Starting off with my comments have nothing to do with anyone's opinion (good or bad) about the game and am speaking on about the business side.
Clearly Sony's goal was to get the hype out as much as possible and convince those that might buy it to get it at launch. I think their marketing team did a phenomenal job getting the hype back up for this game in such a short period of time.
I am interested to see what their strategy moving forward is. I would assume they would keep advertisement up for another week and dump it off in preparation for Ghost. I bet they weighed the negativity from the leaks and decided it would be best to move their second AAA as soon as possible in case this one became divisive. I'm excited to see what the sales numbers will be next week. If it's still extremely high do they continue the campaign or do they move it over for Ghost? Not sure how it will be affected if this game has long legs.
@SanJ1 yeah I think smart delivery is more of a deterrent against companies that want to milk their player base. Developers can always ignore it but that just opens them up to the backlash and calls of greed. I don't think many people are going to promote it like xbox. It'll just be the new norm.
@Jaz007 I get where you're coming from and looking at it in a vacuum I would agree with you. This issue I have with your response is the Xbox One had already gained negative press. We don't know how many consoles Microsoft has sold this gen but if the estimates are to be believed there are roughly 40-50 million of them right now. That means when Halo 5 came out when there were less Xbox Ones than there were Xbox 360s when Halo 4 came out. It made $100 million more in its first week than Halo 4 did and Halo 4 was in the 360's prime. I can't see any other conclusion to those numbers that the core fans of Halo stayed with Xbox, and the moderates left.
My point isn't that exclusives are completely worthless. It's that there is no evidence that I have seen that shows a shift in gaming trends based off of them. I'm happy to be proven wrong but the numbers show that the PS3 gain market because it's a global company and Xbox isn't as much. People outside of the 360's core area didn't switch to 360, they just waited for the PS3. The games didn't save the company. Call of Duty, FIFA, GTAV. These are games that help keep PlayStation thriving. Putting more effort into exclusives isn't how you make the PS5 better.
I'll write the dissent and say that I don't like this approach. On paper exclusives are great for the company. It forces customers into your ecosystem in order to buy these products so they can get a portion of revenue from the other games you buy, but the numbers don't add up on making this the "end all" way to get customers. Spider Man is Sony's top exclusive with over 16 million sold. The active PSN total is 103 million. The vast majority of your customers chose you for reasons outside of specific games.
If you want proof just look at Microsoft. Halo is their flagship franchise but people didn't stick with them when the Xbox One came out. They left because the price stunk, the hardware was arguable lower than the PS4, and the company lost the goodwill of its customers. Even after all of this Halo 5 made $400 million in the first week and sold roughly the same number as the rest of the franchise. Hardcore fans enjoy exclusives but the bread and butter don't care. All that is going to come out of this is more studios are going to be taken in by Google, PlayStation, and Microsoft forcing you to miss out on games unless you dish out serious dough to buy their hardware.
I've said it once and I'll say it again. Payment plan. People are willing to spend 20-30 a month on phones without worrying about the total cost. If Sony comes out with the PS5 in the 500-600 range it's going to be too much for the average consumer to dish out in one go.
I very much missed E3 last week. The Big Three can do an event whenever they want and people will watch. That's not is missing. What's missing is giving smaller studios a spotlight by attaching their work to the big studios. Even if those watching from home don't see it the press (and now influencers?) get hands on and can give these games a much needed push. This trickle effect isn't really working out. I give credit to Microsoft. They are still having highlight events such as May's insider and ID@XBox but I don't think it's having the same effect.
I even think the current trend from the Big Three isn't that consumer friendly. Sony's event last week was a good showcase for games but they still haven't answered any of the deep hardware and software questions that have been lingering since early this year. Microsoft has their event so far back that they are causing this annoying game of cat and mouse with Sony. Nintendo is.... doing something? I know this is all caused by outside factors but I hope none of these companies takes these ideas as strategies for the future.
@RBMango couldn't agree more. Didn't scream "must spend 400-500 for the ability to spend more for these games." They still need to show why it's not in my best interest to wait until the price goes down and/or day one issues are fixed.
What I did love was the variety. We all know Sony is king of single player, story driven games. What they gave us was racing, fps, horror, story and more. Something for everyone. Gotta love that.
If this was meant to convince me that I need a PS5 holiday 2020 it didn't do it for me. Other than Horizon 2 there wasn't anything that seemed to push the limits of this gen. I'm not spending hundreds of dollars for the opportunity to spend more on standard looking games.
I'll be interested if they do a monthly payment plan for it. Microsoft has done well turning their hardware line to this subscription strategy and I expect them to continue it. I think pricing the PS5 at 19.99-24.99 for 24 months could alleviate the high price point.
@4kgk2 I'm glad of the possibility to see the PS5, I just don't think the build up to it is the best way to go. Overall the beginning of June makes sense. It's around the same time table as E3 would have been and like you mentioned it gives enough time before launch for people to save up.
My original statement deals more with how we are getting there. I think we should have already received an official statement from Sony if the event was happening within the week. What's confusing to me is why they are allowing all these rumors and confusion to build up. We went through a phase where maybe the PS5 was inferior to the Xbox Series X. Then it was that Sony won't show the design because of heating issues. Now we keep seeing the "maybe it's next week" posts. All of this seems unnecessary.
It's hard to judge these things from previous events but I think there are some items we can draw from the PS4 launch. Specifically the fact that everyone knew the PS4 was going to get a reveal during E3. I wasn't on this site during that launch but I don't remember reading a lot about rumors during that time period. Anything important would have been fully released in one sitting. Since we don't have E3 to lean back on this time and Sony is remaining quite people keep looking for the rumors to hold them over. I just think it's not a good thing.
In my opinion, the format of their reveal isn't the biggest issue for them right now. The majority of the gaming community understands this is uncharted waters. People didn't complain about Xbox Insider because they were doing it on Teams; they complained because the content wasn't what was promised. With Sony it's the complete opposite. They haven't promised anything. I will be extremely disappointed if Sony's showcase is going down next Wednesday. If it's actually true then our one week notice came from a Bloomberg rumor. With such a largely anticipated reveal I would assume you would want to give people as much warning as possible.
I have full faith that the PS5 is going to be an outstanding machine. Sony just needs to figure out a better way to communicate it to us.
I'm impressed that the developers are letting the reviews come out a week before the game release. Seems like a bold Hail Mary for the company. Either you get a whole bunch of positive reviews that can wash away the negative stigma around this game or people lay into an already limping PR campaign. No matter what it shows that the developers stand by their work and you have to give them applause for that.
Their approach has been pretty confusing. Why allow your specs to be public knowledge but hold back the finished console design? Is the frame that important to hold on to? It's obviously important to your fans as every article dealing with the PS5 uses the new controller. Past generation launches hinged upon your very vocal minority fanbase promoting your product to those that could be swayed either way. It's for these people that you create a steady stream of hype up to the launch. Kinda hard to do that if your fans on sites like these don't have much to go off of.
I think the last couple of months have shown how important E3 is. Sony is releasing information here and there and fans are frustrated with the lack of communication. Microsoft gives an alternate outlet to showcase third party games and people want to see the crown jewels. Maybe E3 isn't the future but it sure seems what they currently are doing isn't either.
Comments 115
Re: The Last of Us 2 Is Sony's Fastest Selling PS4 Game Ever in the UK
Starting off with my comments have nothing to do with anyone's opinion (good or bad) about the game and am speaking on about the business side.
Clearly Sony's goal was to get the hype out as much as possible and convince those that might buy it to get it at launch. I think their marketing team did a phenomenal job getting the hype back up for this game in such a short period of time.
I am interested to see what their strategy moving forward is. I would assume they would keep advertisement up for another week and dump it off in preparation for Ghost. I bet they weighed the negativity from the leaks and decided it would be best to move their second AAA as soon as possible in case this one became divisive. I'm excited to see what the sales numbers will be next week. If it's still extremely high do they continue the campaign or do they move it over for Ghost? Not sure how it will be affected if this game has long legs.
Re: PS4 Game Upgrades on PS5 Will Be Up to Publishers, But Sony Will Offer Flexible Support
@SanJ1 yeah I think smart delivery is more of a deterrent against companies that want to milk their player base. Developers can always ignore it but that just opens them up to the backlash and calls of greed. I don't think many people are going to promote it like xbox. It'll just be the new norm.
Re: PS4 Game Upgrades on PS5 Will Be Up to Publishers, But Sony Will Offer Flexible Support
@SanJ1 xbox is more saying there isn't going to be remasters just for the upgrade. Kinda how the original TLOU had one from ps3-ps4 jump.
Re: On PS5, Exclusive Games Will Be More Important than Ever Before, Says Sony
@Jaz007 I get where you're coming from and looking at it in a vacuum I would agree with you. This issue I have with your response is the Xbox One had already gained negative press. We don't know how many consoles Microsoft has sold this gen but if the estimates are to be believed there are roughly 40-50 million of them right now. That means when Halo 5 came out when there were less Xbox Ones than there were Xbox 360s when Halo 4 came out. It made $100 million more in its first week than Halo 4 did and Halo 4 was in the 360's prime. I can't see any other conclusion to those numbers that the core fans of Halo stayed with Xbox, and the moderates left.
My point isn't that exclusives are completely worthless. It's that there is no evidence that I have seen that shows a shift in gaming trends based off of them. I'm happy to be proven wrong but the numbers show that the PS3 gain market because it's a global company and Xbox isn't as much. People outside of the 360's core area didn't switch to 360, they just waited for the PS3. The games didn't save the company. Call of Duty, FIFA, GTAV. These are games that help keep PlayStation thriving. Putting more effort into exclusives isn't how you make the PS5 better.
Re: On PS5, Exclusive Games Will Be More Important than Ever Before, Says Sony
I'll write the dissent and say that I don't like this approach. On paper exclusives are great for the company. It forces customers into your ecosystem in order to buy these products so they can get a portion of revenue from the other games you buy, but the numbers don't add up on making this the "end all" way to get customers. Spider Man is Sony's top exclusive with over 16 million sold. The active PSN total is 103 million. The vast majority of your customers chose you for reasons outside of specific games.
If you want proof just look at Microsoft. Halo is their flagship franchise but people didn't stick with them when the Xbox One came out. They left because the price stunk, the hardware was arguable lower than the PS4, and the company lost the goodwill of its customers. Even after all of this Halo 5 made $400 million in the first week and sold roughly the same number as the rest of the franchise. Hardcore fans enjoy exclusives but the bread and butter don't care. All that is going to come out of this is more studios are going to be taken in by Google, PlayStation, and Microsoft forcing you to miss out on games unless you dish out serious dough to buy their hardware.
Re: Poll: How Much Do You Think the PS5 Will Cost?
I've said it once and I'll say it again. Payment plan. People are willing to spend 20-30 a month on phones without worrying about the total cost. If Sony comes out with the PS5 in the 500-600 range it's going to be too much for the average consumer to dish out in one go.
Re: Poll: Did You Miss E3 2020 Last Week?
I very much missed E3 last week. The Big Three can do an event whenever they want and people will watch. That's not is missing. What's missing is giving smaller studios a spotlight by attaching their work to the big studios. Even if those watching from home don't see it the press (and now influencers?) get hands on and can give these games a much needed push. This trickle effect isn't really working out. I give credit to Microsoft. They are still having highlight events such as May's insider and ID@XBox but I don't think it's having the same effect.
I even think the current trend from the Big Three isn't that consumer friendly. Sony's event last week was a good showcase for games but they still haven't answered any of the deep hardware and software questions that have been lingering since early this year. Microsoft has their event so far back that they are causing this annoying game of cat and mouse with Sony. Nintendo is.... doing something? I know this is all caused by outside factors but I hope none of these companies takes these ideas as strategies for the future.
Re: Reaction: PS5 Reveal Event Plays to Sony's Strengths
@RBMango couldn't agree more. Didn't scream "must spend 400-500 for the ability to spend more for these games." They still need to show why it's not in my best interest to wait until the price goes down and/or day one issues are fixed.
What I did love was the variety. We all know Sony is king of single player, story driven games. What they gave us was racing, fps, horror, story and more. Something for everyone. Gotta love that.
Re: Talking Point: Did the PS5 Games Reveal Event Meet Your Expectations?
If this was meant to convince me that I need a PS5 holiday 2020 it didn't do it for me. Other than Horizon 2 there wasn't anything that seemed to push the limits of this gen. I'm not spending hundreds of dollars for the opportunity to spend more on standard looking games.
Re: PS5 Will Represent the Best Possible Value, Says Sony
I'll be interested if they do a monthly payment plan for it. Microsoft has done well turning their hardware line to this subscription strategy and I expect them to continue it. I think pricing the PS5 at 19.99-24.99 for 24 months could alleviate the high price point.
Re: Sony Bosses Want PS5 Event to Be as Professional as Possible, Multiple Shows Were Apparently Refused Earlier This Year
@4kgk2 I'm glad of the possibility to see the PS5, I just don't think the build up to it is the best way to go. Overall the beginning of June makes sense. It's around the same time table as E3 would have been and like you mentioned it gives enough time before launch for people to save up.
My original statement deals more with how we are getting there. I think we should have already received an official statement from Sony if the event was happening within the week. What's confusing to me is why they are allowing all these rumors and confusion to build up. We went through a phase where maybe the PS5 was inferior to the Xbox Series X. Then it was that Sony won't show the design because of heating issues. Now we keep seeing the "maybe it's next week" posts. All of this seems unnecessary.
It's hard to judge these things from previous events but I think there are some items we can draw from the PS4 launch. Specifically the fact that everyone knew the PS4 was going to get a reveal during E3. I wasn't on this site during that launch but I don't remember reading a lot about rumors during that time period. Anything important would have been fully released in one sitting. Since we don't have E3 to lean back on this time and Sony is remaining quite people keep looking for the rumors to hold them over. I just think it's not a good thing.
Re: Sony Bosses Want PS5 Event to Be as Professional as Possible, Multiple Shows Were Apparently Refused Earlier This Year
In my opinion, the format of their reveal isn't the biggest issue for them right now. The majority of the gaming community understands this is uncharted waters. People didn't complain about Xbox Insider because they were doing it on Teams; they complained because the content wasn't what was promised. With Sony it's the complete opposite. They haven't promised anything. I will be extremely disappointed if Sony's showcase is going down next Wednesday. If it's actually true then our one week notice came from a Bloomberg rumor. With such a largely anticipated reveal I would assume you would want to give people as much warning as possible.
I have full faith that the PS5 is going to be an outstanding machine. Sony just needs to figure out a better way to communicate it to us.
Re: Site News: Yes, We're Playing The Last of Us 2
I'm impressed that the developers are letting the reviews come out a week before the game release. Seems like a bold Hail Mary for the company. Either you get a whole bunch of positive reviews that can wash away the negative stigma around this game or people lay into an already limping PR campaign. No matter what it shows that the developers stand by their work and you have to give them applause for that.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with the Way Sony Is Handling the PS5 Reveal?
Their approach has been pretty confusing. Why allow your specs to be public knowledge but hold back the finished console design? Is the frame that important to hold on to? It's obviously important to your fans as every article dealing with the PS5 uses the new controller. Past generation launches hinged upon your very vocal minority fanbase promoting your product to those that could be swayed either way. It's for these people that you create a steady stream of hype up to the launch. Kinda hard to do that if your fans on sites like these don't have much to go off of.
Re: Sony's Change in Approach to E3 Showcases Is 'What the Fans Want'
I think the last couple of months have shown how important E3 is. Sony is releasing information here and there and fans are frustrated with the lack of communication. Microsoft gives an alternate outlet to showcase third party games and people want to see the crown jewels. Maybe E3 isn't the future but it sure seems what they currently are doing isn't either.