Gotta do a disclaimer:

• This is not a sales thread, mention sales and you're a douche
• This is not a thread in the gaming forum, mention the Xbox 360/Wii/PC and you're a meat head.
• This is a thread about how you personally feel about Sonys game development strategy and how it effects you personally.

Ok, now thats out of the way.

We can all agree there are some really fantastic games on the way, we can see multiple titles where years of development have definately paid off. It seems Sonys strategy is to release fewer, release later, and release more expensive but landmark games that will be remembered for a lot longer.

So how do you feel about their game release strategy? A lot of you, including me have lived through the "drought" of games. It got so bad for me at one point I was considering picking up Bladestorm: The Hundren Year War at full price. I am extremely happy with the games which have come out at the end of this year -> Valkyria Chronicles, Little Big Planet, White Knight Chronicles (Ok, almost out!) and im even more pleased with the next years release list.

But the thing is this, are you happy with how Sony has chosen to postpone and polish these games rather than release them sooner? Or would you have been happier had they released much of the 2009 Calendar of games in 2008? Now I am a happy camper "now" but I would have given anything not more than a year ago to have some of those titles released 6 months ago even. How do you feel about this personally?

For myself, im not disciplined enough to say, delay, polish, and make excellent but in a way im glad that they did even if I had to live through that pain. I can't say that even now im entirely pleased with how they handled things as I can still remember that wallet ache of needing a new game and having nothing to buy. However for the future I can see many games releases which are worthy to stay in my collection for a long time as momentos of great experiences.

Edit: The games I already "know" I'll be getting are: Killzone 2, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Infamous, GT5 which is pretty big considering I hardly ever think about games more than 3 months out from release. Its really a testament to the quality I percieve coming from these games, they happened to take a long time but they make the wait worth it.

Very happy, I think Sony needs a lot more.

Which games? Why?

Whats making you happy?

Im happy with the way all the games released this year by sony came to be. Now here is the thing, im not impressed by the advertising, and that is not a good thing.

It's part of their short term coasting strategy. Dropping support of 3rd parties in favorable of much higher earnings potential by investing that capital into 1st party games.

The side effect is that Sony won't be seeing many 3rd party exclusives, like they did during the PS2 years. The positive is Sony's first party games will potentially be more frequent and higher quality.

I think it's a bad move. It brings the Playstation brand down, not having many 3rd party exclusives. The end goal is to become similar to Nintendo, and I can tell you, Nintendo is very successful, but most people hate on Nintendo's lack of 3rd party support. I don't think it's an even trade. I believe that Sony is trading 3rd party exclusives for 1st party profit. I think that is the reason Sony lost DMC, GTA, FFXIII, and Tekken, and why they will continue to bleed 3rd party exclusives as long as they have them to lose.

i like that Sony is primarily focused on 1st and 2nd party games but they need to advertise them better
their advertisting strategy in NA this year is horrible...last years was great with the "Ladies and Gentlemen" because it showed all the great 2007 PS3 exclusives...imo they should do something like that again with MGS4 Resistance 2 Socom MotorStorm 2 LBP...

Release strategies have never affected me.

I just want the next Ueda game. That's all.

I think i'd rather what they're doing rather than hurry the games out there with possible problems. As I've heard, a delayed game will eventually be good, but a bad game is always bad.

As long as GT5 is out in 2009 I'll be happy. I also want Killzone 2, if its delayed past February I'll be pissed

Their 1st party has certainly gotten better in releasing more quality titles, but it seems at the expense of their third party exclusives. That's not to say that they don't have quality third party exclusives (Valkyria Chronicles is one), but it's certainly not like it was in the PS2 era.

The problem, although it isn't that bad to me, is their launch schedule for their first party games, especially the very big titles like Gran Turismo. They could certainly use one of those early next year to help boost sales some. Overall, though, I haven't been disappointed in the quality of the games, as they seem to definitely be following a bit in Nintendo's footsteps.

First party releases were few and far between at first because Sony was slow to abandon support for the ps2. What if God of War II had been a ps3 title released at the end of 2007, rather than a ps2 title released at the beginning of 2007?

Now that Sony's studios are working full stop on the ps3, and now that the grunt of engine development has already been finished (most notably through the work on Uncharted and Killzone 2), we should see first party releases hitting at a heavy clip from here on out.

Just compare next year to this year.The nly first party exclusive the ps3 had for the first hald of the year was Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, and nothing else hit until July.  Next year, things start off with Killzone 2, and shortly thereafter comes White Knight Chronicles and InFamous. Then we'll see God of War III, Uncharted 2, and Ratchet & Clank Future 2 around the end of the year.  MAG, Heavy Rain, and GT5 should hit somewhere in there as well (though GT5 might get delayed until Spring '10).

Things are looking great for the ps3 next year.  The year after as well, which is when Trico and other titles will probably hit (I've given up hope on Trico hitting next year, "Olympic Team" or not).