Gamesindustry.biz: Does Sony have a long-term software strategy?

[Yurinka]

I agree Sony should be doing more. Bungie isnt enough. They’ve already lost alot of 3rd party exclusives

Regarding long term strategy I explained in this other post some of the many long term they did during the 4 years of the Jimbo era, IMO a smarter and more more successful strategy than how MS did spend almost $100B of these acquisitions.

And if we look at what they did this year, Sony released this in 2023 alone, a year where according to some some people they only released Spider-Man 2. Regarding 1st party games:

• Horizon Call of the Mountain (VR)
• GT7 PSVR2 (VR)
• Horizon Burning Shores (DLC)
• MLB The Show 23
• Destiny 2 Lightfall (DLC)
• Firewall Ultra (VR)
• Spider-Man 2
• Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (VR)

Helldivers II and Stellar Blade were planned for 2023 but delayed to 2024.

In the hardware & accesories side they released in 2023:

• DualSense Edge
• PSVR2
• PS Portal
• PS5 Slim
• Pulse Explore earbuds
• Pulse Elite headsets
• PlayStation Access controller
• New eSports focused InZone earbuds, headsets and displays

Regarding eSports during 2023 they also:

• Organized their first EVO, using Sony accesories and Sony gaming ads
• Had the first full year with PlayStation Tournaments, online tournaments of games like GT7, MLB and many 3rd party games

In the OS + apps part they released in 2023:

• PS5 games in game streaming
• Game streaming improved to up to 4K 60fps + HDR + 3D audio + DualSense features
• Sony Pictures Core
• Sony Pictures Core >100 rotating movies (including Crunchyroll content in the future) added to PS Premium
• Many OS improvements via updates

In acquisitions they have been quieter this year and only acquired Firewalk, Audeze and iSize.

Add to the mix 3rd party exclusives and a shit ton of top tier multiplatform games they got this year. They had a very busy 2023 year.

 

[On Demand]

This is how the entire "gaming community" is acting rn....the company that's consistently putting out bangers for decades is suddenly in trouble because "they have no roadmap"

Reason 5495 to hate Microsoft, they really pollute gaming discourse in the worst way.

Dude. It feels like I’m in the twilight zone.

I don’t know what the fuck has gotten into people. I hope it’s just trolls on here. Places like trashera the overdramatic Sony hate is expected. Those people are plain as day idiots.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

acquisitions they have been quieter this year and only acquired Audeze and iSize.

They acquired Firewalk this year

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Dude. It feels like I’m in the twilight zone.

I don’t know what the fuck has gotten into people. I hope it’s just trolls on here. Places like trashera the overdramatic Sony hate is expected. Those people are plain as day idiots.

Half of it are the obvious trolls and FUD spreaders and half of it are from insane stans like some of the people who post here who have anxiety around xbox being competitive and sony not responding or having a lot of single player games announced. They don’t know it but they are on a deep level being influenced by the FUD around playstation and its working as intended.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt around playstations pipeline and losing console wars is stirring unrest in the sony empire

Even articles like the gameindustry.biz one in the OP feels like they are prodding Sony into saying something or showing something.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Wrong! Sony Ceo is the one responsible for all this mess, Jim Ryan was actually doing his best.

It's always the same with Sony - sucking playstation division to channel resources to other divisions and expect playstation to keep the whole company afloat!

Welcome back! Missed you

 

[On Demand]

Half of it are the obvious trolls and FUD spreaders and half of it are from insane stans like some of the people who post here who have anxiety around xbox being competitive and sony not responding or having a lot of single player games announced. They don’t know it but they are on a deep level being influenced by the FUD around playstation and its working as intended.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt around playstations pipeline and losing console wars is stirring unrest in the sony empire

Even articles like the gameindustry.biz one in the OP feels like they are prodding Sony into saying something or showing something.

Yeah Sony doesn’t need to respond and follow anything MS is doing. They’re last place in all metrics for a reason. Sony is the market leader. Sony following their own path is exactly how a market leader should act.

PS fans get so scared whenever MS does something. I don’t get it. They bought Bethesda, Starfield is a major flop. Is that what Sony should react to? Failure?

Wanting Sony to be in the news and talking is also something that doesn’t make any sense. Do you want to play games or be marketed to? I don’t need Sony blabbering about nothing ever day like the used car salesman Phil Spencer.

What I do miss badly is E3 stage conferences and PlayStation Experience. Sony needs to go back to doing live shows again. Thats the type of marketing and announcements I love.

 

[Yurinka]

They acquired Firewalk this year

True, this year happened so many things that I forgot about it. I'm looking forward with them, having former Halo and Destiny 1 staff.

 

[anonpuffs]

Half of it are the obvious trolls and FUD spreaders and half of it are from insane stans like some of the people who post here who have anxiety around xbox being competitive and sony not responding or having a lot of single player games announced. They don’t know it but they are on a deep level being influenced by the FUD around playstation and its working as intended.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt around playstations pipeline and losing console wars is stirring unrest in the sony empire

Even articles like the gameindustry.biz one in the OP feels like they are prodding Sony into saying something or showing something.

This is why Jim Ryan firing all the PR staff was such a boneheaded move. They saved a couple mill in salaries and instead they're allowing the entire gaming industry to be filled with one-sided discourse from shills of their competitors. Sure it might not hurt in the short term, but every day they're chipping away at Sony's brand image, something that will potentially have long term consequences. You already saw some of that when they had to discount the console in July/August to hit their sales targets.

 

[Yurinka]

This is why Jim Ryan firing all the PR staff was such a boneheaded move.

Lol! Jim Ryan fired who? Sounds another bullshit lie, Spider-Man 2 had a great PR as usual in the Sony games.

 

[anonpuffs]

Lol! Jim Ryan fired who? Sounds another bullshit lie, Spider-Man 2 had a great PR as usual in the Sony games.

Bullshit lie? No lol

 

[On Demand]

This is why Jim Ryan firing all the PR staff was such a boneheaded move. They saved a couple mill in salaries and instead they're allowing the entire gaming industry to be filled with one-sided discourse from shills of their competitors. Sure it might not hurt in the short term, but every day they're chipping away at Sony's brand image, something that will potentially have long term consequences. You already saw some of that when they had to discount the console in July/August to hit their sales targets.

Sony dropping the price has absolutely nothing to do with media FUD. Zero correlation. Media FUD is not that powerful to affect brand perception and sales. Especially when it’s a lie.

The high demand from being out of stock since 2020 has been met so sales slowed down a little in comparison. For Sony’s expectations anyway. Sales are still high overall and PS5 is still breaking records and selling more than the competition. The price drop was mostly to get rid of stock because the new PS5 model was releasing in the fall.

I’m shocked you even made a connection to what people say online, and baseless articles, to one quarter of PS5 sales(for what Sony expected)and Sony doing a temporary price drop.

 

[On Demand]

Bullshit lie? No lol

That’s employees and products at retail. Which is not surprising as much I love the retail space and physical media.

 

[anonpuffs]

Sony dropping the price has absolutely nothing to do with media FUD. Zero correlation. Media FUD is not that powerful to affect brand perception and sales. Especially when it’s a lie.

The high demand from being out of stock since 2020 has been met so sales slowed down a little in comparison. For Sony’s expectations anyway. Sales are still high overall and PS5 is still breaking records and selling more than the competition. The price drop was mostly to get rid of stock because the new PS5 model was releasing in the fall.

I’m shocked you even made a connection to what people say online, and baseless articles, to one quarter of PS5 sales(for what Sony expected)and Sony doing a temporary price drop.

You think outlets like IGN doesn't have any effect on consumer demand? Lol. IGN and Gamespot are what casuals refer to for game reviews and buying advice (assuming they're not so casual as to be only interested in CoD/FIFA/GTA)

 

[On Demand]

You think outlets like IGN doesn't have any effect on consumer demand? Lol. IGN and Gamespot are what casuals refer to for game reviews and buying advice (assuming they're not so casual as to be only interested in CoD/FIFA/GTA)

Hell no those sites do not have the power to affect any sales.

Anybody who’s interested in PlayStation are not going to be swayed otherwise by the likes of no IGN and Gamespot.

They just want the hot new popular game console all their friends have.

 

[Johnic]

You think outlets like IGN doesn't have any effect on consumer demand? Lol. IGN and Gamespot are what casuals refer to for game reviews and buying advice (assuming they're not so casual as to be only interested in CoD/FIFA/GTA)

Casuals don't refer to game reviews. Casuals don't even visit gaming sites or talk about games on social media. They get their sports title/COD/Fortnite and enjoy.

 

[nongkris]

If Sony wanted to follow the Nintendo low cost development model, they should be funding more mascot games like Astrobot and Sackboy, let media molecule and team asobi run the main games and let 2nd parties make spin off games but give them the marketing of a first party studio.

They've ceded the mascot platformer market to nintendo. I'd be vastly more interested in those type of games than the thousandth failed extraction shooter.

 

[Yurinka]

Bullshit lie? No lol

In the article they say that they did fire upwards of 90 people in the sales and retail marketing US teams and shut down “merchandiser” team in the U.S. This was a part of their sales and marketing teams from USA (not worldwide).

It doesn't say anything about having fired anyone from PR.

If Sony wanted to follow the Nintendo low cost development model, they should be funding more mascot games like Astrobot and Sackboy, let media molecule and team asobi run the main games and let 2nd parties make spin off games but give them the marketing of a first party studio.

They've ceded the mascot platformer market to nintendo. I'd be vastly more interested in those type of games than the thousandth failed extraction shooter.

Is there any non-Nintendo mascot platformer with great sales? Is there really a market there for Sony? Can't remember one with great sales since the first LBP.

Launched in November, in May it was reported that Sonic Frontiers was the fastest selling 3D Sonic games with 3.5M copies since launch. This is the best selling non-Nintendo mascot platformer in recent years.

And Sony has a single extraction shooter in the works: Marathon.

 

[anonpuffs]

Casuals don't refer to game reviews. Casuals don't even visit gaming sites or talk about games on social media. They get their sports title/COD/Fortnite and enjoy.

Sounds like you don't know any casuals. I know at least 2 people IRL who are "casual" and were dissuaded from buying Starfield because of IGN's review.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

You already saw some of that when they had to discount the console in July/August to hit their sales targets.

Because they are trying to sell a record 25 million consoles for complete market saturation, not because sales are actually slowing down.


25 million consoles is a gigantic number of consoles, especially when you are competing against Microsoft spending damn near 90 billion dollars to chip away at Sonys marketshare. If Sony comes close to hitting that number they’re basically on cruise control for the rest of the generation.

Not only that but having such a huge marketshare makes it very easy to get those same people to jump the next console.

 

[KiryuRealty]

Hell no those sites do not have the power to affect any sales.

Anybody who’s interested in PlayStation are not going to be swayed otherwise by the likes of no IGN and Gamespot.

They just want the hot new popular game console all their friends have.

It is funny to see so many gamers ignoring the power of the Network Effect.

Success creates desirablility, and it becomes a virtuous cycle. The more people have a PS5, the more the people they have influence with want one, until you hit saturation. Sony has clearly not reached the point of saturation yet, while Xbox seems to have exhausted the market for their products shockingly quickly.

Remember folks, the only third holiday season for a console in North America worse than the Series was the SEGA Saturn, which had been officially discontinued six months before holiday 1997!