One of the key components of PlayStation’s success since its inception some 25 years ago is how it’s allowed third-party publishers to take centre stage on its systems. If you look back through the history of the brand, franchises like Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto, FIFA, and more recently Destiny have all been huge sellers on Sony’s various boxes. And speaking as part of the organisation’s recent investor relations day, boss Jim Ryan explained that the firm allows partners to take 80 per cent of the marketshare on its machines.
This means that the remaining 20 per cent is fulfilled by first-party content, which is designed to differentiate the device. According to the executive, publishers are really happy with the dynamic, and enjoy working with the Japanese giant as a consequence.
It’s really interesting to hear the platform holder speak candidly about this, because it’s a very different business model to Nintendo, for example, where exclusives dominate software sales. Personally, we reckon that Sony’s got the mix just about right – there are more than enough high quality exclusives to look forward to, but they generally either serve niches or are industry-leading in terms of production values.
[source twinfinite.net]
Comments 15
Their pipeline is ridiculous!:
The Last of Us: Part II
Ghost of Tsushima
Death Stranding
Final Fantasy VII Remake
God of War Sequel
Horizon: Zero Dawn Sequel
Marvel's Spider-Man Sequel
Really hoping for a follow-up to Bloodborne.
Also - whatever Ueda's next game is I'm sure will be amazing.
With statistics like those, it's a wonder Nintendo can manage to pay their staff at the end of every month.
@RogerRoger I'm pretty sure you misread the article. It only mentions PS4 market shares.
The Switch has been the best selling hardware almost every month since its release and had games in the top 10 every single month even with a much smaller user base. And they still manage to sell millions of 3DS games every year. I'd be more worried about Microsoft's XBox branch.
@Rhaoulos Forgive me; it was a cheap joke at the "80% third party, 20% first party" statistic which, you're absolutely right, belongs to Sony and Sony alone.
And is actually kinda beneath me, on reflection. Apologies.
I would say that at least 80% of my games have been 3rd Party Multi-platform releases. On average, I have bought approx 2 exclusive titles a year - its a similar statistic with Xbox too. I know Sony release more exclusives but not all exclusives appeal to me.
I am not complaining about this at all and it would be ridiculous to think Sony could develop and Publish more games a year than EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Square Enix, 2K etc combined. Therefore its much more likely, unless you avoid other publishers deliberately, that you will end up buying significantly more multi-platform releases a year.
What the 80% vs 20% is effectively saying is that for every 1 Sony published game, there are 4 3rd party games which is quite a high number of exclusives considering the number of Publishers, studio's etc working on 3rd Party games...
The Witcher 3 is my bestest third party game. Horizon Zero Dawn is my bestest exclusive.
can't wait for sir Daniel fortesque comeback. medievil. hopping for parasite Eve remaster and syphon filter remaster.man I want a new resistance and max Payne 4.sleeping dog 2.dragon dogma 2.sly Cooper 5.word up son
I mentioned a similar thing in the article about Sony expanding and acquiring new studios; As long as they can publish 2 or 3 quality titles a year there are plenty of third-party games to fill the rest. Much more than that and you’re potentially competing for sales with your own titles.
@playstation1995 hell no for remastered on both.. sequel game for Syphon Filiter is better than do remastered version
@TheLastOfUs2 yeah I want a sequel also.but I will take a remaster.word up son
@playstation1995 remastered version look bad with ps1 graphic. no thank
@TheLastOfUs2 no it doesn't.they could remake everything.word up son
'Publisher friendly,' unless it's a niche Japanese title, then they have no problems forcing devs to compromise their products.
PlayStation is my usual system of choice because of that balance. A good mix of 1st and 3rd party helps make a great system in general, and my favorite systems generally follow that template.
It would be nice if Sony stopped censoring third party games and allowed the consumer to make their own decisions instead of playing big brother, just sayin.
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