Should PlayStation use the following strategy with their upcoming GAAS titles?

[Men_in_Boxes]

This is an interesting strategy for a studio making multiplayer games...



Valve seems to be employing the same strategy with Deadlock. Should a company as big as PlayStation do something similar? What are the drawbacks?

 

[Yurinka]

This is an interesting strategy for a studio making multiplayer games...



Valve seems to be employing the same strategy with Deadlock. Should a company as big as PlayStation do something similar? What are the drawbacks?

Haters are gonna hate, independently of whatever Sony does. Even the Sony haters who claim to be PS fans.

They are going to receive hate for being Sony games, they are going to receive hate for being released on PC and not console only, they are going to receive hate for being multiplayer and not single player, they are going to receive hate for being GaaS and not a game without post launch support.

And if Sony shows early prototypes people will complain that Sony releases unfinished games that look like shit.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Haters are gonna hate, independently of whatever Sony does. Even the Sony haters who claim to be PS fans.

I do wonder if this is the right strategy though.

I think PlayStation should explore putting games in front of players before getting too deep into the development process.

I mean, Fortnite and PUBG essentially released in extremely early states...

 

[Yurinka]

I think PlayStation should explore putting games in front of players before getting too deep into the development process.

Sony will have released 12 games -including new IPs- during 2024 (counting there Destiny TFS, TLOU2R and Until Dawn thre, which may not count for some people) plus 3 late PC ports. Add there the 3rd party exclusives like Granblue, FFVIIR, ZZZ, Wukong, Silent Hill 2, several indies etc. Plus some top tier 3rd party multiplatforms which are going to be the best sellers of the year, and some random 3rd party games more that may have had marketing deals with them. If all this wasn't enough, there's the PS5 Pro too.

This already is a giant marketing effort, they have been marketing a lot of stuff. They can add a few 2025 games too on top (specially at the end of the year, at TGS and the Doritos Awards), but before that they had to market the 2024 games.

They have a shit ton of releases every year that they have to market. To wait until a year or even less before release to show games help devs because gives them more time to use making the game and not demos for trailers or events, and also saves them from players -who don't have a fucking idea they are talking about- complaining about downgrades if they start to show the game when it's almost complete and being tested, bugfixed and polished.

It's a win-win for everybody, except for the impatient fans or haters who complain that Sony doesn't show games to be released in 2-3 years. And if Sony would do it they would complain that Sony announces games too far in advance and will say they are in development hell and that the studio has issues because the game was released years ago and they almost didn't show anything more (when 99% of the time isn't the case).

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Sony will have released 12 games -including new IPs- during 2024 (counting there Destiny TFS, TLOU2R and Until Dawn thre, which may not count for some people) plus 3 late PC ports. Add there the 3rd party exclusives like Granblue, FFVIIR, ZZZ, Wukong, Silent Hill 2, several indies etc. Plus some top tier 3rd party multiplatforms which are going to be the best sellers of the year, and some random 3rd party games more that may have had marketing deals with them. If all this wasn't enough, there's the PS5 Pro too.

This already is a giant marketing effort, they have been marketing a lot of stuff. They can add a few 2025 games too on top (specially at the end of the year, at TGS and the Doritos Awards), but before that they had to market the 2024 games.

They have a shit ton of releases every year that they have to market. To wait until a year or even less before release to show games help devs because gives them more time to use making the game and not demos for trailers or events, and also saves them from players -who don't have a fucking idea they are talking about- complaining about downgrades if they start to show the game when it's almost complete and being tested, bugfixed and polished.

I'm talking about getting multiplayer games in peoples hands before they're at the end of the development cycle.

What would have happened to Concord if they let the public play it back in late 2022 or early 2023? I think the Early Access model may have tangible advantages over what they're currently doing.

With regards to single player games I think you're right.

 

[CrackmanNL]

Not necessarily pre-access/early beta but I do understand what you are saying. These massive GAAS games have grown over time with feedback and iterations on themselves. Like the character design reception on Concord, it was clear as night and day on the reveal or beta on how it was received and could'v steered ship way sooner in development.

I do agree that these big publisher make the mistake of chasing this fever dream by trying to deliver the end product on launch failing to realise these massive platform games have evolved bigger over time. Benefit of doing this is if something doesn't work out you can tweak it or cancel it before it comes out, but then you will need to forgo the 40/pay-up front model. There is the other side I don't wanna beta test something for 2 years personally, so you will need to have an active community willing to do this and it also imo ruins the premium font but then again bad receptions on launch will do the same..

 

[AllBizness]

I do wonder if this is the right strategy though.

I think PlayStation should explore putting games in front of players before getting too deep into the development process.

I mean, Fortnite and PUBG essentially released in extremely early states...

The problem with playing games in early access is by the time the official launch rolls around I don't want to play anymore and have had my fill. Was about to buy Smite 2 last week until I saw that "Alpha" word in the description. I'm the type to play an alpha version for 300 hours and drop the game before the beta and the official release, no matter what changes or improvements made.

 

[Cool hand luke]

No, they should cancel them all because GAAS is a waste of time, as evidenced by Concord, the biggest flop since ET.

 

[Vertigo]

Helldivers sold 13 million in launch window.

Deadlock is succesful in early access because it’s made by Valve and its steam. Anyone other dev and this wouldn’t be possible.

Concord didn’t flop cuz of GaaS… concord flopped cuz it was wokeshit (and its 60 meta) along with the following: