Correct, and likely because some people refuse to download the apps. I know I was one of them. I say was because I now do my best to not use their services at all, and where I do need to, I use a third-party app so I can use one app for multiple messaging services.
I will admit it’s not only the price that is a deterrent, even if that’s now competing with a perfectly capable gaming PC that can do significantly more, doesn’t have an additional charge to play online, doesn’t have to deal with increasingly standardised subpar controller longevity, commonly have cheaper games, better sales, and will have a longer shelf life. I already thought the PS5 was a bit pricy at launch, at a time when I was still considering buying one. That time has been and gone, I’ve spent the money on upgrading my already decent computer into an absolute beast because I figured “why not?” and I still have yet to see a reason to buy the PS5. It’s no secret that consoles are commonly loss leaders for the manufacturers while the exclusives are the money-makers. It’s a way of doing business, that’s fine, but to this day, I can only claim to have seen them release maybe 4 exclusives that I’d deem worth playing. That’s already a bad deal. No-one in their right mind can justify paying full price for a console to play 4 games. On top of that, 1 already got ported to PC, one’s got a release date, one’s already had public response from the developer to be working on the port, and the last has really strong odds of getting ported too. 4 is my number, and I don’t doubt other players would swap my own picks for something more their taste, or maybe even bolster the numbers, but I don’t think anyone could make it as high as 10 without naming a game that was also released for the PS4 and/or got ported. So unless Sony gets their shit together, the PS5 tells us that the PS6 will be a bad deal.
My regards to Sony, the pricing makes it easier to not even consider buying one.
It doesn’t invalidate what they’re doing in a karmic way, no. As for any legal precedent way, I’m genuinely concerned that it’ll very much be a “too little, too late” scenario. Many of us who have come from the school of Jim Fucking Sterling Son, or even those with their eyes open, saw how bad this could get a decade ago. It got bad enough to go to court where companies like EA produced pathetic stand-in excuses about “lootboxes” that manipulate the young, ill and weak-willed into spending insane amounts of money are actually “surprise mechanics” and thus totally different. Some countries were smart enough to put some amount of age limit on such things, others were even smarter and outright banned them but many just let it happen. It has kept happening and the biggest gaming corpos are now more than big enough to hire all of the lawyers in the world collectively and fight any claims off through the sheer force of printing money.
Yes, I’m possibly embellishing a little in that lot but after witnessing the gaming market slip further and further down the sinkhole the way it has with excuses of “it’s only cosmetic”, “it’s optional” and “it’s not required to experience the game”, I have every reason to think we’re not coming back from this.
Oh god, not them. Pick another producer, please. There are plenty out there… Most of them suck but at least most of them aren’t publicly known to be sex abusers.
Lots of gamers and parents have been going on about this for around a decade. EA was even in court over it. Where the heck have these ‘groups’ been? On an extended vacation with their distant relatives the mole people?
It’s amazing what having the potential of ownership ripped away can do.
Which means around 50 didn’t want to work for Krafton or already found jobs. Good for them.
Fire the C-suite… OUT OF A CANNON!
Platform? App? What we working with here?
Sounds like a strange form of Stockholm Syndrome.
Being under the ActiBlizzard umbrella wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for a lot of employees either.
A coma? Sleeping? A technology cleanse? I’m not sure I understand the intent behind the question.
Think you triggered the HP fans. God knows why they exist but here we are.
At least it’s not Kotaku but all this consolidation is far from good news. Heaven forbid reporters should get to stay independent, let alone being puppeted by a company that’s little more than a meme.
Short answer: money. It’s no secret devs are usually overworked and underpaid so even a large-ish group of developers from even some of the more popular companies getting murdered simply can’t afford to start a business. Some of them could go the Kickstarter route but few would be successful as is the way for Kickstarter.
That was rhetorical. I’m sadly aware of all the poor business decisions and practices
Jesus Christ, the fuck is wrong with this market
Why do people eat food they know isn’t good for their health? Why do people continue to buy products from companies that have proven to only sell bad products or engage in scumbag practices?
They all have the same answer.