TrollOfWar

• Neo Geo Arcade Collection 2
• Hi-Fi Rush
• maybe Sea of Thieves (new season)

The rumour continues that this would allow it to block its software from appearing on Xbox Helix, which will support third-party storefronts like Steam.

This is the point which proves this "rumor" to be fake.

Any effort from Sony to block its software from running on the "Xbox Helix" hardware might be futile. If it's a Windows PC which tells applications that it's a "Windows PC" than you cannot block it. Also modder can create an application which tells the launcher a different story.

I guess, this might actually be the reason why Sony is limiting their PC ports: it's an open ecosystem where they don't have the control over the hardware which runs their games.

@Max_the_German

... journalistic standards of PushSquare.

Journalistic standards? They rather post random reddit or Twitter/X messages from "angry fans" than request an official statement from a publisher. 😆

GTA 6 at 60 fps on PS5 Pro via frame gen confirmed? 😄

@rjejr

1 thing Cerny or anyone else at AMD or Nvidia talk about is how long it takes games that look this good. How long it adds to the development cycle. How much it adds to the cost of the games, and the hardware, to keep improving things incrementally. And then stop and ask themselves, is it worth it?

These are system architects, they don't necessarily care about how long it takes to create high fidelity AAA games. They only care about technical advancements at an affordable consumer price.

At least Mark Cerny was responsible, as far as I remember, for PlayStation 4 being more developer friendly than the PS3, with a more conventional X86 PC architecture. And he is in touch with development studios to understand what they need to develop future games.

@EfYI

I think it was a good update, and seeing as Nvidia is sitting on the lion's share of the market such successes may help AMD and Sony.

Microsoft's next Xbox hardware (Project Helix) will most likely also benefit from the technical advancements PlayStation and AMD have done together on upscaling, as they are also partnered with AMD.

Mark Cerny is playing on PC? That's blasphemy! 😄

On a more serious note, I bet AMD and PlayStation paid close attention to Nvidia's DLSS 5 reveal and this does read like some marketing PR reply to that reveal.

Nice to see these games being available to more people to play.

@LifeGirl I was surprised to read online that, while Sony owns the Spider-Man film IP and earns the majority of the revenue, Marvel Studios is actually producing the movies since 2017, after Sony's own attempts with Andrew Garfield failed.

Now Sony is obligated to produce and release new movies in the Spider-Man universe, because otherwise the film IP rights would revert back to the original owner (Marvel) after some years. The Sony Picture produced films are Venom (2018), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), Morbius (2022), Madam Web (2024), Venom: The Last Dance (2024) and Kraven the Hubter (2024). Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/1as6uhj/is_there_any_way_to_revert_spidermans_rights_back/

Only played the demo last night, but I really enjoyed it. The combat is something new, the exploration in the demo feels satisfying and sci-fi visuals are great.

@Issen_Mode

I'd like to see the RE9 devs response to this since it does in fact look like an AI filter and not the same face model despite what nvidia is claiming lol. Don't they scan real people's faces in too?

It's pretty likely that Nvidia has presented the results and gotten the approval from Capcom and other game publishers, before they presented the demo footage to the public.

@LowDefAl

@TrollOfWar short term, no because AMD are so far behind on stuff like this coupled with the amount of people on older cards. Long term, who knows. It depends on how the tech is used.

Yes, I agree. I was thinking long term, like 8-10 years from now. Kind of how upscaling and frame gen are becoming standard tools for developers to hit a certain performance target.

What concerns me a bit, if AMD will have a similar gen AI technology built into their graphics cards in the future, and it becomes a standard technology, will developers use it as a crutch to save on time/budget on the graphical fidelity of a game? And will games have a certain "samey" look (like UE3 games during the PS3 era)?

Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but it seems somewhat suspicious to us that Nvidia decided to announce its new DLSS 5 upscaler on the day Sony revealed plans to roll out its new PSSR 2 upscaler.

Apart from the questionable results of the presented DLSS5 images, this article again is written in such a negative tone, aiming to stir up some non-existent controversy. It's highly unlikely that Nvidia was "attempting to p*ss on PS5 Pro's parade". March is end of Q1 and the end of the financial year for many companies, they want to show shareholders what they've been working on.

Despite the results which make it look like "AI slop dating model", I think it's impressive that it's technically possible to enhance an image in real-time to such a degree. I do agree that it's a shame if the original artistic vision is lost by this. I would like to see this showcased on something much older like MGS1, Deus Ex, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West or Tomb Raider Legends.

I'm looking forward to see the analysis by Digital Foundry. Based on the results in Resident Evil Requiem PSSR2 looks pretty decent.

EDIT: It's already available: https://youtu.be/U2j7ij9ZPDk

Yes, those costumes don't look good, but they are free, so I don't see why people get mad about them.

It's a bigger problem that the new update introduced more bugs.

Anyways I'll continue playing Tomb Raider I-III on Evercade. It's fun having the games on a pocket-sized device.

I believe many were expecting Gotham Knights to be similar to Marvel's Avengers, where the game is focused on mundane, repetitive tasks rathet than a meaningful progress. It also didn't help that the game launched with performance issues.

Sad to see people at WB Montreal losing their jobs. I personally really enjoyed Batman: Arkham Origins, it was very good.

@somnambulance

That said, I am sort of surprised Square didn’t try to get Forspoken a second life on Xbox and Switch. When the game went to PS+, it felt like opinions were far more positive than they were initially.

Didn't Square Enix disband the whole team who worked on the game and the Luminous Engine, due to poor sales numbers?
So even if Square Enix wanted to port the game now to Xbox and Switch 2, the people who are familiar with the game engine have moved on to other projects.

@UltimateOtaku91

Pretty funny seeing people moan about Sammy being a fanboy when those people themselves aren't playstation fans and are just here to stir the pot.

Hypocrisy at its finest.

Exactly, it’s truly inspiring to see. We’ve reached that peak level of civil discourse where you can’t just enjoy a hobby; you have to pick a side, build a wall, and treat 'the other guys' like they’re invading your borders. Truly, the gaming community is the final frontier of geopolitical diplomacy.

The Sword of Ianna, maybe something new on Evercade.
And maybe Sea of Thieves.

@Globo He is part of the PushSquare team and his actions shape the image of the website.

@Octorok_Prime

Marathon is a first party PS game, so, like it or not, how it is faring sales-wise on pc is newsworthy.

Maybe Sammy here from PushSquare can get in touch with his friend Lakrix on Twitter/X to get an estimate on the sales numbers of Marathon, like he did with the Final Fantasy 16 numbers for Xbox. 🤔

Next week on PushSquare: Random person writes mean things about PlayStation on Twitter/X. How will Sony react?

The inclusion of Play Anywhere indicates some kind of deal with Microsoft, although that’s our own speculation.

PushSquare never misses a chance to flame the "console wars".

Never change PushSquare. 😄

@theSpectre Is it that figure that Sammy got on Twitter/X from some guy just a few days after FFXVI released on Xbox? 😄

@INeedGoodGraphics Maybe PlayStation could build up a studio in Japan which focuses on artistic Japanese games, similar to Ico, Shadow of the Colossus or The Last Guardian. I liked those games.

Money well spent 😎

I'm confident that this Bravely Default HD Remaster will release on PlayStation in the future.

@SuntannedDuck2 You're asking a lot of questions to which I don't have an answer. 😅

• Deal with Steam? I don't think so. If this Xbox Helix device is a PC with an open ecosystem sold at a profit, then there is no deal. Epic Games Store and GOG will have their own launchers and Epic Games did publicly state that they hope to get a launcher for the full-screen experience.
• Which game version you would install? My guess is that the system will use "Play Anywhere" to identify if a console game you own is also available as a PC version and via "Smart Delivery" you would get the most suitable version (probably PC) installed on the "Xbox Helix" and your save file will be synced via cloud saves. Otherwise, if no PC version is available, you're getting the console version running in a translation layer or emulator. Or maybe there is an option to select which version you want to install (I don't know).
• App Backward Compatibility I don't know, but I guess for most apps which have a PC equivalent (Dolby Atmos, Spotify, YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+) you will have to use the PC version of that app. Those apps will continue to be supported on consoles for a certain number of years.
• World of Warcraft? Yes, it's a PC.

One thing that I probably ignored in my previous comments is that support for Xbox Series consoles will likely continue for the next years. You can see that some new games still receive ports for Xbox One or PS4 even 6 years aftee the start of the current generation. So Microsoft will not abandon the Xbox Series consoles in the short term and based on what they presented at the GDC the new SDKs are meant to ease the process of porting games to consoles and PCs.

@rjejr Unless Microsoft reveals something that no one knew about, yes, the Xbox Series X/S are the last consoles.

This Xbox Helix device seems to be a pre-built gaming PC from Microsoft, with the newest AMD components. Some form of compatibility to Xbox console games has been confirmed, but it's unkown how that will work (wether it's a translation/emulation layer in Windows or a dual boot to Xbox OS, but I personally think it will be a translation layer from Xbox to Windows). I also wonder if this Xbox compatibility feature will be exclusive to this "Xbox Helix" device or something that Microsoft will roll out on all Windows PCs.

"Xbox" will likely be the full-screen experience app in Windows and Microsoft's PC gaming brand, like Asus "ROG", Dell "Alienware", Lenovo "Legion" or HP "Omen".

This "Xbox Helix" device seems to be Microsoft's bridge out of the traditional console market. If reports are true, this "Project Helix" to unify Windows and Xbox has been in planning for 10 years at Microsoft.

@eltomo

Microsoft need to do something to stay relevant in the console market.

Based on what is known about this "Xbox Helix", it sounds more like a bridge out of the traditional closed ecosystem console market.

The hardcore vocal minorities of a community are always the loudest.

Would it sell on PC as well as on PS5? Likely not.
Will this game alone make more people buy a PS5 just to play it? Probably not, it doesn't have the same mainstream appeal as Marvel's Wolverine for example.
Would the game still have a small audience on PC who would like to play it? Yes it would.

It's on Sony to decide if this game gets released on PC, not Housemarque.

I'm wondering, if this"Xbox Helix" device is a gaming PC, then will it support PSVR2 and the DualSense controller? 🤔

@rjejr

What install base will Helix have in 2027 or even 2020 that can justify any dev making an exclusive game for it?

Until we all have 8k tvs it's pretty much all incremental at this point. I think any company making a Series X game can get it to run on Helix with little effort. And no company is making Helix exclusives for at least 3 years.

The "Xbox Helix" will not have any exclusive games, because it's basically a PC with some form of compatibility to Xbox console games. So, games exclusive to PC will also run on this "Xbox Helix" device.

@HRdepartment @RZ-Atom

I thought this was a PlayStation site. Why are you guys constantly trying to have console wars here?

Xbox topics drive user engagement and ad-revenue.

@psmr

Admittedly being 100% armchair CEO here but I just don’t see how this works for them (Microsoft)… the fact that they’ve clearly got extremely educated people making these decisions means that I’m missing something right?

As people here were hoping / speculating that Microsoft should close down the Xbox console business and become multi-platform, they might as well just migrate the Xbox ecosystem to PC and sell the "Xbox Helix" hardware at a profit. As long as people are in Windows, they are in Microsoft territory.

@UltimateOtaku91

Dev kits in 2027 so possibly a 2028 release date. If I was Sony I would match their date or atleast the sane year.

A 2027 launch is realistic. Xbox Series X/S development kits (SDK units) began shipping to developers shortly after the E3 in 2020 and the consoles released in November 2020.

A similar timeframe might be viable here as well.

My guess is that we have an oversaturation of games, with tons of new games, indie games, retro games and live-service games eating up the free time of players. Though I mainly blame live-service games.

Just look at the top 10 most played games on PS5: Fortnite, GTA5, Call of Duty, Roblox, Minecraft, EA Sports FC, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege. Hardly any single player game makes it into that list.

A single player game needs to be some cultural phenomenon (like Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3 or Clair Obscur E33) with a unique selling point and a cult following to stand out of the bunch and be a huge success.

@DartLOD

@TrollOfWar name checks out

Don't judge a book by its cover. Or an internet troll by his nickname. 😉

Played the demo last night and the review nails my experience. Strong atmosphere, great sound, but the story and the combat feels dated.

And that film grain filter is horrible.

This is an interesting case. I've been wondering if the PS5 is sold at a profit, as traditionally the console hardware is subsidized, hence why we pay for subscriptions and more expensive games, but this article states that PS5s are sold at a "very low" profit margin.

but the platform holder argued that introducing alternative storefronts poses a security risk.

That argument didn't work in Apple's favor in the "Apple vs Epic Games" case, so I don't think it will work in Sony's case.

Also, with the "dynamic pricing" scheme this might be an issue.

Thanks for sharing your first impression.

It's nice to see the game being such a huge success on all platforms for Sony.

@VeganH

And the way the pc xbox app works as of now, it allows steam games/libraries but not allow you to purchase steam games through the Xbox app. Could be something similar to the helix. Allows your library from other storefronts to be played on the Xbox app, but not allow games to be purchased. You'd have to use your phone or another pc/laptop to purchase steam/epic games.

If the ROG Xbox Ally is anything to go by regarding what to expect on the Xbox Helix, then it will probably come with Steam pre installed: https://youtu.be/0nmnjhBuw-U

But once again I say why would a pc user buy the helix? They already have a means to play their steam library. And its not like xbox has an abundance of exclusives.

To upgrade if they want. The same reason why a PS5 user would buy a PS5 Pro.

@Enuo

Just ignore it. Xbox fans will have to admit they want to play Playstation games after all. That'll be the biggest humiliation.

PlayStation fans have been admitting that they want to play Xbox games like Forza Horizon, Fable, Halo and Gears of War. If they don't feel humiliated, then why should Xbox fans do?

Again this "PlayStation vs Xbox" mentality.

Based on what is being reported, "Xbox Helix" is going to be a PC - it will mainly compete in the pre-built gaming PC segment, not the subsidized console market. If PlayStation continues to sell live-service games on PC and doesn't delist games from Steam, than Xbox Helix will be able to play those games.

Implementing some custom solution, which detects the Xbox Helix hardware and stops games form running on them, can be easily circumvented by modders.

I am aware that the studio "Ballistic Moon" was not part of Sony, but together with the closure of Bluepoint Games and Playstation reducing PC releases, this sends out a negative message to game studios specialized on porting/remastering old games to modern systems.

@Hapless

You're better off just getting a PC. With no exclusives there's no point in buying an xbox.

Based on what's being reported, the next Xbox is going to be a PC. So if people will buy this new "Xbox" or a Windows gaming PC, either way they will be on a Microsoft platform.

Maybe the player numbers are on the lower side, because everyone is waiting for Marathon's reviews from gaming outlets to be published. /s

@VeganH

It makes sense to port the games to pc, after the sales start to stagnate on console, not before. Unless it costs another $100M to port a game over.

Porting games from PS5 to PC usually costs around $ 1-3 million. Based on the Insomniac Leaks the allocated porting budget for Marvel's Spide-Man 2 was $ 4.6 million, which is a bit higher than standard and I'm not sure if they include any additional marketing costs for PC trailers.

So, if Marvel's Spide-Man 2 sold 700K units on Steam at $60, Steam takes 30% and the porting budget was $ 4.6M, it leaves Sony/PlayStation with a profit of $ 24.8 million.