Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "SONY INVESTING MORE IN FIRST-PARTY STUDIOS AND LESS ON THIRD-PARTY"

Episode Date: October 18, 2023

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticIn this segment of the Notorious Mass Effect podcast, Analytic Dreamz discusses Sony's decision to invest more in first-party studios and less on third-party deals. He explains the benefits of this strategy, such as increased profitability and control over the development process. He also discusses some of the upcoming games from Sony's first-party studios, including Spider-Man 2, Wolverine, Factions 2, a new IP from Naughty Dog, and a new IP from Santa Monica Studio.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Sony saw Microsoft out here spending dough like it was going out of style and they was like, hey, we can do that too. Because they just spent $329 million on third party deals in a fiscal year, right? Also, development personnel and in-house costs will increase by approximately $183 million. And recent partnerships include, hey, even entertainment studios and a 200 million investment in epic games reason why i say that is because i don't call myself analytic dreams for no reason i be watching who is running up the numbers and who's spending the bread to make that happen because if you don't know currently microsoft is buying any and every publisher they can possibly buy like literally they started buying so many that

PlayStation took them to court it was like ain't no way you're going to acquire you're going to acquire Activision without us taking you to court and guess what they took them to court and because Microsoft if you don't know and in the grand scale of things they have way more money than Sony so they ended up winning that that whole lawsuit and it was like we're acquiring Activision and we're just gonna promise to not make call the duty exclusive to Xbox wink wink they're gonna make some call of duty 2.0 call it something else and make it exclusive to Xbox. Like Xbox, like Microsoft, not slick.

Like, there was real tongue-in-cheek with the whole, we're not going to make Call a Duty exclusive. Like, yeah, all right. Watch out for a Titan fall-esque game to come out and be exclusive to Xbox. Like, even though that's developed by respawn, but I'm just giving y'all example. So, yeah, this story is really not too much about it. That's a complex, really.

It's just Sony is trying to use exclusive games. to boost PS5 sales such as Demon Souls, remake upcoming titles, like those games already came out. PlayStation 5 has been successful, despite stock shortages, of course, and they face criticism for a temporary closure of digital storefronts for older PlayStation consoles.

I didn't even know that was a thing. So, with that being said, the biggest reason I'm even covering them is because Sony investing 300 million in first-party studios is the main objective for right now. And they said that the investment is for developing software at existing studios and releasing games on multiple platforms. They're trying to pull a Microsoft. Like, yeah, we're going to put these games out on multiple platforms.

Oh, no, we're going to have these publishers put out these games on multiple platforms. And then somehow, some way, a game is going to. to go a console exclusive because i could have swore i could have swore that starfield was supposed to be on playstation am i tripping nowhere did i hear that that starfield was an xbox exclusive when xbox when starfield was first announced i was under the impression that it was coming out on every console now obviously they wasn't like oh it's coming out every console but they wasn't like oh it's coming out only for xbox so i'm like i was confused i was just like i'll see a game trailer I'm thinking it's going to be available for every console.

It comes closer to release date. They're like, oh, by the way, it's an Xbox exclusive. Well, I guess I'm playing cyberpunk then. But anyways, so Sony also sees value in first-party software and continues to increase funding for own studios, of course, because if you don't pour my money to the studios that's creating these hits, then why, you know, try to go out and buy more first-party?

It's not like the people they have not making no hits, like Spider-Man, Horizon, Ratchet and Klank, God of War, like they put out some hits. Like, I think Ghost of Tashima was a PlayStation exclusive. Like, there was a stretch where literally PlayStation was having every game of the year come out on their console exclusively, to the point where everybody was like,

does the Xbox even have games? Like, obviously, it's a lot better this year, much more improved this year with Hi-Fi Rush, with Starfield. Is LizaP exclusive to Xbox? I don't know. Anyways, Xbox has action. games now. And so that joke of Xbox having no games is

unfortunately played out because that was one of my favorite jokes to make. But anyways, Sony plans to aggressively invest in first-party studios including Nottie Dog in Santa Monica Studio. If you don't know Nottie Dog, that's crazy. I brought up the PlayStation exclusives.

I didn't even bring up Last of Us. Last of Us so good, they didn't turn it to a TV show. And that's exclusive on PlayStation. I forgot about that one. So Nottie Dog makes Last of Us. Santa Monica Studios, I believe they make God of War. Anyways, the company aims to strengthen the PlayStation platform and enhance social and platform capabilities of games. Global playtime or PlayStation platforms increased by 20% in March, compared to March 2019. If you don't

know, I think that was the turning point for when people start to realize that Spider-Man was exclusive to PlayStation. God of War was exclusive to PlayStation, like, why do we? we even have an Xbox so i think that's when they started to turn the tide overwhelmingly in uh sonny's favor so that's why that march 2019 date is very interesting because um that's when i think it happened anyways uh sonny expects to continue to have continued uh player engagement for the physical year ahead and of course they will because at this point i mean starfield's definitely going to help out xbox a lot but with cyberpunk coming out right after to Starfield, which I still think is a strategic move, even though it's multi-platform.

But now, people who have that Starfield it could kind of scratch it with Cyberpunk. I'm not going to lie to you. Like, obviously, you can't go to, well, it's spoiler. So I'm not going to say that. Let's just say you can scratch that itch with Cyberpump. So, because for me, I was thinking about getting a whole console to play Starfield. Like, Starfield looks really good to me. Obviously, to a lot of other people, but, you know, some people are hating on it.

But now I can just play Cyberpunk, which is probably what I'm going to do after I beat Spider-Man at least 20 billion times when it comes to October 20th. So anyways, click my link to your in my bio. Let me know in one of my social medias. What do you think about Sony investing $300 million into his first-party PlayStation Studios and focusing more on third-party deals? Yeah. So what do you think about PlayStation? investing heavily into PlayStation 5, including third-party deals and first-party studios, and what studio would you like to see Sony invest more dollars into?