| Onyxmeth said: Sony should have been focusing on internal development for a long time. Relying on third party franchises to define the Playstation brand, like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, Ace Combat, Kingdom Hearts, Grand Theft Auto, Onimusha, Crash Bandicoot(I know he was once first party), Katamari Damacy and others were a complete mistake. There are many less informed consumers that see these brands as synonymous with Playstation, and will abandon them for a company like Microsoft if it seems they're getting the best of the Playstation and Microsoft worlds on one console. Who was the face of the PSOne? Cloud Strife. Who was the face of the Playstation 2? Solid Snake. Sony, in a smart decision changed the face of Playstation over to Kratos in 2005 when God of War took over. Sony has a face for Playstation that is finally their own, but in a much less popular series than the other two mentioned. Now as two thirds of those franchises I mentioned have gone either bye bye or are shared titles, Sony needs to rethink who's games they spend millions of dollars marketing and building their brand on. For anyone about to quote me saying there aren't customers that are so naive, just look towards ourselves. When we asked ourselves who should join in a fictional "Sony Smash Bros." game, half of the replies were all third party characters from certain members. That is how much third party titles play into the Playstation image and why Sony has trouble finding an identity now that they aren't on top and receiving many third party exclusives. You want to know why Nintendo is considered kiddy(other than SEGA's early 90's ad campaign)? Their image is Mario. You want to know why the Xbox brand is considered the shooter console? Their image is Master Chief. From tons of personal experience, Nintendo is not kiddy and Microsoft is not all about shooters, but their main image says otherwise. Now what does Sony's image say? What is Sony's image anyways?
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Um...Gran Turismo?
Sony's always had a lot of first party franchises, and they really started pushing internal development during the ps2 era, with franchises like Jak & Daxter, God of War, the ICO titles, etc. Hell, even the ps1 had some big franchises, like Gran Turismo, Syphon Filter, Medievil, and Ape Escape.
These franchises (outside of GT) were just never as popular franchises like MGS and FF. Had they held onto the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro IPs, maybe those would be the face of PlayStation. Switching from those to J&D and R&C destroyed any notability they had.
