@Mostik The PS4/Xbox One generation is the first one to require discs to install to the HDD and just act as a "proof of ownership". The Xbox One did have a half baked attempt at eliminating the disc after install; but it got too much backlash before launch so they reverted it.
@Mostik Don't feel too bad. The PS3 (and earlier) played games from disc (didn't need to install most games), and for modern generations, there have been unsuccessful attempts allow you to install from disc, but then not require the disc again.
@JigsawPieces Its not really "continuing where you left off" for trophies though. Its cloning your trophy list, and progressing on the clone, leaving the original list to stagnate in an incomplete state. Sony needs to force developers to merge trophy lists, or allow for us to delete them from our account.
@JigsawPieces that doesn't really help because you will still end up with an orphaned/incomplete trophy list for the PS4 version. Unless it works both ways.
My big question: Does the PS5 upgrade bring with it a separate trophy list? I never quite platinumed this and was considering going back but if the trophy list is separate, I won't be revisiting this world on the PS5.
Can we get a port of the first game? Does the source code even exist anymore? (Maybe a remake of the first game in the new games engine if the source doesn't exist?).
@andreoni79 This is actually a requirement; however they only have to do that if the game is not actually playable without the download.
If there is a version, even an extremely buggy, broken, incomplete version, that is playable from the disc then they are not required to.
@skxnkwxlkr Yeah, that seems to sum it up all right. I am Ok with that for now though because it means that the actual "on disc" game for the PS5 will be great without a day one patch.
@TheAdza the wording is redundant. A patch for the PS4 is also a patch for any PS5 playing a PS4 game in BC mode. There is no need to ever specify both unless there is some significance. I know it makes sense to you, but clearly, even though it's been stated dozens of times, many people are still confused about this, so adding to their confusion should be avoided if it can.
@Jaz007 @TheAdza
Normally I would think wording like that wouldn't be misleading, but too many people (even on this site) have shown that they don't understand that there is, currently, no PS5 version of Cyberpunk 2077, and there will not be one at launch (it will come "sometime later" according to CDPR), so it should be made clear.
@d0a01xz Unfortunately, they don't. There isn't even a listing for the PS5 version yet.
What they said is: "your PS4 copy of the game will work on PS5 on launch day" and then followed that up with "A later upgrade to Cyberpunk 2077, taking full advantage of the next-gen hardware, will be available for free"
No solid information about when the actual PS5 version (or PS5 upgrade patch) will be available, just that they made sure the PS4 version worked on your PS5 (via Backward compatibility).
@Robinsad I didn't say that they weren't useful (though they have yet to be useful to me), I just said that they don't solve the problem of picking the game back up weeks or months after putting it down. As @NEStalgia said, you have a momentum (in story, skill, mechanics, etc...), and once interrupted, it's hard to get back.
@LiamCroft Those that play multiplayer games are more likely to use a digital store front for those games (since a retail copy of a game that generally requires online services to function is pretty pointless) which means its always going to be heavily skewed towards multiplayer games. Just looking at digital store sales isn't going to paint a very accurate picture.
I am not saying I know what that picture looks like; just that my gut instinct is that, when you take all sales into account, over the long term, its very much in favor of the solo gamer for overall game sales.
@LiamCroft I disagree. The most important part of a console is not the number of consoles sold but the number of software titles sold and I would wager that the COD/Fifa/Fortnite crowd did not have nearly the same attach rate as the solo experience crowd. So while they might have pushed the console sales, that metric is meaningless without the software sales to match. Do you have actual numbers (total revenue gained by Sony from multiplayer gamers vs solo experience gamers) or is it just your gut? Because my gut tells me otherwise.
I don't know. I think this is a solution looking for a problem.
Yes, people often put a single player game down for awhile, come back months later, don't know what they were in the middle of, and it turns them off of playing it. However a few activity cards that give you a few quest/missing objectives isn't going to solve this.
The reasons behind this issue are much deeper. Single player games are generally about story and atmosphere. Having a few activity cards that tell you the progress on some activities you could be doing, isn't going to give you a run down of the story thus far, reminding you why you are playing, what happened to this point, and where you were headed. Most of the time I stop a game for a few months, I end up starting over (sometimes a daunting task) just to refresh my memory about the story.
Nor are they going to give you your skill back. I can't count the number of times that I stop playing a game for awhile, come back months later, and because I am later in the game (where its more challenging) I just don't have the skill to play in the areas I am currently in. You can push forward and have a miserable time until you find your rhythm again, or start over.
Neither of these are solved by Activity cards, and in my opinion are much bigger contributors to never going back to a game if you stop playing for a bit.
(Also: Those cards are way too large, they take up too much space to scroll through horizontally)
That being said, I like the idea of the cards (if they were more compact); but I don't think it helps solve this problem at all.
@BrbImCarrying I have played many (modern) games at 30, 60, and some at 120 (on a supported display of course) and I cannot honestly tell the difference between 30 and 120 let alone 30 and 60.
That being said, I am not a visuals junkie either. While I can appreciate the effort the goes in to the visuals (details, not resolution) I am just as happy playing a retro 8 bit looking title as I am the latest 4k ray tracing title; so I trust the developer to make the choices that make the most sense for their game.
@graysoncharles I hear a lot of great things about Ghost of Tsuhuima; but for me it doesn't even make the list of games I would play if they were free because the theme doesn't appeal to me. I don't say this to talk trash about the game; just offer up an opinion on why it might not have captured the top spot when TLOU2 did.
@djape Seriously, seeing spoilers like that is not cool. Not everyone has had the chance to play it yet. I don't think you intended any harm by it, but please be more careful in the future if you are spoiling major plot points from a major AAA story driven game that's less than 6 months old.
@DotM All of those solutions are going to end up hurting regular buyers that happen to fall into one of those categories.
Capitalism in this form is broken, unfortunately I don't think this is something that can be solved on the initial sales end of things. Targeting the mechanisms that allow scalpers to resell the products at inflated prices is the best way to combat this.
When we are not in pandemic mode, this kind of issue doesn't usually last more than a couple months (and having in-store pick up only, limits its impact) but the current world makes it worse than ever.
@DotM You know that you can create an unlimited number of PSN accounts, right? You can also get around any "one per address" restrictions quite easily as well. Its not that easy of a problem to solve on that end.
The only way to solve the problem is on the other end (eBay, for example). There are a lot of things you cannot sell on eBay, and restrictions about the things you do. It wouldn't be very difficult to come up with a policy that prevents scalpers from selling goods on eBay. eBay makes too much money from this though so its unlikely to ever happen.
The value of $1 is not an objective fact. Understand that, understand that there are people that have different priorities or value scales than you do.
If you have a decent enough disposable income then paying twice the MSRP for a hard to find, (relatively low cost), device is not stupid, nor is it paying more than its worth. That worth is subjective and depends on its value to you compared to the value of the money you are paying for it.
I generally avoid scalpers (scum) because I do not want to support this behavior; it's often hard to find because they made it so; but to everyone that has bought one through a scalper. Enjoy your console.
@NEStalgia That is true, and it started when there wasn't a real issue keeping stock because gaming wasn't as huge as it is now. (Ex: NES in October, SNES in November, etc...).
Now though, platform holders are locked into this cycle because the first one to blink, the first one to delay until March (or later!), will give the "holiday" completely over to the other one. It's not so much about maximizing profits (anymore), it's about not losing a large chunk of those eager to upgrade, to your competition.
You know Microsoft won't blink (they rushed the 360, with its RROD and all, to beat PS3 to market), and Sony won't blink (if this launch, and the pricing/date information they held back as long as they could is any indication) so here we are, and here we stay.
@Northern_munkey They didn't underestimate, you can be certain that they made as many as they physically could in the allotted time, its just not enough.
It never will be. There are not huge manufacturing plants (and workers!) out there waiting for the every 6-7 year rush of a console cycle, so thats always going to be a limited resource and platform holders also won't sit on a stock pile of consoles for a year or more leading up to launch to make sure they have enough for demand (thats very costly for a dozen reasons). Its not a problem that can be solved with the ways we currently manufacture goods.
@Deadlyblack They anticipated it; but production is mostly out of their control (see my reply a few posts above this)
@lacerz As for Sales, it depends on how they are tracked. Sony tracks sell-through (to customers) and Microsoft (when they reported) tracked sell-in (to stores). I would guess that a return within a certain window would not count as a sell-through.
As for timers, it's not as simple as that. Timers are not a solution to this problem and would have just made it worse. You would end up with essentially a different kind of DDOS where bots have everything locked out since they can add items to their cart faster than you can, thus they get that timer, and you, human, won't. It just shifts the problem.
A more workable solution, is to stop the scalpers from being able to easily sell the goods that they are not in possession of. eBay could make such a policy and easily stop a lot of this (not all of it) but they make so much money off of misery, why would they?
@Northern_munkey It's not due to underestimating, it's due to supply constraints. Factories can only work so fast, and there are only finite amounts that they can push through and have reasonable failure rates; and Sony isn't the only one competing for these resources.
Sony started mass production in June. They would have had to start mass production at the beginning of the year (or end of last year) to have enough for the current demand. Not only could they not anticipate how COVID would impact things at that point, but they were still designing, fixing, and tweaking the hardware.
Its not as simple as increasing your order count in your shopping cart, there is an upper limit on how fast these things can be made.
You also can't just sit on them (delay launch for multiple months) to build up more stock. Not only does that give your competition an opening to get in early; but it costs a lot in storage fees and taxes to hold on to goods.
@get2sammyb For the Game Presets, is that per-profile, or per-system? The settings appear to be in the same place that most per-system settings are, which makes this could-be-amazing feature, completely useless in a household where not everyone wants the exact same presets.
@LiterallyDoNotCare I have a back log of at least 30+ PS4 games that I need to finish (all..10? of the Resident Evil titles, all 7? of the Yakuza titles), and a few stragglers that I played but never platinumed (like Witcher 3), so its going to be awhile before I fully move on. I am going to be playing a mix of PS4 and PS5 games for the next two years at least I think.
@LiterallyDoNotCare lol. I am sure we can both agree that we both wish GoW2 was a PS5 exclusive and that all upcoming titles were that way (I wish they would drop last gen from Cyberpunk even!); but I understand that the numbers are not there yet for huge AAA titles. Thats why I hope that GoW2 is an early 2022 game, rather than 2021. More likely to be (now) current gen exclusive.
@LiterallyDoNotCare I have friends that haven't turned their PS4 on in over a month, but have played at least a few hours of many of the major single player games (they haven't really finished most of them, and certainly haven't platinumed any), I don't think that counts as hardcore by any stretch of the imagination. Thats as casual as they come.
I agree with you that we need new definitions (and those you propose are pretty close to how I would define them), it would certainly make discussions clearer and we wouldn't spend all of the time arguing a point that we both agree on.
(although, I define myself as hardcore, but I abhor multiplayer games, so I am not sure where that would fit in your definitions)
@LiterallyDoNotCare Only one of my friends plays online titles, they rest play only single player. In fact, some of them don't even pay for internet access, and some (even with internet access) don't have PS+ to play (most) of those titles. A lot of them play games like CoD, sure, but they play exclusively campaign/offline as a single player experience.
This part of the discussion really comes down to your definition of casual I think. I define a casual gamer as someone that casually plays games. They might play once or twice a week, or for a couple hours on the weekend. I don't define them based on the games they play (the people I know, not-IRL) that play the games you talk about are far from casual (they play those games non-stop, for hundreds and thousands of hours); but you are right, they do not tend to buy many single player games because they are more of a competitive gamer, not an experience gamer.
@LiterallyDoNotCare Casuals don't buy single player games? Thats absurd. Casuals buy single player games just as often (if not more often) than non-casuals. Of everyone I know with a PS4 (IRL), other than me, they are all what I would classify as casual gamers (they play very irregularly, don't buy many games, don't play for long stretches of time, etc...), and all but one play only single player games exclusively. (Or play only the single player campaign of multiplayer games)
To muddy the waters even more, I am as far from casual as they come, and due to an ever growing backlog, I didn't even get to GoW until ~6 months ago (and Horizon Zero Dawn right before that, and I just finished Spiderman last month). My backlog is so long that even the best of games have to wait their place in line.
@LiterallyDoNotCare GoW sold ~10 million copies in its first two months (making it one of the best selling PS4 games of all time). To sell that many for GoW2 on PS5 only would need literally a 75-100% adoption rate which is astronomical and unheard of. The only titles that ever come close to 50% even are Nintendo first party titles, and thats only because people (generally) buy Nintendo hardware specifically for those games.
As for casuals, thats a pretty narrow view. Of everyone I know that owns GoW on the PS4 (IRL), I am the only one that I wouldn't consider a casual gamer. I still have multiple friends that have yet to finish it, but have owned it for a quite awhile. I think "casuals", or even those that can't get ahold of a launch (window) PS5 or can't afford one just yet, or just don't have enough reasons to upgrade (a couple exclusives isn't incentive for many) account for a larger number of purchases than you give them credit for.
Don't get me wrong, I want them to make it PS5 only. That would make me very happy indeed; but I understand the reality of the early generation titles and as an early adopter, am willing to deal with that until a critical mass has migrated over to the PS5.
@Juanalf When someone doesn't agree with your opinion, they like to take the stance that you are just complaining (but when they have an opinion, it should be considered seriously).
This list, hits the nail on the head. Its the exact list I would have made if asked. Please improve these things Sony!
@Splat Like nearly every other console launch in history from the 5th generation on? There are always more people that want them, than can get them on launch day, and it almost always levels out a few months later. This generation (because of COVID) has been hit particularly hard and the scalper bots have gotten particularly resourceful. That's across the board, for every major platform, from PS5, to XSX/S, to Switch, to even PC GPUs, and more.
@NEStalgia I understand, but thats not really their message. If you watched the Mark Cerny presentation he talks about the issue, and again the TL;DR is that they did the math, and to keep initial costs down for consumers (presumably to avoid another PS3 launch); they decided that 825 was a good start and are working on ways to expand that. From what I gather, the ability to move PS5 games to an external drive did exist, and some early testers saw it in action; but it was not present on the later review units (which probably had the official build of the OS). Its just a feature that is not available day one (I would guess they ran into bugs that they need to fix)
@skynettt that doesn't make much sense in this case because Sony isn't selling you the storage like Microsoft is. You can buy the storage from (theoretically) any SSD manufacturer that makes one fast enough.
@sketchturner The idea for the average consumer is that you will rotate out a handful that you are currently playing (with the odd multiplayer that sticks around for awhile) not try and keep your entire library installed.
If I put all the games I own on my PS4, sure it would take many TB's; but I am never going to play 90% of them again, and the 10% that I might will only take a few minutes to install (less on the PS5); so I doubt I will ever fill up 825 (667); unless games start averaging 150+.
@NEStalgia
"I don't get giving 825 instead of 1TB"
There is a technical reason for that. Cerny touches on it in his presentation:
See: https://youtu.be/ph8LyNIT9sg?t=932
The TL;DR is that there are technical reasons that the 12 channel interface they use, to get the target speed, most naturally pairs with a certain size multiplier and the best fit considering that is 825 GB.
@TrolleyProblems Its attach rate across all titles, so that ~10 includes indies and smaller titles as well, not just huge AAA titles.
To be fair, I don't know how PS+ titles or F2P titles factor into this; which could inflate it a bit as far as install size goes; but I am pretty certain that Sony has the metrics for what the average player uses and is able to adjust based on that.
Anecdotally, I have played hundreds of PS3/PS4 games and have only had to delete a title to make room every now and then; and I don't know anyone in real life that actually runs into this problem. I know there are those that do, there are edge cases (large families, single shared console), and people that want to keep their entire library installed at all times; but these are edge cases and will be addressed via expanded storage and/or game transfers (hopefully sooner rather than later).
@TrolleyProblems
Actually it's designed to handle the average use case, not the least or most edge cases. The average attach rate on the PS3 (and even the PS4) last I checked was under 10 games per console (and thats not all AAA).
So assuming the average player leaves all of their games installed all at the same time (not likely the average use-case but I don't have telemetry to determine this; Sony probably does) then if you have enough space for the average user, (maybe with a little head-room), then you are good.
@art_of_the_kill While I agree with the sentiment, it doesn't make financial sense.
Let's imagine GoW2 releases in the first half of 2021. They could target the ~20 million install base of the PS5, or ~120 million install base of the PS4. As much as I hate the reality and wish developers would abandon the last gen platforms immediately, it doesn't make sense to pour that kind of money down the drain if there is the possibility of targeting both.
@huyi The PS3 and PS4 browsers were garbage, slow, and controlling them with a controller was painful. I don't know anyone that actually used it (although I am sure there are some).
@KnightRider1982 You can easily block all ads and telemetry to all devices connected to your home network (including your home consoles) by setting up Pi-Hole. There are a few things it doesn't block because the ads and content are served from the same domain (like YouTube ads) but for 99.9% of cases, its amazing.
The colors helped identify the buttons during QTE's. You can identify them just by shape, or just by color (or direction, like some games did), but the more information you have, the faster you can process it and and choose the right button. I will miss these, and will be on the look out for after market mods.
I would wager the reason this feature is disabled, as well as not allowing expansion right now, is to limit the launch issues (that all new devices tend to have) to the actual PS5 hardware/software. Once we have gotten beyond the launch window, I expect features like these to be unlocked.
@Menchi Do you know what that raw speed requirement is? They have never announced that as far as I can tell. They did say it would have to be considerably more than the 5.5 G/s that the PS5 drive has because the PS5 drive has 6 levels of priority vs the 1-2 levels that existing SSD's have, and that this would have to be worked around in software so the drive would need to be faster to compensate.
@InvaderJim While thats true; and its an important detail, it should be noted that they also make it clear that they prefer the experience on the PS5 because the locked 60 at a checker-boarded 4k trumps a fluctuating frame-rate at native 4k.
Comments 1,538
Re: Cyberpunk 2077 PS5, PS4 Preload Begins, 102GB Total File Size
@Mostik The PS4/Xbox One generation is the first one to require discs to install to the HDD and just act as a "proof of ownership". The Xbox One did have a half baked attempt at eliminating the disc after install; but it got too much backlash before launch so they reverted it.
Re: Cyberpunk 2077 PS5, PS4 Preload Begins, 102GB Total File Size
@Mostik Don't feel too bad. The PS3 (and earlier) played games from disc (didn't need to install most games), and for modern generations, there have been unsuccessful attempts allow you to install from disc, but then not require the disc again.
Re: Poll: Are You Buying Cyberpunk 2077?
It seems like quite a lot of us are waiting on the PS5 version. That should have been on option on the poll.
Re: No Man's Sky (PS5) - Divisive Survival Game Plays Best with This Next-Gen Upgrade
@JigsawPieces Its not really "continuing where you left off" for trophies though. Its cloning your trophy list, and progressing on the clone, leaving the original list to stagnate in an incomplete state. Sony needs to force developers to merge trophy lists, or allow for us to delete them from our account.
Re: No Man's Sky (PS5) - Divisive Survival Game Plays Best with This Next-Gen Upgrade
@JigsawPieces that doesn't really help because you will still end up with an orphaned/incomplete trophy list for the PS4 version. Unless it works both ways.
Re: No Man's Sky (PS5) - Divisive Survival Game Plays Best with This Next-Gen Upgrade
My big question: Does the PS5 upgrade bring with it a separate trophy list? I never quite platinumed this and was considering going back but if the trophy list is separate, I won't be revisiting this world on the PS5.
Re: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Unlikely to Release in First Half of 2021
Can we get a port of the first game? Does the source code even exist anymore? (Maybe a remake of the first game in the new games engine if the source doesn't exist?).
Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Pre-Launch Console Patch Is Massive, But It's 'Not the Update' You Think It Is
@andreoni79 This is actually a requirement; however they only have to do that if the game is not actually playable without the download.
If there is a version, even an extremely buggy, broken, incomplete version, that is playable from the disc then they are not required to.
@skxnkwxlkr Yeah, that seems to sum it up all right. I am Ok with that for now though because it means that the actual "on disc" game for the PS5 will be great without a day one patch.
Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Pre-Launch Console Patch Is Massive, But It's 'Not the Update' You Think It Is
@TheAdza the wording is redundant. A patch for the PS4 is also a patch for any PS5 playing a PS4 game in BC mode. There is no need to ever specify both unless there is some significance. I know it makes sense to you, but clearly, even though it's been stated dozens of times, many people are still confused about this, so adding to their confusion should be avoided if it can.
Re: No, Cyberpunk 2077 Does Not Have a 56GB Day One Patch on PS4, PS5
@Jaz007 @TheAdza
Normally I would think wording like that wouldn't be misleading, but too many people (even on this site) have shown that they don't understand that there is, currently, no PS5 version of Cyberpunk 2077, and there will not be one at launch (it will come "sometime later" according to CDPR), so it should be made clear.
Re: Poll: Do You Actually Play Your PS Plus Games?
I have (almost) never played a PS+ game (Contrast and Resogun being the exceptions).
That isn't to say that I haven't played a handful of the PS+ titles; but I played my own copies of them.
Re: Upcoming PS5 and PS4 Games for December 2020 and January 2021
@d0a01xz Unfortunately, they don't. There isn't even a listing for the PS5 version yet.
What they said is: "your PS4 copy of the game will work on PS5 on launch day" and then followed that up with "A later upgrade to Cyberpunk 2077, taking full advantage of the next-gen hardware, will be available for free"
No solid information about when the actual PS5 version (or PS5 upgrade patch) will be available, just that they made sure the PS4 version worked on your PS5 (via Backward compatibility).
Re: Sony Designed PS5's Biggest Feature Around Thriving Single Player Games
@Robinsad I didn't say that they weren't useful (though they have yet to be useful to me), I just said that they don't solve the problem of picking the game back up weeks or months after putting it down. As @NEStalgia said, you have a momentum (in story, skill, mechanics, etc...), and once interrupted, it's hard to get back.
Re: Sony Designed PS5's Biggest Feature Around Thriving Single Player Games
@LiamCroft Those that play multiplayer games are more likely to use a digital store front for those games (since a retail copy of a game that generally requires online services to function is pretty pointless) which means its always going to be heavily skewed towards multiplayer games. Just looking at digital store sales isn't going to paint a very accurate picture.
I am not saying I know what that picture looks like; just that my gut instinct is that, when you take all sales into account, over the long term, its very much in favor of the solo gamer for overall game sales.
Re: Sony Designed PS5's Biggest Feature Around Thriving Single Player Games
@LiamCroft I disagree. The most important part of a console is not the number of consoles sold but the number of software titles sold and I would wager that the COD/Fifa/Fortnite crowd did not have nearly the same attach rate as the solo experience crowd. So while they might have pushed the console sales, that metric is meaningless without the software sales to match. Do you have actual numbers (total revenue gained by Sony from multiplayer gamers vs solo experience gamers) or is it just your gut? Because my gut tells me otherwise.
Re: Sony Designed PS5's Biggest Feature Around Thriving Single Player Games
I don't know. I think this is a solution looking for a problem.
Yes, people often put a single player game down for awhile, come back months later, don't know what they were in the middle of, and it turns them off of playing it. However a few activity cards that give you a few quest/missing objectives isn't going to solve this.
The reasons behind this issue are much deeper. Single player games are generally about story and atmosphere. Having a few activity cards that tell you the progress on some activities you could be doing, isn't going to give you a run down of the story thus far, reminding you why you are playing, what happened to this point, and where you were headed. Most of the time I stop a game for a few months, I end up starting over (sometimes a daunting task) just to refresh my memory about the story.
Nor are they going to give you your skill back. I can't count the number of times that I stop playing a game for awhile, come back months later, and because I am later in the game (where its more challenging) I just don't have the skill to play in the areas I am currently in. You can push forward and have a miserable time until you find your rhythm again, or start over.
Neither of these are solved by Activity cards, and in my opinion are much bigger contributors to never going back to a game if you stop playing for a bit.
(Also: Those cards are way too large, they take up too much space to scroll through horizontally)
That being said, I like the idea of the cards (if they were more compact); but I don't think it helps solve this problem at all.
Re: Upcoming PS5 and PS4 Games for December 2020 and January 2021
@Quintumply Any information on the PS5 release of Cyberpunk 2077, or is that still TBD?
Re: Watch Dogs: Legion Runs at 4K, 30FPS with Raytracing on PS5
@BrbImCarrying I have played many (modern) games at 30, 60, and some at 120 (on a supported display of course) and I cannot honestly tell the difference between 30 and 120 let alone 30 and 60.
That being said, I am not a visuals junkie either. While I can appreciate the effort the goes in to the visuals (details, not resolution) I am just as happy playing a retro 8 bit looking title as I am the latest 4k ray tracing title; so I trust the developer to make the choices that make the most sense for their game.
Re: Observer: System Redux (PS5) – A New Coat of Paint Can Do Wonders
@gbanas92 I will be on the lookout for a LRG release.
Re: Observer: System Redux (PS5) – A New Coat of Paint Can Do Wonders
Is there a planned retail release or is this digital only? I can't seem to find any information about that and it's a deciding factor for me.
My gut instinct is that the lack of information means that it's only digital; which would be a bummer.
Re: The Last of Us 2 Sweeps The Golden Joysticks with Five Awards
@graysoncharles I hear a lot of great things about Ghost of Tsuhuima; but for me it doesn't even make the list of games I would play if they were free because the theme doesn't appeal to me. I don't say this to talk trash about the game; just offer up an opinion on why it might not have captured the top spot when TLOU2 did.
Re: The Last of Us 2 Sweeps The Golden Joysticks with Five Awards
@djape Seriously, seeing spoilers like that is not cool. Not everyone has had the chance to play it yet. I don't think you intended any harm by it, but please be more careful in the future if you are spoiling major plot points from a major AAA story driven game that's less than 6 months old.
Re: UK Scalper Group Claims It's Snagged 3,500 PS5 Consoles
@DotM All of those solutions are going to end up hurting regular buyers that happen to fall into one of those categories.
Capitalism in this form is broken, unfortunately I don't think this is something that can be solved on the initial sales end of things. Targeting the mechanisms that allow scalpers to resell the products at inflated prices is the best way to combat this.
When we are not in pandemic mode, this kind of issue doesn't usually last more than a couple months (and having in-store pick up only, limits its impact) but the current world makes it worse than ever.
Re: UK Scalper Group Claims It's Snagged 3,500 PS5 Consoles
@DotM You know that you can create an unlimited number of PSN accounts, right? You can also get around any "one per address" restrictions quite easily as well. Its not that easy of a problem to solve on that end.
The only way to solve the problem is on the other end (eBay, for example). There are a lot of things you cannot sell on eBay, and restrictions about the things you do. It wouldn't be very difficult to come up with a policy that prevents scalpers from selling goods on eBay. eBay makes too much money from this though so its unlikely to ever happen.
Re: UK Scalper Group Claims It's Snagged 3,500 PS5 Consoles
The value of $1 is not an objective fact. Understand that, understand that there are people that have different priorities or value scales than you do.
If you have a decent enough disposable income then paying twice the MSRP for a hard to find, (relatively low cost), device is not stupid, nor is it paying more than its worth. That worth is subjective and depends on its value to you compared to the value of the money you are paying for it.
I generally avoid scalpers (scum) because I do not want to support this behavior; it's often hard to find because they made it so; but to everyone that has bought one through a scalper. Enjoy your console.
Re: Poll: Have You Experienced PS5 Coil Whine?
The only thing loud on the PS5 is that disc drive, spinning up at random times makes it feel like the PS4 Pro again, if only for 15 seconds at a time.
Re: Absolutely Every PS5 Is Sold Out, Says Sony
@NEStalgia That is true, and it started when there wasn't a real issue keeping stock because gaming wasn't as huge as it is now. (Ex: NES in October, SNES in November, etc...).
Now though, platform holders are locked into this cycle because the first one to blink, the first one to delay until March (or later!), will give the "holiday" completely over to the other one. It's not so much about maximizing profits (anymore), it's about not losing a large chunk of those eager to upgrade, to your competition.
You know Microsoft won't blink (they rushed the 360, with its RROD and all, to beat PS3 to market), and Sony won't blink (if this launch, and the pricing/date information they held back as long as they could is any indication) so here we are, and here we stay.
Re: Absolutely Every PS5 Is Sold Out, Says Sony
@Northern_munkey They didn't underestimate, you can be certain that they made as many as they physically could in the allotted time, its just not enough.
It never will be. There are not huge manufacturing plants (and workers!) out there waiting for the every 6-7 year rush of a console cycle, so thats always going to be a limited resource and platform holders also won't sit on a stock pile of consoles for a year or more leading up to launch to make sure they have enough for demand (thats very costly for a dozen reasons). Its not a problem that can be solved with the ways we currently manufacture goods.
Re: Absolutely Every PS5 Is Sold Out, Says Sony
@Deadlyblack They anticipated it; but production is mostly out of their control (see my reply a few posts above this)
@lacerz As for Sales, it depends on how they are tracked. Sony tracks sell-through (to customers) and Microsoft (when they reported) tracked sell-in (to stores). I would guess that a return within a certain window would not count as a sell-through.
As for timers, it's not as simple as that. Timers are not a solution to this problem and would have just made it worse. You would end up with essentially a different kind of DDOS where bots have everything locked out since they can add items to their cart faster than you can, thus they get that timer, and you, human, won't. It just shifts the problem.
A more workable solution, is to stop the scalpers from being able to easily sell the goods that they are not in possession of. eBay could make such a policy and easily stop a lot of this (not all of it) but they make so much money off of misery, why would they?
Re: Absolutely Every PS5 Is Sold Out, Says Sony
@Northern_munkey It's not due to underestimating, it's due to supply constraints. Factories can only work so fast, and there are only finite amounts that they can push through and have reasonable failure rates; and Sony isn't the only one competing for these resources.
Sony started mass production in June. They would have had to start mass production at the beginning of the year (or end of last year) to have enough for the current demand. Not only could they not anticipate how COVID would impact things at that point, but they were still designing, fixing, and tweaking the hardware.
Its not as simple as increasing your order count in your shopping cart, there is an upper limit on how fast these things can be made.
You also can't just sit on them (delay launch for multiple months) to build up more stock. Not only does that give your competition an opening to get in early; but it costs a lot in storage fees and taxes to hold on to goods.
Re: 20 Secret PS5 Features You May Not Know About
@get2sammyb For the Game Presets, is that per-profile, or per-system? The settings appear to be in the same place that most per-system settings are, which makes this could-be-amazing feature, completely useless in a household where not everyone wants the exact same presets.
Re: PlayStation Boss Can't Comment on God of War Ragnarok Being a PS5 Exclusive
@LiterallyDoNotCare I have a back log of at least 30+ PS4 games that I need to finish (all..10? of the Resident Evil titles, all 7? of the Yakuza titles), and a few stragglers that I played but never platinumed (like Witcher 3), so its going to be awhile before I fully move on. I am going to be playing a mix of PS4 and PS5 games for the next two years at least I think.
Re: PlayStation Boss Can't Comment on God of War Ragnarok Being a PS5 Exclusive
@LiterallyDoNotCare lol.
I am sure we can both agree that we both wish GoW2 was a PS5 exclusive and that all upcoming titles were that way (I wish they would drop last gen from Cyberpunk even!); but I understand that the numbers are not there yet for huge AAA titles. Thats why I hope that GoW2 is an early 2022 game, rather than 2021. More likely to be (now) current gen exclusive.
Re: PlayStation Boss Can't Comment on God of War Ragnarok Being a PS5 Exclusive
@LiterallyDoNotCare I have friends that haven't turned their PS4 on in over a month, but have played at least a few hours of many of the major single player games (they haven't really finished most of them, and certainly haven't platinumed any), I don't think that counts as hardcore by any stretch of the imagination. Thats as casual as they come.
I agree with you that we need new definitions (and those you propose are pretty close to how I would define them), it would certainly make discussions clearer and we wouldn't spend all of the time arguing a point that we both agree on.
(although, I define myself as hardcore, but I abhor multiplayer games, so I am not sure where that would fit in your definitions)
Re: PlayStation Boss Can't Comment on God of War Ragnarok Being a PS5 Exclusive
@LiterallyDoNotCare Only one of my friends plays online titles, they rest play only single player. In fact, some of them don't even pay for internet access, and some (even with internet access) don't have PS+ to play (most) of those titles. A lot of them play games like CoD, sure, but they play exclusively campaign/offline as a single player experience.
This part of the discussion really comes down to your definition of casual I think. I define a casual gamer as someone that casually plays games. They might play once or twice a week, or for a couple hours on the weekend. I don't define them based on the games they play (the people I know, not-IRL) that play the games you talk about are far from casual (they play those games non-stop, for hundreds and thousands of hours); but you are right, they do not tend to buy many single player games because they are more of a competitive gamer, not an experience gamer.
Re: PlayStation Boss Can't Comment on God of War Ragnarok Being a PS5 Exclusive
@LiterallyDoNotCare Casuals don't buy single player games? Thats absurd. Casuals buy single player games just as often (if not more often) than non-casuals. Of everyone I know with a PS4 (IRL), other than me, they are all what I would classify as casual gamers (they play very irregularly, don't buy many games, don't play for long stretches of time, etc...), and all but one play only single player games exclusively. (Or play only the single player campaign of multiplayer games)
To muddy the waters even more, I am as far from casual as they come, and due to an ever growing backlog, I didn't even get to GoW until ~6 months ago (and Horizon Zero Dawn right before that, and I just finished Spiderman last month). My backlog is so long that even the best of games have to wait their place in line.
Re: PlayStation Boss Can't Comment on God of War Ragnarok Being a PS5 Exclusive
@LiterallyDoNotCare GoW sold ~10 million copies in its first two months (making it one of the best selling PS4 games of all time). To sell that many for GoW2 on PS5 only would need literally a 75-100% adoption rate which is astronomical and unheard of. The only titles that ever come close to 50% even are Nintendo first party titles, and thats only because people (generally) buy Nintendo hardware specifically for those games.
As for casuals, thats a pretty narrow view. Of everyone I know that owns GoW on the PS4 (IRL), I am the only one that I wouldn't consider a casual gamer. I still have multiple friends that have yet to finish it, but have owned it for a quite awhile. I think "casuals", or even those that can't get ahold of a launch (window) PS5 or can't afford one just yet, or just don't have enough reasons to upgrade (a couple exclusives isn't incentive for many) account for a larger number of purchases than you give them credit for.
Don't get me wrong, I want them to make it PS5 only. That would make me very happy indeed; but I understand the reality of the early generation titles and as an early adopter, am willing to deal with that until a critical mass has migrated over to the PS5.
Re: 10 Things PS5 Needs to Improve
@Juanalf When someone doesn't agree with your opinion, they like to take the stance that you are just complaining (but when they have an opinion, it should be considered seriously).
This list, hits the nail on the head. Its the exact list I would have made if asked. Please improve these things Sony!
Re: PS5 Fans Hope New Firmware Update Fixes Issues
@Splat Like nearly every other console launch in history from the 5th generation on? There are always more people that want them, than can get them on launch day, and it almost always levels out a few months later. This generation (because of COVID) has been hit particularly hard and the scalper bots have gotten particularly resourceful. That's across the board, for every major platform, from PS5, to XSX/S, to Switch, to even PC GPUs, and more.
Re: Sony Thinks PS5's Storage Space 'Should Be Fine'
@NEStalgia I understand, but thats not really their message. If you watched the Mark Cerny presentation he talks about the issue, and again the TL;DR is that they did the math, and to keep initial costs down for consumers (presumably to avoid another PS3 launch); they decided that 825 was a good start and are working on ways to expand that. From what I gather, the ability to move PS5 games to an external drive did exist, and some early testers saw it in action; but it was not present on the later review units (which probably had the official build of the OS). Its just a feature that is not available day one (I would guess they ran into bugs that they need to fix)
@skynettt that doesn't make much sense in this case because Sony isn't selling you the storage like Microsoft is. You can buy the storage from (theoretically) any SSD manufacturer that makes one fast enough.
Re: Sony Thinks PS5's Storage Space 'Should Be Fine'
@sketchturner The idea for the average consumer is that you will rotate out a handful that you are currently playing (with the odd multiplayer that sticks around for awhile) not try and keep your entire library installed.
If I put all the games I own on my PS4, sure it would take many TB's; but I am never going to play 90% of them again, and the 10% that I might will only take a few minutes to install (less on the PS5); so I doubt I will ever fill up 825 (667); unless games start averaging 150+.
Re: Sony Thinks PS5's Storage Space 'Should Be Fine'
@NEStalgia
"I don't get giving 825 instead of 1TB"
There is a technical reason for that. Cerny touches on it in his presentation:
See: https://youtu.be/ph8LyNIT9sg?t=932
The TL;DR is that there are technical reasons that the 12 channel interface they use, to get the target speed, most naturally pairs with a certain size multiplier and the best fit considering that is 825 GB.
Re: Sony Thinks PS5's Storage Space 'Should Be Fine'
@TrolleyProblems Its attach rate across all titles, so that ~10 includes indies and smaller titles as well, not just huge AAA titles.
To be fair, I don't know how PS+ titles or F2P titles factor into this; which could inflate it a bit as far as install size goes; but I am pretty certain that Sony has the metrics for what the average player uses and is able to adjust based on that.
Anecdotally, I have played hundreds of PS3/PS4 games and have only had to delete a title to make room every now and then; and I don't know anyone in real life that actually runs into this problem. I know there are those that do, there are edge cases (large families, single shared console), and people that want to keep their entire library installed at all times; but these are edge cases and will be addressed via expanded storage and/or game transfers (hopefully sooner rather than later).
Re: Sony Thinks PS5's Storage Space 'Should Be Fine'
@TrolleyProblems
Actually it's designed to handle the average use case, not the least or most edge cases. The average attach rate on the PS3 (and even the PS4) last I checked was under 10 games per console (and thats not all AAA).
So assuming the average player leaves all of their games installed all at the same time (not likely the average use-case but I don't have telemetry to determine this; Sony probably does) then if you have enough space for the average user, (maybe with a little head-room), then you are good.
Re: PlayStation Boss Can't Comment on God of War Ragnarok Being a PS5 Exclusive
@art_of_the_kill While I agree with the sentiment, it doesn't make financial sense.
Let's imagine GoW2 releases in the first half of 2021. They could target the ~20 million install base of the PS5, or ~120 million install base of the PS4. As much as I hate the reality and wish developers would abandon the last gen platforms immediately, it doesn't make sense to pour that kind of money down the drain if there is the possibility of targeting both.
Re: PS5 Doesn't Have a Web Browser
@huyi The PS3 and PS4 browsers were garbage, slow, and controlling them with a controller was painful. I don't know anyone that actually used it (although I am sure there are some).
@KnightRider1982 You can easily block all ads and telemetry to all devices connected to your home network (including your home consoles) by setting up Pi-Hole. There are a few things it doesn't block because the ads and content are served from the same domain (like YouTube ads) but for 99.9% of cases, its amazing.
Re: Here's Why DualSense PS5 Controller's Face Buttons Don't Have Their Iconic Colours
The colors helped identify the buttons during QTE's. You can identify them just by shape, or just by color (or direction, like some games did), but the more information you have, the faster you can process it and and choose the right button. I will miss these, and will be on the look out for after market mods.
Re: Sadly, You Can't Store PS5 Games on an External HDD
I would wager the reason this feature is disabled, as well as not allowing expansion right now, is to limit the launch issues (that all new devices tend to have) to the actual PS5 hardware/software. Once we have gotten beyond the launch window, I expect features like these to be unlocked.
Re: Sadly, You Can't Store PS5 Games on an External HDD
@Menchi Do you know what that raw speed requirement is? They have never announced that as far as I can tell. They did say it would have to be considerably more than the 5.5 G/s that the PS5 drive has because the PS5 drive has 6 levels of priority vs the 1-2 levels that existing SSD's have, and that this would have to be worked around in software so the drive would need to be faster to compensate.
Re: Hands On: PS5 Backwards Compatibility - The Good, the Not Bad, and the Ugly
@InvaderJim While thats true; and its an important detail, it should be noted that they also make it clear that they prefer the experience on the PS5 because the locked 60 at a checker-boarded 4k trumps a fluctuating frame-rate at native 4k.