@SuntannedDuck2 those games were outsourced and co-developed while they kept working on their own game. (SK Dig was Nitrome, SK PD was Vine). It’s still will have been 12 years since the last game they made alone.
@PuppetMaster handheld is interesting thought. I hadn’t considered that, it basically can’t work with discs (unless perhaps they say the game disc currently in your PS6 disc drive works on the handheld. That adds a bit of intrigue and doubt.
But I still think k they will have a disc drive on the console and use the digital only handheld as a reason why it’s BETTER to buy digitally (because really they want us all on digital)
I hope it works out for them, but Shovel Knight released in 2014, it shouldn't have taken 12 years to get their next new game out. I know they have been working on DLC and farmed out a couple of Shovel Knight spin-offs, which they have helped on, but this reeks of mismanagement. Shovel Knight sold over 3 million units and it's a small studio.
@LordAinsley I didn't say this is a bad use for it, I said the art isn't great, not the same thing. But the Xmas Avatars are ALWAYS bad, whether AI or not, we've lost nothing here creatively. Hence this is a case that is fine imo. Nothing more, nothing less. We should be concerned about some uses, but this ain't it.
Don't worry @PuppetMaster Disc is still a huge part of the PlayStation business, especially their own first party games and AAA, around a billion USD per year. Crucially this is much bigger in some territories than others so unless Sony are going to put two fingers up to all those players I'm pretty certain we will have a disc drive next gen. It will likely be an optional add on though, and they may charge more for it.
@Oram77 Yes @TheArt is right. Sony have a product design team that designed the look of the console and how it would work as an actual product (cooling etc.) based on the hardware specs provided by Cerny and his team. Cerny is the (technology) system architect, not the product designer.
@LordAinsley But there is the crux of the point. I am not blindly pro-AI, I am all for taking each instance of it's use in isolation and judging whether it was worthwhile or not. In this instance I have no issue with it, that doesn't mean I don't ever have issue with it. I do.
And yes of course it will be used poorly, just as there re already games with horrible art design, terrible performances, bad framerates and other issues. You can't win all the time, but bad examples of it's use doesn't invalidate it's use in other cases.
@Kienda They already have several variants of all those PlayStation characters and more as FREE avatars, no time limited Xmas promo code needed. In the past they did Xmas variants with Santa hats on, but that's been done before.
@LordAinsley I agree the art doesn't look great... but you know what? these free Xmas avatars are always lowest effort garbage - for reference here's last years which was for the 30th anniversary no less! It's been like this as long as I can remember.
In this instance I don't think we've lost ANYTHING of worth, hence I'm not bothered by it in the slightest. It's not like it's replacing something that was great. Should they make more of an effort? Sure, but the same was true when these weren't AI.
@Nepp67 The more you know about this game, and it's lore, the less safe it is. There's many little touches on this that a fan of the series will notice that others wouldn't. There's meaning everywhere you look.
@get2sammyb The amount of little details on this is amazing. The two sides representing Aether and Lumine; Paimon on the back with "Genshin"; the homescreen towers fading in; Primogems; a Hilichurl...
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. It's going to take a lot of willpower not to pick this up. While I sometimes feel my love for this game (and all live services) is akin to Stockholm Syndrome, there's no doubting it's been a big part of my life for 5 years, with thousands of hours played. That feels significant and worth a memento.
It isn't. I played the first few hours on PS+ and it's pretty rough.
I still love it for what it was at the time, but lets not get it twisted, some games age poorly, this is one of them. Still a good game, but severely hampered by the tech of the day with gameplay, controls and dialogue that all feel very clunky by todays standards. The rest is rose tinted glasses, give it someone who has never played it before and see what they feel if you want a fairer unbiased opinion.
@LordAinsley I can understand your argument, but am never a fan of the "slippery slope" defence, even if it may be true in this case.
But it is a fact that AI will become more prevalent, like electricity, robotics, computers and the internet before it, the genie isn't going back in the box. If we take that as a starting point, that there will be AI used in game dev, what to you is an acceptable use of it? Trying to say we shouldn't use it at all is like suggesting the world is flat imo.
The current free avatars that are given out annually are ALREADY such low quality that I don't care, this at least matches them. It's no creative loss.
Settings, settings and more settings! I still appreciate the times when we just popped in a game and played.
@Hordak You can still do that if you want, you don't have to choose if you don't want to, it plays great out of the box with no tweaking. But choice is a good thing. Some people prefer higher framerates, others prefer more visual flair.
@MrPeanutbutterz Agreed. It's not that they are inherently bad, but most games lists are bad making you jump through hoops that are no longer fun. Often you will like the game less after the platinum and never play it again.
There are some excellent ones out there too, that sometimes makes you play the game a different way and really understand and respect the depth of the game's mechanics. Often these are fun too. e.g.
Half Life 2 - go through Ravenholm ONLY using the gravity gun
Immersive sims like Dishonored don't be seen, or no kills
Death's Door - Only use the Umbrella, which completely changes the game's strategy
I don't actually know what my first platinum was off the top of my head... (I checked...my first 3 were God of War 1,2 & 3 on PS3)/
But i've soured on achievements and trophies as most of them are just bad, often making you like a game less by the end of their run. Games that don't do this I still occasionally go for. But i've only had 2 this year having had over 80 platinum's before.
@Darude84 Almost every review discussed poor performance. Digital Foundry went as far as to suggest the only way to play at a smooth framerate on next gen... was to play the PS4 version on PS5. Not even VRR would save you on XSX.
@Max_the_German See above.
My point is that there were some fair reasons to mark it down AT LAUNCH. It's in a better state now and likely deserves a 10.
@GamingFan4Lyf People also ignore the new jobs it will create.
The wheel didn't kill jobs, electricity didn't kill jobs, robotics didn't kill jobs, computers didn't kill jobs, the internet didn't kill jobs... so why do they think AI will?
What it will do is CHANGE some jobs and make SOME people have to retrain in other skills. But I suspect jobs overall will remain about the same just as with those examples.
@Jammer @TheArt @somnambulance @Darude84 @Max_the_German @zhoont @Balaam_ Regarding Elden Ring, it's worth noting these are the games they scored 10/10 at launch based on the state they were in then, not what might have gotten a 10 now.
Elden Ring launched with pretty shoddy performance which they marked it down on, that (at least in part) got fixed later. But they did call it "By Far FromSoftware's Best Ever Game"
It sounds cool on paper, but it really needs to do something to freshen up the gameplay. The last couple of games have just thrown more enemies at us with bigger combo weapons to beat them... which sounds fun on paper... and yet they were each worse than the one before, getting boring fast.
@Nnfyrbsnss I like What Remain's of Edith Finch, it's quirky and unique but I have never understood this 10/10 glazing. I guess we all like different things. It really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, enjoy what we enjoy.
Strong list. I haven't played them all, which is GREAT!
No game is perfect, but that's not what a 10/10 is.
But I would absolutely have have Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on the list, best game I've played this gen imo. Silksong was close, almost immaculate, but that higher difficulty and boss run-backs just slightly ruined the progression flow.
@PuppetMaster @darylb24 FYI you are both sorta right...
Sony (Sony Group Corp.) is certainly a Japanese company multinational conglomerate (EDIT: is more accurate than company), headquartered in Tokyo.
But their subsidiary company Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), which operates PlayStation, is an American Company headquartered in San Matteo, California.
To be honest that trailer has me a little intrigued. It looks, in a good way, like a bonkers Japanese game from the PS1 or PS2 era with updated graphics. I miss that sort of zaniness. Could be fun.
@Haruki_NLI Exactly. Since their restructure that EPD is a far more fluid entity where internally many of the devs will work on many projects as and when needed. We can't really attribute games to "teams" as we did in the past, that was my point.
Good point about Nintendo's employee retention rate, it's very high and people seem to stay working there for a long time. (14 years in Japan and 8-11 in other territories)
@Haruki_NLI Sort of. But if you dig a bit deeper into the team of developers working on the games, by looking at credits or on things like Moby games, it's all seems a bit more fluid. Many devs will work across titles not in line with the producer and leads.
But yes some of the subsidiaries like Cube, Retro Studios or Monolistsoft are more obvious, like I said.
Seems like a sensible buy, similar to what Sony did in the past, work with a company on many projects, check you are all on the same page and can work well together and then make them an offer. Smart business.
@Oram77 It's a little hard to tell for sure nowadays to be honest because of Nintendo's obfuscated hierarchy where most teams just now work under their "Entertainment Planning & Development" division (Nintendo EPD) which outputs everything from Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart, Pikmin, Mario Odyssey, Splatoon, Mario Run etc. Therefore any potential studio closures could just be hidden as an internal corporate reshuffle. It's rarer that studios like Monolith Soft (Xenoblade) stand out as separate entities who you can attribute specific games to.
@Rich33 It is currently the slowest selling mainline PlayStation in Japan, which is likely what is leading to all the press, but only just. However these numbers have been steadily declining since PS2, it isn't new.
PS5's about in line with PS3 when launch aligned, but PS3 sold loads of units at the end of it's life in Japan boosting it's total numbers.
PS5 is about 0.65m behind where the PS4 was launch aligned, which considering how crazy expensive PS5 has been over there, due to Japan's economy, isn't too bad imo. Certainly not the dumpster fire some try to paint, but it could also be doing better.
Comments 7,531
Re: Hit PS5 Roguelike Ball X Pit Reaches One Million Sales, Free Content Updates Inbound
I genuinely thought this was that fake AI game that is on YouTube ads when I saw it. lol. Might give is a go.
Re: Shovel Knight Dev Might Live or Die Based on the Sales of Mina the Hollower
@SuntannedDuck2 those games were outsourced and co-developed while they kept working on their own game. (SK Dig was Nitrome, SK PD was Vine). It’s still will have been 12 years since the last game they made alone.
Re: Chrono Trigger Revival Hopes Have Been Reignited Yet Again
Still my beating heart!!!
Dream remake (with FF6) but only if they do it justice, otherwise just leave us with our memories.
But I don’t believe it’s happening.
Re: Poll: Vote for Your PS5 Game of the Month (November 2025)
Only played a bit at a friends but Lumines Arise was wonderful. Will look to pick that up in due course.
Glad to see 1000 x Resist on Playstsio.
Re: 'What If I, Y'Know, Design the Next Console?': How Mark Cerny Pitched Himself as PS4's Architect
@PuppetMaster handheld is interesting thought. I hadn’t considered that, it basically can’t work with discs (unless perhaps they say the game disc currently in your PS6 disc drive works on the handheld. That adds a bit of intrigue and doubt.
But I still think k they will have a disc drive on the console and use the digital only handheld as a reason why it’s BETTER to buy digitally (because really they want us all on digital)
Re: Shovel Knight Dev Might Live or Die Based on the Sales of Mina the Hollower
I hope it works out for them, but Shovel Knight released in 2014, it shouldn't have taken 12 years to get their next new game out. I know they have been working on DLC and farmed out a couple of Shovel Knight spin-offs, which they have helped on, but this reeks of mismanagement. Shovel Knight sold over 3 million units and it's a small studio.
Re: Sony Accused of Using Generative AI Art for PlayStation Advent Calendar Promo
@LordAinsley I agree, but that's not a specific AI problem. But it's just a free bit of Xmas tat.
Re: Sony Accused of Using Generative AI Art for PlayStation Advent Calendar Promo
@LordAinsley I didn't say this is a bad use for it, I said the art isn't great, not the same thing. But the Xmas Avatars are ALWAYS bad, whether AI or not, we've lost nothing here creatively. Hence this is a case that is fine imo. Nothing more, nothing less. We should be concerned about some uses, but this ain't it.
Re: 'What If I, Y'Know, Design the Next Console?': How Mark Cerny Pitched Himself as PS4's Architect
Don't worry @PuppetMaster Disc is still a huge part of the PlayStation business, especially their own first party games and AAA, around a billion USD per year. Crucially this is much bigger in some territories than others so unless Sony are going to put two fingers up to all those players I'm pretty certain we will have a disc drive next gen. It will likely be an optional add on though, and they may charge more for it.
Re: 'What If I, Y'Know, Design the Next Console?': How Mark Cerny Pitched Himself as PS4's Architect
@Rich33 Yes. I forget his name, he did it for PS4 too.
EDIT: It's Yasuhiro Ootori
Re: 'What If I, Y'Know, Design the Next Console?': How Mark Cerny Pitched Himself as PS4's Architect
@Oram77 Yes @TheArt is right. Sony have a product design team that designed the look of the console and how it would work as an actual product (cooling etc.) based on the hardware specs provided by Cerny and his team. Cerny is the (technology) system architect, not the product designer.
Re: Sony Accused of Using Generative AI Art for PlayStation Advent Calendar Promo
@LordAinsley But there is the crux of the point. I am not blindly pro-AI, I am all for taking each instance of it's use in isolation and judging whether it was worthwhile or not. In this instance I have no issue with it, that doesn't mean I don't ever have issue with it. I do.
And yes of course it will be used poorly, just as there re already games with horrible art design, terrible performances, bad framerates and other issues. You can't win all the time, but bad examples of it's use doesn't invalidate it's use in other cases.
Re: Sony Accused of Using Generative AI Art for PlayStation Advent Calendar Promo
@Kienda They already have several variants of all those PlayStation characters and more as FREE avatars, no time limited Xmas promo code needed. In the past they did Xmas variants with Santa hats on, but that's been done before.
Re: Sony Accused of Using Generative AI Art for PlayStation Advent Calendar Promo
@LordAinsley I agree the art doesn't look great... but you know what? these free Xmas avatars are always lowest effort garbage - for reference here's last years which was for the 30th anniversary no less! It's been like this as long as I can remember.
In this instance I don't think we've lost ANYTHING of worth, hence I'm not bothered by it in the slightest. It's not like it's replacing something that was great. Should they make more of an effort? Sure, but the same was true when these weren't AI.
Re: More 007 First Light Gameplay in New Developer Livestream This Week
This game is becoming like Deathloop, showing up at every event. Not sure I want to see any more tbh.
Re: One of PS5's Biggest and Most Popular Games Is Getting Its Own DualSense at Last
@Nepp67 The more you know about this game, and it's lore, the less safe it is. There's many little touches on this that a fan of the series will notice that others wouldn't. There's meaning everywhere you look.
Re: One of PS5's Biggest and Most Popular Games Is Getting Its Own DualSense at Last
@get2sammyb The amount of little details on this is amazing. The two sides representing Aether and Lumine; Paimon on the back with "Genshin"; the homescreen towers fading in; Primogems; a Hilichurl...
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. It's going to take a lot of willpower not to pick this up. While I sometimes feel my love for this game (and all live services) is akin to Stockholm Syndrome, there's no doubting it's been a big part of my life for 5 years, with thousands of hours played. That feels significant and worth a memento.
Re: Mark Cerny 'Loved' Legend of Dragoon, But Admits It 'Can't Possibly Be as Good' as He Remembers
It isn't. I played the first few hours on PS+ and it's pretty rough.
I still love it for what it was at the time, but lets not get it twisted, some games age poorly, this is one of them. Still a good game, but severely hampered by the tech of the day with gameplay, controls and dialogue that all feel very clunky by todays standards. The rest is rose tinted glasses, give it someone who has never played it before and see what they feel if you want a fairer unbiased opinion.
Re: Sony Accused of Using Generative AI Art for PlayStation Advent Calendar Promo
@LordAinsley I can understand your argument, but am never a fan of the "slippery slope" defence, even if it may be true in this case.
But it is a fact that AI will become more prevalent, like electricity, robotics, computers and the internet before it, the genie isn't going back in the box. If we take that as a starting point, that there will be AI used in game dev, what to you is an acceptable use of it? Trying to say we shouldn't use it at all is like suggesting the world is flat imo.
Re: Sony Accused of Using Generative AI Art for PlayStation Advent Calendar Promo
The current free avatars that are given out annually are ALREADY such low quality that I don't care, this at least matches them. It's no creative loss.
Re: Ghost of Yotei Gets 'Incredible' PS5 Pro Frame Rate Boost Thanks to New Patch
@Hordak You can still do that if you want, you don't have to choose if you don't want to, it plays great out of the box with no tweaking. But choice is a good thing. Some people prefer higher framerates, others prefer more visual flair.
Re: PS Blog Wants Your PS5 Game of the Year Nominations for 2025
@LiamCroft @Ainu20 Thanks. That makes sense with GTA6
Re: Rumour: Cyberpunk 2077 News Teased for 5th Anniversary
Some more content. Plus a PS5 Pro version would be nice.
Re: The Witcher Dev Still Wants to Release Ciri's Whole Trilogy Within Six Years
Even if feasible i'm not sure this is a good idea, it doesn't give much time to make each game different from the last.
Re: PS Blog Wants Your PS5 Game of the Year Nominations for 2025
Re: PS5's Biggest Game Fortnite Accused of Using AI Art
@DreadfulDragon And that a lot of studios use AI to speed up development of animation and other things that are much harder to spot.
Re: PS5's Biggest Game Fortnite Accused of Using AI Art
It's a background poster in a fast paced game. I don't really care to be honest, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game one bit.
Plus it's likely the people using the AI were the artists trying to cut down on their workload imo.
Re: PS5 Open World Where Winds Meet Teases Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Vehicle Building Mechanics
The tech is cool. But not sure it works in a Wuxia inspired setting.
Re: Going Platinum #1: Rocket League
@MrPeanutbutterz Agreed. It's not that they are inherently bad, but most games lists are bad making you jump through hoops that are no longer fun. Often you will like the game less after the platinum and never play it again.
There are some excellent ones out there too, that sometimes makes you play the game a different way and really understand and respect the depth of the game's mechanics. Often these are fun too. e.g.
Re: Going Platinum #1: Rocket League
I don't actually know what my first platinum was off the top of my head... (I checked...my first 3 were God of War 1,2 & 3 on PS3)/
But i've soured on achievements and trophies as most of them are just bad, often making you like a game less by the end of their run. Games that don't do this I still occasionally go for. But i've only had 2 this year having had over 80 platinum's before.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 609
Remedy-verse starting with
Re: Video: All the PS5 Games We Think Are 10/10
@Darude84 Almost every review discussed poor performance. Digital Foundry went as far as to suggest the only way to play at a smooth framerate on next gen... was to play the PS4 version on PS5. Not even VRR would save you on XSX.
@Max_the_German See above.
My point is that there were some fair reasons to mark it down AT LAUNCH. It's in a better state now and likely deserves a 10.
Re: PS5 Roguelike Let It Die: Inferno Uses a Crapload of Generative AI
@GamingFan4Lyf People also ignore the new jobs it will create.
The wheel didn't kill jobs, electricity didn't kill jobs, robotics didn't kill jobs, computers didn't kill jobs, the internet didn't kill jobs... so why do they think AI will?
What it will do is CHANGE some jobs and make SOME people have to retrain in other skills. But I suspect jobs overall will remain about the same just as with those examples.
Re: Video: All the PS5 Games We Think Are 10/10
@Jammer @TheArt @somnambulance @Darude84 @Max_the_German @zhoont @Balaam_ Regarding Elden Ring, it's worth noting these are the games they scored 10/10 at launch based on the state they were in then, not what might have gotten a 10 now.
Elden Ring launched with pretty shoddy performance which they marked it down on, that (at least in part) got fixed later. But they did call it "By Far FromSoftware's Best Ever Game"
Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Is Already on Sale Just Two Weeks After Release
Pretty telling imo
Re: Rumour: Dead Rising Sequel Will See Frank West Take on a Deranged Director in Hollywood
It sounds cool on paper, but it really needs to do something to freshen up the gameplay. The last couple of games have just thrown more enemies at us with bigger combo weapons to beat them... which sounds fun on paper... and yet they were each worse than the one before, getting boring fast.
Re: Video: All the PS5 Games We Think Are 10/10
@Nnfyrbsnss I like What Remain's of Edith Finch, it's quirky and unique but I have never understood this 10/10 glazing. I guess we all like different things. It really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, enjoy what we enjoy.
Re: Video: All the PS5 Games We Think Are 10/10
Strong list. I haven't played them all, which is GREAT!
No game is perfect, but that's not what a 10/10 is.
But I would absolutely have have Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on the list, best game I've played this gen imo. Silksong was close, almost immaculate, but that higher difficulty and boss run-backs just slightly ruined the progression flow.
Re: Five Years of PS5 - How Well Do You Know Sony's Console?
It was all going so well, then I flubbed the ending. Lol.
Re: PS5 Sales in Japan Quadruple as New Model Launches
@PuppetMaster @darylb24 FYI you are both sorta right...
Sony (Sony Group Corp.) is certainly a Japanese
companymultinational conglomerate (EDIT: is more accurate than company), headquartered in Tokyo.But their subsidiary company Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), which operates PlayStation, is an American Company headquartered in San Matteo, California.
Re: PS5 Roguelike Let It Die: Inferno Uses a Crapload of Generative AI
To be honest that trailer has me a little intrigued. It looks, in a good way, like a bonkers Japanese game from the PS1 or PS2 era with updated graphics. I miss that sort of zaniness. Could be fun.
Re: Nintendo Buys Singapore Studio Behind Papercraft PS5 Console Exclusive Hirogami
@Haruki_NLI Exactly. Since their restructure that EPD is a far more fluid entity where internally many of the devs will work on many projects as and when needed. We can't really attribute games to "teams" as we did in the past, that was my point.
Good point about Nintendo's employee retention rate, it's very high and people seem to stay working there for a long time. (14 years in Japan and 8-11 in other territories)
Re: Nintendo Buys Singapore Studio Behind Papercraft PS5 Console Exclusive Hirogami
@Haruki_NLI Sort of. But if you dig a bit deeper into the team of developers working on the games, by looking at credits or on things like Moby games, it's all seems a bit more fluid. Many devs will work across titles not in line with the producer and leads.
But yes some of the subsidiaries like Cube, Retro Studios or Monolistsoft are more obvious, like I said.
Re: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Dev Not Quite Sure Which Classic RPG to Remake Next
@Papasears1982 Why would Falcom remake Xenogears? It's not their IP. Regardless I want it too. Come on Square-enix!
Re: Could Remedy Reveal Control Resonant at The Game Awards Next Month?
Great timing. I'm currently replaying Alan Wake (Remastered) + DLC and then Control +AWE DLC and then onto Alan Wake 2 for the first time.
Re: Nintendo Buys Singapore Studio Behind Papercraft PS5 Console Exclusive Hirogami
Seems like a sensible buy, similar to what Sony did in the past, work with a company on many projects, check you are all on the same page and can work well together and then make them an offer. Smart business.
@Oram77 It's a little hard to tell for sure nowadays to be honest because of Nintendo's obfuscated hierarchy where most teams just now work under their "Entertainment Planning & Development" division (Nintendo EPD) which outputs everything from Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart, Pikmin, Mario Odyssey, Splatoon, Mario Run etc. Therefore any potential studio closures could just be hidden as an internal corporate reshuffle. It's rarer that studios like Monolith Soft (Xenoblade) stand out as separate entities who you can attribute specific games to.
Re: Assassin's Creed Shadows Microtransactions Will Fund 'Chunkier' Updates Going Forward
How about no? (apparently I need to say more) Hell No!
Re: The Next Game from the Makers of GoldenEye and TimeSplitters Is Balatro Meets Scrabble
HEAVILY inspired by Balatro! That Word Score table it ripped straight off it.
Re: PS5 Sales in Japan Quadruple as New Model Launches
@Rich33 It is currently the slowest selling mainline PlayStation in Japan, which is likely what is leading to all the press, but only just. However these numbers have been steadily declining since PS2, it isn't new.
PS5's about in line with PS3 when launch aligned, but PS3 sold loads of units at the end of it's life in Japan boosting it's total numbers.
PS5 is about 0.65m behind where the PS4 was launch aligned, which considering how crazy expensive PS5 has been over there, due to Japan's economy, isn't too bad imo. Certainly not the dumpster fire some try to paint, but it could also be doing better.
Re: Another PS Plus Extra Game Expires in December 2025
A shame, another one I won't be able to finish in time. I did play Sonic Fronteirs though, and enjoyed it enough I got the Platinum.
Thanks for the heads up these @LiamCroft. Much appreciated!