Yeah it’s fucked. I can imagine how bad it’s gunna get when they do this shit on actual good games.
I hope Microsoft and their Smart Delivery features/ease of use have pushed Sony to do free upgrades for more of their games.
It was announced that Kena: Bridge of Spirits will receive such an update.
I see the Sony strategy as being a focus towards what helped them build the lead this gen and what helped them claw back last gen.
They are focused on making their ecosystem the strongest for content. This has the larger issue of a “feed the beast” situation. You need to offer content to get people in that they can’t get elsewhere while your top tier teams build the Sony first party must play titles.
Back in the day of Sony, Nintendo and Sega, it is how the world worked and they leveraged it beautifully this generation to keep ahead of others. However, i think these last few months have more stories that we don’t know going on behind the scenes.
Remember how last of us 2 was “indefinitely delayed” on April 2nd? Stories came out that it wasn’t ready and due to Covid, they couldn’t put a date to it. Yet within less than 30 days, they announced the June 19th, which was 3 weeks later than the original May 29th date?
I personally think that they were going to hold Last of Us 2 for PS5 but due to the leaks of story details and the potential of lost sales from their biggest title, they decided to bring it out.
Consider how the current situation would be with the delay of Halo Infinite if PS5 was launching with Last of Us 2. It would be terrible messaging for Xbox. Sony would have a commanding ability to set their messaging really well with “next generation starts with us” and putting it out on the table, I would put money on Sony in that situation to dominate the start of next gen.
So, that didn’t happen but Imran Kahn did start talking about Sony buying up titles for launch around the middle of the year. That lines up with Sony needing to have titles that keep people on their console from launch. No super big title to pull the fans across to your system does create the question of how do you convert the not so hard-core to the new box?
Ultimately, Sony are the market leader. Their price for timed exclusives is determined by the fact they have over 100 million consoles. The commanding lead creates the perfect opportunity to make this work for you.
Jim Ryan, in his role as head of marketing for Sony Europe, made incredible strides in selling the PS3 by focusing on their strength, amazing titles from Eastern developers, best in class first party titles that pushed towards bringing the high end movie experiences to gaming and using the casual marketing to pull in the singstar crowd.
I think, by some of the elements I mentioned above, that Jim Ryan is setting the stage to use what has worked before again. I expect that the E3 of 2021 or 2022 will be another year of dreams. They will announce the titles from first party that have been cooking and this will reinvigorate the gaming market to pull those not already invested, into the fold and help lock down another early gen rise in market.
The only downside to this is that it works wonders when you start from strength and already have your opposition on the ropes. Microsoft can counter this with their already announced plan. Every event going forward, they have something new to announce.
To counter that, Sony need to talk more often and that, is where the risk is. No talking means no questions and no divergence of message. That works fine for a while but after the launch window is done, fans will want to know what is next and when they will get to play it.
I expect that Jim Ryan already has a plan to keep Sony always talking in a consistent manner. Question is, gamers can only afford what they have, will the price in this unstable economy, make the decision for them?
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk. Refreshments are at the back.
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Yeah I don’t have much issue when it’s with indie games given those companies benefit from money and increased marketing. But anything that’s AAA is what I don’t like, particular if it’s a game that is usually multiplatform.
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