PlayStation Being Dominant May be The Best Thing For The Gaming Industry

PlayStation is the reason this industry thrives. The pillar that maintains the balance and keeps everything in its rightful place. PS4 is the market leader we deserve and want.

-

-Xbox

consider, for instance, Xbox. Why not have the Xbox be market leading? What exactly is wrong with having an Xbox lead the console market? Why is that somehow worse for the industry than having PlayStation lead?

I really want to stay away from traditional labels and stereotypes when it comes to console audiences, but the Xbox does appeal to a more western audience than anything else. Hearing Xbox owners and players largely dismiss Japanese games or game developers as unworthy of their notice is not exactly uncommon- even if a company like Atlus or even Square Enix were to launch their game on the Xbox One, it would be mostly ignored by the Xbox install base, simply because that install base does not favor Japanese games.

Having an Xbox console be the leading standard of development in the game industry, then, will lead to the kind of slow death of the Japanese gaming industry that we saw in the last generation.

- Nintendo

Imagine, then, a Nintendo console leading the market. And not a Nintendo console like the Wii- let’s imagine something like Nintendo’s glory days, a console with hardware parity, the necessary online infrastructure, a system in other words ripe for support by not only Nintendo themselves, but also third parties. Surely such a console would be far better for the industry than PlayStation would!

But that is also not true, and a large reason for this is how Nintendo conducts its business. Nintendo is a remarkably Japanese company, and the way it conducts its business reflects that. Most of the third party support on Nintendo systems is Japanese. This has always held true- in fact, one must remember that consoles were largely thought to be the realm of Japanese developers and publishers (while PC was thought to be the realm of western publishers and developers) for as long as Nintendo led the market, with the NES and SNES- serious western third party support for consoles did not actually become a thing until Sony entered the scene with PlayStation, which was when companies like DMA Design, Pygnosis, and Crystal Dynamics became every bit as important as Squaresoft and Namco.

-PlayStation

The interesting thing about PlayStation, then, is its unique position as a global leader. PlayStation may have some territories it has always been strong in (Europe) and others where it has relatively struggled (North America), but on the whole, it is a brand that has found global acceptance and success unlike either Xbox or Nintendo, whose success has always been more localized- even in Nintendo’s days of absolute monopoly with the NES, they never found footing in Europe, for example, and even when Microsoft ruled the roost with the Xbox 360, they barely made a dent in the Japanese market.

PlayStation, on the other hand, is successful everywhere. This is important, because it means it has a truly global audience- the system’s demographics lend themselves to a developer or publisher from anywhere in the world making a game for a PlayStation, and being assured of an audience. A PlayStation player does not dismiss a Japanese game like an Xbox player, and does not dismiss a western game like a Nintendo player. It’s a unique confluence.

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http://gamingbolt.com/why-playstation-being-dominant-may-be-the-best-thing-for-the-gaming-industry

I for one welcome our new weeaboo overlords.

Saw the title and thought to myself, Char must've written that piece.

I wasn't wrong.

Yep its great it to see the console market and the gaming market in general is on the rise

Japan is dead so what does it matter if an audience dismisses weebo games?

Until this year this gen has been pretty awful and thats largely thanks to Sony.

Lems and herms be jelly.

Since i live in Europe , it's nothing new to me.

Playstation is always dominant here.

Except for that whole lack of a wide variety of quality exclusives thing.

They need to make a SystemWars forum on GamingBolt.

2, 4, 6, 8 who do we all appreciate?

SONY< SONY< SONY

Goooooo SONY!

awwwwww yeahhh

Yeah, Sony being the market leader has given Microsoft the motivation to surpass them. I hope it stays this way, the Xbox One being the underdog has made it a better console and much more innovation, features and upgrades are being introduced while the PlayStation 4 just continues to float along not doing much of anything.

B/c there aren't 2 other consoles out right now, right?

Hipster haters gonna hipster hate.

Agreed, when nintendo was the marketleader they pushed shovelware and casual shit. When MS was marketleader they pushed western titles (Because they flopped in japan), kinect shovelware and paid online. On the other hand you can already see how japanese games are making a comeback in a big way which everyone that likes games should be happy about.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL what a load of crap.

This is business. Variety and diversity are what foster innovation and balance, THE only reason that Sony doesn't have a big screen touch pad on the controller, move, and camera integration is because they produced a failed product that was as bad as kinect, but do not have the budget to continue the projects, and even though they don't have that budget they still included a useless touchpad, useless sixaxis integration and a battery draining light on their controller, and abortive camera add on.
Don't even get me on the cell processor Since If that had been successful *it wasn't* they'd still be using that, Even though its a as bad as the Atari Jaguar architecture at 4 times the cost.
If it had been successful the ps4 would be the Wii U of this generation, But Sony was forced to go the traditional route because of idiotic business decisions that almost bankrupted them.

Agreed, the future for Japanese school girl molesting games looks good on console now, they might even convert in the west to their sexual deviant ways.

Yup, I agree.

Hopefully the NX is a return to the glory days of old for Nintendo. Not much of a fan of xbox franchises so I frankly don't care what they do.

Still waiting for the market leader console to get its second killer app.

It really is true. Thanks to the Xbox console games turned into shitty dumbed down PC games.

PC is the dominant atm....

The devotion people have for this system downright disturbs me. I look forward to picking one up in due time, but it's lagging behind like the other systems not called PC.

But I'm still waiting for PS4 to get a game that makes me scream "I need a PS4"

Same here. Barely hear about the Xbox over here, kinda sad.

The PS4 is like Justin Bieber, sells but is crap.

So somehow Sony is responsible for Microsoft's weak offerings and Nintendo's absolute shitting of the proverbial bed with the Wii U? Makes sense *eyeroll*

I wouldn't call mems a hipster; he's just a fanboy who isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

MS's lineup is pretty good. especially compared to sony's so far.

#

2006/2007 for Xbox 360 and 2007/2008 for PS3 had much better line-ups than PS4's 2014/2015. No arguing, this gen has had the slowest start of any and the market leader is to blame.

#PS4HASNOGAMES

I totally agree with this article. SDC.

Um, no. I had a PS3 in 2008 and I actually purchased Resistance and Modern Warfare because there was nothing worth playing, with the exception of Oblivion, for the first year of the console's existence. I hate first person shooters...

I would say that Sony's support until the bitter end of their console generations is the cause of their slow starts in subsequent generations. I mean, what notable first-party support did the Xbox 360 get during the last two years of it's lifecycle?

All that bullshit about competition has only made games DLC-centric and online fees becoming mandatory. All this talk about XBox being good for the industry and bring "balance" is just fanboy fuckery.

They managed to not completely **** up this gen, so i'll definitely give them that. That's about it from me.

I couldn't disagree more, and I'll break it down (business wise). I'm going to leave opinions out of it completely.

1st off, lets look at the markets. the 2 largest markets are EU and NA. The "Asian market" it extremely small for console gaming. it's dominated by mostly handhelds/mobile and in a distant 2nd PC. If the Asian market was to completely dry up, it would have almost no effect on consoles. If the EU or NA market tanked, it would be a large cut and very likely, one of the big 3 (nintendo, sony, MS) would have to back out of consoles because the market wouldn't be big enough. So the console manufacturers should be catering to the largest audiences from a pure business perspective. Which would be NA and EU. For the most part, the Japanese games, aren't very large sellers in those territories. If they ceased to exist, the vocal minority like you see on forums would be upset, but as a whole, the gaming business wouldn't really suffer at all. Not only that, but with a greater focus on NA and EU, the resources for those games would be funneled into games made more for NA and EU meaning there would be more games for those 2 territories. Which will inherently bring in more money since it would be games pitched to a wider audience.

2nd, lets look at the top franchises on console, I'll leave out games available to mobile (like minecraft) and you get CoD, GTA, Madden, Fifa, etc. most of the biggest selling franchises are available for all consoles with the exception of the wii-u. In this case, the PS4 and X1 are interchangeable. This is the so called "casual" crowd as referred to on the internet. they are the majority. you could make a case for mario and halo as well since they are both over the 50 million sold mark but mario is more popular with kids and halo is only popular with the "xbox crowd" so I'll leave it out for right now as neither of them sell like the franchises i listed. For this crowd, it literally makes no difference who is in the lead.

Now with those 2 points, from a pure industry standpoint, the logical sense would be better with MS in the lead, their larger focus on NA and EU and lack of focus on the east fits much better into the size of the markets, bringing more to the majority of gamers in addition to the larger franchises. Their flagship franchise halo, is much larger sales wise then any exclusive franchise for sony. Mario still is huge for nintendo but I'll explain why nintendo would be the bad choice now. The market shift has moved to online gaming. All those huge franchises i mentioned, all have online play. 15 years ago, online play was pretty small as to where now at least 50% of gamers play online. MS dedication to building the largest network. Pushing dedicated servers and other online features (cloud computing, AI, driveatars, etc) is the future of gaming. at some point, sony will follow suit. Sony is just slow to adapt to new ideas, they always take a "wait and see" approach and give up on things early.

So logically speaking, MS taking the lead would be the best for gaming as a business whole. Now the vocal internet minority would hate it. there are gamers in NA and EU that love japanese games, don't play online, and needs are filled better by sony. But the truth is the audience itself isn't big enough. If the big franchises died down and gaming shifted more towards that crowd, the industry itself would crash. the casuals aren't going to by consoles to play persona. most of the NA and EU aren't. The target audience wouldn't be big enough to support it. The rule of business is simple, cater to the largest markets. Sony is stretching itself too thin and not producing enough for any of the markets. meanwhile MS has abandoned the east and has produced a lot more for NA and EU. Last gen sony was in last and the market grew huge. Motion controls (which have since died off) were huge with the wii which led to the move and kinect, but that fad for the most part is over. VR/AR might replace it, but the other booking fad which isn't going anywhere is online gaming, which was pushed forward by MS with sony following suit, and nintendo still lagging in that department.

TL:DR MS is best suited as the lead for the industry due to focus on online play, NA and EU regions, and the ability to have all the big franchises

I don't give a shit what you like. Fact is, PS3 in 2008 had a better line-up than PS4 in 2015. MGS4, Resistance 2, Siren 2: Blood Curse and Rachet & Clank: Quest for Booty (as a whole) are better than BloodBorne and The Corridor 1886.

The PS3 whilst it was getting its ass kicked by the 360 and in one of the stressful times in PlayStation history still had a better line-up than the PS4. Go figure.

Wow, what a meltdown.....

Thank you Don Mattrick.

Let's not forget, as far as the core gamer is concerned, the XBox 360 did run the first half to two-thirds of Generation 7. So, we've seen what things are like when Microsoft is calling the shots and it's a whole lot of bought (timed) exclusives and DLC while running three or four series of actual first-party IPs for the holiday season.

It wasn't a good look, Lems. It seriously wasn't. Ya'll were okay with mediocrity for 8+ years. Ya'll were okay with making MS do the bare minimum for you. Don't be mad at anyone else but yourselves for how things are ending up.

@quadknight said:

@darkangel115 said:

I couldn't disagree more, and I'll break it down (business wise). I'm going to leave opinions out of it completely.

1st off, lets look at the markets. the 2 largest markets are EU and NA. The "Asian market" it extremely small for console gaming. it's dominated by mostly handhelds/mobile and in a distant 2nd PC. If the Asian market was to completely dry up, it would have almost no effect on consoles. If the EU or NA market tanked, it would be a large cut and very likely, one of the big 3 (nintendo, sony, MS) would have to back out of consoles because the market wouldn't be big enough. So the console manufacturers should be catering to the largest audiences from a pure business perspective. Which would be NA and EU. For the most part, the Japanese games, aren't very large sellers in those territories. If they ceased to exist, the vocal minority like you see on forums would be upset, but as a whole, the gaming business wouldn't really suffer at all. Not only that, but with a greater focus on NA and EU, the resources for those games would be funneled into games made more for NA and EU meaning there would be more games for those 2 territories. Which will inherently bring in more money since it would be games pitched to a wider audience.

2nd, lets look at the top franchises on console, I'll leave out games available to mobile (like minecraft) and you get CoD, GTA, Madden, Fifa, etc. most of the biggest selling franchises are available for all consoles with the exception of the wii-u. In this case, the PS4 and X1 are interchangeable. This is the so called "casual" crowd as referred to on the internet. they are the majority. you could make a case for mario and halo as well since they are both over the 50 million sold mark but mario is more popular with kids and halo is only popular with the "xbox crowd" so I'll leave it out for right now as neither of them sell like the franchises i listed. For this crowd, it literally makes no difference who is in the lead.

Now with those 2 points, from a pure industry standpoint, the logical sense would be better with MS in the lead, their larger focus on NA and EU and lack of focus on the east fits much better into the size of the markets, bringing more to the majority of gamers in addition to the larger franchises. Their flagship franchise halo, is much larger sales wise then any exclusive franchise for sony. Mario still is huge for nintendo but I'll explain why nintendo would be the bad choice now. The market shift has moved to online gaming. All those huge franchises i mentioned, all have online play. 15 years ago, online play was pretty small as to where now at least 50% of gamers play online. MS dedication to building the largest network. Pushing dedicated servers and other online features (cloud computing, AI, driveatars, etc) is the future of gaming. at some point, sony will follow suit. Sony is just slow to adapt to new ideas, they always take a "wait and see" approach and give up on things early.

So logically speaking, MS taking the lead would be the best for gaming as a business whole. Now the vocal internet minority would hate it. there are gamers in NA and EU that love japanese games, don't play online, and needs are filled better by sony. But the truth is the audience itself isn't big enough. If the big franchises died down and gaming shifted more towards that crowd, the industry itself would crash. the casuals aren't going to by consoles to play persona. most of the NA and EU aren't. The target audience wouldn't be big enough to support it. The rule of business is simple, cater to the largest markets. Sony is stretching itself too thin and not producing enough for any of the markets. meanwhile MS has abandoned the east and has produced a lot more for NA and EU. Last gen sony was in last and the market grew huge. Motion controls (which have since died off) were huge with the wii which led to the move and kinect, but that fad for the most part is over. VR/AR might replace it, but the other booking fad which isn't going anywhere is online gaming, which was pushed forward by MS with sony following suit, and nintendo still lagging in that department.

TL:DR MS is best suited as the lead for the industry due to focus on online play, NA and EU regions, and the ability to have all the big franchises

Wow, what a meltdown.....

It's a statistical analysis with no opinion and disregards any sort of brand loyalty anyone could have, so how could it be salty?

As if anything you say carries any weight. Dude you're so anti-MS anything you say is taken with a grain of salt. XBox IS the reason you have that PS4 now. Look at the PS3 as an example of what Sony would do unchecked.

You cows are freaking delusional and it seems to be getting worse with each passing day.

@quadknight said:

@darkangel115 said:

I couldn't disagree more, and I'll break it down (business wise). I'm going to leave opinions out of it completely.

1st off, lets look at the markets. the 2 largest markets are EU and NA. The "Asian market" it extremely small for console gaming. it's dominated by mostly handhelds/mobile and in a distant 2nd PC. If the Asian market was to completely dry up, it would have almost no effect on consoles. If the EU or NA market tanked, it would be a large cut and very likely, one of the big 3 (nintendo, sony, MS) would have to back out of consoles because the market wouldn't be big enough. So the console manufacturers should be catering to the largest audiences from a pure business perspective. Which would be NA and EU. For the most part, the Japanese games, aren't very large sellers in those territories. If they ceased to exist, the vocal minority like you see on forums would be upset, but as a whole, the gaming business wouldn't really suffer at all. Not only that, but with a greater focus on NA and EU, the resources for those games would be funneled into games made more for NA and EU meaning there would be more games for those 2 territories. Which will inherently bring in more money since it would be games pitched to a wider audience.

2nd, lets look at the top franchises on console, I'll leave out games available to mobile (like minecraft) and you get CoD, GTA, Madden, Fifa, etc. most of the biggest selling franchises are available for all consoles with the exception of the wii-u. In this case, the PS4 and X1 are interchangeable. This is the so called "casual" crowd as referred to on the internet. they are the majority. you could make a case for mario and halo as well since they are both over the 50 million sold mark but mario is more popular with kids and halo is only popular with the "xbox crowd" so I'll leave it out for right now as neither of them sell like the franchises i listed. For this crowd, it literally makes no difference who is in the lead.

Now with those 2 points, from a pure industry standpoint, the logical sense would be better with MS in the lead, their larger focus on NA and EU and lack of focus on the east fits much better into the size of the markets, bringing more to the majority of gamers in addition to the larger franchises. Their flagship franchise halo, is much larger sales wise then any exclusive franchise for sony. Mario still is huge for nintendo but I'll explain why nintendo would be the bad choice now. The market shift has moved to online gaming. All those huge franchises i mentioned, all have online play. 15 years ago, online play was pretty small as to where now at least 50% of gamers play online. MS dedication to building the largest network. Pushing dedicated servers and other online features (cloud computing, AI, driveatars, etc) is the future of gaming. at some point, sony will follow suit. Sony is just slow to adapt to new ideas, they always take a "wait and see" approach and give up on things early.

So logically speaking, MS taking the lead would be the best for gaming as a business whole. Now the vocal internet minority would hate it. there are gamers in NA and EU that love japanese games, don't play online, and needs are filled better by sony. But the truth is the audience itself isn't big enough. If the big franchises died down and gaming shifted more towards that crowd, the industry itself would crash. the casuals aren't going to by consoles to play persona. most of the NA and EU aren't. The target audience wouldn't be big enough to support it. The rule of business is simple, cater to the largest markets. Sony is stretching itself too thin and not producing enough for any of the markets. meanwhile MS has abandoned the east and has produced a lot more for NA and EU. Last gen sony was in last and the market grew huge. Motion controls (which have since died off) were huge with the wii which led to the move and kinect, but that fad for the most part is over. VR/AR might replace it, but the other booking fad which isn't going anywhere is online gaming, which was pushed forward by MS with sony following suit, and nintendo still lagging in that department.

TL:DR MS is best suited as the lead for the industry due to focus on online play, NA and EU regions, and the ability to have all the big franchises

Wow, what a meltdown.....

Do you practice being an idiot, or does it come naturally?

I'd say that read more like someone debating using logic and thought and couldn't be any further from a "meltdown"

Sony fanboys are starting to get to Apple fan level of stupid. Like Flava Flav once said, "Don't believe the hype."

Sony execs are just as greedy as and more corrupt than MS execs. The PSN hack, the cell, lies about resolution, the Sony email leaks, shady distribution deals with big box stores all demonstrate this.

Keep drinking the Kool aid though. Remember this is Sony we are talking about here. They will always find a way to fumble.

Well, considering it was more than a year and a half from the time PS3 was released and those games you listed were released, your point fails to hold water.

Meanwhile, at the same point in its life cycle the PS4 has already received Bloodborne, The Witcher 3 and MGS5, games equal to or more highly praised than any of those you listed.

@GarGx1:

Perhaps you should go seek that MS apology on the MS forums instead of constantly whining here. It's absolutely laughable to call the 360 gen mediocre. That entire statement just wreaks of your fanboyism. You're not even trying to hide it anymore huh cowgenja?

Isn't that what sony is doing right now? You could argue that the "leader" does that and not a predefined company.

PS4 has deals with Destiny, CoD, SW:BF, and AC for this holiday while having no 1st party stuff the rest of the year. Meanwhile MS has Fable legends, forza 6, and halo 5 (not counting remasters for either)

Also last gen was a great one, and it ushered in the online age

True. MS is one demographic, Nintendo the other, and Sony kind of straddles the two. I would like to see Nintendo be more successful with their consoles however and MS needs some innovation in first party. I think the original Xbox was the most creative MS has been. Like to see them open up a bit more.

All though what I would really like was SEGA to return. Ah To Wish Impossible Things..........

lol...no

Do lems like you practice being this butthurt or does it come naturally?

and what innovations has sony's first party done lately exactly?

no, Playstation domination is what led to the PS3, a nice healthy bit of competition is what keeps the game industry healthy

No one company leading the market by a large margin is a good thing. Stiff competition breeds better products. There's a reason why Sony has only ONE exclusive game (that's only on the PS4 and no other system, PS brand or other). They're relying on 3rd parties, because they know they don't need to work hard right now.

But yes, let's continue to have Sony be the market leader.