Playstation 5 Console Discussion

[Julius]

25 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, Jim is a massive step down from both Shawn and Jack, both of which looked to be enjoying what they were doing. Jim just seems cold and calculated. He may do well for the business but from a consumer perspective he doesn't sit right with me.

He's also probably got one of the most naturally smug faces I've seen in a while, and who can forget this? 

Am I the only one who thinks he looks like he could be Gordon Ramsay's long lost older brother? 

25 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Remember, this was the guy who questioned why anyone would want to play older/retro games when newer ones were on the market. 

Must be a Newcastle fan, because he's definitely a magpie 

It's just so frustratingly tone deaf. I mean, who would have thought that an industry growing in size year on year would have a massive potential audience looking to experience older games? 

Edited March 30, 2022 by Julius

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, Jim is a massive step down from both Shawn and Jack, both of which looked to be enjoying what they were doing. Jim just seems cold and calculated. He may do well for the business but from a consumer perspective he doesn't sit right with me.

His comment about how the games look and play is hilarious. Remember, this was the guy who questioned why anyone would want to play older/retro games when newer ones were on the market. 

No lies detected.

Quote

Jim Ryan: "When we've dabbled with backwards compatibility, I can say it is one of those features that is much requested, but not actually used much," said Ryan.

"That, and I was at a Gran Turismo event recently where they had PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 games, and the PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?"

Also Jim Ryan:  "But there are people like me who have been around forever, who have played those games and loved those games 20-odd years ago. Or maybe it's people whose parents rave on about these games and want to try them for themselves. Once we can share the line-up with the world, we think there's going to be a lot of interest in that."

The guy is a two-faced lying cunt.

[Julius]

Recently acquired Firesprite look to be making a AAA horror game in Unreal Engine 5, according to some job listings on their website. 

Quote

We are looking for a Narrative Director to join our development team for a AAA narrative driven horror-adventure game in Unreal 5.  The Narrative Director is responsible for the project storytelling, helping establish & consider the game's universe and lore, with responsibility for the quality implementation of narrative content for project milestones and ultimately the game's release.

Interesting. It's definitely a genre PlayStation themselves haven't tackled recently at a first party level, so hopefully we see some more weird games in genres they aren't currently tackling in the works, too. 

[Julius]

Turns out you can still get 12 months of PS Now through the PS Store (browser, not app) for it's RRP of £49.99 and stack it to your heart's content, if anyone was looking for PS Now subscriptions with an eye on getting the PS+ Premium upgrade in June. This is half the price of the upcoming annual subscription for PS+ Premium (£99.99), though you'd technically only get 10 months of Premium rather than 12 if you signed up right now (as it immediately activates). 

Just need to log into the PS Store in your browser and then go to the below UK link, to stack you just need to buy one annual subscription and then open the link again to buy a second, etc. 

Don't think I'll be biting just yet as I want to see what's being offered first in terms of games, but figured I'd share 

EDIT: never mind, stacked 2 years. There's virtually no way that we're going to see PS+ Premium at half price in the next year and a half, and also gives me a chance to test the streaming for PS3 games. 

EDIT 2: tried out God of War HD for 20 minutes as I figured it'd be a decent test for a combat heavy game, and yeah, that's perfectly fine being streamed. Think these older games might have another issue I didn't think of before, which is how the triggers have changed over the years, as it feels super weird tapping R2 considering the trigger depth on the DualSense compared to when I do so on the DualShock 3. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Julius

[Sheikah]

13 hours ago, Julius said:

Turns out you can still get 12 months of PS Now through the PS Store (browser, not app) for it's RRP of £49.99 and stack it to your heart's content, if anyone was looking for PS Now subscriptions with an eye on getting the PS+ Premium upgrade in June. This is half the price of the upcoming annual subscription for PS+ Premium (£99.99), though you'd technically only get 10 months of Premium rather than 12 if you signed up right now (as it immediately activates). 

Just need to log into the PS Store in your browser and then go to the below UK link, to stack you just need to buy one annual subscription and then open the link again to buy a second, etc. 

Don't think I'll be biting just yet as I want to see what's being offered first in terms of games, but figured I'd share 

EDIT: never mind, stacked 2 years. There's virtually no way that we're going to see PS+ Premium at half price in the next year and a half, and also gives me a chance to test the streaming for PS3 games. 

EDIT 2: tried out God of War HD for 20 minutes as I figured it'd be a decent test for a combat heavy game, and yeah, that's perfectly fine being streamed. Think these older games might have another issue I didn't think of before, which is how the triggers have changed over the years, as it feels super weird tapping R2 considering the trigger depth on the DualSense compared to when I do so on the DualShock 3. 

It's worth noting as well that you can get a fiver off for each year (so 45 quid each) if you buy store credit first from somewhere like ShopTo.

This is something I'd be jumping on if I had less than a year of Plus left. I'm stacked up for quite a few years though, seeing as they were selling 12 month cards for 30 quid not too far back.

It would be nice if Sony offer some kind of fixed fee to upgrade your remaining regular Plus time to the top tier, regardless of how many years left you have left on your sub. This being Sony I can't see them matching the generosity of Microsoft though. Sony are the company charging 70 quid for new first party releases...

Edited April 4, 2022 by Sheikah

[Julius]

Looks like the PlayStation Plus library of classics is beginning to take shape, with Syphon Filter 1 and 2, Dark Mirror, and Logan's Shadow being rated in Korea. 

Feel like these are going to be a long next few weeks until we get an official update on the line-up! 

[Julius]

Update on the new PS+ regional rollout plan (spoilers: Europe gets it last on June 22nd):

Quote

Update: We’re making fantastic progress with our launch efforts and I wanted to update you on the
latest. We’re rolling out our new offering for PlayStation Plus a little earlier in select markets in Asia,
followed by Japan. Here is a look at our updated regional rollout schedule.

• Asia markets (excluding Japan) – targeting May 23, 2022
• Japan – targeting June 1, 2022
• Americas – targeting June 13, 2022
• Europe – targeting June 22, 2022

Additionally, we’re also expanding our cloud streaming access to the following locations for a total
of 30 markets with cloud streaming access**. The following markets will also offer the Premium tier
from PlayStation Plus at launch: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland,
Republic of Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

We’ve been working on this massive global effort to provide flexible options, quality games and
greater value for our members for quite some time now – and we’re just a few weeks away from
our first regional rollout. We want to thank our PlayStation community for the ongoing support, and
we’ll have more to share as we get closer to launch. 

...

As this is a massive launch effort, we’re rolling out the new PlayStation Plus offering in a phased regional approach. In the June timeframe, we’ll begin with an initial launch in several markets in Asia, followed by North America, Europe and the rest of the world where PlayStation Plus is offered. We aim to have most PlayStation Network territories live with our new PlayStation Plus game subscription service by the end of the first half of 2022. We also plan to expand our cloud streaming benefit to additional markets, and will provide more details at a later date.  

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

Date means nothing without a list of games available. It's the one thing people are waiting for before deciding whether to subscribe or not.

[Julius]

15 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Date means nothing without a list of games available. It's the one thing people are waiting for before deciding whether to subscribe or not.

Sony's expectations for reactions to a PlayStation Blog update like this:

The reality:

I totally agree, a couple of weeks of extra waiting kind of sucks, but they're missing the only part that really matters: just show us the damn games, Sony!

We now already expect the games rated yesterday, and now we're just going to hear about more games being rated for the next 2-3 weeks before they reveal what we can actually expect? Seems like that could very easily backfire to me 

[Sheikah]

Isn't it likely that they're working on making games compatible still? So they may not have a list until shortly before it launches. We only found out shortly before launch of the PS5 which PS4 games were actually compatible/incompatible (in the end only a few didn't work), which makes me think they work on it up until launch.

I'm also thinking that announcing which games you can play shortly before it actually launches might create hype at the right time.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Sheikah

[Julius]

2 hours ago, Sheikah said:

Isn't it likely that they're working on making games compatible still? So they may not have a list until shortly before it launches. We only found out shortly before launch of the PS5 which PS4 games were actually compatible/incompatible (in the end only a few didn't work), which makes me think they work on it up until launch.

Well, yeah, I think that's exactly what's happening: they're taking hundreds of games, which will take time, and, like you said, we've seen them take a similar approach with how discussion of backwards compatibility was handled for the PS5 in the year leading up to its launch. I have to imagine that negotiations with third parties are probably ongoing too, and their games will need to then be tested to the same standard, and so on. 

However, if that's the case, what was the need to announce this PS+ overhaul and catalogue of retro games when they did, with nothing but rough numbers and a pricing structure to announce? It was almost purely an announcement for investors, not consumers, and while I know a lot of stuff like this does happen, I think it's such a poor way to handle it. 

You get one chance to announce a product (and the alternative for a second announcement is basically limited to add-ons or a relaunch), and I think they kind of botched it. Now, will it matter to the long-term success of this service? No, not at all - PS+ has plenty of users already, and at worst, if no-one uses the higher tiers, they get the same revenue as they currently do. The difference with this and how they talked about backwards compatibility on PS5 is that this is the product - these games are the differentiators between tiers! The unique selling point of one tier over another is that you get access to PS1/PS2/PSP games in one and basically just PS+ as it is otherwise in another, and you get PS3 games in the top tier. Knowing what those games are going to be is a huge - arguably the main and defining - factor in a consumer choosing the top tier over the middle tier, or the middle tier over the bottom tier. 

The thing for me is that there was nothing really gained by announcing it as early as they did when compared with its launch date when having very few details about the service to actually share. I look at this service and I know that it's not a true competitor to Xbox Game Pass - though it certainly could transform into that one day - but the lack of details invites those questions which a truly defined and calculated announcement would instantly squash, because comparisons to a service like that as things stand aren't going to be favourable. You compare it to how they talked about backwards compatibility on PS5, and I do think it's a good point of comparison - remember just how many people came away swearing up and down that PS5 would only have 100 games available through backwards compatibility for PS4 games? There are also questions around UI, how it functions (is PS3 on the service going to be like PS Now where you get a virtual PS3?), and also what it's running on, and if anything has been improved. We don't even know if we should expect this to be HD! 

I don't think they needed to announce every game for the service, but 5 - 20 titles being shown off from the get-go I feel would have answered a lot of questions, especially first party games, which really should be in the bag and should be the easiest ones for them to deal with getting over the line. 

3 hours ago, Sheikah said:

I'm also thinking that announcing which games you can play shortly before it actually launches might create hype at the right time.

See, while I agree, I think this is what any third party games coming to the service should have been saved for. I think if they came out guns blazing it would have been great, but it would leave them with little else to confirm, so I think they should have considered showing off the basics (UI, confirming spec details, etc.) and a handful of first party titles which were ready to go alongside the announcement. I think third party titles is likely what they're in the process of confirming right now, so I think those titles in particular should have been the final thing to go out with on a bang before the service launch: "oh, by the way, we've been talking to our friends at Capcom/Konami/Square Enix, and can confirm that Mega Man Legends/Metal Gear Solid/Xenogears are coming to the service, alongside these other titles from them." 

And thing is, the longer you leave it from announcement to concrete details, you do create space for doubt and features being undervalued. For example, going back to PS4 backwards compatibility on PS5 - I wasn't really excited by the prospect by the time we had concrete confirmation that we should expect most PS4 games to work perfectly fine on a PS5, and if anything I would describe myself as being relieved that was the case, especially in the face of Xbox having clear messaging from the start with Series X (they have other issues, but how they communicated backwards compatibility on the system was not one). And even after getting that confirmation, we still got reports which instilled some fear about certain PS4 games having an asterisk next to them when played on a PS5. 

My expectations right now for the service are low, sure, but when they announce things like God of War, Ratchet & Clank, etc. - first party titles I would expect to see on the service seeing as they're already on PS Now - it won't be excitement I'll be feeling, but relief. I'm now not letting myself get excited by the prospect of the potential of third party games coming to the service, but hesitant.

While I get why they've done what they've done, I just don't think it was the best way it could have been handled, and considering how much potential revenue is at stake through upgraded subscriptions, I'm surprised this is how they've decided to communicate the service. At least it shouldn't be too long now before we get those details seeing as it's launching in Asia on 23rd May? 

[Sheikah]

I think you are overestimating the amount of damage an early announcement does, purely because the majority of people do not stay abreast of gaming-related news. 

Most people who will eventually sign up for it probably don't know about it yet or at the very least just know it's happening but haven't thought much beyond that. What really sells is games - if they announce a few weeks before "here's this service and you'll be able to play these old games" then anyone who wants to play those old games might subscribe. I don't think how they handled the original announcement will really play into how well the subscription is received. I don't remember Game Pass being a big deal when it first launched either, it more or less evolved into being a great service.

[Dcubed]

Sony could've at least announced a selection of the games that will be available... I mean, sure, I get that they don't yet know the full list of what can be made available on day 1, owing to technical and licensing reasons; but that doesn't mean that they can't afford to at least announce a selection of them.

It's hard to get excited for a retro service where you have no idea of what will be available, or what emulation features will be made available.  It wasn't exactly announced in the most enticing fashion that it could've and should've been.

Of course, this will all be forgotten once it releases; as long as the game selection is good and the emulation is of good quality.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Dcubed

[Julius]

2 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

I think you are overestimating the amount of damage an early announcement does, purely because the majority of people do not stay abreast of gaming-related news. 

Most people who will eventually sign up for it probably don't know about it yet or at the very least just know it's happening but haven't thought much beyond that. What really sells is games - if they announce a few weeks before "here's this service and you'll be able to play these old games" then anyone who wants to play those old games might subscribe. I don't think how they handled the original announcement will really play into how well the subscription is received. I don't remember Game Pass being a big deal when it first launched either, it more or less evolved into being a great service.

I think we're talking about different things here: you're justifying why PlayStation have done what they already have, and I'm saying what I think could have done to handle it better.

I even said - and agree with you - that how they've handled it will have no bearing on the long-term success of the service 

31 minutes ago, Julius said:

Now, will it matter to the long-term success of this service? No, not at all...

Again, I'm not saying that they needed to announce every single game, because while it would be nice, I just don't think it's practical for a service like this, especially with third parties involved. But like @Dcubed suggests, I think we could have had a handful of games announced - or, even better, shown - alongside the initial announcement, because again, the introduction of this catalogue of games is what PlayStation is using to justify having higher tiers for PS+ and is the main thing which differentiates between the tiers. 

The downside to putting out so few details is that it simply opens the door to rampant speculation, which is in itself dangerous for a service (especially in this day and age where things spread like wildfire and you have extreme fans on both ends); it not having a long-term impact isn't a good justification for poor communication. For backwards compatibility on PS5 you saw the full spectrum based on the minimal details we had for the longest time, ranging from "pffft why would you get a PS5 with only 100 games available through backwards compatibility?" to "they still haven't said 'no' to PS1/PS2/PS3 backwards compatibility!". Along similar lines here with these PS+ changes, you've got a full range of speculation from "oh we should only expect what's available on PS Now with a couple of PSP games thrown in, on a shoddy emulator at best" to "dare we dream for some awesome and rare JRPGs to be on this service?". 

[Sheikah]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

I think we're talking about different things here: you're justifying why PlayStation have done what they already have, and I'm saying what I think could have done to handle it better.

I even said - and agree with you - that how they've handled it will have no bearing on the long-term success of the service 

Again, I'm not saying that they needed to announce every single game, because while it would be nice, I just don't think it's practical for a service like this, especially with third parties involved. But like @Dcubed suggests, I think we could have had a handful of games announced - or, even better, shown - alongside the initial announcement, because again, the introduction of this catalogue of games is what PlayStation is using to justify having higher tiers for PS+ and is the main thing which differentiates between the tiers. 

The downside to putting out so few details is that it simply opens the door to rampant speculation, which is in itself dangerous for a service (especially in this day and age where things spread like wildfire and you have extreme fans on both ends); it not having a long-term impact isn't a good justification for poor communication. For backwards compatibility on PS5 you saw the full spectrum based on the minimal details we had for the longest time, ranging from "pffft why would you get a PS5 with only 100 games available through backwards compatibility?" to "they still haven't said 'no' to PS1/PS2/PS3 backwards compatibility!". Along similar lines here with these PS+ changes, you've got a full range of speculation from "oh we should only expect what's available on PS Now with a couple of PSP games thrown in, on a shoddy emulator at best" to "dare we dream for some awesome and rare JRPGs to be on this service?". 

Ok but then, if you agree that the initial reveal will have no real effect on how well the subscription is received, does it actually matter how they handled the reveal?

From their perspective I think they only needed people to generally know "it's coming", which they achieved. Whether people actually subscribe or not will depend on the games, which will eventually be revealed, possibly close to release. And they have the greatest chance of impressing when they can give a full list - which they can do only close to launch of the service. 

The hype of revealing the games included right before release could also be very favourable for them in terms of getting subscribers; people who will have seen the announcement of a retro game they used to love and who immediately then go on to subscribe.

I know people would like to have seen some games "definitely coming" announced at the reveal, but I almost think putting little information out there works in a way - they're not selling anything at the point of reveal so they don't necessarily need to convince people at that stage. Dare I say it, there's even intrigue among the gaming community now, who are now more tuned into finding out more (exactly what will be on the service).  

Let them do a blowout close to launch, I say.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Sheikah

[Sheikah]

Anyone seen the announcement that if you have both Plus and PS Now, come June, you'll get Plus Premium and it'll expire whenever the longest sub runs to?

So I had my Plus sub stacked until 2025 already. I went and bought a 3-month Now sub from Eneba and redeemed that, so once June rolls round I should get Plus Premium until 2025 at no extra cost.

[Eddage]

6 hours ago, Sheikah said:

Anyone seen the announcement that if you have both Plus and PS Now, come June, you'll get Plus Premium and it'll expire whenever the longest sub runs to?

So I had my Plus sub stacked until 2025 already. I went and bought a 3-month Now sub from Eneba and redeemed that, so once June rolls round I should get Plus Premium until 2025 at no extra cost.

Awesome!

3 months PlayStation Now looks to be a little cheaper at CD Keys though, there's also a one month option. 

Edit: Nevermind, just realised CD Keys is out of stock!

Edited April 28, 2022 by Eddage

[Sheikah]

Awesome!
3 months PlayStation Now looks to be a little cheaper at CD Keys though, there's also a one month option. 
Edit: Nevermind, just realised CD Keys is out of stock!

Just to note you will need more than one month as you'll need the Now sub to run through to end of June. You need to have an active Now sub at the point they switch over to this new tier system.

[drahkon]

Another thing: You can't increase your PS+ subs right now, in case you wanted to stack up.
You can't renew your sub right now, either. I guess that info was wrong.

Edited April 28, 2022 by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

12 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Another thing: You can't increase your PS+ subs right now, in case you wanted to stack up.
You can't renew your sub right now, either. I guess that info was wrong.

Yeah, I was reading about this last night. It appears Sony had seen what people were doing and blocked the increase of PS+ subscriptions. Kinda highlights just what a mess this whole thing has been. Surely they should have seen this coming?

[drahkon]

2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, I was reading about this last night. It appears Sony had seen what people were doing and blocked the increase of PS+ subscriptions. Kinda highlights just what a mess this whole thing has been. Surely they should have seen this coming?

Maybe this, maybe there's a bug in system which made them block it.

We can't know. Which sucks, because we should be in the know

Sony have been incredibly good with their PS5 marketing, but their sub marketing is ass.

[Sheikah]

Oh that's a bit rubbish. I was thinking of extending my Plus sub time further, glad I didn't bother now. Seems ridiculous as now anyone who does legitimately want to redeem Plus sub codes actually can't? Maybe you are still allowed to redeem them if your sub has expired?

[Ronnie]

This is the kind of thing they'll backtrack on in a couple of days because of the backlash. It's a terrible look for them. How do you not anticipate this happening?? How do you stop people from redeeming codes they purchased? More terrible marketing/messaging. 

Edited April 28, 2022 by Ronnie

[Hero-of-Time]

4 hours ago, drahkon said:

Maybe this, maybe there's a bug in system which made them block it.

We can't know. Which sucks, because we should be in the know

Sony have been incredibly good with their PS5 marketing, but their sub marketing is ass.

According to PushSquare, it looks like its intentional and not a bug.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/04/sony-blocks-subscription-stacking-as-pre-paid-ps-plus-cards-stop-working-on-ps5-ps4

[Sheikah]

This is the kind of thing they'll backtrack on in a couple of days because of the backlash. It's a terrible look for them. How do you not anticipate this happening?? How do you stop people from redeeming codes they purchased? More terrible marketing/messaging. 

I think the thing about this service is that you can stack almost infinitely (or at least far longer), versus 3 years for Microsoft. They should definitely have anticipated this and it's not a good look, but I can imagine this would really hurt them if they let people continue to stack away.