Comments 74

Re: February 2026 PS Plus Essential Games Available to Download Now

Ajbr8687

@MrPeanutbutterz I stopped paying attention to video games for about 7-8 years from around 2011-2018ish… In that time the online discourse went from the “Everything is the absolute best” hype train to “everything sucks and I’m going to send death threats to developers” mentality. I don’t know why people choose to be mad and hate everything all the time

I’m starting to believe the internet is doing way more harm than good.

Re: Prince of Persia Remake and 5 Other Games Cancelled by Ubisoft

Ajbr8687

@Bamila your assessment of older players having jobs is not correct. Average age of a video game player is 35-36 and rising.

Everyone is upset but everyone has also been really hard on the games Ubisoft has made for years…maybe the cancellations were more games in the Skull and Bones / Xdefiant realm of things.

Bad leadership? Yes - but it’d be even worse to keep going down the road they were going down.

Re: PS5 Outsold by an Unexpected Rival in the Run Up to Black Friday

Ajbr8687

@Shigurui I’m not a UK citizen. I am terribly sorry for what happened to you in the 70s and 80s…

But I get concerned about people downplaying the horrific things a government is doing today. The Chinese government is using slave labor and committing genocide against a minority Uyghur population who are citizens of china.

They are currently disappearing people who don’t agree with them, monitoring the social scores of their citizens and practice some pretty nefarious international policies through belt and road policies.

And even if you don’t believe any of that is bad - they product 35% of the carbon emissions world wide…the US is second at 4%.

No one bats an eye because - cheap labor means cheap goods.

So let’s not pretend the UK today can even hold a candle to China.

Re: Sony's Horizon Franchise Has Sold a Wild 38 Million Units Worldwide

Ajbr8687

Lurking the comment section of this and other posts over the last few years with only making a few comments.

These forums are so funny - fans demand the following:

New IP but want multiple Old IP revised or remastered and new games in proven and loved IP,

They want shorter development cycles, more polished games,

They’ll complain about studios laying off employees and closures but don’t want to pay more for games or wait for them to come out on subscription services

They’ll criticize the most minor graphical issue but complain that Sony needs to spend less time on graphics.

They get mad about companies chasing the dollar instead of taking risk - but the risk doesn’t always work out causing more layoffs.

There is so much to play. So many great games - the people complaining about HFW or Horizon in general - be happy this studio’s games are selling and they don’t have to lay people off.

It’s impossible for any of these companies to make all of you happy - and if nothing in gaming is making you happy go find another hobby and come back later!

Re: EA's Black Panther Game Cancelled, Studio Shut Down

Ajbr8687

@Art_Vandelay you are correct here but it might not be that easy.

Unless I’m missing something we don’t know the cause of this situation- was the team shut down because EA needed to cut cost across the board or was the team shut down because they were not performing, unable to hit deadlines, not working well together and the project was canceled?

Maybe Disney force the project to cancel due to them owning the license for some reason?

I do generally agree with you though - a lot of people who complain about the layoffs don’t understand the price of keeping people and how much pressure it puts on a business if that team isn’t producing profit. They are typically the same people that complain that game prices are too high…

Re: EA's Black Panther Game Cancelled, Studio Shut Down

Ajbr8687

@wildcat_kickz I agree that it’s sad and absolutely the fault of EA. What bothers me is the people who make the decisions to invest in something like this should be the ones held accountable. People might have left stable jobs for new opportunity and are now left in a bad situation.

That being said - I’m in a decision making role at a company and have had to shut down underperforming teams (thankfully nothing I started) and I always have to take into consideration the risk of keeping a team on and how that will effect the future compensation, stability and viability of the rest of my employees who are not effected by layoffs. You don’t want to put more pressure on teams that produce well to keep on high cost individuals that don’t produce…it’s a really hard balance and not always just “corporation bad”

I want to be clear that I’m not defending corporations across the board. I’m sick of the corporate greed as well - it’s just not ALWAYS so black and white.

Re: EA's Black Panther Game Cancelled, Studio Shut Down

Ajbr8687

@wildcat_kickz that’s not how things work. They have to recoup profit losses - it was a bad decision to start this to begin with but it’d be a worse decision to double down on the expenses and put other teams at risk of cuts.

You don’t just cancel a game if things are going well. So if things aren’t going well you don’t double down on a bad investment by giving an unproven team another shot to lose more money…

Re: DOOM: The Dark Ages Attracts 3 Million Players, Over 2 Million Estimated on Xbox

Ajbr8687

@themightyant I’m not saying it’s not a good deal for consumers. It’s a great deal for consumers.

In the business world from a financial standpoint Xbox would record monthly subscriptions into a financial bucket for revenue and the development costs for Doom in a separate bucket for losses.

If monthly subscriptions don’t increase upon launch of the product then you could make the argument that they’d be better off not developing the product at all because it would’ve been better for their bottom line.

I’m interested in that balance - they have to keep new development coming in to keep game pass viable. They obviously understand they have to keep pumping the beast with new offerings…

But how do they make decisions based on that? Why did the HI-FI rush team get dissolved? I’m interested in how they make decisions based on the P&L of their gaming business - but they can’t just count the revenue from current subscribers as revenue for Doom because it doesn’t work that way…

Re: DOOM: The Dark Ages Attracts 3 Million Players, Over 2 Million Estimated on Xbox

Ajbr8687

I’m less interested in how this performed and more interested in how Xbox can really measure performance of first party games.

Current subscription revenue cant be applied to a release like Doom. New subscribers would have to stay subscribed for 7 months in order for it to be considered a win and there is no way to measure how many people kept their subscription due to Doom.

Every time someone subscribes and then cancels after a month or two should be viewed as potential revenue lost.

It’s no wonder they had to start moving games the PlayStation - they are kinda flying blind. Hard to decide what games to green light if you don’t have actual sales numbers.

Re: PS5 First-Party Game Sales Will Increase Over Next Year, Sony Says

Ajbr8687

@SMJ that question doesn’t really have anything related to my comment to you but they would classify the earnings differently by region… its pretty straight forward.

I guess what I don’t understand is the gate keeping of what constitutes first,second, third party. It really doesn’t matter to anyone unless you’re a shareholder.

Re: PS5 First-Party Game Sales Will Increase Over Next Year, Sony Says

Ajbr8687

@SMJ well you might not care about what Nintendo says on their earnings report but this is an article referencing the Sony earnings report where they classify them at first party…which is how all the companies classify first party games.

Thats how the industry works. Push Square is just reporting on it

Re: Opinion: If You're on the Fence, Consider Buying a PS5 Now Before the Prices Inevitably Rise

Ajbr8687

Maybe I’m in the minority but I’ll say it because no one else on these comments does…

I got back into gaming in 2019 after around 10 years off and I love the PS5 pro I bought last year. It’s easily the best gaming hardware I’ve owned and think it was worth the price point.

While everyone complains that gaming has gotten too expensive I actually think it’s one of the most budget friendly hobbies you can have. Just don’t buy all your games when they come out - gaming is actually way less expensive than it was years ago.

Happy with this generation - would recommend anyone on these comments fence to buy a PRO…I’m
Happy with mine

Re: PS Plus Essential Games for March 2025 Include Some Massive Names

Ajbr8687

@The_Elder not defending Dragon Age here but you are on the record with being happy with last months games.

It’s a subscription- there are going to be a lot of months you don’t like. If you like 2-3 games a year it pays for itself.

There are likely going to be millions of people that try Dragon Age as a result of it being on here…PlayStation isn’t going out of their way to hand pick games for you specifically.

Re: Fans Are Fuming Warner Bros Patented the Nemesis System But Isn't Using It

Ajbr8687

SPOILER

Ive played hundreds of games perhaps the single best “boss” encounter I’ve experienced was at the end of shadow of Mordor when they use the nemesis system at the end and make you fight your top living nemesis. I hated that guy and was so happy when I killed him - he was such a pain in my butt the last part of that game. Was really well done in my opinion

Re: Sony Hits Back Hard at Bungie Lead's $200 Million Lawsuit

Ajbr8687

@Lyrick7 not to defend the corporation but how is Sony being immature here? They fired a guy for what seems to be clear gross misconduct with female employees and responded to a lawsuit.

Would you have preferred Sony retain someone like this? Would that have been the “mature” thing to do?

Re: Talking Point: Has the Market for AA Games on PS5 Really Disappeared?

Ajbr8687

@Bramble Sony didn’t develop Helldivers 2. Arrowhead isn’t a 1st party studio.

Why would Sony invest in a smaller game with in house assets, take on the associated risks with employment, overhead etc to develop AA games at this point when they can outsource and publish or just collect 30% rips on the stuff that gets dumped into PSN?

They are only going to use their studios for known quantities / sure things or big gambles that might pay off massively like concord (bad gamble).

Re: Talking Point: Has the Market for AA Games on PS5 Really Disappeared?

Ajbr8687

@johncalmc the issue is Sony is a business and there is no reason to gamble on small games when the over saturated market can do it for you.

They collect a 30% rip on the AA market right now and with games constantly coming out the chances of them making that type of money back on an investment is very small. Let someone else gamble and make the 1% smash hit - gamble small win small.

If they are going to make games from here on out it’ll be either known entities that are sure things or massive gambles like Concord. Thats it - and it’s because it makes 0 financial sense to invest in anything else.

Re: Sony Japan Studio Closed Because AA Market 'Disappeared', Says Shu Yoshida

Ajbr8687

@nessisonett this isn’t a marketing issue it’s an industry wide saturation issue. There are too many releases - too much choice is good for consumers but bad for business.

This year PS5 will pass PS4 in cumulative releases with 5 less years on the market. PlayStation isn’t going to put any money in creating or marketing small releases because it’s not worth it. Why would you market a small game when the ROI is going to be low? Sony isn’t going to waste time and resources on something that has minimal returns when there are more development teams than ever churning out AA quality games.

Pair that with the fact that people don’t want to pay more for games when costs are raising and the majority of playtime is spent in live service - it’s not smart business for Sony to invest in AA games. If they are going to do something it’s either go back to the well and release stuff they KNOW will do well or bet big. All the live service ***** was a result of that.

Re: Talking Point: Has the Market for AA Games on PS5 Really Disappeared?

Ajbr8687

The issue is there are too many games coming out.

According to a quick google search the entire PS3 catalog was around 2,000 total games.

From 2014-2025 there were 3,479 games released for PS4.

From 2020-2025 there has been 3,194 games released for PS5. With all the trash that gets put on the store the average consumer isn’t going to buy smaller titles because of the risk associated with buying really crappy games. Pair that with live service which takes up so much time and you have the answer.

That market is saturated and a large subset of people either don’t buy games at all or just wait until games drop in price substantially and get a better experience anyway because it’s content complete.

It’s not sustainable and seems like every time we’ve seen a studio lay people off a new studio pops up so the problem is getting worse.

Re: Ex-Sony Boss Says Xbox Can Find Multiplatform Software Success, Just Like SEGA

Ajbr8687

@Decimateh-xblz yeah it was insane and had gotten to the point where I was worried every time I turned on the Xbox. After the fourth time I sent it in and when they sent the new one I instantly went to GameStop to exchange it lol

360 was a great platform and I have a lot of nostalgia for that platform because it was during college when I had a lot of time to play games…I just got super unlucky with the hardware.

Re: Shuhei Yoshida Remembers Scariest Moment for Sony, When Nintendo Signed Monster Hunter As a 3DS Exclusive

Ajbr8687

@djlard as much as the games as service idea did fail and slow output - there is no way you don’t have enough to play.

2024 got the following games published by sony. There are also so many games coming out that arnt published by Sony that I have no idea how anyone is looking for things to play

Astrobot
Helldivers
Lego horizon
Rise of ronin
Stellar blade
Until dawn

Re: Outriders Dev People Can Fly Cancels Multiple Projects, Laying Off 120 Staff

Ajbr8687

@LavenderShroud no crash - this is still lingering market correction from massive Covid scale up.

Companies bet that the boom associated with people staying home would continue in post COVID world. With game development taking a long time many held on for as long as they could. The layoffs will continue as the market continues to correct. The unfortunate reality is that the many of the guys at top gambled and lost which is resulting in every day people losing their jobs.

Too many games come out that don’t make any money because people don’t have the bandwidth, refuse to pay full price or because the games just arnt very good (or a
Combo of all three).

Gaming overall is healthy - many developers are not.

Only thing consumers can do is buy full price games from the development teams they like and hope that support compounds to keep money flowing to future development

Re: Fans Appear to Be Coming Around to PS5 Pro

Ajbr8687

@NEStalgia you’re still looking at it from YOUR value proposition.

PC gaming isn’t for everyone. I have a nice rig I use for games that don’t work well on console (4x games mainly)- you are 100% incorrect saying the target audience would be better served on pc.

There is NO question that a console experience is easier. Common specs and plug and play is still way easier. You are someone that obviously understands PC builds…not everyone else does. To a laymen PC specs are daunting and people don’t want to worry about settings and specs.

Some people have $1000s of dollars in PlayStation digital games. Wouldn’t you agree that buying a $700 pro is less expensive than buying a pc and rebuying $1000 of games on steam?

Your argument of the $1200 investment is also flawed. If someone only has a ps5 and they want to have better specs that should drop $1200 for a decent gaming pc? So the options would be $500 +$700 vs $500 + $1200 plus rebuying games.

You’re not educating - you’re explaining YOUR reason. Once again you have no idea anyone’s reasons.

Re: Fans Appear to Be Coming Around to PS5 Pro

Ajbr8687

@NEStalgia dude- some people don’t want a pc. I prefer console gaming because I sit at a computer all day. I have all of my games digitally on PlayStation.

I have a nice computer and a ps5 - I also bought a pro. Why? Because I make good money and want to play games at the best fidelity possible. I have no desire to play on pc for many reasons.

Do you think it was dumb for me to buy?

You have no idea why people bought this…you only know why you DIDNT and expect everyone to have your exact line of thinking.

Re: Fans Appear to Be Coming Around to PS5 Pro

Ajbr8687

Can someone explain to me the discourse from some people in gaming right now?

  • $700 Is too much for an upgrade. Sony is greedy for trying to make a profit.
  • $70 for games is way too expensive!!!
  • $ 10 upgrade for a ps5 version of a ps4 game?? That’s greed!!!
  • anyone that supports this is a “mark” “boot licker” etc

Then…

“Where are all the new games?!?”

“These corporations shouldn’t be laying all these devs off- they are greedy!”

News flash people…Sony and every other corporation in the world is greedy. They are there to make money. If you don’t like it don’t support it. Don’t get on here and give people ***** for spending their own money.

This industry- more than just about any other industry - has been extremely inflation resistant. We are paying less than we were inflation adjusted 10 years ago.

If you expect Sony and other corporations to lose money or survive on ultra thin margins so they can get free stuff - I’d argue you’re greedier than Sony.

Corporations suck. They do ***** that sucks. Stuff above that I mention suck - I’m not personally going to pay $10to upgrade horizon but I’m not gonna get online and complain about it and insult the intelligence of people that do.

You’re free to not support it either but getting on here and insulting people makes you look worse than Sony

Re: Poll: Did You Pre-Order a PS5 Pro?

Ajbr8687

@Dom_31 what a crap comment.

So if someone doesn’t have physical games, wanted a other PlayStation 5 and has plenty of disposable income to make sure they have the best option to play now and in the future then we don’t have much “grey matter”

I’d argue that people that get online and tell people who make good money how to spend it are the ones lacking “grey matter”

Re: PS5 Pro Shows Real Promise in First Expert Analysis

Ajbr8687

If you live outside of the US this comment doesn’t apply to you as I think you are justified in complaining about the price point.

If you live in the US then I have no idea why you’re complaining about $700. People saying they should include stuff in an OPTIONAL upgrade. Sony isn’t going to sell these at a loss. The base PS5 is there for that - they can and should make money on a niche product like this. If you think the price point doesn’t justify the upgrade - great don’t buy it! It’s just like people not wanting to buy a Cadillac and getting a Chevy.

All the sudden everyone is up in arms about a disk drive? 85% of the games sold on the platform are digital. The stand is annoying but it’s only if you want to stand it vertically.

I’ve seen people saying it should be $500 or $600 with a disk drive. You can’t buy a decent computer with the PS5 specs for $500 or $600.

This is the same group of people that complained about $70 price of games…games sales haven’t slowed. The same group of people saying the portal was over priced (sold like hotcakes).

This thing is going to sell out…and if it doesn’t they’ll lower the price and (shock) still have margin built in so they don’t lose their ass on it.

I don’t plan on buying one of these…the people complaining about it are coming off as entitled babies. Companies don’t stay in business on tight margins and losing money on products. It’s how the world works…

Re: The Game Awards Host Geoff Keighley and Parody Site Hard Drive Are Beefing

Ajbr8687

@Sequel they’d lose money on that. That would be corporate suicide. 3 years of premium?? That’s $400 + alone. With all due respect that’s insane.

Also 80%+ game sales are digital now. You may never see a disk drive on a console ever again.

Let the best analyst win? Seems like one of us is in touch with reality the other just wants free stuff.

Re: The Game Awards Host Geoff Keighley and Parody Site Hard Drive Are Beefing

Ajbr8687

@Sequel ok - well I’m an actual business analyst and executive at a large company.

1. PlayStation overall won’t “fail” without your suggestions

2. They priced this thing to make money. It’s not the base model. They are capitalizing on people that are willing to shell out $700 for an upgrade. They’ll manufacture the product and sell quite a bit at $700. They likely worked in plenty of margin in the event that it doesn’t sell well.

Starting at $700 with good margin to test the market is the smart business thing to do. That way they can later drop price to $650 or so and still make margin. If they start at $650 or as many people demand $500 they have nowhere to go and could end up losing a ton on the product.

This isn’t the base model “lose money to make money on software”. They have 0 incentive to not maximize profits on this console.

Re: Feature: PS5 Pro's Been Clowned on By the Entire Internet, and the Memes Will Make You Laugh

Ajbr8687

Would I ever buy a $200 version of a game that has a plastic statue with it? No - but some people do and that’s fine. Same goes for this - if you don’t like it don’t buy it and send a message to PlayStation that way - if you want one buy it and move on.

Those of you arguing online about this thing - take a step back and realize you are arguing and hurling insults over a freaking PlayStation…this life is short and getting angry over someone else’s opinion on a video game console is not worth it.

Remember guys we live in a world where people buy Cadillacs which are basically Chevys under the hood for a ton more money.

PlayStation is putting this out there because they can and it’ll sell fine. They don’t expect this to sell like crazy so they have to charge more for a premium product.

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