@Dark_Matters: While I can see your point, one thing to keep in mind is that the sum isn't always equal to all parts when it comes to games. Some games have tons of flaws yet only really one thing going for them. If that one thing however is good enough it can outweigh the numerous flaws. Similarly a game can seem awesome on paper but have that one single flaw that makes the game unfun. Some games have something good that you can't really convey through a review but keeps the gamer playing regardless of flaws.
Now, I haven't played this game so I obviously can't tell if this is an accurate review or not. Nor do I know your tastes so I can't tell if the score would be accurate for you. Just pointing out that some games really are good or bad, despite the things that can be quantified.
@sellingthings: I suppose I'm a bit more naive because I chose to believe them, at least partly. I'm sure there's some fixes in the patch, but I do believe that the main thing with this patch is, as they say, features. Square might make a lot of stupid decisions when it comes to some of their games, but at least in my experience with FF games (mainly FFXIV recently) they're fairly open and honest when it comes to their development and patching. Although, I'm not naive enough to take everything they say at face value.
@tessellatedguy: How can it be a downgrade from something that doesn't exist? I would completely agree if there was a PC version. But if there isn't one, then there's nothing to downgrade from.
To clarify, I'm talking about the scenario where there isn't a PC version and they only release it for consoles by the way. As I said, if there is a PC and console version then yes, the PC version would most likely be far superior in almost every way. And the console version would be a downgrade.
@slickwilly06: The thing is, do you think these games would be made in the first place without the security of the money offered for these exclusives? It's a huge risk to make a game to a platform (VR) that has so few potential customers. Getting a large chunk of money from Facebook makes them willing to take the risk in the first place. So yea, it's annoying to see the market split. But when the choice is exclusive game or no game at all? Then the choice is a bit harder to make IMO. Of course I would prefer every game to be available on every platform. But who's gonna pay for them? The roughly 200-300k people that actually has a VR headset? Even if everyone bought the game it still wouldn't amount to a tenth of what some triple A games sell. And they sometimes can't even make a decent profit. Add to that how hard (and most likely expensive) it is to develop a game using new technology like VR and it is easy to tell it will be hard to make a profit.
Sad as it is to see exclusives I find myself a bit thankful that the companies offer support to developers so that the VR market will get a few more games. Hopefully keeping the market alive long enough that it becomes mainstream enough that it's easy (easier) to make a profit without help from Valve and Facebook. And then we'll see less exclusives.
Mind you, I understand the annoyance and I'm not gonna argue against people being angry with exclusives. Just offering some arguments for the other side as well. If you still don't like it, well then that's ok as well.
@haze0986: I'm not a fan of exclusives either. But in this case I can understand the need for them. VR is a new and very risky market with a very limited customerbase. For a developer to take the risk they need some kind of safety, exclusives offer that safety. They get enough money that they probably won't crash if the game doesn't do well. And if a company (facebook) pays millions of dollars to a company to develop a game they would probably want some kind of return, in this case exclusivity. If they didn't shelve out hundreds of millions of dollars the platform (vr) probably would have a lot less games. It's easy to say paid exclusives harm the market, but imagine how many games wouldn't exist if the company didn't pay for them.
Of course it's sad to see the VR market split, but at least with this money some games are made and VR might survive long enough to become mainstream, in which case we'll probably see a lot less of these kinds of exclusives. And if it fails, well it probably would've anyway.
@RS13: Just to clarify, I'm not stating that as the most likely reason. Heck, as you said it's probably not even likely. It was just a random thought I had when I read it. But odds are that something stop them from agreeing with this. Unless of course all of Sonys leadership is really to stupid to realise that modding is quite popular and that players don't care about mods, which I highly doubt.
@kentray1985: And as I said, I don't doubt it's primarily Sonys fault. And Sony is, as far as I remember, notoriously bad at communicating their decisions. I do not deny any of this. In fact I'm quite annoyed with it as I was looking forward to buying Skyrim for the ps4 as my computer is getting quite old. Which I will not do now as modding was one of the reasons I wanted to buy it.
I hope the (most likely) outcry will wake them up as much as possible.
That being said. Look at it from a pure business view. What do they gain by denying such an important feature from a company that is as big and influential as Bethesda. Regardless of the quality of the games people flock to games like Elder Scrolls and Fallout. It's a really bad decision to stop such a feature, especially when their competitors Microsoft allows it. It would be different if they only competed with PC, but they aren't. So why would they do such a stupid move? Well, most likely (and I'm not saying it's true, just likely) there is something in the deal that they don't want to allow. My idea I mentioned was just a random thought when I read it. There could be any number of reasons. But I doubt they all just sat down and said "Nope, we don't want this awesome feature and we doubt the players want them either." And if they said that it wouldn't have been in negotiation for as long as it has.
Just to repeat, I'm not saying I support Sonys decision in this matter. Far from it. I think opening up consoles for modding is a major step in competing with the PC market. Especially now that they seem to want to extend console generations by upgrading the systems instead of just releasing new consoles every few years. Games like Skyrim who has years of value due to modding is something that would really benefit them when they keep the console cycles active this much longer.
I'm just saying that it's probably more to it than just Sony blocking this feature for the heck of it.
As for crossplatform. Sony has had crossplay with PC since PS2, with FFXI. PC and PS2 players playing on the same servers. Portal was playable PC-PS as well. FFXIV has been PC/PS3/PS4 since release pretty much and Microsoft is the one blocking FFXIV from being on the Xbox as well. I do believe that I read somewhere that Sony was the cause for stopping Xbox / PS crossplay however. And I find it kinda stupid tbh how in the recent year (or something) Microsoft was talking about how revolutionary they were when they were gonna support console/pc play, when Sony has done that since around 2002.
And to reiterate once again. I do NOT doubt that in this case Sony is the one primarily at fault and that if they're blocking it they really should explain why. I'm just saying that it's most likely a two way street. And to blame one side completely and believing the other side is completely innocent is naive.
@kentray1985: It is not handholding. If you really think Bethesda is completely innocent in this you are naive. Not saying it isn't primarily Sonys fault, because mods obviously are possible for consoles given XBox has support for it. But it's rarely only one side at fault. Maybe (pure speculation) bethesda requires access to parts of the system that Sony isn't comfortable giving them? Because of different architecture in the hardware?
I mean, I have no idea. But Sony has nothing to gain from just saying no for no reason. They want customers to buy their systems after all. And if modding is possible on their competitors system and not theirs they will lose customers in the long run. So there has to be a reason.
That being said, I hope Sony realises how much people like modding and stop being stubborn.
Minders' comments