TGO Daily | April 12, 2021 | PlayStation Report
TGO Daily | April 12, 2021
In The News
PlayStation
From Bloomberg, we have learned that there is some unrest at the company because of their insistence on focusing on major blockbuster games. On the surface it makes sense — PlayStation builds its business around huge AAA games that will sell millions, as opposed to the wider approach taken by Xbox with their Game Pass. However, it is reported that this has stunted creativity within the company, and has led to a lot of staff turnover. From Bloomberg:
“Sony’s focus on exclusive blockbusters has come at the expense of niche teams and studios within the PlayStation organization, leading to high turnover and less choice for players. Last week, Sony reorganized a development office in Japan, resulting in mass departures of people who worked on less well-known but acclaimed games such as Gravity Rush and Everybody's Golf. The company has informed developers that it no longer wants to produce smaller games that are only successful in Japan”
Another example is Sony Bend, the team that most recently made Days Gone, who tried to pitch a sequel for the game. Even though the first was a profitable game, critical reception was mixed, and Sony nixed it. They were then redirected to providing assistance with various projects at Naughty Dog, which frustrated leadership and caused some to leave. Last month they asked to be taken off those projects and work on something of their own, which they were granted.
There was another team of about 30 people who were tired of lending a hand to the bigger studios, and took the initiative to start working on a remake for The Last of Us. While Sony approved, they were never given a name or a budget. Eventually, that team were asked to help on finishing The Last of Us Part II, and the remake of the first game was handed over to Naughty Dog as their next project. The smaller team lost their autonomy once again, causing most of them to quit.
And that’s where things stand. The big exclusives are specifically engineered to be blockbusters, with Sony trying to dedicate as much of their resources as possible to them. This is being reinforced with their plans to bring their biggest franchises to mobile, their film adaptations to Netflix, and how they intend to create a competitor to the Xbox Game Pass. Obviously they can choose to run their business however they want, but it has been proven that some of the biggest standouts can come from very small teams and experiments (Dreams, anyone?).
Epic Games Store
It has been reported that by the end of 2021, the Epic Games Store will have lost just under $600 million (around $200 million/year). For the most part, this money goes towards minimum guarantees for the EGS exclusives in order to keep the game off Steam.
This is a lot of money, but is also largely expected. Epic claim that it is meant to be a major front-loaded investment in order to gain users and market share. So while it’s currently losing a lot, they think it will start to be profitable in 2023 — and they’ll fully recoup by 2027.
That means they’re sticking around for the long term, unless things go belly up.
The Grab-Bag
Tons of info about Age of Empires 4 released. 4 new campaigns (including Norman) and 8 playable civs.
The Last Campfire gets free new update with extra puzzles and performance updates
Ghost Recon Breakpoint getting content updates throughout this year
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