Tag: Reaction
Feature PS5 Answers 'Bleakest' Month with a 22% Upswing in Sales
How much does the enthusiast discourse matter?
I’ve been covering PlayStation since the early PS3 days, and aside from the PSN outage in 2011, I can’t think of a worse month for the brand than September 2026. PS5’s public image was on the floor, with the ramifications of a widely publicised “blackout” campaign
Feature Xbox Is Disappearing into Activision and Bethesda, So What Does That Mean for PS5?
Reset the clock
As unfortunate as the latest round of Xbox layoffs were, we knew they were coming. Microsoft may be, against all odds, riding a positive wave of PR – but it signalled its intent with its ongoing “reset” earlier in the year. It started with
Reaction Did Fans Just Bring Destiny Back from the Dead?
Unlock the vaults
If you’ve been paying attention to chats during any live gaming event this year, especially Sony’s State of Plays, you’ll notice a term being spammed continuously – and no, it’s not “no disc, no buy”; it’s actually “we want Destiny 3”. Since Bungie’s announcement to axe continued support for Destiny 2, many...
Reaction Sony Needs to Start Speaking to Us Again
Talk is cheap
A theme of this generation has been Sony’s communication – or lack thereof. I think this past week has proven that the firm’s approach is no longer fit for purpose. In the aftermath of its decision to kill physical games, it’s provided us with a few short sentences citing “consumer preferences”. It’s
Reaction Travelling the World Made Me Realise What PlayStation Is About to Lose
Have I made a huge mistake?
As the news about Sony’s decision to cease manufacturing physical games in January 2028 has started to sink in, I’ve been thinking about the wider implications of this. Obviously the immediate concern has related to our own personal purchasing habits, the persistence of our libraries, and our overall consumer rights...
Reaction PlayStation's Reputation Is at Rock Bottom - Where Do We Go from Here?
The next steps
As I wrote yesterday, fan sentiment in PlayStation is at its lowest ever ebb. My colleague Rob Ramsey alluded to this prior to last month’s State of Play show, arguing Sony needed to deliver a banger to revive perception of its flagging brand. I think
Reaction PlayStation's Burned Through the Last Remaining Goodwill of Its Fans
"Thanks"
On paper, PlayStation is stronger than it’s ever been. The division is posting record profits, releasing annual Game of the Year contenders, and has all but snuffed out its nearest rival, Xbox. And yet, I’ve been writing about the world of Sony for almost two decades now, and I don’t think I’ve seen fan enthusiasm in a
Reaction Mealy-Mouthed Microsoft Takes Us Back to 2023 with Mixed Messaging on Xbox Exclusivity
Aw sh*t, here we go again
2023 called, it wants its ambiguity back. I got a lot of criticism earlier in the year for describing Microsoft’s indecisive approach to exclusivity as tiring, but in the aftermath of last night’s Xbox Showcase, it looks like we have months of mixed messaging ahead of us. Actually, I was reluctant to even write this...
Reaction Some PS5 Fans Think SGF Showed Sony Losing Its Grip on Third-Parties
After major franchises skip State of Play
I thought yesterday’s Summer Game Fest was a brilliant broadcast for PS5 owners, and when paired with the State of Play, demonstrated Sony’s impressive command of the industry at large. I wasn’t counting, but to my memory there were only a handful of games during Geoff Keighley’s event not targeting...
I'm not complaining
There’s no doubt in my mind that Sony has now mastered the State of Play. Unlike in years past, I think it’s rare to see complaints about pacing and presentation anymore. At this point, it’s all about the content – which is how it should be, of course. While I don’t think last night’s showcase was as good as the one...
Reaction I'm Sad It's Over, But Destiny's End Was Overdue
See you Starside, Guardian
This week we learned that the summer update for Destiny 2 will be its last. And as I read through Bungie’s blog, I couldn’t help but feel a mixture of conflicting emotions, namely sadness and relief. Across both the original Destiny and Destiny 2, I have wracked up over 1,500 hours with the series, enjoying each of...
Reaction Sony's Big State of Play Must Deliver as PS5 Perception Sinks to an All-Time Low
Don't mention live service
It's been a console generation of serious ups and downs for PlayStation, and it feels like a lot of those downs have come over the last couple of years. It's not controversial to say that Sony's been taking Ls for quite some time — the general perception of PlayStation as a brand, and by extension the PS5, has nosedived...
Feature 'It Should Be Free to Play Online Games': PS Plus Price Squeeze Taken to Task by PS5 Owners
"I'll just play on PC I guess"
I think you can learn a lot about PS Plus Essential’s latest price hike by looking at which options are going up. Sony is only increasing the one-month and three-month subscriptions; it’s not making any changes to the annual option. Furthermore, this change will only affect new or lapsed customers; if you’re...
Feature Xbox Is Flip-Flopping on PS5 Again, and It's Truly Getting Tiring
Pick a lane
There’s a deep irony to Xbox revealing it’s “re-evaluating” its PS5 strategy on the day co-dev Virtuos confirmed Forza Horizon 5 has sold five million copies on Sony’s console alone. Microsoft’s innate ability to build parasocial relationships with its biggest influencers temporarily too
Feature Xbox Game Pass vs PS Plus - Was Sony Right All Along?
After more Microsoft flip-flops, Sony's stayed true to its word
It’s easy to forget at this stage of the generation, but Sony was under intense pressure to create a rival to Xbox Game Pass when the PS5 released. Many felt that Microsoft, with an open cheque book and The Best Deal in Gaming™, was going to eat its lunch. But the Japanese giant...
Reaction PS Plus Essential Deserves Much More Credit for Its Free PS5, PS4 Games in 2025
It's been a good year
Back when Sony released two higher priced tiers of PS Plus in 2022, many worried that the quality of PS Plus Essential would plummet. While the uptake of PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium has been positive,
Reaction Sony's PS5 Games Keep Getting Better After Launch, and Often for Free
Platform holder deserves some praise
Last week, Sony added a new way to play The Last of Us 2, a game which first released over five years ago, in 2020. The response, on our website, was mixed. While many posters celebrated the arrival of the Chronological mode, others criticised Naugh
War does change after all
Sony is bringing Helldivers 2 to Xbox consoles roughly 18 months after its release, in a move that signals another unexpected strategy shift in an industry that never stands still. It’s not the first PlayStation game to launch on Microsoft’s machines, as MLB The Show ripped that band aid off earlier in the generation...
Reaction Sony Finally Understands the Assignment with One of the Best State of Plays of the PS5 Era
State of yay
It hasn’t hurt PS5’s popularity in the slightest, but Sony’s showcases have been mixed for many years now. There have been good ones, like last year’s stream featuring Ghost of Yotei, but this felt like the company finally understood its assignment. The thing with State of Plays, and E3 press conferences before them, is that...
Reaction There's Never Been a Better Time to Buy a PS5
Sony's playing a different game
The narrative surrounding PS5 for weeks now has revolved around predicted price increases. With rival Microsoft significantly bumping the costs of its Xbox Series X|S consoles, many argued it was only a matter of time until Sony followed the Redmond firm’s lead. To be fair, there’s good reason to believe that:...
Reaction Game Key PS5 Discs Are a Disgrace, and Sony Should Put a Stop to Them
DOOMed
There’s been a lot of chatter about Game Key Cards on the Switch 2, but we’ll say two things in their favour: physical cartridges are expensive and at least manufacturer Nintendo has been upfront about the whole thing. You can’t say the same about the latest round of Bethesda releases on the PS5, which are available physically but may...
Reaction Switch 2 Looks Solid But the Many PS5, PS4 Ports Won't Spook Sony Yet
Early impressions of Nintendo's new machine
Nintendo has finally pulled back the curtain on Switch 2, after a long and arduous build-up which has almost had our colleagues at Nintendo Life in straight-jackets. The headline news here is that the console seems like a compelling iteration on its outstandingly successful predecessor, with comfortably...
Better than nothing
Sony has started licensing some of its dormant intellectual property to third-parties. While its relationship with Bandai Namco is most notable in the aftermath of this week’s Nintendo Direct, it’s a practice the platform holder has been engaging in for a little longer. Cast your mind back to 2023’s FantaVision remake,...
Reaction Xbox Publishing More Games on PS5 Than Sony Is Not a Gotcha, It's Just a Sign of the Times
The new status quo
In the tedious and predictable aftermath to last week’s State of Play, a lot of column inches have been written about Xbox potentially
Reaction The PS5 Discourse Around State of Plays Is Becoming Draining
The state of play
We’re all for fair criticism, but the discourse around Sony’s State of Play livestreams is slowly beginning to grate. Before we get accused of being hypocrites, we’ll readily accept we’ve fed the narrative at times. We’ve opined the manufacturer’s overall lack of fan engagement, and the inconsistency between shows...
Reaction Sony's Live Service Push Has Been a Disaster of Utterly Insane Proportions
A new low
Live service. The two words that every PlayStation fan seems to pop a blood vessel over. And you know what? That kind of visceral reaction now seems justified. Under former CEO Jim Ryan's leadership, PlayStation had announced its intent to blitz the live service market — to create PS5 mega hits that would rake in unprecedented dough. To...
Reaction The Game Awards' 10th Anniversary Special Was Its Biggest and Best Ever
A Keighley masterclass
We’ve been saying for a few years that The Game Awards is just about the best it can possibly be, but credit where credit’s due, host Geoff Keighley put on a barnstormer last night. There was talk of multiple “holy sh*t” moments prior to the event from those ITK, and we think
Reaction Why There Are So Many Unnecessary PS5 Remasters for Games That Don't Need Them
Answering the question everyone's asking
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered hasn’t been announced for PS5 and PC just yet, but it’s already gone down about as well as a Tallneck with an arrow to its ankle. Less than 18% of Push Square readers said they were interested in buying the re-release, which is already perfectly playable on Sony’s new-gen...
Reaction PlayStation Needs to Take a Long, Hard Look at Itself
Disasterclass
In an unprecedented move, Sony will axe Concord on 6th September, just two weeks after the high-budget first-person shooter released. This multi-million dollar blunder goes beyond disaster – it’s an absolute embarrassment, and will forever be a stain on the format holder’s record. PlayStation’s always had first-party flops, but...
Reaction It's Time for Xbox to Tell Us Which Games It's Bringing to PS5, and Which Games It Isn't
We still don't really know
We’re knee-deep into another gaming convention with no further clarification from Xbox about which games it plans to make multiformat. Arguably the biggest story coming out of Gamescom Opening Night Live was the unveiling of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for PS5, which will launch just a few short months after its...
Reaction PS5 Needs a Price Cut
Sticker shock
Don’t let the discourse tell you otherwise: the PS5 is doing very well. Tagging another 2.4 million units to its total in the quarter concluding 30th June, the system now sits at 61.7 million units sold. That’s a phenomenal feat when you consider all the chaos Sony has had to circumnavigate: the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent...
Reaction Sony's Billion Dollar Bungie Buyout Is Looking More and More Like a Blunder
Destiny's wild
Back when Sony announced its $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie, we didn’t quite understand it. Sony was under intense pressure at the time, as Microsoft was still in the midst of its corporate consolidation storm, and didn’t look likely to stop until it owned most of the industry. Acquiring the legendary Halo creator always...
Time for something completely different
For years now, Sony has been criticised for its supposedly samey first-party software. You’ve probably seen that meme circulating on social media, which shows a trio of trees from God of War, The Last of Us, and Days Gone. It’s nonsense, of course, how do you even make different looking trees? But it...
Reaction Summer Game Fest 2024 Showcases AAA's Endless Winter
That's cold
Geoff Keighley clearly cares deeply about games, and we won’t hear otherwise. This is a man who started out as a journalist with a surging passion for the medium, and has fast-tracked his career in such a way that he’s almost become the unelected voice of enthusiast gamers. While that’s a title he’d likely shy away from,...
Reaction PS5 Livestreams Are No Longer Speaking to the Fans Who Built the Brand
Tough times
It’s been eight years since Sony’s outstanding E3 2016 press conference, where it hired a full-blown orchestra and introduced the rebooted God of War to the world. And it’s been nine years since arguably the greatest gaming livestream in history, where the holy trifecta of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Shenmue 3, and The Last Guardian...
Reaction Why You Shouldn't Worry Too Much About PS5's Year-on-Year Decline
Context is key
The games industry is caught in a tidal wave of negativity, and if you pay attention to social media, you may be forgiven for thinking the sky is falling. Sony posted a pretty positive financial report earlier this week, but the headlines that have come out of it run counter to that: PS5 declined 29 per cent year-over-year, is...
Reaction What Is Happening to the Video Games Industry and Why Are There So Many Layoffs?
The state of play
You could be forgiven for thinking the video game industry is collapsing, and you may be wondering why. Last week, PlayStation announced it was laying off over 900 employees and shutting its long-running London Studio, and it’s not alone. There have been thousands upon thousands of jobs cut across the entire industry, and...
Reaction The Problem with PlayStation Right Now
AAA troubles
PlayStation is in a precarious position. It’s imperative we don’t overreact: the global economy is, for want of a better word, in the gutter right now – and it’s sad to see layoffs occurring across a spectrum of industries, not just gaming. But in the aftermath of a disappointing earnings report and an enormous downsizing...
Reaction Xbox Is Bringing Some Great Games to PS5, But Rumours Will Remain Rampant About What's Next
Redmond firm fails to set out its strategy
More great games are coming to the PS5, and that’s never a bad thing. Microsoft announced during a highly massaged corporate message that it’ll bring four first-party titles to rival systems, although it wouldn’t name any names. Fortunately, the rumours have been so strong that we can surmise...
Reaction PlayStation's Finally Poised to Penetrate the Mobile Market in the Right Way
Phone stars
You may not like playing mobile games, but millions upon millions do. Estimates indicate approximately three billion people enjoy some kind of interactive experience on their smartphone, which is almost half the entire planet’s population. That’s a staggering statistic, and it’s not hard to understand why Sony would want to...
Reaction You Really Shouldn't Be Surprised Kids Want PS5, PS4 Game Currencies for Xmas
Sign of the times
Gaming is changing, and there’s probably no going back to the “good old days” at this point. For many of you reading this article, Christmas was very likely defined by the carefully wrapped boxes nestled preciously under your tree. You’ll all have your own memories, of course, but for this author it’s The Legend of Zelda:...
Reaction PS5's Success Is Not Luck, Because Sony's Spent Years Putting in the Hard Yards
This ain't a fluke, folks
PS5’s been posting some pretty exceptional sales results recently, and it’s sparked a reductionist form of commentary among enthusiasts. There’s a growing sentiment, much like during the PS4 era, that Sony’s record-breaking sales come down to little more than luck – an observation that obviously ignores all of the...
Reaction PlayStation Boss Jim Ryan May Have Been Disliked, But Leaves Big Boots to Fill
A hugely successful tenure draws to a close
The surprising revelation that Jim Ryan will retire as Sony Interactive Entertainment’s President and CEO at the end of March 2024 has been, perhaps predictably, met with glee from most corners of the wider video game world. In addition to courting controversy on a number of occasions, the British...
Reaction What Happens to PlayStation if Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard?
The question we're all pondering
Well, then – here we are. As perhaps even eternal optimists may have anticipated, US regulator the Federal Trade Commission has lost its case against Microsoft, meaning there’ll be no preliminary injunction to prevent its Activision Blizzard acquisition from closing before its 18th July deadline. And in dramatic...
Roadmap will soon be required
The curtain has closed on what was, in this author’s partially informed opinion, probably the strongest Xbox Showcase in recent memory. This wasn’t a total knockout on par with some of PlayStation’s best ever E3 presentations – is such a thing even possible now we’ve effectively transitioned from live...
Reaction Sony's PS5, PC Live Service Strategy Won't Work If It's All Samey Shooters
PlayStation did nothing to assuage fans' fears
We’ve been one of the few publications defending Sony’s live service strategy because we don’t think the idea is inherently bad. A lot of fans treat the booming Games as a Service segment as a genre, but it’s important to underline that it’s a business model instead. In fact, there’s...
Reaction Sony Flubs First Proper PS5 Presentation in Over 18 Months
PlayStation falls at the first hurdle
The online response to the first PlayStation Showcase in well over 18 months is apoplectic, and while enthusiast gamers are notoriously unhinged, it’s not entirely unexpected after a dreadfully disappointing livestream earlier today. It became clear about 30 minutes into the event that this was going to be...
Reaction Sony Continues to Fumble the State of Play Format
We've been here before
The curtain has closed on another State of Play, and this wasn’t a vintage one, to put it politely. In fact, at the time of writing, just 21 per cent of you said it was better than okay in our Push Square poll – a statistic we can’t imagine the bigwigs at PlayStation will be particularly impressed with
Reaction The Game Awards Finally Fulfils Its Potential
The Keighley to success
For a few years now, we’ve argued The Game Awards is just about as good as it can be – after all, there’s a ceiling to how engaging an industry awards ceremony, organised by an independent third-party, can possibly be. It’s clearly an expensive production that needs funding, and so the advertisements aren’t going...
Reaction Sony Poised to End 2022 without Major Press Conference
Show and tell
Sony is poised to end 2022 without a major press conference. Before we elaborate, it’s important to clarify what we mean here: we’re excluding shorter livestreams like State of Play or major events the platform holder has participated in, like Gamescom Opening Night Live or Summer Games Fest. We’re referring specifically to...
