returns Tuesday, June 2 with more than 60 minutes of updates, announcements, and gameplay reveals from top studios around the world.
To kick things off, you’ll get a closer look atMarvel’s Wolverine. Insomniac Games will share more from its upcoming third-person action-adventure game showing off Logan’s brutal and relentless combat along with some new details. This all-new take on the comic book legend launches on PS5 September 15.
Watch the State of Play broadcast live Tuesday, June 2 at 2:00pm PT / 5:00pm ET / 11:00pm CEST | June 3 at 6:00am JST on YouTube and Twitch. The broadcast will be in English, with Japanese subtitles also available. We hope to see you then!
Regarding co-streaming and video-on-demand (VOD)
Please note that this broadcast may include copyrighted content (e.g. licensed music) that Sony Interactive Entertainment does not control. We welcome and celebrate our amazing co-streamers and creators, but licensing agreements outside our control could interfere with co-streams or VOD archives of this broadcast. If you’re planning to save this broadcast as a VOD to create recap videos, or to repost clips or segments from the show, we advise omitting any copyrighted music.
007 First Light on PS5 Pro: upgraded PSSR upscaling details https://ift.tt/g4qU2ab
With the launch of 007 First Light, PlayStation 5 Pro players will experience the game with upgraded PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) enabled by default. Upgraded PSSR is the next-generation, machine-learning-based upscaling technology from Sony Interactive Entertainment, designed to reconstruct a sharper, more stable image from a lower internal resolution, and at IO Interactive, the results spoke for themselves almost immediately.
A cleaner, more stable image
Upgraded PSSR brings a clear step up in image quality across the world of 007 First Light, from the dense foliage of outdoor environments to the close-up detail of character work in cinematic moments. The improvements are most visible in the kinds of scenes that have traditionally been the hardest for upscalers to handle.
Cleaner picture, less flicker and graphic noise
Upgraded PSSR substantially reduces shimmering and flickering artifacts, delivering a calmer, more cohesive image, especially in scenes packed with fine geometry and high-frequency detail.
Better temporal stability under motion
Whether the camera is sweeping through an environment or the player is sprinting between cover, upgraded PSSR holds the image together far more convincingly than before. Moving objects retain their definition instead of breaking up.
Sharper reconstruction of hair and fine detail
Hair, fabric, and other fine elements are reconstructed with greater clarity, which matters a great deal in a game where character presentation is central to the experience.
“Upgraded PSSR gave us a meaningful jump in image quality across the board — cleaner, more stable, and noticeably sharper on the kind of fine detail that’s hardest to get right. It’s a clear upgrade for our PS5 Pro players.”
– Henrik Schlichter, Technical Director, IO Interactive
A remarkably smooth integration
One of the most striking things about upgraded PSSR from a development standpoint was how little work it took to get a great-looking result. Our engineers had the new upscaler integrated in record time, and the output was strong enough out of the box that no per-scene tuning was required across the wide variety of locations and lighting conditions in 007 First Light.
“We integrated upgraded PSSR in about a day and were essentially happy with what we saw straight away. No per-scene tuning, no special-case work — it just held up across the whole game. That’s not something we get to say very often about a piece of new tech.”
– Jon Rocatis, Principal Render Engineer, IO Interactive
Available at launch on PS5 Pro
Upgraded PSSR will be the default upscaler on PlayStation 5 Pro for 007 First Light at launch. Players on other platforms will continue to benefit from FSR 3.1.5, which remains our upscaler of choice outside of PS5 Pro.
We’re excited for players to experience 007 First Light at its visual best on PS5 Pro, and we’ll keep looking for opportunities to push image quality further as the platform and its tools continue to evolve.
Time travel, trials, and treasure awaits in The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales https://ift.tt/l7Zt3cV
We’re excited to show you more of the early portion of Elliot and Faie’s adventure in The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, coming to PS5 June 18. At this point in the game, our dynamic duo has teamed up and ventured through a Doorway of Time, granting them access to the Age of Reconstruction, which is 250 years in the past.
You’ll see how the people of this era cling together in a village called Littlehope, eking out an existence with meager resources and defenses. From here, Elliot and Faie will embark into a dangerous world that resembles their home in the Era of Safekeeping, but subtle differences will keep the spark of exploration alive.
One of the main attractions in this demo is the Doorway Ruins, located in the eastern section of Philabieldia. This dungeon has it all: platforming, puzzles, plenty of beastmen to do battle with, and treasure to discover. You can even get a powerful new sword for Elliot, which will come in handy when you go to face the dungeon’s formidable boss, the Tag Guardians.
In this fight, you’ll have to defeat a Greatsword Guardian and a Great Bow Guardian. The guardians move quickly and aggressively, with the Greatsword Guardian wielding a huge blade with surprising range and the Great Bow Guardian launching shots at you from afar.
Elliot has all seven weapon types available to him in this demo, so you can find the strategy that works best for you. With the hammer, for example, Elliot can unleash a devastating charge attack, and with the boomerang, he can deal damage from afar. By changing up Elliot’s magicite setup, you can also find new ways to customize the combat experience to your liking. Faie’s magic will also come in handy as she can help Elliot speedily escape a tricky situation.
Speaking of Faie’s abilities, it’s also possible to unlock a new power for her in this demo. By seeking out the Shrine of the Mystic, Faie can learn the Warp ability, which enables Elliot to teleport to her location. This is super useful for solving puzzles and for evading enemy attacks.
There’s plenty more for Elliot and Faie to do beyond the Doorway Ruins and Shrine of the Mystic. The pair can freely fast travel to any discovered adventuring guideposts in the two eras unlocked in this demo, so you can check out what secrets the world has to offer.
One fun piece of side content we’ve implemented is cat collecting, which is exactly what it sounds like. Throughout the world, you’ll find cats that you can collect on behalf of a cat-fancying traveler. You’ll get various rewards for your efforts, so it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for any stray felines.
When you want to take a break from adventuring, you can also check out Faie’s Magic Lessons, which are fun minigames accessed through the menu. The sprint minigame in particular is a favorite of ours, and it will have you racing down an icy mountain, pursued by an avalanche. Through these minigames, you can unlock records that allow you to listen to the in-game soundtrack.
I hope this preview has grabbed your interest. This is just a small look at what the full game has to offer, and we can’t wait for you to embark on your journey with Elliot and Faie when The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales launches on PlayStation 5 on June 18, 2026.
To give you a better glimpse of what to expect, we’re excited to share a Q&A with the development team. (Note: All answers are translated from Japanese.)
Why did you choose to make this an action RPG rather than a turn-based game?
Tomoya Asano: Through the HD-2D visual style, we first explored the RPG genre with
Octopath Traveler, followed by the strategy genre with Triangle Strategy. Building on that progression, we wanted to reach an even broader, newer audience with this latest entry, which led us to adopt the action RPG genre for this title.
As the development team, what lessons did you learn from other HD-2D games that you applied to this project? Could you tell us about the challenges you faced in incorporating HD-2D into the action gameplay, and how you overcame them?
Naofumi Matsushita: The appeal of HD-2D lies in the fact that, by using 3D backgrounds, we can create a sense of depth in the maps and scenery, even though the characters are 2D. The challenge was how to fuse that strength with 2D action gameplay.
In pixel-art 2D action games, the entire screen tends to be dominated by the ground of the map. However, that prevents players from feeling the depth of a 3D environment, and the visuals can end up feeling rather dull to users.
In this title, particularly in the field areas, we’ve implemented a drum roll technique where the map curves in the background to reveal distant terrain. By applying unique innovations to further maximize the visible range, we’ve created an experience that conveys a sense of depth despite being a 2D action game.
We achieved this through careful coordination with the development team, and is a key creative aspect that differs from our previous HD-2D titles.
Furthermore, we’ve introduced a unique element—controlling your fairy partner Faie—and added elements to the core battle system that allow players to use their own strategies.
Our intention was to let players enjoy traditional fun within a beautiful visual style while also providing a new experience through these unique elements. We achieved this balance by playing the game extensively and refining it day by day.
Could you tell us about the development team’s vision for this time-travel action RPG?
Tomoya Asano: Having worked on many RPGs over the years, I’ve come to realize that the past plays a crucial role in storytelling. The idea that if players could actually experience that past led to the creation of a storyline where you travel back through time using the Doorway of Time to explore different eras. So, rather than traveling to every corner of the world, this story focuses on untangling the history of a single nation within a specific region.
Naofumi Matsushita: The tagline is derived from, “Hope is always there,” a phrase that appears in the story itself and holds deep significance for us. I’d like players to discover and experience the theme and message for themselves by actually playing the game. And I would love for players to enjoy this thousand year journey as they experience the history of the town and the lives of its people unfold across the four eras.
We hope you enjoyed this extended look at The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, and prepare to explore more dungeons and take on giant bosses when the game arrives on June 18 for PS5.
Share of the Week: EA Sports FC 26 https://ift.tt/aM1gRTY
Last week, we asked you to share your goal-winning moments from EA Sports FC 26, available to all PlayStation Plus members* as part of the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup for May. Here are this week’s highlightings:
Photomode_Raroshares the ball being kicked up and close to the foreground.
call_me_xaviishares a goalie holding the ball outside the goal.
fsantos1697shares a view of the crowd at the stadium.
lucaslu_cklishares a goalie reacting in disbelief at a goal, while the opposing player runs off
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme, or be inspired by other great games featuring Photo Mode. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Hands SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on May 20, 2026
Next week, put ‘em up! Share moments focusing on characters using their hands in the game of your choice. Use #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
*PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup may differ by region. Please check PlayStation Store on release day for more information.
Ghost of Yōtei Legends Raid: building the multiplayer mode’s endgame https://ift.tt/EAdSNez
Launched last month, the Ghost of Yōtei Legends Raid forms the endgame of Sucker Punch’s multiplayer mode, as Ghosts face off against the last two of the supernatural Yōtei Six, The Dragon and Lord Saito. Well, them, plus a horde of warriors and labyrinth strongholds that four players must cooperate together to survive.
With enough time now passed, we sat back down with Lead Designer Darren Bridges to delve into the creative processes behind the Raid. Spoilers follow, so if you’ve yet to level up and tackle the Raid, then bookmark this article until you’ve returned to the lobby flush with success. The full interview will be available to listen to later today on the Official PlayStation Podcast.
“One of our original thoughts was: it’s like an escape room where people are trying to kill you.”
The Raid’s elevator pitch
“One of our original thoughts was: it’s like an escape room where people are trying to kill you. It’s four player, hardcore, challenging content. And there are puzzles that you need to work together as a team to complete. And, of course, there are enemies who are also trying to kill you, so it often will involve a lot of learning, coordinating, and performing as a team in order to succeed.”
Learnings from Ghost of Tsushima Legends and its Raid
“[Ghost of Tsushima Legends] was the first time we’d done anything like that as a studio. It had a lot of successes. It brought that level of challenge and learning and team coordination requirements. But it was also kind of unbalanced in the pacing and the length of it. A lot of players weren’t able to play it. The first time I played the second chapter of the Raid with my friends, I think it took six hours. So you had to have a group of four who were committed and could set out that amount of time. So it was epic, but it was also kind of inaccessible in that way.
You know that you’re serving multiple audiences. When you’re building content, there are people who want really hardcore and those who don’t have that much time. They may want to play, but they may not be able to set aside that much time. So we wanted to enable those same experiences of challenge, but make it easier for players to step in. If they had to step away, they could rejoin.
So this time in Ghost of Yōtei Legends, the missions are paced a little more consistently and, if we’ve enabled it so that if you replay it, you can play just the boss. So if your team has made it through the puzzles, but then you’re struggling with the boss, run out of time, someone has to leave… you can come straight back to the boss.”
“I love hearing in a co-op game where there’s no text on screen naming something, how every team comes up with their own language for describing or expressing it.”
Raid missions built to prepare you for what’s to come
“When we were building the Raid, we wanted to introduce elements [on the mission to the boss encounter] that would prepare you for what you’re going to face in the fight.
“So in The Dragon fight, you’ll see the giant Bo-Hiya missiles dropping, so you get a little bit of an introduction to that. And then Saito’s giant sword attack that is mostly undodgeable. If you hit your ultimate, you can avoid it, but it’s just kind of damage that you have to take. And so we introduce that ahead of his fight. We want them to make sense and build off the things that you learned throughout the rest of the experience.
I would also say I love hearing in a co-op game where there’s no text on screen naming something, how every team comes up with their own language for describing or expressing it. Every time when we watch streams there’s a natural language evolution that happens in-game as people are trying to describe this thing and communicate to each other.”
Adding new threats to throw players off their game…
“In The Dragon fight, there’s a moment where bombs start dropping on individual players, and you have to run around. In Legends in general, you can’t hurt other players, but suddenly there’s bombs dropping on you. So wherever you go, you’re creating a danger area. So as everyone’s panicking, you see someone running towards you, and if you cross paths, you’re both going to get blown up by the bombs that are falling. So you have to coordinate to either avoid the giant bombs or destroy them.”
…and discovering surprising ways to counter those dangers
“If you are a Shinobi and vanish, the bombs stop tracking you, stop dropping. And if you can get near your teammates and cause them all to vanish, it’ll skip that entire bomb drop sequence. That was actually something that we didn’t plan for. But when we were testing it, we saw it, and we’re like, oh, that’s actually really awesome.”
“We wanted to create moments which we call ‘Group Jump Rope’, where everyone has to do something together as a team, and other moments where one person can be the hero and carry and support the rest of the team.”
Built to work together…
“A lot of our combat team play Raids in different games. Especially boss-type Raids. So they’re excited to express that design in the Yōtei universe and with the Yōtei combat mechanics.
“One of my favorite parts is the Shadow Saito guys that attack you. I mean, I hate them. But the fun part is it’s a great moment for players to practice calling things out for each other. If one player sees the boss getting ready to summon you can call it out, and then everyone else can prepare and try to react in time. We wanted to create moments which we call ‘Group Jump Rope’, where everyone has to do something together as a team, and other moments where one person can be the hero and carry and support the rest of the team. So you want blends of those throughout the battle.”
…and Builds to work together
“We wanted to have elements that would reward or encourage different build types, or build craft and people bringing their ingenuity and theory to it. We made sure to place a Gear Station right at the beginning of the [Saito] boss fight. So anytime you die as a team, you’ll start back right at the Gear Station. You can tweak your build. And for that fight, you’ll want some perfect parry buffs, to help you against the shadow warriors. Then you need some way to deal with his health, reduce the damage from his big explosion attacks, either, you know, healing, or, you know, some other way. So we wanted the Team Build to impact the experience.”
“Those teams have a different mindset, even in how they play. It feels like building an obstacle course with your local team and then throwing Olympians at it.”
Watching the first team of players complete the Raid
“When you’re making something, you’re always like ‘no one’s going to beat that, this is going to be tough, this is going to slow people down’. And sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t.
“The world’s first team beat Saito, I think, in like two minutes. And they had spent, I think, an hour or so leading up to that point. And so I thought, oh, you know, I was thinking, proportionally, it’ll probably be another half hour or something… and they just headshot him. They found the most kind of efficient and optimal way to defeat him. And that team, those teams, have a different mindset, even in how they play. It feels like building an obstacle course with your local team and then throwing Olympians at it.
But it’s awesome. You never know exactly what will happen, but that’s part of what makes it exciting. And then a lot of the other teams that we watched took more of what we would have expected, two to three hours, to learn and repeat and practice and defeat that boss. So there’s always a variety.
“There’s not many times in game development where you actually get to release content and see how people react. It’s especially fun with Raid type content, where teams have prepared leading up to that point. It’s really cool when they’re streaming with a Raid team, they will often have their mics on and broadcasting audio. You get a window into what they’re thinking as they’re playing and that communication… you get to see all of it evolving as they’re playing. It’s a very clear window into their full experience. So as developers, that’s really fun to see.”
A Ghosts’ tale concluded
“The Raid update was our last major planned update for Legends. It finishes the story of the Yōtei Six in that mode. We’ve loved to see players playing it, continue to play it and enjoy it. It’s been great.”
You can enjoy the Raid and the entire elections multiplayer mode with Ghost of Yōtei, available now on PlayStation 5.
Creating Saros: how performance tech and a bad commute brought Arjun Devraj to life https://ift.tt/EAdSNez
You grip your controller until your thumbs go numb. You’re just gonna go on one more run. Hypnotic waves of colorful bullets fill the screen as you weave through the chaos, locked into an adrenaline-pumped flow state. But beneath that audiovisual and technical excellence, there are narrative reasons to explore the hostile alien world of Carcosa.
The Soltari Enforcer, Arjun Devraj, played by actor Rahul Kohli, is deployed alongside a rescue crew, to Carcosa to secure a lost mining colony, though he may be harboring ulterior motives. The story of Saros takes Housemarque in a new bold direction, and it’s all propped on the shoulders of the actors behind these performances.
Finding Carcosa: Becoming Arjun is a behind-the-scenes documentary that explores how Arjun came to life. Taking you onto the performance capture stage, the film features exclusive footage and new interviews with Kohli and the development team, detailing exactly what it took for Arjun to find his voice.
“As both a filmmaker and a lifelong gamer, I’ve always been fascinated by what makes a video game character truly feel authentic. Really pop out of the screen. With this episode, I wanted to not only peel back the curtain to share a glimpse of the technical side of performance capture, but also shine some light on the human process behind it.” says Paul J. Vogel, the director of the three-part Finding Carcosa documentary series.
The tech and freedom of performance capture
“I hated it,” laughs Rahul when asked about his first day on the performance capture stage. “It’s a very strange feeling. You spend most of your time worrying how you look in this lycra wet suit, wishing you’d gone to the gym. It takes an hour or two before you stop feeling silly. That’s the strange thing. It starts tech heavy – calibrating your fingers. And then once you’ve done that, it felt like an empty stage with actors and a director, and a script. Most actors are comfortable with doing a lot with very little. From day one in a rehearsal space, you are working without props, without stage furniture. Everything else, [the tech], has just gone.”
Rahul references advice he received from Troy Baker. “He said it was the purest form of acting you’ll ever do. And he was right. I’m not playing to the camera… it’s just about me and [the other actors].”
Finding the characters’ by focusing on story-driven scenes first
The studio made sure to organise the shoot order so the cast could settle into the character’s roles, and find their respective voices. “We started with a lot more of the dream elements,” explains Louden. “That way they didn’t need to know exactly who they were. They could be more dreamlike and from there go into the more realistic, naturalistic performance.”
Gamer-turned-game protagonist
“He’s [Rahul Kolhi] a gamer as well, so he knows what he is looking for a videogame character,” reminisces senior narrative designer Khalil Osaimi. “On set he had so many notes, even with the script. It was really interesting to see him collaborate with Greg, because it was like two kids with action figures [laughs]. They created a fantastic spectacle.
“That collaboration was how to add these little details for players, and bring this level of authenticity whether players are watching the performance capture or hearing the voice over… it feels real.”
How a traffic jam helped Rahul find Arjun’s voice
“I had to catch a flight, and Housemarque wouldn’t have access to me for six months,” says Kolhi. “And they needed the trailer. And in order for me to make my flight I had to record on the other side of town in LA crazy early. And I’m stuck in traffic. And I was so worked up and angry at seven, eight in the morning. We recorded the teaser trailer. And that voice that came out was angrier, more intense than anything we’d done or explored previously. And Greg and I were immediately like… ‘wait, that’s him. That’s who we’ve been looking for’…. being angry and not being good enough to hide it… that was where Arjun was really born.”
“Rahul’s anecdote about finding the true voice of Arjun is the perfect summary of how sometimes the creative nature of storytelling can be unpredictable. It’s funny because it is so completely unglamorous. Stuck in traffic, already late for a recording session and up against the clock for a departing flight. It shows how a character can come alive from research, rehearsal and collaboration with your director… but sometimes all it really takes is one very bad commute,” Paul continues
It was not only amazing to see Rahul’s dedication to find Arjun, but also how much it meant to him on a personal level. You can feel how Saros is a milestone in his career that he might have not even dared to dream of some years ago. As both an actor and an avid gamer, he understood the assignment and felt the weight in bringing to life a character that hopefully would resonate with gamers across the world.
Thank you so much Rahul and the whole cast, and a thank you to all our players as well.
