Topic: I for one welcome the glorious return of overconfident E3 2006 Sony.

[pokepal148]

You know that thing where you can buy digital codes on little code cards in stores and buy digital games that way? Apparently it's a decently lucrative market because the Wal-Mart I work at just devoted a fair amount of shelf space to them back in January.



The Switch and Xbone have their own versions of this exact same display and apparently after April 1st Sony will no longer offer digital codes for Playstation games so this entire display is going to be pretty useless.

I don't know why this is a thing but it won't be a thing on PlayStation anymore.

We also recently had the whole crossplay thing, the Playstation Classic, the big Sony censorship thing, and no doubt more to come. Overconfident Sony is back baby.

[Ian Sane]

Only a few years ago it seemed like Sony owned this generation by simply being competent with the PS4 while MS and Nintendo fucked things up.  But since the Switch that hasn't been the case.

What is Sony planning on doing with the existing stock of codes?  I'm assuming that the existing cards will still work?

[nickmitch]

That's so ridiculous.  That's like the only way someone can buy a gift for a person who only buys digital.  Was there some kind of fraud scheme that was going on?

[ThePerm]

It's because I now own a Playstation 4 and still have not bought a Switch. I'm doing ya'll a favor. N64 was doing great until I bought one.

[pokepal148]

Only a few years ago it seemed like Sony owned this generation by simply being competent with the PS4 while MS and Nintendo fucked things up.

I don't think it's so much them being competent (just ask the PS Vita how that time-frame went) so much as Sony was able to keep it's mouth shut while Microsoft and Nintendo were aiming gatling guns at their feet.

That's so ridiculous.  That's like the only way someone can buy a gift for a person who only buys digital.  Was there some kind of fraud scheme that was going on?

Even than, the whole digital cards thing is something basically everyone wins on. If you run to the store to buy a new game and they're out of physical copies well at least they can sell you a digital code. Retailer win big because the cards are basically worthless (at least at Walmart, the digital code is printed on the receipt at the register) so they don't have to worry about being stuck with 18 copies of Fallout 76 taking up shelf space that nobody wants, you can literally just throw them away, and I can't imagine the margins on those cards aren't fucking amazing compared to having to print blu-ray discs, disc cases, and the piece of paper the box art goes on, to facilitate creating a physical print run.

Also if you're an indie game studio digital code cards are a decent way to get a foothold in the retail market without doing a full physical run, which results in a lot of indie games having code cards on the Nintendo Switch version of that display I posted above.

[UncleBob]

>Even than, the whole digital cards thing is something basically everyone wins on.

Not Sony.  They have to give a cut to the retailer, a cut to the manufacturer of the cards, and a cut to FASTCard for processing the transaction and activating the code.

Now, they don't.

[pokepal148]

That's still probably a better deal than manufacturing discs and cases for games.

[ThePerm]

a 512 gb mini sd card is 70 bucks. By the time PS5 comes out cartridges will become standard again. **** downloading anything. Though if I had my choice, I'd make the games the size of 3.5 inch floppy discs. I'd give them real tacky holographic labels.

[broodwars]

(Sony doesn't have an archive up yet, so you have to hunt through the stream for the 20 minutes of show)

...WTF was that, Sony (Sony's 1st State of Play episode...aka PlayStation Direct)? -_-

That was awful. No new (worthwhile, non-VR) games, and mostly trailers we've already seen with no dev. interviews or in-depth looks. That was completely pointless.

[UncleBob]

That's still probably a better deal than manufacturing discs and cases for games.

Sure, but that's virtually a requirement of distributing physical media - and while I believe Sony would love to stop that, it's not really a feasible action in today's market.

Killing in-store download codes and telling people to use their card online or buy stored-value cards is, for the vast majority of people, perfectly fine.

[lolmonade]

That's still probably a better deal than manufacturing discs and cases for games.

Sure, but that's virtually a requirement of distributing physical media - and while I believe Sony would love to stop that, it's not really a feasible action in today's market.

Killing in-store download codes and telling people to use their card online or buy stored-value cards is, for the vast majority of people, perfectly fine.

The only time I've personally seen the cards outside of the store has been as part of a present, and even then, it wasn't the ones with a game key, it was the PSN or Nintendo store $$.  I suspect maybe they don't see all that much being purchased when it's game-specific cards, and I'm sure Sony et al have to negotiate and pay something to have the store real estate for it. 

[Spak-Spang]

I would not be surprised if Sony has to pay for that much shelf space and the cards were a way of getting as much value from the shelf space as possible, but it is a failed experiment.  Honestly, in store physical games or generic non-specific game gift certificates are the only thing that needs to be there.  I would be frustrated if on my birthday I opened up a new game I was going to have to download.  Thanks Uncle Bob, now I have to download this game for 3 hours before I can play it. 

This is also why Zero Day updates or forced downloads of discs are horrible for the gaming market and should be highly discouraged.  It just ruins gaming.  (Yes I know that is hyperbole and an exaggeration, but I still standby the main point.)

[Stratos]

a 512 gb mini sd card is 70 bucks. By the time PS5 comes out cartridges will become standard again. **** downloading anything. Though if I had my choice, I'd make the games the size of 3.5 inch floppy discs. I'd give them real tacky holographic labels.

I'd love carts to make a comeback, but by the time we hit that point, I suspect the point will be made moot by all-digital/streaming games.

[Ian Sane]

a 512 gb mini sd card is 70 bucks. By the time PS5 comes out cartridges will become standard again. **** downloading anything. Though if I had my choice, I'd make the games the size of 3.5 inch floppy discs. I'd give them real tacky holographic labels.

I'd love carts to make a comeback, but by the time we hit that point, I suspect the point will be made moot by all-digital/streaming games.

Maybe in the future cartridges will be like some hipster/retro thing, like how downloads or streaming is the standard way to purchase music these days but there is a prominent scene for vinyl records, with new albums getting released in the format and old albums getting re-released.  I figure at some point Atari, Sega or Nintendo will end up releasing not just a new product that can play old carts but will re-release old games in cart format.  If you can buy a brand new record for classic Rolling Stones albums why couldn't you buy new Genesis cartridges of the old Sonic games?

[UncleBob]

We kinda have stuff like that now, whenn ccompanies like Limited Run Games do small prints of previously digital-only games in physical format.

[ThePerm]

There's a market for physical media. We're going to have really really nice boxes in the future.

Do you guys ever walk in Barnes and Noble and notice how blingy books are now?

[ShyGuy]

Please judge this book by its cover.

[Stratos]

They are copying the style of old classic book binding. Looking at those images filled me with the memory of the smell of old books and leather. I have a Lord of the Rings + Hobbit set all nicely leather bound with gold lettering inlaid. Very nice and probably worth a pretty penny.

My folks have a few nice sets of classic fairy tales and stories with similar designs. I'm glad to see new books taking a similar path.

I can see games following suit. If it weren't for the cost, I'd be all over some of these limited print runs of games, but I'm drifting towards all digital for convenience. Though my roots keep telling me to buy physical for the usual crotchety old reasons (shelf candy, preservation and long-term accessibility, some form of true ownership of the title that cannot be revoked, etc).

I kinda wish there was a way to have our cake and eat it too, like being able to buy physical and get it available digitally for free. Amazon does that for music, if I buy a CD they give me access to the music on their music app. I don't have to be paying for Prime I believe, it came with the purchase. though I've not tried to listen to any of it on there since I dropped Prime last month. Will have to check.

[Ian Sane]

I was thinking less like Limited Run games but more like Super Mario Bros. on the NES, re-released on an actual NES cartridge with the label, manual and box all resembling what it looked like in 1985 for play on a Nintendo branded modern NES system that can play cartridges, like if the NES Classic had a cart slot.  So it's not offering a current download game on a current system in a physical format but a retro game on the physical format it was originally released on.  That's not really much of a thing yet.  There's a Data East collection that comes on a real SNES cart and an R-Type collection.  But this is very niche stuff and the major companies like Nintendo and Sega haven't done it yet.  But I'm thinking that that might happen 10 or 20 years from now.

[ThePerm]

I'd be interested in a really nice NES Cart sized sd card like format in shiny transparnet poly-acrylic shell which has gold leafed labels.

[Spak-Spang]

I think I could see A Super NES classic or Nintendo Classic being released with a Cart that plugs in.  The card could be a different type of memory and then you could allow 3rd parties to sell their entire collection or as many as they want on one cart.  I mean could imagine if the NES classic allowed Capcom to sell a NES cart with all their games on it for $50.00.  I know many people would jump on that deal.  And it would just be fun.

[Stratos]

I'm willing to bet there are already custom modded devices like that out there. Might even try my hand at it myself.

[Shaymin]

Wired interviewed Mark Cerny about their plans for the PS5 and the official PlayStation Twitter account linked it

Mentioned:
- Back-compat since it's based off the PS4 architecture
- Video card allows ray tracing, 3D audio
- Contains super SSD with "a raw bandwidth higher than any SSD available for PCs"

Not mentioned:
- The need to get a second and third job to pay for it

[broodwars]

Confirming what's been long suspected due to statements by various Japanese companies & the pre-patch version of DMC 5, Sony's confirmed that they internally censor games for sexual content and "depiction of women" now before they're allowed on the PS4.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sony-cracks-down-on-sexually-explicit-content-in-games-11555427944?shareToken=std2de3ce41eb9460096d9c45e41d3ec17

Hey, remember when Sony launched the PS4 behind Indie games and "**** giant corporations telling gamers how to enjoy their content?" 

Seriously, Sony, keep giving me reasons to not buy a PS5. I hear that Microsoft is getting rather SAD these days.

[pokepal148]

- Contains super SSD with "a raw bandwidth higher than any SSD available for PCs"

So that's code for either a Proprietary, or non user replaceable storage solution for the PS5 right? Awesome!