This was insightful and I think you are 100% right. But I think I'm right too. You are totally right, Johnny buys Playstation because his friend Timmy plays Minecraft there, not because of any specific exclusive. So I guess that sounds like I'm contradicting myself.
But here's where I think we agree: Why did Timmy choose PS5 over the competiton to play Minecraft? He didn't, he got the console as a hand-me-down from his dad. His dad got the PS5 because he had some nostalgia for Crash Bandicoot from his PS1 days in college and wanted to play Crash 4 on it. Now Crash 4 isn't even an exclusive either, but he associates that game with the PS brand. It just feels more comfortable somehow, familiar. So he buys a PS5.
So if we rewind back, it was someone else's sweet nostalgic memory of Crash Bandicoot that got Timmy into the PS5 ecosystem, ultimately. Then his friend Johnny. Then their friend Susan or whoever. It spreads like a virus. But it all started with one person who just found comfort in Crash Bandicoot allll the way back in 1996. Not really the OS. Not really Minecraft or the controller.
In this crazy pulled-out-of my-behind hypothetical, I hope to illustrate how even if consumers appear arbitrary and capricious in their purchasing decisions, it does often tie - somehow - back to an exclusive game experience (even if on a past console) in a causal chain of events - even if they themselves do not realize it or directly interact with exclusives. Until they are locked into a digital ecosystem.
People point out first party games don't even generate all that much money and it's true. But they got them in the door somewhere back down the line, then they later branched out and started buying those sweet, sweet Fortnite microtransactions and making Sony some real money. Or their kids did for those of us who are getting a bit older.
I think it is all related in a subtle way. How a brand has sort of a life of its own and how that evolves to grow market share.
In my own very anecdotal experience, I really like Playstation. I really identify with the brand because of Metal Gear Solid, a series that isn't even ongoing on any console anymore. The game just blew me away and there was no going back, even if I did have a heck of a time with Halo later on. I've bought no less than 4 or 5 people PS5's over the years for their b-days or Christmas, unless they specifically asked for something else. My brother, damn him, asked for a Switch one year.
They all play PS5 now. Because I bought them one? No, because of Metal Gear Solid on PS1! They weren't even into games as we all got older but I keep pulling them back in haha. Now my other brother plays Marvel games on PS5, loves em, and rarely bothers with exclusives. But he does buy DLC. He does generate revenue, and he never bought another console. Locked in.
I think my story is more common than most think. I bet everyone reading this has a similar tale to tell, of how it all started with an exclusive - whether Nintendo, Xbox, or Sony.
Yeah I totally agree, and that ties into my point. But I should have been more clear, I meant the 'X Factor' between competing consoles, not compared to a PC.
We got pretty off topic from the subject of the article - PC ports - and ended up talking somehow about complete multiplatform between home consoles, no more exclusives at all, and how that would or wouldn't be feasible in a business sense for consoles specifically.
Some people think you don't need exclusives to differentiate one console from the next, and they could make it somehow more attractive than the competition through other stuff - like OS, controller, etc. even if they all had the same exact games. I don't believe that. But yeah... we were drifting into the hypothetical weeds.
😄. Love it. I see your point, but I like to think those more expensive headsets provide something tangible the cheaper sets don't, thus they sell better. In this context, maybe noise cancellation or overall comfort or battery life? Maybe it's something more intangible like brand recognition or heck, they just like how this one looks a bit better.
Does the same apply to consoles - people picking and choosing on those smaller peripheral aspects? I dunno, that's a leap for me. But maybe I'm stuck in 2001. I'm just a very pragmatic, meat and potatoes person - I just wanna know 1.) what games can it play, and 2.) what's the price.
And it can look like a futuristic router for all I care (ahem, PS5, ahem) as long as the functionality is there. But maybe I'm underestimating those smaller things. Just historically, it hasn't played out that way. Call it coincidence, but the console with the strongest exclusive library always came out on top in the end regardless of what other special features it came loaded with (OG Xbox was actually a beast of a machine and a heck of a value, but less exclusives).
Yeah I get ya but my point is that they wouldn't be different enough if they are just competing on things like OS and build quality, etc. It would all come down to a price war because OS's don't move units - games do.
So therefore the biggest competitor (Microsoft in this case) could easily price the others out in the short term until the others folded, since the products are so similar anyways and all play the same stuff. I know what I'm doing, I'm just buying thr cheapest one if they are all so similar. What percentage of users bought a PS2 over an Xbox for the OS?
You entirely misunderstand Dogbreath (love the name). A vindictive desire to keep a game out of someone else's walled garden is the stuff of console warriors and/or people under the age of 16.
The concern is, let's say I offer you two products. Say, a toothbrush. They are very similar. Small differences here and there sure - slightly different grips patterns and maybe a different shade of blue.
Well you just happen to be in the toothbrush market to fight canine gingervitus, lucky me! Which are you gonna buy?
But I already know which one you are gonna buy. You inevitably will ask me what the price is. Well Toothbrush A is $10 and Toothbrush B is $15. You will pick Toothbrush A for sure right?
Well therein lies our issue. If these consoles cannot meaningfully differentiate themselves through exclusive games, you will just pick the cheaper option, every time. You'd honestly be crazy not to in my opinion.
So what ends up happening here is the company with the greatest ability to subsidize the console's cost to you, will be the victor. And who cares right? Cheaper is better after all.
Well, the other smaller companies get pushed out through this aggressive pricing strategy and inevitably you are left with one standing - boom, there's the monopoly you were talking about. Because they had nothing to compete on, except price. Bad place to be. That's why exclusives are important, they make the products meaningfully different and act as sort of a guarantee of their continued existence and competition (assuming the good games keep coming).
So really, you can see it's not vindictiveness but rather we want competition (competition is good).
I think the reality has long been services and peripheral aspects of a console experience (OS, controller, etc.) don't move units, the exclusive games do.
If what's inside the box itself was the selling point, the first Xbox should've outsold the PS2 handily and early GamePass should've absolutely cleaned house, etc. Its never really been about which controller a person likes slightly better or which tertiary service comes with it. Well, in the grand scheme at least. There are certainly some hard-core GamePass acolytes out there to this day.
But maybe someday I'm gonna find that person saying they bought Xbox for Quick Resume, and my whole worldview is gonna be changed on this 😄.
It's always been about the games. Nothing else. Everything else is cheap, pointless window dressing for people to fight over on game forums.
Agreed it gets weird in here sometimes. And I'm really not trying to console war, I got plenty of beef with Sony as a company too - but to me these are just like exquisitely basic concepts that people somehow find a way to argue about.
From a purely business standpoint, how does no exclusives work in practice? Like, how? But I'm getting off topic because this article is just referring to the recent PC ports, not the multiplatform utopia some people on here envision - which is moreso what I was referring to.
Like I said, those people all snuck off and I dont really hear it repeated around here all that much anymore. But back in 2021-22? Whoo boy.
See my comment above yours. It was bad here on PushSquare as well if I recall. They've all oddly gone very silent after watching the reaction to and results of Xbox's multiplatform push.
Sorry but it's so basic I don't know how anyone could question it. And yet they did. Company X needs something different from Company Y to make people buy it. Like maybe we need to draw it in crayon.
The X Factor of a console will never, ever be services or OS or Quick Resume or PSSR or any of that. It is the games. That's why PS2 blew a more powerful and online connected Xbox out of the water in sales - games. Simple, right?
Yeah well it took em awhile but glad they finally realized a basic business concept - exclusives distinguish your brand and draw people in. There has been some collective amnesia about that over the last 4 to 5 years around these parts and beyond.
'Exclusives bad' took off around the time the whole cross-play debate sprung up, and often the rationale underlying this thought was, 'Well, it'd be better for me if I could play all games on one platform, so why not?' The calculation among the public never got any more nuanced than that, failing to realize the implications and what the end result of that might be.
I'm sure Sony was well aware of the news long before we were. So no, they won't reactively respond to this as it was already a known factor - and I'm certain they are privvy to a great deal more.
I don't think the recent "leaks" that Sony is departing PC was any sort of coincidence either. It seems to me many of these leaks are very strategically timed, huh?
If anything, maybe a collective sigh of relief at the $1000-1500 expected price tag, as this lets them off the hook for their own $700-1000 machine in the future.
Next gen is gonna be pricey folks, whatever your hardware preference may be. I'd prefer 2029, give the PS5 more time to find its potential - because it hasn't just yet thanks to languishing in a cross-platform limbo for its first 3-4 years (thank you Jim Ryan).
If the game's already gone gold and the release date is a few weeks away, just show the console footage and shut people up. Should be an easy enough thing to do.
I think people are just burned by high profile releases being in a horrendous technical state on release over the past few years, so everyone's guard is up naturally.
My logic, this raises red flags. Because right now is a pivotal time to pump up your pre-order numbers. So why wait? Isn't it hurting their pre-order sales to hold out? So if it is costing them money at this point to delay releasing footage, something has gotta be wrong.
Honestly I'm in agreement with most everyone else here, just stop pre-ordering games - problem completely solved. There is virtually no reason to pre-order anything anymore. There really wasn't even that great an argument for it even when games where all physical and could sell out (games rarely sold out). It's never been a smart choice.
This guy always sounds pretty conspiratorial. And not in a fun 'Sasquatch is real' kind of way, but moreso in a dodging accountability type of way.
Anyways, I imagine Rockstar doesn't feel too awfully threatened by this game and hard to believe they would have devoted any resources or effort to sabotage it.
I look forward to reading more about these impending criminal proceedings haha.
I guess I don't have a stance on the whole "false advertising" thing. But my question is why lock a basic, functioning feature behind New Game+?
Does playing local co-op destroy the difficulty balancing or what? I can't recall any game that did this before with co-op.
Just kinda odd is my reaction.
Edit: Oh, after looking it up I see it's not the main story but a tacked on horde mode more like. That makes more sense, as it's a bonus mode versus just playing through the story co-op.
This list really summarizes what Sony got wrong this gen. Unknown, unknown, unknown, live service, nothing announced, unknown... cool. Thank you Jim Ryan.
As of Feb 2026: Saros, Wolverine, Fairgames, Marathon, Intergalactic. That's everything we know about. There, saved you a read.
Honestly, I agree there's an issue. There are very few professional standards in video games 'journalism,' including reviews. Integrity is a recurring issue, present company excluded of course.
It goes so far beyond, [Insert Publication] gave this game a low score. Honestly, you guys (the royal 'you', not necessarily PushSquare staff) need to do so, so much better before independent YouTube personalities start eating your lunch more than they already are.
Time for each to decide, is your core business pushing ad revenue, or are you delivering the news?
That said, reviewing the reviewers seems a little silly and not workable. Who decides? It's already highly subjective. No, best to just let a publication's or personality's reputation develop organically, either to fall into the abyss through commercial cynicism and bad faith messaging (imo - IGN, Kotaku, Jim Sterling, etc. being a few examples) or to reach new heights slowly through hard work. People will choose what content they prefer to interact with naturally, and the bad ones will die off over time and be sent to the trash heap of history.
RIP to all the fools who got the platinum legitimately over 220 hours (me).
But seriously, it's awesome to allow more people to play. Although I don't see anything here which will make those notorious mini games any easier... They endgame bosses were so ridiculously overtuned, this was harder to finish than any Souls game I've played and may have been the most difficult JRPG to 100% I've ever played. The difficulty was frankly ridiculous and unbalanced. I will NOT be jumping back in haha (I hate you Chadley).
This maybe reduces the platinum time from 200-240 hours to ONLY 100-120 hours 🤔... If you are into that sorta thing. Will still be a bit of a challenge, though much less for people who don't have infinite time to play.
Silent Hill F was a pretty different take on things. I liked it, some really bold choices. The story itself handles a topic Ive not seen specifically done in a game (no spoilers) and oddly, you do not get the actual story until the second playthrough and on.
If people stopped at the first ending, I can understand someone really disliking it.
There was a bit too much emphasis on action combat in the latter third for my taste but I'll take SH F over, say, Homecoming as an experimental one off title.
I'm conflicted about it. On one hand, I have really fond memories of the OG / 360 era and miss those experiences. On the other, their GamePass initiative and modern philosophy is (in my opinion) extremely anti-ownership, and I believe if it was successful it would've done untold damage to the industry and what little consumer rights we still have. The Netflix-ification of video games.
So... I dunno, the optimist in me says if Xbox does end up going away, a new competitor will emerge. Sorta like the Sega situation way back when. I mean, that's if they go away. While I've always reviled Microsoft as a company, I do have a soft spot for Xbox in particular.
Who knows? Good things may come from them yet. Life's full of ups and downs, and maybe this is a chance for them to learn.
Exclusives differentiate your product and get people in the door - then they choose your platform for Fortnight / Roblox / Minecraft after you draw them in. Translation = $$$.
This used to be common knowledge and was never controversial or debated until around 2021, when Microsoft starting taking the whole "We don't want to gate people off" as part of their marketing via Phil Spencer, originally as part of their crossplay initiative and then continuing into their multiplatform endeavors.
Anyone who follows the industry knows services don't sell systems, games do. Microsoft seems to have forgotten that. I imagine it's a case of selective memory. The proof? Nintendo and Sony's success.
The formula is as follows:
1.) Good exclusives to build your market share and get good buzz.
2.) Wide consumer adoption draws in lucrative third party support.
3.) Make the real money from a 30% cut of third party sales on your platform.
It was never complicated. Attach rates for exclusives mean very little, they are just a means to an end to get people into your ecosystem.
I mean, it's got something like 23 versions of MK 1-4 and some spinoffs across like 8 platforms so I'm impressed with it overall. Including the sublimely awful and entirely unplayable GameBoy ports.
Like other people have said, the only thing I'd have liked to see is MK4 Gold.
For a follow up, I'd pay good money for a PS2 / PSP / VITA compilation:
Great game. Not particularly hard at all, but ammo can get scarce sometimes.Good that maybe a few more people can enjoy it.
I guess you could say the difficulty and scarcity adds to the tension and therefore enhances the game, but the people this will draw in weren't gonna play it as is, so it's a win.
I'd say its time for a big reset in the AAA gaming world. Console prices and software have skyrocketed, the consumer sentiment is awful, and a recession is on the horizon (in the US at least). Time for companies to compete on delivering the most value again, instead of competing to see who can charge the most...
But hey, the indie / AA scene is going strong and will see us through this late stage capitalism nightmare... I hope.
850 trophies, 27 platinums including VITA / PS3 (not tracked it seems). Most Played was Final Fantasy Tactics.
Off year, been really busy with work... usually shoot for 30 completed games per year but oh well - quality not quantity right? I am trying my best to cut through my backlog and unfinished plats but it's just insurmountable.
14.2 years as a PSPlus member, holy moly.
Oh and I read 3 whole books this year, but Sony isn't offering any kudos for that it seems haha.
Edit: Numbers seemed off so I went and counted through PSNprofiles - Actual number is 963 trophies and most played game was FF 7: Rebirth at over 220 hours... seems the numbers are pretty hit and miss this year 🤔
If it gets too bad you can bunk up with us over here across the pond. The good news is, you can say / write virtually anything you want. The bad news? We dont really have our affairs sorted out either. Like two dysfunctional cousins sharing a flat, could be fun?
It's meant as good natured ribbing, I promise. Plus, I heard the country in question hasn't quite figured out the whole separation of church and state thing just yet, so I thought it was fair game. But I might just be a dumb American (I totally am).
I like this idea for a series. Pursuing trophies as a hobby is both pretty dumb and pretty fun. Its a paradox. I used to rationalize it as I wanted to see everything in a game the developer created, but I later realized that's just a funny way of saying I have neurotic tendencies. 215 platinums and counting.
Rocket League for a first platinum is tough. My first was Midnight Club: Los Angeles which took some serious grinding. My proudest is Wipeout HD (Beat Zico).
I like trophy hunting quite a bit, I do feel it genuinely enhances a game to have this underlying metagame progression to push you to play the hard mode or go for that speed run. Just to experience the game a different way, push you out of your comfort zone, etc.
It's even broadened my horizons to play games I never would've before. Trophies turned me into a fan of racing games - I was into basically just RPGs and horror before PS3, but I "discovered" this genre pursuing trophies and realized I liked it better than my old mainstays. I never thought I could play hard modes and always went for easy. Now, hard and extreme modes aren't that intimidating at all and brought me into tougher games like Demon's Souls. I certainly would've dodged these games thinking they were too tough if not for trophies, which would've been a shame.
Now we just need Sony to properly implement a trophy leaderboard.
Final Fantasy X was rightfully panned at the time for being pretty linear and eliminating the overworld map. I think it was overblown at the time (2000), but I'll never see this game as the pinnacle of the series for those reasons.
Good? Yes. The best? Not even close (for me).
I can imagine a scenario where a person who played X first likes it the best. A lot of the time these discussions come down to where / when you jumped in. Played VII first? Then that's your favorite.
FF VI was my first and favorite, and pretty much the baseline for what a FF should be in my eyes. Through that lens, X is pretty much a bastardization (read: different) of the series as a whole.
Having owned all playstation platforms up to this point, and trying to be fair about all this:
If PS2 is the benchmark at a 10 / 10, then PS5 lands at a 7.5 for me personally. Very good but just short of great. That would have been a 9 if the PS5 kept its phenomenal launch and early release schedule up, but they tripped around the third year - it feels like a console that has never gotten to flex it's muscles.
Mileage may differ because for me it's all about the games and 1.) I care virtually not at all about things like UI and other stuff like that, and 2.) What games are "good" is so subjective, and 3.) I can't in good conscience include the PS4 backwards compatibility though it is appreciated and makes the console better as a package.
I still don't think we've had anything on the level of Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart or the Demon Souls remake graphically or technically, and those were launch games. Its been a late bloomer. Death Stranding 2 might be a recent exception that proves the rule.
Now third party has been absolutely killing it but I left that out this. Just referring to first / second party output - and that's been middling compared to, say, PS1 or PS2. If we were including third party, this has been the best generation I've ever experienced (hail Capcom).
Semi open world and highly, highly similar in the action genre, pedantry aside. More similar than, say, a flight sim.
And yeah, I didn't play Zero Dawn or Forbidden West at release. After I played the others. So you can understand the genre fatigue. I should have specified. They all landed in roughly the same time frame when you look at Sony's output over it's entire history, and you can definitely see a pattern - regardless of which technically released before the other.
Never really cared for Horizon as a series. Not because it's bad or anything on its own merits, but because the open world third person action genre had become so saturated by the time Guerilla came onto the scene.
InFamous, Days Gone, God of War 2018 / Ragnarok, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, Spiderman. Very different games sure, but all in (roughly) the same narrow genre. Horizon was just the straw that broke the camel's back for me, one too many games in the same style. It doesn't help that open world games don't really respect your time and good games release weekly these days.
There's dozens upon dozens of genres. Car combat, flight simulator, sim, fighting, beat-em-ups, on and on. Try some different genres Sony. Never understood why they are "locked in" to this one type of game the last two gens.
Already played through on every difficulty, got the platinum. Hard combat setting is a decent challenge. Not fussed about adding difficulty modes for people who want to enjoy the game.
Overall, I really liked this game and the unique angle / story it was telling, but I see why some were put off by the (very minimal) actual story connections to the wider SH mythos and the huge emphasis on action in the latter third of the game. It felt like I was playing Dark Souls at certain points... and that's okay for a one off experimental title. I wouldn't prefer it to be the norm going forward, but I'm fairly certain it won't be in any case.
Also, I like that the actual story is completely hidden, requiring two to three playthroughs to unravel, but I can also see how this would be an absolute deal breaker for some. The main plot conceit of the entire game is only really revealed as the second playthrough begins, and evolves from there. I think it was a bold decision and I've actually never seen the story structure hidden across multiple playthroughs of a game before like this (never played Nier Automata, though I know it does something similar).
The AI input reading is a well known aspect of MKII for better or worse. There are easy combos / strats you can basically repeat ad nauseum to defeat the CPU on any difficulty though. Jump - sweep - uppercut.
Not sure if it's a bug or a feature, I'm just saying there's methods around it. Honestly I thought the curb appeal of this compilation was the player vs player multiplayer modes, not the CPU ladder modes.
I don't trust any dev to properly rebalance the AI, so just leave it as it is in its original glory, warts and all. And if someone understandably doesn't help with MKII for whatever reason, there's like 10 other games in the compilation to try out.
I've read a good deal of your commentary here. It's a quite substantial amount so I didn't get to it all...
I'd break it down like this:
Basically the Sony exclusives don't bring down the house in terms of sales, at least not in a way that would sustain their business by itself. The exclusives were never about creating profit directly, I always saw them more as a marketing vehicle to attract people to their ecosystem, after which they get the real money from a 30% cut of Fortnite micro transactions. It's been that way for a long time. Which has worked really, really, really well for them.
We get the big money isn't in the next God of War game, but the question is how does a company get a player to play Fortnite on their system? Sony seems to have cracked the code on that - by offering critically acclaimed games you can't play anywhere else, you bring in the players and make the money off live service after locking people into their walled garden.
So fast forward a bit, Sony is really entrenched in terms of their market share now. I don't see how Xbox offering a probably pricey premium PC hybrid console is gonna tempt any third parties away from Sony, especially when Xbox exclusives aren't in the conversation anymore.
What do they have left to win market share? GamePass has stagnated and I'm guessing the numbers took a bit of a dive recently. Their current console isn't selling like hotcakes. Nothing they are doing is setting the world on fire.
I think handing Sony 30% of their revenue on each game, basically going the publisher route is their only play left now. To borrow a console war-ism, they well and truly "lost," and subscription models and the cloud aren't coming to the rescue like they hoped.
It's over. They tried, they failed. I always hated the concept of GamePass but it was a brave and disruptive strategy, I'll give them that. Couldn't generate the market share they needed and have no path forward to do that now. That's business / life. Just grateful for the original Xbox and 360 for providing such great memories.
I wish Sony would take this much interest in all the rampant IP theft going on in the shovelware releases on its own platform. But, Sony doesn't own those.
I mean LaBuBu Battle Royale, seriously? What is the quality control process to submit a game onto PSN?
Really digging this soundtrack so far, especially the opening theme. Very Silent Hill-esque but in it's own distinct way to reflect the 1960s Japan setting.
Probably wouldn't go for a physical soundtrack but will be adding some of the tracks to my creepy Halloween playlist, to join the underappreciated Downpour Daniel Licht tracks.
Comments 872
Re: 'Sony Finally Understands': Over 70% of PS5 Fans Agree with Decision to Scrap PC Ports
@RoomWithaMoose
This was insightful and I think you are 100% right. But I think I'm right too. You are totally right, Johnny buys Playstation because his friend Timmy plays Minecraft there, not because of any specific exclusive. So I guess that sounds like I'm contradicting myself.
But here's where I think we agree: Why did Timmy choose PS5 over the competiton to play Minecraft? He didn't, he got the console as a hand-me-down from his dad. His dad got the PS5 because he had some nostalgia for Crash Bandicoot from his PS1 days in college and wanted to play Crash 4 on it. Now Crash 4 isn't even an exclusive either, but he associates that game with the PS brand. It just feels more comfortable somehow, familiar. So he buys a PS5.
So if we rewind back, it was someone else's sweet nostalgic memory of Crash Bandicoot that got Timmy into the PS5 ecosystem, ultimately. Then his friend Johnny. Then their friend Susan or whoever. It spreads like a virus. But it all started with one person who just found comfort in Crash Bandicoot allll the way back in 1996. Not really the OS. Not really Minecraft or the controller.
In this crazy pulled-out-of my-behind hypothetical, I hope to illustrate how even if consumers appear arbitrary and capricious in their purchasing decisions, it does often tie - somehow - back to an exclusive game experience (even if on a past console) in a causal chain of events - even if they themselves do not realize it or directly interact with exclusives. Until they are locked into a digital ecosystem.
People point out first party games don't even generate all that much money and it's true. But they got them in the door somewhere back down the line, then they later branched out and started buying those sweet, sweet Fortnite microtransactions and making Sony some real money. Or their kids did for those of us who are getting a bit older.
I think it is all related in a subtle way. How a brand has sort of a life of its own and how that evolves to grow market share.
In my own very anecdotal experience, I really like Playstation. I really identify with the brand because of Metal Gear Solid, a series that isn't even ongoing on any console anymore. The game just blew me away and there was no going back, even if I did have a heck of a time with Halo later on. I've bought no less than 4 or 5 people PS5's over the years for their b-days or Christmas, unless they specifically asked for something else. My brother, damn him, asked for a Switch one year.
They all play PS5 now. Because I bought them one? No, because of Metal Gear Solid on PS1! They weren't even into games as we all got older but I keep pulling them back in haha. Now my other brother plays Marvel games on PS5, loves em, and rarely bothers with exclusives. But he does buy DLC. He does generate revenue, and he never bought another console. Locked in.
I think my story is more common than most think. I bet everyone reading this has a similar tale to tell, of how it all started with an exclusive - whether Nintendo, Xbox, or Sony.
Re: 'Sony Finally Understands': Over 70% of PS5 Fans Agree with Decision to Scrap PC Ports
@RoomWithaMoose
Psychonauts 2 is an amazing game.
Re: 'Sony Finally Understands': Over 70% of PS5 Fans Agree with Decision to Scrap PC Ports
@Flurpsel
Yeah I totally agree, and that ties into my point. But I should have been more clear, I meant the 'X Factor' between competing consoles, not compared to a PC.
We got pretty off topic from the subject of the article - PC ports - and ended up talking somehow about complete multiplatform between home consoles, no more exclusives at all, and how that would or wouldn't be feasible in a business sense for consoles specifically.
Some people think you don't need exclusives to differentiate one console from the next, and they could make it somehow more attractive than the competition through other stuff - like OS, controller, etc. even if they all had the same exact games. I don't believe that. But yeah... we were drifting into the hypothetical weeds.
Re: 'Sony Finally Understands': Over 70% of PS5 Fans Agree with Decision to Scrap PC Ports
@RoomWithaMoose
😄. Love it. I see your point, but I like to think those more expensive headsets provide something tangible the cheaper sets don't, thus they sell better. In this context, maybe noise cancellation or overall comfort or battery life? Maybe it's something more intangible like brand recognition or heck, they just like how this one looks a bit better.
Does the same apply to consoles - people picking and choosing on those smaller peripheral aspects? I dunno, that's a leap for me. But maybe I'm stuck in 2001. I'm just a very pragmatic, meat and potatoes person - I just wanna know 1.) what games can it play, and 2.) what's the price.
And it can look like a futuristic router for all I care (ahem, PS5, ahem) as long as the functionality is there. But maybe I'm underestimating those smaller things. Just historically, it hasn't played out that way. Call it coincidence, but the console with the strongest exclusive library always came out on top in the end regardless of what other special features it came loaded with (OG Xbox was actually a beast of a machine and a heck of a value, but less exclusives).
The correlation is hard for me to escape.
Re: 'Sony Finally Understands': Over 70% of PS5 Fans Agree with Decision to Scrap PC Ports
@RoomWithaMoose
Yeah I get ya but my point is that they wouldn't be different enough if they are just competing on things like OS and build quality, etc. It would all come down to a price war because OS's don't move units - games do.
So therefore the biggest competitor (Microsoft in this case) could easily price the others out in the short term until the others folded, since the products are so similar anyways and all play the same stuff. I know what I'm doing, I'm just buying thr cheapest one if they are all so similar. What percentage of users bought a PS2 over an Xbox for the OS?
Then it's monopoly time.
Re: 'Sony Finally Understands': Over 70% of PS5 Fans Agree with Decision to Scrap PC Ports
@Dogbreath
You entirely misunderstand Dogbreath (love the name). A vindictive desire to keep a game out of someone else's walled garden is the stuff of console warriors and/or people under the age of 16.
The concern is, let's say I offer you two products. Say, a toothbrush. They are very similar. Small differences here and there sure - slightly different grips patterns and maybe a different shade of blue.
Well you just happen to be in the toothbrush market to fight canine gingervitus, lucky me! Which are you gonna buy?
But I already know which one you are gonna buy. You inevitably will ask me what the price is. Well Toothbrush A is $10 and Toothbrush B is $15. You will pick Toothbrush A for sure right?
Well therein lies our issue. If these consoles cannot meaningfully differentiate themselves through exclusive games, you will just pick the cheaper option, every time. You'd honestly be crazy not to in my opinion.
So what ends up happening here is the company with the greatest ability to subsidize the console's cost to you, will be the victor. And who cares right? Cheaper is better after all.
Well, the other smaller companies get pushed out through this aggressive pricing strategy and inevitably you are left with one standing - boom, there's the monopoly you were talking about. Because they had nothing to compete on, except price. Bad place to be. That's why exclusives are important, they make the products meaningfully different and act as sort of a guarantee of their continued existence and competition (assuming the good games keep coming).
So really, you can see it's not vindictiveness but rather we want competition (competition is good).
Re: 'Sony Finally Understands': Over 70% of PS5 Fans Agree with Decision to Scrap PC Ports
@BAMozzy
I think the reality has long been services and peripheral aspects of a console experience (OS, controller, etc.) don't move units, the exclusive games do.
If what's inside the box itself was the selling point, the first Xbox should've outsold the PS2 handily and early GamePass should've absolutely cleaned house, etc. Its never really been about which controller a person likes slightly better or which tertiary service comes with it. Well, in the grand scheme at least. There are certainly some hard-core GamePass acolytes out there to this day.
But maybe someday I'm gonna find that person saying they bought Xbox for Quick Resume, and my whole worldview is gonna be changed on this 😄.
It's always been about the games. Nothing else. Everything else is cheap, pointless window dressing for people to fight over on game forums.
Re: 'Sony Finally Understands': Over 70% of PS5 Fans Agree with Decision to Scrap PC Ports
@Zeke68
Agreed it gets weird in here sometimes. And I'm really not trying to console war, I got plenty of beef with Sony as a company too - but to me these are just like exquisitely basic concepts that people somehow find a way to argue about.
From a purely business standpoint, how does no exclusives work in practice? Like, how? But I'm getting off topic because this article is just referring to the recent PC ports, not the multiplatform utopia some people on here envision - which is moreso what I was referring to.
Like I said, those people all snuck off and I dont really hear it repeated around here all that much anymore. But back in 2021-22? Whoo boy.
Re: 'Sony Finally Understands': Over 70% of PS5 Fans Agree with Decision to Scrap PC Ports
@Zeke68
See my comment above yours. It was bad here on PushSquare as well if I recall. They've all oddly gone very silent after watching the reaction to and results of Xbox's multiplatform push.
Sorry but it's so basic I don't know how anyone could question it. And yet they did. Company X needs something different from Company Y to make people buy it. Like maybe we need to draw it in crayon.
The X Factor of a console will never, ever be services or OS or Quick Resume or PSSR or any of that. It is the games. That's why PS2 blew a more powerful and online connected Xbox out of the water in sales - games. Simple, right?
Re: 'Sony Finally Understands': Over 70% of PS5 Fans Agree with Decision to Scrap PC Ports
Yeah well it took em awhile but glad they finally realized a basic business concept - exclusives distinguish your brand and draw people in. There has been some collective amnesia about that over the last 4 to 5 years around these parts and beyond.
'Exclusives bad' took off around the time the whole cross-play debate sprung up, and often the rationale underlying this thought was, 'Well, it'd be better for me if I could play all games on one platform, so why not?' The calculation among the public never got any more nuanced than that, failing to realize the implications and what the end result of that might be.
Re: Opinion: I Wonder if Xbox Helix Will Force Sony to Break Its PS6 Silence
I'm sure Sony was well aware of the news long before we were. So no, they won't reactively respond to this as it was already a known factor - and I'm certain they are privvy to a great deal more.
I don't think the recent "leaks" that Sony is departing PC was any sort of coincidence either. It seems to me many of these leaks are very strategically timed, huh?
If anything, maybe a collective sigh of relief at the $1000-1500 expected price tag, as this lets them off the hook for their own $700-1000 machine in the future.
Next gen is gonna be pricey folks, whatever your hardware preference may be. I'd prefer 2029, give the PS5 more time to find its potential - because it hasn't just yet thanks to languishing in a cross-platform limbo for its first 3-4 years (thank you Jim Ryan).
Re: Nothing Was Ever Going to Catch Resident Evil Requiem in PS Store's February Chart
Just started playing RE9 yesterday. Really great so far. Capcom cannot miss.
Re: 'We're Not Hiding Anything': Crimson Desert Dev 'Sick' of Claims Around No PS5 Footage
If the game's already gone gold and the release date is a few weeks away, just show the console footage and shut people up. Should be an easy enough thing to do.
I think people are just burned by high profile releases being in a horrendous technical state on release over the past few years, so everyone's guard is up naturally.
My logic, this raises red flags. Because right now is a pivotal time to pump up your pre-order numbers. So why wait? Isn't it hurting their pre-order sales to hold out? So if it is costing them money at this point to delay releasing footage, something has gotta be wrong.
Honestly I'm in agreement with most everyone else here, just stop pre-ordering games - problem completely solved. There is virtually no reason to pre-order anything anymore. There really wasn't even that great an argument for it even when games where all physical and could sell out (games rarely sold out). It's never been a smart choice.
Re: MindsEye Studio Laying Off More Staff as It Doubles Down on Conspiracy Theory
@orvisbean101
Is there honestly any other way to play Monopoly?
Re: MindsEye Studio Laying Off More Staff as It Doubles Down on Conspiracy Theory
This guy always sounds pretty conspiratorial. And not in a fun 'Sasquatch is real' kind of way, but moreso in a dodging accountability type of way.
Anyways, I imagine Rockstar doesn't feel too awfully threatened by this game and hard to believe they would have devoted any resources or effort to sabotage it.
I look forward to reading more about these impending criminal proceedings haha.
Re: 'I Feel Cheated and I Want a Refund': Fans Lash Out at New PS5 God of War's Unlockable Local Multiplayer Mode
I guess I don't have a stance on the whole "false advertising" thing. But my question is why lock a basic, functioning feature behind New Game+?
Does playing local co-op destroy the difficulty balancing or what? I can't recall any game that did this before with co-op.
Just kinda odd is my reaction.
Edit: Oh, after looking it up I see it's not the main story but a tacked on horde mode more like. That makes more sense, as it's a bonus mode versus just playing through the story co-op.
Re: MGS Master Collection Volume 2 PS5 Announced, Metal Gear Solid 4 Is Free of PS3 Jail
Kept you waiting, huh?
Re: Here's Your Chance to Tell Sony What You Think of Horizon Hunters Gathering
"This survey is no longer available."
Pull the plugs Sony, pull the plugs!!!
Re: PlayStation Studios: All Sony First-Party Developers and What They're Working On
This list really summarizes what Sony got wrong this gen. Unknown, unknown, unknown, live service, nothing announced, unknown... cool. Thank you Jim Ryan.
As of Feb 2026: Saros, Wolverine, Fairgames, Marathon, Intergalactic. That's everything we know about. There, saved you a read.
Re: Larian CEO Swen Vincke Sticks His Foot in It Again, Thinks Game Reviewers Should Also Be Reviewed
Honestly, I agree there's an issue. There are very few professional standards in video games 'journalism,' including reviews. Integrity is a recurring issue, present company excluded of course.
It goes so far beyond, [Insert Publication] gave this game a low score. Honestly, you guys (the royal 'you', not necessarily PushSquare staff) need to do so, so much better before independent YouTube personalities start eating your lunch more than they already are.
Time for each to decide, is your core business pushing ad revenue, or are you delivering the news?
That said, reviewing the reviewers seems a little silly and not workable. Who decides? It's already highly subjective. No, best to just let a publication's or personality's reputation develop organically, either to fall into the abyss through commercial cynicism and bad faith messaging (imo - IGN, Kotaku, Jim Sterling, etc. being a few examples) or to reach new heights slowly through hard work. People will choose what content they prefer to interact with naturally, and the bad ones will die off over time and be sent to the trash heap of history.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Remake on PS5 Gets Bonus Switch 2, Xbox Features Next Week
RIP to all the fools who got the platinum legitimately over 220 hours (me).
But seriously, it's awesome to allow more people to play. Although I don't see anything here which will make those notorious mini games any easier... They endgame bosses were so ridiculously overtuned, this was harder to finish than any Souls game I've played and may have been the most difficult JRPG to 100% I've ever played. The difficulty was frankly ridiculous and unbalanced. I will NOT be jumping back in haha (I hate you Chadley).
This maybe reduces the platinum time from 200-240 hours to ONLY 100-120 hours 🤔... If you are into that sorta thing. Will still be a bit of a challenge, though much less for people who don't have infinite time to play.
Anyways, good luck!
Re: Silent Hill Producer Aims to Release One New Game Per Year
Silent Hill F was a pretty different take on things. I liked it, some really bold choices. The story itself handles a topic Ive not seen specifically done in a game (no spoilers) and oddly, you do not get the actual story until the second playthrough and on.
If people stopped at the first ending, I can understand someone really disliking it.
There was a bit too much emphasis on action combat in the latter third for my taste but I'll take SH F over, say, Homecoming as an experimental one off title.
Re: Ex-PlayStation Boss Believes Exclusives Make Consoles 'Sing'
@11001100110zero
I'm conflicted about it. On one hand, I have really fond memories of the OG / 360 era and miss those experiences. On the other, their GamePass initiative and modern philosophy is (in my opinion) extremely anti-ownership, and I believe if it was successful it would've done untold damage to the industry and what little consumer rights we still have. The Netflix-ification of video games.
So... I dunno, the optimist in me says if Xbox does end up going away, a new competitor will emerge. Sorta like the Sega situation way back when. I mean, that's if they go away. While I've always reviled Microsoft as a company, I do have a soft spot for Xbox in particular.
Who knows? Good things may come from them yet. Life's full of ups and downs, and maybe this is a chance for them to learn.
Re: Ex-PlayStation Boss Believes Exclusives Make Consoles 'Sing'
Exclusives differentiate your product and get people in the door - then they choose your platform for Fortnight / Roblox / Minecraft after you draw them in. Translation = $$$.
This used to be common knowledge and was never controversial or debated until around 2021, when Microsoft starting taking the whole "We don't want to gate people off" as part of their marketing via Phil Spencer, originally as part of their crossplay initiative and then continuing into their multiplatform endeavors.
Anyone who follows the industry knows services don't sell systems, games do. Microsoft seems to have forgotten that. I imagine it's a case of selective memory. The proof? Nintendo and Sony's success.
The formula is as follows:
1.) Good exclusives to build your market share and get good buzz.
2.) Wide consumer adoption draws in lucrative third party support.
3.) Make the real money from a 30% cut of third party sales on your platform.
It was never complicated. Attach rates for exclusives mean very little, they are just a means to an end to get people into your ecosystem.
Re: Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection (PS5) - An Almost Flawless Victory for Fighting Game Fans
I mean, it's got something like 23 versions of MK 1-4 and some spinoffs across like 8 platforms so I'm impressed with it overall. Including the sublimely awful and entirely unplayable GameBoy ports.
Like other people have said, the only thing I'd have liked to see is MK4 Gold.
For a follow up, I'd pay good money for a PS2 / PSP / VITA compilation:
You can miss me with MK Vs DC Universe though.
Re: Cronos: The New Dawn Update Will Add a New, Easier Difficulty Setting in Early 2026
@UltimateOtaku91
Don't forget FF7 Rebirth. Adding the 'Can I Play Daddy' difficulty complete with cheat codes soon.
Re: Cronos: The New Dawn Update Will Add a New, Easier Difficulty Setting in Early 2026
Great game. Not particularly hard at all, but ammo can get scarce sometimes.Good that maybe a few more people can enjoy it.
I guess you could say the difficulty and scarcity adds to the tension and therefore enhances the game, but the people this will draw in weren't gonna play it as is, so it's a win.
Re: PS5 Wins a Nightmarish November for All Console Hardware in the US
I'd say its time for a big reset in the AAA gaming world. Console prices and software have skyrocketed, the consumer sentiment is awful, and a recession is on the horizon (in the US at least). Time for companies to compete on delivering the most value again, instead of competing to see who can charge the most...
But hey, the indie / AA scene is going strong and will see us through this late stage capitalism nightmare... I hope.
Re: PS5, PS4 Compilation Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection Adds 7 More RPGs to Your Stacked 2026
So with the other Mega Man compilation re-releases on PS4, that's a total of... checks notes... 42 Mega Man games.
Re: Good Dog! Atmospheric Adventure The Free Shepherd Rounds Up a 2027 Release on PS5
I have a Border Collie, Ollie. We will play this together (incredibly smart breed).
Re: PlayStation Wrap-Up 2025 Live Now, Get Your Gaming Stats for the Year
850 trophies, 27 platinums including VITA / PS3 (not tracked it seems). Most Played was Final Fantasy Tactics.
Off year, been really busy with work... usually shoot for 30 completed games per year but oh well - quality not quantity right? I am trying my best to cut through my backlog and unfinished plats but it's just insurmountable.
14.2 years as a PSPlus member, holy moly.
Oh and I read 3 whole books this year, but Sony isn't offering any kudos for that it seems haha.
Edit: Numbers seemed off so I went and counted through PSNprofiles - Actual number is 963 trophies and most played game was FF 7: Rebirth at over 220 hours... seems the numbers are pretty hit and miss this year 🤔
Re: Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
@N1ghtW1ng
If that innocuous Muslim joke offends you, just wait until you hear my Catholic jokes.
Re: Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
@JustMyOpinion I admit it was a cheap shot and probably not that funny anyways. Hey, it was the best I could come up with at 2 am!
Re: Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
@Jammer
If it gets too bad you can bunk up with us over here across the pond. The good news is, you can say / write virtually anything you want. The bad news? We dont really have our affairs sorted out either. Like two dysfunctional cousins sharing a flat, could be fun?
Re: Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
@JustMyOpinion
It's meant as good natured ribbing, I promise. Plus, I heard the country in question hasn't quite figured out the whole separation of church and state thing just yet, so I thought it was fair game. But I might just be a dumb American (I totally am).
Re: Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
Removed
Re: Going Platinum #1: Rocket League
@AhmadSumadi
My first platinum as well waaaay back in 2009. Kind of a tough, grindy one - props on that.
Re: Going Platinum #1: Rocket League
I like this idea for a series. Pursuing trophies as a hobby is both pretty dumb and pretty fun. Its a paradox. I used to rationalize it as I wanted to see everything in a game the developer created, but I later realized that's just a funny way of saying I have neurotic tendencies. 215 platinums and counting.
Rocket League for a first platinum is tough. My first was Midnight Club: Los Angeles which took some serious grinding. My proudest is Wipeout HD (Beat Zico).
I like trophy hunting quite a bit, I do feel it genuinely enhances a game to have this underlying metagame progression to push you to play the hard mode or go for that speed run. Just to experience the game a different way, push you out of your comfort zone, etc.
It's even broadened my horizons to play games I never would've before. Trophies turned me into a fan of racing games - I was into basically just RPGs and horror before PS3, but I "discovered" this genre pursuing trophies and realized I liked it better than my old mainstays. I never thought I could play hard modes and always went for easy. Now, hard and extreme modes aren't that intimidating at all and brought me into tougher games like Demon's Souls. I certainly would've dodged these games thinking they were too tough if not for trophies, which would've been a shame.
Now we just need Sony to properly implement a trophy leaderboard.
Re: Final Fantasy X Was the 'Ultimate Perfection' of the Series, Says Dragon Quest Creator
Final Fantasy X was rightfully panned at the time for being pretty linear and eliminating the overworld map. I think it was overblown at the time (2000), but I'll never see this game as the pinnacle of the series for those reasons.
Good? Yes. The best? Not even close (for me).
I can imagine a scenario where a person who played X first likes it the best. A lot of the time these discussions come down to where / when you jumped in. Played VII first? Then that's your favorite.
FF VI was my first and favorite, and pretty much the baseline for what a FF should be in my eyes. Through that lens, X is pretty much a bastardization (read: different) of the series as a whole.
Re: Poll: Five Years of PS5 - How Would You Rate Sony's Console?
Having owned all playstation platforms up to this point, and trying to be fair about all this:
If PS2 is the benchmark at a 10 / 10, then PS5 lands at a 7.5 for me personally. Very good but just short of great. That would have been a 9 if the PS5 kept its phenomenal launch and early release schedule up, but they tripped around the third year - it feels like a console that has never gotten to flex it's muscles.
Mileage may differ because for me it's all about the games and 1.) I care virtually not at all about things like UI and other stuff like that, and 2.) What games are "good" is so subjective, and 3.) I can't in good conscience include the PS4 backwards compatibility though it is appreciated and makes the console better as a package.
I still don't think we've had anything on the level of Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart or the Demon Souls remake graphically or technically, and those were launch games. Its been a late bloomer. Death Stranding 2 might be a recent exception that proves the rule.
Now third party has been absolutely killing it but I left that out this. Just referring to first / second party output - and that's been middling compared to, say, PS1 or PS2. If we were including third party, this has been the best generation I've ever experienced (hail Capcom).
Re: 'I'm So Happy': Japanese Players Rejoice Over Finally Buying Cut-Price PS5
Good they are trying something to claw part of the Japanese market back.
Abandoning Japan will be one of the many aspects of Jim Ryan's tenure for which he will be remembered as the worst CEO in Playstation's history.
Re: Expedition 33, Ghost of Yotei Have Started Scooping Up GOTY Awards
I haven't played alllllll the nominated games but would like to see Cronos and Silent Hill f get some love. Great year for horror.
Re: The Next Horizon Game Is an MMO for Mobile and PC, Prompting Fury from PS5 Fans
@SeaDaVie
Semi open world and highly, highly similar in the action genre, pedantry aside. More similar than, say, a flight sim.
And yeah, I didn't play Zero Dawn or Forbidden West at release. After I played the others. So you can understand the genre fatigue. I should have specified. They all landed in roughly the same time frame when you look at Sony's output over it's entire history, and you can definitely see a pattern - regardless of which technically released before the other.
Re: The Next Horizon Game Is an MMO for Mobile and PC, Prompting Fury from PS5 Fans
Never really cared for Horizon as a series. Not because it's bad or anything on its own merits, but because the open world third person action genre had become so saturated by the time Guerilla came onto the scene.
InFamous, Days Gone, God of War 2018 / Ragnarok, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, Spiderman. Very different games sure, but all in (roughly) the same narrow genre. Horizon was just the straw that broke the camel's back for me, one too many games in the same style. It doesn't help that open world games don't really respect your time and good games release weekly these days.
There's dozens upon dozens of genres. Car combat, flight simulator, sim, fighting, beat-em-ups, on and on. Try some different genres Sony. Never understood why they are "locked in" to this one type of game the last two gens.
Re: Silent Hill F Made Easier in Difficulty Overhaul, Adds Casual Mode
@Propaperpusher
Ah yes, Silent Jill 2. The fan made mod where you play through Silent Hill as RE's own Jill Valentine. Love that game.
Re: Silent Hill F Made Easier in Difficulty Overhaul, Adds Casual Mode
Already played through on every difficulty, got the platinum. Hard combat setting is a decent challenge. Not fussed about adding difficulty modes for people who want to enjoy the game.
Overall, I really liked this game and the unique angle / story it was telling, but I see why some were put off by the (very minimal) actual story connections to the wider SH mythos and the huge emphasis on action in the latter third of the game. It felt like I was playing Dark Souls at certain points... and that's okay for a one off experimental title. I wouldn't prefer it to be the norm going forward, but I'm fairly certain it won't be in any case.
Also, I like that the actual story is completely hidden, requiring two to three playthroughs to unravel, but I can also see how this would be an absolute deal breaker for some. The main plot conceit of the entire game is only really revealed as the second playthrough begins, and evolves from there. I think it was a bold decision and I've actually never seen the story structure hidden across multiple playthroughs of a game before like this (never played Nier Automata, though I know it does something similar).
Tldr: Love this weird game.
Re: Sony's Allowing Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection Refunds Because the PS5, PS4 Compilation Is a 'Downright Nightmare' for Some
The AI input reading is a well known aspect of MKII for better or worse. There are easy combos / strats you can basically repeat ad nauseum to defeat the CPU on any difficulty though. Jump - sweep - uppercut.
Not sure if it's a bug or a feature, I'm just saying there's methods around it. Honestly I thought the curb appeal of this compilation was the player vs player multiplayer modes, not the CPU ladder modes.
I don't trust any dev to properly rebalance the AI, so just leave it as it is in its original glory, warts and all. And if someone understandably doesn't help with MKII for whatever reason, there's like 10 other games in the compilation to try out.
Re: 'Our Biggest Competition Isn't Another Console': Xbox Doubles Down on Multiformat After Halo PS5 Shock
@Striker21
I've read a good deal of your commentary here. It's a quite substantial amount so I didn't get to it all...
I'd break it down like this:
Basically the Sony exclusives don't bring down the house in terms of sales, at least not in a way that would sustain their business by itself. The exclusives were never about creating profit directly, I always saw them more as a marketing vehicle to attract people to their ecosystem, after which they get the real money from a 30% cut of Fortnite micro transactions. It's been that way for a long time. Which has worked really, really, really well for them.
We get the big money isn't in the next God of War game, but the question is how does a company get a player to play Fortnite on their system? Sony seems to have cracked the code on that - by offering critically acclaimed games you can't play anywhere else, you bring in the players and make the money off live service after locking people into their walled garden.
So fast forward a bit, Sony is really entrenched in terms of their market share now. I don't see how Xbox offering a probably pricey premium PC hybrid console is gonna tempt any third parties away from Sony, especially when Xbox exclusives aren't in the conversation anymore.
What do they have left to win market share? GamePass has stagnated and I'm guessing the numbers took a bit of a dive recently. Their current console isn't selling like hotcakes. Nothing they are doing is setting the world on fire.
I think handing Sony 30% of their revenue on each game, basically going the publisher route is their only play left now. To borrow a console war-ism, they well and truly "lost," and subscription models and the cloud aren't coming to the rescue like they hoped.
It's over. They tried, they failed. I always hated the concept of GamePass but it was a brave and disruptive strategy, I'll give them that. Couldn't generate the market share they needed and have no path forward to do that now. That's business / life. Just grateful for the original Xbox and 360 for providing such great memories.
Re: Sony Strikes Back at Tencent's Horizon Rip-Off, Says Light of Motiram 'Jeopardises' Future Success
I wish Sony would take this much interest in all the rampant IP theft going on in the shovelware releases on its own platform. But, Sony doesn't own those.
I mean LaBuBu Battle Royale, seriously? What is the quality control process to submit a game onto PSN?
Re: Silent Hill F's Physical Soundtrack Release Cancelled Due to 'Various Circumstances'
Really digging this soundtrack so far, especially the opening theme. Very Silent Hill-esque but in it's own distinct way to reflect the 1960s Japan setting.
Probably wouldn't go for a physical soundtrack but will be adding some of the tracks to my creepy Halloween playlist, to join the underappreciated Downpour Daniel Licht tracks.