LogicStrikesAgain

@REALAIS I’m not necessarily advocating for physical or digital myself. That’s a whole different discussion. I’m actually pretty much full digital myself now.

I’m just saying Sony still does physical versions pretty much right, when they generally still put full games on the disc, fully playable offline

@Max_the_German Fair enough, i do get your point. It just came across as if its framed like Sony is the one spearheading this, when the rest of the industry is already there, and Sony is actually one of the last platformholders that still tries to cater to the diminishing physical crowd with their software and hardware.

I mean PC has been digital ages ago of course. At least the new consoles versions that Sony releases like the Slim and the Pro still have options for physical. And they have some of the best practices in the industry in terms of putting full games on disc.

Now i’m not saying they are not eventually headed that way as well, but i do believe the PS6 will have the option for a physical drive, and i dont think that it will only be able to play PS4 and PS5 games like you said

@BearsEatBeets Yeah, i’m just playin, you’re probably right. It’s just a bit funny and absurd how long they’ve been teasing us with this game, lol

@tonyp1987 Fair enough! ✌🏼

Screenshots?! Give us the gameplay trailer already, Rockstar!

After all these years, they’re still teasing us, lol 😆

@tonyp1987 Yes, they do. Is that just something you wanted to share? 😄

Sooooo, where’s the trailer, Rockstar??!

Gotta give props to Sony. They are one of the last publishers to still release all their games with a physical version, and they actually put the full game on the disc instead of a download link like some other publishers

@Max_the_German You’re kidding right? Sony is one of the last few publishers to still even release all their games with a physical version. Some have long moved to digital only. And Sony still puts the actual full game on the disc, unlike many publishers.

They even released a very niche game like Saros with the full game on the disc. I’m not saying this won’t benefit Playstation, but this is purely a Take Two decision, Sony will have no say in how that publisher decides to distribute their games

@Propaperpusher It might well be. As i said its hard to predict anything anymore, so i will never say anything with full certainty. But i think Sony understands that it needs the mass market though, and they arent foolish enough to not at least try to target them in terms of pricing

@NerdyPaul

if that $1000 Xbox really can play Steam games as the speculation goes then it becomes a more attractive prospect than a $1000 PS6

What people are forgetting though, is that if Helix does put Steam on it, they likely wont be able to subsidize it. So then the Helix might be priced more like a PC rather than a subsidized console, which means its price point might come in closer to the top Steam Machine model at around $1500 than a $1000 price point.

Also, i personally still think Sony will target a more reasonable price point than $1000, to not completely alienate the masses. I can still see PS6 potentially coming in at around $800. But i’m ready to eat my words here when the time comes, as its hard to predict anything in this industry anymore

I dont think we can really compare it to the new Steam Machine’s pricing though, because Sony will still likely use a console business model and try to subsidize their hardware.

Will it be more expensive? Probably. But i’m sure Sony will try to target a price point where the masses will still be able to reasonably buy one

There is more to an ecosystem than specs. Even if on paper they look similar there is a ton of value add on the steam machine that Sony took away from their customers

I understand, that’s exactly what the console business model is. You can opt in at a lower upfront price to a closed eco system and have to pay for services that are free on an open platform like PC. That’s the trade off. Valve isnt going for a console business model here, so they are not subsidizing their hardware.

I’m just pointing it out because there are many people here lately that complain about having to pay for things like PS+, and i just want to remind that that’s partly what makes lower console prices possible in the first place.

But fair enough, i think we’re just seeing the same thing but from different perspectives. So yeah, respectfully agree to disagree

@NathanUC

Imo that argument is out of scope here to start with.
Can we all just be upset and agree all pricing is whack? Sony charges too much for everything

Well, they arent charging $1100-$1400 for the same specs, they are charging $600.

I dont think its out of scope, its an excellent example of how consoles are priced lower, because of using a different business model (services/software). And PC doesnt follow that business model so the entry cost is higher

Very intrigued by this, i must say. Curious to see more from it

@NathanUC You're responding to a point i wasnt making though. I’m not talking about gaming getting more expensive in general. I’m talking about a certain demographic here who complain about console prices while advocating much more expensive PC alternatives. Just pointing out that the “PC is cheaper/better than consoles” argument often ignores that the entry cost is much higher, even for similar or weaker hardware

I just wanna hear more about how people are complaining about Playstation prices and how expensive consoles and their subscriptions are. Well, here’s the alternative, be my guest 🫱🏼

$1100-$1400 for a weaker system than the $600 PS5. Yeah, long live the console business model

I love how this premise really opens up the whole God of War universe. I’m so hyped to play this game and find out where they go with it. And i actually think the randomness of a talking jello cube thing is pretty funny. Also, the more fluid action combat looked awesome

Its just one of those days guys. I think the heatwave currently sweeping through most of Europe has everyone a bit more irritable than usual today 😆🥵

@PSXB Agreed, i’m not saying Sony has never increased prices. I’m just saying every other publisher has done the same and even worse in cases, but Sony seems to constantly get maligned for being greedy.

In terms of pricing they’ve never been exceptionally out of line with their competitors. Even the regional increases for their consoles that you mentioned werent as high as the Xbox console increases. But now that Sony has matched their prices, somehow Sony is once again the one that gets the brunt of it.

Heck, all tech prices has gone up, just one GPU card alone can set you back twice the price of a console, high end phones have already breached the $2K limit, the whole tech industry is feeling the ram and other component shortages, and people are still here arguing that its got nothing to do with component costs at all, just Sony being greedy that’s all. Idk, it seems a bit unreasonable to me

I never understand people maligning Sony for their prices. Their console has always been in line with their competitors pricing, in fact for the 7 months before the last increase it was way cheaper than an Xbox. Also, Xbox and Nintendo were first to announce $80 games. Also Xbox increased their subscription service to a ridiculous $30/month, that they had to rewind back due to losing subscribers.

Playstation, as far as i know, has never been exceptionally out of line with their prices, especially compared to other publishers and platformholders

@Oram77 Well, they are co developed by XDev, which is a Playstation Studio, so i would count them. Also, Sony themselves see them as first party games. And whether Marathon was already in development or not, it still released this year.

But fair enough, i guess you mean purely in house studios, without any third party involvement, that’s why i caveated my comment with “depending on how you look at it.”

Edit: I genuinely wonder though, since you didnt mention Sons of Sparta, do you consider that one first party then? Because that was also co developed with a third party studio.

In the same vein, do you consider games like Until Dawn and Detroit Become Human as first party games? Or Bloodborne?

Or even further away but still related to the topic, Pokemon by Gamefreak? Or the new Spyro from ToysforBob?

Even if we dont count the XDev codeveloped ones though. I still count 3- 4 first party games releasing this year

@Oram77 Depending on how you look at it though, they will already release more than 3 - 4 first party games this year:

• Sons of Sparta
• Marathon
• MLB ‘26
• Saros
• Marvel Tokon
• Wolverine
• Kena: Scars of Kosmora, if it still comes out this year

I love how people love to imply that all other tech prices are affected by component prices, only Playstation isnt, here its just pure greed and nothing else 😈

@get2sammyb Genuinely asking, where are you getting it from that they’re targeting 1 single player annually? Is it this sentence:

Sony aims to create a stable base of revenue through consistent, annual releases of single player games

Because that doesnt necessarily read to me like they’re only targeting one game per year, the fact that its plural seems like they’re implying the output might be more than one game. Maybe i’m be reading it wrong, or maybe you were referencing some other quote entitely idk

I remember this side of the internet blew up in a fit of rage when Playstation required PC gamers to set up a PSN account, but now some people are not having the same energy when it comes to MS doing it.

I will keep the same energy as i had back then though, and say that setting up a MS acccount will probably take mins and isnt worth complaining over if you really wanna play the game. In fact, it’s as easy as setting up a PSN account 😉

Premium is worth it for the streaming of the full catalogue alone btw, just to counter everyone here saying its not worth it.

There’s a debate about whether, in this day and age, console players should be forced to pay to play online – especially when those services are generally offered for free on PC.

People should really understand the console business model by now. Consoles are offered cheaper than PC and thats why they need to make money back with services and software. You can always opt out of PS+ if you only play single player games or free to play games.

People want to have their cake and eat it too. You either pay for online, and get generally cheaper hardware. Or pay PC prices and get online for free. That’s the business model, people need to deal with it.

Also, i think people that keep saying that PS+ Premium is not worth it, really dont understand the tier pricing. Its basically PS+ Extra but $3 more. That $3 gets you 1 or 2 classic games, a movie library and 4K streaming. If anyone genuinely thinks they should add more than that for $3 they really dont understand that that’s just hard to do without a price increase.

Having said that, i’d like Crunchyroll to be added, or at least partly, and downloadable PS3 games would be awesome 😍

@Haruki_NLI Because the country was called (Las Islas) Filipinas for centuries, and the people Filipinos and Filipinas.

In the native language the country is called (Republika ng) Pilipinas. And the people are called Pilipino or Pilipina.

The Americans just made it a bit confusing, when they called the country The Philippines, but kept the Filipina and Filipino with an F instead of Ph

@KundaliniRising333 I think the first part of your post is fair, and its probably true that many companies take events to justify and raise prices to levels above what is needed . But where i disagree is that Sony is doing something uniquely greedy, and Xbox is supposedly not. It was Xbox that first hiked up their console prices, the first of the major publishers (together with Nintendo) to announce $80 games, and not to forget they raised Gamepass pricing from $20 to $30/month before they had to rewind it back due to the loss of subscribers. Every company is trying to look for ways to improve profits margins and increase revenue, thats not just a Sony thing.

You use phrases like “price hikes just to bleed their install base dry” and “predatory greed” to make it seem like Playstation is doing something no company does.

You can argue Sony charges too much, but thats different from saying theyre doing something exceptionally predatory compared to the rest of the industry. Their console pricing has been in line with their competitors or even cheaper, their games cost the same as what other major publishers charge and PS Plus is always accordingly priced below Gamepass because it doesnt include Day 1 first party releases.

I haven’t ever seen them taking their prices to a level that’s very different from the rest of the industry. The only thing i can’t the defend is the one thing you don’t mention btw, which is the personal pricing differences they offer on games.

To argue that their prices are high is one thing. But to relegate all their financial decisions to being purely greed, while overlooking similar decisions from competitors just doesnt sound reasonable to me. I think we will just have to agree to disagree on this one

@KundaliniRising333

I think it's safe to generally say that Sony also completely blundered this generation

I dont really agree with the idea that Sony has “blundered” this generation. By most measurable metrics like console sales, active user base and first party releases, they’r still in a strong position. You can critique their live service strategy, but thats different from calling the whole generation a failure.

And i dont really agree with framing one companies pricing as purely “greed”, while treating the other as neutral, but thats a whole different discussion.

Anyway, my comment to the other user was just about whether this current Xbox restructuring phase is comparable to isolated studio layoffs like Bungie, im not really trying to rank Sony vs Xbox overall here

@MinervaX76 I dont think this is really comparable to Sony laying off people at Bungie. As you said, studio restructures or lay offs happen across every publisher, and is part off normal studio management especially when studios dont meet expectations.

But what’s happening now at Xbox is a more broader reset of their whole business, especially after Xbox leadership have stated that their current structure needs to change for long term sustainability and profitability

Can’t come soon enough! I’m so ready to play this!

Yeah thats totally how these games got on my console too. Damn you, Sony! 🙄

Too many games releasing, they cant all be succesful. The market is oversaturated, and with high development costs the profit margins are too thin to be sustainable.

Closures and lay offs in the industry are almost inevitable. The market is correcting itself in real time after the acquisition spree during/after Covid.

Not to sound cold or anything, but i think if you’re working in any sector that is highly sensitive to AI replacement, you should probably better learnt to pivot fast anyway

Is this what people meant when they were yelling “Xbox is back baby!”

Oh excuse me, “XBOX” 🙄

I was in Tokyo last week and i’m having my post Japan blues. I guess playing as Wolverine in Tokyo is the next best fix to going back, so atleast i have this to look forward to 😆

I’ve been saying it for a while, the market is oversaturated. There are hundreds, if not thousands of games releasing every year. It’s impossible for them all to even break even, let alone be succesful. This means many games will fail sales wise, and many studios will close

@BAMozzy

With 100m users, for example, 4.8m sales would be 4.8% of PS5 gamers bought and played and 95.2% didn't and with 500k sales, that's 0.5%. in other words, over 99.5% didn't buy games like Saros or Marathon.

It does make me ask why Exclusives are so 'important' when so 'few' seem to buy?

Because a library of exclusives usually persuades people to choose one console over another.

However not every game appeals to everyone. Some games will sell to 20% of the userbase and some just to 5% of the userbase. And those that buy aren’t always the same audience. One game might have sold to a different 5% of the userbase than another game. That’s why it’s best to have a varied library of exclusives

@KundaliniRising333

Did either of those compel people to buy a ps5? Not many I assume.....

It’s usually a whole library of exclusives that lures people in though, not just a single game. It’s these two games, and then Wolverine, and Intergalactic, and after a while they’ve built up a slew of new exclusives again on top their existing ones, that’s the real draw

Nice to see. I loved the trailer! Dont care one bit if there’s any controversy behind it, dont follow that nonsense anyway.

Also liked Until Dawn 2, nice to see it landed in the charts

@get2sammyb I’ve noticed you guys dont tend to give much attention to these developer interviews or deep dives here on Push Square. Many first party games usually have them on Playstations Youtube channel, but if i remember correctly you dont really feature them here

@SMJ Definitely both. But some people here are adament that Sony is always the boogieman, and discussing anything regarding Xbox’s sustainability or strategy in a negative sense was often met by those people with comments of being Playstation shills

Funny how Xbox fans were arguing here for years that everything was fine and and sustainable, and any comment otherwise was just PS fans being salty

Wonder which studio might be closed 🧐

Only studio i’m remotely interested in from Xbox is Double Fine, so i hope they survive the cut

@SMJ

People have been saying that Sony don't announce things early.

You’re a regular here, you know very well that Sony doesnt announce games so early anymore. Wolverine might be one of the only few outliers. Unlike Xbox, that announced games years before Wolverine got announced and some still dont even have release dates.

Also, releasing 5 years after announcement isnt even that bad compared to TES6 being announced 8 years ago with no release date for probably years, especially when Insomniac released a triple A game just 2 years ago

Final Fantasy 16!!

Final Fantasy 16 baby!!

Say what you will about Sony, but at least they’re still one of the few publishers that give a damn about physical. Their games all have physical version, and most of the game is on disc as well. Some of these publishers dont even bother with physical anymore, and when they do they just half ass it with a download code like this

I actually think this a fair and reasonable statement. And one of the more honest and transparent non PR sounding one that has come from Asha lately.

I do think all of this is just a little bit too little too late to change anything for the brand though