Ralizah

Really, China made a strong showing in TGA this year. But I guess there's no arguing with mindlessly ardent Chinese nationalism.

Wasn't a fan of the original. That said, now that Zelda has gone open world, there's even more space for a game in the style of the older entries in this day and age.

For a 'bad year' for Sony, it's overall been a pretty darn good year for PS5 owners.

I don't think Concord bombing surprised normal gamers. Although I didn't expect it to fall quite as flat on its face as it did, lol

Naughty Dog doing work representin' women with alopecia. ❤️

I'm down. Although they're going to need to work to sell people on that main character design, but I'm really happy to see something just... completely different from them.

Finally.

YO!

Can't believe it's coming so soon.

Nice. It's pretty obvious how deeply the devs enjoy their Nintendo games. Very cool they created a platformer of comparable quality now.

That's awesome. Nothing more beautiful than a decently muscular male body.

As usual, DQ is huge in Japan and tepid everywhere else in terms of commercial performance.

I'd love to know the platform split in terms of sales. Switch would be higher, but to what degree? And would the platform split significantly differ between regions?

@Matroska Timing.

DQIII HD-2D was a simultaneous Steam release. FFXVI was a late port.

I'm the last person in the world to defend what they did with XVI, but I think they'd probably have hit higher numbers if it's also been a simultaneous PS5/PC release.

@PuppetMaster FoamStars isn't XDefiant, though, so that's not really an argument. They're different games.

I don't think FoamStars would've ever kicked off super hard, but it's easy to imagine it doing moderately well with a base that is more interested in this sort of game.

And, again, maybe not, but whatever chances it had were definitely quashed by S-E's choices.

@J2theEzzo Yup.

At this point, if you want to be a big new live service title, you either need some KILLER IP/brand power behind it, or you need to do stuff the competitors aren't. Because why stray from what you already know and play otherwise in this respect?

@AverageGamer Pretty sure Obsidian devved Stick of Truth. No reason the South Park people can't just work with Microsoft in the future, right?

Although that would require some tiny bit of savvy on the part of Microsoft Gaming execs, so you're probably right. :

@PuppetMaster I don't know how much it contributed, but, speaking personally, I lost all interest when I realized I'd have to download this on my PS4. Should've been on PC day one. It's a multiplayer game, for goodness' sake!

Might've still pulled a Concord, but I doubt the exclusivity antics helped any, and Square-Enix is very right to back away from such arrangements going forward.

Also should've been F2P from the start.

@ATaco Sounds like a matchmaking issue. Are people supposed to throw matches against newbies? lol

@get2sammyb I can tell you what the "secret sauce" is without even being invested in live service games.

The ones you mentioned all have fairly compelling USPs, whereas XDefiant is an incredibly generic looking entry in the most crowded sector of the live service industry. It looks like one of the fake video games you see in TV series like Law and Order.

Of course it failed.

This looks lovely. I'm preloading on my PC. Exactly the sort of game I could lose many hours in if the currency/gacha aspect isn't too chintzy.

Could be cool. The game is fantastic. Genuinely never played anything even remotely like it, which becomes quite rare as you continue playing games over time. I'd love to see the anime expand on the fascinating worldbuilding hinted at throughout the various gameplay loops as you learn more about the characters.

The funny thing is that, aside from the aesthetic similarities, there's probably going to end up being fewer points of familiarity to Horizon than there was between Astro Bot and Mario, lol.

This seems like a Genshin/BotW situation where the initial aesthetic is heavily inspired by the game it's drawing from, but the gameplay itself isn't really all that similar otherwise.

Playstation consoles tend to pop off late in the generation. Especially now that games have, like, decade-long development cycles lol.

GTA VI is gonna sell so many consoles on its own.

@Steel76 Druckmann won't go for it. We aren't allowed to just lose ourselves in fun stories anymore. No, Naughty Dog produces art, and real art is about suffering.

I remember when Animal Crossing was about moving into and learning to integrate with a new community. It didn't need crafting or endless customization features.

The more I played the new one, the more disenchanted I became. I never even engaged with most of the seasonal events.

@father_noo I mean, it'd be an awful experience, but there's nothing stopping you from hooking up joycons and huddling around the tiny screen with friends to play it, right?

If Nintendo adopts the PS2 strategy and keeps Switch around as a cheap budget console with a million games that also run on the successor, it could significantly overshoot the PS2's milestone. 42+ million of that 160 million total came after the device was already replaced by Sony with the PS3.

Granted, perhaps it won't enjoy as much of a strong tail end due to it not being a good cheap option for playing DVDs.

@IslandLogic Yes they are. Switch Lites play the same games. It's the same device, just in a different form factor.

Always sad to hear this sort of thing. Sexual violence is such a scourge on the world, and it saddens me deeply how many role models for young men are misogynists and/or have committed heinous acts against women.

Ever17 was pretty incredible for the time, even if a LOT of its tricks will seem familiar to fans of Uchikoshi's later work.

@Juanalf Sony barely prioritizes their console over PC as of late, and the PS5 is still humming along nicely. What on Earth makes you think they'd prioritize a handheld that'll most likely sell significantly sub-Vita numbers because of how expensive the thing will need to be to not lose a ton of money for Sony?

They probably won't even manufacture it in large numbers. It'll be like the PSVR: a luxury/enthusiast-targeted item they'll probably forget about a year after releasing.

All that being said, even if Sony did luck out and the PS6 Portable did sell extremely well compared to the Deck 2... so what? Sony won't drop support for PC or handheld PCs as long as they don't consider the ecosystem a threat.

@kyleforrester87 I'm super impressed with how nicely SMT V: Vengeance runs on the thing. Hits 90fps much of the time, and 60fps all the time, as far as I can tell.

The Yakuza games have been running very nicely at 45fps so far.

The Resident Evil games, too. RE2R looked brilliant with the deep black and HDR color bursts. And I love how easily you can apply a community config that lets you gyro aim.

I've heard Hi-Fi Rush is terrific on it as well.

Despite the lack of... subtlety in Detroit's writing, I actually really liked the world it created. Definitely gonna look into grabbing this.

I don't see the point with Sony's games all going to PC anyway. I'll just grab the Switch 2 and Steam Deck 2 and have access to nearly every game ever made.

@kyleforrester87 How you liking the Steam Deck OLED? Isn't it awesome? I hardly play anything else anymore.

Game's so uninteresting everyone's just talking about Elon Musk now.

Not really a surprise for a "new" Dragon Quest release.

Also, those PS5 numbers aren't bad considering the difference in install base for the region.

This'll be a premium companion-style device, most likely, like the Steam Deck is for most PC gamers.

It'd be an extra incentive to make the jump to full digital as well, considering it'll likely be digital software only.

Honestly, they could probably sell a DLC on its own that makes her step on/kick you anywhere and people would buy it.

Good. Glad they're seeing original projects with more challenging combat where you're not dating Japanese teenagers can turn in strong numbers.

Def. my favorite for GOTY. Fantastic visual design, mechanics, story, music, etc.

Get back to me when the 16k 15fps patch drops.

@awp69 Nintendo is historically pretty disappointing during EOL years for their consoles.

Although a number of games actually dropped this year from them. Just... none of them made much of a splash. Probably because the big stuff is all being saved for the successor, the arrival of which seems fairly imminent at this point.

Okay, let's clarify.

I want good, interesting lower budget games. Not janky or entirely unmemorable ones.

I have to actually want the game.

Happy to see Metaphor up for the big award, even though it won't win.

Pretty good indication of the quality of Sony's year when two PS5 exclusives are in the mix.

@zupertramp Just a guess, but the people struggling to buy eggs probably aren't the same ones buying PS5 Pros.

Or, if they are, their priorities are wildly misaligned.

Love the SMT V appreciation in the comments.

It was a fantastic game on Switch, and it's even better in this form on more capable devices. My Steam Deck runs the game at a locked 60fps!

@Judal27 It's fine. The story never had to be amazing. It just needed to do something with the characters and improve the narrative pacing... and Vengeance accomplishes that.

On top of maintaining and improving the core gameplay, reducing the impact of the level scaling, etc.

Horizon Kart and Horizon Cooking Madness! up next next.

@DonJorginho Nintendo doesn't traditionally drop prices on their consoles or games, either (with the exception of discounted re-releases of some first-party games in previous generations). Sony, on the other hand, has a long history of loss-leading to maintain their position in the industry. It's very much a conscious and extreme shift in strategy for them. As such, I think it's naive to believe they won't try to make the PS6 more profitable if they believe it won't hurt sales momentum on year one too much. Of course, this will all be determined by significant internal calculations based on market data.

Enthusiasts are generally the demographic that likes to buy in early with new console generations. If Sony thinks it can milk them for more with a PS6 (it probably can, tbh), it makes a lot of sense to price it with the anticipation of dropping the price gradually to expand mass market appeal for the hardware.

Also fully expecting the disc drive to be an accessory by default next gen.

I think $600, or somewhere thereabouts, is not an unrealistic expectation. Maybe more, depending on how well the PS5 Pro sells.

@DonJorginho I disagree. Sony has been testing the limits of what the market will bear in terms of price increases throughout the generation, in a way that is totally antithetical to their behavior in the past. Price increases on games. A rise in the MSRP of their first-party games. Increasingly limited price drops on that software. Price increases on controllers. etc. The PS5 Pro selling well will indicate that there's space, at least early on, to charge the enthusiasts who buy in early a small fortune for the even more premium hardware in the PS6.

"Sony's latest exclusive, LEGO Horizon Adventures"

This isn't even console exclusive.

Expected, but nice to have it confirmed. Really hoping this runs okay on Steam Deck.

@GamingFan4Lyf Is Sony even publishing the game on PC?

Might actually be willing to go onto the EGS in order to download and play this, lol. Aside from my hesitations about the gacha model it presumably adopts (which have themselves been significantly tempered by Hoyoverse's titles), everything about this looks up my alley.

lol my phone is blowing up with notifications from this account constantly. Worth it for the occasional incredible deal.

Easily my favorite of the more classic style of Ys game. It's perfectly paced and very replayable.

Ouch.

I guess I might avoid playing this until I update my GPU. This sounds rough.

Not gonna lie, I cracked up when the POV camera randomly shifted to her chest while she was talking.

Male Gaze: The Game

I love this game, don't get me wrong, but how many times they gonna remake and/or re-release it? lol