The PlayStation Showcase Was Disappointing,But Fans Need To Make Their Peace With Longer Dev. Cycles

GB: "Sony’s latest PlayStation Showcase was disappointing."

[KingKionic]

After 18 months Sony gave playstation fans a state of play instead of a showcase.

But whats really bizarre is...there is only one AAA first party title with a actual release window. Spiderman 2 and that has no firm release date.

Most playstation fans have yet to really take that in. But to put it plainly there wont be any AAA titles till they announce it at there next showcase which will no doubt be next year around the same may-june timeframe.

Deep stuff... shows ya how a day can change everything.

[Magog]

Are you trying to say that's worse than all the games Xbox gives a release date to and then pushes them back a year?

[KingKionic]

Definitely. For sony it begs the question what happen for 2 years. Naughty Dog Statements with Last of Us factions says it all.

Sony is literally now in a transition phase. There will be a insane gap in playstation studios titles AAA portfolio.

We got a damn Gran Turismo movie trailer at the show for instead of a game.

[Magog]

Insane gap? I can guarantee you they will have plenty of games next year like they have plenty for this year. They just don't want to steal their own hype.

[ModsDoBetter]

Why mention Xbox on a PS article?
This is the problem with some PS fans, they justify disappointment by deflecting to Microsoft every time.

[--Onilink--]

Its not like Sony isnt know for doing exactly that, almost every major exclusive during the ps4 era was delayed. We had like 3 separate E3s with the same exclusives showing up because of how early they were announced or because they got delays.

There is nothing wrong with delaying a game.

Having said that, what does Xbox have to do with anything he said? Its perfectly possible to have a discussion about good and bad things a company does and still only talk about said company.

A good or bad Sony showcase is irrelevant to someone that only has an Xbox. And whether Xbox does worse or better is just as irrelevant to someone playing on a PS5

[KillaJamm]

Bro you are such a fan boy it's unreal lol every post is you deflecting "xbox this, xbox that", believe it or not you can actually enjoy more than one console it's not illegal. You act like a bloody sports fan supporting your 'team' it's hilarious.

[InUrFoxHole]

Uhhh. He's just stating the facts man. You seem to be deflecting that.

[fr0sty]

I mean, they could have overhyped unfinished xhooter games and then rushed them ou the door at 30fps...

[--Onilink--]

I wouldnt really say Redfall was overhyped in any meaningful way (other than Arkane fans having high expectations because of the dev itself)

If anything, the game wasnt exactly marketed very much (or well), and given the state of the final release, its not that hard to figure out why haha

[sparky77]

Agreed at this rate 2024 will be just GaaS, the Playstation of today is a stark difference from the past.

[Extermin8or3_]

Wolverine? Just to put it out there also ND are working on not one but two single-layer titles. Ff7 rebirth is clearly going to end up hitting in first half of 2024... plus we'll et the multiplayer fps concord and presumeably fairgames. Sony are committed to 2 major AAA singleplayer titles a year in addition to their live service games based on their investor call from last week.

[Lightning77]

"but in FY25, Sony expects that ratio to flip to 40 / 60. (During the presentation, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst said that Sony currently has 12 live service games in production"

https://www.theverge.com/20...

Accorsing to PS fans they "speak up" for things they don't like. So speak up for less live service. Because come 2025 there's gonna be a ton of them.

[Weallgame]

Yall silly ash we never get more then 2 3 4 triple a first party games in a year and its no different here, just more gloom and doom smh on the industry leader, dk what to tell ya other then its same sony as it was 2 decades ago

[Extermin8or3_]

Prior to last year (and all reports indicate its beacuase of the ABK acquisition regulatory scrutiny and MS trying to use sonys exclusives they invested in- to justify the acquisition) Sony typically had 2 or 3 showcases a year, firstly. Secondly Sony have in the last few years avoided putting dates on games till just a handful of months before when they can ve certain wthey won't have to delay the game. So really no spiderman date isn't an issue. No wolverine date also isn't an issue.

[Lightning77]

There's always SGF. Rumor is Silent Hill 2 Remake will hey shown off soon. I suspect Death Stranding 2 and whatever else Sony didn't announce will be at SGF as well.

[KingKionic]

Both gotta be timed exclusives. I dont believe for a second Death Stranding is 100 percent exclusive either because the last one was on xbox.

I dont see how Konami would allow SH 2 Remake only on ps5 beyond a year. Thats a game that would have to compete directly with resident evil remakes which are on other platforms.

[mkis007]

kionic

Death stranding has never released on xbox...

[HardeepTheGuru]

And to boot they have several live-service games planned...which may not all pan out. If Xbox decides to go for broke with lots of announcements during the summer, I wouldn't be surprised.

[Weallgame]

Xbox has to launch though just announcinh a game for it to be poop and or delayed a year doesnt exactly mean much anymore

[shinoff2183]

The thing though talk about sonys first party all you want. Sony has delivered time and time again. We on ps never had a wait for e3 moment especially not a dozen of those moments. I can give Sony the benefit of the doubt if it's a down year. At the same time there's still awesome sh coming to ps. Legend of heroes. I believe 2 more this year, trinity trigger just came out. Some are available for switch but can you guess where I can play these awesome jrpgs. Yep you guessed it. Xbox

Again Sony might have a bad year but they've always delivered. Xbox has starfield and yet another forza game(racing doesn't interest me at all) starfield is definitely interesting to me. So xbox gamers are talking sh cause they happen to have one game more then sony coming from first party lol. What about all the other years

[seanpitt23]

With more Devs using UE5 engine it might make thngs easier and cut some dev time out!

[anast]

They should follow the Xbox formula show a broken game and release it broken...Another stupid take.

[enkiduxiv]

I have to agree that there is some cause for concern. ND used some of its staff on a pretty but unnecessary remake, and some of its staff has been working on a multiplayer Last of Us game that seems to be in development purgatory.

Filling the show with Live Service teaser trailers and movie previews does not look good. The ps5 has enjoyed a great launch and has had some excellent first party titles so far, but most of these releases up to SpiderMan 2 were probably set into motion during the Shawn Layden era.

I can’t say that I have liked anything that Jim Ryan has said or done up to this point, and I am afraid that we are finally starting to see consequences of that change.

Hopefully, after a few Live Service busts, the parent company will boot him out the door. I was thinking that Redfall finally put some pressure on Phil’s job. We need a come to Jesus moment for Jim as well.

[DarXyde]

Nah.

I feel pretty sure this was a new studio update/GaaS stuff. This is them showing up some multiplayer stuff and some big games doing this year.

I'm expecting a proper showcase in September/October.

Good news is that this presentation was Sony's worst in quite some time and they're pretty good about shaping up quickly. So... Take the hint, Sony. You're GaaS stuff isn't too well received.

[Yi-Long]

It feels like all these studios are gambling on scoring big with huge hits of epic proportions, so they’re going for 5+ years of development on huge budgets with hundreds, if not thousands, of folks working on that 1 big project …

… and occasionally that does happen, so they release something truly special, and it’s a big critical and commercial hit.

At least as often, they made that huge investment, then they release it, and it just falls flat, or worse, it tanks. And all those years of money and hard work are gone. Wasted.

I really long back for the simpler times, where devs just went out to deliver a good/nice 15-20 SP game, and that was it. You release it, it’s good and popular, or perhaps it isn’t, but regardless, the devs then simply move on to whatever next project they feel excited about …

[NotoriousWhiz]

And there's where indies come in. To fill the void left by these big publishers producing these AAA experiences. Indies continue to produce good one and done single player experiences that are very reminiscent of the simpler times.

[Yi-Long]

Yeah, agreed, and that’s what’s been keeping me excited the past few years. Smaller devs/indies have been jumping on some genres which have been pretty much abandoned by the big studios.

[OhReginald]

I think the problem is announcing games way too early. 1-2 year tops for game announcement to release.

[ModsDoBetter]

Agreed, Sony definitely learned from that mistake imo, despite Wolverine and Spider-Man 2. They aren’t as bad for announcing too early as they used to be.

[Pyrofire95]

Yes. I don't really care about games that far out. I often get sick of seeing many that keep showing up in promotions for so long. There's plenty in the here and now to be excited for, for me. And there's always the big ol' backlog.

[dumahim]

What is the problem with announcing earlier? As long as the game is given the amount of time it needs and launches when ready, what's the problem?

[arkard]

It builds expectations on something that is usually still in concept phase. So people get excited about features that may not make final cut. If a games development goes perfect it may work to it's advantage to build hype over the years, but overall I think it leads to less hype.

[P_Bomb]

The older I get the harder these half-decade dev cycles hit. I’m eventually gonna die lol! Not everything needs the George R R Martin treatment.

[outsider1624]

I was thinking the samw thing. I probably wont see gta6, elderscroll 6.lol

[CrimzonRaven]

The new Fallout, Elder Scrolls 6, Gta 6 etc... will probably be the last (6,es) or sequels i will play if they take this long to come out in between and will take even longer in the future. I am 43+ now. When these 3 games are out i will probably be 1 year older still... and before the NEXT sequel after those games arrive i will probably have lost interest in gaming all together.

I already am slowly loosing it now, i feel. Games don't interest me the same at all anymore, like they did in my teens. As i wrote under another article on this site. Most likely ps5 will be the last console i ever own and it won't be a ps6 for me because i will be most likely to old by then and going on how my gaming interest is now it will probably be all gone until that arrives.

But im not sad, I have been a gamer from the first day i played Wonder Boy on my Sega master system until today, so i have experienced a lot of great entertainment.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

Well, you are already 399 years old what's another 100?

[MrBeatdown]

Same. We get a GTA every 10 years... I've got like three or four more to go before I'm dead.

[AmUnRa]

Come on, let dead not BEAT you DOWN😉......live healthy and you can easy peasy 10 more year our of it so you can play gta6 and many more games, be strong...

[Lionsguard]

Longer dev cycles and exorbitant dev costs into the hundreds of millions is why AI tools are going to be embraced.

[CrimsonWing69]

Longer dev cycles? FF16 and FF7 Rebirth feel like they’re coming out sooner than FF12, FF13, and FF15 did…

[DOMination-]

That's just an illusion that multiple teams provide. FF16 started development in 2016. Rebirth was probably in active development way before FF7R was released as well.

[CrimsonWing69]

How would Rebirth be in development before Remake was released? They even stated when they started…

https://www.thegamer.com/fi...

Here are literal quotes on how much faster it was to develop and when it started…

"Thanks to the shift to the PS5 environment over there, the development of "FFVII REBIRTH" [is going] smoothly", Kitase said in the interview. "It's a really amazing development speed for a title of this size.”

"After the production of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it took about a year to develop the PC version and Intergrade, and then Rebirth was started. So the actual development period is less than three years."

I think the problem is people don’t know wtf they’re talking about.

[DOMination-]

"How would Rebirth be in development before Remake was released?"
"I think the problem is people don’t know wtf they’re talking about."

Come on dude, no need for the insult. I was merely giving a reason for it. To elaborate, the third game has probably been in development for some time too at this point. They didn't just release FF7R and Intergrade and then go "right, guess we should start thinking about a sequel now".

The trilogy was planned from the start. Sure, "full production" may have started after FF7R but work will have commenced on Rebirth way before. Not to mention in general, sequels tend to be shorter anyway as engine, design and writing work may have already been done.

[GhostScholar]

Yeah unless it’s an Xbox def right? The hypocrisy of this site is astounding.

[Lightning77]

Now ppl are starting to understand that games literally take time to make? Why is Sony omitted from this? I know it seems like Sony puts out games in their sleep but that's hardly the case. Sony is just a well oiled machine with their studios. Sony's Big hitters really started hitting with GoW 2018 up until now. Now they're big games are still in development simply put it's not rocket science.

Similar to Xbox in 2020 at their showcase with all the CG.

[CS7]

Longer dev cycles or being distracted by forced multiplayer projects?

ND would have likely had a 2024 project ready if Factions 2 didnt balloon from a game mode to an actual game.

[KingKionic]

Yep. We would of seen a trailer currently of a new ND game. It probably would of released too this year alongside Spiderman 2.

[Pyrofire95]

I don't think it was disappointing. Most games seemed somewhat interesting. I really have know idea why people had such big expectations. When has giant announcements ever happened in the middle of May? It's either been February, E3 time, Gamescom, Tokyo Game Show, or The Geoffs.

[Hedstrom]

I miss AA games! When games didnt need to be 40+ hours open world games with 1000 sidequests. It feels like everything nowadays are either a 5-6 year 200-400 million dollar games or 2-5 indie teams to really small games.

[shinoff2183]

Aa games still exist. There's a sh town out there.

[jBlakeeper]

Next year I’d bet we get Silent Hill 2, Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, FF7 Rebirth. And possibly Factions and Wolverine. Although Factions and Wolverine may come in 2025 or later

[chicken_in_the_corn]

Make peace with longer dev cycles? I think they have with all the pressure they put on studios to delay their games.

[talocaca]

I understand that they want to announce titles closer to release.....however, 3 years into the PS5's lifecycle we have no idea what most of Sony's studios are developing 🤔

[Profchaos]

Longer dev cycles are a given but with something like 18 odd internal first party studios it's not unreasonable to ask for more i love Sony I buy most of their gaming hardware from PS1 through 5 and PSP/v along with VR 1 and 2 I've been there supporting them since the beginning I'm a multiplatform gamer to meaning I pretty much buy everyone's systems eventually but Sony is a day 1 for me however it feels like the longest drought and this showcase was not defendable it just wasn't good yet I feel some people can't accept that and make excuses

[hotnickles]

I’d be cool with shorter/focused games of yore. Just price them accordingly. Personally I like them better. Even the open world games, not everything needs to be gta scale.

For example, I’m sure ubi spent half the time making immortals than they did making AC odyssey and it’s a much bette game. 40 hours and I was 100%. Totally fine and I moved on.

[Agent75]

But this gen has been poor, more so Xbox. What was anyone expecting here? These consoles have been out a while not and we may as well made do with PS4 and Xbox One for a few more years. After PS3 and XBox 360, It's was downhill. By the time we get going with PS5 and Xbox Series X, they'll be tipping 5 years old, then the same console launch milarky all over again.

[Einhander1971]

Have not got a problem with longer dev times. As long as the consoles have a longer cycle. Fed up with reading about PS5 pro, even PS6. When we haven't seen the best of this gen yet!! And we are nearly three years in. So yes I'm frustrated like most I expect.

[Father__Merrin]

Ps3 has no games. Ps4 has no games. Ps5 has no games... Same crowd spilling the same bile year after year. Reality was ps3 ended up with shit ton of games and whilst Microsoft pulled software support playstation releases continued.

This was same with ps4 era, and now same with ps5 era... It can be summed up like this if xbox has no games for 4 years and releases a few titles in year 5 and playstation released games all the time for 4 years but not in 5th year, xbox fans see this as a win. It's so true they uses to do this all the time