MrGawain

The Switch was revealed on October 20th, 2016 in a 4 minute sizzle reel. We got a look at the First few games and Joycons on Jan 13th. It launched on March the 3rd.

I don’t think it hurt Nintendo to keep quiet until the last minute and then bombard us with reveals, and I don’t think it will hurt Sony, whereas MS has shown scraps early, and devalued their message so far.

Saying that, when they do reveal, Sony needs something to excite the fans game wise.

XBox seemingly can beat the PS5 on tech and price (because they’re willing to lose to win), but I’m yet to be convinced that even with their studio acquisitions that they’ll have compelling titles like Sony had last year. PlayStation needs to lean in on their already popular IP. We’ve already had the talk on SSD’s and Raytracing, and seeing the reaction online a large percentage of PS customers just want to play Spider-Man and GOW sequels.

Every reveal from both companies makes me less enthused. Rumours of high prices, vanilla launch games and tech issues, coupled with a feeling this generation end is a comma, not a full stop have pretty much convinced me not to get either box, at least at launch.

I think we forget every generation of PS and XB has been lacking in genuinely exciting games at launch. Things might look prettier, but it takes developers a while to really come up with really innovative games. Either console you choose to buy, there will be one okayish exclusive, one racing game, FIFA, Madden, Assassin’s Creed and COD as the main choices- and this time you can buy most of them on the previous gen and then shift when you’re ready... or are able to get hold of the box of your choice.

For me I’m happy to play my Switch and some PS4 titles I’ve missed, and make the jump if or when the water is the right temperature.

Betting this is a 100 hour game.

95 hours customising, 5 hour story.

I think we know in 2020 that people have got a little self entitled over demanding that stories in books, tv, and games have to go the way they imagined they would in their heads, but then Sony wants the Last Of Us 2 to be true to an artistic vision and sell millions of copies. Those two things aren’t normally comfortable bedfellows.

Until the thing comes out we can’t tell the true quality of the product, but if there is an unpopular story point it will put off certain people from buying it. I mean look at Game Of Thrones and Star Wars.

The Switch’s portability makes it perfect for indie games. That and plus you don’t need a £500 console to play Steamworld Dig and Stardew.

The PS5 is going to need to build their indie commerce by having unmissable first party games that draws a wide demographic of players.

As much as they aspire to be, video games can never entirely recreate reality. There will always be an invisible wall somewhere or an NPC who will start repeating themselves. We still have a controller in our hand and press a button to perform an action. So why sweat the minor details in the distance and accept the boundaries. The best music is usually made when they can only record on 16 tracks or less, and a lot of the best TV programmes can happen when they’re set in one room. Limitations push innovation.

I’m of the opinion that in business you don’t ‘win’ against someone else. You set your stall up with a decent product and a polite attitude to your customers, and you try to make more money than you spend.

If success is just about selling more than the other guy no matter what it costs you, you will eventually be out of business. And if you make a billion quid and the other guy makes a billion and one quid, why should you be judged as a loser?

@Flaming_Kaiser

‘MY’ problem with the PS4 is I paid £349.00 for something that stopped working correctly a year after warranty, similar to the fate of my PS1 and my PS2, and 2 Sony DVD players I have owned. And I’m a little sceptical the PS5 will be any different in it’s build quality to be honest. I do not see it as a fair solution that I can fix this problem by buying a more expensive model.

Plus there must be greater rules put in by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo that stops broken, unfinished games being released before they are ready. With the size of patches getting bigger and taking longer to download, this goes against the concept of a console where you just put the game in and play it. That’s why we choose to play on consoles instead of PC, because the product should come to us fully formed, or as close as it can be.

So the PS5 won’t randomly eject the disc for no reason, update for a couple of hours when I have 30 minutes to play, the controller will have more than 3 hours of charge, and they’ll ship games that won’t need patches larger than the actual game?

Well that’s peachy.

Just reading through this list, it really does show how the PS4 really has all of it’s quality games aimed at older audiences. It’s better than the XB1 lineup, but Sony could really do better in catering for families with the PS5.

The fact that they were moving to show they were still awake proves they weren’t real.

Releasing this information was fine- but it only needed to be in a press release. Posting it on YouTube where the whole point of the platform is to show moving pictures of stuff was a big mistake. Very few customers and fans needed such an in depth explanation of how SSD works, and I bet most developers didn’t need the concept explained to them either.

The question is if product (like the PS5, XB2, and BOTW2) will be delayed due to the corona virus?

Because if they don't have stuff to release in 2020, why do they need a presentation or conference?

Seeing the start they had, and the fact MS started selling the few exclusives they had on PC this isn’t surprising.

The only thing I question about the next gen is can we compare who is ‘winning’ if you can play the exclusives elsewhere, and if such expensive machines will be sold at a loss? If that’s so, then getting people to play on PC is actually more cost effective to the manufacturers, and less cost inhibitive to the market.

It’s like Okami meets Bayonetta, except you’re a group of Super Heroes instead of a Wolf with a paintbrush, and you stop time when you dodge correctly but you can’t move the camera to see a witches’ bum.

And I think it’s a lot like Dark Souls in if you ‘get gud’ with the gameplay, you’ll enjoy it. Either it clicks or it doesn’t.

Little Town Hero. The Wonderful 101. Cuphead. Travis Strikes Again. Daemon X Machina. Ori And The Blind Forest. Disgaea 5. And Possibly Persona 5 and Horizon Zero Dawn.

If it needs to sell more, I think anything is up for a port these days.

I wonder if this sort of acquisition really makes financial sense? Okay, so they bought a small amount of IP, and probably an office and computers, but what makes the magic is the employees. If in an amount of time the really creative people decide to leave, what do you really have?

It’s like when Microsoft bought Rare, most of the original talent left to work elsewhere and MS was left with just the name and some IP they never use.

Obviously a patent doesn’t mean Sony will use an idea like this, but being too open about over selling micro transactions isn’t a good look to launch your console with. Microsoft learned that you don’t want to look like the bad guy when releasing a console with the XB1, you would hope Sony wouldn’t be too cocky to think they could get away with a similar launch for the PS5.

There’s a massive crossover audience for Spongebob and The Last Of Us due to similar themes.

The way budgets are going in the gaming industry, it makes sense that companies are going to pay for development by allowing as many people as possible to purchase it. This is the price of flashy graphics.

Seeing everyone is talking about the PS5 BECAUSE Sony are skipping E3, I see it to be a sound business strategy.

The only thing I question is if this will damage Sony’s relationship with 3rd parties like Activision and Ubisoft, which we’ll find out at Microsoft’s and Sony’s conferences.

Obviously there is a screen on the bottom, and you can tear the prongs off the DualShock and attach them to each side of the giant V and use it as a handheld.

Ask yourself if the PS4 really was that brilliant last gen (in comparison to the PS1’s, 2’s, and 3’s lineup of games), or if the XB1 was dog poo awful? I would argue the XB1’s unique software was the worst since Sega Saturn.

Realistically Xbox can’t be that bad this year, but to really challenge it needs a few equivalent we’ll known exclusive titles like what PS4 had in Spider-Man. And early in it’s lifespan.

Google Stadia will be propped up by 99% of youtube and twitch gamers who will buy the service just to show how good/how rubbish the service is to their subscribers.

I’m starting to think Kojima is the Anti-Miyamoto. They live at two ends of the spectrum of what a game should be.

In the UK at least, Netflix doesn’t have 12 months of continuous content. Not being one to care to watch things immediately, I just buy Netflix cards when enough stuff that I’m interested in comes to the platform and there isn’t anything better to watch on terrestrial telly.

I can see a back and forth system of maybe 3 months at at time of active Disney and Netflix subscription for me.

Looking at the Metacritic review scores (83), it looks like it’s a pretty divisive game. Several flawless reviews dragged down by a few averages and god awfuls.

I think I’ll let the dust settle to see how it really pans out.

The PS5 and XB2 will need great games straight away because they’ll be competing with the Switch and PS4 which both have huge libraries. Also with costs going up to produce flasher graphics, I wonder if they’ll be less triple A games overall released? Plus with backwards compatibility being a thing this year, I wonder if we’ll get less remasters?

I guess the game cost a fortune to make, and perhaps is a little to niche (or age restricted) to make it’s money back alone on the PS4. Which is the complaint Konami had about Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid 5 if I remember correctly?

Not saying it won’t be good for it’s audience, just it may be too weird to garner a Spier-Man sized player base.

So they spent more money developing than they think it will sell on the PS4?

For me games sell consoles. Until there are enough games I’m interested in, I really don’t see a reason to get excited.

Curious to see if they follow the Switch/BOTW launch combo. PS4 and XB1 had rubbish launch line ups, and for most of the first year.

In comparison to the PS3 and Xbox 360, the PS4 and XB1 haven’t had half as much to play late cycle (or anything mid cycle in the XB1’s case). But then the XB1 and PS4 launched with very little worth playing because of this. You get the feeling the PS5 and XB2 will launch with far sturdier lineups as everyone holds their stuff back. The lack of games is also made worse by seeing how much is coming out on the Switch at the moment.

In conclusion: State of Play only worthwhile if they have enough stuff worth to discuss.

It’s the B button. The X button is the top one.

But can anyone explain why it always updates when I want to play that particular game... and why 2 year old single player games still need updates?

I think the strategic manoeuvre Nintendo have pulled off is having a console people own for a change with a great handheld selling point and a great library, and then continue putting a well made game on it at the end of every month. Fire Emblem is really fun and being on the Switch means you aren’t limited to playing it in front of a TV. I wouldn’t be surprised if Astral Chain also goes to No 1 as well.

Currently my PS4 is a Netflix player.

Slightly sad to see a platform that allows users to bring their own unique creations to life, and they end up remaking 20-30 year old games.

The problem with the Vita wasn’t the machine itself, and it wasn’t 3rd party support.

The problem with the Vita is the games Sony is geared up to make don’t really work on a limited power device with a small screen, designed for short bursts of action instead of long story scenes.

The Switch works and Ninty’s other handhelds work because make games that fit naturally in that headspace.

The eject button just fell off my PS4. I could say ‘perfect time to buy the pro’, but in reality I’m sick to death of the thing ghost ejecting constantly and don’t trust Sony after 2 PS1’s, a PS2, a DVD player, and CD-R have all lasted less than 4 years each.

The reason we get mid gen update consoles is to hide that the previous one had such a short expiration date in the first place.

The frame rate on the return to Arkham collection was vomit inducing. I played through it as the only way I could experience Arkham Asylum, but the cluster headache made me hate what is generally agreed to be a fantastic game.

@3MonthBeef

But my point is 18 months out they’ve made a big song and dance announcing specs and who they’re competing with and who their product is for, but it’s just general waffle. How can you start think about if you want to buy something on it’s specs when A: you don’t know what they can actually achieve with these specs in reference to games, and B: Am I actually going to get a good deal for this box with these specs? Is it just an equivalent to an overpriced off the shelf bundle PC? It should have be announced all together A LOT closer to launch (Say 4-6 months).

The truth is they have to say something to keep their brands in the news because very little is going on in the world of PlayStation 4 (and even more so XBox One) at the moment- but without context we just have some numbers and people constantly saying ray tracing without actually knowing what that will look like on this box and if we’ll be overcharged for it.

I must admit, the fact they’ve released all these specs and marketing strategies probably 18 months away from release has absolutely turned me cold on the PS5 and the XB2. The fact they’ve avoided saying about games and pricing yet hasn’t enthused me that I need this thing immediately, or maybe even ever.

Both Sony and Microsoft are vamping at the moment because the next year and a half doesn’t have much in the way of inspiring releases. If Stadia releases in any competent form in October, the two big boys could lose a segment of their fans while we wait for next gen (Not me though, I’ll be playing stuff all year on the Switch).

Because Final Fantasy plotlines are so focused and logical they are just screaming out to be adapted for television.

“...Turns out he wasn’t a real person after all.”

I am someone who has not seen a PS5 working. I’m betting Inaba has. I can’t discount his opinion because I haven’t got the experience he has. And until I see games I want to play on the thing I’m betting I won’t be excited about it.

Not entirely you can take much from this. It doesn't say if it was positive or negative stories. That's neither a good or bad thing- it's just a thing for the time being.

I wonder how much more games will cost to develop for the PS5/XB2? You’ve got to think that with all that potential it’ll take more resources and man hours to live up to the specs.

Does not being at E3 hurt Playstation? Nope.
Does Playstation not being at E3 hurt Microsoft or Nintendo? No.

But it does hurt all those companies selling one game without the power of Bethesda or Ubisoft behind them. Just think of how the Dragonball games' profile was raised by being on the Microsoft conference or how Nintendo have made indie games like Steamworld in the past. Without Sony pushing those sorts of games to big audiences, there is a chance they'll disappear and that makes for less variety.

I know I don't want to live in a world were 3rd party is just the same shooting games from Ubisoft and Bethesda.

A lot to get excited for in Square’s presentation, but I wan’t particularly impressed with this. Very ropey character models and voices.

1.55 They’ve got egg and chips in the game? Sold.