Luseth

I don't think PC gaming is really comparable, yes there are alternative storefronts and there is always scope for more retailers to enter this space. The biggest company Valve allow keys to be sold elsewhere. However Sony and playstation is currently a closed system. You can only purchase games through their storefront, they do not give keys out to anyone else. It's essentially the same court case that has been going on with Apple and IOS over in the US. I have had some other thoughts on this since my post and just wanted to note them down as a digital only library comes fraught with it's own issues as well:- Account security. Digital libraries can be worth thousands of pounds. As they become more valuable, they'll inevitably become a bigger target for hackers and account theft, 2FA is here today but hackers are generally clever and may yet find ways around it. Loss of access. If your account is permanently banned or you lose login details etc you're potentially losing access to your entire library rather than just a single game. A lack of competition. As above, lack of competition. Sony's system is a closed system, there is going to be nowhere else you can buy a game from Playstation other than their store front where they will also take a cut of the profit of every single game sold. Changing terms over time. When you buy digitally you're buying under the terms that exist today, but those terms can change in the future. Store policies, licence agreements and account requirements aren't fixed forever and we have no idea at this point how they will evolve. Games disappearing from sale. Licensing issues already mean games occasionally disappear from digital stores. If there's no physical market, future players may simply have no legitimate way of buying those games. GTA VI will have a great soundtrack, if some of those licenses end there will be a day that potentially can't be bought. Store longevity. Sony isn't going anywhere any time soon, but digital purchases are ultimately tied to the continued operation of the platform and your account. Physical media doesn't have that dependency.

That's not accurate I don't believe is it? Quite a lot of games still contain a full game albeit without day 1 patches. You generally install the game from it and play from your hard drive admittedly and I think live service games also skew the figures. For example Ratchet and Clank Rift apart, Astro Bot, God of war ragnorok, Spiderman 2 could all be installed and played with just your console and the physical game from start to finish without ever needing an internet connection. The games that do generally follow the practice of a disc being just a download key are typically your Fifa's and Call of Duty's, companies that you would not really be surprised by this. The majority of game 'sales' now are also likely to be live service games which are generally only bought digitally, your fortnites, your Warzones and such which are also notably free and what I think is a big thing is they are not showing what their breakdown is, I suspect DLC's, micro transactions and such may also figure into their figures. Single player titles are much closer to 50% physical and 50% digital sales. 15% of all new game sales are still bought brand new and physical, that is quite a chunk of your fan base to alienate. It also does not include second hand sales so that percentage could be skewed the wrong way. All this is targeting is maximising profit and nothing today with improving things generally. Oh look at us we are doing this because we are following sales trends when in reality it's losing second hand game sales, it's the cost of manufacturing the disc, the case and paying someone to create art for it or layout the casing, the cost of transporting etc etc, all that will now go into the profit that they are making, it's not suddenly going to see a price drop of £5 on each game say because they are all now digital. I get that the trend is currently towards digital only however I don't think you will see the same moral compass from Sony as we have with say Valve, only this week have they also said that many user's won't be able to watch a number of digital films that they have bought and paid for on their consoles. With that in mind if they can do that with any digital content (which their T's & C's allow) there is also the preservation argument whereby we could see games literally disappear and become inaccessible by anyone at some point in the future. Your digital library with Sony won't be as secure as say your steam library, there is every likelihood that in the future you paying £70 for a game is so you can use it for up to 2 years and then you lose access or some other crap. Even following the TV / film industry with how prevalent subscriptions have been with Netflix, Disney etc they have all opted to retain physical copies for people to purchase, I could still go in HMV (surprisingly still exists) and buy a physical blu-ray film, similarly we still get physical cd's. For me and a few people I know now, we buy more games digitally yes however the plus of owning consoles is having the option of physical titles as well. If I am only going to be buying digital games moving forwards it will more likely be on PC. I can get mainly the same games, I can generally buy them cheaper, I have the options of what type of device I want 'Lots of power with a desktop, a portable hand held or something in the middle'. A lot of people own consoles for physical titles or exclusives in addition to their PC and such. What I also find mad is the number of people who just accept this saying ah it doesn't bother me or in some instances I have seen online where people are getting irrate or arsey with those who aren't keen on going digital only. Neither do starving children in parts of the world but it should because it affects other people unnecessarily (appreciate that this is a bit more of a blunt way to say it 😄 ) It's classic case of 'I'm alright Jeff'. If people want to play and enjoy a game they way they do why should it be ok to take that away just to give more profit to the shareholders and such?

Honestly it's looking like what I expected. I am sure it is fun enough to play but these triple A games are competing with less expensive games that play just as well and often have things these titles don't, good story, new mechanics and such. I only have so much time for gaming and have quite the backlog currently so my new game expenditure has dropped right off. For me the perfect Bond game would build upon what was done in Alpha Protocol years back.

Honestly I don't think I have played the dlc's properly despite owning the game of the year version. I have reinstalled it though so maybe once my current games are completed with I will move back onto it. I always fancied getting the platinum trophy and don't think I was far away from memory.

Unfortunately yes. @GazzaGarratt is aware as we spoke about it the other evening.

Thank you Phil, I would feel cheeky asking for Tempest as well after Tensei. I said in my reply that I will take my Rog on holiday now and when the kids are asleep, downtime of an evening I will boot up Tensei so thank you very much!

I enjoyed Diablo 4 but I think we got drawn away to something else at the time. Those sorts of games are good in that you don't have to think too much just go around and bash things in and pick up stuff. Shin Megami Tensei V is something I have wanted for a while, it's like a more mature pokemon type game and honestly I tried the first Crysis game (Remastered) and I think it felt clunky and since then I have not played any of them. It does seem a decent month though. @phil bottle have you played Tempest Rising, is it any good? Reminds me a bit of the command and conquer games?

Is this modded on pc? I keep meaning to take a look at the visual mods and see if I can set them up on my Ally. These look great.

Ironically it's what we have found with the crew in recent days. Can see this being a natural progression. If the price drops on the current Forza on PS I might pick it up.

Yup, someone there thought that COD was the best game in the world and everyone wants to play it so from their perspective it made sense. Ultimately they were expecting everyone on the subscription to pay for the game that probably half of the people subbing wanted essentially subsidising those people. Absolute madness, in fact the initial outcry should really have been the wake up call they needed, instead they have persisted for a few months now and they won't suddenly get those subscribers back now. Many of them will feel a little burnt and will be hesitant about committing to the service again. I had the subscription for my handheld and ended up cancelling it and unlikely will pick it up again soon now unless some special games come to the service.

You can also adopt them and dress them up as well... There is a bit of a thing online of people amassing collections of them 😄

Don't know if anyone saw but the PS5 price is going up by roughly £90 in the UK... Isn't this the first time console prices have gone up during the lifespan rather than down as the cost of manufacturing decreases generally as they get more efficient and such. Will the xbox follow suit, will the Switch see price increases at some point do you think? We have obviously seen it with PC gaming with components increasing dramatically in price in recent years.

I am still having a lot of fun, I think someone said to me the other day that it is essentially what they wanted from Dragons Dogma 2. Another thing that has been good since launch is the listening to player feedback and then updating and patching the game with incredible speed. I think the latest gripe was that many of the unique mounts are time limited but they appear now to be working through them and making them permanent.

I think it's indicative of the state of the gaming market moreso than the sale. There isn't much that is 'new' or 'innovative' and even if there were, the way these storefronts work you just end up looking at the same 100 or so games time and time again. I have tried to scroll through a few times recently and you scroll through and find you are looking at the same old tripe and just give up.

I have not looked to be honest, I am skint as it is and it's only going to tempt me. The last few times I looked as well there was just so much crap to wade through that I lost interest after a couple of minutes. I think with these you are best off knowing what you want in advance and just search for it, if the price is ok then pull the trigger.