MattBoothDev

@EfYI basically, TLOU2 sold really well, despite the leaks and online controversy. The controversy surrounding the game had basically no effect on sales. Much like how Hogwarts did exceedingly well despite online tantrums.

The controversy existed within a bubble. You are sure the HBO show will draw the same polarising effect as you saw within the bubble, but, given the above, you're unlikely to be correct.

You've tried to label me a few times and think I'm an apologist either way. I just liked the game, thought it was fun, well done and had some excellent attention to detail. Phenomenal graphics for a PS4 and a good swan song for that generation of consoles. The controversy was annoying, one side was extremely rabid, toxic, illogical and unpleasant (much like the Hogwarts game, though with a polar shift).

Take from that what you will.

@twitchtvpat sure, and, the comments section is filmed with people, like me, who didn't believe them 😂

@EfYI he's the company president. He's not going to dog on the company.

@naruball GoT ended up terrible so probably wasn't a good choice anyway. Point was no one cared when it happened in the game, just the terminally online/reddit

@EfYI Game of Thrones had plenty of shocking deaths people didn't see coming and people still watched. Hell, Pedro Pascal was one of them.

I'll agree all is not well at Naughty Dog. They've just pivoted massively and essentially thrown away a couple of years of work (or releasing some of it with this upcoming remaster).

The push to live services is likely the issue. Not Neil Druckmann.

@EfYI eh, TLOU2 was only polarising to the terminally online. It sold really well and was lauded with over 300 awards.

People will watch the show and buy the games.

@twitchtvpat sure, but the alternative is they kept on going down a path that would have seen them release games no one really wanted to buy and potentially end the studio.

Also maybe this article, or another, but it suggests staff have been moved around into other projects.

This is the best news we've had all year.

Live Service games exist to make money constantly and that means either paying constantly or putting up with gameplay balancing towards incentivising further purchases (usually through frustration mechanics).

No game has ever been made better for being a live service and the model is a cancer on this industry that's ruining videogames.

People say that without the microtransactions the games they like wouldn't get updates, but the games often only exist to push microtransactions. Case in point, no one's complaining that Naughty Dog were making a multiplayer game, they were complaining it's s live service. People wanted a multiplayer game. Sony, on the other hand, only wanted a live service, or nothing, so we get nothing. For the Players indeed.

In an alternative universe, this could've been a great game, enjoyed by many, with no live service, no extra purchases and game geared towards fun not paying.

Not really given it much thought. The update isn't story based, so I don't see the point in playing it, myself.

I will, of course, check it out at some point.

@Wallo I tend not to resell games after I've bought them so that's not a factor for me.

Seems like the negative reactions got into their heads, so they've upped and left.

@Vega37 Wow. Talk about unhinged 😂

I'll ignore all the pathetic "you're killing the industry" and "you're too dumb to understand" rhetoric as it's just pathetic and sad.

However, you raise a point that's mentioned often. That inflation means the $60 price tag is worth less these days. This is true. However, it's completely mitigated by two things:

1. $60 isn't the true cost for a comparative experience anymore. Factoring in DLC and season passes and the fact that some unlockables are now paid for, the true cost of gaming today is much higher than $60.

2. There are many, many more gamers these days. The market is orders of magnitude larger than it was 20 years ago. Meaning more sales overall. For instance, the PlayStation 1 sold around 100m units over it's life and, of that generation, the Nintendo 64 sold around 32m units. The PlayStation 4 alone sold 117m units, the Xbox one 58 million units and the Switch? 134 million. The Switch has sold more on its own than the entire PS1 generation did.

Gaming as an industry was worth $9bn in 2001. Today it's worth $230bn.

I think you mentioned that indie developers need price increases in order to survive but there's nothing stopping them raising their prices. Indie developers hardly release at the full price that AAA games release at, for a good reason.

Finally, there's a reason studios are laying people off right now and it's got absolutely nothing to do with the prices games sell for. Most of them are shedding staff because they over hired during the pandemic. This is happening all over the world. There's also Embracer making the headlines lately, which took on loads of cheap debt to buy IP from SquareEnix and now interest rates have risen they can't actually afford to service their debt and run the game studios. Pretty much all of the Embracer studios have games in the works and not actively on sale making the big money, so they've had to start austerity measures within their holdings.

The base price has already risen to $70 within the last couple of years and, as an industry, gaming eclipses both Hollywood and the music industry in terms of size and revenue. I think gaming is doing just fine.

The last person we should be taking instructions from is the CEO of a games company with the sole responsibility of making ever increasing profits for his company. Are we shocked he wants to charge more? No, it's his job. Should we listen to him? No.

I'll take no more lessons from you.

@Vega37 it didn't cost them a billion to make. For someone who wants to lecture about capitalism, you don't get the concept of profit?

Speaking of, arguing that games make a lot of profit therefore don't need to increase prices isn't anti-capitalist. Either way, I'm looking out for consumer, and ultimately my own, interests.

Games are already very expensive and particularly Grand Theft Auto already suppassed the billion dollar revenue mark within weeks of it's release and continues to make millions to this day. To argue it needs a price increase is actually insane, from a consumer perspective. Ultimate act of self harm.

Edit:

A quick Google suggests GTA5 has made about $7-8 billion since 2013. Again, tell me why GTA6 needs a price increase past £70.

It's safe to say this generation is already in the bag for Sony. They're selling 2:1 and each PlayStation owner has a console as powerful as only around 25% of Xbox users (only 25% own s Series X).

The Xbox will need to drastically cut prices to compete this generation. I expect Microsoft will stop the disc at the next generation which will push purists like me even more towards don't Sony if they continue to offer the option.

@I_SUPPORT_LGTV

You don't have any private messages on Sony's platform. Any messages you send on your PlayStation to another user are property of Sony and you'd be really wise not to put personal data inside them.

You seem to be having a deranged knee jerk reaction to my comment and you appear to be under the impression that you have a statutory right to use a PlayStation online account with other users of the PlayStation network.

As for your comments about being "judge, jury and executioner", again, massive overreaction and over-complication of actual reality.

I'm going to take a wild guess and suggest you also might think that being banned from Twitter is against your rights, as well?

Anyway, into the police comments. That's just insane and a waste of police time. If someone's being a toxic arsehole in the chat of a game, it's is lobby, or something, they should be kicked and/or banned from online play in that game. The outrage is when you're banned from all your games or from all online play in any game.

If you don't like not being able to be toxic and nasty to others, build your own online service (with blackjack and hookers) and moderate the content however you please.

I'll stick to the £10 upgrade.

Edit:

Pleasantly surprised the disc version is £45

@Nepp67 the last Starbreeze Studios games I really enjoyed was The Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness.

I had no idea they were behind Payday myself.

"will carry the signature Starbreeze game cornerstones of cooperative multiplayer, lifetime commitment through a Games as a Service-model, community engagement and a larger than life experience."

Sounds utterly ***** and I'll be avoiding it like it was the plague.

As with all of these live services, I hope it fails and someone loses loads of money.

@Paranoimia I agree. It should be part of the licensing agreements between Sony and content providers. They can pull the content from the store for new sales but we should expect access in perpetuity for digital content we've bought.

@Loamy yeah, I agree to an extent. Insults wouldn't bother me at all. If someone's insulting me over a game we're playing, they're already losing and I'd honestly be amused.

However, I agree with content providers being strict around this stuff. They cater for wide age groups and, let's face it, that hurling insults in the lobby or getting irate that you killed them are extremely toxic and should be dealt with.

See when it's not happening to me, it's happening to someone else, it's less funny and more "get this ***** out of here".

@Loamy I don't think it's bad that they can read your messages and ban you for insulting someone.

But only from chat features and/or online play. Never from your library or offline play. There needs to be updates in consumer rights to make sure they can't brick your console, only stop it from getting online or you being online.

Kinda feels about 3 years late....

I just ranked the few games I've played this year

I wish this guy would pronounce Keighley correctly. It definitely isn't Kee-Lee or Key-Ley.

Means absolutely nothing to me. This is GTA Online so, one way or another, this is actually about shark cards and further purchases and has absolutely nothing to with being fun.

@PixelDragon .... That depends.

Bought digital? 👎

Digital found on the seven seas? ☠️🦜👍

This is just the start of the digital hellscape.

Plot Twist: no one wants another live service.

@MikeOrator right, but, that people buy them doesn't mean they all perceive a positive value from having done so.

Anecdotal as this is, one of my mates described having to buy FUT packs because if you didn't, you'd fall behind. To him, not buying them was putting himself at a disadvantage, so it was more of a necessity than a thing he sought out for pleasure.

If those digital currencies disappeared overnight (say, because of legislation) and games that included them were forced to rebalance their economies away from purchasing, who would miss them? Are any FIFA players going to complain about not having to buy FUT packs anymore? Will Diablo players complain about not having to spend money on whatever stuff they sell there?

I don't think they will. There's prior examples of this - Lord of the Rings: Shadow of War was forced to remove microtransactions, which were quite tame compared to stuff we see today. Afterwards the game quality improved massively once the game economy was rebalanced towards fun, not purchasing.

I'm sure you can find someone who's happy with their Nigerian Prince dealings but honestly, MTX are no better then spam emails. They're a stain on the industry that we'd be better off without. Gaming is worse for their inclusion. The fact that they sel doesn't change that.

Too many of you to reply to big, fair enough, I guess I'm just being cynical. It's a good thing, either way!

I got the trophy 🏆 🌲

But these sorts of things get me a bit. Why not just plant the trees anyway?

Or, maybe they were going to and used the game as a promotion and I'm being cynical.

Yeah, I highly doubt I'll be playing whatever they're publishing on mobile. It'll be the same *****, MTX filled. Gem/coin/card based *****.

They won't just put out a good game on the mobile format with a set sale price.

The last phone game I bought was Final Fantasy 9. Set price. Whole game. No MTX. Perfect. How things should be.

@MikeOrator

Mate, these digital currencies and other scams are basically the same as email spammers.

If no one bought them, they wouldn't do them. But a select few so, at we call have to put up with them. Likewise, if no one replied to the email spammers, they wouldn't bother.

It's well known that most people don't buy these things, but the select few who do go ape ***** for it.

@Vega37 the point was they made a billion dollars on a £/$60 price tag within the first week and therefore they don't need to raise the price.

I don't care about your personal calculator for how you derive your worth for a game. They made one billion dollars in the first week after release. That's only gone up and up. They do not need to charge more money and they don't need to make more money. No one needs a billion dollars. No one deserves a billion dollars.

@Bkzgr8ezt Roblox takes advantage of the children who create all these games for them and generates the content and takes a cut of all the fake currency they sell. The children can sell their robux on a black market for real money and many treat these games/servers like a job. It's rife for scamming and when these kids are scammed and ripped off, Roblox don't want to know about it.

It's a highly reprehensible company and you shouldn't let your kids play it and most definitely shouldn't spend money on it.

As a parent myself, I will never buy in-game currency for my kids. They will never be allowed to spend their own money on it. I will not allow it.

I've not just banned it but I have explained why. It's wasted money and if the game shuts down all your purchases are gone, with no recourse. At least when you buy a DLC or something, you get something that you keep. Anything consumable is out of the question.

I personally think in-game currency should be treated like counterfeit currency by government and dealt with accordingly.

I highly disagree with the premise of the article. These are not signs of the times that we have to just "get to grips with".

Considering some of you are saying this is for "mature" audiences the responses sound like they're coming from horny teenagers desperate for cartoon boobs. Like, have a serious think before you post this kind of stuff. It's quite pathetic.

No wonder the gaming community is a well for incels.

Kinda weird, isn't it?

We have a CEO of large businesses and they're paid lots because "they have the responsibility of the whole company" on their head. All the big business decisions go through this one person.

Yet, when those decisions are wrong and it costs the company, the CEO is not the first job on the chopping block... Neither are any of the senior leadership team.

In fact, they can even go on to take home bonuses.

@Swirly I'd actually be tempted to pick one up at £329.99.

Or you'd go to Very and get the older disc version for £379.99

@rachetmarvel

For £200 😐

I predict a lot of scalpers holding these and losing money.

@__jamiie give it a rest, kid

@WolfyTn
>what’s a Wastelander to do?

Completely ignore it and rue Microsoft for ruining the franchise with exclusivity.

You mean they didn't just get the chequebook out and start buying successful IP?

I'll just be getting the normal version. I haven't gotten any of the special editions of the previous games and that's not a box I want to open, as I'll need the others as well and that'll cost me £££

Imagine there was no physical media to compete with UK digital prices on PlayStation.

This is where Sony and Microsoft want to nudge the industry

Eh, the end result is the same.

I've just bought Cyberpunk for £14 on PS4, which has the free upgrade for PS5. I don't see the point in spending the £40 or so that it's up for on PSN for a PS5 copy

How about...

A combination of the Xbox Series S, Steam Deck and Switch?

A Portable PlayStation that's a new SKU that sits alongside the mainline PS (let's say PlayStation 6) so that all games developed need two builds, one for portable and one for the dedicated console. Build similar to the Steam Deck, price to match.

Make it dockable with the mainline console like a Switch?

Either way, there's a market for a good Sony handheld that plays games. The Vita was great, albeit a bit underpowered for the day it was released. Most Vitas can comfortably overclock with custom firmware, with battery draw being the limiting factor.

Now there's the Steam Deck and Switch showing that there's a portable form factor emerging and it's working well. Something, imho, both the PSP and PS Vita suffered with. The PSP was a bit small in the hands and had only one joystick. The PS Vita had two but they were really small and it was hard to hold for long sessions.

Sony have figured out that just slapping a display in the middle of a controller actually works really well. Now imagine it had a bit more cooling and some better hardware, bigger battery, some storage options, HDR display, nice speakers. Make them digital only, no need to ship cartridges, however nice they are.

I might try Balders's Gate ahead of my pre-order of the physical edition but I maintain these trials should be available to anyone with a PS Plus account. Not Premium only

Tekken 6 is probably the best new addition but it's also just an emulated version of the PSP game