Max_the_German

95% of the people are fine with kitsch, this should also apply to CoD players. Most „artists“ don’t produce art, but kitsch. AI is great in producing kitsch, in fact it can’t produce art and probably never will.

These Calling Cards are so mundane, it’s perfect for AI.

I‘m fascinated that many people are allergic to the use of AI but not to images of poor quality which were produced before by human beings.

Maybe at some point, people find out that games are cheaper on Steam, and online multiplayer is for free.

The new important markets for gaming are centred around mobile and PC, and established publishers are adopting. And it’s not only Valve pushing the PC. Microsoft is both a major publisher and a hardware platform provider, and it’s pushing towards PC as well.

There is no question that console-like PCs are a major threat to classical consoles. And PlayStation is the last remaining classical console!

The gameplay looks so interchangeable, it's no wonder Sony is afraid of X. Tencent knows exactly how to build and operate successful MMOs. Definitely an interesting competition!

PS5‘s big advantage over PS4 is the absence of a strong Xbox. While the Xbox One was a somewhat weak contender, the even lower sales numbers of Xbox Series X/S are an indicator that many Xboys moved to Team Blue.

Check this graph. The combined numbers of this generation are even shrinking compared to gen 8 and gen 7:

https://www.vgchartz.com/article/465968/ps5-and-xbox-series-xs-vs-ps4-and-xbox-one-sales-comparison-august-2025/

Maybe Lempel has already played Fairgame$…

I hoped for a Bloodborne Remastered as the final announcement. But it’s my fault to have unrealistically high expectations.

Will the cheap JP-only PS5 make a big splash? Yes, if splash means a boost for a couple of weeks. But gaming habits in Nippon favour handhelds and smaller systems, and PS Portal just isn’t enough of a handheld.

There are still magical success stories in this cold business, and this is one of them. Who would have guessed that the hardest competitor to Bungie and Marathon is a studio of DICE veterans and their second game? (In fact, development of The Finals started AFTER that of ARC.)

@Dr_ENT

I am sceptical that PS5 Pro will have a long lifetime after the release of the PS6, which could have similar manufacturing costs.

I would see the PS5 Pro more like the Xbox One X, which was also a premium machine and got quickly replaced by the Xbox Series S. The PS4 Pro on the other hand was obviously much cheaper to manufacture and almost replaced the base PS4 with its similar price point.

I find a 300 $ superslim PS5, arriving a few months after the PS6 and with a similar case design and the same silicon technology, much more realistic.

@Oram77

These numbers show that the previous generation is still very attractive for many users, 12 years after the launch of the PS4.

@SeaDaVie Yeah, it‘s weird. Some articles are in chronological, others in anti-chronological order. I don’t think it’s intentional.

@Enigk

Is it purchasing or just downloading a game you already bought with the console?

@Oram77

Thank you, I could find it. The order of the articles on the main page changed: For today‘s articles, the newest are on top. For yesterday’s articles (and previous days), the newest articles are on the bottom, a reverse chronological order to what I‘m used to. Maybe it has been always this way and I never noticed, but I‘m definitely surprised.

@cainhurst94

I think it is legitimate to include Wii Sports into this list, because it was the main reason why many people bought their Wiis. That is clearly not the case for Astro‘s Playroom, but that title is just a phenomenal piece of software and much better than many other games on the system.

@TheArt Maybe they deleted it because of quality standards. It was in fact almost a copy of the Eurogamer article.

I repeat my question from the RDR2 article:

Astro‘s Playroom is a compact but complete game, not just a tech demo. Wii Sports is regarded the third-best selling video game in that article, with less than 82m sales.

Is Astro‘s Playroom now the third-best selling video game?

@ShogunRok

You took the information straight from Eurogamer, and that’s fair. But I‘m really interested how to handle bundled games in these sales rankings.

Wii Sports was definitively THE game most people bought their Wii for, so I find it right to factor it in.

How will we handle Astro‘s Playroom? It is in my opinion much more than a tech demo, a fully fledged out game with a reasonable length. Assume the PS5 sales would be 82m at the moment, would Astro‘s Playroom be considered the third-best selling game?

I don’t have a fixed opinion on that, and I‘m interested in yours.

If it needs more polish…

You could also mention the two nominations for the 8-Bit Big Band, for its latest album „Orchester Emulator“ and the song „Super Mario Praise Break“.

They already won a Grammy in 2022 for the song „Meta Knight‘s Revenge“. What Charlie Rosen has achieved over the years is tremendous.

@Oram77 @get2sammyb

Let me complain, but on the time of the stream, when a major part of the world‘s population is sleeping.

@dschons

Yes, quality is okay now. Maybe they could bump up the bitrate further without sacrificing latency, because image quality in high-detail scenes (lots of grass) is still suffering a lot. Today’s Wifi speeds shouldn’t limit the bitrate to 15 Mbps. I guess it’s also not the Portal, but the PS5 which can’t encode with more than 15 Mbps.

The latest update to 6.0.0 should bring 3ad Audio, but I can’t get it running.

@naruball

Okay, let’s break it down: Switch has a mediocre market share in many European countries, a high market share in the US and absolute domination in Japan. PS5 rules Europe, has a high market share in the US and a small market share in Japan.

„Real worldwide appeal“ means for me „at least mediocre market share in all relevant markets“.

@naruball Now I‘m curious how you could get that conclusion out of my post!

This article shows only the software sales. There were more Switch Lite units sold than all of PlayStation combined. And Switch Lite sales are small compared to Switch OLED and Switch 2 numbers:

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/11/japanese-charts-dragon-quest-1-and-2-hd-2d-remake-shoves-pokemon-off-the-podium

A new PlayStation handheld is the logical reaction!

Nintendo Switch (2) is the only console line with a real worldwide appeal. Last week in Japan, Nintendo Switch Lite alone shifted more sales than all of PlayStation combined, not to mention Switch OLED and Switch 2:

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/11/japanese-charts-dragon-quest-1-and-2-hd-2d-remake-shoves-pokemon-off-the-podium

SE games have huge appeal to the Japanese audiance. Focussing on Switch 2 is the most normal business decision imo.

@CielloArc

An optimisation for Xbox Series S could make it viable to bring it to Switch 2, a great opportunity for selling multiple copies per customer.

When they need this time to bring 60 fps on PS5, I‘m more than happy with this delay.

Oh no, playing the same mission dozens of times to find bugs is such an inspiring and creative task.

Seriously, this is tedious work for stoic robots, and soon they will do this job.

Thankfully a sentence in labour law is pronounced in court, not in internet forums.

@Boxmonkey The attach rate in the US is probably more than 5%:

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/10/ps-portal-still-a-huge-success-as-sony-reportedly-preps-ps6-handheld

So far, it was regarded as a PS5 peripheral. With its new Cloud Streaming, it will become more its own thing, especially if it will stream also PS6 games via Cloud Streaming.

This update 6.0.0 for PS Portal is massive! Before it felt like a slick streaming device, not bad. Now the UI feels like a genuine system, really nice and meaningful.

Years of hard work really paid off, with good incremental improvements. No comparison to the experience on day one.

@JustMyOpinion They say that Arc is also great for single players. The servers often bring single players into one session, and it is possible to find nice people when shouting „Don‘t shoot“ and they don’t. So maybe after a few days you could find another single player in a similar time zone with the same ambition who’s sympathetic to you and you play together.

Poor Ellie has no nose on the article‘s image.

@nomither6 Yes, they do quite a lot, especially with more and more games getting ported over from that systems to Switch 1 and 2. But also comparisons of the two-tier Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) service, which is the first such Nintendo service to pay for, with PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass and their ever-increasing prices.

Nintendo Life seems to have much self-esteem, and the fanboiism of both the authors and readers is comparatively low. There‘s a reason why it’s the leading Nintendo-focused website.

Yes, I‘m much more happy now.

Okay, as compensation for my horrible love for physical media, I will only use Power Saver mode on PS5, starting today.

3D Audio, finally! Its lack was such a bummer for me all the time, because this PS5 feature is a key part of the experience.

And with the streaming service progressing, I don’t know whether I should buy a PS6 or just use PS6 streaming to my PS Portal (if available).

I doubt that „CROSS-BUY“ stands for PS5+PC or PS6+PC, because of the colours of this symbol. They resemble the colours of the face buttons of a PS controller, that is VERY PS console and PS brand specific. On a PC, you can use other controllers (whether you should is a different question).

I think it could be used to indicate games which can be cross-bought for PS5 and PS6. The symbol could already be in use with the PS6 kits in development, and the system developers added it for testing this feature on the PS5 as well.

@DrVenture69

I just replayed TotK on Switch 2, and it was a huge difference compared to my first playthrough on Switch 1. Getting 20 fps when using Ultrahand reduced the fun in a way that I stopped experimenting with it. On Switch 2, I had SO MUCH more fun with it. Also, the higher framerate made it a bit easier in the hardest battles, so less frustration there.

My initial reception of TotK was mediocre, and thanks to Switch 2 with its stable 60 fps, I could appreciate the game much more for what it is. Unfortunately, I still dislike its story and pacing, and with the improved graphics on Switch 2, they stick out more, but that‘s a different story.

@wildcat_kickz

Xbox Series hardware is custom as well. It supports some features the PS5 doesn’t, but for most game engines, they are just ignored.

The bigger difference lies in the arrangement of the graphics units: Xbox Series X has more cores (52 compared to 36 in PS5), but on lower clocks. The resulting raw power of Series X is ca. 20% higher, but in real life it’s more complicated. Think of two departments of the same type, one with 52 workers, the other with 36 significantly faster workers (heavy simplification). Organising the tasks with fewer workers is easier, they are earlier available to take the next task, unproductive downtimes are reduced.

That’s the reason why in many games, especially with a lower level of optimisation by the developers, the PS5 is on a same level as the Xbox. Other developers are better skilled or spend more resources into optimising and can therefore benefit from Xbox‘s advantage in raw performance. I don’t think that this is the case here for PUBG: The real resulting resolutions will probably much closer than „1440p vs. 4k“ suggests.

Sony‘s main advantages of its approach: Fewer cores reduce the expensive chip space, and 36 cores is the same number as for PS4 Pro, so PS4 Pro optimised games greatly use the PS5 hardware for backwards compatibility.

@Member_the_game Yes, for me, Stray is a new game. I started it this evening and love it so far. Minimal UI, beautiful and stylish environments, so much love for the smallest details. I‘m more than happy!

@KundaliniRising333 That sounds really like the best MP game for my gaming habits and preferences. I just decided to play it for the two weeks after Christmas, when I have some time and can focus on learning the maps. Thank you!

@KundaliniRising333

I heard very good things about ARC Raiders, especially for people who never play extraction shooters. Will probably give a try.

@DrVenture69 DKB feels like a 3D Super Mario game turned up to 11. And it’s just so full of charm and heartwarming moments. The worst part is the pacing: It starts with a bang, but then it slows down quite a bit. But after the midpoint of the story (you know it when you’re there), the pull becomes stronger and stronger, and the finale and the past-game are just madness, with a tough-but-pleasant difficulty.

There are very few games I play to completion, collecting stuff is a chore to me. And in DKB, I collected ALL of the more than thousand (?) items. Give DK a try!

@Northern_munkey

Demon‘s Souls is an interesting example for a remake. I‘d argue that it’s the most radical form of a remaster, because the graphics got a massive overhaul, while the game logic and the world geometry were preserved. Definitely an edge case.

I was surprised by the title, „generating money“ sounds to me like „making profit“. In the text it is clarified that it‘s about revenue, and that both options can be financially very attractive due to much lower development costs for remasters.

@DrVenture69 Donkey Kong Bananza feels so great to play, and it has a fantastic pacing. My favourite game of the year so far.

Switch 1 will probably remain an attractive first system for 6-year-old kids. Bundles with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for less than 180 USD would make it a viable option for a Christmas or birthday present. And there are millions of new 8yo kids without a video game system every year!

I‘m still thinking that the divided Berlin in the 70s would be a good setting. It was heavily militarised (thousands of soldiers from the US, UK, France and the Soviet Union), had (and still have) an international organised crime and attracted the weirdest people, like David Bowie. Many cultural conflicts of today
can be traced back to this period. And soldiers of the Allies were allowed to cross the sector borders without permission any time.

They could create a game with an American soldier as protagonist, who is doing illegal business in East Berlin with communist, and his boss finds it out and starts chasing him. And discussion today’s cultural trends in this satirical setting can be more funny, subtle and impressive than doing it in a setting of today.

@4fold Yes, there is no free lunch. If you want more guarantees and service quality, it increases the costs for the service provider. Meanwhile, the risk-appropriate sector margins remain the same, which means: The prices increase, in one or the other way.

Maybe the PS Plus Extra games sour the perception of the Essential games.

The higher tiers include many high quality games. Gamers with high weekly playtime are fed up by these subscription services, so the appetite for Essential games could be lower and so the appreciation.