I don’t know what Pushsquare has against PSVR2 but when a multiplatform AA studio closes it’s bizarre to pretend that they only developed for the PSVRs.
Also as I’ve noted before Facebook was to VR what MS was to game subscriptions in that they spent literally tens spent tens of billions (they funded big budget games and funded a lot of third party games, most of which were at least temporarily exclusive) trying unsuccessfully to metasize a modest market. Kinda like with subscription gaming while there is a market it is a modest one and clearly even tens of billions in spending can’t change that in the short term.
Facebook slashing spending has hit VR developers very hard because many were budgeting around checks from Facebook rather than the modest VR market.
Notably for Meta, the company also reported Wednesday that it has continued to pour billions of dollars into the metaverse. In the first quarter, the company’s metaverse and virtual reality division, Reality Labs, reported an operating loss of $4.03 billion, even as the company has been laying off employees across multiple rounds in 2026, including a 10% cut to Reality Labs’ roughly 15,000-person workforce. Meta said earlier this month it would lay off 10% of its overall workforce, or about 8,000 employees. The company has lost approximately $80 billion on its Reality Labs since it started breaking out its results in late 2020.
END QUOTE
I don’t think VR is doomed but even moreso than the broader industry it’s going through a very tough spot.
I listened to that podcast when it debuted and figured some of the quotes would fuel online discourse.
Here is another quote from the same podcast which points out third party games drive most PS5 sales (while it was not said in the podcast I believe the same was true of prior PlayStations). Below that is an old observation from me.
But the biggest driver of PlayStation hardware is actually non-exclusive third-party games. Titles like Call of Duty, FIFA and NBA dominate the PlayStation charts. In October 2023, the same month Spider-Man 2 came out, over half of all PS5s sold in the UK were bundled with a copy of FIFA 24.
Exclusives are important on PlayStation, and they’re a key differentiator. But for the majority of PS5 owners, exclusives are not the primary motivating factor behind buying the hardware. By contrast, Nintendo consoles are primarily driven by first-party exclusives.
END QUOTE
Comment from me on exclusivity in the comments section at the link.
By way of contrast Sony recognized that most people just wanted to play good games so playing nice with third parties was the key to success. To be fair that is something MS took even further (through the hard drive, digital distribution and encouraging indies) and even Nintendo took to heart. The past two generations Nintendo has been pretty assiduous in courting third parties though their hardware (a key to their success) has often been a stumbling point for publishers of technically demanding games.
My point is not that first party games don’t matter (of course they do) but that I and most people see them as a piece of the whole library of releases. I get there are multiplatform gamers out there who play most of their games on top of the line PCs but most gamers judge systems by their releases.
I don’t share the disdain many here seem to have towards live service games in general (I has a lot of fun with the first few years of Overwatch) or Sony published live service games in particular (I’m an avid Helldiver who played a lot of Warhawk in its heyday) but Fairgame has always looked terrible and I think the kindest thing Sony could do is kill it. Last but not least didn’t Jade Raymond leave a while ago?!
Good month for the industry. Haven’t messed with the multiplayer dlc and probably never will (H2 is my online game of choice) but Yotei’s campaign is a lot of fun so I’m glad for its continued success.
Cool update. The usual mix of supercars and the sort of vehicle normal people drive in real life. I am a pretty regular player who hasn’t played GT7 in more than a week (shakes fist at Hades 2 and Pragmata) but I am going to jump back in tomorrow.
As an avid Helldiver who owns all the warbonds judging by the trailer this looks solid though not gamechanging.
The bulletstorm (a disposable machine gun from the original game) and the missile firing pistol could be useful (depending on the targeting system) but the exosuits are definitely the standouts. Fire is always very useful in H2 but what interests me most is the suit with the flak cannon and heavy shield. Physical shields are unidirectional but can eat functionally unlimited small arms fire.
Starting on PC as opposed to the Switch (by far the dominant dedicated system in Japan) or the PS5? I’m interested to see what they are working on but I suspect gacha (fine and good but not my thing).
Playing Pragmata and Hades 2. Both are very different games but have great action, lots of enemy variety, some wild bosses and a ton of cool weapons to play with.
Damn fine game. I’m in the third area and there always is a new challenge and a new tool or weapon you can use to deal with it though the game gives you a lot of freedom in that regard.
The community is healthy and the game is profitable/popular so I imagine the addition of paid user generated content which can only be bought using ingame currency will work out well both for EA and some of the creators.
I haven’t played the Sims 4 in a few months but even ignoring the endless packs of DLC (and now UGC) the base game is pretty substantial. Making something more visually impressive isn’t hard, handling all the characters/interactions/reactions/etc is very, very hard, as the makers of Inzoi (still in early access because they are trying to get all that stuff sorted) can attest.
Games are luxuries and any franchise can die but the cozy subgenre is enduringly popular and very few developers seem to be interested in trying to eat The Sim’s cake so based on what’s currently announced I expect it will keep going.
That being said the Saudi government/Trump family is a very odd owner for The Sims and it’s quite possible they will either kill the golden goose because it isn’t laying big enough eggs fast enough (the money used to purchase EA is debt that has been loaded into EA which means they need to quickly increase profits and lower costs) or on a whim because it offends them. Time will tell.
I’m interested in the DLC. Cronos was a really great. The monsters’ ability to absorb their dead and their abilities made fights incredibly, increasingly tense until the last one was dead.
I am ignorant of Street Fighter lore (because I ignore it) and missed the fact the couple were biologically related but it’s insane/hilarious that got through.
I have really enjoyed the prepatch Hades 2 (six hours in) and the patch sounds like it’s adding to (some of) the stuff I like so I’m interested to see it.
Played it for a couple hours today. Gorgeous graphics, beautiful music, a lot of cool powers snd weapons, a wide variety of enemies and clever dialogue.
Thus far I’ve played Roboquest VR (made good progress and almost took down the final boss), Returnal (beat the main game at launch but am trying the tower for the first time and am having to find my feet again but it’s fast paced fun), Gran Turismo 7 (which always seems to punish me for mistakes/impatirnce) Demonschool (a tactical strategy game inspired by Persona though it plays very different) and Helldivers 2 (playing with other randoms who were all very team oriented, we did some serious damage against the cyborgs).
@PuppetMaster Jeanne D’Arc came out on the PSP opposite FFT: The War of the Lions (which boasted a bunch of new content and a much improved localization) and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (which was Hour of Darkness with a good amount of new content though not the massive improvement War of the Lions was).
I played both those games and Jeanne d’Arc and Jeanne was a solid game but certainly the least of the three in terms of the level of depth and the amount of content.
I’m not saying Jeanne was a bad game but like with many of the games you mentioned I don’t think it was underrated or overlooked so much as overshadowed.
As a guy who started on Bethesda games with Elder Scrolls Arena I don’t think Bethesda’s problems can be laid at MS’s feet.
Sure as a condition of funding MS told them to make platform exclusive games but that didn’t fundamentally change Bethesda’s approach to game development. Their games have always effectively shipped in beta. Early fans (like me) who thought accrued experience, development team growth and massive commercial success and would result in more polished games wound up disappointed. That’s just not who Bethesda is as a studio.
The lead developer agrees the game shipped broken. I hope that like some other past games (including No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk 2077) it eventually gets patched to a state where it not only lives up to the developer’s past promises but exceeds them but as of the time of this writing the game is a mess and reviewers should review what’s in front of them not what the developers promise will happen someday.
It’s launch day and Samson is here. We have been having a lot of fun watching folks have fun with the game and we released a game with flaws for a number of reasons. Early impressions are mixed and many of you are experiencing game-breaking bugs and performance issues. That’s unacceptable and we are listening to everyone’s feedback and are hard at work to deliver the game we spent years of our lives developing.
People being offered very limited (‘Drop this cup of coffee and read this one line as the main character speeds past you on a motorcycle’) or background roles predate gaming and are of no interest to the overwhelming majority, but are harmless. The internet working itself into a lather about the contest to be the face of a racer in GT is bizarre but par for the course nowadays.
Reading through posts in the opposition threads is fascinating. A lot of posts along the lines of ‘Damn Sony for killing Bluepoint the only thing stopping me from crushing my dusty PS5 with a sledgehammer was a Bloodborne remake,’, ‘I’m so ugly dogs cross the street when they see me so Sony won’t put a guy like me in their game no matter what I say’ and ‘This is just an elaborate trick to acquire a human to train AI on because humans and images of them are so rare that they must be lured in’.
I watched a few videos of people playing this (seems like it’s already everywhere but the PlayStation) and it looks weird but fun. Very Portal friendly.
One would think not since not only are PS5 prices going in the wrong direction but in the US prices in general are skyrocketing with the encouragement of an increasingly interventionist government. Gaming is a luxury and when times are tight spending drops on luxuries.
Shrugs But that is a very broad take and ‘dropping’ is relative so I’m not sure where the PS5 will end up saleswise. It has a strong library and while GTA5 is my least favorite of the series it’s outsold the rest of the franchise (and most other franchises) combined so GTA6 will certainly be like spinach for Popeye.
Mental illness is a terrible thing. Very funny in this instance though I hope this guy doesn’t do anything vicious to get back at his imaginary enemies.
I’ve tried mobile gaming a few times. Always bounced off of it (not saying it’s bad but it’s not for me) so I can’t get worked up about this though I hope the unemployed land on their feet.
The first two Moss games were fun platformers which like Astrobot on the PSVR1 made clever use of the format.
The last Moss game was a Meta funded PvP focused strategy game which didn’t appear on the PSVR2 and it’s a very safe bet Meta was funding the studio’s cancelled project.
I hope that the impacted developers land on their feet somewhere, though realistically speaking it will probably be somewhere outside the VR or maybe even the game industry.
I don’t see a commercial crash happening again but the industry is overstuffed with talent and while a sizable chunk are making money, most aren’t and many of the big bags of passive money that used to prop up studios (‘‘Don’t worry about costs, hire who you want, take all the time you need and make what you want’) are either lessening or cutting off the flood of money they have directed towards the industry in recent years. So yeah, things look grim for workers.
I decided to work on the side content of Unicorn Overlord I missed (I beat the campaign back when it launched). It’s very different than other squad based strategy games in that victory is all about the pre battle composition and placement of a group and its members vi a vi those of the enemies. Once two groups make contact you can watch battles play out (the graphics are Vanillaware at its best) but skip them entirely.
I also played Helldivers 2 with an acquaintance and a couple randoms. Good, chaotic fun. We completed every mission but didn’t always all extract alive due mostly to enemy effort but also the odd bit of friendly fire.
Ive gotten close to beating Ironguard Salvation (a VR RTS). It is a lot more demanding than its predecessor because combat at all levels (including air, where the player’s drone resides) has gotten much more complex and chaotic due to both sides having many more options this time around.
As I’ve long noted the vast majority of console sales happen after a price cut or three. The fact that for the first time ever post launch prices have gone way up is beyond the industry’s control (AI, tariffs, etc) but has hurt HW sales in the past and no doubt will hurt a lot more on the future.
I hope things will get better over time not just for the game industry but the world bur realistically they will probably get worse in the near term.
Disappointed but not shocked given the state of the world/pace of inflation. Console pricing going opposite its usual direction has kept many out of the current gen and it will clearly continue to do so.
I hope this is false but in recent years I’ve seen prices skyrocket (in the US) and the instability and supply chain disruptions that drive inflation are getting much worse.
@LogicStrikesAgain I agree about the way too many games releasing (over fifty a day on Steam), but I suspect the number of releasing will only go up.
Game development tools are increasingly powerful and often low cost or free to use (payment as a percent of earnings) and there are few rules/gatekeepers.
That is a double edged sword because it allows passion projects made by enthusiasts on the side on their own time (the overwhelming majority of such games live and die quietly no matter their quality) but it also allows AI slop.
Finally! My April dance card is full but as a huge fan of the original who has heard nothing but good about Hades 2 I’m going to pick it up eventually.
The article is pointing out that development is extremely expensive in some of America’s wealthiest, most highly taxed places. The solution is unappetizing but inevitable.
The general pattern in free(ish) markets is that before consumers or owners/investors get hit workers will get hit. What is going to come about over time is more games being developed in places with cheaper labor and fewer scruples about overtime, crunch and what have you. AI will factor in too.
I enjoy Supermassive’s games and I loved The Thing (the old game and the movie) so I’m sure I’ll enjoy 8020. Lots of sci-fi themed games hitting in a short span of time between this, Pragmata and Saros but I’m down for all three.
EVs never seemed practical to me, so I’m unsurprised by this. I remember for a while Tesla (which sold a relative handful of heavily subsidized cars) was worth more than the rest of the American auto industry combined because they were selling electric cars whereas everybody was selling a lot more vehicles at better margins but those vehicles used old fashioned gasoline.
I’m not religious about fossil fuels or opposed to the idea of something cleaner and/or less concentrated in global hotspots replacing it but in the present and the near term EVs aren’t it.
Comments 380
Re: Another Highly Regarded PSVR2 Dev on the Brink After Mass Layoffs
I don’t know what Pushsquare has against PSVR2 but when a multiplatform AA studio closes it’s bizarre to pretend that they only developed for the PSVRs.
Also as I’ve noted before Facebook was to VR what MS was to game subscriptions in that they spent literally tens spent tens of billions (they funded big budget games and funded a lot of third party games, most of which were at least temporarily exclusive) trying unsuccessfully to metasize a modest market. Kinda like with subscription gaming while there is a market it is a modest one and clearly even tens of billions in spending can’t change that in the short term.
Facebook slashing spending has hit VR developers very hard because many were budgeting around checks from Facebook rather than the modest VR market.
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/meta-wants-spend-more-even-081900708.html
Notably for Meta, the company also reported Wednesday that it has continued to pour billions of dollars into the metaverse. In the first quarter, the company’s metaverse and virtual reality division, Reality Labs, reported an operating loss of $4.03 billion, even as the company has been laying off employees across multiple rounds in 2026, including a 10% cut to Reality Labs’ roughly 15,000-person workforce. Meta said earlier this month it would lay off 10% of its overall workforce, or about 8,000 employees. The company has lost approximately $80 billion on its Reality Labs since it started breaking out its results in late 2020.
END QUOTE
I don’t think VR is doomed but even moreso than the broader industry it’s going through a very tough spot.
Re: Gamers Still Pick Consoles for Exclusives, New Data Finds
I listened to that podcast when it debuted and figured some of the quotes would fuel online discourse.
Here is another quote from the same podcast which points out third party games drive most PS5 sales (while it was not said in the podcast I believe the same was true of prior PlayStations). Below that is an old observation from me.
https://www.thegamebusiness.com/p/should-playstation-and-xbox-change
But the biggest driver of PlayStation hardware is actually non-exclusive third-party games. Titles like Call of Duty, FIFA and NBA dominate the PlayStation charts. In October 2023, the same month Spider-Man 2 came out, over half of all PS5s sold in the UK were bundled with a copy of FIFA 24.
Exclusives are important on PlayStation, and they’re a key differentiator. But for the majority of PS5 owners, exclusives are not the primary motivating factor behind buying the hardware. By contrast, Nintendo consoles are primarily driven by first-party exclusives.
END QUOTE
Comment from me on exclusivity in the comments section at the link.
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/03/playstations-disastrous-first-party-leadership-culminates-in-yet-another-studio-closure
By way of contrast Sony recognized that most people just wanted to play good games so playing nice with third parties was the key to success. To be fair that is something MS took even further (through the hard drive, digital distribution and encouraging indies) and even Nintendo took to heart. The past two generations Nintendo has been pretty assiduous in courting third parties though their hardware (a key to their success) has often been a stumbling point for publishers of technically demanding games.
My point is not that first party games don’t matter (of course they do) but that I and most people see them as a piece of the whole library of releases. I get there are multiplatform gamers out there who play most of their games on top of the line PCs but most gamers judge systems by their releases.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 630
I have a lot on my plate this weekend but I got in some Hades 2, Pragmata, GT7 and a bit of Helldivers 2.
Re: PS5 Live Service Fairgames Reportedly Roasted in Recent Pre-Alpha
I don’t share the disdain many here seem to have towards live service games in general (I has a lot of fun with the first few years of Overwatch) or Sony published live service games in particular (I’m an avid Helldiver who played a lot of Warhawk in its heyday) but Fairgame has always looked terrible and I think the kindest thing Sony could do is kill it. Last but not least didn’t Jade Raymond leave a while ago?!
Re: Saros (PS5) - Housemarque at the Peak of Its Powers with Its Best Game Yet
A thorough, well written review which like all the other reviews popping up is telling this longtime Housemarque fan exactly what he hoped to hear.
Thanks to Pragmata and Hades 2 April has been a phenomenal month for games and Saros looks to finish the month strong.
Re: Mar 2026 USA Sales: Pokémon-Powered Switch 2 Finally Beats 5-Year-Old PS5
Good month for the industry. Haven’t messed with the multiplayer dlc and probably never will (H2 is my online game of choice) but Yotei’s campaign is a lot of fun so I’m glad for its continued success.
Re: Free Gran Turismo 7 Update Adds Everything from Supercars to a Twingo
Cool update. The usual mix of supercars and the sort of vehicle normal people drive in real life. I am a pretty regular player who hasn’t played GT7 in more than a week (shakes fist at Hades 2 and Pragmata) but I am going to jump back in tomorrow.
Re: Helldivers 2 Continues Its Brilliant Run of Post-Launch Content with Another Warbond on PS5
As an avid Helldiver who owns all the warbonds judging by the trailer this looks solid though not gamechanging.
The bulletstorm (a disposable machine gun from the original game) and the missile firing pistol could be useful (depending on the targeting system) but the exosuits are definitely the standouts. Fire is always very useful in H2 but what interests me most is the suit with the flak cannon and heavy shield. Physical shields are unidirectional but can eat functionally unlimited small arms fire.
Re: 'I Want to Tell My Own Stories': The Last of Us Star Troy Baker Is Building a Game Studio
I’m not holding my breath. Baker is a wonderful voice actor but making a game is a whole different skill set.
Re: 'IP That Will Captivate the World': A New Juggernaut Has Just Entered Japanese Game Publishing
Starting on PC as opposed to the Switch (by far the dominant dedicated system in Japan) or the PS5? I’m interested to see what they are working on but I suspect gacha (fine and good but not my thing).
Re: PS5 Players Flock to Free Game for Ridiculously Easy Platinum Trophy
I just play games I enjoy and don’t get trophy hunters but as long as they are having fun it’s cool.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 629
Playing Pragmata and Hades 2. Both are very different games but have great action, lots of enemy variety, some wild bosses and a ton of cool weapons to play with.
Re: Pragmata (PS5) - Brilliant Combat Is the Star of Yet Another Capcom PS5 Hit
Damn fine game. I’m in the third area and there always is a new challenge and a new tool or weapon you can use to deal with it though the game gives you a lot of freedom in that regard.
Re: The Sims 4's Controversial Marketplace Arrives on PS4 in Major Update for Console Players
The community is healthy and the game is profitable/popular so I imagine the addition of paid user generated content which can only be bought using ingame currency will work out well both for EA and some of the creators.
I haven’t played the Sims 4 in a few months but even ignoring the endless packs of DLC (and now UGC) the base game is pretty substantial. Making something more visually impressive isn’t hard, handling all the characters/interactions/reactions/etc is very, very hard, as the makers of Inzoi (still in early access because they are trying to get all that stuff sorted) can attest.
Games are luxuries and any franchise can die but the cozy subgenre is enduringly popular and very few developers seem to be interested in trying to eat The Sim’s cake so based on what’s currently announced I expect it will keep going.
That being said the Saudi government/Trump family is a very odd owner for The Sims and it’s quite possible they will either kill the golden goose because it isn’t laying big enough eggs fast enough (the money used to purchase EA is debt that has been loaded into EA which means they need to quickly increase profits and lower costs) or on a whim because it offends them. Time will tell.
Re: More Cronos: The New Dawn Content Incoming, Teaser Suggests
I’m interested in the DLC. Cronos was a really great. The monsters’ ability to absorb their dead and their abilities made fights incredibly, increasingly tense until the last one was dead.
Re: 'He's a Distant Relative of My Mum or Something': Street Fighter 6 Patched to Be Slightly Less Incestuous
I am ignorant of Street Fighter lore (because I ignore it) and missed the fact the couple were biologically related but it’s insane/hilarious that got through.
Re: Hades 2 Gets Game-Changing Free Update Following PS5 Launch, Available to Download Now
I have really enjoyed the prepatch Hades 2 (six hours in) and the patch sounds like it’s adding to (some of) the stuff I like so I’m interested to see it.
Re: Hades 2 (PS5) - Godlike Sequel Is Pure Power Fantasy
Played it for a couple hours today. Gorgeous graphics, beautiful music, a lot of cool powers snd weapons, a wide variety of enemies and clever dialogue.
Re: Hades 2 (PS5) - Godlike Sequel Is Pure Power Fantasy
As a fan of the original this sounds perfect to me.
Re: GTA 6 Dev Confirms Another Data Breach, Hackers Demand Ransom
@GirlVersusGame That was an enlightening but disturbing read.
Re: These 18+ New PS5, PS4 Games Are Coming Out Next Week (13th-19th April)
I preordered Pragmata after the demo and will pick up Hades 2 on day 1. I’ve got an eye on Mouse PI though I’m not sold on it yet.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 628
Thus far I’ve played Roboquest VR (made good progress and almost took down the final boss), Returnal (beat the main game at launch but am trying the tower for the first time and am having to find my feet again but it’s fast paced fun), Gran Turismo 7 (which always seems to punish me for mistakes/impatirnce) Demonschool (a tactical strategy game inspired by Persona though it plays very different) and Helldivers 2 (playing with other randoms who were all very team oriented, we did some serious damage against the cyborgs).
Re: Starfield Has a Serious Crashing Issue on PS5, PS5 Pro
Bethesda never changes.
Re: 'I Saw How It Was Getting Damaged': Ex-Bethesda Exec Goes to Town on Xbox's Mistreatment
@PuppetMaster Jeanne D’Arc came out on the PSP opposite FFT: The War of the Lions (which boasted a bunch of new content and a much improved localization) and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (which was Hour of Darkness with a good amount of new content though not the massive improvement War of the Lions was).
I played both those games and Jeanne d’Arc and Jeanne was a solid game but certainly the least of the three in terms of the level of depth and the amount of content.
I’m not saying Jeanne was a bad game but like with many of the games you mentioned I don’t think it was underrated or overlooked so much as overshadowed.
Re: 'I Saw How It Was Getting Damaged': Ex-Bethesda Exec Goes to Town on Xbox's Mistreatment
As a guy who started on Bethesda games with Elder Scrolls Arena I don’t think Bethesda’s problems can be laid at MS’s feet.
Sure as a condition of funding MS told them to make platform exclusive games but that didn’t fundamentally change Bethesda’s approach to game development. Their games have always effectively shipped in beta. Early fans (like me) who thought accrued experience, development team growth and massive commercial success and would result in more polished games wound up disappointed. That’s just not who Bethesda is as a studio.
Re: Our Hype for Samson on PS5 Crashes as GTA-Like Gets Slammed by Reviews
The lead developer agrees the game shipped broken. I hope that like some other past games (including No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk 2077) it eventually gets patched to a state where it not only lives up to the developer’s past promises but exceeds them but as of the time of this writing the game is a mess and reviewers should review what’s in front of them not what the developers promise will happen someday.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3634520/view/519743485967860542
It’s launch day and Samson is here. We have been having a lot of fun watching folks have fun with the game and we released a game with flaws for a number of reasons. Early impressions are mixed and many of you are experiencing game-breaking bugs and performance issues. That’s unacceptable and we are listening to everyone’s feedback and are hard at work to deliver the game we spent years of our lives developing.
Re: 'Who on Earth Would Want This?': Almost 90% of PS5 Fans Not Interested in New 'Playerbase' Program
People being offered very limited (‘Drop this cup of coffee and read this one line as the main character speeds past you on a motorcycle’) or background roles predate gaming and are of no interest to the overwhelming majority, but are harmless. The internet working itself into a lather about the contest to be the face of a racer in GT is bizarre but par for the course nowadays.
Reading through posts in the opposition threads is fascinating. A lot of posts along the lines of ‘Damn Sony for killing Bluepoint the only thing stopping me from crushing my dusty PS5 with a sledgehammer was a Bloodborne remake,’, ‘I’m so ugly dogs cross the street when they see me so Sony won’t put a guy like me in their game no matter what I say’ and ‘This is just an elaborate trick to acquire a human to train AI on because humans and images of them are so rare that they must be lured in’.
Re: No Man's Sky Becomes Pokémon in Latest Free Game-Changing Update on PS5, PS4
Nice. I really need to jump back into NMS.
Re: Tetris Fans May Want to Check Out This Strategy Puzzle Hybrid When It Comes to PS5 This Month
I watched a few videos of people playing this (seems like it’s already everywhere but the PlayStation) and it looks weird but fun. Very Portal friendly.
Re: Announced Nearly Half a Decade Ago, Quantic Dream's Star Wars Game Reportedly Still 'Years Off'
*Shrugs I enjoyed QD’s past games and I’d like to see their take on Star Wars but I’m not holding my breath.
Re: Poll: Do You Think PS5 Can Outsell PS4 with Its New Price Point?
One would think not since not only are PS5 prices going in the wrong direction but in the US prices in general are skyrocketing with the encouragement of an increasingly interventionist government. Gaming is a luxury and when times are tight spending drops on luxuries.
Shrugs But that is a very broad take and ‘dropping’ is relative so I’m not sure where the PS5 will end up saleswise. It has a strong library and while GTA5 is my least favorite of the series it’s outsold the rest of the franchise (and most other franchises) combined so GTA6 will certainly be like spinach for Popeye.
Re: The Last of Us Multiplayer Was 80% Complete Before Cancellation, Spent 7 Years in Development
I take claims that long in development, cancelled games were ‘almost done’ and ‘everything was going great’ with a grain of salt.
Still I wish the guy luck in his future endeavors and if his next game is PvE I’ll give it a look.
Re: MindsEye Going Off the Deep End with In-Game Mission Revealing 'Evidence' of 'Sabotage'
Mental illness is a terrible thing. Very funny in this instance though I hope this guy doesn’t do anything vicious to get back at his imaginary enemies.
Re: Forgotten PSP Strategy Spin-Off Gets Expanded PS5, PS4 Revival This June
Never tried this spin-off series. That trailer doesn’t convey much info but as a fan of strategy games and R-Type I’ll keep an eye on this.
Re: PlayStation Studios' Mobile Push Seems Dead as Layoff Reports Continue
I’ve tried mobile gaming a few times. Always bounced off of it (not saying it’s bad but it’s not for me) so I can’t get worked up about this though I hope the unemployed land on their feet.
Re: Opinion: Does Starfield Suck? People Keep Telling Me to Skip Its PS5 Release
If a game looks interesting to you why not give it a shot?
Re: As PSVR2 Dies a Slow Death, One of Its Best Devs Confirms Mass Layoffs
@Oprahs_cellulite Have you tried Synapse and/or Roboquest VR?
Re: As PSVR2 Dies a Slow Death, One of Its Best Devs Confirms Mass Layoffs
The first two Moss games were fun platformers which like Astrobot on the PSVR1 made clever use of the format.
The last Moss game was a Meta funded PvP focused strategy game which didn’t appear on the PSVR2 and it’s a very safe bet Meta was funding the studio’s cancelled project.
I hope that the impacted developers land on their feet somewhere, though realistically speaking it will probably be somewhere outside the VR or maybe even the game industry.
Re: Capcom's Promising New PS5 IP Pragmata Ready to Release
Preordered. Loved the gameplay of the demo despite finding the little girl a bit grating.
Re: Almost 40 Years After the Original, Toaplan's Truxton Will Be Revived on PS5
I remember Truxton on the Genesis. Damn tough game.
Re: Iconic Devs Say the Industry Feels 'Crashier' Now Than the Actual Video Game Crash of the 80s
I don’t see a commercial crash happening again but the industry is overstuffed with talent and while a sizable chunk are making money, most aren’t and many of the big bags of passive money that used to prop up studios (‘‘Don’t worry about costs, hire who you want, take all the time you need and make what you want’) are either lessening or cutting off the flood of money they have directed towards the industry in recent years. So yeah, things look grim for workers.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 626
I decided to work on the side content of Unicorn Overlord I missed (I beat the campaign back when it launched). It’s very different than other squad based strategy games in that victory is all about the pre battle composition and placement of a group and its members vi a vi those of the enemies. Once two groups make contact you can watch battles play out (the graphics are Vanillaware at its best) but skip them entirely.
I also played Helldivers 2 with an acquaintance and a couple randoms. Good, chaotic fun. We completed every mission but didn’t always all extract alive due mostly to enemy effort but also the odd bit of friendly fire.
Ive gotten close to beating Ironguard Salvation (a VR RTS). It is a lot more demanding than its predecessor because combat at all levels (including air, where the player’s drone resides) has gotten much more complex and chaotic due to both sides having many more options this time around.
Re: PS5 Pricing Strategy Gives Flexibility for Deals if 'Things Surprisingly Get Better'
As I’ve long noted the vast majority of console sales happen after a price cut or three. The fact that for the first time ever post launch prices have gone way up is beyond the industry’s control (AI, tariffs, etc) but has hurt HW sales in the past and no doubt will hurt a lot more on the future.
I hope things will get better over time not just for the game industry but the world bur realistically they will probably get worse in the near term.
Re: Sony Announces Gigantic PS5 Price Increases, Effective from April 2026
Disappointed but not shocked given the state of the world/pace of inflation. Console pricing going opposite its usual direction has kept many out of the current gen and it will clearly continue to do so.
Re: Rumour: Dramatic PS5 Price Increases Incoming, Potential Announcement Tomorrow
I hope this is false but in recent years I’ve seen prices skyrocket (in the US) and the instability and supply chain disruptions that drive inflation are getting much worse.
Re: 'This Is Unsustainable Madness': Modern Video Game Budgets Are Out of Control
@LogicStrikesAgain I agree about the way too many games releasing (over fifty a day on Steam), but I suspect the number of releasing will only go up.
Game development tools are increasingly powerful and often low cost or free to use (payment as a percent of earnings) and there are few rules/gatekeepers.
That is a double edged sword because it allows passion projects made by enthusiasts on the side on their own time (the overwhelming majority of such games live and die quietly no matter their quality) but it also allows AI slop.
Re: Hades 2 Finally Announced for PS5, and It Arrives in a Matter of Weeks
Finally! My April dance card is full but as a huge fan of the original who has heard nothing but good about Hades 2 I’m going to pick it up eventually.
Re: 'This Is Unsustainable Madness': Modern Video Game Budgets Are Out of Control
The article is pointing out that development is extremely expensive in some of America’s wealthiest, most highly taxed places. The solution is unappetizing but inevitable.
The general pattern in free(ish) markets is that before consumers or owners/investors get hit workers will get hit. What is going to come about over time is more games being developed in places with cheaper labor and fewer scruples about overtime, crunch and what have you. AI will factor in too.
Re: Directive 8020 Promises 'Sharper Visuals' with PS5 Pro's Updated PSSR 2 Upscaler
I enjoy Supermassive’s games and I loved The Thing (the old game and the movie) so I’m sure I’ll enjoy 8020. Lots of sci-fi themed games hitting in a short span of time between this, Pragmata and Saros but I’m down for all three.
Re: Sony and Honda Have Abandoned Their PS5-Integrated Electric Car Afeela
EVs never seemed practical to me, so I’m unsurprised by this. I remember for a while Tesla (which sold a relative handful of heavily subsidized cars) was worth more than the rest of the American auto industry combined because they were selling electric cars whereas everybody was selling a lot more vehicles at better margins but those vehicles used old fashioned gasoline.
I’m not religious about fossil fuels or opposed to the idea of something cleaner and/or less concentrated in global hotspots replacing it but in the present and the near term EVs aren’t it.