RoomWithaMoose

Mario Kart World has sold pretty darn well at $80 and I'm sure T2 noticed. Likewise sure they feel more confident in GTA's prospects than MK.

Obviously not gonna be cheaper than $70. I don't think they want to rock the boat much, though. So $80.

@PloverNutter Yeah, but I wouldn't count on it lasting very long. Would definitely try it if I got it on PS+, but I wouldn't buy it at this point.

@Krlozgod The person another site would've paid for the translation...?

Ya kinda answered your own question, there. This is evidence that you can use AI to complete the job for free, so why would anyone hire a translator unless for moral standards?

@KawakiisaFraud Kinda feel, in both cases, it's just empty corporate talk for, "we ain't promising s*** either way."

The difference is PlayStation can have a consistent strategy, while Xbox is flailing about ready to change course at the drop of a hat.

Sounds fun. Never played it. I guess never will.

Random thing about this is Velan is also developing the new Star Fox remake.

If that's more successful than this, will that definitively convince people making a bunch of online multiplayer games was conceptually always a bad idea and Sony had more opportunity in reviving long dead IP?

Honestly, I think Sony just needs to cancel the current iteration of the PS6.

They can still try that handheld Switch competitor (even though I think it, fundamentally, can't touch the Switch) or, even better, a new PS5 model designed to be as cheap as possible. But launching a PS6 North of $800 with zero to no exclusives is going to shoot them in the foot for probably the entire generation. Sunk cost fallacy isn't worth it.

Better to ride out the 5 as long as possible. The only reason I don't think the PS5 can remain a viable product for another 5 years is its current price. Fix that and I'm sure they'll be fine. Unless Xbox gets their s*** together magically. But the Helix is in a worse spot than the PS6, so I wouldn't be worried about that.

And, like I've said in the past, if Sony can't figure out new hardware with mass appeal or how to keep the PS5 viable, I truly believe the Switch 2 will overtake charts in most territories. Unless Nintendo f***s something up, which is always possible.

@get2sammyb I dunno, maybe that's all Sony will see. But I think there's a lot of reasons Sons seemingly didn't resonate (like it being an average game) that should be considered when thinking about doing a similar project in the future.

Also, 100k sounds like a modest success for what was presumably a very cheap game with no marketing budget. I doubt Cadence of Hyrule — the best comparison I can think of — sold much better.

@PuppetMaster Markets aren't static. And PlayStation losing its grip on the Japanese market is neither set in stone nor beyond their control.

Dunno why you pseudo-realists think making Uncharted, The Last of Us, and Zero Dawn ad nauseum is the only logical future for PlayStation and will continue being financially viable for decades to come. Sounds to me a lot like what destroyed Ubisoft... At least PlayStation's games are better; we'll see how far that gets them.

EDIT: It's also weird you're putting so much faith in the decision making of a company you consistently criticize whenever there's a layoff or closure.

Can't wait to not pre-order it because I don't care about the game.

Yes, I'm a special butterfly and I need you all to know that.

@get2sammyb My plan entails a decade-long, multi game effort to revitalize the franchise.

Not exactly easy. Simple, is more apt.

EDIT: And while I would love for Sony to do this with a bunch of their old franchises, probably the only two worth the effort are PaRappa and Ape Escape. Maybe Boku, just because it feels like a cozy Japanese nostalgia game would've been more successful in the last 5 years than ever before. All 3 of which could be a boon in Japan, which is a market worth appealing to.

@PuppetMaster Make a cheap PaRappa game that appeals to Japanese children, all of which own a Switch, to make the IP a household name. Once that demo is older, a bigger PaRappa game can be made into a system seller.

Don't see the issue there.

@PuppetMaster They should try harder.

Make a new game that appeals to modern sensibilities and explicitly capitalizes on the enduring legacy of the IP. Hell, put it on Switch if they have to; even if it doesn't sell PS5s, they can at least do everything in their power to strengthen the IP into something that eventually can be a system seller.

@somnambulance Literally exactly what I was thinking. Pretty sure a lot of PSone franchises have potential in Japan, and could be sold to a global audience with the right appeal.

I mean, s***, just do Rhythm Heaven but with PaRappa and a cohesive story. I'd buy that.

@Haruki_NLI Pretty sure this has been heavily rumored for Switch 2 for about a month now.

90% sure they're coming to S2. Probably going to be announced during a Partner Showcase in the next few weeks. Or randomly on Nintendo's socials.

EDIT: Correction, it appears all the Switch related rumors were just speculation based on leaked info about the PS5 ports. So maybe not. Still don't see why they wouldn't, so I'll temper my certainty down to a 60%.

Jesus Christ.

Xbox is not going to last another 5 years. E-Day and Clockwork aren't saving the Series line. There's no chance Helix can make a splash with the current state of the global economy and compute resources. And now they're about to hemorrhage all their talent just so they can try — and fail — to make Halo and Fallout relevant again.

F***, they'll be lucky to survive 3 years. Microsoft is going to spin them off, and they'll be an even more bloated Activision with less money and more debt... F***.

@1970sGamer As someone with a vast digital game collection on 4 different platforms and a personal media server, I have been interested in 8+tb SSDs for years. I just didn't have money for them before — and DEFINITELY don't have money for them now.

I don't really see what's disingenuous about citing an actual price in a headline. Maybe if you can find cheaper options, at which point you can argue that price isn't actually representative of an 8tb SSD. But that doesn't change that this specific series costs that much.

@Flaming_Kaiser I know...

All these other commenters saying, 'just uninstall your games.' Meanwhile, I'm so annoyed constantly doing just that on the S2 that I actively play less games than I otherwise would.

I completely gave up on Metroid Prime 4 just because I really wanted to cruise around in Mario Kart World for an evening.

EDIT: And Air Riders, which I was planning on playing on-and-off until I deleted it for Dragon Quest III. Also definitely would've played more Mario Kart if it wasn't uninstalled for most of the last 6 months.

...Does no one here just have games they like playing in short bursts?

@wildcat_kickz Raises hand

Glad I got a 4tb when I did. Although it is getting pretty close to being full...

Still waiting to get a SD Express for the Switch 2 at a reasonable price. Very annoying that 1tb of onboard storage isn't the norm yet. But I guess the Switch would cost $1000 right now if it were.

@DETfaninATL Oh my God, bro. A couple years ago, I beat World at War on Veteran. That s*** made me swear off ever playing CoD on Veteran again. Horrible, horrible experience.

And yeah, the entire last stretch was throwing back a grenade just to have 3 more take its place.

I think LASO is a lot funner than that, at least. But I've also never done LASO with the intention of beating it, so that could be a big part of why I've liked it.

I would LOVE to see a newcomer try LASO. I don't think guys here understand how legitimately b******* it is.

There's a skull that makes enemies throw grenades over twice as often and drop them more frequently (they are actual physics objects in Halo that can go off in a chain). Another that makes grenade explosions bigger and more powerful. Put them together, and most battles become a cacophony of insta-kill explosions leaping and bounding about the battlefield. And that's just 2 of 'em...

LASO isn't so much a challenge as it is repeatedly banging your head against a wall until the randomness of Halo's encounters work out in your favor. There's skill to learning how to survive it, sure. But it's no kind of fair challenge.

Another skull gets rid of your regenerating health and forces you to melee enemies to recoup it. It's a great combo with the non-stop explosions that discourage you from getting close to any enemies.

@naruball Dreams was a huge failure on Sony. Basically everyone who liked it will say exactly that. Move was an ill-fated attempt to copy exactly what Nintendo was doing. It was a bad idea from the get, and failed accordingly. Wonderbook was cool...but extremely esoteric and didn't have to software to back it. Et cetera, et cetera.

These aren't not Sony's failures because gamers on the Internet called them a waste of resources. Do you remember how many Internet gamers called the Wii a stupid gimmick waste of time with no good games? Or how many said the recent Direct sucked because they wanted Mario instead of Xenoblade and Fire Emblem? Internet chatter doesn't matter. Nintendo found an audience for these things, and hence made a success out of them. Sony hypothetically could've done the same for Dreams. That they didn't is their fault.

As for Nintendo...I dunno what that point is supposed to accomplish. If Nintendo didn't have their most successful franchises that they built and nurtured over decades, what would they have? I mean...all their other franchises...? Tomodachi Life is selling fantastically. Fire Emblem will no doubt do the same. The last Animal Crossing set the world on fire. Not to mention the Switch didn't just sell because of Mario and Zelda. We know that because the GameCube and Wii U, other big Nintendo failures, also had Mario and Zelda.

If literally any entertainment company didn't have their most popular IP, what would keep them going? And what exactly does that prove?

@8th_Observer ...I'll buy it. I mean, it has to actually catch my eye and I have to have money for it.

But I already have Rhythm Heaven pre-ordered. I bought Astro Bot at launch. The last game I bought was Mina the Hollower. I buy a lot of small games, as I think many do.

Original idea with a smaller budget? Sounds like what I've been wanting PlayStation to make this whole time. Can Insomniac and Sucker Punch do the same...?

@nolifebr I won't.

@SBBuds That's not how developmental resources work. If Microsoft closes down Double Fine, that would do nothing to improve Halo Studios.

And, like I said, I struggle to see how no South of Midnight is better for the industry at large. If you want to play less of those games, just don't play them. Them existing isn't taking away from whatever games you do enjoy.

@Chaotic_Goat YEAH! Less diversity, more ass!

These idiot chuds need to understand why Pong was so successful in the first place. Unapologetic white, phallic protags!!!

@naruball But it is, though. Fans aren't responsible for making Gravity Rush a success. Sony is.

You can argue Sony is just responding to the market. And that's true. But that's doesn't mean Sony had no hand to play in designing that market. Again, that Nintendo spent an entire generation broadening the gamer demographic is HUGE. They didn't just drunkenly do it either; it was a targeted effort to expand their consumer base and move away from the demographic being dominated by Sony and Microsoft at the time. There's no reason Sony couldn't have accomplished something similar. And that their attempts to do so fell flat doesn't make it less of an abject failure for them.

@SBBuds It shouldn't really warrant a lengthy discussion. I just want to know how less resources would make for better games. Seems like a simple question to answer.

I feel like what you're trying to say is less resources means less games, which means less mediocre games. But, even then, I struggle to understand why an industry without stuff like South of Midnight would be better.

@naruball Metroid doesn't sell comparatively poorly at the fault of audiences. It sells comparatively poorly because Nintendo doesn't know how to market it or make it marketable in the first place.

Sony's failures to breakthrough with smaller, quirkier IP is their failure. No one else's

@SBBuds Why would less developers equate to better games with more polish? Are we assuming closing down Mm would lead to bolstering the staff and budget of Intergalactic?

At best, Intergalactic won't be affected by this layoffs in any way. At worse, Naughty Dog is going to lose staff and have to push up the timeline to fill in a newly emptied fiscal year.

@AgentMantis They have a bunch of s***. And that's not terribly relevant to the conversation about job security any way.

What we should be scrutinizing is their probable lack of work/life balance and NoA's presumable continued abuse of contract workers.

@SBBuds I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the amount of distain/cruel indifference some gamers have for the people that make their games is astonishing.

Also, this isn't about making better games. What's going to happen is there's going to be less total games and more safe games. Possibly significantly less time and polish giving to those AAA 'quality' games, as well. It's not good for the industry, nor the consumer.

@naruball I mean, that Nintendo and PlayStation make vastly different games, one type of which is financially sustainable, is exactly the point, right?

In the same way people here say Microsoft has conditioned their fans to not buy games, Sony has conditioned theirs to only buy huge, big-budget titles that Sony can't really afford to keep making.

Nintendo, meanwhile, spent the Wii/DS era explicitly building a fanbase that responds to Tomodachi Life as much as it does big-budget Zelda. While still making Zelda for a fraction of the cost of God of War. Very likely on purpose, because that's more profitable.

Every developer just needs to work for Nintendo or Valve. Those are apparently the only massive companies in the industry that care to retain talent.

Conveniently, they also probably aren't really hiring...

@WhoderMan Nah, man. Sony would've shuttered them faster than Microsoft did. And I doubt they'd be much interested in a publishing partnership, either.

The only one of the big 3 that might entertain their low sales are Nintendo. But they really couldn't keep their independent methodology under Ninty; they'd be stuck doing controller gimmicks and Wario, or something. Also, Nintendo almost definitely has zero interest working with them; unless someone at the proxy marketing company called NoA has any pull on projects.

@WhoderMan I really don't think they could survive independent. That was the whole reason they agreed to the acquisition in the first place.

Microsoft, with their oodles of money and GamePass business model, was really a perfect home for them. But not anymore, I guess... Really don't know if they're attractive enough to coax another buyer.

@Oram77 Basically, they did an internal "Game Jam" thing ages ago and Klin was the project they decided to pick up and fully produce.

Was it very marketable? No — I certainly haven't played it. But it's the exact kinda project I would expect from them. Honestly, looking at their history, Klin seems more on-base than their most famous titles

Why is my beloved Double Fine there!?

See, the stupid thing is, none of these developers should've been acquired if they were expected to produce big numbers. Because that was never going to happen.

To give Xbox more credit than they deserve, it's entirely possible they all would've gone bankrupt already if they weren't purchased. But still, did we expect Compulsion to put out the next Gears of War?

I think that's fantastic.

@Oram77 One's better than none. And while I might be a bit contrarian here, I'd say this is easily the best one.

It's also fairly self contained, if that means anything.

Wolverine and Japan go together like blood on claws.

@UltimateOtaku91 I mean, South of Midnight, Kiln, and Ninja Garden 4 are all very respectable games to buy. I would argue they are indicative of good tastes and are worth gamer kred points.

Are they masterpieces? No. But they're solid, differ from the norm, and are all made by famous-to-those-in-the-know studios.

EDIT: The Outer Worlds 2 probably deserves to be included, too. Or Avowed. Or both. Two entirely decent RPGs made by a legend in the genre. Heck, I'd say the same for Hellblade, but I know the reception from this userbase hasn't been terribly glowing.

@Fartingale I'd argue Microsoft approving it is the only reason I'm okay with them owning DF.

@get2sammyb When the sentiment around here is often that Microsoft would completely cannibalize its revenue by bringing back exclusives, it kinda is.

Though, to be fair, the userbase of this site skews very bias towards PlayStation (some comments in this thread alone equating a suite of perfectly fine games to s*** ostensibly due to brand association, for instance), so this isn't necessarily the best population to poll.

Personally, I haven't bought any of them. But the last PlayStation Studios game I bought was Spider-Man 2 a year late and half off. So, in general, I dunno if we can get a great sense of the typical consumer's buying habits here.

@DartLOD How many games are you typically playing in a year?

While I agree a lack of marketing and fanfare certainly contributed to missed expectations, I really wouldn't say the solution is less games with bigger budgets.

Pretty sure they were treating The Outer Worlds 2 as a tentpole release, and that still missed. Ditto with Halo Infinite and Gears 5, which weren't mentioned due to age but I'm pretty sure weren't big successes. In fact, citing ESIV as an actual success seems to suggest quite the opposite; I kinda doubt Flight Simulator was big-budget either, but I could be wrong there.

I think Xbox's biggest problem is their games just haven't been good enough to turn heads. Forza Horizon is consistently quite good, and that's basically their most consistently successful series.

Randomly just realized how nonsensical it is to say AI is speeding up development on a game that was just delayed for months...

Do either this or Crazy Taxi really seem like they're being developed faster than any other games out there?

@doughnutsfan As much as I think contemporary Sony, and generally AAA games, aren't outputting enough, there was a huge cost to those frequent releases of yesteryear. Watch Golden Bolt's retrospectives on the Ratchet and Clank franchise to hear how horrowing things could get.

@helloim_anthony Can't...both be bad?

Taking a nihilistic approach to the environment really doesn't help anything.