Bizzy

@Rob3008 Well said!

The irony being that Netflix subscribers say the same about the games available on Netflix too

@Rich33 You might be tempting fate

@themightyant Enjoy! Sounds like a perfect Sunday

@themightyant I just feel that we should not be excusing companies as large as Sony or ALPS or whoever the sticks are being sourced from their responsibility to provide quality products to their consumers as they promise in advertising.

Regardless of the stick manufacturer it reflects on Sony at the end of the day as they're the company with the badge on the front.

If these companies do not feel that is necessary to do that then they shouldn't expect people to get excited about their mid-gen refreshes or next gen systems.

It leaves a poor taste in the consumers mouth who have suffered from sub-par products and broken promises.

@themightyant As I stated yesterday, I agree that TMR or even Hall effect are the solution. I have Dreamcast controllers from 1999 that their sticks still work perfectly. They used Hall effect from factory.

However, I also have PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 that have also not suffered stick drift.

I suspect (in my opinion,) that the problem with the DualSense is that either ALPS or Sony decided to cost cut on the quality of the potentiometers.

(In my cynical opinion) They did this to increase sales of replacement controllers to those who are unwilling to attempt a repair. It's a fiddly job and some people do not have the skills or tools to attempt it themselves.

@themightyant You were talking about this yesterday in another story.

I want to go through a thought experiment with you.

1. Month 0 – Brand new controller: potentiometers and sensors are perfectly aligned, no drift. Dead zone at factory settings.
2. Month 3 – Microscopic wear on the potentiometer’s resistive track introduces tiny electrical noise.
3. Month 6 – Dust and mechanical fatigue cause inconsistent voltage readings, producing slight phantom inputs.
4. Month 12 – Significant wear and sensor degradation make the stick register movement even when untouched.

Dead zones only mask small deviations by ignoring inputs near the center. Once drift grows large enough, the phantom signal exceeds the dead zone threshold, so the controller still interprets it as intentional movement.

By having access to adjust the dead zone you are just delaying the inevitable misread as well as moving the mechanical wear out from the center. You would be continually, periodically making the dead zone larger and larger until the dead zone is the entire circumference of the analogue stick. Making the stick completely unresponsive.

@themightyant TMR is the way forward

@themightyant Strange, I have replaced and inspected mine and other's analogue sticks/potentiometers under my microscope and you can see clear removal of the graphite contact. Maybe you have experienced another point of failure which makes the quality of these controllers (and planned obsolescence) twice as bad.

I have repaired about 7 or 8 controllers now by replacing the potentiometers. Usually, the right stick and only one of the two potentiometers on that stick. So the problem I have come across so far has not been a software issue.

@Areus haha, why would they do that?! This is a cost cutting exercise.
If anything, they are using an even thinner layer of watered down graphite-based conductive ink.
It's all by design.

I have found this generation the least exciting. I have owned every PlayStation since 1995.
The DualSense controller is also the first I have owned to experience stick drift. PS1 and PS2 controllers/sticks are built better. I learned to solder though.

@lazymike Nice idea.
While appealing in concept, the reality is unlikely. Sony’s framework is structured to monetise classic titles repeatedly, requiring either overpriced repurchases or ongoing subscription fees to rent those games.

Where have I heard this all before?

@11001100110zero It's not replacing the PC. It's to go along side a PC. Under the TV. To play couch games and remote play. As well as a full desktop experience if you want.

@x3King84 init! It's rather childish to see.

@Flaming_Kaiser

You can use GoG easily on Steam Machine. Steam Machine is not tied to Steam. GoG is DRM free and you can download and keep your games forever. Even burn to a disc if you must.

A lot of people (on a PlayStation centric website) getting their knickers in a twist about something that isn't aimed at them. Who would of thunk it.
I don't know what you're all worried about.

@MrHabushi You're absolutely right
deleted my comment

Glad I never got PSVR2. It feels like it will enter rather large Sony Hall of Fame of abandoned products.

Call it what it is - an upsell disguised as a promotion.

"No word on price" but you can guarantee that it'll be overpriced.

@Boxmonkey You might be surprised—this is precisely why unions exist. They empower workers to hold companies accountable, including taking legal action when necessary, and ensure that employee rights are upheld. It's the kind of support that would be financially daunting for most individuals to pursue alone.

You mention the employees using 'UK employment law'. You can thank the unions for that! Trade unions played a pivotal role in shaping UK employment law from the Industrial Revolution through to today.

@trev666 That doesn't make any sense. The games catalogue on 'Extra' is a rolling one. They come and go. The games on essential you can keep for as long as your subscription is active.
If you like a game on extra and it gets removed, surely it's great when it arrives on essential?

@MajorityThomas lol

"Free content pack valued at £17.99 / $19.99."
Valued by whom, exactly? Sotheby's? The Antiques Roadshow? Dickinson's Real Deal? The Price Is Right audience? Or just the developer?
The developer could claim it's worth £1 million—but that doesn't make it true. I could argue it has no value at all.
Value is subjective. What holds worth to one person might be meaningless to another.
In this case, the "value" of the free content pack lies with the developer. It's bait—designed to lure players into trying the game and, ideally, into its microtransactional ecosystem.
It's like saying bait has value to the fish because it's a meal, rather than to the fisherman who set the trap.
What a bizarre article and advertisement.

I have two fat PS2 consoles and playing LAN games on them is a ton of fun. A huge catalogue of games. No install. No sign in. No monthly fee. No microtransactions or patches. It just works. We lost something along the way to PS5.

For me, by the time the PS2 came out the 2D Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter model was looking pretty tired and 3D fighters like Soul Calibur, DOA & Virtua Fighter did 3D fighters better. The popularity of MK in the 6th gen was far cry from the hype that surrounded the MK franchise during the SNES/MD era. I think I had probably completely lost interest in the series after MK3.
These games were always better with friends in the arcade and arcades were quickly dying off in the early 2000s.
So this line up looks pretty good for me. However, like most games these days, I never pay full price and never buy games on release. Those days are long gone. This will be no different. Will be fun for a tenner.

@Faultandfracture You're thinking of 2042. 2142 was great. I have great memories of Titan mode and the walkers.

When you want to view it on the PS Store but Push Square decides to link 'PS Store' not to the PS Store but their own website. "cool"

Thoughts and prayers to all the Dual Sense analog sticks soon not to be with us

Take me back to the 90's when the western world seemed full of hope and optimism for the future. The world today is unrecognisable. The outlook for the future is bleak. I feel sorry and sad for those born after the millennium.

@Veritas7Ax Yep, I love 3. I still play it on my PS2 regularly and it's probably the game I go back to on my PS2 most often. Other than Timesplitters series multiplayer over the LAN with my nephew and mates. That's a ton of fun!

Was on Premium for a couple of years but dropped down to essential. I buy physical now for future profit.

@themightyant That's great info! Thanks!

The trouble is there's precedent from the breach in the 2011 and the 2014 Sony Picture hack. It should be concerning to everyone that Sony management are being intentionally vague by claiming an 'operational issue'. It implies, at best, that Sony has not learned from previous breaches by informing their customers and, at worst, they are intentionally misleading their customers.

Keep an eye on your finances and change your passwords.

Reference from Wiki: "In December 2014, Sony requested that the media stop covering the hack. Sony also threatened legal action if the media did not comply. Sony threatened legal action against Twitter if it did not suspend accounts of people who posted the hacked material."

It would be a shame for Naughty dog to be brought in to consult on the game/service and cancel it.

Digital Foundry previews like the one shown in the video are an indispensable resource for people who play with their nose pressed up against the screen.

@Titntin Massively disagree, mate. You just have to look at the NES from the 80's and collectors who want complete collections. You do you though. We shall see in 20 years. I risk nothing buying physical. All digital risks everything.

Digital only from a company like Sony is an absurd proposition. That's a lot of people setting themselves up to losing access to their games in 20 years time. Sure, people will say "who cares about 20 years time" but nostalgia to times gone past is a powerful thing. Physical games will have value to collectors. Physical can be seen as an investment when digital cannot. Smart people buy physical. I am happy most buy digital as it increases the value of my physical collection in the long term. They'll be the ones begging me to sell later for silly money.

Can't help but feel the £700 price tag is an early adopters tax. The price will come down. It's only a matter of time. Until then, I will continue to play my launch day PS5 and play on PC. I am well covered to play any games I want to. My steam library is huge and there hasn't been a wealth of PS5 games coming out on PS5 that I actually want to play. If Sony's plan was to make me want to get a PS5 Pro on launch day; they have failed spectacularly.

3+4 would be good! I really enjoyed 1+2 and still regularly play 3 (which I think is my favourite of the series) on my PS2

@OldGamer999 That really depends. We don't know how much stock was available for the disc drive when Pro was announced. Many people already had a PS5 before the slim was released November last year. Sony wouldn't have supplied drives 1 for 1 of every console sold. There will be a large number of people who wouldn't have bought the drive for their slim console. Sticking to all digital (heretics!). While I agree there has been a surge of people who are pre-purchasing the drive for the Pro console. I do not think there was huge stocks of these drives sitting in a distributor's warehouse waiting for retailers to order them. Sony would have thought about scalability.

@Medic_alert It will be the developers. You can't force consumers to buy your product. Let's hope this house of cards all comes crashing down and the consumer can get back to some sort of normality.

@blah01 My ethernet network card connects instantly. Maybe a fault or maybe your router DHCP taking a while to assign ip address? I have a static address assigned to my PS5 on the router.

@DaniPooo Give it a try! You will surprise yourself!

@DaniPooo Yes you can... with Ray tracing

@Pranwell Oh, you'll def be able to pick one up at launch. You prob won't even have to pre-order lol These things are going to be stuck on shelves for a while and a price drop and incentives to buy one will come soon after.

@DaniPooo I remember people saying the same about PSVR2. You can certainly build a PC that can play games at PS5 quality for less than £700. A PC can do significantly more than a PS5 too. The games on steam are cheaper too. Mouse and keyboards do not get stick drift either.

@alex8329 I absolutely agree with you 100%. It's wrong on Sony's behalf!

@themightyant fair. How much is Sales tax? $200?