Art_Vandelay

People seem to miss the point of Pro consoles just like they do with VR headsets.

The PS5 Pro is a halo product. It's not meant to sell in volumes, but to provide a higher reference point in terms of brand image and recognition.

Having the world's most powerful (and expensive) console gives Sony a clear edge, even if the vast majority of people end up buying the standard model.

Additionally, the few enthusiasts who bite the bullet are usually the most vocal users, which helps amplifying positive buzz around the product line. Not to mention the Digital Foundry videos that will inevitably crown the PS5 Pro versions of games the "best" among consoles, further solidifying that superiority notion.

Circling back to VR, PSVR2 is a value add. When choosing which console to buy, many people will opt for PlayStation simply because it offers the option of jumping into VR in the future, regardless of they ever doing it.

It's funny to see the reaction of people who got used to live in a world without inflation. I'm from Brazil, so I've seen my fair share of that.

Look, electronics have been raising in prices above inflation for many years now, and the lockdowns have just made it much worse. It's a complex supply chain issue with many dimensions, and there's no escaping from it.

The outrage here is the same we saw with many price announcements in the recent past: the iPhone X, the 2080ti, the 3090, 4090 and so on. But people eventually adjust their expectations and bite the bullet.

@naruball I actually agree with you on this one, wholeheartedly.

It just so happens that it's outrageous to say anything in 2024 that may hurt some people's feelings, even if it may be exactly what they need to hear.

@Marquez Welcome to the real world, buddy. People fail all the time, and it's actually a good thing when they suffer the consequences. That's how one learns and grows.

@Amppari It's obviously derivative of the many variants of the third-person action/adventure genre, but it has a decidedly distinct aesthetic.

I didn't say "unique period". I said "unique enough".

Now, here is the most important lesson from this game: originality matters.

Many, if not most hardcore gamers have been doing this (gaming) for decades now. There are too many games coming out these days, and not enough time to play them. Games have become too big, complex and bloated, forcing publishers to risk less and studios to adopt widespread tools. This, in turn, has made games too similar to each other, both from a visual and gameplay perspectives.

BMW is surely not a cornerstone of innovation, but it's the first game of its kind to come from China, and it is unique enough.

Sure, a large part of those sales originated from China itself, but there's no denying that this game has managed to garner a lot of attention across the west.

Alright, this game flopped for a myriad of reasons that combined into a perfect storm. But I see a lot of people pretending that the culture war had nothing to do with it. You may keep your head buried in the sand, but money talks. The pendulum is surely already swinging within Sony, and I'm glad future games will eventually lose that early 2020s stench.

@riceNpea Since you mentioned Brazil, and I happen to live here, besides broadly agreeing with your points, here's another frightening fact: our Supreme Court has just imposed its biggest assault on our democracy yet (not the first one), and it feels like nothing has happened. Almost nobody around me would begin to care.

It's exactly the frog in the hot water analogy. And a cautionary tale, as you pointed out.

We are simply witnessing the later stages of a death spiral that has been going on for years now.

@PloverNutter Bingo!

I'm sick of that attitude, as well. "Suits", "board room", "management", and so on. Sure, the amount of responsibility scales the higher one is in the corporate ladder, but the blame is on everyone down to the janitor.

It's funny that, when a game succeeds, the "devs" are celebrated as the heroes and, when it fails, they are the poor victims.

Technical hiccups aside, Bloodborne is such an immaculate game that I get a little nervous with the idea of a remake. So, maybe a remaster and a full-on sequel.

@naruball
"Dad, my leg hurts!"
"Which one, son? The left or the far right?"

This one should be good with the Pro, since it's apparently very GPU bound. The visual artifacts on the PS5, especially in performance mode, are quite distracting. Not to mention the now infamous input lag, which could be reduced if Game Science manages to get a native 60 fps out of the improved console. Or ideally, a 120 fps container with VRR.

As far as I'm aware, input lag or frame generation does not cause the game to ignore inputs. It just delays them. Aren't we conflating two distinct issues here? It might feel like they're correlated but, technically, they shouldn't be.

@naruball That's precisely the point. I have zero interest in playing this game but, as an observer of the gaming industry, I'm very interested in how Sony will react to its inevitable failure.

In fact, this might be the story of the year in how it will shape the future of PlayStation. Sony is about to burn a lot of cash.

And let's be honest: as you have pointed out, the fact that 70% of people voted for "not interested" in a poll inside the article about this very game, should really tell you something.

@OldGamer999 I have the exact same feeling. There may be a little of my 46 years of age playing its part, but it does feel like gaming has gone downhill in the past few years. But so has the world in general, and videogames are not disconnected from that.

VR has saved my interest in the hobby for the time being, but I wonder for how long.

Sounds like the perfect candidate for a Pro patch, since it seems more GPU than CPU bound. Also, the PC version is based on the Nvidia RTX UE5 branch, meaning it's heavy on the ray tracing goodness. For those in the know, the Pro is supposed to be much better at that. And last but not least, the base PS5 version seems to be employing FSR2 to upscale to 4K, which is fine, but PSSR should be a lot better.

I wouldn't be surprised to see this game featured at the Pro reveal event.

You'd think that first-party games such as HFW would be permanent mainstays on the service after fulfilling their standalone launch cycles. I get the strategy, but it greatly reduces the attractiveness of PS+.

"[...] as the developer was forced to delay the Xbox Series X|S version due to technical issues".

We know what that means. Xbox Series S is too memory bandwidth constrained for this game. And to think that that piece of junk is still regarded as a "great move by Microsoft", "very consumer friendly" and so on. Well, the truth is that Series S may not be the main reason, but it's definitely an important component of Xbox's implosion as a brand.

@Mikey856 GT7 VR on a racing rig is my childhood's dream come true.

Sounds like one for the Pro.

This was definitely my highlight of the VR Games Showcase. Synapse is one of my favorite PSVR2 games, so nDreams has my trust.

It does remind Superhot, but I was also reminded of Deathloop.

This is the one to test your VR legs. I can handle GT7 just fine until I spin.

From a retrospective analysis, Sony did overpay. And so did Microsoft for ABK and Embracer for everything else. Not coincidentally, those deals happened around the same time, which doesn't justify those spendings, but explains why they were made.

Schopenhauer's three stages of truth:
1) "on Twitter"
2) "on X (or Twitter)"
3) "on X"

@naruball You're conflating so many separate things in one argument, that it doesn't even make sense. Post modernist discourse at its finest.

@naruball And yet, unemployment is at one of its lowest levels ever. One can argue about the quality of those jobs, but that's beyond the point.

I'm not all in on AI for a number of reasons, but what I really wanna know from you is: should banks have not embraced automation over that last few decades to keep the jobs of people doing unnecessary paperwork?

Man, this "Sony is dropping support for VR" is really freaking tiring. Why can't people have a bit of nuance? Not commenters necessarily, but journalists at the least.

Remember that the truth is usually in the middle of opposing viewpoints. So, Sony is neither fully invested in VR nor clearing out stock to abandon the platform.

They clearly want to have a foot in VR in case the medium takes off, because it could become an important avenue of growth. This spike in sales just goes to show that VR is not dead, nor is PSVR2. There's definitely interest. But don't expect massive investments from Sony, because it's still a niche market and TLOU VR will not change this simple fact overnight.

VR was always going to be a slow burn. It keeps growing little by little, but it should still take many years to become mainstream. Sony knows that, and so does Meta and Apple.

And there are people like me, who've made the switch to VR and never looked back. After 40 years of gaming, I had seen and done it all on that flat screen. PSVR2 came to the rescue, along with a dream come true in the form of GT7 on a racing rig.

@LimitedPower I'd say go for it, but definitely get PSVR2. If you have any interest in VR and own a PS5, $350 is a steal. Don't listen to the doom mongers, as the library has enough great games to last for a lifetime. And more is on the way, with Metro, Behemoth, Alien, Wanderer and Aces of Thunder, just to name a few.

I got mine at launch and it completely changed my gaming habits. VR is so much more compelling to me, that I have barely played any flat games since. I was told the "magic" would quickly wane but, after 18 months, I still regularly get those unique "VR moments". And the actual dust gatherer in my home is the DualSense.

Ok... generally, I am very much against the substitution of people for AI, be it actors, writers, singers, and so on. And I actually think that this bubble will burst since consumers are as interested in the content as they are interested in the human connection with the author.

With that said, some substitution will inevitably occur, as there are use cases where AI will make sense as a tool. Same as with every other new technology, from the Gutenberg's press to autonomous vehicles.

But this article has a couple of quite ironic key-points:

1) The same people in the comments that are supporting the strike today will be moaning here tomorrow 'cuz, you know, "where are the gaaamez???".

2) The strike may well accelerate AI adoption, as studios and publishers will be cornered into looking for alternatives to real actors.

Burnout Paradise mode.

Fond memories.

@NEStalgia Fair point. I guess it's a matter of taste, at the end of the day. Those games do appeal to an audience, but not to me as they mostly look quite dated or janky in VR. RE8 is just on another level IMHO.

The exception being Flight Simulator, and that is indeed a niche where PCVR does have a clear edge: sims in general, especially of the airborne kind. But again, I'd take GT7 over any racer on PC, so...

And of course, if you're willing to fiddle with mods and stuff, PC is the place to be. I'm strictly talking about the "official" library. So yeah, to each their own.

@VaultGuy415 I agree that GT7 is by far the biggest reason to buy a PSVR2. To be fair though, Sony's headset has a few other exclusives that, IMHO, make it the best headset for hardcore gamers: RE4, RE8, Synapse and Call of The Mountain. Horizon might be the most contentious, but I think all of these are better than anything on Quest or even SteamVR, except for Alyx.

@JuiceboxMeister That's typical of this inflection point moment we're experiencing. Up until very recently, gaming was dominated by one political side, but the pendulum is swinging back, which creates maximum tension.

I'm very excited to see how Polyphony will support the Pro, especially in VR.

The game already has a 1080p 120 fps VRR mode (flat), which suggests it's mostly GPU bound. So I'm hoping for a native 90 fps VR mode, which would be fantastic.

This game has fallen victim to the same problem as Concord: long development cycles. Both were designed inside a certain cultural context, but the culture is shifting as they come out.

@naruball That's absolutely not the reason why console prices aren't coming down. There are two factors at play here: firstly, the pandemic caused both a massive increase in demand for integrated circuits (ICs) and a total meltdown of the global economy.

While demand has receded somewhat, large language models training has kept it in a much higher water mark when compared to the last decade. And as for the global economy, the structural damage caused by covid (or by the response to it) was ultimately somewhat permanent (or very long term).

But the real reason is, funnily enough: physics. Transistor sizes have just got to a point where we're actually approaching the limits of the atom. Granted, we're not there yet, but the closer we get to it, the harder it becomes to shrink it further. And by "harder", I also mean "more expensive".

In other words: die shrinks (e.g. the SoC in the PS3 fat to the PS3 slim) used to make ICs cheaper, but now they get more expensive with each new node. That's the current reality, and there's no escaping from it. For now.

No matter how much you twist and turn it, this game is as DOA as DOA can be.

And the matter of fact is, it doesn't matter how well it plays. This game is the quintessential victim of long development cycles and trend chasing, as it looks horribly outdated even before it comes out.

Firstly, it relies on a totally saturated business model. And secondly, it falls victim to an ongoing cultural shift that makes it immediately unattractive to a now sizeable demographic. Without going into the merits of it, whether one likes it or not, that's just the reality of the situation.

DOA. I just hope Sony learns a lesson or two.

@NEStalgia "the average gamer does not buy more than a few games a year and not a ton during an entire generation. The total spend by a game pass subscriber is GREATER than the average player. That's an INCREASE in per customer sales dollars for average customers."

Bingo! That's exactly why the subscription model has hit a plateau. People eventually realize they're wasting money, so they leave. And that's especially true in the games industry. GP would never hit the necessary subscribers base to be profitable in its old form.

But anyway, we're running in circles at this point. The fact is that Microsoft is finally pivoting, thankfully. And I feel vindicated.

Quality discussion, btw. Even if I don't agree, you raise some thoughtful arguments.

@NEStalgia That’s not the way you do this kind of math. The sum of budgets for all games in production does not equal the overall cost of running the platform. There's so much more to it you're ignoring. Again, Laiden would know. Straus Zelnick would too. And they've warned about subscription models not working with games.

You're conflating another point Shaun made regarding budgets, which is related but different. Actually, the budgets issue only makes GP worse from a business perspective. Yes, costs need to come down across the board, but day one releases on GP won't become a good strategy even if they do.

Here's another data point: according to the Insomniac leak, Sony estimates a loss of around $90 million for putting Forbidden West on PS+, and that is a full year after release. Now look at Sony's own margins and tell me PlayStation would be profitable if first-party games were released day one on the service. You know, it's still profitable doing it (mostly) the old ways, even if the retail model itself needs some course correction as you rightly mentioned.

Again, you're doing napkin math and failing to see the reality, which we can only infer from gathering all these tidbits that offer some insight into the whole picture when combined. I insist: why would Microsoft intentionally hide profitability numbers from the Xbox division in their earnings reports? Sony doesn't…

And about ABK, here's the conundrum that Microsoft has put itself into, which actually explains all that recent pivoting: COD might just be the missing piece to fully realize the GP vision if you only look at subscriber's numbers. But to realize that potential, they had to increase the cost of operation to a level of unsustainability that is unacceptable even to the almighty Microsoft.

Look, the problem is not the subscription model per se. It's day one releases on those services. And Microsoft knows that, so they've begun backtracking.

PS: sorry if I sound a little blunt, but I'm trying to be objective. You know, George is getting upset! 😁

Here's a prediction that bears no wishful thinking whatsoever: Bloodborne remake will be announced at the PS5 Pro reveal event that's coming up. "Running at 4K60 by the power of the Pro".

@NEStalgia Sorry to disagree buddy, but you're way off the mark here. You say GP is profitable and, to prove your point, goes straight on to revenue. Just like Microsoft, but there's a reason they obfuscate the profitability numbers of the Xbox division: because they don't look good.

Sure, there might a profit there, because they own Minecraft and COD, and they do sell a la carte. But GP alone is utterly unprofitable when you consider the cost of maintaining all those studios. And the proof is in the pudding: they've just tacitly admitted that by making all those seismic changes.

But hey, don't listen to me. Listen to someone who has maximum visibility into how this kind of business operates: Shaun Laiden once said that, to be profitable, the GP subscribers base should be in hundreds of millions. 500 million was the number he threw, to be accurate.

And lastly, Phill Spencer has never said that GP was profitable. He actually used the word sustainable, which is totally different. It implies profitability in the long term, which would make sense if you looked at the leaked documents from the ABK court case. It just so happens that those numbers were way off as we now know.

I'm not really into this new title's aesthetic but damn, Synapse was the game that proved the power of eye tracking beyond DFR. Using telekinesis for the first time was one of those rare moments when technology genuinely feels like magic.

@NEStalgia Surely this failed strategy derives from the mismanagement you're referring to. So yes, Xbox leadership is the root of the issue, but that doesn't make the Game Pass model a non-issue. It's a spectacular failure, made more catastrophic by the fact that thousands of random internet users with one millionth of the data Phill Spencer has access to, have been sounding the alarm from the very beginning. The whole story is truly baffling and quite educational.

It's awesome that another PSVR2 game has made it into Premium, so I won't complain it's Job Simulator.

If they keep adding VR games monthly, they'll have me captive. PS+ is the perfect vessel for VR titles, since they're harder to assess without trying.

And the proof is I've just become addicted to Walkabout, a game I had never considered buying.

"proving Sony’s porting strategy is sound"

It proves this is a sound near-term tactic to increase revenue. But I'm still convinced it's a bad long-term strategy as it weakens the platform's appeal.