Comments 894

Re: Remember Those PC Icons on PS5? Sony Removed Them

IllusiveMan

@TrollOfWar Their bet is that by selling you a subsidized console they will profit from all the games you buy on the PS Store, taking a 30% cut from all third-party games and all MTX within free-to-play games while also taking 100% from first-party sales, plus all the revenue from selling PS+ (keeping it mandatory to play online and cloud saves), and hardware add-ons such as the Portal or some headset, in the long-term that user they got to buy a PS5 by keeping Wolverine exclusive is way more profitable than selling those games to a PC user in which Valve takes a 30% cut.

They’re pulling out from PC simply because it didn’t fulfill their expectations, most games didn’t even sell 10% of what they sold on console, their frankly naive expectations were that people after getting a taste of Sony’s games on PC they’d go all the way to buy a PS5 (said by themselves multiple times in quarterly meetings) but clearly the PC audience doesn’t work like that, they don’t even want to use other launchers other than Steam let alone spend $600 on another hardware.

Source on that because reading it back it really was incredibly dumb and naive:
https://www.gamesradar.com/platforms/playstation/playstations-ceo-drastically-underestimates-the-steam-crowds-patience-thinks-pc-gamers-will-buy-a-ps5-for-exclusive-sequels/

Re: Remember Those PC Icons on PS5? Sony Removed Them

IllusiveMan

@nessisonett Revenue from PC ports was minuscule compared to their console business, sales are not good by any stretch even on the biggest franchises, in the long-term it would hurt their platform as the idea of “why get a console if it’ll eventually make its way to PC” was already taking place, for their bottom line it’s not worth to trade sales on PC to losing users on their platform.

However I do agree it’s very aggressive how Sony is pricing everything, it’s the only platform that doesn’t distribute digital games outside of the PS Store, that’s a huge competitive disadvantage that gets dismissed here every time as it doesn’t allow competitive prices for their digital games which have gotten noticeably more expensive, last gen a Uncharted 4 was $10 a couple of years after launch, nowadays, Returnal for example only drops to $30 5 years after launch, PS+ has prohibitive pricing since the 2023 price hike and haven’t paid for it since, consoles are almost impossible to recommend at the new MSRP.
So I do agree that the barrier of entry for Sony’s first-party games is getting ridiculously high and unsustainable for +300M budgets, but PC has proven to not be the solution to these problems.

Re: Poll: Do You Think PS5 Can Outsell PS4 with Its New Price Point?

IllusiveMan

Before PS6 there’s no way even with the GTA 6 boost, people really overestimate how many are willing to spend at the very least $600 on a console + $80 GTA 6 + $80/100 yearly if they want to play GTA online.

The only way is that after PS6 launches they keep the PS5 as a cheaper entry point since most if not all games will be cross-gen for a long while, but if they do so PS6 will never take off and they’ve made it clear priority isn’t selling more console but rather squeeze dry players who already got it.

Re: The Last of Us Multiplayer Was 80% Complete Before Cancellation, Spent 7 Years in Development

IllusiveMan

@get2sammyb That’s exactly my take since the very beginning, why did it had to be a live-service?
They could’ve released a multiplayer mode such as Factions from the first game or more recently the ‘Legends’ from Ghost of Tsushima and Yotei and we would’ve been fine with it.
Even better imo to not have a predatory battle pass and all what comes with being a live-service, but they rather torched the entire thing than it not being a live-service, which again highlights how terribly they’ve managed their studios.

Everyone involved in these decisions should’ve been out of PlayStation by yesterday (looking at you Hermen).

Re: Feature: PS5 Price - Why Does It Cost So Much in 2026?

IllusiveMan

@ThatOtherNewGuy Times have changed, many people can justify that expense because a phone nowadays carries your whole life also it’s not a yearly expense and most can get it financed. Consoles now have a very specific use case, play games, in previous generations many people could justify getting a console because aside from games they could play their DVDs, Blu-Ray and initial iterations of streaming apps.

Nowadays it’s a box to play games, but if you want to actually play new games you must add $70 for each to the $650 price of the console, and if want to play online add a yearly $80 price to it (bound to go up), that expense isn’t justified for many people in a world where they can play Fortnite on their already owned phone for free.

Re: Feature: PS5 Price - Why Does It Cost So Much in 2026?

IllusiveMan

@get2sammyb I frankly can’t feel for them, they still have an extremely profitable business, they’ve even said this has already been their most financially successful platform, they might not be able to keep hardware prices from rising but the way they also are squeezing us is infuriating all to keep their profit margins where shareholders want it (as most companies nowadays), yet they wouldn’t have a problem with margins if they hadn’t invested and lost billions in a proved failed strategy in live-service games, so in a way it also feels we’re paying for the company’s mistakes and failures.

I also think there should be a discussion on how many gamers (but specifically younger ones) are being entirely priced out from console/traditional gaming, I simply don’t think it’s sustainable to keep squeezing the same audience over and over, would be interesting to have an article regarding that, it’s such a grim outlook for every console gamer.

Re: Crimson Desert (PS5) - A Generational Open World Buried in Early Access Cruft

IllusiveMan

@Fiendish-Beaver It really depends on your tolerance for performance hiccups, with a VRR display it’s barely noticeable most of the time but I personally experienced a boss fight at ~15 FPS on PS5 Pro, it was basically unplayable but I forced my way through it, otherwise I’d say it’s a solid experience but will definitely get much better, I’m already too deep into it to wait for patches but if you haven’t started it may be worth to wait a couple of weeks.

This is easily a 150+ hours completion game, I already made my peace that I’m not gonna get the platinum or 100% it lol

Re: Crimson Desert (PS5) - A Generational Open World Buried in Early Access Cruft

IllusiveMan

@DennisReynolds Yeah it seems to be, I don’t get why the pressure of pumping out a very superficial review in a week if there was no deadline or embargo and worse scoring a game you have not fully experienced, just take the time to fully experience it and do point out specific performance issues instead of trying to do some damage control now, because frankly it’s only missing optimization, the structure of the game is impressively solid to be completely ignored because of FPS hiccups that will be patched (and agreed should’ve been already at launch).

Re: Rumour: Dramatic PS5 Price Increases Teased by French Source

IllusiveMan

I’m always wary of a blue check looking for some engagement, it makes little sense with Sony having many deals for the console and even launching a cheaper Japanese-exclusive console, I just can’t see them bumping up the price by that much, at most I’d expect another $50 increase, however in the not-so remote possibility this is accurate it’d be huge blow for this generation, perhaps letal for the entire console market.

Re: Crimson Desert (PS5) - A Generational Open World Buried in Early Access Cruft

IllusiveMan

I don’t understand why critics are being way too harsh on this game, sure it really could’ve used a couple extra months of development and they should have delayed it until it was ready for all platforms, but this isn’t a Cyberpunk situation nor is the only game that’s launched poorly optimized, even masterpieces such as The Witcher 3 and Baldur’s Gate 3 have launched notoriously broken specially towards the endgame, and yet most outlets reviewed both games with a 10/10, including this very site.

And no, I’m not saying Crimson Desert is a 10/10, as much as in enjoying the game it definitely isn’t, but it’s also nowhere near to be a 6/10, there’s definitely some blatant double standards here, another example is Dragon’s Dogma which was also broken at launch, it’s not nowhere near as fun and yet you gave it a 9/10.

Re: Despite PS5 Hits, Sony Sinks to 21st in Metacritic's Publisher Rankings

IllusiveMan

@Vertere Untrue? All the evidence is clear that this generation has been terribly mismanaged since the very beginning, dozens of projects cancelled, 6+ years of development wasted at several studios, billions of dollars spent on nothing, and yet you claim they still release the same amount of games? Sorry but that’s absurd, just look at the list and compare them yourself, and it gets even worse when you consider Sony owns way more studios now than last generation and still they managed to have much better publishing deals and keep games exclusive for a long time or still remain exclusive.

By 2019 from first-party studios or second-party that were exclusives we already had:

  • Killzone Shadow Fall
  • Infamous Second Son & First Light
  • Little Big Planet 3
  • Bloodborne
  • Resogun
  • The Order 1886
  • Until Dawn
  • Tearaway Unfolded
  • Gravity Rush 2
  • Uncharted 4 & Lost Legacy
  • Ratchet and Clank
  • The Last Guardian
  • Horizon Zero Dawn
  • GT Sport
  • Knack 1&2
  • God of War
  • Spider-Man
  • Detroit Become Human
  • Shadow of the Colossus

And I’m sure I’m missing some games, that plus Days Gone, Death Stranding and Concrete Genie from that year.
And very importantly most if not all them were PS4 exclusive.

Compared to this generation so far we have

  • Spider-Man 2 & Miles Morales
  • Sackboy A Big Adventure
  • Demon’s Souls
  • Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart
  • Returnal
  • GT7
  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • GoW Ragnarok
  • Astro Bot
  • Helldivers 2
  • Concord

Plus Saros, Wolverine and Tokon this year, however from this list 4 of them are PS4 games, most are on PC, and only 4 are true PS5 exclusives so far (including this year’s releases), hence why the meme “PS5 has no games” was gaining traction.

How’s 19 vs 10 the same output? (Not counting Concord since it no longer exists)
Even if we consider third-party temporal exclusives such as Stellar Blade or Kena it’s still way less than any previous generation, and if you want to include PS5’s unnecessary remakes we would have to include all PS4 remasters from PS3 which are way more, and my main takeaway doing this list is what a HUGE loss Japan Studios has been, it left a giant void that Astro Bot alone just can’t fill, and I’m feeling Bluepoint’s absence will sting for a long time too.

Re: Despite PS5 Hits, Sony Sinks to 21st in Metacritic's Publisher Rankings

IllusiveMan

@streetshadow First-party output has definitively dipped compared to any other PS generation even accounting published games, and it’s no wonder why with half the games that were planned are already cancelled and the studio closed, from PS Studios for all 2025 we only got Ghost of Yotei, for all 2024 we only got Astro Bot (and Concord…), for all 2023 we only got Spider-Man 2, it just pales in comparison to the PS4 generation or any other one.

Re: 'The Jumping, Movement, and Attacks Are Way More Responsive': Crimson Desert PS5 Patches Fix Crashes and Controls

IllusiveMan

Nice to see this game doing a quick turnaround even on the non-believers, I’m at 15 hours already and it’s definitely the most addictive open world I’ve played since Death Stranding 2 and Tears of the Kingdom, this update has pretty much solved all issues I had as I’m already used to controls.

The thing that I’ve been liking the most is that you really can make your own way through the game very much like BOTW, TOTK or Death Stranding 1&2, for example I had a mission where I had to sneak in somewhere and the game gives you tips to buy entry for this place, but you can grab that same gear from other NPCs without having to spend anything or just sneak into that place, another mission I had to travel uphill but I wandered off and ended up arriving from the sky, stuff like this makes the journey and the whole game memorable and FUN, which is what games are all about.

Re: 'We Should Have Clearly Disclosed Our Use of AI': Crimson Desert Dev 'Sincerely Apologises' for Erroneously Including AI Art in PS5 Game

IllusiveMan

Sounds like the same lame justification as the devs from Expedition 33, I don’t like it, they both should have disclosed it, but I would be lying if I said I noticed it myself, and now we’re about to hear how they’re the worst devs of all time and people stating they won’t buy the game because of it (when they really never planned to play it anyway).

Re: Crimson Desert Dev to Patch PS5 RPG's 'Uncomfortable' Controls

IllusiveMan

@dskatter Lol sure, none of your comments have expressed a minimal interest in the actual game and there’s a quite a big difference between criticizing and hating, and no you don’t have to justify yourself, if acting like a hate mob makes you happy by all means, we’ll keep having lots of articles for you to ‘criticize the devs’…

Re: Crimson Desert Dev to Patch PS5 RPG's 'Uncomfortable' Controls

IllusiveMan

@dskatter What did the devs did to you?
You’ve been hating on this game for months now, literally for every article there’s at least one comment from you throwing shade at the game, and sure some is justified, not showing console footage was just bizarre as it does run fine, very comparable to any other open-world on a base PS5, but now that it’s released you keep trying to hate on it now with the control scheme, and yes it’s definitely a learning curve but I’m already mostly used to it, I’ve read from the hate mob online “it’s the worst controls for running ever” while it has the same input as every GTA or RDR2, just ridiculous hyperbole to make the game seem like the worst of all time when it’s far from it.

As I’ve said repeatedly it’s perfectly understandable if you don’t like a game and there’s lots of valid reasons for so, but why this obsession of clicking on every article of a game you long ago decided you disliked and leaving a hateful comment? Why clinging on overblown nitpicks people are having when you’re not even playing the game nor have the intention to?
Really can’t understand anyone wishing this hard for a game to fail.

Re: 'We Will Work to Make Improvements Quickly': Crimson Desert Sells 2 Million Copies on Launch Day

IllusiveMan

@TheArt I’d rather have my own opinion than relying on a score to dictate what to try out, there’s plenty of titles I’d consider both underrated and overrated based on that score and a 78 is still a good game under any standards, again if you don’t feel like it or have other games to play that suit you better it’s perfectly fine, but trying to make others feel wrong about trying out a game “because it scored a 78” is just plain ridiculous.

Re: 'We Will Work to Make Improvements Quickly': Crimson Desert Sells 2 Million Copies on Launch Day

IllusiveMan

@DennisReynolds Yeah it’s getting unreal to read such double standards and selective memory, almost every masterpiece game has had cuestionable performance on launch, I remember TW3 had a broken Act 3, CP2077 was blatantly unfinished, BoTW and TOTK infamously ran at 20 FPS in some areas, Baldur’s Gate 3 also had a broken Act 3 (and weird control scheme), Elden Ring I’d say still isn’t optimized lol

And I love those games, some are in my personal Top 3 of all time and I’m not saying Crimson Desert should be on that list but acting like they were perfect and had no jank, specially on launch, is a collective delusion.

Re: 'We Will Work to Make Improvements Quickly': Crimson Desert Sells 2 Million Copies on Launch Day

IllusiveMan

@MrPeanutbutterz And what about us who don’t really care about lore or storytelling in this game?
Since the first gameplay overview it has been clear it’s not the focus of this game, what I expected from all those gameplays was a fun single-player sandbox with lots of things to do and so far it’s absolutely delivering on that.

You (and many others) seem fixated on actively hating this game, and it’s okay to dislike, to point out its weaknesses and technical issues, but what I don’t understand is to be the first ones to click on every article of some game you long ago decided to dislike, immediately drawing comparisons with aspects of other games that are not the focus in this one and some even acting like everyone who’s buying or enjoying the game is wrong.

Re: 'We Will Work to Make Improvements Quickly': Crimson Desert Sells 2 Million Copies on Launch Day

IllusiveMan

After playing for a few hours I simply don’t understand the ongoing hate train for this game, I’m getting obsessed with exploring and already made my own way through a quest, controls are a learning curve but not even near as exaggerated as I’ve been reading online, I also read how difficult and unbearable the first puzzle was and I got through it in 3 minutes, sure it’s not perfect and might not be a GOTY but every nitpick about it has been extremely overblown to make it seem the worst game of all time and so far I’m having a good time with it and does look stunning on PS5 Pro, with PSSR 2 it looks as sharp on performance mode as it does on quality mode.