Sony Schreier: Sony’s Obsession With Blockbusters Is Stirring Unrest Within PlayStation Empire

[Dodger]

At first I read it as a TLOU2 remaster, I'm actually ok with a remake of the original as I've had the itch to go play it again. So now I can just wait for that and hopefully 2 gets an update or a remaster or something. 

 

Since Sony seems to prefer milking remasters and remakes to sell them again as opposed to giving you free update enhancements like MS does, can we get a Bloodborne Remaster at 60 fps and they can shut up and take my $70.

 

Sony at least does have the IP catalogue to pull this off. Spiderman 2 is going to sell well, GT7 will, GOW2, HZD2. Plus I'm sure these ND remakes will do well and then whatever else they have going on. Dropping 2-3 10 million+ sellers a year is something they can probably do the next few years. 

[Keyser_Soze]

22 minutes ago, Phaseknox said:

I’m 51 years old and have 500+ PS4 games, so I don’t plan on getting a PS5 or Xbox Series X. The PS4 will most likely be the last game console that I own, and I’m perfectly fine with that since I haven’t been all that fond of the direction that gaming has been going in anyway. 

 

Is there some unfortunate news you haven't shared with is?

[Ghost_MH]

1 hour ago, ShreddieMercuryRising said:

Pretty damning piece, though the strategy totally makes sense and I don't think this will hurt them, at least for a while.  It's not just Sony either - gaming in general has become more and more homogeneous and AAA focused.  Not to over generalize, because there have been some exceptional games recently, and the hardware and QOL improvements have made video games as frictionless as they've ever been.  But for the bulk of last generation and up to now, options typically boil down to AAA third-person open world, GAAS with loot/MTX, or indie rogue-lite/metroidvania.  The risk aversion is not just unique to Sony - these are the games that dominate all platforms, all the time,  so you can't blame them for focusing development on what the non-discerning masses are buying.  For me this has meant that I spend more and more time playing older games, which is fine because there are a lifetime's worth of incredible game experiences already available.

 

I don't mean to single you out here, but the last five years have been some of the most diverse gaming years I've ever seen. You don't even have to look everywhere. Even if you focus on one publisher like Annapurna Interactive you've got everything from Florence to Kentucky Route Zero to Sayonara Wild Hearts to super weird games like Wattam and Donut Country. I mean, even Nintendo released stuff Ring Fit Adventure and the Labo. That doesn't even include the fun stuff we've been getting in the VR space.

 

I think the focus of a lot of game reviewers and many gamers in general have been increasingly on the big stuff with huge budgets or games with tens and hundreds of hours of content. That, however, ignores a lot of the stuff I've really enjoyed over the last generation. Donut Country was like 1 hour of game. Gris is maybe 3 or 4 hours. Superluminal is half of that. There's a lot of great and wildly diverse gaming out there. Hell, we're even seeing FMV games make a comeback with Telling Lies, The Complex, or that new game, Ghost, that can only be played at 10pm with animatronics by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.

 

It's a great time for finding any kind of game you can imagine.

 

Hearing about Sony doubling down on only AAA stuff while Microsoft and even Nintendo look smaller is disheartening.

[Phaseknox]

1 hour ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Is there some unfortunate news you haven't shared with is?

I have DKA so I don’t have a long life expectancy. 500+ PS4 games is more than I’ll realistically be able to play at this point, especially if I keep playing ones as big as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. 

 

1 hour ago, Ghost_MH said:

the last five years have been some of the most diverse gaming years I've ever seen. You don't even have to look everywhere. Even if you focus on one publisher like Annapurna Interactive you've got everything from Florence to Kentucky Route Zero to Sayonara Wild Hearts to super weird games like Wattam and Donut Country. I mean, even Nintendo released stuff Ring Fit Adventure and the Labo. That doesn't even include the fun stuff we've been getting in the VR space.

 

I think the focus of a lot of game reviewers and many gamers in general have been increasingly on the big stuff with huge budgets or games with tens and hundreds of hours of content. That, however, ignores a lot of the stuff I've really enjoyed over the last generation. Donut Country was like 1 hour of game. Gris is maybe 3 or 4 hours. Superluminal is half of that. There's a lot of great and wildly diverse gaming out there. Hell, we're even seeing FMV games make a comeback with Telling Lies, The Complex, or that new game, Ghost, that can only be played at 10pm with animatronics by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.

Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of variety when it comes to indie games which make up a good amount of my current PS4 game library, but there’s been a severe lack of mid-tier games over the years. Games that are lower budget than big AAA games, but higher budget than small indies. Those were some of my favorite types of games in the past, but we see very little of them anymore which is unfortunate IMO.

[Ghost_MH]

1 minute ago, Phaseknox said:

Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of variety when it comes indie games which make up a good amount of my current PS4 game library, but there’s been a major lack of mid-tier games over the years. Games that are lower budget than big AAA games, but higher budget than small indies. Those were some of my favorite types of games in the past, but we see very little of them anymore which is unfortunate IMO.

 

I guess that comes down to what you consider mid tier these days if we're going with budget as the barometer here. I'd definitely put the, like, Yakuza games there. Nier: Automata is certainly mid tier, budget wise. Nowadays it's just a weirdly gray area. I'd consider AAA to be those games whose budget is "whatever it takes to get it done". Any game that questions whether it can include features due to budget constraints during the preliminary design process is a step below that.

[ShreddieMercury]

1 hour ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

I don't mean to single you out here, but the last five years have been some of the most diverse gaming years I've ever seen. You don't even have to look everywhere. Even if you focus on one publisher like Annapurna Interactive you've got everything from Florence to Kentucky Route Zero to Sayonara Wild Hearts to super weird games like Wattam and Donut Country. I mean, even Nintendo released stuff Ring Fit Adventure and the Labo. That doesn't even include the fun stuff we've been getting in the VR space.

 

I think the focus of a lot of game reviewers and many gamers in general have been increasingly on the big stuff with huge budgets or games with tens and hundreds of hours of content. That, however, ignores a lot of the stuff I've really enjoyed over the last generation. Donut Country was like 1 hour of game. Gris is maybe 3 or 4 hours. Superluminal is half of that. There's a lot of great and wildly diverse gaming out there. Hell, we're even seeing FMV games make a comeback with Telling Lies, The Complex, or that new game, Ghost, that can only be played at 10pm with animatronics by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.

 

It's a great time for finding any kind of game you can imagine.

 

Hearing about Sony doubling down on only AAA stuff while Microsoft and even Nintendo look smaller is disheartening.

 

Great post, and I appreciate the push back.  There are a few games in the past several years that have absolutely blown me away.  Playing through Outer Wilds for example was probably one of the top 2 or 3 game experiences I've ever had.  Sayonara Wild Hearts is another great example of something super unique and original and rare.  And things in the VR space like Rez Infinite and Paper Beast are absolutely mindblowing in a "how did games get here" kind of way. 

 

I think my cynicism comes from the fact that there is practically zero middle-ground - these are small, experimental projects that exist beneath the towering behemoth of AAA cinematic and transaction-laden games.  Like @Phaseknox mentioned, the age of AA games has all but vanished, and that's typically where I've had the most fun in previous generations.  Maybe the most disheartening thing about all of this is the feeling that Sony may be allergic to new IP - even if the game design is stagnant in these blockbuster releases, it is at least nice to explore new universes.  Any over reliance on old properties is a net negative in my mind.

[Ghost_MH]

3 minutes ago, ShreddieMercuryRising said:

 

Great post, and I appreciate the push back.  There are a few games in the past several years that have absolutely blown me away.  Playing through Outer Wilds for example was probably one of the top 2 or 3 game experiences I've ever had.  Sayonara Wild Hearts is another great example of something super unique and original and rare.  And things in the VR space like Rez Infinite and Paper Beast are absolutely mindblowing in a "how did games get here" kind of way. 

 

I think my cynicism comes from the fact that there is practically zero middle-ground - these are small, experimental projects that exist beneath the towering behemoth of AAA cinematic and transaction-laden games.  Like @Phaseknox mentioned, the age of AA games has all but vanished, and that's typically where I've had the most fun in previous generations.  Maybe the most disheartening thing about all of this is the feeling that Sony may be allergic to new IP - even if the game design is stagnant in these blockbuster releases, it is at least nice to explore new universes.  Any over reliance on old properties is a net negative in my mind.

 

That's certainly true. I think this is just a reality of the ease of entry game publishing has these days. It seems like the major publishers have a harder time keeping talent they then push to work on budget constrained titles with very little backing. Like, why put yourself through that when you can go work on a passion project that gets picked up by Epic, Nintendo, Microsoft, or Apple? Even if it doesn't, there's still Steam and Nintendo's wildly lax eShop requirements. The Bloomberg story covers exactly that happening at Sony Bend.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

AA games are very much alive and well...

 

...on the PC

 

[SaysWho?]

2 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

I don't mean to single you out here, but the last five years have been some of the most diverse gaming years I've ever seen. You don't even have to look everywhere. Even if you focus on one publisher like Annapurna Interactive you've got everything from Florence to Kentucky Route Zero to Sayonara Wild Hearts to super weird games like Wattam and Donut Country. I mean, even Nintendo released stuff Ring Fit Adventure and the Labo. That doesn't even include the fun stuff we've been getting in the VR space.

 

I think the focus of a lot of game reviewers and many gamers in general have been increasingly on the big stuff with huge budgets or games with tens and hundreds of hours of content. That, however, ignores a lot of the stuff I've really enjoyed over the last generation. Donut Country was like 1 hour of game. Gris is maybe 3 or 4 hours. Superluminal is half of that. There's a lot of great and wildly diverse gaming out there. Hell, we're even seeing FMV games make a comeback with Telling Lies, The Complex, or that new game, Ghost, that can only be played at 10pm with animatronics by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.

 

It's a great time for finding any kind of game you can imagine.

 

Hearing about Sony doubling down on only AAA stuff while Microsoft and even Nintendo look smaller is disheartening.

Strangely (considering the headline), Sony has been on fire the past year releasing games that are outside the big TLOU2 releases (Dreams, Predator, Astro Bot, Sackboy, Destruction All-Stars, Demon’s Souls Remake). And methinks the money spent on Ratchet and Returnal isn’t in the same ballpark as Horizon or GOW.

 

That’s why I don’t know if Jason knew some thing that he didn’t share in the story, or if he is making his own observation as the headline.

[SaysWho?]

1 hour ago, ShreddieMercuryRising said:

 

Great post, and I appreciate the push back.  There are a few games in the past several years that have absolutely blown me away.  Playing through Outer Wilds for example was probably one of the top 2 or 3 game experiences I've ever had.  Sayonara Wild Hearts is another great example of something super unique and original and rare.  And things in the VR space like Rez Infinite and Paper Beast are absolutely mindblowing in a "how did games get here" kind of way. 

 

I think my cynicism comes from the fact that there is practically zero middle-ground - these are small, experimental projects that exist beneath the towering behemoth of AAA cinematic and transaction-laden games.  Like @Phaseknox mentioned, the age of AA games has all but vanished, and that's typically where I've had the most fun in previous generations.  Maybe the most disheartening thing about all of this is the feeling that Sony may be allergic to new IP - even if the game design is stagnant in these blockbuster releases, it is at least nice to explore new universes.  Any over reliance on old properties is a net negative in my mind.

Most of their releases the last few years have been new IPs, though.

[Ghost_MH]

16 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

Strangely (considering the headline), Sony has been on fire the past year releasing games that are outside the big TLOU2 releases (Dreams, Predator, Astro Bot, Sackboy, Destruction All-Stars, Demon’s Souls Remake). And methinks the money spent on Ratchet and Returnal isn’t in the same ballpark as Horizon or GOW.

 

That’s why I don’t know if Jason knew some thing that he didn’t share in the story, or if he is making his own observation as the headline.

 

Jason's story isn't really about the games, themselves, but the people at Sony who are feeling pressured to work on the big budget games. Sony putting more and more pressure on their devs to help support they're tentpoles while neglecting their smaller titles doesn't exactly contradict their previous releases.

[SaysWho?]

4 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Jason's story isn't really about the games, themselves, but the people at Sony who are feeling pressured to work on the big budget games. Sony putting more and more pressure on their devs to help support they're tentpoles while neglecting they're smaller titles doesn't exactly contradict their previous releases.

But what he’s claiming the article is about is contradicted by his own reporting. Their issue with TLOU was that it was over budget comparative to their previous remakes, not that it wasn’t big enough. Days Gone was profitable but because of its troubled development and critical reception, they’re doing a new IP instead. If they were doing Days Gone 2, they’d still be working on a big game.

 

All in all, most of their releases aren’t AAA and especially haven’t been in the past year and this year. 

[Brian]

 

[crispy4000]

The story is told by the games, ultimately.  I would be highly surprised if that narrative holds for long.

 

Do people earnestly believe Sony will stop producing games like Sackboy or Destruction All Stars going forward?  The system launched with a small project pack in.  We also know a new PSVR is a thing, and there will be smaller projects to support that.  

 

This might even be an enviable position for them going into E3, as far as the library is concerned.  If people want things from them that aren’t their already announced blockbusters, there’s no pressure to announce anything huge.  Lean in on their smaller studios and some indies.

[SaysWho?]

On 4/10/2021 at 9:31 AM, crispy4000 said:

Do people earnestly believe Sony will stop producing games like Sackboy or Destruction All Stars going forward?  The system launched with a small project pack in.  We also know a new PSVR is a thing, and there will be smaller projects to support that.  

 

 

[Bloodporne]

On 4/16/2021 at 9:07 AM, SaysWho? said:

 

 

I've got a remedy for that. Don't blow your own article out of proportion out of the gate with a clickbait central headline. 

[SimpleG]

On 4/16/2021 at 8:07 AM, SaysWho? said:

 

 

 

"Sony’s focus on exclusive blockbusters has come at the expense of niche teams and studios within the PlayStation organization, leading to high turnover and less choice for players"

 

Not sure why readers could be confused Jason