@Titntin feel free to enlighten us all with your wisdom...

there's a reason why most studios mass hire multiple years into a project then lay off a large percentage of their workforce very shortly after shipping a game. You don't need any kind of industry insight to understand that basic premise.

@Oram77 I don't think that's the intention. Just eluded to this in my post, doom 4, won't be ready for many years, they don't need the number of staff they needed to finish doom the dark ages when they're at best in the ideas phase, that's going to be a lot of people with no work to do being paid to do nothing. They'll hire when they reach a phase in the development cycle where more people are needed.

Looking at it objectively, they released a game last year, dlc is just coming out, realistically, their next game is minimum 2/3 years away and very likely a few years longer than that. So what are they going to be doing for the next few years that requires a fully staffed and operational studio right now?

Optics of it might not be great but the days of studios employing staff full time and paying them to twiddle their thumbs for a few years until the next project reaches a point where they're needed is long gone. It's a contractual based industry now, you come in only when your expertise is needed, finish your role in the project and you move on to the next one. It's hard to argue against it really when you actually analyse what is happening.

I've used a builder analogy before but it fits well. When building a house, You don't bring in an electrician when the foundations are being laid and you don't keep a brick layer on the payroll when they're furnishing the build.

@Oram77 they're not a support studio, it says they've been reduced to a support studio size.

There's ps+ essential game for June 2027 sorted.

How about going out and buying some disked games, new if you want to protest, why would cancelled ps+ subs have any bearing on a decision to stop manufacturing disks?

Must remember to add cod to the library and never download it. Thanks sony.

For the king 2 the best of a really weak month. At least we've got our annual cod out of the way now along with fifa, just the annual basketball and wrestling games to go and then we might get something worthwhile.

Such a pointless thing to do. You think the people running sonys social media accounts has even an ounce of power to contribute towards these decisions?

Intentions might be good but they're aimed in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile, digital pre orders for gta 6 will almost certainly be off the scale.

This is the one big-ish IP that's surprising they've let go.

@Ninerguy1608 those studios were on the chopping block, the choices were a complete closure where they all lose their jobs, the company ceases to exist and all IP is archived and never touched again, or, this. Its a no brainer which is preferable. It's a win because the first option is arguably an easier and more cost efficient choice

When you say things like that, you just open yourself up to ridicule and nobody taking you seriously.

Letting all those studios continue to exist is a big win. Wonder what if any IP they take with them.

Shame! SHAME!

Pretty sure I did it legit as I remember it being a total pain in the arse at times and i also played it much later so guessing this would have been patched by then. But if there is an exploit fair play to anyone that uses it.

Will say though if you do something difficult legitimately that then becomes signficiantly easier when a exploit is discovered it can be a tad annoying.

Happened to me with blue prince. Was one of the 1st people to platinum it, few weeks later dozens of people were suddenly doing it as somebody had found a game breaking exploit that trivialised a very difficult trophy.

With random smaller games from 10 years ago where the team cannot afford to maintain dead servers or perhps they don't exist anymore, it's at least understandable to close down servers.

However, it is completely unacceptable that the annual sports games from one of the biggest gaming companies going last just 3 years before being unplayable.

Always a poor month when they add cod, all the budget goes on that. Sick of the near annual offerings of cod/fifa/wrestling/nba. If you say we get 1 headliner a month, that's a third of the games that we get almost every year. Give us some bloody variety.

An ever depressing list. Shows you just how insignificant the more hardcore fanbase really is compared to the casuals playing what many here would consider trash.

I played it on release on a base ps4. Had plenty of problems and absolutely should not have released in that state but it wasn't completely broken as is often suggested. It was bad but it was playable. I got through it, platinumed it farly swiftly and then got offered a full refund which i gladly took.

@BusyOlf there is no suggestion the ps store will become the onky place you can purchase games, Argos and the likes will still be able to sell games, and set their own prices, you'll just be buying a download code in a box rather than a disk.

Pre-owned is knackered though unless they do something similar to Nintendo and do something where download codes are reusable but restricted to one active redemption at any one time which i'm sure they will.

Recent announcements haven't altered my opinion in the slightest, I've been all digital since late ps3, I haven't even got a disk drive for my ps5 so that doesn't effect me, price tags floating around is naturally off putting but I was already put off by anything over half that figure, so whether it's 800, 1000 or 1200. It doesnt really chance my thoughts.

My stance has always been based on the simple fact that the ps5 is not outdated. Games aren't struggling on the system, there is no new big leap forward on the horizon, they won't stop simultameously releasing games on ps5 for at least half a decade once ps6 releases so what's the incentive?

Why is it poorly timed? I'd say it's the exact opposite, i'd even suggest it might be deliberate. With everybody's outrage, there's a chance for everybody to buy physical and support the format. They won't though.

This is going to be one of those things where the outrage and the petition signatures will far exceed the number of actual physical sales made.

Rather than signing a petition, go buy a physical game instead of a digital one, the only reason sony are doing this is because not enough people are buying physical in the first place.

Wonder how many people signing petitions have also already prr-ordered gta 6 digitally.

Didn't the same analysts claim it would be no later than 2027 not long ago? Clearly know nothing.

I think it'll be closer to the end of the decade. Just no need, and no appetite from the masses for a new console any time soon.

Not really a surprise, whatever they post, there would be nothing but justifiably angry comments and also a worryingly large number of
Completely unhinged comments. Pointless posting anything, plus, it's not the social media team running the accounts responsible for those decisions.

Every time Sony add a big name title, the rest suffer as clearly the budget has gone on the headliner. Happens with ps+ extra every time they bring gta/red dead back for the 27th time and happens every time we get the annual cod/fifa. It's fine if the headlines game is good and carries the month, but when the headline game is easily the worst game of the month, it becomes a pretty dire month. This is one of those months.

Making me wait until the end of the month for blades of fire means i'm not short of something to play l.

I've been digital only since the latter ps3 days so it doesn't bother me at all. But there are still a significant portion that prefer hard copies for whatever reason and it should be catered to. If it's a cost issue then charge more to cover the costs and give people the option.

Seems like very weird messaging to be closing digital storefronts at the same time they are saying the next console will be entirely digital. Essentially saying you'll never have guaranteed access to anything in the future.

My guess is this is a security thing rather than a cost cutting exercise. I'd rather they stayed open but it is what it is, the real anger will come if/when they deny access to download previously purchased games.

@Thelegend159 that was my assumption which is why it could potentially be more costly to cancel it than to see it through. There has got to be something there given how long it's been worked on.

We've seen absolutely nothing of Blade, it's been way too long seeing literally nothing for it to be going well. Seems inevitable they'll cut their loses unless they the marvel license prevents it somehow. A new dishonored should have been greenlit

The single game i wanted to play this month is typically the last game available. Hopefully they abandon this experiment quickly but expect it will be here to stay sadly. My engagement has been exactly the same as it was with a 1 day drop, It was just delayed by 2 weeks and did nothing but minorly annoy me.

back when Xbox was relevant, state of decay was genuinely the only xbox exclusive I was ever even slightly interested in and hoped to see on ps5. My interest in the franchise has since wained somewhat but i'd still be interested in following it's progress, be a shame if it doesn't continue to exist.

They're not going to tell investors raising prices is a bad move. The entire thing is about promoting the brand, strengthening the brand and presenting a positive future. If they even hinted at caution with regards to price hikes, it would be the last thing they did for the company.

They would have to be crazy not to chase it, it's the golden goose, but they'd be stupid to do so at the expense of their tried and tested 1st party single player core which given the list of released, unreleased and cancelled liver service games from typical single player studios, they undoubtedly have been. The two things need to exist independently, do not have your tent pole studios chasing the live service jackpot.

400 people with nothing to do, let's say an average salary of £50k, that's £20m a year down the drain retaining staff that have nothing to do. Lay offs are really the only thing that makes sense.

No surprise. Nobody in this age is paying dozens of employees to sit around and wait for something to do regardless of whether the studio is in trouble or not. If you're a foreman in construction, building houses and you've brought in an electrician as one project nears competition, you're not keeping him on when you move on to thr next project and are laying foundations. Game industry is contractual game by game work now, the community will catch up to this one day and stop making news from lay offs.

This is awful news. Microsoft can do it because they've got nothing to lose, nobody is buying their console and Microsoft doesn't need Xbox to do well to sruvive,it can eat any loss without a seconds thought. What this does though is give everybody else, particularly Sony, carte blanche to raise the prices themselves, they're not going to have a superior product on the market that is noticeably cheaper than would be competitors. Another price hike off the bck of this will be around the corner.

This is all just conditioning. They keep mentioning the fabled 1000 price tag and then when they release at a little under that, the majority have been conditioned to think it's a bargain despite it still being an extortinate price.

Weird tone in this article. Why would pointless cosmetic garbage for what will be a single player game at launch be something we would all "want to own"? I couldn't be less interested in buying that kind of stuff.

You could offer me all that stuff for free and I still wouldn't bother downloading it if I had to spend more than 30 seconds redeeming it all.

Fair play to them for sticking to their guns. Would be easy for them to set aside policy for this. Hopefully they see a positive response from their customers for doing this.

That's a lot of pointless guff for a not inconsiderable amount of money. Always baffles me who pays for this stuff and more interestingly, why.

Moved it from a particularly busy period to typically the busiest period of the year in recent years. Makes zero sense.

I've finally made it mum!

I could name half a dozen to a dozen noticeable disadvantages to this, racking my brains for any advantages for Sony.

Only thing I can offer is perhaps they think those that subscribe on a monthly basis may renew for a second month when they wouldn't otherwise have done if they've got two games them wanted to play at either end of the month. But even then, that's an incredibly niche scenario and if you were smart about it you'd just wait until the latter game is out before subbing.

I don't see how it increases engagement either, i'm still going to engage the exact same amount, it's just forcing the engagement to be spread out

@themightyant without question they won't give a monkeys about complaints.

My query would be how they measure engagement. From my perspective, i'll engage with it the exact same amount, it's just forcing me into engaging at specific periods rather than giving me more freedom. That hinders my experience and i don't see how that in any way benefits them.

Already deeply disliking this new split release method, blades of fire is the only one this month I want to play. Had a near perfect alignment in finishing the last game I was playing when it would have released under the old schedule, started something smaller to tidy me over but looks like i'll finish that in a day or two too. anything else i'm considering playing are much bigger games and I typically only play 1 game at a time.

Then there's the fact that July's essential games will be due a week after. They had a really nice consistent schedule of essential games, 2 weeks later extra/premium, 2 weeks later essential, now they've convoluted it for no reason. Hopefully this trial is deemed a failure at whatever they're trialing and they go back to the old window.

@Timorteus "quite a few enthusiasts" isn't close to the level they'd need. The vast majority would be priced out at that figure. There will be zero console exclusives for many years meaning it won't offer anything the ps5 doesn't so why would anybody on a tight budget consider it? As for the console coming down in price eventually, there is nothing to back that up anymore given the ps5 has repeatedly gone up and shows no signs of coming down.

And the fact that ot simply isn't required. Nobody is even close to pushing the capabilities of the ps5 nevermind the pro and games are taking 5/6 years to make now, makes sense that the generations should also last longer. Ps1 was churning out games within 12 months, devs could get entire trilogies or more out in one generation. Plenty of life left in the ps5.

What price GtA 6 is isn't the interesting part, It's who follows suit if there is an expected price hike. Everybody will try and charge the same despite undoubtedly offering less, it'll be upto the gamers to not lie down and take it as the new norm. We've seen u-turns on price hikes before due to backlash. This is what the publishers have been waiting for, needs to be an even stronger resistance than last time.

Personally haven't purchased a game on release this decade and doubt that will change with this. I pay less than the reported price for this one game than I do for an annual ps+ premium subscription and i always have something to play. No interest in the online part, the single player i'm interested in but given Sonys obsession with repeatedly bringing Rockstar games to ps+ I'm sure i'll play it eventually.

Played it when it came to ps+ thought it was really good and doesn't deserve the criticism it got. The worst thing about it is a fairly bland story. Gameplay was really solid, nicely paced, good length. It's a great 7/10 game (in a positive sense. Not in the newly redefined sense of a 7/10 effectively being a 3/10)

What about ps3? Easy to forget this game released on the ps3!

Meh. Maintain gta is dated gameplay wise. Gta 5 was dated when that released and I don't see a drastic change happening for 6. It will obviously be the biggest game in history and be wildly successful but still think the single player game will be a let down and online is what they will understandably put all their efforts into.

Shouldn't be promoting Schreier, he's a stain on the industry, we don't get surprises anymore because of people like him making a living off leaking information that shouldn't be theirs to reveal.