At what point does the seemingly ever lengthening prodution time for big studio games become unsustainable in regards to promotion?

[Captain_Fuzz]

I'll focus on Playstation since I do not own an xbox.

The ps5 unveiling in 2020 came alongside a showing of both exclusive and non-exclusive games. A year later in 2021 (once they became easier to get without forking out £100s in scalping add-ons) Playstation had one of the strongest showcases of games, especially first party big hitters, I've ever seen. I'm talking Santa Monica, Insomniac etc.

Fast forward to today, September 2024 and since then we've not really had a whiff of a single "big" playstation headliner; so much so that the ps5 pro tech show yesterday had multiple ps4 games as an advert for the mid gen upgrade. This seemed such an out of touch moment. Millions of players across old and current gen will have already completed and replayed The Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima (even on pc for the latter) since their release; yet they're still being wheeled back out in hopes they will entice people to a £700 console. In no way am I arguing that they aren't beautiful games, but as the title states and is the root of my query: how long can they keep up these half decade plus production times for headline games.

I'd imagine that we'll have another release each, from these heavy hitting, first party studios before the ps6 comes around, but what then? Does that mean the ps6 will be promoted and sustained on a majority of ps5 content rather than made-for ps6 stuff and so on for consoles beyond? There are already minimal ps5-only games out. As an example we've got God of War Ragnarok (ps4 + 5) and will maybe get 1 other game from Santa Monica that will be current gen only. With huge productions pushing ever closer to a decade, what will Sony have to promote the ps6 besides rehashed then-old gen games? We'd be lucky to get a single game from each or their flagship studios per gen and that can't be good for sales.

Beyond that the player base for old-gen is still really high, evident by the amount of easy-bet high sale franchises like CoD and Fifa still offering their games on old gen. If future gens of consoles offer less and less in terms of the big attractive exclusives; what is there to persuade people to buy them? How long can they keep getting away with making games from last gen run slightly better for a good chunk of the price of a decent gaming pc.

Further advantages like built in dvd and bluray players are increasingly phased out too. It really seems like AAA production is squeezing the console scene into an ever smaller corner of the gaming space. I can't imagine the announcement for the playstation 6 being backed with the full might of a Last of Us 2 port.

 

[Hythlodaeus]

The easy answer is probably soon. Longer production time is a huge gamble - Concord being in production for like, 8 years? And then shutting down 2 weeks later? Millions down the drain, and with no other games being focused on in between means they don't even have anything to fall back on to try to recoup. That's why everything is switching to relying so heavily on subscriptions and microtransactions, it's the only thing keeping companies afloat if they spend the better half of a decade designing a game only for it to flop super hard.

 

[Captain_Fuzz]

I completely agree. It's not like Concord is an isolated project too. I'd say the promotion of it did no favours, but with other live service games having already been cancelled and with more on the way, how long will they want to throw stuff at he wall to see it if sticks? 2 more? 3 more? These £100m's attempts at making long lasting dents in the multiplayer market sound anything but sustainable even if say 1 in 3 work out. The goliaths that sell into the 10s of millions of copies to playstation platforms alone are an astounding weapon in the arsenal of pushing console sales yet so much money and time is being put into high risk, unknown reward projects. It really does baffle me.