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Microsoft and Sony have flipped haven't they?

Amiga

Member
Somewhere during the second half of the XBox 360 generation a lot of people soured on the XBox brand. MS became known for pumping out Halo, Gears, Forza, and Fable. They created two large studios and "locked" them to franchises that had become long in the tooth (The Coalition and 343). PlayStation became known as the company that got out of the way of it's developers. A lot of gamers appreciated that direction from Sony.

Fast forward to June 11th. Sony reveals their PS5 by showcasing...the 9th Ratchet and Clank game, the 8th Gran Turismo game, a Demons Souls remake, a hurried Spider Man sequel, and a Horizon sequel (not hurried, thank God). There's poorly kept secrets that a new God of War is underway as well as another Uncharted studio in San Diego. It seems the bulk of Sony's first party developers are now tasked with creating sequels.

Microsoft on the other hand has completely rebooted Halo, given The Coalition the green light on a new IP, funded Rare to make new IP in Sea of Thieves and EverWild. They created a studio in The Initiative to create "new and innovative game experiences". They're letting Playground make a well rested Fable game. InXile and Obsidian are making new AAA RPGs. They're the home of Tim Schaefer who embodies creativity.

Now before anyone says "But MS is still making X franchise and Sony is making new franchises over here..." while true, that's missing my point.

Doesn't it feel that Sony is now the home of "safe established franchises" and Microsoft is letting their developers do new, creative stuff? Am I crazy or have these two juggernauts completely swapped over the last 5-10 years?

EDIT: I should have explained better. I meant to frame this conversation in the context of the next gen. I agree with people who say Sony supported interesting games at the end of the PS4s life.

 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
I agree.

MS and the XBox brand have been a trainwreck this gen. Sony producing Death Stranding was brilliant. Same with Dreams. I'll even give them (lesser) credit for funding Ghost of Tsushima because it's a new IP.

But I'm framing this in relation to the next generation. The first two years it seems like the majority of Sony's first party studios will release relatively safe franchise games. Microsoft looks to be doing the opposite.

I can't be the only one seeing this?
You mentioned Horizon Forbidden West like Horizon is some long winded franchise that's been going on forever it's only the 2nd game

Also like some have mentioned Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Concrete Genie, Dreams are all new IPs that Sony just released in the last year
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
It's about the bulk of resources from Sony's first party studios.

There was a lot of new IP at the PS5 reveal. The majority of that new IP was from 3rd party studios and/or small indie studios.

Sony seems interested in heavily investing in safe sequels and minimally investing in more creative projects.

That we know of, there could be projects we don't know of because they aren't far enough along yet. Beyond that, .. it goes back to the first point. If a movie publisher has successful movies being created by studios only capable of creating x # of movies assuming a movie took 3-4 years to make,... each studio might be inclined to keep creating sequels to make money. Look at the studio behind Hitman. They were making Hitman for the most part over and over. They are now independent and moving on to a new IP.
 
It's about the bulk of resources from Sony's first party studios.

There was a lot of new IP at the PS5 reveal. The majority of that new IP was from 3rd party studios and/or small indie studios.

Sony seems interested in heavily investing in safe sequels and minimally investing in more creative projects.

Who from their first-party studios showed off games in that event? Insomniac and Guerilla Games. That's it.

Are you forgetting how old the Horizon IP is in the first place?

You're really jumping the gun assuming what Sony is focused on investing in for next-gen. Especially given they just ended this gen with Ghosts
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
What interesting projects? Something Like dreams? Or VR? The Last Guardian/SoTC?

Name those interesting projects because I can’t find any.

Again, I AGREE with you. Dreams, The Last Guardian, Shadow of the Colossus are ideal Sony to me. But those are current or last generation games.

I'm talking strictly in terms of the next generation and what we're most likely to get in the first couple of years from Sony.

The interesting titles from MS were listed in the OP. We haven't seen any of those yet because they're next gen projects and the next gen hasn't arrived.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Sony says they have more games in development now than ever

Lost Soul Aside
Returnal
Astro's Playroom
Wild
Babylon's Fall
Supermassive's PS5 exclusive
Sony Japan's exclusive
Naughty Dog's new IP

There will be new IPs like PS always has
 

FunkMiller

Member
This thread is basically:

”I think Microsoft is good and Sony is bad” couched in acceptable language to avoid a ban.

The obvious intimation is that they companies have swapped, with Microsoft being creative and good now, while Sony are lazy and bad.

The truth is that neither company are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ because this isn’t a child’s playground.

The two have differing business strategies for this new generation, but neither is better or worse than the other... and we just have to see how it all pans out.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Who from their first-party studios showed off games in that event? Insomniac and Guerilla Games. That's it.

Are you forgetting how old the Horizon IP is in the first place?

You're really jumping the gun assuming what Sony is focused on investing in for next-gen. Especially given they just ended this gen with Ghosts

Polyphony Digital, Japan Studio, Bluepoint Games,
You mentioned Horizon Forbidden West like Horizon is some long winded franchise that's been going on forever it's only the 2nd game

Also like some have mentioned Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Concrete Genie, Dreams are all new IPs that Sony just released in the last year

I'm assuming with the amount of times, I've repeated myself on this point (It's even in the OP), I must be getting trolled. But I will persist...

I AGREE with you. Current gen Sony has funded wonderfully creative and risky projects. I have no issue with current gen Sony.

I'm talking strictly in terms of the next gen, where the bulk of Sony's first party studios seem tasked with working on (imo) stale franchise games at this point.

You're also partially right about Horizon Forbidden West. I don't think I should have necessarily used it as an example, but it is a relatively safe bet. It's not exactly Dreams or Death Stranding in terms of risk taking by Sony. Though, maybe the gameplay will be.
 

Perrott

Gold Member
Fast forward to June 11th. Sony reveals their PS5 by showcasing...the 9th Ratchet and Clank game, the 8th Gran Turismo game, a Demons Souls remake, a hurried Spider Man sequel, and a Horizon sequel (not hurried, thank God). There's poorly kept secrets that a new God of War is underway as well as another Uncharted studio in San Diego. It seems the bulk of Sony's first party developers are now tasked with creating sequels.
What kind of stupid point are you trying to make here? Sony has tons of new IPs on the way from Housemarque (Returnal), Japan Studio, Arrowhead, Lucid/Wushu (Destruction All Stars), Santa Monica and maybe Guerrilla Games. Also, why are you assuming that the new studio in San Diego is making an Uncharted game? The creative director comes from Amazon Game Studios where he was developing a MOBA, while some of the other leads have a background in multiplayer games as well - there's even a couple of fighting games developers in there. None of that sounds like Uncharted to me.

And also, seeing how you are using the release of Sea of Thieves and the fact that Playground have gotten the keys to the Fable franchise in an attempt to solidify your, once again, stupid point, just let me remind you two things: first, that in the last 15 months Sony has released three AAA new IPs - Days Gone, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima -; and second, that they have also given the Silent Hill franchise to Japan Studio's Team Gravity. So yeah, they are no less than Microsoft in that regard.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
This thread is basically:

”I think Microsoft is good and Sony is bad” couched in acceptable language to avoid a ban.

The obvious intimation is that they companies have swapped, with Microsoft being creative and good now, while Sony are lazy and bad.

The truth is that neither company are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ because this isn’t a child’s playground.

The two have differing business strategies for this new generation, but neither is better or worse than the other... and we just have to see how it all pans out.

No, it's really not.

It's more like I observed a shift in directions from Sony and Microsoft and wanted to discuss it.

That's all. It's that simple.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
Sony had some amazing smaller games this gen. Like Bound or Concrete genie.
It's really sad that people only see and think of AAA gaming.
With a few exceptions, AAA gaming, for me, has turned to shit quite sometime ago.
 

MrS

Banned
No, it's really not.

It's more like I observed a shift in directions from Sony and Microsoft and wanted to discuss it.

That's all. It's that simple.
And yet you're the only one on neogaf dot com to make this observation. So has a shift really happened, or is it all in your mind? 🤔
 
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Kuranghi

Member
Not really. Sony has always "played it safe" with established franchises while quietly funding weird ones to see if they spark. Almost all of them fail to spark, but Sony keeps trying.

Microsoft is bringing PC-centric business models (GaaS, subscriptions instead of ownership, etc) over to console, which isn't a bad idea because that's essentially what Xbox is, PC-lite for the console crowd. It earned the Xbox a toe-hold and it earned the 360 a ton of loyalty. Microsoft just bought a lot of stuff like they usually do. We'll see if it pans out this time.

Sony (and moreso Nintendo now, actually) spent a lot of effort courting small devs, japanese devs, and indie devs early on. This snowballed to turn the PS4 as the de facto third party console (in terms of available titles) since a lot of stuff does not come out for Xbox One. Sony and Xbox are small-time players on their own systems when you take a step back.

Super agree with this because a lot of the new IP, smaller games I've played in the last 3 years and loved have been on Switch:

The Touryst
The Stretchers
Good Job!
Golf Story

In fact 3 out of 4 of those games are from the last 12 months as well. I think all the indie games I want to play that are on PS4 are also on PC so I play them there for (family ofc, I'm a good boy) library sharing.

_____
That reminds me how funny it would be if they actually checked if the people you library share with on steam are really your family lol

*Steam asks for proof of my "family relationship" with my friend Pascal, who is a black man from Nigeria, me sitting here being a very white man*

"Ugh... he married my sister! Its IN-LAW" *wipes brow*
 
Polyphony Digital, Japan Studio, Bluepoint Games,


I'm assuming with the amount of times, I've repeated myself on this point (It's even in the OP), I must be getting trolled. But I will persist...

I AGREE with you. Current gen Sony has funded wonderfully creative and risky projects. I have no issue with current gen Sony.

I'm talking strictly in terms of the next gen, where the bulk of Sony's first party studios seem tasked with working on (imo) stale franchise games at this point.

You're also partially right about Horizon Forbidden West. I don't think I should have necessarily used it as an example, but it is a relatively safe bet. It's not exactly Dreams or Death Stranding in terms of risk taking by Sony. Though, maybe the gameplay will be.

Right forgot about PD since all they make are GT.

Japan Studio is just collaborating with BluePoint for Demon's Souls, who isn't a first-party studio. They'll have their own game that they've yet to announce.

You've also conveniently left out Sony's first new AAA IP for next-gen in your entire post
 
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Stuart360

Member
No, it's really not.

It's more like I observed a shift in directions from Sony and Microsoft and wanted to discuss it.

That's all. It's that simple.
You have only been here 6 weeks. You will soon learn the 'do's and 'donts' when it comes to what threads to post on here. We all started somewhere.
 
Wait, when did they greenlight a new IP for The Coalition?

But nah, there's no evidence of them flipping... yet. Microsoft has yet to prove that they can do more than rehash the same IP IMO, at least right now.
 
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DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
You have only been here 6 weeks. You will soon learn the 'do's and 'donts' when it comes to what threads to post on here. We all started somewhere.
Don't worry, the persecution complex already seems to have set in, so they'll survive just fine in Gaming section.
 

whitesugar

Banned
so you state that sony are pumping out the same franchises, and your first point in MS's favour to the contrary is that they are releasing Halo soon, the what, 8th or 9th game in that series, but they have rebooted it? that game has more entries than all the Sony stuff you mentioned, and unlike games like Uncharted, has not improved with time and is on the decline. and the second Spiderman and Horizon aren't good, but the 4th Fable game is?

and when was the last time MS released two new IPs in the same year that scored mid to high 80s like SOny did this year with Dreams and Ghost?

it will never cease to amaze me how much credit MS get for speaking a good game and never delivering, and how much Sony has to do to get the same credit. like someone else said, this sounds like concern trolling
 
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Arkam

Member
I agree.

MS and the XBox brand have been a trainwreck this gen. Sony producing Death Stranding was brilliant. Same with Dreams. I'll even give them (lesser) credit for funding Ghost of Tsushima because it's a new IP.

But I'm framing this in relation to the next generation. The first two years it seems like the majority of Sony's first party studios will release relatively safe franchise games. Microsoft looks to be doing the opposite.

I can't be the only one seeing this?


I think I get what you are saying. Sony has recent success and (likely) planning to repeat said strategy. MS did not have recent success and is (likely) more willing to try new things in hope of finding success.

If that's what you meant, I get it. And would agree. IDK if that necessarily means less new games from Sony when that was big part of why they succeeded this gen. Probably safe to say that we will see some off the wall ideas from MS. Hopefully some are great.
 
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Vawn

Banned
PS4 had a ton of new IPs in ADDITION to all the established franchises:

Astrobot
Bloodborne
Days Gone
Death Stranding
Detroit: Become Human
Dreams
DriveClub
Ghost of Tsushima
Horizon
Knack
Resogun
Spider-Man
The Last Guardian
The Order 1886
Until Dawn

Why do you expect PS5 to be different when no other PlayStation console was? There is room for both sequels of established franchises and new IPs.
 
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You're making far too many assumptions, from claiming that Spider-Man is a "hurried sequel" or that the new Fable is "well-rested", to thinking that new IP's are always "innovative" while sequels aren't, to believing that a project being greenlit automatically means the game will even come out.

It's too early to know any of these things. Wait until we have results first.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
What kind of stupid point are you trying to make here? Sony has tons of new IPs on the way from Housemarque (Returnal), Japan Studio, Arrowhead, Lucid/Wushu (Destruction All Stars), Santa Monica and maybe Guerrilla Games. Also, why are you assuming that the new studio in San Diego is making an Uncharted game? The creative director comes from Amazon Game Studios where he was developing a MOBA, while some of the other leads have a background in multiplayer games as well - there's even a couple of fighting games developers in there. None of that sounds like Uncharted to me.

And also, seeing how you are using the release of Sea of Thieves and the fact that Playground have gotten the keys to the Fable franchise in an attempt to solidify your, once again, stupid point, just let me remind you two things: first, that in the last 15 months Sony has released three AAA new IPs - Days Gone, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima -; and second, that they have also given the Silent Hill franchise to Japan Studio's Team Gravity. So yeah, they are no less than Microsoft in that regard.

Returnal is a mid scale game from a 2nd party studio.

We saw no new IP from Japan Studio at the PS5 event, just Astros Playroom.

We did not see Arrowheads game.

Destruction All Stars looks to be a smaller to mid tier scale game from independent studios Lucid and Wushu.

Maybe the new secret San Diego studio isn't making another Uncharted game. But they did post a job listing calling for help with "The next chapter in cinematic story telling", which sounds pretty f*cking Uncharted to me. Btw, how many units did Uncharted 4 sell? 16+ million. So yeah, maybe it is a new Uncharted game.

And, for the 7th time in this very thread, I AGREE that current gen Sony funded creative, ambitious projects. But again, I'm talking from the point of the PS5, not of the PS4.

I like you. You're a good person. But...

847eca56bc03a0a845c73b93916c33c2.jpg
 
No, it's really not.

It's more like I observed a shift in directions from Sony and Microsoft and wanted to discuss it.

That's all. It's that simple.
But there hasn't been a shift. MS NEEDS to make new IPs, hence the acquisitions of studios. They can't survive with Halo, Gears and Forza for 4 generations considering the disaster this current one was for them in the hardware sales department.

SONY has been doing what they've always been doing.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
A new IP is a new IP. Your opinions on it are irrelevant based on the OP.

No, nuance is allowed. We're all adults here.

I don't actually care about new IP. I care about the funding of interesting, ambitious, creative projects. New IP seems to embody those things more than franchises.

So no, I don't think I will confirm to your binary view of this premise.

I will give Sony and Sucker Punch some credit for releasing a new IP. I will not give them credit for releasing a derivative open world game.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Returnal is a mid scale game from a 2nd party studio.

We saw no new IP from Japan Studio at the PS5 event, just Astros Playroom.

We did not see Arrowheads game.

Destruction All Stars looks to be a smaller to mid tier scale game from independent studios Lucid and Wushu.

Maybe the new secret San Diego studio isn't making another Uncharted game. But they did post a job listing calling for help with "The next chapter in cinematic story telling", which sounds pretty f*cking Uncharted to me. Btw, how many units did Uncharted 4 sell? 16+ million. So yeah, maybe it is a new Uncharted game.

And, for the 7th time in this very thread, I AGREE that current gen Sony funded creative, ambitious projects. But again, I'm talking from the point of the PS5, not of the PS4.

I like you. You're a good person. But...

847eca56bc03a0a845c73b93916c33c2.jpg
Just because MS is now creating new IPs doesn't mean Sony will stop or slowdown creating new IPs
 

Stuart360

Member
Phil Spencer has been all talk for the last 5 years. In 2 days we will probably find out nothing has changed.
I'm sure that will be the general consensus on here, especially as i feel they will hold some games back for future shows. They did say there would be some kind of event every month from this show forward.
 
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