This is one of my most anticipated games of all time. FF7R captured me and it just has not gone away. Feel like I've been waiting for this since the credits rolled with "Hollow" playing.

I'm almost relieved reading all the comments mocking Phil Used Car Salesman Spencer.
I'll say it every time this discussion pops up, there is zero wrong with exclusives, they will always be the backbone of this industry, the best of the best, but just please stop giving Uncle Phil brownie points for talking them down when he didn't have any!

@danzoEX no I'm with you sadly. Just like you, got the plats for Spidey & MM as well, love them both but SM2 is just not bringing out any big hype or emotion at this point.

Reached the point where I don't care about PS "exclusives" anymore, Jim Ryan's Sony has ruined what an "exclusive" is at this point, they abuse the concept when it's basically become "try it first on PS5". It's a must play, I'll be there.
But 3 months? That's nothing, the walls are closing in on they're little Square Enix meal ticket.

I can't believe I'm actually 100x more excited for Final Fantasy than I am Spider-Man but here we are. That FF7R is just too special, been wanting more ever since beating it.

We are truly down to one Sony first party single player per year now and it kind of hurts my heart lol. That being said, FF7 Rebirth looks legendary and Spidey 2 will be a good time.

The strategy of Sony punishing their loyal console players because their other efforts continue to fail is something I'm not liking.
PC Ports have been a complete flop, their early live service games have been disasters, and it's been met with price increases across the board, useless, overpriced accessories that only loyal console people would buy, dwindling first party offerings in favor of service games.
They have cashed in all of their earned loyalty from PS4 and then some.

Writing is on the wall for subscriptions, so this is simply turning the pro sub people into even bigger cash cows. All of these companies are desperately trying to keep those lockdown numbers intact and it ain't gonna happen.
As for Sony itself, this is what happens when you're the market leader, your fans let you get away with everything and you have little competition.

So basically, it sold good, they made their money back already and then some (thanks Sony), but foolishly expected FF7R numbers and are now doing the always weird Square PR games.
Rebirth is going to sell triple in its launch month and they'll probably start whining about the FF16 sales again lol

These new AAA games are actually looking...stuffed with content? Like I know most of us on here despise live service, but with an increasing battle for players' time & $$$, it seems like these games are actually bringing some heat.

Review "bombing" (well deserved) aside, the game is not in its best state ever, and they can that and their $26 skins, and take a hike.
With this and how fast Diablo went into the dumps after they did the "smooth launch, bad stuff later" scam, it's sad to see what has happened to Blizzard.

Absolutely. Live service is the most sinister way of "game" making. They are all designed first and foremost to sell skins, passes, etc, while engagement baiting, FOMO, etc. They're a poison to this industry.

The more Rockstar gets away with, the more nervous I get for GTA VI. The online part of 6 is a near lock to be a live service dystopia, I'm just hoping they still have it in them make a great single player part free of gaming industry garbage.

Completely single player game + microtransactions = ZERO chance I support it. Looking forward to grabbing it used for $10!

Take-Two is so corporate now it's pretty sad. Port aka lowest amount of work + feed it to the 125+ Million Switchs & 100+ Million PS4s + zero mention of current gen + full price = profit.

Time to pick up the pace with the games. PS4 has been respectfully supported, the PC ports are flopping left and right, I want to see a PS5 ONLY push.

There's only one headline that causes more cringe than "Microsoft acquires" and its "Tencent acquires". Can't believe what is happening behind the scenes to this industry!

They don't produce enough exclusives anymore to justify this, and they all end up on PC anyway at this point. If I wanted to continually upgrade my hardware, I'll just jump ship to PC. We're being milked!

I completely understand chasing the Fortnite bag, even though that market is totally cornered and it will take a near perfect case scenario to break through.
I just have a feeling that this whole "live service" push is going to end so poorly for Sony, they're hoping to convert God of War & Horizon single player gamers into skin buyers, it just ain't gonna happen on the grand scale that they need to justify these investments.
Without Square Enix stepping up massively with FF XVI & FF7 Rebirth, we've lowkey already seen their first party output get cut down to one big AAA single player exclusive per year.
Just feels like they're way too late to this market and they're gonna make their core audience, who's carried them via single player exclusives since PS1, suffer as they desperately chase it.

Game Pass kind of lit a fire under me in the exact opposite way Microsoft intended. I make sure I support the games I want to continue to be made now.
Ragnarok, Tears of the Kingdom, FFXVI, etc. I'm rallying behind the giant AAA single player exclusives before I take Microsoft's too good to be true deal and help them destroy the industry.

I'd like to thank COD for help funding our $200+ million blockbuster exclusives.
This should also answer anyone's questions as to why Jim Ryan has gone scorched earth on this deal, that's a lot of revenue & if it starts to dwindle away, people's jobs at the very top come in question.

Awesome! Can't wait to continue to game under the threat of Microsoft trying to buy anyone and everyone!
Rich boys who still can't compete with the Japanese big dogs, no matter how deep their pockets are.

I'll say it a million times, there's absolutely nothing wrong with exclusives, they are the biggest and best games this industry has.
The problem is that Microsoft and Phil Spencer preach this used car salesman unity "when everyone plays, we all win" garbage while doing the exact opposite behind the scenes!

I love that every argument from Microsoft is "we suck, it's our own fault, we pushed Game Pass that cratered our sales, we said exclusives didn't matter when they clearly do, now please let us buy up the industry as a reward".

Yeah sorry I used to give Sony the benefit of the doubt but this is just way too Bungie for me. Not cool, scummy, preying on your loyal players type of stuff

"Nothing to show because Sony had us waste 3 years of dev time on Factions and then let scummy Bungie get it buried."
Sorry still a little salty about that whole situation. Imagine how far along TLOU3 or Jak or any other big story game from ND would be right now if that whole fiasco didn't happen.

I understand why people are liking that Xbox showcase, I agree that I'd love Sony to stop being so cagey and I mean it in no hating way, most of what Microsoft showed just doesn't interest me. I want those mega AAA, single player story games that I can count on and that PlayStation has come to be known for.
The Xbox showcase was better than Sony's, but at the end of the day for me, after this whole "Summer Game Fest" is done, I'm rolling with FF XVI, Spidey 2 & FF7 Rebirth over all that other stuff every single time.

PS Studios the last 12 months or so:
2 PS4/PS5 exclusives
6 PC Ports
Incoming (announced):
1 PS5 exclusive
1 PC port
3 live service (all PC day one)
I have zero regrets about getting PS5 day one because the other option has nothing, but I ate that "only possible with PS5 SSD" marketing stuff up and certainly don't feel like a first class citizen, especially compared to PS4.

I hope this knocks Sony in to re-evaluating this all out live service push, but as for this situation, I'm terrified of how much influence Bungie has gained in such a short time. I can't stress this enough, Destiny 2 is the most over monetized, FOMO using, engagement baiting game ever. Every corner of that game has a price tag on top of annual full price expansions.
Naughty Dog is one of Sony's crown jewels, the fact that they got their game shutdown by the new kids in town is just wild.

The live service push needs to be heavily scaled back right now. This is not what PlayStation is and everything that has happened over the past 48 hours has only cemented it. The GAAS market is cornered, locked down and not letting anyone in anyway. Enough of this crap.
Last of Us 3 needs to hit production immediately, no factions, no multiplayer, no service, let Naughty Dog COOK, having ND waste all of this time is an absolute flop from Ryan & Hulst.
DON'T FIX WHAT AIN'T BROKE.

"I'm more excited about what we didn't show you!" - Phil Spencer, E3 2019, as Xbox continued to crater.
Seriously, Sony needs to get this PR crap together. They thought we'd slurp up a bunch of live services and be all hype. Not gonna happen. Show us the big guns or put someone in charge who will.

Did the check from Microsoft cash before or after they said this? What a joke lol

We walked in with Final Fantasy XVI & Spider-Man 2 as our next big single player exclusives, which it should be pointed out, have been the backbone of PlayStation for decades, and we left the show with those two still being the only ones close.
It was extremely disappointing, and there seemed to be an eerie feeling where those crappy live service games could take the place of their other mid level exclusives (Demon's Souls, Ratchet, etc).
I'm here for the PS Studios story games. I don't care if its 50 Hour Ragnarok, 20 hour Rift Apart or 4 hour Astro's Playroom.

Ragnarok & Spider-Man 2 were announced 2 years ahead of their release year, they have nothing else currently announced so unless a change in strategy, I'm guessing Rebirth will be the big PS5 exclusive of Fall 2024.

Hulst is in over his head with this live service stuff. They're gonna trend chase to a bunch of flops, punish the people making them and alienate their core single player base all at the same time. This is a gigantic risk and they've done zero to calm any concerns.
The only one that you can have any hope for is Factions and that's only because of TLOU brand power, Naughty Dog hasn't made a multiplayer game since 2016 (UC4).
They even took the Jade Raymond bait, who's bounced from studio to studio and hasn't gotten a game out the door in over a decade.
I'd have less concern and not say as much about them trend chasing if they actually announced more single player story exclusives because at this point, they make it seem like the live service games are taking over.

There's no market for this stuff anymore! The live service part of gaming is cornered, no one is dropping Fortnite, and the other 17 ongoing games for this! Sony is chasing ghosts! No service game has broken through since Valorant!

The sad part is that Sony's varied catalog used to be something like Spider-Man, Ratchet, Medievil Remake, Last Guardian. Now its Spider-Man and live services, with Square Enix bailing them out with FF16 exclusive.
The industry just unfortunately caught up to them and they're chasing the trends. I still believe their service push is not going to end well, don't fix what ain't broke.

"We are not in a console war" - Phil Used Car Salesman Spencer

I give it an okay simply because I know Final Fantasy 16 & Spider-Man 2 will be bangers.
But that was not great, lots of mid level games, and I wonder how all of the people who said their live service mission wouldn't impact their output feel now, because that was a lot of live service and not a lot of single player, and the worst part, the service games didn't look very good either.

Yes, please and thank you. Everything they're saying about this game sounds fantastic and it seems like Sony has had a huge influence on them, as this game is basically functioning like one of their AAA single player exclusives would. Can't wait!

My only prediction that I have confidence in is that Wolverine kicks off the show with gameplay but no release date/year, and Spider-Man 2 closes out the show with trailer, gameplay and release date.

Will always like Geoff because I think he honestly loves this industry but from G4 to Spike TV to YouTube, he says this every year, for every show he hosts.
If there's some true AAA megatons dropping this "E3" season, they're most likely dropping on Wednesday at the showcase.

Three massive fighting games incoming, not sure if I'll take the bait on any or simply wait for three complete editions! Still good to see MK, Tekken & Street Fighter all going strong!

I'm not keeping my expectations in check. I'm going full hype train, as it should be! I believe Uncle Jim "We're gonna let the games do our talking" Ryan will deliver.

This feels like the ONE. No state of play, no PS4 mentioned, over an hour long. It's time to truly kick off the PS5 generation!
Zelda just sold 10 Million copies in 3 days, seems like the perfect time to announce some single player exclusive bangers.

Activision-Blizzard have given up, will not invest in anything that doesn't sell battle passes and/or skins. I'm actually starting to see why they and Microsoft are a great match.

The $70 argument will rage on no matter what. My only two cents: unless its a true PlayStation exclusive or Nintendo exclusive, all multiplatform games go on sale within a month. Just pick and choose! Know how to play the market!

It's gonna be very fun going back to back with Tears of the Kingdom and Final Fantasy XVI. Big, beautiful, single player exclusives carrying the industry as always. Love to see it!

That thumbnail! Miss those press conferences with Robot Wilson!

I'm in for whatever they do. Those story modes are so fun!