Simon Byrnand

Kiwi living in Scotland. Love electronics, audio, cars, gaming and Spaceflight.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@DraxoddM @secretsqrl123 I still remember the bad old days before David started recording his spaces and they were also after midnight UK time so I could rarely catch them. Now they’re at 8pm UK time so perfect for live listening and also good for daily commute with the recording!

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@nickwaugh33 @eevblog Get what done ? Flags and footprints ? Maybe. A permanently manned base ? Not for a long time.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@nickwaugh33 @eevblog You think China can do it it less time ? When do we start the stopwatch from ?

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@LostAngelNZ @eevblog When I see a Chinese equivalent to Starship performing active flight tests then I will be concerned. They're not even close - they are still copying Falcon 9. I agree that SpaceX is essentially carrying the US space industry on its back though.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@secretsqrl123 https://t.co/4IDfVXZJ5K

[NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @NOELreports]

❗️ Ukraine will receive Patriot missiles from the United States in the coming days, Zelensky said. The missiles are likely financed through the PURL program, under which European partners recently pledged more funds to buy interceptors for Ukraine. #Ukraine

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@secretsqrl123 Looks like David was right yesterday and the naysayers were wrong...

https://t.co/qLRSrYqAch

[UNITED24 Media @United24media]

⚡️ Poland's Deputy Defense Minister stated that Ukraine could begin producing advanced Patriot PAC-3 missiles within weeks.
https://t.co/P61Trj6FVS

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@secretsqrl123 https://t.co/Llkunw1jjR

[Kateryna Lisunova @KaterynaLis]

⚡️‼️BREAKING: Trump just said that the U.S. will be buying Ukrainian drones.

JOURNALIST:,What's the status of a drone deal between Ukraine and the US?

TRUMP: Well, we would buy their drones. And we make drones. We make great drones, but they have an ability to make a lot of them, which is… Right, Marco? … It’s amazing, that in a war situation they make them. They make them in basements. They make them wherever the hell you have a little shelter, even if you don't have shelter, I think I suspect, right? It's an amazing ability, very few...

Well, that's why I say with the Patriots, see, they would be able to do it. Most countries would not be able. They don't have the talent. You have very talented people. So, yeah, I think we're gonna make that deal.

And you know, if we made that deal, we'd have great protection. I love the protection. Think if you had a lot of Patriots, you'd never be hit in, as an example, in Kyiv, where they get hit with missiles, those missiles. Like what I said about the Abraham Lincoln (aircraft carrier), the missiles would be shot down.

So, and I think you'd start making them pretty quickly. Right? You like the idea?

ZELENSKYY: Absolutely. Oh, no, it's a great idea.

TRUMP: I think everybody likes that one.

ZELENSKYY: We need it.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@secretsqrl123 Is there something in the water ?

https://t.co/uLGrcw89aR

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

TRUMP: President Zelenskyy and I actually developed good relationship. It's hard to believe, right? From Oval Office to now, we've developed very good relationship.

ZELENSKYY: This is not the end.

TRUMP: This is not the end. This is going to be the beginning.

ZELENSKYY: Yeah.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@draknott @GOGcom Worked when I tried it again.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@draknott @GOGcom That’s what I did but it doesn’t work.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@eevblog Did you check the CMOS battery off camera ? CMOS checksum error after a long period of being powered down screams CMOS battery. It's not just for the RTC it stores all the BIOS settings and I have seen black screen no boot from a marginal battery corrupting settings before.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@secretsqrl123 Take care today Americans 😂

[AlphaFox @alphafox]

This July 4th clip will live on in infamy:

[Palle! @Palle_Hoffstein]

Ok I laughed.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@dark1x @TheToyJesus @SpawnWaveMedia https://t.co/SRyQrcFldg

[NIB @nib95_]

Seen several quote #PlayStation's 78% digital full game sales, thus omitting important context.

That figure includes countless digital only releases, from back catalogue to indie games etc. Even Capcom revealed 84% of its sales were "older catalog titles", many of which are only available digitally.

So using such data is somewhat misleading.

To gauge REAL physical demand you need to look at splits of games that released both physical AND digital only. Thanks to the Insomniac leaks, we have such data on PS first party games.

Playstation Physical / Digital splits

Sackboy - 77% / 23%
R&C Rift Apart - 76% / 24%
Ghost of Tsushima DC - 71% / 29%
Demon's Souls - 70% / 30%
Miles Morales - 66% / 34%
Spider-Man - 66% / 34%
Returnal - 61% / 39%
The Last of Us 2 - 61% / 39%
Ghost of Tsushima - 51% / 49%
MLB The Show 21 - 39% / 61%

So per Sony's own internal data, 31/33 first party games from their chart sold more PHYSICAL than they did digital.

Uncharted 4 actually has an insane 83% physical split.

Granted it only covers through to a few months into 2022, but we can see from other more recent data, things haven't drastically changed. For example GSD data shows ~60% of Astro Bot sales across Europe were physical.

So what skews revenue and data more digital, beyond digital only releases and platforms? The answer is games with LIVE SERVICE components, especially multiplatform ones.

As you can see from Sony's internal data, MLB has the highest digital split, and it's a live service game.

Generally the highly popular live service or annualised games such as Call of Duty, NBA 2K, FIFA etc, have higher digital splits, as gamers are constantly launching them (often daily) and don't want to be constantly switching discs, thus skewing digital/physical splits.

It's very different to single player games which are shorter and have different play and consumer trends. So again, context matters.

Then there's a MASSIVE audience of gamers that aren't even accounted for in any of this data; the countless consumers that buy and sell used physical games, because they simply can't afford as many new games, but still buy/own consoles, accessories, games, services etc. Everything from poor parents, kids etc.

Ultimately, the data rejects the notion physical is dead or meaningless, even if digital accounts for the overall lionshare of revenue/sales, especially when you look at things with the proper context and/or focus on single player tentpole games, which is PlayStation's bread and butter.

Keep in mind platforms make a 15% licensing fee from third parties on physical games, while they get a 30% cut on digital.

Likewise first party lose a 30% cut to retailers on physical, while they keep all of the revenue on digital.

As I said before, this move to kill physical is more about PlayStation trying to make far more profit and squeeze away the last remnants of consumer ownership, control, flexibility and resale, and could have greater negative market ramifications.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@dark1x @St1ka CD / DVD rot was definitely an issue with burned discs of certain brands - I've had many where the reflective layer has peeled off or oxidised after 10-15 years making them unreadable... but I've had no failures of commercially pressed discs other than damage from scratching.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@Triko_Cc @ShankMods On PC you have many competing digital stores, and you can use disks, and you can pirate if at some point in the future that becomes the only option for a specific game. And you can run emulators for games from obsolete consoles. There is always a way.

[Simon Byrnand @DBMandrake]

@Triko_Cc @ShankMods Who's being a hypocrite ? PC is an open platform which gives you the CHOICE of how you buy your games. On Xbox / PS you have no choice but to use their stores. Most disc games on recent consoles don't work without store downloads as the discs don't even have all the files.