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Forums - Sony - Sony: We Should Probably Develop Less Games

miz1q2w3e on 12 February 2012
Khuutra said:
Slimebeast said:
RolStoppable said:

Sony is bound to come late to the party and don't have the first party it takes to offset a headstart of the competition. Third parties won't go through the trouble of making improved PS4 versions of their game for a small installed base, so if Sony decides to make a vastly more powerful console than Nintendo and Microsoft, then their system is going to be underutilized, because it isn't worth the effort.

Yes but I was asking what you would want to happen. But I think the answer is obvious (you're with Khuutra) so you can skip that one.

I think it's very sad. My last hope for next gen to be graphically powerful and hardcore is Sony to be bold and try the expensive hardware route again even if it's against all odds.

I built a PC so I won't have to worry about it.

Nintendo just needs to give me the games I want, and third parties need to be desperate multiplatform whirlwinds.

It's all so close. I can taste it in the air.

I love your posts :3

Just thought I'd let you know



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miz1q2w3e on 12 February 2012
happydolphin said:

lol, how do you not see it? Sony is bleeding. If they make more games, in the long run, you will have EVEN LESS GAMES (keep making tons of in-house games and go bankrupt) than LESS GAMES (slow down development, market the hell out of certain games).

In the end, those people are asking for MORE GAMES. Not on the short term like you are of course, but rather on the long term.

+1



Darth Tigris on 12 February 2012

Where are the old school Sega fans that were blissfully dismissive about how the company was performing prior to 2001? I can't have been the only one. Sure, I still game but a bit of me died back then.

With Sony (and some vocal Sony fans here), I see a similar situation, though maybe not quite as dire (we'll see how the Vita's doing in 4 months). Sure, it's all about the games. Keep telling yourselves that ...



Mr Khan on 12 February 2012
HappySqurriel said:
While this may offend some people on this site, Sony's biggest mistake this entire generation has been to focus almost entirely on the wishes of the vocal minority of gamers who hang out on gaming websites ... Certainly, Sony has produced many great games this generation but if you want chart topping success you really need to target the masses who are not well represented on gaming sites.

I wouldn't say that's the root of the issue. Close, but not quite there.

Sony's bigger problem is that they seem to be approaching their general publishing strategy in a matter of "we should make x to fit y demographic" when that doesn't work quite as well in gaming as it does in the other multimedia enterprises Sony has a hand in. In gaming, priority must be given to the megahits

The root of the matter is that Sony has not quite figured out (or just adapted to the changes of a third party parity environment that dictate) that console sales are driven by their software. Sony's strategy seems designed to satisfy an existing base of PS3/P/Vita owners, and they are not, as a publisher, really trying to actually sell their own consoles



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.

Stefan.De.Machtige on 12 February 2012
SvennoJ said:
Stefan.De.Machtige said:
SvennoJ said:
Jexy said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
SvennoJ said:
It will be a sad day when the need for big sales numbers kills variety.


True. If they follow Microsoft it wont be a good day for gaming.


Well no one is saying put out as few exclusives as Microsoft did this year.  As an Xbox owner, I wish there were more, but then again most of mine at 3rd party anyway.  But Sony has to cut back a SOME.  Microsoft could easily afford to make more too.  But then again keep in mind all of their Kinect exclusives.   We don't count those, but they do.

They could do a bit better market research and adjust the budget more realistically. No need to cut back on nr of games. I don't want xbla, psn, etc to be the only source of variety and all big budget games to be targeted at the widest possible audience.

Apart from motorstorm apocalypse, whose release was completely messed up beyond Sony's control, most exclusives had around a million or more sales. Why is that not good enough anymore?

For a couple reasons:

1. Doing good enough is what got all of Sony in big trouble today. They should have been aiming for great.

2. Doing good enough, when your competition is doing great, is a bad investment. Sony puts in more work, but gains the least.

3. It is a sign of brand weakness. A big brand must be seen to be growing or it's deemed to be in decline. Even stagnating is seen as this.

4. Brands like Mario and Halo sells more consoles. The costs savings of making 1 IP with the strength of 4 or 5 IP's are rather big.

1. The ps3 was in trouble because they were aiming for great instead of good enough. Too much new tech to make it cost effective.

2. There are a lot of other factors why Sony is in trouble today, not because they are making too many games. The earthquake / tsunami and exchange rate are 2 big ones. Sony only makes 67% on overseas sales with the exchange rate compared to when the ps3 launched. Compare Sony's losses to other Japanese tech companies to put it in perspective. Not against MS who is riding on a weak dollar, thus gaining a lot on overseas sales.

3. As far as I know the ps3 brand is still growing, top of sales again since Januari.

4. Imo libraries is what sells consoles. Sure one great game can convince me to buy a console a little sooner, but without a nice variety of other games to be played on it as well I won't buy it.

1. You shouldn't define doing great in hardware terms. Sony is trying to sell a product to a certain audience - that's their goal. If you miss that by cost, marketing and others factors, then you're not doing great. A great product is what reaches it's audience the best.

2. I was mainly talking about grand game sales here. The exchange rate sure sucks for Sony. But if you compare them against Nintendo their planning/marketing tacticts aren't working vey well.   

3. The playstation brand is in decline. Going form a bit profatable to big losses (the earlie PS3 losses are still not cleared) and going from first place to third. There is no doubt that the PS brand is in decline. Sony said itself it wanted a synergy approach to help the brand grow again...

4. Sure. But in any library you have big games. Real must-have games. The more you have like of them, the better your library gets. Variety is also affected by the big hitters.  A standard library with like 2 or 3 big hitters is just stronger then a standard library with 7 or 8 normal hitters.

Don't forget that titles like Halo and Mario bring whole genre's with them . It's no accident that halo is a shooter and a lot of the same customers bought similar games when they bought a bundle. Smaller games/IP's can ride on the tails of the big brands.



In the wilderness we go alone with our new knowledge and strength.

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Alby_da_Wolf on 12 February 2012

They should just develop as many games as they can properly advertise. Cutting very few of the least important ones and investing the savings to strengthen marketing could be enough to significantly boost the others.



Stwike him, Centuwion. Stwike him vewy wuffly! (Pontius Pilate, "Life of Brian")
A fart without stink is like a sky without stars.
TGS, Third Grade Shooter: brand new genre invented by Kevin Butler exclusively for Natal WiiToo Kinect. PEW! PEW-PEW-PEW!   


man-bear-pig on 12 February 2012

I agree with ablar the Woolf.



My prediction threads:

Wii U will sell under 40m units (made on 14th September 2012)

PS Vita will sell under 20m units (made on 30th September 2012)

Wii U will sell under 7m in 2013 - I was right

Halo 4 first 9 weeks sales prediction

PS4 to be down YOY in 2015

chocoloco on 12 February 2012

Sony does not know how to market to the American audience, end of story. MS might even gain more ground next gen as they appeal more to Europe. The big game changer will only be when China starts buying consoles in mass quantities.



SvennoJ on 12 February 2012
Stefan.De.Machtige said:
SvennoJ said:
Stefan.De.Machtige said:

For a couple reasons:

1. Doing good enough is what got all of Sony in big trouble today. They should have been aiming for great.

2. Doing good enough, when your competition is doing great, is a bad investment. Sony puts in more work, but gains the least.

3. It is a sign of brand weakness. A big brand must be seen to be growing or it's deemed to be in decline. Even stagnating is seen as this.

4. Brands like Mario and Halo sells more consoles. The costs savings of making 1 IP with the strength of 4 or 5 IP's are rather big.

1. The ps3 was in trouble because they were aiming for great instead of good enough. Too much new tech to make it cost effective.

2. There are a lot of other factors why Sony is in trouble today, not because they are making too many games. The earthquake / tsunami and exchange rate are 2 big ones. Sony only makes 67% on overseas sales with the exchange rate compared to when the ps3 launched. Compare Sony's losses to other Japanese tech companies to put it in perspective. Not against MS who is riding on a weak dollar, thus gaining a lot on overseas sales.

3. As far as I know the ps3 brand is still growing, top of sales again since Januari.

4. Imo libraries is what sells consoles. Sure one great game can convince me to buy a console a little sooner, but without a nice variety of other games to be played on it as well I won't buy it.

1. You shouldn't define doing great in hardware terms. Sony is trying to sell a product to a certain audience - that's their goal. If you miss that by cost, marketing and others factors, then you're not doing great. A great product is what reaches it's audience the best.

2. I was mainly talking about grand game sales here. The exchange rate sure sucks for Sony. But if you compare them against Nintendo their planning/marketing tacticts aren't working vey well.   

3. The playstation brand is in decline. Going form a bit profatable to big losses (the earlie PS3 losses are still not cleared) and going from first place to third. There is no doubt that the PS brand is in decline. Sony said itself it wanted a synergy approach to help the brand grow again...

4. Sure. But in any library you have big games. Real must-have games. The more you have like of them, the better your library gets. Variety is also affected by the big hitters.  A standard library with like 2 or 3 big hitters is just stronger then a standard library with 7 or 8 normal hitters.

Don't forget that titles like Halo and Mario bring whole genre's with them . It's no accident that halo is a shooter and a lot of the same customers bought similar games when they bought a bundle. Smaller games/IP's can ride on the tails of the big brands.

1. I'm not sure what you mean by not aiming for great then. I don't think Sony were just aiming for good enough with the sales of the ps3. They were too arrogant in thinking everyone would fork over $600 for their latest hardware. Then they found out they were not the Apple of console gaming.

2. Nintendo is expecting 65 billion Yen loss for 2011. Their planning and marketing wasn't going much better last year.

3. It was in decline because of 1. But it is recovering now.

4. True, but you can't set out and make 1 must have game simply by putting all your money behind it. Better to spread the risk and get a diverse install base, exactly what ms has been doing after seeing halo starting to run out of steam. Best to have a couple of big hitters, some variety and try out new games to see if they can become the next big thing.
Or do you suggest Sony should forget about new games and only focus on God of war 4, Uncharted 4, MGS5, GT6.



Jexy on 12 February 2012
SvennoJ said:

1. I'm not sure what you mean by not aiming for great then. I don't think Sony were just aiming for good enough with the sales of the ps3. They were too arrogant in thinking everyone would fork over $600 for their latest hardware. Then they found out they were not the Apple of console gaming.

2. Nintendo is expecting 65 billion Yen loss for 2011. Their planning and marketing wasn't going much better last year.

3. It was in decline because of 1. But it is recovering now.

4. True, but you can't set out and make 1 must have game simply by putting all your money behind it. Better to spread the risk and get a diverse install base, exactly what ms has been doing after seeing halo starting to run out of steam. Best to have a couple of big hitters, some variety and try out new games to see if they can become the next big thing.
Or do you suggest Sony should forget about new games and only focus on God of war 4, Uncharted 4, MGS5, GT6.

To be fair on number 3... that was basically all the 3DS's doing with their big miscalculation there (that they readily admitted and took full responsibility on, something Sony has trouble admitting).  And the Wii basically died this past year because well... there were no games and its old (tech wise).  But then again, the 3DS seems to be full steam ahead now and the Wii U will come out far before the HD twins get their next gen.  Even still, they didn't lose close to what Sony lost and it was one loss after piling up the money from previous years, which Sony hasn't done in forever.



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