don't understand why some people are so accomodating towards konami. this is who they are. they do not care about the hobby and gaming as a medium, merely their bottom line. the culture at konami died 15 years ago now so this showcase should be the expectation going forward. i will admit that silent hill f is a pleasant surprise, but make no mistake, that is an outlier. konami will focus on remakes/remasters/mobile trash for the next 10-15 years... once that well has dried up, we'll see how they pivot.
kojima has integrity. good on him for skipping this shallow remake which involves zero of the original staff members. i'll likely skip it as well. a new coat of paint will not fundamentally chnage the game so what are we actually doing here? the core game will be exactly the same and i never subscribed to better graphics equating to better games. sure, improvements to the camera and controls are a nice bonus but whatever...
wow. what can you say? after 14 long years, the katamari series is finally getting a new entry. they certainly nailed the look of this. spot on. now takahashi, the original creator, left namco long ago and "we love katamari" was his last project with them, but i have hope that the new studio managed to do this series justice. looking forward to this!
@RobN agreed but they want you to click on as many pages as possible for advertising revenue. it's terrible for the user but a well expected business model at this point.
what's most surprising is that zero dawn has sold close to double the copies of forbidden west. two years ago it had sold 24m+ so it's likely at 25m+ now. that leaves forbidden west at only 13m copies sold as the most generous estimate. sony should be concerned about that and ask why people didn't gravitate to the sequel.
probably more remasters on the way. they don't know how to make games themselves anymore. don't think any respectable 3rd party japanese studio out there is capable of creating a new suikoden game so definitely not that.
the very second AI stumbles or fails to meet their expectations, microsoft's stock will come crashing down and may never recover to its peak. the only reason it is up at the moment is because of the tens of thousands of job cuts that equates to higher profit margins in the short term. also, many investors and shareholders have gone all in on the broken AI promises and have an optimistic outlook (manipulated by good marketing perhaps?). it's not going to last very long. xbox division is in a huge mess and failure to acknowledge that on any level is hilarious. the world really doesn't need microsoft anymore. people use windows out of obligation, not because it is actually innovative or appealing. their monopoly will allow them to win that space be default, but the company is completly void of any innovation or bright ideas like with most tech companies.
sony figures that if there is a 1st party drought they might as well sell as much useless gaming related merch as humanly possible to keep the revenue flowing. careful, it might work and they will stop making actual games!
is this item for the rich kids with no purpose, too much money on their hands and a dire need to fill that empty void inside by consuming every bit of merch that gets released? absolutely!
if they went through the trouble to rebuild it from scratch, why do the pixels look as if a smear filter was placed over them? (just like tactics ogre reborn). if they aren't using some form of (rom) emulation and/or AI upscaled the original sprites, then they did a poor job there. the sprites absolutely should have been remade so that they translate into the HD era otherwise it is going to look only passable if not medicore in the presentation department.
the ps6 is only 27 months away at this point. you would only have to wait a year and some change after gta 6 releases to play the game optimally at 60fps on the ps6. as such, i wouldn't worry so much about the base ps5 not being able to handle the better performance of the ps5 pro. be smart and save your money for the next console.
with all the said, it's not very likely gta 6 will run at a locked 60fps on the ps5 pro anyways. perhaps an unlocked frame rate mode that hoovers between 30 and 45 which will be a subpar experience.
just like the remake, i don't think suda51 will be involved in any sequel so why bother? if you aren't going to respect the original creator do you think people are going to hold interest in this? not exactly certain on what happened with the remake, but suda51 did not seem happy about it and there was some resentment with his lack of involvement. no james gunn also means a sequel will be missing its soul from the original.
@SeaDaVie not true. in 2014 they only had 15 employees left and it was essentially a glorified indie studio at that point. irrational games was a shadow of its former self in everything but name and was then transitioned to ghost story games around this time (i.e. irrational games was shuttered). the current team working on judas is under 70 employees, a far cry from naughty dog's 1000 so the comparison is baseless and odd.
@SeaDaVie in case you didn't know, levine was not working on judas the past 10 years. he was taking some time off to work on smaller projects and has gone on record to express how bioshock infinite really broke him down mentally. irrational games was shut down in 2014 so it's not like there was even a studio around to compete with naughty dog's output. i don't understand your angle here.
i've played countless jrpg's on the ps1, it being my favourite platform for the genre even to this day. dw7 really isn't a game i've had any interest in playing. everything i have heard about, including friends' first hand experience, is that it overstays its welcome and is a drag of a game. if you have played dq8 and dq11, you have already played the best the property has to offer. considering how similar each of the entires are to one another, i don't think most of them are worth the time sink. better off playing another jrpg on the ps1, of which there are many to choose from.
once considered the "best value in gaming" back in the ps3 days is no more. i was so done with the multiple price hikes and inconsitency of the games lineup the past several years. unsubscribed and will not be returning to ps+. a shame sony lost sight of what made it great for so many years leading up to this. i agree with others who are suggesting of a "BASIC" tier just for cloud saves and online multiplayer if the price was reasonable.
@Ainu20 i compare the onslaught of AI media coverage to the autonomous cars propaganda we were seeing pre-covid. it was everywhere! they made absurdly idealistic predictions (in how soon they would be mainstream) to create hype and secure investments. after several accidents and clear indicators that the tech wasn't ready, the media coverage all but disappeared from plain sight.
the point i am making is: when media coverage of something is hot, you better believe there will be companies desperately trying to take advantage of the public awareness aspect of it in the hopes they can convert that into sales. all this AI nonsense we are seeing everywhere is superficial and being funded by only a handful of companies. they believe that the more we see it, the more likely we will embrace and welcome it into our lives with open arms. sony is running out of ideas on how to sell people on it's hardware and will most certainly use AI (being the buzzword that it is) to help sell the ps6. they want to get in on that BEFORE people have completely lost interest and AI becomes the true villain that is.
with the extent of which sony is frothing at the mouth around AI and machine learning terminology, they will want to capitalize on the (media) hype before it dies down. the ps5 has almost entirely lost its steam at this point due to a lack of innovative games able to shake up the industry (gta 6 being the only one left). i don't see a world where ps6 releases after 2027.
sony better hire the best marketing team they can find. ps6 is going to be a harder sell to the mainstream next time around. expect a major decline in sales with the higher asking price that is all but expected at this point. many people feel burned by the ps5 and how little sony 1st party supported it, so i'd expect sony to lose customers on that front as well as from those who made the switch to pc. in addition to that, many people won't feel the need to upgrade from the ps5 for another 5 years. sony is desperate for a selling point so they decided to bank on machine learning and AI nonsense. they are grapsing at straws and it comes across as desperate. focus on the games and they will speak for themselves, but i suppose that would be asking for too much.
i hope the game does well for kojima. he deserves it. but i predicted that death stranding 2 would sell 50% less than the original for a myriad of reasons, the most obvious being that kojima's loyal fans who didn't appreciate the first game will absolutely not be purchasing the sequel. kojima really should have shaken up the mechanics in the sequel but he played it safe. this is the result. i found the first game to be a novel and memorable experience (despite its many faults) but it is a trip i don't want to take again. it was better off as a one and done IP.
it's looking great. the roll and cover mechanic is what sets this apart from other 2d run and gunners of old. it's a shame that it has taken this long for a respectable terminator game but here we are. finally!
not exactly the game i envisioned many years ago when we got our first glimpse of it. regardless, it looks interesting. there is a real time strategy element to this game by the looks of things and will focus heavily on exploration and puzzle solving. far from a twitchy action game and that is fine. hopefully it will have a good narrative to keep the experience from becoming repetitive. that said, this does look to be a smaller budget game relative to capcom's standards. i don't know if it would have been greenlit if it wasn't. but if that's what it takes to get some fresh ideas in an otherwise stale AAA industry, then so be it.
they are just trying to find excuses to run sales 365/days a year at this point. it's just that, most games never get marked down beyond a certain point, many years after release, so these sales become very uneventful.
sorry ff 16 fans, you were wrong! with its disappointing sales and lack of interest from the core audience, s-e will absolutely be taking a U-turn now and going back to turn-based combat. live with it
@DaPrince yea, if they had a bigger budget, they would recreate the pixels for hd, which would have been awesome. they have opted for the poor upscaling which will be soft and blurry. look no further than the tactics ogre remaster
unfortunately they have cut out the psp war of the lions content, including the updated cutscenes and additional job classes. they did not have the original source files to the ps1 version of tactics, so it's likely the game will be a moded rom file running via emulation container rather than a native port, but we'll have to confirm that later. it's a shame that this version won't be the be all, end all, "definitive" edition but it appears that it has a good number of QoL updates in its own right.
as for the pixels, i doubt they recreated the sprites from scratch so another AI upscale will likely be in order again which we already know will not be great. can't have it all i suppose.
@LogicStrikesAgain i was hoping for a completely different genre this time around. maybe that was asking for too much but that is what i wanted to see personally. pretty sure you are still doing deliveries in this one.
i always hoped kojima had big ambitions with ds2 and that he would perform a bigger mgs2-like rug pull on the audience (which was one of the biggest surprises in gaming at the time). i.e. switch up the genre completely and go in a different direction. unfortunately, it sounds like the focus is still on point A to point B deliveries with bigger scope than the original. i don't think that is enough for those people who only somewhat enjoyed ds1 but were hoping for more signature stealth and combat. a novel experiment to be sure, but not a genre of game i would want to play through again with the story being as incomprehensible as it is. in all honesty, ds1 would have worked best as a one and done experience. it's simply not a genre with enough interest or appeal for the AAA market going by all the mixed reations the first game received.
hopefully this will sell well enough for kojima to fund a few more big projects but i don't expect sales to surpass ds1 at 5m+ copies.
back to the main question: yes, it is certainly over for ps vr and has been for some time. it's over for vr on the whole, across the entire industry... for now. it might make a resurgence in another 10+ years when things advance more, but it has been such a collossal failure that i don't know who will be willing to get back into the ring.
@CWill97 metaphor was announced as far back as 2016 and didn't release until 2024. persona 5 had a similarily long wait. this seems to be the general practice with these studios. but i agree, i don't think persona 6 will release before persona 4 remake... so it's looking like a 2028 crossgen game for ps5/ps6.
that means persona 6 isnt coming out until 2028 at the earliest. it will be another late console release which is typical of atlus in every console generation haha... ps6 will be out by then.
i was surprised to learn that there are over 30m youtube channels currently... over 4m influencers on twitch alone. considering the state of affairs in that space, i don't think it's too far fetched to assume that 1-2m of the 3.5m switch 2's purchased at launch went to influencers. could be wrong, but it wouldn't surprise me.
it's by far my least favourite sony console all the same. the article did a good job framing the context in how those numbers are generated, though, which greatly diminishes the outcome. in other words, not much of an accomplishment when the bulk of sony's profits are related to MTX and higher margins on psn that didn't even exist in the first two ps console generations and were in their infancy with the ps3. an unfair comparison on so many levels but it is what it is.
what does it matter? nobody knew this game existed more than 3 months ago. it's not like there was years of interest and anticipation and it didn't live up to expectations. really weird to see people go to bat for this game or act like they were going to buy it on day one. who is really that stupid with their money?
it completely dwarfs the psp go - it is more than twice as thick and has double the weight. why is it that 15 years after the launch of the go, and all the modern tech they have at their disposal, they were unable to keep the size down? it's barely pocketable. getting a 0.9" larger screen with the anbernic is a nice upgrade over the go, but ultimately there are far too many tradeoffs. better off waiting for revision 2 or 3 of this thing when they shrink the size down (they likely made it huge on purpose to get people to double and triple dip like they do with all their devices). this is quite a failure as it stands. the psp go is still an amazing handheld and i'm glad i got it on the cheap before it became scarce and expensive.
i'm sure they do, which is why 90% of their ps4/ps5 catalogue has already made it to pc 0_o
after this gen comes to a close, hopefully sony will come to the realization that their pc porting efforts did not help the brand and may have in fact lost them revenue in the long term due to a shrinking playstation userbase. remember, losing a user from your ecosystem (to pc) means you lose all software purchased from said user, not just the specific sony published games that got ported to pc. that is a very bad tradeoff from a business perspective. i have no doubt that sony will lose countless millions of users now that they have opened the floodgate to pc.
also, let's face it, some of their pc ports did not perform well at all. the costs to port the game to pc vs the sales may have even lost them money in some cases.
if nintendo took this road, they would lose at least 25% of their platform install base without question. maybe up to 50%, who knows. nintendo is wise enough not to even flirt with the idea unless they were in a dire situation and had no choice (and even then they would hate the idea haha).
gaming wasn't as mainstream back when the ps2 launched. gaming demographics have grown extensively over the past 10 years or so. secondly, there were ps2 shortages at launch which resulted in sony cutting 50% of its initial shipments globally. furthermore, social media and influencers did not exist back in 2000. easily, 50% of all switch 2 sales were purchased by influencers for work purposes if anything. the ps2 launch sales are still more impressive than switch 2's under the circumstances.
it's all downhill from here for switch 2. nintendo is going to have a hard time selling people on the switch 2 when so many families have perfectly good og switches with a plethora of games to play already. i'm not even going to get into the pricing concerns related to both, the hardware and software. expect nintendo to drop the price like they did with the 3ds if annual sales fail to meet expectations which appears to be the likely scenario.
literally nobody knew this game existed more than 3 months ago. interesting way to release a game — with no lead up or marketing of any kind. i suppose that's what happens when a publisher completely loses faith in the project but has already crossed the point of no return. if this game sunk IO interactive, that would be the real tragedy here.
yes, because people want a p2 remake... you know, a game that cannot be played on modern hardware and has been disrepected by atlus ever since its original release more than 25 years ago! they don't want p4 released for the 4th time. not complicated.
based on the recent pr comments from atlus, it sounds like p6 is a long ways away still... i don't know why people assume its in late stage development and going to release any moment now haha. they haven't released a single teaser of the game... not even a cgi trailer. once they do, it could be years away from that point as we have seen from pervious atlus releases. i.e. i wouldn't expect p6 for at least 2+ years and is likely to launch after the ps6 generation gets off the ground.
would they release p4 AFTER p6? not likely. it sounds like p4 remake is a stop gap for them in between releases... p4 remake itself looks like it is a late 2026 game (they didn't even specifiy a YEAR in the teaser). wouldn't make much sense to release the main course before the appetizer would it?
can't understand the appeal of this game releasing for the 4th time instead of a persona 2 remake. especially after the fan surveys indicated that there was far more interest in a p2 remake above all else. there is so much persona 3/4/5 fatigue right now so it would have been smarter to put out the p2 remake first and give something new to people. vast majority of persona players have never touched p2 due to its lack of availability on any "modern" hardware. even the psp release from 15 years ago was only half complete and merely a slight enhancement of the ps1 release. i sppose i'll keep crying about it until atlus does something.
for the best really. can only play one dragon quest game every 10 years or so (if we are talking about 100 hour completion times)... if this releases by 2027, that would be a perfect amount of time between entries.
sony has no shame and is embarrassing itself at this point. while the spreadsheets indicate that they are still "OK" at the moment, they don't realize the number of bridges they have burned for their core audience this console generation. if i were sony, i would not expect the same hardware sales success with the ps6 (due to presumably higher, unfounded costs to hardware, lack of a roadmap and 1st party studios being in disarray, lack of good will from previously loyal customers, etc.). if they achieve 50% of their sales, it would not surprise me in the slightest. there is time to pivot of course, but easier said than done. the failings of the ps5 will likely carry into the first few years of the ps6 if anything (and that is the optmisitc outcome).
if NR is unable to support their games longterm, they should get out of the fighting genre. it's as simple as that. i can't say i have ever seen such a half-assed effort with a major fighting franchise before. amazing they haven't been shuttered considering WB doesn't value or know what to do with its studios and attempted selling them off multiple times. where the heck does NR go from here? if MK failed to earn proper post launch support, i don't think injustice has a prayer considering it is the less popular of the two franchises.
Comments 2,697
Re: The Big Suikoden Livestream Was a Bust (Unless You're into the Mobile Game)
don't understand why some people are so accomodating towards konami. this is who they are. they do not care about the hobby and gaming as a medium, merely their bottom line. the culture at konami died 15 years ago now so this showcase should be the expectation going forward. i will admit that silent hill f is a pleasant surprise, but make no mistake, that is an outlier. konami will focus on remakes/remasters/mobile trash for the next 10-15 years... once that well has dried up, we'll see how they pivot.
Re: 'No, I Won't': Kojima Rejects Playing Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake
kojima has integrity. good on him for skipping this shallow remake which involves zero of the original staff members. i'll likely skip it as well. a new coat of paint will not fundamentally chnage the game so what are we actually doing here? the core game will be exactly the same and i never subscribed to better graphics equating to better games. sure, improvements to the camera and controls are a nice bonus but whatever...
Re: Once Upon a Katamari Brings the Series Back with a Brand New Game on PS5
wow. what can you say? after 14 long years, the katamari series is finally getting a new entry. they certainly nailed the look of this. spot on. now takahashi, the original creator, left namco long ago and "we love katamari" was his last project with them, but i have hope that the new studio managed to do this series justice. looking forward to this!
Re: The Adventures of Elliot Is Another New PS5 RPG from Octopath Traveler Dev
this looks... terrible? the action is far too slow for an action rpg. i'll stick to octopath's turn-based battle system.
Re: 99+ PS5, PS4 Games to Buy in PS Store's Updated and Expanded Summer Sale
@RobN agreed. if they make the experience that bad, more people will resort to ad blockers as well.
Re: 99+ PS5, PS4 Games to Buy in PS Store's Updated and Expanded Summer Sale
@RobN agreed but they want you to click on as many pages as possible for advertising revenue. it's terrible for the user but a well expected business model at this point.
Re: Sony's Horizon Franchise Has Sold a Wild 38 Million Units Worldwide
what's most surprising is that zero dawn has sold close to double the copies of forbidden west. two years ago it had sold 24m+ so it's likely at 25m+ now. that leaves forbidden west at only 13m copies sold as the most generous estimate. sony should be concerned about that and ask why people didn't gravitate to the sequel.
Re: Lengthy Suikoden Livestream Announced for Next Week
probably more remasters on the way. they don't know how to make games themselves anymore. don't think any respectable 3rd party japanese studio out there is capable of creating a new suikoden game so definitely not that.
Re: 'By Every Objective Measure, We're Thriving': Microsoft CEO Expresses Gratitude to All Those Laid Off
the very second AI stumbles or fails to meet their expectations, microsoft's stock will come crashing down and may never recover to its peak. the only reason it is up at the moment is because of the tens of thousands of job cuts that equates to higher profit margins in the short term. also, many investors and shareholders have gone all in on the broken AI promises and have an optimistic outlook (manipulated by good marketing perhaps?). it's not going to last very long. xbox division is in a huge mess and failure to acknowledge that on any level is hilarious. the world really doesn't need microsoft anymore. people use windows out of obligation, not because it is actually innovative or appealing. their monopoly will allow them to win that space be default, but the company is completly void of any innovation or bright ideas like with most tech companies.
Re: Sony's Not Done Finding New Ways to Sell You The Last of Us
sony figures that if there is a 1st party drought they might as well sell as much useless gaming related merch as humanly possible to keep the revenue flowing. careful, it might work and they will stop making actual games!
is this item for the rich kids with no purpose, too much money on their hands and a dire need to fill that empty void inside by consuming every bit of merch that gets released? absolutely!
Re: Square Enix Admits It Lost Final Fantasy Tactics' PS1 Source Code
if they went through the trouble to rebuild it from scratch, why do the pixels look as if a smear filter was placed over them? (just like tactics ogre reborn). if they aren't using some form of (rom) emulation and/or AI upscaled the original sprites, then they did a poor job there. the sprites absolutely should have been remade so that they translate into the HD era otherwise it is going to look only passable if not medicore in the presentation department.
Re: Rumour: Sony Engineers Allegedly Helping Rockstar Achieve 60fps in GTA 6 on PS5 Pro
the ps6 is only 27 months away at this point. you would only have to wait a year and some change after gta 6 releases to play the game optimally at 60fps on the ps6. as such, i wouldn't worry so much about the base ps5 not being able to handle the better performance of the ps5 pro. be smart and save your money for the next console.
with all the said, it's not very likely gta 6 will run at a locked 60fps on the ps5 pro anyways. perhaps an unlocked frame rate mode that hoovers between 30 and 45 which will be a subpar experience.
Re: Anticipated PS5 JRPG Remake Persona 4 Revival Finally Available to Wishlist
i would question just how "anticipated" this remake actually is
persona 2 remake — now we are talking!
Re: Looks Like There's Going to Be a New Lollipop Chainsaw Game
just like the remake, i don't think suda51 will be involved in any sequel so why bother? if you aren't going to respect the original creator do you think people are going to hold interest in this? not exactly certain on what happened with the remake, but suda51 did not seem happy about it and there was some resentment with his lack of involvement. no james gunn also means a sequel will be missing its soul from the original.
Re: 'You Buy the Game and You Get the Whole Thing': Judas Dev Not About Live Service
@SeaDaVie not true. in 2014 they only had 15 employees left and it was essentially a glorified indie studio at that point. irrational games was a shadow of its former self in everything but name and was then transitioned to ghost story games around this time (i.e. irrational games was shuttered). the current team working on judas is under 70 employees, a far cry from naughty dog's 1000 so the comparison is baseless and odd.
Re: 'You Buy the Game and You Get the Whole Thing': Judas Dev Not About Live Service
@SeaDaVie in case you didn't know, levine was not working on judas the past 10 years. he was taking some time off to work on smaller projects and has gone on record to express how bioshock infinite really broke him down mentally. irrational games was shut down in 2014 so it's not like there was even a studio around to compete with naughty dog's output. i don't understand your angle here.
Re: Rumour: Unforgettable RPG Dragon Quest 7 Tipped for PS5 Release
i've played countless jrpg's on the ps1, it being my favourite platform for the genre even to this day. dw7 really isn't a game i've had any interest in playing. everything i have heard about, including friends' first hand experience, is that it overstays its welcome and is a drag of a game. if you have played dq8 and dq11, you have already played the best the property has to offer. considering how similar each of the entires are to one another, i don't think most of them are worth the time sink. better off playing another jrpg on the ps1, of which there are many to choose from.
Re: Stolen PS1 WipEout Games Axed from the Xbox Store
wild that someone could be so brazenly stupid to attempt this release in the hopes it would go unnoticed? wow.
Re: 'We're Just Getting Started': Sony Marks 15 Years of PS Plus with Future Pledge
once considered the "best value in gaming" back in the ps3 days is no more. i was so done with the multiple price hikes and inconsitency of the games lineup the past several years. unsubscribed and will not be returning to ps+. a shame sony lost sight of what made it great for so many years leading up to this. i agree with others who are suggesting of a "BASIC" tier just for cloud saves and online multiplayer if the price was reasonable.
Re: Xbox and Arkane's Blade Game Sounds Like It's Still a Long, Long Way Off
anyone actually believe this game won't get cancelled?
Re: PS6 Still Years Away Despite Increase in Next-Gen Chatter
@Ainu20 i compare the onslaught of AI media coverage to the autonomous cars propaganda we were seeing pre-covid. it was everywhere! they made absurdly idealistic predictions (in how soon they would be mainstream) to create hype and secure investments. after several accidents and clear indicators that the tech wasn't ready, the media coverage all but disappeared from plain sight.
the point i am making is: when media coverage of something is hot, you better believe there will be companies desperately trying to take advantage of the public awareness aspect of it in the hopes they can convert that into sales. all this AI nonsense we are seeing everywhere is superficial and being funded by only a handful of companies. they believe that the more we see it, the more likely we will embrace and welcome it into our lives with open arms. sony is running out of ideas on how to sell people on it's hardware and will most certainly use AI (being the buzzword that it is) to help sell the ps6. they want to get in on that BEFORE people have completely lost interest and AI becomes the true villain that is.
Re: PS6 Still Years Away Despite Increase in Next-Gen Chatter
with the extent of which sony is frothing at the mouth around AI and machine learning terminology, they will want to capitalize on the (media) hype before it dies down. the ps5 has almost entirely lost its steam at this point due to a lack of innovative games able to shake up the industry (gta 6 being the only one left). i don't see a world where ps6 releases after 2027.
Re: PS6 to 'Push the Boundaries' of Graphics, Doubles Down on Machine Learning
sony better hire the best marketing team they can find. ps6 is going to be a harder sell to the mainstream next time around. expect a major decline in sales with the higher asking price that is all but expected at this point. many people feel burned by the ps5 and how little sony 1st party supported it, so i'd expect sony to lose customers on that front as well as from those who made the switch to pc. in addition to that, many people won't feel the need to upgrade from the ps5 for another 5 years. sony is desperate for a selling point so they decided to bank on machine learning and AI nonsense. they are grapsing at straws and it comes across as desperate. focus on the games and they will speak for themselves, but i suppose that would be asking for too much.
Re: UK's Death Stranding 2 PS5 Physical Sales Down 66% Compared to Predecessor, But Context Matters
i hope the game does well for kojima. he deserves it. but i predicted that death stranding 2 would sell 50% less than the original for a myriad of reasons, the most obvious being that kojima's loyal fans who didn't appreciate the first game will absolutely not be purchasing the sequel. kojima really should have shaken up the mechanics in the sequel but he played it safe. this is the result. i found the first game to be a novel and memorable experience (despite its many faults) but it is a trip i don't want to take again. it was better off as a one and done IP.
Re: Here's Your Best Look Yet at PS5 Shooter Pragmata's Unique Gunplay Gimmick
@Fluberuper she's an andorid so she should have a creepy factor about her.
Re: Terminator 2D: No Fate Looks Like a Long Lost Mega Drive Classic in New Gameplay Trailer
it's looking great. the roll and cover mechanic is what sets this apart from other 2d run and gunners of old. it's a shame that it has taken this long for a respectable terminator game but here we are. finally!
Re: Here's Your Best Look Yet at PS5 Shooter Pragmata's Unique Gunplay Gimmick
not exactly the game i envisioned many years ago when we got our first glimpse of it. regardless, it looks interesting. there is a real time strategy element to this game by the looks of things and will focus heavily on exploration and puzzle solving. far from a twitchy action game and that is fine. hopefully it will have a good narrative to keep the experience from becoming repetitive. that said, this does look to be a smaller budget game relative to capcom's standards. i don't know if it would have been greenlit if it wasn't. but if that's what it takes to get some fresh ideas in an otherwise stale AAA industry, then so be it.
Re: 50+ PS5, PS4 Games You Should Buy in PS Store's Mid-Year Deals Sale (North America/Europe)
they are just trying to find excuses to run sales 365/days a year at this point. it's just that, most games never get marked down beyond a certain point, many years after release, so these sales become very uneventful.
Re: Square Enix 'Aware' of Clair Obscur's Success, Ponders Turn-Based RPG Revival
sorry ff 16 fans, you were wrong! with its disappointing sales and lack of interest from the core audience, s-e will absolutely be taking a U-turn now and going back to turn-based combat. live with it
Re: Interview: 'We've Made So Many Improvements': Final Fantasy Tactics Veterans on Remastering an All-Time Classic RPG
@DaPrince yea, if they had a bigger budget, they would recreate the pixels for hd, which would have been awesome. they have opted for the poor upscaling which will be soft and blurry. look no further than the tactics ogre remaster
Re: Interview: 'We've Made So Many Improvements': Final Fantasy Tactics Veterans on Remastering an All-Time Classic RPG
unfortunately they have cut out the psp war of the lions content, including the updated cutscenes and additional job classes. they did not have the original source files to the ps1 version of tactics, so it's likely the game will be a moded rom file running via emulation container rather than a native port, but we'll have to confirm that later. it's a shame that this version won't be the be all, end all, "definitive" edition but it appears that it has a good number of QoL updates in its own right.
as for the pixels, i doubt they recreated the sprites from scratch so another AI upscale will likely be in order again which we already know will not be great. can't have it all i suppose.
Re: Death Stranding 2 (PS5) - A Masterpiece in Every Sense
@LogicStrikesAgain i was hoping for a completely different genre this time around. maybe that was asking for too much but that is what i wanted to see personally. pretty sure you are still doing deliveries in this one.
Re: Death Stranding 2 (PS5) - A Masterpiece in Every Sense
i always hoped kojima had big ambitions with ds2 and that he would perform a bigger mgs2-like rug pull on the audience (which was one of the biggest surprises in gaming at the time). i.e. switch up the genre completely and go in a different direction. unfortunately, it sounds like the focus is still on point A to point B deliveries with bigger scope than the original. i don't think that is enough for those people who only somewhat enjoyed ds1 but were hoping for more signature stealth and combat. a novel experiment to be sure, but not a genre of game i would want to play through again with the story being as incomprehensible as it is. in all honesty, ds1 would have worked best as a one and done experience. it's simply not a genre with enough interest or appeal for the AAA market going by all the mixed reations the first game received.
hopefully this will sell well enough for kojima to fund a few more big projects but i don't expect sales to surpass ds1 at 5m+ copies.
Re: Talking Point: Is It Officially Game Over for PSVR2?
back to the main question: yes, it is certainly over for ps vr and has been for some time. it's over for vr on the whole, across the entire industry... for now. it might make a resurgence in another 10+ years when things advance more, but it has been such a collossal failure that i don't know who will be willing to get back into the ring.
Re: You Really Will Be Waiting a While to Play Persona 4 Revival
@CWill97 metaphor was announced as far back as 2016 and didn't release until 2024. persona 5 had a similarily long wait. this seems to be the general practice with these studios. but i agree, i don't think persona 6 will release before persona 4 remake... so it's looking like a 2028 crossgen game for ps5/ps6.
Re: You Really Will Be Waiting a While to Play Persona 4 Revival
that means persona 6 isnt coming out until 2028 at the earliest. it will be another late console release which is typical of atlus in every console generation haha... ps6 will be out by then.
Re: Switch 2 Absolutely Destroys PS2's Launch Record in Japan
@NEStalgia not sure how i should read that
i was surprised to learn that there are over 30m youtube channels currently... over 4m influencers on twitch alone. considering the state of affairs in that space, i don't think it's too far fetched to assume that 1-2m of the 3.5m switch 2's purchased at launch went to influencers. could be wrong, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Re: Fans Can't Believe PS5 Has Made More Profit Than All Previous PlayStations Combined
it's by far my least favourite sony console all the same. the article did a good job framing the context in how those numbers are generated, though, which greatly diminishes the outcome. in other words, not much of an accomplishment when the bulk of sony's profits are related to MTX and higher margins on psn that didn't even exist in the first two ps console generations and were in their infancy with the ps3. an unfair comparison on so many levels but it is what it is.
Re: MindsEye Is Comfortably the Worst Reviewed PS5 Game of 2025
what does it matter? nobody knew this game existed more than 3 months ago. it's not like there was years of interest and anticipation and it didn't live up to expectations. really weird to see people go to bat for this game or act like they were going to buy it on day one. who is really that stupid with their money?
Re: Borderlands 4 a $70 PS5 Game, Offers $100 and $130 Versions Too
a franchise that is as stale as prison bread.
Re: This New PSPgo Inspired Retro Handheld Looks Brilliant
it completely dwarfs the psp go - it is more than twice as thick and has double the weight. why is it that 15 years after the launch of the go, and all the modern tech they have at their disposal, they were unable to keep the size down? it's barely pocketable. getting a 0.9" larger screen with the anbernic is a nice upgrade over the go, but ultimately there are far too many tradeoffs. better off waiting for revision 2 or 3 of this thing when they shrink the size down (they likely made it huge on purpose to get people to double and triple dip like they do with all their devices). this is quite a failure as it stands. the psp go is still an amazing handheld and i'm glad i got it on the cheap before it became scarce and expensive.
Re: Sony Taking 'Very Measured' Approach to Picking Which PS5 Games Get PC Ports
i'm sure they do, which is why 90% of their ps4/ps5 catalogue has already made it to pc 0_o
after this gen comes to a close, hopefully sony will come to the realization that their pc porting efforts did not help the brand and may have in fact lost them revenue in the long term due to a shrinking playstation userbase. remember, losing a user from your ecosystem (to pc) means you lose all software purchased from said user, not just the specific sony published games that got ported to pc. that is a very bad tradeoff from a business perspective. i have no doubt that sony will lose countless millions of users now that they have opened the floodgate to pc.
also, let's face it, some of their pc ports did not perform well at all. the costs to port the game to pc vs the sales may have even lost them money in some cases.
if nintendo took this road, they would lose at least 25% of their platform install base without question. maybe up to 50%, who knows. nintendo is wise enough not to even flirt with the idea unless they were in a dire situation and had no choice (and even then they would hate the idea haha).
Re: Stellar Blade's PC Mods Do More Than Remove Eve's Nanosuit
@rachetmarvel you're making a big assumption there piracy continues to be rampant on pc and with prices on the rise, expect it to manifest.
Re: Switch 2 Absolutely Destroys PS2's Launch Record in Japan
gaming wasn't as mainstream back when the ps2 launched. gaming demographics have grown extensively over the past 10 years or so. secondly, there were ps2 shortages at launch which resulted in sony cutting 50% of its initial shipments globally. furthermore, social media and influencers did not exist back in 2000. easily, 50% of all switch 2 sales were purchased by influencers for work purposes if anything. the ps2 launch sales are still more impressive than switch 2's under the circumstances.
it's all downhill from here for switch 2. nintendo is going to have a hard time selling people on the switch 2 when so many families have perfectly good og switches with a plethora of games to play already. i'm not even going to get into the pricing concerns related to both, the hardware and software. expect nintendo to drop the price like they did with the 3ds if annual sales fail to meet expectations which appears to be the likely scenario.
Re: MindsEye (PS5) - GTA Producer's Latest Is a Futuristic Faceplant
literally nobody knew this game existed more than 3 months ago. interesting way to release a game — with no lead up or marketing of any kind. i suppose that's what happens when a publisher completely loses faith in the project but has already crossed the point of no return. if this game sunk IO interactive, that would be the real tragedy here.
Re: Atlus Says It's 'Actively Preparing' for the Future of Persona as Revival Gets Rough Reception
yes, because people want a p2 remake... you know, a game that cannot be played on modern hardware and has been disrepected by atlus ever since its original release more than 25 years ago! they don't want p4 released for the 4th time. not complicated.
based on the recent pr comments from atlus, it sounds like p6 is a long ways away still... i don't know why people assume its in late stage development and going to release any moment now haha. they haven't released a single teaser of the game... not even a cgi trailer. once they do, it could be years away from that point as we have seen from pervious atlus releases. i.e. i wouldn't expect p6 for at least 2+ years and is likely to launch after the ps6 generation gets off the ground.
would they release p4 AFTER p6? not likely. it sounds like p4 remake is a stop gap for them in between releases... p4 remake itself looks like it is a late 2026 game (they didn't even specifiy a YEAR in the teaser). wouldn't make much sense to release the main course before the appetizer would it?
Re: Persona 4 Remake Announced for PS5
can't understand the appeal of this game releasing for the 4th time instead of a persona 2 remake. especially after the fan surveys indicated that there was far more interest in a p2 remake above all else. there is so much persona 3/4/5 fatigue right now so it would have been smarter to put out the p2 remake first and give something new to people. vast majority of persona players have never touched p2 due to its lack of availability on any "modern" hardware. even the psp release from 15 years ago was only half complete and merely a slight enhancement of the ps1 release. i sppose i'll keep crying about it until atlus does something.
Re: Dragon Quest 12 Still in Limbo as Another Dragon Quest Day Has Nothing to Show
for the best really. can only play one dragon quest game every 10 years or so (if we are talking about 100 hour completion times)... if this releases by 2027, that would be a perfect amount of time between entries.
Re: PS5, PC Live Service Fairgames Is a 'Super Clunky' Cross Between Fortnite and The Division
sony has no shame and is embarrassing itself at this point. while the spreadsheets indicate that they are still "OK" at the moment, they don't realize the number of bridges they have burned for their core audience this console generation. if i were sony, i would not expect the same hardware sales success with the ps6 (due to presumably higher, unfounded costs to hardware, lack of a roadmap and 1st party studios being in disarray, lack of good will from previously loyal customers, etc.). if they achieve 50% of their sales, it would not surprise me in the slightest. there is time to pivot of course, but easier said than done. the failings of the ps5 will likely carry into the first few years of the ps6 if anything (and that is the optmisitc outcome).
Re: Mortal Kombat 1 Dev Finished with PS5 Fighter, Moving to Next Project
if NR is unable to support their games longterm, they should get out of the fighting genre. it's as simple as that. i can't say i have ever seen such a half-assed effort with a major fighting franchise before. amazing they haven't been shuttered considering WB doesn't value or know what to do with its studios and attempted selling them off multiple times. where the heck does NR go from here? if MK failed to earn proper post launch support, i don't think injustice has a prayer considering it is the less popular of the two franchises.