Leetware1

I have not heard of this before either. Two take aways from this article. 1) there is a huge demand for family, Wii, style gaming; and 2) that price point/ value matters. Love ps5 and switch( and I …enjoy-ish Xbox) however this should be a clear message to “ the big 3” that higher prices does not equal higher sales. Affordability and community matter in gaming now, as much as it ever has ( if not more). So much so that people will forgo their privacy concerns if it’s fun and inexpensive. Also regarding privacy- I look at is as parking my truck on the street. A thief may try to steal it anyway but I’m not going to make it easy by leaving the doors unlocked and keys in it. The whole “they have your data already” point feels a bit weak.

Serious question: how many days this year has PlayStation NOT had a sale? Honestly I love a good sale, but at this point is it really a sale if I rarely, if ever, pay full price? I’m getting sale fatigue.

Bahahaha that “door” looks more like a well um hmm how to say this pc, an old lady. Some of you now can’t unsee that. Bahaha you know what’s on that’s artists mind. 😂

This is a fun game. I had quite some time in on my first character but never got too far into the story. Came back a year later and decided to restart. Still just as good and fun. And now that I’m leveling skill points into a more efficient character it plays even better. Definitely one of my top 15.

@Junghova yeah I’m with ya. I haven’t been gaming as long but, as long as I can keep playing my library, and disc traders ( like a local GameStop but better pricing)exist, I’m going to be putting larch chunks of money like that elsewhere. honestly there is going to be a point where the boost in graphics becomes unrecognizable to the human eye. I’m pretty sure we are very close to that point. Another reason for me to stick with ps5

In the early days (ps, Xbox) I could kinda understand console exclusives- you HAD to get your brand out there. NOW there isn’t a need for exclusives. It’s mind boggling that a company can’t understand more purchases= more purchases. I favor my ps5 because it’s what I favor, but if there was an Xbox or ms owned studio that made a game I like, I’d buy it ( if the price is right). The game itself isn’t about the brand for me. Like I would love to try Starfield, but I stopped buying games for my Xbox cause I don’t really play it much. IMHO the better way to do it would be to release on whichever company owns the studios console first then a few weeks later launch on the other console. That seems like it would be a “win-win”. Apparently that’s too much common sense for an average gaming CEO.

Ok for those arguing about the literal use of a word, and just hear me out, WHO CARES? This is similar to the “ it’s 68 degrees out” “no it ain’t! Liar it’s 67 degrees”. All yall spent that much time missing the point of the article? Really? How bout just agree to disagree and move the eff on? I usually enjoy the comment section here but dang this was a doozy.

Good news. Happy for the citizens of Japan ( not sarcasm). Not really news worthy per se, but still feels good to know. In other news- other big companies are continuing to make choices to try and affect their bottom line ( sarcasm). 😉

What’s the difference between BF sale, recent 75 percent off sale, and recent 80% off sale? Also if you miss this will there be another huge sale 2 days later? Are they going to extend this sale like they do with most sales? I’m beginning to see a pattern here hmm….

Gee whiz! I ain’t gonna equivocate- this is just a tall glass of SUCK juice for loyal subscribers! Even if they are enticing newer subscribers by a superb discount, why can’t loyalty be rewarded? Even if it was half of the discount, it still would go a long way to show that we aren’t being taken for granted.

Ha! The Game Awards- where only 10% of the public vote is considered, and Media outlets tell you what you should like. What a joke! When gamers ourselves decide the awards ( and not 90% media/ paid influencers), I might pay attention. Until then yeah this sorry poop show is no better than Hollywood awards. Lol can’t believe people take these seriously.

Daaaaang that is sweeeet! Can’t wait to buy this one.

@Propaperpusher soo in one comment you say the game is alright, but then you tell someone not to buy it? For a lot of gamers, if it’s a good game it doesn’t matter who profits. If you can’t enjoy a game because you FEEL it MIGHT enrich your political/ geopolitical opponent, then coloring books may be a better option.

@ExarKun great point, though to be fair, PlayStation ( my console of choice most of the time) is headed that way. But It does seem like a lot of doublespeak. “Rent our games for cheaper” then “ game sales are down, poor us”. lol

Married father of 4 here. I have neither unlimited time, nor unlimited budget. Factor in overtime for work ( mandated) and school events. There is just no way to keep up with all the games. I have to be very selective. Been learning to love free games or buy once and play forever mmo’s ( like guildwars). I think this is only an “issue” ( globally) due to the constant barrage of sales from every gaming platform. Combine that with gaming burnout from the Covid lockdowns, and this was bound to happen. All the gamers in my circle have gotten sale fatigue or “ooh look! new shiny thing” fatigue. It takes a lot of enjoyment out of it., and allows devs to get away with releasing sub par games and launches.

Can’t wait to see if bf6 is as improved as people are saying. Very Hopeful for that one.

Ok I’m just going to say it. Gamers at large aren’t a bunch of sophomoric virgins, stuck in their parent basement anymore ( mostly). That stereotype is so late 90’s. That said how is there a game coming out about women’s underwear party in this age of uber political correctness. And, dare I ask, who are these people buying these games? Not someone I’d like to uh shake hands with.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare yeah I’d have to agree on this one. And not just for Xbox, ps plus also. For me it right next to the push for digital only games. Once people are normalized to a subscription then the business model morphs: Make them digital then lock them behind a paywall, then increase the price of the subscription.

I’m a huge advocate for owning games vs renting, and always have been, regardless of system. That said. Even Helen Keller saw this price increase coming! The low priced gp model of day one releases, for top tier games is just not sustainable long term, unless majority of players subscribe, and even then it might just break even. Honestly I’m surprised that it stayed so inexpensive for so long.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare 1) I’m sure you mean what the figurative f. If I have to explain a literal f to you, your parents failed. 2) I’m talking about all the selective moral outrage. The whole “well they are bad people that hurt communities so we can’t buy games from companies they buy” comments. The same people don’t seem to care about other immoral stuff that goes on in the gaming industry. Seems extremely hypocritical, if not dishonest. Also I’m not sure about what bots you are talking about. I don’t think this site uses bots.

As far as business ethics go I see it for what it is. If an investor that is not ethical buys a company ( and to be clear, I couldn’t care less who bought them if it leads to better gaming) people get outraged. Where is the same outrage for the people on the team that take amphetamines, uppers ( meth cocaine etc) to stay up longer and focus on the coding, graphics etc..? Seems like selective outrage to me.

@wiiware Amen! I am predicting that all the people claiming they are going to boycott will find something else to be outraged about next week. Once the next great ea game comes out nobody is going to care about the investors that financed it.

Hell yeah! Love that EA is going private. Maybe I’ll start buying their games again. This is a HUGE win for gaming. Putting the fiduciary interest of stockholders ( literal legal requirement) over making a truly great title, is no more ( at least for EA).

Got this game on a Black Friday sale. This is a game I just can’t love. If it wasn’t marketed as part of “Diablo” franchise, it might be a decent standalone title. I gave it about 100 hrs over 3 characters. I’d say that’s a pretty fair try. Went back to the remastered Diablo 2. Still can’t see why they took what made Diablo amazing and changed it all (area scaling vs level scaling, mp xp share, leveling up stat points etc…). Oh and they still try to keep the price high, as if it deserves it because of the name alone or something. D3 was even a lot closer to the franchise than what this game was. It’s like blizzard took people who had no clue why the first 2 (and expansions) were played soo much, and put them in charge. Or they knew and purposely tried to ruin the franchise. All that said. If you don’t think of it as Diablo, it’s palatable.

So yeah, I mean xbox gonna xbox right? Ok i have to point out the real issue. For being a seemingly playstation website, they sure seem obsessed with every other major system. Its like the writers here think that nobody can own, or like, multiple platforms if they own a playstation product. Do i like Gamepass? Nope. Other people in my house do and im good with that. Also isn't the visual motifs and name of this site a nod to Playstation? Why so many articles about what xbox is doing? I have seen more negative articles about Nintendo and Microsoft here than most other neutral websites. This is about preference, not competition. If it was competition, id probably just stick to Nintendo. As for the matter of game-pass, its very hard for me to care. Microsoft lost me long before gp was a thing.

Essential is more than enough for me. I don’t love the annual price. If they were to permanently lower the prices by 10-20$ I might be enticed to upgrade to the middle tier. I don't play enough to justify paying the current pricing model beyond the first tier though. I think 3 tiers is excessive. Don't know how they would do 2 tiers, or if i would feel any different.

Full disclosure- I rarely buy digital games, and hate the push toward digital. Where i live there is a store called “disc traders” where about 68% of my games are from ( used of course). Even with Digital being SOMETIMeS cheaper ( like black Friday in USA) i still prefer the game on disc. Feels more tangible and like i own it. Same for movies. All that said, there are better ways to handle this, government marketing and/or negotiation for starters. Even IF this non-profit is being altruistic, it still looks and feels like a mafia type shakedown. In the US we call this “lawfare”. The goal is not to affect any real change, or win the suit. The goal is to cost the company lots of money through the court process or “win” by getting a big settlement. If this was about protecting the consumer they would have sued to make changes to the business model, NOT for any monetary awards or damages. And , to clear up any potential confusion on where i stand, i am not pro playstation policies,i remember when you could buy a gift card for a game on PSN. I am anti lawfare as an end goal. More and more i have seen this trend towards suing “ big bad evil company ( that I still CHOOSE to participate in)” because I don't have control of the company. Especially when there are other options first.

@cburg enlighten me then. What information do you feel that i am missing? I stated my opinion based on not only my opinion but those that game with me or at least in my orbit. Again what information do you think i don't have? Or is it that you dont agree with me and your ego requires you to sound like the most informed person out there? Either is fine with me but im genuinely curious to know.

Games pass is just as much of a scam as renting furniture. Not that im particularly pleased when Sony introduced tiers of ps plus, and got more expensive for basic, but at least they didn't buy into the (mostly false) hype of Games Pass. These streamed/ rented games only really makes sense to either hardcore gamers, or those that have time and money to sit and play for hours. As for first party stuff- adding more frosting to a crap cake doesn't change the fact that you are eating a crap cake!

Meh I've moved on from battlefield. Too little too late. Wont be buying.

Heres the whole thing i don't get about VR. Ive never tried a headset that was comfortable with my corrective lenses ( glasses). It would not be too much more expensive to give vr sets the ability to correctly “autorefract” as part of the calibration. At least then i may consider one, pending games and quality, cause i could not wear my glasses. Until then, they aren't even a blip on my radar.

Looks like I'm sticking to my ps5. Likely the last console i will buy. I have xbox and switch as well. I already have A gaming computer. This seems both excessive and par for the course on the part of microsoft. Out of all the systems i play ( as a casual gamer) i prefer my ps5 for the same reason i prefer apple i phones. They are easy to pick up and play. I dont have to call my teenage kids to figure out how to get through an endless supply of menus. All that to say, i really cant understand why they are trying to push everything toward pc. Sony just needs to focus on Sony. I think that amongst Xbox console fans, if they wanted to game on a pc instead of console, they would have bought/built one. This “push everything toward pc windows” wont be as big of a success as they are thinking. Wish them well, but everything i see that Xbox gaming does gets filtered through Microsofts same old business model of control everything and “too bad if our consumers don't like it” attitude.

I hope that something got lost in translation. I think he is referring to like a movie character that you hate at first but later come to see was the good guy all along and and had to be that way. Then you love the series/ character even more. Hopefully thats what he meant-ish. Or he is just a pretentious egomaniac with a lot of money like most of Hollywood. Could be the latter also.

@Fiendish-Beaver yeah. Id have to agree with you. I did buy a ps5 only to find most of the games i still play, or have bought, are mainly PS4. 6 years ago i would not have been able to justify the cost to upgrade mainly for graphics. From an objective business standpoint, it would make sense for microsoft to be a publisher and “livestream (?)” service with Games pass, but that still is less competition for sony. Id even argue that the closest apples to apples comparison for sony consoles is xbox

I can see the allure of renting games for hardcore gamers, but for me, i just cant rent games. I don't rent cars or furniture neither. Not only does it not benefit casual gamers like myself ( games come off, and subscription means pay for days not played), but if it leads to developers getting less money thats a harder pill to swallow, knowing that a small dev may not be able to work on more than one project.

Nice! Congrats Nintendo 🙂.

Ive been pretty lucky. Only 2 quest bugs so far. One has a natural work around and i haven't tried playing again yet since it crashed. Weird thing is, i keep hearing of common fishing and arena quests that should be broken but aren't for me. Wonder if its a regional thing? Broke my own rule to buy this day one and still happy with it.

And in other obvious news, Water is wet! The sun is hot! Lol to be surprised by how the industry works just baffles me. Its not as if this is new. People work on games then a lot leave. Games get canceled then a lot leave. The laid off people will survive, the studio will survive, and sony will survive. Also Days gone is one of my favorite games. Bought it used for 6$. Best money i ever spent on a game. It would be nice to see a sequel but if not oh well. There is so much more other games to play.

@DennisReynolds not at all. The elitist part is the attitude that if people don't have the same problem, don't care about it/ don’t see it as a problem, or have a differing opinion automatically is a fanboy or is lying. But you know that. Implying my reply was something else/ different issue is pretty dishonest. Also and again a governing body getting to choose what games release and when is a power grab by weak people. Not only does it take choice away from the gamers (and market) it relies on subjective opinions. Its the same as “fact checkers”. People who dont like facts so they manipulate the language or argument to fit their objectives. I, like many players, play video games to get away from politics like that. Why would anybody want that garbage in videogames?

@Rich33 i could not disagree with you more. That some elitist pc BS that sours casual players to the gaming community. First off you make an assumptions that anybody who doesn't have an fps issue is lying, a fanboy, or cant see the framerate. Secondly you think that Developers should have to abide by some review process/ marketing rules before they can be ALLOWED to release. Usually unimportant people with nothing constructive to offer make these type of statements. I will help you out and go one step further- Just because you bought a pc, console, or game does not mean you own the gaming community, publishers, or marketing strategies.

@Kierant202 very well stated. I don't think expedition 33 is for me, but had i been interested in it , oblivion remaster would not have stopped me from getting both.

Im glad this publisher ( that i have never heard of) has put on their adult pants and learned to problem solve. It is ludicrous to expect a growing, and seemingly exponentially, crowded market to pause competition and sales. Business don't work like that. Imagine if ford asked gm not to release a truck model series just because it would hurt fords launch. You cant half swim with sharks. Either you embrace, adapt to the market, and survive, or you don't. No amount of begging, wishing, or whining changes that. If this is the attitude that indie developers have adopted, then the future of gaming looks pretty bleak.

Got it on my lunch break yesterday. Unfortunately it took 27 minutes for the deluxe edition to download ( 30 minute lunch) so i had to wait til after work and the kids went to bed. BUT even though I expected amazing visuals-i was completely blown away! Even on an older tv this game is just beautiful. I dont have enough words, in any of the 3 languages i speak, to describe it. Bethesda has long been my favorite developer but this just cements their lead at the top of my list! Knocked it out of the park with this one.

@Balaam_ cause im sure Bethesda is reeeeally concerned about what one person feels that they “better” do ( im guessing you forgot to put the “or else” part in there lol) That being said- I hope they release on disc as well, but if it is download only im still buying it. 🙂

@naruball the problem is that everybody says that but only a handful actually do that. Im on the fence on this issue. I see a lot of great points. And i also have the luxury of having multiple systems and a bunch of free gaming options- take that as you will. To me it seems like sony is just trying to keep with what the market is doing, which is weird because they used to be so much more of their own way. Does it price people out? Sure. are most of the people that complain STILL paying the increased price? You bet. There is an old saying that still rings true “Money talks”. Enough people stop paying and eventually it will force sony to do something different. Everything else just lets sony (and others) get away with never ending price hikes. execs only listen to sales stats, not commentary.

The people that feel the need to compare seem obsessed. They are different brands and types of systems. Why cant that be ok? This is like in junior high when one kid would try to get two groups to fighting. The playstation 4 and 5 is awesome. The switch 1 and 2 is awesome. I dont feel like they are the same, or serve the same purpose, so why the obsession over comparing the two? Its like comparing a Honda accord to a dodge durango. Does not make sense to me

@CKFilms yeah i do agree. Very ridiculous. I thought game companies would do more on the legal side to protect against stuff like this. Only this time I'm glad i heard the rumor. I held back some of my videogame budget because of it. Otherwise i would have blown it on one of psn’s never ending sales, on a few cheap games that would likely sit in my library.