Your Thoughts on the PS5 rollout campaign

[liquidtmd]

Hardware itself - looks great

Software itself - looks great

Price of software - I appreciate development costs have risen, but so far it feels the main publishers communicating and pushing their new titles at £70 are also the companies that have spent the last gen making obscenely record profits, so this 'don't you want the devs to get paid' line is getting old fast

Backwards compatibility - important to me, know minimal stuff about it 5 weeks to launch

UI / core features - likewise

'Hey suprise this game we didn't mention is getting a PS4 version when our competitor got heat for being honest out of the gate' - poor

'Hey see Spidey is one of our biggest titles we are going to lock a remaster of the OG away from single purchase and charge a premium for it' - doesn't bode great as a statement of intent for upgrades to other titles similar in nature

I dunno - I appreciate COVID, but get one guy or gal and record them in a room, at home if needed, with the hardware just playing it for an hour with some minimal commentary thrown in.

 

[BelieveMeUstink]

yeah the social media views and engagement kinda shows that. The ps+ collection video has 2 million plus views lmao.

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The recent Price reveal showcase had 4 million views and that was on the livestream on the Playstation Youtube channel. Imagine the aggregated views across all the YouTube channels and Twitch.

That's why I feel they need to hone down their communication because they have the attention don't let it slip.

 

[platocplx]

The recent Price reveal showcase had 4 million views and that was on the livestream on the Playstation Youtube channel. Imagine the aggregated views across all the YouTube channels and Twitch.

That's why I feel they need to hone down their communication because they have the attention don't let it slip.

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Yeah I agree. For us more enthusiasts. We want more. But mass audience Sony just letting the games show out Kinda just works.
harry potter 10 million
spiderman 5 million
five night a freddys 4 million
kind of insane. Lol

instagram almost all the PS5 stuff from the showcase over 1.5 million views

 

[Dogo Mojo]

I have to be honest in that MS at least so far has been regularly out staging Sony in a lot of ways. They have been actively transparent in a way that Sony has not, at this point I'm not even sure what Sony's plan is. Microsoft is getting out ahead of the majority of things that could be taken as negative and addressing them (think of how Sony vs MS handled Preorders) and although I'll never think of any of these CEOs are my friend I would still say that Spencer is way more likeable then Jim Ryan is. Part of what got people excited for the PS4 was guys like Shu/Boyes presenting the way they did.

Games atleast in the short term Sony has an advantage for exclusives but if MS makes more acquisitions that could change in interesting ways. Right now both have at least one potential exclusive Demon's souls and Elder Scrolls that I would buy a console for.

 

[mute]

I'm probably moreso in that "everything they have been holding back on probably has some amount of bad news" camp. I'm really curious what the campaign would have looked like w/ no Covid and a normal E3.

 

[Bishop89]

I just want info on the UI and system features.
I kinda want some megaton level mic drops..
Microsoft has been good in this regard.

Like yeh, the games are there but I want to see more

 

[Lordys]

The rollout is pretty disappointing, as has been all of their messaging lately. I'm not sure if it's attributable to the pandemic or the staff and executive turnover they've had over the years. It's not the same Sony from the PS4 release that's for sure.

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[Rigg3L]

pretty rough tbh. I still pre-ordered one though...

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

It really has been abysmal, I don't know if it's intentional or not though. They seem to be extremely secretive to keep up the mystery and the hype so people are begging for more, I guess.

Honestly I'd rather they emulate the PS4 reveal. Have a show, briefly discuss specs at a macro level, add developer commentary about the new system and capabilities including the UI features, and showcase some awesome next gen games

Starting with wired articles, then the Cerny deep dive, then being ultra secretive just seems to lack confidence

Microsoft has a good early rollout of info last year in comparison

 

[dep9000]

Definitely some missteps but I'll cut them some slack due to the pandemic

They still could have easily avoided some of this bad press such as raising prices of games and the spiderman debacle. Those are unforced errors.

 

[AppleBlade]

Lackluster. Whatever happened to the swagger and media savviness they had with the PS4 launch. Microsoft is doing a better job but they don't quite have that same swagger either, they're operating more like a polished silicon valley company who is attempting to play the long game. Nintendo is just MIA.

 

[Shrennin]

I feel like my main problem was with their messaging. They initially made it seem like the PS5 games they were showing off were for PS5 only.

While I have no problems with either strategy - a period where games are shared between generations as the transition happens (this also basically happens every generation) or just a clear cut first party dedication to the next studio, I had more of a problem of Sony almost misconstruing their strategy until the absolute last minute.

Then there's the price of the software. This has been the biggest sticking point for people that I've personally interacted with, I think. From people who love PlayStation systems now just deciding to focus on PC to people who have no delayed their eventual PS5 purchase with the idea of just buying used games. I understand that other publishers were pushing the $69.99 cost, but Sony going right into that really helps propel the industry to that price point and I don't think many are going to accept it right now.

On software... their launch line-up is fantastic. Whether it's for PS4 and PS5 or just PS5, I think they have a really good launch line-up of games that are certainly more competitive than the competition.

I think Microsoft has, in contrast, been a lot better at its communication but is lacking with its launch line-up of games. With that said, the ZeniMax acquisition obviously bolsters them in a year or two but doesn't necessarily solve their issues in software in the present. Microsoft is also positioning itself in a way that seems more 'consumer friendly' than Sony in terms of pricing, software, and upgrades (which are free).

It definitely feels like Sony is relying more on their market dominance than taking steps it may need to secure that dominance in the coming generation.

 

[twentytwo22]

It's been really subdued and is not hyping me nearly as much as console launches past. Like, at all. If Demon's Souls didn't exist it wouldn't even be on my radar right now. I'm still excited for it, but it is crazy that a lot of that excitement is simply because I'm ready to replace my jet-engine PS4 pro that only reads discs if held at a 45 degree angle with a new machine.

 

[Roshin]

I still don't feel like the PS5 has properly launched, because (like the OP points out) there is so much I don't know. Sure, Covid-19, but I think this could have been handled so much better.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

Ps5 launch feels rushed if Xbox has answered all those questions. Also seems series x may have been ready for a while or mostly complete and just waiting for a launch date.

 

[Deleted member 13077]

I feel like some people in here at mistakenly saying "we don't have answers to xyz" when what they mean is "we don't have the answer that I want to hear for xyz".

Neither MS not Sony have covered themselves in glory this year for their reveals. Anyone suggesting one has done better than the other is absolutely suffering from short term revisionism.

 

[Hasney]

Messy. But at the same time, we are still in the middle of a pandemic. I have no doubt their communication would be more organized if the sickness wasn't around.

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While the pandemic hasn't helped things, I do doubt their communication would be much better. I think it's been pretty bad over the last couple of years with PS4 and then moving into PS5.

 

[Bioshocker]

These days people seem to expect to see absolutely everything about the console before launch. That wasn't the case before. Even though it's good information to costumers to let someone pick the console apart like Microsoft's done starting with Xbox One X, it does take some of the magic away. I don't need to know absolutely everything before launch. The UI, for instance. What I want to know is price and launch games above all.

 

[Deleted member 49535]

Sony's communication has been terrible for the last 2 years or so, Covid has nothing to do with it.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Everything about the PS5 has been a disappointment thus far. It really feels like Jim Ryan's leadership has been steering Sony completely in the wrong direction since he took over, and their completely lackadaisical marketing approach this year has been really embarrassing to watch.

If there ever was an example of a video game company believing their own hype, it's Sony circa 2020. They really feel like they just assume they're going to win this gen so they don't have to communicate.

 

[Dazraell]

It's honestly a mixed bag. I was excited about PS5, liked their lineup of games and loved the premise of backward compatibility and free upgrades that will further utilise the potential of a new hardware. That said, games that interested me the most will launch in 2021 (Horizon: Forbidden West, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and God of War sequel), 80 euros price tag for new games is way too much for me and a whole mess with hiding some of the upgrades behind the paywall (I'm especially talking about Spider-Man thing) made me really reconsider this decision. I've decided to wait and focus on catching up on my backlog instead.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

Not enough information or clarification about standard features they have announced like BC and any improvements there. No information at all on features we still haven't seen or they've briefly mentioned in the past like the Create button. And when they've announce things like say PS+ Collection, we've had no more information about how they completely work, leading to confusion or misinformation.

On the whole, pretty terribly tbh. I've seen too many "there's still x amount of time left" posts and we've been saying these things for months and months on end, but the window is so narrow now it's hard to even believe we'll even have the information at all until people actually have the system in their hands and we see for ourselves. And after the preorders went live, I've barely heard a peep from Sony this week at all other than Godfall. We all seem to be waiting on the flood gates opening after every golden opportunity by Sony and then... nothing, they disappear again and we're all left wondering the next time Sony will speak.

 

[Vundu]

Happy overall. Everything I needed to know to decide to pre-order I do. The rest can wait.

 

[MrKlaw]

I'm normally one for giving them the benefit of the doubt and I will still do that for their first party software output which is amazing. But I am getting tired of their marketing mess ups. So much of this could be prevented by being slightly more open and transparent.

 

[DGS]

They showed us a lot of games running on their next gen system. This is all I needed.

BC, Boost Mode, a Teardown? I couldn't care less about that.

More gameplay of smaller launch games like Destruction Allstars and a preview of the UI would be interesting.

 

[Malcolm9]

I'm happy to go along with the 'wait & see approach'. I don't need a PS5 day one and I'd rather see how the launch models get on, if the cooling system is good etc.

 

[Gradly]

I don't like their approach so far it's not enough to have like what 2 livestreams and 2 ads so far 😬 that's lame. But it doesn't matter as they're selling all the consoles they produced. Here in the region they only offer the disk version and it's mostly out of stock. I'm waiting for the digital one and there's a ton of ppl on social media and Twitter asking about it so if they offer it it will get sold in an instant. So again it doesn't matter for them.

 

[tusharngf]

its worst so far... they have not shown the console running and UI part is missing. Somewhat shady marketing by JIM uncle.

 

[Sanka]

I think it absolutely does not matter. Not even a bit. Anyone who cares has bought or would want to buy it anyway. So Sony is doing everything right in that regard. Those who are addicted to ads and information will not like the drip feed of info tho.

 

[Sheng Long]

Under the circumstances, I think it's fine.

 

[Kimaris]

I'll never understand the obsession with "messaging" , or the need that some have for Sony to update them every week.

All I needed to know was the price, release date and launch lineup and that has been delivered with plenty of time to spare.

 

[CasualsareFilth]

Poor.

 

[Tmespe]

I like to be informed on all aspects of what I'm buying, so it has not been working for me. We know very little of the system compared to the Series X/S. I'm seriously considering getting an X instead, with MS being very clear on all the features, gamepass and backwards compatibility, and this is something I never expected to say going in to this gen. Sony increasing prices to 80€ has also been a huge damper.

 

[Jonneh]

I don't mind the rollout but communication has frankly been awful

 

[Bold One]

The stuff that matters has been fine

Hardware
games
release
peripherals
etc

The stuff that doesn't matter - that forum-dwellers use for validation and console warring score pointing - they haven't delivered - hence the anger in some parts.

 

[Grassy]

I'm still waiting to see what's going to happen with potential PS5 remasters of PS4 games, like which games will have separate paid remasters like Spiderman, and which games will just have potentially free 4K/60 'Boost' modes or nothing at all and just the PS4 Pro Legacy mode.

 

[2Blackcats]

I have to be honest in that MS at least so far has been regularly out staging Sony in a lot of ways. They have been actively transparent in a way that Sony has not, at this point I'm not even sure what Sony's plan is. Microsoft is getting out ahead of the majority of things that could be taken as negative and addressing them (think of how Sony vs MS handled Preorders) and although I'll never think of any of these CEOs are my friend I would still say that Spencer is way more likeable then Jim Ryan is. Part of what got people excited for the PS4 was guys like Shu/Boyes presenting the way they did.

Games atleast in the short term Sony has an advantage for exclusives but if MS makes more acquisitions that could change in interesting ways. Right now both have at least one potential exclusive Demon's souls and Elder Scrolls that I would buy a console for.

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I think Microsoft's messaging has been great but I can't think of any tangible reasons why their next gen launch is any better.

I actually can't think of any series X launch games off the top of my head. Which makes the generally positive attitude towards Series X even more impressive.

 

[Creation_Scapes]

I love that recent PlayStation commercial on tv

 

[Betamaxbandit]

They've nailed the games and hardware side of things, which are most important. Certainly more important to me than "messaging".

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not sure I agree on the hardware side. All we have are renders and some leaked images. Heck we only recently saw the back of the thing.

with Sony beating the drum on SSD and it being considerably better than the series x it's baffling we haven't seen any examples outside of some small snippets in games. With the Cerny talk being almost entirely SSD and 3D audio I expected to see demos of games loading, switching between game save states, fast travel....etc Miles morales was the game I thought for sure they would show that but we got nothing.

As some have mentioned, I fully expect that to change in the run up. A week long event detailing all aspects (tear down/ UI/ demos...etc) would be awesome

 

[Prime2]

I have been firmly in the camp of " Covid has messed up everything ", but the Crossgen messaging and the pre-order mess really felt like it could have been prevented. It baffled me how Geoff Keighley told me more information than Sony did on that event night, further the whole We Believe In Generations to then 4 months later say " Well in certain cases we do " just kind of felt sleazy.

I don't think either MS or Sony have done well with messaging this year, but it does seem like MS have adapted better to situations.

 

[niaobx]

While I can sort of understand the desire to know all that other stuff, people going "what does the UI look like?!" are just baffling, you are going to get some fancy PS4 looking tiles and that's it. How much time do you people spend in the menus?

 

[aspiring]

Yeah the whole thing with the UI is weird. Hell is Travis Scott has one. Geoff Keighly played one. Why the hell could he not give a run down?

I can't blame COVID because they have had ample opportunity to show things and have not. It seems like they just want everyone to have blue balls and starved of info so they go crazy when they do show something.

the Microsoft side IMO is even worse. Not only have they offered nothing as well, except for lots of talk about how amazing things are and buying studios. But where are the first party launch games? They expect us, and we did, to buy the thing but how many games have we seen running on the actual console?They talk about gears 5 etc having upgrades, have we seen them? At least to Sony they have showed us actual games running on actual hardware.

so to me anyway it seems one company starves everyone of info so when they do share something it blows up, but have actually shown games.

The other talks and shows nothing, but is great with how their messaging is coming across.

both as bad as each other IMO

 

[2Blackcats]

not sure I agree on the hardware side. All we have are renders and some leaked images. Heck we only recently saw the back of the thing.

with Sony beating the drum on SSD and it being considerably better than the series x it's baffling we haven't seen any examples outside of some small snippets in games. With the Cerny talk being almost entirely SSD and 3D audio I expected to see demos of games loading, switching between game save states, fast travel....etc Miles morales was the game I thought for sure they would show that but we got nothing.

As some have mentioned, I fully expect that to change in the run up. A week long event detailing all aspects (tear down/ UI/ demos...etc) would be awesome

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I don't really agree, I thought Demon's Souls was a great demonstration of the SSD though it would be great to see more obviously.

Must be weird marketing something that's already sold out. You're not trying to increase the day 1 sales. You're trying to create an ongoing narrative on why the thing is desirable. I hate marketing\advertising normally but I'd be interested to know how that changes the gameplan

 

[Necron]

Confused.

Games are good though. Miles and Demon's Souls has me excited.

 

[Kyuuji]

Rollout for both consoles has been pretty crap honestly.

 

[thomasmahler]

I think Sony's messaging has been quite muddled over the past couple of months. They haven't really made a huge mistake yet (akin to Microsoft's 'online-only' hoopla during the Xbox One Launch timeframe), but their messaging and Microsoft making huge moves I think has contributed to Sony not feeling like they're that far ahead anymore. IPs like Doom and Elder Scrolls now being firmly Microsoft IPs that you won't be able to play on your PS5 I think will go a long way to potentially give Microsoft that edge again that they had during the X360 days since nobody will be able to claim anymore that 'Xbox has no games'.

I always find it funny how cyclical the games industry can be. Oblivion shipping early in the 360s life I think had a pretty big influence on how the system was perceived. Once we're in year 1, 2 of the new gen and a new Doom and Elder Scrolls VI launches exclusively on Xbox AND on GamePass day and date, I think we might just see Microsoft pulling ahead once again, especially with them offering a box that's 100$ cheaper than what Sony has to offer.

Overall, I think the industry is in a pretty good spot atm though. If you want to play Nintendo exclusives, you get a Switch. If you're more into the PlayStation exclusives, you'll get a PS5. If you're into the Xbox catalogue of games and want some insane value that, let's be honest, no one else even gets close to, you'll buy an Xbox. Microsofts GamePass move where you don't have to shell out 70$ per game could easily turn out to be the winning strategy here.

I think Sony and Nintendo will thrive in their own niche market, whereas the huge corps (Microsoft, Amazon, Google, etc.) might just battle on a level higher than that where it's all about subscription services and, ultimately, streaming. It's sort of a rigged game - If you have that kinda money to throw around you can move mountains, as Microsoft has just shown.

 

[Grimmy11]

Hardware itself - looks great

Software itself - looks great

Price of software - I appreciate development costs have risen, but so far it feels the main publishers communicating and pushing their new titles at £70 are also the companies that have spent the last gen making obscenely record profits, so this 'don't you want the devs to get paid' line is getting old fast

Backwards compatibility - important to me, know minimal stuff about it 5 weeks to launch

UI / core features - likewise

'Hey suprise this game we didn't mention is getting a PS4 version when our competitor got heat for being honest out of the gate' - poor

'Hey see Spidey is one of our biggest titles we are going to lock a remaster of the OG away from single purchase and charge a premium for it' - doesn't bode great as a statement of intent for upgrades to other titles similar in nature

I dunno - I appreciate COVID, but get one guy or gal and record them in a room, at home if needed, with the hardware just playing it for an hour with some minimal commentary thrown in.

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I agree with all of this, and I wish they were doing more, but even in the face of everything Microsoft keeps doing I think outside of enthusiasts the general public (From my view) just see "Oooh PS5, and there's a new Spider-Man game!" and that's enough. They're sold and don't need anything else. They probably feel they don't need to do any more than they're doing. They'll still sell out every unit they can produce for the next year or so.

 

[itshutton]

Strangely, it's been terrible, but kept me so hungry for new information. I have almost felt a fervour and it's gotten me to buy my first day 1 console ever!

 

[DrDeckard]

It's been a complete mess imo. A lot can be put down to the virus I'm sure but some of it I just can't understand at all.

That last video event was embarrassing. The mix ups on messaging, Keighley announcing most of the stuff better than the actual company behind it. No footage of the ui, the actual box in a real world environment. Shambles imo.

 

[Konosuke]

very good for a pandemic, which is to say terrible

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You can't blame it on covid. These things have been planned for a while.

Xbox is doing great by comparison.