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[SentientStone]

If it's less first person shooters and more of everything else, I would agree with.

If it's less everything else and focus only on 'wide-appealing' FPSs then no thank you. I'll go with Wii-U only next generation (probably not, but still).

 

[ThatObviousUser]

People don't get banned for accidental double posts or typos or messing up a URL! We're a kind and gentle forum!

I got banned for accidentally bumping a thread. >_>

 

[Himynameischris]

I love Sony 1st party games so less would suck but less is better then none, so Sony do what you gotta do to stick around.

 

[Gravijah]

 

[HigherLevel]

Sony just needs to market their games better. God of War and Uncharted both could sell better than they do if they had better marketing. People always talk about how MS only has Gears and Halo, and yeah that really is all they release now, but they market them like crazy which is why they outsell a lot of PS3 exclusives combined. Better marketing is the biggest thing Sony needs to do to make their exclusives a bigger deal.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

is this the console that has sanic hegehog?

 

[Chuck Norris]

Did Gears of War 3 actually outsell all of Sony's IPs worldwide? Somehow I doubt it

 

[Tookay]

I think some of the people saying "spend more on marketing" or blaming the gameplay changes that Resistance went through as the reason why it's faltered are missing the point: franchises like Resistance and Killzone don't have that sort of widespread appeal to the gaming community at large in the first place and there's no amount of marketing that can change that. There's something fundamentally unappealing about them that doesn't tap into the market the way CoD, Halo, or Gears does.

 

[DDayton]

franchises like Resistance and Killzone don't have that sort of widespread appeal to the gaming community at large and there's no amount of marketing that can change that. There's something unappealing about them that doesn't tap into the market the way CoD, Halo, or Gears does.

... but I thought the Resistance guy was bald and carried guns? Is there a bald, gun-toting fellow in the Killzone games?

 

[sleepykyo]

Did Gears of War 3 actually outsell all of Sony's IPs worldwide? Somehow I doubt it

Why? Outside of GT and Uncharted ‚ Sony does not have a lot of huge titles . God of War is big as far as sp brawlers go.

While I would not mind the quality over quantity approach ‚ I fear Sony is just going to double down on shooters.

 

[Tookay]

... but I thought the Resistance guy was bald and carried guns? Is there a bald, gun-toting fellow in the Killzone games?

Nope, but there is a guy with a faux-hawk. That must be it.

 

[Chuck Norris]

Why? Outside of GT and Uncharted ‚ Sony does not have a lot of huge titles . God of War is big as far as sp brawlers go.

While I would not mind the quality over quantity approach ‚ I fear Sony is just going to double down on shooters.

The article suggested Gears 3 outsold all of Sony's IPs from last year combined. I find it hard to believe because Uncharted 3 did pretty big numbers, and while Killzone 3, inFamous 2 and R3 decreased from the predecessors - I'm sure they'd make up the difference between UC3 and Gears 3

 

[BocoDragon]

To be honest, for Sony to succeed in my eyes, I wish they'd cancel first/second party development (aside from Naughty Gods) and invest in moneyhats instead ... I liked Sony for things like Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.

Ever since this focus on first party content, they really haven't been the brand for me. I don't care about Killzone, Infamous, Resistance, Little Big Planet, Modnation, etc. That's not what built PS1 and PS2....

 

[ThisWreckage]

In the future, I predict you're going to have huge, huge teams working on four or five IPs for them at a time. Expect to see a lot of devs and teams combined to work toward one game.

 

[Cygnus X-1]

Soni

I laughed.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

The failings of Killzone and Resistance have little to do with going after a particular audience and a lot to do with failing to meet certain quality standards.

I wasn't strictly talking about quality (since I've never played more than a few hours of KZ1 and demos for KZ2, KZ3 and R1 and R3, and thus can't say much more than I didn't like any of those besides the KZ3 demo). What I meant was, when KZ1 and R1 released, they were both Sony's answer to Halo, although none of them ended up selling comparably. When the sequels rolled around, Halo wasn't the game to beat anymore, CoD was. So GG and Insomniac changed up the games to varying degrees to make them more appealing to the general FPS crow, but they didn't really achieve anything besides pissing off the fans of the original games, and the Resistance sequels didn't attract many new fans to make up for the ones they lost, so neither Killzone nor Resistance had the mass market appeal to become the AAA Halo/CoD killer blockbuster Sony wanted them to be.

I wouldn't mind if Sony scratched off some of their titles, if it meant more support for their better titles. Games like Resistance, Modnation Racers, Killzone and Infamous are just filler stuff imo.

inFamous is good and I'll be there day 1 for inFamous 3, but Killzone, Resistance, ModNation, Team Ico and Motorstorm can all go for all I care. Same goes for LBP, but those games are profitable for Sony IIRC, so they won't be gone for the foreseeable future.

 

[Rad-]

I wouldn't mind if Sony scratched off some of their titles, if it meant more support for their better titles. Games like Resistance, Modnation Racers, Killzone and Infamous are just filler stuff imo.

 

[les papillons sexuels]

i actually think this is a good plan for sony. They should reel back the amount of titles they release and start copying the nintendo and microsoft method of liscensing out IP's to talented dev teams with a respected following who'll buy these games no matter what.

Or supporting popular dev teams with first party publishing like MS has done with alan wake, gears, and bioware before the ea buyout.

 

[Haunted]

German. :-(

no excuses!

I got banned for accidentally bumping a thread. >_>

Well deserved.

 

[Satchel]

Their games aren't chart toppers because they're not as good as they're made out to be (mostly).

 

[Firefox]

Soni is Sony's son

 

[Chris_C]

Pretty interesting tidbit from the interview:

But in terms of the state of the studio in Japan, we have a new head of studio, Allan Becker. He’s been with PlayStation from the beginning. He founded Sony Santa Monica studio. I asked him to move to Japan to instill his philosophy of making games. He's also bringing these two different cultures together. He started in April last year as the head of the Japan studio and has already made a big impact.

Sounds like Sony's intent on getting a handle on SCEJ's issues.

 

[les papillons sexuels]

Their games aren't chart toppers because they're not as good as they're made out to be (mostly).

I have to agree with this to the fullest. I dont think it's happening as much now but the hype trains for sony games tend to overshadow the final product. The reviews tend to skew higher in favor of the games, like most games do when big communities lay support behind a title.

 

[John Harker]

The article suggested Gears 3 outsold all of Sony's IPs from last year combined. I find it hard to believe because Uncharted 3 did pretty big numbers, and while Killzone 3, inFamous 2 and R3 decreased from the predecessors - I'm sure they'd make up the difference between UC3 and Gears 3

Define "big" - Uncharted has never been a very large sell thru in the US. Most major third party multiplatform games even outsell it on the PS3 SKU alone. We're talking like 1-1.5MM.

 

[ULTROS!]

I typed Soni in Google and got this:

http://www.unp.me/attachments/f101/...ai-pata-nahi-magar-soni-hai-yaar-u3_13179.jpg

 

[Lagspike_exe]

Define "big" - Uncharted has never been a very large sell thru in the US. Most major third party multiplatform games even outsell it on the PS3 SKU alone. We're talking like 1-1.5MM.

US is not the entire world. For example, it did 400k in France alone.

 

[Box]

To be honest, for Sony to succeed in my eyes, I wish they'd cancel first/second party development (aside from Naughty Gods) and invest in moneyhats instead ... I liked Sony for things like Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.

Ever since this focus on first party content, they really haven't been the brand for me. I don't care about Killzone, Infamous, Resistance, Little Big Planet, Modnation, etc. That's not what built PS1 and PS2....

Where does this get anyone? You want them to cancel their own games and prevent other people from playing other games.

 

[meppi]

Well, I plan on buying a lot less Sony games in the future, so it works out for me.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Well, I plan on buying a lot less Sony games in the future, so it works out for me.

For every Sony game you don't buy, I'll buy three

 

[El-Suave]

The future battleground will be more stupid nonsensical dlc exclusives and promotions. They probably won't spend that much less money, but instead of making games, they'll throw it at the publishing giants like EA trying to "own" that year's FIFA.

 

[meppi]

For every Sony game you don't buy, I'll buy three

I'll send you updates through PM.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

The future battleground will be more stupid nonsensical dlc exclusives and promotions. They probably won't spend that much less money, but instead of making games, they'll throw it at the publishing giants like EA trying to "own" that year's FIFA.

PS3 version of FIFA gets Manchester United squad as exclusive DLC, while 360 gets Liverpool.

Wii gets Hampton & Richmond Borough F.C.

 

[BoilersFan23]

Sony just needs to market their games better. God of War and Uncharted both could sell better than they do if they had better marketing. People always talk about how MS only has Gears and Halo, and yeah that really is all they release now, but they market them like crazy which is why they outsell a lot of PS3 exclusives combined. Better marketing is the biggest thing Sony needs to do to make their exclusives a bigger deal.

The problem is there's X amount of dollars to market games. If you are only publishing 3 games, all marketing dollars go to that X amount. If you publish 15 games, the X amount of dollars gets split between all 15 games. It's difficult to market stuff well when there's a bunch of different games to market at once.

Personally, while I think marketing can help a little, a big reason as to why a few MS franchises do well in the US is because MS has a crazy amount of money to market which Sony does not have (they invested a half billion into Kinect marketing.....if Sony spent that same money on PS Move, it probably would have done a lot better), and 360 tends to be the console everyone's friends have so they want one too. When they see their friends play Gears or Halo, they gotta buy it too. The problem SCEA has in a way is that they are not the console a majority own, so it's not like people can easily just buy a game a friend has (people are more likely to say play at their friend's place since only 1 friend has a PS3, while 6 own a 360).

Their games aren't chart toppers because they're not as good as they're made out to be (mostly).

Uncharted 2 was beyond great and didn't sell anywhere near what CoD did.

 

[Sidewinder]

If it's less first person shooters and more of everything else, I would agree with.

If it's less everything else and focus only on 'wide-appealing' FPSs then no thank you.

Quoted for truth.

 

[patapuf]

Uncharted 2 was beyond great and didn't sell anywhere near what CoD did.

very few games sell as much as CoD and big MP games generally sell more than big SP games..

That said Halo, Gears and CoD are all big MP games... that's another venue sony needs to become stronger in if it wants do better

 

[Net_Wrecker]

very few games sell as much as CoD and big MP games generally sell more than big SP games..

That said Halo, Gears and CoD are all big MP games... that's another venue sony needs to become stronger in if they want to compete

It's just not going to happen. CoD, Halo, and Gears, as brands, have such a stranglehold on multiplayer gaming that it's almost dumb to even try to challenge them anymore. Almost every multiplayer game not named Battlefield (and GTAIV miraculously) has fallen to the wayside this generation. Devs are better off making unique singleplayer focused IP's with bonus co-op/multiplayer modes that don't compete directly with the giants, and just hope for get Skyrim/Batman numbers.

Speaking of numbers, it's also important for publishers to temper expectations, and plan budgets accordingly. Not everything is going to be Call of Duty, and not everything should HAVE to be. There's nothing wrong with having a franchise that "only" does 2-3 million as long as you aren't blowing money on it, or anywhere else.

 

[AcceptableGhost]

Sounds like a pretty bad idea, one of the Sony's strengths is actually putting out a multitude of titles that everyone -may not- enjoy. If they buckle down to like 1 or 2 "cinematic" shooters a year whats the point?

Their games aren't chart toppers because they're not as good as they're made out to be (mostly).

Problem is actually mostly marketing. I think the mountain dew gamer fuel garbage sold Halo 3 more than Halo 3 did.

 

[Roland Deschain]

Ahh. You're probably right.

In an unrelated matter....

How's that Mass Effect 2 exclusive working out for you?

Who fucking cares? Xbox owners still get to play all the Mass Effect games right? So I'd say it's working out great.

 

[mescalineeyes]

Their games aren't chart toppers because they're not as good as they're made out to be (mostly).

Save for Uncharted 2, ain't that the truth.

It's too bad that most Sony fans are busy hailing every Studio under their umbrella even if they produce terrible games like Heavy Rain or weird products of a bygone-era like the Vita.
The fans are going to destroy Sony one day, if the sales don't do it first.

 

[Mario007]

Shu is right, they need to market their games better. I mean look at U3 which sold like crazy (most likely on par with GOW3) thanks to the amount of money Sony spent on marketing it.

Having said that they should cancel some of their franchises like Resistance, Killzone, Motorsport) since they're not that great and don't really distinguish themselves from the competition.

 

[Dabanton]

Marketing should cover more than just blanket ads. MS makes sure that it's users know certain games are coming out in the lead up to a big release by having reminders video,gamerpics and comps on the dash as soon as you turn the system. As lets be honest not everyone will know that a game is coming out. Not sure Sony does this but MS also has this 2 min video on friday that shows gameplay clips of all the games out that day which is helpful.

Then we have friendlists nothing this gen imo has done more to push what game we buy than when we look at our friendlist. 20+ of your friends are playing a new game? Then you feel you've got to get it.

MS has leveraged it's marketplace so it's users are always at least partially informed of what is happening. Part of the reason i find it weird Sony makes it so annoying to switch into it's store. It treats it as a separate part of the user experience rather than built into the dash itself. When i switch on my 360 i'll browse the dash for at least 5 mins before i do what i turned the system on for as something will catch my eye. Partly why their use of HOME is such a disappointment as it's great. I would love to see them utilise it a bit more but Sony seem to always get cold feet if their endeavours don't take off right away.

 

[Punchpudding]

I don't want to say anything bad about Sony devs as I want to respect all devs, but when it comes to some of their 'big' titles, it's like someone described video games to them over the phone.

IPs like Killzone, Resistance, and Infamous just seem like market researchers trying to make something specifically to sell to 'hardcore' gamers. Someone who plays 20+ games a year will appreciate the nuances to the games but for everyone else, they don't stand out much from the crowd. You could market the shit out of these games and not make much more head way.

First party devs are stuck in a tough spot. They need to innovate and take risks (like any other dev) but they also carry the burden of showing off the power and features of the console they are tied to (KZ2 and motorstorm for graphics; Rare and Kinect). It's a bad case of design by committee where too many stakeholders are involved. In the end only a few of these games manage to take off; you can't keep forcing the rest along on life support. Slimming down their 'stables' is probably the best move.

 

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

We went through this whole sordid mess at the start of last gen with loads of PS 'exclusives'. Why won't the same thing happen this time around?

PS "exclusives" that were lost at the start of this generation were all third party games in the first place. Xbox 360 has already lost many such "exclusives" over the course of this generation and those losses were never followed by an outcry similar to those we've had with Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy or Resident Evil last gen.

Owning the IP can be a great thing if it's a truly valuable IP (a huge majority aren't) and if the IP holder knows what to do with it (many times they don't - look at the number of interesting yet dormant IPs owned by platform holders). It can have its advantages, but also disadvantages (a developer that doesn't want to give up their IP rights will never collaborate with a publisher adamant about owning the IP so if the said publisher is a platform holder, owners of that console will not get to play that game, even if they may get to play its sequels).

The bottom line is, gamers don't care unless a game goes from being a first party exclusive for one platform to becoming an exclusive for another (how many such titles can you think of?), and even then it will be replaced by other games.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

I don't want to say anything bad about Sony devs as I want to respect all devs, but when it comes to some of their 'big' titles, it's like someone described video games to them over the phone.

IPs like Killzone, Resistance, and Infamous just seem like market researchers trying to make something specifically to sell to 'hardcore' gamers. Someone who plays 20+ games a year will appreciate the nuances to the games but for everyone else, they don't stand out much from the crowd. You could market the shit out of these games and not make much more head way.

Well, all of those seem to have been greenlighted solely on the basis of their similarity to the Microsoft-exclusive equivalent (Halo, Gears of War, Crackdown). You know, the classic copy-if-you-can't-have-'em approach to competition in any marketplace. Sony has done the same for Ninty games, too. Obviously, this works both ways, as MS signed off on Forza and other titles to compete with exclusive Sony and Nintendo counterparts.

 

[Neo C.]

Stupid, they need more games, not less, but the games need to be better structured marketing wise. It doesn't make sense to have more than 8 "big games" in a year, and 4 of them compete each-other in the holidays.

Of course, game releases can't be scheduled ideally: Sometimes a game need more polish and time, or several games are coincidentally finished in the same time frame. For marketing purpose however, an ideal plan would look like this:

1) 4-6 big games per year, at least two months between them. Only exception is November/December, these two months can handle two big games easily. Big games need big marketing push, otherwise they aren't big games.

2) 6-10 mid-budget games, though mid-budget is relative. They have to fill the gap between the big games.

3) 8-12 low-budget games, they can also be DD only. They also fill the gap between big budget games and are meant to test the market for new ideas.

Anything less than this, I would call it a dry year - only acceptable in the first and in the last two years.

 

[Black Lawn Finale]

Save for Uncharted 2, ain't that the truth.

It's too bad that most Sony fans are busy hailing every Studio under their umbrella even if they produce terrible games like Heavy Rain or weird products of a bygone-era like the Vita.
The fans are going to destroy Sony one day, if the sales don't do it first.

Is this a joke post or are you being serious?

 

[SykoTech]

Since Nintendo dropped the ball this gen, Sony has the best 1st party lineup of the three. Would suck if they pulled a Microsoft and only pushed 3 or 4 flashy games while everything else that didn't sell as big rotted.

Cutting some stuff does seem necessary. ModNation is officially dead with LBPKarting announced, and Resistance will probably die off as well so they can just focus on Killzone. I'm fine with that. But I will not be a happy camper if they give Ratchet & Clank the Banjo-Kazooie treatment.

 

[Dennis]

So basically the same strategy as Microsuft?

 

[iceatcs]

I think it might be better. Less 1st party and more moneyhat for 3rd party.

 

[Lagspike_exe]

I agree with this. Cut some average games and invest that money into their top tier studios.