I guess it's more multiplayer centric teams becoming the dominant group at PlayStation.
Multiplayer already has large advantages over single player in terms of market potential but to add day and date on PC to that list? The pups that get the most milk generally grow into the healthiest dogs.
In the next 5 years, their biggest teams + studios are all going to be MP oriented. Y'all should hope this policy changes soon.
Look I don't want the blockbuster single-player AAA titles to go away either, but what are they gonna do? Make the MP titles console-only too? Make the MP titles console-only but make the SP games console & PC Day 1? Make both SP & MP console-exclusive for a set amount of time before porting any to PC?
If they pick that last option, how does the console make it financially viable? I just think at some point wanting
EVERYTHING locked exclusively to the console permanently or for a very long period becomes unrealistic. Maybe in some future the MP games do in fact become the big breadwinners and get a ton of financial investment as a result, but Sony find a balance with the SP games between doing more AA titles, and maybe making the SP AAA games more episodic (so portions can release more quickly over a period of time for like $30 each part, maybe with a discount in the subscription service and, yes, I know this is kind of suggesting a Game Pass-esque approach but still).
Regardless Sony would have to find ways to make the SP AAA games more cost-efficient to produce so the margins are higher on console side, and as far as GaaS are concerned I've been saying that some should still be exclusive to the console. Because, if there's a future where the MP games do end up defining the PlayStation console experience over the SP games, well I'd like to think that Sony 1P can innovate in bringing the cinematic storytelling style into a MP framework for starters. And beyond that, they'd still have some of those MP/GaaS titles exclusive to the console to make it the complete experience.
Though that also probably means Sony need to do other things like removing the online paywall altogether on console, and find some other value incentive to replace it with.
Well, haven't they purchased both Firewalk and Haven for their multiplayer games specifically? Plus, London Studio's only current project is a live-service game, so they could be thrown into the same bag for the time being.
Also, while not MP-centric studios, both Guerrilla and Firesprite do have multiplayer titles in the works, those being Horizon Online and Twisted Metal respectively.
Yeah, fair enough points.
Hulst said a while ago that GaaS titles would release on PS5 and PC at the same time, why is this being brought up as an issue now?
Well, it is a question worth asking why console players have to pay for online MP but players on PC don't, for the exact same game, which on PC can be gotten cheaper than on console in ways because of key resellers. That kind of stuff is very likely having a direct impact on adoption rates of GaaS 1P titles on PC vs. console, because if you have both, and the games have cross-play and cross-progression...there's less reason to get the console version over the PC/Steam one.
So if stuff like that is affecting the player and purchase rates favoring one platform over the other, we could see (in fact we already are seeing) multiple people just blatantly say PC is proving the better platform for Sony and they should bring all games Day 1 to it, but those people are ignoring factors I just mentioned that Sony create themselves naturally pushing people to buy a GaaS titles on PC rather than their own console.
Those are things Sony can (and should) fix for their console, to make it more competitive and where even with the choice, you'd have a much stronger reason to consider buying that type of game on the console vs. on Steam.