*sigh* I remember a time were Sony was actually the company doing everything right and were laughing at the other two (MS and Nintendo). But things are changing quickly. I already wrote a blog on what I thought about them closing the PS3, PSP and Vita stores, so I'm not going to bother going over any of that again. I will repeat, though, that I really hope they bring their catalogue into the PS5 store. But I'm not holding my breath. They need to make the PS5 backwards compatible with older systems first.
Now, news has come out that Sony is ordering Naughty Dog to make a remake of The Last of Us. Just the headline by itself doesn't seem like that big of a deal. This is hardly the first time an old game has been remade. Hell, PS5 launched with a remake of Demon's Souls, another beloved PS3 game. What gets me, though, is why. For starters, The Last of Us on PS3 is still pretty damn good looking by today's standards, and it was already remastered for the PS4. Even if Naughty Dog rebuilds the first game with the second game's engine, it's not going to look THAT much better where it's worth pumping millions of dollars into it. I'm sure Naughty Dog would have loved to work on something else. Maybe the third in the series? Maybe a new IP?
The thing is, they didn't even have to. Sony's Visual Arts Service Group gathered roughly 30 developers in an attempt to make a Last of Us Remake, but Sony ultimately ended up shifting the project to Naughty Dog. Obviously, ND will do a better job with it than anyone else, as its their game. Sony also wanted a new Uncharted, but ND didn't want to do it, so Sony gave it to another of their studios, Bend, who voiced their opposition because they didn't want to always be involved in ND projects. They wanted to make their own games. Despite Bend releasing Days Gone in 2019 to mixed reviews, it still sold millions of copies. I guess those millions weren't enough millions, though, because in that same article I linked up above, Sony canceled a sequel to Days Gone. Perhaps they weren't happy with the Metacritic score of 71, and to be honest, Bend isn't that great of a studio so they were probably right in not placing faith in them to make a much better game. But that's not the point.
Sony is just being weird right now. They're closing down all these different studios that they see incapable of making AAA multimillion selling games that get nothing but high 9s and 10s. They dismantle Japanese studios like Japan Studio that have made some really damn fine games, but unfortunately don't get the hype like God of War and Uncharted. Is this really the direction Sony wants to keep going, to focus all their time and energy appealing to Western gamers by making them wait four, five, six or more years for a 20 hour long interactive movie experience? Sony is more than Kratos; more than Drake; more than Sakai. Well, Jin Sakai isn't a household name yet, but based on the critical success of Ghost of Tsushima, he will be.
But HOW did Jin Sakai even come out? Because Sucker Punch didn't keep making inFAMOUS games. Naughty Dog is going to be stuck making Uncharted and Last of Us games until their dying breath because they keep making them so good. Santa Monica, the same thing with God of War. Maybe Bend dodged a bullet, because if they made a much better Days Gone game, they may be stuck as well. "Days Gone is a successful franchise. Keep making them."
We have Ratchet and Clank: A Rift in Time coming up. That game looks absolutely amazing, but again, Insomniac will be stuck making R&C games because they do so well. They also made the past two Spider-Man games, and so they'll be busy with Spider-Man 2 once A Rift in Time is finished. At least they're more varied than Naughty Dog is, but what kills is me we'll never see a sequel to the amazing Xbox exclusive Sunset Overdrive because MS botched the marketing and killed the sales. Had Sunset Overdrive performed well, Insomniac would have made a sequel, but well, they got snatched up by Sony and are now making Spider-Man games. Don't get me wrong, I love the Spider-Man games, and I don't have anything against Insomniac making more of them, but at the end of a day, it's just another comic book game. I'd trade Spider-Man 2 for a far more original game like Sunset Overdrive 2 any day of the week.
And well, there is that damn Vita. It had so much potential but Sony couldn't really figure out a way to make it successful so they stopped trying. I really enjoyed its first year, and even though Golden Abyss wasn't the best of Uncharteds, it illustrated what the Vita could do with a with console-quality games on the go, something Nintendo is now highly successful at doing. Yet, Sony ended up belittling it with smaller handheld style games, such as Bend making the next Uncharted a card game. The Vita ended up getting more support from its own community and indie publishers than Sony themselves, all because it wasn't a money printing machine like the 3DS was. Just a shame.... If you ask me, the only other machine to get worse treatment was the Dreamcast.
We're losing more and more diversity within the PlayStation family, and it's very disheartening. The PS5's line up in its opening launch window pales in comparison to the Nintendo Wii U, which might be a ridiculous thing to say, but if you do a bit of research, you'll see the Wii U actually did launch with more games in the same time frame. "But... but.. Miles Morales and Demon's Souls!" It's April.... you're still leading with those two games?
Anyway, Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Through Time is the only major AAA game I see coming out this year. Kena: Bridge of Spirits looks amazing, but I still know very little about it, but even then, it's not getting anywhere near the same level of hype as established franchises are, and EVERYONE who has a PS5 needs to know of this game. Maybe it'll happen closer to launch, but it still feels like Sony is underselling this game. And well, there's Returnal, but again, we know very little about it and honestly, I just don't get powerful enough vibes from this game that justifies paying 70 for it.
And well, Sony's being pretty arrogant when it comes to the 70 dollar price tag for games. For the PS5 launch, I could see why a lot of people just had to cough up the dough for some 70 dollar games. They just had to have SOMETHING to play on their new machines. As much as I enjoyed the Demon's Souls remake (god, Bluepoint REALLY knows how to remake games!), even I had trouble really convincing myself I needed to pay 70 for it. Meanwhile, most games on Xbox Series X are still at 60, and you can buy them on Xbox One X and have free next-gen updates. Although, this is primarily up to publisher discretion.
Xbox Series X may not have the level of AAA first-party titles Sony has, but the one thing they certainly have is a better service. Although I'm not a subscriber to Gamepass because I don't like to play so many games at once and continue to pay in order to access them, I recognize the value of XSX. Sony has yet to match that service, but they say they have a "counter punch" coming. We'll see. But what's EXTREMELY weird to me is that Sony's newest baseball offering MLB The Show 21 is not only on Xbox, but also on Gamepass! Yes, a brand new SONY game can be played for free (provided you sub to Gamepass). Meanwhile, Sony is asking 70 dollars for it, AND IT'S NOT EVEN ON PS+! What the hell, Sony? I own both consoles, but if I subbed to Gamepass, I'd definitely play it there instead of paying 70 for it on PS5. I don't know what the deal was like for this, but I'm sure Sony's accountants drew up a formula that would have their losses covered by MS's offer. But still...
Sony is just being reckless this generation and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt that a lot of their plans they were making last year got wrecked by COVID, but COVID can only excuse so much. Meanwhile, you got Nintendo still killing it and MS dropping billions of dollars on a publisher so large, it routinely had their own conference at E3. Maybe Sony's just really betting that their AAA Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Santa Monica and Sucker Punch games are pretty much all they really need to carry them through, and I get that. You want to invest in your biggest money makers, but not all gamers have the level of patience that Sony is asking for. Sony's going to see an exodus if they're not careful. Nintendo and MS are doing loads of new things to try to attract new customers via games and services. Sony's got to stop riding their lapels.
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