Comments 2,038

Re: PS5 Wins a Nightmarish November for All Console Hardware in the US

Max_the_German

@SeaDaVie

I asked ChatGPT about the tariffs for the PS5, and it said something around 20%. The manufacturing costs didn’t sink as much as for prior generations. The inflation increased worldwide, and therefore labour costs.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the return to original MSRP is brutal for Sony, while profits of Switch 2 for Nintendo are razor thin.

Re: PS5 Wins a Nightmarish November for All Console Hardware in the US

Max_the_German

High discounts for consoles in the US mean that Sony „bought“ a high market share. Because under the new (permanent?) tariffs, these discounts could result in no profits or even losses for Sony. I think that Switch 2 is still popular, but Nintendo wasn’t willing to give profits away as Sony did.

The fact that PCs are exempt from tariffs could result in higher numbers for gaming PCs. Are there any numbers available for that?

Re: Talking Point: With Expedition 33 Winning Best Indie Game, What Does 'Indie' Mean to You?

Max_the_German

I don’t see why using a publisher should disqualify for being an indie game. In my understanding, publishers are especially useful for small developers:

Handling the whole struggle with platform holders, age ratings (in case of physical releases), physical releases, music studios and orchestras, voice acting, motion capture studios, localisations and translations (-> poor Chinese translation for Silksong), trailers, advertisements on the Geoff‘s, …

There is a reason why independent authors („indies“ by definition) still need publishers BESIDES the need for printing and selling the books.

Re: PS4 Will Still Get New Games in 2027

Max_the_German

Don‘t forget the many children who get a used PS4 from their uncles, older brothers etc. Your general taste for gaming is formed at that age. Without playing Zelda A Link to the Past and Super Metroid as a child, I wouldn’t probably love their genres as much as I do.

Therefore I think it’s crucial for Sony to bring family-friendly games with Sony IPs to PS5 and also PS4.

Not bringing Lego Horizon to PS4 is a huge mistake in my opinion.

Re: Expedition 33 Breaks the Game Awards Record for Most Gongs in a Single Show

Max_the_German

I want to play Indy, and I’m still waiting for a physical copy for a reasonable price. But the prices only go up…

From what I‘ve seen so far, Troy Baker does a PHENOMENAL job in bringing Dr. Jones from the first three films back to the screen. I know, he won everything in the video game space, but THIS performance…

E33 overshadowed almost all other games this year and therefore won in categories where other games are regarded as better when the hype is over.

Re: Sony Hypes Halo PS5 in Its Hot Games of 2026 Trailer

Max_the_German

@Oram77

I think, these days publishers want to concentrate the MP gamers on a small number of dedicated MP games. The demands for regular content updates are much higher than back then. The curation of several similar games with a split player base is a bad outcome. COD can still provide a new MP game every year, in addition to Warzone, because of its (still!) tremendous popularity. Other publishers rather curate only „their Warzone“.

Maybe, Microsoft will soon announce a new MP Halo or revive and improve Halo Infinite‘s MP.

Re: AI Accusations Killed a PS5, PS4 Game in Two Days, and the Studio Behind It Is Shutting Down

Max_the_German

Closing the whole studio is a drastic move. I thought they could rescue it, by simply replacing all the bad assets with man-made ones.

But the root cause seems to be deeper: Maybe all of the assets were made with AI tools, quick and dirty. And the studio’s budget didn’t allow to hire proper designers and remake all the assets. At this point, we can only speculate.

In any case, this events will serve as an example for the effects of uncurated and extensive use of AI tools on the fate of development studios. And the whole situation will heal a bit.

Re: When Is The Game Awards 2025?

Max_the_German

@darylb24

I guess that more than 50% of world‘s land mass and population will sleep during the runtime of this show. But it’s a great time of day if you are on Tahiti, in the middle of nowhere.

Re: The Game Awards 2025 Predictions: PS5 Games, the Muppets, and Geoff Keighley's Shoes

Max_the_German

@EfYI The basic principle of this show only allows it to be bad. Hours of trailers and trailers and trailers of free-to-play MMOs from China, which look all the same, soulslikes, which look all the same, rougelite character action-games, which look all the same. The few exceptions of unique trailers are mostly big names of already announced games, like RE9.

Like they say: The new stuff was not interesting, and the interesting stuff was not new.

Re: 'It's a Huge Upgrade': PS5 Pro Poised to Improve Massively in 2026

Max_the_German

To my knowledge, this was already mentioned by other sources. „PSSR 2“ will be an incarnation of FSR 4, with its high image quality and a much wider acceptance in the industry. PSSR as a PlayStation-only solution will be then a thing of the past.

Let’s hope that RDNA 3 will soon officially support hardware-accelerated FSR 4 ML upscaling, so with the arrival of PS6, every major new platform (including Steam Machine) will have ML upscaling, and developers almost can’t get around implementing it.

Re: AI Accusations Have Killed a PS5, PS4 Game Just Two Days After Announcement

Max_the_German

This is a great example:

  • The smart use of AI tools by artists to make game creation faster and easier is a big win for involved developers, publishers and customers.
  • The mindless usage of AI tools to create slog games is rejected by all customers.

Hopefully, we will soon come to a more nuanced discussion about the usage of AI. Both „AI is THE future for games“ and „AI is in principle bad and steals jobs“ are tiring me.

Re: Japanese PS5 Sales Slump as New Model Hype Begins to Die Off

Max_the_German

@Coffeeglitch @GMaster7

With PS5, Sony changed the button layout for Japanese systems from the „Nintendo pattern“ = „O okay, X cancel“ to the „Xbox pattern“ = „X okay, O cancel“, what we in the west are used to.

I assumr that this was seen in Japan as an ignorant move by Big Jimbo and his European gang in California, a symbol for what PlayStation has become.

Let’s see whether SIE under new Japanese leadership will change this back for PS6 in Japan.