Support NeoGAF

[GrayChild]

Apart from 3rd party titles with paid 1-year-ish exclusivity (like SH2 and FFVII: Rebirth), the only titles we saw from Sony this year were Helldivers II, Astrobot and... LEGO Horizon (kek), plus a bunch of needless remasters like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Until Dawn and TLOU Part II and (potentially) incoming announcement of a native PS5 version of Days Gone. Concord as well, but it's already dead so it's not worth even talking about.

In the meantime, this console generation is already halfway done, so the promises of big games and substantial output become even less trustworthy. Apart from Ghost of Yotei, ND's new sci-fi game and whatever SSM is working on, will there be anything of actual substance until PS6 arrives?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Astro Bot didn't impress you?

 

[Interfectum]

Their live service initiatives set them back this entire generation. I'm expecting / hoping the back half to be pretty epic.

 

[Bond007]

It may not be on par with what SONY does - but it's easily more than what the competition has put out.
I feel they have zero pressure to release anything rushed as it stands today.

I like what has come out and what they have done with anything that doesnt belong to them. The third party exclusives no matter if they arent from sony - are good games on their platform. They are infact part of the overall picture.

 

[PatientGamer]

"the only titles we had were Helldivers II, Astrobot & Lego Horizon"...

The reality is video game development costs & time has increased like 10x.. it's be expected to have a 1-2 years in a generation where it's a little 'light'.

 

[//DEVIL//]

Its Ok, we might be getting Days Gone remastered....

 

[Unknown?]

Their live service initiatives set them back this entire generation. I'm expecting / hoping the back half to be pretty epic.

Doubtful. Live service games weren't even 50% of the pipeline.

Also this topic really shows how poor people's memories are.

 

[Hookshot]

30% of Fortnite payments probably makes them more money than their own games ever have. Their 30 year history means nothing to the current crop of free to play wallets so there is no rush to make anything.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I would tend to agree - every time I think Sony's output has gotten as boring as it possibly can, they outdo themselves. At some level, I acknowledge that their games just aren't for me, but I think their obsession with cinematic presentation comes at the expense of responsive, exciting gameplay far too often. It's just gussied up, Western AAA shlock. I miss what they used to be.

 

[gothmog]

I've seen worse but would also like to see more announcements and output in 2025.

 

[farmerboy]

Their live service initiatives set them back this entire generation. I'm expecting / hoping the back half to be pretty epic.

100% this. They course corrected but were so far off course it's gonna take a while to find their way back.

 

[Unknown?]

Apart from 3rd party titles with paid 1-year-ish exclusivity (like SH2 and FFVII: Rebirth), the only titles we saw from Sony this year were Helldivers II, Astrobot and... LEGO Horizon (kek), plus a bunch of needless remasters like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Until Dawn and TLOU Part II and (potentially) incoming announcement of a native PS5 version of Days Gone. Concord as well, but it's already dead so it's not worth even talking about.

In the meantime, this console generation is already halfway done, so the promises of big games and substantial output become even less trustworthy. Apart from Ghost of Yotei, ND's new sci-fi game and whatever SSM is working on, will there be anything of actual substance until PS6 arrives?

Worse than PS1 where they made no critical hits and relied on 3rd party exclusives like they did this year?

 

[Loomy]

Their live service initiatives set them back this entire generation. I'm expecting / hoping the back half to be pretty epic.

It's not like they turned the faucet off on everything else. Live service did not affect the release of their first party single player games

As for the topic in general. 3 new first party exclusives, plus a bunch of timed exclusives is not a bad year. We know there's more coming.

Playstation needs to do a better job with continually engaging with fans. That's their biggest problem right now. I get not wanting to show games that are a year+ out, but there has to be a middle ground.

 

[Three]

Worse than PS1 where they made no critical hits and relied on 3rd party exclusives like they did this year?

People don't realise that Crash Bandicoot, Tekken, GTA, FF7 and most of the games they praise and fondly remember from the early PS days were third party partnerships. First party studios only really became a big part of PS during the PS3 gen.

 

[LectureMaster]

Live service did not affect the release of their first party single player games

The Last of Us Online was reportedly in development for four years with a team of "hundreds" before its sudden cancelation

 

[Aenima]

Apart from 3rd party titles with paid 1-year-ish exclusivity (like SH2 and FFVII: Rebirth), the only titles we saw from Sony this year were Helldivers II, Astrobot and... LEGO Horizon (kek), plus a bunch of needless remasters like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Until Dawn and TLOU Part II and (potentially) incoming announcement of a native PS5 version of Days Gone. Concord as well, but it's already dead so it's not worth even talking about.

In the meantime, this console generation is already halfway done, so the promises of big games and substantial output become even less trustworthy. Apart from Ghost of Yotei, ND's new sci-fi game and whatever SSM is working on, will there be anything of actual substance until PS6 arrives?

Sony also published Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin this year.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Why do better when they can be lazy and let third party multiplats and live service games fill their coffers? Why do better when people still blindly worship them and always point to financial success being the end-all over the games that used to make them happy? Winning some arbitrary war is more important than all else.

 

[Hypereides]

Look at this guy.

This is the classy bloke Jim put in charge of handing their studios. Crème de la crème of Sony. Be grateful.

 

[GrayChild]

Worse than PS1 where they made no critical hits and relied on 3rd party exclusives like they did this year?

We're not talking only about heavy-hitters. But just, something of actual value.

Only Japan Studio's first year output on the PS1 had more major titles:

Japan Studio - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Sony also published Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin this year.

I specifically stated no 3rd party developed stuff. Because then, comparing them to what Microsoft is pushing would be even worse.

 

[Loomy]

In the meantime, this console generation is already halfway done, so the promises of big games and substantial output become even less trustworthy

God of War 2 came out on PS2 after the PS3 was already released, TLoU came out on PS3 a month before the PS4, TLoU2, and Ghost of Tsushima both came out on PS4 a few months before the PS5.

Big games at the end of the generation is something that has always happened.

 

[Unknown?]

The Last of Us Online was reportedly in development for four years with a team of "hundreds" before its sudden cancelation

That's not a single player game.

 

[Aenima]

We're not talking only about heavy-hitters. But just, something of actual value.

Only Japan Studio's first year output on the PS1 had more major titles:

Japan Studio - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I specifically stated no 3rd party developed stuff. Because then, comparing them to what Microsoft is pushing would be even worse.

WHats laughable about that? MS bought 2 huge game publishers. Without them they would had a pretty modest year.

 

[analog_future]

Despite all the (understandable) negativity going around right now, I honestly think 2025 is going to be a very good year for Playstation, and 2026 will be a generation defining year.

 

[Interfectum]

Doubtful. Live service games weren't even 50% of the pipeline.

Also this topic really shows how poor people's memories are.

Well we know for sure there would be a Naughty Dog title by now which would have gone a long way to boosting their current portfolio.

 

[Melfice7]

Nonsense, during arguably the best gen's, ps1 and ps2.. sony just had a handful of exceptional first party games.

We may have expected more from ps5 but it has been good if you're only using sony as the example

 

[MrSmooth]

Owned day 1, all PlayStations, and apart from maybe the disaster that was PS3 year 1 and 2, this is by far the worst they have been. PS5 dropped from a cliff after year 2 of it's lifecycle. So much potential in Sony's back catalogue and they choose remasters of games that released a few years ago. Totally risk averse and don't really seem to be taking any chances like they used to. I gave my PS5 to my daughter, went 100% PC and haven't looked back. Sony do have a good track record of coming back strong so I'll never not be interested in PS, but right now, literally nothing exciting about them whatsoever.

 

[Interfectum]

Despite all the (understandable) negativity going around right now, I honestly think 2025 is going to be a very good year for Playstation, and 2026 will be a generation defining year.

Agreed. I have a feeling 2026 is going to be pretty massive for Sony. GaaS obsession on the decline, no more blaming COVID, etc. I expect a lot of bangers in the next two years that make people forget about the shitty front half.

 

[Klayzer]

People don't realise that Crash Bandicoot, Tekken, GTA, FF7 and most of the games they praise and fondly remember from the early PS days were third party partnerships. First party studios only really became a big part of PS during the PS3 gen.

Does is not feel like, we're in some kind of bizzaro world, with Crash and Spyro being Microsoft properties, while Bungie is a first party dev for Sony. Never would have guessed that twenty years ago.

 

[Unknown?]

We're not talking only about heavy-hitters. But just, something of actual value.

Only Japan Studio's first year output on the PS1 had more major titles:

Exactly, it's no different than PS1 era and taking longer to develop games is an industry wide problem. Using 3rd party games to fill the holes is fine.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

We're not talking only about heavy-hitters. But just, something of actual value.

Only Japan Studio's first year output on the PS1 had more major titles:

Japan Studio - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I specifically stated no 3rd party developed stuff. Because then, comparing them to what Microsoft is pushing would be even worse.

In other words, if we arbitrarily exclude games, you have some kind of a point.

 

[Loomy]

That's not a single player game.

They're implying that the MP game affected ND's single player output. Schrier is reporting that hundreds of people at a 400 people studio worked on this.

I don't doubt that hundreds of people touched that project, but at the same time? That's harder to believe.

The studio has said they're working on multiple single player games. Let's assume Druckmann's new game has the bulk of the studio, and a few smaller teams are prototyping or developing other things, where would Naughty Dog find hundreds of people to put on this? You could argue he never said 100s all from Naughty Dog. If that's the case, it would have even less of an impact on NDs single player output.

 

[Warablo]

WHats laughable about that? MS bought 2 huge game publishers. Without them they would had a pretty modest year.

To be fair, Microsoft had no studios to begin with

 

[vivftp]

Well we know for sure there would be a Naughty Dog title by now which would have gone a long way to boosting their current portfolio.

False. There 100% would not have been a new Naughty Dog title released by now if TLOU Online had never existed. TLOU2 was all hands on deck and the pre-production on their next title didn't start til mid-2020. AAA games take 5-6 years on average to make these days, so there is no feasible scenario where a ND game would have come out by now.

As for this thread, lol, no. They're doing just fine and the second half of this gen is gonna be stacked, just like last gen.

 

[Unknown?]

Well we know for sure there would be a Naughty Dog title by now which would have gone a long way to boosting their current portfolio.

It would have just been an online spinoff of TLOU though, not a single player game. It has only been 4 years since TLOU2. Games take long to make now.

 

[BennyBlanco]

AAA western gaming is so cooked.

- games take the better part of a decade to make
- budgets of 200M+
- every game must be approved by a council of diversity consultants so as not to offend or entertain anyone
- all puzzles must be solved aloud by marvel quipping NPCs

 

[NeverYouMind]

It was only good in PS3 era with the exception of Days Gone (which started development in the PS3 era).

 

[Little Chicken]

Every hit the PS1 had was moneyhatted, those were Sony's worst years for output.

 

[SweetTooth]

Astro Bot didn't impress you?

No it doesn't count for some strange reason

 

[SegaShack]

This generation is bad for first party games besides Nintendo.

 

[Mr Moose]

"If you ignore all these games, their output has been terrible!".

 

[Clear]

Apart from 3rd party titles with paid 1-year-ish exclusivity (like SH2 and FFVII: Rebirth), the only titles we saw from Sony this year were Helldivers II, Astrobot and... LEGO Horizon (kek), plus a bunch of needless remasters like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Until Dawn and TLOU Part II and (potentially) incoming announcement of a native PS5 version of Days Gone. Concord as well, but it's already dead so it's not worth even talking about.

In the meantime, this console generation is already halfway done, so the promises of big games and substantial output become even less trustworthy. Apart from Ghost of Yotei, ND's new sci-fi game and whatever SSM is working on, will there be anything of actual substance until PS6 arrives?

Sorry, but this is unsupportable.

Dev cycles are 4-5+ years these days, so a year represents less than a quarter of the time spent making a single AAA title. Having a relatively light year in a generation is indicative of nothing.

Also, stop with the false equivalence of separating paid exclusives from first-party; its meaningless. It doesn't matter how you fill your year so long as the launch cadence is maintained; its all money spent to generate more money and continue forwards in the final analysis.

Lastly, generational divides are not as meaningful as they once were. Its all about continuity because -and this loops back to my first point- its no longer possible to make games fast enough to make starting over from scratch (technologically) feasible!

Acting like generational change is a "ticking-clock" is just denying reality.

 

[Unknown?]

No it doesn't count for some strange reason

Just like during the PS4 era, people complained about only AAA games but AA games like WipEout Omega, Everybody's Golf, Until Dawn, etc didn't count because reasons.

 

[damidu]

yawwwn

 

[Klayzer]

"If you ignore all these games, their output has been terrible!".

Pretty much. You could literally play this stupid game with all consoles.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

I think Sony puts out very good games. They just don't release enough of them.

 

[FrankWza]

If we're putting aside games that are exclusivity deals can we put aside entire publisher purchases when determining the output other console manufacturers?

 

[ssringo]

As someone that's never liked Sony first party...

I can't tell the difference.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Their live service initiatives set them back this entire generation. I'm expecting / hoping the back half to be pretty epic.

/end thread

 

[Aenima]

"If you ignore all these games, their output has been terrible!".

Yup, pretty much the same narrative from Sony doomers. Yet if one take a look at this year TGA contenders for GOTY. The only platform where you can play every single game is a PS5.

 

[Rush2112]

Stop asking for more triple A exclusives. Go play some old games, they’re good for your health.