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News Sony Defends PS Plus Price Hike, Explains Why It Won't Put Games There Day One

Dardan Sandiego said:
This is the same argument people use to dismiss legit criticism towards Nintendo and their boneheaded business decisions or the shoddy quality of recent Pokémon releases.
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Look I'm not saying people can't complain but if you really want to make a change the best bet is to vote with your wallet and not buy these games and services
 
Red Monster said:
I don’t think it’s old. I think fami has a tendency to get a wee bit console warz-y, and Yamanoi shines a light on that by mocking it.
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I'm surprised some users seem to be oblivious to it. Honestly @Dardan Sandiego, I'm confident you get why he's doing it, so maybe you want to address something else? I'm genuinely confused.

When Yamanoi's posts are "yeah-ed" by users (who don't catch his shtick) unironically then why he does it is not a question.

I'd rather read his trolling than the console-warring I often bump into here.
 
thoughthaver said:
PC gamers when their 10,000 dollar rig has a millisecond of stutter
guaton-computadora.gif
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That's only the self proclaimed mashtarrace. We normal people just shrug and keep gaming.
 
Red Monster said:
I don’t think it’s old. I think fami has a tendency to get a wee bit console warz-y, and Yamanoi shines a light on that by mocking it.
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Agreed on the console warz-y part, but in the end I find as much value in constant ridiculing of stupid posts as I do in the stupid posts themselves.

It's not like some of the folks in question Yamanoi keeps mocking indirectly would learn from some snarky one-liners to begin with.
 
Vernal said:
I'm surprised some users seem to be oblivious to it. Honestly @Dardan Sandiego, I'm confident you get why he's doing it, so maybe you want to address something else? I'm genuinely confused.

When Yamanoi's posts are "yeah-ed" by users (who don't catch his shtick) unironically then why he does it is not a question.

I'd rather read his trolling than the console-warring I often bump into here.
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You’re confused by what exactly?
 
Vernal said:
Lol, sorry. Why are you calling into question his behavior when I can only assume you're more than aware of why it's happening?
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I didn’t ask about the "why". Hope that clears up the confusion. Do you think I need to justify my question?
 
Josh5890 said:
Yes, Sony's output has slowed down because of the growing length of game development (not to mention COVID happened).
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I agree with most of your post except this.

Yes, game development has gotten longer, but I also think their output has been heavily influenced by how Sony has reshaped their output since at least the reshuffling and rebranding from SCE to SIE seven years ago, if not earlier than that.

Sony's first-party focus these days is primarily on 'western "AAA" games', particularly that sort of amorphous blob of games that fall under the umbrella of "cinematic action-adventure" with some varying ideas in expression but are generally similar enough where one could easily group them together and leave it at that. Now, we do know why this happened - games of that ilk have gotten insanely popular and like you said, it'd be stupid to not capitalize on it - but it has left the people who got into PlayStation for games that are, for lack of better phrasing, "not that", a little high and dry.

And, by all means, leaving the gaps in the catalogue to be filled by third-party publishers is a difficult proposition, especially since these studios may suffer from the same issues as Sony's first-party studios do. Additionally, I believe that when you're a console maker, the games you put out - and champion - have a pull effect on third-party publishers wanting to put out the same types of game. It's why the Switch has attracted a rather large amount of "AA" anime-styled RPGs, by having these games themselves through the Fire Emblem and Xenoblade series (though the degree to which these are just "AA" may be debatable) and also promoting these types of games equally through their Directs. Sony, meanwhile, has focussed so much on this one aspect of their catalogue that it's hard to notice anything else if you're not wolfing down their social media - which most people who aren't into Sony's current first-party catalogue likely won't. And it doesn't help that Sony is downsizing their studios in regards to this and, in doing so, has further reinforced their "brand identity".

And it's from this that the feeling of Sony having left their "golden age" is, ultimately, born. Because people who have been around PlayStation remember a Sony that fostered a broad spectrum of games on their platforms through their own output from... well, from PSone all the way to PS4. And that's no longer the case - and it's something you cannot excuse by just pointing at "longer development times", it's also a matter of the culture that I think is a console maker's job to foster.
 
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carbvan said:
"Nothing" is a hyperbole but that's... 1 game. Imo it's ridiculous. Sure they've had 3rd party support like FFXVI, but that's not Sony themselves making the game. Can't exactly compare Sony to Xbox since their deal rn isn't new original Xbox games, its GamePass being a good deal. And GamePass has had a ton of day-1 bangers. Starfield, Hi-Fi Rush, Lies of P, the Persona game deals, Like a Dragon Gaiden next week, etc. Even Nintendo put out 4 original games this year, not counting remakes. Sony is really struggling with their output and I just don't get how some people don't see it.
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You can't have it both ways. Either we discuss first-party output only or we discuss exclusives to the platform. Of which, three of the games you mentioned aren't even exclusive to Xbox.

carbvan said:
Imo it doesn't but we can disagree. I'm talking about what Nintendo's own studios are doing. Also my original comment was talking about games Nintendo had already released, and WarioWare isn't out yet.
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If you want to go by specifically only first-party Nintendo, Fire Emblem would not count under your umbrella as you seem to not have count Bayonetta Origins.
 
I'll just say it again since the topic of Sony's productivity came up in this thread, people are way too dismissive of their output from 2020-2022.

They managed to have a launch that had Sackboy's Big Adventure, Demon's Souls remake, and Miles Morales. By all accounts, one of the more stacked first party launches for a console. Then in 2022, they launched Gran Turismo 7, Horizon: Forbidden West, and God of War Ragnarok in the same year. For a company that focuses on AAA games that take years and years to develop, that's like their own version of 2017. Even 2021, which was comparatively lighter, still had Kena, and the first major completely new exclusives in Returnal and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.

Now I get not liking these games. I mean, I don't like most Sony games. But I don't see the lack of productivity spin here. And it especially gets confusing to me once you compare it to the PS4. The PS4 had countless mediocre disappointment after mediocre disappointment in its first few years from both first and third parties. By the time it was 2 years old, it's good exclusives were like, Infamous, Bloodborne, and uhhh .... D-Drive Club?

That being said, I do agree 2023 was unacceptably bad. Even with Final Fantasy, it just wasn't enough. And their output will probably continue to get worse as their GaaS games are a long ways out. But I just think the exceptionalism because games are crossgen is funny, when most people don't actually care about that and will still buy consoles for crossgen games.
 
AngryAlchemist said:
I'll just say it again since the topic of Sony's productivity came up in this thread, people are way too dismissive of their output from 2020-2022.

They managed to have a launch that had Sackboy's Big Adventure, Demon's Souls remake, and Miles Morales. By all accounts, one of the more stacked first party launches for a console. Then in 2022, they launched Gran Turismo 7, Horizon: Forbidden West, and God of War Ragnarok in the same year. For a company that focuses on AAA games that take years and years to develop, that's like their own version of 2017. Even 2021, which was comparatively lighter, still had Kena, and the first major completely new exclusives in Returnal and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.

Now I get not liking these games. I mean, I don't like most Sony games. But I don't see the lack of productivity spin here. And it especially gets confusing to me once you compare it to the PS4. The PS4 had countless mediocre disappointment after mediocre disappointment in its first few years from both first and third parties. By the time it was 2 years old, it's good exclusives were like, Infamous, Bloodborne, and uhhh .... D-Drive Club?

That being said, I do agree 2023 was unacceptably bad. Even with Final Fantasy, it just wasn't enough. And their output will probably continue to get worse as their GaaS games are a long ways out. But I just think the exceptionalism because games are crossgen is funny, when most people don't actually care about that and will still buy consoles for crossgen games.
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Even their output from 2020 to 2022 isn't anything to brag about, if you ask me.

Playstation main issue is that it lacks the AA tier, and has replaced it with indie publishing wich, if you ask me, isn't the same at all. Nothing agaisnt indie games, btw, but Sony has a big enough pool of IPs to be able to release more than 3 games per year, even with the current development costs.
 
Old Sorta Fan said:
I can’t rep this sentence enough. They are all wastes unless you watch them multiple times a week.

I wish my wife would cancel Hulu and Netflix. She stopped using them. We still have Disney+ and I buy as many DVD’s as I can for cheap in the hope of getting her to cancel them. I never subscribed to Spotify as I buy records and CD’s when I want to listen to something. I had an ESPN+ subscription and canceled it when Major League Soccer moved to its own package. (I do have the MLS season pass as I watch multiple games a week so I do get my money’s worth, also I view sports differently as they are more like a consumable with a short lifespan rather than a video game that you’ll still have fun with until the day you leave this earth) I do not subscribe to Nintendo online.

The point of an entertainment subscription is to take money out of your wallet regardless of whether they make content you like. Joke is on them though as they won’t ever make money on streaming and the software bros will get paid regardless.
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My wife is the same. We have boatloads of movies on dvd, bluray, some on 4k and even quite a few tv show sets we collect. I recently started watching Angel (buffy spinoff) again on DVD and i went to bed and i told her "hey sweetie, this is the last episode on this disc if you want to keep watching it youll have to put in the next block of episodes, if not you can change it I'm going to sleep"

When I woke up I shit you not...it was already on season 2 but she was steaming it on Hulu 🤦‍♂️ like the whole show is RIGHT there under the damn tv! True story lol.

I don't use any streaming service unless you count the occasional YouTube video (I like watching things on philosophy, science, finance, some gaming and music content occasionally) but even that's getting derisory with all the ads every 7 or 8 seconds lol.

My sister just bought a year of PS plus premium because she said her and the kids missed playing some old PS3 games that now she can stream, she has very cruddy internet mind you. Honestly, if she would have given me that money I could have walked into the Xchange and bought her a nice used PS3 slim with most of those games for the same price. It's unreal.
 
Starbreaker said:
My wife is the same. We have boatloads of movies on dvd, bluray, some on 4k and even quite a few tv show sets we collect. I recently started watching Angel (buffy spinoff) again on DVD and i went to bed and i told her "hey sweetie, this is the last episode on this disc if you want to keep watching it youll have to put in the next block of episodes, if not you can change it I'm going to sleep"

When I woke up I shit you not...it was already on season 2 but she was steaming it on Hulu 🤦‍♂️ like the whole show is RIGHT there under the damn tv! True story lol.

I don't use any streaming service unless you count the occasional YouTube video (I like watching things on philosophy, science, finance, some gaming and music content occasionally) but even that's getting derisory with all the ads every 7 or 8 seconds lol.

My sister just bought a year of PS plus premium because she said her and the kids missed playing some old PS3 games that now she can stream, she has very cruddy internet mind you. Honestly, if she would have given me that money I could have walked into the Xchange and bought her a nice used PS3 slim with most of those games for the same price. It's unreal.
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Agreed on getting a used PS3 being a better value than streaming. I have the NES Classic and SNES Classic and refuse to subscribe to Nintendo Online so I can play those same classic games.

This too shall pass, just like iPhones taking over the world and people rebuying music on CD they already had on LP back in be early 1990’s.
 
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Well the Big 3 kinda have me by the balls so I’m stuck paying for online no matter what. Over the course of the year, I honestly don’t really feel it so the price bump doesn’t bother me too much but I can’t help but find it a little scummy that all of them lock behind a major part of a game or, for many of them, THE major part of the game behind a yearly paywall. But it is what it is. They’re all corporations and wanna make more money to satisfy shareholders and have constant growth. None of them are our friends. Some just put out stuff and have personas or marketing or whatever that we like. I’d be frankly surprised if we don’t see similar bumps in subscriptions or games from the other two going forward if they feel like they can get away with it
 
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Imitatio said:
The Yamanoi shtick is getting a bit old at this point, that's for sure.
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Yamanoi is our trickster, or court jester. He shines a light on our collective worst tendencies, and the sheer depths of fanboy tomfoolery we can get up to if we're not careful. His commentary is heavily exaggerated, as satire often is, but there are nuggets of truth to be found in his remarks, and truth is of the highest virtue. I believe his posts should be studied in schools.

He serves a great purpose in the community, and I personally enjoy the niche he's carved out for himself among us. We all need someone to laugh at us (and make us laugh!) in an entertaining way every now and then. Cheers to you, @Yamanoi. Thanks for holding up the mirror.

492530-danny_devito2.jpg
 
freedomseekr said:
I agree with most of your post except this.

Yes, game development has gotten longer, but I also think their output has been heavily influenced by how Sony has reshaped their output since at least the reshuffling and rebranding from SCE to SIE seven years ago, if not earlier than that.

Sony's first-party focus these days is primarily on 'western "AAA" games', particularly that sort of amorphous blob of games that fall under the umbrella of "cinematic action-adventure" with some varying ideas in expression but are generally similar enough where one could easily group them together and leave it at that. Now, we do know why this happened - games of that ilk have gotten insanely popular and like you said, it'd be stupid to not capitalize on it - but it has left the people who got into PlayStation for games that are, for lack of better phrasing, "not that", a little high and dry.

And, by all means, leaving the gaps in the catalogue to be filled by third-party publishers is a difficult proposition, especially since these studios may suffer from the same issues as Sony's first-party studios do. Additionally, I believe that when you're a console maker, the games you put out - and champion - have a pull effect on third-party publishers wanting to put out the same types of game. It's why the Switch has attracted a rather large amount of "AA" anime-styled RPGs, by having these games themselves through the Fire Emblem and Xenoblade series (though the degree to which these are just "AA" may be debatable) and also promoting these types of games equally through their Directs. Sony, meanwhile, has focussed so much on this one aspect of their catalogue that it's hard to notice anything else if you're not wolfing down their social media - which most people who aren't into Sony's current first-party catalogue likely won't. And it doesn't help that Sony is downsizing their studios in regards to this and, in doing so, has further reinforced their "brand identity".

And it's from this that the feeling of Sony having left their "golden age" is, ultimately, born. Because people who have been around PlayStation remember a Sony that fostered a broad spectrum of games on their platforms through their own output from... well, from PSone all the way to PS4. And that's no longer the case - and it's something you cannot excuse by just pointing at "longer development times", it's also a matter of the culture that I think is a console maker's job to foster.
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Sorry I didn't reply to this sooner. While I do agree that Sony does have an issue with many of their first party games falling under the same-ish genre, I don't agree that it has led to the release droughts. Generally speaking, all forms of games are taking longer than ever to make, not just the AAA cinematic games. Media Molecule had to restart production of Dreams twice. PixelOpus went five years after the release of Concrete Genie without showing anything, and now they are dissolved. Outside of Sony, Little Devil Inside was announced in 2020 and has been MIA ever since. Silksong fans have been waiting since 2019 for a release date. Game development is tough, even without COVID.

Looking back, the vast majority of first party JRPGs were just publishing deals that they had with 3rd parties like the Wild Arms series and Dark Cloud. In-house JRPGs were never Sony's wheelhouse. They just managed to get exclusivity on a lot of those games for the longest time. Maybe in a different timeline they scoop up Level 5 in the 2000's and keep them on the RPG train, but Sony wasn't making those kinds of moves back then.

As much as I would like to see Sony go back to the fun and crazy stuff they used to make (PS3 is still my favorite console for Sony's first party output), it is hard to see them return to that. One thing that Jim, Herman, and others have talked about before is that they let each studio make what they want to make. If one of these studios wanted to make a JRPG, they would most likely be given the green light. The problem is that none of their studios are set up to do that. Same with other genres. The sins of the 2010's when Sony had to close three studios in 2012 because of money issues, and then Evolution in 2016 haunt those of us wanting that variety back with Sony's first party output. As much as seeing Japan Studio get moved into Team Asobi, it wasn't exactly doing great. There last several releases didn't move the needle and they were a mess organizationally. I'm still not over PixelOpus getting the axe. Again, I know that Concrete Genie wasn't a hit commercially, but I loved it so much and I was really excited for their next hit.

The good news is that there are still plenty of first party projects that we are completely in the dark on. For example, Media Molecule's next game was greenlit so they should have something fun and creative again. Some of the other studios might surprise us as well. Here's hoping.

Anyway, sorry for the mini rant. Sony's current plan of working with 3rd parties (including indies) to fill the gaps seems to have worked so far. I'm not a fan of acquisitions, but right now Sony's best path to expanding to more genres in house is to add developer studios that have experience in those areas. Like you said, most of their studios is geared towards cinematic games right now.
 
There isn't really much to discuss here, is there ?

Company sees easy opportunity to make more money and they take it while customers keep eating shit. Do wish there was an online+cloud saves only subscription tier but Sony probably knows they'd lose a lot of revenue over it so they won't do that.

I wouldn't be subscribed to the Nintendo Extra Content shit Tier if it wasn't for the family plan option making it way cheaper and even then I barely make use of those extra games beside the occasional 99 game.

Overall in a very reductive way, PC stays winning and I'll be laughing my ass off if either Sony or Microsoft ever attempts to force the users there to pay for an online subscription for multiplayer.
 
Starbreaker said:
This is me. Literally me. When I used to buy groceries I'd usually have so much of a surplus I'd end up donating some because we just couldn't eat it fast enough now 500 bucks barely feeds 2 people for half the month, and that's just ONE thing that got astronomically expensive. I'm slowly killing my body and mental health working 6 sometimes 7 days a week and I cannot keep up with it anymore. I've had to cut the fat and some of the bone too and some of these greedy ass companies make it very easy to do so. Streaming services and all the other fluff too. I'm over it.
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I’m sorry you’re going through that :/

Re: Streaming services - my family has been switching between subs monthly, so we only ever have one sub a month and shuffle between Netflix, Max and Disney. It’s RIDICULOUS that streaming isn’t a cheaper alternative to cable anymore. It doesn’t even offer the convenience of no ads because now the cheaper subs come with ads. So why even bother?

JorgenRaft said:
Even a 4th tier at the bottom at a cheaper cost for ONLY online access would be a nice option for those who just want that.
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My sentiments exactly. It’ll be time before the Nintendo Switch Online sub starts feeling expensive. There is definitely room for cheap subs, but the issue is the possible consequence of already existing subscribers to change to the cheaper alternative. Granted, it’s on the company’s side to create value to incentivize consumers to stay on their current sub plan.

JorgenRaft said:
Anyways, I'd like the take this opportunity to remind everyone that Playstation is totally doomed and that I left the brand after the PS3 area when they abandoned anime and scrimblos.
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I’ve been telling to one of my friends that Sony has an identity crisis. Clinging to trends isn’t an identity, it’s a business move based solely on the sake of generating.

Reinhard Schneider said:
how can Sony be so shameless about all the price hiking without adding nothing of value to the mix.
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They’re relying on their goodwill and they probably estimated the possible impact of people renouncing to their sub.
— Also, companies with subs generally operate under the assumption that consumers default their payments to a credit card and they won’t bother to revise this.
 
ziggyrivers said:
I’ve been telling to one of my friends that Sony has an identity crisis. Clinging to trends isn’t an identity, it’s a business move based solely on the sake of generating.
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(Sorry if it wasn’t clear but I was being sarcastic on that part lol)

But yeah, in the regards to the first quote, a cheaper sub option for just online access would be really nice but would probably not happen sadly.
 
robertman2 said:
By the time the games drop on PC, they've usually wrung everything they can out of the original release, both in regards to actual game sales and consoles sold to people who want to play the game. Might as well drop it on PC to make extra cash for cheap.

Frankly Nintendo should start considering this for some of the stuff where sales numbers have slown down
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Many Nintendo games sell good over many years and they all draw new people to buy a Switch and than probably many more games. People that Nintendo released in the release year of the Switch still has good games.

Maybe Sony first party games really sell only one or two years in decent numbers and so it's good business to get the PC money... but it nonetheless devalues the exclusive PlayStation games portfolio, because it is no longer exclusive, and make it less likely that some people buy the PS5, perhaps one of the reasons that Sony will most probably fail to reach their PlayStation hardware forecast for this fiscal year.
 
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