Entroyp
Member
Well, the Japanese side of Sega burned it to the ground with all their secret agendas. Luckily for Sony the successful and game oriented westerners are taking over.
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Former Sony Employee reveals info on the internal culture war between the Japanese and the US branch for the control of the Playstation brand
- Thread starter The Chairman
- Start date
- News
Well, the Japanese side of Sega burned it to the ground with all their secret agendas. Luckily for Sony the successful and game oriented westerners are taking over.
StormCell
Member
Is this just a lot of hand waving?
1. He was still under a lot of pay grades.
So we'll discredit a source because he was several pay grades below the executives regardless of whether he may have worked closely under them. I would be considered several pay grades below executive and yet I have frequent discussions with them and present stuff to them.
2. You feel sad about the changes but still think they will knock it out of the park with third party support.
I share your opinion.
3. Third party timed exclusivity and launch first on Playstation are reasons not to switch platforms
I don't agree. I'm capable of waiting to play games on my preferred platform. We'll see where things play best.
4. You don't see why it's such a doom and gloom with Sony.
It's really not, but the shift away from Japanese content is what it is... and you said it at the start, sad. If they continue towards west coast cultural trends, it will be even sadder.
5. You don't see Sony suffering here.
Nor do I, but any loss of content is a loss of content. This industry has lost some content since PS360 days arrived. Remember when OG Xbox was a literal kingdom of sports titles? Now we get the NFL game and the MLB game and the NBA game. SMH
6. Classic games more of a discussion topic than something implemented by majority of players
Pure 100% PR deflection bullshit. Since buying a Series X, playing classic games on Game Pass is the happiest I've been since, probably, the first time I played Breath of the Wild on Switch. Good games are good no matter how old they are provided you haven't had them spoon fed to you in the form of remasters every generation. Consider me a classic game connoisseur. I love enjoying all this stuff at improved resolution and framerate.
Conclusion: Yeah, Sony will continue to produce a lot of big hitters. Sony is not in any sort of trouble. It's possible that Xbox will gain ground, but it won't be at Sony's expense, IMO. That doesn't mean I like the path Sony is on, but that's just my taste and not reflective of anyone else. Sony, like Nintendo, is someone who still needs to earn my trust when it comes to purchases on previous platforms. Thankfully, since I skipped Xbox One, I have the added bonus of jumping back onto that platform with the freshness of a whole generation of stuff that is new to me but not everyone else.
Again, I don't think Playstation is any trouble. It'll kick ass with or without me. I'll buy a PS5 Pro if for some reason the next Elder Scrolls is an abomination and we've gotten tired of the Game Pass games. Why? Because I want that Forbidden West and new Spider-man.
Roxkis_ii
Member
Is anyone really surprised Sony is looking and moving more westward? The market in the Japan just isn't there for anyone not named Nintendo, and with the declining birthrate, I don't think Nintendo is going to stay Japanese focused forever.
Lol @ people saying Xbox and Playstation are going to swap positions. If you think this will do it, you don't know why Sony is first in the first place.
Lol @ people saying Xbox and Playstation are going to swap positions. If you think this will do it, you don't know why Sony is first in the first place.
ethomaz
Banned
100% agree here and with what you wrote next.
This AMA looks a lot suspicious... to not say straight made up.
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D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Nintendo also sells far more software and hardware outside of Japan than in it, but that doesn't mean they are going to shift their headquarters to NOA and completely change their identity to being a modern woke American corporation and shut down their Japanese development teams.
ANIMAL1975
Member
Krappadizzle
Member
MY uncle was a former 3DO Developer. (No really he was.)
Maybe not the best game on the system, and not being the worst is a low bar, especially for the 3DO, but still....Proud of him.
---------------------
That aside, not surprised at the turmoil, it seemed after the VITA was released and Sony saw that Nintendo still held the crown, they just kind of quietly let it fizzle out. Even then, it seems like Sony Japan is a litttle disconnected from the pulse of the wider audience and the games they want on the PS4/5.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Given that Shawn Layden himself has been liking posts on Twitter criticizing Jim Ryan and some of the decisions PS's been making in light of his departure, there's definitely something going on at Sony WRT some internal politics. I mean, there's just too many little nuggets that start to add up:
Really the two things that give me the most pause is the supposed internal politics between the Japanese/Western sides and somewhat questionable cancellations (plus unnecessary remakes/versions/ports whatever), because both of these things are VERY reminiscent of what happened with SEGA in the mid-1990s' and...well we see what damage that ended up causing. The Japanese and Western sides basically sabotaging one another, sacrificing certain regions for pushes in others, cancelling sequels to games that might not've necessarily moved mountains but still had fanbases and helped with brand perception, shunning legacy IP when they could be iterated on with new installments, potentially getting complacent with marquee IP (only compilations and divisive racing games on Saturn for Sonic, TLOU remake for PS5 when the original (specifically PS4 Remaster) is perfectly playable still), etc.
I'm only saying these are rough equivalents and have different weights between the two, but the parallels ARE there, and we know how that impacted SEGA, who ironically went directly after Sony despite the latter having way more resources and money to play with. Is Sony heading down a similar path? It depends. First, we don't really know what their plans are for their legacy IP, they could certainly fund smaller ventures of new installments for them with external developers, like how SEGA's done for both Sonic Mania and Streets of Rage 4. And honestly, I'd like that a lot.
However, beyond that is where it starts to get a little scary. Sony can't compete with Microsoft on their own turf in the same way SEGA couldn't compete with Sony, and in both cases for the same reason: money. That's why I DON'T think Sony funding their own GamePass-like service or trying to significantly expand their streaming services is going to work out well for them; that type of stuff costs significant amounts of money, not just for building the infrastructure but also in securing the deals, especially in the beginning. Microsoft has a massive lead on Sony here and have the corporate size & structure (as well as larger revenues/profits from other divisions of the company) to weather initial losses; Sony doesn't. That's what laying down the serious investments and pushes since almost five years ago helps get you.
IMO Sony has to do what Nintendo did in the mid '90s: find a niche and solidify the hell out of it. However, the question is if Sony's choosing the right niche to focus on. IMO, they aren't. Yes, they make arguably the best single-player, story-driven cinematic games in the industry, but how viable is that segment going to remain as ambitions and budgets continue to increase? How many more sales are they honestly expecting from these types of games vs. what they managed on PS4, without turning to other revenue streams to get those profits (PC, mobile streaming etc., heavy MTX, etc.)?
If you look at what Nintendo did at that time, they focused on genuine hardware platform differentiation and games that were both wholly unique to their system design and financially manageable, with not too much genuine competition from other developers. For N64, that was native 4-player multiplayer and 3D platformers as that was a genre very new at the time and one only Nintendo (and Rare) seemingly fully understood in those early years. Now let's look at PS5: yes some people would probably say Sony's equivalents are the SSD and those cinematic single-player games but....are they really?
We've heard a lot about the SSD but I'm still of the opinion that ultimately, there's not much difference in practice between theirs and Microsoft's solution; two different solutions that take some divergent approaches to solving similar problems, it happens in tech all the time. Now in terms of the cinematic, single-player, third-person action/adventure Hollywood-style AAA, there's probably an argument certainly that Sony retains the lead on those games but, ultimately, managing budgets is going to be the biggest choke point with that type of game. Sony's answer is to make less of them but increase the budget for each, however this can have an inverse effect of sanitizing both story and gameplay elements in these games due to want of incurring less risks that could be "misunderstood" by the mainstream, and could therein affect profits directly. These kind of games were already not necessarily super-innovative to begin with, but Sony's answer to the budget problem could potentially result in tamer experiences (that TLOU remake news doesn't instill any confidence there, either).
So if those aren't Sony's points of differentiation, what are they: IMO, it should be VR and doing in-house development for a wider net of software that really pushes the tech and that side of the medium forward. They already have a lot of experience and work in VR, and could carve a niche for themselves as being the company that can put some real budget behind bigger-scale, ambitious, innovative VR games. Maybe they start with gradual steps, but I think it is something they could absolutely try if they make VR a standard default with the next PlayStation because, ultimately, it's the market fracturing that prevents support for VR at more levels from various developers and publishers. One of the platform holders needs to try making VR standard the way Nintendo made analog sticks standard, or Microsoft with hard drives, and for VR I think the best suitor is Sony. But that means it can't be an optional peripheral anymore (except if you want to get more headsets to use).
I think one of Sony's other niches would be making new types of interactive content: not games per se, but say movies where you can actually interact with parts of the scene, like taking on the role of an extra or adjust the lighting of some background prop enough times and if so maybe trigger an alternate scene. Something like more natural QTE interactions, think like in games such as Detroit: Become Human, but the actual scene is still playing out as normal and the player may or may not have active control of a central character. This could be done in a way to not ruin the flow of the original vision, but add to it, and maybe by having those interactions viewers accrue points that can carry over to other things. Sony's in a better position to do this vs. a company like Microsoft or Nintendo, because they already have their own game devs alongside a television and film division, all in-house. If they really wanted to they could push for it in a way to differentiate their films from others, and backend those benefits to the games.
One thing's clear: if there is internal politics causing some strife between certain parts of the gaming division at Sony, they don't have a lot of time to rectify that. They can't afford to have PlayStation contract severely, and I don't want to see what happened to SEGA happen to Sony. Anyone trying to say this is fearmongering or paranoia, or that it could never happen, don't know enough about the history of the corporations in the tech industry. But for now all I'm doing is speculating based on the evidence and clues before us; I think by the time Sony do their E3-like show and towards the start of Fall, we'll have a good picture of what direction they're truly moving in when it comes to PlayStation.
Only after that time can we truly know if they're on a good path or a bad one, so until then I would say any overt doom-and-glooming is hyperbolic and unnecessary. However, we do have to acknowledge some of the shakiness that's come about the past year or two, how it might start to add up and suggest a particular direction, and realize that a less-than-optimal outcome IS possible here. But is it even modestly probable? At this point in time, I'm gonna say no.
>Shawn Layden's sudden, abrupt departure
>Bloomberg reports over struggle between American and Japanese sides over PS5 specifications (RAM module speeds as one example)
>Closure of Japan Studio
>The "X" and "O" button swap issue in Japan
>Initial words of wanting to focus on less volume of games, bigger AAA budgets per game (Shawn Layden himself said this but I think the decision came from other powers at the company)
>Cancelling Days Gone 2 (whatever Bend's new game is will probably not be AAA, if they were not willing to fund a sequel to Days Gone)
>Remaking The Last of Us (a pretty unnecessary remake; just because there's a new show coming doesn't justify it, either. When The Witcher Netflix show came out, did Witcher 3 get a remake? No, because it was unnecessary. Same deal here.)
>Several PS teams reportedly frustrated, weary and at odds with upper management, as per Jason's article
And that's probably not all of them. It seems like for every good thing that's come through from the PlayStation division the past year or so there's been something bad to complement it, whether it be some messaging kerfuffle, some QoL oversight, questionable departures, or the such. This isn't taking away anything they've gotten right with the tailend of PS4 and the start of PS5 so far, but it does make me think in some ways they are coasting on goodwill and previous success, and maybe weren't expecting or don't want to accept that this time they have a very strong Nintendo and resurgent Microsoft to contend with, among other things.Really the two things that give me the most pause is the supposed internal politics between the Japanese/Western sides and somewhat questionable cancellations (plus unnecessary remakes/versions/ports whatever), because both of these things are VERY reminiscent of what happened with SEGA in the mid-1990s' and...well we see what damage that ended up causing. The Japanese and Western sides basically sabotaging one another, sacrificing certain regions for pushes in others, cancelling sequels to games that might not've necessarily moved mountains but still had fanbases and helped with brand perception, shunning legacy IP when they could be iterated on with new installments, potentially getting complacent with marquee IP (only compilations and divisive racing games on Saturn for Sonic, TLOU remake for PS5 when the original (specifically PS4 Remaster) is perfectly playable still), etc.
I'm only saying these are rough equivalents and have different weights between the two, but the parallels ARE there, and we know how that impacted SEGA, who ironically went directly after Sony despite the latter having way more resources and money to play with. Is Sony heading down a similar path? It depends. First, we don't really know what their plans are for their legacy IP, they could certainly fund smaller ventures of new installments for them with external developers, like how SEGA's done for both Sonic Mania and Streets of Rage 4. And honestly, I'd like that a lot.
However, beyond that is where it starts to get a little scary. Sony can't compete with Microsoft on their own turf in the same way SEGA couldn't compete with Sony, and in both cases for the same reason: money. That's why I DON'T think Sony funding their own GamePass-like service or trying to significantly expand their streaming services is going to work out well for them; that type of stuff costs significant amounts of money, not just for building the infrastructure but also in securing the deals, especially in the beginning. Microsoft has a massive lead on Sony here and have the corporate size & structure (as well as larger revenues/profits from other divisions of the company) to weather initial losses; Sony doesn't. That's what laying down the serious investments and pushes since almost five years ago helps get you.
IMO Sony has to do what Nintendo did in the mid '90s: find a niche and solidify the hell out of it. However, the question is if Sony's choosing the right niche to focus on. IMO, they aren't. Yes, they make arguably the best single-player, story-driven cinematic games in the industry, but how viable is that segment going to remain as ambitions and budgets continue to increase? How many more sales are they honestly expecting from these types of games vs. what they managed on PS4, without turning to other revenue streams to get those profits (PC, mobile streaming etc., heavy MTX, etc.)?
If you look at what Nintendo did at that time, they focused on genuine hardware platform differentiation and games that were both wholly unique to their system design and financially manageable, with not too much genuine competition from other developers. For N64, that was native 4-player multiplayer and 3D platformers as that was a genre very new at the time and one only Nintendo (and Rare) seemingly fully understood in those early years. Now let's look at PS5: yes some people would probably say Sony's equivalents are the SSD and those cinematic single-player games but....are they really?
We've heard a lot about the SSD but I'm still of the opinion that ultimately, there's not much difference in practice between theirs and Microsoft's solution; two different solutions that take some divergent approaches to solving similar problems, it happens in tech all the time. Now in terms of the cinematic, single-player, third-person action/adventure Hollywood-style AAA, there's probably an argument certainly that Sony retains the lead on those games but, ultimately, managing budgets is going to be the biggest choke point with that type of game. Sony's answer is to make less of them but increase the budget for each, however this can have an inverse effect of sanitizing both story and gameplay elements in these games due to want of incurring less risks that could be "misunderstood" by the mainstream, and could therein affect profits directly. These kind of games were already not necessarily super-innovative to begin with, but Sony's answer to the budget problem could potentially result in tamer experiences (that TLOU remake news doesn't instill any confidence there, either).
So if those aren't Sony's points of differentiation, what are they: IMO, it should be VR and doing in-house development for a wider net of software that really pushes the tech and that side of the medium forward. They already have a lot of experience and work in VR, and could carve a niche for themselves as being the company that can put some real budget behind bigger-scale, ambitious, innovative VR games. Maybe they start with gradual steps, but I think it is something they could absolutely try if they make VR a standard default with the next PlayStation because, ultimately, it's the market fracturing that prevents support for VR at more levels from various developers and publishers. One of the platform holders needs to try making VR standard the way Nintendo made analog sticks standard, or Microsoft with hard drives, and for VR I think the best suitor is Sony. But that means it can't be an optional peripheral anymore (except if you want to get more headsets to use).
I think one of Sony's other niches would be making new types of interactive content: not games per se, but say movies where you can actually interact with parts of the scene, like taking on the role of an extra or adjust the lighting of some background prop enough times and if so maybe trigger an alternate scene. Something like more natural QTE interactions, think like in games such as Detroit: Become Human, but the actual scene is still playing out as normal and the player may or may not have active control of a central character. This could be done in a way to not ruin the flow of the original vision, but add to it, and maybe by having those interactions viewers accrue points that can carry over to other things. Sony's in a better position to do this vs. a company like Microsoft or Nintendo, because they already have their own game devs alongside a television and film division, all in-house. If they really wanted to they could push for it in a way to differentiate their films from others, and backend those benefits to the games.
One thing's clear: if there is internal politics causing some strife between certain parts of the gaming division at Sony, they don't have a lot of time to rectify that. They can't afford to have PlayStation contract severely, and I don't want to see what happened to SEGA happen to Sony. Anyone trying to say this is fearmongering or paranoia, or that it could never happen, don't know enough about the history of the corporations in the tech industry. But for now all I'm doing is speculating based on the evidence and clues before us; I think by the time Sony do their E3-like show and towards the start of Fall, we'll have a good picture of what direction they're truly moving in when it comes to PlayStation.
Only after that time can we truly know if they're on a good path or a bad one, so until then I would say any overt doom-and-glooming is hyperbolic and unnecessary. However, we do have to acknowledge some of the shakiness that's come about the past year or two, how it might start to add up and suggest a particular direction, and realize that a less-than-optimal outcome IS possible here. But is it even modestly probable? At this point in time, I'm gonna say no.
Abriael_GN
RSI Employee of the Year
I'd honestly love an AMA.
The Xbox is gonna overtake Sony nugget gives it up IMHO. This is likely a prankster who's banking on the recent rage to rile up people a bit more. No one with industry experience would really think that what's described here is going to let Xbox take the lead. The difference in momentum is too big. Not to say that's impossible down the line, but it's certainly not because Sony killed the Vita.
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Krappadizzle
Member
Back in the 90's I picked his brain to death. Hell, about a year ago I asked him if he still had a 3DO and he told me he has his original dev-kit shit still stored in the attic, he wouldn't send it to me(I just wanted to see it and play some old Road Rash) but he did send me a sealed copy of Immercinary which I thought was cool. There was only like 6 or 7 guys on the dev team(all friends from college) that made it and they rented a farm out in rural-ass Arkansas(right outside Little Rock) to make the game. It was very cool visiting him during the summers to see how it was made. The story in the game is kind of cool too, it was pretty much The Matrix LOOOOONNNG before the The Matrix was a thing which I thought was interesting, considering how much of a phenomenon The Matrix became.I'd honestly love an AMA.
MarkMe2525
Member
Top notch hyperbole. All things change, nothing to be concerned about. Sony capitalizing on their majority mind share in the gaming space is expected. They have these huge IP's, it would be foolish to think they aren't going to put them to work.
Regarding this info presented. I have no doubt that Sony America is grasping for power as the US market share continues to dominate global sales, there is nothing wrong or surprising about this. Of course some feathers would be ruffled during this transition.
Regarding this info presented. I have no doubt that Sony America is grasping for power as the US market share continues to dominate global sales, there is nothing wrong or surprising about this. Of course some feathers would be ruffled during this transition.
MeatSafeMurderer
Member
If only, we know exactly what that mystery port is...it's just a bog standard USB host port, probably 2.0, with a custom connector so you can't plug whatever you want in, and wouldn't even be capable of the bandwidth needed. Even the PSTV doesn't generate its HDMI output directly, it has a chip to convert the signals used to drive the OLED/LCD in the Vita to HDMI TDMS. The Vita was never in a million years getting HDMI out of any description. The guy either didn't work at Sony at all or didn't work anywhere near as closely with the Vita as he claimed. Maybe he was a janitor or some shit.
oldergamer
Member
None of this comes as a shock to me. Seen things like this happen with other multinational companies. I think sony japan started making changes when ps3 was created. It was saved by sony america. They almost launched with a graphic chip from toshiba that would have been far less capable then nvidia.
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oldergamer
Member
Also console sales in japan have dwindled
yurinka
Member
Zero credibility in this case. PS ended all generations over Xbox, and considering PS is in a growing trend and breaking many gaming history records in all fronts it will continue to be the case.
ManaByte
Member
They barely beat the 360 though. It was like a 3 million difference. Almost a rounding error. And the Wii thrashed both.
yurinka
Member
I'd say they never developed any game with big commercial success on their entire history.
It's commercially viable for a few top publishers/IPs, for the rest isn't. They are more successful with other genres.
Sony that generation they also had the PSP, which sold over 80 million units.
And PS3 had a poor start due to Sony's own big mistakes (too high pricing, too weird hardware to develop for, being released like 2 years later than Xbox in Europe, etc) and 3rd parties needing to go multi due to dev cost increases for the next gen. They didn't repeat these mistakes with PS5, so it's dominating as PS4, PS2 or PS1 did since the start, while PS4 is still breaking gaming history records.
Wii outsold both but wasn't a lot more (101M).
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jakinov
Member
The question is silly. Downsizing a studio that is not profitable and probably in decline or deprioritizing a region for same reasons is not "throwing them under the bus". PlayStation US can't just take over, if they took over it's because the people from above in Japan let them. They let them probably because America is an important market and America is where a lot of the talent is who are going to primarily drive the main aspects of the platform i.e. anything software and service related; as they are very important in being competitive against Microsoft and Japan is far far from the leader at those.
The part in the answer about changing the button being a "fuck you" is absurd. Developers (for game and system software) have to handle special cases for what 8-9% of the players? That's a waste of time and money. Players in Japan can get used it pretty fast and it only gets better/easier going forward.
This question/answer brings up nothing interesting or new, it's simply the the shallow opinion of a low-level employee of their former employer who essentially presents a bunch of information already known.
The part in the answer about changing the button being a "fuck you" is absurd. Developers (for game and system software) have to handle special cases for what 8-9% of the players? That's a waste of time and money. Players in Japan can get used it pretty fast and it only gets better/easier going forward.
This question/answer brings up nothing interesting or new, it's simply the the shallow opinion of a low-level employee of their former employer who essentially presents a bunch of information already known.
Pedro Motta
Member
This is so fake it hurts.
"Ex Sony employee reveals what everybody already knows."
"Ex Sony employee reveals what everybody already knows."
Alright
Banned
The only big thing going on behind the scenes is the timing of all of these Jim Ryan Hate articles.
Interestingly it's the same shtick by the same people, as all of the shit that was flying around before the PS4 launch (Sony doomed, us/Japan falling out, cancelling games means the end/vita dead etc etc)
What's suspicious is that the majority of Sony News is negative and the majority of Microsoft news is positive.
Why is that strange? Because neither mention Nintendo, ever.
It smells like American made marketing and PR tactics used to smear an opponent. And no, that doesn't necessarily mean MS. It could be Google/Apple trying to create a rift in the dynamic
Interestingly it's the same shtick by the same people, as all of the shit that was flying around before the PS4 launch (Sony doomed, us/Japan falling out, cancelling games means the end/vita dead etc etc)
What's suspicious is that the majority of Sony News is negative and the majority of Microsoft news is positive.
Why is that strange? Because neither mention Nintendo, ever.
It smells like American made marketing and PR tactics used to smear an opponent. And no, that doesn't necessarily mean MS. It could be Google/Apple trying to create a rift in the dynamic
SlimeGooGoo
Party Gooper
.
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Derktron
Banned
I think at this point during the 8th generation Sony has become really cocky with themselves over the fact that they had great succession because of the faults of Xbox back in 2013. All of these articles about Sony mishandling PlayStation seems like what happened to their laptop business along with the phone business. I think Sony needs to be reevaluated themselves and the success they had with PlayStation and think abut what they are doing because if Microsoft keeps this up I can see them doing mistakes after mistakes like the PS3 era. Not a good look on Sony.
JSoup
Banned
We really need a dislike or eyeroll reaction option.
Rean no Kiseki
Banned
>People believing this obvious bait.....
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
Ah yes, a pneuma of sorts. I actually have had this internal thought about the whole thing. I take what he says based off my own history with owning the consoles. I actually didn’t really judge him, but it’s how it feels. He was separated from the higher ups, where change is made. I meant it more as a way to express myself and to unload this god awful opinion of which company is a big hitter and which one is doomed. I don’t want to point this conversation towards anyone or anything really. It’s just what I’ve been thinking.Is this just a lot of hand waving?
1. He was still under a lot of pay grades.
So we'll discredit a source because he was several pay grades below the executives regardless of whether he may have worked closely under them. I would be considered several pay grades below executive and yet I have frequent discussions with them and present stuff to them.
2. You feel sad about the changes but still think they will knock it out of the park with third party support.
I share your opinion.
3. Third party timed exclusivity and launch first on Playstation are reasons not to switch platforms
I don't agree. I'm capable of waiting to play games on my preferred platform. We'll see where things play best.
4. You don't see why it's such a doom and gloom with Sony.
It's really not, but the shift away from Japanese content is what it is... and you said it at the start, sad. If they continue towards west coast cultural trends, it will be even sadder.
5. You don't see Sony suffering here.
Nor do I, but any loss of content is a loss of content. This industry has lost some content since PS360 days arrived. Remember when OG Xbox was a literal kingdom of sports titles? Now we get the NFL game and the MLB game and the NBA game. SMH
6. Classic games more of a discussion topic than something implemented by majority of players
Pure 100% PR deflection bullshit. Since buying a Series X, playing classic games on Game Pass is the happiest I've been since, probably, the first time I played Breath of the Wild on Switch. Good games are good no matter how old they are provided you haven't had them spoon fed to you in the form of remasters every generation. Consider me a classic game connoisseur. I love enjoying all this stuff at improved resolution and framerate.
Conclusion: Yeah, Sony will continue to produce a lot of big hitters. Sony is not in any sort of trouble. It's possible that Xbox will gain ground, but it won't be at Sony's expense, IMO. That doesn't mean I like the path Sony is on, but that's just my taste and not reflective of anyone else. Sony, like Nintendo, is someone who still needs to earn my trust when it comes to purchases on previous platforms. Thankfully, since I skipped Xbox One, I have the added bonus of jumping back onto that platform with the freshness of a whole generation of stuff that is new to me but not everyone else.
Again, I don't think Playstation is any trouble. It'll kick ass with or without me. I'll buy a PS5 Pro if for some reason the next Elder Scrolls is an abomination and we've gotten tired of the Game Pass games. Why? Because I want that Forbidden West and new Spider-man.
I didn’t exactly see the games I wanted on Game Pass, even when I got to play Gears 5 early. I get kinda tired of playing Ninja Gaiden Black for the 10th time since it came out. Their PR can list me games that I played already and already know are good games. I spent money on Xbox games. I’ve owned the trilogies and all the Bethesda/Zenimax owned/purchased recently already. I don’t do the classic thing on Game Pass because I have classics on my PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. I’m glad you are. I bought a lot of Xbox games at launch. I worked at GameStop during the Wii gen.
I get it, I played Suikoden II, Xenogears, Vagrant Story years ago and then again 10+ years ago. So maybe I’m just trying to find a middle ground with this whole thing. I’ve been happy with Sony to the point where all I really need is their console and a Nintendo console. I played the Xbox games. I had Halo 5, Tomb Raider (when that was a thing), and Gears. I don’t need to replay Halo or Gears again. Maybe I replay Lost Odyssey again? I’m kinda just tired of it.
I do appreciate you pointing my things out as it would just go unnoticed or unsaid one way or another. No self pity either. None. I should have taken more English/Psychology courses back in the day. Lol
Yeah, I can see where it’s sad, but I also see where there’s no real room for it. They can just do what they did on the PS4 with digital classics. I have over 360+ digital games and over 800 digital on PS3/Vita/PSP. I spent the money. I spent the money on those games. I realize I can still play them regardless. I also know I am expecting 3 AAA games in the next week or so? Those will take up my time and I will be happy. So I don’t need to turn on my Xbox or buy a new Xbox.
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Rhazer Fusion
Member
I don’t think you need some unknown industry insider to see the obvious predominantly Western-oriented shift from Sony with a lot of the decisions made within the last few years. I play and enjoy all types of games, but Japanese games have been and will most likely always be my favorites.
For me, probably the most disappointing thing to happen to gaming is the absolute dominance of Western games, GAAS, multiplayer, etc and Japanese games seemingly becoming much less relevant in the industry. We’ll see where the future takes us, but it’s looking pretty dark to me. I still like Sony and their AAA experiences, but there’s something different about this Sony. Relying only on a few timed Japanese third party games isn’t smart imo. Yeah, yeah I know huge profits are all that matters, but do you only want to see superhero movies since they are by far the most popular?
For me, probably the most disappointing thing to happen to gaming is the absolute dominance of Western games, GAAS, multiplayer, etc and Japanese games seemingly becoming much less relevant in the industry. We’ll see where the future takes us, but it’s looking pretty dark to me. I still like Sony and their AAA experiences, but there’s something different about this Sony. Relying only on a few timed Japanese third party games isn’t smart imo. Yeah, yeah I know huge profits are all that matters, but do you only want to see superhero movies since they are by far the most popular?
Varteras
Gold Member
The constant witch hunts are so tiresome and they always seem to happen the most at the start of a generation when someone thinks they can make the most impact to fit a narrative they believe exists or want to exist. Like spreading bullshit on a forum is going to change what Average Joe thinks of a platform.
You know how it goes. Microsoft is ruining the industry with Gamepass but PS Now is perfectly fine. Sony is sitting on its hands doing nothing no matter how many announcements they make because none of them are a studio acquisition yet. Nintendo is out of touch because they keep making underpowered hardware and port ups even though their current device is on pace to be the fifth 100 million plus console in history.
Can we not just be happy that we have all these options and great games? Do you really NEED Sony to make highly Japanese-centric games that don't sell? Plenty of other studios still make those and some of them partner with Sony. If it mattered to the greater PlayStation community THAT much then Gravity Rush would have been a best seller.
Sony hasn't abandoned Japanese games. They wouldn't have bothered with Nioh. They wouldn't have bothered with Demon's Souls. They wouldn't have made deals for extensive timed exclusivity of Forspoken or Final Fantasy 16. They're probably just not interested in creating games themselves that heavily appeal to a market that isn't bringing them the success it used to. The battle for supremacy in the console space is decided in the Western markets.
And like you said, sometime soon Sony will make an announcement and most everyone will forget about what they're whining about right now. Sony will be amazing all over again and people will wonder why they doubted. Until they're given too much time to sit around and stew. Then they'll start throwing fits all over again.
Dream-Knife
Banned
Fanboys crying about Jim Ryan, but the problem is actually PlayStation becoming a Californian company.
Unknown?
Member
The Wii only outsold those two by at most 11 million. Probably more like 8-9 million though.
Silver Wattle
Gold Member
Even if the leaker is made up, it does seem like what is happening at Sony based on decisions made by the company.
Playstation Japan has just completely failed to compete with Nintendo for the last decade, I still can't believe during the 3ds and Vita era they let Nintendo take monster hunter as an exclusive, incompetent!
Playstation Japan has just completely failed to compete with Nintendo for the last decade, I still can't believe during the 3ds and Vita era they let Nintendo take monster hunter as an exclusive, incompetent!
Ok, I'm not alone in thinking of Sega comparisons, lol.
When hardware sales start to suffer, then its time to worry. Sega tho made some of the wackiest decisions. Sony isnt there yet, contrary to popular belief right now. Stop letting forum madness get to you.
They still pulled off a PS5 at $399. And they seem to be able to handle stock very well under the circumstances.
And they still have 2 exclusives ready to launch in a few months. One in 2 weeks.
Exactly, thats not a thrashing. When the Wii sales started falling off a cliff, both the 360 and PS3 picked up steam.
Those 2 consoles were still selling when their next gen consoles launched. I think the Wii was done by the time the Wii U launched.
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One of the reasons why people supported the PS3 was because fans wanted another alternative to the linear first person shooter fad and to give Japanese games more visibility. That was achieved during the PS4 era
Now Sony wants to focus only on making the typical "sony cinematic experience" while MS seems to be giving a chance to different genres and developers. The fact that Xbox games can be played on PC is an advantage too.
The Xbox is a good alterntative now.
Now Sony wants to focus only on making the typical "sony cinematic experience" while MS seems to be giving a chance to different genres and developers. The fact that Xbox games can be played on PC is an advantage too.
The Xbox is a good alterntative now.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Sure you can. Make a new thread about MS/Rare instead of trying to derail this thread.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Well, money talks. And the Japanese gamer has heavily shifted to mobile and Switch (a hybrid mobile system). The region used to buys tons of dedicated consoles back in the day, but now it's hardly anything.
The most popular games are mostly western style games. Don't get me wrong, the Chinese market has some huge games that other regions don't even know about. But for the the types of games that are sold everywhere, there seems to be a skew to more realistic looking games, pro sports, serious shooters etc....
But it's not that black and white. You also got super popular Minecraft, Fortnite and whatever other cartoony games which indies make a lot of. So more artistic bright colour games can still do well. Just got to be in the right genre. If a quirky game like Binding of Isaac, and a game like Undertale which looks like it was made on C64 in 1984 can be hits, any game can be.
The avg Japanese gamer and studio just doesn't take part in most genres anymore when way back you'd at least get lots of sales of Namco and Capcom action games.
Not sure why, but Japanese games/devs don't like:
- Shooters (of all shapes and sizes from COD to PUBG to Fortnite etc....)
- Sports
- RTS
- WRPG
- SP narratives
- Racing games (unless it's Mario Kart and perhaps GT)
- Probably some more I missed
The avg Non-Japanese gamer is more accepting to Anime games or games with Japanese influence, but contrary, Japanese gamers don't really care about US or European games. That's the way it is some reason.
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Bo_Hazem
Banned
Nah, it's not allowed to criticize anything MS/Xbox. It'll get closed instantly in comparison.
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DynamiteCop!
Banned
Isn't this exactly what happened to Sega before they fell apart?
Balducci30
Member
I mean PlayStation is in no danger of going under
ArtHands
Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
That's some contradicting shit there. Those options and great games are being reduced with the closure of PS1 to 3 digital stores and JAPAN Studio among others.
Keihart
Member
If this was the case, things have changed very little with PS5. Feature wise, PS5's OS it's kind of a joke and no major updates yet, not even for simple QoL stuff.
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fran.fernandez
Member
I currently work with many former Sony Japan employees. Lol
I have fun translating this to them.
I have fun translating this to them.
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