Cliff Notes – Ghost Of Yōtei this week is where PlayStation officially gave up
- Sony’s recent announcement of Ghost Of Yōtei via a simple tweet and blog post reflects a troubling trend of minimal effort in marketing and communication with fans.
- The lack of significant first-party releases and a perceived decline in Sony’s engagement with the gaming community raises concerns about the company’s future in the industry.
Ghost Of Yōtei this week is where PlayStation officially gave up
Ghost Of Yōtei – the beginning of the end? for Sony Interactive Entertainment aka the Playstation.
Readers are unimpressed by the way in which Sony unveiled Ghost Of Yōtei’s release date and feels it hints at a grim future for PlayStation.
We all know that Sony has been acting strange for years now. We got about two normal years out of them, when the PlayStation 5 first launched, and then they basically went crazy. Suddenly all they were talking about were live service games, then they stopped talking about anything at all, and then they stopped releasing anything either.
There were basically no big PlayStation first party games last year. Yes, they had Astro Bot, which won lots of awards, but it didn’t sell all that well and by Sony’s own words was not a major release.
This year is just as bad. We’re at the end of April and the only things they’ve had out are an ultra expensive The Last Of Us compilation and Days Gone Remastered. The only thing they’ve got coming up is Death Stranding 2 (which they didn’t make, so isn’t really first party) and, so we learned this week, Ghost Of Yōtei in October.
We haven’t heard anything about Ghost Of Yōtei since last year and then this week we got a new trailer, a release date, and pre-order details. How was this unveiled? Via a new State of Play? Or maybe a showcase dedicated to the game? At least it must’ve been a part of some other preview show, right?
No, they had a tweet. And then later there was a short PlayStation Blog. That’s it.
I’m just sick of this. Why is Sony like this now? Why do they seem to hate being a games publisher? Why do they hate talking to their fans so much? Why do they love doing nothing instead?
Everything is a minimum effort. The announcements, the number of games coming out, the way everything is presented… it’s a bizarre mix of laziness, arrogance, and a total lack of energy. I don’t know what it is Sony execs would rather be doing, but it’s certainly not selling video games.
How Sony got like this is a mystery but it’s hardly the most important one. The real question is are they ever going to get out of this weird funk they’ve put themselves into and if not what happens next?
If Microsoft hadn’t imploded before them then PlayStation would’ve been in real trouble but instead they’ve been rewarded for their incompetence and laziness with the easiest ride in gaming.
Yes, Nintendo is going to beat them with the Switch 2, that much is obvious, but Nintendo doesn’t do what Sony does. Gaming cannot just be Nintendo and PCs. Or maybe it can?
Sony doesn’t panic
Maybe Sony’s inaction is pushing us towards that one format future that at one time seemed so desirable. I don’t think it is, because Sony is living proof of what happens when you have no competition, but I think it’s going to happen anyway.
My prediction is that Nintendo will continue to be a success doing its own thing, but that PC will continue to gain ground until Sony just quietly give up on consoles and go third party like Xbox.
I imagine it’ll be a slow decline, that gradually begins to seem inevitable until, like Xbox, in the end nobody really cares all that much.
It’ll be a sad, pathetic end for PlayStation, but it’ll be no less than Sony deserves based on their recent inaction. I wish it wasn’t true, but I really can’t see any other way this is going to end.
