NotSoCryptic

"What do you think middle management does while staff are striking? Do they wander empty offices, trying to look useful? "

They keep working. They are actually very busy and will likely be happy to have a slightly lighter workload until they are slammed again.

Though I feel like Ubisoft is about to become 700 employees lighter after this.

Wow it's almost like I was right all this time. I'm not the only one who pointed out the failure in logic here from Microsoft.

That pressure existed mostly from Microsoft and really only Microsoft. The reason is Microsoft needs sony to switch to this format more than sony or the gaming community at large needs this. Especially the older generations. Id go as far as to point out that this illustrates nintendos point about mobile and game pricing 10 or so years ago. Where this has initiated an unsustainable race to the bottom and devalues games. Nintendo has more than shown that services of this sort are not needed.

Hmmm who it serves. 2 to 1, MS. 2 to 1. Think about it. That's based on just shipped and not taking account steep price cuts to try and close a 3 to 1.

So basically ghost in the shell-esque nudity. I can live with that. Not sure it's worth the AO rating, but that's Korea.

Combination of reasons lead to this. The first being they started off the year with a hardware drought. Not a bad one, but it was still slowing down sales. Then there was another dip around November for the redesign. If memory serves this unit made it possible for the Xbox for the first time in Japan's history to outsell a playstation or at least the ps5. We also didn't see any price reductions in December to help with holiday shopping. 3 years at the same price point makes consumers use to regular price drops concerned. Xbox managed to get the series x down to 350 and in some places as low as 250 with stores just trying to move inventory taking up space. This might have put a few people off from buying playstation 5, in order to hold themselves over a bit longer till a ps5 drop does happen.

So sony did kind of hurt their forecast a bit, but ff7 rebirth is less than a month a way, there is a good chance in 2 weeks time, ff7 rebirth could see a sudden influx of ps5 purchases. Gamers that waited till rebirth was available in order to get their hands on a ps5. That could make the cut off. 3mil is a razor thin margin for a company that has managed to sell as much as 2m in one months time of its other platforms. I think they are just being overly cautious, thinking rebirth fans like myself have mostly purchased a ps5 already, as I have at launch.

@ED_209 layoffs have already mostly happened for sony, just not as heavily reported. Sony's biggest issue is them not releasing as many games as they use to in a year. Relying heavily on third parties to fill the release schedule. If it wasn't for these margins we probably wouldn't even see pc releases. That is where we are at the moment.

That being said I'm not sure where you're getting 14mos from. Sony has 3 titles lined up as a possible game to have out later this year. Right now ff7 rebirth and rise of the Ronin are their current focus. Not releasing anything this year would be problematic and they know it.

Thank you for putting no PS5 Platinum's in the Con's list.

@Fritz167 Well you're in luck. Go to the main page of Push Square and you'll find them.

Code for, its microtransaction hell and we desparately need you to buy this game to recoup the 10+ years of development time we poured into a product we should have cancelled.

Good ridance. Also not news and not the entire community. Only digital content I have from them was through codes I got from my discs. I was not concerned with that nonsense. Their streaming services were awful to begin with and a pain to navigate. Happy to see all that transfer over to CR.

Anyway shame on anyone who bought digital content thinking they owned it. You deserve every bit of disatisfaction you're getting over this. You were warned.

I don't think MS really cares what happens to ATVI or BLIZZ. I could see the FTC actually winning, as it would force MS to abandon two bad apples from the outset. Hell this was probably the plan all along. Then MS gets the pie it wanted, King. MS has what it wants. Guess we'll see how much value the two has for GamePass and them becoming a 3rd party in the end.

@RockLoi
lol no you didn't.

@Unlucky13 You still had that in Remake, I haven't touched Rebirth yet, waiting till the 29th so I can binge on it. mostly on a black out. Sadly articles like this exist lol.

Anyway, you still switch between characters on the fly in FF7 Remake and you really had to on hard mode. There just wasn't any way around that if you want to survive a fight. It's ironically the natural evolution of what FF12 and FF13 were trying to accomplish, but couldn't quite stick the landing in either. Way to automated. You're still fussing with skill trees. I assume the weapon growth system is present, which was a lot of fun prioritizing what you needed to build out. Right sword, gloves, staff, gun arm for the job. Not to mention the classic accessories system. It was a very well thought out evolution of what FF7 had done, which made it all the more potent.

I'd go as far as to say that the only thing that really differentiates FF7R from FF7 combat wise is that its faster and requires your micromanagement to be selective, be cloud, because at that moment, its most effective to be cloud. Be Barret because its most effective to be him. Even my little combo genie of death Tifa, she was the driving force in a lot of my fights. I'd say FF7R is way more involved and challenging than the original was because of how Remake better leverages the ideas the original FF7 put forth.

Rebirth as I understand it does allow character switching. I have no idea if that functions like FFX or some variation of that, but something tells me you can switch party members with your PHS just like in the original at the exact same point as the original game. Right after Kalm I think.

@Unlucky13 first chapter of rebirth? You do know how kalm goes in the original ff7 right lol? FF games have always been interactive stories. Not sure how this is different.

All of ff7s companions are cool.

Fix your header please. Its misleading.

@GuttyYZ eh kinda. If he just said he over saw atvi and blizzard, no to do over that, we know this already. However older titles not so much, that work wouldn't be worth mentioning in a new position unless that position is doing more work for the likes of zenimax and ms studios. What this does reinforce what we've been hearing.

Dead-Box, ya I'm ok with us saving their software from obscurity and brining them to a platform with life in it. Especially second party releases like Lost Odyssey or Infinite Undiscovery. Gears on PS5 would be nice if 1-3 got the Gears 1 Ultimate treatement.

@MFTWrecks Never asked you to apologize. Just that your point of view is silly. One could argue that WZ has been pushing the bounderies on Battle Royale for a while now.

@RockLoi Not sure what your point is with invite systems, but the at irretation is enough for me to not get the game if it does not implement that. Especially if the game has a bad system for invites to begin with. Monster Hunter Rise being a good example of such a case where the invite system is so convoluted that just using the PSN system would have made sense. I understand the need for cross play functionality making it a little complicated like on Tekken 8, but even tekken 8 lets me send invites and get drawn directly into the session upon recieving them.

They are entitled to their opinion about the health of their community, but lets be fair here, any company taking that position just doesn't like money and just killing their community anyway by reducing its size. To that, good luck to them.

@Nepp67 You are apparently. I'm not upset. You keep conflating things to being "upset". This is literally what I said:

"Then I'm not bothering with Foamstars. Good luck with that."

I explained my position, it doesn't meet my standards for a title I'll buy. Then you got all butt hurt and decided to make it about feelings.

@MFTWrecks we get 3 new genres in the last 15 years and you think the whole industry is advancing forward, when they are doing the same exact thing. You're funny.

Not as half as funny as one of those genres resulting in one of the most profitable cod packages, warzone and warzone 2. I think you need to return to cod and see how it's changed.

@Korgon blops6 aside. I agree with you. We have a ton of open space and open world titles. In a world where so many games are making that unlikely and sometimes dreadful switch. It's a breath of fresh air to have something more traditional. After uncharted 4's attempt at making that work for a couple of brief levels, I was ready to quit the franchise and never come back. Literally the most hated aspect of the game for me. People rave about mgs5, another title I felt like it was betrayed by design. Made encounters way to easy and added a lot of wasted time between me and what I wanted... the puzzle box of stealth. MGS5 was better adapted to it and I have no doubt that Kojima will fix those issues in his new espionage game, now that he's finally divorced from mgs to do something fresh.

So with cod I agree, it probably isn't what people buy the game for at the end of the day. I certainly hate wz, big fing empty map with nothing to do till someone takes you out or you wait the clock put long enough to become someone's villain, meanwhile running around looting stuff. Just isn't fun. It's not something that should be injected into campaign. Maybe on a smaller scale, but I think they should look to funneling into set pieces if they do. At the same time I'm sure the devs are sick of making the same game for each release. Probably how we ended up with zombies. I will not be surprised if they start taking on fighting games and platformers and metroidvanias to cod at this rate.

@themightyant I am the joke :'(

@JB_Whiting on the contrary they care about the campaign very much and they have data to back up that part of their user base does. The venn diagram for the demographic is pretty spread, leading to any part of the game being missing or of lesser quality than the rest, results in reduced profits. Vangaurd had a decent campaign with choppy mp, it got hit so hard that it's anyone's guess when sledgehammer does another cod as lead studio outside of expansion content like mw3. Conversely (and I feel bad for sledge getting hit with a double wammy) mw3 didn't do as well as the previous two entries and caught a ton of flack over its campaign, see this discussion lol.

Mw3's reuse of WZ maps has more to do with being strapped for time and bad leadership trying to make up for a series of mistakes. I would not be surprised if mw3s flip flopping between full release and dlc had a large part to do with it turning out the way it did. We will be able to contrast that difference later this year with what ever this game is even if it's blops6.

I also wouldn't back on this being called gulf War, no one at Activision is that stupid to call this game that. Especially when 80% of American's youth not being able to tell the difference between gulf and golf. That isn't even the top reason for such a lame name that even marketing won't want to touch. So there is a chance that even this information is second had and just wrong.

@Mintie @voltan

The complaints were more levied at the quality of the maps, not their more open nature. MW3 wasn't really open world either, it just had open maps. Don't understand why eu publications keep failing to make this distinction. They keep this up, they'll be calling uncharted 4 open world before long.

That being said, call of duty doesn't exactly turn on a dime and blops6 has been in development much longer than mw3 was, with its single year of development. Additionally this is a blops title not a mw title. If you liked cold War, you should like what they are doing at Raven. You'll still have big set pieces, you'll see a more expanded version of maps with legitimate reason to be that size, I would not be surprised if they have stage select functionality given what we saw in cold war. After 4 years this should be a long title with a lot of polish. I wouldn't worry about it being an end to the franchise. It'll certainly give players something to talk about. Even if they hate it. Id say next years title will probably also walk the same path, but I don't think 2026 will.

@themightyant call of duty is promised to all platforms, including nintendos next generation switch for the next 10 years. Not that it matters since it looks like everything from dead box is coming to ps5.

@Korgon keep in mind mw3 was developed in a year using resources it had. Blogs 6 has been in development for 4 years. You can't just back track that work in 6 months after getting feedback on MW3.

@Nepp67 False. It's not just cosmetic. Conditions within the game trigger the trophy, conditions decided upon by the developer. Ergo, it impacts how the game is played. A player in question who works for those conditions, especially when several other conditions are supplied for other trophies as mandated by the service it's running on, makes this an omission. Thus the player will play the game differently. Likely focusing only on a handful of objectives here and there without paying any mind to the others. For playstation this is pretty serious as acquiring 100% provides recognition for that achievement and by extension increases your PSN level and PSN Platinum Trophy count.

You may not value trophies, but that has no barring on the facts above. Like it or not its a feature, it impacts game play, it takes away something that has become standard as part of the PlayStation experience.

As far as you calling me genuinely childish for not buying something becuase of it. That has to be the most obsurd bit of copium I've heard in this decade. I can choose the parameters by which I decide a product is worth it to me. If I decide a company is not living up to my expectations for a product and thus conversely decide not to buy it or play it based on that criteria, then that is a pretty adult and non-childish thing to do to not waste my time with it. I'd even argue that your level of outrage over the matter, enough to call someone childish over it, is the only genuinely childish thing happening here. So quit being a child and getting upset because I don't agree with you and won't buy this game because of my own personal priorities.

@Nepp67 accept it does, when achievements themselves are a part of the game. Platinum trophies are a part of the eco system of that platform. It's basically omitting a feature.

The fact you think that way means you don't making trophies part of your experience, but to me it's like removing a side quest.

Then I'm not bothering with Foamstars. Good luck with that.

Tell ya what MS, I'll be happy to call you friend and accept your push to 3rd Party if the following comes true:

1) Gears on PlayStation
2) Talk to any x360 dev you second partied into a PS5 remaster, namely Lost Odyssey, Infinite Undiscovery, and Blue Dragon
3) when all is said and done give me no reason to hold onto my X360 anymore and sell my Xbox Series X so I can buy all this *****.

@Matroska @theSpectre Um this conversation is working off completely outdated information.

Yes 3m seems low when compared to something like FF7 Remake. Given how well FF15 did out of the gate before pissing everyone off.

FF16 did well and square defended it. Ergo, not a disappointment. Never was.

Also 3m is a discussion for June of 2023. It's now February 2024. FF16 has sold 8m copies since launch. The Game still consistently gets in the top 20 in many regions. I'm sure we'll see even bigger numbers once the PC version releases, spuring console awareness again as the marketing picks up for the PC version. Any issues the share holders had at launch for what is apparently a slow burn title will melt away when 4th quarter numbers come in. Though I have a feeling any hard feelings towards square stock has less to do with FF16 and more to do with the 4 other games that released the year prior and how the entire release schedule for 2024 was pretty baren as far as square enix releases go beyond that. Unless people are still talking up Valkyrie Elysium, the big to do has been remakes like Tactics Ogre Reborn and Star Ocean The Second Story R.

Ultimatley FF16 IS IN FACT a system seller based on that data. You don't get a sales spike in the holiday season with such a pathetic discounted price (I mean it barely brought the price down, not that it was so low you'd be stupid not to buy it), 6 months after your game releases unless its good and its a system seller. Lastly square has stated the game has consistently met expectations.

Just gotta wait for gears trilogy set.

"And, don’t worry if you prefer physical games, the first option will be available at retailers all around the world."

another prophecy fullfilled of how they'll try to push you onto digital.

@Art_Vandelay

"As John Linemann from DF rightly says, the actual limitation today is not hardware, it's budget."

I think honestly what ever new hardware comes has to play into that budget problem. Make games easy to make, have the api's that leverage the hardware and come with tools, even engines provided as part of the sdk. Has elements that neatly combine with their feature sets to create new experiences.

I feel like Sony has been dipping its toe in that pond for a while. Phyre Engine, Decima Engine, etc. Trying to find the best way to bring more games in and reduce budgets. I will not be surprised if Decima ends up being a standard part of the PlayStation Dev kit in the next 10 years.

@Gravity_Bear Definitely one of the reasons I bought the portal was to help show interest in this.

NVMe sounds like a logical move, so long as its easier to get out than the Steamdeck. Love my Deck, but it is kind of a pain to get in there. Certainly hope its a 2280 and not a 2230. Would very much prefer to not pay 200 for another 2230, 2TB SSD like I did for deck. Rather put it towards a 4TB (hopefully by time this releases 8TB). If they go proprietary like they did with the original vita, I'm out. That's what killed that platform and I would rather not relive that nightmare even as a 64 gig Vita owner.

Playing Vita games I could kind of see. I think a limited library of titles might be applicable. That rear touch pad is a problem. I'd rather see compatibility break than have that return. Certain titles like Uncharted would be nice to have, especially if they can get bend to update it for a Vita 2 that only omits that control.

I guess the big questions are, can we get it in portal form factor? Will it connect to a TV with a dock (please say yes)? Allow the use of a Dual Sense? Be compatible with Bluetooth headphones as well as PlayStation Link?

This sounds plausible, though it also sounds a lot like my PS4 Go push from 2 to 3 years ago. So I'm wondering if sony is going to be owing me some royalties here lol.

In all seriousness this is something I've been bugging sony for. The Ability to take my PS4 digital library on the go. Maybe even one with the ability to install my discs and have a refresh expiration date of some sort via drive attachment or using the PS4/5. The PS5 stuff I didn't ask for, but speculated as to "that would be something nice if something with PS5 could be done".

No lie I'd buy this, even if I'm currently rocking my portal at least 3 nights out of the week. Even Platinumed a handful of games. picking away at platinums I hadn't finished. Wishing that I could have loaded up Tekken Tag 2 on my PS3 and use dit with that.

I really don't need a system with dedicated games for it. I'd like to see them retire PS4 and do a PS4 Go. Though nothing wrong with continuing both. PS4 has a rich library of games that even me with a huge PS5 library is still playing games for the platform. Tales of Symphonia is waiting to be played. Playing through Ender Lillies. Pocky and Rocky Reshirned could use some love. Pretty sure I have some castlevania games that still need playing.

If this leads to some PS4 games even getting updated to have more PS5 like features that would be great to see that expanded.

I'm totally game for this. It seems like the next natural step with Steamdeck and Nintendo Switch being out in the wild. In a world were scalability is a thing.

Let's hope not.

@McBurn I'm not the one dying on a hill here, but knock yourself out with your lame clueless come backs.

@McBurn I'm glad you didn't bother, because you'd just reveal how clueless you are trying to explain to a 2 decade long industry vetern what is involved in converting a 2D game to 3D; by throwing around buzzwords you heard in a PR document from a major publisher. "teh 4k's!!!!". You clearly have no concept of how much of FF7R's underlying work can be used to speed up the process of remaking FF6. 10 years, tops, 2 parts. Even if they go a little crazy and expand things out and don't start hopping into sequel territory like with the false remake that is FF7R.

I enjoy Kitase's work, but he's being extremely conservative in his estimate.

Plunge? Not really. Nice sale though.

Problem with these games is that they really didn't live up to their potential.

I Am Setsuna could have been so much more, but just really didn't make a good entrance nor impression. If I'm not mistaken its entire soundtrack for example was done entirely on a piano. Maybe I have it mixed up with one of the others, but that was one of the bigger turn offs to the game for me. It couldn't convey the emotions it needed to through using a piano exclusively. Don't get me piano can hit a large range, but try comparing doing the combat theme from FF7 exclusively on a piano like they did with Advent Children for Tifa's fight in the church, it doesn't hit anywhere near as hard. Let's look at sadder scenes, usually strings are thrown in, but they are absent, relying on hard notes of a piano. This was just one problem that kind of turned me away. Story didn't exactly get off to a strong start and the game play was a little soft.

Overall this is not good news. Tokyo RPG Factory was a cool name. I feel like they needed more to reach a higher bar that Square Enix tends to strive for. Maybe this was a budgetary thing or the staff being overly artistic.

Oninaki had potential too, but seemed like it was pushed out the door too early. I enjoyed the game, but it needed more time.

Lost Sphere... .just seemed to suffer in the same ways I am Setsuna did.

This really should have been a studio to surpass the works of Octopath Travel ander Triangle Strategy, they probably should have brought those teams into consult with.

@JamieO Can we also add Trophy Support to the Pro's and Con's. That honestly is a deciding factor in whether or not I'll play these or how fast I'll get to them. Just a good thing to know for some of us who find that important.