It's 'A Truly Exciting Time' for PlayStation as New Sony CEOs Take Control

Glad to hear we are at the heart of everything you do. No live service please!! Cheers guys! 🙏🏻

@Bionic-Spencer Please tell me you forgot a /s ...

How about showing some big first party single player games coming in 2025 and beyond. Would like to know what's in the works.

@Pistolega You don't think Nintendo and Valve have CEO's and management? Do you not know how businesses and companies work? Sony and PS have always had a CEO and management just like every other company and business out there.

Hopefully this means we get more AA gaming experiences like Astro Bot, Jak and Daxter, Gravity Rush 3 and maybe a proper Little Big Planet game, just lower budget titles with more emphasis on fun gameplay than deep story and cinematics. Don't get me wrong, I love Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima but variety is key and the more different experiences they offer the more people they will attract, so I hope Astro Bot sells well and proves that AA has an important place in gaming.

Absolutely zero confidence. Business as usual.

Really curious to see what they do. I still think Shawn Layden was one of the better CEO's the company had.

Don't like this CEO. He writes in American English.

@UltimateOtaku91 I'd also love to see a return to some of the more experimental side that we had in the Ps1 to Ps3 days. I know its unlikely as sony is a business first and foremost, but maybe they could do some deals with smaller third party companies and indies

Hang on, they sound that other suit.
What his name, that’s it. Phil Spencer.

@OldGamer999 I don't know, I don't see any riddles or lies.

Hope they look at the success of helldivers and excitement for Astrobot and realise they can broaden their slate by releasing more smaller titles (like shawn layden advocated for) per year, rather than always going for the huge AAA titles - and obviously moving away from the live service push (10+ games i believe they threatened). No issue with them working on 1 or 2 but they don't need any more than that - they've struck gold with Helldivers, but it will be extremely difficult to replicate that success

Absolutely zero trust to any CEO anywhere, that's for sure. That being said, Hulst seems like a guy who knows games and gaming. He's not just a suit like Ryan, he's been making games for many years, and good games at that.

Not sure if Jack was CEO, but I loved the Jack Tretton era. Those were the E3's etched in to my memory and Playstation felt truly exciting back then. Let's be honest Fortnite has fkd everything up 🤣

@UltimateOtaku91
They like all of them 🤣 to some degree.

I just go by what games they have for me and last year 2023 wasn’t great from Sony Studios and this year probably nothing at all 2024.

I’m an old school Sony fan, uncharted, last of us, GOW, GOT, HZD etc. The amazing Sony Studio big AAA campaign games pushing their own consoles to the limit each time.
When they get back to that then I will believe them.
But maybe they won’t, maybe there is a new type of game going forward that they would rather produce, like a multiplayer or gaas. Maybe my old Sony won’t appear again that I have cherished for decades. Maybe I’m old fashioned and outdated for Sony nowadays.

Pretty funny to see statements like this after that garbage state of play dedicating a majority of its runtime to a DOA bloated budget generic live service hero shooter.

Typical hot air from the suits at the top

You know the internet gives a lot of crap to CEOs etc, and much of it is deserved. But even if Concord flops it will likely result in more total revenue than Astro Bot. That’s where consumers spend money, so that’s where investment is allocated.

Games please! Good ones!

I want them to release more innovative AA games, release more innovative PSVR2 games, remove the restrictive policies that lead to increased censorship/self censorship, and commit to, say, releasing no more than 2 live service games per year (10+ is just ridiculous).

Now, admittedly, that might all lead to a loss, or drop in, sales growth for Sony. But it’s what would keep me loyal.

If they want to make money, that’s mobile gaming. PlayStation can be there to grow franchises. Just connect mobile games to PSN so I can go for trophy challenges on the bus and I’ll be OK with it.

Translation: "Now that we've thrown the leech overboard, and the sharks look well fed, we can get on with trying to duct tape the burning pile of rubble he left behind back into something that resembles what SCE looked like before he went all Hulk-Smash. Thank you all for understanding and for buying our placeholder console and look forward to buying a real one sometime in the future."

I'll believe it when I see it. Jimbo's show is over now, but we won't know for sure if these guys will fix it or double down on it in his wake. With Hulst still at the top, I have doubts. All hope lies in Nishino having a clue and Totoki holding the reigns. No faith in Hulst at all.

@DennisReynolds To be fair, Nintendo, back in their best days, was privately owned by the Yamauchi family and didn't have a corporate CEO. And Valve is still privately owned by Gabe Newell and doesn't have a corporate CEO. Not falling into that trap of your customers not actually being your customer is why he's said he never went public.

@Deadlyblack @Shakybeeves Tretton and Layden were never CEO of SIE, both where just CEO of SIE-America. During their time, Kaz Hirai, then Andrew House, then Kaz Hirai again were CEO of SIE. However all four of those leaders were phenomenal in the roles. Then arrived Jimbo and Hulst....

@IamJT Revenue, yes. Margin, is a different, more important figure, though. If they blow all that extra revenue on the budget of the game, it's worth nothing. That's where Jimbo flopped.

Their not gonna change anything. Hulst was apart of the initial live service push with Ryan. I won't be buying a PS6 till I start to see games coming that excite me again.

Bring back the late PS3 and PS4 days, so many great Sony Studios AAA games and not cross generation either or remasters.
What have Sony done to Sony. They have dispensed with what made them great and moved onto something they think they can make more money on.
If they are successful then good for them but they won’t be getting my money until I get those big AAA campaign studio games that push the PS5 to wow, turn up.
I will spend my money on third party titles on my series x and game pass and Nintendos big AAA games.

This will be the first year in my entire day one PS1 Sony PlayStation life that I will not spend a single penny on a Sony Studio game, that says a lot.

@OldGamer999 You won't spend a penny on a playstation studios game this year but will play Nintendo's AAA games which I suppose includes Mario games? If so then you shouldn't have a problem with Astro Bot as that is the most Nintendo-ish game from Playstation with similarities to Mario's 3D adventures. Maybe give that a try and you never know you may enjoy it.

@NEStalgia very true. I think it also wins on profit margin… even if it flops. I’m not happy about it, but it’s very very possible.

@UltimateOtaku91
Loved the first Astro bots game on PS5
It is a Sony Studio game? If I’m wrong then that maybe the only game I get from their studios this year. Which being honest is not great.

I’m not against Sony totally I have just purchased the X95L 65 Sony TV and what a TV.

But I can’t help it if Sony are not producing those amazing AAA campaign games much anymore.

@UltimateOtaku91
Yes you are correct 👍

@NEStalgia Still has a boss/CEO and management running things, Gabe is the CEO or good as.

@IamJT IDK, I sort of can't imagine the budget for that being anything short of obscene, and I can't imagine the Atrobot budget being that large.

But, if we're in an era where a terrible failure of a disposable game is more profitable than an ok selling real game, gaming is certainly done for. At some point we need to hit a bottom where there's just no one else to milk. A game like this where it's only on PS and PC, and PC players have really no reason to look twice at it, is going to have a rough time getting spend. PS players already have more popular games to play, and from what they showed the only selling point this game has is cutscenes. Will that get enough people shoveling money into skins? I don't think there's hope for gaming in general if the answer is yes.

@DennisReynolds President or CEO, yes, but very different set of priorities. Namely, not chasing shareholder demands for non-stop growth from nowhere, and an understanding of how the numbers work. They're all chasing money, or making some bad decisions, but private ownership is making decisions on what makes the product more popular, more durable in the market. Public traded CES are only there to quell the next quarter's furious ranting from spreadsheet wielders looking for any way to double the next quarter, even if they have to liquidate all their products and fold to do it.

It’s not exciting for me knowing that they are no where near as great as the PS3/PS4 generations and it doesn’t look to be happening ANYTIME SOON!

@LazyLombax Sony Bend you say? Let me look………………..it’s been…………….. since 2019 they released their last game 😐.

5 DAMN YEARS AND WE KNOW NOTHING!

as the derps say, LeT tHeM cOoK

To be honest, best of luck to them. Some of the negativity Sony are getting is a little over the top on here if I’m honest. And my advice, would be ignore the noise a little. We have 8 first party exclusives* in 2024 (or partner exclusives and others released on Steam):

Helldivers 2
FF7 Rebirth
Rise of the Ronin
Stellar Blade
Concorde
Until Dawn (remaster)
Astro Bot
Silent Hill 2 (remake)

For a ‘quiet’ year, that’s super impressive and I am excited about many of these. Both Rebirth and Astrobot could be GOTY contenders (and a lot of these feel very spiritually at home on PlayStation as well - SH and FF7 have super strong association with the brand; Astro Bot is a celebration of PlayStation and feels like a modern day Ape Escape; Steller Blade has mad PS2 energy and Rise of the Ronin feels very at home too - big open world, third person action game. Helldivers 2 honestly feels inspired by SOCOM in a strange way to me).

A lot of these are also from smaller, double AA teams as well. PlayStation are making some healthy profit (which has not historically always been the case) and the larger games are coming - dev cycles can be 5-10 years now (Helldivers 2 - double AA dev etc. 8 years to make). Hardware is excellent as well - Portal and the consoles are selling well. It’s all fine really - they are doing what they always do.

*Edit: not to mention Pacific Drive (not an exclusive, also on Steam or Epic) but actually one of the most original games I have ever played on my PS5 this gen.

"While we don’t always get things right"
True - GAAS

"we always listen, learn"
Then listen, and focus much less on GAAS/multiplayer only

"and grow and adapt"
First try getting back to the Sony that customers flocked to for many years, as opposed to the Sony we have now that seems intent on P###ing off customers.

Rant over.

Looks like you're in for a heart surgery or transplantation when you don't listen to them

@UltimateOtaku91 don't count on any GR game in future. The franchise performed much below their expectations.

@Pistolega Nintendo aren't kicking their butts this Gen because Nintendo have yet to enter this Gen, the Switch is a last gen console. The PS5 is doing as good as the PS4 so far so its all good really, sure the 1st party side is lacking but well get used to it as shocker games take a lot of time to make. Overall though i'm happy, i mean so far this year the PS5 has seen 3 exclusives and 1 console exclusive, a good 3rd party line up, tons of great Indies and this month has V Rising, Elden Ring DLC, SMT V and more. Last year was also one of the best years in gaming games wise as well.

Make more games like Astro Bot, please!

Talk is cheap.

I want Kaz Hirai back...

@TrickyDicky99 And I think PushSquare misspelt ‚Hermen‘.

@Marquez you're right. Let's not decrease upper management pay, fire 900+ people, and raise the cost of PS Plus and games. Oh, and let's prevent 180 regions from being able to purchase the PC titles...seems like a good balance to me. They should keep up the incredible work...

Good to know that we're at the heart of everything they do, but yet we know next to nothing about what they are doing. We know of 2 1st party single player games that are in development, but we are still waiting on several other developers that are MIA to reveal something.

Part of that reads like there's going to be more layoffs.

@DennisReynolds I'm sure it's an exciting time to pad your wallets.

Of course we all know that companies generally just run that way, it's how the world runs.

But just a little thought experiment: imagine a world where (gaming) companies aren't publicly traded, but just exist to create workplaces, create a good product and get by without having to make insane amounts of profit?

Of course one would say impossible because it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism, but it wouldn't hurt to dream a little bigger once in a while, would it. I recommend the book utopia for realists from Rutger Bregman.

I lost all hope on western entertainment, and that includes playstation too since playstation is california company now 😕

I mostly play retro games (analogue pocket, evercade exp, new 2ds xl) and nintendo switch games nowadays.

To be honest it’s easier to exceed expectations when you’re taking over a bad business than a good one. Of course time games take to make, we won’t really know how good or bad they are doing until about 5-7 years in.

"The PlayStation community is at the heart of everything we do"

Then engage with us! Can't say much about the hardware guy but as Hulst was Ryan's right hand man, I can't say I'm brimming with confidence.

Thank god let's just pretend the Jim Ryan cash comes first era didn't exist bring on a good future for playstation and go back to focusing on new games

@tameshiyaku Might as well imagine a world without capitalism. Its never going away and if something exists that makes money well capitalism will get involved, it isn't new to gaming its been there since the start

Hopefully they'll step back and see the disdain many have for live service nonsense and pivot back towards decent actual games. And notice they've this fantastic bit of kit called PSVR2 that has so much potential.
Of course, I'm likely to end up with wet shoes, but without hope we've nothing. Guess I could get my PC back to a gameable state and get back into iRacing. I only need to take a mortgage out to get a new GPU....

@OldGamer999

Hey not to be pedantic but those 'old school' IPs you listed are all extremely recent in Sony's history. And by recent I mean just about brand new.

Twisted Metal, Aquanauts Holiday, Jersey Devil, Tiny Tank, Omega Boost, Ape Escape, Medievil, Carnage Heart... these are just a few of the largely forgotten, weird and cool titles on which the PlayStation legacy was built and grown - truly "old school" PlayStation.

God of War, Ghosts of Tsushima, Horizon etc. aren't bad games by an means, but the above franchises are the ones I would like to see return. Or the spirit of these titles at least. Which I'd argue the new games don't really capture all that well, being AAA blockbusters, which is fundamentally a far cry from how they did stuff back then.

The tough thing for us people that have been around a minute is realizing a person playing games today probably can't remember IPs from just ten years ago, let alone 30, because they weren't even born yet. Yeah, we are old.

@add286

I think there's two distinct things going on here, where I can both agree and disagree with you in principle at the same time.

For one, we have never had more choice, if you look at the industry as a whole (AAA, AA, and indies), good games are still releasing in nearly every genre of you look beyond purely AAA blockbusters. I can't recall ever having more access to this much at once. And there's still a lot of creativity - again, you just have to look beyond AAA.

For the second point, I'd say being here since day one on the first PlayStation, back when people didn't know what to even make of that weird gray 'toy' that played CDs, I have never had less confidence in Sony's vision or business. And I don't mean the financials, I think they are doing alright there. I don't feel their financial health is really relevant to my main concerns.

But you are right, it's not a horrible year overall for "exclusives", but this is a mid-gen year. They should be firing on all cylinders and have picked up the pace around this point in past gens. Not the case this time around. That list would impress me for a launch lineup, not where we should be at today. Also, Sony's business culture has appeared to have changed substantially, with a naked focus on monetization over creativity and this has been compounded by an overall very strange and withdrawn communication style with the community.

The Sony of today I would simply describe as odd and almost hostile. I mean, I get this corporation has never been our friend, but it's kind of like watching an old buddy who was lively and fun slowly descend into depression and become a recluse. Kinda sad honestly. Just feels different, and overall I think their output is serviceable but objectively sucks compared to previous gens, for my money. The weirdness started with the PS5 being announced in a Wired article, which I thought was absolutely insane and out of character - and it progressed from there, getting worse.

I'm optimistic about the industry as a whole. Feels vibrant and full of possibility. Conversely, I am just about ready to write Sony (and most AAA publishers) off completely. They are not the same as they used to be. I personally hate the term "consumer friendly" and feel it gets overused. But yes, Sony personally feels unfriendly to me as a customer and they are not meeting my expectations at this time. I hope this changes.

@UnlimitedSevens yeah man. Great points, and agree to some extent. Completely see why you may think like that.

I think for me: financial stuff does matter a bit (like the profit from both the PS1 and PS2 was wiped out by the PS3 losses). It’s quite odd, but Sony didn’t really start make decent profit until the PS4 - so, as much as I would love a return to an older industry (I’m a PS1 player mainly today as well - currently playing GT2 😊), I can see why Sony have shifted a bit. My frustration is about lay offs (considering Sony have made 2.5b in profit each year since 2020). But, the ultimate point is: the financials dictate what is possible for Sony to do (whether we like it or not).

I think that lists is interesting - because Factions should be there too. You are absolute right: it is weaker than maybe we would expect but we also have to concede that the early years were also far stronger than normal - just think about the early years this gen: we had Demon Souls, Returnal, Ratchet, HFW, GT7, SM2, God of War: R FF16 and FF7 Rebirth - like for the first 3 years, that is ridiculous. So practically, there is going to be a lull as those big games, just take years now (and people should not crunch, we know better now). Maybe they could have remastered Killzone or something? Farm an IP to a second party dev - I like the idea but I suspect it won’t make too much money. And the simple issue is exactly what you describe, the market is already providing so much (there are so many great games), this means that Sony does not need to push it - they can just be the platform it all gets put on, where people buy it (see Valve too).

And it’s weird, but that’s how Sony did play it PS1 and PS2, they did publish great games but so much of their success is about building a platform for third party etc. live service communities in the modern context as well.

I’m optimistic too about all of it - and the communication issues of Sony is probably a result of febrile media environment that creates mountains out of molehills and silliness. Sadly, era we are in.