Sony wants to reach beyond the traditional boundaries of its PlayStation walled garden, and is eager to ensure non-console owners have access to its content. We’ve slowly started to see this strategy in motion: the company has commissioned television and movie adaptations of its biggest franchises, has ported select software to the PC, and has even established a new mobile gaming division.
Speaking with Nikkei, honcho Hideaki Nishino touched upon this strategy in a little more detail – and how it can be beneficial to console sales in the long run: “It's important that people who don't play games have access to our content, and we hope to use movies and dramas as an opportunity to make people want to try PlayStation games. The Last of Us series' sales increased when the live-action-drama version was airing.”
Anecdotally, we saw a massive spike on our pre-existing The Last of Us content during the initial television run of HBO’s adaptation, so we can certainly appreciate the impact it had. Personally, we’re fully behind this strategy; speaking from the perspective of a PlayStation fan site, we’re also eager to reach as many people as possible, so if Sony can appeal to people outside of the traditional console owning community, then that’s an opportunity for us as well.
The more people exposed to PlayStation the better in our opinion.
[source asia.nikkei.com]
Comments 24
It’s also important for us who do play to also get some content Sony, so far for 2024 we have not a single first-party game confirmed (hopefully this changes after TGA).
Yeah okay but where are the games Sony?
@IOI 2024 is going to be all remasters like last of us 2.
bloodborne ps5 edition and early acces to gta6.
and bungies new game horizon multiplayer.
all games as a service full swing.
@The_ghostmen early access to gta 6 😂 what are you smoking
sorry 24 hour gta online acces.
@IOI I mean there is one in January! 😂 Its single player and has 93 on metacritic.
Maybe Sony should also concentrate on delivering more of their exclusive games for the majority that ARE playing? Many of whom are buying the consoles to play said exclusives.
Compared to the PS4 era, PS5's exclusive games portfolio is quite reduced, even though it's already.... 3 years old O_o
(already 3 years... damn, where does the time fly?).
People say this a lot but it's absolutely not true, the first 3 years of PS4 were fairly weak compared to the following 4 years. Also one of the biggest games of that 3 year period was Bloodborne which they count as a first party game then ignore that Sony are publishing like 4 games next year developed by third party companies and claim they don't count.
TV. TV. TV! 😂
Seriously though, where are my first party VR games Sony???
@ChrisDeku I think it comes down to which metric is used, when comparing PS5 2020 - 2023 to PS4 2013 - 2016:
@The_ghostmen bro it's almost the year of our lord 2024 and y'all are still going on about non-existent bloodborne ports 😂
"It's Important People Who Don't Play Games Access Our Content"
Their PC ports thus far haven't used Denuvo, I believe, so this tracks.
@ChrisDeku Yeah, that’s a good point. Bloodborne, as fantastic and defining as it was, is made by third party.
Which 4 Sony published / second party games are you referring to? I’ve got Stellar Blade, Helldivers 2, but not sure what the other two are. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (like FFXVI and Forspoken) is PlayStation exclusive but Square-Enix published. Which two am I missing?
Edit: oops… got it. Rise of the Ronin and Death Stranding 2. 😄
@Th3solution actually the 4th game is Lost Soul Aside which I believe was stated as 2024 in the recent Chinese event where it had a playable Demo. I didn’t count DS2 since its still largely unknown.
Can we also get more content for people who do play games, 1st parties have been very quiet recently.
Ah, yes it is. My bad. I do think Kojima said DS2 is coming along really quickly, but it’s probably 2025.
I should keep Lost Soul Aside more at the forefront of my mind. The footage they shared looked great. I think the game’s name is unfortunately generic sounding and so it’s easy to forget. 😅
Regardless, I think the point is well made that despite relative silence from the Sony first party teams, there’s really some exciting second party projects and console exclusives in the wings. Seems like way more than the last two generations.
@__jamiie Dude, if you can manage to complain about the lack of PSVR2 games in a month like December (RE4, Arizona Sunshine 2, Vertigo 2...), you are impossible to please.
I know, I know... "not first-party". Listen, we got GT7 and Call of The Mountain at launch. Not bad in my book, but does it really matter where the games are technically coming from?
Where do you think the money to fund the VR mode of games such as RE8 and RE4 is coming from? These are PSVR2 exclusives, so Sony is obviously funding them in a second-party capacity.
Do I want Astrobot? Sure. Maybe a VR mode for TLOU? Of course. But try to enjoy the multitude of games that are already available and have a little patience. Bitching about the fallaciously "lack of games" for PSVR2 only contributes to consolidate this toxic, negative, tiring narrative around the headset.
Honestly, this move from Sony is so ingeniously obvious that one wonders what took them so long.
I see a lot or articles trying to pinpoint the reason why PS5 is doing so well, and I almost never see this multimedia strategy mentioned.
Outside of the hardcore gamer bubble, the success of shows like the TLOU adaptation goes a long way into nudging consumers towards Sony's platform.
Picture this: dude watches the show and, months later, decides to buy a console. He shops around a bit trying to decide whether he should get PlayStation or Xbox. As soon as he comes across some TLOU ad or listing, the decision is made.
@Art_Vandelay I don't know why you're getting so angry. I gave Sony £530 for my PSVR2 and that gives me the right to wonder what games they themselves have planned in the future. Horizon Call of The Mountain is the only game dedicated to PSVR2 of the two you mentioned. The VR mode for GT7 (whilst incredible) is only an added mode to a game that was already released.
We've been given no indication of ANYTHING PlayStation studios has in development for PSVR2 and that's not good enough in my opinion. I don't know why you think it is.
The fact that 3rd parties have been releasing some amazing games for the headset doesn't mean Sony shouldn't be asked questions.
I've said many times before that I adore both my PSVR headsets and have over 150 digital games between the two. Again (with Sony taking a 30% cut), I think I'm entitled to know if they're planning to make a game for the system ever again.
@Th3solution Some games are probably only console exclusive, which means they will be on PC.
@Art_Vandelay For sure. These TV shows are like 10 hour long advertisements for the game and for the brand. Of course if the show or movie stinks, it could backfire — I don’t think the Halo TV show sold very many Xbox’s. In fact, it may have repelled people away from the brand. 😅 Using multimedia for promoting video games has been tried many times in the past but Sony has been successful at putting out consistent quality recently with TLoU, GT movie, Uncharted movie, Twisted Metal, etc.
@Nowings Yes, PC is also in the mix for the second party games and console exclusives but besides Helldivers 2, I suspect the PC releases will not be day 1. We would assume DS2 is coming to PC eventually since the first game did. Same for Rebirth. But I don’t think Rise of the Ronin or Stellar Blade have said anything about a PC release. They will probably also be staggered until later, like first party games are. And Lost Soul Aside seems to have a PC port planned but I’m not sure if it’s day and date with PS5.
Sony worrying about new customers but for us it's a take or leave it situation.
Sony :"it's important people who don't play games (bad grammar btw) access our content because
1) We've banned half the gamers by 'accident' anyway.
2) they need to hurry up and purchase digital content ASAP before we send them an email saying it will be deleted by end of year. "
@Th3solution Good point. I should have said that doing it right is an obvious move. And that raises another point: Sony is in a unique position to do so, since it has arms in both music and motion pictures. Which just reenforces my initial argument.
And it goes to show how clueless people are when they get defensive and "gate keepy". The most common comment (by far) we heard when these movies and shows were initially announced was "uh, we don't need a that".
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