Sony Feels It Has the 'Right Amount' of First-Party Teams

I think the "Nintendo problem" is two fold. Sheer brand power, because you aren't releasing an RPG around Pokemon for instance, and the fact that they needed their products to be so strong because third party support wasn't there. So they needed that quality/volume to compensate.

Sony doesn't, because their lions share has always been third parties since the beginning. When you dont have that necessity, you cant slow down on first party titles.

Of course the one thing that bolsters this is the sheer volume of studios Nintendo has. Like if you look at the list of affiliates or owned studios that work exclusively for their platforms, or on their IP, its mind boggling.

But again, Sony is fine. The PS1 was the house that third parties built, which lessened the reliance on first party. The competition didn't have that, and never will.

But hey, the PS3 was...interesting. The end had so many good games, and lord did Insomniac keep busy with Resistance AND Ratchet, but they shouldn't have kept going right up until the end.

I hope, sincerely, that the first party titles we know are coming and are not yet dated, like Death Stranding, Ghost and TLOUP2, are the last first party PS4 titles. If they announce more, then the launch of the PS5 is either going to be very much a cross-generation affair on the first party front, or empty.

With 80m PS4s, I cant see people clamouring to upgrade if they get the same launch games on their existing PS4.

@get2sammyb i think the last year of ps3 cemented PS4's success. Never mind microsoft dropping the ball. People on the fence when buying their new console saw the phenomenal output Sony were putting out and will have thought 'i'll have some of that'. It was unparalleled how strong that year was really. And i feel Sony are really doing the same with their creative output now. Ultimately what people want are games!

@Knuckles-Fajita With 80m PS4s, I cant see people clamouring to upgrade if they get the same launch games on their existing PS4.

Why would people upgrade to a 'Pro' when they could just play the game on a PS4? Why did people buy the PS4 in the first year when virtually all the 'big' 3rd Party releases also released on PS3?

Of course you will get a lot that are just happy to play the game regardless of how it looks or runs - just as long as they can play it. However there will ALWAYS be people that also want to play the games at the 'best' possible level. In part, that's also why remasters are successful too - because they offer your 'favourite' games at a better visual level and, in some cases, better performance too.

Performance and Visual quality do matter - whether people will admit it or not. I do think that some don't want to admit it in case they come across as 'shallow' but if you had the choice of playing games like Last of Us 2 or Ghost of Tsushima at a native 4k with increased visual settings - better shadow quality, better draw distances for shadows, better textures, better reflections etc - and 60fps, you would rather settle for a scaled down version capped at 30fps?

As good as GoT looked, I can still see the point where shadow quality changes as you move closer. If you look at the bit where they approach the temple and hide behind rocks, the shadows on the wall by the doorway are low quality but as they move up the steps, they suddenly change into better quality. That's just an example. You also see that kind of thing happen with textures and even objects in some games. You can see the 'line' where these draw distances are set. Those are more obvious in games than having some buildings, trees, bushes etc missing in the distance - especially if you didn't know they were there in the first place. Looking out over a scene and seeing no shadows beyond a certain point can be obvious too. Reflections can make things more 'realistic' and whilst you may get some 'simple' reflections in water for example, you don't always get 'true' reflections.

Point is, that whilst you are still getting great looking games, there is still a lot more that could be improved. you could argue, and many did, that games like Last of Us proved there was no need of next gen consoles yet. There will always be people though that want the best.

I also don't see the issue with cross-gen releases either. There is a 'reason' to upgrade - that's buying for the future, getting the best visual and performance, getting the latest features (4k HDR Bluray, Atmos, VRR etc). It makes more sense than releasing the games a year later 'remastered' when they were built at 4k and scaled down for PS4 Pro and then scaled down further for PS4.

30yrs ago, you had games that couldn't run on old systems because they were 3D but now, especially with much more scalability in games it doesn't make sense to keep games for 'next' gen if they could also release on last gen. The big selling point is what these consoles offer over and above last gen - whether that's visual and performance gains across ALL games - not just exclusives or hardware features. The Pro and X are selling yet they have no exclusive software. The PS5 will have exclusive software too as games won't continue to be scalable down and run at 'adequate' settings. Might as well release on both gens if they can, whilst they can.

Sony is the nest not among the best.word up son

Sony should buy insomniacs studio.quantic dream.word up son

I really wish PlayStation should buy vanilla ware.PlayStation still has more studios than Xbox and Nintendo combined.word up son

@get2sammyb Yeah, they kind of have to implement bc now dont they - even if its a little egg on Jim Ryans face when he said people dont want to play old games - which seemed a little out of touch.

Im excited to see what Sony come up with. Most of the best bits of PS4, i didnt even know i wanted/needed from my gaming experience, until Sony brought their A game.

I’m sure IF Sony are building &/or buying studios they would be very hush, hush about it.

They probably have enough to get by, but I would like to see them add a few more.
Confirmation of the Uncharted studio would be a good start.

@get2sammyb I like the exclusives situation now than ps3. Ps3 has a lot of smaller games that didn't matter much, while ps4 has smaller list of exclusives, but that exclusives is a big system seller games, that has the potential to become 10M+ seller, like horizon, uc4, gow and the upcoming spiderman, ghost and tlou 2.

@Rob_230 I think what he means is people don't want to play ps1 games on their 4k tv. For example, if sony releasing a port of wipeout psone games, old player will buy and play it about a couple of minutes before moving on, while new player will see the LP on youtube and say "nope" and move on.

But if sony release remaster/remake of the games, old player and new player can enjoy it together, playing it like new ps4 games rather than just checking it on nostalgia. I remember shadow of the collosus and wipeout sells better than the original, charted in number 1 position although the original game didn't.

Once again
amount =/= number

My choice of Devs Sony should aquire if they ever decide to;

KojiPro
Housemarque
Drinkbox
ThatGameCompany
Level-5
Ready at Dawn
Insomniac

@viciousarcanum Any reason why they should acquire Level-5? Do you really want Yokai-Watch?

I think Sony have 13 or 14 first-party studios... I'm sure that's enough to be getting on with.

I know they've offered to buy Insomniac before, but were told "no, thanks".

@Knuckles-Fajita no but i'd love Dark Cloud 3.

@get2sammyb
Number is for countable nouns
Amount for uncountable nouns

So, number of games, but amount of fun
Same with many and much

http://grammarist.com/usage/amount-number/

I agree, they have a pretty strong output. And honestly, their exclusives already outmatch Nintendo in my opinion, so they kind of win here no matter what.

@Jaz007 Gonna elaborate on that opinion? Is it just a different taste in games?

@Knuckles-Fajita in fairness, Nintendo might have more 3rd party support if they hadn't forced the 3rd parties to accept such one-sided deals back in the NES and SNES days. A mistake Sony also made but rectified much sooner.

It still stinks that we are almost five years into the PS4s lifecycle and we have had only one game from developers like Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch.

Yes, I know it apparently takes longer to develop now but I’m stuck on my PS3 experience. We had multiple Uncharted games and TLoU, multiple Infamous games and games like the Resistance series and Motorstorm series.

Come on Insomniac, enjoy the dream team! Sony really likes you, they even trusted you with Spider-Man.

For big good looking games with deep narrative for core games Sony wins.

For unique original games with fantastic control that anyone can play, Nintendo wins.

There are probably more Nintendo games released a year but they aren’t all Breath of The Wild. There is no need to have a measuring contest of who’s is bigger- If you like Sony buy Sony, if you like Nintendo, buy Nintendo, if you like both then pick and choose from both.

The real story here is why Layden feels the need to be so defensive about why Sony is better than Nintendo? They have the biggest selling console by a mile, these little jabs feels like he can feel Miyamoto breathing down his neck.

Remember when Sony tried to have their own Smash Bros. and no one cared? Good times. Its good they stick to non Nintendo experiences. Sony is good with their own style.

@MrGawain Well put. To each their own. I prefer Nintendo but appreciate Sony's differences.

I have no reason to complain about the number of studios on Sony's books, after all, I feel I have been well serviced in respect of exclusives over the last 20+ years, however, I would be more than happy to hear of Sony creating or buying more studios.

If I could choose any developer for Sony to tie up it would have to be From Software or Platinum Games, pipe dream stuff I know, but I have a lot of love for those teams.

I feel like right now, and if Sony continue to be a one console company, they have enough studios, but if they do ever decide to create a new portable, they would absolutely need at least two more studios as back when the Vita co-existed with the PS4 it suffered for having to compete with it to gain games as most of the exclusive studios wanted to make PS4 games instead. So if the PS5 was to co-exist with another portable i feel like a few more studios would be needed, if not, then things are fine as they are

@viciousarcanum Dark Cloud 3, Koudelka from the PS1, Legend of Dragoon would make me o mental though. 😁

I don't think Sony needs to do anything huge but I'd like to see some sensible additions like MS recently made. BluePoint and Quantic Dream have both been key partners that would be cool to see added to the Sony fold. Wouldn't hurt to have some dialogue with Insomniac and From Software as well, though not sure either would sell. Ted Price on numerous occasions has said how he loves that Insomniac is independent and can choose what it wants to do with its IP but Ninja Theory said the same stuff until MS waved a bunch of money in front of them.

@MrGawain "The real story here is why Layden feels the need to be so defensive about why Sony is better than Nintendo?"

I don't get the impression that's what he's doing at all. He's just saying that they work differently, and are happy to let third parties do their own thing.

@Paranoimia

“We’re never going to be like Nintendo, holding the lion’s share of the Nintendo platform game business, because that’s not the way we work,” he said, reinforcing the notion that Sony’s exclusives exist to complement its console’s catalogue of third-party titles. “We want to make the PlayStation platform available to all of our third-partners. I think we build success for PlayStation by getting as many people inside the tent as possible that aren’t necessarily controlled by Worldwide Studios.”

To me he's saying Nintendo is stifiling 3rd Party by being mean and releasing to many games in competiton. It's like he's talking to Ubisoft, EA, and Activision and telling them they'll get a fairer deal on PS4 than on the Switch. In reality loads of indie 3rd party games have done really well and Crash has just been a big seller on the Switch.

It just seems the sort of catty remark that I couldn't imagine Kaz Hirai or Andrew House making about the competition. It makes Layden seem like he's having to defend Sony against the first bit of competition they've had in 5 years.

@MrGawain If that's your interpretation, fair enough. It's not the way I read it, though. To me, he's just referencing the fact that Nintendo have historically held a much tighter leash on what appears on their platforms, such as restricting the number of games publishers could release.

I honestly don't think anyone really sees Nintendo as "competition", and I don't think Nintendo see themselves as competition either. That's not a slight on Nintendo, it's just that they are always going to do their own thing, regardless of anyone else. Even when the Wii was out-selling everyone else, neither Sony or Microsoft were particularly bothered, because it wasn't an "either/or" situation.

And it still isn't. You don't really 'lose' a sale to Nintendo, because they are the "complimentary" company. Realistically, people are only going to buy a Nintendo if they're interested in playing Nintendo's own games. Most people aren't going to buy only a Nintendo system as their primary console on which to play the latest third-party offerings, especially as many don't actually make it on to them anyway... it's usually a PlayStation or an Xbox, plus the current offering from Nintendo... unless you're one of those who just buys everything.