PlayStation Showcase Aftermath - Rate the show

D

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Lmao it's just a transient fad where a few get established, and everybody else tries to become part of the small circle of the TOP GAAS. The more companies try to make GAAS games, the more they prop up the established franchises as a model and genre worthy of gamer time investment thus reducing their own competitive potential. The gamer effect: "This is the game to be in and the place to be" or " "Why should I go there when it's great here and everyone's here, and I've invested so much time already". It's called conditioning and it works on the human brain like a charm. Moreover flooding the market with these titles creates little differentiation between the releases furthering their potential doom and chances for a DOA or mid non-lasting releases. GAAS needs staying power as a requisite for success. We have seen that in the failures in spades already.....and Sony releases will be no different - the duds are coming. Now; you can claim the Sony and Bungie's seal of quality "supervision" will make all the difference where others have failed but there is no guarantee. Sony games got to where they're today because they saw a niche that became underexploited due to the FPS rush of the X360/PS3 era and exploited it - that is, AAA, expansive, cinematic single-player experiences. Completely different approach, trend-setting as opposed to trend-following.

Sony has a bunch of GAAS lined up hoping 1 makes it through, knowing full well most will flop, and the ones that will flop will do so more than likely horribly... with a few that will fall into the "underrated" category that will meet the same fate all the same.

This is no different than the FPS craze at the beginning of the PS3/X360 generation after COD4: MW and Halo became a big hit. The graveyard of FPS titles is huge. Unlike the past at least Sony is able to profit by buying Destiny outright this time around, and courtesy of being the market leader, benefit mostly from the success of the fad through the royalty process as a middle man, as opposed to sharing with MS more or less 60/40 during the X360/PS3 era.

The graveyard of non COD shooters is big. Killzone (almost killed Guerrila), Ghost Recon, Homefront, SOCOM, MAG (killed the studio)....endless.

That's the problem with FADs, you gotta be one of the very firsts and establish yourself quickly, cause the party is over quick, and it's extremely hard to get a ticket in late.

What you want to be, is a trendsetter, not a trend follower. Sony with the GAAS push is a trend follower, allocating an immense amount of finite resources to that. Only to miss the next fad. Creative myopia - extremely abundant in this industry. Then again it's like a fisherman, if he doesn't cast the line there is 0% chance of catching fish. So, casting the line at least gives him a non-guaranteed chance. If you cast 6-12 lines, your chances increase. The problem is of course, there are lines being cast right next to you from a bunch of other fisherman, and there are some fishermen with exclusive fishing zones all to themselves where the catch is guaranteed.
 
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Nhomnhom

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Lmao it's just a transient fad where a few get established, and everybody else tries to become part of the small circle of the TOP GAAS. The more companies try to make GAAS games, the more they prop up the established franchises as a model and genre worthy of gamer time investment. It's called conditioning and it works on the human brain like a charm. Moreover flooding the market with these titles creates little differentiation between the releases furthering their potential doom and chances for a DOA or mid, non-lasting releases (furthering the hold of the established franchises). We've already seen this in spades.....and Sony releases will be no different. Now you can claim the Sony and Bungie's seal of quality "supervision" will make all the difference where others have failed but there is no guarantee. Sony games got to where they're today because they saw a niche that become underexploited due to the FPS rush and exploited it - that is, AAA, expansive, cinematic single-player experiences. Completely different approach, trend-setting as opposed to trend-following.

Sony has a bunch of GAAS lined up hoping 1 makes it through, knowing full well most will flop, and the ones that will flop will do so more than likely horribly... with a few that will fall into the "underrated" category that will meet the same fate all the same.

This is no different than the FPS craze at the beginning of the PS3/X360 generation after COD4: MW and Halo became a big hit. Unlike the past at least Sony is able to profit by buying Destiny outright this time around, and courtesy of being the market leader, benefit mostly from the success of the fad through the royalty process as a middle man, as opposed to sharing with MS more or less 60/40 during the X360/PS3 era.

The graveyard of non COD shooters is big. Killzone (almost killed Guerrila), Ghost Recon (killed the studio), (MAG - killed the studio) etc etc...

That's the problem with FADs, you gotta be one of the very firsts and establish yourself quickly, cause the party is over quick, and it's extremely hard to get a ticket in late.

What you want to be, is a trendsetter, not a trend follower. Sony with the GAAS push is a trend follower, allocating an immense amount of finite resources to that.
Just looks at the attempt from other publishers to pull this off:

Square Enix - endless stream of GaaS flops and never found success in anything other than an MMO that is as traditional as it gets.

EA - found success on the sports games that were already successful anyway and by acquiring Respawn. Sacrificed Battlefield/DICE, Bioware and multiple other IPs and studios in this process.

Ubisoft - pretty much destroyed itself

Capcom - if Monster Hunter count they got that but they already had it regardless. Eveything else I can think off as far as GaaS and multiplayer bombed hard.

Konami - LOL

MS - Killed Halo, milked Gears and Forza to near death, multiple flops, got stuck to supporting Sea of Thieves and Grounds games that are not even that successful.

Sony - Destruction AllStars flopped completely, found success with games that were already successful anyway like GT, MLB, Destiny.
 
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Warner Games

Montreal with Gotham Knights (that game got butchered - should have been a traditional single player experience). The story had tons of potential if tweaked. They built a city with so much detail, only to be lifeless.

Rocksteady - well we can see the pains and tribulations of once a TOP 5 industry-wide IMO single-player studio (revolutionized the 3D brawler genre and the superhero genre within a single game). Suicide Squad GAAS smelling DOA. If it's DOA it has the potential to kill a once great studio.

Folks make takes devoid of all critical thought.... then again you should not expect much from most.

"Where is Naughty Dog?" "Where is Factions?"

If you think adding PC on top of making a GAAS is not a big ass change of pace and workload you're an idiot. Factions is experiencing trouble to get it right - that's what is happening - despite some of the best minds and talent on it. Doesn't take a genius to see it.

The graveyard of those following this FAD will continue to grow and those established at the top will smile with glee at all the upstarts trying to take their thrones. But this is symptomatic of normal human behavior - it's called greed. They see a couple folks strike it rich by walking over several planks and all of the sudden everybody feels they can get as lucky walking those planks instead of walking on solid footing and making it your way.

Jimbo and Hermen have staked billions and their legacy on this. It will either pay off and they'll get to say "See? We did it!!" or doom them. Big risk, big reward move. Simple as that. In Herman's case, also known as mister mid (Killzone, Horizon) this will be redemption or a career of creative mediocrity vis a vis his top peers. Mind you it's not as bad as Phil - finese king - Spencer, another career man also known as mister failing upwards - a most fine craft.
 
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Nhomnhom

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Warner with Gotham Knights (that game got butchered - should have been a tradional single player experience). And Rocksteady - well we can see the pains and tribulations of once a TOP 5 industry-wide IMO single-player studio with that shit they showed. If it's DOA it has the potential to kill a once great studio.

Folks make takes devoid of all critical thought.... then again you should not expect much from most.
Rocksteady... 8 years spent on Suicide Squad a game so bad that had to be delayed multiple times. All while seeing games like Spider-man and Hogwarts be massively successful.

Top current players on Steam right now:
Counter Strike - 1.5m players [derived from a 1999 mod]
Dota 2
- 0.7m players [derived from a 2003 mod ]
Apex - 0.5m [derived from PUGB]
PUBG - 0.4m [also derived from a mod]
GTA5 - 0.1m
Destiny - 0.1m [paid more than $3.7B to gain control of it]
Naraka Bladepoint - 0.1m
Rust - 0.1m
Wallpaper Engine - 0.1m :ROFLMAO:
Team Fortress 2 - 0.1m [derived from a 1996 mod ]

So if everyone's plan is to hit big on Steam then it's pretty clear who is the dominant player that not only control that store but have multiple times more players on their games than all of the rest of the Top10 combined.

Pretty much all these successful games on PC are either originally mods or games in genres spawned by these mods, that includes Fortnite and Minecraft.
 
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nongkris

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If Sony is gonna get success from GaaS games it can only be from the likes of Bungie and already established Sony IPs like the TLOU, GT, MLB etc.

Good luck Sony with Fairgames and Concord.
Lol yep, they could've leverage their existing single player IP to develop multiplayer versions of, instead we're the most generic of generic sci fi shooters imaginable. Insomniac is single handedly carrying the PS5 this gen.
 

Nhomnhom

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Lol yep, they could've leverage their existing single player IP to develop multiplayer versions of, instead we're the most generic of generic sci fi shooters imaginable. Insomniac is single handedly carrying the PS5 this gen.
There is close to no control over what is going to be a hit, we see again and again that very expensive projects or projects with well known devs behind them flop in this space while some mod or indie game takes off.
 
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Just looks at the attempt from other publishers to pull this off:

Square Enix - endless stream of GaaS flops and never found success in anything other than an MMO that is as traditional as it gets.

EA - found success on the sports games that were already successful anyway and by acquiring Respawn. Sacrificed Battlefield/DICE, Bioware and multiple other IPs and studios in this process.

Ubisoft - pretty much destroyed itself

Capcom - if Monster Hunter count they got that but they already had it regardless. Eveything else I can think off as far as GaaS and multiplayer bombed hard.

Konami - LOL

MS - Killed Halo, milked Gears and Forza to near death, multiple flops, got stuck to supporting Sea of Thieves and Grounds games that are not even that successful.

Sony - Destruction AllStars flopped completely, found success with games that were already successful anyway like GT, MLB, Destiny.
Avengers - a game I would say was an ok success in its ultimate edition from a games standpoint = Crystal Dynamics sold. Now support studio for Perfect Dark (dev hell), and going back to TR.

Appropriate in this instance to borrow a phrase from the village idiot: Adults are talking.
 
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Nhomnhom

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Avengers - a game I would say was an ok success = Crystal Dynamics sold. Now support studio for Perfect Dark (dev hell), and going back to TR.

Appropriate in this instance to borrow a phrase from the village idiot: Adults are talking.
Square Enix is embarrassing. The only thing that works? Their traditional games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Every time they try to chase a trend it end up in complete disaster.

Successes like FF XIV comes from a long history with the genre and it almost ended up being a complete disaster anyway.
 

Muddasar

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There is close to no control over what is going to be a hit, we see again and again that very expensive projects or projects with well known devs behind them flop in this space while some mod or indie game takes off.

Bungie with Destiny and Marathon.

San Diego with MLB

PD with Gran Turismo

Naughty Dog with TLOU Factions 2

That would be pretty good step into GaaS for now and almost guaranteed success.

Fairgames, Helldivers 2 and Concord have no chance no matter how good they are.
 
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Nhomnhom

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Bungie with Destiny and Marathon.

San Diego with MLB

PD with Gran Turismo

Naughty Dog with TLOU Factions 2

That would be pretty good step into GaaS for now and almost guaranteed success.

Fairgames, Helldivers 2 and Concord have no chance no matter how good they are.
It clearly would've been better if Bungie was the entirety of their GaaS strategy. Occasional multiplayer mods for their more traditional games where it makes sense should've been it.

Haven, Deviation, Firewalk, London GaaS, Bend GaaS, Horizon MMO/GaaS these are all pipe dreams and guaranteed flops that will likely be the end of many of these studios. Even Faction has a pretty high likelihood of not being a hit and not being worth the years spent developing it.

Multiple AAA GaaS from news studios is like the worst possible strategy I could think off, that was pretty much the bulk of Xbox's strategy for the last 10 years.
 
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Muddasar

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It clearly would've been better if Bungie was the entirety of their GaaS strategy. Occasional multiplayer mods for their more traditional games where it makes sense should've been it.

Yep true.

The almost no show from Sony First parties and their single player games in the showcase indicates that these GaaS games are taking their toll on development time.
 

Nitro

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5/10 and I had realistic expectations, telling people not to expect TLoU multiplayer. There were so many things wrong with it [Sony's showcase] I can't muster up the energy to articulate them all.

Nobody wants to hear from a live service game until (1) the game's in an advanced state (2) you provide transparency. So how do Sony open the show? With a dumb live service CGI teaser trailer. Can't make this shit up. It's like they have nobody monitoring social sentiment AT ALL. A show completely devoid of interest much less bombshells. Multiplatform game after multiplatform game.

What is their sales forecast for PS5, 25 million units? Not happening after that.
 
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Nhomnhom

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5/10 and I had realistic expectations, telling people not to expect TLoU multiplayer. There were so many things wrong with it I can't muster up the energy to articulate them all.

Nobody wants to hear from a live service game until (1) the game's in an advanced state (2) you provide transparency. So how do Sony open the show? With a dumb live service CGI teaser trailer. Can't make this shit up. It's like they have nobody monitoring social sentiment AT ALL. A show completely devoid of interest much less bombshells. Multiplatform game after multiplatform game.

What is their sales forecast for PS5, 25 million units? Not happening after that.
It never occurred to me that TLoU multiplayer wouldn't show up. What is this game? I never heard of a multiplayer game taking this long to show itself.
 
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Danja

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The funny thing in all of this is Sony was so ahead of the curve late PS3 era but go so short sighted PS4 era and relinquished multiplayer control to 3rd parties.

Shut down their multiplayer studios and didn't bother to carry over the MP games that worked.

Warkawk - not being Remasterd PS4 era?

Uncharted 3 Multiplayer - Great GaaS excluded from the Nathan Drake Collection

MAG? - too ahead of the curve. Zipper should have been given another chance with a Socom reboot for PS4.

Guerilla Cambridge - their best FPS studio killed

Mod Nation Kart Racers? Deserved better

Uncharted 4 multiplayer - missed opportunity. The GaaS formula was there and there's still nothing on the market like it.

The last of Us Part 2 - Factions never needed to become it's own stand alone game.


Now we see them stepping back from Single Players to GaaS. They will regret it.
 
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They're not necessarily trying to step away from single-player - that is a mischaracterization. They're splitting their efforts and resources and trying to sit on two chairs. One of those chairs is their forte (single-player) while the other is a transient established fad instead of experimenting creatively and investing in what could/should be the next fad where they, unlike with GAAS, are not late to the party. Different visions of approach.

PC is another topic altogether.
 

Nhomnhom

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The funny thing in all of this is Sony was so ahead of the curve late PS3 era but go so short sighted PS4 era and relinquished multiplayer control to 3rd parties.

Shut down their multiplayer studios and didn't bother to carry over the MP games that worked.

Warkawk - not being Remasterd PS4 era?

Uncharted 3 Multiplayer - Great GaaS excluded from the Nathan Drake Collection

MAG? - too ahead of the curve. Zipper should have been given another chance with a Socom reboot for PS4.

Guerilla Cambridge - their best FPS studio killed

Mod Nation Kart Racers? Deserved better

Uncharted 4 multiplayer - missed opportunity. The GaaS formula was there and there's still nothing on the market like it.

The last of Us Part 2 - Factions never needed to become it's own stand alone game.


Now we see them stepping back from Single Players to GaaS. They will regret it.
Sony at one point owned the studio that had one of the early runner ups to become the hit than ended up being Fortnite. Sony instead just sold Sony Online Entertainment, ironically a studios specialized in PC GaaS, same studio that at one point made Everquest.
 
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