The PS5 shortage is an absolute mess and the problem isn’t solely scalpers. Curse you, scalpers! As much as I don’t like scalpers, I have to take note of the real issue. The only reason scalpers are relentlessly trying to beat out the everyday consumer and make double the money back, is because of the massive shortage of next gen consoles. I don’t feel like there is any company to particularly blame, because this shortage was directly caused by the world pandemic, among other industry factors that have been building up for a while now, but we’ll get to that in a moment. While we all expect initial release days to sell out consoles and make them difficult to find, more than 6 months after release we are used to consoles being a little more available and the scalpers would have normally backed off this point. Since you’re here, you know that’s not the case. There is a global semiconductor shortage and that is the real issue here. It doesn’t only affect Sony and Microsoft, it affects just about every technology company out there. When it comes to consoles, cell phones, pc’s, etc, these companies rely on others to create the parts they need to build a device. They need these chips in order to manufacture PS5 consoles, and all manner of other electronics as well. Well, not only has this chip shortage affected the production of PS5 and yes, Xbox Series X/S, but it is looking like the problem won’t be going away anytime soon. We have seen small bursts of the PS5 becoming available here and there, but these waves are miniscule and some analysts are claiming that the shortage is reaching crisis levels. That is just the opinion of some not necessarily the view of others in that part of the industry. From the sounds, AMD seems pretty confident that the company will be on track this year to ramp production and start getting those chips out there. In the meantime, I am guessing that the shortage will in fact turn around for the holiday season in 2021 and therefore leaving consumers with something that will feel like a first release all over again. I’m just guessing, but people that are seemingly experts in the industry seem to think the shortage will reverse in 2022. I’m not trying to raise the alarms here and discourage anyone’s hopes of grabbing a PS5 or any other device for that matter. I’m just trying to be on the level. If Sony could drop more consoles, they definitely would, but it just isn’t that simple. Not when they are competing for more chips against companies like Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Ford, Tesla and the list goes on and on. More consoles are definitely on the way, so fingers crossed AMD manages to pull it off. Worst case scenario, the shortage ends in time for the PS6! That’s a bad joke and seemed funnier in my head. How … Read More
New PS5 VR Controllers announced, Sony buys Evo Championships and Dying Light 2 news update inside!
The weekend is here and what better time to catch up on this week’s gaming news highlights than on a Friday? I appreciate you taking a moment to catch up with us and that being said, let’s move onto this week’s highlights! To get us started, Sony has announced a new handset for PlayStation VR and I will tell you what, I would use these even if I wasn’t playing a VR title (is that even possible?). While PSVR owners have been using the traditional PS4 controller (DS4) for their VR game sessions, it seems Sony has finally caught up to the likes of controllers that can be used with the Oculus and the HTC something. Many of us have been quietly jealous of these style of controllers as they really free up your hands can things even more immersive. Keep in mind these were announced as PS5 VR controllers, so we don’t know if they’ll have any backward compatibility with PS4. It seems unlikely as the Dual Sense controller for PS5 doesn’t work with PS4. If it does, you can expect the haptic feedback features that are built in, will probably be disabled. Oh, by the way, these PS5VR controllers have haptic feedback built in. Boom! Excited for some Dying Light 2 updates? Yeah, us too! If only Techland could give us some useful info instead of mocking the internet trolls and letting us know the game is currently being developed… I don’t like bashing on developers. They work hard and their jobs are incredibly stressful (especially when working for large companies like Activision, EA, Ubisoft and yes, Techlamd considering they self publish now). But when it comes to announcing that you have an announcement for a game that has been getting the development treatment for what seems like ages now, you kind of expect more than 13 seconds of gameplay and a bunch of nasty tweets being read off by the developers. Thank you for letting us know the game is still being worked on. You could have tweeted that and probably saved a few dollars in the process, Techland. So, yeah… there’s your Dying Light update. I was pretty disappointed too. Sorry. Speaking of developers and publishers, I’m sorry to say that Activision Blizzard has laid off 50 employees and word has it that the number is actually much higher. No idea how much higher, but so far, 50 have been confirmed. The employees laid off were not developers, but they were part of a team that set up and took care of in-person live events. Because the pandemic has created such regulations as social distancing (at least in the U.S.), most of these venues have turned to digital showings instead. Man, that just goes to show you how bad things have been. I hope the laid personnel manage to hang in there and get back to work when and where possible. It is a jungle out there and it seems like … Read More
PS5 is breaking sales records, but still hard to come by!
Hello and welcome to another issue of PS Weekly! I have compiled some the latest news regarding video games this week. Unfortunately, I’m still waiting for the day I can tell you that PS5 consoles are available to anyone that wants one, but that news is looking grim for now. Sadly, the AMD chip shortage continues to plague console production. AMD expects production of the chip to ramp up in the second half of 2021 and many are hopeful that by the time the holiday season lands at the end of year, there will be plenty of consoles to finally go around. In the meantime, if there are any PS Plus games for the PS5, but you’re still on the PS4, you can use the PlayStation app or go online to the official website and save those titles for later on. In other gaming news, Sony is getting slapped with a lawsuit over the PS5’s Dual Sense controller. Apparently, there are enough PS5 owners out there having an analog stick drift issue to create a class action lawsuit against the company. The complaint is not solely based on the drift issue, but the fact that consumers have to pay for shipping the controller and long turnover times of repair. I don’t think this lawsuit will hold any water in the end as the number of complaints are fairly small and the law firm bringing the lawsuit against Sony wasn’t approached by consumers, but took it upon themselves to find clients to join their suit. Sounds like a typical money grab from your everyday law firm, but we will see what comes of it over time. Speaking of Sony and the PS5, one word always comes to mind when I think of the brand… Scalper! Sure, they’ve always been around, but with the pandemic and shortage of consoles, scalpers are in the spotlight more than ever before. Well, it would seem many scalpers are tired of getting a bad rep. They feel like they’re just doing what everyone else would do, which is try to make a little extra money. One scalper group called The Lab, is claiming they’re just the middleman and feel like the media is simply giving them a bad name. When the world is suffering and so many people are forced to stay home social distance, video games can really help pass the time. I was lucky enough (and still grateful) to snag a preorder and get a PS5 on launch day, but so many people are missing out because scalpers are just trying to make a buck… I get it. We all want to make extra money, but nothing anyone says to me is going to make me feel ok with all the scalping. If you’re scalping a PS5 to make double the profit, that’s not cool. If anything, you should find someone that really wants one, charge them an extra $100 bucks be on your way. Sorry not sorry. That’s just how I … Read More
Sony ending production of most PS4’s in Japan and Microsoft based the Xbox on PS2?
Hi everyone, thanks for dropping by to catch up on some of the latest news in the world of gaming. In light of everything that has been going on in the United States, I’m a few days late on my regular report and I apologize for that, but we’re not here to discuss that. We’re here to discuss video games! So, Nintendo is expected to outsell the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S in 2021, according to several industry analysts. It won’t just outsell the latest generation of consoles, but it is expected to be the top console all year. Word is, there will be a new “pro” version of the Nintendo Switch and if that is the case, it would only help bolster Nintendo’s sales even further. Let’s be honest here, none of these companies are hurting for money right now and it’s nice to see someone else outselling the PS console at the moment because it will only pressure companies to up the ante and compete for top spot! There is no doubt that Nintendo has created a great little console and in some ways it is in a market of its own, but with the pandemic world wide, Sony and Microsoft alike are having trouble producing enough consoles to meet the demand. 2021 is surely going to be an interesting year for consoles and games. Speaking of producing consoles, Sony has announced the company will stop production of all PS4 models in Japan, except for one slim model. The PS4 has been outselling the PS5 in Japan and some of the reasoning sighted is the issue with low production, so cutting back on the PS4 should increase the number of PS5’s available, right? Of course, there seems to be a decline for Playstation products in Japan, so that could also play a part. If analysts’ predictions are correct, there will be enough consoles for everyone that really wants one by April, so if you have been waiting, it shouldn’t be too much longer. In other console tidbits, here are a bit of some interesting facts about what was going on pre-original Xbox development. Before Microsoft came up with the Xbox console, they shopped around for a few companies that had already been in the industry. MS looked into purchasing companies like Electronic Arts, but EA kindly declined as they the company wasn’t up for sale, even more interesting, Microsoft went onto to ask Nintendo if they would consider being bought out. Ahh, to be a fly on that wall, huh? As it turns out, the execs at Nintendo busted out in laughter and seemingly laughed throughout the meeting. The idea really makes you wonder what things would be like if that transaction actually happened. I think if either Microsoft or Sony did manage to buy Nintendo, that would forever end the console wars and would ultimately create the most powerful game company in history and likely the future. The possibilities for Mario and … Read More
Next Gen in short supply until April? PS5 bugs and more in PS Weekly #7
Welcome back to another issue of PS Weekly! I have to say that it has been a crazy week for all of us here at PS5 gamers. With the release of the PS5, a handful of new games, the upgradeable games to PS5 and not to mention the PS Plus Collection, it feels like there just isn’t enough time to cover everything in just 5 days. So, before we cover this news update, I’d just like to say that we have a lot of content coming to the website, but please bear with us while we roll it all out. We’re a small team, but we’re dedicated to giving you the fact, real opinions and distinguishing between the two. Without further ado, let’s move onto the news! The PS5 console had its first release drop on Thursday, November 12th, and to nobody’s surprise, the console completely sold across all retailers within minutes of each store going live. With scalpers hard at work securing orders and jacking up the resale price more than double on average, there is rightfully a lot of frustration from Gamers that actually wanted to buy a console for themselves. One thing that the entire gaming industry seems to agree on, is that we can expect next gen consoles to be in shortage until April, 2021. That is of course just a prediction, but seems viable. In the meantime, the PS5 is set to launch this Thursday (Nov. 19th), in Europe, Asia, South America, South Africa and the Middle East. There will likely be a shortage in all regions, so if you’re hoping to buy on release day in any of these regions, start preparing now. Congratulations to all that will be playing on day one in these regions. It’s a pretty big deal! Speaking of the PS5, the first post launch update for the PS5 console was released today. The update is mandatory, but pretty small. It comes in at under 900mb, but we don’t have any patch notes at the time of writing this article aside from the note that says it improves system performance. So, nothing special to actually tell you, I hope I didn’t get anyone’s hopes up. With every new console release, there is bound to be some issues. While I personally haven’t had any bad experiences with my PlayStation 5, that doesn’t mean that others aren’t. There have been a slew of reports that some of the consoles are plagued with buzzing noise coming from the console. While Sony has yet to comment on the issue, I have read several complaints myself that have come with attached video of the sound buzzing. No one actually knows what is causing the noise, but many seem to think it has something to do with the units cooling system. One of the examples shown in the video was someone playing Bugsnax, a fairly small game title that won’t push the limits of the console. After playing a minute of Bugsnax, the … Read More
Playstation weekly – Issue #3
Hello and welcome to another issue of PlayStation Weekly! As I said last week, there are going to be lots of PS5 news updates as we get closer to the release date of the console and this week is no different. Let’s get to it and go over the latest news updates! The Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta has reached its end after getting an extra day extended. While some love it and others hate it (a common cod trend), worry not CoD fans! There will be plenty for you to do until November 3rd, 2020. Modern Warfare has some special tricks and treats for you in Verdansk starting today! Dubbed “Haunting in Verdansk”, you’ll get to trick or treat around Warzone and get special limited time items as well as the chance to purchase some spooky new skins based on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s main villain Leatherface as well as Saw’s Billy the Puppet and much more. Don’t forget that Warzone is free if you want to check it out. Traditional Multiplayer will also be getting a few festive game modes as well. In straightforward PlayStation news, PS4 owners received the latest update for console version 8.00. The update caused mass outages for different services that didn’t affect everybody, but certainly seemed to have an effect on the majority. Anywhere from not being able to access PSN servers at all to not being able to see your friends list, Gamers across social media cried foul and made it clear they weren’t too pleased with the errors. The good news is, it seemed to be cleared up within a day or so and things are back to normal for most. The bad news is, people are still complaining and seem to let it go. “I remember one time I had planned my day around using my PS4 to play some online games. There was an update and like the arrogant fool I was, decided to download and install it and figured it would be just fine. I was wrong… seconds turned into minutes. Minutes turned into hours. I spent a while 24 hours without sleep, just sitting there while I checked the status of services. Sony took an entire day of my life away and I’ll never get it back. I’ll never let it go…” If this is you, let me give you a small piece of advice. 1. Let it go. 2. Next time something like this happens, you have a choice to do other things. Maybe look into those other choices instead of spending a day being miserable and stressed over something you have no control over? Moving along, we have learned several new things about the upcoming PS5. For starters, the internet seems frustrated with a party chat recording policy that is apparently being looked into by Sony and could possibly be scrapped before the PS5’s release. With update 8.00, our PS4’s notified us that if we join a party chat that is hosted … Read More
PlayStation Weekly – Issue #1
Welcome to the first of issue PlayStation Weekly! I appreciate you taking the time to check up on the latest gaming involving PlayStation. As news breaks and we get closer to the PS5 launch, you can expect to find a lot of info here in the coming weeks ahead! Now, let’s get into the highlights of the last week. PS5 To Outsell PS4 In First Fiscal Year Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan has opened up on future sales predictions for the PS5. Ryan has stated that he believes the PS5 will outpace (outsell) the sales of PS4 in the first fiscal year. The PlayStation 4 sold around 7 million units within its first fiscal year, but for Jim Ryan to predict PS5 will eclipse those numbers, gives us hope for a large number of consoles available at launch throughout the first fiscal year. While that doesn’t do much for those in hopes of another pre-order wave (come on Sony! We know you’re not done with pre-orders yet!!), it should offer some comfort for those that solely intend to make the purchase on or after launch day. If you are hoping for another wave or pre-orders, keep your eyes on our site and social media pages. We will immediately post any news on that front. Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Open Beta Set To Begin This Week That’s right, another year down, another Call of Duty release. Interested in checking out the game before you buy it? Well, this weekend you’ll have your chance to try it out in beta form. PS4 players that want to play the beta can do so on October 10th – 12th. Players will be able to download the free open beta this Saturday morning and play at 10:00 am PST. In the meantime, fans that have already preordered the game will be able to download the beat right now and play early. Early access to the beta will begin on October 8th at 10:00 am PST and play until the beta ends. Unless of course the beta goes live early which would be of no real surprise. A second round for the beta will be available to play for all PS4 owners on October 15th – 19th, so there will be plenty of time for most of us to get in there and check it out. Japanese Streamers Went Hands On With PS5 This past Sunday, Japanese Streamers got the chance to go hands on with the PS5 and so far it’s been only good things to be said, not that we should expect any less. Players have been boasting about how the yet to be released PS5 actually is and how fast load times are. This isn’t something I found to be too surprising as these are features that we’ve been hearing about. I guess it’s just nice to hear some gamers confirm that these features do seem to be on par with what we’ve been told. … Read More
PS4 – The end of an era?
The time is upon us that we see next gen consoles begin to take over the market as preorders continue to be a mess and sell out within what seems to be minutes. It’s a big deal in general for hardcore gamers, but with the world wide pandemic, it’s an even hotter commodity as more people are turning to in-home entertainment and relentless online preorder scalpers seem to be out in full force. Preorders a mess aside, we are once again seeing the end of a console generation that will soon be dubbed last-gen. The PS4 might be around for several years to come, but the reality is, it’s the end of an era. At least my mind, anyway. I have had every PS console so far and let’s be honest, there’s only been 4 prior to what’s coming and that really isn’t a feat as much as it might show my age. I have enjoyed each one thoroughly and with each new release, I have appreciated the leaps and bounds they have made in technology. The PS4 though, that standouts a little more for me. The PS4 was my first actual release day console. Prior to the PS4, I just never had any luck being able to get a console the day it releases. When I managed to get my preorder, I was lucky. A Target store about 45 minutes from where I lived had one preorder in stock and I had to drive there to secure it. Luckily for me, it was still on the rack. I gave them my $25 deposit and waited eagerly until the day I could pick it up. As a longtime gamer that truly does have a passion for video games, it was an amazing day. I had a PS4 on release day. I had my first console on release day. I’ll never forget that feeling. While I have my PS5 preorder secure and I await that day to come, I can’t help but feel differently about it this time around l. Preorders were a nightmare and I am grateful I could score one, but I was prepared ahead of time and had a little inside info to be ready for the orders to live prematurely. Insider info or not, I was extremely lucky to be able to grab one. When I got my PS4, it was different in the way that I missed the preorder window altogether. I didn’t want to stand in line at a store in the early hours before they opened in hopes that I might get one. I just happened to stumble upon a target preorder online that said there was one left in stock. Maybe I was lucky and no one was actually searching for a preorder at that time and someone by chance canceled their order, but again, that feeling of securing a PS4 was just like no other. I remember playing BloodBorne for the first time. Admittedly, the game had … Read More
Play has no limits, but PS5 pre-orders certainly do…The great PS5 Pre-order Fiasco!!
So, we got to watch the PS5 event yesterday and it was mostly a recap of things we were already aware of. Don’t get me wrong, there were a few tidbits that hadn’t been shown before, but nothing we saw yesterday should have been all that surprising. At least not with the game lineup we catered to. I believe the majority of us were there to watch for two things. How much will the PS5 consoles cost and when can we preorder them? Well, Sony did drop the console prices for us. Full disc version of PS5 is $500 USD and the digital PS5 drops in at $400 USD. What came as a surprise to many wasn’t the price, if anything the price was more of a relief. No, the real surprise was the fact that Sony didn’t even mention preorders. I think for many of us, we weren’t just surprised about the lack of details, but a lot of us kind of shrugged it off like we were expecting Sony to make an announcement about preorders and we would have a week or more to prepare to spam out checkout buttons. Nope, not even close! About two hours after the event, Twitter lit up with confirmation that PS5 preorders would in fact go live sometime today at select retailers. Well, with less than a 24 hour notice to prepare to try and order online or possibly in person at stores, Walmart stepped in and offered preorders just minutes after the announcement. So much for Sony promising that the public wouldn’t be surprised with preorders suddenly going live. While we can’t hold Sony accountable for the actions of retailers, giving us less than 24 hours to prepare to preorder was certainly on them and I think the reason it all went down this way is thanks to a false Bloomberg article claiming a massive PS5 shortage which led to Sony shares dropping more than 3.5% in the stock market. Shares have certainly risen back up after the preorders went live and the world saw just how much demand there is for next gen console hardware. So, what happened after Walmart released preorders? Well, others followed suit of course. Target, Best Buy and GameStop opened up their pre orders along with several other major retailers in the UK. Amazon eventually jumped on the bandwagon and started adding PS5 accessories for preorder and even the PS5 went up. Sure, that all sounds simple enough, but the fact of the matter is, it was a mess in the end. From retailer sites crashing to Amazon canceling mass preorders that were apparently not supposed to go live when they did, not everyone got the chance to preorder a PS5 and let’s be honest, not only are people upset, but they have a right to be with this one. What does it mean to be a Gamer? This YouTube video really explains a lot about it! https://youtu.be/LfSIk0lbtDc The first wave of PS5 preorders has got to … Read More
Are robots part of the future for gaming?
I have been gaming for many years and I’ve seen a lot of changes along the way. Watching the video game industry practically grow along with me, I feel like I have a certain appreciation for it all. Going from Atari 2600 to a Playstation 4 over the course of 30 to 40 some odd years, It’s crazy to look back and think about it all. Great improvements aside, we have seen a mass of failures along the way. We’ve been duped with some really crappy gimmicks over time that are nearly unforgivable. Let us not forget Nintendo’s Virtual Boy. back when commercials reigned supreme if you didn’t have an active video games magazine subscription to help get the actual details. All in all, it was not a good product and virtual reality would continue to be just another pipe dream. Until recent years that is. Wireless controllers were trash products for years. The signals were easily broken when a ceiling fan was turned on, let alone other appliances running in the home at the time. We had a slew of products thrown at us every year and they all sounded great, but technology wasn’t where it needed to be. But without those failures, we wouldn’t have what we have now and it’s only getting better. All that being said, it brings us to our subject of the day… Robots! Yes, robots just might become the next major gaming gimmick. I use the term “gimmick” loosely because it could go either way. Anyway, you’re probably wondering why I chose to discuss robots as part of the gaming industries future. Well, Sony has recently filed a patent for a robot companion. Yes, a robot companion… This is just a patent and doesn’t mean anything will come out of it, but this also gives us an idea of what is being worked on behind closed doors. Take it with a grain of salt if you will, but it’s still an interesting and dare I say “fun” topic to discuss? The gist of the Sony’s robot companion patent is that the robot will sit next to the player and observe them playing video games. While the companion bot watches you play, it will also take note of your reactions/emotions and share your feelings. If you get upset over a game, the robot will be upset with you. If you’re happy and excited over an accomplishment, so will your companion. Even more so, the companion bot isn’t limited to just watching you play video games. It can watch movies with you, tv, formats of the like and it can even be your player 2 for games featuring couch co-op. The idea is that it is better to have a companion than to be alone, even if it’s artificial intelligence. Que sci-fi movie flashbacks now… The idea of such tech is fascinating and a little creepy at the same time. On one hand, this seems like fairly simple technology … Read More