Support NeoGAF

[Deleted member 775630]

I think I'm actually mounting a defence of DF here, rather than a criticism. Better access generally tends to mean more coverage. That can lead some to perceive a bias towards Msft. But if you're getting more attention and access from them, who can blame DF it things feel weighted towards Msft? But then, they do seem to have been more critical of Sony's efforts in the past. Is that because they lack access to Sony? And should that ever be a determining factor for the way you report?

When you get more access, you'll report more. The reporting itself is fair, imo. They are always very positive on a technical level about Sony games. TLOU2, God of War, etc.

 

[Thirty7ven]

This video is fascinating:



...not so much for what it says about the Series S, but rather about Digital Foundry's relationship with Microsoft.

It's easy to criticise DF for an apparent bias towards XBox, but how much of that is determined by the different level of access they have to Microsoft than they do to Sony? They are clearly very close to the team at XBox. To be allowed access to the Series S so early is a clear indicator of that. They don't appear to have anywhere near as close a relationship with Sony.

Does DF appear to favour XBox because of bias? Or because of access? And would things be different if Sony were as close to them? And what does all this say about games journalism and the way journalists present information? Should they be duty bound to be completely impartial, even when they get a lot more co-operation from one manufacturer? Or are Sony duty bound to grant the same levels of access to maintain that balance?

I have my own opinions on this, but it's an interesting thing to think about when we discuss whether games 'insiders' are biased or not, and the reasons why.

This is what Xbox management does. They cozy up with the media, the YouTube celebs, the toxic fanboys. Much easier to buy good faith this way than it is releasing great games, those take too much time, talent and resources.

 

[AeneaGames]

quality analyst when talking software is not QA

According to Google a quality analyst works in the QA department and the job title is also referred to as QA analyst.

No matter how you slice it, someone like that is way less qualified to talk about game development than an actual dev, even a dev that only read the dev documentation...

 

[DaGwaphics]

He's making games for PC with lower specs, I don't see an issue here unless he thought that the minimum PC requirements for games would be the PS5/XSX specs.

In fairness, within a few years of release, consoles do generally become the minimum spec. PCs are going to pass the PS5/XSX quickly. The XSS does add a new wrinkle.

 

[LiquidRex]

 

[pixelguy]

Source: PlayStation 5 to adjust plans in response Xbox Series X pricing

Update: According to new information, Sony is going to match the price of the Xbox Series X.

www.gamereactor.eu

Update: Such is the fast-moving nature of the business that we're already hearing reports from multiple sources that Sony has taken the decision to slash the price of the PS5 in response to the aggressive price point of the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X.

Since writing up our original report, we've heard that Sony is considering pricing the discless PS5 at $399 and the premium edition of the PlayStation will match the Xbox Series X with a $499 price point.

Of course, take all of this with a pinch of salt until Sony confirms.

 

[kyliethicc]

A few pages ago there was a photo of the series V (?) which seems to be exactly that

It would make sense. I could see it coming next year. Maybe they saw Sony's PS5 DE and thought "why not do it too?"

If they can offer the Series X digital at a lower price, that'd be smart.

Series S - $25/month or $300
Series X DE - $30/month or $400
Series X - $35/month or $500

But yeah don't call it the "Series V" thats another bad name. Stick with the bad names you've already got Microsoft.

 

[RaySoft]

Are you implying devs can't theorize or envision how a system would behave knowing the spec? You'd be quite a junior developer if you can't see obvious "pitfalls" drawing on experience.

 

[DaGwaphics]

When Xbox tell to the devs about its great idea of the XSS when they start to forget
what is working in a underpower system

But they decide to listen the journalist saying this

We wouldn't have a lot of conveniences or options available to us if we always stuck with the status quo because the industries said that's what they wanted, especially in media.

No Netflix, no Hulu, no Spotify, no VOD, no VHS, etc.

 

[hemo memo]

Source: PlayStation 5 to adjust plans in response Xbox Series X pricing

Update: According to new information, Sony is going to match the price of the Xbox Series X.

www.gamereactor.eu

Update: Such is the fast-moving nature of the business that we're already hearing reports from multiple sources that Sony has taken the decision to slash the price of the PS5 in response to the aggressive price point of the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X.

Since writing up our original report, we've heard that Sony is considering pricing the discless PS5 at $399 and the premium edition of the PlayStation will match the Xbox Series X with a $499 price point.

Of course, take all of this with a pinch of salt until Sony confirms.

$499 for premium edition and $399 for discless is great value.

 

[zaitsu]

I'm a doctor.
I didn't seen patient yet, but i have seen his medical records and i have an idea what might be wrong with him.

 

[yewles1]

You can't make this up

Pixel Justice Warriors going full on attack mode here. It's becoming the US election at this rate.

Phil Spencetine Waters: IMPEACH SONYFIVE!!!

 

[Deleted member 775630]

Are you implying devs can't theorize or envision how a system would behave knowing the spec? You'd be quite a junior developer if you can't see obvious "pitfalls" drawing on experience.

I'm saying we should take dev opinions with a pinch of salt when they don't have access to the hardware. We have always done that here. From the moment an industry professional or dev speaks out it is checked if they have access to the hardware.

 

[RaySoft]

I'm saying we should take dev opinions with a pinch of salt when they don't have access to the hardware. We have always done that here. From the moment an industry profession or dev speaks out it is checked if they have access to the hardware.

Ok, fair enough..

 

[kyliethicc]

In fairness, within a few years of release, consoles do generally become the minimum spec. PCs are going to pass the PS5/XSX quickly. The XSS does add a new wrinkle.

Top end PCs already are higher than the new consoles. Threadripper rigs with Titans, or the 3080/90 etc. But most PCs will never pass the consoles for at least 5 years. Very few PC gamers play at 4K.

 

[TheGreatWhiteShark]

Saw that but didn’t understand why that would be the case. Spider-Man was reduced from 15 seconds to 0.8 of a second on a low speed device long before hardware such as the IO would have even been finalised. Given it was fast travel and not having to refresh the entire memory it’s all guesswork but a 3GB replacement operating entirely out of RAW would make sense to obtain that sort of speed. (Obligatory: could be completely wrong statement)

sorry, I missed this quote.
if you watch the leaked video ( ) not only it says "under development", there is also this city flyby...
I dont think they are just showing what happens to standard spiderman disk there.
when ps5 is out you can pop the og spiderman disk in and check yourself.

 

[FunkMiller]

This just seems so weird to me. I’ve been in Australia on the run up to Christmas many times, and I’ve never seen the use of the phrase ‘Holiday 20XX’. It’s just such an American bit of phraseology. It’s been a couple of years since I was there at Xmas time though, so can any Aussies in the country at the moment confirm this is a thing? I confess I don’t pay much attention to Christmas stuff in general... but this seems odd to me.

 

[Dodkrake]

so if PS5 had a "series S" type model you would buy that would you? good for you i guess

if you are a PC gamer its even better news, at 1080p you would get so much performance from current cards

its bonkers to me that people dont see difference between 1080p and 4k... in movies i agree its not a huge jump since most are filmed on film which already grains the picture or if you watch cable its compressed to shit but gaming? bonkers

No, I wouldn't. I would still buy the best possible version where graphics are not capped and where I would have the guarantee I can get the best possible performance.

As for movies and what I said, you are wrong. First, the majority of hollywood productions have moved to digital years ago. Second, I was talking about RAW formats, not compressed. You don't work with compressed formats in TV or Movies. You do export the compressed signal when on a TV broadcast, of course, but I had access to the RAW files.

And finally, I said that I don't see a difference, or a very minute one, but acknowledged that I'm the minority, not majority. Same way I prefer some games at 30FPS instead of 60 or above.

 

[Neo Blaster]

Is that Series S only playing One S versions of BC real?

You need a stronger machine to run a BC game, technically XSS has the same power as XOX(not to mention it has less memory available for games).

 

[xIFreddy]

Amazon.it PS5 release date, still in google search cache.

 

[kyliethicc]

Year 1 of PS5 1st Party games is looking incredible. PlayStation Studios is on fire.

 

[NY_Metropolitan]

So has anyone torch that Serrano guy for saying we would hear something yesterday? Or has he responded with a "plans changed" excuse?

 

[azertydu91]

No I don't think anyone is that deluded to compare ps5 vs xss . No even hard-core xbox guys

Believe me there's some people here that think the Xss will perform better than a ps5 at 1440p.

 

[Zheph]

Year 1 of PS5 1st Party games is looking incredible. PlayStation Studios is on fire.

I'm sure its not the whole picture yet...

 

[Faithless83]

And with all this situation, PS5 is likely to be the default plataform and devs will later port the multiplatforms to XSX and XSS, due to the adjustments.

So thank you MS... I guess?

 

[Neo Blaster]

I've seen some people say that the XSX and XSS haven't shown the full potential of their I/Os yet. I'm mostly trying to figure out what would prevent them from doing that. All I can think of is bottlenecks to be honest.

No console shows its true potential at the beginning of generation, but when you have a Spiderman demo loading in less than a second on a old and slower devkit and Kena loading from OS in 2 seconds, you've got to ask what PS5 will deliver later. Meanwhile, we have VA with The Outer Worlds and SoD2 demos...

 

[Neo Blaster]

Or it is a game running In BC mode that has no work done. The series x has a hybrid IO with no work done the software side don't work so it is just a fast SSD. It is not hard to understand.

What is hard to understand is why MS can't use proper examples for their Velocity Architecture, if you say these are unoptimized demos.

 

[quest]

I'm saying we should take dev opinions with a pinch of salt when they don't have access to the hardware. We have always done that here. From the moment an industry professional or dev speaks out it is checked if they have access to the hardware.

That only applies to the PS5 around these parts dude you know that. A good Microsoft news day people were so pent up for negative xbox news everything is treated as true including the xbox V lol. Zero vetting on if the source worked on the hardware to back up the claims. The only vetted source who worked on it says it is ok but that does not fit the narrative.

Developer Speaks About Lockhart "Holding Back Next Gen." And PS5 VS XSX Dev Kits.

Decided to ask a buddy of mine in the industry about the Lockhart and Series X vs PS5 and what he thinks so far. He is working on Borderlands 3 for Next Gen right now. Vetted by Bill O'Rights When I asked about Lockhart "holding back next gen." He had this to say: "I really hate this term as...

www.neogaf.com

 

[Codexer]

 

[Empire Strikes Back]

When Xbox tell to the devs about its great idea of the XSS when they start to forget
what is working in a underpower system

But they decide to listen the journalist saying this

This is what happen when you put insiders and journalists at the center of your hardware development and not the devs. I can't fanthom the idea that, out there, there are devs that knew about XSS after Digital Foundry did.

 

[FunkMiller]

I‘m personally looking forward to XBox Series Non-Binary.

 

[THE:MILKMAN]

So has anyone torch that Serrano guy for saying we would hear something yesterday? Or has he responded with a "plans changed" excuse?

He's getting close to being another Tony Stark/IronMan/Erebus parody account. Just read Tony Stark's last Tweet and retweet from a week ago (after confirming PS5 pre-orders start 9th September) and tell me that isn't parody at this point! I expect Serrano to go the same way at this rate.

 

[kyliethicc]

"Microsoft’s plan may seem to make sense on paper, but it has several big flaws. First, the naming convention is a confusing mess. One can imagine the poor store sales clerk, who has to explain the differences between the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and the prior generation’s Xbox One S to the average consumer. In contrast, Sony’s proposition of PlayStation 5 as being much more powerful than the PlayStation 4 is a more concise message. Second, and more importantly, success in the video-game industry has always been about which company can offer the best, exclusive gaming experiences.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, its new hardware strategy doesn’t fix this deficiency, where it lags far behind its Japanese competitor. Simply, the Sony PlayStation’s lineup of exclusive franchises is unparalleled. This year, the game maker has already generated record-breaking sales numbers for its original games such as Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima, presaging further strong results for those franchises. And Sony has already announced upcoming PlayStation 5 titles in key series such as Horizon, Gran Turismo and Spiderman. Microsoft’s lineup doesn’t have the same cachet. To add insult to injury, the company’s anchor title for its next-generation console launch, Halo Infinite, was recently delayed to next year on the back of development complications."

...

"Bottom line, Microsoft’s two-tiered strategy that attempts to make next-generation console gaming more affordable misses the mark. The company seems to have forgotten the most important video-game industry lesson: It’s all about the games."

Microsoft’s Xbox Game Plan Has Big Problems

The software giant’s strategy to roll out two new versions of its gaming console isn’t going to displace Sony at the top.

www.bloomberg.com

Worth a read. Raises some good points.

 

[Empire Strikes Back]

PS4 box offers first look at ‘PS5 upgrade’ branding | VGC

Current-gen titles will include ‘PS5 upgrade available’ badge for compatible…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Okay, but is it delivered in a smart fashion?

 

[Neo Blaster]

I'm just confused. The Series S has a 2.4 GB/s raw SSD.

Xbox One games use 5-6 GB of RAM. Thats less than 3 seconds raw.

Why would it take any longer than that?

That's the million dollar question!!

There's neither compression nor SFS, it's pure raw speed, unless the SSD cannot sustain 2.4GB/s.

Does TOW have only 6GB?

 

[CrysisFreak]

Not buying a PS5 Digital at 399 is straight up self harm considering what you get. Just lol.
Those fucking casuals better keep their hands off. Mine!!!

 

[kyliethicc]

If Microsoft releases a less powerful version of the X thats all digital and call the Series V then Aaron Greenberg is borderline retarded.

 

[existensmaximum]

Bu

But what does it mean? Is he a monkey?

 

[SNPlayen]

This just seems so weird to me. I’ve been in Australia on the run up to Christmas many times, and I’ve never seen the use of the phrase ‘Holiday 20XX’. It’s just such an American bit of phraseology. It’s been a couple of years since I was there at Xmas time though, so can any Aussies in the country at the moment confirm this is a thing? I confess I don’t pay much attention to Christmas stuff in general... but this seems odd to me.

Definitely weird, you are right with that. I’m not in Melbourne but I thought it was all locked down. Is EB even open?

 

[RaZoR No1]

Bu
But what does it mean? Is he a monkey?

That is the unit we measure things on the internet.
A banana for scale

 

[LucidFlux]

Man the Series S would be far better if Xbox had just given it 12 GB of RAM with unified 336 GB/s bandwidth. Thats the one thing I keep thinking. Why not just spend the extra $25 and make the system significantly better?

Maybe the S still wouldn't be able to run One X games because it has 50% less CUs, but it would at least have the same amount of RAM and same higher unified bandwidth. That along with the CPU, SSD, and it'd be a solid system.

The 500 GB of storage is an issue for me as a consumer, but for many its fine. And they can always just buy a cheap USB HDD or the expansion cards from Xbox. And there will be a 1 TB XSS someday.

But the cheap memory config in the S will never make sense to me. Just add 2 GB more and widen the bus, ya cheapskates.

It's because it's now coming to light that the Xbox Series was developed in a vacuum solely to fill a marketing and sales strategy. The design pillars they chose to stand on did not include pushing the medium as a whole further which is evident where they chose to spend hardware budget as well as their two prong approach to pinch the market with the S/X strategy.

Rather than letting developers lead their design strategy, they choose to instead chase marketing bullet points and claim the TF crown. This should not have come at the expense of their memory configurations on both the S/X. Their strategy for S demanded a specific price point but this comes at the expense of an even worse memory configuration and less storage, holding back the entire medium including their more powerful product.

 

[kyliethicc]

Not buying a PS5 Digital at 399 is straight up self harm considering what you get. Just lol.
Those fucking casuals better keep their hands off. Mine!!!

This

 

[kyliethicc]

It's because it's now coming to light that the Xbox Series was developed in a vacuum solely to fill a marketing and sales strategy. The design pillars they chose to stand on did not include pushing the medium as a whole further which is evident where they chose to spend hardware budget as well as their two prong approach to pinch the market with the S/X strategy.

Rather than letting developers lead their design strategy, they choose to instead chase marketing bullet points and claim the TF crown. This should not have come at the expense of their memory configurations on both the S/X. Their strategy for S demanded a specific price point but this comes at the expense of an even worse memory configuration and less storage, holding back the entire medium including their more powerful product.

They should have just made 1 Xbox. Called "Xbox." It should have just been the Series X but digital only and launched at $400.

 

[nikolino840]

How much the power matter?

4 - 10.3 - 12.1 tf

 

[bhunachicken]

Not buying a PS5 Digital at 399 is straight up self harm considering what you get. Just lol.
Those fucking casuals better keep their hands off. Mine!!!

Honestly, if Sony were able to put in blockchain tech into the digital ownership of games, so I could trade, sell, etc., and also somehow marry my disc-based PS4 games to the store, then I'd buy a DE immediately.

But there's more chance of me getting a snog off Jennifer Lawrence.

 

[mejin]

More paid articles:

Series S redefines "next-gen" - and throws down a gauntlet to Sony | Opinion

For the past few months, we've all been watching Microsoft and Sony stare at each other across the Pacific and wonderin…

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[MasterCornholio]

That is the unit we measure things on the internet.
A banana for scale

That's not completely accurate since we have different sizes of bananas.

Spoiler: Small Banana

Spoiler: Big Banana

Tricked you.

 

[lepermessiah]

I'm gonna puke



When Kirby called id principal engineer "that id software guy". LOL
No, that id software guy never worked with Sampler Feedback before. /s
Dumbass

These lunatics are redefining dunning-kruger.

 

[BGs]

$299 next-gen console is a fantastic idea for the casual market especially with covid19 and the economic uncertainty and with Xbox All Access, Microsoft indeed hit it perfectly right this time for holiday.

I personally do not think it is a decision that is going to benefit them right now. I believe that stones are being thrown on its roof, I believe it as a developer and as a user. That doesn't mean that I don't think it's the future sooner or later, I know what they want but I don't think it's the right way to do it. Only time and sales can tell.

 

[ethomaz]

That 8GB is in your PC, not what is needed for the game itself. Windows also uses a lot of it.

Actually minimum 11GB because you have to include the VRAM... removed the OS and you will have easily 9GB.
S has rumored 7.5GB for games excluding the OS reserved.
It is way lower than PC minimum these days and with next-gen console PC minimum was supposed to get a big jump in minimum specs but we have S now.