Many rumors have been flying around the Internet lately anticipating a price drop for the PS3. One would think this couldn’t be farther from the truth with slumping sales and the PS3’s inability to match the monthly sales of its competition. Even with all this we are left with the price drop for the system being pretty much confirmed, instead of definitely confirmed.
“I think that the public would like the cost to be lower, there’s no question about that.”
And how much lower?
“That’s what we’re studying at the moment; that’s what we’re trying to refine.”
And we’ll know when?
“And the answer is, of course it will get to Christmas”
Why is Sony so reluctant to drop the price for the PS3? From the surface it looks like a clear cut decision, drop the price $200 dollars so that it’s more appealing to gamer’s wallets. Like any decision in business it’s a strategy and with every strategy there are its pluses and minuses. We pretty much have covered the plus side of the strategy of lowering dropping the cost of the PS3, so let’s cover the minuses.
One of the things Sony has to evaluate is how much of a lost can Sony they take from sales of the PS3, a tuff question to answer when Sony is already losing hundreds of dollars from the sale of every PS3. Many analyst would look at this and say not too much as Sony recently laid-off somewhere between 80 and 100 workers at Sony Computer Entertainment America. Let’s not forget about the changes in execs to please the shareholders, so long Mr. Kutaragi. On the same note let’s not forget BLU-RAY players got a price drop, so that’s bound to help offset the cost of a price drop but even so it may not offset the cost enough. The news from this standpoint doesn’t seem to get any better with the Xbox 360 picking up enough steam to out sale the PS2 for the first time last month.
Looking a little bit deeper into the minuses of a price drop for the PS3 we see Sony’s competition, Microsoft and Nintendo. One of the reasons a price is seen as a favorable factor for helping increase sales for consoles over having games is because Nintendo also has a lack of games but is selling well at a much lower price. Not to still thunder for the Wii’s success but its innovated controller design can only help but generate enough excitement to help move consoles. What about Microsoft where do they fit in this whole puzzle?
Microsoft is Sony’s direct competition with both systems boasting enough GHz to render even the most complex graphics available to date, with many giving the edge or the clear win to the PS3. The only problem with this is that to-date Sony has not mustard a clear graphic win over the Xbox 360 or shown its edge yet, so both systems look to be on equal ground at the moment with the Xbox 360 showing the edge, Gears of War. One thing we can count on for sure is that if Sony lowers the price for the PS3 it will spark a price war with the Xbox 360. Let’s not forget a $100 dollar price drop would put the Xbox 360 within $49 dollars of the Wii, this would only help Microsoft sale more consoles only increasing the margin between Sony and Microsoft install base. This is definitely something that could hurt Sony driving more of its exclusives to go multiplatform or to just hop ship all together in favor of the larger Xbox 360 install base.
When it comes down to dropping the price of the PS3 it is clear to see how this may not be the best move for Sony and why they are so reluctant on confirming one but do they really have a choice with fans clearly cheering for a price drop. In the end Sony’s best bet might be to live up to all the hype they drummed up about the PS3’s killer graphics thus turn attention away from its steep price.
The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth combat director has expressed that he wants the final part in the trilogy to offer players "even more freedom".
I love the game so far but please don’t make the final part a mini game fest
Everytime I get to a new part in Rebirth it’s “mini game time”
Hope ya don't mind me asking since it seems like you've played it, did it feel like a decent step up from the last game or was it more like the best from the last but more polished?
It makes Remake feel like a demo.
9.5/10 imo. And I think the “mini games” did a great job of adding variety to the gameplay. Purely optional as well.
Here's my thoughts
I think it's a big step up from the first instalment, I'm enjoying it way more.
I thought keeping it just in Midgar was silly, it felt dragged out and it didn't have much variation in terms of the scenery.
However with Rebirth, as soon as you get out of Kalm you have a big world to explore and it's great to just wander round and explore.
Now that I'm half way in though, despite still liking what I'm playing, the gameplay loop is now starting to slow down on me. I've got to a new region and I'm like "Yaaay...need to go and find those towers again, oh look another special beast marker, is that a bird I see in the distance? Better follow it to another Mako Crystal"
It's like....you know how Peter Jackson was only supposed to have two Hobbit films then Warner Bros wanted a third film so he stretched the second film out as much as he could so he could keep stuff for the third film making a trilogy? Yeah it feels like that, so these mini games are a part of that overall gameplay loop to keep us going and stretch the game out overall so they have something for the third and final game.
I personally think you could have had the first instalment get you out of Midgar and through to Grasslands / Junon and the second game finishes things off.
I had a weird cycle of love/hate for all the mini games as I played through. At first I really hated the seeming need to check all these boxes while exploring the grasslands. I didn't enjoy the Gilgamesh quest initially, and thought Queen's blood was fine but didn't want to commit to it. The side quests didn't really grab me either.
Then for some reason everything in Junon region changed my mind and I did pretty much everything. I liked most of the side quests, I actually liked playing fort condor (didn't care for it in the intergrade dlc). And my interest for completing these quests stayed pretty much through to Cosmo Canyon.
Then they added that horrible Lifestream memory/battle mini game and I started getting so burnt out of it all. I just wanted to do the story. I didn't do any side quests in neibleheim and beyond except for the summon. I abandoned Gilgamesh.
So what I'm saying is I would like the third part to go back to the focused progression from remake. Keep the mini games to the gold saucer. Start the game snowboarding if you want, but from there keep the story rolling.
That's funny you say that because I did everything in the Grasslands but once in Junon I started to slow down a little until Corel where by the end I was burnt out. I'm still currently going but I'm just doing what I can while things keep getting thrown at me.
I would have preferred half of these mini game side fillers / collectibles for some really beefy side quests that really adds onto the world of FFVII.
Sounds like they hadn't really figured out what they wanted to do with Remake and this one is more of what they thought of doing which is probably why they're dragging it out to make a trilogy. Disappointed to hear it has towers cause man do i hate towers lol. It's been a while since I've played the first and it'll be a while longer to play the sequel, but it sounds like I'll enjoy it. 7 really impressed me especially after being disappointed with 15, felt like Square finally realized that FF was THEIR big franchise again.
How many hours are you into it at this point?
My friend got like 20-30 in and pretty much quit because of its mini game era. He loved and basically binged through Gran Blue compared to Rebirth
As long as it comes out on PS5 to have the entire series on one platform, do whatever you want
The combat is my favorite thing about Rebirth. Would be really cool if they can improve it even more.
I hope after FF7 Square will either give a new FF game the remake treatment. Or give some of their older titles a remake treatment like Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, even Xenogears.
Wccf tech writes: "Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's scope was impacted by the Xbox Series S hardware limitations, as developers could only make a game that was 25% bigger than its predecessor."
This is the issue with things like this
Xbox Series X is apparently to MS the worlds most powerful console
However the Series S is obviously a limitation because it’s underpowered and developers have to go for parity.
So what’s the point of the world’s most powerful console if you are holding third party developers back? They aren’t going to push themselves if they have to think about the weakest console.
The issue wouldn’t be as bad if it was just Xbox but you are also affecting the PS version aswell
I think developers need to start just taking advantage of a console and if one of them can’t do X Y and Z then f*** them…why should the others suffer. What’s MS going to do? The bigger the franchise the least chance MS are going to tell them to f*** off. Baulders Gate 3 seemed to have stood their ground and suddenly their “strict” parity rule didn’t really matter. We suddenly got super optimisation efforts for the Series S that got things sorted.
I agree, and the sad part is use normal folk saw it the second they announced their plans.
Agree 100% this is why I didn’t want the M$ Monopoly, now PS5 version will be held back too.
If PS5 Pro comes out and Series S is still a thing it’ll be interesting what differences and what devs choose to do. Really hoping Rockstar pushes the PS5 pro with GTA6 and we get the best version possible.
Good ole S indeed. Everyone knew this all along. S was holding games back...Now where the hell is Orchard i want a word with him.
More info from the author of the article, I think: https://www.reddit.com/r/ki...
Quote:
"1) I was told this info from the producer of the game Martin Klíma.
2) He specifically said the game will have only one mode.
3) And this mode is 4K 30 on PS5/XSX and 1440p 30 on XSS.
4) He said that the game is already running north of the 30 FPS cap so the performance should be stable on launch, much better than KCD1.
5) The limitation was XSS because of the 10GB memory. He said that's why they wanted to make the game 25% larger.
6) Speculation on my part: the output resolution is probably upscaled and the reason why there won't be a 60 FPS mode is because it'll most likely be very CPU heavy, like Dragon's Dogma 2 for example."
Doesn't seem like they're adding a 40fps mode on PS5/Series X for launch even if they can handle it.
I'd much rather have 1440p/60fps or even 45fps. Having just one, even with the Series S in mind, is disappointing.
Remember when xbots were adamant that the series s won’t hold back the gen?
Microsoft just needs to let go of the mandatory parity. Who cares if your grandma doesn’t understand that a game cannot be played on the S. It’s not like it she can buy you a physical game for it anyway. Before buying the game put up a notice that it only works on series X. If you’re buying for a friend-allow for a refund.
Bam. Everyone is happy. Most series s owners are for casuals that want Game Pass anyway and most likely don’t purchase most games.
If the developers want it to run on S, let them figure it out.
If it were Series X only then they'd only be selling to 25% of the Xbox Series userbase, and that's certainly not worth the time and effort into doing a port. Could just do PS5 & PC instead. No compromises needed.
“During the event, the Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 producer also revealed that on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, the game will run at 4K resolution and 30 frames per second“
Another “creative decision” right? 🤦♂️
Since you're not an amateur and clearly know more than them, can you over there and help get the game running on the S without having to sacrifice their true vision. Us gamers would really appreciate you using your wisdom for good 🙏
Thousands of games run just fine on S.
But Kingdom Come is the game that can’t. Must be one hell of a game!
Thousands of games run on PS4 and on Switch. If developers want them to run on those systems. Fine. Those two platforms still get new games. Sony isn’t making studios also make a ps4 pro version, or Nintendo a wiiu version. Microsoft technically is.
If games like Alan Wake 2, GTA6, COD, hellblade all run on S, no excuse for this 100x smaller and 100x worse looking game to be held back.
"Thousands of games run just fine on S.
But Kingdom Come is the game that can’t. Must be one hell of a game!"
Kingdom come 2 runs just fine alright. Its the SCOPE that they want. They had to cut it because of the stupid S series. Hellblade2 ran just fine too..but im pretty confident if it was just the X in mind, the scope of the game would have been much bigger.
Custom Controller Company HexGaming launched a Kickstarter campaign for their latest pro controller, Hex Phantom. - IS
If sales are still slow after the big games come out, they will have to drop the price.
I don't think it will come to that.
I think we are going to see some interesting things at E3 this year.
Only time can tell.
I think its pretty obvious theres gonna be a price drop come Fall/Winter, Question is just how much? $200 is really steep but $100 wouldnt do much imo. I think a 200 dollar price drop for the ps3 compared to a 100 dollar price drop for the 360 would benefit sony in sales alot more than the 360, alot of people arent buyin a ps3 not b/c its most expensive console but b/c its over the 500 dollar mark which is uncomfortable for alot of people. Just my 2 cents.
If they manage to really impress at E3 and do things we couldn't imagine could be done, this combined with the price drop would boost PS3 into dominance of console market.
they know that a price drop will help a lot and maybe catch up with 360 before year ends
Who says they are reluctent? They just want to announce it when they want to, not have some 2nd rate web site do it for them. Everyones picking a price drop before Christmas but Sony aren't about to tell us BEFORE it happens. That would just be silly.
If anyones reluctent its M$. It's not like the Xbox is cheap. Nearly 2 years old now and no price drop. And they will only do it either when Sony do it, or pre-emptively, just before Sony do it.