The president of SCE Worldwide, Shuhei Yoshida sat down to talk with Martin Robinson at EGX this year. During their chat he was able to shed some light on the first party holiday release strategy this year, and he also elucidated a bit about a future working relationship with From Software, the makers of Bloodborne.
Holiday lineup for the PS4 is looking small yet sassy from a first-party perspective.
Last year we didn't really see big AAA first-party exclusives released around the holiday season. The PS4's exclusives have all had disparate release dates throughout the year in 2014 and of course thus far in 2015. This year continues the trend towards third-party AAA game releases around the holiday season, and Sony will instead focus first-party content on a swath of creative games from smaller studios and independent studios.
"But we're releasing smaller, creative games this year, like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, or we're working on The Tomorrow Children, and many small but interesting titles. That can be complementary when looking at the line-up of PS4 games."
Of course this doesn't mean that there won't be anything to look forward to, as we already know. 2016 will bring us Uncharted 4, Star Ocean 5, Horizon Zero Dawn and many more. Certainly Sony understands that even though the price is less that of a typical gaming PC, a console is a long-term-investment nonetheless. And due to how the lifecycle of a console has historically been, we expect great games up until it's replaced.
"We've got lots of great big titles announced for the next year. We're focussed on delivering these titles. People make purchasing decisions for the long-term. Consoles, once they've purchased it, they expect to use it for 5-6 years. Having exclusive, unique titles coming in the near future, starting with Uncharted 4, must play a role from a first-party standpoint, to help people make those decisions."
Also, we might just see another great title from From Software, something that might even be a sequel to, but will nonetheless share the same underlying level of care and quality that went into From Software's recent Bloodborne.
"We have great relationships, and because of the nature of them being publishers and developers, it's a unique relationship. We wish to continue to work with them."
