Civilization 7, Embracer’s ambitions and PS Plus Extra | Kaser Focus

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Belated Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! It’s been an interesting, if not especially exciting week, with some financial earnings reports giving us a peek behind the curtain with some games companies. One of those is Embracer, which has apparently decided it’s going to launch all of the games in the next few years. If this means I get a new Tomb Raider, that’s one thing. If it means I get a new Deus Ex game, then Embracer, you’d better put your money where your mouth is.

Firaxis also gave me an end-of-week surprise today by announcing a new Civilization game. Not sure when that’s going to come out, but that’s positive news. Sadly, it also came packaged with news about the departure of Jake Solomon, but at least he gave us Marvel’s Midnight Suns, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I also realized while I was writing this column that I missed the reveal, earlier this week, of the latest PS Plus Extra game titles. These will include relatively recent releases like Horizon Forbidden West and The Quarry, among others. I ponder the question sometimes: Will PlayStation ever get to the point where it’s willing to put its games on PS Plus at launch, if only to compete with Game Pass? My gut says, “No,” but my head says it’s inevitable. As yet, the question is hypothetical, but it reoccurs to me every time I see the list of PS Plus launches on my news feed.

This week, I can finally reveal that I have been, and will continue to play, both Octopath Traveler II and Like a Dragon: Ishin! While I’m not ready to give my opinions on either, the juxtaposition between