The Front Row

In an era where Microsoft is the biggest publisher and God of War is getting a 7.0 (which isn’t bad by any means) but considering all we know, and what’s happened this generation. PlayStation is losing the edge within its own development teams with the heavy lifting being done by others around the industry.

One of the reasons why I left the PlayStation ecosystem was because of their live-service approach and because their store prices are crazy. Which is something that PlayStation fans are actually getting compensation for at some point.

But as a PlayStation fan of the past five generations and a longstanding one at that. With everything going on with Sony now. If Microsoft delivers a console and takes advantage of this with all the work they’re doing to increase their momentum by offering different ways to play through their entire ecosystem. If we see the games that PlayStation fans continue to crave not being there. I could see people looking at Microsoft just purely based on what is happening in the PC market. And if that’s not the case, we may actually see Steam do better than they did last time with their console.

After a fantastic State of Play, it seems the issues are still there at Sony. They do not seem to know what they’re doing and that could fundamentally be music to their competitors’ ears. Of course, no one in this industry is the saint we should behold. That being said though, at least we have options of where to play. This sort of monopoly on gaming when PlayStation are making these kinds of decisions does badly reflect on them overall.

HBO Max has the content to really challenge the status quo. By bundling up with Sky Ultimate it gives people instant access and gives the service a window of opportunity to get people binging on that content. Amazon and Apple are raising the stakes as well, but for me personally, I feel like Paramount Plus are also the ones to watch. With Netflix, Paramount Plus, and HBO Max and Disney being bundled within the Sky ecosystem. Even on an ad tier plan. That’s a lot of eyes on your product, and especially if they choose to go ad-free on one service and then jump to the next the following month.

Apple doesn’t have that so their content is going to need to become stronger and they’ve been very aggressive in that recently. We all know Amazon Prime is a critical component these days. So nearly everyone has it. But with this much competition it’s only going to do one thing. There’s a race to bring subscribers the best content they can. That’s a good thing in itself because that means better quality content and we have the opportunity to really become engaged in what each platform might offer in the future.

If the streaming wars haven’t already begun, they certainly have now and it’s going to be interesting who can nail down that Warner Bros acquisition.

How do the others respond? Increasing output and creating more engaging shows. That’s what wins you eyes on your product. While also, staying competitive on pricing.

I think LG TV’s cannot be beaten in terms of what they can do for your gaming setup. OLED is far superior than anything else and you’re likely to have less issues than with anything else. You cannot go cheap when it comes to your TV display. Why would you when you have a PS5 Pro or a Series X. It’s just unconceivable right? That’s why picking the LG C series will be the best thing you can do.

Trust me, you will not regret it.

You’re going to want to check it out since this is the start of a broader era to the series after previous entries were back-to-back sequels. I feel like we’re in a bit of a revival era right now. We have both Resident Evil and the Silent Hill franchises going strong. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we saw The Evil Within return also at the next major Xbox showcase? That would be like the ultimate trio of horror games.

Loving the fact that horror is making the comeback that it deserves.

This generation has shown two things. The technology we have for PS5 Pro and Series X is still absolutely fine for most software, and also, the majority of people need more of a reason than flashier specs to upgrade. Software and exclusives define a hardware, but we’re even ‘losing’ that and to that effect this is the reason why most gamers are making the decision to just roll with what they have.

In fact, PlayStation and Xbox have noticed the fact that fans of their respective brands are using older hardware. It’s not just become a thing of sustainability, it’s become a major factor just in the way we’re all handling our respective upgrades.

Not to mention, there are many gamers out there that know for a fact we haven’t reached the peak of this generation yet. If you’re on PS4, it’s probably understandable that an upgrade could be warranted around the time when GTA comes. But still, this generation has only just really got going and with the hardware still being relevant for the software we have right now. There really is no reason to get excited yet about the future of gaming hardware when there is no stability in the gaming industry or in terms of the economics of our everyday lives.

So can you really blame people who are not enthused about the next generation? Not really, I actually think it’s to be expected and it’s a decision based on the reality we have right now. It’s Sony’s and Microsoft’s job to respectively give fans a reason to be excited again and that needs to be more than your simple relative upgrade. How do they do that? I am not sure, but this is the reason why the marketing guys are paid the big bucks.

As for myself, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens when it comes to the next generation. However, I am relatively happy with how this generation is now picking up. It’s a wait and see of where gaming can take us next and everyone of us is becoming more than okay with that.

Last.fm is the service that I use to do this and it’s a platform that’s been ongoing for a long time. What I do find is that Spotify has this natively, but if you want to have this on practically any other app this is the way to do it and track all your music in real-time.

If you download Pano Scrobbler from the Google Play Store via your mobile. You then want to download it on your Windows PC, or even Chromebook and you can scrobble using YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and other apps that do not have this natively or just don’t support the scrobble in the way you would like. Just make sure the app is both in sync with each other for desktop and mobile.

It’s a really useful technique and one that I hope helps my fellow music fans out there. Happy listening!

It’s also getting closer in the probability that we are seeing a shift in the dynamics of content creation. There is a fine balance and without any sort of ‘control’ and responsibility. Especially in terms of getting this more governed we’re going to see mimics of content that are not authentic. As we know, authenticity is really important and when people have a ‘good’ idea that’s elevated into the front of the conversation. The more people use ‘AI’ we really are diminishing our creative values as well as our human ones.

The billionaires are loving it because it’s going to bring productivity to a whole other level. But at the same time, it’s going to destroy the real lives of ordinary people. We can only lose so much as people, and we’re going to see a steady rise in what AI starts to replace. All to the pitfalls of the human race. That’s why it needs proper management and regulation before it gets more ‘out of control’. The need to protect people is more urgent than ever. Anybody with any sensibility or reasoning will understand that.

Not only is misinformation being bandied about in such higher volumes than ever before. It’s bringing everything to disrepute. It’s also attracting the attention of people who are confiding in AI because of loneliness to the absolutely horrific effect. It’s those sorts of mistakes that are more than costly when you’re dealing with real lives.

There needs to be a focus on showing what AI is good for and what it simply isn’t with full on warnings before each and every interaction. Especially in a generation where it’s being used more than ever. Those concerns are valid and regulation is the only way forward, and it needs to be defined on a universal level across the international community with absolute parity.

There is a lot of work in backwards compatibility and forward compatibility going on. The latter part theoretically points to there being a real chance. Unless, of course. Sony decided to wall that content behind a PlayStation launcher. Which is their right, they would make more money after all.

Sony is known for being very competitive and protective around their content. Not in the same vein as Nintendo, but still that point remains. If the PC version was somehow able to run in a native-like way through some engineering work by Microsoft. This could allow PlayStation games to thrive on Xbox without necessarily being on it. In the sense that, they’ll reap the rewards of allowing that sort of situation to happen.

Obviously a lot of Xbox fans are counting on the fact that this will be a big feature for the next generation. Sony however, has fully learned about this and where they stand on this is going to be interesting to say the least. At the recent State of Play, we all have seen Sony that is still buying up exclusivity timed deals to keep off of Xbox. That tells me that they haven’t really changed their tone surrounding their games.

However, if they ‘did’ allow that in practice to continue ‘as is’ I think it changes the dynamic of how we see ports in the future. Since Sony might see it as common practice and just allow the PC version to play ‘as is’. That’s the interesting thing about all this. Because it’s now really in Microsoft’s hands how these ports play on the new Xbox hardware. Which is in essence, two platforms in one. Three, if you count in the whole focus on handheld where all of this is possible already.

However, for a full-blown Xbox console? I personally believe PlayStation will try and maintain its edge in any way possible. Even if they do not fundamentally block games from going on there. Nothing really is off the table because they want to maintain that competitiveness. However, if they produced a launcher, they could make bank if they go that way with all their content. That could be a big step in a multi-platform approach without even considering that level of competitiveness directly as it fits in with their ‘PC’ strategy. It certainly puts that strategy in the line of fire with how serious they are about it.