@PsBoxSwitchOwner I would argue it's much more bothersome that people don't understand all stats, data, and science papers are non-factual and open to scrutiny.

@Trojan No. But it wasn't based on brand penetration. It was based on regular playtime.

@TheArt That's not how this survey was set up.

And I don't know what the f*** you can prove about anything with your hypothetical survey. Besides those three women know of the brand PlayStation.

@Haruki_NLI I hadn't even considered if participants could interpret 'play console' as 'play Netflix on the console.'

That alone would go a long way in explaining the gap between Switch and PS5, since you can't really watch anything on the former.

@themightyant Even then, I think most non-gamers who have a Wii do not regularly play it. Outside of the Wii Fit players you're citing, all of the rest probably have it in the closet 99% of the time.

Unless the survey conductors weren't very clear with participants what "regularly" means, and they assumed regular gaming is one or twice a year.

Mmm, I dunno how much I would trust the survey that says the Wii/Wii U gets almost half as much action as the Switch...

Like, the placement of everything seems spot on. But I'm really not believing those numbers.

It's fair that people here are cautioning panic until we see where this goes.

But, at the same time, how exactly can a McDonald's ad be gracefully integrated into the PlayStation ecosystem in a way that isn't obnoxious and stupid?

In-game ads are a lot more work than other avenues, and it remains to be seen how effective they even are. Turn on your PS5 and — boom — there's an ad for the new Spicy Mayo McCrispy; that's easy to implement and a much easier sell to advertisers. What sort of implementation do you really think they're more likely to go with...?

@Old-Red A believe a lot of staff at Xbox were already unionized. At the very least, most of the recently gutted Bethesda were.

Apparently didn't help much... Maybe they got nice severance packages.

@awp69 Well, firstly, just because that does seem to be the cadence of game development at a lot of developers, that doesn't mean it's a good practice or makes sense long-term.

In this case, Nick Treitman was at the studio for 6.5 years. So I wouldn't chalk this up to typical post launch layoffs.

Sure doesn't bode well for the next Halo... Already doesn't sound like anyone's impressed with Campaign Evolved's new content, which would presumably be a preview of the next game.

Now they have less people to make it any good...

@Rich33 Because Halo Combat Evolved is a very good game.

I would implore anyone to play Breath of the Wild if they got a chance regardless of their ability to access the rest of the series. Same goes for...literally any game. PS5 owners should play inFAMOUS Second Son even though Sony seems entirely uninterested in porting/remastering 1, 2, and FoB.

@ShadowRJ I'm guessing it was a mix of Sony assuming it would blow over faster and just trying to rip off the band-aid.

But yeah, maybe give people with a physical collection an idea of how it'll translate to the PS6. Or announce a better refund system, or something similar to Nintendo's digital lending. Make game trials available to all players and mandatory for any games that cost $50+.

@get2sammyb It's never too late for Sony to reverse course.

Them going through the trouble of printing a notice on a box certainly isn't a grander point-of-no-return than completely disassembling their production capabilities.

If the latter didn't stop 'em, I don't see why this should.

@ChuckRage77 I mean, that's not really true. It might be true of half the physical games released these days, but it's not like physical truthers support that in the first place.

If you have the hardware and can get your hands on Wand of Gamelon's physical release, you can play it. If there was a hypothetical CD-i digital marketplace, there's zero chance you would still be able to download the game — and less than a 0% chance it would be made digitally available again.

Better digital protections would be fantastic. But physical — actual, legitimate entire game on a disc physical — is the easiest solution to preservation.

@Oram77 I reckon you'd have a better chance of surviving Raccoon City, honestly.

Might sound basic, but BotW's Hyrule is quite easily the most magical video game world I've ever experienced. The Great Sea is also pretty high up there.

The worlds of Gravity Rush, Horizon, Xenoblade, Bioshock, Crimson Skies, Bananza, Splatoon, Dragon Quest,etc. are also pretty special to me. I could really go on ad infinitum.

EDIT: JET SET RAAAADDDIIIIOOOOO!!!
EDIT-EDIT: Ghostwire Tokyo. I really could just go on and on... Body Harvest.

LAST EDIT: Is Azurik an instrument?

@chatbot Literally never thought of that until 2 minutes ago.

Will do.

@themightyant I mean, for the cutscene example, even if the notification waits until the final fade to black, I still find it immersion-breaking and bothersome. I should really look into if I can turn off Trophy/Achievement notifications, because I would love that.

There are certainly good achievements, though. I likewise like the ones that serve as a punchline to an in-game joke. Or, best case, if they encourage an interesting way to engage with the game. I always thought the Gnome achievement in Half-Life 2 Ep.2 was the GoaT. A fun, irreverent challenge to make a replay more interesting. I remember L4D2 having something similar. I think the most boring thing these can do is award you for simply progressing through the game.

Playing through Campaign Evolved, I'm reminded how legitimately annoying I find these things.

They're incidental enough so that it doesn't much matter. But no moment in a game is ever improved by some loud-ass notification polluting screen real estate to tell you that you killed an unremarkable amount of enemies in a game where you exclusively kill enemies. Not to mention the obligatory "let me interrupt this end-of-level cutscene so I can inform you you just beat a level!"

Meanwhile, no moderately clever text pop-up tangentially related to the game I'm playing will ever come close to the dopamine hit I get from collecting a jiggly or BAAA-NAAA-NAAA.

@AgentMantiI I dunno that I would say Nintendo fans in general aren't looking forward to FE. It's more a vocal minority that thinks the only games of worth Nintendo makes are Mario and Zelda.

Most hardcore Nintendo fans are just kinda down with 90% of what the company puts out.

This might sound privileged as a multi-plat gamer, but I always wonder why someone who likes the idea of "Pokemon/Animal Crossing/Fire Emblem/Mario Kart/etc. at home" doesn't just get a d*** Switch.

Not to say there's no intrinsic value in games that wear Nintendo influences so openly, whose main selling point is they're more widely available alternatives. But, like...just buy the Nintendo things if they appeal to you.

"Pac-Man"

Don't like it.

"Sonic"

Don't like it.

"Sora"

Don't like it

"Goofy and Donald"

WTF

@Optimus Nah, we still have to go full Cyberpunk.

THEN, we'll be at the endgame.

"I’d expect fewer bets from EA moving forwards."

To be fair, I feel like the company stopped doing anything mildly risky over a decade ago. Aside from their miniscule indie label (that maybe is already dead?), the biggest risk I can recall was trying to bring back their once popular AAA space horror franchise as a Resi-style, bankable remake.

@somnambulance Yeah, the 'must-have' factor I'd say is a huge part of it. And I really don't feel like many of these games score very high in those regards. I'm probably most excited for Fire Emblem and Silent Hill, yet could go the rest of the year without playing either. On this website specifically, I guess Wolverine is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. But, man, despite loving Insomniac and liking Wolverine, I swear that game looks ridiculously boring to me.

Just talking quantity, I don't actually think September is anywhere near the busiest month just this year.

I feel a tad confused by the hype, because this doesn't seem like a biblically massive release schedule to me. Even taking Xbox and Nintendo releases into account.

Packed, for sure. But not much crazier than any busy holiday season in gaming.

Maybe what helps is there's only 5 games from that calendar I'm really thinking about buying. And none of which I'm particularly dying to play at launch. Also definitely helps that I give zero s***s about GTA in the first place.

Kinda feel like that SoP just incepted everyone into thinking September was insane...

@somnambulance Death of mono-culture, baby!

Yet another little reason everyone feels more lonely and isolated these days.

I say recommit to physical. Commit to physical, make online free, open the ecosystem up to PC launchers, bring back the back-comp program, start a physical-to-digital program, discount digital, very clearly commit to one exclusive a year, and launch a budget Series X power level console with all the service/OS changes of the new overtly premium console (go all out, $1500-2000 utter powerhouse). Make cloud gaming without subbing free with ads and no limits IF you own a neXtBOX. Keep GamePass, but the XBOX exclusive games aren't Day 1 anymore. Downsize GamePass Ultimate to make a $15-20 monthly price viable for business. If Nintendo agrees, get cloud gaming through GamePass on Switch 2 and start advertising it like the perfect companion to XBOX.

Do ALL that, and maybe Microsoft can flip the script. Basically, give hardcore gamers the ultimate consumer friendly experience that supports every single seemingly incidental want. Meanwhile, Sony will be trying to sell an overpowered, overpriced Switch 2 only marginally more powerful than a PS5 Pro. That's a lot of potential to unseat them if that's the plan.

Or, option 2: Release a console nobody wants, lose all the money because you don't make games anymore, and be bought out by Disney in 4 years and forced to make a direct Fortnite clone.

@Czar_Khastik Sony was pretty down with NFTs until that market imploded.

Is it petty of me to be critical of Astro's inclusion rather than an ACTUAL PSone character?
Yes.

Am I wrong?
No.

Still neat. I can't be bothered with LEGOs, but I am tempted to get Astro, Sonic, and Mario minifigs and start a little collection of game characters.

Kinda missed the beta (didn't realize it was the same week as Splatoon...of which I only played about 1 hour's worth that weekend anyway...)

I did play the basic tutorial, though. And it seemed...fine. I honestly think the tutorial just doesn't do a good job of selling the game, but I definitely didn't see much reason to pick this up instead of FighterZ or MvC3. But I didn't really get a chance to play it, so what do I know.

@Dalamar Eh, I reckon it's all right. It does actually have intent, so that's cool.

Still, its AI-ness really just holds it back. Logical inconsistencies, noticable continuity errors, bad sound direction, inconsistent scene transitions. It's all very distracting.

Compared to something like Avatar, I can see where you're coming from with your preference. But I likewise don't think you're appreciating the artistry that goes into making those movies the technical marvels they are. Yes, they are banal, but they've still a lot of artistic merit.

@Dalamar I posted one on this thread and that comment's still up. So presumably yes.

@Dalamar What's a Pengmin and should I be mad about it?

How many more things can the Spider-Man cast and crew praise PlayStation for during this press tour?

Incidentally, to be somewhat gatekeepey, I don't like hearing celebrity's favorite games. They always sound too obvious. I'm certain the majority of celebrities do not play many games — they're too busy being beautiful and rich — so it always comes off as ill informed and even insincere.

Like if I told someone my favorite book was Anthem and left out the part about how I've only read 10 books.

@Sunraku Can I have a woke anime AI girl boss waifu?

@Dalamar In the context of quality, I think it's more about how AI art can only equate to the most soulless, boring human art. For any piece of human slop, there's about a dozen works displaying effort, intent, and creativity — even if competence isn't always a feature. AI art can just barely compare to the worst human art.

I also think it's important to remember that people actually quite hated that generic, corporate animated stuff the tech industry was advertising with a few years back. We just instinctually identify and dislike textureless art.

@For-Kier Even ignoring all the rightful criticisms of AI itself, human slop is still leagues above AI slop.

The Room is an uncanny disaster, yet still has the humanity and warmth AI ostensibly just can't replicate.

When she looked at that can and softly smiled, I felt that. Anyway, here's a video with actual soul to compensate:
https://youtu.be/_2quiyHfJQw?is=hlERmYdjQ_oqwkhz

@TheArt I guess.

I'm not saying people can't play and enjoy long games. I just don't think games often benefit from being so long.

Even for those that can't afford many games and just want stuff to play, there's a lot of forever games they could be playing instead. Many of which are free to some extent.

The ability to store and manage data on common storage formats.

EDIT: Also, the functionality to torrent (download from other users) hard delisted games.

@TheArt I like playing games. I'd prefer to not play 1 game that got tiresome after 10 hours in the time I could've played 12.

It has MUCH less to do with fomo over new games and everything to do with actively wanting to play hundreds of games throughout gaming history simultaneously while only having precious little time to play any.

HEEEEEYYY, HEEEEYYY, HEEEEY! IT'S TIME FOR OUT-OF-POCKET TAXXXIIIII!!!

YEEEAAAHHHH, YEEEAAAHHHH, YEEEAAAHHHH, YEEEAAAHHHH, YEEAAAHHH!

@For-Kier I much prefer a short and sweet 6 hour game to a padded out 20-30 hour game. AAA, or otherwise.

I don't mind the occasional 50 hour open world or RPG, but I don't think many games are better for being lengthy. Nor do I really consider length an aspect of quality.

@Oram77 Mostly Switch stuff. Star Fox, Rhythm Heaven, Splatoon. But also Halo and Denshattack (couldn't afford, actually, but do want). Also would've bought Avatar, DoA, and/or Elliot if it was a slow year. And I was eyeing Gothic and SolarPunk, but I think I would've skipped both regardless.

Maybe depends how you define "packed." All I know is I feel overwhelmed.

30 hours is too many... I mean, it's not inherently bad. But I still think 8-15 hours is the ideal range for almost every game.

@Oram77 Personally, I've had a packed June/July.

As long as there's no parent-daughter beach party, I'll hold my judgement.

But still...what a premise.

@nyr2k2 Ehhh. I wouldn't assume that sentiment is isolated. At the very least, a lot of casual PlayStation owners haven't been inspired to become brand loyalists and many of the loyalists from yesteryear have lost their passion.