What Nintendo learned from Sony

[Turkish]

Veknoid_Outcast said:

Turkish said:

I basically addressed why there would not be other avenues in my second paragraph, here I'll repeat it again:

"This gen no one was gonna buy Microsoft's og vision for current gen, 500 euro Xbones, accept the DRM nonsense or the delayed launches for Tier 2 and 3 countries. Sony singlehandedly saved the industry, the PS4 came just at the right time, from 2011-2013 it seemed console were headed toward extinction with the mobile hype, PS360 on their last legs and Wii U bomba. Every article on tech sites pronounced the console dead. Many publishers were not convinced consoles would still be viable and that explains why there were so few games in the early years of gen 8"

So basically, gaming as we know it would die if there was no PS4. People buy the console because it is a desirable product. Playstation is the only gaming platform with a global reach, it is not like Xbox or Nintendo that is popular in a select few countries, the PS brand is popular nearly everywhere in the world. The fact that Nintendo and MS blundered had little effect on the desirability of the PS4.  PS4 was never gonna be a 2nd or 3rd choice. Also there would be no GTAs or Fifas without the PS1 or PS2.  As for PC alone, it is not big enough to sustain triple A budgets on its own.

"I'm not sure where you're coming up with this idea that PS4 saved the industry" Is also addressed in my 2nd paragraph. This is the 1st gen where the concept of consoles was seriously challenged, mobiles were taking over, Wii U just failed. The amount of years it takes to make the average game is around 2-3 years, in the "doom years" of 2010-early 2013, the years games had to be greenlit for them to be released in the years 2014 and onwards. There's no other reason for the lackluster game releases at the start of the gen. They took a wait and see approach, once the PS4 was more popular than they expected pre release and it took off and broke sales records, more greenlits happened and we've seen increase in game releases since 2016.

"a lack of loyalty and predictability on the part of third-parties" You can't really expect 3rd parties to be loyal to Nintendo when they never have been close. Considering the technical gap between the consoles it's hard to port the latest AAA game to Nintendo's system. I'm sure if Switch was close to Xbone specs it would get more Western support.

I really don't know how to react to things like "gaming as we know it would die if there was no PS4," when Xbox One and PC offer very similar experiences. In fact, the PlayStation ecosystem moves closer to the PC world every quarter, it seems. 

The fact is the console market is shrinking, and PS4 has done nothing to reverse that trend. It's simply winning over the console enthusiasts that remain. PlayStation isn't expanding the pie; it's taking over a larger part of an ever-shrinking pie. 

So, no, PS4 isn't the savior of the console industry and it isn't the ultimate justification of console gaming. It's a great system with awesome exclusives...isn't that enough? Why do we need to venture into apocalyptic territory?

As for the last paragraph, I never requested or assumed any loyalty from third-parties. I said Nintendo, because of its stable of first-party games, can survive without the patronage of AAA third-parties.

The fact is that Playstation is bigger than ever and their market is not shrinking. How big the outside market is was never relevant to them. How good the Wiis or Gamecubes do didn't impact them. The only times a console affected their business was the 360 and it was because of their own stupidity otherwise the PS3 would've even outsold the Wii last gen. Anyway, the PS4 is doing exceptionally well in new emerging markets. Sony has been trying to launch in more new markets than any other platform holder, they go the extra mile with localization efforts. In the long run this will be an asset. They've also PS Now, showing they have a plan B in a console-less future. They've done more to expand the market than others and it made them future proof if things change drastically. They've done well when the Japanese console market tanked, the other Asian markets are offsetting what they lost in Japan. Even for their 3rd party games like Yakuza and FF. So Playstation can stand on its own even if others fail, it has done so pretty much the entire past 2 decades. The install bases between the 4 PS consoles over the 6-7 year period in a gen have been consistent: 85M(PS1-PS3) to 100M(PS2). Considering there is more devices than ever trying to grab people's attention, PS4 is doing great. It will get to 100M within 6 years.

There is not 1 large pie, rather multiple pies, Sony's pie has the same consistent size. If I were you I'd look at why the others have such inconsistent, fluctuating sizes.