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Are Sony exclusives too samey?

Sony definitely plays it safe when it comes to their big first party titles. Almost always a thirst person action adventure with rpg elements. But that is not really just sony, many of the big games are more or less samey. You have to make what you know will sell, AAA games are just to costly to risk a commercial failure.
 
Danjin44 said:
umm....When was last time you saw game other than NieR series change camera perspective or have bullet hell mechanics or having one of the most unique end sequence?
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None, but my bad of using Nier.

Still you cannot deny that Nier's cinematic did impact a lot of players emotionally. It probably motivates then to play the game a few times just to see the end game.
 
I don't know, I look at Sony first party and see almost nothing samey about the lineup. Most of their lineup is new IP. Whether these games end up being great is another argument for another day Sony has done a good job of not falling into the sequel trap that their competitors at Nintendo and especially MS have a tendency of doing.
 
MayauMiao said:
None, but my bad of using Nier.

Still you cannot deny that Nier's cinematic did impact a lot of players emotionally. It probably motivates then to play the game a few times just to see the end game.
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It was the opposite for me.
 
sponk said:
Sony definitely plays it safe when it comes to their big first party titles. Almost always a thirst person action adventure with rpg elements. But that is not really just sony, many of the big games are more or less samey. You have to make what you know will sell, AAA games are just to costly to risk a commercial failure.
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To be fair third person action / adventure with some/many RPG elements can represent an enormous variety of games: TLoU, UC4, ISS, GR, etc... they meet the keywords you presented, but they are also as independent as you could like them to be. Calling them samey seems like an overgeneralisation like calling games that have exploration in them walking simulators (although that is now bordering on offensive noise :P).
 
The game style is very alike, hide in X, climb X... I haven't been able to pick up the Uncharted spin off and don't see myself grabbing the Last of Us 2 anytime soon after release either. I get the experience, I really do. I've played all these games through and I marvel at the cinematic look of it all and what feels like your playing a movie/decent story. But I've had enough of it at the moment, Yakuza feels very different to me seen that mentioned somewhere, but dam the size of those games is another problem all together.

Halo and Forza get shit on for being the same, but it terms of hours (x10 or more compared to Sony first party) the amount of hours you'll put in and return on investment there's a reason of us many keep going back. Hurling through online with your mates on a warthog never gets old. And that's one thing Sony doesn't have 1 game of, which they need like Microsoft needs a cinematic game or two. Both even each other out if you love both, or buy which ever experience you love most.
 
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Mattyp said:
The game style is very alike, hide in X, climb X... I haven't been able to pick up the Uncharted spin off and don't see myself grabbing the Last of Us 2 anytime soon after release either. I get the experience, I really do. I've played all these games through and I marvel at the cinematic look of it all and what feels like your playing a movie/decent story. But I've had enough of it at the moment, Yakuza feels very different to me seen that mentioned somewhere, but dam the size of those games is another problem all together.

Halo and Forza get shit on for being the same, but it terms of hours (x10 or more compared to Sony first party) the amount of hours you'll put in and return on investment there's a reason of us many keep going back. Hurling through online with your mates on a warthog never gets old. And that's one thing Sony doesn't have 1 game of, which they need like Microsoft needs a cinematic game or two. Both even each other out if you love both, or buy which ever experience you love most.
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See, it is a game and platform preference to me more than anything. The game styles are debatably similar, sure they both use analog sticks for movement and camera sure :), but then again you personally have no problem puttin lots of hours in the same game and in quite similar quasi yearly iterations of the same IP (by the same criteria that made UC and TLoU feel samey iterations of Halo and Forza would have zero changes essentially ;)).

Loving Xbox's first party games by MS and not liking PS exclusives nearly as much is fine, different games for different tastes :), but not sure how it is going beyond this distinction to be honest.
 
oagboghi2 said:
Sony invests money in games people will actually buy. Animal Crossing and Pikmin, are respectively among the weaker selling Nintendo franchises.
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What?
The GCN game, which is a port of the N64 one, is the ninth best selling game on GameCube by Nintendo, at 2.27 million:

The Wii one is only at position 16 of Nintendo's Wii games, but it sold 4.32 million:


The DS game has sold 11.75 million and reached position nine among all of Nintendo's DS games:


On 3DS, it's place eight among Nintendo's games, at 11.69 million sold:


All numbers courtesy of Celine. I mean, I hate Animal Crossing, but it being a weaker selling Nintendo franchise is just plain wrong. On 3DS, it even outsold Smash and is the best selling game neither Mario platformer / Kart nor Pokémon. What exactly does a game need to sell to qualify as a good selling Nintendo franchise for you?

On topic:
Of course, not all Sony games fall into the same category, I doubt this topic is about LBP, Gran Turismo or MLB. But among the front-runner games there is a distinct similarity in that there is a lot of games that focus on cinematic, over-the-shoulder-action gameplay with a lot of setpieces and wandering around. This is precisely the reason I am not interested in Sony's first party lineup very much.
 
Yoshi said:
What?
The GCN game, which is a port of the N64 one, is the ninth best selling game on GameCube by Nintendo, at 2.27 million:

The Wii one is only at position 16 of Nintendo's Wii games, but it sold 4.32 million:


The DS game has sold 11.75 million and reached position nine among all of Nintendo's DS games:


On 3DS, it's place eight among Nintendo's games, at 11.69 million sold:


All numbers courtesy of Celine. I mean, I hate Animal Crossing, but it being a weaker selling Nintendo franchise is just plain wrong. On 3DS, it even outsold Smash and is the best selling game neither Mario platformer / Kart nor Pokémon. What exactly does a game need to sell to qualify as a good selling Nintendo franchise for you?

On topic:
Of course, not all Sony games fall into the same category, I doubt this topic is about LBP, Gran Turismo or MLB. But among the front-runner games there is a distinct similarity in that there is a lot of games that focus on cinematic, over-the-shoulder-action gameplay with a lot of setpieces and wandering around. This is precisely the reason I am not interested in Sony's first party lineup very much.
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I do appreciate your well reasoned post, but I disagree on the camera and abstract descriptionon of high level gameplay and level design. Take a side scrolling level setup, platform-ish gameplay, etc... all games being samey? No way, SMB2 vs SM3 vs SMW vs YI vs DKC... I would take exception to pushing any of those aside because they are all samey (and according to how TLoU, GR, UC, ISS, etc... are called samey they would be too)... IMHO they may look samey if you look at them from 5000 ft, but they are not samey at all once you actually try them or watch them a tad more closely.
 
Honestly this very shallow way of looking at the games. This is no different than someone claiming all JRPG look and play the same. seriously if someone thinks God of War plays like Last of Us just because over shoulder camera then I have to question if that person even played the game at all.
 
Fbh said:
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Exclusives are one of the big reasons I stick to Sony. I just really like how they still seem committed to investing in big AAA single player games in an industry that feels more and more like it's going towards everything being online and connected (at least in the realm of AAA games). Thinking back at both this gen and last gen, some of my favourite games have been exclusive to Playstation and when looking towards the future, several of my most anticipated games are playstation exclusive.

But during this E3 I've seen a lot of comments (both here and in other places) that Ps4/Sony exclusives feel too similar to each other. That they are all third person, cinematic experiences that pretty much feel like different takes on the same formula.

But I disagree. I think they all feel pretty different from each other. I think the problem is the way Sony is showing them.

A good example would be the recent God of War.
When it was first shown I was pretty skeptical. I was of the opinion that GOW needed a change but that first demo made it look like they had taken The Last of Us and put a God of War skin on it which wasn't the sort of change I was hoping for. The camera angle was similar, there was also a kid, and a large part of the demo was them walking and talking in what looked like a pretty scripted/cinematic type of experience.
But as I play the game now I couldn't have been more wrong. Both the camera angle and the fact there's a kid still make it easy to draw comparisons to TLOU but the games feel completely different. Where TLOU was indeed a more narrative/cinematic experience, 90% of my time with God of War has been pure gameplay. There are some cutscenes and there are a few walking and talking scenes but 90% of my time has been spent fighting, exploring, solving puzzles, improving my gear and engaging in fun gameplay focused side content.

Now, looking at the other games I can't help but feel like they are making a mistake by focusing on all the similar elements in them instead of what makes them unique. During the conference, Spiderman looked like another highly scripted and cinematic game but looking at the extended gameplay demos (and impressions from people that have played it) it seems to be way more in line with something like Arkham City or Infamous than TLOU or Uncharted

Then comes Ghost of Tsushima which I obviously haven't played and, thus, gives me no choice but to speculate. But I saw a lot of people in the thread be like "great, another heavily scripted, cinematic third person game". I can only guess from my past experience with Sucker Punch games, but I think the actual game will be way more open than what we saw and I'm sure that while some of the missions will play out like that demo (which at least to me is great), that section wasn't representative of the what we will be doing the vast majority of the time (In the same way as the first gameplay demo of God of War wasn't really representative of what the game really is like).

So how do you feel about them? Do you do indeed think that they are too samey, do you think the approach of how they are showing them is wrong or do you have another take?
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"Do you do indeed think that they are too samey "

Huh? um...ok. No. Those games are by different developers, different genres, different engines. So God Of War isn't The Last Of Us, Spider Man isn't like Ghost Of Tsushima etc That is like saying Doom and Mirrors Edge are the same games..... So when someone states "great, another heavily scripted, cinematic third person game" , let them be dumb, why even give any attention to that amount of stupid?

Soooooo can I tell you "I heard some people say stuff like "great, another FPS, with guns, close ups" etc and then make a thread about how dumb people view games?


By that logic, Skyrim is the same as Doom, is the same as Portal, is the same as Mirrors Edge, I mean, they are in first person bro, so THEY MUST BE "samey" /s Someone this slow, shouldn't really even be entertained in regards to what they are asking. They don't even understand that perspective isn't really even a genre ie 3rd person, first person etc.

WHAT YOU DO is the genre, not what it looks like ie perspective. You can have a RPG, that is in first person, you can have a RPG that is in 3rd person......sooooooo first person to 3rd made you do something different in the game or? Skyrim, Fallout ......you can go from 3rd to 1st and vice versa. This proves that this doesn't make the genre, it simply gives a different view, but the view itself is NOT THE GENRE, so Skyrim and Fallout are still RPGS, regardless of what view you decide to play in. You are not web slinging in God Of War, you are not fighting with swords in Japan to save your homeland in The Last Of Us and you are not fighting Norse gods in The Last Of Us 2 with guns.

They play different, they have vastly different stories, themes, settings, time periods etc. If someone wants to think they are the same because you can see someone's back, let them be that slow...
 
Panajev2001a said:
I do appreciate your well reasoned post, but I disagree on the camera and abstract descriptionon of high level gameplay and level design. Take a side scrolling level setup, platform-ish gameplay, etc... all games being samey? No way, SMB2 vs SM3 vs SMW vs YI vs DKC... I would take exception to pushing any of those aside because they are all samey (and according to how TLoU, GR, UC, ISS, etc... are called samey they would be too)... IMHO they may look samey if you look at them from 5000 ft, but they are not samey at all once you actually try them or watch them a tad more closely.
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Samey but not exactly the same. If someone was not to like games about jumping precisely in a two-dimensional scrolling setting, then SMB2, SMB3, SMW, YI and DKC will all be worthless to them, because they are samey in that way. They are even in the same genre (which is not necessarily true for hollywood action games mentioned above). Noting that these games follow a common design concept, yet obviously branch out in different ways on a more specific level is not the same as putting them aside or claiming that they are all worthless. If you enjoy that general direction, you are in for a treat on PS4 (and previously, 3), with a lot of variety in specific execution. Same as I had (have) a great time with the SNES / Mega Drive due to a large variety of games that follow the 2D skill-based sidescroller platformer template.

If someone were to claim they are actually little variations of the same game, I would object to that and it is totally possible someone enjoys some of the games but not others, but in a similar way as Ubisoft games have established a certain base concept for a long time, these kind of Sony games have established a mutual base concept that extends beyond genre borders to make for a similar kind of experience. Without making redundant one another.
 
bitbydeath said:
The best games are made in third person
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No. It may be a very popular genre right now, especially with the overflow of cinematic games but you just said is ridiculous.
bitbydeath said:
The Last of Us is largely considered as one of the best games of all time, if not THE BEST.
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Look, I enjoyed TLoU, I really did but I think some of you taking this game a bit to the extreme. Maybe it's caused by all the hype surrounding TLoU2.
 
asqarkababi said:
Oh and i forgot racing the same nonsense
MS has only shooters and racing and Fable
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And Halo Wars, so they got first person, third person, racing, roleplaying and real time strategy covered.


Sounds like more variety than mainly cinematic single player experiences
 
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The_Mike said:
And Halo Wars, so they got first person, third person, racing, roleplaying and real time strategy covered.


Sounds like more variety than mainly cinematic single player experiences
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Different names but same content shoot bang and racing
And i did forget the content by MS is only suitable for The US MARKET we in europe have different tastes thats why ms is losing here in europe compared to Sony and Nintendo
 
Coming from PC both Sony, MS and Nintendo make same games.
But that is more due to costs of innovation than unwillingness.

They just stick to what works for them.
 
Jarbloko said:
Sony needs more new Cartoonish characters.
I miss characters like ratchet, sly, jak, and even...Knack.
Now we only have ultra realistic foes who shots , or uses bow and arrows.
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Knack 2 came out last year September. Ratchet & Clank is 2016... This is the only year we haven't gotten a new big budget mascot platformer (not counting remaster) and I feel part of the reason is Media Molecule getting completely bogged down on Dream... honestly that game has been in development since 2012 and is only getting released this year (which is still iffy). I don't think Sony would be too happy with their output tbh.

On topic: The four game Sony chose to focus for this E3 are all 3rd person games sure... but they also have other games like Detroit, Dreams and Concrete Genie etc so I definitely think they have variety even if they tend to focus on more cinematic experience.

I think their only shortcoming is a lack of solid Multiplayer FPS exclusives, but then again, all the major third parties will help fill-in that void on a yearly basis so I see no reason why Sony should shift focus. There isn't enough single player experience coming from third party as-is so I am counting on Sony to champion these type of games.
 
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I think they have got into a bit of a comfort zone with the uncharted-em-up. But they still have enough other stuff for some variety.

No different really than Xbox over reliance on shooters.
 
Yes. There's definitely a trend and a common style. Cinematic experiences and games with huge focus on story and narrative.
 
There's variety in Sony's AAA cinematic third person games, but it's an industry wide issue that the highest end AAAA games take very few risks and mostly hone a tried and true experience. I do think Sony/MS and the largest third parties should be willing to take more risky bets in high production value games. It's understandable why third parties want to stick to less risky bets, but console manufacturers should also think about the variety of their catalogue, not just by offering some short VR or "indie" titles, but pushing for more diversity in AAA titles. If they're not in the position to do it, who is? They should be taking more risks than they are currently, and I do think it limits the amount of creativity we see in the AAA space. Currently most of the innovation tends to come from smaller titles or even mods to games, and that's further distilled to fit into the incumbent proven AAA formats.

Of course ultimately the reason why Sony and others make use of these tried and true third person cinematic games is because people have liked them in the past, and don't know if there's anything else they'd like instead, because they've never seen what else that kind of production value could've come up with. Change in this marquee title space is very slow due to people's resistance to change and publisher's aversion to risk. So they'll ever tread the line where most of what you play is comfortable and familiar, but with something that keeps it from becoming completely stale. I think Sony has done a good job of it in this generation, but I don't think next gen reception will be as good if they just keep churning out sequels to franchises. I think it's the first parties job to keep the AAA space moving forward and diversifying their platforms instead of making an exclusive version of what the risk averse big third party publishers already spend their time on.
 
What Sony does what others don't is taking risk. For example a game like Ghost of Tsushima, Detroit or Death Stranding especially would just not possible at MS or Nintendo. They maybe mostly 3rd person Action games but what look in a game is not the mechanics but the story and its characters. So it fits me perfectly to b honest.
 
I did say, after Uncharted 4 was announced, that I wish Naughty Dog would try something different for their next game. I'm kind of over that style of game. But, we have TLoU2 on the way. I won't be playing it. As good as the writing may be, I find the gameplay mind-numbingly boring.

The other games are different enough though.
 
Dunki said:
What Sony does what others don't is taking risk. For example a game like Ghost of Tsushima, Detroit or Death Stranding especially would just not possible at MS or Nintendo. They maybe mostly 3rd person Action games but what look in a game is not the mechanics but the story and its characters. So it fits me perfectly to b honest.
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Yeah, like who the heck would have funded LBP or Dreams? I remember Microsoft tried to play catchup with Project Spark, but that got canned, and Dreams is still happening.

Also, we wouldn't have gotten Flower or Journey with Sony's risk taking. I remember Jenova Chen's pitch on Flower as "you are the wind carrying flowers" and it got the greenlight then and there lol.
 
Na there IP's are extremely different same with Nintendo and Microsoft. However i am extremely bored of 3rd person cover shooters with forced stealth mechanics but that's just a personal grip.

Also whilst am moaning like a grumpy old bastard , i also don't like Batman Arkham combat , its a combat system for idiots and i take no satisfaction from playing games with this combat system in it , that's why i have no interest in spider man
 
asqarkababi said:
Different names but same content shoot bang and racing
And i did forget the content by MS is only suitable for The US MARKET we in europe have different tastes thats why ms is losing here in europe compared to Sony and Nintendo
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I live in Denmark, Europe, and I have plenty of friends.

I could say the same about Sony exclusives "different names, same linear story with 80% cinematic cutscenes", but I let you derail the thread with fanboy flak solo now. Enjoy
 
Dunki said:
As someone who does not like Zombie Games normally I think it is in the TOP 5 of best games ever so yes there are people like me. It was certainly the best of its generation.
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well i mean there are people in the world who like black liquorice and pineapple on pizza. some people also like the booger tasting jellybeans. youre free to like bad things bud
 
5secondrulesucks said:
well i mean there are people in the world who like black liquorice and pineapple on pizza. some people also like the booger tasting jellybeans. youre free to like bad things bud
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Despite if you like such games or not you can not say that it is a bad game, (bad mechanics, production, story characters etc.) How exactly great this game is depends certainly on the person and is very subjective.

PS: This here is fucking great^^

pizza-hawaii.jpg
 
Sony games have great production value but I always get the feeling that they waste the cool looking areas that they've created by only using them for a couple of scenes with basic gameplay and then they never use the assets again. I want more RPG elements and missions in these levels like for example the bazaar in Uncharted 4 which looked cool and probably took an age to create but it was a fleeting shallow and wasteful gameplay experience IMO.
 
Yeah, I see your point. They are kinda similar, with the third-person action perspective & story-driven. But I don't mind, since it's pretty much my favorite genre :)
Loved Horizon, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Ratchet & Clank and Bloodborne; all very different. Can't wait for Ghost of Tsushima and Last of Us 2, both look incredible.
 
I can see the broad comparisons between action games from a third person perspective and heavily story driven but I don't see much comparison between Spiderman and Horizon Zero Dawn. The only one I'd say comes really close to each other is Days Gone and The Last of Us 2.

I know Days Gone and The Last of Us are very different in many ways but I can't shake the feeling I have towards it.
 
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I was fully expecting the Death Stranding demo to have bush hiding in it. Maybe Kojima just hasn't got around to implementing it yet.

Most PS4 exclusives seem to focus on cinematic story driven games. It's pretty obvious at this point that most of Sony's studios are using the same tool set to make their games. They are taking ideas on gameplay and design from each other. At this point it hasn't worn out its welcome yet with the masses, but you can see the obvious comparisons beginning to get talked about. At some point Sony's studios should probably quit sharing so much, and just make their games completely independent. I'm already a bit tired of the cinematic walk, crouch, hide in a bush, and repeat scenario, and it's disappointing that that's what I'm likely to get more of over the next few years.

With MS, you can tell that there is a distinct difference between each studio. Other than Forza/Horizon of course. While Sony has the third person cinematic genre down pat, imo MS does well over a broader range of genres.
 
The_Mike said:
I live in Denmark, Europe, and I have plenty of friends.

I could say the same about Sony exclusives "different names, same linear story with 80% cinematic cutscenes", but I let you derail the thread with fanboy flak solo now. Enjoy
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LMAO You think im a fanboy ok Enjoy youre opinion Buddy ;)
The question is here why is ms not successful in Europe ?
Whats the reason that ms is losing in europe every generation
It has to do with the direction they choose with their games
Sony has different games in different genres
Thats right that their games are cinematic and action the reason is that todays gamers like cinematic experiences that is why sony makes cinematic games
 
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meirl said:
They are all like watching a movie. Still don't get the appeal. If I want to watch a movie I turn on the TV or go to the movies.
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If you really think The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn or frankly, any of these games is like watching a movie you simply haven't played them. You watched a cutscene at E3 and left it at that.

Having higher quality cutscenes than other third person shooter, stealth or action RPGs does not make it a movie.
 
Happy1996 said:
Oh come on Detroit's storytelling is as primitive as hell. It's not the best example, but I think you got my point.
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It is like a movie or in this case like a TV series and why it seem primitive compared t movie/TV it is not in regards of video games. Lets take a look at one of the chase scenes for example it is perfectly executed on terms of tension, cuts, music etc.



This is something you sadly do not see on PC or even in terms of non Sony games.
 
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