Vertere

@HonestHick A company well known and regarded for hardware engineering hired Cerny to design the last few generations of PlayStation. Sony must be kicking themselves when they could have just popped down to tech town and had them knock one up.

@TrollOfWar I think Bluepoint took on far more than it was capable of delivering. Those live service games have far more resources and bigger headcount’s with devs experienced in the genre working on them. Bluepoint was a studio that never quite fit the portfolio and should have never been acquired. Sony had a relationship with them and giving them specific second party projects should have been where it stayed.

Microsoft is all in on AI and that arms race is bleeding capital expenditure. Unfortunately every other business unit will be under massive internal pressure to maximise efficiency, cut margins, and prove standalone profitability. Sadly for Xbox is ledger isn’t looking healthy. Hopefully Xbox finds a buyer and thrives under a more entertainment focused home.

@get2sammyb Run a poll to see how many people actually watch these shows with comments enabled? Even before this I’ve personally never watched game events with comments on. Couldn’t think of anything worse, genuinely wondering if others like it.

@Ainu20 Honestly I think we shouldn’t expect much at all going forward. There needs to be a launch showcase for PS6 and with close to 100m PS5’s in circulation there is no need as the CEO recently said to market PS5 aggressively. Sony are aware of the backlash to physical. The only way forward with the PS6 is an absolutely incredible launch line up. For that to happen I imagine PlayStation want to keep their powder dry.

A perfect SoP for people who feel the PS3 era was peak and lament PlayStation isn’t Japanese enough.

@somnambulance AI would be bit sad yeah. The entire premise is walking and talking. Human connection. There are loads, like boatloads of people looking for groups. It’s not a game you need to rush but you’ll definitely be a bit sad when it’s over.

This game has been my personal highlight of 2026. It’s such a straightforward concept but executed so well. The Studio deserve all their praise. Phenomenal game, you can comfortably play with two people but three or four is really a lot of fun.

@DzarkGaz haha. I’d play that.

@Ricksta I haven’t heard about that game in ages. I thought it was abandoned?

@The_Elder
https://www.pushsquare.com/supporter

Dignity included.

Pragmata was so good. Already ordered Castlevania and Townfall. Capcom just doesn’t disappoint these days.

Hours of completely optional free entertainment in this economy. Still there are people that feel the need to complain. Actually incredible.

I’m fascinated by whatever Fairgames is going to be. I just can’t imagine what type of showing it needs at this point to receive any praise or even given a fair shot. We’ve seen nothing other than a slick cutscene years ago.
One thing I’m a little more positive about is potentially what Team LFG are doing, if it’s a weird moba with a very distinct art style aimed at a wide age group like Splatoon it could be interesting.

@AdamNovice Does anyone actually watch these things with the comments enabled. For years I’ve had mine off. It’s annoying no matter what.

Game is great. I actually played the first through Extra. This is the first one I purchased. Enjoyed all of them but particularly liking this iteration!

@ShadowRJ yeah it’s a bit crazy, the light show is legally classified as an artistic installation. Because French copyright lasts for the author's lifetime plus 70 years, Pierre Bideau died in 2021. SETE enforces rights until 2092. Nothing to do with the BBC though.

Of course 60 is better. However I’d always take a lower stable frame rate than a higher rate with frametime fluctuations.

Looks incredible. The sheer scale and detail. Can you imagine what a monster GTA6 online will be.

I wonder if it’s technically possible on PS5. Isn’t the way Xbox and PS handle physical slightly differently?
Xbox physical for a long time has just been a code or or download launcher, so I imagine a lot of the back end was already dealing with this in some way. It’s a cool concept and the timing was good if her tweet a twee.

@Ainu20 I would imagine the premium PC Helix is still going launch. They will additionally launch a controller that is capable of streaming Gamepass or something like a Portal without a screen.

Maybe some people will never agree with hacktivism but certainly there are causes most are sympathetic towards. Exposing underhanded policies of big pharma, corporate environmental damage or governmental corruption. Personally I find it hard to reconcile targeted actions towards entertainment companies. No one needs or is entitled to a video games or a movie. When entertainment companies are targeted its justification feels superficial and accompanied by some scheme and it does impact how the general public view this type of behaviour. Hacktivism started as a serious endeavour and more often than not now appears as groups pushing crypto or blackmail demands under a thin veneer of a flavour of the month toxic outrage.

@GirlVersusGame Crypto seems like buying casino chips except whilst you are playing the casino might burn down or go bankrupt before you can cash in. My big issue with Crypto is it’s not investing it’s purely gambling yet the industry tries to dress it up and legitimise it as investment. I knew someone who bought into that whole Bored Ape NFT’s scene years back and I was perplexed how a rational person could purchase these things. He tried explaining it to me and used that diamond destruction analogy. I told them it sounded like absolute madness with no underlying financial logic, they just insisted I didn’t get it. I still don’t.

@GirlVersusGame That whole world is foreign to me. I don’t touch crypto. I’m familiar with traditional pump n dump scams and thought burning coins was something like a stock buy back in its intended effect. Seems to be a lot more to it. The whole thing seems very sinister. I also don’t really understand who is buying these coins, they have no underlying inherent value. Maybe I’m out of touch.

@GirlVersusGame I thought he managed to run up his coin a bit? What was the point to burn his dev coins? They’ll still profit right?

@kmtrain83 Huh there was actually a direct link from the PSN site to the Xbox purchase page.

Xbox is on the Microsoft cutting board and Sharma is there to punch up the numbers and polish the nameplate.

@Old-Red Please tell me it’s better than Nightreign? Love FromSoft games but bounced hard off that. Was pretty disappointing finding out the Switch Exclusive was another game in that direction.

@Justinbeebs GT7 and especially MLB The Show makes them bags annually. Doubtful it’s enough to cover the Bungie cheque.
I know these projects start years before release. Shuhei green lit Concord initially which always amazes me just how long these things cook for. However it seems a bit mad to keep approving new live service games when they have Bungie and a Destiny 3 or something in that universe seems a far better gamble than Fairgame$. Helldivers 2 might have actually been worse for Sony than if it failed, probably giving them a false sense of live service feasibility.

They are making a new Helldivers movie and except they already made the perfect one in 1997.

@Rich33 True but there are other important differences. Both grant software licenses rather than copyright ownership, but a physical disc is a transferable asset protected by copyright law. You’re allowed to resell or lend it. A digital purchase is a non-transferable, account tied service agreement governed by platform contracts.

There are far more worthwhile issues we could be focusing on. Plastic discs are inevitably going the way of the dodo.
I just looked at regional pricing for Black Ops 4, and there is a €20 difference between the UK launch price and the Taiwan version. While PS5 discs aren't region locked, the download codes inside the box still are.
Surely we should be demanding an open digital ecosystem and refining our ownership rights, rather than focusing a blackout on physical formats and lamenting Japan Studio. Why isn't the movement targeting digital purchase rights, which are a far more significant issue across all of gaming and it’s future?

@GirlVersusGame It’s really amazing, wish I was that dedicated. My Minecraft builds are embarrassingly less ambitious;-)
You’ll have to do Chengdu station next!

Maybe Gwen is now Gé wēn.

@GirlVersusGame The 3D modelling of the stations are awesome. You never went yourself? Did you just get friends to send you reference shots or were able to get the information from videos?
I took a trip last year and there was something called the Raurimu Spiral. I don’t know much about trains but apparently it’s pretty special. Kind of a crazy loop to overcome elevation.

@Bettyswollocks Couldn’t agree more. Carts were peak physical and I’ve personally not bought or hung onto anything physically past the 16 bit era.

As much as I love physical games the future seems set, in July the US had the lowest number of physical sales since tracking began. I wish consumer were more united in the discussion over the future of digital ownership rights rather than looking backwards to the media they were sold on.

@TrollOfWar There is probably more we agree on than disagree!

@TrollOfWar You’re arguing it’s not dynamic pricing simply because prices don't exceed MSRP.
That’s not what I wrote. What is actually happening on the store is targeted sales and dynamic markdown pricing, or dynamic markdown optimisation, which is the correct technical term. It isn't true dynamic pricing in the traditional sense because it isn't supply constrained, and prices only move downward from the initial listed value.
Equating Sony’s closed digital storefront to a sneaky store clerk silently reading your shopping history to overcharge you mid-transaction is false equivalence. It fundamentally misunderstands price discrimination by conflating targeted promotional discounting with illegal surge practices. On PSN, prices never move upward past the publisher set MSRP, they only move downward at varying rates through dynamic markdowns.
From a legal retail perspective, this distinction is critical. Consumer protection authorities regulate non-disclosed, personalised price hikes that exceed standard list rates as deceptive trade practices. In contrast, variable discounting below a fixed, disclosed MSRP ceiling is standard, lawful yield management. No consumer is being "overcharged" relative to the clear list price; some are simply receiving targeted promotional discounts.
To reiterate, my comment is not a position on the fairness or desirability of the trial itself. It is simply my view that the mechanics of how this storefront operates are being significantly misrepresented and exaggerated.

@TrollOfWar See above.

@kantaroo That’s what they are. Targeted sales. Technically you refer to it as dynamic markdown pricing. The price never exceeds the launch retail price. There is no underlying physical product, digital products have no demand constraints. It’s not air travel or concert tickets. I agree true dynamic pricing can be ridiculously unfair and manipulated, recent concert pricing has shown that. That isn’t what is happening here, they are targeting users and offering discounts, those discounts vary. You could rightly ask questions on how or why these sales exist and why the cheapest option globally isn’t standard. That doesn’t exist on any platform unfortunately or currently we’d all be buying in Yen or Taiwanese dollars. There will in participating territories be a product that may not be discounted as much as another’s but there may well be others that are. The PSN shop works on volume, believe it or not, Sony is incentivised to sell you more products especially 3rd party which is the vast majority of sales and which cost Sony nothing to produce. These sales of course are conducted with publishers approval as with all platforms and sales but from Sony’s perspective it’s far more lucrative to shift as many games as possible. Dynamic markdown pricing would likely be designed to extract greater purchase volumes from consumers in the most price efficient manner possible (from their perspective).
As a consumer I’m all for the lowest pricing option, I also believe that the more informed consumers are the better choices they are able make. I am naturally sceptical of the reasons for this pricing trial. My original comment wasn’t an opinion on fairness or desirability but my personal view that the issue is regularly misrepresented and blown out of proportion.

“I guess it’s time to put your money where your mouth is”. That is seemingly the last thing that is happening in the physical media space.

In July US physical game sales drop to lowest monthly total since 1995.

@zebric21 PC is the preferred choice in China after mobile for gaming. PlayStation has been doing better over the years.
I’m not sure there is much of story, no independent dev investing triple A money for a game that would perform strongest domestically would not ship on PC.

@TrollOfWar Hmmm, honestly I didn’t interpret it that way from the interview. It sounded like a CEO saying look we have millions of customers, we want to sell them more. Delivered in dry vernacular for a financial news outlet. Hardly surprising stuff. Sony deserves criticism when appropriate but there are issues recently that just get blown out of proportion. Like dynamic pricing on PSN which isn’t even close to true dynamic pricing, it’s actually just targeted sales.

@PuppetMaster I’d imagine for every legitimate developer hurt by accidentally having their product removed there are more developers hurt by lack of better curation practices.

@get2sammyb It’s a little disingenuous to believe any break out hit indie games would be removed from sale as they usually follow a Steam early access release and incredulous to think they wouldn’t quickly be reinstated if removed. The storefront should absolutely be better curated, customers should be reasonably entitled to a minimum amount scrutiny over the quality of games PlayStation is offering for sale. It’s not just customers that are negatively affected but many developers themselves. There are so many instances of repackaged, directly ripped off or stolen games from small devs with no recourse and these being listed for sale. It’s unfortunately more and more common.
https://x.com/PanikArcade/status/1979229799911473641?lang=en

@themightyant Come on, the store was getting unfathomably cluttered with garbage. There were games on there that were blatantly rip offs being passed off as others, AI trash and trophy games were out of hand. Sony should absolutely curate its storefront. The storefront shouldn’t be a free for all market bazaar, there should be a reasonable degree of quality control. You’re an educated consumer and can discern the difference in shovelware but the storefront is used by parents and children that may not be thrilled with their purchase of War Gods Zeus of Child.
I feel sorry for legitimate developers caught up the long overdue clean up but as long as their products are restored the storefront will eventually be a better place for consumers and developers.

@PanFriedSoup I’m so disappointed with the Switch 2, the hardware is fine but there just isn’t the killer games of the first. Donkey Kong is fine but nothing like the original switch. Odyssey and BOTW were just amazing, hopefully when they finally let us see a new 3d Mario it’s been worth the cost.

@naruball Haha I actually bought and player errr some of it. You’re not wrong. It’s got that two generations ago feel to the game structure. It’s a missed opportunity sadly.

@Northern_munkey I actually think you’re not wrong. Totoki probably should have used a translator or known better. Every comment regardless of intent or audience is reused irrespective of context to fit whatever narrative the internet has going. Soon we’ll have 10-K: A’s rewritten by sensitivity consultants.