I can’t imagine what we’d be getting if Shawn was still leading PlayStation
getting rid of “risky” 200M games in favor of more Vib Ribbons.
I don't think that's what he's advocating.
The problem with $200m games is the lack of creative risks that will be taken, and the larger the upfront investment by publishers, the larger their appetite to maximise monetisation by shunting more and more MTXs into the games, which from a gamer perspective can have a hugely deleterious effect on overall game quality.
You don't need a AAAA budget to make a great quality cinematic single-player game, and I'd argue the latter is what is in Sony's DNA, not so much the scale of budgetary spend.
With the democratisation of utter top-tier game development tools like UE5, indie devs also have the opportunity to scale budgets up from what would be considered traditional indie games to something akin to the AAA games of previous generations (but with modern graphics).
Being able to promote a diversity of content across game genres as well as scope of content will be key to future platform success and the ability to continue to delight gamers.
As the top end AAAA games become more homogenised and more deeply monetised, the smaller "small", "medium" and "large" indie titles can begin to plug the genre, creativity and originality gaps that will inevitably appear in the top end content that by definition necessitates targetting the broadest possible appeal.
AAA is in Sony’s DNA, it’s proven to be profitable, and I suspect it will grow the industry.
Naaaaah!!!!
A greater breadth of content is what will grow the industry. As AAA becomes AAAA and then AAAAA, the content focus will narrow, become more and more homogenised and thus ultimately peak in terms of overall appeal.
Smaller scope games will be absolutely necessary to provide that "something for everyone" for the cross-sectional groups of gamers whose tastes lead them away from the biggest blockbuster titles to some of the more artistic, niche, quirky and interesting stuff.
he says gaming hasn’t grown based on console sales (false), but the more accurate metric is game sales
compare God of War sales to God of War 1 or 2
I agree with this point.