MrGawain

“If we continue to entertain, delight, and surprise our community of gamers, I think Totoki-san and whoever follows him will be just fine.”

Unfortunately the PS5 has been focusing on remakes and very samey sequels. The developers in Japan that were trying weird and surprising stuff got canned 5 years ago.

To me Hi-Fi Rush looks like the sort of game that Playstation has been sorely missing for a while- a mix of Parappa, DMC, and No More Heroes. And it has a variety of colours in it!

Think how many times Mario died in video games- falling down pits, getting burned by spinning flame thingys, and walking into mushrooms and the NYT has NEVER covered any of those.

Think of all the hypothetical games you could play with EVEN MORE power!

Eventually, that is.

Not this year, obviously.

I wonder if the news Sony hasn’t got a big exclusive for the next year changed the announcement?

Why give Playstation the big titles when you now have the upper hand?

@Grumblevolcano

I guess the current argument is the next generation are playing on phones and tablets, and the games they play like fortnite aren't graphically intensive.

I wonder if the play for Sony is to go Switch style portable console? Because there is no reason to release another console at a loss if Sony can't make a profit on games.

Seeing they’re worried about budgets and development time for their games, I’m not entirely sure how replacing the PS5 for something more powerful in 3-4 years will solve the problem?

Quick, the horse has left the barn! Close the door!

I can’t believe three years in they’ve only just noticed they don’t have enough games and have spent too much cash.

@themightyant

But TOTK is maybe one of 2 or 3 first part big budget games on the Switch. Everything else is comparably much cheaper. Even by your own example, TOTK is around 60m cheaper than TLOU2, which I bet could be 2 more budgets for some of Nintendo’s less costly games. Plus a Zelda or Mario game is pretty much guaranteed to succeed. There are lots of big budget AAA games that get released that are still broken, or dull, or cynically propped up with extra charges. Nintendo tend to avoid those issues.

@get2sammyb

I get the metrics of it, I just think the business plan is deeply flawed. Especially when you consider Sony’s biggest games on the PS5 are never going to sell as well as Animal Crossing or Mario Kart 8 that have a fraction of the budgets. Having bigger, prettier games hasn’t gained more players for those games, it’s just caused Sony to give up on smaller games that could have been a bit more creative.

I feel very foolish buying a PS5 assuming there would be a steady flow of fun experiences to play.

I thought we had been going through the drought, and now the drought is the next year?

This console generation has been absolutely pathetic.

The Xbox has barely any compelling exclusives. And the PS5 is beating it on compelling exclusives 2 to 1.

Still not great, is it?

Thank goodness they delayed it a year to completely polish it.

@get2sammyb

But how can a company grow more by limiting the audience? When I think of Playstation I no longer think of family gaming, I no longer think of party gaming, it doesn’t have an Animal Crossing type game for casual gamers beyond Stardew that you can get on other consoles. We had Astrobot and Sackboy early on and then Ratchet and Clank, but since then very little to change the taste of the fighty open world formula. In all those media blitzes where Sony shows it’s past it leans into all the variety and weirdness, that is now very missing.

The PlayStation is for a certain type of player at the moment who likes single player open world story games, but they’ve given up on a bunch of other audiences who would be better served buying a Nintendo product. I hope they rectify this soon.

It’s really obvious how westernised Sony’s 1st party software offering is now. They’ve lost the variety in their lineup beyond open world games where the main character is suffering from depression. By shutting down all of their software developers in Japan they’ve lost a lot of fun, creativity, colour, escapism, and downright weirdness that mixed things up.

I’m guessing Japanese gamers have bought a PS5 for the promise of 3rd party games from Capcom, Square Enix, and From Software- but even a lot of those games have been very westernised and drab as well.

The reason we still call this generation of PS5 and XBX ‘next gen’ is because nothing has turned up yet that feels special that couldn’t have been on the last generation. I would like to see Playstation make games that are more inventive and unusual than just shinier open world sequels. Stuff like The Last Guardian or Parappa or Buzz really made Playstation feel unique, now we just get the same sandbox game with different skins on it.

What this shows me is Sony makes lots of gloomy 3rd person open world games, and a lot of its audience wants something else.

It wouldn’t hurt to make some fun colourful games every so often.

I’m playing it at the moment and I would say it’s the best PS5 game of the year.

I wouldn’t call it a Final Fantasy game however.

Unfulfilled promise.

Apparently the PS5’s tech is only really built to play Open World games with excessive cutscenes. It barely has enough power to run stuff like RPG’s, Platformers, Strategy, Rhythm, Puzzle, and Party games. Everyone loves Astrobot, and since the launch we’ve seen nothing like it that you couldn’t buy on the PS4.

They really could learn from the Switch about fun and variety.

@Member_the_game

Yup, stable connection and affected by latency caused by distance.

In reality it probably won’t be useable outside your own home, especially in countries without 5G everywhere.

Sometimes there’s a problem that new technology solves, other times there’s new technology that needs a problem to solve. This is the latter. A device for playing your PS5 as long as your not that far away from your PS5 with a stable internet connection.

I bought my PS5 about a year ago now and I must admit I’m disappointed with the variety of games they’ve had so far. Lots of open world games filled with expositional dialogue which is great for the core audience who like that sort of stuff, but there has definitely been a lack of Japanese style RPG’s (FF16 wasn’t an RPG), platformers, puzzle games, family games and just weird stuff like Parappa, Buzz, or the Last Guardian that adds a bit of spice to the lineup. This also applies to XBox as there is a lack of quality unadulterated fun in triple A gaming recently. It’s as if they’ve decided they can’t compete against Nintendo so they aren’t even trying anymore. Hoping they diversify the sort of games they make next year and appeal to the rest of their audience.

I’m pretty sure Sony (and Microsoft) are determined we won’t be playing any physical media within the next 5 years.

I’m not even sure it was worth me buying my original PS5.

To me the general consensus of this game is it’s a well made game that’s fun, but it breaks no new ground from the last 2. The problem I had with Miles Morales was it was way too familiar to the first one. It’s a shame they couldn’t have found a way to put Spidey in a new setting that wasn’t New York. I don’t think I want another 30 hours of the same stuff. Sure it’s a great game, but they better be careful it doesn’t go the way of Assassins Creed Sequelitis.

Personally I think Playstation has offered a very Vanilla lineup recently. There’s been lots of open world action games, but they’ve really lost a lot of variety in other styles of games. That works against XBox who can barely put out 2 or 3 exclusives a year recently (usually fps), but Sony is ignoring family gaming and the casual market and is losing to Nintendo badly in this respect, especially in Japan. I would hope who ever takes over permanently will try and make the console lineup more well rounded.

Due to delays we now have jam packed starts to the year, but very little in the traditional Christmas sales period.

Wow, such emotion and gravitas behind each of her lines. I can see why she beat out Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep for the part.

Looking forward for 6, but I wonder how many times they can update/remaster/remake the 1st. A classic that doesn’t really need re-releasing. Maybe they’re waiting for someone to mention the Batman connection of the Clown, Penguin, Man In Green and Woman dressed as a Cat?

This isn’t just happening in video games, all forms of entertainment and luxury items are dropping in price- Holidays, Guitars, High End Clothes, Jewellery, Toys and Electronics.

Companies know interest rates going up mean the average shopper has less disposable income, and are cutting their cloth appropriately. This will bring down inflation.

I bought one. Yet to be convinced if it was worth it for the sort of games I like.

To me the shape looks a little cumbersome with the controller grips to being part of the body. It looks like it would be less sturdy if you dropped it than the solid tablet/bar shape of the Switch.

‘I had to stop playing, I was breaking my neck for a pee.’

I think it’s fair to say that both the green and blue sides of gaming have struggled to have a continuous run of games this generation. The pandemic didn’t help, but you also feel they’re stretching what is realistically possible with man hours to make pretty graphics, and checking for bugs. Neither side has really put out an original idea in a while that really justifies why we bought new consoles. All the promises for 2024 mean nothing- 2023 has proven that.

Luckily I have my ‘last generation’ Switch that has kept me amused with a pretty good run of games recently. I shudder to think what happens when Ninty goes next gen.

Recently I tried Apple TV for a month. I became aware Apple doesn’t really care about creating much content for its ventures. Undoubtedly this headset is a device that could do miracles… if anyone could be bothered to make something to use it for.

I always felt the more memorable parts of FF7 were where you followed a linear path. Aimlessly wandering around the empty world map got a bit tedious, especially without a locked orientation so you didn’t know up from down. There’s side paths with optional content, and then there’s vast spaces of nothingness except an Easter egg cutscene on an undetermined point.

@Bez87

There are exclusives for the PS5 like Ratchet and Clank, but a lot of the games you listed are remakes or also available on the PS4. I can’t be the only person scratching my head why I bought a new console when Ragnarok/Miles Morales/Sackboy/Horizon/Last Of Us/FF7 are available on the thing I already have and in most cases for less money.

Both Xbox and PlayStation have yet to show us where ‘next generation’ actually is. We’ve got the sizzle but not the steak.

All the showcase is is an advert. The advert is not the problem- the problem is games are taking longer due to complexity, there’s less because of money, there’s less variety in those games because of decisions that were made to shut certain studios or not green light weird stuff, there’s more live service games and free to start also because of money, and there’s more bugs and less fun because they know all these problems and developers are being rushed to finish.

There is no fix for lack of games overnight, but hyping all the time and suggesting ‘games are coming and it will all be better soon’ is angering people who don’t know why they invested in a big white plastic taco shell to collect dust under their tv.

Let’s be honest: Playstation is at the mercy of a lot of developers not being ready to make games for the PS5- even their own studios. The ‘losers’ are games that got put on too big a stage.

PlayStation’s biggest mistake was making an hour showcase that showed too much blah and not enough wow. It went grey games, indie games, some already announced games and then VR games instead of mixing it up The biggest loser was the media team who made the showcase that made us all less excited about the PS5.

It was good for western sandbox/shooter players, but it wasn’t good for me. Nothing looked… fun. I’m not sold on FF16 yet as it looks very grey, SF6 may be good if we have a strong single player but I’m not convinced. I only smiled at the Plucky Squire. Playstation has lost something moving away from Japanese development.

This is a sticking plaster over PlayStation’s lack of a hand held system. Sony has never had the knack of making enough smaller compelling games to fit on a portable like Nintendo can. I can’t see them making something to play God Of War Ragnarok on the bus anytime soon.

In Nintendo Direct terms an hour is 25-30 games. In Playstation Showcase we’ll see 8-15. They’ll be some cutscenes, some developer talk, and a brief bit of gameplay. Releasing 2025.

As a matter of pride Sony have to deliver now. We’ve waited two and a half years and I’m not convinced much has changed since the PS4. This goes for XBox as well. In the mean time all the mindshare is focused on Zelda TOTK that has actually created a new combination of styles to produce a next gen game on a last gen system.

I wonder if Sony’s reliance on western production has taken away the inventiveness their Japanese studio’s gave them?

I can’t help notice stores dropping £70 games in price to £50 within 6 weeks, and a lot of them being reduced to £30-£40 within 6 months. I’m sure there’s a percentage of people who always pay full price on the day of release (and a lot of those are digital now), but the only game I’ve bought day one recently was TOTK, and I got that a tenner cheaper than the RRP.

£70 games are hurting PS5, but barely any games worth buying are also hurting the PS5. I have God Of War Ragnarok and Astrobit that came packed in with the thing, but all the promises of this year having games I would want have yet to come true. I like fun Japanese developed games, and Sony haven’t helped by getting rid of a lot of those studios and falling out with a few Japanese 3rd parties.

When there’s stuff you want on a subscription, it’s worth paying for- games, tv, films, cheese of the month. When you’ve experienced all they’ve got and don’t want to do the same thing then it’s pointless. The problem with games subscriptions (and TV) is they only work financially to games companies when they can get the maximum amount of subscribers for the minimum amount of fresh content. And with slowing development both PS and XB are having enough trouble finding a new triple A game to sell for seventy quid every month, let alone giving it away in the price of a subscription.

Not sure if it’s the state of play making Sony look bad, or that Sony and the rest of the triple A creators are making an almighty hash of this generation with few games, and most of what we get not what we want gameplay wise.

More money, more problems.

After grumbling for sometime I finally bought a PS5 after Christmas, assuming we’d finally get the big ‘Next Gen’ games this year.

For me personally the Switch somehow has three times more exciting games this year than PS5 and XBX have combined. That really shouldn’t still be a thing.

I think I’ll prefer to replay the Arkham games instead then.

Or more likely Tears Of The Kingdom will obliterate everything else for a good chunk of May and thereafter.

I managed to get a PS5 just before Christmas, more for the future games and for media streaming as opposed to play the games up to now. I got GOW2 as a pack in and I like it as a good, solid game, but it hasn’t wowed me- it’s just more of the same from the last one. I guess any awards list can only be as relevant as the games released in that year.