@SJBUK I wasn’t surprised by quest outselling psvr2, I was surprised by the ratio of over 30 to 1.
How exactly has Sony been working on ways of improving sales? There hasn’t been any news on first party games since launch, no price cuts or massive marketing promotions. The only thing rumoured is that Sony are looking at making the headset compatible with PC. Which suggests that they are just looking to recoup as much of their investment as possible right now.
I didn’t think ps vita was a failure, but its total sales were eclipsed by ps4 after just one year. This, and the fact that the Nintendo 3ds was completely dominating units sold led to Sony reducing support and eventually discontinuation. We haven’t had a true handheld from Sony since.
Psvr2 is looking an awful lot similar to ps vita right now: A relatively successful gen1 device (psvr1) as with the psp, which led to a successor. The ps5 is proving considerably more successful than psvr2 and the competition, quest, is completely dominating it in terms of sales.
For shareholders, why would they want Sony to continue investing in a market that has shown little growth or return when that money could be spent supporting the wildly successful ps5? Meta have achieved more than any other company within vr and they have struggled for years to make money. Less than 5% of ps4 players purchased a psvr1 and it doesn’t look like that number has changed for psvr2. In fact, given that we haven’t heard anything officially since launch, it’s likely that number has shrunk.
@SJBUK “… as Sony haven’t said” - we’d all know exactly how many units they’d shipped and sold if it were a success.
Sony regularly declare the sales performance of their PlayStation 5 console. We all know exactly how many units they’ve sold - we even know how many units they’re forecasting to ship this year.
Publicly traded companies often don’t reveal sales figures if they’re significantly below expectations. Legally, they only have to present quarterly earnings reports. It’s why Microsoft hasn’t officially revealed the sales figures of Xbox series consoles for the last few years. Sony recently released their sales report for the third quarter ending 31 December 2023, they sold 8.2 million ps5’s during that period, but there was no mention of how psvr2 had performed during the holidays.
We can only speculate about the sales numbers for psvr2 at this point, but an analysis of Amazon US sales figures by the website roadtovr, showed that Meta Quest had massively outsold psvr2 on Amazon over the holiday season. For every 1 unit of psvr2 sold, Quest sold more than 30 units. Obviously Amazon isn’t the only retailer for psvr2, but it’s usually a pretty decent reflection of the whole market.
@Darude84 i had a friend pre order for launch. He was hyped for the headset but got terrible motion sickness from most of the demo’s. He was pretty gutted that he couldn’t get more than a few minutes into horizon. He requested a refund using Sony’s returns form, packaged everything up and was fully reimbursed after Sony had received and checked the item.
The writing was on the wall from the very first gameplay reveal. This is not the game people wanted from rocksteady. The only people in the world surprised by its failure were those that decided the market was crying out for yet another terribly executed live service game.
@AverageGamer I wasn’t aware of this as I’ve not really noticed any artifacting with mine on the few times I’ve hardwired, (I mostly play wireless). Doesn’t psvr2 use usb type c for its wired connection? Wouldn’t it have similar issues on pc unless it ships with DP or HDMI connections?
@ROTTIEMAN16 yes, the blacks are better and fov higher, but I’d rather a slightly smaller but considerably clearer fov with slightly higher resolution over the increased contrast.
The controllers of psvr2 have better haptics, but these would require proper support on pc, and battery life means you have to wait for a recharge should they die whilst playing. Quest 3 controllers have interchangeable batteries.
The quest 3 can also be hardwired, so no artefacting or issues as with psvr2. But less graphically intensive games such as beatsabre can be enjoyed wirelessly and played natively without any artifacting.
You can also play augmented reality games thanks to the device’s colour pass-through which is superior to the monochrome low resolution pass-through on psvr2.
As stated by others here, I really don’t think releasing psvr2 on pc is going to make much difference to sales numbers for Sony. The pc vr space is pretty competitive and the quest 3 is a fantastic unit for its price point.
The eye tracking and foveated rendering offered by psvr2 were completely ruined by the use of fresnel lenses in the unit. The sweet spot is so small that foveated rendering makes absolutely no difference to image quality when looking outside of it. The pancake lenses of the quest 3 have a considerably larger sweet spot allowing you to shift your view with your eyes rather than having to move your whole head as on psvr2.
Also, a psvr2 on pc locks you out of all the quest exclusive titles, of which there are many. Were sony to release their PlayStation exclusive titles on pc, they would do so on steam and these titles would also be playable on a quest.
Finally, it doesn’t offer the flexibility of the quest 3 with regards to wireless play - you always have to be tethered to your pc.
Objectively, there’s almost no reason to buy a psvr2 on pc over a quest 3.
@djhegzy I don’t really think those games are representative of what a properly optimised game can achieve on the base ps5. But, I do agree that they look horrible from an image quality perspective when playing in performance mode.
I played horizon: forbidden west on ps5 last year at 60fps and the game looked fantastic, so it is possible to achieve both higher frame rates and impressive image quality. The problem is that in order for this to happen a developer has to invest the appropriate resources in optimisation - something only first party studios seem to be doing on PlayStation.
There are a lot of people using Nvidia’s 4090 gpu that still struggle to achieve decent performance in some pc titles, despite having 10x the raw power of the ps5. Power is relevant to some degree, but it means very little if a game is poorly optimised.
Dragons dogma 2 is a day one for me. I can pre order it on pc for £38 and am fortunate enough to have a gpu that should pretty much guarantee a locked 60fps experience. Will be waiting on a price drop for rise of ronin and probably benefit from some patching.
I struggle to justify £70 on a ps5 title these days when compared to the value proposition on pc - especially as there’s normally quite a big sacrifice in image quality just to get a title running at 60fps. I bought ff16 at launch and, although it was a solid 60 in performance mode, the resolution and image quality was absolutely terrible.
Will be interesting to see ps5 and Xbox sales once switch 2 releases. If the current switch is anything to go by Nintendo will have a hard time keeping up with demand. I wonder if it will be able to catch ps5, as I fully expect it to eclipse Xbox series sales.
Yes, because Microsoft are the only studio cutting jobs in the video games industry right now. Oh, and Activision blizzard always put employee welfare first when Bobby kotick was CEO. Get a grip people. Pretty much every company is cost cutting right now. Sony have done it too, cuts were made across its studios last year in October including 20% of staff at media molecule. The games industry is not in a great place right now in terms of job security and that is reflected across all studios, not just Microsoft.
I don’t doubt that those developers working at Sony studios desire to make the best product they can. Unfortunately for them, they don’t get a say in how much budget they have or how many developers they can hire and how long they can develop for.
I was looking forward to seeing naughty dog’s last of us multiplayer project and I’m sure those working on it were excited to showcase it. Ultimately their desires and passions for were undermined by Sony cancelling the project as they decided it wouldn’t work as a live service title and generate the revenue they required. Frustratingly, the multiplayer in the original last of us was great and I’m fairly sure it was cut from the sequel in favour of being turned into a GaS product which we’ll now never get.
I’m also fairly sure that Microsoft’s decision to release games on other platforms was made by the Company heads rather than the Xbox division. Tom Warren stated yesterday that very few people working at Xbox know what will be announced next week regarding “the future of Xbox”.
@MidnightDragonDX oh, I’m not in the least bit worried about Microsoft. If they go the software only route they’ll sell off or disband any studio/game that doesn’t give them a decent return. I’m more concerned about how Sony will behave in a market free from competition and with barriers to entry so high that even google and apple aren’t interested in investing.
If this is all true, then I’m not sure how microsoft will continue operating Xbox hardware. Gamepass is its point of difference, but numbers seem to have stagnated somewhat and without exclusive titles, why would anyone that doesn’t already have gamepass be interested in an Xbox over a PlayStation?
The big hitters - call of duty and the game formally known as fifa aren’t on gamepass, so there’s no reason for the casual demographic to buy an Xbox. The hardcore value software and it sounds like PlayStation will have everything available on Xbox in addition to the quality of all their first party offerings.
Whoever green lit this at Microsoft either doesn’t understand the implications for their hardware division and services offerings. Or, they’ve somehow negotiated a form of gamepass on both PlayStation and switch, and are intentionally looking to phase out hardware production like sega.
Either way, a console market without Microsoft leaves Sony free to price their hardware and services as they see fit and innovate if and when they want. I wonder if Sony would continue to release software on pc without Microsoft? I guess we could find out soon.
@TandyMiller not a ps one title, but I recently got days gone on pc having missed it when it released on ps4. Enjoying it a lot, great story so far, a bit slow at the start and gameplay isn’t anything revolutionary, but the world building is very compelling. Could never get into state of decay on Xbox including the sequel - days gone feels like the perfect hybrid between it and the last of us.
I would rate it “okay” for my tastes, nothing shown that really appealed. Team ninja games are very very similar in terms of combat and enemy type - I’ve played and finished every one to date, the latest being wo long last year. Not sure I’m ready to jump into another just 12 months after the last.
Lots of anime waifu style Japanese games showcased which aren’t my thing. Death stranding 2 had exception production values, the decima engine is outstanding, and plenty of craziness. I found the first incredibly boring from a gameplay perspective and couldn’t gel with the delivery sim aspects, so sadly, I doubt I’ll be playing the second as I never finished the first. Not many dates provided either.
Happy for those that were hyped from this state of play. I’m still waiting on news from naughty dog to rekindle my PlayStation hype levels.
@JSnow2 so you’re saying that had Microsoft not bought activation blizzard everyone would still have jobs and there’d be no forced redundancies? Bobby Kotick would still be running the company - he was the epitome of profit maximisation above employee welfare.
Everyone is making job cuts in the video game industry right now. It’s moronic to think that with independence and their former CEO in charge that activation blizzard would continue to maintain its staffing levels. Given his reputation, Kotick would be making as many forced redundancies as possible to maintain profits for his shareholders.
@TheCollector316 I agree that consolidation of games publishers by Microsoft definitely isn’t a consumer friendly move. But I am hopeful and relatively confident that the Activision blizzard deal should be the nail in the coffin of any further publisher and studio acquisition's by team green.
If Microsoft do eventually become software centric it will be interesting to see how PlayStation respond to the lack of competition.
Economic theory suggests that absence of competition results in higher pricing and inferior products. Sony’s history suggests that this would hold true. The huge success of the PlayStation 2 resulted in the company’s worst console launch in history with PlayStation 3 and led to a monumental loss of market share.
Conversely, a lot of the changes made during the Xbox one era were entirely due to competition from Sony: roll back on game sharing, removal of Kinect and cheaper base hardware pricing, focus on games and abandonment of Xbox as a media system, launch of a powerful “one x” console variant, the development of gamepass (love it or hate it). None of this was possible without Sony’s competition.
@Bionic-Spencer I mean that’s true, to an extent. But making a game Xbox exclusive now means it launches on pc and Xbox day one, with xcloud soon to follow. Sony exclusives pretty much only appear on ps5 day one barring a few exceptions. There’s no date for the last of us part 2 remaster on pc yet and a lot of fans are still waiting on news concerning the pc release of the demons souls remake. Xbox as a platform is no longer restricted to console, their games are available at launch on both pc and Xbox systems. Disney would be fully aware of this when negotiating exclusivity, as they would Sony’s ps5 exclusivity stance. Their guys run all the numbers before committing to any business deal.
@Ravix yes that’s true. Console will always be better optimised than pc and devs will get more performance from the hardware than they would from the equivalent power on pc. Also, while Microsoft utilise directx based dev tools which are ubiquitous across pc and Xbox, Sony use their own bespoke dev software for playstation. Sony’s toolset always seems to be the most efficient in terms of performance output when compared Xbox. Will be interesting to see what the ps5 pro is capable of when it launches.
Yes, similarly to you, I wanted Sony or Microsoft to produce a bleeding edge system at whatever premium that cost. I eventually realised that this will never come to pass and decided to buy a pc this year. I want to guarantee that I can play every new release at 1440p native 60fps, which I now can. I’ll probably spend the ps5 pro cost on a gpu when it launches instead. If the nvidia 5070 is available at that time and affordable I’ll be buying that and enjoy greater performance coupled with 4th generation rtx features, frame generation and 5th generation dlss.
I still have my original variant ps5, but the majority of my time is spent on the pc where I can play multiplayer for free, pay less for titles at launch and can jump in and out of gamepass when I want.
@Ravix I think it will do better ray tracing than the base ps5, but it definitely won’t come close to max raytracing in AAA titles. The supposed leaked specs on resetera put its gpu at about 50-60% faster than the base ps5. That would make it somewhere between an nvidia 4070 and an amd 7800xt. The 7800xt is probably a better benchmark with regards to the levels of ray tracing the ps5 could achieve given that amd provide Sony with their SoC. I have this card right now and its raytracing performance isn’t great at 1440p. In fact, it’s so lacklustre I don’t even bother enabling it in the majority of games. Nvidia are the world leaders in raytracing with their rtx dedicated hardware. If you want to max raytracing in something like cyberpunk or Alan wake 2 and want decent frame rates and resolution you’re looking at a 4080 minimum and preferably a 4090, both of which are pushing towards upwards of £1000. There’s no way you’ll be getting max raytracing on a ps5 pro as the hardware costs would make the product completely unviable for the console market.
Am I the only one that thinks this new iteration looks a bit cheap and kind of like something you'd find on wish. com?
My launch day ps5 definitely has a more premium aesthetic imo, I think the new vertical stand looks particularly crappy on this. Although I'm sure the looks will be irrelevant to the majority of buyers who will welcome a smaller console.
@Rafie I mean it's kind of irrelevant which platform it came to first, they're available on both PlayStation and Xbox right now and have been on Sony machines since 2020. There's plenty of people with PlayStation copies and no reason why the anniversary content couldn't also be on playstation to celebrate its 3rd year anniversary (a number equally as arbitrary as 6). Unless the content specifically contains the numbers 6 everywhere and has a new theme tune with the lyrics "6th anniversary edition content".
This is a little bit like all the extra content PlayStation users get in some games that pc and Xbox players miss out on. The most recent example I can think of was the additional hogwarts missions on Sony's machines. Basically paying the publisher to cut content from other platforms. It sucks both ways and is very anti-consumer - you're essentially paying the same price for an inferior product.
I got the plat for spiderman on ps5, but really couldn't get into miles morales - only managed about 3 hours. Not sure if I burnt myself out on Spiderman, but I'm not really that hyped for the new one. It looks like a more refined version of the original, but I'm not sure that's enough for me sadly
@Michael2008ish BG3 is amazing for what it is, arguably the best in class and a goty contender. It is a CRPG, if you don't like that genre it's no fault of the game.
@KaijuKaiser yes that's true, but you'd expect the first party stuff to be among the best content on the system. Especially given how well received the original was.
The vast majority of first party titles on playstation 5 are the arguably some of the best available to play. There's not a ton of first party developers working on things for psvr2 and most of the best games are ports from the quest 2 and more akin to indie titles in terms of budget and scope.
Call of the mountain made me incredibly ill even with all the comfort settings enabled, no man's sky looked a blurry mess imo and resident evil was a port of an existing game I'd already beaten.
The motion sickness was the biggest barrier to play for me, but even without that, there's not been any title to date that seems like a must play. I don't have any regrets about returning my psvr2.
I didn't get on with psvr2 - was hugely disappointed with the image quality and suffered severe motion sickness after a few minutes of play. Luckily I was able to return the headset for a full refund. Doesn't feel like I'm missing much based off of all the reviews for this game. Pretty disappointing for a first party title.
Maybe it would have sold better if square hadn't been greedy and signed an exclusivity agreement with Sony? What did they expect when it has only been available to buy on ps5? If you want to maximise sales you maximise your potential market, not restrict it.
@NEStalgia totally agree. This won't be an additional ps5, rather a replacement model which conveniently steers the consumer towards an all digital collection. Of course, the disc add on will be available to placate those that want to maintain physical purchases. But the base form of the ps5 moving forward will be digital only. It makes sense, from a business perspective, but it won't be of benefit to consumers and retailers of video games. Particularly as Sony has quite a strong grip over their digital marketplace and no longer sells game codes to retailers. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
For anyone concerned that Microsoft will continue their consolidation of gaming publishers following a successful acquisition of ActiBlizz, don't worry. If successful this will put the nail in the coffin of Microsoft's spending spree. Any future major purchase attempt won't make it past any competition watchdog.
Be more concerned if this deal doesn't go through, particularly if you don't care much for ActiBlizz titles. Microsoft will have $69 billion burning a proverbial hole in their pocket and will go after other publishers instead. Although this time, they might not hedge all their bets with one. I could see them going after cd projekt red and other similar sized studios, maybe also looking to some of the Japanese companies to round out their portfolio. Ubisoft could also become a possibility given that they have been the target of buyouts in the past. Denying this acquisition will just see Microsoft shift their attention to other targets.
@Rob_230 "they do not want Sony in the market" - can you point to any business that wants another company competing in the same market as themselves?
From an individual business perspective, the less competition the better - Sony would happily delete Microsoft and Nintendo if it were within their power to do so.
Competition only serves to benefit consumers, not individual businesses. Innovation, lower pricing, higher quality goods/services and more choice are all byproducts of competition, none of which are concerning to a business which only exists to maximise profit. Competition merely stifles company profits.
@Victor_Meldrew "as if Sony could afford that" - your words, not mine. Clearly, Sony could afford that as they've been doing an awful lot of AAA timed exclusivity deals for "negligible returns" this generation. Most recently - final fantasy 16, which is part of the biggest JRPG franchise in the world.
Also, some of these timed exclusivity deals are for console exclusivity. Keeping a game off a rival console but still allowing release on PC is cheaper than full timed exclusivity.
The reference to the bungie deal was to highlight the fact that Sony clearly aren't strapped for cash. They clearly believe in the value of timed exclusivity, and based on their prior dealings with Bethesda it doesn't seem improbable that they were looking to tie up starfield.
@Victor_Meldrew they bought bungie for $3.7 billion after Microsoft acquired Bethesda. I'm pretty sure they had the money for starfield timed exclusivity if they'd been given the opportunity
@SplooshDmg I think the reason FFVIIR hasn't seen a release on Xbox is that square enix have looked to tomb raider and decided that the 12 month window of exclusivity has made the title financially unviable on Xbox. Probably even more true given how unrealistic a sales target they give for their games.
Rise of the tomb raider had a year of exclusivity on Xbox one. It bombed when it launched 12 months later for $60 on ps4, despite having an 88 on metacritic (which, incidentally, is the same metacritic score as ff16). I don't think it sold any where near as well at launch on PlayStation as Xbox even though PS4 continued to outsell Xbox one.
Timed exclusivity still hurts sales and competition despite what some "experts" on this forum believe. There's a reason Sony has been investing heavily as of late in AAA titles to secure a 12 month exclusivity window. If you have Microsoft's money why wouldn't you attempt to block this practice with a buy out, especially given that Sony scored timed exclusivity with back-to-back Bethesda titles.
If everyone is looking to Microsoft's history as to why this deal shouldn't close, surely it also makes sense to look at Sony's history with Bethesda and assume that starfield would also have been time gated on Xbox?
@Sakai I know, that's why I mentioned both cloud and home console with regards to CMA and FTC. FTC latest statement points to home console market, while the CMA are only concerned with the cloud gaming market. Either way, they're both stating significant risks to competition should exclusivity be a component of the acquisition.
@TheArtfulDodger according to the FTC and CMA securing these titles as exclusives would significantly impact levels of competition. Therefore Microsoft would see significant hardware and software sales growth by virtue of such a deal. Yes, the first few years would probably see them incurring losses, but this would be offset in time by gaining monopoly level control of both the cloud gaming and home console markets (according to CMA and FTC). Gamepass has shown that Microsoft have no issue with taking big losses for long term gain. I'm sure $69 billion would secure an exclusivity window of sufficient length to force all competition to withdraw from the market.
Again, I make this point, based solely on the idea that both the CMA and FTC are correct in their appraisal of the ActiBlizz merger.
I find it slightly amusing that the FTC is concerned that after a decade CoD and other IPs could become exclusive and not appear on rival platforms. Yet, Microsoft could in theory say, f**k the deal, let's just pay from this moment onwards to make cod and any other ActiBlizz exclusive for the next 10 years using the money reserved for our acquisition. A perfectly legal and competitive practice that would immediately result in the very thing that the FTC are deeming hugely damaging to the market.
Obviously this won't happen, but Microsoft probably have the finances to bankroll it should they ever want to.
@XenonKnight I have a series X and a ps5 so I hope starfield will live up the the hype, but I'm still skeptical based on Microsoft and Bethesda's past showings. Either way, I should still have Spiderman 2 to look forward to in September, if release date rumours are true.
The console market is close to saturation point and people are more precious about time and it's value. I think developers and publisher's are finally starting to realise that there isn't room for a ton of GaaS and the difficulties in trying to launch and compete with the few that are already established and successful.
@XenonKnight not having redfall on ps5 is actually a good thing. It saved several uninformed PlayStation owners from losing $70 to one of the worst games of 2023.
@get2sammyb How can anyone know what happens to anything after 10 years? Who's to say call of duty will still be the juggernaut it is today? The only thing you can use to make predictions are past trends and data. Microsoft's track record for the last decade with regard to studio output has been abysmal when compared to it's competition. If the EU are basing their decision on what is most likely to happen should Microsoft acquire ActiBlizz, 10 years seems like plenty of time for the IP to be destroyed or at best significantly eroded.
@Chaudy yes, you've pretty much described the enthusiast market for games consoles, not the mass consumer market that actually drives profit and revenue. I have a friend who only plays cod and fifa. He bought a ps5 mostly because all his friends had PlayStation, he had ps plus paid for the next 8 months, previously owned a ps4 and wanted access to all his FIFA games and ultimate teams he'd spent money on. He also still enjoys playing black ops 4 multiplayer which he bought on PS4. He tried the uncharted series and only got a few hours into it before quitting, had the same experience with Spiderman and didn't fare much better with god of war. He's not a minority either - there's a reason cod, FIFA and madden manage to stay in the top 10 sales charts for the majority of the year while other titles fade in and out.
According to the head of PlayStation every single great exclusive Sony have created still isn't sufficient to allow them to continue competing in the console market should they ever lose access to call of duty. All the great new games you talk about really don't mean a thing with regard to the overall market and are only truly important to enthusiasts.
Well let's all just hope that Microsoft leave the console business behind them and that the majority of people in the comments can finally get what they've all been craving for so long - a Sony that is free from the constraints of competition!
(At which point I'll probably have switched over to gaming on PC where I can enjoy Sony's titles at reduced cost, higher fidelity and a resolution/frame rate of my choosing)
@Chaudy the digital libraries comment is true, not that people necessarily play those games again, but because they've invested value into them and by ditching that ecosystem they essentially lose that perceived value. The technology giants want people invested in their ecosystems because it helps create brand loyalty and customer retention with new products. Look at the numbers of people that invested in an iPod and bought music through iTunes that went on to get iPhones, iPads and apple music subscriptions, and continue to buy upgrades to those devices because they're invested in that ecosystem. My step mum has an iPad pro, the latest iPhone and an M2 MacBook having started with an iPod and ITunes. My dad has a Samsung Android smartphone and isn't bothered about apple, he's stuck with Samsung for years because it's what he's known and he's familiar with the ecosystem.
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Re: Video: One Year Later, Is PSVR2 Doing Enough?
@SJBUK I wasn’t surprised by quest outselling psvr2, I was surprised by the ratio of over 30 to 1.
How exactly has Sony been working on ways of improving sales? There hasn’t been any news on first party games since launch, no price cuts or massive marketing promotions. The only thing rumoured is that Sony are looking at making the headset compatible with PC. Which suggests that they are just looking to recoup as much of their investment as possible right now.
I didn’t think ps vita was a failure, but its total sales were eclipsed by ps4 after just one year. This, and the fact that the Nintendo 3ds was completely dominating units sold led to Sony reducing support and eventually discontinuation. We haven’t had a true handheld from Sony since.
Psvr2 is looking an awful lot similar to ps vita right now: A relatively successful gen1 device (psvr1) as with the psp, which led to a successor. The ps5 is proving considerably more successful than psvr2 and the competition, quest, is completely dominating it in terms of sales.
For shareholders, why would they want Sony to continue investing in a market that has shown little growth or return when that money could be spent supporting the wildly successful ps5? Meta have achieved more than any other company within vr and they have struggled for years to make money. Less than 5% of ps4 players purchased a psvr1 and it doesn’t look like that number has changed for psvr2. In fact, given that we haven’t heard anything officially since launch, it’s likely that number has shrunk.
Re: Video: One Year Later, Is PSVR2 Doing Enough?
@SJBUK “… as Sony haven’t said” - we’d all know exactly how many units they’d shipped and sold if it were a success.
Sony regularly declare the sales performance of their PlayStation 5 console. We all know exactly how many units they’ve sold - we even know how many units they’re forecasting to ship this year.
Publicly traded companies often don’t reveal sales figures if they’re significantly below expectations. Legally, they only have to present quarterly earnings reports. It’s why Microsoft hasn’t officially revealed the sales figures of Xbox series consoles for the last few years. Sony recently released their sales report for the third quarter ending 31 December 2023, they sold 8.2 million ps5’s during that period, but there was no mention of how psvr2 had performed during the holidays.
We can only speculate about the sales numbers for psvr2 at this point, but an analysis of Amazon US sales figures by the website roadtovr, showed that Meta Quest had massively outsold psvr2 on Amazon over the holiday season. For every 1 unit of psvr2 sold, Quest sold more than 30 units. Obviously Amazon isn’t the only retailer for psvr2, but it’s usually a pretty decent reflection of the whole market.
Re: Video: One Year Later, Is PSVR2 Doing Enough?
@Darude84 i had a friend pre order for launch. He was hyped for the headset but got terrible motion sickness from most of the demo’s. He was pretty gutted that he couldn’t get more than a few minutes into horizon. He requested a refund using Sony’s returns form, packaged everything up and was fully reimbursed after Sony had received and checked the item.
Re: Poor Suicide Squad Sales Disappoint Publisher Warner Bros
And in other news, water is wet.
The writing was on the wall from the very first gameplay reveal. This is not the game people wanted from rocksteady. The only people in the world surprised by its failure were those that decided the market was crying out for yet another terribly executed live service game.
Re: Sony Testing PSVR2 Compatibility on PC, Aiming for This Year
@AverageGamer I wasn’t aware of this as I’ve not really noticed any artifacting with mine on the few times I’ve hardwired, (I mostly play wireless). Doesn’t psvr2 use usb type c for its wired connection? Wouldn’t it have similar issues on pc unless it ships with DP or HDMI connections?
Re: Sony Testing PSVR2 Compatibility on PC, Aiming for This Year
@ROTTIEMAN16 yes, the blacks are better and fov higher, but I’d rather a slightly smaller but considerably clearer fov with slightly higher resolution over the increased contrast.
The controllers of psvr2 have better haptics, but these would require proper support on pc, and battery life means you have to wait for a recharge should they die whilst playing. Quest 3 controllers have interchangeable batteries.
The quest 3 can also be hardwired, so no artefacting or issues as with psvr2. But less graphically intensive games such as beatsabre can be enjoyed wirelessly and played natively without any artifacting.
You can also play augmented reality games thanks to the device’s colour pass-through which is superior to the monochrome low resolution pass-through on psvr2.
Re: Sony Testing PSVR2 Compatibility on PC, Aiming for This Year
As stated by others here, I really don’t think releasing psvr2 on pc is going to make much difference to sales numbers for Sony. The pc vr space is pretty competitive and the quest 3 is a fantastic unit for its price point.
The eye tracking and foveated rendering offered by psvr2 were completely ruined by the use of fresnel lenses in the unit. The sweet spot is so small that foveated rendering makes absolutely no difference to image quality when looking outside of it. The pancake lenses of the quest 3 have a considerably larger sweet spot allowing you to shift your view with your eyes rather than having to move your whole head as on psvr2.
Also, a psvr2 on pc locks you out of all the quest exclusive titles, of which there are many. Were sony to release their PlayStation exclusive titles on pc, they would do so on steam and these titles would also be playable on a quest.
Finally, it doesn’t offer the flexibility of the quest 3 with regards to wireless play - you always have to be tethered to your pc.
Objectively, there’s almost no reason to buy a psvr2 on pc over a quest 3.
Re: Upgraded PS5 Pro Planning to Be the Best Place to Play GTA 6
@djhegzy I don’t really think those games are representative of what a properly optimised game can achieve on the base ps5. But, I do agree that they look horrible from an image quality perspective when playing in performance mode.
I played horizon: forbidden west on ps5 last year at 60fps and the game looked fantastic, so it is possible to achieve both higher frame rates and impressive image quality. The problem is that in order for this to happen a developer has to invest the appropriate resources in optimisation - something only first party studios seem to be doing on PlayStation.
There are a lot of people using Nvidia’s 4090 gpu that still struggle to achieve decent performance in some pc titles, despite having 10x the raw power of the ps5. Power is relevant to some degree, but it means very little if a game is poorly optimised.
Re: Dragon's Dogma 2 Has Been Dropping Great New Gameplay Videos
Dragons dogma 2 is a day one for me. I can pre order it on pc for £38 and am fortunate enough to have a gpu that should pretty much guarantee a locked 60fps experience. Will be waiting on a price drop for rise of ronin and probably benefit from some patching.
I struggle to justify £70 on a ps5 title these days when compared to the value proposition on pc - especially as there’s normally quite a big sacrifice in image quality just to get a title running at 60fps. I bought ff16 at launch and, although it was a solid 60 in performance mode, the resolution and image quality was absolutely terrible.
Re: PS5 Goes for the Kill with New Discounts in Europe
Will be interesting to see ps5 and Xbox sales once switch 2 releases. If the current switch is anything to go by Nintendo will have a hard time keeping up with demand. I wonder if it will be able to catch ps5, as I fully expect it to eclipse Xbox series sales.
Re: Microsoft's Recent Layoffs Contradict Activision Blizzard Buyout Pledges, Says FTC
Yes, because Microsoft are the only studio cutting jobs in the video games industry right now. Oh, and Activision blizzard always put employee welfare first when Bobby kotick was CEO. Get a grip people. Pretty much every company is cost cutting right now. Sony have done it too, cuts were made across its studios last year in October including 20% of staff at media molecule. The games industry is not in a great place right now in terms of job security and that is reflected across all studios, not just Microsoft.
Re: PS5, PS4 First-Party Devs Won't Get Complacent Even if Competition Degrades
I don’t doubt that those developers working at Sony studios desire to make the best product they can. Unfortunately for them, they don’t get a say in how much budget they have or how many developers they can hire and how long they can develop for.
I was looking forward to seeing naughty dog’s last of us multiplayer project and I’m sure those working on it were excited to showcase it. Ultimately their desires and passions for were undermined by Sony cancelling the project as they decided it wouldn’t work as a live service title and generate the revenue they required. Frustratingly, the multiplayer in the original last of us was great and I’m fairly sure it was cut from the sequel in favour of being turned into a GaS product which we’ll now never get.
I’m also fairly sure that Microsoft’s decision to release games on other platforms was made by the Company heads rather than the Xbox division. Tom Warren stated yesterday that very few people working at Xbox know what will be announced next week regarding “the future of Xbox”.
Re: Xbox Set to Announce Multi-Platform Plans Next Week
@MidnightDragonDX oh, I’m not in the least bit worried about Microsoft. If they go the software only route they’ll sell off or disband any studio/game that doesn’t give them a decent return. I’m more concerned about how Sony will behave in a market free from competition and with barriers to entry so high that even google and apple aren’t interested in investing.
Re: Xbox Set to Announce Multi-Platform Plans Next Week
Here’s hoping that every fanboy celebrating Microsoft’s demise finally gets to enjoy that monopoly they’ve been asking for.
Spoiler: you’ll be wishing Microsoft had stayed in the game after a few years of a competition free Sony
Re: Rumour: Xbox's Indiana Jones Game Also Being 'Considered' for PS5
If this is all true, then I’m not sure how microsoft will continue operating Xbox hardware. Gamepass is its point of difference, but numbers seem to have stagnated somewhat and without exclusive titles, why would anyone that doesn’t already have gamepass be interested in an Xbox over a PlayStation?
The big hitters - call of duty and the game formally known as fifa aren’t on gamepass, so there’s no reason for the casual demographic to buy an Xbox. The hardcore value software and it sounds like PlayStation will have everything available on Xbox in addition to the quality of all their first party offerings.
Whoever green lit this at Microsoft either doesn’t understand the implications for their hardware division and services offerings. Or, they’ve somehow negotiated a form of gamepass on both PlayStation and switch, and are intentionally looking to phase out hardware production like sega.
Either way, a console market without Microsoft leaves Sony free to price their hardware and services as they see fit and innovate if and when they want. I wonder if Sony would continue to release software on pc without Microsoft? I guess we could find out soon.
Re: Poll: How Would You Rate the Latest State of Play Showcase?
@TandyMiller not a ps one title, but I recently got days gone on pc having missed it when it released on ps4. Enjoying it a lot, great story so far, a bit slow at the start and gameplay isn’t anything revolutionary, but the world building is very compelling. Could never get into state of decay on Xbox including the sequel - days gone feels like the perfect hybrid between it and the last of us.
Re: Poll: How Would You Rate the Latest State of Play Showcase?
I would rate it “okay” for my tastes, nothing shown that really appealed. Team ninja games are very very similar in terms of combat and enemy type - I’ve played and finished every one to date, the latest being wo long last year. Not sure I’m ready to jump into another just 12 months after the last.
Lots of anime waifu style Japanese games showcased which aren’t my thing. Death stranding 2 had exception production values, the decima engine is outstanding, and plenty of craziness. I found the first incredibly boring from a gameplay perspective and couldn’t gel with the delivery sim aspects, so sadly, I doubt I’ll be playing the second as I never finished the first. Not many dates provided either.
Happy for those that were hyped from this state of play. I’m still waiting on news from naughty dog to rekindle my PlayStation hype levels.
Re: Microsoft, Activision Cut 1,900 Jobs in More Video Game Layoffs
@JSnow2 so you’re saying that had Microsoft not bought activation blizzard everyone would still have jobs and there’d be no forced redundancies? Bobby Kotick would still be running the company - he was the epitome of profit maximisation above employee welfare.
Everyone is making job cuts in the video game industry right now. It’s moronic to think that with independence and their former CEO in charge that activation blizzard would continue to maintain its staffing levels. Given his reputation, Kotick would be making as many forced redundancies as possible to maintain profits for his shareholders.
Re: PS5 Sales Absolutely Explode in Europe as Sony Single-Handedly Drives Industry Up
@TheCollector316 I agree that consolidation of games publishers by Microsoft definitely isn’t a consumer friendly move. But I am hopeful and relatively confident that the Activision blizzard deal should be the nail in the coffin of any further publisher and studio acquisition's by team green.
If Microsoft do eventually become software centric it will be interesting to see how PlayStation respond to the lack of competition.
Economic theory suggests that absence of competition results in higher pricing and inferior products. Sony’s history suggests that this would hold true. The huge success of the PlayStation 2 resulted in the company’s worst console launch in history with PlayStation 3 and led to a monumental loss of market share.
Conversely, a lot of the changes made during the Xbox one era were entirely due to competition from Sony: roll back on game sharing, removal of Kinect and cheaper base hardware pricing, focus on games and abandonment of Xbox as a media system, launch of a powerful “one x” console variant, the development of gamepass (love it or hate it). None of this was possible without Sony’s competition.
Re: PS5 Sales Absolutely Explode in Europe as Sony Single-Handedly Drives Industry Up
@Bionic-Spencer I mean that’s true, to an extent. But making a game Xbox exclusive now means it launches on pc and Xbox day one, with xcloud soon to follow. Sony exclusives pretty much only appear on ps5 day one barring a few exceptions. There’s no date for the last of us part 2 remaster on pc yet and a lot of fans are still waiting on news concerning the pc release of the demons souls remake. Xbox as a platform is no longer restricted to console, their games are available at launch on both pc and Xbox systems. Disney would be fully aware of this when negotiating exclusivity, as they would Sony’s ps5 exclusivity stance. Their guys run all the numbers before committing to any business deal.
Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro Specs Could Leak Very Soon as Dev Kits Go Out to Studios
@Ravix yes that’s true. Console will always be better optimised than pc and devs will get more performance from the hardware than they would from the equivalent power on pc. Also, while Microsoft utilise directx based dev tools which are ubiquitous across pc and Xbox, Sony use their own bespoke dev software for playstation. Sony’s toolset always seems to be the most efficient in terms of performance output when compared Xbox. Will be interesting to see what the ps5 pro is capable of when it launches.
Yes, similarly to you, I wanted Sony or Microsoft to produce a bleeding edge system at whatever premium that cost. I eventually realised that this will never come to pass and decided to buy a pc this year. I want to guarantee that I can play every new release at 1440p native 60fps, which I now can. I’ll probably spend the ps5 pro cost on a gpu when it launches instead. If the nvidia 5070 is available at that time and affordable I’ll be buying that and enjoy greater performance coupled with 4th generation rtx features, frame generation and 5th generation dlss.
I still have my original variant ps5, but the majority of my time is spent on the pc where I can play multiplayer for free, pay less for titles at launch and can jump in and out of gamepass when I want.
I definitely don’t regret the switch.
Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro Specs Could Leak Very Soon as Dev Kits Go Out to Studios
@Ravix I think it will do better ray tracing than the base ps5, but it definitely won’t come close to max raytracing in AAA titles. The supposed leaked specs on resetera put its gpu at about 50-60% faster than the base ps5. That would make it somewhere between an nvidia 4070 and an amd 7800xt. The 7800xt is probably a better benchmark with regards to the levels of ray tracing the ps5 could achieve given that amd provide Sony with their SoC. I have this card right now and its raytracing performance isn’t great at 1440p. In fact, it’s so lacklustre I don’t even bother enabling it in the majority of games. Nvidia are the world leaders in raytracing with their rtx dedicated hardware. If you want to max raytracing in something like cyberpunk or Alan wake 2 and want decent frame rates and resolution you’re looking at a 4080 minimum and preferably a 4090, both of which are pushing towards upwards of £1000. There’s no way you’ll be getting max raytracing on a ps5 pro as the hardware costs would make the product completely unviable for the console market.
Re: PS5 Slim Officially Unveiled, Attachable Disc Drive, Launches November
Am I the only one that thinks this new iteration looks a bit cheap and kind of like something you'd find on wish. com?
My launch day ps5 definitely has a more premium aesthetic imo, I think the new vertical stand looks particularly crappy on this. Although I'm sure the looks will be irrelevant to the majority of buyers who will welcome a smaller console.
Re: Red Dead Redemption Remaster Update 1.03 Adds 60FPS Option
@Disharmonist it's a PS3 game, I'd be very disappointed if it couldn't run at 60fps on ps5 without any graphical downgrade.
Re: New Cuphead Update Skips PS4, Will Be Exclusive to Xbox, PC
@Rafie I mean it's kind of irrelevant which platform it came to first, they're available on both PlayStation and Xbox right now and have been on Sony machines since 2020. There's plenty of people with PlayStation copies and no reason why the anniversary content couldn't also be on playstation to celebrate its 3rd year anniversary (a number equally as arbitrary as 6). Unless the content specifically contains the numbers 6 everywhere and has a new theme tune with the lyrics "6th anniversary edition content".
Re: New Cuphead Update Skips PS4, Will Be Exclusive to Xbox, PC
This is a little bit like all the extra content PlayStation users get in some games that pc and Xbox players miss out on. The most recent example I can think of was the additional hogwarts missions on Sony's machines. Basically paying the publisher to cut content from other platforms. It sucks both ways and is very anti-consumer - you're essentially paying the same price for an inferior product.
Re: Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Has Events Where You Encounter the Other Spidey Fighting Crime
I got the plat for spiderman on ps5, but really couldn't get into miles morales - only managed about 3 hours. Not sure if I burnt myself out on Spiderman, but I'm not really that hyped for the new one. It looks like a more refined version of the original, but I'm not sure that's enough for me sadly
Re: Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Release Date Details Dropping Next Week
@Michael2008ish BG3 is amazing for what it is, arguably the best in class and a goty contender. It is a CRPG, if you don't like that genre it's no fault of the game.
Re: Firewall Ultra (PSVR2) - Flawed VR Shooter Misses the Mark
@KaijuKaiser yes that's true, but you'd expect the first party stuff to be among the best content on the system. Especially given how well received the original was.
The vast majority of first party titles on playstation 5 are the arguably some of the best available to play. There's not a ton of first party developers working on things for psvr2 and most of the best games are ports from the quest 2 and more akin to indie titles in terms of budget and scope.
Call of the mountain made me incredibly ill even with all the comfort settings enabled, no man's sky looked a blurry mess imo and resident evil was a port of an existing game I'd already beaten.
The motion sickness was the biggest barrier to play for me, but even without that, there's not been any title to date that seems like a must play. I don't have any regrets about returning my psvr2.
Re: Firewall Ultra (PSVR2) - Flawed VR Shooter Misses the Mark
I didn't get on with psvr2 - was hugely disappointed with the image quality and suffered severe motion sickness after a few minutes of play. Luckily I was able to return the headset for a full refund. Doesn't feel like I'm missing much based off of all the reviews for this game. Pretty disappointing for a first party title.
Re: Square Enix Bafflingly Backtracks on Final Fantasy 16 Sales, Blames 'Slow' PS5 Adoption
Maybe it would have sold better if square hadn't been greedy and signed an exclusivity agreement with Sony? What did they expect when it has only been available to buy on ps5? If you want to maximise sales you maximise your potential market, not restrict it.
Re: PlayStation's Skipping Gamescom, But It's Showing Up for ChinaJoy 2023
@Mikey856 don't worry, if there's a Russian games convention I'm sure Sony will be there too
Re: Even Microsoft Is Expecting a Revised PS5 Hardware Model This Year
@NEStalgia totally agree. This won't be an additional ps5, rather a replacement model which conveniently steers the consumer towards an all digital collection. Of course, the disc add on will be available to placate those that want to maintain physical purchases. But the base form of the ps5 moving forward will be digital only. It makes sense, from a business perspective, but it won't be of benefit to consumers and retailers of video games. Particularly as Sony has quite a strong grip over their digital marketplace and no longer sells game codes to retailers. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Re: The Last of Us 2 Cost $220 Million to Make, Horizon Forbidden West Cost $212 Million
For anyone concerned that Microsoft will continue their consolidation of gaming publishers following a successful acquisition of ActiBlizz, don't worry. If successful this will put the nail in the coffin of Microsoft's spending spree. Any future major purchase attempt won't make it past any competition watchdog.
Be more concerned if this deal doesn't go through, particularly if you don't care much for ActiBlizz titles. Microsoft will have $69 billion burning a proverbial hole in their pocket and will go after other publishers instead. Although this time, they might not hedge all their bets with one. I could see them going after cd projekt red and other similar sized studios, maybe also looking to some of the Japanese companies to round out their portfolio. Ubisoft could also become a possibility given that they have been the target of buyouts in the past. Denying this acquisition will just see Microsoft shift their attention to other targets.
Re: Microsoft's Potential Game Plan in 2020: 'Spend Sony Out of Business'
@Rob_230 "they do not want Sony in the market" - can you point to any business that wants another company competing in the same market as themselves?
From an individual business perspective, the less competition the better - Sony would happily delete Microsoft and Nintendo if it were within their power to do so.
Competition only serves to benefit consumers, not individual businesses. Innovation, lower pricing, higher quality goods/services and more choice are all byproducts of competition, none of which are concerning to a business which only exists to maximise profit. Competition merely stifles company profits.
Re: Xbox Insinuates It Bought Bethesda to Block Starfield PS5 Console Exclusivity
@Victor_Meldrew "as if Sony could afford that" - your words, not mine. Clearly, Sony could afford that as they've been doing an awful lot of AAA timed exclusivity deals for "negligible returns" this generation. Most recently - final fantasy 16, which is part of the biggest JRPG franchise in the world.
Also, some of these timed exclusivity deals are for console exclusivity. Keeping a game off a rival console but still allowing release on PC is cheaper than full timed exclusivity.
The reference to the bungie deal was to highlight the fact that Sony clearly aren't strapped for cash. They clearly believe in the value of timed exclusivity, and based on their prior dealings with Bethesda it doesn't seem improbable that they were looking to tie up starfield.
Re: Xbox Insinuates It Bought Bethesda to Block Starfield PS5 Console Exclusivity
@Victor_Meldrew they bought bungie for $3.7 billion after Microsoft acquired Bethesda. I'm pretty sure they had the money for starfield timed exclusivity if they'd been given the opportunity
Re: Xbox Insinuates It Bought Bethesda to Block Starfield PS5 Console Exclusivity
@SplooshDmg I think the reason FFVIIR hasn't seen a release on Xbox is that square enix have looked to tomb raider and decided that the 12 month window of exclusivity has made the title financially unviable on Xbox. Probably even more true given how unrealistic a sales target they give for their games.
Re: Xbox Insinuates It Bought Bethesda to Block Starfield PS5 Console Exclusivity
Rise of the tomb raider had a year of exclusivity on Xbox one. It bombed when it launched 12 months later for $60 on ps4, despite having an 88 on metacritic (which, incidentally, is the same metacritic score as ff16). I don't think it sold any where near as well at launch on PlayStation as Xbox even though PS4 continued to outsell Xbox one.
Timed exclusivity still hurts sales and competition despite what some "experts" on this forum believe. There's a reason Sony has been investing heavily as of late in AAA titles to secure a 12 month exclusivity window. If you have Microsoft's money why wouldn't you attempt to block this practice with a buy out, especially given that Sony scored timed exclusivity with back-to-back Bethesda titles.
If everyone is looking to Microsoft's history as to why this deal shouldn't close, surely it also makes sense to look at Sony's history with Bethesda and assume that starfield would also have been time gated on Xbox?
Re: Starfield, Redfall Exclusivity 'Powerful Evidence' Against Xbox's Activision Buyout, Claims FTC
@Sakai I know, that's why I mentioned both cloud and home console with regards to CMA and FTC. FTC latest statement points to home console market, while the CMA are only concerned with the cloud gaming market. Either way, they're both stating significant risks to competition should exclusivity be a component of the acquisition.
Re: Starfield, Redfall Exclusivity 'Powerful Evidence' Against Xbox's Activision Buyout, Claims FTC
@TheArtfulDodger according to the FTC and CMA securing these titles as exclusives would significantly impact levels of competition. Therefore Microsoft would see significant hardware and software sales growth by virtue of such a deal. Yes, the first few years would probably see them incurring losses, but this would be offset in time by gaining monopoly level control of both the cloud gaming and home console markets (according to CMA and FTC). Gamepass has shown that Microsoft have no issue with taking big losses for long term gain. I'm sure $69 billion would secure an exclusivity window of sufficient length to force all competition to withdraw from the market.
Again, I make this point, based solely on the idea that both the CMA and FTC are correct in their appraisal of the ActiBlizz merger.
Re: Starfield, Redfall Exclusivity 'Powerful Evidence' Against Xbox's Activision Buyout, Claims FTC
I find it slightly amusing that the FTC is concerned that after a decade CoD and other IPs could become exclusive and not appear on rival platforms. Yet, Microsoft could in theory say, f**k the deal, let's just pay from this moment onwards to make cod and any other ActiBlizz exclusive for the next 10 years using the money reserved for our acquisition. A perfectly legal and competitive practice that would immediately result in the very thing that the FTC are deeming hugely damaging to the market.
Obviously this won't happen, but Microsoft probably have the finances to bankroll it should they ever want to.
Re: Microsoft's $69 Billion Activision Deal Approved by the EU Commission
@XenonKnight I have a series X and a ps5 so I hope starfield will live up the the hype, but I'm still skeptical based on Microsoft and Bethesda's past showings. Either way, I should still have Spiderman 2 to look forward to in September, if release date rumours are true.
Re: Another Game as a Service on PS5 Is Being Abandoned
The console market is close to saturation point and people are more precious about time and it's value. I think developers and publisher's are finally starting to realise that there isn't room for a ton of GaaS and the difficulties in trying to launch and compete with the few that are already established and successful.
Re: Microsoft's $69 Billion Activision Deal Approved by the EU Commission
@XenonKnight not having redfall on ps5 is actually a good thing. It saved several uninformed PlayStation owners from losing $70 to one of the worst games of 2023.
Re: Microsoft's $69 Billion Activision Deal Approved by the EU Commission
@WaffleDee Microsoft successfully "out-bribed" Sony 😉
Re: Microsoft's $69 Billion Activision Deal Approved by the EU Commission
@get2sammyb How can anyone know what happens to anything after 10 years? Who's to say call of duty will still be the juggernaut it is today? The only thing you can use to make predictions are past trends and data. Microsoft's track record for the last decade with regard to studio output has been abysmal when compared to it's competition. If the EU are basing their decision on what is most likely to happen should Microsoft acquire ActiBlizz, 10 years seems like plenty of time for the IP to be destroyed or at best significantly eroded.
Re: Xbox Boss Admits Microsoft Can't 'Outconsole' PS5
@Chaudy yes, you've pretty much described the enthusiast market for games consoles, not the mass consumer market that actually drives profit and revenue. I have a friend who only plays cod and fifa. He bought a ps5 mostly because all his friends had PlayStation, he had ps plus paid for the next 8 months, previously owned a ps4 and wanted access to all his FIFA games and ultimate teams he'd spent money on. He also still enjoys playing black ops 4 multiplayer which he bought on PS4. He tried the uncharted series and only got a few hours into it before quitting, had the same experience with Spiderman and didn't fare much better with god of war. He's not a minority either - there's a reason cod, FIFA and madden manage to stay in the top 10 sales charts for the majority of the year while other titles fade in and out.
According to the head of PlayStation every single great exclusive Sony have created still isn't sufficient to allow them to continue competing in the console market should they ever lose access to call of duty. All the great new games you talk about really don't mean a thing with regard to the overall market and are only truly important to enthusiasts.
Re: Xbox Boss Admits Microsoft Can't 'Outconsole' PS5
Well let's all just hope that Microsoft leave the console business behind them and that the majority of people in the comments can finally get what they've all been craving for so long - a Sony that is free from the constraints of competition!
(At which point I'll probably have switched over to gaming on PC where I can enjoy Sony's titles at reduced cost, higher fidelity and a resolution/frame rate of my choosing)
Re: Xbox Boss Admits Microsoft Can't 'Outconsole' PS5
@Chaudy the digital libraries comment is true, not that people necessarily play those games again, but because they've invested value into them and by ditching that ecosystem they essentially lose that perceived value. The technology giants want people invested in their ecosystems because it helps create brand loyalty and customer retention with new products. Look at the numbers of people that invested in an iPod and bought music through iTunes that went on to get iPhones, iPads and apple music subscriptions, and continue to buy upgrades to those devices because they're invested in that ecosystem. My step mum has an iPad pro, the latest iPhone and an M2 MacBook having started with an iPod and ITunes. My dad has a Samsung Android smartphone and isn't bothered about apple, he's stuck with Samsung for years because it's what he's known and he's familiar with the ecosystem.