"Partnering with talented independent studios to publish exciting, exclusive titles for PlayStation players worldwide."

This is less clear than it seems. If you need a PSN account to play a PC game (I know, they removed that requirement), then you can be called a „PlayStation player“, can’t you?

It’s clear that Crimson Desert will win this. But what I read so far about Marathon, it seems to be a real banger, excellently crafted, with great mechanics and a stunning art direction.

Let’s see how Crimson Desert and Marathon will be seen in two years.

@Oram77 Uncharted 4 as the last main entry released TEN years ago. Teenagers today have probably no strong connection to that franchise anymore. Men in their 40s are not the ones who shift many more millions of PS5 consoles.

I‘d argue that Spider-Man is the only SIE franchise that is well known by gamers of different generations. Sony has no Super Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Mario Kart, which are well known by most gamers of any age, and which could attract them to buy their first Switch in 2024. The latest FC and CoD run still fine on PS4, no need for a PS5 (so far), and their stars are sinking.

@Oram77 After so many years after its last main release, I think many gamers don’t know who Naughty Dog is. They know The Last of Us and love the setting and story (from the TV show), but not the studio behind it. Will it be enough to say „From the studio behind TLoU“? I‘d argue that ND fans are PS fans, and most of them have already upgraded to PS5.

At this late state of this console generation, you need really heavy hitters with broad appeal to the masses, like RDR2 for PS4. Or even better, GTA6.

>> But again, these are likely to sell to the existing install base. <<

I agree. From all the games mentioned in the article, only GTA6 will attract new customers to PS6. PS exclusives are demanded only by longterm PS fans, and most of them already have an PS5.

Next, thanks to Cinemersive Labs: PSSR 3

With these specs, the price would be astronomically high. It’s clear that Sony started working on it before the latest explosion of component prices and poor worldwide economy.

With a high price and low sales numbers, this portable PlayStation would suffer the same fate as PSVR2 and PS Vita, an abysmal software support. A self-reinforcing spiral downwards.

I guess chances are low that this device will ever see the light of day.

What they show here is really imaginative. From what I’ve seen of the first game, Cold Symmetry improved the whole mechanics and world building a lot. And it looks fine!

The Balanced mode could be a great 40 fps experience, but the resolution of 1280p is set too high for many scenes. 1080p with FSR3 upscalibg to 4k would have been the better choice.

Why spending so many precious hours of your life with mediocre video games? I will probably never understand that.

We will definitively see a „small“ SDD in PS6. Most gamers out there buy 2-3 games per year. 500 GB would be more than enough for them.

Disk drive: I think that

• Sony will offer an optional disk drive for the generally driveless PS6 and
• it will only be usable for backwards compatibility with PS4 and PS5 disks.
• PS6 games will be digital-only.

Horizon Steel Frontiers is primary a mobile game. There is seemingly nobody left at PS Studios to manage mobile games.

Will Sony still be the publisher? Will NCSOFT take over? Or will we see the announcement that HSF got cancelled?

I should make a post on Reddit, expressing my hope that Pokemon finally comes to PS5. Maybe they will make an article on this topic.

@MrPeanutbutterz I own some Switch 1 cartridges myself which require a download, which are in fact the predecessor of Game-Key Card. And as you might imagine, I am fully aware of the pros or cons of every solution out there, especially trading used copies.

The Starfield model is just ridiculous. The price difference between a „Game-Key Card+“ (= Starfield model) and a fully functional physical version with two disks is SO SMALL, but the difference in quality is huge.

Starfield on Xbox is now patched to a good state. The PS5 physical could have been the definitive version, without major bugs (by Bethesda standards) and without the requirement of an online connection. Could have been, not is.

@wildcat_kickz A code in the box would be even cheaper. Multiply THAT by the amount of copies.

ChatGPT tells me that a version with a second disk would cost between 1 and 2 euros more to produce (disk + more expensive case).

It’s a shame.

Half of the votes say „Too Expensive“. And everyone here knows that most of us would buy the PS6 nevertheless.

Again: Without strong competition, Sony will set the prices at pleasure.

@Glorfindel You mix up aspect in my opinion. When you start a military operation based on good intentions, you should also have a good plan which defines your goals and your toolset to achieve them. And when your military advisors say „Maybe the opponent will go all-in, we’ve studied that possibility for decades“, you shouldn’t say „Nah, our warriors are way too strong, our opponent will beg for a deal“.

And there are players here with goals and appropriate toolsets: 1) The opponent and 2) Bibi, whose favourite tools are Donald and his warriors.

I‘m still uncertain what the best way to go is for Sony. Many young people in the world grow up with PCs and will probably never have a huge TV in their rooms. For them, a classical console is a weird thing, and paying higher prices for games and not having free online play will not go down well.

But who am I to know it better? I can’t even say nor understand why GTA6 won’t launch on PC day and date.

@Glorfindel Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Donald Trump have all their good shares in the rising of costs. AI as a technology isn’t a bubble, but the current business hype is. And the political instability caused by the current US administration spreads uncertainty, and handling these unknown risks raises inflation.

I‘m more surprised that there’s still „PlayStation Direct“, the online shop to order hardware directly from Sony.

Why didn’t they integrate that into the PlayStation Store yet? Would be great to order new hardware directly from your PS4/PS5 and your PS App. And this stupid „PS Direct“ brand could be a thing of the past, replaced by the well known PS Store.

Or would Sony run into trouble with retailers?

Thank you, Sam and Elon! And Donald!

Wouldn’t be surprised if Sony decides the prices based on the phones and computers which are used by the customers. It is well documented that Apple users often see higher prices on Amazon than those with Windows PCs and Android phones.

FIFA was a dodgy organisation as long as I can remember, and one of the organisations with the lowest public trust. And then came Gianni Infantino. Wouldn’t be surprised if the director of a FIFA-like association would become the villain in the next James Bond film.

@themightyant I just watched a great video about this update from German-speaking YouTuber „Jack Fromsoft“ (and because of his heavy dialect no easy auto-translation). He says that almost every bad aspect of the release version is fixed, except the low number of enemy types and their abysmal positioning in the world, and that its bosses are still too easy. He regards it as the best non-FromSoft Souls game.

@HaveTheSauce Thanks!

I think Marathon is a slow burner. Player counts will stabilise on all platforms, updates will keep the game interesting, and more and more loyal gamers will follow, due to word-of-mouth and ongoing updates (which will likely aim to make it more accessible for newcomers). Because the substance seems to be great and the artwork exceptional.

And in three years, on this very website, we will read the headline „Marathon Just Broke the All-Time Record for Concurrent Player Numbers“.

What many people dislike, and that‘s a huge part of this cynical „flopathon“ mentality, is the artificial hype around a game, like if it was the reinvention of sliced bread. We saw it with Concord and Highguard. Just give us great games without loud fanfare, like E33, and people will buy and play them!

2025 was a good year for PS Studios, no studio closed!

Well, three studios in the year prior…

Hermen wants to beat his record of 2024. We‘re still in Q1, and he already reached 50% of his goal. Great man! How about Media Molecule?

The publisher is still operating, and more patches were certainly not planned even before the layoffs.

So why delisting? It makes no sense at all to me.

@ElkinFencer10 You mean, Bubsy isn’t dead?

@get2sammyb One of your best (sub)titles in a long time imo. You know that Hookshot‘s typical readership is best described with „Sad Dad“.

If You Want to Play a New Unreal Tournament on PS5, There's a Good Chance You're Old

https://flopathon.cc/game/1348-ex-voto

Flopathon knew it.
THE NUMBERS DON‘T LIE.

That little story shows that even if somebody observed this change and posted it on social media, this posting didn’t get attention enough.

My interpretation: Nobody observed the change, because „PSN“ is just not needed anymore, and Sony was right to let it go.

From all what I have seen about this game, I am not surprised. And not that I think Pearl Abyss wanted to save a huge amount of money, but as result of the general poor level of care and refinement. Pearl Abyss has obviously bitten more than it could chew.

@LikelySatan You know Eurojank, games primarily from Eastern Europe, with complex and somewhat overachieving mechanics for their small budget, and graphics are poor.

The logical evolution is Asiajank: Same inappropriate ambition, but also with heavy focus on pleasing graphics. The Wo/Wu games, Where Winds Meet, this game.

And yes, I haven’t read the term Asiajank before, but it just makes sense from my perspective.

Let talented independent studios use your IP to make smaller games, in order to make some money, create exciting news of new exclusives, and cultivate the IP.

Sony finally got it.

That’s ridiculous. They develop this game over a span of several years. They make ports for PS5 and Xbox Series. And they didn’t test the controls with their target audience?

Other, competent developers make great games with little financial success. And Pearl Abyss has huge success with this Asiajank.

@get2sammyb „but there’s no doubt its PSVR2 mode will make it better“

Are you sure? I have a quite robust stomach, but VR with down to 24 fps would test it like nothing else before, and kill the effect of immersion what makes VR so special.

Before ordering FS2024, I wait for the first video impressions from VR specialists.

@Praise_Furret You must send these messages also to Damien. He’s co-founder of Hookshot Media (Nintendo Life and later PushSquare) and the editorial director of Hookshot Media. He should be the one responsible for the journalistic standards of PushSquare.

https://www.nintendolife.com/authors/Damo

Gears of War is a canonical game I‘ve never played. But do I really want to invest money and time to finally play it? I don’t know.

In the poll, we could vote for
„I think it's going to be special“

According to the article, it is.

@somnambulance Chances are high that the PS Portal will be supported by the PS6. Otherwise, people would be very unhappy with their new Honda, supporting streaming PS5 games but not PS6 games in two years.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/12/sony-hondas-electric-car-will-be-the-first-vehicle-with-full-ps5-remote-play-integration

Online gaming will be part of PS Plus, as it‘s the case already (F2P games ignored).
Purchasing games online will be part of PS Store, as it’s the case already.
„PSN is down“ we will call „PS services are offline“.

Look at the screenshot of the PS5 interface: The two online services PS Plus and PS Store have their own permanent and very prominent buttons.

„PS Plus“ was strengthened by integrating PS Now, which helped to make it easier to understand these services; PS Now was pretty confusing in the end. With the elimination of „PSN“, the brand „PS Plus“ will get strengthened even more.

That’s good, I couldn’t say what PlayStation Network stands for nowadays. Online multiplayer? Store for digital games?

More interesting is what the new name will be. Because I don’t see an existing term which would fit better. PS Plus for online gaming, PS Store for the digital store?

Calm down, guys. Metacritic score of 79. Definitely not the next E33.

This is so depressing. Sony sold excellent hardware, and now it pulls the plug of 50% of SIE published games.

Yes, Sony published only two (2!) PSVR2 games, not counting GT7 and this climate change thing.

I‘m still wondering what the discussions inside Sony before the PSVR2 release would have been.

@Oram77 It’s a sign of quality and independence if everyone makes cheap jokes in the internet, and an internet magazine of the renowned Hookshot Media network chimes in.

And this kind of technology will probably have no real impact on any PlayStation for the upcoming 5 to 10 years. Zero connection to PlayStation.

@get2sammyb I think the language in the latest titles deteriorated a bit with their focus on excrements.