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Jim Ryan and the denigration of Playstation.

KWAB

Banned
Can anyone really say Last Guardian was worth the 10 years in development time?
I really hated The Last Guardian. The only other games I have from Japan Studio are Gravity Rush 1 and 2 and they were okay but I got them for cheap, wouldn't have bought them at full price.
 
Granted there is no exciting news lined up for PlayStation as in the other camp. But it's only because MS/Xbox is taking lots of good steps, trying to reach a position where Sony already is, i.e., strong, well-oiled first-party studios that can build high-quality games consistently + a roster of well-revered IPs.

Sony is already there. In fact, MS has yet to prove that they can produce those 85+ and 90+ games. Sony has been doing it in their sleep for the last 5 years.
Great point, I think it needs to be repeated.

The moves MS is making seem super bright and exciting, and for their fans the moves are that, but in reality these moves probably don't even put MS at Sony's level in terms of quality studios.

The recent history of Bethesda isn't all bad but its not all nice either. This move from MS with Bethesda in reality still puts them below Sony.

Think of it like a staircase with 20 steps. Sony is on step 14, MS was on step 6. Every year Sony, goes up 1 step and MS either stood still, went back a step or went up a step. This year, MS has seemed to go up 5 steps. Looking backwards, Sony fans might say "holy shit MS just went up 5 steps, this isn't good" but in reality MS went from being 8 steps behind to 3 steps behind Sony. They're still behind.

Also, competition is healthy and good for the industry and I believe these moves from MS will only drive Sony to make moves of their own. Hopefully the investment isn't in parttime exclusives which I see as throwing money away and is more permanent IPs, studio acquisitions or studio growth. Expand ND by 100 people, I say. Expand GG by another 100 people. These studios are full of creative people and somebody in there has to have some great idea about an IP that could blossom into the next AAA ip.
 
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martino

Member
Great point, I think it needs to be repeated.

The moves MS is making seem super bright and exciting, and for their fans the moves are that, but in reality these moves probably don't even put MS at Sony's level in terms of quality studios.

The recent history of Bethesda isn't all bad but its not all nice either. This move from MS with Bethesda in reality still puts them below Sony.

Think of it like a staircase with 20 steps. Sony is on step 14, MS was on step 6. Every year Sony, goes up 1 step and MS either stood still, went back a step or went up a step. This year, MS ahs seemed to go up 4 steps. Looking backwards, Sony fans might say "holy shit MS just went up 5 steps, this isn't good" but in reality MS went from being 8 steps behind to 3 steps behind Sony. They're still behind.

Also, competition is healthy and good for the industry and I believe these moves from MS will only drive Sony to make moves of their own. Hopefully the investment isn't in parttime exclusives which I see as throwing money away and is more permanent IPs, studio acquisitions or studio growth. Expand ND by 100 people, I say. Expand GG by another 100 people. These studios are full of creative people and somebody in there has to have some great idea about an IP that could blossom into the next AAA ip.
yep i'm with you you on this analagy ms is trying to climb steps 3 by 3 lately....if they don't fall in the process maybe they will be there at sony level for next gen launch.
 
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Hatsuma

Member
Returnal, kena, sackboy adventures, destruction all stars are AA. There are plenty of indies... such ignorant console war post. Omg 😆
That's what confuses the hell out of me. Wasn't SoP's February edition literally ragged on for being too indie focused? Is the next Astrobot game going to be anything other than a platformer? Likely AA scope because of Doucet. What the hell is Tem Tem, Praey to the gods, etc... are those suddenly not AA or Indie? Hell, we have an upcoming Cyberpunk Cat game lmao. I really am lost on the complaints.

They have a number of upcoming 2nd party games too. We just don't know what those games are yet, but we are far from a bad position. Lack of news is killing people i guess but I would say just enjoy your games in the mean time. Start tackling that backlog. P5 Strikers came out a few weeks ago along with Ys 9 lol
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Great point, I think it needs to be repeated.

The moves MS is making seem super bright and exciting, and for their fans the moves are that, but in reality these moves probably don't even put MS at Sony's level in terms of quality studios.

The recent history of Bethesda isn't all bad but its not all nice either. This move from MS with Bethesda in reality still puts them below Sony.

Think of it like a staircase with 20 steps. Sony is on step 14, MS was on step 6. Every year Sony, goes up 1 step and MS either stood still, went back a step or went up a step. This year, MS ahs seemed to go up 4 steps. Looking backwards, Sony fans might say "holy shit MS just went up 5 steps, this isn't good" but in reality MS went from being 8 steps behind to 3 steps behind Sony. They're still behind.

Also, competition is healthy and good for the industry and I believe these moves from MS will only drive Sony to make moves of their own. Hopefully the investment isn't in parttime exclusives which I see as throwing money away and is more permanent IPs, studio acquisitions or studio growth. Expand ND by 100 people, I say. Expand GG by another 100 people. These studios are full of creative people and somebody in there has to have some great idea about an IP that could blossom into the next AAA ip.
Yeah, absolutely. Also, the good news is that Sony has already increased the size of ND, GG, and SSM quite significantly.
  • Naughty Dog now has 469 employees and 4 known video game directors. They just shipped TLOU2, are working on TLOU2 Multiplayer. And the two new directors have been working on a new unannounced game since at least Sept. 2020. I suspect we'll get 3-4 games by ND this generation (TLOU2 Factions, a new IP, TLOU3, and perhaps a DLC or smaller spin-off game).
  • Sony Santa Monica now has 357 employees, and we know for sure that they are working on 2 games, at least. For reference, in March 2019, they were just over 150 people.
  • Guerrilla now has almost 400 people (388). They are also working on multiple games. They also have an xDev team now.
  • Insomniac also now has 3 teams (instead of 2). Recent hirings suggest they might be adding a 4th team (As much as I want it, I doubt it because that'll be too much lol).
If MS wasn't buying studios and IPs left and right (and reducing the amount of content that come on PlayStation), I'd be 100% behind this strategy of organic growth. By gradually expanding your best studios, you ensure that the new games you develop will be of the highest-quality. Buying a new studio does not ensure that at all.

However, now because of MS, I also think Sony needs to buy some studios and IPs as well -- to tip the balance back and recover the # of games they just lost to MS. But other than that, PlayStation's first-party studios and output have definitely grown.
 
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Bryank75

Banned
Yeah, absolutely. Also, the good news is that Sony has already increased the size of ND, GG, and SSM quite significantly.
  • Naughty Dog now has 469 employees and 4 known video game directors. They just shipped TLOU2, are working on TLOU2 Multiplayer. And the two new directors have been working on a new unannounced game since at least Sept. 2020. I suspect we'll get 3-4 games by ND this generation (TLOU2 Factions, a new IP, TLOU3, and perhaps a DLC or smaller spin-off game).
  • Sony Santa Monica now has 357 employees, and we know for sure that they are working on 2 games, at least. For reference, in March 2019, they were just over 150 people.
  • Guerrilla now has almost 400 people (388). They are also working on multiple games. They also have an xDev team now.
If MS wasn't buying studios and IPs left and right (and reducing the amount of content that come on PlayStation), I'd be 100% behind this strategy of organic growth. By gradually expanding your best studios, you ensure that the new games you develop will be of the highest-quality. Buying a new studio does not ensure that at all.

However, now because of MS, I also think Sony needs to buy some studios and IPs as well -- to tip the balance back and recover the # of games they just lost to MS. But other than that, PlayStation's first-party studios and output have definitely grown.

It's not only the 10 or more high profile IP's that they lost because of MSFT's acquisition spree... from Hellblade to Wasteland and all the Zenomax stuff. But also the 2nd party losses and 1st party too.... MLB going multiplat, Mm doing nothing commercial, Japan being downsized, no From Soft exclusive, Quantic Dream, Supermassive, Gen Design etc etc.

Huge gaps in the portfolio where those games used to be, no more WRPG's, probably no more South Park games, no more Doom, no 1st party shooter, no JRPG's outside FF......

If Sega does some deal or is bought by MSFT, that will be Yakuza and Persona gone too.

Maybe that is next Wednesday, I dunno.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Isn’t sony making a killing on PlayStation since Jim Ryan took over? Aren’t they selling like crazy? Why would anyone want to remove senior manager that is delivering good profits? Doesn’t make sense.
Those PS4 profit charts people paste every once in a while show Sony has made way more profits the past era than PS1, PS2 and PS3 combined.
 

Hatsuma

Member
Yeah, absolutely. Also, the good news is that Sony has already increased the size of ND, GG, and SSM quite significantly.
  • Naughty Dog now has 469 employees and 4 known video game directors. They just shipped TLOU2, are working on TLOU2 Multiplayer. And the two new directors have been working on a new unannounced game since at least Sept. 2020. I suspect we'll get 3-4 games by ND this generation (TLOU2 Factions, a new IP, TLOU3, and perhaps a DLC or smaller spin-off game).
  • Sony Santa Monica now has 357 employees, and we know for sure that they are working on 2 games, at least. For reference, in March 2019, they were just over 150 people.
  • Guerrilla now has almost 400 people (388). They are also working on multiple games. They also have an xDev team now.
  • Insomniac also now has 3 teams (instead of 2). Recent hirings suggest they might be adding a 4th team (As much as I want it, I doubt it because that'll be too much lol).
If MS wasn't buying studios and IPs left and right (and reducing the amount of content that come on PlayStation), I'd be 100% behind this strategy of organic growth. By gradually expanding your best studios, you ensure that the new games you develop will be of the highest-quality. Buying a new studio does not ensure that at all.

However, now because of MS, I also think Sony needs to buy some studios and IPs as well -- to tip the balance back and recover the # of games they just lost to MS. But other than that, PlayStation's first-party studios and output have definitely grown.
Absolutely agreed. The problem with many it seems is that Ryan isn't as personable as Spencer and Sony isn't as vocal as MS. Their acquisitions or dealings are fairly quiet and with lil fanfare. When Insomniac was acquired, it was very sudden and cut/dry. They recently entered a mutual partnership with Kadokawa. They may do the same with other Japanese pubs. Or they may just acquire them or they contract them.
 
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Angelcurio

Member
When it comes to the closure of Japan Studios, i still don't get why everyone quickly points the finger at Jim Ryan, while the actual head of Worlwide Studios, Hermen Hulst, gets a free pass. We know that Shuhei Yoshida greenlighted lots of weird Japanese titles while he was head of WW Studios, so whatever is happening how, Hermen Hulst is actually responsible, even if it means trying to refocus WW Studios on AAA western style titles, while ignoring the traditional quirky Japanese games.
 

yurinka

Member
Sony going AAA only is so boring. They've also seemingly abandoned the "Playstation loves indies" sentiment that was so prevalent in the first half of the PS4 lifecycle. Hopefully this blows up in their collective faces spectacularly and changes are made.
Sony never went AAA only and never abandoned the indies.

Regarding their 1st/2nd party games not all of them are AAA games. Last year they released Dreams, Astro's Playroom or Sackboy. In the 2nd half of PS4 and for PS5 they also signed a lot of AA exclusives like some upcoming ones like Guilty Gear Strive, Oddworld Soulstorm, Babylon's Fall, Eitr etc.

PS4 had a ton of great indies, both exclusive and multi in the 2nd part of the life cycle. And seems it will continue being the same in PS5 looking at the PS5 promotional video streams (state of play, PS5 reveal etc) where a good chunk of the titles highlighted are indies too, many of them being exclusive (many of them being timed, console to let indies have their profit) titles from popular indie devs or really promising newcomers. Stuff like Kena, the next one from the Hyper Light Drifter team, the next one from the Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP team, several ones from Annapurna, etc.

When it comes to the closure of Japan Studios, i still don't get why everyone quickly points the finger at Jim Ryan, while the actual head of Worlwide Studios, Hermen Hulst, gets a free pass. We know that Shuhei Yoshida greenlighted lots of weird Japanese titles while he was head of WW Studios, so whatever is happening how, Hermen Hulst is actually responsible, even if it means trying to refocus WW Studios on AAA western style titles, while ignoring the traditional quirky Japanese games.
They didn't shut down Japan Studio.

They reorganized it making it smaller by moving away its production/publishing part of externally developed games to merge it into the PlayStation Studios global operations and reduced its internal development part to focus it into the Asobi Team.

They did it after decades of Japan Studio releasing dozens of unprofitable games, not being capable of releasing a big seller. They had a ton of patience and had to do it sooner or later. Any other publisher wouldn't have waited that long. They didn't reduce it to avoid AAA: the opposite, they want to avoid money sinks like The Last Guardian or Knack and make smaller games like the Astro titles.

They will continue having Japan Studio games, Polyphony Digital games and tons of 3rd party exclusives big and small as they did during PS4, where they got some kind of exclusives from basically any known Japanese publisher and dev and they will continue doing it on PS5. In fact they recently signed a 3 ways deal with the parent company of CyGames (Granblue, Project Awakening) and the parent company of From Software, Kadokawa. Who also owns Spike Chunsoft, ASCII Media Works, Enterbrain, Chara-Ani, Kadokawa Shoten, Kadokawa Games, Media Factory and so on, and published games of tons of small Japanese studios like Grasshopper Manufacture, Game Arts, Mages/5pb, Nitro+ and many others.

Sony will continue getting both Japanese and western games, both internal and external, both big and small, both multi and exclusive.

Regarding Yoshida, he said he was going to cancel The Last Guardian but didn't do it because of external pressure of tons of fans asking for it.

As of now, Ryan is the CEO, he doesn't decide about 3rd/party games are signed or how internal development studios are managed. Herman is in charge of the 1st/2nd party games and studios, who at the same time also have their own studio specific management. Yoshida is in charge of signing indies.
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Those PS4 profit charts people paste every once in a while show Sony has made way more profits the past era than PS1, PS2 and PS3 combined.
True. And what's most interesting to me was that they recorded their biggest quarter in terms of operating profit while selling 5M console units at launch.

Sony never made operating profit during a console launch quarter in the history of the company. But they did this time. Imagine the Fall 2022 Quarter. They will have grown even more, and they won't likely be making a loss per console unit manufactured. It'll be a new record!
 

Hatsuma

Member
Sony never went AAA only and never abandoned the indies.

Regarding their 1st/2nd party games not all of them are AAA games. Last year they released Dreams, Astro's Playroom or Sackboy. In the 2nd half of PS4 and for PS5 they also signed a lot of AA exclusives like some upcoming ones like Guilty Gear Strive, Oddworld Soulstorm, Babylon's Fall, Eitr etc.

PS4 had a ton of great indies, both exclusive and multi in the 2nd part of the life cycle. And seems it will continue being the same in PS5 looking at the PS5 promotional video streams (state of play, PS5 reveal etc) where a good chunk of the titles highlighted are indies too, many of them being exclusive (many of them being timed, console to let indies have their profit) titles from popular indie devs or really promising newcomers. Stuff like Kena, the next one from the Hyper Light Drifter team, the next one from the Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP team, several ones from Annapurna, etc.


They didn't shut down Japan Studio.

They reorganized it making it smaller by moving away its production/publishing part of externally developed games to merge it into the PlayStation Studios global operations and reduced its internal development part to focus it into the Asobi Team.

They did it after decades of Japan Studio releasing dozens of unprofitable games, not being capable of releasing a big seller. They had a ton of patience and had to do it sooner or later. Any other publisher wouldn't have waited that long.
YASSS! The Hyper Light game you're referring to is Solar Ash. Alot of this is accurate. I think Annapurna is behind Cyberpunk Cat game, Stray.

And a lot of people do not realize, there were studios cut during PS3 AND PS4 gen for muuuuch less lmao and Japan Studios weren't even cut, but rather restructured. And the problem wasn't only profitability, it was also productivity. And if the studio proves itself again, then Sony will undoubtedly expand them again. And previous departures may return.
 

yurinka

Member
YASSS! The Hyper Light game you're referring to is Solar Ash. Alot of this is accurate. I think Annapurna is behind Cyberpunk Cat game, Stray.
Yes, Annapurna publishes Stray (the cyberpunk cat game), Solar Ash and before published Maquette (recently released), The Pathless, Donut County or Wattam, just to name some of their PS console excluives.

And a lot of people do not realize, there were studios cut during PS3 AND PS4 gen for muuuuch less lmao and Japan Studios weren't even cut, but rather restructured. And the problem wasn't only profitability, it was also productivity. And if the studio proves itself again, then Sony will undoubtedly expand them again. And previous departures may return.
Yup

Isn’t sony making a killing on PlayStation since Jim Ryan took over? Aren’t they selling like crazy? Why would anyone want to remove senior manager that is delivering good profits? Doesn’t make sense.
Yes, in their recent quarter and calendar year they made more money than any console platform holder ever made. They are also breaking gaming history records regarding consoles sold, games for their consoles sold, game subscriptions (both in revenue and people subscribed) and so on. And their 1st party games are selling better than they ever did. They are killing it in every front. PS4 also is getting more game releases, exclusive or not, than any other console ever got.

Only people who have no idea about their results and output, or fanboys of the competition, would critize/ask to remove Jim Ryan or Hermen Hulst.



It's not only the 10 or more high profile IP's that they lost because of MSFT's acquisition spree... from Hellblade to Wasteland and all the Zenomax stuff. But also the 2nd party losses and 1st party too.... MLB going multiplat, Mm doing nothing commercial, Japan being downsized, no From Soft exclusive, Quantic Dream, Supermassive, Gen Design etc etc.

Huge gaps in the portfolio where those games used to be, no more WRPG's, probably no more South Park games, no more Doom, no 1st party shooter, no JRPG's outside FF......

If Sega does some deal or is bought by MSFT, that will be Yakuza and Persona gone too.

Maybe that is next Wednesday, I dunno.
We know the exclusivity of the future Zenimax games will depend on each case. We still have to see if the big Zenimax IPs become fully console exclusive, if they only get timed console exclusive or if they continue full multiplatform since day one. In any case, they have some huge selling games and some good selling game but are a tiny portion of the market so very likely won't change things too much, as happened with Minecraft/Mojang being putchased.

MLB isn't a big selling game so doesn't change anything. Before releasing Dreams they said all previous Media Molecule games were profitable, we don't know Dreams sales but we know Media Molecule is a small team. Sony signed a deal with the parent company of From Software, who doesn't announce new games because they are too busy but let's wait and see if their next announced game is exclusive or not. Japan Studio was downsized because they didn't sell a shit during decades, so it made sense. Quantic Dreams said they wanted to go multi but also mentioned that they had their door open for possible future games for Sony. We don't know the platforms of the first Gen Desing game. Southpark games were published by Ubisoft, who developed their most recent one whitout Obsidian. Even if the Sega meme would become real next Wednesday we'd had to see if they become real we would have to see if they go full console exclusive or if they continue the Minecraft and Zenimax way. Considering that Japanese Xbox sales almost don't exist, I think it would be very likely to see them being released on PS, at least after a timed exclusive.

Most JPRGs are released on PlayStation, and many of them exclusive. Basically every kwown 3rd party Japanese publisher or dev had some kind of PS4 exclusives, and if PS continues breaking gaming history records in the worldwide scale as seems is going to be, they will continue relesing both exclusive and multi games on PS.

Same goes with many WRPG like the ones from Bioware, CD Projects, etc. We'll have to see if the next Bethesda ones became full console exclusive, and same goes with Doom.
 
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The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Jack Nicholson Reaction GIF
Let's be real. Sonys games are always high on the charts the first many weeks, and people still buy ps5.

Why do you think Sony dies if they don't port to pc? They went away with so much with no consequences last gen. I'm sure even though how much of an idiot Ryan is, they'd still outsell xbox and Nintendo.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
The thing to remember is that Japan Studio isn't the totality of their Japanese operation. They have Polyphony, and significantly Aniplex which has become increasingly important over the past few years and is expanding further into gaming.

The strategy they seem to be going with generally is to divest/reorganize under-performing units and reallocate the investment elsewhere with the presumable hope of catching "the next big thing" in the way they hit paydirt with Fate/Grand Order.
 

Angelcurio

Member
They didn't shut down Japan Studio.

They reorganized it making it smaller by moving away its production/publishing part of externally developed games to merge it into the PlayStation Studios global operations and reduced its internal development part to focus it into the Asobi Team.

They did it after decades of Japan Studio releasing dozens of unprofitable games, not being capable of releasing a big seller. They had a ton of patience and had to do it sooner or later. Any other publisher wouldn't have waited that long. They didn't reduce it to avoid AAA: the opposite, they want to avoid money sinks like The Last Guardian or Knack and make smaller games like the Astro titles.
And yet, the producer of Ghost of Tsushima had a lot of praise for that team, even though the general media doesnt recognize their involvement and support in a lot of titles, either from Sony or from third party developers, like Bloodborne or Demon Souls.
 

Bryank75

Banned

Bryank75

Banned
So, there is Persona more than likely coming to Xbox..... is there no end to Jim 'the ass clown' Ryan's incompetence?

This guy needs to fucking go, pronto!!!!!
 

Skifi28

Member
So, there is Persona more than likely coming to Xbox..... is there no end to Jim 'the ass clown' Ryan's incompetence?

This guy needs to fucking go, pronto!!!!!
"No Jim, not my games, don't take away my games. They're mine, nobody else should be able to play them"

On a more serious note, Persona is a third party title. Do you expect Sony to moneyhat a 5 year old game specifically so that it doesn't come to xbox or PC? The only real problem is your attitude.
 

SSfox

Member
Thanks god we still have Polyphony Digital that makes by far the best racing games.

But i hope to see more investment for Japanese games from Sony, Jimbo need to stop porting playstation games on PC and get himself together and remind himself what build Playstation brand and made it what it is today and what Playstation is truly about in its core.
 

Bryank75

Banned
"No Jim, not my games, don't take away my games. They're mine, nobody else should be able to play them"

On a more serious note, Persona is a third party title. Do you expect Sony to moneyhat a 5 year old game specifically so that it doesn't come to xbox or PC? The only real problem is your attitude.

MSFT spent 7.5Billion just to keep games off PlayStation....so that's a bit rich...
 

Skifi28

Member
MSFT spent 7.5Billion just to keep games off PlayStation....so that's a bit rich...

And Sony bought insomniac, they all invest in studios depending on how deep their pockets are and I doubt Sony is just sitting there, expect further aquisitions wether we like it or not. But, third party exclusives are going the way of the dodo other than timed deals, everything is going multi-platform incuding older games like Persona. The sooner some of you stop living in the PS1-PS2 era the better for your mental healths.
 
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Yeah, absolutely. Also, the good news is that Sony has already increased the size of ND, GG, and SSM quite significantly.
  • Naughty Dog now has 469 employees and 4 known video game directors. They just shipped TLOU2, are working on TLOU2 Multiplayer. And the two new directors have been working on a new unannounced game since at least Sept. 2020. I suspect we'll get 3-4 games by ND this generation (TLOU2 Factions, a new IP, TLOU3, and perhaps a DLC or smaller spin-off game).
  • Sony Santa Monica now has 357 employees, and we know for sure that they are working on 2 games, at least. For reference, in March 2019, they were just over 150 people.
  • Guerrilla now has almost 400 people (388). They are also working on multiple games. They also have an xDev team now.
  • Insomniac also now has 3 teams (instead of 2). Recent hirings suggest they might be adding a 4th team (As much as I want it, I doubt it because that'll be too much lol).
If MS wasn't buying studios and IPs left and right (and reducing the amount of content that come on PlayStation), I'd be 100% behind this strategy of organic growth. By gradually expanding your best studios, you ensure that the new games you develop will be of the highest-quality. Buying a new studio does not ensure that at all.

However, now because of MS, I also think Sony needs to buy some studios and IPs as well -- to tip the balance back and recover the # of games they just lost to MS. But other than that, PlayStation's first-party studios and output have definitely grown.
If Sony's going to by buying developers then I hope its developers they have a history of close working relationships with. An example being Kojima.
Would love for the mad man to be under Sony's umbrella and have his team expanded to 2 or even 3 dev teams. Kojima is just the enough amount of crazy that will allow Sony to have that X factor in their portfolio of 1st party titles.
You need someone who wants to try and break the mould and you get that with Kojima. Might be risky in AAA development but we need that cause gaming has becoming a copy/paste job for the past few years now.
 
As a PS5 owner, I'm not worried at all. Astro and Demon's have both already delivered nice next gen gameplay and Sony has already announced a number of huge titles that are on their way.

If Microsoft bought those companies to keep games off PS they are doing a terrible job. I'm playing Doom Eternal on my PS5 and all the recent Gamepass additions that have been on PS Now for 5 years are still there.

The sale is completed, there is no reason for them to not shout about exclusivity from the sky. They are not doing so, which hints at likely multiplat for big IPs.
 

Bryank75

Banned
And Sony bought insomniac, they all invest in studios depending on how deep their pockets are and I doubt Sony is just sitting there, expect further aquisitions wether we like it or not. But, third party exclusives are going the way of the dodo other than timed deals, everything is going multi-platform incuding older games like Persona. The sooner some of you stop living in the PS1-PS2 era the better for your mental healths.
Insomniac nearly always made games for PlayStation, the one time they made a game for Xbox it didn't sell.

Sony have never bought out a publisher of multiplats and taken them all off Xbox....

Plus one studio vs 15 studios in the last 2/3 years.
 

NahaNago

Member
Not saying that Sony doesn't have the money to buy a 4bn studio.

The problem I see is that any big buy now typically would facilitate a bidding war including tencent and the other thing is that if they were to buy a company like square enix, they would probably have a change in the view of their platform to fit a multi device view. Square is very much a company that makes their money across pc, mobile and console.

Sony might be advantaged due to the laws in Japan.

I can see bluepoint and those similar size of companies being bought.
that is a massive advantage being able to buy a Japanese company. Wish they would actually use it.
 

stitch1

Member
I think Sony for the most part has a good plan for moving forward. However, I think Microsoft has a better plan overall. The one thing I think Jim Ryan is doing well is by not talking. The less known about their roadmap and plans the better. It leaves everything up to the imagination. You can build up huge hype by letting the fans build up whatever it is that they want in their heads. With all the good will of the PS4 generation, the less Sony says right now the better. Like the RDA 3 and 13+TFs and all that crazy talk that fans like to spout. It's all just make-believe. Wait, wasn't that a Sony slogan in the past. Huh. That's odd. Anyways, every time Jim has something to say it's normally bad news. It's a bold strategy lets see how it works out for them.
 

icerock

Member
PlayStation business is as healthy as it's ever been, they are making more money than ever, and in turn spending more money building games. Most of their premier studios have doubled/trebled in workforce in the last 2 years. Folks need to snap out of this internet bubble where Sony are doomed, it's nonsense on stilts.

I'm far from pleased with their launch lineup since Sackboy and Astro were both platformers, and I've never been into Souls game. But, they still put out 4 exclusives at launch and are supporting it with another 3 in next 5 months with Returnal and Ratchet due next. Then there's 3rd party stuff like Deathloop and Kena in between. Considering we are in midst of a pandemic, that's a very very healthy catalog to support your new console within its first 7-8 months on the market. Beyond that, tentpole exclusives are in the works and we should see a similar release as we saw with trio of DS/TLOUII/GoT with Horizon/GT7/GoW in space of 6 months.
 
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Papacheeks

Banned
I think Sony for the most part has a good plan for moving forward. However, I think Microsoft has a better plan overall. The one thing I think Jim Ryan is doing well is by not talking. The less known about their roadmap and plans the better. It leaves everything up to the imagination. You can build up huge hype by letting the fans build up whatever it is that they want in their heads. With all the good will of the PS4 generation, the less Sony says right now the better. Like the RDA 3 and 13+TFs and all that crazy talk that fans like to spout. It's all just make-believe. Wait, wasn't that a Sony slogan in the past. Huh. That's odd. Anyways, every time Jim has something to say it's normally bad news. It's a bold strategy lets see how it works out for them.

I think Microsoft's move is the riskiest of all. It has the highest reward potential, which is what is exciting for both consumers and developers. The other part of that coin is how success and metrics of the service could impact development in the long run.
 

Redlancet

Banned
I don't know if his point was about internal games, I feel like there is a small reduction in Sony's internally produced or funded AA/indies. I think you can see that internally there is more focus on the AAA tentpole games and then some focus on VR titles.

No numbers to prove that though.
They still give support to indies, returnal its the finest example
 

Keihart

Member
Sony never went AAA only and never abandoned the indies.

Regarding their 1st/2nd party games not all of them are AAA games. Last year they released Dreams, Astro's Playroom or Sackboy. In the 2nd half of PS4 and for PS5 they also signed a lot of AA exclusives like some upcoming ones like Guilty Gear Strive, Oddworld Soulstorm, Babylon's Fall, Eitr etc.

PS4 had a ton of great indies, both exclusive and multi in the 2nd part of the life cycle. And seems it will continue being the same in PS5 looking at the PS5 promotional video streams (state of play, PS5 reveal etc) where a good chunk of the titles highlighted are indies too, many of them being exclusive (many of them being timed, console to let indies have their profit) titles from popular indie devs or really promising newcomers. Stuff like Kena, the next one from the Hyper Light Drifter team, the next one from the Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP team, several ones from Annapurna, etc.


They didn't shut down Japan Studio.

They reorganized it making it smaller by moving away its production/publishing part of externally developed games to merge it into the PlayStation Studios global operations and reduced its internal development part to focus it into the Asobi Team.

They did it after decades of Japan Studio releasing dozens of unprofitable games, not being capable of releasing a big seller. They had a ton of patience and had to do it sooner or later. Any other publisher wouldn't have waited that long. They didn't reduce it to avoid AAA: the opposite, they want to avoid money sinks like The Last Guardian or Knack and make smaller games like the Astro titles.

They will continue having Japan Studio games, Polyphony Digital games and tons of 3rd party exclusives big and small as they did during PS4, where they got some kind of exclusives from basically any known Japanese publisher and dev and they will continue doing it on PS5. In fact they recently signed a 3 ways deal with the parent company of CyGames (Granblue, Project Awakening) and the parent company of From Software, Kadokawa. Who also owns Spike Chunsoft, ASCII Media Works, Enterbrain, Chara-Ani, Kadokawa Shoten, Kadokawa Games, Media Factory and so on, and published games of tons of small Japanese studios like Grasshopper Manufacture, Game Arts, Mages/5pb, Nitro+ and many others.

Sony will continue getting both Japanese and western games, both internal and external, both big and small, both multi and exclusive.

Regarding Yoshida, he said he was going to cancel The Last Guardian but didn't do it because of external pressure of tons of fans asking for it.

As of now, Ryan is the CEO, he doesn't decide about 3rd/party games are signed or how internal development studios are managed. Herman is in charge of the 1st/2nd party games and studios, who at the same time also have their own studio specific management. Yoshida is in charge of signing indies.
Yeah, Yoshida it's sensible like that, if that happened under current management they would have been canned before the PS4 jump.
 

NahaNago

Member
However, now because of MS, I also think Sony needs to buy some studios and IPs as well -- to tip the balance back and recover the # of games they just lost to MS. But other than that, PlayStation's first-party studios and output have definitely grown.
It is the ownership/exclusivity of the IP that bothers me more than the studios. Sony honestly doesn't really have the nostalgic ips of third party companies or it's console competitors outside of like god of war, I guess. Sony's biggest strength is that they had exclusivity in the past that created the nostalgia for those IP's for playstation. Crash bandicoot, final fantasy 7, spyro, metal gear solid, tekken, devil may cry, resident evil, and tomb raider plus several other ip that has been associated with playstation. Even if Sony is knocking it out the park with first party games do any of them have the staying power to be relevant and popular for the next 20 -30 years.

edit: do they have any ip from the ps1 and ps2 era that they can and will use to invoke nostalgia , outside of god of war. GT doesn't quite cut it. Feel like I'm being too picky.
 
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stitch1

Member
Yeah, Yoshida it's sensible like that, if that happened under current management they would have been canned before the PS4 jump.
Yeah but at the same time he wasn't a fan of 2018 God of War. Soooooo I think he's in a much better position being over the indie side of things.
 

Redlancet

Banned
It's not only the 10 or more high profile IP's that they lost because of MSFT's acquisition spree... from Hellblade to Wasteland and all the Zenomax stuff. But also the 2nd party losses and 1st party too.... MLB going multiplat, Mm doing nothing commercial, Japan being downsized, no From Soft exclusive, Quantic Dream, Supermassive, Gen Design etc etc.

Huge gaps in the portfolio where those games used to be, no more WRPG's, probably no more South Park games, no more Doom, no 1st party shooter, no JRPG's outside FF......

If Sega does some deal or is bought by MSFT, that will be Yakuza and Persona gone too.

Maybe that is next Wednesday, I dunno.
High profile? Wolfstein? Rage? Prey? Dishonored? These were in some case good games, but saleswise they failed i can get the logic. Behind fallout or elder scrolls but not the others

The only thing that is saving Spencer ass its Microsoft money, they are burning it at bíblical proportions, let see where its they e end game is
 
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Hatsuma

Member
Insomniac nearly always made games for PlayStation, the one time they made a game for Xbox it didn't sell.

Sony have never bought out a publisher of multiplats and taken them all off Xbox....

Plus one studio vs 15 studios in the last 2/3 years.
That's the most damning part honestly. All these studios, yet no launch games or launch window games, unless they announce them out of nowhere. Insomniac developed a game in 2018, another for 2020 and Ratchet this year barring a delay.

Xbox hasn't had alot impactful in 2020 or 2019
 

yurinka

Member
It is the ownership/exclusivity of the IP that bothers me more than the studios. Sony honestly doesn't really have the nostalgic ips of third party companies or it's console competitors outside of like god of war, I guess. Sony's biggest strength is that they had exclusivity in the past that created the nostalgia for those IP's for playstation. Crash bandicoot, final fantasy 7, spyro, metal gear solid, tekken, devil may cry, resident evil, and tomb raider plus several other ip that has been associated with playstation. Even if Sony is knocking it out the park with first party games do any of them have the staying power to be relevant and popular for the next 20 -30 years.

edit: do they have any ip from the ps1 and ps2 era that they can and will use to invoke nostalgia , outside of god of war. GT doesn't quite cut it. Feel like I'm being too picky.
All these IPs you mentioned plus the other most popular ones back in the PS1 & PS2 days (if not on a hiatus/dead) like GTA, COD, FIFA, Tekken, Dragon Quest, Oddworld, Rayman, Tony Hawk, Air Combat, Need for Speed, Everybody's Golf, Madden, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Kingdom Hearts, Spider-Man, Yakuza, Hitman, Ratchet & Clank etc. are still on PlayStation, none of them went MS or Nintendo exclusive. If you want to play their new games on PS, they are there on PS4 or PS5.

But every generation the games become more expensive, so most of their publishers need to release them on more places to keep being profitable and get the required investment back unless they skyrocket prices or turn games into a microtransaction festival.

Unlike other ones, Sony doesn't rely on the nostalgia of their main 4-5 IPs. In addition to release sequels of their main series they also release a good chunk of new IPs every generation, so they also create sequels of the most successful ones. Outside Nintendo platforms, in every other gaming market the best selling games and the biggest portion of game sales are from multi games. Most people care about if the game they want is available or not, instead of if it's exclusive or not.

Regarding the series that dead or on a hyatus, they are there because of poor sales. They didn't sell enough to make their publishers continue investing on it.

That's the most damning part honestly. All these studios, yet no launch games or launch window games, unless they announce them out of nowhere. Insomniac developed a game in 2018, another for 2020 and Ratchet this year barring a delay.

Xbox hasn't had alot impactful in 2020 or 2019
In fact in during several years Insomniac released multiple games per year.
 
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Hatsuma

Member
All these IPs you mentioned plus the most popular ones back in the PS1 & PS2 days (if not on a hiatus/dead) are still on PlayStation, none of them went MS or Nintendo exclusive. If you want to play their new games on PS, they are there on PS4 or PS5.

But every generation the games become more expensive, so most of their publishers need to release them on more places to keep being profitable and get the required investment back unless they skyrocket prices or turn games into a microtransaction festival.

Unlike other ones, Sony doesn't rely on the nostalgia of their main 4-5 IPs. In addition to release sequels of their main series they also release a good chunk of new IPs every generation, so they also create sequels of the most successful ones.


In fact in during several years Insomniac released multiple games per year.
Yep. They are the epitome of productivity as a studio. Damn work horses.

Thinking on it, damn was Insomniac a great get. Last gen they put out...

Ratchet 2016
Sunset Overdrive
Spiderman 2018
VR game that name escapes me
MM
Ratchet RA.
 
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Keihart

Member
Yeah but at the same time he wasn't a fan of 2018 God of War. Soooooo I think he's in a much better position being over the indie side of things.
Fan or not, he never much stopped studios from doing what they wanted.
 
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yurinka

Member
Yep. They are the epitome of productivity as a studio. Damn work horses.

Thinking on it, damn was Insomniac a great get. Last gen they put out...

Ratchet 2016
Sunset Overdrive
Spiderman 2018
VR game that name escapes me
MM
Ratchet RA.
Scroll down here to get the complete list of their games with their release year:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insomniac_Games

Yes, they are super productive and they have been growing. It wouldn't be rare to see them releasing Spider-Man 2 next year, plus at least a PSVR2 launch game for 2023.
 
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NahaNago

Member
All these IPs you mentioned plus the other most popular ones back in the PS1 & PS2 days (if not on a hiatus/dead) like GTA, COD, FIFA, Tekken, Dragon Quest, Oddworld, Rayman, Tony Hawk, Air Combat, Need for Speed, Everybody's Golf, Madden, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Kingdom Hearts, Spider-Man, Yakuza, Hitman, Ratchet & Clank etc. are still on PlayStation, none of them went MS or Nintendo exclusive. If you want to play their new games on PS, they are there on PS4 or PS5.

But every generation the games become more expensive, so most of their publishers need to release them on more places to keep being profitable and get the required investment back unless they skyrocket prices or turn games into a microtransaction festival.

Unlike other ones, Sony doesn't rely on the nostalgia of their main 4-5 IPs. In addition to release sequels of their main series they also release a good chunk of new IPs every generation, so they also create sequels of the most successful ones. Outside Nintendo platforms, the best selling games and the biggest portion of game sales are from multi games. Most people care about if the game they want is available or not, instead of if it's exclusive or not.


In fact in during several years Insomniac released multiple games per year.
With them coming to other platforms it weakens the need and the branding for playstation though. Just because you can still play it on playstation isn't the point. How long do you think before those supposed exclusives come to pc.

That point you made of wanting those games being available also works towards pulling folks to other platforms if they know they can play them there. Just having the game on your platform is what Microsoft has been fighting for with Sony exclusives of the past. Microsoft has now used those gaming coming to its platform plus gamepass to make xbox the more desirable platform.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
MSFT spent 7.5Billion just to keep games off PlayStation....so that's a bit rich...

Dude Xbox always start the gen "hot", trouble is they also have always lost interest after a couple of years. This has happened every single time, and honestly I don't see this gen being any different.

The amount of money they are expending can only make sense if the cloud strategy pays off, and it hasn't yet for anyone. So when they don't get the sort of penetration/expansion they want I fully expect the hammer to fall on a lot of their recent acquisitions.

And seriously, noone gives a shit about exclusivity past the one-year mark. 90% of the revenue will have been accrued by that point.
 
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Batiman

Banned
Dude Xbox always start the gen "hot", trouble is they also have always lost interest after a couple of years. This has happened every single time, and honestly I don't see this gen being any different.

The amount of money they are expending can only make sense if the cloud strategy pays off, and it hasn't yet for anyone. So when they don't get the sort of penetration/expansion they want I fully expect the hammer to fall on a lot of their recent acquisitions.

And seriously, noone gives a shit about exclusivity past the one-year mark. 90% of the revenue will have been accrued by that point.
They’re not really starting hot though. If anything the second half of this gen is when a lot of their games will come into play. I’m expecting next year is when things will slowly start to pick up.
 
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