JSnow2

People making points about social media grifters is fine, but this has been going on longer than that. After a record breaking PS4 gen where we PS players showed up and supported every exclusive released, we then watched Sony take us for granted and go on these live service & PC side quests, we watched both quests fall flat on their faces and completely flop out. On console we got our games cut, we got our support cut and they really never said anything.

So yeah I do agree with the article, as a PlayStation player/customer since PS1, I'd like some communication on how Sony plans on supporting and dedicating their efforts to the thing that makes most of their $$$.

The physical media disaster that they caused is just icing on an ugly cake that they've been baking for years.

"The games have been better than I think some give them credit for, but there’s an understandable sentiment that between its ill-advised live service push and poor management, it’s underdelivered overall."

This is spot on. I just can't believe after how they resurrected the PS3 and then went pro consumer scorched earth with PS4 and now its all come crashing down to this.

I never could've imagined a bigger downfall and frying of a loyal consumer base than what Sony has done in the 2020s. This is the final nail in the coffin. They got away with all of it because of Xbox's complete & utter failures but this is too much.

I got zero interest in PC but I will not support the end of cases/discs, steelbooks, collector's editions, etc. Just feels wrong and whoever (Nintendo) wants to deliver that stuff is gonna get my $$$.

I'll give it to Geoff because FF7 & Resident Evil are very near and dear to my heart. I was happy with all three though.
Sony: GOW Laufey, Wolverine, Until Dawn, Dynasty Warriors 3
Xbox: Gears E Day, Halo, Spyro, Clockwork Rev

I still would love to know what happened between Square Enix & Sony, they've been on a marketing tear for nearly 2 years screaming "FF7 Trilogy, NOT exclusive to PlayStation ever again!!". I'd guess Sony's failures to market Rebirth as the masterpiece "exclusive" it was pretty much set that in motion.

Capcom is a little different, they don't need anyone to rescue them anymore, they're the premiere 3rd party developer at this point.

This goes to back articles & discussions on this very site: Sony's 3rd party dominance & ability to buy timed exclusives to cover their live service & PC port failures were always going to catch up to them eventually. They'll still sell the most on PS5 by a wide margin, but they have to strengthen up that PS is the best place to play every multiplat & exclusive.

Another reason why they circled back to true exclusives: they gotta make sure they draw more people in to their console. Nintendo is getting all the same 3rd party support now, so the only thing left that matters is exclusives, you win that battle or put up a good fight, you get the multiplat sales.

Game of the millennium incoming. This truly is my most anticipated video game of all time

Absolute cinema. Code Veronica kicks it off, FF7 Revelation finishes it. Everything else is a bonus. Geoff brought the megatons

Way too much hype as always, but Wolverine, GOW Laufey & Until Dawn all showed great and it's at least Sony producing single player story driven exclusives for PS5.

They still haven't caught up from the damage that the live service/pc port focus has done. Overall the show was good, I think everyone just wants MORE.

I have it, 284 hours, Chadley's torture simulator was the hardest and most time consuming part for me.

Thank you so much, bro, for everythiiing!

I fully support XBOX going to back to true exclusives. I do agree with some of the other comments that this site is a tad unfair to Microsoft when the exclusive topic comes up every other day, though it certainly is partially Microsoft's fault and their very odd/misplaced war against exclusives.

The debate about exclusives never happens if Xbox One doesn't flop on its face and sent Microsoft desperately running to PC, which did them almost nothing good anyway, just like Sony.

Nintendo does exclusives, Sony is now back to it, Microsoft can and should do it.

Finally. The end of an error. Now lets turn this generation around and finish strong before there's any talk of PS6

I'm enjoying Saros but I'd pick Returnal easily. I love the simplistic brutality of it, better biome variety and just overall vibes. I also find the weapons in Returnal to be far more interesting and varied than Saros.

I think Housemarque put a little too much effort in to trying to make Saros a story game as opposed to the AAA arcade style that Returnal is.

I'm stunned at the people defending this. No, most of us never disconnect for 30 days, but this is the same concept that began the destruction of the Xbox brand.

You can't give these companies an inch, ever. One day its 30 day check ins, then it becomes 21, a year later you're down to 14 and all of a sudden Microsoft's 24 hour check in dream comes true, pioneered by the same people that won multiple console generations by ripping them to shreds for attempting it.

You can feel the console wars reigniting with these articles and it feels so, so good. Exclusives make this industry better, the greatest games ever created are like 75% exclusives, everyone should go all in on exclusives.

Good. Sony needs competition. They've spent the entire PS5 gen coasting while pushing live service slop and PC ports. They need someone to push them

$250 Million along with the ongoing costs is gonna cause heads to roll with the numbers its doing. At this point you just have to hope that they let Bungie attempt a Destiny 3.

Almost insane to say but Sony is easily better off sinking $300 Million in to a Spidey, Last of Us, God of War, etc and can almost guarantee it will turn a profit (along with the consoles they sell) over whatever Marathon is incinerating right now.

Finally someone at Sony woke up with this PC nonsense. Nintendo is the example, not cratering Microsoft/Xbox.

Even if the price is irrelevant to you. there's almost no way they'll have enough exclusives to entice the majority. PS5 launched with Astro's Playroom & Demon's Souls + Miles Morales & Sackboy cross-gen, will they even have 4 1st party games ready to go this time?

They have eroded their backlog of exclusives, the sales pitch for this thing is gonna be $1000 to play games available on multiple platforms? With PS6 & Helix being nothing more than a PC, ending the PC porting is starting to add up quickly.

Unbelievable. Perfect Demon's Souls remake to kick off PS5, assist on GOW Ragnarök, forced on live service crap, cancel game, shut down. Horrific management from Sony.

Not surprised by this, something clearly happened during Rebirth by Sony that irked Square very badly. I personally thought Sony did a very poor job of marketing Rebirth and did not take it seriously, nor did they treat it like the massive, incredible, game that it is.

Sony treated Remake like one of their own, the marketing was everywhere, plastering "exclusive" everywhere and just really pulling out all the stops to make it massive. They did not do that for Rebirth, it was very strange.

Record profits, record layoffs. All of these poor wittle American corporations are making BANK and it's still not enough. The corporate cutthroats finally, sadly found out how truly valuable gaming was in 2020 and here we are. The western game dev part of the industry is cooked.
Please, Nintendo, just stay true to your ways. For the GOAT Iwata.

One thing I think we're missing is exclusive software retention and don't get me wrong, it's far too late anyway, Sony took the Microsoft way when they should've went Nintendo's way.
Spidey 2 sells 10 million, great, will sell more this year of course, but with 50+ million PS5s in the wind, it should be higher.
The PC ports have zero guarantee of sales, as multiple have shown. So they opened up the kingdom, devalued their "exclusives" and didn't get the support needed from the PC side so now they're in a terrible limbo. Sony wanted Nintendo's cake and Microsoft's cookies, just not how it works.
Look at Nintendo's Switch sales and 1st party 100% exclusive software sales, THAT is what Sony wants and will never have again. They chased Microsoft and should have chased Nintendo.

Bringing Twisted Metal back is a great idea, making it a live service that requires tons of resources is lunacy.
All they had to do was make a AA mid budget game like the old ones or just remake the classics and it would have sold perfectly fine, but everything has to be this live service crap. This industry!

This really has me lit up, it's just so upsetting because we've seen it all play out in front of us.
Did those 900 people let Insomniac make a $300 Million Spidey game, that still turned a profit & sold God knows how many consoles in just 2 months?
Did those 900 people light $4 BILLION on fire by acquiring a rapidly declining Bungie?
Did those 900 people acquire a bunch of support studios to make a bunch of PC ports that keep flopping?
Did those 900 people not properly support a pipeline of exclusive games for PS5 and force them to pay for a bunch of "exclusives"?
Did those 900 people have the biggest PS Studios go all in on GAAS and set them back YEARS of development after flip flopping when realizing no one wanted them?
Sony had the blueprint of success right in front of them: PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 & Nintendo, but they insisted on chasing Microsoft's failures, so desperate to be one of the "American big boys".
This is all on the backs of record profits & sales by the way. Sony's leadership has been playing Wolf of Wall Street and they let these 900 people take the fall.

Pathetic. So incredibly disappointing. A once great Japanese giant resorting to scummy, cutthroat American corporate tactics to appease the shareholders. Bonus points for having “retired” Jim Ryan throw himself under the bus.
Only have so much power but I’ll do my part as this will cost them some pre orders with me. Can’t stand supporting companies that do this crap. The last outlaw Nintendo gets more of my support now.

Well deserved failure for Warner Bros. This would have been the fate of many PS Studios games, thankfully someone at Sony woke up before a disaster happened.
The live service market is cornered, unless a Cinderella hit like Helldivers happens (TBD on how long it lasts), nothing is breaking through anymore. It is absolutely amazing how none of these cutthroat, corporate "by the numbers & for the shareholders" fools can't put 2 & 2 together.

Looking forward to Phil Spencer's petition

Phil Spencer makes me sick lmao. A decade+ of failure and his final plan is to beg PlayStation & Nintendo for exclusives.
Unlimited resources, $100 BILLION in acquisitions, do your job and build your own exclusives to support your console eco-system. Absolute loser mentality his entire time as Xbox boss.
Without exclusives, these consoles are useless, will not sell and Xbox has proved that 110%, no one will take Microsoft's bait on this.

People are rightfully roasting him but I truly hope Sony & Nintendo are never stupid enough to take the bait on this. Who benefits if there's no exclusives and it's just an arms race to make as much content as possible? Trillion dollar Microsoft who would gobble up the entire industry if the other two didn't have their consoles protecting them.
Con man Spencer knows they can't compete, the next road is to try to kill to exclusives. What a loser

And the crowd goes mild. Won't commit to exclusives, won't commit to giving up, and already teasing their next gen consoles as their current failures rot. The Phil Spencer Experience!

Day and date will kill PlayStation just like it killed Xbox. The mystique of having your own console with true exclusives will always be the highest $$$ path but you gotta have some serious fortitude and it appears Sony is finally losing it.
Shout out to Nintendo for not trying to fix what ain't broke. I don't know what Sony wants from us at this point, we've supported FIVE generations of consoles, all wildly successful, we buy the exclusives, we support everything and all we've gotten is fewer games and mounting threats that our outstanding support isn't enough!

Called it. Jim Ryan had the game pipeline a complete mess with that live service focus garbage. Helldivers is a nice Cinderella story but it changes nothing and we're about to feel the pain while Sony recovers and lets PS Studios get back on track. Still expecting some out of nowhere remasters + exclusives like Stellar Blade but the gap between Spidey 2 & whatever big exclusive blockbuster story game is next will be huge.
Shame on Microsoft for giving up right as they were going to get a chance to strike. Congrats to Nintendo for a wide open window to push Switch past PS2 & launch new hardware.

A podcast!? This is gonna be an extremely carefully crafted message that confirms they're giving up and putting everything currently available/announced on Switch/PS5 but also a classic Phil Spencer spin zone where they also confirm they'll make more consoles with exclusives on a "case by base" basis. I predict an absolute disaster

That seals it. FF7 Rebirth is my most anticipated game of all time. This is going to be LEGENDARY!

The American Trillion dollar corporation with unlimited resources waves the white flag to the two Japanese Billion dollar corporations.
"The problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They don't think of original ideas and they don't bring much culture in to their product." - Steve Jobs

Almost feels sad to see it finally be over for Xbox as a big 3 member but they did it to themselves lead by the con man Phil Spencer. Their next path will be as a Ubisoft/Activision hybrid.
As for PlayStation & to a much lesser extent Nintendo, who have exclusively stuck to their guns, this is a great reminder what happens when you let your big franchises fall, overall quality dip and when you try to {and epically fail} act like exclusives don't matter.

It was good and we really still don't have anything from PlayStation 1st party, which is fascinating and still expected as they shift from the Ryan era.
Sonic X Shadow Generations was pure hype, Stellar Blade looks awesome. Death Stranding 2 looks absolutely insane. FF7 Rebirth next week!
Things are looking good even with the PlayStation Studios giants still hiding, gonna be a fun year!

Awful. At some point people will realize that Phil Spencer & his cronies are all just more cutthroat suits who only care about the bottom line. Congrats to everyone who cheered this to the finish line so they could get a bunch of old games on their stupid subscription service. Shout out to the "hope it goes through, so sick of the articles" people as well.
Love this industry, but sometimes it really makes you question what you are supporting and its happening a lot lately.

Woo! Some of these comments! You almost forget how far people will reach to defend their favorite franchises/studios, even while being robbed in real time. The truth is: SEGA has been on a very bad path lately and its just kind of flying under the radar.
EA, Ubisoft, etc get rightfully shamed, Sony got bullied out of the live service game, many more examples and Sega is just casually packing remasters with microtransactions & paywalling NG+ modes.

Trying hard to resist because of the inevitable Super Complete Deluxe Heihachi Gon Edition but wow, it really does look fantastic!

Great news! Good to see Spidey 2, Zelda TOTK & Jedi Survivor in there as well. Long live single player!

So basically, they want to trick people into a false sense of comfort with subscriptions like others have done. Guess I'll just have to get comfortable with not touching Ubisoft games until they're in the $10 PHYSICAL bin...6 months after release!

Can't wait to play it again! Will never forget that first play through, just a truly stunning game.
I will never understand the hate, beyond the story stuff which is all opinions, this is a AAA single player, story driven exclusive that spares no expense, it's well worth a play simply for that.

This might be their best casting yet! Perfect!

Understand the thinking, but Sony continues to think they can just walk in these markets and say "we're here, bring us $$$!", same thing happened with PC, the first few had success due to the novelty of it but now they're dust in the wind.
Mobile gamers are an entirely different breed, NINTENDO with MARIO couldn't breakthrough and have abandoned their mobile plans.
As desperately as Sony has tried to get their gaming to not be so dependent on console, it just isn't that easy, especially after 30+ years of doing it.

Actions speak louder than words, so all I need is for them to keep acting as if the all out "live service" push train is being derailed, fairly confident in that one at this point.
I'm expecting a very slow 2024 as they clean up the live service mess and get PS Studios back on track, so stuff like TLOU2 Remastered and maybe some high level remaster/ports from PS3, for example: would love a Ratchet & Clank collection with some under the hood work done for PS5 + full trophy support.
Band aid us with that stuff, give PS Studios some time and then have a big Fall showcase with the giant AAA single player exclusives and presumably PS5 Pro.

FF7 Rebirth launch trailer! Their lineup post FF7R is pretty much blank, expecting a very slow year because of the live service mess cleanup happening but still hoping they can sneak some unexpected remakes, remasters or something like that.

She's great, perfect high level HBO casting, so very curious to see how they handle the TLOU2 story bits. Still feels like there's gonna be a different take or shuffling of timelines because you really need certain actors to stick around to maintain viewership

We're all so shocked. 8 YEARS of development is the best part. They could've cooked up 2 DC single player games in that time and instead this will flop and put them at risk of getting shut down.
The bubble has burst on live service as Sony has proven, but I gotta bad feeling it's gonna take a few more studios down

Slowly getting hyped for this, sounding more and more like the Cerny Magic™ will be all over this thing.
And when you want to sell new hardware, you usually announce some massive exclusives with it!