Interesting contrast between the music industry and film, yeah, I hadn’t considered either. Games are probably going to be different depending on the motives of the platform holders and how the developers are paid.
Microsoft appears to be interested in recurring revenue from customers rather than shifting console units. From what I understand Game Pass games are paid for up-front, rather than on time played, which is good. But still, that beggars the question: In a world where bundled all-access services are dominant, are developers going to be incentivised to make more addictive/grindy games? (Apple Arcade seems to be shifting towards this, worryingly)
I think I’m more worried about access, if buying games individually stops being the norm, then it could lead to entire, less ‘popular’ genres or games being wiped out since MS might not see the value in signing them for Game Pass.
Their entire pitch is the same next gen experience with a lower resolution. That makes a lot of sense, and 4K doesn’t matter to most people. Unless we expected developers to target 1080p and under next gen it shouldn’t really hold anything back.
Plus the price makes the whole generation a lot more accessible, it should mean we see more advanced games much sooner rather than an extended cross gen period – last time around cross gen lasted 3 years.
I think the Series S already addresses those concerns, though, since it already has a (slightly) more capable Zen 2 CPU than the PS5 and the SSD and storage controller are the same as the Series X’s, and both storage and CPU compute seem to be the defining characteristics of the new generation going forward.
Yet on the GPU side of the equation the Series S’s 4TF GPU still supports the exact same next generation RDNA2 GPU featureset that both the RDNA2 12TF Series X and 10TF PS5 GPUs support. These are all cutting edge AMD GPUs that aren’t available to buy for desktop computers yet.
Since MS and Sony have already ticked the 4K box with PS4 Pro and One X, and need to exceed these expectations with their new Series X and PS5 machines, I would be very surprised if games made for those systems weren’t targeting 4K image quality again. So the Series S being a 1080p machine doesn’t seem like it would compromise games.
I don’t really think they are concerns, since it isn’t a negative thing. Whatever I think about what resolution is being targeted or how well the gpu will scale to either, or what effect the worse/lower ram will have is currently irrelevant. I feel what Microsoft did is a very smart bushiness move. Again, cutting off both ends while making it harder for the competitors’ point of advantage be utilized in cross platform games.
And lets say it doesn’t work out right away, or that Sony has another half step console in the pipe. Microsoft is now also set up to stop production of these models and roll out a new Series S and X in a year/2 years/whatever basically following the phone upgrade model. While Sony will still have PS4s on the shelves that can’t get much cheaper (current price of a base ps4 is the same as what the Series S will launch at, right?). Sony may be able to adjust to that since backwards compatibility is supposedly there, so they very well could also discontinue the PS4 faster than they have done the older console in past generations, but can they get out a $299 PS5 variant? Gonna be a bit on that since the one major boon the PS5 as a whole has is the drive speed, which is where a lot of the price comes from.
it’s funny; i know we’re dusty retroheads, but yeah, of what we know: demons souls remaster and the rumors of a silent hill reboot/reimaginigng or whatever are the most exciting things for me. that, and another spidey game with miles morales - love the character & the last game was my GOTY in 2018. i guess this shouldn’t surprise me, i’m nearly 2 shelves deep into ps4 games and i’d wager at least one of those shelves is entirely ports, remakes etc haha.
MS really bummed me out this gen. ive like a shelf and a half of both OG xbox & 360 titles, and man were they on fire last gen! i passed entirely this gen, and will likely go in when the hardware is as cheap as it gets, but even then, i’d be after stuff like the rare collection, maybe PSO 2.0 and the like.
their lane should be great for me - PC ports/western stuff for those of us who don’t upgrade their computers - but even stuff that piqued my interest like disco elsyium didn’t find its way to them this gen.
they went from the system where i could try out max payne, deus ex, thief, mass effect, bioshock, fallout and the like to…i’m not really sure, but there’s next to nothing i can’t find on the playstation. so yeah, excited for PS5…hopefully this launch year is solid, but fuck knows none of them will ever be as bad as the first 9 months of ps3, haha. here for whatever nintendo gets around to next year or beyond, but microsoft is a big question mark.
I’m honestly more interested in the PS5 than XSX, and yet I won’t get the PS5 until later on. Plus that thing is huge, I would want a smaller version of that system.
The PS5 event is tomorrow then, and with Microsoft seemingly having shown its hand already, hopefully there are some surprises. Otherwise this is shaping up to be the most transitional generation ever?
I think this is about right. We’re now at the point where it’s just a step up. BC will be a given from now on, for the most part, and remakes/ports or subscription services for older games in some form are also a norm. While there’s less hype, there’s also a little more certainty. We’re just improving the power and OS every few years now, and we don’t have to leave behind whole libraries as much before.
Yea I think this is true. Especially for Microsoft. It seems they really want hardware to be an iterative thing, rather than giant leaps where everything gets left behind.
I thought that was disappointing, mainly because I was certain they’d beat Microsoft’s lack of tangible next-gen games in the launch window. But the only two PS5-specific third party games they showed for launch day in the 40 minutes were a director’s cut of Devil May Cry 5 and Fortnite!
I think it says a lot that out of Japan’s biggest publishers, only Square Enix and Capcom had games, with Sega, Namco, and Koei Tecmo having nothing (or at least nothing Sony would show in front of people for this event). I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me FFXVI was originally in development for Xbox One and PS4 - given it’s from the FFXIV team it doesn’t seem to be on Luminous Engine anymore, and looks visually less impressive than XV did.
Suddenly Microsoft’s decision to do the whole smart delivery thing makes sense at least in this short term transition period, clearly third party publishers aren’t all that interested in leaving behind the current established consoles.
No first party games were announced for launch in the showreel which doesn’t make sense to me.
Horizon, Spidey and Sackboy are also coming to PS4. Let’s face it, no one expected Sackboy to stay on PS5, but the former two certainly cement the idea that the line between console generations has been blurred more than ever before.
In hindsight, then, Microsoft must have known what was in the pipeline when they decided to make the first 1-2 years of first party games cross-generation, since the vast majority of third party games will be too. It definitely comes across as more honest, as it were, even if it’s boring. I used to think Smart Delivery was a marketing gimmick but really, it’s just the reality of the situation here, the vast majority of third party games are not going to be made with the new consoles specifically in mind.
That presentation was pretty cool yesterday. It was the first one that actually made me excited for next gen graphics. The lighting and reflections in most of the games bode well for the future. And there was a ton happening on screen for a lot of them too.
It’s the first time it really felt like a “next generation” is happening from a graphical perspective for me.
Yeah, being a huge souls fan that made me pull the trigger on a pre-order. Got lucky and squeezed in through an afilliate link through Wario64. I did get an offer to pre-order from Sony after so I may do that as a back-up. I’d never bought anythrough a twitter link on amazon like that.