I've said this so many times now, but the future of gaming is cloud streaming. That's not only because that's what's most convenient for people but also because it won't be sustainable otherwise. Games keep getting larger and larger in storage size, they won't fit on discs anymore. Even if we develop discs with larger storage space, that'll make the games much more expensive. You can see that with Switch 2 cards and how third-party devs are opting for the cheaper "game-key" cards.
Which begs the next question, if next generation will be digital-only, is there any point to consoles anymore? Why would you spend €1000 on a console that's digital-only when you can just stream games through your smart-TV with a controller?
Consoles will become redundant. There's no point in owning one that's digital-only. Imagine when they shut down online services like Sony is going to do with PS3 and Vita, you won't be able to download games to that console anymore. You're literally buying a €1000 device that will be rendered useless in the future.
In other words, cloud streaming will be the way to go. Gaming is becoming more and more expensive with more expensive hardware due to component scarcity and more expensive games in general. I can imagine PlayStation releasing an app for smart-TV where you can buy games and streaming them as well as offering PS+ Extra on TV. It's just more convenient and more affordable. Xbox is already doing this with Game Pass and it works rather well I might add. On top of this, PlayStation will be forced to offer reasonable pricing due to them being in a market with competition instead of having only one storefront on their console.
It is very sad to see this change but it's necessary.
As its going right now I wont be going with any of the big 3 consoles next gen for a variety of reasons. If anything I will be going PC but even then I think I will just be sticking with my backlog and retro games and consoles.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
If PSVR3 magically gets confirmed, absolutely. If not, I don't know. I feel like so many big AAA modern flatscreen games these days are played out. Graphical diminishing returns, a lot of it's super samey', derivative, I feel like I've mostly seen it all before.
I do like the Dualsense's Haptics & adaptive triggers, but PSVR2 is where it truly shines, when it does at it's best in terms of innovation. I'm not going to lie though, 80% of my PSVR2 library has been disappointing, but when a game lands it lands. Subside's latest Makoa Shelf DLC is phenomenal, with PS5 pro, and truly frightening once you get blind sided by a Tiger Shark. The VR cutscenes in RE Village are mind blowing(PSVR2's magnum opus imo), Compound is a great VR boomer shooter, RE4Remake VR is so much more enjoyable than playing it flat, even though it's visually compromised including the resololution, and those magnificent wind/fog and hail effects present in the flatscreen version are barely none existent, plus reprojection at 60fps You'd need a PS6 to get it running at 72fps without repro, higher res and to bring in those missing environmental effects.
NS2 + Steam Frame + PCVR(5070, which is significantly more powerful than a PS5 Pro) is going to be my soon to be current combo for now. I don't play my PS5 all that much, I'm more into NewWave Retro games & some of Nintendo's Exclusives.
Although, RE2 Remake(especially. An easy 10/10. I enjoyed it much more than the time i spent with the PS1 original back in 98') and RE3 Remake were such a blast on PS5, running at 120fps mode. Still haven't tackled Requiem, because i'd much rather play it with the latest PCVR mod using Steam Frame. Anyways, I dont know. I'm not a big fan of like 99% of Sony's exclusives, so PS6 will have to rely on some form of unique innovation to get me really interested. PSVR3 is the ticket. If not, 3D Glasses that can reinforce Stereoscopic 3D into any PS6 game you throw at it.
I'm not going to completely rule it out but if PS6 is announced at something like €1k I wont be rushing out to get it. I have been splitting my gaming between PS and PC since the early 2000's and so if we're being forced into an all digital future with PS, I may as well just stick to PC.
It makes me wonder about what PS exclusives I would truly miss though. I'm thinking Gran Turismo and that's likely to be released on PS5 whenever the next numbered title is released so I'll still be able to play it.
It really is a shame PS are going in this direction. I love my physical collection dating back to the PS1 days. I did have a Mega Drive and a Commodore 64 but I think my Dad made me give those away to one of my cousins when we got the PS1.
What amazes me is the amount of Sony bootlicking going on though. "Thanks Sony. Charge me more money for games. I love it" /s
I wouldn't be so bothered if there were options like All Key Shop for PlayStation games but going into the PS6 generation we're going to be at their mercy for pricing.
I have seen a couple of YouTube tutorials about how to make disc based versions of your GOG games. Looks like a fun little hobby. It was something I was thinking of getting into even before the announcement by Sony.
@nomither6 I think it's a mistake to take your own feelings on the matter and impose them onto others, or imply that to feel diffefently about an issue than you is some kind of flaw. Of course we won't all agree but I think your opinion and those of others are all important to recognise, and no doubt Sony is acutely aware of the different "camps" showing up in the discussion of their decision.
I got a PS1 when I was about 6 years old I think, and I've had a console the whole way through. Still have my 2, 3, 4 and 5. I won't be buying a 6, essentially because I don't see a need for it really. I have so many games already and it's going to take something I'm SERIOUSLY interested in to shift on that, digital or otherwise.
I hadn't even considered the import/censorship issue @GirlVersusGame but that's a really good point when we think on a changing market and how businesses need to navigate what to do next.
'It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life." - Captain Picard
If it gets PSVR3, absolutely! If not, I'll probably pass. For now, I'll just get a PC(5070 Ti) and pair it with Steam Frame, and then use Quest 4 with it next year. Flatscreen PlayStation exclusives, ever since PS3 generally don't interest me anyways, nor does the Physical media outside of PS1. So being all digital isn't a deciding factor on my end. I've been all digital with PS since PS4 Pro. I treat PS like Steam, so, and then Nintendo as it's own thing.
@DemonStar89 It's the reality for many countries and regions of the world. I see it almost weekly, from the Middle East to my own country. Government regulation and censorship figures heavily in the entertainment industry, gaming is one of the main ways I'm able to be expose myself to new ideas, ways of thinking, and even exploring the basics like gender. That doesn't exist in my offline and that goes for many people in different parts of the world. It's not a UK problem so people aren't really thinking about it.
Places like China depends almost entirely on imports and sanctions aren't just a Russian problem, many countries fight back by outright banning Sony from doing business in the region, gamers shouldn't have to be the ones who feel that outcome. Others push companies like Sony out for refusing to observe certain cultural or religious belief structures, after a while banning games isn't a enough, they force the company out and that's a big part of why the PSN and other vendors have no presence in such places.
Then there are places like Australia which has an almost militant ratings board and approach to 'safety', Germany is getting worse and since so many Switch games go through their production facilities collectors are stuck with ugly huge printed stickers (part of the actual slip) those copies are then picked up in large copies by Amazon UK/EU. It's a small detail but a direct consequence of Germany clamping down on actual fun. My countries reaction was basically State sanctioned piracy, does that help the industry? not at all.
Sony aren't seeing the big picture, they don't understand every territory they operate in and it's going to cost them dearly. If you go by today's exchange rate Russia spent close to two-billion British pounds on gaming last year alone and that's legal/purchases that were accounted for but our economy is grey and always has been, physical imports arrive and just like new movies/etc they don't exist on paper. Nor is that counting VPN access to vendors. Instead of spending on gaming going down it went up. The reason being the rest of the world became so closed off so gaming became even more viable and lucrative. It's astounding how blindly a company like Sony are entering this digital future, it feels like they haven't run even the most basic Monte Carlo Simulation to predict future sales given the loss of physical imports and exit from various regions even digitally. Their scenario planning seems almost nonexistent and their ability to communicate with their customers won't do them any favors.
I think like a lot of Western and even Eastern companies they have no one on the ground, they don't understand territorial markets, they lack any real ability to forecast the changing tide as it relates to their own product and they are relying on brand loyalty to carry them through the storm. There have already been immediate signs of revenue volatility and a planned push for the removal of value-driven migration is only going to hit them harder, it's a fantastic way to decimate a companies reputation, which we're already seeing. Their recent silence is part of that. I'm not saying I'm going to boycott them, I get a lot of joy from the hobby but I'm not fooling myself either, the people running the company are idiots.
These violent delights have violent ends & in their triumph die, like fire & powder Which, as they kiss, consume.
Nope. As it goes I wont be going for Project Helix either. Next gen as of right now I am leaning more towards PC especially if I can get my hands on a Steam Machine.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
@GirlVersusGame haha that was really entertaining. (I laugh to keep from crying).
I'm in Australia so even though we have a lot available to us and I'm fortunate personally to be able to afford gaming as a hobby, I don't know what we don't get. I'm roughly aware of our strict market though.
I have a slim J-NTSC PS2 so I can collect some titles we never got here, and won't be able to get (legally) via PSN - I'm not serious enough to get into jailbreaking, that's a whole other barrel of fish.
To come back to Sony, I do wonder why they're making these decisions. Is it all about market control? Or are they making enough money elsewhere (cinema, appliances, manufacturing, etc) where it just wouldn't impact them that much if they eventually get booted out of video game entertainment?
@DemonStar89 They are gambling on trading the costs of disc production with the earnings of the digital market. Factories have become more expensive to run, they have to keep meeting higher costs for energy, transportation, shipping and managing logistics that change almost weekly. It's the same reason I predicted the Sony live show would start to cancel dates, people thought it was ticket sales when it was logistics. They were operating in places and spaces that they didn't understand, bands have tour managers for a reason, they understand each region and know how to operate. Sony didn't even have enough trucks or the right routes sorted. They had to notify venues but not the buyers, only issue refunds. It was a running joke around some venues for a while, if a truck didn't show up 'Sony at it again'.
There are a number of reasons for logistics being so complicated right now in various parts of Europe. Sony didn't do the ground work, they decided to cancel those dates instead of adapting and making it work. The problem is their music division is seeing high increases in profits but that's streaming. Labels are starting to wake up to the fact that they don't have control over digital artists, the sway they once had is going extinct. It's never been easier for an artist to create and distribute their own material. They have fossils in charge of that division too, eventually they figure it out. They are losing their grip on the physical market there too. It's not easy to move cargo around Europe, security costs have doubled and trucks keep getting done over, they are seen as soft-targets. Nintendo have also had their trucks knocked over, the last truck was never recovered. Games are very easy to lift and sell online etc. They still want to supply Eastern Europe but are constantly second guessing if those games will even get to their destination.
Sony are weighing up everything, the factories where they press the discs, the rising energy costs to run the machines, securing those routes around the world, geopolitical changes where they have to deal with so much red-tape. It looks like greed but there are many moving parts, I can see why they think digital is the way forward. Most of those recent investments in their gaming division are short term investors, it does temporarily inflate the overall value but changes and fluctuations (people buying less games) can cause the bottom to drop out, those investors will go elsewhere. They are hedging a lot of their bets on a new console, a console that not everyone can afford but they assume it will sell like hot cakes because customers are seen as 'heavy users', not as fans or supporters of the brand.
Not being able to really track physical imports isn't helping either, they assume that if the buyer is in one country that those figures apply to that countries sales figures and consumption. If that supply is removed and those units are suddenly shifted to a digital format the buyer has to go to extra effort to try to secure a copy and vendors like the PS Store are getting better at detecting VPNs. It happened to me while visiting Egypt recently, my account was under review for two-weeks. I have three, I had five. Any system can be exploited but not everyone will put that effort in to move from imports to digital, not when there's the added cost of a VPN or spoofing. There are all kinds of advanced workarounds that guarantee breaking those region locks on digital vendors, I've broken every single one but it wasn't easy nor cheap. Then there's the actual price of digital versus physical, most physical games are cheaper than their digital counterpart. That's where trying to monopolize the flow of media enters the picture, I can't see it ending well for them. Greed only works when the people at the top know what they are doing and as I said they are idiots.
You asked about Sony/cinema? They aren't seeing a return on their movies in many countries. The reason people are seeing better copies of new movies on surface web torrent sites is because they are cinema packets being hacked right from the distribution servers, especially for the Russian market. Every new movie still gets shown but the studio sees none of the money, their exit-strategy like in many other regions backfired. Gaming is the same, more and more people are justifying piracy. I mentioned a recent development in cracking Sony's copyright protection on PC. People said certain Sony games couldn't be cracked, wrong. All it takes is to run the game on a virtual client over the DRM, rather than trying to remove it. Sony moving away from PC is about piracy, they know their goose is going to be cooked and they are getting out before that system I mentioned becomes available in a more public setting. They had to have gotten wind of it, the same system cracked Stellar Blade. It's a really impressive even in it's experimental state, there are groundbreaking developments in piracy coming. That system is just one of them.
I'm not saying I support piracy, but I don't support censorship either and a digital future is in my eyes and in my friends eyes completely unethical. Worse case scenario is they are hit by another Lizard Squad or OurMine, it's not the fans they need to be worrying about. It's any group that decides Sony's move to monopolize the digital landscape is completely unethical, if it happens they'll understand the importance of entertainment consumption without borders, regulation or censorship and they'll bring Sony's entire gaming division to a halt. There won't be any physical market to fall back on. Where they sit now 24hrs of downtime (compensation included) costs Sony forty million USD, it makes you wonder what would happen if their entire digital delivery system was taken offline for a week or longer.
These violent delights have violent ends & in their triumph die, like fire & powder Which, as they kiss, consume.
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Topic: Will you be jumping on the PS6 as soon as it launches?
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