mazzel

@Romans12 you saw that they sell the covers for the pro separately, right?

It's kinda funny how different the communities react for different companies.
The shirt storm Nintendo could harvest after their palworld case and now the big sympathy for Sony...
One game plays like Pokemon with somewhat strange design, gets a pass, another game looks like Horizon but plays different, should die... 🤷

@Steeleye50 Methinks thou dost protest too much!

@Steeleye50 don't wanna be picky here, but I answered to your comment:
Crazy Switch 2 sold that well considering it has, what? 2 exclusives?

Realeasing games on several systems simultaneously IS EXACTLY not the same thing as an exclusive. Therefor I wanted to put it into perspective to PS5 which was similar at Launch day and even now.
The point I want to make is, that exclusives are not necessary for a systems success.

@Steeleye50 you are just confirming the point I'm trying to make. Only Asteo and destruction allstars were exclusives. All other games are either remakes or available on PS4 as well.
Following this logic, Switch 2 had quite the line up of Games at launch. Just not many exclusives. Similar like PS5 😉

@Steeleye50 help me quickly, how many exclusives did PS5 had at launch? Not Incl. Remakes/remasters, but real PS5 unique games? Or even now, after so many years? I guess in times of backwards compatibility this is not really an indicator for sales performance anymore.
Beside the high price point for new Nintendo games, all other issues you mentioned were already present on the Sw1 and it did not stop its success, therefor I would be surprised if it REALLY would impact the sales.

Not sure why all the hate goes to Microsoft here... I mean, they deserve it, but wasn't Romero Games an independent studio?
Without knowing more details of the whole story it's a little short sighted to blame the closure of an independent studio on Microsoft alone.
Sure if they are the biggest funding company for the current game then that's one thing, but it smells like bad studio management as well.
You make contracts and especially if you make exclusive contracts you need to add clauses that keep you alive monetarily for some period if the main contributor drops out.
Either they d(f) ucked up the development completely so Microsoft was safe to breach contract or something else is going on here...

@Oram77 wait, how many hands do you have?!

@Jrs1 I'm feeling you! On the one hand, awesome game, on the other hand quite frustrating.

I play it since launch and just finished chapter 4 last weekend. Took me a whole night just to beat the secret boss and final boss. Result is, that I was freaking tired the whole week since I did not get enough sleep. Getting old and real life is getting in the way

@Yegor you haven't been over at Nintendo Life recently, haven't you?

@Rob3008 inspired/based on a tabletop game with the name cyberpunk 2020:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_(role-playing_game)

@Gamer83 exactly my thinking. There is only so many AAA Games that can perform financially like a AAA Gane needs to perform. We saw enough cases the recent years to know what happens if the titles do not perform as they need.

Layoffs usually happen after hiring...
I really hope they have sustainable plans and don't have to lay people if a future game does not perform as well as NIKKE or Stellar Blade. Why does every company always need to grow and cannot simply be satisfied with their success /revenue?

@Northern_munkey RedRiot never said that the game was bad being linear. Their point was, that a game this linear does not need a map, that's all.

@LifeGirl which GTA was a PS1 exclusive?

@Victor_Meldrew to be fair, that fits GTA for 90% of the time. You play the story to unlock cool features, and then you basically run around drive around, fight around San Adreas/Vice City, no?

@Kienda please don't advice the reader to make their own opinion by researching beyond this article! The article clearly says GTA-Style, so how dare you bring in a wider perspective?!
This articles purpose is to bash the bad bad copy cat Devs from China! /s
I'm wondering why not more people from the Horizon Clone article are here to complain, yet!!!

Would be great if Gamesphere would use the opportunity of the physical release to give Black Myth the so much needed PS5 Pro patch.

@Stale-Bread Maybe you should wash your eyes
Kidding, but sure, visuals are also a personal taste thing, but I for my end enjoyed Xenoblade 3 a lot and like the visuals on my 55 inch TV. Ha dheld is a different story, though.
Also, it depends how you count Mario Mainline games. If you only count 3D as Mainline, you are correct. Besides that, many would count Wonders as a full fledge Mario experience.
Then, if you look at it from a company view and have a look at the sales, you cannot deny, that Nintendo took a very good approach in addressing the needs of millions of people. Obviously not Hardcore - highfidelity-loving Gamers, which are a niche.
I personally would love to see a much more powerful Switch. The again, it would directly compete with Sony and Xbox, which we can see how good this goes for Microsoft!
And I would like to add, that a powerful console does not make great games automatically. I'm especially disappointed how bad Devs utilized the base PS5. When I bought my PS5 Pro, then I could finally start utilizing Hardware promises that have been made for the Standard PS5 like 120Hz and VRR.
I specifically bought my new TV 3bd of 2021 with these features in my. Now, with a new iteration of Hardware, I might be ae to utilize it. Sony and PS5 Devs should get flacked for it much more as well, no?

@Wario_Waha you sing your song under every ps5 pro article, right? Start blaming the Devs of software , not the hardware

Can half of the comment section please confirm if I get them right:
So Sonys Hardware has to "repair" broken games? Shouldn't the Devs be blamed first for putting g out half baked patches for half finished games instead of blaming Sony first?

@PorkChopExpress
Actually you don't have to worry about the open gates that much. If history shows one thing, is that the majority of companies are not able to handle more money with responsibility. The will bloat up, don't invest sustainable and once the consumer is starting to hold back, the struggle and collapse. Either prices go down or income goes up, they will not be able to turn gaming into a luxury good. Not with this big market.

Look at the automotive market in China, where solid quality products dictate the (low) price and foreign premium OEMs struggle with their high price point.

Once the product gets too expensive, the market will regulate itself. Will just take some years...

@ChrisDeku you are completely right on that one!

Unfortunately, Sony does not split the PS4 and PS5 software sales in their statistics. Would be interesting to see the difference, since I believe they still have strong PS4 software sales.

@nomither6 cruise controlling what exactly? If compared to Xbox, for sure, but the underpowered gimmick called Switch is in a whole other dimension in terms of hardware sales, game sales and legs.

@NEStalgia you might be on the right track, however, here in China, the market is far away from being saturated. The local Brands unfortunately follow the price trend, with high-end Huawei Phones and Xiaomi phones easily reaching the 1.000$ as well (I'm typing from a 800$ Xiaomi phone right now and it's only the pro version, not ultra...).
I agree with your margin theory, since consumer hardware usually has a low margin and apple was just testing the waters the recent years to see what the customer is willing to pay.
The other players got more confident and followed...

@StrickenBiged completely right, I just choose automotive as a prominent example, but you are absolutely right that many other industries have an increased demand as well!

I would argue against the increase of manufacturing cost.
Raw Material prices in general are not stable, labor usually going up. However, manufacturing itself gets more and more efficient, more automation, leaner processes etc.
If, by any means, the cost go up, it's from my point of view more related to supply and demand.
I think it's a fact, that many more players in the industry are using electronics or electronic components in their products, most prominently the automotive industry.
If 5-10 years ago, the average car had a rather small display with poor SoCs installed, most of the newer cars, especially China EVs, are basically high-end smartphones on wheels. And they are using chips to utilize game engines for their UI or navigation apps (e.g. Mercedes uses unity in their future MBUX).
Even if these players don't use exactly the Playstation hardware, they will anyway use up production capacity.
The effect is the same, hardware can be more expensive. But not due to increased manufacturing cost, more because the producers can ask whatever they want. Nvidia is a real live example.

Just my opinion and personal analysis. No source or data to back it up

So why not make the games available via download and use the UI as a license check or whatever? This way, the games are just available as long as you have the subscription, just like PS Plus.... Would also reduce the server load a lot, no?

Not a Chinese, but living in China.
It's for sure a big thing here right and dominating social media as well.
However, all big Chinese Games do so. So this is more a phenomenon, since it is also popular in the west, compared to the previous games like Genshin or Honor of Kings. These games got and still get advertised here as hell.
When I read "BMW makes Ps5 fly of the shelves in China" I can only wonder if that's the case. It's more like the stock here is very small anyway since the demand is low. If suddenly 500.000 people want one to play BMW, then I would not call that "fly of the shelves"...
PC and mobile is still the biggest platform here and that's where the majority of the 18 MIO will come from, especially in China.

@riceNpea sounds like a great hypothesis

🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱
Just typing words because I have to.

@riceNpea for sure, in my work environment, it is a big topic as well. Usually only the people who are afraid of change and are not willing to get out of their comfort zone will complain.
I see AI as a big chance to handle the complexity of our "world" and the future complexity, which will be created because of AI as well.

@riceNpea thanks, exactly my thoughts! All technology can, was, is and will be used for the bad by a minority of people (or, if thinking in war machines, even by governments). But overall, humanity advances. Ai is just another piece in the puzzle of evolution.
Hale by herself would not have her current job without advanced technology, so quite the hypocrite...

@somnambulance I'm feeling you! I haven't tried the demo, yet, since I'm afraid I will feel the same... Secret of Mana and Seilen Densetsu 3 in 2D are among my favorite games on SNES

@LastSaneManOnEarth man, you really got up on the wrong foot this morning, ain't ya?

I have the feeling people tend to forget some background details because of the huge success of the game.
This developer is not backed (yet) by any big money company like Tencent in China and their team (according to Wikipedia) is rather small.
Taking their focus market into consideration (China) it is actually nice, that we got
1. A western realease
2. A console release
The China game market is still heavily focused on PC and mobile. So my guess is, for all optimization before and after launch, their first priority are PC Gamers and console will be priority 2.
This explains it for me as well why there is no Xbox version, yet. Xbox is a niche product here in China. Why would a China dev even bother with developing games for it?
If you plan a journey to the west (pun intended) for your games as a indie dev, then the focus on PC and Ps5 makes lots of sense for me.

@CrashBandicoat I have the feeling people tend to forget some background details because of the huge success of the game.
This developer is not backed (yet) by any big money company like Tencent in China and their team (according to Wikipedia) is rather small.
Taking their focus market into consideration (China) it is actually nice, that we got
1. A western realease
2. A console release
The China game market is still heavily focused on PC and mobile. So my guess is, for all optimization before and after launch, their first priority are PC Gamers and console will be priority 2.
This explains it for me as well why there is no Xbox version, yet. Xbox is a niche product here in China. Why would a China dev even bother with developing games for it?
If you plan a journey to the west (pun intended) for your games as a indie dev, then the focus on PC and Ps5 makes lots of sense for me.

Anyone remember Have A Nice Day! and the successor N.I.C.E. 2? I really miss those racers...

@Flaming_Kaiser his point was, that games by definition are made to trigger an addiction. Tetris is no exception. The purpose of the creator might be different (even that can be argued), but the target of both games is the same area in the brain (I guess, I'm not a neurologist...).

@DennisReynolds I hate the Character of Homelander. But this just proofes your point. AS is really giving the fictional character of Homelander life and his acting is spot on!

Looks great! I was hoping for more sports like in the SNES Tiny Toons Adventures Wild and Wacky Sports. One of my all time favorite SNES games!

@Jaz007 means the BG3 story is currently incomplete? Haven't played it, yet, so I have no idea.
What I know is, that I am Kot a fan of open endings if stories are not designed to have a successor. My most disappointing experience was Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Loved the game but hated that they never clearly resolved how Eivor ended up in North America...

@Jaz007 out of curiosity: what would the DE include what the the current gane does not?
Like, all patches or something? Or was there any post-release content beside a DLC to be included in a DE?

@Zeke68 but then, what are review scores for, if you give any game a good score, matter they are just the same as we already have or be innovative?
I mean 6/10 is by no means a super low score and the author made it clear why. On the other hand, an innovative game would get 8/10 up to 10/10, so for my taste, this review plus the score fits (haven't played the game).
If this kind of game is up anyone's alley is of course up to them. I personally welcome it if reviews point out, that this is the same dish we had already and probably liked, just with a few different spices, not being a completely new dish.

I don't fully agree with this guy.
He didn't mention the quality of the games at all. Look at Nintendo. They are quite successful with their exclusives and also can keep the development cost low(er). Take breath of the wild as an example, it is assumed it costs around $120 mio for development and they were able to shift millions of games.
Yes, it is a longasting franchise, however, the quality of the game is out of question!
If you decide to go exclusive, better be sure to not sell crap to people!

@gymratAmarillo not sure about Ff16, but remake sold quite decent, no? Sure, there is a huge influence of nostalgia, but to say now SE is not capable of doing big games anymore and Sonys wasting money is a little harsh.
Let me edit my comment after I played Rebirth, though 😎

@Triumph741 I reported you to the spoiler police! Be prepared for them to knock your door!!

@MFTWrecks But you know why no Pc Gamer complains about right? Actually, many do, but let's say your statement is correct (which it is not!) :
I have a steam account since I don't know how many years. And guess what, after buying a new PC or Laptop or whatever steam-comoatible device, I can still run all my games! No "upgrade" needed that cost me another 10 bucks, no need to wait for the updated version that is compatible with my new device what's so ever.
So if Sony went the digital way and want a similar penetration rate like Steam, then they should make all their future devices 100% backwards compatible. Not just one generation, but all, forever, whatever. Like Steam. What you bought, you can play on any steam device until the service shuts down. Period.

@Flaming_Kaiser Na, this is, first and foremost, a gaming website, focusing on Playstation Games. Not a Sony Website.
I mean, if you buy an issue of the New York Times, do you only expect news from New York?
For their main articles, of course they have to focus on topics mainly related to Sonys Platform.
For Charts, however, it is all about the competition.
So, I prefer to have all information inside the article. If I write about Top10, why not mentioning all platforms?
If your are satisfied with the way Push square does it, that's good for you 👌
I like it better in another way 😉

@TheCollector316 yeah, exactly! Not sure why they took this approach. I haven't send any messages to them in this regard, but I noticed since a long time.
Similar, but different thing: Over at NL they keep ignoring their Europe Audience by almost every time only quoting prices in USD and £. Sure it's a GB Website, however, I think they have a huge reader base outside of US and GB...