Sony continues to embrace an anti-consumer practice that even Nintendo gave up.
The Epic Games Store has a funny little game and some free DLC for you.
Sony's latest PlayStation Store sale has over 4,000 items housing indies and AAA games. HJere's the full list of discounts.
Microsoft is tackling Xbox Cloud Gaming latency with real testing and tech upgrades—here’s what’s working, and why it matters.
Speaking as someone who uses xcloud, i havent really noticed much lag, if at all. I have used the service on a wide variety of devices. A VCR XBO, a One X, the logitech GCloud, steamdeck and my work PC. in all cases it just works and works really well. I was not interested at first in the idea of streaming a game, but then i really started using it as a way to gauge interest if a game is worth my time of downloading/installing and I just cant help but jump into new titles when they drop. I used to do the same with new releases on netflix so i can see why they make that similar proclimation.
With Remote Play, the lag can be almost complete nonexistent too. My TV and Receiver glitched up really bad a few weeks ago and my Xbox wouldn't output through 4K 120hz for a few weird hours of power cycling these stupid devices, so I got to test this out while my Xbox just refused to output video through hdmi.
With a Backbone on my phone, and a controller connected to the console (hardwired into the modem through an Ethernet switch; my phone is connected to a Router that the modem routes to - so there is that extra network layer), I could not notice any difference. Avowed was set to the Balanced mode, maybe Performance would've exposed a lag with the extra frames but the response on my phone screen looked near exact from stick push to game response.
Cloud Gaming, playing something like South of Midnight feels responsive enough to me, and games like Pentiment you really really can't tell, and if you could, that's a game where lag would be inconsequential to the experience
I live in a city that has an Xbox Cloud server, and my local network uses Wi-Fi 6. I've used the service for quite a while. I can't really say I don't feel the latency. Some titles are completely unplayable for me, like Forza Horizon 5. But there are also many games where I barely notice it, such as A Crab's Treasure and Halo MCC.
Honestly, it's great that they're working on making it better. But the way it works right now is already pretty usable, and casual gamers, who I assume are the target audience, probably won't even notice the latency. The issue then becomes more of a commercial or marketing one, because casual gamers are either on mobile or console, and they probably don't even know Xbox Cloud exists, how much it costs, or how it works.
It also doesn't help that some of the most popular casual games aren't available on it at launch. Sports games from EA, for example, are always a couple of months late.
Forcing people to spend $5 just to purchase something between 50¢-$4 is insane. I ran into this when I bought the bot add-on for Killzone Mercenary and found it to be ridiculous.
I'm happy Nintendo and Microsoft stopped with their ridiculous point/currency systems; it's time Sony allowed people to simply add the total amount instead of forcing us to spend the extra.
I have to agree with the author. These minimum funding fees are pretty anti-consumer on Sony's part but things like this are just one of the many reasons that I rarely if ever purchase anything digitally. Companies have way way too much control over content, pricing, how things are being purchased, etc. Not only that, the digital pricing on consoles is garbage. The majority of the time I can get physical copies for cheaper than I can digital copies of games. Digital copies of games shouldn't even be the same price as physical copies since you aren't paying manufacturing and distribution fees imo.
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
http://www.creditcards.com/...
**Because it costs retailers money to accept cards, small transaction amounts can make accepting cards unprofitable, especially at places such as convenience stores and gas stations, where profit margins are paper-thin. They asked for the option to require a minimum purchase amount for credit card transactions.
They got it. The request received little notice because it was tucked into a bill that became an 848-page legislative behemoth -- the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. As fierce debates took place over whether the legislation created or preserved "too big to fail" banks, and whether to set a cap on debit card interchange fees, the short section on credit card minimum payments survived, there on page 698.
It went into law in July 2010, and all those handwritten signs went from forbidden to federally blessed.***
Sony is a merchant. They may incur fees on smaller purchases. I ran into it one time and had $0.02 left. I ended up using it later. But anything I bought over $5.00, there wasn't any change left.
Does it suck? Maybe. But it is what it is. Sony has a legal right to. But you as a consumer don't have to buy the item that's less than $5.00. It's not a requirement. Or buy it with another item you wanted to get that's more than $5.
As for digital games being high and same price as retail? Again, don't buy it at that price. Wait for a sale or go to a retailer and buy it physically and on sale. Who says you have to buy games at $60-$70 a pop?
Lastly, the reason digital games are similarly priced as retail is because retailers would cause a stink for being undercut by digital games. Why would I as a retailer carry your products if you're undercutting me on small margins on new games? That's why retailers like GameStop sell used games. It's more profitable. Even consoles have low margins. That's why accessories are pushed to gain some type of profit.I don't like GameStop, but that's the way it is. Business is not cheap.
But know this, if digital games for consoles were cheap, there would be no reason to sell games in stores. Kind of like Steam sales or mobile games. No overhead. Few workers maintaining the site. But with retailers, that's potentially thousands of stores and thousands of employees out of work. It may end up that way anyway and transform more into the Amazon model and thousands of workers end up working for one big company (not good for the market either. Just ask Walmart workers and those who despise them) distributing product, but you don't want to force their demise so soon.
It is what it is.
i agree 100 percent i find it weird Sony does this i have bought many things that are lower then 4 dollars
I have never bought anything under a dollar lol. I had no idea and I don't really care honestly. I have bought things under 5 dollars though. Maybe it's because I wasn't using a credit card, just the wallet.