Comments 115

Re: Sony Boss Says 'PCs Are Difficult to Set Up', Firm Will Focus on PS5

RedShirtRod

@PCPS4XB @naruball It's $10 a month for the average consumer, the same group this guy thinks are concerned about building PC's. Can you find it cheaper? Sure. I can also buy a PS5 for less than $500 or get a 4070 ti for less than $700. I'm going off what Sony is charging, not the cheapest.

I also don't count free games because if you're just wanting to play online, these are just added stuff. Epic has a free game they give out weekly. Don't have to subscribe to get it. It's nice but free games don't matter if all you're wanting is to play the game you bought with your friends.

Point I'm making isn't that Playstation is pointless, it's that the software and interface is going to start matter a lot more. Saying people aren't going to look at other options because of something like difficulty of use or price isn't going to work anymore.

Re: Reaction: PlayStation Needs to Take a Long, Hard Look at Itself

RedShirtRod

I think Sony's major issue is it doesn't understand the PC market in general. It has built a loyal following of console players and has thought it can copy and paste it to the pc. It's clear Helldivers' success was more luck than anything.

Concord didn't do well both PS and pc but I think the reaction to the steam charts on release and the beta killed any hope for salvation. Sony is getting involved in a market where they need to adapt if they want consistent success. If PC players were like Playstation players they would just play on the PS.

Re: Sony Reportedly in Talks to Team Up for Paramount Bid

RedShirtRod

@Kraaatos Because an acquisition this large would tie up potential funds from the playstation division into a high risk addition. The money Microsoft is using in its purchase of AB didn't come from its gaming division, meaning it pulls net income from its much more successful divisions like Azure and Office. If this goes through, expect Sony to take far less risks in its games and expect no further expansion of its studios for awhile.

I would be very concerned if this goes through. Excluding Spiderman, Sony's film division isn't historically great at pulling in profits and this acquisition could turn into a WarnerMedia-AT&T situation real quick.

Re: Xbox Documents Reveal Staggering Cost of Bringing Games to Game Pass, PS Plus

RedShirtRod

@Americansamurai1 I can't speak on their cloud operating costs but I bet it helped Microsoft as they use their in house Azure. I think Sony uses Azure as well but that would be a little more since they don't own it. Microsoft's 2022 report has operating expenses at a $1.5 billion increase or 14%. That means their operating expenses for that year are roughly $13 billion. That would include servers but it also is their entire personal computing department, not just Xbox.

@Rmg0731 For April Game Pass brought in the following:

Goat Simulator
Loop Hero
Everspace 2
Iron Brigade
Ghostwire: Tokyo
NHL 23 (EA play)
Minecraft Legends
Coffee Talk Episode 2
Medieval Dynasty
Homestead Arcana
Cassette Beasts
Quantum Break
BlazBlue
The Last Case of Benedict Fox

If that $230 million figure is correct that means they would have spent roughly $16 million per title to eat all their revenue. This is just a guess but I highly doubt they spent that much on those games. Any extra would have gone for expenses on other months. That's just how stream services work. They earned $230 million(ish) dollars offering very little the first half of the year so they could cover their costs for Starfield and Motorsport. That's just Microsoft. Sony is most likely making even more money with their larger install base and they are still pulling in large numbers for their in house games.

Re: Xbox Documents Reveal Staggering Cost of Bringing Games to Game Pass, PS Plus

RedShirtRod

@Fight_Teza_Fight Yeah, the single month users is a statistic that so difficult to track. Netflix is the only source that give us a clue since their streaming service is their sole revenue provider (They can't tie profits and revenue to other sources of income). They report $31.6 billion in revenue with 143 million paying members (they have 220 million subscribers with roughly 30-40% that don't pay). That means each they draw in about $221 per customer a year which is $18 a month. Disney plus is the same. From what I found the vast majority of subscribers to streaming services pay yearly.

https://www.businessofapps.com/data/netflix-statistics/

https://backlinko.com/disney-users#disney-average-revenue-per-user

@WizzNL I would agree with you if Microsoft and Sony were spending $300 million on a game every month but that doesn't happen. These major purchases happen once or twice a year since the game will stay on for months.

Look at the lineup of Game Pass games for this year. If we use the numbers I gave above then at the lowest Microsoft is pulling in $2.5 billion in revenue (makes sense with their annual report showing around $16 billion) then there is no way they aren't making their money back. That's just Microsoft. Sony makes roughly double in revenue in their gaming division than Microsoft. I doubt their PS service is pulling in much less than Game Pass.

https://www.purexbox.com/guides/xbox-game-pass-in-2023-the-full-list-of-everything-announced-so-far

Re: Xbox Documents Reveal Staggering Cost of Bringing Games to Game Pass, PS Plus

RedShirtRod

If Gamepass has 30 million members (and that's if the rumors are true) that pay anywhere from $7-$17 a month that's $210-510 million that they are pulling in a month. It makes perfect sense to spend $300 million for a game to go on GP or PS for a couple months if it's below even one month of revenue. I don't think people realize how much revenue Sony and Microsoft are pulling in from these services.

Re: PS5's Meteoric Rise Underlined by Staggering German Sales Graph

RedShirtRod

@PSme That's a rough analogy as sports are controlled by the same company. Hoping one team succeeds while another fails is irrelevant as the revenue obtained from your viewership goes to both teams. The goal isn't for a team to win, it's to get you to keep watching.

Keeping with your comparison, gaming competition is more like rooting for golf to end baseball. These companies are competing for limited viewership and their success isn't dependent on each other.

It's ok to like a specific company's product over another and Sony has done great work in Germany (and Europe as a whole) but it doesn't make sense to wish failure on companies that others find use with.

Re: Total Final Fantasy Franchise Sales at 180 Million

RedShirtRod

@naruball Difficult to say for sure. If we take the numbers from my first source there are 133 million pocket editions sold so that would put Java and Bedrock editions at roughly 105 million. There is an article that mentions more players play it on console than PC but that's from 2014. I would assume total sales would include the Xbox one and PS4 versions as well. What I can't say is if the upgrades from those versions to Bedrock were included, but they were free so I don't think they are included in the total. Any players using Game Pass are probably also not included in the total sold, only monthly userbase.

https://gamerant.com/minecraft-sales-consoles-pass-pc-mac/?newsletter_popup=1

Re: Total Final Fantasy Franchise Sales at 180 Million

RedShirtRod

@tabris95 Yeah I saw it's still reporting the 20 million sold from 2014. The 60 million figure only came out last month so maybe someone will update it soon.

@naruball yes and no. That number is across all units sold. So mobile for the western version is included. It doesn't include the Chinese version as that's free. That version has been downloaded 400 million times.

https://www.businessofapps.com/data/minecraft-statistics/

Re: US Government's FTC Will Attempt to Block Microsoft's Activision Buyout

RedShirtRod

Just a heads up for those not in the United States, this is a political talking point and nothing more. The 3 who voted for the lawsuit are Democrats assigned by presidents who have pushed for higher scrutiny on tech firms. The one who didn't is a Republican. All this does is send it to the courts which are heavily conservative right now and have a precedence of approving deals like these. No matter if you want it to succeed or fail all this is doing is trying to win back points for a President who just denied union members to go on strike.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/ftc-moves-to-block-69-billion-microsoft-activision-deal/ar-AA153FeR?PC=EMM

Re: Spider-Man PC Attracts Over 60,000 Concurrent Players at Launch

RedShirtRod

@Fight_Teza_Fight @get2sammyb While there might be some I doubt many people will spend an extra $500 so they can play a $70 game earlier. That's a huge price leap that people who aren't into a console's ecosystem won't have any reason to jump into.

The move to pc is more align to tapping a market in the long term. Consumers like me who have zero desire to buy a PS5 are giving the company zero revenue right now. Releasing these games on PC ensures the capability of getting some money from us and keeping us interested in their products, especially if their plan is to grow their online catalog of games. It's going to take time but getting into the pc market will give them another avenue of income and hopefully keep player counts up when they inevitably release more multiplayer games.

Re: New Mass Effect 'Now Early in Development', BioWare Confirms

RedShirtRod

@Uncharted2007 To be fair EA caused the smear campaign. Keeping up embargoes so they could get people to pay for the trial backfired hard. They knew the game wasn't ready and they pushed to collect as much money as possible up front. There are some good YouTube videos that explain what happened to MEA at release.

Re: Reaction: Sony's Biggest Problem Is Consumer Relations

RedShirtRod

Sony seems to be just dropping information as soon as it's ready. They've done it with every acquisition the past two years and most SoP announcements. Very little build up or spin since they left E3. I think those who have grown up with gaming hype are feeling like this new strategy is cold and analytical but I don't think Sony cares. It works and that seems like enough.

Re: Reaction: Activision Blizzard Buyout Is Devastating for PS5, PS4

RedShirtRod

@ShogunRok Do you really think MS is interested though? If they truly wanted to hurt Sony they could have gone after Nintendo (market cap $60Bish), Epic (private), or Steam (also private). Activision will obviously affect Sony but Blizzard has a strong focus on PC and King is mobile. If MS keeps going I doubt it will be to "beat" Playstation. This deal clearly shows that they aren't on the same level of competition.

Re: PlayStation's Call of Duty Marketing Deal Almost Certainly Ending

RedShirtRod

@Royalblues Agreed. Sony focused site so I get the direction everyone is looking at but the gaming industry is much bigger than them. If MS was truly trying to target Sony they could have gone after Nintendo (market cap is close to Activision). I wouldn't be surprised if small perks were still included in the short run.

You're right. Activision was going down and I have no doubt Tencent was looking. Microsoft has been honest who they consider their competition is and people have to come to terms that it isn't Sony.

Re: PlayStation's Call of Duty Marketing Deal Almost Certainly Ending

RedShirtRod

@Royalblues I think King played a major roll in the decision to buy. I could have easily seen Apple go for them to put more pressure against Epic. I know these sites are for console focused conversations but this whole situation screams a battle between the top two companies in the world, not against one that has a market cap of double this purchase.

Re: Sony Is Absolutely Flying Financially Right Now

RedShirtRod

For anyone not wanting to search fiscal reports/translate yen to dollars, Sony's profit outlook is just shy of $9 billion for FY21. All the amounts in this article are revenue, which is not profit. Everything @get2sammyb said was true though. Just don't want people throwing out incorrect information because of a common mistake.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/sony-boosts-profit-outlook-on-better-movies-music-prospects/ar-AAMViGu?ocid=BingNewsSearch

Re: Assassin's Creed Valhalla Teases One Handed Swords for Next Update

RedShirtRod

@MFTWrecks seeing how 2 handed swords weren't invented until 600ish years after the game is supposed to be taking place it's really dumb.

The fact a game that prides itself on having an "authentic" backdrop took a year to add something historically accurate when they had unrealistic items is just silly.

Like having an M16 during WW1and then bragging that they're giving you a Springfield.

Re: Reaction: E3 Is a Relic Desperately Clinging to Relevancy

RedShirtRod

Have to disagree. E3 is a staple of the industry and until there is a consistent replacement it needs to stay. I'm surprised the author has this viewpoint as he's said multiple times he doesn't feel like Sony is communicating well. The only reason why Microsoft and Nintendo don't receive the same treatment is because it's expected that June will be their showcases.

Maybe E3 isn't what it use to be but until something else comes along it's the best we've got.

Re: Sony's Targeting More Than 50 Per Cent Market Share with PS5

RedShirtRod

That doesn't seem feasible. I have no doubt that the PS5 will outsell the PS4 and revenue will increase but everything is pointing to a more diversified market for the future. As Gamepass pulls away 3rd party revenue and publishers like Ubisoft and Epic look to expand options for their portfolio, Sony would be hard press to keep everyone playing solely in their ecosystem.

Re: Reaction: Sony Said Xbox Game Pass Isn't Sustainable, Then Released One of Its Tentpole Titles into the Service Anyway

RedShirtRod

@UltimateOtaku91 my guess is Microsoft is aiming for the 70-30 split it gets with most third party games. At that rate (and using your numbers) Microsoft would pay out 2.24 billion to developers while pocketing .96 billion for internal development and profits. I wouldn't be surprised if games like MLB and Outriders got a larger piece of that 2.24 while the indies get a couple million.

All of this is a course speculation but it's not hard to see how Microsoft could make it profitable. It's a lot safer to bet on subs than to hit home runs everytime. Microsoft learned that well with Office.

Re: PS5 Is UK's Best-Selling Console in November 2020

RedShirtRod

@carlos82 how is that surprising? I highly doubt COD fans are going to be the ones paying scalpers for a ps5 when they can play the same game on ps4. Both MM and COD are on both consoles and per usual the multiplayer juggernaut is going to be more popular. Once more PS5s become available you'll start to see that third party shift.

Re: Sony Designed PS5's Biggest Feature Around Thriving Single Player Games

RedShirtRod

@LiamCroft @carlos82 the xbox one was $100 overpriced, arguably inferior in architecture, and pushed for anything but games (i.e. home entertainment). After a slow launch it snowballs. Nobody wants to play multiplayer games with a smaller community than the competitors. Singleplayer games keep the diehards that love gaming so much they go to online gaming news sites happy.

Re: PS5 Doesn't Have a Web Browser

RedShirtRod

@get2sammyb I understand they want people to use Game Help but is there any negatives to including one? A cost thing? I'm probably missing something but it seems having a browser is a nicety without a major drawback.