Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony's Worldwide Studios network, is one of the most powerful people in gaming. Not only does he have an enormous Twitter following, but he's also in charge of every first-party project that deploys on a PlayStation platform. That means that he's responsible for the overall catalogue of exclusive releases on the PlayStation 4, and speaking with the Kinda Funny crew at E3 2015, he explained how the platform holder likes to manage its titles.
Speaking of sequels, he explained that when a team has finished a new game, it tends to have lots of new ideas formulating already, so it's very natural for it to move onto a successor. "From a business standpoint, this is also the safest route, because we know that there are lots of fans already, and the core gameplay is already done," he said. "It's low risk."
But while this is fine for two or even three titles, it can become a problem later down the line. "Doing the same project again and again – especially now that development cycles are so long – can be a really risky situation for the studio to be in," he continued. "So, from a management standpoint, it's really important to assign people to different types of games, because there's always a chance of fatigue."
And from a portfolio perspective, Sony prefers to have a fusion of the familiar and the fresh. "We like to have a good balance of sequels from our successful franchises like Uncharted, and new, risky concepts like Horizon: Zero Dawn or Dreams," he concluded. "And we always try to have a good balance between both of them."
Is the executive doing a good job in that department, though? E3 2015 certainly hinged on the new, with the two aforementioned titles, as well as The Last Guardian. Sure, the latter may have been in production for eternity, but it's still a wholly original idea that has no real peer anywhere else in the industry. But do you prefer new properties, or do you like to stick with what you know? Air your thoughts in the comments section below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 23
This is why I love PlayStation. They're the only one of the big 3 that actually takes risks with games, and tries to innovate and aren't afraid to do things out of the norm. This is a FACT not an opinion.
Seems amazing Sony consider Horizon a risky concept, are companies really that scared of non-sequels now?
"So, from a management standpoint, it's really important to assign people to different types of games, because there's always a chance of fatigue."
You hear that Nintendo and Microsoft.Microsoft has studios dedicated to one franchise. 343 for example. They even named themselves after a Halo character, and Halo has basically became a yearly franchise now. These guys aren't nearly as talented as Bungie and their Halo games aren't as good as Bungie's were. They'll be milking Halo For the foreseeable future. Turn 10 is another example, they're the Forza factory, and Forza has become a yearly franchise now. Another example would be Black Tusks studio whi just recently changed their name to The Coalition which is a Gears of war reference. Microsoft made them cancel a new IP to become the Gears factory. The will turn this into a yearly franchise. At least Nitendo makes new IP every once in a while, but its still rare. Sony is the only one that brings many new IP every generation and they give their studios creative freedom that others don't. Naughty Dog is wrapping up the Uncharted franchise with "A Theirsf's End", Guerrilla Games is giving Killzone a break with Horizon and Rigs. Media Molecule is already on their 3rd new IP with Dreams. And many more of their studios are working on new IP.
@system11 Any big-budget new IP is fairly risky. Sometimes even great games sell poorly, and the bigger the budget, the bigger the financial risk involved.
So is this the post explaining why we've never seen a new Ape Escape in a while? Is crazy moneys considered too "risky" nowadays? I'm sarcastic, if you didn't catch that.
I still want Ape Escape 4 tho. We need something for the kids too, and fun adults like me who like weird games where you transform sentai style and catch annoying monkeys. Maybe it's supposed to come. Who knows, I've heard little.
@KratosMD This isn't really true. Nintendo has already just confirmed the new Zelda will indeed come to Wii U in 2016. The NX, who will most likely come out in 2017 the earliest might not get it and if it does you'll have to wait even longer or possible, just be able to download the Wii U version from the eShop/use your Wii U disc.
Heres a Hope list of games I and many other would love to see come back
A Road Rash like game
The Suffering reboot
Haze
Lair
Heavenly sword
Toruk Dino game
Crash and Spyro - buy them or does Sony own them?
apb reloaded for ps4 Can anyone look into it and find out when its coming?
A Def Jam type game
The getaway
Eight days
@KratosMD There's no guarantee there will be a "better" version.
@KratosMD They are still just rumours based of what people think should happen/what they want. Spreading them will lead "less intelligent" people into thinking they are true and next we have hundreds of videos on Youtube saying "OMG THE WII U IS DEAD!" or "ZELDA WILL MOVE OVER TO THE NX!". Not only is it untrue, it could hurt already bad sales of the Wii U. Nobody gains anything good from that. If we and Nintendo themselves aren't careful the NX could end up even worst.
There seems to be a good enough variety. I just wish we could get some of these sooner.
@Dohv @KratosMD Same here my friends, though also because I grew up with only PlayStations. I have never once owned or had anything Nintendo or Microsoft gaming wise, and this is still the case today.
(that'll change soon though, I'm trying to convince my mom to let me buy a X360 and Wii U with money from my savings account)
PS4 is better than XBox and Wii U and priced about right (in the uk) the pad is great and the console is serviceable.
Both the Xbox and especially the wii u are underwhelming and underpowered. The games are flocking to the ps4 and its going to be the clear winner this generation.
@Riririn nx will come out end of 2016. Microsoft, sony, and nintendo always release the console in the same year they announce it.
And that's why I've always stayed a PlayStation/Sony loyalist.
I like a good mix of familiar franchises as well as new IP's. Lets be honest though a lot of franchises had to start off 'somewhere' too and were at one point a new IP. Uncharted (for example) was a new IP for the PS3 but has gone on to be one of the most successful franchises on PS. The first on PS4 is only the 4th in total (5th if you count the PSVita's Golden Abyss).
Leading up to E3, A lot of people were looking forward to seeing the new franchise games - ME4, Fallout 4, etc. Bethesdas was all existing franchises, EA's too although SW:BF was more a re-imagining and reboot.
Personally I think every developer etc has a similar idea of having new IPs and existing franchises. According to some, Sony's biggest announcements were FF7 remake, Shenmue 3, Uncharted 4 and I know a lot are also looking forward to Ratchet and Clank too. I know Sony also showed off the Last Guardian and Horizon: Zero Dawn as well. I think good management should dictate that pushing a 'studio' to make yet another sequel when they have ambition to try something different would be a mistake - regardless of whether you are a head of Sony, MS, Activision, EA etc.
@Dohv I disagree that Microsoft are constantly rehashing existing franchises and offering nothing new. This years E3 showed off ReCore and Sea of Thieves. XB1 owners have had quite a few AAA new IP's with Ryse, Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, Screamride etc as well as up-coming ones like Quantum Break, Phantom Dust and Scalebound. Even the new Fable is not really a traditional 'fable' game but using the artstyle and history to create something 'new'.
I do agree that 343 haven't excelled as a halo developer and we are yet to see if the Coalition will give us a good GoW4. The difference here though is that instead of the original development teams taking a break from 'burnout', they are relatively new to the franchise. Halo 5 is only the 2nd game by 343 and as yet the Coalition haven't made a GoW game.Its difficult to suffer from 'fatigue' if its only your 1st or 2nd game...
There are of course other franchises that are yet to appear on Xbox One and Crackdown is one that is in production
Forza itself isn't a yearly game. 5 came out nearly 2 years ago and Horizon is made by a different team- lets be honest here, what's the difference between Turn 10 for MS and Polophony Digital (GT developers) for Sony - both only make Racing games!
Its easy to dismiss the Xbox as only having Halo, GoW and Forza but there are other exclusives and new IP's too. It's like saying Sony only has Killzone, Uncharted and Gran Tourismo.
Having both I can see that both offer a range of existing franchises as well as looking to bring new, maybe risky, new IP's too.
@Gamer83 Indeed, BUT quality first.
Out of all the games on show for PS4, Horizon Zero Dawn is the only one that really grabbed me. I generally tend to skew Nintendo, but just like you can't find Zelda on the others, you can't find Gears or Uncharted on the others as well, which is why I love the luxury of having all three system. I miss nothing as all three platforms are awesome in their own right.
The current exclusive games are good but they dont really stand out as new concepts. E3 showed that they're moving past that in 2016 though. With Horizon and Dreams looking like brand new experiences and UC4 spicing up the usual gameplay concepts we saw in the previous games.
I like all four platforms and between now through 2017, there are some amazing games coming. The list is ginormous.
@goonow You don't know that yet. Nintendo hasn't said anything besides that they will TALK about the NX next E3.
Sounds good but I can still wait a year or two until some of these risky concepts materialize.
After all, it seems Sony only cares about one of their systems, so they can support it full force.
@Riririn talk? That is called an announcement. No company has ever just talked about the next console lol
@goonow What's so funny? They'll TALK about it, that's the same thing. But that doesn't mean it will come out in 2016. We'll find out what it is, the release date may or may not be at that point set. Unless you work for Nintendo and already know. Which I highly doubt you do.
@Riririn tell me when nintendo talked about a console and didn't release it in the same year they announced it.
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