The High Street has been called in to help Sony ramp up subscribers to its PlayStation Plus service.
The platform holder has today (August 17th) launched new one-year (£39.99) and 90-day (£11.99) subscription cards into specialists stores, and is set to embark on a ‘really big’ marketing and PR push for the service.
The news follows Sony's Gamescom announcement that PlayStation Plus will be coming to Vita.
Sony has recruited Bungie's head of revenue Jaremy Rich to head up its live-service gaming division, Rich has announced on social media.
Please do not put Destiny’s monetization into Sony’s first party games. The monetization is what’s driving players away from Destiny.
The new temp boss is the sony cfo bean counter so i can see this being a thing get every penny.
@car
The new boss did a interview in japan he wants to tap into the mobile market like nintendio so he give 0 fucks about gamers/fans
https://www.pushsquare.com/...
@Cacabunga
You only speak for you and those who think like you, but most fans will support what they want. Playstation and PC fans are literally supporting Helldivers 2 and that is a gaas. Maybe you wouldn't, but many more would if they like it.
@Redemption-64
Look, Im not making any judgement calls about this guy, but I will say that Helldivers 2 GaaS model is unique to Helldivers, and legit the only other game I can think of thats similiar was the Avengers game except HD2 pass is still better.
The fact that you can earn in game currency in a way that doesnt make you feel like you have to grind forever, as well you being able work on that pass that you bought...on your own time without a time limit...that right there is fucking huge to me, and I can't name any game other than avengers that avoided trapping players with FOMO logic...I think GaaS on HD2 shouldn't be compared to the rest of the industry...it should be copied.
Cacabunga
Helldivers 2...
Redemption-64
In Europe it's a 60 40 split favoring PC.
In the US its a 60 40 split favoring PS5.
So PlayStation owners supported the game just fine, it's not getting carried by PC or anything like that.
@just_looken,
I'm perfectly fine with the way Nintendo entered the mobile market, I never touched their mobile games, meanwhile, the console/handheld stayed the way it is. As for being a bean counter, he's probably going to reel in these massive budgets that Sony's studios have had lately, I haven't played Spiderman 2, but I cannot see how they almost tripled the budget for that game.
@Redemption-64,
That's an exception to the rule, I'm expecting a lot of these GAAS games from Sony to fail, to be fair, they only need a few to succeed, but I would have preferred that they put more of their resources into other types of games.
True their monetization is driving players away and at the same time, their decision to chop out content and convoluted systems is keeping new players away from the game.
I don't think that will happen based on how things worked out at Naughty Dog now that we know what we do, seems they had the option to fully commit to live service games or stay making single player experences so they gave up on their live service game. We are not sure how things came about with Bend making a live service game but I hope that was not a forced situation. Sony doesnt seem like they are forcing studios to switch up but we will see, Sony's bread and butter is single player games it is how they dominated the console market.
Yeah, I though Sony learned something from all their failures in the LS segment under Bungie´s disastrous leadership and supervision which led to games been cancelled, studios closed and all the people laid off.
Looks like Bungie still plays a major role in Sony´s LS initiative and Sony is not backtracking on their GaaS plans.
Are we forgetting that Destiny is also a highly successful franchise? I feel like that definitely deserves mention here.
Besides, there is no reason why a person cant learn from past experiences.
I agree, people act as if Destiny flopped when it came out lol it took 9 to 10 years for the numbers to fall yet people are still playing it add the success of Helldivers 2 no wonder Sony is going forward down this path.
Personally, I see no problem with Sony also having service games as long as they make good ones, and more importantly they deliver the AAA story driven games that they are known for. So yeah, I agree 100% with you.
I mean, this person made some pretty bad decisions at Bungie. I hope they've learned from them because I definitely don't see those type of ideas as good for PlaySation in general.
Honestly, what’s to learn from? How to make people happily continuously dump money into a single game over its life-time? Buy season passes continuously for several years with a smile on our faces?
GaaS is a design decision that is everything wrong with this industry. The fact that Helldivers 2 did so well and people defend the monetization because it was $40 and is a fun game, scares the sh*t out of me to see that the door is open and all shift will probably be to replicate that in future games. We already know the ROI for traditional game dev cost isn’t doing it for them.
I thought with Jimbo leaving we’d see a change for the better… I’m not so sure now.
Service games are being offered by everyone. Sony cannot afford to only create single player AAA games. No one can. They already said they will be doing both.
Ps5 gamers in 2023 seemed to play more live service types of games, so regardless to how people feel about them, numbers don’t lie and Sony is going where the money is. I mean look at the excitement around Helldivers2, people are showing that they want live service games.
They play long-time existing live service games like CoD, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, and the like. Mass majority of new live service games are considered failures and aren't moving gamers away from older games.
Yep the huge issue with live service is they need paid players along with a reason to play them.
You forgot mobile market that also taps into that player base as well as the eve online style games there is only a certain amount of krakens/whales blind supporters compared to the amount of live service games we have its not sustainable math wise.
700 restaurants making food for every seat for 1000-3000 eaters just does not work out
Christopher
I am not a big live service fan and literally own zero of the games you listed, but that is not true, unless you call games that aren't the top games to be failures.
There are tons of live service games that are profitable.
Games don't have to be the biggest game ever they just need to make more than they cost.
I challenge you to show professionally prepared data that shows that more live service games fail than make enough to keep going.
Because all the data that I have seen shows that live service is less of a gamble than making a big AAA budget game which needs to survive off retail sales.
I sometimes wonder if we're at saturation point, where it's hard for a new game to join those ranks unless it's particularly exceptional, people only have so much time and money to devote to these types of games.
Lol it's not even a quarter of the ps5s sold. Helldivers may have been a hit but let's not say most are enjoying it because truth is most(the real most ) don't care about it.
I play what is fun. If a live service game is good I’ll play it as long as its not a money scheme which Helldivers is not.
And Im a single player gamer.
How do you kill a franchise that already been killed?
Destiny’s grind, cash-in-on-playbass-cha-Ching, and pop-culture-insertion mainstream-me-too bs totally killed any rep Bungie had. Sony/Bungie, if you are doing this to ward-off players, it’s already working.
Sony has patented to add multiple dialogue modes to let players switch between how many conversations with NPCs they want in the game.
Sony is like the only ones outta the 3 that has atuff like like this pop up changing thing in ways.
Sony in the past has always been first at bat with new ideas/tech but in the end never fully use it or just toss it away.
I think they did use some but yeah most usually never happened but at least they thought about it. Sony seeks things like this and other, Nintendo seek different ways of playing going by there different controler designs and console designs.
some of the other stuff sony want's/owns never used
https://gamerant.com/sony-p...
https://gamerant.com/sony-p...
https://www.eurogamer.net/s...
https://metro.co.uk/2023/03...
https://decrypt.co/114754/s...
monitor/adjust game difficultly as you play
https://www.techradar.com/g...
Sony nfts
https://www.theblock.co/pos...
Pay ai to play the game for you
https://thebusinessofesport...
Oh all the above last 12 months
I just imagine a evil scientist with test subjects when it comes down to sony recent patent reports.
Genuine Enabling Technology was seeking damages, claiming the tech allowing PlayStation consoles and controllers to communicate infringes its rights.
Crazy to think the savings from this lawsuit allows them to develop one AAA game.
Make it Bloodborne 2, please and thank you.
Sounds like patent trolling they tried the same thing against Nintendo with the same pattern.
Motion and control input traversing over higher and lower frequencies seperate from each other allowing the controller to do both
So to recoup the money Genuine is going to take on Nintendo or Microsoft next. I hate patent lawyers they are some of the worst bottom feeders out there.
PlayStation Plus has been "coming" to Vita for a while....3 month subscriptions are ending, and Sony has failed to do anything to "wow" NEW subscribers. I know I know, you've been a subscriber and its amazing FOR YOU, but the whole E3 deal was to get NEW people on-board.
Other than the E3 update, the NA region has failed epicly in terms of content and SALES (not just free stuff, I wanted to buy things) It's constantly "wait for the next update" when someone complains too. NO, just fix it and I'll come back....
A quality update here and there doesn't warrant it. Heck even Sound Shapes was a very limited sale, I went to buy it and it was already too late....it went back to full price. The early Counter Strike 'demo" never happened either....You can't just sit there and praise them for PS Plus if you want it to improve, you have to tell them whats wrong and what you want MORE of.
To be fair, how many people are going to pay for something that is free?
Yes you do get the little extras (which are great) but how many people want them?
If a person (like me) has signed up to PSN/SEN to play online as its primary function, why would I want to pay for it? I have no use for the extra free DLC etc, so I would not bother to pay for the premium service.
I do however pay for XBL (Until recently, havent renewed since I dont have as much time to game online) - But its mandatory to get online, I dont have a choice but to purchase XBL gold to play online.
PSN - Free goes a long way.
I'm in no way implying this is a bad thing...but! (always a big but and a smile) this seems like the beginning of something more articulated...
My point is, publishers lose between £5-£10 at retail per disc...they would rather lessen that amount or keep that within the profit margin...
With that in mind, I can see full games being purchased (for those without Credit/Debit Cards) like PSN/LIVE cards one day, that in addition to downloading off the network direct.
There may soon be a future where little or no physical copies will be sold at retail...just codes
Theoretically, we may soon be able to procure our games at convenient stores, Gas Stations Ect
*Within the next 5-6 years maybe?
Maybe PSN+ Cards are a testing ground to lure the public into digital purchasing...like mental conditioning by stealth.
Just a thought....
Anyone know when the patch for the cloud storage upgrade and vita support are coming?
Hmmm, this might intice me to pick up a Plus subcription.
I already pay $40 bux for Live if I can pay the same or less for PS+ then I would.
But is this only available over seas?