What the Hell is Going on at PlayStation?

Article at a glance:
Sony’s live-service gamble has been an absolute disaster, with Concord and Marathon joining a growing list of questionable decisions.
PlayStation keeps alienating its own audience, from shutting down Bluepoint to ditching physical games and fumbling the Kojima partnership.
Marvel’s Wolverine is another massive disappointment, with bland level design, repetitive gameplay, and a Logan who barely feels like Logan.

Okay, what the hell is going on at the PlayStation offices? I can hardly believe that gave us a console generation as GOATed as the PS4 just a few years ago. I don’t care what the haters say; the PS4 was genuinely a generational run. Bloodborne, Horizon, the OG Last of Us, Days Gone, God of War 2018, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man, and so on. The PS4 generation brought us so many great, critically and commercially successful single-player games. And yet somehow, less than a decade later, the same Sony and PlayStation are mired in layers and layers of problems.

Legit, the only clean wins Sony has had in the PS5 days are Helldivers 2 and God of War: Ragnarok, and both of those games have their issues too. Aside from that, they’ve successfully ruined pretty much every single other franchise I listed. And it isn’t even that Sony just isn’t making good games anymore; I just cannot, in good faith, let their recent business decisions slide. And as if that wasn’t enough, just yesterday, we were hit with the news that Kojima Productions is leaving Sony to partner with Xbox, and the Wolverine reviews dropped.

Let’s take a look at why Sony and PlayStation seem to be in such a generational vortex of problems.

Sony’s Failed Live Service Push

Let’s be honest, I think all of us breathed a sigh of relief when Jim Ryan was let go as the CEO of PlayStation. We all thought that this would mean less live services and more single-player games. Weeelll… about that…

The only successful live-service Sony got out of this push was Helldivers 2, and they managed to mess that up as well by making a PSN account mandatory for PC players. Mind you, PSN isn’t available in over 120 countries.

But that wasn’t enough. Marathon was another big-budget live-service that flopped. And Marathon was worse because it managed to piss off the existing Destiny fanbase, as Bungie closed D2 to focus on Marathon. That is without mentioning all the controversies Marathon was mired in pre-launch, such as the art theft and bad playtests.

Anyone remember Concord? Do you remember how much money Sony sunk into THAT disaster?

A similar fate awaits the other upcoming live-service titles like Fair Games and Horizon: Hunter’s Gathering. How many more cautionary tales does Sony need before they realize that shilling out half-hearted, incomplete, and terrible-playing live-service games isn’t going to magically print them money?

Closure of Bluepoint and Kojima Fumble

The shutdown of Bluepoint really did hurt my heart. They made the most ambitious remake for PS5. Sure, Demon’s Souls Remake wasn’t perfect, but it looked and played amazing. It was clear that the people over at Bluepoint were talented. They could’ve made something really cool had Sony given them another chance. But Sony, in their infinite wisdom, decided to shut down Bluepoint in March of this year.

Regardless of your personal opinions on Kojima and his works, he is a big name in the industry for a reason. He is an absolute cultural icon, which is why his games sell. Yes, I get it; his games are also a business risk, but what would you rather risk your money on? Another failed live service like Concord? Or a Kojima project that has some genuine artistic merit? There is no world where Concord was worth 400 million but NOT keeping Kojima wasn’t worth it. Kojima also made his dislike of discontinuing physical media public. And I am sure that also played a part in their separation. Who stepped in to take over Kojima Productions, though? Well, Xbox, of course.

No More Physical Games for the PlayStation and Bad Business Practices

The next GoW game won’t be joining this collection, unfortunately.

PlayStation is now the only console with a completely monopolized storefront. Xbox and Nintendo still make physical media, and PC has a ton of options aside from Steam and GOG. But when Sony finally stops the production of physical media, they can do whatever the hell they please with their store. If your account gets banned for any reason, you will lose your entire library of games. Do you see how bad this can get? Sony has extremely harsh refund policies. What if you get banned for just arguing with a CS rep for a refund? Is THAT worth losing your entire library over?

I am not trying to fear-monger here. But physical media is important. Because I don’t think people realize just how insane a monopolized digital storefront can get. They’ve already kind of started with dynamic pricing. Where if you buy more games at full price, you’ll just get less discount%. They’re just asking to get sued with that one.

And as if to rub salt in your wounds, Sony recently sent an email to all their players clarifying that you, in fact, DON’T own your video games.

Again, Xbox and Nintendo don’t have this issue because if you don’t want to deal with their stores, just go and buy a physical copy! And a lot of the time, the physical copies are cheaper! Xbox also went a step further and just started giving you digital licenses for games you own physically!

Marvel’s Wolverine

The more I see of this game, the more I hate it. I cannot put into words just how patronizing and insulting watching gameplay of Wolverine feels. In a very linear game where there’s only 1 way to go forward most of the time, they thought it would be a good idea to constantly trail showing you where to go. They don’t even trust you to find the “secrets” on your own. The level design is unimaginative, the art direction is bland, the combat is painfully repetitive, there are no traversal mechanics to speak of, and Troy Baker is the only good thing about the story. How do you fumble what should have been an easy win so badly?

They didn’t even understand Logan’s character. Logan is supposed to be the gruff, stubborn asshole who would argue with Scott all day and then be the first person to throw himself in front of a Sentinel to save him. He’s not supposed to be the team’s endlessly cooperative exposition machine. Yet this version of Logan often feels more like Scott Summers wearing Wolverine’s claws. What were they thinking?

Marvel’s Wolverine will be talked about for years to come as what NOT to do in game design.

Do I think that it’s the worst PS5-era game? No, that honor squarely belongs to Concord. But still, this is a 15-hour game with a 70$ pricetag and 300 million$ budget. I think I am not stupid for expecting it to be better. A LOT better than what we’ve gotten.

That is all for now

What awaits Sony in the future? I can’t say. But I do not make this article out of malice. The market is at its best when Sony and Microsoft are in healthy competition. This is just Sony abusing and farming their customers. Am I speaking to a wall here? Probably. Regardless, I think it is important to put this message out there. Sony and PlayStation will only start addressing these problems if there’s enough noise around them.

I don’t WANT PS to fail. I’ve seen the incredible games Sony is capable of when they’re not so obsessed with greed, live-service, and so ideologically captured.

I hate the present-day Xbox and Nintendo equally, by the way. But Xbox is at least attempting to fix things, and Nintendo still makes physical copies. But yeah, let me know what you guys think in the comments. I will take my leave here. See ya.