Art_Vandelay

As a PSVR2 enthusiast, I'm disappointed but I get the decision. Sony clearly wants to make Astrobot its next mascot, and limiting the next game's audience to VR would just not cut it.

Regarding a Rescue Mission port, people seem to miss a key point. That game is designed around a feature that PSVR2 doesn't have: gamepad tracking.

Yes, they could compromise and either rely on the DualSense gyros or remake the whole thing to use the VR Sense controllers. But both of these options are half measures that don't seem to be up to Team Asobi's standards.

And btw, those same standards were the reason a hybrid was discarded as an option, as they alluded to.

At least one of those 10 million was solely because of PSVR2 support.

I'm really glad that Sony has finally started to put PSVR2 games on PS+. I was a little disappointed that they restricted it to Premium, but it's understandable. VR is for enthusiasts, and so is Premium. And the VR games also add to this tier's value, which has been a little iffy.

Kayak is the perfect Plus title, and it seems the VR game addition may become a regular thing. I was about to downgrade from Extra to Essential, but ended up going the opposite way and now they have me by the balls.

Yeah, the diversity is great and all, but the real reason Sony is tapping into those markets is simply because labor cost is way cheaper. Which is totally fine, but let's not pretend.

The PS5 APU's frame buffer is probably capable of pushing 8K, but the truth is that the feature never really caught on. So why bother implementing it on the firmware?

It's a simple market thing and a curiosity at best, but nothing to see here.

@EnragedGibbon I actually agree. It's great that Push Square is one of the few traditional vg media outlets that has consistently covered VR, but there are definitely a few standout titles that have been missed.

@NEStalgia Three wires: USB-A, DisplayPort and power.

The power provided by USB ports on PC vary widely between setups, and PSVR2 was never designed to work on that. So, having power coming from an outlet was the most reliable and compatible way to design this thing.

Funny how this adapter totally gives me PSVR1 breakout box vibes. Full circle, I guess.

This one seems to be following on the footsteps of Suicide Squad...

+1 this is easily the most exciting game from the show.

I've been playing Synapse over the last few days, and it clearly highlights how much of a difference there is between watching gameplay on a 2D screen and playing it in VR. I remember seeing it on a previous State of Play and thinking "this looks fine". But as soon as you do the Jedi thing in the game for the first time, it's like "holy fff***, this is AMAZING!".

Maybe my brain is already doing the translation, but I'm looking at this Behemoth trailer and actually thinking "wow", so...

@NEStalgia My exact thoughts about Polyphony. I'm not sure about what "evolving" means, and I kinda don't like the sound of it. Because the last term that would define that studio is "multi-genre".

But maybe that is just a generic/wildcard category, as GT has single player, multiplayer and even live service components.

This story and overall conversation around the topic just go to show how the number one thing missing on the internet discourse is nuance.

No, the gaming industry is not desperately struggling. And no, it's not living through its most prosperous years either.

The most common mistake people do in financial investments is making decisions based solely on historic data. And this article makes that exact mistake. Sure, the last paragraph sort of mitigates that error, but not sufficiently.

The truth is the future does look a little bleak, and the industry needs to course correct. And in fact, this is already underway, but we've only seen the early beginnings.

I'm hopeful that there will finally be a proper push for PSVR2:

• $100 off the headset.
• 4 games included in the Premium PS+ tier.
• PC adapter just approved by regulators in Korea.

Now, the icing on the cake would be the announcement that the new Astro game would be fully playable in VR. At this point it's fair to assume it will be a hybrid, but still...

I've been playing Synapse over the last few days and, man! When a VR game hits, it's something truly special. It's such a shame that Sony hasn't fully committed to the platform. But hey, maybe it was Jim Ryan's fault all along. It kinda feels like Sony has suddenly woken up to PSVR2. Better late than never?

@themightyant Well, we can already moan that it's just a State of Play and not a proper Showcase, as was previously rumored.

@LordAinsley The fact that I don't know if you're being sarcastic or careful when referring to the pandemic as "a certain global event" is a pretty good indication that the skeptics have been right all along.

And yes, separating the art from the artist can be liberating. The Witness was a bit much for me, but Braid is right up there with Journey in the pantheon of the GOAT non-AAA titles.

I'm not a big indie guy, and I feel I've done my share of 2D platformers during the 8 and 16-bit era. But man oh man, is this game something special. It took me completely by surprise when it originally came to PlayStation, and I still occasionally think about it to this very day.

@LordAinsley Why?

To me, he's a beacon of reason in a sea of lunacy.

Yeah, there is no major catastrophe in sight, but the future does look very challenging for Sony.

Hardware production costs are not falling at the pace that they did in previous generations. That means it is very unlikely that the PS5 will sell nearly as well as the PS4 at the end of the generation.

At the same time, software production costs have increased dramatically.

Now, the PC expansion strategy may be a saving grace in the short to mid-term, but it obviously has an impact on the console's appeal, further contributing to poorer sales in the long term.

And last but not least, the upcoming generation is just not as into consoles as previous generations. Kids love their phones and tablets and Roblox and so on. At that age, I was glued to my sweet Master System controller.

@Godot25 In sum, the PS5 is slightly less successful than the massively successful PS4.

Here's the irony: remember the "spend Sony out of business" quote? Well, now they'll think twice before executing on that intention, since they largely depend on PlayStation to sell their own titles.

The "flew too close to the sun" saying will never get old in this context.

@MidnightDragonDX Exactly. I guess those morons flew a little too close to the sun.

At this point, it is mind boggling that Phill Spencer is still running this ***** show. He made all the wrong bets, from Game Pass to the ABK deal. How come Satya is still buying his excuses?

I know it's kind of implied in the article, but I feel it should be made clearer: the problem is not lack of growth per se. It's lack of growth at a point where the subscribers base is much lower than it needs to be for the service to be profitable.

Game Pass is stuck at thirty something million users, whereas it must get to the hundreds of millions to become the money-making machine Microsoft envisioned.

Now, they're really between a rock and a hard place, especially after the ABK deal.

"Lock everything down, we'll deal with the economy later" - 2020.

Later is here.

This is the typical strategy of announcing something controversial, letting it fester for a while and then backtracking, only to propose it again down the road when people have acclimated to the new reality.

Not that this was Sony's original intention, but the backtracking will be valid for Helldivers 2 alone. Future games will definitely require the PSN login.

This is very similar to how Microsoft is conducting their multiplatform strategy: leak that Halo, Gears and Forza are coming to PlayStation, let the uproar take over the internet and then say "no no no, only these four". Yeah, right.

@LiamOliver Yep, PSVR2 support for RE4 came out last December. If you have the game, just download the free VR DLC. If you don't, it's 50% off right now. 😉

BTW, I should add that yes, as far as PSVR2 is concerned, nothing comes close to GT7, specially with a good racing rig. Proper next-gen stuff.

@thepaulcutts Exactly. That is, by far, the main reason.

I think gaming media is still in denial regarding how brutal the industry crash has been, and I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg.

@LiamOliver Have you tried the following?

• Resident Evil 8 and 4.
• Tetris Effect
• Synapse
• Red Matter 1 and 2
• Moss 1 and 2

All excellent games.

@Kanji-Tatsumi They can claim credit for these games in a financial sense, but most definitely not in a creative one.

And that's what I hate about Microsoft. It's a soulless money making machine.

Look, I'll be the last one to parade the anti-capitalist mumbo-jumbo. Companies exist to turn a profit first and foremost, but that just can't be your only reason to exist. Cause that ends up reflecting on your products, apart from the few exceptions that just happen to prove the rule.

@UltimateOtaku91 Just look a little further away...

"Wait, Satya... thought we had agreed on 'just these four'" lol

@MrBook Couldn't have said it better.

@MrBook Yeah, and it should also be factored in that some outlets gave the game lower scores because of predictable criticisms like "scantily clad heroine" and "obvious sexualization".

Now granted, other outlets may have given higher scores exactly because of that.

@NEStalgia You're right, this seems to be the path. But I don't like it one bit. The PCfication of consoles has pretty much ended the days of exotic, sexy hardware designed specifically for the living room. Those were the days.

Now, we get the same bloated general computing device that is unoptimized for games. Which then calls for similarly bloated APIs and SDKs, not to mention general purpose game engines that seem powerful from a feature set point-of-view, but result in games that often look and run worse than the previous generation.

I know, old man yelling at the clouds here. But that doesn't make my opinion wrong. The market does dictate reality, which in turn doesn't make it good.

The bubble has burst. Tough times ahead. Brace yourselves.

It won't be a catastrophe, or course, but the correction has begun and anyone who doesn't see it yet is in denial.

Blaming the "loss of jobs" on the employer is just empty virtue signaling. If the market is healthy, a job lost equals at least another job created.

In the case of Embracer, they were obviously to blame, but not on job losses per se. The real losers here were the investors, but that is a really unpopular opinion even though it's a cold hard fact.

@Shepherd_Tallon Right, and I believe Valve will try to get back to that Steam Machines well, too. So, we should have Valve and Microsoft competing in the consolized PC space, while Sony and Nintendo compete in the more traditional console business model for the foreseeable future.

I personally hope that the old model prevails, but the industry has kinda been moving towards this PCfied games machine for years now, unfortunately.

"many indie devs have come to rely on these deals to finance their projects"

This was a strategic mistake that borders on stupidity. Look, anything that seems too good to be true usually just is. Game Pass has always been an obviously unsustainable proposition from the start, as I (and many others) have been trumpeting for years.

Now, the inevitable future has arrived and those who believed in fairy tales are suffering the consequences for being so naive. I hope they learn from their mistakes, but I'm not holding my breath.

@Luigia Well, the latest Forza was developed exclusively for the current gen and look how that turned out: not all that special. In fact, one would argue it is worse than GT7 in pretty much every aspect, including graphics and simulation. And Turn 10 is no slouch.

People need to grasp with the new reality, where console generations are completely blurred. Not only because hardware is not advancing as fast as it once did, but also because software has become way too complex.

"he didn’t meet a 'single person' at the show that understood the point of Sony’s mid-gen upgrade"

What did he expect when asking developers what they thought about this new thing that will make their work harder?

@silverspeed Are you progressing through the Cafe Menus? It masterfully addresses the lack of structure usually found in racing games. Now granted, you gotta love cars to thoroughly enjoy it. But if you are a petrol head like me, it's car porn at its finest.

@Mikey856 Yes, it keeps on selling as new people get their PS5s and PSVR2s. The movie, which I thoroughly enjoyed, must have helped, as well. No wonder it's the bestselling PlayStation franchise of all time. Polyphony really are masters of their craft, and their commitment is laudable.

GT7 on PSVR2 is hands down the best gaming experience of this generation, especially when combined with a good racing rig.

1) Hire based on merit and merit alone.
2) Be obsessive about improving efficiency company-wide. Rinse and repeat. Then again.
3) Manage expectations. Games cannot continue to get bigger with each new release.

Not a popular formula, but people need to understand that corporations are not job programs and exist to make money. So either they do make money, or their products eventually cease to exist.

@AverageGamer I agree, but I'm afraid iVRy (the creator of the unofficial PSVR PC driver) doesn't. Just saw his tweet saying Sony's solution will probably involve streaming.

And note the wording in the blog post: "the ability for PS VR2 players to access additional games on PC". I think the verbiage here does imply indirect play. And the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that streaming will be it, since Sony has been investing in this tech for years.

@AverageGamer What further complicates things, is the variability of USB implementations on PC. The fixed-platform nature of consoles is a big advantage here.

One path would be for Sony to offer some sort of bespoke adapter to separate the video signal. Or maybe we're wildly misinterpreting how this whole thing is going to work, and the solution would involve some kind of streaming from PC to PS5.

@AverageGamer "Type C does not have enough bandwidth to support the high native resolution of the Quest 3."

I think you're spot on, which makes me wonder how exactly PSVR2 will work on PC if it's also wired through a USB-C connection. Will it be hindered by the same constraints?

What about the Sense controllers? Is their input data actually processed by the headset's chipset or will the PC have strict Bluetooth requirements? Is it even Bluetooth?

What about software? Will PSVR2 connect to SteamVR or is the PlayStation PC launcher finally coming out? And if so, will games need to be ported over? Maybe that would explain the weird "additional games" wording in the announcement?

@SirRealDeal "It could be a Steam app on Playstation."

I'm afraid it's not that easy. Besides the app, any game running within it would have to be ported to PSVR2. Which, in turn, would defeat the purpose of the app in the first place.

Sure, another route would be to have a translation layer akin Steam Deck's Proton. But that is a much, much more complex task that would involve millions of investments and years of R&D. Not impossible, but very unlikely.

@MrMagic Just ignore the guy. Apparently, he won't rest until eeeveryone else hates PSVR2.

Wanderer is surely looking like it could turn out to be a top 5 contender.

@SirRealDeal Exactly. But people just looove to complain, ya know..

With that said, a sequel would be awesome. Now, rumors of a new Astro game have been circulating, but I don't think it's a VR exclusive. Maybe a hybrid (fingers crossed)?

People need to be realistic. The industry is in a tough position right now, with investments being subject to an unprecedented level of scrutiny both internally and from shareholders. Hence, it's unrealistic to think Sony will mobilize a first-party team to develop an exclusive to a platform with about a million install base. So, they're actually being smart by funding smaller teams to develop or port a diverse range of titles.