Max_the_German

I think I finally understand these adverts. The message: „You can experience this crazy situation in an ultra-realistic environment on PS5, and not on a Switch 2.“

Third-party games are doing the job and generate the most of the revenue and profit. First-party is just not needed at this point, with Xbox Series a non-competitor now and Xbox games available on PS5. PCs are still too expensive and uncomfortable for many people out there, let’s see if Microsoft can change that with its next Xbox generation.

I hope that the presumable end of the „high-profile console competition“ will not reduce the efforts of SIE for high-profile first-party games.

@Megabeenz SIE could also bring Astro Bot into these adverts. Such a positive and playful vibe, and the best face for PlayStation I can imagine.

Or making a reference to the huge catalogue of great games: Instead of sitting in a bus on top of the Empire State building, the protagonist could also sit in a train wagon, hanging vertically over a gorge.

@get2sammyb

Here is an advert which is PlayStation specific and still mainly for brand-building:

https://youtu.be/XTz9adPlWEI?si=Qfz556CpNchReXNY

The three spots in this article are so generic, they could also end with a „This is an Xbox“.

This happens when you can’t show new, exciting games.

@Rich33 Thank you! I think I‘ve heard about this „bad position of PSSR in UE5‘s rendering pipeline“ before, but I wasn’t certain about it; your explanation helped me a lot.

I‘m quite optimistic that FSR4 AI upscaling will receive much better software support than PSSR, because also the base PS5 is compatible with non-AI FSR4, and it will probably be a very, very long cross-gen phase.

@Megabeenz I give up. I hoped for a technical, unemotional answer from an expert on the combination UE5-PSSR.

And almost all answers I got were „I love my PS5 Pro, you obviously hate it, and there are many games which look great on it, regardless whether they are on UE5 or not“.

@themightyant Maybe the term „to blame“ has a harsher and more emotional sound in English than the equivalent term in German. The better question is „What is the technical root cause for the low harmony between UE5 and PSSR?“

And I‘m still interested in this. Because I want to better understand the future of PSSR. In case it has an architecture which doesn’t fit well to middleware like UE and it gets replaced soon by FSR4, I wouldn’t be surprised if PS6 skips PSSR support entirely and uses the base model game version if no FSR4 is available.

@Megabeenz Well, maybe I was naive and expected sober explanations from experienced professionals. And no, I am pretty unemotional about the PS5 Pro hardware. I am sceptical about the strategic decision of SIE to bring a second PS5 system to the market in this late stage though.

But your tip actually helped: While Google wasn’t successful, I found this article:

https://wccftech.com/playstation-5-pro-bad-pssr-older-version/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

It says that older PSSR versions could be a problem. If this is the case here, I‘m surprised that Obsidian would use an older PS5 SDK.

@Megabeenz This is exactly the technical level of detail I hoped for.

@Oram77 Of course I remember. I see a triangle of requirements for a good technical implementation: skill, means (time + budget) and motivation.

Many engineers love sophisticated technologies and their mastery due to their own pride (at least in my experience), so motivation (or „lazyness“ as the lack of) should in many cases be less of an issue.

I guess in this case it was a combination of a lack of skill (i.e. the lack of experience with PSSR) and the means (late introduction of PS5 as a target platform, while keeping the autumn 2025 release date). The flawless results on Xbox Series demonstrate that Obsidian has great software engineers, and they are probably those who are the saddest about the mediocre results on PS5 (Pro).

The fragmented landscape of upscaling technologies reminds me of the early days of PC gaming, when you needed a specific graphics card to get a nice image quality. In the end, only nVidia and ATi remained, and so we will probably see a concentration in the upscaler market to DLSS and FSR as well.

@Megabeenz Some commenters here have mentioned in the past that they are in fact developers.

@Oram77 I don’t single out the PS5 Pro. I just ask for the reason for the generally poor image quality of PSSR in UE5. Is PSSR different from other upscalers in its pipeline, which doesn’t work well in combination of UE5‘s pipeline? Did Epic just a bad job, or was it intentionally (which would be very surprising to me)? Or are the developers just not experienced enough in handling these various upscaling technologies?

@themightyant Yes, and maybe we see the replacement by PSSR2 (= FSR4) in a year or so. But I‘m still asking who to blame here for the bad status quo.

PSSR and UE5 is a poor combination, and many titles use UE5‘s TSR instead.

But who is to blame here? Sony and AMD for creating a lacklustre system, which needs a lot of manual finetuning by the developers? Or Epic for a poor integration of PSSR in its middleware? I‘m genuinely interested and hope for an answer from a developer with insight.

Never played Stray, and ai heard good things, so it’s a great month for me!

If I have to pay for it, I can demand a high-quality service.

If it’s „for free“ (mind you we still pay Sony even for third-party games), the service quality can be poor and we can’t complain with reason.

I prefer a high-quality service.

>> If that really is the case, Sony's PS6 could be the only next-generation console still charging for the privilege. <<

You probably know more about Nintendo‘s plans for Switch 3‘s online service than Nintendo itself.

@Alps_Stranger This argument of „No PSVR2, so no focus on building up a PSVR2 games library“ is really convincing.

This whole PSVR2 story is a story of many broken hearts. Imagine how many people inside of SIE spend years of work to create the hardware and its operating software, and then they found out what Jimbo and Hermen planned as SIE games for it.

Good announcement! But this permanent talking in the trailer… If you can’t turn it off, it’s a real dealbreaker for me.

There‘s no doubt that smartphone activists in general are taking away time you could also spend on gaming. But I wouldn’t limit it to TikTok:

Smartphones are so popular because you always have them with you, they fit into your pocket or bag, and you can easily use them on the sofa, in a bus, in other places.

And because we are all so used to it, THAT‘s why handheld gaming will dominate in the next few years!

Edit: And a nice article indeed!

It‘s a good month. If you’ve never played Stray before.

That‘s the next logical step: streaming parts of your own digital library to PS Portal. I imagine that quickly increasing the number of available games is a priority for the streaming team at SIE.

And why shouldn’t Sony make PS Portal a fully capable alternative to the PS console? I mean, not selling controllers and other peripherals hurts, but they don’t earn a lot with selling the console itself. What they earn their money with is selling games and microtransactions.

But as RoomWithAMoose already mentioned: Xbox now offers streaming with its lowest tier Game Pass, which is the equivalent to PS Plus Essential. And Microsoft doesn’t offer a compelling streaming hardware!

So, please Sony: Make streaming available on PS Plus Essential, and flood the market with PS Portal. There’s so much potential in it!

„Must Play“ is liberally used by PushSquare:

• Atomfall: https://www.pushsquare.com/previews/atomfall-proves-a-must-play-mystery-on-ps5-ps4?utm_source=chatgpt.com
• Pixel Ripped 1978: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/05/pixel-ripped-1978-will-be-a-psvr2-must-play-for-retro-gamers?utm_source=chatgpt.com
• Pac-Man World Re-Pac, and
• Tin Hearts: https://www.pushsquare.com/guides/5-new-ps-plus-games-you-must-play-on-ps5-ps4-this-month?utm_source=chatgpt.com

@RoomWithaMoose Well, without this (over-)dramatic title you would probably never clicked it. So, it served its purpose, right?

AI will create games, they will be sloppy and uninspired and still good enough for a wide audience out there.

Regarding this „Switch 2 is no direct competitor“, I agree to what many commenters say here.

And if the PS5 Power Saver mode is what to expect from „PS6 Portable“ (which is not unreasonable but I‘m still not convinced), then Switch 2 is not that far behind its capabilities!

@Northern_munkey

PSVR2 support with „big games“, which are more than random FPS or arcade games, is really dire.

I even saved RE4 Remake for over a year, and now I‘m saving Hitman, so I know that I can look forward to at least one great PSVR2 game in future. And this is just sad.

While Killzone is dead from Hermen‘s perspective, I can’t believe that Sony tricked us so badly with its PSVR2 support. I invested more mony in my PSVR2 than in my PS5 console, and all what SIE offered me was Horizon, a patched GT7, Firewall Ultra (?!) and a non-game called Climate Station.

Sorry, I saw some outrage here and wanted to vent my anger.

I think that there will be a MP Halo game, and it makes sense to me to seperate them:

• SP campaigns and MP are different regarding maps, balancing, networking and other aspects. Development should become much easier if you focus on just one aspect and try to make it great. Halo Infinite seems to be lacklustre in both aspects.
• SP games typically have shorter cycles than MP-only games. As a publisher, you want to keep the MP audience on your existing game as long as possible to expand that specific ecosystem.

A semi-good example is CoD: People expect a SP and MP mode in a new CoD game, but Activision wants us to stay on Warzone as long as possible, because this should be their cash cow. A yearly CoD with campaign and MP is needed to keep the brand fresh and interesting, but it’s probably not the focus anymore.

@Ainu20 Interesting aspect. I know that statement was not limited to PlayStation gamers. Bringing somebody into the Xbox ecosystem by bringing Xbox games to PS is not only unlikely but impossible.

@get2sammyb

What do you exactly mean with
>> it seems unlikely Microsoft is going to grow its install base by bringing its software to a competitor’s platform <<

In my simple logic, if only one person who is owning only a PlayStation is buying Halo, the install base is already grown. But maybe I‘m just misunderstanding something here. Please make it clear, thank you.

@lacerz

Is your comment an answer on an already deleted post, or is this preventive?

There are only few games I wish a remake/thorough remaster for. Metroid Prime was one of them, Halo is another. Such a beauty!

I‘m expecting Todd Howard on stage in two years, asking „Do you guys not have phones?“

@Oram77 I know that you were unhappy with that Pro comment, and I assumed that you are focused on the topic of this conversation, which is about calling hard-working people lazy.

@Oram77

I also don’t like the result, but I‘m not sure that it’s the fault of the devs. It’s the producer who defines the release date and the quality level of the product. If the producer says „The Outer Worlds 2 is Xbox‘s prime release for fall 2025, so forget about your requested extra three months for the final polish. You can patch afterwards if you have some budget left.“, calling the devs lazy would be highly unfair.

@Oram77 But „lazy“? Let’s imagine the following scenario: PS5 support was added late in development. And then the producer said „you must also include PS5 Pro support“, the technical director „But we must focus on making the base PS5 version run smoothly, we don’t have the capacity to do both in parallel for your release date.“ - „UE5 offers an easy-to-use plugin for PSSR, just use that.“ - „But…“

@PuppetMaster

Xbox wants the opposite of monopolising. They want to leave all the games with lower profitability to their competitors and focus on those with high margins.

@UltimateOtaku91

Given the heavy workload that video game developers typically have to cope with, I find it inappropriate and outrageous to describe them as lazy.

Why is the image for this article so negative? Schreier claims that the profitability of Xbox is HIGHER than that of SIE.

And that despite Game Pass which is, according to PushSquare and some experts here, not profitable. Or is it BECAUSE of Game Pass?

Don’t forget, in the end it’s show business: entertainment from companies with the main purpose of making money for their owners.

@Dogbreath @Oram77 They are all guilty of remastering PS4 games for PS5. The one remaster everyone and their dog is begging for is still out of sight.

Hoyoverse is probably not doing a favour to themselves with ending support for PS4, and this video is an indicator that they are afraid of loosing long-time gamers who are more than happy with their PS4s.

I assume that many kids get a used PS4 from their older siblings, uncles etc. as addition to their Switches. Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft demonstrate that getting kids early in their gaming ecosystem is key for long-time success.

@Oram77 Yes, and that’s why Astro Bot defines the PS5. When people will discuss it in 15 years, they will say that for many games, it was just a PS4 Pro Pro (which would be unfair imo), but what Astro Bot delivered is what PS5 set apart.

That game would be perfect for Switch 2, the Japanese market would probably love it. But who would do the porting, and is the publisher willing to pay for that effort?

The PS Studios were forced by their publisher SIE to burn their fingers with multiplayer games. Who forced Quantic Dream?

In such a demanding competition these days, mediocre products (especially multiplayer) just have no chances. Why not sticking to what you are really good at?

I‘d love to see a message like „Astro Bot has so much potential for PSVR2“.

What a weird comparison. The settings on PCs like SteamDeck and Ally X can be changed, and FSR frame generation only on Ally X is just unfair: numbers look better, but gameplay feels worse.

Between Spidey 2 in October 2023 and GoY now, there was with Astro Bot (Sep 2024) only one major single-player release from PlayStation Studios (remasters, remakes, yearly MLB, Lego Horizon aside). You don’t have to be a cynic to see why it took so long for SIE to reach high initial sales numbers again.

Nice to see that half of the answers were „Games“.

@Titntin I don’t laugh about the platform for consumers, and I don’t laugh about every joke. I question the role of PS5 Pro for the industry, a rather niche product (I guess less than 15% share of all sold PS5 units) with high costs for development and more complicated to develop for. Xbox Series has the disadvantage that devs have to optimise for two systems, which didn’t increase the number of Xbox Series games, while PS5 only had one system. And PS5 Pro is a good product (still not easy to use all its benefits) for a relatively small timespan. If the PS6 would release in 2029, I would see the point. But with a release in 24 months?!