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This Week in Games - Akiba's Vampires, Heavenly Expulsees for Hire, and Sony Closing the Gates

IN CONSOLE WARS, EXCLUSIVES ARE KEY
WATCH THEM FLY BY AS THEY PORT TO PC

Massive Melee Mythra, debuting in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and later incorporated into Xenoblade Chronicles 2 as a special outfit for Mythra

I think Sony is doing it because they feel like they have to have things cued up for PS6. Those live-service bets didn't pay off, and it cost them in terms of money spent and, perhaps just as bad, time wasted. They can't have another console gen with a reputation for not having games. It's hard to say how much putting games on PC mattered. Sales for early games were good, but sequels did like 1/3, so the cost might not have been worth it. They seemingly dealt with the "I'll get it on PC" crowd by not doing day 1 releases there. But, it's possible that they want the message to be that you have to buy a playstation for its games.

The big problem, as I see it, is that Sony's studios squandered so much time on live-services that they are now way behind on where they should be with development of new games, and shutting down the smaller studios that would have been making the more AA type games leaves gaps that could have been filled with something. One thing I have to give Nintendo credit for doing is that it has enough games of various scopes in different stages of development that it can do things like move a release date forward to offset for one that needed a bit more time. It has games that are completed that it doesn't necessarily release right away so it can shuffle the deck around like that.

I can't blame Sony any more than I can blame Nintendo for not releasing Kirby Air Riders on Steam,

Aside from the fact that Air Riders is probably the last Nintendo game people would want on PC?

I can't blame Sony.

There's probably a lot of racing game fans who would get into Mario Kart or Kirby if they didn't have to buy a console to play them.

The big problem, as I see it, is that Sony's studios squandered so much time on live-services that they are now way behind on where they should be with development of new games, and shutting down the smaller studios that would have been making the more AA type games leaves gaps that could have been filled with something.

It's funny how literally every platform holder has had a moment where they got lazy and clearly relied on third parties for too much to fill in gaps. Usually the correction is to beef up your 1st party and bolster your lineup so you become less dependent on them. And of the platform holders, only Nintendo has never stopped supporting their first party lineup and because of that they've essentially become self-sustaining.

It feels like the PS5 has been behind the 8-ball almost from the beginning. Console shortages early on killed a lot of the excitement, and consistently high prices hurt it, as well.

Perhaps because of that, it feels like the simultaneous release window--where new games came out for both the PS5 and PS4, while players transitioned--was much longer than for previous PlayStation generations. Which also contributes to the feeling that, unlike previous generations, the PS5 hasn't really built up its own library.

Trying to artificially build up that library now with new exclusives feels like a case of too little, too late (especially when paired with rising prices).

I wasn't planning to post, but I read the final paragraphs and... it wasn't much, but it means a lot to have your encouragement and support as a minority targeted by the US gov't. Thank you.

This is especially hilarious in hindsight of the past decade-and-change because there was incessant doom-and-gloom over Nintendo not having third-party support and how they couldn't possibly sustain themselves on first-party titles alone. Meanwhile the Switch's library is plainly unbeatable outside of maybe Steam; especially with the Switch 2's upgrades, everyone's shooting their shot on the Switch 2 while people still clamor for first-party titles they know will be, at the very least, enjoyable.

Basically. Third parties cannot be relied on because they're mercenary, they go where the money is, so you need to bolster your own library. It's why nowadays Nintendo first party lineup is so titanic and basically from when the Switch first launched up to recently they had a release a month for the system. You need to make your system have its ow identity, otherwise what's the point?