ZeroSum

"While there’s been much handwringing over whether an equivalent computer can be created for $700"

The price point wouldn't be $700. Up here in Canada, the PS5 was $700CAD after tax. If I were to buy a PS5 Pro, I'd be throwing around $1k at the "upgrade", so the question is within a single console generation can I build a comparable PC for $1,700? Once it's built, it becomes a question of whether or not upgrades are cheaper or more expensive than buying a console and it's mid-cycle upgrade per generation (a GPU that supports 4K, over 60fps and ray tracing can be purchased for less than $700USD, so I'd say PCs have become cheaper from here on, after the initial cost).

Finished Astro Bot, including getting the platinum trophy. Restarted Death Stranding.

If I still had PS Extra, Plucky Squire would be the only game I'd be excited about, but as I don't have Extra anymore, I'm not excited about it.

The Gran Turismo franchise spoiled me. I own all of The Crew games and vast majority of NFS, but the arcade physics never hook me long enough to finish any of them. I might, just might, download Motorfest and give it another shot because of this update AND because TD Solar Crown looks like it missed its mark.

Performance majority of the time.
I don't exactly play games to stop and appreciate the scenery, so things like ray tracing and foliage density seem superfluous - the game runs perfectly fine without them, so I don't need them.

GT7 is a perfect example of this - when I'm trying to chase 1st place, am I going to be amazed that I can see the rough shape and colour of my car reflected in the paint work of every car I pass? No! I'm going to be focusing on making sure I'm controlling the car and taking the fastest line possible! Even if the detail is there, I'm highly unlikely to pay attention to it.

I'm going to bet that post PS5 Pro release, disc drives and PS5 Pro with disc drive bundles start appearing on eBay with huge mark-ups.

Even with that discount, Suicide Squad is still $19.98 too expensive for the majority of people to consider! Such a shame.

At $700USD I'm left to ask myself: with these mid-cycle upgrades being so expensive, at which point do we console gamers just switch to PC? Buying a new GPU or CPU/RAM is looking to be a cheaper way to get the same gains as buying a Pro console.

I have hundreds of hours into Destiny 2 but jumped ship after completing The Final Shape. The game is such a grind fest. It's good to see that they actually want to push in different directions, but that also makes me think it'll be Fortnite with space wizards.

I do think the shift from one annual expansion to two smaller expansions is a smoke screen though, the devs are always working on new content for expansions, so it doesn't matter if it's one big or two medium, you can only make so much content in a certain amount of time, so I'm betting it'll be the same amount of content, but with a higher overall price annually i.e. instead of one $80 expansion, it'll be two $50 expansions.

We know consoles are sold at a loss, but I'd never considered accessories to be the same way.

Unfortunately with the Covid conductor and rare-metal shortages, a lot of suppliers learned just how critical their products are, and decided a little price increase was due. That decision has trickle-down effects, causing the costs of a lot of things to go up. I wasn't surprised to see the console cost go up, so I suppose it makes sense that other electronics under the umbrella also be looked at for increases.

But I have an Edge, so hopefully I'll never have to pay the increased cost of a standard Dualsense!

@MrPeanutbutterz "Wrong, wrong, and wrong again." made me laugh. If ever there was to be a flag for people who refuse to consider a different perspective, "Wrong, wrong, and wrong again." would be it.

The issue isn't whether or not the game is in a state fit for release (most pre-release games aren't, hence the need for day 1 patches), it's that the publisher has chosen to reward people who buy premium versions of the game with the ability to play early, before the previously agreed upon (between developer, publisher and platform holder, not the consumers) release date and (often) before the developer has finished buttoning down all of the fine details (again, day 1 patches exist for a reason).

You have to consider that the developers are continually working on improving the game, meaning the version you play pre-release, the version you play at release and the version you play six months after release are rarely identical. A pre-release game will inherently have a lot more bugs compared to release day and six months post-release. If you're okay playing the game pre-release, with the extra bugs and without the final few days polish, you can for a fee. That is what pre-release play is.

@MrPeanutbutterz yeah, that isn't regular players being dicked over. That's a bunch of players being willing to stump up some extra cash to play pre-release, and players that aren't willing to pay extra being upset that they don't get to play early as well.
If you want to play early, pay the premium. If you don't want to pay the premium, you don't get to play early. It's a choice, not the publisher dicking players over.

@MrPeanutbutterz can you elaborate how players opting to pay extra for early access and the publisher's recognizing this as an avenue to a small bump in revenue "dicks" players over that may purchase the regular edition?

I'm really not seeing the connection. Yes some people are willing to pay extra to play sooner. Yes this means the publisher will make more money and be incentivesed to do early access more often, but recent releases have shown that often the early access players are the ones getting "dicked" over, example Star Wars Outlaws requiring early access players to start saves from scratch after the game was formally released.

@StylesT yeah, you're spot on with the ending - it's their money to burn. It's just about what excites them, being an adult doesn't stop you being as excited as an 11yr old about something, it just means you have a different perspective. If they're still as excited now about something as they were in their adolescence, then good on them for hanging onto that child-like exuberance!

@StylesT they're excited for the game, and so choose to pay a little extra to play the game earlier. What is there to question?
No different from people joining fan clubs to get pre-release movie showings or the chance to purchase tickets to a movie show early.

It's just a high level of anticipation and excitement for the product.

Oh how I disagree with this article, because it skips over the fact that the game was in production for 7 years before Sony acquired Firewalk Studios. This game was coming out regardless of the acquisition (would people still blame Sony if they didn't acquire Firewalk?) and post acquisition any comment from Sony execs could be chalked up as PR Spin to improve excitement around the game. We also don't know exactly why Sony acquired Firewalk Studios - was it because of Concord? Was it because of the staff (ex-Bungie and Activision vets)? Was it all of the above? So to write an article that tries so hard to pin the failure on Sony, Ryan and Hulst just looks like a poor shot.