Welcome to update 8.9!

This week, we’re bringing some fresh content your way as well as a long list of bug-fixes, quality-of-life changes and performance improvements thanks to various engine-level optimizations. This update also includes a more robust Spectator mode, an essential feature for our community and the upcoming Grand Major 2025. Season 9 is right around the corner and the team has been hard at work, and we can’t wait to share more with you all soon. 

Let’s take a look at everything Update 8.9 has to offer: 

NEW LIMITED-TIME MODE | BLAST OFF SOUR CORE

Welcome to the BLAST OFF SOUR CORE! Enter a sour-apple flavored section of Bernal with your tuned-up CL-40, Jump Pad and Evasive Dash and take to the skies! With low gravity on and launch pads in every corner, you’ll do your best work in mid-air!  

In this iconic 3 vs 3 Limited-Time Mode, movement is the key to victory. Keep your energy up and never let your guard down! 

Out-blast the competition while enjoying a cold OSPUZE courtesy of our generous guest Sponsor! This event will run longer than usual, giving you plenty of time to complete contracts, earn up to 10 free rewards, and make sure your name shines on the top of the leaderboard! 

POP. POUR. PERFORM. 

STORE UPDATE | WILD POUR WEST SET

This week’s update is all power, no sugar, thanks to OSPUZE.

POP em’ faster than they can PERFORM with the Wild Pour West Set and if necessary, the Zestinator RPG is there to make your message extra clear. And so much more!

ESPORTS | GET READY FOR THE GRAND MAJOR 2025 

In case you missed it, check out this hype trailer to get you ready for the Grand Major 2025! We’re getting closer to the big date now! We’ll see you in DreamHack, in person or on Twitch! 

UPDATES | PRIVATE MATCH SPECTATOR

Private Match Spectator mode just got smoother and sharper. Hosts can now set separate squad colors for players and spectators, making it easier to follow the action. The team HUD now shows exactly who’s stealing a Cashout, so spectators never miss a clutch moment. We’ve also cleaned things up, the round counter is gone from single-round modes like Blast Off, and that pesky controller bug in the lobby navigation has been fixed.

STARTER BUNDLE | NEW CONTESTANT PACK + 1500MB 

New Contestants who want to top up their Multibucks and their style now have the New Contestant Pack, a bundle that comes with OSPUZE gear and 1500 Multibucks. Pick up this one time deal today, Sofia is watching!

SOCIAL | VOICE MODERATION TEST

In an effort to improve the quality and safety of Voice Chat, we’re rolling out the testing of a voice moderation system to help keep conversations safe and enjoyable for everyone. To accommodate the new system, you’ll need to venture into settings and re-enable voice chat and voice moderation in order to participate in voice chat! 

We’ll be monitoring this tool to see if it is effective in helping to combat abusive comms in game, hopefully making it safe and fun for more Contestants to enter the Arena with a mic! Your feedback will be an important part of this evaluation process. 

EVENT | XP & FANS BOOST ENABLED

Need a hand finishing your Battle Pass or gathering some extra Fans for your Sponsor track? We’ve got you covered! Starting now, you’ll get 200% XP for Daily Contracts and up to 150% XP and Fans for gameplay all the way until the end of the season!

 
To celebrate the season, we’re calling this one MAJOR XP![reachthefinals.com] 

UPDATE | PLAYSTATION 4 SUPPORT 

With each new Season of THE FINALS, our technology keeps pushing forward with recent features like Smooth Destruction and Instant Replays and major upgrades in performance and optimization. These improvements are shaping the future of the game, but they also demand more from the hardware that runs it.

As we continue to advance, it’s become increasingly difficult to maintain and optimize PlayStation 4 support, without limiting the features and gamemodes we want to create. Some of our latest systems simply aren’t compatible with the older generation’s technology, and ensuring an identical experience for our players across all platforms means making some tough trade-offs.

When Season 10 begins (18th of March, 2026), we’ll be retiring the PlayStation 4 version of THE FINALS and focusing our support on newer platforms. From that point on you’ll need to play on one of those platforms to keep enjoying the game (your progress and purchases will be stored in your Embark ID and will transfer to anywhere you choose to play). We’re finalizing the details now and we’ll share more information shortly. 

Our focus now is on delivering the best possible experience across modern platforms where we can take full advantage of the tech that drives THE FINALS forward.

We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who’s been part of the PS4 community! 

REWARDS | TWITCH DROPS 

To celebrate the release of OSPUZE SOUR CORE in the meatspace we’ve got a brand new suite of refreshing Twitch Drops coming your way! Watch any of your favorite THE FINALS creators for a total of 4 hours to earn all three drops! 

IMPROVEMENTS | QUALITY OF LIFE 

Notable fixes in this update include the addition of Instant Replays to Xbox Series S! Never miss a play! 

We’ve also fixed a very annoying bug that would prevent players from using Respawn Tokens after being revived while in the Loadout Change screen. 

We’ve also been digging deep into performance this patch, identifying many of the in-game stutters that were caused by high memory pressure on the client side, which was caused by high memory pressure on the client side. This update brings major optimizations to help fix that including smarter shader caching (cutting precompiled shaders by 25% and PSO memory by 20%), leaner textures, graphics, and collision meshes, plus smoother replays and improved threading on lower-core CPUs. We’ve also tuned raytraced global illumination for better performance and cleaned up the Weapon and Gadget customization screen. In short,  fewer hitches, faster loads, and a smoother ride all around.

Let’s dig into the details: 

Content and Bug Fixes

Animation

• Fixed a first-person visual issue where the Heavy body could briefly clip into view when sliding when looking down.

• Fixed an issue where the first-person arm could sweep across the screen when repeatedly picking up and dropping Arena Carriables

• Fixed a brief distortion in the Recurve Bow charging animation when starting a shot immediately after attaching to a Zipline

• Fixed a first-person animation issue that could make hands look distorted when inspecting the Pyro Grenade while vaulting

• Fixed an issue where the throwing animation could loop after firing the Recurve Bow and quickly swapping to throwable gadgets

• Updated the sprint animations for Recurve Bow and Sledgehammer

• Fixed a first-person animation issue where the left hand could jitter or clip when performing the Dagger Primary Attack, followed immediately by charging a Secondary Attack

• Fixed an issue where C4 could visibly snap toward the hand when throwing while inspecting

• Fixed missing animations in places such as self shadows, emoting, or using the Mesh Shield

• Fixed an issue where animations could end up in a distorted state after teleporting through a Gateway

• Fixed an issue where Gadget throwing animations could play when vaulting

• Improved jump/landing transition animations while winding up Grenade throws

• Improved animation blending when inspecting during manual reload on ARN-220 and M26 Matter to prevent hand and finger clipping

• Fixed an issue where the Throwing Knives of choice did not appear when thrown

• Fixed cases where melee attack animations could fail to play after using a Gadget for Spear, Sledgehammer, Dual Blades, or Dagger

Audio

Cashout

• Added more commentator voice line variations when a team is wiped

Customization

• Fixed emote holograms overriding the props on gestures

• Fixed an issue where performing actions like reload or inspect during an emote could reset the equipped weapon animation to the default animation

• The Web Designer Pet now moves smoother 

• Fixed the rifle hologram in the Top Billing Emote from ALFA ACTA so it now renders correctly on player cards and billboards and appears as a proper hologram instead of a solid mesh

• Fixed a visual issue where the left hand could briefly flash on screen while crouching or inspecting during the Model 1887 cycle action when using the Dough Wrangler or Eclipse Shade skins 

• Added description to heads and headwears that modify the Contestant’s voice

Gameplay

• Improved destruction to reduce jitter and prevent buildings from ‘jumping’ during collapses by adding velocity limits and adjusting post-break impulse behavior

• Fixed an issue where destruction updates could desync the strain system, causing structures to break excessively

• Fixed an issue where Vanishing Bomb invisibility could persist after firing the last bullet of some Weapons

• Fixed an issue where changing between crouching and standing during an interaction (e.g. stealing) could cancel it when near the edge of the interaction range

• Fixed an issue where you couldn’t respawn with a token after being revived while the loadout screen was open

• Fixed an issue where the incorrect team would win in Powershift if Overtime was triggered while the platform was at the center of the map

• Fixed and issue where the healing emitter would sometimes not starting healing after throws

Instant Replays

• Added support for Instant Replays on Xbox Series S

• Optimized the time it takes to transition in and out of Instant Replays

Map

SYS$HORIZON

• Slightly adjusted some of the cubes around the voxel bridge connecting the two Library wings to remove some narrow unexpected sightlines between them and make climbing into the upper floors more intuitive

Fortune Stadium

• Fixed Zipline rotation to ensure correct orientation

Kyoto

• Fixed grass clipping through Jump Pads and improved their integration with better level dressing and guidance

• Corrected in-world branding visuals 

Las Vegas

• Fixed some ladders and Ziplines around the ENGIMO building having the wrong color

Practice Range

• Added the Heaven or Else leaderboard trophy

• Fixed an issue where the Loadout selection overlay didn’t block background input

Performance

Dev Note: Various system memory optimizations are listed below. We have seen that high memory pressure can cause in-game stutters due to page faults. The goal of these optimizations are to reduce memory pressure and thus lower the risk of stutters during gameplay.

• Optimized shader cache based on graphics quality. Reduces precompiled shaders by ~25% and PSO memory usage by ~20%. 

Dev note: Note that changing Effects quality during gameplay may trigger shader compilation and cause brief stuttering.

• Various optimizations to textures, graphics and collision meshes in order to lower memory usage

• Fixed an issue that could cause overly blurry textures and lowpoly meshes when running close to video memory limits

• Rebalanced raytraced global illumination graphics quality settings to improve performance

• Improved performance on the Weapon/Gadget customization screen

• Improved performance by optimizing audio systems

• Improved threading efficiency on CPUs with low core count

Private Match

• Host can now set squad colors separately for spectators and players

• Removed the round counter from the Choose Contestant Pack screen when a mode has only one round (e.g. Blast Off)

• Spectators can now see which player is currently stealing a Cashout in the team HUD

• Fixed an issue where navigating the Private Match lobby could move focus out of visible options and cause lost menu control when confirming with a controller

Social

• Improved reliability and performance of rich presence to more consistently show player status to friends

• Friends set to invisible/hidden on their platform no longer trigger “went online” entries in the event log

• Fixed an issue where the Social menu didn’t update immediately. Requests, Recent, and Blocked tabs now refresh without needing to leave and re-enter the Social menu

• We’re testing a new voice moderation tool, so all voice chat settings are turned off by default in this Update. Go into your settings to re-enable your voice chat by enabling voice moderation 

• Improved Discord friend presence updates: when a friend returns from Invisible/Offline, their status now refreshes correctly instead of appearing as Online Elsewhere or In Main Menu

• Fixed a VoIP issue where leaving a match while in a party would mute both members, requiring them to re-enable voice chat

• Fixed a bug where the Xbox icon was shown on the Xbox platform for Discord-only friends

• The ‘join game’ functionality is no longer shown on your Steam profile. Now random friends will not be able to enter your party uninvited 

Spectator

• Improved spectator experience by making the spectator launch into the follow player view after the initial tunnel sequence

• Improved spectator death camera: when spectating in first-person and the player you’re watching is eliminated, the camera now briefly tracks the killer before transitioning to their perspective for a smoother handoff

• Added a spectator option to hide player names and health bars beyond 80m, with a toggle to control visibility at long distances

• Added an option to hide all HUD elements in Spectator mode, including world icons and scoreboards

• Spectator HUD:Team background color now covers the full bottom bar

• Changed the default keybind for toggling ranged health bars from L to Y while spectating on Mouse & Keyboard to avoid overlapping inputs

• Improved spectator team view with a gradient backplate and corrected horizontal alignment in the right-side

• Added more fine-grained camera control

• Fixed an issue where UI glitch/burst damage effects could persist on screen after switching from Follow Player to Free Camera while spectating in Private Matches

Stability

• Resolved a rare crash that could happen when ending a private lobby session

UI

• Fixed an issue where game mode specific Loadouts could not be re-ordered

• Fixed an issue where newly purchased weapon skins and other customization items  were not equipped after purchase when selecting equip 

• Clarified the Social screen by adding separate labels for muting and unmuting voice and text chat

• Fixed multiple bugs where Fans earned at End of Round could appear negative

• Added a confirmation dialog when creating a new Contestant from Playstyles

• Removed non-functional Create Contestant button when at the maximum number of Contestants

• Added mouse-over sounds to voice customization and expression lists

• Restored missing compass in certain event modes

Ranked Tournament

• Improvements on the tournament introduction and outro screen now more accurately represent the selected archetype and, in some cases, will show more customization options

• The Windows activity bar will now flash to notify players of a started game

Team Deathmatch

• We have now added Match Recap to TDM!

Cashout

• The scoreboard now considers ongoing Cashouts when sorting teams

• Fixed an issue where the the distance to the objective was not visible on objective icons

• Fixed an issue where the Cashbox distance marker could flicker when many world icons were on screen

• Fixed an issue where, if an opposing team is in possession of the Cashbox when a squad respawns, the Cashbox icon could go invisible forever.

Clubs

• Fixed an issue where the Clubs background theme showed incorrect colors or defaulted to red after viewing the end-of-round landing page

Weapons

Spear 

• Fixed an issue where the secondary attack could become unresponsive for a few seconds if it was interrupted by the Winch Claw

Security

Updates from the Anti-Cheat team!

Denuvo rollout is now complete and is working almost beyond expectations.
Anybrain rollout is also complete and has proved to be a valuable tool for us in detecting Xim and Cronus Zen like devices.

We are constantly improving our detections and investigating new capabilities to ensure we keep THE FINALS fair and secure for our players. It’s full steam ahead and we’re getting pretty warmed up!

Finally, we’d like to take the opportunity to advise against using third-party tools like Cheat Engine. Depending on how it is used, it could lead to warnings or a direct ban.

/Tom and Magnum