Grumblevolcano

I get the feeling that watching the Xbox showcase in June will be like watching a multiplatform showcase. So like they reveal the Shattered Space expansion for Starfield and then after the release date appears it shows that Starfield is coming to PS5 as a complete edition, they reveal that a Marcus Fenix collection is coming to PS5 same day as Xbox/PC, etc.

It would be interesting to see how the Push Square list would be today, Playstation has changed a lot since 2018.

Makes sense given PS Studios doesn’t have any PS5 games with specific release dates after Stellar Blade. Showcase in May allows April releases like Stellar Blade and FFXVI’s 2nd DLC to get more attention.

It honestly feels as though despite Jim Ryan leaving, the Jim Ryan era has only just begun. Like games tend to take around 5 years to make nowadays and Jim Ryan became head of Playstation in February 2019 (a bit over 5 years ago).

Jim Ryan’s main legacy so far is the really bad stuff like the mess regarding Bungie, the recent layoffs and studio closures, the gigantic push towards live service in general (Factions 2 even got caught up in the crossfire), the end of smaller single player games, etc.

The one positive that Jim Ryan has done was fighting against the Activision acquisition. While he failed to stop it, his efforts were not wasted.

It all comes down to the software, right? I mean look at Playstation Meeting 2016, they announced the hardware (PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro) and presented a bunch of games to show off the Pro (Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone and a load of 3rd party games).

@NEStalgia I feel that Gen 9 has been a situation of going deeper into Gen 8's strategy, realizing it was a mistake too late and using emergency strategies (usually very bad ones) to try and make up for those mistakes.

@NEStalgia Nintendo's still mostly safe from that kind of stuff (microtransactions contained to mobile) though I do worry about next gen. Tactics seem to mirror the generation's power so like Switch is 7th gen power and we saw a lot of PS3/360 era strategies.

The main things that happened with 8th gen were:

• Unsustainable AAA
• Live service (loot box model and then the battle pass model)
• PC ports of 1st party exclusives
• PS Now/Game Pass model
• Trying to push people towards digital and always online

Seeing this gives me the impression that MH Wilds will be your typical live service game where the gameplay focus is battle passes + microtransactions store.

Impressive showing from Rebirth especially from only 1 day of sales.

@NEStalgia I wonder how much new hardware is driven by 3rd party requests so like Square Enix wanting PS5 Pro for a stable performance mode for FFXVI/FFVII Rebirth/KH4, Capcom wanting PS5 Pro for stable Dragon's Dogma 2/MH Wilds/whatever the next RE game is, Rockstar wanting PS5 Pro for more visually impressive and/or stable GTA6, etc.

I think back to the Nintendo comment about how they said recently that they don't need more power for 1st party games (current Switch is powerful enough) so by that logic the only reason Switch 2 would exist is for better 3rd party support.

All the games listed have at least 1 out of a native PS5 version and a PC version. That said, they could've varied the list more by including Days Gone (got a PC version) and Sackboy (got PS5/PC versions).

Maybe they're teasing that HZD and GoW (2018) end up getting PS5 remasters later this year as they're the only ones that have a PC port but not a native PS5 version?

@NEStalgia I think Microsoft will keep only 2 Xbox consoles on the market at a time (they made sure to discontinue 360 before XB1 got a revision and XB1 X|S before Series X|S released) so like if a handheld happens, the Series S is discontinued.

I think the holiday 2024 Xbox hardware will either be the September 2023 leak or the September 2023 leak with Series S replaced with a handheld. They may tease next gen but I don't think there'll be a Pro.

The focus being on trying to get people to subscribe to Game Pass and porting Xbox exclusives to PS5.

All the pieces coming together gives the impression that GTA6 will be rather early on in 2025 (e.g. March/April), Sony would take advantage of PS5 Pro being the best performing version of that game and then flesh out the rest of the year with a big 1st party PS5 lineup (e.g. Wolverine, Ghost of Tsushima 2, next Naughty Dog game).

@NEStalgia Easy, Microsoft uses Summer Game Fest to announce more PS5 ports of Xbox exclusives. Includes a very special Todd Howard appearance showcasing how Starfield's PS5 version (the $70 package includes the Shattered Space expansion) fully realizes the game's true vision and potential with the power of PS5 Pro.

@ShadowofTwilight I still think the Microsoft deal with SEGA and the nature of Game Pass is the source of all this. It feels like the setup for Atlus releases for non-Game Pass members are to pay for Atlus games to be on Game Pass.

So like how the floodgates opening on XGS exclusives going multiplatform feels like Microsoft's way of making up for lost money from putting CoD day 1 on Game Pass.

@HamKnight Concord was revealed in the same event as Fairgame$, it's the one with the space cheeseburger but nothing about the game was really revealed outside of it releasing in 2024.

It does look like Jim Ryan forced all of Playstation Studios to live service.

@tameshiyaku The official site says there's a physical bundle of both games together on PS4:

https://www.monsterhunter.com/stories/en-uk/

Scroll down to "Product Info" and select PS4.

Interesting, 2 of the big Switch 3rd party exclusive 2021 RPGs come to PS in the same month (MH Stories 2 and SMTV). Will Square Enix complete the trio with a Bravely Default II PS port?

In any case, I'd imagine Octopath 1 would come to PS the same day that Octopath 2 comes to Xbox given Octopath 1 is currently delisted from the Switch eshop.

Looking back at previous PC port gaps between announcement and release:

• HZD - 5 months (March - August 2020)
• Days Gone - 3 months (February - May 2021)
• GoW (2018) - 3 months (October 2021 - January 2022)
• Spider-Man Remastered - 2 months (June - August 2022)
• Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection - 13 months (September 2021 - October 2022)
• Sackboy - 1 month (September - October 2022)
• Miles Morales - 5 months (June - November 2022)
• Returnal - 2 months (December 2022 - February 2023)
• TLoU1 - 9 months (June 2022 - March 2023)
• Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart - 2 months (May - July 2023)
• HFW - 6 months (September 2023 - March 2024)
• GoT - 2 months (March 2024 - May 2024)
• Until Dawn - TBA (January - TBA 2024)

So I'd guess early 2025 for TLoU 2.

I feel that Switch's successor will get a "Complete Edition" with everything on the cart for $70. So there'll probably be a PS5 version around the same time as well.

@rachetmarvel I think they didn't port over Nathan Drake Collection so they could do $70 PS5/PC remakes of each game in the collection like how they chose to do a $70 PS5/PC remake of TLoU instead of porting TLoU Remastered.

I'd guess it's to do with the Xbox deal with SEGA given Microsoft have conditioned the Xbox playerbase to not actually buy games, rather wait for them to come to Game Pass.

In the end Nintendo's strategy seems the most sustainable, staying fully exclusive but focusing on a wide range of experiences and taking full advantage of the gold mine that is legacy content (Sony has a pre-PS4 gold mine that they're almost completely ignoring).

@TwoDents I think the timing of Microsoft's releases are a result of opening the floodgates, that there's seemingly no 1st party Microsoft releases on Xbox until May (Hellblade 2) and that their fiscal year ends in June.

Nice seeing the Tomb Raider 1-3 collection so high up in Europe, people are being reminded of how amazing the PS1 era was for Playstation.

@JohntheRaptor There's likely some kind of Playstation event around May/June which covers the rest of the year. For now, Sony wants all attention on the Spring 2024 lineup.

@somnambulance It's probably because Microsoft has the marketing for Persona 3 Reload and Microsoft don't really promote games anymore.

I think it's to do with the announced exclusivity side of things. Remake was 1 year PS4 exclusive, 16 was 6 months PS5 exclusive and Rebirth is 3 months PS5 exclusive. Considering the lifespan of the Switch so far and Square Enix's support of the Switch, until yesterday's article about Remake and Rebirth being PS console exclusive (rather than launch console exclusive) you could deduce that recent PS exclusive FF would come to Switch's successor.

Plenty of people are willing to wait for games to come to their system of choice if you give them any hope that it could come to that system.

@Legend_Au I think eventually there may be day 1 PC releases that aren't live service because Jim Ryan's replacement said about aggressive PC strategy. There's a point where the slowing down of PS5 PS Studios releases and running out of PS4/PS5 games to port over to PC converge. At that point you're either ending up with no longer having an aggressive PC strategy or you're releasing day 1 on PC.

Similar thing happened with Xbox and the XB1, by the time day 1 on PC started (ReCore in September 2016) there wasn't much left for XB1 in terms of already released games that could be brought to PC:

• Killer Instinct (2013) - December 2016
• Sunset Overdrive (2014) - November 2018
• Master Chief Collection (2014) - Gradually over December 2019 - November 2020, the XB1 version had to be fixed up first for PC port to be viable

These never made it to PC:

• Kinect games - Microsoft abandoned Kinect
• Halo 5 - Microsoft abandoned Halo 5 to focus on MCC and Infinite, there was a Forge version but the normal single player and multiplayer never made it to PC
• Forza Motorsport 5/Forza Horizon 2 - I'd guess licensing reasons
• Rare Replay - I'd guess the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility games causes problems with the creation of a PC port

@Player_1_Ready It could be they pull a Mass Effect Wii U and only put the 3rd game on Xbox.

Maybe the uncapped framerate is because of the PS5 Pro's existence with PS5 and Series X|S suffering a less stable experience as a result like what happened around the time of XB1X and PS4 Pro?

@Flaming_Kaiser The point was that the PS5 remasters of PS Studios PS4 games keep coming even though PS4 games can be played on PS5 via backwards compatibility so Sony may have added the feature for optics rather than because they truly wanted it added.

@Porco I don't think Sony actually values PS4 backwards compatibility on PS5, rather that it was like a checkbox in a list of things that had to be done to convince people to upgrade from PS4 to PS5 instead of just sticking with PS4 and/or moving to a competing platform.

@Ralizah Sony's current strategy seems to be:

• Games that originated on PS4 get PS5/PC remasters
• Games that originated on PS3 either get a PS5 remake (even if a PS4 remaster exists) or is added to PS+ Premium streaming
• PS1/PSP get added to native PS+ Premium catalog
• PS2/PS Vita is very much who knows

Given Stellar Blade releases April 26th, we're probably going to get a May PS Showcase like last year.

So given the "aggressive PC strategy" we're probably seeing a return to the August 2022 - March 2023 setup where a PS Studios game releases on PC approximately every month. Something like:

• February - Helldivers 2
• March - HFW
• May - GoT
• June - TLoU 2
• July - GT7
• August - Demon's Souls
• September - Until Dawn
• October - Concord
• November - GoW Ragnarok

@j2c @get2sammyb I think PC is probably what gives the impression, without the PC releases the lineup is:

• 2017 - Horizon Zero Dawn, HZD Frozen Wilds DLC
• 2022 - Horizon Forbidden West
• 2023 - Horizon Call of the Mountain, HFW Burning Shores DLC

That's far from flooding the market but when you add in the PC releases, you get:

• 2017 - Horizon Zero Dawn, HZD Frozen Wilds DLC
• 2020 - HZD PC
• 2022 - Horizon Forbidden West
• 2023 - Horizon Call of the Mountain, HFW Burning Shores DLC
• 2024 - HFW PC

Which is Horizon almost every year from 2020 onwards.

I’d guess they’d launch PSVR2 support for PC with a GT7 PC port as people talk about how amazing that game is in VR.

@Friendly I think if these were all the games for this calendar year, they'd have spread them out more to improve sales. Releasing them during a just over 2 month period gives the impression that more are coming in the 2nd half of the calendar year (Microsoft's fiscal year ends on June 30th).

@JPEGMakima Pentiment and Grounded were announced in today's Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase so Microsoft had to wait for that to have aired before announcing the 4 games.

@Fiendish-Beaver Turns out Sea of Thieves is April 30th:

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/02/21/new-platforms-new-players-xbox-games-switch-playstation/

All 4 are coming to PS5 meanwhile Pentiment + Grounded are also PS4.

Pentiment - February 22nd
Hi-Fi Rush - March 18th
Grounded - April 16th

I'd guess that Sea of Thieves is coming in May then. Given the very short gap between the releases, it feels like all those crazy rumours about Starfield, Indiana Jones, Gears, Halo, etc. coming to PS5 from a few weeks ago are probably all true with last week's Xbox podcast just being short term damage control over the Xbox community's reaction.

Interesting, in the context of Sony's comments about April 2024 - March 2025 I wonder if perhaps this year ends up being PS5's Splatoon moment.

For context, Nintendo 1st party lineup slowed down in 2015 regarding big existing IP as Nintendo started focusing on creating a very strong lineup for the Switch but that gave smaller and new IP the chance to grow. The new IP Splatoon (released May 2015) benefited the most from that approach and is currently one of Nintendo's biggest franchises.

Seems like the big Europe price drop reported earlier on has now come to the UK:
PS5 (disc) - £369.99
PS5 Slim (disc) - £409.99/£419.99 (depends on the retailer)

@MrGawain Maybe the power gap is rather minimal kind of like the power gap between Wii U and Switch. Wii's gigantic success resulted in PS Move and Kinect and the Switch is even bigger than the Wii so maybe PS6 is essentially a hybrid PS5.

Moving away from power focus given that it's not helping the release schedule.

Think we can safely say from this that Outer Worlds 2 is coming to PS5.

I wonder if they consider ports/remasters/remakes as "new major existing franchise titles". So like would TLoU 2 Remastered count as one?

If not, it could be that the big PS5 Fall 2024 release is something like a PS5 remaster for Horizon Zero Dawn or GoW (2018).

@Rob_230 I worry about the reverse happening, that the power of the PS4 (Switch successor would likely be around the same power as PS4) convinces Nintendo to use the Sony's more recent approach to software with the Switch's successor.

@Kienda The main points that I've seen debated in the context of feeling alienated are:

• Why own a Series X|S when you can have a PS5 to play both PS exclusives and Xbox exclusives?
• In the outcome where Xbox multiplatform drives people to PS5, it may be that 3rd party support gets worse and eventually people lose their digital libraries

This is uncharted territory so it's very much understandable to be concerned. For me, at the moment I'm just happy that I'll be able to play stuff like Hi-Fi Rush on Switch (I could've gotten it for Series X last year but Switch lineup was so packed that I couldn't justify getting it on Xbox).

@S1ayeR74 I think the initial batch will be only games that can run on both PS5 and Switch. Then after Switch's successor is revealed, we start to see more power intensive games be announced for PS5/Switch 2.