RenanLK

Switch has been my primary console for a while now. PS5 has been mostly used to play PS4 games so far, unfortunately. PS4 was the most amazing PlayStation console ever in terms of games and hardware. Now PS5 is the best hardware, but average on games (which seems to be reflected in the partial results of the poll).

@rusty82 The thing is there is huge potential for a live service Hogwarts simulator/RPG. I honestly imagine it since I read the books as a kid how amazing it would be to have an online game where your character is a student that goes through the actual years of training with seasonal events/exams/classes and missions. Once they graduate, they could still keep going with ministry jobs. Endless gameplay, really, and could be fun and unique if done right.

But no, let's try to copy Fortnite like everyone else and pretend it will sell bazillions because Fortnite does while knowing that players won't even bother to leave their favorite game for a copy.

Team Asobi created something really extraordinary with Astro. They should be a case study for PlayStation on how to create an IP the right way - every PS5 player I know is excited for Astro Bot.

I wonder if this is another case of AI misuse, such as "Hey AI, summarize this interview with a marketing writing style".

Well, given Square Enix business strategy lately, I'd expect news on DQ to come after KH4 releases.

They're likely betting on huge increase of subs given that it is a system seller after all. But my negative side right now sees this as the start of the end of Activision, due to how unsustainable the approach is.

I guess if we're halfway then the real challenge is going to be how to migrate players to PS6 if there are so many still on PS4.

I had PS2, 3, 4 and now 5. I was one of the early adopters who purchased PS5 on pre-sale. Even so, I firmly believe that out of all gens, PS5 is the one with the least value for money. I use it a lot to play my favorite PS4 games more so than to play new games (that in general just feel like a PS4 game with better looks).

It's been a very long time since I bought an Ubisoft game. They've always been brilliant with cinematic trailers, I'll wait for gameplay trailers.

While it would be nice to get more 1st party from PS Studios alongside 3rd party titles, my feeling is that the major problem is the feeling of "i've seen you before" across different games. AAAs are so expensive to make that deviating from a supposed "formula" is a risky move, so most publishers don't. Gaming doesn't feel as fun anymore - the focus nowadays seems to be in graphics and story instead of gameplay.

That said, I think we've been spoiled on PS4. Games like those cost a lot and take an entire gen to make. Who knows, maybe we'll get a bigger 1st party lineup on PS6.

@Jill_Sandwich I'd say this falls into big games bucket, so it's probably a safe bet if they continue to remake older FF games after FF7.

I hope they achieve their (reasonable please) goals. I truly enjoy Square Enix games, so it would be great if could take a hint from Capcom and focus on what they do best with quality.

If they do, some Product Managers at Square Enix deserve a raise. They used to take many years to make each game, suddenly we have FFXVI, FF7 Rebirth and KH4 consecutive months/years + a smooth development period? Kudos to them!

Good strategy, glad they're finally happy with something!

That said, I personally didn't really fall in love with FF16. Final Fantasy used to push the definition of RPGs, this entry dropped most of RPG elements in favor of exploring the Action genre - but at the same time it's not great in this area (God of War set the bar really high for me). So we're left with a good enough game that's not special in any regard.

@B0udoir I wouldn't call it laziness, but rather lower priority. It's always a trade-off to achieve 60fps unless you have excellent optimization experts and a huge budget, so if it's not prioritized from the start over graphics and animations, it's harder to optimize later.

Given the option, I prefer 60fps with dynamic resolution every time. However, 30fps is fine for most game genres, such as our typical Action RPGs, as long as it's consistent.

At the end of the day, consistency is the biggest deal.

I've been waiting for a full Astro Bot game ever since I got my PS5 at launch date. That demo challenged Mario for the crown of best platformer.

All things considered, it seems we're at a point where gens have to be longer than usual for devs to fully explore the hardware.

Nintendo pretty much sustains hardware and software on their own, while 3rd party and indies work as partners. They have record profits and zero debt as per last report shared in Nintendo Life.

PlayStation needs to start studying Nintendo. Pretty sure Zelda and Mario also cost a lot to make and things are working fine for Nintendo apparently.

@ShogunRok Did Square Enix pull a KH move and made that weird spin-off mandatory to follow the story?

It's funny how they play with words. Come on, Microsoft, you're becoming a 3rd party publisher, simple as that, no need to write a poem about it.

It's looking good! Sounds like a must-have. Hopefully the pacing is improved, Remake kinda dragged at some point, the tension built up to a level that felt like the end of the game, only for it to continue for many chapters yet.

Honestly? They're shooting themselves in the foot by calling it DLC. Name it Deluxe Edition and price it 2x higher like everyone else (including PS Studios) and people will pay without complaints or criticisms.

While it's clear to us which is which, the way the R is written looks quite similar, both black, bold with a similar font. More casual players could mix them up (although I'm not sure casual players care about who is making the game).

While 16 is certainly a lot of fun, and I want to play it to the end, it didn't feel any special to me so far. Once I finish it, I probably won't replay it in the future, unlike 15 that feels like a great adventure and I have already replayed it.

I hope they find a better balance between action and RPG for the next FF.

I wouldn't mind if they remade Harry Potter games with Hogwarts Legacy foundation. They would need to make it more focused for it to work without feeling too repetitive, maybe exploring more than 1 book per game. With this success and the future HP TV show, the timing feels perfect.

One of those things that is understandable but will be missed. If all major publishers could agree to create live presentations like they used to do, I'd be up for an E3 revival in the future.

For now, so long E3!

Saying Ragnarok is the best PlayStation game is similar to saying Tears of the Kingdom is the best Nintendo game. Both of these games are not really new, they're a bigger-but-still-copy-paste version of the previous iteration.

The games are brilliant, of course, but if we're gonna award these games as the best, I'd vote for God of War and Breath of the Wild instead, for example.

Edit: Plus I agree with some other comments - Ragnarok (like Tears of the Kingdom, mind you) is too big for its own good.

As a fan, I'll probably give it a chance. But I also don't like to play mobile games, so let's see...

Your question made me realize 2023 has been a ridiculous year for gaming. So many must-play titles that Spider-Man 2 was not my most anticipated game, and I loved every second of 1 and MM.

Microsoft won't keep their games out of ohter platforms, sure, just wait until cloud becomes the default way to play games. It's the same in all industries, each company creates their own streaming service instead of distributing to multiple "channels".

Sony is missing the point of how mutiplayer online games work. You see, most are quite simple really, and they grow with time. Sure, there are some high profile multiplayer games, but there's no use copying them - unlike single player games, more of the same doesn't sell many copies.

What they could do is take a smaller team and build an original idea that is simple enough to experiment with. Think more Fall Guys and less Fortnite. It would definitely cost way less money and allow them to try a bunch of different ideas faster IMO.

P.S: Factions was conceptually very simple too, and everyone loved it.

Maybe I'm just poor, but delaying for a week doesn't make much sense to me.

Honestly if I were to purchase Spider-Man 2 at launch price I wouldn't be able to purchase any other game until next month, especially another one at launch price as well.

I wonder if the industry is reaching a point where all games having the same look (ultrarealism) and feel (be a hero and save the open-world/action RPG) are reducing the long-term sales.

Raise your hand if your wife ever complained about you playing games late due to hearing the beep, hehe.

I'll mute this ASAP. =)

If history repeats itself, studios bought by Microsoft change direction completely in a few years and then we have new indie studios led by industry experts that left Microsoft. Hopefully great games such as Crash, Spyro and Tony Hawk will continue to exist under different names eventually.

It's funny that publishers got so used to huge 100+ hours open-world games that a 20-30 hours game is considered small and not worth a full price tag.

Not complaining about paying less, just wondering why won't they create more "smaller" games if you can even make a profit with a cheaper price tag...

@NinjaNicky True. The difference is the length/scope of the game. It's less of a problem for shorter linear games to have similar sequels than it is for huge open-world games.

I played a lot of the first one and Miles Morales spin-off, and this seems awesome but more of the same. I'll definitely buy it, however not at launch period.

To be honest, I still need to get Tears of the Kingdom and FFXVI. So many great games this year!

Unpopular opinion: AC4 was the least interesting game in the series. The story is all over the place. Missions are uninspired and repetitive. The ground parts essentially mimic AC3 (which everyone hated) and the sea part becomes tedious quite fast once the novelty is gone.

In summary, everything that makes it AC replicates what has been done for AC3 plus sea navigation simulator.

There is a hugr audience for this game, though, so it's probably a good idea financially.

They don't really need to worry, while the number of sales will certainly increase faster in the first few weeks since launch, a brand new Final Fantasy will definitely continue to sell for years until 17 is ready.

Am I the only one who thinks Sony is exaggerating in their marketing for this game? FFXVI can sell a whole lot on its own brand alone, it's not like nobody knows FF.

There are so many different marketing videos showing up in my Instagram timeline, both from SE and Sony's accounts, and they're all focused on "you don't have to play the previous FF games" or "here is a famous person loving the game". Come on! It's Final Fantasy! If you want to market it, focus on the actual game, people already know about the IP.

I loved FFXV, to be honest. And this seems to be more FFXV with KH battle mechanics in the mix and a more focused story.

I wonder how amazing the next Kingdom Hearts game will be after reading about the battle mechanics of this game.

So the big question is - is it worth the launch price?

This is ok for the likes of Legend of Zelda and God of War. It's definitely not ok for all AAA games. A game that takes forever to create also takes a lot of money, and then you go Square-Enix about how a game sold poorly with zillions of sales. The big publishers need to start working on a roadmap distributing small, medium and big games along the way.

I hope they adjust their expectations. I for one will definitely buy FF XVI, but not at launch because i don't have the time or money to dedicate to this game right now.

I'm looking forward to this. I'm officially a gamer dad starting in November, and I'd like to avoid playing violent adult games where my kid might see it.

Taking a few pages from Hollow Knight, are you? I'm in. 😁

@UltimateOtaku91 If they consistently deliver high quality games, though, they'll have money, knowledge and talents to explore new/old IPs too. Capcom is using this strategy and I'm consistently buying their games at launch due to how awesome they are.

I hope they succeed. While they're quite hit-and-miss as publishers, when they have a hit it's always amazing.

Also, add Dragon Quest to your roadmap, please. 😁

Great. I play a lot of PS4 games on my PS5, so I'm glad Sony is doing maintenance on the feature. Also gives me hope that they won't remove it on PS6.

That's really cool. I wish they did something similar for PS5, but perhaps as a pluggable device instead of a full dev set. AFAIK Unity can only be used for dedicated consoles if you pay for it, so perhaps a Sony device that allowed any custom code access to their APIs could recreate that sense of community again.

As long as it doesn't follow the copy+paste formula from Ragnarok, I can wait. Hoping for some new gameplay elements.