Honestly I think we should keep the notification. Much like I like to know if the chocolate I buy has knowingly employed slavery to make it cheaply. I want to know if my games are wilfully burning up the planet and it’s water supply to squeeze a bit more money out of me for the billionaire shareholders or not.
It just helps me put my money in the right places as best I can.
Well now I'm glad they don't make anything interesting anymore.
Studios like this using Gen AI means one thing - they value making a product cheaply over making a product quality.
Let's not get it twisted, these studios can easily afford to pay artists and take time to make a big hit. But they don't want to do that when the option to have a computer churn out half the product for free is there.
And please, can we stop ignoring the MASSIVE elephant in the room when we all talk about the ethics and morality of AI. The fact it's hugely damaging to the environment and uses astonishing amounts of water. And no plans to "offset it's usage by planting trees" is not a solution. Trees take years to grow fully, the damage is being done now.
Unreal Engine 5 is just that, an engine. I does not predetermine a style or level of realism, just as choosing not to use Unreal Engine 5 does not preclude a level of realism.
If you want you can use Unreal to make a 2D pixel art platformer and Unity to make a hyper-real open world. You just have to know what you're doing.
I truly doubt I'll be able to afford one at launch the way cost of living is going.
I also just don't know about PlayStation anymore, I don't know if it's for me. There are sporadic great games of course, but the variety is gone. It's all in the third party which I can get elsewhere, or the rivals.
But only time will tell! If it launches with a new Ratchet & Clank I'll have to get my hands on one at some point.
They've not even tried to make her look Madagascan outside of a slightly darker skin tone. She has the same shaped face and features of all the other female characters and perfectly straight hair.
Her clothing is just a bikini for titillation. I don't think they looked at traditional or contemporary Madagascan clothing at all.
The only thing linking her to Madagascar is lemurs and her 'being at one with the animals'. Which is a lazy trope for this region of the world and seemingly an excuse to give her a fluffy tail and make her do the 'nya' anime pose for fan service rather than character building.
They've done it undeniably well, especially with TLoU and GoW.
But do I also want to see more light-hearted stories in the mix? Stories about treasure hunters search for lost legends, stories about an alien and his robot pal thwarting a galaxy threatening evil, stories about a small kid gathering apes? Dare I say...stories about something new entirely?
Yeah. Yeah I miss those games being in the mix. Mature doesn't have to mean serious and dour all the time.
You know how some games add a no-insect mode where all bugs and creepy crawlies are replaced with something else? If they add a 'no creepy child' mode that replaces that kid with something else I'd be interested.
Definitely the sort of thing I've been wanting to see more of on PS5! Willing to forgive a little roughness around the edges for the uniqueness in other areas, hopefully the platforming isn't too bad though.
@Ricky-Spanish Then you are straw-manning the debate for no reason.
People are upset because of the use of AI to try and deceive them primarily. And they are concerned by how easy it is to do now and how, going forward, this will be regulated. The fact AI specifically is what was used is a side, it doesn't really matter, the point is it's deceitful, alarmingly easy and there are currently no protections against it
Additional gripes about AI and it's many unethical elements, are secondary. So if all you are saying it that you don't mind that AI was used, that's not constructive or helpful to the conversation. If AI was an actually beneficial, non-job destroying and carbon-neutral technology, the point would still stand.
But I would urge you to educate yourself on the ethical and moral issues currently surrounding the new technology before declaring your indifference to it.
@GeeEssEff I see people say this all the time about "oh it'll never replace real art and artists" but it already is to an alarming degree. People say this because they want to absolve themselves of the guilt of either doing nothing to stand against it or actively participating in it. Because if you dig just a tiny bit below the surface you can see how big the impact has been in such a short time.
And it's also ignoring all the environmental issues with AI generated content taking up to 32x more energy to produce. Then you have all the misinformation and trickery (this ad being a mild example of it). And the studies that have show the literal brain rot that happens alarmingly fast when people use it frequently instead of doing things themselves.
It's not to say there are no good uses for it. But the ones we are being marketed are not them. It's the tech industry desperately trying to recreate the lighting-in-a-bottle that was social media to please shareholders who insist the line must go up, and the ever greedy entertainment industries trying to cut corners and shed costs of staff.
@Ricky-Spanish "even if everything you are says is true it's not like they are scamming me out of money it just to get me to play a game"
Except that is literally what they are trying to do. If I made an AI advert and I generate, let's say Brad Pitt and I made him say "this game is amazing, you have to play it, it's super good and they just keep improving it, you should really play it, I love it". That is a lie. That is me trying to trick you into buying my game by making you think someone you know is endorsing it. That is a scam, through and through.
Also Kotaku has the sources on them claiming it was a competition and blaming TikTok if you want to read further. None of it makes sense, they knew full well what they were doing and are just biding time to keep the ads up longer.
@Ricky-Spanish I dunno if you're trolling but if you can't see what's wrong with an AI generated ad that is pretending to be people you can trust giving positive reviews for a product...that's insane.
As far as we know, the people who's likenesses were used did not give permission. If they did they would just film the clip, reading it in a much more natural and believable way.
But if they did give permission, why use AI like this? It's incredibly bad for the environment and again, they could have just filmed them to say it for real.
Additionally Nexon are claiming this ad was done by someone who won a competition to make an ad for the game, and are saying TikTok is at fault for not spotting and stopping the copyright infringements. Which is basically admitting they don't have those people's permission and trying to dodge the blame.
They clearly did this with the sole intent of trying to trick people. That's what's wrong with this. It's immoral on several levels.
Yeah that was dumb of Sony, but also remember the creator was trying to get this film made for years and was constantly rejected. So they weren't the most dumb at least.
Last week Golden was number 1 in the UK charts and I think they had 3 other songs in the top 10, plus the film itself being number one in streaming. I can definitely see a sequel or two doing well even if they don't ever quite match the magic of the first. The live action can do one though, stop remaking animated films as more boring!
I bet they're all kicking themselves for not having merch out for this though. Imagine how well dolls of the characters would be selling? Plushies of the tiger? Shirts for the bands? Honestly there's a small fortune just sat there.
I've worked on projects that only happened because Xbox funded them for Game Pass. Did they make huge money outside of that? No. Was that ok? Yeah. Did that make us 'wage slaves'? No. It let us make the game we wanted to make and it meant that we got an audience for that game that we may not have gotten otherwise.
I've also worked on live service or GaaS titles, not one of the Sony ones but in the same vein, and that felt like being a wage slave at times. Constantly churning out new work in the hope it hits. If it doesn't? Throw it out. If it does? Good, do more of that but make it more profitable again next time. Did we see profit sharing and "all that good stuff" when it did hit? Nope.That has absolutely nothing to do with GamePass or GaaS or whatever, that's to do with the crappy way so many places are treating their staff to save more pennies for shareholders these days.
GamePass is not perfect. But it's not all bad either. There's nuance, clearly. And the same does go for GaaS despite my general dislike of them. This comment is just intended to divide people, to reignite the us vs them console war nonsense, and in doing so distract from the negatives that Sony currently has rather than address and sort them.
@themightyant My point with the experimental smaller studios is that they're not being allowed to do that anymore. And yeah the PS4 was also not great for it, so the trajectory is a bad one.
Housemarque did get to do Returnal which was experimental and cool...but that was launch and their next game is for 2026. Firesprite are just doing Horizon and VR stuff. Bluepoint are doing remasters. Media Molecule were trying to support Dreams whilst Sony was just leaving it to die and are probably next on the chopping block as they've put out nothing this gen. Team LFG is too new to judge. Asobi is the saviour of this gen. Support studios are doing great support work.
So all those smaller studios you listed have amounted to 2 games and a demo, on opposite ends of the consoles current lifespan. It proves my point.
Don't get me wrong, the new stuff Sony studios are putting out is great (when not a GaaS flop), it's just all too few and far between. These small studios used to fill some of those gaps with smaller exclusive titles. I know it wasn't perfect and a big help was having the home and handheld systems, I could wait for God of War 3 with Patapon, or play Puppeteer between Killzones, WipEout gaps were filled by Tokyo Jungle. Or just brand new IPs like Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance, Uncharted, Loco Roco etc. And it still had series like Ratchet & Clank going strong and all the third party content.
Now I have a small handful of sequels and originals, another handful of remasters and the rest is all third party or failed GaaS attempts.
Sure Pixel Opus wasn't performing well. But if they could make a game like Concrete Genie whilst not functioning properly, imagine what they could have done if Sony had got in there and helped them straighten their processes and such out? I'm sure it'd be a lot more interesting than Fairgame$.
But hey, if you are happy with the PS5 gen I am actually glad. I wish I could be. I think Playstation, like many things, has shed the veneer of wanting to be creative and interesting and revealed it's ugly corporate core underneath. We always knew it was there, in many ways it has to be, but it was nicer when they at least pretended that money wasn't the sole driving point and that players were as important as shareholders.
The puzzle grid is interesting, but I can't say it all looks that fun. Perhaps it is to play, but that's not coming across here. Also the little girl is creepy and incredibly off-putting anyway as others have said too.
@themightyant For me I bought a PS5 because I used to love the exclusive games Sony puts out. The third party content is good but I can play that elsewhere, first party is the reason to buy a Playstation over an Xbox or just play on my PC.
I think it's made more frustrating knowing how much they backed GaaS games this gen and how big a flop that's been. And it cost us studios like Pixel Opus and Japan Studio (I know we got Asobi out of the last one but still). Concord infamously cost $400,000,000 only to be gone in a week, goodness knows what the others all cost and how much was wasted overall.
And all that nothingness came at the cost of killing all the smaller, experimental studios that used to fill the gaps between the big cinematic experiences. And I'm expected to be happy with the third party offerings filling the void? I can play half of them for free on my Xbox. Yeah they're good games, but it's not good enough on Sony's part. They've majorly dropped the ball this gen and taken their player-base for granted.
I love the new Astrobot levels. I'd have happy paid for them as a larger DLC pack.
The rest of it for me is a technical "very good" support but a personal "meh". I don't care for rougelikes, I don't want to replay the game in a different order and I'm not coming back for a multiplayer mode (I'll try it if it's there at the start).
I'd rather just have some actual new and exciting games. Even if they're smaller games or "only" AA or just odd experiments. But they killed all that stuff so...yeah.
I've had it since they launched it and made me need it for online. Honestly I'd much rather it were either much cheaper and I dont get the games, or it were more customisable.
Really I just want cloud saves and online play. I so rarely play the monthly games now. And I'd like to play some of the retro games but I'm not upping my subscription for it. I would probably add it on in a custom package though.
Environmental cost aside, if you're going to use AI this is how you use it. To create boring textures so that the artists can focus on concept and original design.
It's when companies use AI to generate ideas for costumes or characters or set pieces etc that people should get upset, because is taking away the fun, creative tasks.
But yeah you should just hire a human where possible.
@Boxmonkey moronic? It's the entire point that this revenge quest is a fruitless endeavour. The whole thing came from Abby getting revenge and she looses everyone because of it, she gets a shot at a new life with Lev and takes it. Ellie looses everyone and herself to revenge, culminating in her killing a pregnant woman her unborn child. She gets a shot at a new life too but she throws it away and looses everything because she cant let the revenge go.
Having either one get their revenge and kill the other would be moronic. It's the entire point of the story that neither do.
I thought it was fantastic. The parallels between Ellie and Abby and how Joel affected both their lives was really well done. The way it made you realise Ellie was just as much a monster as anyone else and Abby just as much a victim. Violence begets violence and nobody wins.
Can't say the second series of the show gave me any of that. I wanted to like it at the start but they really messed up the pacing and general tone.
@Propaperpusher "The team's been upfront in saying it doesn’t want to go the live service route of demanding your time and continual dedication to the game"
It's not GaaS, nor live service, it's just an online multiplayer game.
It is a lot, and tbh this isn't my kind of game anyway.
But here's the thing confusing me, people are getting really upset over the price, and yeah it's high and everyone is blaming Nintendo...but it's the same price both Spider-Man 2 and God of War: Ragnarok are on the PSN Store right now, and have been for months. Standard editions.
I know you can get both much cheaper as physical editions, but this will be the same if people wait a bit.
I was excited to see Lumines return, more Astro-Bot and that Origami game looks interesting. Maybe the Not-Journey game too and maybe the we-have-Sea-of-Theives-at-home?
Lacking first party IS an issue though because this is meant to both convince people to buy a PS5 and affirm to those who have that they made the correct choice going here and not to Xbox?
"...it’s felt like PlayStation has been trying to hit as many demographics as possible for quite some time"
It really doesn't. It feels very much the opposite of that too me. As someone who was a big Playstation fan and has slowly found all their favourite IP discontinued, all their favourite studios shut down or shifted onto tonally different things and all their favourite aspects of Playstation's experimental side removed. I mean yeah I like Papa Kratos and Aloy but I largely feel like Sony has decided it's done with making the type of games I want to see outside of them.
Astro Bot is keeping the PS5 on for me at the moment. I'm playing Claire Obscur and Doom on my Xbox and may well a bunch of these too. So yeah, First party is important.
"But if you can’t find one game you like from the latest State of Play, then perhaps you’re in the wrong hobby."
What a crappy thing to say. There was variety for sure but it certainly didn't cover every genre and audience.
@Andywax it's the way it's achieved in code rather than the concept of riding a creature.
Also they're only bothering to act on it because Palworld gleefully came out as a "what if Pokémon but also guns" and made a game that featured characters looking soo close to existing Pokémon (not all tbf) that it could be argued that to the less informed (such as a parent who doesn't know what Pokémon is but has a vague recollection of seeing a Pika-whatsit) it could be mistaken for the original product. Then when it features violence and gunplay, that could be damaging to Pokémon's reputation.
@Frmknst Would you play a new game designed to look old? Like Crow Country or a pixel art platformer? If so what's the difference?
Old doesn't mean you've already played it, and new doesn't mean good. There's a ton of old games I've not yet played that I'd rather play over a ton of the new Gaas releases or CoDs or EA Sports games etc.
I don't mind that they mixed it up, I think these things were all done with purpose and some of them will be to aid the story later. TV and games are not the same thing and adjustments have to be made for the formats.
Dina being there instead of Tommy makes more sense of Dina aiding Ellie later, especially as she's been depicted as extremely flippant in the show and her relationship with Ellie isn't fully blossomed yet, she needs a more grounded and personal reason for going. Plus to have the fight at Jackson, you needed a character we know and care about like Tommy there. Non-gamers don't really know Dina yet, but we all know Tommy from last season if not the games. So it gave weight to what was happening there and gave an excellent misdirect as I'm sure many were worried for Tommy's life and not evening thinking Joel might be in any trouble at all.
Disappointing that their biggest seller, seemingly by a large margin, was a new IP. And their response to that is not to make more new IP but to double down on farming the successful IP. Had they done that earlier they may never have got Cult of the Lamb.
Feels like the first step to Devolver becoming the very thing they used to oppose.
@PuppetMaster I think you're missing the value that these games add outside of their monetary value.
For one, they fill out the library with more and diverse games which both increases the appeal and widens the potential audience. Secondly the also bolster the overall brand, they make the statement that this is a place about creativity and fun, despite the fact we all know it's ultimately a business that needs to make money.
Honestly looking at these as a simple "did it make X money" is not looking at the full picture. Those games used to also offer a lot more family friendly options for example, something the PS5 has been very lacking until Astro Bot. Even if they just break even, they are adding the value of this is now a console that can families can buy and play, which widens the audience and can lead to more sales elsewhere as parents who may not have previously bought one might also buy GoW or TLOU as well for example.
Also lets be real, these are billion dollar companies, yeah they have to make profits but they literally threw $400 million in the bin with Concord alone. A title they had no idea if it was going to do well or not. Yet you are saying they can't afford to keep studios that break even or make modest profits going because they are a business? By all means they can chase the high-risk high-reward games like that, but they have the budget to keep the low-risk low-reward going too, and those at least provide content and attract players in between the giant GaaS flops.
@PuppetMaster I don't think it's that they flopped, sure they never reached the heights of Uncharted or God of War but they shouldn't have been expected too. They should be treated as low risk, low reward and when one does do beyond expectations, like Journey which rocked the industry or Loco Roco and Patapon both of which did well enough to gain sequels, that's a bonus.
Also sorry but I don't think that Nintendo statement is accurate. On the Switch they have ARMS, Good Job!, Snipperclips, Labo, Astral Chain and Daemon x Machina that they published. Plus they continued BoxBoy and brought back weird and obscure series like Famicon Detective Club, Another Code, Tomodatchi Life and Miitopia.
Even the WiiU and 3DS era they gave us Pushmo/Pullblox, Sakura Samurai, The Wonderful 101, Dillon's Rolling Western, Codename Steam, the start of the BoxBoy series, Devil's Third (such as it was), Pokken, Freakyforms, Harmoknight, Steel Diver and of course Splatoon which became a huge hit for them.
I don't think anyone at Nintendo was sat there sad that Freakyforms didn't blow the industry wide open, it was never intended too. They didn't shut down all experimental games when that and Sakura Samurai failed to set the world ablaze.
Sony did though. Concrete Genie not a hit? Pixel Opus canned whilst Concord has hundred of millions funnelled into it for it to last less than a week. They could have left Pixel Opus doing their thing in the background, making another game that will make a small profit, what's the harm in that?
@Afroducc There's still a lot in the indie space, and a bunch of that is on Playstation, it just feels like Sony doesn't want to participate in it as much anymore. Probably because they're a low risk-low reward area and even the most successful one wont make the same money a successful GaaS will.
It just doesn't feel like Sony is about the creativity anymore. Their games still have it in spite of this, because they have amazing devs at their studios, but Sony above that level doesn't care about it anymore, they just want money.
Honestly I still love my Playstation but I feel like it's lost it's identity, not Nintendo.
Playstation used to be about both the cinematic epics and the bizarre experiments. But we don't have that latter half anymore. We only have the former sporadically thanks to all those GaaS games that have since been canned or were dead on arrival.
Astro Bot was such a breath of fresh air because it embraced that identity they used to have. But it was also a sad reminder of what's been lost.
@Flaming_Kaiser There are single player games that have been out for years that get patched and updated. How do you know when something even is final anymore?
Also, no it'd cost the full price of the disc still, where did you pull 2.50 from? The price would be the same as at launch as they'd have the same material and production costs, actually maybe more as depending on the size of the updates they might have to opt for a higher storage disc/cart.
Basically you've got to be about 2 gens behind, as even PS4 games are getting updates now still. And you have to convince all the publishers that they should pay to make a second run when they could just rely on digital sales going forward which have little to no overhead costs.
@Flaming_Kaiser I too prefer the full disc on the disc/cart. But there are some advantages to this as an option, which is all it is, and option.
Yes indie games tend to be smaller, but I'm talking all third party games. Ubisoft for example doesn't have a track record of Assassin's Creed and Far Cry on Nintendo, there are some but it's not got a proven audience there. Obviously Nintendo would love to have big games like that bolstering it's library, and those game are big both commercially and in terms of file size. That makes the cart expensive, that means Ubisoft are probably going to think twice about releasing the game on Nintendo systems. But this key means they can buy much cheaper carts and significantly lower the initial financial risk.
As for indie devs, yeah they might be smaller files sizes, but they're also significantly smaller budgets in general. This can reduce that.
Is it annoying as a consumer to buy a game cart and then have to download it anyway? Yeah totally. But it's intended for games that would never have made it on to cart before anyway, and now I can at least now lend, borrow, trade and sell those games should I want too. I couldn't do that when they were just eShop downloads, and that download will always be an option, the full game on the cart never was going to be.
It's just an option at the end of the day. Most Nintendo first party games won't use it anyway.
@Flaming_Kaiser the cartridges that contain a key don’t kill resale, and they’re nothing new.
There are many games on PS5 and Xbox Series where the physical disc contains a small fraction of the game, the rest is downloaded and installed on the console when the disc is inserted for the first time. Then to play the game you need to have both that installation and the disc inserted. This has been a thing for many years now.
This is exactly the same thing as the key carts. Nintendo just named it and have been upfront about that being the deal with SOME games. And as with the PS5 and Xbox discs you can resell them and trade and loan and borrow them just fine. They’re not tied to an account.
The advantage is that this allows developers to invest in much smaller capacity cartridges, which will make it easier for some smaller third parties to get physical editions. It also removes or lessens a potential hurdle for bigger third parties to port their games, as carts are more expensive than discs and the Nintendo audience is not a proven one for many third party studios. The disadvantage is it takes up our storage space and means we have to wait to start the game the first time. But they’ve also given the Switch 2 much more storage space by default and most games even day 1 have some update to download before you can play now.
@LikelySatan are you suggesting that the current carts don't require cases, stocking, shipping and manufacturing costs? Because they do. They don't have manuals though and that is sad.
Comments 210
Re: Someone Made Banjo-Kazooie in Dreams on PS5, PS4, and You've Got to See It
Uuuhhh, be right back I need to go re-install Dreams!
Re: PS5's Biggest Game Fortnite Accused of Using AI Art
Wow big tech giant wants to push AI? No way!!!
Honestly I think we should keep the notification. Much like I like to know if the chocolate I buy has knowingly employed slavery to make it cheaply. I want to know if my games are wilfully burning up the planet and it’s water supply to squeeze a bit more money out of me for the billionaire shareholders or not.
It just helps me put my money in the right places as best I can.
Re: Ubisoft Is All In on Generative AI, Says It's as Big a Leap in Tech as the 'Shift to 3D'
Well now I'm glad they don't make anything interesting anymore.
Studios like this using Gen AI means one thing - they value making a product cheaply over making a product quality.
Let's not get it twisted, these studios can easily afford to pay artists and take time to make a big hit. But they don't want to do that when the option to have a computer churn out half the product for free is there.
And please, can we stop ignoring the MASSIVE elephant in the room when we all talk about the ethics and morality of AI. The fact it's hugely damaging to the environment and uses astonishing amounts of water. And no plans to "offset it's usage by planting trees" is not a solution. Trees take years to grow fully, the damage is being done now.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for November 2025?
“…as if there are still people out there who haven't played the single most profitable piece of entertainment in history.”
I’ve not played it. But I don’t really have any interest in it and this won’t change my mind. What an obnoxious bit of writing.
Re: Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail Dev Turns to Unreal Engine 5 Realism for Next Project
Unreal Engine 5 is just that, an engine. I does not predetermine a style or level of realism, just as choosing not to use Unreal Engine 5 does not preclude a level of realism.
If you want you can use Unreal to make a 2D pixel art platformer and Unity to make a hyper-real open world. You just have to know what you're doing.
Re: Marvel 'Proud' to Collaborate with Spider-Man, Wolverine Maker for 'Many Years to Come'
Ok but please don't forget Ratchet, Clank, Rivet, Quark and the gang!
Would love to see a Resistance revival/remake too but if I'm picking one to go alongside Marvel I need my fill of Clank puzzles.
Re: Talking Point: PS6 In 2027 - How Do You Feel About Sony's Next-Gen Console?
I truly doubt I'll be able to afford one at launch the way cost of living is going.
I also just don't know about PlayStation anymore, I don't know if it's for me. There are sporadic great games of course, but the variety is gone. It's all in the third party which I can get elsewhere, or the rivals.
But only time will tell! If it launches with a new Ratchet & Clank I'll have to get my hands on one at some point.
Re: Fans Bring PS3 Favourite ModNation Racers Back from the Dead
I loved this game! I think I spent as much time making custom characters as I did racing.
This is the sort of thing I miss from Sony.
Re: Tekken 8 Newcomer Miary Zo Bursts into the King of Iron Fist Tournament This December
This is a really disappointing character design.
They've not even tried to make her look Madagascan outside of a slightly darker skin tone. She has the same shaped face and features of all the other female characters and perfectly straight hair.
Her clothing is just a bikini for titillation. I don't think they looked at traditional or contemporary Madagascan clothing at all.
The only thing linking her to Madagascar is lemurs and her 'being at one with the animals'. Which is a lazy trope for this region of the world and seemingly an excuse to give her a fluffy tail and make her do the 'nya' anime pose for fan service rather than character building.
Really lazy.
Re: Nifty New PS5 Merch Spotlights Some of Sony's Most Beloved Brands
The Astrobot backpack clip is very cute. But where are Ratchet and Clank?
Re: Talking Point: Are You Getting Sick of Sony's Supposedly 'Samey' Approach to Story Telling?
They've done it undeniably well, especially with TLoU and GoW.
But do I also want to see more light-hearted stories in the mix? Stories about treasure hunters search for lost legends, stories about an alien and his robot pal thwarting a galaxy threatening evil, stories about a small kid gathering apes? Dare I say...stories about something new entirely?
Yeah. Yeah I miss those games being in the mix. Mature doesn't have to mean serious and dour all the time.
Re: Preview: PS5's Most Promising 2026 Shooter Pragmata Is Starting to Take Shape
You know how some games add a no-insect mode where all bugs and creepy crawlies are replaced with something else? If they add a 'no creepy child' mode that replaces that kid with something else I'd be interested.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for October 2025?
Alan Wake 2 and Cocoon are two amazing games well worth your time!
Re: Fall Guys Dev Fails to Allay Fears About the Future of the Game with Uninspiring Statement
I loved this game right up until the battle pass was added and paywalled all the fun costumes and items. Really killed the whole vibe.
Re: Mini Review: Hirogami (PS5) - Origami Adventure Looks Great But Lacks Depth
Definitely the sort of thing I've been wanting to see more of on PS5! Willing to forgive a little roughness around the edges for the uniqueness in other areas, hopefully the platforming isn't too bad though.
Re: Shameful AI Ads Put the Spotlight on The First Descendant
@Ricky-Spanish Then you are straw-manning the debate for no reason.
People are upset because of the use of AI to try and deceive them primarily. And they are concerned by how easy it is to do now and how, going forward, this will be regulated. The fact AI specifically is what was used is a side, it doesn't really matter, the point is it's deceitful, alarmingly easy and there are currently no protections against it
Additional gripes about AI and it's many unethical elements, are secondary. So if all you are saying it that you don't mind that AI was used, that's not constructive or helpful to the conversation. If AI was an actually beneficial, non-job destroying and carbon-neutral technology, the point would still stand.
But I would urge you to educate yourself on the ethical and moral issues currently surrounding the new technology before declaring your indifference to it.
Re: Shameful AI Ads Put the Spotlight on The First Descendant
@GeeEssEff I see people say this all the time about "oh it'll never replace real art and artists" but it already is to an alarming degree. People say this because they want to absolve themselves of the guilt of either doing nothing to stand against it or actively participating in it. Because if you dig just a tiny bit below the surface you can see how big the impact has been in such a short time.
And it's also ignoring all the environmental issues with AI generated content taking up to 32x more energy to produce. Then you have all the misinformation and trickery (this ad being a mild example of it). And the studies that have show the literal brain rot that happens alarmingly fast when people use it frequently instead of doing things themselves.
It's not to say there are no good uses for it. But the ones we are being marketed are not them. It's the tech industry desperately trying to recreate the lighting-in-a-bottle that was social media to please shareholders who insist the line must go up, and the ever greedy entertainment industries trying to cut corners and shed costs of staff.
Re: Shameful AI Ads Put the Spotlight on The First Descendant
@Ricky-Spanish "even if everything you are says is true it's not like they are scamming me out of money it just to get me to play a game"
Except that is literally what they are trying to do. If I made an AI advert and I generate, let's say Brad Pitt and I made him say "this game is amazing, you have to play it, it's super good and they just keep improving it, you should really play it, I love it". That is a lie. That is me trying to trick you into buying my game by making you think someone you know is endorsing it. That is a scam, through and through.
Also Kotaku has the sources on them claiming it was a competition and blaming TikTok if you want to read further. None of it makes sense, they knew full well what they were doing and are just biding time to keep the ads up longer.
Re: Shameful AI Ads Put the Spotlight on The First Descendant
@Ricky-Spanish I dunno if you're trolling but if you can't see what's wrong with an AI generated ad that is pretending to be people you can trust giving positive reviews for a product...that's insane.
As far as we know, the people who's likenesses were used did not give permission. If they did they would just film the clip, reading it in a much more natural and believable way.
But if they did give permission, why use AI like this? It's incredibly bad for the environment and again, they could have just filmed them to say it for real.
Additionally Nexon are claiming this ad was done by someone who won a competition to make an ad for the game, and are saying TikTok is at fault for not spotting and stopping the copyright infringements. Which is basically admitting they don't have those people's permission and trying to dodge the blame.
They clearly did this with the sole intent of trying to trick people. That's what's wrong with this. It's immoral on several levels.
Re: Sony Made a Massive Mistake with Movie Sensation K-Pop Demon Hunters
Yeah that was dumb of Sony, but also remember the creator was trying to get this film made for years and was constantly rejected. So they weren't the most dumb at least.
Last week Golden was number 1 in the UK charts and I think they had 3 other songs in the top 10, plus the film itself being number one in streaming. I can definitely see a sequel or two doing well even if they don't ever quite match the magic of the first. The live action can do one though, stop remaking animated films as more boring!
I bet they're all kicking themselves for not having merch out for this though. Imagine how well dolls of the characters would be selling? Plushies of the tiger? Shirts for the bands? Honestly there's a small fortune just sat there.
Re: Xbox Game Pass May Make Devs 'Wage Slaves', Says Ex-PlayStation Exec
I've worked on projects that only happened because Xbox funded them for Game Pass. Did they make huge money outside of that? No. Was that ok? Yeah. Did that make us 'wage slaves'? No. It let us make the game we wanted to make and it meant that we got an audience for that game that we may not have gotten otherwise.
I've also worked on live service or GaaS titles, not one of the Sony ones but in the same vein, and that felt like being a wage slave at times. Constantly churning out new work in the hope it hits. If it doesn't? Throw it out. If it does? Good, do more of that but make it more profitable again next time. Did we see profit sharing and "all that good stuff" when it did hit? Nope.That has absolutely nothing to do with GamePass or GaaS or whatever, that's to do with the crappy way so many places are treating their staff to save more pennies for shareholders these days.
GamePass is not perfect. But it's not all bad either. There's nuance, clearly. And the same does go for GaaS despite my general dislike of them. This comment is just intended to divide people, to reignite the us vs them console war nonsense, and in doing so distract from the negatives that Sony currently has rather than address and sort them.
Re: All PS5 First-Party Exclusives
@themightyant My point with the experimental smaller studios is that they're not being allowed to do that anymore. And yeah the PS4 was also not great for it, so the trajectory is a bad one.
Housemarque did get to do Returnal which was experimental and cool...but that was launch and their next game is for 2026.
Firesprite are just doing Horizon and VR stuff.
Bluepoint are doing remasters.
Media Molecule were trying to support Dreams whilst Sony was just leaving it to die and are probably next on the chopping block as they've put out nothing this gen.
Team LFG is too new to judge.
Asobi is the saviour of this gen.
Support studios are doing great support work.
So all those smaller studios you listed have amounted to 2 games and a demo, on opposite ends of the consoles current lifespan. It proves my point.
Don't get me wrong, the new stuff Sony studios are putting out is great (when not a GaaS flop), it's just all too few and far between. These small studios used to fill some of those gaps with smaller exclusive titles. I know it wasn't perfect and a big help was having the home and handheld systems, I could wait for God of War 3 with Patapon, or play Puppeteer between Killzones, WipEout gaps were filled by Tokyo Jungle. Or just brand new IPs like Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance, Uncharted, Loco Roco etc. And it still had series like Ratchet & Clank going strong and all the third party content.
Now I have a small handful of sequels and originals, another handful of remasters and the rest is all third party or failed GaaS attempts.
Sure Pixel Opus wasn't performing well. But if they could make a game like Concrete Genie whilst not functioning properly, imagine what they could have done if Sony had got in there and helped them straighten their processes and such out? I'm sure it'd be a lot more interesting than Fairgame$.
But hey, if you are happy with the PS5 gen I am actually glad. I wish I could be. I think Playstation, like many things, has shed the veneer of wanting to be creative and interesting and revealed it's ugly corporate core underneath. We always knew it was there, in many ways it has to be, but it was nicer when they at least pretended that money wasn't the sole driving point and that players were as important as shareholders.
Re: Here's Your Best Look Yet at PS5's Ultra Promising Pragmata
The puzzle grid is interesting, but I can't say it all looks that fun. Perhaps it is to play, but that's not coming across here. Also the little girl is creepy and incredibly off-putting anyway as others have said too.
Re: All PS5 First-Party Exclusives
@themightyant For me I bought a PS5 because I used to love the exclusive games Sony puts out. The third party content is good but I can play that elsewhere, first party is the reason to buy a Playstation over an Xbox or just play on my PC.
I think it's made more frustrating knowing how much they backed GaaS games this gen and how big a flop that's been. And it cost us studios like Pixel Opus and Japan Studio (I know we got Asobi out of the last one but still). Concord infamously cost $400,000,000 only to be gone in a week, goodness knows what the others all cost and how much was wasted overall.
And all that nothingness came at the cost of killing all the smaller, experimental studios that used to fill the gaps between the big cinematic experiences. And I'm expected to be happy with the third party offerings filling the void? I can play half of them for free on my Xbox. Yeah they're good games, but it's not good enough on Sony's part. They've majorly dropped the ball this gen and taken their player-base for granted.
Re: All PS5 First-Party Exclusives
Sequels: 9 +1VR (one arguable)
Ports: 3
Remakes / Remasters: 7
Demos: 1
New IP: 6 +1VR + 1DoA
Wow Sony....don't give me too much to play ok?
Re: Reaction: Sony's PS5 Games Keep Getting Better After Launch, and Often for Free
I mean...yeah and meh?
I love the new Astrobot levels. I'd have happy paid for them as a larger DLC pack.
The rest of it for me is a technical "very good" support but a personal "meh". I don't care for rougelikes, I don't want to replay the game in a different order and I'm not coming back for a multiplayer mode (I'll try it if it's there at the start).
I'd rather just have some actual new and exciting games. Even if they're smaller games or "only" AA or just odd experiments. But they killed all that stuff so...yeah.
Overall, bar Astrobot, a big ol' "Meh" for me.
Re: Poll: 15 Years of PS Plus - What Do You Think of Sony's Subscription Service?
I've had it since they launched it and made me need it for online.
Honestly I'd much rather it were either much cheaper and I dont get the games, or it were more customisable.
Really I just want cloud saves and online play. I so rarely play the monthly games now. And I'd like to play some of the retro games but I'm not upping my subscription for it. I would probably add it on in a custom package though.
Re: Hot Shots Golf Fans Fume at Use of Generative AI in PS5 Revival
Environmental cost aside, if you're going to use AI this is how you use it. To create boring textures so that the artists can focus on concept and original design.
It's when companies use AI to generate ideas for costumes or characters or set pieces etc that people should get upset, because is taking away the fun, creative tasks.
But yeah you should just hire a human where possible.
Re: In a Surprise to Absolutely No One, Rematch Is Doing Really Well
Honestly I am surprised.
I thought the football game market was too dominated and none of the videos and screenshots prior to release looked all that good.
Very glad to be proven wrong and to see this be both really good and be a success!
Re: Feature: Top 20 PS5 Games of 2025 So Far
Good to see all the first party exclusives there! Oh wait, there’s only one and it’s a remaster.
Well at least I’ll get 5 more Astro Bot levels at some point…
Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About The Last of Us Part 2, 5 Years Later?
@Boxmonkey moronic? It's the entire point that this revenge quest is a fruitless endeavour. The whole thing came from Abby getting revenge and she looses everyone because of it, she gets a shot at a new life with Lev and takes it. Ellie looses everyone and herself to revenge, culminating in her killing a pregnant woman her unborn child. She gets a shot at a new life too but she throws it away and looses everything because she cant let the revenge go.
Having either one get their revenge and kill the other would be moronic. It's the entire point of the story that neither do.
Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About The Last of Us Part 2, 5 Years Later?
I thought it was fantastic. The parallels between Ellie and Abby and how Joel affected both their lives was really well done. The way it made you realise Ellie was just as much a monster as anyone else and Abby just as much a victim. Violence begets violence and nobody wins.
Can't say the second series of the show gave me any of that. I wanted to like it at the start but they really messed up the pacing and general tone.
Re: FBC: Firebreak (PS5) - PS Plus Shooter Proves Remedy Should Have Stayed in Its Lane
@Propaperpusher "The team's been upfront in saying it doesn’t want to go the live service route of demanding your time and continual dedication to the game"
It's not GaaS, nor live service, it's just an online multiplayer game.
Re: 'Good Luck with That' - The Outer Worlds 2 $80 Price Has Gone Down Horribly with PS5 Players
It is a lot, and tbh this isn't my kind of game anyway.
But here's the thing confusing me, people are getting really upset over the price, and yeah it's high and everyone is blaming Nintendo...but it's the same price both Spider-Man 2 and God of War: Ragnarok are on the PSN Store right now, and have been for months. Standard editions.
I know you can get both much cheaper as physical editions, but this will be the same if people wait a bit.
Re: Reaction: Sony Finally Understands the Assignment with One of the Best State of Plays of the PS5 Era
I was excited to see Lumines return, more Astro-Bot and that Origami game looks interesting. Maybe the Not-Journey game too and maybe the we-have-Sea-of-Theives-at-home?
Lacking first party IS an issue though because this is meant to both convince people to buy a PS5 and affirm to those who have that they made the correct choice going here and not to Xbox?
"...it’s felt like PlayStation has been trying to hit as many demographics as possible for quite some time"
It really doesn't. It feels very much the opposite of that too me. As someone who was a big Playstation fan and has slowly found all their favourite IP discontinued, all their favourite studios shut down or shifted onto tonally different things and all their favourite aspects of Playstation's experimental side removed. I mean yeah I like Papa Kratos and Aloy but I largely feel like Sony has decided it's done with making the type of games I want to see outside of them.
Astro Bot is keeping the PS5 on for me at the moment. I'm playing Claire Obscur and Doom on my Xbox and may well a bunch of these too. So yeah, First party is important.
"But if you can’t find one game you like from the latest State of Play, then perhaps you’re in the wrong hobby."
What a crappy thing to say. There was variety for sure but it certainly didn't cover every genre and audience.
Re: PS5, PC Live Service Fairgames Is a 'Super Clunky' Cross Between Fortnite and The Division
At least Concord was trying something different with it’s art style and silver age, retro-future, sci-fi comic stylings.
Re: Palworld Is Being Forced to Make 'Disappointing' Changes to Its Gameplay Due to Nintendo
@Andywax it's the way it's achieved in code rather than the concept of riding a creature.
Also they're only bothering to act on it because Palworld gleefully came out as a "what if Pokémon but also guns" and made a game that featured characters looking soo close to existing Pokémon (not all tbf) that it could be argued that to the less informed (such as a parent who doesn't know what Pokémon is but has a vague recollection of seeing a Pika-whatsit) it could be mistaken for the original product. Then when it features violence and gunplay, that could be damaging to Pokémon's reputation.
Re: Xbox Is Stepping Up Its Backwards Compatibility Efforts Again, to the Envy of PS5 Fans
@Frmknst Would you play a new game designed to look old? Like Crow Country or a pixel art platformer? If so what's the difference?
Old doesn't mean you've already played it, and new doesn't mean good. There's a ton of old games I've not yet played that I'd rather play over a ton of the new Gaas releases or CoDs or EA Sports games etc.
Re: TV Show Review: The Last of Us (HBO) Season 2 Episode 4 - The First Time the Show Surpasses the Game
There is a parallel universe out there where the changes between the game and TV show are flipped, but the comments remain the same.
Re: TV Show Review: The Last of Us (HBO) Season 2 Episode 2 - More Birdie Than Hole in One
I don't mind that they mixed it up, I think these things were all done with purpose and some of them will be to aid the story later. TV and games are not the same thing and adjustments have to be made for the formats.
Dina being there instead of Tommy makes more sense of Dina aiding Ellie later, especially as she's been depicted as extremely flippant in the show and her relationship with Ellie isn't fully blossomed yet, she needs a more grounded and personal reason for going. Plus to have the fight at Jackson, you needed a character we know and care about like Tommy there. Non-gamers don't really know Dina yet, but we all know Tommy from last season if not the games. So it gave weight to what was happening there and gave an excellent misdirect as I'm sure many were worried for Tommy's life and not evening thinking Joel might be in any trouble at all.
Re: Devolver Will Be 'Leaning Further into' Its Existing IPs as Best-Selling Games Revealed
Disappointing that their biggest seller, seemingly by a large margin, was a new IP. And their response to that is not to make more new IP but to double down on farming the successful IP. Had they done that earlier they may never have got Cult of the Lamb.
Feels like the first step to Devolver becoming the very thing they used to oppose.
Re: Nintendo Is Losing Its Identity, Says Ex-PlayStation Boss
@PuppetMaster I think you're missing the value that these games add outside of their monetary value.
For one, they fill out the library with more and diverse games which both increases the appeal and widens the potential audience. Secondly the also bolster the overall brand, they make the statement that this is a place about creativity and fun, despite the fact we all know it's ultimately a business that needs to make money.
Honestly looking at these as a simple "did it make X money" is not looking at the full picture. Those games used to also offer a lot more family friendly options for example, something the PS5 has been very lacking until Astro Bot. Even if they just break even, they are adding the value of this is now a console that can families can buy and play, which widens the audience and can lead to more sales elsewhere as parents who may not have previously bought one might also buy GoW or TLOU as well for example.
Also lets be real, these are billion dollar companies, yeah they have to make profits but they literally threw $400 million in the bin with Concord alone. A title they had no idea if it was going to do well or not. Yet you are saying they can't afford to keep studios that break even or make modest profits going because they are a business? By all means they can chase the high-risk high-reward games like that, but they have the budget to keep the low-risk low-reward going too, and those at least provide content and attract players in between the giant GaaS flops.
Re: Nintendo Is Losing Its Identity, Says Ex-PlayStation Boss
@PuppetMaster I don't think it's that they flopped, sure they never reached the heights of Uncharted or God of War but they shouldn't have been expected too. They should be treated as low risk, low reward and when one does do beyond expectations, like Journey which rocked the industry or Loco Roco and Patapon both of which did well enough to gain sequels, that's a bonus.
Also sorry but I don't think that Nintendo statement is accurate. On the Switch they have ARMS, Good Job!, Snipperclips, Labo, Astral Chain and Daemon x Machina that they published. Plus they continued BoxBoy and brought back weird and obscure series like Famicon Detective Club, Another Code, Tomodatchi Life and Miitopia.
Even the WiiU and 3DS era they gave us Pushmo/Pullblox, Sakura Samurai, The Wonderful 101, Dillon's Rolling Western, Codename Steam, the start of the BoxBoy series, Devil's Third (such as it was), Pokken, Freakyforms, Harmoknight, Steel Diver and of course Splatoon which became a huge hit for them.
I don't think anyone at Nintendo was sat there sad that Freakyforms didn't blow the industry wide open, it was never intended too. They didn't shut down all experimental games when that and Sakura Samurai failed to set the world ablaze.
Sony did though. Concrete Genie not a hit? Pixel Opus canned whilst Concord has hundred of millions funnelled into it for it to last less than a week. They could have left Pixel Opus doing their thing in the background, making another game that will make a small profit, what's the harm in that?
Re: Nintendo Is Losing Its Identity, Says Ex-PlayStation Boss
@Afroducc There's still a lot in the indie space, and a bunch of that is on Playstation, it just feels like Sony doesn't want to participate in it as much anymore. Probably because they're a low risk-low reward area and even the most successful one wont make the same money a successful GaaS will.
It just doesn't feel like Sony is about the creativity anymore. Their games still have it in spite of this, because they have amazing devs at their studios, but Sony above that level doesn't care about it anymore, they just want money.
Re: Nintendo Is Losing Its Identity, Says Ex-PlayStation Boss
Honestly I still love my Playstation but I feel like it's lost it's identity, not Nintendo.
Playstation used to be about both the cinematic epics and the bizarre experiments. But we don't have that latter half anymore. We only have the former sporadically thanks to all those GaaS games that have since been canned or were dead on arrival.
Astro Bot was such a breath of fresh air because it embraced that identity they used to have. But it was also a sad reminder of what's been lost.
Re: Nintendo Is Displaying Hubris Which Would Make Even PS3 Era Sony Blush
@Flaming_Kaiser There are single player games that have been out for years that get patched and updated. How do you know when something even is final anymore?
Also, no it'd cost the full price of the disc still, where did you pull 2.50 from? The price would be the same as at launch as they'd have the same material and production costs, actually maybe more as depending on the size of the updates they might have to opt for a higher storage disc/cart.
Basically you've got to be about 2 gens behind, as even PS4 games are getting updates now still. And you have to convince all the publishers that they should pay to make a second run when they could just rely on digital sales going forward which have little to no overhead costs.
Re: Switch Exclusive Disney Illusion Island Cashes Out with PS5 Port and Scrooge McDuck Update
This was a really great Disney platformer, I had a lot of fun with it and it’s updates on Switch.
My only complaint would be the original characters and world didn’t feel very Disney.
Re: Nintendo Is Displaying Hubris Which Would Make Even PS3 Era Sony Blush
@Flaming_Kaiser I too prefer the full disc on the disc/cart. But there are some advantages to this as an option, which is all it is, and option.
Yes indie games tend to be smaller, but I'm talking all third party games. Ubisoft for example doesn't have a track record of Assassin's Creed and Far Cry on Nintendo, there are some but it's not got a proven audience there. Obviously Nintendo would love to have big games like that bolstering it's library, and those game are big both commercially and in terms of file size. That makes the cart expensive, that means Ubisoft are probably going to think twice about releasing the game on Nintendo systems. But this key means they can buy much cheaper carts and significantly lower the initial financial risk.
As for indie devs, yeah they might be smaller files sizes, but they're also significantly smaller budgets in general. This can reduce that.
Is it annoying as a consumer to buy a game cart and then have to download it anyway? Yeah totally. But it's intended for games that would never have made it on to cart before anyway, and now I can at least now lend, borrow, trade and sell those games should I want too. I couldn't do that when they were just eShop downloads, and that download will always be an option, the full game on the cart never was going to be.
It's just an option at the end of the day. Most Nintendo first party games won't use it anyway.
Re: Nintendo Is Displaying Hubris Which Would Make Even PS3 Era Sony Blush
@Flaming_Kaiser the cartridges that contain a key don’t kill resale, and they’re nothing new.
There are many games on PS5 and Xbox Series where the physical disc contains a small fraction of the game, the rest is downloaded and installed on the console when the disc is inserted for the first time. Then to play the game you need to have both that installation and the disc inserted. This has been a thing for many years now.
This is exactly the same thing as the key carts. Nintendo just named it and have been upfront about that being the deal with SOME games. And as with the PS5 and Xbox discs you can resell them and trade and loan and borrow them just fine. They’re not tied to an account.
The advantage is that this allows developers to invest in much smaller capacity cartridges, which will make it easier for some smaller third parties to get physical editions. It also removes or lessens a potential hurdle for bigger third parties to port their games, as carts are more expensive than discs and the Nintendo audience is not a proven one for many third party studios. The disadvantage is it takes up our storage space and means we have to wait to start the game the first time. But they’ve also given the Switch 2 much more storage space by default and most games even day 1 have some update to download before you can play now.
Re: Almost All PS5 Fans Are Against $80 Games
@LikelySatan are you suggesting that the current carts don't require cases, stocking, shipping and manufacturing costs? Because they do. They don't have manuals though and that is sad.