Chefgon

Does anyone know if it has an option to display the tabs and pages in vertical stacks on the left like the Windows 10, iPad, iPhone, and Web versions? I’m not excited about one platform arbitrarily having a different layout.

1984 called…

That’s not how it works, though. This conversation always centers around the assumption that including new release games in a subscription will cause the publisher to make less money, but that’s simply not the case. There’s a reason why almost every content industry is switching over to subscription models, and it ain’t generosity.

Subscription models distribute a company’s earnings over a whole year instead of spiking and falling as new products release. If the service is successful and meets subscriber targets, the publisher earns MORE money than they would have with a direct sales model.

The subscription cost is calculated so that the annual total is greater than the average amount spent on direct sales. Since most users only buy one or two games a year, that results in a pretty good deal for those of us who play a lot of games.

Your early adopters are likely to be primarily users who used to spend above the average, which is why subscription services make such a big deal about subscriber counts. The more subscribers you get, the more likely you are to be scooping up users who used to spend below the average (and are now paying you more money each year than they used to).

Sony’s hesitation to jump on the day-and-date subscription bandwagon has nothing to do with protecting their income. They know full well that subscription services are more profitable than direct sales. Their gamble is that they can double-dip and convince their users to pay for both the subscription and the direct sales, but if the double dip strategy doesn’t work (i.e. they don’t hit their subscriber targets) you can bet the day-and-date subscription route is their primary fallback.

tl;dr – Subscription services are more profitable than direct sales. If Sony can’t convince enough people to pay them for their crappy service they will cannibalize their direct sales before they give up on the subscription revenue.

Didn’t realize Peacewalker had been ported. Crisis Core and Dissidia are still huge ones that I think would draw a lot of interest.

But what level of Windows navigation are you planning on doing? Boot your game launcher from the Start Menu and then use the gamepad to launch and play your game. Aya even includes their own gamepad-friendly launcher that pulls in games from Steam and other stores.

For the rare occasion that you need to change a setting in some legacy Windows menu, there’s a virtual trackpad that lets you navigate with a mouse cursor. Not as streamlined as a Switch, but really no worse than setting up non-Steam games in desktop mode on a Deck.

I’m disappointed to see only one PSP game in the launch lineup. The PSP is home to so many all-time great games that really deserve to be more widely available. I was hoping to see things like FF4 + After Years, Crisis Core, Peace Walker, Mega Man Powered Up, Maverick Hunter X, Dissidia, Daxter, Dracula X, etc.

Hopefully they beef up that selection soon because they’re sitting on a treasure trove of classic games in popular series that people might actually subscribe to be able to play.

I feel like the timed demos actually subtract from the perceived value of this service. In my head it just draws too much attention to the fact that Game Pass includes the entire game, and a time-limited demo just isn’t a comparable value.

I kind of get what they’re going for with the demos, but it’d be easier to be excited about if it was a free service of PSN, not something you pay a subscription for. It is, after all, essentially an advertisement to convince you to buy the game.

I’m 100% down for that Aya Neo Air. If they can sell that thing for $800 or less I’m getting one. I love the Switch Lite form factor, and OLED screens are amazing.

I’ve also used Windows 10 on plenty of small screen tablets like the Venue 8 Pro and the comments about it being impossible to use are overblown. I wouldn’t try to use Photoshop on it but launching apps is no more difficult than a similarly-sized iPad.

Market expectations have changed because of the Steam Deck. Competitors now need to get much closer to the expected price and performance or their products become irrelevant. I assure you they will try.

I paid actual money for a Nexus 9. Never again, Google.

I know I’m an old man, but I hate it when I’m doing something on a device that’s not my phone and it tells me to do something on my phone. Every time I need to do a 2FA login for work, or log into a streaming app on my TV, I have to get up and search the house to figure out where my dang phone is. I never have it with me when the prompt shows up.

I hope they do a second season where the game releases are synchronized for existing hardware owners. I really want to geek out about goofy games with fellow novelty seekers as they release.

It’s my opinion. I’m not trying to say that opinions are bad. We all have them, and that’s good.

I’m saying that having $44 billion doesn’t make your opinion better than anyone else’s.

If he’s just buying Twitter because he can and he wants to, then no problem. That’s his right. It’s the talk about how he’s going to single-handedly save civilization by reshaping public discourse to match his personal communication style that bugs me.

When people become billionaires they seem to get these god complexes where they think they’re actually doing the world a favor by wielding enormous personal power and reshaping the world in their own image. They think that by benefitting themselves they’re benefitting the world. That by keeping themselves in power they can keep society on track.

But there’s absolutely nothing about being a billionaire that makes you more qualified to run the world than any other random person off the street. Making a billion dollars means you’re good at making a billion dollars; the complex strategy and social skills you mastered in the process don’t necessarily make you good at everything else too.

Take your terrible business idea and just add crypto; now it’s even worse!

It makes me sick the way rich people think their personal whims are the only hope for society. Elon Musk’s opinions on how public discourse should be moderated are no more valid than any other person’s.

I want that.

I have a Series X in the living room and a Series S in the office and I’ve been consistently surprised by how similar the experience is between the two. If you bought a high-end TV just to play 4K HDR games (like I did) then of course the extra $200 is a no-brainer, but if you shopped around for the best bargain on an entry-level TV at the screen size you wanted then the Series S is very likely all you need to play the exact same game library.