High-Quality Games Can Now Be Released at Any Time of the Year, Says Sony's Shawn Layden

SIEA President and CEO Shawn Layden noted a major industry shift in that high-quality games can now be released at any time of the year.

[ccgr]

Many still aim for the holidays though

[freshslicepizza]

I really do think Sony's strategy is very sound. They have the advantage of being the big player for third party which they can use to carry them through the slow times or the holidays. This gives Sony the flexibility to not have their games bunched up over the holidays.

Nintendo also seems to be doing very well and is spreading out their high profile titles, whether they can carry that over year to year remains to be seen. But without third party you get these huge spikes in sales.

Microsoft on the other hand still thinks they have to put most of their games out in the second half of the year but they are slowly progressing. Their problem is they don't have enough of their own games to do it properly.

[Concertoine]

The issue is even the games MS does release dont release complete. Halo 5 was missing Forge, Gears missing horde, Recore broken altogether...

[KickSpinFilter]

Exactly! It's smart fill the rest of the year with exclusives, and leave holiday period alone since it's a 3rd party AAA hell. Not sure at all why your getting down votes your right on the money!

[dirkdady]

When I saw the list of holiday PS4 exclusives I was surprised by the sheer number of them

[thehitman1398]

Is this you trying again to cover your fanboyism??? Lol you just need to go away

[Eonjay]

Sony's plan is that they have the biggest marketshare so it is more lucrative to let third parties do their thing but let their games sell as well. Their first party is so strong, its ridiculous. This year alone is crazy. GT plus Horizon and another Uncharted alone with Japan studio and VR would make Sony a force without third party exclusives which they have in droves. Kingdom Hearts, Neir, Nioh, No No Kuni II... It's unstoppable.

[rainslacker]

I think MS tries too hard to get games out during the holidays. Not sure why, as earlier in the year games have had good sales for quite a while now. Well before this gen started. It's not like the old days where a good portion of game sales were by parents for their kids. Adults can play almost anytime, and usually have money all through the year.....often more when it's not the holidays since they're not taking vacations or buying stuff for others.

[UCForce]

I prefer Sony releases their game when they are ready. They don't have to focus on Holiday.

[SirBradders]

Microsoft release most of their games in the Holidays to capitalise on sales whether the game is complete or not. They want to make the most profit so release in the spending period i.e. Holiday.

Smart from a business sense bad for the consumer.

[donthate]

Concertoine:

What are you talking about? Gears 4 had Horde from launch day. It wasn't missing and was the most complete Horde ever. Forge for Halo isn't a main aspect of the game, but it is there now. These games have massive support since launch, and even Recore is getting an update.

moldy:

State of Decay 2 and Sea of Thieves are now 2018 games, so we might see them in the spring. What people don't realize is that single player experience is well suited in the spring since it is mostly a play once game, but multiplayer games are better to release in the holiday. The reason is that people tend to play games for much longer now, so you don't want your competitor to eat your lunch during the Holiday. So games that tend to have multiplayer and microtransactions tend to release for the Holiday.

[dumahim]

Yeah, I don't miss the days of buying like 8-10 games over a 2-3 month span. Spread it out.

[WelkinCole]

Makes no sense. MS does not need to release what little games they have in the hoildays smack in with other big 3rd party publishers like they are doing now.

[Sam Fisher]

This was actually a good read

[boomtube1987]

So Sony have no non Japanese AAA games this holiday...what a joke. MS still has best AAA exclusive this year with Forza and plus third party will run much better on Xbox one X. Ponies....go ahead press the dislike button to prove I am right.

MS should have shown exclusive games two to three years away just to add up the excitements like Sony does even if they are years away lol. Instead MS showed indies and that ugly kiddie games called pirate or something like that....vast majority of Xbox owners won't care one bit about. For us 90% of Xbox one owners we only care about Shooters, sports and racing games. Indies and jrpg stuff is a waste of time and power of Xbox One X. Your preaching to wrong crowd.

[4U2NV]

🙄 🍩... 🙄

[fenome]

I'm on my second playthrough on Horizon:Zero Dawn right now because I'm stoked on the expansion. Call me whatever you want, this one game right here is solid, and that's just one game that came out this year. I've still got a list growing that keeps getting bigger.

Have fun with Forza though, I'm not trying to take away from that. Do what you do.

[KickSpinFilter]

Do you live in a box?
Did XB1 have any games this year other than the upcoming Holiday 2017 season where they'll get buried by 3rd party AAA's oh right Halo Wars 2 in Feb that none of you bought.

"MS should have shown exclusive games two to three years away just to add up the excitements like Sony does" What the hell do you think Crackdown3 shown 2014, Cuphead shown 2014, and Scalebound shown 2014 (oh sorry that one got cancelled) are 3 year out games. Grow up

[sin7279]

😵💩

[richyque]

crackdown and cuphead are sure going to push xboxone x

[boomtube1987]

@Kickspinfilter Halo wars is irrelevant. It's not a shooter but a game type xbox players will never play. Same with scalebound. MS was right to cancel that game. It just won't sell. Look at the sword fighting Japanese button mashing. Wrong crowd. I don't know what cuphead is but it sound like an indie so it's pointless. Any how. 95% of games I play are multi platform and are of what is relevant to console gaming such as Shooters like GTA and CoD. Sports such as FIFA and racing that is Forza. Indies and JRPG and sword fighting games are irrelevant. MS needs more shooters and MUltiplayer games such as gears and halo. That's is lacking this gen. Now with Xbox one X...it has the power. Power to run multi platform AAA games better. Crackdown being a AAA and a Shooter is immideatly better than indies or JRPG nonsense that PS4 has.

[TocaCannaBowl]

damn bro 0 agrees feels bad man

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

This is a shining example of an Xbox fan performing mental gymnastics in order to justify buying a console that doesn't have anything interesting in the pipeline in the way of exclusives.

https://cultcrumbs.files.wo...

[Markusb33]

As soon as anyone uses terms like ponies or xbot you loose all credibility and simply sound like a 12 year old.

[Ceaser9857361]

boomtube
"So Sony have no non Japanese AAA games this holiday...what a joke. MS still has best AAA exclusive this year with Forza and plus third party will run much better on Xbox one X. Ponies.."

Calm down dude, its been a while Scalebound got cancelled .. its been a while since Xbox released an exclusive (HALO WARS) doesn't mean you gonna go full retard mode and whine becoz your system is lacking... Keep faith though..

"For us 90% of Xbox one owners we only care about Shooters, sports and racing games. Indies and jrpg stuff is a waste of time and power of Xbox One X. Your preaching to wrong crowd. "

LMAO!!

"MS should have shown exclusive games two to three years away just to add up the excitements like Sony does even if they are years away lol"

Only if MS has games to show.... Sony's games aint getting cancelled and its working isn't it that they are showing games early ... Get some sleep kid...

[Ceaser9857361]

"crackdown and cuphead are sure going to push xboxone x "

Nope it want.. Xbox one x needs something like Anthem (coming to ps4 xbox , pc ) , which should be an exclusive to xbox one and not PC... that will sell alot of xbox one x also its proven Console 399 or below sales... 499 Will be tough ...

[pinkcrocodile75]

I think this year we have Forza 7 and Crackdown 3 as first party exclusives then it shifts to February..ish for Sea of thieves just like Halo Wars 2 did this year and most probably Ori and the Wil of the Wisps like they did in 2015... maybe

[RDF]

Huh?

[trooper_]

You sound incredibly racist with that remark.

[Liqu1d]

I bet you still wear diapers.

[bouzebbal]

I agreed to prove you wrong.

[shinrock]

As an X1 owner I ask that you speak strictly for yourself, thank you.

[odderz]

This is true and I hope to see more games releases early in the year and during the Summer! Sick of having a Winter bloat

[Relientk77]

Sony has surely proved this, especially this year.

[Chevalier]

Sony did great so far and with the Switch consistently bringing exclusives as well, we were spoiled silly for the first half of 2017.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Pretty much

Sony and Nintendo has pretty much OVERWHELMED us with games lol I just can't keep up.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Sony prove this fact time and time again.

[Alexious]

Not just them, though. When a game is truly great it does not matter when it is released. Starcraft II, for instance, launched in July and was at the time the biggest PC launch ever.

[TheColbertinator]

@Alexious

Starcraft II launch was so memorable.

[MegamanXXX]

I agree

[badz149]

OR...it might have something to do with Starcraft being one of the biggest IP in gaming!

[BlackTar187]

lol at naming a game that is so insanely popular.

[SpaceRanger]

With the yearly COD, now assasins creed, battlefront, etc., there is absolutely no need to push an exclusive game to the holidays.

That's the reason Sony have been so successful while the competition continues to slow in growth (aside from the switch).

[Phil32]

That's how it's been working for the PlayStation brand and Nintendo systems too. I think it's working out well. I hope Microsoft gets enough content first-party wise to be able to release major titles all year round!

[FullmetalRoyale]

All year, baby. All. Year.

[TheColbertinator]

Someday that strategy may pay off for Sony.

[LP-Eleven]

The definition of clueless.

OT: Keep doing what you do, Sony! 60.4m and counting!

[Dark_Knightmare2]

Bro seriously get a life I'm so tired of seeing you in Sony articles being a loser troll. People like you make comment boards so miserable because you're lonely trolls who so desperately want attention and human interaction but don't know how to go about it that you resort to trolling for people to interact with you even when it's them telling you how pathetic you are it's truly sad

[Krysis]

While his comment was pathetic and no doubt annoying to you, about half the commenters above plague Xbox articles with pathetic trolling as well. No excuses though I wish they would all stop.

[Rippcity]

Well said @Krysis.

[Dark_Knightmare2]

@krysis oh no I agree I own both systems so I see it from both sides and it drives me nuts to no end. I hate the anonymity of the internet because you have idiots using that to act in ways that the wouldn't in person well at least hopefully they wouldn't lol

[Liqu1d]

Report him. It'll likely be ignored but do it anyway.

[KickSpinFilter]

It has been, 60 million strong, derp

[Why o why]

Lol . . . .classic colb. . . #Sport

[-Foxtrot]

The Holidays are usually dominated by third party and other exclusive games...so what is the point of putting out your exclusive games, they'll just get lost in the crowd.

From January onward the games get fewer and fewer until the big Summer draught but luckily this year Sony has released enough for you to go back and pick up those you haven't gotten round to yet.

Nioh
Nier
Yakuza 0
Gravity Rush 2 (first game aswell)
Horizon Zero Dawn
Persona 5
Wipeout
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 and 2.5 Remix (if you never got round to them)
Dragon Quest Heroes II
Crash Bandicoot coming up

Then you have third party multiplatform titles like Injustice 2, Tekken 7, Rime, Friday 13th, Yooka-Laylee etc

It's a good strategy in my opinion

[Chevalier]

There was also

Danganronpa
Nonary games
Utawarerumono
Kingdom Hearts 2.8
Fate Extella
Guilty Gear Revelator 2
Tales of Berseria
Dark Rose Valkyrie
Far Point
Super Beat Xonic
Abibas Beat
Cladun Returns
Samurai Warrior Sanada
God Wars
FF XIV Online Stormblood
Touhou Gensou Wanderer
MLB 17
Atelier Fieris
Toukidan 2
Dynasty Warrior God Seeker
Y"S Origin
Berserk Band of the Hawk
Digimon World Next Order

Crash Bandicoot on deck days away too.

[dRanzer]

Uncharted the lost legacy

[PFFT]

And Life of a Black Tiger

[moegooner88]

^PFFT I sense butthurt.

[j15reed]

And these are the exclusives Xbox is missing out on thanks but no thanks...

[ChickeyCantor]

That isn't saying much, Son-y

[imtiyaz6]

Am I the only one who has zero interest in buying games from Activision, EA or Ubisoft? It wouldn't be that bad, at least to me, for Sony to release a game during the holidays. I want Spider-Man now.

[KickSpinFilter]

Well Ubisoft zero interest but everyone else yup.

[franwex]

Yeah I guess you are the only person with zero interest.

[Rimeskeem]

Both Horizon and Uncharted game out in the first half of the year and the both sold huge amounts of copies.

[Servbot41]

Alright so why are we sitting in what is basically a drought since April?

[Takwin]

THANK YOU. I want great games in the February-August window too.

[slappy508]

Indeed, after the awesomeness that was Nioh and Horizon I am excited to give Crash a try, never played it, cant wait for Friday!

[Father__Merrin]

Sony has the best gaming platform.

[AmUnRa]

Sony are doing this right, why would you realese your games mostly around the end of the year. Thats the time when alot of third party games come out. Spreading your First Party games over the year is the way to go.

[Rhythmattic]

I really believe MS and Sony did an E3 Reset when it comes to REAL Exclusives...
A lot of gamers complained about announcements of games to early ...
Maybe they both have reduced the buffer, allowing a Released this/next year (any time) statement..

[thexmanone]

More PR talk, go figure.

[StuffAndThings]

This guy seems more likeable than Jim Ryan at least

[Muzikguy]

They always could be released at any time.

[leeeroythe3rd]

I like sonys approach of 1 to 2 a quarter. It is smart for the market and consumer. 4th quarter is such a glut and always have good games you dont buy bc of a better game

[QUIMICOMORTAL]

And hes right!

Except on xbox of course!

[hengst2404]

While I absolutely agree with the sentiment, I am not sure Sony saying it is all that profound. Studios have been looking at the holiday logjam and starting to try new release dates, Sony is hardly the first to reach this conclusion. Even in Hollywood you see films moving away from the traditional windows and trying to capture the market with a release date with less comparable competition.

[franwex]

Please release more games during the summer! I recall SOCOM being released during the summer back in the PS2 days and it had almost no competition, additionally because of the summer break there were a lot of players!
It is the perfect time for games to be released!

[HeyNowChillax]

They should space AAA games out, look what happened with Titantfall2, one of the best FPS's to come out in a long while. Diminished sales because of all the other releases that month.

[rezzah]

I'm glad they are doing this, it helps prevent the dry season during the summers.