Topic: Is Sony having much bad news or are just people trying to make PS5 seem like a bad console?

"What I don't get is what people stand to gain from defending Sony. The company is treating its user base poorly, including the very people who are defending them. You don't gain anything by advocating for higher prices for PS5 games. You don't gain anything by advocating for no upgrade paths. You don't gain anything by advocating for downsizing companies like Japan Studio. At the end of the day, you're a consumer, not a stockholder nor an employee, and you're losing out just as much as the rest of us. They deserve to be called out just as much as when people called out Microsoft during the 2013 fiasco with the Xbox One."

Either way there is nothing to gain from whatever I'm posting here online. It's not like Sony will lower the prices when I mention I want cheaper games.

Also, when people having nothing to gain by saying something, that often just means they're speaking from the heart. So people saying the price hike is justified (like me) or that all of the pre-order stuff is overblown (also my opinion) are probably actually thinking that. People can have different opinions on stuff.

@LtSarge To be fair I think people have been objective about their view. I'm not defending Sony just pointing out what I see from the platform.

On your point regarding BC, Xbox aren't the good guys for adding it. They did it as they were doing poorly and had to compete with the PS in someway. Obviously competition is good between companies, a monopoly benefits nobody. When I criticise what Xbox is doing, it's because I don't agree with it, not because I hate the Xbox platform and want it to fail.

As far as higher priced games, I don't mind paying slightly more if that's the cost required to make outstanding games. I can imagine the development costs of games has gone up, given the scope of projects.

I can't say the news coming from Sony has been awful, personally. I like the platform because of the games. It certainly hasn't ruined my enjoyment of the games, anyway.

Ultimately, I don't think just saying how you feel about a platform and being overall positive with your view means your defending Sony. I'm happy with the PS5, I'm happy I moved, but will be cynical of what Sony does because they are a corporation. If they do something I dislike, I will not support that specific move, but that doesn't mean I'm not happy with other aspects.

And honestly, I don't give a hoot about whatever the trend is online.

I turn on my PS5 every day and this year I've been playing mostly games on it that released for the system in 2021, that's how great the year for games has been so far. Returnal, Chicory, Ratchet & Clank, and also games like Disco Elysium.

The there's the upcoming few months, in which there will be much more games released than I'm able to play: Death Stranding DC, Kena, Jett, Death loop, Life is Strange, Psychonauts 2. I really have to choose which ones I am going to skip, because there are so many. (I even cancelled my XSX pre order, because there are too many games coming out).

I can choose: complain online because Sony "looks bad" or enjoy the actual games coming out.

@Kidfried It's not the same thing. For example, it's one thing if you liked a certain video game and I hated it or vice versa. I'm totally fine with that because it doesn't affect me if you like or dislike games. But overcharging for video games is going to affect me because that means I'll have to pay more for video games.

You say that Sony isn't going to listen to you if you state your opinion. Yet, that is exactly what they did when they realised that people didn't want the PS3 or Vita stores shut down. They were planning on closing them, but when they heard the enormous outcry from people, they changed their mind. As a result, we're better off because we voiced our opinions. Unlike those people who were fine with the PS3 or Vita stores shutting down because "if Sony finds them to be expensive to maintain then they should shut them down". If everyone thought like that, both the PS3 and Vita stores would've ceased to exist today along with the thousands of games available on there with no other option to buy them because you can't play PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP or Vita games on PS5.

It's the same thing with Microsoft. They tried to increase the price of Xbox Live Gold earlier this year and this caused a major outrage on social medias. So much so that they back-pedalled the same day because they listened to their consumers: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/01/22/update-on-xbox-live-go...

"We messed up today and you were right to let us know. Connecting and playing with friends is a vital part of gaming and we failed to meet the expectations of players who count on it every day. As a result, we have decided not to change Xbox Live Gold pricing."

It's important as a community to speak up when it's necessary. If you think your voice isn't worth anything, then we have failed as a society.

@Kidfried pretty much my sentiment as well. Just too happy enjoying different games really.

Basically where I'm at. Free upgrades would be nice, but I'd rather pay a $10 fee to upgrade my PS4 game down the road then for all of the PS4 versions to get a price bump at launch. Anyway, they're not forcing it, so it's fine as an option: free backwards compatibility, or $10 for bells and whistles on the PS5.

Having to pay a massive premium at launch in order to eventually have access to the PS5 version is ridiculous, though. They're basically saying: "Pay us $20 extra at launch for a version you might not play for months/years, or be prepared to buy the game outright again if you want the PS5 bonuses."

The bad news started with the September 2020 Playstation 5 Showcase (stuff like locking Spider-Man Remastered behind more expensive version of Miles Morales, mixed messaging over PS5 preorders, "we believe in generations" being a lie rather than being upfront about crossgen to start with, etc.) but Sony's the one with games so they got away with it.

Sony will probably get away with this new wave of bad news too given all Xbox has this holiday is Forza and Halo of which the latter appears to be being forced to release this holiday when it's not ready.

@LtSarge everythings relative bud... the media has made mountains out of mole-hills in regards to Sony. And all of the supposed bad news is peripheral... we game for games and fundamentally Sony has the best assortment of available games. People get hung up on the small faux pa's peddled to high-heaven by the media and ignore the important fact... in under a year the PS5 has had Demons Souls, Spider-man: Miles Morales, Returnal, Ratchet and Clank: Ruft Apart, The Pathless etc. The vast majority of PlayStation gamers dont care if some are cross-platform on PS4, the vast majority of PlayStation gamers don't care if you have to pay £10 if you want to upgrade... the media tells you we care... but we really don't. We're getting the quality that we pay for.

@NedStarksGhost If you feel that my post was addressed to people like you, then I apologise and I should've been more clear. There are some people in comment sections of the articles on this site who constantly defend Sony no matter what they do and it's them who I'm referring to. That's the wrong attitude to have, no matter which company you support. If Sony does something wrong, I will call them out. If Microsoft does something wrong, I will call them out. If Nintendo does something wrong, I will call them out as well. It's about not letting corporations walk all over you just because you support them.

I'm not calling Xbox the good guys. No company is a "good guy". All companies want one thing and that's your money. It might as well have been Sony on the other end who had to recover instead of Microsoft. It doesn't make them the "good guys", but they are doing what they should in order to keep other companies in check and not letting them run rampant. Without Microsoft, Sony would be even worse than they are today. That's what the lack of competition does to a market.

@LtSarge ah yes I thought it was directed at people here. I see what you mean, yeah I don't agree with defending every decision a company makes just for the sake of it. As a consumer we should be cynical by nature of what they're doing. But I guess some people may not be disappointed by what they see, that's something to consider.

Totally agree about competition, it's always needed for the consumer.

@colonelkilgore I mean, you're not wrong to say that most PlayStation gamers don't care. But I'm not only a PlayStation gamer, I also game on Xbox and on Nintendo and so does plenty of other people. If I see that Microsoft offers me a better deal than Sony, then I will go to them. For example, I paid €10 to play Psychonauts 2, while the normal price is €60 no matter which system you buy it on. That €10 option isn't available on PS4 though. Which means that Microsoft will be receiving my money, not Sony, and over time that's going to hurt Sony when plenty of others do the same. You don't need to buy an Xbox to play Xbox games anymore either. You can just play them on PC or smartphones if you want. Either way, Microsoft will be receiving your money through Game Pass even if you don't buy an Xbox.

I can agree that Game Pass doesn't have a lot of quality titles to offer as of this moment. But Microsoft is already remedying that. For example, they bought ZeniMax. Starfield will come out exclusively on the Xbox ecosystem next year and the minimum price you have to pay to play that game is €10 through Game Pass. I don't know about you, but if Microsoft keeps this up, then they will attract a lot of consumers over from PlayStation. Paying €80 for games or €10, even if the games have a better reputation on PlayStation, money still is a major factor in people's lives. I'm already seeing a lot of people in Push Square's comment sections saying how they are going to switch platform because of Sony's actions. And I'm seeing a lot of people on Pure Xbox who used to be on Push Square.

Microsoft is playing its cards right by offering people options and not upsetting its consumer base. I genuinely can't say the same thing about Sony.

@LtSarge and your more than welcome to make that decision. I personally like to own physical copies of my games... and as I'm in no rush to play the latest releases (I literally own around 200 games I'm yet to play but will... in time) that by the time I purchase something (around a year later) I get it for at most £20. You see, as much as I can't wait to play a Returnal, I'm just as excited to play The Last of Us 2 (the next on my list).

And I'm not just blindly defending them neither... the PS4 is THE best generation of gaming I have ever experienced (& I've been gaming since the early 80's)... but the moment Xbox can emulate the situation from 2006/2007 ie. Gears of War, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Halo 3 etc. I'll come join you... like I did back then. But even though they've bought all these developers (& surely some good must come from it eventually I'll admit) right now (not tomorrow... or next E3) Xbox players are STILL waiting. While it's been 'Next E3' over here since 2015!

But from around 2009 onwards they have done very VERY little for its user base (in terms of quality games you can only play on Xbox) apart from offering an inexpensive product. We all like a bargain... but a bargain is not just the amount you pay, its what you receive for your payment... and while PlayStation games have gone up by £10 and Xbox has become an inexpensive rental store... its essentially just a rental store on which i wouldn't be able to play a lot of the games I want to play on it... so until they can get their act together in terms of producing banger after banger, I'll pass.

@colonelkilgore I wholeheartedly agree with you mate. PS4 is my favourite console of all time as well and Xbox is still years away from reaching the same heights it reached during the 360 days. Fun fact, I bought my Xbox One back in 2015, played a bit of Halo and Rare Replay on it, and then I never touched it again for the remainder of the generation until last year. PS4 had all my attention because that's where the best games were. But ever since I started using Game Pass last year, I've been slowly opening up to both experiencing games through a rental service as well as buying physical titles on PlayStation like Nioh 2 and Scarlet Nexus. I think it's great to be able to combine approaches like this. If I don't feel like buying a game like Psychonauts 2, I'll just play it through Game Pass. But if I feel like buying Ghost of Tsushima, I'll happily buy a physical copy of it because it's a PlayStation first-party title and I can expect high quality from it. It's a matter of having different options, which makes gaming feel a lot more liberating instead of having to buy a copy of everything you want to play. Game Pass has also helped me discover so many great indie titles. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of indie games and simply want to find new and refreshing experiences.

@Kidfried I pretty much said something similar as well. No, I'm not defending the bad things Sony has been doing (like their greed), but I'd rather enjoy my PS5 and the games than complain about things. Yes, they deserve to be criticized, but it doesn't change the fact that they make generally really good story driven games that I want to keep playing. The only reason why people should be jumping ship and giving up those experiences even over something like Sony's greed is if they aren't that big of a fan of those games to begin with. The games matter the most in the end.

@LtSarge totally fair, I just personally have such a backlog (something I'd imagine a lot of PlayStation gamers have in common) that it will take quite the persuasion (ie stellar games not services) for me to branch out. I have a Switch, I never play it... and that actually does have a load of exclusive games.

People who buy what the media is selling think we're all just blind fan boys capping for a corporation, when in reality we're using our hard-earned on what we genuinely believe to be the best option. If that changes we'll take our money and spend it elsewhere for sure.

I think the lack of consistency with the way every game is treated just adds to the mess some get a free upgrade some dont some get a ps5 patch thats not the ps5 version then some you cant upgrade at all.

If they just said $10 to upgrade from ps4 version to ps5 version for every game then i would know exactly where i stood with every game sony make.

I've been considering getting an XSX because I could afford it but so far I can't find enough reason to own two consoles with a growing backlog on just one (just like @colonelkilgore, I guess). Saving money on some of the games (like Hades being on Game Pass) is not it and higher resolution in some multiplatform games is definitely not it. XSX has some features I wish PS5 had too, but currently I believe owning one of the consoles is enough for me and I definitely wouldn't trade PlayStation games for any of the Xbox's advantages.

@KilloWertz Yea, same. I think criticism of Sony is a good thing. Push Square should definitely report on stupid business practices. But we also don't have to let news articles like that influence our enjoyment of all these great things coming out too much. It's what I liked about your previous comment so much. Don't forget to enjoy the games. It's not really healthy to get too winded up about it anyway, if it's starting to cloud your enjoyment of the simple fun of video games.

It would be interesting to know the numbers for people who have jumped from one system to the other this gen, so to Xbox X/S for the gamepass value proposition and to PS5 for the exclusive games. I guess that Sony and MS must be doing their research on this fact to see if what they are putting out is enticing more consumers or driving them away.

Perhaps both companies can see that what they are doing is working for now and it might be a while before they see any change to that as people carry on doing what they were doing last gen, or a new generation of consumers start to take hold in the market. I have a feeling that the next generation are going to expect a lot more for free though as that's what they've been conditioned to expect.

@render All I can tell is that I know just as many people who own both and say they like their Xbox better, as ones who say the PS5 gets all the love (but I also know way more people with PS5 and no Xboxes).
I also know one person who complains about Sony a lot since the PS5 launch and says they will definitely be switching to Xbox but it's been a while and they're still on PS4