The ps1 and ps2 were monsters because they were heaven to 3rd parties. It is only recently that Sony cultivated the idea that they are a big publisher.
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I get it, but the problem is that they have to increase their margins to please their shareholders too. The only way really to satisfy both the boardroom and the fanbase is follow Nintendo’s path, but that ain’t happening for multitude of reasons. The only other option for them is to acquire studio/publishers that not only specializes on mobile/GAAS, but also bring a lot of money to subsidize the budget for their single player games. The problem on this one is money, which they do have don’t get me wrong, however, they are not Microsoft, who can spend several billion dollars without worrying about immediate returns or investment risk.
No, what you’re seeing here is that PlayStation’s games are incredibly expensive to make and market. They don’t have the type of early sales that then fully pay back things, and instead have to rely on bundling/discounting over time to reach even these numbers. That’s the main issue with the brand, costs keep going up but sales are stagnated.
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Yeah Nintendo’s attach rates are just insane in comparison when you consider that their games never get heavily discounted.
PS’s attach rates sort of line up with my subjective perception of the brand. I’ve always viewed the PS as the third-party machine whose 1st party didn’t start really mattering until the second half of the PS4 gen (e.g., never heard of the God of War franchise until the 2018 game released as someone who used to not pay much attention to gaming news). I did play the Jak and Ratchet games on PS2, but my family and friends didn’t get PS2s for those games.
MS is similar but not exactly. Halo was instantly a massive deal on the OG Xbox, and Gears + Halo fed straight into the booming online shooter scene alongside CoD, Battlefield, etc.
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Was looking at some excerpts posted from certain “gaming” Youtubers and the gist was if Sony pivot to producing more AAs they’re done with them. I had so SMH at this. Sony really did cultivate this notion that budget is more important than anything else in gaming. At least among their so called “hardcore” base.
Even now when Sony themselves are saying what most have been for years that this shit isn’t sustainable they still don’t seem to get it. Beyond the argument of it not being sustainable , dismissing a game because it’s missing an A…I can’t even call that shit casual anymore. Casuals play and enjoy a variety of games from what I’ve seen. Good luck with your fanbase, Sony lol.
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Looking at the stats on sales, I would say my theory is more spot on than I thought. I’m referring to the notion of another platform sharing its thunder. With Xbox Series’ existence or even Game Pass, it’s taking away some of its revenue that they would normally get with last gen. Yes, PS5 sold a lot more than Series, but the attach rate is low in a gen where it matters more than ever.
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Most Playstation users don’t care what Sony execs said over the years. Sony will leave some of their ardent fans behind, but they did it many times in the past already.
The push to GAAS may take many forms, if they’re counting that any of their upcoming titles could be the next Fortnite then they’re going to be disappointed, but if they have modest budgets and modest expectations, then they could have a reasonably good success rate.
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II guess that’s all from these leaks. Really sad for Insomniac devs and specially more so when you consider this is how they discovered some people could be lay off, but it gave us an enormous insight in how PS business operate and what that means for the whole AAA industry.
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They trained their core fanbase to only appreciate the high budget AAA games…they are trapped in this race for the best in class presentation/“Prestige” BS now. They know that their mainly “big budget AAA” strategy might turn out unsustainable in a few years but at the same time they can’t start releasing smaller games or lower their budgets because their fans are entitled AF.
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Their margins are so low Sony is in full panic mode now switching model to GAAS just to turn on that when most of them failed to even get out the gate.
If Sony were happy with their margins they would not be pivoting and talking about raising games prices which they already did this gen.
If you want to know if Sony is Happy with the current situation realize how lazy they are and how much they want to just stay the course but they are pivoting.
So just look at Sony actions to determine if they were happy with things as they are now. The answer is they are not. They literally said their business model is outdated
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The difference here is simple. CoD is a highly profitable business but Playstation first party is not 
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It’s funny because Sony themselves are telling them right in the leaks and everything but “u gUys sOuNd LIkE fAnBoYs”. But I do realise that it’s taboo to give Sony any sort of criticism , everyone else is fair game though naturally.
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That’s why I said Sony has more to lose when the market dynamic changes. Sony has been the king of the gaming world for years due to exclusive content and large user base. Microsoft recognize that and realize that they can’t win the console “war” so they looked beyond consoles. Phil wouldn’t be able to convinced Satya to spend on Xbox if he wasn’t forward thinking.
The problem with this is that Sony is still riding its success from the PS4 era, but they won’t be able to replicate that in this generation due to stronger competition from its rival who is also forward thinking by building/buying profitable live service games that will help keep its gaming business afloat even with the rising cost and that they diversified their revenue beyond the Xbox console ecosystem.
In the end, optics from fans or media doesn’t matter. PlayStation can keep winning the “hardcore base”, but Microsoft will be winning what really matters to these corporations, making more revenue/profit. As people said, don’t just win a battle, win the whole war.
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Yea it is funny that Sony’s mentality and the way they curate their fanboys and sling shit at other gaming companies pretty much precludes them from being able to pivot to things like GAAS which they have tried to tear down when the competition does it.
Sony’s nutjob fanboy rabble rousing has painted them in a corner they really can’t get out of. They better hope their insane fanbase stays the same going forward.
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They could easily drop to AAA without 3x the budget of other AAA games. That’s what one of the internal Sony slide asked, paraphrasing ‘would anyone even notice the difference?’
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Ponies will always praise whatever Sony is doing at that time. Playstation has nothing to fear on that front.
I’d love to find out what is the budget of other AAA games. We have the figure for Cyberpunk and that’s it.
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Dev size X time / How expensive the area is.
With various support studios assisting development in varying degrees, it’s hard to guesstimate development costs that way.
Count me among those that were legitimately shocked that SM2 was more than 3x as expensive as SM1.
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The interesting thing about that is companies like Asobo which are considered AA developers make just as great of games as the AAA developers.
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Hasn’t there been any more information pulled from the leak, I thought there were loads of documents still to be sifted through minus the employee stuff of course
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