With that said, however, just because something is motivated by profits doesn’t mean it can’t end up being to the benefit of the customers in the end either. As I mentioned earlier, the video gaming market is notoriously fickle. Brand loyalties seem to matter surprisingly little in an environment dominated by fanboys and brand warring, and someone who is on top today may well find themselves at the bottom of the barrel tomorrow. An easy, and surefire, way to endear to these masses, and get them to buy into your product, is to present yourself as the alternative explicitly sympathetic to them. This was exactly what Microsoft did with the Xbox 360, and then again in the late Xbox One era. And this was what Sony did at the start of the PS4 era, and the pivot to this specific brand of messaging is arguably almost singularly responsible for the upswell of goodwill and support they saw going into the launch of the PS4.

The thing, though, is that you can’t just say you’re “for the players”, you have to back that up with at least some action too. Sony, for example, did exactly that with the PS4 – “for the players” meant they had a cheap but powerful console, explicitly focused on games with no multimedia trappings, and which went out of its way to not adopt any of the exploitative and abusive policies its competitor was looking to push at the time. Because Sony did this – which, to be clear, in many cases was literally just not deviating from the status quo – it was able to successfully present itself as the “pro-gamer” alternative. As a result, Sony enjoyed immense success with the PS4, and the resulting pushback for the Xbox One meant that the anti-consumer policies Microsoft was looking at pushing at the time never came to pass. So yes, this simple marketing message ended up benefitting both parties at the end, the corporation proclaiming it for profit, and the customers buying into it.

What I’m saying here is that a marketing message may be motivated by profit, but it can still end up being beneficial for customers, even if the corporation proclaiming it doesn’t truly mean it out of the goodness of their hearts, and is only driven by profits. Other than the case of the PS4 that we just discussed, we also saw this with Game Pass and backward compatibility over on the Xbox side – these initiatives were driven not out of a philanthropic or charitable streak that Phil Spencer had, they were meant to be clearly developed and articulated points of differentiation to attract people to the Xbox ecosystem, and then to keep them there. To the end customer, of course, all of that hardly matters (and rightfully so), given that it all benefits them so much.

Being perceived as being “for the players”, then, is always great marketing. It’s one of the rare instances of a transaction that ends up going both ways, with the company that pushes that rhetoric enjoying great commercial success, and its customers enjoying explicitly pro-consumer initiatives that protect and further their interests. So it was really weird to see Sony being – to all appearances – so aloof and seemingly disconnected from their consumers these last few months. While Sony is yet to have a single moment as disastrously bad as anything in the lead up to the launches of the PS3, or the Xbox One, or the Wii U, they were making multiple smaller and unforced errors one after the other. And then, a few weeks ago, they finally came dangerously close to making one extremely bad move that would have ruined their standing with not just their customers, but also their development partners (the ones who have been responsible for PlayStation becoming a force to be reckoned with in the market). I am speaking, of course, about their intended closure of the PS3, PSP, and PS Vita stores, which they announced at the end of March as coming in July and August, with no notice and communication either to customers or to developers who were still working on products for the PS Vita, a system that’s less than ten years old right now, and which has no other ways for games to be sold or bought.

At the time, I called that move terrible, with no caveats. It was setting an awful precedent, and it would end up ruining goodwill and trust Sony had built with customers and developers over literally decades. It was also the ultimate exemplification of Sony’s utter lack of regard for and communication with its customer base, letting their purchases and investments in these ecosystems amount to literally nothing with very little notice. It was the kind of disastrous misstep that would have solidified a narrative of the company being aloof and decidedly not “for the players” had they actually gone through with it.

The good news is, they decided not to. In a recent blog post, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan finally conceded the point, and backed down. Claiming that the response from their audience and customer base had made them reassess the point, Ryan announced that the PS3 and PS Vita stores would not be closing down as announced, and that they would instead stay up for the foreseeable future. The PSP was conspicuous by its absence, but given that every digital PSP game can also be purchased on the Vita store, that point didn’t matter as much (especially since the PSP is 17 years old as of this writing).

This is almost certainly a temporary stay of execution – Sony will not want to keep the stores up and running indefinitely, because the same reasons that applied to their decision to close them one month ago will apply in the future too. But the point here is, Sony has at least shown it’s willing to listen to feedback here – maybe only because it’s driven by profit and doesn’t want to do anything that might affect its bottom line, but it will. And that’s really enough. Sony doesn’t have to be “for the players” out of the goodness of its heart, it can be “for the players” because that serves its interests. As long as it serves ours too, that works totally fine for everyone involved.

So the point here isn’t to talk about whether Phil Spencer listens to “the gamers” more or Jim Ryan, because the truth is, while both may even be extremely passionate about the medium and its works – not knowing either of them, I can’t say for certain that they are or are not – they are ultimately just doing their job, which is to make money for the company they work for. I’m not here to wax eloquent about how pro-customer Sony is, because as we have seen, the minute they think they can get away with something decidedly anti-consumer, they will try to do exactly that. And that’s true of not just Sony, but Microsoft, Nintendo, and pretty much every other corporation that acts for profit as well.

But they will listen when they think it’s ultimately going to be less profitable for them to ignore the outcry. And that’s what really matters – remembering that they do listen, if customers are willing to make their voices heard, and that them listening doesn’t make them benevolent, even if their actions serve customer interests.

So while I’m not willing to write poetry about how much Sony cares for the good of “the players”, I can at least appreciate that their recent decision was the right one for me – while also recognizing that it wasn’t born of benevolence, but self-interest. It’s a delicate balance, but time and time again, we’ve seen that the company that strikes that balance the best in the industry is the one that does the best. Hopefully, Sony doesn’t forget that any time soon now – they did come dangerously close to doing so, after all.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

It looks like digital games are now an indelible part of the gaming landscape- they continue to comprise an increasingly large portion of game sales, and represent a 74% share of the overall pie, according to a report released by the Entertainment Software Association (via Games Industry).

This, of course, explains why dedicated US game retailers like GameStop are struggling- more and more people are used to getting their games digitally, as digital game purchases and downloads become increasingly normalized. However, this is important- that 74% figure includes full game digital downloads, subscriptions, DLC, social, and mobile- with the latter only being available digitally, and representing a massive part of the market, the 74% figure makes more sense.

Given the push towards digital by Xbox, PlayStation, and even Nintendo going forward, as well as the continued growth of mobile, VR, and PC gaming, it will be interesting to see just how much that figure rises in the coming months and years.

Sony has launched another one of its PSN Store promotions where, if customers spend $100 on the store before a certain date, they get $15 in credit back. This time, the promotion is for the month of February, which works out just fine with the impending launch of Horizon: Zero Dawn (as well as the launches of several other great games, including Nioh, For Honor, and Sniper Elite 4).

The $15 will be in store credit, and will be sent out to you by March 14, 2017, which you can then use to purchase either Mass Effect Andromeda, Nier Automata, or best of all, Persona 5, which launch in the second half of March/first week of April respectively.

So hey, if you’re finding it hard to keep track of all the great new releases this year- I guess Sony has made it a bit easier for you. At the very least, they seem to have incentivized you giving them your money by them giving you some of it back in turn. Rejoice!

Now that 2016 is over, Sony have shared the list of the best performing games on the PSN Store on PS3, PS4, and PS Vita. And as it turns out, it was an eventful year, with perennial chart toppers dominating on the consoles, and a surprising first place winner on the Vita.

On PS4, the chart topper for the year was Rocket League, which makes sense- Psyonix’s game has been a veritable sensation, and it’s not surprising to see more people wanting in on it even almost two years from its initial release. On the PS3, Minecraft similarly rules the roost. But it’s on the PS Vita that we get a surprise, with last year’s Digimon Cyber Sleuth  topping the chart. Digimon was a pretty good riff on the Pokemon formula, so it’s good to see it do well.

You can check out the full charts for yourself below. Remember, these are only for North America, not worldwide.

PS4 Games
1 Rocket League
2 Battlefield 1
3 Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition
4 Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
5 Tom Clancy’s The Division
6 Grand Theft Auto V
7 Overwatch: Origins Edition
8 Battlefield 4
9 No Man’s Sky
10 EA SPORTS FIFA 17
11 NBA 2K17
12 Need for Speed
13 Star Wars Battlefront
14 TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW SIX SIEGE
15 Battlefield Hardline
16 Madden NFL 17
17 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
18 UNCHARTED 4: A Thief’s End
19 The Last Of Us Remastered
20 FINAL FANTASY XV

PS4 Add-ons
1 Call of Duty: Black Ops III – Awakening
2 Destiny: Rise of Iron
3 The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited – ESO Plus
4 Call of Duty: Black Ops III Season Pass
5 Call of Duty: Black Ops III – Eclipse
6 Call of Duty: Black Ops III – Descent
7 Black Ops III – The Giant Zombies Map
8 Call of Duty: Black Ops III – Salvation
9 Rocket League – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Car Pack
10 STAR WARS Battlefront Season Pass

PS3 Games
1 Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition
2 The Last Of Us
3 Grand Theft Auto V
4 LittleBigPlanet 3
5 Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare
6 Battlefield 4
7 Call of Duty: Black Ops III
8 Need for Speed Most Wanted
9 EA SPORTS FIFA 17
10 Watch Dogs
11 Dragon Ball Xenoverse
12 Dark Souls II
13 Goat Simulator
14 Red Dead Redemption
15 EA SPORTS FIFA 16
16 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
17 Gran Turismo 6
18 Battlefield Hardline
19 MLB The Show 16
20 Pro Evolution Soccer 2017

PlayStation VR Games
1 Job Simulator
2 Batman: Arkham VR
3 Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
4 PlayStation VR Worlds
5 Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
6 Here They Lie
7 Sports Bar VR
8 Carnival Games VR
9 Harmonix Music VR
10 EVE: Valkyrie

PS Vita Games
1 DIGIMON STORY CYBER SLEUTH
2 Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition
3 GOD EATER: Resurrection
4 XCOM: Enemy Unknown Plus
5 Borderlands 2
6 Persona 4 Golden
7 Jak and Daxter Collection
8 Sword Art Online -Hollow Fragment-
9 Ratchet & Clank Collection
10 Severed

PS Classics
1 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
2 Bully
3 Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy
4 Dark Cloud 2
5 Twisted Metal: Black
6 The Warriors
7 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
8 Star Wars Bounty Hunter
9 Rogue Galaxy
10 Manhunt

The PSN Store on PS4 isn’t bad (and it certainly isn’t as awful as the atrocious clients on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita)- but it’s pretty basic. It’s not hard on the eye, but that’s because of how plain and bland it is- yes, it is inoffensive, but that’s because it is literally the most basic thing you can imagine.

Looks like Sony plans to change that- apparently, briefly yesterday, Sony pushed through an update for the PSN Store by mistake. The new update changes game pages on the Store, listing each game’s storage requirements and features (such as Cross Platform Play, Remote Play, and the like) more clearly. High resolution trailers play in the background automatically, and each game has multiple tabs, corresponding to the game itself, themes, avatars, DLC, and more.

It sounds like a sensible and sleek setup. DualShockers managed to get some screenshots, which you can see below. Hopefully, this is an update Sony pushes through for real soon- what I’ve seen of the new PSN Store, I like.

One of the best representations of how Sony simply does not get it with online services is the PSN Store- the original PSN Store on the PS3 was ugly but functional, and worked well to get the job done. The PS3 redesign sacrificed functionality for form, while the Vita PSN Store suffers from numerous issues, such as a disastrous download list. The PS4 PSN Store has had issues of its own, mostly pertaining to its organization- thankfully, these may actually have been resolved, with a new update for the PSN Store on PS4 having been released in North America last night.

Check out the screenshot- it looks slick, and I think it is laid out more sensibly. In my limited time with it, I found it more responsive than the older store, and I think overall, more inviting than the original PS4 PSN Store.

What do you think of the new PSN Store design? Let us know in the comments section.

Thanks PushSquare.

If you were looking to purchase anything from the PSN Store this weekend – maybe the just released and incredibly excellent Bloodborne? – then you’ll really appreciate this deal. Throughout this weekend, this coupon number is valid, and it will let you get 10% off on all purchases made from the PSN Store.

There are, however, a few caveats to what this deal covers: it is only valid in North and Latin America; it only works for PS3 or PS4 games (which means you can’t redeem it on your PSP, PS Vita, or PlayStation TV, or for their software); and finally, you can’t use it on in game items or DLC. it has to be a full priced game from the PSN Store.

As for the code itself? Here it is: LQ8ERDQH3A.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more on the latest and greatest gaming related deals, both hardware and software, worldwide.

While we are still waiting for the next firmware update to the PS4, Sony has gone ahead and released a new update for the PS3. Wait, what? You heard me. PS3 firmware version number 4.70 is now available. It’s a pretty minor update, and doesn’t really do much.

Hey, Sony? Just… please release a major update for the PS4 and Vita, they are both thirsting for it. And hey, you know, while you are at it? If you want to update the PS3, at least have the decency to fix the damn PSN Store on it.

The patch notes for the update pretty much cover it:

• Closed Captions are now supported for the Playback of Blu-Ray Disc titles and DVDs. To display closed captions, select [Settings] > [Video Settings] > [Closed Captions].
• The style used for for closed captions, such as the font, size and color, can now be adjusted. Select [Settings] > [Video Settings] > [Closed Captions Settings].
• The name and icon of [PSN™] were changed to [PlayStation™ Network].

And yeah, that’s about it.

In addition, everyone will be getting a new gun for free — the Full-Auto Rifle, which is a fully automatic, modified burst rifle that offers a flexible play style. Also, to prepare for the new content release, The Last of Us multiplayer Patch 1.07 will go out tomorrow, which will make sure the game is mechanically consistent with the new content the DLC will bring.

Remember, this round of DLC includes The Reclaimed Territories Map Pack, the Professional Survival Skills Bundle, the Situational Survival Skills Bundle, the Survivalist Skills Bundle, and the Grounded Mode Difficulty for the single-player campaign- so that’s a lot of content you’re getting over the week. A pretty good time to be a Last of Us fan, really.

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, the Platinum developed action game set in the Metal gear Solid universe, and starring badass cyborg Raiden in a ridiculously over the top romp, released last year to great critical acclaim. The title was praised for its innovative take on the action game genre, its punishing difficulty level, and for its fluidity in combat. Now, a little over a year later, Konami is incentivizing buying the title a little more, by slashing the price of the game down to £19.99.

To be clear, this is the price of the digital version of the game (it is to be presumed that physical copies at retail can be found for about the same price or cheaper)- that is, the Games on Demand or PSN Store version. Konami has also cut the price of the DLC, with the Commando Armor, Inferno Armor and White Armor DLC for just £1.19 on the PSN Store, and £1.29 on Games on Demand. The Cyborg Ninja Custom Body is available now for £1.99 on both platforms.