RoomWithaMoose

Lotta people here seem to be assuming this must be illegal. But I'm pretty sure there's no legal precedent for protections against perfect price discrimination.

That could always change, but that would confuse a lot of sale culture. Also it's hard to really build a case here unless you could equate this to false advertising.

@Titntin I dunno. Microsoft is very transparent about it. I also don't believe there's ever been a case where the logged out discount is better than the logged in one. They don't seem comparably vexing at all, honestly.

Also, life isn't a console war. What Microsoft is doing is incidental to the morality and ethics of what Sony is doing.

@Carnage Which is all fine and good.

But, again, I'm a PlayStation games fan. I'm not a PlayStation hardware fan.

@Blaze215 This is a PlayStation website. It was a legitimate concern how it would run on the PS5. The developers were being coy about it and that was some of the biggest news leading up to release.

"First Crimson Desert PS5 Pro Analysis Calls It 'A Phenomenal Experience'"

"Crimson Desert's PS5, PS5 Pro Modes Revealed, PS5 Pro Offers Substantial Upgrades"

Literally two headlines apropos that topic leading up to release. Neither are negative whatsoever.

"'Whatever We Say, People Won't Believe Us': Crimson Desert Dev Promises Full PS5 Tech Breakdown for Launch"

Sounds pretty impartial.

"Crimson Desert Tech Analysis Raises More Questions About PS5 Performance"

This is maybe the most negative sounding headline. If actually bringing up a noteworthy concern is your idea of negativity.

Lest we forget that it just...doesn't run well on base PS5 right now. So seems like these concerns were warranted, to some degree.

@AhmadSumadi Mmm, you should really care if they're using child labor. You don't even necessarily have to do anything about it, but you should at least care.

Mind you, I said they wasted all that money AND fans like us have nothing to show for it. I also care about the games they make, and I especially care that they haven't been making them.

@Jay767 ...What?

@Jay767 Maybe. But it was never their responsibility to try and support the game.

They're not actively killing it, is all I'm saying.

@Jay767 I don't know if not buying the game and criticizing it online is equitable to actively trying to kill it.

@nomither6 I like how Highguard got thrown into this Concord-discourse for no real reason.

Poor Highguard.

@AdamNovice I think the big implication here is it hasn't been growing.

Things can still turn around, but we can't ignore public perception. To grow, it really needs room for growth. It's not really looking like it has any, and gaming moves so fast nowadays that it's hard to say how much time this has to build an audience before it's just siphoning that initial 1.2 million.

@LogicStrikesAgain Hey, man, we'll see.

I would love for 2028-2030 to be packed with PlayStation titles. And if this is ripping off the band-aid before a big sprint, I'm okay with it (severance pay, though... Definitely do that).

But I'm not holding my breath until they deliver the bacon (I like how these analogies aren't making sense).

@LogicStrikesAgain I mean, even that they couldn't repurpose the studio to make something more aligned with their new strategy is a micro-failure in itself.

But I can't reiterate enough that dodging the sunk-cost fallacy isn't a real excuse for sinking those costs to begin with.

@Carnage Which is fair. And I think how most people feel.

However, I am saying I like PlayStation specifically for PlayStation games. They've pretty much failed to provide me with those games this entire generation. This is where the grievance lies.

There's a metric s***ton to play on the Switch/2 from indies and 3rd-parties. But I bought the Nintendo console expecting to get Nintendo games. If they failed to provide their own games, I would be disappointed and highly critical of them.

Or maybe it's better to put like this: I don't give Ubisoft a pass on not making games I'm interested in because Capcom is. I became a fan of Ubisoft for stuff like Rayman and Tom Clancy, and actually pushing game design forward. Now that I'm not getting that from them, I'm disheartened.

@LogicStrikesAgain Again, there's just an air of incompetence around the whole thing.

I don't care about this studio being closed down outside of the developers out of a job now. But still, they founded a studio and shut them down in a year before they made a single thing. That's just stupid.

If it were an isolated case, I could give some extra grace. But it's not even the first time this has happened in the last couple years.

@Carnage If you don't see the issue with only two of those games actually being from PlayStation, I don't know what to tell ya.

I'm a PlayStation fan primarily because of their games. As a multiplatform gamer, hardware has always been pretty arbitrary to me. The PS5 is not a bad console. PlayStation's immediate support of the PS5 has been — as eloquently put by the article — "disastrous." And that's my hang up.

@Yor-sama It's more about the trajectory that lead us here than the studio itself. I mean, if they hadn't just closed down Bluepoint, there wasn't a full-ass list of closures in this article, and none of these shenanigans got in the way of PlayStation's output proper, I might agree with you.

Always great to remember that you should never go out of your way for a company, because they'll throw you out on your ass without a moment's hesitation.

Give a company your sweat, but reserve your blood and tears for yourself.

@Balaam_ I don't strongly agree with much said here, especially concerning Trophies.

However, I swear you're the only other person I've seen reflect on LittleBigPlanet as the "janky platformer with sluggish, unresponsive controls" it always has been. And I gotta give you props for that.

I do think LittleBigPlanet has plenty of redeeming qualities. But, as a platformer, it really has always kinda sucked.

@LogicStrikesAgain "Maybe they are correcting mistakes Hulst made in the first place."

I don't really care about when the wrong decision was made. I just care that, somewhere down the line, someone made a s*** decision.

Yeah, I don't really care about Dark Outlaw specifically being closed down. But the closure is emblematic of the incompetence behind the scenes at Sony. Maybe they're on the upswing, and these closures are indicative of a return to sense in leadership. But that remains to be seen; all we can really infer is that past stupidity is catching up to them.

@Yor-sama @Carnage A lot of us would just prefer a company we like didn't constantly s*** the bed. I dunno.

@AhmadSumadi A major publisher wasted a bunch of money and we as fans have nothing to show for it. I honestly don't get why people keep shrugging off news like this.

@Andy22385 Pretty narrative-heavy. Crimson Desert's gameplay must really be winning you over if you don't find it too narratively compelling.

@1970sGamer Regardless of the circumstance, mass layoffs and closures are indicative of mismanagement.

In this specific case, it just shows that PlayStation management is clueless and likes wasting money. Not a good look, and it doesn't instill much confidence in their fanbase.

@johnedwin Stocks are not a great metric of success and failure. Look at Pearl Abyss' stocks plummeting after reviews just to have a massive launch. Nintendo's stocks just fell because of a report they were decreasing Switch 2 production, despite it still being the greatest console launch in many territories. After its 'Meta' relaunch, Facebook's stocks absolutely tanked...just for them to shoot up 500% since despite not really accomplishing anything in the interim.

Stocks are an indication of investor confidence. That is all. The stock market is an overly convoluted gambling ring where pseudo-intellectuals exchange their fake money for faker money and pretend their success was dependent on more than being in the right place at the right time.

Are we all on the same page about contemporary PlayStation sucking at their job yet?

No?

All right. We'll see how everyone feels after another few closures.

@Andy22385 Well, I was hoping for more than one game. Just curious what type of gamer holds Crimson Desert to such high regard.

@Blaze215 I really don't understand why people are saying Push Square is overtly negative about the game when they haven't even reviewed it yet.

All the articles on the matter up to about two weeks ago were fairly positive ("PS5 Open Worlder Crimson Desert Seems Destined to Be a Hit, Tops 2 Million Wishlists - 'The chosen one?'" Article title and sub-title from early February). And most of the recent 'negativity' was just reporting on actual news concerning the game. Like, just literally reporting on news about the game. The reporting wasn't even really negative, the news was.

And since reporting on its mixed reception, mostly they've just ran stories on its successful launch and developer's commitment to address issues people have had with it. That latter point is especially pertinent, as it shows the developers themselves are taking criticisms seriously...almost like people have been pointing out legitimate problems...

@Mes_Urson Yeah, they did something right, all right. They spent years building hype with a highly marketable project.

This isn't a knock against the game itself. But I'm pretty sure the vast majority of these numbers are incidental to the quality of the game. Rather, these copies sold on the promise of the game.

@Andy22385 What are some of your favorite games of all time?

Not asking to discredit you. Just curious.

@wildcat_kickz If I had to guess, Fortnite's attempt to get Roblox money just kinda blew up in their face.

That's where the growth was supposed to be. Lots of hours of development definitely went into expanding what Fortnite is and selling it as a platform rather than a game. Yet I doubt more than a fraction of a fraction of their playerbase ever bothered with anything not Battle Royale or BR-adjacent. This is likely what all these cuts are meant to curtail.

I agree in a sense, then. Fortnite the Battle Royale game is fine and will continue to be around for a long time coming. I just don't think we can downplay that this is perhaps the first major crack in its empire, and an indictment of its ostensibly infinite growth potential. I think it will settle into a state still fairly profitable. But I don't think they'll be seeing any significant growth from this point forward.

Kinda assumed after launch these modes took next to nothing to keep running. If that wasn't the case, they all should've been shut down a long time ago...

Bit of a bummer Rock Band: Fornite is closing down, though. If for no other reason than it gave peripheral companies a reason to make new Rock Band gear.

@wildcat_kickz Sure. But I don't think it's sensible to act like it's business as usual over there. Collectively, these are insane cost-cutting initiatives that don't reflect sustainable growth.

There's nowhere to go after peak engagement besides down. And I can't emphasize enough how much firing 1000 people implies a sudden, sharp decline, and possibly a projected nadir.

Why do this game's fans sound so defensive and insecure?

If you like the game, that's great. You don't have to harp its praises every chance you get. You don't need to prove anything to anyone. And you don't have to justify your enjoyment — certainly not so bitterly.

Engaging in conversations about the game's quality is fine. Good even. Being personally offended by critics is childish. If you can't emotionally handle different people disliking the game, get off the internet and just play the damn game.

@REALAIS Games are not a binary of narrative and meaningless tasks.

@DartLOD Well, there's not really a way to play this without buying it.

Assassin's Creed Shadows, on the other hand, also implicitly represented Ubisoft+.

@wildcat_kickz 'Dying' cerainly isn't the right word. But, in their own words, there's a "downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025." A downturn significant enough to raise prices, layoff 1000 employees, and essentially kill several ongoing projects.

I doubt it's too late for things to turn around. But, sounds like we might be at the start of a grandiose decline.

@KonstantTrouble ???

The game has a generally positive critical reception. And, regardless, gamers buy s*** all the time.

Did you see the numbers for Fast and Furious and think movie journalists are corrupt?

As a console player, it's kinda weird recalling the murmurings and heated debates among PCers apropos upscaling vs. native resolution just a few years ago, only to now have PS5ers and Switch 2ers hailing resolution boosting like God's gift to gaming.

I can never help but wonder if the native reso camp was onto something... But I also barely care about resolution in the first place — so, ya know, whatever.

@AhmadSumadi I think the majority of people on this specific site at least tried the server slam.

Being a PlayStation GaaS certainly doesn't help Marathon's reputation. But I think there are plenty of legitimate criticisms from people that gave it a shot. Most people that like it tend to preface their praise by saying it's off-putting at first, so it's not hard to see plenty giving it a fair shot and not making through that slump.

@Exerion76 E33 got a TON of hate for using AI.

Whatcha on about, mate?

@lazarus11 "So one of there employees could maybe have the day off."

It's laughably naive to think this is the end goal of AI...

@AhmadSumadi @Kraven Eh. I think it's entirely the game's fault of it can't engage and delight upon first impressions.

It's all fine and good if it gets better with time. But you can't just summarize critics as uneducated haters.

@Kraven Nah. F*** everyone else! F*** 'em, I say!!!

@Oram77 Either way, both categories should hypothetically get better over time.

Unless they s*** the bed, that's the expected trajectory of every live-service.

@Oram77 I reckon that's just an 'every GaaS thing,' no? Well...Multiverses notwithstanding.

The 'Review in Progress' kinda read like a 9, so not too surprising. Well, based on my personal experience with the beta, it is. But I'm still not too sure how much of that was me not liking the game, and how much was me not liking extraction shooters.

Either way, lots of people seem to like it. So good for them! Kiiinda seems like support's gonna dry up at some point unless some update or change in public perception makes it explode in popularity. But it...prooobably won't abruptly be killed off. Probably. Which is good for its fans!

@Dreamscape20 So you're at that awkward phase where you don't let review scores dictate what you play, yet also give them enough value to get offended by them.

Hopefully you'll get to the point where open discussion about quality isn't such a hot-button issue for you soon.

@Noone2025 I mean, the Pentagon JUST wanted to power autonomous war-bots with AI. I think contemporary issues are focused more on artistic merit and job security — certainly not conspiratorial territory.

But Skynet analogs might not be too far-fetched very soon here...

@RyPal 'VirTue SigNAl" is really such an asinine way to dismiss and reduce. It's not an attack on the actual point itself, rather those standing by it. It is to say, 'your position has inherent virtue, but I think you're fake and stupid."

It's an unserious argument for unserious people.

@RiverGenie I never said I appreciate dissenting opinions on the matter. It would only be ironic that I'm calling out your ill conceived attempt at neutrality after the fact if I implied any alike neutrality.

I didn't

You can keep saying what you want to say. I thought your original comment was poorly thought out, and your following comments a failure to recontextualize the original as a 'bit of fun.' That's why I responded. You can turn a blind eye to AI unconditionally. I don't respect this opinion, but you can certainly do it.