Is Sony Stretching the Playstation Brand Too Thin? – The Break Room

Is Sony stretching the Playstation brand too thin? James, Josh, and Chris discuss this and more on the brand new show for The Life of Gaming, The Break Room! Casual water-cooler conversation in your face!

[ApocalypseShadow]

In this video, they keep saying Sony isn't having a problem today of spreading themselves too thin. So it kind of makes the video pointless.

PS4, PS4 Pro, PSVR, PS Vita, PS Vue,PS Plus, PS Now are profitable for Sony. That's besides the movies, music and television shows they sell on the store.

The guy on the left in the video says Sony doesn't know how to make games. And he excludes every developer under Sony as being part of Sony. But gives props to Nintendo's internal teams. Nintendo bought developers too. Sony's developers would not have made their best games without Sony funding. Stupid opinion.

They speak of PS Vita TV. They mentioned playing vita games but totally exclude the fact that you could buy that little device and stream PS4 games to another room for those at home without buying another PS4. The device wasn't about Netflix or Hulu etc like some gamers wanted. It was for Vita and PS4. Now Sony has an app that allows you to stream their games to any supported device. So, that would make PSTV obsolete.

They mention PS move as a failure. But Sony sold over 15 million of them as an add on. And it continues to sell for VR. If you compare to the packed in wiimote, then it's possible. But that would mean Kinect sales were a failure too compared to the wiimote as a pack in. And I don't believe that. Failure means it doesn't work.IT DOES. Failure means it no longer sells. IT DOES. There's no failure.

The guys in the video aren't stepping back and seeing the evolution. Sony introduced motion controls with a camera. They introduced accuracy with a motion controller and a camera. Now they introduce VR with all of that together. And it all works. And Sony sells VR at a profit.

Until Sony starts failing in sales, hardware and software creation, then they are not spreading themselves too thin.

[Jamester0722]

Apocalypse Shadow: first, thanks for checking out the show! I completely understand your point-of-view. However, this video is more just a casual conversation between friends. Our main point of the video is that Sony often sends out a new product, then doesn't support it - then it dies. We've seen it multiple times with the company. They have also closed multiple wings of their business, since they haven't been the best with their money in the past. I do agree that they are turning it around with Playstation 4. We also mention in the video that sometimes Sony does bring back products from the dead, such as with Playstation Move. On PS3 they have Sports Champions, Dedmunds Quest, and not much else. However, with the birth of Playstation VR, they are bringing it back with a bang. (They are also bringing back the Playstation Move Gun as well) Also, to your point about Nintendo: Yes, Nintendo does have other great companies under it making games as 2nd party (such as Retro, Next Level, and others), but the majority of the games are still made by Nintendo itself. Sony doesn't make games. They buy companies to make games for them.

Once again, thanks for checking out the video! The feedback really is greatly appreciated. Hopefully, you will still check out other videos we have coming in the future. I hope we can change your mind on how you feel about our content going forward!

[Aenea]

If Sony owns the developer studios that make their games, they do make games. Sounds like a silly distinction to make!

So MS doesn't make games either then since they buy studios as well?

And what if Sony founds a brand new studio, then buys one, dissolves it and moves all the people to the new studio? I mean, what are we even talking about?

it's nonsense!

[neolego]

First, Apocalypse Shadow, thanks for not only watching but actually paying attention. Whether you agree with us or not, you heard what we said and believe it or not that means something to us. Also, the fact that you are willing to share your thoughts is very encouraging to the guys. We do this because we love it, so having feedback, both critical and complimentary is important to us.

By the way, I'm the guy on the left with stupid opinions. I will only speak for myself and not the other guys. However, just to clarify my opinion about developers, I simply said that Sony is not know for making games. I didn't say they didn't know how to get amazing games. Sony has build their amazing first party line up by identifying talent and going after it. Sony is not alone in this, Microsoft also falls into this camp. The fact of the matter is, Nintendo has always been a software company first. I was just making the point that Sony has always been a hardware company first. If you agree with my opinion or not is irrelevant, the simple facts show that Sony has been making Hardware since the 70's, while only making software since the late 90's. If you don't count Naught Dog or Bend, Sony only developed 4 games in 2016. If you include Naughty Dog, it's 5 total. So, like I said, Sony is not know for DEVELOPING software. What they do brilliantly though is identify and publish amazing software!

The last thing I'll say is that we all agree that Sony is going good. The title might be misleading, but during our conversation we all agreed that Sony is doing well. VR is doing great for them and they fact that they were able to use a failed experiment like Move again with VR is a brilliant decision. The title was supposed to be a question and in the end I think we all agree that Sony is in a much better situation than anyone else in the game space right now. Also, if you enjoyed this, wait until tomorrow when we get serious and talk about the future of Xbox!! :)

Anyway, thanks again for checking us out. I hope you continue to watch in the future and continue to share your excellent thoughts.

[ApocalypseShadow]

To both of you James and neo, forgive me if I came across as harsh. It's not my intention. And I did like the fact that you can get some guys around a mic and chit chat about games and PlayStation. Props for that.

My point was basically that I'm not seeing areas where Sony is failing when it comes to PlayStation. Are there areas that need improvement? Definitely. Streaming quality for PS now, download speeds, playstation store UI, controller battery life, more in house VR games sooner, not allowing some crap Indy games to get through like the tiger game. Even PSVR tracking could be improved. Such as getting the projector that was patented out sooner rather than later. I don't need room scale. But it would be nice to just turn around.I could find other things but you get the point. I would have said HDD space but they finally fixed that for me.

Sony's in house studios created or purchased are Sony in his studios. There is no separation. Sony has their Japan studios who make SofTC,ICO,The last guardian, ape escape and hot shots golf. Their biggest developer polyphony digital of GT fame is in house and created. Not bought. Sony Santa Monica was a created studio and one of their best who made kinetica, war of monsters, god of war, etc. They also help other Sony studios when they need it.Point being, bought or created, they ARE Sony. Sony could fire all of naughty dog. Why? Because they are Sony. Not contracted to work for Sony. They know how to make games.

As for failures, all companies have them. But you got to take risks to find the rewards. Or business portfolios would be small. Sony takes risks on hardware, software and services. Not all pan out. But that's business. Oh, and there were more games made for PS move than the two you mentioned. Sorcery, the fight, the shoot, tumble, etc. There were over 150 games to play for an add on. The fact you could play killzone 3 from beginning to end speaks volumes.

Will I watch your future shows? Sure. It wasn't bad. Like PSVR Frank. He's not big, but reviews VR games like old school mags i used to read like game fan, gamer's republic, etc with story, visuals, audio, gameplay, motion sickness and value.I don't subscribe to anyone but I'd definitely watch you guys again.

[Jamester0722]

Apocalypse Shadow: thanks for the following up! I completely agree that Sony is a very brave company. They are the only of the "big 3" that actually seem to take risks. That's what we absolutely love about them (1 of many things). I had a Playstation Move and absolutely loved it. I completely forgot about Sorcery and The Shoot! I played the entirety of Resistance 3 with move (I still say move/wii remotes were the best way to play First Person Shooter games. Too bad it never caught on)

[rainslacker]

I'm not sure I get the part about Sony isn't known for making games. Are you stipulating that Sony only buys developers?

If so, that's not the case. Sony has SSM and Japan Studio which are both known to make some of the best known games on PS....namely God of War and Gran Turismo. They also have world wide studios, which is a conglomerate of different studios and teams. All these studios came around in the PS1 days. Before that, Sony's games were made by Sony Online Entertainment. Everquest has been a long standing staple of that studio before it was sold off.

Sorry, I just don't get how you could say Sony isn't known for making games. Maybe 20 years ago when PS first released, but not anytime recently.

I won't deny they buy a lot of talent, but the end result is that they end up being Sony studios, and Sony makes games, and they are often regarded as a high quality publisher, which also has it's own internal studios.

[PhoenixUp]

Doesn't seem to be doing any harm to their gaming subsidiary's business