End of 2027 is a long way away, it doesn’t seem that preposterous. That being said, wouldn’t be surprised if they’re targeting Fall 2027 and it ends up getting pushed to 2028.
But dang there is so much pessimism around KH, someone has to have some optimism!
I think this is the right call for Xbox, but it’s going to take a lot more than picking and choosing a few games here and there to remain exclusive if if they’re going to undo the damage done from the “This an Xbox” era and flirting with becoming a full blown third party publisher. One foot in isn’t going to cut it.
The heights you can reach with live service are obviously great, but these are expensive bets to make with a very low probability of success. Sony has the unique position of being able to sit back and rake in 30% of the winners’ takes. I’d argue they don’t need to chase this trend, can reasonably say it’s too hard, too competitive and not in their specialty. Instead focus on what you’re good at and have an enormous advantage over your competition, which is bringing in and keeping players in your ecosystem, and take in the 30% from whoever is able to run into a live service hit.
Lol didn’t Epic just have a major layoff and say Fortnite is losing money? It has triple the amount of players as anything else.
While player count doesn’t necessarily equal revenue, you have to figure there’s a strong correlation. Either Epic was insanely wasteful and incompetent with how they’ve been spending their money or there’s a serious problem with the live service model.
Dang surprised by the negativity around Returnal. I thought it was awesome, probably my favorite game of the gen so far. Gave me that rare feeling of just wanting to play the game whenever I wasn’t.
Haven’t gotten Saros yet just because I basically never buy games at launch. Always wait for the best version of the game and get it for cheaper. But I will almost certainly pick this one up over the holidays.
Would be so excited if this was Origins. Legends was great too, but as everyone is pointing out it’s already available and really doesn’t need a remake. Origins is stuck on PS3 and massively under appreciated imo.
Hot take - I think it’s the best 2d platformer of all time. Would love a port/remake to see if it’s as good as I remember it. Absolutely loved it back on PS3.
Yes but this is not a new phenomenon. People have talked smack about games they haven’t played for many years, instead using something they heard from somewhere else as fact.
File this under believe it when I see it. Just logically, it doesn’t make sense to me. Phil just got replaced, and I’m pretty sure he was one of the biggest supporters of keeping games exclusive. So even if the new head is big on exclusivity, that still nets out as no change. It doesn’t seem like the people who pushed for multi platform are gone, so there would have to be a reversal of opinion from some high ranking execs. Or maybe they just listen to the new Xbox head more lol. Neither is impossible, but I‘ll remain skeptical until there’s more evidence.
If not even Fortnite can be profitable in the current market conditions, it seems like some combination of these things is true:
A. Modern AAA game development is too expensive and broken. B. The live service model is dying. C. Management at Epic has been incompetent and ridiculously wasteful with their spending funds from the ultimate gaming cash cow. Like a trust fund kid inheriting a fortune and blowing it all before turning 30.
I see a lot of parallels with PS Vita. A small but dedicated fanbase that is very happy with it. Not enough to keep a steady stream of AAA type games, but I think you’ll see it supported for a weirdly long time by smaller/indie teams.
I largely agree with everything said, but I think it should be mentioned Bluepoint needs to take its share of the blame. They were for sure guided by higher up pushing for live service titles, but at the end of the day Bluepoint was the one who decided to make the GoW game we’re all trashing as a bad idea. They could’ve prevented their own demise by sticking to their niche (see Asobi for an example proving they likely didn’t NEED to go this route).
But yes, PS studios has been and continues to deteriorate under Hulst and it’s hard to think they shouldn’t make a change.
Literally only watched the game awards trailer, but I thought it looked kind of fun. I really don’t play competitive shooters, but if I did play one… well it’d probably be Marvel Rivals. But this might be my second choice!
Had it on in the background, was the first time I’ve ever actually watched rather than scan through trailers. Thought it was good! Though light on massive announcements, there was lots of interesting stuff to keep an eye on. My only real criticism was the lack of a big finale. One big reveal to cap it off and it would have been great!
Side note, I like the awards aspect. It’s a fun way to look back and celebrate the past year and interesting to see some of the creators.
I’m not understanding the hype. Isn’t this just a mini PC? So just a Valve branded version of something that exists, is a pretty crowded space, and at least based on specs isn’t doing anything to stand out?
Hot take: None of this sounds all that egregious. Maybe/probably they’re pushing AI too hard but these seem like reasonable use cases (if used intelligently).
Coding? Yeah that’s definitely something I’d think AI could help with. Sounds like at least some teams aren’t using it intelligently and causing viable complaints, but the idea of using AI to aid coding makes sense to me.
Compiling reports? Seems like a textbook example of something AI is usually good at. Just check it and don’t assume everything is perfect
Asking for advice on getting a new job? Sure, why not? Seems completely harmless to me.
Training courses? No, not training to help employees improve their skills and learn new tools! (not to mention learn how to use AI properly and prevent some of these earlier complaints). Seriously, offering courses being viewed as a bad thing seems insane.
I think it’s kind of weird when people get caught up on “sad dad” PlayStation. By my count, there are a total of 3 games from 2 franchises that fit that description - TLOU (only 1), God of War and Ragnarok. You could definitely fit a fourth here if you count “sad mom” but it’s somewhat of a spoiler so I won’t specifically mention it but most people I assume know what I’m talking about. So they’ve used “sad mom/dad” 3 times for 4 games over 12 years now. Doesn’t seem like too big of a deal to me, especially when those 3 storylines are very different and really just have that one common thread.
It is funny though that they turned Kratos into Joel. But it’s just something amusing to poke fun at.
There is an event coming. It’s probably a State of Play like always, but it might not be. It’s probably end of September like they’ve been doing, but it might not be. It might feature these games, but it might not.
Wow thanks for your valuable insight Jeff. Way to go out on a limb with some bold reporting. I never listen to this guy outside of when he shows up in articles like this, but it really seems like he just likes to hear himself talk. What an “I want to say stuff but I don’t want to be called out if I’m wrong” analysis.
I knew Helldivers 2 did great, but 3rd place on the year?! If someone at this time last year predicted that Helldivers would outsell the annual sports juggernauts (Madden, EA FC and NBA 2K) they would've sounded ridiculous. What an accomplishment by Arrowhead!
Empty threats. The bad behavior they're talking about is best left simply ignored (don't give them any attention, it's all they want) or it crosses a line that could be punished under laws that already exist.
@Bionic-Spencer I've generally felt this way most months this past year or so, but there's nothing on this list that was on my radar. It's so subjective, but this month the games added are a net positive over the ones leaving to me.
I've been banging that drum that Plus has been slipping (after a really strong period, to be fair), but this month they get a pass from me.
Now the only question is what were the expectations from Sony. It doesn't usually feel like a huge deal if a game does decent vs good vs great, but this one really feels like a referendum on sub-AAA/lighter games and could have a substantial impact on what gets greenlit moving forward.
I have no idea what would warrant a success in Sony's eyes for this, so should be interesting to hear!
Just finished playing Jedi Survivor and loved it. Maybe some recency bias, but it's one of my favorite games this generation. Feel like it's pretty underated, which is probably mostly due to the performance issues at launch. But general pessimism around Star Wars may also play a role.
That could also be factoring in here to push the scores down a bit more.
I thought the new movie was awful, didn't do anything well except for that cat. So I'm pretty done with this franchise. It was a cool gimmick at first but I've had enough.
Do we have any idea if this is the rumored HZD remake? It is a remake of the first game, but obviously very different from what we thought when the rumors popped up.
I'm convinced his strategy going into interviews is basically "just say whatever makes you sound like a good, pro-gamer guy and we'll figure out how to contort whatever I say to make sense later."
So if it's "simple as that", I guess the directors of the other (at least timed) exclusives said "nah screw the Playsation gamers, let's keep our game exclusive."
I don't really think a studio providing help to another studio while their next project is being figured out is a bad thing. This sounds entirely normal and healthy.
It's an optimistic pie in the sky type prediction, but I think there's a chance this gets shadow dropped during the showcase. There was an early year sizzle reel trailer from Playstation that seemed to show games off in release order which seemingly placed Concord around this time. Don't remember the exact details and it could've been at the end with just TBA 2024 games or been delayed since, but there's some reason to believe it could happen.
This is a strong candidate to shadow drop/get an "available now" announcement during the showcase. I believe there was some sizzle reel type trailer from the start of the year that seemed to show the games off in release order that would've placed Concord around June. It's all lining up.
If you're really worried about data and privacy, it's extremely easy to just make up information when you make the account. I'm pretty sure they just ask for some very basic info, it's not like they require you to put in your SSN or credit card info. Who cares if they have have a fake birthday for a fake name in a random state?
This doesn't seem like a big deal to me. The Season Pass is really just bundling future DLC; typically at a discounted rate to incentive purchasing it up front, but it's unclear if that's true here. If you're confident you want all the DLC, it makes a lot of sense to buy it. I happily bought the Season Pass for Spider-Man for this reason.
Then there's the bonus mission, which I get being annoyed about but don't really agree it's a problem either. In all likelihood, it's a small bit of filler content you won't miss at all if you don't have it. I guess I just don't have a problem with Day One DLC, as long as the main game still feels complete without it. If that content feels essential though, different story.
Seems like he's going to be the "bad guy" who's going to run a tight operation, make some tough calls and get the ship back in order (financially at least). Once the financials are straightened out, the path will be clear for a "nice guy" to come in and lead the way with a clean state. Heard this theory a while back and think it makes a lot of sense.
@Keyblade-Dan Pretty much my thoughts. They may be right, but it just rubs me the wrong way when someone else does something that annoys gamers and CDPR has to come out with a big "we would never..." statement. They did this pretty frequently before Cyberpunk and it annoyed me then, now after their own disaster it feels extra wrong.
He's of course being deliberately dumb, but just to point it out for anyone that actually thinks he believes this: The point is to get people to buy your console so you can get the 30% rip on all the other software. Helldivers 2 could make more money if it were on Xbox/Switch, but it's offset by getting/keeping people in your ecosystem and taking 30% of all the other games they'll buy. So who does it help? Sony, by using it to entice people into the ecosystem.
Not the least surprised they said nothing. Glad I didn't watch. If you read between the lines though (as you tend to have to do with Xbox), this is just the start where some (most? all?) software eventually goes multiplat.
I kind of hate articles like this. Kotick certainly sounds like he had problems and a lot of criticism is fair, but some of this strikes me as sour grapes and wanting to pile on and join the mob.
Kotick made COD worse? Seems like he did something right, as he oversaw its rise and hold at the top of the industry for almost 20 years. Not to say he never made a bad choice, but I think COD has overall been managed quite well.
Kotick didn't do enough to help the Overwatch 2 team prepare for review bombing? Bad games get panned, no changing that. Make a better game to prevent the bombing in the first place (which also falls on him, just saying this is weird criticsm).
The man did some ***** things, but let's be fair with the criticism. He had an insanely successful run leading Activsion. That wasn't all luck and he deserves credit for the incredible success the company had during his tenure.
I'm sure this has been asked before, but why doesn't Circana release numbers (either units or dollars)? If they have rankings, surely they must have have the numerical data to back it up. Are they not allowed? It would be so much more interesting to see the numbers. Of course Call of Duty was 1st, that's not surprising or interesting at all. But how did its performance compare with past iterations?
That's just one example that had me thinking about it, but these updates would be substantially more interesting with the data backing up the ranks.
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Re: Kingdom Hearts 4 PS5 Release Date Hopium Hits New High
End of 2027 is a long way away, it doesn’t seem that preposterous. That being said, wouldn’t be surprised if they’re targeting Fall 2027 and it ends up getting pushed to 2028.
But dang there is so much pessimism around KH, someone has to have some optimism!
Re: 'These Are Not Timed Exclusives': Xbox Says Gears of War, Clockwork Revolution Are Never Coming to PS5
I think this is the right call for Xbox, but it’s going to take a lot more than picking and choosing a few games here and there to remain exclusive if if they’re going to undo the damage done from the “This an Xbox” era and flirting with becoming a full blown third party publisher. One foot in isn’t going to cut it.
Re: God of War Laufey Is Much Closer to Releasing on PS5 Than You Think
I’m already exhausted by the discourse of “if you’re not excited by this you hate women lead games.”
Re: Rumour: Rayman PS5 Remake to Feature Astro Bot, Will Be Revealed at State of Play
Way to bury the lead guys, the real news is the Origins remake!
Re: PS5's New Weekly Player Tracker Has Revealed Some Brutal Truths for Fans
The heights you can reach with live service are obviously great, but these are expensive bets to make with a very low probability of success. Sony has the unique position of being able to sit back and rake in 30% of the winners’ takes. I’d argue they don’t need to chase this trend, can reasonably say it’s too hard, too competitive and not in their specialty. Instead focus on what you’re good at and have an enormous advantage over your competition, which is bringing in and keeping players in your ecosystem, and take in the 30% from whoever is able to run into a live service hit.
Re: PS5 Will Reveal the Most Played Games with Steam-Like Player Numbers
Lol didn’t Epic just have a major layoff and say Fortnite is losing money? It has triple the amount of players as anything else.
While player count doesn’t necessarily equal revenue, you have to figure there’s a strong correlation. Either Epic was insanely wasteful and incompetent with how they’ve been spending their money or there’s a serious problem with the live service model.
Re: Saros PS5 Sales Estimates at 300k, Selling Slower Than Returnal on a Bigger Install Base
Dang surprised by the negativity around Returnal. I thought it was awesome, probably my favorite game of the gen so far. Gave me that rare feeling of just wanting to play the game whenever I wasn’t.
Haven’t gotten Saros yet just because I basically never buy games at launch. Always wait for the best version of the game and get it for cheaper. But I will almost certainly pick this one up over the holidays.
Re: Rumour: Rayman Legends Remake May Be Announced This Summer
Would be so excited if this was Origins. Legends was great too, but as everyone is pointing out it’s already available and really doesn’t need a remake. Origins is stuck on PS3 and massively under appreciated imo.
Hot take - I think it’s the best 2d platformer of all time. Would love a port/remake to see if it’s as good as I remember it. Absolutely loved it back on PS3.
Re: Fallout Co-Creator Thinks Gamers Are Letting Influencers Tell Them What to Think
Yes but this is not a new phenomenon. People have talked smack about games they haven’t played for many years, instead using something they heard from somewhere else as fact.
Re: USA Bank Wants You to Pay $80 for GTA 6 So Other Devs Can Charge More Too
If you need someone else to charge $80 first to justify charging $80 for your game, you probably shouldn’t charge $80 for your game.
Re: Rumour: Xbox Debating Whether to Make Its Games Exclusive Again
File this under believe it when I see it. Just logically, it doesn’t make sense to me. Phil just got replaced, and I’m pretty sure he was one of the biggest supporters of keeping games exclusive. So even if the new head is big on exclusivity, that still nets out as no change. It doesn’t seem like the people who pushed for multi platform are gone, so there would have to be a reversal of opinion from some high ranking execs. Or maybe they just listen to the new Xbox head more lol. Neither is impossible, but I‘ll remain skeptical until there’s more evidence.
Re: Rumour: Call of Duty's $300 Million Xbox Game Pass Gambit Could End
Just want to point out, the math probably does work out, it just requires a MUCH larger subscriber count than where it’s at.
Re: 'We're Spending Significantly More than We're Making': Fortnite Publisher Epic Games Lays Off Over 1,000 Staff
If not even Fortnite can be profitable in the current market conditions, it seems like some combination of these things is true:
A. Modern AAA game development is too expensive and broken.
B. The live service model is dying.
C. Management at Epic has been incompetent and ridiculously wasteful with their spending funds from the ultimate gaming cash cow. Like a trust fund kid inheriting a fortune and blowing it all before turning 30.
Re: Video: Silence as PSVR2 Turns Three Years Old - Is Sony's PS5 Headset Dead?
I see a lot of parallels with PS Vita. A small but dedicated fanbase that is very happy with it. Not enough to keep a steady stream of AAA type games, but I think you’ll see it supported for a weirdly long time by smaller/indie teams.
Re: Opinion: Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
I largely agree with everything said, but I think it should be mentioned Bluepoint needs to take its share of the blame. They were for sure guided by higher up pushing for live service titles, but at the end of the day Bluepoint was the one who decided to make the GoW game we’re all trashing as a bad idea. They could’ve prevented their own demise by sticking to their niche (see Asobi for an example proving they likely didn’t NEED to go this route).
But yes, PS studios has been and continues to deteriorate under Hulst and it’s hard to think they shouldn’t make a change.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Highguard?
Literally only watched the game awards trailer, but I thought it looked kind of fun. I really don’t play competitive shooters, but if I did play one… well it’d probably be Marvel Rivals. But this might be my second choice!
Re: Amazon's God of War TV Series Casts Its Kratos, Story Setup Revealed
“Well he’s not 8’ tall so it won’t work and the show is doomed.”
-Colin Moriarty (probably)
Re: PS Plus Essential Games for January 2026 Announced
Played NFS Unbound a little when it was on Plus before, all I remember is it had some of the most painfully bad dialogue I’ve ever heard lol.
Re: Poll: How Would You Rate The Game Awards 2025?
Had it on in the background, was the first time I’ve ever actually watched rather than scan through trailers. Thought it was good! Though light on massive announcements, there was lots of interesting stuff to keep an eye on. My only real criticism was the lack of a big finale. One big reveal to cap it off and it would have been great!
Side note, I like the awards aspect. It’s a fun way to look back and celebrate the past year and interesting to see some of the creators.
Re: Ubisoft Is All In on Generative AI, Says It's as Big a Leap in Tech as the 'Shift to 3D'
The shift to 3d? That was like 30 years ago lol.
Re: Poll: Does the Steam Machine Pose a Threat to PS5?
I’m not understanding the hype. Isn’t this just a mini PC? So just a Valve branded version of something that exists, is a pretty crowded space, and at least based on specs isn’t doing anything to stand out?
Re: EA's Game Development Is Very Quickly Becoming an AI-Driven Hellscape, Report Claims
Hot take: None of this sounds all that egregious. Maybe/probably they’re pushing AI too hard but these seem like reasonable use cases (if used intelligently).
Coding? Yeah that’s definitely something I’d think AI could help with. Sounds like at least some teams aren’t using it intelligently and causing viable complaints, but the idea of using AI to aid coding makes sense to me.
Compiling reports? Seems like a textbook example of something AI is usually good at. Just check it and don’t assume everything is perfect
Asking for advice on getting a new job? Sure, why not? Seems completely harmless to me.
Training courses? No, not training to help employees improve their skills and learn new tools! (not to mention learn how to use AI properly and prevent some of these earlier complaints). Seriously, offering courses being viewed as a bad thing seems insane.
Re: Talking Point: Are You Getting Sick of Sony's Supposedly 'Samey' Approach to Story Telling?
I think it’s kind of weird when people get caught up on “sad dad” PlayStation. By my count, there are a total of 3 games from 2 franchises that fit that description - TLOU (only 1), God of War and Ragnarok. You could definitely fit a fourth here if you count “sad mom” but it’s somewhat of a spoiler so I won’t specifically mention it but most people I assume know what I’m talking about. So they’ve used “sad mom/dad” 3 times for 4 games over 12 years now. Doesn’t seem like too big of a deal to me, especially when those 3 storylines are very different and really just have that one common thread.
It is funny though that they turned Kratos into Joel. But it’s just something amusing to poke fun at.
Re: 'Maybe a PS Showcase, Probably a State of Play': Sony Plotting PS5 Livestream for Late September
What kind of “insider” analysis is this?
There is an event coming. It’s probably a State of Play like always, but it might not be. It’s probably end of September like they’ve been doing, but it might not be. It might feature these games, but it might not.
Wow thanks for your valuable insight Jeff. Way to go out on a limb with some bold reporting. I never listen to this guy outside of when he shows up in articles like this, but it really seems like he just likes to hear himself talk. What an “I want to say stuff but I don’t want to be called out if I’m wrong” analysis.
Re: Dec 2024 USA Sales: PS5 Best-Selling System of the Year, PS Portal Best-Selling Accessory
I knew Helldivers 2 did great, but 3rd place on the year?! If someone at this time last year predicted that Helldivers would outsell the annual sports juggernauts (Madden, EA FC and NBA 2K) they would've sounded ridiculous. What an accomplishment by Arrowhead!
Re: Square Enix Vows to Deny Toxic Fans Its Wonderful Games, Services
Empty threats. The bad behavior they're talking about is best left simply ignored (don't give them any attention, it's all they want) or it crosses a line that could be punished under laws that already exist.
Re: 11 Games Are Leaving PS Plus Extra, Premium Next Month
@Bionic-Spencer I've generally felt this way most months this past year or so, but there's nothing on this list that was on my radar. It's so subjective, but this month the games added are a net positive over the ones leaving to me.
I've been banging that drum that Plus has been slipping (after a really strong period, to be fair), but this month they get a pass from me.
Re: Poll: Will You Be Watching The Game Awards 2024?
I'm not going to watch, but I do actually enjoy the awards aspect. I think it's a fun way to look back and celebrate the year that was.
Re: Concord Cost Sony Over $200 Million, And Didn't Make a Single Cent
@get2sammyb Not just the biggest flop in gaming history, but as far as I can tell it's the biggest flop in all of entertainment.
Re: PS5's Astro Bot the USA's Second Best-Selling Game in Its First Week
Now the only question is what were the expectations from Sony. It doesn't usually feel like a huge deal if a game does decent vs good vs great, but this one really feels like a referendum on sub-AAA/lighter games and could have a substantial impact on what gets greenlit moving forward.
I have no idea what would warrant a success in Sony's eyes for this, so should be interesting to hear!
Re: Star Wars Outlaws Director a 'Little Disappointed' with Critical Reception
Just finished playing Jedi Survivor and loved it. Maybe some recency bias, but it's one of my favorite games this generation. Feel like it's pretty underated, which is probably mostly due to the performance issues at launch. But general pessimism around Star Wars may also play a role.
That could also be factoring in here to push the scores down a bit more.
Re: Don't Speak During 10 Minutes of Tense A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead Gameplay
I thought the new movie was awful, didn't do anything well except for that cat. So I'm pretty done with this franchise. It was a cool gimmick at first but I've had enough.
Re: Preview: LEGO Horizon Adventures Is an Unexpected But Very Pleasant Surprise
Do we have any idea if this is the rumored HZD remake? It is a remake of the first game, but obviously very different from what we thought when the rumors popped up.
Re: LEGO Horizon Adventures Is on Nintendo Switch Because It's a Game 'For Everyone'
So is this the rumored HZD remake? Or is that something else?
Re: Xbox Really Wasn't Happy with PlayStation's Call of Duty Marketing Deal
I'm convinced his strategy going into interviews is basically "just say whatever makes you sound like a good, pro-gamer guy and we'll figure out how to contort whatever I say to make sense later."
Re: Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Says DOOM Franchise Is Something That 'Everyone Deserves to Play'
So if it's "simple as that", I guess the directors of the other (at least timed) exclusives said "nah screw the Playsation gamers, let's keep our game exclusive."
Re: Rumour: Kingdom Hearts 4 May Be Trapped in the Darkness Until 2026
"...more information on the future of the series will be unveiled at a later date."
Well good to know the plan isn't to let the series fade into oblivion.
Re: Batman: Arkham Dev Allegedly Enlisted to Work on Hogwarts Legacy After Suicide Squad Flop
I don't really think a studio providing help to another studio while their next project is being figured out is a bad thing. This sounds entirely normal and healthy.
Re: Rumour: We'll Finally Get More Details on PS5 Exclusive Concord in the Next Two Weeks
It's an optimistic pie in the sky type prediction, but I think there's a chance this gets shadow dropped during the showcase. There was an early year sizzle reel trailer from Playstation that seemed to show games off in release order which seemingly placed Concord around this time. Don't remember the exact details and it could've been at the end with just TBA 2024 games or been delayed since, but there's some reason to believe it could happen.
Re: PS5, PC Live Service Concord Will Launch in 2024
This is a strong candidate to shadow drop/get an "available now" announcement during the showcase. I believe there was some sizzle reel type trailer from the start of the year that seemed to show the games off in release order that would've placed Concord around June. It's all lining up.
Re: Helldivers 2 PC Is Getting Review Bombed Over PSN Requirement
If you're really worried about data and privacy, it's extremely easy to just make up information when you make the account. I'm pretty sure they just ask for some very basic info, it's not like they require you to put in your SSN or credit card info. Who cares if they have have a fake birthday for a fake name in a random state?
Re: Ubisoft Responds to Star Wars Outlaws Exclusive Jabba the Hutt Boondoggle
This doesn't seem like a big deal to me. The Season Pass is really just bundling future DLC; typically at a discounted rate to incentive purchasing it up front, but it's unclear if that's true here. If you're confident you want all the DLC, it makes a lot of sense to buy it. I happily bought the Season Pass for Spider-Man for this reason.
Then there's the bonus mission, which I get being annoyed about but don't really agree it's a problem either. In all likelihood, it's a small bit of filler content you won't miss at all if you don't have it. I guess I just don't have a problem with Day One DLC, as long as the main game still feels complete without it. If that content feels essential though, different story.
Re: New PlayStation CEO Hiroki Totoki Starts Temporary Role Today
Seems like he's going to be the "bad guy" who's going to run a tight operation, make some tough calls and get the ship back in order (financially at least). Once the financials are straightened out, the path will be clear for a "nice guy" to come in and lead the way with a clean state. Heard this theory a while back and think it makes a lot of sense.
Re: Microtransactions Don't Belong in a Single Player Game, Says The Witcher Dev
@Keyblade-Dan
Pretty much my thoughts. They may be right, but it just rubs me the wrong way when someone else does something that annoys gamers and CDPR has to come out with a big "we would never..." statement. They did this pretty frequently before Cyberpunk and it annoyed me then, now after their own disaster it feels extra wrong.
Re: Xbox's 'Everywhere' Future Outlined in Company Memo from Phil Spencer
I got absolutely nothing out of that. Nobody can say so much with so little substance like Phil Spencer.
Re: Rumour: Xbox Has Considered Microsoft Flight Simulator, Gears of War, and DOOM for PS5
There's clearly an internal struggle at Microsoft about what to do about exclusivity. Going to be fun to watch!
Re: Microsoft Exec on Helldivers 2: I'm Not Sure Who It Helps By Not Being on Xbox
He's of course being deliberately dumb, but just to point it out for anyone that actually thinks he believes this: The point is to get people to buy your console so you can get the 30% rip on all the other software. Helldivers 2 could make more money if it were on Xbox/Switch, but it's offset by getting/keeping people in your ecosystem and taking 30% of all the other games they'll buy. So who does it help? Sony, by using it to entice people into the ecosystem.
Re: Xbox Is Bringing Four Exclusives to PS5, But It Won't Say Which
Not the least surprised they said nothing. Glad I didn't watch. If you read between the lines though (as you tend to have to do with Xbox), this is just the start where some (most? all?) software eventually goes multiplat.
Re: Former Call of Duty Dev Says Decisions Made by Bobby Kotick 'Made Our Games Worse'
I kind of hate articles like this. Kotick certainly sounds like he had problems and a lot of criticism is fair, but some of this strikes me as sour grapes and wanting to pile on and join the mob.
Kotick made COD worse? Seems like he did something right, as he oversaw its rise and hold at the top of the industry for almost 20 years. Not to say he never made a bad choice, but I think COD has overall been managed quite well.
Kotick didn't do enough to help the Overwatch 2 team prepare for review bombing? Bad games get panned, no changing that. Make a better game to prevent the bombing in the first place (which also falls on him, just saying this is weird criticsm).
The man did some ***** things, but let's be fair with the criticism. He had an insanely successful run leading Activsion. That wasn't all luck and he deserves credit for the incredible success the company had during his tenure.
Re: November 2023 Circana: PS5 Is Still in First, Call of Duty Sells Best
I'm sure this has been asked before, but why doesn't Circana release numbers (either units or dollars)? If they have rankings, surely they must have have the numerical data to back it up. Are they not allowed? It would be so much more interesting to see the numbers. Of course Call of Duty was 1st, that's not surprising or interesting at all. But how did its performance compare with past iterations?
That's just one example that had me thinking about it, but these updates would be substantially more interesting with the data backing up the ranks.