Ralizah

Ralizah

I'm tall and sour. Sufficient?

Comments 5,884

Re: Failing Manufacturers Are Pushing the Narrative That Consoles Are Dying, Says Ex-Xbox Exec

Ralizah

"Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch is expected to eventually overtake the PS2’s record, a feat many thought previously impossible."

More context for the scale of Nintendo's victory this generation:

it'll achieve this with a device that has virtually no multimedia capabilities. I think you can watch Hulu on it, but it's pretty much a pure gaming machine. There's no browser, no blu-ray playback, nothing. Whereas PS2 sold heavily on its value as a DVD player back in the day.

It'll achieve this with no price drops (or will come very, very close to doing so if they decide to drop the price when the successor drops). PS2 was discounted quite heavily later in life, as I recall.

It'll achieve this, most likely, very close to its active lifespan as a console, whereas the PS2 was sold for many, many years after the PS3 dropped before it achieved its current numbers.

Perhaps most incredibly, the Switch generation has generated more profit for Nintendo since launch than all of its other generations combined. In other words, more profit from 2017 till now than 1981 to 2016.

I have no idea what'll happen with Sony and Microsoft long term in the console space, but Nintendo will be just fine.

Re: Concord PS5, PC Sales Estimates Are Somehow Even Worse Than We Thought

Ralizah

It's not a complete waste. The amount of schadenfreude generated by news of this game's failure seems to be pretty immense.

@B0udoir I was thinking the same thing. If even 10,000 people bought it on Steam... where are they? I get people can't be on games all the time, but the game is struggling to host a few hundred players at a time not long after launch. Heck, I just checked and the player count is 96 right now!

Re: How Much Would You Pay for Your PS5 Games? Dev Says Industry Is Waiting for GTA 6 to Hike Prices

Ralizah

"The problem is there’s a huge disconnect between the cost of making games and the prices fans are willing to pay. Sony’s giga budget single player games demand many hundreds of millions these days, and while it’d be fair to point to the platform holder’s record-breaking profits, that’s still an enormous amount of money for a publisher to spend on a title that could, potentially, flop."

Movies and TV shows can cost hundreds of millions and flop as well lol. That's just the risk of doing business.

These big companies rake in more and more money and still keep arguing for bleeding the customer drier and drier.

I've never paid $70 for a standard edition of a game, and I won't start now. Jacking it up even more in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis sounds like a good way to kill launch day sales.

Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro Design Seemingly Leaked

Ralizah

@NEStalgia Eh. The PS5 has always looked like a cheap, needlessly gigantic router that also inexplicably has a popped collar. It's possibly the ugliest console I've seen since some of the really early, pre-NES consoles.

I don't mind the PS4. It's a bit annoying how you need to remember which pressure-sensitive spot is eject vs power down, but I always liked how it looks like a stealth jet or something.

Re: Fill the Advance Wars-Shaped Hole in Your Heart with Warside on PS5, PS4

Ralizah

@Haruki_NLI I mean, I acknowledged that in the words IMMEDIATELY preceding that remark, lol

It's been a dead IP for more than a decade. Them farming out some cheap remakes to a Western dev doesn't constitute doing much with it.

Still bought them, though. I've been desperate for more AW for a long time. It kills me that Days of Ruin tanked the series, because it's an incredible game.

Re: Incredible Looking Trails in the Sky Remake Is Real, But PS5, PS4 Players Will Have to Wait

Ralizah

Considering the long-strained relationship between Nintendo and Falcom, the idea of a Trails game being exclusive for any period of time is incredibly funny to me. They've long gravitated toward handheld consoles, and I feel like, to them, the Switch is the new PSP/Vita.

Anyway, it'll probably be ported to everything before the Western release. Except Xbox, which will, as usual, get absolutely nothing.

Re: Fill the Advance Wars-Shaped Hole in Your Heart with Warside on PS5, PS4

Ralizah

I remember this.

Yeah, Wargroove is a good example of a game "inspired by" Advance Wars, but still manages to do its own thing.

This is... just a rip-off, lol. Even the unit types are almost identical.

That said, if they can replicate the excellent map and mission design from Nintendo's series, I'll give it a chance. Apart from those remakes, it's not like Nintendo is doing much with the IP anyway. I have strong doubts they really understand what makes that series so good, though.

@Qu1n0n3z Advance Wars 3 already exists. It's called Advance Wars: Dual Strike.

Re: PS5 Fans Who Paid $110 for Star Wars Outlaws Early Access Asked to Restart Saves

Ralizah

@IntrepidWombat "if the market is willing to pay $110 for a game, then that's that game's full price, and the $70 price point is the first price drop based on a projected fall-off of demand."

With big releases, up to a certain theoretical limit, there's going to be a tiny portion of the audience that'll spend hundreds of dollars for 'special editions' of games. You talk about 'the market,' when, in reality, that's a tiny minority of people. Actual game launches, on the other hand, are typically when game sales are at their peak (thus the game being full MSRP).

Moreover, if the special edition price was the 'full price,' it wouldn't be bundled with season pass vouchers and release days early.

Also worth mentioning that a more expensive edition of this game exists as well. Does that mean the game's full price is $130, and it releases simultaneously with a price drop? Do you see how this framing breaks apart with just a little bit of scrutiny?

"Ubi's credibility went out the window ages ago. This doesn't hurt their brand image because it's already in the toilet, but that doesn't stop people from buying the corporatized garbage they continue to spew out."

Sure, and it has damaged them when it comes to all but the biggest releases that have penetrated into the mainstream. Companies can and do reverse course and repair their brand image over time.

When one is in a hole, it's usually advisable to stop digging, even if it takes a bit of time to climb out.

Re: PS5 Fans Who Paid $110 for Star Wars Outlaws Early Access Asked to Restart Saves

Ralizah

@IntrepidWombat "People want it, and they're willing to pay the price, so why not make a buck?"

You realize this reasoning can be used to justify just about anything sleazy in the industry, right?

Sacrificing trust and your brand image for short-term money grubbing schemes like this is a bad trade.

Games starting at full price and dropping in sales is about adjusting prices to account for lessening demand, not milking your biggest fans for everything they're worth.

Not that I agree with how they adjust their prices, either, because rapidly devaluing your games after launch is also pretty unfair to the people who support your games at launch. Punishing people for buying in early is a good way of pushing people off of day one purchases for all but the biggest franchises. Which ends up impacting their smaller, better games the most.

Re: Do You Want Astro Bot on PC? Creative Director Wants to Know

Ralizah

@NEStalgia Well, Xbox games release day and date on PC, so there's even less reason to buy one of those consoles.

I could maybe see Sony porting a couple of cross-gen games with big sequels to incentivize buy in, but the moment they started porting major platform exclusives and big sequels, anyone with a lick of sense would conclude that they're all eventually going to PC anyway.

Sony's hardcore fanbase will still want that early access, of course, but anyone questioning whether to buy a PS5 or not at this point clearly isn't a part of that demographic.

Re: Bungie's Making Headlines for All the Wrong Reasons Yet Again

Ralizah

@PegasusActual93 No, over-budgeted AAA single-player games are less viable. Sony has a budgeting issue with its big games. If they can control costs, they'll be fine.

Anyway, if Sony wants a Genshin or Fortnite-level success, it needs to start monetizing their games like those. In what world is a $40 live service title, even one that isn't a total shipwreck, going to be as lucrative as the giants of that model?

Sony is not an endless pit of money, and these games are expensive. They can't afford too many abject flops before they shift focus (actually, they already have, and I expect multiple live service titles failing in a row will motivate them to lean even further away from that push).

It's also worth mentioning that as more successful live service titles release, the less viable that model will be over time. Single player game fans tend to play what they want and move on to new games, but people deeply invested in live service titles have a limited amount of time to play games and so will stick with a few core games that are already well-established. I'm not saying new ones can't succeed (Helldivers 2 illustrated this well), but it's going to be tougher and tougher to compete with established titles that have a captive audience.

Re: Do You Want Astro Bot on PC? Creative Director Wants to Know

Ralizah

Not currently planning on buying a PS5, so it's the only way they're going to get my money.

That said, more broadly, I think it's smarter for console makers to keep their games exclusive to their platforms, but that ship has long since sailed for Sony, so why not port as many games as possible?

@NEStalgia Still have no idea why anyone would think the PC ports would draw people into their ecosystem. It does the opposite: shows that if you wait, the games will come to you instead of you needing to buy a $500 console for a few exclusives.

I'd have a PS5 by now if they hadn't started porting their games to PC lol.

Re: Talking Point: Can PS5, PC Shooter Concord Be Saved?

Ralizah

Not with those designs, it won't. The cast is a weird mixture of generic and incredibly visually unpleasant.

The gameplay, frankly, doesn't do enough to really draw attention away from other established live-service games on its own, either.

Honestly, I think that's for the best. Let Sony take a hit on this and they'll invest their money into better projects in the future. Even if it doesn't steer them away from live-service entirely, hopefully they'll at least attempt more unique and fun ones like Helldivers 2.

Re: Atlus, It's Time to Stop Spoiling Metaphor: ReFantazio

Ralizah

Haven't bothered watching the last few videos. I've seen enough. My preorder is in.

Granted, considering Atlus has developed several of my favorite RPGs of all time, I didn't need much selling on the idea of getting in early on this major new IP from them to begin with.

Re: Site News: Where's Our Concord PS5, PC Review?

Ralizah

Hoping Aaron Bayne reviews this. He really seems to be passionate about the game.

@naruball I mean, if people only interacted with articles about games they're interested in, there wouldn't be much of a point in poll options, now would there?

Re: Final Fantasy 16's PS5 Exclusivity Ends in September as PC Launch Is Locked Down

Ralizah

@GamingFan4Lyf Green Man Gaming and Fanatical are the big ones to keep an eye on, Some crazy deals on there at times. For example, I secured a pre-purchase for Metaphor: ReFantazio for around $40 recently.

Humble Bundle intermittently has really good bundles, and Humble Choice (a monthly sub where you can keep the games once it lapses) can be super cost efficient if you nab games that are still high in price during Steam sales.

Re: Until Dawn PS5 Is Priced at $60 / £60

Ralizah

This remake still just feels so random. I get it's probably more oriented toward the PC market (as is increasingly the case with Sony games these days), but is there really a market for this? Until Dawn isn't The Last of Us. Why put these resources into remaking it, and then barely even change anything other than the visuals?

At this point, I'm fully convinced Sony will re-release Knack for $70 before they even consider touching Bloodborne in any way.

Re: Random: Divisive Dark Souls 2 Is Seeing a Resurgence and Some Revisionist History

Ralizah

@NEStalgia Are you a stale donut connoisseur?

@DETfaninATL lol I'm on a keto diet, so I can't remember the last donut I ate.

When I do splurge, though, it's on something worth taking the hit for. I went to a restaurant recently with these bananas covered in sugar. Ate way too many of those things!

I wish you many non-moldly, and sufficiently non-stale donuts in your future!

Re: Random: Divisive Dark Souls 2 Is Seeing a Resurgence and Some Revisionist History

Ralizah

I've only played DS1, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. Gone back and forth on DS2, but I've heard plenty of compelling arguments against it online that have stayed my hand when it comes to buying in.

@DETfaninATL "Is there really such a thing as a bad donut??"

Yes. Plenty of days old clearance donuts from grocery stores I've gone to. Literally just a waste of calories.

Re: Square Enix Has Got Fans Talking About a Final Fantasy 13 Remake, Not a Remaster

Ralizah

@Athrum FFXIII was a gorgeous game at launch, and, really, it'd hold up with some remastering. The music is nice, too. Not an all-time great, but I never shy away from XIII tracks in Theatrhythm.

It's literally everything else. The pacing, the level design, the at-times inscrutable terminology they bombard the player with almost immediately, the complete absence of meaningful exploration, really unlikable characters, etc. I'm also not a fan of the character designs, but really, you could take those designs and put them in an excellent game.

I know online fanbases often have a tendency toward revisionist history with widely hated entries after a while, but at least the first entry was never good.