Has Sony lost its technical edge this generation?

SuperC

SuperC

Member
Each generation, Sony's studios used to push the technical side of gaming to the max. Last gen they were killing it with games like
The Last of Us Part II, God of War (2018), and even The Order: 1886. But this time around, we're not really seeing that

Now Halo a series that was never really known for its visuals got a crazy good technical showcase, Hellblade II is still
the most impressive-looking game so far, and we're already halfway through the generation. Cyberpunk 2077 has
the best graphics and dynamic lighting in an open world. Black Myth: Wukong is huge and looks stunning

Meanwhile, Ghost of Yotei doesn't show much of a leap compared to the last game besides better draw distance, Spider Man 2
also didn't feel like a true generational jump over the first one. And up to now, we haven't seen Sony's first-party teams actually
use new rendering tech or dynamic lighting in their own engines while Remedy already pulled it off with their in house engine
instead of relying on Unreal Engine 5

At this point it really feels like Sony has lost that technical edge they used to have
 
Girl Eye Roll GIF
 
Maybe we shouldn't focus so much on visuals and put more effort on creating games that don't resemble shit we've been playing since 2008.

I remember the promises of game design change because of the ultra fast SSDs and 5 years later we're playing the same shit... oh, and the Ratchet fiasco was hilarious.
 
No problem with technology, for example Ps5 is a very good hardware. PS exclusives games like for example GT7, Stellar blade, Astrobot, Ratchet, and Death stranding 2 looks fantastic even on base Ps5. The real problem is more on Sony strategies and policies. Porting exclusives to pc and other console, gaas obsessions, woke especially twisted gender ideology crap infestation, and DEI infested California head quarters.
 
Last edited:
K' Dash said:
Maybe we shouldn't focus so much on visuals and put more effort on creating games that don't resemble shit we've been playing since 2008.

I remember the promises of game design change because of the ultra fast SSDs and 5 years later we're playing the same shit... oh, and the Ratchet fiasco was hilarious.
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I would rather see them keep making same shit as in ps4 era so top notch graphics, great animation, gameplay and singleplayer focused. But instead of that they chose to destroyit all with gaas chasing, crossover, crossplatforms and lacking quality.
 
Rivet said:
We'll know for sure when they finally decide to release games. Hopefully before the PS6.
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Starting this generation, since many PS5 games were just better looking PS4 games, we can expect that PS6 games will be what PS5 game should've been. So we will be one generation behind.

But if they continue to release PS4 versions, then we can all say they are going the Nintendo route and said "F graphics"
 
I have no love for PS4 era Sony but I'm pretty sure they just shifted their focus too much on GAAS. They need to prepare for a potential future without Fortnite and COD.
 
They still have the best gaming OS on the market. Beat that Steam.
Oh and Microsoft you can try if you want to get off your butt sometime this year and release something.
 
If you told me that demon souls would be their only nextgen looking game for years to come, I would have laughed in your face.

Now I just accepted that sony fucking sucks and don't expect anything from these fools anymore. I'm banking on third parties to actually deliver on that front.
 
Sony have said they expect their studios to contribute more to their overall revenue and profit.

Spider-man on the PS4 had around USD$100m budget. Sold over 25 million copies.
God of War on the PS4 had around USD$150m budget. Sold over 23 million copies.
The Last of Part 2 on the PS4 had around USD$220m budget. Sold over 10 million copies.

With the direction to make more money coming from the top, budgets can't continue to balloon. Easiest way to slow down budgets is to stop putting out presentational showcases. Which is why most of Sony's PS5 sequels look like higher resolution PS4 games and reuse assets from their predecessors - it's cheaper, and people are still buying it. With Sony boasting it's made more money from the PS5 than all prior PlayStations combined, it's clear they just don't need to put out big expensive showcases anymore. So, why waste the money?
 
So far it's almost 5 years in and the biggest smash hit is Helldivers 2. The rest are sequels and small scale games like Astrobot and Returnal kinds of games.

Assuming they launch for PS5 (you never they might release some of these for cross gen with PS6), there's upcoming SP games Intergalactic, Wolverine and Saros. And then for MP, you got Marathon, Fairgames, the Horizon MP game, and whatever other GAAS/MP games they got coming out next few years.
 
RCU005 said:
Starting this generation, since many PS5 games were just better looking PS4 games, we can expect that PS6 games will be what PS5 game should've been. So we will be one generation behind.

But if they continue to release PS4 versions, then we can all say they are going the Nintendo route and said "F graphics"
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Xbox and PS are in the same boat when next gen comes out in a few years. How much BC and cross gen support do you give? PS5/SX was one past gen support excluding the special Xbox BC it could do with some old ass Xbox OG/360 games). In terms of full support it was one gen behind.

Now with next gen, you still got gamers playing X1/PS4 gen, many games still made for them, and because it all digitally works like a PC game due to similar architecture, will Sony/MS cut the cut and say all the X1/PS4 games are cut off? Or let them work. And if they work that means all game companies can still viably make last gen (X1/PS4), current gen (SX/PS5) , and next gen (Xbox whatever/PS6) versions to cover all bases. And that would mean dumbing the game down to lowest common denominator which is 2013 consoles.
 
So much whining. Sony tried to all in on gaas, felt the repercussions, and is now retooling a lot of their studios back to make sure they put out what people want again. It's not that complicated. They still put out some of the best games of the gen.
 
their output is shit so they don't get to flex their tech muscle as much as last few gen. I do have to admit thought Ghost of Yotei looks very week technically. GoWR and Horizon 2 on PS4 on par with their last gen technical wizardry they push on prior generation, just unfortunately being cross gen titles people only focus on the PS5 version being lack of any advance current gen tech like RT.
 
Sony's technical edge has never been stronger - DualSense is the biggest leap in game controllers since the DualShock 2.
HD and UHD gaming is an unsustainable dead-end and PlayStation needs DualSense consoles built around less expensive development targets.
 
sncvsrtoip said:
But instead of that they chose to destroyit all with gaas chasing, crossover, crossplatforms and lacking quality.
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Eh, GG, SSM, PD, Insomniac, KojiPro and now Sucker Punch did not chase gaas.
Insomniac, KojiPro and Sucker Punch were not limited by being cross gen.
And lets face it, in terms of quality and polish, these games are still top notch.

In terms of technical quality though, yes, they have fallen behind but not because they chose gaas or were limited by cross gen. cyberpunk was also limited by cross gen. Didnt phase CD project who pushed higher fidelity and next gen RT features.

Bottomline is that some developers got lazy and phoned it in this gen. There is no one else to blame. Not Jimbo or Herman Bust. Or chip shortage. remember how this was being blamed earlier this gen along with covid? Well, it clearly didnt affect other devs who were able to invest in next gen tech.

era and twitter are full of cum guzzling fanboys blaming the big bad publisher and making excuses for developers who are simply lazy. I hope gaf is different and can see these devs for the lazy devs they have become.
 
semiconscious said:
at this point, i'd say that it feels more like sony's lost its creative edge than anything else...
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why not both?

also, if the critics and fans alike keep giving them 90+ on metacritic then why wouldnt they keep churning out DLC feeling games like ragnorak, spiderman 2, ds2 and ghosts 2?

it starts with us.
 
Cherry picked Spider-Man 2 shots look legitimately amazing. ND hasn't turned in one thing this gen. I guess they're just chilling. I bet Bend had a game that was content complete pre-alpha that got dragged to the recycling bin. Sucker Punch is just tracing over last gen's homework, but that homework was reaaally fucking good, so I'm not even mad. But it won't be a tech marvel. God of War got a repeat from last gen too. Hopefully Ghost fares better. Wonder what Santa Monica is up to. If the next GoW isn't significantly reworked, it's gonna get a tough reception.

 
The real losses are the wasted resources on GaaS projects that either flopped or got cancelled, coupled with the longer dev cycles that for me....just aren't worth it anymore.

No matter how good, an average 6-8 year dev cycle for these titles just kinda sucks, and we also see more talent shed from the longer cycles as well. I just want whatever studios to just scale production values into a complete thing that can be made in 3-5 years.
 
Interesting the OP just forgot about Horizon Forbidden West in terms of visuals. And saying Ghost of Yotei looks bad and only has better draw distance, completely forgetting it now runs at 60 fps and runs at 4k (i think) when compared to the PS4 version...plus it's obvious there was an upgrade in animations, resolution of assets etc (which we complained with the original)

And that said...how do you trash these games and then mention Halo and a tech demo with corridors like Hellblade II? lmao

And Cyberpunk...until Sony ever releases a game as unfinished and unpolished as that one i really think we shouldn't bring it here.

Isn't Death Stranding 2 using a Sony engine? (Decima)
 
Tiago Rodrigues said:
Interesting the OP just forgot about Horizon Forbidden West in terms of visuals. And saying Ghost of Yotei looks bad and only has better draw distance, completely forgetting it now runs at 60 fps and runs at 4k (i think) when compared to the PS4 version...plus it's obvious there was an upgrade in animations, resolution of assets etc (which we complained with the original)

And that said...how do you trash these games and then mention Halo and a tech demo with corridors like Hellblade II? lmao

And Cyberpunk...until Sony ever releases a game as unfinished and unpolished as that one i really think we shouldn't bring it here.

Isn't Death Stranding 2 using a Sony engine? (Decima)
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Cyberpunk has been finished and quite polished for 2 years now. It's perfectly valid to bring it up, not on consoles though.
 
Durin said:
The real losses are the wasted resources on GaaS projects that either flopped or got cancelled, coupled with the longer dev cycles that for me....just aren't worth it anymore.

No matter how good, an average 6-8 year dev cycle for these titles just kinda sucks, and we also see more talent shed from the longer cycles as well. I just want whatever studios to just scale production values into a complete thing that can be made in 3-5 years.
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you'd think that any company that into selling new consoles every 7 years would want this, too...
 
pqueue said:
they have not put out enough first party games this generation to make any such determination.
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every single one of their AAA first party studio has put out a game this gen. Every single one.
- PD
- GG
- ND
- SP
- SSM
- Insomniac
- Bluepoint

3 of them decided to limit themselves to cross gen but thats no excuse. plenty of cross gen games this gen that push technical boundries. Cyberpunk, Callisto, RE8, Star Wars jedi survivor all went all in on ray tracing features despite being cross gen.
 
Sony is coasting this gen not giving a damn about pushing the boundaries with games anymore, just trying to catch lighting in a bottle wasting time and money on failed GAAS games
 
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