I reached game pass saturation a while ago…IMO it turned into basic cable TV with one or two good channels (games) and stuffed full of religious & shopping channels (while still promoting the quantity of games)
PlayStation often makes unforced errors that make you wonder how it gained such a significant foothold across the last few console generations and such a fiercely loyal audience.
Mostly unforced errors from other companies. It’s dumb decisions all the way down.
Yeah they both make a bunch of really anti consumer choices constantly, I never got the diehards who go hard for the console. Exclusive games I can at least understand, but is an Xbox really that functionality different from a PlayStation?
I was a Nintendo kid in the 99s, then had a PS2 followed by a 360, I really only got a PS4 cause the opportunity for a deal came up, and I only got a PS5 cause I already had a PS4.
Admittedly that’s probably where most of the fan clubbing comes from, generationally upgrading until you’re to use to the system to change.
I don’t think they would be ditching the table if they were winning tbh. Their goal is always to get as many people to subscribe to their stuff as possible
Let's not forget that with Gamepass, it's not just a better game by folding in PC, but they're doing something completely different with their consoles than Sony is. More and more, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are either competing with Valve or against themselves, and not each other.
Except for Nintendo, they’re still just doing what they’ve been doing for the last 20 years, releasing consoles with outdated hardware and relying on gimmicks to sell them, at this point they’re not even trying to compete anymore, Valve is a stronger competitor for Microsoft and Sony than Nintendo nowadays.
Still, raw processing power comparatively it is underpowered, can’t push beyond 1080p for example, which is fine for Nintendo games because they make games with that limitation in mind, third party switch games are a lot more hit or miss, especially ports of pc games.
Compared to even cell phones the switch is laughably underpowered in the year 2024.
Not saying it can’t be useful or enjoyable, just gotta face facts about what the device is lol.
Steam deck is starting to eat their lunch I think.
Playstation’s exclusives are on the whole, a lot more interesting to me. I honestly have almost no interest in Xbox because of that. It’s not the hardware, it’s purely the software.
I feel like we‘re not seeing/talking about the reason the console market is another duopoly. Its a harsh failure on cartel prevention laws imo. New consoles should pop up here and there yet they dont (very small opening for steamseck likes). Its not a healthy market.
At first glance I think the IP laws are the problem here. A new console should be able to run xbox games and/or ps5 games and compete on hardware and ergonomics alone imo. That way the competition would drive prices down and decisions would again be for improving the service, not the bottom line.
I think the answer is simple (they probably mentioned it in the article I’m not reading). Sony makes good hardware and good games. They don’t really need to compete with Nintendo since they kinda do their own thing at this point, and Microsoft is really no better. I also think Playstation is generally regarded as having better exclusives, even during the 360 era where Xbox clearly won.
My experience is that seems to be a US centric view that the 360 “won” it’s generation, I’ve never encountered that view locally and it’s ultimately not born out by statistics although it was the closest Microsoft ever came.
In the UK, where I’m from, it’s widely considered 360 won too.
The reason the PS3 won in the end I think was due to a worsening opinion of Microsoft towards the end when the original plan for the Xbox One was being discussed and shown, along with a lot of teenage gamers now being older with more disposable income allowing them to buy a PS3 later in the generation and trying out all of the exclusives they missed out on.
I don’t know how true this rings out in general, but that was pretty much my experience.
The north east for me. Pretty much everyone had a 360 and everyone still calls it “the 360 days” or something of the other. But might just be the people I come across. Only had a few friends that had a PS3 in school, they always seemed to be left out from what the others were doing gaming wise. Wasn’t until the PS4 until I started seeing people back to playing PlayStation by default like the PS2 days.
It makes sense. I respect the hell out of the guy for being honest and true of his morals and standing by his community, but I'm sure he knew what he could get into by doing that, and he took the shot anyway. I hope he's just been shuffled around elsewhere and still has a job.
As someone who used to really like Phil, I agree with this. He’s clearly banking on his popularity as a “celebrity” within the gaming community to put a smiling spin on what is a clearly horrible business record.
The question here is not whether Microsoft does the same things that all businesses do (i.e. be evil Capitalist monstrosities that run people’s livelihoods over in the name of investor greed)- that much is obvious.
The question is whether Phil Spencer is actively enabling this behavior and also covering for it- which he is.
And that is why, as the article suggests, people need to stop treating him as anything other than a corporate representative who wants to extract as much value as he can before it all runs into the ground.
Article gets kinda weird at the end and calls the review bombing harassment. Seems like a 180 from the beginning of the article, unless the writer thinks Sony would have changed its mind with 0 protest action.
It also calls all the customers who don’t want to be locked out of the product they paid for ‘fickle’ and brought up gamergate out of nowhere, so I’m honestly not sure what sort of agenda they’re pushing.
The whole article was poorly written honestly, but yeah, that part really felt off. If the only thing they care about is money, then by nature our only real means of protest is to affect their money.
“Generally it’s not a good idea to tell people to refund and leave negative reviews when you’re a community manager. TIL,” Spitz said. “I appreciate all the support and I appreciate even more that everyone can play the game again without restrictions. I knew I was taking a risk with what I said about refunding and changing reviews. I stand by it. It was my job to represent the community, that’s what I did.”
They added: “I wanted to work for Arrowhead because they’re my all-time favorite studio. I got that chance. I’m thankful for that opportunity. I’d happily continue working for them if I had the choice, but that isn’t up to me or anyone else in here. I can walk away happy and I don’t want anyone causing trouble on my behalf, especially not to people I still have a lot of care and respect for.”
This definitely sounds like Sony wanted them out and Arrowhead wanted them to stay.
Corpos are incapable of learning the right lessons. I wouldn’t be surprised if the take away from this at Sony was to eliminate internal voices that were against the decision so it’s easier to pull off next time.
What’s weird about the whole incident is that anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the PC gaming space could have told you that this is exactly what would happen.
The biggest stumble seems to be from releasing without the requirement initially, and making the game available for sale in non-PSN countries.
Other studios like EA and Microsoft have traditionally required their accounts on online games since release; but unless I’m wrong, those accounts are also available in more countries.
kotaku.com
Aktywne