Where's the Game Pass options in the poll?

2 weeks is not much of a delay, but I imagine they are under pressure to launch this before GTA6. It will be interesting to see if, like the base game, this arrives a little hot and needs patching.

@AdamNovice FYI at no point has anyone said these are games, they might well be other media. It's highly unlikely they are working on 2 TLOU games, but it's also possible none of them are games.

Naughty Dog haven't let me down yet, expecting another incredible game.

There are MUCH worse DLCs/ MTX than Oblivion's horse armour - Asura's Wrath literally locking the real ending behind DLC was an especially egregious low bar - but Horse Armour always seems to get the flack for popularising MTX even though it existed in several games before.

Awesome I love that world and Part 2 left on an unfinished note.

@Redefaul GTA6 - and a lot of other big games this quarter - is likely increasing demand.

Anecdotally I’ve had 3 or 4 casual gamer friends ask me if they should get a PS5 or Xbox for GTA6 only to be shocked by the cost of the console. Some will still buy.

Possibly… but I think it’s more likely it will launch on PS5 as they need to maximise sales for an expensive game like this. A new console will only have a handful of units sold by comparison whereas PS5 will be well over 100 million units by then. Hence like TLOU, TLOU pt 2 and GoT it will likely launch before the new console comes out, with an updated version a year or more later.

However if the game slips I suppose it might be a cross gen game at launch… but that likely won’t maximise sales for Sony and ND.

I suppose the flip side of that argument is they need games to sell a new console, but I don’t think ND can afford to risk the lower sales of it being a PS6 exclusive. Would be dire for them.

While I am eager for news I like the fact they are setting expectations clearly and get ahead of this. Well done. It will be ready when it’s ready.

I doubt this will ever happen but it's basically just an NFC reader like in the Switch / Switch 2, only used for bank cards not amiibo.

@Dimey Defintely some of mine too, especially Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap, along with Shinobi and Phantasy Star. Before that I felt I played games, after I was a gamer forever. Great memories.

Honestly that almost sound like a best case scenario for me. Had no interest in playing another live service, but a limited game? It's back on my radar.

I said it at the time but I think this might be a good bit of business for both Sony AND Xbox.

Death Stranding hasn’t been the hit Sony wanted, they can do without Physint and be fine. They didn’t see the value in the project and so made the right call for them to cancel funding.

At the same time it’s a good PR win for Xbox who need that even more. Both can be true, it’s not “one size fits all”’

Honestly don't like the idea of planning a cross media series like this. If you like games, do you have to read the book / comic or watch a show to finish it. I don't like that.

@get2sammyb One thing I do find interesting is that it also tracks F2P games so we can see where for example Genshin Impact rates versus game sales. #1 in Japan & China right now. Although obviously these games rely on people keep playing, and spending, which this doesn't track. But churn is also important.

Also fascintating how the ranks change country to country. Seeing what does well where.

It is interesting. But at the same time I think it will be used for bad more than good with people claiming X game has failed, amongst other negativity, just like Steam DB and others.

@RomanRiz It's fine to be an auteur, it can be a great thing for games, and bring prestige... but you also have to deliver sales. Kojima has had mixed success recently, he isn't a guaranteed hit anymore, that limits his worth to publishers.

@PeteyPiranha that’s fair, I do both. But still only 7 of 75 scored reviews are less than a 75. Which reviews were not kind? Metro? Shacknews? Cubed3?

Not a lot. I’d expect all those ABK games to keep being multiplatform.

@LogicStrikesAgain I just don't believe they are going to subsidise it by anything near $200 per unit, they won't see a return on investment for that.

What I don't understand is why they didn't evey TRY doing what Nintendo did and charged $10 more for a physical copy. Then they would make almost the same per third party sale digitally as physically.

And it would work out about the same as digital when retailers competed on price... at least in the UK where Day 1 games are usually £10 - £15 at launch on disc if you shop around. Digital should ALWAYS have been cheaper.

It's sitting at a very respectable 84 on Metacritic, higher than the first and right in line with other Remedy games.

What were you expecting? 90+ only

@Wiceheid I still have all the maps, even for games I sold. GTA 3, VC, SA; Skyrim etc. I love them.

In fairness to them at least this comes with things I might actually use, not just the usual plastic landfill tat. Hat - Check; Sunglasses - Check; Shot glass - Check etc.

But would I pay £350 for it? You're having a bubble. LMAO.

@LogicStrikesAgain I've made that point myself, that by going all digital Sony may be able to subsidise the next console a LITTLE more... but what are we talking about in reality? Another $50, perhaps, on top of the losses they already make at launch, it isn't going to change the cost of the device drastically. And personally i'd rather pay another $100 for the console and keep physical media.

@8th_Observer When Microsoft annoucned they were firing 3,200 staff but only laying off 1,600 now it was clear that they knew EXACTLY who was getting fired and it didn't matter how the game performed only that once their work was done they would get the sack. (See Gears E-Day writer and others). A sad situation to work in.

Ray Tracing, Machine Learning Upscaling, Neural Rendering etc. these are all going to be far more important than raw processing power next gen.

I trust Cerny, guy is a genius, and I suspect he's designed another super bit of hardware. My one concern is that RAM-ageddon has forced them to limit the hardware in some way that will bottle neck it a little, e.g. limiting how much VRAM is there to keep costs down. Only time will tell.

Terrible name aside I can't remeber the last game I saw that looked amazing in some shots and terrible in others.

@Llamageddon Of course they would if they think long term it will make them more money. Short term pain, long term gain for Sony.

I mean Jason Schreier approximated that Sony makes around $45.50 on a full priced ($70) first party PHYSICAL sale but all $70 on digital sale (though there are costs to distribute digitial not included). And on a third party sale Sony currently makes around $10.50 on a $70 PHYSICAL sale but twice that, $21, on digital one.

No one is doubting that Sony will make more money in the long run with this, but why should we care about them filling their pockets at our expense?

But sales data can be deceptive. Many games only release digitially, or aren't available physically all the time or in all territories, meaning sales data alone is heavily skewed to favour digital, hence we only see around 20% of games sales on PlayStation being physical media.

I think a more interesting and representative bit of data would be:

What percentage of PS5 console owners still use discs? It's been reported by Circana for example that 82% of PS5s sold in the USA have a disc drive, Ampere suggested this was around 73% worldwide, though those figures don't seem to include after market add-on drives (e.g. on PS5 Pro).

Of course some people would have bought a PS5 with a disc drive and never used it, or don't use it anymore having moved to digital only, but Sony will have that data of who still uses it.

The number that still use discs will be somewhere in between, FAR more than just 20% of PS5 owners - that's a red herring - and i'd posit it's probably nearer, of perhaps more than half, don't you think?

But Sony doesn't want to present that sort of more representative data. They want to be shady about it and try and minimise how small physical is, when it isn't.

It seems it's just being managed by Bethesda (Softworks), the publishing arm, not Xbox Game Studios managment, not consolidated into Bethesda Game Studios as some were positing.

@Intr1n5ic already made me spot Spiritfarer for £2.99 so it’s already worked wonders. Thanks

@Intr1n5ic I didn't realise you could filter like that on Deku Deals. Very helpful, thanks for the heads up.

For those saying it’s just 5 reviews etc. it now has 18 reviews across platforms and is currently still holding at a very strong 90 on Opencritic.

@RBMango EVERYBODY forgot about Bleeding Edge... that was the problem

Sad news but not surprising. A talented studio that was sadly on the decline and hadn't had a success in years. Last 5 projects reportedly failed financially - 3 x VR games, a shuttered live service and Hellblade 2. Can't get away with that in the current climate.

While I hope a deal or aquistion will still happen and they can be better directed, as they have talent, it just doesn't seem likely with that recent record, too much risk.

@psmr Sci-Fi Far Cry exists... it's called Avatar: Fronteirs of Pandora

I remember having a wine tour of a small vineyard in Rioja a few years ago, at the very end they put 3 bottles in front of us and asked what we felt about each.

The first had a very elegant label, strong typography and felt expensive to me. The second had a slightly more artistic label, not so much to my taste, but still fely classy, perhaps a mid-tier bottle of wine. The third had a very tacky image on the label and it looked cheap to my eyes.

Yet the truth was much more interesting, they all contained the exact same wine but the first was for the European market, the second for Asia, primarily Japan, and the third for USA. They had tried selling each label in each territory but these are what sold best in each. It was an eye opening lesson.

Let your ego go.

But seriously we all like different things, maybe you'll never like them... but if you want an honest answer i'd advise trying some of the very best 2D games based on what genre you might like e.g. Hollow Knight, Hades, Super Mario World, Tetris, Terraria, Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire, Inside, Ori 1 & 2, Celeste etc. If you can't find any enjoyment there then maybe they just aren't for you, that's OK.

Been looking forward to this. I've played 3 games from this dev, Kyle Thompson - Crypt Custodian, Sheepo and Islets - and they have all been brilliant, but he's also been getting better with each release. This has looked great since it was announced. Excited.

EDIT: What's with all the negativity. Gamers SUCK!

It's not that deep or complicated. Most players don't have much time they just aren't as obsessive as many of us are here.

If you only had a few hours a week to play games then an 100 hour RPG FF7R3 might take you most of the year to complete and you understandably may not want to play the hours of, subjectively dull, side content that make it take another several months, that is fair. Allowing time limited players to skip that and still have a good experience is entirely normal.

TLDR: It's called side-content for a reason, it shouldn't be mandatory due to some BS level gating.

The hours a week question is hard to answer as many it may be zero if I am not playing an indie game and another it may be 25+ if I am deeply embedded in some.

I'd add that while I have little interest in playing another time intensive live service game I would love to play a more streamlined Destiny 1/2 campaign, and I am sure there are many other players that would pay for that priviledge.

Both NG: Ragebound and Dungeons of Hinterburg are good games. Enjoy.

@SMJ it’s true that only the number of total layoffs was announced month ago, but that doesn’t change the fact it is still shocking that say Halo might go under Activision’s banner, or Arkane might get spun off. That’s huge news today.

@colt45z yes they still have the silver coins, but most of the stuff you can redeem is plastic tat imo, but may appeal to some.

I was specifically talking about the cash back thing, gold coins on Nintendo, which has been discontinued sadly.

@8th_Observer I seem to recall plenty of people complaining, but only for a relatively short anoint of time. It was gone in a few news cycles.

@AI-Generation Am I right in remembering Nintendo has stopped Nintendo points? Think it's only Xbox offering cashback right now.

@DennisReynolds the ending was great imo. Far more interesting than the overly saccharine alternatives where perhaps he gets injected with the antidote and all is fine

Brilliant movie, well deserved.

I like the way they didn't actually refute ANYTHING. lol