Playstation 5 Console Discussion

[Dcubed]

Really quite remarkable to see PS5 bring in the lion's share of the RE8 opening week.  I suspect that the coming weeks will see the balance shift back in the PS4's favour, but still, it's crazy to see how fast the active userbase is transitioning over!

[Sheikah]

2 hours ago, drahkon said:

Returnal at number 3 in the US and 4 in Europe with just one day of sales in April. I really hope the actual numbers are as good as it sounds. Housemarque deserves all the success.

No surprise to see MLB The Show 21 at #1 in the US. They do love their baseball

To be honest we can't take too much from chart positions these days. As Tom Phillips (aka Tphi) from Eurogamer put the other day:

"If you're a moderately-well promoted release you'll get into the top few places of the charts with little difficulty - it's why we don't make a big deal of chart placings anymore."

It's basically a case that there are few enough copies of everything else being sold that you don't really have to sell too many copies of a new game for it to chart fairly high.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Sheikah

[Julius]

According to Hermen Hulst, more than 25 titles are in development at PlayStation Studios, nearly half of which are new IP. He also talked about navigating the transition to lockdown, and indie titles too. 

From Wired:

Quote

According to Hermen Hulst, a Guerrilla cofounder whom Jim Ryan tapped to lead PlayStation Studios in 2019, the group has more than 25 titles in development for the PS5—nearly half of which are entirely new IP. “There’s an incredible amount of variety originating from different regions,” Hulst says. “Big, small, different genres.” And in many of those cases, Sony’s shared services became a lifeline for studios navigating lockdown. Having moved all its employees home in early 2020, Guerilla Games found itself staring down the barrel of a game that hadn’t even finished its voice and performance capture, let alone play-testing. For the audio, Guerrilla shipped recording booths to the voice actors’ homes. Performance capture was tougher, since it couldn’t use its usual facilities in California, but last summer the studio moved into a new Amsterdam space they’d designed to have a motion-capture stage; that, plus some very careful hygiene, allowed them to get what they needed. And the play-testing? Well, it’s a good thing Sony had invested in cloud gaming for its streaming service PlayStation Now. “Seeing that first play test using PlayStation was a huge relief,” says Smets. “Knowing that, ‘OK, great, we can continue.’”

Earlier in the article, Jim Ryan talked about how they hope production ramps up in the latter half of the year:

Quote

In the world of gaming, PlayStation reigns supreme, but it isn’t Supreme. It’s not engineering scarcity to create marketing buzz like a streetwear company; it’s trying to get its $399 console into customers’ hands. Which is exactly why, in the same breath that he’s using to discuss how the PS5 is outpacing even its mega-selling predecessor, Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan is apologizing.

“We’re working as hard as we can to ameliorate that situation,” Ryan says on a Zoom call, mere hours after receiving his second Covid-19 vaccination shot. “We see production ramping up over the summer and certainly into the second half of the year, and we would hope to see some sort of return to normality in terms of the balance between supply and demand during that period.”

The rest of the article is well worth a read too 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Julius

[Julius]

New controller colours coming to the US on June 11th, and the UK on June 18th!

Quote

Explore new gaming frontiers and ignite your gaming nights with two new galaxy-inspired DualSense™ wireless controller colors.

Some other angles for Midnight Black:

And for Cosmic Red:

Welp. Guess I'm starting a DualSense collection then... 

...now give us face plates 

Edited May 13, 2021 by Julius

[Happenstance]

I really like that red one

[Julius]

3 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

I really like that red one

Such a lovely shade, I'm kind of tempted by both...guess I'll need to get another charging station and buy some local co-op games to justify it 

Instantly reminded me of the limited edition PS4 for MGS V, which I really liked the look of (though think the below is slightly darker? Could just be the lighting though):

Edited May 13, 2021 by Julius

[Tales]

If I hadn't already bought a second controller I would buy red one. They both look great though.

[Ashley]

I do like the red but the remaining black just makes it look like its wearing a bra.

[Cube]

The black one looks nice, but not entirely keen on the pink one.

[Julius]

Today's PlayStation Blog entry focuses on how the features of the DualSense were utilised in Returnal, and will be utilised in upcoming titles Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Subnautica: Below Zero, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Life is Strange: True Colours, Scarlet Nexus, Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 2, and Kena: Bridge of Spirits. 

 

[Mandalore]

Looked on ShopTo just now and unexpectedly found myself in a queue to order a PS5. Started at 22246th place, I wonder how much stock they actually got in.

[Julius]

1 minute ago, Mandalore said:

Looked on ShopTo just now and unexpectedly found myself in a queue to order a PS5. Started at 22246th place, I wonder how much stock they actually got in.

Just seen the same, good luck!

Seems to be for some bundles on back order, but it could be worth getting your name down even if that is the case (don't know if this will be of interest to you @Hero-of-Time, or if you'll see it in time )

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

Thanks for the heads up but I've been too busy in the lab and I don't finish until 3. I'll take a look once I get home but I'm not too fussed if I've missed out.

I told my mate about it and he managed to at least get his name down for one on back order.

[Julius]

The new controller colours are now up on Amazon UK: 

Midnight Black - £59.99

Cosmic Red - £64.99

[Cube]

I wouldn't trust ShopTo in the slightest, absolutely terrible company with zero  regards for UK law and childish customer service representatives.

[Julius]

5 minutes ago, Cube said:

I wouldn't trust ShopTo in the slightest, absolutely terrible company with zero  regards for UK law and childish customer service representatives.

I've had nothing but good experiences with them if I'm being honest, they saved me last year after Simply Games completely botched my Final Fantasy VII Remake pre-order, and I've been mostly using them for my physical games since. Being able to pre-pay on pre-orders whenever I like definitely helps with managing finances, rather than wondering where £50 randomly vanished to one day, that's for sure  I've also had positive experiences with their customer service. 

Can empathise if you've had issues with them though, after what happened with Simply Games I think I've only used them twice since, which was for Judgment (which was £10 cheaper than everywhere else) and Mass Effect Legendary Edition (which wasn't available physically on ShopTo for whatever reason). I remember reading about ShopTo not doing the greatest job with how they handled PS5 pre-orders too, though. 

Customer service and experience is a really fickle thing, one of the few certainties in life 

[Mandalore]

Back order successful. 

I was so confused when I got to the front of the queue. The site loaded like normal and I couldn't find any way of buying the PS5, I thought I must've got unlucky. Then I searched the home page and clicked on PS5 bundles and there they were. Phew.

[Julius]

Amazon UK will reportedly be restocking around 10,000 consoles on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week at 08:00/09:00. Probably one of the largest restocks since launch, so if you're still looking for a PS5, that seems like it might be your next best shout. 

Apparently the GAME drop yesterday also took an hour and a half or so to get through, and ShopTo took a good few hours today, so it's either things are starting to look up, or these are just going up at very awkward times when there's reduced site traffic 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Julius

[Sheikah]

The new controller colours are now up on Amazon UK: 
Midnight Black - £59.99
Cosmic Red - £64.99

What's this £5 tax on the colourful option?

Not really fussed about an extra controller, there's not really many co op games anymore and I tend to play with people online.

[Ike]

5 hours ago, Cube said:

I wouldn't trust ShopTo in the slightest, absolutely terrible company with zero  regards for UK law and childish customer service representatives.

To be fair, they do seem to the only retailer that is actively trying to combat scalpers. PS5 are easier to get from them as well.

I agree with the childish customer service reps though.

[Ashley]

21 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

What's this £5 tax on the colourful option?

Not really fussed about an extra controller, there's not really many co op games anymore and I tend to play with people online.

Capitalism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_tax

[Cube]

20 minutes ago, Ike said:

To be fair, they do seem to the only retailer that is actively trying to combat scalpers. PS5 are easier to get from them as well.

Their solution to scalpers is theft (according to UK laws, a full refund has to be given for cancelled orders - only exceptions are custom made items, so their "admin fee" is theft). Their actions are immensely worse than those of the scalpers. It's like people who vandalise cars for parking in bad spots. Sure, the car owner was an arsehole, but the vandal is still far worse.

[Sheikah]

ShopTo also made a complete cock up of their initial preorders, not revealing up front that you weren't guaranteed to get a console so people could have got their preorder in with ShopTo only to realise it meant nothing. With Amazon UK, everyone who ordered the console got it...sure it sold out in something like 25 minutes, but those who pre-ordered it got it (well, thefts aside).

[Ganepark32]

Starting next week, the Days of Play sale will see the likes of Sackboy, Miles Morales and Demon's Souls going on sale.

https://blog.playstation.com/2021/05/18/days-of-play-2021-activities-start-today-with-playstation-player-celebration-sale-kicks-off-may-26/

Quote

PlayStation 4 games

• Death Stranding
• Ghost of Tsushima
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Predator: Hunting Grounds
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure
• The Last of Us Part II
• Selection of PlayStation Hits games

PlayStation 5 games

• Demon’s Souls
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Ultimate Edition
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure
• The Nioh Collection

Not expecting much of a discount in them, especially as Miles Morales continues to be the go to game for those who buy a PS5 out the gate, but if it takes a 10% down to £40, I'd probably finally pick it up. More curious for Sackboy as I've had my eye on it for a while now, again not expecting much more than a 5-10% discount on it but I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

[Map]

Yeah in for Sackboy as well, been waiting for a discount. PS Plus gonna be on discount as well, time to stock up on some cheap PSN credit.