Ainu20

@DennisReynolds "a PS5 Pro is a waste of time and money just like the PS4 Pro was"

You don't get to decide that, though. The PS4 Pro offered tangible performance benefits in a large amount of titles, vastly improved image quality and gave us PSVR support. It most certainly wasn't a waste of time and money for a lot of people.

@TheStormGL I don't know where those people are that are expecting brand new experiences on the Pro. I've literally not found a single person who said that.

Most are sensible enough to see it for what it is: a box designed to provide better image quality and performance in most games. Nothing more, nothing less.

Many devs may not feel like they're making the most of the PS5, but at the same time they're often running performance modes at 1080p, or trying to get away with even worse internal resolutions and letting FSR make up the difference, which it is entirely unsuited to, leading to games with very poor image quality.

So which is it? Either you've still got headroom and your games should really be running better than that, or you need additional GPU power which the Pro would provide (especially in terms of image quality).

@nomither6 It's fair to say MS assisted in the PS4's success. The manner in which Mattrick sent the Xbox One out to die was spectacular, to say the least. Of course it helped that Sony got their first-party studios firing on all cylinders last gen.

@NEStalgia Not to defend this, but it isn't really the ONLY industry. It's something that happens in software in general.

I work in software and while we don't deliver a "product" but a customized solution for each client, we're also bugfixing for months after go-live, even after hundreds of thousands of euros have already been paid. It's a poor comparison, but we're essentially also delivering a broken product.

It can and should definitely be better than we're currently seeing in the gaming industry, but software remains an insanely difficult (imo, impossible) thing to get right from day one, without the benefit of mass testing in a live scenario.

I continue to be baffled by studios releasing games without a motion blur toggle. It's so basic, and yet it keeps happening (see also: FF16 last year). Good that they're so quick to patch it and all, but it should never release like that.

@Czar_Khastik He had already left Bend Studio for a while when he made those comments and they publicly distanced themselves from him. Not something that can be held against them.

@Jimmer-jammer That must be a quirk of the local market, over here it's €75 while the norm for new AAA PS5 titles is €80. So it's slightly below the other big games.

@C25CLOUD It's not just that, when microtransactions have an actual effect on gameplay and especially when it applies to limited resources, it becomes problematic.

There will always be the feeling that the game is designed to artificially make certain things slower, grindier or more inconvenient to encourage people to buy the microtransactions. That feeling might be totally unjustified (the resources in question were also scarce in the first game), but the damage is done.

@Vash0125 I mean, sure, that's an opinion, but the Nioh games were both critically acclaimed (88 and 85 respectively on OpenCritic) and a commercial success as well. They're not perfect by any means, but if those games are considered "mid", than 90%+ of the gaming industry might as well pack it in and give up.

To add my personal opinion, I can't recall a single game that did melee combat as well as both Nioh games, and that includes all From Soft games. Whatever issues these games had outside of that were easily compensated by the joy of its combat system. There's a reason I put over 150 hours into each of em.

@GravyThief How all of it works internally is beyond me, but in DLSS's case the basic idea is that it uses neural networks/deep learning to train a model using loads of extremely high resolution images. The model can then take low resolution frames and predict what a high resolution image would look like, which is done via hardware acceleration using the tensor cores found on RTX cards. Presumably, PSSR will be something similar.

As to the why now, I guess that's just the result of advancements in deep learning and the fact that we now have the hardware to do all of this in real time at high performance.

Not a complete surprise I guess, although this particular score is on the lower end of what I expected. It's sitting at 75 on OpenCritic which just means it's not great but not terrible either. I can live with that.

As an enjoyer of Team Ninja gameplay, I'll check it out at some point anyway.

@zebric21 DLSS doesn't solve everything, but it's arguably the most powerful tool available on PC hardware to marry advanced graphical features like RT, above HD resolutions and good performance.

Bit weird to state that image quality takes a serious hit. That's a statement that's true of something like FSR, but these days DLSS is virtually as good as native. Native resolution doesn't really exist on consoles anymore anyway, so DLSS-like tech is definitely a game changer.

@zebric21 Upscaling in general, sure, but this is specifically about dedicated machine learning hardware for upscaling, which doesn't exist on the base PS5.

You only have to look at DLSS to see what an enormous difference such hardware makes.

People expecting Bloodborne to be magically fixed at system level. Is that now an actual thing, like, a genuine expectation? Or just people repeating it for the sake of negativity?

This article doesn't really add anything compared to yesterday's article on the exact same subject. I get that information is sparse at the moment, but do we really need the same article twice in the space of two days just to generate 100+ comments again?

@Frmknst The 8k stuff is just marketing fluff, something we should all ignore. The main draw of the Pro will be playing quality modes at higher performances.

Look at something like FF16, which drops down to 720p in combat in performance mode. It's clear that there are tangible gains to be made here, well before we're even entertaining the idea of 8k.

@Uromastryx PSVR 2 isn't overpriced, for the tech you're getting, the price is reasonable. What it would be worth to you personally is another matter of course. It's expensive, yes, but that doesn't make it overpriced.

@Max_the_German I wouldn't say that it definitely will, but I understand the concern. My expectation is that it will pretty much be the status quo on the base model with performance and quality modes, while the Pro gets a performance boost in both modes (and potentially an extra 30fps ultra mode or something).

@ChrisDeku Was going to say the same thing, in the vast majority of cases the GPU is the limiting factor. CPU might come into play in certain games' performance modes, but the fact that quality modes running at 30fps or worse exist in those same games is evidence enough that they're GPU bound.

It's certainly a bold claim to say that they're often CPU bound, and it needs data to support it.

It's a cinematic trailer, of course it's too good to be true. In-engine is an almost meaningless term these days.

@dskatter I thought that would've been obvious, I mean it's the entire subject of this article. The fact that they're only making it available through the expansion pass instead of as a separate purchase.

@dskatter This is simply a terrible, anti-consumer move that thoroughly deserves to be criticized. What happened in the past is no justification, nor is the quality of the base product.

@nocdaes I think it's because FFVII's score is based on a higher number of user ratings than FFVI's. Either way, I'm happy to see FFVI up there, still the greatest and most timeless JRPG ever made in my opinion.

Surely they'll offer a toggle to cap the framerate in the final build? That would be such a strange thing to leave out.

Personally I'd like to see a 60 fps mode for every single current-gen game, but a locked 30 should really be the absolute minimum expectation. Or a quasi-locked one; sporadic, slight dips aren't the end of the world.

@MrGawain I'm trying to interpret your comment but it's making little sense to me. Sony releasing specs for a PC verson - something PC releases have been doing since forever - is somehow a bad thing?

Why are so many people here reacting as if this is a problem unique to Sony and their approach to AAA blockbusters or live services, when the article is about the industry as a whole?

It is affecting almost all game companies, big or small. It's almost as if people don't bother reading what it's actually about. Shocking, I know.

There are obviously a lot of factors at play here but the biggest and simplest one is that there are more games than ever competing for a playerbase (and their time) that hasn't really grown - and possible even contracted post-covid, though it's hard to quantify that.

That is clearly unsustainable and there are only a few real solutions: either releasing fewer games, cutting costs or increasing revenue by reaching more markets or monetizing the current market more heavily. The first two of these inevitably lead to layoffs and the last one is the holy grail that eveyone has been chasing but almost no one has managed to find.

@Tielo Playstation management is responsible for industry wide layoffs?

@jolteon23 One thing I've seen said a lot about Nintendo is that they use a lot of contract workers, which could be a way to avoid layoffs. These are temporary positions anyway.

Assuming that's true in the first place, it could be a similar story for other Japanese game companies. But I'm far from an expert on the Japanese labor market, so take that for what it's worth.

Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade and Dragon's Dogma 2 is a fine line-up.

Silkso... Oh whatever, who am I kidding?

@UltimateOtaku91 Do you think companies are lining up to buy unsuccessful studios?

Your alternative suggestion, continuing as an indie studio, sounds nice on paper, until your realize this is a 100+ employee studio. I don't see how that's viable without sizing down dramatically.

@sanderson72 I think it's still too early to judge them, assuming they still have a future. The acquisition wasn't that long ago and before then, they were probably too small for larger projects.

I thought they were off to a decent start as a Playstation studio with Call of the Mountain, but this doesn't sound great. Time will tell what Sony's plan for the studio is, but I hope this isn't a sign that it's all downhill from here.

@Ambassador_Kong The idea that the vitriol is merely a reaction to overzealous fans of the game is silly. The vitriol was there from day one, or rather, well before day one. No one should be getting attacked because they don't like the game, or don't like Druckmann as a writer and director, but I don't think that's what this is about.

When people are talking about the vocal minority that hates the game, it's safe to assume they are referring to the more extreme voices in the discourse. Those that aren't happy just to give their opinion on disliking the game, but make it their mission to attack and insult its creators at every turn. We all know they exist. As long as you don't count yourself among them, there's no reason to defend those.

@ZhuckelDror I'm sure they expected that not everyone was going to like what they were going for, but the viciousness and brutality of the backlash is not something we should consider normal or expected. There are no excuses for that.

@ZhuckelDror Disagree, creatives should not just make what fans want or expect them to make. They create the games that they feel they want or need to create, and it's up to every individual to decide for themselves whether they want to play them. We don't get to make demands about story or direction.

@Swirly Yeah, that is my main criticism of it as well, it drags. Too many drawn out combat encounters, which means that by the time you get to the final act, you're pretty exhausted. It's a minor criticism in the grand scheme of things for me personally, doesn't make me love the game any less, but it's still there.

@themightyant It just comes across as incredibly immature. It's possible to disagree with certain decisions without completely dismissing someone's merits, or disliking someone's work without turning to insults or outright hatred. But not everyone seems capable of that.

Anyway, his credentials speak for themselves. He's been involved with 4 of the best games Naughty Dog have ever made, either as co-writer, co-lead writer, or co-director: Uncharted 2 and 4 and The Last of Us 1 and 2. The fact that he wasn't involved in any role in by far the most disjointed game they've made from a writing and directing point of view, Uncharted 3, also tells me much.

I'm not surprised he's thinking about how many more he's got left in him. These games are taking an incredibly long time to make these days, and it's probably not going to get shorter. But I think he's got at least one original IP game (something he's currently working on?) and a third The Last of Us game in him.

@AdamNovice It's a valid question, why would you need to keep a community engaged for a single player game?

Good lord, some of the posts here go beyond the hysterical. Sure, there are valid concerns about their development pipelines and the sustainability of AAA development, but some of the doom and gloom posts here would have you believe Playstation is nearly dead and buried.

Despite the sparse amount of first-party titles, the live service stuff and the layoffs, Playstation is still in a healthy place at the moment. There are certain course corrections that need to be made and obviously the strategy is something that needs to be evaluated constantly, but if they make the right decisions now, I see no reason why they won't be fine in the foreseeable future.

@ZhuckelDror Define "decent visual quality". We've already seen stunning games run at 60 fps on PS5, some even with raytraced reflections. It is absolutely capable of running "decent" games at 60.

But as always, different developers use different tech and make different decisions when it comes to graphics and performance.

Commenters on here seem convinced that AA games are the answer, but based on what? We've already seen what is guaranteed to sell tons of copies on console: big AAA sequels. Simple as that. Even though gamers have no shortage of AA games from third party studios to choose from.

It's not about what your or I, the average Push Square reader, wants. Sure, if everyone was like me, those AA games would sell and the live service model would never have existed, but that's clearly not what the wider audience wants.

@Darylb88 Those sequels are the big selling games, from a business point of view it wouldn't make much sense to cancel those.

Awful. Considering the current state of the industry, not surprising, but still awful. Feels like the entire industry needs a complete reboot or something.

I've got nothing new or original to contribute here, just want to pay tribute to the man. His legacy speaks for itself. Here's hoping he gets to enjoy many more years of good health and sort-of retirement (I doubt he's the type to sit still).

And yeah, obligatory personal favourite: Final Fantasy 6. Terra's Theme, Celes' Theme, Locke's Theme, Dancing Mad, Phantom Forest, Forever Rachel, Searching for Friends, etc. Ridiculous.

@Neither_scene AR is great for a lot of stuff, especially in productivity applications, but gaming? Maybe I'm old fashioned, but when I think about what I want from video games, being transported to fictional, often fantastical or sci-fi worlds is still a major element.

Doing stuff in an augmented version of my own daily reality, well, I guess there's a place for that, but it's certainly not something I'd want from most games. I'd still want games to go all in on full VR instead of AR, or simply not bother and keep it on a flat screen.

Having said that, I agree with the idea that AR will become much bigger than VR, as it goes way beyond video games.

This has been such an uplifting story at a time when most stories involving the gaming industry are so relentlessly negative. Almost warms my heart, as ridiculous as that sounds about what is still essentially business.

Imagine how the people at Arrowhead must be feeling, must be a fantastic time to be at that studio right now.

@Godot25 I would need a solid source on the claim that Sony is subsidizing the PSVR 2. We know they do that with their consoles, but I would be very surprised if they'd do the same with their VR headsets.