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[llLeonhart]

Let me preface by saying that I've been a PS Gamer since PS1, and Playstation still is, to this date, my main platform.

I'break my argument down into 3 points I've observed over the last few years:

• Trying to get PC Players
• Lack of Direction/Vision
• Weird business decision, No QA

Trying to get PC Players
First of all we have been seeing Sony closely following Microsoft's every step.
Playstation even went as far as saying they hope releasing their games on PC will bring in new players into their platforms. And I just don't see it. If anything, players who are more "hardcore" are considering doing the exact opposite. Myself included, I don't mind waiting a few months to play the complete and improved version of a game, Nowadays I rarely even play games day one anymore, as games tend to get way better with DLCs down the line.

Lack of Direction/Vision
We've got a weird shift to live service focus, even going as far as buying Bungie (pretty much a one game developer) for a whopping 3bi, despite their original format being what pretty much made the PS3 make a comeback and PS4 be absolutely huge, only to announce their shift back to single player narrative driven games.

Weird business decisions, No QA
We had the whole PSN account required to play Helldivers 2 on PC, which got a ton of backlash, which could have been easily be avoided with a simple in game reward given upon subbing/logging in.
Losing key partners like Square Enix, Sega, Atlus, etc... Some even expressing a little animosity towards Playstation.
Leaving Japan and the Japanese audience behind.
Enforcing censorship on their platform (Like Devil May Cry 5, Martha is Dead, among others)
Which brings us to the last point and the reason I even started to really think about this: The god-awful State of Play, where the very first game shown was Concord. I mean, wtf? Who the hell approved this game to be the show opener? A brand new IP, with a very, very, very bad cinematic trailer, and generic gameplay/developer commentary to boot.

Thank you for reading!

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

 

[R6Rider]

Thank you for reading!

 

[Imtjnotu]

 

[Topher]

Probably but you could pretty much replace "Sony" with any major gaming corporation, imo.

 

[DinoD]

Its either them (Sony) or us the Veterans of PS.

 

[feynoob]

Good show when gaffers meltdown

 

[GHound]

Queue all the people saying things like "you're not their audience anymore" like they're some kind of economic genius.
But hey, maybe they're right. I definitely won't have another PlayStation in this house.

 

[SlimySnake]

 

[Pop]

 

[Skifi28]

This has not been discussed before.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I traded in the PS5 end of last year and havn't missed it until the new Astrobot reveal. Still I don't know if that one game will get me to buy a PS5 PRO.
I can wait till it releases on PC.

 

[reinking]

Are hardcore gamers out of touch? Sony seems to be doing pretty well with the overall market.

 

[Punished Miku]

This poll is confusing. I just think they're out of touch. I dont see their business being destroyed

 

[Mr Hyde]

The only thing I'm against is the big live service push. I understand why they do it, they need a continuous revenue machine and that's fine, the issue I have is that Sony embarked on this on behalf of single player games and pushing their fan base aside. If Sony made two-three live service games I wouldn't say shit, but now they greenlit 12 of them, redirecting their top studios such as Naughty Dog towards GaaS which failed, and now us fans have to pay the price. It's good that Sony has pivoted back to what they know best, but aside from Helldivers 2, I think they have fucked up royally with this live service shit, especially their communication and buyout of Bungie.

Sony exclusives going to PC doesn't bother me at all. Having staggered releases for single player games and building a community for PC players is great, and I don't believe Sony will lose many console players in the long run. Playstation is their bread and butter and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.

Overall, I'm happy with PS5. Sony is making efforts of providing me with big single player games, such as FF7 Rebirth, Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin, when their own studios doesn't have anything to show. Past games such as Returnal, Demon's Souls and Director's cut versions of Death Stranding and Ghost of Tsushima have been excellent as well. I appreciate that very much. But they need to examine their strategy with online GaaS and not go down this path so obsessively because it will ruin the Playstation brand.

 

[Fabieter]

That doesn't mean current sony isn't damaging the brand longterm.

 

[LakeOf9]

How does the third option make any sense? If they are damaging their brand long term how will it pay off in the end? if it pays off in the end, the brand wasnt damaged in the long term ???

 

[DeepEnigma]

Probably but you could pretty much replace "Sony" with any major gaming corporation, imo.

Corporations, celebs and polis kotowing faster than a sealed flight log/list.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Queue all the people saying things like "you're not their audience anymore" like they're some kind of economic genius.
But hey, maybe they're right. I definitely won't have another PlayStation in this house.

There is merit to that. I used to be all in with Nintendo for the NES/SNES years before growing tired during the N64 era and moving on with PS1 never to look back. Their stuff just isn't for me anymore.

 

[YCoCg]

The biggest issue at the moment is that there's a lot of big first party studios that we haven't heard from in multiple years now, we're told they're cooking but not revealing what, we already know Naughty Dog wasted years on the cancelled TLOU multiplayer but what is everyone else up to? It's nice that the smaller studios are being given some attention but honestly, they're still the smaller side studios, we want to know what the main guys are doing!

 

[Shifty1897]

Sony hubris. Every time they start winning, they think their farts don't stink and forget about their customers. Microsoft was able to check them in the PS3 era, but now who can possibly hope to beat them in the console market?

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Yes Sony finally giving the respect to Playstation, is Sony being out of touch.

Playstation is trying to compete with the other GaaS. And have done a pretty good job, while still sticking with the cinematic games they been developing since the PS3.

They are even willing to put games like R&C, Dreams, and Astrobot.

 

[Snake29]

Playstation even went as far as saying they hope releasing their games on PC will bring in new players into their platforms

Why you think that's weird? A lot of PC players also have consoles or also buy consoles for the convenience. There are times i play more on my pc but also times i play way more on my console.

GTA6 for instance will make a lot of these na sayers weak.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Sentiment will quickly change once they reveal some 1st party games and then with GTA6 hype most of you who are downbeat about PS or gaming will be dancing around the maypole lol.

That said I don't think the upcoming 1st party games will entice me. There's only so many father/son, father/daughter coming of age games I can take or post apocaltyptic nihilism simulators. I continue buying Playstation for 3rd and 2nd party games.

 

[Perrott]

There's a reason why OP isn't running any multi-billion business, and its stupid thread with stupid points being made throughout is the proof of it.

You're out of touch.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[Little Chicken]

I think Playstation is just going through a transitional phase and are kind of trying to find their feet adjusting to new trends.

 

[Guilty_AI]

They're out of time

 

[SlimySnake]

E3 2013's Sony conference where Jack Tretton went on and talked about no online requirement literally doomed the Xbox one. And therefore the Xbox brand by losing the one generation Xbox couldnt afford to lose according to phil spencer himself.

E3 2015 was a legendary conference that had multiple dream game reveals from The Last Guardian to FF7 Remake and Shenmue. It electrified the fanbase and brought the PS4 back to the mainstream.

E3 2016 was arguably an even more impressive conference that blew everyone away with trailers and demos for GOW, Spiderman and Days Gone. It once again built up an excitement rarely seen in both the mainstream casuals and the hardcore fanbase. Xbox had been somewhat limping along but 2016 pretty much confirmed that the PS4 was going to end with a bang and Xbox just never recovered.

The PSX showings that year had an astounding reaction to the TLOU2 and uncharted Lost legacy reveals. The fanbase was pumped.

2019 they failed to have an E3 showcase.
2021 they failed to show up
2022 they failed to show up.
2023 they produced arguably their worst conference since the E3 2005 CG filled PS3 reveal.
2024 skipped showcase for a shit State of Play.

They have left what made them successful. The E3s were Sony events. Everyone else just came along for the ride. E3 was Playstation. They carried the banner for video game excellence for years, and then abandoned it in favor of shitty state of plays.

Everyone else celebrates their industry with their fans. hollywood goes to comic con. Taylor swift goes to her fans in every shitty city, state and country. Sony knew this and thats why they created PSX to supplement E3 and Gamescom. Now they are MIA from E3 and Gamescom and have zero fan service. They have abandoned their fanbase they themselves cultivated for cod and fortnite casuals, and just like MS and nintendo found out, those kinect, cod, wii, and fortnite dudes are not going to stick around. They will go to the next big thing. CoD is already MS's property so thats on its way out. fortnite will probably crash and burn in a few years when some other fad comes out. And Sony will come crying back to you and me.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Yes, but the entire gaming industry is out of touch. So you know, its not fair to single them out.

 

[Vlodril]

They are going from strength to strength so obviously not. Now if they are out of touch with what some people on Neogaf want.. easily.

 

[Loomy]

Trying to get PC Players

How dare they try to increase their user base in a world where, checks notes, growth has all but stalled?

Lack of Direction/Vision
We've got a weird shift to live service focus, even going as far as buying Bungie (pretty much a one game developer) for a whopping 3bi, despite their original format being what pretty much made the PS3 make a comeback and PS4 be absolutely huge, only to announce their shift back to single player narrative driven games.

Destiny 2 has over 250k players across all platforms active right this moment. That is what they paid $3b for. They didn't shift from single player narrative driven to live service games away and then back to single player narrative driven. They added live service to their portfolio. Those single player games are coming, alongside the live service games that are also coming.

Weird business decisions, No QA

The business decision is to increase PSN numbers. The State of Play was fine. Just because it had no games you want to play, doesn't mean it was all bad.

 

[Tsaki]

"Losing key partners like Square Enix, Sega, Atlus, etc... Some even expressing a little animosity towards Playstation."
Insert Japanese culture meme

 

[Shakka43]

 

[TropicanaTwista]

Gamers are funny. Probably the biggest criticism I've seen about Sony around end of the PS3 and most of the PS4 gen was how their games were too 'samey' with the 'third person action cinematic games.' They have somewhat cut back on them (at least to start this gen), have produced more variety having multiple platforms, some GaAS games and now they are out of touch lol.

Idk, comparing to the same timeframe of PS4, I think PS4 is probably slightly better but it's really splitting hairs. Sony has essentially kept the status quo for me. However, I feel the opposite about MS and Nintendo. MS hasn't improved their first party output at all compared to the last 10 - 15 years for me. Which is pretty damn hard to do with how anemic their output has been. Nintendo has fallen off for me. Switch is my least played console by then of my life and I'm in my 30s (outside of Wii U which I never got as was waiting for a price cut that never happened).

Sony can be better and some studios need to start pulling their weight (Media Molecule and Bend). But seeing how they're selling, it's hard to say they don't understand the market.

 

[Flabagast]

This is kinda misleading btw as it included 2020 and 2021 where PS4 was still in full force and benefited from COVID effect

 

[twilo99]

Good show when gaffers meltdown

The gaffer reality show is probably one of the best comedies around. Solid 8/10 on IMDb

 

[SHA]

Playstation PC is simply this

I won't deny it, this is really bad unless Sony acknowledge what two circles overlapping means.

 

[SonGoku]

Did not read, voted yes

 

[Monkfish877]

They're chasing easy money with GAAS, I hope it blows up in their faces. They're ditching what made the Playstation brand great since the late 2000s, single player games. Anyways, it's not so bad being a hater, every time Sony misses a sales forecast or one their side projects bombs it cheers me up, sometimes it even makes my day, screw them.

 

[Woggleman]

They went from such highs during the PS3 and PS4 era to chasing GAAS money. It will pay off short term but damage the brand.

 

[tomato shrub]

Their biggest advantage right now is that Xbox is fumbling even worse, so Playstation is the go-to console for 3rd party games by default.

 

[Woggleman]

Their biggest advantage right now is that Xbox is fumbling even worse, so Playstation is the go-to console for 3rd party games by default.

The fact that XBox is not taking advantage of this is proof they have awful leadership.

 

[spons]

First of all, the thread title differs from your poll question, which is annoying as hell. And branching out to PC is the best thing they've done in ages because now I don't have to buy a PS5. Also, Sony managed to get many gamers from 360 to PS4 in a massive consumerbase shift towards PlayStation being 'the mainstream CoD/FIFA/Madden brand'. Besides, I personally believe Hermen Hulst is about the most conservative manager Sony has had for their gaming brand in a long while, so they will absolutely continue to churn out the same kind of games for years to come (like The Last of Us/God of War/Horizon) instead of focussing on new concepts.

 

[Sonik]

Since they moved the PS HQ from Japan to California they're just another out of touch American tech corp that sacrifices long-term customer satisfaction and trust for short-term profits and whatever bullshit they're trying to push down there in California. Enshittification is now the rule with these corps not the exception

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

The fact that Bloodborne remastered/remake still doesn't exist in 2024 says a lot.

Sony lives in that bubble where they only care about the opinions of the legacy media and like-minded corporations instead of caring about the people who buy their products.

 

[twilo99]

“Folks” on x complaining all the time .. never enough for some of u out there

 

[IAmRei]

Sony might be weird since they are focused on western games approach years ago. But look to the green neighbor, even more weirder ...

 

[StereoVsn]

Corpos make stupid knee jerk reactions constantly.

Witness recent Google’s panicky dive into AI and Gemini advising people to eat rocks if they have kidney stones.

Or look at the insane MS Recall crap.

I do find it hilarious that Sony now censors more than Nintendo. That’s just funny.

 

[Syphon Filter]

yes they are, ever since they moved to California.