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"We will do what we are doing right now, which is to become less reliant on 3rd Party games, and to make more 1st Party games." - JIM RYAN

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
We know - massive investment in GAAS.
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K2D

Banned
Prior to the Zenimax merger I only felt the needed a deep wrpg like Elder scrolls. Now there's a literal vacuum in the marked. Also nearly all the big 1.person shooter are swallowed up. Not that they have anything particular belonging on 2D console gaming, but the VR potential is limitless.
 
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I like hearing this. I have my PC for third party games and multiplatform games but the primary reason I game on Playstation are the exclusives. Glad to hear they will focus more on them.
 

Crayon

Member
I remember that chart where they like doubled the game budget but all the addition was for mp games and I would suspect all or most will have that gaas style monetization. Some seem a little more classic style like helldivers. Either way, fishing for a hit with those seems to require as much luck as quality. They have quality so then they just have to market hard and hope for the best.
 
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"We have always said that we believe in generations.We believe that when you go to all the trouble of creating a next-gen console, that it should include features and benefits that the previous generation does not include. And that, in our view, people should make games that can make the most of those features. We do believe in generations, and whether it's the DualSense controller, whether it's the 3D audio, whether it's the multiple ways that the SSD can be used... we are thinking that it is time to give the PlayStation community something new, something different, that can really only be enjoyed on PS5."

Excited Season 1 Episode 1 GIF by Paramount+
 
Where are you getting most of those release dates from?
List is extremely padded with a bunch of games called 'New IP'. Don't know why they couldn't just post actually announced games to make reading it easier on the eyes.

RotR, Stellar Blade, and Helldivers 2 will be mine in '24.
 
It's pretty clear the entire industry is about to be gobbled up. The biggest takeaway from the Xbox acquisition of ABK is that, around the world, all of the courts and regulatory bodies lined up to say there is absolutely nothing anti-competitive or anti-consumer about a platform holder buying up a massive swath of an industry in order to game the system to their favor and limit consumer choices. Okay then. So in other words, entire industries are outright for sale to the highest bidder. This has reaches that will go far beyond gaming. But the only way for Sony to remain relevant is to start making a fuckton of exclusive first party titles and to buy up as much of the industry as they can to counter the Xbox acquisitions and further divide things. Acquisitions will increasingly become less and less about what's a good match for the platform holder doing the acquiring, and more about "we'd better buy this studio/publisher/IP/etc. before someone else does".

I don't like the world we're building now, and while I put a ton of blame on Microsoft, I place even more on the regulatory bodies and courts around the world who sold us out. Many years down the line, we'll be seeing studies and articles like "in hindsight, the Microsoft acquisition of ABK completely destroyed the video game industry and made gaming more unaffordable and inaccessible for everyone." But nothing we can do about it now. Pandora's Box is now open. The Rubicon has been crossed. Gamers everywhere lost, and the saddest part of all is there are so many who are either unwilling or unable to see it and actively cheering their enslavement.
 
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He has so far. The leadership before him did not and closed down a ton of studios.

Yeh but to be fair back then, all the 3rd party companies seemed like they'd be 3rd party forever and not get bought out. No-one saw the biggest being bought and all their games aside from COD being made exclusive..

So the landscape has changed and they gotta be much more aggressive or defensive (in the case of the likes of SEGA, for example, whom MS are circling).

Perfect stable of i.ps and franchises would be Capcom or Kadokawa imo.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
  • ND is working on 2 games
  • Guerrilla is working on 2 games (both are Horizon games though: one SP and one MP)
  • Insomniac are working on 3 games (2 SP and 1 MP)
  • Santa Monica were working on 2 games (GoWR and Cory's new game)

Yeah they want Sony to announce games that might release 5-6 years from now like Xbox did. They're just lowering their reveals to keep the crowd thirsty for more. Also some might be optimized for PS5 Pro now and might end up destroying every game graphically out there and they're waiting for the proper reveal.
 

Varteras

Gold Member
Some others touched on this earlier in the year on this forum. Sony has various reasons to expand its first-party. The moves being made by competitors, obviously. The shrinking amount of major third-party releases, both as a consequence of the first point and the increased hurdles of AAA development. The need for a greater number of IP to fuel their other entertainment ventures. Sony MUST expand for all three reasons or risk being buried and incapable of achieving its strategies.

Based on their various comments earlier this year about noticing the consolidation, their idea to spin off a large part of the company to raise greater capital, and their search for an M&A manager to work specifically with SIE, it's only a matter of time before we start seeing either a lot of small to medium sized moves from them, or a number of large ones. The ABK deal finally being approved is likely to put more pressure on Sony and probably make them more likely to invest in or acquire companies they may have been hesitant to pull the trigger on.

Obviously, the concern is not this generation. Rather, 5 years from now, at the start of the next gen, and 10 years from now, when their CoD deal with Microsoft expires. It will be crucial for them to have a large and constant lineup of quality games. Especially depending on what else happens between now and then.
 

yurinka

Member
Jimbo about to purchase Square Enix
Sony said they won't make big acquisitions during some years, they want to sell most of their bank business to get cash for acquisitions (which will take 2-3 years), evaluate better their acquisitions and wait for better market condigions. And well, regulators probably wouldn't allow them acquire Square.

What they may do with Square is to turn some Squre studios into a separate new subsidiary that would be a Square join venture with more people including Sony. So that wouldn't count as acquisition for regulators.

I would like from PlayStation more communication with the fan base the players. And bigger shows like E3 I don’t care if it has an live audience but a big show like 90 minutes full of games in development even the ones further away.They are ver quiet so many studios and nothing to see.Where are the AA type games ? where are the pixel monsters where are Motorstorm like fun arcade racers. where are tower defense games where are Sim city or the settlers like games?
Seems you don't know they have a PS Blog, a youtube channel and social media accounts, and that they also publish games which appear reviewed and previewed in the gaming outlets. They also market 3rd party exclusives and support 3P or indies, also via PlayStation Indies, China Hero Project and India Hero Project.

Instead of making a 90 minutes E3 show they make multiple State Of Play across the year (and some years a Showcase), which combined are way long than 90 minutes per year. They communite now way more than they ever did in the past, and in that communication they often include AA games.

Tower defense and strategy games don't sell a shit on console. If they'd sell more they'd make more. Ubisoft released a new The Settlers game I think it was back in February for PC and the rest in July.
 
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I remember someone else who thought like that.
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"I've been told that Sony won over Nintendo by surrounding itself with software companies, and I will admit that situation was there in the past. However, times have changed, and it's no longer a race to see how many useless companies you can get on your side." - Hiroshi Yamauchi (Former President of Nintendo)
 
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nial

Gold Member
This is the full list of first-party games released on the PS5 so far (or those that haven't come out yet but have a set release date)
Astro's Playroom (November 12, 2020)
Demon's Souls (November 12, 2020)
Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales (November 12, 2020)
Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (November 12, 2020)
Sackboy: A Big Adventure (November 12, 2020)
Destruction AllStars (February 2, 2021)
MLB The Show 21 (April 20, 2021)
Returnal (April 30, 2021)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (June 11, 2021)
Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut (August 20, 2021)
Ghost of Tsushima: Legends (September 3, 2021)
Death Stranding Director's Cut (September 24, 2021)
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (January 28, 2022)
Horizon Forbidden West (February 18, 2022)
Gran Turismo 7 (March 4, 2022)
MLB The Show 22 (April 5, 2022)
The Last of Us Part I (September 2, 2022)
God of War: Ragnarök (November 9, 2022)
Horizon Call of the Mountain (February 22, 2023)
MLB The Show 23 (March 28, 2023)
Firewall Ultra (August 24, 2023)
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (October 20, 2023)
Helldivers 2 (February 8, 2024)
Ahem...
So yes, I'm including PSVR2 games, yearly sports titles, ports/remasters, collections, remakes, standalone expansions, digital-only titles, EVERYTHING. I would say they have done a good job so far, but there are still many ways to improve. 2022 is obviously the best year, but even that was also a little disappointing for having almost everything to be cross-gen, especially after coming from Returnal and Ratchet in 2021, which were next-gen only. The lack of presence of SCEI/SIEI (Sony Japan) is also quite a let down. They released Astro, GT7, Demon's Souls, a port of Death Stranding, and that's it. I think they will improve their output starting in 2024 with Ronin, DS2 and the next project from Team Asobi (the studio that is literally Sony themselves, and the one I consider the most important of them all), but late 2020-2023 will not seem like their best period, at all.
 

yurinka

Member
This is the full list of first-party games released on the PS5 so far (or those that haven't come out yet but have a set release date)
Astro's Playroom (November 12, 2020)
Demon's Souls (November 12, 2020)
Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales (November 12, 2020)
Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (November 12, 2020)
Sackboy: A Big Adventure (November 12, 2020)
Destruction AllStars (February 2, 2021)
MLB The Show 21 (April 20, 2021)
Returnal (April 30, 2021)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (June 11, 2021)
Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut (August 20, 2021)
Ghost of Tsushima: Legends (September 3, 2021)
Death Stranding Director's Cut (September 24, 2021)
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (January 28, 2022)
Horizon Forbidden West (February 18, 2022)
Gran Turismo 7 (March 4, 2022)
MLB The Show 22 (April 5, 2022)
The Last of Us Part I (September 2, 2022)
God of War: Ragnarök (November 9, 2022)
Horizon Call of the Mountain (February 22, 2023)
MLB The Show 23 (March 28, 2023)
Firewall Ultra (August 24, 2023)
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (October 20, 2023)
Helldivers 2 (February 8, 2024)
Ahem...
So yes, I'm including PSVR2 games, yearly sports titles, ports/remasters, collections, remakes, standalone expansions, digital-only titles, EVERYTHING. I would say they have done a good job so far, but there are still many ways to improve. 2022 is obviously the best year, but even that was also a little disappointing for having almost everything to be cross-gen, especially after coming from Returnal and Ratchet in 2021, which were next-gen only. The lack of presence of SCEI/SIEI (Sony Japan) is also quite a let down. They released Astro, GT7, Demon's Souls, a port of Death Stranding, and that's it. I think they will improve their output starting in 2024 with Ronin, DS2 and the next project from Team Asobi (the studio that is literally Sony themselves, and the one I consider the most important of them all), but late 2020-2023 will not seem like their best period, at all.
The 2nd party publishing side of Japan Studio, which released from that list Demon's Souls and Death Stranding Director's Cut, is now the XDEV Japanese team and is in charge of the 2nd party Asian games from now their own office where they are growing to work in more games. They will publish not only Death Stranding 2 and Rise of the Ronin, but also Stellar Blade, Convallaria and all the China Hero Project and India Hero Project games.

Team Asobi merged the different Japan Studio internal development teams, got a new office, is growing and working on multiple projects and experiments. The main one is a 3d action game bigger than the Astro games.

Games now take longer to be made, which means each team needs more time to release a game, so their studio releases less games per year unless they grow enough to work in more games at the same time (which Sony is doing with all their studios).

Obviously, the concern is not this generation. Rather, 5 years from now, at the start of the next gen, and 10 years from now, when their CoD deal with Microsoft expires. It will be crucial for them to have a large and constant lineup of quality games. Especially depending on what else happens between now and then.
They are growing all their internal studios to work in more internal games than ever before at the same time. They are also investing in 2nd party games more than ever. Jimbo said PS5 will have more exclusive games than any other PS console, and since most exclusives always have been 3rd party, pretty likely means PS5 will have more 3P exclusives than any other PS consoles.

Obviously all that will carry to PS6. By the time that the CoD deal expires, Sony will have released Helldiver II, Concord, Marathon, other Bungie new IP (Matter), TLOU Online, Fairgame$, the Sony London new IP and (if not cancelled) the Deviation game plus pretty likely more unknown MP shooters. Pretty likely at least 2 or 3 of them will become huge hits.

Only 30% of the PS CoD revenue goes to Sony, but 100% of the revenue of these games go to Sony. Meaning, they need to generate in PS+PC 30% of what CoD generates on PS to generate the same amount of money than CoD generates for them.

Meaning, by the time the 10 years CoD deal expires Sony will be generating yearly way more money with Sony shooters than with CoD. And btw, MS and Sony already set a meeting to negotiate to expand the 10 years deal once it expires.
 
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nial

Gold Member
The 2nd party publishing side of Japan Studio, which released from that list Demon's Souls and Death Stranding Director's Cut, is now the XDEV Japanese team and is in charge of the 2nd party Asian games from now their own office where they are growing to work in more games. They will publish not only Death Stranding 2 and Rise of the Ronin, but also Stellar Blade, Convallaria and all the China Hero Project and India Hero Project games.
Yes, that's not true. Most SIE branches now have their own External Development division, which means that XDEV Japan really has nothing to do with Stellar Blade, Lost Soul Aside, etc. The Hero Project stuff is also completely unrelated.
Team Asobi merged the different Japan Studio internal development teams, got a new office, is growing and working on multiple projects and experiments. The main one is a 3d action game bigger than the Astro games.
Team Asobi came from Japan Studio's Internal Development Department (JS had many departments, including some unrelated to game development, all of which were structured under their own divisions at SIEI). Also, I think they are using the same office as before, within SIEI HQ, since they are an unit rather than a subsidiary (think Nintendo EPD)
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Yeah they want Sony to announce games that might release 5-6 years from now like Xbox did. They're just lowering their reveals to keep the crowd thirsty for more. Also some might be optimized for PS5 Pro now and might end up destroying every game graphically out there and they're waiting for the proper reveal.
That is what my theory is. If they show the PS5 Pro, games running on a PS5 Pro, but still don't show us any big first-party games, then I'd join the bandwagon that there are issues with the PlayStation division.

Until then, they have earned a massively positive reputation in the last decade and deserves respect.

As Sony has explicitly confirmed, they don't want to repeat the 2016-2019 situation where they had announced games early and had to keep showing the same games over and over again: Days Gone, TLOU 2, Death Stranding, Spider-Man, etc.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Yes Jim, you are so much less reliant on 3rd party that FF7 Remake and FF7 Rebirth are every other FF title continues to stay on PlayStation as an "exclusive" and Square Enix constantly bitches about the sales never meeting expectations.

I forgot how full the last PlayStation Showcase was of 1st party mega showings with gameplay demos from Sony Santa Monica and Naughty Dog. We even finally got a glimpse of Last of Us Factions. Oh wait... that was in my dreams.
Remember when Jim Ryan said "less reliant on 3rd party" and not "don't rely on 3rd party at all"?
 

Hudo

Member
Gaming as a whole would improve massively if both Phil and Jim would shut the fuck up and stop saying things in public.
 
I think EA games is suited for sony despite no funds etc etc that's my opinion atleast they have a diversity of games like racing, rts , sports , shooters even have sims
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Yes Jim, you are so much less reliant on 3rd party that FF7 Remake and FF7 Rebirth are every other FF title continues to stay on PlayStation as an "exclusive" and Square Enix constantly bitches about the sales never meeting expectations.

I forgot how full the last PlayStation Showcase was of 1st party mega showings with gameplay demos from Sony Santa Monica and Naughty Dog. We even finally got a glimpse of Last of Us Factions. Oh wait... that was in my dreams.
How clear do they have to be, and how many times, to stop these false narratives?

90Vz3rj.jpg
 

yurinka

Member
Yes, that's not true. Most SIE branches now have their own External Development division, which means that XDEV Japan really has nothing to do with Stellar Blade, Lost Soul Aside, etc. The Hero Project stuff is also completely unrelated.
Bullshit. There's a single global XDEV team, part of PS Studios. They aren't part of any other SIE part and don't report and aren't part of any studio, they report to PS Studios (Hermen).

Their work is mainly to publish all the 2nd party games, but also find and manage external outsourcing studios that the 1st/2nd party studios may need. This is where their names comes (XDEV=eXternal DEVelopment).

XDEV global has 3 offices/teams, none of them reports to any local development studio: the most recent one is that Japanese team which before was inside Japan Studio, reported to Japan Studio and published 2nd party games developed in Japan. They branched out to have their own office, grew to handle the 2nd party games developed in the whole Asia (not only in Japan) and to report now to XDEV/PS Studios instead to a local dev team. This means they'll publish DS2, Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade or all the Asian 2nd party games (which includes at least many of the China or India Hero Project titles).

The first and main, original XDEV office is the one for EU 2nd party games: it was originally inside SCEE Liverpool Studio and reported to that local dev team, later was branched out to become its own office, a separate studio that reported to PS Studios to handle Sony's 2nd party publishing and outsourcing, back then mostly European.

The second office was the American one: it was originally part of SSM, where they published and even incubated in their own office 2nd party games. They reported to that SSM local dev studio until they moved away to become a separate office, part of XDEV in charge of the 2nd party games from USA and no longer reporting to a local dev team.

Now all these 3 XDEV teams/offices are part of a global team and work in the same way, and basically each one is in charge of the games in their region.

Team Asobi came from Japan Studio's Internal Development Department (JS had many departments, including some unrelated to game development, all of which were structured under their own divisions at SIEI). Also, I think they are using the same office as before, within SIEI HQ, since they are an unit rather than a subsidiary (think Nintendo EPD)
With the restructing basically did 3 things:
-After decades not being able of releasing a single best seller, having many games with poor or mediocre sales or reviews and having some money pit projects and failed projects, they changed the Japan Studio management
-Branched out their 2nd publishing team to become a different office/team now be the XDEV team for Asia, who was going to report now to/was going to be part of XDEV instead of a local dev team, as already happened in the other regions.
-Regarding the internal development teams some were fired, some left and the remaining were merged into their most popular/successful internal development team: Team Asobi. The guy in charge of it became the Studio Manager. At that point the only remaining team at Japan Studio was Team Asobi, so they rebranded it to Team Asobi, and moved to a new office. Other than the heads of each internal development team, most of the other devs of Japan Studio moved from a game to another as needed independently of the name of the team. As can be seen in Moby Games for the Astro Playroom credits, before the restructuring Team Asobi already had people who previously worked on Team Gravity/Siren, Team Ico, Knack series, Loco Roco series,Ape Escape series, Puppeteer, Legend of Dragoon and other ones.

Technically the XDEV and Team Asobi moved to new offices, but I bet they both still are in the giant SIE building from Tokyo where Japan Studio was. At least Team Asobi is still there.
 

Woopah

Member
List is extremely padded with a bunch of games called 'New IP'. Don't know why they couldn't just post actually announced games to make reading it easier on the eyes.

RotR, Stellar Blade, and Helldivers 2 will be mine in '24.
Exactly, Rise of the Ronin and Helldivers 2 in Q1 is a good start.
CN someone tell me what exclusive non third party game have they released this year so far?
I believe its Horizon Call of the Mountain and Firewall Ultra so far.
 

Camreezie

Member
Most of those studios released games I'm the last 2-3 years. I don't think it's that surprising that they are not ready to show what they're working on yet.
I think theyd usually cone out and confirn or give an idea of what theyre working on. Lots of these studios will be going 5 years between releases, its too long. Insomniac are on their 4th project this generation
 

Woopah

Member
I think theyd usually cone out and confirn or give an idea of what theyre working on. Lots of these studios will be going 5 years between releases, its too long. Insomniac are on their 4th project this generation
I think they want to avoid what MS did, where they announced a bunch of games and then we saw nothing for years.

I think we could see Sucker Punch and Bluepoint announce something in 2024, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have to wait until 2025 to see something from SSM, GG or ND.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
I think they want to avoid what MS did, where they announced a bunch of games and then we saw nothing for years.
💯 agree. PlayStation Studios has pretty much said the exact same thing - they don't want to announce the games too early.
I think we could see Sucker Punch and Bluepoint announce something in 2024, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have to wait until 2025 to see something from SSM, GG or ND.
I do think they will announce a lot of games in their big 2024 showcase and show those games, in their full awesome glory, running on a PS5 Pro. And most of those games would be ready to release soon.

Horizon's multiplayer has been in the works since 2019. Naughty Dog's next game (most likely TLOU 3) should be 60-70% done. Shannon (Dina's actress) recently teased it; they were doing voice acting. Cory's new game at SSM has been in the works since 2019 and should be ready to release in 2025. Same goes for Team Asobi, Bluepoint, Firesprite, etc.

We may see Ghost of Tsushima 2 in 2025 with a 2026 release date though.
 
With how strongly we associated MGS & FF7 with PlayStation, I’m surprised it has taken this long for Sony to open the wallet up and buy Konami & Square.

I think Japan companies might have a higher chance to either remain independent or join forces.

Capcom is doing very well so I think they will remain independent but I think acquiring them will be as big as the ABK purchase, with how many titles, IP & talent they have
 
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