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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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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
Sony doesn't want to sell to them
Im already pissed that games like shovel knight and celeste are banned/ unavailable in my country.
banned? Why?
I dunno. Neither are available on the ps store. Go figure.for reference beauty and the beast was banned for a while because of a pig in one of the opening montages.
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.
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"
VPN (at least until they are deemed illegal)
A VPN won't do to much good for people that don't have internet, or a connection stable enough, or fast enough to download a 60gb game.
Not to mention unlimited plans is not something everyone has either.
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
to be fair, original copies in the third world were non existant, thats why the ps2 was so popular, everyone was pirating
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.
Can you play discs on PS5 without making PSN account?
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.
I suspect some countries might have bigger or smaller populations that others.
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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