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Shawn Layden: PlayStation's strengths are creating stories, characters, emotions

Altairre

Member
As someone who still mostly plays single player games, that is music to my ears.

Indeed. I have a pretty decent PC and yet I used my PS4 a ton this year. A lot of the Sony exclusives are on my GotY list and Horizon will probably end up being my favorite game of the year. If that's the kind of game Sony wants to make more of then I'll certainly throw my support (and money) behind that decision.

I mean, who cares about gameplay right? Cinematic experiencesss y'all.

You can keep them. TLOU 2 is already dead to me. First one had way too much gameplay for a ND game, the downgrade will be a painful thing I'll gladly avoid experiencing at full price.

I'd give 2 million dollars to Druckmann so he can start his own company and then I'd bring Amy back. He can team up with Chinese Room and create cinematic press forward walking simulators to their heart's content, but at least he wouldn't be using Naughty Dog's astronomical budget and talent for his pretentious gameplay-lacking experiences.

I think the gameplay in Last of Us is excellent and while I wasn't a huge fan of the combat in the first three Uncharted games I actually enjoyed the gunplay in U4 quite a bit. Combat is also definitely one of Horizon's strengths.
 
I mean, who cares about gameplay right? Cinematic experiencesss y'all.

You can keep them. TLOU 2 is already dead to me. First one had way too much gameplay for a ND game, the downgrade will be a painful thing I'll gladly avoid experiencing at full price.

I'd give 2 million dollars to Druckmann so he can start his own company and then I'd bring Amy back. He can team up with Chinese Room and create cinematic press forward walking simulators to their heart's content, but at least he wouldn't be using Naughty Dog's astronomical budget and talent for his pretentious gameplay-lacking experiences.

Today is just bringing out trash posts for some reason.
 
cinematic blockbuster "games" are surely not going away... this is what the mainstream wants.

It's easy to sometimes forget how popular SP games are in these times where Twitch/MP/F2P/service get a lot of attention.
Gaming has just gotten a lot bigger, with more variety then ever.

Sony is clearly doing very well (financially and critically) with their first party output.

Yeah, I guess I didn't mean going away entirely, it's just very easy to look at game's like Destiny and Overwatch and the bazillion other games that are "the forever games" where it's just endless content on a single platform (which is a huge win financially) and hope that those business decisions end up forcing them down a path where they feel they need to focus on those types of games more than traditional single player games that are typically expensive to make and over in 20-50 hours.
 
And they have studios that are willing and able to push their hardware and showcase some fucking amazing visuals.

The X is coming, and has a nice hardware boost, but I don't really see Microsoft having the stable of exclusives to really blow minds with it. Not to Sony's level if working off the same spec.

The real visual highpoints on the Xbox are Gears, Ryse, Quantum Break, Horizon and Ori, and short of maybe Ori they've all been soundly beaten in visuals in their Playstation genre equivalents.

Not to sound too console war-ish, but that's been my experience.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I think this explains why I feel way behind on picking up the PS4 titles that I want, while I look at the Xbox One lineup and I see a whole bunch of stuff I could live without.

Stories and experiences get me to open my wallet. DLC and multiplayer-only experiences, not so much.
 

Yjynx

Member
I'm not sure chasing game as service is a good idea...... You're fighting alot of third party publisher.....
 
Sony are obviously chasing the GAAS market, it's just too large to ignore. They have the perfect franchise in Gran Turismo to do that, it's going to be top dog and will do well for them for years to come. In one sense it's shit because many things I love about GT are not in Sport, but a game being supported for years makes me believe GT Sport will keep having a ton of content added on.

If Naught Dog got a decent horde mode and co-op going in TLOU2, that would obviously do well.
 

Elandyll

Banned
I (mostly) don't care about multiplayer (except some couch coop) and especially npt Gaas, and I'm big on story, so ... All good to me :)
 

Balb

Member
I wouldn't mind if they made more "mechanics"-based games to add some diversity to their portfolio. They lean too heavily on "experiential" games for my personal taste. Not that I don't like those kinds of games, but I'd like some variety.
 
I would like to see a focus on gameplay driven games over cinematic ones, since I think those tend to play better, age better, and are just overall better games.
 
Their track record this gen hasn't been all that good. DriveClub was probably their best attempt at a only GaaS game and that ended with the studio being sold.
LBP3 bombed, the 3 San Diego games bombed (Killstrain, Guns Up and Drawn to Death) and not made by them, but SF5 bombed too.
GT Sport will probably do really well and like I said I think a good SOCOM game would do well too, but getting one doesn't seem likely.

Microsoft found success and even Nintendo found success. I think Sony can also find success with GaaS.
 

Neff

Member
No, PlayStation's strength is representing the most attractive console bourgeoisie which means that it's stacked with healthy 3rd party and exclusives.

I would like to see a focus on gameplay driven games over cinematic ones, since I think those tend to play better, age better, and are just overall better games.

Fully agreed. A good story is nice to have, but a mediocre game can't be redeemed by its story, no matter how good it is.
 

Raven117

Member
Absolutely makes sense.

Make some exceedingly strong single player experiences while making deals with the third parties that do the online thing well (Call of Duty, Destiny...etc.).

Plus reach out to indies...

You have a very strong marketing strategy.
 
Eh, not that much of a strength.

Cage is a hack.
Ueda can barely get a game out every ten years.
Naughty Dog is pretty good at their best.
Frank Darabont did in 2011 whatever Days Gone thinks it's doing now.
I'll be pleasantly surprised if GoWs story is as competent as it wants to be.

At this point the most meaningful, well-done storytelling is happening in indie games (which they've backed off of) and a few niche Japanese titles/series.

Don't oversell yourselves.
All those 85+ meta scores, praise from fans, game of the year awards disagree with you. It's a pretty big strength for Sony and definitely sets them apart from everyone else.
 

Loudninja

Member
Some interesting stuff from Cory Barlog

I think so. I think that it ebbs and flows with the audience as well as the creators. What we find intriguing to make is often a reflection of what's happening out in the world. It's a balance of trying to get publishers on board and to think that it's awesome and something they want. That's why I love Sony. I've never worked anywhere quite like this and the way that they say how creative is in charge. They are probably the best partners I've ever worked with. They really get involved – all the parts that I don't understand. I am literally the worst person with our finances – my wife takes care of all of that stuff, because I'm an idiot. I would not presume to understand that stuff on the business side. I think it's fantastic that Sony love what we do. They want us to make great experiences. They give us the leeway to really take some risks.

There was a time at the beginning of this project where it looked like it was going to be so big and so difficult that we were encouraged to really consider scoping this thing down. It was suggested that maybe the son was something that we shouldn't do – and to me he's really the core of the game. But I did the due diligence and looked at what I would do if I didn't have the son in there. Literally the only thing I could think of was the most expensive art house game of all time. Y'know, All is Lost. It would be just Kratos, he never says anything, all the other characters speak in a different language and they very rarely speak. It would be 20 hours where nobody talks. It would have either sucked or have been really amazing. At no point did Sony ever say I had to do that, though.
http://www.glixel.com/interviews/it...-of-war-creative-director-cory-barlog-w488948
 

Papacheeks

Banned
It's okay to focus on your strengths, but I don't like how their games are all starting to look like the same game.

If you show someone a Days Gone footage you could easily pass it as The Last of Us spin off, a prequel to Horizon, a Uncharted going back to the supernatural DLC, and even GoW is being brought towards that (though in the specific case of GoW it was a very positive change thus far).

But I guess it works for them, helps sets the Ps4 apart, and the fans seems to like it, so I can't fault them for doubling down on that.

That didn't take long.

So Crash, Wipeout, KNACK 2, Gravity Rush 2, Ratchet and clank(their IP) Infamous:SS, Killzone, Uncharted, Horizon all look the same huh?
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Eh, not that much of a strength.

Cage is a hack.
Ueda can barely get a game out every ten years.
Naughty Dog is pretty good at their best.
Frank Darabont did in 2011 whatever Days Gone thinks it's doing now.
I'll be pleasantly surprised if GoWs story is as competent as it wants to be.

At this point the most meaningful, well-done storytelling is happening in indie games (which they've backed off of) and a few niche Japanese titles/series.

Don't oversell yourselves.
How does that work? We're talking about subjective opinions. How do you think they should approach since you criticize him for overselling?

Which game did Frank Darabon make in 2011 and what are Days Gone thinking what they're doing now? Or are you saying that Frank Darabon was the first to come up with the idea for a zombie filled word like The Walking Dead? If so, thats not the case.
 
I mean, who cares about gameplay right? Cinematic experiencesss y'all.

You can keep them. TLOU 2 is already dead to me. First one had way too much gameplay for a ND game, the downgrade will be a painful thing I'll gladly avoid experiencing at full price.

I'd give 2 million dollars to Druckmann so he can start his own company and then I'd bring Amy back. He can team up with Chinese Room and create cinematic press forward walking simulators to their heart's content, but at least he wouldn't be using Naughty Dog's astronomical budget and talent for his pretentious gameplay-lacking experiences.

This makes no sense. TLoU had way too much gampeplay for a ND game according to you. But that was the first time Druckmann served as creative director.

So you want Amy to come back, to supposedly fix his gameplay-lacking experiences, when Amy's Uncharted games were more lacking in gameplay than TLoU?

I wouldn't mind if they made more "mechanics"-based games to add some diversity to their portfolio. They lean too heavily on "experiential" games for my personal taste. Not that I don't like those kinds of games, but I'd like some variety.

Gravity Rush 2, Nioh, Horizon, Wipeout Omega, Matterfall, Hot Shots Golf, MLB The Show, Knack 2 and GT Sport just from this year.
 
Eh, not that much of a strength.

Cage is a hack.
Ueda can barely get a game out every ten years.
Naughty Dog is pretty good at their best.
Frank Darabont did in 2011 whatever Days Gone thinks it's doing now.
I'll be pleasantly surprised if GoWs story is as competent as it wants to be.

At this point the most meaningful, well-done storytelling is happening in indie games (which they've backed off of) and a few niche Japanese titles/series.

Don't oversell yourselves.

this sort of post adds absolutely nothing to the discussion
 
Says guy who hasnt played last of us and thinks gears of war has a better story than uncharted
I'd argue the story is better in the Gears games.

Story telling, however, is ND's bread and butter.

Although THAT moment in Gears 3 still gives me chills like nothing in UC.
 

ShutterMunster

Junior Member
I'd argue the story is better in the Gears games.

Story telling, however, is ND's bread and butter.

Although THAT moment in Gears 3 still gives me chills like nothing in UC.

No...just no. Gears is strong enough in other areas, we don't have to lie about it.

Gaf is fucking nuts, man lol.
 
No...just no. Gears is strong enough in other areas, we don't have to lie about it.

Gaf is fucking nuts, man lol.
Great argument. Nuts for sharing a differing opinion.

I found the gears story a lot more interesting than the UC games. What made the UC games great for me were mostly the set pieces, though I loved the slowed down segments in the tail end of 4.

I especially liked the implications of the ending to gears 4 which has me looking forward to the story in the 5th game.
 

Shin

Banned
I think Sony should stick to that niche, nothing else works for them
Seems fitting...
200.gif


OT: they have different philosophies about how they go about things, one seems to be working while the other isn't so much so who's to say really.
Both have their strengths and weaknesses, in the end they bring out the best in each other - competition is great!
 
Positioning their first party output around games that fill in the gaps left by the big third parties is brilliant.

This has always been the strategy for the most part.

cinematic blockbuster "games" are surely not going away... this is what the mainstream wants.

Not really. The most popular games in the world are all multiplayer. Doesn't mean that there's no market for single player; it's just nowhere close to as big.

Yeah, I guess I didn't mean going away entirely, it's just very easy to look at game's like Destiny and Overwatch and the bazillion other games that are "the forever games" where it's just endless content on a single platform (which is a huge win financially) and hope that those business decisions end up forcing them down a path where they feel they need to focus on those types of games more than traditional single player games that are typically expensive to make and over in 20-50 hours.

Key word is single player only. Those are shrinking and rightfully so.

Nintendo, my man.

Doom also.

Not really. Multiple games easily best their offerings.

I'd argue the story is better in the Gears games.

Story telling, however, is ND's bread and butter.

Although THAT moment in Gears 3 still gives me chills like nothing in UC.

This is definitely the minority opinion.
 
Not really. Multiple games easily best their offerings.



This is definitely the minority opinion.

Point me in their direction.

And has the story in an uncharted game ever been great? They've mostly been Indiana Jones lite with stale villain's until the 4th game (imho). Though the best villain in 4 (Nadine) wasn't the main antagonist.

For me only the 4th game with the story of the pirate city and the mystery of what went down there was the great UC story. The rest were mainly carried by great set pieces and story telling with a fantastically likeable main character.
 

Sesha

Member
That's cool. Thumbs up for that. Then can ya'll work with publishers to bring back dead JRPG franchises like Suikoden, Shadow Hearts, Breath of Fire, Lunar, Wild Arms, Grandia, Chrono, etc.? Those are the kind of story-focused games I like.

Oh, and bring back Alundra and save Matrix Software from otaku game hell while ya'll are at it. The original had story, characters and emotions too, so it fits.
 
Sony do narrative-driven singleplayer games very very well. Shawn isn't wrong.

On the other hand, unlike the other two console platform holders, they seem to a great job covering all the other bases too.

So for every Uncharted, Horizon and Days Gone, you get a Hot Shots Golf, Gran Turismo, Warhawk, Bloodborne etc..

I'd argue that Sony's main strength is in the sheer breadth of diverse quality content they publish and host exclusively on their platform. So while I consider their devs some of the best in the business at producing superb narrative-driven experiences, they're far from a one-trick pony.

I also don't quite understand this current media love affair with GaaS. I mean, it's not a genre of game. It's a business model. GaaS doesn't inherently imply a great game, and honestly most GaaS games wouldn't be much different if they simply existed as stand-alone packaged products that were expanded with DLC in the traditional sense.

I can't understand why any gamer would even want GaaS... Why would you want an incomplete package on launch that you have to wait months and a number of content updates later for the game to actually become something you consider fun. Almost all the major big name GaaS games had this problem (Destiny, The Division, SFV). As a gamer I see nothing positive about the trend towards GaaS, and I can't fathom why anyone would want publishers like Sony to pursue it more...
 

Tagyhag

Member
Was State of Decay a community-driven PC-Friendly title?

I mean, I liked it and played it on PC, but I don't think it had that kind of impact.
 
I mean, who cares about gameplay right? Cinematic experiencesss y'all.

You can keep them. TLOU 2 is already dead to me. First one had way too much gameplay for a ND game, the downgrade will be a painful thing I'll gladly avoid experiencing at full price.

I'd give 2 million dollars to Druckmann so he can start his own company and then I'd bring Amy back. He can team up with Chinese Room and create cinematic press forward walking simulators to their heart's content, but at least he wouldn't be using Naughty Dog's astronomical budget and talent for his pretentious gameplay-lacking experiences.

I've been seeing a lot of posts from you last year. You must really, REALLY, dislike Druckmann.
 
This is why I have a PlayStation and will continue buying Sony consoles. I'm not big on first person shooters so I love that they are the only major company still willing to make third person action adventure games. Next, I can't juggle hundreds of multiplayer only games. There's overwatch, battlefield, etc etc and while they are getting more into GaaS I can only keep up with a few.

Longevity is important which is why these games exist but I still feel like there needs to be games for those who just don't have the time to play all these games like that. Nintendo and Sony are the only ones I can count on in this realm and I hope they continue. Going for the GaaS money obviously would benefit them, but if the SP money works...don't fix it yet.
 
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