Sony's U-turn - Should first party games be cross-gen?

[Runa216]

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Sony is being moronic with their first party titles.  The purpose of first party games is sell hardware.  That's it.  That's the only goal.  Maximizing software revenue is stupid.  Why?  Because Sony makes most of their profits from license fees on third party games.  That is where the real money is, and they increase those profits by maximizing their hardware install base.  

The truth is that it's moronic even for Nintendo to try to focus on first party software profits, and a huge chunk of their revenue comes from first party software.  For Sony, it should be even more clear.  Their whole business model is based on getting huge third party software sales.  They need to make first party games that will sell hardware and that is it.  The large install base keeps third party developers happy.  On the other hand, if their install base isn't big enough, or grows too slowly, then third party sales are lower and they lose significantly more in profits.  On top of that, gamers end up wondering what "would have been" if the first party game had been developed solely for PS5.

Basically the upside to cross-gen is small and the downside is huge.  Sony is making a dumb move here.

You be sure to tell that to them in 5-10 years when the PS5 has sold over 100 million units and has become one of the best-selling consoles of all time. Because they're on the same track they were on (with even better first and third party support) in their first year as the Ps4, which is currently the 2nd best selling console of all time, next only to the PS2, which they also made (Switch WILL eclipse it but it's not there yet.) 

so yeah, tell us more about how Sony is making the wrong moves.