Thoughts on PS without sounding like someone stuck in the past
Ok, maybe I am stuck in the past a little.
Early in 2021, Sony closed Japan Studio. In early 2022, Sony acquired Bungie for 3.6mil. In 2016, Sony focused on NA/Western games by moving HQ to San Mateo, CA. With the shift in power, came a shift in focus and direction for the Playstation side of the Japanese company that is in probably too many markets. For some this was an obvious conclusion. Kutaragi led PS3 was bad! Western market was larger! Japan got bad at games. 360 is better! I don't care about a lot of those things.
What was the Playstation for you? For me? What was the Playstation 2? What was Japan Studio? If you liked Parappa, Wild Arms they helped get those games made and published. Devil Dice(Xi), Jumping Flash, Rapid Reload, I.Q.? Also them. The entire Ape Escape series? Yup. Dark Cloud and it's sequel? Yes! Look, there's a list on Wikipedia and the Giant Bomb wiki. I personally find that when I think back and go "what's nice about playstation?" it's not always the big hits. Sure I have nostalgia for Spyro. Enjoyed the Playstation era FF games. Got ps2 versions of multiplatform games. My actual favorite PS2 rpg for a time was actually Dark Cloud 2. Early Level 5 and made with publishing help of Sony. PSP games I think about outside of obscure stuff? LocoRoco. Reason I bought the Vita? Gravity Rush. Last ps2 I put time into when I turned it on? Ape Escape 3.
A lot of these games described Playstation but also are a good example of the 'amount of video game' I usually liked. You see, Ape Escape games aren't the highest budget most technical games on the system. Their PSP output is far from a AAA studio. These are smaller, but not always quite on indie scale, games with the stability of having good publisher QA and financial support. Much more experimental, especially compared to today. Many of the ps1 output sits alongside the experimental Artdink games. They're not the most fancy, but they have polish. A type of game we don't see often. The current form of indie games sometimes fills this spot, but basically most of them do not. To some, none of them do. At some point the indie games I have played got support from a publisher, for a time it would probably be 505 games, and very few of them are actually that experimental.
I bought a vita because of Gravity Rush. I see no reason to buy a ps5. Atleast, right now. running a few games more consistently than my pc or ps4 would be nice. But see, that's the reason I'm even considering one. I no longer have the hope that I can get a bunch of smaller fun games. No guarantee I can get more than big game with big marketing. Most indie games I'm getting on pc. Or switch. Even thinking further, D3 doesn't even have that much output anymore. Simple series is a highlight. To me, a PS5 ran by the current San Mateo SIE is chasing something with such focus it's leaving out a bunch of games I used to get their consoles for. They want cinematic, high production, big big big games that take a lot of hours and burn a lot of people out. And it's not just Sony. Sony is just a good place to look. I can't think of a studio buy that would fix this, because further consolidation would actually long term hurt getting a game of this type out. Everything is a franchise an IP. Safe. Known. Reliable. Maybe it doesn't need to be. Sure, let a few of them become one. Gamepass isn't going to fix this. Do you really think a subscription model future xbox is going to be that much better at Netflix at finishing stories. At not chasing market data as gospel. At putting thought into art?
I know what I want. I ain't seeing signs I'm getting it.
