NerdyPaul

Hot take: these platform sales numbers are only useful to game publishers and platform fanboys. There is nothing that I, a simple dumb gamer on the internet, can do with these numbers besides shrug and get on with my day.

@Skinny-Pete I mean there is quite a number difference between the install base of the 1 year old Switch 2 and 6 year old PS5 as well so I don't see what that comparison would be good for either.

@Skinny-Pete Yeah an article every time someone farts a tweet that can be used to fan the flames of the platform war (it isn't even just a console war at this point) is why games journalism is in the toilet

X is NOT a source, folks, it is a cancer upon the internet

These blatant engagement bait articles are getting tiresome.

@AI-Generation I am glad I am just a dumb gamer on the internet and not actually in charge of making any decisions in the industry. I'd probably have a nervous breakdown.

@Futureshark Problem is selling that low when costs are this high is a risk when their tentpole exclusives take so long and cost so much to make. I can count on one hand how many big first party games only on PS5 I loved playing. That is not enough for them to be able to subsidise the console so heavily.

What is even sadder, when the AI bubble does pop, AI is not going to go away because markets don't just disappear when a stock bubble pops. The Dotcom bubble popping didn't make the entire industry disappear. What happened was that the smaller companies liquidated and/or ended up consolidating and the companies that emerged became absolute juggernauts that ended up dominating.

The same thing will happen with the AI bubble pops, whatever AI companies emerge from it will be huge juggernaut companies who will use just as much hardware and compute power, if not more as they seek out new opportunities for innovation so either supply chains will need to scale up to meet the immense demand of the broader tech industry or the higher prices will remain a baseline moving forward because once the compute threshold is crossed, there is no going back.

Sony delays PS6 into 2028/29: a lot of wasted R&D spend and in the sourcing of components, with possibly a breach in contract with suppliers and it eventually releasing already "outdated".

Sony plows on and releases the PS6 in 2027 priced at $800-$1000: Receives nothing but bad reception for releasing a potentially $1000 console at a time when people are being squeezed from all directions. Console releases, sells poorly because annoyed gamers can't justify it, we see a longer cross gen period than even the PS5 saw, and gamers would never forget that Sony chose to release a console at such a high price and it would be part of PS discourse for decades (just like how we still bring up the start of the PS3 generation today).

There is no good outcome here and there will be fallout so does Sony take the hit and delay the PS6 costing millions already spent, or do they risk the long term brand damage that comes from potentially being the first to put out a $1000 console which could end up costing more in the long run?

The next generation is looking more and more DOA every day because most people will not pay $800-$1000 for a games console. You'd be alienating a large part of your fanbase and pushing them towards alternatives like mobile gaming.

@Monstermash40 The problem is that back in the PS3 days game development times were a lot shorter and game budgets were a lot smaller. Selling a console that costs this much to make at a significant enough loss that would make the purchasing price palatable to players who are being stretched thin from all directions in that environment would not go too well. Unless of course they publish cross platform of course but PS fanboys would hate that.

This is why DRM is not good. People should be able to buy these, download them and store them offline in case this very thing were to happen.

It isn't the first time Sony has done this, and Sony are not the only ones who have done this. Remember when Amazon deleted ebooks from Kindles?

No doubt there will be a lot of hand wringing about digital distribution here and how physical media is king, but that is the wrong fight. It is DRM we should be railing against because digital distribution is here and it is not going away.

@Judal27 It is quite different. Vehicle mod shops, clothes shops and barbers used to be a standard feature in GTA games going all the way back at least to the first 3D GTA. Now they are seen as a way to sell a more expensive edition of the game. It isn't that they are just cosmetics like in other games; it is taking a feature that used to be standard, removing it and selling it back.

@LiamOliver Knowing the origins of the game Monopoly and why it was created, a crossover with Disney owned Star Wars is quite ironic.

@RoomWithaMoose Or it will fail to live up to the hype get a bunch of 8s and the same people will make their video essays similar to the ones they made about Crimson Desert. Could honestly go either way

@Deadlyblack Especially when those in game shops used to be standard features in past GTA games

The galling thing about this "ultimate edition" is that it removed features that used to be standard in GTA games in the past just to try and sell it back as part of the more expensive "ultimate edition". That is what makes this scummy as hell.

@Dogbreath I know Twitter and Reddit love to blame the Series S for the failure of Xbox this gen but it's nonsense. The problems at Xbox are far deeper than that.

A proper PS6 handheld would rekindle my PS6 interest.

As long as it wasn't priced like the new PC handhelds coming out. £1400 for the new MSI Claw is just ridiculous.

I feel like Sony has enough top tier IP for a Smash like live service fighting game. That would be kinda cool. They don't have Sakurai though so that would be a disadvantage.

Nothing wrong with a good mix of live service games getting a consistent cadence of new content and the big traditional single player games. Its all about balance

@RobN The retailer could be struggling to shift stock because of price so they make up some guff about shortages to create FOMO.

Its a tale as old as time.

@AI-Generation Yep, its a strategy as old as dirt.

@Perturbator And yet Ubisoft for all the hate they get online can still keep The Division online 7 years after The Division 2 came out.

And Arenanet can still keep Guild Wars online over 20 years after initial release alongside Guild Wars 2, and have committed to keeping both online as they move towards Guild Wars 3.

It can be done, ***** publishers just choose not to.

@AI-Generation Yeah, Xbox and Playstation are two cheeks of the same arse at the moment, lets be real about it.

@thechetearly I think longer console cycles would be a good thing in general regardless of the AI bubble. There are no real generational leaps anymore, not like there has been in the past, but games are taking way longer and costing way more to make.

@Bot_Bot_69 I believe the future of AI is local on device models that are improving all the time. This is why Apple has been driving toward and why they are perceived by tech media talking heads as being "behind the curve".

Sad thing is even if the AI bubble pops tomorrow it will take years for supply chains to return to some approximation of normality because of the damage done by data centre demand, government tariffs and the situation in the Middle East.

I'm not even convinced the market will ever return to where it was 3 years ago because those data centres ain't going anywhere so there will always be demand for components. Its hard to see the damage that has already done as repairable.

Fun fact: the Dotcom bubble lasted roughly 5-6 years.

We are only 1-2 years into the AI bubble.

I have to give Push Square credit here though, you are one of the few outlets not saying the BS that Bungie are "hit by" layoffs as though the company is the victim here. Layoffs are a choice made by the executive class, and there are ALWAYS other options.

The consequences of mismanagement by Bungie and Sony yet again.

And no, it ultimately is not simply a "they should have worked on Destiny 3 instead of marathon" thing, no matter how much you want it to be. At the end of the day Bungie was vastly over valued and Sony allowed themselves to be swayed by BS

@8bitOG How much of that is a dead cat bounce because of the announcement it will no longer get updates though?

@MamaSymphonia "Japan loves handhelds" is way overstated by westerners looking at the Japanese market. The truth is Japan loves Pokemon, Smash, Splatoon. Look at the Switch 2 sales spikes this year, the biggest ones came with Pokopia and Tomodachi Life (and the latter was even on the Switch 1) and I'd expect another when Splatoon Raiders releases. It's all about the IP.

@Bingoboyop A handheld won't be enough, Playstation also needs more IP that appeals to the Japan market. Preferably without anti consumer/ anti market acquisitions.

Cheaper than Switch 2 and still being comfortably outsold by the Switch 2.

Maybe its the games that the Japanese market are not vibing with rather than the hardware.

Can't wait to see the preorder sales numbers because for all the moaning online about "code in a box" the general public do not care. It's the same for game key cards in Switch 2 world. If it is a game people want to play, they will buy it regardless of physical vs code in a box vs digital.

Online echo chambers are a minority.

These prices are going to make most of the casual market nope out and go to mobile gaming because smartphones are basically a necessity these days so everyone has one and they are more powerful than ever.

Don't believe me? It is already sort of happening. PC game emulation on mobile chips is already well under development and phones are already perfectly capable of playing most indie games using apps like Game Native.

Above $1000 may be the floor for Sony but £700 is the ceiling for me and it is a hard ceiling. Any higher and I won't be buying. End of story.

I bought the PS5 Pro for £699 and I will never spend more than that for a console.

Virtue signalling at its finest

Still scummy as hell to remove features that were standard in past games just to sell them in a more expensive "ultimate edition".

That was always going to be the price.

The big story here is the BS of taking content out of the base game, content that has always been standard in the games, just to sell you a more expensive "ultimate edition" of the game. Rockstar needs to be raked over the coals for that nonsense.

About what I expected for pricing.

Locking features that used to be standard in the game behind the "ultimate edition" too is very scummy.

But people may complain online but they will still buy and glaze the game to no end because people don't want to put their money where their mouth is and refuse to participate in such scummy behaviour.

@NathanCox The ironic thing this these games are not meant to be about ball bustlingly hard combat. They are supposed to be about exploration, unlocking new abilities that allow you to explore new areas of the map. Ball bustlingly hard combat just gets in the way

Crossworld was released very close to the first brand new Mario Kart for the better part of a decade, and I suspect that there is quite a lot of audience crossover.

I know I felt no desire to get the game because Mario Kart World scratched that particular itch more than adequately.

The original PS5 Pro price is my absolute limit for a locked down gaming device. I don’t mind paying more for a device that offers more flexibility as long as the price makes sense for the hardware capabilities.

@Bluemoon2008 yep enthusiasts don’t make a console successful, the casual gamer market does and the casual market would be priced out if a PS6 releases in the current climate

@Deadlyblack They won’t. The casual audience, as the biggest part of the market by far will not bother with a $1000 PS6

@AI-Generation not gonna lie, if that $1000 Xbox really can play Steam games as the speculation goes then it becomes a more attractive prospect than a $1000 PS6 that only plays PlayStation games

@Deadlyblack things aren’t going back to how they were even when the AI bubble does pop. All those data centres are not going anywhere, they will just be repurposed and so will still demand RAM, storage etc

I will not be remotely interested in a PS6 if it costs the same as a Steam Machine, that’s where I cut ties with PlayStation

@DennisReynolds Xbox has economies of scale to be able to acquire components in bulk and for better deals that Valve does not though. I could see Helix being priced similarly to the 2tb Steam Machine model

@11001100110zero steam deck verification is not about optimisation. BG3 was deck verified at a time it could barely hold 30fps on the device. Verification is more about text size, full controller support etc rather than game performance