we all know where they can cut some of the cost that doesn't add anything to the project cof, cof, cof DEI. Spiderman 2 didn't need twice as big of a writing team for example.
now, if Spiderman 2 and Concord both cost 300M, but only one made profit by selling 10+M.... one is actually the problem.
if Bungie had twice as many developers as the biggest single player Sony studio while making the biggest GaaS of its kind AND still they were bleeding money...... yeah, that is a BIG problem.
if little Astrobot had a modest budget and took 4 years to make and sold only 1.5M.... that's is a problem.
PS size demands their games to be blockbusters, to make around 500M to 1B in revenue. And people expect that from Sony too.
as with Hollywood, budgets increased but the quality didn't. why? because of the talent at the helm of these projects.
I don't think Astro Bot being in here is fair to it WRT the point you're making. It's a 3D platformer; it's in a genre where unless you're Mario, Sonic or some once-a-gen surprise hit multiplat (It Takes Two), you don't necessarily hit 10+ million copies.
It's still pacing ahead of Rift Apart, and will likely be able to hit 3.5 - 4 million on the console within two years. I still don't think the game's had a budget more than $70 million or so, therefore it should already be slightly profitable or very close to it.
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Helldivers 2 also had a lot of lateral sales. I.e, a good number of buyers were PS5/PC owners who chose to buy it on Steam for various reasons (free online, higher performance, cheaper price etc.).
Don't know why you're ignoring that part of the equation.
These nuggets are the only kind of peep behind the curtain we get when it comes to things like game budgets, expectation and performance.
Something clearly needs to be changed from Sony's perspective.
Why? How? Didn't they just post record profit for the quarter?
At this point even the excuse of "improving margins" can't really be used if they've got the highest profit margins of the Big 3 (and among all core gaming publishers) for the quarter. At some point, chasing profits just becomes an exercise in unrealistic expectations.
And we see where that leads, look at Square-Enix.
More AA and creative stuff is what I am reading from this.
Less expensive GAAS and SP titles.
They don't need to spend $200 million to make TLOU 2 style game. It should be made in 50 million.
Or, and I don't know if they're considering this (they should), they could just make the bigger games more "episodic".
I don't mean episodic like The Walking Dead or Life is Strange; I mean "episodic" in how each part is like a full-featured expansion. Like UC4: The Lost Legacy or Miles Morales, or better still (as an older example) Shining Force III Scenarios 1-3.
Space them out for every 2-3 years, sell them for $40 each, then when all the installments are complete package it together as one big game & re-release it for $70. IF they want to bring it to 3P storefronts like Steam, then do it at that point. It'd of been a good 4-6 or so years since the initial installment was available anyway.
You'll get people who want to play each part as it's released, then can get them to double-dip on the all-in-one version years later (or just sell that version to people who wanted to wait 4 - 6+ years before playing the game). They could space out budgeting between installments, technically get the game out faster, and so many other benefits.