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Forums - Gaming - Is 2021 Sony's Worst Year, First Party Wise, in the past decade?

Shaunodon on 31 August 2021
twintail said:
Shaunodon said:

Far as I remember, Covid-19 did exist when they announced it. If 2021 was an unrealistic target, there's no reason they should've set that as a goal. If they were uncertain about how badly affected they would be, even more reason to not set false expectations.

Of course, it's only false expectations for people who chose to take them at their word. 'Planned 2021' was always just an optimistic hope deliberately phrased to misinform. No different than the previous idea that Sony exclusives going forward would be dedicated to the PS5 without last-gen holding them back.. until they weren't.

There's no reason to suspect that end 2021 was an unrealistic goal. For all intents and purposes, they probably still believed in June 2020 that they could hit that date. The Netherlands didn't impose a lockdown until December 2020. We don't know to what extent this affected them (or their partner studios), but clearly it was enough to push Horizon past an early November release.

Maybe they did know they were never going to hit 2021, but 6 months is a long time in which work possibly went smoothly enough before it didn't. 

No reason, other than the fact that we know now that it won't and a good amount of people predicted this. So yes, no reason, as long as you ignore all prior and current evidence. As long as you give them every benefit of the doubt. But what is their track record on meeting planned relase dates, especially early in console life cycles?

We don't know how much the Covid situation affected them, just like they couldn't have predicted in June of last year (already in the middle of Covid) how it would affect them. So how could they be assured 2021 was still realistic?



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mjk45 on 31 August 2021

How does the PS5's launch year compare to the previous 4 consoles launch years, is in my opinion  a better question to ask, because it gives us a better set of parameters to use and I'm sure we have many members who would be able to come up with the data surrounding the various launch year first party output for us to compare.

Last edited by mjk45 - on 31 August 2021

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NobleTeam360 on 01 September 2021

Yep.



JackHandy on 01 September 2021
Shaunodon said:

First couple years of PS4 were forgettable, which is why no one ever talks about them (they just remember it how they choose). Feel free to read this PS4 year one review and see how much space is actually dedicated to talking about the games. Given that, this isn't surprising in the least. But that's how first years for almost every new system are...

It didn't use to be that way. Just check out PS2's first year. 

GTA3

MGS2

GT3

DMC

FFX

TM Black

ICO

Silent Hill 2

As an industry, we've really slipped. Both in technology leaps between gens and (great) software quantity. 

Last edited by JackHandy - on 01 September 2021

Farsala on 01 September 2021

For me personally, most years are pretty bad from Sony first party. So 2021 doesn't stand out as a particularly bad year.



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Manlytears on 01 September 2021

2021 compared to 2020 is a weak year, but still solid. I mean, Returnal is the best "Metroid" in the last 10 years and Ratchet & Clank is also great game. 2021 lacks the "Cherry on top", but considering 2020 and Covid... Damn, Sony is on Fire.
Also, yeah 2022 looks strong as @#%@$ for Playstation.



Manlytears on 01 September 2021
Kyuu said:
Manlytears said:

2021 compared to 2020 is a weak year, but still solid. I mean, Returnal is the best "Metroid" in the last 10 years and Ratchet & Clank is also great game. 2021 lacks the "Cherry on top", but considering 2020 and Covid... Damn, Sony is on Fire.
Also, yeah 2022 looks strong as @#%@$ for Playstation.

Every year is the best thing ever until delays ensue :P

True story man. 1 or 2 delays, that's all you need.



AJNShelton on 01 September 2021

As previously said, PS4's first years were lackluster, the real first Sony game that defined what the Ps4 generation would look like was Uncharted 4 and it released in 2016, 2.5 years after the launch of the console.



Manlytears on 01 September 2021
SKMBlake said:

As previously said, PS4's first years were lackluster, the real first Sony game that defined what the Ps4 generation would look like was Uncharted 4 and it released in 2016, 2.5 years after the launch of the console.

I would like to point Bloodborne.
Unlike what happened with Demon's souls (made entirely by Fromsoftware), Bloodborne was a project developed jointly by Fromsoftware and the "deceased" Japan studio, specifically in the still existing area of "3rd party partnership". In my book, it's more than fair to say that Bloodborne is Sony's 1st party ( and the first PS4 1st party big hit), but I understand that there are good reasons to say otherwise.



Eagle367 on 01 September 2021
Manlytears said:

2021 compared to 2020 is a weak year, but still solid. I mean, Returnal is the best "Metroid" in the last 10 years and Ratchet & Clank is also great game. 2021 lacks the "Cherry on top", but considering 2020 and Covid... Damn, Sony is on Fire.
Also, yeah 2022 looks strong as @#%@$ for Playstation.

2 games? That's all you got? And one is a niche roguelike. The Wii I had a better first year



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