it is currently sitting at a 66 meta score and continues to fall. once the genuine reviews starting trickling in, the real verdict was made clear. surprised people were fooled by this hot junk simply because sony's stamp was on it. the art looks terrible. wouldn't surprise me if the bulk of this game was AI generated as well.
this is without a doubt one of the most shocking studio closures in gaming history. i think i can say that without hyperbole.
every project this team worked on was gold, going all the way back to the metal gear, god of war and and ico/shadow of the collossus remasters on ps3. shadow of the collossus remake has earned its spot on every list of the greatest remakes ever made. the demon's souls remake looked incredible, although i did not play it myself. every time i dreamed up a remake scenario of a classic game, bluepoint was always the first studio that came to mind because they were the best in the business and just that good. i always hoped they would have the opportunity to remake metal gear solid on modern hardware.
sony's mismanagement of its studios over the past 5 years is what destroyed bluepoint games. it's really that simple. this wasn't a situation where bluepoint failed to deliver on multiple projects and was costing sony money. instead of giving the studio an opportunity to take on a passion project (sony owed them that after wasting years of their time on a cancelled project), they thought it was best to shut them down? arguably the best remaster/remake studio in the entire industry... pull the plug? really? at a time where remakes have never been more popular and in demand?
there isn't anything more to say than this: sony has warped into just another terrible, god awful publisher. i saw signs of this all the way back in 2020 which is why i still do not own a ps5. not only has this been the worst playstation generation in history, but it has gotten to the point where i have developed active resentment towards sony and everything it stands for in this new era... i went from a borderline playstation fanboy to someone who just doesn't like playstation anymore as it continues to stumble again and again. the magic is completely gone.
sony is now on par with microsoft as a publisher. completely lacking in humanity, unfocused, misguided, tone deaf, controlled by shareholders and ulterior motives... irrational and baffling decision making has become common place. there is a severe lack of leadership from top to bottom. the division is run by parasites.
there is one good thing to come about from this though... people are starting to wake up about sony dropping the ball the past five years. vote with your wallet if you don't like the direction sony is taking playstation! people should be VERY concerned about media molecule and bend studio. if they don't get converted into support studios, i have to wonder how much time they have left under this regime. sony went from one of the best publishers to one of the worst seemingly overnight!
this game is not a 7 despite claims that it is. i mean, it is struggling to stay in the 70s metacritic range (currently at 68) and continues to drop. won't be long now before it falls to its spot at about 60-65 which is exactly where it belongs. true, undeniable mediocrity. hopefully some lessons will be learned here so they put in the work next time? i don't think sony will want to see how this plays out with steam reviews so no pc port?
the damage control for this game is baffling. why are people trying to turn this medicore game into something that it isn't? it is a sorry excuse for a god of war game and nobody would even acknowledge its existence if it wasn't superficially branded as one. it would fall to the bottom of the sales charts instantly. people won't remember this game a month from now, let alone in a year. there are FAR better games to spend your money on. if sony truly cared about it, they would collaborate with a developer with actual reputation and talent, such as the game kitchen — developers behind blasphemous and ninja gaiden ragebound. there are literally dozens of superior indi devleopers they could have worked with but settled with the worst option...
mind boggling stuff.
o yea, on open critic, only 25% of critics recommend the game which is a brutal stat that should not be overlooked.
@Max_the_German to be fair, sony had already put on its "arrogance" cap at the beginning of this console cycle. too late for that not to happen. the question now is, can it do a u-turn and go back to being a good publisher again during the ps6 run? the company would need a major shakeup, including the removal of herman hulst and a complete re-evaluation of its profiteering goals: less emphasis on service games, scaling back in the graphics arms race and scope of its games to be more sustainable long term, focusing on a back -to-basics approach via a low cost to entry console that doesn't price people out of the hobby and encourages more creativity from developers (smaller games with less emphasis on graphics means they can take more risks and come up with compelling software).
if i were sony, i would use this dire period as incentive to bring the excitement and joy back to the AAA space because it has nearly evaporated at this point. the ps6 only needs to be an incremental jump over the ps5 pro from a graphcis standpoint, but a monumental jump in its software library if sony wants it to be successful and enticing to as many people as possible. is that asking for too much now that sony has no real competition? possibly. this is a situation where you hope the market will determine the fate of sony (i.e. lower than expected ps6 sales) and not sony itself.
let me try to understand this... some people want the ps6 rushed to market so that we can wait several years post launch for another drip feed consisting of cross gen games (which already play great on ps5), remasters and remakes again? you want to experience the same lulls of the ps5 so soon? right when the ps5 is finally about to get off the ground and fulfill some of its promises more than 6 years after it launched?
yea, sorry, i am not understanding the appeal in that. to me it sounds like some people are simply too materialistic and addicted to inconsequential shiny tech devices to see what is wrong with that picture. the ps5 has been a big disappointment and sony still has a lot of work to do to prove that a ps6 even needs to exist. they are running out of bullet points in their marketing material. the ps5 is still 5-10 generational games away from fulfilling its promise and providing the value that playstation fans expect.
i won't even get into the pricing concerns and the fact that market demand is essentially non-existent for a ps6 currently. that conversation has been run into the ground several times over and is becoming exhausting.
anyone who thinks ps5 games look bad and/or outdated should really move on from consoles and invest in a $5,000 pc for those extra, insignificant frames and resolutions. they are clearly playing games for the wrong reasons and are tech enthusiasts first, gamers second.
getting your hands on a ps6 sooner will not magically correct everything that is wrong with sony and the AAA industry at large. that is the key takeaway here.
@Dalamar yup, he is absolutely right about that. maybe jaffe is a divisive person and that's fine if some people don't like him. but clearly those same people are unable to separate the opinion from the person. this game really doesn't deserve defending of any kind. it is just a medicore afterthought that nobody asked for and an embarassment to the god of war franchise. it exists as a cash grab for the anniversary and nothing more.
@DennisReynolds he is actually left in his political views. very left. you comment on things with such confidence when you really don't know the first thing about it.
he isn't wrong. the game looked medicore the first moment i saw it. watched about an hour gameplay and my thoughts have not changed. truly odd decision by sony to back such a generic looking indi game (i wonder if it was built with AI as well) and repurpose it as god of war title, just to say they had something for the anniversary.
it's werid how some people are defending this game, as if it is an amazing experience that they were anticipating for years! sony's stamp is on it so they automatically go into fanboy mode — the point of no return!
a long time coming! will this game live up to the shovel knight games? probably not. but i hope it does well for the studio. they seem to be in a bit of financial trouble at the moment. how they managed to squander all that shovel knight money is beyond me. apparently the fate of yacht club games as a studio is entirely dependent on how well mina the hollower performs.
what separates old konami from new konami is the fact konami the publisher no longer develops any of its games in-house. everything is lisensed out to indi developers. this can be, both, good and bad, but it doesn't change the fact that there is clearly no passion within the walls of konami itself. merely businessmen and suits attempting to make money with as little risk as possible.
i feel like people are quite confused by this new iteration of konami and don't realize that the vast majority of their output is being developed far away from konami HQ. they are no longer a DEVELOPER of video games, hence, the passionate designers the company once had are long gone. konami sure is good at exploiting the IP that it's legendary staff built. i will give them credit for that!
the art direction looks great with its bold use of colour and contrast. the movement, however, looks a bit slow and floaty to me... not the quick and precise movement we have become accustomed to with the iga games. not necessarily a dealbreaker though.
@PuppetMaster
"...considering they've been a GOW studio since PS2 era."
that's precisly the point. they run the risk of losing talent at the studio due to fatigue and burnout. its no different than the high turnover rate of a studio working on nothing but call of duty or assassin's creed games. i don't think santa monica chose to be the god of war studio by design... they had several failed attempts at other projects in the past and they simply fell back into their comfort zone with yet another god of war sequel. i don't think that is good for the longevity of the studio. they need a new IP to diversify their portfolio. remaking the first 3 games looks a bit desperate.
i was a huge fan of the original trilogy. no question about that. but do i need remakes? not really. it is quite discouraging that santa monica studios may have been at work on this for the past 3 years and has yet to release a ps5 game. i truly hope they have another big project in development that will release before the ps6 launches. they desperately need a new IP.
looks a bit generic, as if it was repurposed half way into development as a god of war game. won't be surprised if it gets medicocre reviews. there are better indi games to spend my time on. a shadow drop like this tells me sony didn't have high expectations for it either.
interesting that yakuza kiwami 3 has a lower open critic average than yakuza 3 remastered... which was already one of the lowest rated entries in the series.
this project would simply not exist if herman hulst wasn't in charge. that is all i am going to say about that. nobody was expecting much so it's not even worth talking about this (likely to be a flop) game any more than that.
@Gr8VngnzN4esAngr you forgot to mention ND's cancelled last of us online (factions). i bet the resourses they lost on that is twice as much as the horizon mmo due to the fidelity ND was striving for. there was also the cancelled live service games for god of war, twisted metal and spiderman. we're talking about $1-2b+ flushed away
so long as the hardware is listed at a price that is 50% higher than its actual value and there are no true ps5 exclusive games worth playing, i'll stick to the ps4, thanks. it's a bit sad to see sony begging people to upgrade when they have failed to give any incetive to do so 5 years after launch. the rare game that isn't on ps4 can be played on a moderately spec'd pc so i'm good, sony!
that's fair. although the entire game will be up on twitch and youtube within days anyways so does it really make a difference? unless, of course, rockstar goes nintendo on content creators and threatens copyright strikes and channel suspensions for showing story content... which is possible i suppose. even atlus did this with persona 5.
also, rockstar couldn't care less about the 0.001% threatening not to buy the game until the physical disc comes out haha. the other 99.999% of fans waiting the past 15 years for this game will not be bothered by this in the slightest. the game will generate billions of dollars in a matter of days after it releases no matter the format it releases in.
@jFug monster hunter wilds and dragon's dogma 2 are considered to be fairly big disappointments by the community at large. to say that they are firing on all cyclinders considering those blunders is a bit of a stretch. also, an overrelience on remakes and sequels is quite boring, regardless of quality.
the image on the left looks a bit too clean doesn't it? not a single jaggie or aliased pixel... maybe thats how the game looks on max settings on pc but in either case, it looks great for a barebones remaster of a 20 year old game! i think i'll stick to the remaster collection that i already own.
in other words, a big production remake of the sands of time was simply out of scope and budget for this new, lean, poorer ubisoft of today... got it. ubisoft will now be focusing on smaller budget releases for the prince of persia games... perhaps a barebones remaster of the ps2 trilogy or a sequel to lost crown. sometimes you need to read between the lines. to be fair, though, the sands of time remake was never going to make its money back after all the delays and mismanagement... it was simply too niche for the remake treatment so ubisoft may have made the right decision for once in cancelling the project. should have done it years ago though
i don't know how anyone can play this game now without finding it incredibly over rated. the praise has been sensationalized at this point. let good games be good. do they need to be perceived as the greatest of all time? give it a rest.
as somone who has yet to play e33, i doubt it has anything on xenogears
this is one of those times where it's a blessing to not receive a piece of hot trash from ubisoft. i can say that the world is better off that this remake doesn't exist. i never understood the business side of it seeing as there are very few people who would play it in the first place. it is a true platforming, puzzle game with very light combat sequences thrown in. it was simply too niche to warrant a remake. a barebones remaster will suffice for most people if ubisoft can handle it that is.
as for the rayman games currently in development... i hope those turn out well. the last 2 games are all-time classics and among the best platforming games of all time.
@DennisReynolds according to what source? sony PR? by what metric exactly? as far as i know, sales were behind ps4 pro its first month on sale. we know that ps4 pro only made up 12% of total ps4 sales, so the ps5 pro making up less than 10% of ps5 sales is a very safe bet, especially because of its absurd price point... how does that translate to selling "pretty well" exactly?
ultimately, it has been an overpeiced, disappointing product, panned by owners and news outlets alike. speaking outside of sales, it has not moved the needle in a positive direction, hence, sony is still trying to "fix" it more than a year after release
this is probably the last time sony makes a "pro" model. it's been a training ground for ps6 with ps5 pro owners being the guinea pigs. sales are likely even worse than predicted
sony wants to keep charging people $50 for a piece of plastic and refuses to release new hardware SKUs with different colours for some reason... nintendo is one of the most anti-consumer companies out there but at least they release hardware with different colour choices. bloody hell.
@twitchtvpat i hear that argument about ps1 and ps2 games and yet many of us adore that era of gaming, even in 2026. gaming is not just about graphics and performance... modern gaming is missing the creative output that we were so spoiled with back then. but specifically about the framrates of ps3 games, emulation would clean that up in most cases and give you a locked 30/60fps.
@themightyant the tech really doesn't matter anymore. i think the arms race is over. it's diminishing returns with graphics as incremental improvements don't really move the needle for most people. gamers just want good games and an emphasis on graphics over gameplay doesn't have the same advantage that it once had in the AAA space when there is no real competition for sony anymore. what's important is getting the hardware out at a time and price that makes sense. even if they release the hardware at a reasonable price before 2028, sales would slump since it seems people are not ready for a new console, nor do they want to spend more money when they don't need to.
i think hulst is immune to scrutiny since he controls an IP (from a studio that he co-founded) that is in active development with not 1, not 2, but 3 games (not deservingly so). he can also blame the next pitiful 5 years of 1st party output on jim ryan and get away with it. as much as i also believe he should be removed, he won't be until the ps6 cycle at the earliest.
the rest of the predictions above are pretty safe bets, while others are quite inconsequential so not really worth debating.
well, they are going to have to push it back by 3+ years then because this AI rampup isn't going away anytime soon. there is a blackhole now sucking up everything in its path. to be honest though, the graphics arms race was eventually going to crash anyways so we are seeing the expected result play out, just differently than anyone expected. might as well keep optimizing the perfectly capable ps5 hardware until 2030 since we have barely seen its capabilities yet. anyone who cannot stand ps5 graphics can just leave and buy themselves a $5000 pc if it bothers them too much
people just want good games. they don't need an excuse to shell out more money on yet another box under the tv in the name of cold, lifeless capitalism and consumerism. give people more value for their ps5 purchase instead.
"Having said that, putting older games on other platforms is perfectly fine because they would bring in additional revenue/profits."
not necessarily. perhaps in the short term. you have to consider the people who would have purchased sony's hardware had the games not been ported to pc. now sony will lose those players in its ecosystem which is a potential loss in the thousands of dollars per player (software sales) over the console generation. porting to pc also costs sony more resources. nothing comes for free. it's not as clear cut as: porting to pc = more revenue/profit since indirect consequences need to be looked at as well.
that is precisely what is wrong with the ps5. the playstation brand is on the decline due to a product that adds little to no "value" to the player outside of the typical console gaming conveniences. but as far as software is concerned, there is nothing notable about the ps5. the moment your software can be found elsewhere, you no longer have that special, intangible, novelty factor that used to make playstation consoles "must-haves". with all that said, sony 1st party dropped the ball this gen anyways so even if its limited number of games remained exclusive, it wouldn't have moved the needle for me to purchase a ps5. get it together with the ps6 sony. it's nice having the option to play sony's games on pc, but if we are talking strictly about what non-exclusivty does to a console and brand, the answer is: it kills it.
@Drnsnsr as far as i know, the fan translation is only 75% complete. i never booted it up myself, but it sounds like its a lot more than the fmv's that never got completed?
i have heard nothing but negative or mixed reactions about the first two front mission remakes. the third one will likely follow suit as this is the same developer. the front mission series is greatly underrated and its unfortunate s-e didn't give these remakes the budget they deserved. also, front mission 2 remake is the only way to play the game in english since not even a fan translation exists of the original ps1 release. i would stick to front mission 1st DS and the original ps1 release of front misison 3 over the remakes but each to their own.
as someone who has been very critical and concerned with the gaming industry over the past 5 years, i actually think this is very good news. we need the big publishers to take a financial hit and acknowledge that they are not only pricing people out of the hobby, but they are sacrificing long term stabilility for a short term gain. this business practice is backwards and not sustainable.
a few quarters like this and i am confident that we will see an MSRP drop from sony and nintendo. the hardware is simply not worth its cost to the average person. we are in a cost of living crisis afterall. i have been saying it forever but even if sony subsidizes the hardware by an additional $150-200 from where it is now, they will more than make that back in software sales within a year or two. obtaining new players into their ecosystem is far more valuable than losing $200 per console sold! that is how the hardware model used to work but sony and nintendo clearly hit their heads too hard and need to re-learn the business i suppose 🤷
sorry, but a sale that drives the console price back to where it was 5 years is laughable. glad people saw through that nonense.
if you are going to charge a premium price for this service, you have to bring the feature sets and entice people. as it stands, people are better off saving their money and either modding an og ps2 to play the absurd number of classics on the platform or emulating to their hearts content... with emulation, you can even get achievements these days. sony's ps2 offering is a complete joke on so many levels. price, library, lack of features... it's all bad.
don't these people realize by now that slipping the term "AI" in any capacity as it relates to game development or art of any kind is going to result in online backlash? you would have to be pretty dense not to know this. larian has a perception problem on its hands now, warranted or not. do not use the words "AI" publically and you will be fine. i feel like jason schreier is playing dumb here and knew of the potential risks in getting into this subject... bad pr is good pr? perhaps, but it's not like larian needs help selling its next game.
@somnambulance agreed. capcom recently stated that they intend to revitalize the mega man franchise with new releases, remasters and remakes so there's a decent chance they are considering doing remakes of the legends games. perhaps after they finish up with all the sprite-based stuff (they should be nearly there now). outside of bringing back the breath of fire series, i doubt there is anything else more often requested by the fans.
@Luigia that would probably be the ps2. console released in october 2000 and received it's last game on november 2013 (Pro Evolution Soccer 2014). the ps4 is getting very close to this 13 years of support marker though and will definitely be surpassing it. technically, the ps3 holds the record though as far as i know. the console released in november of 2006 and got its final game in 2020 (Shakedown: Hawaii), but that is an outlier case. real support had stopped 2 years prior to that
can only imagine how long the ps5 will be relevent for if this is any indication. it's all about the software sales at the end of the day. why would a publisher care which platform their game is being purchased on? i'd argue that the ps4 could handle 90% of indi games being released today... why couldn't the ps4 continue to get ports for another 10 years? the answer is, there is nothing stopping that from happening other than sony itself.
the abysmal sales of ff xvi will haunt s-e for another 10 years it looks like. ff 7 rebirth didn't fare much better. outside of rushing out to remake ff 8/9/parasite eve/xenogears/chrono trigger etc, i don't think there is much hope for this company to turn things around. relying on remakes will buy them some time, but once that well has dried up, s-e needs to solve the fundamental question/problem: what is final fantasy and how can they make the franchise relevent (again) to fans of old and new at the same time?
this game is never coming out... at least, not as a AAA game that people want it to be. maybe this reveal is for more bare bones remasters of older games. that's the talent level over at amazon and embracer.
if dead space as a series didn't sell that well, including the remake, i don't see many publishers wanting to purchase this IP. the remake was apparently quite well done and still greatly underperformed afterall. a publisher with the will and resources could create its own sci-fi horror franchise with disememberment mechanics... it means nothing if you don't have a passionate and competent development studio behind it... with a vision. dead space as an IP doesn't hold much weight in other words seeing as the original developers were dismantled ages ago.
i can't see this "game" ever getting released. microsoft doesn't care about prestige projects in the way sony used to... and you know there will not be any marketing behind it. this is destined to fail so why even back it up if you are microsoft? it's a tough sell even on a sony platform, but on xbox it's DOA. if i was kojima, i would cancel it and put all hands on physint.
@BrownOwl agreed. it's as if the franchise is so mainstream, that it doesn't have real fans or a dedicated following that would be willing to go to bat for it. the movies are incredibly forgettable, cliche and the very definition of syle over substance. i would take it a step further and call the character designs trite and ugly. the movies really do look like video game cut scenes at times. at any rate, the avatar movies aren't in the same league as alien 1/2, terminator 1/2, indiana jones 1/3 or jurassic park as far as the great blockbuster films of our time... in anything but revenue generated anyways. hard to believe cameron has dedicated the past 20 years on this franchise. such a pity.
@PuppetMaster oof, you guys missed the point entirely. not sure how many times i can explain it
sony's output of its own AAA games has been disappointing and that is a result of mismanagement. sony should have released at least 3-5 additional games by this point in the ps5 cycle. do a search on youtube or read the comments in various articles here and you will see that many people share that feeling... that this gen has been fairly diappointing.
now, to make up for sony's poor showing, there has clearly been an emphasis on marketing deals, timed exclusivity and partnerships with chinese and korean publishers of AAA games. as such, games from china in particular are going to be flooding the market now (i never said that is a bad thing per say). the quality of many of these games is questionable, though, and sony really doesn't know what it's getting leading up to release. all sony cares about is getting more AAA games on its platform (at the expense of quality control in some cases) to fill the gaps of its own 1st party releases. so yes, sony is relying on more AAA games from asia to help fill out its release schedule.
that's it. is that too difficult for you to comprehend? 🤷♂️😂
Comments 2,813
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give God of War: Sons of Sparta?
it is currently sitting at a 66 meta score and continues to fall. once the genuine reviews starting trickling in, the real verdict was made clear. surprised people were fooled by this hot junk simply because sony's stamp was on it. the art looks terrible. wouldn't surprise me if the bulk of this game was AI generated as well.
Re: Sony Makes Shocking Decision to Shut Down Bluepoint Games
this is without a doubt one of the most shocking studio closures in gaming history. i think i can say that without hyperbole.
every project this team worked on was gold, going all the way back to the metal gear, god of war and and ico/shadow of the collossus remasters on ps3. shadow of the collossus remake has earned its spot on every list of the greatest remakes ever made. the demon's souls remake looked incredible, although i did not play it myself. every time i dreamed up a remake scenario of a classic game, bluepoint was always the first studio that came to mind because they were the best in the business and just that good. i always hoped they would have the opportunity to remake metal gear solid on modern hardware.
sony's mismanagement of its studios over the past 5 years is what destroyed bluepoint games. it's really that simple. this wasn't a situation where bluepoint failed to deliver on multiple projects and was costing sony money. instead of giving the studio an opportunity to take on a passion project (sony owed them that after wasting years of their time on a cancelled project), they thought it was best to shut them down? arguably the best remaster/remake studio in the entire industry... pull the plug? really? at a time where remakes have never been more popular and in demand?
there isn't anything more to say than this: sony has warped into just another terrible, god awful publisher. i saw signs of this all the way back in 2020 which is why i still do not own a ps5. not only has this been the worst playstation generation in history, but it has gotten to the point where i have developed active resentment towards sony and everything it stands for in this new era... i went from a borderline playstation fanboy to someone who just doesn't like playstation anymore as it continues to stumble again and again. the magic is completely gone.
sony is now on par with microsoft as a publisher. completely lacking in humanity, unfocused, misguided, tone deaf, controlled by shareholders and ulterior motives... irrational and baffling decision making has become common place. there is a severe lack of leadership from top to bottom. the division is run by parasites.
there is one good thing to come about from this though... people are starting to wake up about sony dropping the ball the past five years. vote with your wallet if you don't like the direction sony is taking playstation! people should be VERY concerned about media molecule and bend studio. if they don't get converted into support studios, i have to wonder how much time they have left under this regime. sony went from one of the best publishers to one of the worst seemingly overnight!
Re: God of War: Sons of Sparta (PS5) - Series' Boldest Bet Is Also Its Slowest Burn
this game is not a 7 despite claims that it is. i mean, it is struggling to stay in the 70s metacritic range (currently at 68) and continues to drop. won't be long now before it falls to its spot at about 60-65 which is exactly where it belongs. true, undeniable mediocrity. hopefully some lessons will be learned here so they put in the work next time? i don't think sony will want to see how this plays out with steam reviews so no pc port?
edit: it has now fallen to 66...
Re: PS5's Retro God of War Game Gets the Worst Reviews in the Series
the damage control for this game is baffling. why are people trying to turn this medicore game into something that it isn't? it is a sorry excuse for a god of war game and nobody would even acknowledge its existence if it wasn't superficially branded as one. it would fall to the bottom of the sales charts instantly. people won't remember this game a month from now, let alone in a year. there are FAR better games to spend your money on. if sony truly cared about it, they would collaborate with a developer with actual reputation and talent, such as the game kitchen — developers behind blasphemous and ninja gaiden ragebound. there are literally dozens of superior indi devleopers they could have worked with but settled with the worst option...
mind boggling stuff.
o yea, on open critic, only 25% of critics recommend the game which is a brutal stat that should not be overlooked.
Re: Sony Will Offset Soaring RAM Prices by Further Monetising PS5 Players
@Max_the_German to be fair, sony had already put on its "arrogance" cap at the beginning of this console cycle. too late for that not to happen. the question now is, can it do a u-turn and go back to being a good publisher again during the ps6 run? the company would need a major shakeup, including the removal of herman hulst and a complete re-evaluation of its profiteering goals: less emphasis on service games, scaling back in the graphics arms race and scope of its games to be more sustainable long term, focusing on a back -to-basics approach via a low cost to entry console that doesn't price people out of the hobby and encourages more creativity from developers (smaller games with less emphasis on graphics means they can take more risks and come up with compelling software).
if i were sony, i would use this dire period as incentive to bring the excitement and joy back to the AAA space because it has nearly evaporated at this point. the ps6 only needs to be an incremental jump over the ps5 pro from a graphcis standpoint, but a monumental jump in its software library if sony wants it to be successful and enticing to as many people as possible. is that asking for too much now that sony has no real competition? possibly. this is a situation where you hope the market will determine the fate of sony (i.e. lower than expected ps6 sales) and not sony itself.
Re: Opinion: The Euphoric Reaction to PS6's Rumoured Delay Really Confuses Me
let me try to understand this... some people want the ps6 rushed to market so that we can wait several years post launch for another drip feed consisting of cross gen games (which already play great on ps5), remasters and remakes again? you want to experience the same lulls of the ps5 so soon? right when the ps5 is finally about to get off the ground and fulfill some of its promises more than 6 years after it launched?
yea, sorry, i am not understanding the appeal in that. to me it sounds like some people are simply too materialistic and addicted to inconsequential shiny tech devices to see what is wrong with that picture. the ps5 has been a big disappointment and sony still has a lot of work to do to prove that a ps6 even needs to exist. they are running out of bullet points in their marketing material. the ps5 is still 5-10 generational games away from fulfilling its promise and providing the value that playstation fans expect.
i won't even get into the pricing concerns and the fact that market demand is essentially non-existent for a ps6 currently. that conversation has been run into the ground several times over and is becoming exhausting.
anyone who thinks ps5 games look bad and/or outdated should really move on from consoles and invest in a $5,000 pc for those extra, insignificant frames and resolutions. they are clearly playing games for the wrong reasons and are tech enthusiasts first, gamers second.
getting your hands on a ps6 sooner will not magically correct everything that is wrong with sony and the AAA industry at large. that is the key takeaway here.
Re: 'One of the Worst Decisions Ever Made': God of War Creator Tears 'Total Crap' 2D Title Apart
@Dalamar yup, he is absolutely right about that. maybe jaffe is a divisive person and that's fine if some people don't like him. but clearly those same people are unable to separate the opinion from the person. this game really doesn't deserve defending of any kind. it is just a medicore afterthought that nobody asked for and an embarassment to the god of war franchise. it exists as a cash grab for the anniversary and nothing more.
Re: 'One of the Worst Decisions Ever Made': God of War Creator Tears 'Total Crap' 2D Title Apart
@DennisReynolds he is actually left in his political views. very left. you comment on things with such confidence when you really don't know the first thing about it.
Re: 'One of the Worst Decisions Ever Made': God of War Creator Tears 'Total Crap' 2D Title Apart
he isn't wrong. the game looked medicore the first moment i saw it. watched about an hour gameplay and my thoughts have not changed. truly odd decision by sony to back such a generic looking indi game (i wonder if it was built with AI as well) and repurpose it as god of war title, just to say they had something for the anniversary.
it's werid how some people are defending this game, as if it is an amazing experience that they were anticipating for years! sony's stamp is on it so they automatically go into fanboy mode — the point of no return!
Re: Mina the Hollower PS5 Demo Is Available Now as Release Window Narrows
a long time coming! will this game live up to the shovel knight games? probably not. but i hope it does well for the studio. they seem to be in a bit of financial trouble at the moment. how they managed to squander all that shovel knight money is beyond me. apparently the fate of yacht club games as a studio is entirely dependent on how well mina the hollower performs.
Re: Konami Has More New Castlevania Games for Series' 40th Anniversary
what separates old konami from new konami is the fact konami the publisher no longer develops any of its games in-house. everything is lisensed out to indi developers. this can be, both, good and bad, but it doesn't change the fact that there is clearly no passion within the walls of konami itself. merely businessmen and suits attempting to make money with as little risk as possible.
i feel like people are quite confused by this new iteration of konami and don't realize that the vast majority of their output is being developed far away from konami HQ. they are no longer a DEVELOPER of video games, hence, the passionate designers the company once had are long gone. konami sure is good at exploiting the IP that it's legendary staff built. i will give them credit for that!
Re: Castlevania Finally Returns with a Brand New Game in 2026
the art direction looks great with its bold use of colour and contrast. the movement, however, looks a bit slow and floaty to me... not the quick and precise movement we have become accustomed to with the iga games. not necessarily a dealbreaker though.
Re: God of War Trilogy Remake Announced for PS5
@PuppetMaster
"...considering they've been a GOW studio since PS2 era."
that's precisly the point. they run the risk of losing talent at the studio due to fatigue and burnout. its no different than the high turnover rate of a studio working on nothing but call of duty or assassin's creed games. i don't think santa monica chose to be the god of war studio by design... they had several failed attempts at other projects in the past and they simply fell back into their comfort zone with yet another god of war sequel. i don't think that is good for the longevity of the studio. they need a new IP to diversify their portfolio. remaking the first 3 games looks a bit desperate.
Re: God of War Trilogy Remake Announced for PS5
i was a huge fan of the original trilogy. no question about that. but do i need remakes? not really. it is quite discouraging that santa monica studios may have been at work on this for the past 3 years and has yet to release a ps5 game. i truly hope they have another big project in development that will release before the ps6 launches. they desperately need a new IP.
Re: God of War: Sons of Sparta Is the Long-Rumoured 2D Game, Out Now on PS5
looks a bit generic, as if it was repurposed half way into development as a god of war game. won't be surprised if it gets medicocre reviews. there are better indi games to spend my time on. a shadow drop like this tells me sony didn't have high expectations for it either.
Re: Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties (PS5) - Colossal, Confident Remake Makes Controversial Changes
interesting that yakuza kiwami 3 has a lower open critic average than yakuza 3 remastered... which was already one of the lowest rated entries in the series.
Re: Poll: What's Your Reaction to Horizon Hunters Gathering?
this project would simply not exist if herman hulst wasn't in charge. that is all i am going to say about that. nobody was expecting much so it's not even worth talking about this (likely to be a flop) game any more than that.
Re: Horizon Hunters Gathering Is Guerrilla's Next Big PS5 Game, Horizon 3 Still Years Away
@Gr8VngnzN4esAngr you forgot to mention ND's cancelled last of us online (factions). i bet the resourses they lost on that is twice as much as the horizon mmo due to the fidelity ND was striving for. there was also the cancelled live service games for god of war, twisted metal and spiderman. we're talking about $1-2b+ flushed away
Re: Sony's Sending Messages to PS4 Players Encouraging Them to Upgrade to PS5
so long as the hardware is listed at a price that is 50% higher than its actual value and there are no true ps5 exclusive games worth playing, i'll stick to the ps4, thanks. it's a bit sad to see sony begging people to upgrade when they have failed to give any incetive to do so 5 years after launch. the rare game that isn't on ps4 can be played on a moderately spec'd pc so i'm good, sony!
Re: Rumour: GTA 6 Might Not Launch Physically at First to Avoid Leaks
that's fair. although the entire game will be up on twitch and youtube within days anyways so does it really make a difference? unless, of course, rockstar goes nintendo on content creators and threatens copyright strikes and channel suspensions for showing story content... which is possible i suppose. even atlus did this with persona 5.
also, rockstar couldn't care less about the 0.001% threatening not to buy the game until the physical disc comes out haha. the other 99.999% of fans waiting the past 15 years for this game will not be bothered by this in the slightest. the game will generate billions of dollars in a matter of days after it releases no matter the format it releases in.
Re: All Signs Point to Resident Evil: Code Veronica PS5 Remake in 2027
@jFug monster hunter wilds and dragon's dogma 2 are considered to be fairly big disappointments by the community at large. to say that they are firing on all cyclinders considering those blunders is a bit of a stretch. also, an overrelience on remakes and sequels is quite boring, regardless of quality.
overall, B+ or A-
Re: Yakuza Fan Concerns Come to a Head Over Dodgy Kiwami 3 Graphics
the image on the left looks a bit too clean doesn't it? not a single jaggie or aliased pixel... maybe thats how the game looks on max settings on pc but in either case, it looks great for a barebones remaster of a 20 year old game! i think i'll stick to the remaster collection that i already own.
Re: PS Portal Peaks in USA with Highest PS5 Console Attach Rate Yet
@UltimateOtaku91 vita sold well over 10m units so chances are no.
Re: Prince of Persia Series Isn't Dead Yet Despite Remake Cancellation
in other words, a big production remake of the sands of time was simply out of scope and budget for this new, lean, poorer ubisoft of today... got it. ubisoft will now be focusing on smaller budget releases for the prince of persia games... perhaps a barebones remaster of the ps2 trilogy or a sequel to lost crown. sometimes you need to read between the lines. to be fair, though, the sands of time remake was never going to make its money back after all the delays and mismanagement... it was simply too niche for the remake treatment so ubisoft may have made the right decision for once in cancelling the project. should have done it years ago though
Re: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Now Has the Most Game of the Year Awards Ever
i don't know how anyone can play this game now without finding it incredibly over rated. the praise has been sensationalized at this point. let good games be good. do they need to be perceived as the greatest of all time? give it a rest.
as somone who has yet to play e33, i doubt it has anything on xenogears
Re: Prince of Persia Remake and 5 Other Games Cancelled by Ubisoft
this is one of those times where it's a blessing to not receive a piece of hot trash from ubisoft. i can say that the world is better off that this remake doesn't exist. i never understood the business side of it seeing as there are very few people who would play it in the first place. it is a true platforming, puzzle game with very light combat sequences thrown in. it was simply too niche to warrant a remake. a barebones remaster will suffice for most people if ubisoft can handle it that is.
as for the rayman games currently in development... i hope those turn out well. the last 2 games are all-time classics and among the best platforming games of all time.
Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro's Big PSSR Update Releasing by March, Improves Graphics and Performance
@DennisReynolds according to what source? sony PR? by what metric exactly? as far as i know, sales were behind ps4 pro its first month on sale. we know that ps4 pro only made up 12% of total ps4 sales, so the ps5 pro making up less than 10% of ps5 sales is a very safe bet, especially because of its absurd price point... how does that translate to selling "pretty well" exactly?
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ps5-pro-sales-have-fallen-behind-ps4-pro-in-the-us/
ultimately, it has been an overpeiced, disappointing product, panned by owners and news outlets alike. speaking outside of sales, it has not moved the needle in a positive direction, hence, sony is still trying to "fix" it more than a year after release
Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro's Big PSSR Update Releasing by March, Improves Graphics and Performance
this is probably the last time sony makes a "pro" model. it's been a training ground for ps6 with ps5 pro owners being the guinea pigs. sales are likely even worse than predicted
Re: 'PS5 Pro Gets the Short End of the Stick Again': Fans Gutted New HYPERPOP Console Covers Don't Support Supercharged System
sony wants to keep charging people $50 for a piece of plastic and refuses to release new hardware SKUs with different colours for some reason... nintendo is one of the most anti-consumer companies out there but at least they release hardware with different colour choices. bloody hell.
Re: Feature: 15 PS5 Predictions for 2026
@twitchtvpat i hear that argument about ps1 and ps2 games and yet many of us adore that era of gaming, even in 2026. gaming is not just about graphics and performance... modern gaming is missing the creative output that we were so spoiled with back then. but specifically about the framrates of ps3 games, emulation would clean that up in most cases and give you a locked 30/60fps.
Re: Rumour: PS6 Could Be Delayed Due to RAM Price Chaos
@themightyant the tech really doesn't matter anymore. i think the arms race is over. it's diminishing returns with graphics as incremental improvements don't really move the needle for most people. gamers just want good games and an emphasis on graphics over gameplay doesn't have the same advantage that it once had in the AAA space when there is no real competition for sony anymore. what's important is getting the hardware out at a time and price that makes sense. even if they release the hardware at a reasonable price before 2028, sales would slump since it seems people are not ready for a new console, nor do they want to spend more money when they don't need to.
Re: Feature: 15 PS5 Predictions for 2026
i think hulst is immune to scrutiny since he controls an IP (from a studio that he co-founded) that is in active development with not 1, not 2, but 3 games (not deservingly so). he can also blame the next pitiful 5 years of 1st party output on jim ryan and get away with it. as much as i also believe he should be removed, he won't be until the ps6 cycle at the earliest.
the rest of the predictions above are pretty safe bets, while others are quite inconsequential so not really worth debating.
Re: PS6 Could Be Delayed Due to RAM Price Chaos
well, they are going to have to push it back by 3+ years then because this AI rampup isn't going away anytime soon. there is a blackhole now sucking up everything in its path. to be honest though, the graphics arms race was eventually going to crash anyways so we are seeing the expected result play out, just differently than anyone expected. might as well keep optimizing the perfectly capable ps5 hardware until 2030 since we have barely seen its capabilities yet. anyone who cannot stand ps5 graphics can just leave and buy themselves a $5000 pc if it bothers them too much
people just want good games. they don't need an excuse to shell out more money on yet another box under the tv in the name of cold, lifeless capitalism and consumerism. give people more value for their ps5 purchase instead.
Re: Ex-PlayStation Boss Believes Exclusives Make Consoles 'Sing'
@MrStark
"Having said that, putting older games on other platforms is perfectly fine because they would bring in additional revenue/profits."
not necessarily. perhaps in the short term. you have to consider the people who would have purchased sony's hardware had the games not been ported to pc. now sony will lose those players in its ecosystem which is a potential loss in the thousands of dollars per player (software sales) over the console generation. porting to pc also costs sony more resources. nothing comes for free. it's not as clear cut as: porting to pc = more revenue/profit since indirect consequences need to be looked at as well.
Re: Ex-PlayStation Boss Believes Exclusives Make Consoles 'Sing'
that is precisely what is wrong with the ps5. the playstation brand is on the decline due to a product that adds little to no "value" to the player outside of the typical console gaming conveniences. but as far as software is concerned, there is nothing notable about the ps5. the moment your software can be found elsewhere, you no longer have that special, intangible, novelty factor that used to make playstation consoles "must-haves". with all that said, sony 1st party dropped the ball this gen anyways so even if its limited number of games remained exclusive, it wouldn't have moved the needle for me to purchase a ps5. get it together with the ps6 sony. it's nice having the option to play sony's games on pc, but if we are talking strictly about what non-exclusivty does to a console and brand, the answer is: it kills it.
Re: Test Out Tactics Remake Front Mission 3 for Free on PS5, PS4 Now
@Drnsnsr as far as i know, the fan translation is only 75% complete. i never booted it up myself, but it sounds like its a lot more than the fmv's that never got completed?
Re: Test Out Tactics Remake Front Mission 3 for Free on PS5, PS4 Now
i have heard nothing but negative or mixed reactions about the first two front mission remakes. the third one will likely follow suit as this is the same developer. the front mission series is greatly underrated and its unfortunate s-e didn't give these remakes the budget they deserved. also, front mission 2 remake is the only way to play the game in english since not even a fan translation exists of the original ps1 release. i would stick to front mission 1st DS and the original ps1 release of front misison 3 over the remakes but each to their own.
Re: PS5 Wins a Nightmarish November for All Console Hardware in the US
as someone who has been very critical and concerned with the gaming industry over the past 5 years, i actually think this is very good news. we need the big publishers to take a financial hit and acknowledge that they are not only pricing people out of the hobby, but they are sacrificing long term stabilility for a short term gain. this business practice is backwards and not sustainable.
a few quarters like this and i am confident that we will see an MSRP drop from sony and nintendo. the hardware is simply not worth its cost to the average person. we are in a cost of living crisis afterall. i have been saying it forever but even if sony subsidizes the hardware by an additional $150-200 from where it is now, they will more than make that back in software sales within a year or two. obtaining new players into their ecosystem is far more valuable than losing $200 per console sold! that is how the hardware model used to work but sony and nintendo clearly hit their heads too hard and need to re-learn the business i suppose 🤷
sorry, but a sale that drives the console price back to where it was 5 years is laughable. glad people saw through that nonense.
Re: Disappointment as PS2 All-Timer SoulCalibur 3 Launches on PS5, PS4 without Trophies
if you are going to charge a premium price for this service, you have to bring the feature sets and entice people. as it stands, people are better off saving their money and either modding an og ps2 to play the absurd number of classics on the platform or emulating to their hearts content... with emulation, you can even get achievements these days. sony's ps2 offering is a complete joke on so many levels. price, library, lack of features... it's all bad.
Re: Divinity Dev's Comments on Generative AI Trigger a Total Social Media Sh*tstorm
don't these people realize by now that slipping the term "AI" in any capacity as it relates to game development or art of any kind is going to result in online backlash? you would have to be pretty dense not to know this. larian has a perception problem on its hands now, warranted or not. do not use the words "AI" publically and you will be fine. i feel like jason schreier is playing dumb here and knew of the potential risks in getting into this subject... bad pr is good pr? perhaps, but it's not like larian needs help selling its next game.
Re: PS5, PS4 Compilation Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection Adds 7 More RPGs to Your Stacked 2026
@somnambulance agreed. capcom recently stated that they intend to revitalize the mega man franchise with new releases, remasters and remakes so there's a decent chance they are considering doing remakes of the legends games. perhaps after they finish up with all the sprite-based stuff (they should be nearly there now). outside of bringing back the breath of fire series, i doubt there is anything else more often requested by the fans.
Re: PS4 Will Still Get New Games in 2027
@Luigia that would probably be the ps2. console released in october 2000 and received it's last game on november 2013 (Pro Evolution Soccer 2014). the ps4 is getting very close to this 13 years of support marker though and will definitely be surpassing it. technically, the ps3 holds the record though as far as i know. the console released in november of 2006 and got its final game in 2020 (Shakedown: Hawaii), but that is an outlier case. real support had stopped 2 years prior to that
Re: PS4 Will Still Get New Games in 2027
can only imagine how long the ps5 will be relevent for if this is any indication. it's all about the software sales at the end of the day. why would a publisher care which platform their game is being purchased on? i'd argue that the ps4 could handle 90% of indi games being released today... why couldn't the ps4 continue to get ports for another 10 years? the answer is, there is nothing stopping that from happening other than sony itself.
Re: Eagerly Anticipated PS5 Arcade Racer Screamer Leans into Its Anime Influences in March
@HaveTheSauce true, but there is one exception. genki's Tokyo Xtreme Racer which came out a few months back.
Re: Key Square Enix Shareholder Publicly Criticises Weak Game Sales, Company Management
the abysmal sales of ff xvi will haunt s-e for another 10 years it looks like. ff 7 rebirth didn't fare much better. outside of rushing out to remake ff 8/9/parasite eve/xenogears/chrono trigger etc, i don't think there is much hope for this company to turn things around. relying on remakes will buy them some time, but once that well has dried up, s-e needs to solve the fundamental question/problem: what is final fantasy and how can they make the franchise relevent (again) to fans of old and new at the same time?
Re: New Tomb Raider Reveal Confirmed for The Game Awards
this game is never coming out... at least, not as a AAA game that people want it to be. maybe this reveal is for more bare bones remasters of older games. that's the talent level over at amazon and embracer.
Re: Rumour: Dead Space Is 'On Ice', Could Be Sold Off to Help Cover EA's Acquisition Debt
if dead space as a series didn't sell that well, including the remake, i don't see many publishers wanting to purchase this IP. the remake was apparently quite well done and still greatly underperformed afterall. a publisher with the will and resources could create its own sci-fi horror franchise with disememberment mechanics... it means nothing if you don't have a passionate and competent development studio behind it... with a vision. dead space as an IP doesn't hold much weight in other words seeing as the original developers were dismantled ages ago.
Re: Not Even Hideo Kojima Is Sure if Xbox Game OD Will Be Any Good
i can't see this "game" ever getting released. microsoft doesn't care about prestige projects in the way sony used to... and you know there will not be any marketing behind it. this is destined to fail so why even back it up if you are microsoft? it's a tough sell even on a sony platform, but on xbox it's DOA. if i was kojima, i would cancel it and put all hands on physint.
Re: Preview: Avatar PS5 Is Transformed in Third-Person, Expanded in From the Ashes DLC
@BrownOwl agreed. it's as if the franchise is so mainstream, that it doesn't have real fans or a dedicated following that would be willing to go to bat for it. the movies are incredibly forgettable, cliche and the very definition of syle over substance. i would take it a step further and call the character designs trite and ugly. the movies really do look like video game cut scenes at times. at any rate, the avatar movies aren't in the same league as alien 1/2, terminator 1/2, indiana jones 1/3 or jurassic park as far as the great blockbuster films of our time... in anything but revenue generated anyways. hard to believe cameron has dedicated the past 20 years on this franchise. such a pity.
Re: PS5 Action RPG The God Slayer Getting Full Support from Sony, First Gameplay Footage Is Jaw-Dropping
@PuppetMaster oof, you guys missed the point entirely. not sure how many times i can explain it
sony's output of its own AAA games has been disappointing and that is a result of mismanagement. sony should have released at least 3-5 additional games by this point in the ps5 cycle. do a search on youtube or read the comments in various articles here and you will see that many people share that feeling... that this gen has been fairly diappointing.
now, to make up for sony's poor showing, there has clearly been an emphasis on marketing deals, timed exclusivity and partnerships with chinese and korean publishers of AAA games. as such, games from china in particular are going to be flooding the market now (i never said that is a bad thing per say). the quality of many of these games is questionable, though, and sony really doesn't know what it's getting leading up to release. all sony cares about is getting more AAA games on its platform (at the expense of quality control in some cases) to fill the gaps of its own 1st party releases. so yes, sony is relying on more AAA games from asia to help fill out its release schedule.
that's it. is that too difficult for you to comprehend? 🤷♂️😂