If Sony started selling a PS branded vibrating buttplug that interacted with your games you know most of them would shill for it in an instant.

Sonyponys would gladly pay $100 to watch cut scenes then vote the cut scenes for game of the year.
They are a low IQ bunch

That's how I have always operated, the backlog is always too thick, so why rush to pay the most for the least polished version of the game? Most gamers seem to live their life as if they have terminal illnesses and could die any moment with their decision-making. TBH I may never buy another game now that PS+ exists.

This

+ most new games are buggy at release

It's bullschit and the AAA segment needs to crash. This is fuking unsustainable.

Fuking asset flips costing $350m+ and 5 years to develop to maybe return some profit over their expected lifetime? Give me a break, that means 6 million units sold just to barely break even.

Who in their right mind could claim that yeah, the increase from a $90m to a $315m budget between Spider-Man 1 and 2 really shows? Yes, even with taking inflation into consideration.

Is it wise to piecemeal games now when their budgets are already out of control?

[URL=https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-reportedly-pressured-its-studios-to-make-big-cuts-amid-increasing-development-costs]https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-re...elopment-costs[/URL]
[QUOTE]As reported by Kotaku,[b] the files also contain meeting notes that claim “there will be one studio closure” at PlayStation Studios. It is currently unclear if this claim remains valid.[/b]Sony and Insomniac are yet to comment.

...

Elsewhere, files show [B]Insomniac was under pressure to make budget cuts, with 50-75 layoffs earmarked for the studio. Insomniac staff reportedly discussed how to “remove 50-75 people strategically”, as requested by Sony, with the best option supposedly to “cut deeply” into the Wolverine and Spider-Man 3 teams, and replacing staff with team members from the unannounced new Ratchet & Clank game and a new unannounced IP.

According to the leaked documents,[b]Sony has called on staff cuts across its first-party studios[/b]. Officially, we know of a number of layoffs at PlayStation Studios, including a wave of redundancies at Dreams developer Media Molecule, significant cuts at Destiny developer Bungie, and layoffs at The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog.

Meanwhile, the documents reveal[b]internal concern at the growing development costs of Insomniac's games.[/b]According to Kotaku's report on the breach,[b] Spider-Man 2 development costs ran $30 million over its original $270 million, and ultimately needs to sell 7.2 million units to break even.[/b]Spider-Man 2 was able to sell more than 5 million units in its first 11 days after release.

The leaked documents show the increasingly precarious nature of triple-A video game production, which some experts have called unsustainable.
...
According to the documents,[b]The Last of Us: Part 2 cost $220 million to develop, with a peak headcount of 200 full-time employees. Guerrilla Games' Horizon Forbidden West, meanwhile, cost $212 million to develop and utilized more than 300 developers. Insomniac reportedly stressed the need to keep the budget for future triple-A games at $350 or less in a slide quoted in Kotaku's report.[/b][/QUOTE]Alongside that, I posted this slide in another thread that is really worth allowing to marinate:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/9VJHnAF.png[/img]

And if you're really bored, here's the full leakedcontract for their soulscontract for their souls[URL=https://imgur.com/gallery/SxmjClK]restrictions and royalties agreement with Disney[/URL]that is a little easier to read.
[b]Spoiler![/b][SPOILER][img]https://i.imgur.com/WmKVxbZ.jpeg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/q5dxtbN.jpeg[/img][/SPOILER]
[b]Spoiler![/b][SPOILER][img]https://i.imgur.com/We2mz7K.jpeg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/g3shDVW.jpeg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/WbERtD0.jpeg[/img][/SPOILER]

Amongst the highlights, there is the important consideration of royalty payments that Disney receives based on tiers of units sold starting with Tier 1 of[b]0 - 3 million units sold for a 9% physical/18% digital[/b], up to Tier 7 at[b]7 million units sold for 18% physical/26% digital[/b].

Additional content goes by net sales at[b]0-$2.8 million for 19%[/b], up to for[b]$10.5 million+ at 26%.[/b]

Last, the number of bundled sales from[b]0-500k have a 35% royalty[/b], going all the way up to 1.5 million+ for[i][b]royalties of 50%[/b][/i]

So far, nowhere do the leaks state any intention on shifting towards just making moderately budgeted games that are really fun to play,[i]but[/i]they do expect to churn out 6 live service games by 2026.

Seems that Sony is going all in on the Disney approach of[i]milk the ever-loving christ out of that dead cow[/i]with spiderman. I dunno, have they ever considered getting a reasonable budget on the table? The last spiderman game already cost more than Avatar-fukcing-2. Maybe hiring some auditors instead of woke consultants? By 2028, Spiderthey is going to be wheelchair-bound, wearing a dress, and the gameplay will just be one of the writer's tumblr slashfics. And all of these forecasts are predicated on the hope that people won't vomit blood at the mere sight of any more Marvel schit by the end of the decade.


[QUOTE=freeburn post_id=1695199613]And sell games in parts, Spiderman 3 potentially being a 3 part game at 50 dollars each part.

[URL=https://nichegamer.com/playstation-reportedly-planning-on-selling-games-in-parts-for-50-each-raising-overall-prices-to-80-100/]https://nichegamer.com/playstation-r...ces-to-80-100/[/URL]

Lmao, will be giving away my ps5 and not looking back if this holds true. I keep seeing threads by the sony crew about how well Sony is moving consoles yet it seems to be for jack chit if they just keep raising game prices.[/QUOTE]Look at those figures above. I don't think they'd bet stupid enough to raise the prices for[i]every game[/i]unless they really expect to make everyone pay more so they can keep sucking off The Mouse.

Even better, if you go to, say,[URL=https://www.bestbuy.com/site/playstation-5/ps5-consoles/pcmcat1587395025973.c?id=pcmcat1587395025973]Best Buy[/URL]and look at PS5s, both the Slim and the Spiderman bundle Slim are $499.99... The latter is obviously the better deal at face value for the average customer, so these dumbasses picked the[i]one game[/i]of their's that will guarantee even less of a return.

[QUOTE=mgftp post_id=1695238993]That's how I have always operated, the backlog is always too thick, so why rush to pay the most for the least polished version of the game? Most gamers seem to live their life as if they have terminal illnesses and could die any moment with their decision-making. TBH I may never buy another game now that PS+ exists.[/QUOTE]I'm the same way. I have such a widening backlog that I'm always set.

If more people exercised an ounce of patience, games as a whole would be in a far better state than they are, but they keep pre-ordering and buying day 0 the next thing sight unseen.

[QUOTE=BraneyGumble post_id=1695241223]It's bullschit and the AAA segment needs to crash. This is fuking unsustainable.

Fuking asset flips costing $350m+ and 5 years to develop to maybe return some profit over their expected lifetime? Give me a break, that means 6 million units sold just to barely break even.

Who in their right mind could claim that yeah, the increase from a $90m to a $315m budget between Spider-Man 1 and 2 really shows? Yes, even with taking inflation into consideration.[/QUOTE]Right on the mark.

The AAA model in general, but especially with how Sony is approaching it is practically destined for a crash with the sharp, exponential rise in development costs (not even including marketing) for rapidly diminishing returns. If anything at all comes to pass, this leak should be a wake up call throughout the industry that it is[i]them and their model[/i]that needs to change, not the amount of money they can try to shake out of people.

Gonna be waiting 3-6 months just to pay $70 soon just lol.

Yeah that was always a criticism of mine when they tried to push "the price of games hasn't gone up in forever" line of thinking back when they did the $70 price increase. DLC had long been a thing, and it was already common for there to be "deluxe" and "premium" editions packaged with DLC costing $100+ in many instances.

Consoles are for cucks and idiots. LMAO

Pretty insane how stable game prices have stayed over the last few decades given current inflation rates. I remember paying pretty much the same prices over 20 years ago.

Selling games in part is number one bullchit though.