First I'd like to thank @get2sammyb for succinctly explaining what ray tracing is in a way I can wrap my head around. I'd been wondering what people were going on about.
I'm a lifelong Nintendork who dabbles in PlayStation, so it'd be fair to argue that the bestest of graphical showcases just aren't important to me, though I certainly am impressed by them. But I've just looked at a couple comparisons of games with and without ray tracing. Most of the time, I couldn't tell the difference, and sometimes, I thought ray tracing made it look appreciably worse. The absolute best reaction I had can be described as, "Oh look: now you can see reflections in the buildings' windows. Neat."
I've never played Fortnite, and I'm no economist, but if the table shows all of the available ways to get the in-game currency, I foresee a problem.
It's to be expected that sales go down whenever prices go up, but the aim is for that to be counteracted by increased profit margins from customers who remain. Instead here, while the per-unit prices have gone up, the packs themselves are the same prices as before, just with lower returns of in-game currency. There might be some players who buy regularly and are willing to continue paying the same price for less in return, but given the size differences between packs, I doubt there are many who will decide to pay more to upgrade to the larger pack: if the packs are the same price but of lesser value, that will just shrink the customer base with no counterbalancing increase in profit margin. And V-Bucks are just a made-up digital resource that are freely reproducible whose only use (I presume) is to exchange for other made-up digital resources that are freely reproducible and have no use outside of Fortnite, so it's not like they can take the unsold product and sell it elsewhere or use it for anything else. The only direction this can make revenue go is down.
I've seen a lot of bad business, which rips off customers but ostensibly drives a profit, but this is just incompetent business.
@Discol76 You have impeccable timing. I just unhooked after a little under ten minutes in Kayak VR Mirage (I never left the tutorial pool) and immediately looked up how to adapt to VR motion. I'm a little surprised because it usually takes a lot to make me motion sick, though how it happens makes perfect sense to me. I'm certainly done for the night, but those few minutes were just too danged impressive for me to not work on adapting—very, very slowly.
@CaptD I'll keep it in mind, but after today's experience, I don't think I'll be ready for even the demo of GT7 for quite awhile. From what I'm reading, it seems like I should start out with games that don't depict you as a person in the action, like Lumines or Tetris Effect.
Thanks to you both for the tips. Now I'm off to slowly drink a lot of ginger ale.
I ordered a PSVR2 the other day in that sale Sony's having: I had considered it before, but the price was finally down enough that I was willing to risk it. It's being delivered later today, so I can't yet speak to the experience, but even the best I've heard has said it's absolutely not an everyday or even every-month item but is amazing when you're in the mood for it.
But it does look like there's a lot of great stuff for it that just hasn't been promoted: while doing a little digging (very little) I found Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate, which I hadn't heard about and doesn't have a review or even a user rating here on Push Square, but it looks like a really good time and was on sale so I snagged it. It also has me considering Gran Turismo 7, and I've never had any interest in driving sims, so perhaps it would behoove Sony to push VR just a little to expand its audiences.
Of course, maybe I'll discover that I too am susceptible to motion sickness when I get it out of the box tonight and immediately regret my decisions, but I'll have to wait and see.
I've stopped buying anything Microsoft for reasons that don't belong on this site, but there's benefit to be had from rival businesses if for nothing else than showing something new that could be tried. For just two examples, I'd say Breath of the Wild was Nintendo's version of a Sony game and of course Astro Bot was Sony's version of a Nintendo game, and they each came out as their own thing rather than just cheap ripoffs. Though now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know what Sony or Nintendo have done that'd be their versions of an Xbox game.
Maybe if Xbox shuts down a new company comes in to take their place? I wouldn't want another computing conglomerate like Apple or Google, but perhaps a game company like Sega or Atari have learned a thing or two in their time away from consoles and are ready to give it another shot. Or a consumer electronics company like Sony was before the PlayStation wants to give it a go, maybe Braun (I'd be skeptical of what games they would put out, but man I bet they'd make one amazing-looking console). I know this is all but certain to never happen, but it was fun to dream for a moment.
I'm sure they'd only do so if legally required, but the one remaining bit of information I'd like prominently displayed is whether the game has a physical release or is digital only.
The key question that I think should be answered before a new console gets made is this: what do game designers want to do in their games that can't be done with current hardware?
I only got my PS5 a year ago, so I know my view of its age is askew, but until developers hit the wall of what it can do, I'd rather see the weird creative stuff they come up with when they're fully versed in its capabilities.
There's a vast array of fields where AI is clearly a bad idea and a handful of fields where it's genuinely useful, like medicine and— well I'm sure there's got to be something else—but this is the rare use case that falls into the gray area in between for me. I'm not a computer expert: I could believe that this could find bugs quickly and accurately. On the other hand, AI may be able to find and recognize situations in which a character gets stuck to a wall or a game just fully crashes, but can it recognize the new bugs without thinking that's what the game's supposed to do?
In any case, I remain concerned about the power consumption and hope that employees are kept on to either continue their work or look over the AI's shoulder if implemented.
Bought my PS5 at the beginning of the year in anticipation of this. I'm surprised it took this long and actually started to think Sony had just figured out a price that would withstand the tariffs, but I'm not at all thrown to find I was wrong.
I've been waiting on the Switch 2 because I figured it already had tariffs worked into its mid-year release price and I'm trying to save money, but maybe I should grab it sooner rather than later.
Welp, I can't say that I don't completely understand and empathize with everyone's complaints about it only being available to new subscribers and it not being a good value anyway, but I'm less than a month into my PS5 and am not entirely sure which of the many acclaimed hits are actually for me, so looks like I'm signing up (I'm curious whether I'll think it's worth keeping at full price a year from now).
This was my first State of Play, so I'm keeping in mind that I'm unfamiliar with the format and likely not picking up details that others are. I'd probably be really interested in some of the games shown, except I have no idea which ones because so few of them showed any gameplay (and unfortunately those that did just don't appeal to me, but at least I could tell with those). And it didn't help that there wasn't a lot of variety: mostly visually realistic people in apocalyptic settings.
I'm not writing any of this to whine, because I understand not everything needs to be made for me and my tastes, but it's hard to be interested when everything looks like the same game that I know almost nothing about.
If I may ask anyone more familiar with these, this was my first State of Play, I just recently got a PS5, and the PS2 was the only other Sony machine I had before that: do they usually show more gameplay in these, or do they normally lean into cutscenes and other graphical showpieces like this? Because I genuinely had no idea what to think for most of the games here: I saw a lot of near-photorealistic people in apocalyptic settings, and for all I know I'd love every single one of them or alternatively find them thoroughly unengaging, but I couldn't tell how they would play or even whether they were RPGs or shooters or beat em ups, so I have no idea what to think. Roughly what fraction of the big ones are from established series and so most of the viewers wouldn't need them explained (I of course recognized some of them, like MGS, Onimusha, etc.)?
I will say though that I am curious about Blue Prince.
I'm a physical devotee, and even I think that's a jerk move. Sure, comment on it, but something like, "Hey, come on in and get a game you'd like to play while the network's down," or "Come see why other players have stuck with physical games." Whatever the cause of the outage, you have to know that the multinational corporation will fix it as quickly as possible and won't let it become a common occurrence, so maybe "Not so smart now, are ya?" isn't a wise choice in trying to expand your customer base.
Okay, my blood briefly ran cold because I misread the headline as more than 1,400 games had been "discontinued."
I'm an editor, and honestly I'm really good at it, but moments like this help to remind me that reading as an editor and reading as a reader are two very different mental processes.
I doubt my experience will shed light on the overall trend, but for what it's worth, I bought a PS5 a couple weeks ago for two reasons: I needed to replace my old Blu-ray player, and I decided it'd be easier and possibly cheaper (when factoring in the savings of not buying a separate Blu-ray player) than upgrading my gaming PC since most of the games I want there are also on PlayStation 5 or 4.
EDIT: I found the announcement, and it seems they've edited it to say that it's for Southeast Asia only.
Original comment:
Is this a Europe-only thing, or is there a link to these prices? I only got a Playstation 5 last week, my first since the PS2, so I've never had a PS Plus account, but I can't find the discount in the US.
Comments 16
Re: As PS6 Delay Rumours Swirl, Fans Debate Ray Tracing's Worth
First I'd like to thank @get2sammyb for succinctly explaining what ray tracing is in a way I can wrap my head around. I'd been wondering what people were going on about.
I'm a lifelong Nintendork who dabbles in PlayStation, so it'd be fair to argue that the bestest of graphical showcases just aren't important to me, though I certainly am impressed by them. But I've just looked at a couple comparisons of games with and without ray tracing. Most of the time, I couldn't tell the difference, and sometimes, I thought ray tracing made it look appreciably worse. The absolute best reaction I had can be described as, "Oh look: now you can see reflections in the buildings' windows. Neat."
Re: Fortnite, the Biggest Game in the World, Wants You to Help Pay Its Bills
I've never played Fortnite, and I'm no economist, but if the table shows all of the available ways to get the in-game currency, I foresee a problem.
It's to be expected that sales go down whenever prices go up, but the aim is for that to be counteracted by increased profit margins from customers who remain. Instead here, while the per-unit prices have gone up, the packs themselves are the same prices as before, just with lower returns of in-game currency. There might be some players who buy regularly and are willing to continue paying the same price for less in return, but given the size differences between packs, I doubt there are many who will decide to pay more to upgrade to the larger pack: if the packs are the same price but of lesser value, that will just shrink the customer base with no counterbalancing increase in profit margin. And V-Bucks are just a made-up digital resource that are freely reproducible whose only use (I presume) is to exchange for other made-up digital resources that are freely reproducible and have no use outside of Fortnite, so it's not like they can take the unsold product and sell it elsewhere or use it for anything else. The only direction this can make revenue go is down.
I've seen a lot of bad business, which rips off customers but ostensibly drives a profit, but this is just incompetent business.
Re: Video: Silence as PSVR2 Turns Three Years Old - Is Sony's PS5 Headset Dead?
@Discol76 You have impeccable timing. I just unhooked after a little under ten minutes in Kayak VR Mirage (I never left the tutorial pool) and immediately looked up how to adapt to VR motion. I'm a little surprised because it usually takes a lot to make me motion sick, though how it happens makes perfect sense to me. I'm certainly done for the night, but those few minutes were just too danged impressive for me to not work on adapting—very, very slowly.
@CaptD I'll keep it in mind, but after today's experience, I don't think I'll be ready for even the demo of GT7 for quite awhile. From what I'm reading, it seems like I should start out with games that don't depict you as a person in the action, like Lumines or Tetris Effect.
Thanks to you both for the tips. Now I'm off to slowly drink a lot of ginger ale.
Re: Video: Silence as PSVR2 Turns Three Years Old - Is Sony's PS5 Headset Dead?
I ordered a PSVR2 the other day in that sale Sony's having: I had considered it before, but the price was finally down enough that I was willing to risk it. It's being delivered later today, so I can't yet speak to the experience, but even the best I've heard has said it's absolutely not an everyday or even every-month item but is amazing when you're in the mood for it.
But it does look like there's a lot of great stuff for it that just hasn't been promoted: while doing a little digging (very little) I found Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate, which I hadn't heard about and doesn't have a review or even a user rating here on Push Square, but it looks like a really good time and was on sale so I snagged it. It also has me considering Gran Turismo 7, and I've never had any interest in driving sims, so perhaps it would behoove Sony to push VR just a little to expand its audiences.
Of course, maybe I'll discover that I too am susceptible to motion sickness when I get it out of the box tonight and immediately regret my decisions, but I'll have to wait and see.
Re: Original Xbox Creator Shares Brutal Opinion of New Leadership, Believes This Is the End of Xbox
I've stopped buying anything Microsoft for reasons that don't belong on this site, but there's benefit to be had from rival businesses if for nothing else than showing something new that could be tried. For just two examples, I'd say Breath of the Wild was Nintendo's version of a Sony game and of course Astro Bot was Sony's version of a Nintendo game, and they each came out as their own thing rather than just cheap ripoffs. Though now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know what Sony or Nintendo have done that'd be their versions of an Xbox game.
Maybe if Xbox shuts down a new company comes in to take their place? I wouldn't want another computing conglomerate like Apple or Google, but perhaps a game company like Sega or Atari have learned a thing or two in their time away from consoles and are ready to give it another shot. Or a consumer electronics company like Sony was before the PlayStation wants to give it a go, maybe Braun (I'd be skeptical of what games they would put out, but man I bet they'd make one amazing-looking console). I know this is all but certain to never happen, but it was fun to dream for a moment.
Re: PS Store Adds Another Layer of Transparency to PS5, PS4 Game Pricing
I'm sure they'd only do so if legally required, but the one remaining bit of information I'd like prominently displayed is whether the game has a physical release or is digital only.
Re: Opinion: The Euphoric Reaction to PS6's Rumoured Delay Really Confuses Me
The key question that I think should be answered before a new console gets made is this: what do game designers want to do in their games that can't be done with current hardware?
I only got my PS5 a year ago, so I know my view of its age is askew, but until developers hit the wall of what it can do, I'd rather see the weird creative stuff they come up with when they're fully versed in its capabilities.
Re: Square Enix Wants 70% of Its QA and Debugging Work Done by Gen AI
There's a vast array of fields where AI is clearly a bad idea and a handful of fields where it's genuinely useful, like medicine and— well I'm sure there's got to be something else—but this is the rare use case that falls into the gray area in between for me. I'm not a computer expert: I could believe that this could find bugs quickly and accurately. On the other hand, AI may be able to find and recognize situations in which a character gets stuck to a wall or a game just fully crashes, but can it recognize the new bugs without thinking that's what the game's supposed to do?
In any case, I remain concerned about the power consumption and hope that employees are kept on to either continue their work or look over the AI's shoulder if implemented.
Re: PS5 Price Increases Confirmed for USA, Effective 21st August
Bought my PS5 at the beginning of the year in anticipation of this. I'm surprised it took this long and actually started to think Sony had just figured out a price that would withstand the tariffs, but I'm not at all thrown to find I was wrong.
I've been waiting on the Switch 2 because I figured it already had tariffs worked into its mid-year release price and I'm trying to save money, but maybe I should grab it sooner rather than later.
Re: Sony Puts PS Plus Extra, Premium on Sale in the USA
Welp, I can't say that I don't completely understand and empathize with everyone's complaints about it only being available to new subscribers and it not being a good value anyway, but I'm less than a month into my PS5 and am not entirely sure which of the many acclaimed hits are actually for me, so looks like I'm signing up (I'm curious whether I'll think it's worth keeping at full price a year from now).
Re: Reaction: The PS5 Discourse Around State of Plays Is Becoming Draining
This was my first State of Play, so I'm keeping in mind that I'm unfamiliar with the format and likely not picking up details that others are. I'd probably be really interested in some of the games shown, except I have no idea which ones because so few of them showed any gameplay (and unfortunately those that did just don't appeal to me, but at least I could tell with those). And it didn't help that there wasn't a lot of variety: mostly visually realistic people in apocalyptic settings.
I'm not writing any of this to whine, because I understand not everything needs to be made for me and my tastes, but it's hard to be interested when everything looks like the same game that I know almost nothing about.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Sony's State of Play for February 2025?
If I may ask anyone more familiar with these, this was my first State of Play, I just recently got a PS5, and the PS2 was the only other Sony machine I had before that: do they usually show more gameplay in these, or do they normally lean into cutscenes and other graphical showpieces like this? Because I genuinely had no idea what to think for most of the games here: I saw a lot of near-photorealistic people in apocalyptic settings, and for all I know I'd love every single one of them or alternatively find them thoroughly unengaging, but I couldn't tell how they would play or even whether they were RPGs or shooters or beat em ups, so I have no idea what to think. Roughly what fraction of the big ones are from established series and so most of the viewers wouldn't need them explained (I of course recognized some of them, like MGS, Onimusha, etc.)?
I will say though that I am curious about Blue Prince.
Re: Embattled US Retailer Trolls Customers for Picking Digital During PSN Outage on PS5, PS4
I'm a physical devotee, and even I think that's a jerk move. Sure, comment on it, but something like, "Hey, come on in and get a game you'd like to play while the network's down," or "Come see why other players have stuck with physical games." Whatever the cause of the outage, you have to know that the multinational corporation will fix it as quickly as possible and won't let it become a common occurrence, so maybe "Not so smart now, are ya?" isn't a wise choice in trying to expand your customer base.
Re: More Than 1,400 Top Rated PS5, PS4 Games Discounted Now
Okay, my blood briefly ran cold because I misread the headline as more than 1,400 games had been "discontinued."
I'm an editor, and honestly I'm really good at it, but moments like this help to remind me that reading as an editor and reading as a reader are two very different mental processes.
Re: In the US, PS5 Is Selling Much Faster Than PS4 At a Higher Price
I doubt my experience will shed light on the overall trend, but for what it's worth, I bought a PS5 a couple weeks ago for two reasons: I needed to replace my old Blu-ray player, and I decided it'd be easier and possibly cheaper (when factoring in the savings of not buying a separate Blu-ray player) than upgrading my gaming PC since most of the games I want there are also on PlayStation 5 or 4.
Re: PS Plus Subscriptions on Sale, Up to 35% Off
EDIT: I found the announcement, and it seems they've edited it to say that it's for Southeast Asia only.
Original comment:
Is this a Europe-only thing, or is there a link to these prices? I only got a Playstation 5 last week, my first since the PS2, so I've never had a PS Plus account, but I can't find the discount in the US.