Resident Evil's survival horror and Ghost of Tsushima's open world action couldn't seem further apart on paper, but the worldwide appeal of both games makes them weirdly similar according to a former Capcom producer.

Speaking to IGN, Hiroyuki Kobayashi said the U.S.-based Sucker Punch's creation of a globally appealing Japanese game like Ghost of Tsushima is very similar to how he and his colleagues at Capcom created the very American seeming Resident Evil franchise.

"As a game about Japan made by non-Japanese developers, Ghost of Tsushima kind of reminded me how we [at Capcom] as Japanese developers made a horror game set in the United States with Resident Evil back in the day," he said. "At the time, it might have been surprising for people that it was made by Japanese developers."

Creating an authentic experience from a culture outside your own isn't an easy task, however, but Kobayashi said the effort can lead to great success. "I think this shows that no matter what country or culture you make your game about, as long as you seriously study the topic and put your heart into it there’s always a chance," he said.

This is something he'll take into his next game, as Kobayashi recently left Capcom to join Chinese mobile game developer and tech firm NetEase Games. "For our first game we’re going for something that more easily appeals to a worldwide audience," he said, commenting that the series he's most known for, Sengoku Basara, is only very well known in Japan.

Kobayashi started at Capcom in 1995 and was a programmer on the first two Resident Evil games, a planner for the original Dino Crisis, and producer on the original Devil May Cry. He was also a producer on Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 4, Killer 7, and Dragon's Dogma among other things, and most recently was executive producer on Mega Man 11.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The number of PlayStation Plus subscribers has fallen by almost two million since Sony launched its revamped subscription service in June.

According to the company’s latest financial report, Sony’s multi-tiered PlayStation Plus subscription service has dropped from 47.3 million at the end of June to 45.4 million in the three months leading up to September 30 - a decrease of 4%.

Sony highlighted that the ratio of gamers subscribed to the service is significantly higher on the PS5 than it is for the previous generation PS4 console. In response, Sony leadership plans to accelerate the adoption of PS5 hardware to “recover this user engagement going forward”.

The number of active users on the PlayStation Network also dropped by one million in the latest quarter to 102 million players.

Though its numbers dropped on the digital side, Sony still had a strong showing when it comes to PlayStation 5 hardware. The company announced it has now sold more than 25 million units, and was able to produce roughly 6.5 million new PS5s in the three months leading up to September 30

Sony announced the revamp of its PlayStation Plus service in March as a subscription somewhat akin to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, but didn't complete the rollout until June when the three new tiers arrived in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Though the Essential tier is essentially the same as the original version of PlayStation Plus - allowing users to play online and granting monthly games at no extra cost - the Extra and Premium tiers added brand new content.

Both grant users access to a catalogue of games from the PlayStation 4 and 5 including Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Dragon Quest 11, and Red Dead Redemption 2, while the Premium tier also comes with a Classic Catalogue that includes games from the original PlayStation through to the PS3.

Anthony Wood is a freelance science writer for IGN.

Shazam 2 director David F. Sandberg has shared a behind-the-scenes photo to celebrate crossing the finish line on the upcoming DC sequel.

Sandberg declared Shazam! Fury of the Gods is officially in the can by sharing a sneak peek of Zachary Levi's titular character in action. "Finished! Now for a little time off," the filmmaker tweeted alongside an image of Billy Batson suited up as his super-powered alter-ego, bearing a magical staff in the middle of a stadium illuminated by a lightning bolt.

Finished! Now for a little time off. #ShazamMovie March 17 pic.twitter.com/ocK9kYXTzD

— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) October 31, 2022

The movie will see the Shazam family (established at the end of the first film) balancing their normal lives with being superheroes before two goddesses – Helen Mirren's Hespera and Lucy Liu's Kalypso – visit the world and stir up some trouble. As such, Shazam 2 is expected to feature more "adult stakes and adult issues" than the kid-friendly original.

Fans will have to wait a little while longer to see how it all plays out in the Shazam sequel, as Warner Bros. Discovery recently pushed back the movie's release date, shifting it from its former December spot to March 17, 2023. Fury of the Gods will therefore arrive several months after spin-off Black Adam, which debuted on the big screen in October.

Despite being comic book nemeses, it doesn't look like Shazam and Black Adam will be crossing paths any time soon. Sandberg revealed earlier this year that there hadn't been any conversations about pitting Zachary Levi's Shazam against Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam, but the latter might end up having his fists full with the return of Henry Cavill's Superman.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Sony has shipped more than 25 million PlayStation 5 consoles to date as the company has significantly stepped up production.

Revealed during its latest earnings results, Sony sold a further 3.3 million PS5s in the three month period leading up to September 30, equalling the amount it shifted during the same period in 2021.

Sony has therefore sold around 5.7 million PS5s since the beginning of this financial year (April 2022), leaving the company in somewhat of an uphill battle if it's to reach its target of selling 18 million consoles by March 2023.

According to Sony’s executive deputy president and CFO Hiroki Totoki, however, the 18 million target is still achievable as Sony has exceeded its own expectations by fabricating 6.5 million PS5s during the Q2 period alone.

"We recognize that demand from customers for the PS5 continues to be strong as the actual sales situation at retail stores in the U.S. is such that, in September, it took an average of 17.5 hours to sell out of 100 thousand units after their arrival," Sony's earnings presentation reads.

"To meet this strong demand, we will do our utmost to bring forward supply into the year-end holiday selling season and aim to exceed our financial year 2022 forecast of 18 million units."

The crippling semiconductor chip shortage seriously hamstrung the creation of new PS5 consoles but this didn't stop the PS5 from surpassing 20 million units sold as of June, at which point Sony executive Veronica Rogers announced that the company was "planning on a significant ramp-up in PS5 production this year".

Totoki also noted that the PS5 price increase hadn’t significantly dampened demand for the console, but that this would be monitored moving forward. During this time, PlayStation hardware sales amounted to ¥179.2 billion (around $1.2 billion), up from ¥160.6 billion (around $1.09 billion) from Q2 2021.

On the software side of things PlayStation users bought a total of 62.5 million games across all platforms, 63% of which were digital downloads and 6.7 million of which were first party titles. The number of games sold is down significantly from Q2 2021, yet amounted to a revenue of around ¥370 billion (around $2.5 billion) - up from the ¥343 billion (around $2.3 million) from Q2 2021.

It was also revealed that God of War (2018) has now sold 23 million copies to date over all platforms, with Sony saying that it expects the sequel, God of War Ragnarok to do similarly well.

Overall sales for the gaming division were up 12% to ¥720.7 billion (around $4.9 billion) over the same period in 2021, but the operating income - which is the company’s profit once costs and expenses are taken into account - slumped significantly from ¥82.7 billion (around $562 million) in Q2 2021 to ¥42.1 billion ($286 million) in Q2 2022.

This reduction has been attributed to a range of factors including an increase in the cost of game development and decreases in sales from non-first party games relative to previous years. The figures also take into account money spent on acquisitions including Bungie, which was bought by Sony back in July for $3.7 billion.

Anthony Wood is a freelance science writer for IGN.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever gives Namor the Sub-Mariner two different pronunciations of his name, but for a very specific reason.

During an interview with Phase Zero, producer Nate Moore revealed it’s all to do with the character’s heritage. “There is certainly a way that a Spanish speaker, or even a Mayan speaker, would say Nämor, versus a way that an English speaker, or somebody who is a little more Western in slant, might say Nāmor,” he explained.

"We thought that was just interesting. I mean, it's a reality that people face, and it felt more genuine than having everybody pronounce it correctly, to be quite honest.”

Namor makes his MCU debut in Wakanda Forever played by Mexican-born actor Tenoch Huerta. Instead of hailing from Atlantis like the comic books, however, the classic Marvel superhero will instead be the ruler of Talocan – an underwater city inspired by Aztec and Mayan culture. Given the actor’s heritage, this change makes a lot of sense, and so does the mispronunciation of his name.

“Nämor obviously was given that name by someone in the film,” said Moore. “So, it's not even something that is from him.”

Essentially, it sounds as though “Nāmor” is the way it should be pronounced, with other characters instead mispronouncing it as “Nämor”. Still, if you want to know exactly how to pronounce Namor, you better take it from the man himself.

He made a pretty serious entrance in the recent Wakanda Forever trailer that doesn't appear to go well for the film's heroes. Often described as Marvel’s “first mutant” in the comic books, it’s fitting that Namor is likely one of the very first mutants to appear in the MCU.

We've also seen Patrick Stewart recently reprised his role as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, while Ms. Marvel also teased the prospect of mutants.

Want to read more about Black Panther 2? Check out Huerta’s admission that he couldn’t swim before Wakanda Forever and find out why Namor is a villain in the upcoming sequel.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.