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Sony's trend chasing is proving disastrous

RickMasters

Member
Who cares? Helldivers 2 is their IP and their game, they funded it for 8 years and believed in the project. It's technically like a second party type project but they own the IP.

AstroBot is a first party game fully.

Both are GOTY contenders

Those two alone are way better than the competition. And I don't see why things like Stellar Blade, FF7R, or Rise of the Ronin don't count. They had to go get those games.


What? How is astrobot a GOTY without even a single review? helldivera is NOT a GOTY co tender stop the cap. I liked it for a few months but it’s got no legs and that shows with the co start drop in player counts on steam. It was for for a few months but o my it’s die hards will be playing it by xmas. Not a GOTY contender. But it was fun while it lasted. Now it sits on my hard drive with the likes of exoprimal, and that shooter where you play as toys ( see what I mean? I don’t even remember it’s name…..)
 

Raven117

Member
Polyphony and Bend have been making first party games since the PS1. XDEV was created 20 years ago. Aren't they traditional enough?
Bend sort of counts as they have been mostly a support studio for awhile (but you are right enough. Sure wish we were getting days gone 2)

Xdev is mostly support.
Poly is making racing games. With online racing being a big component. I just don’t have this as chasing a GaaS. It’s not like it’s fortnight.
 
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ithilion

Banned
there's hope. Cory barlorg new ip. the last of 3. ghost of tsushima 2. i am excited for new PlayStation. i have ride on this train more than 10 years.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
What? How is astrobot a GOTY without even a single review? helldivera is NOT a GOTY co tender stop the cap. I liked it for a few months but it’s got no legs and that shows with the co start drop in player counts on steam. It was for for a few months but o my it’s die hards will be playing it by xmas. Not a GOTY contender. But it was fun while it lasted. Now it sits on my hard drive with the likes of exoprimal, and that shooter where you play as toys ( see what I mean? I don’t even remember it’s name…..)

The pedigree of the AstroBot devs is not in question bro, lol. Are you even asking this question?

Helldivers 2 is absolutely a GOTY candidate. It's sold around 15 million copies by now and was the biggest new MP game this year. Love how hard you're trying to downplay it though.

Sour Ricky
 
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.

They're not mutually exclusive though. Just like Sony devoting X amount of reaources to GaaS and PC, the company is affected with how they allocate resources. Very naiive to think otherwise. All the time and $$ that went into ND's failed Last of Us online game was resources that couldve gone towards single player games.
 

RickMasters

Member
The pedigree of the AstroBot devs is not in question bro, lol. Are you even asking this question?

Helldivers 2 is absolutely a GOTY candidate. It's sold around 15 million copies by now and was the biggest new MP game this year. Love how hard you're trying to downplay it though.

Sour Ricky
Bro I believe in their pedigree. I know their history….. but c’mon… astrobot? I get that it did some nice things to showcase the potential of the control but…… Astrobot….. nah fam 👎🏾. The only people who care about that game is honestly people who want a PS first party game to shout about. Nobody else gives a flying duck about that game. I already know…. Only time I’m gonna here about that game is on the gaf. It’s not winning anything… especially not with deeper more immersive games like stalker 2 on the horizon….blops 6 dominating charts….. I just don’t see it. I could be wrong and that would be fine too. But right now…. I just don’t see it. It’s no ico….. it’s no shadow of colossus….. it ain’t even got the caharacter of something like patapon….. I just don’t see what’s special about and I don’t here any of my other gamer friends talk about so who’s radar is it really on?


Im not downplaying it….. but you are over stating a game that was nothing more than a tech demo turned a full blown game that hasn’t even had its release your first review yet?….. don’t you think it’s more sensible to temper your expectations and let reflect online your responses? But I can understand your belief in it. It’s no different from how I feel about stalker or doom or a from soft game. It’s coming from devs you Atleast trust. But I don’t see astrobot as…. ‘It’…. For that team over their. I could be wrong though but knows Good game when I see one in motion. Nothing I’ve seen about astrobot really jumps out at me. Let alone to the point where I would call it a GOTY contender. It’s not released and the first game did nothing thing to make me want to buy a PS. I would not even buy it I steam. That’s just me though. Not really into kiddy looking platformers so maybe that’s what it boils down to? 🤷🏾‍♂️
 
It's easy to understand, really.

AAA single-player games are taking long to make, which will result in some periods of no revenue from sales. Even Mark Cerny talked about this, often taking longer to make than a console, which takes 4 years to make.

Single-player games give out a large amount of revenue upon release but with a week are two, sales decline rapidly and single-player releases are far apart.

With live service games, if successful, can bring it a large amount of revenue far longer periods of time than single-player games.

This revenue can help fund more single-player games, which is much needed as we see Sony releasing their games on PC to gain some revenue for funding.

A strategy from before was including multi-player with single-player. The multi-player would include in-game purchases, which would add a small amount of revenue on top of revenue from sales.

Sony isn't stopping releasing single-player games, it's just that making these games takes long these days. So I don't see what the problem is in filling in the gaps for adding revenue.

I would much prefer to go back to the old ways of releasing single player with multiplayer. Doing away with that model in favor of the current trend of gaas is of course, following trends.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
The only people who care about that game is honestly people who want a PS first party game to shout about. Nobody else gives a flying duck about that game.

especially not with deeper more immersive games like stalker 2 on the horizon….blops 6 dominating charts….. I just don’t see it.

Comedy Central Lol GIF


Guaranteed AstroBot gets more GOTY noms than either of those games.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
I would much prefer to go back to the old ways of releasing single player with multiplayer. Doing away with that model in favor of the current trend of gaas is of course, following trends.

I agree that there's something to this because it gives you a reason to care about the world and characters

Maybe that could have made Concord somewhat enjoyable, but just throwing everyone into an MP game with no real context just feels silly and stupid, especially with these characters. The small 1-2 minute videos each week does literally nothing compared to a campaign. Stupid decision
 

nick776

Member
I agree that there's something to this because it gives you a reason to care about the world and characters

Maybe that could have made Concord somewhat enjoyable, but just throwing everyone into an MP game with no real context just feels silly and stupid, especially with these characters. The small 1-2 minute videos each week does literally nothing compared to a campaign. Stupid decision
I'm sure I am in the minority, but I have NEVER played a single multiplayer match in any Call of Duty Game. I only play the campaign, them I'm done with it. I tried multiplayer in Halo a couple of times but it never did anything for me. Campaign is really all I care about, so give me single player and I'm more than happy. That means, of course, that I do not even bother to buy the multiplayer only garbage put out these days.
 

yurinka

Member
Bend sort of counts as they have been mostly a support studio for awhile (but you are right enough. Sure wish we were getting days gone 2)
No, Bend has been a lead dev studio making their own games since the PS1.

But since decades, between projects ND and them support each other when they have people who completed their job in their own game and their own next project isn't still ready to move them there and the other team happens to need help.

I'd also prefer to see them working on Days Gone 2, but the Bend studio manager/internal suits wanted to make a new IP instead.

Xdev is mostly support.

Yes, their main task is to be the ones in charge of all the SIE 2nd party games, and also in managing both internal and external support teams for both the internally developed 1st party games and the 2nd party games.

XDEV name originated from trying to shorten "external development team".

Poly is making racing games. With online racing being a big component. I just don’t have this as chasing a GaaS. It’s not like it’s fortnight.
Being racing games has nothing to do with being GaaS or not.

GT Sport and GT7 are GaaS/live service games because they are online games designed to be evolved with post launch support as long as performnace is good enough.
 

Raven117

Member
No, Bend has been a lead dev studio making their own games since the PS1.

But since decades, between projects ND and them support each other when they have people who completed their job in their own game and their own next project isn't still ready to move them there and the other team happens to need help.

I'd also prefer to see them working on Days Gone 2, but the Bend studio manager/internal suits wanted to make a new IP instead.



Yes, their main task is to be the ones in charge of all the SIE 2nd party games, and also in managing both internal and external support teams for both the internally developed 1st party games and the 2nd party games.

XDEV name originated from trying to shorten "external development team".


Being racing games has nothing to do with being GaaS or not.

GT Sport and GT7 are GaaS/live service games because they are online games designed to be evolved with post launch support as long as performnace is good enough.
Bend is not a top tier Sony studio. But, as I said, if them and gurrellia are making GaaS games, then those are two big enough studios for me to acknowledge that my original premise, that all this GaaS being chased by Sony are not their major studios, will be false.

By your definition, that’s just about any game with DLC. Racing games are just different.
 

bitbydeath

Member
They're not mutually exclusive though. Just like Sony devoting X amount of reaources to GaaS and PC, the company is affected with how they allocate resources. Very naiive to think otherwise. All the time and $$ that went into ND's failed Last of Us online game was resources that couldve gone towards single player games.
They’re making more SP games than ever before. Yes, they could be making more but they aren’t making less.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Bend is not a top tier Sony studio. But, as I said, if them and gurrellia are making GaaS games, then those are two big enough studios for me to acknowledge that my original premise, that all this GaaS being chased by Sony are not their major studios, will be false.

By your definition, that’s just about any game with DLC. Racing games are just different.
Bend isnt a top tier Sony studio. And definitely not a top tier studio holistically in the industry.

Their most recent best rated games were almost 20 years ago when Syphon Filter games came out for PSP. Their most recent game is DG which was rated meh and the only game they've released in the last 12 years. DG came out in 2019, and then an Uncharted portable game that got rated 67/100 was released in 2012.
 

Raven117

Member
Bend isnt a top tier Sony studio. And definitely not a top tier studio holistically in the industry.

Their most recent best rated games were almost 20 years ago when Syphon Filter games came out for PSP. Their most recent game is DG which was rated meh and the only game they've released in the last 12 years. DG came out in 2019, and then an Uncharted portable game that got rated 67/100 was released in 2012.
I know. That other poster isn’t doing a great job of explaining that all of Sonys top tier talent is making GaaS.

Once they get some solid first party stuff out, things will look better.

(No doubt their focus on GaaS hurt, but it likely hasn’t irreparably damaged their core studios)
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
No, Bend has been a lead dev studio making their own games since the PS1.

But since decades, between projects ND and them support each other when they have people who completed their job in their own game and their own next project isn't still ready to move them there and the other team happens to need help.

I'd also prefer to see them working on Days Gone 2, but the Bend studio manager/internal suits wanted to make a new IP instead.



Yes, their main task is to be the ones in charge of all the SIE 2nd party games, and also in managing both internal and external support teams for both the internally developed 1st party games and the 2nd party games.

XDEV name originated from trying to shorten "external development team".


Being racing games has nothing to do with being GaaS or not.

GT Sport and GT7 are GaaS/live service games because they are online games designed to be evolved with post launch support as long as performnace is good enough.
Bend has made one game in 12 years. And it was DG which was meh.

Them being a lead studio making games since PS1 doesnt mean much when many of their games are rated meh and they've released one game in 12 years. And their first game on PS1 was Bubsy 3D (when they were under a different studio name) which is always rated among the worst platformers during the 32-bit era. By the time their new game comes out it might be 15 years where the only game they made was DG.
 
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yurinka

Member
Bend has made one game in 12 years. And it was DG which was meh. Them being a lead studio making games since PS1 doesnt mean much when many of their games are rated meh and they've released one game in 12 years. And their first game on PS1 was Bubsy 3D (when they were under a different studio name) which is always rated among the worst platformers during the 32-bit era. By the time their new game comes out it might be 15 years where the only game they made was DG.

Bullshit. Metacritic and release date of their games:
  • 1999 - Syphon Filter: 90
  • 2000 - Syphon Filter 2: N/A
  • 2001 - Syphon Filter 3: 73 (only 19 reviews)
  • 2004 - Syphon Filter Omega Strain: 65
  • 2006 - Syphon Filter Dark Mirror: 87
  • 2007 - Syphon Filter Logan's Shadow: 85
  • 2007 - Syphon Filter Combat Ops: N/A
  • 2009 - Resistance Retribution: 81
  • 2011 - Uncharted Golden Abyss: 80
  • 2012 - Uncharted Fight for Fortune (small Vita cards game codeveloped with One Loop Games): 67
  • 2019 - Days Gone: 71 (PS4) / 76 (PC)
After Days Gone they did some post launch support and the PC port, plus supported ND with an Uncharted spinoff and TLOU Online while they were doing the preproduction of the new Bend IP, which got greenlighted to start production in 2021.

Nowadays AAA games take around 5-9 years to be made, so the development time for Days Gone and the new IP is totally normal. Days Gone took a bit longer than was usual back then for AAA games but it's understandable because it was an open world (so much more content/features/work needed than in a linear game), more importantly was their first open world, their first game on that engine, their first AAA home console game in a while (so needed time to learn and adapt for all these things) and a new IP (which requires more work than a sequel).

In the same way, they seem to be adding a MP and GaaS layer in the new IP, which also means more work so longer dev time so will be in the higher part of the usual around 5-9 years development time.

Generations ago the AAA games didn't take that long (and even less the portable games) because had way less content and features and their design and specially visuals were way less more simple. Plus devs didn't make post launch content, so games were released faster.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Bullshit. Metacritic and release date of their games:
  • 1999 - Syphon Filter: 90
  • 2000 - Syphon Filter 2: N/A
  • 2001 - Syphon Filter 3: 73 (only 19 reviews)
  • 2004 - Syphon Filter Omega Strain: 65
  • 2006 - Syphon Filter Dark Mirror: 87
  • 2007 - Syphon Filter Logan's Shadow: 85
  • 2007 - Syphon Filter Combat Ops: N/A
  • 2009 - Resistance Retribution: 81
  • 2011 - Uncharted Golden Abyss: 80
  • 2012 - Uncharted Fight for Fortune (small Vita cards game codeveloped by One Loop Games): 67
  • 2019 - Days Gone: 71 (PS4) / 76 (PC)
After Days Gone they did some post launch support and the PC port, plus supported ND with an Uncharted spinoff and TLOU Online while they were doing the preproduction of the new Bend IP, which got greenlighted to start production in 2021.

Nowadays AAA games take around 5-9 years to be made, so the development time for Days Gone and the new IP is totally normal. Days Gone took a bit longer than was usual back then for AAA games but it's understandable because it was an open world (so much more content/features/work needed than in a linear game), their first open world, their first game on that engine, their first AAA home console game in a while (so needed time to learn and adapt for all these things) and a new IP (which requires more work than a sequel).

And well, enerations ago the AAA games didn't take that long (and even less the portable games), and they didn't make post launch content, so games were released faster.
Youre the one that brought up old systems like PS1.

Dont forget Bubsy 3D on PS1 with a 51% MC score, which you purposely left off. And even worse, a PC CD rom football game called Live Action Football which is junk if you google or YT it. It was one of those CD-rom era games which was all video clips.

By the time their new game gets launched which you said started in 2021, the game will come out probably when PS6 is soon to come out. So the gap could be around 15 years which only DG was made. That is not normal for a "leading studio". If they were a leading studio they wouldnt be shuffled of to do support work or have giant gaps, or have most of their games being PSP.
 
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yurinka

Member
Youre the one that brought up old systems like PS1.

Dont forget Bubsy 3D on PS1 with a 51% MC score, which you purposely left off. And even worse, a PC CD rom football game called Live Action Football which is junk if you google or YT it. It was one of those CD-rom era games which was all video clips.

By the time their new game gets launched which you said started in 2021, the game will come out probably when PS6 is soon to come out. So the gap could be around 15 years which only DG was made. That is not normal for a "leading studio". If they were a leading studio they wouldnt be shuffled of to do support work or have giant gaps, or have most of their games being PSP.
The games I listed are the ones they made for Sony.

In Bubsy 3D and previous games they still weren't working with Sony, Bubsy 3D and Live Action Football were Accolade published games (in fact made as Eidetic, back then they still weren't Bend).

Before them they made several games published by StarCore for the Apple Newton (a monochrome pre-iPod/iPhone PDA) during 1993 and 1994: Columbo's Mystery Capers, Dell Crossword Puzzles, Dell Crossworld Puzzles and Other Word Games and Motile. As I remember this was the first one:

 
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Bigfroth

Member
This shit happens all the time I can't believe the industry hasn't learned to adapt. When WOW blew up everybody tried getting on board with MMORPG's, years later When these games all released WOW had evolved beyond them. Now with GaaS, everybody is chasing Fortnite money and that's a carrot that nobody will ever catch including Epic lol.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Stellar Blade is a "second party" release just like Heavenly Sword. They're the first party publisher of the game and paid a third party to create it.

It’s not. They didn’t pay the developer to create it. The developer already was creating it for three platforms before Sony stepped in.
If you can’t see a difference then I don’t know what else to tell you.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Also, the fact that you mentioned an actual non-Sony game like Pixeljunk Shooter (published by Q-Games), and then had the nerve to say this:

Sony published Pixeljunk Shooter dude. Q-Games published it in Japan. Sony published it everywhere else.
 

Three

Member
It’s not. They didn’t pay the developer to create it. The developer already was creating it for three platforms before Sony stepped in.
If you can’t see a difference then I don’t know what else to tell you.
They paid them to create it. They funded and published the game. It's one of their games. All this has absolutely no effect on it being a game released for PS5. The fact that Heavenly Sword wasn't publicly shown before Sony decided to be the publisher of the game makes absolutely no difference to you or me.

Sony published Pixeljunk Shooter dude. Q-Games published it in Japan. Sony published it everywhere else.
And Sony published Stellar Blade worldwide. What does it mean?

 
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nial

Member
Sony published Pixeljunk Shooter dude. Q-Games published it in Japan. Sony published it everywhere else.
Where do you think Q-Games is from? It's a Japanese game NOT published by Sony in Japan. Just like Final Fantasy VII on PS1 or Nioh on PS4.
 

nial

Member
Sony published the game I bought on Vita.
Yes, because you live in the West. If I'm buying the PS4 version of USF4 right now, it will say that it's published by Sony, but that's ignoring the fact that it's mainly published by Capcom in Japan; just like how Pixeljunk Shooter (a Japanese game) was mainly published by Q-Games (a Japanese company) in Japan.
Am I clear enough?
 

Diddy X

Member
Sony has been trend-chasing since the PS3, and they’ve been fine. The PlayStation brand is so strong that they will be okay unless they make a very substantial screw-up
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Sony has been trend chasing since the ps3 and they've been fine, the Playstation brand is so strong they will be okay unless they make some very substantial screw up.
Sony actually entered the console market in 1994 because it was trend chasing.

All business is trend chasing. It’s literally the very nature of business.
 
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SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Yes, because you live in the West. If I'm buying the PS4 version of USF4 right now, it will say that it's published by Sony, but that's ignoring the fact that it's mainly published by Capcom in Japan; just like how Pixeljunk Shooter (a Japanese game) was mainly published by Q-Games (a Japanese company) in Japan.
Am I clear enough?

I don’t live in Japan, so I don’t care if Sony didn’t publish it there. Sony published the game everywhere else. You said it’s not a Sony game, and that’s incorrect.
 

nial

Member
I don’t live in Japan, so I don’t care if Sony didn’t publish it there. Sony published the game everywhere else. You said it’s not a Sony game, and that’s incorrect.
Ok, under that logic, if I live in most of Pacific Asia, I could easily say that Final Fantasy XVI is a Sony game because they published it there. Therefore I could add FFXVI to a list of Sony games for PS5.
Think for damn once, they had nothing to do with that game outside of localizing it for release outside of Japan; just like FFVII, Bushido Blade, Nioh 1-2 and a ton of other games.
 

Jose92

[Membe

The strategy keeps proving that it is a failure.

Season 20 Fire GIF by The Simpsons
 
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It's not really trend chasing, it's chasing ways to achieve as much year on year growth as possible; because console sales always hit a wall.

In the world we live in, moderate or minimal growth just isn't good enough.
 
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aerts1js

Member
Its quite easy, Sony has a finite amount of money to spent on creating games, with the goal of growing their business.
Option A) make more AAA SP games,
Option B) make GAAS Games only, or
Option C) split resources and do some AAA SP and GAAS games.

To say that their GAAS option has no effect on their SP output is just not how a business works. If Sony had gone for option A, they would have 20 studios making AAA SP games. And that would have been a valid option too. They want to grow, either by more SP games, or GAAS or a mix of booth.

Sony would never have the same amount of studios they had in the PS4 era regardless of options. They have to grow.

--> They choose not to grow their AAA SP output. The two new SP focused Devs aren't offsetting the closure of their PS4 Era SP focused Studios.
Thank You. It’s insane how many people don’t get this.. rather than embrace and grow what’s made them successful they are spending resources on chasing trends.
 
Sony has had a very solid gen thus far imo. Selling consoles at a very high rate and have put out a good amount of solid games from first party. Trying other avenues for success is normal and most companies participate in that. For the longest time Sony has primarily focused on SP OFFLINE games so now they are putting more efforts into the GAAS route. If it doesn’t do well overall for them they will most likely go back to what they are best at……Offline AAA SP games.
 
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