"We SINCERELY apologise!"...oh! That's alright then...if I'd signed up,had personal details leak, credit card info I might have to change & the rest on the dark Web & they'd only said "We're sorry!",I'd be upset...but their sincere this time!🙄😂

Sorry...just get a bit fed up hearing about telco's,health insurance,gaming, "insert name here" corporate that insists on all our data to use their services then when a invariably hushed up hack occurs because of sloppy practices like outsourcing help desks, or some other corporate save a buck method happens the best they all manage is "we sincerely apologise!"...if they weren't so cheap to leave back doors open,it would happen far less than it does!😑

Would sound like a good idea on paper, but with AAA Publishers & the likes of Sony or Microsoft studios likely using A.i. dev tools would they? Would Sony want to upset the likes of Epic re Fortnite or say Take-two/Rockstar with GTA VI/Online using any A.I. made future content??🤔

Sony hasn't even botheted adopting a more consumer friendly refund policy in light of their all digital pivot so not holding my breath!!

Yes,to be fair they've made some effort unlike other storefronts removing certain dodgy publishers but just can't see them doing anything about this issue.

Unfortunately even taking the "escape to PC, or PC Hybrid Helix,or Switch all have been affected by the rampocalypse & all have their negatives or their issues to be aware of.

Meantime a U.S. $1000 price tag will likely land closer to $1650-$1750 dollary roos minimum my region by the time taxes & general regional price gouging goes...add to that a current Playstation leadership that have completely lost the art of listening & communicating with their customers & instead prioritise investors.

Where Worldwide Studios were once the envy of the industry find themselves mismanaged &/or one misstep from closure by an inept team led by Hermen Hulst.
Whilst Sony release a trickle of PS Classics, (few of which were genuine bestsellwrs BITD),homebrew modders are showing what's possible with ps1 & ps2 games running on base PS5 & even possibly the K2 of PS3.

Do I have any interest in a price gouging management that want to lock me into an all digital console when they won't even confirm what happens to your physical ps4/ps5 games library? Yeah,goodluck with that!

At this stage probably have more interest in indies on my older PC or retro items like "the A1200" or emulation vs getting treated as an afterthought by financial & corporate suits representing current Sony.

"There are bots pushing no disc campaign!"🤯 Just as I'm sure Sony hasn't had P.R. & socials lean on anyone pushing the "physical is dead!" stories & bots for it!🙄

Guess what,between bait clickers & socials geared around bots pushing whatever views or interests of their vested overlords take a pinch of salt with what's reported or totally agree with it & get drafted into waving flags & pitchforks at the mob on the other hill from your own feeling confident you're in the right!🙄

Have zero confidence in an all digital & streaming future but will make do with whatever offline,indie or retro stuff I have or can get & leave the console or AAA spaces to their own devices.

Whilst no great fan of jailbreaking or A.I., given the internet stories doing the rounds of jailbroken ps5's potentially running old classic titles & emulation far better than the official output, it's just a bit sad how little effort has been put in by Sony at this point.

"And to coincide with the Anniversary we could bring back the ps1 & ps2 versions on PS Classics as a surprise for fans,right?"🤔
Sony management: Yeeeuuurgh! Who'd wanna play them?...they don't even have any microtransactions or online mode!!🤯😱🤪

How appropriate...A.I. designed slop Disney game from Epic which proudly represents current Disney as a souless husk of it former self where its own output relies on any once successful I.P's getting horrid reboots & spinoffs ticking off checkboxes of designed by committee creatives & "subverting expectations" tropes. 🙄

Given Lazlow was part of the old creative team (no longer part of Rockstar), sadly suspect he'll be MIA this time around. Given I only played so far into GTA V across PS3/PS4 & got annoyed with the stock market shenanigans even in single player can't recall if Fernando had a huge role on talkback radio either🤔

The 3D era of GTA 3/LCS, GTA Vice City & VCS & GTA San Andreas will remain my favourite era of talback,silly news & adverts & especially soundtracks in the 80's themed Vice City/VCS. Still disappointed at the missing songs in the so called definitive edition trilogy!
That era Rockstar really gave no fluffs on their biting satire!

Whilst there's any number of justifiable reasons to criticise the aloof,arrogant & silent Playstation management with outdated digital store policies, not listening or engaging on customer feedback, dynamic pricing & selective promotions in sekect regions subsidised by charging more in others, I agree with @get2sammyb here that Kojima's unanswered questions & signing with Xbox feels hypocritical....that he was so apparently steadfast on IP ownership & multiformat release with Sony but now singing the praises of Asha Sharma.

Agree it's terrible P.R., but whereas Jim Ryan (& Herman Hulst),were given a lot of leeway in their spending spree during lockdowns & chasing live service Gold & exclusives, it pretty obvious after Concord AND especially the Bungie blow out Jim was firmly tapped on the shoulder into "retirement", & the decidedly non gamer Hiroki Totoki has put in place a firm regime of beancounters running Playstation who only judge things by profit nargins & ability to remain in budget.

Hideaki Nishino unlikely was in the Zoom call but you can bet he instructed Hermen on their response to any hardballing creatively.

Not to mention it's clear they've been working more on the previous Xbox exclusive game over Physint still being stuck in very early stages...AAA games take time,but not much progress if this was intended as a PS6 title?

Still Nada,zip, & zilch of this so called initiative on the PS Store Down Under, but no surprise given Sony's recent track record here bilking our region!🙄

Not to mention being locked out of ever seeing Halloween here because of our quaint classification laws that treat adult gamers like they're teenagers! Can only hope it's as buggy as Friday the 13th was & the single player is horrible to console myself!😅

I'll believe when I see it given Sony's only acknowledgement of the subject after the blog post furore was in a shareholder meeting! Even then, can one really see current leadership of Hiroki Totoki,Hideaki Nishino etc., listening to Indies & smaller publishers over ones like Take-two, Capcom,Square Enix, Ubisoft etc?

If on the other hand major publishers decided against paying Sony for future marketing deals on the Blog,YouTube & socials because they're fed up getting flooded with negative posts about physical releases & anything associated with Playstation,that would be a revenue killer the beancounter management might be a bit more anxious about.🤔

Anyway, time will tell but pinch of salt in the meantime!

Not that bothered personally given VR stuff just gives me a headache, but as others have said rather a traditional game. As it is given the PS ports of the DS/3DS series have all been on ps4, those looking to upgrade to a PS6 will want to hope they retain backwards compatibility to play them.

Wonder if they have new mini VR games where Pheonix might have the opportunity to smack away coffee cups or avoid the dreaded whip from prosecutors!😅😋

@JustBusiness Given the base ps5 with disc drive is about $1000 dollary roos already, I fear even a digital only ps6 will be closer to $1500, I fear!😕 Given current management quietly excluded Aussies from any PS Plus discounts in the Days of Play sales,they've shown they're quite willing to milk the smaller regions they perceive they have sales dominance in this generation!

Would say they never felt like a great fit within Microsoft Studios,but then again a few years ago I would've said like Bluepoint they would've been right at home with Playstation...but given Herman Hulst's mismanagement of Bluepoint turned out Ninja Theory might’ve thought they were onto a winner but Hellblade being their only IP in recent years didn't leave much to barter with on selling the studio elsewhere.

Don't know why with this new article but seemingly caused my previous comments in the other related thread to disappear into the void along with others I was replying to!😕

Anyways to repeat what I said there...
"Don't worry I'm sure the acolytes & YouTubers will brush these layoffs off as part of golden child Asha's "reset" vision back to glorious "exclusives"!🙄 She can do no wrong by them at present with Sony management deciding investor meetings are the only engagement they need to worry about these days!"

Just like "Gamer" Phil Spencer was once the golden child & cool with gamers & press, Asha is being given the same free pass of deja vu at present,not to mention leeway by Satya Nadella...hey look, their PC/PC in an "Xbox" hybrid strategy may well break a floundering Sony run by bean counters & an inept Hermen Hulst team whom have lost the ability to engage with players.

But if Asha's promises to Satya fail to arrive with a massive uptake in numbers then she'll be the next Phil Spencer...for now she can get away with wielding the axe & yet with friendly press like saving Kojima still comes up smelling of roses.
Best wishes to those affected but sadly they won't all end up founding an indie or AA studio nevermind given the rampocalypse what the console market will look like in the next couple of years. 😕

@Oram77 Oh absolutely! Just like "Gamer Phil", she's saying all the right things to her audience so the negatives currently are being regarded ironically as the "legacy of Phil" issues!

Satya Nadella is clearly giving the new management some leeway right now but if the merger of PC & hybrid xbox doesn't deliver the increased engagement & service numbers just like Phil Spencer promised buying Zenimax Bethesda & Activision Blizzard would bring victory with Gamepass then she'll in time find the same cold shoulder treatment!

Not saying they can't make inroads given Sony's leadership's continued P.R. blunders & arrogance...but yes a healthy dose of dejavu about Asha being a "gamer" any more than Hideaki Nishino!😅

@Redefaul Beat me to it!😅 Don't worry I'm sure the acolytes & YouTubers will brush the layoffs off as part of golden child Asha's "reset" vision back to glorious "exclusives"!🙄😅 She can do no wrong by them at present with Sony management deciding investor meetings are the only engagement they need to worry about these days!

But when you have Big tech megacorps that have skin in the A.I game like Samsung or Microsoft or Nvidia or AMD to name a few wringing their hands about memory chip shortages meaning higher consumer prices when they're effectively colluding or involved in A.I. in other divisions causing said shortages!🙄 The multi billion/trillion megacorps could fund more manufacturing but why do that when they can all price gouge consumers!

Not a single sign of it on any of the aforementioned titles on Aussie psn store...but then again given they gave Aussie players two PS Plus subscription increases including 12 month tiers unlike U.S./UK & locked us out of Days of Play subscription discounts I'm hardly surprised at this point!🙄

Likewise unlike other regions never received any PS Plus discount offers post letting it lapse or prior to it despite being on Essential for years & lapsing months ahead of Days of Play.

Used to take advantage of PS Stars rewards for credits myself, but simply put since being axed, Sony treat my region as a cashcow & don't even bother with anything beyond the regular sales & in this day & age of dynamic pricing have to wonder on how much of a discount there is! Yes one can look without signing in on PC Web store but gets old really quick!

Point being in regions like mine, really lost incentive to buy ps4/ps5 versions of games given current leadership prioritise only select regions & treat others with contempt! Given the all digital sword of Damocles not exactly an incentive to stick with a management as arrogant as this one.

@get2sammyb Yes, the digital only type choices & responses to the rampocalypse crisis with hardware & services would have been above their old pay grades & positions.

But would either have been as keen on Jim Ryan & Herman Hulst's failed live services & Fortnite knock offs obsession & pushing all their first parties into that? Would they have wasted billions on Bungie which on top of the rest of the live service obsession & red ink caused the intercession of Sony Group beancounter & ultimately now head honcho Hiroki Totoki to basically run rule with beancounter management on a business?

Nevermind they knew how to interact with players & developers, knew their games & gaming history backlogs,unlike studio favourites playing, risk adverse, throw others under the bus, incompetent Herman Hulst's team!🙄

Hmm, ever since Shuhei Yoshida "retired", haven't seen or heard much about Playstation's Indie division, so for once I guess Sony wouldn't be the guilty party??🤔

Unfortunately much as a whole where the pandemic bubble saw indie publishers alike to AAA over extend with investors chasing a quick return, only for a earthquake & tsunami like ocean withdrawal ever since!

The unanswered question given this is modern Blizzard,not the Blizzard that would cancel a game if it didn't meet their high standards, will be if this has any shades of a Starcraft Ghost or just be an Overwatch clone with Starcraft skins?🤔

You can be sure of a PC/Helix release...but whether if there's any current gen releases remains to be seen...Diablo tends to lend itself to releasing on as many formats as possible so still possible it could be a cross gen release with this gen unless there's a radical redesign.🤔

Must admit haven't picked/purchased Diablo IV since I let Essential lapse, thought about it on PC in light of things with current Sony management, but even there you have to choose between Steam vs Battlenet editions!🙄 And I have zero interest beyond solo mode anyways!😅 Still miss the forever unresolved Diablo III Campaign story as it is vs the Diablo IV grind & always online requirement...what will happen to it with Diablo V feels like a question given there's a ticking clock on the former now.🤔

The Schrier "insights",are likely to be true & reflect the financial "suits" of Hiroki Totoki, Lin Tao & Hideaki Ninshino calling the shots at Playstation now....though Kojima has infamously gone over budgets & deadlines through his more recent releases so it's hardly anything new.

As to Playstation/Worldwide Studios supposedly instituting more "rigorous" milestones & "testing" to produce genuine blockbusters is somewhat more debatable.

There's little doubt Hermen Hulst's ousting several veteran producers in favour of ex-guerilla & other yes people into Worldwide Studios,nevermind other dev studio creatives that'd "retired" or left in wake of closures or not getting their ideas of new projects greenlighted in favour of Hermen's live service mandates & his obsession with Fortnite style knock offs have been just as much responsible for several Studios spinning wheels or being thrown under the bus on his & his team's poor judgement this generation.

Shawn Layden & Shuhei Yoshida have both been quite blunt in their tenures it was hard work & deciding what to keep going & what to cull under their own teams of producers...but neither blew as much on ventures like Bungie or Hermen boldly championing Concord only to get the sulks after it flopped & pretty much withdrew from engaging with Playstation players in any capacity thereafter.

He's continued with pouring $$ into the likes of Fairgames or reportedly letting Guerilla repivot on their HZD live service project into something different after having no such mercies for Bluepoint whom were best known for remasters & reboots....Naughty Dog likewise has been allowed to drift in a mire of remasters whilst Neil Druckmann got to play Hollywood wannabe,& now seemingly crunching like mad to do Intergalactic.

Maybe if Mr Hulst & his yes people had the kind of judgement & experience of their predecessors & knew how to engage with their player base which none of the current leadership seem capable or even remotely interested in doing anymore like the customers are beneath them & only a commodity to be milked dry they wouldn't be currently only known for arrogant silence & meme's!

It's literally a problem of their own creation under massive mismanagement & upheaval under Hulst's team & his watch!🙄
Literally at this point with the suits deciding pursuing further hardware sales not worth their effort due to the Big tech induced memory chip shortage, AND the anti-consumer measures going forward with all digital, dynamic pricing etc., you seriously question this leadership team is even committed to a PS6 eco system long term when they're clearly hedging on current gen.

Hmm....it's almost like upper Playstation Management pushing out veteran creatives & Studio heads into "retirement", at ND, Insomniac, Bend, etc., etc.& Herman Hulst's pushing ex-guerilla mates into Worldwide Studios producer roles has consequences down the line...who could've guessed it?!🙄

I'm sure there'll be a few decrying an over reliance on 3rd person semi-open games being the sole issue...but it doesn't account for bad storytelling & those following unpopular Hollywood writing trends of "defying expectations" tropes & producing predictably underwhelming story telling pay-offs.🙄

But yes, from there one can look at the variety of games from late ps3 era into ps4 & have playformers like Ratchet and Clank, to LBP 1 & 2, Sly, Resistance & Motorstorm series, to the wanna be superhero (or not),Infamous, to charismatic rogues like Nathan Drake or Joel & compare & contrast with some of the design by committee offerings this generation & little wonder they're producing misfire after misfire when you literally have a Management that believes it only needs to engage with shareholders not its customers!🙄

Honestly with the current leadership team at Playstation Ivory towers comprising of financial "suits",whom the closest to gaming they've been is firing up spreadsheets on a PC & Hermen Hulst whom gaming judgement as Worldwide Studios head has proven spectacularly awful it only remains to see them announce an online only Packino game as their next major tie-in to another Fortnite HZD or GOW online spin-off at this point!🙄

Yes, perhaps the beancounters like Toroki or Hideaki Nishino might’ve forced Hermen's hand...BUT we've seen numerous times already when Hermen has ruthlessly thrown dev houses like Bluepoint & others under the bus this generation too.🙄

Honestly, this continues such a spectacular set of own goals & P.R. disasters that it goes beyond just Hulst at this point...the entire arrogant leadership team resemble the likes of the incompetent money men that ran companies like Commodore into bankruptcy in the 1990's!

@Stevemalkpus Must admit hadn't closely followed if he stuck around with Supermassive (have a few of their games on my backlog), but yes he took what you'd fully expected to be an 80's horror plot & gave some unexpected character & plot twists to make it work!

Sadly rumours suggested Supermassive in a bid to chase doing other games elsewhere did so in a manner that burnt their development bridges with Sony & whatever ideas they might’ve planned for an Until Dawn 2 following the original.

Ended up watching a longplay of the Ballistic Moon remake given the ridiculous pricing & zero upgrade options for PS4 owners...even more so finding out they cheapened out on the moody atmospheric original music score!🤯😕

@somnambulance Hoping for a good game, the second trailer felt a bit improved even if I agree about the Scooby Gang sort of inference.
Assuming that PS5 Until Dawn remaster new ending remains unresolved, given the recent sad passing of Hayden, who knows if there'll ever be a resolution to that particular cliffhanger.😥 Missed opportunities. And seeing Ashley get her comeuppance too!😋😂

Is this argument any different to any other digital storefront? As others have said, no. But let's not forget, ever since the original tinderbox announcement on physical games manufacturing ending we still have yet to hear one iota from Sony regarding PS Store changes or improvements.

No backwards compatibility or any similar "disc to digital" style program of customers physical games libraries. No Steam style refund system, no gifting system etc.

But whilst Sony continues to engage in comptemptous silence with its customers they're quite vocal to investors & the likes of Wall Street Journal they're keen to monetise the current PS5 player base further in expectation of hardware sales declining beyond any GTA sugar hit. 🙄

They've had every opportunity to respond to customer concerns....with the financial suits well & truly calling the shots now, feels like they really intend to maintain the status quo.

Whilst the story mode might not boast in-game mtx, we already know certain gameplay is paywalled behind the more expensive edition. I just hope though it's not like RDR 2, where massive world to play in single player, but constantly getting stamina top ups, the horse extras, etc., affected its gameplay to "train" the player into all the mtx of its online mode.

I have no doubt despite the ridiculous price point, no physical edition etc., it'll still sell gangbusters based off the flashy visuals alone. But just not sure if this GTA, will end up like a Disney reboot ticking all the corporate design committee checkboxes of a franchise whose creative team used to poke fun through its radio DJ'S,adverts & outlandish characters at whatever timeline it was set in.🤔

I'm in the minority I'm sure, but never got sick of the likes of Lazlow, Fernando etc., when doing little side hustles like doing taxi missions or similar in GTA Vice City/San Andreas etc. I'm old & cynical, I know, don't "@" me!😅

Asha: "We decided to pivot after our previous round of layoffs,& we now have A.I. with Aspyr in a support role currently working on the Playstation port,so we can keep our Xbox players happy,!"....probably!🙄😂

@kyleforrester87 Get where you're coming from. Whilst there's a lot of murky legals as to if/whom a lot of C64 games even belong to, this lot seem to be among the older titles.

Have read of a few of Thalamus's titles,(reborn as Thalamus Digital these days),have appeared on Evercade,a couple have had or having remasters for C64 players (& emulation), on Itch_io, in between publishing indies. Recently released a long dormant Head over Heels sequel on Amiga,with multiplatform versions planned.
Wouldn't be surprised current Atari has some given they own a lot of back catalogue stuff like Microprose but never seen any outside of mostly pc related on GOG. 🤔

We did get that System 3 collection but did regard they were asking a bit much & I loved their C64 stuff BITD!

@species There's already the Turrican Anthology out there,but ownership issues only saw the Amiga games bundled with the C64 Turrican/Turrican II still remaining with the original programmer & designer afaik.

Hopefully with recent settlements of the messy legals of OS rights with the current Amiga/Hyperion & cross licensing with the nouveau Commodore publishing some of old games might be less messy on current platforms.🙏

Oh yes,monetise players more...like when Sony jacked up PS Plus prices across all tiers including 12 month subscriptions (unlike U.S. & UK getting "only" 1 & 3 month tiers), twice in under a year AND locked Aussies out from ANY subscription discounts regardless it'd lapsed like mine in Days of Play only a few days later!

Bold strategy from Money Man Toroki & Lin Tao CFO to try recoup all the red ink from Jim Ryan & Herman Hulst's disastrous live service flops,Bungie & general mismanagement of Worldwide Studios,to keep those investors fooled everything is awesome!

Whilst all in the gaming hardware sector are struggling with the A.I. Big tech induced memory supply issues,treating your actual customers with contempt, poor value for money & silence isn't going to serve you forever.

They like others might love the day of cloud gaming, you need to transition your audiences across gens & differing gaming options first. Peeving off your players as rip off merchants time & again especially planning a store walled garden retailing monopoly is a good way to lose them fast Mr Totoki,goodluck with that!

Given how Sony shortly after hiking up PS Plus 12 month subscriptions for the second time in under a year Down Under (unlike U.S./E.U. only having 1 & 3 month subs increased),they completely locked my region out from ANY discounts on PS Plus subscriptions in the Days of Play sale only a few days later,I'd believe this sort of thing will only get worse with their impending PS Store monopoly.

Unfortunately, without legal action from regulatory authorities,(Like the Australian Competition & Consumer Comission/ACCC) did years ago, this will be the norm for Sony blocking regions on whim.

Always regarded when they got Playstation EU Store,(that PSN AU Store runs off),to admit they misled customers on refund rights that they didn't go far enough to enforce changes.

When Steam tried to not only fight consumer protection refund rights here all the way to our highest appeals court, it led in part(alongside similar legal action elsewhere),to the current Steam refund no fuss less than 2hrs system in use today & lauded for digital store purchases.

Without any regulators taking them on, (& I'm sure Sony is laying the groundwork given things like the console box advisories), this Playstation leadership is going to take every means possible to price gouge players like never before.

@Titntin Whilst I've heard the arguments in the past that gaming execs don't need to constantly on the socials to engage with players, always regarded seeing the likes of a Shawn Layden, or Shuhei Yoshida you could still see their enjoyment of actually playing & sharing anecdotes about games with players.

I could've imagined a visit from the likes of them both,much like other producers from the upper division deciding the financials & viability to continue would always be tough...like when Shuhei Yoshida questioned the combat system of the God/"Dad" of War reboot & Santa Monica had to crunch their way to what the finished result was as a small example 🤔🤯

But can't help but wonder given the way Hulst even in his early days talking up all the live service games they had in development (even before Bungie), & the importance of games being spun off to movies/streaming, just gave a public inkling of his priorities being very different to those of the past asking, "Is this fun/engaging? What is the story/objectives here," etc.? It's like he missed the whole Xbox One Mattick TV,TV,TV launch disaster!😅

@sanderson72 Yes,sadly agree,with clowns like Hulst & his "yes people" he's surrounded himself with,zero confidence in their outsourcing & oversight in production.

What still puzzles me is Hulst's single mindedness...like you say,sadly Evolution is no more but why the heck all the Fortnite &/or Overwatch or similar themed dross?
With all the RPG Studios under Microsoft (or at least until their current downsizing),for example maybe setting up an RPG style dev studio wouldn't be amiss, or an arcade racing crew separate from Gran Turismo....Forza Horizon did well clearly because there is a distinct lack of casual racing games away from the GT style...but Hermen seems as clueless on Sony's IP's as Jim Ryan "who wanna play that!",was!🙄

@ShadowRJ Sadly exactly how they pretty much want it! Or likewise delete an older gen version & then put up a new gen full priced remaster! Whilst they didn't delete the old Until Dawn, have seen enough online how they not only rushed out the buggy port to help promote the movie spin off but saw the creepy soundtrack largely gutted including "O Death"!

But absolutely no upgrade path& still remains an expensive purchase even when it goes on "sale"...(RIP Hayden Patteniere).

In all the pro-digital press stories conveniently doing the rounds these days regardless whom they're asking, it's funny how not a single one follow up with the same questions that puzzle concerned PS Customers.

What plans are there,(if any), to allow players backwards compatibility or access to their physical games libraries on an all digital console?
Don't you have any concerns at the lack of any proper refund system,store gifting & other basic PS Store functions that competing store fronts like those on PC have had for years, especially if Sony has a 100% monopoly?

If there are no longer any costs with physical games production, shouldn't digital prices decrease rather than increase?
Likewise, don't you think there should be greater DRM rights/protections over ownership, especially with instances where digital purchases can & have been removed for the likes of movies with zero compensation or refunds therein?

Not just at Shuhei, but pretty much any of the "what's the big deal?" Publishing execs, nevermind the aloof, silent PS leadership at present....I know, it's unlikely any would allow an interview if real questions were pitched at them by players/Customers, but just once would love to see them be put on the spot in a live Q&A & see them sweat on answering the questions rather than get away with non answers of what's on players minds!

@get2sammyb Hermen Hulst should've been shown the door when Jim Ryan was clearly tapped on the shoulder & "retired".

Would find it hard to believe that Hulst wasn't the driving force behind not only the Bungie purchase but the subsequent choice to use them as their "advisory group" initiative that reviewed & shut down/laid off some of their earlier live service efforts but ploughed ahead with the likes of Concord & obviously Marathon among others like Bluepoint being wasted on the rumoured God of War universe Fortnite knock off!🙄

Hulst's single minded obsession with Fortnite or similar knock offs whilst ignoring the IP Chest in the attic of the likes of Resistance, Motorstorm series, LBP 1 or 2 (which all had online modes), that a remaster or two could've tested the waters with, or a Twisted Metal reboot just to name a few whilst buying untested devs behind Concord & Fairgames (or however you spell it),& shutting devs like Bluepoint down, & avoiding any repercussions has been diabolical...nevermind the likes of Naughty Dog or Guerilla spinning wheels the majority of this generation when not doing remasters!🙄

Nervous Guerilla staff,suddenly finding out their no longer protected & facing the same throwing under the bus that Hermen & his Worldwide Studios hatchet crew have done to so many other studios this generation.

Unfortunately even IF Hermen were eventually fired, I question who's left (given "retirements" of the previous heads of Naughty Dog, or Ted Price of Insomniac & other seniors ala Bruce Strayley, or obviously Shuhei Yoshida etc), other than another "suit" like Hideaki Nishino or worse Neil Druckmann,taking over Hulst's role!

I mean, test groups are fine, but seems like ever since Hermen's proclamations of Concord being the best Worldwide Studios game ever blew up in his face that Sony has lost the plot of what their customers will enjoy & are second guessing themselves....a long way from their late PS3 & PS4 Golden era!

Maybe stop worrying about TV,TV,TV streaming spin offs, or making the next COD/Fortnite & just go back to trying to make a mix of games again Sony?!🙄

@PuppetMaster Whilst I totally agree about the frustrations of delistings let alone the chances of some classics coming back again, all parties involved will instantly blame licensing & possible contracts therein.😔

Music licensing in particular has been horrendous seeing the multiple re-releases of GTA Trilogy through PS3,PS4 & then the bugfest "remastered definitive editions" on PS4/PS5 which gutted a number of the best songs from the OG PS2 release!
Haven't got around to the Rayman 1 re-release but seemingly had the same issue as the PC Compilation I'd seen on GOG Store wherein players said the classic soundtrack was missing.😕

Bugs me too no end how even if say the exact PS1/PS2 editions of say Gran Turismo 1-3 were dug up from the archives or between car & music it'd be a no go! Or NFS Underground 1 & 2 or SSX 1-3 from E.A....
But truly puzzles when original productions that featured their own original tracks like say Adventures of Lomax, or Colony Wars as examples are also MIA as ever being part of classics.

Heck,as your cool avatar shows, would almost sell my soul for the Capcom Classics Volume 1 or 2(?) from PS2 era that had Ghosts'n'Goblins, Ghouls'n'Ghosts & Super Ghosts'n'Goblins (Snes sequel),together...much less Demons Crest & Ultimate Ghosts'n'Goblins (PSP), or Maximo Quest for Glory & Army of Zin (PS2) as PS Classics or the Discworld Trilogy or Alundra but suspect are all considered "too hard" or licensing issues much like Rockstar too cheap to ever re-release GTA LCS/VCS in unaltered form given the music!

Whilst with the benefit of multiple clips online, I now realise I'd seen her in multiple roles, PS4 Until Dawn & her portrayal of Sam as the most grounded & believable of the Until Dawn characters had me sucked right in to that game,.

Didn't feel compelled to reward a cheap budget Hermen Hulst flogging a buggy remaster on PS5 to flog a poor movie adaption but was very interested at the reworked "ultimate ending" tease hinting at a continuation of Sam's story.

With what's been shown of Until Dawn 2's new setting & trailer, not sure we'll ever get that conclusion much less if any of the characters will attract the investment that the likes of Hayden put into Sam that made you want to save her at all costs!

Talented actress, & lost far too young at only 36, RIP.😔

That's a shame,as quite liked the Oxenfree games...though I never really understood how Night School's game style would "fit" with Netflix.🤔

The closest thing to a "game" I ever tried on Netflix was that Black Mirror Bandersnatch thing & was so dark & depressing, never saw a remotely good ending!🤯😅 Even the spookiest Choose Your Own Adventure books would have at least one or two happy endings!

As usual, wherein these small indies are typically born out of old staff leaving a bigger studio that've lost their way, then after finding their feet the founders are all to eager to cash in with a big enough offer only to then find ultimately the clueless big corporate drives them into the ground or suddenly an expense they want a tax write off on,rinse & repeat!🙄

Nothing inspires worse terror than Sauron... unless it's a retro game release by Aspyr featuring all new bugs alongside those that might’ve already featured!😱🤯😂

When you're old enough to remember adverts in games being unsubtle product placements like KP Skips in C64 Action Biker, Lucozade in Superfrog on Amiga, or a Sierra Adventure Game Over screen telling you to buy their hint book!😅

Nowadays you have an aloof,arrogant, silent Playstation leadership that only engage with shareholders...they know the paying customers will hate their edicts communicated on the Blog so they ghost them & literally only worry about ways to improve profiteering the PSN Store experience!

Steam style refunds? Nah! Gifting,meh! Improving ownership of digital games or digital versions of your physical games libraries on future all digital consoles....more silence & "are you joking?!"....but price hikes on PS Plus for no actual service improvements, game adverts & store adverts cluttering the PS Store or UI on the console heck yeah they're all for it!!🙄🤯

This brainrot leadership started under Jim Ryan, but the current lot of Hideaki Nishino, Totoki, Hermen Hulst, Lin Tao etc., are doing such a horrendous disservice they actually make Jim Ryan look almost like a consumer friendly "gamer" in comparison!!🤯😱

Sony have sunk so low, the Mariana trench looks like Mt Everest from where they're sitting!😂

All sound & reasonable upgrades to an all digital PS Store. But says all you need to know about the current Playstation leadership group that the first public acknowledgement of the elephant in the room came from the Sony group CFO to investors, NOT their customer player base!🙄

Lin Tao claims they have been considering going all digital for a "long time", just as she had previously stated prior to the firestorm they needed to look at ways to monetise players further in the face of dramatic hardware price increases & slowing of hardware sales as a result.

Despite having had weeks to respond to the many,many genuine feedback & questions on top of the preceding "long time" claimed, Playstation management are still firmly ghosting & ignoring their customers.

Given they've already decided on an all digital PS6,strange they didn't regard an obvious concern is backwards compatibility of PS4/PS5 physical games libraries.
Which suggests either a premium solution like an external drive or repurchase digitally of games or similar that they intentionally are staying silent.

Likewise, they've had all generation to improve the PS Store with any & all these features. To date all we've seen is (to their credit), an attempt to remove some of the slop trophy titles & knock offs....their continued silence all things related to improving the PS Store or PS Plus suggests the only plans are to maintain the status quo & price gouge further taking full advantage of a PSN Store monopoly!🙄😕😑

We've already seen minimal improvements to PS Plus despite numerous price hikes & in some regions a complete removal of discounts to resubscriptions or even access to a subscription sale!
I have severe doubts that beyond legal pressure from the likes of the EU,UK, or even the ACCC down under consumer authorities on unfair pricing monopolies will they change.

Just to note, Steam might be known as the supposed "good guys" of consumer friendly store policies BUT they too had to dragged kicking & screaming all the way up to the Australian High Court (think American Supreme Court),to exhaust their appeals & force them to implement a refund system in the first place! I fear the same for this arrogant & aloof Sony.

"We're carefully considering in an all digital future how do we engage with gamers?!"...says the C.F.O.,in the only acknowledgement of the firestorm they created at an investor meeting!🙄😂

Uh huh...really doing well on that "engagement", with their customers/player base there!😋
As per Sammy's article on the PSN Store, (& realistically should include PS Plus improvements too), that despite claiming they've been considering killing physical for some length of time, says it all they seemingly couldn't be bothered formulating ANY plans to change the status quo of the PSN Store, PS Plus or addressing any questions with backwards compatibility of players physical libraries.🙄

"Plans? Oh yes, we'll sort that stuff out later!". Given this Playstation management's record this generation, can be sure the only "engagement" Ms Tao cares about is price gouging players wallets like never before!🙄

Going to be some tricky waters ahead for Double Fine, effectively going back to a more AA/AA+ status...it would be similar if the same happened to Housemarque (not likely given Sony's recent track record of closures).

Can't really say I had much awareness of Kiln or Keeper, but for the most part I remember them mostly as a story driven game developer vs live service online Fodder.
Not impossible to see them bounce back but whether they have to reset themselves with an established IP ala Psychonauts & aim for a big backer or publisher or try go with smaller projects time will tell.🤔

Given Playstation's lacklustre customer support, could just imagine the irony of PSN tech engineers needing to deal with Amazon Web Services A I. Chat or support...
"Have you tried rebooting your system?!"😋🤣
"GIVE ME A PERSON TO CHAT TO!!"😤😡😂

Haven't played it to offer an opinion on the fame per say, BUT for the love of heaven I wouldn't want IO to be held hostage by the likes of Amazon,anymore than I would Xbox, Sony, E.A.,Tencent, or any other megacorp!🙏

Their tenure with Square Enix was enough to show they're far better off without corporates!

Meantime,I now fund my rant on the vagries of the PS4 Classics program vs the current day PS Deluxe releases pretty moot at a quick search shows Indigo Prophecy missing entirely on the PSN Store Down Under!🤯🙄

No idea if it's Manhunt levels of violent (that got banned Down Under after the Xbox version was refused classification & they retroactively banned the PS2 version despite it being out for a few months in the shops!),or the drug references someone posted of earlier, but even this "censored" version is still apparently too degenerative for the dear little kids who shouldn't be playing it but GTA V torture scenes I used to warn certain parents about on the R18+ are totally fine!!😂

At least Indigo Prophecy didn't get the GOG ban hammer unlike Hotline Miami 2!!

@TheArt Wouldn't say it wasn't a complete non-issue at the time...but Mark Cerny was brought in to conduct a review where Sony got things wrong about the PS3,(having already assisted first & 2nd party devs struggling with adapting to Cell architecture as he could speak fluently with Sony Japan engineers).

Subsequently they were impressed enough to engage him as lead architect of the PS4, but remember at the time there were several experts questioning if consoles would be viable in the face of PC & mobile gaming.
They openly opted for a "cheap" X86 architecture to bring down launch costs vs the expensive PS3.

Keep in mind Microsoft in its disastrous own goal launch announcements hadn't mentioned any XB 360 compatibility & not sure if the goal ever was to announce that program later or if it was all conceived later on as part of Phil Spencer's "rescue" plan.

Do recall PS4 players feeling a bit miffed buying ps2 games again digitally that they owned but Sony defended themselves the program needed to be profitable to continue. Sadly never got a massive library but ironically probably had some more notable classics especially Rockstar titles compared to the largely woeful current day PS Classics range!😕
Agree we missed seeing more first party locked ps3 games,though the likes of the Uncharted Trilogy & TLOU at least were mid range prices at launch & like most first parties got heavy discounts later gen...night & day to the limited number of ps4 to ps5 games getting free or a lesser upgrade fee after heavy criticism on Jim Ryan's politician's promises & quietly dropped in favour of full current gen price gouging under Hermen Hulst!

"Nothing is set in stone,still a case by case basis! If Big Boss Satya spares us a valuable 10mins of his day to scream at us about the quarterly figures not matching Asha's bold plan, then there's definitely scope for future releases!"🤪🙄

@get2sammyb They might be generous on exchanging wallets in this instance, but they'll likely need it on the pricing thereafter!

Again, I remind how users Down Under saw two price hikes on 12 Month PS Plus subscriptions,(unlike U.S./UK only copping 1 & 3 month tiers),& got locked out of Days of Play subscription discounts!😤 Current PS management have a poor track record on consumer friendliness vs profiteering in smaller regions.