The PS5 and Xbox 2 thread - it's happening

[DemonKing]

Games you love you'll always want to own, and the rest is just shovelware. Philly's Netflix for Games model was deeply flawed to begin with.

Yes but with Gamepass you can play new releases on Day 1 and then later down the track buy them on deep discount if you really love them instead of forking out big bucks on Day 1 and then finding out something's not for you.

Based on Microsoft's efforts in recent years I can't think of any 1st party titles they've released that I'd want to pay for later on anyway.

 

[Don Peste]

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

This is the shittiest and most worthless console generation that ever came out. At this point a GameBoy Color seems to be way more useful and fun than PS5/XboxXS

Nothing about his generation makes any sense at all. They both launched too early. I still can’t believe Sony released a PS5 when they did, abandoning the market lead they had. What I figured they’d do years ago is wait a few years long, and try to capture the VR market with a VR focused PS5 like they leveraged their previous consoles to push media formats they’d created. But they didn’t do that, and now it seems like they may be too late to really take that market like they could have if they were entering it this year in a much bigger way than having PSVR2 be an optional thing to get. Like a VR focused PS5 coming out this year would just steamroll Meta and Apple in this VR race that seems like it’s actually just now kind of really gearing up.

It would be funny if Switch 2 is VR and ended up just kind of taking the VR market out of nowhere. Some Switch 2 with augmented reality capabilities that comes packed with Pokémon Go would probably help move systems. Nintendo is in a funny place with the oncoming VR race, because they can actually sell it with nostalgia by marketing a VR glove as a Power Glove 2.

 

[antimeridian]

I still can’t believe Sony released a PS5 when they did, abandoning the market lead they had.

So far this gen Sony is even further ahead. PS4 120 mil, Xbone 60 mil. PS5 50 mil, Xbox Series 20 mil. I think they also announced recently the PS5 is just as successful as the PS4 was, after being out for the same amount of time.
I agree this gen sucks but I'm not sure it cost Sony anything to release when they did.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The best selling game on the PS5 has half the sales of the best selling PS4 game. Maybe there’s something on PS5 that’s sold better than Spider-Man 2, and we just don’t have official numbers, but Spider-Man 2 has sold ten million less than Spider-Man on PS4. And Spider-Man 2 is the only PS5 game with numbers released specifically that has sales anywhere close to ten million. The second best selling PS5 game with numbers is Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart with a little under four million.

Sony announced back in December of last year that the PS4 and PS5 have a monthly active PSN user count of 123 million. The vast majority of those users are on the PS4. Despite comparable sales for the same time period, PS5 users don’t seem to be buying games at the same rate they did on the PS4.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

This is the shittiest and most worthless console generation that ever came out.

What's even funnier, we are in the mid of new gen and I haven't really noticed if it's even started.

 

[Konjad]

This is the shittiest and most worthless console generation that ever came out. At this point a GameBoy Color seems to be way more useful and fun than PS5/XboxXS

Nothing about his generation makes any sense at all. They both launched too early. I still can’t believe Sony released a PS5 when they did, abandoning the market lead they had. What I figured they’d do years ago is wait a few years long, and try to capture the VR market with a VR focused PS5 like they leveraged their previous consoles to push media formats they’d created. But they didn’t do that, and now it seems like they may be too late to really take that market like they could have if they were entering it this year in a much bigger way than having PSVR2 be an optional thing to get. Like a VR focused PS5 coming out this year would just steamroll Meta and Apple in this VR race that seems like it’s actually just now kind of really gearing up.

It would be funny if Switch 2 is VR and ended up just kind of taking the VR market out of nowhere. Some Switch 2 with augmented reality capabilities that comes packed with Pokémon Go would probably help move systems. Nintendo is in a funny place with the oncoming VR race, because they can actually sell it with nostalgia by marketing a VR glove as a Power Glove 2.

I think it suffered from modern 'management' where there is no market research, no waiting for appropriate time, no userbase examination, just push the product out as soon as possible to maximize short term and not care about later (after all, we'll just change jobs if it fails).

I still can’t believe Sony released a PS5 when they did, abandoning the market lead they had.

So far this gen Sony is even further ahead. PS4 120 mil, Xbone 60 mil. PS5 50 mil, Xbox Series 20 mil. I think they also announced recently the PS5 is just as successful as the PS4 was, after being out for the same amount of time.
I agree this gen sucks but I'm not sure it cost Sony anything to release when they did.

They might be on a profit, idk, but consoles do not generate profits (unless their strategy changed, but I doubt it), it's the overpriced games that make the return of the investment. They might have sold gillions of consoles, but to be profitable they also have to sell a lot of games.

 

[911 Jumper]

Sony’s Value Reportedly Dropped By $10 Billion Following Revised PS5 Sales Forecast

 

[deuxhero]

The best selling game on the PS5 has half the sales of the best selling PS4 game. Maybe there’s something on PS5 that’s sold better than Spider-Man 2, and we just don’t have official numbers, but Spider-Man 2 has sold ten million less than Spider-Man on PS4. And Spider-Man 2 is the only PS5 game with numbers released specifically that has sales anywhere close to ten million. The second best selling PS5 game with numbers is Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart with a little under four million.

Sony announced back in December of last year that the PS4 and PS5 have a monthly active PSN user count of 123 million. The vast majority of those users are on the PS4. Despite comparable sales for the same time period, PS5 users don’t seem to be buying games at the same rate they did on the PS4.

Sony's official reports to shareholders lump PS4+PS5 sales into a single box, and they still managed to drop after PS5 launch.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

 

[Elttharion]

Sony’s Value Reportedly Dropped By $10 Billion Following Revised PS5 Sales Forecast

Sony plunged $10 billion after its PS5 sales cut. But a bigger issue is its near decade low games margin​

Toto said that part of the reason why margins are being squeezed more recently is that software production costs have been rising.

“Spiderman 2,” which came out last year and is produced by Sony-owned Insomniac Games, cost around $300 million to make, according to gaming website Kotaku, citing an internal presentation that was leaked after a ransomware group hacked the company.

“So these budgets seemed to have a significant impact on their gaming margin over time,” Toto said.

Looks like Sony passed the point of diminishing returns for their ultra costly blockbusters, they are closer to money drains now. They are having a hard time selling more than 10 million copies while the budgets are growing to insane numbers and the whole division is getting screwed.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Sony’s Value Reportedly Dropped By $10 Billion Following Revised PS5 Sales Forecast

Sony plunged $10 billion after its PS5 sales cut. But a bigger issue is its near decade low games margin​

Toto said that part of the reason why margins are being squeezed more recently is that software production costs have been rising.

“Spiderman 2,” which came out last year and is produced by Sony-owned Insomniac Games, cost around $300 million to make, according to gaming website Kotaku, citing an internal presentation that was leaked after a ransomware group hacked the company.

“So these budgets seemed to have a significant impact on their gaming margin over time,” Toto said.

Looks like Sony passed the point of diminishing returns for their ultra costly blockbusters, they are closer to money drains now. They are having a hard time selling more than 10 million copies while the budgets are growing to insane numbers and the whole division is getting screwed.

Hence why Sony seem to be going hard into the live service/GAAS route. While their AAA single-player games probably won't completely disappear, expect to see some major cuts in production values. Either that or they going to increasing game prices, sooner rather than later.

I'm already hearing about game prices rising to $100 when the next gen consoles come around...

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Hitting a natural ceiling, and no clever pursuit of new growth models is going to break through that.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Sony’s Value Reportedly Dropped By $10 Billion Following Revised PS5 Sales Forecast

Sony plunged $10 billion after its PS5 sales cut. But a bigger issue is its near decade low games margin​

Toto said that part of the reason why margins are being squeezed more recently is that software production costs have been rising.

“Spiderman 2,” which came out last year and is produced by Sony-owned Insomniac Games, cost around $300 million to make, according to gaming website Kotaku, citing an internal presentation that was leaked after a ransomware group hacked the company.

“So these budgets seemed to have a significant impact on their gaming margin over time,” Toto said.

Looks like Sony passed the point of diminishing returns for their ultra costly blockbusters, they are closer to money drains now. They are having a hard time selling more than 10 million copies while the budgets are growing to insane numbers and the whole division is getting screwed.

Hence why Sony seem to be going hard into the live service/GAAS route. While their AAA single-player games probably won't completely disappear, expect to see some major cuts in production values. Either that or they going to increasing game prices, sooner rather than later.

I'm already hearing about game prices rising to $100 when the next gen consoles come around...

$100 games would be completely stupid. They’re already not selling as much with the ten dollar price hike. If video games shot up to a hundred bucks, I don’t see anything keeping even half the amount of costumers they did at $59.99. Most stuff might be lucky to keep even a third or fourth of their audience. If anything, most games should cost less, and publishers should be trying to sell more games to more people for less money.

$100 games don’t even make sense in this modern gaming market were games are free-to-play now. Like the rumor that Rockstar is thinking of selling GTA6 for a hundred bucks is fucking stupid. As much as Rockstar makes on GTA the single player game, they make even more on Online and selling Shark Cards. If they were smart, they’d just sell GTA single player as it’s own thing; and not for $70. Which will be a huge giant high all on its own. And then a few months later they’d release whatever they’re calling the new GTA Online as a F2P game, and I’m sure that’d pull in vastly more money than GTA5’s Online does. Like GTA Online does well for them, especially a few years ago, but they could be racking in Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone money.

At this new $70 price tag, every games should look like a special edition release, and come with nice manuals and stuff like little art books. They should have at $59.99, but they really should at $69.00 and $69.99.

 

[Drakortha]

Wake me up when Sony and Microsoft pay their own customers to play their busywork games. Since that's how most games are designed now and can hardly be called entertainment anymore.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Sony’s Value Reportedly Dropped By $10 Billion Following Revised PS5 Sales Forecast

Sony plunged $10 billion after its PS5 sales cut. But a bigger issue is its near decade low games margin​

Toto said that part of the reason why margins are being squeezed more recently is that software production costs have been rising.

“Spiderman 2,” which came out last year and is produced by Sony-owned Insomniac Games, cost around $300 million to make, according to gaming website Kotaku, citing an internal presentation that was leaked after a ransomware group hacked the company.

“So these budgets seemed to have a significant impact on their gaming margin over time,” Toto said.

Looks like Sony passed the point of diminishing returns for their ultra costly blockbusters, they are closer to money drains now. They are having a hard time selling more than 10 million copies while the budgets are growing to insane numbers and the whole division is getting screwed.

Hence why Sony seem to be going hard into the live service/GAAS route. While their AAA single-player games probably won't completely disappear, expect to see some major cuts in production values. Either that or they going to increasing game prices, sooner rather than later.

I'm already hearing about game prices rising to $100 when the next gen consoles come around...

$100 games would be completely stupid. They’re already not selling as much with the ten dollar price hike. If video games shot up to a hundred bucks, I don’t see anything keeping even half the amount of costumers they did at $59.99. Most stuff might be lucky to keep even a third or fourth of their audience. If anything, most games should cost less, and publishers should be trying to sell more games to more people for less money.

$100 games don’t even make sense in this modern gaming market were games are free-to-play now. Like the rumor that Rockstar is thinking of selling GTA6 for a hundred bucks is fucking stupid. As much as Rockstar makes on GTA the single player game, they make even more on Online and selling Shark Cards. If they were smart, they’d just sell GTA single player as it’s own thing; and not for $70. Which will be a huge giant high all on its own. And then a few months later they’d release whatever they’re calling the new GTA Online as a F2P game, and I’m sure that’d pull in vastly more money than GTA5’s Online does. Like GTA Online does well for them, especially a few years ago, but they could be racking in Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone money.

At this new $70 price tag, every games should look like a special edition release, and come with nice manuals and stuff like little art books. They should have at $59.99, but they really should at $69.00 and $69.99.

I could see super-hyped games like GTA 6 come in at $100 simply because Rockstar knows they can get away with it.

Either that or the microtransactions are going to be majorly cranked up to 11...

Either way, there's gonna be a lot of angry people once it happens:

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The thing is Rockstar can’t get away with it. Not that people won’t buy a $100 GTA. They will. But not enough people will for them to make the kind of money they were when they were selling it for $59.99. They’d definitely lose more than half the player base. And that price point would fucking kill growing the player base. Like you might be able to sell a $100 GTA to a bunch of guys that were in some form of secondary education from the time the GTA series started up to GTA5. But you’re losing that audience once the price goes up to $100, and GTA as a brand won’t mean anything to them going forward. It’s a very good way of turning GTA into a niche series.

If someone at some publisher is seriously thinking about $100 games, than they’re a moron. They’re a moron that thinks they’ll still be able to pull the majority of users they do at $59.99. And they won’t. I think they’d be lucky to get half the sales GTA5 had on release.

You might be able to get someone to dump $100 into a game over time. But a few bucks here and there that add up is different from asking for $100 up front, and I’m not sure people at publishing companies understand this idea anymore.

If Rockstar and Take-Two are trying to get more money out of Grand Theft Auto, what they should be doing is what they did with GTA4. Release the regular single player game. Then release stand alone GTA games about different characters doing different shit that reuse the city and game assets.

 

[tritosine2k]

Next console gen is a prediction in itself, optical media is dead

Sony Admits PS5 Could Be Its Last Console—But It’s Not All Bad News

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

"The End of xyz"

Clickbait shit. The PS5 will truly start to shine once the PS6 gets released.

 

[flyingjohn]

This gen is really weird, every single console gen has seen jumps in graphics/features while this one has jack shit minus a ssd that is nullified because of shader cache stuttering.
The games also exploded in cost. Miles Morales, practically a expansion with bare minimum changes cost around a 150 million to make, which is insane for a quick cash grab. In the old days, such a game would cost a round a couple of mil and would easily bank over 20.

 

[Azalin]

The thing is Rockstar can’t get away with it. Not that people won’t buy a $100 GTA. They will. But not enough people will for them to make the kind of money they were when they were selling it for $59.99. They’d definitely lose more than half the player base. And that price point would fucking kill growing the player base. Like you might be able to sell a $100 GTA to a bunch of guys that were in some form of secondary education from the time the GTA series started up to GTA5. But you’re losing that audience once the price goes up to $100, and GTA as a brand won’t mean anything to them going forward. It’s a very good way of turning GTA into a niche series.

If someone at some publisher is seriously thinking about $100 games, than they’re a moron. They’re a moron that thinks they’ll still be able to pull the majority of users they do at $59.99. And they won’t. I think they’d be lucky to get half the sales GTA5 had on release.

You might be able to get someone to dump $100 into a game over time. But a few bucks here and there that add up is different from asking for $100 up front, and I’m not sure people at publishing companies understand this idea anymore.

If Rockstar and Take-Two are trying to get more money out of Grand Theft Auto, what they should be doing is what they did with GTA4. Release the regular single player game. Then release stand alone GTA games about different characters doing different shit that reuse the city and game assets.

GTA5 has sold about 190 millions copies if I remember correctly and it's the second best selling game of all time after Minecraft and still brings in a ton of money every year from GTA online. GTA 4 was a success but sold only a fraction of what 5 sold so it's safe to say they will try to replicate the more successful formula.

BTW if anyone is going to try a higher price tag or even a 100 dollar one it's going to be using such a brand name

I could see super-hyped games like GTA 6 come in at $100 simply because Rockstar knows they can get away with it.

Either that or the microtransactions are going to be majorly cranked up to 11...

Either way, there's gonna be a lot of angry people once it happens:

Not sure how successful a potable only console can be in the era of smartphones

 

[Jaedar]

So...Sony won the console war.

Noone won and we lost...

You crazy? The pc gaming master race won. Open platform defeating the closed ones is a massive win for consumers.

 

[Ezekiel]

So...Sony won the console war.

Noone won and we lost...

You crazy? The pc gaming master race won. Open platform defeating the closed ones is a massive win for consumers.

PC users lost too. It's because of how limited the audience of these expensive, mostly boring movie games is that they have to be ported. Would rather have more variety and experimentation in mid-budget games again even if it meant fewer of them came to my platform of choice.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The thing is Rockstar can’t get away with it. Not that people won’t buy a $100 GTA. They will. But not enough people will for them to make the kind of money they were when they were selling it for $59.99. They’d definitely lose more than half the player base. And that price point would fucking kill growing the player base. Like you might be able to sell a $100 GTA to a bunch of guys that were in some form of secondary education from the time the GTA series started up to GTA5. But you’re losing that audience once the price goes up to $100, and GTA as a brand won’t mean anything to them going forward. It’s a very good way of turning GTA into a niche series.

If someone at some publisher is seriously thinking about $100 games, than they’re a moron. They’re a moron that thinks they’ll still be able to pull the majority of users they do at $59.99. And they won’t. I think they’d be lucky to get half the sales GTA5 had on release.

You might be able to get someone to dump $100 into a game over time. But a few bucks here and there that add up is different from asking for $100 up front, and I’m not sure people at publishing companies understand this idea anymore.

If Rockstar and Take-Two are trying to get more money out of Grand Theft Auto, what they should be doing is what they did with GTA4. Release the regular single player game. Then release stand alone GTA games about different characters doing different shit that reuse the city and game assets.

GTA5 has sold about 190 millions copies if I remember correctly and it's the second best selling game of all time after Minecraft and still brings in a ton of money every year from GTA online. GTA 4 was a success but sold only a fraction of what 5 sold so it's safe to say they will try to replicate the more successful formula.

BTW if anyone is going to try a higher price tag or even a 100 dollar one it's going to be using such a brand name

I could see super-hyped games like GTA 6 come in at $100 simply because Rockstar knows they can get away with it.

Either that or the microtransactions are going to be majorly cranked up to 11...

Either way, there's gonna be a lot of angry people once it happens:

Not sure how successful a potable only console can be in the era of smartphones

GTA5 selling 195 million copies has something to do with people buying it when it’s discounted for Shark Cards. At least that’s what I’ve heard. It’s apparently the cheapest way to get the most Shark Cards. What you’re essentially seeing with those GTA5 sales at a certain point is online Shark Card purchases. I’m sure it’s not all that, but it seems to mostly be that.

And while GTA Online makes lots of money now, it would make vastly more money if it was free-to-play and functioned with the same Shark Card system they have now. As much has GTA makes a years with Online, there is no year where they’ve ever done as good as the best years of Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone.

---

Nobody making a modern handheld system would have it only be a handheld system. They’d be doing it like the Switch. I mean of course it’d be like the Switch, the Switch would be the whole reason they’d even do handheld systems. It’s probably the whole reason Valve released the Steam Deck, since before that (and probably after) the Switch had taken Steam’s place as the go to for indie titles.

 

[Rahdulan]

>later stage
>of a phone charger and streaming device that has 4
>4 exclusives

Number of exclusives aside PS5 did come out in 2020. Thing is the 7th generation essentially warped everyone's mind in terms of how long a single generation lasts. We're just now reaching the boiling point as big budget games take longer and longer to develop. Your project cannot take the entire console's lifespan worth of development time.