Xbox showcased showed that 95% of all other games were forgotten in all the Starfield hype.
Sony’s New Marketing & PR Strategy
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That's because it's PlayStation, it's God of War, it's always gonna generate hype no matter what, Cory Barlog could randomly fart & you'd see an article published about how Cory's fart might indicate a big imminent reveal for GOW, it's not some small trash indie game, Sony is living on PlayStation's brand power, their marketing PR might not work out well for them in the future, especially when they want to advertise the smaller games like Returnal for example, a game which I love so much, your example here is a huge strawman fallacy, try again.
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Exactly! It worked for them in the PS4 generation, what's wrong now?
No, Sony announces and releases every year more exclusives than Microsoft and Nintendo combined.
PS5 and PS4 broke many gaming industry records for the whole gaming history in many metrics including social media ones (which means better than MS and Nintendo ever did), the last GoW and many other big Sony exclusives sold over 20M units and PS5 sells out in minutes and has a ton of demand. MS/Xbox and their exclusives are pretty as shown in the google searches are far from that. Sony was so happy with Returnal's results that they bought Housemarque.
These aren't fallacies, these are facts. If you think their PR or marketing doesn't work well you have either issues accepting reality or have no idea about their metrics.
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They do have annual showcases, one's just around the corner.
They make the best games IMO and release many each year.... I think they are just not building the hype and doing each game justice on the PR / marketing front.
Just a perspective.
TBH the constant leaks WRT Xbox have turned me off more or less completely. The way some Xbox guys were talking, it felt like a lock we'd get Avowed gameplay shown this year, and Pentiment was going to...well....going to turn out more impressive-looking than I personally feel it is, among other things.
In that regard I'm glad Sony game info doesn't have that propensity for leakage, tho it's also a bit crummy that they have been glacial with updates on certain projects from the 1P teams. I can kind of understand it though: they are probably timing software announcements to big hardware supply drops, and it's not like PS5 is anywhere close to saturating supply relative to demand.
And FWIW, it's not necessarily like Microsoft or Nintendo have unveiled much in big new games that Sony probably feels need an answer with equivalent 1P announcements when 3P exclusives they have lined up are good enough to handle that (this is not the same as me saying Microsoft and Nintendo don't have anything big coming 1P-wise for the next few months; Forza Motorsport, BOTW 2, even Starfield (if the performance is improved) will be big releases).
It MOSTLY worked; there were definitely some duds in that tho. Driveclub, Order 1886, Tomorrow Children. But the most egregious for me was Dreams; that got shown off back at their February 2013 reveal of PS4 and it was one of my most anticipated PS4 games. It felt like it would've came out sooner rather than later.
Instead it didn't come out until late 2020, several years later. By then my anticipation had died out, tho I'm still interested in picking it up someday soon and seeing what I can build in it (if they can actually allow you to make your own game distributables in the game that'll be hype). I don't want Sony announcing games THAT far out ever again.
MS are already in that trouble spot for me because they have several projects announced that appear they were mentioned too soon, like Everwild and Perfect Dark. Even games like Hellblade II might've been shown too early, same with stuff like Project Mara. Mind you, I'm still looking forward to these games, at the very least for curiosity's sake. But in hindsight some of those could've been held off for a later date.
In that regard I'm glad Sony game info doesn't have that propensity for leakage, tho it's also a bit crummy that they have been glacial with updates on certain projects from the 1P teams. I can kind of understand it though: they are probably timing software announcements to big hardware supply drops, and it's not like PS5 is anywhere close to saturating supply relative to demand.
And FWIW, it's not necessarily like Microsoft or Nintendo have unveiled much in big new games that Sony probably feels need an answer with equivalent 1P announcements when 3P exclusives they have lined up are good enough to handle that (this is not the same as me saying Microsoft and Nintendo don't have anything big coming 1P-wise for the next few months; Forza Motorsport, BOTW 2, even Starfield (if the performance is improved) will be big releases).
It MOSTLY worked; there were definitely some duds in that tho. Driveclub, Order 1886, Tomorrow Children. But the most egregious for me was Dreams; that got shown off back at their February 2013 reveal of PS4 and it was one of my most anticipated PS4 games. It felt like it would've came out sooner rather than later.
Instead it didn't come out until late 2020, several years later. By then my anticipation had died out, tho I'm still interested in picking it up someday soon and seeing what I can build in it (if they can actually allow you to make your own game distributables in the game that'll be hype). I don't want Sony announcing games THAT far out ever again.
MS are already in that trouble spot for me because they have several projects announced that appear they were mentioned too soon, like Everwild and Perfect Dark. Even games like Hellblade II might've been shown too early, same with stuff like Project Mara. Mind you, I'm still looking forward to these games, at the very least for curiosity's sake. But in hindsight some of those could've been held off for a later date.
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Not building the hype? In the first half of the year they did a big marketing push for exclusives like Sifu, Horizon 2, GT7, Ghostwire Tokyo, MLB and so on. They also did the new PS+ launch and both PSVR2 and 3rd party hype stuff including big exclusives like FF and so on. They did a ton of stuff to build the hype during that half a year.
And what MS released or announced during that half a year? Nothing, nail polish and a Halo Cookbook. C'mon.
There is something to the bolded I thought about just now, that might explain why Sony are doing the things they are doing of late. Not that I agree with all of them (I badly want some of the classic IP to come back like Parappa, Tomba! etc. which are kind of in the line of those quirky Japanese games you mention), but just from a business POV I can see why they are also looking more into live-service/GaaS content.
Basically, if they catered exclusively to the single-player content, quirky Japanese games etc. I think they might be afraid they become too niche-focused of a brand and focusing too much on stuff that may not bring in enough money. Sega kind of had this problem back with the Saturn; they went HARD on genres likes 2D action-platformers, 2D fighters, 3D fighters, shmups, Japanese VNs and anime games, etc.
A lot of it really cool stuff, especially in hindsight, but not a lot of it being in genres that were growing with the mainstream. In fact stuff like 2D fighters and shmups were on a big decline sales-wise even by then. Some of those genres held up better in the arcade but that was also a way different market in ways than the console market that was forming.
Where this comparison kind of fails though is that if we look at the data, single-player story-driven games (particularly those from Sony) are among the best-selling in the market especially with titles like God of War and Spiderman. Certain Japanese games like Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, Persona etc. are among the most favorite of ALL 3P games, Japanese or Western, and have been seeing growth in sales & revenue, not decreases. The quirkier Japanese-style smaller games are part of the reason the Switch has dominated in places like Japan and other parts of Asia, and are at least a factor to why they do well in the West alongside the bigger, more mainstream games, particularly among the hardcore/core Switch owners.
It's basically an opposite of the trends regarding the type of games systems like the Saturn focused their bread-and-butter on, so I kind of don't see why Sony would be turning away from those types of games as a primary focus. Maybe they plan to bring that variety back into the fold but with smaller outside teams and in partnerships with 3P devs to license IP out they can codevelop with. They definitely should at least be considering it. I do think the growing budgets for stuff like TLOU Part 2, GoW etc. are a complicating factor as well, if we want to keep seeing visual fidelity increases, bigger worlds, better animations, better physics, higher-tier voice acting and stories (well, only because a lot of people associate more expensive talent with being better quality in these fields but that's not always true) etc.
So I think them branching out with live-service/GaaS titles and more ports to PC are ways for them to get the revenue needed to keep funding growing scope of their AAA games. It's not the only solution, but it's one of them.
In the past everybody complained about Sony announcing games too early and showing "in-game targets". Additionally, today everybody is ready to scrutinize and nitpick about games still in development (puddlesgate anybody?).
I think they are just more cautious because they have more to lose.
But I don't think they are silent at all. We had several SOPs already, I get (and ignore) newsletter email's regularly, I see PlayStation posts the few times I scroll through Facebook.
I think they are just more cautious because they have more to lose.
But I don't think they are silent at all. We had several SOPs already, I get (and ignore) newsletter email's regularly, I see PlayStation posts the few times I scroll through Facebook.
My problem with Sony looking at wider market trends is that they become too focused on markets that are already served and satiated.
They may be just throwing money into a pointless endeavor, when they could be making AAA single player almost an entire monopoly for themselves...
At the end of the 8th generation, almost nobody had interest in making single player story games to the AAA standard of Sony, with a handful of exceptions that release maybe 1 in an entire generation.... like Rockstar, CDPR and Rocksteady. (In the west)
They should have just locked some of the remianing studios down and they would have basically won in my opinion.
Another one of Ryan's bullshit pushes
I don’t like it.
Yes Playstation has become more and more popular, but I miss the days of e3 and TGS. Where I knew when I was getting my future Playstation news
Yes Playstation has become more and more popular, but I miss the days of e3 and TGS. Where I knew when I was getting my future Playstation news
If you stop and think about it for a second : why would any company build up hype and demand, for a product that's sold out as soon as they're made! Demand currently far exceeds supply.
Sony's strategy is perfectly fine. They'll do a full showcase once there's a bigger influx of PS5 available to ship. That'll be mid to end of summer.
They only need 3 months of prerelease marketing push for GoWR, and everything points to it releasing in November this year.
They can do their big show in July or even August. Show off big first party exclusives and third party games where they have a marketing deal (Avatar, Hogwarts, Callisto Protocol, etc.)
Sony's strategy is perfectly fine. They'll do a full showcase once there's a bigger influx of PS5 available to ship. That'll be mid to end of summer.
They only need 3 months of prerelease marketing push for GoWR, and everything points to it releasing in November this year.
They can do their big show in July or even August. Show off big first party exclusives and third party games where they have a marketing deal (Avatar, Hogwarts, Callisto Protocol, etc.)
Drop a video with the Tallneck lego up your ass that will sell some games
I think they've been slowly been reshaping their strategy from a company that announces games 2-3 years out to one that releases game within 6 months or less of announcement.
This is what we are seeing with TLOU Part 1 which has been announced and released 3 months after announcement. Really never been done for a Naughty Dog game
You've still got some like Wolverine and Ragnarok on a longer marketing cycle but it's getting fewer and fewer and eventually none of them will be on a longer marketing cycle
There is a lot of benefit to this. The shorter cycle allows them to avoid delays, it means when they show games they aren't showing CG or false promises, and they don't wear out their welcome showing the same thing over and over for years (I remember we had 3 years of Spiderman at E3) or disappoint fans when a game "skips E3", and they release games at the peak of the hype cycle
MS are getting all the cons of a long marketing cycle right now. Games not living up to the CG target trailers, games being delayed and games shown first years ago missing E3
But there is obviously some pain associated with shifting this strategy and it means they end up being quiet for a period on new announcements. Eventually we will be at a point where Sony has a September show and can tell us everything coming in the next 12 months
This is what we are seeing with TLOU Part 1 which has been announced and released 3 months after announcement. Really never been done for a Naughty Dog game
You've still got some like Wolverine and Ragnarok on a longer marketing cycle but it's getting fewer and fewer and eventually none of them will be on a longer marketing cycle
There is a lot of benefit to this. The shorter cycle allows them to avoid delays, it means when they show games they aren't showing CG or false promises, and they don't wear out their welcome showing the same thing over and over for years (I remember we had 3 years of Spiderman at E3) or disappoint fans when a game "skips E3", and they release games at the peak of the hype cycle
MS are getting all the cons of a long marketing cycle right now. Games not living up to the CG target trailers, games being delayed and games shown first years ago missing E3
But there is obviously some pain associated with shifting this strategy and it means they end up being quiet for a period on new announcements. Eventually we will be at a point where Sony has a September show and can tell us everything coming in the next 12 months
Sony are potentially losing COD in a few years, they genuinely need a counter to that way more than they need some niche Japanese games
It's also worth pointing out a lot of the Japanese games charting are never leaving Japan. While Sony has steered the ship away from Japan a bit it's also worth noting Japan has become increasingly inward facing and not as considerate of worldwide appeal as they were a few gens back
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