Art_Vandelay

If you need to pay attention to one single thing in order to understand the world of today, it's perverse incentives. That is exactly Sony's point here and they're spot on.

"Oh, c'mon! Microsoft would never do this!" Listen to yourselves... Do a little effort and look one inch below the surface, people.

@Would_you_kindly Right. The annoying thing is that it's not a blatant lie, but it's misleading and disingenuous.

@Would_you_kindly "series X is more powerful than ps5".

This is a common misconception. Although Series X has a numeric advantage on TFLOPS, that is just one of many variables that doesn't come even close to telling the whole story.

Series X has a wider chip (more CUs) whereas PS5 has a faster chip (higher frequency). Each of these approaches will provide advantages and disadvantages depending on the game.

Now, judging by the first couple years of both consoles in the market, it seems that the single most important variable to performance is actually software optimization, which falls exactly within some of the answers provided by Shawne Benson in the interview.

@8bit4Life Don't hold your breath for a PS5 Pro. AMD simply cannot provide an SoC that offers substantial performance gains at a reasonable price anytime soon. This generation is shaping up to be very different from the last one.

@Greger22 Facing the very same issue. Not sure if people with the purchased SKU are seeing the upgrade, though.

@Punker001 GTPlanet has a great video on Youtube with several tips to overcome motion sickness. The main one is "don't try to push through it". It'll only make matters worse. Time your sessions to your limit and increase it progressively.

One tip they didn't mention though, is anti-sickness wristbands. They work by stimulating acupuncture spots on your wrists, and are said to aid a lot. Just google it.

But watch the full video anyway. The guy speaks from his own experience as someone who totally overcame it.

Don't give up, it's worth it!

@DragoonZied I got the Thrustmaster T300RS. It's a little bit more expensive than the G29, but it's totally worth it as the force feedback is much smoother. Also not nearly as expensive as the direct drive wheels, so it's a great option for beginners.

@LordAinsley True. FF VII Remake was one of those, then later Sony reverted the limitation.

I wonder if people with the purchased SKU of Tetris Effect are seeing the upgrade option.

Wasn't Tetris Effect supposed to have an upgrade path? I never bought it, but it's showing up in my library. Probably from PS+ or something, can't remember.

The same goes for Rez Infinite, but this one does offer the $10 upgrade option.

Anyone else facing this?

@carlos82 Not if RE Village was built from the ground up with PSVR2 in mind. Which it probably did. Same goes for GT7, which is first-party just like Astro Bot.

The point is Astro Bot RM does not directly translate to PSVR2. My criticism was specifically to calling it a "port", which implies a lot less work than it actually requires.

Now, I agree Sony should definitely do a remake, or at least a new Astro made specifically for PSVR2. Which I think they will. Should it be available at launch? Maybe, but it's a small studio. Also, there's value in saving some of the good stuff for later. Note that Rescue Mission came out 2 years into PSVR's life-cycle.

I know it's a long shot, but announcing Half-Life: Alyx after reviews are out could be a master stroke from Sony's marketing, as it would void the main point of contention among reviewers which was the weak launch lineup. Although I totally disagree with them.

Project Wingman would also be awesome (maybe AC7?). And Hitman is an easy bet, of course.

Wow, better not keep my hopes so high.

@carlos82 @Kidfunkadelic83 @JGB
Astro Bot RM is too tightly integrated with the DualShock 4. That's definitely the reason why it is not in the launch lineup.

A port in the strict sense of the word would not be possible. Maybe a remake, reimagining or something along these lines. PSVR2 does not track the DualSense controller, so the game would need a major overhaul to support the PSVR Sense controllers.

I know that GT7 does support the DualSense, but it is not tracked as in Astro Bot. It just reads the buttons inputs. Rescue mission would not work within this limitation.

@eagletrippin The PlayStation Blog post does mention they'll take the opportunity to collect feedback from users for future updates and releases. Sounds like it will be back, probably more tightly integrated.

I'm personally very interested in trying it out. I tend to find that the regular AI lacks the "I", whereas Sport mode is hit n' miss as human players can be quite aggravating at times.

@TrickyDicky99 "it's the exact same game on PS5 as it is on PS4".

Well, the upcoming patch adds PSVR2 support and Sophy AI exclusively on the PS5.

This decidedly puts the Grand Canyon in between the PS5 and the PS4 versions, as if the gap wasn't already large enough.

@Serialsid Project Wingman looks good, mate. Somehow, it seems to have flown under my radar (see what I did there?). Thanks for the tip.

I hope that the inclusion of Ace Combat 7 is a sign of upcoming PSVR2 support from the franchise. Wishful thinking, maybe. But a good thought, nonetheless.

Give me a full PSVR2 Ace Combat game and, in addition to GT7, I'm set for life.

Cancel culture at its finest.

And that is when they'll announce Ace Combat for PSVR2 and take my breath a-waaay...

One little question that just crossed my mind: is it possible to charge both Sense controllers at the same time without the accessory charging station?

@Godot25 All right, I didn't mean to pull that card, but you kinda forced my hand (see what I did there?):

Xbox has everything a gamer could ever want. Except for great games.

"Wait, but they're coming!" Heard that one before...

@Sil_Am Yes. If the rumors are true, the disc drive will be sold separately, thus opening up the possibility of a single $400 SKU.

@Godot25 Oh god, are you Microsoft PR? "Offering players choice". Yeah, right.

Look, Microsoft has every right to engage in fair market competition. What they don't have the right is to wield their mighty financial power to force the hand of competitors to push them out of business in the long term.

This is big tech 101, buddy. Textbook stuff. Is this your definition of choice? Breaking the legs of your competitors?

I know, I know... "Oh, c'mon! Sony will be fine!" Or will they? Could they really withstand years of losses by adopting a clearly unsustainable model?

Microsoft is so full of s***. They say they guarantee parity and availability on all platforms. Well, if the deal goes through, COD goes straight to Game Pass. Day and date releases. Now people are flocking to GP by the millions. Then Microsoft offer Sony to put COD on PS+. Which is the very last thing Sony wants, because they have a totally different business strategy. And now Microsoft have them right behind the eight ball.

@Northern_munkey I hear you.

I started gaming on PC in 1992 but, I soon as I started my professional life in 1999, I switched to consoles and never looked back.

I still own and maintain a PC for work, of course. But that's just what it is: work.

Nothing beats sitting on a comfortable couch in front of a massive TV, picking up the DualSense, pressing the power button and just stretching my legs with nothing to worry about except for what game I should play.

Oh wait, there is one thing that beats it: putting on a PSVR2 headset.

@claytortot213 Yes, it's hard to believe, but it's not impossible. In this case, the PS5 is not outperforming the 3090ti. It's performing a PC with that GPU running a VR game. There's a lot of variables there.

Consoles are dedicated gaming machines with a closed ecosystem. That can really translate to some performance miracles.

We don't know, for example, if PSVR2 has some form of dedicated chip that handles inside-out tracking and passes only the coordinates to the console. That, by itself, could reduce a lot of CPU overhead. But we do know that PSVR2 employs foveated rendering to reduce GPU overhead by about 30%.

This all adds up. That's the magic of consoles.

"Don't underestimate the power of PlayStation!"

@Dobbos I'm pretty sure it's cockpit view only. Which makes perfect sense, if you ask me.

@GamingFan4Lyf Phill?.. Is that you?

@Would_you_kindly Oh, I get it. You're one of the 5 guys. I suggest you follow the other 5 million who bought the original PSVR and just move on. It's been 6 years. That's how tech works, like or not.

@Would_you_kindly Oh, I just realized that what you're actually suggesting is way more absurd than what I had previously understood.

So, Sony should allocate resources to cater for the 5 people who would want to plug the original PSVR on the PS5 to play GT7. Right..

@GamingFan4Lyf The $69 billion check they offered Activision is a clear sign that not only they do care, but are pretty desperate.

@Would_you_kindly Sure they could. Just look at the VR support in GT Sport. Oh wait.. lazy developers, right?

@thefourfoldroot1 You can also create a second profile on your PS5. That's what I did, and it works flawlessly.

@shafedog247 That's how it goes with Sony these days, and you know what? It's working. PS5 is killin'. A recommendation from your favorite digital influencer is a much stronger push than whatever stunt the marketing department can pull.

Now, this is exponentially truer with VR. This thing sells on word of mouth, because no State of Play would ever make it justice. For people to be sold on the tech, VR needs to be experienced. So, it's youtubers + store kiosks after launch I'd guess. And IGN, GT Planet and so on, of course. I guess the main target market is well covered.

It's actually pretty smart, when you come to think about it.

I do believe that this acquisition is a threat not only to Sony, but to the games industry at large. To be honest though, if you take a wider perspective and consider the entertainment industry as a whole, the lady kinda has a point.

In fact, I was just thinking that the TLOU TV show exposes how far ahead of Microsoft Sony truly is. This intermedia exploration of IPs has been poorly done with very few exceptions until now. And TLOU might not be another one of those exceptions. Sony is indeed exceptionally well positioned to do this in a way that few others can.

Twisted Metal, GOW, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima and other movies and TV shows are already in the oven. The mobile gaming initiative is also underway. If done rightly, all this combined could actually turn Sony into a mainstream entertainment monster.

I've just rewatched Top Gun: Maverick this weekend and, man... 1) What a f'in movie and 2) is it much to ask for a PSVR2 port of Ace Combat 7? I'd take only the VR missions, but it'd surely be something else to play the full game. And/or the next instalment, of course. The hardware capability is finally there. Just lacking the install base now, I guess.

This should be obvious to anyone paying attention.

Most of the performance gains from generation to generation comes from die size shrinks. Now, the cadence has been getting slower every gen, but that has seemingly reached major roadblocks over the last few years. So, as node reductions become harder because of physical limits, they also become significantly more expensive.

All that is to say that Sony will face immense challenges in making significantly faster consoles. A PS5 Pro would offer very modest gains if it were to come out in 2023/24 and cost less than $600.

Add to that the fact that game development cycles can now easily take 5 or 6 years, and I wouldn't be surprised if the next PlayStation console to offer any performance gain over PS5 would only come out in 2028.

@InternetUser By the way, good read:
https://uploadvr.com/why-psvr2-wont-work-on-pc/

@InternetUser There are good and bad opinions, and they're usually separated by the amount and quality of the arguments.

Anyway, time will be the judge of that. You can wish as much as you want, but official PC support for PSVR2 is not coming.

@InternetUser Well, considering the only evidence you provided is that "you're sure", I guess you must be right.

@InternetUser Did you even read my message? Anyway, I'll repeat myself.

It's par for the course to have a zero margin or lose some money on new hardware when it comes to the console space. Again, these devices are a means to an end. This fact is widely known. In fact, Quest 2 and Pico 4 themselves are known to be heavily subsidized, but for slightly different reasons as Meta and ByteDance are in a different position, trying to build a new ecosystem.

Now, the price comparison is the smoking gun, here. You say "wired, not standalone, no audio, no AR". Well, what headset is wireless, standalone and has built-in audio plus acceptable AR? The Quest Pro, which costs $1.500.

Now, the Quest 2 doesn't have an OLED panel nor eye-tracking, which are known to be very expensive components. And costs $400. Sure, it has onboard processing and wi-fi but again, heavily subsidized.

@InternetUser PC compatibility might be a missed opportunity for you, but surely not for Sony lol.

You're probably trolling at this point, but I'll entertain you. Let's do some quick math: it's pretty safe to assume that Sony are losing money on each headset sold. Just look at the prices of comparable PC VR devices. Also, this is common practice with hardware launches in the console space, as the manufacturers make their money back through game sales and subscriptions.

Now, why the heck would Sony dump a bunch of money into developing PC support? Which, frankly, is a gargantuan task compared to supporting a closed ecosystem like the PS5. To lose some more money in each headset sold? Where is the incentive, as they would make zero dollars from PC games sales and subscriptions?

Wow, this piece of news alone will carry a lot of PSVR2's weight over the launch window. I'm glad Sony is fully aware of that. I'm beyond excited.

One thing that would be super cool would be to adapt the garage so that one could walk around the vehicles or simply sit in the driver's seat to look around.

And to those who are on the fence because of discomfort, I'd reiterate the option of using these wristbands that are somehow effective at fighting nausea through vibration.

I remember when this random dude broke the world record on time spent in VR. And he did it with the aid of this Relief Band thing.

"Solidaires Informatique is also calling for an immediate 10% increase in workers' salaries to compensate for inflation and for the implementation of a 4-day working week to improve working conditions."

Lol, man! These unions... It's unproductive to discuss who is to be blamed. It's everyone's fault. Now, the responsibility is always on the management. The higher the position, the higher the responsibility.

But to demand that sort of thing in the exact moment where the short-term solution is clearly to cut jobs, is ironic to say the least.

@blackndark A rising tide lifts all boats. If Apple's device is successful, it could raise awareness of VR thus benefiting the entire industry.

Now, if Apple does get into hardcore games, it could pose some danger to Sony. But I doubt they will, at least in the short to mid-term. Apple has never shown much interest in gaming outside of mobile. And to be fair, this latter segment is by far the biggest.

Apple knows that the AAA games industry is a wild beast. Google failed spectacularly, Amazon is not here nor there and even Microsoft is still finding its foot after a couple decades despite the massive investment.

@Discol76 I know, I know.. Just wanted to highlight how big that announcement was for so many people. It might have been the most anticipated piece of news for me since.. honestly, I don't even know.

@Discol76 More? lol
Dude, that was all I wanted to hear. And I'm sure I'm not alone.
VR is perfect for driving games. I'm so glad I preordered this thing. Cannot wait.

35 XSX sold. A door-to-door salesman would have fared better.

One word (or is it two? Or three?): GT7.

PSVR2 feels like going back to the good old days of the Sega Genesis or the SNES. You know, a 2nd gen device that builds upon a great first attempt but, more importantly, feels fresh and exciting with lots of smaller and more experimental games. It salvages that lost feeling of wonder and awe that I miss.

Now, it wouldn't be a comment from me in a VR related article without the compulsory mention to GT7. C'mon, Sony. Announce it! We can almost taste it already.

@thefourfoldroot1 That's exactly right. VR is like the first time I ever saw a Master System game running or, years later, an original PlayStation title like Ridge Racer or Tekken.

It has become iterative evolution since then, which is fine. But VR brings back that forgotten sense of awe and wonder.