I know this is a PlayStation site and all that, but I’m so happy to see Pikmin 4 be in the top 10 for a month. It’s always been my favorite Nintendo series, and waiting almost a decade for a new entry for it to become the biggest hit in the series is cathartic.
Nickelodeon All Star Brawl was a good game, I’ll always stand by that. It’s such a shame that everyone just seems to have written off any interest in a sequel. It’s undoubtedly gonna launch with voice acting and items (since they were added post launch), and it’s likely to have crossplay since they were working on it for the original. Give it more quality offline content and then I don’t see why this can’t be an absolute winner.
Man I can’t express how much I miss Fall Guy’s pre-Epic monetization. Crowns are now worthless, kudos even moreso, and you now need to buy a battle pass that locks you into grinding for 100 levels to get the cool crossover skins. I know player count and content pipeline was struggling under Devolver, but I would much rather support them than Epic.
Monopolization of an industry just to fuel a content machine is disgusting. Both for Sony and Microsoft, considering how Sony and especially Microsoft aren’t just gaming companies and get the revenue for these acquisitions from other business sources.
But man there’s a lot of things about this event that I don’t like. League of Legends is essentially getting 2 performances with both it and Arcane, it’s essentially acting as advertisement for Starfield, FF16, and now Spider-Man 2, a lot of important gaming franchises with impactful music weren’t included, and a lot of the performances are celebrating non gaming IPs, and they’re even doing their constant celebrity worship with Jack Black performing. This event could be really cool, but Geoff just refuses to celebrate gaming for some reason.
My biggest concern with this is the content. Sonic Mania was phenomenal and $25. That game had 13 levels, and if this game is the full $60 then I expect 20 unique levels at least.
Happy that all three are (barring any unexpected FF16 disasters) amazing. All the devs and fans should be proud and satisfied.
However I can’t in good faith support anything put out by Activision and especially Blizzard. I won’t judge anyone who does buy it but it’s wild how all of their garbage practices and abuses got swept under the rug.
I’ve only seen 1 review so far that wasn’t a 9 or a 10
This was by far my most anticipated game of the year and—while I never doubted that it’d be phenomenal with how much pre release stuff there was—I’m so happy it stuck the landing. Really hope it’s in consideration for GOTY awards and people don’t just write it off as another fighting game.
One of the most significant characters in the series coming out and the netcode/lobby fix in the same day is the ultimate buzzer beater before Street Fighter 6.
Sony please spend like $40 more dollars adding neat and quirky FFXVI imagery to the console itself I swear I’ll spend another $500+ on another ps5 in that case
ArcSys really needs to work out their network issues before SF6, if not it will be really hard to rebuild momentum. Strive will still be successful, but it wouldn’t nearly be as dominant as it was in 2021 and GBVS:R is up in the air after the swift death of GBVS.
The big thing I noted about this is that this makes it feel less likely for Sega to be one of the major 3rd party publishers that could be acquired. I know they along with Square and Capcom have been the Japanese publishers most rumored to be bought out, so this puts to rest at least one concern of mine of like Sony or MSoft or Nintendo buying another big publisher.
If the reports of the delay not removing the live service elements are accurate, then this seems all for nothing. Yeah they’ll probably address some gameplay critiques, but the fundamental issues will still be there. Not to mention February is traditionally a hefty month for video game releases, and that a delay this long will only lead to people growing tired of its discussion—limiting word of mouth. Developers should always feel free to delay games, but they need to be wise with how they use the extra time.
@Shstrick I mean although audiences wouldn’t really overlap, media traction is very important. IGN or Gamespot or general media will very likely be swarmed in positive Zelda news around the time, drowning out other games (same reason why imo Redfall should be delayed)
Knowing the current state of Warner Brothers and their habits after the Discovery merger, I genuinely believe that there’s a decent chance that this game gets cancelled. If a major movie that was finished and people were looking forward to can be a tax write off, then so can a major video game that has widespread criticism.
Square is so weird man. They love cannibalizing their RPGs by giving them extremely close release dates (the PS4 versions of this and Live A Live come out essentially a week apart like how last year Valkyrie Elysium, Diofield Chronicles, and Star Ocean all released very close to each other) with little marketing, but would gladly sink hundreds of millions into games like The Avengers or Forspoken. They have actually good games unlike what some people believe, they just always have caveats with their releases.
If I had a nickel for every time The Game Awards had a celebrity announce game staring celebrities that would come out and be critically panned, I’d have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice
Literally the moment up until the game’s death they’re still doing the same issue that plagued almost the entire game. Almost every superhero they’ve added is derivative of another (Kate Bishop & Hawkeye, Thor and Mighty Thor, Black Widow/Captain America & Winter Soldier, and now Iron Man & War Machine) either in terms of franchise, gameplay, or both.
This is a really risky entry. One of the most hated gaming developers partnering with one of the most polarizing horror devs, all in an effort to remake one of the best horror games of all time. This could either completely reinvigorate Konami, Bloober Team, and Silent Hill, or do the opposite.
I mean this felt really obvious. No way that Starfield and Redfall wouldn’t have come to the leading console before the buyout unless there was a deal between them and MS. I don’t particularly have a problem with this, but I do have an issue with MS buying an even bigger publisher and potentially doing these stunts again.
The most impressive part—imo—is how it’s maintaining its number 1 spot at full $70 price. I’m personally waiting for an inevitable sale cuz it doesn’t inherently seem like my type of game, but good for the devs nevertheless.
No matter how well I think other publishers would fit or would benefit from managerial restructuring, I’m inherently against industry consolidation (I kid you not the Activision acquisition genuinely made my decision that I wanted a PS5 over an XSX cuz how much I hate it on principle). I know this is idealist and unrealistic in a post Bethesda acquisition world, but I would really prefer if they bought developers they frequently partner least—or at the very most small publishers that wouldn’t heavily affect the industry (like ArcSys)
Not to light a fuse for a console war, but god that limited embargo for Wo Long’s announcement where the PlayStation version wasn’t announced for 3 days made no sense for Microsoft in retrospect. I know that the majority of Xbox sales are digital and not in the UK so this isn’t really truly accurate, but this was a day 1 Gamepass game, it was never gonna sell tremendously in Xbox and no marketing would’ve been stronger for GP users than it being a day one release. Regardless of if they’re good for the industry or players or not, a lot of console manufacturer practices make sense. That was just extra money burned for no reason.
After 2021-2022, it was evident that Square Enix needed a shake up. Under him came out a lot of good games, but there definitely were evident management issues that really came to ahead these past 2 years. Hopefully the new president course corrects (less live services, less NFT promises, better development and reveal cycles, etc.)
The models look very distinctly FF, but the environments reminded me of Demon’s Souls Remake. Couple that with the harder leaning into fantasy art and iconography, this blending of fidelity and direction and styles has looked largely fantastic.
I get taking all the needed time, but this was announced in 2019 and we barely have anything on it. Developers need to stop announcing things so early.
>Multiversus winning over KOFXV when Multiversus’ future is at stake, has incredibly poor progression, has had almost no significant updates in 4 months, has meh gameplay for a platform fighter, and has lost a ton of players.
I kinda expect this year to be light on first party releases. A lot of their studios have released major titles from 2020-2022, so it’s natural that there’s at least one down year. I only really expect Spider-Man 2, TLOU multiplayer, and one smaller title. It makes sense as to why they want to highlight 3rd parties. Even if they aren’t first party or exclusive, there’s a lot of upcoming games that fit the Sony demographic that can fill in the gaps.
@Friendly The only games to previously use PC that’s in this lineup is Tekken 7, and that was during EVO Online with how notoriously bad the console online is for Tekken. PC is just way harder to use for tournaments due to how fickle they are.
@Friendly On the Evo website since the Sony buyout, it’s been started that any game is eligible regardless of platform. If you want the reason for why Smash isn’t present, look at Nintendo and their aggressive behavior to smash tournaments. Also Evo isn’t necessarily a monopoly. There’s CEO, Frosty Faustings, Combo Breaker, tons of other grass root tourneys, and individual game circuits like Capcom Cup with even greater prizes (2 mil pot)
-Top 6 instead top 8 getting mainstage recognition and payment is a bad decision imo
-Surprised it was Marvel 3 instead of 2, considering how Marvel 2 was gonna be in the 2020 lineup before covid
-No DNF Duel really is just a testament to how much that game flopped, a newly released FG from one of the most acclaimed FG devs not being a shoe in should be surprising, but DNF just wasn’t good
-SF6 might be the largest bracket Evo has seen. SFV, Strive and Smash were consistently at the top with console exclusivity—not to mention the gaming playerbase has grown dramatically since 2020.
The big issues is how Multiverse tried to appeal to a casual audience without having anything that really appealed to casuals. Content is extremely limited, with progression also being stagnant past the first couple of levels. There haven’t really been that many hype inducing characters added recently. There’s barely any offline modes. At least Nickelodeon knew that they would have an audience of competitive players.
This live from PS5 campaign of there’s is one of my favorites in a long while. Reminds me a lot of older games marketing, both where all these IPs would combine and how irl things would be set up. I don’t like praising marketing teams cuz at the end of the day their job is to make number go up, but props to them.
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Re: PS Plus Essential Games for September 2023 Announced
They were like
Actively trying to pick the worst selection possible
Re: Action RPG Granblue Fantasy: Relink Gets Six Minutes of Superb PS5 Gameplay
Dude if only this wasn’t launching one day before Persona 3 Reload. Will def pick up eventually though
Re: UK Sales Charts: PS5 Slingshots GTA 5 to Number Two
I know this is a PlayStation site and all that, but I’m so happy to see Pikmin 4 be in the top 10 for a month. It’s always been my favorite Nintendo series, and waiting almost a decade for a new entry for it to become the biggest hit in the series is cathartic.
Re: Embracer's Broken $2 Billion Verbal Agreement was Reportedly with Saudi-funded Savvy Games
Embracer saw Microsoft try to acquire Activision and tried to follow them in acquiring a morally corrupt company 💀
Re: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 Announced, New Characters Revealed in Debut Trailer
@LazyLombax Voice acting was one of the first things showed off in the trailer. It was added to the first game’s release as well.
Re: We Might Finally Be Getting a Granblue Fantasy: Relink Release Date
EVO’s coming up soon and I’m betting on us getting a Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising release date then. Maybe they might hit us with the double.
Re: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 May Be PS5, PS4's Worst Kept Secret
Nickelodeon All Star Brawl was a good game, I’ll always stand by that. It’s such a shame that everyone just seems to have written off any interest in a sequel. It’s undoubtedly gonna launch with voice acting and items (since they were added post launch), and it’s likely to have crossplay since they were working on it for the original. Give it more quality offline content and then I don’t see why this can’t be an absolute winner.
Re: Like Fortnite, Price of Fall Guys' Show-Bucks Set to Increase Because Inflation
Man I can’t express how much I miss Fall Guy’s pre-Epic monetization. Crowns are now worthless, kudos even moreso, and you now need to buy a battle pass that locks you into grinding for 100 levels to get the cool crossover skins. I know player count and content pipeline was struggling under Devolver, but I would much rather support them than Epic.
Re: Jujutsu Kaisen's Finally Getting a PS5, PS4 Game, But It's a 2v2 Arena Fighter
Someone take away literally every anime IP away from Namco except for Dragon Ball FighterZ
Re: SEGA and Bungie Were On Microsoft's Shopping List in 2020, Xbox Emails Show
Monopolization of an industry just to fuel a content machine is disgusting. Both for Sony and Microsoft, considering how Sony and especially Microsoft aren’t just gaming companies and get the revenue for these acquisitions from other business sources.
Re: Marvel's Spider-Man 2's Title Track Will Debut at The Game Awards Live Concert This Month
But man there’s a lot of things about this event that I don’t like. League of Legends is essentially getting 2 performances with both it and Arcane, it’s essentially acting as advertisement for Starfield, FF16, and now Spider-Man 2, a lot of important gaming franchises with impactful music weren’t included, and a lot of the performances are celebrating non gaming IPs, and they’re even doing their constant celebrity worship with Jack Black performing. This event could be really cool, but Geoff just refuses to celebrate gaming for some reason.
Re: Preview: Sonic Superstars Hands the Blue Blur a Hot Streak
My biggest concern with this is the content. Sonic Mania was phenomenal and $25. That game had 13 levels, and if this game is the full $60 then I expect 20 unique levels at least.
Re: Poll: Which PS5 Blockbuster Will You Be Playing in June?
Happy that all three are (barring any unexpected FF16 disasters) amazing. All the devs and fans should be proud and satisfied.
However I can’t in good faith support anything put out by Activision and especially Blizzard. I won’t judge anyone who does buy it but it’s wild how all of their garbage practices and abuses got swept under the rug.
Re: Street Fighter 6 (PS5) - Iconic Capcom Fighting Franchise Finds Its Form
I’ve only seen 1 review so far that wasn’t a 9 or a 10
This was by far my most anticipated game of the year and—while I never doubted that it’d be phenomenal with how much pre release stuff there was—I’m so happy it stuck the landing. Really hope it’s in consideration for GOTY awards and people don’t just write it off as another fighting game.
Re: Guilty Gear Strive Confirms Season Pass 3 as Asuka Arrives Next Week
One of the most significant characters in the series coming out and the netcode/lobby fix in the same day is the ultimate buzzer beater before Street Fighter 6.
Re: Official Final Fantasy 16 PS5 Console Bundle Revealed
Sony please spend like $40 more dollars adding neat and quirky FFXVI imagery to the console itself I swear I’ll spend another $500+ on another ps5 in that case
Re: Wild Hearts, Wo Long Were 'Successful', but Koei Tecmo Sidesteps Sales Numbers
Loved the demo to Wo Long, but holding out on buying it. It’s on GP so it’s inevitably gonna go on sale.
Re: Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising's May Beta Tests Delayed Due to Network Issues
ArcSys really needs to work out their network issues before SF6, if not it will be really hard to rebuild momentum. Strive will still be successful, but it wouldn’t nearly be as dominant as it was in 2021 and GBVS:R is up in the air after the swift death of GBVS.
Re: SEGA Poised to Purchase Angry Birds Maker for $1 Billion
The big thing I noted about this is that this makes it feel less likely for Sega to be one of the major 3rd party publishers that could be acquired. I know they along with Square and Capcom have been the Japanese publishers most rumored to be bought out, so this puts to rest at least one concern of mine of like Sony or MSoft or Nintendo buying another big publisher.
Re: Suicide Squad PS5 Game Delay Now Official, Out in February 2024
If the reports of the delay not removing the live service elements are accurate, then this seems all for nothing. Yeah they’ll probably address some gameplay critiques, but the fundamental issues will still be there. Not to mention February is traditionally a hefty month for video game releases, and that a delay this long will only lead to people growing tired of its discussion—limiting word of mouth. Developers should always feel free to delay games, but they need to be wise with how they use the extra time.
Re: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Delays Amnesia: The Bunker by One Week
@Shstrick I mean although audiences wouldn’t really overlap, media traction is very important. IGN or Gamespot or general media will very likely be swarmed in positive Zelda news around the time, drowning out other games (same reason why imo Redfall should be delayed)
Re: Diablo 4's Seasonal Battle Passes Will Take 'Roughly 80 Hours' to Work Through
Its insane that the least appealing video game company ever thinks it’s a good idea to do one of the least appealing video game tactics ever
Re: Still No Official Suicide Squad Delay as Game Fast Approaches Late May Release Date
Knowing the current state of Warner Brothers and their habits after the Discovery merger, I genuinely believe that there’s a decent chance that this game gets cancelled. If a major movie that was finished and people were looking forward to can be a tax write off, then so can a major video game that has widespread criticism.
Re: Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Brings 1 Through 6 to PS4 on 19th April
Square is so weird man. They love cannibalizing their RPGs by giving them extremely close release dates (the PS4 versions of this and Live A Live come out essentially a week apart like how last year Valkyrie Elysium, Diofield Chronicles, and Star Ocean all released very close to each other) with little marketing, but would gladly sink hundreds of millions into games like The Avengers or Forspoken. They have actually good games unlike what some people believe, they just always have caveats with their releases.
Re: MultiVersus Has Now Been Removed from PS5, PS4 Stores
@nomither6 a trial WarnerBrothers wanted people to spend $99.99 on
Re: Upcoming PS5 Shooter Crime Boss: Rockay City Opens to a 55 Metacritic Rating
If I had a nickel for every time The Game Awards had a celebrity announce game staring celebrities that would come out and be critically panned, I’d have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice
Re: Marvel's Avengers Will Add War Machine for Free on PS5, PS4 Before Waving Farewell
Literally the moment up until the game’s death they’re still doing the same issue that plagued almost the entire game. Almost every superhero they’ve added is derivative of another (Kate Bishop & Hawkeye, Thor and Mighty Thor, Black Widow/Captain America & Winter Soldier, and now Iron Man & War Machine) either in terms of franchise, gameplay, or both.
Re: Elden Ring Update 1.09 Adds Ray Tracing on PS5, Here Are All the Patch Notes
Ain’t no way this is maintains 30fps with ray tracing
Re: Silent Hill 2's PS5 Remake Is Close to Completion
This is a really risky entry. One of the most hated gaming developers partnering with one of the most polarizing horror devs, all in an effort to remake one of the best horror games of all time. This could either completely reinvigorate Konami, Bloober Team, and Silent Hill, or do the opposite.
Re: Vampire FPS Redfall Was in Development for PS5, But Was Canned After Xbox Buyout
@JayJ The difference is Sony usually buys singular studios, while MS has now bought two of the biggest gaming publishers.
Re: Vampire FPS Redfall Was in Development for PS5, But Was Canned After Xbox Buyout
I mean this felt really obvious. No way that Starfield and Redfall wouldn’t have come to the leading console before the buyout unless there was a deal between them and MS. I don’t particularly have a problem with this, but I do have an issue with MS buying an even bigger publisher and potentially doing these stunts again.
Re: UK Sales Charts: WWE 2K23 Lays the Smack Down on Hogwarts Legacy
Unrelated to PlayStation, but Bayonetta Origins didn’t even make top 10. This is the first time a Nintendo exclusive haven’t done so in a hot minute.
Re: Kart Racer Disney Speedstorm Drifts into Early Access on PS5, PS4 Next Month
Early access costing money while the base game is F2P is insane to me
Re: UK Sales Charts: Hogwarts Legacy Immovable While Wo Long Falls 25 Places
The most impressive part—imo—is how it’s maintaining its number 1 spot at full $70 price. I’m personally waiting for an inevitable sale cuz it doesn’t inherently seem like my type of game, but good for the devs nevertheless.
Re: Sony Has Approximately $5 Billion Left for Acquisitions and Investments
No matter how well I think other publishers would fit or would benefit from managerial restructuring, I’m inherently against industry consolidation (I kid you not the Activision acquisition genuinely made my decision that I wanted a PS5 over an XSX cuz how much I hate it on principle). I know this is idealist and unrealistic in a post Bethesda acquisition world, but I would really prefer if they bought developers they frequently partner least—or at the very most small publishers that wouldn’t heavily affect the industry (like ArcSys)
Re: UK Sales Charts: Hogwarts Legacy Takes Fourth Number One, Still Selling Best on PS5
Not to light a fuse for a console war, but god that limited embargo for Wo Long’s announcement where the PlayStation version wasn’t announced for 3 days made no sense for Microsoft in retrospect. I know that the majority of Xbox sales are digital and not in the UK so this isn’t really truly accurate, but this was a day 1 Gamepass game, it was never gonna sell tremendously in Xbox and no marketing would’ve been stronger for GP users than it being a day one release. Regardless of if they’re good for the industry or players or not, a lot of console manufacturer practices make sense. That was just extra money burned for no reason.
Re: Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda Set to Step Down This Summer
After 2021-2022, it was evident that Square Enix needed a shake up. Under him came out a lot of good games, but there definitely were evident management issues that really came to ahead these past 2 years. Hopefully the new president course corrects (less live services, less NFT promises, better development and reveal cycles, etc.)
Re: Yes, Sony Helped Optimise Final Fantasy 16 for PS5
The models look very distinctly FF, but the environments reminded me of Demon’s Souls Remake. Couple that with the harder leaning into fantasy art and iconography, this blending of fidelity and direction and styles has looked largely fantastic.
Re: The Wolf Among Us 2 Delayed, Won't Release in 2023
I get taking all the needed time, but this was announced in 2019 and we barely have anything on it. Developers need to stop announcing things so early.
Re: Rumour: Shin Megami Tensei 5 to Be Announced for PS5, PS4 in May, But There's No Real Evidence
If it is in May, then that would be a 1 1/2 year exclusivity period for Switch, which I could see.
Re: Dragon Age: Origins Writer Thinks It's Time For 'PS5-Era Bells and Whistles' Remaster
Literally so many of the big games of this year a remakes. Can we just,
Have developers make new games of old series with newer engines instead of reselling us the same 360/PS2 era games.
I get it’s less work, but looking at the scale of modern remakes like Dead Space it’s clear that triple A effort is going into more and more remakes.
Re: God of War Ragnarok Cleans Up at DICE Awards, Elden Ring Takes Game of the Year
>Multiversus winning over KOFXV when Multiversus’ future is at stake, has incredibly poor progression, has had almost no significant updates in 4 months, has meh gameplay for a platform fighter, and has lost a ton of players.
Re: Rumour: Sony Saving PS5's Good Stuff for PS Showcase Prior to E3 2023
I kinda expect this year to be light on first party releases. A lot of their studios have released major titles from 2020-2022, so it’s natural that there’s at least one down year. I only really expect Spider-Man 2, TLOU multiplayer, and one smaller title. It makes sense as to why they want to highlight 3rd parties. Even if they aren’t first party or exclusive, there’s a lot of upcoming games that fit the Sony demographic that can fill in the gaps.
Re: Street Fighter 6 Leads Evo 2023 as Big Prize Pools and Format Changes are Confirmed
@nomither6 in fairness a platform fighter like Smash, Rivals, or even MVS would’ve made it more diverse
Re: Street Fighter 6 Leads Evo 2023 as Big Prize Pools and Format Changes are Confirmed
@Friendly The only games to previously use PC that’s in this lineup is Tekken 7, and that was during EVO Online with how notoriously bad the console online is for Tekken. PC is just way harder to use for tournaments due to how fickle they are.
Re: Street Fighter 6 Leads Evo 2023 as Big Prize Pools and Format Changes are Confirmed
@Friendly On the Evo website since the Sony buyout, it’s been started that any game is eligible regardless of platform. If you want the reason for why Smash isn’t present, look at Nintendo and their aggressive behavior to smash tournaments. Also Evo isn’t necessarily a monopoly. There’s CEO, Frosty Faustings, Combo Breaker, tons of other grass root tourneys, and individual game circuits like Capcom Cup with even greater prizes (2 mil pot)
Re: Street Fighter 6 Leads Evo 2023 as Big Prize Pools and Format Changes are Confirmed
-Top 6 instead top 8 getting mainstage recognition and payment is a bad decision imo
-Surprised it was Marvel 3 instead of 2, considering how Marvel 2 was gonna be in the 2020 lineup before covid
-No DNF Duel really is just a testament to how much that game flopped, a newly released FG from one of the most acclaimed FG devs not being a shoe in should be surprising, but DNF just wasn’t good
-SF6 might be the largest bracket Evo has seen. SFV, Strive and Smash were consistently at the top with console exclusivity—not to mention the gaming playerbase has grown dramatically since 2020.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Hogwarts Legacy Flying High with Second Week at Number One
Did Wild Hearts not chart?
Re: MultiVersus Daily Peak Player Count Down 99% Since Launch
Fighting game fan here
The big issues is how Multiverse tried to appeal to a casual audience without having anything that really appealed to casuals. Content is extremely limited, with progression also being stagnant past the first couple of levels. There haven’t really been that many hype inducing characters added recently. There’s barely any offline modes. At least Nickelodeon knew that they would have an audience of competitive players.
Re: Mammoth PS5 Marketing Prompts Horizon Forbidden West Pop-Up Café in Paris
This live from PS5 campaign of there’s is one of my favorites in a long while. Reminds me a lot of older games marketing, both where all these IPs would combine and how irl things would be set up. I don’t like praising marketing teams cuz at the end of the day their job is to make number go up, but props to them.