@ShadowRJ In ll honesty probably a little from Column A and a little from Column B.

That said it even came up in a DF supporter question this week so I assume it's a move that's gained traction.

@get2sammyb I'm with you on this occasion but I direct you to the idiom about glass houses given your choice of headlines vs article body sometimes.

@ButteredCrumpet A lot of times the issue is the mastering, there are few of the old masters around. It’s the same reason why different press runs of the same album can vary so much, even in the heyday.

Meanwhile all the FF XIV vinyl has been mastered by Bernie Grundman, presumably made easier to arrange because they give his Tokyo studio so much work in mastering the BD soundtracks (over 700 tracks at this point)

@ButteredCrumpet oh the big Forbidden West vinyl box from Sony Classical was pressed in France by MPO.

However Rift apart was pressed in the US by Memphis Record Pressing, itself a division of GZ Media, the Czech firm I mentioned.

@ButteredCrumpet I’m not sure how distributed video BD’s are across Sony as a whole but if half of Austria’s output is games then we can assume the other half is film and/or audio. I suspect those numbers are already going down but they might be fitting into the 10% capacity it sounds like they are keeping. I agree the lack of news from Sony’s other ventures is odd, I assumed this was a Sony wide thing and I don’t see how they wouldn’t be involved in discussions given DADC operates for the whole of Sony as well as third parties

Vinyl is another matter, I have some game soundtracks released by Sony Classical (and whatever that was branded as before) but I’ve not checked the production codes. A lot of them are probably pressed in Czech like most western record releases. I don’t know where Sony Japan make or get their vinyl from

@Gbarsotini For audio in the US perhaps, but for BD’s Sony run their own pressing plants, although less than before. Their Austrian plant is run by Sony DADC. US game production was, ironically moved to Austria although Brazil may also have been involved. Games are only half the output of the Austrian plant. Third parties printing discs for modern systems needs a reliable source. It seems unlikely.

The reason they are converting it to lens production is because they already started making them in the Austrian plant in 2024.

I haven’t seen a Japanese game from this gen but Sony Music/DADC Japan still operate in Shizuoka and somewhere else and they have Chinese plants too.

@Anthony_Daniels My understanding is they don’t, it’s purely a power move to get into debt with the purchase but then pay it off quickly with eBay’s profits.

EBay is a significantly bigger business. EBay is 5x the market valuation of gamestop

Effectively GameStop are seeking to take eBay’s position in the collectible trading market by force

@Gbarsotini Because that would mean giving third parties the security keys for the system. Not happening. There are reasons why Sony press the discs themselves beyond being a multimedia company.

I don’t think third parties have printed their own games since the Famicom. For piracy, security and licensing money. It’s hard to extract money from people making games for your system if they can bypass you.

Surprised it lasted that long

@LogicStrikesAgain @colt45z Their announcement already said retailers will sell keys. Shopto already sell discounted credit, so I expect them to do the same with game keys. (Not that this makes much sense with catalog titles given PSN sales)

@chatbot Note: This trick was actually used first on Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake.

@Zuljaras I didn't realise Olivia Newton John was a Holodeck program.

🎶 A pirate I was meant to be, trim the sails and roam the sea! 🎶

@PuppetMaster I mean PS5 sales in Japan aren't exactly amazing, but you are right this would seem contrary to recent moves for Japan.

@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?

@Mjoen Putting modern consoles in a TV is a crazy idea. No one wants a thicker TV, there are power and heat dispersal issues and you do not want a fan in your TV. Maybe you could with a Switch 2, but not Xbox or Playstation.

and Sony just sold control of their TV division anyway.

@PlayNation5

Every game gets a 2-hour Game Trial, so you can try before you buy.

The problem with this is that might work for a lot of games but a lot of other games can be finished in that time. Forcing every game to have a mandatory trial causes as many issues as it solves.

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.

@ThePlaystationStan afaik the arrangement was made per game as they were developed not for the whole trilogy at once.

@8th_Observer I mean the lack of third party exclusives, because most games are multi platform these days, even if it takes a few months.

@8th_Observer @get2sammyb I have both but if I'm forced to buy digitally and have no choice, I might as well save the money for a likely very expensive console and get the games on pc. Modern development times and cross platform publishing attitudes mean a couple of exclusives a year isn't enough.

@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.

@tangyzesty and they had a reminder 5 years ago.

This isn't great news but I get it. It was always going to happen and it's hard to justify another extension.

Luckily both machines are easily hacked and Sony stopped caring what you did with either of them a few years ago. Take advantage of that.

@NerdyPaul Sales of new release games average pretty much 50/50 on major new releases based on what we know. Some are higher towards physical, others are lower. It's digital only, catalog and sales titles that really push the needle to the ratios Sony declare in their financials.

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.

@wildcat_kickz IOI are unlikely to let anyone buy them, their independence has let them flourish

@wildcat_kickz calling Ronin one of Sonys best games of the gen is an absolutely wild take that I assume is a joke

@AdamNovice I have a long enough memory to remember Psygnosis knocking out PC ports of all their games (D'Derby, Wipeout, G-Police etc) even after Sony bought them.

No, I'm good thanks. I don't think it looks that great. Ashens showed the Mega Drive ones and I don't think much of them either.

@SeanOhOgain Polygon man is in Astro Bot as Forgotten Mascot.

Even if I hadn't see n this article I would have already assumed this would be the case.

@tameshiyaku You know it’ll probably be censored even on the Z version right?

@Yor-sama The yen is toilet right now , a lot of this is the exchange rate.

Not a surprise and can be traced back to Sony allowing Bungie to continue to run itself for a while.

What a crock of *****

You know there is no evidence of Miyamoto ever making that delay quote right?

@StrickenBiged Except the Halo social account have already confirmed this is a mistake and doesn’t need Plus for local play. Just a basic PSN account which is a system limitation like with any other game.

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.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner There is a "jumbo edition" digital upgrade bundle for base owners , as well as a Hospital/Campus bundle but this is the first time the game has been ps5 native

@zidane4028 Fellow niche dead IP dredger Piko Interactive own the Bleem trademarks as of a few years ago and often partner with QUByte.

Bleem is just another dead brand resurrected for name recognition only rather than any specific values or lineage.

@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

@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.

@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,

@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.

@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.

@NerdyPaul not sure why you used quotes, Stephen Totilo who makes the claims is an actual game journalist with two decades of experience in the industry.

@Schonks like it or not but game industry rumours from good sources have a very high hit rate for being true or at least having a semblance of truth about them where the reality is somewhere in the middle.

Totilo is a decent source

@JazzieJeff1975 the original game did not have online play. Only lan and local split screen.