wildcat_kickz

@Number09 Less than 90mil. PS5 has already outsold it.

I think if the PS6 comes out next year and is cheaper (as reported/rumored), then no, PS5 will not outsell PS4.

But, if PS6 is delayed, I think there's a chance.

Ultimately, if we're being honest, who really cares?

@RyPal I mean, I literally just made that argument about CoD. But what you're describing are franchises, which isn't exclusive to live-service. Every new entry in a franchise is a "continuation" of the last, iterating, building on, etc.

For clarification, what do you mean by "live service" or "GaaS?" To me, these are almost completely interchangeable with multiplayer games, or at least all multiplayer games fall under that umbrella. It's basically non-existent for a multiplayer game to not have some component of live-service because people would get tired of the same content over and over again. All "live-service" or "GaaS" means is that there is additional content added regularly after the initial release.

@Rebusmind No native PS5 version.

@RyPal I see where you're coming from, but don't really agree. You could reasonably make the same argument for CoD. One of Destiny's biggest problems is that they don't have good onboarding and when a game has been out for a long time, it's really hard for new players to feel like they can have a meaningful experience that isn't completely overwhelming, bogged down by years of layered mechanics.

By releasing segmented installments, it allows for a hard reset, evening the playing field for everyone. It also allows the developer to tackle a different angle, era, setting, etc., while staying in the same universe. Destiny 3 doesn't need to continue the story of 2 or 1, especially because that story arc is over.

I'm sure I'll get back to it at some point. I do actually really like Unity and the FPS/Resolution bump is really noticeable. The patch doesn't fix the inconsistent cover mechanics, but I didn't really expect that either.

Unity has probably one of the most interesting settings of an AC game, thus far.

I remain confused as to why a French/Canadian publisher and developer gave everyone in the game UK and Irish accents, though. The entire game is populated by Jean-Luc Picard.

I think most people here know that I'm not anti-GaaS, but I think one of the biggest problems in that sector is every GaaS wants to be a "forever" game. It obviously goes against every instinct in a share-holder's body, but games really should be designed to be finite. It makes space for more titles and even more releases from your own teams.

Destiny 2 should have ended with the Light and Dark saga, taking the same approach as Destiny 1: keep the servers up, but no new content. Even with Marathon, Destiny 3 should have been announced by now. The Last of Us Online should have been released with a 1-year content plan and that's it.

Call of Duty is a GaaS and they release new titles every year. I'm not saying that other devs (or even CoD) should have that kind of output, but it shows that games don't need to last forever - even GaaS.

@DennisReynolds There's an entire industry on Steam that begs to differ 😂

Um, well this looks sick as hell.

@LifeGirl I name every horse in every game "Roach." Is that relevant? 😂

Pretty good offering. Already have LotF, but definitely recommend it to Souls fans who haven't played it yet. No personal interest in SAO, but Tomb Raider is always nice.

It would honestly be f'ing hilarious if one of his skins was the blind klan member.

PSA: Don't forget that you can buy Certified Refurbished from Sony/PlayStation directly. This can save a decent chunk as well.

Sad to hear about the layoffs, but based on the rumors for this game, it sounds like it wouldn't have been for me. I selfishly would have loved another Deus Ex game. Inject cyberpunk straight into my veins, if you please.

@Northern_munkey Regarding the loading screens, I too would love if Bethesda could figure out how to get rid of them. I was listening to a podcast and they gave a reasonable explanation for them, though. It has to do with the fact that Bethesda games track everything you touch in their games, so memory needs to hold on to that positional data. This is way more granular than any other game I've ever seen. It sounds like it would be too much information to track if they opened everything up.

No Man's Sky actually does have loading screens, but they're clever in how they hide them, like entering and exiting atmosphere, but they still don't have object permanence like Bethesda does.

That said, I think Bethesda should be able to figure out how to reduce the amount of loading screens, though unlikely they'll remove them entirely.

I'm debating whether to buy it on release or wait for a sale. I'm not a diehard Bethesda fan, but I've put hundreds of hours into Skyrim and Fallout 4, loving them both.

I know Starfield isn't structured the same way, but I get the sense that I'll actually enjoy exploring, questing, and building out my ship.

@Rich33 Seems interesting for sure. I'm not smart enough to really understand anything Mark Cerny says, but I would love games to get smaller, even if it is just a byproduct of a data streaming solution. I know that the SSD was allowing for changes in game design as well (not relying on loading corridors, etc.), but because so many games up until this point were cross platform, not a lot of devs were really taking advantage of that to its fullest.

I'm legitimately excited for this one. The reboot was flawed, but really solid. I have high hopes for round 2. Same goes for Mortal Shell 2.

@Dalamar The story/writing sucks, which is typical for AC games since Origins. Yasuke is pretty boring to play as, too. But playing as Naoe is awesome - much better character and movement is the best post-Syndicate and maybe even the series.

@SuperSilverback To be fair, a lot of my time is building the hideout, haha.

We were told that file sizes would decrease with the PS5 gen and that didn't really happen. Sure, when you compare the same game to it's PS4 version, the file is smaller, but as games become more complex, the file packages get bigger. I still think that 100GB+ for a AAA game will be the norm, next gen.

Edit: For CoD, better make that 200GB+

One of the best looking games I've seen on console. I'm 150 hours in and nowhere close to even finishing the main story.

@Flaming_Kaiser I'm just gonna buy it digitally 🤷‍♂️

@gamer153 No data. Worth is a personal qualifier. I think the PS5 is worth the price because I use it daily and get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Do I think that makes it worth the price to someone else? No, but that's not what the question was asking.

And queue the completely rational comments about TLoU and Neil Druckmann.

@McDosy Mirroring what some others have pointed out, inflation is only a component of this. It's true that in a vacuum, inflation basically does take the launch prices to what they are now, but electronics have historically gotten cheaper to manufacture with time. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

Is the PS5 worth the increased price? Yes, without a doubt.

Do I hate that the console keeps getting more expensive? Yes, without a doubt.

Is it insane that people need to spend more for a machine that's 6 years old? Yes, without a doubt.

@Northern_munkey I'll have f**k all. Now the PS5, itself... that'll be a fancy looking paper weight 😂

@carlos82 no sweat. hope you're enjoying re9!

@carlos82 There are definitely pros to having games on disk, don't get me wrong. I'm not arguing for or against physical games; I was just commenting on the business justifications for why publishers might choose to do this.

@Max_the_German That's fair, but I imagine people would be even more upset than they already are if they did that.

@Max_the_German I understand the frustration, but multiply that by the amount of copies they're actually producing and that comes to a hefty chunk of change. When you're talking about economies of scale, every penny counts. I'm not saying this "justifies" the choice, but does go along way to explaining it, at the very least.

@lazarus11 I don't really know what your point is.

@lazarus11 extraction shooters are niche. multiplayer games, as a whole, dwarf single-player games in terms of revenue generated

@Shinnok789 I was using the "royal you." I didn't mean you, specifically. I don't think Americans are the only people who can make quality video games. The Witcher 3 is my favorite game of all time. I also hate my President, but to say, "they can thank their chieftain. 'nuf said" is a low effort, cheap shot.

You even have a God of War avatar - a game made by an American team.

Very excited to see more of this. I love the more grounded sci-fi angle of the Expanse universe.

@Shinnok789 No, @TrollOfWar didn't miss the point. You missed his point. It does matter where a game is made when we're talking about game budget. The cost of living in Poland is wayyy less than the USA, especially California. CDPR can pay their Polish developers way less to make the same game. Just wait to see how much Cyberpunk 2 costs, since it's being made in Boston, which is one of the most expensive places to live in the USA.

Edit: To be clear, I also think that game budgets are out of control, but if you want American talent making a game, you need to pay American wages.

I've never played Street Fighter. I'm just here to read the comments about how second-cousin romantic relationships are valid because gay people exist.

@The_Elder I loved the Intergalactic trailer and can't wait to see more. Would you like the trailer more if it was DLSS5 Yassified?

@Northern_munkey

@Northern_munkey Dude, wtf is that guy's problem? I went back to see what you might have said to set him off and all I saw was some polite advice you gave about using Rook. 🤔

@Propaperpusher I don't even know what you're referring to with "iPhone GOW."

I agree that PlayStation has really fumbled this generation. I personally love single-player games and probably spend more time playing them than multiplayer games. But PlayStation has obviously not abandoned single-player games. This generation, we have gotten Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Spider-Man 2, Returnal, God of War: Ragnarok, Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart, Lost Soul Aside, God of War: Sons of Sparta, Horizon: Forbidden West, LEGO: Horizon Adventures, Ghost of Yotei, Astro Bot, Death Stranding 2, and more. This doesn't even mention the slew of remasters and remakes that have released as well.

I get it. You don't like multiplayer games and you don't like Marathon. But you are not everyone.

You mentioned VR, but that has been a colossal failure, in terms of revenue and engagement, so that's an abysmal example to bring up.

Would I like a Marathon campaign? Yes. Duh. Of course I would. Would that have helped Marathon sell more copies? Yes, definitely. Should Marathon have been an exclusively single-player game? Absolutely not. Especially because that's clearly not what Bungie wanted to do. They haven't made single-player-focused games in like 25 years.

The reality is that Sony doesn't make a ton of money on single-player games. They may sell a decent amount of copies, but in many cases, the initial sale is the only money that is generated per customer. Games-as-a-Service (which is such a loaded and useless term nowadays) allow the publisher to further monetize the game after release, making more money. This is really simple stuff. Is that greedy? Yeah, I guess. But it's also just capitalism. Sony is a for-profit company. They exist to make money.

BUT, a game being a GaaS does not mean the game is necessarily predatory. In Marathon, the only things you can spend additional money on are cosmetics. There are no guns, maps, XP boosts, etc. offered that change the experience. It's allllll cosmetic. I haven't spent a dime more than the $40 I paid for the game and feel no reason to. If you're upset that you're spending a lot of money on games after release, than you have your own poor impulse control to blame.

If you want a complete collapse of the video game industry, so no one has any fun, then yes, please continue to wish for games to fail.

Ok, this is getting weird now.

I understand regional pricing differences. I understand PS Plus discounts. I'd even understand discounts based on which tier of PS Plus you're subscribed to.

Per-person pricing without any disclaimers or reasoning feels really dystopian and gross.

@Artois2 I honestly don't know why people think live-service is the problem. Live-service is synonymous with multiplayer. Multiplayer games dwarf single-player games in revenue generated, so that clearly isn't the problem.

With Marathon, I think it's a combination of a few things: divisive art style, very hardcore mechanics, niche genre, and a vocal hate campaign against it.

Really sad to see Marathon underperforming, but I guess it's not entirely unsurprising; just very disappointing. It really is an excellent game, but is incredibly hardcore.

I've said it before, but if Bungie wants a relatively easy cash grab to keep them afloat, I'd love to see a Destiny 1 remaster. 4K, 60FPS, improved lighting, no new content. Just rerelease everything that was available through Rise of Iron.

I've been playing through the Destiny 1 campaign recently and even though it's super campy, it just hits.

Great game, especially after all the updates. In my opinion, Lies of P is the superior game, but LotF is definitely worth your time if you like Souls-like games. It's not the easiest in the genre, but it's also nowhere near as difficult as the Nioh or First Berserker games.

Ooof. Definitely a bummer. I bet the Marathon haters on Push Square will be having a field day.

@LowDefAl Maybe. The closure could be an internal issue at the studio, but we don't know anything about what actually happened.

Yikes. What a series of blunders. We don't really know how much Hermen Hulst has to do with all these failures, but someone is really screwing the pooch. If not Hulst, someone(s) needs to be shown the door.

@RoomWithaMoose I think we're basically on the same page. The Roblox model doesn't work, anyway. I'm pretty sure they lose money hand over fist, too.

As I've said in other posts, I don't root for games to fail, but I also don't like how much market dominance a small handful of games have. If what Epic is doing now results in a smaller, but stable footprint for Fortnite, I think that benefits the industry at large.