I was gonna make this a common post for a more fluid discussion but this turned out to be a bit more personal than expected. As the title says, I'm starting to see disappointment in sony's marketing in the playstation department. There are a few things that is obvious to me that has happened that is turning out bad in my opinion.
The first is the playstation store's cross buy feature. If you aren't familiar with this, Cross-buy promoted as "Cross-buy, Cross-play, Cross-save" The idea behind this is selected games on playstation store are listed by this category, if you purchase the game, you have access to all the consoles is made available for with only one purchase. For example, Retro city rampage cost $10 on playstation store, is available for PSP, PS3, PSVITA and PS4 for the same price, instead of spending $40 for each of them you only spend $10 for one, but allowed to play it on any console. No more money required. The game also has psn cloud save, for some games, you can store the save data on your psn account to load from a different console to continue playing later. Some games uses this save feature, some don't. Some games have cross buy, some don't, including the ones with cross save don't always have cross buy. This is very surprising in the fact most of the cross buy games are indie digital download only and not like retail release games which i had hoped to have, like Guilty Gear Xrd, Final fantasy X, Odin's sphere, and some others. If you want the game for all consoles, be prepared to pay the cost of the game times the number of consoles you want it for.
Second, the increase in playstation plus subscriptions. Sometime at the end of summer, the price increased. It used to be $50 for a year now is $60, i think is the same price as Xbox live gold. While the xbox live has been a thing way earlier than playstation plus, i don't have much experience there since i don't have a xbox for that. But the reason for the increase is never mentioned, nor did any news about newer features or added compensation for it either. It confused me about why it happend, but i guess they can do whatever they want. The problem is that before ps4 it wasn't as bad. You would buy it, then get free games each month, and better discount on game sales, online storage for save data and some auto download of updates and game purchases made from the website using pc and what not. Not that it was bad, it was good, and optional for a better experience. Then comes the playstation 4, changing nothing about the playstation plus, the only thing new is now is required to have online modes active for your games, meanwhile on ps3 and vita, is still free. Not that i understand the reaons behind it, i have nothing to say but just accept the stuff or stop using it. I just wish information was given for the actions instead of just doing it and not saying why. It keeps me wondering what will happen next.
Third problem is the lack of effort put into the support for a few things. Only by opinion, the vita seem to be in a close situation as the wii u, maybe not as bad lacking some games that aren't download only indie games but is lacking, sony has hardly made exclusive games for it, even the wii u had more exclusive games without much other company support, sony hardly tried to do much about that with vita, than they did with the ps3 or ps4, and now most of the games are some vita ports to ps3 or ps4 or ps3 games to ps4.... or ps2 and ps1 remasters on ps4.... Everything is target as ps4. I get it, the ps4 is doing hot right now for you sony but you made something and people spend money on it and now is just here, doesn't it feel a bit bad? I feel bad for both wii u and vita to be honest, homebrew is making these feel more popular to own than the developers themself. Of all the things the system can do, and hasn't been done yet until homebrew fellows do it, and we are surprised in the fact sony hasn't done it first. I just wish they least try to properly balance the effort than just look like is obviously given up, least too soon in my opinion.
The fourth problem is the playstation store, the content on there is okay just sometimes is questionable... Mostly the weekly sales. As i mentioned about the playstation plus subscription, is the same as xbox live gold if you have that. Huge discounts and free games every week and such. The games that is free on playstation plus is once a month and just seem to set the bar low, most of the free games are indie games you can get for lest than $15, is only rare that some are over $30 or more like a retail game with all DLC included, but is very very VERY RARE! And is for select consoles, each console has their own set of free games every month and it seem to be like a grading system, ps3 is mid tier games, vita is higher, and ps4 is lower (just a example) I also mentioned the selection of games for cross buy, is very low and not as expected. for a great game like the final fantasy X hd remasters for 3 consoles, each is $40, it would have probably been better sold as cross buy even if is not on sale. Odin's sphere remaster is another, and so is some others. But it seem only the low cost $15 indie download only games are the ones most likely to end up cross buy, is just disappointing not to get these games for once price. I dunno who decision it is to make it like that but it would have been nice to have more stuff. It maybe won't get a lot of money for cross buy option but it would mean more sales, and i'm no expert, but i think more sales and more people playing your games is least better than less sales.
To bring this to a close, the problems, rather disappointments i mentioned, the playstation plus, the cross buy, the focus of support at the ps4 and the playstation store sales, prices, and content, is just a few things i had to think about the past few months. I could also mention the PSVR and PS4PRO, but i mean i didn't want to make it seem like is all bad. I know that launching the ps4 pro was kinda big disaster to many, but it lead to price drops and sales of the other consoles and people would buy it a bit more with the right game sold with it, $250 with uncharted 4 and one month playstation plus for the slim is a nice deal than the ps4 pro with no game and $400 with better graphics, and slight performance boost that isn't all working properly at the moment and 1TB HDD, Again i didn't wanna mention it to bring it down any worst that i may have made it seem. There is some good parts of it. But is been displaying more bad parts as of recently i can't ignore.
Well i guess i will leave it at this, the new year is coming and i hope sony will try a bit better about some of these things, I also hope nintendo will as well. I dunno how much of a threat this project scorpio the microsoft keep talking about, but it seem like a huge threat to both sony and nintendo, but i'm sure everyone will be surprised. I'm starting to wish i had a good enough PC to play games on, that is a bad sign for the console makers if i ever get to that point.
The first is the playstation store's cross buy feature. If you aren't familiar with this, Cross-buy promoted as "Cross-buy, Cross-play, Cross-save" The idea behind this is selected games on playstation store are listed by this category, if you purchase the game, you have access to all the consoles is made available for with only one purchase. For example, Retro city rampage cost $10 on playstation store, is available for PSP, PS3, PSVITA and PS4 for the same price, instead of spending $40 for each of them you only spend $10 for one, but allowed to play it on any console. No more money required. The game also has psn cloud save, for some games, you can store the save data on your psn account to load from a different console to continue playing later. Some games uses this save feature, some don't. Some games have cross buy, some don't, including the ones with cross save don't always have cross buy. This is very surprising in the fact most of the cross buy games are indie digital download only and not like retail release games which i had hoped to have, like Guilty Gear Xrd, Final fantasy X, Odin's sphere, and some others. If you want the game for all consoles, be prepared to pay the cost of the game times the number of consoles you want it for.
Second, the increase in playstation plus subscriptions. Sometime at the end of summer, the price increased. It used to be $50 for a year now is $60, i think is the same price as Xbox live gold. While the xbox live has been a thing way earlier than playstation plus, i don't have much experience there since i don't have a xbox for that. But the reason for the increase is never mentioned, nor did any news about newer features or added compensation for it either. It confused me about why it happend, but i guess they can do whatever they want. The problem is that before ps4 it wasn't as bad. You would buy it, then get free games each month, and better discount on game sales, online storage for save data and some auto download of updates and game purchases made from the website using pc and what not. Not that it was bad, it was good, and optional for a better experience. Then comes the playstation 4, changing nothing about the playstation plus, the only thing new is now is required to have online modes active for your games, meanwhile on ps3 and vita, is still free. Not that i understand the reaons behind it, i have nothing to say but just accept the stuff or stop using it. I just wish information was given for the actions instead of just doing it and not saying why. It keeps me wondering what will happen next.
Third problem is the lack of effort put into the support for a few things. Only by opinion, the vita seem to be in a close situation as the wii u, maybe not as bad lacking some games that aren't download only indie games but is lacking, sony has hardly made exclusive games for it, even the wii u had more exclusive games without much other company support, sony hardly tried to do much about that with vita, than they did with the ps3 or ps4, and now most of the games are some vita ports to ps3 or ps4 or ps3 games to ps4.... or ps2 and ps1 remasters on ps4.... Everything is target as ps4. I get it, the ps4 is doing hot right now for you sony but you made something and people spend money on it and now is just here, doesn't it feel a bit bad? I feel bad for both wii u and vita to be honest, homebrew is making these feel more popular to own than the developers themself. Of all the things the system can do, and hasn't been done yet until homebrew fellows do it, and we are surprised in the fact sony hasn't done it first. I just wish they least try to properly balance the effort than just look like is obviously given up, least too soon in my opinion.
The fourth problem is the playstation store, the content on there is okay just sometimes is questionable... Mostly the weekly sales. As i mentioned about the playstation plus subscription, is the same as xbox live gold if you have that. Huge discounts and free games every week and such. The games that is free on playstation plus is once a month and just seem to set the bar low, most of the free games are indie games you can get for lest than $15, is only rare that some are over $30 or more like a retail game with all DLC included, but is very very VERY RARE! And is for select consoles, each console has their own set of free games every month and it seem to be like a grading system, ps3 is mid tier games, vita is higher, and ps4 is lower (just a example) I also mentioned the selection of games for cross buy, is very low and not as expected. for a great game like the final fantasy X hd remasters for 3 consoles, each is $40, it would have probably been better sold as cross buy even if is not on sale. Odin's sphere remaster is another, and so is some others. But it seem only the low cost $15 indie download only games are the ones most likely to end up cross buy, is just disappointing not to get these games for once price. I dunno who decision it is to make it like that but it would have been nice to have more stuff. It maybe won't get a lot of money for cross buy option but it would mean more sales, and i'm no expert, but i think more sales and more people playing your games is least better than less sales.
To bring this to a close, the problems, rather disappointments i mentioned, the playstation plus, the cross buy, the focus of support at the ps4 and the playstation store sales, prices, and content, is just a few things i had to think about the past few months. I could also mention the PSVR and PS4PRO, but i mean i didn't want to make it seem like is all bad. I know that launching the ps4 pro was kinda big disaster to many, but it lead to price drops and sales of the other consoles and people would buy it a bit more with the right game sold with it, $250 with uncharted 4 and one month playstation plus for the slim is a nice deal than the ps4 pro with no game and $400 with better graphics, and slight performance boost that isn't all working properly at the moment and 1TB HDD, Again i didn't wanna mention it to bring it down any worst that i may have made it seem. There is some good parts of it. But is been displaying more bad parts as of recently i can't ignore.
Well i guess i will leave it at this, the new year is coming and i hope sony will try a bit better about some of these things, I also hope nintendo will as well. I dunno how much of a threat this project scorpio the microsoft keep talking about, but it seem like a huge threat to both sony and nintendo, but i'm sure everyone will be surprised. I'm starting to wish i had a good enough PC to play games on, that is a bad sign for the console makers if i ever get to that point.
