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How the PS4 Won a Console Generation

Zoro7

Banned
I think it was less to do with that Sony did and more with how badly MS fucked up with the Xbone and how badly Nintendo missed the mark with the WiiU. Sony didn’t have to do anything spectacular they just needed to NOT be the other two. I thought their offering for most of the gen was very lazy and safe. Compare it to the slew of steady great games and new IPs we got in the previous gen with PS3, idk why any gamer ever wants their favorite toy to dominate. It’s clear they all are made better by stiff competition.
This is a really bad take.
 

Majmun

Member
They won because no one cares about Xbox outside of USA.
The same will happen this generation.
 
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rofif

Can’t Git Gud
They won because no one cares about Xbox outside of USA.
The same will happen this generation.
They won because halo turned to trash and so did gears of war.
I was a 360 guy before this and loved those games. xbox one had nothing to offer that would not be on pc. ps4 had great exclusives so thats it
 
I think it was less to do with that Sony did and more with how badly MS fucked up with the Xbone and how badly Nintendo missed the mark with the WiiU. Sony didn’t have to do anything spectacular they just needed to NOT be the other two. I thought their offering for most of the gen was very lazy and safe. Compare it to the slew of steady great games and new IPs we got in the previous gen with PS3, idk why any gamer ever wants their favorite toy to dominate. It’s clear they all are made better by stiff competition.
So bloodborne, last guardian and dreams were safe bets? Most of new ips in ps3 era were bad.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
This is a really bad take.

What did Sony do last gen that was anything other than "not fumble the ball"?

It's best AAA games got lapped by Mario Oddessey, Breath of the Wild, Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, and Smash. Lapped by games on a console with half the install base.

PlayStation needed a leadership change and got it because Trent Dilfer isn't going to bring you another ring.
 
What did Sony do last gen that was anything other than "not fumble the ball"?

It's best AAA games got lapped by Mario Oddessey, Breath of the Wild, Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, and Smash. Lapped by games on a console with half the install base.

PlayStation needed a leadership change and got it because Trent Dilfer isn't going to bring you another ring.

They fumbled the ball because they can't outsell powerhouse nostalgic IPs from Nintendo?

Are you daft? They don't need to try and outsell those games and it is neither their focus nor should be.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
They fumbled the ball because they can't outsell powerhouse nostalgic IPs from Nintendo?

Are you daft? They don't need to outsell those games and that's not what their focus should be

1. "Powerhouse nostalgic IP"

2. Looks at those IP on WiiU.

Sony's goal should have been to build can't miss IP. Instead, they built a few really good IP that the market views as less than elite.

Sony squandered much of their opportunity over the last 7 years. They should have put their foot on the gas rather than coast.
 
1. "Powerhouse nostalgic IP"

2. Looks at those IP on WiiU.

Sony's goal should have been to build can't miss IP. Instead, they built a few really good IP that the market views as less than elite.

Sony squandered much of their opportunity over the last 7 years. They should have put their foot on the gas rather than coast.

I'm sorry are you trying to suggest those aren't powerhouse IPs? Even on a failed console like the Wii U where they still sell millions?

You mean coasting by making a new 10 million seller IP like Horizon, or the fastest selling playstion IP Ghosts of Tsuhima? Even God of War managed to sell faster than a mainline Mario game reaching close to, if not already surpassing 20 million sales, and you think they're just coasting when they've repeatedly broken records with their inhouse games?
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I'm sorry are you trying to suggest those aren't powerhouse IPs? Even on a failed console like the Wii U where they still sell millions?

You mean coasting by making a new 10 million seller IP like Horizon, or the fastest selling playstion IP Ghosts of Tsuhima? Even God of War managed to sell faster than a mainline Mario game reaching close to, if not already surpassing 20 million sales, and you think they're just coasting when they've repeatedly broken records with their inhouse games?

They're not powerhouse IPs. They're in the good to great category.

We're no longer in the "10 million in sales" is elite era.

That doesn't mean God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, and Horizon are are bad, but they aren't industry leading. The market has grown since 2003.

I'm not shoveling dirt on Sony by any means. I'm optimistic about their leadership changes, but I'm not particularly impressed with the PS4 generation either.
 
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They're not powerhouse IPs.

We're no longer in the "10 million in sales" is elite era.

That doesn't mean God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, and Horizon are are bad, but they aren't industry leading. The market has grown since 2003.

I'm not shoveling dirt on Sony by any means. I'm optimistic about their leadership changes, but I'm not particularly impressed with the PS4 generation either.

Yes they're powerhouse IPs. How can you even say something so stupid? I don't think any other Sony or Xbox fanboy on this site would say something that dumb

The Last of Us is a 20 million seller, Uncharted 4 is a close to, if not already reached 20 million seller, Spiderman is a 20 million seller, God of War is a close to if not already a 20 million seller, and then you have their new IPS on top of that which are either 10 million sellers or higher.

Sony is actually competing quite well with Nintendo's 20+ year old established franchises, and in terms of new IP success they have Nintendo beat.

They weren't coasting. That's just nonsense
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Yes they're powerhouse IPs. How can you even say something so stupid? I don't think any other Sony or Xbox fanboy on this site would say something that dumb

The Last of Us is a 20 million seller, Uncharted 4 is a close to, if not already reached 20 million seller, Spiderman is a 20 million seller, God of War is a close to if not already a 20 million seller, and then you have their new IPS on top of that which are either 10 million sellers or higher.

Those numbers are elite IF AND ONLY IF, you don't look at the best selling Switch games, the Switch user base over the last 3 years, and the fact that Nintendo laughs at Sony for dropping their game prices.

Or

If you don't look at Fortnite, Minecraft, League of Legends, Counter Strike, Rocket League, Overwatch, PUBG etc...

Sony's games do great. But they aren't industry leaders anymore. That's on Sony.
 
Those numbers are elite IF AND ONLY IF, you don't look at the best selling Switch games, the Switch user base over the last 3 years, and the fact that Nintendo laughs at Sony for dropping their game prices.

Or

If you don't look at Fortnite, Minecraft, League of Legends, Counter Strike, Rocket League, Overwatch, PUBG etc...

Sony's games do great. But they aren't industry leaders anymore. That's on Sony.

You just referenced Super Mario Odyseey and Zelda, which God of War and Spiderman actually beat in terms of the race to 10 million and most likely 20 million too.

Those multiplayers type games didn't just come out of nowwhere this gen. They have always generated and garnered the largest playerbases for decades. That's nothing new and it's dumb as fuck to compare them. Multiplayer games have continued to grow, as have single player games.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
You just referenced Super Mario Odyseey and Zelda, which God of War and Spiderman actually beat in terms of the race to 10 million and most likely 20 million too.

It's not about the race to 10 million. The Switch just released in 2017.

It's about total impact and total revenue.

God of War and Spiderman are not on the Nintendo franchise tier.
 
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Sony's games do great. But they aren't industry leaders anymore. That's on Sony.
Sony's first party games have never been industry leaders. That has never been their strategy. Their games are system sellers, they don't care if they top the sales charts so long as they move consoles.

Nintendo needs its games to not only sell consoles, but to constitute the bulk of sales on their consoles because of their historically weak third party outreach.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Sony's first party games have never been industry leaders. That has never been their strategy. Their games are system sellers, they don't care if they top the sales charts so long as they move consoles.

Nintendo needs its games to not only sell consoles, but to constitute the bulk of sales on their consoles because of their historically weak third party outreach.

Grand Theft Auto, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy, Tekken, Metal Gear Solid, and Crash Bandicoot were all industry leading games/franchises at one point. All of them viewed as PlayStation franchises too.

But that was then. This is now.

10 million - 20 million units sold isn't leading the industry anymore. They're great sales but these companies are looking at 100+ million players over the next 5 years as their goal.

The PS4 was wildly successful but how much did it position Sony over the next 5-10 years? In my opinion, not as much as it could or should have.
 
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Grand Theft Auto, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy, Tekken, Metal Gear Solid, and Crash Bandicoot were all industry leading games/franchises at one point. All of them viewed as PlayStation franchises too.

But that was then. This is now.

10 million - 20 million units sold isn't leading the industry anymore. They're great sales but these companies are looking at 100 million players over the next 5 years as their goal.

The PS4 was wildly successful but how much did it position Sony over the next 5-10 years? In my opinion, not as much as it could or should have.
Literally none of those are Sony first party games lol. You are literally the stupidest person on this website.
 
So bloodborne, last guardian and dreams were safe bets? Most of new ips in ps3 era were bad.

Bloodborne is a Souls game, lol.

The other two, if you want to call them risky I mean, cool? So you picked out two lower budget lower sales games. Amazing.

Either way we saw way more risk and way more quality and quantity during the PS3 era when they were in a fight with the Wii and 360. They coasted last gen. Just look at their output, lol.
 
Bloodborne is a Souls game, lol.

The other two, if you want to call them risky I mean, cool? So you picked out two lower budget lower sales games. Amazing.

Either way we saw way more risk and way more quality and quantity during the PS3 era when they were in a fight with the Wii and 360. They coasted last gen. Just look at their output, lol.

Everyone's output lowered genius
 
2021 and we still console warring, huh

Episode 2 GIF by Star Wars
 
Sony is not "the face of Fortnite and CoD". I don't even know what that means lol.

Epic and Activision are the face and biceps of those franchises.

Epic and Activision are a little logo

From a consumer stand point, they see a big playstation box with fornite or COD marketing plastered all over.

Sony understands this better then you, which is why they aren't trying to compete with them and utulusing their strengths the correct way and not jumping on bandwagons and failing miserably.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Epic and Activision are a little logo

From a consumer stand point, they see a big playstation box with fornite or COD marketing plastered all over.

Sony understands this better then you, which is why they aren't trying to compete with them and utulusing their strengths the correct way and not jumping on bandwagons and failing miserably.

Jumping bandwagons.

Vs.

Reading the market.
 
You lack reading skills and want to sarcastically call someone else genius. That’s adorable. Almost as adorable as your petty insults you’re throwing around at other people. At ease, warrior.

Here's the facts for you

Sony came into the the PS4 generation weaker than any generation before

The entire corp had to focus on restructing which obviously hindred funding for every division

In the middle of the PS4s lifetime their output and quality kept increasing as the success for PS kept growing

Now we're in the next generation where PlayStation is the strongest they've ever been, and their first party output being the best it's ever been

Does that sound like coasting to you?
 
Here's the facts for you

Sony came into the the PS4 generation weaker than any generation before

The entire corp had to focus on restructing which obviously hindred funding for every division

In the middle of the PS4s lifetime their output and quality kept increasing as the success for PS kept growing

Now we're in the next generation where PlayStation is the strongest they've ever been, and their first party output being the best it's ever been

Does that sound like coasting to you?

I see a lot of irrelevant excuses coming from you, but at the end of the day your pathetic “but but MS and Nintendo output was down too!” just tells me you agree with me, Sony’s PS4 output was down compared to PS3. None of those excuses you typed up matter, and the idea that Sony’s output and quality were increasing is laughable at best.

Just to help you out so that you don’t waste more of your time writing up bullshit:

I didn’t say they released bad games
I didn’t say MS/Nintendo did great, in fact I said the opposite

I merely said compared to the previous gen where they were in a fierce battle, their output was better. Yes, they coasted last gen when it was apparent they would have no competition. Again, just look at the games instead of reaching for excuses 👍 Enjoy the last word here, not wasting time with a console warrior.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
You can call it whatever you want, but the fact is they're viewed as the go to console for these games

They're not.

PlayStation probably accounts for less than 30 percent of the Fortnite player base.

Fortnite is the platform, not PlayStation.

The industry is evolving. PlayStation, XBox, and Nintendo are losing influence to Fortnite, Animal Crossing, and League of Legends.

Games used to be overly simplistic and shallow, which is why you bought a PlayStation or Nintendo. The platform would provide the player with fun experiences until they got bored and moved on to the next experience.

The platforms over the next 10-20 years are going to be franchises/games, not PlayStation.

Playing 5,000 hours of the next game will replace playing 5,000 hours of (insert console here).

That's the direction everything is headed. You'll see Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft position towards this reality soon enough if you haven't already.
 
I see a lot of irrelevant excuses coming from you, but at the end of the day your pathetic “but but MS and Nintendo output was down too!” just tells me you agree with me, Sony’s PS4 output was down compared to PS3. None of those excuses you typed up matter, and the idea that Sony’s output and quality were increasing is laughable at best.

Just to help you out so that you don’t waste more of your time writing up bullshit:

I didn’t say they released bad games
I didn’t say MS/Nintendo did great, in fact I said the opposite

I merely said compared to the previous gen where they were in a fierce battle, their output was better. Yes, they coasted last gen when it was apparent they would have no competition. Again, just look at the games instead of reaching for excuses 👍 Enjoy the last word here, not wasting time with a console warrior.

I never disagreed their output early in the PS4 was bad, but it had nothing to do with coasting, and the facts are there

From 2017/18, Sony was releasing a minimum of 2 AAA games every year, and now look at what they're doing coming into the PS5 generation, in the first year alone, they released Demon's Souls, Spiderman and are coming out with Returnal, GT7, Horizon, Ratchet and Clank and bunch of other smaller titles.

And this is while they're reporting record levels of revenue

When you use the "excuse" rehtoric, that just tells me you don't like to learn, which is fine but not a healthy mindset
 

Arkam

Member
Sure the launch prices/specs were an initial factor, but after year one it was clearly GAMES, GAMES, GAMES! I could have skipped the entire X1 gen and missed what.... 5 great exclusives? I waited and got an X1X for BC mostly. PS4 on the other hand had (what felt like) dozens of superlative exclusives. I spent the entire gen with AAA exclusives in my backlog.
 
They're not.

PlayStation probably accounts for less than 30 percent of the Fortnite player base.

Fortnite is the platform, not PlayStation.

The industry is evolving. PlayStation, XBox, and Nintendo are losing influence to Fortnite, Animal Crossing, and League of Legends.

Games used to be overly simplistic and shallow, which is why you bought a PlayStation or Nintendo. The platform would provide the player with fun experiences until they got bored and moved on to the next experience.

The platforms over the next 10-20 years are going to be franchises/games, not PlayStation.

Playing 5,000 hours of the next game will replace playing 5,000 hours of (insert console here).

That's the direction everything is headed. You'll see Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft position towards this reality soon enough if you haven't already.

You think people are going to play Fortnite without a device or something? is that it?
 

Celine

Member
I'm curious about this. Is this because the PS4 has a higher attach rate than the Switch in terms of games sold per console? How do the profits compare?
AKCZzSV.jpg


Note that PS4 was by far the most profitable PlayStation console ever. PS4 was a golden goose for SIE.
For Nintendo the Switch era seems to be set to out profit the Wii/DS era.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
I think it was less to do with that Sony did and more with how badly MS fucked up with the Xbone and how badly Nintendo missed the mark with the WiiU. Sony didn’t have to do anything spectacular they just needed to NOT be the other two. I thought their offering for most of the gen was very lazy and safe. Compare it to the slew of steady great games and new IPs we got in the previous gen with PS3, idk why any gamer ever wants their favorite toy to dominate. It’s clear they all are made better by stiff competition.

This isn't true.

Remember how Sony kept investing in and pushing out meaty single player experiences in a landscape dominated by online multiplayer shooters. This is a risky move and on PS3 they didn't always sell great, I was surprised when Sony actually bought Sucker Punch as Infamous was doing and scoring decent enough, but not great. MediaMolecule isn't my thing, but MS would've 100% axed that studio back then. MS also would kill off Last Guardian on the spot, seeing its development hell and sales potential. Sony pushed through with these projects despite being market leader. They didn't have to, its not like TLG or Dreams or even LBP raked in millions for them.

All you have to do is look at new IP. Because new IP is the most risky move one can do.

Sony delivered TLG, Days Gone, Tsushima, Dreams, Bloodborne, Detroit, Knack, Driveclub, Astrobot and probably more.
 
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mxbison

Member
Microsoft gave them a nice headstart, then Sony consistently put out great exclusives until the very end of the generation.
 
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