Travis Bruno of Capsule Computers writes:
"Nostalgia is a powerful thing. For some things, it can make even the most mediocre film or video game something we remember fondly, only to revisit it years later and see why it was never given a remaster or why the series has been put on ice. Then there are series that haven’t really been given much of a chance to shine, especially with how long they have been dormant and one such case happens to be with Konami’s Suikoden franchise. In the nearly two decades since the last main entry on the PlayStation 2, a few spin-offs were released and even then, one of these stayed in Japan, leaving fans with only a spiritual successor to the franchise last year. Now though, Konami has brought both Suikoden I and Suikoden II in the oddly named Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune & Dunan Unification Wars collection. Delivering a few quality of life improvements and a visual upgrade, are these JRPGs as good as we might remember?"
The PlayStation 5 was once again the best-selling console in the US in March 2025 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the five-week period of March 2 to April 5.
Not surprised by PS5 dominance. It will be interesting to see if sales for ACS drop off the cliff or gradually slide down. UBI would want a gradual slide over many months while staying in top 10 for next 3-6 months.
Assassins Shadows is a success whether some people like it or not. They did try their hardest. But in the end facts are facts (not that those matter to some these days). Im just enjoying the crow eating at this point.
It’s not that we want games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows to fail—most of us love gaming and want to see great titles succeed. But when big publishers consistently make anti-consumer decisions, it's important for the community to speak up. If we don't push back, we risk normalizing practices that hurt us as players in the long run.
A lot of people point to the hype around upcoming releases like the Switch 2 and say, “Where’s all the negativity now? It’s already sold out.” But launch-day sellouts don’t tell the whole story. Historically, every new console sells well at launch. The real question is how it performs over time, especially if concerning trends continue.
Look at what Nintendo is doing: they’re charging $90 for a remaster bundled with DLC—content that many would expect to be priced far lower. Meanwhile, Xbox just released Oblivion, nearly remade and packed with all its DLC, for $50. That’s almost half the price for significantly more value. So should we just sit back and accept Nintendo charging almost double, or is it fair to question this pricing strategy?
It’s not just one game—it’s a pattern. Nintendo has been making several anti-consumer moves: physical editions costing more than digital, while also raising the price of digital games. And this isn't happening in isolation. For years, the standard price for a new game was $60. That held steady for over 15 years. Then it jumped to $70. Now, just four years later, we’re seeing $80–$90 price tags depending on the edition, platform, and whether it’s digital or physical.
These things add up. The industry is slowly training consumers to accept higher prices and fewer benefits, and when we don't speak out, we're essentially giving them permission to continue. This isn’t about hating companies or wanting products to fail—it’s about holding the industry accountable so it stays healthy, fair, and respectful of its audience.
We all want to enjoy great games, but we should also care about how they’re made, priced, and delivered. If we don’t ask questions now, we might not like the answers the industry gives us later
"Digital SKUs for March accounted for 70 percent of Xbox Series X|S sales and 50 percent of PlayStation 5 sales. Digital SKUs year-to-date have accounted for 75 percent of Xbox Series X|S sales and 50 percent of PlayStation 5 sales."
Okay this is interesting.
I see a lot of people talking about the 50% digital rate on PS5 but, that needs to be subtracted by the number of disc drives they sell. Also the fact that 15-20 percent of all PS5's are Pro's which are digital only by default so that 50% is heavily skewed.
In truth the vast majority of PS5's have a disc drive attached to them.
It's similar to the discussion about digital sales, where when you look at the total digital on PS5 seems high because so many games release digital only, but when you look at games that have physical releases the split on those games is still 50-60+ percent physical.
The majority of PlayStation owners still want physical games.
50% of a game that sells 2 million is still more then 75% that sell 1million. So, it really doesn’t mean much if you don’t know the approximate numbers
Lexreborn2
What is even the point you're trying to make?
Factually as we have seen reported by Sony and other publishers that games that have disc versions still sell 50-60 percent of the total copies physically on PlayStation, the number of total units sold is irrelevant when talking about the percent of individual products.
I wonder if oblivion remastered numbers for april will trounce the sales numbers of assassins creed origins? Hopefully it shows developers what gamers really want in a game. They don’t have to be perfect. They just need to have an identity or a soul. Easiest way to put it, is they need to be fun and entertaining. If it means remastering a 20 year old game to prove that, then so be it
The visibility of this franchise has waned over the years, though in 2025, Konami decided it was finally time to revive these beloved classics with Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification. While these remasters are welcome on new platforms, the effort regarding how much was remastered is a bit of a debatable point. Regardless of Konami’s bare-bones efforts, both games still hold their own as being must-play classics.
I’m glad they didn’t change the look of the game much. They cleansed it up a little but I hate when devs take awesome pixel art and turn it into crappy cartoon graphics that looks like it belongs in a flash game.
VGChartz's Evan Norris: "If you've been waiting to dive into the Suikoden series, wait no longer. Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars represents the perfect entry point. It retains the epic stories, tactical battles, and addictive character-collecting & base-expanding mechanics of the two PlayStation-era games and buttresses them with new quality-of-life features, a refreshed UI, and a significant visual overhaul. Some of the warts from the originals remain, but they don't detract significantly from the overall experience. If you're even the slightest bit serious about 90s-era role-playing games, you need to add this package to your collection."
It’s awesome. The quality of life stuff make these much better for what I want to do, specifically speeding up battles. I’m nearly done with the first game. I’ve just finished leveling up all my characters and farming money to buff their weapons and armor for all the playable characters out of the 106. Then on the the truly epic Suikoden 2