DaveSimonH

I really like HZD (see avatar), both the story and gameplay, but was less warm on the sequel.

Had its moments and in many ways improved on the original, but the new robots were more bullet/arrow sponges and I think there were too many types of arrows (requiring a lot of juggling between bows). Also where they went with the story seemed a bit out of left field.

Still interested in a 3rd game though, but if its only to be released on PS6 that would be a shame.

Handy to have serial number available by the system settings.

I did a information request via my Sony account, when the UK Online Safety Act came into effect.
I made my PSN account back in '08, so I wasn't sure if I'd maybe changed my birthday to same year but 1st of Jan etc., which I often do with online accounts. So in case I had to verify, retroactively, my 17yr old PSN account I thought I'd do an info request.

A few days later I got email with a xlsx spreadsheet file, which included all my account details, purchases etc.
My birthday was the correct date, but they also included my PS4 & PS3 serial numbers (though curiously Vita was not mentioned). Useful info as I'm on my 3rd PS3, handy to have on file the serials of all three PS3 systems, including the one I originally created my PSN account.

Why would that matter you ask? Well I've read that people trying to recover their "hacked" PSN accounts, are sometimes asked for the serial number of the console used to create the PSN account. I still have my old broken consoles (x2), but I think it's more likely most people will have thrown out, or sold their broken systems years ago.

So I'd say it's worth doing, just in case. To access the data request, log into your PSN/Sony account management via the Sony site and you should find it here:

Privacy Settings > Data Access Requests > Request Data

@Liamsufc1 - "Saw a few youtubers streaming it & thought it looked tedious"
For both 'Death Stranding' and it's sequel, you really need to play it yourself, rather than watch someone else.

The original game is very cheap now (and included with PS+ Extra), so it's worth trying for yourself.
Focus on the main story, linking the various settlements/knots, and at least stick it out until you reach the main (2nd) area, where the game really opens up. They really are games where it's as much about the journey, as the destination.

The original game had plenty of oddball prepper characters. So the idea that in a cutoff society where people are living in bunkers, that one of them prefers to use an avatar to interact with people making deliveries, not exactly a crazy stretch.
But like Conan O'Brien's avatar in DS1, beyond a few lines of dialogue, that is what I expect this prepper will be in DS2.

A decent price on the 'Uncharted' trilogy, at only $9/£8, but they do feel fairly dated gameplay-wise. I happened to be replaying them this week, and while the article author mentions the original game is "a bit shaky", I'd also use that to describe the 2nd game too, which I finished on Normal yesterday.

There were a few combat pinch points in the game, one where I basically had to resort to rushing for the next checkpoint, as I was getting absolutely mowed down by mercs (you can probably guess the sequence). And the final boss battle, that was an exercise in frustration, running around an arena in circles.

The last sections of both 1&2 felt like a bit of a slog, as they add more & more armoured enemies (plus some fairly annoying unique bullet sponges in #2), and my memory of #3 was a similar experience.
I'm psyching myself up for the third game next, then onto 4 and 'Lost Legacy'. I do also have the Vita game, but I played it fairly recently, in the last 12-18 months. I guess I'll see if I'm 'Uncharted' out by the end of 'Lost Legacy'.

"...but behaviour like this does render the entire purpose of physical media pointless."

Annoying sure. Bad for future preservation, yes. But it doesn't render it pointless. If part of buying a disc is trading, selling, sharing with family or friends, this can all still be done.

If it were a single use code in a box, you'd have a point. But these kind of limited data "key" style discs, while many things (cheap, crappy, bad for those with slower connections), are still physical copies.
As for why 20GB, I would guess that means they used a single layer 25GB blu-ray, ie the smallest capacity, cheapest blu-ray available.

I always store my film blu-rays in their cases, in a warm dry room, but have had a few UK discs become unreadable, including; Drag Me to Hell (2x copies), My Neighbors the Yamadas, Pandorum & Red Cliff (disc 1 of 2).

From various different studios, but apparently they all used the same disc manufacturer in the early 2010s.
The only one that looks visibly different is the 'My Neighbors the Yamadas' disc, which has a "bronzed" appearance. But the rest are spotless.

So while it's likely not a "sky is falling" situation, there could certainly be some PS3, PS4 etc. games, or production batches, that become unreadable.
But I'm sure that's also true of certain batches of CDs, DVDs and so on.

Step 1 - Go outside

In all seriousness though, if you are genuinely worried about it having been a breach and "Sony isn't saying anything", treat it as a security check-in.

Do you have 2FA on your Sony account? If you have a card or PayPal attached, did you know you can use PSN gift cards instead? Is your password unique to this account and complex with upper & lowercase, numbers, symbols etc?

Also in general, when was the last time you did a backup of saves, screenshots, video clips and so on? Now is as good time as any to do that.
On PS5 you can't individually backup specific save files to USB, like you could on PS4, however you can still use the 'Backup and Restore' function to backup all saves. And/or backup saves as part of PS+ subscription.

Good to see the sh*tshow is now ending, PSN accounts now being optional on PC with incentives, the way it really should always have been.
I could understand, to a point, why some may have found the reaction a little overblown. At least if you already had a legacy PSN account.

But for people in the UK, creating a new PSN account now requires ID authentication for an 18+ account. So not only were people required to create, let's face it, an unnecessary account for a PC game (especially egregious for singleplayer games), people in the UK then had the extra hurdle of having to submit ID, photo and/or phone number (likely only monthly, not a pay-go) for verification.

And of course PSN not being available worldwide, the account requirement immediately cut off vast swathes of the world's population from even being able to buy, or continue using a bought game.

I think a big sticking point for many was the overpriced, proprietary memory cards.
I got a Vita towards the end of 2013, having to pay £40 for a 32GB memory card stung. Reading a DigitalFoundry article (from March of that year), where they were testing Vita memory card speeds, Richard mentions that a 16GB Vita card was £40 and class 10 microSD around £10.

I guess there was a price drop when the 32GB card launched in the UK/Europe later in the year (my order was in Oct '13). But even if 32GB microSD cards were double or triple the price of the 16GB, that would still be cheaper than the £40 I paid.
And based on their testing, the Vita cards were the "equivalent of Class 2 to Class 6" vs the 16GB class 10 microSD for £10. So the price couldn't even be justified with performance. A money grab from Sony and just one of the reasons that it struggled.

Reminds me of an old VG podcast with Simon Miller, where he talked about working at Sony when the PS2 launched and exec bros laughing and essentially high-fiving at the high margins of the memory cards. And Simon sitting, quietly seething, having just bought a memory card...

TLDR: While I have a PS3 and can play PS3 exclusive games, it would be good if they were easily available on PS5, for existing fans but also future new potential players of these games. And not stuck on an aging console with a myriad of hardware issues.

_

I still have a PS3 in my TV cabinet, so can play games like 'Infamous' 1&2 or 'MGS4', but I'm on my 3rd PS3 (YLoD phat & Super Slim with I think a dead PSU). The PS3/360 gen hardware isn't aging particularly well, and the inbuilt battery's of PS3 controllers are likely dying or dead. I got a couple of replacement DS3s when I discovered an issue with my 2nd DS3 (faulty R3 button when playing 'Demons Souls'. They worked, and turned out to be Sixaxis, but I think both would benefit from battery replacements (of which will be potluck generics).

My current PS3, a 160GB Slim with a Crucial MX500 SSD installed, still works well enough, but I try and only use it with PS3 exclusives. Games with ports, remasters etc. I'll play on PS4, PC and so on.
I learned my lesson with the other PS3s, which were used as multimedia devices for games + blu-rays & DVDs, I now exclusively use a standalone blu-ray player for those (which I'd also recommend for anyone using a PS4 or PS5 as a blu-ray player, no need to add extra wear on the £400-£500 console).

I'd be happier being able to play the remaining PS3 exclusives on some more modern hardware, and surely there would be plenty of people willing to pay for the privilege, either though PS+ Premium or like the PS1, PS2 & PSP emulated games, sold individually on the store.

@Cloud39472 "You'll die before disc rot gets a single blu ray disc."

I've actually had a few blu-rays become unreadable, all discs were stored in their cases on shelves in a bedroom or spare room.
TLDR:- I've had at least 5 different blu-ray releases from different film studios become unreadable (apparently many used the same manufacturer on the early 2010s). Plus participated in a few disc replacement programs over the years too.

_

There was apparently an issue with manufacturing of certain batches of UK discs from Optimum, Lionsgate, Icon & Entertainment in Video in the early 2010s. So UK discs like 'Drag Me to Hell', 'Pandorum', 'Red Cliff' SE (d1 of 2) etc. are commonly becoming unreadable .

I bought 'Drag Me to Hell' BD around 2011, watched it a couple of times with no issue and then one year, upon inserting the disc it displayed as "no disc" (multiple players, different brands), and was unreadable in my PC BD-ROM drive too. I bought a replacement on ebay earlier this year, also unreadable (both discs look flawless). I'll try and get a US disc as a replacement at some point.

Similar story with 'Pandorum', played perfectly one year, unreadable later. I bought a cheap replacement on ebay and it was fine, in both player and PC drive. But upon watching this year (over October), it skipped for the first 30s of the opening credits, then thankfully the film played interrupted. Sure enough upon checking in PC drive, it had read errors. I have a feeling if I try and play it again next year, it will have more skipping or be totally unreadable.

Also you will often hear of blu-ray discs 'bronzing', I also encountered that this year with my copy of 'My Neighbors the Yamadas'. It had read errors on PC, so I tested in player. Seemed to be fine for around 45m, then froze and skipped. Only resumed playback around 15-20m later, so essentially unwatchable (that BD also came with a DVD, which seems to have no issue).

Given the number of films & games I've bought on Blu-ray over the years, I'm hoping that it is simply down to these bad manufacturing batches (similar to issues with WB HD-DVDs).
It does highlight that physical media isn't perfect (I've also taken part in a handful of disc replacement programs over the years too, inc one where an old copy was pressed instead of a new remaster), but it's still my preference for watching films & TV (Blu-ray then DVD) for watching new films & series or rewatching stuff at it's best, without heavy compression etc. of streaming (+ extra content like documentaries, commentaries etc).

Games I will also still buy on disc. While I am about 50:50 disc vs digital on PS4, all the digital games were heavily discontinued in PSN sales. I'd never buy full price new releases digitally.

Not really a fan of these kinds of figures, odd scale with their large heads & little bodies. Saying that though, it's not like I have a collection of amiibo's either. I have a single 'Pikmin' amiibo' (Olimar), probably my favourite Nintendo series after Zelda and I believe I paid only £6 for it.

Good to see it was a "bug", rather than a shift in design choice. Also an immediate backlash shows Sony the public feeling about AD bloat even potentially seeping into the UI.

For those saying it was a 'storm in a teacup', that may be the case but Xbox didn't go straight from the relatively slick, simple blades interface to baked in ADs, it was a slow boil frog until it was too late. For example, recently showing McDonald's ADs...

"We imagine that could get quite confusing for casual players who aren’t intimately familiar with the layout of each controller."

Can also be confusing for me, having played games for 30yrs. I mostly play PS4, Switch & PC these days and use an 8bitdo Pro 2 on Switch & PC. Despite only going between 2x controller layouts, on the 8bitdo my brain still occasionally expects the X button to be on the left like an XB controller.
And then of course the brain needs to adjust each time for X to select or A to select, when I swap between systems.

I suppose technically I could use the 8bitdo's custom remapping to have B become enter, but that would likely just lead to further confusion. It's a shame that many games don't allow full custom button remapping, at best just a few layout options or at worst even options like invert Y axis unavailable.

Also given how the X button has moved around Nintendo controllers over the years, I guess that adds to confusion; top on SNES, absent on N64, on the right on GC, absent on Wiimote, then back to the SNES position on WiiU & Switch.
Whereas button layouts have been more consistent on the XB & PS controllers.

Until a game I'm really wanting to play (eg 'Death Stranding 2' ) releases on PS5, I'll just stick with PS4 & Switch (with some PC).

I have the money set aside, ready to go, but to be frank £400-£500 for a now 3.5yr old system isn't exactly an exciting prospect.
If my PS4 dies, I'll get a PS5. But otherwise I'll just wait for a "system seller" game.

I'm definitely pro-physical media and stories like this, or my dad's digital 'Ultraviolet' video library getting gutted a few years back (some exported to Google, but a lot didn't), they certainly cement my position.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still occasionally get games cheap digitally (despite it feeling more of a temporary purchase), but buying digital films & TV seems a little pointless. People will sometimes say that iTunes is good for digital purchases, but they've been caught removing content from peoples libraries too.

I did find it interesting though, when Sony recently launched their 'Sony Pictures Core' movie purchase and rental service on PS4/5. I'm sure announcements like this, removing purchased TV content licences (along with them previously removing film licenses too) will inspire confidence in their new 'Core' service...

Let's put it this way, I'd be much more interested in a PS handheld that was powerful enough to run all digital PS4 games than a 'Portal' that is essentially a $200/£200 remote play device. From what I've seen & read, it acts no differently than a phone with the app, ie connects via router, not the PS5 directly like say a WiiU did.

A handheld that could play PS4 games would have access to 10yrs worth of high quality titles, not just be a mediocre way to remote play PS5 games.
Would also get around the Vita problem, where it was an entirely different platform, so when it was obvious the sales weren't there, Sony dropped first party support and left it to the indie scene to support it. A game could be developed for a PS handheld, but still sold to PS5 (& PS4) users if it was essentially a PS4 game and higher quality assets could be enabled or downloaded for that version.

All unlikely of course, especially if Portal sales will be used internally at Sony to backup the "people don't want handhelds" narrative. Just ignore the past 7 years in the games industry I guess.

Currently on Premium, having got Extra for £59 in December (£25 off deal) then upgraded to Premium for the last 6 months.
Although, the best deal was actually in January, Extra was £50 & Premium £66.

Looking at the app, "Buy again and save 30% -
£83.99".

The old PS+ Extra full price, how generous, but no thanks Sony. Happy to let it lapse next month, as I just don't use subs like this enough to justify the cost. After a few months, I ended up just playing my existing PS4 disc & digital libraries and other systems (inc getting back into PS3).

@themightyant
I'd be happy to be wrong in this case and the NVMe drives move over with no fuss.

But for example, to upgrade USB 'extended storage' drives on PS4, instead of simply plugging in both new & old drives and copying data across, you instead have to move data from old USB to internal, then internal to new USB. So it could be multiple unplugs & drive swaps depending on the size (I had to do this process when moving from my original 1TB USB to a 4TB).

Thankfully a USB 'extended storage' drive can be moved between PS4s and even PS5s without reformat, and it would be nice if the NVMe could do that. But I have a feeling its meant to be a "one and done" kind of upgrade, like how upgrading an 'extended storage' drive seems like an alien, unforseen concept to Sony engineers.

@thefourfoldroot1 "Why would I need a new SSD eventually? I don’t play dozens of games at the same time."

In my PS4 I have a 1TB SSD and a 4TB USB HDD connected. Basically allows me to have all my games downloaded or installed from disc, I only have to install once. While I will typically play one game at a time, not constantly switching, I prefer having everything ready to go.
A 1 disc PS4 game will generally take 30-40min to fully install, vs roughly 10m to move it from external to the SSD (or I could play it direct from HDD). Installing once should also, in theory, reduce wear on the blu-ray drive.

I have a decent internet connection, so I could re-download stuff fairly quick, but with the HDD if I wanted to play any of my games, I could do so immediately.
For those with slower Internet connection, having more storage is a great way to avoid long waits, or chewing through monthly data allowances.

@themightyant
While it's possible you could move an existing PS5's NVMe drive to a new PS5, I think it's more likely that it will force you to format the drive. So to carry over installs, you would need to move them to a USB HDD or SSD formatted as 'extended storage'.

It would be good if you could simply move the NVMe over, but there's likely some kind of encryption tied to that specific PS5.

I'm not that concerned, as I have 2FA on my PSN and all other accounts where that's an option, unique passwords and only use gift card balance on my games accounts. The main accounts you really want to protect are emails, as they can be used to reset passwords etc. on multiple accounts.

Data breaches are an unfortunate, repeated reality of being online, all you can really do is secure your data with strong passwords & 2FA, or change email associated with account if someone repeatedly attempts to gain access.
For example I don't really use Facebook and it was even locked for a while when I tried to remove attached phone number (which I'd only attached to re-gain access on initial lockout). But I have access again and kept getting notified of someone trying to change the password. So despite having 2FA, I also changed the email and have stopped being pestered.

Also while Sony may have been "hacked", I suspect its nowhere near the level of the 2011 PSN hack, or the 2014 Sony Pictures hack.

No thanks. I'll let it lapse in December.

If it does turn out to be remote play only, then it's going to be a fairly niche product. But then you could argue the same for their VR headsets and they sell fairly well and even have bespoke games for them. Sony simply have to manufacture and maintain the streaming function of this handheld.

Would I buy it? No. Had it been a decent screen 8" tablet with controller attached with Android OS, that could have been a decent emulator depending on the SoC. But given I don't even have a PS5, it's obviously not a product that will even be on my radar, other than as a curiosity.

At essentially £10/month it doesn't sound too bad, until you realise that the 'Console' tier of XB Game Pass is £9/m (with games day one), and Sony have announced this price hike just in time for their rival launching arguably the biggest game of the year... Talk about an own goal.

______

I got a 1yr sub to Extra in December (discounted to £59 from £84) and what I predicted would happen did. I played a fair amount the first few months and haven't really touched it since.
I bumped it up to Premium in June for another £6.27 and played a little 'Ridge Racer 2', but that's all.

The Premium tier was laughable at £100, with a slow trickle of PS1 & PSP games, but at £120 Sony really are taking the piss.
Personally while I could afford £10/m (or about £8.33/m for Extra), I just don't use subscriptions like these enough to justify it. Maybe if I was new to the PS4 or PS5 ecosystem, a sub would be a good way to try some of the best PS4 & PS5 games. But I've owned a PS4 since Sept 2017, so I've already bought & played all the games I've been interest in.

I'd also just like to remind everyone that PS Now was £50/yr and included online for any Now games (you'd still need PS+ for disc & purchased digital games). I mostly prefer singleplayer games, so the 'Essential' tier of PS+ being included isn't a bonus, it just inflates the price.

At $50/£40, nope. But when it inevitably drops to £10 - £20, I'd say it would be worth that (especially on Switch).

My thoughts on ports vs remakes/remasters is this, would it have been great if RDR got a remake similar to Bluepoints 'Shadow of the Colossus' or 'Demons Souls', yes. But to take those two as an example, I'd also like to see the original versions of those games ported to modern hardware too. I think the original work is as deserving of a port to modern systems, as a remake that is building on the original game's success.

Glad to see 'Pikmin 4' doing well. I've been a fan of the series since I first played it about 20yrs ago on Gamecube.

Both 'Pikmin 3' & 'Pikmin 4' have demos, the new game's demo took me about 5hrs. Granted, I was taking my time with it, but its a healthy intro and the save carries over into the game.

As for the game itself, I'm currently about 42hrs in and would estimate I'm about 4/5 of the way through, so this is easily the longest of the 4 mainline series games. I'm no speed runner though, I am finding all the items, so I imagine focusing just on the story critical parts & characters could see that figure reduced dramatically. 'How long to beat' has it at 34hrs for 'completionist', but with it being out 5 days, I imagine that figure will change as more add to the average.

Back when Sony did an official PS5 tear down video, they showed that under the top panel (ie one without disc drive & NVMe slot), there are two "dust catcher" holes which they suggest can be vacuumed out. Seems a fairly easy step to try, for anyone having overheat or crashing issues.

You often see people saying "you need to clean every 6 months" etc. But short of blowing into vents to dislodge dust, I've never disassembled a console to clean, never had a PS4 overheat message (CUH-1200 model, owned about 7yrs) and so on.

Maybe I'm lucky, the UK has fairly low temps most of the time and/or I store my consoles in a open area and clean any dust on/around them on the open TV cabinet shelves. Not a big fan of my glass stand looks-wise these days, but can't complain given my lack of issues.

My PS4 may be getting slowly smothered in dust, but I'm of the mindset "if it ain't broke", so if/when I get an overheat message I'll open it up, clean it out, maybe change thermal paste etc. But it's fan isn't even what I'd consider noisy and I'm fairly noise sensitive.

Granted during the recent UK heatwave (I hope its over at least), I didn't play much PS4 or use my laptop. I didn't want to add any more heat to my bedroom, as it was hard enough to sleep already. So I was mostly playing Switch portable and had my fan running most days. Maybe I could have had my first overheat message had I ran the PS4, but given the smothering high humidity heat, I wasn't in the mood to play via the TV.

Odd that it's PS5 only, although it's possible other platforms (like PS4 or Switch) could be announced later.

"What's more, existing subscribers can get 25 per cent off when upgrading to a higher tier"

If true, may be a good time for current Extra subs to look at upgrading to Premium. I got the Extra tier mid December and with the current upgrade cost, it would bring it down to about £6.70.

I don't think that the Premium tier offers enough at £99.99 a year, but for £58.99 + £6.70, that's not too bad. I read that Premium has "450 games", but the small print of that is that around 300 of those are PS3 (ie streaming only). Still, access to another 150 games for under £7 would be pretty fair I think.

As ever though, I'm sure Sony will helpfully re-enable auto-renew when you upgrade, so be sure to go and disable that, or "cancel" as the recent wording change hopes to obfuscate...

@themightyant
"That said premium gets a bad rep in my book, for £16 more a year it offers excellent value imho, but it’s a more niche service not for most.

Currently Extra has 441 games
Premium has 450 games"

True its not much more, but it's also worth pointing out that that the Premium 450 number apparently includes about 300 PS3 games. While that would be a selling point if they were downloadable, due to the PS3 titles being streaming only I'd probably only play turn based games or others where the latency wouldn't be an issue.

The £16 upgrade scales down over time (would currently cost me £9.20), so I may pay £8 at the 6 month mark to access some PSP, PS1 etc. games. But to be honest, I've barely been using PS+ Extra, I started the sub in December and after the first couple of months have barely touched it.

If its true the 3rd game would have seen him be a more major character, that is a shame as I'm sure he would have been great.
But I'd be against them using AI to generate his voice, I think if would be fairly morbid honestly. Even using the recorded motion data and casting a sound-alike would seem a bit tasteless.

I think his sudden passing should be mirrored with the game. Whether they use existing recorded lines to wrap his character up, or even have him die offscreen by the new threat of the 3rd game, that would be greatly preferred to a 'Star Wars' like Tarkin solution of posthumous casting. Whether they have the family permission or not, it feels exploitative.

Every time a bunch of games are added, you see a stack of PS+ Extra games, then less than a handful of titles for PS+ Premium.
If you were to show them to someone who had not heard of the PS+ service, which of them do you think they'd pick as the most expensive of the two?...

Premium feels a little like an embarrassing afterthought by Sony at this point. Even Nintendo's glacial adding of titles to their service, they'll at least add a bunch of games at once.
As for the quality of the titles, for 3/4 I can't say. I got 'Pursuit Force' in a bundle with my PSP back in '05 and while it was decent title for the new handheld, I'm not sure it's something that can help prop up the most expensive PS+ tier.

But adding 'Dishonored 2' and 'Dishonored: Death of the Outsider' highlights another confused part of the service. The Dishonored PS4 game is only available via Premium, with these two added as Extra. In theory because DS1 is a remaster/Definitive Edition, but then other remasters like Crysis, or the maligned GTA titles ended up in the Extra tier...

My worry is that 3yrs into a typical console cycle, we will have seen a decent price drop on the console. In the PS4's 3rd year the PS4 Pro & slim launched at £349 & £259, vs the original £349 of the launch PS4.
Due to a number of factors, the PS5 has increased in price (in most markets outside US) and short of a cheaper to produce PS5 slim, I can't see a cheaper PS5 that close on the horizon (maybe a little, but sub £400? Don't think so).

Not to state the obvious here, but £480 is a lot more that £350 and nearly double the £260 PS4 slim. With the 'cross gen' period coming to a close, you're going to see a lot of people looking at a 3yr old console around £500, unable or unwilling to spend that much.

I think if the PS5 price remains at the current level, you're going to see people pick up a XB Series S instead (£250 or less) or the next Nintendo console. The PS5 sales have been pretty good, but the bulk of console sales are when it drops, so the PS5 growth may be stunted long term if they price stays high, as I suspect it will.

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As for the $70/£70 game, the most I've personally spent on a game was 'Red Dead Redemption 2' at £60 for a "Special Edition" (physical), I can't see myself spending more than that.
The newest game I own is 'God of War Ragnarok' which I got on disc for £55, even that was somewhat through gritted teeth. I'd say that would be my personal price limit for discs (digital probably about 1/2 that) and even then it would have to be a game I'm excited to play week of release. Everything else can wait, until its both had a price drop and like many recent games, a few months of necessary patches to fix it...

My most recent game purchases were RE2 & 3 remakes heavily discounted on PSN sale (£12.49 for pair in 'Raccoon City' bundle) and a double dip of the digital copy of 'TLoUp2', in the same sale (£8.74).
I did get a 1yr sub of PS+ Extra in December, but as I suspected I would, I played a decent number of games the first month or two and have barely touched it since. A combination of choice fatigue and games from my backlog or replay list being more attractive options.

@JaapV
The negatively around Pt2 had the opposite effect on me. I bought it around release as I, both didn't want the story to be spoiled (never was) and I am generally more interested in trying, and making my own mind up on, "polarising" media (eg. I also loved 'Death Stranding'). As a result, I managed to get the limited Amazon Steelbook for a game I ended up really liking. I don't think a games story has ever affected me like that.

Slightly annoying that I paid £58.99 for 1yr Extra mid December, when now just 2.5 weeks later you can get Premium for £65.99. But I still think £59 for access to all those games for a year is decent. I've played 5 shorter games so far, and have another 5 or so downloaded ready to play.

But once my year is up, I will have probably had my fill and likely won't re-subscibe. I'm not short of games, just added the 'Resident Evil 2&3' remakes to my digital collection for just £12.49, and I still have a few disc & digital games I've either not played at all, or barely given a chance.

Although if you were brand new to PS4 or PS5, getting a year of Extra for £50 or Premium for £66 is a steal, given stuff like the 'Spider-Man', 'Miles Morales', 'Ghost of Tsushima', 'Death Stranding', 'Horizon Zero Dawn', 'Bloodborne' etc. are all part of Extra.

Considering they had similar deals running for Black Friday, mid December and now in January, they really seem to be trying to boost those PS+ Extra & Premium numbers.
The sales were all trending down too, I believe these were the prices of Extra/Premium on the 3 sales; BF sale was £63/£75, Dec sale £59/75 and now £50/£66. Maybe testing what people are actually willing to spend, as it certainly isn't £84/100...

@JustPlainLoco

HFW joins the likes of 'Wii Sports' & 'Tetris' as games that have heavily benefitted from being a bundle game. No shame in it, but it skews the numbers. It's unlikely that the game would have been in the charts every week, without the PS5 bundle sales.

I'm sure 'GoW Ragnarok' will become one of the top selling 2023 games, as it appears to be the new PS5 bundle. Obviously it has sold well on its own (PS4 version still seems to be constantly OOS on Amazon UK), but like HFW it will probably remain in the charts for many months due to the bundle.

@C25CLOUD " u really like destroying the environment just so u can get a physical copy of a game u know we need to cut back on plastic"

Good thing the magic 'cloud' running 24/7 doesn't use any energy.

@carlos82 I imagine 'Horizon Forbidden West' will continue to sell, and appear in the charts, until its replaced by another game as the main PS5 bundle.
I'm sure it would have sold decent numbers without the bundle, but it probably would have been in the chart for a couple of weeks at most. I'd be interested to see it's total sales figures across PS4 & PS5.

Why have PS Now for £50/yr, when you can have a reduced selection of games on PS+ Extra for a mere £84/yr.

What a deal.

It should be better signposted what version you are downloading or playing, but reading other comments, the idea that it should be forced PS5 only, like on Xbox is an odd stance. In theory the PS5 version should be the superior option, but that will not always be the case. The PS4 version could have a more stable framerate (or someone may just want to use it in an external HDD or SSD), so having the option of PS4 version on PS5 is a nice extra choice for consumers.

It's a confusing service, and that is concerning for Sony given that the people that write and read these articles are arguably part of the "hardcore" gaming market. If we are struggling to get our heads around it, good luck to the "casual" gamers or families trying to navigate what to buy for their children, nephews/neices etc.

I'd argue their old system was better, PS+ & PS Now. Two distinct services, with very different offerings. You could have both, or just one (people not interested in PS+ could have PS Now for £40-50/yr, and still play games on that service online). But now? You have 3 tiers, the starting 'essential' one like the old PS+, then 'Extra' & 'Premium'.
Having 3 tiers is confusing enough, but having some PS4 titles appear only in 'Premium' is confusing. They touted 'Extra' as being PS4 & PS5 games, but that isn't true if "remastered" PS4 games only appear in the top tier (sometimes in case of GTA).

Then the 'Premium' service, which is so close in price to 'Extra' that it feels like an expiriment over how much consumer are willing to spend. If that's the case, combine them at £85 and be done with it. I mean the fact we are still seeing PAL/NTSC issues at this stage is ridiculous.
It would have been a lot easier, and a better value proposition, if they'd simply offered a PS+ & Now bundle at a reduced price, say £75/yr and then left them separate, distinct services. Because let's be honest, PS+ Extra/Premium are essentially just confusing rebadges of the old PS Now.

@zebric21 It drops down to £20 every other PSN sale (or disc is under £15 used). With 6yrs worth of free updates that have expanded various aspects (inc a recent one overhauling/improving combat), I'm sure you'll be able to get £20 worth of play.

I imagine it will be similar to 'Spider-Man' which was "remastered" for PS5. Apart from replacing Peter with a new face, it was essentially a beefed up version of the game, including making better use of the PS5's SSD for instant transitions (vs load screens on PS4 version when entering enemy factories). Maybe like 'Spider-Man' it will be a bundle, throw HFW in there too.

I would put this question to the articles "Hardcore PlayStation Fans", do you think that the 'A team' of Guerrilla Games would be working on this? This will likely be getting knocked out by either a small percentage of the studio, while everyone else is working on HFW DLC or new IP, or another Sony studio entirely is handling it.

Like with the TLoU remake, vote with your wallet. If/when I eventually get a PS5, it will likely be part of PS+ Extra/Premium and when that happens, I doubt people will be opting to play the original PS4 version.

I'm big fan of HZD (see my Avatar), but personally I've bought it enough; with the original release on disc then the 'Complete Edition' later (was under £10 for digital copy). As a £70 re-release, no chance, but as I said before I suspect it will end up on PS+ Extra/Premium at some point.

It worked well for the 360 optional HD-DVD drive, look at how HD-DVD is thriving...

In all seriousness though, if this turns out to be true (a big if, imo) then you'll likely still have the same levels of attachment rates of disc & digital versions, but via an add-on rather than built-in. While it would necessitate the R&D and production costs of the drive/attachment method, on the other hand it could streamline their manufacturing and every system manufactured would be sold (ie the less popular model sitting on shelves).

If it was the same size/model disc drive, it shouldn't have an impact performance wise, in speed or noise. We would still be limited by the UHD drives read speeds, which even USB 3.0 connection would be far beyond (possibly even USB 2.0 would be enough). It would also give digital only owners the option to pick one up later and in the future if the drive develops a fault, it would be easier to replace, especially for an average consumer. Connect a new drive and you'd be back to being able to use discs.

@UltimateOtaku91

I enjoyed 'Horizon Forbidden West' (although I think I prefer the story of the original), but its continued sales are likely down to the PS5 console bundles being included in the charts. The £530 bundle of PS5 + HFW seems to be much more plentiful in stores vs PS5 only £480 (up from £450 & £500).

I imagine an easy temporary fix would be to have a filter for these "games" under £1. It's seems like these fluff trophy games are all sold for pennies, so you could remove them with that one filter.

Personally though, trophies or achievements are only ever something I bother with, if I really like a game and want to extend my time with it. However if they have stuff tied to various difficulty levels or online trophies, I don't bother. While I've occasionally replayed games at harder difficulties (eg. HZD and it's 'Ultra Hard' mode), it's the exception, as I find higher difficulties usually just turn enemies into bullet sponges.

Clear as mud.

Add that to the list of reasons why taking a simple option of PS+ and/or PS Now subscription options, and changing into a 3 tier PS+ mess wasn't the best idea. Why pay £50/yr for PS Now, when instead you can get some of those games for £84/yr or all for £100/yr. Great for consumers...

They release the 'PS Classic' with a bunch of PAL games, get rinsed by both the press and fans for it, but then don't learn their lesson and include PAL games on the £100/yr service? What a botch job.
Then they rush out a "NTSC games are coming soon" when it launches in the UK/EU, but no timeline. Be sure to keep giving Sony money in the meantime though, for the poorer PAL versions.

@EVIL-C
You can use a USB stick to backup your saves (USB 3.0 or 2.0), and it would also allow you to backup your screenshots & video clips.
As USB 2.0 sticks work, you may even have an old one in a drawer. Failing that, they are very cheap.