Are Sony playing it too safe this gen?

Innovation. Uniqueness. Risk. Never before have I seen these things valued so much in the gaming community before. But in recent years, these are effectively a triumvirate of commercial and critical success. I can assume the rise in independent games has had something to do with it. But we didn't buy an Ouya, we bought these powerhouses known as the Playstation Four and the Xbox One.. However it too much to expect innovation and uniqueness and some good old risky business tactics from the big corporations and developers in the AAA scene? I don't think so. But it seems that one corporation is striving to do a lot more in these regards than the other.

Look at the PS4 and Xbox One's respective launch windows. PS4's only triple-A exclusives were Killzone Shadowfall and Knack. The former is a first person shooter from a long-established franchise. Knack was the only new Sony IP and it failed to meet expectations. Or rather it did, because no one had high expectations. While there's no denying that providing a lack of AAA titles is a risk, it isn't a sensible or fruitful one (or at least by all means it shouldn't be).

At the helm of Xbox One's launch window was Forza Motorsport 5, self-evidently the fifth installment in a long-established franchise.
Microsoft took us by surprise however by bringing to the table a new Killer Instinct game- a franchise which hadn't seen a game release since 1996! So obviously this is big news. Also Crimson Dragon, and while we could argue whether it qualifies as a AAA title, it is also pretty big news as it's a spiritual successor to the original Xbox hit Panzer Dragoon- which hadn't seen a new iteration since 2002! Sure it sucked but damn! Then there's Dead Rising, which we thought was now a multiplatform franchise (Dead Rising 2, sequel to the Xbox 360 exclusive Dead Rising 1, was on PS3 & 360 & PC!), but Dead Rising 3 was given as a console exclusive, which I'm sure no one saw coming. Okay, it came to PC later, still an interesting move by Microsoft. And then there's Ryse Son of Rome, originally meant to be a kinect game, but it had been overhauled and brought out to us in the form of a triple-A blockbuster action title developed by Crytek, the kings of graphics who usually worked on PC franchises like Crysis, yet here they were giving us an Xbox Exclusive (a mighty pretty one might I add).

Anywho, while I wont say either lineup was groundbreaking (there were letdowns on both sides), Microsoft certainly had some wild cards in their deck, so-to-speak, while Sony only really brought out one note-worthy fresh IP, meanwhile mostly touting ports of the same old psn titles and a bunch of multiplats.

Follow on from its launch window and PS4's exclusive offerings include;

InFamous Second Son - another worn-in franchise (not a bad thing, but nothing out the ordinary)
The Last of Us Remastered - last years game, but this year
MLB The Show - same (good) shit, different year
Uncharted 4  - more of the same good shit
Tearaway Unfolded - Remember that game you loved on Vita? Play it again on PS4!

Woah, is that deja vu?

That's not to say there aren't some interesting games out there for the PS4;

Bloodborne - Okay, new IP.... except it looks identicle to Dark Souls.... not particularly ambitious
Drive Club - New racing IP...though, its own issues aside, it's just another generic racing game- no thinking out the box here-not trying to outdo Forza
The Order 1886 - Sacrifice gameplay for cutscenes, I mean films are easier
Grim Fandango - Gotta give ya this, it might not be a high budget remake but I assure you the original game was AAA in every sense of the term back in its day! Still...just timed exclusivity  

Now let's take a look at Xbox One

Forza Horizon 2 - Familiar but only the second in this franchise (separate to Forza Motorsport), and definitely ambitious with drivatars and great social features  
Gears of War Probably more of the same (good) shit
Crackdown - More of the same probably
Halo 5 - sigh....
Forza Motorsport 6 - Yeah definitely more of the same (good) shit

Dang, more deja vu.
What else?

Titanfall It's on PC but merits a mention considering it revolutionized FPS gameplay- its appeal didn't last due to lack of content- but it succeeded at being different
Sunset Overdrive Previously a Playstation exclusive developer, Insomniac created one of the most unique action games, perhaps ever
Quantum Break Taking only the slow-mo and action of Max Payne and the storytelling and atmosphere of Alan Wake, but bringing a game that is half-tv series and half unique gameplay which focuses on time-stopping ...ambitious
Scalebound So little is known about this game but just looking at the trailer you know that there's nothing quite like it. And we know Platinum games (the guys behind it) make some pretty unique games
Phantom Dust Looks like Microsoft like to bring back cult classics, a remake of a game not seen since the original xbox!
Halo Master Chief Collection More of the same? No doubt. But how many companies will give you 4 game remasters (5 if you are an early adopter) for the price of 1?! Ballsy!
Banjo Kazooie Oh come on we already know it is this. If not, either way, it's a Rare game that isn't Kinect based, that in itself is exciting
Fable Legends Another one? Yes. But does the game look even remotely similar to previous iterations? Decide for yourself. I say not. For better or for worse.


To summarize, maybe it's just a matter of perspective but even the new IP's of Sony don't seem to be all that fresh or innovative or really all that unexpected, aside from Grim Fandango but once again, we can assume that'll be on Xbox too within a year. It's already coming to PC. This is not to say that the PS4 games are not or will not be good, it's just an observation as someone who has faith that even the triple-A scene can give us surprises.

lol

These topics are so shit, mods just delete it.
Also when did they say Grim Fandango was timed not on xbox?

Quote :

Halo Master Chief Collection More of the same? No doubt. But how many companies will give you 4 game remasters (5 if you are an early adopter) for the price of 1?! Ballsy!

Many. Many companies.....

Someone should ban Mecha.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection? More like Halo: The Master Glitch Collection.

Mecha wrote:

DaTeckno wrote:

Quote :

Halo Master Chief Collection More of the same? No doubt. But how many companies will give you 4 game remasters (5 if you are an early adopter) for the price of 1?! Ballsy!

Many. Many companies.....

Not really.... I mean there's been trilogies like Metal Gear Solid and Ratchet & Clank and Jak N Daxter... but the effort to improve those games was pretty minimal. Whereas with Halo 1 and 2 at least, you can switch back and forth between classic and new mode and see for yourself how massive the jump is!!

Most HD remasters were just ports, but MCC was just an embarrassment.

It didn't even work

To be perfectly honest, yeah, they kinda are. But this gen, they really had to. Sony really could not afford to have another fuck-up like the PS3. Now while the PS3 eventually got better as the generation went on and some reports say that its sales surpassed the 360 eventually, At launch, the system was a disaster. Insane asking price, hardware that was powerful, but insanely difficult to code for, and not very many must have games, and you have the recipe for a failure. But Sony managed to turn things around and eventually came back from it. However, they did not want that to happen again. So this time, they played it safe and made a console that was cheaper, easier to make games for, but was still kinda lacking in must have games. But I guess that didn't matter very much since the PS4 is still selling.

I'm surprised the PS4 is the best-selling new system, since both of the competitors have more worthwile games to play.

Drawn to Death looks insane tho

Chobo wrote:

To be perfectly honest, yeah, they kinda are. But this gen, they really had to. Sony really could not afford to have another fuck-up like the PS3. Now while the PS3 eventually got better as the generation went on and some reports say that its sales surpassed the 360 eventually, At launch, the system was a disaster. Insane asking price, hardware that was powerful, but insanely difficult to code for, and not very many must have games, and you have the recipe for a failure. But Sony managed to turn things around and eventually came back from it. However, they did not want that to happen again. So this time, they played it safe and made a console that was cheaper, easier to make games for, but was still kinda lacking in must have games. But I guess that didn't matter very much since the PS4 is still selling.

They're doing the same with Vita though. And that ain't selling.

They did the same with the PSP last gen, it was overpriced (amazing though) and everyone complained about it just having ports blah blah blah, they bitched about the controls blah blah blah, yet Sony didn't tuck their tail between their legs and ditch it. They continued to support it! And incredibly well I might add. By the end of its generation, nearly 80 million people owned PSP's.

Personally, I've always thought The Last of Us Remastered was one of the dumbest things ever until Capcom decided to do a 'Definitive' version of DmC: Devil May Cry.