I get what you are saying but I still think that Sony's first party efforts are severely lacking. They are very good at making third-person cinematic action games. And they are very popular as they all sell well. But when you compare that output to PS2 era and PS1 era Sony, it's been regressing in terms of gameplay diversity. And there are studios like Japan Studio who should and can be Sony's premier first-party studio but they seem to be largely delegated to help other studios out. They do get to do smaller projects like Astro Boy, which is awesome. But they could be so much more. Again, I am not saying that Sony doesn't invest money but it doesn't pan out (for me). I was disappointed by the new God of War game and I was severely disappointed by The Last of Us 2. FF7: R was not a Sony-made game but a moneyhat for temporary exclusivity, which I don't accept anymore. Sony have the talent and money to create their own awesome (J)RPG, why don't they do that?
Ghost of Tsushima was my highlight, I have to say. I really didn't expect all that much and I ended up having a lot of fun with it. But I just don't agree that the last couple of years were strong. I can see the investment, however. It's just my opinion.
Exclusive deals are not what I would deem a "strong" move and they need to go away in general. Third-parties should be multi-platform. Sony's VR efforts were admirable and I enjoyed Astro Boy and Resident Evil 7 (not a Sony game) in VR.
But I guess we just don't agree on those points and that's ok. I am genuinely happy that you've got an overall better time with Sony and their output and it appears that a lot of people are in agreement with you. I might eventually get a PS5 Slim down the line and will then look at what's been done and what is in the pipeline and reevaluate my current opinions accordingly. Right now, I am not excited one bit about next gen.
There's a big difference in not having a diverse lineup or having a lineup someone knows about or agrees with. There are a lot of games that they made that have popularity around them and some of them not so popular.
They have MEdievil remake last year, Concrete genie which everyone here should play. They had Predator game which I hear is great now, and a good amount of people still play it.
So if you were disappointed with God of war then there's literally nothing here to talk about.
That game to me and in many retrospect is on par with Breath of the wild in terms of game that made a generation. God of war is not just a great high quality game, it's proof they can take a tired franchise and make it feel fresh and new again.
Same goes for Zelda, the same thing can not be said about gears, halo so far.
Though it does seem they skew a little at making more open world third person games, the diversity in those genre's on top of making deals and fully funding JRPG's with the likes of Namco/bandai/Square to me suits my needs.
If you didn't like what sony put out this gen, fine. It's your opinion, you like what you like. But the overall majority of consumers, youtubers, and press that cover this genre would disagree with you.
Sony set the bar on quality regardless if you think it's diverse or not. Microsoft still hasn't done that when it comes to taking old ip's into new directions, or creating new IP's.
JRPG'S are a tuff sell now. Unless it comes from a series or is something heavily marketed its a huge gamble. There's way more risk involved and I think Sony would rather leave it up to other developers for them to fund or make deals with then to try and compete in that arena. Same is with FPS shooters.