thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Of course GOWR and SM2 had better openings than the previous games; they were sequels to beloved titles that sold a ton of copies. But when I say they are selling less, I mean in respect to the original games they are sequels to.
It's in no way suggesting they have severely undersold. As to if/when they will match or exceed the numbers of the previous entries, we'll have to wait until that event happens.
Yeah, I think you have a completely different perception compared to how people generally viewed SCE's first-party efforts in the PS3 generation:
Doesn't this all sound eerily similar to the Astro Bot discourse last year?
'Puppeteer' is why Sony should make kids games again
www.nbcnews.com
Convenient to only go as far back as the 2nd half of PS3 gen which is when the more heavy story-driven mature games from 1P really began taking hold. It's also worth remembering that some of Sony's 1P game choices that gen were in response to 360 competition and its helping popularize gritty FPS games and Western AAA in general, which tended to be more mature-focused and story-driven.
If you go back to PS2 and PS1, Sony 1P (either from internal teams or 3P co-development) had that balance I was referring to. But you'll also notice, a lot of the balance to the mature-side games, came from non-Western studios. Whether that be studios like Japan Studio or whoever worked on games like Tomba! and Parappa, the balance among 1P was there. Same in terms of genre spread.
It's only in the back half of PS3 gen when the balance started tipping more strongly in favor for the mature cinematic story-driven games and less focus on a wider range of genres. During PS4, by 2015 or so the transformation in balance was mostly complete, and would be cemented by 2016/2017. Games like Astro Bot and the rumored 2.5D God of War spinoff are SIE's attempts at re-establishing a balance that's been at the heart of the brand, because it was there with PS1 and again with PS2.
They need to center that balance around 1P efforts (either internal studios or with 3P w/ IP SIE own) and preferably as platform/ecosystem exclusives to their own hardware, because like I was saying in replying to
ProtoByte
the key to PlayStation's success has always been a mix of having a huge range of 3P multiplats AND having a strong range of exclusive games covering many different genres & niches. In the past, PlayStation was able to rely on defacto exclusives from 3P because of massive install base differences and more fully divergent audiences between console and PC. However, that well's been drying up fast because of strategic growth from Nintendo and growth of PC platforms like Steam which has convinced almost every console-centric 3P to prioritize Day 1 releases across console & Steam, because the audience crossover is much higher these days than even 10 years ago, let alone earlier.
Also, don't you guys think that having yet another discussion about SIE's long-term strategy in a thread about cancelled Xbox hardware is a little bit too much?thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Maybe
. Sometimes it's hard to not draw associations, but to me strategies and influences of one platform can have effects on another, which is why I usually somehow end up talking about multiple systems in relation to each other even if the thread topic is on just one.But, I'll try making this the last PS-focused post ITT. If
ProtoByte
or anyone else wants to continue the PS side of discussion, hopefully they can make a new thread or we can just continue it in DM replies. Didn't mean to derail things off-track :/Chances are modding being more difficult is why Steam OS is a more stable OS
I don't think that'll remain the case, insofar as incompatibilities with EGS, Fortnite and the such. Valve will probably find ways around it with Proton compatibility layer improvements and further improvements to Steam OS. It's worth remembering that in many ways, we're still in the early days of some of this stuff, there's a long way to go.
And it's that which is a reason I have more faith in Valve than, say, Microsoft, to ultimately deliver. Valve have shown they have patience for the long-term and can make smart investments to grow something into an unquestionable success, because that's what Steam is today. Microsoft spent 20 years in the traditional console gaming space going from initial promise (OG Xbox) to legitimate success (360, first few years), to questionable choices with longer-term ramifications almost immediately after hitting big success (360, last few years), to a gradual decline (XBO), to a full-on crash out (Xbox Series).
All of that within roughly the same span of time as Valve's been growing Steam.
Even if they don't fully work out ways to address access to stuff like Fortnite or COD, as long as Valve do everything else right I don't see why the market for Steam devices can't grow at least 5-6x where it's currently at, over the next 5-6 years. They can always leverage a subset of the Steam audience and continue working with OEMs to help build better retail distribution (probably the #1 limiter to Steam Deck sales currently) and advertising presence. They've got a lot to work with.
Who knows, hopefully that's something Valve brings to Steam OS in the near future. Or maybe, Microsoft implements that with their next Xbox devices. Maybe both do something akin? Lots of possibilities.
