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[fart town usa]

True, but I'll always buy PlayStation because I think their hardware is great and I want to play RE with a DS controller. Sony 1st party is mostly overhyped mid games, I've felt this way for over a decade. I hope they stop wasting money but I'm not leaving their console space as long as it exists. Backlog would keep me busy for the remainder of my years on this planet.

 

[Crayon]

Also, they could save a lot of time by just not creating so much bloat in games. I really liked Rebirth, but most of the side quests were pointless. They could've cut all the side stuff by 50% and it wouldn't impact the game in any way IMO.

I could do without half of it, myself. But for a lot of people it's important to get a lot of time out of a game so i get why they would want to pad out the side stuff. I feel fine skipping a bunch of it but I know some people don't want to miss any items.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

True, but I'll always buy PlayStation because I think their hardware is great and I want to play RE with a DS controller. Sony 1st party is mostly overhyped mid games, I've felt this way for over a decade. I hope they stop wasting money but I'm not leaving their console space as long as it exists. Backlog would keep me busy for the remainder of my years on this planet.

This, but with the caveat that they continue releasing physical games with physical drives, for me personally speaking. Once physical games are gone on consoles, I'm done buying/supporting them.

 

[AmuroChan]

I could do without half of it, myself. But for a lot of people it's important to get a lot of time out of a game so i get why they would want to pad out the side stuff. I feel fine skipping a bunch of it but I know some people don't want to miss any items.

I mean, that population has gotta be a minority though if you just look at trophy data and see how few people actually does everything in a given game. In FFVII Rebirth, side quests like donating to Johnny's treasure trove and Chadley's combat simulator have a 2% completion rate.

 

[FoxMcChief]

*for gamers

Who the fuck is Concord good for?

 

[bitbydeath]

It's really just absurd to deny Playstation Studios hasn't been influenced by live service. They literally bought several just for that, and bought Bungie partly for their expertise and to lend a hand advising their other studios (including Naughty Dog.)

And yes, Sony has had games that could be considered Live Service in the past.. that doesn't; mean they weren't influenced by the trend of them becoming huge blockbusters lol

Bought Bungie for GaaS, so Destiny 2, Marathon, and Cancelled Destiny 3. then there’s Concord, Foamstars, Helldivers 2, Planetside 2. TLOU Online was cancelled.

They did buy studios to handle GaaS, that part is true. Some like to insinuate that GaaS impacted their pre-existing first party teams, that is what didn’t occur. SP studios are still SP studios, we just don’t know what they’re making yet.

 

[Humdinger]

Well, they lost $200 million on Concord. Woops. Hopefully they won't chase that particular trend anymore.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Who the fuck is Concord good for?

 

[Crayon]

I mean, that population has gotta be a minority though if you just look at trophy data and see how few people actually does everything in a given game. In FFVII Rebirth, side quests like donating to Johnny's treasure trove and Chadley's combat simulator have a 2% completion rate.

It might not be that many people. But as far as know that's always been a major consideration for a good portion of normies. They don't have to actually do all the side quests, but the promise of a 100 hour game is a big marketing bullet.

I don't need it to be that long because I have other games to get to. But if someone is budgeting to get a game here and there, it's a kind of value.

Besides, I don't think there's much downside to it. I mainline almost every open world game. Even then, there's always a couple sessions where I do side quests.

 

[bitbydeath]

You is right, but Sony also put Naughty Dog to develop a big live service game, and they have spend how many years on that? I doubt that was a ND's ideia, certaly Sony's decisions about GAAS initiative have influence them.

Bend and Guerrilla are also developing live service games, but in the last gen they develop single-player games. So in the end of the day we can say that Sony's single-player studios have really increased?

ND had three teams before the GaaS game was canned. Two SP teams and a GaaS team. They weren’t all in on GaaS.

Bend as I said earlier planned for Days Gone to be MP. Now they have the power (PS5) to realise that vision. Bend may also have multiple teams as they are working with two different gaming engines currently. (UE5 & Decima)

Guerrilla has two teams, one of those is SP.

 

[AmuroChan]

Besides, I don't think there's much downside to it. I mainline almost every open world game. Even. Then, there's always a couple sessions where I do side quests.

Well, the downside is that it increases production time, which I personally value over a game being 100 hours long. I much rather have a more compact and focused AAA game that takes 3 years to make than a bloated 100-hour game with a ton of fluff that takes 5 years to make.

 

[TexMex]

Thank you for the disclaimer

 

[Crayon]

Well, the downside is that it increases production time, which I personally value over a game being 100 hours long. I much rather have a more compact and focused AAA game that takes 3 years to make than a bloated 100-hour game with a ton of fluff that takes 5 years to make.

Oh, right. That's what I was talking about in the first place. Yeah, it definitely increases the schedule and they game could have been out sooner.

 

[IntentionalPun]

They did buy studios to handle GaaS, that part is true. Some like to insinuate that GaaS impacted their pre-existing first party teams, that is what didn’t occur. SP studios are still SP studios, we just don’t know what they’re making yet.

Except we know for a fact one of their premiere single player studios spent years on a GAAS game.

 

[XXL]

Astro Bot is releasing next week..

I'm not saying Sony hasn't tried (been successful and failed) with Gaas titles, but again Astro Bot is releasing next week.

 

[ResilientBanana]

Yes to some of them, but Foamstars is a Square-Enix game and Planetside 2 has nothing to do with SIE.

Daybreak Game Company used to be Sony Online Entertainment. But SOE was sold, then changed the name to DBG. From there, Planetside's IP recently sold to the H1Z1 developer after massive layoffs at DBG. So yeah, Sony was involved.

 

[bitbydeath]

Except we know for a fact one of their premiere single player studios spent years on a GAAS game.

1 of 3 teams did.
The other two worked on SP games.

 

[DeadOblivion78]

Oh...my...god. Sony has one flop GaaS and this forum goes into overdrive.

Literally after all they are releasing this year, it only includes 3(!!!) live games: Helldivers 2, MLB (a yearly entry) and Concord. Two were hits. The other wasn't.

Everything else? TLOU2 Remastered, Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, FFVII Rebirth, Astrobot, Until Dawn remake, Lego Horizon.

For 2025 the one game we know for sure its coming is Death Stranding 2. The other game Sony has announced? Wolverine. That's 2 more story-driven single player games. That makes it 9 out of 12 games that aren't online.

Y'all really need to stop with this narrative when it's pretty damn clear Sony's main focus is NOT GaaS games. You just chose to talk about them alone because you want them to fail miserably so you always keep a check on them.

How the fuck is Sony blindly chasing that trend? lmao.

If the people making these threads were in charge of Sony, they would make them go bankrupt if they're this emotional when they react to bad news.

 

[CLW]

 

[IntentionalPun]

1 of 3 teams did.
The other two worked on SP games.

I mean not going to talk in circles with you anymore, Playstation Studios has absolutely been influenced by the GAAS trend, I agree with you the effect isn't that drastic.

There is an argument that this large increase in GAAS investment and smaller increase in SP investment could have been an even bigger investment in SP. But in the end, the question is, would Sony as a company even be investing all that money if it wasn't chasing these crazy billion+ a year revenue games? Probably not.

 

[RCU005]

This is false.



They still do.


What path?

There's no one more blind than the one who refuses to see.

 

[RCU005]

Their SP studios are still SP studios, nothing changed. They even acquired more SP studios than they previously had, we just haven’t heard what they’re working on.

Besides Insomniac, which studio has released a game this gen?

God of War Ragnarok was a PS4 developed game that switched to PS5
Horizon Forbidden West same as GOW:R
TLOU Part I and II are just remasters
Demon's Souls is just a remake (while it was excellent is not new).

Since 2020, Housemarque released a new IP and that's it. There has been nothing NEW this generation from Sony.

 

[bundylove]

Disclaimer: This is my opinion

In the past five years, PlayStation has shifted its focus from being an industry leader and trendsetter to becoming a trend follower. The success of GAAS (Games as a Service) in the last decade has started influencing the perspective and direction of PlayStation and its studios.

PlayStation set the standard for single-player games from the early days of the PS1 by either developing or sponsoring unique and interesting titles. The uniqueness of PlayStation was always in its variety of genres—from racing to action to JRPGs, etc. Think of a genre, and PlayStation had some form of exclusive in it.

However, in the last five years, coming off the success of the PS4 after the near death of PlayStation caused by the overengineering of the PS3, PlayStation has shifted its priorities. It is now focusing heavily on trying to find a unicorn like Fortnite or COD. The purchase of Bungie was the culmination of this shift, which has proven to be disastrous. And Concord the latest example of a little too late.

In my opinion, if Sony continues on this path, they will lose many of the fans who built the brand to where it is today. Their first-party output this generation has been anemic.

One could look at it this way.

Making a first party game of sony caliber, one needs a lot of time and money.
Not to mention a brand new IP from lets say naughty dog .

So , In the meantime they let other type of games that are a cheap investment low risk pay the bills.

 

[AmuroChan]

Daybreak Game Company used to be Sony Online Entertainment. But SOE was sold, then changed the name to DBG. From there, Planetside's IP recently sold to the H1Z1 developer after massive layoffs at DBG. So yeah, Sony was involved.

Sony, not PlayStation. SOE had always been its own thing. They were working on MMOs and online games years before Jim Ryan even knew what a live service game is. So they had nothing to do with PlayStation's recent live service initiative. SOE was already long gone by then.

 

[bitbydeath]

Besides Insomniac, which studio has released a game this gen?

God of War Ragnarok was a PS4 developed game that switched to PS5
Horizon Forbidden West same as GOW:R
TLOU Part I and II are just remasters
Demon's Souls is just a remake (while it was excellent is not new).

Since 2020, Housemarque released a new IP and that's it. There has been nothing NEW this generation from Sony.

I’m not sure what/who you’re asking, you first ask which studio has released a game this gen and then answer yourself mentioning most of the studios and the games they’ve released this gen.

Probably didn’t need to quote me…

 

[nial]

Besides Insomniac, which studio has released a game this gen?

Team Asobi, Firesprite, Housemarque (Returnal was released in 2021, btw), Polyphony Digital, San Diego Studio, Firewalk, and Santa Monica and Guerrilla, your reasons for them to not count are weird.
What else are you even expecting from Bluepoint? They're literally listed as a 'partner studio' in that pic.

 

[nial]

PS4 was the beginning of their westernization focus and decisions to cut out the AA stuff for AAA blockbuster hits.

I don't get the PS4 slander, it had better weird games than PS3.

 

[12345666]

Besides Insomniac, which studio has released a game this gen?

God of War Ragnarok was a PS4 developed game that switched to PS5
Horizon Forbidden West same as GOW:R
TLOU Part I and II are just remasters
Demon's Souls is just a remake (while it was excellent is not new).

Since 2020, Housemarque released a new IP and that's it. There has been nothing NEW this generation from Sony.

Spider-Man 2

And you’re discounting the value of those remasters of PS4 to PS5 games. As someone relatively new to the ecosystem since PS2 days, those games were major selling points for me.

 

[Bojji]

When it comes to quality and quantity of Sony SP exclusives this gen is weak. Games take too long to develop and Sony instead of increasing sp studios and money spent on them want to flush in the toilet chasing GaaS shit...

 

[Bitstream]

I'm optimistic for a return to single player tentpole games that helped establish sonys place in the market but that GAAS money has inspired too many devs to chase the dragon. What we really need, now, more than ever, are tools that allow for the faster development of assets, worlds, and game engines. This way even when a game concept proves to be less enjoyable than envisioned, companies can reach this point quicker and not waste years on a failed idea. The amount of AAA, next gen only games released over the past 4 years has been abysmal.

 

[killatopak]

I’ve said it day one when they announced gaas focus that I will not support that shit.

It is not the reason I buy a playstation. It can be supplementary but should never be the focus.

 

[AmuroChan]

When it comes to quality and quantity of Sony SP exclusives this gen is weak. Games take too long to develop and Sony instead of increasing sp studios and money spent on them want to flush in the toilet chasing GaaS shit...

That's not true though about the SP studios. They acquired Insomniac, Bluepoint, Housemarque, and Firesprite which are all SP focused studios. They've also increased the headcounts at ND, Santa Monica, and GG so that they can work on multiple projects concurrently. Valkyrie Studio was acquired specifically to help support the SP games pipeline. So while the the GaaS initiate gets all the headlines, it is clearly not accurate to say Sony has abandoned single player games.

 

[Kotaro]

Well Sony made some good moves, but they also made some very very bad moves

Positive
- Leveraging their Asian connections in Korea and China --> Genshin, Wukong, Stellar Blade, and plus more Asian projects coming

Negative
- Shut down their iconic Japan Studio
- Move from Japan to California, now the Asian industry is thriving while Western industry is in the toilet
- Pandering to the toxic woke demographic, dAh m0dErN AuDieNCe!!!!...now most of their first IP games are just woke garbage
- Chasing the GAAS trend
- Abandoned Bloodborne, possibly the greatest entertainment media ever created in the history of mankind

 

[Stu_Hart]

This gen has been dry for sony 1st party exclusives. Not much excitement, and I only see wolverine as something that I would play in the next few years. I miss the older days where they had fun titles like motorstorm series, resistance series, killzone series, wipeout, infamous series, bloodborne and even an uncharted....

 

[StylishMGTOW]

Let them burn. If this is what Sony's future titles are gonna be like, I don't want them.

 

[Fbh]

Idk, yeah I think Sony first party output has been kinda weak this gen. Too much focus on samey sequels with some "modern audiences" bait sprinkled through them.

At the same time I don't think PS5 is nearly as bad as some people say, and I have enjoyed my time with it.
It's all doom and gloom about GAAS and no variety but this year in terms of console exclusives we got stuff like Helldivers 2, FF7 Rebirth, Rise of Ronin, Stellar Blade and Astro Bot is coming very soon. To me that's a really solid year, PS5 has had more major releases that appel to me than any other console (or PC) this year.

But I'm supposed to be mad because they weren't made by first party teams and Concord exists, or something like that ?

 

[Ceadeus]

One thing is sure, is that Sony have been playing safe af and it shows, because the console is boring. Its games unexciting as they are predictable experience. PlayStation used to be more funky and weird.

 

[ToneyJ]

Playstation's game formula is stale now, and they've become too western of a company. Shutting down Japan Studio was pathetic on their part, especially when studios making games like Concord and Dreams get to exist.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

It's absolutely insane to me that they abandoned something like Factions 2. The first one had a very solid foundation and very intense moment to moment gameplay. They could have at THE VERY LEAST made a battle royale mode with the combat functionality of TLoU 2 and it would have been a hit.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

I'm sure it was a necessary change for them to change focus over the years, but yea the breadth of genres that Playstation first party studios used to put out (including quirky AA JP games) was what endeared them to me and made me a fan in PS1/PS2/PS3 days. PS4 was the beginning of their westernization focus and decisions to cut out the AA stuff for AAA blockbuster hits. Probably was financially a good move for them, but for me, as a person that plays and enjoys video games, it was a form of disrespect. Now into the PS5 gen, there's very little left for me. Their high quality single player games are tainted with agenda pushing, they invested heavily into chasing the GaaS trends, and their release schedule is anemic and focuses too much on big name sequels.

It's fine though, I've moved on from the Playstation ecosystem, and they seem to be able to make enough money with this new audience to cover the absolute money pits that they've been creating, so I guess it works out for everybody.

Yup, they had a nice breadth of quality games in many genres and all sizes. They've now predominantly focused on large cinematic games and even put those on hold to pursue the GAAS trap. I am super excited for Astro Bot, but we need more like that and it could be a while before a significant push materializes. Lucky for Sony that Microsoft completely flubbed Xbox consoles this generation, because Sony has been getting by on third party games that won't run on Switch.

 

[existensmaximum]

I agree that it's disastrous to me personally, I'm slowly losing all interest in Playstation and Sony's recent first-party games. The PS5 has been a massive disappointment and I have no idea why I should keep buying their products, especially with their PC and cross-gen strategy.

That said, they're making tons of money and are hugely popular and growing so from a business and money-standpoint it makes all the sense in the world. The strategy is very successful so why on earth would they change course?

 

[kaizenkko]

ND had three teams before the GaaS game was canned. Two SP teams and a GaaS team. They weren’t all in on GaaS.

Bend as I said earlier planned for Days Gone to be MP. Now they have the power (PS5) to realise that vision. Bend may also have multiple teams as they are working with two different gaming engines currently. (UE5 & Decima)

Guerrilla has two teams, one of those is SP.

I doubt that Naughty Dog has three full development teams. If they have, where are their games? We can surely say that Insomniac have multiples teams because they put a lot of games in market in a short time frame, but we can't say the same for Naughty Dog or every other Sony studio.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

They’ve lost me two generations ago. Sure, they still have exclusives, but of a kind I’m not interested in. I can get bored with similar stuff on other platforms.
The smaller, quirky, original games that made the brand are a thing of the past. And the trend of remakes has made them even less relevant than before. Why bother publishing something like Resogun and trying to convince people it’s worth getting a PS4 at launch, when you can remaster Bloodborne or something and people will flock to your new console to play something they’ve already played dozens of times?

However, this isn’s only a Sony problem. It’s just more noticeable for PS because of their past. Everyone is chasing trends.

 

[Luipadre]

Well they made me go back to pc after like a decade so, i agree

 

[Gaiff]

When has Song ever been a trendsetter? They almost always copy whatever the competition does lol.

Even Microsoft with Xbox Live innovated more than Sony ever did.

 

[Rising_Hei]

I'm ashamed to see what they're doing with PS4's success, and so should they (here I'm referring to the GAAS trend chasing). While their new first-player games are still great, they're being too conservative (imo).
I miss PS3's Sony,

 

[Walter Matthau]

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

This is either not a well-thought-out thread.... or just a really flawed opinion.

 

[cireza]

I actually think this is awesome and should chase more trends. And double-down on GaaS.

 

[Ozriel]

Astrobot and Lego Horizon are coming soon, both fresh experiences that aren’t tied to any stale formulas.

Why won’t OP play these instead of complaining about Sony trying to boost revenue with live service games?

Helldivers 2 was a spectacular success.

Live service games have been a thing for a decade now. I wouldn’t call games releasing in 2024 and beyond ‘trend chasing’