Sony's way forward in a world of exclusivity and moneyhatting.

[Onyxmeth]

makingmusic476 said:

Onyxmeth said:

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.

 

Gran Turismo is the face of Playstation? If so, maybe that's why it's so hard to think of the PS image in the first place. Gran Turismo is a game with no defining image because there are 700 main characters that happen to be pulled from real life.

Sony did not always have a lot of first person franchises. When they started the PSOne, they barely had anything worthwhile to show for themselves. The only franchise to really come out strong from that era and is still relevant is Gran Turismo, and that came three years after PSOne was born. Sure Sony had plenty of franchises in the PS2 era, but nothing they wanted to market their brand as over their images received from third parties. Look at Sony still. Look at the huge marketing campaign on MGS4. What if the series switches allegiances after this? What if MGS 4 goes to 360? It'll be yet another case of Sony losing their brand image. Had they tried to push Jak & Daxter or Ratchet and Clank in their infancy, things may be different today. Luckily Kratos is still a great face to have and should be utilized more since Sony owns the IP. The chimera from Resistance or Sackboy from Little Big Planets aren't bad images either, but they need to start concentrating on their own image, and marketing their own titles so maybe next time they lose exclusivity on a title like FF XIII, it won't be such a shattering moment, because people will no longer equate third party titles with the Playstation brand.