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[DrAspirino]

PlayStation set a new industry record for revenue in 2020 - KitGuru

Sony recently released its fiscal earning reports for Q3 2020. Alongside the reveal that Spider-Man

www.kitguru.net

Headline: "PlayStation set a new industry record for revenue in 2020"

Jim Ryaaannn!!

Sure, as a DIVISION, it is making a lot of money. On the other hand, as a BRAND, it is certainly decreasing its value.

It's like Apple: they're the nº1 BRAND across the globe, but their profits are not nº1 (in this case, it's Saudi Aramco, which no one cares about).

Until a few years ago, when you thought of PlayStation, you immediately thought about JRPGs, Patapon, Parappa the Rapper, Crash Bandicoot as their mascot, and Yakuza games. Now is all COD and FIFA, with ZERO personality (kinda like PC gaming or Xbox).

 

[PhaseJump]

JiM RyAn WiLl DeStRoY tHe BrAnD!

No he will no-

PS5 reveal:

 

[Bryank75]

Some of those items don't bother me. I really don't care about the PC ports, closing devs they don't value the output from, etc. But a few are shared. The price increases haven't struck me as justified from a consumer standpoint yet. The claim about generations sounded great but was quickly refuted by their actual plans imo. Memory options are taking way too long. And the silence is a head scratcher. I'm not chicken little believing Sony is in trouble, but why aren't they at least trying to maintain momentum with game news?

From many of their moves, you'd assume that PlayStation lost last gen badly and Microsoft had won....

Xbox is expanding and PlayStation seems to be contracting and getting less ambitious, not looking to service more genres or customers.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Sure, as a DIVISION, it is making a lot of money. On the other hand, as a BRAND, it is certainly decreasing its value.

It's like Apple: they're the nº1 BRAND across the globe, but their profits are not nº1 (in this case, it's Saudi Aramco, which no one cares about).

Until a few years ago, when you thought of PlayStation, you immediately thought about JRPGs, Patapon, Parappa the Rapper, Crash Bandicoot as their mascot, and Yakuza games. Now is all COD and FIFA, with ZERO personality (kinda like PC gaming or Xbox).

There are no metrics to back up your claim. Profits and revenue for PlayStation are at all time highs.

JRPGs had their hayday during the SNES through PS1 period. The genre has limited market potential.

Parappa the Rapper and Crash Bandicoot both had their hayday during the PS1 era.

The industry grows and evolves. Jim Ryan understands this.

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

Thanks for the laugh OP. Tell me, why should he worry about Japan when their sales are minor compared to the rest of the world and Japan has been moving towards handheld and mobile gaming for awhile now?

 

[Bryank75]

There are no metrics to back up your claim. Profits and revenue for PlayStation are at all time highs.

JRPGs had their hayday during the SNES through PS1 period. The genre has limited market potential.

Parappa the Rapper and Crash Bandicoot both had their hayday during the PS1 era.

The industry grows and evolves. Jim Ryan understands this.

Yeah but no one game normally sells more than 3-8 million copies.

It is the diversity of genres and the originality of titles that really result in success.....
The more niches you cover, the more customers you endear.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Yeah but no one game normally sells more than 3-8 million copies.

It is the diversity of genres and the originality of titles that really result in success.....
The more niches you cover, the more customers you endear.

PlayStation can't cover all the niches. They only have so many studios.

So why not cover a niche with home run potential (Arrowhead Studios next game) as opposed to a niche that the industry has moved on from (see: Japan Studios last 10 games)?

 

[Outrunner]

 

[THEAP99]

Jim Ryan is literally the worst. He is just coasting along doing the bare minimum being cocky as fuck. I mean he's literally getting rid of communities on top of pulling Sony out of E3, not having PlayStation Experience anymore etc.. plus pricing games so high and porting games away to PC I mean as a PlayStation fan this is bad news for the future. Not to mention he sits idle as Microsoft plants the seeds for the future in regards to acquiring studios. Meanwhile Sony shuts down/downsizes other studios.. Ugh. Hopefully things start to change but I fear for the future of PlayStation under his regime.

 

[Bryank75]

PlayStation can't cover all the niches. They only have so many studios.

So why not cover a niche with home run potential (Arrowhead Studios next game) as opposed to a niche that the industry has moved on from (see: Japan Studios last 10 games)?

Yeah but I see nothing being done in the stead of these studios and games no longer being made.

I don't know what Arrowhead is doing, maybe you could fill me in....

But I know they are not first party and probably not really exclusive...I'm not sure if PlayStation really has any exclusives anymore TBH

I'm really just sick of listening to news I find very negative day after day, week after week for PlayStation. I've never been so disappointed. PS3 was better than this, at least they tried.

 

[Bryank75]

Jim Ryan is literally the worst. He is just coasting along doing the bare minimum being cocky as fuck. I mean he's literally getting rid of communities on top of pulling Sony out of E3, not having PlayStation Experience anymore etc.. plus pricing games so high and porting games away to PC I mean as a PlayStation fan this is bad news for the future. Not to mention he sits idle as Microsoft plants the seeds for the future in regards to acquiring studios. Meanwhile Sony shuts down/downsizes other studios.. Ugh. Hopefully things start to change but I fear for the future of PlayStation under his regime.

Yup, there will be nothing left by the time Jim gets off his fat hairy ass....

 

[Umbasaborne]

While i agree playstation has lost a lot of japanese charm, they are simply going where the money is. In sony’s case, that money is in “prestige” cinematic games

 

[Bryank75]

While i agree playstation has lost a lot of japanese charm, they are simply going where the money is. In sony’s case, that money is in “prestige” cinematic games

Yeah but they only have about 6 effective studios.... San Diego is making MLB as a multiplat now, London makes nothing of note, Mm makes nothing commercial, Japan Studio is cut down to almost nothing, Polyphony only makes GT and takes a long time.

They've alienated and cut off so many partner studios it is astounding, including Supermassive, Quantic Dream, Gen Design and countless others.

It's a disaster.

Timed exclusives have only pissed people off and people say that was what justified MSFT buying Zenimax, that Sony deserved it. So they need to stop with the pointless timed crap and just go all in.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Yeah but I see nothing being done in the stead of these studios and games no longer being made.

I don't know what Arrowhead is doing, maybe you could fill me in....

But I know they are not first party and probably not really exclusive...I'm not sure if PlayStation really has any exclusives anymore TBH

I'm really just sick of listening to news I find very negative day after day, week after week for PlayStation. I've never been so disappointed. PS3 was better than this, at least they tried.

Arrowhead Studios made HellDivers (released 2015), which was PlayStation exclusive for 6 months before hitting PC. It was a moderate success, by a team of about 11 employees.

Since then, the studio has staffed up to 70+ employees and moved into a new location. I'm not sure how Arrowhead could afford a 6 year dev time and such growth without financial support from a big publisher. My bet is on Sony.

If my assumptions are correct, Sony is cutting X number of employees from Japan Studio and growing western studios with X number of employees. Housemarque is another example of Western studio growth.

 

[Papacheeks]

PlayStation can't cover all the niches. They only have so many studios.

So why not cover a niche with home run potential (Arrowhead Studios next game) as opposed to a niche that the industry has moved on from (see: Japan Studios last 10 games)?

It funny people dont understand how a company like Sony works. Like how do you not see there are countless sequels to games like God Eater which is a more or less in the vein of monster hunter. Those games sell, Gravity rush didn't, and god eater has had less PR. GR2 was literally on stage at PSX with a big push. None of the title Japan studio has made in the past 10 years has really jumped out to grab a broad audience. As time goes on there's more competition. Japan studio isn't the only studio making unique niche titles, japanese and indie development is huge now more so than it was 10+ years ago.

Thats what people dont understand. As time goes on, you have to strike while its hot. It took too long to get compelling titles our of Japan studio.

 

[Hatsuma]

To be fair Jim just inherited the throne. The real villain is Shawn as someone who replace House, he is the one who pioneered SCE to SIE restructured in 2016 which resulted all you mentioned above.

Thank you someone posted this. Layden literally mentioned the idea of leaning into another install base, and already headed some PC games and ports. TLOU2 (Which I loved and was a massive success in commercially and critical) developed a majority under Layden. Alot of the decisions you listed happened under Layden. Now Studios Japan alterations suck imo, but the studio has been grossly inefficient even in its own territory. So hopefully the restructuring leads to promising things and hopefully some of the lost talent returns as well as new blood comes to the studio. Astrobot is awesome and hopefully much more comes of it.

As for the $10 hike, that was happening regardless. Activision, Take two, and 2k were already adjusting prices. NBA 2k21 and COD CW sold very well at the $70 tag. Sony figures their Next Gen only releases are worth the tag as well. They've pretty flexible about pricing and adapted to Destruction Allstars price reception pretty quickly.

Idk how to feel about Ryan just yet, but large number of complaints towards him are for things that Layden essentially started.

 

[Hypereides]

Neither Layden and Ryan were good. I'd argue that none of the following exec's were a good fit since the PS3 era.

Ryan is in a completely different league though. That man is turning the house upside down.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

TLDR: Jim Ryan shut down initiatives that were losing Sony money. He should be removed and Sony should start supporting more holes in the ship because me me me.

He's right tho that the ps5 ui design cornered things like friends lists, messages, party lists, it's all obscured.

And then they went and killed communities.

From a "online" viewpoint, this feels more like ps2 than ps5 =(

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

He's right tho that the ps5 ui design cornered things like friends lists, messages, party lists, it's all obscured.

And then they went and killed communities.

From a "online" viewpoint, this feels more like ps2 than ps5 =(

I have confidence in two things.

1. The impact of the "obscuring" of these things is minimal.

2. Most of these faults will be fixed within the year.

No one bats 1.000

 

[jm89]

Give me a time machine man. Gonna go back and tell kaz how this mofo is gonna fuck everything up.

Serously though i get jim is trying to play to sony first party strengths. but eventually people want something a bit different. Some of their big first parties are gonna be big unknowns in what they work on next like naughty dog and guerilla games. I hope they step outside the comfort zone a bit, guerilla did it with horizon going from first person shooter to open world, so no reasons to think they can't.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

I have confidence in two things.

1. The impact of the "obscuring" of these things is minimal.

2. Most of these faults will be fixed within the year.

No one bats 1.000

There's no need for the game base which is sort of the unifying feature of friends parties and such be behind so many clicks =(

Also, I can't seem to be able to view friend's parties like in ps4...

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

There's no need for the game base which is sort of the unifying feature of friends parties and such be behind so many clicks =(

Also, I can't seem to be able to view friend's parties like in ps4...

I'll bet you someone on PlayStations UI team would beg to differ.

I'm not saying they did a good job. I'm saying they'd be able to give you a reason for their design choices.

 

[Arkam]

I do not think Jim Ryan is as bad as many of yall are asserting. I think the problem is that he is OLD and OUT OF TOUCH. The guy is a great business manager, but that only gets you so far in games. You need to have a finger on the pulse and know where things are trending. Ryan has been in PS EU for what 25 years? Cannot see how he could be anything but sheltered. Listening to him speak on current events hammers home how out of touch he truly is.

What Ryan needs to do is get some fresh blood at the SVP level that are passion about games. Being passionate about tech and business will help.... but without that clear target of games, it can easily miss the Mark.

 

[NahaNago]

While i agree playstation has lost a lot of japanese charm, they are simply going where the money is. In sony’s case, that money is in “prestige” cinematic games

I liked the Japanese charm. Playstation being the place to play Japanese games was the reason I loved playstation. That place is gradually being shifted to Nintendo.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

I liked the Japanese charm. Playstation being the place to play Japanese games was the reason I loved playstation. That place is gradually being shifted to Nintendo.

That shift had to do with budgets as well, hd transition was traumatic for a lot of japanese devs.

 

[Zato]

Wow, OP is either a poor troll, a virgin or a sad fuck.

If legit, no point made is sensible enough to discuss ...... simply to stupid to bother with.

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

Yeah but they only have about 6 effective studios.... San Diego is making MLB as a multiplat now, London makes nothing of note, Mm makes nothing commercial, Japan Studio is cut down to almost nothing, Polyphony only makes GT and takes a long time.

They've alienated and cut off so many partner studios it is astounding, including Supermassive, Quantic Dream, Gen Design and countless others.

It's a disaster.

Timed exclusives have only pissed people off and people say that was what justified MSFT buying Zenimax, that Sony deserved it. So they need to stop with the pointless timed crap and just go all in.

Honestly, it’s the 3rd party support of Japanese games that keeps me on PlayStation and has kept me off of Xbox. Either games are exclusive or timed exclusives long enough for me to justify sticking with Sony. I don’t care for most of Sony 1st party games. They’re excellent games, but they’re not my cup of tea. However, Xbox 1st party games have been disappointing the past gen and I could not justify getting an Xbox with the PS Japanese game exclusives, including time exclusives.

I will say, that over the years, only Nintendo and Sega have put out a large amount of quality 1st party games on their consoles that consistently wowed me. I’m much more a fan of quality versus quantity though. I’d gladly take a handful of masterpieces on a console than a dozen or so good games. The Bethesda acquisition for MS really intrigues me. I plan on buying a Series X this gen if MS can release a killer 1st party title soon. However, unless they can get more 3rd party Japanese game support, then I will not be jumping off the PlayStation ship anytime soon.

 

[Shmunter]

Yeah but no one game normally sells more than 3-8 million copies.

It is the diversity of genres and the originality of titles that really result in success.....
The more niches you cover, the more customers you endear.

Pretty much. Gotta have those loss leaders to create a halo effect.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Pretty much. Gotta have those loss leaders to create a halo effect.

Do you really believe this?

That Sony needs to fund games with limited market potential, that appeal to a small number of gamers, to achieve a "halo effect"?

What am I not getting here?

 

[Zato]

Sure, as a DIVISION, it is making a lot of money. On the other hand, as a BRAND, it is certainly decreasing its value.

It's like Apple: they're the nº1 BRAND across the globe, but their profits are not nº1 (in this case, it's Saudi Aramco, which no one cares about).

Until a few years ago, when you thought of PlayStation, you immediately thought about JRPGs, Patapon, Parappa the Rapper, Crash Bandicoot as their mascot, and Yakuza games. Now is all COD and FIFA, with ZERO personality (kinda like PC gaming or Xbox).

Lol, plain old nonsense .... text book.

It’s brand is decreasing? I never immediately thought of the games you listed, the facts show that the most successful games on PS are the types you listed.

Also you conveniently forget the fact that the Sony first party games that have defined the last two generations and are already coming into the third.

Japanese console business is dead, even Capcom and the like make games catered for the Western audience....... making like Sony are the only Japanese game maker to look West more and more.

Japan likes stupid web mobile games, fair play they can have them ...... I’m glad Sony aren’t wasting money making that shit for PS.

 

[mortal]

What's the beef with Jim Ryan?

I haven't seen much of this sentiment outside of Gaf tbh. Either that or I must not be paying much attention.

 

[Zato]

What's the beef with Jim Ryan?

I haven't seen much of this sentiment outside of Gaf tbh. Either that or I must not be paying much attention.

It’s all over Era as well.

Xbox fanboys dressed up as concerned citizens.

Or wankers in the common tongue.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Casuals don’t care who’s at the helm of Sony because they’d know they’ll go through a new executive every generation.

 

[Zato]

Casuals don’t care who’s at the helm of Sony because they’d know they’ll go through a new executive every generation.

Exactly.

Being a fanboy for executives of companies might be the saddest thing I have seen in my over 30 years gaming.

Those that engage in it need to look at themselves

 

[Hatsuma]

Jim Ryan is literally the worst. He is just coasting along doing the bare minimum being cocky as fuck. I mean he's literally getting rid of communities on top of pulling Sony out of E3, not having PlayStation Experience anymore etc.. plus pricing games so high and porting games away to PC I mean as a PlayStation fan this is bad news for the future. Not to mention he sits idle as Microsoft plants the seeds for the future in regards to acquiring studios. Meanwhile Sony shuts down/downsizes other studios.. Ugh. Hopefully things start to change but I fear for the future of PlayStation under his regime.

Now this is silly. You guys are blaming Ryan for things that were put in motion under Layden. Lol, PSX literally was canned under Layden. Them stepping out from E3 happened under Layden. Then when they bore witness to how much viewership they rallied without E3, they decided they could do their own thing,was far cheaper, and could achieve similar reach. PC porting was already teased by Layden and put into motion. I suspect their is greater play to the initiative, so I'll wait to see how far they're going to go .

And God you guys are letting the Zenimax acquisition cloud you from how Sony operates. When Insomniac were acquired, there no step by step for the entire process. Jist one day it was announced, and they continued making games XD. Fanfare unnecessary. And it seems Sony is doing more of Nintendo and just staying quiet until they have something relevant to announce.

 

[NahaNago]

Honestly, it’s the 3rd party support of Japanese games that keeps me on PlayStation and has kept me off of Xbox. Either games are exclusive or timed exclusives long enough for me to justify sticking with Sony. I don’t care for most of Sony 1st party games. They’re excellent games, but they’re not my cup of tea. However, Xbox 1st party games have been disappointing the past gen and I could not justify getting an Xbox with the PS Japanese game exclusives, including time exclusives.

I will say, that over the years, only Nintendo and Sega have put out a large amount of quality 1st party games on their consoles that consistently wowed me. I’m much more a fan of quality versus quantity though. I’d gladly take a handful of masterpieces on a console than a dozen or so good games. The Bethesda acquisition for MS really intrigues me. I plan on buying a Series X this gen if MS can release a killer 1st party title soon. However, unless they can get more 3rd party Japanese game support, then I will not be jumping off the PlayStation ship anytime soon.

Yep , 3rd party support of Japanese games and Japanese exclusives were the main reason I loved playstation.

I do not think Jim Ryan is as bad as many of yall are asserting. I think the problem is that he is OLD and OUT OF TOUCH. The guy is a great business manager, but that only gets you so far in games. You need to have a finger on the pulse and know where things are trending. Ryan has been in PS EU for what 25 years? Cannot see how he could be anything but sheltered. Listening to him speak on current events hammers home how out of touch he truly is.

What Ryan needs to do is get some fresh blood at the SVP level that are passion about games. Being passionate about tech and business will help.... but without that clear target of games, it can easily miss the Mark.

I agree on this as well. Sony is honestly playing it really safe these days. Playstation just seems weird to me like either the brand is deteriorating or the playstation fan culture is dying due to the higher ups decisions. Nintendo had that issue last year majorly with several of the nintendo focused youtubers I watched expanding to playstation and xbox content due to the lack of info/content from Nintendo.

 

[Hypereides]

Thank you someone posted this. Layden literally mentioned the idea of leaning into another install base, and already headed some PC games and ports. TLOU2 (Which I loved and was a massive success in commercially and critical) developed a majority under Layden. Alot of the decisions you listed happened under Layden. Now Studios Japan alterations suck imo, but the studio has been grossly inefficient even in its own territory. So hopefully the restructuring leads to promising things and hopefully some of the lost talent returns as well as new blood comes to the studio. Astrobot is awesome and hopefully much more comes of it.

(...)

This has likely more to do with how the California HQ has been operating and calling the shots. I'm willing to bet that they (Japan studio) kept throwing pitches for those funky and quirky games, that they're known for, only to get rejected repeatedly for lacking some degree of universal appeal. Only games like Gravity Rush managed to slip through because it fit the mold they're interested in. The new HQ management is likely more interested in recreating the success of the original TLOU than anything. Most of their latest output have tried to replicate its success in some fashion.

Not to mention the western branches did a terrible job promoting and marketing of their games. They barely got any significant exposure outside a trailer or maybe a montage reel.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Sony is honestly playing it really safe these days.

What do you base this statement on?

 

[JeremyEtcetera]

I liked the Japanese charm. Playstation being the place to play Japanese games was the reason I loved playstation. That place is gradually being shifted to Nintendo.

I’m curious how this post will age once Nintendo finally enters the 4K lane with everyone else, because it’s inevitable.

 

[abel empire]

As we know, Playstation has been a brand where it has had many games, especially original and unique games.

These times have unfortunately changed since this nefarious man named Jim Ryan arrived.

This idiot is not interested in the Japanese market, nor its productions, he has completely destroyed such a wonderful studio as Japan Studio, he has turned Playstation games into Hollywood products, with a denigration in the sagas, productions that have put the SWJ , where wonderful games like The last of us, have been decayed in a sequel that is not up to the first game.

The decadent way in which he treats Japanese productions, not to say discriminatory, the fact of censoring Japanese games for nonsense, but respecting the rawness of animal cruelty in The last of us Part II, as well as its sexual scenes, this wants say the great denigration it has towards the free artistic style of Japanese productions.


This stupid Jim Ryan has made dire decisions, launching the ps5 console in times of pandemic where not only does it not have games that sell consoles, but there are also no Next-Gen productions, and the limited availability of consoles that exist.

Poor hardware quality on PS5 where there have been problems with yellow cases on some models or freezes.


Total repudiation of this person for his foolish decisions

We'll it looks like sabotage.

 

[yurinka]

From many of their moves, you'd assume that PlayStation lost last gen badly and Microsoft had won....

Xbox is expanding and PlayStation seems to be contracting and getting less ambitious, not looking to service more genres or customers.

PlayStation dominated last gen and is doing/will do the same in the current one. This recent quarter/calendar year saw Sony breaking records in gaming history for a console platform holder in revenue, consoles sold (both PS5 and PS4 considering their sales life cycle point), games sold, game subscription services (in both revenue and subscribers) and also took the lead as pioneers (they are market leaders and have the biggest catalog because they are the only ones there) in console VR and console game streaming. Their first party games are also selling better than they ever did.

Sony kept growing their game development teams and also acquiered new ones like Insomniac. They are working on improving PS Now and working on a PSVR2 and in more studio acquisitions. And obviously they secure a ton of 3rd party exclusive deals of the different types or if not ensuring they get a great 3rd party and indie support with multis.

Xbox movements are the 3rd ones and are trying to mimic some Sony moves trying to catch up in some areas (switched their focus from the tv,tv,sports,kinect,tv,tv to focus on gaming only), grew the number of internal studios and IP to be able to compete against Sony, made a bet on game streaming service as Sony did and I bet somewhere in the mid term future we'll see MS buying someone to have their own VR for PC and Xbox. In some other areas, they saw can't compete with Sony or Nintendo selling consoles or console games, so have been moving their focus from Xbox to PC and tried to bet hard on game subscription service to see if they can lead at least that market.

It’s brand is decreasing? I never immediately thought of the games you listed, the facts show that the most successful games on PS are the types you listed.

If we look at factual data instead of forum posts, PlayStation brand now is better than it never has been. Or than any other console manufacturer has been. Or at least this is what revenue and sales numbers say.

 

[Elios83]

What's the beef with Jim Ryan?

I haven't seen much of this sentiment outside of Gaf tbh. Either that or I must not be paying much attention.

A whole bunch of bullshit not connected to the real world to sum it up
It seems like for some people Ryan's fault is that he's not social enough, he does not pretend enough to be a good guy.
He only handled the most successful launch for Playstation during a pandemic and it's not enough.

Restructuring has never happened within Sony and Japan Studio is the first studio that Sony downsized or closed: Evolution, Guerrilla Cambridge, Team Soho, Bigbig, Incognito, Liverpool, Zipper were just dreams or were closed by Ryan as well
Also let's not make these people notice that Ryan has silently grown Guerrilla, Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, San Diego and other key studios into multiple teams studios that are going to release many more games than what they were able to do during the PS4 gen and this will become apparent in the upcoming months when the multiple projects that they've been hiring for will be announced.
Ryan doesn't care about Japan infact he only bought part of Kadokawa/From Software as a form of parternship for the future, he only made sure that Square Enix's biggest RPGs of the PS5 gen (FFXVI, Project Athia and FF7R future parts) will be PS5 exclusives.
And what about Insomniac? What about investing in Epic to make sure that the engine that will be the defacto standard for next gen games in the upcoming years will be optimized as best as possible on PS5? It's all merit of the previous management!
But he killed Knack! He killed Gravity Rush! (both total flops) geesh some people truly live in their own bubble.

 

[The_Mike]

Jim Ryan is the PlayStation version of Dom Mattrick.

 

[Hatsuma]

This has likely more to do with how the California HQ has been operating and calling the shots. I'm willing to bet that they (Japan studio) kept throwing pitches for those funky and quirky games, that they're known for, only to get rejected repeatedly for lacking some degree of universal appeal. Only games like Gravity Rush managed to slip through because the fit the mold they're interested in. The new HQ management is likely more interested in recreating the success of the original TLOU than anything. Most of their latest output have tried to replicate its success in some fashion.

Not to mention the western branches did a terrible job promoting and marketing of their games. They barely got any significant exposure outside a trailer or maybe montage reel.

It very well is likely the case, which then I'm confused why Jim is getting so much hate for a number of decisions that happened under Layden.

They did sufficient marketing for GR2 tbh. It had stage presence and made appearances on Japanese gaming shows. Like someone else mentioned, GR 2 got fairly large marketing. But if you wanted TLOU2 or Morales level marketing, that wasn't going to happen. There wasn't enough of splash for the franchise even in its own territory. It just didn't do well.
That's why Sony is putting more effort promoting Ghosts. That game was not only commercial success in JP as well as worldwide, but it has a much larger cultural impact. The devs have been announced ambassadors of Tsushima Island. The game is winning Japanese awards left and right. I love JP studios games, and Bokeh said they are willing to do sequels if Sony licenses them the IP, but their games often guzzled cash, with no impact or return. Hopefully this restructuring produces strong results.

 

[NahaNago]

What do you base this statement on?

Most of the big budget games they made were fairly safe bets that would sell millions of copies most likely. Horizon Zero Dawn was a shocker but the world and gameplay were pretty standard if not for the mechanical creatures I would have skipped it. It's just I was hoping that they would take more risks on Japanese games and indie developers. They pretty much used indies at the start of the ps4 and then abandoned them. They bought funimation and crunchy roll but won't buy or fund an anime studio to make a series off their own IP. A pretty safe move. They finally bought Insomniac games. A safe move that makes everyone wonder why they didn't do this earlier. and if rumors prove true they will buy bluepoint games that will also be another safe move. I'd like for them to shock and wow me.

I’m curious how this post will age once Nintendo finally enters the 4K lane with everyone else, because it’s inevitable.

It will probably still be okay since they have their own jrpg studio , fund jrpgs, and fund games like Bayonetta that take forever to release.

 

[Bryank75]

PlayStation dominated last gen and is doing/will do the same in the current one. This recent quarter/calendar year saw Sony breaking records in gaming history for a console platform holder in revenue, consoles sold (both PS5 and PS4 considering their sales life cycle point), games sold, game subscription services (in both revenue and subscribers) and also took the lead as pioneers (they are market leaders and have the biggest catalog because they are the only ones there) in console VR and console game streaming. Their first party games are also selling better than they ever did.

Sony kept growing their game development teams and also acquiered new ones like Insomniac. They are working on improving PS Now and working on a PSVR2 and in more studio acquisitions. And obviously they secure a ton of 3rd party exclusive deals of the different types or if not ensuring they get a great 3rd party and indie support with multis.

Xbox movements are the 3rd ones and are trying to mimic some Sony moves trying to catch up in some areas (switched their focus from the tv,tv,sports,kinect,tv,tv to focus on gaming only), grew the number of internal studios and IP to be able to compete against Sony, made a bet on game streaming service as Sony did and I bet somewhere in the mid term future we'll see MS buying someone to have their own VR for PC and Xbox. In some other areas, they saw can't compete with Sony or Nintendo selling consoles or console games, so have been moving their focus from Xbox to PC and tried to bet hard on game subscription service to see if they can lead at least that market.


If we look at factual data instead of forum posts, PlayStation brand now is better than it never has been. Or than any other console manufacturer has been. Or at least this is what revenue and sales numbers say.

I have noticed the big push for PSNow recently, they must have spent a fortune on marketing for it recently. A move to emulate Xbox's focus on the area recently. Jim seems to have no fresh ideas... just chase Xbox.

The facts are that only ND, SMS, Guerrilla, SP and Insomniac are making the high level AAA exclusives we are talking about.

Polyphony makes GT which is great but has a certain audience, San Diego is now multiplatform, Mm does weird experiments and is tiny, Bend hasn't hit the bar of quality to be considered part of that group etc.

Xbox just took about 10 franchises off PlayStation completely between Hellblade, Psychonauts, Wasteland, Doom, Fallout, Starfield, Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein and others.... and they intend to buy more.

It's time for Sony to pull the finger out and do something, these are significant losses for an audience on PlayStation and there has been no indication as to a plan to offer anything in place of these games.
It's time to buy a publisher..... time to expand and do unto others as has been done onto you.

Right now, they have been pathetic and most of the launch and games that have released were in development or organized way before Jim Ryan took over. Things have gotten significantly worse with him though....and his 'SLATE of games.' Guy hasn't got a clue.

 

[SSfox]

Glad to see i'm not the only one who isn't feeling too much Jimbo and Hermen decisions.

Also let's not forget about that we believe in generations. I mean despite being a shitty strat but Phil at least was straight honest by announcing they gonna do crossgen games. If Jimbo knew Horizon 2 is gonna be on both PS5 and PS4 he shouldn't do such claims and should simply honestly say that some games will be full next gen (demon souls and Ratchet) and some other games will be Cross (Horizon 2, Spiderman MM).

 

[Bryank75]

Also... I get the feeling some of my Sony bro's will be happy if Sony goes out and buys Bluepoint or / and Housemarque....

If they do that, it will look like a joke. No valuable IP's, no established franchises, no history.... they might as well write 'Losers' across their foreheads and walk around every large city in America.

There is no point to a move like that and it's insulting, especially when they made 3.3 billion last year. (PS division alone)

 

[JeremyEtcetera]

It will probably still be okay since they have their own jrpg studio , fund jrpgs, and fund games like Bayonetta that take forever to release.

I'm talking more in terms of their budgets. Graphically, they're still on a post-360, pre Xbox one budget. The switch can barely handle UE 4 games that aren't Fortnite. I'm curious to see how things will change once they are dealing with more power, more textures, and more capabilities.

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

I have noticed the big push for PSNow recently, they must have spent a fortune on marketing for it recently. A move to emulate Xbox's focus on the area recently. Jim seems to have no fresh ideas... just chase Xbox.

The facts are that only ND, SMS, Guerrilla, SP and Insomniac are making the high level AAA exclusives we are talking about.

Polyphony makes GT which is great but has a certain audience, San Diego is now multiplatform, Mm does weird experiments and is tiny, Bend hasn't hit the bar of quality to be considered part of that group etc.

Xbox just took about 10 franchises off PlayStation completely between Hellblade, Psychonauts, Wasteland, Doom, Fallout, Starfield, Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein and others.... and they intend to buy more.

It's time for Sony to pull the finger out and do something, these are significant losses for an audience on PlayStation and there has been no indication as to a plan to offer anything in place of these games.
It's time to buy a publisher..... time to expand and do unto others as has been done onto you.

Right now, they have been pathetic and most of the launch and games that have released were in development or organized way before Jim Ryan took over. Things have gotten significantly worse with him though....and his 'SLATE of games.' Guy hasn't got a clue.

I’d really like to see them push VR. I have yet to join in, but if there were several amazing games, then I would. It would also be a market with no console competition. I’m just not sure how hard they can push the technology at an affordable price point in console gaming.

Also... I get the feeling some of my Sony bro's will be happy if Sony goes out and buys Bluepoint or / and Housemarque....

If they do that, it will look like a joke. No valuable IP's, no established franchises, no history.... they might as well write 'Losers' across their foreheads and walk around every large city in America.

There is no point to a move like that and it's insulting, especially when they made 3.3 billion last year. (PS division alone)

That may not be a big splash, but it would be a solid get. You’d have solid studios that you could buy for cheap to help keep quality product flowing. Maybe you’d be able to partner with Konami on IP and get exclusive content, including new games of franchises that they don’t want to spend the money on. Konami could make a good chunk of change on royalties. I’d say Capcom would be a good purchase, but I do worry that Sony has lost touch with managing Japanese talent.