You either die the hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain
There's something brewing over in the offices of Sony Entertainment, and it doesn't sound all that appetising. Rather, it sounds like the bubbling and popping of a stirring witch's cauldron, prepping for dastardly profane magiks to rain upon the good people of the kingdom. Because recently, inexplicably, Playstation's top brass have donned the pointy hats and crooked noses of your typical fairy-tale bad guys in so many unnecessary instances that it's honestly starting to feel like their collective consciousness has been hijacked by some Microsoft fanboy illusionist who seeks to sully the hard won reputation of Playstation game studios one dumb controversy at a time. What a cad such a fellow would have to be to do so, and yet that's the only 'sensible' conclusion one can draw when Sony have invested themselves so fully in becoming the console market's 'bad guy' manufacturer.
Now granted, in their shoes Microsoft was the exact same way back when the majority of gaming market share wore green. Who can forget the time when Microsoft tried to force all of it's next gen adopters to stay forever online with a little digital camera watching them everytime they logged in, pretty much the exact model the Chinese government would seek to adopt in the next decade? It's as though even the slightest whiff of supremacy immediately intoxicates the entire decision-making staff and forces them to lose all relatability and situational nuance. Can it be any coincidence that, since falling to second place in the console race, Microsoft have had their most consumer friendly years yet, building back up that reputation which one generation toppled for them. A better argument against narrow markets couldn't exist. If we had a whole bunch of competitors that kept their various shares of the market in flux, we wouldn't get these uppity world-burner types who think success equals a greenlight to gasoline dunking on your own customer base. (But let's not fall too deep into economic critique today, eh?)
I think that the path into this mess of self-defeating anti-consumerism started with a culture that wasn't just financially sensible and sound, but it was a response to a competitor's fumbling with the very same tactics, who had in turn inherited their tactics from the previous generation. So in a manner of ways you could say it isn't really Sony's fault, except in the way that they failed to better themselves from the mistakes of their ancestors, but who's counting that stuff, right? I'm talking about the culture of exclusivity that permeates PlayStation, where Sony have to secure their image of the erudite console for the supreme-ites out there by buying up all quality smaller studios and putting them to work as Sony delegates. It's a sound strategy, as I said, although one born in looking at the customers as commodities on a chess board to be forced over to your side rather than actual people. "Oh what's that? You love Final Fantasy? Well screw you, hope you can afford several hundred quid because the next game's coming out only on our console. Which obviously means you will too, because you have to love us now. It's in the rules."
Yes, Xbox did the exact same thing during their tenure, securing the rights to Final Fantasy XIII (Although that was only temporarily) and Nintendo and Sega would base their entire business models around which exclusive games they could score. But that still doesn't make this practise magically not the scourge of the consumer who is constantly expected to just follow these companies around like loyal lost pups grateful for the table scraps shoved their way. It diminishes the customer, especially in the eyes of management, which I think is where the superiority complex starts to set-in and where Sony start getting to acting like total fools and cads, thinking that they're somehow untouchable in this new meta they've built for themselves,
A big point of contention in recent months has been the truly horrendous manner with which PlayStation brass have treated indie developers, to the point where this most important sector of the industry is often looked down upon and chided. Indie developers have spoken out about being twisted into following a ruleset that doesn't even allow them to control their own pricing models, having absolutely no effort be part into marketing on their behalf and struggling to match PlayStation sales with sales on Itch.Io. It's ludicrous to think Sony would turn their backs to hopeful developers so readily, given that these are the faces that will inherit their industry, but I suppose the big boys over in their high offices know better, because they've adopted an almost blanket disdain for the indie market. Mayhap this stems from a time where Sony went all-in on an indie game only for it to blow up in their face (No Man's Sky) but I'm just idly speculating; maybe Sony brass just likes to kick puppies too.
Oh, and Sony scorn has also flown towards their own fanbase too, lest you start thinking you and yours are safe! During the marketing periods for the current generation of consoles, Sony went above and beyond to let people know that this new generation would be a hard cut off point for new games. From the moment it came out, the PS5 would be hit by innumerable new games, some of which were sequels, that just couldn't feasibly come out on PS4, so best get to preordering the new hotness else you're destined to miss out! Except, that was a lie, one that was made with knowledge and intent, as many of the new games announced would end up having a PS4 version announced conveniently after the PS5 launched, save the truly experimental like Ratchet and Clank or Demon Souls. It was such a short sighted grift too, because the moment it was deduced, fans would know exactly who lied to them, what their end goal was and that trust would be frayed from there on. Does the limited profit of today truly justify screwing over the near to distant future of your company's reputation?
And we end on the big one, the most recent flip flop from Sony that has everyone scratching their scalps in exasperated bewilderment. Sony went back on the promise they made, likely just to mirror Xbox's similar promise, that end of gen PS4 games would get a next gen update for free. Specifically we're talking about 'Horizon: Forbidden West' which alongside unveiling it's special edition revealed to people that they would have to spend extra on the big edition if they wanted a PS4 copy that would transfer to PS5. Quite the bold swindling attempt considering the lengths fans have to go to in order to get a PS5 in the first place, Sony, you could at least cover the upgrade charge after yours and Microsoft's total stock negligence. This was only a short controversy, of course, with Sony turning heel on the topic in less than a week and offering upgrades to the rest of the class; but good god what where they thinking? White lies is one thing, black lies another, but a straight up betrayal? That's the sort of thing that many cannot recover from. Just look at Onlyfans, after their debacle with maybe banning adult content, despite reversing the hairbrained decision they ended up totally sacrificing their market dominance to their ravenous competitors who jumped on the moment of weakness. Is that what Sony are attempting to replicate?
'With great power comes great responsibility', is the oft regurgitated Spider-man quote I come back to most frequently when I think on this, because Sony are showing no responsibility with the backwards and destructive direction they've steered themselves towards of late. They are the current rulers of the console market, holding the reputation for exclusive quality that makes their console the hot-button must have of the industry, even with the Series X being arguably more powerful. They are bumbling, and it's costing them piece by piece the supremacy which carried them for an entire generation. Someone needs to slap these guys in the face before they end up whittling away all the goodwill which is on the way to making them billionaires, because it's the industry underneath them which is suffering from their flounders. (Also, for the love of god grown-up about this whole cross-play issue; you're embarrassing yourselves!)
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