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Sony confirms it’s delayed half of its 12 planned live service games

MoreJRPG

Suffers from extreme PDS
Sony first party is in big trouble. Looks like more money hatting of third parties is the only viable option for them.
 

radewagon

Member
Problem is MOST of the time companies making those GAAS/live service to purely make money instead of giving fun experiences to players.
Agreed. The gameplay is often times negatively affected by the live service model.

Also, and I'm just spit-balling here, maybe they should expand the definition of service. Cause, I'm not seeing the benefit to me, as the player, of the services being provided. I know that if Sony's new game would maybe, for example, manage a lucrative stock portfolio for me while I play The Last of Us Factions, that would be a service I could really get behind. Or maybe roadside assistance, retirement planning, word of the day, daycare, landscaping, etc. Looking at the whole of the types of services that exist in the world, games as a service seem to offer the bottom of the barrel return on one's investment.
 

Mowcno

Member
Sony first party is in big trouble. Looks like more money hatting of third parties is the only viable option for them.
In what way? Sure they delayed 6 of the 12 but that schedule was stupidly over saturated anyway.

Basically with this schedule we have 6 live service games releasing in 2024/2025 and then other non live-service games on top of that. We're looking at 4-5 first party games in 2024 and 2025 each. I'd have been more worried if they were actually going to go ahead and release 12 live service games in the next 2 years.
 
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Flutta

Banned
Yikes.

Well at least they are not rushing them out to die lol.

Either way i'm not looking forward to what Sony is working on whether it's their MP games or SP games, especially from their western developers. I mean yuck!!! :sick:
 
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VitoNotVito

Member
Football supporters have us living rent free for decades after 20 titles and 3 champions leagues and 13 FA cups. Some say they'll never recover.
United are the new Liverpool now, constantly referring to their history :D
It reminds me of the Xbox fanboys, they still live in their X360 glory era :D
 
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Same as you mate, I'm a single player only guy, only online I'll do is for dark souls type games. But I must disagree though, they make a shit load of revenue and profit from what they're already doing, what they're doing is trying to find something to jump on the gaas bandwagon which admittedly will increase revenue. But I'm a playstation fan and consumer and not a shareholder, I only care that they make enough money for what they are good at, and they already are. If anything god of war and Spiderman are selling better than ever so I'd still say single player is the way to go

Their profit margins are incredibly small and they are gonna lose all the revenue they'd get from Bethesda and ABK games.

They have to make up the shortfall.
 
I can only imagine how much "doom and gloom" would be here on GAF if Xbox would came with statement "we delayed 6 out of 12 games."

"Incompetence"
"Xbox can't manage their studios"


With Sony it will be "they know it takes time to release great games" :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Xbox doesn't need to cancel or delay any more games for us to know already that these two statements are true.

You have almost two whole fucking gens of Xbox underdelivering on First Party games and goons like you think it's people unfairly persecuting them.

How delusional can you be?
 
There’s nothing wrong with delaying half of them and there’s nothing wrong with Sony investing in GaaS anyway. People seem to be under the impression that this was Sony dipping their waters into the GaaS category, but they’ve been here for years. MLB has its own Madden Ultimate Team mode. Gran Turismo has been a pure service game for two iterations now. Naughty Dog games MP have been GaaS and loaded with MTX for years and years.

It seemed to me like these 12 titles were mostly smaller titles outsourced to third party developers. So delaying them isn’t that big a deal. Plus with these service games you have to hit or you’re dead pretty quick.

More worrying is their lack of software during 2023 and were any of these delayed titles supposed to be 2024 titles? Would be weird to see Sony with two barren years in a row.

Let’s be honest, Sony does seem to be in a transitional period with software. They don’t really seem to be doing the smaller scale titles we saw during PS4 and especially PS2/3. Outside of Returnal, has there even been a new IP from Sony this gen? Honest question. I hope they regroup. My PS5 continues to collect dust awaiting Factions II.
 

Spyxos

Gold Member
Weren't they just announced recently? If they're games like Helldivers 2, I can easily do without them. But games like Last of Us Multiplayer I would have liked to see.
 

Shakka43

Member
I want to see Sony make interesting AA games that’s much more experimental like….
PUPPETEER-P3.jpg
Absolutely loved this game, and Rain. They were both sent to die with the PS3 releasing at the same time as the PS4 was coming out.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
I can only imagine how much "doom and gloom" would be here on GAF if Xbox would came with statement "we delayed 6 out of 12 games."

"Incompetence"
"Xbox can't manage their studios"

With Sony it will be "they know it takes time to release great games" :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Sony noticed the problem and addressed it in house by delaying then game in order to put out a better product.

Microsoft tried to sell fans on Halo Infinite until there was a great amount of backlash. Still, it wasn't ready when they launched it.

Phil tried to sell Xbox games on Redfall, knowing that crap wasn't even near ready.

The released Sea of Thieves with a lack of content, but it recovered later on.

So yeah, MS were shit for doing that.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Looking forward to insightful commentary by Men_in_Boxes Men_in_Boxes

You ask and I deliver.

The story itself is a nothingburger. 90% of AAA SP games get delayed.

The real story is the reaction to the story. I haven't read NeoGAFs comments yet but some people like to turn every event in nature as proof their Gods existence. I expect a certain amount of doom and gloom from certain members after they see the nothingburger.

All par for the course.
 

nowhat

Member
I’m not saying devs don’t want to make money but you don’t become game developers just to make money, same way people don't become painter for the money, you hope to making money from doing something you love.
I find your idealism endearing and I wish that was true (it probably is with many indie studios), but once things get to a corporate level, the artistic ambition diminishes quickly and gets replaced by sales expectations and such. I really wish this wasn't the case, but cynical old me hasn't found any evidence to the contrary.
 

SteadyEvo

Member
Here’s a crazy idea..

Fucking cancel all 12 of em
This. Sony appears to have lost its way trend chasing. First it was open world, now it’s live service. Hope it bites them in the ass and they get back to what made them great.
 
Here's an idea that we rarely see these days, make games that have both multiplayer and single player modes.

Not every single player mode has to be an open world 20-30 hour experience. They could make a more linear focused experience at 10-15 hours (or even less) and have a decent multiplayer offering that in itself has a live service approach. This has been the Call of Duty method for 20 years and it's worked wonders for them and Activision's revenue.

Sony also have existing IP that would work amazingly in this way. Killzone, SOCOM, TLoU, Uncharted, Warhawk, Twisted Metal, Wipeout, Syphon Filter and there are probably more that I've completely forgotten about. But no, for some reason they just want to shit out third person action adventure games. At some point, that's not going to be enough and now that MS has Activision, Sony are going to need to up their game.

I find it crazy that Call of Duty's model isn't being replicated more by these massive corporations (if we look specifically from a business perspective). If you add in day and date for PC, they also have the additional revenue stream.
You have no idea how much money I would shell out to Sony for a sick ass SOCOM, KIllzone or MAG type game.
 

DrFigs

Member
There’s nothing wrong with delaying half of them and there’s nothing wrong with Sony investing in GaaS anyway. People seem to be under the impression that this was Sony dipping their waters into the GaaS category, but they’ve been here for years. MLB has its own Madden Ultimate Team mode. Gran Turismo has been a pure service game for two iterations now. Naughty Dog games MP have been GaaS and loaded with MTX for years and years.

It seemed to me like these 12 titles were mostly smaller titles outsourced to third party developers. So delaying them isn’t that big a deal. Plus with these service games you have to hit or you’re dead pretty quick.

More worrying is their lack of software during 2023 and were any of these delayed titles supposed to be 2024 titles? Would be weird to see Sony with two barren years in a row.

Let’s be honest, Sony does seem to be in a transitional period with software. They don’t really seem to be doing the smaller scale titles we saw during PS4 and especially PS2/3. Outside of Returnal, has there even been a new IP from Sony this gen? Honest question. I hope they regroup. My PS5 continues to collect dust awaiting Factions II.
Sony has announced Fairgame and Concord. The Deviation game is seemingly cancelled or delayed (who knows Sony hasn't acknowledged it in years (?)). There are also rumors that Naughty Dog and SSM are working on new IP's. but Sony has shown nothing. we don't really know what most of their devs are doing aside from speculation. It's been a huge problem this gen.
 
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Schmick

Member
Tell me succesful gaas games other than fortnite and warzone
Others that I can think of right now;

Counter Strike 2
PUBG
Apex Legends
Battlefield
Rocket League
Sea of Thieves
Fall Guys
League of Legends
Genshin Impact
Warframe
War Thunder
DOTA 2
GTA V Online
 

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
Some of you can’t read. The quote says they did a portfolio review and pushed 6 of them back to address quality issues with the other 6 coming out in the next 18 months.

That’s a good thing. They could have said fuck it and released them anyways, but they’re not.

They also confirmed that this is the direction going forward.
 

Neofire

Member
And how do you suggest they have the money to continue to provide the games you want?

The answer is not:

Make more single player games
Do day and date on PC

That won't be enough. They need continuous revenue streams as their operating profit is razor thin.

Add in that Microsoft will be aggressively trying to disassociate COD from PlayStation and that income gets less and less too.
Lol even if Sony was stupid enough to do day one games on PC it won't do shit for their bottom line but reinforce people's ideas to go PC only and stop buying their hardware and investing in the PlayStation ecosystem.

Some live service games are inevitable but 12? Sony needs to stick to the PlayStations DNA not try to run behind Microsoft and Epic games.
 

Gudji

Member
Hopefully this means we can see some new IP in the next showcase or SoP dedicated to 1st party.
 
Lol even if Sony was stupid enough to do day one games on PC it won't do shit for their bottom line but reinforce people's ideas to go PC only and stop buying their hardware and investing in the PlayStation ecosystem.

Some live service games are inevitable but 12? Sony needs to stick to the PlayStations DNA not try to run behind Microsoft and Epic games.

In those 12 we have Gran Turismo and MLB, Concord, Fairgame$ and Helldivers 2. They'll have a variety of game types including FPS, MMO, TPS and more and game types like extraction shooters, racers, car combat, survival games, heist games and character hero games.

There'll actually be a lot more diversity than people are thinking about.

Sony also know that not all of them will be hits. They only need 1-2 of them to bring in consistent high revenue to make the whole endeavour pay off.
 

gerth666

Neo Member
Their profit margins are incredibly small and they are gonna lose all the revenue they'd get from Bethesda and ABK games.

They have to make up the shortfall.
I don't think they're going to lose anything from those those two, playstation still gets all the gaas stuff from them, and I would be very surprised if Xbox stops any future gaas from being on playstation with its massive user base.
 
6 seems plenty. Hopefully they do well and pay for more single player games. If not then I hope it is dropped fast and not stretched out if not working out.
 
I don't think they're going to lose anything from those those two, playstation still gets all the gaas stuff from them, and I would be very surprised if Xbox stops any future gaas from being on playstation with its massive user base.

It isn't about the GAAS necessarily It's the 30% of every fallout, elder scrolls, doom, crash etc they'd make. Microsoft will also aggressively be trying to take COD gamers to their platform. That's a lot of money lost that they currently didn't have to work for.
 

Mobilemofo

Member
I can only imagine how much "doom and gloom" would be here on GAF if Xbox would came with statement "we delayed 6 out of 12 games."

"Incompetence"
"Xbox can't manage their studios"

With Sony it will be "they know it takes time to release great games" :messenger_tears_of_joy:
To be fair, we know Microsoft are schizophrenic at best, so they get sympathy points. The special kid in class.

Sony is arrogant.
 

wolffy66

Member
An issue Sony is gonna have to overcome is the fact that their fanbase is dedicated to the single player story mode genre. Their most loyal fanbase demands high risk, lower profit(comparatively) titles.

How do they convince them to switch to gaas consumers? Or do they go the Destiny route and skip PS5 exclusivity to increase profit margins?

And to people that think this is a bad idea from Sony... sure they have had a good run of successful games but what happens if they have a big title flop? What if it's two or three? It's getting more and more risky to avoid the concern.
 

mrmustard

Banned
An issue Sony is gonna have to overcome is the fact that their fanbase is dedicated to the single player story mode genre. Their most loyal fanbase demands high risk, lower profit(comparatively) titles.
Nobody cares what the fanboy forum dwellers demand. It's all about the casuals and the casuals eat what they get served,.
 

Sanepar

Member
The 90 doesn't make a game better. IF FH5 and Spiderman 2 had a 89 they weren't any worse.
It's just the mindset of people who think anything 80 is mediocre, but there is little to no differnece between mid 80s and a 90.
There is a lot of difference. 90+ is a category for special games that will remember forever, like FH, Halo1-3, Gears1, God of War, Last of Us, Bloodborne, Zelda Mario, Gta, Rdr.
80+ is for good games but no incredible.

But the difference is their fans. Nintendo and Playstation fans demands high quality games instead MS fans are fine with 70-80 games if they are "free" on gamepass. That's why MS will never change.
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
Hermann Hulst needs to go.

An issue Sony is gonna have to overcome is the fact that their fanbase is dedicated to the single player story mode genre. Their most loyal fanbase demands high risk, lower profit(comparatively) titles.

How do they convince them to switch to gaas consumers? Or do they go the Destiny route and skip PS5 exclusivity to increase profit margins?

And to people that think this is a bad idea from Sony... sure they have had a good run of successful games but what happens if they have a big title flop? What if it's two or three? It's getting more and more risky to avoid the concern.
This really isnt true as gaashit like COD, FIFA, GTAO, and Madden are some of the most popular games on PlayStation, just as they are on other platforms. Sony just wants PS gamers on PS games to retain them and not be reliant on third party deals, especially when their competitor is a rapacious monster buying everything that isn't nailed down.
 
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