Sheikah

I think the promise of these games to come will be a big selling factor for PS5.

Rule number one of trolls is to never engage. I know, I should be the last one giving this advice. [emoji14]

Fantastic showing. That's how you do it! So many games, really promising! Looks like it is coming out this year after all @Dcubed. [emoji14] Actually can't wait for this, I'm all in now. Only thing I'll say is that the console design itself I expect to be divisive!

I'm keeping expectations very much in check. Sony have never had strong launches and we saw recently that many studios don't seem to know what "gameplay" is when they showed their teasers. Any interesting new games we see are a bonus for me.

What does who brought up inflation have to do with anything? The price difference is small whether you account for inflation or not (and you should account for it, because that's how money works). But this isn't the point here. £450 sold fine to enthusiasts in 2017, so we can expect £500 to do the same trick in 2020. And early adopters are nothing if not enthusiasts. Yes you can. As others have also said to you, at launch it is targeting enthusiasts. Once the price drops in a few years it becomes more mainstream. If you look at total console sales at the end of the life of a console, only a small sliver will be sold in the first year. I'm not saying price doesn't matter but they will price in line with their competition. Their main priority will be appearing good value compared to the competition, and less about being good value in the minds of bargain hunters. As others have said the world was very different at the PS3 launch so this is no longer a valid comparison. But you just said we can't consider inflation when comparing the Xbox One X and PS5? Which means, keeping price comparisons constant, we should expect the PS5 to be a lot more expensive than the One X since it has better tech like an SSD. If it ended up being £500 then that's not much more expensive, and would appear very good value in comparison.

It's only £50 cheaper but if you account for inflation it's only £20 cheaper. So the £50 cheaper argument disappears. And you're right it's a different sell, but in a good way. This is a new generation meant to last for 7+ years, with better tech like SSDs. In that way it's a lot easier to sell a more expensive console than it was the Xbox One X in 2017. They also only need to sell to so many people at that price (i.e. early adopters). The price will eventually go down after a couple of years. Mobile phones are also mainstream products and more expensive than £500 for the most part, and replaced much more often. I don't see £500 as a launch price for the early adopters being an issue, if that ends up being the price. That said, it honestly wouldn't surprise me if Sony price PS5 less than this. Microsoft will have a cheaper model as another option so it would make sense if Sony price their console lower than the Series X.

Interesting, it's a Goron vs Dcubed price guess showdown. Let me grab the popcorn. [emoji14]

It's interesting you say that when Xbox One X released at just £50 less - I'm guessing you never found that prohibitively expensive? And that was just for a mid generation refresh with only a few years left before the next consoles would replace it. And that didn't even have an SSD! Positioned like that, if next gen consoles end up being £500 then that will be good value for money by comparison. I think the One X probably sold moderately well, so that's likely a good indicator of how things are now. People now are more conditioned to spend. Also back when PS3 launched, 599 USD was a lot, and a lot more than the competition. The base 360 model was only $299! Half the price, which is insane. Now we can expect both consoles to be priced high because of the similar tech they both have, so I don't think we can expect the same situation again.

I think if they targeted something like £399 then the spec would not be up to scratch (like that's how much it would cost without an SSD).

Nokia N-Gage, obviously.

Wasn't sure where to put this, but @drahkon Slay the Spire is coming to mobile this month. Have to say, I think it would be the perfect fit for mobile since you're purely selecting things and not moving around a character.

My advice is don't bother. It is more efficient to level up later on stronger monsters. Plus there are humongous monsters even in the starter area, we're talking like Level 80 and above, that you won't be able to touch even if you grind early on.

Oh man, if you ever want to despair at humanity, have a look at some of the responses to that tweet. So many people saying #AllLivesMatter and missing the point entirely. I don't know, can't they maybe teach "how to not be a dipshit" in schools?

Yeah it's become difficult to justify a purchase of two of these consoles (Switch excluded). Price, and the fact they have their own subscriptions and friends lists...and that they play a lot of the same games. You kind of pick the one that has the extra things you want over the other.

Totally agree, this has gotten off topic. I'm really here for the speculation. Come next Thursday these topics are going to be interesting. [emoji14]

Oh, I know what I say bothers you, otherwise you wouldn't always make these posts complaining about people being negative. [emoji4] You're the kind of person that can't have a good time if anyone says anything negative about the thing you like.

Hey, I said Microsoft will have the superior BC option and that Game Pass is a good deal. I'm sorry if the other things I said bothered you, but they're all true, and worth discussing in my opinion. The strategy these consoles are taking is fascinating in my opinion.

Absolutely, my in laws will be visiting our garden next week. We have all been in our homes for months now, getting online shops and not coming into contact with anyone, so any risk here will be extremely low.

Hey now, there's nothing abusive or personal about the posting here. This topic is probably the most activity the forum has seen all month outside of the Animal Crossing topics. [emoji6]

You said that you could see half of PS4's install base switching to Xbox - that would then put Xbox in the lead. Xbox has never been in the lead by the end, because in all honesty there are too many territories that just won't touch it, or don't have much love for the brand. Even when PS3 dropped the ball, like you said, it still went on to outsell the X360. I don't expect PS5 to drop the ball like that (especially given the architecture is similar to Series X), so I'm not expecting a seismic shift this time around. Backwards compatibility also makes it very easy to stick with your current platform. If I go out and buy a PS5 at launch, I can continue to play Overwatch with all my PlayStation friends, regardless of whether they also picked up a PS5 at launch or not. Whereas in the past it was very easy to switch systems, I feel like now there has to be something dramatic to make a lot of people want to switch. One last thing - you talk about the casual crowd being all-important. Just to weigh in on this, take a look at the top selling PS4 games. PlayStation exclusives make up 8 out of the top 10 selling games on the system. The top selling COD game on the PS4 (COD: WWII) in fact is only the 20th best selling game on the PS4. Obviously doesn't include sales from other platforms for these multiplatform games, but it shows of those who have a PS4, more are buying the exclusives than the so called casual titles. Clearly then people like PlayStation exclusives - they're the top selling games on the system. When they come to buy the next generation console do you think a lot of them are going to gamble on the chance Xbox's new studios turn up something good instead of sticking with what they have? And throw away their friends list? To me this seems incredibly unlikely, like it would need a very severe cock up to bring about.

You said if the Series X were made to be more attractive to this casual crowd, you suspect half would jump ship. There is no way half would jump ship. Xbox is just not popular enough in a lot of territories, it never has been.

I'll hold you to this because that sounds like one hell of a crazy prediction. [emoji14] Half of the PS4 install base to jump ship? [emoji33] Xbox has never outsold PlayStation in any generation, for what it's worth. Xbox may as well not exist in Japan, and Europe has always very much been fortress PlayStation.

Unfortunately you get no points for trying in this game - they need to deliver the games this time or else they'll probably be handing it to Sony again this generation. Especially with the consoles seemingly being quite close - exclusives are going to make a big difference. At the end of the day it's a niche feature that people think of favourably but in reality hardly utilise. It's a strange one because it's undoubtedly a "nice" thing to have, but I honestly can't say I would want Sony to focus on delivering PS1 and PS2 disc compatibility if it meant directing time and resources away from other projects. On the subject of Game Pass - while it's a really good deal (while Microsoft continue to subsidise it), we haven't seen it shift the balance this generation. I'm not sure it will do what Microsoft want it to do.

That's fair enough, but I'm not particularly convinced that these studios will deliver on the same level as Sony's established studios who have already proven themselves. It's also hard to forget that Microsoft shut down a bunch of studios and games this generation - so there's no guarantee their games will all see the light of day. I'm interested in your take on that image I posted though. Do you still think Sony are unwillingly getting left behind in terms of comprehensive BC, or just not interested because it's not that popular a feature?

I'm just going to leave this here as well. [Source]. Microsoft would do well to invest the time and money into developing exclusives instead of pursuing such comprehensive BC, in my opinion.