Great episode! Adam is wonderful! 
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Fantastic episode. Was kinda hoping that someone would have asked about the Rise of Nations IP, wether itâs something that falls under the purview of Worldâs Edge. Maybe something for his next appearance.
Iâm assuming this is the big news. Happy this finally happened.
I wanted to ask something about Rise of Nations and Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends. But it felt a little too niche 
Just listening now. Didnât know he was involved with Star Wars Empire at War⌠Great game. Still have the disks. One of the first things I went and bought an expansion the day it launchedâŚ
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Nice to hear the support for modding. Thanks for asking. While Iâd love seeing something official, I get Adamâs point on having fans build things.
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I think Adam should host an AOE podcast when it is time to promote the game.
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So I was catching up to episode 52 of the podcast, and I heard some downright strange claims made.
1 hour into the podcast, âSony are making one or two games a year. They canât support a Game Pass competitor with one or two games a yearâ.
In the past 12 months Sony has shipped TLOU2, Ghost of Tsushima, Demon Souls, Miles Morales, Sackboyâs Big Adventure, and Destruction All-Stars. Then a week from now they ship Returnal, and then 5 weeks later they ship a new Ratchet & Clank.
Guys, you have to stick to the facts if you want to be taken seriously. I want to like your show, but this kind of intentionally dishonestly is just embarrassing to listen to.
And trust me, this wasnât the only dishonest thing said in this podcast. Itâs just the one I decided to call out.
It was an exaggeration, also Iâd like to see this list of âdishonestââ statements. :nickthink:
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While there was a slight exaggeration in what I said.
Demonâs Souls is third party. 2021 looks like it will literally only be Ratchet and Returnal and Returnal isâŚyou guessed it, made by a third party.
The discussion was around FIRST party being able to support a Game Pass competitor, which I still maintain Sony canât currently do.
As to the number of games Sonyâs first party output? Donât get caught up on semantics.
In 2020 it was 3, in 2021 it might only be 1. Guess what, averages out to 2.
The discussion was around first party studios, or at least was meant to be.
edit: I will add, if we want to also throw in the discussion around âwhat constitutes a first party gameâ well then that obviously changes things and is another discussion entirely.
If the only issue is around the number I used. Then I apologise. Iâll be sure to use a less inflammatory number next time. The point of the discussion was that at the present time, Sony canât support a true Game Pass competitor.
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Donât get caught up in semantics, but let me use this ridiculously stringent definition of what an exclusive game is so I can suggest Sony doesnât make enough games to support a game pass service.
Come on Ed. Youâre better than this.
If Sony funds the game, and itâs only playable on a PlayStation console, in what alternate reality do people not consider that an exclusive game? A game that could be added to any service Sony chooses to offer.
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Personally, I go based on who the publisher is. If itâs Sony publishing the game like they did with Demonâs Souls, Sackboy and the upcoming Returnal, itâs a first party game especially considering the fact that Sony is funding the games and own the IPâs. Same thing for Microsoft with Gears Tactics last November. Splash Damage isnât owned by Microsoft but they still funded and published the game plus they own the IP.
Isnât it easier to say that those studios are second party ? Not owned by Sony/Xbox but still published by them.
Who said exclusives?
Sony moneyhats plenty of exclusives. We werenât talking exclusives. We were talking first party studio output. I personally was talking about Sonyâs internal studios.
Again, I maintain, Sonyâs internal studios arenât numerous enough and donât make games fast enough to support a Game Pass competitor.
Even Microsoft right now, are doing third party deals to bridge the gap until their first party studios get a rhythm going. But in the end, they have 23 of them, almost all with multiple teams. Theyâre also adding more. So once that rhythm eventually gets going, theyâll be able to generate enough content to support the platform. Right now itâs being bridged with third party deals.
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You could call it a second party game but my understanding of second party is that the developer is independent but the publisher thatâs funding the game is one of the three hardware manufacturerâs because how often do you see these games go on the other consoles? Outside of a few from the Microsoft side (Ori/Cuphead), it rarely if ever happens so the end result is basically the same.
I consider Flight Simulator a Microsoft first party title. Only difference is that Asobo isnât an internally owned studio but the game itself is still a first party title due to Microsoft funding and publishing the game as well as owning the IP.
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Everybody can disagree and join the discussion. Itâs what moves this community, to be honest.
But straight up calling someone dishonest out of nowhere is a bit too much imo.
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Who said exclusives?
If the conversation was about feeding games into a service, as you stated it was, exclusive games are obviously a critical part of this conversation.
If you donât want to say exclusives, fine, say games Sony publishes. My point remains, from June 2020, to June 2021 Sony would have had provided an absolute avalanche of games to a service if they wanted to do so.
And even now, right here, youâre trying to downplay their 2021 output. Theyâre going to publish, at minimum Destruction All-Stars, Returnal, Ratchet & Clank, and very likely Horizon ZD2. Oh, and they also have Deathloop for at least a year.
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Only problem with this Ed is that we both know that Sony will have a shit ton of external studios developing first party exclusives for them so in this regard, they would have enough to maintain a Game Pass type subscription.
If Sony didnât do these external deals at all, then yeah, I can easily agree with you but again, we both know thatâs not going to happen.
And thatâs fine I edited my post to say, that if thatâs where we saw âthis is a first party gameâ then no worries, I have no choice to concede there.
At the time I Was saying that on the podcast, I was referring to Sonyâs internal studios and in this case, Iâd say I was mostly right. 1-2/2-3 lets not act like thatâs the difference between having enough to support Game Pass or not.
Which was ultimately the point.
Iâm obviously slowly learning that I need to understand people donât know me well enough to know how I exaggerate when I talk. Even though Iâd argue that within the context I was talking about, it wasnât a huge exaggeration.
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Iâm downplaying their out put by mentioning 2 of the 4 games you just listed there?
I didnât mention Horizon because I really really doubt thatâs coming out this year. The fact that weâve heard nothing of it since itâs reveal should probably tell you all you need to know on that one.
Destruction All Stars?
Cool man. Iâm wrong, youâre right. Theyâre publishing 3 games this year instead of 2. Only 1 of which is from an internal first party studio.
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