Sony faces another class-action lawsuit over PlayStation Store prices and monopolistic practices
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game consoles aren’t a general-purpose computing device
I know that’s the legal argument that manufacturers make, but it’s always been bad faith. Long gone are the days when a console does one thing: play games. Now they stream, have web browsers, social media, apps… they’ve been general purpose for many, many years. Being locked down anti-competitively is not an excuse for something to be locked down anti-competitively.
I agree with your argument overall, but I think it would be reasonable to say they are broader-purpose computing devices now, and are not yet general-purpose. Consumers don’t have an expectation to reach for their game console to do an arbitrary thing. They generally can expect their phone or laptop to.
“There’s an app for that” just isn’t true for huge swathes of apps on almost all consoles.
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No PC that isn’t a lower spec handheld can pick up and play like a console, and even that list is very short. Consoles are also, at least for a few years, the far more economical decision when it comes or acquiring the base hardware. It’s maybe changed now since we’re over halfway through this cycle but I’d challenge anyone here to match a digital PS4 for $400 USD with a PC. It’s a tall order.
I am now a strictly PC gamer. It’s better for most things. But consoles still make sense to a lot of people. No fuss, in your games fast, simple experience, plug into your tv and go with the controller they gave you.
I totally agree and it’s a pleasure to read someone who’s able to talk about the advantages of each side.
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I totally agree and it’s a pleasure to read someone who’s able to talk about the advantages of each side.
Ah I think I misinterpreted the thrust of your comment
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No PC that isn’t a lower spec handheld can pick up and play like a console, and even that list is very short. Consoles are also, at least for a few years, the far more economical decision when it comes or acquiring the base hardware. It’s maybe changed now since we’re over halfway through this cycle but I’d challenge anyone here to match a digital PS4 for $400 USD with a PC. It’s a tall order.
I am now a strictly PC gamer. It’s better for most things. But consoles still make sense to a lot of people. No fuss, in your games fast, simple experience, plug into your tv and go with the controller they gave you.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Maybe it’s because I don’t use it enough but the last Sony console I bought was the absolute opposite of “no fuss”. It was nothing but mandatory unskippable updates and I constantly got signed out and had to sign in and the 2fa app kept changing names. And also all those updates and sign-ins had mandatory EULAS you had to scroll through. Such a hassle.
Edit: also it tried to talk to my Sony tv in some “smart” way over HDMI (so I couldn’t disable it) which would sometimes cause my TV to crash and reboot for several minutes.
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We sold our PS and now have a gaming PC hooked up to the TV.
Been a few teething issues with convenience issues like being able to turn it on from the couch, but the experience has gotten pretty smooth now.
wrote last edited by [email protected]If you have a dumb TV you can use a USB to CEC adapter that talks to the tv. If you have a smart TV it is probably supported by Home Assistant so you can rig your computer to wake the TV.
Edit: both of these solutions are arguably no-code-required but I agree they’re a bit technically involved.
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How is it even going to work though? The SDK is under NDA, there is no documentation and devkits are not sold freely, so random studios can’t just develop games for Playstation and upload to a 3rd party marketplace
Assuming they are forced to open up their platform, I'm sure they would be required to make changes to make it possible for others to use it.
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Well I bought my ps5 a while ago, but I think that despite the price increase, it’s still cheaper than a comparable PC.
As for the no fuss experience, my Steam Deck, which I love and have had for a few month, has already given more to tinker and solve than my ps5 in a few years.
I just think that the Playstation experience isn’t as good and cheap as it used to be compared to PC.
Cheapness ended after PS3 era I think. Even if it (ps4, ps5) is cheaper than a comparable PC, online access after a year or two would probably ruin all the savings.
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Maybe it’s because I don’t use it enough but the last Sony console I bought was the absolute opposite of “no fuss”. It was nothing but mandatory unskippable updates and I constantly got signed out and had to sign in and the 2fa app kept changing names. And also all those updates and sign-ins had mandatory EULAS you had to scroll through. Such a hassle.
Edit: also it tried to talk to my Sony tv in some “smart” way over HDMI (so I couldn’t disable it) which would sometimes cause my TV to crash and reboot for several minutes.
As an aside. I fucking hate smart TV shit. We were gifted a like Samsung 80 inch 4K tv and I was so excited to get that as a gift. I’d never had a tv bigger than 35. But all the smart shit makes it such a miserable experience.
I’ve also decided I hate HDR. Who made the decision that the TV has its own HDR settings, the console has HDR settings, and then individual games have settings as well. I have no clue if my shit is looking the way it’s supposed to. I recently got a PS portal and on god everything looks better on it than the TV, I think because it’s preconfigured.
I miss just plugging in the game and it looking fine.
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As an aside. I fucking hate smart TV shit. We were gifted a like Samsung 80 inch 4K tv and I was so excited to get that as a gift. I’d never had a tv bigger than 35. But all the smart shit makes it such a miserable experience.
I’ve also decided I hate HDR. Who made the decision that the TV has its own HDR settings, the console has HDR settings, and then individual games have settings as well. I have no clue if my shit is looking the way it’s supposed to. I recently got a PS portal and on god everything looks better on it than the TV, I think because it’s preconfigured.
I miss just plugging in the game and it looking fine.
Yea, hdr is very standardized.
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Cheapness ended after PS3 era I think. Even if it (ps4, ps5) is cheaper than a comparable PC, online access after a year or two would probably ruin all the savings.
Agreed but you can play only offline without missing on much. I currently have the ps plus for a few more months, but I’m dropping it as the only one playing online is my son and hés playing fortnite.
But, if you’re an online player, it’s gonna be cheaper to play on pc.
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I don't get how Apple has to open their shit up (although they're certainly dragging their heels over it and sulking like a toddler) but Sony, MS and Nintendo don't.
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Maybe it’s because I don’t use it enough but the last Sony console I bought was the absolute opposite of “no fuss”. It was nothing but mandatory unskippable updates and I constantly got signed out and had to sign in and the 2fa app kept changing names. And also all those updates and sign-ins had mandatory EULAS you had to scroll through. Such a hassle.
Edit: also it tried to talk to my Sony tv in some “smart” way over HDMI (so I couldn’t disable it) which would sometimes cause my TV to crash and reboot for several minutes.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I mean if you read through EULA’s respect but they take seconds to get past. As for updates, I’m guessing you turned off auto updates and/or power your console down completely whenever you’re not playing it. Otherwise it should just be updating in the background and you never have to wait. That’s been typical for over a decade.
I’m not saying those aren’t viable decisions if you want to disable all that or read everything, but the stuff you were encountering was completely avoidable. I never triggered 2FA on either my Xbox (one -> XSS) or PS4 so I’m not sure what you did to trip that up.
Every TV lets you disable smart link so you could’ve killed that if you wanted to as well. I hate it as well! I don’t want the power button between my console and TV to be linked
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If you have a dumb TV you can use a USB to CEC adapter that talks to the tv. If you have a smart TV it is probably supported by Home Assistant so you can rig your computer to wake the TV.
Edit: both of these solutions are arguably no-code-required but I agree they’re a bit technically involved.
Yeah I ran into these solutions but unfortunately I can't seem to find any USB-CEC adapter other than the Pulse Eight, which doesn't seem to ship to Australia in any economical manner.
I ended up getting a Flirc USB, couldn't get the existing TV remote to work with that (once paired with the TV it stops sending IR signals, and the TV wouldn't let me select the PC input as needing to activate the IR mode on the remote), ordered the Flirc Skip 1s... and now that's working well enough we're using the Skip1s as the primary remote for the TV as well. About 150AUD down the hole for this solution, and it's not truly turning the PC off, but close enough!
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I mean if you read through EULA’s respect but they take seconds to get past. As for updates, I’m guessing you turned off auto updates and/or power your console down completely whenever you’re not playing it. Otherwise it should just be updating in the background and you never have to wait. That’s been typical for over a decade.
I’m not saying those aren’t viable decisions if you want to disable all that or read everything, but the stuff you were encountering was completely avoidable. I never triggered 2FA on either my Xbox (one -> XSS) or PS4 so I’m not sure what you did to trip that up.
Every TV lets you disable smart link so you could’ve killed that if you wanted to as well. I hate it as well! I don’t want the power button between my console and TV to be linked
For the updates: I put it to sleep. However my power cuts out every now and then. When the power comes back, the ps4 turns itself back on on and makes obnoxious beeping noises, just to tell me the power was cut. The dumb thing is it will stay on that screen until manually dismissed and won’t auto-update until you dismiss that screen, with no timeout. The hassle-free appliance experience!
For your claim that the eulas being easy to skip, keep in mind that sometimes there were back-to-back updates that each required me to agree to a eula. So I would babysit the thing, walk away when it was taking forever, and when I came back it wouldn’t even be ready for gaming. Even windows isn’t that obnoxious.
Also my tv at the time had no way to disable CEC (my new one does, and also doesn’t crash lol).
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For the updates: I put it to sleep. However my power cuts out every now and then. When the power comes back, the ps4 turns itself back on on and makes obnoxious beeping noises, just to tell me the power was cut. The dumb thing is it will stay on that screen until manually dismissed and won’t auto-update until you dismiss that screen, with no timeout. The hassle-free appliance experience!
For your claim that the eulas being easy to skip, keep in mind that sometimes there were back-to-back updates that each required me to agree to a eula. So I would babysit the thing, walk away when it was taking forever, and when I came back it wouldn’t even be ready for gaming. Even windows isn’t that obnoxious.
Also my tv at the time had no way to disable CEC (my new one does, and also doesn’t crash lol).
wrote last edited by [email protected]my power cuts every now and then
I mean dude that’s just a larger problem. If you were PC gaming that would be an even bigger issue. What appliance carries a backup battery?
Get a surge protector with battery - APC is a very affordable brand. I’ve had the same one for 5 years, cost me $150. I use it to keep my PC and RAID online.
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my power cuts every now and then
I mean dude that’s just a larger problem. If you were PC gaming that would be an even bigger issue. What appliance carries a backup battery?
Get a surge protector with battery - APC is a very affordable brand. I’ve had the same one for 5 years, cost me $150. I use it to keep my PC and RAID online.
Yea I have one for my PC. Sony argues in court that a PlayStation is not a PC, but an appliance. I’m pointing out how untrue that is.
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Yea I have one for my PC. Sony argues in court that a PlayStation is not a PC, but an appliance. I’m pointing out how untrue that is.
wrote last edited by [email protected]What PC or appliance stays on when your power cuts off?
Honestly I don’t even know if that’s a question I need to ask. I can’t even follow what your argument is anymore
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What PC or appliance stays on when your power cuts off?
Honestly I don’t even know if that’s a question I need to ask. I can’t even follow what your argument is anymore
No machine stays on without power, I’m not quite sure how you interpreted my statement that way. I’m saying all my other appliances recover gracefully from power loss and do whatever auto-updates they need to do in the background so when I go to use them they just work.
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No machine stays on without power, I’m not quite sure how you interpreted my statement that way. I’m saying all my other appliances recover gracefully from power loss and do whatever auto-updates they need to do in the background so when I go to use them they just work.
wrote last edited by [email protected]So your oven/microwave/etc. are all good? No clock reset required?
Your computer doesn’t take longer to boot if it doesn’t have backup power?
The PS4 needed you to click one button and it moved on. It adds like 20s to boot time if it loses power.
You’re not moving goalposts, you’re changing how score is kept dude
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So your oven/microwave/etc. are all good? No clock reset required?
Your computer doesn’t take longer to boot if it doesn’t have backup power?
The PS4 needed you to click one button and it moved on. It adds like 20s to boot time if it loses power.
You’re not moving goalposts, you’re changing how score is kept dude
wrote last edited by [email protected]I don’t understand where the confrontation came from, but I guess if that’s what you want you can have it. I literally told you two posts ago about how it’s not just waiting for 20s and clicking a button. It’s an attended upgrade and scrolling process. I won’t bother quoting what I wrote 3 minutes ago, go scroll up and read it again yourself. No, my microwave does not present me with EULAs when the power goes out.
What “score” are you talking about? Do you take personal offense when a Sony product sucks? Did you invent the PlayStation or something? I was just sharing my lived experience.
