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[LakeOf9]

I'm sure everyone remembers how bad things were in the early 2010s:

• Mobile and tablet gaming had gotten big and everyone was convinced that they would overtake consoles for games
• Nintendo and Microsoft were both chasing casual audiences with mobile style games on their consoles
• Microsoft was trying to extract as much money from console gaming as possible with their DRM/anti-used sales measures
• Microsoft was trying to turn consoles into living room iPads/media centres with games use being an incidental focus
• The Wii U was a total flop, which further added fuel to the "consoles are dead" fire

In the middle of all this came Sony with the PS4 - a simple, powerful but cheap, easy to develop for console that focused on games first and foremost, and ignored the casual gimmickry/media functionality/DRM nonsense. And I think that it basically demonstrated with its record breaking success how there was still room for traditional console gaming. In its wake, others would follow - Sony themselves capitalized on it with PS5, Nintendo pivoted with the Switch, and even Microsoft would decide to follow the leader. But I think today, the reason console gaming is still around in any form is Sony and the PS4.

 

[squarealex]

and saved console gaming​

From who ?

 

[RoboFu]

From who ?

but seriously.. no ... gaming is too mainstream.. it would have continued on another console, PC, or *gasp* mobile would have quickly garnered better games ... Playstation is great and Sony are great but gaming isn't the same as it was in the 80s when it was still thought of as a throw away childs toy. It would have pressed on.

 

[Zones]

Absolutely, but don’t let the Nintendo fanboys hear this.

 

[LakeOf9]

From who ?

Maybe read the OP? It's not too long

 

[Skifi28]

I'm not sure if I'd go as far as saying sony saved console gaming, but it was refreshing at the time to see a console that didn't chase any new fads but instead focused on the basics most people actually wanted.

 

[Woggleman]

I don't know about saved but it did seem for a while that Sony were the only ones who really prioritized single player gaming.

 

[Syphon Filter]

PS4 wasn't good, it's just that MS shot themselves in the foot. Even the PS3 is better, I'd argue consoles aren't good anymore after the PS3/360 era.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Dunno about saving, but I know everyone and their dog were saying the PS4 was doomed and Xbox was where it was going to be at. Then Xbox did a madness.

 

[rofif]

From who ?

From itself

 

[64bitmodels]

From who ?

The mobile boogeyman

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Weekend GAF is something else.

 

[BlackTron]

Thank you, Playstation 4

 

[alphachino]

Consoles never needed saving and it was nothing more than media hyperbole.

 

[64bitmodels]

the early 2010s were actually the worst time for console gaming though if i'm being honest
pretty much everything besides the PS4 and 3DS were abject failures, we had the Ouya, Xbox One, Wii U, VIta. the rise of mobile gaming, paid online growing too. Everything wasn't very good.

the state we're in now IMO is far better than 10 years ago especially considering how much portable gaming has evolved in the past half decade

 

[squarealex]

The mobile boogeyman

PS4 Saves consoles gaming and kill PSVita.

Make Sense.

 

[BennyBlanco]

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

It was the beginning of the end for japanese Playstation games though.

In that gen Sony started to release more and more games that followed the "Uncharted" formula.
They became so popular that they decided to heavily emphasize games that followed that formula since then.

No more Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle, White Knight Chronicles, Siren and others.
It may have been profitable, but the Playstation we all knew since the PS1 days was gone.

 

[64bitmodels]

It was the beginning of the end for japanese Playstation games though.

In that gen Sony started to release more and more games that followed the "Uncharted" formula.
They became so popular that they decided to heavily emphasize games that followed that formula since then.

No more Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle, White Knight Chronicles, Siren and others.
It may have been profitable, but the Playstation we all knew since the PS1 days was gone.

I mean yeah but Nintendo exists.

also Steam.

 

[-Zelda-]

It was the beginning of the end for japanese Playstation games though.

In that gen Sony started to release more and more games that followed the "Uncharted" formula.
They became so popular that they decided to heavily emphasize games that followed that formula since then.

No more Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle, White Knight Chronicles, Siren and others.
It may have been profitable, but the Playstation we all knew since the PS1 days was gone.

Yeah. I am so sick of this whole Oscarbaiting era we live in now, especially with western made games. This is why fromsoft games feel like games, and not 15 hour long movies. Now I just wish I could actually play those games without wanting to put my head through a wall.

 

[Nankatsu]

OP be like:

 

[Swagballs717]

Console gaming is always going to exist. The Xbox One and Wii U wouldn't have been enough to make the general public turn to PC gaming, which is infamously more expensive and difficult to work with for those not in the know. People will always want to just play a game without worrying about hardware compatibility or editing .INI files.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Wow, thank god for Sony. Saved the industry.

Saved us from Nintendo chasing mobile games with the likes of Pikmin 3, Super mario 3D world, Zelda a link between worlds and Fire emblem awakening. Totally influenced their upcoming lineup such as Bayonetta 2, Donkey kong tropical freeze, Xenoblade chronicles X, Mario kart 8 and so on.

Thanks Sony

 

[Woggleman]

It was the beginning of the end for japanese Playstation games though.

In that gen Sony started to release more and more games that followed the "Uncharted" formula.
They became so popular that they decided to heavily emphasize games that followed that formula since then.

No more Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle, White Knight Chronicles, Siren and others.
It may have been profitable, but the Playstation we all knew since the PS1 days was gone.

This is true but then again if gamers in general love those kinds of games why did they not sell more? The only stuff from Japan that really seems to get gamers excited anymore are Nintendo and Fromsoft.

 

[Kilau]

• Mobile and tablet gaming had gotten big and everyone was convinced that they would overtake consoles for games

Going by revenue, mobile has, by a lot.

 

[64bitmodels]

The only stuff from Japan that really seems to get gamers excited anymore are Nintendo and Fromsoft.

Yeah only Nintendo and Fromsoft. Totally no other companies out there like Square Enix, Sega, Capcom, Vanillaware, Bandai Namco... nope just Nintendo and Fromsoft.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

PS4 wasn't good, it's just that MS shot themselves in the foot. Even the PS3 is better, I'd argue consoles aren't good anymore after the PS3/360 era.

This would make sense, if Sony didn't release consoles that dominate the best-of-all-times chart.

The logic you're applying only goes for the PS3/X360-era, where X360 had a head-start and Sony dropped the ball with PS3 architecture.

 

[Horseganador]

Sony did an excellent job making a console for gamers that is much more powerful and cheaper than the competition, without TVTVTV, without a permanent connection, without costing the second hand, without putting a 24/7 camera in the living room, etc... and then A memorable generation was marked at the soft level.

 

[El Muerto]

It was the beginning of the end for japanese Playstation games though.

In that gen Sony started to release more and more games that followed the "Uncharted" formula.
They became so popular that they decided to heavily emphasize games that followed that formula since then.

No more Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle, White Knight Chronicles, Siren and others.
It may have been profitable, but the Playstation we all knew since the PS1 days was gone.

It's also around the same time they shut down SCEJ which was a mistake. At least we're getting more Japanese games on PC to fill the void.

 

[Unknown?]

It was the beginning of the end for japanese Playstation games though.

In that gen Sony started to release more and more games that followed the "Uncharted" formula.
They became so popular that they decided to heavily emphasize games that followed that formula since then.

No more Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle, White Knight Chronicles, Siren and others.
It may have been profitable, but the Playstation we all knew since the PS1 days was gone.

You listed 3rd party games there. PS3 was the beginning of the end. Japan Studio couldn't get out any big games, they were all smaller games that were niche. They were good but their big AAA games died and the only salvaged one was released for PS4.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

I agree, and all it did, was be PS2v2.

No gimmicks. (I like gimmicks)
No multiplayer focus.
Actual Free 2 Play on Console.
Make single player games still viable by making them blockbusters, while all other publishers were trying their best to eliminate them. (cause they couldn’t be MTX out of death as easily)

 

[BouncyFrag]

PS4 Saves consoles gaming and kill PSVita.

Make Sense.

My PSVita:

 

[Keihart]

This is true but then again if gamers in general love those kinds of games why did they not sell more? The only stuff from Japan that really seems to get gamers excited anymore are Nintendo and Fromsoft.

the whole point on that variety was to appeal to niches in the market not make blockbusters, the point of first party games for sony now is blockbusters, thats IS the whole problem.

The fact that fromsoft games sell a shit ton is incidental, not a result of a product designed to sell a shit ton of units, every release we even get a bunch of people complaning why they are not being catered to.

 

[Fbh]

It was the beginning of the end for japanese Playstation games though.

In that gen Sony started to release more and more games that followed the "Uncharted" formula.
They became so popular that they decided to heavily emphasize games that followed that formula since then.

No more Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle, White Knight Chronicles, Siren and others.
It may have been profitable, but the Playstation we all knew since the PS1 days was gone.

Playstation studios themselves have never been that japanese centric though. The Ps1-2 era just benefited from being massively popular in japan with little competition, so they got a ton of third party japanese games by default.
During the Ps4 era you still got games like Gravity rush 2, The Last Guardian and Bloodborne

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

This is true but then again if gamers in general love those kinds of games why did they not sell more? The only stuff from Japan that really seems to get gamers excited anymore are Nintendo and Fromsoft.

You listed 3rd party games there. PS3 was the beginning of the end. Japan Studio couldn't get out any big games, they were all smaller games that were niche. They were good but their big AAA games died and the only salvaged one was released for PS4.

At the time we had this anti-japanese propaganda going on. Suddenly japanese games were not "fun" anymore.
Quite a few games were never localized back then because of that.

Recommended reading:

Japanese Games Never Died, They Have Just Been Ignored

About ten years ago a curious change occurred in the Western gaming press, it seemed that anything Japanese was a byword for bad. This also had the effect of silencing the history of gaming that pre-dated it. Allowing for, among other things, derivative games to be heralded as innovative. Much [...]

www.forbes.com

Playstation studios themselves have never been that japanese centric though. The Ps1-2 era just benefited from being massively popular in japan with little competition, so they got a ton of third party japanese games by default.
During the Ps4 era you still got games like Gravity rush 2, The Last Guardian and Bloodborne

But they have never been *exclusively* western either.
Now they have censored japanese games, changed the default button from "Circle" to "X" universally and moved to California.
And of those mentioned, only Bloodborne has hopes of getting another game.

 

[Woggleman]

At the end of the day Sony like all the other devs are a business and if they are see there is a good market for Japanese games they will push them.

 

[Bonfires Down]

I’ll give you the point about online DRM. Uh, that’s about it.

 

[near]

 

[BlackTron]

The real joke is when the implied "Thank you, Xbox One" thread never appears

 

[Drew1440]

From who ?

Ouya

On a serious note, there were a barrage of articles insisting mobile gaming would kill off consoles for good following the rise of smartphones and the release of tablets/iPad, we eventually learnt to ignore those 'news' outlets.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Gaming peaked with the PS3/360 era for me. Only other generation that compared was the Genesis/TG16/SNES era. the most competitive generations are always the best. Been up and down otherwise.

 

[Woopah]

Fairly certain that Nintendo and Microsoft were not foucsing on mobile-style games

 

[blacktout]

Consoles never needed saving and it was nothing more than media hyperbole.

This. Granted many investors, executives, and developers also bought into the empty hype and paid a serious price.

Sony didn't save console gaming, because the market itself was never at risk of going anywhere.

That said, Microsoft and Nintendo misread consumers badly and Sony was the rightful benefactor of their fuckups. Sometimes the conservative strategy really is the best strategy.

 

[Puscifer]

Haha reacts only

 

[adamsapple]

 

[Danjin44]

I hope Sony is paying you for advertisement.

 

[Topher]

 

[Impotaku]

Thanks PS4 for saving us from mobile games

 

[Marvel14]

I don't know about saved but it did seem for a while that Sony were the only ones who really prioritized single player gaming.

/thread

 

[nial]

It was the beginning of the end for japanese Playstation games though.

In that gen Sony started to release more and more games that followed the "Uncharted" formula.
They became so popular that they decided to heavily emphasize games that followed that formula since then.

No more Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle, White Knight Chronicles, Siren and others.
It may have been profitable, but the Playstation we all knew since the PS1 days was gone.

That's more of a PS5 problem, the PS4 had more Japanese first-party games.
And White Knight Chronicles deserved to die, let's be honest.