Winners and Losers: PlayStation’s bombshell announcements, Three brings in roaming charges

Happy weekend everyone! If you fancy a quick recap of the biggest tech stories to drop over the last seven days then we’ve got you covered with Trusted Reviews’ Winners and Losers.

Hopefully its not too hyperbolic to say that this has been a stellar week for gaming. Not only did I have to chance to test out the brilliantly absurd WarioWare: Get it Together! and the heartfelt story of Life is Strange: True Colors, but the Trusted Reviews office also received access to Deathloop (the review to which you can find on our site from next week).

That theme has continued into our winner for this week – an accolade that was easily snapped up by Sony after its jam-packed PS5 showcase. Unfortunately, news isn’t quite as juicy for anyone signed up with Three, as the network is set to reintroduce roaming charges for its customers.

Winner: Sony

Even though there were plenty of titles to tide us over from Microsoft and Nintendo, Sony’s no-show attitude to E3 was quite the let down – particularly for anyone who had actually managed to track down a PS5 amidst a chaotic launch period marred by scalpers and bots. After finally pulling back the curtain with a proper showcase earlier this week however, this is one of those moments where the wait was very much worth it.

Where do you even begin? God of War: Ragnarok (with the subtitle that we’ve long since suspected) was officially announced alongside an impressive gameplay trailer. Kratos is still just as gruff but now Atreus is a full-on teenager with all the angst and outbursts that go along with the territory.

Isomniac Games dropped a double whammy on everyone by not only announcing Spider-Man 2, which looks like Peter and Miles will be facing off against Venom, but the company also announced that it’s working on a Wolverine game that’s exclusive to PS5. There’s nothing more than a teaser trailer for the latter right now, but given how well the company has handled the Spider-Man license, the mind begins to race over how a game starring the world’s most famous X-Men might turn out.

The biggest surprise of the showcase however – one that no-one saw coming – was a complete remake of the fan-favourite RPG, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Given that the KOTOR series has been dormant since its last mainline instalment in 2004, this is huge news for Star Wars fans and even better for Sony as it’s only console port will be on PS5. Your move Microsoft.

Loser: Three

Just like EE and Vodafone before it, network giant Three is rolling back on its promises by bringing back roaming charges for any new customers heading abroad. This means the rolling back of Three’s ‘Go Roam’ service, which allowed customers to enjoy using their data plan, unimpeded, in 71 different locations around the world.

In a statement detailing the change, the company explained: “From 23 May 2022 customers who have taken out a new contract or upgraded with Three from 1 October 2021 will pay a charge of £2 per day when roaming within the EU and £5 a day when roaming outside the EU. Pay as you go customers and customers who have taken out a contract before 1 October 2021 are unaffected by these changes. Customers roaming in the Republic of Ireland are also unaffected.”

Unfortunately this is another knock-on effect from Brexit, and regardless of whether you voted for it or not, there’s justified irritation at having these companies promise one thing, only to see them backtrack once the competition has decided to go the other way.

Whether or not this cements the fate of all the other networks that have yet to flip remains to be seen, but from this point of view, I wouldn’t be too optimistic.