By Shawn Knight
The year was 1998. It was Christmas time and I had just received my very first computer, an AMD K6-2 running at 333 MHz. Little did I know, from that day forward, my life would be changed forever.
One of the first such changes was my focus shift from console games to PC games. Just a few months after owning my computer, I added a Diamond Monster II 3D graphics card based on the 3dfx Voodoo 2 chipset. It was an absolute screamer and took my gaming experience to a whole new level.
We all know how the story played out for 3dfx, the graphics company that dominated the 3d graphics industry for several years in the late 90s.
Who would have thought that giving games away for free would be so lucrative?
For the first few years of this generation, a number of industry analysts argued Sony may need to add first-party games to PS Plus at launch in order to maintain pace with Xbox Game Pass.
The Japanese giant, to its credit, always maintained its position that this was unsustainable. It later added tiers to its subscription offering, providing good value with PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium without going all-in like its Redmond rival.
Microsoft has since missed a number of targets with its own service, and has subsequently started releasing games like Forza Horizon 5 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Sony’s console.
Replies(1)
Not all know. I am betting those observing this while obscured may have trouble comprehending 😅
Back in the day, there were even discussions and I believe statements from Spencer about wether Sony would allow Game Pass on Playstation.
At least for the time being this option seems definitely to be ruled out completely.
PlayStation Plus is getting a price rise in Australia and other global regions, with subscribers set to pay a few dollars more on each tier.
Sadly the price increases are expanding to Australia and likely other regions beyond.
Seems like it's best to stack now if you're in the position to do so
I try to stack every time they offer a psn sale that discounts the deluxe tier by 30 percent I find that's the best way to get past the multi year increases but yeah it's sucked feel like everything has increased so much lately across all subs I've cancelled gamepass and a few other streaming services going back to just psn, NSO and Netflix
Same here. I let my subscription lapse since it ran out last summer. If we do the math, is a console really cheaper than a PC? It sucks that I can no longer play Helldivers 2, but it is not worth spending so much on the subscription fee for a function that should be free.
PS plus essential is $80
PS5 is $500
The generation is expected to last 7-8 years, which means you would have spent at least $1060 just to access basic features along with the initial purchase. Not to mention some games being more expensive. There are also the additional controllers you may need to buy once your original ones start to drift. I have 3 DualSense controllers, and all of them drifted. I was able to fix 2 of the 3 by modding them with Hall effect sticks.
I love my Playstation, and I do not regret buying it at launch since I got to enjoy some great games like Ratchet and Clank, Horizon Forbidden West, Spiderman 2, Demon Souls, Astro Bot, and God of War Ragnarok.
The issue I have is that the Playstation that we know today is different from the Playstation we had in the PS4 era. Things are also getting progressively more expensive as time goes on.
Once the PC hardware situation improves, I will be looking to build my own one part at a time instead of getting a Pro console.
@ Divine
The PC situation won't get better. If you want to game, you will need to choose who you want to get screwed by.
Terrible idea to Stack now in my opinion. The raise is not that much for 12 months, so you might as well wait for the 30% sales at the end of year, because you will be saving more money. That's when I'm going to stack like a mofo. I'll buy like 5 years then
You gotta love the attitude people had before: "Price hike! NO, THIS IS TERRIBLE, I HATE—wait ... South America? lol ok."
It starts hitting closer to home and now we're worried. It was always a concern and people should have always treated it that way.
Funny enough, Sony is likely losing subscribers with every price hike, and all they're doing is offering the beefed up service to fewer people. Doubtful this offsets the lost subs.
Haven't had Plus in years, and I don't miss it. And frankly, with the way things are going, I just don't see myself getting into the next generation either. Increased reliance on AI, stagnant gaming experiences despite better tech, untenable budgets, increased cost to consumers, tendency to push GaaS, very long development cycles, weak/non-existent digital rights protections, poor global economy, tariff madness.
It's probably a better use of my time to double down on my other hobbies. Can't speak for others, but it wouldn't be surprising if the market crashes because enough people come to the same conclusion.
Seeing Quake for the first time with the 3Dfx Glide patch was just amazing! POD also blew me away at the time.
Ahhh Memories!
These were the days! The birth of graphics whores was upon us. Two 3dfx cards!? Monster fx?! Sadly, it's all I cared about at the time. They were great old games though. Consoles? Pfff!
Voodoo 2, holy @#*$ LOL. I miss the 90's.