ShadowRJ

@8th_Observer Oh Christ. What did God of War Ragnarok do that’s remotely controversial? At least Horizon Forbidden West had a woman in it (yes, I have issues with it, but the body proportions of the protagonist isn’t one of them).

Saros isn’t even a walks talky cinematic game. I’m hoping to finally squeeze it in on my PS5 shelf next to Sackboy and Scarlet Nexus next month, and yet people are dedicated to misrepresenting the plot.

@Bracing_space haha, though to be fair, pretty much all of them were greedy mercenaries. Not the type of people who I imagine writing letters back home to mum. The only exception was Uncharted 3 who were all part of a secret society, but those were the enemies who were willing to put themselves in dangerous peril just to get a shot off on Nate.

@8th_Observer I don’t get why people want this game to fail so bad. You don’t have to like TLOU2, but that doesn’t mean that this game won’t improve on what you didn’t like about it (unless what you didn’t like about it were that the women weren’t conventionally attractive enough, in which case, goodbye)

@Bracing_space honestly, I never got the whole Nathan Drake is a psychopath vibes. I was under the impression that pretty much everyone he kills is an irredeemable bad guy, I’m not going to feel sorry for killing them.

@Dogbreath yeah, I know we’ve had our disagreements when it comes to physical media, but I do agree with you on this topic. Had Ellie just gone to Abby to fight her without the whole slavers section, I’d probably by her deciding to throw in the towel more. The way it’s presented, I don’t think it’s made clear enough.

I’m willing to buy most of the conveniences because pretty much every plot relies on convenience, but Ellie leaving the map to her hideout for Abby to find was a bit silly.

That’s correct. Crazy Taxi 1 was on almost every platform up to the PS3 and Xbox 360, possibly even more.

Crazy Taxi 2 was only ever released for the Dreamcast and the PSP. It didn’t even get an arcade machine.

@Dogbreath I do agree with you in the sense that I don’t always buy the character motivations and personalities in TLOU2. Some of them are extremely subtle to the point that it goes over my head at times. I know a lot of people have issues with the whole Abby threatening to kill a pregnant woman, but I got the impression that was her high on fury after seeing her own pregnant friend murdered.

But I don’t buy that Ellie would just stop her quest for vengeance right before she’s supposed to kill Abby. It makes for a tragic ending, but I don’t understand why the character would choose to make those decisions in the first place.

@MrStark I can’t agree with any of this. Naughty Dog have always been masters of the PlayStation hardware. There hasn’t been a single Naughty Dog game that hasn’t been pushing technology boundaries with the only exceptions being Jak X and Uncharted Lost Legacy.

I agree that there are criticisms with TLOU2 that prevent it from me preferring it over the first game. Its pacing is all over the place. Always stopping and starting again and again, never allowing the game to flow smoothly. I also think it’s too miserable for its own good. When we had to go to the hospital to save Lev’s sister, I was thinking “what’s the point, she’s just going to die soon anyway.”

But that game also has some of the best visuals ever, amazing set pieces, level design that pushes this style of gameplay forwards, and a gritty, mature tone that very few other games dare to try.

I wonder if there will be any references to Crazy Taxi 2 here. The first game is so iconic, but barely anyone even knows there even is a sequel.

@Oram77 totally in agreement. So many studios try to replicate their cinematic experience style of gameplay, but I’ve yet to see anyone pull it off as well as Naughty Dog. Hell, even they’ve yet to top Uncharted 2 (I prefer Crash and Jak, but Uncharted 2 is peak cinematic gaming)

@Swandivetotheasphalt it did for about a day or two. That’s when Sony made its execution stance public, and that overtook the GTA 6 lack of physical hate.

This here is a great example of why the disc controversy isn’t going away. Every game with an unconfirmed release day is going to be under pressure to reveal their date before 2028. And what happens if a game is confirmed to release in January 2028. They’re going to get torn apart. And god forbid that a 2027 game had to be delayed to 2028 (something we’ve already seen with Tomb Raider).

I do feel that we tend to remember Japan Studio’s high points and forget the lows. I love Gravity Rush, but Knack was a disaster. That game could've transformed their fortunes around, but instead it became a meme, and that was the most successful game they made in ages (from a financial point of view) and they still couldn’t get it right for the sequel.

@ItsAlwaysSunnyyy I thought it did some things great, others not so much. I loved Kraven, but Venom was incredibly disappointing. You get the great Tony Todd to voice him, and yet he’s barely in the game. He’s not even Eddie Brock, its Harry Osborn of all people.

@Toot1st I think saying that 0.1% will participate is being generous. I don't see how this can possibly succeed on any level.

@dskatter I do hope this is the year where Capcom get to win game of the year at the Game Awards. They may have competition in the form of Mina the Hollower and a certain other triple AAA game that hasn't come out yet and may or may not be eligible by the time the nominees are out.

But Capcom deserves at least one GOTY win for all the amazing games they've put out this year.

For as terrible as this year has been for gaming in many ways, Capcom continue to prove why they are (in my minds) the best publisher in gaming right now (at least third party, Nintendo are still right up there).

@Slideaway1983 I’m frankly shocked that Braid hasn’t gotten a physical release yet. Most if not all of the Og indie darlings have got one in some form.

@Strafe that is true, but very VERY few games require a PSN region to be accurate in order to do an update. DLC sure, but not updates.

@Rich33 I’m not going to buy it. I wasn’t going to buy it anyway, but I better find some massive JRPG to play the week it comes out, so I don’t run into any potential serve overloads.

@DennisReynolds yeah, I’m one of the most pro physical guys here, and I agree, that boycott is poorly thought out, and isn’t going to work.

@belmont yeah, that is the downside. I won’t be able to play the Last Defence Academy DLC because that game only came out physically in the US.

@Bez87 yes, everything is region locked to an extent due to there being rights holders for the same IPs across different areas of the world.

What do physical games got to do with region locking? Ever since the PS3, the PlayStation stopped region locking discs. You can buy a disc from America and play it perfectly on a European system.

Now we’re heading towards a digital only future, this option is removed. You can use multiple PSN accounts, but considering it violates Sonys terms of service, you’re at great risk of them throwing down its hammer and banning and deleting your account.

@belmont I’m sure there are, but the PS Store isn’t one of them

The abandoning of region locking is one of the best things about modern gaming. Now the game industry can celebrated its long awaited return thanks to the digital only marketplace.

Something has gone very deeply wrong with this game’s development. If I remember correctly, this was announced before or right after the Series X launched, and it hasn’t even released yet.

@BAMozzy You make some very good points. I'd argue that you can play N64 cartridges on clone consoles, but other than that what you say is true.

@BAMozzy I agree that we can't compare them on a TECHNICAL level. The way they operate is very different.

However I fail to see how we can't compare them on an EMOTIONAL level. Because those who collect vinyl and those who collect games probably do so for similar reasons.

@8th_Observer ........Ok, I will rephrase.

I'm sure that Does It Play realises that they're all separate divisions. Some (if not most) of the others joining in probably don't.

@8th_Observer I do think most people who are genuinely complaining about this are aware of that. The objective here is to further make Sony as a brand seem toxic and tone deaf.

I will be looking forward to all the videos about the topic later this evening.

@Bracing_space That I agree. Vinyl is often cheaper than games, and more importantly, I think a bunch of people who own vinyl don't even own a record player, which I doubt is the case with video games.

@JustBusiness The interesting thing about that stat, is that it's lower than the physical/digital split when it comes to games. Yet Sony decided to dedicate a record player for that niche anyway.

I haven't played Dragon Age (any of them) but from what I understand, Veilguard was far more sanitised game, which in turn made the whole story and character building significantly more boring.

@Ralizah I'd say there are a few things that separate the Switch 2 from PS6. Mainly that there was a huge appertite for Switch 2 once it was finally released. Something we've seen very little evidence of for PS6.

I'd also argue that for the most part, the Switch 2 backlash died down massively after the initial reveal, and we've seen very little coverage of the backlash following that week. This backlash is still ongoing, to the point that this weeks old discussion has overshadowed the new God of War's release date.

@Oram77 The Wii U was strange, because it's failure was partly down to confusion, but also down to backlash from the Wii in the second half of it's lifespam.

We remember the Wii being this phenominal success, but we tend to forget that it was really popular to hate on during its later years.

Good Lord Sony, read the room...

The time for silence has ended ages ago. You are not going to shrug this under the rug quietly. Maybe we're a vocal minority, but I have never seen a video game console be successful with this amount of backlash targetted towards it.

@TheSingularity That's not particularly accurate...

Here's the thing about online backlashes. Yes, the people who take part in it are a vocal minority, however that doesn't necessarily mean that the people who choose not to involve themselves don't feel the same way. I have a friend who has a hybrid library, doesn't speak online, but is peeved off at the whole situation and is like "what's the point of a PS6 then?" The silent majority isn't necessarily on the opposing side.

Secondly, even if it is a vocal minority speaking out, controversies on this scale has a tendency of leaking out to the wider public. It's the reason why the Xbox One failed after all.

If you don't consider this backlash to be major, what backlash in gaming history do you consider to be major?

@GirlVersusGame And so you shouldn't avoid letting it shine. This boycott is a nice gesture, but it isn't going to work the way that Does it Play hopes.

@SeanOhOgain Agreed, and I cannot think of any game console released that succeeded despite massive fan backlash. You can even go back to the days of the Saturn and the Dreamcast.

@themightyant Here's a list of all the problems with the proposed boycott.

1. Sony measures its engagement metrics via monthly basis, not a weekly.

2. It hinges on the idea that people are on the PS5 as their only console. If anyone involved has more than one console such as a Switch, then surely it is not unheard of for them to take breaks from PS5 just to play something else on Switch, so I fail to see how this boycott would effect the analytics much.

3. Does It Play lacks the social media presence to spread this boycott to enough people to make a difference. They're relying on other, larger influencers to help out, and I think the biggest ones will be too cynical.

4. If by some miracle this does somehow gain traction, there's no guarentee that Sony will read the results in a way they're meant to be read. It's entirely possible that Sony will see that thousands of gamers have logged out of the PS5, and conclude that they need more addictive live service games.

@SolaceCreed There is 0% chance that Xbox will have a disc drive. Physical sales are dire on Xbox, and frankly the hardcore physical gaming community don't really care about Xbox.

@themightyant yeah, I'm super 100% pro physical, but this boycott has 0% chance of working. There are so many, many, MANY problems with it.

I love Does It Play, I think it's a wonderful website, but I don't think they've thought it through as hard as they should've.

@SolaceCreed As great as that sounds, I have even less faith in Xbox than I do with PlayStation.

Indeed, I think Xbox need even more communication for their digital future, because one of their best game franchises is the Froza Horizon series, and they barely last at all. You can only get FH5 and FH6 digitally.

@XenonKnight no, that isn’t the case. I’m sure there are SOME troublemakers involved, but I think the people who run Does It Play are just really passionate physical gamers.

@TheArt well it’s not a very cleverly thought out protest to begin with if I’m being honest. It hinges on the idea thousands of gamers who only play on PS5 giving up a week so they can fight for a cause they may or may not believe in.

@dschons the reason why it’s the most effective is because there’s no guarantee that Sony will view their decision making as the main reason as to why they’re suddenly losing money. They can just as easy to blame outside market factors. Generating money from a physical game? That’s more likely to hit them on the head.

@dschons in fairness moaning at Sony online and buying Wolverine physically probably is the most effective thing people can do at this point.

Here’s another reason why this campaign simply doesn’t work on a fundamental level.

Right now, I’m playing Persona 2 on PS1. Before that, Smash Bros Melee and before that, Professor Layton Pandoras Box

I’m not on the PS5 all the time anyway. So I would always be on and off on Sonys register. Sometimes the gap between systems is huge, so what difference would taking another week off bring to Sony’s metrics?

@dschons there’s also the great risk that even if this protest does gather momentum, Sony doesn’t read the stats in the way that is intended.

“Our player base is smaller this week than expected. That means our games aren’t engagening enough TRIPLE THE BUDGET FOR ADDICTIVE LIVE SERVICES!!!”

@Dr-zoidburg you can always tell him the PS5’s broke and to play on the Switch while it gets fixed (joking, don’t be mean to the kid unless he fails his exams)