I have plenty to play and don't need anything to look forward to, personally. It'd be nice if the industry could hit pause for a year or two and not release anything so I could catch up on a lot of apparently good games that I skipped due to not having the time.
Yeah, I'd be amazed if Concord ever came back, F2P or not. It was F2P during the beta periods, and the interest actually went down from the first beta (which was limited to pre-orders or those on PS5 with PS+) to the second (which was free to all, unsure about PS+ being required). Interest/player numbers then went down again at launch (at least on PC).
Sad to say, the game just isn't very good, for a myriad of reasons (I jumped into the second beta and nothing I saw post-launch suggests the game was any different after release). It needs a significant re-think and lots of work. If it were me, I'd can it and try to reduce my losses with a write off.
FYI @Quintumply I think you can stop saying that sales numbers were "estimated to be shockingly low"; On the Gamesindustry.biz podcast of a couple weeks ago, Chris Dring confirmed he'd seen the real numbers and that they were a little less on PC and a little more on PS5 than the analyst Simon Carless was predicting, but about right overall. I take that to be that they were, in fact, shockingly low.
@Pinkman Yes and no. Some people are better able to see frame rates than others - like anything biological, we all exist somewhere on a bell-curve. (Personally, I can see the frames on standard 24fps films, and it's really distracting.) In the clips Cerney showed yesterday, try watching on your TV, pause, and look at the two images side by side. If you can't see a difference, then maybe its your TV and you'd get no benefit from a Pro without upgrading your TV too. Plus these improvements are really incremental at this point. A few more blades of grass here, distant objects rendering a few-in-game-metres further out there. I generally don't notice much other than egregious pop-in when I play games on performance mode (where it's available).
I get what everyone is saying about the price, I really do, but what are you all intending to do with your existing consoles exactly? When I upgraded to the PS4 Pro I sold my PS4, which softened the blow. When I bought a PS5, I sold my PS4 Pro, which made the PS5 more affordable.
Sure, if you're still on the PS3 and skipped last-gen, and were looking forward to the PS5 Pro to give you access to the last two generations of games running as well as they possibly can, I can see why this is a massive investment.
But realistically, if you're going to go for the Pro aren't you going to recoup around 40-60% of the cost of it straight away by selling your current PS5 console on the second-hand market (depending on model, condition, buyer, etc)?
Hrmmm, could this mean that they will offer an upgrade program for current PS5 owners who want a Pro, like how Apple does with its devices, which could make the cost of an upgrade significantly cheaper?
I'll probably get one. After selling off my launch PS5 Disc edition on the second hand market, I estimate the overall cost of an upgrade to be ~ÂŁ400-500 depending on what I get for the launch PS5, which sweetens the pill.
Adding together those that say they'll be pre-ordering or can wait, the poll is looking very much like the PS4 Pro's market share, which I think I recall was just under 20% of the overall PS4 install base by the end.
@GreatAuk Our VAT rate is 20%, so once you add that to the dollar price, the ÂŁ price should be around ÂŁ640. So Sony is still marking the UK up by ~ÂŁ60/$78 compared to the USA.
Astro was made by ~60 people over 3 years. I'd imagine it will make its money back easily if it hasn't already. I expect a huge marketing push during Xmas given its family-friendly appeal. Lots of parents will be thinking "hey, something I could play with the kiddos" and will pick it up I think.
@Vaako007 they told us we shouldnât be comfortable owning our games
That's not what the guy from Ubisoft said. If you read the article (and not just the headline) he was making the opposite point and saying that subscription services will not really take off until gamers are comfortable not owning their games. This was in the context of discussing how successful Ubisoft views their subscription service as being.
@Nexozi I should imagine that all the publishers whose games are featured in Secret Level supported the production in one way or another as its good marketing for all of them. In Sony's case I wouldn't be surprised if it was along the lines of "if you want God of War, you're also doing Concord".
@NoHope Try crashing it at minute 27. That's when you know you were having a good run!
Despite the crash, 10/10. The game is pure dopamine delivered straight to the veins. The simple gameplay belies how deep it really is, and I love putting my build together at the start of a run then seeing it become totally OP when it works out!
@OmegaStriver I don't recall any hate for Helldivers 2 before it released. If anything, Helldivers 2 wasn't really on the radar - Sony had done minimal marketing and only really through its own channels - so if anything players were overall indifferent. Then when it popped off everyone was pleasantly surprised.
With Concord the game immediately attracted derision and accusations of being derivative of OW and GotG. The vibe I got was that it was actively disliked from the first reveal.
I just realised, with Sony issuing refunds, the game is essentially already free to play for anyone who has already bought the game. At least until Friday.
I want to see more about how FairgameDollar is different from other games on the market that I already don't play. My initial impression is that it's a Payday-style game, with an unsavoury theme, but I'm open to seeing what it can do.
TBH, the competitive heist-style gameplay sounds on paper like it should have been what Concord went for given the Freegunner Crew were all supposed to be mercenaries for hire or whatever.
@naruball I think the difference with games like BG3 and OW and other games which are woke-but-successful is that they âdo the wokeâ well.
For instance, some OW characters are LGBT, but the game only ever references it subtly. A in-game voiceline here, a moment in a cutscene there. In contrast, Concordâs use of pronouns was clumsy. The way Concord could have done inclusivity so as not to cause a backlash was to have other characters use the trans and NB characters preferred pronouns when speaking about them, and treat it like no big deal.
Iâm not saying the use of preferred pronouns by the devs caused the game to fail, of course not, but Iâm saying it was a) unnecessary and b) signalled that the devs were of a particular political leaning and that likely put people off more than it attracted anyone.
I donât disagree with Sony wanting a live service game or two to keep the dollars rolling in at a steady clip. If profits from those endeavours helps fund the big AAA narrative experiences I prefer then Iâm all for it.
If I were sat in the executive suites at PlayStation Iâd be thinking along these lines:
1. Start the hype train sooner out from release. Gauge customer reactions and adjust. 2. Show off what differentiates the game from whatâs already on the market. Helldivers 2 kicked off because we hadnât seen that sort of Co-operative, horde-mode, extraction style game with such a strong theme before. Concord by contrast looked derivative of OW, GotG, and (once we actually got into the betas) had no game modes we hadnât played before. 3. Give a few hints as to what single player games are in the works. PlayStation faithful are feeling like thereâs nothing for them here anymore because PS is keeping its cards too close to its chest. Xbox is putting on shows that are being praised and generating hype by showing off things that wonât be released for months or years. (And I look forward to playing many of those on PS!)
Quite aside from oneâs opinions on including pronouns, I think the discourse here demonstrates that putting them in character bios was a stupid thing for the developers to have done in the game. For the proportion of the gaming public that already agree with stating oneâs pronouns, I doubt it generated a many extra sales that weren't already going to be made. But for the proportion of the public that think you shouldnât/donât need to state your pronouns (which all the polling Iâve seen is a vast majority in the US and U.K.) it signalled that this game was made by people with that opinion and likely cost them more sales.
The best call Sony could make. If we assume ~$40 equivalent per copy, and estimates are 25k copies sold across PC and PS5 (which was confirmed as âabout rightâ by Gamesindustry.biz on their podcast, and their Chris Dring said he has seen the numbers) then refunds will cost Sony about $1m.
F2P would have required additional investment in retooling the progression and gameplay modes to suit that business model, and cheesed off early adopters, while every indication from the betas was that it wouldnât improve anything in terms of player interest.
If I were Firewalk, Iâd strip the game back to a grey-box, remove all the art assets, and focus my attention there. A total art overhaul and rebrand is required IMO.
But I suspect theyâll mothball it instead and take the tax write off.
I'll probably pick up the remake, as I really enjoyed the original, but I'm waiting to see what has actually been added.
I don't think we know the terms of Ballistic Moon's deal with Sony. For all we know they are working on the Remake for a fixed price with no ongoing royalties. Reads to me like they weren't able to secure their next project or that next project isn't going to give them sufficient cashflow to remain at the same size.
There's got to be a fair rate that can be paid to VAs based on how much of their voice is used which would allow them to licence their voice to studios for use in a GenAI and for specific projects. I'd imagine it is less than the amount they would be paid for actually having to go into a booth, but more than nothing. Games, film projects, audiobooks, etc, will one day advertise "recorded with real voice over" to distinguish themselves once the technology becomes overused/abused.
I used to spend a lot on games, and have a library of hundreds of PS4 titles. But Iâve saved a tonne of money with my gaming hobby in recent years. I changed things by applying a few easy rules.
1. Do not fall for sales. Only buy a game when you actually want to/will be able to play it. Even if itâs still at full price when you come to it, you probably saved money by not adding 10 games to your backlog that youâre never going to get to just because PSN put them on sale. 2. Try to finish all your games. Sure, youâll fall off some here or there, but the time it takes to see them through will stop you jumping on the hype for the next game and spending more money. 3. Wait for reviews. Half the time youâll read them and think âeh, I can wait for a sale on this oneâ or âIâll skip this entirelyâ. 4. Never pre-order.
With these changes to the way I buy and play games, the hobby is surprisingly affordable.
@riceNpea 41 in the base game for VS (as it says in the article). PSq said "collection of trophies for a single game". Not sure how many of the Train Sim games' trophies are attached to DLC. It looks like TSW2 only had one piece of DLC on PSN, so I can't imagine that all the DLC-trophies in the 411 total that it has are locked behind that extra pay-wall.
If you wanna talk trophies-per-ÂŁ then I'm sure VS takes the top spot, (excluding F2P games, where the buy-in is potentially ÂŁ0).
In terms of points, VS is 4th in how many points it awards. It's 3rd in the total number of trophies: Train Sim World 4 has 251 and Train Sim World 2 has 411. ESO rewards more trophy-points, but has fewer, higher-tiered trophies.
And yeah, I'm going to be gunning for all 221 on PS5. Really looking forward to playing it this evening, I'm going to go charge up my PS Portal right now.
@Pusher2021 "These are not bad devs, it is not Gollom standard by any means!"
No, Gollum had more players (on Steam)!
Joking aside, you're right, the devs are clearly very talented. The animations are exquisite and the gunplay is reportedly among the best. (I played the beta and didn't like it personally, but I'm not experienced enough with FPS games to judge really).
The problem was that these very talented devs were working to a very ill-judged brief. They made a game that no one wants, but they made it very well.
Why does anyone think making the game F2P will save it? It might make it slightly less of a disaster for a little while, but we saw the interest (at least in the Steam numbers) when there was an open beta and they were miserable, certainly not enough to sustain the game long term. There are just 63 Steam players playing the game right now, on day 7 following launch, not even enough for seven full matches on their own!
It's gotten to the point where people who literally flog dead horses are going to start using the idiom "don't pump for Concord", as that task seems even more futile.
I might give the Quidditch game a go. I enjoyed Rocket League at launch at this is giving me similar vibes. Astro and Space Marine 2 are the highlights of this month though.
I have experience from the open Beta. While it may be well executed, the game is derivative and badly designed. Identity -
Contrast with OW. It had 2 modes, and the maps were specific to one or the other. You always knew what the intended experience was and there was a relentless focus on those modes. In Concord, itâs hard to tell which mode the devs think is the intended experience.
Its general design is clearly ripped from what was popular 8 years ago. People have been comparing it to GotG since its reveal, and theyâre not wrong. Itâs tiresome at this point. Characters -
theyâre not ugly exactly, but they are boring beyond belief. Going for realism has hamstrung their potential. Barring the robot and the guy with the baboonâs arse for a face, they all just look like the characters i get in an RPG if I hit the randomise button a few times.
Again, contrast OW. There they have a truly diverse roster and no one calls it âwokeâ because theyâre all well executed, itâs not made a big deal, and they all stand out, with distinct silhouettes which allow you to tell at a glance what youâre dealing with in-game. Meta -
the meta game either doesnât work or requires too much coordination. So Iâm building a crew of variants to unlock stacking buffs. Fine. So then I want to put my favourite characters last in my roster so that I can pick them once Iâve accrued all the other buffs from the rest of my crew. But then I might never get to play as that character of my team does well and I donât cycle through the crew. And if my team does badly, then getting to my fully buffed favourite character might not make a blind bit of difference. And thatâs not to mention that someone on my team could block me from picking my main when I do get to them if theyâve picked the same character at that point in the match. So coordinating all these buffs requires stupid levels of communication and planning with a dedicated party and is counter intuitive in the first place and honestly after thinking about how this system works for more than 2 seconds I just want to say âscrew itâ and move on. Gameplay -
everyone bar the cat alien feels like theyâre running through treacle with lead shoes.
I donât think the above are fixable without a significant re-work of the game that wouldnât be worth the candle. Sony should just give it up, take the L, and figure out how to make sure the same thing doesnât happen to Marathon and FairgameDollarsign.
@Shigurui It scrapes the data of people who sign up, but they also have the PSN rarity for trophies (i.e. all players), hence my trying to do something with the ratio of PSNProfiles v Actual rarity with the easiest trophy in the game. My estimate would necessarily exclude people who have bought the game and not booted it yet - whether on PSNProfiles or not PSN would not have generated a trophy list associated with their accounts - so would have to be the low end of the estimate.
@MeatyVeg Not great or an all-timer, but good & some fun nonetheless
Why should I waste my time on a game that isnât great when there are so many absolute bangers available to buy or already in my backlog? Itâs an honest question - I play a lot of games, usually 2 hours or so a day once the Mrs has gone to bed - and there are tonnes of great games that I havenât touched, some of which Iâve already paid for.
Hrmm. How about this to estimate the total number of PSN sales. On PSN profiles, 97.58% of players have the easiest trophy (for getting 1 kill). The trophy has 89.9% PSN rarity. So thatâs a ratio of 1.085. PSN profiles is tracking 908 game owners. 908*1.085=985. So barring people who have purchased and are yet to get a single kill, there are conservatively only ~985 PSN owners in total.
Nice review. The game isnât for me but I do think itâs incredibly sad that it is doing so badly as itâd have been nice to see something with such a fair business model being rewarded.
I think the world theyâve built here looks interesting and Iâd quite like to play a single player campaign in this setting. Maybe thatâs what a new IP like this needed: a baller campaign to make people care, then with an excellent MP suite on the side for those that want to hang around afterwards.
@Markatron84 when I checked yesterday there were 7.4K reviews on PSN. You need to own the game to leave a star rating on PSN, so there were at least that many purchasers.
Comments 509
Re: PS5 Pro's Alan Wake 2 Upgrades Will Be a 'Pleasant Surprise'
Can we all agree, right here and now, that PSSR is pronounced "Pissr"?
Re: Blizzard Reportedly Made $150 Million in Diablo 4 Microtransactions
I bought the horse armour, and I am sorry. đ
Re: State of Play Rumoured for This Month As Sony Looks Set to Skip PS Showcase in 2024
I have plenty to play and don't need anything to look forward to, personally. It'd be nice if the industry could hit pause for a year or two and not release anything so I could catch up on a lot of apparently good games that I skipped due to not having the time.
Re: You Can't Buy Concord on PS5, PC Anymore, But You Can Buy the Official Merch
Yeah, I'd be amazed if Concord ever came back, F2P or not. It was F2P during the beta periods, and the interest actually went down from the first beta (which was limited to pre-orders or those on PS5 with PS+) to the second (which was free to all, unsure about PS+ being required). Interest/player numbers then went down again at launch (at least on PC).
Sad to say, the game just isn't very good, for a myriad of reasons (I jumped into the second beta and nothing I saw post-launch suggests the game was any different after release). It needs a significant re-think and lots of work. If it were me, I'd can it and try to reduce my losses with a write off.
FYI @Quintumply I think you can stop saying that sales numbers were "estimated to be shockingly low"; On the Gamesindustry.biz podcast of a couple weeks ago, Chris Dring confirmed he'd seen the real numbers and that they were a little less on PC and a little more on PS5 than the analyst Simon Carless was predicting, but about right overall. I take that to be that they were, in fact, shockingly low.
Re: Astro Bot PS5 Sales Trending Ahead of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart in the UK
Physical until they claw the discs from my cold dead fingers baby.
Dunno what these complaints are about the Royal Mail. Amazon shipped my copy via them this time, and it arrived a day early.
Re: PS5 Pro Reveal Is Already Sony's Most Disliked Console Announcement
@Pinkman Yes and no. Some people are better able to see frame rates than others - like anything biological, we all exist somewhere on a bell-curve. (Personally, I can see the frames on standard 24fps films, and it's really distracting.)
In the clips Cerney showed yesterday, try watching on your TV, pause, and look at the two images side by side. If you can't see a difference, then maybe its your TV and you'd get no benefit from a Pro without upgrading your TV too.
Plus these improvements are really incremental at this point. A few more blades of grass here, distant objects rendering a few-in-game-metres further out there. I generally don't notice much other than egregious pop-in when I play games on performance mode (where it's available).
Re: 'It Makes Sense Why the PS5 Pro Price Is So High,' Say Tech Experts
@mazzel Nevermind just cars, its the hype for Generative AI which has driven the most recent demand for high-end chipsets.
Re: 'It Makes Sense Why the PS5 Pro Price Is So High,' Say Tech Experts
I get what everyone is saying about the price, I really do, but what are you all intending to do with your existing consoles exactly? When I upgraded to the PS4 Pro I sold my PS4, which softened the blow. When I bought a PS5, I sold my PS4 Pro, which made the PS5 more affordable.
Sure, if you're still on the PS3 and skipped last-gen, and were looking forward to the PS5 Pro to give you access to the last two generations of games running as well as they possibly can, I can see why this is a massive investment.
But realistically, if you're going to go for the Pro aren't you going to recoup around 40-60% of the cost of it straight away by selling your current PS5 console on the second-hand market (depending on model, condition, buyer, etc)?
Re: Sony to Start Selling Refurbished PS5 Consoles
Hrmmm, could this mean that they will offer an upgrade program for current PS5 owners who want a Pro, like how Apple does with its devices, which could make the cost of an upgrade significantly cheaper?
Re: Despite Price Point, Analyst Firm Expects PS5 Pro to Sell Like PS4 Pro
I'll probably get one. After selling off my launch PS5 Disc edition on the second hand market, I estimate the overall cost of an upgrade to be ~ÂŁ400-500 depending on what I get for the launch PS5, which sweetens the pill.
Re: Gallery: PS5 Pro Is Looking Sleek in These Official Shots
Each line represents something that Sony's executives were snorting when they priced it.
Re: Poll: Are You Sold on PS5 Pro?
Adding together those that say they'll be pre-ordering or can wait, the poll is looking very much like the PS4 Pro's market share, which I think I recall was just under 20% of the overall PS4 install base by the end.
Looks to me like Sony knows what it's doing.
Re: PS5 Pro Announced, Costs $700 and Out in November
@GreatAuk Our VAT rate is 20%, so once you add that to the dollar price, the ÂŁ price should be around ÂŁ640. So Sony is still marking the UK up by ~ÂŁ60/$78 compared to the USA.
Re: Astro Bot PS5 Sales 'Aren't Huge' in UK, But There's Still Hope
Astro was made by ~60 people over 3 years. I'd imagine it will make its money back easily if it hasn't already. I expect a huge marketing push during Xmas given its family-friendly appeal. Lots of parents will be thinking "hey, something I could play with the kiddos" and will pick it up I think.
Re: Ubisoft Investor Calls for Company to Go Private, and CEO Yves Guillemot to Be Replaced
@Vaako007 they told us we shouldnât be comfortable owning our games
That's not what the guy from Ubisoft said. If you read the article (and not just the headline) he was making the opposite point and saying that subscription services will not really take off until gamers are comfortable not owning their games. This was in the context of discussing how successful Ubisoft views their subscription service as being.
Re: PlayStation Studios Celebrate Astro Bot's PS5 Arrival with Awesome Artwork
@NEStalgia @Leon_93 @Dodoo I thought Concord was a Loony Tunes character?
Re: Space Marine 2 Already Struggling With PS5 Server Woes, Days Before Its Full Release
I'm struggling to recall an instance where people who paid for early access to a title didn't end up performing QA support.
Re: Concord Will Remain in Prime Video's Secret Level Anthology Series
@Nexozi I should imagine that all the publishers whose games are featured in Secret Level supported the production in one way or another as its good marketing for all of them. In Sony's case I wouldn't be surprised if it was along the lines of "if you want God of War, you're also doing Concord".
Re: PS5 Pro Seemingly Teased in New 30th Anniversary Artwork
Why isn't it 5 stripes?
I think even numbers of things look weird together - apparently it's bad feng shue - and it is the PS*5* after all...
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Vampire Survivors?
@NoHope Try crashing it at minute 27. That's when you know you were having a good run!
Despite the crash, 10/10. The game is pure dopamine delivered straight to the veins. The simple gameplay belies how deep it really is, and I love putting my build together at the start of a run then seeing it become totally OP when it works out!
Re: Astro Bot (PS5) - One of the Greatest PlayStation Platformers of All Time
I had no doubt. Looking forward to it.
Re: Internal Sony Fairgame$ PS5, PC Chatter Is Reportedly Quite Positive
@OmegaStriver I don't recall any hate for Helldivers 2 before it released. If anything, Helldivers 2 wasn't really on the radar - Sony had done minimal marketing and only really through its own channels - so if anything players were overall indifferent. Then when it popped off everyone was pleasantly surprised.
With Concord the game immediately attracted derision and accusations of being derivative of OW and GotG. The vibe I got was that it was actively disliked from the first reveal.
Re: Internal Sony Fairgame$ PS5, PC Chatter Is Reportedly Quite Positive
@hi_drnick Yes, all the time. Witness the reactions to recent output from Lucas Film under Disney, or Disney's recent live-action remakes.
In books, there are plenty with vendettas against particular authors for their perceived stances, e.g. JK Rowling.
Don't get me started on music...
Re: Sony Flop Concord Axed Two Weeks After PS5, PC Release
I just realised, with Sony issuing refunds, the game is essentially already free to play for anyone who has already bought the game. At least until Friday.
Re: Internal Sony Fairgame$ Chatter Is Reportedly Quite Positive
I want to see more about how FairgameDollar is different from other games on the market that I already don't play. My initial impression is that it's a Payday-style game, with an unsavoury theme, but I'm open to seeing what it can do.
TBH, the competitive heist-style gameplay sounds on paper like it should have been what Concord went for given the Freegunner Crew were all supposed to be mercenaries for hire or whatever.
Re: Black Myth: Wukong's Xbox Delay Isn't Due to Platform Limitations, Says Microsoft
Well, we only just got Vampire Survivors, so fair's fair.
Re: Sony Flop Concord Axed Two Weeks After PS5, PC Release
@naruball I think the difference with games like BG3 and OW and other games which are woke-but-successful is that they âdo the wokeâ well.
For instance, some OW characters are LGBT, but the game only ever references it subtly. A in-game voiceline here, a moment in a cutscene there. In contrast, Concordâs use of pronouns was clumsy. The way Concord could have done inclusivity so as not to cause a backlash was to have other characters use the trans and NB characters preferred pronouns when speaking about them, and treat it like no big deal.
Iâm not saying the use of preferred pronouns by the devs caused the game to fail, of course not, but Iâm saying it was a) unnecessary and b) signalled that the devs were of a particular political leaning and that likely put people off more than it attracted anyone.
Re: Reaction: PlayStation Needs to Take a Long, Hard Look at Itself
I donât disagree with Sony wanting a live service game or two to keep the dollars rolling in at a steady clip. If profits from those endeavours helps fund the big AAA narrative experiences I prefer then Iâm all for it.
If I were sat in the executive suites at PlayStation Iâd be thinking along these lines:
1. Start the hype train sooner out from release. Gauge customer reactions and adjust.
2. Show off what differentiates the game from whatâs already on the market. Helldivers 2 kicked off because we hadnât seen that sort of Co-operative, horde-mode, extraction style game with such a strong theme before. Concord by contrast looked derivative of OW, GotG, and (once we actually got into the betas) had no game modes we hadnât played before.
3. Give a few hints as to what single player games are in the works. PlayStation faithful are feeling like thereâs nothing for them here anymore because PS is keeping its cards too close to its chest. Xbox is putting on shows that are being praised and generating hype by showing off things that wonât be released for months or years. (And I look forward to playing many of those on PS!)
Re: Sony Flop Concord Axed Two Weeks After PS5, PC Release
Quite aside from oneâs opinions on including pronouns, I think the discourse here demonstrates that putting them in character bios was a stupid thing for the developers to have done in the game. For the proportion of the gaming public that already agree with stating oneâs pronouns, I doubt it generated a many extra sales that weren't already going to be made. But for the proportion of the public that think you shouldnât/donât need to state your pronouns (which all the polling Iâve seen is a vast majority in the US and U.K.) it signalled that this game was made by people with that opinion and likely cost them more sales.
Re: PS5, PC Shooter Concord Dead on Arrival, Is Being Taken Offline This Week as Dev 'Explores Options'
The best call Sony could make. If we assume ~$40 equivalent per copy, and estimates are 25k copies sold across PC and PS5 (which was confirmed as âabout rightâ by Gamesindustry.biz on their podcast, and their Chris Dring said he has seen the numbers) then refunds will cost Sony about $1m.
F2P would have required additional investment in retooling the progression and gameplay modes to suit that business model, and cheesed off early adopters, while every indication from the betas was that it wouldnât improve anything in terms of player interest.
If I were Firewalk, Iâd strip the game back to a grey-box, remove all the art assets, and focus my attention there. A total art overhaul and rebrand is required IMO.
But I suspect theyâll mothball it instead and take the tax write off.
Re: Layoffs Hit Ballistic Moon Ahead of Until Dawn PS5's October Release
I'll probably pick up the remake, as I really enjoyed the original, but I'm waiting to see what has actually been added.
I don't think we know the terms of Ballistic Moon's deal with Sony. For all we know they are working on the Remake for a fixed price with no ongoing royalties. Reads to me like they weren't able to secure their next project or that next project isn't going to give them sufficient cashflow to remain at the same size.
Re: Jennifer Hale Says AI Is Coming for All of Us
There's got to be a fair rate that can be paid to VAs based on how much of their voice is used which would allow them to licence their voice to studios for use in a GenAI and for specific projects. I'd imagine it is less than the amount they would be paid for actually having to go into a booth, but more than nothing.
Games, film projects, audiobooks, etc, will one day advertise "recorded with real voice over" to distinguish themselves once the technology becomes overused/abused.
Re: How Long Does It Take to Find a Match in Concord on PS5, PC?
F2P wonât save it. It was already a flop when it was free to try out at the beta weekends, and now all anyone knows is that itâs a flop.
If Sony only cared about the money, Iâd pull it from sale, give everyone a refund, and cancel the whole thing for the tax write off at this point.
Re: Mini Review: Vampire Survivors (PS5) - Indie Icon Should Come with a Health Warning
Lost a point for not having a vampire? đ§đťââď¸
Itâs pure crack, I love it.
Re: Concord PS5, PC Sales Estimates Are Somehow Even Worse Than We Thought
I ask again, why does anyone expect going F2P will help at this point? The game was just as unpopular when free public betas were available.
Itâs beyond saving if you ask me.
Re: How Much Would You Pay for Your PS5 Games? Dev Says Industry Is Waiting for GTA 6 to Hike Prices
I used to spend a lot on games, and have a library of hundreds of PS4 titles. But Iâve saved a tonne of money with my gaming hobby in recent years. I changed things by applying a few easy rules.
1. Do not fall for sales. Only buy a game when you actually want to/will be able to play it. Even if itâs still at full price when you come to it, you probably saved money by not adding 10 games to your backlog that youâre never going to get to just because PSN put them on sale.
2. Try to finish all your games. Sure, youâll fall off some here or there, but the time it takes to see them through will stop you jumping on the hype for the next game and spending more money.
3. Wait for reviews. Half the time youâll read them and think âeh, I can wait for a sale on this oneâ or âIâll skip this entirelyâ.
4. Never pre-order.
With these changes to the way I buy and play games, the hobby is surprisingly affordable.
Re: Vampire Survivors Has a Whopping 221 Trophies to Collect on PS5, PS4
@riceNpea 41 in the base game for VS (as it says in the article). PSq said "collection of trophies for a single game".
Not sure how many of the Train Sim games' trophies are attached to DLC. It looks like TSW2 only had one piece of DLC on PSN, so I can't imagine that all the DLC-trophies in the 411 total that it has are locked behind that extra pay-wall.
If you wanna talk trophies-per-ÂŁ then I'm sure VS takes the top spot, (excluding F2P games, where the buy-in is potentially ÂŁ0).
Re: Vampire Survivors Has a Whopping 221 Trophies to Collect on PS5, PS4
In terms of points, VS is 4th in how many points it awards. It's 3rd in the total number of trophies: Train Sim World 4 has 251 and Train Sim World 2 has 411. ESO rewards more trophy-points, but has fewer, higher-tiered trophies.
And yeah, I'm going to be gunning for all 221 on PS5. Really looking forward to playing it this evening, I'm going to go charge up my PS Portal right now.
Re: Players Complain of Lengthy PS5 Matchmaking Times As Concord Numbers Dwindle
@Pusher2021 "These are not bad devs, it is not Gollom standard by any means!"
No, Gollum had more players (on Steam)!
Joking aside, you're right, the devs are clearly very talented. The animations are exquisite and the gunplay is reportedly among the best. (I played the beta and didn't like it personally, but I'm not experienced enough with FPS games to judge really).
The problem was that these very talented devs were working to a very ill-judged brief. They made a game that no one wants, but they made it very well.
Re: Players Complain of Lengthy PS5 Matchmaking Times As Concord Numbers Dwindle
Why does anyone think making the game F2P will save it? It might make it slightly less of a disaster for a little while, but we saw the interest (at least in the Steam numbers) when there was an open beta and they were miserable, certainly not enough to sustain the game long term. There are just 63 Steam players playing the game right now, on day 7 following launch, not even enough for seven full matches on their own!
It's gotten to the point where people who literally flog dead horses are going to start using the idiom "don't pump for Concord", as that task seems even more futile.
Re: PS Plus Essential Games for September 2024 Announced
I might give the Quidditch game a go. I enjoyed Rocket League at launch at this is giving me similar vibes.
Astro and Space Marine 2 are the highlights of this month though.
Re: Mark Cerny's Feedback on PS5's Astro Bot: 'Now This Is a Game'
Looking forward to this one.
Re: Talking Point: Can PS5, PC Shooter Concord Be Saved?
I have experience from the open Beta. While it may be well executed, the game is derivative and badly designed.
Identity -
Characters -
Meta -
Gameplay -
I donât think the above are fixable without a significant re-work of the game that wouldnât be worth the candle. Sony should just give it up, take the L, and figure out how to make sure the same thing doesnât happen to Marathon and FairgameDollarsign.
Re: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Movie's Debut Trailer Shows Off Shadow, Voiced by Keanu Reeves
These movies are a guilty pleasure. The kind of movie I stick on during a flight, but wouldn't admit to anyone I know that I enjoyed very much.
Re: Things Are Getting Worse for Floundering PS5, PC FPS Concord
@Shigurui It scrapes the data of people who sign up, but they also have the PSN rarity for trophies (i.e. all players), hence my trying to do something with the ratio of PSNProfiles v Actual rarity with the easiest trophy in the game. My estimate would necessarily exclude people who have bought the game and not booted it yet - whether on PSNProfiles or not PSN would not have generated a trophy list associated with their accounts - so would have to be the low end of the estimate.
Re: Spare a Thought for Secret Level's Concord Episode
@MeatyVeg Not great or an all-timer, but good & some fun nonetheless
Why should I waste my time on a game that isnât great when there are so many absolute bangers available to buy or already in my backlog? Itâs an honest question - I play a lot of games, usually 2 hours or so a day once the Mrs has gone to bed - and there are tonnes of great games that I havenât touched, some of which Iâve already paid for.
Re: Spare a Thought for Secret Level's Concord Episode
âPerhaps thereâs an element of product placement at play here, and Sony is paying for Concordâs inclusion.â
Perhaps? My operating assumption was that all of the episodes were paid for by the respective publishers.
Re: PS5, PC FPS Concord's Poor Player Numbers Have Predictably Gone Viral
@Shigurui oh really? Ouch.
Hrmm. How about this to estimate the total number of PSN sales. On PSN profiles, 97.58% of players have the easiest trophy (for getting 1 kill). The trophy has 89.9% PSN rarity. So thatâs a ratio of 1.085. PSN profiles is tracking 908 game owners. 908*1.085=985. So barring people who have purchased and are yet to get a single kill, there are conservatively only ~985 PSN owners in total.
Does that work?
Re: Concord (PS5) - Live Service Debut Beats the Hate with Stellar Presentation and Good Gameplay
Nice review. The game isnât for me but I do think itâs incredibly sad that it is doing so badly as itâd have been nice to see something with such a fair business model being rewarded.
I think the world theyâve built here looks interesting and Iâd quite like to play a single player campaign in this setting. Maybe thatâs what a new IP like this needed: a baller campaign to make people care, then with an excellent MP suite on the side for those that want to hang around afterwards.
Re: PS5, PC FPS Concord's Poor Player Numbers Have Predictably Gone Viral
@Markatron84 when I checked yesterday there were 7.4K reviews on PSN. You need to own the game to leave a star rating on PSN, so there were at least that many purchasers.