Sony hate thread

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Yes asian people love microtransactions, it plays to their natural unhealthy love of normal ass gambling.

So much so, some countries now require a social security number to log on to assorted online services because people under 18 were gambling in games instead of doing school work. Genshin Impact has effectively ingrained itself in Japan and other countries and that's played heavily on consoles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/business/genshin-impact-china-japan.html

All fine and dandy, the Asians suck with money. Do those same people play GT though? Probably not. And even those that do, don't necessarily want microtransactions in Gran Turismo.

 

[Marissa Moira]

All fine and dandy, the Asians suck with money. Do those same people play GT though? Probably not. And even those that do, don't necessarily want microtransactions in Gran Turismo.

There is sufficient cross over already between consoles and mobage tier microtransactions so much so any genre could eventually fall victim to it. Hell CSGO's whole secondary item market fueled a ton of this early on and that was a FPS. Currently Apex Legends is popular and has microtransactions as well.

Lets not forget that a ton of these practices spawned out of MMOs of which tons of people in asia played before phone games took off and those were already subscription services.

If you're gearing something for the wider asian market it's going to have some always online microtransaction bullshit, because they've been fueling this stuff for a long long ass time.

But on the other side in the western market sports games like Football and Gay Football(also known as Soccer by some) as well as Basketball have just as much microtansaction bullshit as the GT games and racing is considered a sport. It's just that GT isn't an official league like NASCAR.

tl:dr
The answer to stop this practice is to nuke the whales.

 

[Flavius Anthemius]

Yes asian people love microtransactions

Maybe they do with other gacha type games as it's been embedded in the arcade scene/culture (the only place in the world where true arcades have kind of survived) as well as gambling ventures like Pachinko machines, there's a lot of money in that market so that's why Konami which was faltering a little jumped ship.

Doesn't make too much sense to chase micotransactions so hard though from a Japanese perspective, for a few reasons.

1. Most typical Japanese consumers do not own home consoles, handhelds are still very much king over there

And

2. The target market with most Sony titles halfway since the PS4 life cycle has been catered to the west, and it is very rare to see a firsy party Sony studio adopting this type of approach with a franchise that historically hasn't had a lot of this tailored online bullshit before (Yes there is GT Sport, but based on plain numbering, that's a spin off and not considered a main series title).

Well we know they're chasing more revenue, that's obviously why they've done this, but they've just lost a little respect from some of their audience, and some probably won't be a loyal customer in the future, if Sony consoomers use their brains.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

There is sufficient cross over already between consoles and mobage tier microtransactions so much so any genre could eventually fall victim to it. Hell CSGO's whole secondary item market fueled a ton of this early on and that was a FPS. Currently Apex Legends is popular and has microtransactions as well.

Lets not forget that a ton of these practices spawned out of MMOs of which tons of people in asia played before phone games took off and those were already subscription services.

If you're gearing something for the wider asian market it's going to have some always online microtransaction bullshit, because they've been fueling this stuff for a long long ass time.

But on the other side in the western market sports games like Football and Gay Football(also known as Soccer by some) as well as Basketball have just as much microtansaction bullshit as the GT games and racing is considered a sport. It's just that GT isn't an official league like NASCAR.

Here's the thing; racing games aren't sports games, and they aren't gacha trash like Genshin Impact. There is a set audience there, a niche audience, who, for the most part, have not had to deal with this microtransaction bullshit. They outright rejected it when it came to Need For Speed: Payback. It just runs against the expectations that people have when it comes to these kinds of games, and this is helped by the fact that these games aren't really for casuals and are only enjoyed by a hard core niche. GT7 is already getting review bombed to hell and back and right now has a lower rating than Big Mother Truckers.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Maybe they do with other gacha type games as it's been embedded in the arcade scene/culture (the only place in the world where true arcades have kind of survived) as well as gambling ventures like Pachinko machines, there's a lot of money in that market so that's why Konami which was faltering a little jumped ship.

Doesn't make too much sense to chase micotransactions so hard though from a Japanese perspective, for a few reasons.

1. Most typical Japanese consumers do not own home consoles, handhelds are still very much king over there

And

2. The target market with most Sony titles halfway since the PS4 life cycle has been catered to the west, and it is very rare to see a firsy party Sony studio adopting this type of approach with a franchise that historically hasn't had a lot of this tailored online bullshit before (Yes there is GT Sport, but based on plain numbering, that's a spin off and not considering a main series title).

Well we know they're chasing more revenue, that's obviously why they've done this, but they've just lost a little respect from some of their audience, and some probably won't be a loyal customer in the future, if Sony consoomers use their brains.

Sony is also investing hard into China who also does microtransaction games heavily. They've already had success with converting PC players to consoles



granted there are people who want single player games in China which is what the Sony China Hero project initiative usually backs

However there's also places like India which are now considered a growth market in asia due to how much revenue they produce via microtransactions. Their government just banned a shitload of Chinese related games due to ongoing tensions with China itself, so there's currently a vacuum that something like GT7 could fill.

 

[Thiletonomics]

GT7's Metacritic rating is almost as low as Battlefield 2042's PS5 rating now:



That really goes to show how badly Kaz fucked up with his statement about the changes, as well as the changes themselves. PD flatout banning Russian players from playing the game, didn't help matters either.



Even Jalopnik, despite them being the clickbaiters of automotive journalism, wrote an article about GT7's ongoing blunders.

Sony is also investing hard into China who also does microtransaction games heavily. They've already had success with converting PC players to consoles

granted there are people who want single player games in China which is what the Sony China Hero project initiative usually backs

However there's also places like India which are now considered a growth market in asia due to how much revenue they produce via microtransactions. Their government just banned a shitload of Chinese related games due to ongoing tensions with China itself, so there's currently a vacuum that something like GT7 could fill.

Will we also start to see Sony censor games to target the Chinese market specifically now, as well? Even though some trends that China wants, goes against the Soy Woke trend that Sony has been pushing for in recent years.

 

[Ruin]

Yes asian people love microtransactions, it plays to their natural unhealthy love of normal ass gambling.

So much so, some countries now require a social security number to log on to assorted online services because people under 18 were gambling in games instead of doing school work. Genshin Impact has effectively ingrained itself in Japan and other countries and that's played heavily on consoles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/business/genshin-impact-china-japan.html

They actually really really do. At my favorite dive bar 95% of the people sitting and playing the VLTS all day are Asian.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Will we also start to see Sony censor games to target the Chinese market specifically now, as well? Even though some trends that China wants, goes against the Soy Woke trend that Sony has been pushing for in recent years.

The Uncharted movie got banned in Vietnam because it showed China as having control over contested territory and the scene had to be removed.

Chinese censorship policy is entirely different than corporate ones and games have to go through a very strict regulation process over there they only allow a limited number of foreign games per period.

 

[The Last Stand]

And now GT7 is getting deservedly shit on because they went full EA.

After reviews dropped positively, they added MTX to the game. Then, people did the math to see the lengthy grind for new cars while Polyphony patched the game to make the grind for money worse to make users pay for MTX. On top of all that, the servers have been down for over a day, meaning noone can play because the game locks you out of 99% of everything because its always online (even cars you bought, only unlocked tracks stay playable offline).

The fanbase hasn't taken kindly to it:
View attachment 3083397

Worst than Big Mutha Truckers? God damn.

I know PS Home (and this video) is old, but jeez. Was it really THAT serious?

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Microtransactions are literally what the target audience in asia wanted, the rest of the world didn't but the fact that most of asia will dump billions a year into lesser games is part of the reason why Sony wants 10+ live service games. Look how awful Genshin Impact is with needing to gamble and grind shit for unlocks. GT7 is no worse than that.

It's absolutely fucking retarded, but there are people who want to buy digital versions of specific brand name cars because they like the brand just that much.

Didn't you claim something along the lines of console games being aimed at a Western audience? I guess there's some Gran Turismo movie/tv show/hentei coming out to justify the always online.

 

[BananaSplit]

Japanese PS5 physical software sales for 2022 currently look like this:

1. Elden Ring (From Software - 02/25/22) - 104,763
2. Gran Turismo 7 (SIE - 03/04/22) - 83,505
3. Horizon Forbidden West (SIE - 02/18/22) - 51,023
4. Dying Light 2: Stay Human (Spike Chunsoft - 02/04/22) - 15,038
5. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (SIE - 01/28/22) - 2,730
6. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction (Ubisoft - 01/20/22) - 2,651
7. The King of Fighters XV (SIE - 02/17/22) - 2,412
8. Babylon's Fall (Square-Enix - 03/03/22) - 2,224

Not much of an improvement compared to last year so far and the system is likely to perform about as well as, if not slightly worse than, the Xbox360 did in its second respective year there

 

[Super Hans]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TN5Sv8zKif8
I know PS Home (and this video) is old, but jeez. Was it really THAT serious?

Home's popularity makes a lot of sense when you look at through the perspective of a child. Your parents won't let you use Facebook or Myspace because you're a kid and you don't have a smartphone or tablet, so there's no having one on the sly, But with Home, if your parents gave enough of a shit to pay attention to what you're doing on the PS3, the worst thing they'd see was dumb kids being dumb kids. The thing was so family friendly that even the standard premade greeting showed up as '****o'.

 

[WULULULULU]

Asian, and I can confirm, a fuckton of motherfuckers will buy through microtransactions for even the most insignificant shit. Valorant is popular in my country and they do have skins, the most infamous being the Elderflame skin that costs about $300 (correct me if I am wrong). As suspected, a lot of Elderflame skins started spewing out in streams and most are Asian, including my home country. And of course there is gacha, Genshin and FGO being the popular shit.

If anyone thought WoT/War Thunder whales are bad, gacha-fuckers are the worst. Imagine spending about $2000 or more and not getting the character you wanted because of gambling. Oh and who knew, Genshin is available on mobile, EGS AND PS. Yeah no fucking thanks.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Japanese PS5 physical software sales for 2022 currently look like this:

Not much of an improvement compared to last year so far and the system is likely to perform about as well as, if not slightly worse than, the Xbox360 did in its second respective year there

Every analyst has already discarded past comparisons because of continued hardware shortages. The long and the short of it is that hardware sales are down across the board but nobody is doing bad. I mean if you're expecting Sony to be put up against the wall for the One Sony Policy, it's looking like it's going to be a very long wait since even the Uncharted movie made back it's costs.

Didn't you claim something along the lines of console games being aimed at a Western audience? I guess there's some Gran Turismo movie/tv show/hentei coming out to justify the always online.

God of war is getting a show for Amazon Prime and supposedly Horizon, Twisted Metal, and Ghosts of Tsushima are next. There's been nothing solid about a GT show or related media. I mean it would be nice to have another flavor of Top Gear or some kind of Autistic Fast and Furious where they make performance parts for million dollar vehicles a main part of the storyline, but it's too early to tell what the eventual fate of GT will be.

 

[augment]

If you are asian and miserable in life by default, the idea of dumping comodified amounts of cash on trivial things such as crane games, pachislot and garbage phone games, allows for a measurably reliable release of their equivalent to endorphins. That is until reality catches up and you jump off a building.

 

[Marissa Moira]

If you are asian and miserable in life by default, the idea of dumping comodified amounts of cash on trivial things such as crane games, pachislot and garbage phone games, allows for a measurably reliable release of their equivalent to endorphins. That is until reality catches up and you jump off a building.

And then they wind up in some alternate reality of medieval Europe that doesn't even have functioning indoor plumbing.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Apparently, GT7's launch has been even more abysmal than even I anticipated:

I'm surprised that not many people are covering the absolute abysmal launch of Gran Turismo 7.
- Always Online
- MTX
- Payouts have been nerfed for literally every race (except for two, that was worth next to nothing originally)
- Patch literally broke missions/tests.

 

[Thiletonomics]

Apparently, GT7's launch has been even more abysmal than even I anticipated:

The costs of cars also were massively increased, compared past to GT games. Here's how much the McLaren F1 costs:



In comparison, the F1 costs only 1 million credits in past GT games.

This is also from a limited time vendor, where the cars sold are changed every so often, so the FOMO factor is not even subtle at all.



And this is the amount of time you need grinding the game, just to be able to afford the said McLaren F1.

And the game has a 20 million credit limit for credits earned in-game, with no limit for purchased credits, which is even more shady. Imagine if PD makes a car cost more then 20 million...

 

[Marissa Moira]

The costs of cars also were massively increased, compared past to GT games. Here's how much the McLaren F1 costs:

View attachment 3088828

In comparison, the F1 costs only 1 million credits in past GT games.

This is also from a limited time vendor, where the cars sold are changed every so often, so the FOMO factor is not even subtle at all.

View attachment 3088988

And this is the amount of time you need grinding the game, just to be able to afford the said McLaren F1.

And the game has a 20 million credit limit for credits earned in-game, with no limit for purchased credits, which is even more shady. Imagine if PD makes a car cost more then 20 million...

It's pretty much geared towards whales. Then again you can look back at the previous few titles from the PS3 onwards and they had insane requirements for many other things too like points.

 

[Titos]

GT7's Metacritic rating is almost as low as Battlefield 2042's PS5 rating now:

View attachment 3085256 View attachment 3085259

That really goes to show how badly Kaz fucked up with his statement about the changes, as well as the changes themselves. PD flatout banning Russian players from playing the game, didn't help matters either.

View attachment 3085274

Even Jalopnik, despite them being the clickbaiters of automotive journalism, wrote an article about GT7's ongoing blunders.


Will we also start to see Sony censor games to target the Chinese market specifically now, as well? Even though some trends that China wants, goes against the Soy Woke trend that Sony has been pushing for in recent years.

I honestly don't understand why Sony kept Polyphony open but closed Evolution Studios. Polyphony takes like 5 years to put out a new game with 400 cars with almost no significant changes to the formula while their competition puts out games ever 2-3 years with the same amount of cars if not more at launch. I'm convinced the only reason they still exist is because Sony knows they need at least one Jap studio that isn't the husk of Japan Studio which is headed by some gay french monkey.