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jarrod on 16 February 2011
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CGI-Quality said:
jarrod said:
CGI-Quality said:

I don't see the big deal, but I guess that's just me. They offer plenty of new and interesting content to offset the apparent "milking", and frankly, if any company is more guilty of the "milking" process of the big three, it's Nintendo, but that's besides the point and not really a bad thing.

Long story short, I'm not going to complain about getting more games, no matter how many sequels come about (especially from good franchises). For my gaming needs, SCE has taken care of them in spades.

Nintendo iterates far, far less than Sony.  Hell, for something minor (that you'd normally expect to reuse code) like Mario's jumping physics, they redo everything from scratch for every new 2D entry (bar SMB2 JP way back in 1986).  Nintendo may use their established brands to the fullest, definitely, but there's really much less actual recycling going on at NCL than there is within SCE.

Out of the first parties, Sony definitely seems the milkiest.  Nobody else is pumping out continual bi-annual sequels of their biggest games, except on occasion Microsoft (Forza, Gears).  And nobody else has fallen into the annual sports trap.  Sony does bring out a lot of new IP, which is commendable, but I don't think their development practices really nurture IP as well as Nintendo.  And I'd say the sales somewhat reflect that.

It's a stalemate at this point. As long as I get good games, and lots of games, I'm not in a mode of concern. The concern would come from a lack of software, which Sony nor Nintendo have a problem with. I just know that I've been seeing the same IPs from Nintendo since the mid 80s, and to me, they "milk" more than anyone else. If it were a problem though, something would have needed to give, but obviously it hasn't.

As for sales, I don't play those, but Sony's IPs do well enough that that's irrelevant anyway.


Yes, lots of good games is the best standard.  And I'd agree both Nintendo and Sony more than deliver on that front.  Microsoft isn't too shabby in that regard either.

My issue is there seems to be that there's this disconnect when it comes to praise... on one hand, Sony gets tons of mileage around here out of delivering new IP, yet on the other hand they tend to iterate the fuck out of that new IP.  I mean that's fine, but it just seems to me there a bit of a double standard at play in terms of praising originality.  It's just a different approach, I guess... Nintendo tends to reuse an established series or brand, but they almost always go 100% ground up in terms of design or assets for their major sequels.  Sony this gen has seemed to throw out a lot of original titles, but if they catch on they also seem to quickly pump out sequels that build on the formula rather than reinvent it.  Obviously there are exceptions on both sides (Pokemon is very much an iterative major series for Nintendo, while Team ICO seems to have a very "ground up" approach to each of their games), but there seem to be different approaches generally for each company, and I'd say it's very much open to debate which one actually brings more in terms of originality or innovation.