MediEvil Remake OUT NOW for PlayStation 4

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Today sees the release of the much sought after PlayStation classic title MediEvil, fully remade and not just remastered for PlayStation 4. Watch the launch trailer below:

Sword swinging, perilous puzzles and enchanting environments are brought back to life in this full remake of the original PlayStation action adventure. Step into the bones of Sir Daniel Fortesque, an inept – and long dead – knight accidentally resurrected by the evil sorcerer Zarok, 100 years after his embarrassing demise.

With the kingdom of Gallowmere under threat by Zarok’s demon hordes, only the skeletal Sir Dan stands in his way. A second chance for the toothy grinned, undead adventurer is at hand – can you defeat Zarok and grant Sir Dan the honour he lost in the flesh?

MediEvil – Remake is out now for PlayStation 4

Shroud Becomes Latest Twitch Streamer to Jump Ship Over to MIXER

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It was only August the streaming world was rocked by the first big name jump from Twitch to MIXER when Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins announced he was dropping Twitch in order to become the first huge personality exclusive MIXER streamer. With a massive reported monetary contract, the move certainly put MIXER on the map with the reaction to this event, even if the over the top forced marketing pushed Ninja’s brand onto every Xbox console and mobile app whether you followed him or not.

Now Shroud, real name Michael Grzesiek has followed Ninja to MIXER as he announced last night over on his twitter in a nice parody of the Ninja announcement:

Details are still yet to filter out but at time of writing, Shroud has already held his first MIXER stream. It will be interesting to see if he receives the dame treatment as Ninja when MIXER offered free channel subscriptions for two months when he first began streaming but I have already had Shroud’s channel appear on my Xbox dashboard main page without me following or even going near the MIXER app on console before I saw his face.

This is of course all in the attempt to help MIXER grow as a streaming platform, which currently is still only 4th place in terms of hours watched, just behind Facebook Gaming with Twitch the king of mountain. But this is the second big name with the big difference being that Ninja was admittedly on a big decline in Twitch popularity when he made his move but Shroud was still riding very high on Twitch, and without knowing what the financial reward of his contract (which is no doubt in the millions of $) this can be seen as a blow for Twitch.

Time will tell if MIXER will benefit with Shroud on the platform as the Ninja move failed to really have the impact they probably had hoped for!

Ubisoft Delay All 2020 Releases following Failure of Ghost Recon Breakpoint

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To say the last few weeks have been a tough one for Ubisoft would be an understatement with issues plaguing ‘Ghost Recon: Breakpoint’ suffering a very similar negative reaction both critically and from fans. I myself am just putting the final finishing touches to my review and yeah….the ball has definitely been dropped. Sadly the poor reaction has had a knock on effect with Ubisoft confirming that all their currently announced 2020 titles starting with ‘Watch Dogs: Legion’ have all been delayed with the next ‘Watch Dogs’ falling from an originally slated February release to now at some point in July.

All this was revealed during a company financial  call and reported on by Marketscreener website, Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Over the past few years, we have delivered many high-quality titles, built a portfolio of diversified franchises and successfully conducted the digital transformation of our business. We have significantly grown our operations for PC, and in Asia and esports, and have further developed our Uplay platform. And we can now draw on a very robust back-catalog, which ended up again above our expectations in the second quarter, including the particularly outstanding momentum of Rainbow Six Siege and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

However, we have not capitalized on the potential of our latest two AAA releases. For Ghost Recon Breakpoint, while the game’s quality appeared on track – based on E3, Gamescom, previews and our latest internal playtests –, critical reception and sales during the game’s first weeks were very disappointing. As we have done with past titles, we will continue to support the game and listen to the community in order to deliver the necessary improvements.

At this stage, we have identified three main reasons behind this underperformance:         

  • First, it is harder to generate interest for a sequel to a Live multiplayer game, when prior iterations benefited from years of optimization. Consequently, we need to make sure there is more time between each iteration of Live games.
     
  • Second, our strategy of introducing gameplay innovations in our games has had a very positive impact on our brands. However, to win over players, these innovations need to be perfectly implemented in order to offer an optimal experience. This has not yet been sufficiently the case with Ghost Recon Breakpoint. While the change of formula has been very well received by some players, with an average daily playtime per player of over three hours, it also has been strongly rejected by a significant portion of the community.
     
  • Finally, Ghost Recon Breakpoint did not come in with enough differentiation factors, which prevented the game’s intrinsic qualities from standing out.

We are tackling these issues head-on and already are implementing significant changes to our production processes. We are confident in our capacity to adapt and evolve, as we have done successfully many times in the past.

In this overall context, we have decided to postpone the releases of Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine and Watch_Dogs Legion until 2020-21. While each of these games already has a strong identity and high potential, we want our teams to have more development time to ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players. This decision will have a very significant impact on our financial results for this fiscal year and goes against our recent successes in building a more stable development model. However, it is in line with our strategy to maximize the future value of our brands for the long-term benefit of our employees, players and shareholders. We expect it to have a positive impact on our financial performance as from 2020-21.

Going forward, we are ideally positioned to benefit from the industry’s strong expansion and constant evolution. We are investing to develop our franchises and PRI, to fully tap the potential of the mobile market, to accelerate our growth in Asia and esports, and to reap the benefits of our brands ownership in the context of the rise of streaming and the multiplication of platforms. These opportunities are powerful drivers for our future topline and profitability growth.”

That is a lot to take in but basically both ‘The Division 2’ and ‘Ghost Recon: Breakpoint’ failed to live up to expectations especially with the shambolic condition Breakpoint was released in, something I will go into more with my review. However this is a sensible move by Ubisoft and is pretty much what happened following the poor reception that ‘Assassin’s Creed: Unity’ had when it releases with major issues on PC and console and something that lead to the breaking of the yearly release pattern for the series.

Taking more time to allow the teams to work on their games to avoid another Breakpoint mess is sensible and it is very clear that Ubisoft need to pause and take stock. We do know that Ubisoft can repair their titles such as bringing ‘Rainbow Six: Siege’ back from the brink and the original Division game did benefit from continued support right up to the release of the sequel, so Breakpoint can also be saved, but the damage of its failure is going to be felt for a long time and fans have long memories.

Ubisoft fans will most likely now have to wait until 2020 to find out what the revised release dates will be.

The Last of Us Part 2 Delayed Until May 2020

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Naughty Dog took to their Twitter last night to announce that they have had to reluctantly move the release date for ‘The Last of Us Part 2’ from this year all the way to May 29th 2020.

On the official Naughty Dog blog site, the following statement was posted by Neil Druckmann, Vice President of Naughty Dog:

To our fans,

Let me cut to the chase and get the news out of the way. The Last of Us Part II has a new release date of May 29, 2020.

I know. It was just about a month ago when we had our big blowout for the game, letting media play over two hours of it along with debuting our new story trailer and revealing the release date. The positive response we saw from our community was overwhelming. You can feel the energy among the team members. After working on something for so many years, it’s invigorating to get a glimpse of validation for all the hard work.

However, it was during the last few weeks, as we were closing out sections of the game, that we realized we simply didn’t have enough time to bring the entire game up to a level of polish we would call Naughty Dog quality. At this point we were faced with two options: compromise parts of the game or get more time. We went with the latter, and this new release date allows us to finish everything to our level of satisfaction while also reducing stress on the team.

While we’re relieved that we won’t have to compromise our vision, we’re disappointed that we weren’t able to avoid this exact situation. We wish we could’ve foreseen the amount of polish we needed, but the size and scope of this game got the better of us. We hate disappointing our fans and for that we’re sorry.

We hope you understand that this additional time ensures that The Last of Us Part II lives up to our collective ambition as well as our commitment to the highest level of quality. We know the extra few months will add to what may already be an excruciating wait for all of us. We are grateful for your patience and continued support. Come next May, you will finally rejoin Ellie in The Last of Us Part II.

Personally, as a huge fan of Naughty Dog, if they say they need the extra months to add more polish to game, then it only benefits not only the fans who are eagerly awaiting the chance to return to this world, but also for the developer team who will not be pressured to crunch the game to meet the original 2019 release date. We have all seen way too many reports on the final months of crunch time studios such as Bioware with the tragic tale of Anthem’s development and even Rock Star with ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ and the post release stories of how terrible conditions the developer team worked under.

The delay news comes just one month after the original release date was revealed during the ‘PlayStation State of Play’, so though fans will be disappointed by this revelation, we can all trust that Naughty Dog are doing it for the right reasons.

Monolith Productions Celebrates 25 Years of Videogame History

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Monolith Productions, a Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment studio, is proudly celebrating the company’s 25-year anniversary, marking more than two decades of creating critically and culturally relevant videogames. This Friday (25 Oct) at 9pm BST, Monolith will officially celebrate the milestone and host a livestream question-and-answer (Q&A) session with current and founding team members, discussing the studio’s 25-year history in games. The livestream will be available on the Monolith Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/monolithlive.

Founded in 1994 and based in Kirkland, Wash., Monolith is known for developing a variety of innovative games and fan-favourite titles, most recently including Middle-earth: Shadow of War (2017) and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014), which introduced and expanded upon the award-winning Nemesis System, raising the bar for personal, player driven stories within the open world genre.

Earlier titles showcased Monolith’s commitment to providing players with unique game experiences as seen in the frenetic action of Blood (1997), visceral melee combat of Condemned: Criminal Origins (2005) and Condemned 2: Bloodshot (2008) and the innovative combat A.I. introduced in F.E.A.R. a.k.a. First Encounter Assault Recon (2005) and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (2009), which informed numerous first-person shooter (FPS) games to follow. The team at Monolith has also shared a passion for storytelling and humour, displayed prominently in The Operative: No One Lives Forever (2000) and No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way (2002), both of which feature witty narratives that continue to be favourites among fans.

A full list of Monolith’s games can be found at https://www.lith.com/. The studio is currently seeking high-quality talent to join the team across various disciplines. Interested candidates can apply at https://www.lith.com/careers or view at @MonolithDev.

The Surge 2 Gets Free Content in New Update as Season Pass is Teased!

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Deck13’s acclaimed Action-RPG The Surge 2 today brings more content to the game and expands the collection of high-tech killing utensils with the free Future Shock Weapon Pack. This pack adds four new vicious weapons on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Get a glimpse of them in all their deadly splendour with the two new screenshots.

This free Weapon Pack includes the deadly Golden Twin Blades, the devastating “EFH” Heavy Duty Weapon, the brutal Mangled Articulators Punching Gloves, and the versatile Golden Harvest Double Duty Weapon. Find the enemies wielding them and execute them to claim the weapons for yourself!

But that is only the beginning. Stay tuned as next week will see the full reveal of The Surge 2’s Season Pass, with more weapons, more implants, more gear sets, and a brand-new storyline DLC with hours of content in a new environment to be released down the line.

The Future Shock Weapon Pack is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. From new weapons to new armor sets, plenty of content is still on the way. More details to come next week as Deck 13 announce the details of The Surge 2’s Season Pass!

The Surge 2 is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Visit http://thesurge-game.com/shop for more information.

Cyrus Audio Announces the ONE Cast ‘Smart’ Audio System

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Cyrus Audio Ltd (www.cyrusaudio.com) has today announced the launch of the ONE Cast Smart Audio System. The latest member of the award-winning Cyrus ONE family, the ONE Cast fully embraces the freedom and usability of the smart speaker, but offers the additional flexibility and audiophile performance associated with a dedicated hi-fi system.

The first product of it’s kind, the ONE Cast is designed to work with all three major voice assistants: Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri.  The ONE Cast can also be controlled directly through all major music streaming apps, without the need for a separate dedicated app. When controlled either by voice or streaming app, the ONE Cast connects directly to the music service provider to receive high-resolution audio files, delivering an experience far superior to even high-resolution forms of Bluetooth.

The built-in 100w per channel stereo amplifier uses Cyrus’ in-house designed ‘Hybrid Class-D’ technology to deliver impressive power and scale with the refinement and finesse that generations of Cyrus customers are accustomed to.

Check out the ONE Cast in action below:

https://youtu.be/tR1B4HB2QyM

The ONE Cast seamlessly integrates into a voice-controlled wireless multi-room audio system. Just as with other smart speakers, ONE Cast can be assigned a name and location, allowing multiple ONE Cast devices to be used in a home, or integrated into multi-room systems where other smart speakers are deployed.

As well as the built in Google Cast, Apple Airplay, and Bluetooth, ONE Cast has a multitude of audiophile wired connection options. The ONE Cast features a High-Resolution USB input for direct connection to a laptop or streaming device, optical and coaxial digital inputs, analogue inputs that can be configured in fixed gain mode to integrate into an existing AV system, a built-in Moving Magnet phono stage for direct connection to a turntable, a built-in headphone amplifier, and an HDMI ARC input, allowing direct connection to a suitable TV, making it an ideal upgrade from a soundbar. The onboard DAC is capable of handling up to 32/192 digital files and DSD 128.

Cyrus Audio’s Chairman, Simon Freethy, commented on the announcement, “This is a world first. A product that marries true hi-fi with the usability of a smart speaker. Able to connect wirelessly to all your mobile devices, manage multi-room audio, and still having all the latest wired connectivity options to optimise every source of music in your house, ONE Cast is the most versatile, and powerful entertainment system on the market today.”

Cyrus has produced a number of videos explaining the ONE Cast in greater detail. The first can be found here: https://vimeo.com/367291394. A number of other videos can be viewed at www.cyrusaudio.com. 

Further information on the Cyrus ONE Cast Smart Audio System can be found here: https://www.cyrusaudio.com/products/one-cast/

Bungie Unveil ‘Donation Rewards’ For Their Game2Give Charity Drive starting on October 24th

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Bungie has revealed the donation rewards fans can earn by giving money during their Game2Give charity drive starting from October 24th,  announced on the official Bungie site, below is their statement and rewards:

Get ready for Game2Give, our inaugural charity event to support the Bungie Foundation’s iPads for Kids Program and Children’s Miracle Network benefitting sick kids across America. Between October 24 and November 10, we invite the Destiny Community to join us in celebration of what we can accomplish together through games and giving.

Starting today, we invite community members to sign up to host your own Destiny fundraising stream between 10/24-11/10. We have some incredible prizes for you all at various fundraising milestones. Check them out!

On October 29 at 12pm PDT, we’ll be kicking off a 24-hour Festival of the Lost streaming marathon with some of your favorite content creators culminating in a live stream with the devs over here at Bungie. We are so excited to share the sweet prizes we have to thank our donors for their amazing contributions to help kids. Check them out:

A $10 donation will earn you the NEW Mist Blossoms Emblem:

A $50 donation will earn you both the Mist Blossoms Emblem and our first-ever Charity Ghost, the Gilded Shell Exotic Ghost!

A $100 donation will earn you both of the items above, and will enter you to win an item from the Bungie Prize Pool

Best of all 100% of donations go directly to the charities. We’ll be officially kicking off this momentous event next Thursday, 10/24. In the meantime, get yourself signed up to stream or make your donation early! Prizes will be redeemable after the event begins.

Doctor Who: The Edge of Time VR Game Will Release on November 12th

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Publisher PlayStack and Developer Maze Theory are proud to announce that Doctor Who: The Edge of Time, the feature-length VR videogame, will launch on November 12th 2019.

With multiple references to the series and its 55-year history, Doctor Who: The Edge of Time combines action, adventure and sci-fi, equipping players with the Sonic Screwdriver to solve mind-bending puzzles, escape treacherous environments and come face-to-face with classic Doctor Who monsters, all within virtual reality. Escape from Weeping Angels, face off against brand-new creatures and pilot a Dalek shell to harness its fearsome weaponry in a thrilling and immersive single-player adventure!

Features:

  • Become part of Doctor Who – a thrilling single-player adventure developed by Sony London alumni (VR Worlds, The London Heist, Blood and Truth), Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time  will immerse players in Doctor Who like never before as they travel across space and time to save reality.
  • Wield the Sonic Screwdriver – with exhilarating moment-to-moment gameplay, wield the Sonic Screwdriver to solve fiendish puzzles and traverse a dangerous universe full of challenges, enemies and wonder.
  • Stunning cinematic visuals – from the Dalekanium of a Dalek’s shell, to the stone-cold terror of a Weeping Angel, experience stunning visuals that bring the show to life!
  • Doctor Who talent – featuring Jodie Whittaker as the voice of the Doctor and Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks, in a story written by Gavin Collinson, Digital Producer for Doctor Who and author
  • Oculus Quest support – experience the next level of immersion with Oculus Quest, as you explore the Doctor Who universe without boundaries in untethered virtual reality

Developed by immersive entertainment studio Maze Theory, led by former Activision and PlayStation veterans, Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time will launch on November 12th 2019 for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, HTC Vive and HTC Vive Cosmos.

For more on Doctor Who: The Edge of Time

Release Dates Announced for ‘Darksides Genesis’

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THQ Nordic and Airship Syndicate today kicked off the PC pre-order campaign for the highly anticipated Darksiders Genesis, the first top-down action adventure in Darksiders franchise history featuring couch co-op and online co-op.

Watch Strife having a good old scuffle with Malgros the Defiler here:

Darksiders Genesis features the debut of the fourth and final horsemen – STRIFE – who can battle alongside his brother and fellow horsemen WAR in the first ever Darksiders two-player co-op mode. Solo players will be able to alternate between STRIFE and WAR on the fly, taking advantage of STRIFE’s ranged and WAR’s melee style attacks. Both characters can build up a special attack meter that, when activated, temporarily turns them into a colossal creature that leaves epic destruction in its wake.

Darksiders Genesis is currently in development for PC, Google Stadia and all current-gen console platforms. The PC and Google Stadia versions of Darksiders Genesis will release on December 5, 2019. The console versions will release on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2020.

More information about Darksiders Genesis here www.darksiders.com. For the latest news and updates, follow @darksiders on Facebook/Twitter or @thqnordic on Instagram.

Hitman 2 “Halloween Escalation” Contract Out Today

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Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and IO Interactive released a new HITMAN 2 Halloween Trailer showcasing the upcoming Halloween-themed Escalation Contract, arriving today (22nd October) in Hawke’s Bay (New Zealand). The new seasonal Escalation Contract will be available as a free content update for all players who download the FREE HITMAN 2 Starter Pack, which includes the Hawke’s Bay location. This special in-game event will feature an environment facelift, including skeletons, pumpkins, crows and other holiday inspired trimmings, and players brave enough to take on and complete the horror-filled challenge will permanently unlock the Tactical Wetsuit and Bat Shuriken rewards.

HITMAN 2 is the follow-up to the internationally acclaimed videogame, HITMAN. Featuring entirely new hyper-detailed sandbox locations full of living, breathing environments to explore, HITMAN 2 offers players the freedom to plan the ultimate assassination utilising an assortment of tools, weapons, disguises and a variety of stealth techniques to creatively trigger their own unique chain of events.

HITMAN 2 is available now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One, Xbox One X and PC.

The HITMAN 2 Expansion Pass is available now for £32.99. The Expansion Pass is also included as part of the HITMAN 2 Gold Edition, featuring the Haven Island (Maldives) and New York (N.Y./U.S.) locations, new Sniper Assassin maps, challenges, missions, outfits, weapons and more, all for £79.99.

To learn more about HITMAN 2, please visit www.hitman.com or join the HITMAN 2 conversation on Twitter (@Hitman), Facebook (@Hitman), Instagram (@Hitman), YouTube (Hitman), Twitch (Hitman), Discord (Hitman), Reddit (Hitman) or the Hitman Forum.

PlayStation UK Hosting ‘Death Stranding Experience’ Event To Meet Hideo Kojima

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November is quickly approaching and for PlayStation fans this means Death Stranding is all the more closer to being on their console. To celebrate the release, PlayStation UK are hosting a special event called the “Death Stranding Experience” for fans to experience the game and have the chance to pick up some exclusive merchandise.

PlayStation UK have just tweeted below, announcing the chance to meet the legendary Hideo Kojima as he will come to the opening day of the experience giving fans the chance to meet him in person:

Death Stranding will release on PlayStation 4 on November 8th 2019.

Watch ‘The Outer Worlds’ Launch Trailer

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It’s time for you to decide. Will you be Halcyon’s shining beacon of hope? The character you choose to become will determine how this player-driven story unfolds. The Outer Worlds is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 25, 2019.

https://youtu.be/3AI_u_0oJRQ

The Outer Worlds is the new single-player sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division.

The Outer Worlds will release on October 24th for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One and as Obsidian is an Microsoft Studio it means it will also enter the Xbox Game Pass on release day and can be pre-loaded right now!

For more information on The Outer Worlds, check out:

PDP Ships New Range of Licensed Gaming Accessories Across Europe

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PDP, a leading video game accessory company in North America, announced today a new range of licensed gaming accessories and collectibles, heading to Europe in time for the Holiday season.

Following the recent announcement of a new line-of gaming headsets and charging systems, PDP is furthering-the-fun for European gamers, with a new range of high-quality licensed gaming products, each one playing ultimate homage to the gaming worlds’ favourite franchises.

Following the incredible reception of the limited-edition Gears 5 Prop Replica Crimson Lancer MK3, PDP is preparing to have Borderlands 3 fans in a frenzy with the 1:1 scale, Prop Replica Maliwan. A painstakingly accurate life-size prop, the Replica Maliwan will have the Calypso Twins fleeing for cover!

One of the rarest and most powerful weapons found in the game, this incredible special edition Maliwan Pistol has been lovingly brought to life in all its splendor. A 1:1 scale replica, the Maliwan Pistol features functioning switches and a rotating ammo cartridge that increases in speed as collectors hold down the trigger to simulate actual use. In addition, the Replica Maliwan includes lights and sound effects lifted directly from Borderlands 3. Fans can control the brightness of the lights and volume of the sound with the turn of a dial, as well as choosing from five different elemental damage settings at the press of a button.

Fans of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Nintendo Switch will think Christmas has come early thanks to a new range of licensed Wired Fight Pad Pro controllers. Inspired by the legendary GameCube controller, the Wired Fight Pad Pro is the ultimate fighting game weapon of choice! Gamers can customise their gaming style by playing with the traditional C-Stick or swap it out for a full-size stick with the innovative detachable design. The 10-foot USB cable allows plenty of room to play and ensures gamers stay connected during crucial battle moments. The all-new Jigglypuff and Pichu designs are arriving this Winter to Europe.

Pokémon fans have even more to celebrate with further licensed accessories centered around a new line of storage and travel solutions for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite. The Commuter Case comes with either a Pikachu or Poké Ball design and both are sure to turn heads with their stylish graphics and modern design. With ample room for the console, Joy-Con Controllers, Pro-Controller as well as 14 games and cables, it’s the only way to travel when gaming on the go.

The above hardware will be joined by many more products, certain to delight passionate gamers everywhere, and with so much to see, PDP is celebrating the new line-up, with a European media and influencer tour, starting in London, England and taking place on October 24th 2019

For more information on PDP, please visit: www.pdp.com

Follow @PDPgaming on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for updates.