MFTWrecks

That's it? No actual gameplay? A separate multiplayer reveal?

I legitimately loathe modern game marketing.

Legends was fun af. These are the sorts of smaller, more focused multiplayer titles that Sony should be going after.

A Legends 2 doesn't need to be a live service game and probably shouldn't be. It's OKAY to not be the only game gamers ever play. Make something fun and engaging and make some money, not ALL the money.

What does the linked PushSquare survey have to do with pre-order numbers, exactly?

Y'all have been called out for referring to your own data gathering as "proof" used in opinion pieces, but this is... pretty damn rich, even for y'all.

It's probably because as you play, you realize the matchmaking is some of the worst in the history of videogames. Their chosen methods of driving engagement eventually become so painfully evident that it sucks all the fun out of the proceedings (of which there can sometimes be very little as their balancing can also be wildly hit or miss).

It's honestly a great concept for a game. I put over 100 hours into last I saw. But holy hell did I drop off fast when the matchmaking issues became apparent to me. Killed the entire game for me.

I went from playing it daily for weeks to trying it for a handful of matches when Jean launched, after having not touched it for weeks before (nor since then).

Why are we oohing and ahhing over a promotional video for a conceptual design that uses PS3-era textures?

Since so many games enter an overly-crowded market, it's wild to me that so many seem keen to march forward with higher pricing.

There's something to be said for giving your customers (real and potential) the perception of good (or great) value by allowing them to feel as though they have "gotten away with" buying a good game for less. More games need to embrace the fact that, yes, they surely can enter the market at $70 just because other big games do it and they want to be seen as peers... but there's also a HUGE space for games - especially those that are unknown IP or from unproven teams - to enter at $60, $50, or even $40. Come in low, be seen as a great value almost immediately and juice those sales #s. You may "lose" out on capital off the top, but you're buying goodwill, more players, and (as long as it's actually good) more free advertising as your broader player base sings your game's praises.

There are some recent hits (like Clair Obscur and Helldivers 2) that understood this and reaped the benefits.

I know the bean counters in these companies think they "get" it, but the flagging sales of numerous seemingly impenetrable titles/franchises proves otherwise.

This is all to say, this is a good move from Microsoft (amidst a flurry of awful ones, of late). But this speaks to a broader problem that they found themselves in the middle of for no reason other than misunderstanding their own market. (And for what it's worth, I don't think the game should be a dime over $60, but that's just me.)

@dark_knightmare2 If you don't listen to reviews, why do you read them, check sites for them, or argue their merit?

If you don't give a F about people's opinions, which is all a review is, then none of this should matter and you should realize other people don't care about yours. STFU and just play games.

They dumbed down their one mechanic that people liked, designed some of the sh**tiest maps I've played in an fps, split the player characters into "classes" which creates a huge (needless) amount of balancing issues and makes the learning curve needlessly high, released a completely worthless battle royale mode no one wanted and which plays worse than most existing options already on the market with massive existing player bases, and then at the VERY end of their journey, their CEO (or whomever he was) goes and needlessly makes his game release a political lightning rod for the sake of a terrible gag. Only to turn around a month and a half later and "unrelease" somehow.

Great job, y'all. Really amazing work. Glad it took you so long to put that incredible plan together. Really have your finger on the pulse.

Don't let the fact they are individuals paid to make games. These people are amateurs.

Gotta love that they've abandoned supporting the original system and its faceplates while basically doing ***** all with the plates and now screwing over the millions of customers who own that version of the hardware.

This is why I hate these ***** mid-gen refreshes. It's so damn anti-consumer one way or the other.

Damn.

Have Cyberpunk and RoR2 but those are both huge gets imo for my interests.

I also had Banishers and New World on my buy list. So I am eating WELL this month. Damn.

I really REALLY hope that whatever he develops has some of the DNA from Factions even if it's a new or simply unrelated IP.

I wish Sony wanted to make good multiplayer games, not necessarily the end all be all of live service games. They could have some great success if they put out decent Twisted Metal, Jet Moto, Factions, Killzone, SOCOM, MAG, or Star/Warhawk games these days, live service or not.

But instead of wanting a lot of money, they want all the money, and it's holding them back from releasing potential bangers.

As a Lego nerd who loves spaceships... This is dope af.

@Realist Good for them. To some people, when they buy a remake, they expect to play the game as it was meant to be played. To many, the changes made fundamentally alter the experience to a degree that is not acceptable.

@KidRyan It's simply not the same game. There's no argument otherwise.

Like, come on. That's like remaking a turn-based game like Pokemon Red but making it real-time combat. Or making GTA3 into a linear mission-only game. They're fundamentally not the same.

I hate that this "remake" is somehow not getting critiqued for so fundamentally changing the way the game it is "remaking" operated.

@Dalamar Yeah, at least not at full price. Maybe when it comes down to $20 and it can be justified you're "only buying" 3 or something... I can't support them messing so badly with the core of what made 4 4.

If you're going to mess with the core of the game, don't remake it. No interest in this package with such a jacked up 4.

@Bingoboyop Seems like the majority of things put on Gamepass have commercially struggled. That's the entire basis for the critique of the service this conversation is based upon. So... that.

@EfYI I didn't argue otherwise. My statement was purely in response to the factually incorrect comment made by someone else. Nothing more.

@Max_the_German If you're not making a joke, this is truly next-level spin. Or it's a great example of the issues with object permanence we have as a society thanks to the constant rush of new information flying at us every second.

Firewalk got shuttered within weeks of releasing Concord less than a year ago, my guy. That was one of the biggest and most shocking studio closures in recent history.

Sony may do it less frequently, sure, but it is not immune to the trend. Don't make stuff up to fit your narrative. It's a bad look all around.

But who would have guessed that spending millions to reboot a niche series and then giving it away on a subscription platform would result in poor sales?

Perfect Dark (64) is probably my favorite FPS game of all time. Its reboot looked absolutely awesome to me and was THE reason I would have bought an Xbox One (prior to their multi-platform strategy coming to fruition). It would have been the ONLY Microsoft game I even CONSIDERED buying day one. It would have (in another universe) even pushed me to buy their hardware.

Its cancellation is wild to me. I have no interest in anything Microsoft now owns.

Phil Spencer is the worst thing to ever happen to Xbox. You cannot convince me otherwise.

There was a lot that drove me away from COD over the years, but I tried dipping my toes back in with MW2. The complete tonal dissonance of playing a military shooter but being beamed by players that looked like bad Power Rangers characters just completely drove me away. I abhor everything they have done to that series. It boggles my mind why people put up with their slop.

Why would they buy a studio that made a solid VR-focused roguelike and then not put them on a roguelike title or continue focusing on VR? Makes no sense.

I don't know if I am onboard if it's purely FPS. Don't get me wrong, I love me an FPS game, but there's something about TPS and how you can see your gear and whatnot.

If anything, why don't they just allow for perspective switching like in Battlefront games? Even the TPS GR titles allowed you to go into first person when aiming if you chose to. Why not cater to both audiences?

Sony the company sucks at software design.

I just use psprices as my wishlist. Saves me money, too.

Can we also talk about the fact that the Download function on the webstore is broken? If you find a title in the webstore that you wish to download to your system, there's a big fat DOWNLOAD button. That USED to initiate the download immediately, which would be a fair assumption, but it doesn't do that. Now, it takes you to your entire list of titles, which isn't searchable in any manner. You can filter by a few measly options like PS5 and PS4 (more on that later) or whether it's already downloaded to your system (SUPER HELPFUL EH?) but there is no way to just... go to the game you already said you are trying to download. You have to go page by page to find it. Plus, if you filter by, say, PS5... the entire page mechanic breaks anyway and reloads the front page over and over as you "page through" the list.

I sometimes wonder how anyone takes Sony seriously when their software design (outside of games themselves) is so piss poor.

Maybe they should cut the leadership that TRULY cost them $70+ billion instead of the lowly employees just trying to do their jobs, as requested, and make a living.

The only employees putting them in that position/hole are top level management.

Corporations are ***** idiotic and the stupidity always flows from the top.

@PuppetMaster I had no clue the engine was so old that it ran Killzone SF and the Until Dawn games! Good looking out.

I've never understood why Sony doesn't get into the business of licensing some of its engines. Decima is a jaw dropper every time it's used but it's in what, 4 games? That's a shame.

Sony should license its in-house engines to devs in exchange for timed exclusivity and a marketing push.

Color me extremely intrigued.

@AverageGamer Okay? I bought a PS5 to play new games. Not 20 year old games that weren't all that great to begin with.

Why would anyone buy this? The entire series and DLC (or at least the first trilogy) packaged up to celebrate the birth of the series? You've got my attention. $40 for one of them? Not remotely close to appealing.

Maybe I'm just jaded, but I don't own a PS5 to play Xbox 360 games.

Why this was prioritized over more recent Xbox titles like Halo Infinite is beyond me.

@SMJ But why do a big floating screen? They could put you INSIDE the cabinet, basically.

I have absolutely adored Arizona Sunshine and Pistol Whip. Every "FPS" game on Quest has been - at worst - solid af.

Maybe it'd take a little reworking to do what I envision, so maybe they'd be more remake than port, but I think they would sell incredibly well. VR is the perfect platform for numerous old series and they could be revived and made better than ever.

I don't understand why developers don't port all the old lightgun classics (and these remakes) to VR platforms. They're the best modern analog out there, by a mile.

I'd kill for Time Crisis and Confidential Mission games on my Quest.

No game is worth $80 day one. Not when they're the most unbalanced, glitch-laden versions of modern games. Some people dislike Early Access but come on, people... almost every game on the market is in EA when you consider how poor the launch state of many titles tend to be. It commonly takes months, even years of post-launch support to become the games they sell us. And by then, the game can often be had for less than 50% of the original asking price. Why would you opt to pay to beta test a game? It's absurdly dumb to me.

If you want your product tested, pay for testers. Don't trick consumers into thinking they need to prove their brand allegiance by being suckered into getting to play a glorified demo.

This stuff is absurd to me.

Must buy, imo. Looks right up my alley. Solo dev, too, iirc. Gotta support the little guys.

I think it's pretty disingenuous to say we'll be "controlling" 2 characters at once. This isn't going to play like Phogs or something lol.

This is going to be "the little girl is on your back most of the time and her attacks are buttons X and Y while your robocop dude's attacks are A, B, and C... Oh and every so often he'll be incapacitated and she'll hop off and you'll control her to solve a puzzle or open a door a la controlling Clank in an R&C game."

Turn-based? Nevermind then.

What I've wanted is a morality system tied into combat encounters. And maybe this just isn't for NMS as a game, but I'd kill to be able to have Farcry-like combat encounters where you come across pirates and raiders (or even good law-abiding people like in these settlements) and take them over. Maybe I choose to turn them in to authorities or take over as their pirate captain and we terrorize the universe!

I didn't like how static NMS felt over time. I want some more role playing elements.

Also... Have they fixed absolutely awful the building interface is on consoles? 😂 It always amazes me they put out all these massive systems updates and yet the actual act of building is as finicky and crappy as ever. Like, come ON.

As a big comic book fan, I have no clue why I should have any interest in that Captain America/Black Panther game. It gives such extremely strong "meh" vibes and I know barely anything about it.

I don't understand how THAT gets greenlit and (seemingly) gets released but EA couldn't crack Black Panther by itself (hint: ape the Shadow of Mordor/Arkham Knight series with a dash of RPG elements no deeper than God of War's reboot).

No it won't, because PCGamer reported on this days ago and Insider Gaming simply stole the story and now you've stolen what was stolen.

As a big JGR fan, I had been eyeing Bomb Rush for a while. Happy to end up snagging it for free.

I've had this game since it launched on Switch years ago and it just never lived up to its potential.

The entire gameplay mechanic whereby team members can steal kills and horde the coins necessary to lay down traps has always been mind numbingly dumb. All it takes is one bone headed (or greedy or trolling) teammate to completely waste your time. And let me tell you: there are a lot of them who play this game, it seems.

I had countless matches ruined by teammates stealing all the coins I was trying to earn and then they'd go exploring and never lay down any additional defenses, meaning we'd lose because the enemies waves get HARD rather quickly.

It really really needed love and attention on a mechanical level, but all they seemed to ever do was add customization options and levels, never touching the rotten core of the whole experience.

The fact deathmatches happen on the same levels as the tower defense mode instead of being crafted for actual deathmatch as a mode also meant the staying power of the package was just far too short for what it sort of bills itself as.

It is probably one of my biggest disappointments in the past generation or so.

@Vivisapprentice Yet games that sounded promising on paper like Wonder Woman and BP ended up shuttering their entire development teams. (Wouldn't surprise me if EA also eventually canned their Iron Man game.) Wolverine hasn't been seen since its assets got leaked and may be in development hell for all we know.

The Arkham series is pressing the strength of the word "last few years," by the way. AK came out 10 years ago. Speaking of, you forgot Arkham Knights in your list of letdowns. That game was also awful.

All I'm saying is, these comic IPs rule the media landscape in most regards but they rarely get good, defining videogames to lay claim to. Where is an epic X-Men RPG? Where is a good Superman game? There are so so many opportunities for fun titles and we barely get anything to stand amongst the other videogame greats. Just always odd to me.

That certainly sucks for the people working on it, but man... comic book games seem to really be hit or miss these days. It's wild to me these massive franchises can rarely put together a game worth bringing to market, let alone playing.

A Black Panther game by way of those ME games would be awesome.

@BrotherFilmriss Seriously. What confuses me is that they have hit on some niche yet popular multiplayer modes over the years (Factions, Uncharted MP, for example) that didn't NEED to be full live service titles to garner fans.

Why they haven't simply taken those core concepts and expanded upon them, relying on the gameplay and FUN inherent to them to feed long term interest (you know, how multiplayer suites used to sustain life) and "inject" them with low-key live services elements like selling skins and some new maps and weapons every few weeks.

It is said Naughty Dog didn't want to support Factions because its scope had grown so large that it'd risk swallowing the entire dev team. But, like... HOW?

Make it a standalone mode (say, $20 to purchase standalone or free if you own TLOU2). Build the backend framework so new maps can be added every, say, 4-6 weeks (surely enough for a a few devs to whip up a new playground as long as they were scaled decently small enough like the OG mode). Put a few devs on generation of cosmetic content. And a few on new weapons and items (1-2 could be added with every map rollout). Then a small team to generate new gameplay mechanics to roll out with "seasons" (same way weapons and maps would) and... how could that not be sustainable? How is that an entire company-wide effort?

If it was scoped properly, it wouldn't be at risk of swallowing a company. These teams get so ambitious (whether from within or from external pressure) that I have to imagine they just don't see the easy wins right in front of them.

Factions died for this.

Metal Eden looks cool as hell imo. And I loved KF2, so hopefully they can turn KF3 around. From what I heard, beta impressions were NOT good.

@Northern_munkey You and most of us here, yes.