Game Save #04 | Sony Phasing Out PS4 Games, AI-Generated Games, Indie Game Blog, & Community Spotlight
Taking a look at news about Sony phasing out PS4 game on PS Plus, AI and video games, an amazing indie game blog that's worth checking out, incredible articles for the community spotlight, and more!
Let’s Jump In
Welcome!
Things were a bit slower last week, and I was able to get some time to work on projects and stuff that I needed to get done!
However, things were definitely not slow in terms of video game news from this past week or so, or for new gaming content coming out from others! Of course, the news about Xbox Game Pass has dominated my feeds, and we’ll take a brief look at that today, but more so a focus on Sony’s side of things with their reported plans to focus far less on PS4 games for PS Plus! I also want to touch on some recent news about the future use of generative AI in video games as well as my thoughts on that, especially after an announcement this past week about that topic.
After that, we’re taking a look at a gaming blog with a focus on indie games that I recently came across that is amazing, and definitely worth subscribing to! We’ll also check out two worthwhile reads from other gaming Substackers that were very informative, reflective, and well-put together!
To wrap things up at the end, I have some updates on my side as it relates to my Ko-fi page, as well as a quick teaser for my upcoming article that will come out on Saturday, the 18th of October!
Let’s jump into it!
Welcome to The Saved Game
First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome and send my thanks to you for the privilege and honor of your time!
My name is Joe, and The Saved Game is a gaming newsletter that is a space about video game nostalgia, new and old favorites, and finding ways to rekindle your love for why you played video games in the first place! Read more here about my Substack page and content!
👉 Read the last Game Save entry!
👉 Read my latest main article on the Game Boy Advance!
If you would like to support my work and creative content, or to check out some exclusive posts, then take a look at my Ko-fi page using the button below! Thanks!
Recent Gaming News on My Mind
Lately, there’s been a lot of gaming news going around!
With all the recent discussions about Xbox Game Pass, I want to take a look at some news from earlier this year about Sony’s plans to start phasing out PlayStation 4 games in the next few months on PS Plus. Afterwards, I want to go over some thoughts I have on the use of generative AI in video games from recent news that came out! Of course, these all are just my thoughts on these topics!
The Phasing Out of PlayStation 4 Games on PS Plus
As I’m sure most everyone in the gaming sphere has heard by now: Xbox Game Pass has introduced updates to their tiers recently, which of course, came with updates to their pricing! The main update with their Ultimate Tier was the increase in price, which is now $30 per month!
The updated pricing seems to have left a pretty bad taste for many Xbox gamers, and while GameStop mentioned in a post on X (Twitter) that they will continue to sell Game Pass Ultimate for only $20, many gamers have completely cancelled altogether that had led to the cancellation webpage crashing!
However, one thing that this reminded me of was PlayStation Plus (PS Plus) and upcoming changes over on their side for their subscription service. Notably, There was an announcement in their blog earlier this year from Sony about the gradual slowdown/phasing out of PlayStation 4 games coming to PS Plus’s Monthly Games, which is now coming up quickly in January of 2026.
“As we shift to PS5, PS4 games will no longer be a key benefit and will only be occasionally offered for PlayStation Plus Monthly Games and Game Catalog starting January 2026.”
I personally jumped ship on PS Plus back when Sony raised the prices for PlayStation Plus and switched up/added tier levels a while back. For me, it just wasn’t worth the eventual $80 price-tag for getting random monthly games, even if they were decent. However, as of last summer, there was still a significant portion of players still on the PS4. With how many people still play the PS4, I wonder how this will impact the willingness of gamers to stick with PS Plus? Or, will it be a driving force to sway PS4 gamers to finally upgrade to a PS5?
Time will tell, but I remember feeling incredibly sad when Sony was no longer adding PS3 and PS Vita games to PlayStation Plus because I was still using those systems heavily, especially my Vita. In a similar fashion, they had a blog post to make that grim announcement. At that point though, I already had a PS4, so it didn’t make a huge impact on myself. However, with how many gamers still play on these older consoles, I wonder why Sony wouldn’t offer a way, or even an additional benefit, to throw PS Plus subscribers some older games each month as well? I imagine the idea is to force users to upgrade to the latest console, but I would love if they had that as a benefit to one of their tier levels.
Regardless of what happens, I’ll be interested to see the reactions from PS Plus subscribers once PS4 games start getting phased out early next year!
AI-Generated Games and Generative AI for NPCs?
I feel like the line has been getting blurrier and fuzzier over the past few years on pretty much anything to do with artificial intelligence (AI), more so generative AI. It’s a topic that I find interesting, just because of how much it changes and the sharp reactions to it, especially if/when it’s related to gaming.
However, after various products were released from other AI companies last week, there was a post on X (Twitter) by Elon Musk recently about XAI Game Studio releasing an AI-generated game before the end of next year.
From the start, I am definitely skeptical about this given the current state of AI and the idea of a game being AI-generated, assuming it’s fully generated, is hard to imagine. More so, it’s hard to imagine it being any good under the current environment with the amount of slop-content being made, but it’s also hard to imagine what it would mean for people’s jobs and livelihoods if it was possible to actually make it “great” in the future. I wonder if gamers in the future will care about the quality if it’s just good enough while taking a fraction of the time to make?
One key aspect that I have been interested in, and more so where I want to steer this discussion and my thoughts, is how generative AI could be used in a way to bring more immersion to the gaming experience while still giving the control to creatives who make gaming possible. It would not be about replacing the game, but rather using it as a tool to add to the experience. Even back a couple of years ago when AI tools started to become mainstream, there was one use case that I was uniquely interested in, even if it’s not entirely possible yet, and I have been following various forms of it for a while now: Lore-friendly dialogue (and even actions) for in-game NPCs.
To me, if this technology could make it possible, it would be awesome to have the entire lore of a game’s story, or of a region within a game, be given to various NPCs who have their own story and background, but now with an “understanding” of the world they are in. My mind instantly goes to Bethesda titles, because if it was done correctly if/when the tech exists in a better state, it seems like that would be amazing to see NPCs interacting with each other, doing much more in their environment, and talking with the player in a way that would reflect the lore, as well as reflecting their background and role in that world. Even more so, it would be really cool if NPC characters could use tech like that in a way to better react to in-game choices the player made, such as the death of a major character, or the advancement of a quest.
Some modders have made parts of this possible before, such as the Mantella mod for both Fallout 4 and Skyrim, but they are still pretty buggy from everything I’ve seen of them. However, to me, it shows a proof-of-concept for using generative AI like this.
As the technology improves, assuming it does at the rate it has been, it will be interesting to see where it leads in the future. While I do worry about a lot of aspects of its uses, I do try to view things optimistically and try to find the good that can come from new technologies. My hope is that the uses would be for the better for everyone involved, and that if it ever does get used in a game as I described, then I hope it would be implemented in a truly groundbreaking way that makes sense, and done so in a proper way to further increase the immersion within games!
What are your thoughts on the idea of Sony planning to phase PS4 games out of PlayStation Plus in the next few months? Do you still use a PS4 as your primary PlayStation console?
What are your thoughts on the uses of generative AI in gaming? Do you think we’re at a point soon of creating full, “good” games using AI only? Or are there other use cases that you would like to see?
A Fantastic Blog about Indie Games and More!
Indie gaming is something that I’m always wanting to learn more about!
Growing up (and even nowadays), the majority of games I played were from larger developers/publishers, but I have almost always enjoyed the indie games that have crossed my path over the years! There’s plenty out there, and it’s great to read more about them, especially from other game writers. Because of that, I’ve been on the lookout lately for any blogs to read that have some amazing write-ups on indie gaming!
I found this blog by
that has some quality work in it on the Discord server for (fantastic group which is also worth checking out too)!The name of the blog from Luna is Luna’s Gaming Log!
The content is well-made, and Luna has some fantastic articles! The site is fast, pages are easy to navigate, and there is a growing collection of write-ups on there! The user flow for subscribing was easy, and I have not had any issues getting new posts in my inbox! Most of the articles are about indie games, as well as some on thoughts, tips/ideas, and reflections from Luna. Personally, I loved some of the ideas in the article on avoiding buying too much during sales, and I absolutely love the autumn season, so the article on autumn (and spring!) games was a really good dive into some indie titles I have never heard of, but am now very interested to check out! There are plenty of great visuals and sources included to complement the writing as well, which always helps a lot when reading!
If you are at all interested in indie games and don’t want to miss out on reading about one you might not have heard of before, then I absolutely recommend that you check out and subscribe to Luna’s Gaming Log!
Community Spotlight
Like last time, I came across two amazing articles from the past couple of weeks that I wanted to spotlight! These are some fantastic reads, and I hope that you will check them out and leave them some positive vibes if you have not already!
The 30th Anniversary of the PlayStation
I already wrote up a Note on some thoughts I had for this recent article by
from his publication 94 ‘til Infinity about the 30th Anniversary of the PlayStation. However, I definitely wanted to highlight it because of how much care and attention was put into this article!Chris was awesome in the way he wrote up this article! This write-up, titled The PlayStation at 30: When Gaming Changed Forever, has so much packed into it with some personal experiences from Chris during the time period in the 1990s when the original PlayStation was being released, as well as so many magazine snippets and excerpts that hyped up the release of the PlayStation back in the mid-90s. I really wish I was around to have been there to see it all, because without the PlayStation and its success, I’m not sure if I would still be into gaming nowadays!
Beyond all of that, the prose, research, and writing style from Chris is always top-notch. I am always sure to set aside time to read his content when it comes out! If you have not already, please be sure to give this article a read! If you were anything like me, you will absolutely come away with something new to learn from it!
Dark Souls II | Quality Game and Amazing Article
My face lit up when I saw the title of an article called Game of the Week: #2 Dark Souls II from
, because I absolutely love Dark Souls II! More so, it was my favorite out of all of the SoulsBorne games that I have played! Besides the topic being on one of my favorite games from FromSoftware, it was a damn good read that made me reflect on the reasons why I adore that game!In this fantastic article, Adam went over Dark Souls II, and addressed some of the great qualities of it! The topic of the world design was of particular interest to me, because that was one of my favorite aspects of that game. I loved the peaceful qualities to Majula, the eerie environments through some of the levels such as the Shaded Woods, and the treacherous journeys through other locations like the Black Gulch. While you could warp from the start of the game, to me, that was definitely a great addition that made sense in this title.
Adam also went over some of the negatives too of this sequel, and he did so with tact and in a balanced way that highlighted some issues that I definitely agree with, as well as counters to some of the issues that will make you think of different ways to approach this specific game. You’ll want to check out his article, if you haven’t already, to read more about everything Adam wrote concerning Dark Souls II! It was a great read, and I highly recommend you to give it a look yourself!
Wrapping Up, Ko-fi Updates, & What's Next
I’ve said it before, but wish I had more time in life to get more writing done 😆
There’s a lot that I wish I could do more for this publication, as well as some projects I’m starting to put work in besides The Saved Game! At some point down the road, I’ll see about sharing those updates!
One big update I did want to share though, is the start of monthly subscriptions on Ko-fi for The Saved Game!
While I do have pledges turned on here on Substack, I do not plan on starting up a form of paid plans anytime soon. Since I’ve been on Ko-fi though, I decided to start up a cheaper monthly subscription that will allow readers to support my work if they want to!
Of course, it’s not necessary and everyone will still get the same content when I release it. If you are at all interested in supporting my work, then please take a look at my Ko-fi page on the membership tab! Besides just showing support, this will help as I take care of some of the reoccurring subscriptions I need to make my work possible!
Thank you!
My next main article will be released on Saturday, October 18th! For that write-up, I will be going over a certain space RPG game that I just replayed last year. It was really fun, and one that I enjoyed quite a bit (especially on my second playthrough) with a few hiccups here and there. Stay tuned next week to hear more about it! There’s also a sequel coming out for this game just around the corner, which I anticipate reading reviews for 😉
Besides that, I think everything else has been going well! I’ve still been playing Hades off-and-on for the past few weeks, and that’s been a load of fun — especially for the $7 sale price I paid for it! Definitely a learning curve with that one, but I’m slowly getting used to it! I also know that Battlefield 6 will be releasing tomorrow, so I wish everyone the best of luck that jumps in that game! I eagerly look forward to seeing the post-release reviews to see what everyone’s thoughts are on it! So far, that game looks pretty amazing from what I’ve seen of it, and I hope it holds up! The last Battlefield game I played was Battlefield 3 on the PS3, so it’s been a while for myself since I’ve last checked in with that series!
Looking forward to my next article, coming out on the 18th! I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your week ahead!
Thank you for the honor and privilege of your time! It means a lot that you’re here, and I appreciate your readership! Let me know below what your thoughts are on anything I shared here today!
See you all next time,
Joe
Support and Connecting
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Follow me on X (Twitter) or Bluesky for photos, updates on new posts, nostalgic thoughts, and more! As opposed to here on Substack, I tend to post more open thoughts on these other socials, where I get a bit more candid at times!
Really cool to see my name mentioned in one of your posts, when I saw I was mentioned I was shocked lol. I appreciate it a lot though and also checked out some of Luna's stuff as well. Curious about what space RPG you could be writing about. I know Outer Wilds 2 releases soon and I am pretty excited for that one...
I've added Luna's Gaming Log to my list of things to check regularly, thanks for the recommendation