I've been waiting for the pro. Now I'm worried the not Pro w/ disc will be available at $500 new. Tough sell, even $500 when the gen is 1/2 over.
Normal PS5's won't go away, they might be acting stupid at the moment, but they aren't yet stupid enough to have a $700 SKU be the only model on the market.
I'd say it's just diminishing returns on graphics at this point. I personally don't consider it the worst generation, because at least there's gaming variety and a very open market. I understand how you feel though.
Shorter load screens. That’s about the high point of this gen is less time loading, more time playing.
The high points for me so far, in addition, are Rift Apart, RE4R, Dead Space Remake, and SH2R. Yotei will be next.
Disregarding generational enumerations, the last substantial leap was from the PS2/OG Xbox to the PS3/Xbox 360. The hardware ramped up significantly. we were introduced to HD gaming, and out online presence became more pronounced. Everything after that has been been graphical updates and peripheral applications, and core gaming has suffered since. But I'll wait for @CriticalGaming or others to claim that gaming is better than it ever has been...
Except the PS3 and 360 is where all the bullshit started.
Later in the generation, like on its way out, it opened the door for the bullshit that took front stage in the next gen. I won't for a second fault the entirety of that gen's relevance for what came after it. Arguably, devs and publishers had balls when that gen started; new tech and capabilities showed us a lot of innovation. Since? Stagnant, reboots, remasters, and iterative titles of old and tired franchises at the "low, low" cost of monetization of everything they could justify putting a price on.
The 360 and PS3 gen started making people pay for online play, micro-transactions, broken games with day-one patches, on disc DLC, and requiring online connections.
With an appreciable upgrade to the online experience. Fair's fair. And we could still play our games offline if we chose not to spend for the online features. We got then "more" for a price; the status quo now is "the rest" for a price. Oh, and let's not forget you're obligated to eat up hard drive space installing games you used to be able to play from the disc with installation to the hard drive being a convenient option.
None of that to the extent that we saw afterwards in the next generation. We became complacent with those shitty practices, and devs and publishers have been pushing the limit ever since. The PS5 Pro has NO disc option meaning ownership of games they'll charge full retail for is contingent upon its availability to you which is itself contingent upon their willingness to support it beyond the period of time it's deemed lucrative for them. Not saying Sony is shutting the servers down in 6 months or anything so drastic, but anyone who invests in the Pro who spends hundreds of dollars on games in the future might not be able to plug in their $700 machine in a decade and utilize those purchases at their will. I can plug in my 360 or PS3 right now, and play any of my games for those consoles, and those systems are already +15 years old.
Seriously? You're equating bad games then to a broken industry now? The industry has always been a business hell bent on making money, agreed. But what we have now is a "business" doing far less than it ever has done, and expecting more of our money for it, and that's irrefutable. We can't act like the anomalous janky game or shitty movie tie-in a decade ago is equivalent to the absolute spate of games today that gatekeep content behind paywalls, loot boxes, and unsustainable amounts of time investment to enjoy them at their core.
Damn right I remember. My big brother and I were lucky to avoid most garbage license games back in the day.
It's not that they didn't exist. It's just that they weren't so open and obvious about it. Most broken games ended up selling poorly or not doing too well once word got out. I'm just glad we're in a time where if we do get a license game. It's usually of good quality. Because most
Do I need to tap the sign again?
Depends on who you're talking about. Most of the AAA? No, and mostly mediocre or unfinished garbage you have to pay extra later to get something standard. The AA and indie scene. Yes a majority of the time.
