Sony Consoles and Updates

[one-armed dwarf]

I think the way it should be with MMOs is it should become legal to host your own private servers, but not monetize them perhaps.

 

But the main reason people will accept it with MMOs I think is cause the quality of that experience relies so much on the health of its community, and when the community dwindles (or changes), the quality of the game itself can diminish as well, and then it just dies.

 

You can't really turn those games into offline games. I mean, you can try, literally by running a private server on your local machine on something like FFXI, you the only person in the world. But it's a shell of an experience

 

edit, think this is what I tried before: https://github.com/LandSandBoat/server

 

So you can run that directly on your PC, or host a droplet on digital ocean or something like that and connect to that. Not like you need a beefy server with tons of cores if it's just you on it

[Maf]

This is why that Stop Killing Games campaign was happening in EU courts, which I think was rejected by those courts, which sucks.
 

But what the campaigners wanted was for online games, not just MMO’s but anything that people have paid for and requires an online component, is in case of the game failing an offline version should be offered and let the customers play as much as they want.
 

I think it’s correct that you can’t expect a company to maintain their game indefinitely but it’s also correct that people who bought it shouldn’t lose out. Even if the game is compromised or not fun without being online, it should still work and be useable even if limited 

[Sly Reflex]

 

[Maf]

The first half of the Danny’s video is a bit mixed up. Not sure what the argument is that because kids are exposed to less variety and options and get Fortnite-d and Roblox-d that’s all they play? If the idea is if cheap games existed they’d play more variety. Cheap and free games do exist. I mean everyone talks shit about Gamepass but if you want your ultimate version of Blockbuster, there it is. Maybe I missed his point

 

The second half gets on to a pure simple matter of the fact. Boxed games are cool. And even if he starts to defeat his own message that they’re not as cool now (partially right), they are still cool. I’ve never resented digital games and understand for smaller companies it makes sense. But I always buy boxed copies when I can because it’s cool. Even games I played digital first or played on Gamepass I went and bought the physical version. I played Persona 3 Reload on Gamepass or Hollow Knight and Hades on Switch and said “instant classic. Need it for the shelf”

 

I bought Guilty Gear Strive 3 times 2 digital and one PS5 boxed version. I don’t consider myself a collector because my game’s room is a mess and a lot of my stuff isn’t in the best condition but I still like having a shelf full of games

 

Coincidentally playing 3DS games this week drives the point home. The thing doesn’t connect to the internet anymore and you can’t download stuff on it, a big limitation of digital games on console. But I can pull 10-15 year games off my shelf and read the back of the boxes and plug the thing in and it’s part of the experience that makes games fun. I don’t want to call it ritualistic but there’s something about cartridges (especially) and discs where is like - what he is saying in the video - is just cool   

[Sly Reflex]

https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/business_segment_meeting/pdf/2026/GNS_QA_E.pdf

 

There's some interesting stuff in here. I've pulled a few of the ones that I thought were of interest.

 

The bit that stuck out to me was this. 

 

Quote

Q: How can you bring back to the PlayStation platform users who migrated to gaming PCs during the COVID period? In aiming for profit growth, are there limitations on what can be done in the short term, or do you see the potential for more significant changes with the next-generation platform?

A: PlayStation has long been strongly associated with the idea of playing in the living room. However, in recent years, more users globally have been using personal monitors. In response, we are selling peripherals such as monitors and speakers to break away from the fixed perception that “PlayStation equals the living room” and to broaden usage scenarios. For the next-generation platform, rather than simply serving as an alternative to PCs, we aim to deliver value that is unique to PlayStation. This includes not only technological advancements but also an expansion of usage styles, enabling a seamless experience that can be enjoyed naturally beyond the living room.

 

They're completely dodging the real question in this section. You could always do what they are saying, and if PC players want they can put through a TV too, so that whole thing is bollocks.

 

"We aim to deliver value that is unique to Playstation", yeah, by stopping releasing games on PC. That just made it worse for the end consumer. There's not as many people that are going to drop nearly a grand on a PS to play whatever games they are interested on that are PS console exclusives. They are either in or they are not. Sure, there's going to be a few that have both, but if you're thinking people will swap when they are already entrenched in wherever they are, you're out of your mind.

 

Essentially they are trying to strong arm players that are unlikely to be strong armed and I feel that's such a cop out, saying "Well if they want to play on a monitor we'll sell them a Sony monitor with Playstation branding on so they can play their PS6 through it" is such a shit take.

 

Remember how arrogant Sony were after the PS2 era? I'm hoping they eat a shit sandwich next gen like they did for most of the PS3 generation. I have no idea if this is tone deaf or them just being deluded or not, but it leaves such a bad taste in my mouth.

 

Question 3 where they talk about propriety stuff sounds like they like huffing their own farts. It's like they learned zero lessons from the Betamax, UMD, ATRAC, Minidisk, WM Ports, a whole host of memory sticks and Vita carts on top of a load of cables that worked with one thing and one thing only. In fact I think the only successful one they've ever done is Bluray, everything else ended up getting abandoned. There's probably a glut more that I never had to deal with because they were replaced my the more common sense standardisation. 

 

Question 2 tells you everything you need to know on the cost of the next Playstation. "We're not footing these price rises, you can.".

 

There's a load of other corpo speak and spin in there if you want to read it all. They talk about eroding confidence by trying not to make things worse, whilst actively talk about making things worse and more expensive for everyone partaking.

 

Fuck off, Sony. 

[DANGERMAN]

there's something very alien about looking at pc players and thinking it's the monitor that's the attraction 

[Maf]

The PlayStation Twitter stuff is so funny

 

The post they made on the end of physical media exploded in negativity, and they went on record silence for 5 days because of the backlash 100’s of millions of views, 100k comments, everybody dogpiling them. People want a u-turn, a response, engagement, anything. The audience won’t let up

 

5 days later (Today) PS put out a tweet for that fight stick they’re doing because Tokon is coming out. Massive traffic and all of it is still people dogpiling them for the physical media stuff. 
 

PS reposted about Doom, and still got community noted 

 

 

I love that they’re getting so much shit and people won’t let up. Surely they have to formally address this. The original tweet/announcement about discs got more comments than PS5 sales 

[one-armed dwarf]

The thing I read about the disc stuff is they were shutting down factories used in manufacturing, and training staff at them in other areas.

 

I think the best hope is they (somewhat) set minds at ease with a solution to obtain digital versions of physical games for people who have their physical libraries, but they won't walk this back entirely

 

This should be the bare minimum though and it's kinda disgusting to have silence on it. I already am put off by Sony cause it feels like I'm losing games I bought each generation due to bad backwards compatibility and now it looks even worse

[regemond]

5 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

I already am put off by Sony cause it feels like I'm losing games I bought each generation due to bad backwards compatibility and now it looks even worse

 

This is my biggest thing. If they're dropping disc support altogether, does that mean there's not gonna be a way to play my collection of PS4 and 5 games? Will they do a disc add-on that gives me a digital version of my owned game? Or does the use of a disc go as far as hoping my PS4/5 never dies?

 

In which case, disc is no better than digital, because there's a finite number of working consoles available. I know it's a bit of an extreme case, but I'd love to go back through my PS3 games, but I don't have a console I can reliably use. It just makes me want to buy a used working one, jailbreak it and download "backups" to a HDD.

[Sly Reflex]

3 hours ago, regemond said:

This is my biggest thing. If they're dropping disc support altogether, does that mean there's not gonna be a way to play my collection of PS4 and 5 games?

 

I wonder if they are going to line up the a Sony flavoured "Fortunately, we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity. It's called Xbox 360." like Don Mattrick did back in the day? Although honestly they don't give a fuck. They know this will blow over and you'll all buy the PS6. The outrage will die down once the next big thing comes for people to be angry about.

 

3 hours ago, regemond said:

...but I'd love to go back through my PS3 games, but I don't have a console I can reliably use. It just makes me want to buy a used working one, jailbreak it and download "backups" to a HDD.

 

RPCS3 might be also worth a look if you don't have a working PS3 knocking about too, if you're looking to play backup's  . It's supposedly very good. I've never used it so I don't know. Might even be able to get it up and running on the steamdeck and play almost everything at a relative quality aside from those games that straddled gens. 

[one-armed dwarf]

I've used it, but I had to upgrade my CPU before I could get decent performance but it might be the games I was playing

 

I think CFW on OG hardware is the way to go, I'll probably do the same at some point.

[Maf]

Speaking of 

 

 

[regemond]

15 hours ago, Sly Reflex said:

They know this will blow over and you'll all buy the PS6.

Only because Rosie's games ticked past 4,000 recently, so as long as they do digital BC for PS4 and 5 I've got a literal lifetime of games to keep me occupied. 

[Sly Reflex]

You'll get a freebie anyway even though every other cunt ends up paying £1200 for one.  

[one-armed dwarf]

Man, more bad news

 

https://www.thegamer.com/playstation-6-store-121-countries-wont-have-access/

 

Similar to the situation with Tokon, although I was reading with that game that some of the countries blocked are now unblocked. So there's a potential upside that Sony are working on fixing this before PS6 I reckon

[one-armed dwarf]

There's no thread on that Horizon Hunter's game, but it's either being rebooted or, potentially, cancelled. Because they have until December to impress execs with the direction change, which began in June (in the article)

 

 

[Maf]

I never got the impression that Horizon was a mainstream title, and held more of a blockbuster video game audience, who generally dislikes F2P stuff. Seems like a mismatch all the way around 

[Nag]

Can't say I'm surprised, I really like the Horizon games but I've no interest in this whatsoever. 

[Maf]

If they had made a monster hunter style co-op mode as Forbidden West DLC or as an optional feature in Horizon 3, I think that would make sense. Trying a mobile Fortnite/looter shooter thing doesn’t. Sony seems to not understand how to nurture products, they just go whole hog 

[DANGERMAN]

I know Concord failed, but I just don't think spinning off one of their franchises in to an online thing is the way to go, they're the opposite of that. They'd be better doing something new and hoping that it catches