IamJT

@Pistolega Not sure which comment you are referring to but I have spent the last two years representing small, independent creators and business start ups often in opposition with large corporate interests. I am not defending large corporate entities, they don't need me for that, but I am stating that they respond to the market as a whole, not individual gamers and the enthusiast gaming community is notoriously terrible.

If you are referring to me implying that Geoff is doing nothing wrong holding a showcase when the industry is suffering serious layoffs, I would stand by that as well. Geoff did not make companies overhire during the pandemic and he did not make CEO's and management make poor decisions during development that lead to unsustainable productions costs. There is no reason for him to not hold a gaming event, which would just lead to less employment directly from the event and also less industry hype/awareness which would further impact (indirectly or directly based on the argument) gaming sales and future layoffs and availability of employment within the industry.

These are not black and white issues and there is a lot of nuance and room for differing, yet reasonable, opinions. What does not help the conversation or understanding of the issues is blanket statements such as "retire yourself."

@Toot1st If we are not complaining online, are we even alive?

@MikeOrator Yea its a weird situation. Take TLOU2... a weirdly large amount of the fanbase felt some kind of personal ownership of the characters and were trying to tell the creators how their creation would have actually acted. It is perfectly fine to dislike something, or the way a story went... but people are so extreme about things it is ridiculous. I always think about that when someone like Naughty Dog or Ubisoft has one of those statements "thanking the fans." They need a big asterisk not thanking the fans that constantly lambast every decision they make online.

@NEStalgia very true. I think it also wins on profit margin… even if it flops. I’m not happy about it, but it’s very very possible.

@Contimaloris he should sacrifice his business and all the money it generates for his employees obviously

@MikeOrator Pretty much spot on. Truth is… casually gamers are way less annoying than “core” gamers and way more fun to talk about games with. Also, way easier (and more important) for companies to cater too.

You know the internet gives a lot of crap to CEOs etc, and much of it is deserved. But even if Concord flops it will likely result in more total revenue than Astro Bot. That’s where consumers spend money, so that’s where investment is allocated.

@danzoEX Owen?

Yea a license is not inheritable. I do have a note for my brother in my living trust folder with my sign in info, but technically that breaks the terms of service.

@somnambulance I hope you are right!

@somnambulance it’s not gonna have big sales outside of the enthusiast market, so Sony doesn’t consider it a big release. People who visit this site will be very interested but only a very small portion of PS owners even watch/know about state of plays.

EDIT: I hope it sells better than I think it will, but it’s a niche game honestly. How many average gamers are gonna understand a Journey reference? Or even a Parappa reference at this point?

@Gelloh Yea im sure the gameplay was like the game... and the original factions gameplay was awesome and the rougelite (or whatever you call it) in TLOU2 was awesome and well worth the $10 upgrade.

@LikelySatan Yes you are correct. And articles like this farm engagement, which brings ad revenue, which keeps the site profitable etc. But there is room to add insightful commentary. Like the other article from today about PC gamers and PSN log ins. There are so many places you can take that article. What data does PSN collect? Why do they want it (study gamers activity/see what needs to change in the games/spot bugs and glitches/sell the data)? That would spark a conversation on the use media companies have for data and whether its proper/improper etc. It would be useful to the overall conversation. Instead that article just has a bunch of comments about how PC gamers are whiners.

@Gelloh 100%. Factions 2 getting cancelled and getting this instead is a bummer.

Also, it’s unfortunate the articles with “fan reaction” social media posts have become so prevalent. It captures such a small amount of the population’s reaction and doesn’t really serve to tell you much of anything. Angry social media posts about a game have “old man yells at cloud” energy and don’t do anybody any good. People constantly bemoan the state of games media and community discourse around games and articles like this just feed the fire. Just gives people who haven’t played the game a even more of a platform to be heard and encourages more negativity overall.

We will see. The game could potentially pick up a lot of overwatch players since that game turned into a disaster, but I doubt it. I found the vignette annoying and this style of multiplayer is not for me and it’s in a crowded space. I am, however, not the target audience so I wouldn’t be surprised if it took off.

@Neverwild Japan Studio was great, but almost all the games sold horribly. Hopefully Astro Bot sells well.

@Thumper that’s just a PS5 with the face plates off I think.

@XionV it was a PS5 without the face plates

@Vaako007 I think the last Killzone game sold well under a million copies and Horizon is Sony’s sixth best selling franchise. Killzone is deader than dead.

@tselliot Yea the pandemic trashed the workflow. Seems like it added about two years of dev time across the board.

@nomither6 I mean a lot of nintendo only players did substitute their previous nintendo console for the current nintendo console... the switch. "Although it is a hybrid console, Nintendo classifies it as 'a home console that you can take with you on the go.'"

@Ainu20 Hmmm similar to the ps4 to ps5 generation? I think maybe that could slow sales for a little while, but I think by year two it will be flying off the shelves. You never know though. I do think Nintendo will release a lot of games only playable on Switch 2 which will really help push sales.

@nomither6 “ackchually”

@Haruki_NLI lol it’s a console. It docks and plays on the tv, pedantic arguments aside, it’s a console.

Switch 2 is of no interest to me... but it is gonna absolutely dominate console sales as soon as it is released. In every region and by every metric.

🤔 maybe they close with a Santa Monica/bluepoint/sucker punch reveal? I give it a 50/50 shot.

I think everything requiring a new licensing deal for IP is a stretch. I would guess 95% of current PS owners won’t touch emulated games from past consoles (there are too many current games to keep up with much less old games and there have been lots of remasters of older classics I.e., resident evil) so there just isn’t much money in it. Sony won’t relicense games at a loss.

@Quintumply Unfortunately I think many gamers are completely over live service. And the ones that aren’t are unlikely to leave the games they are currently playing. Helldivers II avoided this by having a unique theme and by being more of a live service light… nothing is timed and missing out on major orders is not like missing a timed event. Even that game is shedding players.

@Kienda For a lot of industries it’s unavoidable and many times preferable. People complain about crunch a lot, but when they hire a lawyer and have a lot on the line… how many clients do you think tell their lawyer not to crunch?

@ThroughTheIris56 all the flash backs show Joel is not the same man from the first game. He is old and soft and took up whittling. Makes perfect sense he slipped up. Also it wasn’t much of a coincidence Abby was searching for him in Jackson and he was out patrolling outside of Jackson. Then she did lure him back to where her people were. You are reaching.

@Artois2 Yea it makes total sense. He got old and soft and made a mistake. I think it was more Tommy’s mistake than his anyways. Also, he deserved to die I don’t understand what the big deal is.

@naruball Has Amy Hennig shipped a game since Uncharted 3?

@Tecinthebrain It is super tiring because it is so predictable. When I talk about games with people in person its so easy to have disagreements without the same boring talking points constantly being brought up. As soon as people get online I feel like all good faith arguments die.

@JokerBoy422 Perfect user name.

Just finished the Stellar Blade platinum yesterday and really enjoyed it. Going to finish up a few smaller games before diving into Cyberpunk 2077 so I think I will try to 100% Dave the Diver this weekend! So far it’s a super fun game with a really addictive gameplay loop.

@KaiBrunnenG It’s a classic move for devs to play into fans hype in this industry. Most extreme example would be something like No Man’s Sky. I think Shift Up saw how many people were talking about the outfits and played into it with their uncensored comments. So changes in the outfits, whether censored or not, were going to upset people.

@KaiBrunnenG to be clear, I totally respect your opinion and I think you are more than entitled to it! Reasonable minds may differ! But I think it’s also important to note that the changing of outfits for a game character is not false advertising. It also isn’t really censorship in this case.

@KaiBrunnenG I understand your point, but you cant compare tangible goods to a digital license (which is what you have even if its a physical copy of the game). Also, you are now conflating two entirely different things. Installing the incorrect radiator would be a contract issue not a consumer protection/false advertising issue. People can be upset about the "censorship" but this is the internet and if we are being honest with ourselves. This entire controversy was in bad faith by 90% of the people arguing on both sides. Which makes it even more icky.

@KaiBrunnenG It is highly doubtful this met the standard of even the most stringent false advertising statute. Mostly because many of the outfits are more revealing than the “censored” ones. For example, strong false advertising statutes make it a crime to engage in false or deceptive advertising to consumers about the nature of a product or service. Your argument would be they said it would be uncensored in all territories and outfits were changed. You would need to prove these slight changes are censorship and that’s a high bar when the game contains more revealing outfits than the ones changed.

It’s time we all admit this whole thing is ridiculous and @Weebleman is right. It’s icky.

@colonelkilgore I thought the platinum was unobtainable now??

@glennthefrog Yea you might be right. For me that ending just made sense for that character. He grew and became a better, more loving, more peaceful person but that made him weak. And the weak don't really survive in that world. The issue might have been the presentation. If all the sections with Joel and Ellie played out in chronological order the average player may have also felt it was a natural end for him. I dunno, its tough with that game because I understand Joel was a favorite character, but he was also a bad dude who met a bad end.

I am not a big fan of the idea of a story tailoring itself to my playthrough... I want to experience the same things other players are more than I want a unique experience. I do agree with the sentiment of many that we don't need better graphics. They could never release a game with better graphics than Forbidden West or TLOU 2 and I would be perfectly happy.

@ProfessorNiggle The one scene just ruined the game for people. I went in without any spoilers and I loved the game… but I think a lot of people who were fans of the first already knew what was coming and made their minds up. I really wonder what the reception would have been like without the leaks. I think certain crowds would still have been just as hateful but the vitriolic reaction would have been substantially abated by the impact of discovering it in game, rather than prior to release. Who knows though people LOVE to hate on things.

@tameshiyaku a sci-fi would be great. I also think they could do an awesome western game.

@HonestHick death stranding is the goat walking sim.

@DennisReynolds AW2 also has incredible presentation which gives it a huge boost overall, but in the graphics department especially. Just a fantastic experience overall.

@NEStalgia Crash was perfect. Ratchet maybe? I agree astrobot is the best choice but he hasnt been around long enough to really be a mascot.

@NEStalgia Horizon is actually #6 on the list of their top selling IPs. #1 is Gran Turismo so their mascot should really just be Kazunori Yamauchi.

EDIT: Also interesting to note #'s 8 and 9 of the top selling franchises on PS (Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, respectively) are owned by Activision/Blizzard which is owned by Microsoft now. I would consider this a good point to argue against consolidation in the form of buying giant publishers.

@skaarj217 Best to do a little bit of research first before taking such a hardline stance. Also, I don't think random Russian video game developers have any influence at all in the decisions of their government. I am certainly glad no one held me morally responsible for the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and the subsequent drone strikes that killed civilians.

This game looks interesting! Will probably skip for now but added to the wishlist for the future. Weirdly gives me some Ingmar Bergman vibes at time with presentation and content.