In a lot of ways, I'm a bit disappointed with the PS4's first party support.
It had some of the best games (Bloodborne, God of War, The Last of Us 2) I've ever played. The quality was there absolutely.
But there didn't seem to be quite as many.
It was a long generation, and game development has gotten so much longer. I think a big part of it also is that a lot of first party studios took a lot of time creating new IPs and a lot of time recreating some old ones. It's probably a big factor for why games were better than ever, but it still bugs me.
Sony Bend took ~8 years to make a new IP (without any other games launched), the only game they made last gen.
Sucker Punch took 6 years between game launches.
San Diego started focusing exclusively on MLB, which extra hurts because Modnation Racers was one of my favorite titles during the PS3 gen.
Santa Monica struggled last gen, they created one of the best games last gen, but it was quite a struggle for them to put it out.
Media Molecule almost exclusively worked on Dreams last gen.
Extra controversial, is that I wasn't as big of a fan of Naughty Dog last gen, as I was during the PS3 gen. Uncharted 2, TLOU came out 4 years apart with another game in between, and these are two of my favorite titles to this day.
A few studios got shut down just before or in the earlier years of the PS4 gen.
This next gen, a lot his changing:
- Various studios have multiple projects under ways at the same time.
- Greater push for support studios
- Acquiring productive studios like Insomniac Games (technically towards the end of PS4 gen, but this gen we should see their full strength), Firesprite
- Acquiring more studios like Bluepoint, Housemarque
It had some of the best games (Bloodborne, God of War, The Last of Us 2) I've ever played. The quality was there absolutely.
But there didn't seem to be quite as many.
It was a long generation, and game development has gotten so much longer. I think a big part of it also is that a lot of first party studios took a lot of time creating new IPs and a lot of time recreating some old ones. It's probably a big factor for why games were better than ever, but it still bugs me.
Sony Bend took ~8 years to make a new IP (without any other games launched), the only game they made last gen.
Sucker Punch took 6 years between game launches.
San Diego started focusing exclusively on MLB, which extra hurts because Modnation Racers was one of my favorite titles during the PS3 gen.
Santa Monica struggled last gen, they created one of the best games last gen, but it was quite a struggle for them to put it out.
Media Molecule almost exclusively worked on Dreams last gen.
Extra controversial, is that I wasn't as big of a fan of Naughty Dog last gen, as I was during the PS3 gen. Uncharted 2, TLOU came out 4 years apart with another game in between, and these are two of my favorite titles to this day.
A few studios got shut down just before or in the earlier years of the PS4 gen.
This next gen, a lot his changing:
- Various studios have multiple projects under ways at the same time.
- Greater push for support studios
- Acquiring productive studios like Insomniac Games (technically towards the end of PS4 gen, but this gen we should see their full strength), Firesprite
- Acquiring more studios like Bluepoint, Housemarque