The show’s not over yet, but already this author would rate Gamescom 2014 higher than E3 2014. While the latter was fun for sure, this week has had a bit of everything: great games, great press conferences, and great drama. No matter how many interesting titles were shown during Sony’s media briefing, though, the Rise of the Tomb Raider saga will go down as the most memorable moment of the week – and now SCEE boss Jim Ryan’s shared his thoughts on the affair.
“We've got a very large and very powerful network of studios of our own, all of whom are working on games that will be fully exclusive to PlayStation, and we feel that this, on top of partnering with third-parties where it makes sense, [works best],” the affable executive said when quizzed on the subject of exclusivity. “I think the partnership we have with Activision on Destiny is a good example of that.”
He continued: “So, do we feel the need to go out and buy outright exclusivity? Probably not. You saw [at the press conference] that before the media briefing we showed updated videos of games that we had revealed at E3. That's because we wanted to keep the show itself full of new, fresh things. We think that gave us a good, strong, convincing portfolio of exclusive stuff.”
Microsoft has attracted a lot of heat this week for trying to frame Lara Croft’s next adventure as an exclusive game, even though recent comments by boss Phil Spencer paint a slightly different picture. Sony, of course, is not above buying timed exclusives itself – ironically, it locked down the Tomb Raider franchise in the PSone era. These days, however, it seems to have a different outlook.
And, to be honest, that’s the way that we prefer it. While the Redmond-based firm has proven this week that you can make a splash by pulling out your cheque book, we’d rather that the PlayStation maker continues to invest any budget that it does have into first-party teams – rather than paying to delay multiformat games. The question is: do you agree?
[source computerandvideogames.com]
Comments 28
"We've got a very large and very powerful network of studios of our own, all of whom are working on games that will be fully exclusive to PlayStation."
Well where are they? What are they waiting for? We haven't seen some studios for years now. The competitors played all their cards at events (it shows) this year but Sony seems lax... They seem to be waiting for something, I just don't know what?
@Punished_Boss In my opinion, I think they want to say, "Here's the game, here's someone playing it, here's why it's awesome, it's out in six months."
The competitor, on the other hand, has announced titles like Scalebound, Phantom Dust, and Crackdown, but they only got CG trailers, suggesting that we're probably not going to be playing them for at least nother 18 to 24 months.
Halo 5, if it launches on time, will have appeared at three E3s by the time it hits stores.
@get2sammyb Well Bloodborne is launching in less of a year, LBP3 is 6 months, TLOUR is 2 months all from announcement. The Order would have been a year too. It's a good strategy because no one wants a FF XV or Agent or TLG situation, where we would all be gone by time it arrives!
@get2sammyb
It still builds hype, nothing wrong with showing games a ways off with some others relatively close. The fact is, people are getting a bit restless and Sony has to do something to change that. Maybe TGS will have some nice JRPGs, I'm not into the genre but I do think with PS4's situation in Japan they need to make a splash. We can pretend it's not but the 'no games' talk is real, and that could effect momentum. I just don't see the point in waiting, if there is something cool to show off, from a fairly reliable studio like Guerilla, do it.
I also appreciate Sony's strategy regarding third party content because like Nintendo it's not locking anybody out and only picking up tabs on games from third parties that wouldn't exist without Sony/MS/Nintendo funding. At the same time, I feel like the game has to be played a little bit and if the first parties don't have their sh*t together, nab a timed exclusive and stick it back in MS' face a little bit. I felt like crap when I saw that Tomb Raider announcement (and I have an Xbox One), I wouldn't mind seeing the fanboys who were backslapping and high fiving get a little mind f**ked by having to wait for Red Dead Redemption 2 or something.
Sony has bought exclusivity in lots of games many more than Microsoft, but Microsoft made news because they bought a game PS4 gamers actually care about while most Xbox gamers are shooter guys who couldn't care less if an artsy indy is exclusive to PS4
@get2sammyb " 'The competitor', on the other hand" - Very diplomatic of you ;P
@Gamer83 On the other hand we have situations such as this... Your invested in the console wars and I'm invested in the comedic value it brings, so win win.
"the Rise of the Tomb Raider saga will go down as the most memorable moment of the week"
2 days after sony and microsofts conferences...the only thing i hear people constantly in discussion about is silent hills' exclusive demo and the brilliance of how they revealed it, that alone has instantly guaranteed the next SH be a success and have many moire people (like myself) instantly get the full game.
it also guarantees to be much more successful on playstation in comparison
I thought most here were informed people knowing about all the studios working on PS4 games but sometimes I realize people are kinda short sighted.
For me it does not change anything to see a trailer telling me 'ok that games is on its way some time in the future' because I know they are coming.. Its just a personal satisfaction to know whats going on and to see it. And the 'PS4 had no games' thingy is getting old and a complete joke that makes me laugh
Most memorable moment of the week is undoubtedly Silent Hills reveal. One of the greatest things to happen to gaming ever.
As for this, i agree, Sony absolutely does not need to buy outright exclusivity.
Of course they don't they have soo many 1st party studios. We still don't know what Guerrilla Games, Quantic Dream, Sony Santa Monica, Sony London, Polyphony, Guerrilla Cambridge, Sony Japan's other projects. And I can go on. Sony is only announcing games that are close.
@Gamer83 The Order 1886, Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, Tearaway Unfolded, Little Big Planet 3, Rime, Until Dawn, and Wild. All those games all look amazing and will defiantly all score an 8 or more on reviews. PS4/PC will get Tomb Raider 2 in early 2016 most likely, but PS4 will have A Thief's End which WILL blow Tomb Raider out of the water.
So really MS's exclusives aren't appealing to me anymore therefore I got rid of my Xbone yesterday and am not regretting it one bit. Halo isn't the same since Bungie left, Quantum Break looks good but after seeing gameplay it wasn't anything special, and Sunset OD looks fun but doesn't look like something I must play.
I really don't understand when people complaining about the PS4 not having any games coming when all those games in listed above are going to be really good.
2015 is going to be a packed year of PS4 exclusives,and I'm glad that Sony will announce a game until it's at most a year from release. Some games get announced way to soon, look at Watch Dogs, it took 2 years from announcement to release, by then the hype was too much and o course Ubisoft shot themselves in the foot. As Sammy said everything Microsoft have shown recently was just CGI which I hate cos it shows nothing of the actual game. At least what Sony showed with The Order, LBP3, Bloodborne, Driveclub, Rime etc were gameplay.
@Dohv Bravo! Just Bravo!!
I was never a fan of the Tomb Raider games, so I could care less if Micro$oft wants to write another ridiculous check bringing that game to their system.
I look at it like baseball (for you sports fans from the US)......Microsoft is like the Yankees & Sony is like most other teams. The Yankees try to buy a championship every year & it rarely works. Most of the rest of the teams try to develop talent themselves & win. That way takes patience, but usually wins in the end.
Besides, a timed exclusive (which is what this will be) is not that big of a deal anyways. Is Microsoft really going to sell that many more Xbox Ones bc they got Tomb Raider earlier than Sony did? Doubtful.
I like it this way. First party exclusives and third party games in all platforms. In the end, if you can't afford both systems the exclusives will be the defining factor but you still have access to most third party games.
@sinalefa
I agree. It just doesn't make a lot of sense for 3rd parties to go exclusive at this point. If the PS4 continues to sell like it is, it'll get almost all 3rd party games & be the lead platform on those games.
False false Sony even can't introduce Vita games,so they need to buy games.
What a jerk
@Dohv
I guess this is where you and I differ. I couldn't careless about Rime and Wild, and Tearaway isn't really my kind of game. I've never gotten into From Software's games, but I acknowledge they're a good developer so Bloodborne is a win then there's The Order 1886... my hype for that has dropped so far. I initially had it pre-ordered but with every gameplay video I've seen the hype level drops. Seems like too many QTEs and cutscenes. Maybe they're showing it wrong, I don't know, but I'm not looking forward to that one anymore. LBP 3 looks awesome, and knowing that Rise of the Tomb Raider isn't a full current-gen game, I fully expect that Naughty Dog will deliver a better game in Uncharted, though I'd still love to play RotTR on PS4 (not going to do so now on principle though, SE and CD clearly don't care about the people who gave them more money so f**k them).
On Xbox One though it's a bunch of games I'm looking forward to... Forza Horizon 2, Sunset Overdrive, The Master Chief Collection, Crackdown, Quantum Break and Halo 5 all look awesome. They're also working on a Gears of War, which should probably be good.
All that said, I got a PS4 first, it's my primary system for third party games it does get when these a$$hat developers aren't selling out to MS, and I fully expect when all is said and done the list of first party exclusives will be awesome just like PS3 and just like PS2. It's taking longer than I'd like but I guess on the plus side LBP 3 isn't too far away.
Sony doesn't need to buy exclusivity because a lot of developers would rather be exclusive to them anyway.
If Microsoft is paying lots to tomb raider for exclusivity, that means they will have more resources to make it a better game and probably release faster right? so by the time it comes to other platforms, it would be about the same time that the game would have originally released without their help, plus the game will be better. Win win for everyone. minus a big check for Microsoft.
I really wonder if, Ubisoft is been pay to favor PlayStation with their titles or they just like PlayStation better than other platforms
@Godsire- @sinalefa I agree with both of your agreements.
Agreed.
@Dohv
How can you say that games will score an 8 or better when we even don't know what's the game about like Wild?
I bet buying out right exclusivity for a game like Tomb Raider works out cheaper and a lot more profitable than their deal for Agent or the profit they made from Gran Turismo 5 or The Last Guardian.
@MoleZandor It all depends on their deal. Most likely Crystal Dynamics didn't have the funds (or did not want to devote the funds) to complete the game, so they pitched it to MS as an exclusive if MS funds the completion of the game. This doesnt mean that MS is throwing buckets of money at it, just that they are paying enough that CD can finish it. [If] this is the scenario, then its still a win, in that CD wouldnt have finished it and now they can, but I don't think its going to be any better than it would have been had they had the funds to finish it themselves.
Did they manage to say this in the same breath as the Dreamfall Chapters exclusivity deal they made, effectively canceling the Xbox and Nintendo versions that were slated for release this year?
Jus sayin.
@JaxonH
Didn't even know about this mostly because I'm not really interested in Dreamfall Chapters, looks like it happened a few days ago. But we all knew Sony wasn't above this... now moneyhat Konami for MGS V or Silent Hill. MS clearly wants to play this game and I believe if Sony is going to go the scummy route, no sense going halfway. Buy a game many people care about.
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