reek

Shouldn't this be way cheaper considering its just a screen and a controller?

Also is it possible to play without having PS5 at all?

It's kinda dissapointing that an unconventional good game gets a 7 (silent Hill f) and a conventional good game gets a 9.

A24 really likes those 'unconventional gaming hits turned into unconventional blockbuster movies'. I guess that's one way to chase brands without going full Hollywood

You can technically walk the entire world in this game, so combining that with PSVR2 makes it a second Earth?

I feel like it hurts the industry and is doubly dissapointing when unconventional underdog games get it right but are still rated lower than expected

This is probably just the Metahumans rendition of the actress already possible today.
Actual 'Photorealism' will probably come via an AI filter via DLSS 10 in a decade or two. There's already videos of that, just not real time yet.

I'm annoyed that they can't release a game like this in beta. I WANT to be there as it develops, I WANT to be astounded every year at the changes.

Its so depressing that steam has this early access culture but for games like this, all we can do is catch snippets of info AND with a chance that the project never releases.

This will get an 86 metacritic, I'm a fortune teller, you heard it here first.

I'm going to be very very VERY unhappy if this leads to tencent making their own console for the chinese market.

We all know that China is going to be the biggest gaming market and I don't want some internet firewall to seperate them. I like that gaming is all condensed in the same market worldwide.

This sh** won't even come out anyways lets be real or if it does, by some miracle, it'll die out in a couple weeks. Sony thinks Horizon is some pokemon lol.

I know nobody here cares about this but the game was finally lifted from region block on steam. Sony isn't pointlessly blocking it from 170 countries anymore!

71 is a mixed or average score as indicated by the yellow colour so calling it positive is a bit of a jump. No steam basically means no PC which is where these indie games usually sell.

Plus, its a janky looking cartoonish game with no brand and with no differentiating hook, its better to release these games in early access and build a small vocal passionate fanbase first.

@PuppetMaster

1. You keep saying "asia' when I keep telling you 'Japanese'. The live service initiative 100 percent came from Sony America, not Sony Japan.

2. Nintendo bosses famously took a pay cut in the days of Wii U failure, you think ANY american public limited company would do that, LOL? There's a reason why America is the home of capitalism, the country that invaded half the world last century to spread that economic system.

And yes, playstation 1 made console gaming mainstream is what I'm saying. What happened after that? One of the most valued American company entered the market and we can see them trying to buy out the market since the start.They would buy out and then burn the industry if the FTC would allow it.

@PuppetMaster When did i say anything about Asia? Countries like China/South Korea aren't ruthless in their corporate culture like America but they have their own demographics much of which consists of users opting for free to play games on mobile which, often naturally go live service.

In contrast, Japanese are more into nintendo these days but looking back in history, they're the ones who practically gave this hobby any identity. They popularized it, created consoles while America was either laughing, stereotyping or blaming the medium for violence.

That is, until playstation hit the mainstream and they realized how much money there is and on comes one of the richest companies in the world, Microsoft, throwing their money around and understanding nothing about the medium.

I have said this before and I'll say it again. This hobby is and has always been led by the Japanese. If you sell out to an American public limited company, this is exactly what will happen to every 'passion' company and their game.

Endless Franchise safe products designed to maximize return on investments. It's part of their ruthless capitalist culture where all that matters are numbers going up. Everything else eventually gets cut. See also, EA and its endless acquisitons of passionate developers.

And btw, the more Americanized Sony has become, the more they've chased live service and the endless profits that come with it. Sony Japan needs to reel them in before all we have left are Nintendo.

There really should be more big games targeted towards girls specifically

Mark my words, 2027 PSSR (aka hardware based AI upscaling) is going to be the main differentiator between PS6 and PS5. And it will remain the most important showcase for Sony in the future.

Not the hardware specs itself, not exclusives, no real next gen bumps, no dualshock upgrades, limited innovations, none of the things that differentiated next gen from the last previously are going to matter much here.

And there's no point in releasing late ports of final fantasy on xbox until you're putting them on gamepass day 1.

I love Ex33's combat.

I still deeply deeply dislike turn based.

Ex33's combat is more sekiro than turn based.

This is the best looking game of all time right now and for that alone, you need to check it out particularly if you have 4k tv. It blew me away on the first boss battle.

The actual game isn't very gamey so don't expect much from there.

@get2sammyb

By next year Sony will have raised their prices to 80 in the US. I can absolutely see a 100 advanced access for a Naughty Dog game that has obsessive fans and an 80 four days later. Microsoft already does it at that price.

Advanced access is the sneaky way to raise the base price without the backlash that happens after every 10 dollar increase.

I have said this before, but games should charge what they think they deserve, rather than these sneaky exploitative ways, same as microtransactions as base prices has barely risen in the past 2 decades.

The fanbase needs to stop with the idea of 'no more prices increase' and let the publisher know to go as ambitious and charge what they think their game deserves.

Better what mario kart world is doing than this.

Besides, I don't think that normal customers are bothered by 10 dollar base price increases the way the enthusiasts/vocal minority tends to get riled up. Seeing the backlash, publishers just don't want to take the risk for a measly 10 dollars and use these sneaky ways instead or put in uneccessary microtransactions.

Anybody who's seen the dune awakening steam stats can clearly see this: A large majority bought it at 70 dollars week early access when it was peaking at more than a 100k ccu and at 50 dollars launch price it went up to 190k players. it shows most will buy it at early access prices.

(Spoilers) No wonder Gustave has no lines at the very end

Better this than microtransactions!

Hope Gta increases it to a 100, Americans need to start paying their fair share like the rest of the world does. In brazil, a AAA game costs 10 percent of your salary!

Ofcourse your article doesn't even mention the real reason, that the games that declined in ccu were region blocked in the majority of the world and as a result got massive declines from their previous parts (God of war ragnarok, spiderman 2).

Stellar blade, I had to specifically mention it to their twitter that there game was being region blocked by Sony (which they weren't aware of!) and its now the first game in years that isn't region blocked and is actually available in the world. The major reason for this CCU.

I understand this is a playstation website but its so incredibly disrespectful that everyone of you western journalists don't even point it out because you're not being affected yourself. Steam is much more global than consoles.

Interesting how the ones that had potential (tlou factions, spiderman) got killed and the generic ones are still alive. Not that marathon and fairgames are going anywhere, anybody can see that.

I would rather they increase single player games cost if it's not earning them money than doing this and releasing nothing. What was the point of buying this expensive console otherwise?

I hope it's atleast a $100 and other big games follow the trend. Why? Because its the best way to fight against microtransactions, special editions, early access and all other nonsense in this industry. If you don't like that, don't pay first day simple.

And yes Ubisoft, EA is going to still do both but i truly believe most developers, or non-public limited companies, doing this would stop. BASE price needs to stay up with rising costs and inflation.

It's not about some 10 dollars. It's wasting Nixxes time making them remaster already newish games that look good.

The opportunity cost is all the games that could have been ported to PC including Demon's, bloodborne, GT7, Driveclub, all the older ps3 titles.

I reckon about 3-5 games could have been ported instead!

Increase the base price by 10 dollars every 3 or so years and this stuff wouldn't happen on the regular.

70s metacritic ratings are ubisoft level and won't work in today's market when the majority plays the same game and only a niche plays new games. Banished was quite unneccessarily bloated and with filler. You have to make the time count!

@EfYI

How did Neil D 'ruin' Naughty Dog? I keep hearing this. He's the reason they got the last of us series,something that has made them far more than the 'uncharted' company.

Remasters and Remakes of Tlou are certainly not his decision, nor was Factions cancellation. So if anything, you've got Sony leadership like hulst to blame for the current output.

Even GTA 6 will have to work to reach 20 million in a month. Xbox is near dead and it's not releasing on PC, so its pretty much just the ps5 for it.

From what I know, Banishers is a 20 hour game put in a 50 hour length. Simply put, there are way too many good games vying for the general audience's time. You can't waste the audience's time by forcing an epic 'semi-open world game' which is also a new IP so it doesn't even have a starting audience base. A new IP made by a company not well known for that type of game, needs a solid moment to moment gameplay to quickly hook the starting playerbase.

There 'life is strange' this new 'record' game are all more targeted to a specific audience, one that has a built in audience, that enjoys the moment to moment gameplay so they'll likely hit expectations but then you can't keep relying on the same type of game forever I suppose.

@DennisReynolds This isn't even an issue of right over wrong. Nintendo is very cautious and sues only when it sees a possibility of a win. Often doesn't even win, just buries the other in legal fees they can't pay.

And that's how the world of law mostly works all over the world. If you're a criminal with a lot of money, you won't be a criminal for very long. If you're poor, you'll be a criminal for a long time.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare

Yup and unlike Jim, who used to communicate and say stupid things and was an easy target, Hulst prefers total silence. The average person has no idea as to what he's involved in, his ideas or what he wants. Nothing at all. Which I fear, will make management find it harder to kick him out.

Anybody who closely read what happened to Factions because of Bungie's extreme influence on Sony and the later treatment of Naughty Dog's employees won't be surprised by this.

They cancelled the main mp game from their star studio because bungie didn't think 'it was going to stick around long term'. Despite many,many devs loudly proclaiming that it was the single most fun game they've ever played. Anybody who's played the combat of TLOU 2 can tell how phenomenal it is and how more incredible it can be with more work and an mp focus.

After the cancellation, there were reports of 'heads rolling' and on twitter, many ex-devs complained that they were treated piss poor by Sony's management and kicked out abrubtly. You think Naughty Dog almost made an MP game, suddenly realized it was a long term support commitment, cancelled and start kicking out/ letting their devs gets humiliated? No it was all Sony's doing because they considered Bungie the experts.

Concord, for those who don't know, is made by Bungie ex devs. The Company that funded this game, hello monsters, was led by a Bungie dude. The live service pivot was all bungie, supported by Herman, until a few months ago.

I'm SO GLAD this happened. That game had the single highest potential but I don't know if it'll ever be brought back. Unless Hulst somehow convinces that he has something to do with helldivers 2 success (he doesn't), he's getting fired soon.

And just to be clear, Helldivers 2 is based on existing playstation gameplay. Spiderman MP, Factions,Twisted Metal were all MP live service that would have been huge hits. All these Bungie generic games are going to go nowhere and hopefully, Sony course corrects now that the obvious results are here and more are incoming. After fairgames and marathon flop and Hulst gets fired and this all ends with a sad whimper.

'We suppose one issue here is the platform holder’s insistence of demanding a PSN login, which is restricting its more recent games from being sold in hundreds of countries. While we understand its decision to mandate a login, it really needs to ensure PSN is readily available in more regions, because it’s needlessly preventing people from purchasing its games as a result'

This is false.The ususal schtick has always been to login through the closest country Sony's server. So if you're in srilanka, use india's server to make PSN account. This region block and 'have to be in that country physically' is entirely imposed upon by Sony and the main reason for the decline of their subsequent games.

Live action movie adaptations of video games do not work. Make it animated or into a show.

Hijacking this comment section just to add. Astro bot Rescue Mission (VR ONE) is still the MOST transformative game I've played in my adult life. If you've become jaded or gaming bores you, it'll legit make you feel like a kid playing games for the first time again. That feeling that desentized adults have to take drugs to feel, I kid you not. No word in the english dictionary can describe THAT feeling.

I'm sure this'll be amazing, creative and win GOTY (it's a lock at this point I think). But VR transforms the experience and Astro elevates it.

Keep in mind that the majority of the world cannot buy it on steam since Sony put the self-ban in place. Though it probably wouldn't have helped much anyways to be fair.

@13th-UwU

All of this just makes me sad for Factions 2. Given how phenomenal Last of us 2's combat was, and how many devs came out saying Factions 2 was the most fun game they'd ever played, the cancellation (because of Bungie of all people) was soul-crushing.

Uncharted 2 made the Sony exclusive template when Sony most needed it and this how they treated their top studio, by cancelling their first online mega-project and firing so many of their devs.

And people often say 'single player devs' can't make a hit live service when they absolutely can if they're not being pressured to do it. I consider Rockstar to be the greatest developer in the world (and Naughty Dog second) and Gta is still the biggest 'premium/entry cost' live service title I can think of.

I'm just sad at what happened to tlou online

Can somebody please tell Sony to STOP banning games for sale in 170 countries on steam. This ban includes CHINA which is by far the biggest market of steam today.

They will not have another Helldivers 2 situation if they keep this up.

I'm expecting a 50k ccu at launch, calling it now. Given its banned in 170 countries and all.

Is this a genuine 'Bioware being bold' or is this because EA executives thought they'd streamline the game to attract a bigger market?

People don't know the incredible company that was lost when EA bought them. Like why buy a studio that goes for critical acclaim instead of yearly sports title company if you're going to turn the former into the latter only to see it fail?

No way somebody wrote this synopsis without laughing. Reads like one of those 'GTA radio ads'.

People saying naughty dog had no business making an mp standalone game, guess whats the biggest priced mp aaa game is today? Gta online. And rockstar and naughty dog are quite clearly at the top of single player AAA developers in the world.

I don't understand why these live service mid-priced mp games are not day-and-date with ps plus extra?

First, you already need the normal ps plus to play them, pc port is day-and-date to target max audience, they live and die when the player populations gets too low.

Besides the target for these games is to earn from microtransactions more than base price (which is why they're priced much lower).

Obviously single-player premium is different but it seems they're painting all of their rules with the same brush.

Honestly, consumers don't deserve gta 6. Rockstar could keep adding content to gta v and it'd still be at number 1 in 2050 (not even exaggerating). And this is definetly what's going to happen to 6

Not a single person pointed out something more specific. Want a bigger, more good looking and higher budget game where the consumer market isn't expanding? Increase the base price. It has barely increased this entire century.

@glassmusic Buddy just download a trainer on pc and play it via steam. You can have unlimited health, one hit kills etc. Just don't go online. I do it because I love the artwork of from soft games despite being a casual.