"Yoshida's WWS output the last few yeas has been very disappointing. He's made terrible decisions like releasing Puppeteer, Beyond and GT6 during PS4 launch. He greenlit Knack. He greenlit GoW Ascension, an unnecessary prequel that bombed. He didn't believe in Demon's Souls. The Last Guardian fiasco. Closure of Studio Liverpool and barely any output from European studios. Naughty Dog thrived because they're Naughty Dog. "
Cross posting from another thread since it's more relevant here.
Knack's budget is peanuts in comparison to most big releases from SCE, and it's been profitable. It's a project that was completed, released, and made a profit. And it was done when a lot of other studios still needed time or weren't ready to provide support.
GT6 has no impact on PS4 GT, and people would have been waiting a while for it regardless. Instead, it's sold several million, and made a lot of money. And GT on PS4 will be here by 2016, so it's not a big issue at all.
Ascension didn't bomb. This is ridiculous, especially when you don't even know its figures. It may not have shipped over 5 million like GOW3, but it's a multimillion seller, and also made a healthy profit. This wasn't God of War 4. And considering what happened with the SSM project that was supposed to be releasing sooner rather than later, it's an even better call in hindsight. Or I guess, waiting 6-7 years for them to finally get another project out the door would have been a really amazing decision. Also greenlighting a game has a little bit more to it than Yoshida telling SSM they're going to be making this game, and to go do it.
Beyond has also done really well, and QD is onto different things now. Again, no issue here. This project was worked on for a long time, and it's not as simple as just changing platforms years into development.
The only one you have an argument for is Puppeteer, since it was clearly heading for trouble. I think that should have been held back for PS4, but ultimately, the issue is a little more complicated than just holding back games etc.
The European studios you seem to think barely had any output are responsible for the entire Motorstorm series, Killzone series, Little Big Planet series, Playstation Home, and Singstar. Guerilla, Media Molecule, Sony London, are all integral studios, and they're all European.
And TLG's development issues aren't in the hands of Yoshida. He's not the project manager or production manager. He oversees things, and he made the call to move that project to a different platform so fans will eventually get something out of it, rather than just canning it. Are we going to blame Yoshida for ND's problems too? These studios have responsibility for themselves too, their own managers, heads, etc.
A lot of these arguments stem from people thinking they need lots and lots of exclusives. I said the same thing early last year, that it's ultimately going to mean little, and as is evident from the sales of the PS4, it has meant very, very little. From a business point of view, the big studios and franchises can't be rushed because it's a much bigger risk long-term, and the first year sales were not as dependant on having major exclusives present. However, there were exclusives provided, and whilst they may not be the "A-listers", each one has been successful. With Driveclub out in the wild now, the retail exclusives for PS4 will be passing the 10 million sales mark, which is very good.
Most people buying the PS4 aren't thinking they only have Killzone, Infamous, Knack, and Driveclub. They have those, and Assassins Creed, Call of Duty, Fifa, Destiny, Dragon Age, and so on. Bear in mind also that The Order suffered a delay too.
