Well, I didn’t stretch that one piece of information into that conclusion. Sony’s basically telling their investors that. Their expensive exclusives are not fueling growth in adoption of the platform the way they used to, making their margins far slimmer, even when their competition in Xbox is basically squeezed out of the market. I believe Circana estimated that peak spending on console hardware was all the way back in 2009, when there were three extremely successful consoles in healthy competition with one another. If their old model was still working, they wouldn’t have broken into the PC market to begin with. With the PC sales of Helldivers 2, that game is 7th in revenue for PlayStation published games; without the PC sales, it doesn’t crack the top 20. New management at Sony is embracing these market realities. Consoles used to be the dominant platform for AAA games, and they no longer are, and that makes plenty of sense when you realize how many of consoles’ advantages have been eroded over the years.
I’m well aware of how consoles typically make money. So is Sony. The thing is, their games are getting more expensive to make and take longer too. That means there are fewer of them, which means there are fewer reasons to buy a PlayStation, which means there are fewer games sold to profit from. They historically haven’t published on other platforms, because their bread is buttered when you feel like you need a PlayStation and buy your games there, even the ones available elsewhere. There’s always demand for an easy-to-use box you can buy for less than a PC, but in the past decade, consoles have become more complex, PCs have become easier (and/or the know-how for using them became more commonplace), and the gap in price between the two has shrunk, especially when you consider long-term costs like subscriptions for online play or having to buy remasters of games that you could just have on PC and run at better resolutions and frame rates, things that consumers have become to savvy to.
Oh yeah, and of course Microsoft is doing even worse, sounding like their next console will just be a dressed-up Windows PC.
There’s overhead to making consoles the way that they’re made now; not just R&D and manufacturing cycles, but think about the cert process, for instance, that doesn’t exist on PC. That overhead only makes sense at a certain scale. Economic factors are just changing how feasible it is to make a console the way that they’ve always been made, plus multiple countries’ legislation is finally breathing down these companies’ necks to destroy walled garden ecosystems, and Microsoft is attempting to get out ahead of it. The Steam Deck isn’t quite as easy as a traditional console, but it’s damn close for a competitive price, and it’s just a computer. I think we’re all expecting Microsoft’s next box and potential handheld to just do that but with Windows, and I honestly don’t know how Sony will adapt, but they’re in the process of adapting.
We’re in such uncharted territory that I don’t think I’ll be able to predict it, but if Microsoft nails their next box, with its multiple stores and a bespoke version of Windows, which would make it capable of running Sony’s games that aren’t on “Xbox” today, I don’t know how Sony will be able to compete by being second to market. Anything can happen though, it just won’t involve PlayStation 6 succeeding by doing what PlayStation 5 did.
Well, let me take a little bit of credit away from them then, because those controllers are needlessly mandatory, even for games that don’t make use of its features! How do you think fighting game players felt about that right as Sony bought the world’s biggest fighting game tournament and made all tournaments run on PS5? lol
You can plug them in, but PS4 format controllers don’t work on PS5 games; they only work on PS4 versions of games. You know, for all of that fancy rumble that’s meaningless when you’re playing Guilty Gear on a fightstick.
I just finished up Titan Quest with a friend, and we moved on to V Rising. That game feels very good to play. The controller support is a tad wonky in menus, and I wish that the opening minutes were better at facilitating co-op play, but it seems like a very cool loop between base building/survival and action.
If you miss that old style of game, that’s fine, but there are probably tons of ways to morph the RTS genre that solves its old problems, finds it more success, and still scratches that itch. I’m quite fond of Cannon Brawl, and Tooth and Tail had its issues but was on the right track.
FYI, there are a handful of games that put unique spins on the genre out there. Most of the ones I can think of off the top of my head put you in control of a “cursor character” that’s like a commander. It puts a speed limit on APM, which I think gets the genre back to focusing on strategy. There’s also Northgard, which is like a cross between an RTS and a 4X game, and pieces of the map are tile-like, so rather than this unit moving to these coordinates, you’re commanding a unit to move from this tile to the one next to it. Then there’s the Total War series, where the battles are slow paced, and the macro level resources are handled in turn-based strategy.
I got to the second map in Divinity: Original Sin. I’m really enjoying it, though it’s a bit more combat heavy than Baldur’s Gate 3, and that combat is more punishing, especially at lower levels.
I’m still finishing up DLC in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire on my second playthrough in turn-based mode. Obviously I’ve enjoyed this game enough to immediately do a second lap through it in a new mode, but I am now starting to run out of steam.
I started playing The Thaumaturge. It’s a really interesting setting, and the combat has a timeline for its turn system, which makes it fun to pick attacks based on how fast they come out. It’s a little shallower than I was expecting, both in terms of combat and outside of combat, but it’s hard to say that I’ve played a game like this before so far.
I’m also trying to finish up Titan Quest in co-op with a friend of mine. This was my first real attempt to get into a loot game in a long time, and I did find a taste for it this time. Titan Quest itself is fairly dated in a lot of ways, but I’m enjoying it, and we’re coming up on the end of the base game. With V Rising having just launched, we might just call it on Titan Quest after the base game and move on, and we’ll be ready for Titan Quest II, which may be releasing later this year.
I’m sorry that you don’t enjoy video games enough to pay $30 for most of the good ones, but I hope one day you can sit down with a calculator and realize why it must be that way.
Video games are often afraid to be only a couple of hours these days, often to their detriment, but if you multiplied a movie’s runtime by 2-3x for some extra production value in your game, you end up at that $35 price point easily for a game that’s 5-10 hours long. Even for a direct comparison to Atom RPG, I’d rather pay 2-3x as much for a Wasteland game to get what I’m looking for, and Wasteland games aren’t exactly short. Neither is V Rising.
Video games are afraid to be only a couple hours because they are afraid of charging less than $10
I would love to live in a world where we get FPS campaigns that are about 8 hours long, are fulfilling, and cost $60. That used to be the norm, and we were happy with that. A Let’s Play is not a substitute.
So if you wanted to get what you’re looking for in this case, Fallout 1 and 2 are $10 each, or you can get a bundle of 1/2 and Brotherhood of Steel for $20 (more like brotherhood of steal amirite).
That assumes I don’t care about things like better resolutions and frame rates, voice acting, modern considerations for how people actually interact with games, etc. I’ve also played Fallout 1 already.
Again, “more” is often to the detriment to the value of the game, because adding hours is easy. I’m saying that, on a AAA level, games were worth more to me when they were shorter. We’re currently paying less for more. But at below AAA levels, I’m often served extremely well for $35.
No, they don’t automatically make a game better, but if I’m choosing between two games that are similar in themes or mechanics, I’m leaning toward the one with voice acting and better presentation. That’s worth extra money to me. It’s far easier to retain story elements when they’re acted out. Production value is still value. Not only did I get a killer RPG for $60 in Baldur’s Gate 3, but I also got some killer performances to help sell it. That extra production value is worth extra money. I could play the previous two Baldur’s Gates for pennies on the dollar, and I did, but I would certainly say I got more value out of the game that costs more. In V Rising’s case, I know of no other action RPG/loot games that have been combined with survival games in this way, playing with independent movement and aiming instead of mouse pointers, so that’s worth the money to see. I think we’re done here, but your sense of value is just very strange.
PS5 barely missed its sales target in latest earnings report, and Sony expects to sell even less by next year (www.destructoid.com)
Weekly what have you been playing discussion - week of May 13th, 2024
Final Fantasy Maker Square Enix Will Aggressively Pursue a Multiplatform Strategy After Profits Tumble (www.ign.com)
Great, can we get FF7 Rebirth on PC now?
New Doom Game Could Be Announced At Xbox Showcase In June (www.gamespot.com)
The RTS genre will never be mainstream unless you change it until it's 'no longer the kind of RTS that I want to play,' says Crate Entertainment CEO (www.pcgamer.com)
God of War: Ragnarok Reportedly the Next PlayStation Exclusive to Hit PC (www.ign.com)
Nintendo president: “Game development will become even longer, more complex, and more sophisticated” (mynintendonews.com)
Xbox president: Studio closures will ensure 'business is healthy for the long term' (www.gamedeveloper.com)
Weekly what have you been playing discussion - week of May 6th, 2024
ops forgot
V Rising has launched out of Early Access! (steamcommunity.com)