@LuXifer Funnily I was a late adopter of Beat Saber. Always saw it as "oh one of those games you show VR to non-VR people to wow them but I'm soooo beyond that and into real VR games!" And then one day tried it out of curiosity and got instantly pathetically hooked and started buying up the DLC music packs lol. You can say "it's the same game with different music" but because the blocks are arranged (some tracks better than others) in ways that "feels" right with the music, every track is really different gameplay. Green Day's Father of All gives a great drumming feel, etc. Makes me really wonder how the real drummer's doing it 5x faster lol.
@LuXifer It supports 120fps on Quest, not sure about on PSVR2, but it's absolutely a psychedelic experience. Brutal. But if you get in the groove it's amazing. Most insane pack is the Daft Punk pack. Not only are they harder than average, but the tracks are like 10 minutes long and you start getting hypnotic by the time you're in the last quarter and that's when the darned tempo changes and you lose your whole combo and end up a B.
I absolutely love Beat Saber. I have no idea how people could ever play on the hard difficulties. I play on hard and find it hard enough to get above an A at best. How people are playing 2 difficulties higher and getting S's I will never understand how human reflex can move that fast, at all. And the campaign is brutal. MusicSouls.
I can't actually stand Spears, but, I can like music I hate in BeatSaber when it has a really great box setup that feels great with the music. Might be worth it. And I think Toxic at least would be fun to slice to.
Also, where's that Britney super-fan that used to be a regular here, and why are they not the first post?
I said it in the PureXbox article about "why I'm glad Xbox doesn't have a pro", and I'll say it here in this article: It's just bad form to be writing these articles on a platform fan site about internal issues with another platform. Everyone knows i think the Pro is walking doom for the benefits of console, but I don't think that argument belongs on an XB site. I think this investigation is a joke and they already know the answer, and so does everyone else, but that's an argument for the Xbox community to have, not the PS community. Just poor form in both articles to fish for engagement.
The endless narrative from posters on this site of "Xbox trained customers to not buy games" gets tiring. Xbox game sales have been roughly equivalent relative to install base to Playstation. Obviously first party game sales are much lower, and that's the loss leader of the platform, you get the first party games for a subscription, but as most major third party games are not on GP, their sales in percentage of install base are roughly similar to PS, taking into account different genres perform better on each, where a new JRPG will do better on PS while, say, a new Assassin's Creed might do better relative to install base on Xbox.
The biggest problem is just that the install base is still much smaller so it becomes the lowest priority of all systems because the total possible sales are simply lower. If they intend to fix that by making the next Xbox a full Windows PC running PC games they can eliminate that problem. Time will tell. But they're not going to suddenly sell a bunch of consoles.
@SlipperyFish FWIW Wukong isn't skipping Xbox, it's just delayed like Baldur's Gate 3 was.
I think a lot of it is that Disney milks everything till it's gone. They've squeezed SW so that there's so much it doesn't feel rare and exciting anymore, it's just background noise. Add in the Ubisoft controversy and it was going to be rough.
That's a problem with long dev cycles. They start something while a thing is popular and by the time they're done, the thing isn't popular anymore.
That's impressive. Much as I've been unhappy with Epic with the so far disaster that is UE5.0 and Fortnite, got to admit they basically just declared that after years and thousands of dollars in hardware per gamer, we don't need RT anymore... Which devs may groan about but every gamer should cheer relentlessly about getting their fps back.
@Flaming_Kaiser That all speaks to the collapse of Western society sadly. For thousands of years society worked because one parent was mostly always home raising kids. The modern world was duped into that becoming a luxury of the rich and everyone else is conscripted into perpetual labor and the kids are raised by wolves and other kids, or worse, corporations and government institutions.
Honestly I think the zero dawn fix would probably be for the best.
@somnambulance Yeah you have a lucky break there. Most modern kids seem to be like jackals, moving only in groups and coordinated via discord. And seem completely hyper. I remember everyone being like they were zombies even I was their age, now suddenly they act like they have an IV drip of Speed.
IDK that 1-6 will ease you into xiv that much. The feel and vibe yes, but very different combat where 1-6 is classic turn based and 14 is based on real time skill rotations and cool downs. 14 is awesome though no doubt. Monstrosly huge thigh. I played nothing else for 5 months or so and only got half way through the first expansion. I love it but it might be another year before I touch it again lol.
Ahh, yes, parenting for the parents of Fortnite addicts. Times up kids, no more Fortnite today, you've had too much, now go wash up and snort all your coke lines and hit the Caesars app for some blackjack before bed.
@somnambulance The appeal of fortnite isn't as a game. It's a digital hangout space. 3d Facebook. VrChat without headwear. 2nd life without smut. It's popular because it's a social media platform kids can hang out with friends in. Same with gtav.
Of course a social media platform in 3d would be more popular than a video game.
"Fortnite is the metaverse! Also we're never making VR Fortnite in the actual metaverse"
-Tim Sweeney
Between this and his POS UE5 engine that runs well on absolutely nothing, I'm starting to really dislike Sweeney. Didn't really like him in the 90s either though.
Easy for the guy that's at the top of live service to say live service is the future. He's also the reason it's NOT the future for other games. Maybe after he loses all his players to someone else's live service he'll be all in on jazz jackrabbit 4.
I respect Hello Games immensely, but I always find these comments from devs weird. They make a multiplatform game. The game already does way more on PC than it can do on the Pro. There's nothing new the pro introduces it just does more than the previous console did, but still not as much as the game already does on PCs that are higher end. "For a console, it's really good" makes sense. A blanket statement that sounds like it introduces new capabilities to the game that didn't already exist on other platforms, no, that makes no sense. There's so much hyperbole around this thing already and I'm not sure why devs throw themselves into that, though Hello of course has a close history with Sony, I doubt that still applies currently.
@Bobtheking It was unusable blurry at launch. It was basically broken from Feb 2023-April 2023. Had a big improvement in May. They patched it multiple times, added foveated rendering, etc, it's now one of the sharpest games on the platform with draw distance for miles and miles. The Jun 2023 patch turned it into pure eye candy.
@Tomato_Goose NMS is, IMO, the PSVR2 system seller.
IDK, I have probably thousands of hours since PS4, and I probably don't have that many trophies and only 2 platinum. But as long as it's a reasonable and stated value it seems like a fair idea. It does hurt first time buyers, of course. And also highlights very clearly that the target market for the Pro is not new customers but upgrading existing customers. New customers can't even buy one.
@get2sammyb I'm sure the bots could play Pet the Kitty or whatever that game was to rack up trophies, lol.
@Flaming_Kaiser Oh man there's a name I haven't heard in ages. I played a a little bit waaaaay back when it was new, but I couldn't get very far because the PC I had at the time just couldn't handle it.
I agree, though, I'm not a big multiplayer person, but I enjoy XIV's group dungeons, and I'm a huge Splatoon nut, so I'm not anti-multiplayer, but the problem with multiplayer is that by nature you can really only absorb one or two of them (friend coop aside), because they become a dedication of time by necessity.
@Flaming_Kaiser I'm not sure what devs are thinking with one of this stuff. The thing, though is, that ray tracing is much easier and faster to implement and looks better at the same time. So I can see why devs prefer to implement it. Pretty much hit a button, it's automatic, and looks better than anything done manually becuase it makes lighting work like it does in reality. Plus devs just like playing with the tools they have.
But at this point they have to all know that it just isn't viable for modern hardware. The simulations of lighting an entire real world are just too much for current hardware and will continue to be so for quite a long time. So I'm sure they did it because it's fast and cheap to do and looks good.
But what I don't get is YoshiP is the guy who had to clean up the mess of FFXIV OG, he's the guy with the dev diaries about the original team focusing on gfx above anything else and had issues like the flower pots that had more polygons than the player character. Then he goes on to make XVI that cripples a 4090 and simply can not run at full speed on any hardware that money can buy because it focused too much on gfx...?? Isn't he the one that complained about other devs in square doing that?
Totally agreed, about square (and every dev) needing to work to the limitations of the platform. It's bad enough that multiplats don't do it, but now we have exclusives that don't even run right on the only hardware it runs on.
Masuda was a horrible leader, and it seems like the new CEO may be a lot more level headed. That said, my own theory on selling half the company to Embracer is more complicated. I don't think they sold the whole thing for peanuts. I think they were swimming in debt up to their eyeballs and sold off half the company for "peanuts" with all their debt bundled into the sale, I.E. the real price to Embracer was much more than the purchase price, as they had to absorb a mountain of debt commensurate with the real price of what they bought, and magically Square was in the black again.
@themightyant Switch is only about 45M ahead of 3ds+wiiu, which is still a lot of course but less dramatic. And Nintendo of course is a bit of it's own market while ps and Xbox are direct competitors if not outright clones. I'm terms of Xbox being only somewhat down, it's true, but also remember that the series s is its biggest seller, where the goal was to reach a new market, and they did, but at the cost of just trading it for losing part of their existing market to ps due to blundering.
I would still say Sonys current hardware success is similar to PS4, lack of a competitor. And Xbox is never going to pull their head from their backside on console because they don't really care (even though they should.). But I still see Sony taking that and running, PS3 style, until they start creating competition where the previously had none, if only in the shape of mobile, streaming, etc making easier inroads to consumer sentiment. And you're still forgetting that adding the China market boosts that hardware sales number, yes, but also hides the overall declines in existing markets
The fact that the inclusion of Yasuke is generating non stop screaming about this game is mission accomplished. He's there to flare controversy to push the game up the media ladder. It's the same reason bear sex was in the BG3 trailer.
To the people screening "racism", get over yourselves. Assassin's Creed fans don't object to playing an African. most assassins creed fans will point to the game you play an African (Bayek) as one of their top 3 or 5 AC games and would be all over a sequel. But nobody wants to play an African in the Japanese ac game. Nobody wants to play a Peruvian in the American AC game. Nobody wants to play a German in the Italian AC game. Nobody wants to play a Russian in the British AC game.
@JayJ Gotta get those 33rd anniversary PS6 Amateur preorders in now! Only 666 units available (bundled with 90" OLED Bravia only.)
@LogicStrikesAgain I think the issue with "AAA" gaming is that while there still will always be a market for it, that market is decreasingly large enough to support ever increasing costs of making it. Either the market for it needs to dramatically grow or the prices need to dramatically increase which necessarily shrinks the market again to unsustainably small numbers. Neither can really happen, so either "AAA" needs to cost less to make, or be refined as something other than "looks indestinguishable from live action".
I can't tell what direction (s) the industry will take. I can't tell if it'll be all bad or mostly good. But I do know it'll be very very different than it was....
Glad the bug people were right on this one. It says a lot about how much we trust Sony at this point that most of us including staff instantly assumed it was a new ad initiative.
How a bug like that got into the wild is inexplicable. Gone are the halcyon days of PS4 stability.
@themightyant #1, not officially. Xbox, Nintendo, steam etc sell keys though official vendors and third parties. Sony officially pulled selling game cards in most markets. The key vendors selling ps keys are selling from markets that they didn't kill it, which is how cheap keys exist for other stores too, but while the others officially do it in primary markets, Sony ended doing so. (Notice on major retailers you can buy digital Nintendo games and digital Xbox games but not digital ps games. You used to be able to until JimStation ended it
#3 PS5 is selling close to PS4 in the same way Xbox is selling 1:2. The fomo launch drove a lot of momentum until reality kicked in and sales have slumped. Keeping in mind they're picking up a lot of Xbox lost customers in that number and that they entered China this generation yet are merely nearly at PS4 levels... They're missing that surge of customers from the slim discount period.
To the last point. They're working on pricing themselves to irrelevance. Yes it's super famous now, but attrition continuing across hardware lifetimes, and eroding software sales will have an ongoing cumulative impact until it's top heavy.
@LogicStrikesAgain Agreed, printing money is the only cause of inflation and decades of QE was the most idiotic possible thing that ever could have been imagined. But a lot of the issue is also congressionally driven and the Fed is caught trying to put the pin in the grenade after throwing it.
As for consoles, we're already there at that point and it's getting worse. Yes we need to roll back technology and we need to roll back games themselves. Gunpei Yokoi knew this is where it would end up back in the mid 90s even before 3 financial crisis. is why Nintendo took that advice and keeps technology back. Yes they overcharge. Badly. I don't like their practices but they have the idea on tech in check so they don't end up here.
We've got to the point where "AAA games" aren't practical to make for a reasonable price and then we need hardware all but enthusiasts can't justify affording to barely adequately run it, meanwhile sales on said games are cratering as prices rise. On top of that the masses have mostly moved to playing far simpler games on far more accessible devices and the money in those is far greater. The games and tech need to roll back in time to manage reality. And it is happening with it without Sony and Xbox following already.
At this point this "aaa" console gaming crowd is more and more becoming a niche of old guys with money and doesn't represent the bulk of gaming which is dangerous for Sony because that leans into their natural inclinations and also doesn't have a future for long term gaming customers and also misses the core of who most games are made for. Young people don't even buy TVs
@HonestHick Sony is the only one in court because they're the only one locking customers to buy on their store only. Xbox, steam, even Nintendo sell keys through many third parties and retailers. Only Sony actively REMOVED that option to control pricing and eliminate middle men, placing them in the same position as Apple and Google while the others are still selling though channels of competition.
@themightyant Sony has fine revenue. Their problem isn't a need to increase revenue it's the need to cut their absurd expenses. And I didn't mean more layoffs.
@LogicStrikesAgain Yep. That ends very badly though. It bites themselves in the end (after it destroys everyone else.) When parasites kill the host, it kills them too. The only reason "business as usual" has persisted to now was the public collectively defecit spending. But it's hit rock bottom. As these companies "need" more money on the products, they'll lose sales continuously until they (not necessarily PS, but also not necessarily not), end up unsustainable. As we've seen in the games industry already, then you get the rounds of layoffs, consolidation, closures, but for more and more of the economy. Right now the economy is depending on the top third to do all the spending that the bottom 2 thirds used to. And for now they are, but it's an illusion as they're only spending in certain areas.
Guaranteed, this ends in the largest economic nightmare that's been seen since WWII. Maybe not this year, maybe not in 3 years. But it's coming, and I don't see how it's avoidable now. People pass off "but everything is more expensive, oh well" are missing the bigger, much more dangerous picture. The Fed sees it, it's why they've been clobbering interest to try to stem it and the companies keep making end runs around it. They know the spiral we're in. The big banks keep warning too.
In console land, if things don't change, the next gen will be way worse than this one. This one's doing ok because the early upshot at the old prices in the old economy jump started it. Real sales at new pricing in the new economy are not going to do so well. Game sales tell us a lot about how the games market is really doing, and they've been terrible. More and more of the market is just moving to F2P gatcha on whatever device they have because consoles priced themselves into that "weird" premium space where people are willing to pay a lot, but not nearly enough people.
Edit: Outside electronics I actually have seen more and more companies making cheaper versions of product that they used to make, so there ARE price reductions happening through more utilitarian manufacturing to meet the economy. Not in all sectors, but some elements DO get it. Electronics will have to keep up if it wants to survive too.
@TheMightyImp2 See, once we start comparing what was once commodity consumer products to designer fashion of which the sole purpose is an outward demonstration of social status, is the moment that electronics have jumped away from being what they were, and why most people who bought them, bought them.
No, a $700 console isn't a lot of money compared to a Luis Vuitton jacket, a Mercedes, a bungalow in in Costa Rica, a Lear twin engine, or the deed to the Empire State Building. It's still asinine for a console that's marginally better than the $500 console that was already overpriced. I'd joke that maybe next they'll sell multi-thousand dollar 24k gold plated playstations, but I recall a Push Square article years ago about a 3rd party seller that was already doing that........
FWIW, IDK the exact dollar amounts for the Xbox All Access, I just know it's a 2- year GPU subscription and the console rolled into monthly payments. They don't advertise it much anymore these days.
I know that's what Apple started. If they want to make Playstation a brand for the Vuitton crowd, they can do that, but they should also expect most of their customers may just take their game purchasing elsewhere.
Though I'd argue PS5 price is still too high for the current economy, and sales numbers are reflecting that as it is. A lot of previous gen sales happened after price cuts below $400. It's bull pricing in a hibernating bear market.
Err, no. Most people have a $200-400 phone. Some people have a $500-1000 phone. $1500 phones are status symbols for a very particular group. However vs the days of the PS2, people do have to frequently spend at least a few hundred on a phone, which also depletes their disposable income along with many other essentials that didn't exist back then.
@themightyant If consoles want to survive, yes consoles need to be cheaper, and stop chasing the technology dragon. They can't keep just jacking up prices forever, while the masses have even LESS spending power and expect to actually maintain sales. At this point they should just stick with PS5 for the next 30 years if that's the cheapest they can get it. Ever more expensive consoles do not have a place in the world, and just saying every few years "whelp, tech price is forever static so the next 10% will cost you another $500 vs last time" doesn't work. If they want to say console gaming is just for the rich, well....good luck on software sales, which are already in the toilet as-is.
I get what you're saying but the argument that tech is done evolving, pricing for performance is static forever, and every improvement will be done by stacking ever more cost onto the current pricing, frankly spells the end of technology as a consumer product and moves us very rapidly toward an all thin client cloud future faster than you can say "Cerny".
Spiraling cost of goods, coupled with ever decreasing disposable income = hard recession that makes 2008 look like a dress rehearsal or full depression that makes 1930 look like the good old days. You may be right about how the businesses will run things, but I'm also right about what happens after.
Also keep in mind that the economy was propped up through inflation by a mix of the rich spending twice as much, and both rich and poor depleting their savings almost entirely. The public basically did a bail-out of the economy and it's the only reason we're not looking at a depression already. But that trick worked only once. The savings is gone and not coming back. So what happens next? These companies are living on yesterday. It won't hold up forever.
Paid beta testing. You loved it in software, now you can do it in hardware, too! How about. Design the PS6. Then sell the PS6. Hard concept?
Of course BC games will run on the PS6 in Pro mode just as happened with 4Pro and 1X.
But, I'm getting disillusioned with DF that seems to be acting as a marketing arm for Sony ever since the PS5 Pro came around, and is now stating the obvious like it's a unique advantage of the Pro. And still ignores the strangeness that Sony felt it needed its own upscaler proprietary to themselves as though the GPU vendor isn't already including it.
Just from their fawning over Pro and carrying water, I don't think I could ever trust DF to have non-biased opinions. Their measurements are fine, but their opinions, no, they're too biased to the new shiny or whoever's PR department is copying up to them at the moment.
@themightyant ", times have changed, EVERYTHING is more expensive. "
While that's true for what to expect on pricing I also don't buy it. "Times changed" for corporate profit goals, corporate B2B trade etc. Times did NOT change in the same direction for consumers who have less disposable income now than they did with then PS5 launched and have depleted most to all savings, where income effectively remained the same, but non-discretionary spending doubled. Where $500 was passable for a mainstream console in 2020, $400 would be pushing it today for the mainstream consumer. Sure the enthusiasts would spend $10,000 on the latest PS just to have it, but not the masses, whom they need for software sales.
You're not wrong that companies don't seem to understand that and won't price accordingly. Let's see if we can turn the looming recession into a depression!
@HonestHick The PS6 if it's releasing in the next 3 years and is AMD based and is not over $1k, is not going to be 4090 tier. What you see on PC now is as good as you're going to see this game until it's inevitable remake (where they make it a time traveling trilogy and Torgal is a being from another dimension seeking to conquer the world.) The engine is just pure garbage and I can't for the life of me understand why they gave anything Luminous based another go. That said, Rebirth managed to make UE5 just as bad....
There's a few dogs out there right now that even 4090's can't brute force. This is the big one (and also the low settings and ultra settings are almost the same. Looks similar, performs similar and in fact ultra has much better shadows with little performance hit vs low which isn't very low and still performs bad.) Metaphor: Refantazio's demo is another. Out of the box high settings drag 4090s to 40fps. It's not a super advanced looking game, just horribly optimized like every game today. That said, at least Metaphor gets 30fps stable on my non-extreme ally, so low settings at least scale nicely.
Something is seriously WRONG with everything in game dev. That ever game plops off the line barely functional on literally THE most expensive, best, exotic hardware money can buy at any price..... It's like selling a toaster that sparks and arcs with a chewed up electric cord insulation but "works."
@naruball Yeah, I don't necessarily mean on an individual game level. The armchair experts don't know that, but frankly, neither do the executives. It's all just a gamble. But where many armchair experts have a clue where then 7-figured clueless executives don't seem to is the overall and longer term strategies. Not just in gaming, look at (in the US) the big retailer collapses, various other corporate collapses. Every one of them was obvious as day to the rabble, but the execs kept on trucking in the wrong direction sure of their genius (and some of them did so knowingly, skimming off the top for a cash out, of course.) Countless strong brands, good stores/products gone, not because the brand or product wasn't desirable, or could even not have been at the top, but because it was mismanaged into the ground. There's been more company closures due to blatant mismanagement than actual brand failure or lack of product demand. Just because their daddy could buy their way into Yale, doesn't mean they're actually smart.
Overall I think it's a good thing for manufacturers to not run out, to produce enough to meet demand, and to not try to use artificial scarcity and FOMO to sell products.
I think where people are cynical here is that's not Sony's MO. They've thrived on sell out mobs, and FOMO as their main strategy for a while, so while for a normal company we could look and say "they did a good job with supply." With Sony you have to question a lack of sellout FOMO meaning "uh oh, it's not selling as planned." ..... like PSVR2.
If they really just made enough then I commend them and expect them to repeat that trick with PS6. But we know it's not going to work that way, don't we?
@jrt87 I had my Game Boy in a huge hard plastic briefcase type shell box!
Ironically I just put a glass screen protector on my launch switch and toss it in my pocket though Holds up fine. I still miss 3DS. Legion.....does not fit in a pocket.....
Though the switch does feel REALLY TINY and pocketable next to Ally and Legion. I think if it more like a GB pocket now and it seemed big at launch.
@1UP-HUSKY @naruball If you think the consoles are bad until you think of phones, try thinking of workstation laptops! $2k-3k on your back.....you need a private security detail
It'll go on sales fast I think. This brings it down to match PC pricing (good on Square!), and PC pricing is holding its price because it's a brand new release. It'll drop in price on sales quickly on PC I think, and console will probably follow.
@HonestHick Thing cripples 4090. Pro won't do squat for it. You'll get an even sharper, more detailed 30fps mode and a still inconsistent but maybe somewhat less blurry 60fps mode.
Even 4090 users are having huge issues with 60fps mode being wildly inconsistent. Even on 4090 it will NOT hit stable 60fps without relying heavily on framegen and DLSS. Some users have taken to disabling SSR and AO to then turn off framegen and dynamic res to get a true 60fps, where apparently SSR is extremely over-accurate in calculating water reflections and some other surfaces and contributing to the big dips, because for some reason the devs decided using all the GPU to do advanced simulations of light refraction was a good idea.
Bottom line: That's the best a 4090 can do with this wildly broken engine. Pro doesn't stand a chance. It'll be less bad than on base PS5. It'll still be bad. 4090 will be less bad than Pro. It's still bad.
@UltimateOtaku91 That would place it under Masuda's watch. Everything he did was bizarre in decision making. If we flash back that's when they were selling half the company, investing all in on NFTs etc. Maybe the value of NFT cloud seemed better than the trinket they'd get for Astrobot collabs? Square seems maybe more on track with the new leadership. At the time they were probably assuming XVI and Rebirth would be 20-million sellers.
Hopefully everyone saying it's a bug is correct. OTOH, that's a heck of a think to accidentally get into the firmware. "Accidentally" changing the background image from static game art to a live feed doesn't happen, so if this isn't the intended result one wonders what the intended result actually is, and it still seems clear the ability to shove a live feed as the background is baked into the system and is indeed the reason for no custom backgrounds. Either way, intentional or not, their ability to control the backgrounds is a core part of their design.
@Grumblevolcano At this point, every stupid thing MS does, after the flames die down, Sony just copies it and gets a free coat of "but it's Sony so it's different" applied. They're the same console.
@tameshiyaku Agreed. I like now the modern narrative around tech is "well it doesn't come down in price anymore, it just keeps getting more expensive."
So, what, in 2040, PS5 will still be produced and on shelves for $550 and PS5 Pro for 700 for those that want that level of technology while PS8 will be $2200 for those that want that level? Better come with a lot of RGB and an ATX form factor. I don't buy it. Tech still comes down in price, the problem is that the advancement of tech slowed to a crawl so that the need for new products to replace old ones is now a 10-15 year wait vs 2-3 years 20 years ago. But they need to keep reselling the same thing slightly better at higher prices and higher costs of production because their business models crumble without planned obsolescence cycles, where tech has really arrived to the point it's like microwaves. You keep it 10 years until it breaks, then buy the same one again. But the 90's tech business model doesn't allow that.
@tameshiyaku to be fair, only about half of the ultra loyal population here bought a pro and they're still available to order, so I'm not sure it's working this time...
@BushSwan believe it or not, Metas quest platform is ad free putting it ahead of ps and Ms now. Though you can bet they're harvesting scary data with a headset so it's a phyrric victory.
Wow, who would have thought that Sony would do everything they possibly can try make sure Xbox doesn't look so bad?
And here we thought the little Doritos and Old Spice ads in a little tile in the Xbox dashboard we're bad. Now PS5 makes that look like the tasteful design.
Oh thank feck I'm escaping console.
@jrt87 don't forget the comical number of button presses to shut down, the fact that long press of ps button differs from any other device, and, how you have to sit and wait while games delete or copy.
@Yousef- 🤣🤣🤣
@Reptilio if it's online you do. Last tile on the second row is always an ad, though many times it's just a game pass ad so you may not notice but it's also been for razer controllers, Doritos, old spice, monster energy, McDonald's, the game awards, ironically TLoU TV show, etc. much of the time is a game or game pass
Not surprising, like how immediately after Eurogamer interviewed Luke Ross the vr modder, Rockstar issued cease and desists, and then wouldn't even reply to him OR patreon about that copyrights he allegedly violated considering he doesn't distribute any rockstar materials, just a mod for their game. They never replied and that's their game. Threaten, then ghost, so if you want to find out what they're accusing you of you have to face their litigation in court. Even if they're bluffing, which they've done before and lost to a modder in court. But most can't risk their whole life to find out. Sony may not be like Rockstar but they possibly are.
@Rich33 Personally I have a more cynical take on pssr. Fsr isn't as good as dlss, it's true, but the console implementation is clearly using the low quality performance mode and not the much higher ultra quality modes. The console could have implemented much better fsr modes. There was no reason for PlayStation to implement their own proprietary version of something the soc already has. My best guess is they just wanted to r&d ai tech and silicon for their own use in other industries and ps seemed a good way to get customers to pay for their internal r&d meant for other things.
That said it's really the ONLY main feature of the console. And getting good scaling is an upgrade for sure. But them "pulling a Sony" and reinventing the wheel and charging for it simply to make it their own is like nails on a chalkboard to me!
As for affecting the base console optimization is a good question. If we look at new 3ds the answer is yes. Some games like monhun 4 barely ran on the base model after that. Otoh, PS4 pro was basically ignored like it didn't exist by most devs. It's 50/50 for now I think if it affects the optimization for the base.
What I find interesting about devs complaining about the s is, devs don't seem to complain about the steam deck, or Z1 non extreme, or GeForce 980s still running which are worse than the s. They only seem to mind the S.......... I'm sure install base is the reason. Of course it goes back to them all running A5000s targeting 4090s and then wonder why customers are complaining about performance. Do these people even have a PS5 dev kit? Or any Xbox you can turn into a dev kit? Or a 3070? Did they even try to run it on anything other than a design workstation? The whole industry is a mess.
I'm surprised the casuals even know to go into the menu. The other possibility is that most popular casual games (fortnite, gtav, cod, apex etc) all default to performance. That could swing it. Not that I'm complaining!
@AdamNovice TBH I think xiv mostly thrives because it's primarily a single player story driven game with some occasional required multiplayer and then a ton of optional MMO stuff attached if you want it. The major story moments you CAN'T even do with anyone else, you have to disband parties to enter.
@UltimateOtaku91 Yeah I think it's really about ESRB and getting that E for Everyone rating meaning it must meet children's standards. Obviously none of this is necessary for older ratings. The gender thing is weird though. I've only seen the Type a or b things in Japanese games. Western games still seem to go with gender names, and I didn't think that's a kid unfriendly selection. Kids are familiar with boys vs "icky" girls lol. That's a bizarre one I can only assume is some weird misunderstanding in Japan about criteria.
Comments 6,961
Re: Beat Saber Will Give You More with Britney Spears DLC Song Pack
@LuXifer Funnily I was a late adopter of Beat Saber. Always saw it as "oh one of those games you show VR to non-VR people to wow them but I'm soooo beyond that and into real VR games!" And then one day tried it out of curiosity and got instantly pathetically hooked and started buying up the DLC music packs lol. You can say "it's the same game with different music" but because the blocks are arranged (some tracks better than others) in ways that "feels" right with the music, every track is really different gameplay. Green Day's Father of All gives a great drumming feel, etc. Makes me really wonder how the real drummer's doing it 5x faster lol.
Re: Beat Saber Will Give You More with Britney Spears DLC Song Pack
@LuXifer It supports 120fps on Quest, not sure about on PSVR2, but it's absolutely a psychedelic experience. Brutal. But if you get in the groove it's amazing. Most insane pack is the Daft Punk pack. Not only are they harder than average, but the tracks are like 10 minutes long and you start getting hypnotic by the time you're in the last quarter and that's when the darned tempo changes and you lose your whole combo and end up a B.
@ItsBritneyB_tch There you are! Right on cue.
Re: These LEGO Horizon Adventures Machines Will Make You Want a Real Life Set
@MikeOrator ChatBot NEStalgia says: "Ok. I understand you are looking for 18+ adult tall neck models..."
Re: These LEGO Horizon Adventures Machines Will Make You Want a Real Life Set
With the price of real Lego kits today I think it's cheaper to buy the game and a PS5 Pro than real Legos.
Re: Beat Saber Will Give You More with Britney Spears DLC Song Pack
I absolutely love Beat Saber. I have no idea how people could ever play on the hard difficulties. I play on hard and find it hard enough to get above an A at best. How people are playing 2 difficulties higher and getting S's I will never understand how human reflex can move that fast, at all. And the campaign is brutal. MusicSouls.
I can't actually stand Spears, but, I can like music I hate in BeatSaber when it has a really great box setup that feels great with the music. Might be worth it. And I think Toxic at least would be fun to slice to.
Also, where's that Britney super-fan that used to be a regular here, and why are they not the first post?
Re: Microsoft Is Investigating Why Devs Are Prioritising PS5 Over Xbox
I said it in the PureXbox article about "why I'm glad Xbox doesn't have a pro", and I'll say it here in this article: It's just bad form to be writing these articles on a platform fan site about internal issues with another platform. Everyone knows i think the Pro is walking doom for the benefits of console, but I don't think that argument belongs on an XB site. I think this investigation is a joke and they already know the answer, and so does everyone else, but that's an argument for the Xbox community to have, not the PS community. Just poor form in both articles to fish for engagement.
The endless narrative from posters on this site of "Xbox trained customers to not buy games" gets tiring. Xbox game sales have been roughly equivalent relative to install base to Playstation. Obviously first party game sales are much lower, and that's the loss leader of the platform, you get the first party games for a subscription, but as most major third party games are not on GP, their sales in percentage of install base are roughly similar to PS, taking into account different genres perform better on each, where a new JRPG will do better on PS while, say, a new Assassin's Creed might do better relative to install base on Xbox.
The biggest problem is just that the install base is still much smaller so it becomes the lowest priority of all systems because the total possible sales are simply lower. If they intend to fix that by making the next Xbox a full Windows PC running PC games they can eliminate that problem. Time will tell. But they're not going to suddenly sell a bunch of consoles.
@SlipperyFish FWIW Wukong isn't skipping Xbox, it's just delayed like Baldur's Gate 3 was.
Re: Report Finds Lack of Star Wars Outlaws Sales Disturbing
I think a lot of it is that Disney milks everything till it's gone. They've squeezed SW so that there's so much it doesn't feel rare and exciting anymore, it's just background noise. Add in the Ubisoft controversy and it was going to be rough.
That's a problem with long dev cycles. They start something while a thing is popular and by the time they're done, the thing isn't popular anymore.
Re: Watch Unreal 5's Seriously Impressive MegaLights Tech Demo, Running on a PS5
That's impressive. Much as I've been unhappy with Epic with the so far disaster that is UE5.0 and Fortnite, got to admit they basically just declared that after years and thousands of dollars in hardware per gamer, we don't need RT anymore... Which devs may groan about but every gamer should cheer relentlessly about getting their fps back.
Re: Ghost of Yotei's Gorgeous Open World Will Be Less Repetitive Than Tsushima's
That's good, that's the one complaint I'd had with the original. To think it takes 300 years to make an AAA video game now.
Re: Curb Your Kid's Fortnite Consumption with Epic's New Suite of Parental Controls
@Flaming_Kaiser That all speaks to the collapse of Western society sadly. For thousands of years society worked because one parent was mostly always home raising kids. The modern world was duped into that becoming a luxury of the rich and everyone else is conscripted into perpetual labor and the kids are raised by wolves and other kids, or worse, corporations and government institutions.
Honestly I think the zero dawn fix would probably be for the best.
Re: Games Workshop Noticed Saber's Minor Space Marine 2 Armour Error
Tim Willits is on Warhammer these days?!? Wow had no idea. I think if him as at id forever.
Re: Ever-Evolving, Live Service Experiences Like Fortnite Are 'the Future of Gaming'
@somnambulance Yeah you have a lucky break there. Most modern kids seem to be like jackals, moving only in groups and coordinated via discord. And seem completely hyper. I remember everyone being like they were zombies even I was their age, now suddenly they act like they have an IV drip of Speed.
Re: Ever-Evolving, Live Service Experiences Like Fortnite Are 'the Future of Gaming'
@Yousef- lol depressingly true 😂
IDK that 1-6 will ease you into xiv that much. The feel and vibe yes, but very different combat where 1-6 is classic turn based and 14 is based on real time skill rotations and cool downs. 14 is awesome though no doubt. Monstrosly huge thigh. I played nothing else for 5 months or so and only got half way through the first expansion. I love it but it might be another year before I touch it again lol.
Re: Curb Your Kid's Fortnite Consumption with Epic's New Suite of Parental Controls
Ahh, yes, parenting for the parents of Fortnite addicts. Times up kids, no more Fortnite today, you've had too much, now go wash up and snort all your coke lines and hit the Caesars app for some blackjack before bed.
Re: Lords of the Fallen PS5 Sequel Prioritising 'Elevated Production Values', More 'Commercial' Art Style
What is a "more commercial art style" and why does he say that like it's a good thing?
Re: Ever-Evolving, Live Service Experiences Like Fortnite Are 'the Future of Gaming'
@somnambulance The appeal of fortnite isn't as a game. It's a digital hangout space. 3d Facebook. VrChat without headwear. 2nd life without smut. It's popular because it's a social media platform kids can hang out with friends in. Same with gtav.
Of course a social media platform in 3d would be more popular than a video game.
Re: Ever-Evolving, Live Service Experiences Like Fortnite Are 'the Future of Gaming'
"the future of gaming is Facebook!"
-Tim Sweeney
"Fortnite is the metaverse! Also we're never making VR Fortnite in the actual metaverse"
-Tim Sweeney
Between this and his POS UE5 engine that runs well on absolutely nothing, I'm starting to really dislike Sweeney. Didn't really like him in the 90s either though.
Easy for the guy that's at the top of live service to say live service is the future. He's also the reason it's NOT the future for other games. Maybe after he loses all his players to someone else's live service he'll be all in on jazz jackrabbit 4.
Re: Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe Behind Dragon Age: The Veilguard's Rousing Soundtrack
I love Zimmer but "we hired Hollywood talent" as a selling point makes me even more dubious about this game...
Re: PS5 Pro 'Absolutely Rocks', According to No Man's Sky Engine Programmer
I respect Hello Games immensely, but I always find these comments from devs weird. They make a multiplatform game. The game already does way more on PC than it can do on the Pro. There's nothing new the pro introduces it just does more than the previous console did, but still not as much as the game already does on PCs that are higher end. "For a console, it's really good" makes sense. A blanket statement that sounds like it introduces new capabilities to the game that didn't already exist on other platforms, no, that makes no sense. There's so much hyperbole around this thing already and I'm not sure why devs throw themselves into that, though Hello of course has a close history with Sony, I doubt that still applies currently.
@Bobtheking It was unusable blurry at launch. It was basically broken from Feb 2023-April 2023. Had a big improvement in May. They patched it multiple times, added foveated rendering, etc, it's now one of the sharpest games on the platform with draw distance for miles and miles. The Jun 2023 patch turned it into pure eye candy.
@Tomato_Goose NMS is, IMO, the PSVR2 system seller.
Re: Sony Fights Scalpers in Japan By Demanding PS5, PS4 Playtime
IDK, I have probably thousands of hours since PS4, and I probably don't have that many trophies and only 2 platinum. But as long as it's a reasonable and stated value it seems like a fair idea. It does hurt first time buyers, of course. And also highlights very clearly that the target market for the Pro is not new customers but upgrading existing customers. New customers can't even buy one.
@get2sammyb I'm sure the bots could play Pet the Kitty or whatever that game was to rack up trophies, lol.
Re: Sony's Live Service Push 'No Joke', A Lot of People Working on Horizon Online
@Flaming_Kaiser Oh man there's a name I haven't heard in ages. I played a a little bit waaaaay back when it was new, but I couldn't get very far because the PC I had at the time just couldn't handle it.
I agree, though, I'm not a big multiplayer person, but I enjoy XIV's group dungeons, and I'm a huge Splatoon nut, so I'm not anti-multiplayer, but the problem with multiplayer is that by nature you can really only absorb one or two of them (friend coop aside), because they become a dedication of time by necessity.
Re: Final Fantasy 16 Receives Permanent Price Cut on PS5 as Complete Edition Launches
@Flaming_Kaiser I'm not sure what devs are thinking with one of this stuff. The thing, though is, that ray tracing is much easier and faster to implement and looks better at the same time. So I can see why devs prefer to implement it. Pretty much hit a button, it's automatic, and looks better than anything done manually becuase it makes lighting work like it does in reality. Plus devs just like playing with the tools they have.
But at this point they have to all know that it just isn't viable for modern hardware. The simulations of lighting an entire real world are just too much for current hardware and will continue to be so for quite a long time. So I'm sure they did it because it's fast and cheap to do and looks good.
But what I don't get is YoshiP is the guy who had to clean up the mess of FFXIV OG, he's the guy with the dev diaries about the original team focusing on gfx above anything else and had issues like the flower pots that had more polygons than the player character. Then he goes on to make XVI that cripples a 4090 and simply can not run at full speed on any hardware that money can buy because it focused too much on gfx...?? Isn't he the one that complained about other devs in square doing that?
Totally agreed, about square (and every dev) needing to work to the limitations of the platform. It's bad enough that multiplats don't do it, but now we have exclusives that don't even run right on the only hardware it runs on.
Masuda was a horrible leader, and it seems like the new CEO may be a lot more level headed. That said, my own theory on selling half the company to Embracer is more complicated. I don't think they sold the whole thing for peanuts. I think they were swimming in debt up to their eyeballs and sold off half the company for "peanuts" with all their debt bundled into the sale, I.E. the real price to Embracer was much more than the purchase price, as they had to absorb a mountain of debt commensurate with the real price of what they bought, and magically Square was in the black again.
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
@themightyant Switch is only about 45M ahead of 3ds+wiiu, which is still a lot of course but less dramatic. And Nintendo of course is a bit of it's own market while ps and Xbox are direct competitors if not outright clones. I'm terms of Xbox being only somewhat down, it's true, but also remember that the series s is its biggest seller, where the goal was to reach a new market, and they did, but at the cost of just trading it for losing part of their existing market to ps due to blundering.
I would still say Sonys current hardware success is similar to PS4, lack of a competitor. And Xbox is never going to pull their head from their backside on console because they don't really care (even though they should.). But I still see Sony taking that and running, PS3 style, until they start creating competition where the previously had none, if only in the shape of mobile, streaming, etc making easier inroads to consumer sentiment. And you're still forgetting that adding the China market boosts that hardware sales number, yes, but also hides the overall declines in existing markets
Re: Insider Report Adds Context to Assassin's Creed Shadows' Big Delay
@KeenAerondight Err one of the most popular AC games is set in ancient Africa? Dunno why they didn't have a Mayan protagonist though.
Re: Insider Report Adds Context to Assassin's Creed Shadows' Big Delay
The fact that the inclusion of Yasuke is generating non stop screaming about this game is mission accomplished. He's there to flare controversy to push the game up the media ladder. It's the same reason bear sex was in the BG3 trailer.
To the people screening "racism", get over yourselves. Assassin's Creed fans don't object to playing an African. most assassins creed fans will point to the game you play an African (Bayek) as one of their top 3 or 5 AC games and would be all over a sequel. But nobody wants to play an African in the Japanese ac game. Nobody wants to play a Peruvian in the American AC game. Nobody wants to play a German in the Italian AC game. Nobody wants to play a Russian in the British AC game.
Re: Dragon of Dojima Roars in Official Like a Dragon: Yakuza Trailer
I love how they're actually calling this "Like a Dragon: Yakuza", since Makoto references that name as a move playing at the theater in p5 Strikers.
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
@JayJ Gotta get those 33rd anniversary PS6 Amateur preorders in now! Only 666 units available (bundled with 90" OLED Bravia only.)
@LogicStrikesAgain I think the issue with "AAA" gaming is that while there still will always be a market for it, that market is decreasingly large enough to support ever increasing costs of making it. Either the market for it needs to dramatically grow or the prices need to dramatically increase which necessarily shrinks the market again to unsustainably small numbers. Neither can really happen, so either "AAA" needs to cost less to make, or be refined as something other than "looks indestinguishable from live action".
I can't tell what direction (s) the industry will take. I can't tell if it'll be all bad or mostly good. But I do know it'll be very very different than it was....
Re: Sony Product Manager Urges PS5 Fans to 'Settle Down' Over Ads
Glad the bug people were right on this one. It says a lot about how much we trust Sony at this point that most of us including staff instantly assumed it was a new ad initiative.
How a bug like that got into the wild is inexplicable. Gone are the halcyon days of PS4 stability.
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
@themightyant #1, not officially. Xbox, Nintendo, steam etc sell keys though official vendors and third parties. Sony officially pulled selling game cards in most markets. The key vendors selling ps keys are selling from markets that they didn't kill it, which is how cheap keys exist for other stores too, but while the others officially do it in primary markets, Sony ended doing so. (Notice on major retailers you can buy digital Nintendo games and digital Xbox games but not digital ps games. You used to be able to until JimStation ended it
#3 PS5 is selling close to PS4 in the same way Xbox is selling 1:2. The fomo launch drove a lot of momentum until reality kicked in and sales have slumped. Keeping in mind they're picking up a lot of Xbox lost customers in that number and that they entered China this generation yet are merely nearly at PS4 levels... They're missing that surge of customers from the slim discount period.
To the last point. They're working on pricing themselves to irrelevance. Yes it's super famous now, but attrition continuing across hardware lifetimes, and eroding software sales will have an ongoing cumulative impact until it's top heavy.
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
@LogicStrikesAgain Agreed, printing money is the only cause of inflation and decades of QE was the most idiotic possible thing that ever could have been imagined. But a lot of the issue is also congressionally driven and the Fed is caught trying to put the pin in the grenade after throwing it.
As for consoles, we're already there at that point and it's getting worse. Yes we need to roll back technology and we need to roll back games themselves. Gunpei Yokoi knew this is where it would end up back in the mid 90s even before 3 financial crisis. is why Nintendo took that advice and keeps technology back. Yes they overcharge. Badly. I don't like their practices but they have the idea on tech in check so they don't end up here.
We've got to the point where "AAA games" aren't practical to make for a reasonable price and then we need hardware all but enthusiasts can't justify affording to barely adequately run it, meanwhile sales on said games are cratering as prices rise. On top of that the masses have mostly moved to playing far simpler games on far more accessible devices and the money in those is far greater. The games and tech need to roll back in time to manage reality. And it is happening with it without Sony and Xbox following already.
At this point this "aaa" console gaming crowd is more and more becoming a niche of old guys with money and doesn't represent the bulk of gaming which is dangerous for Sony because that leans into their natural inclinations and also doesn't have a future for long term gaming customers and also misses the core of who most games are made for. Young people don't even buy TVs
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
@HonestHick Sony is the only one in court because they're the only one locking customers to buy on their store only. Xbox, steam, even Nintendo sell keys through many third parties and retailers. Only Sony actively REMOVED that option to control pricing and eliminate middle men, placing them in the same position as Apple and Google while the others are still selling though channels of competition.
@themightyant Sony has fine revenue. Their problem isn't a need to increase revenue it's the need to cut their absurd expenses. And I didn't mean more layoffs.
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
@LogicStrikesAgain Yep. That ends very badly though. It bites themselves in the end (after it destroys everyone else.) When parasites kill the host, it kills them too. The only reason "business as usual" has persisted to now was the public collectively defecit spending. But it's hit rock bottom. As these companies "need" more money on the products, they'll lose sales continuously until they (not necessarily PS, but also not necessarily not), end up unsustainable. As we've seen in the games industry already, then you get the rounds of layoffs, consolidation, closures, but for more and more of the economy. Right now the economy is depending on the top third to do all the spending that the bottom 2 thirds used to. And for now they are, but it's an illusion as they're only spending in certain areas.
Guaranteed, this ends in the largest economic nightmare that's been seen since WWII. Maybe not this year, maybe not in 3 years. But it's coming, and I don't see how it's avoidable now. People pass off "but everything is more expensive, oh well" are missing the bigger, much more dangerous picture. The Fed sees it, it's why they've been clobbering interest to try to stem it and the companies keep making end runs around it. They know the spiral we're in. The big banks keep warning too.
In console land, if things don't change, the next gen will be way worse than this one. This one's doing ok because the early upshot at the old prices in the old economy jump started it. Real sales at new pricing in the new economy are not going to do so well. Game sales tell us a lot about how the games market is really doing, and they've been terrible. More and more of the market is just moving to F2P gatcha on whatever device they have because consoles priced themselves into that "weird" premium space where people are willing to pay a lot, but not nearly enough people.
Edit: Outside electronics I actually have seen more and more companies making cheaper versions of product that they used to make, so there ARE price reductions happening through more utilitarian manufacturing to meet the economy. Not in all sectors, but some elements DO get it. Electronics will have to keep up if it wants to survive too.
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
@TheMightyImp2 See, once we start comparing what was once commodity consumer products to designer fashion of which the sole purpose is an outward demonstration of social status, is the moment that electronics have jumped away from being what they were, and why most people who bought them, bought them.
No, a $700 console isn't a lot of money compared to a Luis Vuitton jacket, a Mercedes, a bungalow in in Costa Rica, a Lear twin engine, or the deed to the Empire State Building. It's still asinine for a console that's marginally better than the $500 console that was already overpriced. I'd joke that maybe next they'll sell multi-thousand dollar 24k gold plated playstations, but I recall a Push Square article years ago about a 3rd party seller that was already doing that........
FWIW, IDK the exact dollar amounts for the Xbox All Access, I just know it's a 2- year GPU subscription and the console rolled into monthly payments. They don't advertise it much anymore these days.
I know that's what Apple started. If they want to make Playstation a brand for the Vuitton crowd, they can do that, but they should also expect most of their customers may just take their game purchasing elsewhere.
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
@LogicStrikesAgain @jgrangervikings1 Xbox does exactly that with the All Access program.
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
@LogicStrikesAgain Yes, we were talking PS6.
Though I'd argue PS5 price is still too high for the current economy, and sales numbers are reflecting that as it is. A lot of previous gen sales happened after price cuts below $400. It's bull pricing in a hibernating bear market.
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
@TheMightyImp2 "Most people have a £1,500"
Err, no. Most people have a $200-400 phone. Some people have a $500-1000 phone. $1500 phones are status symbols for a very particular group. However vs the days of the PS2, people do have to frequently spend at least a few hundred on a phone, which also depletes their disposable income along with many other essentials that didn't exist back then.
@themightyant If consoles want to survive, yes consoles need to be cheaper, and stop chasing the technology dragon. They can't keep just jacking up prices forever, while the masses have even LESS spending power and expect to actually maintain sales. At this point they should just stick with PS5 for the next 30 years if that's the cheapest they can get it. Ever more expensive consoles do not have a place in the world, and just saying every few years "whelp, tech price is forever static so the next 10% will cost you another $500 vs last time" doesn't work. If they want to say console gaming is just for the rich, well....good luck on software sales, which are already in the toilet as-is.
I get what you're saying but the argument that tech is done evolving, pricing for performance is static forever, and every improvement will be done by stacking ever more cost onto the current pricing, frankly spells the end of technology as a consumer product and moves us very rapidly toward an all thin client cloud future faster than you can say "Cerny".
Spiraling cost of goods, coupled with ever decreasing disposable income = hard recession that makes 2008 look like a dress rehearsal or full depression that makes 1930 look like the good old days. You may be right about how the businesses will run things, but I'm also right about what happens after.
Also keep in mind that the economy was propped up through inflation by a mix of the rich spending twice as much, and both rich and poor depleting their savings almost entirely. The public basically did a bail-out of the economy and it's the only reason we're not looking at a depression already. But that trick worked only once. The savings is gone and not coming back. So what happens next? These companies are living on yesterday. It won't hold up forever.
Re: Tech Experts Reckon PS5 Pro Could Help Pave the Way to PS6
Paid beta testing. You loved it in software, now you can do it in hardware, too! How about. Design the PS6. Then sell the PS6. Hard concept?
Of course BC games will run on the PS6 in Pro mode just as happened with 4Pro and 1X.
But, I'm getting disillusioned with DF that seems to be acting as a marketing arm for Sony ever since the PS5 Pro came around, and is now stating the obvious like it's a unique advantage of the Pro. And still ignores the strangeness that Sony felt it needed its own upscaler proprietary to themselves as though the GPU vendor isn't already including it.
Just from their fawning over Pro and carrying water, I don't think I could ever trust DF to have non-biased opinions. Their measurements are fine, but their opinions, no, they're too biased to the new shiny or whoever's PR department is copying up to them at the moment.
@themightyant ", times have changed, EVERYTHING is more expensive. "
While that's true for what to expect on pricing I also don't buy it. "Times changed" for corporate profit goals, corporate B2B trade etc. Times did NOT change in the same direction for consumers who have less disposable income now than they did with then PS5 launched and have depleted most to all savings, where income effectively remained the same, but non-discretionary spending doubled. Where $500 was passable for a mainstream console in 2020, $400 would be pushing it today for the mainstream consumer. Sure the enthusiasts would spend $10,000 on the latest PS just to have it, but not the masses, whom they need for software sales.
You're not wrong that companies don't seem to understand that and won't price accordingly. Let's see if we can turn the looming recession into a depression!
Re: Final Fantasy 16 Receives Permanent Price Cut on PS5 as Complete Edition Launches
@HonestHick The PS6 if it's releasing in the next 3 years and is AMD based and is not over $1k, is not going to be 4090 tier. What you see on PC now is as good as you're going to see this game until it's inevitable remake (where they make it a time traveling trilogy and Torgal is a being from another dimension seeking to conquer the world.) The engine is just pure garbage and I can't for the life of me understand why they gave anything Luminous based another go. That said, Rebirth managed to make UE5 just as bad....
There's a few dogs out there right now that even 4090's can't brute force. This is the big one (and also the low settings and ultra settings are almost the same. Looks similar, performs similar and in fact ultra has much better shadows with little performance hit vs low which isn't very low and still performs bad.) Metaphor: Refantazio's demo is another. Out of the box high settings drag 4090s to 40fps. It's not a super advanced looking game, just horribly optimized like every game today. That said, at least Metaphor gets 30fps stable on my non-extreme ally, so low settings at least scale nicely.
Something is seriously WRONG with everything in game dev. That ever game plops off the line barely functional on literally THE most expensive, best, exotic hardware money can buy at any price..... It's like selling a toaster that sparks and arcs with a chewed up electric cord insulation but "works."
Re: Fans Appear to Be Coming Around to PS5 Pro
@naruball Yeah, I don't necessarily mean on an individual game level. The armchair experts don't know that, but frankly, neither do the executives. It's all just a gamble. But where many armchair experts have a clue where then 7-figured clueless executives don't seem to is the overall and longer term strategies. Not just in gaming, look at (in the US) the big retailer collapses, various other corporate collapses. Every one of them was obvious as day to the rabble, but the execs kept on trucking in the wrong direction sure of their genius (and some of them did so knowingly, skimming off the top for a cash out, of course.) Countless strong brands, good stores/products gone, not because the brand or product wasn't desirable, or could even not have been at the top, but because it was mismanaged into the ground. There's been more company closures due to blatant mismanagement than actual brand failure or lack of product demand. Just because their daddy could buy their way into Yale, doesn't mean they're actually smart.
Re: Bickering Begins Over PS5 Pro's Inability to Sell Out
Overall I think it's a good thing for manufacturers to not run out, to produce enough to meet demand, and to not try to use artificial scarcity and FOMO to sell products.
I think where people are cynical here is that's not Sony's MO. They've thrived on sell out mobs, and FOMO as their main strategy for a while, so while for a normal company we could look and say "they did a good job with supply." With Sony you have to question a lack of sellout FOMO meaning "uh oh, it's not selling as planned." ..... like PSVR2.
If they really just made enough then I commend them and expect them to repeat that trick with PS6. But we know it's not going to work that way, don't we?
Re: Prospective PS6 Purchasers Would Consider a Portable Model
@jrt87 I had my Game Boy in a huge hard plastic briefcase type shell box!
Ironically I just put a glass screen protector on my launch switch and toss it in my pocket though Holds up fine. I still miss 3DS. Legion.....does not fit in a pocket.....
Though the switch does feel REALLY TINY and pocketable next to Ally and Legion. I think if it more like a GB pocket now and it seemed big at launch.
@1UP-HUSKY @naruball If you think the consoles are bad until you think of phones, try thinking of workstation laptops! $2k-3k on your back.....you need a private security detail
Re: Final Fantasy 16 Receives Permanent Price Cut on PS5 as Complete Edition Launches
It'll go on sales fast I think. This brings it down to match PC pricing (good on Square!), and PC pricing is holding its price because it's a brand new release. It'll drop in price on sales quickly on PC I think, and console will probably follow.
@HonestHick Thing cripples 4090. Pro won't do squat for it. You'll get an even sharper, more detailed 30fps mode and a still inconsistent but maybe somewhat less blurry 60fps mode.
Even 4090 users are having huge issues with 60fps mode being wildly inconsistent. Even on 4090 it will NOT hit stable 60fps without relying heavily on framegen and DLSS. Some users have taken to disabling SSR and AO to then turn off framegen and dynamic res to get a true 60fps, where apparently SSR is extremely over-accurate in calculating water reflections and some other surfaces and contributing to the big dips, because for some reason the devs decided using all the GPU to do advanced simulations of light refraction was a good idea.
Bottom line: That's the best a 4090 can do with this wildly broken engine. Pro doesn't stand a chance. It'll be less bad than on base PS5. It'll still be bad. 4090 will be less bad than Pro. It's still bad.
Re: 'Difficult to Comment' on Astro Bot's Square Enix Snub, Says Team Asobi
@UltimateOtaku91 That would place it under Masuda's watch. Everything he did was bizarre in decision making. If we flash back that's when they were selling half the company, investing all in on NFTs etc. Maybe the value of NFT cloud seemed better than the trinket they'd get for Astrobot collabs? Square seems maybe more on track with the new leadership. At the time they were probably assuming XVI and Rebirth would be 20-million sellers.
Re: PS5 Firmware Update Annoys with Unwanted Deluge of Ads, News Feed
Hopefully everyone saying it's a bug is correct. OTOH, that's a heck of a think to accidentally get into the firmware. "Accidentally" changing the background image from static game art to a live feed doesn't happen, so if this isn't the intended result one wonders what the intended result actually is, and it still seems clear the ability to shove a live feed as the background is baked into the system and is indeed the reason for no custom backgrounds. Either way, intentional or not, their ability to control the backgrounds is a core part of their design.
@Grumblevolcano At this point, every stupid thing MS does, after the flames die down, Sony just copies it and gets a free coat of "but it's Sony so it's different" applied. They're the same console.
@tameshiyaku Agreed. I like now the modern narrative around tech is "well it doesn't come down in price anymore, it just keeps getting more expensive."
So, what, in 2040, PS5 will still be produced and on shelves for $550 and PS5 Pro for 700 for those that want that level of technology while PS8 will be $2200 for those that want that level? Better come with a lot of RGB and an ATX form factor. I don't buy it. Tech still comes down in price, the problem is that the advancement of tech slowed to a crawl so that the need for new products to replace old ones is now a 10-15 year wait vs 2-3 years 20 years ago. But they need to keep reselling the same thing slightly better at higher prices and higher costs of production because their business models crumble without planned obsolescence cycles, where tech has really arrived to the point it's like microwaves. You keep it 10 years until it breaks, then buy the same one again. But the 90's tech business model doesn't allow that.
Re: PS5 Firmware Update Annoys with Unwanted Deluge of Ads, News Feed
@tameshiyaku to be fair, only about half of the ultra loyal population here bought a pro and they're still available to order, so I'm not sure it's working this time...
@BushSwan believe it or not, Metas quest platform is ad free putting it ahead of ps and Ms now. Though you can bet they're harvesting scary data with a headset so it's a phyrric victory.
Re: PS5 Firmware Update Annoys with Unwanted Deluge of Ads, News Feed
Wow, who would have thought that Sony would do everything they possibly can try make sure Xbox doesn't look so bad?
And here we thought the little Doritos and Old Spice ads in a little tile in the Xbox dashboard we're bad. Now PS5 makes that look like the tasteful design.
Oh thank feck I'm escaping console.
@jrt87 don't forget the comical number of button presses to shut down, the fact that long press of ps button differs from any other device, and, how you have to sit and wait while games delete or copy.
@Yousef- 🤣🤣🤣
@Reptilio if it's online you do. Last tile on the second row is always an ad, though many times it's just a game pass ad so you may not notice but it's also been for razer controllers, Doritos, old spice, monster energy, McDonald's, the game awards, ironically TLoU TV show, etc. much of the time is a game or game pass
Re: Author Pulls PC God of War Ragnarok PSN Mod, Fearful of Sony's Wrath
Not surprising, like how immediately after Eurogamer interviewed Luke Ross the vr modder, Rockstar issued cease and desists, and then wouldn't even reply to him OR patreon about that copyrights he allegedly violated considering he doesn't distribute any rockstar materials, just a mod for their game. They never replied and that's their game. Threaten, then ghost, so if you want to find out what they're accusing you of you have to face their litigation in court. Even if they're bluffing, which they've done before and lost to a modder in court. But most can't risk their whole life to find out. Sony may not be like Rockstar but they possibly are.
Re: Fans Appear to Be Coming Around to PS5 Pro
@Rich33 Personally I have a more cynical take on pssr. Fsr isn't as good as dlss, it's true, but the console implementation is clearly using the low quality performance mode and not the much higher ultra quality modes. The console could have implemented much better fsr modes. There was no reason for PlayStation to implement their own proprietary version of something the soc already has. My best guess is they just wanted to r&d ai tech and silicon for their own use in other industries and ps seemed a good way to get customers to pay for their internal r&d meant for other things.
That said it's really the ONLY main feature of the console. And getting good scaling is an upgrade for sure. But them "pulling a Sony" and reinventing the wheel and charging for it simply to make it their own is like nails on a chalkboard to me!
As for affecting the base console optimization is a good question. If we look at new 3ds the answer is yes. Some games like monhun 4 barely ran on the base model after that. Otoh, PS4 pro was basically ignored like it didn't exist by most devs. It's 50/50 for now I think if it affects the optimization for the base.
What I find interesting about devs complaining about the s is, devs don't seem to complain about the steam deck, or Z1 non extreme, or GeForce 980s still running which are worse than the s. They only seem to mind the S.......... I'm sure install base is the reason. Of course it goes back to them all running A5000s targeting 4090s and then wonder why customers are complaining about performance. Do these people even have a PS5 dev kit? Or any Xbox you can turn into a dev kit? Or a 3070? Did they even try to run it on anything other than a design workstation? The whole industry is a mess.
I'm surprised the casuals even know to go into the menu. The other possibility is that most popular casual games (fortnite, gtav, cod, apex etc) all default to performance. That could swing it. Not that I'm complaining!
Re: Sony's Live Service Push 'No Joke', A Lot of People Working on Horizon Online
@AdamNovice TBH I think xiv mostly thrives because it's primarily a single player story driven game with some occasional required multiplayer and then a ton of optional MMO stuff attached if you want it. The major story moments you CAN'T even do with anyone else, you have to disband parties to enter.
Re: Dragon Quest Veterans on Dealing with 'Ridiculous Country' USA Amid Censorship Row
@UltimateOtaku91 Yeah I think it's really about ESRB and getting that E for Everyone rating meaning it must meet children's standards. Obviously none of this is necessary for older ratings. The gender thing is weird though. I've only seen the Type a or b things in Japanese games. Western games still seem to go with gender names, and I didn't think that's a kid unfriendly selection. Kids are familiar with boys vs "icky" girls lol. That's a bizarre one I can only assume is some weird misunderstanding in Japan about criteria.