glennthefrog

@rjejr I love my Wii U, but I have to keep it real. I'm glad its gems at least got a second life on Switch.

@rjejr Very likely. Switch is the perfect platform to promote this since Nintendo-exclusive gamers have probably never played it before (I know it was on Wii U, that hardly counts). Plus getting your product showcased in a Direct is some of the best exposure you can get.

I think westerners don't realize a lot of this is due to extreme Japanese fan behavior. People defending the honor of their waifus or favorite 'ships.

Most of the things on this list are already illegal (direct threats of violence, stalking) while others are Japan specific (don't show up at HQ and cause a stir by demanding apologies on behalf of Aerith).

For the most part I think both sides of the culture war are flogging this more than it deserves. This isn't S-E trying to protect itself from all criticism by attacking the speech of streamers. It also isn't them taking a novel stand against the far right or bigotry.

The last part is key 'upon consulting police and/or lawyers'. A lot of what terminally online people want (like taking down Asmongold or whoever) is not something that can be legally done because reasonable criticism of consumer products and art is protected speech even in the EU. This is strictly for stuff that can be fought and won in court, which is a much narrower range of behaviors than most people realize.

Two predictions:

1. The PS5 outsells the Switch/Switch2 combined. I think the next Switch may pull ahead in 2026, but this will be PS5's peak year.

2. Fairgame$ will fail almost as quickly as Concorde, despite being F2P.

@RoomWithaMoose I agree. The talk about it setting a new bar is laughable really. Astro is on roughly the same tier as Odyssey and Galaxy, which in itself is already extremely high praise.

@Max_the_German Galaxy also had extremely stiff competition in 2007 (Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Rock Band, Halo 3) whereas Astro has benefited from this being a lighter year in terms of top-quality releases.

Not taking anything away from Astro, it's my personal GOTY, but context is important for these awards. It's the same with Metaphor, I absolute adore Atlus JRPGs but there is no chance it would be getting serious GOTY buzz if there was more prominent competition. Not even Persona 5 did, which is arguably a superior game (it had to compete against Breath of the Wild, Horizon ZD and Mario Odyssey).

It doesn't really matter. Nintendo isn't targeting high performance, they gave that up almost 20 years ago.

They'll get what they can at the $350-400 price point with a slight profit. And probably still outsell the more powerful hardware.

Kanye West has obviously never been wrong about anything, this is significant.

@Duck_Farmer Concorde would be the ultimate troll move.

This is my GOTY. The Persona formula in this original fantasy setting was incredibly addictive, the hours just melted away as I played 'just one more day' to finish a bond or a quest.

I'm not sure it's quite as good as Persona 4 or 5, but it's in roughly the same tier imo. An incredibly polished experience with little to critique.

@ChrisDeku Concorde isn't really helping there, lol. It was reported to have lost Sony somewhere between $200 and $400 million. I wonder how much of Helldivers 2's profit that cancels out.

Edit: Quick Google search claims Helldivers made $380 million in profit this year. So Concorde's loss was equal to either half or all of that.

@naruball The joke...is not funny at all. Therefore it deserves to be ridiculed.

Yes, misery and revenge porn, that is exactly what I've wanted to pair with the cheerful holiday season.

What are they even thinking?

Not trying to trash TLOU2 overall, though personally I find it overrated, but its themes are about as much a mismatch for Christmas/Hannukah/etc as you could possibly imagine.

Definitely should be higher on the list. I have no idea how you guys put Silent Hill 2 above it. Rebirth is a far superior product.

@Northern_munkey I'm of the same opinion. It was a solid remake, and long overdue, but I wouldn't put it on a GOTY list.

I'll laugh my ass off if in two years we find out this plot synopsis was mostly correct, but that Schreier was also technically telling the truth when he simply said 'No' because it was never sent to him as claimed in the rumor.

Edit: And I notice y'all are still sticking with that lie that negative reception forced ND to shut down comments when that simply never happened. Comments were never open. Seriously, do some honest reporting, please. There is plenty to critique about toxic discourse without resorting to false narratives and cause/effect that never occurred.

@Jrs1 Setting the narrative early in case this is a flop, is all I can figure.

If it is actually a minority there's no need to give them a megaphone and the game will succeed regardless of their distaste. The problem is, if they're not the minority...it's Concorde 2. Blame cannons are being aimed for the latter outcome.

@dskatter No, you're correct. Push Square is just pushing a fake narrative for some reason.

It's true that many comments regarding this game are negative, as is the like/dislike ratio. It's true that ND has comments disabled. However, the headline/article makes it sound as if the first fact caused the second. That is not true, but it's a juicier narrative to push if you're running cover for a game that is getting a very divisive reception and trying to act as if it's a minority opinion and abusive to boot.

Bring them on, especially Xillia and Xillia 2.

Headline is misleading. ND had comments turned off from literally the beginning. Playstation's channel has comments on, which is where the negative reacts are happening. ND never allowed comment for even a second as far as I am aware.

"Black Myth fans aren't doing a great job creating the sort of community casual onlookers will want to join in the future"

I honestly don't think 90%+ of consumers even consider that factor for even a second. Maybe for MMOs, but not single-player experiences like Wukong or Astro. They're just buying a product to enjoy, not auditioning 'communities' to join. That sort of stuff is confined to online, where only the most active 10% of users (probably still overestimated) are taking part in discussion.

TLDR: Casual onlookers almost by definition are not worried about community toxicity because they don't join online discussion at all.

It's not a great look by the fans, but it's also not really worth a dev going after them for it. It won't hurt their bottom line whatsoever if the game itself is quality.

@JackPimiento I understand your point about those who dislike a game just not playing it rather than being vocally against it...however I think the vast majority of players already do that. Internet comments are not the majority of the audience by any stretch.

But back to your 'don't like it, don't play it. don't like the look of the game don't play it. etc' We have seen that actually play out in several high-profile cases thus far and it's a big part of why all these layoffs are happening. Concorde bombed worse than any game in history. Star Wars Outlaws under performed badly. Suicide Squad only shambled on this long due to contractual obligations for DLC.

So 'don't like it don't play it' is a double-edged sword. If it's just haters online, it's great. If the general audience takes that course of action a studio is going bankrupt. The mixed reception this trailer has received should seriously concern Sony and Naughty Dog. At this juncture no AAA studio can afford to tell many customers to take a hike, they're all walking a precarious tight rope.

If some unsuspecting schmuck is a Joel fan it's probably better they get suckered into this than TLOU2.

Well hey, look on the bright side, at least we got to see a Sony legend reveal their highly-anticipated next project.

I'm talking about Fumito Ueda of course. This game and its protagonist look pretty bland, pedigree aside.

I was pretty hyped for the sci-fi Naughty Dog game, but this trailer was like bland porridge to me. It didn't give me any reason to be excited. The brief combat looked like stuff I could play elsewhere right now. Protagonist design also looks like a refugee from Concorde, so hopefully their backstory or personality is interesting at least.

I'll move this one from 'day one' to 'wait and see' for now. TLOU2 was a dreary slog to me, so ND isn't a can't-miss studio imo.

@elvisfan1 The thing with appreciation is you have to wait for that value to accrue. It's not really applicable to current-gen, or even the PS4 era.

My Gamecube collection was worth little in 2006. Now quite a few of those games are going for $100+, almost all of them at least $40. Original MSRP was $50 across the board.

I wouldn't suggest anyone buy games as an investment, but if you're the type who holds onto them in 15-20 years you'll have the option to make as much or more than you originally paid.

In any case the biggest concern for me is not cost but control. If everything is on PS Store you'll see discounts become scarce. It will also allow publishers to simply remove games for whatever reason. Activision lost the license to Famous IP? Whoops, guess you can't access it anymore. Physical is an imperfect solution to these concerns, since discs are 1.0 builds, but they at least offer some measure of protection from anti-consumer behavior.

Edit: Forgot to mention, physical is a massive advantage for the poor souls who have data caps on their internet service.

I still need to finish Unknown 1 through 8 first.

RBMango and Ralizah hit the nail on the head.

There has been a marked decline in creativity but it's been mostly confined to the AAA segment of the market. There is still a ton of imagination in the indie scene and lower budget titles.

It makes sense. AAA games have to justify their insanely bloated budgets, there is no space for risk taking. Although ironically if you avoid all risk then you risk creating corporately sterile titles like Concorde.

@Yagami It's the most high-profile Harry Potter game ever made, by a wide margin, and fans of that franchise have been wanting to play a Hogwarts simulator forever.

Personally I'm not a huge HP fan but the ones I know adore this game because it gave them what they wanted for a very long time. They're the type of people that identify with one of the four houses and are really excited all that stuff is in the game, the type of people who wander the halls of the school just to look at the details.

SW Outlaws does worse in comparison because there have already been several dozen great SW games so it doesn't benefit from any pent up demand. Outlaws is also very mid, Hogwarts Legacy is a slightly better game all other factors aside.

Trying to avoid negative PR.

Sony going back to the tried and true strategy of copying Nintendo's innovations.

Not even criticizing them either. Portal seems to be doing well and Switch is the market leader. If they can steal that thunder and transfer it to the AAA/4K segment of the market they will have a massive hit on their hands.

@TIEMs Nah, you probably just had MAGA on your mind so you saw it everywhere. I know a lot of folks with the same problem and it causes a lot of undue stress for them. Gotta let go of politics sometimes and give yourself a little while to breathe and relax.

@Oram77 That and the 7/10 for Concorde really looked bad at the time and even worse in retrospect. Reviews on this site used to have a reputation of tough (at least in comparison to sister sites) but fair. Lately they seem to have taken their finger off the pulse of what potentially interests players and constitutes a fun game.

The remasters are not necessary, but it would be a lot less of an issue if Sony were releasing more original 1st party titles this generation. Nintendo catches less flack because while Switch has loads of Wii U ports it also has even more new releases.

Most of that comes down to Nintendo producing plenty of games without AAA budgets. Sony needs to reinvest in medium-budget or small-budget projects to fill gaps in the schedule between their $100m+ budget and 5+ year development cycle games. They've done it in the past so it's not beyond their ability.

The live service push will continue until morale improves.

This sounds like a mess based on the details in this article.

9/10.

I would give very few games a 10, genre-defining titles, and Astro is not quite that. But it is rock-solid and a joy to play. It's the next-best thing to a proper 3D Mario game. On PlayStation 5 it is peerless as a 3D platformer.

It's a short-list GOTY candidate to me.

@yazzika This is wishful thinking. There is 100x more mockery/vitriol for Concorde than there is sympathy. The people that were happy to see it fail would be even happier to see it fail twice.

It would be a gutsy move by Sony to lean into the 'but think of the poor developers' sentiment (what little there is) but I doubt it would be financially viable. If it flopped twice it would do a lot of damage to the overall PlayStation brand.

Seems like the least necessary mid-gen upgrade ever, but we'll see. Judging by some of these comments there is a market for it, just depends on how much that extends to the average consumer.

Stuff like this makes me hope Sony gets kicked in the teeth again like at the beginning of the PS3 generation.

As soon as their competition evaporates their bad practices increase. They need competition to keep them in line.

The PS5 pad is a relatively shoddy controller as-is, easily the worst of the PS family imo, the extra price incease on top is an insult.

This is a terrible article.

Live service doesn't mean any game that gets an update post-release, no one uses that definition. Obviously they're all referring to GaaS, titles that rely on an always-online connection and constant updates designed to keep the player engaged indefinitely.

When Concorde was euthanized that disc became a coaster. If Sony stopped updating Astro's Playroom, which I'd imagine they have at this point, the entire game is still playable.

You're comparing apples to oranges and then going 'aha! you see, they're both fruit! you liked apples all along!'

C'mon man.

It's not a graveyard, but if it succeeds it ought to send a message to Sony that there is money to be made thanks to the nostalgia surrounding these old classics.

Astro to the rescue!

I'm so glad this one turned out as good as many of us hoped.

@OmegaStriver Then that hypothetical game will fail too.

Concorde would be just as dead as a F2P. The open beta proved as much. If Sony can't understand that they can suffer another mega flop.

@jrt87 Zero chance that happens, unfortunately. None of the stuff that whistleblower brought up would be a problem to IGN.

@SlipperyFish That's fair. Those doing technical work are just innocent victims in this train wreck.

On the subject of negativity surrounding the game being responsible for these awful sales figures, that is 99% cope. Average consumers don't spend time on message boards and comment sections, they buy what looks interesting and (more importantly) what receives a big advertising push from publishers. Concorde has flopped on its merits.

But let's assume for a second the gamer backlash did single-handedly, or at least mostly, cause this to happen. In that case Sony has no choice but to bow down because those people clearly have incredible power to make or break their business.

I also don't have much sympathy for the developers and I find those comments puzzling. I get being empathetic, but at some point you have to admit some people aren't fit for a task. They made the game they wanted to make, as ex-Bungie and Activision staff. This was their vision which Sony only bought into very late in the development cycle. They failed to create a compelling product. They failed so spectacularly it was hard to believe when I first read the headline, 25k for a major PlayStation release is unprecedented. They aren't cut out for this and the market has spoken loud and clear. They're one of the few studios I won't be sad to see shuttered if that indeed happens, it's hard to argue they deserve anything better if you look at the situation objectively. No one owes them a second chance because they tried their best. Their best is obviously very bad and has no customers.

@B0udoir Honestly Sony would be fools to invest in more Concorde in the future. This is one of the worst sales performances in gaming history relative to the push it received from a major publisher.

It's astonishing really, I didn't even know a number as low as 25k was possible for a headline release from Sony.

I'm only 2hrs in but really enjoying it so far. It's delivering what I expect from a Mana game, bright fantasy visuals and solid action adventure combat. The plot, while still basic by most standards, has a bit more to it than the average Mana game. A very low bar to be sure, but it keeps me going and draws me into the world.

I'm a fan of the series though, so perhaps easier to please than most. Mostly just thrilled we finally got another new entry in the series!

@J-Dubs More likely free post-launch DLC imo.

'We're excited to announce PS5 Pro, and right now you can download a free content update in Astro to celebrate!'

@Matroska People aren't gaming it out by how many cents a day they save, they're thinking if they wait 6-12 months and pay $30 they can now buy two older games for that price instead of one new release.

If they have patience and/or a giant backlog it's a logical choice for those on a budget, plus by then it's a superior experience after all the patches fix whatever bugs were found.