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LudicrousSpeed on 13 April 2021
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DonFerrari said:
LudicrousSpeed said:

Sony during PS3 era:
139 games
59 first party
63 new IP's

Sony during PS4 era:
63 games
34 first party
30 new IP's

I might have missed some smaller network titles or extremely niche stuff Sony published, but it's a very large difference. And many of the things they green lit on PS3 are what set it apart from the 360, especially towards the end of the gen when MS was focusing on Kinect and Halo/Gears/Forza with some small XBLA stuff thrown in, are the types of games Sony apparently doesn't believe in any more.

I buy what Schreier is saying because we already saw Sony pull away from variety and risk during the PS4 era, as the numbers above prove. They focused more on big titles, with much fewer exceptions than the PS3 era. And they relied much more on third party deals than PS3 era with PS4, and by all accounts will rely on them even more during PS5's life time. Bear in mind those new IP numbers don't really put any context, but I'd argue the PS3 number is not only much higher (over double) but they were much larger new IP's. Stuff like Last of Us, Uncharted, Demon's Souls, Motorstorm, Resistance, Infamous, etc etc, hold more weight than a few new PSVR IP's and Horizon imho.

The proportion seem very close, almost half of the titles were new IP both in PS3 and PS4, the total quantity reduced but that is easily explained by development time taking longer each gen.

Seems close? It's 139 games vs 63. That's close? 63 new IP's vs 30. That's close? Those numbers aren't close. And who cares if almost half the titles on both lists are new IP's which one gen has less than half as many games overall. And the dev time is taking longer by design, it's not a catch all excuse for lower output. GG could have put out a Killzone sequel in less time than it took them to make Horizon. SP could have done another Infamous or smaller type game in less time than it took them to make Ghosts. And no, I'm not saying they should have made those sequels instead of the new IP's, I am just using them as an example. There are plenty of devs who put out AA or smaller scale AAA titles in 2-3 years still. Sony however is focusing on blockbusters so those have even longer than normal development times. Which means less games, and means less risk. That's the issue.

Yes, we all know a AAA blockbuster game takes longer to make than other games. That wasn't the point. The point was Sony used to have a good balance of those types of games and others but are now focusing solely on developing the huge ones. Don't be surprised when the PS5 output is even less than PS4.