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Forums - Gaming - Did Sony Plan All This?

The_BlackHeart__ on 17 February 2017

Important: This post mixes some facts, with some tendencies and even some wishful thinking. And it was made solely for the purpose of trying to understand if companies have strategies or if random pieces simply line up together in a way that make us see things.

 

The king is dead, long live the king!

 

Now that the Dark Souls Series is "over" (we all know it will come back one day right) there is an entire genre that needs to be explored and expanded. And more important from a business point of view: There is a market out there willing to $upport their favorite genre.

 

Can't we all see what is happening here?

 

Demon Souls. I have a feeling that Sony is trying to revitalize their old franchises and a Demon Souls remake could be just around the corner.

BloodBorne. The most successful new IP for Sony this generation. We will probably start hearing E3 rumors and "leaks" of a sequel pretty soon.

Nioh. A game that I like even more than DarkSouls 3 and that its up there with BloodBorne even without PvP at the moment.

Deep Down. A perfect title for a game that will be born directly from development Hell. Nobody knows when but we all know where: On PlayStation.

 

This part of the post is the reason why I almost didn't make it in first place, because this is where it gets weird:

 

I feel like there is just too much of a coincidence for Sony to simply start founding these Souls-like new IPs exactly at the twilight of the Dark Soul series.

It’s like if From Software's relationship with Sony was stronger than what we think, and that Sony knew something other publishers didn't.

 

So what is it? Am I just seeing things and this is simply a coincidence, or a well elaborated strategy?



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KingofTrolls on 17 February 2017

Hard to tell, really. I dont think Soulsborne games sell enough to care.



Louie_86 on 17 February 2017

Both Bloodborne and Demon Souls are from the same company that makes Dark Souls (From Software), plus Demon Souls came before Dark Souls, so I do not think Sony has anything to do with anything in life in general.



The_BlackHeart__ on 17 February 2017
KingofTrolls said:
Hard to tell, really. I dont think Soulsborne games sell enough to care.

They don't at least not much compared to shooters.

But you can get shooters everywhere. What if you can't get an entire genre everywhere but on one console?

And you happen to like that genre, will you buy a new console to be able to play it?



KingofTrolls on 17 February 2017
The_BlackHeart__ said:

 What if you can't get an entire genre everywhere but on one console?

And you happen to like that genre, will you buy a new console to be able to play it?

Well, this will be a some factor ofcourse, but I dont think there is enough market to justify that move. Souls game simply sell not enough.

For example, Halo Wars 2, an RTS game, launch on PC/X1, it good scores (81 meta )... and nobody even cares. That's all.

With today's console market, it is sooo fucking hard to justify anything to be exclusive if its not 1st party.



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greencactaur on 17 February 2017

I believe just coincidence. Hard to really tell how long a game will take to make. Estimates usually around 3 - 5, but even then that's only a guess.



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pokoko on 17 February 2017

Sony has done something similar with a project to develop or fund more "hunter" franchises.



DJjazzyGETH on 17 February 2017

I'm not entirely clear what you're trying to get at, so apologies if this is unrelated.

I think Sony realized they lost something special by not seizing on the Souls franchise after Demon Souls and allowing it to go to Bandai Namco (and furthermore, multiplatform). Bloodborne was a successful attempt at bringing the team back to Playstation.

As for Nioh, I look at is as an irrelevant parallel. Sony only swooped in late, after a decade of development that probably saw the game change drastically once Souls became popular, which probably only happened because it's looking more and more like Japanese devs are starting to disregard Xbox development altogether, even if they aren't directly in bed with Sony.

Ultimately it's pretty safe to say that the Souls series did indeed instigate a new genre, though it's too early to know just how to define the boundaries of it. Is it some exact cocktail of stamina meters, calculated difficulty, granular leveling, collecting 'souls' (or analogues) after each death, etc? In the case of Nioh, the answer is probably yes to all of those things, considering they're all present in a game by a completely different team, but not enough games with those exact mechanics have come forth yet to suggest that they're representative of a new genre, or if Nioh is just directly reacting to one game. It's just too early, and I don't see anything on the horizon that's doing it again.



Intrinsic on 17 February 2017
BraLoD said:

It's all an elaborate plan for 20 years to prepare people for the new LoD.

 They started all out with Demon's Souls, making it damn hard and not wanting to put too much light into it, so when people discovered Dark Souls, the bigger and more accessible bother to it, they would have it there, waiting for hardcores to get it a try.
The game going third party was all planned as well, soon after it got popular because it was everywhere, they capped the difficulty with the sequel to make it as much accessible as possible while keeping the "it's so hard" feeling on it.

Come the next gen, Sony have Bloodborne up its sleeve to reforce the cycle, now the style is popular, people are more acceptable to the difficulty, and giving it a "take more risks to get more back" approach with it, the style bloomed its potential and popularity within it.
After that, going back to the already popular franchise and giving it an end, to let people remember the difficulty is not bound to the thematic and keep waiting for more, and open space for an even new one, and that's when comes Nioh. It goes all out with the difficulty, it capitalizes on "being harder than Dark Souls", and futher prepare gamers on experience pain and frustation, and that's why Deep Down is also on the limbo, so fans are even more frustated.

And that's where FF VII Remake comes just as well. Making people aware old JRPGs of the past can now be remade on full glory, but also making them experience long waits (FF XV anyone?) and frustation with the broke in pieces format, yes, frustation again.

Now, why make gamers experience that? So much frustation so they can achieve happiness of overcoming it? To prepare people for the new LoD.

Gamers are now with RPGs alive once again on their minds, are experienced in waiting and frustation, and now they like it, and are carving for more, and that's when Sony unveil the new LoD, after 20 years of wait and countless BraLoD's tears all over the world being shed, before FF 7 can be finished, and Sony take back the entire thing for itself, turn LoD on a long running franchise, and sells like there is no tomorrow, making Uncharted and Gran Turismo sales look like a walk in the park, and selling more PlayStations than Trump can build walls.

LoD is coming.

Yup.... this. Definitely this... without a doubt. This is the anqwer to the question, what is the meaning of life.



JRPGfan on 17 February 2017
Intrinsic said:
BraLoD said:

It's all an elaborate plan for 20 years to prepare people for the new LoD.

 They started all out with Demon's Souls, making it damn hard and not wanting to put too much light into it, so when people discovered Dark Souls, the bigger and more accessible bother to it, they would have it there, waiting for hardcores to get it a try.
The game going third party was all planned as well, soon after it got popular because it was everywhere, they capped the difficulty with the sequel to make it as much accessible as possible while keeping the "it's so hard" feeling on it.

Come the next gen, Sony have Bloodborne up its sleeve to reforce the cycle, now the style is popular, people are more acceptable to the difficulty, and giving it a "take more risks to get more back" approach with it, the style bloomed its potential and popularity within it.
After that, going back to the already popular franchise and giving it an end, to let people remember the difficulty is not bound to the thematic and keep waiting for more, and open space for an even new one, and that's when comes Nioh. It goes all out with the difficulty, it capitalizes on "being harder than Dark Souls", and futher prepare gamers on experience pain and frustation, and that's why Deep Down is also on the limbo, so fans are even more frustated.

And that's where FF VII Remake comes just as well. Making people aware old JRPGs of the past can now be remade on full glory, but also making them experience long waits (FF XV anyone?) and frustation with the broke in pieces format, yes, frustation again.

Now, why make gamers experience that? So much frustation so they can achieve happiness of overcoming it? To prepare people for the new LoD.

Gamers are now with RPGs alive once again on their minds, are experienced in waiting and frustation, and now they like it, and are carving for more, and that's when Sony unveil the new LoD, after 20 years of wait and countless BraLoD's tears all over the world being shed, before FF 7 can be finished, and Sony take back the entire thing for itself, turn LoD on a long running franchise, and sells like there is no tomorrow, making Uncharted and Gran Turismo sales look like a walk in the park, and selling more PlayStations than Trump can build walls.

LoD is coming.

Yup.... this. Definitely this... without a doubt. This is the anqwer to the question, what is the meaning of life.

42.