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[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Took a little while until I could afford a PS1. Finally got it with a bunch of RPGs. Spent so much money on the system and games, went 3rd party on the memory card. Lost my FF 7 save file half way through the game and didn’t finish it until earlier this year with remake.

Dreamcast was a midnight launch for me! The wrestler China was supposed to show up at the mall here in Vegas, but she didn’t show.

RIP Chyna btw. Gone too soon.

I got a Dreamcast the day it launched. It had some great titles, but some absolute shit on launch. I got a DC, Sonic Adventure, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, Blue Stinger, and House of the Dead 2 on 9/9/99. Blue Stinger was a massive disappointment! And the light guns for HotD2 were delayed, which made that one a bit of a disappointment, as well. R2R was kind of fun, but I was expecting it to be more like Punch-Out!! (it wasn't). The one game that I kept returning to was Sonic Adventure. That game was special.

Blue Stinger's been a curiosity for me for years now. I think if you look at it like the gaming version of Deep Rising or some Troma Films version of a B-movie, it comes off better.

Though the issue with "B-movie games" is that you have to actually play them, unlike b-movies where you're just watching them more passively.

Regarding the current gen, I also agree there should be a mixture of AA and AAA games to continue to delight console gamers. At the moment, it seems like the current gen (both PS5 and esp Xbox) are going through a phase similar to the 3DO.

The short lineup of games for 3DO were indeed impressive for its day in 93-94 as compared to SEGA/SNES games.
I literally had a crush on the 3DO seeing it on stores with advanced graphics in games, as compared to the games on SEGA, and I had intended to save for it.

But the games were few, and I believe only one or two good games released in a year. And this resulted in gamers (including mine) interest fizzle out for the console. 3DO was also available in stores in our area in 98 but I went for the PS as it had a stellar lineup of exclusives.

The main charm of a console I believe is not cost. A gaming PC of similar spec cost nearly the same that has much cheaper games than consoles.
I believe most gamers are attracted to consoles due to exclusives. And if there are only a few exclusive per year similar to 3DO, many gamers like me will stop playing on it.

It was exclusives that led the PS2 and later PS4 sales skyrocket to 100 million+. Same can be said for Nintedo consoles like Wii and Switch.
I believe these PS and Xbox are experiencing a slow and gradual death similar to the 3DO.

I think there's some truth to this. It gets frustrating when I see people downplay niche games that sell maybe 1 million copies lifetime or whatnot, especially on older systems, and then compare those to games nowadays selling 20+ million acting like budgets and expectations were the same back then as they are today.

The thing is, when you have enough of those niche games appealing to different demographic slices, it all adds up. You might get those 40-something million who buy a system for just the CODs and Maddens, but then you get the 20-something million who get them for those games and the more niche AAA games, another 10-something million for everything mentioned before and the niche AA games, some 5-million or so who don't care about COD or Madden but like the niche AA games and some of the AAA games, some 5-million something who are purely there for the 1P games, maybe the 5-million something who just want to play the JRPG exclusives primarily, etc.

If you think about it now, PC (specifically Steam) has more exclusives than the PS5 and Xbox Series combined. And at the same time, PC gaming has been growing at the expense of console gaming stagnating in growth the past 5 or so years. It's almost as if platforms like Steam having more and more of the 3P games Day 1 plus plenty of AAA, AA and indie exclusives that take years to reach console (if ever) is helping in it seeing that growth ...

I am very much skeptical about buying PS6 onwards due to lack of exclusives. Even a mid range gaming rig appear a better proposition going forward at the moment.

You're not alone in that, especially in light of the $699 PS5 Pro. While future PlayStation tech excites me when it comes to image upscaling and the such, I think we've hit a point where diminishing returns is absolutely real. The power of a PS5 Pro isn't producing results that flat-out embarrass the base PS5, IMO, and a lot of the improvements in IQ and resolution are so small you only notice them in zoom-ins or on extremely large TVs which, even then, will probably be lost to a player during actual gameplay.

I would hope 10th-gen systems bring more to the table than just yet prettier graphics that really just means native 4K/8K resolutions at 120+ FPS because if the number of exclusives is dropping gen-to-gen, then it comes down to the features and user experience to sell the hardware. Systems that can push out a slightly prettier image will only really appeal to a subset of the hardcore, and if the price to get there puts the systems out of the market for the majority, is it really worth the cost?

Sony (and MS) must utilize its band of studios and focus on exclusive games with short lead times like before, rather than spending years on AAA games. Otherwise, both these consoles will meet the same fate as 3DO.

I don't know if PlayStation will meet a fate like 3DO per se; the brand is just so strong globally that it could never have that type of decline. And even supposing SIE's 1P quality declined, I doubt it'd ever end up as "bad" as 3DO's 1P, because they're coming from much higher highs.

But I 100% agree, they need to get back to focusing on more internal 1P AA titles to balance out the AAA releases and also the GAAS titles. And they need to start emphasizing genuine exclusives again, instead of their console just acting as a timed exclusive machine.

We don't need stellar graphics in games. But great gameplay like in Astro Bot, Elden Ring, and Skyrim. Rather than realism, they should focus on creative animation and I am sure the console industry will rebound from its current slump. Unless they start releasing exclusive gems every three to four months like before, I for one would bail out and stick to PC gaming.

In fact, most of my time has been spent on PC gaming -BG3, ELDEN RING, Prince of Persia etc. - as there are so few exclusives to play on PS5. The fact that multiplayer is free on PC makes it the preferred media for gaming right now.

Trust, you're not alone. There's been a surprising number of console gamers who have made the switch and aren't considering coming back. With Xbox it's almost too easy, since their games are all Day 1 on Steam and they even have timed exclusives on PC (but not their own console :/).

With Sony it's trickier, but if you don't have FOMO and can bother waiting a year or two for non-GAAS titles, you might in fact be better off with a PC. You'll have to spend maybe 50% more on a PC that can perform equivalent to the console, yes, but you're also saving money on not having to pay for an online subscription, so over the course of a full gen that probably balances out.

Well, as long as you don't feel the need to upgrade your setup, i.e you're comfortable scaling down settings for more demanding games as time goes on.

Sony should have stick to its previous strategy of making a deal with independent developers for exclusives. Both MS and Sony gobbled up creative gems like Insomniac, Bungie, Naughty Dogs, and dozens more that

Well with Sony I can understand buying Insomniac because they've worked with them since 1996. They worked with Naughty Dog for a while before acquiring them, too. MS had a history with Bethesda going back to at least Morrowind so in a way I can understand why they acquired Zenimax for Bethesda, but they could've also just established a multi-year partnership with marketing rights or timed console exclusivity to TES6, too.

Sony should've looked into:

-Doubling-down on the AAA story-driven games while exploring ways to make more episodic/installment-based offshoots with shorter dev times​

-Produce more AA traditional games to fill in release gaps and explore riskier ideas​

-Push for a MODEST GAAS approach of 3-4 games initially, mainly based on existing IP like GT (GT Sport 2), TLOU (Factions remake -> Factions 2), MLB The Show (F2P mobile spinoff with fantasy baseball integration) and Spiderman (the cancelled Spiderman GAAS), with Helldivers 2 as the 5th kicking off the "2nd half" GAAS push (2024-2028) and maybe some of the "1st half" games replaced (i.e Factions remake phased out for Factions 2).​

-Developed a PS portable that could've played PS4 games natively (at PS4 settings with dock attached) alongside PS5, even if priced at say $399, but with some PS5-based tech inside (i.e based on Zen 2 & RDNA2). Position it as way of expanding PS ecosystem without resorting to PC ports of all their 1P games​

-Develop PSVR2 as two SKUs: cheaper SKU with PSVR1 specs leveraging some modern PSVR2 features and priced cheaper ($199) with PC compatibility; regular SKU with better specs and PSVR1 BC ($499)​

But alas, they didn't do things this way and I think they're paying a bit of a price for that. We'll see if they can rebound within the next 6-12 months. 1P-wise, more software like Astro Bot, and less stuff like Concord, is sorely needed.