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[Mibu no ookami]

I think the thing people are overlooking is that Sony wants to expand and diversify their 1st party library.
PvP and live service is what they're lacking and they want to be able to rely less on 3rd party.

That's not possible if they just focus on singleplayer, primarily.

I don't think they need to focus primarily on single player, but I do think they need to remember their roots and their strengths as a company and ensure that as they're navigating the live person battlefield that they're bringing something unique to it.

I think if Concord had a single player mode, it would have sold at least a few million copies and while people were playing the single player campaign, it would have at least bought them time to adjust their multiplayer.

I don't think fairgames necessarily needs a single player mode (wouldn't hurt though), but I think Sony kind of jumped into th live service people just chucking darts at the wall.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

I don't think they need to focus primarily on single player, but I do think they need to remember their roots and their strengths as a company and ensure that as they're navigating the live person battlefield that they're bringing something unique to it.

I think if Concord had a single player mode, it would have sold at least a few million copies and while people were playing the single player campaign, it would have at least bought them time to adjust their multiplayer.

I don't think fairgames necessarily needs a single player mode (wouldn't hurt though), but I think Sony kind of jumped into th live service people just chucking darts at the wall.

Sony isn't forgetting their roots though.
ND, GG, SSM and SuckerPunch, their main studios, are all working on major singleplayer titles.

Apart from Factions, all the live service games are being developed by 'recently' acquired studios (Bungie, Haven, Firewalk and that new studio split-off from Bungie).

These live service studios are specialized in online multiplayer and are in addition to Sony's main studios, not a replacement.

I don't think the gaas push by Sony was primarily driven to diversify their portfolio. Sony realized that Console sales have somewhat stagnated, while the cost of games to develop has skyrocketed. The margins on their first party single players is much less than past generations. GAAS games was probably seen as a means to make up the difference

Even with all of Playstation's gaas failures this generation. If Marathon, Horizon online, or Fairgames is a big hit, the gaas push will probably be considered a success for Sony. Helldivers 2 has certainly already covered the vast majority of losses they have taken

Sure, it's more than just wanting to diversify, but that's a given with these companies. These are multi-billion dollar companies, they don't make decision for singular reasons.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Sony isn't forgetting their roots though.
ND, GG, SSM and SuckerPunch, their main studios, are all working on major singleplayer titles.

Apart from Factions, all the live service games are being developed by 'recently' acquired studios (Bungie, Haven, Firewalk and that new studio split-off from Bungie).

These live service studios are specialized in online multiplayer and are in addition to Sony's main studios, not a replacement.

That's not my point.

My point is that Sony should endeavor to bring something new and different to the live service space that they're largely entering pretty late. So many of their products that have been cancelled or haven't landed don't seem to have been inspired at all and lack the values that made their single player games as successful as they have been.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

That's not my point.

My point is that Sony should endeavor to bring something new and different to the live service space that they're largely entering pretty late. So many of their products that have been cancelled or haven't landed don't seem to have been inspired at all and lack the values that made their single player games as successful as they have been.

They had exactly the same issue during the first half of PS3 and then when everybody said that singleplayer games were dead, Sony started releasing those major singleplayer games they became known for.

This gen seems to be following the same trend in different ways.

As for Marathon, it's up to Bungie to deliver.
With Destiny, they've shown they can do great stuff, but also fuck up immensely.
So maybe we should just see how things unfold?

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

 

[Hideous Snake]

More headache. Magnificent

Be normal Bungie. Its not that deep ffs

 

[LaughingStock]

I might be a contrarian here, but I'm feeling excited to play Marathon.

 

[diffusionx]

I think if Concord had a single player mode, it would have sold at least a few million copies and while people were playing the single player campaign, it would have at least bought them time to adjust their multiplayer.

LOL, right, people would have totally loved to play as those characters, it really spoke to millions of people.

I don't think the gaas push by Sony was primarily driven to diversify their portfolio. Sony realized that Console sales have somewhat stagnated, while the cost of games to develop has skyrocketed. The margins on their first party single players is much less than past generations. GAAS games was probably seen as a means to make up the difference

Even with all of Playstation's gaas failures this generation. If Marathon, Horizon online, or Fairgames is a big hit, the gaas push will probably be considered a success for Sony. Helldivers 2 has certainly already covered the vast majority of losses they have taken

The issue here is that Sony has made billions of dollars on Call of Duty and what was their primary hardware competitor bought the company that was making it. Sony (correctly) realized that they couldn't rely on third parties in this world of a rapacious monopolist gobbling up companies and they needed to control some of these games themselves. But they've obviously screwed it all up.

lol @ the idea of Helldivers "covering the losses they have taken." That's not the way it works, a disaster is a disaster no matter what.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

lol @ the idea of Helldivers "covering the losses they have taken." That's not the way it works, a disaster is a disaster no matter what.

But statements are true though.
Losses are covered, but Firewalk also got shutdown asap.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

LOL, right, people would have totally loved to play as those characters, it really spoke to millions of people.



The issue here is that Sony has made billions of dollars on Call of Duty and what was their primary hardware competitor bought the company that was making it. Sony (correctly) realized that they couldn't rely on third parties in this world of a rapacious monopolist gobbling up companies and they needed to control some of these games themselves. But they've obviously screwed it all up.

lol @ the idea of Helldivers "covering the losses they have taken." That's not the way it works, a disaster is a disaster no matter what.

Exactly.

When Concord got grilled to the bone, nobody was saying the game would be way better if it had SP. Bad graphics with weird characters and faded pastel colours, politics, and ho hum gameplay on forgettable maps killed it. And bad marketing too. A SP campaign isnt saving the game. Not every shooter fan even cares about SP as many dont even have one, or gamers just play BR mode (Warzone) which has zero story.

As for H2, no matter how much net revenue and profit they made so far, it's all gone with Sony's GAAS focus. Bungie costing $3.6B alone kills all H2 profits, and that's not even including all the other studios they cancelled, MP games cancelled, and of course Concord added to it.

Out of Bungie's $3.6B buy out price, $1.2B alone was spent on employee retention bonuses so that dollar value is already gone. And any brand equity value will be heavily reduced as Bungie has tanked lately with bad Destiny 2 sales and tons of employees fired. Add it up and Bungie has probably cost Sony $2B by now in total lost.

You never know, maybe Haven Studio's Fairgames$$$$$ will save the day. lol

 

[Arsic]

My buddy got in and I'm over here eating shit with no invite.

wtf Bungie.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

LOL, right, people would have totally loved to play as those characters, it really spoke to millions of people.

Have you seen a big AAA sony single player game that didn't sell at least a few million in the last 6 or 7 years?

 

[Pop]

Whats sad is I like the lore surrounding Marathon and that cinematic they released.

However I feel the gameplay is lacking, maps being way too small and the price of $40+ outrageous

Oh well

 

[coachmcguirk91]

LOL, right, people would have totally loved to play as those characters, it really spoke to millions of people.



The issue here is that Sony has made billions of dollars on Call of Duty and what was their primary hardware competitor bought the company that was making it. Sony (correctly) realized that they couldn't rely on third parties in this world of a rapacious monopolist gobbling up companies and they needed to control some of these games themselves. But they've obviously screwed it all up.

lol @ the idea of Helldivers "covering the losses they have taken." That's not the way it works, a disaster is a disaster no matter what.

Even with all of these gaas failures and thin first party output, Playstation is still making record profits. And with Microsoft soft exiting the console market, at least for next 2.5 years, Playstation's profits will continue to rise, especially GTA 6 coming out exclusively on consoles. They have never been in a stronger position

And I don't think Sony greenlit 12 gaas games thinking the majority of them would succeed. Concord was an unbelievable failure, but overall, it's costs were a relative drop in the bucket compared Playstation's overall revenue. I would argue Playstation as a brand took a bigger hit than the financial costs. Playstation moniker was nowhere to be seen in Marathon's unveiling, even though it is a Playstation studio game and it does pop up when you boot up the alpha test

 

[Wimbledon]

Looking forward to this hopefully i get the Alpha code really want to play.

The Traxus vid and this has me pretty hyped.

Also i wonder if the story path is that these characters will experience rampancy. It does seem like they are losing fragments of their memories.

 

[SABRE220]

I don't understand how they failed so miserably in translating the striking art we saw in concept art and the cinematic trailer to in-game visuals. I mean, this is Bungie; they always nailed art at least, and they should have enough budget and specs to deliver polished, high-tier production values. Yet the visuals, which were advertised as a serious boon of the game, end up looking so basic and low-detail, almost like a low-budget game like No Man's Sky. They might as well have launched this on last gen consoles aswell because it looks unimpressive even compared to several ps4 games.

I really hope they do some finetuning to the visuals based on feedback actually make the art pop more if nothing else in terms of fidelity. Heres hoping they pull a rabbit out of their hat to surprise us.

 

[clarky]

Drewsky seemed to love it.