This year, 2024 stands to be an interesting year for PlayStation. Right out the door, it was confirmed legacy franchises will take the bench with other releases set to ship instead. And we’ve seen this with published installment such as Helldivers 2, Rise of the Ronin, and Stellar Blade just to name a few.
What’s more, that isn’t to say there is no PlayStation first-party games coming. In fact, one already did from Firewalk Studios. The unfortunate part is that the hero shooter is closing its servers just two weeks after releasing. Despite that, a property that radiates everything that is PlayStation is set to release later this week – Astro Bot.
But despite the optimism for the approaching Team Asobi release, leadership for Sony Interactive Entertainment is not convinced. From new co-CEO Hiroki Totoki in an interview with The Financial Times, he argues that PlayStation does not offer any truly unique or original IPs. “Whether it’s for games, films or anime, we don’t have that much IP that we fostered from the beginning.”
Totoki continued: “We’re lacking the early phase (of IP) and that’s an issue for us.” Right off the bat, it is easy to argue Totoki’s statement just looking at Astro Bot. Coming September 6th, it celebrates the history of the platform and features dozens of differing franchises that brought PlayStation to where it is. All in a complete, engaging, platforming experience.
Of course, there is a vault of franchises many players are hoping to see be revisited – let alone any potential new approaches from its current operations. Stretched across its repertoire of hardware, PlayStation has featured multiple franchises that gave the star power the latest PlayStation 5 harbors and many players are still committed to the platform how many years later.
Looking ahead, there are new projects exclusive to PlayStation that are underway, Firstly is a new IP in which Bluepoint Games is still quietly working on. Additionally, a new partnership with Kojima Productions has slated a new espionage experience that follows in being a true successor to Metal Gear. You can read the full report by heading here.
What is your response to Totoki’s statement?
Source: The Financial Times
