What Is Going On With Sony?
June 10, 2008 / 10:53 PM EDT / (@salromano)

I want to shout “What the hell is going on with you Sony?” but the fact is they will never listen. It’s been over a year and a half and we are just about to see in-game XMB if recent rumors are to be believed. That’s not what this is about though.

Sony has let one of their regular PlayStation titles, Star Ocean, go exclusively to the Xbox 360. Sony has let Square Enix release The Last Remnant on the Xbox 360 first. Sony has let the PLAYSTATION 3 have no RPGs for the first year and a half of it’s life time, probably leading into two years as we are only getting SRPGs this year. Sony has let Microsoft win over Square Enix. Sony has let Microsoft win over Namco Bandai with their bundle of Xbox 360 exclusives and exclusive Tales title. Sony has refused to buy out exclusives causing a lack of care for the loyal PLAYSTATION 3 owners such as us, leaving us in the dark. Sony has delayed their titles numerous times always forcing us to be “patient”. Sony has let the PS3 version of most multiplatform games be the worst version even though the PS3 has better hardware. Sony has no care in the field of RPGs. There are so many other things that have been repeated over and over again, but they are never acknowledged.

There is nothing much else to say. It seems like there is no point to this because no matter how much we try and get it out, nobody listens.

Read More: PlayStation 3,
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  • Kidfly129

    SONY needs to get back on track and have it where, u wake up in the morning and theres the updated store or the FW update like it use to be! wat is happening here??

  • Fiddlesworth

    “Sony has no care in the field of any other genre besides FPS”

    Wow, can’t believe I just read that. Complete and utter bollocks. Look at a list of first party Sony games and tell me what percentage are FPS’s.

  • http://gematsu.com Sal

    Sorry, I clarified it a bit more above.

  • Skittles

    not gonna bother this time, dealt with enough shit talking today.

  • jamhai

    RPG is the genre that will determine the outcome of a console war. Don’t believe me? Look at what FFVII, and the legion of RPGs that came after, did to the N64. Sony seriously needs to concentrate more on RPG’s, and NOT Killzone 2…

  • Shibbs

    you said no more than one rant a day man, you broke the rule lol.

  • mboojigga

    Development issues have been the cause of all the issues that cause these games to either get cancelled, delayed, time exclusive to multiplatform. No surprise if we here at E3 even though SquareE mentioned no demo for FFVIII at the show. At this point there are no surprises for me. I own both a 360 and PS3 and only buy exclusives for the PS3 anyway. MSG4 will be my 3rd game excluding PSN games I will be buying.

  • DevilVergilX

    take it easy man… yes sony did fuck up… but its still too early to decide whether or not sony went rock bottom. Just hang in there and MAYBE they will start getting there crap together… lets hope

  • BandAiD

    So….Folklore isn’t an RPG now?

  • Ceres

    These games are getting bigger and harder to make and a good number of developers do want to maximize their profits. Just because the PS3 has lost some exclusives doesn’t mean that things are done for Sony. If anything competition is good. I’d rather have Sony keep persuing their own original games than spend money on exclusives. This generation I’ve been way more excited on new properties than series that seem to have gone stale, like Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry. Square Enix isn’t the best developer out there. Look at Uncharted, we saw that game at the E3 before it came out and look at what an amazing PS3 title it turned out to be. We haven’t really seen anything of FFXIII/Versus in what? 3 Years?
    There are definitely a great number of quality titles coming out this year on the PS3 and the next and you can bet that developers are noticing the PS3.
    Just look at the great games we have this year like:

    Metal Gear Solid 4
    Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
    Resistance 2
    Little Big Planet
    Disgaea 3
    Naruto: Storm
    Valkyria Chronicles

    Then there’s all the stuff that we don’t even know is going to hit like:

    inFamous
    Heavy Rain

    Then there’s all the multiplatform games such as:

    Prince of Persia
    Fallout 3
    The Force Unleashed

    These are games that I’m just pulling off the top of my head. There’s a way bigger list out there but you can beat that everyone is noticing the PS3. It sucks but we do have to be patient. If you can’t then it’s time to get away from gaming for a while since you’re missing out on the biggest part of playing games, having fun. Go out and buy a 360 or a Wii or anything. Sometimes we have to speak with our wallets.

  • Withnail

    “Sony has let the PLAYSTATION 3 have no RPGs for the first year and a half of it’s life time”

    Enchanted Arms. It may not be that good, but it’s an RPG.

  • Kidfly129

    Screw RPG, FPS All The Way

  • Caelum

    SCEI did get lost in the way of success…Did you guys remember how FFX defined the PS2 era? It’s all about RPGs and Sony just choose not to care…We’re going to face the end of the PS3 soon if they don’t do anything.

  • incredibilistic

    It does seem pretty amazing that things could’ve gotten so out of hand for Sony on many levels beyond RPGs and in-game XMB. There’s tons of things they could be doing that won’t necessarily require them to have a dozen RPGs on the shelf.

    Where’s the community aspect of the PS3? Where are the tournaments and obligatory ad tie-ins (buy 20 Cokes get a PS3 game) that we saw during the PS2 days?

    My hopes is that Sony is working on all this stuff but it’s taking way too long to get everything in gear. The 360 didn’t exactly come out swinging either but by the time the PS3 rolled around the system had picked up plenty of steam and thanks to Gears of War was making a real impact on the industry (partially because it finally had competition in the PS3 and Wii).

    But Sony’s coming up on the 2-year anniversary and we still don’t have as robust a network of games and content in the PSN Store, Home is still on the drawing board and features like trophies and in-game communication are STILL not here (obviously it’s coming but, again, the waiting).

    There are days when I just want to give up on the PS3 and if it weren’t for the Blu-ray player I probably would’ve traded it in a long time ago.

    But I digress, the PS3 is a great machine and I think we all know it. It’s just the constant waiting and holding our breath that’s starting to get a little old. So I’ll keep hope alive that the PS3 has its best days ahead of it. I just wish they’d speed things up a bit.

  • Caelum

    @incredibilistic

    “So I’ll keel hope alive that the PS3 has its best days ahead of it”

    Yeah…maybe in 2012! x_x

  • Eric

    I guess the funniest part is even though everyone is saying “oh know, Sony…look at MS”, Sony has still sold more PS3′s since its launch than the 360 sold respectively. How’s that cookie for you?

  • Lord Raoh

    sony is playing a loosing battle. the only way to win is to play your game not the opponents game.

    MS muscles their way in financially. good or bad its working.

    sony is trying to rely on name recognition, last gen stats, market share (psp, ps2, ps3, blu ray players)

    and the fact that one thing developers used to like was ability to do as they wished for just a cut of sales to sony.

    but if the game doesnt sell, the developer is at a loss and sony is not.

    MS is says, hey, give us your games, we will cover the cost with this check. so if the games fail, the developer/publisher still gets their money back.

    hard to compete with that.

    here is what i feel sony needs to do.

    1. stop playing catch up to the 360. the ps3 does not have a lot fps games, it just seems that way because they are playing catch up to 360′s 2007 line up. next year it will be rpg’s when 360 goes another route.. stop. just release what you feel is neccesary and for gods sake secure some timed and non timed exclusives that are not HAZE.

    2. stop accepting crap. bring in a SONY APPROVED rating. something that says you stand behind the product. and something that says you dont. for example. sony should not co sign EA’s Orange Box. Orange Box is a Valve game. Valve said they do not make ps3 games. they had no intention on releasing orange box for ps3.

    then EA said “hey, we will port it” and a crappy port it was.. at this point.. sony’s stand point should be, “hey if you want cool but its not a sony thing” but be able to support and put a stamp of approval on games like mgs4, etc something that says “we at sony approve this game for our costumers and ensure it plays the way its supposed to”

    3. if sony doesnt want to pay for exclusives the way MS does. then invest money in more in house production. hire more staff to make more games or to release games faster. having insomniac create a team of people that will help other developers with ps3 issues is a start. but there has to be more. send some people over to square’s offices to help with FFXIII. ask the people creating heavy rain what they need. get involved personally if you dont want to get involved financially.

    4. ramp up 80gb ps3 production. sales for the ps3 stopped not because no one wanted one but because no one wanted the 40gb model. its nice that you want to bundle mgs4 with the 80gb but you left the market dry for those who want backward compatibility. i myself bought a second 80gb ps3 and was forced to buy a crappy store bundle with virtua tennis 3 etc just cuase they could force me to cause hey, were i going to find one other wise?

    and lets face it, with sony’s lack of exclusives and lead titles.. ps2 games is all we really have so we need BC until sony can secure next gen titles. proper titles. that work.

    (for those about to mention titles that are out, i have most of them.. how many times can i play uncharted, Heavenly sword and the like)

    4. promote your real franchises that your customers love. prior to E3 no one was thinking about killzone and 3+ years most of us are afraid of its outcome. killzone 1 was ok. i never played the psp version. why the big push for killzone? cause its a shooter? the halo killer? news flash, halo 3 and gears 1 have been out already.. it cant be called a killer if it comes out years later..

    the real shooter franchise sony customers care about is SOCOM.. socom should have been a priority from day one. it should have released in the first year.. dont believe me about socom being a flagship shooter for sony? go check out the playstation socom forums. there are probably more people play socom for ps2 than resistance.

    5. stop being nonchalant about this generation. get mad.

    6. there are some good ps3 titles out in japan right? send them titles over to the U.S. asap… to flood the market here with ps3 games damn it.

    7. ????

    8. Profit.

  • incredibilistic

    @Caelum:

    And if you listen to Clinton supporters this is when she’ll be elected president.

    Aside from turning this conversation political, I do think the PS3 has some great days ahead and with so many great exclusives coming I do plan on sticking around.

    If MS wants more people to buy the PS3 all they have to do is release a Blu-ray system or a Blu-ray add-on. That’ll give Sony all the marketing encouragement they’ll need to show that MS was late to the party and that they’re not backing downloadable content as much as they stated.

  • Caelum

    @incredibilistic:

    The PS3 will have great days when Sony open it’s eyes…and See that today exclusivity has an intimacy connection to Consoles success.

  • AznSniper

    I think Sony has a change of management. That is all.

  • incredibilistic

    @ Lord Raoh:

    You make some good points but the biggest thing I drew from it was Sony getting a little more emotional about this generation. While they are picking up some steam (thanks to Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm, GTA IV and the Blu-ray win) they’re still playing for way behind.

    They need to get a lot more passionate about their system and start covering ALL the bases.

    I’ve made the point a hundred times but it’s the little things that really irritate me about the PS3. They made this great system but it still has a lot of half-baked features. Why are there like a dozen or so themes from Sony meanwhile there’s like a few thousand from PS3 owners? Just recently the Playstation.blog site posted a way to create themes using Photoshop. Okay great, what about those that don’t have access to Photoshop? When they first released themes they should’ve had an application (FREE) for users to download and start creating their own themes.

    We can replace the HDD in the system. Great. Where are the Sony licensed drives? I’m not saying make them but at least get with Western Digital or Maxtor and get one with the PS logo on it.

    Where’s the clock at the top like the PSP? Where are the extra music visualizers and slideshow themes? Why can’t I organize files the way I want and create folders for my pictures and movie clips? Where’s the free app from Sony that would allow me to stream content from my PC to the PS3 (yes, there are ways of doing it but I want something direct from Sony)?

    Not to dismiss that they need better games but let’s not forget that they built this monstrous system with all these great bells and whistles that have yet to be rung and a, ahem, blown?

    I think the PS3 is the greatest console ever created but the system itself is getting the short end of the stick. There’s so much potential to unlock but they don’t seem to be taking advantage of a system they built.

    Bottomline, I think Sony bit off more than they could chew with this system and have no idea what to do or just can’t catch up with where they are in the lifecycle. They (rather Phil) said they were ready for the connected console and while they’re getting there they continue to take baby steps to get there and with MS way out in front of the connected console generation they’re playing from way behind.

  • Lord Raoh

    One more thought i want to go into or expand is. Sony should also invest in an in house studio who’s sole purpose is to work on ports.

    like i said before Valve had no intentions on making a ps3 game. they didnt want to invest the time, headache and funds. EA asked if they could and valve said knock yourself out.

    wouldnt most ports, no matter how difficult be better coming from sony’s in house port experts?