Discontinuation of the PS3

They can't make that change, its a matter of ownership of the accounts.

When the game was in development it was setup that PSN owns all accounts made on their network and SOE/DGC owns the PC accounts. So in order for accounts to be transferred to another platform the ownership would have to be released, to which PSN has no intension of doing (DGC either). Of course it's a financial thing, the how's and what's of it I don't know.

What you fail to realize is that this is not based on their desire or not to allow that kind of account transfer, it has to do with their business relationship with PSN (Sony) and now also Microsoft. It's all technically feasible, it's not doable because of business considerations (which involves the legal department, not the developers).

It's more like Sony will not agree to this.

Ankh_Legacy explained it best right here...

It's basically what I said in much simpler terms. Since PSN is owned by Sony Interactive Services which is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services group of Sony.

will ice power get the actual ice form back now?

Be serious for a second.
Yes they can afford to lose PS3 players because PS3 players should simply be the minority by now.
Who calls himself a gamer while keeping a technically dead 10 years old platform as his main gaming platform ?
You think as if DCUO was the only game people have to play.
Be realistic, you know it's wrong.
Most of them already upgraded if they are gamers actually (be it going for PS4 or PC), for the simple reason of being able to play nowaday games.

Oh, and dropping XP support is a good move also (and logical since its own publisher doesn't support it anymore neither)
64 bit client one day maybe ?

Probably not. PS3 wasn't the only reason they made that change.

If you recall, there was a major graphical update to prepare for DCUO's release on the PS4, so I doubt there will be a similar update in the near future - but there's definitely scope for improving performance once the PS3 roadblock is gone. It could also open the gate to a UI revamp - which is where the PS3 limits were definitely an issue.

For me the game is still dated so the changes I want for this game pretty much require a new game on a new engine. Dropping PS3 won't change much to be honest. I hope they are putting resources together for a sequel on PS5....

One of the things is that they will at least fully fully able to use all of the UE3 possibilities and technical optimisations. No real need to even go for UE4 when UE3 is not really exploited at its best on DCUO, a well masterised UE3 can still do wonders (and has a sheer amount of ressources and functionalities avalaible with it since its userbase is quite enormous)
One of the other things is coding.
PS3 is a devs' nightmare. Ask anyone who worked on this system can tell you. (unless he's from Naughty Dog, which doesn't count since they worked one floor below Sony, in the same building). And Sony won't support PS3 devs kits for eternity (I guess they should have already stopped).
So I think it will also allow them to streamline their production process better.

Now it will be easier for them to work, even from a support standpoint (since as I told publishers stop supporting the oldest version of the tools devs use at one point or another), and even for them, personnally, as devs.
Working with 10 years old technologies and tools is not always very motivating as a dev, simply because you also slow your progress as a professionnal, which has also expertise and skills to sell on a very crowded market.

That's for example one of the problem Arena.net has when it comes to the retention of their technical teams.
Working on a more than ten years old engine which doesn't support multithreading on an only PC game doesn't help devs to develop skills they will be able to sell elsewhere once they leave. And it's very important for them to be able to stay on page, even more with fast changing working environments.

We won't see drastical changes coming one day out of nowhere. It will be more streamlined, little improvements. but in the end it will help smoothing the player experience, be it technically (rock solid 60 fps everywhere everytime for example) or mechanically (refinement of current mechanics or addition of new ones not possible before.)
As Mepps said we shouldn't expect radical changes.
But I think we're totally legit to expect QoL changes, even if small and implemented step by step, and that can take numerous aspects actually.
UI revamp, as you mentionned, would be a good example.

the real question is...with no more PS3. What will be different or what changes will happen if any?

Aww, you mad tough guy. I love you keyboard warriors talking crap you wouldn't say to someone's face in a million years. I'm just going to let you be because you're too tough for me to deal with. Imma skeered.


Irony: A keyboard warrior named Capitaine Courage.

Even if they don't code for new things like better graphics; dropping ps3 will reduce inheriant operating costs (how ever small). Platform specific code when doing future items. QA test cycles; one less platform to test. Lab clients don't need ps3 systems.
From a skill set perspective; when hiring: just PC, and the xbox , ps4 development kit...etc one less requirement.

SOE/Daybreak supported ps3 for a quite a long time. Gave ps3 player base a long ride.

Are you out of your mind ? Where do you see me playing or wanting to be a the "tough guy", what keyboard warrior are you talking about ? What "crap" are you talking about ? Because I said "Be serious for a second" and that's it, you imediately assume things or, I don't know, feel offended ? Telling you to be realistic is some kind of insult now, this is what you call "talking crap" ? Give me some clues because I must say i'm genuinely quite puzzled by your reaction right now.
If you saw aggressiveness in my post, be assured that there was there was none.
I'm just stating the reasons why I think PS3 service disclosure is good for the game if it wants to move forward in what is nowadays market.

Geez, people are so defensive these days, that's just astonishing ...

Wow.
Just... wow :O.

Here's the thing: what is and isn't aesthetically pleasing can and will vary greatly from one person to the next. It's all pretty subjective.

Also, gameplay does matter. A game can look all nice and shiny and wonderful but if it plays like (insert disgusting image of your choice)? It's not gonna last long.

Guild Wars engine is quite old.
GW2 uses an upgraded version of the GW1 engine, but it still old, even older than UE3.
No multithreading, no multi cores support, and other stuff like that (with a lot of stuff still CPU bound, but that's classic in MMOs).
Saw some comments of some their old devs stating that while the working environment is great at Arena (especially if you're an artist), on the technical side of things it has begun to be a problem for them, be it personnaly (speaking about the development of their personnal skills as programmers) or technically (because limitations)

Last I heard (several years ago), DCUO doesn't do multithreading, even if the UT3 engine supports it. STO might have it in the graphics engine, but that's it. (Which almost certainly means that Champs doesn't support it, since they have an older version of the same engine.)
It can be a pretty big performance boost, if you're having issues. 15+ years ago, the team I was on moved our networking and engine code to a separate thread from the UI on a data hungry business app, and that solved our throughput issues on single processor computers.

So how long before certain PC setups are no longer supported? My1 son plays on a POS 8+ year old PC that has a moderately good video card (from 8 years ago) and the game plays fine except when there is a LOT of animation going on. I"m guessing the technology there is about the same as what's in the PS3, so when do the PC specs start being a limiting factor?

I'd love to know about how much of the population is on each platform (paying and non paying customers)...not sure if that stat has been shared anywhere. I have 2 kids that play on PS3 still and one of the reasons I still sub is because it's a fun game to play with the kids vs running around killing each other on WM3/4 or whatever. Just one more reason to unsub.

Meh....not like I needed another reason. TCs and now artifacts are enough.

Reinheld