Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

Upgrading from a PS4 is not the mainstream game console market. Even the generation before, some people, such as Zero Punctuation, questioned the need to buy a new console when PS3 was already good enough. I didn't get a PS4 until 2015, and I'm not going to get a PS5 at launch, even if GTA 6 is a launch title.

A PS5 at launch will be bought by a small number of consumers willing to pay $500 for a much higher performance than the Xbox One X. Eventually when the price of the PS5 drops, it will be adopted by the mainstream.

There's a few statements that are true, that leads me to this conclusion:

1. The PS5 needs to be much more powerful than the Xbox One X.
2. This can't be done for less than $600
3. Sony will take a loss of $100 per console
4. The PS5 will be fully backwards compatible with all PS4 games and software
5. Less demanding games released for the PS5 will also release on PS4, hence there is no need to buy the newer console for many people.
6. Sony will keep PS4 in production for at least 3 more years, if not more.

@NEStalgia - I think Sony is going to struggle to release PS5 under $500 with all the rumored technical specs. An SSD rather than a HDD? Up to 8k video playback? AMD Navi GPU architecture that isn't even currently available on the market?

Nothing about any of that suggests that Sony is targeting a launch msrp of $400.

@Agriculture I'd disagree with a number of those statements. It's not that you may not turn out to be correct, but I don't thing it's inevitable based on those items.

1. It doesn't need to be "much more powerful than X1X". Not to say it won't be, but I don't think that needs to be a design priority, and further, I think if Cerny is making that a design priority, we may indeed end up with another PS3 Phat on our hands. It needs to be much more powerful than PS4 Pro. That's a years-old design by the point they are releasing. There's no reason "much more powerful" costs anything more than PS4 Pro did.

2. That can certainly be done at that price point given the state of tech and the shift since even the 1X's release. Again, consoles are built to price points, not wishlists. Wishlists is what created the Cell, a disaster they still regret.

5. Makes it sounds like PS4 Pro + ....more like XBox's strategy. But Sony's been going all in on traditional generations after suggesting maybe they won't. They can't sell the new box as a "premium SKU, but PS4 for everyone else"...nothing about their strategy indicates that plan. If consoles start transitioning to the $500-600 price, console is securing its own demise in favor of services, mobile devices, and PC growth. I don't believe Sony is that tone-deaf.

@subpopz I agree. I mean they can do cool things with more power and better performance. PS4 is long in the tooth. But it's inherently incremental. And $500 is a lead balloon. If anything that highlights that maybe Google (and Ubu and MS) are right...the days of dedicated consoles are closing. Why buy a $500 console when a phone and smart TV can do much of what PS4 does now by the time the PS5 launches? If it's all about power, then PC render farms really are the future, if only the internet to support it existed.) No way it sells like hotcakes at $500. that will sell to enthusiasts....but enthusiasts don't make the company enough money. See also: WiiU.

@Magician Perhaps they're not. And if they're not....they're in trouble. MS, digital or no, will undercut them. Using the Sony strategy against Sony. Isn't that what got the PS3 in hot water?

Wonder what will be a launch title. Horizon Zero Dawn 2 seems very likely. Maybe Bloodborne 2 as well.

If it's not significantly more powerful than the Xbox One X, then people will wonder why it even counts as a new generation. For that to happen it does need to cost quite a bit, since the progress of computer chips has slowed down.

Also, inflation has made $500 in 2018 equal to $400 in 2006. In fact, $300 in 1995 was equal to $500 today, so if a Playstation 5 launched at $500, it would be the same price as the Playstation 1 at launch.

Listen, all they need to do is announce Bloodborne 2 and I'll eventually pick up a PS5.

Anyone seen this absolute nonsense:

https://www.businessinsider.com/sony-metoo-censorship-playsta...

Sony has changed it's rules about sexual content "Because of the #MeToo movement".
What fresh idiocy is this? This is the Jack Thompson logic all over again, for which there's almost no good evidence. People's behaviour is NOT driven by fictional media depictions.

This explains why they had that ridiculous thing in Devil May Cry where they wouldn't even let you see a woman's bottom. In a game meant for adults. What an absolute joke.

As Sony's saying the transition will be gentle, I could see the launch games potentially being stuff we already know like Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding and TLoU2.

@Dezzy The thing that gets me is that Sony wants their cake and eat it too. They want the games but without as much controversy as possible. If they REALLY wanted to take a stance at it they would just ban the games outright instead of some weak-ass AND unclear censors that make you look unwelcoming to developers with crappy, vague guidelines, as well basically doing nothing to hide the context.

@EvilLucario

It's a recent change on their behalf. If they wanted no controversy, just leaving things how they were would've been the easiest. The status quo is always easier to defend because you can just say nothing.

They've got a potential big problem in the near future though. Cyberpunk 2077 is definitely going to have lots of nudity. If Sony try and censor that, they're gonna have a lot of very angry fans.

The entire thing is just absurd. Why is an electronics company granting itself the authority to tell fully grown adults what they can and can't see. We've already got age-rating systems for this.

I'll admit that the BC with ps4 has perked my ears up a bit since I still have a regular ps4. But the pro itself means I'm waiting at least 3 years into the ps5 lifecycle before I even consider buying this. (I guess I gotta get a better tv as well lol)

Castlevania Collection launches May 16th and final list is:
Castlevania
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Super Castlevania IV
Castlevania Bloodlines
Castlevania The Adventure
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Kid Dracula

@Grumblevolcano that looks amazing except for that Kid Dracula. I hate parody games

@Agriculture That's the existential crisis to the gaming industry though. "Much more powerful than XBox One X" doesn't really exist. Even PC unless you're going nuts on a $3k build isn't THAT much more powerful - it basically is an entry-mid PC already. If consoles have degenerated into keeping lock-step with PC at this point, just charge $1.5K and make it a Sony branded Alienware and be done with it. Or do what Nintendo does and turn the whole concept on its head and create value rather than trying to propose a PC in a different box. I'm not sure the mass market is going to care all that much about "Much more powerful than 1X" any more than they'd care about "not much more powerful than 1X" in any financially meaningful way.

The inflation logic is so wrongly applied in these kinds of discussions. Inflation doesn't apply to luxury/discretionary spending. Inflation or "stagflation" of stagnant wages for decades combined with inflation means food, shelter, transportation, utilities, taxes(!) etc have skyrocketed proportional to income, allowing the average consumer less discretionary income for luxury spending, at a time when there is more competition for entertainment and luxury goods. An entertainment producer gets to pick if they target mass market pricing to endure the competition in that market, or do they target their product as a niche luxury item for the wealthier faction. Sony as a company plays both sides of that. They've tried to make their brands "premium" and command ridiculous (if not laughable) prices, which as worked from some of their TV lines....it's quasi-worked for some of their audio lines. But Walkman and Playstation were two of their brands they targeted at the mass market.

Given this is Sony, I would not dare say there's no chance you're right, they could decide to rebrand Playstation as a premium luxury brand. They could do it. I'm not sure it would be successful and could be a tragedy of Sega-like proportions, but I fully understand they may try in their perpetual hubris. But if they're keeping the current mass market strategy going, no, a $500 entertainment box in 2020 is a very, very doomed product. It will serve a luxury niche and nothing more. Especially while MS and Google will counter with a newer, and either cheaper or more powerful (or both) XBox a little later, and the combined onslaught of streaming for a low-low monthly fee (in select urban areas) from both. I know the elite hardcore gamer wants a super mega powerful $500 box. I say this as someone who bought two XBox One Xs.....a $500 entertainment box is doomed in the market unless they only want it to be a high margin product for a niche....but by your own estimate it would not be a high margin product, it would take a loss! That is massive failure right on the surface.

I would not put that level of stupidity and arrogance past Sony, so I'm not saying you're wrong. But I'd like to think Sony is not quite that blind.

@EvilLucario @Dezzy I keep saying RE censorship. This isn't Playstation talking. This is Sony Entertainment talking. They seem to have fully merged the divisions together at a decision making level. This is the Hollywood backlash doing the talking now, and they'll run PS the same way they run their "step on no toes, please every interest group, every sensitive Hollywood do gooder, and above all, always please China" film model.

Mostly the decisions come from legal and the risk assessment component of finance. Their primary business is an an insurance company, after all.....

Lol all this speculation and fortune telling, can you guys tell me what the winning lotto numbers will be today

Let's just wait and see.

Wonder if Konami will do another Castlevania collection with the more recent games. I remember vaguely enjoying the ones on Ps3 and would buy those in a bundle.

Why? I mean, Kid Dracula's actually a pretty good platformer, and I'm glad more people will have access to it.

@CanisWolfred Maybe a good game but not a good Castlevania game. Again, at least for me!

@EvilLucario Sony effectively banned Omega Labyrinth Z by blocking its release in the West. And rules about sexual content that are simultaneously strict AND vague (there are no written guidelines, developers don't know what'll need to be censored until they submit their games, and the standards seem to shift arbitrarily from day to day) are de facto bans for games from smaller companies that are heavily fanservice-oriented.

@Ralizah And just like that, XBox takes over Japan......

I still wonder how much of it is to placate the "me too" extremists, and how much is to placate the Chinese government.