The Old Sony Megathread

[Baddar]

The other Walking Dead game (the FPS) is out at the end of March. I didn't realise it was due so soon.

[Herr Matzat]

They might survive? Did I miss Sonys death knell?

The new numbers should be coming sometime around now. About a year ago they had to announce 2.9 billion US$ looses in the year before. Obviusly this issent only Sony gaming but the company at large.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/us-sony-results-idUSTRE8110E020120202

They need to change things up everywhere. And if after PSPgo and Vita another console tanks/looks like tanking they might just Axe certain parts of their investments in gaming hardware.

I think right now they still have a lot of faith because PSP did good for a long time and and the vita might come ontop many years later as the PS3 did. (which i doubt will be the case since pphones and tablets are catching up each year in horsepower, and esp. phones are something everyone already owns anyway, why get a vita?)

But if they ad some bullshit restrictions and Steam just takes away their share of the marked in US/EU because people are like "fuck you sony, why would i buy your console if i have to veryfy with a drop of blood that this is my game and i am alowed to play it". Deep shit happening. I know in japan it´s a bit different, but you see were i am coming from here. Other big console developers have left the marked and right now Sony might be the weakest link that has to be the most careful.

Firstly, if that's the same figures-reporting that I read about (it's been a while), didn't it turn out that the gaming arm was actually the only division in the company that was a turning a profit/not posting a loss/carrying the rest of the company?

There's plenty to reason to get a Vita if you're an avid gamer. The software library needs to pick up a bit, but those near-console experiences they're shooting far aren't available elsewhere, and I'm sure I'm not the only who can't fucking stand virtual buttons and joysticks, ruling out any tablet option.

And I still don't get why you're so sold on Steam taking over the planet and killing off every other gaming option around. PC hardware is still prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, it's more of an effort to set up. The big picture stuff will alleviate some of that, but it's still got to shake the nerdy stigma it has. Why would anyone bother when they can whack £200 down for an Xbox and play?

They cut looses in the last year to below 1 billion i think.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/08/sony-shares-drop-by-10-percent/

I don´t know the exact numbers but as you can see:

Nevertheless, the games division saw significantly decreased sales, and the company cited the "slow penetration" of the PlayStation Vita as a "particularly important" issue.

A new Console entering the marked and not selling anywhere near what they expected dos not help them. And we don´t know how much more costs they can cut (i think to fix up the 3 billion deal they released over 10000 employees at least once)... its ok to like something that dos not hit as major as expected, but for Sony it´s a big hit that they had to adjust the expected amount of units sold down by millions over and over again.

As for Steam. Valve is a major player in the PC gameing marked. They got a great platform and they got people to accept their fairly restrictive DRM due to various reasons. I am not talking about them pushing a console out of the marked by PC games though, i am talking about their move into the console marked via "SteamBox" console. Now they might only shit a nicely boxed PC when it comes to that, but who cares if they put it under some kind of "SteamBox Standart" that works just as your console dos? Games will be optimised for it six years down the road and if you have a good enough PC you can play the same game in better quality over there... kinda like they already field tested with their portal 2 PS3 release. Issent that awsome? And ad to that that you also can play your already large steam library, take advantage of many great sales and avoide any problem with a weak launch lineup.

At least when it comes to EU and US i see this as a big deal sony has to take care of. MS has the money, they prettymuch forced themselfs into the marked because "fuck you, we can aford it". And they will stick in it no matter what for the same reason. - Nintendo has it´s problems but also a very different set of costumers that will stick with them... they might even be the one that takes back the Asian costumers Sony snatched from them after the SNES/PSX split. (i think Japan is still Sonys strongest marked? Not sure.) So right now i see Sony as the weakest link on the console marked, and thats why i think they need to be very smart about how they offer their PS4.

[OctoberRaven]

I'm sorry, but as much as people keep toting used games getting locked out... I see it as a literal killing shot for any company against themselves to seriously attempt to develop a new games only platform. The PSP Go was a pure digital handheld that bombed harder than anyone expected it to-- and it wasn't even expected to be a huge draw for Sony-- and I'd shudder to think how awful the PS4 would actually do in the long-term plans for Sony if it adopted a ban on used games.

Speaking from experience, the biggest reason pre-owned games exist isn't because there's a demand for buying pre-owned games. The biggest reason is that people want the option of selling back their games when they're done with them to make the newer, ever-expensive games less expensive. Remove that option and you're going to see a massive cut in new games sales, and that's not going to help Sony's bottom line in the slightest.

I wouldn't be worried about it, as I said before, the PS3 was supposed to have the same locks but they didn't, for pretty much this reason.

[Herr Matzat]

Germanys PS+ replacement game is "Binary Domain".

Never heard of it before and reviews seem to be mixed. Wikipedia sais "The game sold 20,000 copies during March, according to NPD Group.[19]" I´ll give it a download just for shits and gigles, the trailer dossent look to terrible and at least it´s no FPS.

[Ruki]

The Last Of Us gets delayed

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/02/12/the-last-of-us-delayed

[Herr Matzat]

Germanys PS+ replacement game is "Binary Domain".

Never heard of it before and reviews seem to be mixed. Wikipedia sais "The game sold 20,000 copies during March, according to NPD Group.[19]" I´ll give it a download just for shits and gigles, the trailer dossent look to terrible and at least it´s no FPS.

Or i wont because my tv just broke and i got no money to get a new one. >_>

[EWB's Best Poster.]

The Last Of Us gets delayed

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/02/12/the-last-of-us-delayed

just a month tho.

[Your Mom]

If I renew my plus will I still get to play the older stuff? Like I have Uncharted on my Vita but didnt get much chance to play it

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I just got an e-mail from Codemasters telling me that Grid2 is coming on 31st May! Grid's the best racing game there is in the whoooooole wide world.

I am excited.

[deli]

If I renew my plus will I still get to play the older stuff? Like I have Uncharted on my Vita but didnt get much chance to play it

IIRC if you buy/get anything on plus it says there as long as you subsrcibe.

[Baddar]

If I renew my plus will I still get to play the older stuff? Like I have Uncharted on my Vita but didnt get much chance to play it

yeah, as long as it's still saved on your system.

[Bobfoc]

Even if it isn't saved on your system, it should still be in your downloads list on the Playstation Store.

[Your Mom]

Thanks guys (y) I'll renew again when I have more time to play

[EWB's Best Poster.]

I would do so now, as they are giving 3 free months if you do until I think march?

So yeah, get a few months rather than doing it 2 months from now and losing a free month there.

[the gurn]

hey guys

sorry to sound a bit thick here just i have a pal 160 gb ps3 console as im from the uk im taking a trip to the good old usa in april, what im wondering is if i buy a ps3 controller and any games thats ntsc will they work on my console? as im looking at the walking dead original game as i would like the actual copy of the game instead of downloading, could anyone help me out please?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

As long as you use an HD TV at home then that's not a problem. If you use an old style TV then the image with be black and white and flickery, but if you use the HDMI cable to connect to your TV then it's all fine.

[Colly]

It's out over here really shortly, or the import is only £20 from Amazon UK.

[Dan]

You do know guns are legal in the USA right? You're probably best staying here.

[the gurn]

oh didnt know walking dead was coming out in euro as ive seen its cancelled

[Herr Matzat]

I am hopeing for a boxed version of the PC release. TellTale often offered cool collecters editions, even at a discount for those who bought the game via telltales shop.