Haruki_NLI

That was quite possibly one of the worst things I have ever seen and I live in the UK.

The best thing about that Direct - not a single damn exclusive.

They're crediting him? That's something.

@SeaDaVie And also on everything.

But that's the oddity. It's like SMTv. It did 1m on Switch, and then Vengeance added another 1m.....across Switch, PC, Xbox and PS.

But man, they need to cool it with the HD-2D stuff. I can only take so much default UE4 blur.

I'm anticipating this like I anticipate the merciful brush of deaths cold clammy hand.

Feverishly.

Don't worry. The actual release date for these games costs $80 and upwards.

Good for them. A pat on the back, a gold star on the fridge, and let's go for ice cream.

@N1ghtW1ng @SeaDaVie

Middle Earth Enterprises is indeed under new management.

Infact, the company got called Middle Earth Enterprises and Friends.

It got called that when the company that bought them started having....er....issues....so to speak.

Embracer.

Wait for the inevitable Switch 2 release with mouse controls on this one methinks.

#StopSpendingMoneyOnLicensesThatExpireAndNecessitateTheShutDownOfYourGameAfterAnArbitraryPeriodBecauseNoOneCaresAboutTheIPsYouKeepOverpayingFor

They revealed it.

Then revealed it again.

And another reveal in a week?

Just do it all at once bloody hell 😂

We didn't need an announcement of an announcement that was for another announcement of an announcement.

To give you an idea of how much swing that will give Sony with 2.5%:

Nintendo owns 1% or so, and Bandai Namco has not only been Co developing loads of their games for many years, they even have internal studios for that purpose, running primary development on many massive games.

Sony can get a lot out of this with that small investment.

@Steeleye50 I mean, sure? I guess? I doubt it though. Pokemon Legends Z-A is $60 on Switch, $70 on Switch 2, and if The Pokemon Company isn't doing it, then Splatoon Raiders, Kirby Air Riders, Hyrule Warriors and Metroid Prime 4 sure as hell won't either.

Hilariously though, and this barely gets talked about, over here in the sunny(?) UK, Nintendo is the only platform holder to have their games be cheaper digitally than physically. You know, that thing people wanted for years.

I wanna buy Donkey Kong Bananza? £66.99 for physical, £57.99 digital. Mario Kart World? £74.99 physical, £66.99 digital.

If I go over to PlayStation and want Ghost of Yotei? £70 regardless. No adjustment for currency value, no cheaper digital (Because why would it be, its pure profit?), just the same number as the US.

If we want anything to become standardised, it's actually applying exchange rates to games, and cheaper digital copies than physical.

@get2sammyb But it's not $70 max, is it?

You want to play a big third party game on it's release day, it's already $80 or more for what they call "Early Access".

It's not Early Access. The game is out, it can be purchased, it's just the lower less profitable price point is releasing later on.

@Steeleye50 Ah yes. The report that was never corrected after the press details were released, because the EU pricing came out first and everyone pulled a Sony and directly converted it by changing the currency symbol instead of waiting less than half an hour for the US info to be released that says....$80.

@Steeleye50 I have yet to see a $90 physical Nintendo game.

But you can buy our $100 edition and get the game on its actual launch date!

They'll do it eventually. $70 is just the lowest cost of entry at a later date for most big games these days.

An article from the future. Wow.

Anyway, I forgot this game was coming out, and it's from a now very well liked developer...in one genre anyway.

Shame it didn't land, but that's what happens with these mid tier publishers, they are overreaching and burning holes they can't afford in their pockets on the hopes of one hit.

As opposed to Ghost of Yotei PSP

And........who has an 8K TV?

I mean, Sony isn't the worst offender. I remember hearing one run of cutscenes without any controller inputs in MGS4 was so long PlayStation Now would boot you for inactivity.

Ah yes the letter F has been used for both Dark Souls and Armoured Core.

So what we know is it is in fact a game they are working on in one of their two franchises.

Much like when Nintendo updates games like Mario Odyssey, or Mario Kart, or Pokemon, or Splatoon, or Kirby, with free and paid post launch content....I just don't go back.

Same with games like Astro Bot. I haven't even seen any of the post launch levels because....well as the article so rightly puts it, I paid for and got a complete experience. I got 100% completion, every bot, and I had my fill.

I'm not going to sit down and boot the game for another handful of levels, or another handful of costumes, or a new stage and weapon, or a new side mode was added, or they added more multiplayer stuff. I played it. I enjoyed it. I'm waiting on the next thing now.

But that's just how I play games. I play it until I've had my fill if multiplayer, or until I've done what I want if single player, and then move on. I might come back and play it for a stream or again in a couple years if I get the cravings, but I'm not coming back every couple months for a few bits here and there, or even an entire side mode.

That's just how I play, blasphemous I know.

The final corpse better be the PSVR2

@SMJ Turns out since it was usable across all windows devices, it was published as a universal Windows app and not just an Xbox game. Seems they have lower restrictions for that.

@Reeneman Don't get acquired, don't go into a publishing deal, don't put your game on their hardware at this point.

You're doing a great job. Fantastic. Incredible game. You're being promoted to customer.

Fist Bump was bad when they pulled a singer from Hoobastank out and it just didnt work. Same here.

The main vocal theme of Sonic games since 2017 have been....eh....even Team Sonic Racing simply because the lead singer of Crush40 basically broke his voice.

But all the stuff by the other artists around it? Oh hell yes.

If Fist Bump can be redone by Tyler Smyth from Forces, and I'm Here can be redone by Kellin Quinn, then this will be redone by another vocalist on the soundtrack eventually.

Also how has Sony allegedly gone from "Nintendo doesn't factor into our financial analysis and Xbox is out only competitor" to releasing their biggest live service game....on what they call their only competitor?

Like surely you want to give their player base a reason to pick PlayStation, not go to your direct competition at their doorstep

I mean, sure they can argue PS5 is the best place to play, but then PC exists, and for a few hundred every 7-8 years I can just keep my PC ahead of whatever PlayStation is releasing at lesser spec for a similar price without needing a whole new system every 7 years. Plus it does more.

Though I am excited to see which era of modern architecture the PS6 takes after. Maybe the Gherkin?

Wouldn't be shocked to hear that whatever Toys For Bob was working on is canned too.

Even after going independant after suffering layoffs, they still partner up with Microsoft for their next game.

This article completely missed the actual point.

This is about digital storefronts exclusively. Yes you can add a disc drive but this is about competition within the digital ecosystem, which Nintendo, and Xbox, allow, by letting retailers sell codes to digital games at whatever prices they see fit. That's digital competition.

You know what Sony lets retailers sell? Store credit. They USED to do codes, but not anymore. So whatever price you are forced to pay is it. No other choices.

@rachetmarvel Yep. Spicy. Almost as hot as milk. If Nintendo fans can handle Cyberpunk and Bayonetta and Geralt in a bath then they can handle some jiggle physics.

How the hell does a company racking in money hand over fist in multiple regions with some of the best hardware attach rates for games and profitability per title NOT show up on analysis?

In the same market as you?

No wonder Sony keeps burning money, their analysts are imbeciles.

It's like in my job, genuine hubris when a competitor closes for garden centers and they act like they have no competition only for the remaining very large competition to see US and go for the throat. It happened last year, it's happened this year, we've paid the price for that analysis twice now.

You ALWAYS have competition. You just need to recognize it before they see your weakness. If you didn't, the government would be on your behind.

@AverageGamer The Japan only Switch was only available at the My Nintendo Store, and Famitsu said it wasn't counted in these charts.

So this is just the retail available full price edition counted here.

@Scottyy checks notes

Dev cost is whatever 9 years of dev time is.

@Jamie64326 Yeah, even stuff like Super Mario Maker had Pokemon costumes that were sprites only, no sound effects or anything unique like the rest....which were again, largely other companies IP, and some not even gaming at all. Mercedez for gods sake!

TPC doesnt really play nice, and its quite obvious when you see all the mobile games and partnerships they do independantly without ever mentioning Nintendo. Sometimes I think they put some of those games on hardware because itd look odd if they didnt.

@Jamie64326 So it turns out I was slightly off, and that Nintendo gets an estimated 10%-20% of the game's revenue, simply out of licensing, though how that's been calculated I am unsure. But they also never mention it with their mobile stuff, so I imagine its quite a drop in the bucket.

TPC and Niantic will take the bulk of it regardless. However much TPC gives to each of its three stakeholders will be unknown given its privately owned and doesnt need to disclose that info.

Point being though, Pokemon is a bit of a weird oddity. Nintendo doesnt really get much of a say it feels like, especially when you hear that the CEO of TPC told Nintendo the Switch would fail and he'd rather just keep making games for 3DS and mobile.

They also had Pokemon amiibo for Smash: These infamously dont work in games. In Yoshi's Woolly World they give a generic amiibo t-shirt, but stuff like Cloud of all things gives a character appropriate costume. If SquareEnix is easier to license stuff from than a company you in part OWN, then you dont actually have that much influence.

I feel like the "But the pandemic" angle is a bit disingenuous, given the PS5 still had the launch record regardless of that, so everything that launched outside of a pandemic didnt do that well.

@Jamie64326 Nintendo has stated in their financial reports that Pokemon GO doesnt impact their revenue from the mobile sector. Despite the fact it should and does pull more money than Fire Emblem Heroes, it doesnt get counted, because they dont get any revenue from it. It all goes to TPC and Niantic.

@Juanalf They've been trying for years and most of the time its a critical meh and commercial bomb.

@UltimateOtaku91 Nintendo has no say in what GameFreak does with other publishers or internally.

In fact, GameFreak making a game for a Nintendo system by choice is.....almost unheard of. Everything they self published or did with other publishers wouldnt touch Nintendo hardware. They only do Pokemon because they own one third of the IP and the IP states main series games on Nintendo.

But weirdly, even then, Nintendo gets nothing from say, Pokemon GO, so if they really wanted to, they could probably put it on mobile instead.

@DonkeyFantasy I can think of why one of the extra features is missing from PS4.

Ah yes. The iconic start up sounds of the PS1 and PS2.

And the iconic startup sounds of the PS3 onwards: a beep.

Well, I guess we can say for PS5 this Physint.

I'll see myself out.

Nothing quite like a poll asking if we like and/or are playing DOOM to see if more DOOM guided and articles will bring in the clicks and that sweet sweet and revenue.

Yes. Yes I do. Upgraded the PC for this and Monster Hunter, and cant wait to start playing it....in two weeks after all this overnight work.

Adulting hard.

My only worry is that this may not be something that can be pushed as a software update, rather requiring more capable or different hardware.

@DennisReynolds If you look at data that's released monthly, consoles aren't the biggest piece of the pie anymore, anywhere in the world.

This is something Switch users have been dealing with for years.

LA Noire came on a cartridge with only 4GB available. The rest was a clearly marked download. Multiple games followed suit: 16GB but download the other 10GB.

The only time it made sense was say, the Borderlands Collection, where one game was on the cartridge, the others downloaded, but they were all seperate apps.

Then there's the download code in a box: no cartridge included at all. That's been going on for years. Or the games that were a cart and THEN a download code included.

Yeah Nintendo only offers 64GB cards now. Economies of scale. Produce big and only big, bulk costs come down.

If they offered a 16GB card we'd still be getting game keys regardless. Or half on card half download.

It's similar on PS5. Discs are slow. They need to install to the SSD to run. Publishers probably don't care how you get their game. You end up having to pop a key into your PS5 to play the game off the SSD once it's installed. To them, it doesn't matter.

So any way to cheap out is expected. Especially with $80 "early access" to get games at their actual launches, or physical copies that have to download the whole game anyway, or in app purchases, or DLC....maximise profits over everything else.

Sure, Sony or Nintendo could strong arm publisher's into not doing this. Absolutely.

But then the publishers will just go away.

It'll be $70, with $80 for an edition with the actual release date three days prior.

We've been paying $80 for years. It was just for "early access", or as we call it, the actual release date.

Much like how Rayman is a character from the Jaguar, and Lara Croft from the Saturn. The PS1 pilfered everyone in its conquest.

Also, quite odd its only the US dub included.