After what seemed like eons of waiting, the PlayStation 4
is finally here. In its first 24 hours on the market in the United
States and Canada alone, it sold
a staggering one million units, blowing away day one (and even week one) numbers from some of the biggest consoles of all-time, like PlayStation 2 and Wii. (
A couple million more are on backorder.)
With its European release imminent – where the PlayStation brand was
strongest in the PS3 era – and 2013 launches planned for other parts of
the world, PlayStation 4 is looking at a few million sold before the
calendar year ends.
“
Only Guerrilla Games and Japan Studio delivered launch titles on PS4… where is everyone else?
With such huge sales comes equally huge expectations, and it’s here that
some gamers think Sony – and the PlayStation brand itself – may be
lacking. It’s hard to deny just how “next-gen” PlayStation 4 looks and
feels, with a lightning-fast UI, heavily ingrained social functionality,
and a bona fide second screen option. But Sony’s own extensive roster
of
fully-owned, first party studios are largely late to the game. Only Guerrilla Games and Japan Studio delivered launch titles on PS4 -- in the form of
Killzone: Shadow Fall and
Knack, respectively -- begging a simple, logical question: where is everyone else?
To be fair, the situation in Sony’s stable of first party developers is as fluid as ever. Two games – Evolution Studios’
Driveclub and Sucker Punch’s
Infamous: Second Son – are coming in the early part of 2014. Naughty Dog recently revealed that
Uncharted is coming to PS4. And there are other exclusives – like Ready at Dawn’s
The Order: 1886
– that are coming to PlayStation 4 next year from outside the first
party family. But it’s fair to say that most of Sony’s studios are
working on completely unknown titles, and this, to many PlayStation
fans, is frustrating and mystifying all at the same time.
Take heart. Infamous is coming!
Historically, a console’s longterm success largely hinges not only on
its exclusive offerings, but in the timing those offerings are
unleashed on consumers. It’s why the NES trounced the Master System, the
Super Nintendo edged-out Genesis, and the original PlayStation and
PlayStation 2 outsold its competition combined. These days, though,
there’s more to the equation than just that. Xbox 360 largely
outperformed the PlayStation 3 for most of last generation because of
its cohesive online environment and emphasis on entertainment. The Wii
beat both the 360 and PS3 because it entered the mainstream
consciousness. Sony needs to be (and seems to be) mindful that it has to
play its hand just right. It has to do things differently than it did
during the PlayStation 3 era.
“Sony needs to be – and seems to be – mindful that it has to play its hand just right."
With PlayStation 4, Sony appears to want to take a more thoughtful
approach, knowing full well that when it makes promises, it has to
deliver on them. It readily admits
that all 16 studios are working on PS4 games,
but Sony won’t divulge more information than that. Yeah, it’s annoying
that we don’t know what Sony Bend, London Studio, or Media Molecule are
working on for the new console, but there’s something kind of exciting
about it, too. Between first and third party games, PS4 players will
have plenty to stay busy with long before the curtain is lifted on those
studios that are, at this point, conspicuously silent.
There’s another way of looking at this, too. Sony promised games during the last generation that it simply didn’t deliver on.
The Getaway 3 and
Agent
– the latter a collaboration with Rockstar – never came to fruition
even though both were given ample reveal time at E3 conferences. And the
biggest no-show of them all – Team ICO’s The Last Guardian – is
apparently still in development,
and has been for a staggering eight years. But even if it does come
out, Guardian’s stumble into development hell is a blemish on Sony’s
internal studios’ reputation, and it’s unlikely it’ll live up to the
hype and mystique surrounding it for so long.
Sony is wise to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment of The Last Guardian.
By keeping its cards close to its chest and being slower and more
thoughtful with game announcements, Sony isn’t only cleverly stringing
gamers along. It’s also saving itself last generation’s multiple
embarrassments by not revealing what it can’t necessarily deliver on, a
continuation of Sony’s remarkable propencity in 2013 to learn from its
many mistakes. When pitted against the Xbox 360, Sony was announcing
products from a place of weakness and trying to catch up. It was
throwing anything and everything out there to get people’s attention and
slow (and eventually halt) the sinking of its overpriced console. But
the PlayStation 4 has changed the landscape, and it doesn’t have to do
that anymore.
“Sony likely understands that its launch lineup isn’t quite as good as Xbox One’s..."
Remaining quiet gives Killzone: Shadow Fall and Knack time to breathe,
and gets players amped for the most imminent of first party releases
next year: Driveclub and Infamous: Second Son. Sony likely understands
that its launch lineup isn’t quite as good as Xbox One’s, but it didn’t
stop the console from experiencing record sales, and it hasn’t quelled
excitement for what’s to come. It doesn’t have a showstopper like
Titanfall or something as loveable as Super Mario 3D World, but it is
stemming the tide with a flood of affordable, worthwhile indie games –
like the amazing
Resogun – and the promise of something better to come. Indeed,
Sony's emphasis on indies shows that it understands exactly where the industry is slowly-but-surely headed in the future.
I understand the frustration. I’d love to know if Sony Bend is working
on a new Syphon Filter, if Sony Santa Monica's space game
is actually real, and if Media Molecule is really going to incorporate PlayStation Move into
its new project. But let’s not ignore what’s in front of us, too. Killzone: Shadow Fall
is a lot of fun, Resogun
is rad, and Infamous: Second Son
looks staggering. (Knack, on the other hand,
didn't fare so well.)
Silence isn’t necessarily a negative. Not if it suggests something bigger is in store.
Colin Moriarty is IGN’s Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter.
