Why would it have fanfare? It’s the same thing they’ve done for every generation
Hasn’t every other generation come with a price decrease and a bigger size reduction? This seems like it’s really just a new model.
The biggest upgrade is the SSD size. But digital is getting more expensive (but also has the disc drive option). Seems like it’s just not enough upside for anyone to get excited over compared to previous generations.
I don’t understand why anyone would buy the $450 digital version plus a $70 Bluray disc drive add-on rather than just paying $500 for a disc model capable of playing blurays and games. Very strange on Sony’s part.
Having a digital only version of a console is very concerning from an e-waste point of view. It’ll be an odd-shaped brick years later when the digital store front is long gone and the old SSD gets corrupted.
Cause if you don’t buy the $70 disc drive, then you save $50. That’s the logic…
Long as you’re happy to be limited to digital purchases and not be able to buy 2nd hand games.
I guess the disc drive is also good if you decide a year or two later ‘hmmm, maybe I should’ve got the disc version actually’.
I think it will be cool for the used market. Buy a digital one used and upgrade it with the disc drive. Makes Sony some money from used PS5s again.
I don’t think it’s for people planning on buying the disc drive. But it’s a nice way to avoid FOMO for anyone that doesn’t want to get locked out of discs forever (without buying a whole new console).
Plus, for people looking to save some money, it could be an opportunistic purchase if they find it for cheap later.
Yeah, it’s fine to have it, but it’s really about less material for them.
It’s not actually “better” in any meaningful way, just smaller. No one ever cared.
Yup. Also the PS5 doesnt have hardly any unique games, so…
Bro I’m still having bloodborne withdrawals but I guess that’s PlayStation 4…
I guess that’s the point the article is trying to make.
Yeah, we have a PS5 and keep considering trading it in for a second Xbox…
New consoles used to be a big deal. Generational leaps still are, but we’ve fallen into a malaise in recent years as new models and more powerful advancements come along and we all shrug our shoulders before getting on with our day.
That’s a distinctly “game journalists have nothing to write about” problem.
Anyway, this was a chance for Sony to finally ship functional Bluetooth with their damn Console. Guess not.
I still don’t understand why I cannot connect any of my Bluetooth headphones to -any- of the consoles. Connecting to my TV induces latency, so it turns off game mode, but not if I connect directly to the gaming device (ala steam deck). It’s not like its a standards, driver, or perf issue, as steam deck supports it, and it’s essentially a very user friendly Arch Linux box. Something as important as audio being this far behind on the two major competitors is mind boggling, especially when one of them ALSO produces decent audio hardware and created one of the two main Bluetooth audio standards 😅
I have XM5 which is also made by Sony, and is their most expensive headphones. So they clearly know how to make BT work. They just refuse to, to sell you their damn Pulse headphones.
I’ve just built a PC last month and it’s where I’m going to be from now on. I’m so sick of console’s going the extra mile to squeeze every last penny out of us with their PS+ bullshit. I’ll just use steam for the new games I like playing and emulate all the old games. It’s been so much fun figuring things out. Better picture. Better FPS and the mouse and keyboard are much better than a controller. I can’t believe I’ve missed out on PC all these years.
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Thank you so much. I have signed up. The extension isn’t working on firefox, though. I will look into more and see. Hope it is not a linux thing.
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No worries. I’ll look into it and submit a a report on GitHub for the dev if they have one.
I switched the opposite direction a year or two ago.
Being stuck sat a desk at work all day makes me want to game on the sofa in the evenings and I find a console a much handier way of doing that.
Steam deck is calling
I’ve a friend with one that I want to try sometime!
I have tried it. It was actually pretty decent. You can even upgrade the screen to a higher resolution now if you feel adventurous. Or you can just install holoOS (the steam deck OS) on a smaller PC and set it up to your tv and game all day with a controller. Or you can dock the steam deck to your TV and connect any controller to it. With linux, the possibilities are endless.
What’s a console except a small computer with an HDMI port for your tv and a Bluetooth adapter for your controllers?
There’s a lot less Maintenance and tinkering involved with consoles, and Im spending a hell of a lot more than $500 every 7 years to maintain a PC capable of playing the latest titles well enough. A lot less cheating in PvP too.
Plus it ends up being a lot more than a video game machine, especially for people who don’t have smart TVs or a roku stick or anything. My parents use the Xbox more for Netflix than for anything else.
Can I ask what your parts you used for your build? I’ve been enticed by the PC route as well because of the same bs from PlayStation you have outlined here. Everytime I look at building a PC I get overwhelmed by all the options though
pcpartpicker.com is a good resource. You can see the community builds for inspiration at least. It also tells you about most incompabilities for your build, but it’s best to check with someone so you won’t get parts that do not work with each other.
Try setting a budget and looking for the GPU that fits within it, everything else more or less builds itself from there as you check the recommended CPU pairings and requirements they have on your other components.
I got an AMD ryzen 7 5700G CPU 8 cores 16 threads here. an AMD RX580 graphics card(very old card from 2017 but works amazing here. Modular 750 wats crosair power supply here. 16GB of ddr4 ram at 3200 mhz (any brand works don’t worry) here. A gigabyte motherboard A520i here.. I picked a montech case mini tower here.
Edit: I already had the storage from a dell mini I had before this one. I now have 512 SSD for the root partition. 1 TB 2.5" SATA SSD for the home partition and a third 2TB 2.5" SATA SSD to store all my games on and for the steam library.
Yes it’s PC for me too. Steam Deck with GeForce Now for the most demanding titles.
??? PS5 Slim is a smaller version of an already existing console. Its a QOL improvement. Why do we need to be excited about it?
Because capitalism! Aren’t we excited to go buy something that we already have??
But it’s slim! Slim!
I’ve never understood the “slim” thing console makers have been doing.
“Behold! Our latest game system!”
six months later
“Behold! The system we should have made in the first place!”
PS5 is basically an early access version.
Yeah, I’ve been waiting for them to get the APU on a smaller process. I’m assuming they did that, to be able to cool it in this much smaller chassis. The launch version was just way too big, too bad it’s still ugly.
Maybe I should have changed the title of the post to something different from the one of the article. I see a lot of people responding to the title but there is a lot of stuff in the article that I find quite interesting (the lack of new first party exclusives, focus on cloud gaming).
Anecdotally, I find I get better discussions on posts if I include quotes from the article I find particularly relevant or poignant. I also like to comment my own feelings on the article in the comments as well. I don’t think the issue was the title of the article necessarily.
In this case, what sections did you wish people were discussing? To me, the section about the exclusives did not feel particularly engaging since the number of exclusives mentioned was actually pretty high since most games on a console trend to be third party.
If there is an argument being made you would like to highlight, I would certainly be interested in seeing it.
The lack of exclusives is really bad considering there are only like 4 or 5 real exclusives, and one of them is the tech demo that comes with the console (Astro’s Playroom).
the lack of new first party exclusives
This is good; exclusivity hurts consumers.
Honestly, I have no issue with exclusives as long as they get released on another platform after a while. Sony’s been good about releasing a lot of the hits on PC after a couple years, so aside from missing the initial hype, I haven’t really missed out being PC only.
Exclusives that stay exclusive indefinitely, I basically treat those games as if they don’t exist. I don’t have anywhere to put a PS5, nor a desire to get one really, and as far as I know they make most of their money from game sales anyway. I don’t see much value in them locking people out of their games completely.
I don’t think it does?
I mean, people have been speculating on a PS5 Slim for a while now, so that might be why fanfare around it is so muted. On the other hand, I do get what the article is saying. This whole console generation has just felt weird. Obviously, the pandemic played a big role in that but sometimes it’s hard to believe that this generation started three years ago. It doesn’t feel like there have really been any must-have, generation-defining games on either console at this point.
Oh yeah, Release Candidate is here. Does that mean they’ve fixed the heating issues of the Beta (Original PS5)?
In all seriousness, it’s essentially the same console, just a little smaller. Nothing to be excited about, as if it’s the PS5 Pro. Not only is it a little smaller, but it also is more expensive. Might be better in some aspects, might not, I don’t know that at this point in time.
I guess if anything, it has slightly more storage… but I’ve already paid for a faster and larger capacity M.2 upgrade, so kind of a moot point?
