https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-09/sony-s-obsession-with-blockbusters-is-stirring-unrest-within-playstation-empire

I don't know how to link or insert a quote here, but essentially the article goes into detail about how Sony is sacrificing smaller teams and projects to feed their bigger teams. Focusing less and less on smaller, more niche projects and putting all their eggs behind blockbusters. One such project was a Last of Us remake by a small team at Sony. Apparently that team was essentially let go and now Naughty Dog is working on a Last of Us remake, even though there is a PS4 version in the PS5 PS+ collection. Bizarre.

They also apparently killed a Day's Gone sequel and had Bend working with Naughty Dog until Bend got worried that they were about to be absorbed into ND and asked to be placed on their own project. They were apparently working on the LoU2 MP standalone and LoU2 itself. Right around this time is when some of the big people at Bend left the studio, supposedly unhappy with the role Sony was putting them in.

How much stock do you guys put into these Schreier hit pieces? I don't know the general consensus on his credibility. But this is something I have been saying about Sony for awhile now.... they took so many risks with PS3, it had loads of new IP's and great software. They took these risks because they were losing and needed to fight back. They got complacent with PS4 and we saw less of everything. Less new IP's, less first party games, less risks. Now it seems they're "cutting the fat" even more this generation. What do you guys think?

Send me pictures of Jason Schreier if old.

They did close down their small, more niche game focused studio in Japan (or something) recently.

Hmm, maybe they can co-exist, this is more focusing on playstation and its management direction, the other TLOU Remake

There was going to be a Days Gone 2? That sucks. The first game was great.

Got a link to the other thread so I can see what the opinion 'round here is?

Numbers don’t lie, friend 

Well, it is obvious that Sony has become more and more focused on the mega-blockbusters, and has largely stopped giving a shit about anything else. It seems to be working for the PS brand overall. Whether it works for a given gamer or a given Sony employee is another story.  People like different stuff.

From my perspective, as a guy that likes AAA mega-blockbusters, is that this has been good. They've been hitting a lot of homeruns. I suppose the concern is what happens when they hit a dry spell and release a few bombs in a row. That certainly will happen sometime, though its impossible to know when. It may do a lot of damage to the brand and company when that day inevitably comes. If they had their eggs in more baskets, there'd be less risk of that occurring and less risk of disaster if it does.

What do you mean a Last of Us remake? It was remade for the PS4 already! And the PS5 can play it just as well! Why bother with that one so soon? There must be other PS classics in more need of remaster...

But on topic, Sony needs to have more variety within their teams. Trimming so much their studios in order to just have blockbusters is going to cost them more experimental titles that might become the exact thing Sony wants. Also, going back to more japanese-centric focus wouldn't hurt them either.

That's my problem with Sony lately and the reason I don't feel like I need a PS5. Their games feel uninspired, predictable and not fun. Yeah, everybody loves AAA, I can see why they would focus on that, they're pretty good at it, but Sony's current output just lacks soul. And that's actually something new. PS3 is one of my favorite consoles of all time because the "PS3 Sony" was always surprising me with fun and innovative games, they were miles ahead of Microsoft and Nintendo back then. Nowadays my PS4 doesn't get turned on anymore (besides the ocasional Persona 5 playthroughs). If you're not super into the same type of 3rd person action-oriented cinematic games that Sony does so well, there's nothing there that Xbox doesn't do it better.

Urghh it's locked behind a pay wall

I will say that if Sony is sacrificing smaller teams to focus on big blockbusters, I am a bit disappointed. One of the reasons I like Playstation is because of their variety in games. I liked the fact that I could buy a Playstation console and then play exclusives like Gravity Rush, like Ratchet and Clank, like Jak and Daxter while being able to also play big games like the Last of Us, God of War and Spiderman. Having variety of exclusives on a console platform was one of the big reasons I got a Playstation.

Of course, one could argue that I can still get that variety from third party games but for me as a PC gamer, I will always choose PC as my main platform for third party games than consoles. Especially considering the track record consoles have with backwards compatibility and the recent announcements of closing down stores. I mainly buy consoles for their exclusives. So the idea of having potentially less variety of games to me feels very lame. Companies should have their big blockbusters while having a number of small titles in between that allows them to experiment and see what sticks. Not just go from one big blockbuster to the next imo.