Sony is dumb

[sieanr]

ssj12 said:
The main Ninja Gaiden series has always been licensed sole to Microsoft, Sigma isnt.

ssj12, meet Ninja Gaiden NES

Not to mention the PS3 isn't getting Beautiful Katamari, just an unamed, undated Katamari title.

Sony tried a different approach this gen of trying to make new franchises. You can see this with some of their second party developers, such as insomniac and naughty dog making RFOM and Uncharted - not to mention funding some projects like Lair and HS.

Someone here had a post dealing with this, where they argued that Sony saw the profits Nintendo was raking in at third and decided it was best for them to emulate their policy of killing off their established franchises. Problem was Sony didn't have any real franchises outside of R&C and J&D at the time, so they decided to create new ones. I also think they decided to try creating big franchises aimed at 13-25yr demographic, emulating Halo and the insane profits that made MS.

I would make the argument that Sony thought they would win handedly this gen, or atleast have strong 3rd party support based on name and the massive sales they were sure they'd make. Thus, they wouldn't have to do much to court 3rd party devs and could focus other resources on new titles to boost their bottom line.

Problem is, MS and Nintendo have put up one hell of a fight this gen. Both of them are taking two very different approaches to tha market, and eating up market share while their at it. Sony now has to fight a two front war, dealing with Nintendo wrapping up the casual market that gave the PS2 a 120mil plus sales and MS taking the "core" market that gave the PS2 such a high attach rate. In both instances, a stable of well known big name games is needed, and most of those were 3rd party with the PS2.

Now Sony is stuck between a rock and a hard place. They need the third party support, but getting that is near impossible with their install base. The only way they can pull that off realistically is too pour money down the drain, but the PS3 isn't making them a profit and they have plenty of expensive internal projects.

In essence, they're screwed.

Funny thing is, I actually like what Sony is doing. I'd rather see a new franchise than a rehash after rehash of R&C. Some of the titles upcomming for PSN are really interesting and really cool - stuff that I wish MS or Nin had the balls to release. And then there are the big titles comming up, like Uncharted. Sure, some of the new titles have sucked (Lair), but some have been great (RFOM, Warhawk (I know this came to the PS1)) And Sony is funding interesting projects.

Overall, it kinda reminds me of what Sega did with the DC - They had tons of really cool, unique titles that made the system fucking badass. And please dont bitch to me about how OMG SONY ISNT SEGA - its just a comparison of how they both tried to reinvent their game lineup.