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Post by Ex on Feb 15, 2024 11:42:58 GMT -5
www.theverge.com/2024/2/14/24072692/sony-ps5-forecast-cut-q3-2023-earnings"Sony misses PS5 sales target as console enters ‘latter stage of its life cycle’ / The company now expects to sell 21 million consoles in its 2023 financial year, down from a previous forecast of 25 million units." "“Looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle,” said Sony senior vice president Naomi Matsuoka in comments reported by Bloomberg. “As such, we will put more emphasis on the balance between profitability and sales. For this reason, we expect the annual sales pace of PS5 hardware will start falling from the next fiscal year.” Sony added it has no plans to release “any new major existing franchise titles” in its next fiscal year."Sony admits the PS5 isn't selling well (not even its all digital version), says the PS5 era is already on its last legs (barely feels like it even got started?!), and says there's no PS5 killer apps coming any time soon. This after admitting they're going to start porting Sony "exclusives" to PC (and have already begun doing so). Sounds like Sony are preemptively admitting defeat in the coming wake of the Switch 2... and the general shit economy. The PS5 and the Xbox X/S are both jokes, the 9th gen is over before it began.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 15, 2024 11:59:34 GMT -5
This was a bit of a weird read to me when I saw it last night. Since otherwise it sounded like the PS5 was selling a lot, 50+ million units or something? I thought that sounded good, with things like the Switch being an obvious outlier. Also we've seen this gaming history a few times by now, there's never really consecutive high selling consoles back to back. I think we all predict the Switch 2 might not hit Switch numbers and they'll focus on software. The PS2 did gangbusters, PS3 was slower, PS4 dominated, PS5... probably dips again if the trend follows.
But I also bet this is more of that lockdown stupidity. Moronic executives who don't realize the circumstances of those recent years made stay at home entertainment boom and they think that's the new normal for them and their shareholders? Yeah right.
So I am and am kind of also not surprised by Sony's attitude on all this.
Meanwhile many speculate that Xbox is going to go the Steam route and be software/live service first, hardware second. With a different focus going forward. Seems kind of obvious following their trends and their evil agenda to destroy physical media/ownership.
9th gen looking like an awkward footnote in videogame history. Yep I'll just keep sticking with PC and Nintendo for now...
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Post by Ex on Feb 15, 2024 12:03:54 GMT -5
lockdown stupidity. Moronic executives who don't realize the circumstances of those recent years made stay at home entertainment boom and they think that's the new normal for them and their shareholders? Very good point. PS5 may have sold 50 million, but you have to juxtapose that against their massive operating, production, distribution, advertising, etc. costs. It may well be a wash at those numbers. 🤷♂️ How many surplus PS5s are sitting in stock worldwide right now? The smartest play for now, I agree. I think Xbox is over, and unless Sony gets better management in place, they won't be far behind. I think Nintendo is okay as long as they keep their powerhouse IPs exclusive to their ecosystem.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 15, 2024 12:18:01 GMT -5
Agreed on those. Perhaps the PS5 sales numbers, while maybe good on paper compared to past gens and other hardware, it isn't really reaping any net revenue for them with ridiculous costs in AAA gaming now. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say we saw like 10,000+ layoffs in 2023 in (Western) gaming alone? Already seeing dozens of stories of that continue into 2024. It might be slower than the 70's crash but we're probably living AAA gaming slowly crashing and burning as is right now, seeping into hardware manufactures like Sony. Just like Hollywood right now, these budgets are completely overblown and unsustainable.
And I guess stupid online/live service games is their gambit? Well I guess that means less AAA games need to be produced and that might help, money wise. But get ready for generations of gamers to feel alienated and go elsewhere. And if it a bunch of morons didn't spearhead the need to pivot like this things would be in better shape. Again I'm just looking at Japan, they're not laying off thousands of employees, so they've been doing something right in comparison.
tl;dr, all I'm seeing is all this crap is really Sony/Xbox/big publishers fault in the long run. 🤷♂️ So I have to laugh a little. But it could also be part of the dark mutation of gaming becoming something very alien to us going forward.
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Post by toei on Feb 15, 2024 12:42:12 GMT -5
So are we going back to the days of consoles being Nintendos? The PS5 is a luxury PS4 and Sony is talking about it like Bernie Stolar talked about the Saturn, so clearly they don't care to reverse the situation in the future, and the Microsoft console, whatever it is, barely exists.
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Post by Ex on Feb 15, 2024 12:56:29 GMT -5
Fairly accurate. The 9th gen is not doing well. Let me be clear about that statement; the 9th gen for me, console-wise, consists of the PS5 and Xbox X/S. I consider the Switch to be more 8th gen than 9th gen, given it released in 2017, during the 8th gen reign. The proper 9th gen consoles PS5/Xbox X/S both released in 2020, three years after Switch. So far as I'm concerned 2020 is when the 9th gen started. The Switch 2 will be a 9th gen console/handheld(?) when it finally releases. Ergo I say the 9th gen, as it currently stands with Microsoft and Sony, is a shit show of a generation. Literally the only exclusive-to-the-9th-gen game I'm interested in, is Stellar Blade, and it's not even released yet. I don't find myself feeling optimistic towards the 10th gen either. I'm happy playing 8th gen and back, given I have obscene amounts of games to play in that regard, and going forward maybe some indie PC games now and then. For the next five years at the least I have zero interest in buying any new platform.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 15, 2024 13:17:27 GMT -5
PS5 is selling fine, but on the downswing - it is a very pricey system, after all. And of course, "latter stage" can mean anything. I'd parse that as "halfway past its lifespan, which is accurate". I also have to wonder how much the swirling rumors of the PS5 Pro have dented sales a little. I mean, I'd have already bought one by now if I didn't think they were going to mess me over like last time with a PS4 Pro. But really, what's happening, regardless of what they're saying, is that they're hoping to usher along that all-digital or streaming future. And that is when things are going to suck.
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Post by Ex on Feb 15, 2024 13:21:20 GMT -5
they're hoping to usher along that all-digital or streaming future / that is when things are going to suck On this we are 100% in agreement.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 15, 2024 13:39:27 GMT -5
Wonder if I spoke too soon. Think some folks are about to sell some consoles. (Even saw a guy I go to church with that said he hasn't bought a system since the 360 say he's going to buy a PS5 to play this.)
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Post by Ex on Feb 26, 2024 11:05:42 GMT -5
Google is developing an AI that can create "interactive environments" (in their examples 2D platformers) using image input: sites.google.com/view/genie-2024/homeWhite paper: arxiv.org/abs/2402.15391" Today, we introduce a new paradigm for generative AI, generative interactive environments (Genie), whereby interactive, playable environments can be generated from a single image prompt. Genie can be prompted with images it has never seen before, such as real world photographs or sketches, enabling people to interact with their imagined virtual worlds-–essentially acting as a foundation world model. Amazingly, it only takes a single image to create an entire new interactive environment. This opens the door to a variety of new ways to generate and step into virtual worlds, for instance, we can take a state-of-the-art text-to-image generation model and use it to produce starting frames that we can then bring to life with Genie." I can see this leading eventually to where someone can use AI to produce a video game, based off image reference inputs, and text prompt description. Don't know how that would affect the indie space.
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