PlayStation is reportedly sending a lengthy survey to game developers with a question about how they sell physical games after their decision to stop producing physical game discs prompted intense backlash.

PlayStation is reportedly sending a lengthy survey to game developers with a question about how they sell physical games after their decision to stop producing physical game discs prompted intense backlash.

  • Fafa@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    2 hours ago

    Probably want to assess how much you spend vs how much you care for physical games.

  • iatenine@piefed.socialEnglish
    261·
    10 hours ago

    … fans are making their voices heard as loudly as possible, to the point where PlayStation itself is reportedly reaching out to game developers…

    And yet… Anybody else notice you can’t write in your reason for canceling PS+ (at least I couldn’t when I did it a few weeks ago)?

    I won’t spoil what the reason would have been but it wasn’t “not enough developer surveys”

  • rafoix@lemmy.zipEnglish
    12·
    10 hours ago

    This is what happens when the person running the business does not patronize the business and is only interested in short term profits.

  • warm@kbin.earth
    871·
    16 hours ago

    If you want to sell without discs, then you need to open your hardware up and allow storefront competition and DRM-free games.

    That’s why people are angry, not just because of the physical media aspect.

    • Baggie@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      9 hours ago

      I mean I’m angry about both but yes it’s largely because the last bastion of guaranteed access to something you purchased is being removed.

    • Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.worldEnglish
      34·
      16 hours ago

      And while you’re at it, open up the OS so it’s more than just a game console. And it would be nice if it had interchangeable parts so we could customize the hardware.

      Wait a minute…

      • warm@kbin.earth
        3·
        15 hours ago

        I think the next Xbox is supposed to be more open, but still, yeah, just a buy a PC… when it’s affordable… gulp

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
          13·
          15 hours ago

          Magic 8-ball, when will PC prices be affordable?

          “Ask again later”

          Dammit, I think my magic 8-ball is busted. Whenever I ask about PC prices, it just keeps saying THAT!!!

          …except later never comes.

      • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        41·
        16 hours ago

        They do that. They still sell PCs, as far as I know. Consoles are subsidized because you have to buy from them.

        Those PCs just don’t run PlayStation games (unless they have a PC version).

        I always felt like if you bought a PC, you should be able to buy a license to play Xbox and/or PlayStation games on it. Just have to pay the piper. Sadly it didn’t work like that. They all make money if you buy multiple machines, so they will push you in that direction if you want more diversity in your gaming.

        • missingno@fedia.io
          1·
          9 hours ago

          That would require every console game to be compatible with PC. In theory it’s at least possible for any game that has a PC port to just give you the port, but not every game does. And for those that do, well, why pay for this service over just buying the ports?

        • neatchee@piefed.socialEnglish
          1·
          11 hours ago

          There are so many other factors and motivations that a) keep console games from being PC compatible and b) incentivize closed console ecosystems

          It’s one of my pet peeves around the the online discourse regarding discs. So many people are looking at the issue one-dimensionally, and don’t have a full picture of motivations and implications.

          I’m not gonna pretend it’s not about profit. Of course it’s all about money. But it is decisively not “we’re gonna make more money by taking people’s stuff away when we feel like it”

    • AmyAye@nord.pubEnglish
      20·
      15 hours ago

      No kidding. I have literally thousands of games on PC, that are digital. But I also can run a script and have it download all my GOG games to a drive as a backup.

      I also have tons of digital music I bought, because I can download it.

      I don’t have any consoles newer than PS3 and 360, and I don’t buy digital movies. Because there is no guarantee the digital on those works forever.

  • Bitflip@lemmy.mlEnglish
    31·
    17 hours ago

    I know it sounds crazy, but why not survey the people who (used to) give them money for games?

  • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    112·
    16 hours ago

    Both platforms will be discless for their next generation. PS6 and Helix will both be digital only.

    The problem is, PlayStation does not have the infrastructure in place to implement a proper disc to digital system like Xbox has. Xbox’s still half-arsed though as it only covers XB1 and Series games. Like PlayStation games, Xbox and 360 games are not individually license-coded. So they both need a mail-in programme where you can mail in your discs and get a code to redeem the game on digital.

    The only real issue I have with that, aside from the possibility they can take your game from you, is that at this point, we don’t need a next-gen console. GTA VI is the big release this year (though I personally don’t care about it) and IMO it doesn’t look better than Cyberpunk 2077 from nearly 7 years ago. Okay, the faces look better, but the world? Hell no. I just got Pragmata and it in no way pushes the envelope of what XSX/PS5 can do. Hell, the 360/PS3 era games are still peak, IMO. I don’t need PS6 or Helix.

    • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
      71·
      15 hours ago

      GTA VI is the big release this year (though I personally don’t care about it) and IMO it doesn’t look better than Cyberpunk 2077 from nearly 7 years ago. Okay, the faces look better, but the world? Hell no. I just got Pragmata and it in no way pushes the envelope of what XSX/PS5 can do. Hell, the 360/PS3 era games are still peak, IMO. I don’t need PS6 or Helix.

      It doesn’t look any better, no. But you have to remember the latest games are going to be completely un-optimized code “enhanced” with lots of AI slop, so you’re going to need much better hardware to run it, despite it having about the same level of graphics.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
        91·
        15 hours ago

        No no no…I don’t need higher hardware to run AI slop. Because I won’t play AI slop.

        I guess my journey into console video games started with the NES my parents bought me in 1986, and ends with the PS5.

        Because I’m not going to PAY for AI. I’m certainly not going to pay for an extravagant pricey console which promotes AI, while offering nothing of value in return for having paid those prices.

        "Here, I’ll sell you this dog turd in a baggie, but it’ll cost you a LOT of money!

        Thats about how I feel about the PS6 AI gen.

        Oh. Hello steam. I see you have a catalog dating back to the mid 2000s. Whats this? You currently have a sale with 8000 titles on sale for up to 95% off?

        …welp. Guess I’m a PC gamer now.

    • ampersandrew@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      14 hours ago

      Pragmata is in the ballpark of what a Series X or PS5 can do, with that level of performance. The best benchmark might be 007 First Light, and even then, it smells suspiciously like they cut content that they couldn’t get running well. The biggest bottleneck at that level of fidelity and performance is the development cost, which is why so few games can output what these games are doing, and it’s a contributing factor for why so few of us feel like we need a PS6.

    • Goodeye8@piefed.socialEnglish
      21·
      12 hours ago

      Hell, the 360/PS3 era games are still peak, IMO.

      I recommend you look at GTA5 comparison videos between PS3, PS4 and PS5. There’s a massive jump in overall graphical quality coming from PS3 to PS4, less so from PS4 to PS5 unless you look at specific things like shadows and reflections. The reason the jump is smaller from PS4 to PS5 except in those two areas is because we’ve essentially hit a dead end with rasterization. You can pump up the fidelity but the improvements are so marginal that unless you a direct side-by-side comparison you probably can’t tell the difference. So what makes those two exceptions so special? That’s raytracing. The reason PS4 shadows and reflections look like ass compared to PS5 is because PS5 can do raytracing. But it kinda sucks at raytracing because raytracing was still in its infancy when Xbox and PS were putting together their hardware for this gen. They pretty much had to do a last-minute pivot into raytracing because Nvidia came out with the 30 series and showed raytracing is actually commercially viable. The current gen is still largely stuck behind rasterization with some raytracing sprinkled in for nicer shadows and reflections.

      And that’s why I’m excited for the next gen even though I’m not going to buy any of the consoles. I’m excited because the next gen will be designed with raytracing in mind and I think proper dynamic lighting is going to the huge generational graphical leap that we didn’t get with the current gen. There’s no reason to be excited for the next gen consoles themselves, but there’s a reason to be excited about the hardware update.