Playstation 5 Console Discussion

[Julius]

10 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

As an aside, isn't it about time for Playstation to announce some first party games? We have their usual third person openworld fare in Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine coming. And I think that's it? Surely they won't go all year with just Spidey?

I don't really think they're going to be in any rush this year to make announcements, to be honest. This could easily be wrong come some surprise State of Play next month but...eh, I'm not holding out for one. 

For one thing, I feel like the first half of their year is going to be understandably concentrated on a big push for the PSVR2 (launching next month), which I think faces a bit of an uphill battle in the face of everything going on with the global economy – I'm happily letting it and the Edge controller pass me by until things calm down a bit. With that they can push first- and third-party exclusives like Resident Evil 8 VR, Horizon Call of the Mountain, Gran Turismo 7 VR, and plenty more. 

Outside of that, in terms of software for the PS5 proper, you're right in thinking that it looks a bit thin on the ground, because I think right now there's only the Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC (April) and Spider-Man 2 (Fall) announced to be coming this year from their first-party studios. Oh, and MLB The Show I guess? I think there's the potential for a smattering more this year, like the The Last of Us live service game, potentially something from Bluepoint (this really depends on if the team has been sized up after their acquisition and if their next title is a remake/remaster or something original) as Demon's Souls was 2020 and they've never gone more than three years without releasing a new title, and I would seriously hope something from Asobi for Astro at this point, considering there's literally nothing else for those fine folks to be working on right now and Playroom was a lovely but shorter pack-in title, like you said.

I'm sure there's room for a surprise or two throughout the year from them, but as always with PlayStation, their third-party marketing and exclusivity deals definitely takes a bit of the weight off their shoulders from my POV. Forspoken (Jan) is console platform exclusive, Final Fantasy XVI (June) is completely PS5 exclusive at launch, and games which they have marketing deals for like Like A Dragon: Ishin! (Feb) and Resident Evil 4 (March) always sell best on PlayStation. Oh, and there's also potentially Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, though whether that sneaks into Q4 2023 or is instead a Q1 2024 title remains to be seen (thanks for the ambiguous Winter timeframe on that one, S-E!). 

It looks to be a pretty standard year by their standards set since the launch of the PS5, to be honest – probably a few first-party titles supported by third-party marketing and exclusivity deals, but nowhere near the heights of where we got to with the PS4's release slate. It's a shame, but that's what happens when you close up shop on a talented studio like Japan Studio I guess 

[Sheikah]

Luckily Sony don't need to make too much, they have third party support.

[Dcubed]

Yeah, this is probably gonna be a very 3rd party heavy year for Sony.  Most of their studios have put out a title or two within the last year or so, so I wouldn't expect anything major coming out of SIE in 2023; outside of Spiderman 2 from Insomniac.

[Sheikah]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

Yeah, this is probably gonna be a very 3rd party heavy year for Sony.  Most of their studios have put out a title or two within the last year or so, so I wouldn't expect anything major coming out of SIE in 2023; outside of Spiderman 2 from Insomniac.

I think as well already noted you have big games coming like Spiderman 2, FFXVI and possibly FFVII-2, then you have the usual annual fodder like COD, FIFA (whatever the new series will be called), and so on, as well as PSVR2. I don't think people will think at the end of year that there's been a lack of content by any means.

[Ronnie]

You know it'll be a lean year when you see COD and FIFA brought up as major PS5 software releases this year.

I'm also not convinced they're going to support PSVR2 much, given their track record with the last PSVR, Vita etc but we'll see. I'm actually tempted to get one, but they're not doing a great job selling it thus far.

Just a shame that the PS5 should be hitting its stride now, in its third year. Assuming Spider-Man 2 doesn't get delayed, that's PS Studios's only AAA tentpole release in 2023. I hope a Showcase is coming soon to announce more games because at the moment it's tough to get excited for the future of a console that (imo) has been really ho-hum so far, exclusive wise.

[Sheikah]

They are major releases though, they're the best selling games every year. The point is that PlayStation and Xbox get these games so there's less of a gap to fill.

[drahkon]

On 12/29/2022 at 12:06 PM, drahkon said:

I'm not proud of the amount of gold I've lost to this hell-machine

I'm addicted to gambling. Thankfully only in-game Just spent 1.5k gold and I won...nothing.
Made some more progress with Crown Trick and reached "Day 3" and its boss (which I assume is the final boss). Got my ass kicked, though.

I'm very much enjoying this one. UI is a bit of a mess at times (there's so many status effects, it's crazy...) and the controls could use some fine tuning but other than that it's great.

Started playing Syphon Filter to get some use out of my PS+ Premium sub and ooohhh boy, it has not aged well Tank controls are so bad...and it seems to be a "where the fuck do I go?" kind of game.
The cutscenes and voice acting/dialogue are hilariously bad. I actually laughed out loud a few times.
Only played the first mission but I'll keep going. It's interesting to see where Bend Studio has come from. I'm hoping we'll see Bubsy 3D on the sub eventually.

Edited January 6, 2023 by drahkon

[Julius]

Powerwash Simulator finally arrives on PlayStation on 30th January! 

Also got half an eye on Season: A letter to the future based on its previous State of Play presence. NeverAwake has piqued my interest a bit too 

[drahkon]

The Solitaire Conspiracy has no right to be this good

Played this for two hours straight just now. It's Solitaire with a twist.
Instead of the classic suits you get different "groups" with a specific skill each. It works like this:
Place an ace in the middle and the group's skill is ready to be used. You can do that by placing the face cards. One group, for example, "explodes" the pile you place its face card on, meaning the cards in that pile get randomly distributed on the other piles (and yes, you can place face cards anywhere you like, which is different form regular Solitaire but we're not playing that, are we?).

It's stupidly addictive

There's also a plot about some spy shenanigans told via FMV cutscenes, but I don't care. Skipped 'em all so far and will skip the rest. Just gimme that juicy gameplay.

Oh and the soundtrack is amazing:

Sadly, there are only 5 songs but they are all incredible. And way too epic for a game like this

[Julius]

Tchia is coming this Spring:

 

[Julius]

PlayStation are promising a steadier supply of PS5s in the wild this year, which they announced alongside the release of a new TV spot:

 

[Ronnie]

Can they promise a steadier supply of first party games while they're at it??

[Ronnie]

WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED PRE-ORDERS WOULD DISAPPOINT, I AM SHOCKED. 

You would think after all these years and after their experience with the PSP, Vita, or looking back to things like the Game Gear v Game Boy, that someone at PlayStation might just realise that top of the line specs and a huge price tag don't = sales. Especially in a niche market. And no backwards compatibility is another slap in the face idiotic move.

Edited January 31, 2023 by Ronnie

[Sheikah]

WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED PRE-PRDERS WOULD DISAPPOINT, I AM SHOCKED. 

You would think after all these years and after their experience with the PSP, Vita, or looking back to things like the Game Gear v Game Boy, that someone at PlayStation might just realise that top of the line specs and a huge price tag don't = sales. Especially in a niche market.

Worked for the PS5 though, that's £480 now and still flying off the shelves.

 I think VR is facing a few problems right now - it doesn't have the novelty factor it did last generation and it's a "nice to have" supplementary accessory (which is going to be a hard sell in the current climate). In terms of value though you're actually getting a much better deal than you did with the original headset (in terms of specs and the included controllers).

 Last thing to say - I wouldn't call this top of the line VR at all in terms of price, at least not compared to some of the PC offerings.

[Ronnie]

Doesn't matter if the price tag is 'cheap' for the tech included, the price tag is too high. Dumb move. Could see its failure coming a mile off.

[Sheikah]

30 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Doesn't matter if the price tag is 'cheap' for the tech included, the price tag is too high. Dumb move. Could see its failure coming a mile off.

Hardly a failure, you're writing it off too soon. It will get cheaper down the line and I can see it enjoying reasonable success across the generation.

It was clear from the original PSVR that skimping on specs had dire consequences down the line (note that the original PSVR wasn't actually cheap after you bought the necessary camera and recommended controllers, yet it was still a low-fi device). They need a headset that is actually capable and will last the generation.

Also consider that this will have been designed a while ago, before world events led to the record levels of inflation we have now. Their options were to either sell at a big loss or charge more, so not really sure how you can say the price tag is a dumb move.

Edited January 31, 2023 by Sheikah

[Ronnie]

It was a lack of first party support that had dire consequences for the PSVR, not the specs. It's the same old story for Sony. 

The price of the VR2 might come down eventually, but I suspect that after yet another failure sales-wise, Sony will abandon even their (already pretty modest) support of it.

[Sheikah]

It was a lack of first party support that had dire consequences for the PSVR, not the specs. It's the same old story for Sony. 
The price of the VR2 might come down eventually, but I suspect that after yet another failure sales-wise, Sony will abandon even their (already pretty modest) support of it.

With all due respect, what are you talking about? PSVR was well supported and sold 5 million units, the second best selling headset of all time. And now Sony are following up by releasing a sequel, something they never did for the Vita.

Being so angry all the time isn't good for your blood pressure, you know.

[Ronnie]

9 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

Being so angry all the time isn't good for your blood pressure, you know.

How unpleasant and unnecessary of you, to no one's surprise.

[Sheikah]

4 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

How unpleasant and unnecessary of you, to no one's surprise.

I'm being completely serious. Why are you so riled up all the time?

[Julius]

I mean, a combination of an economic crisis in the wake of a global pandemic which saw components shortages impact virtually every hardware product under the sun was always going to mean this would be the case, right?

A premium price product when people are bleeding cash was never going to break pre-order records, was always likely to struggle to meet projections (which, by the way, is for stakeholders to not go crazy, not really for us consumers to go crazy over), and much less one which requires a premium price console to even run the thing. All-in it's £1k at the moment to get a PSVR2, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. 

I don't think this has nearly as much to do with first-party support as has been suggested, it's down to age-old supply and demand, and demand can't be there if there isn't enough disposable income for many to reasonably consider making a purchase. I'm skipping this and the Edge controller, despite having the disposable income, simply because I think it seems like a stupid way for me to invest money in the midst of a cost of living crisis. 

Let's also not forget that there's also a knock-on effect stemming from the components shortages which means that there are far fewer PS5s in people's homes now than would have been projected in 2018/2019 when PlayStation would have been planning their slates and hardware lineups for the first half of this gen. A slump to start isn't a bad thing, so long as the support is consistent moving forwards, and I don't think we have any reason to believe that the support won't be there. 

Hell, Jim Ryan has even been frank about where VR is at right now; this is from a Washington Post article released in October 2020, a few weeks before the launch of the PS5:

Quote

"I think we're more than a few minutes from the future of VR," Ryan said. "PlayStation believes in VR. Sony believes in VR, and we definitely believe at some point in the future, VR will represent a meaningful component of interactive entertainment. Will it be this year? No. Will it be next year? No. But will it come at some stage? We believe that. And we're very pleased with all the experience that we've gained with PlayStation VR, and we look forwarding to seeing where that takes us in the future."

I'm not expecting crazy sales numbers when all is said and done from the PSVR2, but I'll be surprised if it goes the way of the Vita, and even more surprised if it doesn't surpass the sales of its predecessor.

I don't think it's fair to simultaneously be on Sony's back for blowing their metaphorical load too early with games like God of War, The Last of Us, Spider-Man, et al, but then also be on their back for not knowing what's in store. There's more than enough at launch for those looking to dive in to justify doing so from where I'm sitting. 

[Sheikah]

2 hours ago, Julius said:

I mean, a combination of an economic crisis in the wake of a global pandemic which saw components shortages impact virtually every hardware product under the sun was always going to mean this would be the case, right?

A premium price product when people are bleeding cash was never going to break pre-order records, was always likely to struggle to meet projections (which, by the way, is for stakeholders to not go crazy, not really for us consumers to go crazy over), and much less one which requires a premium price console to even run the thing. All-in it's £1k at the moment to get a PSVR2, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. 

I don't think this has nearly as much to do with first-party support as has been suggested, it's down to age-old supply and demand, and demand can't be there if there isn't enough disposable income for many to reasonably consider making a purchase. I'm skipping this and the Edge controller, despite having the disposable income, simply because I think it seems like a stupid way for me to invest money in the midst of a cost of living crisis.

That's basically it, yeah. Everything costs more and everyone has less to spend.

They will have designed and put PSVR2 into production prior to everything going down so it's not even like they "pitched the product wrong". There's really no story or alternative take here - they won't sell as many as they could have done right away but over time I expect it will do quite well.

[Julius]

Sony have outright denied the contents of Bloomberg's article:

This is the second time now they've denied the contents of a Bloomberg article, and by the same author too – Mochizuki. Yikes 

Pessimistically, at a stretch, I guess a case could be made that they're trying to save face to stakeholders – but that seems incredibly unlikely. 

[Ashley]

6 hours ago, Julius said:

and by the same author too – Mochizuki. Yikes 

At first glance I thought the author's name was Mochizuki Yikes. 

Yes, that's my entire contribution. 

[Julius]

Just realised the Gamelists I spent an hour organising with the aid of HLTB - to FINALLY get my digital games in check - have completely vanished...

Well, I guess I'll see you when I see you (so probably never), my smattering of digital offerings 

Edited February 3, 2023 by Julius