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.
As always, probably a decision that came from up high, I assume everyone actually on the floor in Sony know this world be a terrible thing and universally hated and argued as such.
Very smart of arrow head to announce the update to get the public’s opinion before the change was implemented.
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.
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.
This definitely has something to do with their next console. I bet my nipples that it‘ll be so similar to the switch that an existing Yuzu would be capable enough to emulate / hack that new console within a day or a week.
So they’re taking it all down while it’s unreleased to make sure they cash out on all the consoles from the get-go.
Imagine dedicating so much budget and workforce toward such things. Just imagine going at the office in the morning, knowing that you will have to find ways to crack down on things of that kind, which offer entertainement to so many.
People going crazy over a PSN account requirement but nobody cares a shit about the game having root access to their PCs. Funny times we live in indeed.
The game was published by Sony. Of course they’re going to want the account tie in. It was also always listed on the purchase page that a psn account was required.
The game said this on launch and made it clear on the steam page. Even if they weren’t enforcing it, I think its silly to be upset that they’ve started. I’d also rather sign into a PSN account and have functioning crossplay than deal with the current state of it.
Edit: oops I thought i had read it was to help crossplay, which hasn’t been working well recently. since its for nothing this is fucking stupid
If it was a real requirement they should have geo restricted the sale to countries that are allowed to make PSN accounts. Instead they bait and switched players who have been playing past the normal refund window, and now will have an unplayable game. Also the PSN account has nothing to do with fixing crossplay. Other games have functional crossplay without it. And Sony themselves say on their own website that PSN is not required to play Sony games on PC.
Do we ACTUALLY know it wasn’t geo restricted, though? Was it ever for sale in Egypt, or did players there use a VPN to buy it and ignore that the purchase page says a PSN account is required for online play?
I seriously don’t know. I keep hearing people making the statement you’re making, and I agree that is shouldn’t have been for sale in non PSN countries, but I haven’t actually seen someone from one of those countries say they bought it in a non psn region without spoofing their location.
A third party login requirement is usually a deal-breaker for me, but not in an exciting way. I just have a lot of games to catch up on that don’t require me to go make an account.
But now I’m not. I don’t have a PSN account and I don’t care to make one just for this game.
The games industry is real crap now. There’s so much resistance to just being able to download a game and play. It’s always about downloading proprietary launchers, signing up for new accounts, wading through micro transactions, unfinished games, bad stories, and bug-ridden experiences.
kotaku.com
Gorące