WSJ - Sony is positioning PS5 for 'hard-core' players, focusing on more big-budget first party games and relations with larger publishers

[gofreak]

There isn't really much new in this article, but I thought it was interesting for what little it does provide, in terms of what some 'company officials' told the author about Sony's approach to the next generation. It's padded out with previously known comments from Sony execs, so I tried to extract the 'new' bits from unnamed company officials.

Sony Positions Next PlayStation for Hard-Core Gamers

Sony’s next-generation PlayStation is still more than a year away, but its marketing strategy against newcomers like Google is already clear: Focus on hard-core gamers who obsess over the latest features.

www.wsj.com

Sony Corp.'s next-generation PlayStation is still more than a year away, but its marketing strategy against newcomers like Google is already clear: Focus on hard-core gamers who obsess over the latest features.

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Sony sees Microsoft as its main competitor in the next generation, with Google a potential threat in the mid- to long-term as internet technology advances, one company official said.Nintendo Co. isn't perceived as a major rival, the person said, because its main users tend to be younger than PlayStation's core demographic.

PlayStation has been one of the most successful mass-market products of the past quarter-century; the PlayStation 4 alone is expected to pass 100 million units this year. Sony's latest thinking puts less stress on overall sales numbers and more on the most-profitable segment of the market: the devoted fans who buy big-budget titles, such as Bethesda Softworks LLC's "Fallout" series and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s "Red Dead Redemption."

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A second Sony official said the company believes people buy a videogame console to play graphics-heavy games.

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Sony is concentrating its attention on large software publishers as it gets ready for the next PlayStation, according to executives at Sony and software makers. In general, publishers want their games on multiple platforms to maximize sales, while console makers look to make deals for exclusive content or an initial period of exclusive sales.

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Some executives at smaller game makers say they have felt snubbed by Sony, in contrast to Nintendo. At the Tokyo Game Show in September, Nintendo is supporting events to showcase independent game developers. Sony used to do the same, but isn't planning to this year, the first Sony official said.

Sony still welcomes games from independent studios, the first Sony official said, but the emphasis is on strengthening relationships with large publishers since resources are limited. The thinking is, the official said, that people buy a console to play high-quality games available only on that platform, not smaller games also available on smartphones.

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Sony is also looking to make more big-budget games at its in-house software studios, which already produce exclusive PlayStation games.

Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute, said he believes Sony's stress on large-budget games could lessen variety and lead some customers to switch to rivals such as Nintendo. In contrast, the second Sony official said he expected smaller games would still be released for the PlayStation, even without extensive Sony support, because the popularity of PlayStation makes the platform hard for smaller game developers to ignore.

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[Jonnax]

Hopefully they push up the power a bit with a higher price that more hardcore users will be fine paying.

The console price will drop as time goes on. But what the next gen needs to do is show us games that would not be possible on the previous generation. The idea of just playing the same game with higher resolution, bigger textures and smoother frame rates are nice to haves but aren't going to motivate me to go out and buy a PS5.

If it's a PS4 Pro 2.0, then I think the idea of consoles and generational leaps in games will be obsolete.

The console will be just some yearly updated Sony box or Microsoft box.

And games will need to run on the lowest common denominator from years ago. Just like in the mobile phone space where a game needs to run on a cheap phone because that's where most of the users are.

 

[Mr G]

So they are positioning themselves to fail....
Good to know.

 

[Snormy]

WSJ: Sony Positions Next PlayStation for Hard-Core Gamers, focus on strengthening relationships with large publishers

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sony-positions-next-playstation-for-hard-core-gamers-11561800603

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