Support NeoGAF

[Felessan]

Whinners gonna whine anyway, you can't please everyone
Sony will just continue to follow its own way, disregarding self-proclaimed "I know it better, I'm the Sony gamer society" crowd

Objective metrics like sales, profit, market share etc show that Sony is on the roll and those who make "advices" just completely out of touch with reality

 

[Unknown?]

Yep. There was some trepidation early on when KZSF turned out to be shit, and they had just infamous and DriveClub in a very weak first year. But Bloodborne came out soon after in March 2015, and then E3 2015 blew everyone away and more importantly showed everyone that the dearth of first party games in the first two years was a temporary thing. E3 2016 set the stage for the rest of the gen too.

And that's the biggest problem. They have shown nothing. Well, nothing except for that trash GaaS CG filled conference last year. By 2016, we knew GOW, Days Gone, Spiderman 2, Detroit, TLOU2, Death Stranding, GT7, Uncharted Lost Legacy, and horizon were on their way. That's 3 years after launch of the PS5 and we knew the rest of their slate. We had seen them. we are now 4 years after launch, and other than DS2 and GoT2, we know nothing.

And even those first few years where games like KZSF, DriveClub, Infamous, The Order and Until Dawn didnt exactly win GOTY awards, they delivered incredible industry leading graphics that made us feel that our $400 purchase was worth it. This gen? Maybe Demon Souls? HFW cross gen. GOW cross gen. GT7 cross gen. Spiderman 2 looks better than Spiderman 1, but not a KZSF holy shit moment, and we definitely havent had DriveClub or The Order caliber graphics this gen. At least not from Sony.

And thats what people mean when they talk about that edge. Sony first party led the way last gen in graphics, storytelling, setpieces and just overall next gen holy shitness. This gen not so much. It's more of the same. Safe, formulaic, run of the mill games.

People were complaining about Sony showing off games too early almost the whole lifetime of PS4! Uncharted 4 is a great example of that, it was teased way early.

We also had people complaining about a lack of smaller games with a focus on AAA which I disagree with. We had a decent amount of smaller games like Everybody's Golf, but when you bring those up the goalpost always changes to those games weren't marketed and don't count because they didn't sell like a blockbuster.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Almost every PS4 owner was in agreement last gen that Sony was killing it almost the entire gen ...

That's not remotely true though.

The first exclusive that actually people paid attention was Bloodborne in 2015. After that? Uncharted 4 in 2026. PS4 released in 2013. Between these you had stuff like the most boring Killzone in history, the worst Infamous title, The Order and Driveclub that people now remember fondly but on release flopped and never really sold much. Driveclub literally released and all the servers were busted. It needed like...months to actually be good and have rain effects and stuff.

Let's not revise history now. "PS4 has no games" was a meme for years.

PS5 had more content in its first 3 years when compared with the PS4. From launch games like Demon's Souls remake to Returnal, Ratchet, Spider-Man 2, etc...and then all the cross gen games that played better on PS5 like Forbidden West, Miles Morales, the first main title for the Gran Turismo series since the PS3, a God of War game, etc...all this in its first 3 years.

3rd party titles are and always have been what carries Playstation consoles. The entire moto for the console since the 90's was to be a platform for developers. PS4 was sold on the back of 3rd party games that played better there than on its main competitor that at the time was struggling. PS studios also took their time to release games for the platform.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Plenty of blame to go around

 

[tmlDan]

Almost every PS4 owner was in agreement last gen that Sony was killing it almost the entire gen ...

yea this is bullshit, you like forgetting dont ya

 

[ExtendEmbraceExtinguish]

Ps will be fine if they can embrace astrobot budget for resurrection of older ps IPs at 40 usd max.

For a so called gaming company they need to embrace some Nintendo advertising. Apple advertising leads to great ps console sales but not enough growth for IPs vs 3rd parties.

Note I do not expect Sony to do this as corps will look at risk vs reward and where the market players are. This is why there will be 50 horizon games as lower risk potential max return.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Sony is dominant by default. Even the PS5 PRO is looking more and more like a wasted opportunity. However Microsoft has no answer so it will continue to sell. If Sony has lost its edge and is now a blunt knife then Microsoft is a sponge.

They’re coasting because Microsoft threw in the towel.

They have no competition in the home console space.

 

[hyperbertha]

Whinners gonna whine anyway, you can't please everyone
Sony will just continue to follow its own way, disregarding self-proclaimed "I know it better, I'm the Sony gamer society" crowd

Objective metrics like sales, profit, market share etc show that Sony is on the roll and those who make "advices" just completely out of touch with reality

What a braindead post. It just means they are catering more and more to the casual normies crowd while alienating proper gamers. Their games will get more and more like HR is in the room. Gameplay will get dumber and dumber.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

I just want more multiplayer modes in my PlayStation exclusives.
Only reason I pay for Plus is for the multiplayer.
PS3 generation was full of them and they took risks, I like that Sony.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

They try to make very safe mainstream appeal products now designed to sell tens of millions and be optioned off for movies or TV. In that sense, yes they lost their edge. They don't have that experimental, artistic, AA streak they once had. They don't even manage to have any likeable public facing employees, or real events. It's just as much the fault of the fans and consumers as it is PS themselves. They both seem happy with each other, so it doesn't really matter what edge is lost. Consumers also lost their edge, so it's a perfect fit really. Minds dulled from 10+ years of Marvel and Taylor Swift. Tuning into the Keighley's to find out which actor will present best DLC / remake of the year. It's all just so exciting.

We have an entire indie scene that makes non mainstream games.

 

[Felessan]

What a braindead post. It just means they are catering more and more to the casual normies crowd while alienating proper gamers. Their games will get more and more like HR is in the room. Gameplay will get dumber and dumber.

And by normal players, of course, you mean yourself
Sony always cater to all segment of players, weighted to their "engagement" and money brought
The so-called "proper gamers" aka old-school deteorating crowd of fans of SP games now just jealous that they lost their prime position to young adult segment that prefer service games and now whine and bitch all the time.

 

[hyperbertha]

And by normal players, of course, you mean yourself
Sony always cater to all segment of players, weighted to their "engagement" and money brought
The so-called "proper gamers" aka old-school deteorating crowd of fans of SP games now just jealous that they lost their prime position to young adult segment that prefer service games and now whine and bitch all the time.

So which demographic are you?

 

[Felessan]

So which demographic are you?

Neither
I'm old-school MMO player, so it's actually my genre went from niche to small to mainstream, and I'm perfectly fine with it

 

[PurePlatinum]

This almost happens to companies that get big and end up dominating their space. Apple had a wonderful excitement and innovative spirit until the combination of the iPhone blowing up and Steve Jobs dying. It's SO boring now. The products are as good as they've ever been but the vibe just isn't the same.

 

[hyperbertha]

Neither
I'm old-school MMO player, so it's actually my genre went from niche to small to mainstream, and I'm perfectly fine with it

Why are you so happy spnys profits are increasing? The quality, just like UBisoft games is rapidly deteriorating due to increasing catering to the normies. My argument wasn't about profits

 

[Felessan]

Why are you so happy spnys profits are increasing? The quality, just like UBisoft games is rapidly deteriorating due to increasing catering to the normies. My argument wasn't about profits

The quality is fine. Both on SP and gaas games sides.
It's just less games cater to your stratum and more games cater to other stratums. And they are not exactly normies, gaas significantly more hardcore than SP games on average.
it's just market shifted away from you and your make excuses to blame others.

 

[ResetEraVetVIP]

Its not Sony who lost its edge, its the modern gamers who have the attention span of a dog. Kids these days have an IQ of a pea pod.

Exactly.

 

[TGO]

BUT, all those rehashed cods and fifas and 6 years of Fortnite etc…. If that’s what people want than it shows maybe most gamers don’t really care about edgy innovative games.

What would you class Death Stranding as?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

What would you class Death Stranding as?

Never played the game.

But from what I see and hear it's some kind of weird game that's one part Fedex quests and one part freaky demon cut scenes. It's a Kojima game so it'll have good production values.

So possibly innovative as I dont think there's too many games like this. Wiki sales it had sold 5M copies after two years (to 2021). So it sold well, but not as well as a Kojima game should. Lots of other games that sold much better despite the Kojima name.

 

[TGO]

Never played the game.

But from what I see and hear it's some kind of weird game that's one part Fedex quests and one part freaky demon cut scenes. It's a Kojima game so it'll have good production values.

So possibly innovative as I dont think there's too many games like this. Wiki sales it had sold 5M copies after two years (to 2021). So it sold well, but not as well as a Kojima game should. Lots of other games that sold much better despite the Kojima name.

So it's a innovative AAA game.
And we're getting a sequel with even more budget on it despite not selling crazy numbers.
Yet Sony is onboard
My point is, it depends on the developer and we don't have many Kojimas thesedays especially with a AAA budget.
I don't think it's exclusively because studios don't want to take risks, more the innovation just isn't there with that space thesedays.