Sony lets studios take risks.
Sony let Insomniac make Resistance instead of just another Ratchet and Clank game (even if they were 2nd party). They then hooked them up with Marvel to make Spider-Man and now Wolverine. Resistance 1 sold at least 2.5 million copies. They could have doubled down on the franchise even as the sequels sold less copies. Maybe in one universe, it would have been wise to have done so.
Guerrilla went from Killzone to Horizon. Another game completely out of their wheelhouse. Sucker Punch went from Infamous to Ghost of Tsushima... entirely out of their wheelhouse. Naughty Dog went from Jak to Uncharted and from Uncharted to The Last of Us... Literally the opposite of what Microsoft did with Bungie. If Microsoft ran Naughty Dog, they might still be focused on just Jak and Daxter games...
Sony could have spent a ton of money getting the rights to Crash and Spyro back for Naughty Dog and Insomniac, but that would have stifled their growth.
Santa Monica has focused entirely on God of War, but they took a risk in entirely rebooting the franchise. Especially risky after their non God of War game was canceled and the failure of Ascension. They're also now finally working on an original IP.
Media Molecule could have kept making LittleBigPlanet games, but instead made Dreams, which I think on PC could be a huge GaaS game.
Microsoft really doesn't take risks at all. They haven't really evolved since they came into the market from a game design perspective. Their studios just create sequel after sequel for what they THINK caters to their audience, and their talent eventually leaves.
Because they don't take risks, their studios don't mature and their games just become stale. Sony's mature studios act as metal sharpening metal. There is none of that with Microsoft. They seem to entirely lack a cohesive culture, which comes from just buying random studios rather than studios with relationships already. Insomniac was VERY close to Sony and Naughty Dog before Sony bought them.
If Sony were to buy FromSoftware, they already have a deep relationship with the company. They've worked with them on Demon's Souls and Bloodborne. Kojima wants to stay independent, but Sony has worked with his studio as well.
I think you are right about Sony letting their studio do their stuff.
Even if most of Sony’s first party studios are all making games around the same formula.
Semi open or open worlds, 3rd person view action games with some cool cut scenes.
I think the semi open 3rd person, single player action formula is the sony dna.
MS seems to look too much at the data.
« If people play this and do this , buy that but not that then we should do this »
It will work, the data said so.
It’s the problem with giant companies, excell sheets, data, trend chasing with a huge inertia.
They are out of touch.
They should give their teams total freedom to create what they really want.
Negociate a budget and a time frame and do it.
Apply a little pressure here and there from time to time to assure they don’t loose their focus.
And some fantastic games would emerge.
A, AA, AAA, it would work for every budget.
MS have made some change, let’s hope for the best.
I am positively sure Gears 6 will be a fucking great game.
The changes they made in gears 5 after a few seasons were amazing and the single player dlc was one of best dlc ever.
Now that some changes are made in 343i higher ups , it could do the same.
Let’s go Microsoft, do it!