Comments 128

Re: Bickering Begins Over PS5 Pro's Inability to Sell Out

Kalime78

"The price point for the "premium" model in 2024 is relevant to the price for the more powerful and newer gen model in 20XX."

I don't think the price of a premium item determines the price of future mainstream items. What you are saying is that people expect something more powerful with PS6 and less expensive. That of course might prove difficult, because performance has a cost. I do however believe Sony will figure something out to ensure they do not alienate the vast majority of their audience ^_^

Re: Bickering Begins Over PS5 Pro's Inability to Sell Out

Kalime78

@zupertramp The Pro is a model aimed at a particularly engaged and weatlhy segment of PlayStation consumer. It's less than 10% of all people playing PlayStation. Do you really think PS will alienate 90% of their audience with PS6? Nobody knows for sure, but I don't think being able to sell a console at twice the price to 10% of people beats selling it at normal price to 90%... we'll know soon enough ^_^

Re: How to Pre-Order PS5's 30th Anniversary Collection

Kalime78

@revansgc me experience for me, got in early could select the pro special edition, had to log, then site crashed two times, and then it was gone... °_°'
Dualsense and PS5 Slim collector also gone, but dual sense edge and portal collector are still available..
Standard Pro is still available as well

Re: God of War Ragnarok PC Review Bombed Over PSN Requirement

Kalime78

@Buckster666 a King will take the high road and vote with his wallet, I'm not sure I would call a King someone who go out of their way to harm those who don't bend to their will... that sounds more like "I'm not getting what I want, so I throw a tantrum" aka Karen ^_^

Re: PS6 Is Already Deep in Development, Backwards Compatibility of High Importance

Kalime78

@Blofse I can't speak for all three console manufacturers, but generally they actually don't start straight after launch of previous gen. They tend to take 3-4 years from early design to launch and tend to start "mid gen". Reason I've been told is that, you can't really predict chip 8 years in advance, and you can't really predict market either... so need to be a balance...

Re: Despite Price Point, Analyst Firm Expects PS5 Pro to Sell Like PS4 Pro

Kalime78

hahaha, I happen to be one of those "analyst/consultant" actually working for manufacturers in this industry to predict sales of future hardware.

You directly know the difference between people who actually do this for a living and people who would like to, but really don't.

Confidentiality of your clients is paramount and by just releasing their "estimates" in the press just says a lot about how deeply engaged they are in sales analytics and forecasting.

Second, to do this work properly, you need tons of assumptions on the product, the market response, the marketing investment and so on, which they cannot have access to if they don't work with the manufacturer. And without those any "estimate" is just some crude/basic triangulation.

Also, if the method is really to just reapply the same proportion of Pro/base from previous to this gen, this is not forecasting this is throwing darts... I mean even when not working with the manufacturers and missing tons of inputs, come on, you can do better in terms of statistical regression ^^

but hey, who knows, even a broken watch tell the right time twice a day ^^

Re: Jennifer Hale Says AI Is Coming for All of Us

Kalime78

@Jamesblob not taking any sides here, as it is a complicated topic, but to be fair, the impact on you is maintaining games at an acceptable quality level, while dropping costs and thus risk. Games are expensive to make and have uncertain success. Not saying AI is the solution, nor that everybody should be fired to make room for AI; but on the other hand, there's no free lunch, someone has to pay the cost of making games, or cost have to go down.

Re: Jennifer Hale Says AI Is Coming for All of Us

Kalime78

@WhiteRabbit wait, you're happy the censored got censored? so you like censoring? so you should be unhappy the censored got censored?! or happy because censoring censoring is still censoring?! I think you created a paradox ^_^

Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro Design Seemingly Leaked

Kalime78

@LowDefAl every other year, this topic on which of physical or digital has the lower ecological implications comes back... and each time, based on various numbers available online and lots of argument, it is clearly not as black and white as some think...

Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro Design Seemingly Leaked

Kalime78

@trev666 "everyone" is a confusing word, there are many different cohorts of buyers with different needs. People on this website are mostly engaged hardcore gamers leaning more towards physical. That accounts for a small portion of PS5 Sales. The vast majority who happen to prefer lower HW prices and digital convenience account for the vast majority ^_^

Re: FromSoftware Boss Puts Elden Ring Difficulty Discourse to Bed, Once and For All

Kalime78

@Mustoe I was also taken back by this comment... gamer using old stereotypes to aggress other gamers... amazing...
I have three kids, I play sports every week, see friends, take care of my household chores and am CEO of a small company.. I still got time to "melt into a gaming chair" and platinum the hell out of Elden Ring and all other From games before that... can I play hours at a time, hell no, but can I commit to find time to finish a game I like, for sure !

Re: PS Portal Was the USA's Fourth Best-Selling System in November

Kalime78

@Porco ha no worries, I understand your fear... I knew you'd be a reasonable person given your profile pic ^_^

and it's funny you mentionned consumer research... i'm not going to expand too much on this topic, but one could be surprised at how quickly the market and gamer needs are changing. this Pushsquare site audience is super not representative of the entire market, and I can assure you there is a huge streaming market looming.
We won't have a choice eventually, so I understand your fears, but on the positive side, the tech is actually far more reliable than one would think. I encourage you to try it out if you have the opportunity ^_^

Cheers, and thanks for engaging in civil discussion !

Re: PS Portal Was the USA's Fourth Best-Selling System in November

Kalime78

@Porco man... why so emotional on this topic ^_^
"the portal is a failed experiment purely based on how inconsistently it performs in various use cases, good internet or not. a native handheld would have been infinitely better for sony and gamers alike."
1. have you even tried it out? As far as I am concerned (playing games for more than 30 years, owning all consoles, playing competitively... I mean as hardcore as it gets), the performance of the Portal is definitely great, and filling a gap. Is it for everyone, no (not for you clearly ^_^), but that doesn't mean one should get angry.
2. do you realize how much money Sony lost last time they tried launching a proper handheld? IF they were consider reentering that space, they would do it very cautiously

Re: PS Portal Was the USA's Fourth Best-Selling System in November

Kalime78

@Porco to be clear, I am in the same camp as you, not super looking forward to cloud future, but it is inevitable at this stage. And to be fair not half as bad as internet makes it sound. I was convinced lag would be unbearable, but it is actually not noticeable in most of cases I tried (Portal, GamePass streaming)... I have become a fan of testing things in streaming in gamepass and downloading what I like on PS5 ^_^

Re: PS Portal Was the USA's Fourth Best-Selling System in November

Kalime78

@Porco to be fair, your tone is as subjective as what you point out with press "it is premature to believe this device is destined to be anything but a failure so let's not kid ourselves."
You are making your own conclusions without anything to back it up other than your personal views and needs.
I agree the way this news is delivered is a bit weird, but yes outselling PS demand forecast is a sign of relative success for that platform, for what it is. Of course it's not going to beat the top 3 main consoles, and of course, it's ridiculous to laude the 4th place (out of 4... ^_^), but calling out a failure is a bit much at this stage

Re: E3 Is Officially Dead

Kalime78

@nessisonett Definitely true, although once, they opened the door to the public it became so much more difficult to try anything. Queues were already super long before, they just became completely unmanageable after...
Beyond the obvious better control on your comms and narrative outside of a tradeshow like E3, it's the cost that was one of the major factors in leaving for many publishers and manufacturers. We're talking about more than AAA game marketing budget which was spiraling out of control with everyone trying to outdo everyone...
but yeah... E3 will be sorely missed... that's for sure...

Re: More Resident Evil Remakes Are on the Way, Capcom Confirms

Kalime78

@BearsEatBeets ^_^ I remember discussing with some Capcom marketing person (being intentionally vague) just before they launched 6, telling me they had fixed the issue of dual audience (action vs survival) by making 6 both... the baffled look on my face did not impress them... and to be fair as much as it destroyed the Franchise, 6 was one of the best selling one... It's like you need survival to attract hardcore audience which will entice mainstream, but you need action to please mainstream...

Re: More Resident Evil Remakes Are on the Way, Capcom Confirms

Kalime78

@Bionic-Spencer Has everyone forgotten the huge backlash when RE5 released? ^^ this is going to be even worse in today's world... A white dude cruising Africa killing black people... media is gonna berserk on that ^^ Not sure Capcom wants that story back on the headlines. I agree on the continuity, but it might be safer to be very careful with 5 ^_^

Re: Street Fighter 6's Awesome New Outfits Are Out Now, But Fans Are Fuming at the Prices

Kalime78

@somnambulance I don't know the financials for SF6 specifically, but at 2,5MM units (last number published), 50$ average price (once you take promo into account), -30% retailer cut on digital sales and 50% on physical, we're talking about $60-90MM net... Given their global marketing level for the game, I'd assume something like $10 to 20MM marketing, there's like maybe $50-70MM left to Capcom, you take 20% overhead off and it leaves $40-60MM... that's not an enormous budget for a AAA, definitely high enough for a Fighter, but not one with the scope of SF6.... Also, just saw Capcom was targeting 10MM units... ^_^ We hardcore players hang around with each other, and have the perceptions our loved games have huge reach, but most of them just don't appeal to less engaged audiences.. especially the daunting fighting genre, which has huge barrier to entry...

Re: First PS5 Pulse Earbuds Review Notes Worrying Design and Fit Issues

Kalime78

@zekepliskin ah, don't take it like that, I'm not trying to troll you, just trying to say I see your point about 3DTV and all, but I'm talking about something else, where the need for Portal is more of an essential need in my household situation, versus something like a 3DTV which is more of a nice to have.
I did not mean the 6 seater car comparison to be dismissive, but more to show in our case it is not a gadget, it's addressing a core need that will subsist over time. That being said, maybe you're right and we'll get tired of it. I just don't see it happening ^^ Have a great weekend ! sorry if I offended you ^^

Re: First PS5 Pulse Earbuds Review Notes Worrying Design and Fit Issues

Kalime78

@Shepherd_Tallon I mean most reviews are on point, there is some light compression artefacting, some light stutter once in a while, and quite a lot of issues (lag, resolution and so on) if you don't have an absolute pristine 4 bar wifi connection (we had to install a wifi router in the living room). But if set up is proper, enjoyment is proper... the screen is a killer (and I only buy OLED / do video editing in HDR)

Re: First PS5 Pulse Earbuds Review Notes Worrying Design and Fit Issues

Kalime78

@zekepliskin sure enough ^_^
I can totally understand people not seeing a use for this device, or labelling it as short lived novelty. But unless I lose my children, or suddenly invest in 3 more TVs, the portal will continue being used in my place for some time.
You're like someone saying 6 seater cars are just novelty to a family of 6 ^_^