BPX050: The Problem With Sony

[fishbowlhead]

Concrete Genie was fantastic.

[wakka]

You listed 8 PS3 games.
I was going to say this earlier in the day but didn’t post it but personally I much preferred the PS3 over PS4.
Sony really did have a diverse lineup of games, 8 of which you mentioned, they also had the Tokyo jungke, pixeljunk series, puppeteer, rain, siren blood curse, super stardust and more, it felt like they green lit a lot of titles across first party and their partners.
I often wonder if Gravity Rush was brought to Sony in 2020 would they even bother? They seem to let indies take up a lot of that slack and stick to somewhat safe third person story/narrative heavy action games.

Yeah, it’s interesting. The list Teddy posted is pretty diverse but, with the exception of The Last Guardian, Detroit and DriveClub (the latter two of which I’d argue fit with the rough template of their other dad-focused AAAs this gen), they’re all pretty much small budget titles, with a lot of rereleases in the mix.

I feel like their software strategy this gen was really clear and focused. Frequent, big budget single player games. Good graphics, decent story, not too long, no gimmicks. There’s a lot to like about that. No GaaS, a lot of very high quality SP experiences at a time when other publishers were flirting with abandoning them in favour of loot boxes and all the rest of it. And it’s absolutely been successful for Sony in terms of selling consoles. But it has meant, I reckon, there’s been a little less investment in weird and wonderful games, which is a little bit of a shame.

[Tobal]

Their current wave of exclusive first party games are getting stale. Open worlds and highly story driven games. Horizon, God of War, Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima (which I loved), Spiderman etc.

I remember titles like Wileout, Jumping Flash, Parappa, Resistance, White Knight Chronicles. A lot of genres covered. Then more followed. At the moment people are craving for more God of War, more Horizon, more Last of Us....I say No. Down with that kind of game.

I dunno, probably gonna get thumbed down for this opinion.

I tend to play 3rd party games. I think my loyalty to Sony at the moment is due to all the friends I have on the platform.

this is where i find myself, those games weird kinder exist but don't have a budget spent on them.. i can only think of Last Guardian in that mould. The PS4 spent most of generation bringing the power and value(mostly, PSN as network is slow and prone to just not working alot) with my most played and enjoyed games being the 3rd party stuff, BF4, Destiny(for year1), Battle Royal stuff, and for the last 2 years Monster Hunter and Apex which some sort lived stuff like Nier Auto, FF7, AceC7, DQ11, RE2/7, TitanFall2 and currently Death Stranding which basically alot of what i liked about MGV change in direction (watching Limmy on Twitch play DS over last 3 weeks changed my mind on it alot, reviewers really did the game over) .

For Sony's first party stuff, I would certainly miss a new Bloodborne, but demon soul's with a graphics update isn't good enough for me, i've had my fill of spiderman well before completing it let alone go though a DLC expansion for more of same and Jax is the best looking next-gen Ps2 game, looks like it plays exactly like the boring after 30mins remaster. I'll likely tune in to PS5 later on if there's Bloodborne2, Demon sequel and God of War sequel and im quite happy wait on timed exclusives if FF7 part 2 or other SE stuffed is pigeon holed for while, guessing we'll find out weds/thurs for this sony event.

[JazzFunk]

I'm all for loving all.

But I still got SKYRIM left to play. In fact, I own the GOTY on XB1, PS3 and 360. It came out in 2011.

My gaming speed is much lower than it needs to be and I struggle to keep up, therefore I've stopped struggling to keep up.

Only new release I give a **** about is CYBERPUNK and it's ages n' ages since I actually *wanted* a game (bar the YAKUZAs on Xbone. My dream came true).

[charlesr]

I wonder about the future generation of gamers. My kids' friends all play on xbox or PC. Maybe coincidence. My girlfriend has a son age 12 and he's only interested in xbox and PC, although he does have a PS4.

[Asura]

I bought two.

Hmmm, there's a thread.

[QualityChimp]

I got mine fairly late, about 3 years ago, by which point Xbox had done all its u-turns and was a BC, not cloud reliant, game shareable, not Kinect-only and so on, but I went with PS4 for 4 main reasons.

1. Most my friends had a PS4, rather than a One
2. A lot of exclusive games I wanted to play were on the PS4
3. I really liked the look of PSVR and wanted to get a headset later
4. Earth Defense Force 5 was only coming to PS4

Where I think the PS4 goes wrong is that it's a bit clunky uniting the console and website.
You can't have more than one wishlist, you can't easily see a list of purchased games and you can't share wishlists between console and website.

The sales have started getting really good, whereas 2nd-hand was the only option for bargains for a while.

Video file reading isn't very good. I can throw most files at the One and it'll play them. It would be nice if the PS4 could play more file types.

MS Gold versus PS+ has fluctuated as to which is best.
Originally, Gold blew it out the water, but this gen, because you need PS+ to play online (unlike the PS3), Sony have upped their games and the "free" monthly titles have been really good, whereas, I felt One's are lacking, but the 360 choices have been good.

Leading me neatly to my final point, backwards compatibility. If this was a One feature from the start, I would've jumped in, but it took them too long. It's still not perfect and I can't play Guitar Hero, Import Tuner Challenge or Transformers: Devastation, for example, on my one, but at least they're trying!

I really, really want to play Gradius V on my PlayStation 4, but I can't.
Sometimes I want to dip into older games that I already own, without having to buy the remakes, which is why I have sat under my telly a PS4, PS3, 360 and a One.

Ultimately, in the same way I could probably still be playing on my 360 if my lovely wife, Mum and mother-in-law hadn't conspired on my 40th birthday to get a projector, screen and PS4 Pro, I can happily stick with my PS4 over a PS5, which seems lacking in games, and I still have a treasure trove of PS4 gaming experiences ahead of me, with prices only going to get better as the new gen kicks in.

[fishbowlhead]

Backwards compatibility over every generation is going to take a long time, wont happen until EVERYTHING over every PlayStation is put on the store and you can buy it permanently under your account, if that ever happens.

Physical BC is just never going to happen for obvious reasons.

[dataDave]

For them to win me over they need three things:

1. More big-budget arcadey exclusives coming out of Japan from companies that barely exist anymore (Konami, Namco, Capcom). Maybe pay Platinum to make up for a bit of that.

2. MUCH better hardware. Having to dust out a jet-engine doesn't inspire me with confidence, nor does a €60 controller with hardly any charge in it after a bit of use.

3. PSVR2. They did so much right with the PSVR that I was seriously on the verge of getting a Pro console and a headset. It just made much more sense for me at the time to go with a HTC Vive instead. The choice of lens alone made me sometimes wish I'd instead gone with the PlayStation, that and maybe one or two games not available on the PC.