Two new women’s competitions are ready to kick-off in FIFA 23 just as their real world counterparts are heating up. The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) joins the Barclays Women’s Super League and Division 1 Arkema as the third women’s football league on the eve of the 2023 season, and the UEFA Women’s Champions League brings European nights and four new clubs to the The World’s Game in anticipation for this year’s knockout stages.

Both competitions will be powered by the same dedicated Hypermotion2 driving the Barclays Women’s Super League and Division 1 Arkema in FIFA 23, with authentic match capture and machine learning technology creating authentic animation informed by the movement of real-life women’s players.

The NWSL and UWCL will be available and free for those with FIFA 23 starting on March 15, 2023.

NWSL

The NWSL goes live in FIFA 23 just in time for the start of the new season out on the pitch. New headscans for select players across the competition bring the faces of NWSL to The World’s Game and new celebrations that bring the energy of the league to every goal. Take the pitch at four authentic stadiums with all 12 NWSL teams in a variety of game modes including Classic Kickoff and Co-op Seasons. You can also vie for the title in Tournament Mode with a full home and away season that culminates in an authentic shield and trophy presentation, or go online to challenge others to Friendlies with your favorite club.

UWCL

The world’s most prestigious women’s club competition joins The World’s Game on March 15th—the UEFA Women’s Champions League—just as the real-world knockout stages get underway. Welcome four new iconic clubs joining Chelsea Women, Manchester City Women, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, and Paris Saint-Germain Féminine in FIFA 23, along with new faces from across these top European teams. Embrace the energy of European nights in a variety of game modes, ranging from Kick-off with each of the eight UWCL clubs and Co-op seasons with friends to Tournament modes that let you lead your team to glory. And experience it all in authentic UWCL environments complete with the anthem as you walk out, branded UWCL broadcast overlays as you play, and the iconic trophy as you crown your club champions of Europe.

Overwatch 2 is teaming up with the world-renowned One-Punch Man anime to bring a set of collectible cosmetics to the game, available for a limited-time from March 7 – April 6! Overwatch 2 Associate Director Aimee Dennet and Art Director Dion Rogers share their thoughts ahead of the ground-breaking collaboration, which marks a first for Overwatch 2 and paves the way for other exciting potential IP crossovers for the game in the future. The team is excited to reveal the Genos – Genji skin from the collaboration here, for the first time, today on PlayStation Blog.

What led to the idea of specifically bringing One-Punch Man into the world of Overwatch?

[Aimee Dennett, Associate Director, Overwatch 2] We’re obsessed with anime on the Overwatch team! Much like our player base, we have fun thinking about crossovers and similarities shared between characters from our favorite shows. Doomfist and Saitama were a very natural fit in our minds, given their abilities. They’re also both bald. It doesn’t hurt that our game director Aaron Keller is also a big One-Punch Man fan.

Both Genos and Genji have tragic backstories in common, can you discuss whether these shared experiences made for a perfect crossover, as well as any other inspiration that led to the Genos-Genji character?

[Aimee] The similarities between Genos’s and Genji’s backstories were certainly an inspiration. They are both humans who were pushed to the brink of death, only to be rescued and transformed into cyborgs by doctors from their respective universes. We also liked the fact that both Genji and Genos have a strong relationship with their mentors. In fact, there was an idea that Zenyatta would make for an excellent Saitama given this relationship (he’s also bald!) but Doomfist was always the clear choice for us.

Which aspects of Genos’s aesthetic and ability were most important to capture in the world of Overwatch?

[Dion Rogers, Art Director, Overwatch 2] Genos was a perfect fit for Genji. The two characters are essentially cyborgs, and both have very serious and intense attitudes. We wanted to make sure players recognized that our characters are essentially cosplaying the OPM heroes. Genos’s spiky blonde hair was an interesting challenge, the closer we matched the style the more we lost Genji in the process. Our concept artists were careful to combine the two heroes’ main aesthetics without losing either character in the process. 

What was the thought behind creating a hybridized Genos-Genji crossover skin, rather than trying to create a fully 1-to-1 Genos skin?

[Aimee] Blizzard games have very detailed lore and universes, and Overwatch is no exception. From a canon perspective, Overwatch takes place on Earth. One-Punch Man is an anime that exists on Earth, so it’s not immersion breaking if you see the existence of One-Punch Man in the game. For our firs

Last week, we asked you to return to the mall and share moments from Ellie and Riley’s adventure in The Last of Us Part I’s Left Behind chapter. Here are this week’s highlights:

LukeKasinger shares Ellie smiling while riding on the carousel

call_me_xavii shares Riley and Ellie dancing on a store counter

ForgottenJasmin shares a portrait of Riley facing Ellie

justinphotomode shares Ellie holding her joke book

Paquiteau shares Ellie standing in the entrance of Raja’s Arcade

spm_vp shares a portrait of Riley deep in thought.

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? 

THEME: Heroines
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on March 8, 2023

Next week, we’re turning the spotlight on heroic women from our favorite games. Share your favorite gaming heroine using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Hello folks, I’m Ryan Bousfield, founder and director of Wolf & Wood Interactive, and I’m here today to announce that our upcoming game, The Last Worker will be launching on PlayStation 5 and on PS VR2 on March 30!

For people who may not be familiar with the game, let me give you a quick run-down. The Last Worker is a first-person narrative adventure we are creating with Jörg Tittel (writer, director) and Wired Productions (publisher) that balances light work simulation tasks with stealth gameplay and a deliciously dark and satirical story, performed by a star-studded cast (featuring the likes of Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Jason Isaacs, Clare-Hope Ashitey, David Hewlet, Zelda Williams, and Tommie Earl Jenkins).

You are Kurt, the very last human worker for Jüngle – the most profitable company in the world. Kurt is responsible for “delivering dreams” along with his co-bot assistant SKEW,  navigating a huge distribution centre (larger than the sunken island of Manhattan) on a gravity defying pod, and then using your “Jünglegun” to retrieve, analyse and then tag products appropriately before dispatching or destroying them.  Kurt is pretty happy with his lot, all things considered – that is until a contact from a shadowy organisation disrupts his day to day work and offers him the chance to peek below the surface of Jüngle and the dark secrets that built an empire…

The Last Worker will be playable in both traditional “flat mode” and PS VR2 compatible, with both versions of the game built independently to make the most of the strengths of each version of the game, and of course make the most of the unique features that PlayStation 5 and PS VR2 hardware brings to the table.

Hybrid game and Saves

The Last Worker will be available as a PS5 and PSVR2 title, but you won’t need to pay for an upgrade, when you buy the game you receive both versions – and the save files and progress carry over between them. This means if you spend the morning fully immersed in the PS VR2 world of JFC-1, but want to quickly get a shift in later without putting on your headset, you can simply play on your TV.

4K HDR PS VR2 visuals

The Last Worker features a gorgeous stylised world, that blends custom shading and art from concepts drawn by comic artist legend Mick Mcmahon (known for his work on 2000 AD characters such as Judge Dredd and Sláine) that have been lovingly adapted by our team hand drawing each and every pen stroke in 3D! This has led to a vibrant, colourful world that is brought to life in spectacular fashion with the PS VR2’s two 2000×2040 OLED screens.

3D audio

Wolf & Wood have previously released PS VR titles, and understand the importance of audio in crafting a believable immersive world, this is no different for The Last Worker, with crisp 3D audio implementation allowing every explosion, piece of dialogue from the cast or track from the OST (Which was created by Olver Kraus, known for his collaborations with Adele, Sia, Florence and the Machine, and others) to come through crystal clear regardless of your position.

Adaptive triggers and haptic feedback

As Kurt’s story progresses, so does the selection of tools available to him, from using the Jünglegun as a makeshift hacking tool to a powerful EMP gun – each tool you’ll use to complete your day job (or perform espionage) includes unique feedback through use of the adaptive triggers and powerful haptic feedback – whether you’re labeling a package or flinging rats into the face of a pursuing security bot.

PS VR2