While we consider Push Square to be a place for passionate PlayStation fans to gather and discuss their preferred pastime, the PS Blog is Sony’s official home and the place to get news straight from the horse’s mouth. Often we’ll take that information and extrapolate on it here, adding commentary and polls for you to share your opinion. But is the PS Blog reaching its full potential?
Even as the editor of the world’s biggest independent PS5 and PS4 website, this author’s found his eyes glazing over the PS Blog more and more of late. The site updates daily, but rarely meaningfully, with sponsored content from development partners padding out the publishing cycle between PS Plus and PS Now updates. Occasionally you’ll get a post from top-brass like Jim Ryan, but these rarely feel authentic.
As we write this article, the headline feature is a “look behind the scenes” at “Savathûn”. It’s only when you read the sub-headline that you realise this is related to Destiny 2: there’s nothing in the headline that illustrates that. Scrolling to the bottom of the page you can go all the way back to 4th November, meaning barely anything has been published in the past two weeks.
There’s an article on how to draw Astro Bot, which does include some cool concept art from Team Asobi. And then one of the main highlighted features pertains to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the new movie from Sony Pictures. Obviously we understand the Japanese giant is internally promoting synergy between its divisions, but this feels out of place.
Perhaps we have rose-tinted glasses, but we remember the PS Blog being the ultimate destination for PlayStation information not too long ago; these days it feels like a sporadic mish-mash of sponsored posts that no one’s really paying attention to. There was talk recently of developers being offered spots on the PS Blog as part of the platform holder’s promotional support, but do you even read them?
It feels like the website has lost a lot of its identity, and much of what it publishes is just noise. There was a period once upon a time where it included features where you could share your ideas for firmware updates, and these could be upvoted by other users depending on their importance. All of this functionality has been removed now, and while you can still comment, it feels like talking into a void.
Of course, the PS Blog will always be the venue for Sony to make major announcements, so when the next PSVR headset is showcased or God of War Ragnarok gets a release date, you’ll find it first on the PS Blog. In that sense it’s serving its purpose, but it should be so much more. This should be a direct connection between fans and creators, but the site feels stale these days.
In fact, like so much of PlayStation’s approach over the past couple of years, it’s frustratingly corporate. Whether or not it’s nostalgia speaking, the late PS3 and early PS4 era felt collaborative between fans and the company. These days, it seems like Sony is content simply filling dead air until it’s ready to make its next major announcement, whenever that may be. PS Blog is a symptom of PlayStation’s approach in 2021.
What are your thoughts on the PS Blog in 2021? Do you think it’s as good as it’s always been, or has it all got a bit stale? Do you even care about Sony’s official website? Let us know in the comments section below.
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It's fine for me as an end user. I don't go there looking for big news, more to check in a few times a week. Sometimes there's something interesting, sometimes there's not.
If I needed content to write about every day I'm sure it would be a different story though. Then I can imagine I'd be pretty frustrated.
I used to care about the site when the devs/publishers actually interacted with the comments section. Now it feels like a toxic wasteland. Like you said yourself in the article, it as become way to corporate. Site is just sort of there, and that's that.
And on top of it all, ever since EU/NA website was made into one the entire layout has become pretty horrible imo, and the articles very confusing (timezones, dates etc)
It felt like Sony realised if they stopped talking to people they got less hassle. Such a shame, I used to frequently visit the blog when it felt like there was someone there helping out.
@Robinsad I was just saying to the rest of the Push Square team, it feels like anything Sony says has gone through at least a dozen lawyers before they share it.
You pretty much nailed it by saying "like so much of PlayStation’s approach over the past couple of years, it’s frustratingly corporate."
I didn’t even know there was one...
Not surprised to hear it’s lacking. Sony have many strengths but communication isn’t one of them.
Push Square has essentially replaced the PS Blog for me. The site functionality is really bad now. Something I don't understand is I can see a link to a ps blog post within push Square (or other source) but that same ps blog post wouldn't show up in "recent articles" or any of the front page news sections.
I used to follow the blog before the PS5 launch and for a short while after.
Nowadays I usually read some posts if they catch my eye shared in a official tweet. The ones featuring developer insight on first party games are usually nice.
Yeah like the article says, the PS Blog used to be frequently updated with quite interesting stuff. Dev interviews, insights into first-party games, release schedules... It still features this kind of stuff but it's so fragmented now. It can go weeks without any meaningful content, which is mad.
Does feel like Sony simply doesn't communicate anymore unless it's some kind of event. But even then, the last couple of State of Plays have barely been worth the effort. Strange company these days, hoping it becomes more open again when PS5 stock is more available, etc.
I miss the days of the constant questions to people like Fred and Jawad asking when Counter Strike Global Offensive would be available on the PS3 in the UK. Hahaha.
Everyone complaining about PlayStation Plus games too.
I seem to remember a few users that are on here too. @rjejr if you were the same person, I think I remember a Jak and Daxter profile picture.
And of course, the Singstar Icon being added to everyone’s PS3 XMB debacle. That was hilarious.
They have a blog?
Forgot that it even exists. Yay for sponsored trash advertising.... 😩
I still check it out daily but it's not as great as it once was. Their staff has gotten lazy too. They frequently skip their podcast if there is nothing MAJOR to talk about and they can't even be bothered to put up their post anymore that listed all the new games coming out the next week. Xbox Wire actually copied them and started doing one of those and then PlayStation was like nope we're not putting that post up anymore.
@lolwhatno I get a lot of mine from random sites that come up on my Google news feed, but that's just because I haven't bothered to change settings
I remember it exists when PushSquare links to it on their articles. So I guess it is good as a reference source
Simple biochemistry that Sony is ignoring. Engagement and anticipation for the next surprise puts us fans on that sweet dopamin high, making us crave and buy more Sony stuff.
Content has been good. But I do not like the lay out of the site.
It's abysmal. It was great back in the PS3 days when it was regional and there was actual communication from the likes of Fred Dutton and Jawad Ashraf. All went downhill when the PS4 came out and it's been circling the drain ever since.
I come to push square everyday so if there's anything noteworthy on the blog it will inevitably end up here anyway.
I haven't read anything on the blog in a long time now. I'd check it out from time to time but I don't read much on it.
Used to really like the site and it was always my go-to site when big news comes out. Used to read all E3 announcements, check the sales, PS+ announcements, etc. Just everything. And there was some great writers on it would reply to us, joke around with, etc.
It went downhill long ago. Especially when they stopped including the store prices so I was left thinking well what is even the point of this post then when I can just check the sales out elsewhere that includes the prices.
I thought it was great back when Europe had it's own but now with it merged with the American blog, it's not the same. It felt like we lost our own and have to settle for the other, especially when I seen names from the staff that worked on the American blog but I don't recognise any from the Europe one.
Doesn't help having too many games to play nowadays too. Less time to read so that there can be more time to play
@lolwhatno Not sure if this is allowed here, but Dualshockers and playstationlifestyle are two I use sometimes.
I use Push Square for my PS news
Just another part of the Playstation brand showing how out of touch Sony are with their customers.
I rarely go there since they lumped it all into one.
Much better it when it was the EU blog
The content is homogenised and dull nowadays, few interesting articles. Feels very sanitised.
Rather than doing the legwork and converting to different dates, currencies and having a grid of links to different stores they usually just don't bother anymore.
The comments section was never the best, filled with dribbling fanboys and flaming, but at least there were tools to manage that. But they completely butchered the comments section!
They removed ratings and sorting, that means you can't sort the wheat from the chaff easily, which is a problem as there's so much guff.
They also removed editing comments & country flags. The first an inconvenience; the last sounds minor but it made the faceless names, seem a little more human. This often sparked discussion and a sense of community, which is sorely lacking now.
So many reasons NOT to go there now unless you have to.
Which I guess is good for Nlife Media and Reedpop here
PS Blog has never been a regular source of information to me. When the info is entirely controlled by the platform holder or the publisher it has a certain artificial quality that I largely don't stomach.
I used to browse the updates on sales and such over there, but it's not great for that either.
I like when Indies get to talk about their games directly on the blog, but that stuff is rare enough it's not worth me checking in for them.
We've got Pushsquare. The king is dead, long live the king's : Sammy, Rob, Stephen, Liam and all you dirty lot in the comments.
@lolwhatno playstationlifestyle is ALL about Playstation (of course) lol.
I generally rely on finding out about interesting PS blog posts from other places e.g. here or twitter. There can be some great developer insights / interviews on there but those are few and far between.
It's more a place to get that corporate style information out there than it is for exciting announcements.
The PSBlog... it used to Push some cool stuff, but by now it's all corpo and Square.
@lolwhatno OGs for life. Old Gamers right?
High five!
Push Square is my go to. PS Blog is my backup to see if there is anything interesting there
I visit the blog for reading the comments section and its ok for that purpose.
Why spend a fortune on your blog when websites such as this one get the news out for free?
And why would big creators want fans to have direct access to them? Fans are dreadful!
I rarely go to psblog anymore, in the other hand I read pushsquare daily. The top executive at sony is kind of suck now, they don't care about their fans anymore. Early ps4 era is way better in the term of communication and excitement.
@lolwhatno lol, yeah. But it’s no worse than Kotaku.
I guess it was around the time they merged the EU and NA blogs that it went downhill?
Something is wrong with the communications dept of Playstation.
I do blame Ryan (he only seems to message about something he's wrong about and then has to back peddle!) and his minions.
It seemed a lot more open in the days of Layden and House as they actually cared about the PS brand and engaging with fans. I half think Ryan only cares about his bonuses and would happily sell the PS brand and ecosystem down the river if he could get a few more quid out of it.
@get2sammyb Remember after the merger of the EU & U.S. Blogs & the weekly store release posts disappeared after much confusion over the different/delayed releases between different psn regions & they promised it would return after a few weeks? That worked out well!😋
Much like Sid Shuman promising they would listen the feedback regarding the vanishing of features like upvotes,Fag ID's & emojis that were in the EU blog too!🙄
As mentioned by others though,the EU Blog's demise cane from where once people from the psn store used to interact to questions about indie releases etc., alongside indie devs interacting about their games they'd posted on to complete silence & doing copy & paste jobs & inaccurate release posts.
Despite a (mostly) unified store front now,much the same issues on a lack of interaction remains. The only times we'd seen a reaction has been to issues like the PS3/Vita legacy stores proposed closure, the HFW PS5 upgrade path etc. Requests like adding ps2/ps1 classics & b/c or other firmware features fall on deaf ears!
Sadly this seems to be the way they like it...unless you find the rare Sony store execs like Shuhei Yoshida or Greg Rice who are fairly active on twitter about Sony promoted indie titles communication seems a rare thing!😕
To be honest, I keep forgetting the Playstation Blog is a thing. Hasn't really been worth visiting the few times I've looked around the website.
@sanderson72 I don't think any of this can be placed solely at the feet of Jim Ryan — he's as much a PlayStation veteran as anyone else, having worked there since the 90s — although I do understand the optics are bad as things going "downhill" have correlated with his promotion to CEO.
@get2sammyb I know I may be being unfair but I just don't like how Playstation seems to be since the ousting of Layden.
The very fact that a true stalwart of PS and the brand was ousted just gives me a bad feeling about where the PS brand is headed and I don't know why.
It's the only time since I picked up an original Playstation way back when that I'm considering which way to jump and is the reason I can't be bothered with a PS5 yet (I had an offer of one from Sony Direct at the start of the week). Something seems off at the heart of the PS brand
@lolwhatno yup, but that's kind of expected with the more casual crew. I don't help though pmsl.
@get2sammyb I don't know where this negative perception comes from because by nearly every important metric, Playstation is doing better then it ever has before. PS5 is a record setting console that's only being slowed due to a global pandemic halting tech production.
They've had a strong first year of 1st party games, you can argue that at least 4 of their exclusives are among to top ten most anticipated games over the next few years.
They've strengthened PS Studios with high quality developers as well as expanding existing studio and from what I'm hearing their going to get even more aggressive with acquisitions within the next year.
And now their about to expand their IPs through film and TV.
So where does the negativity come from?
@AdamNovice Honestly, I'm inclined to ask the same questions.
As someone who doesn't care about CEOs or PR wins, PlayStation is doing the business by me.
Considering the games on the horizon and beyond, whatever it is that they're doing wrong, I hope they keep doing it.
I don't need PlayStation to communicate with me. Just keep making the games and I'm happy.
2 or 3 years ago I would go there daily almost. Nowadays it's so boring that I just read their posts through PushSquare
Push Square is easily the best, but for a platform agnostic site, videogameschronicle.com is great and keeps getting better. It reminds me a lot of Push Square, without the Playstation focus. It is not quite to Push Square’s level, but they are very good and offer interesting takes on topics you don’t see everywhere else.
Lets be real , why bother with that when we got pushsquare am i right ? 'Wink wink'
There's a few interesting bits on it once in a while but Push Square has far more PlayStation news for me!
What sammy? Your Sony bashing again? You must really be butt hurt that purexbox doesn’t want you
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