Comments 342

Re: Sony Will Have Capacity to Continue Manufacturing Some Game Discs Beyond 2028 Cut-Off Date

LowDefAl

@dskatter I think its less that it didn't go well, and more that it was never anything more than a niche and no one pretended otherwise. Some weren't sold on the open market but only direct.

The Famicom/Super Famicom TV's by Sharp. Primarily made for hotels and only because Sharp and Nintendo had a console licensing agreement because Sharp were a major Nintendo supplier and manufacturing partner since the original Game & Watch's.

PS2 and PS3 near end of life variants from Sony because they could use existing panels they had and put the consoles in the stands. And only in certain markets. The PS2 model was only in Europe but seemingly not anywhere else (lots of claims it was Uk only, but certainly there were units in Europe). Nine years after the PS2 launched. the PS3 3D Tv seemed to have a wider distribution but was still pretty niche and the system was 6 years old at the time.

I can't think of any others?

Re: Sony Will Have Capacity to Continue Manufacturing Some Game Discs Beyond 2028 Cut-Off Date

LowDefAl

I wouldn't get too excited, this is bound to have all sorts of caveats and be for a limited time depending on the age of the title.

Want 200,000 copies in one region of a game released 3 months before the end of regular production? Absolutely. Want 50k discs for a year old indie title, maybe not. Although I doubt that's a regular occurrence anyway. Either way you will probably have to wait longer.

This makes no difference to the chance of Sony reversing course, they clearly have planned for all of this, the pressing plants will wind down gradually and either operate at a reduced rate with less machines or the reduced production will move to other facilities until whatever day they decide to turn that off completely.

Re: Reaction: PlayStation's Burned Through the Last Remaining Goodwill of Its Fans

LowDefAl

@dskatter

I’d wager if you look at the digital vs physical sales of INDIVIDUAL GAMES available both physically and digitally, the numbers even out considerably.

They do, but only during the release window. Over time it shifts substantially for the same title once psn sales and gradual reduction in normal prices start. At some point a lot of third party games are just cheaper and easier to buy on PSN.

Re: PlayStation Consoles to Stop Getting Disc-Based Physical Releases in 2028

LowDefAl

I'm out. I'm not buying a PS6 at a likely high price to be tied to high digital prices with no resale. If I want to do that I'll just use my PC. if I have to go without exclusives then so be it.

In the old days like most of the PS4 era when Sony actually had good discounts for their own games then it was easy to wait a few months as the discounts also came quicker.

Sony are cutting off their nose to spite their own face here.

Re: Sony Aims to Drive PS Plus Profits by 'Improving Service Proposition'

LowDefAl

I think Premium extensions every Black Friday bought with credit from shopto is cheaper than the standard sub so I just do that.At the very least I am happy enough with the value proposition. I don’t buy many games these days because I don’t need to.

I don’t play online (if I use my ps5 copy of FFXIV instead of my pc one it’s exempt from Plus requirements) so it’s for the games and saves backups for me.

I do think that the save backups should just be free for everyone but I can also see why Sony aren’t going to do that. I also think paying for ps5 game streaming when you may never use it isn’t a great look, but I think the same about Amazon not doing a Prime sub without videos and music so again I don’t expect any change.

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 PS5 Ports Now Official, Launching in July

LowDefAl

@rat-paradise not to disparage those impressive efforts but brute force emulation, which isn’t accurate enough and the high threshold for accuracy an official solution would require are very different things.

The Xbox solution is very impressive but it was a simpler problem more easily solved by just throwing an entire department at it. The ps3 problem is a much bigger task to do, especially if you want it to work for a bulk of the library and well enough to be an official solution.

What works as a community project with caveats and compatibility lists won’t work for a console

Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 PS5 Ports Now Official, Launching in July

LowDefAl

@rat-paradise The technical reason is that those supported games(, it’s not all games) have been recompiled into Xbox one versions. They aren’t actually 360 games in that technical sense as they have had resolution and frame rate increases too and you can’t play them from disc despite omadeli’s suggestion - they are key discs only.

Doing the same on ps3 isn’t practical as anything using the Cell SPU’s properly would be very time consuming and difficult to translate. You have to do a proper port. The main cores of the 360 and ps3 are actually closer than most people think (powerpc) , it’s the extra bits on the Cell chip that are the issue.

Re: New Senua Game Reveal Used as a Way to Sell Ninja Theory to Suitors

LowDefAl

@8th_Observer

They developed proprietary motion capture for Hellblade which could help with PS Studios titles.

Sony already operate a substantial performance capture and animation studio at Santa Monica. They even rent it to third parties (RE:Village was performed there) I'm not sure a secondary facility in Cambridge is necessary,

Re: Sony Reiterates God of War Laufey Is 'Coming Soon' to PS5

LowDefAl

@AI-Generation

It’s the GTA6 stand in game, incase it gets delayed again.

This has to be a joke, because I'm not sure why else you would say something that implies Sony are going to launch Wolverine in Sept and then Laufrey by the end of the year if GTA slips.

If anything they aren't commiting to a date in case GTA slips to a date near the one they are eyeballing like when Gureilla announced the HFW date and Elden Ring was then moved to be quite close.

Re: New Senua Game Reveal Used as a Way to Sell Ninja Theory to Suitors

LowDefAl

@NerdyPaul I’m not sure studio announcing they are working on sequel to their last two games really makes for market manipulation. I think it would have been assumed they were working on it already.

No one is going to pay more for the studio because they are making a new Senua game. It might attract new interest in the studio if they have a game in heavy development but it’s not going to lead to a bidding war. Especially if the studio is considering a management buyout.

Re: Several Xbox Studios at Risk of Closure, in Talks to Become Independent

LowDefAl

@Vertere

Well I’ve some bad news for you. Valve isn’t exactly the bastion of ethics and values. Gabe still has one of the biggest yachts in the harbour

Of course he does, Valve is a private company, Gabe owns 50.1% of the company. It also means they have no shareholders and aren't driven by the "line must go up" demands of them that Microsoft and to a lesser degree Sony are driven by.

However this means that the rest of the company is owned by employees. What was that about ethics and values?

Re: Opinion: PS Plus Users, You Should Play Final Fantasy 16 (But Only If You Play It Like This)

LowDefAl

I don’t think I did any of the side quests (if I did they didn’t seem like SQ’s) and that was just a natural process and not from any advice.

It’s weird. I like the game yet I can see why people might be put off by it. But also as a 14 player some of my time was spent noting all the elements cribbed from 14, given it was written by the same writer who wrote ARR and Heavensward

Ralph Ineson does a good job as CID but it’s also impossible to not instantly be reminded of all his advertising voice overs given his extremely distinctive voice.