My Final Thoughts on Playstation
I'm going to try to cut to the bullshit for this post. No fucking around, no stupid little history lessons, I'll make it brief
Playstation used to be a solid electronics, multimedia, and gaming company. I used to consider them a step above Microsoft, a step above Sega, though I wouldn't say they aren't as legendary as Nintendo in my humble opinion. I used to have a lot of respect for the brand going up for three generations of Sony's consoles. Even I, the most loyal of Nintoddlers fanboys growing up, was still capable of seeing the Playstation brand with some respect as something of a mature gaming console with really cool tech: PS1 had CDS, PS2 had DVDs, and PS3 had Blueray Discs. I'll be honesty with you all. When I was in high school, while I was still a Nintendo Fanboy, I was too ashamed to use my DS in public. So much so, that whenever my marching band had to take a long trip on a bus for competition or whenever I had bandcamp where I would be forced to sleep in the band hall for three days, it was PSP that would accompany me because I thought Sony had the coolest gaming devices and was not ashamed to take it with me even as a socially anxious kid. The PSP was amazing. It still is. It was my multimedia device that played my music, videos, and had some really awesome games like Socom. The PS3 was the console I took to Uni with me was my preferred console for that generation, despite the botched multiplats because I was on board with Sony. All of Sony's consoles up to the PS3 where fantastic. Even the PS3 which had a blundered launch with barely any games was still a nice piece of tech for the time, being one of the CHEAPEST bluray players and having the ability at launch to play PS1, PS2, and PS3 games (with some caveats but still).
Back when the Xbone was committing corporate suicide with that blunder of a reveal where they were bragging about TV, Football, Call of Duty fish tech, and always online DRM, Sony did the right thing and said there was none of that bullshit with the PS4. They won a lot of gamers by dunking on Xbox. It's a damn shame that people overlooked the fact that the PS4 did away with some of the goodwill I had for Sony such as having online gaming paywalled and removing any sort of backwards compatibility just so they can sell you the digital games on their storefront instead. I knew back in my college years that PS4 wasn't really worth the investment. It wasn't as expensive as the Xbone, but those factors alone topped off with the fact that it was kind of irrelevant when I got back into PC gaming. Everyone will tell you the PS4 really has no games or exclusives other than Bloodborne and one single game isn't enough to convince me to go out and get a Playstation 4.
Another thing that was really turning me off from Sony was the fact that many of their exclusives were following this really cancerous trend known as "Cinematic Games". Granted, these genre of game has it's start in the 7th generation. Everyone likes to complain how the modern Call of Duty Games starting with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare are linear movie games but at least in those games you shoot at enemies and have a decent multiplayer portion of the game. You look at a game series like Uncharted; a novel idea at the time that was kind of a mix of Tomb Raider and the adventure genre of films like Indiana Jones but in a modern setting. I've only played Uncharted 2 because it was a bundled game I got with my PS3 Slim when I first bought it and I was impressed by it at first. Graphically, it's a nice looking game and the production values for a linear adventure game weren't all that bad. The plot was okay too, not amazing but it never took itself seriously for better or worse. But once it was over, I had no urge to play it again. I eventually did as a means to test my console after a repaste and found some disturbing things in this game on my second temporarily playthrough; mainly the fact that a lot of the things that I find abhorrent in modern gaming have their roots with this game such as the quirky dialogue, the yellow paint structures telling you where to go, and the constant chatter between characters in the game (though it's not nearly as bad as in later games like this). Sony figured they must have struck a goldmine with this sort of game (it was around the time that the PS3 was making a turn around) so they started putting out all of these other movie games like Heavy Rain (which is just a 7th gen version of those Sega CD games where you have these cutscenes with quicktime event prompts to make it seem like your choices matter. There are visual novels with more player input than a game like Heavy Rain. But that's just a one off and didn't really offend me too much because I "watched" the game on YouTube and felt like I got the same experience as I would have got if I played it. Again, the plot was nothing special if you read any books or watched any movie that wasn't slop.
But then you get the highly overrated "The Last of Us". A game that is more a B-movie zombie flick with less depth than I Am Legend. I would say this game pushed the console to it's limit, but I'm convinced that's rubbish. You know that moment when you're walking for minutes with nothing happening other than long expedition dialogue between characters occurs in modern games (This game is full of shit like that)? I'm convinced most of that is just loading screens for the sub-par action sections where you pretend like you're playing a game for less time than you are watching cutscene or listening to character dialogue. I cannot like games like the Last of Us. It's not something I would ever be into and anyone who says the plot is "ONE OF DE BEST VIDYAGAYME PLOTS EVAH MADE" is highly uncultured and should read a book. I could bitch about how video game plots should be something that is supposed to accompany gameplay instead of being a priority but that's not what this blog is about.
Now you see Sony applying these formula of third person cinematic games to the majority of their IPs. God of War is one such example. Frankly, I'm not all that crazy for the original games but I do own the collection on PS3. They're simple beat-em-ups based on Greek mythology. It's fine, not my genre but a lot of people like that series. The new God of War is just insulting. Instead of ancient Greece, it's now in Scandinavia because everyone was trying to cash in on that VIKANG craze that was initiated by Skyrim. But the thing that's incredibly repulsive is that Sony turned a simple hack-n-slash into a third person dad simulator where you row a canoe for 10 minutes while you preach to your son how his mom's past is her business and how we should be better men. I could only imagine the kind of gamer to enjoy such a game. I doubt it's any of the older fans of God of War. You know, the kind of gamer who grows a beard to hid the fact that they are chinlet or overweight. The kidn of gamer that brags about how beards are manly but sip on Soylent heavily processed milk, work in STEM but have nothing to show for it, perhaps has a quirky chungus wife who may or may not be loyal, and a kid that may or may not biologically be related to him. The kind of gamer that records themselves watching a cinematic trailer for the Last of US Part 2 Remaster Remake for PS5 while opening their mouth and waving their arms like bird going "Ooooh OOooh YESSSSS YEESSSS" while tears are pouring down his face. The kind of gamer that berates me for calling out Sony for releasing sub-par games and criticizing DRM by calling me an incel, old fashion (even though I'm significantly younger than these people), and a Nintoddler (that's a given). In other words, the average Sony Gamer, SNOY, SNOYBOY, and even more explicit names I can throw at them but for the sake of being proper and civilized, I'll refrain from saying in this blog post.
I always respected Sony for being consisted with console designs. The Playstation controller has been the same basic form factor for the entire console line. There's nothing wrong with being basic and default. But to hype up the PS4 and PS5 as the greatest consoles of all time is just absurd. These consoles hardly look better than anything released on PS3 other than having slightly better framerate. They don't break any new ground to warrant their existence as stand alone consoles. Less so with the PS5. And isn't it telling when the amount of worthwhile exclusives for these consoles are either movie games or remakes of movie games from previous generations. It's no wonder why I skipped this generation.
But now it's time to roll up my sleeves because now I'm going to give Sony the beat down they deserve. As of 2026, Sony has been triffed with a history of controversy. Back in the PS3 era, there was pretty notorious hack that compromised a bunch of PSN accounts but at least they try to own up to their mistakes. These days, they are acting more malicious than ever, especially when everyone and their grandmother knows Xbox is on their way out. Sony does not care about consumer rights. If it weren't for the heavy backlash that Xbone was getting with their always on-line DRM, you bet the PS4 was going have the same thing if they could get away with it. Now that their competition is on hospice care, Sony has a monopoly on the console market so they fuck around with gamers by taking away their digital rights. Case point, they removed a bunch of movies that were purchased digitally on the Playstation store. So much for "muh convenience" eh?" You really think those PS1 classics that you're buying off the Playstation Store are going to stay in your console forever? RFOL. LMAO even.
And you know what's better? Sony is going to stop making disks entirely by 2028. So now you have no choice but to buy your games digitally on the PS5 and eventually the PS6 which is going to be digital only if rumors are true. In other words, there's nothing stopping Sony from taking your $100 copy of GTA VI off your system for any number of reasons. Maybe you said the N-word online or maybe you didn't but the AI grief detection in the game mistook your word for a slur and now you're not only perma-banned from Sony's Playstation ecosystem but you also lose access to your $100 American simulator that you bought to play with the bros on PSN (which you are paying for access btw), on top of whatever microtransactions or in-game purchases you made in the game. Playstation! Play has no limits!
I'm not a Steam apologist by any means (Steam has done more harm than good to PC gaming IMO) but at least with Steam, despite their definition of purchasing a game on their platform being the equivalent of renting, they are least generous (for now) with how digital games are handled per individual. Not to mention, digital games on Steam are significantly lower than MSRP so the value proposition is not as extreme as it is with Nintendo, Microsoft, and especially Sony's digital game prices. In fact, I've seen digital games on the Playstation store exceed the price of the physical games! Talk about some backwards ass shitocoplyse. I had to make up my own swear for how awful that is, and SNOYS WILL STILL EAT IT UP!
It may sound like I'm upset and to an extent I am. My views on Sony have soured so much throughout the years that it got to the point where I had to get rid of my favorite vidya clothing (A Japanese Sony T-shirt made of high quality cotton and a 90s Sony Jacket with a bunch of colors) to Goodwill because I didn't want to have any public affection for Sony outside of the old consoles which I'll always hold to my heart. The rest along with modern SNOYs can fuck right off. Fuck Sony, Fuck the gamers who still like them, fuck the modern game devs, and most importantly fuck the gaming industry. I will refuse to buy anything Sony from here on out. Unless it's used or second hand, I will never give Sony a single cent. I've been boycotting since the end of the 7th generation. I'll keep at it even if it seems futile. I will go as far as to boycott their new electronics. Sony makes some okay headphones, phones, and even some nice mp3 players, but they can blow it out their ass because they are shitbags that hate their own consumer base. I've haven't even talked about how they censor Japanese games in the west. I can go on and on but why should I?
Say what you want about Microsoft but at this point, I hate them less than how I feel about Sony as of now. At least Microsoft doesn't lie about being evil. They are a greedy corporation that has actively destroyed the gaming industry and laid off billions at this point. Sony on the other hand is worse than evil. They are traitors and backstabbers which is arguably worst than just being evil. It's cowardly, and extremely dishonorable. I would pity modern gamers who are on the Sony ecosystem. I almost do. But they were complicit while I wasn't. And now they are getting what they deserve.
I'm not concerned about the future of gaming. There' a lot of stuff in my personal library, both physical and digital, that will last me far beyond my lifetime. To be blunt, I don't even see why they should bother making a Playstation 6. Why do they need to make another console? So they re-release God of My Wife's Son and Last of Us again and again with slightly better framerate. You fucking know that the PS6 is going to be overtly expensive. People are crying over the Steam Machine prices but PS6 is going to be on a whole other level. For what? More shitty remakes of shitty games? Don't make me laugh. Fuck you Sony and blow it out your ass.
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