Walking away from the closed platform you invested hundreds/thousands of dollars into over the years is a luxury (especially if you were mislead into buying a PS5 with a disc drive thinking it'd be supported at least until the end of the product's lifespan)

Monopolies, anti-competitive behavior, and anti-consumer behavior in general are all bad bad bad. You have to be a very interesting individual to disagree with that.

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hnlmorg a day ago | parent | next [-]

> especially if you were mislead into buying a PS5 with a disc drive thinking it'd be supported at least until the end of the product's lifespan

8 years is roughly the lifespan for a games console though.

And I say this as someone who hates Sony perhaps more than most, having lived through their the CD rootkit and PS3 OtherOS debacles. And been burned by their substandard yet overpriced audio equipment.

	▲	xandrius 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Game consoles are not biological beasts which decay as a matter of nature or fact. They are tools, toys, they are devices. I can still play my PS1 as before, I just need to pop in a CD and I'm good to go.

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kelvinjps10 21 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Console is the kind of thing where you upgrade every few years like for obviously games you bought for ps3 or PS4 don't work in the PS5 or Xbox 360 for Xbox one you have to buy one for each console. So people will switch to the competition, you can see on the sales of each consoles where their peak was. People might even get tired of Nintendo,Sony and Microsoft and just go with steam and valve

	▲	TylerE 17 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Every ps4 game works on ps5.

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newaccountman2 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I agree with your second sentence, and agree that Sony seems like a pretty bad actor as a result of all this, but the first sentence is false and hyperbolic.

It's not a luxury to walk away from a sunk-cost, no matter what % of your past expendable income it represents (I think that was kind of what you were hinting at). Anyone can do it.

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p1necone 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Eh I think you're overstating the level of lock-in here. There's nothing about the platform itself that forces you to stay, it's just the games you've already bought. You can keep the system and just stop buying new games on it.

And most people probably don't replay most games after beating them once, for the handful you do want to replay, you just bust out that console occasionally, or you grab them again in a steam sale to play them on PC instead or something.

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dogwalker5000 19 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I’m just saying, you can stop buying new games. If enough people do it, Sony will fold.

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chrisco255 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Sony doesnt have a monopoly on gaming. There is PC, mobile, Steam, Nintendo, Apple desktop, etc. There are also retro games consoles like Mod64. You don't invest in a game console it is an entertainment expense. You can sell your used PS5 if you disagree with the direction.

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nirvdrum 21 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You can’t export save files on PS5. You can’t transfer licenses, so you’ll have to repurchase any games you want to continue playing. For trophy/achievement hunters, those are going to be locked away. And a lot of the online game accounts are locked to the platform so you’ll have to start any progress/reputation/level over.

Yeah, you can walk away, but let’s not pretend it’s the same thing as buying orange juice at a new grocer because your regular one only sells it with pulp now. People aren’t being irrational in being annoyed by this.

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L-four a day ago | parent | prev [-]

They have a monopoly on disks for the PlayStation.

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tomnipotent 19 hours ago | parent [-]

It's amazing how many people throw around the word monopoly without remotely understanding what it means.

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scheeseman486 17 hours ago | parent [-]

They were using the word correctly, "monopoly" doesn't only mean greatly dominant player in an open market. Current consoles are by definition vertical monopolies.

	▲	miki123211 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think we should encourage this framing of "monopoly" more. You can be a tiny company and still be a monopoly. If you're the only grocery store in a (walkable) town where many elderly people don't own a car, you're a monopoly. If you're the only company allowed to sell beer at a football game (that doesn't allow fans to bring liquids into the stadium), you're a monopoly. If you're a school cantine, and school rules forbid students from walking out during the school day, you're also a monopoly.