Mythologue

Impossible challenge; AI bubble burst OR games market crash.

You're only allowed one.

@zebric21 I would argue that logic itself dictates that it won't. Supposedly the biggest gaming release, potentially in gaming history, would, by way of proportion, have to release as the greatest game of all time. What are the chances, really?

I don't think I've read a singular Rockstar article in recent years that's reflected well on the company.

I find that the whole achievement / trophy system has gotten a bit stale. It was a fun novelty for a long while, but I feel it's sort of worn off now.

I don't know if the physical thing is Sony's singular concern here. The PS5 is a far cry from the PS4, the latter being one of the greatest consoles of all time to rival the PS2, and the former being a damp squib and merely a shadow of what PlayStation used to be.

The physical media, live service, Bungie and Crunchyroll stuff...that's only really the tip of the iceberg.

looks inside

"Amazon"

looks away

nods knowingly

@species I think you're conflating shutdown servers with disabled games. The Crew is unplayable currently (although you can still play it on PC with TCU) because it was a purely always online game. If we want to get technical, this was a software, not hardware, shutdown.

I'm not aware of single player physical games (or portions of games) being disabled on a console. At least one of the examples you listed (Final Fantasy XI) is still playable; others (like Final Fantasy XIV) are online games.

I platinumed Dangerous Driving, but I mostly enjoyed it for how completely broken it was.

Wreckcreation is basically anaemic Burnout Paradise; lacking the city and general charm. Takedowns in the game are terrible (you nudge a car and it seems to just sort of decide to crash for you). It doesn't enjoy the benefit of being as janky as its predecessor, and it sort of paradoxically suffers because of it.

Dangerous Driving was wacky fun, but Wreckcreation just felt like a chore. Even so, I won't say no to more. I'd just like to see how it turns out.

"Did you put the fire out yet, Sony?"

"No, but we did fill the house with accelerant and barred the door with dried boughs so the fire can't escape."

@sanderson72 It's one of the core reasons to go PC. Besides Steam and GOG, dedicated servers with free online play, modding, tweaking and customising, enthusiast communities, etc., you also get "backwards compatibility" running all the way back to the genesis of home consoles (Pong and Magnavox) and arcade machines (MAME) to almost fully functional seventh generation emulators (360, PS3, and Wii). And of course, there's everything in between.

One of the universal problems I've had with emulators is that they tend to suffer from a sort of "entropy." By that, I mean games on emulators can be rife with bugs. On PCSX2, this is rare, but certain games (like Stuntman) just don't really work as expected. Something to do with physics calculations, I think.

As for RPCS3, it could be good, but I tried it a little while ago and it seemed to completely break apart (playing Motorstorm Apocalypse). I imagine it's been updated since then. I'm looking forward to finding out how it runs given recent updates.

@Dogbreath A more apt comparison would be to call an MJ game Spiderman. Wolverine (X-Men) is a separate IP as far as I'm aware (or at least it started that way); Laufey is one of the most essential components of the entire God of War reboot.

@Jacko11 It's pretty simple: it covers more than only PlayStation games, including subscriptions, hardware, and PC sales. If you get 1% of physical sales out of it, you know that the math isn't mathing.

@Marquez Setting the debate itself aside, I think it might just be a reference to the fact that games "going gold" will be a thing of the past for the PlayStation specifically, and that the terminology might die with future consoles (and games). End of an era, I guess.

This looks like those mobile game ads where the animations don't actually show the real game.

The enthusiast fan base which, from what I've read ad nauseam, are the only people actually reading about this story. The only people who know about it, apparently. Those are the people they're relying on?

Are you sure?

@naruball In the sense that this is a PlayStation enthusiast site that has shown serious interest in switching to PC.

Your analogy would work if it was PC Gamer or maybe Eurogamer, or some likewise equivalent. But this is a PlayStation site hosting a poll that suggests almost half of them are now moving to PC.

@naruball Isn't it more like going to a town in Washington and finding that a population which voted something like 90% Biden has suddenly become 45% Trump?

@Sweetz @AdamNovice That's a lower than 2% margin of error. It's roughly six times greater than a conservative estimate for necessary sample size when searching for statistical significance.

@DennisReynolds More than 80% of PS5s sold were the physical (disc-based) edition.

I don't think they'll reverse the decision, but, in a way, that's helpful for me. I wasn't seriously considering the PS6 as an option before they made the announcement, but the announcement itself sort of sealed it. It'll probably be PC for me, unless Xbox makes their platform more enticing...somehow...

So, whether it's a win or lose for Sony, it's a win for me. It just makes the decision-making process easier.

PC is the superior platform, setting aside cost. Its biggest downside is how painful accessibility can be, as well as exorbitantly priced components.

Those by the wayside, I just can't really see any negatives. It's basically an omni-generational multimedia machine.

@GamingGod No, unfortunately. I've got Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, and Silent Hill Origins. I don't remember how much I paid for them, but it was certainly not north of £40, and definitely not approaching £100.

@GamingGod That reminds me of the time when I was searching through my old library of PS2 games. Most of them just went for pennies or a quid, something like that, but then I encountered the PS2 Silent Hill games and I was taken aback. I think they amount to more than £200 overall.

I'm holding onto them because they seem to be slowly increasing in value. Can't imagine it'll last, but who knows?

@Jacko11 Sorry, buddy. I gave you the stats and you just ignored them.

Can lead a horse to water and all that. Take care now!

@Jacko11 Bro, just admit that you're wrong and move on. The stats aren't on your side. It's okay to be wrong about things.

@Jacko11 Sure, buddy. In the meantime, look up the Insomniac leak, and realise you're being deceived.

@Jacko11 Physical is dead? Is that why more than 80% of PS5s sold are the disc-based model? What do they do, just stare at it?

@Jacko11 I thought it was gonna be 100% digital, since no one buys physical any more?

I imagine this won't impact the business on a whole, given that it's a gargantuan entity, and those at the top might not have even caught wind of the enormity of the backlash as of yet. I also don't expect we'll hear much in the way of developments, because the PS6 has not yet been officially announced.

Having said that, this is starting to sound a little like the Don Mattrick era. I seem to recall that mandatory Kinect connection, and DRM policy, were both removed prior to the full launch of the Xbox One. I don't think the same will happen here, but I do think that, once the broader consumer base becomes privy to this development (and they will, of course, before the console officially releases), the damage could be as substantial as the impact of those disparaging Mattrick remarks, like "just buy an Xbox 360," or whatever.

Sony might need to seriously consider their options at that point, if it really is as bad as that.

@Dogbreath You keep saying this, but isn't Sony invested in artificial intelligence, an absolutely apocalyptic polluter?

I haven't owned a steel book in a while. Might have to consider it.

@Jacko11 I'll just stick to all of the other physical releases. The good ones.

I'd like to reserve judgement, but I've been looking forward to seeing how it shapes up, and at least one of those sites listed is reputable. Even if the rest are a bit...eh.

@thiagoauler I'll need some evidence for this because, once again, it looks like an invented or misinterpreted statistic.

Developers really should be making the games that they want, not necessarily those which everyone else wants to see. Whether I like the finished product or not, it's a healthier approach than trend chasing.

This is what happens when people misinterpret data. I think the erroneousness stems from how people conflate 85% digital sales with 85% of people buying exclusively digital content.

This is, of course, a falsity. Confounding variables, you might say.

The capitalism has gone metastatic.

Since this generation was one of the weakest in history for me, and since I've spent the majority of my time just playing PS4 games on the PS5, my interest for the PS6 had already more or less plateaued. The PS6 isn't really on my radar any more.

That aside, PC is just the more tantalising option. It's predominantly digital, of course, but because it's burgeoning with options (emulation, various platforms, covering practically every conceivable generation, console, Flash and Unity game, etc.), can be upgraded, and is multi-purpose (game development, 3D modeling, and so on), the undoubtedly higher cost is still probably not going to be a sticking point for me.

This is a gift to Microsoft. One that they'll probably squander, mind, but...y'know.

@OpheliaDynamight I mean, everyone knows what it means. It's just a lot more fun to phrase it that way.

Does this mean that Fable, Gears, Forza Horizon, etc., might be on life support? Because that's what I'm thinking of when we talk about the heavy hitters.

So that's, what...£900 to £1,200? For a generation that might well be more disappointing than the current one.

@GamingGod Well, Steam as a platform developed from one of the greatest narrative-driven games of all time. The Witcher 3 also stood near the top of the highest-rated games on the platform.

The spirit of Warren Spector's "one city block" is alive and well, I see.

@somnambulance A more reasonable solution would be to enforce legislation regarding misinformation and abusive content. It's the tech companies and data handlers which need to be shouldering the burden (a certain "Lord of the Rings" type company in particular), because it's a rather hefty one.

I'd have more respect for it if it banned all of us from social media.

I hope that this is a sign that dumb, explosive arcade racing and driving games are seeing a resurgence.

I'd really like to try it, but the first one felt quite rote. Maybe after I'm done with Pillars of Eternity 2...

I didn't even hear about the new Stuntman game. It's crazy how I missed that.