Comments 342

Re: Rumour: Call of Duty's $300 Million Xbox Game Pass Gambit Could End

LowDefAl

@jgrangervikings1

Internet says Bill Gates is worth $104 to $107 Billion, former CEO Steve Ballmer is even richer than Gates, and Paul Allen’s estate is worth more than $20 Billion. It’s about time the rich start giving back to the people.

Gates has given over $60bn to charity and he was suggesting last year that was now $100bn and has pledged to double that.

Gates has been giving it back for the last 25 years at least.

Ballmer’s charity organisation has given 3 universities $100bn for youth mental health projects on top of other charitable donations.

Paul Allen also has multi decade charity donations of various types.

And yes Satya Nadella also has multiple charity contributions.

The last thing Microsoft CEO’s can be accused of is not giving back. They have all founded charitable organisations with their own money , as well as encouraging their peers to do the same and funding additional projects. Usually in healthcare and education.

Re: PlayStation to Start Putting Fans into PS5 Games with New Playerbase Program

LowDefAl

Of course, sports games over the years have allowed you to scan your likeness into the likes of NBA 2K and WWE 2K for years now through smartphone apps

You could use the eyetoy on Tony Hawk Underground 2 on ps2 to do this or you could email an image to an address and then download it within the game on the previous game

Side note: Tony Hawk was very progressive with weird stuff on ps2, THPS3 had usb modem support because the ps2 network adapter didn’t exist yet (at least outside Japan)

Re: 'We Were Forced to Change': Sony CEO Outlines Shift to Entertainment, and Says PS5 Must Be the Best Place to Play

LowDefAl

@nomither6 Sony still have a good prescence in the sub 1k camera market, it’s not all Alpha 7’s. Their “vlogging” cameras are pretty good but I don’t know how common any type of camera is “out in the wild”, most people just use their phone of course. Prosumer video focused cameras are largely split between Sony and Panasonic I would argue.

With headphones the WM’s are probably one of the most popular models at those prices outside of Apple which is obviously its own market. But honestly wireless headphones all look much of a muchness visually so I dont really pay attention to wha other people are wearing.

Re: 'We Were Forced to Change': Sony CEO Outlines Shift to Entertainment, and Says PS5 Must Be the Best Place to Play

LowDefAl

@nomither6 Sony are still big in cameras, their headphones are quite popular and some of them are very good, they are still very visible in the AV receiver and portable media player sectors. I agree it’s harder to spot them amongst casuals but that’s due to heavy competition in many traditional Sony activities coupled with the direction of travel of many traditional devices into the mess they are now. Obviously everyone having an infinite music library on their phone killed most of their portable audio product line some time ago

It would be nice if Sony led a charge back towards actual Hi-Fi’s and other items where modern tech has made them worse (seriously, give me buttons not phone apps or at least make the device itself capable of everything on the app) but they are risk averse these days due to the competition just like everyone else so it’s often hard for them to compete or stick out amongst the youth.

Re: Hardware Snoop Tips Rumoured PS6 Handheld to Be a Beast

LowDefAl

@SMJ Realistically this is going to be aimed at people who want a portable PlayStation and less at taking market share from pc handhelds. Any of that they can grab is a bonus.

If enough people can buy a dumb device like Portal, that it can completely defy all logic in sale terms than Sony are going to think they can sell enough to make it worthwhile.

Then again, pc handhelds probably aren’t selling 10m units if you combine all of them released so far including Deck. If the device is good they can sell 5m of them over a few years . Price will determine its success.

Re: Hardware Snoop Tips Rumoured PS6 Handheld to Be a Beast

LowDefAl

@SoulofBashar No chance of oled becaue that will just drive up the price or require other components to suffer. Especially given the ram/storage situation.

There are good lcd panels, I wouldn't use the Switch2's terrible screen as a benchmark for what is possible

Re: PS6 Could Cut Costs with Just 1TB Storage, But Games May Have Smaller File Sizes Than Before

LowDefAl

@Neonix some weird revisionism if you think Japanese management is inherently better than western management given the ps3 debacle. It was the western offices who had to fix that mess and a large reason why Jim Ryan got the top job as he was running SCEE when they turned it around in Europe. Also, while Yoshida helped, it was the American office and execs that devised and developed the ps4 to fix the issues of the ps3 era.

Anyway, Hideaki Hoshino has been ceo for a year and nothing has changed outside of a Japanese locked console to counter the yen being a binfire.

The only thing that would change by moving back to Japan is a focus on the Japanese market at the expense of the rest of the world when the Japanese market is as much a product of Nintendo being successful again after the Wii U and because of the merging of their handheld and tv operations.

The nationality of the decision makers is far less important than what those decisions are. Either nationality can be good or bad and PlayStation is making the most revenue it’s ever made, so it isn’t changing.

Hulst can do one though, for sure.

Re: PS6 Could Cut Costs with Just 1TB Storage, But Games May Have Smaller File Sizes Than Before

LowDefAl

@Andy22385

No idea why people need super high storage tbh. Why do you need 25 games installed? Just download when you want it in advance

While I've been keeping my level of installed games low ironically since the PS5 expansion bay was unlocked, you can easily fill 1gb with less than a dozen games. Heck, you could fill a launch/recent digital model ps5 with 4 if you picked badly as actual end user space is only 650gb and some games take 150gb+ once patched.

Even if your games take up a small amount of space, not everyone has the internet connection to downlaod games when they actually think they might play them and installing from disc is hardly quick on many games. There is a cross over point where any of these options makes sense and its different for everyone.

Do people need 50+ games on hand to choose from, probably not. Is standard base console allocation too small for many semi-casual users? Yes. SSD bby default has benefits as well as cons, but the cost of storage is getting worse. It was quite good for a few years.

Re: It's Official: Sony Spins Off Iconic Television Business

LowDefAl

Like a lot of sectors, there is simply too much competition for Sony to succeed now. Vaio, Xperia, Sony TV’s, they were all effectively crowded out of the market leading to reorganisations or sell offs, in whole or part.

Sony haven’t had a decent market share of TVs for years and simply don’t have the economies of scale to compete on pricing with the competition. while you might profit more on high end sets, you won’t sell enough of them. It’s a vicious cycle. Unlike the CRT days where they made tubes for themselves as well as selling them to other brands, they are buying in all their flat panels which raises costs.

LG succeed in displays in the same way that Sony succeeds in cameras, make the key component in house for your own gear and then sell the same components to other brands which reduces the costs for your own products through scale.

Re: After PS5 Price Hikes, Sony Suspends Memory Card Sales Due to Supply Crisis

LowDefAl

@Gravity_Bear I believe all of Sonys chip production are camera and medical image sensors, as well as automotive and presumably some audio. They are market leaders in those fields. Sony own approx half the cmos sensor market, the next competitor is Samsung with 19%.

Making ram and storage chips at enough volume for it to be worth doing and gain market share is sufficiently difficult and expensive for it to be too risky for Sony. While not directly comparable, Just look at Intels difficulties getting running on internal fabrication. It only makes sense with the benefit of hindsight and current events. It would have made no sense before ramageddon and it’s far too late to start now.

Sony no longer make computers (Vaio was sold in 2014 and their 4% share is a rounding error for the branding) and it’s probably cheaper to buy in bulk from the market leaders to make their own because even console scale isn’t really enough to match the competition.

Re: Resident Evil Requiem Receives Much Requested Photo Mode in Latest Free PS5 Update

LowDefAl

@trev666 most photo modes release after launch. I’ve never really understood it because the time to use them is during first run imo. However:

  • It’s probably more important they work on the actual game first.
  • I wonder how may people actually use them for more than 30 seconds.
  • it’s very much optional. No one’s making purchase decisions based on there being a photo mode or not
  • it’s a free feature update, it’s very churlish to complain about it.

Re: Yakuza Dev Partners with Xbox for Stranger Than Heaven, Confirms Deep Dive for May

LowDefAl

@Stepan I don’t see timed exclusivity on this one even with Yakuza/LAD it was just the once and that was for a new console (it was only next gen exclusive, the ps4 version released as normal with Xbox One). It’s not even certain if this is a marketing deal or it just happened to be ready to show but it doesn’t really make sense for Microsoft to pay for exclusivity under their recent trends.

Re: Rumour: Dramatic PS5 Price Increases Incoming, Potential Announcement Tomorrow

LowDefAl

@UltimateOtaku91 25m behind per Sony as of December. PS4 was 9years old for the quoted ps4 figure so ps5 has under 4 years to match it like-for-like.

I’m not going to say it will be easy but I’m not sure it will suddenly stop sales. If anything it’s easier than ever to pay things off over time and Sony haven’t exactly struggled to sell units. Plus they keep giving discounts in Europe every 4-6 months so it may just change the times people buy them.

Re: Yakuza Dev Partners with Xbox for Stranger Than Heaven, Confirms Deep Dive for May

LowDefAl

Microsoft being partnered for this game is not that interesting, it was very predictable. They’ve been very chummy since Microsoft stated the throwing money at them for Yakuza ports and Game Pass. Microsoft correctly identified having the studio onboard would be beneficial to them.

Or are we going to forget Microsoft bought a 3 month exclusivity for Like A Dragon?

Not that I’m criticising, we know Sony do it too. It’s just that this presumed marketing deal isn’t a surprise unless you’ve been living in a cave. And between Xbox and pc Microsoft have every reason to go for it.

Re: 'This Is Unsustainable Madness': Modern Video Game Budgets Are Out of Control

LowDefAl

@AgentMantis 60fps and 4k are design choices and don’t cost money to implement. No console developer is really doing 4k native. Dynamic resolution is a part of basically any engine since the ps4 days and most console games have offered 30/60 options all gen. It’s free. Ray Tracing is cheaper than 4 different light bakes. AC shadows would have taken 2 years and 2tb of data to fully bake all lighting and not use RTGI.

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/assassins-creed-shadows-would-require-2tb-of-data-and-2-years-for-baked-lighting/

Games properly designed for RT are actually cheaper and quicker to make and at this point the technology is well understood and integrated into many engines. Next gen should see a big increase in its usage and will be necessary to reduce costs.