Oblivion said:
Oh, come on man. You're better than this.
Yep, I've thought the same thing quite a few times in the past. It'd be downright hilarious if we see a few years down the line people thinking third party games won't sell on a Sony system kinda like the way people think about that for Nintendo systems.
Expanding on the "Sony is becoming Nintendo is becoming Sony" thing... There's a big difference in how Nintendo develops titles and how Sony does it. Nintendo has become the epitome of lean development: small, tightly orchestrated teams cranking out games at a regular rate for relatively low HR cost with predictably high sales. New IP receive smaller budgets (but not necessarily untalented teams). Existing IP receive higher budgets inversely proportional to the perceived risk, with the highest budgets of all corresponding with the games with virtually no risk of losing money (Zelda TP, SMG, Smash).
Sony on the other hand has HUGE development teams, invested in any number of high-budget, new IP projects. The risks are less calculated and there is much less emphasis on profitability. Large resources are poured into projects with novel or unclear revenue streams, like Home. And the largest existing Sony IP of all has completely vanished from one platform and has so far produced only a free demo on the PS3 (talking about Gran Turismo of course).
It always seemed to me that Sony's first party was not geared toward profitability. They certainly HAVE profited on certain titles, like GT. But they take big risks, they use a large quantity of resources, they duplicate effort, they're very decentralized as opposed to Nintendo's rigid centralization... They're not prepared, as they're structured right now, to carry a platform on their own. Because when one of their games flops it will lose a LOT of money and waste a LOT of time, unlike Nintendo's operation which invests less and risks less. And there WILL be first-party flops. It's inevitable.
