Mitchell mckmerken

I genuinely hope the PS6 bombs in a way that makes the Wii U look like a success because Sony has genuinely lost the plot atp.

Can't wait for this to happen again.

I love y'all but pleASE DON'T SHADE YOUR REFERENCE SHEETS 😭🙏🙏

A lot of people don't understand this (especially with the rise of AI). You are not supposed to shade reference sheets. They are supposed to be flat colors + lineart to help the artist get the basics. Shading doesn't help because it messes with how the base colors look like.

The SCREEN Act, which will go for a full committee markup next Wednesday, on its own would force every single adult in the US to do ID/age verification. With that would come mass censorship & surveillance over the last bit of freedom and information we have - the internet.

call your reps and senators and tell em to vote no to the SCREEN act. If they do. You will vote them out

The goal is to make Sony change course, keep physical alive. For that we need to stay and voice our opinion. Leaving the platform entirely at this stage means one voice less that opposes their plans. It's a paradox, but for now, we need to stand our ground. Ultima ratio in 2028.

Addressing the shareholders instead of customers... Sony's no longer interested in servicing the gaming market, only their investors. They can "cautiously" fuck off.

Since PS6 is going all digital, just get a PC. Both will be expensive af but you don't need to pay to play online on PC, games discounts are WAY better, far more options and can run even better if you've got the hardware. Let Playstation have a Wii U generation.

I feel like people should know that it is 100% possible to digitize and preserve books WITHOUT destroying them. Guess what, WE DO IT AT LIBRARIES ALL THE TIME!!! Historic books? We carefully scan them without harming the physical copy. THE DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS TO THEM!!!

During today's earnings call Sony for the first time in a month reacted to the backlash against their attack on physical media. And it went about the way we expected. Let's analyze it. (Disclaimer: We are going off of the official English translation in the clip provided. It wasn't that long of a statement, but there might be minor inaccuracies in there.) First of all, they seem to emphasize that 18 months ahead of time is a respectable period to give notice. No comment on the fact that basically everyone was surprised by their announcement coming this soon, while PS5 is still going strong. Then they dive into the reasons. They claim there are "various", the biggest one being that "digitalization of contents overall has been progressing". This is a clear shift in language. Initially, they blamed it directly on consumer habits. We've shown how that reasoning doesn't fully hold up when looking at the numbers. Then they claim that digitalization does not only impact PlayStation, but "all kinds of content". And that is true. It has been on the rise for quite some years now. At the same time, this conveniently ignores any and all counter trends in recent years. It is a statement that makes it sound like their direction is inevitable on a global scale. But their direction is absolute. Their goal is to kill physical media entirely for games, while basically all other major entertainment sectors have at least a strong niche remaining, with various indicators that physical media is actually growing again. The recent Capcom report saw a 133 % rise compared to the same period of last year. The overall spending is up for physical games compared to the previous year (admittedly, aided by the Switch 2 release). Sony's own physical split last quarter is up, both compared to the quarter before and the same period last year. More and more signs point to a stable plateau of physical buyers at the very least. The call continues and they drop the big one. A few seconds of stuttering followed by, "We put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this, and we came to this conclusion, and we are cautiously going to move this forward." They are not really giving any insights here. It is a "trust me, bro" in business speak. At the same time, if we take these words at face value, it means they are aware of the consequences, but do it anyway. Endangering retailers across the globe by removing one of the biggest entertainment brands from the portfolio? Fuck them. Removing a choice for consumers who were loyal to the PlayStation brand? Fuck them. Stripping developers of an additional revenue stream and the chance to immortalize their art? Fuck them. Forcing all remaining customers into an ecosystem without customer protection legislation? Fuck them too. What thoughts did they put in exactly? The only word that might give hope is "cautiously". But even that could be read in two ways. Either they are more cautious not to spark more backlash, but they want to continue regardless. Or they are actually waking up to the fact that this might cause more harm to them than they initially anticipated. They follow up with "to this decision we have received various opinions and people have strong views" and how games are loved and connected to memories. The speaker claims that they "understand those emotions". Really? Why are they calling it emotions when there is a long list of legitimate criticism entirely rooted in facts, though? Because they don't want to acknowledge the facts. Sony tries to paint the backlash as emotional without substance. As completely unfounded in anything tangible. After this bit, they immediately continue to starting damage control for the future and start talking about the "future digital ecosystem". Again, in a manner that makes it sound without an alternative. "How do we engage the gamers, is something we would like to continue to explore", they say. What is that supposed to mean, you ask? It's entirely talking about how they can continue to boil the frog. This part of the statement was not revolving around giving customers anything. Our best guess is that it is the attempt to indirectly address the monopoly criticism, and that there is no customer protection in an all-digital future, and that customers will be entirely at the mercy of the platform with zero control over purchased goods. With this statement the clip concludes. The overall tone remained. Cold, distant, no real explanations, no apologies for the past weeks either. But they did get a message. It had some impact. They ran damage control here. 100 % confidence would look different. But they won't correct course for now. It is up to us to continue. If anything, we need to step it up now. #PSBlackout is just one of those steps. Many more need to be taken. This needs a collective effort from all gamers, regardless of how you like to play your games. x.com/ethangach/stat…

The difference in presentation: Pic 1: Ultra casual Sony on sharing PlayStation disc games with others. Pic 2: Ultra corporate Sony on killing PlayStation disc games entirely for everyone. #PlayStation #NoDiscNoBuy #PS5 #Sony

Fuck @Sony. No disc, no buy. PS5 will be my last console from you at this point.

The fact that Sony only responded during its earnings call says it all really.

Holy shit what a horrible response. Shame on you @PlayStation !

Update: We had prepared this post in advance, so we decided to publish it. However, Sony did make a statement this morning. Regrettably, it appears they are not planning to reconsider their position. Save Physical Discs - No Disc No Buy

Cancel your GTA6 Preorder + cancel your PSN+ auto renewal + move onto a different platform + MAKE SURE PS6 FLOP BIG TIME, IT SHOULD FEEL EMBARASSING TO BUY A PS6

Ok, we give up now, right? Seriously, though, don't let a bit of corpo speak during an earnings call keep you from fighting for your rights and for what you love! Sony was never going to just cave after a few weeks of backlash. But they do see us! This is only the beginning!

The fact Sony chooses to address the physical games backlash with their investors instead of the players is a very telling sign

The sheer arrogance is disgusting. If you don’t give a shit about your consumer base, why should I give a shit about your products? I grew up with PS1 but I just don’t see myself supporting PlayStation as a platform any more if this is how little they think of their audience.