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[Topher]

Go back to making kick ass single player games. I started a thread at the beginning of this generation asking what should Sony do differently. I said they should just keep doing what they are doing because it works. Sony had other ideas.

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/sonys-plan-to-compete-with-xbox-stay-the-course.1603247/

 

[Loomy]

Some of the GAAS cancellations are confusing. How the hell did Concord get released but Spiderman and Factions get canned? Makes no sense.

Concord was released because they, wrongly, believed that they could release a shitty game and make enough money from it before it died.

After that, both Hulst and Totoki said they were going to be more stringent in evaluating and checking in on these projects throughout development so they don't get to a point where they just have to release it because of what's been invested so far.

That's what you're seeing right now. Also, GaaS games need to be made by studios set up to support them long term. I don't think Insomniac or Naughty Dog were set up, or willing to change their set up, to properly support those game.

That's how that makes sense.

 

[Rush2112]

Discontinue horizon zero dawn and pull it off the shelves. never speak of the franchise again. Acknowledge that alloy was a fat whale.

Pull spiderman 2 off the shelves. Bring back peter parker, issue a formal apology to all real marvel fans.

Drop Naughty Dog immediately. Neil Drukman should also receive a public reprimand for his politicizing a beloved franchise.

Bluepoint studi is now REQUIRED to remake bloodborne. Any attempts to politicize will result in immediate termination of the staff responsible.

Acknowledge that GoW: Ragnarok was purposely made political by Santa Monica Studios. issue a formal apology and a warning to the studio.

 

[bitbydeath]

Their biggest fault is their lack of communication. We know games are coming but what are they and when?

The gaming industry lacks transparency.

 

[Elios83]

There's really nothing to fix.
They clearly over-invested in gaas which is still an important market to chase for growth opportunities as proved by the huge success of Helldivers2. But in a more focused and rational way, not betting their development pipeline on that.
They're already course correcting on that although the time and costs impact cannot be zero.
Imo they should just strengthen their first party development capabilities so that they can release 2-3 major titles every year.
Games take too much to be developed.
They need to acquire a couple of studios that have proven and beloved IPs to offer.
They need to foster second party partnerships, but this is something they're already doing, see their growing relationships also with Korean and Chinese developers.


They're already implementing what has to be done (scaling back on gaas, investing in publishers see the recent Kadokawa investement and working to publish more games made by external promising developers)

 

[PurePlatinum]

I really have zero problem with the hardware / network services part of the brand, so all my suggestions will be about software.

1. Hulst is gone and replaced by Scott Rohde as head of 1st Party.

2. PS Studios should be comprised of teams that deliver A+ quality every time, and as part of this initiative, Haven/Firesprite/Guerrilla/Bend are all shuttered and replaced by spin-off teams of the actually good studios.

3. The spin-off teams are compromised of small 30-man teams developing A/AA level games with new IP (think Asobi vs Studio Japan). Media Molecule is reduced to this size and forced to make actual video games.

The aim of PS Studios should not be to make money with the sales of the software (this is the fallacy that led to the GaaS push). The aim should be to have titles every year that are in the Game of The Year conversation. You make your platform synonymous with the highest quality possible, and that draws in the customers that will then make you money by spending money on 3rd party titles.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Can't fix what aint broke.

 

[viveks86]

• Send Herman Bust to the moon. Keeping him just because he did 180s is not enough. Phil also did 180s. You need to cull all the people at the top.
• Send neil druckmann to Hollywood. let him torture a different audience for a while.
• Rehire Ted price to run Sony WWS. Get Games out faster. No one does it better than Ted Price.
• Shut down bungie or sell it to some other fool.
• Investigate who was part of the decision to make 12 gaas games and castrate them to make sure they never reproduce again.
• 3 Year Dev Cycles Max. Anyone who takes longer than 3 years gets their pay cut in half. That will convince them to reduce the scope on these ridiculously long games.
• Summon Cory and find out why the fuck its taken him 7 years to make a new IP with nothing to show for it. Then fire him. Nothing is worth that long. He's no Ueda.
• Trade Jade Raymond back to Ubisoft for rights to Prince Of Persia and a developer to be named later.
• Have Bluepoint, Bend, and Astrobot Devs work on next gen only games set for launch in 2028. No more cross gen trash next gen.
• Cancel PS+ Premium and Extra. Subscriptions devalue games and cost sales revenue at the backend of the game's life cycle.
• Set game prices back to $60 and keep them there like Nintendo does. No more hitting the bargain bin after 6 months or on subscriptions. If you want to play games pay for them.
• Cancel all future PC ports. If you want to play playstation games, buy a playstation instead of lining up Jensen and Gabe's pockets.
• Have Nixxes provide direct support to any studio releasing games in the next 6 months instead of wasting time porting PC games no one wants to play.
• Send a rescue mission to the Moon For Herman then fly him into Jupiter.

I must admit, I actually like the ones in bold. Kill the rest with fire!

What I would like Nixxes to do though is port games that PC gamers actually want to play... like Bloodborne

 

[Represent.]

Cancel every live service game not made by Bungie.

Mandate every dev to make Single Player games under 25 hours long.

Give bonuses to studios who make games 8-15 hours long.

Instead of live service, I make a big push on SP games with added on MP - Like Space Marine 2.

I listen to fans and bring back legacy IP. (Motorstorm, Driveclub, Killzone, SOCOM, etc)

I make actual smart purchases - Slowclap, FROM, Konami

I invest in CHINA - They are clearly the future of gaming. I start a new Sony First Party studio in China, hire the best Chinese talent available. Have them make non- Live service trash.

Mandate devs to make shorter games and get them out faster.

Get rid of all kiddy trash games with kiddy colorful graphics (hero shooter style shit), aside from Astro Bot. PlayStation will be known as the platform for mature audiences, new branding. Fuck kids. Go play outside, games are for adults.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

They're most definitely AA games in relation to the very big budget projects that Sony is known for. AA/AAA is becoming more and more meaningless by the time, but we can easily notice how certain projects are of much, MUCH less budget compared to others.
I think you're putting a big emphasis on IP ownership that Sony never cared much about. Your issue is especially weird since we're talking about what Sony has managed to (or will soon) produce; what does third-party companies publishing exclusive games on PS4 ON THEIR OWN even have to do with anything?
Learn your Sony history thicc, they did exactly this back in 2008 with Aquanaut's Holiday: Hidden Memories on PS3.

Well we don't honestly know Death Stranding 2's budget and considering the amount of Hollywood talent involved, it won't be cheap. Fair to say, it'll cost a good deal more than an Astro Bot. I could see total costs being upwards $125 million which to me, is closer to a typical AAA budget.

As for IP ownership...actually SIE have outright said it's something they value. In fiscal calls they've stressed about wanting to depend less on 3P sales revenue cuts and leverage IP of which they own. Which are both things that make sense to do, so when I see SIE sell the rights of Death Stranding to KojiPro for example, it makes me question why. Unless it means they own the rights to PHYSINT, but I doubt that is the case because, again, it wouldn't follow the trend and SIE aren't very transparent about that sort of thing.

Bringing up the 3P games SIE would publish themselves back in the day, yes I know about all of that. But the industry's changing; for whatever reasons (some of which sound like excuses IMO but that's another topic), 3P (especially publishers) just seem less inclined to do exclusives. SIE may have things like XDEV which foster 3P development but a lot of it seems joined at the hip with PC simultaneous releases, which means inevitably the impact of those games for the console gets muted some. At least SIE are publishing those XDEV games though, mostly, so that helps with their publishing pipeline.

The actual number of such games being published though, isn't as many as generations ago. Partly because games have gotten more complex, take more time, so devs make less in the same period of time. However, that compounds on internal SIE teams themselves releasing less games than generations ago, and PS getting less defacto exclusives than even in the PS4 gen, let alone earlier ones. Are they still getting all the multiplats? Yeah, at least if you ignore the games that are PC-exclusive and don't get console ports or take forever to get ported to console (i.e VALORANT).

Could SIE be doing better regardless when it comes to release pipeline and exclusive games? Absolutely.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

I'd go back to making Japanese games and get the fuck out of California for my PS HQ for starters. I'd make basic online play and cloud saves free again. I'd just select a few candidates for GaaS titles and not waste millions on projects that were super risky. Basically make PlayStation great again.

Oh, and I'd also stop this DEI bullshit and not have every main protagonist be a female character.

 

[playbignbox]

Just make gameplay focused games without any woke shit, like Astro Bot

 

[Dorago]

Make PS5 games PS5 games.

Release the GAAS games on PC or phone only.

Remaster/remake everything.

Limit core dev team sizes to 25.

Ban motion capture, famous voice actors, consultants, orchestras, product tie ins, etc.

The PS5 hardware is great, the store has good deals on catalog titles.

There's just no momentum for new titles because the tried to make everything a third world scam instead of a real American/Japanese/Euro experience.

 

[fart town usa]

Fire Hermen immediately and relocate the HQ back to Japan.

Stop buying trash Western studios and start investing in Japanese/Asian studios.

Have a policy that all games must allow the PSVR2 headset to be an extension of the in-game camera (when possible, I don't think it would work for side scrollers).

 

[awwr999999]

I'd make the console more open, make development tools for it free and open source, as well as relax the conditions for releasing games on it.

In an ideal world PlayStation's SDK would run on a proprietary Debian fork that could be self-contained and managed by PlayStation as opposed to Microsoft.
MS having total control over the OS used to develop PS games is an obvious problem and there are big advantages to using a stable platform like Debian.
A linux-based OS would save new studios money and provide them with a superior UI/UX to that of Windows.
It would allow studios to use a wide range inexpensive modern HW considered 'obsolete' by Windows.
Getting established studios and experienced engineers to switch operating systems is another issue entirely.
Windows is an inefficient OS with a bad UI/UX and moving away from it will provide tremendous long term benefits.

 

[Parazels]

1) Stop porting games on a personal calculator.
2) Revive "This is football".
3) People ask for Killzone 2 remaster. You release Horizon remaster. Why?
4) Release indie-games sometimes.
5) Ditch VR after this gen. It doesn't work.
6) Portal OLED with direct connection to PS6. Make even optional wire connection.

 

[bender]

I’d give everyone a pony.

 

[Represent.]

Just make gameplay focused games without any woke shit, like Astro Bot

Astro Bot sold poorly and if every game sold like Astro Bot Sony would go bankrupt.

They need story driven blockbusters more like God of War. Make them 12 hours instead of 35 and pump them out more frequently.

 

[nial]

Well we don't honestly know Death Stranding 2's budget and considering the amount of Hollywood talent involved, it won't be cheap. Fair to say, it'll cost a good deal more than an Astro Bot. I could see total costs being upwards $125 million which to me, is closer to a typical AAA budget.

Look at my post again, I included it within the high budget range alongside Spider-Man 2 and Ghost of Yotei.

As for IP ownership...actually SIE have outright said it's something they value. In fiscal calls they've stressed about wanting to depend less on 3P sales revenue cuts and leverage IP of which they own. Which are both things that make sense to do, so when I see SIE sell the rights of Death Stranding to KojiPro for example, it makes me question why. Unless it means they own the rights to PHYSINT, but I doubt that is the case because, again, it wouldn't follow the trend and SIE aren't very transparent about that sort of thing.

I said that in the context of the XDEV partnerships. Yeah, Sony Group as a whole wants to own big IPs, but SIE itself won't make a huge deal out of them as long as they see a good business oportunity. That's why it happened fifth times in a row now.

Bringing up the 3P games SIE would publish themselves back in the day, yes I know about all of that. But the industry's changing; for whatever reasons (some of which sound like excuses IMO but that's another topic), 3P (especially publishers) just seem less inclined to do exclusives. SIE may have things like XDEV which foster 3P development but a lot of it seems joined at the hip with PC simultaneous releases, which means inevitably the impact of those games for the console gets muted some. At least SIE are publishing those XDEV games though, mostly, so that helps with their publishing pipeline.

Third-party publishers are less inclined to make THEIR OWN GAMES exclusives because there's literally not reason to do. What do Ronin, Stellar Blade, DS2, etc. have in common? They're all games owned by SIE, they're all funded by SIE, they're all produced by SIE. You bringing up Atlus (as an example) suddenly not wanting to make PlayStation exclusives has literally no relation with this matter.
And they don't "mostly" publish the XDEV games, they publish ALL of them, it's THEIR games.

Are they still getting all the multiplats? Yeah, at least if you ignore the games that are PC-exclusive and don't get console ports or take forever to get ported to console (i.e VALORANT).

Oh man, let's not pretend this is anything new, at all.

 

[ArtHands]

Price hike the PS+ and PS5 game price, day one release on PC and other platforms

 

[awwr999999]

Acknowledging that PS2 is the best console ever made and bringing it back with DualSense.
SCPH-100000. Because Nintendo can't have the world's best selling console.

Upgraded EE+GS together with upgraded PS1 HW for full PS2/1 disc BC.
Accepts OG MagicGate memory cards and DS2/DS1 controllers just like the SCPH-90000.
Improved wired DualSense controllers make side-by-side use with PS5 effortless, no controller confusion.
PSN via XMB and new PS2/PS1 games are digital-only with full DualSense functionality and reduced load times.
Adopt Steam's 2hr no hassle return policy and guarantee that every game sold is a positive experience.
Incentivize studios to make exclusive PS2/1 games.
Refocus on adult audience and single player games.

 

[Humdinger]

I'd burn it all down and start from scratch.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

Not the same thread again. Fixing implies it's broken.


Sony doesn't need fixing, they are printing more money than ever, have a recent GOTY with Astrobot, and have course corrected by cancelling 90% of the GAAS shit and fired Jim Ryan after the flop of Concord. They are back on the right path again and don't need any fixing.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Sony had other ideas.

Yep, like releasing GOTY caliber single player games each year like they have been

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

No need VR
No need live service games
No need remakes/remasters for 3-4 years old games.

Just do more SP games, that's what you good at, the end.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

No more VR. Focus on SP games. They sure had the money to make GAAS games and buy up studios, so the money is there. Funnel it to SP. Aside from a handful of MP games, most of their MP games since the PS3 days dont catch fire and last. Heck, about 6-7 GAAS games just got cancelled the past year.

Problem is they shotgunned a million MP focused games. But the new exec has done a good job canceling and reining in wacko decisions. Concord was probably too late.

But it seems like the GAAS leash is ultra short now. So either the exec will just focus on a slimmed down slate of SP games and bank any money, or could make more SP games. But pretty sure it looks like the Japanese head honcho isnt interested in a million GAAS games and studios.

 

[awwr999999]

Yep, like releasing GOTY caliber single player games each year like they have been

Imagine TSHTF and a rich elderly friend invites you to move into their fallout bunker for the next decade.
You can bring one PS console and as many games as you want from two generations.

Would you really take a PS5/PS4 over a PS2/1, PS3/2 or PS3/1?
PS5/4 would give you a lot of remade games from PS3/2/1 and a relatively small number of original games from PS5/4.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Imagine TSHTF and a rich elderly friend invites you to move into their fallout bunker for the next decade.
You can bring one PS console and as many games as you want from two generations.

Would you really take a PS5/PS4 over a PS2/1, PS3/2 or PS3/1?

You’re comparing half generations to full generations.

But I don’t really play games multiple times through, each generation has its place and its library of excellent games

Older games are somewhat blinded by nostalgia, more objective individuals playing games for the first time would want the most modern ones

 

[Jesb]

If your good at something never do it for free.

 

[Varteras]

 

[Pimpbaa]

More games with main character designs like Stellar Blade.

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

Bring back the variety they had during the PS2 era, it's crazy how many games they out, some of which are really obscure today, like The Mark of Kri, such a wide variety of styles for a wide variety of age groups.

That and drop the "every protag must be a lesbian" angle.

 

[Fess]

Release games day 1 on PC. People keep saying that PC and console gaming are two different markets so why kill the hype on PC releases? Day 1 would boost software sales a ton, going late always bring in negativity from people who want to play but aren’t allowed yet and hype is gone with late releases so sales numbers are always lower than they could be.

More AA games. AAA takes 5+ years to make, it’s too long, they don’t have enough dev teams to only go AAA, it creates too big gaps between games.

More Astro Bot. May not be a big seller but it’s their best game yet and I just want for of that.

Drop the woke.

 

[Topher]

Yep, like releasing GOTY caliber single player games each year like they have been

First party was clicking on all cylinders the second half of last gen. If you think they have matched that with PS5 then that's fine. I don't.

 

[Topher]

Price hike the PS+ and PS5 game price,

You want Sony to increase the price of PS+ and PS5 games?

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

First party was clicking on all cylinders the second half of last gen. If you think they have matched that with PS5 then that's fine. I don't.

Not arguing whether first half of PS5 matches second half of PS4, that's not really the question. The question is whether the first half of PS5's output is really a "problem" that needs fixing. Has Sony been deficient in quality SP games since the release of PS5, and the answer to me is NO. Every year they seemingly have a GOTY candidate title represented in The TGA's

I don't disagree that their GAAS intiatives have largely been a bust outside of Helldivers 2, and that they over-allocated time, resources, and money into too many ventures. But it hasn't degraded their traditional first half gen output. Could it have been better? Yes, but it's not unimpressive or inadequate.

 

[Topher]

Not arguing whether first half of PS5 matches second half of PS4, that's not really the question. The question is whether the first half of PS5's output is really a "problem" that needs fixing. Has Sony been deficient in quality SP games since the release of PS5, and the answer to me is NO. Every year they seemingly have a GOTY candidate title represented in The TGA's

I don't disagree that their GAAS intiatives have largely been a bust outside of Helldivers 2, and that they over-allocated time, resources, and money into too many ventures. But it hasn't degraded their traditional first half gen output. Could it have been better? Yes, but it's not unimpressive or inadequate.

That's fair. Hopefully the second half of this gen has a similar cadence to the second half of last, which was pretty great. Off to a great start with Astro Bot.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

That's fair. Hopefully the second half of this gen has a similar cadence to the second half of last, which was pretty great. Off to a great start with Astro Bot.

Yeah no doubt the GAAS stuff has hurt and I hope they can recover because if they had all of their studios like Bluepoint, Bend, Firesprite, etc not wasting time on junk that's never going to be commercially viable and simply let the teams make traditional SP games, then they'd truly have a staggering number of titles.

I'm not sure if PS5 can match the second half of PS4, but they certainly have a shot of matching it with Intergalactic and Wolverine being exciting new titles (non-sequels) as well as sequels to beloved games (Ghost of Yotei, Death Stranding 2) and potentially a new IP from Sony Santa Monica and Housemarque. Luckily these studios tend not to MISS. So I remain optimistic.

 

[bundylove]

Ha HAAAA! Nice try, Hermen!

 

[hemo memo]

Sony's current struggles are a clear case of poor prioritization and resource management.

 

[Inanilmaz]

PSP2 3D !!!

 

[KimDongHwan]

Make smaller games with variety of gameplay/genre, don't expect them to sell 10 million, be happy with 50k, enjoy long lasting fans that even though for you it's just a few people, adding up all those loyal fans for a lifetime will pay off

 

[Felessan]

Don't fix what's not broken
It might be frustrating for some, but it's a circle of life - new replacing old

Yeah no doubt the GAAS stuff has hurt and I hope they can recover because if they had all of their studios like Bluepoint, Bend, Firesprite, etc not wasting time on junk that's never going to be commercially viable and simply let the teams make traditional SP games, then they'd truly have a staggering number of titles.

It's chasing the left train. SP market is shrinking and in 10 years time majority of players will be those who were raised on service games.
And what Sony will do than, having zero expertise in field? Be at mercy of giants like Tencent and Netease?
Sony is a business and business plans for the future.

 

[Hudo]

Boobs. Lot's of them.

 

[ArtHands]

You want Sony to increase the price of PS+ and PS5 games?

Should help fund some of Playstation's AAA games.

 

[Perrott]

The fact that they have continued to succeed throughout a pandemic, their direct competition acquiring two of the five biggest Western third-party publishers, a moderate worldwide economical crisis and a more or less failed venture into live-service territory, already tells you that their core strategy needs no fixing whatsoever.

Could/should some individual studio be doing this instead of that? Perhaps, but that's highly subjective and the level of micro-management that this thread seems to be about wouldn't actually move the needle for Sony's bottom line.

 

[Cakeboxer]

They don't have to fix anything for now, thanks their big loyal fanbase and Microsoft they can do whatever they want and they will have success.
On the long run they shoud start making other games than over the shoulder cinematic action adventures in the big budget AAA area. People and even critics will get bored of it at some point. And they should go all digital with the PS6, that will make them tons of money.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

Talk to the studio's and what they want to make. Don't force them into anything, get a feel where their passion is at.
Now you can't just let them go crazy, because you have a portfolio to think about. So not every studio can make zombie kart racers, so you have to carefully steer away from some ideas, but still give them something to get excited for. I would also forbid them to make a sequel directly after the original. So after Days Gone you'll make something completely different and then you can get back to Days Gone if you desire. This will prevent 'lazy sequels' that just feel like more of the same, because you'll have at least 1 new experience between the games and more time to iterate on the concept to create something fresh.

In the end you'll have to end up with a good mix of single-player, multiplayer, family friendly and adult focused games.

Then develop Decima as the Sony Studio engine.
There's a price you pay for that, because studio's have to adapt to it and not every game fits the engine of course, but in due time it will pay off. You will have a group/studio that will continiously develop and improve the engine and will give support to the studio's. The studio's themselves can focus on creating content, without having to also technically develop their own engine. Also different studio's will ask for different additions to the engine which will open up possibilities to the other studio's as well.

 

[Felessan]

and a more or less failed venture into live-service territory, already tells you that their core strategy needs no fixing whatsoever.

If you look at Sony gaas strategy as a whole, it has a meak result related to their own games, but it is resounding success overall.
They have most of successfull service games on the market and many of them exclusively in console space. And they earn huge amount of money on them.
And it's understandable that they don't want rely 100% on 3rd party, but have some control of their own (their own games), same as with SP games.

 

[ProtoByte]

The PS6 is going to be a huge challenge and a huge opportunity.

First up, firing Hulst. Nishino and Totoki ideally go as well. We need a fresh leader, and not some kind of silly regional branch power struggle like the one that put the reigns in Ryan and Hulst's hands. The number of people wishcasting DEI for Japanese devs in here is pathetic. Glaze all you want, that is not going to increase PS' appeal, sorry. People don't like Capcom because it's Japanese, they like them (right now) because it's Capcom.

Remove distractions: No more VR, no more PC ports, and no fucking handheld. The PS6 is going to be a hard sell because of this generation. "Pc ports don't affect anything" "Vr has a lot of fans", shut the fuck up. Focus on the console.

Cross-gen is also banned for PS first parties. Shuhei's surprised that Forbidden West didn't sell better despite having a PS4 version. But it was obvious to see that it did more harm than good. I remember the hype deflating so badly when Sony fake out the next-gen exclusivity of Forbidden West, Miles Morales and GT7. How the fuck the only PS5 "exclusives" in the first 2 years were Ratchet, Returnal and the fucking Demon Souls remake while Ragnarok, FW and GT7 were not is beyond reason. You will be fighting an uphill battle trying to get devs and consumers to move on from the PS5, and maybe even still have 7 figures of PS4 hanger-ons. You don't need to reduce incentives and waste potential with cross gen games.