Bluemoon2008

The numbers mean very little. The idea they offer definitive proof is ridiculous.

They could offer up an extremely short, very old title thats already been on ps+ in some form and is available for peanuts that happens to have a very high metacritic score. that high score doesn't mean in critcisms for it being extremely short, very old and a repeat title arent all valid. If they followed up that month with a game thats a meaty length, 6 months old, never been on the service and is still full price but it has a metacritic rating slightly below the previous offering, does that make the following month worse? Because the data would say so...

For the record, I dont think essential is getting worse. I think November is the weakest month of the year but overall it's been a very strong year. Unlike this article and way of thinking, which is very backwards.

I think its actually the worst month of the year, by some distance.

Stray has been on ps+ extra but its also a small, short indie title, it's not a headline worthy title at all. I also happen to think its a distinctly average game.

WRC is too niche to be on here imo much like all the other sports titles and racing games we get. It might be the best rally game ever made but unless you're into racing games, you'll probably never even try it.

T.A.B.S I have no interest in myself but I think thats fine as the third offering.

I dont play multiplayer games anymore, I sub to ps+ for the games and make use of the cloud saving. Buying a game and not having access to all its features without also paying for a subscription is farcical but there are running costs that need to be covered, we won't just get something for free.

if they drop the ps+ requirement, you'll probably see games jump in price ro compensate instead so I'm perfectly fine with them covering costs through a required ps+ sub.

They're very generous with their definition of "cult favourites" never heard of 'em.

It's the equivalent of £1.66 a month for premium, 1 title a month is more than justified for that price. If they start bringing more titles per month, regularly, it will have to be reflected in the price.

Inevitable it will be on ps+ relatively soon. At least if they're still patching and fixing it, it might not be a broken mess when they give it to us.

Crap month. Stray is not a bad game but it is not headline offering and we shouldnt be getting it anyway after its prior appearance on extra.

Is this them coming up with a false number to make it seem like a better offer or are they actually charging that much for practically nothing? Scandalous pricing.

Im a fan of a difficult trophy list, that just feels tedious more than anything. No platinum in today's world is wild

@Dyomun well not really because you cannot subscribe to extra or premium without paying for essential as well. Your point would only be valid if there was the option of subscribing to extra for just the extra catalogue and not essential too.

so when they double dip on offering the same games to different tiers, those of us subscribed long term to multiple tiers are getting access to something we've all already had.

Its a ***** practice that penalises those who invest the most money into the services. Its the same flawed practice as when companies give special deals to new customers only and existing customers get shafted.

Very disappointing, can only hope it isnt the headliner. Nothing I dislike more than them double dipping on tiers. Effectively punishes people who subscribe to multiple tiers long term.

No multiplayer is the correct call imo. Putting money and time into something that people will play for the novelty for a few days then ditch for something modern isn't worthwhile. Not convinced about the remake aspect, seems like they've gone to a fair bit of trouble but haven't gone full modern remake, for me you either do the bare minimum or go the whole hog and give it a complete modern remake.

Doesn't really matter either way though, it's the novelty of a Halo game on Playstation that will ensure it sells millions regardless.

@MrPeanutbutterz with the majority of games, you're only getting a platinum trophy if you actively try to get it. It's rare you'll ever get one naturally so near enough everybody getting them had aimed to do so.

The only example i have off hand and i think i'm right in saying toy story 2 got trophy support after its addition to premium. 5.7% of players have the platinum for that game according to playstation. That may look like a low number but thats 5.7% of the entire user base finding substantial, extra Bvalue in the game from something incredibly simple and virtually free to implement. Why wouldn't you want that extra engagement for such a small amount of work?

@Almost_Ghostly just because you don't care about them, It doesnt mean nobody does. A lot of people value trophy support. games that have been patched with trophies later on have seen significant upturn in engagement afterwards.

Surely there has to be plenty of data available to them by now that tell them trophy support adds significantly more engagement to these classics and should be mandatory on release for them all. Tekken 3 was one of the first games I had for ps1, i'll revisit it for the nostalgia but i'll do so once they've patched in trophies.

Happy with what is there. Unhappy with how much is there. Extra content gets smaller by the month. The days of getting over a dozen titles on that tier have long gone

Game is superb as are gambit and desperados 3. Such a shame they wont be making more.

Good month for me but as I said earlier with the partial leak, the number of titles is unacceptable, 8 in total across the 2 tiers when we used to get double that is crap. Should be a minimum of a dozen across both tiers, don't need to be all bangers either.

Not a fan of them re-adding titles, especially when there is so few, does nothing but hinder the people that have been subscribed long term.

Silent hill 2 and v rising makes it a good month for me.

Do hope there is more though, the constant dwindling of numbers each month has had very little coverage. compared to what we was getting around the time of the ps+ rebranding, we currently get about half the number of titles per month.

hopefully there is at least another 4 titles in extra, even if they're poor, filler titles, that number cannot continue to drop

Just awful management I'm afraid. Firstly, It apparently released as a very bare bones and unfinished experience, suicide for a live service game looking to build a strong, persistent number of users. The vast majority of gamers don't give a game a second chance if it ***** up the launch, 1st inpressions have to grip otherwise its curtains. Should have delayed until they're ready to put out something competent.

Also, if they launched into both ps+ and gamepass, taking big money in the process and are still racking up big losses, they've made huge financial errors. That money should be covering dev costs as a minimum.

I used to love battlefield, I'd play it relentlessly every release for months, i even really liked yhe much maligned Hardline but I'm just so far removed from online multi-player games now that this release and hearing that it's looking really good, doesnt even muster a seconds thought about playing it.

As sure as night follows day, it will be on ps+ at some point, battlefield is as safe a bet as the annual sports titles, that is the only scenario where I can imagine even contemplating giving it a shot.

We don't need a ps6 anytime soon. Nobody is pushing the limits of the ps5, a lot of games still run on ps4, the advancements in technology hasn't warranted a new system, plenty of 1st party studios havent even released a single native game on the system yet. Why would you want to bring in a new system in this economy that's not going to be very profitable? Does Sony really want you buying a multiple hundreds of pounds console with at best marginal profits and then having no money to purchase software? They'll probably be better served having you spent that money on their 1st party games for the existing console. Competition has all but ceased to exist now, Xbox arent a concern and Nintendo have just released their new console thats worse than sonys current so what's the rush? Milk the current console for all it's worth before moving on. Could easily have ps5 as most modern console into 2030.

Doesnt surprise me one bit. Casual gamers who literally only play a couple of games, have always been by far the majority anyway. Then add in f2p games, the rise of a subscription model service that makes far better financial sense and a global economic crisis leaving more people with less expendable income and those figures make perfect sense.

I play not literally, but as good as, daily, since the pandemic half a decade ago I've bought precisely 3 games, all on release, I've platinumed well in excess of 100 games in that time frame, probably closer to double actually. all the other games have come from ps+ via one of the tiers. I've near enough always got something i have an interest in playing waiting for me so why bother paying more money for anything else?

Did cocoon last night. Nice little gamr, short and easy but in a way that makes you feel smart for instantly knowing what to do. Going to muck around with goat simulator 3 now, perfect for the mood im in where I don't feel like getting into anything heavy with Alan wake 2 waiting afterwards when im ready to get into it. Great month.

That's a very quick addition. There are other, older, less celebrated 3rd party exclusives they have yet to bring to the service that you'd expect to come first so this is a big surprise but a very welcomed one

Wise decision not to do that. You'll lose a lot of potential sales making something require co-op.

Will have zero impact on Playstation regardless. Those that remain attached to Xbox will either buy the new one should it exist or they'll sign up for a console-less version of xbox however that may exist like gamepass. Those that aren't ingrained into the Xbox ecosystem have probably already shifted at least partly to playstation/nintento/pc.

All those fools that continually compared gamepass to ps+ with their constant cries of "where's our day 1 games" are going to be a bit quiet for the forseeable. $360 a year is an obscene fee. I pay £65 for a years worth of ps+ premium.

Sony were spot on sticking to their sustainable and affordable model. The only danger is their own greed sensing an opportunity to squeeze more money out of us.

What a blast from the past. I remember this guy from i want to say gametrailers?

He was basically just somebody who would make predictions, get them all wrong and everybody would laugh at how little he gets right. (it was almost impressive how much he got wrong, just the law of averages should have seen him get far more right)

I'm surprised the guy is still alive mebermind peddling the same nonsense. Where's he been all this time? Send him back.

Here is an idea they can have for free, make a game that people want to buy.

I did genuinely laugh at thr idea of needing to replace a battery. Like the controller wont have completely fallen apart long before that ever becomes an issue. I look after my controllers, I think my launch ps3 controller worked right up until i retired the ps3, only needed a couple of ps4 controllers throughout that entire lifespan yet the ps5 controller can't survive a year without substantial stick drift essentially making it useless.

Alan wake 2 is a great offering. Not typically into that genre but played Alan wake 1 through plus and loved it so looking forward to playing the sequel.

Never played the original goat simulator but to be fair it looks like a decent game, something lighthearted to just switch off and play inbetween bigger games that maybe take more effort to play.

Then finally cocoon looks like a decent little puzzler too. Looks fairly short which makes for perfect palate cleansers after a longer game.

I reckon this will be the first month in a long time where i'll play every game offered on essential so I'm more than happy with this month.

All that would happen is the new owners change nationality. Current leadership are just as bad as the worst case scenario from this happening.

I cannot fathom how the people pitching this have the jobs they do. The optics are genuinely atrocious, it's like they are intentionally trying to tank the brand. Despite the fact i have zero marketing experience, if i'm in a room where this is being pitched, I'm immediately questioning how this comes across. There's numerous ways of offering the exact same product but pitching it differently so that it actually feels enticing rather than a piss take.

@RagnarLothbrok 2-3 years I'd say. Going to depend on how quickly sales stagnate. The longer it sells well, the longer the wait. Spiderman 2 is almost 2 years old now and we are yet to see that on subscription services so expect that timeframe as a minimum.

@Shinnok789 remaking demon souls for ps6

Said in the predictions post the ps+ announcement will be the best thing of the show and Alan wake 2 does not disappoint.

My query with this is what happens when you get accustomed to the intentionally bad controls? Once you get to grips with walking, is it just then the same thing until you're done. How does it maintain the challenge for 20 hours if the challenge is just grasping the controls?

Surgeon simulator had a similar premise of impossibly hard controls but once you slowly started to get used to it, they upped the ante with gimmicks to make it even harder and after that, the challenge was maintained with the challenges within each level and things like medals and time trials to get. What is baby steps version of that to keep it interesting?

Love housemarque and i have no doubt Saros will be great which is why i dont need to see it.

The most anticipated thing for me is the potential to hear about the new ps+ games, they tend to announce the upcoming additions during these now and they also tend to make them much better than usual for these announcements.

The reward is getting the opportunity to pay them for egregiously overpriced tat. Wow, thanks sony. Generosity knows no bounds.

Will there be some kind of waiting list in place? I'd hate to get stuck in a giant queue to purchase this...

As long as it is fair, I'm all for the return of tough games. Too many games now hold your hand for the fear of people dropping titles they find difficult and not finishing them or they make things difficult through egregious means where it just feels unfair and heavily weighted against you rather than an actual challenge.

This is good to hear in my eyes.

Party like its 2020 baby.

Slimy response. They're dead to rights purely on the fact they seeked the Horizon license. Maybe they find a legal loophole to save themselves some money but we all know how creatively bankrupt they are. Maybe use some of the money used fighting lawsuits to have people come up with at least semi-original ideas.

Should be fixed by time it comes to subscription services which is when i'll play it.

Release day purchasers are essentially paying to beta test the game nowadays.

I would anticpate this list to expand before the end of the month. Games tend to get listed for removal a month before the update, with the calender the way it is, we have a longer period between the next update so I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more games added to that list shortly.

Episodic releases should have died out a long time ago. Horrible model.

The concept for this is class but originally I thought it was going to primary be some kind of strategy/management game, hearing its more linear narrative game and those management parts are more just to push the narrative forward is extremely disappointing for me.

Did it? Not exactly similar games. Sure some people who may have been interested and in the market for a new release might have opted for silksong instead but thats a small number and if your game is good enough there is no reason those people couldn't rekindle interest later.

You cannot bemoan competition. Will always come across as incredibly bitter and just looks like you don't have as much confidence in your own game as you'd expect.

@Fishmasterflex96

They got Hades for a year because it was a new, unknown IP. Hades 2 is the sequel to a game of the year, getting exclusivity on that will be dramatically more expensive than the original.

It's not even a case of whether they can afford it, it's whether it makes financial sense. And it simply doesn't. Switch 2 and Playstation 5 arent really direct rivals, the benefits of having it off other consoles for a limited time is rather minimal so why bother paying for pro-longed timed exclusivity?

F.I.S.T was very good. Well worth a play.

Not a chance its a year exclusive. Too big of a title now for that. Maybe 6 months tops if they feel thats a better release window than Christmas.

Expecting Hades on PS+ soon, to tie in with the sequel, surprised it hasn't been on yet.

I've slated this month's offering earlier on but one thing I do not understand is thr constant demand for multiple premium titles every month. If you buy a years sub at full price its £20 difference for the year or £1.66 a month. Even if you ignore all other benefits on premium and you get 1 game per month it's still easily worth it if you're interested in playing older titles, you only need to play 2/3 premium titles a year to have gotten the value from it. Those that are expecting a barrage of titles every month are just expecting far too much for what you pay.