UltimateOtaku91

I think people need to vote with their wallets on this, just buy the game second hand or even rent it, Microsoft deserve to get poor sales over this.

I am currently on the premium tier for 11 more months but that's only because of the Portal streaming. They need to add more perks to Premium like Crunchyroll and more classic games, especially PS3 games if they finally get them running.

Nice little sabotage by Microsoft there to make sure people who own both consoles or PS5/PC get the Xbox/PC version instead.

Also requiring a Microsoft account is also lame, people on PC kicked up a fuss about creating a playstation account to play HellDivers 2 so I say Playstation gamers should be doing the same over this.

@Lavishturtle Don't worry you still get to play our live service games on your PC 😂😂

Well atleast it's more clear than the riddles and BS Phil and Shawarma come out with.

@8th_Observer I'd just ignore him, he's has nothing but negative comments towards Sony, doesn't matter what they do or what game they bring out, this guy has to say something negative.

@NerdyPaul Western publishers definitely do need to take some advice from those from Asia (Japan in particular). Never really hear of any lay offs or closures, only thing close is Square selling their western studios to Embracer.

Instead of lay offs you see more articles on Asian devs giving their employees raises and bonuses.

Bunjie won't be closing down but will be hit with lay offs apparently, if true then maybe this is a sign Sony are taking full control and turning them into a single player developer to work on a new shooter, which I think would be beneficial for them instead of the live service path they are on.

If you didn't think Xbox could sink any lower....they just did.

That's if Sony give them a chance to make another game.

@AI-Generation Its as we discussed the other day, Nintendo are immune to these lay offs and closures since they know how to budget properly and get the most in return.

Nintendo is the perfect company for these other publishers to follow, enforce lower budgets and re use assets if necessary, as long as an IP is popular the masses don't care if it's got the best visuals possible or if it's similar to the previous game. Astro Bot 2 could be the same game with different bots and it would still sell 3+ million.

Every western publisher right now is finding out the hard way that being creative, having an high budget and having long development times just isn't sustainable anymore.

@Orochilocka yes it does, it's basically the prologue chapter to the game.

Gave it a try earlier and tbh I can already tell its going to be the best SAO to date. The visuals are also pretty decent so ignore the guy saying it looks like a PS2 game 🙄. Also refreshing to get English dub for an SAO game for once, just shows how much faith they have in this one.

@Jacko11 They have ran out of chances, next gen will get even worse for them and I'm certain it will be their last as a console maker.

There's even articles on Microsoft thinking about selling off the Xbox business.

@Oram77 Its not a problem but maybe they were focussing on the wrong games, the current Sony only chase high figures and Bluepoints last games just weren't hitting the numbers for them. That's why I think it's just a matter of time before Housemarque follow the same fate.

I think Sony need to budget these smaller games better so it's less of a risk if they don't sell gangbusters.

@cburg Man you're obsessed with me 😂, sorry I really trigger you so much....

@Oram77 That's the problem they were only good at making remasters, they had no original IP and struggled with development on their last game, even their remakes didn't sell anywhere near Sony's standards and with a staff size of around 70 that's a small developer to me.

@HonestHick I wouldn't say most gamers at all liked Bluepoint considering the sales numbers for their games. Hence why they were closed, well that and they hardly made anything but remakes and struggled with making their last game.

You also mention Theory's Senua but their first game has similar sales to Bluepoints Demon Souls remake.

It's funny seeing people defend this, when Sony close smaller studios they get so much hate for it yet when it's Microsoft people are like it was necessary and best for the long term.

For me so far its,

1, Monster Hunter Stories 3
2, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined
3, Pragmata
4, Marathon
5, Fatal Frame 2

@AI-Generation Nintendo have always kept their budgets under control, which is paying off massively for them as their games also bring in huge sales. But, that's also to be expected as they don't use any mo cap, not a lot of voice acting and don't use realistic graphic engines, and most importantly re use a lot of assets.

Pokémon games are another great example, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet cost £20 million to develop, and have generated over a billion in revenue.

Nintendo must be looking at the state of the gaming industry and laughing. They are one of the most stable gaming companies around and have so far avoided lay offs and closures because of this.

The challenge we have, is that we're not monetising that entertainment.

Get ready for live service galore or even more ads in games.

@PuppetMaster $400 million for a short game, tied to one console and the majority of players will be playing via a subscription. There's no way they are recuperating the money for that, if that figure is true then it's 100% hitting Playstation at some point.

Bethesda games are buggy as hell when they take 10 years to make, imagine if they only have half that time 😬.

Looking forward to Life is Strange and Kingdom Come Deliverance although the latter is meant to be quite hard so I don't know how long il be playing it for.

No amount of patches will fix this borefest.

Man those poll results 😬, seems most gamers have taste after all.

I think for a single player game to do well now it needs to be a banger (really great game), which none of those Xbox games are.

Same goes for Playstation, Saros and the GoW 2.5D aren't, whilst Yotei was. It was always the same in previous gens where if a game didn't look premium or have any buzz surrounding its release then it underperformed hence why Sony closed down Japan Studio and focussed on big budget blockbuster games as they appeal to more players.

It also doesn't help Gamepass cannibalises day one sales.

Imagine if Saros was £35-£40, I'd wager it would have sold over 1 million by now. No one wants to pay £70 for a roguelike with soulslike difficulty.

A shame the new Xenoblade or Fire Emblem games couldn't muster up some more buzz, same for Kingdom Hearts 4 but I suppose the other games have had longer to generate views.

@themightyant It's quite sad when gamers see what these Twitter influences are saying and take it as truth.

Sony should be very happy having three first party titles in that list, just goes to show how important their single player games are.

If Gears of War was multiplatform then it wouldn't have even made the list.

@Sammy_G @datamonkey PS3 won that gen, Xbox even had an extra year on the market, also Sony had a superior hardware build whereas the 360 had a massive red ring of death defect that effected millions. Infact just searching it now even the PS3 had an higher attcah rate for software.

Despite selling slightly more software overall, the Xbox 360 had a nearly identical or slightly lower "attach rate" (average number of games purchased per console) compared to the PS3, largely because the Xbox 360 suffered from hardware failures that required many users to replace their consoles.

So everything considered I'd say PS3 beat the 360, with better hardware, higher attach rate for software, better exclusives with game of the year awards to go with them, and higher console sales even with a year less on the market.

This is probably what she meant when she said Xbox is not healthy right now, she thinks they need to shed some weight 😅

Can they really afford to close more studios, they have Forza, Halo, Gears and Fable all releasing within 12 months so it's going to take another 5-6 years to get another game from these studio's, Bethesda are going to take several more years for the next Elder Scrolls or Fallout, Blade was a no show and Activision are primarily focussed on Call of Duty. State of Decay, Senua, Minecraft and Clockwork also all releasing by end of 2027. Seems like they are throwing everything at the next 18 months so they will soon be approaching a dry spell from 2028 for a few years.

Seems to me the outcome isn't looking good for Microsoft, that's why you will continue to see their games come to Playstation in the future. Plus if their next console really is £1000+ then you're going to see even less sales next gen and even more closures and lay offs. Future is not looking good at Xbox at all.

@11001100110zero Because with gamepass you get first party games day one, resulting in much less sales as people would rather pay less to subscribe and play the game instead of paying £60-£70 for the game outright like us on Playstation and Nintendo have to do if we want a game day one. Now if those games went onto gamepass after 12 months then a lot of people would buy the games instead as they would not want to wait to play the game.

The worst thing is Xbox die hards don't care as long as they get their gamepass, the exact thing that will be their downfall.

Also I'd wager Double Fine will be the studio getting closed after having one of the biggest flops of the year.

@Jacko11 Yeah pretty much confirms it was £1000 or more. I still think it's going to release at that price but they are going to be looking at price payment plans by the sounds of it. It's too late now to alter the specs and they won't sell at a huge loss.

Another gen like this and they won't just be unhealthy, they will be on their deathbed.

So yeah its highly likely those games are staying around on Playstation.

@psmr The fighting is turn based with some later entries having a similar combat to final fantasy 13. There's also a big focus on gathering materials and making items, armor, weapons and tools which you will need to master as it's important to make the best gear possible.

In terms of exploration it also depends on the game, with the newer ones being more open world. Like Yumia which is the prequel to this new game, it's very open with multiple zones and different activities to do on the map, similar to some gacha games if you've ever played genshin and wutha it's like that, but a bit more basic.

The last Atelier game (Resleriana) had a town restoration mechanic where you help build a town and run a shop. In Yumia you also go around the map building bases.

So yeah I'd say its nothing like the Tales games.

@8th_Observer I remember an interview with the creator who said they would go back to English if they continue to have decent sales, that was when Ryza came out and as far as I'm aware the games have sold well since.

So where's our dub!

@8th_Observer Yeah definitely the combo to have for JRPG's, literally can play every Japanese console game that releases with that combo.

@somnambulance Fair enough, I must admit maybe it was a bit too much JRPG centric especially for those that want to see games from other genres.

For Xenoblade they didn't show any combat gameplay for this new game, looks to be seperate from the previous titles so it might have a different combat style such as pure hack and slash, so I'd reccomend keeping an eye on that one.

@skinnybass You're definitely missing out on some great JRPGs like Xenoblade and Fire Emblem.

@somnambulance Port city for old JRPGs

Dragon Quest Monsters Withered World
Xenoblade Chronicles Genesis
Atelier Katria
Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave
Final Fantasy Resonance
Kingdom Hearts 4
Dragons Dogma 2 DLC

These are new JRPG's.

Agree about Fire Emblem being the game for September though, that and Trails in the Sky Remake 2 that is.

Superb direct, especially as a JRPG enthusiast as it was jam packed with new JRPG's even some that are not coming to PS5. Best of the four shows in my opinion.

So happy with this, can't wait to start playing again.

Fantastic Direct, now that was for JRPG fans 😜

@ShadowRJ I believe GTA has a November release window so October should still be safe. Although I think Nintendo may have a few games coming out around then, we will find out shortly.