Sony was like this all this time:
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"We doing great guys. I'm just not sure what we doing, but it worked it out well enough so far."
Playing the victim is what you guys do best.
You're saying fans are supporting PlayStation despite all the problems you listed. The issue is that people don't see it the same way as you do and that's the problem with your rant.
So he is playing the victim because he made an honest list of why he doesn't like the playstation this gen?
Your opinion is valid and his opinion is valid. If you love the ps5 that's cool, his points aren't less valid to him though because of that and I don't think a user should be attacked for thinking differently. I mean, the points he makes are valid.
My ps5 was worth it for returnal, demons souls. Ffvii integrade, ragnarok, spider man 2 and miles morales. That's all I've played this gen but I don't mind laying down the money for it.
We are all third party now. Let's all just be henry cavill pc memes.
Their consumers carried them on their backs this gen like Jesus carried the cross. Raising prices of games and systems, lackluster PS+ offerings, ugliest system design of all time, remasters or safe sequels galore, barely anything 1st party for 2 years, worst gaming marketing events in PS history, PSVR2 being an overpriced wired waste with no games, PS Portal existing, fans massively exaggerating all negative aspects of the competition 24/7. The people that really deserve the credit for this win are the PS fans themselves more than even Sony.
tbh the industry got too big and hence overtaken by CEO types who dont actually care for the thing they are selling. I see things like Valve's recent Half Life documentary, where you see the old industry, where passionate nerds made games for nerds and kids... then you fast forward to now, CEOs fighting over monopolies, dev teams consisting of culture warriors from Twitter..Companies act so fucking dumb sometimes.
They get so obsessed with growth that they forget what grew them in the first place.
Man, it looks like with all that shit Xbox is completely demolishing Playstation this gen! Let me check...Their consumers carried them on their backs this gen like Jesus carried the cross. Raising prices of games and systems, lackluster PS+ offerings, ugliest system design of all time, remasters or safe sequels galore, barely anything 1st party for 2 years, worst gaming marketing events in PS history, PSVR2 being an overpriced wired waste with no games, PS Portal existing, fans massively exaggerating all negative aspects of the competition 24/7. The people that really deserve the credit for this win are the PS fans themselves more than even Sony.
The thing is that they didn't manage the growth well and the model is unsustainable. If something happened tomorrow and third party games disappeared Sony couldn't afford run the PlayStation business on the revenue from their in-house games alone. There would be little money for investment to fund development for games that require a wait of 5 or 6 years to see ROI. Sure, the big games pay for themselves in the end, but what pays for the next game? Right now it's the 30% they're earning from COD and EA Sports and small developers who get games out the door more quickly that supports the development of Naughty Dog's next big masterpiece. Microsoft's gaming division has to be in a similar spot. They've just had the protection of the mothership and the cash hoard.Companies act so fucking dumb sometimes.
They get so obsessed with growth that they forget what grew them in the first place.
It's a me, i sometimes switching between PC and consoles, at now i have only medium low laptop given in 2020, and currently i own ps5 and switch, i got old steamdeck, and again, the only access for me is using consoles for AAA or return to pc for old games because i couldnt upgrade my pc yet. For me, consoles are cheaper options for now.There is no real evidence that PC gaming is growing at a rate in line with that trend. The more expensive PC gaming continues to get, the more people will swing back to console. It's always ebbed and flowed like that.
Sony's profitability is pretty low compared to the revenue. In fact, it's been on a decline for a couple year and it was the lowest ever past quarter.I don't understand how there can be any issues at all considering the immense install base they have access to… aren't there 40+ million available boxes they can target and an audience that buys every single player game they make?
Sony's profitability is pretty low compared to the revenue. In fact, it's been on a decline for a couple year and it was the lowest ever past quarter.
Man, it looks like with all that shit Xbox is completely demolishing Playstation this gen! Let me check...
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It is more a financial thing. In summary, Sony profitability is so low that when borrowing money, investors consider other lower risk investment options such as national debt certificates. Also, Sony revenue is quite OK, so they need to improve their financial efficiency to be in a more comfortable situation.Right, but it makes no sense considering the enormous install base. Why do all the hard work and get millions of people to use your ecosystem but not capitalize fully...
They need to look at Apple and see how they turn so many of their iOS devices into money making little machines.
More AA games, less GAAS games.
Whatever happened to their AA games funding and supporting the development of their AAA games?
Sony posted record numbers, they aren't doomed. And don't plan to go third party on console (outside Bungie and MLB).So now that Sony are clearly doomed: Third-party when?
Nice dose of Copium...Their consumers carried them on their backs this gen like Jesus carried the cross. Raising prices of games and systems, lackluster PS+ offerings, ugliest system design of all time, remasters or safe sequels galore, barely anything 1st party for 2 years, worst gaming marketing events in PS history, PSVR2 being an overpriced wired waste with no games, PS Portal existing, fans massively exaggerating all negative aspects of the competition 24/7. The people that really deserve the credit for this win are the PS fans themselves more than even Sony.
Given how things are in media lately (games, tv shows, movies), I dont think a lot of them understand profit or growth either. Nor completing things on time and within budget. But when tech rocketed up last 5 years where big tech companies are hiring 30% more people and gaming revenue zoomed up during covid, it was one of those things where as long as the gravy train keeps arriving at union station, who cares about due diligence about finances. Post covid comes along, loan rates triple, gaming drops down as everyone is back to work and outside and now they are fucked as they over did it.I find this a very strange thing for a CEO / COO to be saying publicly. I mean if I'm at SIE management I'd be looking over my shoulder… suggesting that your division doesn't understand development and profit / growth. Strong words.
"And that's got to do about how to use the money or about the schedule of development or how to fulfill one's accountability towards development, et cetera. "
They need to reined in the cost of these projects. Spiderman 2 did not need to cost that much for a 25 hour game. With 300 million dollars that is rockstar level open world game or a big budget AAA western rpg that takes 100+ hours to finish. Ghost of Tsushima had just under a 100 million budget iirmc. That should be the benchmark for these lite rpg mix action open world games.
I love sony interactive for their storytelling, characters and just exploring the world.
I dont need some game of the generation level game all the fucking time. If you go big all the time all it takes is one bomb or 'not meeting expectations' to pivot to shit we collectively dont really care about.
I find this a very strange thing for a CEO / COO to be saying publicly. I mean if I'm at SIE management I'd be looking over my shoulder… suggesting that your division doesn't understand development and profit / growth. Strong words.
Well....errr I disagree.
There is a lot more going on with Spiderman 2, its an important IP considering it can open the door for Sony to get other contracts with Marvel for license and Insomniac is easily one of the best AAA teams in gaming.
If they want that turnaround time that this team is known for, they need to get them what they need to get it out with quality and in time.
So this is one of the few areas, I'd got to disagree with you based on how massive that IP is, all the functions of that title and the pedigree and quality of that team. So we just can't compare Ghost Of Tsushima to Spider Man 2
(Shiiiiiit for all we know, Ghost Of Tsushima's 2's budget is much larger then the first)
Keep in mind, Sucker Punch is hiring more for that sequel currently...
So I agree that not every game needs to be Game Of The generation budget
But not every Sony title is getting that budget cause not every Sony game made by a team like this, with an IP like this etc.
I mean there is a reason why no one has been named the successor to Jim Ryan yet.
You look at small examples like Gran Turismo 7 not hitting PC yet or the delays and quality issues with TLOU PC port... these are things that massively impact growth and margin.
SIE and Microsoft look at companies like ABK and T2... releasing on other platforms can massively expand the reach of your games. It's free money. These companies have far greater margins without the royalties you get from 3rd party software sales, why is that? Because their games reach millions of more people.
SIE is probably the best publisher in the world right now, but their margins don't reflect that at all and just imagine how bad these margins would have been had they avoided crossgen games. How well could Demon's Souls have done with the PS4 userbase, even if it had loading times and reduced resolution.
Elden Ring hit 5 platforms, Hogwarts Legacy hit 6. Spider-Man 2 hit 1.
MLB The Show 23 was the 14th best selling game of the year... FOURTEENTH... It sold more than FF16 and Street Fighter 6.
If Spider-Man 2 released on Switch and PC, maybe it sells more than Call of Duty and Madden. Sony probably left somewhere along the lines of 700 million in revenue on the table for a game that they pay through the nose in licensing for.
Sony needs to triple down on PC this year. But think about this. Let's say you sold 5 million units on Steam.
You've got to pay up to 12.60 per game to Marvel. That's 18 percent. A majority of the revenue from steam is going to be hit at 20% rates. That's another 14 dollars. That's 26.60 from 70. That's 43.4 dollars per copy. That means you're going to get 217 million dollars.
That's nothing to sneeze at, but it's a far cry from 350 million dollars and it'll be even worse on Switch.
If you're Sony, doesn't it make sense to throw billions into a PC storefront, try to generate revenue from games you don't develop, and keep the revenue of your own games? It makes sense to buy FromSoftware/Kadokawa and make Elden Ring 2 exclusive to your storefront on PC.
Yes it does, unfurtonately Steam presents the same problem. It's a pretty big investment and goes against 20 years of Steam libraries. I sitll think if Steam could be bought, it would have been better than Activision. Without their own viable store front, they give too much to Vavle. That's a long term battle, that might be too late to win. But more PC please.
My instinct says find more of these asian studios to incubate. Make those lower selling but higher margin games.
Then go figure out wtf is going on at naughty dog.
And finally, bring back the crunch. Don't tell me how special it is to work on your dream game. Show me.
Everything that you said was predictably naive and based.
Don't work backward from your conclusions.
Crunch was the issue. Longterm crunch is always counterproductive.My instinct says find more of these asian studios to incubate. Make those lower selling but higher margin games.
Then go figure out wtf is going on at naughty dog.
And finally, bring back the crunch. Don't tell me how special it is to work on your dream game. Show me.
That's what instinct is. I did it perfect.
No you, you didn't.
What's wrong with Naughty Dog? They released a game in 2020. They've since released 2 ports, a remake, and a remaster? Why? Because they're high-margin products and tie in with their successful transmedia strategy.
Your random inference that this is all about a lack of crunch is really out of left field.
As for randomly finding success in asian studios, this goes further to your randomness and your clear agenda in thinking that somehow western games are suffering from something that eastern games aren't, which is hilarious given how gaming has gone the last 15-20 years.
Good post. I wonder with that freedom of budget and creativity, do you think we've observed the 'peak' of big budget game production or it was mostly wasted and more pressure from on devs to deliver n time / budget will produce better quality games?Given how things are in media lately (games, tv shows, movies), I dont think a lot of them understand profit or growth either. Nor completing things on time and within budget. But when tech rocketed up last 5 years where big tech companies are hiring 30% more people and gaming revenue zoomed up during covid, it was one of those things where as long as the gravy train keeps arriving at union station, who cares about due diligence about finances. Post covid comes along, loan rates triple, gaming drops down as everyone is back to work and outside and now they are fucked as they over did it.
It's like a person buying a house. In normal times and rates they can reasonably afford X. When rates drop so their mortgage can get approved for more, people amp up buying bigger and more expensive home Y. Then when things go sour they are fucked because they overextended themselves being greedy. Thats why when rates are dropping or super low, you rarely hear about homeowners going broke with foreclosures and companies in dire debt crisis. But when it goes the other way, it's panic time.
They just release whatever they think is cool or a comic book rehash and assume it sells. Tech companies and divisions should count their lucky ass stars that only in the past year have companies cracked the whip with layoffs as they look deep into the corporate finances and finally notice what overhiring and overbudgeting theyve done. If there's one thing about some industries like techie stuff.... they sure seem to have unlimited budgets. It seems no game or movie has anyone keeping ballooning resources used under check....until recently. For example, that thread about Immortals of Aveum. How that game cost $125M to make who knows.
My company has done fine the past 5 years. And for a lot companies, it involves more complex stuf like manufacturing, shipping in trucks and worst of all shipping and ports across oceans. Read up on shipping container and trucking costs and shortages during covid to get an idea. Somehow we survived all within budget and new products still made, shipped and sold on time. And ya, my entire company had two years WFH too, so you lose that face to face interaction. Reason why it was pretty smooth sailing is because there's more controls in place.
Mibu no ookami Sorry if you already spoke on this, but do you think some of Sony's bigger studios should create smaller teams that make games with faster schedules and lower budgets to try and offset the issues with these bigger games, or does that just create new problems? Are there better solutions?
So I think that makes sense in specific situations, but we already have an issue with too many games on the market. Even really great games are struggling to make an impact due to crowding. So releasing more games even cheaper ones, doesn't necessarily help you out.
I think releasing on PC and mobile is the better ultimate solution to expand margins rather than to make more games and to diversify the portfolio. This is where Insomniac is taking on a great deal of risk by doing Wolverine and X-Men. These games absolutely have to be on PC sooner rather than later.
I think Sony may need to spend a lot more money to make better margins. For example, I think there will be serious layoffs at Turn10 Studios. They are already down 4% headcount in the last 6 months according to linkedin. I think it would be smart for Polyphony Digital to expand and recruit some of the staff from Turn10, get GT7 on PC as quickly as possible, and then obtain licensing when available for WRC, F1, Nascar to release seasonal DLC and to release a Tourist Trophy DLC as well. Combining all of that with a return of GT Academy on Netflix or something and you make Gran Turismo the defacto name in racing across the board.
So I think the real answer is smart expansion and focus on growth opportunities.
You look at MLB The Show and they're missing international support that they could obtain by branding the game as the World Baseball Classic editions in specific regions and putting their players on the covers for those regions. They have a chance to do this in 2026, we'll see if they take that opportunity. WBC is one of the biggest things in Japan and it's a really easy thing to expand and market.
So you think Sony needs to speed up the process for porting to PC and mobile? At least for some games? What would Sony do, if anything, to maintain the console as the focal point of their business? Is that even in their best interest long term?
Here is a quick list of high-margin activities SIE could take, some of it short-term, medium-term, or long-term
- Create a PS5 Handheld with a similar form factor of PS Portal
- Either allow it to play PS5 games or allow it to play its own game and then allow a discount for cross-buy.
- For pricing sell a couple of different SKUs
- OLED + Physical
- LCD + Digital only
- Enable Cloud Streaming on PS Portal allowing you to stream PS+ Premium games and your game library
- Create PS Store on PC
- Sell first-party games exclusively via PS Store
- Enable cross-game saves and cross trophies
- Enable PS+ on PC, Mac, and Mobile
- Add Crunchyroll to PS+ Premium (combining these two services would get a lot of anime fans to move to a paid tier and also ensure they game on PlayStation)
- Enable PSVR2 to support PC
- Port all first-party PSVR2 games to PC Store (this changes the economy on creating PSVR titles)
- Encourage the porting of 3rd party PSVR2 games to PC Store (this changes the economy on creating PSVR titles and encourages more support)
- Create Everybody's Golf/Hot Shots Golf VR and promote it as a potential cost-effective Golf Simulator.
- Create and monetize PS Home/PS Home VR
- Gran Turismo 7 PC Port
- Gran Turismo DLC (when licensing becomes available) for WRC, Nascar, F1, MotoGP
- Recruit Turn10 staff
- Partner with Nissan and Netflix to recreate GT Academy
- Port MLB The Show to PC
- Create MLB The Show World Baseball Classic Edition in 2026 promoting it in all WBC regions with region-specific cover athletes
- Create Dual Sense and Covers for specific Athletes and Celebrities and cross-promote similar to what they did with LeBron James
- Release an updated version of Sing Star with a Taylor Swift Dual Sense and PS Cover for example
- Remaster Bloodborne for PS5 and PC
- Create a bundled version with Demon's Souls for PC
- Better promote PS Link by including in 2025 versions of PS5 Slim, PS5 Handheld, and PS5 Pro
- Buy FromSoftware/Kadokawa and release Elden Ring 2 exclusively on PS5 and PS PC Storefront
- Have them work on a follow-up to Bloodborne
- Focus GaaS strategy on key franchises that are appropriate for multiplayer
- SOCOM in the vein of Rainbox Six Siege
- Remaster Killzones 1-3 and Resistance 1-3
- Remaster Warhawk
- Remaster Twisted Metal 1/2 and/or Black
- Sunset Overdrive
- Remake God of War 1-3 with the engine from God of War Ragnarok
- Remake Uncharted 1-3
- Recruit staff from Toys for Bob and have them work on a Jak and Daxter game in tandem with a Jak and Daxter animated movie
- Have them take over the Ratchet and Clank franchise
- Have them bring back Sly Cooper
- Transmedia tie ins for all
- Release PS Store App for iOS and Android
- Put Helldivers 2 on PS+ in 6-12 months, convert it to a more monetized format
- Release a high-end Audeze headset in line with the Maxwell with ANC for ~300-400 USD
- Release Spider-Man on Switch and eventually Spider-Man 2 on Switch
Sir, this is why you are one of my favorite posters on here.
Read everything, enjoy the layout and your reasoning.
A solid read.
I do have a question though lol
Do you mean like Switch 2? Like Spiderman 1 and 2 releasing on it?
Also, a Sunset Overdrive remaster could open the door for a sequel of enough buy it, but it would likely be a PS6 type thing considering the leaks and all.
Regardless, as a businessman myself, I really enjoy the structure of this in terms of a theory of how they can do short term and long term.
edit. and I love the idea of a GT Academy reality series on Netflix (Sorta like that Madden reality show that use to exist lol) some of ya'll too young for that refence though lol
You look at the response Disney's received from X-Men 97 after 3 decades...
You stay true to this older stuff and a lot of people will come back and they'll show their kids and kids will jump in for curiosity.
If I were them, I would have re-animated the entire series, but this is a decent shot too.
Disney needs goodwill like this and most companies do actually.
Well the industry is suffering, next up Nintendo.
Who knows. But in the OT section, I remember someone posting about how She Hulk TV show could cost up to $25M per episode. I think it was that show. Then someone said 8 episodes is like the cost of a Marvel movie. Crazy.Good post. I wonder with that freedom of budget and creativity, do you think we've observed the 'peak' of big budget game production or it was mostly wasted and more pressure from on devs to deliver n time / budget will produce better quality games?