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Former PlayStation Boss Thinks Sony Needs To Focus On More Than Just Graphics

"We naturally have to change our way of thinking."

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From the original PlayStation through to the PS5 Pro, graphics have always played a key role in marketing that console. Former Sony president Shuhei Yoshida thinks that it might be time for Sony to start focusing on other aspects of video games so that Sony can become popular in a "broader" sense.

"Up until now, PlayStation's DNA has been driven by values ​​such as 'cutting-edge graphics' that have continued since [Ken] Kutaragi-san's time," Yoshida said to AV Watch (via a translation by Genki). "Users have also expected that from PlayStation games. However, it's about time we have to reconsider that. Of course, I think it's necessary to provide the very best--in terms of graphics quality--to those who want it. But, in order to continue to be popular with users in a broad sense, we naturally have to change our way of thinking."

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Several of Sony's first-party games are graphical showcases--with last year's The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered being a prime example--and the company has continued to push for photorealistic visuals in several of its biggest games. While games like last year's Astro Bot are an exception to the rule, Sony generally tends to favor a degree of realism with its exclusives. Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick believes that games with live-action-like visuals aren't far away from being realized.

There are downsides to this, as games striving for realism can look dated after a few years and the cost to produce them has grown enormously. Former Sony executive Shawn Layden has said the AAA video game space is unsustainable due in part to rising development costs, and Sony is aiming to speed up its game-development process with AI and machine-learning initiatives.

Interestingly, Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin recently revealed the reason why the studio sold itself to Sony back in 2001 was due to rising development costs. As Gavin explained, Naughty Dog spent about $100,000 to develop 1992's Rings of Power, $1.6 million on the first Crash Bandicoot game released in 1996, and $1.6 million on Jak and Daxter in 2001.

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Slannmage

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They should focus more on diversity...... Of games, which is the ironic thing as all they make now are third person action adventure games.

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GuitarWarrior66

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Edited By GuitarWarrior66

Yes, PlayStation literally became a thing for its graphic power, however its games don't have just the graphics. That's why the video consoles that just have the graphics were under the shadow of PlayStation 1 at the time. N64 had the graphics, Gamecube had the graphics, Sega Saturn had the graphics, Sega Dreamcast had the graphics but most of people don't know their name because basically they never had significant libraries to care about but Playstation 1 has the very legendary library of that era. PlayStation 1 video games introduced new genres and gameplay features to the video game industry and then PlayStation 2 carried on greatly as most of the legendary video games that even PC lacks anything like them even to this day all released on PlayStation 2. Long story short, PlayStation couldn't be a thing just graphics alone.

And then PlayStation 3 released and honestly it has all graphics and nothing else therefore never bought a PlayStation since the 2nd despite it mean I could never play Metal Gear Solid 4. I ain't gonna buy a video game console just for few video games. Ever since then PlayStation has kept having empty libraries and a lack of competition has allowed PlayStation to exist until today. Now PlayStation and Xbox are like a woman who compete on how they look like towards men, as they can only attract shallow men as rest of video game players either stopped playing games or they still playing games of PlayStation 2-era games or before then. Even new generation people discovering PlayStation 2 games and they wonder why despite technology is so advanced now why video game industry didn't improve since PlayStation 2-era. When you played GTA San Andreas on PS2, you would expect to play a GTA on PS3 that has more than 3 cities, yet we get 1 dull city. When you played Radiata Stories on PS2 you would expect a video game that you can recruit 300 characters as your companion but they can still barely come up with like 5 recruitable characters. When you played Rogue Galaxy on PS2 you would expect a massive RPG that allow you to free roam around 20 different planets yet Mass Effect barely could do with a meaningful one place to free roam. Damn, when you played Racing Lagoon on PS1 you would expect a massive street racing RPG game but all we got is some Need for Speed game that has 1% of Racing Lagoon.

Long story short, video games are not a movie therefore you cannot attract gamers just with graphics. Content matters over "quality" in video games. Who cares about an empty game that make your PC scream like a donkey trying to carry heavy weight on a sharp slope? They are all after "barely profitable game" that "cost less as much as possible" just to survive when they losing new customers with BS games that doesn't worth to even download and they all go back playing old games. And then they see the attraction to old games but they misunderstood it as "people want a game that's same with better graphics despite it lacks tons of content" and then they release Resident Evil 3 Remake BS and whatnot like graphics is enough to sell. I mean you can profit but do better job and earn more money and have fan base so people will buy your next game just so you won't go bankrupt. In this time and age lazy and greedy development make people don't buy the game so you will go bankrupt. No more supporting video game companies anymore. It's ok to miss the game just to remind them all the once legendary video game companies are no more anymore because they lost customers. Learn your place lol. Stop with graphics BS, make games have meaningful content. Then no wonder why bad graphics games like Mouthwashing and Schedule I sells like cheese and butter just for the content they have lol. "Quality matters over content" BS invented by lazy and greedy people who trying to scam people a video game is ok just because it has no content but has "high quality graphics". "Enjoy this AAA empty game with your 4K monitor, dude" ayy lmao. :DDD

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