121 countries are unable to make PSN accounts, which means that they are unable to use the PlayStation Store. In a digital-exclusive future—which looks likely for the PS6 after Sony announced plans to cease production of game discs in 2028—that means everyone in those countries will be locked out from purchasing titles on the platform.

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[–] 32 points 3 months ago (2 children)

While I've played mainly on PC for 30+ years, I've owned most of the consoles, lately due to kids playing on them.

PS6 will be the first non-contender. Simply not gonna even think about getting it. On xbox and playstations earlier we have loaned games from local library, and thats great for kids.

Maybe I'll have to build pcs for them now. Bad time for that, too.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago

    I'm not a Playstation fan, I just want to play on the sofa, so I bought it just for that. It was a PS1, PS3, PS4, PS5.... ooh wait, in fact I did have nearly all of them

    PS6? No way. For me the PS always was a good offer for couch gaming.

    Unless Sony changes course, a future PS6 looks mighty unattractive, price and usage-wise.

    My next "console" will be something with Steamos or Bazzite or any wine/proton install. Maybe something that I can also use for running LLMs when I work.

    If memory wasn't so expensive, I'd already have ordered a 128G Strix Halo box (good enough for most games, good enough for a lot of local models)

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    Well you don't have to build them right now. You've got time. As I understand Sony is pushing PS6 release into 2028 due to all the hardware shortage. Either the bubble pops and hardware prices drop (or maybe China gets its production high enough to bring the prices down) or prices will still be so incredibly expensive that the next gen consoles will also be pushed back. Use the hardware you have right now and let us all cling to the hope that maybe in the future things will be better.

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  • [–] 26 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Sony doesn't want to sell to them

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  • [–] 19 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    Im already pissed that games like shovel knight and celeste are banned/ unavailable in my country.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    Maddy, the main developer of Celeste is trans. Not that it matters for gameplay on a platformer but the main character is canonically trans as well. I don’t even think it really comes up that much in the story line. It shouldn’t matter.

    But because of that, I such a gem of a game is banned in countries that would execute you for being trans.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    Wow. The religion of peace strikes again.

    I've only heard of Celeste because Karl Jobst did a video on it. It looks pretty good, very well made, and top tier movement mechanics

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  • [–] 13 points 3 months ago

    Good. Get a PC folks. Sony has lost it.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago

    Sony is probably like "fucking over those shit hole countries will be worth it for us to fully control the north American, European and Japanese game sales. Fuck em"

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    Not like there's a lack of lock-in platforms.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    VPN (at least until they are deemed illegal)

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    I hope someone cripple their security, then people living in those 121 countries can grab a jolly roger and help fuck them over, since they always sell their hardware at a loss anyway

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  • 6 comments in c/technology@beehaw.org view that post
    [–] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I was going to skip 5 and get a 6 when it finally came out but I guess 4 will be my last playstation

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    It looks like I'm in the same boat. GTA VI id the only game of this generation to get my attention and I'm not paying $600 to play it. I'll just borrow a friend's console and then go back to sitting this one out.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Have 5, and was going to skip the 6. I guess never again is the answer for me too.

    This must be the year of de-shittification. MS introduced a BSOD issue to my system that made it unusable. The hypervisor BSOD issue.

    So Linux for that, and next, my laptop, Leaving only one MS machine left in the house. I'm so done.

    I guess maybe steam or pc gaming, I'm not sure, but sure af isn't going to be MS or Sony.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I do kind of take issue with the presentation here. Pointing to the number of countries without access is rather misleading because it gives a country as large as Pakistan the exact same weight as somewhere like Tuvalu. In terms of population, the list of blocked countries is I believe around 30% of the world population. That's definitely still significant and IMO worthy of a headline on its own, but the way this article focuses only on the raw number of countries feels disingenuous for the sake of being able to showcase a big attention-grabbing number.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Why does the article say the EU can't do anything when this is a literal monopoly? Yes we can't force Playstation to keep selling disks but forcing them to allow other storefronts on the system sounds very achievable to me.

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  • 6 comments in c/gaming@lemmy.ml view that post
    [–] 12 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    to be fair, original copies in the third world were non existant, thats why the ps2 was so popular, everyone was pirating

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    [–] 11 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    The following years are really going to suck for gaming. Sony is no longer cool with people owning their games, similar with Nintendo, who still do sell physical cartridges, only just some of them will actually contain the game. As for Xbox, it's straight up imploding right now. The only ownership-friendly option right now seems to be PC with stores like GOG, itch.io or Zoom (no, not that one).

    However, all of the platforms mentioned still have one problem in common, which is likely going to persist for the next few years: hardware has gotten ridiculously expensive thanks to the AI chip crisis. Right now the smart move seems to be to stick with the hardware you have until the chip crisis blows over, unless you are comfortable with paying through the nose for a new PC or console.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Can you play discs on PS5 without making PSN account?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    tl;dr; I have no clue, below are just assumptions and questions.

    I can be wrong, but at least for the PS5 Pro you need to connect to the internet in order to use the disk drive. Someone correct me if this is wrong, as I don't own a PS5. Also does this limitation apply to the base PS5? If so, maybe Sony wants to prevent the use of third party drives by checking it online. Just an assumption by me.

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  • 3 comments in c/gaming@lemmy.zip view that post
    [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    Compared to what, current percentage?

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    I suspect some countries might have bigger or smaller populations that others.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Yeah... I imagine that Sony already knows what countries they're selling into (like for regulatory reasons). Either they'll expand PSN into those countries or they'll cut some off.

    This isn't like games on Steam requiring a PSN account (which Sony and/or Valve should have handled better). A digital-only PS6 should only sell in jurisdictions where people can buy content.

    I don't agree with Sony's approach, but this article is not saying anything interesting. "OMG, unless Sony expands the Playstation store, people in 121 countries won't be able to buy games for their PS6s!" No... The PS6 won't sell in those 121 countries unless Sony expands the Playstation store, since it will be a brick.

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