it is literally written in my comment what they can do.. no wonder you have hard time here, strawmanning everyone here all the time.
Housemarque (@Housemarque) on X: Something Returnal related is happening tomorrow
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they predominant business is comics, then novels - books. used to make artbooks and game guides. very few statues.
so yeah, people saying it is comics, it almost all the time would be right.
First, they do several other things that you just left out.
Second, this was a marketing failure and you can tell by the response.
I don't know if you are able to comprehend how contradictory you sound.
It's like telling a team sport superstar they don't need to train and stay fit anymore, as they would still earn millions from their current contract, ignoring the fact that no other team will want him after that (and the current team might sack him anytime).
yeah, it it failure, because Housemarque tweeted first.
Because, you are waiting games from Gaming Studios, do not post a picture after being absent, and then Dark Horse Comics tweeting, that it a huge let down.
I don't know if you are able to comprehend how contradictory you sound.
It's like telling a team sport superstar they don't need to train and stay fit anymore, as they would still earn millions from their current contract, ignoring the fact that no other team will want him after that (and the current team might sack him anytime).
Poor analogy.
It's more like telling a sport superstar that they don't have to carry the team because the team is good enough to win without them carrying them.
The only time Sony 1st party has driven console sales has been late Ps3 and PS4.
Sony has embraced an identity as a game developer/publisher and that is why they're looking to expand into new areas i.e. PC, Mobile, transmedia.
As a console company, their growth has a ceiling on it. That's just a fact. With little competition from Xbox, Sony knows it can focus on other areas more without necessarily losing ground in the console space, even then, you still don't see brand new singleplayer games going to PC on Day 1.
There are people who own a PlayStation and all they play is Roblox, Fortnite, CoD, or Genshin Impact. All of these are available on PC, but they still play on PlayStation. Once you understand that, you realize the nature of gaming is changing.
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You mean the gen where they dropped the ball with exclusives and only managed to turn tides once they focused on them again and the very successful one after that, where they continued with amazing exclusive bangers.
And going by how you phrased it, PS1 and PS2 didn't sell so well because of their 1st party exclusives (which is correct), but ignores the fact that the consoles were filled with 3rd party exclusives.
Which further proves the importance of 1st party exclusives, as relying on 3rd party or being "arrogant" enough to think your console sells based on goodwill alone already has bitten them in the arse once.
ALL growth has a ceiling. What's next once they hit the next one? Heard warfare is pretty lucrative, they could try there next.
Of course it is, for the worst unfortunately. Quality of games is declining, partially because of multiplatform development, as we have seen with the disparity between 3rd and 1st party first, and now on 1st party, too, with Microsoft first and Sony recently.
PlayStation is a brand. People buy that brand even if they aren't buying Sony's own games. Why do people play Fortnite on PS5 rather than Xbox or PC? Can you explain it?
Court documents reveal that PlayStation 4 generated 46.8 percent of Fortnite’s total revenues from March 2018 through July 2020, while Xbox One, the second-highest platform, generated 27.5 percent. iOS ranked fifth, with just 7 percent of total revenue. The remaining 18.7 percent would have been split between Android, Nintendo Switch, and PCs.
Sony is looking to turn PlayStation into a multimedia giant, that's the next ceiling. Once it achieves that, they can leverage PlayStation to do other things.
Look at Apple. They dominated the mp3 player market and leveraged that to dominate the cell phone market. Once they dominated the cell phone market, they leveraged that dominance to dominate the headphone market. They also leveraged it to dominate the in-car media market. They used all this leverage to create Apple TV+ and Apple Music.
So yes, this is why buying Paramount helps them more than buying Square Enix. It gives them movies and tv and lets them use those IP and gaming, and let's them pump their songs into the movies, tv, and games to make them even more popular and financially successful.
A Star Trek video game can make the tv series and movies more successful and vice versa.
That is how you lift ceilings.
You've made this claim yet you have no proof and just again assume causation rather than correlation.
Rift Apart was released and it was buggy and it had nothing to do with a PC release that wouldn't even start development until much later.
Microsoft's games lacked polish well before they started to port to PC.
I can: because PS also offers console exclusives people want. Or used to offer them. So people who not play only Fortnite, choose PS instead of Xbox or PC. And because of them, their friends who only play Fortnite choose to do the same.
I'm a dev and know how every single additional platform is a burden and requires more resources OR, what usually happens, is to squeeze the available resources. You don't need to be in computer science to know what the implications of it are.
Yet their engine was being thinkered on for the Spider-Man PC release when the buggy R&C released. What a coincidence....
Because I'm able of logical thinking, so it's not hard to connect the dots. Also we have Naughty Dog's own blog talking about adapting their engine for PC releases, as further confirmation.
They don't need PC for that. Nobody is blaming their quality and quantity gaming output drop to their transmedia efforts. This is actually the right way to pull more people to the console.
Debatable, as SE has so many IPs which could be turned into animes, shows and movies, with many possibilities to expand to mobile. Which Paramount IPs do you think would be good gaming fits and which developers would develop them?
Do you have any actual evidence of this?
Nixxes handles ports not the original developers, but continue to suggest otherwise.
Nixxes handled the Spider-Man PC release not Insomniac.
That's not what they said, I'm going to ask you to quote what they said to force you to actually read it. They said they needed to make the controls work well via keyboard and mouse input.
PC exposes games to more sales. Dark Souls and Elden Ring wouldn't be nearly as successful if they were PlayStation exclusives. We've seen those results in Demon's Souls, Demon's Souls remake, and Bloodborne.
People thinking you can just turn something into an anime and people will watch it. It's not that simple. Square Enix has tried transmedia quite a bit and it has not resulted in much of anything.
Just off the top of my head
Star Trek - Naughty Dog or Guerrilla Games
TMNT - Sucker Punch or Team Ninja via Koei Tecmo
Top Gun - Namco Bandai
Mission Impossible - Naughty Dog or Bend Studios
Spongebob Squarepants - Insomniac Games
Nickelodeon All Star Brawl (but combined with PlayStation All Stars) - Would keep with Fair Play Labs with a bigger budget
Avatar the last airbender - Insomniac Games
Rugrats - Naughty Dog
Nickelodeon Party - Media Molecule
Nicktoon Racing - San Diego Studio
Returnal already achieved over 1M sales back in early February 2022, around 9-10 months after launch.
Very cool. It would be nice to see Sony do these kind of animated comics with their other IPs.
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No, only historical data and the gift of logical and critical thinking. It's not hard to recognize patterns with both.
You really think Nixxes just gets the code and works alone on it?
Marvel’s Spider-Man series is coming to PC
Insomniac Games’ critically acclaimed titles launch on PC this year.
blog.playstation.com
I can see Insomniac (or Naughty Dogs) sending their interns for that....
Seems like you are the one who didn't read it or didn't understand what was written. Yes, they used the controls as ONE example.
They also said:
PC development now has an impact on game design.
Also
Didn't know Nixxes were part of Naughty Dog....
Exposes != guarantees. Also, sales is only one variable of the equation. If people stop spending in your ecosystem because you don't give them a reason to, I doubt "sales exposure" can make up for it.
People thinking you can just turn something into a game and people will play. It's not that simple. We have decades of movie games, most of them bad and unsuccessful.
Doesn't sound really exciting, honestly.
Also, there are already people whining because of Insomniac with Marvel games, imagine if the majority of the PlayStation Studios would be stuck with these IPs.
You're both right. PlayStation is a brand but, it's in large part only such a brand because of what they've done to build up rapport with hardcore and core enthusiasts who set the pace for the mainstream and casuals (the types who only mainly play games like Fortnite, for example) to jump onto. And it could be argued that in terms of 1P exclusives, Sony haven't been doing as good a job as could have been expected from this so far this gen.
Not in terms of overall quality, but in terms of actually having genuine exclusives, and a nice supply of new 1P IP from internal studios. Their 3 biggest games so far this year are from a studio they don't own, and two 3P where they don't even own the IP. That's great to have but there not being a single game from an internal studio to complement it is sus.
If Sony didn't run away from AA titles, they'd of probably had such a game for the first 3-4 months of the year. I only bring this up because they've stated they want to rely less on 3P for profits, so how do you accomplish that when your internal studios can't provide a consistent flow of games? And we already know the GAAS push was over-aggressive and has been slowed down a ton, so what other options are there?
That's probably where transmedia licensing and merchandise opportunities come in. Which are neat side hustles, but don't really pertain to any new games per se.
Yeah but they still have to keep their core constituency satisfied. If they fail to do that, it won't matter how much Sony wants to make PlayStation a multimedia power; they NEED their core audience there to help make it happen and alienating them will have those plans collapse.
Let's not forget, Microsoft wanted to do the same thing a decade ago, but forgot to satisfy their core audience first and foremost. That's why their multimedia plans collapsed and got delayed, because at some point they realized they screwed up and had to throw lifesaver vests at Xbox to keep it from completely drowning. I wouldn't say Sony are in the same spot Microsoft were, but they've been inching a little closer, bit by bit, into vaguely similar territory.
How? Well, a lot of their 1P focus the past few months have been on PC initiatives and PC ports, like PSVR2 compatibility, HFW PC port, and Ghosts of Tsushima PC port. They've been using 3P exclusives to satiate their hardcore & core enthusiast base but that can always come with a range of risks, most of which are outside of Sony's control unless it's a game where they were specifically involved in co-development and co-funding (a la Bloodborne). Those risks could range from quality issues to sales expectations not being met, which could affect future 3P exclusivity pushes.
Then there's the transmedia stuff which, as I've already said is a nice side thing, but it should always be balanced with something new on the gaming front as well (IMO). TLOU kind of got it right with TLOU Remake, though as a remake they probably could've done more with it. But for Twisted Metal, there was no game tie-in. No remake for the classic PS1 titles or Twisted Metal: Black. No new Twisted Metal game, either. We know now that they were working on a GAAS Twisted Metal but my question is why did they feel the need to make Twisted Metal a GAAS? Maybe start off smaller for an IP that's been dormant for over a decade, no?
But Apple is a hardware company. Sony may be a hardware company to a large extent as well, but SIE specifically are a video game subsidiary. Hardware is only a part of the total picture for them and only a means to an end. People are mainly into video games...to play video games. Sony already have other divisions for non-gaming stuff like Sony Pictures and Sony Music; SIE does not need to necessarily grow massively into these areas (and potentially have internal conflict with those other divisions).
If anything SIE should be focused on expanding in the gaming market first and foremost. Which to a large degree, they are, but I think they could be more focused about it. If it's about relying less on 3P sales for profit margins, why aren't they trying to make their own JRPG? Their own fighting game? Their own arcade racer? Their own 4x strategy game? Their own card battler? Why not leverage mobile better to synergize some of these rather than risk making the console redundant with PC ports? A lot of these efforts could be done with 3P even, just preferably with IP that SIE actually own.
This sounds a lot like the argument Xbox fans were using about MS acquiring ABK meaning more exclusives for Xbox and, well, we see how that's actually turned out :/ I don't think buying Paramount means much for SIE when SIE already have a lot of strong IP they can make games of themselves.
Off the top of my head the only two IP Paramount have that could be a major boon for SIE are SpongeBob and South Park. The latter because it hits the kid-friendly mass-appeal sector proven to work for transmedia including games, and the latter because while it's mature it's in a comedic way different from SIE's typical mature games, and also a massive IP in its own right. Those fill niches that SIE currently don't necessarily have.
Outside of that, the Paramount thing seems a lot more to the direct benefit of Sony Pictures and even Sony Music rather than SIE.
Or, SIE could make Cory Balrog's sci-fi epic and spin that off into a movie or TV series, which is something I think a lot of gamers would prefer. What you're sayings suggests gaming needs Hollywood. IMHO, it's the other way around: Hollywood needs gaming to stay relevant. Why should gaming companies capitulate and give up on original IP of their own for hand-me-downs from Hollywood?
Besides, it'd just basically mean more licensed games, and while a big licensed game like Hogwarts Legacy is nice to have every once in a while, I don't think the industry needs to be flooded with them. There's also more room for creative freedom an original IP could bring, vs. taking on one with decades of established lore (and limitations) like Star Trek.
AND not to mention, we already have SIE studios like Insomniac who are going to be busy with licensed games for the next several years; do we really want more SIE studios to be in a similar position? I get the desire to leverage known IP for easy money, but there's a limit, and there needs to be a balance between that and having faith in original IP that can grow into something big. Perhaps even bigger.
TBF, Rift Apart's bugs weren't anything severe and were mostly minor graphical glitches. But I also doubt the PC version didn't begin dev until well after the PS5 version launched; if we know for a fact a game like Wolverine is being simultaneously developed for PS5 & PC (even if the PC dev progress is understandably behind PS5's), there's a chance Insomniac have had vaguely similar pipelines set up for other games.
Again, I doubt the total comprehensive porting costs are as cheap as even some of those leaked internal documents suggest, because I don't think those costs reflect the entirety of work for a PC build. But I'm not too interested getting into that particular topic right now, TBH.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Which would mean it's definitely well over 1 million at this point, over 2 years later. I'd guess maybe 2 million just about, 90% likely from PS5 (seeing that it didn't do very well on Steam, plus that version released later).
In addition to the animated comic they are releasing a normal comic version of it, and a Returnal art book:
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Or you have a preconceived bias that you think is a pattern. People buy consoles for various reasons. One in particular is that they're tremendously more affordable than PC and that is always going to be the case. I know someone who bought a used PS4 for their kid just last Christmas so that they could play Fortnite.
You carry a lens of a fanboy who think every thing is determined by hardcore fans, when they're in reality a small segment of the gaming population.
Most people don't want to spend 1000+ dollars on a gaming rig or hook their computer up to their tv in their living room.
You really think Nixxes just gets the code and works alone on it?
Marvel’s Spider-Man series is coming to PC
Insomniac Games’ critically acclaimed titles launch on PC this year.
I can see Insomniac (or Naughty Dogs) sending their interns for that....
No one said they worked on it alone, but the idea that significant resources from first party teams are dedicated to PC ports is not in line with what is happening. Maybe try watching some of Nixxes videos. They consult with the main teams, but these are their projects.
They gave the example of making sure they develop with PC in mind, that doesn't mean they're developing towards PC. I don't think you understand the difference or what a PC port even is. Like I've told you before, these games are already written on PC, they're only compiled against PlayStation and optimized for PlayStation hardware. When they create a PC port they're taking the same assets and programming and programming for different inputs and optimizing against different hardware.
Any evidence of that happening with PlayStation?
Yes and games like Arkham, Spider-Man, and Hogwarts Legacy show exactly what can be done with budget and talent.
You say it doesn't sound exciting yet the Spider-Man games are 3 of PlayStation's best selling games of all time. Maybe you should have the humility to see that these games don't need to target you in order to be financially successful.
That argument doesn't carry weight given the success Sony has had so far this generation.
Not only are their games selling better aligned to launch, so is their hardware.
Which has happened in multiple years in previous generations...
And how would that impact them financially? Are people buying these AA games?
Helldivers 2 has been one of Sony's biggest successes this generation. Don't conflate individual projects with an overall strategy.
Again, the transmedia strategy is a holistic strategy to escape low margin performance on a continual basis. They aren't just side hustles. PSVR2 is a side hustle.
Any evidence that they've lost their core audience?
Microsoft has never had any success in the market with development. They bought Bungie and they lost Bungie. They partnered with Epic Games, and Epic Games left. They bought Rare and they sunk Rare.
You're conflating Xbox One's media focus with Sony's transmedia focus... It's not even remotely the same. Microsoft wanted to sell you TV and sports on the plastic box. Sony wants to take its biggest game media and transport it to the big and small screen.
Sony was involved in both Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade...
TLOU P1 should have used the combat system from TLOU P2, but they probably ran into the same problem that the Twin Snakes remake ran into and didn't want to redesign the game around the new gameplay and thus couldn't incorporate it without breaking the game. It was a cost/benefit argument and clearly the side won out not to invest the time and resources into it in time for the show's release. Was it the right choice? Who knows.
Maybe you never played Twisted Metal, but a modern Twisted Metal makes perfect sense to be a GaaS F2P type game. You look at Rocket League and you can see evidence of that. The problem with making it a small game is that you simply might not sell enough copies to warrant the resources.
You can get Twisted Metal Black's PS2 port on PS4, yet it probably isn't selling that well.
It's an example, don't take it literally. Sony is an entertainment company AND a hardware company. Sony wants to grow the overall company through PlayStation. It's why it created PlayStation Productions. That's not a conflict, it's a synergy and a successful one already. You leverage what you're good at in business and sony is finally starting to do that.
Again, buying a movie studio that has IP helps them expand in the game market conversely buying Square Enix probably doesn't help you in the Movie or Music business.
JRPGs is not a growing market.
Naughty Dog being able to grow with another franchise like Mission Impossible under its belt would allow it to finish games faster and take on more projects whilst still knowing that their revenue was secure.
There is no risk in porting games to PC. It's overblown here and it is ridiculous. It costs them nothing to do and it's pure profit.
Mobile is the hardest market to get into. It requires significant resources and there is no guarantee of success.
They bought Insomniac who had no strong IP of their own. They're currently making Spider-Man games and getting racked over the coals on licensing costs.
Sony Bend has no strong IP of their own.
Guerrila's Horizon is on shaky ground.
Sony London had no strong IP and as a result closed.
Sony Japan had no strong IP and as a result closed.
Media Molecule has no strong IP and might close.
Other than Naughty Dog (2) and Santa Monica (1). SIE doesn't have that strong of IP and we'll see what Sucker Punch can do with Tsushima moving forward.
LOL, I just listed like 10
No one said gaming needs Hollywood, but it undeniable that transmedia is a successful strategy both ways. Look at The Last of Us, Mario, Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, Gran Tursimo, Uncharted, The Witcher, Fallout, Castlevania...
The only people who see it as capitulating are fanboys.
Sony's transmedia strategy is a two way street. Not only can they make a Star trek and Mission Impossible game, but they can make those franchises more popular through gaming.
Not really up to you. They sell. First person in the history of the world to say there are limitations on Star Trek lol.
Does SIE, and the answer is probably yes. Particularly if they own the IP.
Rift Apart literally released before Sony bought Nixxes. That's not to say they couldn't have already been working on it, but it's highly unlikely. Note that they worked on Spider-Man Remastered and Spider-Man Miles Morales and have subsequently released Horizon Forbidden West and now Ghost of Tsushima. Just how many projects do you think they work on at once? It's probably at most 2 at once. They also said these projects range from 3 months to 6 months to a year. Rift Apart wouldn't have taken them 2 years to make.
You're dead wrong here... but you want to throw something against the wall and hope it sticks.