Xbox now without doubt has a far, far superior first party lineup than Sony does. Numbers, diversity and IP wise. Sony need to diversify the games they make.
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This is exactly what they did at the start of this gen by heavily showcasing indies. The cynic in me thinks they did this because they had little first party content to show and it was no coincidence that when they did the indie presence decreased dramatically.
The way I see it, that all depends on Sony. That said, the absolute worst thing they can do is be complacent. Complacency begets failure. I think what we are realistically looking at are 6 distinct options or a combination therein.
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Stay the course. While being complacent is not the solution, there is nothing to say that staying the course is a bad thing. Sony’s in-house studios have a proven track record with stellar results, and provided they continue to receive ample funding, promotion and remain within the walled garden, there are still reasons for players to pick up a PS5, even if it is as a secondary system (I myself am one of those people). It is also worth noting that MS’s attempts to “counter” Sony’s style of games is mostly limited to Ninja Theory and The Initiative (conceivably). They mostly tend to opt for genres Sony has little involvement in like Shooters and WRPGs.
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Acquire firms. This can take the form of smaller second parties such as Bluepoint and Housemarque, AA studios like IO, or even big conglomerates like THQ Nordic or public ones like 2K and EA (but those will require significant investment with funds they may not have, scrutiny and shareholder demands).
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Timed/Third Party Published Exclusives. This is a double-edged sword. While it can create value for customers within your walled garden, it can come at the cost of no IP ownership and limited benefits. It can also be very pricy.
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Third Party Exclusives. This is different from third party published exclusives as Sony will own the IP. Examples of these would include Modnation Racers, Bloodborne, Demon’s Souls and Ratchet and Clank (before Insomniac was bought).
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Expand the First Party organically. While this will take time, Sony can save money and have greater control over their studios by building them from the ground up. They are already doing this with their new San Diego studio rumoured to be working on an Uncharted prequel about Sully.
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Leverage existing IP and create new ones. So you lost Fallout, Doom, Wolfenstein, Elder Scrolls, etc. What do you plan to do about it? You can make new IP which is a great approach you seem to be doing, but you also have tons of properties looking for some TLC. Jak and Daxter, SOCOM, Resistance, Syphon FIlter, Twisted Metal, Sly Cooper, WipeOut, Parappa the Rapper, Killzone, Infamous, Heavenly Sword, Ape Escape, Buzz, Fat Princess, Gravity Rush, Folklore, Motorstorm, MediEvil, etc. You can make great games with these properties or new ones.
- It also bears mentioning they own Sony Pictures who owns the rights to properties such as Ghostbusters, Jumanji and Bad Boys, yet most of these have been wasted on crummy tie ins. Why are you giving these properties out for crummy multiplat games by Z-tier Activision studios and Game Mill Entertainment when you could be making kick-ass exclusives and promote your film at the same time. Just look at how well your Spider-Man approach has been across games, movies and soon TV. It doesn’t have to be separated.
Anyhow, this is just my 2 cents.
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Exactly.
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I think they would dig deep with Japanese publishers to rule that space. Capcom, Square-Enix, SEGA, Konami, etc.
From Software.
If I were Sony I’d play to the strength of the strong relationships with these publishers.
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Also Microsoft has some big hitters coming - TUNIC, 12 Minutes and The Last Night.
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Honestly, they will probably do a mixture of all the things you mentioned. I can see them continuing to pay for timed exclusives and Sony has already said they are in acquisition mode as well, so I expect studios like Bluepoint to get bought.
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I don’t think they do. PS5 will sell like hotcakes and most of their exclusives are unmatched. If they respond to anything it’ll be by making PSnow better.
The issue is, Sony still needs it’s cash reserves and Microsoft has money it can just spend. and every company knows now they can get a better deal from microsoft over sony.
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If Sony wants to even the playing field, they have 3 targets that they have to lock down
House Marquee Blue Point Supermassive
They cannot keep relying on timed third party exclusive games. Also they really should try to expand their currenty development teams. A lot of their studios usually work on one project like SSM, Sucker Punch, Bend, Polyphony etc and don’t have great turn around times. Ghost of Tsushima I believe took 5 years to make. Hopefully a sequel will come out sooner
But if Xbox really does release a big AAA first party game every quarter then it’s going to be extremely difficult for Sony to keep up without having more manpower/devs
There’s nothing they can do on the same level. Housemarque, Bluepoint, etc… Not even close.
MS is really turning the screws on Sony. Sony is already eating huge losses with their console. Their yields are low. They’re buying up all these timed deals, but that’s not going to move the needle like this. Now they’re going to be forced to acquire studios.
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This is one of my fears. Supermassive did great things with Sony with Until Dawn. If the Dark Pictures Anthology games continue to under perform it seems like it would be in both their interests to make that deal to become a Sony studio.
I dont think the company who owns from software would want to sell because from software prints money for them. They could basically poach Hidetaka Miyazaki for much cheaper. Problem is for sony is the moment they try to buy someone now Microsoft might just come in with a higher offer
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I agree entirely with your take.
Sony challenged Microsoft too much, now Microsoft has better hardware, software and, guys, it has better services, with both Game Pass and xCloud. Bethesda was Microsoft’s shot across the bow not only for Sony, but for Google and Amazon and also for the gaming media and its disgusting and pathetic tendency to discredit Microsoft’s commitment to both Xbox and gaming itself. Now gaming media is scared, shocked and desperately trying to create a narrative (as usual) that Microsoft needs to publish multiplatform games. There is a word for that in Portuguese: “recalque” (here is a great description in English of what it means). I cannot possibly find a word that explains media’s behavior towards Xbox as well as this word - it really is pure “recalque”.
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Well Sony could just double down on Japanese games, make it JRPG vs WRPG.
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Sony has been on a growth trajectory with Playstation. They should probably stay the course instead of making a knee jerk reaction. Snapping up devs such as BluePoint, Housemarquee, and potentially starting a new studio with Kojima at the helm, seem like good plays that would resonate well with their audience.
I think there are more timed exclusives on the way as well, particularly on franchises that had/have a strong association with Playstation years ago such as GTA, MGS, Monster Hunter, DMC, Street Fighter, Kingdom Hearts, etc. Playstation and PC makeup like 70% of Capcom sales, so I could see Sony and Capcom getting really cozy. I imagine the sales breakdown is similar for Square and that’s why they are getting timed exclusives from SE.
I don’t think Playstation’s audience is going anywhere.
Sony’s acquisitions in the past were based on building successful IP with studios before they agreed to acquire. I like Super Massive, but they’re probably not a prime target for Sony based on recent output.
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Yeah I see your meaning. It’s a way of rejecting a solid argument, by some sort of deflecting, employing calomny etc
Yeah medias, some not all, there are some with misconceptions, ok, that need to be clarified but the rest is clearly trying to create a narrative attacking whatever MS do. People clearly saw the bias recently with Sony cross gen stance.
I think, imho, some journalists are between Sony’s claws and they fear being blaclisted and losing access to Sony material. It’s a really concerning issue. Integrity at stakes.
You know corruption is real. Sony was caught before and accused of that, articles about that exist and are real.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-20/sony-probed-india-business-for-corruption-e-mails-show Just an exemple of what they can do.
Beware all the Bethesda games threatened to be reviewed negatively by pseudo journos cause they are now Xbox exclusives…
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Kingdom Hearts and Street Fighter won’t be exclusives.
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Others have said this but I think there’s truth to it. The price tag for Sony PS5 exclusives is going way up if Xbox grabs back market share this generation. Additionally some publishers like Sega are realizing how much Sony exclusives were actually hurting them like when Persona came to Steam. I think Sega realized that Sony was low balling them and taking them for granted.
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Invest in thier current first party. Open new studios for ND, Santa Monica, etc. Speed up dev time for each.
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