• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

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

Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins

Banned
Feb 10, 2018
17,534
gofreak said:
I don't think it's contradictory when you view positioning as a fluid rather than fixed thing over the life of the product. For now, and for the early part of the cycle, positioning a console for the 'hard-core' is key. You get the early adopters, the hardcore first, and it makes it a lot easier to expand out.

I wouldn't confuse Sony's current focus with next-gen positioning as the extent of its interest over the life of the product. But this orientation makes sense right now.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yes, we have seen this happen before.

With Jim Ryan saying they want the transition to the PS5 to be very quick, I don't know how much I buy into this "premium" marketing approach.

With cerny saying the PS5 is no mere upgrade and Jim Ryan saying what he has said, the messaging is not the most consistent.
But we will see how it's marketed closer and at launch.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
59,902
modiz said:
I personally understand why they are going with this approach, early on in the PS4 generation, they had good marketing on indies, but that mostly lead to "ps4 has no games" meme, so i guess that they want to avoid this issue come the next generation.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Those memes meant nothing. Don't let forum talk blind you.

The PS4 sold very well from launch.
 
ciddative

ciddative

Member
Apr 5, 2018
4,618
TheGhost said:
So there approach is to be the fucking bad guy two gens in a row....got it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Just lol at this.

These companies are businesses, not your friends or good guys vs bad.

Moneyhatting sucks, but it often works, as does courting the early adopters/enthusiasts works. They'll open their arms for indies when they need to, right now they don't.
 
Cliff Steele

Cliff Steele

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
4,477
Sounds douchy as fuck but they are right. It's the same reason I will get a PS5. I want the best package and option for my AAA games. Because that's what I spent 99% of my gaming time with.
 
TheGhost

TheGhost

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,137
Long Island
modiz said:
yea and it was talked about as a platform that has no games until 2015.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So people's feelings got hurt ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Indie games are games. People thinking they need cinematic experiences to qualify as "games" is the problem. Whenever someone told me that PS4 Had no games I would point out that they actually had more games. If people want to troll they will troll.

Xbox wasn't even paying their indie devs back then, meanwhile Sony was the home of Indies, a complete reversal from the previous gen. Now it seems like the roles will reverse again at the start of next gen.
 
Keikaku

Keikaku

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,768
Good. Can't even remember when I bought an indie game or even played half of the PS+ games.
 

JetroPT

Member
Jun 11, 2019
602
TheGhost said:
You do realize PS4 first year or so was built off the strength of Indies right? Due to the number of Indies my PlayStation had more variety than my Xbox at launch.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

An people complained about the lack of big AAA games. I remember people saying stupid things like: Playstation? More like IndieStation. Obviously it doesn't have to one or the other, balance is important, but Sony realizes that a lot of people that are buying a console at launch, or close to it, are the hardcore gamers and that big AAA games move a lot of consoles.

It's not like thay are completely abandoning indies. They still makes deals with some developers, things like Tetris Effect (PS4 only , at least, for now) or Fall guys (PS4 and PC).
 

Bundy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
20,931
TheGhost said:
So there approach is to be the fucking bad guy two gens in a row....got it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
sengyjof.gif
 
Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins

Banned
Feb 10, 2018
17,534
Fastidioso said:
No it's not. They said to be more interested to profit than pure hardware but doesn't means they aren't not interested to sell many hardware as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The article states they are putting less stress on overall sales numbers, but the higher the install base the more games will sell.
The two things correlate to each other, which is why it does not make much sense.
 
Kemono

Kemono

▲ Legend ▲
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,669
So make big games to lure the customers in and because of the big customer base smaler and mid-size games will come from 3rd Parties because of the Big customer base...

That's not the worst approach.
 
Fastidioso

Fastidioso

Banned
Nov 3, 2017
3,101
Anthony Hopkins said:
Yes, we have seen this happen before.

With Jim Ryan saying they want the transition to the PS5 to be very quick, I don't know how much I buy into this "premium" marketing approach.

With cerny saying the PS5 is no mere upgrade and Jim Ryan saying what he has said, the messaging is not the most consistent.
But we will see how it's marketed closer and at launch.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'd like to know what are you trying to argue but I bet you neither know it.
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,360
TheGhost said:
You do realize PS4 first year or so was built off the strength of Indies right? Due to the number of Indies my PlayStation had more variety than my Xbox at launch.

If they want to compete for hardcore gamers they should focus on oh I don't know...a damn elite controller with paddles. 1 year exclusive deals on major games dlc will always be a bad look. It was shitty when Microsoft did it and it's even shittier now when Sony does it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's more because they didn't have anything else to sell folks outside of Knack. This works fine if they have enough interesting content lined up for that first year.
 
formasymphonic

formasymphonic

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,639
Quintus said:
Does this mean more timed exclusive games or more exclusive content with marketing partnerships?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Undoubtedly. I'm not particularly fond of them either way, but I can't deny that they make more strategic sense at the beginning of a generation when sales numbers are still close to incentivise people to pick one platform over another.
 
Gamer17

Gamer17

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,399
Makes sense. hardcore gamers are big spenders on PSN.so Sony wants to secure them yet again.
 
OP
OP
modiz

modiz

Member
Oct 8, 2018
17,808
I also think this ties into what jim Ryan said last month about wanting a quick transition to the next generation.
 
Fastidioso

Fastidioso

Banned
Nov 3, 2017
3,101
Anthony Hopkins said:
The article states they are putting less stress on overall sales numbers, but the higher the install base the more games will sell.
The two things correlate to each other, which is why it does not make much sense.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Put less stress in sales number doesn't means they target to sell the less possible. It's not that tough to understand.
 
daninthemix

daninthemix

Member
Nov 2, 2017
5,021
How to dramatically decrease the number of fucks I give about your game: make it exclusive to one platform.
 
TheGhost

TheGhost

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,137
Long Island
JetroPT said:
An people complained about the lack of big AAA games. I remember people saying stupid things like: Playstation? More like IndieStation. Obviously it doesn't have to one or the other, balance is important, but Sony realizes that a lot of people that are buying a console at launch, or close to it, are the hardcore gamers and that big AAA games move a lot of consoles.

It's not like thay are completely abandoning indies. They still makes deals with some developers, things like Tetris Effect (PS4 only , at least, for now) or Fall guys (PS4 and PC).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Who the fuck cares what trolls say? People troll out of insecurities.

Who cares if it's called a Indie station as long as it gives you games to play on a brand new console.

I rather indie games than more money hats that will prevent unifying communities with crossplay.
 
SolidSnakex

SolidSnakex

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,304
It's not as if Sony's ignoring indie games. At the beginning of this month they were the Platinum sponsor along with Nintendo for BitSummit.
 

JetroPT

Member
Jun 11, 2019
602
Mass_Pincup said:
Weird how they're switching from last gen philosophy.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I mean not really. Last gen, coming in to PS4 the focus was on games, and it seems that it's still going to be the case. Maybe a bigger focus on big AAA games, but it seems that they're aiming to provide a good amount of content, in their eyes, throughout the generation.
 
gofreak

gofreak

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,734
Mass_Pincup said:
Weird how they're switching from last gen philosophy.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This has been their approach for a number of years now. Arguably for the whole gen - even with the promotional lean on indie games in the early years, Sony was hoovering up tentpole marketing deals for big budget stuff. They've never 'not' focused on premium/immersive games. And there's never not been the suggestion that PS is for 'gamers' or more core 'players' or people who identify as more serious players - it was something they leaned heavily on in marketing when MS seemed to be going for 'everyone', for example, and seemed to be neglecting the core audience.
 
Knight613

Knight613

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,647
San Francisco
Their strategy makes sense. It might not be popular, but it makes a lot of sense.

They are going to want to show off the PS5 with things that will wow people and the easiest way to do that is to partner with the bigger publishers rather than the indie developers. At the end of the day, if you're going to spend anywhere from $400-500+ on a new console, you're going to want to see the big budget games you can expect to play on it and not the indie games that can run on the console you already own.
 
Aztechnology

Aztechnology

Community Resettler
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
14,131
Detective Pidgey said:
This! Exclusives from their own studios is fantastic of course but please none of that shit they did with Destiny 2 and so on. Best would be if none of these companies did that anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yea, everyone else is moving away from this kind of behavior. Bar Epic games lol. Not exactly the best look (at least to me). Even as someone in the Sony Ecosystem, I hate it.
 
Raijinto

Raijinto

self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
10,091
Sony 'strengthening their relationship' with 'AAA' publishers does not sound at all promising to me when we're already at, and have been for a long time, a position where they have timed exclusives like Crash Trilogy, timed exclusive DLCs for CoD/Destiny and even exclusive betas for both MHW and it's freakin' DLC expansion. If this is only the beginning then that ain't at all good.
 
Buzzman

Buzzman

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,549
It's obvious that the Playstation 5 will primarily focus on AAA games in the beginning. With the speed of the SSD and the raw processing power of this beast, it will take quite some time before indie developers even learn how to use such a machine.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
59,902
So I read the entire article, strengthening relationships doesn't necessarily mean exclusives. And exclusive in the AAA are hard ass sell.

It could just mean more co-marketing deals a la Destiny 2 and such.

I just don't see the big Western AAA giving any real exclusives to Sony.
 

Deleted member 31092

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 5, 2017
10,783
I hate everything abot this but I'm not their target audience anyway and it's a profitable position for them.
 
Fastidioso

Fastidioso

Banned
Nov 3, 2017
3,101
It's always interesting listen the Pro or the ps4 named piece of shit hardware ever released just because are loud when a console like 360 was released years before. I mean, console are cheap built of course but at least they don't explode every 6 months. That what means shitty hardware built IMO.
 
Fitts

Fitts

You know what that means
Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,149
I've owned every PS console and, as one of their targeted "hard core gamers," this makes me even less likely to purchase a PS5.

I could totally see Sony and MS carving up third party output next gen. And MS is kind of looking like the good guys since they're also advocating for PC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.