Why would anyone sign an exclusive offer with a Company who's own software sales are collapsing not to mention they don't even keep their own games exclusive anymore.
They will learn the hard way next gen, PS5 has no goodwill, but these ramifications always follows up in the next gen.
I wouldn't say SIE's
own software sales are collapsing; they're still quite strong in general outside of complete flops like Concord. But total software sales among all games on the platform...well those are still strong in America, pretty well in UK and parts of Europe, likely the same as ever was in places like Middle East/Africa/Latin America...
But in other parts of Europe I wouldn't be surprised if software sales on a decline, that is likely a reason they've been aggressive with sales promos for PS5 on and off through the year. And in markets like Japan, yeah software sales have absolutely cratered gen-over-gen, even when factoring in digital. Only a scant handful of games really buck that trend but it's pretty clear PS is losing software sales to Nintendo & Steam in that region, and it's probably similar in some other Asian markets.
Like in China, I don't even think PS5 has a large enough install base to drive a lot of big software sales, even if games like Black Myth Wukong caused a supposed surge in hardware sales. Because the vast majority of BMW's sales in China have been on PC, again via Steam. So I doubt the game had a long-term effect on PS5 install base or software sales uplift in China as some think.
Depends on what was offered but also requirements like the PS studios logo in exchange for XDev support and focus on PS5 version instead of PC like Shift-Up did. It's also not a dev that relies and asks for funding like S-Blade, they have over 1K staff and acquired Eve Online guys years back. So obviously more ambition, don't blame them.
Personally think Sony came too late since their trailers already got traction but Doke V is another one of theirs that got attention that has been missing for over 4 years. Assume they didn't wanna go crazy over an uncertain title but it would have fit nice in the gap of the portfolio. Not that the game is not coming out on PS5.
Yeah, doing something with DokeV would have been a great alternative but I have major doubts SIE even managed to pull that off. If they did we probably would be getting the game sooner, and given it's a smaller title vs. something like Crimson Desert then I think some timed console exclusivity would've been a net benefit while PA focused on Crimson Desert for a full multiplatform Day 1 release instead.
When we hear things like this, I think it just shows that SIE are losing the negotiation & leveraging power they had in prior generations, and that is usually down to some form of unoptimized management that is choosing to neglect certain things in favor of others. I know SIE said they want to rely less on 3P exclusives, and we know they want to increase profit margins....
But I'm just gonna keep it honest: they don't have the IP to be self-reliant on their own content the way a Nintendo does, while thinking their multiplatform approach + that content can let them still keep PlayStation consoles at the level they have historically been. That is in
no way a judgement on the quality of SIE's games, their popularity or even the sales of many of them. It's just that many of their biggest games are heavily story-driven, so they have a built-in capped potential with how far those IP can go in terms of iterations.
Also while the sales of their biggest games can generally hit 10-20 million (or more in exceptional cases like Spiderman), a good chunk of those are at lower prices, or some via system bundles. The costs of the games have been going up and that's claimed as one reason they have been focusing on PC ports and even doing Day 1 increasingly for PC and other consoles like Nintendo. But then that just gets right back to minimizing the value argument for their own console, especially if 3P exclusives become less and less going forward (for example, I'm 100% feeling FF XVII will be a PS6/Steam/EGS/Xbox Day 1 release, and maybe a Switch 2 port a year afterwards).
if you think existing & future Capcom games won’t release day 1 on Switch 2 that’s some serious cope. Resident evil, Street Fighter, DMC, mainline Monster Hunter will 100% be release day 1 on Switch 2 if not come 6 month to 1 year. I can guarantee the next FF game will release on Switch 2 day 1 & other notable games like Persona 6 etc. 3rd party publishers want to release there games on Xbox yet you think they won’t release on Switch 2 a console that will sell 150+ million & have iconic & legendary exclusive games like Mario Kart 9, Pokemon & the next Smash yeah ok lol he’ll even PS is releasing there games on Switch 1 I don’t put it past PS seeing how short sighted they have been to see other notable PS games on Switch 1 & Switch 2.
