Sony hate thread

[Marissa Moira]

None of that affects games that were released years ago and are exclusive to online platforms, especially in cases where the company that made the game dissolved ages ago. The only solutions are to keep every storefront for every console a company makes up, which realistically isn't an option, or find ways to preserve those games in permanent ways, whether it's supporting emulators that play games that are not available to purchase or allowing third party storefronts access to those exclusive games for preservation purposes. Sony will never agree to any of those options.

There's also the issue of physical copies being irrelevant if you can't download the millions of patches and DLC that make the games actually playable afterwards.

No company will ever agree to supporting emulators. Both Microsoft and Nintendo would never do those things either.

There's been times where the base game has come out and then later re-released with all the DLC and patches. The Square Enix Tomb Raider games have been one to do this. Shadow despite it not reaching the numbers, got a complete edition with all patches and DLC.

As far as older shit, the way that's worked was usually through buyouts. Take Embracer group for example, they have acquired so many formerly dead IPs that they now have a huge back catalog. GoG has done actual footwork on tracking down the old devs and corporate workers so stuff can be released in a complete fashion.

So then they would be Intel hd shit then if they aren't AMD. Which would be even worse because the AMD onboard graphics were at least usable. Intel HD on the other hand, with a BGA Celeron.. my god

That's certainly a possibility, I no longer have any of the boards, the only intel I keep around is a viiv. They didn't use their onboard graphics hence the cards.

Also I checked the old prices for shit when people gawked at me for saying that cards ran in the thousands. AUS prices had shit run in the thousands or close to it, a 600 dollar card in USD translates close to 1k including a 10% tax. Because I distinctly remember seeing the four digit card prices when Skyrim was out.

 

[HeyYou]

No company will ever agree to supporting emulators. Both Microsoft and Nintendo would never do those things either.

There's been times where the base game has come out and then later re-released with all the DLC and patches. The Square Enix Tomb Raider games have been one to do this. Shadow despite it not reaching the numbers, got a complete edition with all patches and DLC.

As far as older shit, the way that's worked was usually through buyouts. Take Embracer group for example, they have acquired so many formerly dead IPs that they now have a huge back catalog. GoG has done actual footwork on tracking down the old devs and corporate workers so stuff can be released in a complete fashion.

Yes, Microsoft and ESPECIALLY Nintendo also wouldn't support something like that, and they're equally anti-consumer for that, but this is a Sony hate thread and the conversation is currently about Sony just barely not shutting down the PS3 and Vita stores after pushback and the fact that they're almost certainly going to be shut down within the next couple of years anyways.

And yes, buyouts and sprucing up old games to sell on third party stores is exactly what I was talking about. But once again, for the most part, Sony is not exactly allowing or supporting this with their PS3 and Vita exclusive online games, are they?

 

[Urbanmech]

No company will ever agree to supporting emulators. Both Microsoft and Nintendo would never do those things either.

That's not entirely true. How did the PS Classic play games without the disc? or the Nes/SNES Classic play games without carts?

 

[Marissa Moira]

That's not entirely true. How did the PS Classic play games without the disc? or the Nes/SNES Classic play games without carts?

Well first off the large multinational corporations stole the efforts of the hardworking emulator programmers who originally tried to steal the work of the large multinational corporations.

All the existing emulator projects have kind of been tainted by this, like Nintendo is never going to openly adopt something like Dolphin.

 

[The Last Stand]

There's also the issue of physical copies being irrelevant if you can't download the millions of patches and DLC that make the games actually playable afterwards.

Some copies come WITH patches preinstalled.

 

[Two Dollars]

No company will ever agree to supporting emulators. Both Microsoft and Nintendo would never do those things either.

I mean, Microsoft kind of already does that thanks to Xbox’s developer mode. The vast majority of people only use it to run RetroArch, and Microsoft has done nothing to try to stop that; they even made it more accessible by allowing non-dev accounts to install apps that are hosted by one single dev account. My non-modded, non-dev mode Series S can emulate Wii at 2x native resolution.

 

[The Last Stand]

I mean, Microsoft kind of already does that thanks to Xbox’s developer mode. The vast majority of people only use it to run RetroArch, and Microsoft has done nothing to try to stop that; they even made it more accessible by allowing non-dev accounts to install apps that are hosted by one single dev account. My non-modded, non-dev mode Series S can emulate Wii at 2x native resolution.

It seems like MS is doing everything BUT make quality games. Score one for Sony.

 

[Marissa Moira]

I mean, Microsoft kind of already does that thanks to Xbox’s developer mode. The vast majority of people only use it to run RetroArch, and Microsoft has done nothing to try to stop that; they even made it more accessible by allowing non-dev accounts to install apps that are hosted by one single dev account. My non-modded, non-dev mode Series S can emulate Wii at 2x native resolution.

They didn't specifically make it more accessible for the reason of emulators though, that was just a side effect.

 

[The Last Stand]

I mean, Microsoft kind of already does that thanks to Xbox’s developer mode. The vast majority of people only use it to run RetroArch, and Microsoft has done nothing to try to stop that; they even made it more accessible by allowing non-dev accounts to install apps that are hosted by one single dev account. My non-modded, non-dev mode Series S can emulate Wii at 2x native resolution.

This article says otherwise. Oh, "accidental."

 

[Pissmaster]

At this point the PS3 is the only one of that era left with a functioning store.

I'm pretty sure 360's still works. 360 games I've picked up on my Xbox One can be downloaded on my old 360.

The OG Xbox marketplace had, what, a fraction, of what the PS3/Vita marketplace has now? Digital distribution is now commonplace, even during PS3's early lifespan.

OG Xbox's downloads are an odd bunch. There were only a few XBLA games, and IIRC they were all old arcade games like Paperboy and Smash TV. You also needed a boot disc, that was free at EB Games:


You can sideload them all, alongside DLC for the smattering of games that had it easily on a softmodded Xbox. I'm pretty sure it was all archived.

Don't forget Battleborn. Or having sports games neutered two years after EA/2K axe their servers.

Can confirm. I have a physical copy of Battleborn on Xbox One I got for two bucks. Putting it into my Xbox One right now and letting it update just brings me to a "Thank you for playing" screen you can't dismiss. The game really is completely unplayable, despite me having a disc.

No company will ever agree to supporting emulators.

Sega has on multiple occassions. Sega Genesis Classics outright supports Steam Workshop, allowing users to share romhacks, going so far as to include the raw roms themselves in the game's data directory. The workshop is full of roms of other Sega Genesis games, and Sega doesn't care. https://steamcommunity.com/app/34270/workshop/

Sega Smash Pack on Dreamcast outright had a TXT file on the disc that anyone could view in any computer, with info about the internal emulator, for anyone wanting to add their own roms:

To whomever releases this pack..

Let me give you a few bits of info:

- I emulate a U.S. Genesis, including territory lock-out.
- ".sga" files are standard Genesis/Megadrive ".bin" files renamed.
- The emulator is looking for some parameters to be passed via Ginsu.
  If you don't know what that is, you'll figure it out:

MDE_US.BIN ALTBEAST.SGA MODE2 SKIP0 SOUND0

MODE0 = standard, fastest video mode settings
MODE1 = slower, supports some extra features
MODE2 = slowest, includes window layers (used by some games)
MODE4 = same as MODE0 with background skewing

SKIP0 = no sprite skipping until maximum reached
SKIP1 = moderate sprite skipping, used to prevent major slowdown
SKIP2 = maximum sprites skipped

SOUND0 = standard sound emulation
SOUND1 = sound tempo increased

And don't forget to pay your respects to Uncle Sonic.
Sony just doesn't get it.

   - Gary

Both Microsoft and Nintendo would never do those things either.

Microsoft had a general Xbox emulator written for the Xbox 360, and whatever worked well enough for the average person was whitelisted, which is why the whitelist has some really strange games, but omits others:

MVG was also hired to write a custom Game Boy Color emulator for WayForward:

And not to mention, many old games on Steam from major companies use emulation to sell their games. Disney now owns Maniac Mansion, and the Steam version runs in ScummVM. Microsoft now owns Wolfenstein 3D, and the Steam version runs in DOSBox. Good lord, man, you're really showing your gaps in knowledge today. PC gaming and emulation just isn't your thing. That's fine, but do you really have to technobabble about it and hope no one notices? What are you, 12?

 

[The Last Stand]

Can confirm. I have a physical copy of Battleborn on Xbox One I got for two bucks. Putting it into my Xbox One right now and letting it update just brings me to a "Thank you for playing" screen you can't dismiss. The game really is completely unplayable, despite me having a disc.

Two bucks for a coaster. Not bad.

I'm pretty sure 360's still works. 360 games I've picked up on my Xbox One can be downloaded on my old 360.

They've ended BC support for Xbox One. No new titles anymore.

 

[Pissmaster]

Two bucks for a coaster. Not bad.

A coaster, and a perfectly good Xbox One disc case. What value! Those cases all hold two discs per case, too. Try it out, it's handy if you have any loose discs sitting around.

They've ended BC support for Xbox One. No new titles anymore.

That's true, though I meant like, a few 360 games I bought on sale last year show up on my 360's download list. So I have the option to download and install them on there, which is nice.

Though not really ideal, considering my 360 only has a 20gb HDD and a single working controller. My 360's really slumming it

 

[Marissa Moira]

I'm pretty sure 360's still works. 360 games I've picked up on my Xbox One can be downloaded on my old 360.


OG Xbox's downloads are an odd bunch. There were only a few XBLA games, and IIRC they were all old arcade games like Paperboy and Smash TV. You also needed a boot disc, that was free at EB Games:
View attachment 3309632

You can sideload them all, alongside DLC for the smattering of games that had it easily on a softmodded Xbox. I'm pretty sure it was all archived.


Can confirm. I have a physical copy of Battleborn on Xbox One I got for two bucks. Putting it into my Xbox One right now and letting it update just brings me to a "Thank you for playing" screen you can't dismiss. The game really is completely unplayable, despite me having a disc.


Sega has on multiple occassions. Sega Genesis Classics outright supports Steam Workshop, allowing users to share romhacks, going so far as to include the raw roms themselves in the game's data directory. The workshop is full of roms of other Sega Genesis games, and Sega doesn't care. https://steamcommunity.com/app/34270/workshop/

Sega Smash Pack on Dreamcast outright had a TXT file on the disc that anyone could view in any computer, with info about the internal emulator, for anyone wanting to add their own roms:

To whomever releases this pack..

Let me give you a few bits of info:

- I emulate a U.S. Genesis, including territory lock-out.
- ".sga" files are standard Genesis/Megadrive ".bin" files renamed.
- The emulator is looking for some parameters to be passed via Ginsu.
  If you don't know what that is, you'll figure it out:

MDE_US.BIN ALTBEAST.SGA MODE2 SKIP0 SOUND0

MODE0 = standard, fastest video mode settings
MODE1 = slower, supports some extra features
MODE2 = slowest, includes window layers (used by some games)
MODE4 = same as MODE0 with background skewing

SKIP0 = no sprite skipping until maximum reached
SKIP1 = moderate sprite skipping, used to prevent major slowdown
SKIP2 = maximum sprites skipped

SOUND0 = standard sound emulation
SOUND1 = sound tempo increased

And don't forget to pay your respects to Uncle Sonic.
Sony just doesn't get it.

   - Gary

Microsoft had a general Xbox emulator written for the Xbox 360, and whatever worked well enough for the average person was whitelisted, which is why the whitelist has some really strange games, but omits others:

MVG was also hired to write a custom Game Boy Color emulator for WayForward:

And not to mention, many old games on Steam from major companies use emulation to sell their games. Disney now owns Maniac Mansion, and the Steam version runs in ScummVM. Microsoft now owns Wolfenstein 3D, and the Steam version runs in DOSBox. Good lord, man, you're really showing your gaps in knowledge today. PC gaming and emulation just isn't your thing. That's fine, but do you really have to technobabble about it and hope no one notices? What are you, 12?

I really wasn't grouping in the companies that don't make hardware when I said that. Yes you're right on all accounts with the software developers and emulation. The 360 stuff was merged in on the microsoft store that's just now a general storefront for all the systems, it's not just specifically for the xbox 360 at this point.

What I was talking about was like as an example, Nintendo acquiring stuff like Dolphin or Yuzu or any of the other emulator projects for their shit in an official manner. That's the kind of thing I meant when i said no company would really embrace those. Playstation's whole fight with the bleemcast was another example. These companies don't really look to those emulators as a viable outlet for their software where they make it part of their production pipeline. If they're doing emulation it's either going to be taken from public sources that exist and the devs won't get credited or it's going to be done in house.

 

[HeyYou]

I mean, Microsoft kind of already does that thanks to Xbox’s developer mode. The vast majority of people only use it to run RetroArch, and Microsoft has done nothing to try to stop that; they even made it more accessible by allowing non-dev accounts to install apps that are hosted by one single dev account. My non-modded, non-dev mode Series S can emulate Wii at 2x native resolution.

Huh, I didn't know that you could outright run RetroArch on Xbox. Points for Microsoft, then. Sony would never allow that level of freedom on their consoles.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

It's kind of the fate for these storefronts to close,

Steam and GOG aren't going anywhere. Which is another reason that PC gaming is superior.

The only solutions are to keep every storefront for every console a company makes up, which realistically isn't an option, or find ways to preserve those games in permanent ways, whether it's supporting emulators that play games that are not available to purchase or allowing third party storefronts access to those exclusive games for preservation purposes. Sony will never agree to any of those options.

Sony could probably make a lot of money re-releasing their older titles on Steam, especially those exclusive to its store that it has no intention of re-releasing any other way, but that makes too much damn sense.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Steam and GOG aren't going anywhere. Which is another reason that PC gaming is superior.

I'm pretty sure GoG was having financial troubles since last year, but then tried pushing porn games which then lead to another form of backlash and in the end they're not quite out of the hole yet.

It doesn't quite help that they're connected to CD Project Red which has had their own corporate issues.

Valve's leadership seem very dependent on Gabe and if there's ever a shakeup of some sort and it turns out to be less than desirable leadership that could jeopardize everything. For example currently Valve is private and isn't beholden to really any outside forces, but with new leadership they could think going public is the way to go.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

I'm pretty sure GoG was having financial troubles since last year, but then tried pushing porn games which then lead to another form of backlash and in the end they're not quite out of the hole yet.

It doesn't quite help that they're connected to CD Project Red which has had their own corporate issues.

Valve's leadership seem very dependent on Gabe and if there's ever a shakeup of some sort and it turns out to be less than desirable leadership that could jeopardize everything. For example currently Valve is private and isn't beholden to really any outside forces, but with new leadership they could think going public is the way to go.

GOG's main issue is that they were trying to directly compete with Steam, while selling themselves as a DRM free platform, which is something that most of today's big publishers won't get behind. Now they are reorienting themselves and going back to their roots, retooling back to selling the classic, older games they started out selling.

As for Valve, they will be fine. Steam too big to be brought down now. Gabe has built up a very particular corporate culture in the company, and that will probably carry over to whoever takes over after him, since the promotion will probably come from within.

 

[Marissa Moira]

GOG's main issue is that they were trying to directly compete with Steam, while selling themselves as a DRM free platform, which is something that most of today's big publishers won't get behind. Now they are reorienting themselves and going back to their roots, retooling back to selling the classic, older games they started out selling.

As for Valve, they will be fine. Steam too big to be brought down now. Gabe has built up a very particular corporate culture in the company, and that will probably carry over to whoever takes over after him, since the promotion will probably come from within.

I don't know we've seen all large companies fuck up in assorted ways, being too big to fail doesn't mean you're not unable to be bought out. Like you can see with Activision, they fucked up big time and they're still around and were purchased by a larger corporation.

there's also how THQ failed, Nordic Games then bought their skin to wear, became Embracer Group and are now a very large player. They never really fully dissipated, but they in the process became part of some larger entity.

One scenario could be that Steam would be purchased by China that's now grown it's own digital platform since Steam was banished.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

I don't know we've seen all large companies fuck up in assorted ways, being too big to fail doesn't mean you're not unable to be bought out.

Except Gabe is never going to sell, and with Valve being a private company, they never will. Valve's size and the amount of money they make means there's no reason to sell in the first place. They make so much money on their own, why would they, and who would buy them?

 

[Marissa Moira]

Except Gabe is never going to sell, and with Valve being a private company, they never will. Valve's size and the amount of money they make means there's no reason to sell in the first place. They make so much money on their own, why would they, and who would buy them?

But that's what I'm saying what would happen after Gabe? That's the big unknown. I mean as far as buying them I just listed China who would do something exactly like that and purchase a large overseas company with a lot of reach.