Four Mistakes Sony Should Correct Next Console Generation

Sony’s PlayStation 3 has finally caught up in terms of sales after a sluggish start this generation, but the PlayStation brand has certainly lost a lot of ground when compared to its previous domination. In light of this, Dan Jenko suggests how the Japanese giants can rectify the situation next time around.

[Root]

"The loss of strong first-party developers"

Whaaa...they got rid of them because after chance after chance they wern't making games good enough to sell.

We would be moaning if Sony was loosing more money and they DIDN'T close them down.

I mean they did make ND into two teams so they can produce more then one new IP franchise per gen.

[TheGamerDood]

"with arguably little benefit in terms of technical performance"

What in the actual f***! Can he name any console game that surpassed the visuals of GOW, UC, KZ?

"Obviously Sony have fallen on hard times"

Just Sony? How about the whole freaking world that's been going through a recession. Yet no mention of MS and their almost total lack of exclusives for the past couple of years and the fact that they're ending of this generation with barely anything at all while Sony is pushing out GOW, The Last of US, Beyond.

[Gazondaily]

Well, relatively, in terms of the intricacy of the Cell processor and the results that followed, many will argue that the benefits really didn't outweigh the difficulties developers may have faced.

The technical performance hasn't been so markedly superior and the manner in which the vast majority of multiplatform performed on the PS3 compared to 360, especially during the early to mid stages of this generation only serve to prove the that the negatives of dealing with the CELL outweighed the benefits.

Watch how Sony take a completely different approach next generation to the one they did this gen.

[TheGamerDood]

right but we're not talking about development or the issues involved in all that we're talking about technical performance and in that regard the PS3 crushed the xbox, and that's evident by the games that Sony brought to market.

[TheGamerDood]

And this is how MS is ending this generation, with more Gears and Halo DLC...yeah that's right DLC. lol Yet the real story here is how poorly Sony is doing even though they've sold more units than MS at 70.2 million and have some of the most anticipated games this generation. Piss off FMV with your FUD.

http://cramgaming.com/micro...

PS3 70.2 million(as of September 30, 2012)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

360 70 million (as of September 30, 2012)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[hylandpad]

The Cell simply did not bring to the table what Sony had advertised. 2 TERAFLOPS of processing power sounds cool when it comes to number crunching - but whether or not PS3 devs benefited from it is undeniable; it made things harder.

One could argue that GoW, UC and KZ ended up looking as good as they did because of the integrity and quality of the studios developing those games.

I don't know if you have looked lately, but recent MS games have been looking damn spiffy. Halo 4 looks great, Far Cry looks fantastic on Xbox 360, AND many of the current gen games STILL run better on a 360 than they do on a PS3. Plain and simple. The how and why are debatable, but the defacto nature of the beast is, what it is.

[WeAreLegion]

More GOTY awards, you say?

Except that Uncharted 2 holds more GOTY awards than any 3 Xbox 360 exclusives combined...

[BABYLEG]

Maybe because uncharted came out in a year when there really wasn't much competition. Play uncharted twice and be done while I play halo for years..

[Ezz2013]

@BABYLEG
what about uncharted 3 in 2011 who won 70+GOTY award
what about MGS4 in 2008 who won all the GOTY awards
what about 2010 when god of war 3 along with RDR won all the GOTY awards
what about journey in 2012 who won as much or more GOTY awards than TWD

xbox exclusives are no where to be found in GOTY awards

[Kevin ButIer]

Sony will be fine...

Awesome first party IPs... not as milked as MS IPs
PSN and + in really good shape
Gaikai ready to be a competitive cloud service
Hardware expertise
Gran Turismo (yes... EU loves this baby)

[theBAWSE]

Again click the plus sign next to the website and mark it down to stop fud like this

if a website is gonna give points give valid points not total crap

[jadenkorri]

wow an opinion, that has no valid points but price, wheres the 360 4 mistakes opinion. Nowhere in sight.

[calis]

I read and reread pete007's attempt at a sentence and still have no freaking clue what the hell he was on about.

[DragonKnight]

Ok, look sniper fanboys using this list to talk about how the Cell isn't so great, who cares? This list is just as bad as that idiot who made the Forbes list.

1. The loss of strong first party developers. WTF is that sh*t? Strong? First of all Sony Liverpool merged with another studio. I forget the name, but I know it starts with an E. Secondly, besides MAG, name a great game that Zipper made this gen? That's right, none, so how we're they strong? Sony still has the best of the best lineup of first party devs cranking out great games, so they did NOT make a mistake in the first party developer department.

2. Failing to integrate Vita with PS3. You mean the still relatively new handheld that still has to get its own features off the ground? Oh I guess the gen is over now right and we have PS4's already? No? So who says this can't still happen? Oh that's right, no one! *sigh*

3. PSN. *facepalm* I'm not even going to justify this idiocy with a response. Clearly if you think PSN is a mistake you've been dead for years.

4. Price and inadequate line-up. That's every console in history's mistake, well one or the other. Many bought a PS3 at launch and they got the best version of the console. Many had no problem with the line-up.

What the hell is wrong with the writers of these stupid lists? It's as though they've been living in sensory deprivation tanks and still think it's November 2006. Dumbass list.

[Gazondaily]

I think Sony will have it covered in the next gen as far as quality first party games are concerned. They set a strong precedent this generation but might not have reaped the rewards they deserve for it.

One thing that's VITAL for Sony to improve on is streamlining the social functionality of the next console. I know its been argued to death but the likes of cross game chat and other similar features have to be properly fleshed out and included day one. It's just simply not acceptable that, to this day, the PS3 won't even allow you to send proper voice messages, something that the original Xbox could do more than a decade ago.Had it been possible to reconcile the situation with the PS3 and social functionality I'm alluding to, MS would have been severely on the back foot.

Sony may have been arrogant (arguably) this generation but with financial woes and lessons made very clear regarding things like developer friendly systems and the online game space, I really do believe Sony will be a veritable force in the industry next gen, much closer to its previous reign a generation ago.

If anything, the competiton is going to be extremely fierce this generation and that only means good things for us gamers.

[hylandpad]

Who heartedly agree with you Septic. On ALL points. MS has their shit together - the Live experience is much more streamlined and functional than PSN's current experience.

[supremacy]

This is exactly what Sony needs to address, the social interactivity of the psn.

xchat is something found on the vita, so you know that is coming.

What they need is to streamline the whole thing like you said.

I honestly hate having to exit an app just to open another in order to message a friend. That seriously needs to be addressed.

Enough memory should ensure the system would be able to multitask properly without much of a hiccup.

Its like everything i do on the vita requires a grey loading screen and that just takes away from the experience.

Believe me if they can solve this and i believe they can. Then psn would be on par with live, then you add those exclusives and we are good my friend.

[DanJenkoFMV]

There's an argument that Zipper's latest few games weren't up to scratch, but SCE Liverpool did some great Wipeout games over the last few years for the PS3 and PSP.

[garos82]

i dont know about you but mag to me was not only revolutionary but an extremely fun and under appreciated game. a technical marvel in both scope and online lack of latency

[GribbleGrunger]

The only thing I agree with there is releasing with a lower price. The first three prove he knows nothing.

[Hingle_Mcringleberry]

I've been having a debate about the subject of shutting down studios with someone here on n4g who believes Microsoft ruined RARE.
He argues that Microsoft kill off franchises and games that do not sell well whereas SONY keeps supporting underdog IP's. Here's my arguement however, after Perfect Dark Zero, Banjo Nuts & Bolts, Viva Pinata TiP, Kameo all not selling to expectations of Microsoft, they could have easily shut them down. They instead made them focus on more business sound projects and it paid off well. My problem is this, it seems its okay (judging by your agrees) for SONY to shut down studios that were not making games that sell (aforementioned underdog games) and ultimately leave hundreds of people out of a job but it is absolutely evil when Microsoft opts to make a studio develop commercially viable games instead of continuing to make niche games, and ultimately keep their jobs.
How is SONY excused for making business decisions that lead to redundancies but Microsoft is slated for making business decisions that lead to career safety for studios? Can somebody answer that for me? Please?

[showtimefolks]

easier to develop for ps4, use parts off the shelf so most developers can work on it right away and produce quality titles.

in some areas sony succeeded and in some it didn't

bluray
build in hard drive that's easy to change
built in wifi
free psn
psn:plus value

cons:
cell is hard to understand
a lot of devs struggled early on
not enough Ram to get cross game chat

yes sony lost a lot of money but its game division is a profitable division

sony entered with arrgance but realized quickly time to play catch up

$599 us dollars can not and will not be the price for ps4, $399-449 max and maybe 2 different sku's for $399 and $349

price matters look at Vits sony understands that

i believe going forward sony is in best position to gain ground than nintendo or ms, just because they have the Ip's to back up all their talks

imagine this for example

Killzone 4
GT6
Uncharted 4

at launch with PS4.

they own 12 studios

they work with 2nd party like insomniac, read at dawn and QD who are doing beyond 2 souls

also where PSN started day one to where it is today its been an amazing journey and if somehow they keep it free that's a huge advantage over MS

[360ICE]

Well, historically both WipEout and Socom have sold very well.
But it's weird. Three of the four examples the author gives of first party exclusives are from studios Sony have acquired this generation: Sucker Punch (inFamous), Media Molecule (LBP) and Evolution (Motorstorm). So it has gone both ways.

[IAmLee]

Why do I never see any articles like this for the xbox?

[shodan74]

Here you go...

http://n4g.com/news/1145240...

[user3915800]

Another Sony doom article and their best opinion is that? Really? Here is a hint, have third party developers understand what you are selling in order to established better games quality compared to the competition. You can have the greatest car in the world, but if the speed limit says 70 mph, guess what? Thats right we all get there at the same time and if you take a shortcut you might wind up stock in traffic, its what happened to sony, sold the ps3 with the cell and almost all games performed better on the 360. So, either make better relation and support to third party in the production of games or make a system more appropriate for developers. Sony first party is the best of all 3 consoles, I should know is the reason why I bought the PS3 for their lined up of first party, 360 for third party and wii for the few unique gems.

[clover007]

I actually agree with the 4th one. Don't get me wrong, I'm probably gonna get the PS4 on day one. And a lot of people (including me) won't mind paying $600 for it.

But let's face it, PS3 was way too expensive and its sales suffered because of that. Sony needs to understand that now days (in this economy), $600 is too high. Core gamers won't mind paying it, but hey I would say 2/3 of the people that buy consoles are "non-core" gamers. Instead of looking at how many exclusives a console has, they look for better deals. And I know exactly where they're coming from.

I can guarantee that the PS4 is going to be the most powerful console next generation because well, the truth is Sony is way better at making hardware than Microsoft or Nintendo.

But even if you have 4k graphics and the most powerful processors, they won't help you if you don't price your console right. I think anything over $399 would be too expensive regardless of how amazing the hardware is.

I really wish Sony fixes some of the mistakes it made in the past. Oh and can’t wait for the next generation consoles. :)

[iamnsuperman]

"The loss of strong first-party developers"
The issue with this is Sony is trimming the fat. The have a lot of studios who make games that are more profitable than Zipper and Liverpool did. It is worth noting that some of the liverpool staff moved to another UK based studio. I think trimming that fat is what Son needed to do. Having loads of studios is great but why invest in software that isn't going to do well

PSV and PS3 integration my thoughts can be read here http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...

The only aspect of the network that really needs improving is the new store. It needs stabilising because it is really buggy at the moment. Other than cross game chat (which I never saw the need for but I know other want it) I can't see what is really wrong with PSN. It is a stable experience with a lot of players online. They have a good library of games on it but they could do more to entice the indie developers (but I put that down to the 360 being like a PC to develop for so it is just naturally easy)

Price wise I can easily see expensive hardware next generation (hopefully with the option of a subscription model). $600 in 2006 was a big ask but in 2013 it really isn't for a product. Things have changed a lot. Families do not mind shelling out £500 for an ipad for a 3 year old (recent article on it about more 3 years getting ipads now. Crazy if you ask me) for Christmas.

[Neonridr]

in today's economy, people are less likely to shell out $600 for a gaming console. Since the recession happened in North America, money isn't as disposable for a lot of families. If Sony releases a $600 console, consider them dead.

[TongkatAli]

Yeah the economy is going to get worse, this fiscal cliff problem isn't going to end. Blame our stupid government and its addiction to programs that are bleeding money.

If we are taking about Sony getting BIG again they're going to have to outsource ALL its jobs to China its the reality of our world today.

@Logic

[LOGICWINS]

Every time I hear the term "fiscal cliff" I have to laugh a bit. It's a b.s term that the media came up with to scare people.

EDIT: Ummm..yeah. It was simply the government figuring out a new budget plan before the Bush Tax Cuts expired. No more, no less.

[nunley33]

@logicwins ROFLMAO if you think obama and congress is gonna pass a budget or even wants one. A budget has been passed before in the house then died in the senate like every other one has. I agree the fiscal cliff was totally made up by congress though but it was phony and they had a few years to prepare for it.

[TrendyGamers]

"The loss of strong first-party developers"

Don't forget about LightBox Interactive who had massive layoffs and are now an iOS developer.

[TongkatAli]

Starhawk never had a chance and it was a good game. The summoning of turrets and buildings from the sky was amazing to watch in action.

[DanJenkoFMV]

Very good point, I absolutely loved Starhwawk and believe the only reason that game failed was because Sony marketed it incorrectly.

[DeltaCanuckian]

By marketed it incorrectly, you mean just didn't market it at all? I didn't see one advertisement for the game, which I was extremely excited about after playing it at PAX and playing in the beta. When it became apparent that it wouldn't hold a strong community, I just passed on the game entirely. Considering picking it up for cheap now, but who knows if it's even worth it.

[P_Bomb]

@TrendyGamers
Lightbox aren't a first-party developer though. Hence why they're doing some non-Sony iOS stuff now. It's like Insomniac or Ninja Theory. An exclusive here, a multiplat there.

[Seraphemz]

The guy that make up this lists should go work for SONY...since he know everything..

[DanJenkoFMV]

I agree wholeheartedly.

[abzdine]

i really hope they're not gonna make an app based menu like the damn vita or what they are starting to do with the PS3 and the PSS.

[Ravenor]

That vita menu is fine to look at but I just hate using it.

[god_mode]

"The loss of strong first-party developers"

A lot of people on N4G complain that MS should buy more 1st party studios. What some don't understand is that just because a studio is 1st party doesn't mean they automatically have a hit on their hands.
Sony is a prime example of this. 1st party studios bleed money for the publisher if the game doesn't sell well or meet expectations.

Which is pretty much why we see a lot of sequels coming in from Sony. It works, it's established and pretty much a guarantee sales.

[hylandpad]

Agreed. First parties get a lot of press because their publishers (Sony, Nintendo and MS)can afford to spend money to get them in the limelight.

There are hits, like Halo and UC

And then there are FLOPS - Too Human Anyone? (technically not a first party title, but an exclusive none the less)

[DeltaCanuckian]

People talk about the loss of Zipper like it was one of Sony's top devs going down. Maybe last generation, but Zipper was borderline incompetent this gen. MAG was released as an incomplete game, and SOCOM 4 was just bad. They were losing more money than they made, and it was clear they were on their way out.

I hope the talented guys there have found new jobs, but for whatever reason, Zipper just dropped off big time in between consoles.

[Ravenor]

Don't forget the pretty workmanlike Unit 13 for the Vita. That was a real...winner.

[P_Bomb]

@god_mode
The opposite holds true in the case of Zipper, which the article namedrops.

MAG was a new IP that not only sold more than Socom 4 (over a million) but also earned a significantly higher critical avg on metacritic. In this case the "guaranteed" sequel killed em, the new IP made bank.

Liverpool on the other hand simply hadn't made a PS3 game since 2008. That's like 4.5 years ago.

[SpecialK]

The issue was that SOCOM 4 was a game that went in way the wrong direction.

They turned away a loyal fan base trying to chase more mainstream series, but because of the lesser brand this gen it couldn't compete.

It failed on all fronts, and even turned its back on some of its most tactical game modes.

[nunley33]

But Sony much more so than MS or Ninty brings out new IP and takes risks on perceived niche products like Heavy Rain and Demon's Souls.

[Ezz2013]

@god_mode

yet you forgot to say that they bought Sucker Punch , Media Molecule and Evolution

sony know what they are doing
and also sony bring sequels along with "new ips"
so every ps3 owner is happy because sony bring alot of new ips along with sequels

meanwhile MS bring sequels and alot of it with no new ips

just look at next year and see what sony have for ps3 and what ms have for xbox

[smashman98]

I sort of agree with the author on most points

The console cannot launch for 600 it just can't.
The vita has to be a big player
PlayStation plus needs better marketing
However launching all those games on day 1 is suicide
I'd say 2 big hits from Sony and 1 new ip the rest should be
3rd party titles

Also it can't release a year after Xbox that would be bad you do not want to do that as relevancy is everything now a days

[LUKENBACHER]

"They’ve already demolished the possibility of a next-gen Wipeout or SOCOM game..."

No SOCOM on next-gen? LOL. You crazy fool!

[Riderz1337]

Wipeout also

http://twitter.com/wipEout2...

[MrDead]

Makes you wonder if this article has anything correct.

Looks like anyone can post anything on this site, N4G at its best.

[hawkeyejonjon]

lol the article is qustionable. if this guy who wrote this article should have researched more is that Sony already stated that they are continuing Socom. Liverpool studios is rumored to have merged with evolution studios so if its true, we will also see another wipeout.

[violents]

The last few socoms have been awful anyway. I was hoping one day it would go back to its roots but the kept trying to make it too much like COD. So no one buys and now you have no zipper. Aint gonna happen. They tried to have slant 6 make confrontation but that was awful.

[DeltaCanuckian]

I remember Sony saying that they aren't done with SOCOM. Most fans still play Confrontation (to my knowledge) and Slant Six seemed eager to make another not long ago, so that series isn't going anywhere. It'd be easy enough for Sony to hand Wipeout off to a new team as well.

[nunley33]

Liverpool employees just moved over to evolution studios and those same people who were working on wipEout will just finish it up there. Zipper employees went to other studios too so they'll make another socom from there. If socom 5 is gonna be like 4 than no thanx, better they just make HD classics from Socom 1&2 with its online intact.

[akaakaaka]

Sony we want SOCOM for next gen
there is a secure 1 million copy sales if is done good enough
a "Socom Confrontation 2" will do fine
but with no lag, no bugs and fluid smooth fast controls and gameplay.

if is a polish game with good support it could easily sale up to 4 millions copy's if is done right there is a market for it..

Confrontation did around 1m. because of the bad lag, bugs and lame buggy gameplay(changing from a gun to another or jumping where very outdated and buggy, but gunplay was okay)

Socom 4 was a middle finger to what mades Socom a Socom game.
no Ranked non respawn games been just a dlc option is the reason why it sold and it did so bad, the gameplay was better than Confrontation but Socom is all about non respawn ranked games and respawn should be there just for fun and practice just like in Confrontation and the old socom games.

agree if you want a Confrontation 2 with no lag, no bugs and smooth gameplay!!! ASAP... for PS4 (I will even take that as a PSN only game for PS3 and playable on the PS4, but the ideal will be if is made with next gen tech)

i just thought about a commercial! this http://www.youtube.com/watc...
been watch by few gamer kid's in 3015 or something like that and they say cool and blow up with the new gameplay and saying Socom is back! BOOM!!
Socom need to look cool again well any trailer should be like this, cool is what sales! but Sony seem to not understand this..

[omi25p]

PARTY CHAT.

[Belking]

I hope they finally bring cross game chat, faster downloads, a more unified online system, and keep giving us the great games. I just hope we get them at launch rather than having to wait.

[violents]

I dont understand why everyone wants cross game chat so bad. I dont want people to talk to me while I'm playing a game unless they are on my team playing with me because it breaks my concentration.

[Ravenor]

Your opinions and feelings don't mirror everyone else's. Personally I would like it so I don't need to manually mute every person in the lobby when I play a game online on the playstation.

[omi25p]

Then you dont go in party chat with them. I like playing a game like skyrim while talking to my FRIENDS who are also playing skyrim. Or any other game for that matter.

Its because they are my friends and i enjoy talking to them

[violents]

@ravenor,

if you mute everyone in the lobby whats the point of having a mic any way?

[MultiConsoleGamer]

Their most important challenge is to completely disown their aggressive fanbase.

They also need to recoup the billions lost on the PS3. It may have caught up in shippments, but it's still billions in the red. (In before someone mistakenly confuses selling hardware for a profit with actual profitablitiy. Also in before someone lies and say "but dude they made up those loses!" Which they haven't.)

They also need a better online structure, better security, and fewer system updates.

The should also really capitalize on their incredible nostalgia factor. PASBR was a good start, despite it's lukewarm sales.

[NoTheMama]

The controller has to change! For the love of god!!

[P_Bomb]

[QUOTE]They’ve already demolished the possibility of a next-gen Wipeout or SOCOM game[/QUOTE]

Wow, who wrote this lol? Sad that "game journalism" still knows so little about what *owning* an IP means. Someone tell Jenko that Bungie didn't make Halo 4, Zipper didn't make Socom: Confrontation, Naughty Dog didn't make Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Infinity Ward didn't make COD: BlackOps 2 and Media Molecule didn't make LittleBigPlanet Karting, etc. Konami has changed Silent Hill studios every game this gen. Heck, Platinum Games made a Metal Gear game for them.

[QUOTE] The problem is that it’s much more difficult to get your game onto the PlayStation Network than Xbox LIVE[/QUOTE]

Source? Quote? Of course not. Rob Dyer, Gabe Newell, Eurogamer etc disagree:
http://www.industrygamers.c...
http://www.computerandvideo...
http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

New Year's resolution for game journalism: read as much if not more than you write.

[black911]

No mention of the next controller for the ps4????

[charted]

Yea ok, Sony will note these down and sure to listen to us. That goes for any other companies. They don't listen to gamers. It's an illusion!

[rapidturtle]

The picture of that PS controller being blown up would also help. The controller came out with the original Playstation. They seriously need an update. It is very uncomfortable.

[SpecialK]

I agree with most of it but I'm not sure that the vita is going to affect the ps4 that much.

Its an amazing piece of design but in a market that is being slowly taken over by smartphones with ever advancing games, dedicated handhelds are loosing relevance.

[bozebo]

Article is written by a troll or an idiot. Or both.

[The_KELRaTH]

Quite an incredible article with no research or business understanding.

After using the PS3 since the launch of the 40gb version and also playing on a PC I would suggest that there are 3 main flaws with the PS3 1)VOIP/cross game chat 2)Users are required to act as the host with too many lag sensitive games 3)Stupidly overpriced PSN games and expansions compared to the 360 pricing.

All 3 issues could be fixed or at least made more user friendly even today: VOIP could be off by default and then allow the user to set parameters, other devs could follow a similar network format as DICE with BF3, and Sony could just make sure prices are no higher than the 360.

[DonFreezer]

It's funny how Sony fans defend the PS3 with all their heart.I'm sorry but being loyal in such a stupid and defensive way to a company that you don't have anything to do except from selling you their products.Even if this article states flame bait rants you shouldn't defend a company with such strong hearts.