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Should Sony embrace nostalgia more?

Sony doesn't have the franchises/characters that can tug on the nostalgia heartstrings like Nintendo has. A lot of Sony's lineup was made up of 3rd Party games and therefore aren't necessarily tied to Sony directly. Spyro and Crash aren't Sony only characters.
 
LeleSocho said:
They have no IP aside PlayStation itself to leverage on.
Up until PS3 notable first party games were inexistent.
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SolidSnakex said:
The Playstation brand is more than twenty years old at this point. There are generations of gamers that grew up with it rather than Sega or Nintendo. Since the mid-90's the PS has generally been the dominant console brand.
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While this is true, it depends heavily on what specifically they have nostalgia for. Evem though I vaguely remember the Master System, in terms of growing up and enjoying games I'm probably on the line dividing the Sega Megadrive and the Sony Plays. However my nostalgia for the former comes from Sega stuff like Sonic, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and so on. However on the PS1 it doesn't come from Sony, but mainly Square and a few other in the various Final Fantasy games, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Grandia, Metal Gear Solid and so on.

While Sony can leverage some nostalgia there as seen with FFVII Remake, they clearly have more limited options due to not being in control of the biggest properties on their platform.
 
For me at least, my favorite Sony memories even going back to PSX are rooted in third party support. There's not a huge nostalgia pull for me and that All Stars game didn't do much to convince me otherwise.
 
AcademicSaucer said:
Crash remakes are pure nostalgia, the 20th anniversary ps4 had psx colors, FF VII remake is coming and was promoted at Sony's conference alongside a shenmue kickstarter, etc.
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Yeah, I'm not even sure what more they could do.

I don't think bringing back something like Jumping Flash is a great idea or anything.
 
They have though honestly. The HD collections on PS3 and Vita, them hammering home PS Nostalgia during the PS4 launch, recent announcements like Crash Remastered and the PSX being such a fan-focused event; they do this already.

If you mean like a PSX Mini or more BC support on PS4, I would love to see that happen. And it might, considering how PS2 Games on PS4 sell well I think. But we need to wait until they announce how they are bringing PS1 games (IF they are doing that) before we can talk about that.

If its like the PS2 games, then I'm not going to invest in that too much honestly :l.

Sony is focused moving forward, with things like PS VR and PS4 Neo in addition to new IP being out every year from internal studios showcasing that. Nintendo is playing the Nostalgia moves....because they should.

Nintendo has been around for decades and they really need to bank on their IP like brands more then games sometimes. And they are doing that bit by bit with Pokemon GO and other mobile ventures they have in the works, the NES Mini you pointed out and other things like movie/theme park deals. Nintendo is branding IP, while Sony is using IP to sell systems.

And Sony is trying this in some ways; they did put out Heavenly Sword and Ratchet films already.....they didn't do very well, but point stands. They tried doing that in some ways.
 
Recently, I've been having similar thoughts. Sony's IP have a long history, but so many of them are underutilized in the modern era. I suppose this is because they tend to favour a model wherein developers make new IP each generation. Which is great! Except I want a new Warhawk and a new MediEvil and a new SOCOM and a new Sly Cooper, etc. I wish they would revisit some of these IPs more often.

Take a look at the PS3 generation. Many of Sony's online games have been shut down, and who knows how long the ones up still have left. I have so many memories of those games and I'd like to revisit them, but it's just not possible. Microsoft isn't that much better at it, but at least games like The Master Chief Collection (for all its flaws) and the upcoming Phantom Dust remaster will let me play those old original Xbox titles that just wouldn't be playable otherwise.

So yeah, I'd like Sony to acknowledge their history a bit more. I don't want every IP they create to become evergreen that it follows them through every generation; but it'd be nice if we could revisit the past on occasion.
 
antonz said:
Being a dominant brand is not enough for nostalgia. Sony needs to develop more IP and cultivate them long term before they can really hit on nostalgia. Sony was never really about 1st party IPs as much as massive 3rd party support and the early years of Sony show that. Most games people remember the good old days for are not even Sony properties.
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Stuff like the Crash collection and the FF7 remake got a significant amount of attention. Well, not sure if the second one counts as a Sony property, as it's just a game connected to the history of PS, but in any case, the point is there's nostalgia. There are people that grew up with Sony consoles nowadays. Maybe their games weren't as iconic as some Nintendo ones, but they still left their stigma.
 
feel bad for folks not having nostalgia for PSX, that system's library was magical at the time...i'd love anything new Parappa (or better yet, Lammy) related

shame that 20th anniversary thing was so limited, would've been all over one of those controllers
 
Qurupeke said:
Stuff like the Crash collection and the FF7 remake got a significant amount of attention. Well, not sure if the second one counts as a Sony property, as it's just a game connected to the history of PS, but in any case, the point is there's nostalgia. There are people that grew up with Sony consoles nowadays. Maybe their games weren't as iconic as some Nintendo ones, but they still left their stigma.
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Neither Crash nor FF7 are Sony IP
 
Maxey said:
One way for Sony to leverage on nostalgia is to release a goddamn PS1 emulator on PS4, god damnit.
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I have to imagine its some sort of contract thing..... there is enough issues even getting the Vita and PS3 to agre what games can be played on what console.
 
Wait, so this thread confirmed that I can't have nostalgia for Sony? Man, that's bad news, didn't know that. Thanks for clearing that up, guys.
 
This might be controversial, but here is my theory for why this wouldnt work as well - and for why Playstation-systems arent anywhere near the same collectability as Nintendo-systems. Sony have simply always marketed their systems with their graphics and presentation. FF7, Metal Gear, Gran Turismo etc were all heavily reliant on the presentation, as was God of War and Uncharted. And if the consumers buy into this, they will be way less likely to go back - since those games get new variants on each plattform. Thus, Sonys whole identity and also that of their biggest fans are not very compatible with celebrating nostalgia the way Nintendo does. And i therefore think it wouldnt work nearly as well for them.

But personally i would love to be wrong, as i think PS1 was by far their best and most interesting system - and would love more of those games to get out there and in the hands of new consumers.
 
The Last One said:
Wait, so this thread confirmed that I can't have nostalgia for Sony? Man, that's bad news, didn't know that. Thanks for clearing that up, guys.
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I have nostalgia for Sony too, sorry if my post was a bit of a downer but trying to look over everything Sony did so far....and they have been trying to play that nostalgia card when they can.

They are just more forward thinking compared to Nintendo or Microsoft regarding usage of IP and while that can suck sometimes, the originals are still out there for us to play.
 
Had to read the op to see if he said the nostalgia even had to be on par with Nintendo's(which would be subjective anyway depending on how people grew up). Nintendo was just used as an example so why did most people come in here trying to dictate what was nostalgic or not and even throwing in a pot shot at Microsoft for no good reason
 
DooMAGE said:
Still lack first party content to have nostalgic stuff, beside some games in the PS1 era.
Most nostalgic stuff content is from third parties.
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But they do have games that people are nostalgic for. Whether it be stuff like Ape Escape, Parappa, Wipeout, Destruction Derby, or Legend of Dragon etc. that all sold well back when they were released. They have that content. If we really want to be honest about this, the reason they don't try to dredge up nostalgia so much is because they really don't need to.
 
entremet said:
Personally, do have a lot of Sony nostalgia--Motor Toon GP, Jumping Flash, Parrapa, Ape Escape.
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lol

not to rain on your nostalgia parade but none of these compare to Pokemon

And the newer Sony games are not old enough for serious nostalgia dollars.
 
SolidSnakex said:
But they do have games that people are nostalgic for. Whether it be stuff like Ape Escape, Parappa, Wipeout, Destruction Derby, or Legend of Dragon etc. that all sold well back when they were released. They have that content. If we really want to be honest about this, the reason they don't try to dredge up nostalgia so much is because they really don't need to.
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Or it's because the most games are not Sony IP's
 
They could do it a lot more than they do, I guess, and maybe they should (as long as it wasn't to the detriment of attention being paid to new things as well)? Playing PS1 games on PS4 would be a good start.
 
DooMAGE said:
Or it's because the most games are not Sony IP's
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The games I mentioned are their titles. There's obviously a lot of popular third party brands associated with them as well, but they have games of their own. I'm not arguing that people are as nostalgic for Sony's IP's as Nintendo or that they're as popular, but if they wanted to push nostalgia they easily could do it. You could see that just in how much people wanted a PS4 that used the color scheme from the original Playstation.
 
They had that product and they sent it out to die, the PSTV could have been perfect for this but who knows why they even made it, even though I love mine
 
They can but I don't think they have the same pull for most of their ips.

If they made a ps1 retro box with game in it I'd buy it.

Pokemon was basically the game that defined the gameboy and handheld gaming so it's not really surprising that people are nostalgic for generation 1. It's also still one of the biggest ips
 
Do they really do nostalgia good tho? I feel like unlike Nintendo... Sony just doesn't "get" it. They want it but they implement it in such a bad way and it's never really beneficial to them at all.... Like for example... The new Crash Bandicoot... I get it.. Sony doesn't own it and the most they could of did was fund the game to be made... But i don't think I'm alone in thinking that they should have bought out the entire IP including Spyro... Also, other franchises were mostly third party that shined on a Sony system... I guess it's just different for them. They don't go all the way.
 
Why do you think FF7 and TLG were front and center at their conference last year OP?

They do it in different ways. For most people, there are tons of third party franchises that are just associated with Playstation by default, so even just having those exist on PS4 caters to that crowd.
 
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