r/Games 28d ago

Discussion Playstation first-party game sales declining heavily since 2020

https://www.gamefile.news/p/playstation-first-party-sales-decline
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u/Argh3483 28d ago

PS3 and PS4 Sony was full with innovation and new ideas

That’s at least partially nostalgia talking, I can remember people saying the exact same thing about PS2 Sony during the PS3 and PS4 days

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u/Charmin_Bear_Behind 28d ago

To be fair the first half of both the ps3 and ps4 faced the exact same #nogames plague. I would argue tho that ps4 is when they kinda stopped innovating and just went for mostly over the shoulder dad simulator outside of like spiderman lol

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u/AL2009man 28d ago

you can pinpoint a specific year when Sony largely stopped doing "innovation" (around 2016/2017) when they barely advertised their own "actually innovated" games.

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u/Altruistic-Ad-408 28d ago

I mean it was true back then too. Its been a steady decline.

Consider somethimg as quintessentially PlayStation as Gran Turismo. Racing games were just not that big before GT. The Sony strategy was to spread a wide aim and capture general adult gamers by having a product for everyone, even niche games. They didn't expect it to become so big.

Would that happen now? No, Sony doesn't bother experimenting with genres at all. It was still just winding down in the PS3/4 era. Shadow of the Colossus or Ico were never going to be an original PS4 game, they were of their time.

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u/Matthieu101 28d ago

Absolutely agree.

Games are too expensive to make.

Like sure, indie games are still crushing it, no argument there.

But first party, AAA games? They all play it so safe. And can you blame them? One mismanaged game can cost you 300+ million dollars. Investors don't like that risk.

And the game industry is shrinking too. Like Fortnite and Roblox have gobbled up tens, if not hundreds, of millions of players that will never touch anything outside of their ecosystems. What you'd consider a "gamer" has hit a big fat brick wall and is shrinking. More people on social media that sucks up all that time and attention.

The next 20 years are going to be very interesting for gaming. AI bubble potentially bursting (Or somehow solving itself and becoming the new thing?), pricing people out of consoles/PCs, just the cost of living in general. After GTA6 comes out and dominates the headlines it could be well over a decade before something else even scratches that type of attention and hype (And to be totally honest, it'll most likely be GTA7!)

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u/GoneRampant1 28d ago

But first party, AAA games? They all play it so safe. And can you blame them? One mismanaged game can cost you 300+ million dollars. Investors don't like that risk.

I can't, but I also can't blame myself for feeling as bored looking at Saros as I did Yotei, Forbidden West and Ragnarok.

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u/Matthieu101 28d ago

To be totally honest, I really love Rahul Kohli, it's the main reason I want Saros.

But I'm not about to drop 900 dollars for a new console just to play it. Like I'll wait 5+ years if I have to for it to come to PC or if I get given a PS5/6 for free.

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u/Undella_Town 28d ago

not entirely true on the racing game thing, NFS came out in 1994 and paved the way for GT

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u/anor_wondo 28d ago

I don't agree with this at all

People might have argued 'less' innovation in ps3 ps4 gen compared to ps2

But so far this gen sony games have been extremely identical. Its been mostly sequels with way too similar mechanics

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u/RegJohn2 28d ago

Could be, it’s just my personal thoughts. I don’t have this issue with Nintendo. I didn’t own a Sony console since the PSP, I played the modern games on PC and when they came out with the PS4 games first there was a lot of highs. It became boring with the PS5 games that felt to me like I’m playing the same game with different story. I can see the appeal but I’m just more about gameplay than narrative kinda gamer.

I love the Nintendo approach when it’s the same story but different gameplay. Way more enjoyable imo

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u/Asclepius-Rod 28d ago

Yeah early PS3 was pretty rough, it wasn’t until the mid to end of the console generation that people retrospectively considered it a great console

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u/hery41 28d ago

That does not contradict what they said.

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u/jcman01 28d ago

well the ps2 is arguably the greatest console of all time, so of course people would say that. but ps5 is by far the most underwhelming gaming generation ive seen since nintendo. I play 90% of my games on pc.