TheRedComet

@RevGaming

I’d say most Nintendo games are ageless, not childish.

Childish games have dumbed down gameplay mechanics to make it easy for toddlers to start playing games.

Nintendo’s internally developed games often have more gameplay complexity than Sony’s games. Visually and scale wise they are much simpler yes. But gameplay wise, they’re usually more complex. Breath of the Wild is an extremely complicated game that makes you learn its mechanics. It never holds your hands. Same thing with Mario Odyssey.

@Rural-Bandit

Hear hear!

@NinjaSixx

It’s not about Sony.

It’s about the Gods of Tech having awoken and preparing to force their way into the traditional gaming industry.

And unfortunately, Microsoft is the only one who can compete with their ungodly cash reserves.

@GADG3Tx87

Trust me, I see it as a huge negative for the industry.

But I will say this. I would much rather see Microsoft, a company that (for now anyway) will sell us a box that can play games off of a disc or from a traditional download, have these sorts of IPs and publishers over a James Bond villain like Google, who will lock them solely behind streaming.

@AFCC

They didn’t do this because of us. Old school gamers tend to play a lot of single player games. We buy a variety of titles each year. We tend to move on from one game to the next frequently. We even do that with multiplayer titles. We switch titles frequently and abandon them. We once defined the industry. But we don’t anymore.

Because no matter how many games we buy from each publisher, it’ll never get close to the amount of money Live Service games make. And those games have much lower development costs. In many cases, the gamers im talking about play one game. And that’s it.

Both of my best friends are who have been targeted for these purchases. One friend of mine plays only 2K NBA. He buys the new one every year, spends two thousand or more hours engaging with it, and buys a decent amount of micro transactions.

My other friend is a bit closer to me in how he games, but not like he used to. He will buy a variety of games, but it always comes back to Fortnite for him. I’ve looked at his list. Even games he was hyped for, like Resident Evil Village, has maybe two to three hours of play. Fortnite is his deal. He’s sunk more than 2500 hours into it on PS5 alone. Another 5000 hours on the PS4 version. He has a collection of skins worth more than he’s willing to admit. He’s spent an insane amount of money on the game since 2018 when he started playing it, only ceasing his advancement when he didn’t have internet service for six months.

Those are the sort of gamers that are the target. Not people like us. Call of Duty’s fan base plays just call of duty. They will buy a console just for it.

@GADG3Tx87

I never once said it is actually fair in the way that you are speaking of.

Sony was going to be a casualty one way or the other. Say Microsoft wasn’t making these moves. And instead Google or Apple buys Activision. Or even worse, Tencent. Then they release these games solely as streaming titles for their streaming services on mobile and PC devices only. Since Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft doesn’t allow competitor’s services on their platforms, The games are still locked out.

For Microsoft, this is an easy call to make. Grab up who you can while you can. Because the other Gods of Tech are awake now and realize how much gaming brings in every year. Hell, Apple made more money off of iOS gaming royalties than the Big 3 combined over the past two years. And that’s them not even trying to compete in the industry. Google wasn’t far behind.

Whether we like it or not, consolidation of Western publishers is coming. They are all going to picked off by tsunami forces that make Sony and Nintendo look like ripples in a pond.

Of the three, Microsoft is the only one who can compete on their level. Which is why they’ve gotten serious finally. If you take the threat of the other Gods of Tech out of the equation, this is a move Microsoft probably wouldn’t have made. Not because the Xbox division wouldn’t want to, but because Big Daddy Microsoft Corporate wouldn’t have cared. Big Daddy now sees the threat that the other God’s pose. If they let them take over gaming, that’s an amazing amount profit Microsoft will never see.

@Oscarjpc

If only graphics cards would come back down to earth.

@GADG3Tx87

To be fair, I do think Sony is an unfortunate causality of Microsoft’s plans, not the ultimate target.

Meta, Google, and Apple are working to force their way into the game industry.

Microsoft is a legacy game and console maker at this point. And of the three platform holders, they are the only one who can actually afford to combat Meta, Google, and Apple. Sony and Nintendo are financial peasants compared to the 4 Gods of Tech.

For Microsoft, this is a lot bigger than Sony. But Sony will be a casualty in the fighting between the four Gods.

I’m a huge fan of Sony’s exclusive first party games, so I’ll always own a PlayStation.

What Microsoft is doing, however, is making me reconsider what my primary console of the future will be. Or if I will transition back into a PC gamer first and foremost.

@RPE83

Tesla: interesting products, treat their line workers like crap.

Amazon: Bond villain.

@RPE83

Of the big four Gods of Tech, Microsoft is the most open and the least shady. Apple would be the second most benevolent God. Meta and Google are literally James Bond villains.

@Rural-Bandit

I agree with that.

That said, Xbox fans treated Sony fans like garbage during the early years of the PS3 disaster.

I’ve always been a multiplatform gamer, but Sony has always been my preferred platform of choice in the past. But I’m not locked down. I seriously considered a Series X over the PS5. What made me buy a PS5 first was primarily PlayStation Studios titles.

The way this impacts me primarily is my decision on whether to get a Series S, X, or just bite the bullet and build a PC no matter how stupid the graphics card market is now. Before this announcement, I was pretty much set on a Series S since it was going to be just a Gamepass machine and my third system of importance.

But with Microsoft’s moves of late, I’m considering going for the Series X instead and it could possibly dethrone the PS5 as my primary console of choice.

@Rural-Bandit

Nintendo will be fine. They’re made of Teflon now thanks to the Switch hybrid concept. It cannot be understated how genius that move was for Nintendo. They’ve carved out a niche that they completely control and they also control an entire game market (Japan).

Sony’s fortunes are far less secure than Nintendo’s. Because they essentially offer a different ecosystem for the same customer as Microsoft. Nintendo offers something wholly unique that the competition doesn’t and they also positioned theirselves as the secondary console everyone has to own regardless of whether they game on Xbox or PlayStation as their primary system.

@NEStalgia
True. Didn’t think about that.

GTA would be a huge win though. But it would only apply to GTA 6.

I’m think Sega is their best choice.

They have to compete in some kind of way.

@MKD88

They can’t. Japanese purchasing law is nationalistic in nature. It would be nearly impossible to get it approved, even if Nintendo and Sony agreed (which they wouldn’t).

They could buy large shares, like Ford did with Mazda back in the 1980s.

@naruball

I dunno if Sony could afford EA.

Take 2? That would give Sony exclusivity to the one basketball game that matters and Grand Theft Auto.

Sega isn’t a bad choice. They have a crap ton of studios under the Sega label.

I think Nintendo will be fine. They’ve carved out a niche with the Switch hybrid concept that alone will carry them further into more success. Plus the juggernaut IP they own, namely Mario, Zelda, and Animal Crossing.

Sony is who is getting hit hard by these acquisitions. Because Sony and Microsoft both offer what is essentially two different ecosystems for the same type of gamers. And while Sony’s IPs are strong, they aren’t Nintendo.

If and when Microsoft pick up EA or Ubisoft, it’s going to be difficult for Sony to justify why people should buy PlayStations.

@RawnDawn

They do have FU kind of money. Microsoft has the funding to buy Sony Corp (not just PlayStation) dozens of times over.

Sony’s only real response to this is to start buying up eastern publishers. And I don’t know if they have the funds. I would say Square Enix, but that’s not quite enough.

Sega. Sony should purchase Sega. Sega is basically Japan’s largest publisher in terms of the number of games it publishes per year. It has exclusive contracts with both eastern developers and some western developers.

They could also try to buy Take 2 interactive.

That’s really their only option at this point.

For me, it looks like I may be upgrading my Series S future purchase to a Series X future purchase because of this. Or I’m gonna go all out and build the PC I want.

Because Microsoft isn’t finished. I thought Zenimax would be a one off thing. I was wrong. Way wrong. Im willing to bet Microsoft is already talking to Ubisoft or EA right now as we speak.

@WallyWest

True story, if you have a modded PS4 there’s an enhancement patch for Bloodborne that really improves the game. It’s a 60fps patch. It’s a little unstable based on the videos I’ve watched on it (it seems to hover around 60 in many cases, but when the combat gets heavy it can drop down to the 40s) but it’s still very impressive with what the fan community was able to achieve on base PS4 hardware. It runs even better on Pro apparently.

@thedevilsjester

The question is the laser assembly design.

It can read DVDs, so in theory it should be able to read CDs (most DVD lasers can operate in infrared for reading CDs) on a hardware level.

Doesn’t mean Sony hasn’t stripped out functionality, though. Technically they could limit the laser to only reading in red spectrum. In that case it would read DVDs, but not CDs.

As for Blu Ray, they use violet lasers. The laser pickup assembly will usually have two diodes. One for violet and one for red/infrared.

The question is ultimately if Sony stuck to design “recommendations” by the Blu-Ray forum for its red wavelength laser. It’s not a binding agreement, just a suggestion, so they could modify the hardware to exclude infrared if they wanted to.

@Matroska

Oh yeah I remember that now.

God that was a big exposition dump. He created Zidane and Kuja’s entire race as weapons. Like more sophisticated Black Mages.

I love FF1 Garland. “I Garland, will knock you all down!”

Glad they always kept that line in the remakes and rereleases. Nintendo’s censorship policies were stupid back then, but they did create some unintentionally hilarious lines at time.

I think in Japanese the line was “i Garland, will kill you all.” At least that’s what the line should have said based on the context.

@Uncharted2007

I’m not sure how they would do it. The PS5 could tell that it’s an unsupported format but with no way to actually read the metadata on the disc, I don’t see how they could make it work.

But then again Sony has engineers who make six figures per year. They could probably figure something out.

@Ear_wiG

I want Xenogears on Switch. Really bad.

Since Square has been on a tear remastering their Golden Era games (to various levels of success, although none of them have been objectively bad so far) I’m hoping Xenogears is in the pipeline.

That said… if they do it… I want them to actually finish it. The game is incomplete, which is why disc 2 is so… well it just is what it is. They ran out of development time so they polished what they had complete (basically disc 1) and then threw something together and condensed the ending down dramatically.

They restored the lost scenario in Saga Frontier. I’m hoping they could do the same with Xenogears, although I understand it would be complicated since unlike the Saga Frontier situation (where the canceled content was finished back in 1997 but just needed polishing and balancing, making it easy to incorporate) I don’t think Xenogear’s real end game exists in a playable form. They’d actually be building new content from scrap based on the original design documents.

@Hordak

Would cost too much.

If they come back, it’ll be digital only.

@Ashkorsair

I’m mixed about it.

There’s a handful of PS1 games I like to replay on occasion. I have a PS3 for that.

On the other hand my time is so limited that I have a calendar set up for my gaming sessions so I complete games to my satisfaction.

Replaying older games keeps me from playing new games.

With that said, I think the Switch is the perfect way to play retro titles since it’s portable. I have a boat load of classic collections on that console.

@Olmaz

Yeah I use the transfer method with a 1 TB harddrive I repurposed (used to be my MacBook time capsule drive). Limited to 350 gigs per month bandwidth so I’m very picky with what I download.

I’m hoping to pickup a 1 TB SSD expansion sometime in the near future.

@tofuman86

I’ll give the fools at the COD office some credit. Vanguard is dramatically smaller than Black Ops Cold War or MW 2019. It was about 90 gigs total.

Bad thing is how they achieved it. They use texture streaming over the web. Which means for multiplayer you better turn the high resolution textures off or you are going to have a real bad time.

@Matroska

Kuja or that surprise final boss they throw at you at the last second?

@tameshiyaku

The multiplayer looks really fun.

I’ll catch it on sale. Not gonna shell out full price.

@Uncharted2007

PS1 would be an issue, as well as a small handful of PS2 games. The PS5 can’t read CDs.

It would have to be a digital store.

PS1 and PS2 emulation is child’s play at this point. Sony could easily expand the digital store to accommodate PS1 and PS2 titles and run them on hardware.

The PS3 is still an issue. That said, I think Sony should give it a shot. Pick like the 30 best selling and highest rated PS3 games. Build an emulator and optimize it for those games. Then expand it slowly over time.

@Col_McCafferty

No it’s just a way to squeeze extra profit out.

Here’s the thing. Most console gamers don’t want to game on PC. And likewise. They are two very different communities.

Sony would be fine releasing day and date. The PS version would sell like crazy as always, just like the hardware will continue to sell.

Because they are two different markets.

@Ralizah

When I was PC gaming (back in the early to mid 00s) I usually swapped my GPU every three to four years. That’s when you see the big gains over what you bought before. Even then I never bought the latest card. I’d buy the previous generation top of the line card for a hefty discount.

That doesn’t really happen anymore though thanks to crypto mining.

@Col_McCafferty

Return on investments.

Nintendo’s titles don’t cost even a fraction of what Sony’s first party studios spend. And yet they sell just as well are even more than Sony’s 1st party games.

Look at Animal Crossing. That game’s development costs were similar to a PS3/360 title. Yet it sold 30 million plus copies with no sale prices. It basically printed money.

Sony’s games sell very well. But they are astronomically expensive to produce, 100 million or more. And that’s just for production. Sony also spends a lot more on marketing their games than Nintendo.

Sony certainly makes money on its PS exclusives. But the only way they can even attempt to touch Nintendo’s profit margins (which they definitely want to do) is to get the games out to more players.

Really depends on the game in question, but I’ve noticed that many games above an average of 30 hours I drop off of unless I’m really hooked on the gameplay loop and story.

I also have a habit of dropping games for several months and then coming back to them. Did that with Dragon Quest 11 S on Switch. Got forty hours in. Dropped it for other games for months. Came back and put another 20 hours in. Dropped it again to play Shin Megami Tensei V and Ghost of Tsushima.

I’ve got a good balance with the three games I’m playing right now. I come home from work and after my self appointed daily chores, I do three missions in Ghost (two character tales and one major story tale). Then I play Fortnite with my friends unless they aren’t on. If they aren’t online I’ll do one or two more missions on Ghost. After I shower and get in bed, I play Shin Megami Tensei in handheld mode for about an hour. Then I crash.

My off weekends are where I really sink hours in. Saturday is pretty much devoted to Ghost. Sunday is big chore day. Then I play Shin Megami Tensei V on the tv docked.

As cool as the horde mechanic was, I think that it was a zombie apocalypse game in an era where zombies was mostly played out.

I think they should have went for an actual biker game. Made it a story about 1% biker gangs and their numerous wars. There’s not many games that cover that; it would have helped it stand out from other games at the time.

PS5: Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut and Fortnite
Switch: Shin Megami Tensei 5

@nessisonett

I understand that and agree. Things have changed in development.

But I do expect at least a minimum of completion that is in line with basic expectations of that genre.

Battlefield 2042 was missing a lot of basic things at launch on all platforms for a shooter in general and a Battlefield title in particular. Along with game breaking aspects of its gameplay.

1. No scoreboard.
2. No in game voice chat.
3. No squad persistence between matches.
4. No server browser for the main game mode. Critical for Battlefield players like myself with less than stellar connections. The Server browser is necessary for us to find closer servers with better connections.
5. Poor hit detection from rounds fired. (That’s a really basic thing for any shooter)
6. Poor matchmaking experience.
7. Specialist system is basically broken. There was no need to remove set classes. It was done solely to milk micro transaction money.
8. Extremely wonky weapon and vehicle balancing.
9. Low firearm variety.
10. Runs poorly on PC no matter the hardware setup. Personally didn’t impact me since I play on PlayStation. But talking with friends who play on PC shows how poorly optimized the game is, even on relatively powerful midrange cards like the 2070 Super.

The game needed another four to six months of development. Which is why I traded it back in (didn’t buy it at launch, I wasn’t that crazy, waited till the second patch) and I’m waiting until May of next year to try and jump back into it.

I don’t buy collectors editions often, but I’m gonna pay the ten extra bucks and get the physical special edition.

It was a solid game.

It had a lot of jank in it, though. I’m a fan of UE4, but that game exemplified all of UE4’s issues and it felt like Respawn and EA didn’t try to correct them with extra polish.

But I’m confident Respawn can work it’s flaws out with the sequel. They are a great development team.

Nothing in January for me.

I think they have to do it. Even if it is a money sink. To distinguish their brand from the competition.

Nintendo has expertly crafted portability. Microsoft has Gamepass, the best value in gaming. Those are those two company’s defining traits on their products.

Sony needs to keep something that draws attention, even if it doesn’t sell that well. PSVR2 is that thing. It makes Sony stand out from their two competitors. It makes Sony look high end and innovative. It creates aspiration for their console from fence sitters.

I wish Sega would have supported the Sega CD as hard as Sony has supported their VR add ons.

@Rural-Bandit

Normally the game attempts to pair pad users with other pad users. But sometimes it just doesn’t work and you get matched with keyboard users too.

I did ok on Cold War on pad against M&K board players myself. Modern aim assist really helps level the playing field.

For me, it was the hackers that broke my Cold War experience. And 99% of them are on PC, since it’s much easier to install aimbot and other tools while be undetectable by security software.

I fully support cross play with Xbox users. Always have; in fact it took way too long. When Black Ops 2 was big, I couldn’t play with my friends because they were all on 360 and I was on PS3. I griped alot about a game that was identical on both platforms, yet you couldn’t play with your friends on the other ecosystem.

Another thing, we’ve been hearing rumors that Sony is getting into multiplayer games more than they have in the past. Sony had strong 1st party multiplayer titles during the PS3 era. They didn’t do that as much for PS4. Since it seems like Sony is setting up teams just to develop multiplayer titles, make all of those games day one Spartacus releases.

Multiplayer is going to be monetized anyway with microtransactions and battle passes. I think Factions would be a very strong launch title for Spartacus.

Sony needs to up the value of its offerings.

I don’t see them ever releasing their big budget exclusive AAA games day and date like Gamepass. But Sony does produce AA titles (like Sackboy) that should be included with the service day and date. They should also work with third parties to get Gamepass Day Ones on PlayStation Spartacus or whatever they end up calling it.

They don’t have to surpass Gamepass. They just need to match its AAA 3rd party offerings and give the service exclusive AA titles on the games launch day. Also get EA to bundle in EA play.

I don’t think anyone expects their AAA projects to hit Spartacus on day one. Maybe give the game a year to be sold traditionally. Then drop it randomly on Spartacus. Maybe make it available for a limited time on the service. And offer a discount for players who have the service.

The reason for that is that Sony needs those AAA exclusives to finance the war chest. Development costs on those games are sky high. For Microsoft it isn’t an issue. I highly doubt Gamepass will ever operate in a profitable manner. Sony can’t afford it. Microsoft is worth like 30x what Sony’s worth. They can absorb the hit. Sony can’t. So I think my solution is a nice compromise for Sony’s financial position.

@Rural-Bandit

I say we exclude PC players, though.

Too many hackers. Granted people hack on console as well, but it’s a lot less prevalent.

Forbidden West for me. GT7 a real close second.

@SupmyG

Story, visual quality, art style, and combat are the strongest points. Top tier stuff.

The weakness is one shared with many other open world world games. It bombards you with too much to do too fast. Before you know it your journal (quest list) is two miles long and it becomes checkpoint to checkpoint to clear it. Makes the game somewhat of a chore.

Good thing is that the game’s combat is so good and it’s art style and story are so strong that it makes up for that.

@Octane

I agree with that.

For Ghost, it’s actually the art style that blows my mind so much. Despite the developer going for photo realism, it has this interesting “outline” effect on most of the environment. It’s hard to describe. But it’s like partially photo realistic and partially stylized classical Japanese art. It’s a strong mix of the two.

I’m just now playing Ghost of Tsushima (PS5 version) but I must say it’s a fantastic game. I’m really enjoying the story as well as the island of Tsushima itself; it’s a drop dead beautiful game. Especially the striking art style.

My only real complaint about it is that it sort of suffers from Assassin’s Creed syndrome. The game bombards you with quests and collectibles scattered all over the map. Well that and the Japanese lip sync is a little weird. For characters like Jin and Yuna, it’s perfect. Other characters like Shimura it’s just weird.

It’s definitely fantastic, though. And I’m glad Sucker Punch is seeing this level of success. This game deserves every accolade and sale that it can get. I’m actually disappointed I waited so long to play it.

in my best Batman voice

This smells like Duke Nukem Forever.