Sony's biggest weakness is the lack of co-op

Is PSN that bad that it can't handle co-op? Microsoft prides itself on co-op multiplayer, but Sony doesn't seem to give a second thought to it. I have yet to watch all of Sony's E3 press conference, because I was absolutely disgusting to learn that days gone is going to be a single player experience, a terrible decision, considering that state of decay 2 for the Xbox one is going to be multiplayer.

The lack of first party co-op gaming is terrible. Days gone should have co-op.

Lame.

Sony and Microsoft both have weaknesses in their games but I think that Microsoft's is the lesser of two evils. Sony provides what are viewed as top notch single player experiences but that is really the end of the line for them, you get an 8-15 hour game and then that's it. Microsoft provides good to great single player experiences but the fundamental difference lies in their ability to build competent multiplayer components on their games that people actually engage in, love and will get hundreds of hours out of.

For whatever reason Sony just cannot seem to stick this so they're largely relegated to doing one thing, Sony's multiplayer is I would say entirely reliant on 3rd party.

What Gordon said pretty much.

Aside from the lack of co-op, and overall competent multiplayer. Sony also has the issue that they have become relegated to basically a third person games company. UC, TLOU, Infamous, BB, Horizon, Spiderman, The Order, etc... All third person games these days. That's not to say that there aren't any other types, it's just that they don't seem to have the variety that I'd like.

Which is largely ironic because while they do have diversity, this diverse library of games is dwindling into a single genre. Another problem they're facing with this is the reality that so many of their third person games are beginning to be same'ish in execution even though they may cover different realities and are done by different developers. Sony's control over these projects is obviously influencing them which no doubts explains why they are all so alike.

Days Gone looks so much like The Last of Us mixed with Uncharted it makes you question how it even got approved in the face of them. God of War went from being a crazy hack and slash action game to some emotionally fed narrative driven bullshit like The Last of Us that completely neutered the gameplay, they're trying way to hard too sell this cinematic fad and it needs to stop.

There are many ps4 exclusives that have co op.

From games like bloodborne/nioh, to games like alienation, to games like MOTHERFLIPPING KNACK 1 and 2 (FookingGOTY2000-3000)

@putaspongeon: the most recent ratchet and clank does not have co-op

There are already enough co-op games from 3rd parties. In fact there are too many games shoehorning co-op in that don't even need it. Are people that lonely these days that they can no longer play a single player game by themselves?

@NathanDrakeSwag: Don't you mean are people that 'sociable'? 'Lonely' implies that they can play a single-player game by themselves, no? (Which isn't the case either, really. :P )

More coop games would be great. Sadly, the one I was banking on (Uncharted 4) completely butcher's its coop in comparison to the previous two entries.

Oh, and the network is plenty capable. It's the devs that decide to include coop or not.

Talking over a headset miles/counties/states/countries away is not really socializing. I'm not anti co-op. If a developer has an actual cool idea for it I'm down like A Way Out looks interesting. But most co-op games end up being repetitive trash like Destiny, The Division or Ghost Recon Wildlands and its damn near impossible to create true immersion when someone's yelling "that's what she said" over a mic.

That's good, hate co-op.

Multiplayer in general has always been one of Sony's biggest weaknesses. They have always been inferior to Nintendo when it comes to local multiplayer experiences and they have always been inferior to Xbox when it comes to online multiplayer experiences.

It's been that way since the beginning in the PS1 days when the N64 was establishing itself as a party machine and the multiplayer on the PS1 couldn't even come close to competing with the incredible multiplayer on the N64. When the PS2 was released, they didn't even include 4 controller ports when every other console that had been released in the past four years included it, which shows you how much focus they put on multiplayer. And online gaming was just an afterthought to Sony until Microsoft picked up the ball and led the online gaming revolution.

We don't need Sony trying to reinvent the wheel. They are usually bad at it. Plenty of other third party does co op and better. Let Sony continue with what they are good at.

@NathanDrakeSwag: Then you got Rayman, Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, Don't Starve Together and Spelunky. Board games like the modern classic Pandemic, Eldtrich Horror and Freedom: The Underground Railroad. And of course speaking with people over the internet is socializing. I have made many friends online that have now become close friends that I meet up with yearly.

I agree. Revive Fat Princess.

I don't co-p to begin with. My gaming time is my me time, so this alleged weakness is a strength for my gaming preferences.

True but I think the industry as a whole is moving away from coop, at least for big budget games.

Fwiw, they did announce this program at E3:

https://blog.us.playstation.com/2017/06/12/introducing-playlink-for-ps4/

No one cares tbh. If the majority of people really did there would be over 60 million X1's shipped instead of PS4's. People want the better overall gaming experience as a whole. I'd rather have good games that actually immerse me and new IP's to try out as opposed to just knowing I can easily find a quick match in COD, Halo, or Forza lol

lolco-op I don't want some roody poo sat next to me or messing up my world class skill level with online co-op.

Resogun and alienation are pretty enjoyable for coop as far as exclusives go. 3rd party and nitendo tend to be the best offerings for coop though. Whenever i have friends over its almost guaranteed that smash be brought out

We'll have to wait for halo 6 for split screen to even come back for that series afterall

Eh? I think you're completely wrong. Games these days are far more likely to have co-op, just not split screen on the same console.

Prides itself.

*Halo 5 no co-op*

I have been saying this for years. The hardcore Xbox and PS fans play games in a very different way. And not there is anything wrong with either.

We both love a good single player game but at the same time Xbox fans really enjoy all the co-op and multiplayer games more. It's just set up to be a more social experience. Halo and Gears are some of the top tier multi player experiences bar none. It's a requirement for these games to have a great campaign and amazing multiplayer.

Sony makes great single player games with none or very little thought out multiplayers with no dedicated servers.

Not saying either is wrong, but again we like to game very differently.

Its basically why I dont like Sony.

Its funny seeing Sony fanboys complain about people being lonely its actually the opposite. Some people actually like being social not angry anti social loners. Not to mention the main reason I dont like SP is because I find the AI in games to not be challenging. I play MP because real people add the variable of randomness to the gameplay that AI cant.

Even the Souls games arent technically difficult they are mostly based on repetition and learning patterns. As someone that gamed thru the 80s when this is basically how EVERY game was designed before the checkpoint era, I've been there and done that. Co-op and multiplayer is what makes me enjoy gaming in todays gaming evironment. Gaming solo is boring and not fun for me unless its a sim or city builder. Honestly the only thing keeping me from being a Nintendo fanboy is their horrible online presence because I really like how they emphasis co-op gameplay in all their games.

This is the primary divide between the two fanboy factions that probably wont ever change and is why Sony fans think Xbox sucks and why Xbox fans think Sony sucks.

What surprises me though is that Sony used to actually have MP games like Socom, Twisted Metal, Warhawk, EQOA. I dunno what happened. I think it all started changing with UC2 and Sony being a movie studio figured out they could capitalize on movie games. Its also the reason they refused stuff like crossplay because they know they can make more money off of keeping a closed system full of loners. Letting your captive audience actually talk to other gamers they might realize they have something in common and enjoy the other system.

I also think theres a lot more graphics whore type gamers on Playstation that confuse great looking games with great gameplay.

The lack of any kind of first party exclusives on xbox is more terrible.

Never the less it has nothing to do with PSN and more to do with the game it self.

Yeah that is why Sony is smocking the xbox one game wise because MS produce good to great games...lol

The PS4 has hay more games with multiplayer than those than don't,not every single game has to be online.

And considering sony exclusives are outscoring MS ones even with single player and multiplayer i think they are doing quite a great job.

You don't like sony because you are a blind biased lemming. :)

The same crap was say last gen even when sony games had more online and games such as Resistance were out with 60 players online and 8 players co-op which the xbox one didn't match until this gen with Sun Set overdrive...

@valgaav_219: sunshine sorry to burst your bubble but if you look at the attachrate of these exclusives Sony isn't moving consoles just because of their great movie games. Sony and PS4 entirely marketed their system right the message was clear and good. They had the advantage of being the strongest and cheapest system at release and positive word of mouth. People are scooping up PS4's to play Destiny, Overwatch, COD, and Battlefield with their friends. Plus they get the nice bonus of playing the exclusives Sony drops if they choose to.

@oflow: agreed 100%. My first foray in online games was Quake and Unreal Tournement. Then PS2 happened and the horrible online attachment and I got sucked into Twisted Metal Black and Socom it was glorious. So looking forward to PS3, then PS3 happened and I was like thanks, went 360 and got exactly what I was looking for. Halo, COD4, RB6:Vegas, GeoW,

I hope MS can help bring in another great IP like Halo and Gears that just change everything again. There has been some staleness, but then again I'm 36 and don't game like I use to so I'm fairly content but I want to amazed and impressed again.

That's fine. I prefer single player games for the most part. Besides most of the co-op I play are usually 3rd party games and most of my friends are on PS so.... it's not a problem.

You're acting like those dude bro games are the only ones that matter. The reason Xbox is a joke right now is because they're being buried by those as well as games like Nier Automata, Horizon Zero Dawn, Nioh, Bloodbourne, Persona 5, Yakuza 0, Tales of Berseria, Uncharted 4, etc

Halo 4, Forza Horizon 2, and Gears have more hours played than the entire Sony PS4 exclusive catalog combined.

Source?

60 million+ people don't seem to care. I'd rather have quality exclusives than shitty co-op games. There are already too many 3rd party co-op games.

@tormentos: No I dont like Sony because I dont like their games, I dont like the PSN and I dont like their anti consumer practices. I lost complete faith in them after the PSN outage. Unlike you I can actually qualify my argument beyond sales numbers and rhetorical BS like talking about Resistance or Mag. I dont care about the numbers those are bad games.

@valgaav_219: none of those game have amazing attach rates, uncharted 4 has the best and came with the system. Try again and don't feel bad that dude bro games are what matter to the masses. Play what you wanna play, but don't be delusional about it.

As somebody who plays PS my problem with Sony isn't their games. I actually really enjoy single player, cinematic experiences and Japanese games. I also like indies which Sony has had an abundance of. Hence why I play my PS more than my Xbox. If you don't like those as much that's fine. It's all preference. Sony sells multiplayer with their 3rd party and it works for them. That's why they were so dominant earlier this gen despite their first parties getting delayed.

My problem with Sony has always been related to their company decisions. I still don't trust their online, they should allow their consumers to change their usernames in 2017, they should allow me to delete my trophies up to 5% or something, they should allow cross play when everybody else is doing it, and so on. Things people have been asking for since the PS3 and Sony pretends to care and then they don't even address it again. Sony can be just as greedy and anti consumer as its competitors. Being the leader of this gen doesn't change that.

@xxyetixx: Exactly. I'm actually very satisfied with the games they announced for Xbox at E3. Dont care if they arent exclusives they are bringing the type of games I like to the console. I dont have a PC and actually stopped PC gaming a few years back because there just werent enough highend titles for me to justify the cost and maintenance of keeping a decent PC running with my time restraints. Plus most of the games I liked were coming to console anyway. Yes I miss out on a few titles (mainly RTS games are the ones I miss not playing like Total Warhammer and DoW) but honestly I got over it. The whole 'exclusives are the only reasons to buy a console' argument is BS to me. I buy a console because I can play the games Ilike on it. No I dont want to game on multiple platforms. Others might think its a bad choice thats cool thats why you're you and I'm me.

I'm the type of person thats the target audience of the new Xbox and I'm pleased with what the brought.

I prefer co-op like Dark souls/Bloodborne. You go in do your thing or die then leave.

#@xxyetixx: Far from delusional; just being honest. I don't care if those games sold 5 copies each. They're masterpieces to the people that played them. And they're here. Whether you like em or not if you have PS4 you have that option. Microsoft relies on the same IP's and won't try anything new therefore I'll never spend money with them. If I had an XB1 it'd be an expensive ass paper weight. Bottom line is we have way too many AAA games and NEW AAA games to even play right now and they're showing no sign of stopping. But I'm delusional, right lol

@valgaav_219: yeah, your statement pretty much screams delusional fanboy. So much so you ignore facts and only your opinion or someone that shares your opinion matters.

I wish Sony and Microsoft would have more local co-op games like Nintendo. When I have friends over, the only games we play that aren't fighting games on PS4 are Nintendo games. We can't just have Nintendo offering local co-op lol. I am not a fan of online multiplayer because I refuse to pay $40-60 a year to play online with strangers and most of my friends won't either and/or don't have the same game as I do.

@blue_hazy_basic: You're right. I derped when reading the OP. lol

No worries mate, happens to the best of us! :)

ughhh, excuse me

@aigis: Knack2. Sony is vindicated!!!

Yea, I was also disappointed by this. Insomniac Games should've added co-op for more gameplay experience in Spider-Man. But it's confirmed we won't see any of that.

They could have continued in a meaningful way following games but closed of all the studios. Blame Yoshida and Andrew House. Some of the games were nothing special but you can see the interest of the studios that made them.

• Socom
• Starhawk, Warhawk, Mag devs
• Twisted Metal
• Wipeout (The collection is fuckin good but who is going to continue this)
• Motorstorm

Sony has been charging for multi the least they could do is invest in it and offer more games of their own. It's all 3rd party multi player at this point. not trying to bash but you all should be demanding more than a few crappy games a month, and better multi player experiences. (unless you do indeed like being known as the lonely station)

Peer to peer? C'mon man!

They do have that Housemarque dev though, they seem to produce some nice coop arcade stuff.

I like it in that you can own a PS4PRO for the Single Player Experience, The PC for optimal experience of everything and the Xbox....well a decent doorstop.