Grumblevolcano

@Deoxyr1bose I think part of it is just an unfortunate side effect of Sony's new approach of announcing games. If you look back at Naughty Dog in the PS4 era:

• Uncharted 4 - Announced in November 2013, released in May 2016
• TLoU Remastered - Announced in April 2014, released in July 2014
• Uncharted The Lost Legacy - Announced in December 2016, released in August 2017
• TLoU 2 - Announced in December 2016, released in June 2020

Considering that games take around 5 years to make nowadays, Naughty Dog's next new game is probably a 2025/2026 release. In this case, under the old announcement approach this game would've been officially announced around 2022 so TLoU Part 1 and TLoU 2 Remastered would've just been seen as small side projects.

With the new announcement approach, if Naughty Dog's next new game is releasing in 2025/2026 it would be announced in 2024 at the earliest resulting in what you see now about Naughty Dog being seen as a remaster/remake studio.

I definitely think announcing games closer to launch is for the best overall though that setup does work most effectively when you have a very packed 1st party lineup like how Nintendo averages around 12 1st party games a year (Sony's average is much smaller).

@Mintie @themightyant @thefourfoldroot1 I think it comes down to why you buy a system.

If you buy solely for exclusives because you'd rather play multiplatform games elsewhere, 1st party droughts are devastating even if the 3rd party lineup is strong. 3rd party exclusives are mostly timed when not using 1st party IP nowadays so you have the option to wait and it may end up on your platform of choice.

But if you really like the ecosystem such that you'll happily use it for 3rd party games, there's a very good chance that while 1st party droughts may be disappointing you'll easily find 3rd party games if there's a strong 3rd party lineup and probably have a backlog too which can fill in the gaps.

I don't remember who it was but someone in the Nintendo Life chat during the September Nintendo Direct said that SaGa Emerald Beyond looks like an AI game. I guess that was the first signs of this announcement then...

So that must mean The Last Hope - Dead Zone Survival is #1, despite being a Switch exclusive it got in to the rankings because it uses Sony's TLoU franchise

@CJD87 The top 10 so far:
3 - Resident Evil 4
4 - Alan Wake 2
5 - Final Fantasy XVI
6 - Street Fighter 6
7 - Lies of P
8 - Dead Space
9 - Star Wars Jedi Survivor
10 - Cocoon

@twitchtvpat It doesn't explain Infamous but regarding the other 2, all of Sony's shooter franchises disappeared when Sony got the CoD marketing and timed exclusivity deal in 2015.

It would be fantastic and very wise for Sony to delve into their gold mine of games for systems that released prior to the PS4. That said, I doubt it will happen given so far Demon's Souls is the only PS Studios game that has been remastered/remade for PS5 that wasn't already playable on PS5 via backwards compatibility.

Those rumours from 2022 about a Horizon Zero Dawn remake feel a lot more likely to be real than this.

I think it's a combination of PSVR2 entry price (at normal price PS5 + PSVR2 is just over £1000), no 1st party games post-launch and the decision for the game to go live service.

A strong 1st party lineup showcases to players that the platform won't be abandoned and so it's safe to buy without regrets.

@InsaneWade I appreciate when sites are cautious of spoilers even with old games. I played FFVII for the first time last year and while it was still a very good game, I got spoiled on some of the major plot points because Sephiroth came to Smash Ultimate which took away from the experience.

@GamingFan4Lyf This licensing mess may be something do with the upcoming Warner Discovery/Paramount merger.

It's impressive that it only took 1 extra week for PS5 to reach this goal compared to PS4 considering the stock shortages earlier in the PS5's lifespan and that the PS4 Pro released in 2016 so some PS4 owners will have upgraded for more power.

@get2sammyb @PlayStationGamer3919 @themightyant At least Sony's timing is predictable enough that you pretty much know when you'll get info:

• State of Play in February/March
• State of Play or Showcase in May/June
• State of Play or Showcase in September
• Some presence at Summer Game Fest (June) and Game Awards (December)

My main hope is that PS5 Pro isn't just "yet another hardware announcement" but rather is announced as part of or shortly after a very strong Playstation Showcase.

The right choice given they were given only those 2 options but the big mistakes were forcing Factions 2 to be live service and getting Bungie involved.

Look at Nintendo, they're still making multiplayer focused games that have the kind of post-launch support you'd see from the PS3/360 era rather than going live service and that's going extremely well for them.

Now there's this awkward situation where the only way to play Factions on PS5 is the PS4 remaster because the PS5 version only has the single player.

Interesting seeing Mega Man 1-11 here, given Capcom has used PS+ Extra/Premium to help prepare people for new entries in franchises (e.g. last month had Dragon's Dogma and Dragon's Dogma 2 releases in March) maybe Mega Man 12 exists and gets announced in the next Nintendo Direct?

The only way I see it coming to PS is if Microsoft kills off Xbox or if Sony allows Game Pass on PS. The absence of platforms is likely about the release timing and it comes out Holiday 2028 at the earliest where it would be next gen Xbox if Xbox still exists at that point.

Look at Metroid Prime 4 for example, Nintendo announced that game for Switch in June 2017 and Switch 2 is seemingly fast approaching. If Nintendo made Metroid Prime 4 a Switch 2 exclusive there would be gigantic backlash because it was already announced for the current Switch. It's the same reason they didn't cancel BotW Wii U.

@Ainu20 I think Sony "taking control of the generation" would be an outcome where Microsoft having all the CoD marketing (all those PS5 CoD ads will be Series X|S CoD ads instead from sometime next year) and the franchise being all on Game Pass (including future games being day 1) doesn't shift interest towards Series X|S because people just end up buying the games on PS5 instead.

@ChrisDeku I think it comes down to which metric is used, when comparing PS5 2020 - 2023 to PS4 2013 - 2016:

• PS5 had more big games than PS4
• PS4 had more games than PS5
• PSVR had more games than PSVR2 (the latter has been a complete afterthought to Sony)

I think Genshin will win again because it's the only game offering free rewards for winning. If Honkai was also in the top 5, I could've seen the 2 gacha games split the vote resulting in BG3 winning.

Glad that it's a standalone trailer rather than at the Game Awards because it means there's a higher chance of Sony and Nintendo announcing 1st party stuff at the Game Awards.

It definitely felt like the Bungie acquisition was a panic move at the time given Microsoft's acquisition spree. The whole dilemma of "What happens if Microsoft's acquisition spree results in CoD/FIFA (EA Sports FC)/Fortnite/GTA being taken away?" will have put Sony in a difficult spot.

I do feel acquiring Bungie and putting them in charge of live service backfired but I feel the entire live service push backfired.

Their logic was probably that Mario Odyssey and Sonic Forces released very close together with Sonic Forces still selling well so they felt they could do the same with 2D Sonic.

Superstars could've done with a delay given the Switch version is unstable at times (mostly later on in the game), for example there's repeated stuttering during the final boss.

It would be cool if PS+ would have a month where there were no live service games. Lego 2K Drive is pretty much "Microtransactions: The Game".

I think the Switch 2 may factor somewhere into all this (the delayed Level-5 games are also coming to Switch). Releasing early on in the Switch 2's lifespan may give it an interest boost.

Kind of surprised it's just a free update for that 1 outfit rather than part of a bigger plan to have a PS5/Series X|S version.

If the strategy is more like Nintendo where the expansion's purpose is to get people buying consoles, it's fine. People check out stuff like the Mario movie, the mobile games and the theme park which convinces them to buy a Switch + MK8 Deluxe + SMB Wonder.

But that's not the impression I get from Jim Ryan. Rather an approach where it doesn't matter if people buy a console or not, just that they're spending money on Sony content. If mobile profits grow they'll focus more on mobile, if live service profits grow they'll focus more on live service, etc.

My prediction for the 5 finalists in a normal setup will be something like:

• BG3
• Alan Wake 2
• TotK or SMB Wonder
• Spider-Man 2 or FFXVI
• Hi-Fi Rush or RE4

But if there's rigging like last year I think the 5 finalists will include Genshin/Honkai, Hogwarts and Starfield. Geoff should really have banned Hogwarts from being a nominee.

@Jayslow I'd guess it's to do with the value of currency fluctuating (not talking about ingame currency but real currency like pounds, euros and dollars). You can gift stuff on Xbox but the redemption is region locked to an extreme extent (e.g. EU player can't redeem a game gifted from a UK player).

The more of an ad infected mess Xbox is, the more likely other publishers will join in with intrusive ads on console because Microsoft made it "acceptable". Rockstar or WB will probably be next.

I think it's a mixture of both to be honest. Sony did an amazing job in getting people hyped about the future of PS in 2020 and then the games did the talking. Communication has been absolutely atrocious for 2022 and 2023 but at the least the lineup was there and the price drops for the original PS5 disc model worked well.

But Microsoft's mistakes also helped PS, for example:

• The July 2020 Xbox Showcase was a complete trainwreck
• While 2021 gave some hope for the future, that hope was dashed when Halo Infinite turned out to be a disaster
• 2022 was probably the worst Xbox lineup in franchise history
• 2023's heavy hitters turned out average at best, trainwreck at worst

Though as games generally take around 5 years to make and Jim Ryan became head of SIE in February 2019, the true beginning of the Jim Ryan era starts in 2024 which is ominous.

@BorntobeGeek75 Sony usually announces stuff at the Game Awards which is only 15 days away. Though given all signs are pointing towards GTA6 being at the event, I feel Sony doing their own event away from the GTA6 reveal would have the bigger impact.

@UltimateOtaku91 Given the way gaming has been recently, I think if GTA6 doesn't reach Take Two's expectations that either Rockstar will be sold off or Take Two as a whole will be acquired.

Seems to be what happens nowadays. A company with huge IP has bigger companies watching to acquire them and those bigger companies pounce at the moment expectations aren't reached.

@nomither6 I could see Rockstar stop doing Red Dead so GTA can have a slightly shorter gap between entries. Currently we're looking at:

• 2013 - GTAV
• 2018 - RDR2
• (probably) 2024 - GTA6

So the next 2 games after GTA6 would probably be somewhere around 2031 and 2038.

@Rob_230 I think the main reason Sony is criticised the most is that the vast majority of their PS5 remasters are of PS4 games which are already playable on the system via backwards compatibility. If they delved into their goldmine of pre-PS4 games, people would be much more happy.

While the Switch got a lot of Wii U ports (which was needed anyway given no backwards compatibility), it also got plenty of ports/remasters/remakes of games from older platforms. Look how excited people were when TTYD got announced in September for example.

Looks like we've found Game Awards 2024's GotY winner and 2024 hasn't even begun yet

Given how during the entirety of the Game Awards there has only been 1 GotY winner that released in the 2nd half of the year (Dragon Age Inquisition in 2014, the first event), I think TotK will win as the only 1st half of the year releases nominated this time are TotK and RE4.

PC is the only reason this exists. Releasing on PC but not PS5 would cause backlash as shown by HZD and GoW 2018 PC ports getting features that PS5 would support but didn't get because no native PS5 version. In addition, releasing on PC makes PS4's "Only on Playstation" branding false marketing.

Makes sense, get DG2 released before Switch 2 is announced so that they can talk about the next MH being for Switch 2/PC/PS5/Series X|S.

This'll probably be a Game Awards announcement then as Game Awards 2020 was essentially TLoU 2 Awards.

This is going to be a trainwreck just like Suicide Squad. I really hope Jim Ryan's replacement stopped this nonsense with Playstation Studios before it was too late (sadly we know Bungie already ruined Naughty Dog but the state of most of the rest of the studios are unknown).

So is this a comparison between PS4/XB1 November 2013 - October 2016 and PS5/Series X|S November 2020 - October 2023?

If so, the Xbox situation makes a lot of sense. While MCC was buggy for awhile and Halo 5's campaign was bad, Xbox still had a much stronger lineup in the early XB1 era than the early Series X|S era and in June 2014 they added the no Kinect bundles.

@somnambulance I think Sony has the marketing for this game given the State of Play in February so probably PS+ Extra/Premium getting this game rather than Game Pass.

Interesting about Dragon's Dogma timing. Capcom added RE7 to PS+ Extra/Premium 1 month before RE4 remake released so it does seem to suggest we'll see Dragon's Dogma 2 with a Q1 2024 release.

My guess would be February given that the Apollo Justice trilogy releases in January.

It's really odd that nothing else has been announced for PS+ Extra/Premium this month. Is Jim Ryan's replacement perhaps going to do a major shakeup of the tiers?

I hope Sony announces something. In these current times when all we're hearing is bad news from Sony, it would be nice to see good news for a change.

Hyping up length as a major selling point doesn't usually end well.

I think what Sony needs is to create their own version of Miiverse.

Larian posted this on twitter: "Xbox fans, and fans of physical media, watch this space for a formal announcement. It's going to be a busy week 👀"

https://twitter.com/larianstudios/status/1724125970968248732

Looks like Baldur's Gate 3 is likely getting a physical version.

The drop (and that the past few days will have been boosted by PS5 hardware bundles that won't return because it was tied to the old PS5 model) makes it seem like next week could have a different #1 spot. There are 2 main candidates that could take the spot (Super Mario RPG as it releases on Friday and HL as it releases on Switch tomorrow).

I'm really hoping it's Super Mario RPG that gets #1 and not HL.

@Craigybear91 I think the lack of a promo cycle is because of Spider-Man 2. By being silent on Wolverine until a certain time period after Spider-Man 2's launch, Spider-Man 2's sales increase.

So like the Game Awards or a PS event in November/early December would be a good place to showcase Wolverine. Then Sony would do their end of year blog post saying about how PS5 owners have lots to look forward to in 2024 like FFVII Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, Death Stranding 2 and Wolverine.

Fall/Holiday 2024 sounds about right given the announcement timing. Sony announced both Spider-Man 2 for 2023 and Wolverine for TBA in the September 2021 Playstation Showcase. Given the PS5 era has generally been smaller gaps between announcement and release, 2024 seemed most likely.