It’s like corporations don’t know how to do anything but enshittify anymore
End of an era?
Submitted 1 day ago by VetOfTheSeas@discuss.online to games@lemmy.world
https://discuss.online/pictrs/image/648f1ce9-5c52-446b-add1-a635341f6c40.jpeg
Comments
kat_angstrom@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Action_Bastid@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s the ultimate push to turn everything into the perfect Capitalist (not market-oriented) business solution: Getting paid for nothing
If your goal is to accumulate capital, and there are not outside forces regulating your worst impulses, you ultimately will create a class of legal-protected thieves, since the absolutely best and most risk free way to accumulate capital is to be given it in exchange for quite literally nothing.
Gambling is about as close to the platonic ideal as you can, but conquest by military force of political capture is also a very, viable route. Use the law to force people to buy your nothing and be protected for it, rather than being lynched when you steal someone’s products.
iocase@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Mandate insurance that isn’t a crown corporation beholden to ratepayers is a perfect example. If you have mandated insurance for something, and that private insurance has a shareholder requirement to see growth every quarter, and the same amount of things are being insured, only one thing can happen:
Rates go up with denials
Payouts go down
Eventually you’re paying for insurance you know is worthless but it’s mandated by law.
HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 1 day ago
I agree with you, but then isn't it strange that AI does a whole lot of something instead of nothing? Like, the high amount of effort they put into making AI a big thing runs counter to the laziness of getting paid to do nothing.
Though I guess they ARE getting paid doing nothing, with how many data centers are getting cancelled.
carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
any company born after 1993 can’t make good products… all they know is exploitation, fire their workers, enshittify, be pink capitalist, eat hot cash & lie
(yes i know sony was founded before 1993 thank you)
HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 1 day ago
So was Enron? I'm not sure why you chose 1993, companies have been shitty across all of time and space.
lechekaflan@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
meltycat@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
If buying does not equal owning something, piracy can’t equal theft. At this rate, what’s the point of consoles?
MystValkyrie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 hours ago
I don’t think this is a world-ending catastrophe per se, but I don’t understand why anyone would choose to buy a console after this. The only draws of consoles was the turnkey hardware, which you can generally get with Proton now, and access to physical games, which won’t be a thing soon. Now it’s just a locked-down PC with a DRM storefront that makes you pay a subscription to pay online games.
Maybe that’s just the PC gamer in me talking. Are there any advantages to console anymore? Like, a single benefit?
kevinsky@feddit.nl 2 hours ago
I don’t understand why anyone would choose to buy a console after this.
I don’t think people buy consoles for the physical games… I mostly stopped doing that a generation ago.
Sony has has a pretty strong list of exclusives still. In my mind at least. And I just don’t always feel like sitting at a desk.
So unless you build another pc for next to the TV, your other options are a mile long HDMI cabele or remote play. Neither of these options are as smooth of an experience as just grabbing a controller and turning the Playstation on.
PacketPilgrim@thelemmy.club 3 hours ago
There is no point to consoles anymore. It used to be that consoles were easy to use and cheaper while PCs were more expensive and complex. That is no longer the case. Computers are stupid easy now and consoles have become to expensive.
BandDad@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
The loss of physical media in addition to the rest of their terrible decisions solidified that I’m done with Sony. Still on the PS4, but I see no need to give them any future support.
It really sucks that between this and the death of personal computing at the hands of the AI bubble, my main hobby is becoming unaffordable.
Phantaloons@piefed.zip 6 hours ago
They’re betting on consumers being too impulsive and stupid to care, and… they’re probably right.
LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 6 hours ago
It works until it doesn’t. Companies can push prices for a little while, maybe a whole generation, but one day people decide it’s not worth it and it all crashes down suddenly.
Happens over and over again, could be the new era of PC gaming that Valve is pushing will tip them over, could be a new generation of Nintendo games. Could be a new company from China.
Big players do this every time, then the CEO says “nobody could have predicted that the 6th price hike was the end of the brand!”
bridgeburner@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Nah, people are stupid generally speaking. I mean, just look at Apple, they are releasing basically the same phone every year with an increasing price tag and the sheeple keep mindlessly buying it.
Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
Closing bluepoint is madness. That studio was really good at remastering games
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 day ago
Its like they saw how much Xbox has been sucking and thought “hold on, instead of building on this market lead, I bet we could beat Xbox in enshittifying!”
madowlx@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Ever since the PS3 and Xbox 360, it’s like the console wars have just been about them trading whose turn it was for the next PR disaster. Racing to the top was too expensive so they race to the bottom instead.
djdarren@piefed.social 1 day ago
It helps when you get that their goals and ours are not really the same. They want to earn more money, and don’t need to provide a perfect service to achieve that. They just need to be (slightly) less shitty than Xbox.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 12 hours ago
probably going to complain when steam/valve is the only competitor making bank. MS wasted all thier money on trying to make AI work.
Smaile@lemmy.ca 7 hours ago
Just the second great video game crash, not quite a secret landfill of ET but this is just as bad imo
InFerNo@lemmy.ml 21 hours ago
To reduce costs on printing and to reflect Sony’s vision, they are dropping the L from the name of the console.
ms_lane@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
They’re not dropping it, they’re hoping you take it.
But leave them with the L.
LordCrom@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
By not including the extra plastic L on the console, Sony realized it could save 7 cents per console.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 14 hours ago
You joke but that’s why stick drift is an issue now.
KaChilde@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
And with projected sales of 14 consoles after these decisions, that’s almost a whole buck of savings!
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 hours ago
lol
mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 23 hours ago
definitely end of an era.
I’m not buying a console without physical media.Sony can kill the second hand market if they want, but that was the last thing that differentiated them from Steam. Good bye Playstation, i’ll remember you fondly.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 21 hours ago
Rest in piss
pyre@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
they make their product and service worse but they’re still trying to fight the console wars in 2026 like that japanese soldier who fought ww2 for 30 years after japan surrendered
Danitos@reddthat.com 1 day ago
They are also lobbying to make hosting you own videogame server illegal: pcgamer.com/…/esa-bafflingly-declares-private-min…
Sony is part of ESA.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
So is Microsoft who owns Minecraft who definitely presents private servers as dangerous (which for children may very well be true).
a4ng3l@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Having the possibility to setup a server allowed me to setup one for my sons and I. I’d rather have that then them going online…
rollerbang@lemmy.world 1 day ago
So are bicycles and kitchen knives. Ffs
shinratdr@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I can’t speak to market trends, but I can say this 100% makes my PS5 my last Sony console. I’ve bought every one, and the only reason I continue to buy them is so I can collect exclusives on disc for my collection.
A digital only console is just a bad, expensive gaming PC. I already have a good expensive gaming PC, so I’ll just buy games digitally there.
Dzheyk@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Yep. Same. I’ve been a PlayStation guy since my teens and could start buying my own stuff. If that’s the move they want to go with then I have zero issues in dropping them as a whole.
Itsamelemmy@lemmy.zip 22 hours ago
After the recent Sony is deleting your movies you bought crap, I decided I’m never buying a digital game from them ever again. So sounds like it’s my last as well. And I was already 90% digital.
Especially seeing as they tried to do the same thing before and reversed course due to the backlash, but I guess they just don’t care anymore.
GoatSynagogue@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
While I applaud your decision, the market has spoken - 85%+ of all console game sales are digital. The overwhelming majority of people don’t care about physical games, especially in a time when the physical copies don’t even contain the full game due to storage constraints.
I’ve been digital-only since the day they made all games available digitally on the Xbox 360, because I don’t trade or re-sell games, ever, and I much prefer the benefits of digital. Most people are like me these days. It sucks for the people that aren’t, but they’re going to have to just move on or abandon their hobby.
shinratdr@lemmy.ca 20 hours ago
I do buy digital and have for decades, but primarily for PC. I don’t for console because that’s the last thing I wanted a console for. I have no intention of abandoning the hobby, but this is my last reason to buy a PlayStation. They offer nothing that isn’t done better on a gaming PC.
I saw the 85% stat they are pushing. I honestly don’t believe it. I strongly believe they are pumping that number up by counting PlayStation Plus redemptions and smaller games in that total. I would be much more interested to see what the actual Physical vs. Digital sales are for a single new release title on day one. I would guess the split is much closer to 70/30. That might be higher in markets where internet access is less robust. This will also piss off retailers and distributors, which now are expected to sell low-margin consoles without high margin games. They chose such a far off date in purpose, to see the feedback and test the waters. I doubt this will come to fruition. Physical media is seeing a resurgence as trust for these companies to maintain services is at an all time low.
On that note, companies need to be careful taking industry wide trends and extrapolating from them with no nuance. That’s why I worded my first comment carefully. I am not anti-Digital at all, but I buy a console for collecting exclusives. I have hundreds of digital Steam games and some digital PS5 games. You know how many digital PS6 games I’ll have? Zero, because I won’t own one. Like backwards compatibility, the benefit of it can’t be quantified by how much time people use it vs. cost of development. Physical media is a draw, even if it is not always taken advantage of. I’m not boycotting, I’m genuinely no longer interested.
This is the kind of decision that looks great on a balance sheet when you have no competition. But when your hardcore audience stops buying, collectors that buy extra releases and collectors editions stop collecting, retailers stop pushing because they can only sell one low margin box, and your competitors see your weakness and double down on it, it might not turn out so great.
allidoislietomyself@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Don’t forget they also paid $3.6 Billion for Bungie just to shut down their most popular game and put all their hope in their new extraction shooter that’s been struggling. No new games in dev or even green lit. Also they just layed off a bunch of people.
VitoRobles@lemmy.today 1 day ago
This one is more on the Bungie side of things. Bungie got a few lifelines and STILL fumbled.
Zahille7@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Imagine if Bungie never “vaulted” (read: deleted) any part of Destiny 2 and we were still able to play the original campaign it shipped with? More people would still be playing Destiny 2 and you’d get plenty more new players without them having to use a guide or YouTube lore videos to get caught up on the story.
Instead of mArathon they’d probably be making a Destiny 3
allidoislietomyself@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Oh yeah don’t get me started on Bungie. The are a shell of their former selves. When they split from Activison and it all came out that the mircotransactions was all Bungie’s idea that was my first WTF moment with these guys. They let us believe it was the Corp overlords ruining our game but they did it themselves. Then they did everything they could do to make themselves look profitable for Sony’s acquisition. Just horrible decision after horrible decision.
ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 18 hours ago
Yeah Bungie management has been atrocious since at least the first Halo. Possibly from their beginning. It’s honestly a miracle they’ve managed to release so many decently sized hits despite being mismanaged to hell and back for each and every single one.
dreamkeeper@literature.cafe 6 hours ago
Destiny got what it deserved. I can’t believe it lasted as long as it did. I noped after they started charging $40 for a couple maps and a raid labeled as “expansions”. And that was destiny 1. The game was an unbelievable ripoff.
allidoislietomyself@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I agree I don’t blame Sony at all. Also I hate myself for it but for me no FPS I’ve played comes close to the fluid gunplay in Destiny and Destiny 2. That is where Bungie always shined for me above everyone else. The rebooted Doom games are a close 2nd. and there are a few indie titles like Turbo Overkill that get close as well. Everything else just doesn’t match up when I get that FPS itch.
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
What really sucks is that Marathon is actually pretty fun.
They just completely fumbled the marketing and launch, the UI needs to be cleaned up, and it doesn’t feel worth it at $40. IDC if it’s a AAA developer, it’s still a pretty small game content wise even if it is fun to play.
Telodzrum@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’m a diehard Marathon fan, I dumpster dived for an Apple to play the first two on when I was a kid. I can’t even try the new one because they purposefully broke it on Linux.
GoatSynagogue@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Don’t blame Sony for bungies mess. Sony got absolutely scammed by Bungie because they were desperately and panicking after MS accounted they were buying ABK.
Bungie have been a terrible studio for a decade at least. Microsoft turned them down when Bungie attempted to sell themselves back to them for a fraction of what Sony paid them only a few months later.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Don’t forget that they’ve halted PC ports for their games, including shitcanning nearly-complete work on Ghost of Yōtei.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
They’ll probably keep releasing for the PS5 for years into the PS6’s lifespan, so as long as that happens I’ll get their games if they look good, but once they shift over to PS6 completely, I’m done.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 day ago
PS4 is my last PlayStation. Can’t even recall the last time I powered it up on purpose.
demizerone@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I bought every PlayStation ever released. I will not be buying this one. Consoles are supposed to get cheaper over time. The gaming sector is going to go tits up and I hope it does.
v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 12 hours ago
It’s a historic moment to see an almost 6-year old console appreciate and not depreciate in value over time. Never before seen in the ~40 years of gaming. It’s insane
Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml 10 hours ago
Value is different than cost. The value continues to plummet, while the cost continues to rise.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 12 hours ago
plus people have prioritize money to elsewhere like basic needs, instead of luxury needs.
oyzmo@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
People don’t care. Most just want to feed on SoMe. A bunch even voted Trump as President - impressed that humas has survived this long
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 day ago
A funny anecdote from outside gaming land:
Sony mirrorless cameras, even MEGA expensive ones, have this quirk where they can’t shoot 30P HEVC.
The A6700 for instance, can record 24, 30, 60 h.264, but only 24 or 60 h.265. The A7C II is particularly handicapped, with only 24 h.265.
It doesn’t make sense. Why?
Well, people kept asking Sony, and someone finally got a response:
…sony.com/…/why-sony-a7s-iii-doesnt-support-25-or…
Hello, Sony’s commitment to customer satisfaction is our top priority. The reason for that is that we determined the current product specifications from our analyses of target users and available technologies. For XAVC HS, we envision users enjoying HLG movies by connecting the camera to an HDR (HLG) compatible BRAVIA TV over HDMI, and 60p is what we view as the default setting for playback with it. To record movies in higher quality in 4K/30p, we would recommend selecting XAVC S and XAVC S-I, 10-bit 4:2:2 sampling, either Long GoP and All-I codec. Could you tell us how creators such as yourself want to use HEVC at 30p so we can provide feedback to our design team?
I found that oddly enlightening.
“Well, it’s not optimal for BRAVIA TVs, so why would users want this?” Sony cannot fathom such a thing.
It makes that whole list in OP’s post make total sense. It’s not even cynicism on their part; they literally cannot understand why their PlayStation users would want any of those things. What would they need a disk play for? What value is Bluepoint is a business review?
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Could you tell us how creators such as yourself want to use HEVC at 30p so we can provide feedback to our design team?
I just want to fucking choose what I want without having to provide a “user story”!! I HATE uber-market-optimized software and products, give me fucking settings instead of trying to guess for me!
zebidiah@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I am jacks complete lack of surprise…
This should be expected from the people who brought us memory sticks and betamax
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Essentially suits who don’t and have never gamed making decisions on gaming. They have no idea what the players want and don’t actually care because caring costs money.
CaptainHowdy@lemmy.zip 19 hours ago
The entire reason I’ve ever bought consoles and games was because I could get used games at a bargain and also sell my old consoles and game collections when I’m done with them. I can’t imagine that I’m the only person who looked at it this way.
Now console producers pull shit like this when they can’t even claim to be more user friendly than PC because SteamOS is a real competitor.
Well I guess it was good while it lasted, at least until the last few years when greed fully took over. Microsoft is already on it’s last leg and Sony and Nintendo are going to follow eventually.
ritsku@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Yeah, that’s the end of PlayStation for me. Hopefully someone else will come out with something decent.
SupraMario@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Sega needs to return now
Aneorthisio@lemmy.ml 21 hours ago
So, this means mandatory proprietary hardware just to play the four or five true permanent exclusives that will be on the PS6 throughout its entire lifetime, given that everything else will eventually come to PC, and you don’t actually own any of your digital content, meaning that they can revoke your access to your purchases without notice at any point if they choose to do so.
People will still buy it though, that’s the saddest part.
GoatSynagogue@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Good thing Sony’s first party output is easy to ignore. Just go watch Wolverine and all the rest of their games on YouTube since they’re basically interactive movies.
Aneorthisio@lemmy.ml 20 hours ago
Right, the only PS5 exclusive I would love to have on PC is Astro Bot.
jackal@feddit.uk 21 hours ago
They’ve already said they’ve stopped porting to PC
Squizzy@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
They have but others have not. GTA will come to PC. GoW Faye likely wont.
I’d rather wait and emulate the next spiderman and Wolverine game tbh.
Aneorthisio@lemmy.ml 21 hours ago
Actually, the 2026 strategy and business environment report from Sony simply removed the line “Will continue its efforts to deploy its first-party titles to multiple platforms such as PC” from their priorities list, but did not outright state that they won’t port games to PC anymore, as many journalists misinterpreted, the report simply states that it isn’t a priority anymore due to mitigated revenue. The main concern within the report seems to be that near simultaneous releases on PC are effectively cannibalizing PS5 hardware sales, so you might still expect PC releases but further down the line compared to the current 1-2 years window, maybe previous generation games released on PC, not current generation.
SunshineJogger@feddit.org 14 hours ago
They can do all this because people keep giving them money.
Too many people make it about brand identity than simply playing games.
melfie@lemmy.zip 20 hours ago
Meh, I’m done with consoles. The exclusives will come to emulators eventually, and there will be plenty of PC games in the meantime.
sorelight@lemmus.org 6 hours ago
I’m gonna miss them as they were the only way of playing paid games via Playstation 4 since you couldn’t buy digital games via PS Store if you were living in an unavailable country.
owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Why are people still buying shit from Sony? It would be less work to just flush your cash directly down the shitter.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 23 hours ago
It warms my heart to see that EVERY comment on Sony’s blog post about it is negative. Hope the decision ends up biting Sony in the ass, but even if not, at least people weren’t silent about it.
AlexNorris@lemmy.zip 12 hours ago
Console really is hitting checklist of media subscription like apple
GolfFoxtrotLima@ani.social 5 hours ago
Yet another common PlayStation L
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 hours ago
Can anyone come up with a single example of an industry that’s not getting simultaneously worse (and/or smaller), and more expensive?
stefenauris@pawb.social 22 minutes ago
Actually open source software just keeps getting better and better. I’m amazed at how much stuff I can run on my own computers for free!
However with AI flooding open source projects with security vulnerabilities and things, this is subject to change (but hopefully not)
CptOblivius@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Costco hotdogs. That’s about it. Maybe arizona ice tea?
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
I dunno if my tastes just evolved, but I swear Arizona isn’t as good as it used to be