Sony’s Complacency Could Be Their Undoing

It’s hard to argue with anyone that tells you Sony has all but won this console generation from the get go. From the moment Microsoft introduced us to the Xbox One, Sony was already in the lead. With a focus on being the center of your living room rather than focusing on the games, Microsoft gave Sony the chance to take back the lead in the console wars… a lead that they hadn’t seen since the PlayStation 2. While Sony has taken that lead and ran with it over the course of this generation, they now find themselves in a place where, if they aren’t careful, they’ll begin to fall behind again the same way they did last generation to the Xbox 360.

In the last year we have seen a different side of Sony than we’ve seen yet this generation. Simply put, they seem to be falling into a place of complacency. They are in the lead and they know it. This is a dangerous place to be considering they were in this same position at the end of the life cycle of the PS2. Though Microsoft’s new console had shown promise and was beginning to grow a following, the PS2 was the unquestionable champion of that generation. Sony’s arrogance was first seen around the end of that era. Thinking they would coast through the next gen Sony appeared with a new console severely overpriced that was also difficult to develop games for. This gave Microsoft the window that they needed to bring over the Sony faithful into their fold leaving the PlayStation 3 behind throughout the entire generation. Though the PS3 began to gain ground at the end of the cycle, it was too little too late for Sony that gen.

This is exactly where we find ourselves as this console generation comes to an end. Only the roles are reversed. Microsoft is gaining ground while Sony seems to be coasting to the finish line. Everyone knew that Microsoft needed a big showing at E3 this year and… boy did they ever. Not only did they showcase countless new first and third-party games on their console – they also announced the acquisition of five new studios. Studios that included: Compulsion Games and Ninja Theory, the creators of We Happy Few and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice respectively. At the same time, Sony only showcased four games that everyone already knew were in development and they did so in such a weird manner that it left a lot of people scratching their heads after the event was over.

E3 wasn’t the only place that Sony dropped the ball in 2018. The second half of the year has come and nearly gone with barely a whisper from Sony about their future. The only real announcement that we have had from them recently would be the PlayStation classic, but even the information surrounding that is limited. Only five of the twenty games have been announced and the reasoning for this seems to come down to the fact that Sony doesn’t even know what games to put on the system yet. Do they add M rated games to the console, enabling titles such as Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid to appear? Or do they leave these titles off and make the console more accessible to all ages? This is a problem that Nintendo hasn’t had to deal with so far with their classic console rereleases considering they really didn’t have a ton of M rated hits during the NES and SNES eras. With a price point of $99.99, the games need to be decent to warrant such a high price point.

Games and console announcements aren’t the only area that Sony is lacking in right now. At the time this was written we still haven’t heard a definitive answer from Sony about whether they were going to have their PSX conference this year. Over the past four years Sony has hosted their own show for their fans and, up until last year, these events were full of announcements that fans were eating up left and right. Last year’s PSX focused more on getting to know the people behind the games already in development with most of these unplayable at last year’s event. These games would go on to be some of the best sellers of the year with games like God of War and Spider-Man making huge splashes, but there were no big announcements outside of MediEvil, if you can even call that a big announcement.

So, what is Sony up to? Are they planning some big event full of announcements that will blow us away and make us feel better about where they stand going into the next console generation? Or are they doing what we fear and are just sitting back with a “comfortable” lead thinking they can just coast into the next gen remaining in the lead.  Only time will tell but, if they aren’t careful, Microsoft will repeat history and we could see a changing of the guard once again in the ever-ongoing console wars.

The video game industry is always evolving and things can change quickly. Check out an article we wrote nearly one year ago exactly about Microsoft . We like to think they were listening to not only us here at Handsome Phantom, but to their fans world wide and made some pretty huge changes this year.