How the turns table
One of the more fun aspects of following the gaming world is discovering new ways in which the worlds of information and perspectives can open up to you, with results that you never might have conceived of before. I don't pretend to be some grizzled well-travelled professional pundit who knows the ins and outs of how every business decision across the industry is made, so times come when I'm completely thrown off-guard by a story that makes me go "Oh yeah, I guess that would be a problem, huh." Point in case, this whole sudden backlash that has been thrown Sony's way, a company who recently could do no wrong in the eyes of the average gamer through sheer merit of being the only game manufacturer with any confidence nowadays. (If 'confidence' is what we're labelling callous pig-headedness, but I'm getting ahead of myself) At first all I heard about this story was the news that Sony would be remaking The Last of Us Part 1, (go-go gadget eyeroll) but suddenly those stories ballooned into damning indictments of Sony's entire corporate structure and it seems like the whole world is screaming about how Sony have 'lost their touch' and are 'getting drunk on their own success.'
All of this stems from the accusation that Sony devs are becoming upset with the main company's growing obsession with creating blockbuster titles and how they're slowly shaping their entire company towards only that pursuit. This started with news of Sony folding one of their longest running Japanese studios into another, ending a 27 year long run with one swift consolidating wave. (And losing several employees who were none too pleased about it in the process.) Now this is great news for Microsoft who have been desperate to stick their toes in as many pies as possible; if Sony wants to step away from their home market (a strategy which Sony vehemently denies, by-the-by, regardless of prime evidence to the differ) then that just opens the field for Xbox to secure some of that Japanese audience which they've callously ignored up until now. But, why would Sony be stepping back from Japan to begin with, that is where they're from afterall. (Allegedly stepping back, I should say) Well, indicators suggest it's to move toward the western market and to devote themselves fully to growing the next great blockbuster franchise.
Honestly, this really shouldn't be all that much of a surprise to anyone; Sony have been rather transparent about their business model for a while now. Ever since Uncharted 2 it seems they've been seeking out ways to homogenise the games they publish into a few blockbuster series that cost the GDP of several small countries to make and become must-owns in everyone's library due to their sheer quality. (Thus ensuring a profit) Uncharted, Last of Us, Infamous, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Final Fantasy 7, Spiderman, your mileage might vary on some of those titles but there's no turning around and calling any of them small-fry or time-killer games. These are fully fledged AAA adventures that are designed to rule your summer in the same way that Hollywood does with their latest star-studded superhero movie. These are the games you're going to see printed on billboards, plastered on the side of busses, slid into every TV ad spot, woven into every banner ad, sequestered into every conversation and ultimately stamped onto both eyelids when you try to go to sleep at night. Sony have built themselves into an engine for producing 'Too big to fail' games, and it's only really recently that anyone outside the development studios have had a problem with that.
That's because they make, and seemingly have always made, great games. These aren't just titles that are big for the sake of being big; they typically fill that space with gusto, are technologically innovative and, frankly, are just plain impressive. So what's there to complain about? Well, when you put all your chips into one basket there's bound to be some bad eggs in the bunch. (Mixed metaphors much?) Making all of their games a horrendously bloated mega product makes the economics stand front and centre, influencing decisions astray from what's best for the industry or the artform and angling it more towards, 'what's going to allow us to keep this up for as long as possible?' Point in case- Xbox game pass. Now I don't care about no console loyalty or any of that malarkey; the Game Pass model is the future of game accessibility that more and more studios should be getting in on. (Heck, even Apple have their own version of it!) But stubborn ol' Sony doesn't want to play. Why? Because they invest so much money into each of their exclusives that it just plain wouldn't be finically wise to start sticking them on an affordable subscription service. So there goes Sony's chance to be ahead of the industry trend for game accessibility. And now you're starting to see how stifling this mindset can be.
Their story over the past few years has been one of hope getting swiftly crushed, as the Studio hoped to score the right to do their own product by kowtowing to Sony's ravenous hunger and helming a remake. (A much more doable prospect for this studio) They proposed Uncharted 1, which would have been too difficult because of it's age, and instead they settled on a The Last of Us remake. (See, we went full circle) This pleased the great feeding machine, because a remake could be bundled alongside The Last of Us 2's PS5 upgrade, and so the project was approved. Unfortunately, then The Last of Us 2 started to hit development snags and SCVASG (My god, I thought that acronym would read better before I typed it! These guys need a name) was drafted back into a support roll for Naughty Dog. The exact thing they wanted to move away from doing. And then, as if to rub salt into their eyes, upon The Last of Us 2's completion, Sony moved ownership of the The Last of Us Remake project over to Naughty Dog, essential stealing Visual Arts Service Group's idea and robbing them of credits and an identity. The group had been fearing for a while that they were destined to be consolidated into Naughty Dog, and now that seems like a forgone conclusion.
The gaming industry isn't run on the back of tentpole franchises, but a sea of smaller and imaginative titles that fill the gap between these huge event releases. But it seems more and more apparent that Sony is loosing sight of those lily pads in favour of the whole pond. Honestly, I never really thought of this as a bad thing until hearing of these stories, Visuals Art Service Group's and Bend Studio's. (Who got their 'Days Gone' sequel concept tossed out of the window because the first game, despite being profitable, was not a blockbuster success) They paint the picture of a distinctly unsustainable company ethos obsessed with topping itself each and every release; bigger budgets, bigger studios, bigger games and bigger success. And some think this makes them blissfully unaware of what they're setting themselves up for; a major fall. What happens when it all runs out of steam? What will Sony do when these series and studios, as these things do, start to change as old faces leave looking for something new? Will Sony have enough of a bedrock around them to raise another blockbuster studio and keep the train running? I honestly have no earthly idea.
Sony are a giant of a company who have been on the top of the gaming industry for a while now, so I'm not surprised to learn that their leadership is pretty bullheaded and dismissive. I am surprised, however, to hear the effect it's having to their own talent, and I wonder if this news coming out will spark enough of a response to change their course at all. Because, as much as we may grimace at a studio of talented developers getting crunched up by the Goliathan content creator that is Sony, at the end of the day they're still on the top of their game. Putting out hit after hit, crushing sales figures, raking in awards; what's a little internal discontent against unadulterated success? I may have come around to the accusation that Sony is missing the forest for the trees; but I honestly can't see the Sony of today actually doing something about it. (Maybe the Sony of tomorrow. We'll see.)
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