Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

@Octane Oh, I'm not questioning the viability of porting the game to PC. PC gamers are very shrewd about purchasing specific ports en masse in order to ensure further support. It's how Steam went from supporting a fraction of the total playable games out there back in 2012 or so to having access to nearly everything on the market today. PC is really, really close to being a universal platform that has access to everything.

I just don't think this is going to convince PC gamers to invest in a console to play the sequel. If anything, now that there's blood in the water, most of them will be likelier than ever to sit tight and wait for more PC ports.

@Ralizah You're not going to convince a die-hard PC gamer, but I don't think they are the target audience.

@Octane I tend to think they're the exact audience Sony is aiming for, as a lot of non-die-hards will already own a PS4 or PS5 for first-party games. Granted, some PC gamers also own consoles and will double-dip to have a version of Sony's games on their preferred platforms, but you also have this large group of PC-only gamers to market to. Sony specifically mentioned wanting new audiences to play the game, and that's an untapped well when it comes to sales potential.

The strategy, in my opinion, is this:

• Release a game on their consoles.
• Milk the total sales potential of their console base over time by gradually lowering the price until everyone who owns a PS4 or PS5 and is even halfway interested will own the game.
• Once people aren't buying your game on console anymore, announce the PC port and generate revenue by tapping into a new pool of gamers.

Sony has a lot of older games they could port over, which means they can keep the PC ports flowing fairly regularly. By the time they've exhausted their PS4 titles, a lot of the PS5 games will be old enough that they can resume the cycle with next-generation games.

My PS1, PS2, PS3 & PS4 games so far.

PS1 & PS3

PS2 & PS4

More evidence of Sony being serious about PC porting:

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/10/sony-establishes-play...

@Ralizah You buying? Or do you keep clinging on to your dated PS-old-timer-4?

#teamps5

@Octane At the moment, nearly all of the upcoming games I'm excited for are coming to the Switch, so I'm not sure what the point would be in dropping $500 on a device I'd barely be using. The only upcoming PS game I can say I'm actually looking forward to is the Horizon sequel and, as we all know, that game was primarily designed with the specs of the PS4 in mind, so my old PS4 from 2014 should continue to serve its purpose as a secondary console I play a couple of games a year on well enough.

@Ralizah It's weird, I was so excited about Series X but across the past year where it's extremely hard to get (even harder than PS5) I'm increasingly thinking "do I need this?" and at this point I feel I'm trying to get one because hard drives have an average lifespan of 5 years so my XB1 is running on borrowed time (got it in 2015) rather than the upgrades (i.e. games released after 2017 working properly) and Series X only games (e.g. Flight Sim).

@Grumblevolcano I wouldn't worry too much about it. Hard drives can crap out on you at any time or last double the average lifespan. The hard drive on my Xbox 360 from 2007 or so still works fine. My Wii U from 2014 is still going strong. Hell, my laptop from 2011 still works fine, and I use that way more than any of my consoles.

If you wait long enough, the Series X will be easier to get and have access to a larger number of new exclusive games to play.

@Octane PS5 is the best PS4 Pro model yet!

@Grumblevolcano It's so weird, people keep claiming xsx is easier to get and ps5 is never available due to the demand, and then there's people like yourself that find the reverse. I wish we had numbers on that. I'm never sure which one to use more and risk failure without replacement I tend to mostly use XSX but by chance the next like 5 games in my backlog are all PS.

Having both in tow, for whatever reason, X feels more like a new console, and PS5 feels more like a PS4 turbocharger. I like the PS4 turbocharger a fair amount, but it doesn't feel like a new platform. Except for the still clumsy UI.

Maybe because all the games are still PS4 games and the ones that aren't are still selling for collectors edition pricing so I don't buy them. I caved and bought iki Island though. And the $10 rumble pack because I have no self control.

@NEStalgia They're probably considering Series X|S as a whole when saying it's easier to get of which Series S is extremely easy to get. Seems to be from easiest to hardest:

• Switch Lite
• Switch
• Series S
• Switch OLED
• PS5
• PS5 Digital
• Series X

@Grumblevolcano Anecdotally, I've had several opportunities to buy a PS5 this week, but the Switch OLED is just... nowhere.

Series Ss are actually easier to find than normal Switches for me. I've been to a few stores this week, and all they had on their shelves were a few Switch Lites and big stacks of Series S consoles sadly gathering dust.

Do you really think digital PS5s are harder to find then normal ones?

@Ralizah I do think digital PS5s are harder to find than normal ones but because of a lot less stock sent by Sony (I remember a Push Square article about it). Honestly I think Series S would've sold better if it was $50 more with a disc drive but obviously the decision for it to be digital only was to bring in more Game Pass subscribers.

@Grumblevolcano Can confirm I probably would have bought a $350 Series S with a disc drive.

Also would have subbed to GP down the line.

But I don't want something that can't play my physical 360 games, and I have no need for a $500+ 4K console that's impossible to find, so... meh. No money for them.

So, eventually, you'll probably get a Series X, @Ralizah ....? They're bound to be available at some point & you might even get 1 in a better deal once things do settle down a bit I'm glad I prefer PC, tbh, so I don't have to hunt for either console but I know quite a few still looking around forums

@BruceCM Hard to say. I like the design of the console, the robust backwards-compatibility, and GP could end up becoming VERY compelling in a few years. On the other hand, I don't like the price, the total lack of gyro (although Sony is arguably almost as bad, and it's even worse with them since they could have gyro-enabled aiming in all of their games), and I have no need for a 4K console.

I won't rule out a Series X purchase down the line. Hell, I won't rule out a PS5 purchase. But, atm, it's all very up in the air for me.

@Grumblevolcano Interesting. Also surprising when you hear how PS5 centric the UK is. Makes me wonder if PS would be dominating quite as severely if XSX was more available. Though I wonder how much that pertains to the US where Xbox has its #1 market and no doubt tries to keep supplies highest.

@Ralizah I get paranoid that any of my consoles break while they're still not replaceable. I really didn't expect OLED switch was going to be hard to find (I did get mine at launch), I figured demand would be fairly low since it's literally the same console with a new screen. And I thought for sure PS5 would remain the impossible one to get. I might try to focus on using the PS5 most for a while, simply because it sounds like it's the easier one to remedy something going wrong with it. Still not dropping in an SSD though.... I truly thought Series X would be the easiest to replace, by far.

I'm surprised the Series S is selling so slowly. Maybe a lot of people are still married to physical media in the budget market it's placed in more than we (or the publishers) realized. But I think it's also possible with the economy where it is, the budget consumer just isn't buying $300 electronics at all, really, especially if they already have a console. Sure, Switch sells, but is that to a budget consumer, or premium consumers that just like Nintendo? I think if the economy were to reset to 2019, Series S would be impossible to get.

Fair enough, @Ralizah .... I definitely won't need any XBox with the way they release all their games on PC, lol

@BruceCM That's a distinct possibility as well, since, in general, I prefer to get my games on PC. Although that might change depending on how long in continues to be impossible to find a new GPU for a decent price.

EDIT:

@NEStalgia Well, with Switch OLED, a lot of fans were always going to buy the new model anyway, but word of mouth has been very positive. Apparently it's a much more premium feeling product.

I wouldn't worry too much about the console breaking. How often do consoles break on you, realistically? And even if it does, you can send it in for repairs.

Microsoft expected Series S to sell slowly at first. Enthusiasts obviously aren't as interested in a digital-only device, in addition to the thing being substantially weaker than its bigger brother.

I think the logic is that, over time, as Bethesda games and other must-have exclusives start releasing, you're going to see wider adoption of the platform, and people who just want to play a few games on Game Pass are going to be more drawn to the cheaper SKU.

Series S is basically Microsoft's Switch Lite at the moment. Less popular, but it's important to have a product in budget range, as that'll still target certain sections of the market.