Grumblevolcano

@NomNom @LightningLeader I've just seen some sites like IGN reporting that Phil Spencer decided in November 2021 that all future Bethesda games are going to be Xbox exclusive.

@Tharsman It could be about the multiplatform goal.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/05/sega_wants_persona_dev_atlus_to_do_simultaneous_worldwide_launches

It almost sounds like the situation was: SEGA wanted Atlus games to be multiplatform, Nintendo wanted SMT to remain Nintendo exclusive, Sony wanted Persona to remain PS exclusive and then Microsoft came along with a load of money saying "you can develop on whatever platforms you want as long as it's day 1 on Game Pass."

But if that was the case Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor: ReFantazio would've be coming to Switch but they're not which suggests Microsoft created Nintendo exclusion deals for those 2 games.

So it looks more like SEGA are being acquired but they can't announce it yet because of Activision.

@NEStalgia The quote was:

“We are not going to go down the road of putting new release titles into a subscription model. These games cost many millions of dollars, well over $100 million, to develop. We just don't see that as sustainable.”

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/11/sony_on_ps5s_response_to_game_pass_there_is_news_to_come_but_not_today

The actual quote definitely fits what we see.

Seems this is very much the warning that Shawn Layden was talking about regarding AAA becoming unsustainable back in 2021.

@themightyant It feels like the only future outcomes are the extremes, that either:

1. Microsoft ends up being allowed to acquire everything using their "last place" excuse, kicking Sony and Nintendo out of gaming in the process to form the future where the only way to play games is via the cloud using a Game Pass subscription.

2. Microsoft gets blocked acquiring stuff resulting in Microsoft eventually giving up on the Xbox brand because it's not profitable. Cloud gaming is dead meanwhile Sony and Nintendo happily coexist in their traditional ways (consoles that play games natively) because hybrid gaming will always be a case of compromising power to enable portability of which Sony values power a lot more.

Out of those 2 options, option 2 is a lot more positive for gaming. Option 1 would be absolutely terrible for gaming.

Speaking of Starfield, the official Bethesda support twitter account revealed that the physical version of the game is just a code in a box.

@SplooshDmg That was my point with the thing holding up Nintendo getting it in the Xbox exclusion outcome being that the Switch isn't powerful enough to natively run it. The whole Kingdom Hearts situation showcased very clearly that Switch owners hate cloud gaming so creating a cloud version of FFVII Remake for Switch would just be a waste of resources.

@SplooshDmg There is only 1 way to truly find out if FFVII Remake was blocked from Xbox specifically. Namely, keep an eye out on the launch window lineup for the next Nintendo console whenever that happens. If FFVII Remake comes to that but still not Xbox, then Phil Spencer told the truth. If however it doesn't come to the next Nintendo console, then Phil Spencer lied.

Isn't this a contradiction? He said a while back that Elder Scrolls 6 would be PC/Xbox exclusive.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2021/11/phil-spencer-the-elder-scrolls-6s-xbox-exclusivity-isnt-about-punishing-playstation

@AdamNovice I got the impression of the split being a result of EA cutting ties with FIFA given EA Sports FC is being revealed next month. EA's gigantic cash cow will be gone and it's unknown how big their replacement will get.

@Voltan Showcase season may have also played a role in increasing PS5 hardware sales.

I think the retro catalog is the key thing to improve, add more games (especially PS2) as well as figuring out someway to have a download option for PS3 games rather than having to rely on cloud streaming.

If you look at Persona 3 Reload, it wasn't confirmed for Switch but retailers have already leaked a Switch physical version suggesting that it will be announced for Switch in a Nintendo Direct.

There's probably a similar setup for this game too, that some event will reveal it to be coming to PS5 (maybe also Switch).

Even though the rest of the showcase was rather disappointing I had to rank it as good overall because of the 2nd Ace Attorney trilogy and the Ghost Trick demo shadow drop.

I think it's not really a case of Sony hiding stuff, more a result of the way the lineup is. Wolverine's likely the big single player 1st party PS5 game of 2024 (it was announced in 2021 and Spider-Man 2 is 2023) but naturally you wouldn't want to bring it up again until after Spider-Man 2 releases.

So pretty much I think the showcase is more an indicator that outside of a few live service games and a bunch of PC ports, Sony's already announced their 2023-2024 lineup.

I think this game will live or die based on its monetization approach. We all saw what happened with Chocobo GP, a promising Mario Kart alternative became dead on arrival when it was announced to go all in on microtransactions the same day Nintendo announced normal DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

This gives the impression the rumoured detachable disc drive PS5 launching in September is real and it'll replace both current PS5 models. If you make the disc drive rare to obtain to the extent of the Kinect adapter for XB1S/XB1X, you've essentially got forced digital only PS5.

It was a good event, definitely better than the Playstation Showcase though it does really bring up the question why Sony chose to split their reveals between the showcase and Summer Game Fest instead of just having a strong showcase. Highlights were FFVII Rebirth, Sonic Superstars, Spider-Man 2 getting a release date and in general that games were getting a good amount of gameplay.

I think Summer Game Fest will answer all 7 questions in more detail so like question 1 was about release date so the end of the SGF segment it shows the specific release date (my guess would be December 7th or 14th 2023).

The marketing approach seems very questionable. You have all this promotion for FFXVI but then at the same time you do daily updates on FFVII Rebirth which is seemingly leading up to a Summer Game Fest trailer which'll massively steal the spotlight from FFXVI.

@Rob_230 Maybe the release date is on the earlier side of Winter 2023 like December, Square Enix did reveal FFXVI's release date 6 months before launch at the Game Awards.

Capcom Showcases don't really reveal new stuff, rather update on already announced things. So I'd guess:

• RE4 Remake DLC + VR update
• Street Fighter 6 DLC
• Capcom esports
• Ghost Trick
• Exoprimal
• Pragmata
• Dragon's Dogma 2
• 1 or 2 games that get announced at a different event prior to June 12th (e.g. the next mainline Monster Hunter)

@eltomo I don't think so regarding Diablo 4 as Xbox players will most likely be waiting for it to come to Game Pass which'll decrease physical sales.

Sure it's a rather low bar to beat but it feels like Summer Game Fest actually has a good chance of being better than the Playstation Showcase.

@AdamNovice You've also got the situation that FFXVI is the first M/18+ rated FF game. That would probably decrease the potential audience somewhat.

They did another tweet:

https://twitter.com/finalfantasyvii/status/1664980288781582336

So it seems to be a tweet every day which would mean the 7th one would be the same day as Summer Game Fest. Maybe Geoff has the gameplay debut for FFVII Rebirth?

The timing of this in relation to how things were with MH World updates and Rise announcement gives me the impression Geoff or Microsoft may have the next mainline MH announcement.

@RBMango The only PC announcements in the showcase were of games that were also upcoming for PS5. They did a similar thing in the 2021 showcase (Uncharted was PS5/PC and the other PC announcements were announced elsewhere instead).

Though I am surprised this wasn't announced at Summer Game Fest, perhaps others are there instead like Demon's Souls and Ghost of Tsushima.

Given Tekken 8 appeared at the Game Awards, probably a safe guess that it'll be at Summer Game Fest.

I wonder when the June PS+ Essential games will be announced.

Feels most likely to be a Spider-Man 2 State of Play, a general 3rd party State of Play and a FFVII Rebirth State of Play.

Definitely not a showcase, otherwise the name of the recent showcase wouldn't have been called "Playstation Showcase 2023".

@somnambulance I only believe it regarding the money Sony earns from 3rd party microtransactions. If Sony gets huge 1st party live service hits, I sadly think most of the extra money will go towards more live service stuff because that's what investors would want.

@somnambulance Agreed about Switch having the strongest lineup though the situation seems more complicated for PS/Xbox to go that route nowadays. Seems very much that something caused Sony and Microsoft to be heavily reliant on 3rd party live service microtransactions in the PS4/XB1 era (Jim Ryan has already said it funds their single player epics).

The rest is what we see, Microsoft acquiring loads of publishers because they're allowed to do whatever they want and Sony heavily go down the live service route themselves to make up for the losses caused by Microsoft.

It makes me worry about what next gen Nintendo may look like, Nintendo very quickly accepting the 10 year CoD deal from Microsoft feels ominous.

@somnambulance @B_Lindz With everything going on, I get the feeling that more power is actually proving to be detrimental to gaming. I keep seeing lots of talk about "how is this even possible on such old hardware" regarding TotK. Nintendo had the right idea to exit the "most powerful console" battle after the Gamecube.

Naughty Dog just announced on twitter an update:

https://twitter.com/Naughty_Dog/status/1662166716892479488

Basically more time needed before reveal and they also have a brand new single player experience in development.

Just answering "no" to everything would've given a very high score (26/30).

@Darylb88 I get the feeling the Xbox showcase will be worse received if Starfield doesn't have a 60fps mode at launch. I see a lot of discourse over whether 30fps is acceptable for PS5/Series X.

I'm not sure why people would've expected FFVII Rebirth and Wolverine to appear when the big focus is on FFXVI and Spider-Man 2 respectively.

@gaston I think it's pretty much that people have settled down into their live service games of choice and so they're less likely to delve into a new live service game because there's not enough time to do both so they'd rather stick with what they've spent lots of time and money on for years.

Meanwhile you've also got a load of people who are fed up of the existence of live service because stuff like loot boxes, battle passes and microtransaction stores have ruined franchises they knew and loved in the past.

So the long running big live service games stay big (e.g. Fortnite, GTA Online, CoD, FFXIV) but outside that collection of games, the live service model collapses.

I feel Sony's best approach would be to give something like SOCOM, Resistance or Killzone the Splatoon treatment. Good single player campaign, multiplayer is supported for awhile with free content updates, single player gets a paid DLC story expansion but biggest of all is the game has absolutely no microtransactions (and hence isn't live service).

I definitely think it's a Summer Game Fest thing given the huge presence TLoU has had at past Geoff Keighley events like Summer Game Fest 2022 and Game Awards 2020. I'd guess it would be a case of debut trailer or gameplay perhaps followed by the announcement of a standalone TLoU event on June 14th (the 10th anniversary of the PS3 game).

@somnambulance While I do think there'll be a Nintendo Direct this summer given they're at Gamescom this time, in the outcome there isn't and the Xbox showcase ends up being a trainwreck it's entirely possible that Nintendo popularizes the approach of replacing summer showcases with just dripfeeding info on social media.

@Shepherd_Tallon The absence of Death Stranding 2 and Factions 2 gives the impression Sony split the reveals between the showcase and Summer Game Fest.

@Intr1n5ic The PS Studios live service games shown were:

• Fairgames
• Helldivers 2
• Marathon
• Final Shape expansion for Destiny 2
• Concord

The only PS Studios game present that wasn't live service is Spider-Man 2.

It was ok. Some good stuff there like the MGS stuff, FFXVI and Spider-Man 2 but the showcase furthered my concerns that Sony's literally going all in on live service and leaving traditional single player behind (all the PS Studios games here except Spider-Man 2 were live service).

I wonder what the PS4 game is for FY23, MLB The Show 24 ending up releasing in March 2024 comes to mind but maybe it's something like Factions 2 instead.

@djlard It's not 2 per genre each year, rather 2 each year total and they could be of any genre. For example 2023's 2 big PS5 PS Studios exclusives could be Spider-Man 2 and TLoU Factions 2, next year's could be Wolverine and the live service Horizon game, etc.

That's promising, gives the impression that the showcase will have a reasonable amount of PSVR2 presence rather than just something like a quick highlight reel at the start.

Extremely hyped but more so in the sense that showcases are really fun to watch, not about having extremely high expectations.

Showcase happens and then it turns out the remake doesn't even exist. Instead you get a remake of Metal Gear Survive with pachinko mechanics.

@Jireland92 At least people aren't expecting Silksong to appear at every Playstation event.