He’s right about the quality of the releases and Nixxes not being afforded enough time to release them. They’ve been working at a breakneck pace on those ports since being acquired.
What I wonder is why is Sony such in a hurry to get those ports out. I guess in TLOUII’s case, it was to align with the TV show, but Spider-Man 2?
I also agree with his point about Sony’s games being generally polished. I had a discussion with a friend of mine way back when and we thought the state of the HZD port was surprising given’s Sony’s reputation for quality. We figured it was a first time effort and they may have had miscalculated the challenges of PC ports, but ever since then, the ports have been very hit or miss with seemingly more misses.
I’m not sure why Sony gets those out like they were on a timer. Maybe to beat or meet revenue forecasts? Most of those games are a few years old, so delaying them by a few more months wouldn’t be the end of the world. Although I suppose, it wouldn’t necessarily be more profitable either, so eh.
So let's go over a couple things.
Spider-Man 2 was probably rushed because of TLOUP2. Why they had to get it out when they did? Probably due to contracts with Marvel as well as needing revenue for the quarter, could they have delayed the game a month? Probably and they probably should have, because it resulted in reputational damage. That being said, most of Nixxes ports have been high quality and despite coming in late to fix TLOUP2, it seems like this was a good quality port as well.
Sony has released two big games in questionable states recently: Spider-Man 2 and TLOUP1. I'm not sure that's enough for Alex and others to harp on. Both games are also getting positive reviews now.
His complaints are because he's a platform warrior, once again, not taking into account that this is a 50 dollar game is a big omission here. If they went back to the pipeline and added new technology to the engine and assets and decided to charge 70, people would be saying, how is this game from 2020 going to cost 70 dollars especially with the PS5 version much cheaper. People will always find a way to complain when they want to complain.
His primary complaint is that the port doesn't outshine the PS5 Pro and that shouldn't have anything to do with it.
I agree that Spider-Man 2 should have been delayed and I would love to hear a post mortem on the games PC release, though I doubt we'll ever get one, but seemingly pretending like Ghost and Forbidden West weren't really good ports seems silly and hypocritical. TLOUP2's reception clearly puts it closer to those than Spider-Man 2.
And of course one of the key elements of these ports is that they be profitable and meet their project deadlines in order to do so. Shuhei described this as an ATM and I'm sure that pisses Alex off, that PC is an afterthought for Sony.