KippDynamite

Sell it in physical stores.

Sell it to people with active psn accounts.

That would solve 90%+ of the problems.

Looks like it could be decent but at this point it's impossible to know. They've never made a game, and marketing is unreliable.

I hope it's great, though!

Love the question about Gearbox!

Years ago I learned not to trust Randy Pitchford because during a demo of Aliens: Colonial Marines he blasted an enemy and said aloud the phrase "GTFO."

Turns out my judgement was totally right.

I'm just shocked we're still getting news about Fallout 76. To me it's the perfect example of the problems with our supposedly inevitable live-service future.

@Korgon
I agree. Jade was a producer on Assassin's Creed and has some other notable accomplishments, but I personally don't really know if she has the skillset or experience to create a new IP. Hopefully she does!

At the end of the day video games are made by human beings. And while many human beings will be tempted by a huge check from Microsoft, Sony also has an appealing proposition: "we will give you all the resources you need to make whatever game you want. We can give you your dream job." That's pretty appealing!

Their dream job is to make games they want to make - with minimal financial stress and with access to development tools and expertise. Microsoft can offer money, but can they offer you the type of collaborative environment PlayStation has? Can they offer you access to the very best developers in the video game industry, from all departments?

As @JJ2 notes, they have been doing this for years - at least as far back as 2015 with Kojima. It is Microsoft who is reacting - they've apparently decided they can't offer what Sony can to developers, so they are hoping cash is appealing enough.

Sony announces these partnerships early to attract developers to join those studios. "Hate your job? The creators of Destiny have a new studio with financial backing - come join us!" The first video Kojima released after forming his studio was to show the nice and relaxed office space - it was about recruitment.

Anyone with a clue about the gaming business can easily see through this remark. I guess Microsoft is in the phase of the console cycle where they rev up their own fans.

@Octane
Where I live the PS5 is $499 and ratchet and clank is $70. The bundle being $694 makes no sense.

An extra $195 for Ratchet and Clank?

I don't think people have a problem with the game scoring an 8 - the surprise is that the review score is incongruent with the words posted above it. It's odd to say you had a blast playing the game and that it's virtually flawless, and then give it a B-. I think the surprise from people is understandable.

That said, I've long been a proponent that scores are broken, that a 5 should represent "average," and that scores should be subjective.

I can recognize that a film is well made but that I don't personally like it, and I can score it accordingly - for some reason that's taboo with games. I've read many game reviews where the writer effectively says "I didn't personally like the game much but it's really well made and designed so here's my high score."

If a game is "good" but you don't like it, then give it a low score.

Took me about 50 hours to do everything except the cyphers, and another 50 for the cyphers. I kind of regret it because it changed my affinity toward the game.

There might be 110 million PS4s out in the wild compared to, say, 10 million PS5s.

But most of the 8 million people who will buy God of War will be from that pool of 10 million PS5 owners. We've already seen that with Miles Morales.

@Marquez True - many successful businesses are just copycats. But there is also a mountain of dead business that try that strategy.

For years Microsoft has had limited or no exclusive games, putting them on PC as well. This time around they're saying there will be no Xbox One X exclusives for at least a year. Contrary to that, Sony has focused on true exclusives, including making them available only on the newest machines.

It now seems that they are copying each other - Sony releasing first party big hitters on old consoles and also releasing all their games on PC, and Microsoft buying studios and purportedly focusing on exclusives.

My question is: why copy the business model that has failed to surpass your own more successful business model? It would be like Apple suddenly copying the Windows phone.

Herman also said that all PlayStation Studios games will come to PC sometime after launch. They are just copying Microsoft's business model at this point.

Honestly, why in God's name would they copy their competitor that has always come in 2nd place? Sony has "beaten" Microsoft each console generation for almost 20 years. So they decide to shift away from the successful strategy of exclusives to chase a few million sales on PC?

Also coming out on PS3, and on PC a bit later.

Sorry, still feeling really cynical.

I'm just disappointed that they're leaving the 150 million PS2 owners behind. Why leave that install base sitting there when you could make a PS2 version of the next God of War? Frankly, that's bad business!

Sounds dreadful.

I personally turn off aim assist in every game I play so maybe I wouldn't be as bothered by the gunplay, but if the fundamental shooting mechanics are bad then it won't be fun to play no matter what.

Aloy is one of the best characters in gaming (let alone female characters). Reducing her to her physical appearance is abominable and unworthy of discussion.

The more the merrier!

If online communities are less toxic and judgemental then more people will feel welcome.

I was actually a little underwhelmed by the demo. Not sure why. Maybe the arrows and other weapons seemed like they lacked punch? Though if that demo was anything like the one for Zero Dawn, it will be a lot more difficult to actually take down one of those robot mumaks. That's what I hope, anyway.

Regardless, I adore the first game and I'm definitely sold on the sequel based purely on the quality of Zero Dawn.

I really want to love Dragon Quest as much as I used to but I found 11 to be extremely boring. I could barely finish it. If they keep it the same the series might not be for me.

The whole point of this is to expose new audiences to their IP, and then tempt them to get a PlayStation to play the rest. They must have data that suggests gamers in India, Russia, and China largely use PCs, and this tactic is basically a form of advertising. We'll see if the strategy works.

Of actual concern to me is that slide saying they're looking into live services for their first party studios. Ugh.

Sorry that I couldn't contribute more trophies, everyone, but those cyphers in Returnal are effing impossible to find - especially in biome 6.

@Pleasance
TM!™

E3 Season hasn't been amazing for at least a few years. It's hard to get your hopes up year after year.

@JimVectis
Yes! David Doak helped develop GoldenEye and that character is named after him.

Time to leave, Doctor Doak!

If Geoff is involved then expect a mountain of hype for a decidedly average show.

And as someone mentioned above, the when and where of the announcements was a giant mess last year - I genuinely didn't know when it started or when it stopped!

Looks awesome! I'm also jealous they can buy a PS5 from a physical store!

Generally speaking I think gambling is bad for society. Gross for Sony to be associated with this. At least they haven't acted on it.

Customisation is always a plus.

@Dr_ENT
Normally that logic is sound, but there are still some reasonable questions to ask.

To this day Microsoft hasn't directly stated "Bethesda games will be exclusive to Xbox and PC. Their games will not come to Sony or Nintendo consoles." In fact, a Bethesda game is releasing on Sony consoles within the next few months.

Microsoft bought Minecraft for 2 billion dollars but still released it on competing platforms, so there is precedent for them to release games they own on other platforms.

The closest Microsoft has come to a solid comment was to say "they will release anywhere there is GamePass." They have nothing to lose by being direct about the topic, but for some reason they haven't been.

Hence why it's arguably newsworthy. However, this article says that some guy who doesn't work for Microsoft confirmed his own opinion - not really news.

@Ambassador_Kong
According to the article the answers to my questions are "Jeff Grubb is some guy" and "no, he can't officially speak on behalf of Microsoft." Ergo my comment throwing shade on the quality of this post.

Who is Jeff Grubb? Is he able to confirm Microsoft business decisions?

@naruball
I was thinking about DLC prices recently. I paid $10 for the expansion for Horizon: Zero Dawn and played it for maybe 20+ hours. New environment, new weapons, new machines, etc. I thought it was awesome.

And I realized that people have paid $20 for a skin in Anthem.

To this day I think it's crazy to pay for a skin, especially in a full-price game. But apparently it's how these big companies are making most of their cash.

@Daveuppercut
I hear what you're saying and you have a good point. Maybe it makes sense for game prices to increase.

However, I just want to point out that there is more money in the industry than ever. The CEO of Activision recently made $200,000,000 dollars for one year of "work." That's more than it cost to make Grand Theft Auto 5. And it was paid to one person. And that much was paid because it's a drop in the bucket compared to their overall profits.

If every copy is being sold at full price then there's no motivation or reason for them to reduce the price. Simple as that. They don't need to lower game prices to sell PS5s, either.

He said all that in the GDC talk last year that apparently bored the internet.

I believe Mark Cerny said this type of thing is due to the SSD. He mentioned that, for purposes of quick loading into RAM, the post boxes in Spider-Man were installed in 400 different places in the HDD. The PS5 SSD can find the info so fast that devs just need to put each asset in once.

Just pointing out that the author of this article also wrote an article on this website claiming that Sony was no longer taking risks and was only focused on giant AAA games. That narrative started here.

@Sebatrox
Boooooooooooooo!

Other than exploring land on a motorcycle it sounds exactly like the first one. Like, EXACTLY.

Returnal is amazing regardless of how well it does or doesn't sell. But hopefully it continues to sell well via word of mouth so we get more games like it.

It has a lot of great things that I don't see people talk about. For example, I think it's brilliant that you know before going through a door if it's the main path or a side path. It takes away a lot of the tedium of map navigation that is in similar styles of games.

@OMG_Waffles
Awesome! Congrats!

@OMG_Waffles
In the Souls games you attack when there is an opening. For Returnal bosses (including the first one) you have to constantly move from side to side, and you switch directions when there is an opening. You've got to aim at them the whole time, of course.

The third phase of the first boss is trickier mostly because the boss also tries to melee you, so you've got to get a few decent dodges in as well if you want to survive.

@Ear_wiG just software.

It sent an error report with a video, which included me yelling into the controller mic for about 2 seconds. "Wait, NO! BULLSH-"

I've been struggling with world 5 and was having an excellent run last night - good weapon, resurrection item, two full health potions, great artifacts, and full health at 220% integrity. On my way to the part I'm stuck at and the game crashed. Normally no big deal but the game has no saves. I must have cussed at my TV for a solid 5 minutes.

I don't mind exclusives as it differentiates products, but only if the game was either fully funded by the platform holder or wouldn't exist without the platform holder. I'm not a fan of games being restricted just because one company pays money to restrict access to other platforms.

@NEStalgia
If you don't like how Dyson does things then buy a different brand of vacuum. Since there is no monopoly on vacuums you are permitted to do this.

Sony DO have a complete stranglehold ON THEIR OWN PRODUCTS, IN THEIR OWN STORE. If this case goes before a judge, the judge will say "is there anywhere else you can buy video games? What market share does Sony have on all video games?" It is obvious a person can buy video games elsewhere.