Comment on Sony Pulls Back From PlayStation Games on PC
64bithero@lemmy.world 1 day agoI called those “soft exclusives” and I argue it killed Sony in the 7th console generation. Metal Gear , Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Devil May Cry, Ridge Racer were all exclusive because the publisher made enough money on one console. Then the Xbox had its small time to shine. And boy did Sony regret it…
(GTA and MGS eventually had releases but much later on)
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The 7th gen was exactly where this started to break down, in large part because these machines are all so, so similar these days, rather than having a completely different set of capabilities. I think consoles as we knew them years ago are just reaching the point where they’ve outlived their usefulness. Sony can try to fight it by holding onto exclusives, but I think it’s actually only going to hurt them.
64bithero@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s a catch22. After that generation things became a lot easier to develop for across the board. At the same time I believe became easier to develop the console. Rather than build chipsets entirely in house you just contract a chip manufacturer. And shockingly when your competitor uses the same company things get samey.
I don’t know if this was ever avoidable. The capabilities of modern day processors would be hard to fathom console companies building their own unique variants on. I’d argue if they did consoles would cost even more now than they already do.
It’s interesting to think what could have been. Definitely would have made console reveals more interesting. And even ports more interesting. But I can’t sure for sure better …