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We're all insanely disappointed with the Wipeout mobile title, but I have a feeling we're going to be seeing many more mobile titles from Sony's IPs. Sony's first-party titles are going to continue to be amazing primarily single-player experiences for years and years to come. But ultimately, that's where the problem is going to lie in the long term, and it may be why Sony is changing their business model starting now.

Wipeout has never been a franchise that sold gangbusters, which made the franchise a perfect test opportunity to put it on mobile to bring in revenue. The developers could've at least made it a traditional racing game, though! But if it does manage to bring in some good, consistent revenue, Sony may start to view mobile as a goldmine as so many other studios do, albeit while still making quality console games.

But as time goes on, those big blockbuster, single-player, action-adventure games are costing a LOT to make. God of War 2018 is estimated to have cost at least $100 million to produce. I can't imagine what the cost of Spider-Man 2, Wolverine, Forbidden West, and GoW: Ragnarok are costing to make. Which raising the the base game to being $70 may alleviate some of the rising cost to make these huge gaming experiences, but is it sustainable? I'm betting not as much as Sony would like. 

Sony has currently positioned themselves to where they can't really afford their first-party titles to flop. At least some-what consistently, because a single game flopping is by no means the end of the world, especially for a company as big as Sony. But Days Gone is a good example of this. It turned a modest profit, but because it wasn't as big selling, Sony passed on the opportunity for a sequel. At least for now. Which is a damn shame because I did enjoy it.

Now, Sony has begun porting their first-party titles to PC, and even purchased a PC porting game studio in Nixxes to quicken the pace of PC ports. And Sony isn't taking the Xbox approach where their games launch on console and PC on day 1. They're porting games that are no longer selling anywhere near as well. So what's a way to make more money on a single-player game that doesn't bring in an infinite amount of revenue once the well has been dried on console? After 2-3 years, port the game to PC, and suddenly you're making a ton more money on the exact same game that released years ago with little work needing to be done, and they've more than recouped the cost of the game in the process, thus being able to invest heavily in future games. Some may view it as greed to get as much money as possible, but I think Sony is doing it because they have to.

Look at Bethesda. Bethesda was known for single-player experiences for years throughout their studios, but their games, other than Elder Scrolls and Fallout, were never known to be the best selling. Then seemingly out of nowhere they began releasing micro-transaction filled games in Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Fallout 76, added monetization on their single-player games with Creation Club in Skyrim and Fallout 4, then really went into mobile gaming for their best selling franchises with Fallout Shelter and Elder Scrolls Blades and Legends. It's like they were starting to become desperate for revenue, and tried adapting to the modern gaming landscape. But their IPs weren't best designed for that type of monetization, then eventually sold to Microsoft.

Not that Sony will ever become that desperate with the remaining company behind them and they're still profiting from console sales, but the more it costs to make the games, the more areas Sony will look to for more revenue, and mobile gaming is very lucrative in terms of revenue. And with how many amazing IPs Sony owns......Wipeout may just be the beginning for PlayStation in the mobile market for better or worse. And as far as first impressions go, it's for worse.

I hope I'm wrong! But if I'm not, I'm hoping at least it means we'll continue to get more high quality console experiences from Sony for years and years to come, despite the butchering of PlayStation's franchises that'll happen in the process on mobile.

Thoughts?

Last edited by G2ThaUNiT - on 20 September 2021