There's no way either of these companies can get away with a $1,000 console.
If Microsoft attempts $1K, they'll try to compare it to a PC with similar price points, and then lose the Xbox branding that is apparently so important to the new regime.
If Sony attempts $1K, they risk alienating the large audience of casual gamers who buy a console for GTA, CoD, and Fortnite but who also consistently choose PlayStation over Xbox.
The PS5 Pro's pricing in relation to this is worrisome, but they can hopefully make sacrifices in some departments or sign really good contracts with components manufacturers.
The next time I play Monopoly and lose, I’m going to spend years constantly reminding everyone how there was a conspiracy against me from Hasbro itself.
There were those rumors a few years back of a new team working on an Uncharted spin-off. Since it’s been so long, that either got cancelled or didn’t exist to begin with, but if it did exist and got cancelled, I wonder what Sony’s thought process was.
I'm definitely open to Cory Barlog trying something new. He reinvented God of War with 2018, making a nearly universally-beloved game in a already well-known series. If anyone wants to take a relatively unknown character and turn it into a full game, he would be the best one for it.
At its core it'd still be a god against the pantheon, as we know the giants didn't get along with Odin and the rest.
Double plus, Deborah Ann Woll is a great actress, and if she stays with the character, I'm all for it.
@Cry_Zero Halle Berry (Catwoman, 2004) or Zoe Kravitz (The Batman, 2022) and Leslie Grace (Batgirl, canned in 2022) or Rosario Dawson (The Lego Batman Movie, 2017) or since Jim Gordon is played by Jeffrey Wright in The Batman.
But, also, they're Lego minifigures. Does it really matter?
No joke, this actually sold me even more. I've been worried that the shield will make Saros easier than Returnal, since one of the things I loved most was the challenge and the satisfaction of getting over it, but this helped show that it's just building off of Returnal in the best ways.
I'm really hoping this is part of the epilogue of when Hulst was really in charge of PlayStation and not the intro to Hideaki Nishino's regime. Then again, I was also hoping that a lot of Hulst's decisions were left over from Jim Ryan, and here we are, they're still being made.
There's a statistic, I think from the mid 2010's, that every time you pause what you're doing to check your phone, you end up spending around twenty minutes down the rabbit hole.
And that was from ten years ago, and that's from notifications or 'quick checks' of social media. Nowadays, it's almost certainly longer, and you have people who specifically dedicate large amounts of time to it those.
What are the chances they launch the portable handheld in 2027 and the mainstream PS6 in 2028 or 2029? The portable probably doesn't require the chip power that the PS6 will, and it can help get the userbase more on-board rather than releasing both simultaneously and making them buy both simultaneously.
I’ve actually had my eye on Seasons since it was announced, but never bought it. Between that and Neva, it’s a pretty good month for some shorter but packed games.
They could do a teaser for a larger, Wolverine-centric State of Play in a few months, like they did for Ghost of Yotei at another State of Play. But even if they don't, it's a Marvel game by Insomniac, they could just show the logo and the game would be a best-seller.
Probably smart of them to drop the “PS Showcase” title and just call everything a State of Play. It helps people not raise their expectations higher than they already do.
I wasn’t opposed to any of it, and it actually seemed like a unique and potentially fun gameplay loop. But the match felt like it was missing something. Maybe it was the small team counts, or how big the map was for only six people. But there wasn’t anything that made me want to revisit for weeks, months, years to come.
Idk why I thought of this, but if the industry generated nearly $61 billion over one whole year, a year where the recent Call of Duty release wasn’t even the top-selling title, and Microsoft bought Activision/Blizzard/King for over $75 billion…why?
I think there are a lot of tools and programs that all get looped into ‘AI’, some of which are useful and some that aren’t. Generative AI that is usually incorrect and makes the final product weaker? Less useful. Automation programs that can streamline tasks and organization? More useful.
As with most things, it’s a case-by-case basis where you’re going to find people with strong opinions on either side. I think the ‘slippery slope’ aspect isn’t always a given, but depends on the user’s comfort levels or own boundary lines.
@Max_the_German I just checked, there were about 5K fewer votes this year than last, probably explaining the close counts of the top few. Last year, Astro Bot got 1st with over 1900 votes.
Though, based on the general sentiment, E33 probably would’ve claimed the majority of those missing votes.
@AhmadSumadi Nah, PushSquare is gonna flip everyone off and put MindsEye at the top, calling it an ‘impressively intriguing idea’ and a ‘uniquely creative venture.’
Also, the disclaimer of noticing Prime Video (which I didn’t even realize it was streaming on) makes this somewhat more impressive, with the unaccounted for views.
@Nep-Nep-Freak Yeah, the jump from 2019 to 2020 can probably be attributed to Covid and fewer people busy and more people invested in gaming, but I’m not sure what the jump from 2023 to 2024 was. The GotY nominees were definitely more diverse across genres and audiences, so maybe that.
I don’t know if I agree with Keighley keeping slots open, but I definitely get it: if there’s a big indie game or to try to entice a large publisher to show-off a new game.
But, let’s be realistic: how many of those slots does Kojima have priority to?
89 games played
475 total trophies (including 15 plats)
59 PS+ games
8.6 years of PS+
373 hours played (seems low imo)
Thrill-Seeker gaming style (no clue what this means beyond action-adventure)
822 play sessions, making an average session about 27.5 minutes long.
My most played was Minecraft, from when I platinumed the PS5 edition in the spring. Side note, my top 5 games were all because I platinumed them, no competitive multiplayer. I was expecting at least Fortnite to show up.
@get2sammyb Are we going to get a pre-show quiz for The Game Awards this year? It's always fun to get a high score and remind myself that I pay way too much attention to these shows.
@PloverNutter Yeah, exactly. Between this, Jade Raymond’s studio (that she left, right?), and the new first-party studio from the guy who created CoD Zombies, Sony is really betting on names.
But, this is also Sony, who has Neil Druckmann, Cory Barlog, and Kojima (kinda), all of whom are arguably big enough to sell a game just from their name.
@AinsleyE Yeah, it’s interesting that Sony has tried multiple times to capitalize on individual talent/names when that seems to be a dwindling reason why people buy certain games. There are definitely well-known names in the industry, but not every director with a success is one of those (or deserves it).
For adapting story-driven games, playing them is probably important, but I feel like you can get the general sense of Helldivers by focusing more on the community and core concept instead of putting hours into playing.
Ooh, I’m looking forward to this series, sounds like a lot of fun!
During quarantine, I got more serious about platinuming and glanced at my trophy list and realized that I only needed one more trophy for Rocket League’s platinum, something like ‘complete all tutorials’. It wasn’t my first plat, but it was fun.
So, now I’m 1 for 1 with Stephen. Excited to see how long that stays.
From a business standpoint, I could see the sequels as a safe, guaranteed money maker while Sony tries new stuff. Like, if Sony followed through with its 12 live service games by 2026 or whatever it was, and 10 of those failed, the AAA sequels would help offset the sunk costs of those productions. Hopefully this is the case, and we can see more studios trying new things, even if it's using old IP in new ways.
Also, since many of these are the Triple-A 30-hour campaign games, a lot of it can come down to the story. Santa Monica felt that Kratos had one more chapter in Norse, so they made that, and now they're onto something new (presumably). Guerrilla really enjoys the Horizon world and wants to spend more time in it. Insomniac decided to use Spider-Man 2 to more fully transition to Miles' story.
I can see why the sequels can be called repetitive or boring, but they're not copy-and-paste from the originals, and they all differ from each other enough that it works.
@get2sammyb Any clue what the previous record is? Without checking, I'd assume TLOUP2 or Zelda BOTW.
edit: for the proper The Game Awards, not any other shows
edit #2: I can Google. The Last of Us Part II currently holds the record with 7 wins. God of War: Ragnarok and Baldur's Gate 3 are next up with 6 wins each.
@themightyant we’re thinking on the same wavelength; Pacific Drive and Thank Goodness have been on my wishlist, and Still Wakes was looking interested. Glad to hear it’s worth the play.
I feel like either new Astro Bot levels or new characters/release date for Marvel Tokon is pretty realistic. Maybe the God of War 2D game, if it was supposed to be at the last show and got pushed.
I think you'll find people can argue with numbers and charts. They'll be confidently wrong, but they can still argue.
As long as there's at least one game each month that seems interesting to me, I see it as a win. In September, I got Psychonauts 2 to play later and ended up using Viewfinder as my side game when I needed a break from a big single-player campaign. October was great for me, I'll actually play all three in the line-up.
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Re: PS5 Piggybacks the Spider-Man: Brand New Day Hype
But what does it look like on DLSS 5??!?
Re: Beloved PS5 RPG Expedition 33 Set to Steamroll Another Game Awards Ceremony
Shout out to Troy Baker, up for two acting awards this year and will still probably walk away with no BAFTA wins.
Re: The Abandoned PS5 Fiasco of 2021 Has Been Resurrected, Dev Testing Abandoned: Gospels of Blood
In a world divided on so many levels, we can now, finally, be unified, through the most anticipated game of all time: Abandoned.
Re: 'They're Not Going to Delay PS6': Hardware Leaker Says 2027 Still Likely After Xbox Helix Reveal
There's no way either of these companies can get away with a $1,000 console.
If Microsoft attempts $1K, they'll try to compare it to a PC with similar price points, and then lose the Xbox branding that is apparently so important to the new regime.
If Sony attempts $1K, they risk alienating the large audience of casual gamers who buy a console for GTA, CoD, and Fortnite but who also consistently choose PlayStation over Xbox.
The PS5 Pro's pricing in relation to this is worrisome, but they can hopefully make sacrifices in some departments or sign really good contracts with components manufacturers.
Re: MindsEye Studio Laying Off More Staff as It Doubles Down on Conspiracy Theory
The next time I play Monopoly and lose, I’m going to spend years constantly reminding everyone how there was a conspiracy against me from Hasbro itself.
Re: Sony Returns to PlayStation Exclusivity and Stops Single Player PC Ports, New Report Says
Between this and the news of the Bloodborne remaster rejections, not a good week to be a PC soulsborne fan
Re: As Sonic 4 Movie Officially Begins Filming, Reports Say Sir Ben Kingsley Is Involved
I’m calling it - he’s an actor standing in for Robotnik for 3/4s of the movie, only for Jim Carrey to return and Kingsley to be forgotten.
Re: Opinion: If Sony's Doubling Down on Its Most Popular Franchises, Where's Uncharted?
There were those rumors a few years back of a new team working on an Uncharted spin-off. Since it’s been so long, that either got cancelled or didn’t exist to begin with, but if it did exist and got cancelled, I wonder what Sony’s thought process was.
Re: More God of War PS5 Details Leak, Out in 2027 with New Protagonist
I'm definitely open to Cory Barlog trying something new. He reinvented God of War with 2018, making a nearly universally-beloved game in a already well-known series. If anyone wants to take a relatively unknown character and turn it into a full game, he would be the best one for it.
At its core it'd still be a god against the pantheon, as we know the giants didn't get along with Odin and the rest.
Double plus, Deborah Ann Woll is a great actress, and if she stays with the character, I'm all for it.
Re: The New LEGO Batman Only Has 7 Playable Characters, But They're Far More Fully Formed
@Cry_Zero Halle Berry (Catwoman, 2004) or Zoe Kravitz (The Batman, 2022) and Leslie Grace (Batgirl, canned in 2022) or Rosario Dawson (The Lego Batman Movie, 2017) or since Jim Gordon is played by Jeffrey Wright in The Batman.
But, also, they're Lego minifigures. Does it really matter?
Re: New Saros PS5 Gameplay Footage Is Brief But Cool as Heck
No joke, this actually sold me even more. I've been worried that the shield will make Saros easier than Returnal, since one of the things I loved most was the challenge and the satisfaction of getting over it, but this helped show that it's just building off of Returnal in the best ways.
Re: 'I'm Confident in the Direction We're Headed': Under-Fire PlayStation Boss Tries to Explain Baffling Bluepoint Closure
I'm really hoping this is part of the epilogue of when Hulst was really in charge of PlayStation and not the intro to Hideaki Nishino's regime. Then again, I was also hoping that a lot of Hulst's decisions were left over from Jim Ryan, and here we are, they're still being made.
Re: Mobile App Addictions Are Quickly Becoming a Serious Threat to Video Games, Report Claims
There's a statistic, I think from the mid 2010's, that every time you pause what you're doing to check your phone, you end up spending around twenty minutes down the rabbit hole.
And that was from ten years ago, and that's from notifications or 'quick checks' of social media. Nowadays, it's almost certainly longer, and you have people who specifically dedicate large amounts of time to it those.
Re: Sony Considering PS6 Delay to 2028 or Even 2029, New Reports Says
What are the chances they launch the portable handheld in 2027 and the mainstream PS6 in 2028 or 2029? The portable probably doesn't require the chip power that the PS6 will, and it can help get the userbase more on-board rather than releasing both simultaneously and making them buy both simultaneously.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for February 2026?
I’ve actually had my eye on Seasons since it was announced, but never bought it. Between that and Neva, it’s a pretty good month for some shorter but packed games.
Re: PS5's Wolverine Won't Be at This Week's State of Play
They could do a teaser for a larger, Wolverine-centric State of Play in a few months, like they did for Ghost of Yotei at another State of Play. But even if they don't, it's a Marvel game by Insomniac, they could just show the logo and the game would be a best-seller.
Re: PS Plus Extra Games for February 2026 Leaked
Congrats to the staff member that called Spider-Man 2 on the State of Play predictions.
Now can they call a new God of War game? Or Bloodborne 2?
Re: Mega State of Play Confirmed for Thursday, Over 60 Mins of PS5 Announcements and Updates
Probably smart of them to drop the “PS Showcase” title and just call everything a State of Play. It helps people not raise their expectations higher than they already do.
Re: Sorry, PS3 Users, Netflix Is Dropping Support for Sony's 20-Year-Old Console Next Month
This is Netflix already showing their plans for Warner Bros Games if the deal goes through, the writing's on the wall at this point. /s
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Highguard?
I wasn’t opposed to any of it, and it actually seemed like a unique and potentially fun gameplay loop. But the match felt like it was missing something. Maybe it was the small team counts, or how big the map was for only six people. But there wasn’t anything that made me want to revisit for weeks, months, years to come.
Re: PlayStation State of Play Is Locked in for February, It's Claimed
Hopefully we’ll finally see if the 2D God of War metroidvania actually exists.
Re: Dec 2025 USA Sales: Industry Rebounds from One of the Worst Months on Record
Idk why I thought of this, but if the industry generated nearly $61 billion over one whole year, a year where the recent Call of Duty release wasn’t even the top-selling title, and Microsoft bought Activision/Blizzard/King for over $75 billion…why?
Re: Razer Boss Lashes Out at Gen AI, But Says Gamers Would 'Love' AI to Streamline Dev Cycles
I think there are a lot of tools and programs that all get looped into ‘AI’, some of which are useful and some that aren’t. Generative AI that is usually incorrect and makes the final product weaker? Less useful. Automation programs that can streamline tasks and organization? More useful.
As with most things, it’s a case-by-case basis where you’re going to find people with strong opinions on either side. I think the ‘slippery slope’ aspect isn’t always a given, but depends on the user’s comfort levels or own boundary lines.
Re: The Year Starts Off with the New Game+ Showcase, Presenting 45 Games This Week
conspiracy theory: January 8 is a Thursday...
Thursday is the day of the week that Sony usually has State of Plays...
Sony loves announcing relatively big things out of the blue on a random day in the middle of the week...
January 8 is written 8/1 in the UK. 8/1 -> 81 -> Bl -> bloodborne 2 confirmed.
Re: Game of the Year: Push Square Readers' Top 20 PS5 Games of 2025
@Max_the_German I just checked, there were about 5K fewer votes this year than last, probably explaining the close counts of the top few. Last year, Astro Bot got 1st with over 1900 votes.
Though, based on the general sentiment, E33 probably would’ve claimed the majority of those missing votes.
Re: Game of the Year: #1 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
I mean, it sure wasn’t MindsEye, but Clair Obscur was pretty good.
Re: PS Plus Essential Games for January 2026 Announced
Isn't this the month where they're stopping giving away PS4 only games? That should help naturally increasing the quality over the next year.
Re: Game of the Year: #2 - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
@AhmadSumadi Nah, PushSquare is gonna flip everyone off and put MindsEye at the top, calling it an ‘impressively intriguing idea’ and a ‘uniquely creative venture.’
Re: The Game Awards Keeps On Getting More and More Popular
Also, the disclaimer of noticing Prime Video (which I didn’t even realize it was streaming on) makes this somewhat more impressive, with the unaccounted for views.
Re: The Game Awards Keeps On Getting More and More Popular
@Nep-Nep-Freak Yeah, the jump from 2019 to 2020 can probably be attributed to Covid and fewer people busy and more people invested in gaming, but I’m not sure what the jump from 2023 to 2024 was. The GotY nominees were definitely more diverse across genres and audiences, so maybe that.
Re: Poll: What Are Your Most Anticipated PS5 Games of 2026?
@RBMango I know, that’s the game I’m looking forward to the most, right above Highguard.
Re: All The Game Awards 2025 Winners
@danzoEX @Veritas7Ax @rjejr Yep, TLOU P2 had seven wins, so Clair Obscur now holds the record
Re: Want a Three Minute Slot During The Game Awards? That'll Be $1 Million, Please
I don’t know if I agree with Keighley keeping slots open, but I definitely get it: if there’s a big indie game or to try to entice a large publisher to show-off a new game.
But, let’s be realistic: how many of those slots does Kojima have priority to?
Re: 9 PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for December 2025 Announced
The double dip on Horizon Adventures in the same month is odd, but Assassin’s Creed and Wo Long balance it out and then some.
Re: PlayStation Wrap-Up 2025 Live Now, Get Your Gaming Stats for the Year
89 games played
475 total trophies (including 15 plats)
59 PS+ games
8.6 years of PS+
373 hours played (seems low imo)
Thrill-Seeker gaming style (no clue what this means beyond action-adventure)
822 play sessions, making an average session about 27.5 minutes long.
My most played was Minecraft, from when I platinumed the PS5 edition in the spring. Side note, my top 5 games were all because I platinumed them, no competitive multiplayer. I was expecting at least Fortnite to show up.
Re: PlayStation Wrap-Up 2025 Live Now, Get Your Gaming Stats for the Year
@Nf157 Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I think last year's even broke it down by month.
Re: The Game Awards 2025 Predictions: PS5 Games, the Muppets, and Geoff Keighley's Shoes
@get2sammyb Are we going to get a pre-show quiz for The Game Awards this year? It's always fun to get a high score and remind myself that I pay way too much attention to these shows.
Re: Going Platinum #2: The Witness
Ah, dang, 1/2 with Stephen. Fun while it lasted.
The Witness is on my platinum backlog, but I haven’t found the focus to just not give up on a puzzle. Hopefully this next year I’ll catch up on it.
Re: PlayStation to Publish New PS5, PC Co-Op Game from Left 4 Dead Creator
@PloverNutter Yeah, exactly. Between this, Jade Raymond’s studio (that she left, right?), and the new first-party studio from the guy who created CoD Zombies, Sony is really betting on names.
But, this is also Sony, who has Neil Druckmann, Cory Barlog, and Kojima (kinda), all of whom are arguably big enough to sell a game just from their name.
Re: PlayStation to Publish New PS5, PC Co-Op Game from Left 4 Dead Creator
@AinsleyE Yeah, it’s interesting that Sony has tried multiple times to capitalize on individual talent/names when that seems to be a dwindling reason why people buy certain games. There are definitely well-known names in the industry, but not every director with a success is one of those (or deserves it).
Re: Don't Worry That the Helldivers Film Director Hasn't Played the Game
For adapting story-driven games, playing them is probably important, but I feel like you can get the general sense of Helldivers by focusing more on the community and core concept instead of putting hours into playing.
Re: Going Platinum #1: Rocket League
Ooh, I’m looking forward to this series, sounds like a lot of fun!
During quarantine, I got more serious about platinuming and glanced at my trophy list and realized that I only needed one more trophy for Rocket League’s platinum, something like ‘complete all tutorials’. It wasn’t my first plat, but it was fun.
So, now I’m 1 for 1 with Stephen. Excited to see how long that stays.
Re: Five Years of PS5 - How Well Do You Know Sony's Console?
13/15, both of the ones I got wrong I was debating between two choices and picked the wrong one.
Re: Talking Point: Does PS5 Have a Sequel Problem?
From a business standpoint, I could see the sequels as a safe, guaranteed money maker while Sony tries new stuff. Like, if Sony followed through with its 12 live service games by 2026 or whatever it was, and 10 of those failed, the AAA sequels would help offset the sunk costs of those productions. Hopefully this is the case, and we can see more studios trying new things, even if it's using old IP in new ways.
Also, since many of these are the Triple-A 30-hour campaign games, a lot of it can come down to the story. Santa Monica felt that Kratos had one more chapter in Norse, so they made that, and now they're onto something new (presumably). Guerrilla really enjoys the Horizon world and wants to spend more time in it. Insomniac decided to use Spider-Man 2 to more fully transition to Miles' story.
I can see why the sequels can be called repetitive or boring, but they're not copy-and-paste from the originals, and they all differ from each other enough that it works.
Re: Talking Point: The Game Awards 2025 Nominations Announced: Who Are Your Winners?
@get2sammyb Any clue what the previous record is? Without checking, I'd assume TLOUP2 or Zelda BOTW.
edit: for the proper The Game Awards, not any other shows
edit #2: I can Google. The Last of Us Part II currently holds the record with 7 wins. God of War: Ragnarok and Baldur's Gate 3 are next up with 6 wins each.
Re: Ratchet & Clank Mobile May Be Okay Actually, First Gameplay Revealed
The gameplay looks fun, idk if it'd make me become a handheld gamer, but I'll at least give it a shot.
Also, no voiceover kinda sounds weird. I'm assuming if I'm actually playing it I won't notice, but the ambience sounds too quiet from the video.
Re: The Next Horizon Game Is an MMO by NCSOFT for PC, Mobile
This seems like something they could easily port to PS5, especially if they push/emphasize the Portal.
But even without the port, it'll almost definitely perform well.
Re: 9 PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for November 2025 Announced
@themightyant we’re thinking on the same wavelength; Pacific Drive and Thank Goodness have been on my wishlist, and Still Wakes was looking interested. Glad to hear it’s worth the play.
Re: State of Play Announced for 11th November, Focus on Japanese PS5 Games
I feel like either new Astro Bot levels or new characters/release date for Marvel Tokon is pretty realistic. Maybe the God of War 2D game, if it was supposed to be at the last show and got pushed.
Re: Think PS Plus Essential's Monthly Games Are Getting Worse? The Data Shows You're Wrong
I think you'll find people can argue with numbers and charts. They'll be confidently wrong, but they can still argue.
As long as there's at least one game each month that seems interesting to me, I see it as a win. In September, I got Psychonauts 2 to play later and ended up using Viewfinder as my side game when I needed a break from a big single-player campaign. October was great for me, I'll actually play all three in the line-up.