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[GHG]

Serious talk about Sony’s future though (I might be laughed at) but I have thought what if they pivot next gen and return to making the PS6 a handheld/hybrid like the Switch?
Do they say ‘ok MS, fuck off. You can buy every dev going for your ‘fixed’ hardware, but our console will run whatever third parties are left and we’ll have a unique selling points over Xbox because you can use our hardware anywhere, and we’ll have an advantage over Nintendo because our hardware is premium with a premium online service and true AAA games.’?

If the Oculus/VR momentum sustains they might be wiser to (and have no choice but to) go all in with an all in one wireless VR headset as their next "console".

They need to have a unique edge and a standard handheld isn't it.

 

[Banjo64]

Can't you put Game Pass on the Steam Deck or similar devices?

You can but I don’t think the Steam Deck or any portable PC will ever have mainstream penetration. That’s just my opinion though. Plus, and I know appearances don’t matter, but the Steam Deck looks like a fugly ass Game Gear wannabe and the PS Vita/Switch are hot - sex sells.

 

[Banjo64]

Didn't work for the Vita.

I think most of Sony's current customers want to play games on their TV with nice graphics. A home console will always be more powerful than a handheld, and Nintendo has handhelds on lock.

Fair. It’s just my pipe dream. I love the flexible nature of hybrid consoles, I just find Nintendo’s implementation lacking.

If the Oculus/VR momentum sustains they might be wiser to (and have no choice but to) go all in with an all in one wireless VR headset as their next "console".

They need to have a unique edge and a standard handheld isn't it.

I really hope not or that would be the only Sony console apart from the PS1 that I wouldn’t own

 

[Hunnybun]

Also, it’s ridiculous to shut down discussion regarding future of PlayStation. Saw a little bit of it here, and some Discord channels are basically unbrowsable. Some are definitely going way overboard, but there’s a legitimate discussion to be had.

I genuinely don’t understand what’s going at PlayStation this gen. They’ve become so short-term oriented, it’s ridiculous. Their premier teams take 4-5 years on average, but they decide these mega tentpoles should be cross-gen to chase few million sales on previous gen. Then there’s this ridiculous habit of buying timed exclusivity, which is probably the dumbest and biggest waste of resources.

Lastly, while their competition is slowly ticking away mega franchises off their platform. They’re porting their valuable IPs (which also happen to be biggest USP of buying a PlayStation) on PC. Even if these games sales in excess of 1million copies, is $50-60m of profitability worth diluting the appeal of your juggernaut IPs because there’s a sense of expectation building, that eventually everything is going to be ported on PC. You just have to wait, and this window is gonna get shorter. Are they really oblivious to long term ramifications of it?

All of this would be understandable, if they were transitioning towards becoming platform agnostic like Microsoft. But, then they go on and spend $100m on KOTOR Remake, and pay SE a fuck ton to prevent games from hitting Xbox. Then, they’re trying to compete with GamePass through Spartacus, but won’t put their games Day 1 on it, nor committing to a fixed window. Meanwhile, their games continue to cost €80. Then, there’s this whole VR venture in addition to them establishing a mobile division. Like what? What are they actually trying to do? Because, it appears to me, they have fingers in many pies, and are unsure themselves in which direction to commit to.

Yeah hard to disagree with much of that.

I'm not as opposed to them putting the games on PC as you, but it's definitely still a risk for what looks like a pretty small return. It's a questionable policy.

The price rise to €80/£70 just looks crazy in light of Game Pass and its ever increasing offering. The idea that they can compete with GP without actually replicating its single biggest benefit - day 1 exclusives - looks delusional.

Spending vast sums on what looks like fairly worthless timed exclusives looks like hubris to me.

I think they've got a lot of questions to answer.

 

[Represent.]

I want Xbox to buy EA and Take-Two.
I want Nintendo to buy Capcom, SEGA, and Bandai Namco
I want Sony to buy Square-Enix and Konami.

So basically you hate Sony lol

Sony would be dead if that happened

 

[TintoConCasera]

You can but I don’t think the Steam Deck or any portable PC will ever have mainstream penetration. That’s just my opinion though. Plus, and I know appearances don’t matter, but the Steam Deck looks like a fugly ass Game Gear wannabe and the PS Vita/Switch are hot - sex sells.

Yeah good point, I don't see those kind of devices getting mainstream any time soon. And I agree that appearances matter big time: weird looking devices might look harder to use than a simple looking device to the general public, and that's very important when it comes to gaining wide appeal.

Btw, "mainstream penetration"? Are we horny today or what.

 

[GHG]

I really hope not or that would be the only Sony console apart from the PS1 that I wouldn’t own

As with anything, if it's good you will own it.

I'm willing to hold my hands up if I'm wrong on this but I personally think a lot of people here are really underestimating how dominant the VR/AR space will be once the hardware and comfort issues are sorted. Microsoft and Activision certainly aren't sleeping on it, you only need to look at their press releases today to recognise that.

VR has the ability to move the needle. Yet another dedicated handheld gaming device doesn't, especially as we move towards a world where the dominant method of delivery for games will be streaming (people will simply use their existing mobile phones/tablets - both Microsoft and Sony already cater towards this audience).

 

[KAL2006]

Also, it’s ridiculous to shut down discussion regarding future of PlayStation. Saw a little bit of it here, and some Discord channels are basically unbrowsable. Some are definitely going way overboard, but there’s a legitimate discussion to be had.

I genuinely don’t understand what’s going at PlayStation this gen. They’ve become so short-term oriented, it’s ridiculous. Their premier teams take 4-5 years on average, but they decide these mega tentpoles should be cross-gen to chase few million sales on previous gen. Then there’s this ridiculous habit of buying timed exclusivity, which is probably the dumbest and biggest waste of resources.

Lastly, while their competition is slowly ticking away mega franchises off their platform. They’re porting their valuable IPs (which also happen to be biggest USP of buying a PlayStation) on PC. Even if these games sales in excess of 1million copies, is $50-60m of profitability worth diluting the appeal of your juggernaut IPs because there’s a sense of expectation building, that eventually everything is going to be ported on PC. You just have to wait, and this window is gonna get shorter. Are they really oblivious to long term ramifications of it?

All of this would be understandable, if they were transitioning towards becoming platform agnostic like Microsoft. But, then they go on and spend $100m on KOTOR Remake, and pay SE a fuck ton to prevent games from hitting Xbox. Then, they’re trying to compete with GamePass through Spartacus, but won’t put their games Day 1 on it, nor committing to a fixed window. Meanwhile, their games continue to cost €80. Then, there’s this whole VR venture in addition to them establishing a mobile division. Like what? What are they actually trying to do? Because, it appears to me, they have fingers in many pies, and are unsure themselves in which direction to commit to.

Great summary, I do think Sony is very short sighted and I agree for a multitude of reasons.

PC ports is basically saying you don't need a PlayStation, hell now I'm even thinking of transitioning to PC if I know I can get all PS games on PC I don't even mind waiting 2 years for the ports.

Time exclusives just seem rather stupid, you have Deathloop being marketed where everyone will just wait for the Gamepass release. Forspoken looks terrible and the other time exclusive games don't matter because that's money that could have been used to bolster their first party.

The other short sighted thing is the disrespect for their current fanbase by nickel and diming them with paid remasters that should be free patches, increase the price of their games. They should have focused on creating a ecosystem where you get rewarded for staying on, you games get upgraded for free, you have PS1, PS2, PSP backwards compatibility and your previous digital purchases for this platform will work.

They have basically made it easy to escape the PlayStation ecosystem. No backwards compatibility and paid upgrades fuck that lets go to Xbox or Steam they have libraries that go years back and games get updated for free. God of War, Uncharted, Horizon, well guess what you don't need to own a PS anymore just wait a year or 2 and you can get the ports on PC with better performance. £70 games, well Steam is cheaper and Xbox has Gamepass.

They literally are shooting themselves on the foot. Other than the insomniac, housemarque and bluepoint purchases I really think this gen they made the wrong moves so far.

 

[Banjo64]

Yeah good point, I don't see those kind of devices getting mainstream any time soon. And I agree that appearances matter big time: weird looking devices might look harder to use than a simple looking device to the general public, and that's very important when it comes to gaining wide appeal.

Btw, "mainstream penetration"? Are we horny today or what.

You got me Sony just need to thrust back against MS hard.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

Sega
Small studios
New IP
More exclusive

Book it

And Bandai Namco.

 

[Banjo64]

As with anything, if it's good you will own it.

I'm willing to hold my hands up if I'm wrong on this but I personally think a lot of people here are really underestimating how dominant the VR/AR space will be once the hardware and comfort issues are sorted. Microsoft and Activision certainly aren't sleeping on it, you only need to look at their press releases today to recognise that.

VR has the ability to move the needle. Yet another dedicated handheld gaming device doesn't, especially as we move towards a world where the dominant method of delivery for games will be streaming (people will simply use their existing mobile phones/tablets - both Microsoft and Sony already cater towards this audience).

You might be right but a world where I can’t play a powerful handheld by Sony or Nintendo on the train or on holiday is a sad world.

 

[Tutomos]

Sony can buy pubs/devs and gain leverage with MS, but the most likely scenario I think is what they're doing with their Music, TV and Flim division. They've become a really profitable content creator selling content to platform-holders. But there's a problem with the latter approach because there're only two players in the high-end gaming market right now. This deal also handicaps Google and Amazon and puts them further behind the game. It'll be really interesting to see how Sony reacts.

 

[Murdok]

 

[Stooky]

Their revenue has gone up ten fold since the PS2 era. They need to up their investment in their internal first party studios and no i dont mean by acquisitions. Every studio needs 3 teams of 500 people. And they all need to be in 3 year dev cycle. GG, SSM, Sucker Punch, and Sony Bend can no longer take 5 years to make 1 last gen sequel. They need to be at least as productive as Insomniac and at best as productive as the CoD studios who have managed to release a new CoD every year for the last 14 years without ever missing a deadline or taking longer than 2-3 years.

There is simply no excuse for having 100 man teams over at Sucker Punch and Sony Bend. Or 200-300 men teams at GG, ND and SSM. This isnt a mom and pop shop.

It would not require a blank check. Hiring devs does not cost billions. They come very cheap. ND games in the PS3 era used to cost $20 million when they had 150 person teams making games on a 2 year dev cycle. Even 5 $100 million games from their five internal first party studios every year is pennies compared to what MS just spent on one game per year.

What can Jimbo do different? Dont port your precious IPs to Microsoft's platform for once. Dont waste your time porting games when you can be putting extra resoruces getting games like Horizon out in 2021. If he can hire a studio to port Days Gone, GOW, Horizon and uncharted to PC then he can hire them to help GG, PD and SSM to ship in 2021.

And lastly, Apple made their name by producing the iPod, high end iMacs and of course the iPhone. They were at the forefront of technology. They didnt give a fuck how much they cost. They wanted the latest and greatest tech knowing people would pay top dollar for it. Horizon, GOW and GT7 being cross gen is dated tech and they will not convert any fence sitters into buying their games and consoles.

The plan for mediocrity a race to the bottom. It took 3-4 years to make PS3 games. 3 teams of 500 for each studio is expensive. Good talent is expensive and not easy to come by. Microsoft and Sony are playing different games. Sony main goal is to show the consumer the value in the their product.

food for thought:
"COD primarily sold on PlayStation platforms, with PS5 accounting for 41% of sales, PS4 29%, Xbox One 19% and Xbox Series X and S 11%."? This trends through most multiplat games. Sony is fine.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

 

[mekes]

I mostly enjoy playing games out of Japan so the biggest acquisition they've made so far was Bethesda because they get Tango. That's how much all of this stuff impacts me.

How it impacts the things I take for granted tho, and me as a result of those, I don't know.

 

[SlimySnake]

Also, it’s ridiculous to shut down discussion regarding future of PlayStation. Saw a little bit of it here, and some Discord channels are basically unbrowsable. Some are definitely going way overboard, but there’s a legitimate discussion to be had.

I genuinely don’t understand what’s going at PlayStation this gen. They’ve become so short-term oriented, it’s ridiculous. Their premier teams take 4-5 years on average, but they decide these mega tentpoles should be cross-gen to chase few million sales on previous gen. Then there’s this ridiculous habit of buying timed exclusivity, which is probably the dumbest and biggest waste of resources.

Lastly, while their competition is slowly ticking away mega franchises off their platform. They’re porting their valuable IPs (which also happen to be biggest USP of buying a PlayStation) on PC. Even if these games sales in excess of 1million copies, is $50-60m of profitability worth diluting the appeal of your juggernaut IPs because there’s a sense of expectation building, that eventually everything is going to be ported on PC. You just have to wait, and this window is gonna get shorter. Are they really oblivious to long term ramifications of it?

All of this would be understandable, if they were transitioning towards becoming platform agnostic like Microsoft. But, then they go on and spend $100m on KOTOR Remake, and pay SE a fuck ton to prevent games from hitting Xbox. Then, they’re trying to compete with GamePass through Spartacus, but won’t put their games Day 1 on it, nor committing to a fixed window. Meanwhile, their games continue to cost €80. Then, there’s this whole VR venture in addition to them establishing a mobile division. Like what? What are they actually trying to do? Because, it appears to me, they have fingers in many pies, and are unsure themselves in which direction to commit to.

Lol i think I know which discord channels you are talking about. I was invited then stealth removed because of my continued criticism of Sony's many policies this gen.

Sony's cross gen, PC porting policies and shutting down studios like Japan studios when they shouldve been expanding them are just short sighted decisions that are going to come back to bite them in the ass.

The question is just who was in charge when those cross gen decisions were made because Jim didnt take over until 2018. Herman 2019. And why they didnt change course when they found out GG, PD and Cory had decided on making cross gen games. As an exec in charge of selling Playstation 5s, surely an alarm bells wouldve gone off and a course correction shouldve been made in 2019.

When Bethesda was acquired before launch, once again alarm bells shouldve gone off. They lost Starfield, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Prey and several other franchises in one fell swoop. Right then, any decision to port their valuable IPs to PC shouldve been nixxed. Yet they went ahead and ported Days Gone, GOW and Uncharted with promises to investors that every PS game going forward will come to PC. Herman even went as far as to say that the PS5 games will only be exclusive at launch. Timed first party console exclusives? really? Why business as usual? Where is the urgency? Bethesda was a huge get.

I think they legit thought they had hit it big. That they didnt need the nerds on message boards and twitter. That they no longer needed to cater to the hardcore at PSX and E3. I mean just skipping E3 last year was the most clear example of arrogance that I have seen from any publisher in decades, and any criticism of Sony skipping E3 last year was shut down because they would never skip E3 and their conference was right around the corner.

A lot of the criticism was shut down by that logic. Sony would never port the biggest games to PC. Microsoft will never make Elder Scrolls and Starfield exclusive. Sony will never make God of War cross gen. Never skip E3. Never this. Never that. Will they did. All of it. And now PS gamers for the first time in history are staring at a future where the biggest franchises are not just multiplatform, but also never coming to their console. No starfield, no cod, and a whole lot of cross gen first party games. Shutting down that decision didnt help delay the inevitable. Though I will say while I received pushback here on gaf, the mods allowed all criticism of Sony, and did not go ban happy like era mods did.

 

[Clintizzle]

Playstation still has Guerrilla Games and Insomniac. If anything happens to them, that's when I'd start worrying.

 

[NoviDon]

Sony biting the bullet and buying Take Two makes the most sense, if they are willing to be bought, which why not? you get to keep your job and get a big pay bonus on top of that? And they own a huge suit of franchise games like Nba 2k, Borderlands, GTA, Red Dead, etc., that I think paired with their already deep first party lineup would rival or exceed what xbox has done that past year. Playstation is a huge part of the success of modern Sony, so they need to be aggressive and gain a foothold in this new competitive environment. If Jim disagrees and wants to remain complacent he should be terminated immediately.

 

[Sander Cohen]

I think GP on PS5 is only thing that can save Sony right now. Of course if MS would ever do it.

 

[nightmare-slain]

Sony biting the bullet and buying Take Two makes the most sense, if they are willing to be bought, which why not? you get to keep your job and get a big pay bonus on top of that? And they own a huge suit of franchise games like Nba 2k, Borderlands, GTA, Red Dead, etc., that I think paired with their already deep first party lineup would rival or exceed what xbox has done that past year. Playstation is a huge part of the success of modern Sony, so they need to be aggressive and gain a foothold in this new competitive environment. If Jim disagrees and wants to remain complacent he should be terminated immediately.

sony can not afford take two. realistically if sony were to buy anyone it'd be square/capcom.

take two, ea, ubi are no gos.

 

[tommib]

I mostly enjoy playing games out of Japan so the biggest acquisition they've made so far was Bethesda because they get Tango. That's how much all of this stuff impacts me.

How it impacts the things I take for granted tho, and me as a result of those, I don't know.

Same here. I didn't like Sony losing Tango even if Ghostwire is coming soon. I wish Mikami would join Capcom again.

 

[icerock]

The question is just who was in charge when those cross gen decisions were made because Jim didnt take over until 2018. Herman 2019. And why they didnt change course when they found out GG, PD and Cory had decided on making cross gen games. As an exec in charge of selling Playstation 5s, surely an alarm bells wouldve gone off and a course correction shouldve been made in 2019.

When Bethesda was acquired before launch, once again alarm bells shouldve gone off. They lost Starfield, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Prey and several other franchises in one fell swoop. Right then, any decision to port their valuable IPs to PC shouldve been nixxed. Yet they went ahead and ported Days Gone, GOW and Uncharted with promises to investors that every PS game going forward will come to PC. Herman even went as far as to say that the PS5 games will only be exclusive at launch. Timed first party console exclusives? really? Why business as usual? Where is the urgency? Bethesda was a huge get.

I think they legit thought they had hit it big. That they didnt need the nerds on message boards and twitter. That they no longer needed to cater to the hardcore at PSX and E3. I mean just skipping E3 last year was the most clear example of arrogance that I have seen from any publisher in decades, and any criticism of Sony skipping E3 last year was shut down because they would never skip E3 and their conference was right around the corner.

A lot of the criticism was shut down by that logic. Sony would never port the biggest games to PC. Microsoft will never make Elder Scrolls and Starfield exclusive. Sony will never make God of War cross gen. Never skip E3. Never this. Never that. Will they did. All of it. And now PS gamers for the first time in history are staring at a future where the biggest franchises are not just multiplatform, but also never coming to their console. No starfield, no cod, and a whole lot of cross gen first party games. Shutting down that decision didnt help delay the inevitable. Though I will say while I received pushback here on gaf, the mods allowed all criticism of Sony, and did not go ban happy like era mods did.

We won't ever know, when these decisions were made. But, I do think departure of guy in my avatar, in addition to shuffling of Yoshida to Indie role basically meant leadership were taking a different approach going forward. Shawn Layden was first boss under whose tenure, a PlayStation game hit PC, which was Predator and he did say, they were considering this strategy for Multi-player games but Single-players were being locked into PlayStation. This all changed under Jim Ryan, and more specifically under Hermen Hulst. From, what I have read of his interviews, Hermen is very business oriented guy, repeatedly pointing out a number of times how not making tentpoles cross-gen is "terrible business" and how "they are leaving money off the table" if they don't make certain games cross-gen, or they don't port.

I think both him, Ryan and other men are keeping profitability was at the forefront, and losing sight of the fact, that their business of PlayStation is not as infallible as they perceive it to be. It's greatest strength is quality of first party exclusives, but committing to porting every PS exclusive is diluting one key and perhaps biggest pull towards a PlayStation hardware. Also. what has made it a juggernaut, is that it has been the default platform for everything 3rd party and they enjoy a consistent 30% cut off every sale and MTX. I am amazed, they are willing to gamble all of this to chase $50m per port on PC.

They are trying to emulate Microsoft, but fail to realize, that Microsoft end goal is to not sell 100s of million of Xbox, or to be the major platform holder for 3rd party, so they can enjoy the store benefits. They are moving beyond all of that and basically creating a storefront and service in form of GamePass. Sony, on the other hand, don't have this luxury. Their attempts at both Cloud Gaming and Subscription Service are half-assed and they themselves have said, that they type of games they fund are not sustainable within this model. So, if there's one platform which absolutely needs hardware to survive and thrive, it's PlayStation. But, not only are they losing some juggernaut 3rd parties, they are simultaneously diluting their own IPs by porting them onto PC. It's a baffling strategy, and I can't make any sense of it.

 

[captainraincoat]

 

[SlimySnake]

We won't ever know, when these decisions were made. But, I do think departure of guy in my avatar, in addition to shuffling of Yoshida to Indie role basically meant leadership were taking a different approach going forward. Shawn Layden was first boss under whose tenure, a PlayStation game hit PC, which was Predator and he did say, they were considering this strategy for Multi-player games but Single-players were being locked into PlayStation. This all changed under Jim Ryan, and more specifically under Hermen Hulst. From, what I have read of his interviews, Hermen is very business oriented guy, repeatedly pointing out a number of times how not making tentpoles cross-gen is "terrible business" and how "they are leaving money off the table" if they don't make certain games cross-gen, or they don't port.

I think both him, Ryan and other men are keeping profitability was at the forefront, and losing sight of the fact, that their business of PlayStation is not as infallible as they perceive it to be. It's greatest strength is quality of first party exclusives, but committing to porting every PS exclusive is diluting one key and perhaps biggest pull towards a PlayStation hardware. Also. what has made it a juggernaut, is that it has been the default platform for everything 3rd party and they enjoy a consistent 30% cut off every sale and MTX. I am amazed, they are willing to gamble all of this to chase $50m per port on PC.

They are trying to emulate Microsoft, but fail to realize, that Microsoft end goal is to not sell 100s of million of Xbox, or to be the major platform holder for 3rd party, so they can enjoy the store benefits. They are moving beyond all of that and basically creating a storefront and service in form of GamePass. Sony, on the other hand, don't have this luxury. Their attempts at both Cloud Gaming and Subscription Service are half-assed and they themselves have said, that they type of games they fund are not sustainable within this model. So, if there's one platform which absolutely needs hardware to survive and thrive, it's PlayStation. But, not only are they losing some juggernaut 3rd parties, they are simultaneously diluting their own IPs by porting them onto PC. It's a baffling strategy, and I can't make any sense of it.

It makes perfect sense to me. Short term profits has been corporate America's motto for decades and now that Playstation HQ is based out of Sillicon Valley instead of Tokyo, Japan it's obvious what their priorities are. This is the same place where Zuckerberg sold his soul to the devil lol

Had never heard those Herman quotes about cross gen games and yeesh. I finished Horizon on PC last week. A lovely ending. Emotional conclusion with some wonderful music. Cutting onions. Cut to credits. First person mentioned isnt the game director or the creative director or the narrative director. It's the studio managing director; Herman Hurst. That's like if Saving Private Ryan ended and the end credits started with some hollywood asshole you've never even heard of or worse, Harvey Fucking Weinstein. That immediately stood out to me. The game director was credited next, then the guy who came up with idea of Horizon and finally the narrative director.

P.S We were just discussing this yesterday, but someone posted an interview by Andrew House about why he commissioned the PS4 Pro. He said he looked at some data that showed the hardcore gamers were leaving to PC mid way through the gen and he wanted to keep them in his eco system. Jim and Herman are ignoring that data for $35 million in PC revenue. (Steam takes a 30% cut)

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Everyone is crying about Call of Duty.

Here I am tight we’ll never get a Insomniac Spyro game again. I guess Crash too, but I didn’t buy Crash 4. Still feels dirty.

 

[captainraincoat]

Without kicking them some more and have many already pointed out

PlayStation are a short term focused company with no real long term vision …them trying to convince the rest of their parent company to spend to the levels that Microsoft have in the last 5 years is not going to happen which is why they are stuck in this loop of remasters/remakes and directors cuts

Sure everything at the moment is rainbows and peaches and their hardware is still selling bonkers…but so is Nintendo and so are Microsoft’s and both these companies have a much longer term looking outlook and slowly PlayStation market share is getting eaten up until it becomes the third wheel again

Sony really have to lay out what their longer term goals are and how they intend on growing and innovating the gaming market

 

[xiskza]

People saying this won't cause massive issues for PlayStation are living in dreamworld, I feel like. You guys realize that's all a lot of people play? And games like CoD are what PlayStation make the bulk of their money with. Their business model makes no sense if they start losing out on massive IP's like that. They ain't no Nintendo.

It also means MASSIVE problems down the line, should subscriptions become the norm. This should be their main worry. If games follow movies and music in distribution, they simply won't be able to compete with GamePass given the shear amount of studios and IP Microsoft can now throw at it. And content is all that matters in that space. Not just quality, but quantity and breadth of genres. If GamePass really takes off, PlayStation will be facing a problem they likely won't be able to solve.

 

[elliot5]

lol @ thinking Sony can buy Take Two and Microsoft wouldn't just outbid them. Take Two is public and even if they had a "no-shop" clause for some reason after Sony's offer, Microsoft could easily pay the fee for breaking that clause with Take Two and outbid. GTA and RDR and so on are just too good to pass up in that scenario.

 

[Camreezie]

There has been more copium smoked today than any other in my memory. Actually beautiful

 

[Airbus Jr]

Without kicking them some more and have many already pointed out

PlayStation are a short term focused company with no real long term vision …them trying to convince the rest of their parent company to spend to the levels that Microsoft have in the last 5 years is not going to happen which is why they are stuck in this loop of remasters/remakes and directors cuts

Sure everything at the moment is rainbows and peaches and their hardware is still selling bonkers…but so is Nintendo and so are Microsoft’s and both these companies have a much longer term looking outlook and slowly PlayStation market share is getting eaten up until it becomes the third wheel again

Sony really have to lay out what their longer term goals are and how they intend on growing and innovating the gaming market

Haha this post is laughable how are they suppoae to do if Xbox keep eating up third party publishers like this

 

[mclaren777]

I don't think I've purchased an Activism/Blizzard game in the past 15 years, so I'm not feeling any resentment or fear from today's announcement.

Good for Microsoft!

 

[Y0ssarian]

I have Series X and PS5. Playstation still has the better exclusives.

Sony should buy Sega

 

[captainraincoat]

Haha this post is laughable how are they suppoae to do if Xbox keep eating up third party publishers like this

Short term
1) Get their aaa studios working on new and exciting ip instead of remakes/remasters

2) stop fucking over your userbase by charging them for res updates/fps boosts and branding them as directors cuts ect…release these as free updates

3) offer a lower price gamepass but with the same benefits (streaming/first party)

Long term
If you can’t buy studios grow your existing ones out and have them working on multiple new projects And communicate with your userbase…Sony have become a literal wall in terms of them communicating with their users and nobody has a good view on what they are working on

 

[Stooky]

Without kicking them some more and have many already pointed out

PlayStation are a short term focused company with no real long term vision …them trying to convince the rest of their parent company to spend to the levels that Microsoft have in the last 5 years is not going to happen which is why they are stuck in this loop of remasters/remakes and directors cuts

Sure everything at the moment is rainbows and peaches and their hardware is still selling bonkers…but so is Nintendo and so are Microsoft’s and both these companies have a much longer term looking outlook and slowly PlayStation market share is getting eaten up until it becomes the third wheel again

Sony really have to lay out what their longer term goals are and how they intend on growing and innovating the gaming market

Jesus, Microsoft has one good holiday season and now everyone is acting like Microsoft is consistently selling systems like Sony and Nintendo. Even with these acquisitions Microsoft still has alot to prove, their new studios have alot to prove. If anything it ups the value of games pass. Each platform provides a unique gaming experience, there is value in that. This is the first time since 360 era that I'm interested in what Microsoft is offering, but I also know that we are a few years from seeing how this plays out i.e what games are coming? are exclusive? which games are good? If microsoft are releasing 7 and 8 games thats cool, but if Sony and Nintendo are still pumping out GOTY titles, then Microsoft looks like walmart.

 

[RoadHazard]

Bring back Kaz. Or Jack. Or Andrew. Even Shawn. Or even better, Shu. Jim and Hermen are killing PlayStation for short-term profits.

 

[Airbus Jr]

Short term
1) Get their aaa studios working on new and exciting ip instead of remakes/remasters

2) stop fucking over your userbase by charging them for res updates/fps boosts and branding them as directors cuts ect…release these as free updates

3) offer a lower price gamepass but with the same benefits (streaming/first party)

Long term
If you can’t buy studios grow your existing ones out and have them working on multiple new projects And communicate with your userbase…Sony have become a literal wall in terms of them communicating with their users and nobody has a good view on what they are working on

Nah

What Ms doin is fckd up man ( on this matter)

Has nothing to do with sony at all they didnt do anything wrong here

 

[Sanepar]

But MS will provide premium content all year round for a fifth of the price.

We’re enthusiasts. We’re not the average consumer. In about two to three years time Gamepass is going to be irresistible in terms of bang for buck.

You guys are pipe dreaming if u think gamepass price will stay like that. They have almost $80 billions check to pay and guess who is gonna pay that?

If they get 1 or 2 more publishers they can charge a full game per month and u guys will need to pay.

That's what consolidation brings to the table.

 

[captainraincoat]

Jesus, Microsoft has one good holiday season and now everyone is acting like Microsoft is consistently selling systems like Sony and Nintendo. Even with these acquisitions Microsoft still has alot to prove, their new studios have alot to prove. If anything it ups the value of games pass. Each platform provides a unique gaming experience, there is value in that. This is the first time in a long that I'm interested in what Microsoft is offering, but I also know that we are a few years from seeing how this plays out i.e what games are coming? are exclusive? which games are good?

I will be enjoying my PlayStation quite a bit over the next 6 months…probably a lot more than the xbox….but outside of that there is a literal tidal wave of games for gamepass coming and that’s just the first party stuff…..putting out 2 or 3 first party titles a year and charging your userbase a premium to play them is not gonna work against that

 

[Dr Bass]

Lol i think I know which discord channels you are talking about. I was invited then stealth removed because of my continued criticism of Sony's many policies this gen.

Sony's cross gen, PC porting policies and shutting down studios like Japan studios when they shouldve been expanding them are just short sighted decisions that are going to come back to bite them in the ass.

The question is just who was in charge when those cross gen decisions were made because Jim didnt take over until 2018. Herman 2019. And why they didnt change course when they found out GG, PD and Cory had decided on making cross gen games. As an exec in charge of selling Playstation 5s, surely an alarm bells wouldve gone off and a course correction shouldve been made in 2019.

When Bethesda was acquired before launch, once again alarm bells shouldve gone off. They lost Starfield, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Prey and several other franchises in one fell swoop. Right then, any decision to port their valuable IPs to PC shouldve been nixxed. Yet they went ahead and ported Days Gone, GOW and Uncharted with promises to investors that every PS game going forward will come to PC. Herman even went as far as to say that the PS5 games will only be exclusive at launch. Timed first party console exclusives? really? Why business as usual? Where is the urgency? Bethesda was a huge get.

I think they legit thought they had hit it big. That they didnt need the nerds on message boards and twitter. That they no longer needed to cater to the hardcore at PSX and E3. I mean just skipping E3 last year was the most clear example of arrogance that I have seen from any publisher in decades, and any criticism of Sony skipping E3 last year was shut down because they would never skip E3 and their conference was right around the corner.

A lot of the criticism was shut down by that logic. Sony would never port the biggest games to PC. Microsoft will never make Elder Scrolls and Starfield exclusive. Sony will never make God of War cross gen. Never skip E3. Never this. Never that. Will they did. All of it. And now PS gamers for the first time in history are staring at a future where the biggest franchises are not just multiplatform, but also never coming to their console. No starfield, no cod, and a whole lot of cross gen first party games. Shutting down that decision didnt help delay the inevitable. Though I will say while I received pushback here on gaf, the mods allowed all criticism of Sony, and did not go ban happy like era mods did.

Sony already doesn't get "the biggest franchises." Those are Nintendo properties. Also, the idea that Bethesda franchises are the most important right now is ridiculous, and let's just wait and see what happens with CoD. It's one game. All the rest of the stuff in the Activision deal probably doesn't matter, and there is a chance the deal won't even go through. Again this is a massive overreaction by a large group of people here.

All this talk about the sky is falling for Sony is, again, totally insane. They are making way more cash than Microsoft (in the games space), have a much more desired platform right now, and are still releasing more games for their system despite MS spending nearly 80 billion dollars on acquisitions recently.

We will see what happens but I will bet decent money this, yet again, won't move the needle much for MS. It's not new creative games. It's spending a butt load of money on old franchises.

I will be enjoying my PlayStation quite a bit over the next 6 months…probably a lot more than the xbox….but outside of that there is a literal tidal wave of games for gamepass coming and that’s just the first party stuff…..putting out 2 or 3 first party titles a year and charging your userbase a premium to play them is not gonna work against that

So MS has a "tidal wave" of games coming but Sony has 2-3 a year?

Ok .... Not sure where you pull those "numbers" from. Charging money for better games WILL work, as it has been since Game Pass was introduced five years ago. It works for Nintendo. It works for Sony. What are the Activision/Zenimax games that are going to suddenly be better received than the competition? Nothing in their post has done that, so what is going to change in the future for them simply because they were purchased?

 

[Stooky]

Short term
1) Get their aaa studios working on new and exciting ip instead of remakes/remasters

They do this becuase it expands the brand and there is a market for it.

2) stop fucking over your userbase by charging them for res updates/fps boosts and branding them as directors cuts ect…release these as free updates

Dont buy it its not for you

3) offer a lower price gamepass but with the same benefits (streaming/first party)

I agree

Long term
If you can’t buy studios grow your existing ones out and have them working on multiple new projects And communicate with your userbase…Sony have become a literal wall in terms of them communicating with their users and nobody has a good view on what they are working on

You guys dont understand how hard and costly it is to expand a studio that usually works on one game at tim. It easier to buy a studio ( microsoft )

Sony communicates enough for the general public. Only people complaining are here on gaff and youtubers.

 

[kyliethicc]

We won't ever know, when these decisions were made. But, I do think departure of guy in my avatar, in addition to shuffling of Yoshida to Indie role basically meant leadership were taking a different approach going forward. Shawn Layden was first boss under whose tenure, a PlayStation game hit PC, which was Predator and he did say, they were considering this strategy for Multi-player games but Single-players were being locked into PlayStation. This all changed under Jim Ryan, and more specifically under Hermen Hulst. From, what I have read of his interviews, Hermen is very business oriented guy, repeatedly pointing out a number of times how not making tentpoles cross-gen is "terrible business" and how "they are leaving money off the table" if they don't make certain games cross-gen, or they don't port.

I think both him, Ryan and other men are keeping profitability was at the forefront, and losing sight of the fact, that their business of PlayStation is not as infallible as they perceive it to be. It's greatest strength is quality of first party exclusives, but committing to porting every PS exclusive is diluting one key and perhaps biggest pull towards a PlayStation hardware. Also. what has made it a juggernaut, is that it has been the default platform for everything 3rd party and they enjoy a consistent 30% cut off every sale and MTX. I am amazed, they are willing to gamble all of this to chase $50m per port on PC.

They are trying to emulate Microsoft, but fail to realize, that Microsoft end goal is to not sell 100s of million of Xbox, or to be the major platform holder for 3rd party, so they can enjoy the store benefits. They are moving beyond all of that and basically creating a storefront and service in form of GamePass. Sony, on the other hand, don't have this luxury. Their attempts at both Cloud Gaming and Subscription Service are half-assed and they themselves have said, that they type of games they fund are not sustainable within this model. So, if there's one platform which absolutely needs hardware to survive and thrive, it's PlayStation. But, not only are they losing some juggernaut 3rd parties, they are simultaneously diluting their own IPs by porting them onto PC. It's a baffling strategy, and I can't make any sense of it.

1. Welcome back, its always interesting to read your posts.

2. I agree with a lot of what you say here.

3. Helldivers was actually Sony's 1st game on PC back in 2015.

4. Shawn Layden was never in charge of PlayStation. He ran WWS. He wasn't CEO.
Kaz was CEO. Then Andrew House was CEO, then John Kodera, and now Jim Ryan.

 

[icerock]

1. Welcome back, its always interesting to read your posts.

2. I agree with a lot of what you say here.

3. Helldivers was actually Sony's 1st game on PC back in 2015.

4. Shawn Layden was never in charge of PlayStation. He ran WWS. He wasn't CEO.
Kaz was CEO. Then Andrew House was CEO, then John Kodera, and now Jim Ryan.

Thanks for your kind words.

I think nomenclature around those positions have confused you. Shuhei Yoshida was President of SIE WWS from 2008-19, while Shawn Layden was Chairman of WWS and President of SIE, Layden succeeded Jack Trenton in this role in 2014, and Tretton succeeded Kaz in 2006. Also, Kaz was promoted to COO.

So, Jim Ryan has taken place of Layden, while Hulst has replaced Shuhei. Jim Ryan is the ultimate boss in this regard, who’s making these final calls as to pricing, strategy etc. Whereas Hermen is tasked to manage FP studios and the projects, what’s greenlit, what’s the budget/scope. So, ultimately, both Ryan/Hulst decide in regards to cross-gen development and porting/revenue strategy with Ryan holding the final call.

Anyways, even without these semantics. The key is, they are diverting away from what made them so successful. Strength of FP coupled with strong backing from 3rd party. As of now and in near future, both are getting diluted which is genuinely a cause of worry for PlayStation and it’s fans.

 

[kyliethicc]

Thanks for your kind words.

I think nomenclature around those positions have confused you. Shuhei Yoshida was President of SIE WWS from 2008-19, while Shawn Layden was Chairman of WWS and President of SIE, Layden succeeded Jack Trenton in this role in 2014, and Tretton succeeded Kaz in 2006. Also, Kaz was promoted to COO.

So, Jim Ryan has taken place of Layden, while Hulst has replaced Shuhei. Jim Ryan is the ultimate boss in this regard, who’s making these final calls as to pricing, strategy etc. Whereas Hermen is tasked to manage FP studios and the projects, what’s greenlit, what’s the budget/scope. So, ultimately, both Ryan/Hulst decide in regards to cross-gen development and porting/revenue strategy with Ryan holding the final call.

Anyways, even without these semantics. The key is, they are diverting away from what made them so successful. Strength of FP coupled with strong backing from 3rd party. As of now and in near future, both are getting diluted which is genuinely a cause of worry for PlayStation and it’s fans.

Nah Shawn was just head of the old Sony America sales & marketing sub division. Never the whole of PlayStation. (Then in 2018 he got stripped of that too.) Layden took over SCEA from Trenton and he then took over WWS from Shu. He even joked that when he got offered becoming head of WWS, he asked "so 2 jobs means 2 paychecks right?"

Then as SCE became SIE, we can see that Layden was just head of WWS. Worked under the CEO.

House stepped down end of 2017 and John Kodera ran SIE for 2 years until Jim Ryan was chosen as the successor. He became CEO after Kodera.

And Kaz was CEO of all of SCE until Andrew House took over from him. Trenton just ran SCEA division. House ran SCEE under Kaz. Then Ryan took over once House became CEO.


Its all on this site if you're curious.

Timeline

Our Company

Sony Interactive Entertainment pushes the boundaries of entertainment & innovation, starting from the launch of PlayStation in Japan in 1994.

www.sie.com

Press Releases

Press Release Archives – Sony Interactive Entertainment

www.sie.com

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

We wander through the desert waiting for Microsoft to announce what game they will give us. This is the life we now must endure.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

MS is aggressively going for normies, so Sony's best play would be to cater to fanboys and maintain relationships with third parties owning IPs synonymous with PlayStation (too late for Crash and Spyro I guess), wherever possible.

Unfortunately though, I'm not sure Jim Ryan has a terribly firm grip of what made PlayStation so popular in the first place.

How long has he been there? Quite some time I think. If that was true then he shouldn’t be there. Personally the one Sony guy I do like is Shu, he would of been a better choice.

 

[xiskza]

Sony losing big third party games will lead to losing profit (software and hardware), and that will directly impact on the quality of their games and the money they can spend on their games.

This is not about if these acquisitions will be successful for MS or not, it's about the possibility of PS losing their ability to make more money to make these games on that picture.

 

[xiskza]

Was just watching CNBC. They said Microsoft made this acquisition now to get out in front of other Big Tech companies. They said Amazon, Netflix, Google, Facebook, etc, are all going to be competing in the future to make purchases for some of the last remaining major publishers to build out their own "metaverses".

CDPR, Roblox, EA, and Take Two were all mentioned as being potential acquisitions.

Sony is in serious jeopardy of getting locked out of far more IPs than those from Acvitision if they don't move. Their position in the future of gaming is on the line.

 

[hybrid_birth]

Sony's New Marketing Commercial to all Playstation Fans:

 

[Sinthor]

Oh please. Stop with all the drama, people. Nothing is affecting you right now. The one thing that is constant in the tech industry is change. MS has not done well in the past with their acquisitions as far as developers. That may change, or it may stay the same. Only time will tell if this has any effect on the Playstation market. So we'll see. Heck, it's POSSIBLE that Microsoft buys everyone up to the point where you just need to use a gaming PC or Xbox to play 90% or more of the games out there. If that happens, we can whine about it then. Just relax and enjoy the current generation of games and play what you want to play. Having some weird, strict, tribal loyalty to one company or another is just silly. Be a consumer and leave the cheerleading to company executives!