Ray tracing to me is like frame rate is for other people— I don’t understand why people can’t tell the difference when it’s implemented. I think it enhances the image so much. If I play with ray tracing enabled and then disable it, I immediately see the difference and everything seems more bland and dull. People have told me they can tell 55 fps vs 60 fps and I simply can’t see the difference and the game functions fine. Sometimes I can’t even tell a game is 30 fps in a slower game if it’s stable. Yet some players eyes start to bleed if the frame rate drops to 59. For me, ray tracing is kind of like that. I try to always have it enabled in games that support it.
@The_Jobbo Yeah, I agree with that for the most part. As I mentioned a couple comments above that key factors may be RE’s shorter length and replayability of the game design. I still think there’s a bit of uneven expectations though leveraged at Sony. In reality I think most people play through the Resident Evil games only once (like the way I play them), and trophy data would support that. It’s a small minority which do multiple runs (like roughly 7-20% based on trophy data) It still makes me think there’s at least a smidgen of a double standard amongst the larger community.
But yes, I agree that I’m more likely to replay RE2 or RE4 than I am to replay Spider-Man or God of War. But the sequels do feel different to me. At least as different as the RE sequels that I’ve played feel. (Granted I still haven’t made my way to 7-9 which do have the POV change.)
The interesting part of this article for me was the statement that Helix is “not meant for a mass market target audience”.
So it seems as if there’s no expectation that this console is a key part of their ecosystem, but rather a niche product. So, in a way, it’s not really a direct competitor to the PS6/PS5 Pro. Perhaps indirectly, but with this in mind then maybe we won’t see Sony accelerate the PS6 development or release.
I’ll be very curious to see what’s announced at GDC and how it’s received because I think that will determine Sony’s next move.
I’ve hovered over the purchase button for DD2 several times. I was always put off by the fact my backlog is so big I wouldn’t get to it so I might as well wait. Hopefully my patience has been rewarded.
FF16 on the other hand I bought and played at launch. Really enjoyed it a lot.
@lexilogo I think you hit one a couple possible reasons— the shorter length and the design for replayability. Honestly, I don’t usually like to replay games, unless a few years has gone by, so I have treated the RE games I’ve played (1-4 so far) as ‘one and done’ experiences also. I have loved every one of them so far, but I haven’t felt the urge to turn around and do it all again from a different POV after I finish. However I recognize that a lot of the dedicated fans will do several playthroughs.
Still, I wonder how it would have changed things if you had to play through Spider-Man 2 twice or The Last of Us P2 twice to get the two perspectives. It’s hard to say since the games weren’t designed that way and flow great with the switching back and forth.
@PuppetMaster Indeed. I forget about RE0. Code Veronica is another that seems like it’s a mainline, although it’s not numbered. In fact, I don’t know if they officially call Requiem “RE9” or if that’s just a fan thing. I can’t tell if its on the official packaging or promotional material in the same way that 7 and 8 used Roman numerals for the word “Evil” and “Village” to cleverly give the number in the title. They could have easily made the “q” in Requiem look like a 9 but it doesn’t really look like they emphasized that.
It’s great to see a boost for the series based on the success of the new game.
It does make me wonder, we tend to hear a lot of criticism aimed at Sony for doing too many sequels of their IP, sometimes for games that just have 2 or 3 entries (Spider-Man, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei) but I don’t hear the same criticism of Resident Evil. We are 9 mainline entries into the series (and multiple spinoffs) and the general sentiment seems to be praise for sticking with established roots. When the games have strayed too far from their early source material there’s a clamoring to go back to gameplay from prior games. Haven’t played it yet but apparently Requiem is like a greatest hits version of RE2 and RE4.
I’m not criticizing anything or anyone, just wondering why the series seems immune to the “not another sequel that doesn’t innovate” narrative.
I’d rather have more experimental “in between” games like Sons of Sparta over big risks like Concord and Fairgame$. Think of it this way— Sony could invest in probably 300 games the size of Sons of Sparta for the same development cost that they put into Concord. I’m pretty sure random chance would get at least a few awesome releases out of those 300 games.
Low budget big hits do happen. Iconic titles like Thomas Was Alone, Hollow Knight, Stardew Valley, and Undertale. More recently Balatro, Dead Cells, Slay the Spire, etc. And as was mentioned, Sony can leverage existing IP to get even more attention on a small budget game, thus increasing the chances of success. So while PlayStation is looking to spend billions in the hopes of finding the Holy Grail equivalent of Fortnite or Call of Duty, they should just try spending a fraction of that investment into the smaller budget titles in hopes of finding the next Balatro or heck, even the next Expedition 33.
To be clear, I definitely still want the AAA blockbuster releases from PlayStation studios. They don’t need to slow down on those. But rather than buying and closing studios after they spin their wheels with nothing to release, let’s see if we can have some of these studios pump out smaller titles in the meantime and maybe, just maybe, we’ll get some really good stuff. It can’t be worse than Concord and all its unreleased shuttered brethren.
Yeah, I always love how as soon as I walk into GameStop the workers there rush to the displays and change the price tags on all the games while I’m browsing them.
I kind of disagree with the majority on this. I do think Sony’s hand will be forced to make some kind of statement sooner than they wanted to. I’ve felt like Sony gets easily paranoid about Xbox, whether they need to or not. Buying Bungie (and other studios), changing PS+, expanding cloud streaming, porting to PC… perhaps some of these decisions would have been made without pressure from Xbox, but it sure feels like PlayStation sees Xbox in its nightmares.
Do I think they need to be worried about Helix? No. Do I think they will be worried enough to escalate their marketing and PR now? Yes.
I don’t know that it will even result in a sooner PS6, but if we hear many more details about Helix and if it grabs more headlines, Sony will be forced to tip its hand and at least give the public a peek.
I was one who was more than happy to continue with my PS5 Pro and my large PS4 and PS5 backlog for a couple more years, so I’m not necessarily excited about the news.
And I don’t think Sony has to feel pressure to push the PS6 out at the same time as the Helix, but it looks like Sony will cave to those pressures.
@Ravix I think the 36 hour day is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Blasted space-time continuum always getting in the way. …Now human cloning… that’s something else entirely. We may have a solution there. I can have one of my clones playing Crimson Desert, one playing AC Unity, and one dusting off Forbidden West. I’ll finally be able to keep up with GvG
@GirlVersusGame @Ravix Sure, I’m game. But the way GvG whisks through games I’m not sure I’ll keep up. 😅 I need to clear out one of my two ongoing games first, but that could be… within 2-3 weeks if all goes well.
I understand he’s probably frustrated, but “I’m sick of having to repeat myself… “ is not a good way to endear yourself to the player base. At the end of the day if the game is good and technically sound then players won’t let this outburst affect their buying the game, but it’s still not a good look. Say what you want behind closed doors but in front of the public, ‘the customer is always right.’
This game is on my list to try to get to this year. A new DLC would definitely be of interest, but since I have the base game and the two existing DLCs still yet to play, I’m not sure if I’ll have the bandwidth for more. I’m really enjoying the books right now though. On the second half of The Blood of Elves.
@PuppetMaster Yeah, I remember that too. I haven’t played Ragnarok yet (definitely plan to but the backlog has me tied up) so was wondering if there was some kind of follow up to that mural in it.
And I am feeling a little Japanese fatigue with all the samurai and feudal Japan games we’re getting, but the GoW style with a focus on the mythological Japanese deity could make it feel different.
@CheesyOatcake @KundaliniRising333 I know what you are saying and I don’t totally disagree, especially the last few years, but be careful not for fall into the fallacy of survivorship bias. I’ve mentioned this before and it’s something I see us do as fans is that we only remember the games that “survive” in our minds, usually because they sell well. It’s easy to forget the attempts Sony made in the last ten years that didn’t take off, like Dreams, Concrete Genie, Until Dawn, Destruction All-Stars, the entire suite of PSVR, etc.
And the second party is where a lot of the new IP comes from so Sony should get a little credit for helping bring us Death Stranding, Stellar Blade, Helldivers 2, Rise of the Ronin, Nioh, Lost Soul Aside, etc.
Also, Returnal and Astro Bot I would consider new IP’s, neither existed in PS4. Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei is also actually a studio taking a chance on a new IP instead of giving people another Sly Cooper or InFamous game like they could have easily done.
Believe me, I definitely miss the Team Ico and Japan Studio stuff, as that’s where a lot of the variety came from, like The Last Guardian, Shadow of the Colossus, Gravity Rush, Knack, etc.
But within the last ten years Sony tried to give us diverse new content, some of which was of good quality, that just didn’t stick because people didn’t buy it. My beef with Sony’s output has really been just the last few years since the “12 live service games in development!” announcement, where they just put way too many eggs into one basket. They kept things afloat with second party and third party exclusives filling the void, but they wasted a lot of money, resources, and time on projects doomed to fail. I think we’d all much rather have a Bloodborne remake (although we know now From shut that down) rather than Bluepoint spinning their wheels for years then getting shut down. Same for a Days Gone sequel that probably could have been done by now from Bend. And a Last of Us 3 instead of a failed attempt at Factions 2 which ended with nothing. So for me, it’s not the sequels or using their same IP over and over that’s the problem (Nintendo are the experts at this), but rather the over commitment to live service gambles.
Yeah, sounds like we will be following some kind of storyline through lore of the Egyptian gods, which actually sounds great to me. Greek and Norse mythology have been thoroughly explored, so I welcome similar stories based on other ancient myths and cultures. I think the ancient Chinese and East Asian legends and folklore have been well and truly utilized lately. Egypt, Native American, African, Pacific Islands, and many others are ripe for consideration.
@Reeneman I was being sarcastic because the article is focusing on the characters’ hair. I find it funny how Aloy’s hair moves sometimes in HFW.
Perhaps I should have ended with the the 😜 emoji instead of the 😅 emoji.
@LowDefAl Yeah, I’m sure it’s not a huge deal but given both projects (Marathon and Hunter’s Gathering) are crucial for PlayStation, I wouldn’t want either one stealing oxygen from the other. The beta is only a couple days so it’ll be gone in a flash and Marathon should get the spotlight.
I agree that the two have different target audiences within the online MP live service crowd. Hunter’s looks to be vying for the Fortnite and Marvel Rivals crowd, maybe younger and more twitchy player, versus Marathon which is probably the tactical sweaty older crowd (late 20’s to 30’s) who get the boys together to game online after work. I don’t know.
It does remind me of Sony releasing Days Gone and The Last of Us Part 2 a year apart and I was wondering why we needed two “zombie” games that close. 😅
I’m busy with Forbidden West, although I have morbid curiosity about this game. I got an invite to sign up but I didn’t.
It is curious to me that they are layering this beta with the Marathon “server slam” (is that a new term? I don’t recall that being used commonplace before but I’m not in the MP space routinely). It seems like the two games are on trajectory to overlap, although maybe the feedback on Hunter’s Gathering will push it back a year or so. Sometimes “betas” are literally just demos and the game launches in a few weeks, and sometimes it’s back to the drawing board for many months (I think that happened to Suicide Squad, among others).
Either way, I’ve never understood why some companies will cannibalize their own games by launching them in close proximity. Especially when there has been such long periods of dry spells for Sony launches. If we get Marathon and Hunter’s Gathering within the same 6-12 months of each other it’s not really ideal, imo, but what do I know
@spcspc Yeah, I don’t work in PR but I’ve seen companies function like this. Furthermore there was the posts about Marathon that created an increased firestorm of criticism when the wound was still fresh from Bluepoint. Oops…
Then all of a sudden… a couple days of silence, and then this announcement. In my mind I envision that there were PR war rooms being held during those few days trying to strategize the damage control and they frantically came up with something to appease the population that was upset, which is the hardcore single player folks.
Not saying the Wolverine release date was decided during that time, mind you, but the announcement was probably fast tracked to stop the bleeding.
@UltimateOtaku91
“How many games have they released in the live service space? Since the PS5 released they've had one failure Concord and 3 successful in HellDivers 2, MLB and Gran Turismo 7”
I’m not trying to be a pedantic or anything but there’s a fallacy of logic called survivorship bias — a focus only on the people or things that succeeded (“survived”, or in this case “the game launched”) and ignoring the many that failed, which leads to overly optimistic or incorrect conclusions.
The article isn’t up to date so currently I count 8 out of 12 that didn’t “survive” to see the light of day. And so even assuming Fairgame$ and Hunter’s Gathering hit the market, Sony’s batting 0.33, which I guess ain’t bad for baseball but isn’t very good for most other ventures, especially when they cost millions. If we give them credit for MLB and GT7, then their success rate goes up to 6/14, so 42%. Still not stellar when considering the money involved. I don’t know, maybe that’s par for the course for a publisher nowadays but I feel like it’s low.
————
On subject, I do think there’s definitely part of this announcement that is reactionary. All the single player mobs had their pitchforks ready, and so to announce the biggest single player game’s release date is very fortuitous timing.
Actually it could be worse. How’s that for an endorsement. 😅 But seriously, I don’t mind having a solid golf sim in the library for a rainy day if I’m needing a couch co-op experience to pick from. And MH Rise seems well received, even though I haven’t played any of the other MH games so probably won’t ever try it. And I’ve eyed ESO before when looking to see if I could at least try to expose myself to the online multiplayer world, as an alternative to the Genshin, Fortnite, Roblox, and other online communities. I actually thought ESO was free already, but now it’s good to have the option.
I do think this game will be successful, despite Sony’s other recent missteps. I don’t think is will recoup $3 billion (not that it has to) but it will probably have a nice following that doesn’t quite hit Helldivers 2 and falls way short of Destiny 2’s success. Just a guess on my part. Horizon Hunter’s Gathering on the other hand, I’m more worried that could crash and burn. Still too early to tell though.
But back on subject, Marsthon is not something I plan to play, but I like the looks of it. The art style has grown on me.
Her candid admission of her own ignorance of the market is both refreshing and also terrifying. That they would hire a person to be the most powerful person for the Xbox brand who doesn’t really know, by her own admission, “…what we were optimising for, and what the data says about the Xbox strategy…” Uh… yikes?
I understand that certainly she can be brought up to speed on the market, the data, etc, but usually isn’t that what people are put in lower VP or director positions for while they work in the industry for a while until they’re experts in the field? But I’ve never run a mega-corporation so what to I know.
@PapaGlitch And so it does! At least on the mobile version of the site. Not sure how it formats on desktop. Either way, I am impressed with your observation skills, good sir.
First Baldur’s Gate 3, and now this. It’ll be interesting to see how it adapts. I haven’t played KCD yet, but my understanding is that the story is quite individualized and so in a similar issue with BG3 about choosing what storyline is canon will be difficult.
Clearly this is damage control to the negative press this week with Bluepoint. Trying to pivot players toward the Marathon announcements backfired and drew ire from the fanbase, so they thought a nice single player Insomniac game should sate the restless masses.
I was pretty livid when the news first broke about Bluepoint, but I’ve had time to process it and go through the stages of grief of it all. I don’t feel the visceral reaction anymore, but I am cognitively still quite upset and disappointed with upper management at Sony. I do think we as fans need to keep the pressure on them. Not in childish and inflammatory ways, but this constant feedback about our unhappiness with this and other poor management decisions.
There’s a laundry list of poor decisions Sony have made in their pursuit of money making trends, the largest and most expensive of which are Bungie and Firewalk. But even here with Bluepoint, I don’t see why you would choose to invest and purchase a studio, only to shut it down less than 5 years later. Either purchasing Bluepoint was a poor decision, or shutting it down was a poor decision. Either way this is mismanagement of money and resources. And ditto to Firewalk.
It’s frustrating because of the time and resources lost, and how much further along and better things could be right now if executive mishandling of funds and talent didn’t occur so regularly the last 5 years. Literally billions of dollars and hundreds of people’s work lives.
Not a bad thing to have in the library. And actually, besides Everybody’s Golf, I think this is the first time we’ve got a golf game with Essential. EA’s PGA Tour is available on the Extra library but I don’t have a golf simulator in my library otherwise. I’ll probably never play it but nice to have the option when friends come over.
In the opening hours of Horizon Forbidden West and Silent Hill 2. Both are fantastic so far, in their own way. And both feel very familiar. Even though it’s been essentially 8 years since my sole playthrough of Horizon Zero Dawn, the gameplay is still there in the vestiges of my muscle memory. I like what they’ve done with the climbing and traversal though. Combat feels the same so far, not that that’s a bad thing though. And even though I’ve not played a Silent Hill game since the PS1, SH2 feels very similar to RE2 and RE3. Again, not a bad thing at all.
@themightyant Conspiracy unlocked! Sony brass are so powerful, all-knowing, and wise that they manufactured an Xbox hullabaloo to divert attention from their own dumpster fire… They really do know what they’re doing! 😜
@datamonkey Yeah, I don’t know. With Marathon now catching splash damage from the Bluepoint announcement, it seems to me that they either have interns running the PR and marketing departments, or they just don’t exist. Pretty sure Push Square could collect a crew selected from the top scoring users from their last quiz and that group could do an infinitely better job than what’s going on here.
I said this elsewhere, but it’s pretty clear to me that Hulst and the executive crew underestimated how popular Bluepoint was to the core fanbase. The PR department is probably scrambling to do some damage control.
@themightyant A hear you, and I’m actually optimistic and forgiving to a fault, and with each misstep Sony makes, I’ve thought: ‘fans are in a bit of over-reaction and it’ll pass after a couple news cycles and Sony is fine, they have made mistakes but know what they’re doing overall’… but this one feels different. I’ve not been this shaken before, even with Bungie debacles, Firewalk, multiple cancelled projects, and so forth. To shut down Bluepoint is so much more of a gut punch, as they have a long history of having worked with them, finally purchasing them outright, only to shut them down.
With the “5%” (…eh…) of knowledge we gamers have we saw things the suits did not see (Concord, Bungie, the over investment in live service in general, etc) though. A committee of gamer consultants probably could have saved this company billions and although Sony are doing fine now, they could be so much further ahead, imho. And shutting down a studio with BluePoint’s legacy is one of the decisions that will be regretted in 5 years, just like buying Bungie or Firewalk is a regret (to anyone there who cares about the company’s viability.)
None of us are perfect, and I like to give a lot of grace because I certainly make mistakes too, but I expect more from the people in power than what we’re getting. We all have to live with the consequences of our mistakes, so corporations should too, and I think we’re at a point that we avid gamers are having our patience wear thin and this closure is a large straw that is weighing heavily on the camel’s back right now.
And perhaps I’m jaded because I see many similar corporate mismanagement issues across in other industries, not just Sony, and I live in a nation where the government is doing these same things making boneheaded decisions which has sent the economy into a tailspin that we all are having to live through. Living with the consequences of stupid decisions made by people who frankly don’t know what they’re doing. In the case of Sony, it’s a much smaller issue, but it’s starting to feel disturbingly similar to the hubris and lack of self-awareness to listen to people more informed that I see in the bureaucracy of the State before making decisions unilaterally that destroy not only livelihoods, but hamper the health of the entire economy. Yeah, I’m sure that all the short-sighted bad decisions and misdirection that’s going on in the public space will eventually blow over and we’ll all get through this crippling economy, but the blind faith in our leaders to make the right decisions because ‘well, the nation is still the most influential power on the planet so its not all bad so they must know what they’re doing. I only know 5% of what’s going on in the world, so I’ll just wait patiently for things to get better when all these supposed wise decisions start making sense…’
I’m trying to not get too off in the weeds and I’ll leave it at that.
I saw the other article about Sony going radio silent for now, so I do think they underestimated the PR impact. I hope you’re right though that the lineup for 2026 makes us all quickly forget.
@themightyant I want to pluck out one thing you said in your recent post there and emphasize it because I think it warrants consideration and relates to some comments I was trying to make over on the forums. And that is, regarding the measurables, the profit loss, the ‘revenue - operating costs = profit’ types of reasoning that corporate heads use to make sweeping decisions on business closures and employees job viability is only part of the picture and comes back to bite businesses in the rear if they are simply looking at the wrong metrics, or not factoring in the unmeasurables. And I think this closure is an example — a simple profitability spreadsheet probably made closing Bluepoint a no-brainer to Hulst and Co. in the boardroom, but now I bet they are having second thoughts because they have enraged a fanbase and the PR hit is something they didn’t have a line on the spreadsheet to account for. Is the outrage by millions of PlayStation faithful enough to make this closure the wrong financial decision? I don’t know, but I really feel like the disconnect of the corporate boardroom from the real world is very large and companies like Sony (and governments for that matter) make too many decisions in a bubble when things look to simply make sense on a spreadsheet or line graph in the boardroom.
Some of the other points that Sammy brings up in the article are further evidence of the poor visibility and poor connection to the end users, underscoring a lack of awareness and understanding about some of the unquantifiable factors of their success. There needs to be a balance of numbers-people and creatives/visionaries with a knack for market analysis in order for good leadership to thrive and unfortunately times like we’ve seen the last few years make me think that balance is way off-kilter at PlayStation corporate headquarters.
Yes, this! Well said, Sammy. I don’t usually get fired up about industry headlines, but this Bluepoint closure has really rattled me. Agree with the article 100%.
This does seem like catastrophic mismanagement by Sony. I usually try to give executive management the benefit of the doubt, but the talent and quality of Bluepoint is up with the best in the industry. How do you just throw that away? I know he says they’re trying to salvage some of their jobs and doing some consolidation, but this feels like taking your finest clothes and then using it like a rag to mop up the floor and then throwing it in the trash because it didn’t do a very good job.
Oh no! I am just seeing this (a little late based on the 340 comments already) and I’m in shock and really gutted. Bluepoint was one of my favorite developers. Oh man, what a horrible loss.
I’ve not watched much of the preview footage, but this game is coming across rather intimidating. I know these PR quotes are supposed to give the exact opposite impression — that there is no hard sticking points you can’t come back to later, but the way they have portrayed the openness of the game and sheer amount of options to approach, I don’t know if it’ll be accessible from a gameplay complexity standpoint
I just bought a Pro within the last year, so I’m satisfied to stay with the PS5 for a few more years. A lot of my feelings contentment with the PS6 delay stems from the fact I’m still working on some of my backlog from PS4 for goodness sake. I personally can’t relate to the online sentiment that PS5 has no games. My backlog has never been larger and games are still coming out at a steady clip.
To play devil’s advocate, I realize PS6 will surely be backwards compatible with PS4 and PS5, so we will all be able to work on the backlog in perpetuity. So a PS4 backlog isn’t alone a reason not to want a PS6, but I think there’s an economic reason as well. Like Sammy says, the delay is out of necessity due to awful market conditions. And we’re all living in that horrible economy too with dwindling discretionary money to spend.
I know people say that you don’t have to upgrade if the PS6 were to come out tomorrow, but with technology there’s usually a draw, especially among with enthusiasts, to have the latest version and tech, so people I think are feeling the pressure to stay current and yet don’t have the money to do so.
(Edit: And I would add, as far as economic reasons for waiting, that this generation is the first time that we’ve had price increases of the hardware the further into the generation we go. So now it’s no guarantee that if you wait to adopt the new generation until a couple years later, say 2030 or 2031, that the cost of a PS6 may actually be higher! So waiting to join the next gen doesn’t mean you save money like it used to)
Another reason many of us feel fine to wait a couple years is that even though we’re at the usual end of a generational timeframe (around 6-7 years), the first two years of PS5 seemed like a no-show with the crazy COVID delays and product scarcity. Effectively the generation feels like it started around 2022 rather than 2020. I still remember the crazy days of stalking websites trying to log in immediately when stock dropped onto it, only to find out you missed again and would have to wait until the next random stock drop. So many people couldn’t even get a PS5 for the first year or so.
@graymamba I’ve started Horizon Forbidden West on the Pro as a litmus test of its capabilities and so far so good. And actually Baldur’s Gate 3 had noticeable differences too when I played in PS5 vs the Pro. It’s definitely minor differences, slightly quicker load times and better lighting being the most noticeable to me. In HFW there’s the Pro mode which is high fidelity at 40 fps and that’s what I’m trying. It’s really smooth and looks phenomenal. It took some tweaking of the HDR gamma settings to get the picture I wanted but I think I finally have it. It can be quite oversaturated if you don’t adjust some of that, with so much color popping so brightly.
I have definitely noticed the famous Aloy fuzz on her face that everyone was talking about. 😂 Glorious 4K at work! Not sure what PS6 will bring (or the new PSSR update for Pro, for that matter) but I am really happy with what we have already!
Comments 4,243
Re: 'What the F*ck Are We Doing Here?': PS5 Fans Slam Square Enix for Sloppy Multiformat Strategy
Doesn’t Nintendo want Forspoken? 😄
Re: Fastidiously Multiformat Square Enix Skips PS5 with Yet Another Game
Square-Enix is the most confusing company in gaming.
Re: As PS6 Delay Rumours Swirl, Fans Debate Ray Tracing's Worth
Ray tracing to me is like frame rate is for other people— I don’t understand why people can’t tell the difference when it’s implemented. I think it enhances the image so much. If I play with ray tracing enabled and then disable it, I immediately see the difference and everything seems more bland and dull. People have told me they can tell 55 fps vs 60 fps and I simply can’t see the difference and the game functions fine. Sometimes I can’t even tell a game is 30 fps in a slower game if it’s stable. Yet some players eyes start to bleed if the frame rate drops to 59. For me, ray tracing is kind of like that. I try to always have it enabled in games that support it.
Re: The UK Has Gone Mad for Resident Evil After the Huge Success of Requiem on PS5
@The_Jobbo Yeah, I agree with that for the most part. As I mentioned a couple comments above that key factors may be RE’s shorter length and replayability of the game design. I still think there’s a bit of uneven expectations though leveraged at Sony. In reality I think most people play through the Resident Evil games only once (like the way I play them), and trophy data would support that. It’s a small minority which do multiple runs (like roughly 7-20% based on trophy data) It still makes me think there’s at least a smidgen of a double standard amongst the larger community.
But yes, I agree that I’m more likely to replay RE2 or RE4 than I am to replay Spider-Man or God of War. But the sequels do feel different to me. At least as different as the RE sequels that I’ve played feel. (Granted I still haven’t made my way to 7-9 which do have the POV change.)
Re: 7 PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for March 2026 Leaked Early
Bummed to not get Dragon’s Dogma 2, but Space Marine 2 is a nice consolation prize.
Re: 'Exclusives Are Absolutely Not Happening': Xbox Helix Will Share Library with PS6
The interesting part of this article for me was the statement that Helix is “not meant for a mass market target audience”.
So it seems as if there’s no expectation that this console is a key part of their ecosystem, but rather a niche product. So, in a way, it’s not really a direct competitor to the PS6/PS5 Pro. Perhaps indirectly, but with this in mind then maybe we won’t see Sony accelerate the PS6 development or release.
I’ll be very curious to see what’s announced at GDC and how it’s received because I think that will determine Sony’s next move.
Re: Rumour: PS Plus Extra Tipped to Add Two Giant PS5 Games This Month
I’ve hovered over the purchase button for DD2 several times. I was always put off by the fact my backlog is so big I wouldn’t get to it so I might as well wait. Hopefully my patience has been rewarded.
FF16 on the other hand I bought and played at launch. Really enjoyed it a lot.
Re: The UK Has Gone Mad for Resident Evil After the Huge Success of Requiem on PS5
@lexilogo I think you hit one a couple possible reasons— the shorter length and the design for replayability. Honestly, I don’t usually like to replay games, unless a few years has gone by, so I have treated the RE games I’ve played (1-4 so far) as ‘one and done’ experiences also. I have loved every one of them so far, but I haven’t felt the urge to turn around and do it all again from a different POV after I finish. However I recognize that a lot of the dedicated fans will do several playthroughs.
Still, I wonder how it would have changed things if you had to play through Spider-Man 2 twice or The Last of Us P2 twice to get the two perspectives. It’s hard to say since the games weren’t designed that way and flow great with the switching back and forth.
Re: The UK Has Gone Mad for Resident Evil After the Huge Success of Requiem on PS5
@PuppetMaster Indeed. I forget about RE0. Code Veronica is another that seems like it’s a mainline, although it’s not numbered. In fact, I don’t know if they officially call Requiem “RE9” or if that’s just a fan thing. I can’t tell if its on the official packaging or promotional material in the same way that 7 and 8 used Roman numerals for the word “Evil” and “Village” to cleverly give the number in the title. They could have easily made the “q” in Requiem look like a 9 but it doesn’t really look like they emphasized that.
Re: The UK Has Gone Mad for Resident Evil After the Huge Success of Requiem on PS5
It’s great to see a boost for the series based on the success of the new game.
It does make me wonder, we tend to hear a lot of criticism aimed at Sony for doing too many sequels of their IP, sometimes for games that just have 2 or 3 entries (Spider-Man, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei) but I don’t hear the same criticism of Resident Evil. We are 9 mainline entries into the series (and multiple spinoffs) and the general sentiment seems to be praise for sticking with established roots. When the games have strayed too far from their early source material there’s a clamoring to go back to gameplay from prior games. Haven’t played it yet but apparently Requiem is like a greatest hits version of RE2 and RE4.
I’m not criticizing anything or anyone, just wondering why the series seems immune to the “not another sequel that doesn’t innovate” narrative.
Re: Opinion: God of War: Sons of Sparta Is the Smaller PS5 Game Fans Want, and I Hope We See More
I’d rather have more experimental “in between” games like Sons of Sparta over big risks like Concord and Fairgame$. Think of it this way— Sony could invest in probably 300 games the size of Sons of Sparta for the same development cost that they put into Concord. I’m pretty sure random chance would get at least a few awesome releases out of those 300 games.
Low budget big hits do happen. Iconic titles like Thomas Was Alone, Hollow Knight, Stardew Valley, and Undertale. More recently Balatro, Dead Cells, Slay the Spire, etc. And as was mentioned, Sony can leverage existing IP to get even more attention on a small budget game, thus increasing the chances of success. So while PlayStation is looking to spend billions in the hopes of finding the Holy Grail equivalent of Fortnite or Call of Duty, they should just try spending a fraction of that investment into the smaller budget titles in hopes of finding the next Balatro or heck, even the next Expedition 33.
To be clear, I definitely still want the AAA blockbuster releases from PlayStation studios. They don’t need to slow down on those. But rather than buying and closing studios after they spin their wheels with nothing to release, let’s see if we can have some of these studios pump out smaller titles in the meantime and maybe, just maybe, we’ll get some really good stuff. It can’t be worse than Concord and all its unreleased shuttered brethren.
Re: Some PS5 Users Really Are Paying More for Their Games on PS Store Than Others
Yeah, I always love how as soon as I walk into GameStop the workers there rush to the displays and change the price tags on all the games while I’m browsing them.
Re: Opinion: I Wonder if Xbox Helix Will Force Sony to Break Its PS6 Silence
I kind of disagree with the majority on this. I do think Sony’s hand will be forced to make some kind of statement sooner than they wanted to. I’ve felt like Sony gets easily paranoid about Xbox, whether they need to or not. Buying Bungie (and other studios), changing PS+, expanding cloud streaming, porting to PC… perhaps some of these decisions would have been made without pressure from Xbox, but it sure feels like PlayStation sees Xbox in its nightmares.
Do I think they need to be worried about Helix? No. Do I think they will be worried enough to escalate their marketing and PR now? Yes.
I don’t know that it will even result in a sooner PS6, but if we hear many more details about Helix and if it grabs more headlines, Sony will be forced to tip its hand and at least give the public a peek.
Re: 'They're Not Going to Delay PS6': Hardware Leaker Says 2027 Still Likely After Xbox Helix Reveal
I was one who was more than happy to continue with my PS5 Pro and my large PS4 and PS5 backlog for a couple more years, so I’m not necessarily excited about the news.
And I don’t think Sony has to feel pressure to push the PS6 out at the same time as the Helix, but it looks like Sony will cave to those pressures.
Re: Assassin's Creed Unity Gets a 60FPS Patch on PS5 Tomorrow
@Ravix I think the 36 hour day is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Blasted space-time continuum always getting in the way.
…Now human cloning… that’s something else entirely. We may have a solution there. I can have one of my clones playing Crimson Desert, one playing AC Unity, and one dusting off Forbidden West. I’ll finally be able to keep up with GvG
Re: Assassin's Creed Unity Gets a 60FPS Patch on PS5 Tomorrow
@GirlVersusGame @Ravix Sure, I’m game. But the way GvG whisks through games I’m not sure I’ll keep up. 😅 I need to clear out one of my two ongoing games first, but that could be… within 2-3 weeks if all goes well.
Re: Assassin's Creed Unity Gets a 60FPS Patch on PS5 Tomorrow
Maybe it’s time to finally try this game.
Re: 'We're Not Hiding Anything': Crimson Desert Dev 'Sick' of Claims Around No PS5 Footage
I understand he’s probably frustrated, but “I’m sick of having to repeat myself… “ is not a good way to endear yourself to the player base. At the end of the day if the game is good and technically sound then players won’t let this outburst affect their buying the game, but it’s still not a good look. Say what you want behind closed doors but in front of the public, ‘the customer is always right.’
Re: The Witcher 3's New Expansion Really Does Exist, Says Reliable Insider
This game is on my list to try to get to this year. A new DLC would definitely be of interest, but since I have the base game and the two existing DLCs still yet to play, I’m not sure if I’ll have the bandwidth for more. I’m really enjoying the books right now though. On the second half of The Blood of Elves.
Re: Rumour: God of War Dev Working on 'A New Franchise Within the God of War Universe'
@PuppetMaster Yeah, I remember that too. I haven’t played Ragnarok yet (definitely plan to but the backlog has me tied up) so was wondering if there was some kind of follow up to that mural in it.
And I am feeling a little Japanese fatigue with all the samurai and feudal Japan games we’re getting, but the GoW style with a focus on the mythological Japanese deity could make it feel different.
Re: Rumour: God of War Dev Working on 'A New Franchise Within the God of War Universe'
@CheesyOatcake @KundaliniRising333 I know what you are saying and I don’t totally disagree, especially the last few years, but be careful not for fall into the fallacy of survivorship bias. I’ve mentioned this before and it’s something I see us do as fans is that we only remember the games that “survive” in our minds, usually because they sell well. It’s easy to forget the attempts Sony made in the last ten years that didn’t take off, like Dreams, Concrete Genie, Until Dawn, Destruction All-Stars, the entire suite of PSVR, etc.
And the second party is where a lot of the new IP comes from so Sony should get a little credit for helping bring us Death Stranding, Stellar Blade, Helldivers 2, Rise of the Ronin, Nioh, Lost Soul Aside, etc.
Also, Returnal and Astro Bot I would consider new IP’s, neither existed in PS4. Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei is also actually a studio taking a chance on a new IP instead of giving people another Sly Cooper or InFamous game like they could have easily done.
Believe me, I definitely miss the Team Ico and Japan Studio stuff, as that’s where a lot of the variety came from, like The Last Guardian, Shadow of the Colossus, Gravity Rush, Knack, etc.
But within the last ten years Sony tried to give us diverse new content, some of which was of good quality, that just didn’t stick because people didn’t buy it. My beef with Sony’s output has really been just the last few years since the “12 live service games in development!” announcement, where they just put way too many eggs into one basket. They kept things afloat with second party and third party exclusives filling the void, but they wasted a lot of money, resources, and time on projects doomed to fail. I think we’d all much rather have a Bloodborne remake (although we know now From shut that down) rather than Bluepoint spinning their wheels for years then getting shut down. Same for a Days Gone sequel that probably could have been done by now from Bend. And a Last of Us 3 instead of a failed attempt at Factions 2 which ended with nothing. So for me, it’s not the sequels or using their same IP over and over that’s the problem (Nintendo are the experts at this), but rather the over commitment to live service gambles.
Re: Rumour: God of War Dev Working on 'A New Franchise Within the God of War Universe'
Yeah, sounds like we will be following some kind of storyline through lore of the Egyptian gods, which actually sounds great to me. Greek and Norse mythology have been thoroughly explored, so I welcome similar stories based on other ancient myths and cultures. I think the ancient Chinese and East Asian legends and folklore have been well and truly utilized lately. Egypt, Native American, African, Pacific Islands, and many others are ripe for consideration.
Re: Sony Confirms Big PS5 Pro Upgrade Is Out in March, Better PSSR Upscaler
@Reeneman I was being sarcastic because the article is focusing on the characters’ hair. I find it funny how Aloy’s hair moves sometimes in HFW.
Perhaps I should have ended with the the 😜 emoji instead of the 😅 emoji.
Re: Sony Confirms Big PS5 Pro Upgrade Is Out in March, Better PSSR Upscaler
Really excited for this.
But will it make Aloy’s hair not have a mind of its own and move around independent of the laws of nature? 😅
Re: Did You Get In? Beta Invites for Horizon's Divisive PS5, PC Multiplayer Game Out Now
@LowDefAl Yeah, I’m sure it’s not a huge deal but given both projects (Marathon and Hunter’s Gathering) are crucial for PlayStation, I wouldn’t want either one stealing oxygen from the other. The beta is only a couple days so it’ll be gone in a flash and Marathon should get the spotlight.
I agree that the two have different target audiences within the online MP live service crowd. Hunter’s looks to be vying for the Fortnite and Marvel Rivals crowd, maybe younger and more twitchy player, versus Marathon which is probably the tactical sweaty older crowd (late 20’s to 30’s) who get the boys together to game online after work. I don’t know.
It does remind me of Sony releasing Days Gone and The Last of Us Part 2 a year apart and I was wondering why we needed two “zombie” games that close. 😅
Re: Did You Get In? Beta Invites for Horizon's Divisive PS5, PC Multiplayer Game Out Now
I’m busy with Forbidden West, although I have morbid curiosity about this game. I got an invite to sign up but I didn’t.
It is curious to me that they are layering this beta with the Marathon “server slam” (is that a new term? I don’t recall that being used commonplace before but I’m not in the MP space routinely). It seems like the two games are on trajectory to overlap, although maybe the feedback on Hunter’s Gathering will push it back a year or so. Sometimes “betas” are literally just demos and the game launches in a few weeks, and sometimes it’s back to the drawing board for many months (I think that happened to Suicide Squad, among others).
Either way, I’ve never understood why some companies will cannibalize their own games by launching them in close proximity. Especially when there has been such long periods of dry spells for Sony launches. If we get Marathon and Hunter’s Gathering within the same 6-12 months of each other it’s not really ideal, imo, but what do I know
Re: New Saros PS5 Gameplay Footage Is Brief But Cool as Heck
This might be the only game this year I buy at launch. Loved Returnal. And also, kinda scared for Housemarque after last week.
Re: Wolverine PS5 Release Date Reveal Sparks Bluepoint Cover-Up Claims
@spcspc Yeah, I don’t work in PR but I’ve seen companies function like this. Furthermore there was the posts about Marathon that created an increased firestorm of criticism when the wound was still fresh from Bluepoint. Oops…
Then all of a sudden… a couple days of silence, and then this announcement. In my mind I envision that there were PR war rooms being held during those few days trying to strategize the damage control and they frantically came up with something to appease the population that was upset, which is the hardcore single player folks.
Not saying the Wolverine release date was decided during that time, mind you, but the announcement was probably fast tracked to stop the bleeding.
Re: Wolverine PS5 Release Date Reveal Sparks Bluepoint Cover-Up Claims
@UltimateOtaku91
“How many games have they released in the live service space? Since the PS5 released they've had one failure Concord and 3 successful in HellDivers 2, MLB and Gran Turismo 7”
I’m not trying to be a pedantic or anything but there’s a fallacy of logic called survivorship bias — a focus only on the people or things that succeeded (“survived”, or in this case “the game launched”) and ignoring the many that failed, which leads to overly optimistic or incorrect conclusions.
Or just look back on this Push article:
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/01/lists-of-sonyrs-cancelled-live-service-ps5-games-paint-a-worrying-picture
The article isn’t up to date so currently I count 8 out of 12 that didn’t “survive” to see the light of day. And so even assuming Fairgame$ and Hunter’s Gathering hit the market, Sony’s batting 0.33, which I guess ain’t bad for baseball but isn’t very good for most other ventures, especially when they cost millions. If we give them credit for MLB and GT7, then their success rate goes up to 6/14, so 42%. Still not stellar when considering the money involved. I don’t know, maybe that’s par for the course for a publisher nowadays but I feel like it’s low.
————
On subject, I do think there’s definitely part of this announcement that is reactionary. All the single player mobs had their pitchforks ready, and so to announce the biggest single player game’s release date is very fortuitous timing.
Re: PS Plus Essential Games for March 2026 Announced
Actually it could be worse. How’s that for an endorsement. 😅
But seriously, I don’t mind having a solid golf sim in the library for a rainy day if I’m needing a couch co-op experience to pick from. And MH Rise seems well received, even though I haven’t played any of the other MH games so probably won’t ever try it. And I’ve eyed ESO before when looking to see if I could at least try to expose myself to the online multiplayer world, as an alternative to the Genshin, Fortnite, Roblox, and other online communities. I actually thought ESO was free already, but now it’s good to have the option.
Re: If This Marathon Trailer Doesn't Get You Hyped for the PS5 FPS, Nothing Will
I do think this game will be successful, despite Sony’s other recent missteps. I don’t think is will recoup $3 billion (not that it has to) but it will probably have a nice following that doesn’t quite hit Helldivers 2 and falls way short of Destiny 2’s success. Just a guess on my part. Horizon Hunter’s Gathering on the other hand, I’m more worried that could crash and burn. Still too early to tell though.
But back on subject, Marsthon is not something I plan to play, but I like the looks of it. The art style has grown on me.
Re: 'The Plan's the Plan Until It's Not the Plan': Xbox All Over the Place on Future PS5 Ports
Her candid admission of her own ignorance of the market is both refreshing and also terrifying. That they would hire a person to be the most powerful person for the Xbox brand who doesn’t really know, by her own admission, “…what we were optimising for, and what the data says about the Xbox strategy…” Uh… yikes?
I understand that certainly she can be brought up to speed on the market, the data, etc, but usually isn’t that what people are put in lower VP or director positions for while they work in the industry for a while until they’re experts in the field? But I’ve never run a mega-corporation so what to I know.
Re: Kingdom Come: Deliverance Director Ditches Game Development to Work on Medieval Movie
@PapaGlitch And so it does! At least on the mobile version of the site. Not sure how it formats on desktop. Either way, I am impressed with your observation skills, good sir.
Re: Kingdom Come: Deliverance Director Ditches Game Development to Work on Medieval Movie
First Baldur’s Gate 3, and now this. It’ll be interesting to see how it adapts. I haven’t played KCD yet, but my understanding is that the story is quite individualized and so in a similar issue with BG3 about choosing what storyline is canon will be difficult.
Re: Marvel's Wolverine PS5 Release Date Announced
Clearly this is damage control to the negative press this week with Bluepoint. Trying to pivot players toward the Marathon announcements backfired and drew ire from the fanbase, so they thought a nice single player Insomniac game should sate the restless masses.
Re: Sony Returns to Social Media After 72 Hour Hiatus But Fans Still Aren't Happy Following Bluepoint Closure
I was pretty livid when the news first broke about Bluepoint, but I’ve had time to process it and go through the stages of grief of it all. I don’t feel the visceral reaction anymore, but I am cognitively still quite upset and disappointed with upper management at Sony. I do think we as fans need to keep the pressure on them. Not in childish and inflammatory ways, but this constant feedback about our unhappiness with this and other poor management decisions.
There’s a laundry list of poor decisions Sony have made in their pursuit of money making trends, the largest and most expensive of which are Bungie and Firewalk. But even here with Bluepoint, I don’t see why you would choose to invest and purchase a studio, only to shut it down less than 5 years later. Either purchasing Bluepoint was a poor decision, or shutting it down was a poor decision. Either way this is mismanagement of money and resources. And ditto to Firewalk.
It’s frustrating because of the time and resources lost, and how much further along and better things could be right now if executive mishandling of funds and talent didn’t occur so regularly the last 5 years. Literally billions of dollars and hundreds of people’s work lives.
Re: First PS Plus Essential Game for March 2026 Leaked Early
Not a bad thing to have in the library. And actually, besides Everybody’s Golf, I think this is the first time we’ve got a golf game with Essential. EA’s PGA Tour is available on the Extra library but I don’t have a golf simulator in my library otherwise. I’ll probably never play it but nice to have the option when friends come over.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 621
In the opening hours of Horizon Forbidden West and Silent Hill 2. Both are fantastic so far, in their own way. And both feel very familiar. Even though it’s been essentially 8 years since my sole playthrough of Horizon Zero Dawn, the gameplay is still there in the vestiges of my muscle memory. I like what they’ve done with the climbing and traversal though. Combat feels the same so far, not that that’s a bad thing though. And even though I’ve not played a Silent Hill game since the PS1, SH2 feels very similar to RE2 and RE3. Again, not a bad thing at all.
Re: Opinion: Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
@themightyant Conspiracy unlocked! Sony brass are so powerful, all-knowing, and wise that they manufactured an Xbox hullabaloo to divert attention from their own dumpster fire… They really do know what they’re doing! 😜
Re: Sony Goes Silent on Social Media as Fans Turn Feral Following Bluepoint Closure
@datamonkey Yeah, I don’t know. With Marathon now catching splash damage from the Bluepoint announcement, it seems to me that they either have interns running the PR and marketing departments, or they just don’t exist. Pretty sure Push Square could collect a crew selected from the top scoring users from their last quiz and that group could do an infinitely better job than what’s going on here.
Re: Sony Goes Silent on Social Media as Fans Turn Feral Following Bluepoint Closure
I said this elsewhere, but it’s pretty clear to me that Hulst and the executive crew underestimated how popular Bluepoint was to the core fanbase. The PR department is probably scrambling to do some damage control.
Re: Opinion: Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
@themightyant A hear you, and I’m actually optimistic and forgiving to a fault, and with each misstep Sony makes, I’ve thought: ‘fans are in a bit of over-reaction and it’ll pass after a couple news cycles and Sony is fine, they have made mistakes but know what they’re doing overall’… but this one feels different. I’ve not been this shaken before, even with Bungie debacles, Firewalk, multiple cancelled projects, and so forth. To shut down Bluepoint is so much more of a gut punch, as they have a long history of having worked with them, finally purchasing them outright, only to shut them down.
With the “5%” (…eh…) of knowledge we gamers have we saw things the suits did not see (Concord, Bungie, the over investment in live service in general, etc) though. A committee of gamer consultants probably could have saved this company billions and although Sony are doing fine now, they could be so much further ahead, imho. And shutting down a studio with BluePoint’s legacy is one of the decisions that will be regretted in 5 years, just like buying Bungie or Firewalk is a regret (to anyone there who cares about the company’s viability.)
None of us are perfect, and I like to give a lot of grace because I certainly make mistakes too, but I expect more from the people in power than what we’re getting. We all have to live with the consequences of our mistakes, so corporations should too, and I think we’re at a point that we avid gamers are having our patience wear thin and this closure is a large straw that is weighing heavily on the camel’s back right now.
And perhaps I’m jaded because I see many similar corporate mismanagement issues across in other industries, not just Sony, and I live in a nation where the government is doing these same things making boneheaded decisions which has sent the economy into a tailspin that we all are having to live through. Living with the consequences of stupid decisions made by people who frankly don’t know what they’re doing. In the case of Sony, it’s a much smaller issue, but it’s starting to feel disturbingly similar to the hubris and lack of self-awareness to listen to people more informed that I see in the bureaucracy of the State before making decisions unilaterally that destroy not only livelihoods, but hamper the health of the entire economy. Yeah, I’m sure that all the short-sighted bad decisions and misdirection that’s going on in the public space will eventually blow over and we’ll all get through this crippling economy, but the blind faith in our leaders to make the right decisions because ‘well, the nation is still the most influential power on the planet so its not all bad so they must know what they’re doing. I only know 5% of what’s going on in the world, so I’ll just wait patiently for things to get better when all these supposed wise decisions start making sense…’
I’m trying to not get too off in the weeds and I’ll leave it at that.
I saw the other article about Sony going radio silent for now, so I do think they underestimated the PR impact. I hope you’re right though that the lineup for 2026 makes us all quickly forget.
Re: Opinion: Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
@themightyant I want to pluck out one thing you said in your recent post there and emphasize it because I think it warrants consideration and relates to some comments I was trying to make over on the forums. And that is, regarding the measurables, the profit loss, the ‘revenue - operating costs = profit’ types of reasoning that corporate heads use to make sweeping decisions on business closures and employees job viability is only part of the picture and comes back to bite businesses in the rear if they are simply looking at the wrong metrics, or not factoring in the unmeasurables. And I think this closure is an example — a simple profitability spreadsheet probably made closing Bluepoint a no-brainer to Hulst and Co. in the boardroom, but now I bet they are having second thoughts because they have enraged a fanbase and the PR hit is something they didn’t have a line on the spreadsheet to account for. Is the outrage by millions of PlayStation faithful enough to make this closure the wrong financial decision? I don’t know, but I really feel like the disconnect of the corporate boardroom from the real world is very large and companies like Sony (and governments for that matter) make too many decisions in a bubble when things look to simply make sense on a spreadsheet or line graph in the boardroom.
Some of the other points that Sammy brings up in the article are further evidence of the poor visibility and poor connection to the end users, underscoring a lack of awareness and understanding about some of the unquantifiable factors of their success. There needs to be a balance of numbers-people and creatives/visionaries with a knack for market analysis in order for good leadership to thrive and unfortunately times like we’ve seen the last few years make me think that balance is way off-kilter at PlayStation corporate headquarters.
Re: Opinion: Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
Yes, this! Well said, Sammy.
I don’t usually get fired up about industry headlines, but this Bluepoint closure has really rattled me. Agree with the article 100%.
Re: 'I'm Confident in the Direction We're Headed': Under-Fire PlayStation Boss Tries to Explain Baffling Bluepoint Closure
This does seem like catastrophic mismanagement by Sony. I usually try to give executive management the benefit of the doubt, but the talent and quality of Bluepoint is up with the best in the industry. How do you just throw that away? I know he says they’re trying to salvage some of their jobs and doing some consolidation, but this feels like taking your finest clothes and then using it like a rag to mop up the floor and then throwing it in the trash because it didn’t do a very good job.
Re: Sony Makes Shocking Decision to Shut Down Bluepoint Games
Oh no! I am just seeing this (a little late based on the 340 comments already) and I’m in shock and really gutted. Bluepoint was one of my favorite developers. Oh man, what a horrible loss.
Re: 'It's Going to Be a While Yet': The Elder Scrolls 6 Passes a Big Milestone, But Is Still Years Away
I think the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in less time. 😛
Re: Don't Expect Crimson Desert to Be Easy, PS5 Open Worlder Won't Have Difficulty Options at Launch
I’ve not watched much of the preview footage, but this game is coming across rather intimidating. I know these PR quotes are supposed to give the exact opposite impression — that there is no hard sticking points you can’t come back to later, but the way they have portrayed the openness of the game and sheer amount of options to approach, I don’t know if it’ll be accessible from a gameplay complexity standpoint
Re: Opinion: The Euphoric Reaction to PS6's Rumoured Delay Really Confuses Me
I just bought a Pro within the last year, so I’m satisfied to stay with the PS5 for a few more years. A lot of my feelings contentment with the PS6 delay stems from the fact I’m still working on some of my backlog from PS4 for goodness sake. I personally can’t relate to the online sentiment that PS5 has no games. My backlog has never been larger and games are still coming out at a steady clip.
To play devil’s advocate, I realize PS6 will surely be backwards compatible with PS4 and PS5, so we will all be able to work on the backlog in perpetuity. So a PS4 backlog isn’t alone a reason not to want a PS6, but I think there’s an economic reason as well. Like Sammy says, the delay is out of necessity due to awful market conditions. And we’re all living in that horrible economy too with dwindling discretionary money to spend.
I know people say that you don’t have to upgrade if the PS6 were to come out tomorrow, but with technology there’s usually a draw, especially among with enthusiasts, to have the latest version and tech, so people I think are feeling the pressure to stay current and yet don’t have the money to do so.
(Edit: And I would add, as far as economic reasons for waiting, that this generation is the first time that we’ve had price increases of the hardware the further into the generation we go. So now it’s no guarantee that if you wait to adopt the new generation until a couple years later, say 2030 or 2031, that the cost of a PS6 may actually be higher! So waiting to join the next gen doesn’t mean you save money like it used to)
Another reason many of us feel fine to wait a couple years is that even though we’re at the usual end of a generational timeframe (around 6-7 years), the first two years of PS5 seemed like a no-show with the crazy COVID delays and product scarcity. Effectively the generation feels like it started around 2022 rather than 2020. I still remember the crazy days of stalking websites trying to log in immediately when stock dropped onto it, only to find out you missed again and would have to wait until the next random stock drop. So many people couldn’t even get a PS5 for the first year or so.
Re: Sony Considering PS6 Delay to 2028 or Even 2029, New Report Says
@graymamba I’ve started Horizon Forbidden West on the Pro as a litmus test of its capabilities and so far so good. And actually Baldur’s Gate 3 had noticeable differences too when I played in PS5 vs the Pro. It’s definitely minor differences, slightly quicker load times and better lighting being the most noticeable to me. In HFW there’s the Pro mode which is high fidelity at 40 fps and that’s what I’m trying. It’s really smooth and looks phenomenal. It took some tweaking of the HDR gamma settings to get the picture I wanted but I think I finally have it. It can be quite oversaturated if you don’t adjust some of that, with so much color popping so brightly.
I have definitely noticed the famous Aloy fuzz on her face that everyone was talking about. 😂 Glorious 4K at work! Not sure what PS6 will bring (or the new PSSR update for Pro, for that matter) but I am really happy with what we have already!