PlayStation State of Play (Thursday 6th August 2020 @ 21:00 BST)

[Julius]

No PS5 news. 

What a strange thing to do seeing as they should be ramping up to PS5! Sony, the master procrastinators

At the very least, hoping for a better look at Kena and some of the other indie games that were on show during the PS5 event in June. 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Julius

[drahkon]

CoD and Crash will make up the most of this.

Other than that...we'll see.
And I can't wait to read all the complaints about how there were no PS5 related news in the event

[Julius]

12 minutes ago, drahkon said:

CoD and Crash will make up the most of this.

That's a good shout, feels like the appropriate platform for showing off their current gen marketing deals. 

Which I'm guessing means FIFA and Avengers showing up here too, even if it's just them reiterating the launch date and saying there's exclusive content on PlayStation. 

[Julius]

Completely missed this, sorry for the double post 

Quote

The episode is weighing in at 40+ minutes(!). We’ve got a great lineup in store featuring plenty of new gameplay footage and other game updates. Can’t wait to hear what you think!

And just to be super clear — there will be no PlayStation Studios updates in Thursday’s episode. There won’t be any updates around hardware, business, preorders, or dates either. On Thursday, our focus is squarely on showcasing some cool upcoming games coming to the broader PlayStation ecosystem. Should be fun!

40+ minutes puts it on the chunkier end of State of Play presentations, I can't recall any of them being this long before. Hopefully it's 20 minutes of Kena 

No updates from PlayStation Studios isn't too surprising, pretty much confirms that Ghost was the last first party exclusive coming to the system, but no surprise there. 

[Ronnie]

40 minutes of Kena please.

[drahkon]

34 minutes ago, Julius said:

FIFA

This will be interesting. Didn't EA announce that the next FIFA will have some big things in store for PS5?
It will no doubt be released on PS4, too, but it's going to be interesting to see how EA handles the announcement of either versions' features.

[Julius]

39 minutes ago, drahkon said:

This will be interesting. Didn't EA announce that the next FIFA will have some big things in store for PS5?
It will no doubt be released on PS4, too, but it's going to be interesting to see how EA handles the announcement of either versions' features.

I honestly haven't paid too much attention to it, so wouldn't be able to say. Though at best I imagine they're just teasing a new engine (which would be nice, considering how poorly it runs on Frostbite) or some diabolical mode called FIFA Ultimate VAR, where you assist in the obviously completely empty VAR room during matches while you wait for your Ultimate Play meter to restore. Or, you can pay to restore it immediately 

As much as I love to fault the games, EA's penny pinching and marketing for FIFA is excellent. Even if I do feel like this year's box art looks like it's bad enough that I'd be offending kids if I said it looked like it was designed by them:

Edited August 3, 2020 by Julius

[bob]

1 minute ago, Julius said:

I honestly haven't paid too much attention to it, so wouldn't be able to say. Though at best I imagine they're just teasing a new engine (which would be nice, considering how poorly it runs on Frostbite) or some diabolical mode called FIFA Ultimate VAR, where you assist in the obviously completely empty VAR room during matches while you wait for your Ultimate Play meter to restore. Or, you can pay to restore it immediately 

As much as I love to fault the games, EA's penny pinching and marketing for FIFA is excellent. Even if I do feel like this year's box art looks like it's bad enough that I'd be offending kids if I said it looked like it was designed by one:

That is absolutely horrendous. Was it made in Paint?

[Map]

Good chance Avengers will be shown, Sony doubling down on Spider-Man.

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by Map

[Dcubed]

Bet people will still scream and cry when they show nothing from PS5; despite them saying that nothing from PS5 will be here 

[Julius]

2 hours ago, Map said:

Good chance Avengers will be shown, Sony doubling down on Spider-Man.

 

As a mainly PlayStation 4 player: this sucks. 

By all means try to win us over with exclusive first and third party games (I hate timed exclusivity but unfortunately it feels like that's becoming a more popular thing with big third party games), but a character like Spider-Man being tied to one system in an Avengers game? I'm annoyed for players on other performs.

Sony don't even own the video game rights so you know they paid a pretty penny for this and the rest of the marketing deal, and from a business perspective it's a great move to set the Miles game up for the PS5. But it just rubs me the wrong way completely. 

EDIT: and to add to my woes...

That's...interesting, but in a potentially pretty negative way for the industry as a whole. Still, I don't think Xbox's focus on Game Pass helps with such negotiations for these deals where they want massive AAA titles on Game Pass early on, potentially killing sales. It's no wonder that massive companies like Square Enix have so many deals going on with PlayStation for (timed) exclusivity. 

Edited August 3, 2020 by Julius

[Will]

I feel like this is exactly what the platforms should be doing. I want them to offer me some advantage to having their console to justify the huge amounts of money I’m putting into it.

I don’t really think this is anything new is it? We’ve had characters be platform exclusive before, we’ve had pre-order exclusives based on where you buy something from, I don’t really think this is all that different. I also don’t see how it’s a bad thing for the industry. Sure it’s probably annoying for people who don’t have a PlayStation and intend to buy this game and love Spider-Man, but the industry? I’m not so sure it will have that much (if any) overalls impact.

[bob]

 

 

 

I’m not so sure it will have that much (if any) overalls impact.

 

 

Pretty sure it's just Nintendo who have the overalls impact.

 

[Will]

Now that’s the type of overalls impact I like.

[Ronnie]

On 03/08/2020 at 7:31 PM, Dcubed said:

Bet people will still scream and cry when they show nothing from PS5; despite them saying that nothing from PS5 will be here 

Already happened.

 

[Julius]

On 04/08/2020 at 1:17 AM, will' said:

I feel like this is exactly what the platforms should be doing. I want them to offer me some advantage to having their console to justify the huge amounts of money I’m putting into it.

I don’t really think this is anything new is it? We’ve had characters be platform exclusive before, we’ve had pre-order exclusives based on where you buy something from, I don’t really think this is all that different. I also don’t see how it’s a bad thing for the industry. Sure it’s probably annoying for people who don’t have a PlayStation and intend to buy this game and love Spider-Man, but the industry? I’m not so sure it will have that much (if any) overalls impact.

I'm not sure if that first part was responding to what I said about the Spidey exclusivity, but if it is, I'm not really sure it's a beneficial advantage for consumers. Of course, it makes perfect business sense, but in some cases I think it can do more harm than good. 

First party exclusives of course I'm all for, and third party exclusives in some cases too (PlayStation 4 being the place for Yakuza to grow throughout the course of generation exclusively, up until recently, comes to mind), but timed and DLC exclusivity often rubs me the wrong way if presented in the wrong light.

A single player game, something like Final Fantasy VII Remake? Honestly makes sense to me as a timed exclusive on PS4, considering how JRPG players likely don't only have an Xbox One as their only home console, seeing as it unsurprisingly hasn't done a great job of supporting them. That's changing a bit with Game Pass, sure, but Square Enix aren't going to put a game like this out on Game Pass on Day 1, and the Final Fantasy brand, and in particular VII, has made itself almost synonymous with PlayStation since '97. It's a great business move, sure, but I'm not the biggest fan of that at all. I'll come back to Final Fantasy and some other things in a moment. 

On the other hand, DLC? I'm all for exclusive DLC based on marketing deals, I think it's fine if PlayStation owners get some DLC ahead of Xbox owners, but that's not what's happening with Avengers: they've locked in exclusivity to (free! This game has been designed with a free DLC rollout in mind, structured instead around microtransactions!) DLC for Marvel's biggest superhero, and it's not timed, it just straight up won't be coming to Xbox at any point.

This is different to, say, CoD's 30 day or so exclusivity to some maps, items or mode - at least I feel it is - because it means that even though Spidey was always planned as part of this DLC, there has to be some level of compromise. For example, you can't exactly tease the next DLC for Spidey with the same messaging and have him mentioned in other pieces of DLC available on Xbox too, only for him to just not turn up (I mean, you can, but expect backlash). It also divides the player base, which is the last thing a GaaS game should aim to do. 

I'm on the fence about whether or not I'm buying the game (I'll be checking out the open beta next weekend with some friends), but it is something that rubs me the wrong way. Having insiders come out with confidence saying "oh, this is only the beginning when it comes to these deals on PS5" has me even more nervous. I'm sure RE8 will have a PSVR exclusive mode, which I think is fine, but then if something like Final Fantasy XVI is announced as a timed or full PS5 exclusive? I would totally understand the uproar, even if it makes business sense. At the same time, it's crazy to me that Yakuza 7 won't be on PS5 day 1, considering this is where the franchise has blossomed over the last few years, but will be on just about everything else, and that we'll be waiting for a newer version/upgrade for our PS4 version, which I'm sure will outsell it's Xbox counterparts. I imagine this all has to do with Xbox tripping over themselves by agreeing deals for Game Pass more than anything else, rather than going toe-to-toe with Sony in trying to secure AAA exclusives, which I think could be a big mistake. 

With regards to it affecting the industry: you're right, it already has, and will probably continue to do so. I'm just not the biggest fan of it. But on online games especially, and in a game offering free DLC specifically, having the biggest Marvel character locked behind one console just seems like such a poor way to handle Spidey's exclusivity. I'm sure it's probably related to Sony's sit-down with Marvel last year over letting them use Spider-Man, but it doesn't make it any less strange for me 

[Will]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

I'm not sure if that first part was responding to what I said about the Spidey exclusivity, but if it is, I'm not really sure it's a beneficial advantage for consumers. Of course, it makes perfect business sense, but in some cases I think it can do more harm than good.

Sorry - yeah it was.

I totally get where you’re coming from, I guess I just see this type of thing as another addition to why to pick on console over the other.

If people really don’t like this then they won’t spend money on games that do it and the practice will fall out of use. I’m actually quite interested to see what a difference this makes in terms of the sales split by console over a normal release.

[drahkon]

On 3.8.2020 at 4:02 PM, Julius said:

hoping for a better look at Kena

Sorry  

[Julius]

15 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Sorry  

Oh. Well this hurts. 

Game looks so cosy and I can't wait to play it, so I appreciate the heads-up drahkon. Saves me from the breakdown later over it not showing up 

[Julius]

Watching this, and find it weird that Activision just expect the audience to know that MTX is cool kid talk for microtransaction. Just struck me as a bit odd. 

Crash 4 lookin' really good though, love the level diversity on show, and the dimensions idea I think is really cool. 

Edited August 6, 2020 by Julius

[Happenstance]

Hitman trilogy playable entirely in VR is nuts!

[Julius]

1 minute ago, Happenstance said:

Hitman trilogy playable entirely in VR is nuts!

Yeah! Felt super low-key as a reveal which I think is a pretty big sell for PSVR. 

Also, as someone who has never played Braid before, I'm all about the Anniversary Edition. Did not know the game had an art style like that! But...was it originally released in 2008, meaning this is a 13th anniversary celebration of the game with it releasing next year? Seems really odd if so, but hey, I'm in. 

[Julius]

Was just thinking lately we hadn't seen Spelunky 2 for a while! When was the last time, PGW 2017 or something? 

Edited August 6, 2020 by Julius

[Happenstance]

Spelunky is one of my most played games of all time. I cannot wait for 2. Scared to have to re-learn things though.

[Julius]

Well get @drahkon in here, they're showing Genshin Impact! 

Also now we have Hitman Assassination Trilogy coming to PSVR, half expecting RE8 to get a PSVR mode announced here. 

Edited August 6, 2020 by Julius