PlayStation to broaden line-up, but won’t abandon roots, studio chief says

[John Elden Ring]

PlayStation will make more live service games, but won’t abandon roots, studio chief says

Hermen Hulst talks PC, mobile, combatting crunch and a whole lot more.

www.axios.com

New interview with Herman Hulst by Axios

• Live-service games will come from newly acquired teams & Sony's internal teams too
• Not all of them will use original IPs
• SP titles still the most profitable ones
• More cross-gen titles could come (case by case)

Hulst mentions that the PC versions actually help PlayStation to invest more into bigger projects “It allows us to continue to invest–to invest even deeper into their projects.” PlayStation will also improve its mobile game development and partner up with other companies

 

[Bernd Lauert]

>more cross gen

 

[Sircaw]

>more cross gen

I guess it makes sense with the amount of PS4s that are out there.

But yer, 100% agree, the sooner we ditch those systems the better.

 

[Bryank75]

PC versions help nothing, they are a distraction.... they had to buy studios and they need management, production and support in place for them....

Piss off with all that and just give us more PS5 games.

 

[Oogabooga]

"SP titles still the most profitable ones"
Indeed Sucker Punch is the goat.

 

[Dabaus]

All this playstation news in the last few days and literally none of it is exciting except for the in passing mention of collabing with from soft again.

GAAS is the focus moving forward
Crossgen is back
Whats a Japan?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Some important bits from that article:

-Live Service/GaaS titles will come to PS 7 PC Day 1 simultaneous​

-Single Player games will have "at least" 1 year buffer between PlayStation and PC ports​

So this lets us know that, for starters, TLOU Part 1 for PC isn't coming until September 2023. It also confirms an obvious: the live service/GaaS titles will be Day & Date on PS and PC, which makes sense because you don't want to split the competitive communities (although I think they'll need to offer keyboard & mouse support for those games if they have them on PC, to even out any input advantages between platforms) or dis-incentivize MTX investments on the platform that gets that game later.

The "clarity" on the single-player stuff, though...well I really aren't sure if there's anything new being said here. It does let know that a port of Returnal to PC is probably imminent for Spring 2023. However I still think that's going to be on a case-by-case, and there may be other games that are 2 years or so out between PS and PC. Spiderman 2 will probably be one such game, given the legs for Miles Morales on PS5 (whenever stock wasn't a limiting factor). Probably the same with Wolverine, and probably GOW Ragnarok as well.

Ideally I think they should prioritize PS5 releases first and foremost (which is what they're doing, for the single-player or non live-service games), then depending on the game, a year (or two or three) later port it to PC; if there are any enhancements or extra content planned roll it into the PC release as a single package and offer that content as an upgrade for PS5 owners for $10. Then a year or so after that, put the game in PS+ Extra & Premium, and roll it down to regular PS+ after a few months.

I think if Sony made some smaller, internal AA-style games with older legacy IP, they could've used those to test out something like Day 1 on PC, or Day 1 in PS+, just to see what they could do. If it works, cool. If not, then no need to try it further.