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[PlayStaytion]

It's like folks don't want to admit that something is going on with Sony. They sold their television business, closed several studios, canceled 12 games, overpaid for Bungie, Concord flopped badly, Marathon is underperformed, and not they have released an high caliber (for their standards) in years. Marvel gets 35% off the top for any licensed game even though Sony pays for development. But all you hear is that Xbox is dead and that number of PS5 that Sony sold. Didn't they also say that they secured enough memory not to be impacted by the shortage now the price increase. Something is going on with Sony and the media is just ignoring it. They are not moving like they won this generation.

Key devs know better and they don't give a shit, and when they really don't care, what top executives say and do don't matter. They decide when xyz project is f, not the executives.

 

[yurinka]

It's like folks don't want to admit that something is going on with Sony. They sold their television business, closed several studios, canceled 12 games, overpaid for Bungie, Concord flopped badly, Marathon is underperformed, and not they have released an high caliber (for their standards) in years. Marvel gets 35% off the top for any licensed game even though Sony pays for development. But all you hear is that Xbox is dead and that number of PS5 that Sony sold. Didn't they also say that they secured enough memory not to be impacted by the shortage now the price increase. Something is going on with Sony and the media is just ignoring it. They are not moving like they won this generation.

This is what happened:

Some games gets cancelled or tank and other are successful, some studios are created, bought or grow and other get shut down. Sometimes they need to increase prices due to tariffs, component price increases or similar. But they are perfectly fine, continue as clear market leaders and breaking records every year in almost every metric.

The MS case is very different: as game publisher they do a great job but their console sales keep decreasing and losing market share.

 

[FudgeIt]

I don't know, I think Sony wil do right by its customers. Historically, Sony has been pretty good with customers over corporate greed. As long as they go in with lube, I'm satisfied.

 

[Shifty1897]

They are not moving like they won this generation.

They are moving like they won the console war. Which, they did. No need to compete, if you're on console, you're on PlayStation.

Xbox can't come back, our only hope is that Sony's ego causes them to overstep and Steam swoops in and grabs enough of the console market to justify them spending what they would need to in order to compete against Sony in the long term.

 

[Mortisfacio]

"This one topic nobody is talking about CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!"

 

[FullMetalx117]

Long term…unfortunately all Sony has going for it is the IP they own. And that assumes the agentic dev studios don't make their own interesting IP

 

[Edgelord79]

The health of Sony to the CCU of their games and the potential ramifications to their business is all anyone talks about here it seems. Probably just me though.

 

[lachesis]

I moved on the notion of Sony being a electronics company that I used to love. It's been like that way for many many years - now Sony is a primarily Entertainment company, and gaming, music and movies being the main.

And when the console gaming becomes dead end market with diminishing return, they WILL abandon and move onto next ventures of however they feel it's profitable. Many companies have done that. Sega, Nvidia, Xbox, etc.

Sony abandoned Walkman and Trinitron before. Don't think they would not abandon Playstation if money's not there or tech changes.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Fire Hermen Hulst and all his minions.

 

[PeteBull]

It's like folks don't want to admit that something is going on with Sony. They sold their television business, closed several studios, canceled 12 games, overpaid for Bungie, Concord flopped badly, Marathon is underperformed, and not they have released an high caliber (for their standards) in years. Marvel gets 35% off the top for any licensed game even though Sony pays for development. But all you hear is that Xbox is dead and that number of PS5 that Sony sold. Didn't they also say that they secured enough memory not to be impacted by the shortage now the price increase. Something is going on with Sony and the media is just ignoring it. They are not moving like they won this generation.

Sony made tons of questionable( bad) decisions this gen, but even with that we cant look at them in a vacuum, their direct competition aka xbox just died, nintendo left stationary console business a while ago, and pc hardware prices are crazy- we had 2 massive crypro booms- last gen(late 2017, whole 2018) and durning xgen, now massive ram/vram/ssd prices crysis so even tho sony's hardware price goes up same or worse is happening to xbox/pc parts too.

Next gen is first gen in a while when playstation gonna actually work for its success, they can definitely pull it off but gonna have to make some logical choices this round(like for example not porting all/most their singleplayer games to pc).

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

PS5 is more profitable than all other PlayStation generations combined. That's even with Concord flop, overpaying Bungie and closing studios all of those studios. I don't care for most Sony 1st party titles, but they've consistently put out highly regarded games which are selling better than previous series installments. Dev cycles are longer than previous generations. It's not just Sony.

As for getting out of the tv business, they are essentially the last bit of Japan still in that game. They haven't been able to compete with Korea on managing costs and China has come in big and is eating everyone's lunch. I'm sure LG and Samsung are concerned about China as well. There was no real money to be made by Sony with the current approach. Now, they can leverage the cheaper China manufacturing and give their input in providing superior processing than competitors.

I find these Sony is doomed threads almost as bad as the Nintendo ones. The only company that should be concerned is Microsoft because they don't seem to know their gameplan and have destroyed the Xbox brand.

 

[RickMasters]

Most people here are fully aware of Sony latest fumbles. Huge fumbles. But they're still making money, so it's easy to forget.

It also helps that Xbox has become a piece of garbage by forgetting their fanbase and making games for a mythical modern audience that doesn't buy games. So Sony looks amazing by comparison.

But I think the clock is ticking. Eventually, Sony's PS losses will come home to roost.

Your middle paragraph was especially spot on. Just look at some of the replies before yours. People can live with Sonys fuck ups simply because Xbox exists and they can say " hey well it's not as bad as Xbox"


Doesn't change the fact that the Sony of the PS2 era is long gone. But hey, at least they are not Xbox', as they say?

 

[Unfortunatecookie]

It's a combination of business illiteracy/know-it-allism and a genuine lack of historical context.

Multi-platforming your exclusives, GaaS focus for all of your studios, a bunch of expensive and questionable acquisitions, not doing live marketing events; all of these have turned out to be complete duds. Had the never-wrongs just stopped and asked themselves "Is it smart in the long-term for PlayStation to do a complete 180° on what made them successful in the past?", they would have come to the conclusion that the answer is no.

The PS business makes a lot of money. This is a fact. However, it's coming at the cost of eroding what their business has been about for decades -- excellent single-player games, not chasing trends, focus on the console, etc. This cost will, at some point, erode their userbase.

Just ask yourself what happens when the mighty and infallible GaaS revenue stops flowing in. If you're short-sighted, it's easy to think this is an impossibility. But the recent Fortnite news and a bunch of governments paying attention to underage gaming/Robloxes of the world point to a future possibility of GaaS revenue shrinking by a lot. If you've anchored your dick to live-service gaming, what happens to your erection when live-service isn't the hottest thing anymore?

Now the good news is it appears that someone at Sony recognizes the risk they've exposed themselves to and the need to do a 180° on their current trajectory. As long as they recognize that they can avoid another Bravia/Concord/Vaio/Xperia etc. by doing what actually works in the long-term, then PlayStation will be fine.

 

[cash_longfellow]

Oh hey, it's one of these threads again. Ups and downs of business become more apparent when you look for issues.

 

[Signalis]

Move PlayStation back to Japan and get the westerners out of the top positions and give it back to people who actually have a passion for games. Bring back Shu Yoshida and Andre House(westerner but actually speaks Japanese fluently and has passion for games)

 

[Skifi28]

Sony?

 

[Germuso]

Yep, nobody Talk about Concord ( it's an internet meme now for awful games) nobody is talking about the huge flop of marathon and the closure of bluepoint.

 

[DenchDeckard]

It's like folks don't want to admit that something is going on with Sony. They sold their television business, closed several studios, canceled 12 games, overpaid for Bungie, Concord flopped badly, Marathon is underperformed, and not they have released an high caliber (for their standards) in years. Marvel gets 35% off the top for any licensed game even though Sony pays for development. But all you hear is that Xbox is dead and that number of PS5 that Sony sold. Didn't they also say that they secured enough memory not to be impacted by the shortage now the price increase. Something is going on with Sony and the media is just ignoring it. They are not moving like they won this generation.

The problem is with Sony is no one can talk negatively about them because they have the entire western gaming "Journalism" sector so tied up with shills and fanboys that can't say a negative word as Sony will pull the last of the already limited marketing support and review codes etc.

They literally hold western gaming media to ransom. This has been known for decades.