I think if you look at the state of ALL publishers, you would see that Diversity and output are very different now than during the PS3/360 era. You can go back another 10yrs and see that there was less diversity in the PS3/360 era than the PS1 'era'.
Its not surprising really considering that Games are costing a LOT more time and money to make so publishers are more likely to green light games that they think are most likely to sell. If you look at Activision, 10yrs ago, they were releasing games like James Bond, Spider-Man, Transformers, X-Men, Tony Hawkes, Skylanders, TMNT, Cabela Hunts, Angry Birds, Prototype etc etc. Back then, Infinity Ward was Call of Duty and Treyarch made Quantum of Solace and Spider-Man games. Now, Activision release Call of Duty backed up by a remaster or two (Crash, Spyro..)
EA too isn't releasing all the variety of games either. Go back 10yrs and EA were releasing games like Army of Two, Dante's Inferno, Skate, Dead Space, Medal of Honor, RockBand, Bulletstorm, Crysis, Burnout, Shadows of the Damned, SSX, Syndicate etc etc.
This was just 10yrs ago from 2 third party publishers. It seems those days are gone now as games take longer and longer to build and costs rise. Publishers are going to back projects that they think will be the most lucrative and/or the one that already has a 'fanbase' (ie Sequel).
Sony may well be doing a lot of 3rd Person action/adventure single player games but trying to think like a Publisher, those are the games that Sony have had their biggest successes in the past decade or more. Yes they may have made more 'niche' and distinctly Japanese games in the past but why green light a project that takes 3-4yrs to sell 1-2m games when they could spend the same time making a game that ends up being nominated (if not winning) Game of the Year and selling 5-10x as many copies. Even with the added benefits of being a Platform holder too, they still will want 'sales'. If that type of game is 'popular' on your platform in terms of sales, they are the projects that Sony are most likely to invest in. If they have a choice between a 3rd person action adventure or a 1st Person Shooter, you'd expect Sony to invest in the 3rd Person game because of past successes and struggles competing with games like Doom, CoD, Battlefield, Wolfenstein, Titanfall etc etc. Killzone and Resistance have gone...
MS are in a different position because game sales are 'not' part of the discussion. Game Pass has removed that from the equation. They can effectively take more risk because the goal is about player engagement and bringing in more subscribers - as well as keeping those subscribers subscribed. As the games are already paid for essentially, Subscribers are more likely to download a game that they were on the fence about, try games that are more 'niche' and/or distinct. Of course you will still get your sequels and more 'commercial' offerings too but Game Pass can free up creativity because MS don't necessarily need to pick projects they think will sell more or try and force Devs to incorporate latest trends (like adding in MP, Battle Royale etc).
This is of course the AAA market with Studio's under a Publishers umbrella. Indie Devs are still making the Projects they want - whether its a passion project or making something to jump on or create the next big thing. They still have to sell their idea to a publisher though. I doubt Rocket League would have become the 'big' game it did had it not been on PS+ day 1 so it shows that engagement is 'very' important. Free takes away a 'barrier' to engage with games - although technically, there is a 'paywall' through a Subscription but people are more likely to try something when its part of their subscription than spend £15+.
Personally, I love 3rd Person Action Adventures. My favourite games of the past gen have all been 3rd Person Action Adventure games - not just Linear, but open world with/without RPG elements. The Witcher 3, Uncharted, Gears 4/5, Horizon: ZD, AC: Origins/Valhalla, Sunset Overdrive, Days Gone, Spider-Man etc. Right now, I am playing the Medium, AC: Valhalla, Control, Days Gone and Spider-Man Remastered - everyone a 3rd Person game. I am really looking forward to games like Horizon 2, God of War: Ragnarok etc so owning a PS5 makes total sense - even if the majority of games are released on Xbox too. Of course I am looking forward to Hellblade II, Avowed, Fable, Gears 6, Starfield etc too so it makes sense to own both.
I know Sony are going to release more games on PC soon, but it looks like 'older' games - H:ZD released 2-3yrs later on PC, Day's Gone looks like it could be 2yrs after releasing on PS4 etc. Xbox too releases ALL their games Day 1 on PC too so you could 'wait' in hope that the Playstation 1st Party exclusive you want to play comes to PC eventually. If you would rather play on PC, that's an option for sure and it will come down to individual preference and budgets. As more and more devs/publishers embrace Cross-play, platform choice becomes more about personal preference than about which platform most of your friends bought.
I know if you liked a lot of the more Niche games, Sony seems to be moving more towards the 'commercial' choice. These games tend to sell ~1m copies with over 100m consoles in the wild whilst a game like Days Gone sells that on its opening weekend despite a more average review score. At the moment, the Astro Bot tech demo on PS5 is a lot more popular than Gravity Rush and probably why they are restructuring around that. Also, its easier to buy into a project when its much further along its development, buy 'exclusivity' on more 'risky' games. Much easier to see the potential in a working demo with realised game-play.
It would be great to see some more innovation in gaming but I think we are at a point where innovation is more 'iterative' than transformative. Going from Black & White, to 8 colours, to 32 colours to now a Billion, from simple beeps, to digitised sound/speech, to full CD quality audio/speech, from a single 2D plain (like Snake, Space Invaders, Pac-Man) to multi-layer 2D plains (like a lot of 2D platformers, Fighting games etc - games with layers in the background scrolling at different rates - to Faux 3D relying on Perspective to create the illusion of 3D (like a lot of early racing games), From Sprites to fully realised 3D polygonal models increasing in Polygon counts with each new generation.
Point is, after you reach a certain point, any increase stops being transformative and becomes more 'iterative'. We are up to a Billion colours available now and whilst that's a massive amount 'more' than 16.7m colours available with 8-bit colour (HDR is 10bit - hence HDR10) but its not as big a change as moving from 8 colours to 32. Despite the massive increase in Polygon counts, you reach a point where the gains become iterative too. A classic example is the 'car' in Racing games - cars were very much a box with a texture to add details like lights, grills etc. The whole back end of a car could be just 1 polygon and today, every detail can be a polygon. Just the back light alone will have many, many more polygons than an entire car. The Batmobile in Arkham Knight has more Polygons than the entire city of Arkham City on the previous generation. Games like Forza and Gran Turismo can look Photo Realistic on PS4/XB1.
Being able to move Data incredibly fast, I don't think, will lead to innovation. Yes it may help in some areas - like no longer needing transition loading areas - (like the lifts, the slow open doors etc) and speed up loading etc but I think that's iterative. Separating areas to allow streaming of new assets may change how games are developed and give devs more scope to be creative, for the gamer, I think its going to feel more iterative because the game-play loop will still be similar with maybe more density and fewer quiet/slow or waiting (to load in inc from Fast Travel). There were far less 'empty' areas and much less 'loading' on the last gen than on the PS3/360 era. Every building had a loading transition on last gen, now you can go into most buildings without issue, move from one area in a map to the next without a 'long' transition.
Ray Tracing isn't necessarily 'transformative' to the game-play. Its not as if Devs haven't ever been able to create a great looking game with 'decent' lighting effects - even if they are not as realistically accurate as RT and can 'break' (like SSR). It could be transformative in Game Play if used as part of the experience. A good example could be a Horror Survival where Shadows, Reflections etc play into the loop. Of course they could build a game that does the same without RT, but its more tricky to do that in Real Time. You can script a Shadow or Reflection to show at a fixed point but RT could allow for more Random encounters. If the Enemy is behind you, its not going to reflect or create a shadow unless the dev scripts it or uses RT because its not in view.
Anyway, the fact is that we are at a point where the technology is evolved to a point that the transformative milestones have been realised. I doubt we will see anything that fundamentally changes gaming like moving from 2D and sprites to 3D and Polygons did. Even 4th dimension (time) has been explored with the ability to rewind your game.
That doesn't mean that I think creativity is dead - far from it. Now the creativity is on Story, on Characters/development, lore, environment etc. The game-play will no doubt be something we have seen and done before. 3D character movement hasn't really changed from Super Mario 64 where we crept, walked, ran, jumped, double/triple jumped, flew, skated, slid, climbed, fell, swam etc around a 3D environment. We have navigated environments on foot and every type of vehicle imaginable, we have been to historical places, modern day and futuristic places, Explored all types of Biomes with such a range of environments and wildlife, Defeated a whole range of enemies from 'human' Soldiers to Mythical/Science Fiction creatures and even Gods, from Aliens to Zombies using everything from Melee to Swords/Bows, from Magic/powers to modern day guns to futuristic Alien weapons and saved the 'world' as well as the girl, the town/city, the base etc many times, got the treasure etc. I have been a hero and villain, won and lost, Survived against seemingly overwhelming odds to battle monumental adversaries - either on my own or with friends. I think its 'difficult' now to come up with something truly original after 50yrs. Even if the character, setting and story are unique, the game-play is not likely to be at a fundamental level.
I would be interested to hear if anyone has any ideas of something that is totally unique. Not a setting or story they haven't seen, a game-play loop that hasn't been done. I can't think of anything that wouldn't borrow 'something' from what has come before. I'd love to hear an idea that has never been done before and that now, with the power of modern technology is now possible. Warping from one world to a next (R&C for example) isn't transformative to me if the game-play loop in each world is more of the same. It could 'still' be possible on older gen too - if you want to wait for each world to load whilst you warp in. The rest of the game-play in those worlds looks like every other R&C game - not that its a problem - but its not 'game changing' to me.
I am not criticising that 'lack' of something radically 'new' in terms of game play - I just think that we are now at a point where technology hasn't impeded development. In the early 80's, the hardware limited games to 2D sprites made of limited colours in a 'low' res image. Look at the evolution of Mario from Donkey Kong to today. Lara Croft too is another good example of how Polygons have transformed character models and environments but Lara looked the way she did because of hardware limitations. Mario looked the way he did because of hardware limitations. Conversations used to be Speech bubbles with Text, then the odd digitised word and now we have full orchestral scores and full surround sound. No technological limitations there - or with Colour and its the same with Polygons now too...
Therefore, I do believe that we will get more 'iteration' than 'innovation', more 'refinement' than transformation, more Quality of Life improvement than game-changing...
A pessimist is just an optimist with experience!
Why can't life be like gaming? Why can't I restart from an earlier checkpoint??
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@LtSarge Japan studio needed restructuring given the number of talented people they have working there they produced surprisingly few games in recent years. Even when they produce high-quality games like gravity rush 2 they were commercially unsuccessful even in Japan.
The way they went about the reconstruction is indefensible. They got rid of a lot of talented people instead of spinning them off into new studios. They certainly could’ve produced a new horror orientated studio out of Japan studios and possibly other teams could’ve been repurposed as well. Essentially they’ve cut a poorly organised multi team developer into a single team developer.
@Ryall I know that the studio needed restructuring, but restructuring for Sony was to downsize the studio, which is not the type of restructuring that was needed. Like you said, you don't just get rid of all that talent. You try to figure out in what other ways these talents could be useful going forward. This just shows how little Sony cares about the Japanese market now.
@BAMozzy And the Longest Post of the Year Award goes to...
Seriously though, you're not wrong. A lot of games are in 3rd person. When Xbox was really thriving in the late Xbox/most of 360 generations, there seemed to be a shift to 1st person, and now the big thing is 3rd person games (especially open-world action/RPGs). The thing is, just because a lot of games are 3rd person doesn't mean they are all similar. While I didn't mention it before, technically Ratchet & Clank and basically any Sony patented 3rd person action/adventure are different as Ratchet & Clank is a 3rd person action/platformer.
My biggest problem is that they seem to want everything to be molded into the same thing (outside of the exceptions like Ratchet & Clank since it really can't be), even taking God of War and changing it to their current formula. The majority of their games are a formula now, which in the end hurts enjoyment no matter how good they end up being because there's a sense of deja vu. Miles Morales was a really good game, but aside from the Venom attacks, I felt like I was playing the first game all over again throughout the game. I'll give that one a slight pass given that it's not a true sequel, but they've basically already said that Horizon Forbidden West will be the exact same game as Zero Dawn. As good as the DualSense is, there needs to be more innovation beyond having to press a trigger harder or feeling fancy vibrations.
With all of that said, which "side" do I think has the overall deepest gaming experiences as a whole over the course of this generation? Probably PS5 owners as the Xbox side is more about potential right now since we won't see the full effects of all of these acquisitions for several years, and it's still hard to argue about the overall quality of PlayStation Studios games and their group of developers. Still, it was still pretty discouraging to see them basically close Japan Studio basically because they refused to conform to generate better sales. The PlayStation brand has to be making at least close to record profits right now due to the pandemic, so it's not like they couldn't still take some risks.
@urrutiap Yeah it came out and it's great, definitely get it!
So if you're getting a PS4, then you obviously want to get the exclusive games. The best ones to start out with would be God of War (2018), Horizon Zero Dawn and Marvel's Spider-Man since I think those games appeal to everyone. Then there are more linear experiences like The Last Guardian, Until Dawn, the QuanticDream titles (Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human, the last one I highly recommend) and the Uncharted series. If you're into Japanese games then I would highly recommend checking out Danganronpa, Trails of Cold Steel and Persona series. If you like having completely different experiences in video games, then Death Stranding is the game for you.
There are a lot of exclusives on PS4 but those are the ones that are my top picks. I still haven't played games like Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part II but those are highly regarded as well. I have played the first The Last of Us but I didn't like it as many others did.
I've been anticipating this for a couple of months now ever since Sony emailed me and told me that I wouldn't be able to purchase games directly from the Vita store anymore. It still really sucks considering the Vita has so many great games, not to mention the immense library of PS3. I'm hoping Microsoft doesn't go the same path, but considering how much they are focusing on BC on Xbox compared to Sony I don't think the 360 store will shut down anytime soon. Really goes to show how anti-consumer Sony is if they don't care about neither backwards compatibility nor preserving games.
@LtSarge I get the other two but there are still a few Vita games due out... I mean they are more novelty but still. sighs Poor Vita she never got to shine...
I fear the day Nintendo takes the 3DS store down due to the bank and the old the Pokémon games :/
@mousieone I'm more concerned about the Wii U eShop myself. It was shut down in South America last year and it'll most likely be shut down very soon (i.e. within the next year) for the rest of the world. I've been slowly buying games from the Virtual Console as a result, such as GBA and DS titles, since these aren't available on the Switch. People have seriously no idea what a gold mine Virtual Console is on Wii U. You can get games like Golden Sun and Advance Wars for €7 a piece, or DS titles like Mario & Luigi Partners in Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky for €10 each. Absolute steal!
@LtSarge I think I'm going to do the same when I have a bit more cash flow, bung a £100 gift card on my Nintendo account and pick up certain eshop exclusives for Wii U and 3DS.
It's mainly the DS games on the big screen with a touch screen controller that I want. I've got the two Zelda's and brain training and a couple of others already.
My favourite display option is having the two screens above eachother on a portrait monitor. It works well with touch screen heavy games where it's ok to also hold the game pad in portrait but it's a shame the control schemes aren't customisable.
If a game doesn't use the touch screen at all then I'd want the images to be stacked vertically on the portrait monitor and use the pro controller to play them. Doesn't seem like this is an option though last time I tried it. It's a shame really as previous non-DS VC releases have customisable controls with an abundance of controller options but all that is stripped out of the DS releases.
@ralphdibny Well to be honest, it's a miracle that Nintendo even got DS games working on Wii U at all, lol. I'm not too fussed about the customisation even though I would've liked some more options as well. Being able to pay €10 for DS titles when these usually go for at least €60 each when bought second-hand makes up for the lack of more options in my opinion. But yeah, whenever I play games with a heavy focus on using the touch screen, I just play the game vertically on the Gamepad from beginning to end. But with games like Mario & Luigi, which barely use the touch screen, I prefer the "Touch Screen Focus" option where both screens are shown on the TV and the Gamepad, but the touch screen is more zoomed in while the top screen is much smaller.
If you're ever in need for some recommendations on what to buy from Virtual Console, I'd be happy to oblige! I'm currently working my way through the GBA Castlevania games (which are all Metroidvanias) and the first one, Circle of the Moon, is pretty dang good so far. According to NintendoLife, the third GBA Castlevania game, Aria of Sorrow, is the best Castlevania game ever made. So I'm definitely looking forward to playing that one eventually.
@TheFrenchiestFry TBH the official GBA emulation on 3DS is not very good, not to the point of what a commercial product should be. Most in house Nintendo emulators have tons of issues IMHO.
@LtSarge As for GBA recommendations all Castlevania games are highly recommended. Aria of Sorrow is clearly the best of the three and one of the best in the series. However if you are in jrpg the Golden Sun duology is a must play.
@LtSarge yeah I suppose you are right. It's just frustrating that the only paid option for these games is just short of a perfect way to play them on a big screen. I've tried unofficial emulators on the raspberry pi but it's a bit weird using an analog stick to control the touch screen. Likewise I've used an emulator on my android phone with a gamepad attached, it's cool but it's still a small screen so it defeats the object of it. There has to be a perfect solution here but I fear it will be a bit pricey. Something like a decent sized tablet with decent specs that can simultaneously play the emulator and cast to a larger display with little to no latency or garbled image.
It's mad some of the games are so expensive, you can buy the more popular ones (which had higher print runs to meet demand) for peanuts over here.
Cheers for the offer though! I think the games I would be interested in picking up would be my favourites from the system for big screen play like Mario Kart DS and Mario 64 DS and also a few games in series that I am looking to get into one day in the distant future. Stuff like Fire Emblem and Advance Wars. There's maybe one or two games that have Wii U exclusive-ish features like the Mario Advance 4 release that unlocks all of the e reader levels from the get go.
@TheFrenchiestFry I'm not sure really, I can understand the initial 10 games not being released again to appease the ambassadors. Maybe they would be their top selling releases anyway so they didn't see the point in expanding the selection. Booting a GBA game on the 3DS did something weird to it too, like it completely shut down the rest of the 3DS. I think in normal games and apps you can go to the home menu and mess around but you couldn't do that with GBA games, maybe they just used all the systems power and weren't viable for retail release or something.
@belmont I just bought Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and Golden Sun on Wii U. Can't wait to play through these games!
I do feel more pressured into buying older games now that I've seen so much talk about the PS stores shutting down, even though Nintendo hasn't announced anything about 3DS/Wii U eShops. Still got some more games to buy on Wii U and Cave Story on 3DS on the Nintendo side. On the PlayStation side, I need to buy Siren Blood Curse on PS3 and on Vita Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. Not to mention going through all the PS1 games on Vita and making sure that I've bought all the games that I want to play.
I've been going on a PSOne Classics shopping spree since those reports came out about the PS Store shutting down on Vita in late August
I already have a crap ton of PSP and PS1 stuff on my console but there were still outliers I needed to snag
I really hope that patent Sony just filed about retro emulation actually materializes into something because even though I don't think the software on Series X/S is very interesting to me, even I know their backwards compatibility initiative is goddamn incredible and Sony basically has no reason not to come out with something similar, especially since they used to take it so seriously
@TheFrenchiestFry Somehow I feel like the emulation will just be remastered PS2 or PS3 games on PS5, similarly to how they added a fair amount of PS2 titles on PS4. I somehow doubt they'll make it so you'll be able to play games that you already own, even if you own them digitally. But we'll just have to see.
Out of curiosity, what are some PS1 games that you've bought? I recently bought Alundra (top down Zelda-like game), Suikoden I & II, and Wild Arms 1. I'm definitely interested in buying more hidden gems that I've missed out on. I've heard good things about the Fear Effect games for example.
@LtSarge Most of my PS1 catalogue is on Vita but I have so far most of the Final Fantasy stuff like the PS1 versions of FF Origins, FFV and FFVI, Tactics and IV Complete, Metal Gear Solid & VR Missions, Symphony of the Night, Mega Man Legends 1 & 2, Mega Man X4-6, Suikoden 1 and 2, Wild Arms, Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (alongside the other numbered entries from the PSP and P4G), Oddworld Abe's Exodus and Odysee, the original PS1 Crash trilogy, Resident Evil 2 & 3, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, Parasite Eve and The Legend of Dragoon
Probably picking up a few more before the Store reportedly closes down at the end of August. I also have some PSP games still on my radar I need to snag
@TheFrenchiestFry The change of attitude towards backwards compatibility is likely a result of Jim Ryan being in charge. After all you have this infamous quote from 2017:
“When we've dabbled with backwards compatibility, I can say it is one of those features that is much requested, but not actually used much. That, and I was at a Gran Turismo event recently where they had PSone, PS2, PS3, and PS4 games, and the PSone and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?”
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