darylb24

@Vertere True, but wasting Billions of pounds on several failed live service projects is not a good strategy either. It would be better for them to try to procure an established live service studio that has a track record of success and can ensure good ROI.

Step 1: Fire Herman Hulst

Step 2: Drop the live service strategy wasting literal billions of pounds, and try to buy up a recently successful live service studio

Step 3: Go back to making high Quailty single player AAA games and invest more into some 1st party indie games.

Outselling Saros on launch week, AC is still big business

I think this will be fairly niche, as it is being outsold by 007 First Light and the Black Flag remake on launch week in the UK PS Store (Both launches are over a month out for those games). Even Starfield was top of the pre-order charts for PS5 in its launch week, and that supposedly did not sell super well. I am sure those who liked Retunal will enjoy the game, though.

I, like most other PS5 players are probably more interested in Wolverine, though. That will be the big selling game for PlayStation this year.

I kept being told IGN were just PlayStation fanyboys, though? Which one is it?

No more flip-flopping!

Damn, Push Square is doing more Xbox articles than Pure Xbox lol.

I hope Xbox brings back exclusives to bring back the competition that Sony needs to not be charging £520 for an 825GB
digital PS5.

You got your engagement, and I get Hookshot has bills to pay, but you are losing integrity with articles like this.

The game is about a year away, so let's see what improvements they will make in that time.

@Retron, I would not compare Pearl Abyss to Rockstar, who will happily delay a game time after time because they are perfectionists. Crimson Desert did come out somewhat buggy, unfinished, and undercooked, and this patch is what they should have launched with. I am enjoying my time with Crimson Desert, but I am waiting for them to fix all the known issues before I jump back in.

@DennisReynolds @MrPeanutbutterz, While I do agree with what you say to a point, I do believe the delivery was a little harsh. I don't think the OP put across the argument as effectively as they should have.

This isn't a 3rd party game. Sony has been very good with its accessibility in more recent years to cater to the 90+ million PS5 owners. For this game to be less accessible than most other 1st party titles (of which we are lucky to get 1 or 2 a year) will be a disappointment for many PS5 fans, and I think it is valid for them to feel disappointed that they can't play a game they like the look of.

Accessibility isn't pandering to players; it's just giving more players an option to play.

@1234five They are - it's most of the leadership that went, but most of the core team is the same.

@get2sammyb You should be happy for stuff to report on! lol

@beltmenot I have noticed it the last couple of years tbh. Hookshot does take some blame as the articles have, in some cases, been a bit more baity/inflammatory as they have had to keep up with the way users now consume content (and they need to follow it because of ad revenue).

It's time to get the popcorn out lol

I'm fine with PlayStation having its exclusives and Xbox having theirs.

It seems that Asha is doing a major overhaul based on that Xbox article today, and for Xbox, that change is much needed to keep PlayStation accountable.

I think outside of Forza 6 and maybe The Elder Scrolls 6, most of the other games won't be too missed by PS-only players. I have all the consoles, so I'm lucky to be able to pick and choose the things I want to play without "missing out" on anything.

Looks interesting! I might check this one out. I am not interested in the "controversies." Most of the original team is still there.

I mean if we go by how well Forza Horizon 5 did on PS5, waiting 6 or 12 months should do no harm at all.

People will wait for great games. PC players will wait and extra year or so for GTA6 because they know it will be worth it.

I find Game Pass a better value, but both have their place. Let's get out of the armchair analyst mode that so many gamers online fall into, and let both be competitive to offer the best for consumers. We don't have the facts or figures for either, but as soon as they stop making a profit, don't think for a second they won't be taken away.

@4fold You don't get Sony's games day one, though? No Forza, Fable, Gears, or Halo Day one - all full price purchases.

@MrPeanutbutterz I don't think Sony is for one second underestimating MS, especially with the new gaming leadership. They often react to what Xbox does (achievements, online gaming, Cloud etc.).

PS Plus was overpriced before and continues to be lol

Yoshida to Hulst, hard to name a bigger downgrade in gaming exec history.

Another great game by Capcom!

@dskatter Papped is a term mainly used in legacy British media. As Hookshot is based in the UK, a lot of the authors would have heard this bandied about over the last couple of decades.

In context, "they have been papped by the paparazzi". ("Papped" being a photograph taken when the "celebrity/famous" participant is unaware).

I'm waiting for the updates to finish before I go back. There are other games to play for now.

Great intro! I'm looking forward to playing this one.

@ATaco Oram77 Nate did say it was unconfirmed, unlike with his Nintendo stuff, where he was 100% certain (and was correct).

@LeeBB_Art It's about monetization

It wasn't even confirmed by the reliable leakers, so I never expected one this week.

Nate did say unconfirmed in this instance, which means he could not get a guarantee like with the Nintendo Switch 2 show and the directs.

IF these numbers are anywhere near accurate, just port Cod, Live service games, and Forza to PS5/6. The rest are not worth the time/cost or effort. Even from a solely business point of view, it's just not worth it for those kinds of numbers.

Guessing there is no state of play tomorrow then?

@Grumblevolcano Any update on the state of play tomorrow? I haven't seen anything

I am enjoying the game, but I am putting it down until those significant QoL features roll out by June.

Once those features arrive, an even bigger audience will buy into the game.

@Toot1st I know it made me cringe haha

Trust me, if Series S keeps its current price and has a lot of stock, it will outsell the PS5 and Series X during the holiday window as casual gamers race to get the game on the cheapest console.

I remember buying my first Xbox (the 360) because it was cheaper than the PS3 at the time for GTA 4. I had no affinity to Xbox, but as a then casual I just went with what was cheap as a uni student.

Based on this data, I would say Xbox has a good attach rate here vs console sales.

GTA Online Xbox Series Revenue - 55% against a 40 million install base (percentage could be even higher).

GTA Online PS5 Revenue - 44.5% against 92 million install base.

Xbox players spend the most vs install base, which seems to go against the narrative that Xbox players are "trained not to spend money" as some drone on online.

The game launched unfinished. The features they want to add by June should have been on day 1. They should have delayed until June.

Core features like difficulty setting and a more thought-out progression system for the other 2 characters missing are a clear indication of that.

The game was functional at launch, but is that really an acceptable barometer for a near full-price AAA game?

It's good they are getting these big patches out quickly, but they wouldn't have needed to do them if the game were "finished".

I can see a future that has a mixture of exclusive, timed exculive and day one 3rd party stuff to work best.

Activision and multiplayer games are day one 3rd party

Maybe Forza, which is a hybrid, could be timed exclusive

Then, single-player games across XGS and Bethesda can be either exclusive or timed exclusive.

Remember that porting games to PS5 costs time and money.

For something like Forza 6 and Fable, it makes sense. But for games like Avowed and MS Flight Sim 24, The Outer Worlds 2 (which sold under 500K copies on PS5), it wasn't worth the time and effort. Out of all the games ported, only 2 have broken the 1 million sales record (Oblivion remaster and Forza 5).

The porting experiment has been a mixed bag at best and hardly a "leaving all that money on the table" situation.

@pyrrhic_victory They said 2026, but I wouldn't be surprised if that gets pushed to 2027. We will prob get a date between June and August. I myself am more excited for Road Kings as I already have ETS2 and ATS on my gaming laptop. Those games run on a potato tbh.

The story in 2 wasn't great, so I am a lot less hyped for 3. Hopefully, the writing improves.

I am also hoping that Insomniac does have a team that is working on something non-Marvel too. They have become a bit of a Marvel factory lately.

@Grumblevolcano When was the last time 2 showcases from the big 3 were broadcast? I honestly can't remember the last time. Do you have the dates?

I think Fable will get delayed to early 2027, the same as Avowed did from late 2024 to early 2025.

Microsoft already has to release COD, Gears, Halo, and Forza 6 on the PS5 in a matter of 3-4 months without factoring in Wolverine, GTA 6 or any other AAA game, so yeah, I think it might make sense to give Fable some breathing space.

Also, Nate mentioned that Xbox has a mini showcase on the 16th? I wonder if that means the state of play gets pushed to another week?

I have had 2 crashes in 300 hours on Xbox, wonder what is causing them on PS5? maybe mod imcopatiablity.

The game came in hot and it shows. I have enjoyed my time with the game so far (Chapter 5), but I think I will put this one down for a bit and wait for those updates to come through before picking the game back up. I don't regret buying the game day one, but some of these additional features are game-changing, and I want to play what is basically a 2.0 version of the game in the near future.

I won't praise them for adding QoL features that could have led to higher review scores and less gamer friction. I can see the shareholders were really pushing for March, when June would have been better.

What I can praise them for is the speed at which they are course correcting the game. It took CDPR years to do what Pearl Abyss is doing in a matter of months. That's no slant on CDPR, it just shows how quick PA are at taking feedback and making changes.

For any level 5 games without an actual release date, add a year or 2 lol.

I'm expecting this and DecaPolice in 2027 with yet another delay.

Now that they add EN dubs to all their games, it does add additional dev time.

@AyanamiReign Likely late 2026 or early 2027. I expect the date will show up for PS5 in June.

Can't wait to play this one in May!

Using L1/R1 to quickly switch to the store and PS + is pretty handy.

Never played this the first time around, so I would be curious to find out more at the State of Play showcase next week.

@Grumblevolcano Now that we have more info on that mid-April date with context that it's more of a 3rd-party show, then this tracks. I still expect a full showcase in late May/Early June, though, with Sony's new 1st party stuff.

Nate is very accurate with his information, but anyone who follows PlayStation in a capacity like on Push Square could guess that a Sony showcase will be in May based on their previous track record. I would say May 18th onwards is a safe bet.

Beyond Wolverine, I'm not really interested in any other currently announced Sony 1st-party games, but it will still be good to see more of Wolverine and to see if there are new 3rd-party games or release dates that take my interest.

Shame we didn't get full themes for the PS5, but I can hope for the PS6!