NVIDIA DLSS 5, Rising Console Prices and Sony’s Disc Controversy

The relationship between players and game hardware is becoming more complicated. NVIDIA is pushing deeper into AI-powered rendering with DLSS 5, but the technology comes with a substantial performance cost. At the same time, console prices continue to rise, while CD Projekt Red remains confident that traditional consoles still have a future. Meanwhile, Sony’s move away from physical PlayStation game discs has created another major dispute, with a new harassment policy now raising questions about how the company will handle its most persistent critics.

NVIDIA Confirms DLSS 5 Can Cut Performance by Up to 60%

NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 may deliver impressive visual improvements, but there is a significant performance cost behind those results. During a recent media briefing, NVIDIA confirmed that enabling DLSS 5 can currently reduce performance by around 50% to 60%, regardless of the game being played. The company also demonstrated that the final visual results can look considerably better when developers carefully tune the technology for their games.

The bigger issue is where the headline frame rates are actually coming from. According to PC Gamer, NVIDIA’s performance figures rely heavily on more than six times frame generation. For example, an RTX 5060 running NBA 2K27 at 1080p with Very High settings, ray tracing and DLSS 5 can reportedly reach 258 FPS. However, the game itself is only rendering at around 43 FPS before the additional AI-generated frames are added.

The same approach is used at 4K. With the same settings, NVIDIA’s RTX 5090 can reportedly reach an average of 370 FPS, while the RTX 5080 reaches 233 FPS. These figures use Performance-mode Super Resolution alongside aggressive Multi Frame Generation, meaning a large portion of the final frame count comes from generated frames rather than traditional rendering.

That creates an uncomfortable situation for high-end GPU owners. After spending heavily on a powerful graphics card, players may not expect to push Super Resolution and Frame Generation close to their limits simply to achieve a high number on the FPS counter. The final image may be smoother, but the underlying rendering performance is much lower than the headline figures suggest.

DLSS 5 could still prove useful if developers can deliver the visual improvements without introducing noticeable artifacts or latency. But if the technology requires sacrificing half of a GPU’s native performance to produce those results, the debate around AI-powered gaming becomes much harder to ignore. For players, the important question is no longer just how high the FPS counter can go, but how much real rendering performance is being sacrificed to get there.

CD Projekt Red Says Consoles Aren’t Going Anywhere Despite Rising Prices

Console prices have been climbing in recent years, while rumors of delays surrounding the next generation of hardware have added more uncertainty to the market. However, CD Projekt Red co-CEO Michał Nowakowski does not see this as a sign that traditional consoles are heading toward the end of their relevance.

Speaking to The Game Business, Nowakowski said consoles remain an essential part of the games industry and that “they’re not going away.” He believes consoles are still important for reaching casual and semi-casual players, particularly because they offer a relatively simple way for people to connect a device and start playing without dealing with the complexity of a PC.

Nowakowski acknowledged that rising hardware prices are a real issue, but he does not believe they represent a fundamental crisis for the console market. He also said he could not confirm whether the rumors surrounding delays to the next generation of consoles are accurate.

For CD Projekt Red, the approach appears to be fairly straightforward. If PS5 and Xbox Series X|S are still the dominant platforms when the next major Witcher games are ready to launch, the studio will continue supporting them and look for a business model that works for both players and the company.

At the same time, CDPR would obviously welcome more powerful hardware. Nowakowski said stronger consoles would give developers more room to pursue ambitious ideas and push the boundaries of what their games can offer. If the next generation is delayed, however, some of those more demanding concepts could simply be saved for future projects.

For players, that suggests rising console prices and a potentially longer generation do not necessarily mean the traditional console model is disappearing. Instead, developers like CDPR appear ready to work with whatever hardware is actually in players’ homes when their next games arrive.

Sony’s New Harassment Policy Raises Questions Over Disc Backlash

Sony’s decision to stop producing physical PlayStation game discs has already triggered a wave of backlash from players, with the company’s social media posts frequently attracting criticism over the move. Now, Sony appears to be taking a harder line on how customers can express their complaints.

According to Polygon, Sony has introduced a new “harassment policy” covering behavior such as abusive language, threats, defamation, intimidation, discrimination, attacks against employees and unauthorized visits to company offices. Those restrictions are relatively straightforward, but other parts of the policy have attracted more attention because of how broadly they are worded.

The prohibited behavior reportedly includes “persistent and repeated requests,” “requests unrelated to a product or service,” and requests directed at employees. Sony also indicates that the examples listed in the policy are not necessarily exhaustive.

That wording is particularly notable because some of the behavior described could overlap with the way the most vocal critics have been protesting Sony’s decision to move away from physical game discs. Players repeatedly demanding that Sony reverse the policy, for example, could potentially fall into the broader language surrounding persistent requests, depending on how the rules are interpreted and enforced.

Sony says customers who violate the policy may face restrictions or suspension of customer service. The company also reserves the possibility of working with law enforcement and taking legal action, including criminal proceedings, in cases where it considers the behavior serious enough.

Polygon reported that Sony did not immediately respond to requests for comment, leaving some important questions unanswered. It is still unclear how aggressively the policy will be enforced, whether ordinary criticism will be affected, and where Sony intends to draw the line between legitimate customer complaints and harassment.

For PlayStation players already frustrated by the planned shift away from physical releases, the policy could add another layer to an increasingly heated dispute. Sony may have legitimate reasons to protect its employees and customer-service channels from abuse, but the broader wording of the new rules means the way they are actually enforced could matter just as much as the policy itself.

Three Different Problems, One Growing Player Concern

These three stories are very different, but they point toward the same broader change in gaming.

NVIDIA is asking players to look beyond traditional FPS numbers as AI-generated frames become a larger part of PC gaming. Console manufacturers are dealing with higher hardware costs while trying to keep players invested in increasingly expensive platforms. Sony, meanwhile, is attempting to manage a backlash over its changing approach to physical game ownership.

None of these developments necessarily means the current gaming model is about to collapse. DLSS 5 may eventually deliver better results through improved optimization, consoles are still a major part of the industry, and Sony’s new policy may ultimately be used primarily against genuinely abusive behavior.

But for players, the changes are becoming harder to ignore. Hardware is getting more expensive, AI is changing how performance is measured, and the traditional relationship between players and the platforms they buy games from is evolving.

The important question is whether these changes ultimately make gaming better for players—or simply make the experience more complicated and more expensive.