@Texan_Survivor I read these types of comments a lot, and I think people forget about games because they didn’t play them, or because they don’t get a lot of press.
Astrobot’s Playroom and Returnal alone would counter all those points, both are exceptional PS5 exclusives. Also we have the entire innovative arm of PSVR2, which although not successful so far, shows Sony doing more than cutscene “walkie-talkies” alone. More creativity in that one project than both competitors put together. Sony has really committed to novel ideas — Dreams would be a major example. Also, Fairgames and Concord are on deck, as far as new IP that aren’t narrative third person games.
The issue is, no one plays or buys many of these games. They buy GoW, Spider-Man, etc. If players want more creative games they need to put their money where their mouth is. Go buy a PSVR2 and play Returnal.
@chrichtonsworld You’re correct in that I don’t play much nowadays, compared to a couple years ago, but I play about 10-12 games a year, depending. Some are large games like recently poured 80+ hrs into Jedi Survivor and Hogwarts, and some are small like Stray or Life is Strange 2 which I played this year also.
Most of my digital library through PS+ is from the monthly games I’ve claimed over the years, so I have access to all of them as long as I keep the subscription active. But yes, the PS+ Extra games can be taken away. But that’s less of a “digital game” problem as much as it’s a “subscription model” problem. Yes, it’s possible that Sony (or Microsoft or Nintendo) will take away access to a digital game you own, but so far that hasn’t happened very often. It’s a legitimate concern though.
What games have you lost access to? Besides PS+ Extra I haven’t run across any issues with the PS+ Essential monthly games, nor games they gave us in the PS+ collection at the start of this gen.
@DaniPooo I’m not a collector, per se, but I do value physical games. Mostly because I can resell them and transfer the rights to play that game to another person, which I can’t do with digital. And it does take away some of the free market competition options if the only option place I can buy a game is from the PS store. Of course I can always go over to Xbox or Steam, I guess, but definitely fewer options than with physical where I can go to Best Buy, Target, GameStop, and a thousand other options including a second hand marketplace. So my issue is mostly with the loss of competitive pricing that the digital store causes. I would like an option to be able to either buy digital PS5 games from other marketplaces, or be able to resell my digital game to someone else. Not likely to happen though.
As far as the other point — yes, I think part of the issue here (and with other economically based matters in gaming) where many of us are talking past each other is that we’re all coming from a different cultural setting, with unique governmental and regulatory backdrops. The U.S. is heavily free-market and big business driven, and less welfare-state, as you say. I think a lawsuit like this probably wouldn’t gain much traction here. So I’m glad the UK tax payers are funding it. Because yes, these legal battles which go on for years cost the tax payers a whole lot of money. Which is why I made my first comments that I thought the hardworking people in the UK might benefit from the courts spending their time on other injustices, but I don’t know. I don’t live there, or in Europe, so maybe all is hunky-dory and hobby related cost structures are high priority.
🤷🏻♂️
@DaniPooo And to clarify, when I say “I”, I’m speaking metaphorically representing the common man/woman. Although I do know people who can’t afford their medication and utilities, personally speaking, I’ll be fine this winter and have all my needs met. I also have a library chock-full of games, digital and physical (I think last I noticed, my digital library has 400+ titles in it, many from the PS+ services) which I probably would not even complete if I played all day, every day for the next 3 years. But I realize (as you said in your first reply) that just because I can afford all the necessities and amenities of life doesn’t mean others aren’t struggling. And my heart hurts more for those who are forced to go without those other things I mentioned. I can’t say I’ve ever shed a tear for someone who can’t afford a digital game, but I certainly have for someone who can’t afford their rent.
And yes… the justice / court system is a branch of government. 😅. I think you meant that those things I mention need to be handled by the legislature? I mean, yeah, but they are also the ones who should be handling the anti-trust laws and oversight of the gaming digital storefronts. Since they haven’t, that’s why people have turned to the courts.
@DaniPooo I realize “two wrongs don’t make a right” and just because pharmaceutical companies, gas and electro companies, and grocery stores price-gouge doesn’t mean than unfair monopolistic practices elsewhere are okay. I don’t like the way Sony and Microsoft are pushing us all into a digital only future where they have complete control over game pricing. Sure I’d like better digital prices. But my point is that I’d rather be able to afford my insulin. And be able to heat my home in the winter.
Not even limited to “poor” people (that term could mean different things to different people), even the wealthy middle class can’t afford their taxes, their meds, and their utilities in the U.S. That’s all I’m saying. If I was in charge of the world, I’d fix that stuff first before the PSN. The courts can barely handle the cases they already have, so this lawsuit runs the risk of being a detractor from bigger issues, is what I meant. If it ends up helping me pay $10 less for God of War Ragnarok, then ‘yay!’ for that. I just wish the courts would advocate for us on healthcare, tax reform, and oil pricing. There’s plenty of more egregious consumer injustices going on.
Is Gears of War known for its narrative prowess? I’m not familiar with the franchise but nothing about it came across that way, looking at it from the outside.
I live in a world where people literally cannot afford their life saving medications, food, clothing, shelter, and utilities, so this seems a bit ridiculous. The courts have much more important things to do.
“2022's A Plague Tale: Requiem has hit three million players just ahead of its one year anniversary.”
That number actually seems low. And when they report how many players tried the game instead of how many copies sold, it tells me it probably didn’t sell well. Asobo and Focus got their GamePass money, so I’m sure they’re happy with that, but I’m surprised only a couple million GP subscribers tried the game as I imagine it sold about 1 million. Also the game is available on Nintendo via cloud streaming, so that number is even less impressive on all 3 consoles, one of which has it for “free”
Cue comments about executives and project leads leaving studios being completely normal and rebranding a studio being commonplace and not a sign of any disruption in Sony first party.
I don’t have much interest in the game, based on what I’ve seen. But I do think that despite the heavy online criticism, the game is likely to sell like hotcakes.
I get this game mixed up with Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and Atlas Fallen. There’s too many AA major fantasy games that came out around the same time. 😅
Man, it seems like we’re seeing more of these departures than usual. I’m not trying to be an alarmist, and I know it’s commonplace for personnel leave to further their careers, but… where there’s smoke is there indeed a fire?
There’s still some serious Dunning-Kruger effect going on, where despite articles like this and evidence showing the device being sold out, as well as the glowing reviews from critics, and loads of positive feedback from people who actually own the Portal and are loving it, and yet there’s still all these people who “know better” (just because they personally don’t want one) and are convinced it’s going to be a failure and the device has no real target audience. 😒
Several from my wishlist on sale. I’ve got more than I can play already but $30 for Crisis Core and Plague Tale Requiem is tempting. But I think I’ll wait. Just like I’ve waited for GoW Ragnarok
Also Bend Studio, which their last was Days Gone in 2019 and they didn’t even release a Director’s Cut in the interim like Sucker Punch did.
Not to mention studios like Team Asobi and BluePoint which had PS5 launch games a couple months after TLoU2 but nothing since. Meanwhile ND has made PS5 remakes in TLoU1, UC4/LL Legacy of Thieves, probably would have released Factions by now if not for Bungie, and helped produce arguably one of the best video game TV shows ever. Meanwhile nothing but silence from most of the other first parties. People are probably a little too unfair with Naughty Dog. I mean, yeah - it’s fine to not like the studio’s games or decisions (which I’ve loved everything they’ve made, personally) but there’s no criticizing their effort and production. The only studio that has been more productive is Insomniac. Guerrilla and Santa Monica are in the conversation too, but otherwise ND is still one of the main contributors to Sony’s ecosystem.
Wow, that statement: “The videogame market has evolved … with consumers increasingly reverting to well-established Intellectual Properties and playing these same games for longer periods. Digital Bros strategy has had to adapt … and will focus its efforts moving forward on the release of sequels and new versions of previously successful and established games, with a limited number of new larger budgets productions."
What a damning statement for gamers like me. I wish we had fewer long lifestyle games and annual retreads, and more new IP.
I don’t play COD but I had to drop by and read this out of morbid curiosity. Yikes! Surely Sony first party can develop (or is developing) something to compete with this.
I’ve never played a Far Cry game, despite enjoying Ubisoft’s other output. I just can’t get past the first person viewpoint. It’s just not my preference.
That said, I was considering putting aside those issues because I think an open world Avatar setting sounds great…. Until this news. To me ‘season pass’ is immediately a turn off.
@nomither6 Yeah, I just avoid the platform entirely. Just like I choose not to go for regular strolls in the sewer. If people want to wade through other people’s excrement, more power to them. 😜
The Yakuza games are already really long, so this sounds like this might be excessive. It won’t be so bad if it has novel gameplay content, but the series is known for recycling ideas. What would a Yakuza game be without hostess club, management sim, and arcade side games. Also karaoke. Dollars to donuts it has karaoke.
All fairly predictable except for the PlayStation GOTY winner being RE4. Not that it’s undeserving, but it’s not an exclusive, whereas the Nintendo and Xbox GOTY are. It’s usually the other way around.
Poor Spidey 2
Edit: oops… I did that annoying thing that people do when the post a comment without reading the other comments or the article and they say something ignorant that has been clarified several times above… Spider-Man 2 wasn’t eligible for PS GOTY.
For me so far I give the slight edge to Hogwart’s Legacy. But I’ve yet to play Spider-Man 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3, which I plan to do before the year’s end. I also am only halfway through FF16, so it might move up depending how the ending goes, because it’s turning out to be really good also. It won’t win, but I really enjoyed Jedi Survivor immensely. The remakes for RE4 and Dead Space are others I need to get to eventually, and I suspect will be nominated for some awards.
Zelda will probably be the safe bet. By all accounts it’s excellent. I wouldn’t know since I don’t play on Switch. Nothing against it, but I have my plate full with just PS5 right now. It will be weird to have a GOTY winner that’s confined to a last gen console though.
Bungie clearly has talent in this one corner of gaming - FPS live service. Nevertheless, that’s a burning platform to be standing on, which is volatile and inherently self-limiting. I suspect they’ve learned this now that when you limit access to your product to a small section of gamers who have started with you from the beginning, then your more susceptible to suffer if a portion of them walk away. It would serve them well on their next project to keep barriers to entry low for injecting a new player base to your game. That, or ditch the live service model (which is never going to happen).
Wow, if the big update after a couple years is “we have a script” and “we’re close to getting out s*** together” then that doesn’t inspire confidence that this will show up anytime soon. I was hoping for a sequel to the game but here we are over 3 years after the first game’s release and nothing on the franchise other than “we have a script”
@thechetearly I really agree. The difficulty with onboarding new players is a big oversight for Destiny (and other live service games). There will always be a natural dwindling of your early audience and the only way to maintain or grow a live-service game is by injecting fresh new players into the game to replace those leaving. Destiny 2 has done an abysmal job at this. The barrier to entry for those of us who haven’t been involved since the early days is just too high. I’m not sure why Bungie doesn’t recognize this.
In my opinion, a live-service game has to not only maintain engagement from the core audience, but also allow for easy entry of new players.
@ROTTIEMAN16 Yeah, I guess we would have a good idea by looking at the Series X version of the equivalent game since it doesn’t have the compression tech? I’ve not looked at a comparison but it would be interesting to see
@DennisReynolds Oh, thanks for the clarification. I’m not a tech guy and certainly don’t know about the programming side of things. I was led to believe that the fast speeds of the SSD made having duplicate assets unnecessary since single files could be accessed just as quickly as making redundancy in the code, thereby allowing some of those files to be omitted. Or something like that. As far as turning a larger game into a smaller one, it was true of many cross gen games though — the PS4 version was larger than their PS5 counterpart. Many of the early cross gen games were this way (granted not a 50% reduction. More like a 10-20% reduction, if I recall correctly), but this may have been due to the compression tech rather than saving on unnecessary assets.
Wow, these file sizes have just ballooned this gen. Started with these promises of smaller downloads due to the SSD and now most new AAA games are all 80 GB + and slowly creeping higher!
I don’t understand the obsession with voice commands. Not just the PS5, but everything I own has them. I never use Siri. Never use the voice commands in my TV. Don’t have an Alexa. Why every electronic appliance has to have some AI assistant with voice commands is beyond me. I’m perfectly happy to click a button. Guess I’m old fashioned.
@Afroducc “Please Sony, lets have a couple of new IP from your first party.”
I’m in total agreement that I want to see a steady stream of new IP mixed with the sequels and remasters, but I do think they have more than a couple coming. We know about Concord and Fairgames. There’s also heavy rumors about Bend working on a new IP and also a second Naughty Dog team cooking a new IP in the background alongside TLoU3. Pretty sure Bluepoint has a new IP, if their current game isn’t Bloodborne 2. Also based on what they said about their current project, Housemarque isn’t making a Returnal sequel, so it’s probably a new IP. Almost certainly Media Molecule isn’t doing Dreams 2 either. 😅
But yes, as far as Insomniac, it would be interesting to see what novel IP they could create on their own.
Still working through FF16. It’s quite a lovely game. Just oozes with high end production value. I’m really liking Clive.
I dropped in on Humanity to do a couple levels last night. It gets quite difficult quickly. I’m on sequence 3. I still really enjoy it for a change of pace game or if I just have 30 minutes to get a quick level or two done
@Ooccoo_Jr Yeah, I’m starting to be reluctant to grab some of these games on sale due to the tendency of games recently on sale dropping into Extra. I had picked up Disco Elysium a while back on sale and have yet to play it, for example, and now I could have just played it through PS+. Fortunately I did buy it physical, so I can resell it if I want.
So the games I’m buying lately are either at launch, in physical disc so as to have the ability to flip them, or on a discount when it’s a game I don’t suspect to ever go on PS+, like FromSoft games.
@PenguinLtd I think that’s a good price for Jedi Survivor and well worth it, imo. I bought it at launch and paid full price and quite enjoyed it. Spent almost 90 hours on it. The launch technical issues are mostly ironed out (and imo were largely overblown anyways) although the performance mode can still be inconsistent at times. If you’re one of the ‘60 fps or bust’ crowd then you might have some concerns, but if you’re someone who can give a little leeway to these huge open world games that have so much content and will have a frame hitch from time to time or are fine just playing the 30 fps mode, then you’ll really enjoy it. Provided you liked the first game, because it’s similar, although quite a bit larger and has more varied combat and traversal options.
@3Above I do agree that it seems like some publishers don’t strategize their release dates very well.
In fairness, this Jan-Feb window has some big games but they are slightly different genres and won’t be necessarily competing against each other directly. I guess Granblue and FF7 are probably vying for the same crowd. And maybe Helldivers and Suicide Squad overlap, as do the 2D side-scrollers PoP and Unicorn.
But even though there’s a variety in that release period, there’s only so many games one can play at a time.
I have the original PS5 with the disc drive and wouldn’t be interested in a digital only machine. Props to Sony for coming up with this idea, since I think a few people want the modular capability.
I need to play the base game first. Too many games, too few hours in the day. I am trying to at least play all the Dark Souls games first, so I have DS2 lined up to play hopefully later this year.
As for the other early 2024 releases (and it feels crazy to think that 2024 is less than 3 months away), I probably will only get FF7 Rebirth from that list, but could be swayed on a couple others depending on reviews. Really curious if that Suicide Squad game is going to be the dumpster fire that the preview trailers showed.
Comments 3,733
Re: Reaction: PS5's Success Is Not Luck, Because Sony's Spent Years Putting in the Hard Yards
@Texan_Survivor I read these types of comments a lot, and I think people forget about games because they didn’t play them, or because they don’t get a lot of press.
Astrobot’s Playroom and Returnal alone would counter all those points, both are exceptional PS5 exclusives. Also we have the entire innovative arm of PSVR2, which although not successful so far, shows Sony doing more than cutscene “walkie-talkies” alone. More creativity in that one project than both competitors put together. Sony has really committed to novel ideas — Dreams would be a major example. Also, Fairgames and Concord are on deck, as far as new IP that aren’t narrative third person games.
The issue is, no one plays or buys many of these games. They buy GoW, Spider-Man, etc. If players want more creative games they need to put their money where their mouth is. Go buy a PSVR2 and play Returnal.
Re: Court Rules £5 Billion Lawsuit Against Sony Can Go Ahead, Following Years of 'Excessive' PS Store Prices
@chrichtonsworld You’re correct in that I don’t play much nowadays, compared to a couple years ago, but I play about 10-12 games a year, depending. Some are large games like recently poured 80+ hrs into Jedi Survivor and Hogwarts, and some are small like Stray or Life is Strange 2 which I played this year also.
Most of my digital library through PS+ is from the monthly games I’ve claimed over the years, so I have access to all of them as long as I keep the subscription active. But yes, the PS+ Extra games can be taken away. But that’s less of a “digital game” problem as much as it’s a “subscription model” problem. Yes, it’s possible that Sony (or Microsoft or Nintendo) will take away access to a digital game you own, but so far that hasn’t happened very often. It’s a legitimate concern though.
What games have you lost access to? Besides PS+ Extra I haven’t run across any issues with the PS+ Essential monthly games, nor games they gave us in the PS+ collection at the start of this gen.
Re: Court Rules £5 Billion Lawsuit Against Sony Can Go Ahead, Following Years of 'Excessive' PS Store Prices
@DaniPooo I’m not a collector, per se, but I do value physical games. Mostly because I can resell them and transfer the rights to play that game to another person, which I can’t do with digital. And it does take away some of the free market competition options if the only option place I can buy a game is from the PS store. Of course I can always go over to Xbox or Steam, I guess, but definitely fewer options than with physical where I can go to Best Buy, Target, GameStop, and a thousand other options including a second hand marketplace. So my issue is mostly with the loss of competitive pricing that the digital store causes. I would like an option to be able to either buy digital PS5 games from other marketplaces, or be able to resell my digital game to someone else. Not likely to happen though.
As far as the other point — yes, I think part of the issue here (and with other economically based matters in gaming) where many of us are talking past each other is that we’re all coming from a different cultural setting, with unique governmental and regulatory backdrops. The U.S. is heavily free-market and big business driven, and less welfare-state, as you say. I think a lawsuit like this probably wouldn’t gain much traction here. So I’m glad the UK tax payers are funding it. Because yes, these legal battles which go on for years cost the tax payers a whole lot of money. Which is why I made my first comments that I thought the hardworking people in the UK might benefit from the courts spending their time on other injustices, but I don’t know. I don’t live there, or in Europe, so maybe all is hunky-dory and hobby related cost structures are high priority.
🤷🏻♂️
Re: Court Rules £5 Billion Lawsuit Against Sony Can Go Ahead, Following Years of 'Excessive' PS Store Prices
@DaniPooo And to clarify, when I say “I”, I’m speaking metaphorically representing the common man/woman. Although I do know people who can’t afford their medication and utilities, personally speaking, I’ll be fine this winter and have all my needs met. I also have a library chock-full of games, digital and physical (I think last I noticed, my digital library has 400+ titles in it, many from the PS+ services) which I probably would not even complete if I played all day, every day for the next 3 years. But I realize (as you said in your first reply) that just because I can afford all the necessities and amenities of life doesn’t mean others aren’t struggling. And my heart hurts more for those who are forced to go without those other things I mentioned. I can’t say I’ve ever shed a tear for someone who can’t afford a digital game, but I certainly have for someone who can’t afford their rent.
And yes… the justice / court system is a branch of government. 😅. I think you meant that those things I mention need to be handled by the legislature? I mean, yeah, but they are also the ones who should be handling the anti-trust laws and oversight of the gaming digital storefronts. Since they haven’t, that’s why people have turned to the courts.
Re: Court Rules £5 Billion Lawsuit Against Sony Can Go Ahead, Following Years of 'Excessive' PS Store Prices
@DaniPooo I realize “two wrongs don’t make a right” and just because pharmaceutical companies, gas and electro companies, and grocery stores price-gouge doesn’t mean than unfair monopolistic practices elsewhere are okay. I don’t like the way Sony and Microsoft are pushing us all into a digital only future where they have complete control over game pricing. Sure I’d like better digital prices. But my point is that I’d rather be able to afford my insulin. And be able to heat my home in the winter.
Not even limited to “poor” people (that term could mean different things to different people), even the wealthy middle class can’t afford their taxes, their meds, and their utilities in the U.S. That’s all I’m saying. If I was in charge of the world, I’d fix that stuff first before the PSN. The courts can barely handle the cases they already have, so this lawsuit runs the risk of being a detractor from bigger issues, is what I meant. If it ends up helping me pay $10 less for God of War Ragnarok, then ‘yay!’ for that. I just wish the courts would advocate for us on healthcare, tax reform, and oil pricing. There’s plenty of more egregious consumer injustices going on.
Re: God of War Studio Recruits Former Gears of War Narrative Director
Is Gears of War known for its narrative prowess? I’m not familiar with the franchise but nothing about it came across that way, looking at it from the outside.
Re: Court Rules £5 Billion Lawsuit Against Sony Can Go Ahead, Following Years of 'Excessive' PS Store Prices
I live in a world where people literally cannot afford their life saving medications, food, clothing, shelter, and utilities, so this seems a bit ridiculous. The courts have much more important things to do.
Re: A Plague Tale Dev Signs Up for 'Another Exciting Project'
“2022's A Plague Tale: Requiem has hit three million players just ahead of its one year anniversary.”
That number actually seems low. And when they report how many players tried the game instead of how many copies sold, it tells me it probably didn’t sell well. Asobo and Focus got their GamePass money, so I’m sure they’re happy with that, but I’m surprised only a couple million GP subscribers tried the game as I imagine it sold about 1 million. Also the game is available on Nintendo via cloud streaming, so that number is even less impressive on all 3 consoles, one of which has it for “free”
Re: PlayStation's Mobile Games Studio Rebrands Following Multiple Departures
Cue comments about executives and project leads leaving studios being completely normal and rebranding a studio being commonplace and not a sign of any disruption in Sony first party.
Re: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Is Getting a Closed Alpha Test Very Soon
I don’t have much interest in the game, based on what I’ve seen. But I do think that despite the heavy online criticism, the game is likely to sell like hotcakes.
Re: Magical PS5 FPS Immortals of Aveum Is Probably Coming to PS Plus at Some Point
I get this game mixed up with Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and Atlas Fallen. There’s too many AA major fantasy games that came out around the same time. 😅
Re: Returnal Director Is Leaving Housemarque After 14 Years
Man, it seems like we’re seeing more of these departures than usual. I’m not trying to be an alarmist, and I know it’s commonplace for personnel leave to further their careers, but… where there’s smoke is there indeed a fire?
Re: The Last of Us 2 PS5 Remaster Announced, Has a Brand New Survival Mode, $10 Upgrade Path
@Grumblevolcano That’s really depressing to think about. 😅 In 2038 GTA7 might be the least of our concerns, the way this world is going.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 503
Having continuous conversations with my own psyche whilst trying to stay clean and sober in Disco Elysium.
Re: PS Portal Sells Out In Just a Couple of Days
There’s still some serious Dunning-Kruger effect going on, where despite articles like this and evidence showing the device being sold out, as well as the glowing reviews from critics, and loads of positive feedback from people who actually own the Portal and are loving it, and yet there’s still all these people who “know better” (just because they personally don’t want one) and are convinced it’s going to be a failure and the device has no real target audience. 😒
Re: Dragon's Dogma 2 Showcase Announced, Featuring New Gameplay and Reveals
Pretty excited for this. I’ve got a lot of games to play but this could shove its way to the front, depending.
Re: Huge PS Store Black Friday Sale Live Now, 1,000+ PS5, PS4 Games on Offer
Several from my wishlist on sale. I’ve got more than I can play already but $30 for Crisis Core and Plague Tale Requiem is tempting. But I think I’ll wait. Just like I’ve waited for GoW Ragnarok
Re: The Last of Us 2 PS5 Version Appears Inevitable Now
@AdamNovice That’s a good point.
Also Bend Studio, which their last was Days Gone in 2019 and they didn’t even release a Director’s Cut in the interim like Sucker Punch did.
Not to mention studios like Team Asobi and BluePoint which had PS5 launch games a couple months after TLoU2 but nothing since. Meanwhile ND has made PS5 remakes in TLoU1, UC4/LL Legacy of Thieves, probably would have released Factions by now if not for Bungie, and helped produce arguably one of the best video game TV shows ever. Meanwhile nothing but silence from most of the other first parties. People are probably a little too unfair with Naughty Dog. I mean, yeah - it’s fine to not like the studio’s games or decisions (which I’ve loved everything they’ve made, personally) but there’s no criticizing their effort and production. The only studio that has been more productive is Insomniac. Guerrilla and Santa Monica are in the conversation too, but otherwise ND is still one of the main contributors to Sony’s ecosystem.
Re: Poll: Did You Buy a PS Portal?
Hopefully Santa brings me one.
Re: October 2023 Circana: Spider-Man 2, PS5 Both Chart-Toppers as the Sony Streak Continues
I’m just wondering why people have stopped buying GTAV. Come on people! Every household in the U.S. only has two copies. We can do better than that!
Re: 505 Games Parent Company Digital Bros Cuts 30% of Global Workforce
Wow, that statement:
“The videogame market has evolved … with consumers increasingly reverting to well-established Intellectual Properties and playing these same games for longer periods. Digital Bros strategy has had to adapt … and will focus its efforts moving forward on the release of sequels and new versions of previously successful and established games, with a limited number of new larger budgets productions."
What a damning statement for gamers like me. I wish we had fewer long lifestyle games and annual retreads, and more new IP.
Re: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS5) - Bloated, Undercooked, and Outdated All at Once
I don’t play COD but I had to drop by and read this out of morbid curiosity. Yikes! Surely Sony first party can develop (or is developing) something to compete with this.
Re: Like All Modern Games, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Has a PS5 Season Pass
I’ve never played a Far Cry game, despite enjoying Ubisoft’s other output. I just can’t get past the first person viewpoint. It’s just not my preference.
That said, I was considering putting aside those issues because I think an open world Avatar setting sounds great…. Until this news. To me ‘season pass’ is immediately a turn off.
Re: Twitter Wants to Dramatically Improve PS5, PS4's Integration
@nomither6 Yeah, I just avoid the platform entirely. Just like I choose not to go for regular strolls in the sewer. If people want to wade through other people’s excrement, more power to them. 😜
Re: Guide: PS Portal FAQ - All Your Questions Answered
If I’m within range of my PS5 and have my 3D Pulse headset connected to its USB dongle, I assume it will work while playing on PS Portal?
Re: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Is So Long, It's Being Called 'Monster-Class'
The Yakuza games are already really long, so this sounds like this might be excessive. It won’t be so bad if it has novel gameplay content, but the series is known for recycling ideas. What would a Yakuza game be without hostess club, management sim, and arcade side games. Also karaoke. Dollars to donuts it has karaoke.
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 Dominates Golden Joystick Awards, Wins Game of the Year
All fairly predictable except for the PlayStation GOTY winner being RE4. Not that it’s undeserving, but it’s not an exclusive, whereas the Nintendo and Xbox GOTY are. It’s usually the other way around.
Poor Spidey 2
Edit: oops… I did that annoying thing that people do when the post a comment without reading the other comments or the article and they say something ignorant that has been clarified several times above… Spider-Man 2 wasn’t eligible for PS GOTY.
Still… it’s a little egg-on-the-face for FFXVI
Re: Physical Games Represented Just 4% of Sales for PlayStation Last Quarter
Blast, I hate this. Even though I’m part of the problem and have shifted toward more and more digital, I still like my physical for big AAA titles.
Although, 4% is low, compared to 21%, it’s still enough to keep physical going for the short term but I feel fairly certain PS6 will be digital only.
Re: The Battle for Game of the Year in a Superb 2023 Begins on Monday
This is a tough year to judge and predict.
For me so far I give the slight edge to Hogwart’s Legacy. But I’ve yet to play Spider-Man 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3, which I plan to do before the year’s end. I also am only halfway through FF16, so it might move up depending how the ending goes, because it’s turning out to be really good also. It won’t win, but I really enjoyed Jedi Survivor immensely. The remakes for RE4 and Dead Space are others I need to get to eventually, and I suspect will be nominated for some awards.
Zelda will probably be the safe bet. By all accounts it’s excellent. I wouldn’t know since I don’t play on Switch. Nothing against it, but I have my plate full with just PS5 right now. It will be weird to have a GOTY winner that’s confined to a last gen console though.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Writer Warns Against Weird Fan Requests to 'Kill' Certain Characters
I think we all knew what was probably going to happen (or not happen) in this game, but now I think we know for sure.
Re: UNO Makes a Surprise Appearance on PS5, and It's Part of PS Plus Extra
I can’t wait to see UNO cards in the highest 4K fidelity at 120 FPS performance and there better be ray tracing!
Re: Bungie Acknowledges Destiny 2 Concerns Following Layoffs
Bungie clearly has talent in this one corner of gaming - FPS live service. Nevertheless, that’s a burning platform to be standing on, which is volatile and inherently self-limiting. I suspect they’ve learned this now that when you limit access to your product to a small section of gamers who have started with you from the beginning, then your more susceptible to suffer if a portion of them walk away. It would serve them well on their next project to keep barriers to entry low for injecting a new player base to your game. That, or ditch the live service model (which is never going to happen).
Re: Ghost of Tsushima Movie Making Progress as Director Heaps Praise on the Game
Wow, if the big update after a couple years is “we have a script” and “we’re close to getting out s*** together” then that doesn’t inspire confidence that this will show up anytime soon. I was hoping for a sequel to the game but here we are over 3 years after the first game’s release and nothing on the franchise other than “we have a script”
Re: Interest in Destiny 2 Reportedly at an All-Time Low
@thechetearly I really agree. The difficulty with onboarding new players is a big oversight for Destiny (and other live service games). There will always be a natural dwindling of your early audience and the only way to maintain or grow a live-service game is by injecting fresh new players into the game to replace those leaving. Destiny 2 has done an abysmal job at this. The barrier to entry for those of us who haven’t been involved since the early days is just too high. I’m not sure why Bungie doesn’t recognize this.
In my opinion, a live-service game has to not only maintain engagement from the core audience, but also allow for easy entry of new players.
Re: Preview: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Elevates the Ubisoft Formula with a Stellar Setting
I still need to watch the second movie. Problem is that if I have 3 spare hours I always rather do something else.
As far as the game, first person has me put off. Not saying never, but it went way down my hype meter when I realized it was FP viewpoint
Re: Bungie the Next PlayStation-Owned Dev to Suffer Layoffs
Well, I hear From Software is hiring.
Re: Modern Warfare 3 Set to Claim 140GB of PS5 SSD Space
@ROTTIEMAN16 Yeah, I guess we would have a good idea by looking at the Series X version of the equivalent game since it doesn’t have the compression tech? I’ve not looked at a comparison but it would be interesting to see
Re: Modern Warfare 3 Set to Claim 140GB of PS5 SSD Space
@DennisReynolds Oh, thanks for the clarification. I’m not a tech guy and certainly don’t know about the programming side of things. I was led to believe that the fast speeds of the SSD made having duplicate assets unnecessary since single files could be accessed just as quickly as making redundancy in the code, thereby allowing some of those files to be omitted. Or something like that. As far as turning a larger game into a smaller one, it was true of many cross gen games though — the PS4 version was larger than their PS5 counterpart. Many of the early cross gen games were this way (granted not a 50% reduction. More like a 10-20% reduction, if I recall correctly), but this may have been due to the compression tech rather than saving on unnecessary assets.
Re: Modern Warfare 3 Set to Claim 140GB of PS5 SSD Space
Wow, these file sizes have just ballooned this gen. Started with these promises of smaller downloads due to the SSD and now most new AAA games are all 80 GB + and slowly creeping higher!
Re: Sony Does a Lot Behind the Scenes to Ensure High Quality PS5 Exclusives
@Grumblevolcano Hasn’t Ghost of Tsushima 2 been confirmed?
Re: PS5, PS4's Most Played Games Probably Won't Surprise You
Saints Row is the surprise there. Even with it being a PS Plus game.
Re: The Latest PS5 Firmware Update Is Available to Download Now
I don’t understand the obsession with voice commands. Not just the PS5, but everything I own has them. I never use Siri. Never use the voice commands in my TV. Don’t have an Alexa. Why every electronic appliance has to have some AI assistant with voice commands is beyond me. I’m perfectly happy to click a button. Guess I’m old fashioned.
Re: Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PS5 Director: This Game Is Worth the Money
The Order: 1886 says hello.
Re: Venom Spin-Off Game an Option for Insomniac, If Fans Want It
@Afroducc “Please Sony, lets have a couple of new IP from your first party.”
I’m in total agreement that I want to see a steady stream of new IP mixed with the sequels and remasters, but I do think they have more than a couple coming. We know about Concord and Fairgames. There’s also heavy rumors about Bend working on a new IP and also a second Naughty Dog team cooking a new IP in the background alongside TLoU3. Pretty sure Bluepoint has a new IP, if their current game isn’t Bloodborne 2. Also based on what they said about their current project, Housemarque isn’t making a Returnal sequel, so it’s probably a new IP. Almost certainly Media Molecule isn’t doing Dreams 2 either. 😅
But yes, as far as Insomniac, it would be interesting to see what novel IP they could create on their own.
Re: Rewrite Fictional History in The Walking Dead: Destinies on PS5, PS4
I like choice based story games, but… uh, no.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 498
Still working through FF16. It’s quite a lovely game. Just oozes with high end production value. I’m really liking Clive.
I dropped in on Humanity to do a couple levels last night. It gets quite difficult quickly. I’m on sequence 3. I still really enjoy it for a change of pace game or if I just have 30 minutes to get a quick level or two done
Re: PS Store Plunges the Price of Almost 3,000 More PS5, PS4 Games
@Ooccoo_Jr Yeah, I’m starting to be reluctant to grab some of these games on sale due to the tendency of games recently on sale dropping into Extra. I had picked up Disco Elysium a while back on sale and have yet to play it, for example, and now I could have just played it through PS+. Fortunately I did buy it physical, so I can resell it if I want.
So the games I’m buying lately are either at launch, in physical disc so as to have the ability to flip them, or on a discount when it’s a game I don’t suspect to ever go on PS+, like FromSoft games.
@PenguinLtd I think that’s a good price for Jedi Survivor and well worth it, imo. I bought it at launch and paid full price and quite enjoyed it. Spent almost 90 hours on it. The launch technical issues are mostly ironed out (and imo were largely overblown anyways) although the performance mode can still be inconsistent at times. If you’re one of the ‘60 fps or bust’ crowd then you might have some concerns, but if you’re someone who can give a little leeway to these huge open world games that have so much content and will have a frame hitch from time to time or are fine just playing the 30 fps mode, then you’ll really enjoy it. Provided you liked the first game, because it’s similar, although quite a bit larger and has more varied combat and traversal options.
Re: Rumour: PS5's Early 2024 Release Schedule May Get Even More Ridiculous Thanks to Elden Ring
@3Above I do agree that it seems like some publishers don’t strategize their release dates very well.
In fairness, this Jan-Feb window has some big games but they are slightly different genres and won’t be necessarily competing against each other directly. I guess Granblue and FF7 are probably vying for the same crowd. And maybe Helldivers and Suicide Squad overlap, as do the 2D side-scrollers PoP and Unicorn.
But even though there’s a variety in that release period, there’s only so many games one can play at a time.
Re: PS5 Slim Officially Unveiled, Attachable Disc Drive, Launches November
I have the original PS5 with the disc drive and wouldn’t be interested in a digital only machine.
Props to Sony for coming up with this idea, since I think a few people want the modular capability.
Re: Rumour: PS5's Early 2024 Release Schedule May Get Even More Ridiculous Thanks to Elden Ring
I need to play the base game first. Too many games, too few hours in the day.
I am trying to at least play all the Dark Souls games first, so I have DS2 lined up to play hopefully later this year.
As for the other early 2024 releases (and it feels crazy to think that 2024 is less than 3 months away), I probably will only get FF7 Rebirth from that list, but could be swayed on a couple others depending on reviews. Really curious if that Suicide Squad game is going to be the dumpster fire that the preview trailers showed.