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[CamHostage]

So many have no idea who Eric Lempel is. He was the one in charge of the PlayStation Store and Firmware updates in the PS3 era. If there's one guy that knows the hardware, the OS inside out, the features it's Lempel.

Goes back before that even; he was part of Sony's PS2 launch program.

But yeah, read the actual article instead of the buzzword headline (and it's not even GameIndustry's headline, though they didn't help themselves by having it as a clipout quote....) and it's plenty clear that Lempel wasn't at all taking a shot at anything or anybody, just taking a second to show some pride of it being a happy time to be a part of Sony and to be a Sony fan despite all the troubled circumstances around. All the quick comments now jumping on the pullquote aren't taking in any of the context that the entire interview was celebrating a party about to start, not a fight.

 

[Tulipanzo]

What an amateur. You're supposed to call it "the best lineup in history" every year for 7 years, until people immediately assume you're lying and have nothing

 

[killatopak]

Generic PR puff statements legitimately garner attention from NeoGAF?

But why?

Because it's not from Phil.

 

[The Scrivener]

All Sony have is a Spider-Man B-side game and erotic-rumble controllers, not exactly much compared to Xbox Game Studios massive output and almost daily Game Pass drops, is it.

 

[SaucyJack]

Maybe it’s stating the obvious but WE don't know what the PS5 launch lineup is.

They showed 25+ games at the showcase and only gave us dates on a couple, does that mean that the rest are not launch? Or does it just mean that they chose not to tell us yet?

Too many assuming the former when the latter is more likely.

 

[thelastword]

The other thing is we don't know the full launch lineup for PS5, we will know soon enough, but people are already pretending that they do.

Spiderman alone is going to sell bananas, All Stars look pretty good, Godfall is my type of game/genre and there might be a few games that will make launch that we don't know of yet, like games that push the Dual Sense. We may get remasters of some of the big first party games like LOU2, Tsushima, GOW, hopefully DC, I'm sure SF5 will be a remaster too and of course some third party titles. I think that's a pretty good launch lineup and of course what Lempel is really talking about is how things will continue to ramp up from launch, since some of the big PS5 heavyweights have been in the works for a while.....There was actual preparation involved here and clearly he is talking about the entire generation of PS5. There will be great titles with a higher level of frequency over PS5 and that's impressive coming from PS4, Jim Ryan is no joke...

 

[Lethal01]

Several people with different backgrounds when it comes to the stuff they leak have talked about the Silent Hill soft-reboot at Sony being a real thing. It is happening.

You're hilarious.
This level of rumor happens all the time. it could happen. But it's nowhere near confirmed.

 

[Humdinger]

Well this certainly has some meaning behind it. Sony for the most part dosen't just come out and make statements like this. I will be severely disappointed if they dont back this statement.

He's the head of marketing. He's the head of the PR department. Don't take things that marketing/PR guys say to heart. You'll just end up disappointed. It is a marketer's job to hype things up.

I can already hear the expectations rising, based on this guy's remark (which was really about the launch window "and beyond," not just the launch window, but that seems to be getting lost, too). I predict a lot of people will be grumbling, when the launch lineup is more clear. They'll say, "But Sony said this was the greatest launch lineup ever. This sucks. Waah."

 

[The Hamburglar]

what line up?

anyway i remember this Eric guy, or should i say, this the 2nd time i hear from him.
The first time he was with Doritos Pope showing off the DS, boy was that segment boring AF. Eric is boring AF. Feels like he is not a real gamer.

as opposed to your lord saviour Phil ‘I’m a gamer’ Spencer.
If massive gamer Spencer can go around saying best games this holiday and not deliver, then this Eric couldn’t do any worse.

 

[Raekwon26]

All Sony have is a Spider-Man B-side game and erotic-rumble controllers, not exactly much compared to Xbox Game Studios massive output and almost daily Game Pass drops, is it.

Trolling? Right?

 

[IKSTUGA]

Show, don't tell.

 

[Warnen]

 

[Mahavastu]

I think discussing the first year of PS2 is a bit tricky. I agree with Entroyp that the first year was rough until fall 2001 when it went into overdrive. But i remember finally getting my ps2 in may 2001 and having nothing to play on it other than tekken and DoA. I had been used to dozens of PS one games at my finger tips at all times, and it was bizarre going to blockbuster and being forced to play games like SSX because there was literally nothing else.

The first rumors about PS5 devkits reaching the developers appeared very early this time, I think early 2018, 2.5 years before the expected launch.
Maybe Sony can switch into overdrive earlier this time because the devs could start earlier?

 

[jimbojim]

Well, we will see at launch.

 

[Perrott]

You're hilarious.
This level of rumor happens all the time. it could happen. But it's nowhere near confirmed.

Whatever... see you in two months.

 

[lock2k]

They will never have a better line up than they had on PS2.

 

[Lethal01]

Whatever... see you in two months.

Sure? like I said I would not be surprised if it happens. But it's nowhere near a guarantee at this point, just a rumor.

 

[CamHostage]

He's the head of marketing. He's the head of the PR department. Don't take things that marketing/PR guys say to heart. You'll just end up disappointed. It is a marketer's job to hype things up.

Different departments*.

Marketing creates the advertisements and store merchandising; PR handles the press statements and I believe the social media exposure. You usually don't hear from a Marketing head when a product launches since they're focused on the materials and elements like commercials and slogans and posters and tchotchkes which will speak for themselves; you do hear from the PR department since their job is to handle company relations with the public. Part of PR's job is to use Marketing materials to do some of its PR (PR will send out press releases for trailers, for example,) but there'd be less need for PR to go the other direction and have Marketing create new materials specific for PR (though for maybe cases like the retracted/reconceived Crysis Remastered campaign where it launched badly and the company has regrouped for a smarter and more timely exposure of the product's strong points, you can see where a collaboration would come together.)

(*Unless I'm wrong of the set-up at Sony? I can't imagine they're not different subgroups at a company as large as Sony, if not even totally separate wings of the company reporting to a different head manager, but offhand I have not looked that up so somebody feel free to correct me where wrong.)

 

[Humdinger]

Different departments*.

Marketing creates the advertisements and store merchandising; PR handles the press statements and I believe the social media exposure. You usually don't hear from a Marketing head when a product launches since they're focused on the materials and elements like commercials and slogans and posters and tchotchkes which will speak for themselves; you do hear from the PR department since their job is to handle company relations with the public.

(*Unless I'm wrong of the set-up at Sony? I can't imagine they're not different subgroups at a company as large as Sony, if not even totally different wings of the company reporting to a different head manager, but offhand I have not looked that up so somebody feel free to correct me where wrong.)

You're probably right that they are different departments, or else one is a department within the other. I think of them as falling under the same umbrella. I'm using the term "PR" in the colloquial sense, as in the guys/gals who handle hype, promotion, marketing the product, advertising, and so forth. For instance, I call Phil Spencer a "great PR guy" all the time, although I'm aware he doesn't work in the press/public relations department. I'm using the term more loosely than you are.

In this case, I'm just saying that this is a man whose job it is to promote/hype/market the system. Of course he's going to hype it up.

I'm trying to temper people's expectations. I doubt it will work.

 

[PharaoTutAnchAmun]

Define launch window.

A launch window is that the games will relaese on a new console before 6 months have passed

 

[PharaoTutAnchAmun]

True, Sony has always had its share of "2nd Party" activity. They've been more weak on this side than usual IMO (especially since they don't have to support an "extra pillar" of a portable PlayStation anymore... RIP Vita,) but recently they've had Predator: Hunting Grounds, MediEvil, ReadySet Heroes, Erika, some VR stuff like Iron Man VR, Blood & Truth, and Tilt Brush, and even the AAA contract project Death Stranding.)

And while 2020 had a one-two megaton punch with TLoU2 and Ghost of Tsushima, their offices have otherwise been pretty quiet for a while now. I think a lot of us assumed Sony had so few PS4 games in the pipe (their 2020 line-up was basically the only games left from their 2018&2019 E3s) because they've been stacking up PS5 games, and the list we've seen shows some of that, but not enough to really feel like a hoarder's paradise.

So, while we're talking about it, we might as well list Sony's studios...

ALREADY PART OF PS5 LINE-UP

• Insomniac Games:
  • Has Spider Man Miles Morales in 2020 launch and Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart in 2021-ish
  • Released Stormland VR in 2019 (and a Magic Leap game?!), Spider-Man in 2018.
  • Workhorse studio if there ever was one, might they have MORE to come? (Stormland seems perfect for PS5VR.)
• Guerrilla Games:
  • Has Horizon Forbidden West in 2021.
  • Released Horizon Zero Dawn in 2017 and a PC port in 2020.
  • Does it have the staff for a second game?
• Japan Studio:
  • Has Astro's Playroom in 2020 launch by ASOBI Team and Demons' Soul contracted to Bluepoint in 2020/2021.
  • Released Knack 2 and LocoRoco 2 Remastered in 2017.
  • Internal studios have been painfully quiet for so, so long (Puppeteer and Knack 1 were in 2013, and Team Silent's Gravity Rush 2 was in 2017, ASOBI Team's Astro Bot Rescue Mission in 2018) and hopefully they have bigger plans under new boss Nicolas Doucet?
  • SIE Japan often is a producer with outside developers (Acquire and ClapHanz and Pyramid and Q-Games Alfa System are frequent collaborators, also Bluepoint, who are the collab team for DS,) and maybe they have some of those projects to come for PS5? (Japan Studio used to be the heavy supporter of portable games, and it was hoped that after Vita those efforts would pivot to console/VR, but that never seemed to happen last-gen unfortunately.) Also note that Japan usually holds its cards until TGS-time in Sept even when games launch that year, so there's possibly a few more PS5 games from Japan Studio, or maybe they'll stick around and be the PS4 after-care arm of Sony?
• Polyphony Digital:
  • Has Gran Turismo 7 indeterminate release date.
  • Released Gran Turismo Sport in 2017.
  • Unlikely to have further projects for immediate future.

PS5 LINE-UP PLANS TO COME

• Bend Studio:
  • Released Days Gone in 2019.
  • Not a big studio and not historically prolific. Maybe has Days Gone Enhanced / Expansion to come? Also may be busy with a PC port, as that's Sony's playbook right now.
• London Studio:
  • Released Blood & Truth PSVR in 2019, SingStar Celebration in 2017.
  • Used to be one of Sony's big-three production arms (both internal and contract development,) but seems to have fallen off a cliff after its PS3 run (and even then, it's big projects 8 Days and The Getaway PS3 dissolved.) Was often the "Casual Games" studio with SingStar and EyePet and DanceStar and WonderBook, we'll see if they go back to that well again.
  • Does a lot of the internal prototype-type projects (EyeToy, PlayStation Home, PlayStation VR Worlds,) maybe they're doing some interface/backend work again?
• Media Molecule:
  • Released Dreams in 2020, Tearaway Unfolded in 2015.
  • Has got to be working on Dreams for PS5, maybe even for PC.
• Naughty Dog:
  • Released The Last of Us Part II in 2020, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy in 2017.
  • Not the type to have multiple projects in heavy works at the same time, but they do make stand-alone expansions, so maybe a story add-on ala Lost Legacy or The Last of Us: Left Behind (both released one year later) are in order, if not a full Multiplayer add-on/side-game. Also TLoU2 enhancements are likely.
• Pixelopus:
  • Released Concrete Genie in 2019, Entwined in 2014.
  • Small studio. Genie was already a huge step up in scope, seems unlikely they have more new stuff for a little while?
• San Diego Studio:
  • Released MLB The Show in 2020, 2019, 2018...
  • Surely has MLB The Show PS5 in the works.
• San Mateo Studio:
  • Has never released anything. This is more of a Producer's Hub, where they hire contract studios and manage projects (sometimes creatively, sometimes just time&money) from afar. They are, as described on the official page, "The core collaborators."
  • Their PS4 project contracts have included Counterspy, Helldivers and Farpoint VR, as well as many other projects not credited to SIE San Mateo/Foster City, like probably Predator and ReadySet. They could be shopping for PS5 partners to do similar things...
• Santa Monica Studio:
  • Released God of War PS4 in 2018, God of War Ascension in 2013.
  • Supposedly has God of War PS5 in the works.
• Sucker Punch Productions:
  • Released Ghost of Tsushima in July
  • Has a multiplayer Ghost of Tsushima feature coming out for PS4; PS5 version of GoT likely.

You are saying that Days Gone and some other games are coming to PC...Do you have any proof of that ore is it just you hoping they will??

 

[CamHostage]

You are saying that Days Gone and some other games are coming to PC...Do you have any proof of that ore is it just you hoping they will??

Naw, just going by recent trends of Sony porting over some of its emerging brands. I have no insight, but it'd make sense. (We've yet to see a cornerstone franchise like God of War or Uncharted get ported, but Horizon was a big deal so we'll see what's next.) Dreams makes all the sense in the world (it's more a "games platform" than a "game" itself so it makes sense to allow more access points to the content than just PS4 or even PS5.) Days Gone has been rumored for PC, Bloodborne as well. MLB The Show is already more or less confirmed for PC (the franchise is going multiplatform in 2021, but it's unknown what platforms those are.) Tsushima is a wildcard, it's too new and too surprisingly successful to know how Sony will handle the brand, but I wouldn't be surprised...in a few years.

Sony doesn't have as much of a vested interest in spreading to PC as Microsoft does, but in a strange way, it's actually been doing it longer (Xbox games were kept as prestige Xbox games until Xbox Games Pass came along, whereas Sony was allowing PC versions of contracted games like Street Fighter V and Journey and Death Stranding to exist, and I think were the first to do cross-play albeit just PS-to-PC; back in the PS1 days, they even did a few PC ports like Wipeout 2097 and Krazy Ivan...and even allowed Saturn and N64 in on a bit of that too.) Now, if we see Spider-Man or TLoU on PC in the future, that'd be a massive change for Sony, but if it's just piecemeal like it has been, we can take a guess at what probably will and probably won't come to PC some day. And unless Sony really feels the heat from Games Pass (although I still wonder how much the cross-buy actually matters there, versus it just being a great bargain) or starts seeing big profits from the PC market, I'm guessing we won't see parity with PlayStation-&-PC releases any time soon.

 

[93xfan]

PS2 had a great launch lineup with SSX, Timesplitters, Tekken Tag Tournament, Ridge Racer 5, and Dead or Alive 2. That was their best launch so far. I’m skeptical this launch will be better

 

[CitizenX]

From Eric Lampels Iphone notes:
"This is going to be pretty good"
"We are excited for this line up"
"No compromises"
"Wait til E3"
"Its ok, i guess?"
"The SSD"...wait no.
"greatness awaits"
"THE best line up we have EVER seen" u uh oooo {jizzes in pants}

 

[Carna]

Buying day one alone for Bugsnax!