"We will make sure that the PS5 generation will have more dedicated software than ever before", according to Sony boss Jim Ryan.

[Aranea Highwind]

 

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO, Jim Ryan, has said that the PS5 will have more exclusive games than any prior generation of PlayStation console.

 

As reported by VGC, Ryan spoke to Japanese financial site Nikkei, and explained that Sony has been investing in first-party game developers, with a goal to make sure the PlayStation has more exclusives than “ever before”.

“We have been quietly but steadily investing in high-quality games for PlayStation, and we will make sure that the PS5 generation will have more dedicated software than ever before,” he said.

 

 

“We have repeatedly engaged in mergers and acquisitions, including Insomniac Games in the US,” he said. “We will not rule out that option in the future.”

[Dreakon13]

Exclusives are good for business, bad for gamers.

 

As a primarily Playstation gamer, I want to see the Playstation get all the best games possible.  Whether that's through multi-platform releases or exclusivity, it doesn't make a ton of difference to me.  The part of me still mired in the console wars, wants to see Sony kick everyone elses butt at the end of the day.  Xbox still middling in their B- and C-tier exclusives means I have one less console to buy, one less online subscription service to hunt down deals for, etc.  The part of me who has aged a bit since the height of the console wars, kinda wishes exclusivity didn't exist and all gamers could play the best games out there regardless of platform... but that just isn't realistic.  Exclusive games and services are the best way to bring gamers over to your team, and the more gamers under the Playstation umbrella, means more consoles sold and more software sales in the future.  So it is what it is, I want to see gaming thrive and my investments validated.

 

This is of course assuming Ryan and Sony actually have plans to continue to push their first party game forward, because they've certainly been quieter than their competition about it.

[Golem25]

Ryan mentions the possibility of acquisitions to bolster the line-up of exclusives when in just the last decade Sony scuppered - and this is just off the top of my head - the following studios;

 

- Japan Studio

- BigBig

- Guerilla Cambridge

- Studio Liverpool

- Zipper Interactive

- Evolution Studio

 

In that same timeframe, only Insomniac were purchased. Meanwhile, a lot of games have found refuge elsewhere after having released many a title exclusively on the Playstation ecosystem - think Yakuza which was PS-exclusive for seven mainline installments and three spin-offs but saw the next gen version of the latest game enjoy timed exclusivity on XBox. A lot of smaller Japanese developers and niche series have had to migrate to Nintendo due to content policies. And even MLB The Show, another historic Playstation exclusive series developed in-house by Sony, is on rival hardware now (although you have to blame MLB for forcing that through), while big name first party titles like Horizon ZD and Days Gone are on PC.

 

We could have had that extensive and diverse portfolio of software only available on Playstation, we could have had Guerilla Cambridge bring out a new Killzone, Studio Liverpool drop a new WipEout, Zipper work on another tactical shooter and Evolution on a driving game, while Japan Studio could continue to experiment with new franchises or even bring back Ape Escape.

 

But nope; half a year into the new generation, and we have Destruction AllStars which looks and plays like ass and flopped right out of the gate, standalone DLC for Spiderman, Sackboy and DS from external studios, plus a couple of smaller 'bought' titles like Bugsnax and Oddworld. Ragnarok, Rift Apart, and the next Horizon game are coming up, but the studios in charge of them will only be able to pump one or maybe two more games out this generation - same for Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, and Bend (if they don't get taken out behind the shed next) as Sony's blockbuster ethos naturally leads to long periods of developments.

 

Which leaves me to ask the question; where are these hordes of exclusives supposed to be coming from? Is the Bugsnax/Oddworld business model the way forward where indie devs are paid to headline PS Plus ever other month?

 

I like the thought of some of these games, don't get me wrong, but Dim Jim Ryan has some catching up to do if he wants to have any hope of getting close to the exclusive libraries of the PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4 (which is thinning as we speak) with the tricky position Sony has manoeuvred itself into.

[monteblommie]

Exclusives *

* Also on pc

 

Not that i mind.

[ShadeSplit]

I wouldn't expect even half the amount of exclusives that were on PS2.

[Vwt277227]

Ooof this is not good news. We need more cross-platform titles if Playstation is going to get all the best games. Like, I would love to see Bethesda, Double Fine, and Obsidian games on Playstation still, but if this is the attitude Jim Ryan has, I'm probably going to have to buy an Xbox at some point too which sucks. 

[DrBloodmoney]

I don't care if a game is exclusive, Jimbo, I care if a game is good.

 

Make sure there's plenty of good stuff coming to the system, and I'll be just fine....

....and I don't give two shits whether they are also available on PC, Xbox, Nintendo, Stadia, iPhone, Ouya, Atari Jaguar, NeoGeo Pocket or a damned Casio wristwatch.

 

Make the deals, feed the relationships, and get the games.

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[sepheroithisgod]

Does this mean that studios will actually release more than one game on a generation?

[DaivRules]

Hey Jim, if they're going to be exclusives, that should mean they only have one codebase for your machine. Can you support them during development to release their games with, I don't know... no bugs? Seems like you should be able to at least give those studios that support, being that they'll be relying on you and your exclusive customers for their livelihoods.

[TJ_Solo]

Quote

We have been quietly...

 

 

that's not how you win on social media, Jim. 
screw high quality games and smart investments. You need to hop on social media and act a fool. 

It's the only way.

[Eraezr]

On the topicality of exclusivity, I'll paraphrase what I said in another thread.

 

Console exclusivity is healthy for not only the industry but also for gamers of varying taste. On two points:

• Overhead leadership which supports specific genres. E.g: Sony emphasizing on high production value single-player games while Microsoft leans on multiplayer shooters/a.k.a episodic deliveries of content. A Microsoft leadership is not empathetical to these sorts of ideas. They don't want a gaming climate which popularises single hit AAAs, they want the easy games-as service.
• Overhead leadership which nurtures studios and games. Dreams? It came out and it's a solid piece of software that is showing interesting potential and creations. MS's Project Spark - a similar premise to Dreams? Canned. MS's Scalebound? Canned. Guerilla Games taking seven years with a risky and expensive project? Horizon Zero Dawn. You think Astro Bot Rescue, a critically acclaimed PSVR game (90 on metacritic) was made because the market bends to Phil Spencer's opinion that VR games feel like "demos"? No. And this doesn't just apply to their gaming division, I've been a Microsoft consumer with their other products like Windows Phone and Zune. No matter how good the hardware was, or how promising the concept was, Microsoft is simply unwilling to put in the grunt work to elevate their projects to success. They lack Apple's dynamism, Sony's humility in an uphill battle. Just look at how things fared in the last generation, with Phil Spencer pushing game passes (meagre compensation for devs) and emphasis on hardware refreshes over true console gen resets. Microsoft doesn't know how to nurture or stay grounded.

To choose a PlayStation over an Xbox is to vote with my wallet for what kind of games and creeds I like to see in the industry. If exclusives continue to bolster hardware sales, then looping back to funding for the right kind of games (Bloodborne, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, etcetera) thereby powering a creative synergy, then I support exclusives. It's naive to think that the picture for software exclusivity is as simple as "More people get to play the said game, why not?" which disregards a listing number of factors, rippling effects and corporate culture. The Yakuza series would not exist if PlayStation leadership was a hivemind with Xbox and Nintendo (both told SEGA "No" about publishing the first Yakuza game on their platform). Hideo Kojima had offers from many companies, third party publishers, console makers and the bunch. And who did an industry veteran like him chose, when he was at his most vulnerable, just booted out of Konami to support an avante-garde game like Death Stranding? He chose PlayStation because he could see the bigger picture.

 

"More people can play X or Y game." Yeah. Sure. Everyone can play Fruit Ninja or Fallout 76. Doesn't mean I care about either (with the latter being a broken piece of shit that would have never seen the light of day under an PS leadership or studio culture). Exclusivity defines cultures of gaming which dictates which kind of video games will continue to be sold. The new Ace Attorney trilogy is being published on all platforms except Xbox One because the original trilogy did not even break 5,000 units sold on that platform.

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Eraezr

[Vwt277227]

I agree that some exclusivity is more of a representation of a company's values, but then you have things like Hades not coming to Playstation or Xbox (at least yet) or other indie games like that just being bought as either exclusives or timed exclusives. I guess that's more what I would like to see go. Timed exclusivity and exclusivity of third party games kinda sucks. 

[Sikutai]

The more exclusive, the better for us Playstation gamers.

[Deadly_Ha_Ha]

I haven't even used my ps5 yet, so if they want to introduce some nice new giochi esclusivi then I'm all for it

[Slava]

Investing into the 1st-party library worked well during the PS4 gen. But I think in the case with PS5 so far, they have been investing a lot into the 3rd-party deals:

 

Deathloop is a console exclusive.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is a console exclusive.

Final Fantasy XVI is a console exclusive.

Forspoken is a console exclusive.

 

Not sure which of them are timed yet. But all 4 of these are pretty big AAA titles from studios that made multiplatform games for the last gen (for example, Dishonored 2 and FF XV came out on Xbox the same day as on PS4).

Edited April 22, 2021 by Alderriz

[ChiefMichigan]

Gonna press X to doubt.

 

We might see a lot of timed exclusives to PS5. Or a lot of console exclusive games, or timed console exclusive games. But I don't think we'll see more than a few dozen PS5-only games. 

 

As of 2021, the PS4 only has about 67 exclusives. Category:PlayStation 4-only games - Wikipedia

 

If games are only timed or console exclusive anyway, it makes their exclusivity even more pointless and harmful to gamers.

 

Most people will disagree with what I'm about to say, but I think each console should have at least a few dozen exclusives. It gives the console an identity. The Xbox One only has 11 exclusives, and the Xbox Series S/X has 0.

 

[JoaLoft]

Yes, and if every one of those Sony exclusives will actually cost $70/€80, I think I'll wait for sales.

 

With the huge competition ongoing anyway, those games will start taking a first dive in prices after three or four months, post-launch.

[dakk55]

Okay....until they actually tell us what games they are keeping to Playstation/PC, I don't really see any difference here. PS3/4 had exclusives and we got by fine. Xbox 360/One had exclusives, and we got by fine.

[Gildo1993]

3 hours ago, Dreakon13 said:

Exclusives are good for business, bad for gamers.

 

As a primarily Playstation gamer, I want to see the Playstation get all the best games possible.  Whether that's through multi-platform releases or exclusivity, it doesn't make a ton of difference to me.  The part of me still mired in the console wars, wants to see Sony kick everyone elses butt at the end of the day.  Xbox still middling in their B- and C-tier exclusives means I have one less console to buy, one less online subscription service to hunt down deals for, etc.  The part of me who has aged a bit since the height of the console wars, kinda wishes exclusivity didn't exist and all gamers could play the best games out there regardless of platform... but that just isn't realistic.  Exclusive games and services are the best way to bring gamers over to your team, and the more gamers under the Playstation umbrella, means more consoles sold and more software sales in the future.  So it is what it is, I want to see gaming thrive and my investments validated.

 

This is of course assuming Ryan and Sony actually have plans to continue to push their first party game forward, because they've certainly been quieter than their competition about it.

 My thoughts exactly. Don't see why people think exclusives are a good thing. Exclusives are bad for almost everyone.

[thefourfoldroot]

3 hours ago, Dreakon13 said:

Exclusives are good for business, bad for gamers.

 

As a primarily Playstation gamer, I want to see the Playstation get all the best games possible.  Whether that's through multi-platform releases or exclusivity, it doesn't make a ton of difference to me.  The part of me still mired in the console wars, wants to see Sony kick everyone elses butt at the end of the day.  Xbox still middling in their B- and C-tier exclusives means I have one less console to buy, one less online subscription service to hunt down deals for, etc.  The part of me who has aged a bit since the height of the console wars, kinda wishes exclusivity didn't exist and all gamers could play the best games out there regardless of platform... but that just isn't realistic.  Exclusive games and services are the best way to bring gamers over to your team, and the more gamers under the Playstation umbrella, means more consoles sold and more software sales in the future.  So it is what it is, I want to see gaming thrive and my investments validated.

 

This is of course assuming Ryan and Sony actually have plans to continue to push their first party game forward, because they've certainly been quieter than their competition about it.

Actually, the best theoretical situation would be for all platforms to have as many fantastic exclusive games as you have time to play. This is because games that are exclusive don’t have to waste time duplicating work for varied technology and can concentrate on making as much content, that gets the best out of the tech, as possible.

 

This is also best then if someone is a multiplatform gamer.

 

The only people for whom having no exclusives would be good are those with one platform and more time than they can spend on the games they want on only that platform. Which is a good number of people true, but certainly isn’t the case for everyone.

 

[TrophyChief]

This justifies me investing in the PlayStation platform and why I plan to stay. Looking forward to seeing what is in store. It appears they are looking at quality and quantity. Hope quality doesn't suffer as a result. More gamers coming to the PlayStation brand the better, but competition is important too. 

[Paperclip1776]

1 hour ago, Eraezr said:

On the topicality of exclusivity, I'll paraphrase what I said in another thread.

 

Console exclusivity is healthy for not only the industry but also for gamers of varying taste. On two points:

• Overhead leadership which supports specific genres. E.g: Sony emphasizing on high production value single-player games while Microsoft leans on multiplayer shooters/a.k.a episodic deliveries of content. A Microsoft leadership is not empathetical to these sorts of ideas. They don't want a gaming climate which popularises single hit AAAs, they want the easy games-as service.
• Overhead leadership which nurtures studios and games. Dreams? It came out and it's a solid piece of software that is showing interesting potential and creations. MS's Project Spark - a similar premise to Dreams? Canned. MS's Scalebound? Canned. Guerilla Games taking seven years with a risky and expensive project? Horizon Zero Dawn. You think Astro Bot Rescue, a critically acclaimed PSVR game (90 on metacritic) was made because the market bends to Phil Spencer's opinion that VR games feel like "demos"? No. And this doesn't just apply to their gaming division, I've been a Microsoft consumer with their other products like Windows Phone and Zune. No matter how good the hardware was, or how promising the concept was, Microsoft is simply unwilling to put in the grunt work to elevate their projects to success. They lack Apple's dynamism, Sony's humility in an uphill battle. Just look at how things fared in the last generation, with Phil Spencer pushing game passes (meagre compensation for devs) and emphasis on hardware refreshes over true console gen resets. Microsoft doesn't know how to nurture or stay grounded.

To choose a PlayStation over an Xbox is to vote with my wallet for what kind of games and creeds I like to see in the industry. If exclusives continue to bolster hardware sales, then looping back to funding for the right kind of games (Bloodborne, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, etcetera) thereby powering a creative synergy, then I support exclusives. It's naive to think that the picture for software exclusivity is as simple as "More people get to play the said game, why not?" which disregards a listing number of factors, rippling effects and corporate culture. The Yakuza series would not exist if PlayStation leadership was a hivemind with Xbox and Nintendo (both told SEGA "No" about publishing the first Yakuza game on their platform). Hideo Kojima had offers from many companies, third party publishers, console makers and the bunch. And who did an industry veteran like him chose, when he was at his most vulnerable, just booted out of Konami to support an avante-garde game like Death Stranding? He chose PlayStation because he could see the bigger picture.

 

"More people can play X or Y game." Yeah. Sure. Everyone can play Fruit Ninja or Fallout 76. Doesn't mean I care about either (with the latter being a broken piece of shit that would have never seen the light of day under an PS leadership or studio culture). Exclusivity defines cultures of gaming which dictates which kind of video games will continue to be sold. The new Ace Attorney trilogy is being published on all platforms except Xbox One because the original trilogy did not even break 5,000 units sold on that platform.

 

 

Well written statement but definitely skewed to favor Playstation.  The intent of your position on the matter, of course.

 

Nothing you said was wrong from what I can see and it was a good read.  But every company has pros and cons.  What you didn't mention in your comment regarding Xbox is the following:

 

1. Game Pass - Best value proposition in the industry, hands down.  I've been a PS fanboy since PSOne (owned PSOne, 2, 3, 4, Pro, and now 5) and I recognize Game Pass is the best subscription model available in all of gaming.

 

2. Backwards Compatibility - Xbox is way ahead of PS on this front and it's painfully obvious.  They invested in this feature from the beginning and it's paying off.  Sure, it's a highly requested feature with a lower volume of participation (based on surveys/research) but it's perception of good will by a company.  Xbox is making a statement that they will always have your favorite games available forever.  I'm sure it's not forever, but they sure do a good job making you believe it and they haven't done anything to the contrary like Sony has recently (albeit a good decision to reverse course).

 

3. Exclusives - PS is dominating over Xbox, no doubt about it.  But, Xbox recognizes they lack content and marketshare in this area and have been making significant investments to even the playing field.  In the last several years, they've purchased: Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games, Mohjang (that little game called Minecraft), The Initiative (new internal studio), Obsidian Entertainment, InXile Entertainment and....oh yes, Bethesda and its 6 studios.  These are huge purchases and it makes a statement to their competition that they are here to stay.  In 4-5 years (maybe less), you will see Xbox be more competitive in this area.  I don't think they will win the exclusivity war against PS, but it won't be as far apart as they are today.

 

4. Phil Spencer - Who wouldn't want Phil Spencer over Jim Ryan.  And I'm not a Jim Ryan hater at all but get off it.  Phil comes off as genuine and honest (as genuine and honest as I've seen a company exec at least), he's got a style about him that shows he cares about his Xbox community, and he comes off as a cool dude.

 

I say all of this with absolutely no intentions of ever buying an Xbox.  I hope PS continues dominance in PS5/Xbox X/S era and I'm a big believer that exclusives make a big difference.  I suspect PS wouldn't have the volume of gamers buying PS without exclusives.  I recognize that there's an argument that gamers lose with exclusives.  I understand that perspective but personally, exclusives don't bother me.  It strengthens the portfolio of their game library and unless companies all of sudden don't want to make money, exclusives will always be around.  Wait until Microsoft, the company that wants all gamers to play all games on all platforms, make big, Bethesda AAA games exclusive to Xbox.  Just wait, it's coming.  There's no way they made a $7.5 billion dollar investment so PS gamers can experience the same games as Xbox.  "It's not personal, it's just business."  (Godfather, 1972)

[Dreakon13]

3 hours ago, Gildo1993 said:

 My thoughts exactly. Don't see why people think exclusives are a good thing. Exclusives are bad for almost everyone.

 

That wasn't exactly my point.  Exclusives certainly haven't been bad for Sony, and that matters.

 

 

3 hours ago, Paperclip1776 said:

1. Game Pass - Best value proposition in the industry, hands down.  I've been a PS fanboy since PSOne (owned PSOne, 2, 3, 4, Pro, and now 5) and I recognize Game Pass is the best subscription model available in all of gaming.

 

2. Backwards Compatibility - Xbox is way ahead of PS on this front and it's painfully obvious.  They invested in this feature from the beginning and it's paying off.  Sure, it's a highly requested feature with a lower volume of participation (based on surveys/research) but it's perception of good will by a company.  Xbox is making a statement that they will always have your favorite games available forever.  I'm sure it's not forever, but they sure do a good job making you believe it and they haven't done anything to the contrary like Sony has recently (albeit a good decision to reverse course).

 

3. Exclusives - PS is dominating over Xbox, no doubt about it.  But, Xbox recognizes they lack content and marketshare in this area and have been making significant investments to even the playing field.  In the last several years, they've purchased: Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games, Mohjang (that little game called Minecraft), The Initiative (new internal studio), Obsidian Entertainment, InXile Entertainment and....oh yes, Bethesda and its 6 studios.  These are huge purchases and it makes a statement to their competition that they are here to stay.  In 4-5 years (maybe less), you will see Xbox be more competitive in this area.  I don't think they will win the exclusivity war against PS, but it won't be as far apart as they are today.

 

4. Phil Spencer - Who wouldn't want Phil Spencer over Jim Ryan.  And I'm not a Jim Ryan hater at all but get off it.  Phil comes off as genuine and honest (as genuine and honest as I've seen a company exec at least), he's got a style about him that shows he cares about his Xbox community, and he comes off as a cool dude.

 

The ironic thing, is that with the exception of exclusivity maybe... all of these things I think are bred from Microsoft playing second fiddle for almost two generations now.  Cost effective subscriptions aren't something a company does out of the kindness of their heart, the PR is almost as valuable as the money for them right now.  Putting a loveable gamer like Phil Spencer in charge (who I think is phenomenal in the position he's in fwiw) probably doesn't happen if they aren't trying to make these grassroots connections to the gaming community.  Backwards compatibility doesn't inherently make Microsoft money, it's a big PR play.

 

I'm not meaning to make this sound like a bad thing either.  In ideal circumstances companies SHOULD be putting the consumer first.  But my point is, when you need consumers, you make moves to get them.  When you got them, you don't...

 

I think Microsoft is going to have a great opportunity to overtake Sony if/when some of these acquisitions final pay off... but anyone who does jump ship solely because they think Microsoft cares about them, should prepare themselves for that happy gamer-loving smile to turn into an angry money-loving frown if they ever do land on top.

Edited April 22, 2021 by Dreakon13

[JourneySilvers]

Both PS and Xbox keep boasting about upcoming exclusives (or I guess in Xbox's case, Microsoft purchasing Bethesda at least implies they're going to aim for important exclusives) but we haven't really seen anything big come out of it yet for the new gen.  

Honestly, Nintendo is the only company getting me to buy their console for exclusives. So many games on the switch that I wish could come to PS because I prefer trophy hunting, but it is what it is. 

[Gildo1993]

18 minutes ago, Dreakon13 said:

 

That wasn't exactly my point.  Exclusives certainly haven't been bad for Sony, and that matters.

 

 

Yes, and I didn't say they weren't. Exclusives are a good deal for Sony, no doubt. It's just bad for the general average customer. Not everyone can have multiple consoles, and when you have good games releasing only on certain consoles, everyone that doesn't own, or can't afford, that console will miss out. I know, I know, every game releasing on every platform and everyone living happily thereafter is just a distant dream, but a dream worth having.

Edited April 22, 2021 by Gildo1993