As a hardcore Team Ninja fan who regards Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 2 as the pinnacle of combat games, this review was kind of disheartening.
This is one of my most hyped games this year, all I hoped for was a hardcore and difficult Ghost of Tsushima, when it sounds like we ended up with a watered down team ninja game with added Ubisoft trash. I am not even sure why they went open world, it doesn't really add anything to the types of games Team Ninja make. If anything they should go back to the Dark Souls style looping back hub design of Ninja Gaiden.
It sounds like they went for the mainstream casual audience and have ended up with a game that the casuals won't really like, and alienated their biggest fanbase.
Ninja Gaiden, Nioh, Wo Long are all exceptional combat games, why water down your formula.
Just watched the DF video and they are surprisingly downbeat about the console. The lack of cpu upgrade makes the whole console a bit pointless (the cpu increase is even less than the ps4 pro got) and the other spec increases and pretty small. I have been saying since the rumours started this would not be a 60fps on everything machine or a 60fps quality mode machine, and atleast now everyone can get their expectations in check
It's not worth upgrading from the base model at all, it's a pretty minor increase, now we just need some more actual ps5 games and not more hardware
@ShogunRok Did you try the game on different difficulties, and if you did how did it feel on higher difficulties?
I am not really concerned with them lowering the difficulty of their game, aslong as the difficulty us long time fans of Team Ninja want is still there as an option. Ninja Gaiden has difficulty options which are a master stroke to introduce new players to the game mechanics as an example.
Shawn was right about game budgets ballooning 3-4 years ago (hardly anyone believed him then and called him out) and he is right once again, but people don't want to listen to him yet again. He knows this industry.
If you’re spending $250 million, you want to be able to sell [your game] to as many people as possible, even if it’s just 10 per cent more
This is the part most people do not seem to grasp when discussing this topic on here, and prefer to throw shade at the other platforms instead.
And his quotes do not necessarily mean exclusives will end, they may decide to make smaller or cheaper games as an example, but something has to change. Games can't keep getting more expensive when the market does not increase at the same level
Pay attention to what this guy is saying, PlayStation was great when he was around, would love him back
@CrackmanNL thanks for the post, very informative about the subject at hand.
I thought Nier Automata was a great game.
@ValentinaMoore sorry I can't read your reply to me as it was removed by the mods for "flaming/argueing" I presume it was not very constructive and just insulting, so don't bother next time thank you.
@Wotad Yes your article is from January, Square backtracked on that at their earnings call, blaming slow adoption of the PS5, as explained in the pushsquare article which is dated months later in August, that I linked for you already.
Now, however, new Square Enix boss Takashi Kiryu is saying that the action RPG didn't meet the publisher's higher-end expectations.
The backtrack comes courtesy of the company's latest earnings report, as covered by Bloomberg (paywall). It was apparently a rough one, with Square Enix pointing out a 79% drop in profit. The part that's bound to raise eyebrows, though? Kiryu highlighted the PS5's "slow adoption" as a cause of Final Fantasy 16's struggles. This is despite Sony's current-gen console recently breaking records left and right.
It is also explained in the Eurogamer article I also linked for you
@Wotad It did not, and no misquotes here, it was said by Squares president Takashi Kiryu at their earnings call. It was even covered right here on Pushsquare...
@Flaming_Kaiser They will need to make a change as its looking like it could be 3 big games in a row that have not met expectations, after Forspoken and FF16. Increasing their market or lowering the budget of the game are the 2 most obvious answers. I would prefer option 1 personally, but its really up to Square, let just hope they do not decide to double down on NFTs
Square have already said that they are relying on their big games doing the heavily lifting from a financial standpoint, so they need to do something. I picked up FF16 for £21.95 from Amazon in January, and its still available for less than £30, which is an indication that all is not going well at Square.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
@3Above I am sure that calculation would be a part of it 100%, but as a small business owner myself, they would be insane to ignore the details of their contracts around the game. You cant make an informed decision without all the relevant information.
But as their financial results have been worsening, maybe they did ignore a whole load of valuable information and you are correct. They have given me the impression of a rudderless poorly managed company for a while now, what with their failed NFT obsession and everything.
Thanks for the interesting and informative response, its made me think a little deeper about the subject
@Flaming_Kaiser I didn't mention Xbox, but increasing the size of your market is certainly one way to make more money, you are correct. But I would assume Switch and PC would be a higher priority due to their install bases. Releasing there day 1 would of also helped, maybe they will for part 3 who knows
@3Above I am pretty sure Square would use all their available information before making a forecast, and not just ignore the details of a contract signed by themselves and Sony, but we are both just speculating at this point.
@CrackmanNL I imagine their expectations are based around how much profit they need to make, to make their business viable, their return on investment.
With their worsening financial results, Square said they were relying more and more on their big games to do the heavy lifting, which just is not happening, based on their last 3 big game releases which were all PS exclusive.
@jt887 it sounds sensible, but I would also include the Switch, even if its a Cloud version. To ignore the biggest console market and everything else is certainly an interesting decision.
@UltimateOtaku91 I didn't mention xbox, but yes you are correct they do have other options available to them like lowering the budgets or size and scope of their games, but personally I would prefer them to just release them to a bigger audience and leave the games alone. Lowering the scope or quality would be a bad idea in my opinion. That's what I meant when I said they do have other options.
@3Above I imagine when Square state that sales did not meet expectations, that their expectations are based around the contract signed with Sony, so I would assume the money does not make up for it, as they are still below expectations.
@UltimateOtaku91 @Flaming_Kaiser with the increasing cost of game development, and current volatility in the gaming market, I would assume they are thinking long and hard about their exclusivity strategy moving forward, as none of their games have hit the numbers required, only being on PlayStation.
This was true of FF16, Forspoken and now FF7 Rebirth. With the way the industry is going, something has to change. You have been able to pick up FF16 from Amazon for a little over £20 for months, its where I purchased it.
Maybe they have a different strategy, but they need to do something as their financial results have been on the decline for a while.
Looks like Square will be along soon with their standard press release of "game did not meet our expectations" just like they did for Forspoken and FF16.
They really seem to make terrible decision after terrible decision the last few years judging on their declining financial results
The uncapped framerate averaging 31fps is a deal breaker for me, and I own a VRR TV. That sort of no man's land framerate is awful to play and looks horrific
Consistency is king and they need to offer a properly frame paced 30fps cap or I won't bother wasting my time on such a technical mess and I loved the original and the Dark Arisen dlc.
I am not rewarding them for their incompetence and would prefer to send the dev and publisher a clear message that this kind of framerate is unacceptable.
Some of us have been beating the drum about games costing too much for years, but everytime we have spoke, we got screamed at by the die hards. Shawn Layden was right all those years ago but nobody wanted to listen
Sony need to find their old self again and start releasing a wide variety of games with different, size, scope, genres, perspectives and cost like everyone else does.
This obsession with production values over everything has destroyed their own market and made their games boring and too similar.
I used to buy every Sony game day 1, but now I wait for deep sales most of the time, as they are way to safe and similar for my tastes, its like you have already played it before you switch it on, you know exactly what you are going to get.
And ontop of that their cookie cutter sequeals this gen do not do enough to freshen up the gameplay. Games like Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, Spiderman 2 etc are good games that i have enjoyed but are not as good as what came before in my opinion after playing them. That's why the hype has not been the same.
I hope they learn from this and we get some of the old Sony back so we can fall in love with their games again.
Input lag is just as important as everything else when playing a video game
140ms is borderline unplayable for any slightly faster paced game
Both Sony and Microsoft need to improve their streaming services if they actually want people to use it and for it be a viable alternative to playing a game natively
@TrickyDicky99 people are actually spending more with Sony as a company, not less, that's why they reported record revenue.
That is not the problem. The problem is their business model is unsustainable without changes, as explained by Hiroki Totoki the other week at their earnings call.
@TrickyDicky99 yes I know that, but even with all those sales from Fortnite, COD etc they are still making very little money, less than 6%. Hardly any industries around the world operate under those margins.
Sonys market is not increasing in size at all, but their costs have ballooned. This is why they increased the prices of their games and subscription, but it has not helped.
Selling more consoles at a loss due to an increase in manufacturing costs and the heavy emphasis on discounting the console price (which they have had to do the last 12months) means they are struggling.
It's not sustainable, something has to change. The CEO of Sony explained all this at their last earnings call
@TrickyDicky99 well yes but again what's the point to any of it if they are making such little money even after selling all those consoles?
Bank accounts have close to 6% interest these days, exactly the same margin as Sony is operating under. Its unsuastainable. Something has to change and fast, which Sonys CEO acknowledged during their last earnings call.
@TrickyDicky99 when they are making very luttle money and have alot of debt as a company? A very difficult sell to shareholders and investors. It's why their share price has dropped because its not a good look for the market.
Shareholders expect a return on investment and less than 6% profit from hundred of billions is very poor and hardly any industries around the world operate under such razor margins, its unsustainable.
We've had one "double AA" game so far with Skull and Bones. Look how that turned out.
@ZhuckelDror Skull and Bones was the first AAAA quadruple AA according to Ubisoft. Literally the opposite of double A. The game had a massive budget and a protracted development, in no way is it double AA
A double AA game would be Palworld or helldivers 2, both of which are hugely popular
@TrickyDicky99 not really. With sonys profit margins being less than 6%, and investor would almost be better off putting their money in a bank than investing it with Sonys, less risk and the same reward.
This was all explained in their latest earnings call and Push just did an article about it aswell mate
With the cost of making the hardware not falling, and Sonys aggressive marketing and sales for 12months, being number 2 (behind the switch) in console sales is not enough, its a loss leader, even more so than in the past. It was mentioned by their CEO that part of their problem was that they missed their target by atleast 4million despite aggressive sales and discounts, something I mentioned about 4months ago on here and got shot down by alot of people.
With Sonys big high production value games barely being viable anymore, with their budgets going crazy, I think part of their answer is to start to make double AA games like Nintendo, MS and all 3rd party's make.
Some of us have been beating this drum for a few years, and we knew this was comming, but everytime it is mentioned we get shot down by the diehards who never criticize.
Sony used to have variety in the software line up and it was one of the things that made them special to us. They lost their way after the ps3 and its really starting to catch up with them.
A business of record breaking revenue of hundreds of billions but less than 6% profit is absolutely pathetic and very few industries in the world operate under those extreme margins, it is unsustainable.
Investors would almost get the same return if they put their money in a bank instead of Sony. That is very worrying and is is a huge problem
We have recently learned from Sonys latest financial results that their single player exclusives are not viable and cost too much money, so why does everyone think that they are now going to double down on those games, that we know are too expensive and risky. It makes no sense.
I really hope Sony start releasing some double AA games like Nintendo and Microsoft already do, it seems the most sensible approach from a business perspective
I hope everyone effected lands on their feet quickly. This is the second round of lay offs effecting Sony after the ones late last year.
The industry is in the bin right now and this was always comming after their latest financial results were so poor. They are in bad shape right now, along with alot of others.
Please don't ruin this game by making it casual friendly. Stick to your principles Team Ninja, you are the masters of combat and your biggest fans enjoy the difficulty.
On Playstation i just finished Death Stranding, loved the story and the ending was really interesting. Enjoyed it alot more than I thought I would. Now playing Kena from ps extra after recently resubscribing due to a 59% discount offered by Sony.
On Xbox I am playing Tomb Raider Remastered. Just finished tomb of khamoon in TR1, up to Opera House in TR2 and finished the jungle first level in TR3. Really enjoying the nostalgia trip and the games still hold up today
Ignoring Nintendo and its library of culturally iconic intellectual property, PlayStation dominates the video games industry around the world. PS5, despite missing its lofty forecast, is by far the biggest home console on the planet – and its home to some of the most popular game franchises
Why would you just ignore the largest console on the planet, to try and pretend the ps5 is?
The switch is at 132.5million sales, a number the ps5 is very unlikely to get close to in its lifetime. To try and pretend otherwise wise is pretty disingenuous.
And yes the switch is a home console, it literally switches between being a home console and a handheld. It's the whole reason for the name
With all the rumours stating that it will be using the same cpu cores. It's not going to be a 60fps on everything machine, much like the ps4 pro was not.
After Sony CEO said they can't really lower the price of the ps5, the ps5 Pro is going to be a very expensive bit of hardware that is not needed at all. The ps5 hardly has hardly got started.
If Sony really are going to release a pro console every gen, even when its not needed, I won't buy a ps6 at launch and will wait for the pro next gen.
Sony need to increase their profits, and releasing even more hardware
(Which you generally lose money on) is not the play they should be making at all. Infact it's quite literally the opposite releasing more niche hardware after psvr2.
Death Stranding Directors Cut. Made it to edge knot city and just defeated the big BT. Think its act 10 or possibly 9? The story is very interesting and I have even found the gameplay fun. It may be a walking sim kind of, but I have enjoyed it none the less. Especially the firing range its been fun getting the S rank on them all.
@Titntin that's a relief, I thought we came away with the same conclusions but I got confused there for a moment mate! Some of the reactions to last night have been funny to read!
After some of their comments last night and reading between the lines a little, gamepass on other hardware seems little more than pipe dream and very unlikely to happen anytime soon. I just don't think Sony or Nintendo have any interest in it, at all. Consoles may even be obsolete by then, but that's all just guesswork on my part and reading between the lines. Who knows what the future will bring!
@Titntin I mean there has been countless more rumours than that, but if you would like to pretend otherwise then that's ok. That's what my original comment was about.
I have said what I think will happen moving forward, a mixture of exclusives and multiplatform day and date, not sure what more I can say. I am not disagreeing with you, I don't think?
@Titntin I didnt actually state my opinion/conclusion. For the record i think that no doubt there will be a mixture of exclusives, timed exclusives and day 1 multiplatform releases for xbox in the future.
But almost all of the rumours turned out false and alot of websites and insiders have lost all their credibility in the space of 25minutes, let's not pretend otherwise. That's what I was commenting on
The only people still running with rumours are all the insiders and websites who just got found out for knowing very little. Almost all of the rumours ended up being completely fabricated and now everyone is desperately running around trying to save a tiny bit of credibility, hence articles like this. It's pretty funny to be honest.
After reading all of the countless rumours, that was about as underwhelming as it could have been. I wonder what the 4 games are, did they say 2 live service and 2 single player? I was playing Death Stranding at the time and missed a few minutes of the podcast
Sony doesn't need to expand to other devices but microsoft sure seems to
According to Sonys CEO, they do need to expand their strategy on other devices like PC, due to their razor thin profit margins. It was widely reported yesterday
The solution, it seems, is taking Sony's first-part titles "multi-platform", by which Totoki appears to mean PC specifically. He explains: "In the past, we wanted to popularise consoles, and a first-party title's main purpose was to make the console popular". Times are changing, however, which the PlayStation chairman acknowledges, and it appears that Sony is prepared to change with them, elaborating:
"This is true, but there's a synergy to it, so if you have strong first-party content – not only on our console but also other platforms, like computers – a first-party [game] can be grown with multi-platform, and that can help operating profit to improve, so that's another one we want to work on proactively. I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margin, so I would like to go aggressive on improving our margin performance."
Comments 790
Re: Poll: How Much Do You Care About 60fps on PS5?
Consistency is king for me
Re: Rise of the Ronin (PS5) - A Safe, Outdated Open World Game
As a hardcore Team Ninja fan who regards Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 2 as the pinnacle of combat games, this review was kind of disheartening.
This is one of my most hyped games this year, all I hoped for was a hardcore and difficult Ghost of Tsushima, when it sounds like we ended up with a watered down team ninja game with added Ubisoft trash. I am not even sure why they went open world, it doesn't really add anything to the types of games Team Ninja make. If anything they should go back to the Dark Souls style looping back hub design of Ninja Gaiden.
It sounds like they went for the mainstream casual audience and have ended up with a game that the casuals won't really like, and alienated their biggest fanbase.
Ninja Gaiden, Nioh, Wo Long are all exceptional combat games, why water down your formula.
Re: PS5 Pro's Proprietary DLSS-Esque Upscaler Sounds Superb
Just watched the DF video and they are surprisingly downbeat about the console. The lack of cpu upgrade makes the whole console a bit pointless (the cpu increase is even less than the ps4 pro got) and the other spec increases and pretty small. I have been saying since the rumours started this would not be a 60fps on everything machine or a 60fps quality mode machine, and atleast now everyone can get their expectations in check
It's not worth upgrading from the base model at all, it's a pretty minor increase, now we just need some more actual ps5 games and not more hardware
Re: 13 New Games Land on PS Plus Extra, Premium Next Week
I loved Cool Boarders 2 back in the day. Me and my buddies used to play it all the time. We used to love 1080 on the n64 aswell
Will give DBZ: Kakarot a go from this months selection when I have some spare time, seems fitting, happy with that.
Re: Preview: Rise of the Ronin Shows Promise, But It's No Showstopper Yet
@ShogunRok Did you try the game on different difficulties, and if you did how did it feel on higher difficulties?
I am not really concerned with them lowering the difficulty of their game, aslong as the difficulty us long time fans of Team Ninja want is still there as an option. Ninja Gaiden has difficulty options which are a master stroke to introduce new players to the game mechanics as an example.
Re: Exclusivity Is the Achilles' Heel of Huge Blockbusters, Says Former PlayStation Exec
Shawn was right about game budgets ballooning 3-4 years ago (hardly anyone believed him then and called him out) and he is right once again, but people don't want to listen to him yet again. He knows this industry.
This is the part most people do not seem to grasp when discussing this topic on here, and prefer to throw shade at the other platforms instead.
And his quotes do not necessarily mean exclusives will end, they may decide to make smaller or cheaper games as an example, but something has to change. Games can't keep getting more expensive when the market does not increase at the same level
Pay attention to what this guy is saying, PlayStation was great when he was around, would love him back
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
@CrackmanNL thanks for the post, very informative about the subject at hand.
I thought Nier Automata was a great game.
@ValentinaMoore sorry I can't read your reply to me as it was removed by the mods for "flaming/argueing" I presume it was not very constructive and just insulting, so don't bother next time thank you.
Re: PS5's Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin Headline New Montage Trailer
Really hyped for Rise of the Ronin, one of my most hyped on any platform this year.
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
@Wotad Sounds about as clear as mud. But thanks for the further information, I appreciate it, its something I must have missed.
Although I am not sure the "people like you" comments are exactly needed are they? What does that bring to the conversation.
Edit: atleast you comment was removed, try being a bit more civil next time
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
@Wotad Yes your article is from January, Square backtracked on that at their earnings call, blaming slow adoption of the PS5, as explained in the pushsquare article which is dated months later in August, that I linked for you already.
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/08/square-enix-bafflingly-backtracks-on-final-fantasy-16-sales-blames-slow-ps5-adoption
It is also explained in the Eurogamer article I also linked for you
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
@Wotad It did not, and no misquotes here, it was said by Squares president Takashi Kiryu at their earnings call. It was even covered right here on Pushsquare...
Article from Pushsquare: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/08/square-enix-bafflingly-backtracks-on-final-fantasy-16-sales-blames-slow-ps5-adoption
Article from Eurogamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/final-fantasy-16-sales-did-not-meet-high-expectations-says-square-enix-president#:~:text=Final%20Fantasy%20XVI-,Final%20Fantasy%2016%20sales%20did%20not%20meet%20high%20expectations%2C%20says,Blames%20slow%20adoption%20of%20PS5.&text=Sales%20of%20Final%20Fantasy%2016,expectations%2C%20said%20president%20Takashi%20Kiryu.
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
@Flaming_Kaiser They will need to make a change as its looking like it could be 3 big games in a row that have not met expectations, after Forspoken and FF16. Increasing their market or lowering the budget of the game are the 2 most obvious answers. I would prefer option 1 personally, but its really up to Square, let just hope they do not decide to double down on NFTs
Square have already said that they are relying on their big games doing the heavily lifting from a financial standpoint, so they need to do something. I picked up FF16 for £21.95 from Amazon in January, and its still available for less than £30, which is an indication that all is not going well at Square.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
@3Above I am sure that calculation would be a part of it 100%, but as a small business owner myself, they would be insane to ignore the details of their contracts around the game. You cant make an informed decision without all the relevant information.
But as their financial results have been worsening, maybe they did ignore a whole load of valuable information and you are correct. They have given me the impression of a rudderless poorly managed company for a while now, what with their failed NFT obsession and everything.
Thanks for the interesting and informative response, its made me think a little deeper about the subject
@Flaming_Kaiser I didn't mention Xbox, but increasing the size of your market is certainly one way to make more money, you are correct. But I would assume Switch and PC would be a higher priority due to their install bases. Releasing there day 1 would of also helped, maybe they will for part 3 who knows
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
@3Above I am pretty sure Square would use all their available information before making a forecast, and not just ignore the details of a contract signed by themselves and Sony, but we are both just speculating at this point.
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
@CrackmanNL I imagine their expectations are based around how much profit they need to make, to make their business viable, their return on investment.
With their worsening financial results, Square said they were relying more and more on their big games to do the heavy lifting, which just is not happening, based on their last 3 big game releases which were all PS exclusive.
@jt887 it sounds sensible, but I would also include the Switch, even if its a Cloud version. To ignore the biggest console market and everything else is certainly an interesting decision.
I guess you reap what you sow
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
@UltimateOtaku91 I didn't mention xbox, but yes you are correct they do have other options available to them like lowering the budgets or size and scope of their games, but personally I would prefer them to just release them to a bigger audience and leave the games alone. Lowering the scope or quality would be a bad idea in my opinion. That's what I meant when I said they do have other options.
@3Above I imagine when Square state that sales did not meet expectations, that their expectations are based around the contract signed with Sony, so I would assume the money does not make up for it, as they are still below expectations.
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
@UltimateOtaku91 @Flaming_Kaiser with the increasing cost of game development, and current volatility in the gaming market, I would assume they are thinking long and hard about their exclusivity strategy moving forward, as none of their games have hit the numbers required, only being on PlayStation.
This was true of FF16, Forspoken and now FF7 Rebirth. With the way the industry is going, something has to change. You have been able to pick up FF16 from Amazon for a little over £20 for months, its where I purchased it.
Maybe they have a different strategy, but they need to do something as their financial results have been on the decline for a while.
Re: Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn't Even Come Close to Remake
Looks like Square will be along soon with their standard press release of "game did not meet our expectations" just like they did for Forspoken and FF16.
They really seem to make terrible decision after terrible decision the last few years judging on their declining financial results
Re: Capcom's PS5 Action Game Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Continues to Show Promise
This looks really interesting. I played my first tactics game 2 years ago and ended up really enjoying it,, so I think I will like this
Re: Dragon's Dogma 2 PS5 Frame Rate Controversy Rumbles on as Previews Give Conflicting Reports
The uncapped framerate averaging 31fps is a deal breaker for me, and I own a VRR TV. That sort of no man's land framerate is awful to play and looks horrific
Consistency is king and they need to offer a properly frame paced 30fps cap or I won't bother wasting my time on such a technical mess and I loved the original and the Dark Arisen dlc.
I am not rewarding them for their incompetence and would prefer to send the dev and publisher a clear message that this kind of framerate is unacceptable.
Re: Reaction: What Is Happening to the Video Games Industry and Why Are There So Many Layoffs?
Some of us have been beating the drum about games costing too much for years, but everytime we have spoke, we got screamed at by the die hards. Shawn Layden was right all those years ago but nobody wanted to listen
Sony need to find their old self again and start releasing a wide variety of games with different, size, scope, genres, perspectives and cost like everyone else does.
This obsession with production values over everything has destroyed their own market and made their games boring and too similar.
I used to buy every Sony game day 1, but now I wait for deep sales most of the time, as they are way to safe and similar for my tastes, its like you have already played it before you switch it on, you know exactly what you are going to get.
And ontop of that their cookie cutter sequeals this gen do not do enough to freshen up the gameplay. Games like Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, Spiderman 2 etc are good games that i have enjoyed but are not as good as what came before in my opinion after playing them. That's why the hype has not been the same.
I hope they learn from this and we get some of the old Sony back so we can fall in love with their games again.
Re: Rumour: Assassin's Creed Red Is Starting to Sound a Lot Like Valhalla
So just the usual Ubisoft garbage, its a hard pass from me
Re: PS Plus Premium's Cloud Streaming Is Much, Much Better Than You Think
Both systems are not good enough
Input lag is just as important as everything else when playing a video game
140ms is borderline unplayable for any slightly faster paced game
Both Sony and Microsoft need to improve their streaming services if they actually want people to use it and for it be a viable alternative to playing a game natively
Re: Unannounced Games from PlayStation Studios Have Been Cancelled
@TrickyDicky99 people are actually spending more with Sony as a company, not less, that's why they reported record revenue.
That is not the problem. The problem is their business model is unsustainable without changes, as explained by Hiroki Totoki the other week at their earnings call.
Re: Unannounced Games from PlayStation Studios Have Been Cancelled
@TrickyDicky99 yes I know that, but even with all those sales from Fortnite, COD etc they are still making very little money, less than 6%. Hardly any industries around the world operate under those margins.
Sonys market is not increasing in size at all, but their costs have ballooned. This is why they increased the prices of their games and subscription, but it has not helped.
Selling more consoles at a loss due to an increase in manufacturing costs and the heavy emphasis on discounting the console price (which they have had to do the last 12months) means they are struggling.
It's not sustainable, something has to change. The CEO of Sony explained all this at their last earnings call
Re: Unannounced Games from PlayStation Studios Have Been Cancelled
@TrickyDicky99 well yes but again what's the point to any of it if they are making such little money even after selling all those consoles?
Bank accounts have close to 6% interest these days, exactly the same margin as Sony is operating under. Its unsuastainable. Something has to change and fast, which Sonys CEO acknowledged during their last earnings call.
Re: Unannounced Games from PlayStation Studios Have Been Cancelled
@TrickyDicky99 when they are making very luttle money and have alot of debt as a company? A very difficult sell to shareholders and investors. It's why their share price has dropped because its not a good look for the market.
Shareholders expect a return on investment and less than 6% profit from hundred of billions is very poor and hardly any industries around the world operate under such razor margins, its unsustainable.
Re: Reaction: The Problem with PlayStation Right Now
@ZhuckelDror Skull and Bones was the first AAAA quadruple AA according to Ubisoft. Literally the opposite of double A. The game had a massive budget and a protracted development, in no way is it double AA
A double AA game would be Palworld or helldivers 2, both of which are hugely popular
Re: Unannounced Games from PlayStation Studios Have Been Cancelled
@TrickyDicky99 not really. With sonys profit margins being less than 6%, and investor would almost be better off putting their money in a bank than investing it with Sonys, less risk and the same reward.
This was all explained in their latest earnings call and Push just did an article about it aswell mate
Re: Reaction: The Problem with PlayStation Right Now
With the cost of making the hardware not falling, and Sonys aggressive marketing and sales for 12months, being number 2 (behind the switch) in console sales is not enough, its a loss leader, even more so than in the past. It was mentioned by their CEO that part of their problem was that they missed their target by atleast 4million despite aggressive sales and discounts, something I mentioned about 4months ago on here and got shot down by alot of people.
With Sonys big high production value games barely being viable anymore, with their budgets going crazy, I think part of their answer is to start to make double AA games like Nintendo, MS and all 3rd party's make.
Some of us have been beating this drum for a few years, and we knew this was comming, but everytime it is mentioned we get shot down by the diehards who never criticize.
Sony used to have variety in the software line up and it was one of the things that made them special to us. They lost their way after the ps3 and its really starting to catch up with them.
A business of record breaking revenue of hundreds of billions but less than 6% profit is absolutely pathetic and very few industries in the world operate under those extreme margins, it is unsustainable.
Investors would almost get the same return if they put their money in a bank instead of Sony. That is very worrying and is is a huge problem
Re: Unannounced Games from PlayStation Studios Have Been Cancelled
We have recently learned from Sonys latest financial results that their single player exclusives are not viable and cost too much money, so why does everyone think that they are now going to double down on those games, that we know are too expensive and risky. It makes no sense.
I really hope Sony start releasing some double AA games like Nintendo and Microsoft already do, it seems the most sensible approach from a business perspective
Re: 900 PlayStation Employees Laid Off, London Studio Closed
I hope everyone effected lands on their feet quickly. This is the second round of lay offs effecting Sony after the ones late last year.
The industry is in the bin right now and this was always comming after their latest financial results were so poor. They are in bad shape right now, along with alot of others.
Re: Rise of the Ronin Confirms Character Creator, Four Player Co-Op for Main Missions
Please don't ruin this game by making it casual friendly. Stick to your principles Team Ninja, you are the masters of combat and your biggest fans enjoy the difficulty.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 517
On Playstation i just finished Death Stranding, loved the story and the ending was really interesting. Enjoyed it alot more than I thought I would. Now playing Kena from ps extra after recently resubscribing due to a 59% discount offered by Sony.
On Xbox I am playing Tomb Raider Remastered. Just finished tomb of khamoon in TR1, up to Opera House in TR2 and finished the jungle first level in TR3. Really enjoying the nostalgia trip and the games still hold up today
Re: PS5, PS4 Is Losing the SEO War Against Its Rivals
Why would you just ignore the largest console on the planet, to try and pretend the ps5 is?
The switch is at 132.5million sales, a number the ps5 is very unlikely to get close to in its lifetime. To try and pretend otherwise wise is pretty disingenuous.
And yes the switch is a home console, it literally switches between being a home console and a handheld. It's the whole reason for the name
Re: Upgraded PS5 Pro Planning to Be the Best Place to Play GTA 6
With all the rumours stating that it will be using the same cpu cores. It's not going to be a 60fps on everything machine, much like the ps4 pro was not.
After Sony CEO said they can't really lower the price of the ps5, the ps5 Pro is going to be a very expensive bit of hardware that is not needed at all. The ps5 hardly has hardly got started.
If Sony really are going to release a pro console every gen, even when its not needed, I won't buy a ps6 at launch and will wait for the pro next gen.
Sony need to increase their profits, and releasing even more hardware
(Which you generally lose money on) is not the play they should be making at all. Infact it's quite literally the opposite releasing more niche hardware after psvr2.
Re: Helldivers 2 Hype Continues, More Concurrents Than Every PlayStation PC Port Combined
I guess day and date pc releases really do work. Well done on your sucess Arrowhead
Re: Silent Hill: The Short Message (PS5) - There's a Reason It's Free
@Arnna in every possible way, that's why the reaction online has been bad
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 516
Death Stranding Directors Cut. Made it to edge knot city and just defeated the big BT. Think its act 10 or possibly 9? The story is very interesting and I have even found the gameplay fun. It may be a walking sim kind of, but I have enjoyed it none the less. Especially the firing range its been fun getting the S rank on them all.
Re: Sony May Have Made the Right Call Not Copying Xbox Game Pass with PS Plus
Should we not be championing the consumer and not the corporation? Sometimes I wonder how we got in this mess, it's crazy.
@KundaliniRising333 @Godot25 well said
Re: Reaction: Xbox Is Bringing Some Great Games to PS5, But Rumours Will Remain Rampant About What's Next
@Titntin that's a relief, I thought we came away with the same conclusions but I got confused there for a moment mate! Some of the reactions to last night have been funny to read!
After some of their comments last night and reading between the lines a little, gamepass on other hardware seems little more than pipe dream and very unlikely to happen anytime soon. I just don't think Sony or Nintendo have any interest in it, at all. Consoles may even be obsolete by then, but that's all just guesswork on my part and reading between the lines. Who knows what the future will bring!
Re: Reaction: Xbox Is Bringing Some Great Games to PS5, But Rumours Will Remain Rampant About What's Next
@Titntin I mean there has been countless more rumours than that, but if you would like to pretend otherwise then that's ok. That's what my original comment was about.
I have said what I think will happen moving forward, a mixture of exclusives and multiplatform day and date, not sure what more I can say. I am not disagreeing with you, I don't think?
Re: Reaction: Xbox Is Bringing Some Great Games to PS5, But Rumours Will Remain Rampant About What's Next
@Titntin I didnt actually state my opinion/conclusion. For the record i think that no doubt there will be a mixture of exclusives, timed exclusives and day 1 multiplatform releases for xbox in the future.
But almost all of the rumours turned out false and alot of websites and insiders have lost all their credibility in the space of 25minutes, let's not pretend otherwise. That's what I was commenting on
Re: Reaction: Xbox Is Bringing Some Great Games to PS5, But Rumours Will Remain Rampant About What's Next
The only people still running with rumours are all the insiders and websites who just got found out for knowing very little. Almost all of the rumours ended up being completely fabricated and now everyone is desperately running around trying to save a tiny bit of credibility, hence articles like this. It's pretty funny to be honest.
Re: Rumour: Xbox Has Considered Microsoft Flight Simulator, Gears of War, and DOOM for PS5
Come on this is barrel scraping we literally just had the podcast an hour ago
Re: Starfield, Indiana Jones Aren't Coming to PS5 Just Yet
After reading all of the countless rumours, that was about as underwhelming as it could have been. I wonder what the 4 games are, did they say 2 live service and 2 single player? I was playing Death Stranding at the time and missed a few minutes of the podcast
Re: Microsoft Allegedly Told Employees 'Every Screen Is an Xbox' Ahead of PS5 Port Speculation
@Jamesblob
According to Sonys CEO, they do need to expand their strategy on other devices like PC, due to their razor thin profit margins. It was widely reported yesterday
Re: Microsoft Allegedly Told Employees 'Every Screen Is an Xbox' Ahead of PS5 Port Speculation
@TheCollector316 touché.
But it does just confuse things a great deal over what is real and what is rumour
Re: Microsoft Allegedly Told Employees 'Every Screen Is an Xbox' Ahead of PS5 Port Speculation
Not sure why we are still getting rumour articles when in a matter of a few hours we will be hearing directly from them, seems kind of pointless
Re: Dragon's Dogma 2 Will Have an Uncapped Frame Rate on PS5
A locked 30fps is better than a framerate somewhere between 30 and 50. Digital.Foundry said the frame rate is in no man's land and it plays horrible