@EVIL-C I was just making a joke about people who have to turn every Playstation article into a moan about physical discs ... thanks for proving me right!
But ... but ... but ... discs! ... Not ... allowed ... to ... enjoy ... games ... Only ... allowed ... to ... moan ... about ... end ... of ... physical ... gaming ... Must ... hate ... all ... PS5 ... news ... Must ... not ... play ... PS5 ... games ... Aaarghh!!!
@Jocaju "I have a subscription since day one ... I rarely play online and downloaded no more than 20 games since plus became a thing"
Let me get this straight: you've had Plus since 2010 (when it started) and in 16 years you've downloaded no more than 20 games? Since you rarely play online ... why on earth have you been wasting all that money, for so many years, on a service you barely use?
Maybe you don't understand how inflation works? The service being digital is irrelevant: all of Sony's costs will have gone up over this period - electricity, rent, servers, wages etc. - by, on average, the rate of inflation. Like any business, they therefore have to raise prices to keep up. For consumers, this may suck, but go to any supermarket, petrol station or wherever, and you will see prices have similarly risen. Why do you think Sony is immune?
As for the games: Returnal and Demon's Souls were both over a year old when added to PS Plus. More important, this was in specific circumstances - they were added to help launch the new Extra tier in 2022. Typically, Sony doesn't add its games to the service so soon. It really hasn't changed that much since the initial launch period, if you look at the history of when games get added.
@Darude84 In the UK, Extra launched in 2022 at £83.99 - according to the Bank of England inflation calculator today this equals £98.08. In fact, it now costs £99.99, so sure, a fraction ahead of inflation - but in no sense was it ever 'way cheaper' (in real terms).
As for games, both the ones you mention are still there, but so are lots of other Sony games - Spiderman, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima etc. Sony has always been clear they don't put their games on Day One, so no, newer ones like Saros or Ghost of Yotei aren't on yet, but this isn't anything new, it's never been like Game Pass in this respect.
So, it just seems a major exaggeration to say it is 'a totally different service' than it used to be.
@Schonks No one's forced to use PS Plus - at most, you could just get Essential for internet gaming, you don't have to pay for the game catalogue. So, if you think you can play the games it offers somehow for cheaper, go ahead. Indeed, if you know some way to play a regular stream of less-than-a-year-old games for around £8 (dollars/euros) or so a month, I'd love to know!
For starters, if you take into account inflation, the PS Plus essential tier is no more (possibly even less) expensive than when it started in 2010. The higher tiers are newer so you can't make the same comparisons.
But to your main point, I've been a subscriber since the beginning, and it's relatively rare to get (AAA) games from within a year, though not unheard of. In any case, two or three years' old is hardly ancient, especially since many games take months (or years) of updating to get into a decent state. At the moment, I'm playing Final Fantasy 16 from PS Plus - released 2023 - and though I don't think it's a great game, I would still consider it a pretty new one.
Honestly, if you expect to be playing games that are still likely to be selling at close to full price for a few pounds (dollars/euros) a month, then sure, PS Plus maybe isn't for you - but then, I don't think it has ever has been.
Absolutely! All these years, Sony has been sending me discs every month with my PS Plus subscription and I now find out this is about to end?!? Cancel my subscription immediately!
I'm constantly amazed how people throw around terms like 'trash' and 'garbage' when, by any objective measure, this is a decent selection of games. Many are not ones I personally will play (or have already played), but this doesn't make the games rubbish - Avatar, which I have played, is pretty good, Rise of the Ronin looks decent enough, and Power Rangers and Citizen Sleeper 2 clearly have fans.
To all the haters, what selection of games do you realistically expect to be getting for what amounts to around £8 a month (in the UK) for an annual Extra subscription? RE Requiem? 007 First Light? Saros? Crimson Desert? If so, you would need to double or triple the price you are paying.
@Darude84 'They’re either old or budget games.' Avatar was 2023 and Rise of the Ronin was 2024 - both decent-budget titles from recent years. Given that PS Plus almost never does day one, how new exactly are you expecting? Also, smaller budget games are some of the best ones out there - maybe open your mind to non-AAA? For example, Citizen Sleeper 2 is meant to be very good
I'm very late to the party here, but I looked up this list to see how far I had to go, and see I'm about halfway through. My goodness, this is a boring game - linear, repetitive and with simplistic, button-mashing combat. Will I even bother to finish it?
So, does the recent news mean that Sony is no longer going to be sending me these games on disc? If so, I'm going to cancel my PS Plus sub immediately!
I never said you couldn't express your opinion. But you said you were thinking about giving up gaming, and it seems to me that if a hobby makes you this heated, maybe that's a good idea?
Personally, I never pay more than half price maximum for any game - I always wait for sales - but for those who need to play games day one, the price for GTA VI (which cost over $1 billion to make) doesn't seem unreasonable. And for such a massive and detailed open world title, expecting 60fps on console was always a bit of a stretch.
Good grief, it's just a videogame! No need to get so upset. Still, if it really does make you so angry, maybe you should stop playing games, might be better for your blood pressure.
People never want to acknowledge this, but PS Plus prices have basically risen with inflation. In the UK, it launched in 2010 at £39.99 a year, and today essential is £59.99 a year. This is entirely in line with inflation (check the Bank of England's inflation price calculator if you like).
You don't have to like the service, or subscribe if you really don't want to, but at the cost of less than a single new AAA game per year (for which you get approx. 36 games to play, even if you just stick with the lowest tier), it really isn't bad value for money.
I understand the point of these games is their very easy platinums, but in reality, how many people actually want to get trophies this way? When that Mayo game first came out, it had a sort of novelty, but in 2026, how many people are still mindlessly playing these sort of games just to accumulate the trophies? In other words, what sort of sales do they actually make anyway - most can't be profitable, surely, or at least, barely? Selling so cheaply (and with Sony's 30% cut), each must make little more than pennies, and with so many on the market, some of these 'developers' must struggle to be making profits. They're must be better sleazy scams out there, I would've thought, it seems an odd way to try to make a buck.
@darylb24 I don't know if you've heard of a little franchise called Call of Duty, but this also sells pretty well on Playstation, I think you'll find.
In any case, the obvious sign of Microsoft's success on Playstation is that Microsoft games regularly dominate the Top 10 sales chart on Playstation - at times, over half the entries.
Truth is, Microsoft makes an awful lot of money from Playstation gamers - especially when it releases games day and date as Xbox. Make no mistake, it would be a very big loss to abandon that now.
Please don't ask people to get enraged about something that hasn't - and may never - happen yet. Isn't there enough unwarranted anger on the Internet already?
People who don't understand anything about technology talk about 'the cloud' and 'streaming' as if it means that data is just floating in the ether and means you no longer need hardware. No, it just means that instead of individual users running games on their own hardware, games are run centrally in server farms ... on hardware. So, instead of putting the cost of hardware on to us as consumers, companies have to pay the cost of it (plus electricity, maintenance etc.) themselves? Why on earth would they do this, other than on a very limited basis? Rising component costs mean it is more, not less, likely that companies will want to offload the costs of hardware onto consumers.
Why do so many articles nowadays use the word 'quietly' like this - the game 'has quietly been a big success' and 'quietly appeared in 14th position' in the sales charts? Just because a games isn't, say, Call of Duty doesn't mean that it just appears out of nowhere or no one has ever heard of it. An annoying tic of many media outlets these days, as if they don't actually know what 'quietly' means.
Not sure I'd be too excited for a Cassie Drake fronted game. Young woman adventurer/archaeologist? We already have that series, it's called Tomb Raider.
Whatever you think about the TV/movie adaptations, the original comic strips remain among the best ever produced - the gold standard, I would say. There are few, if any, daily comic strips that are better. At any rate, they are beloved by millions and well worth what Sony paid for them.
Really? I - and I would suggest millions of others - grew up absolutely loving the Peanuts animations. A Charlie Brown Christmas for one is still an absolute classic, even 60 years later! The Peanuts movie from a decade ago was also pretty good. So, I'd say the bar is actually fairly high.
It's a Telltale game, i.e. a basically linear, story-based experience, which is impossible to fail. Even the limited choices you get never amount to very much. As such, the scope for more inventive trophies is virtually non-existent - there aren't secret areas to explore, hidden collectibles, combat challenges etc. Unless the game forced you to replay it multiple times just so it could register whether you picked options a, b or c with the dialogue choices - which would be massively boring and annoying - what sort of trophies would you want it to offer?
That's nice and all for PS4 owners, but it's hardly a deluge of games, is it? If you stubbornly refuse to move on to PS5 - get a cheap used one off ebay, if you must - you still can't play the vast majority of new releases. A new Megaman game is all very well, but you're missing out on fantastic games like Silent Hill 2, Ghost of Yotei, Clair Obscur, Stellar Blade, Death Stranding 2, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and countless others.
Yes, the Pro is pricey, but I'd still say worth it. I sold my base PS5 for about £300 to buy one, and when PS6 comes out, I'll sell the Pro for hopefully a few hundred pounds as well, so there are always ways to mitigate the cost. And it's still a while before PS6 comes out, so I'm expecting to get plenty of value out of it in the meantime.
I'm not sure I've ever read anything quite so crazy on a gaming site before.
You know that games take many, many years to make, right? But your plan would be for Microsoft to have its many studios working on all these games for years - without releasing any of them - to save them all up and then release them over the course of a single year? So, expect fans to keep paying for gamepass all through the years of waiting, just so they can get one year of decent gaming? And then start the cycle again? And just hope that people won't just subscribe to gamepass for the one in five years or so that they get the bumper crop of games?
And how would this even be good for gamers? What am I supposed to do with 51 'brilliant' games all in the space of 12 months? No normal person would be able to play even a fraction of these in that timeframe! There's a reason publishers stagger their releases over long periods, and don't just dump them all into the marketplace at once.
I.e. your plan would be commercial suicide for Microsoft.
(I won't even mention the absurdly low cost you have put on some of these projects - remaking three or four games in a major franchise all as one bundle would cost a lot more than you suggest!)
It's always good, sure, to make older games more accessible ... but the way people talk about PS3 emulation it's as if it's the Holy Grail or something. If PS3 weren't in some sense the 'lost' generation when it comes to backwards compatibility, would we really be putting it on some kind of pedestal? Yes, it had some good games - I know, I've played every Playstation generation since the first - but I find it hard to get that excited about revisiting games from decades ago. Plus, I'm drowning in a huge backlog of games from just the last few years as it is, who even has time to spend precious gaming time on all these aging games from the past?
This isn't really aimed at the conventional console market, though - it's not a direct competitor to the PS5. It's a niche product aimed at existing Steam users, who want the extra option of couch gaming alongside their PC gaming. I really doubt the average Playstation user would jump ship to a Steam machine whatever the price - or vice versa. I know there's some overlap, but by and large, PC and Playstation audiences are fairly separate. The fact that both markets have continued to thrive alongside each other partly shows this.
The ones who should be worried are Microsoft - if their next console is indeed basically a PC that includes a Steam store front, then a (probably cheaper) Steam machine could be a serious competitor.
Actually, most rumours suggest that the PS6 won't be 'exorbitantly' expensive - in fact, it could be less than the PS5 Pro. So, more in the $500-$600 range. Now, the next Xbox probably will be exorbitantly expensive, since it's aiming to be much more powerful.
Historically, Sony has mainly bought studios with which it has strong, close relationships - e.g. Naughty Dog, only after they had made Crash Bandicoot etc. for Playstation in a second-party capacity, and similarly, Insomniac, with Ratchet and Clank etc. As such, they 'fit' with Sony's existing studios and ethos.
Part of the mistake in buying Bungie was that there wasn't that same affinity, and we might also say the same with Microsoft, just buying studios because they can, not because they have any 'natural' fit with the Xbox ecosystem.
All of which is to say, I think Sony is right not to buy up random studios or properties just because they are superficially attractive - as the case of Bungie (and, I would argue, Activision and Betheseda) shows, just buying studios with popular IPs doesn't mean you will automatically get great games from them going forward, if you don't really know or understand how to manage them.
What on earth do you people do with your controllers? I've owned every playstation since the first, among other consoles, so have had many controllers over the years - and I've never experienced this so-called stick drift and their batteries have always lasted perfectly fine when fully charged.
Y'all just need to look after your tech a lot better: wipe that cheetos dust off your grubby hands before picking them up and keep them charged between gaming sessions.
PS6 is only a couple of years away in all probability, so even if they started making Last of Us 3 today, there's no way it would come out before the next console. However, it could still be a cross-gen PS5/PS6 game if it came out early enough in the PS6 lifespan, since it's only relatively recently with PS5 (as current gen nears its end) that many PS5 games are stopping doing PS4 versions as well.
It's a shame, sure, but honestly, who hasn't bought a PS5 yet who wants one? You've had 5 years to get one by now! The PS6 isn't that far off, if you haven't upgraded already, at this point you may as well just wait. Or, if you absolutely must get a PS5 so late in the generation, and want that 1TB storage, just go on ebay, there are plenty of refurbished ones there.
All of which is to say: this really isn't that big a deal for a console that's been around so long.
Why let facts get in the way of a good rant, eh? To take one of your examples: God of War Ragnarok sold 5.1 million copies in its first week of sale, the fastest-selling first party game in Playstation history. By 2023, a year after launch, it had sold over 15 million copies - way more than 50% of the 23 million copies the 2018 game had sold (by 2022). Similarly, Spiderman 2 broke Playstation records by selling 2.5 million copies in 24 hours.
I have zero interest in live service games, and don't much care about movie, TV, comic book spinoffs etc. However, people need to pay attention to the final paragraph of this article - Playstation makes most of its money from microtransactions from a handful of (live service) games: Fortnite, Genshin Impact etc.
So, while I personally love Sony's single player games, everyone needs to understand that these are not the ones that make the really big profits. However well a God of War, Last of Us or Gran Turismo sells, they are never going to generate the billions of dollars of revenue that live service games make. Like it or not, this is a cold, hard fact.
As such, it makes complete sense for Sony to continue to pursue a live service strategy, regardless of how badly Concord and others have failed. And that's fine with me, as long as this subsidises single player games along the way. I'll never play any of these live service games myself, but if Sony can get enough whales to drop thousands of dollars on them to keep Playstation profitable, I'm very happy to see this happen.
And as long as there are other studios making great single player games too (like Clair Obscura, say) that I can play on my Playstation, who cares if they are first, second or third party?
I'd see that this is different even to an example like Palworld, say - which only 'borrows' Pokemon designs, not plot or overall gameplay. Here, we're looking at such a blatant rip-off of so many aspects of Sony's game that almost ANY company would sue over it. This isn't just some Nintendo 'over reaction'.
What on earth are you talking about? Most games within a given genre share certain similarities - e.g. every modern FPS still owes huge debts to pioneers like Doom, just as every modern platformer does to early examples like Mario. But you honestly can't see a difference between games that share certain mechanics and conventions and a wholesale rip-off of a game's design, aesthetic and basic plot?
And what previous games actually share a similar plot or design to Horizon anyway, which make you claim Sony games have no originality? Of course, there are elements of Monster Hunter, and other third-person open world/adventure games in there, but as a gamer of many decades, I found it to be a pretty original take on the post-apocalypse genre.
"...was terrified I would accidentally hit that little flashing icon placed so precariously close to the trophy button"
Eh? Just because you 'accidentally' hit the Stars button on your phone doesn't somehow automatically start up a game on your console and pop a trophy that you didn't want.
In any case, I'm also a trophy hunter who cares about my 100%s, but Stars was never a problem for this. It mostly only ever required you to start a game, get to the title screen and then back out. I did this loads of times, got the reward, and then deleted the 0% game from my trophy list. What was the problem with this?
We seem to have settled into a standard pattern now in comments sections with every new hardware reveal - 'nobody wants it', 'doesn't do anything new', 'over-priced', 'I'm sticking with current gen' etc. etc.
And yet, when the hardware comes out, they still sell like gangbusters - PS5 (even though it 'has no games' ) continues to sell incredibly well; PS5 Pro, for a niche machine at a relatively high price, has sold many millions; and let's not forget the Portal, which everyone was hating on from the moment it was revealed, Sony can't produce enough to meet demand. And outside of Sony, the Switch 2 - not just an 'over-priced' console, but 'over-priced' games! - is fastest selling console of all time.
What this all shows is the major disconnect between the moaners and whingers on Internet forums and the majority of actual gamers. Personally, I can't wait to upgrade to PS6 - I love shiny new toys - and will definitely be preordering.
As a tip: if every comment you post online is a whinge or complaint, maybe find a different hobby? No one's forcing you to be a videogamer, there's a world of other hobbies out there.
If you check out Stichting Massaschade & Consument's website, you'll see that they have also launched class action lawsuits against Airbnb, TikTok and Google - so they clearly have some kind of strategy of going for some of the biggest, wealthiest companies. The Google and Tiktok cases are about privacy and the use of users' information, and they are similarly seeking compensation.
Also, while they themselves are a non-profit, litigation is financed by a company called Omni Bridgeway - who take 20-25% of any successful claim. So, while the company may be motivated by high-minded ideals of helping consumers, their backers are obviously hoping to use these cases to strike it rich.
Anyway, there's some basic journalistic research for you all.
Let's be fair, everyone was comparing it to GTA beforehand - and the co-CEO of Mindseye's studio insinuating that Rockstar was paying people to post negative comments didn't help in dispelling the idea that it saw itself as in direct competition.
Also, not sure why you're criticising others for not making up their own minds about a game first - isn't the whole reason we're all here to read someone else's review before we decide whether or not to buy it? Isn't that what reviews are for?
I have a family of 4 myself! Not Michelin star, obviously, but a Nando's or Pizza Hut, you can just about do £50-ish. But still, what are you buying for home eating that costs £50 a day?
I love my Pro as well, but are you seriously spending £350 a week on food shopping??? You could have a family takeaway/restaurant meal every night for that much!
I don't disagree, but this wasn't the main point of the article - as the title indicates, the supposed 'surprise' is that people are still willing to pay for a game, when they could get it for 'free' on a subscription service. All I was pointing out is that this is based on fallacious reasoning - unless you own both consoles (which I don't think most people do), the choice is effectively made for you. As a PS5 owner, I simply have no choice but to pay for the game if I want to play it.
Comments 144
Re: Video: 2027 Is Already a Stacked Year for PS5
@EVIL-C I was just making a joke about people who have to turn every Playstation article into a moan about physical discs ... thanks for proving me right!
Re: Video: 2027 Is Already a Stacked Year for PS5
But ... but ... but ... discs! ... Not ... allowed ... to ... enjoy ... games ... Only ... allowed ... to ... moan ... about ... end ... of ... physical ... gaming ... Must ... hate ... all ... PS5 ... news ... Must ... not ... play ... PS5 ... games ... Aaarghh!!!
Re: PS5 Is the USA's Most Popular Console, and It's Not Particularly Close
@KundaliniRising333
I think PC would be an over-priced artisinal bread, which loud-mouthed t***s keep trying to persuade you is the best
Re: 90+ PS5, PS4 Games to Buy in PS Store's Expanded Summer Sale
@Jocaju "I have a subscription since day one ... I rarely play online and downloaded no more than 20 games since plus became a thing"
Let me get this straight: you've had Plus since 2010 (when it started) and in 16 years you've downloaded no more than 20 games? Since you rarely play online ... why on earth have you been wasting all that money, for so many years, on a service you barely use?
Re: Poll: Are You Hyped for These 9 New PS Plus Games?
Maybe you don't understand how inflation works? The service being digital is irrelevant: all of Sony's costs will have gone up over this period - electricity, rent, servers, wages etc. - by, on average, the rate of inflation. Like any business, they therefore have to raise prices to keep up. For consumers, this may suck, but go to any supermarket, petrol station or wherever, and you will see prices have similarly risen. Why do you think Sony is immune?
As for the games: Returnal and Demon's Souls were both over a year old when added to PS Plus. More important, this was in specific circumstances - they were added to help launch the new Extra tier in 2022. Typically, Sony doesn't add its games to the service so soon. It really hasn't changed that much since the initial launch period, if you look at the history of when games get added.
Re: Poll: Are You Hyped for These 9 New PS Plus Games?
@Darude84 In the UK, Extra launched in 2022 at £83.99 - according to the Bank of England inflation calculator today this equals £98.08. In fact, it now costs £99.99, so sure, a fraction ahead of inflation - but in no sense was it ever 'way cheaper' (in real terms).
As for games, both the ones you mention are still there, but so are lots of other Sony games - Spiderman, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima etc. Sony has always been clear they don't put their games on Day One, so no, newer ones like Saros or Ghost of Yotei aren't on yet, but this isn't anything new, it's never been like Game Pass in this respect.
So, it just seems a major exaggeration to say it is 'a totally different service' than it used to be.
Re: Poll: Are You Hyped for These 9 New PS Plus Games?
@Schonks No one's forced to use PS Plus - at most, you could just get Essential for internet gaming, you don't have to pay for the game catalogue. So, if you think you can play the games it offers somehow for cheaper, go ahead. Indeed, if you know some way to play a regular stream of less-than-a-year-old games for around £8 (dollars/euros) or so a month, I'd love to know!
Re: Poll: Are You Hyped for These 9 New PS Plus Games?
@Darude84
For starters, if you take into account inflation, the PS Plus essential tier is no more (possibly even less) expensive than when it started in 2010. The higher tiers are newer so you can't make the same comparisons.
But to your main point, I've been a subscriber since the beginning, and it's relatively rare to get (AAA) games from within a year, though not unheard of. In any case, two or three years' old is hardly ancient, especially since many games take months (or years) of updating to get into a decent state. At the moment, I'm playing Final Fantasy 16 from PS Plus - released 2023 - and though I don't think it's a great game, I would still consider it a pretty new one.
Honestly, if you expect to be playing games that are still likely to be selling at close to full price for a few pounds (dollars/euros) a month, then sure, PS Plus maybe isn't for you - but then, I don't think it has ever has been.
Re: Poll: Are You Hyped for These 9 New PS Plus Games?
@Aquariusjive
'No physical, no buy'
Absolutely! All these years, Sony has been sending me discs every month with my PS Plus subscription and I now find out this is about to end?!? Cancel my subscription immediately!
Re: Poll: Are You Hyped for These 9 New PS Plus Games?
I'm constantly amazed how people throw around terms like 'trash' and 'garbage' when, by any objective measure, this is a decent selection of games. Many are not ones I personally will play (or have already played), but this doesn't make the games rubbish - Avatar, which I have played, is pretty good, Rise of the Ronin looks decent enough, and Power Rangers and Citizen Sleeper 2 clearly have fans.
To all the haters, what selection of games do you realistically expect to be getting for what amounts to around £8 a month (in the UK) for an annual Extra subscription? RE Requiem? 007 First Light? Saros? Crimson Desert? If so, you would need to double or triple the price you are paying.
Re: Poll: Are You Hyped for These 9 New PS Plus Games?
@Darude84 'They’re either old or budget games.' Avatar was 2023 and Rise of the Ronin was 2024 - both decent-budget titles from recent years. Given that PS Plus almost never does day one, how new exactly are you expecting? Also, smaller budget games are some of the best ones out there - maybe open your mind to non-AAA? For example, Citizen Sleeper 2 is meant to be very good
Re: Final Fantasy 16: All Quests
I'm very late to the party here, but I looked up this list to see how far I had to go, and see I'm about halfway through. My goodness, this is a boring game - linear, repetitive and with simplistic, button-mashing combat. Will I even bother to finish it?
Re: 'I'm Not Convinced There's a Viable Way Forward': DOOM Dev Relegated to 'Support Studio' Size
Doom was one of the very few Microsoft-owned games I actually cared about, so this feels very sad. What an ignominiouss end for a once-great studio.
Re: July 2026 PS Plus Essential Games Available to Download Now
@1-Krazy-Superman It was just a joke ...
Re: July 2026 PS Plus Essential Games Available to Download Now
So, does the recent news mean that Sony is no longer going to be sending me these games on disc? If so, I'm going to cancel my PS Plus sub immediately!
Re: GTA 6 Not Expected to Run at 60fps on Any PS5 Console
@MikeOrator
I never said you couldn't express your opinion. But you said you were thinking about giving up gaming, and it seems to me that if a hobby makes you this heated, maybe that's a good idea?
Personally, I never pay more than half price maximum for any game - I always wait for sales - but for those who need to play games day one, the price for GTA VI (which cost over $1 billion to make) doesn't seem unreasonable. And for such a massive and detailed open world title, expecting 60fps on console was always a bit of a stretch.
Re: GTA 6 Not Expected to Run at 60fps on Any PS5 Console
@MikeOrator
Good grief, it's just a videogame! No need to get so upset. Still, if it really does make you so angry, maybe you should stop playing games, might be better for your blood pressure.
Re: Sony Aims to Drive PS Plus Profits by 'Improving Service Proposition'
People never want to acknowledge this, but PS Plus prices have basically risen with inflation. In the UK, it launched in 2010 at £39.99 a year, and today essential is £59.99 a year. This is entirely in line with inflation (check the Bank of England's inflation price calculator if you like).
You don't have to like the service, or subscribe if you really don't want to, but at the cost of less than a single new AAA game per year (for which you get approx. 36 games to play, even if you just stick with the lowest tier), it really isn't bad value for money.
Re: PS5's PS Store Shovelware Purge Continues with the Removal of More Garbage Games
I understand the point of these games is their very easy platinums, but in reality, how many people actually want to get trophies this way? When that Mayo game first came out, it had a sort of novelty, but in 2026, how many people are still mindlessly playing these sort of games just to accumulate the trophies? In other words, what sort of sales do they actually make anyway - most can't be profitable, surely, or at least, barely? Selling so cheaply (and with Sony's 30% cut), each must make little more than pennies, and with so many on the market, some of these 'developers' must struggle to be making profits. They're must be better sleazy scams out there, I would've thought, it seems an odd way to try to make a buck.
Re: Xbox Will Show PS5 Logos at Showcase, But May Adjust Moving Forward as Execs Publicly Contradict Each Other
@darylb24
I don't know if you've heard of a little franchise called Call of Duty, but this also sells pretty well on Playstation, I think you'll find.
In any case, the obvious sign of Microsoft's success on Playstation is that Microsoft games regularly dominate the Top 10 sales chart on Playstation - at times, over half the entries.
Truth is, Microsoft makes an awful lot of money from Playstation gamers - especially when it releases games day and date as Xbox. Make no mistake, it would be a very big loss to abandon that now.
Re: Sony Wants to Make PS5 Matchmaking More Interesting, But It Could Lead to Ads
"what do you think about this prospect?"
Please don't ask people to get enraged about something that hasn't - and may never - happen yet. Isn't there enough unwarranted anger on the Internet already?
Re: 'The Solution Is to Get Rid of Consoles': Analyst Predicts $1,000 PS6 and a Transition to Game Streaming
People who don't understand anything about technology talk about 'the cloud' and 'streaming' as if it means that data is just floating in the ether and means you no longer need hardware. No, it just means that instead of individual users running games on their own hardware, games are run centrally in server farms ... on hardware. So, instead of putting the cost of hardware on to us as consumers, companies have to pay the cost of it (plus electricity, maintenance etc.) themselves? Why on earth would they do this, other than on a very limited basis? Rising component costs mean it is more, not less, likely that companies will want to offload the costs of hardware onto consumers.
Re: PS5 Spin-Off God of War: Sons of Sparta Has Been a Big Hit for Sony
Why do so many articles nowadays use the word 'quietly' like this - the game 'has quietly been a big success' and 'quietly appeared in 14th position' in the sales charts? Just because a games isn't, say, Call of Duty doesn't mean that it just appears out of nowhere or no one has ever heard of it. An annoying tic of many media outlets these days, as if they don't actually know what 'quietly' means.
Re: Opinion: If Sony's Doubling Down on Its Most Popular Franchises, Where's Uncharted?
Not sure I'd be too excited for a Cassie Drake fronted game. Young woman adventurer/archaeologist? We already have that series, it's called Tomb Raider.
Re: Sony Is Buying Snoopy for $457 Million in Surprise Acquisition
@RoomWithaMoose
Whatever you think about the TV/movie adaptations, the original comic strips remain among the best ever produced - the gold standard, I would say. There are few, if any, daily comic strips that are better. At any rate, they are beloved by millions and well worth what Sony paid for them.
Re: Sony Is Buying Snoopy for $457 Million in Surprise Acquisition
@RoomWithaMoose
Really? I - and I would suggest millions of others - grew up absolutely loving the Peanuts animations. A Charlie Brown Christmas for one is still an absolute classic, even 60 years later! The Peanuts movie from a decade ago was also pretty good. So, I'd say the bar is actually fairly high.
Re: 'How Do We Help Her Evolve?': Crystal Dynamics on Reimagining Tomb Raider's Lara Croft for a New Era
That's not how you spell 'privelege'. Spellcheck?
Re: Going Platinum #3: Tales from the Borderlands
@4fold
It's a Telltale game, i.e. a basically linear, story-based experience, which is impossible to fail. Even the limited choices you get never amount to very much. As such, the scope for more inventive trophies is virtually non-existent - there aren't secret areas to explore, hidden collectibles, combat challenges etc. Unless the game forced you to replay it multiple times just so it could register whether you picked options a, b or c with the dialogue choices - which would be massively boring and annoying - what sort of trophies would you want it to offer?
Re: PS4 Will Still Get New Games in 2027
That's nice and all for PS4 owners, but it's hardly a deluge of games, is it? If you stubbornly refuse to move on to PS5 - get a cheap used one off ebay, if you must - you still can't play the vast majority of new releases. A new Megaman game is all very well, but you're missing out on fantastic games like Silent Hill 2, Ghost of Yotei, Clair Obscur, Stellar Blade, Death Stranding 2, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and countless others.
Re: 'It's a Huge Upgrade': PS5 Pro Poised to Improve Massively in 2026
Yes, the Pro is pricey, but I'd still say worth it. I sold my base PS5 for about £300 to buy one, and when PS6 comes out, I'll sell the Pro for hopefully a few hundred pounds as well, so there are always ways to mitigate the cost. And it's still a while before PS6 comes out, so I'm expecting to get plenty of value out of it in the meantime.
Re: Xbox Devs 'Thrilled' to Be Bringing Their Games to PS5
@Striker21
I'm not sure I've ever read anything quite so crazy on a gaming site before.
You know that games take many, many years to make, right? But your plan would be for Microsoft to have its many studios working on all these games for years - without releasing any of them - to save them all up and then release them over the course of a single year? So, expect fans to keep paying for gamepass all through the years of waiting, just so they can get one year of decent gaming? And then start the cycle again? And just hope that people won't just subscribe to gamepass for the one in five years or so that they get the bumper crop of games?
And how would this even be good for gamers? What am I supposed to do with 51 'brilliant' games all in the space of 12 months? No normal person would be able to play even a fraction of these in that timeframe! There's a reason publishers stagger their releases over long periods, and don't just dump them all into the marketplace at once.
I.e. your plan would be commercial suicide for Microsoft.
(I won't even mention the absurdly low cost you have put on some of these projects - remaking three or four games in a major franchise all as one bundle would cost a lot more than you suggest!)
Re: 'We Believe It's Feasible': Emulation Studio Working on PS3 Support for Modern Consoles
It's always good, sure, to make older games more accessible ... but the way people talk about PS3 emulation it's as if it's the Holy Grail or something. If PS3 weren't in some sense the 'lost' generation when it comes to backwards compatibility, would we really be putting it on some kind of pedestal? Yes, it had some good games - I know, I've played every Playstation generation since the first - but I find it hard to get that excited about revisiting games from decades ago. Plus, I'm drowning in a huge backlog of games from just the last few years as it is, who even has time to spend precious gaming time on all these aging games from the past?
Re: Valve's Steam Machine May Not Be As Affordable As a PS5
This isn't really aimed at the conventional console market, though - it's not a direct competitor to the PS5. It's a niche product aimed at existing Steam users, who want the extra option of couch gaming alongside their PC gaming. I really doubt the average Playstation user would jump ship to a Steam machine whatever the price - or vice versa. I know there's some overlap, but by and large, PC and Playstation audiences are fairly separate. The fact that both markets have continued to thrive alongside each other partly shows this.
The ones who should be worried are Microsoft - if their next console is indeed basically a PC that includes a Steam store front, then a (probably cheaper) Steam machine could be a serious competitor.
Re: Valve's Steam Machine May Not Be As Affordable As a PS5
@nessisonett
Actually, most rumours suggest that the PS6 won't be 'exorbitantly' expensive - in fact, it could be less than the PS5 Pro. So, more in the $500-$600 range. Now, the next Xbox probably will be exorbitantly expensive, since it's aiming to be much more powerful.
Re: Sony Rules Out Acquiring Batman, Mortal Kombat Maker Warner Bros
Historically, Sony has mainly bought studios with which it has strong, close relationships - e.g. Naughty Dog, only after they had made Crash Bandicoot etc. for Playstation in a second-party capacity, and similarly, Insomniac, with Ratchet and Clank etc. As such, they 'fit' with Sony's existing studios and ethos.
Part of the mistake in buying Bungie was that there wasn't that same affinity, and we might also say the same with Microsoft, just buying studios because they can, not because they have any 'natural' fit with the Xbox ecosystem.
All of which is to say, I think Sony is right not to buy up random studios or properties just because they are superficially attractive - as the case of Bungie (and, I would argue, Activision and Betheseda) shows, just buying studios with popular IPs doesn't mean you will automatically get great games from them going forward, if you don't really know or understand how to manage them.
Re: Rumour: New PS5 DualSense Controller Will Feature a Removable Battery
What on earth do you people do with your controllers? I've owned every playstation since the first, among other consoles, so have had many controllers over the years - and I've never experienced this so-called stick drift and their batteries have always lasted perfectly fine when fully charged.
Y'all just need to look after your tech a lot better: wipe that cheetos dust off your grubby hands before picking them up and keep them charged between gaming sessions.
Re: 'We Were Debating Whether to Go Straight into The Last of Us 3': Expect More Infected in the Future
@1UP-HUSKY
PS6 is only a couple of years away in all probability, so even if they started making Last of Us 3 today, there's no way it would come out before the next console. However, it could still be a cross-gen PS5/PS6 game if it came out early enough in the PS6 lifespan, since it's only relatively recently with PS5 (as current gen nears its end) that many PS5 games are stopping doing PS4 versions as well.
Re: PS5 Creeps Past 7 Million Sales in Japan
Not a spectacular number, but still about 6,999,999 more than Xbox.
Re: Rumour: To Avoid Even More PS5 Price Increases, Digital Edition to Get Reduced SSD Space
It's a shame, sure, but honestly, who hasn't bought a PS5 yet who wants one? You've had 5 years to get one by now! The PS6 isn't that far off, if you haven't upgraded already, at this point you may as well just wait. Or, if you absolutely must get a PS5 so late in the generation, and want that 1TB storage, just go on ebay, there are plenty of refurbished ones there.
All of which is to say: this really isn't that big a deal for a console that's been around so long.
Re: Rumour: To Avoid Even More PS5 Price Increases, Digital Edition to Get Reduced SSD Space
@The_ghostmen
Why let facts get in the way of a good rant, eh? To take one of your examples: God of War Ragnarok sold 5.1 million copies in its first week of sale, the fastest-selling first party game in Playstation history. By 2023, a year after launch, it had sold over 15 million copies - way more than 50% of the 23 million copies the 2018 game had sold (by 2022). Similarly, Spiderman 2 broke Playstation records by selling 2.5 million copies in 24 hours.
Re: 'The Number of Live Service Games Is Not Important': PS5 Boss Gives Rare Insight into Strategy
I have zero interest in live service games, and don't much care about movie, TV, comic book spinoffs etc. However, people need to pay attention to the final paragraph of this article - Playstation makes most of its money from microtransactions from a handful of (live service) games: Fortnite, Genshin Impact etc.
So, while I personally love Sony's single player games, everyone needs to understand that these are not the ones that make the really big profits. However well a God of War, Last of Us or Gran Turismo sells, they are never going to generate the billions of dollars of revenue that live service games make. Like it or not, this is a cold, hard fact.
As such, it makes complete sense for Sony to continue to pursue a live service strategy, regardless of how badly Concord and others have failed. And that's fine with me, as long as this subsidises single player games along the way. I'll never play any of these live service games myself, but if Sony can get enough whales to drop thousands of dollars on them to keep Playstation profitable, I'm very happy to see this happen.
And as long as there are other studios making great single player games too (like Clair Obscura, say) that I can play on my Playstation, who cares if they are first, second or third party?
Re: Now It's Being Sued, Blatant Horizon Rip-Off Removes Copycat Artwork
@KillerBoy
I'd see that this is different even to an example like Palworld, say - which only 'borrows' Pokemon designs, not plot or overall gameplay. Here, we're looking at such a blatant rip-off of so many aspects of Sony's game that almost ANY company would sue over it. This isn't just some Nintendo 'over reaction'.
Re: Now It's Being Sued, Blatant Horizon Rip-Off Removes Copycat Artwork
@bazchillin
What on earth are you talking about? Most games within a given genre share certain similarities - e.g. every modern FPS still owes huge debts to pioneers like Doom, just as every modern platformer does to early examples like Mario. But you honestly can't see a difference between games that share certain mechanics and conventions and a wholesale rip-off of a game's design, aesthetic and basic plot?
And what previous games actually share a similar plot or design to Horizon anyway, which make you claim Sony games have no originality? Of course, there are elements of Monster Hunter, and other third-person open world/adventure games in there, but as a gamer of many decades, I found it to be a pretty original take on the post-apocalypse genre.
Re: PS Stars Program Marks Its Eventual Shut Down with One Last Collectible
@Balaam_
"...was terrified I would accidentally hit that little flashing icon placed so precariously close to the trophy button"
Eh? Just because you 'accidentally' hit the Stars button on your phone doesn't somehow automatically start up a game on your console and pop a trophy that you didn't want.
In any case, I'm also a trophy hunter who cares about my 100%s, but Stars was never a problem for this. It mostly only ever required you to start a game, get to the title screen and then back out. I did this loads of times, got the reward, and then deleted the 0% game from my trophy list. What was the problem with this?
Re: PS6 to 'Push the Boundaries' of Graphics, Doubles Down on Machine Learning
We seem to have settled into a standard pattern now in comments sections with every new hardware reveal - 'nobody wants it', 'doesn't do anything new', 'over-priced', 'I'm sticking with current gen' etc. etc.
And yet, when the hardware comes out, they still sell like gangbusters - PS5 (even though it 'has no games' ) continues to sell incredibly well; PS5 Pro, for a niche machine at a relatively high price, has sold many millions; and let's not forget the Portal, which everyone was hating on from the moment it was revealed, Sony can't produce enough to meet demand. And outside of Sony, the Switch 2 - not just an 'over-priced' console, but 'over-priced' games! - is fastest selling console of all time.
What this all shows is the major disconnect between the moaners and whingers on Internet forums and the majority of actual gamers. Personally, I can't wait to upgrade to PS6 - I love shiny new toys - and will definitely be preordering.
As a tip: if every comment you post online is a whinge or complaint, maybe find a different hobby? No one's forcing you to be a videogamer, there's a world of other hobbies out there.
Re: Sony Sued for 'Abusing Its Dominant Position in the Console Market'
If you check out Stichting Massaschade & Consument's website, you'll see that they have also launched class action lawsuits against Airbnb, TikTok and Google - so they clearly have some kind of strategy of going for some of the biggest, wealthiest companies. The Google and Tiktok cases are about privacy and the use of users' information, and they are similarly seeking compensation.
Also, while they themselves are a non-profit, litigation is financed by a company called Omni Bridgeway - who take 20-25% of any successful claim. So, while the company may be motivated by high-minded ideals of helping consumers, their backers are obviously hoping to use these cases to strike it rich.
Anyway, there's some basic journalistic research for you all.
Re: Hands On: MindsEye Is a Boring Mess
@trev666
Let's be fair, everyone was comparing it to GTA beforehand - and the co-CEO of Mindseye's studio insinuating that Rockstar was paying people to post negative comments didn't help in dispelling the idea that it saw itself as in direct competition.
Also, not sure why you're criticising others for not making up their own minds about a game first - isn't the whole reason we're all here to read someone else's review before we decide whether or not to buy it? Isn't that what reviews are for?
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think of the PS5 Pro, Six Months Later?
I have a family of 4 myself! Not Michelin star, obviously, but a Nando's or Pizza Hut, you can just about do £50-ish. But still, what are you buying for home eating that costs £50 a day?
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think of the PS5 Pro, Six Months Later?
@PlatinumMikey
I love my Pro as well, but are you seriously spending £350 a week on food shopping??? You could have a family takeaway/restaurant meal every night for that much!
Re: Plenty of People Are Playing Expedition 33 on PS5, Despite Having to Actually Buy It
@Matroska
I don't disagree, but this wasn't the main point of the article - as the title indicates, the supposed 'surprise' is that people are still willing to pay for a game, when they could get it for 'free' on a subscription service. All I was pointing out is that this is based on fallacious reasoning - unless you own both consoles (which I don't think most people do), the choice is effectively made for you. As a PS5 owner, I simply have no choice but to pay for the game if I want to play it.