What is going on with Sony's output this generation?

I raise this point because I find it a bit curious, but Sony's output this generation has suffered so far- we are now 15 months into the PlayStation 4's lifespan, so any excuses of it being 'too early' or 'too soon' no longer apply, especially since this is probably the driest and sparsest output of first party games that a console has had, well, ever, in the first fifteen months of its lifespan.

I am going to consider here all the original games that Sony have released for the system, and the reception that each game got. The games will be considered on the basis of their Metacritic average, their Gamespot score, and general player reception.

KILLZONE: SHADOW FALL

Gamespot Score: 7/10

Metacritic: 73

General Player Reception: Mixed. At best the game is considered pretty to look at, at worst it is considered to be a drag, and just not a very good game to play.

KNACK

Gamespot Score: 4/10

Metacritic: 54

General Player Reception: Highly negative, used mostly as a running joke.

INFAMOUS: SECOND SON

Gamespot Score: 8/10

Metacritic: 80

General Player Reception: Positive. Even though there is some feeling of disappointment and missed potential associated with the game, players at least agree that this was a well made, fun game.

MLB 14: THE SHOW

Gamespot Score: N/A

Metacritic: 83

General Player Reception: Annual sports franchise; MLB is usually considered pretty good, and so was MLB 14 The Show.

DRIVECLUB

Gamespot Score: 5/10

Metacritic: 71

General Player Reception: Growing positive. The game was a mess at launch, and rightly piled upon by players, but since then, it has seen a number of improvements, and players seem to be coming around.

LITTLEBIGPLANET 3

Gamespot Score: 7/10

Metacritic: 79

General Player Reception: Considered fun, but unremarkable. Largely seen as unnecessary after the second game.

THE ORDER: 1886

Gamespot Score: 5/10

Metacritic: 65

General Player Reception: Mixed. It's too early to tell, but most people seem to be avoiding the game, while there are also those who are able to enjoy the game for what it is.

---

Okay, so some things immediately strike me here:

• In terms of quantity, Sony's output for the PS4 so far has been shockingly low- just 6 games in 15 months (of which, it must be noted, one, The Order 1886, is actually not a first party game, but a contracted second party title). Note, that is less than a game every two and a half months. Just what exactly are they doing? They're not making games on the Vita. They're not making games on the PS3. They're not working on the PS4 OS. So what is going on here? What is Sony doing?
• The quality aspect is shockingly suffering too- the highest score a Sony published game on the PS4 has achieved on Gamespot so far is 8/10- this is also the highest score any Sony game has achieved on Metacritic (83/100). In other words, they are, so far, just thoroughly average at best.
• That is a sentiment that is reflected in player reception too. The most positive thing that is reflected in the general player sentiment for Sony games is that it is above average, but unremarkable (inFamous).

There are actually no more excuses for this- especially in light of the cut Vita support, Sony's first party output should have been better in terms of both, numbers and reception. There are those people who state that Sony's first party rivals, if not exceeds, Nintendo's, or that Sony is one of the best game publishers around. The numbers in no way possible reflect this. So far, Sony's output has been thoroughly middling. They have had 15 months to get their act together, and the best game they managed to release on the system is not one that was even made for it, but a remaster of a PS3 release from just a year earlier.

Personally, I have hopes that Bloodbormne and Uncharted 4 will break this trend, because they are being helmed by Sony's best second party and in house studios respectively, but still, it appears that the myth of Sony's competence as a first party publisher is fast collapsing- at best, they are propped up by one extraordinary studio, surrounded by average games otherwise, at worst they have been far overhyped by their fans, and the reality is now coming to light.

EDIT: I made every care to be as thorough and exhaustive as possible; nonetheless, if I missed a game, please let me know, so I can fix it immediately.

Sony realized that people care more about what they see in a screenshot than what they actually do in the game.

well it DID take an ungodly amount of time before the PS3 was on a roll. Nevermind that we were warned beforehand that Sony would NOT spend as much on exclusives as they did the PS3 era, due to cost/low sales numbers overall.

So I would expect Little else tbh. We do know that some games are comming though, and it looks like they have gotten a good chunk of devs onboard for games that are not the typical multiplat borefest.

I would say wait till 2015 is over before doing the counting. I it makes it into 2016 with sub par games, and a general lack of them, then it is time to get worried.

But as for the notion of what is going on? too much focus on Visuals, and too Little focus into gameplay, afterall the average consumer have proven that they are birdbrains, who would rather look at pretty Pictures then play a good game (may be harsh, but it is nevertheless true, you can get further with a well made add/hype campaign, then making an actual good game nowadays).

The list looks like a snooze fest

In this period, the PS3 had received Resistance, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Wipeout HD, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. That lineup is so hilariously better than anything on the PS4 right now, it's slightly sad actually.

Velocity 2X, Sound Shapes, Resogun, The Last of Us Remastered, flower, MLB 14, etc

Digital, digital, digital, remaster, digital remaster, thanks for reminding me about MLB, gonna go and edit that in.

I think it's because of their financial situation overall is what is hurting the quality of PlayStation games. Sure sales are probably doing fine with PlayStation but that's because of the hype. I just don't think Sony could allocate any more funds to create and hire better teams to create anymore big budget games that's why they're focusing with more smaller indie games. I'm thinking it might be more risk than reward for them in investing anymore big budget quality games. If you look at their future investment plans, they're continuing to downsize, that's why they're moving away from their mobile phones next. I think it's still too early in the gen but hopefully it starts to pick up already this year.

I generally agree, But I am willing to take restructures/increased cost and time to make games with todays standards into account. The amount of time to make the games of last gen also took longer then the gen before.

But lets be honest, thier first attempts of making games for this gen have all been duds (and yes I will ignore anyone trying to defend I:SS).

My point is that we can atleast see some games now in the Horizon. So there is light at the end of the tunnel. However this oddly enough comes from 2nd and 3rd party devs, not 1st party. Does raise a some questions I agree.

I will still not make judgements untill 2016, but so far the PS4 is THE console that has been used least of any console I've EVER owned (being beaten by the Wii U by a large freakin margin).

Oddly enough the X1 does not look better (don't have one, just speaking as an outsider looking in). Makes me believe that there is some fundemental problem with these consoles that should not be there, anyone making games on them, are familier with the x86 platform. Maybe the CPUs are simply too weak? or the way to make Graphics for this gen, too slow and cumbersome alltogether? Most 3rd party AAA titles also sufferes from a lot of problems reguardless of platform, does make me Wonder So I accept your point, but not willing to blame it soley on Sony for now.

The Order 1886 is a first party game, there are no 2nd party games. Just 1st and 3rd. The product is owned by Sony, but it was contracted out to an independent developer, just like LBP3, Lair, Ratchet & Clank, Frequency, Amplitude, or Heavenly Sword.

This mistake happens all the time. There are 2nd party developers, but only 1st and 3rd party games.

Regarding the answer, Sony had longer support for the PS3 which in turn hurt PS4 support...plus, the Vita 1st party output is a variable, although a smaller one. We saw a very similar situation with the PS1 to PS2 transition, PS2 to PS3 transition, and the PS3 to PS4 transition.

Quality is one thing. These things are gambles. However, retail output (total number of retail titles released in the first year) I find is eerily similar in number to the early PS3 years.

There are other 1st studios behind the scenes that we haven't heard a peep from including Polyphony, Santa Monica, and even Quantic Dream's (independent, but making a PS4 exclusive) PS4 title. As I said last year, 2015 will be their year to step up as they put the brake on PS3 development and go full throttle with PS4 as titles in production for a year to two years are finally being readied for PS4. These things take time.

We just got The Order this month and gamers get Bloodborne next month.

It's a shame some of these games weren't top of the mark, but my comment is on retail output. PS4 1st party support (1st party exclusives) seems pretty typical since Sony provided 1st party PS3 support with exclusives longer than Nintendo did for the Wii and MS is doing for the Xbone. We saw this with the PS1 and PS2 as well. By exclusive support, I mean no cross gen support, but full on exclusive retail 1st party support. That kind of 1st party exclusive support for a last gen console comes at a price and Sony's resources were divided.

I remember when people were pissed that Gran Turismo 4 and God of War 2 were coming to PS2 instead of the new PS3. I remember the PS1 getting Twisted Metal after the PS2 was hot sh**, and more.

bu...bu...but sony cares about gamers!

RAD probably should have stuck to cloning Sony franchises into handheld games lol

So far lots of mediocrity, but of course it's only been a little over a full year since launch.

Also of note is that several of those games come from some of Sony's secondary developers, not exactly their upper echelon. Even though they weren't done by normal AAA developers, it's too bad that Knack and The Order seemed sort of lazy/formulaic. It's always nice to start out a gen with lasting new IP's, and unfortunately it seems like both of those are huge missed opportunities that might be "one and done" as IP's. Knack sounds like it was just way too simple from a gameplay standpoint - and the Order just fell way too deep into the trap of "cinematics" over gameplay.

Now if Bloodborne flops, Uncharted flops, or we head into 2016 still not hearing anything from Sony Santa Monica, Geurilla new IP, Gran Turismo, etc. I will start to get worried. E3 should give us a feel, it's about time Sony started revealing more heavy hitters besides just Uncharted.

we are a little over a year in to this gen charizard... u cant be this dense in real life...

look at how it started out for ps3...it had no games

I am using the term 2nd party game to denote that the game was not developed in house. Yes, Sony owns the IP, but it was still not Sony's studios who did the legwork on this game.

Vita and PS3 support have largely died out in the last fifteen months (the period under consideration).

Admittedly, we have not heard from a lot of studios (SSM, like you pointed out, and Polyphony Digital), but then that leads us to the question of why- was there some poor planning on Sony's part that led to their first party output being so unevenly staggered?

The Xbox One is definitely not much better either- I have no desire to buy one right now, at least not until Scalebound comes out. The thing, though, is that no one actually props up Microsoft's first party, which is why I didn't train my guns on them. It's Sony's first party I don't stop hearing about, so I decided to evaluate just exactly how well they hold up to scrutiny.

It is interesting that you bring up Wii U- in a comparable period, the Wii U got from Nintendo New Super Mario Bros. U, Nintendo Land, Lego City Undercover, Game and Wario, The Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (which I won't count for the same reason I did not count The Last of Us: Remastered), Super Mario 3D World, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Unlike Sony, Nintendo was also supporting its handheld in this period- the 3DS saw Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Lego City Undercover, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Donkey Kong Country: Returns, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky, Animal Crossing New Leaf, Pokemon X and Y, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

So I find this contrast very, very interesting (especially since the same standards of higher costs etc would apply to Nintendo as well, compared to their previous generation anyway).

dont worry guys, david jaffe's game based off a mid 90s angsty teen's trapper keeper doodles is right around the corner to save the ps4.

Yo, that game looks pretty ace, man.

Completely forgot that existed, but yeah looks cool.

seriously? a 4 player arena shooter with dumb graphics seems pretty meh to me. i wonder if it will get the same about of shit for the player count that titanfall did.

@charizard1605: no it does apply.

We had to wait 2 years roughly till we got a decent looking game on PS3 that played well aka KZ2. Why cuz devs are still learning how to write code as was with the problem with PS3. Coding for PS4 is "easier" according to press, but can't really take hearsay seriously.

So soon to forget.....

I don't know about you, but it, along with Overwatch and Splatoon are the three most interesting shooters I have seen in a long time.

It really doesn't. It's going to be like the PS4's "online shooter" version of Madworld or something.

For some reason even if the game ends up being technically well done and perfectly smooth functioning online (which is always HIGHLY in doubt for a game being built from the ground up) - i still dont' see it doing well. If it has any issues or bad shooter netcode... forget about it.

Overwatch looks cool and I doubt Splatoon has a long life(lolwiiuonline) despite looking kind of cool. Drawn to Death looked dumb to me. Rainbow 6 Siege is by far the most interesting multiplayer shooter coming up but its Ubisoft so Im sure Ill have to climb a fucking tower at some point.

Really? I am legitimately excited for it. Plus it's Jaffe, and that dude usually knows what he is doing.

I refuse to acknowledge Rainbow 6 at this point on the grounds that Ubisoft touched it.

Are digital games not real games?

The same subpar developers are making subpar games, I'm not seeing anything out of ordinary here. Reality has been that Sony's first party was always mediocre outside of an exception here and there.

Sony as a company can't keep bleeding money because it will effect its other businesses that can't keep the company afloat as a whole no matter how they sell ... example the playstation console has never sold better and its company still don't turn a profit

I had to dissuaded too many people from buying the order.

Exclusives on xboxone and ps4 have been miserable.

Doesn't seem that different to me. The main thing that jumps out is that 2 of those PS3 games became franchises; Resistance and Uncharted - and a 3rd game was kind of a "cult" classic that people want a sequel for (Heavenly Sword). Really it was only Uncharted that became successful. Resistance never really fulfilled it's potential. Whereas PS4's better 1st year games were sequels (Killzone, Infamous) or upgraded ports (Last of Us: Remastered).

The only difference is Sony hasn't yet created something good enough to be a future "franchise" on PS4 yet. Not sure when or how that is going to happen, with so many having sequelitis these days. Of course if they announced Heavenly Sword sequel for PS4, I"m sure people would be ok with that one.

I'm not saying that, but they aren't being worked on by Sony's main studios. Naughty Dog, Media Molecule, Guerrilla Games, Santa Monica, Sucker Punch, Evolution, the folks who brought us well received PS3 games last generation, are not the ones who worked on Velocity 2X or Resogun. My question sidesteps the smaller digital games entirely, not because I don't acknowledge them, but because the discussion was never about them to begin with- it was in keeping with Sony's bigger studios' retail output, and the digital games don't belong in that discussion, as much as I personally enjoyed Velocity.

Sony could take a pile of manure, put it in a game case, and it will sell 2m copies. I think Sony realized this and decided to do it. Besides all their money is spent on marketing and its money well spent. As long as the consoles sell thats all that matters. Sony fans line up for 3rd party games and fight anyone who likes anything else to the death so that part is covered. Sony has done their work and done it well. They could release critical flop after critical flop and the only place it will matter will be places like these. They will sell millions regardless.

My issue is there is no 2nd party games, it's a made up term that only serves to confuse the masses. Not that you are out to confuse anyone, but in general. There of course, 2nd party developers. 2nd Party Games is a fake term that should die and was born of inexperienced gamers of yesteryear when they heard the term '2nd party developer' and in their inexperience assumed there was such a thing as a 2nd party game. What would such a game really be if it's not published by Sony or whatever company. It's either a Capcom, Activision, Konami, Sony, Nintendo, etc product. Capcom outsourced for Bionic Commando as Konami did recently for Castlevania and those were still Capcom and Konami products. It's it legwork done by an outside work-force, contract work. Recently we saw the new Phantom Dust developer shut down. That product was always going to be a first party Phantom Dust game, but it just so happens an independent dev was hired to do the legwork...that just didn't work out though. Nintendo's also worked with 3rd party developers like Tecmo but in the end, Metroid was still Nintendo's 1st party game.

I do agree The Order wasn't developed in house nor was the legwork done by Sony. It was all outside contract work, definitely...much to perhaps Sony chagrin looking at the recent scores. I don't own the game nor would I defend it. I'm only more anxious to dispel the myth of 2nd party games.

The period under consideration is the Vita and PS3 support largely dying out. Yes, that is true, but we must ask: First of all, is 15 months long enough to get a retail PS4 product released before this thread was created today? Many retail games take minimum 2 years and longer (see 2005's Alan Wake or 1999's Legend of Dragoon for instance). Secondly, I remember Tearaway for Vita releasing only a year and a few months ago, Beyond Two Souls, The Last of Us, Gran Turismo 6, Puppeteer, and other 1st party retail games releasing in 2013. Adding two years minimum for dev time, in theory we would have games this year in 2015 from those studios (assuming no delays).

Finally, the output, as in actual retail titles released since PS4 launch vs. how many PS3 titles released in it's 1st year seem on par. The quality, no...but the amount is about the same as we've always seen.

Wipeout HD was a DD title on PSN in Sept 2008. It only became a cheaper retail release in October 2009 packaged with the Fury expansion which was essentially 3 years after PS3's launch.

The PS3 launched in 2006.

However, I was under the impression you weren't counting DD releases. Counting the DD release of Wipeout HD vanilla in Sept 2008 would open the floodgate of DD 1st party releases for PS4 though, not to mention the DD release was Sept 2008 which means we should have until around Sept 2015 to compare, not Feb 2015.

Again, it seems to me the actual numbered output is normal when comparing total number of 1st party retail on PS3 and PS4. Quality no, I would argue PS3 had better quality titles, but 1st party retail releases? It's about the same...all due to supporting last gen longer than the competition does.

I do agree the quality of recent 1st party retail releases has been disappointing for me at least.

BTW: Heavenly Sword, Resistance, and Ratchet and Clank would also be 2nd party devs back then. I would throw in Lair though with the removal of Wipeout. :) I would still count those titles of course, if they fit in the time slot, because they are still 1st party titles.

The PS4's exclusive drought is even worse than the PS3's (since the PS3 released in November 2006 and Uncharted 1 came out exactly a year later in 2007). Maybe Naughty Dog should have refocused The Last of Us as a PS4 launch title; I dunno. At least Bloodborne is going to be good.

Fair enough, I can abide by your sentiment. I did confuse second party developers and games there- not that I meant to confuse or mislead anyone, of course, I just confused two similar sounding terms in an attempt to intimate that the game was not a Sony in house game.

I also understand that things can change, and again, I am looking at 2015 as the year when they do for this console- there are three PS4 exclusives that I am very, very interested in (four if No Man's Sky is counted), not to mention a wave of (hopefully) great third party games as well. I am just curious about Sony's studios- outside of Naughty Dog, we aren't hearing a whole lot from them. Why is this?

That said, I absolutely agree with you on the final point- the number of games appears to be the same, the difference is that PS3 games largely hit the mark when it came to quality, while PS4 games have, sadly, not.

Incidentally, I played a bit of The Order today- it was over SharePlay (I don't think this is a game I want to spend money on), and I actually quite enjoyed what I played. Not $60 enjoy, no, and this is certainly not even a good game, perhaps average at best. But it looks great, sounds great, and it seems to have a genuinely good story to tell (so far). If you get the chance to go hands on with it for a cheap price, I would recommend it. At about five hours long, it's not like it would take much away from your time either :P

You did make another post comparing the PS4's output to the PS3's over the first 15 months, including Wipeout HD (a digital game) and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (a game that, by all means, should have been a digital game since it was only a sneak preview at Gran Turismo 5).

The PS3's output over its first 15 months were nothing special. A bit better in quantity and quality, but nothing outstanding. And the first truly outstanding exclusive on PS3 was not even produced or funded by Sony at all. It was not until LittleBigPlanet in October 2008 that Sony finally broke through with a stellar first party title - nearly two years into the console's lifespan.

Well, good thing they already had everbody's loyalty instead of having to earn it this gen by providing great games thus far. I see potential down the road but so far there's not anything on it (as far as exclusives go) that warrant I get one yet. Still, there's been great multiplats this gen thus far.

What the heck is a "main studio"? These are games either made by Sony first parties or were collaborative efforts by Sony and independent developers. They are Sony first party games. Making pointless distinctions between Sony studios is such a red herring. Arbitrarily limiting it to "retail output" is silly due to the nature of the game industry these days and ultimately poisons the well from the start if you want to have an honest discussion on Sony's output.

Like what?

Wipeout HD was released physically in Europe and PAL regions (which is where I lived until 2010) so that would be the reason why I listed it- I did not realize it was never released physically elsewhere.

But my main point still stands- the games were worked on by Studio Liverpool and Polyphony Digital, both main Sony first party studios, unlike, say, HouseMarque, as good as they are.

jesus am I glad i did not buy a PS4thplace.

this gen is the worst start tbh, they just rushed the PS4 just to beat the crap out of Xbox One

Even if I were to include Velocity and Resogun, my overall point would not see much of a change ultimately. By main studio, I meant the big name teams that make retail games, but if you want, I am perfectly fine with including digital games too- I just don't think that those games would make much of a difference to my overall point (and I would exclude flow and Escape Plan for the same reason I excluded TLOU:R).

They know that good presentation sells games now. People don't notice lackluster gameplay. So, they're using same formula over and over again.

A lot of their first party efforts are suffering from franchise fatigue at this point as well. I absolutely cannot get excited about the new Uncharted game at all, and the idea of a new God of War title possibly coming down the pipe inspires no more hype from me than the latest yearly EA or Ubi games. Then you have PSN getting spammed with samey me too "retro" style indie games that are typically nowhere near as good as the games they are trying to ape.

When I think of reasons I still have a PS4 coming in the future, (Bloodborne, Persona fucking 5, FFXV, Dark Souls 2: SotfS, MGSV: Phantom Pain) none of them are Sony first party games. Honestly, I think their first party catalogue was never really that good to begin with, and it certainly doesn't have the timeless staying power of the Nintendo first party franchises.

This. Sony is floating on a cloud of goodwill and future promise. Fans bought the machine regardless of what game Sony made. Sony doesn't have to do anything and they already won. And its a shame too because it means that Sony won't be doing anything to advance gaming.

Siding with Solid on this one. I think some of the PS3 games near the end of the cycle cut away from the PS4. But, regarding other studios:

• SCEJ seems quite busy, assisting in various projects as they seem to cross both handheld and console lines (Puppeteer, TLG, Bloodborne, Knack, Freedom Wars, etc.)
• Polyphony with GT 7 (2015-2016?)
• San Diego studios working with Jaffe on Drawn to Death
• Santa Monica collaborating with smaller games and whatever Barlog is doing
• Media Molecule dealt with Tearaway and Tearaway unfolded.

Some studios, like Sucker Punch or Guerrilla, just released games ( KZ SF near the end of 2013, and Infamous SS during 2014), so we won't hear from them for a while (though there is that Guerrilla game, Horizon, maybe E3 we'll hear about that). But this is just on top of my head, you'll have to go look at a more extensive list of their first party workings.

Bottom line: Some of the end support for the PS3 could have been pushed to the PS4. Some studios we haven't heard from will, hopefully, make a big scene at E3. Hopefully we'll get a LBP 3 situation (game announced at 2014 E3 and then released in 2014 November).