Don’t be so dramatic. They provide a service that is unique and fill a void in the industry. They aren’t perfect, but consider the alternative.
They make it for PS4 because money. The largest installed base plus the PS5 is backwards compatible. If you are going to pick one PlayStation platform, PS4 is the smartest choice for profitability as you will capture the entire Sony market.
The only way that $70B purchase makes common sense, given that MS has self admitted no interest in competing in the hardware race, is if it becomes a third party publisher.
MS’ likely strategy going forward will be to try to grow Gamepass with initial exclusivity, but then publishing on other platforms once that early access is over. That way they can harvest maximum profit from each title.
This is similar to Sony’s approach. First on PlayStation, but the...
The median number of hours would be a more meaningful statistic. Otherwise you can have a segment of players that will completely blow the numbers out of the water.
"it makes money" is a very suspect statement. Creating revenue is technically "making money".... but there's a big difference between earning revenue and earning a profit.
I own one. Works fine for me. The sticks are slightly smaller than the Dual Sense, and there is a tiny bit of latency, but picture and sound quality have been excellent for me.
It works on any network that doesn't need a browser to authenticate...
It's a dedicated device that you can literally pick up and play on a whim, with direct interaction to your PS5 and library of games. The quality of experience (controller, screen, dedicated platform) versus trying to jerry-rig and juggle yet another thing on your smartphone is what appeals to some.
“Best selling number 1 console, WORLD PREMIER EXCLUSIVE”
I remember being in disbelief when R-Type for the Turbografx retailed for $69.99 in 1990…. That’s $165 in today’s dollars…. for a 512KB arcade shooter made by a dozen people….. mind blown.
The “dollar” cost of items will never be static. It is the nature of economic growth that leads to inflation. Inflation, on its own, is not entirely a bad thing if it increases at a steady rate commensurate with GDP growth. But to think that the dollar can lose value yet the cost of goods...
It’s inevitable. Inflation and soaring development costs only lead to one path.
But they continue to buy Nintendo and Sony?
It’s so that the relevance of a game can be extended over time. Instead of offering New Game + from day one, developers can add it in a future update that will then give gamers an excuse to dust off the title. This leads to fresh news coverage, increased traffic and discourse, and prevents a game from fading away in a few weeks.
It’s a bit of that GaaS/episodic factor that attempts to prolong the relevance of a multi-year development and generate more buzz and profit.
Have a feeling that people's concept of the time value of money takes a very long time to catch up. As has been stated by Sony, their goal with this accessory is less of a source of direct profit and more of a way to increase engagement for a growing generation of gamers that don't have the desire or luxury to sit in front of their TVs all the time. This accessory has the potential to indirectly increase profits by making PS5 gaming more convenient and accessible to the players. <...
I have a Steam Deck, but ordered a Portal. I wanted a non-compromising, non jerry-rigged option to play my PS5 stuff away from the TV. Can't stand tiny handheld controllers (I think the Switch JoyCons are the worst controller Nintendo has every released for honest reasons). Playing my PS5 on the go with full control over the dashboard (and not a Remote Play hack) AND full-size controllers is my cup of team.
I’m confused. You wanted Sony to produce a standalone handheld system that could play PS5 titles locally? That’s impractical. The Steamdeck is around $500 and less than 2 TF of performance. Sony has no interest in going down the ugly road of the XBox Series S, and I’m sure most developers would agree.
Don’t understand the backlash over the Portal.
You are not going to get a Vita 2 from Sony. They’ve been there and done that, and it makes little sense to split limited development resources making cut down games for a separate platform. It made sense back in the PSP days when developer budgets and game expectations were reasonable, but not today when the public expects first party titles to be big budget affairs. Times and lofty expectations have increased too much, and t...
To sweeten the GamePass pot. In business there are short term and long term goals. You can’t do everything at once. The vision of GamePass is to eventually be on every platform possible, otherwise the business model does not make sense.
So we should be expecting yearly die shrinks now? I'm sure the chip advances will come in time, but Sony is at least addressing the enormity of the console into something a bit more palatable, have addressed the issue of having to build two distinct SKUs, and have reset the hardware for when new chips can be produced.
“Record profits” adjusted for inflation?
If nothing else, subscriptions need to be sustainable and worthwhile to a company or they will die. Revenue does not equal profit. Profit is the marginal benefit from running a business, and growing costs requires growing sales to counterbalance. No growth in sales but growth in costs is a death spiral. That’s the biggest obstacle for MS with Gamepass.