Game News 2.0

sniper_samurai

JimBurnley wrote: »

Maybe packaged with the rumoured new standalone expansion?

Not sure. The listing mentions In Game Purchases only on the PS4 version so it is likely that whatever content is added will be available for owners of the base game.

Zero-Cool

sniper_samurai wrote: »

PS5 directors cut of Ghost of Tsushima leaked via ESRB rating.

https://www.esrb.org/ratings/37845/Ghost+of+Tsushima%3A+Directors+Cut/

"The game also depicts a man's exposed buttocks as he bathes in a hot spring."

Ah heyoorrr, someone get Joe on the line!

CastorTroy

Haven't played it yet but hopefully there's a free upgrade like FFVIIR and not a PS5 exclusive version like Spider-man

Zero-Cool

CastorTroy wrote: »

Haven't played it yet but hopefully there's a free upgrade like FFVIIR and not a PS5 exclusive version like Spider-man

If this and death stranding PS5 versions get announced at the upcoming PlayStation event, will need very interested to see how they are handled upgrade wise.

Potential-Monke

Re: Sony buying Housemarque, good move and makes sense. But I still hear people giving out about Sony buying studios (who mainly did work for Sony consoles) saying it's a bad thing, but MS buying up as much as they can is a good thing, simply because they're also placating the PC players. I don't remember this back in the SNES/Megadrive days, you had different consoles and different games and that was that. Now, everyone wants everything on their choice of platform.

A quick look at Wiki shows that SIE Worldwide studios own 17 studios, 9 of which were founded by Sony. MS owns 23 studios and only founded 6, and 8 of the unfounded ones are owned by Zenimax/Bethesda. Say what you want, but Sony are not the bad guys here.

Zero-Cool

Looks like GTA 6 will be releasing in 2025 to wait for more current gen consoles to be sold and give their employees more time to work on it while avoiding crunch. Hhmmm

https://twitter.com/GameSpot/status/1409977504119541761?s=19

Dr. Bre

GTA use to come out about every 5 years!

Mr Crispy

There hasn't been a new 4 player co-op game announced in about 6 minutes, so Remedy have decided to, uh, remedy that. And it's a spin-off of Control!

dreamers75

Potential-Monke wrote: »

A quick look at Wiki shows that SIE Worldwide studios own 17 studios, 9 of which were founded by Sony. MS owns 23 studios and only founded 6, and 8 of the unfounded ones are owned by Zenimax/Bethesda. Say what you want, but Sony are not the bad guys here.

Would love to know how many they killed, also how many EA killed.

Potential-Monke

dreamers75 wrote: »

Would love to know how many they killed, also how many EA killed.

Sony have closed 7:

Bigbig Studios
Evolution Studios
Guerrilla Cambridge
Incognito Entertainment
Manchester Studio
Studio Liverpool
Zipper Interactive

MS have closed/consolidated 13 and sold/lost 4

Access Software/Salt Lake Games Studio/Indie Games — Links series — Sold to Take-Two Interactive and renamed Indie Built
Bungie — Halo series — Became independent
Lift London — Removed from Microsoft's games business[96]
Twisted Pixel Games — The Gunstringer, LocoCycle, The Maw, 'Splosion Man series — Became independent

Closed or consolidated
Aces Game Studio — Microsoft Flight Simulator series — Closed
BigPark — Kinect Joy Ride, Joy Ride Turbo — Consolidated
Carbonated Games — Closed
Digital Anvil — Brute Force, Freelancer — Consolidated [97]
Ensemble Studios — Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology series, Halo Wars — Closed
FASA Studio — MechWarrior series, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies series — Closed
Good Science Studio — Kinect Adventures, Kinect Fun Labs, Kinect Star Wars — Consolidated
Hired Gun — Halo 2 PC port — Consolidated[98]
Lionhead Studios — Fable series, Black & White series — Closed
Microsoft Studios Victoria — Closed
Press Play — Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, Kalimba — Closed
Team Dakota — Project Spark — Consolidated
Xbox Live Productions — Consolidated (Publishing arm)

The most recent I can find for EA is from this site from June 2019. Up to that point they had acquired and sold 14 (some of these were merged)

Westwood Studios
NuFx
Bullfrog Productions
PlayFish
Origin Systems
Phenomic Game Development
Black Box Games
Victory Games
Mythic Entertainment
DreamWorks Interactive
EA Salt Lake
Maxis Software
Visceral Games
Pandemic Studios

CastorTroy

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Looks like GTA 6 will be releasing in 2025 to wait for more current gen consoles to be sold and give their employees more time to work on it while avoiding crunch. Hhmmm

https://twitter.com/GameSpot/status/1409977504119541761?s=19

Have they announced yet if the new gen versions will include free upgrades or not? I'm guessing not and will just be bonus money for Online or something

Varik

CastorTroy wrote: »

Have they announced yet if the new gen versions will include free upgrades or not? I'm guessing not and will just be bonus money for Online or something

Online is free, both for those who own it and PS plus member who get it in the first few months.

They've not even said if the single player will get an upgrade, there's the possibility it's just online.

sniper_samurai

Seems Bloober Team have formed a "strategic partnership" with Konami, which considering their body of work is most likely Silent Hill related.

https://ir.blooberteam.com/2021/06/30/the-strategic-partnership-of-konami-digital-entertainment-and-bloober-team/

Markitron

I'm so ****ing sick of hearing about a new silent hill, at this point I want them to announce it just so everyone will shut the **** up about it.

Retr0gamer

I only played Layers of Fear and that was a complete pile of Silent Hill flavoured pish.

Ever since the Silent Hill team left and became Sony Japan Studios it's just been western studios trying and failing to emulate SH2. Shattered Memories was the best they got and that still had issues.

Markitron

Japanese horror just doesn't translate to the west in any medium, the off-putting weirdness can't be replicated.

Retr0gamer

I'd feel they would standout more if they did their own thing. I mean SH3 and 4 did and are all the better for it. The Western games are the same unreliable narrator as SH2 and a Pyramid Head, every ****ing time.

The Raging Bile Duct

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'd feel they would standout more if they did their own thing. I mean SH3 and 4 did and are all the better for it. The Western games are the same unreliable narrator as SH2 and a Pyramid Head, every ****ing time.

I don't think Pyramid Head was in Downpour beyond the joke ending. I didn't mind Downpour - I played it a good while after its release so there wasn't too many bugs by the time I got to it. It had major issues in terms of repetitive enemies and was way too long but there was a half decent game buried in there.

My expectations were probably so low going into it that anything other than a steaming pile of poo was going to be a pleasant surprise.

Retr0gamer

Well a Pyramid Head stand in at least. And miss the whole point of pyramid head being in SH2 just like the films did.

Not played Downpour so can't comment on it.

johnny_ultimate

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

Nope, it's not controversial at all. I'm just curious why you would prefer that. As in, how/why is a company staying independent a good thing in your opinion?

Genuinely as simple as I prefer to see more independent developers, artists, filmmakers etc... creating work and thriving. I think independence often allows for far more creative freedom, and personally I think the majority of the most interesting and exciting games are produced in the independent space (with exceptions, of course). Too much of the world's media is controlled by a handful of corporations, which is not a healthy way for art or entertainment to be produced IMO. Look at Disney's endless parade of mediocre, derivative "content" and its utter market dominance, which has only pushed independent voices more and more to the fringes. In gaming, there are countless stories of games being compromised or changed beyond the creators' intentions due to orders from above. Not to say independence is all sunshine and roses - survival is a tricky thing in this industry! - but corporate interference often leads to worse games.

Sony may not be as overtly awful as the likes of EA, but it's not long ago at all we had reports of how they're steering their studios down a very particular direction of the same old 'prestige' blockbusters: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-09/sony-s-obsession-with-blockbusters-is-stirring-unrest-within-playstation-empire

There are of course **** games made by independent studios, and great ones made by corporate-owned ones - including Sony studios from time to time! Hopefully Housemarque's work will continue to be as creative and distinctive as Nex Machina and Returnal under Sony ownership.

Mr Crispy

Indies not happy with Sony either.

Potential-Monke

I don't like how most won't say the name but still make it blatantly obvious. Have the balls to say it or don't! If it's that big of an issue, leave the platform. Loss of revenue will make more of an impact than giving out. If all Indie studios banded together and did something, then something would happen. Trying to do it as individuals or small companies won't get anywhere. Band together, talk to Sony. Keep trying if you're getting nowhere, and if you still don't get anywhere, pull the plug. But their own words, PS is the worst selling platform for their games (I'd like to know which games though), so just don't bother?

Yeah, Sony need to pull up their socks, but giving out on the internet isn't going to work imo. I would also like to know if these are the same companies that MS threw money at to be on GamePass. I'm not defending the practice, but for as much stick as Sony gets, I still think they're the most gamer focused of the main console companies, ie: instead of just more power, they actually innovated this gen with the DualSense.

Retr0gamer

Potential-Monke wrote: »

I don't like how most won't say the name but still make it blatantly obvious. Have the balls to say it or don't! If it's that big of an issue, leave the platform. Loss of revenue will make more of an impact than giving out. If all Indie studios banded together and did something, then something would happen. Trying to do it as individuals or small companies won't get anywhere. Band together, talk to Sony. Keep trying if you're getting nowhere, and if you still don't get anywhere, pull the plug. But their own words, PS is the worst selling platform for their games (I'd like to know which games though), so just don't bother?

Yeah, Sony need to pull up their socks, but giving out on the internet isn't going to work imo. I would also like to know if these are the same companies that MS threw money at to be on GamePass. I'm not defending the practice, but for as much stick as Sony gets, I still think they're the most gamer focused of the main console companies, ie: instead of just more power, they actually innovated this gen with the DualSense.

You've got Microsoft and Nintendo which have indie support, will promote indie games on their streams and on their platform's stores and will partner with indie studios as well. On the PC side of things you have Epic moneyhatting Indie developers and Steam doing a pretty good job of promoting new games on its system.

And then you have Sony with their 'I'm number 1 so why try harder' attitude to indies. Every few months you hear how Sony is going to treat indie developers better and nothing comes of it. I've heard plenty saying they are bad to deal with as an indie and give you absolutely nothing. No promotion whatsoever unless you are a big publisher.

I really don't get your criticism or small indie devs that are most likely probably barely surviving so they can do something they love complaining publicly?

Also gamer focused? Come off it. They are shareholder focused. No platform holder is gamer focused. But Sony's PR department have been working overtime to develop that image quite effectively, saw it documented in an article before.

Sony isn't the only one but thinking a platform holder is your friend is what they want and as far from the truth as you can get.

If they were really 'for the players' they'd be releasing their exclusives on all platforms they could.

Potential-Monke

Of course they're shareholder focused, every business is, but I feel that Sony have the best innovation this gen (will wait to see what the Switch 2 may do). MS just beefed up their One X and went huzzah. Sony developed a new controller which, imo, has added another layer that far supersedes simple rumble tech. I find it hard to explain, but it just clicked with me with Returnal recently and it's now weird playing games without it.

That's what I meant when I said they're more gamer focused. They not only gave a very powerful machine, they gave a genuine improvement beyond graphics and loading, they gave more immersion. It's making me truly excited for the PSVR2 and it's power + haptics combo. I believe some may have already experienced the possibility on the Index, but Sony is doing it for us mere mortals.

And I don't have a criticism of indie devs, I wish them all the best and hope whatever they do works out, means more for me to play. I just don't agree with the way this was done. "Oh I have and issue with 1 of 3 companies and it's not the green one and it's not the red one!" Just out and say it. I see one of them did, bit of respect for them at least. And I'm not defending the practice either, I'm just saying that if you can't sort it out with them, then just leave instead of bitching to the internet, which is the go to for everything these days. It's not my business what your business is. Does it suck some people won't get to play your game seeing as they only have a Sony console? Yeah, but c'est la vie.

I was bummed Hades wasn't on Sony, it's great that it's coming, but I wasn't demanding it. I'm an adult, I understand that I can't have everything! Unlike the vocal PC players, who are honestly coming across to me as entitled spoiled brats right now. They want everything on their chosen platform, actively encourage a company destroying competition because they're placating them, and have a hard on for the other competitor to fail if they don't agree to release their first party titles on their chosen platform. Imagine if every single PC game had to come out on consoles too, imagine all the crap games ye would have to put up with. First party Sony games are amazing on the PS because they're built for the PS, it's what annoys me when people give out that the port won't run exactly as they had envisioned it would, and giving out that a game designed for 2 versions of the same platform suddenly has issues on hundreds of thousands of different configurations....

Thankfully it's nearly bed time, I seem to be ratty tonight! And at the end of the day, even though this comes across as ranty and emotional, I actually don't care that much. I like what Sony do, I feel they genuinely want to get out good games and experiences, while MS just want your money. I've always felt that way, and MS nearly had me for the PS3/360 gen, but Sony have me again since the 4, and most definitely with the 5. I will get a Series X at some point though. I said that with the One X too though...

ERG89

Wait, Nintendo promoting indie games on their store might be the biggest whopper I've ever read. They release like 20 games a week and they just throw them out there for people to search for. Its no better than what Steam do every day. There is no way of knowing when anything is out without prior knowledge & wishlisting. Nintendo **** up their charts system then by having sales on shítty games for 86c which stay in the chart even after their price goes up hoping to fool people into thinking crap like Astro Bears is this hidden gem they don't know about.


The Xbox store is only marginally better, while you can promote things its still a total mess in terms of layout. Everything is thrown together, media with games and like Sony's store unless you know what you are looking for it ain't going to jump out. Windows 11 changing their stores was an absolute no brainer as the one on there now still has a total bang of Windows 8 to it. Sure if they are on gamepass its easier but they don't let any old shìt on that either.

I'm pretty sure all platform holders do indie showcases now & release trailers on YouTube but you are still advertising those games in a manner where they will only stand out if they either look unique or offer something different which the vast majority of them don't as I've forgotten 90% of what was shown at E3. Hades & Into the Breach level games ain't exactly releasing every week its usually a sea of mascot platformers, iffy visual novels, a port of a mobile puzzle game & metroidvania's of varying quality.

I'm kinda amazed that most of them get on the eShop or PSN as a lot of them will generate zero discussion in their lifetime as indie games are the most oversaturated market in gaming.

Grumpypants

Similar stories from indie studios about how the Nintendo estore is the worst place to be.

I do feel there are just too many low quality indie games. The Devs are invested in their own game but you literally can't feature them all.

Sony are right to keep some quality control on the store. Look at the mess Steam is. With floods of absolute garbage asset flips that the Dev can heavily discount to make it look like you are getting a deal.

Mr Crispy

Jesus Christ. Remind me not to post anything that paints Company A or Product B in a bad light again.

Grumpypants

Mr Crispy wrote: »

Jesus Christ. Remind me not to post anything that paints Company A or Product B in a bad light again.

We all know company A are the worst.