Key Note Gaming

Analysis of a new PlayStation business document has highlighted an official change to Sony's multiplatform release strategy, with PC no longer described as part of the company's first-party launch focus. The change, picked up from Sony's latest 229-page filing to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission by Game File, is the clearest sign yet of what has previously been reported — that PlayStation is backing away from launching its first-party games on PC, at least when they're single-player. Just yesterday, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier relayed comments from an internal meeting chaired by Herman Hulst , in which the PlayStation CEO stated that single-player narrative games would only launch on PlayStation consoles in future. This means there will be no PC port of Insomniac Games' upcoming Marvel's Wolverine , Santa Monica Studio's God of War Laufey, or Naughty Dog's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Online live-service games will still get PC la...

A new game called TBH: Task Bar Hero has emerged out of nowhere as one of Steam's most played games, but there's also a lot of drama surrounding it. The new game was released on Steam last month for free, and it currently has over half a million concurrent players, making it the third most-played game on Steam behind Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2. The new game is unique in that you don't actually have to play it. As the name implies, Task Bar Hero embeds itself into your PC's taskbar, and little pixel characters go on adventures, fight foes, and collect loot all while you work, browse the web, or leave your PC running. Of course, you can take control yourself if you want to, but it's an RPG that is constantly active so long as you open the game. The loot can even be sold on the Steam marketplace for real money, which can then be used to buy other things on Steam. However, there's a lot of controversy surrounding this new viral game. Users are reporting false ban...

Hold onto your Sheckles. Grow A Garden 2 was released just last week on Roblox but has already amassed over 300 million visits. The sequel adds a nefarious nighttime stealing mechanic, meaning that during the 2:30 minute long darkness you can trespass into another player's farm, grab some plants, and hightail it back to your turf. The catch? Your intended victims could be at home and ready to enact some vigilante justice with a shovel, have set traps, or have invested in a garden gnome to attack intruders. There was theft in the original Grow A Garden, but it cost Robux. Now you can live your vegetable heist dreams, and the only cost is the danger of getting caught. Grow A Garden 2 also adds props, which can be purchased in the center of the market area at the Prop Shop. They can range from the mythic Teleporter Pad Crate, which costs 50,000,000 Sheckles to a Ladder Crate, which is common and costs 30,000. For a list of all props and item chances in Grow A Garden 2 you can check ou...

Final Fantasy 14 players in Japan now have the opportunity to get in-game cosmetics and items by paying their real life taxes, as reported by Famitsu . These rewards include the online MMORPG’s Megashiba Mount. Japan has a Hometown tax initiative (Furusato Nozei), which allows people to redirect portions of their residence tax to other areas of the country, even if they don’t live there. In return, you can choose a special gift from the region (everything from local snacks and traditional handcrafted items, to hotel stays and local cultural experiences). The scheme launched back in 2008 with the aim of directing tax funds back to rural, less-populated areas, but now almost every municipality in the country offers some kind of reward via the scheme. It’s a win-win as local governments receive more funds, while taxpayers receive presents in exchange for tax money they would have had to fork out anyway. In recent years, some areas have started offering digital rewards. For example, last y...

Granblue Fantasy: Relink introduced a brand new audience to the floating islands of Zegagrande and the adventuring Skyfarers of the Granblue Fantasy series back when it launched in 2024. Marking the first console RPG adventure for the primarily mobile gacha series, Relink let players pull off dazzling arrays of anime spectacle as they worked together either with their CPU-controlled party or with their friends to tackle quests and monsters. Now, we are mere weeks away from diving into the massive new expansion, Endless Ragnarok, and during SGF we had a chance to sit down and speak with the creative director, Tetsuya Fukuhara, and narrative director, Sanshiro Hidaka, but also get some hands-on time with the new expansion. Some of the most jaw-dropping moments of Relink were when Granblu's heroine, Lyria, would summon her big ol' lizard pal, Bahamut, to let him do what dragons do best - rain fire/laser breath down on chumps. Lyria's ability to summon Bahamut is a pretty big d...

Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 are being brought to new platforms in July, courtesy of Iron Galaxy. Treyarch confirmed today that its beloved Call of Duty games are making a grand return via new ports, courtesy of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 developer Iron Galaxy. These ports will only be available on PlayStation, though it's unclear which PlayStation platforms. The initial leak for these ports indicated they'd likely be available on PS4 and, as a result, would also be available to play on PS5 through backwards compatibility. It's currently unclear if PS5 will get native ports. Treyarch also confirmed that the ports will include campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies, so players will get to experience the full packages. It's not known if players will be able to carry over their progress, if cross-play will be enabled with other versions, or if these ports will simply live in isolation. While Treyarch made no mention of any upgrades coming to Xbox or PC, keep in mind...

The entire development team for Luna Abyss , a well-received shooter that was released just a month ago, has been laid off. Hollie Emery, the CEO of Kwalee Labs, revealed the news in a LinkedIn post. Emery claimed that the decision to make the development team redundant was completely outside of their control. The decision was made despite piles of critical praise for Luna Abyss (the game holds an 81 on Metacritic). Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have made a commercial splash. Luna Abyss peaked at 317 concurrent players on Steam, suggesting it hasn't found a big audience. The development team was made up of nine people, all of whom are now seeking work. The team spent seven years working on the game, which entered development in 2019. IGN first previewed the game back in 2023 and expressed plenty of optimism for the overall vision that Kwalee Labs had for Luna Abyss. That optimism trickled into another preview of the game earlier this year , ahead of the game's releas...