@Flaming_Kaiser It depends how you define "affordable"? For many low income families, paying 10-15 Euros per month for a streaming subscription is more affordable than having to pay 500+ Euros upfront for a new device and 30-80 Euros per game (or if we compare it to movies and series 15-25 Euros per Blu-ray).
I don't believe gaming on consoles and PC will fully be replaced by streaming, they will still remain for the gaming enthusiasts who can afford it, but I do think that especially console gaming could slowly decrease over the next 10 years, if console prices go up instead of down, becoming "less affordable".
Game preservation is already in a bad place in my opinion, no matter what you think about streaming. The majority of games released on disc are incomplete, lack key day-1 patches and/or require a constant internet connection. Also with time some games become a rarr collectibles and go up in price (especially Nintendo games), making them less affordable. I rather prefer an affordable game distributed digitally via the PlayStation store than an over expensive game on a disc or cartridge.
I assume we both grew up in the 90s or early 2000s, are nostalgic to that amazing feeling of having a new game physically in your hands and putting it into your console for the first time. That's why I love Evercade so much, as it allows me to relive that feeling. But modern gaming is slowly moving away from physical media and I don't think there is much we can do about it.
@Rhaoulos Microsoft would never claim it's just because Call of Duty. Officially GamePass subscribers got an "upgrade". Here's the official message:
Ultimate has been upgraded for players who want the best of everything. We’re rolling out our most expansive upgrade yet, including more day one games than ever before, Fortnite Crew & Ubisoft+ Classics for the first time ever, enhanced Xbox Cloud Gaming streaming quality up to 1440p, Rewards with Xbox, and more. Now players can have it all.
Ultimate subscribers now get access to over 75 day one releases a year. That includes some of the most anticipated upcoming games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, High on Life 2, Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, and The Outer Worlds 2. These join a growing library of more than 400 games playable on Xbox consoles, Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud on supported devices, with more than 45 new games added today. Think of hits like Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Hollow Knight: Silksong, plus exclusive benefits like access to EA Play.
I think Microsoft gambled, hoping that whole lot more people would subscribe to GamePass with the addition of Call of Duty releases day 1, but that didn't happen.
@cragis0001 was Bethesda perfect? No. But let’s look at the track record here - can you honestly name one Microsoft acquisition that has been better post purchase?
Mojang Studios, Playground Games, Compulsion Games, Obsidian Entertainment have all grown in size and have successful games.
It's baffling how Bethesda managed to make Starfield worse on all platform, years after the first release. It didn't crash so much on the initial launch.
It's hardly surprising that the worst Call of Duty in the last 10 years, with strong releases from Battlefield 6 around the same release window, didn't perform in sales as it was initially expected. Yet it didn't stop the game dominating thr sales charts in January and February.
Most likely the revenue it "lost" on GamePass it gained from PlayStation and PC. But a bad Call of Duty is a bad Call of Duty.
@psmr They do, but this is about Bethesda and their role under Xbox management. This is about Pete Hines not having any decision making control and his role being redundant after the Xbox management took over. It's just giving context to how management in large corporations works.
@Flaming_Kaiser I replied to your previous comment: "Better spend a fortune on subscriptions where you don't own anything. Man streaming services are a nightmare already with movies."
My point is, despite streaming games not being your or my preferred way of playing games, it could potentially become the most viable option for people with low income in the near future, who cannot afford new expensive consoles which go up in price over time. People won't mind not having ownership and they will tolerate all the downsides of streaming, as long as they can play the "newest premium games" for a low entry price. If subscription fees become too high then people will unsubscribe and either play free-to-play games or turn to piracy.
@somnambulance You're definitely right, live service gams are too risky and I would go so far to say that the gaming market feels saturated (at least to me) with all these live service games.
In case of Quantic Dream games I do wonder, why they always choose Hollywood actors for the cast.
Now, if they could also record my voice and use AI to generate speech and movement then Sony would never need to hire a voice actor or motion capture ever again, as their fanbase is basically endless. 😀
I really don’t understand how so many studios this generation have forgotten how to make games their base wants to play.
Might be because the games they used to make have become to expensive or unsustainable, due to expensive voice actors and motion capturing. For example Quantic Dream games, which have branching stories: They would spend high effort/budget on parts of a game that only a fraction of the players would see.
Hopefully Implicit Conversions can get in touch with them to share knowledge because having PS3 games been made playable again natively will be great.
Based on the roadmap available on the Implicit Conversions website, they have yet to release a PS2 emulator and they are only "dreaming" of doing any work on a PS3 emulator: https://www.implicitconversions.com/roadmap
@Futureshark I would be surprised if MGS4 is just the PS3 version emulated. That version was so tightly tailored to the PS3 hardware that it requires a lot of rework effort to get it running on modern platforms, including PC, Switch 1&2 and Xbox Series X|S.
The game was split into multiple acts so you had to watch a lengthy (several minutes) long installation screen between each act. It uses motion controls for certain things like resetting the Octocamo. There are many references to licensed products like Apple iPod, PSP, Blu-Ray discs, Mac computers, Sony Ericsson phones, Triumph motorcycles, the Cell processor, which need to be renewed or removed.
Also, since Sony didn't manage to release a PS3 emulator for the PS5, it's very unlikely that Konami will create one just for MGS4, which even runs on the Nintendo Switch.
The amount of effort these developers spend on the RPCS3 emulator makes me think that Sony will not bother investing time/money into a PS3 emulation for PS6, which is a shame as the PS3 has some amazing games.
@nomither6 No, I don't think he has it. He has a PS5 and a PS4. As far as I remember, that launch PC further broke down, not sure if it ever got repaired.
He than had to use the Japanese PS3 (MGS4 Limited Edition) which had the X and O flipped for Ok/Cancel and he couldn't finish the tutorial on Dark Void because of that.
A friend of mine had a YLOD on his original PS3 (the one which was backward compatible to PS2 games). He had to send it to repair and Sony's repair service charged him 100+ Euros.
Still didn't stop him from getting the Japanese exclusive MGS4 special edition PS3. 😄
Great opinion article. I'm kind of in the same boat, that I've been interested in the series, but never got to play it. The story over the series is intimidatingly complex. But I feel attracted to the simple combat and the linear structure.
@Markatron84 Add "the best place to play" to your drinking game. It's like the most common corporate speak in gaming nowadays. 😉
“We are always talking about PlayStation should be the best place to play from the user's perspective."
- Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki
“Together with the gaming community, our commitment is to make Windows the best place to game—no matter where you play—by continuing to innovate and deliver experiences that enable players everywhere.
- Ian LeGrow, Corporate Vice President, Windows + Devices
"My focus is to make Xbox the best place to play, return to our roots, ship great things, and become stronger for the future."
- Xbox CEO Asha Sharma
"We want our game franchises to be as big as possible, while making Xbox the best place to play these games."
@LogicStrikesAgain Sure, could be the case that they will check out whats available on the platform. Buy 5-10 exclusive games in the span of the generation, occasionally spend 1-2 months per year on PS Plus. But they have a PC as well, where they can also play thousands of games and their time is limited.
I guess Xbox might have had the same idea. Release a relatively cheap console with Series S, get people to buy it for Starfield or Forza Horizon 5. They'll subscribe to GamePass and try out some games... In the end many who subscribed to GamePass went on to buy those games on other (their main) platforms.
Is that behavior really sustainable for a platform?
Some have worried that the company may take its foot off the pedal now Xbox is no longer a competitor, but it still faces intense pressure from Nintendo and Valve, as well as other forms of entertainment like streaming.
No executive will go on to say "we will lean back and relax, now that one of our main competitors in gaming is not competing with us anymore".😄
He's saying what the investors and the public want to hear: They are working hard to have an attractive platform and generate money.
Their bet is that by selling you a subsidized console they will profit from all the games you buy on the PS Store, taking a 30% cut from all third-party games and all MTX within free-to-play games while also taking 100% from first-party sales, plus all the revenue from selling PS+ (keeping it mandatory to play online and cloud saves), and hardware add-ons such as the Portal or some headset, in the long-term that user they got to buy a PS5 by keeping Wolverine exclusive is way more profitable than selling those games to a PC user in which Valve takes a 30% cut.
They’re pulling out from PC simply because it didn’t fulfill their expectations, most games didn’t even sell 10% of what they sold on console, their frankly naive expectations were that people after getting a taste of Sony’s games on PC they’d go all the way to buy a PS5 (said by themselves multiple times in quarterly meetings) but clearly the PC audience doesn’t work like that, they don’t even want to use other launchers other than Steam let alone spend $600 on another hardware.
That last part basically sums it up. PlayStation (Heman Hulst and Jim Ryan) were naive thinking that PC players would switch to PlayStation as their main platform after playing those games.
And that's the point I'm trying to make: Those who mainly play on PC have no reason to engage with a PlayStation other than occasionally playing PS exclusive games. They can buy and play 3rd party games on PC often for cheaper, no mandatory online subscription and configuration/modding options. They will play free-to-play on PC and buy DLCs and micro-transactions there. So, is it profitable to just sell a subsidized PlayStation console and a first party game to them, if they're not going to spend more money in the ecosystem?
It's not that simple. 75K sold units at what price? Does it take into account Steam's cut?
Yes, 30% are considered in the calculation.
Does it take into account that some ps players may choose to pirate it on PC, making it a complete loss for Sony?
People who pirate games wouldn't have bought the game game in any case. They are not likely going to pay £ 30+ when they play other games for free. So I wouldn't call pirated games a loss if those games wouldn't have been bought anyways.
The most important part is that it tells people, you don't need to own a ps console to play ps games. Just get a PC and you can play it there, even for free.
I guess that's the problem of it all. That brand identity, that "PlayStation is the only place you can play these games". If PlayStation has no other meaningful USP then yes, they need to rely more heavily on exclusive games.
Each first party game could sell twice as much and it wouldn't make that big of a difference. Sony makes the most revenue from third party games (GTA, CoD, etc), their DLC, and MTX especially from free to play games, hence betting so hard on GaaS this generation. First party games exist to make the console desirable and bring in as many gamers as possible. Obviously their budget can't be infinite, but their main job isn't to make a profit, but to keep gamers on psn.
If the profitability of the games don't matter as much, then I wonder why Sony closed studios like Bluepoint, Japan Studio, Firesprite and layed off hundreds of people in other studios. Those developers could work on a wide range of diverse first party games.
Is it a coincidence that Sony tried to force psn on PC gamers and after it was rejected, they decided to bail? Perhaps...
While the PSN account issue might have aided in the decision, I think Sony would have made this decision even without that. The PC port strategy was done by Jim Ryan, maybe together with Herman Hulst. Since the new Japanese Sony leadership took over, they have been reversing some of those decisions.
So I do agree that the barrier of entry for Sony’s first-party games is getting ridiculously high and unsustainable for +300M budgets, but PC has proven to not be the solution to these problems.
I don't think PC was considered as a solution to unsustainable +300M budget games. As Yoshida Shuhei stated in an interview, it was additional, easy revenue. If porting Marvel's Spide-Man to PC costed 2.3m, it was already profitable after about 75K sold units. The sustainability was expected from the console sales, where Sony decided during the late PS3 / early PS4 era to develop games with similar budgets and scope as Hollywood blockbusters, before even considering PC ports. Selling 6-10+ million units of a game was easy during the PS4 era, where live service games didn't lock in player's attention for thousands of hours.
It's not quite clear why Sony is moving away from PC ports, I think it's because they don't like these new wave of hybrid PC/consoles (Steam Machine, Xbox Helix, Chinese brands) building gaming devices for the living room. The question is though: If someone is gaming on PC and they are interested in Marvel's Wolverine only for example, does Sony actually profit from selling this person a PS5 at a subsidized price and a 1st party game (maybe even bundled with the console), if this person will continue spending their money on Steam instead of PlayStation?
Look, I am not saying that subscription services are good, or the best way for the distribution of entertainment media, including games. But with rising prices for console hardware, games and PS Plus for online, what other options do you see for people who occasionally want to play a few new games for a week or two, if they cannot afford the costs (apart from piracy)?
I honestly think Sony is big mad MS is making a Pc/console hybrid they would allow PS titles to hit Xbox as soon as the PC port goes live. They knew the PC side would make less but give new life to exclusives once the console fervor for a given game wears off. Now that MS could eat into that, they are freaking out.
I don't think Microsoft's next PC/hybrid-device alone would be enough to justify a move away from PC ports for Sony. The device will be very expensive and probably will sell a few millions. But combine that with Valve's Steam Machine which also aims to be played on the big TVs in the living and a price similar to the PS5, not to mention other Chinese mini-PC manufacturers like Ayaneo, and suddenly PC as a platform is more of a threat to Sony's dominance in the living room.
Sony are in a tricky situation and I don't know which strategy would work best for them. On the one hand, they are a hardware manufacturer with a successful platform, so they need to sell as many PlayStation consoles as they can. On the other hand, the games they make and publish are too expensive to keep exclusive to one platform. If a game fails, it's likely the end of that studio. These price hikes are kind of contra-productive in getting more PS5 units sold, further complicating the situation, and maybe they think true "PS5 exclusives" will solve the issue.
@TrollOfWar I never played 40 Winks. Liked the look of it but then the reviews said it was a baby game so I didn't get it.
It's a decent 3D collect-a-thon, where you have to collect cogs and the winks to progress, but the combat is not that great. You are right, it's rather simple and there are better options like Spyro the Dragon or Banjo Kazooie.
I'm playing it on the Evercade VS-R console, because my 3-year-old kid wants to watch.
That era of playstation 3D platform games has a deep nostalgic root in my head, tried so many even obscure ones like Jersey Devil that was hard to track down in the late 90s.
Been playing the Gex trilogy recently and even though it's probably not a set of actual classics they are a lot of fun (well the 3D ones at least)
That's basically the reason why I got into Evercade. I wanted to play the original Tomb Raider games on the go and got a Gameboy-sized Super Pocket handheld (part of the Evercade platform) with the Tomb Raider Collection 1.
There aren't many PS1 games on Evercade and only 1 N64 with Banjo Kazooie & Banjo Tooie releasing later this year. I hope more will come.
@Oram77 I think DualSense support is rare in general from 3rd party studios, not just Xbox/Microsoft, as it requires more effort to implement it properly. It would have much better support if Xbox and the Switch Pro controller also had features like haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, touchpad and a light bar.
PS5 Pro support I assume Somy might place it as a requirement. Maybe since PSSR 1 didn't deliver perfect results, the developers just did the bare minimum. Now that PSSR2 offers better results, it will also see more support from developers.
@GeminiX53 streaming music and videos is very very very different from streaming interactive entertainment like games. It requires a full network stack end to end that is stable, reliable, and fullt optimized. This doesn't exist. It never has and it will always be impossible. To do so requires end to end control from the streaming server all the way to the receiving client. Usually there are 30-50 hops, which means there are 30-50 networking devices involved. How are you gonna ensure that the quality is there? ... To have stable game streaming to everyone world wide, the entire world would need to build a new internet.
I think you're overcomplicating it. Yes, cloud streaming games is inferior to running games locally, but people are willing to accept a worse experience if they don't have to spend a small fortune on expensive hardware.
Cloud gaming is already quite popular in regions with advanced 5G infrastructure and high-speed internet, like China, Japan, South Korea and India. Regions with a bad internet infrastructure will likely also not have a PSN support.
People will tolerate all sorts of quality issues of streaming, be it low bitrates, temporal disconnects, input lag, visual artifacts, if they can play the games they want at a low price. Kind of like people 10 years ago were okay downloading the newest movies recored with mobile cameras in cinemas. Maybe AI will help with better compression/decompression of streamed data in the future.
And it's not like lag is new to gaming. You get lag in all online games depending on the location of the server. Doesn't stop people from playing Marathon or Call of Duty online.
... regardless i'd expect a fairly substantial crossgen again anyway.
I agree, I think players who already have a console, will keep what they have as long as those consoles are supported (PS4 and Xbox One still get new indie games 6 years into the current gen).
I could also see some Chinese hardware manufacturers (like Ayaneo, Anbernic and Retroid) releasing cheap (digital-only) consoles which run Linux or Android and could offer access to new games (via Steam, Epic, Google or a proprietary store) at an affordable price.
I see PlayStation like the iPhone brand: Those who want to afford it, will continue to do so. Those who can't or don't want to spend that much, will find cheaper alternatives. And cloud streaming will be a cheaper, viable alternative.
Consoles will not go away in the next 10 - 15 years, but the next gen consoles will probably be for hardcore gaming enthusiasts, not for the casual players.
Not everyone buys a £1000 mobile phone every 2 year. Most people are fine with cheap sub-£400 Chinese smartphones or the smartphones from last generation.
Mobile phones are seen as a necessity where gaming console are more of a hobby. If you had to give up one of the 2, which one would you give up? Which one would most people give up?
@Dogbreath It's also worth noting that casual players wouldn't need to pay £1000 for a GeForce Now Ultimate subscription upfront. They can pay £18 per month when a new game like Call of Duty, EA's FC, NBA or GTA comes out and cancel the subscription once they're done.
Comments 705
Re: 'The Solution Is to Get Rid of Consoles': Analyst Predicts $1,000 PS6 and a Transition to Game Streaming
@Flaming_Kaiser It depends how you define "affordable"? For many low income families, paying 10-15 Euros per month for a streaming subscription is more affordable than having to pay 500+ Euros upfront for a new device and 30-80 Euros per game (or if we compare it to movies and series 15-25 Euros per Blu-ray).
I don't believe gaming on consoles and PC will fully be replaced by streaming, they will still remain for the gaming enthusiasts who can afford it, but I do think that especially console gaming could slowly decrease over the next 10 years, if console prices go up instead of down, becoming "less affordable".
Game preservation is already in a bad place in my opinion, no matter what you think about streaming. The majority of games released on disc are incomplete, lack key day-1 patches and/or require a constant internet connection. Also with time some games become a rarr collectibles and go up in price (especially Nintendo games), making them less affordable. I rather prefer an affordable game distributed digitally via the PlayStation store than an over expensive game on a disc or cartridge.
I assume we both grew up in the 90s or early 2000s, are nostalgic to that amazing feeling of having a new game physically in your hands and putting it into your console for the first time. That's why I love Evercade so much, as it allows me to relive that feeling. But modern gaming is slowly moving away from physical media and I don't think there is much we can do about it.
Re: Pragmata (PS5) - Brilliant Combat Is the Star of Yet Another Capcom PS5 Hit
Looking forward to play this. I thoroughly enjoyed the demo.
Re: Rumour: Call of Duty's $300 Million Xbox Game Pass Gambit Could End
@Rhaoulos Microsoft would never claim it's just because Call of Duty. Officially GamePass subscribers got an "upgrade". Here's the official message:
Source: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/10/01/xbox-game-pass-ultimate-premium-essential-plans/
I think Microsoft gambled, hoping that whole lot more people would subscribe to GamePass with the addition of Call of Duty releases day 1, but that didn't happen.
Re: 'I Saw How It Was Getting Damaged': Ex-Bethesda Exec Goes to Town on Xbox's Mistreatment
@Ajbr8687
Mojang Studios, Playground Games, Compulsion Games, Obsidian Entertainment have all grown in size and have successful games.
Re: Rumour: Call of Duty's $300 Million Xbox Game Pass Gambit Could End
@Rhaoulos unofficially yes. Microsoft might be changing plans, if people unsubscribed after increasing the subscription prices
Re: Starfield Has a Serious Crashing Issue on PS5, PS5 Pro
It's baffling how Bethesda managed to make Starfield worse on all platform, years after the first release. It didn't crash so much on the initial launch.
Re: Rumour: Call of Duty's $300 Million Xbox Game Pass Gambit Could End
It's hardly surprising that the worst Call of Duty in the last 10 years, with strong releases from Battlefield 6 around the same release window, didn't perform in sales as it was initially expected. Yet it didn't stop the game dominating thr sales charts in January and February.
Most likely the revenue it "lost" on GamePass it gained from PlayStation and PC. But a bad Call of Duty is a bad Call of Duty.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 628
Re: 'I Saw How It Was Getting Damaged': Ex-Bethesda Exec Goes to Town on Xbox's Mistreatment
@psmr Maybe also happy developers? Just to balance out the negativity with some positives?
Re: 'I Saw How It Was Getting Damaged': Ex-Bethesda Exec Goes to Town on Xbox's Mistreatment
@psmr What about disgruntled first party devs?
Re: 'I Saw How It Was Getting Damaged': Ex-Bethesda Exec Goes to Town on Xbox's Mistreatment
@psmr I guess you are right, sorry. PushSquare needs to write more articles about Pete Hines.
Re: 'I Saw How It Was Getting Damaged': Ex-Bethesda Exec Goes to Town on Xbox's Mistreatment
@psmr They do, but this is about Bethesda and their role under Xbox management. This is about Pete Hines not having any decision making control and his role being redundant after the Xbox management took over. It's just giving context to how management in large corporations works.
Re: 'I Saw How It Was Getting Damaged': Ex-Bethesda Exec Goes to Town on Xbox's Mistreatment
@rusty82
The article drives user engagement despite being unrelated to PlayStation.
Re: 'The Solution Is to Get Rid of Consoles': Analyst Predicts $1,000 PS6 and a Transition to Game Streaming
@Flaming_Kaiser I replied to your previous comment: "Better spend a fortune on subscriptions where you don't own anything. Man streaming services are a nightmare already with movies."
My point is, despite streaming games not being your or my preferred way of playing games, it could potentially become the most viable option for people with low income in the near future, who cannot afford new expensive consoles which go up in price over time. People won't mind not having ownership and they will tolerate all the downsides of streaming, as long as they can play the "newest premium games" for a low entry price. If subscription fees become too high then people will unsubscribe and either play free-to-play games or turn to piracy.
Re: 007 First Light Is Getting Its Own Limited Edition DualSense PS5 Controller
Am I the only one who thinks this design looks a bit like the "goatse" meme (NSFW!)? 🤣
Re: Announced Nearly Half a Decade Ago, Quantic Dream's Star Wars Game Reportedly Still 'Years Off'
@somnambulance You're definitely right, live service gams are too risky and I would go so far to say that the gaming market feels saturated (at least to me) with all these live service games.
In case of Quantic Dream games I do wonder, why they always choose Hollywood actors for the cast.
Re: PlayStation to Start Putting Fans into PS5 Games with New Playerbase Program
Now, if they could also record my voice and use AI to generate speech and movement then Sony would never need to hire a voice actor or motion capture ever again, as their fanbase is basically endless. 😀
Re: Rumour: Naughty Dog 'Floated' the Idea of Uncharted 5 Before COVID
It's been 9 years since Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Naughty Dog might need to reboot the franchise by this point.
Re: Announced Nearly Half a Decade Ago, Quantic Dream's Star Wars Game Reportedly Still 'Years Off'
@somnambulance
Might be because the games they used to make have become to expensive or unsustainable, due to expensive voice actors and motion capturing. For example Quantic Dream games, which have branching stories: They would spend high effort/budget on parts of a game that only a fraction of the players would see.
Re: 'I Was Convinced It Could Never Be Done': Dev Praises 'Breakthrough' in PS3 Emulation
@AdamNovice
Based on the roadmap available on the Implicit Conversions website, they have yet to release a PS2 emulator and they are only "dreaming" of doing any work on a PS3 emulator: https://www.implicitconversions.com/roadmap
Re: 'I Was Convinced It Could Never Be Done': Dev Praises 'Breakthrough' in PS3 Emulation
@Futureshark I would be surprised if MGS4 is just the PS3 version emulated. That version was so tightly tailored to the PS3 hardware that it requires a lot of rework effort to get it running on modern platforms, including PC, Switch 1&2 and Xbox Series X|S.
The game was split into multiple acts so you had to watch a lengthy (several minutes) long installation screen between each act. It uses motion controls for certain things like resetting the Octocamo. There are many references to licensed products like Apple iPod, PSP, Blu-Ray discs, Mac computers, Sony Ericsson phones, Triumph motorcycles, the Cell processor, which need to be renewed or removed.
Also, since Sony didn't manage to release a PS3 emulator for the PS5, it's very unlikely that Konami will create one just for MGS4, which even runs on the Nintendo Switch.
Re: 'I Was Convinced It Could Never Be Done': Dev Praises 'Breakthrough' in PS3 Emulation
The amount of effort these developers spend on the RPCS3 emulator makes me think that Sony will not bother investing time/money into a PS3 emulation for PS6, which is a shame as the PS3 has some amazing games.
Re: 'We Were Forced to Change': Sony CEO Outlines Shift to Entertainment, and Says PS5 Must Be the Best Place to Play
@nomither6 No, I don't think he has it. He has a PS5 and a PS4. As far as I remember, that launch PC further broke down, not sure if it ever got repaired.
He than had to use the Japanese PS3 (MGS4 Limited Edition) which had the X and O flipped for Ok/Cancel and he couldn't finish the tutorial on Dark Void because of that.
Re: 'We Were Forced to Change': Sony CEO Outlines Shift to Entertainment, and Says PS5 Must Be the Best Place to Play
@nomither6
A friend of mine had a YLOD on his original PS3 (the one which was backward compatible to PS2 games). He had to send it to repair and Sony's repair service charged him 100+ Euros.
Still didn't stop him from getting the Japanese exclusive MGS4 special edition PS3. 😄
Re: Opinion: I Played Kingdom Hearts for the Very First Time, Here's What I Liked and What I Didn't
Great opinion article. I'm kind of in the same boat, that I've been interested in the series, but never got to play it. The story over the series is intimidatingly complex. But I feel attracted to the simple combat and the linear structure.
Re: Remember Those PC Icons on PS5? Sony Removed Them
@Dogbreath And what did they win? 😁
Great story by the way.
Re: 'Marathon Is Gonna Be Game of the Year': Actor Ben Starr Jokes It'll Beat GTA 6 Due to Jennifer English
Maybe Bungie can ask Geoff Keighley to postpone The Game Awards, because I think they are planning to release something big for Marathon next year. 😉
Re: 'We Were Forced to Change': Sony CEO Outlines Shift to Entertainment, and Says PS5 Must Be the Best Place to Play
@Markatron84 Add "the best place to play" to your drinking game. It's like the most common corporate speak in gaming nowadays. 😉
- Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki
- Ian LeGrow, Corporate Vice President, Windows + Devices
- Xbox CEO Asha Sharma
- Craig Duncan, head of Xbox Game Studios
Re: Remember Those PC Icons on PS5? Sony Removed Them
@LogicStrikesAgain Sure, could be the case that they will check out whats available on the platform. Buy 5-10 exclusive games in the span of the generation, occasionally spend 1-2 months per year on PS Plus. But they have a PC as well, where they can also play thousands of games and their time is limited.
I guess Xbox might have had the same idea. Release a relatively cheap console with Series S, get people to buy it for Starfield or Forza Horizon 5. They'll subscribe to GamePass and try out some games... In the end many who subscribed to GamePass went on to buy those games on other (their main) platforms.
Is that behavior really sustainable for a platform?
Re: 'We Were Forced to Change': Sony CEO Outlines Shift to Entertainment, and Says PS5 Must Be the Best Place to Play
@get2sammyb
No executive will go on to say "we will lean back and relax, now that one of our main competitors in gaming is not competing with us anymore".😄
He's saying what the investors and the public want to hear: They are working hard to have an attractive platform and generate money.
Re: Remember Those PC Icons on PS5? Sony Removed Them
@IOI
That last part basically sums it up. PlayStation (Heman Hulst and Jim Ryan) were naive thinking that PC players would switch to PlayStation as their main platform after playing those games.
And that's the point I'm trying to make: Those who mainly play on PC have no reason to engage with a PlayStation other than occasionally playing PS exclusive games. They can buy and play 3rd party games on PC often for cheaper, no mandatory online subscription and configuration/modding options. They will play free-to-play on PC and buy DLCs and micro-transactions there. So, is it profitable to just sell a subsidized PlayStation console and a first party game to them, if they're not going to spend more money in the ecosystem?
Re: Remember Those PC Icons on PS5? Sony Removed Them
@naruball
Yes, 30% are considered in the calculation.
People who pirate games wouldn't have bought the game game in any case. They are not likely going to pay £ 30+ when they play other games for free. So I wouldn't call pirated games a loss if those games wouldn't have been bought anyways.
I guess that's the problem of it all. That brand identity, that "PlayStation is the only place you can play these games". If PlayStation has no other meaningful USP then yes, they need to rely more heavily on exclusive games.
If the profitability of the games don't matter as much, then I wonder why Sony closed studios like Bluepoint, Japan Studio, Firesprite and layed off hundreds of people in other studios. Those developers could work on a wide range of diverse first party games.
While the PSN account issue might have aided in the decision, I think Sony would have made this decision even without that. The PC port strategy was done by Jim Ryan, maybe together with Herman Hulst. Since the new Japanese Sony leadership took over, they have been reversing some of those decisions.
Re: Remember Those PC Icons on PS5? Sony Removed Them
@IOI
I don't think PC was considered as a solution to unsustainable +300M budget games. As Yoshida Shuhei stated in an interview, it was additional, easy revenue. If porting Marvel's Spide-Man to PC costed 2.3m, it was already profitable after about 75K sold units. The sustainability was expected from the console sales, where Sony decided during the late PS3 / early PS4 era to develop games with similar budgets and scope as Hollywood blockbusters, before even considering PC ports. Selling 6-10+ million units of a game was easy during the PS4 era, where live service games didn't lock in player's attention for thousands of hours.
It's not quite clear why Sony is moving away from PC ports, I think it's because they don't like these new wave of hybrid PC/consoles (Steam Machine, Xbox Helix, Chinese brands) building gaming devices for the living room. The question is though: If someone is gaming on PC and they are interested in Marvel's Wolverine only for example, does Sony actually profit from selling this person a PS5 at a subsidized price and a 1st party game (maybe even bundled with the console), if this person will continue spending their money on Steam instead of PlayStation?
Re: 'The Solution Is to Get Rid of Consoles': Analyst Predicts $1,000 PS6 and a Transition to Game Streaming
@Flaming_Kaiser Yet, Netflix has 301 million, Disney Plus has 131 million and Spotify has 290 million subscribers, who spend a "fortune on subscriptions where they don't own anything" and they seem to be okay with that.
Look, I am not saying that subscription services are good, or the best way for the distribution of entertainment media, including games. But with rising prices for console hardware, games and PS Plus for online, what other options do you see for people who occasionally want to play a few new games for a week or two, if they cannot afford the costs (apart from piracy)?
Re: Remember Those PC Icons on PS5? Sony Removed Them
This is shocking news! 😱
Re: Fans Reckon PS Studios Website Adjustments Hint at Sony's Move Away from PC
@Moby
I don't think Microsoft's next PC/hybrid-device alone would be enough to justify a move away from PC ports for Sony. The device will be very expensive and probably will sell a few millions. But combine that with Valve's Steam Machine which also aims to be played on the big TVs in the living and a price similar to the PS5, not to mention other Chinese mini-PC manufacturers like Ayaneo, and suddenly PC as a platform is more of a threat to Sony's dominance in the living room.
Sony are in a tricky situation and I don't know which strategy would work best for them. On the one hand, they are a hardware manufacturer with a successful platform, so they need to sell as many PlayStation consoles as they can. On the other hand, the games they make and publish are too expensive to keep exclusive to one platform. If a game fails, it's likely the end of that studio. These price hikes are kind of contra-productive in getting more PS5 units sold, further complicating the situation, and maybe they think true "PS5 exclusives" will solve the issue.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 627
@rusty82
It's a decent 3D collect-a-thon, where you have to collect cogs and the winks to progress, but the combat is not that great. You are right, it's rather simple and there are better options like Spyro the Dragon or Banjo Kazooie.
I'm playing it on the Evercade VS-R console, because my 3-year-old kid wants to watch.
That's basically the reason why I got into Evercade. I wanted to play the original Tomb Raider games on the go and got a Gameboy-sized Super Pocket handheld (part of the Evercade platform) with the Tomb Raider Collection 1.
There aren't many PS1 games on Evercade and only 1 N64 with Banjo Kazooie & Banjo Tooie releasing later this year. I hope more will come.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 627
Re: Everyone's Talking About DriveClub Again, PS4's Underappreciated Racer
I had a good time playing this on the PS4. Up there with Project Gotham Racing as one of my top favorite racing games. A shame it didn't do so well.
Re: Here's Why Starfield Will Be Best on PS5 When It Finally Releases Next Week
@Oram77 I think DualSense support is rare in general from 3rd party studios, not just Xbox/Microsoft, as it requires more effort to implement it properly. It would have much better support if Xbox and the Switch Pro controller also had features like haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, touchpad and a light bar.
PS5 Pro support I assume Somy might place it as a requirement. Maybe since PSSR 1 didn't deliver perfect results, the developers just did the bare minimum. Now that PSSR2 offers better results, it will also see more support from developers.
Re: Here's Why Starfield Will Be Best on PS5 When It Finally Releases Next Week
Nice of Bethesda to have spent additional effort on adding support for DualSense and PS5 Pro. Most PS5 players will appreciate the additions.
Re: Uncharted Fans Think a Social Post Is Evidence of New PS5 Entry
Can't wait for it to release sometime around 2030. 😅
Re: Fans Reckon PS Studios Website Adjustments Hint at Sony's Move Away from PC
If someone on Twitter/X wrote it then it's definitely a clear sign what PlayStation is planning to do.
Re: Poll: Do You Think PS5 Can Outsell PS4 with Its New Price Point?
Maybe announcing another price increase will help it sell more units. People will panic and rush to buy a unit before the next price change. 😄
Re: Tell You What, This Parkour Platformer for PS5 Looks Sublime
@UltimateOtaku91 Sounds like selling points. 😄
Re: The Last of Us Multiplayer Was 80% Complete Before Cancellation, Spent 7 Years in Development
Wow, 7 years of development... I wonder how many millions it costed?
Re: 'The Solution Is to Get Rid of Consoles': Analyst Predicts $1,000 PS6 and a Transition to Game Streaming
@Neonix
I think you're overcomplicating it. Yes, cloud streaming games is inferior to running games locally, but people are willing to accept a worse experience if they don't have to spend a small fortune on expensive hardware.
Cloud gaming is already quite popular in regions with advanced 5G infrastructure and high-speed internet, like China, Japan, South Korea and India. Regions with a bad internet infrastructure will likely also not have a PSN support.
People will tolerate all sorts of quality issues of streaming, be it low bitrates, temporal disconnects, input lag, visual artifacts, if they can play the games they want at a low price. Kind of like people 10 years ago were okay downloading the newest movies recored with mobile cameras in cinemas. Maybe AI will help with better compression/decompression of streamed data in the future.
And it's not like lag is new to gaming. You get lag in all online games depending on the location of the server. Doesn't stop people from playing Marathon or Call of Duty online.
Re: 'The Solution Is to Get Rid of Consoles': Analyst Predicts $1,000 PS6 and a Transition to Game Streaming
@solocapers
I agree, I think players who already have a console, will keep what they have as long as those consoles are supported (PS4 and Xbox One still get new indie games 6 years into the current gen).
I could also see some Chinese hardware manufacturers (like Ayaneo, Anbernic and Retroid) releasing cheap (digital-only) consoles which run Linux or Android and could offer access to new games (via Steam, Epic, Google or a proprietary store) at an affordable price.
I see PlayStation like the iPhone brand: Those who want to afford it, will continue to do so. Those who can't or don't want to spend that much, will find cheaper alternatives. And cloud streaming will be a cheaper, viable alternative.
Consoles will not go away in the next 10 - 15 years, but the next gen consoles will probably be for hardcore gaming enthusiasts, not for the casual players.
Re: 'The Solution Is to Get Rid of Consoles': Analyst Predicts $1,000 PS6 and a Transition to Game Streaming
@solocapers
Re: 'The Solution Is to Get Rid of Consoles': Analyst Predicts $1,000 PS6 and a Transition to Game Streaming
@Dogbreath It's also worth noting that casual players wouldn't need to pay £1000 for a GeForce Now Ultimate subscription upfront. They can pay £18 per month when a new game like Call of Duty, EA's FC, NBA or GTA comes out and cancel the subscription once they're done.