Why not abandoning consumer hardware at all? Most people wouldn’t even see or feel the difference between a local PlayStation and a streaming service. That’s the real adorably all-digital future.

Can’t wait to play Spider-Man 3 on my PS6 service on the Extra tier.

Hopefully, they already managed to negotiate a contract with a supplier for the disc drives.

I find 2.4m copies not low for a game with mediocre reputation.

For a game with such high production costs, it’s a disappointment.

@Czar_Khastik Sony will reactivate PlayStation Stars just to award you with a unique, shiny digital badge (= PNG) so you can brag in front of the world.

@nomither6 @Czar_Khastik Be careful not to overshoot. If both of you buy 2.1m units to bring the total number to 100m, we land at 102.1m. In this dire economic situation for PlayStation, Sony would be very thankful though.

@underthegun You mean, Ubisoft is the king of the PS Store bargain bin, dominating the sales with dirt cheap ACs and other Ubi stuff? I agree.

And suddenly, you feel like being on an oriental bazaar, with the suspicion that the merchant asks a higher price from you than from everyone else.

And GTA V will still sell long after the release of GTA VI, as it is the case with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Kart World.

Ace Combat 8 and Star Wars: Galactic Racer are the picks for games with style.

Looks like a combination of

• digital deluxe BS versions, which in most cases don’t include substantial extra content like DLCs, and
• discounted games which have prices I regard as normal prices (even if they are too high for non-physical versions imo).

There’s only one great offer I’ve seen these days, and that’s FF7 Rebirth on Switch 2 for nine (9!) euros.

@SinglePlayer49 No, Sony won’t stop Essential. Having to pay the Extra price if someone is only interested to play online would backlash more than any stop of disc production.

I’d rather have an Essential tier without the monthy games, just online play and cloud backups, for 30 euros per year. Nintendo shows with NSO that a lower-cost tier without expensive licenses for third-party games - but access to NES, SNES, Gameboy and Nintendo Music - is possible for 20 euros per year.

@themightyant I know all of that. A stripped down PS5 is useful for product differentiation. The heavily discounted Japanese-only model has the features of all the other versions; this budget version would be the natural fit to “justify” the higher price of the international versions.

And Sony should have reduced the OS size, there was enough time for that. 158+ GB is almost laughable.

Dead Island 2 is not yet available, PS Store doesn’t list it unter PS Plus and asks for the full price. The other games can be claimed though.

Sony missed the chance to make a budget PS5:

• Only 480 GB of storage
• No options to upgrade storage or add a disc drive
• No swappable cover plates
• Only one instead of four USB ports (the high-speed one on the front, which is used by PSVR2)

Many of these titles seem to be very enjoyable and high quality, but could suffer low sales due to the hard competition in the last six or so weeks.

We will see great discounts soon!

And you know what the biggest obstacle for effective dynamic pricing in a platform holder’s storefront is?

Uniform and transparent retail prices

@Czar_Khastik When I see your profile picture while being hungry (which is the case NOW), I think of Ćevapčići.

Mmmh, Ćevapčići 🤤

@dodgykebaab We will probably never find out how GTA VI would run on this handheld. But considering the CPU power budget, I would be surprised if it would exceed 20 fps.

@dodgykebaab I love my Switch 2, but I don’t include it into the class of “high-end consoles”, which I addressed.

@dodgykebaab Of course Switch 2 exists, and it seems to get more into the vicinity of PlayStation with third-party AAA games released (almost) day and date.

But it will not help to increase the (shrinking) total number of high-end consoles, which are the target platforms for many third-parties. And the more consoles of the PS5 performance level, the more games for them, the better for us gamers.

PS4 + Xbox One vs. PS5 + Xbox Series is the more honest comparison.

And when taking Xbox’ decline into account, it’s clear that PlayStation probably has lost more casual gamers with PS5 because of the price hike, but gained more of Xbox’ former core gamers.

Nice for PlayStation, but still bad for the console as the sort of gaming device we know and love.

Bring a PSVR2 mode, and I buy it for 100 euros day one.

My PS Plus Essential subscription expires in December, and these games don’t encourage me to renew my subscription. Yesterday I checked which games will remain in my library (filter on “PS Store”), and I’m fine with them.

Now I focus on getting the best out of PSVR2, when the good games are discounted (bought Ghost Town), which is not very often the case. But in general, I will be very selective when it comes to spend some money to Sony.

Would be interesting to see if CDPR already implemented QSSR. With PSSR support in its current version, activating QSSR should be a job of mere days for the magicians of CDPR’s graphics department.

@LiamCroft It would be great if you would do the maths here to bring this 7.6 per cent into perspective:

7.6% / 35.3% = 21.5% physical of all sales on console platforms

And does this value include Switch 2 Game Key Cards or not?

Edit: No stress, I used AI as a replacement for journalistic work. Capcom treats Game Key Cards as DIGITAL sales. And the share of 7.6% is for the NUMBER of sales, not the share of the revenue.

With the knowledge that the sales numbers are dominated by discounted older digital titles, the revenue share of physical PS5 games is MUCH higher than these 21.5%. Wouldn’t be surprised if it were more than 40%!

Seriously, Capcom will likely become the Publisher of the Year. It’s the rare combination of praise from critics, high level of artistic vision and risk, and financial success. For several titles!

To all of you whiners “Eurogamer gave my future favourite game I haven’t touched yet a 3/5 how dare they”: Read the complete article.

Every game has flaws, and everyone weighs the good and bad aspects of a game differently. It’s already annoying to repeat: There can’t be an objective measurement for cultural products, they are by definition completely subjective.

It’s clear that you don’t permanently need the same staff size. But isn’t that the reason to create and use support studios?

SIE could create such a support studio under the umbrella of XDev, which already has teams in Liverpool and Tokyo. Another team in Bellevue would be great for Sony’s west coast teams. But for these creative solutions, you must have a good management.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner No, it is probably not only GTA, but also CoD. Because MW4 is the first new entry without PS4 support since Ghosts from 2013.

This is now casual gamers upgrading from their Xbox One or PS4 to PS5. Until now, they could play GTA, Fortnite and their yearly CoD and FIFA/FC on their existing consoles. With GTAVI and MW4 (and probably FC 28), this no longer works.

And even the most casual gamer out there knows that Xbox Series is more expensive (X) or less powerful (S) than PS5, and that PS5 is dominating the sales numbers and the platform of choice.

The low rate of jailbreaking is one of the reasons why PlayStation is still a popular platform for online gaming.

Many words to say “PS5 is selling well in preparation for GTAVI”.

@rjejr If the premium was 30 bucks, I would consider discs. At a premium of 20 bucks or less, I would always choose the disc version. BUT the disc(s) must contain the whole game, no Game Key Discs.

Let’s see whether SE is brave enough to release the Japanese version of FFVII Revelation on a single disc, or if they give it the same dual-disc treatment as for Rebirth.

Sony is no stranger to boutique stuff for gans. I know another boutique stuff Sony could offer after January 2028.

Last weekend: Paper Beast (PSVR2)

That was a great and magnificent experience. I’m still amazed when thinking back. These silent and faceless creatures have so much personality in their behaviour, more than many RPG NPCs with their thousands of text lines. And the finale couldn’t be more impressive and memorable. That were the best 2.49 euros I’ve spent for gaming in my life!

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (PS5)

I’ve started this week and played for two hours or so, and I’m already in love with the searching for small hints and the slapstick humour in combat. The fact that Troy Baker didn’t won the award for Best Performance is a crime. I paid a high price to get this game on disc, but it feels bittersweet because it doesn’t work without a download. But I can’t bear the performance of the Switch 2 version.

Metal Gear Solid 2 (Switch 2)

I’ve never played MGS in my life and thought that I must close this knowledge gap. But MGS1 feels so antiquated to me, I could proceed after a few hours. MGS2 is much better and more modern imo, but I’m still learning how to be good at it, and I’m not yet. I will finish this one, but I’ve still not understood the hype around this series and Kojima in general…

This is a warning sign to Vincke that it could also happen to his studio one day. I don’t know what influence EA had on Bioware, but Andromeda showed that Bioware had lost its compass.

I am convinced that the real art is not to get to the top but staying there for a very long time, with a wise and longstanding strategy and great HR work.

Your poll showed that more readers here are interested in Ocarina of Time than in GTA VI. Maybe the hype train is running, but it hasn’t touched me yet.

And even if I would take time off for GTA VI: I don’t even know the estimated time for a playthrough. 30 hours, 50, 80, 120?

„general tc operations/atg contributions”

What does this stand for? ChatGPT couldn’t help me.

The picture shows one disc. With an installation size of 134 GB, it’s almost certain that it will be a GKD (Game Key Disc).

A standard PS6 will only come for a price below 1000 dollars. And if it isn’t possible, Sony will wait. A platform without enough users is DOA.

Nobody wants to get into a Wii U situation, with brilliant games but no sales. Nintendo sits on cash and could afford it, and the 3DS had to do more work than planned. But for Sony as a whole, the PS6 is too important to risk a disaster.

Rather, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new “budget PS5” in the upcoming years, with a die shrink, cheaper cooling, less than 512 GB storage and no option for a disc drive.

And we will finally see the PS6 when new production lines for storage and RAM are finally in operation and the prices fall.

The most prominent victim of the ongoing shutdown phase?

When starting the game, the splash screen shows the logo of a “Japan Studio”. Has anyone heard of them before?

Interesting. From the (rumoured!) introduction of an “a la carte” model, I don’t see why the the claim of unsustainability should be proofed by that.

I see it as a normal evolution in flatrate models. I assume that Sky initially added football to its subscription without extra costs, and later they created several options. Same with Netflix, Disney+.

Typical “console warriors” article. As if the console war would still be on its peak. In 2026, the front lines are different.

And likely, another jailbreak door was closed. AI tools are extremely helpful in finding them, for both sides, the sword (hackers) and the shield (Sony).

@DennisReynolds Microsoft is taking a role here, because the customers want it. I don’t want to go back to a world where I can’t ask Copilot to analyse my emails for specific information which can only be extracted when checking multiple emails at once. Or making a Teams videocall without asking Teams to create two PowerPoint slides with the discussed key ideas to discuss it within the team and with people from other departments.

These AI tools ARE powerful, they increase the precision of my work and safe me from many tedious tasks, and my company is happily (?) paying Microsoft quite some money to let me focus more on communicating (= negotiating) with people and being creative.

What’s so bad about a Finnish Cottage Simulator?

@Reeneman It runs with resolutions between 1260p and 1728p on base PS5, typically 1512p. With QSSR, a reduction to values between 900p and 1260p, upscaled to 1440p, could be totally fine and would create a lot of resources for RT features. Enough CPU resources for RT though? I don’t know.

Will PS5 get QSSR support? Could make a significant difference. Especially if they lower the resolution to integrate select ray tracing features for the 60 fps mode!

Yes, but only if the disc drive is included and not an extra like for PS5 Pro.

Paper Beast on PSVR2

I finished the main game of Outer Wilds, which is a great game, but the DLC is far less interesting to me, so I stopped playing that.

I bought Paper Beast for 3 euros (?) a few months ago. And now it’s time to dust off my PSVR2. I heard good things about this game, and for a short playtime of some four hours, the price seems reasonable.

I’m interested in your opinions on this game!

@Czar_Khastik How can you be so certain?