It's good to see PlayStation fans making their voices heard when it comes to these PC ports, unlike Xbox fans who just succumbed to Microsoft's PC day-and-date strategy and couldn't even challenge them to remove Xbox Live Gold for free to play games until just recently.
Funny how there's hysteria that Sony could in future shut down a simple time sync server while there's no concern whatsoever that Steam and Epic won't at some point way in the future shut their servers too, there's no contingency talks about that!
I recently played through the Jak Collection on PS3 and only really found the first game enjoyable. Jak II and 3 were a complete shift in genre and tone and I didn't enjoy them at all. They became poor GTA clones and all the platforming and tropical charm of the first game was replaced with shooting and driving in dull apocalyptic environments.
If they do revisit this series I hope it's like the first game and not the sequels.
If this gets us closer to Virtua Fighter 6, I'll gladly take it.
Also Sega, please revive Shinobi, OutRun, Sega Rally and Virtua Tennis while you're at it or at least farm them out to other devs like Streets of Rage 4.
@thefourfoldroot I get that but all of Microsoft's purchases benefit their ecosystem and owners with added features and exclusives only for their platform, how does investing in eSports leagues and tournaments benefit PlayStation users in any way?
I'm not saying Sony needs to do exactly as Microsoft and buy big established companies; they clearly don't have the money for that. But they should at least take a grassroots approach to build new internal studios and poach talent just like Microsoft's The Initiative did when they started up.
Microsoft is buying entire publishers and studios and eyeing apps like Discord, all of which they can and will lock down to their platform.
Meanwhile Sony is investing in fighting game tournaments and eSports leagues where the games being played are and will remain multiplatform anyway! So how exactly does this benefit PS owners?
Again just like buying EVO, this is just a vanity purchase that serves nothing to PlayStation owners. All this does is marginally increase PS brand awareness which to me seems like such a low priority when there's far more pressing issues that need to be addressed.
Up to now I had given both Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst the benefit of doubt that they were doing what was best for PlayStation and their customers, but to recap:
£70 for all first party games
"We believe in generations" then announcing Horizon Forbidden West, Miles Morales, Sackboy are all cross-gen while refusing to state whether the new God of War also is (spoiler: it probably is)
The closure of PS3, PSP and Vita online stores while their competitor doubles down on committing to backwards compatibility
The promise of more PS4 ports to PC causing hesitation in people to invest in PS5 if to find that only a few years later they come to PC with more bells and whistles than the PS5 version while also being cheaper and no online multiplayer costs attached (even piratable)
The ridiculous form factor of the PS5 console itself; no consideration for most people's entertainment unit setups
The half-baked PS5 UI with missing basic features not carried over from PS4 like folders and deleting games from library as well as missing 1440p, Quick Resume, Auto HDR and VRR support that their competitor offers
Poor DualSense quality control with reported drift issues starting to become widespread
The downsizing and closures of their Japanese and European first party studios paired with the exodus of talented veterans
Wasting money on vanity purchases like buying EVO, a move that offers nothing to PlayStation owners
Resting on their laurels regarding acquiring studios when their competitor is on a buying streak: Bethesda (id, Arkane, Tango, MachineGames), Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Double Fine, inXile, Compulsion; all former multiplatform studios forever gone from PlayStation
Finally this, Microsoft getting to one up Sony by announcing Sony's own game on their Game Pass service while PlayStation chumps have to pay full price on day one
This is such a colossal screw up by Sony for PlayStation owners and all but confirms to me that Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst are so out of their depth compared to their predecessors and have been literally coasting on the success of PS4 into this generation.
I have conflicted feelings towards Media Molecule.
On one hand, their games all get high scores and accolades and the studio is often lauded by industry peers (including Hideo Kojima) as having an incredible and whimsical creative culture, so it's good to see Sony continue to nurture it.
However all their games have focused all too much on creation and sharing rather than playing and consequently their games have suffered from poorly implemented gameplay and bland design, leaving their community to provide the interesting content.
I know Sony and others see them as a prestigious studio but aside from the first LBP (mainly due to hype) their games have not sold well and have little appeal to the wide gaming audience.
I feel a studio as talented as MM is being wasted serving a niche community when all this time they could have been making traditional high quality AAA gameplay-centric games alongside their sister studios at Sony.
I was pretty disappointed after watching alpha gameplay footage. It seems like a carbon copy of Left 4 Dead, both in gameplay and visuals with the addition of "cards" that affect stats; a system that seems rife for monetisation and balance breaking.
This would have been acceptable if it released in the early 2010s but now we're over a decade apart from Left 4 Dead 2 and it's disappointing how little the visuals and gameplay have improved from that 2009 game. The game even recycles a lot of animations from Left 4 Dead (e.g. using a medpack) that just look dated today.
I watched some streams of this and it looked so chaotic and awful. Capcom needs to stop trying to make competitive Resident Evil multiplayer a thing and add some more content into the RE single player; new characters, scenarios, unlocks etc. The past few RE games can be completed well within 4 hours with little else to do afterwards.
I have no interest in Bethesda games aside from DOOM but the silver lining of this move is that it should incentivise Sony to double down on PlayStation exclusives and keep them on their platform, lest they want to see their playerbase erode away to Xbox and PC especially.
I don't understand why Sony doesn't leverage the power and backwards compatibility of PS5 to enhance their exclusives instead of focusing on porting games to PC.
They're completely undermining PS5's backwards compatibility by making these PC ports. The backwards compatibility alone would have breathed new life into PS4 game sales, especially for those who missed out on PS4 exclusives because they were too snobbish to play them on PS4 frame rates and resolutions. That way they would still get 100% of sales revenue (on PS Store) and retain players on their ecosystem instead of splitting it 70/30 with Valve or 88/12 with Epic for one-time purchases.
Imagine if Guerrilla had spent time optimising Horizon for PS5 instead of wasting months patching the PC Port. That would have enticed so many more people to get a PS5 coupled with the sequel announcement.
Instead these PC ports are just going to condition them to hold out for a few years to get the game delivered to them on a silver platter. And with confirmation that Horizon Forbidden West is being developed for both PS4 and PS5 (another awful decision), it practically guarantees that it will come to PC too (since the game by design can't take advantage of PS5's bespoke hardware), so no need for a PS5!
I've said that I don't mind their C-tier games going to PC, but if prestigious exclusives start getting ports, people's desire to own PlayStation hardware will plummet and will ultimately have a knock on effect on 1st party game development. For example, designing games to work for lower end PCs to maximise sales and ignoring the bespoke strengths of PlayStation hardware (SSD etc) or including MTX for continual revenue from otherwise one-time sales on platforms not their own; Steam, Epic etc.
@3MonthBeef I don't think that applies to Switch, which can be played using a normal controller on a TV without any forced motion controls or touch mechanics.
What I mean by directly compete with Nintendo is that they should have focused on luring Nintendo fans by making games that would appeal to the same audience. They delivered a perfect response to Mario with Astro Bot but it remained locked to PSVR so the vast majority never got to experience it.
To me Japan Studio seemed to design games around gimmicks foregoing traditional game design, effectively coming across as extended tech demos.
Just look at some of the titles they made: Ape Escape, Fantavision, The Eye of Judgement, LocoRoco, Puppeteer, Gravity Rush, Knack.
All of them feature unusual controls or game mechanics, which is why I think they failed to appeal to a lot of people who just want normal playing games.
What they should have done was to directly compete with Nintendo's output by making games towards a younger audience that also retains gameplay appeal to adults. This still remains a gap in Sony's studios and Japan Studio was the ideal candidate to fill it.
They finally got a real winner with Astro Bot, but it took them way too long to get there. I'm glad that team's the focus now though and they become the prime 3D platformer developer for Sony.
You know who the real losers are? The PS4 owners who upgraded to PS4 Pro believing that was the only option for playing Sony exclusives at optimal settings.
Sony promoted the PS4 Pro as the optimal platform to play games at better frame rates and resolutions and was inferred to be the only way to get these upgrades for exclusives.
And with this news of more PS4 titles to come to PC, they effectively made the PS4 Pro redundant to the "pro" crowd they were targeting in the first place.
I wouldn't blame burned PS4 Pro owners now becoming reluctant to take the plunge into PS5 after being betrayed once already.
Also, I find it quite hypocritical that Sony wastes money securing 3rd party exclusives while they themselves are going 3rd party with these PC ports and MLB the Show on Xbox.
The age of true 3rd party exclusives is over, it will never be like the PS2 era again, there's too much money left on the table for 3rd parties to be locked to one platform. Sony should be focusing on their 1st party studios making exclusive games instead of wasting money on stupid things like first access to RE:Village teaser demos.
That Avenger's Spider-Man exclusive was a massive dud; wonder how much was wasted on that which could have gone into 1st party studios.
It was hilarious seeing Final Fantasy XVI being announced as "1 year timed exclusive" Sony basically signalling their viewers that you can totally skip PS5 if you can hold out 1 year and get a better performing version on another platform, which will probably have better ray tracing abilities etc.
"Only on PlayStation" becomes "Also on PlayStation" and not even "Best on PlayStation" either because the modular nature of PC allows it to always remain on top by brute forcing performance.
Quite a slap in the face to PS fans who bought consoles on the promise of being the only way to play these exclusives then later to find that these versions are/will be inferior in every way to their PC ports while being cheaper with no PS Plus multiplayer requirements.
Horizon, Death Stranding and Detroit still run at 30 fps on PS5 while their PC counterparts are 60 fps and there's no sign that these games will be patched to run at 60 fps either, at least for free with Guerrilla's resources being shared on patching the shoddy PC port and developing the sequel.
Personally, I'm okay with Sony's C-tier exclusives like Days Gone, The Order: 1886, Knack, Concrete Genie and underperforming games like Dreams and Gravity Rush getting a new lease on life on PC to generate some revenue to put back into big budget development for PS5.
But if games from Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Polyphony and Santa Monica end up on PC (highly sought after critically acclaimed games), I would see no reason to ever trust Sony to treat their hardware owners right and will just permanently move to PC where I know I will get the highest quality visuals and performance from these games.
Also, the gap between PS4 and PC release is shortening, from Horizon being 3 years to Days Gone not even being 2 full years. It's inevitable it'll gradually shorten even more until it's day and date.
It's sad to see but I think at this rate Sony will go in the way of Sega and just become a multiplatform publisher, meanwhile PS consoles will still be bought by the casual FIFA, Fortnite, CoD crowd, sales from the hardcore fanbase will dry up as they migrate to PC to enjoy the best experience with no restrictions.
Comments 323
Re: Days Gone Is Still a Stunner in PC Features Trailer
It's good to see PlayStation fans making their voices heard when it comes to these PC ports, unlike Xbox fans who just succumbed to Microsoft's PC day-and-date strategy and couldn't even challenge them to remove Xbox Live Gold for free to play games until just recently.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West's Aloy Set for Fortnite Cameo
Cool, a multiplatform character appears on a multiplatform game!
Re: PS4 Clock Battery Problem Proven, But Don't Panic Right Now
Funny how there's hysteria that Sony could in future shut down a simple time sync server while there's no concern whatsoever that Steam and Epic won't at some point way in the future shut their servers too, there's no contingency talks about that!
Re: Naughty Dog Wishes It Was Working on New Jak & Daxter Game
I recently played through the Jak Collection on PS3 and only really found the first game enjoyable. Jak II and 3 were a complete shift in genre and tone and I didn't enjoy them at all. They became poor GTA clones and all the platforming and tropical charm of the first game was replaced with shooting and driving in dull apocalyptic environments.
If they do revisit this series I hope it's like the first game and not the sequels.
Re: Kojima Reportedly in Talks with Xbox as PS5’s Abandoned Prompts Conspiracy Theories
It's way too strange that an unknown indie company that has zero games developed is suddenly making a photo realistic looking AAA PS5 exclusive.
There's no way an indie developer would make a PS5 exclusive when practically every 3rd party exclusive also has a PC release announced alongside.
I'm sure there's more to this than what the blog post is letting on...
Re: Virtua Fighter 5 Could Be Making a Comeback on PS4
If this gets us closer to Virtua Fighter 6, I'll gladly take it.
Also Sega, please revive Shinobi, OutRun, Sega Rally and Virtua Tennis while you're at it or at least farm them out to other devs like Streets of Rage 4.
Re: Sony Strengthens eSports Drive by Making PS5 Official Console of NBA 2K League
@thefourfoldroot I get that but all of Microsoft's purchases benefit their ecosystem and owners with added features and exclusives only for their platform, how does investing in eSports leagues and tournaments benefit PlayStation users in any way?
I'm not saying Sony needs to do exactly as Microsoft and buy big established companies; they clearly don't have the money for that. But they should at least take a grassroots approach to build new internal studios and poach talent just like Microsoft's The Initiative did when they started up.
Re: Sony Strengthens eSports Drive by Making PS5 Official Console of NBA 2K League
Microsoft is buying entire publishers and studios and eyeing apps like Discord, all of which they can and will lock down to their platform.
Meanwhile Sony is investing in fighting game tournaments and eSports leagues where the games being played are and will remain multiplatform anyway! So how exactly does this benefit PS owners?
Re: Sony Strengthens eSports Drive by Making PS5 Official Console of NBA 2K League
Again just like buying EVO, this is just a vanity purchase that serves nothing to PlayStation owners. All this does is marginally increase PS brand awareness which to me seems like such a low priority when there's far more pressing issues that need to be addressed.
Re: Sony Game MLB The Show 21 Will Be Free with Game Pass on Xbox, Full-Price on PS5, PS4
Up to now I had given both Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst the benefit of doubt that they were doing what was best for PlayStation and their customers, but to recap:
Re: Sony Game MLB The Show 21 Will Be Free with Game Pass on Xbox, Full-Price on PS5, PS4
Can't wait for the inevitable twist of the knife if comparisons show the Xbox Series X version performing better than the PS5 version.
What an absolute blunder for your home platform and playerbase if this happens.
Re: Sony Game MLB The Show 21 Will Be Free on Xbox, Full Price on PS5, PS4
This is such a colossal screw up by Sony for PlayStation owners and all but confirms to me that Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst are so out of their depth compared to their predecessors and have been literally coasting on the success of PS4 into this generation.
Re: Random: WipEout PS1 Intro Remake Is a Total Knockout
Fun fact, WipEout is the only Sony IP that has appeared on every PlayStation hardware:
PS1: WipEout, 2097, 3
PS2: Fusion
PSP: Pure, Pulse
PS3: HD, Fury
PSV: 2048
PS4: Omega
PSVR: VR
Will this continue for PS5...?
Re: Sony to Continue Investing in Dreams Developer Media Molecule
I have conflicted feelings towards Media Molecule.
On one hand, their games all get high scores and accolades and the studio is often lauded by industry peers (including Hideo Kojima) as having an incredible and whimsical creative culture, so it's good to see Sony continue to nurture it.
However all their games have focused all too much on creation and sharing rather than playing and consequently their games have suffered from poorly implemented gameplay and bland design, leaving their community to provide the interesting content.
I know Sony and others see them as a prestigious studio but aside from the first LBP (mainly due to hype) their games have not sold well and have little appeal to the wide gaming audience.
I feel a studio as talented as MM is being wasted serving a niche community when all this time they could have been making traditional high quality AAA gameplay-centric games alongside their sister studios at Sony.
Re: Back 4 Blood Delays Zombie Killing Action to October
I was pretty disappointed after watching alpha gameplay footage. It seems like a carbon copy of Left 4 Dead, both in gameplay and visuals with the addition of "cards" that affect stats; a system that seems rife for monetisation and balance breaking.
This would have been acceptable if it released in the early 2010s but now we're over a decade apart from Left 4 Dead 2 and it's disappointing how little the visuals and gameplay have improved from that 2009 game. The game even recycles a lot of animations from Left 4 Dead (e.g. using a medpack) that just look dated today.
Re: Resident Evil Re:Verse Grabs Open Beta on PS4 Next Month
I watched some streams of this and it looked so chaotic and awful. Capcom needs to stop trying to make competitive Resident Evil multiplayer a thing and add some more content into the RE single player; new characters, scenarios, unlocks etc. The past few RE games can be completed well within 4 hours with little else to do afterwards.
Re: Future Bethesda Games Will Ship 'Where Game Pass Exists'
I have no interest in Bethesda games aside from DOOM but the silver lining of this move is that it should incentivise Sony to double down on PlayStation exclusives and keep them on their platform, lest they want to see their playerbase erode away to Xbox and PC especially.
Re: Bogus Leak Dupes Web with Purported PS4 to PC Ports
I don't understand why Sony doesn't leverage the power and backwards compatibility of PS5 to enhance their exclusives instead of focusing on porting games to PC.
They're completely undermining PS5's backwards compatibility by making these PC ports. The backwards compatibility alone would have breathed new life into PS4 game sales, especially for those who missed out on PS4 exclusives because they were too snobbish to play them on PS4 frame rates and resolutions. That way they would still get 100% of sales revenue (on PS Store) and retain players on their ecosystem instead of splitting it 70/30 with Valve or 88/12 with Epic for one-time purchases.
Imagine if Guerrilla had spent time optimising Horizon for PS5 instead of wasting months patching the PC Port. That would have enticed so many more people to get a PS5 coupled with the sequel announcement.
Instead these PC ports are just going to condition them to hold out for a few years to get the game delivered to them on a silver platter. And with confirmation that Horizon Forbidden West is being developed for both PS4 and PS5 (another awful decision), it practically guarantees that it will come to PC too (since the game by design can't take advantage of PS5's bespoke hardware), so no need for a PS5!
I've said that I don't mind their C-tier games going to PC, but if prestigious exclusives start getting ports, people's desire to own PlayStation hardware will plummet and will ultimately have a knock on effect on 1st party game development. For example, designing games to work for lower end PCs to maximise sales and ignoring the bespoke strengths of PlayStation hardware (SSD etc) or including MTX for continual revenue from otherwise one-time sales on platforms not their own; Steam, Epic etc.
Re: Sony Officially Confirms Re-Organisation of Japan Studio
@3MonthBeef I don't think that applies to Switch, which can be played using a normal controller on a TV without any forced motion controls or touch mechanics.
What I mean by directly compete with Nintendo is that they should have focused on luring Nintendo fans by making games that would appeal to the same audience. They delivered a perfect response to Mario with Astro Bot but it remained locked to PSVR so the vast majority never got to experience it.
Re: Sony Officially Confirms Re-Organisation of Japan Studio
To me Japan Studio seemed to design games around gimmicks foregoing traditional game design, effectively coming across as extended tech demos.
Just look at some of the titles they made: Ape Escape, Fantavision, The Eye of Judgement, LocoRoco, Puppeteer, Gravity Rush, Knack.
All of them feature unusual controls or game mechanics, which is why I think they failed to appeal to a lot of people who just want normal playing games.
What they should have done was to directly compete with Nintendo's output by making games towards a younger audience that also retains gameplay appeal to adults. This still remains a gap in Sony's studios and Japan Studio was the ideal candidate to fill it.
They finally got a real winner with Astro Bot, but it took them way too long to get there. I'm glad that team's the focus now though and they become the prime 3D platformer developer for Sony.
Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About PS4 Exclusives Being Ported to PC?
You know who the real losers are? The PS4 owners who upgraded to PS4 Pro believing that was the only option for playing Sony exclusives at optimal settings.
Sony promoted the PS4 Pro as the optimal platform to play games at better frame rates and resolutions and was inferred to be the only way to get these upgrades for exclusives.
And with this news of more PS4 titles to come to PC, they effectively made the PS4 Pro redundant to the "pro" crowd they were targeting in the first place.
I wouldn't blame burned PS4 Pro owners now becoming reluctant to take the plunge into PS5 after being betrayed once already.
Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About PS4 Exclusives Being Ported to PC?
Also, I find it quite hypocritical that Sony wastes money securing 3rd party exclusives while they themselves are going 3rd party with these PC ports and MLB the Show on Xbox.
The age of true 3rd party exclusives is over, it will never be like the PS2 era again, there's too much money left on the table for 3rd parties to be locked to one platform. Sony should be focusing on their 1st party studios making exclusive games instead of wasting money on stupid things like first access to RE:Village teaser demos.
That Avenger's Spider-Man exclusive was a massive dud; wonder how much was wasted on that which could have gone into 1st party studios.
It was hilarious seeing Final Fantasy XVI being announced as "1 year timed exclusive" Sony basically signalling their viewers that you can totally skip PS5 if you can hold out 1 year and get a better performing version on another platform, which will probably have better ray tracing abilities etc.
Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About PS4 Exclusives Being Ported to PC?
"Only on PlayStation" becomes "Also on PlayStation" and not even "Best on PlayStation" either because the modular nature of PC allows it to always remain on top by brute forcing performance.
Quite a slap in the face to PS fans who bought consoles on the promise of being the only way to play these exclusives then later to find that these versions are/will be inferior in every way to their PC ports while being cheaper with no PS Plus multiplayer requirements.
Horizon, Death Stranding and Detroit still run at 30 fps on PS5 while their PC counterparts are 60 fps and there's no sign that these games will be patched to run at 60 fps either, at least for free with Guerrilla's resources being shared on patching the shoddy PC port and developing the sequel.
Personally, I'm okay with Sony's C-tier exclusives like Days Gone, The Order: 1886, Knack, Concrete Genie and underperforming games like Dreams and Gravity Rush getting a new lease on life on PC to generate some revenue to put back into big budget development for PS5.
But if games from Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Polyphony and Santa Monica end up on PC (highly sought after critically acclaimed games), I would see no reason to ever trust Sony to treat their hardware owners right and will just permanently move to PC where I know I will get the highest quality visuals and performance from these games.
Also, the gap between PS4 and PC release is shortening, from Horizon being 3 years to Days Gone not even being 2 full years. It's inevitable it'll gradually shorten even more until it's day and date.
It's sad to see but I think at this rate Sony will go in the way of Sega and just become a multiplatform publisher, meanwhile PS consoles will still be bought by the casual FIFA, Fortnite, CoD crowd, sales from the hardcore fanbase will dry up as they migrate to PC to enjoy the best experience with no restrictions.