The big boss of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, has interviewed QC, arguing that creating games in a new franchise involves enormous risk. Of course, this has to do with the enormous costs that game development entails.
“We’ve invested a lot organically over the course of the PS4 generation, more than people realise. We’ve added Insomniac Games through acquisition. We’re making great games now and we certainly plan to continue making great games.”
“The thing with those blockbuster games is that they need a box office release. They cost more than $100m dollars to make these days and in order to be able to do that and bring new IP to the market – which is a very risky thing that we did four times in the PS4 generation – you’ve got to have a box office release.”
It’s funny that Ryan in particular points out these risks (100 million young!), Since Sony is about the only company within gaming that actually has no financial flaws. New games like Horizon: Zero Dawn in Ghost of Tsushima are of course fantastic, but even less strong titles like Days Gone in The Order 1886 have the make cash registers ring.
“We have a management organisation that sits over the individual studios and one of the things that we look at a lot is the portfolio and we look at is the balance between new iterations of much-loved series such as God Of War or Uncharted and shaking things up with new IP such as Horizon Zero Dawn or Ghost Of Tsushima. We think about this very deeply and very carefully.”
Be that as it may, with the tremendous financial success the company has achieved with new games, we can make this generation one again nice portfolio looking forward to new games.
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