Molyneux: Sony Should "Double Down" On First-Party Talent
See Full ImageGaming industry veteran Peter Molyneux applauds Sony for their first-party development prowess, but is concerned about costs and hardware direction.
In speaking to GamesIndustry International, the Fable guru was asked if Microsoft is "constantly looking at Sony," to which Molyneux responded:
"Yes, very much so. Obsessively so."
He then elaborated on what he perceives Sony's position to be in the market, and praised their "talented developers" while questioning the current "pressure on costs."
"Sony has always had a very strong first person line-up, which I think is incredibly smart. They've got good developers. They've got some very talented developers. The way I always feel with Sony is that if they double down on those first party developers, give them the headroom to be inventive and be creative, especially when it comes it any next generation platform, then they could pull lots of rabbits out of the hat.
What I worry about, with their corporate pressure and the pressure on costs, I worry about the ability to do that. More and more - and this is a personal thing - I just don't know where they're going in hardware terms. They had the Move, but it wasn't as early as the Wii and it wasn't as innovational as Kinect. They seem to be third in line in that race. I have expected, every single press conference for the last year, Sony to bring out this magic rabbit out from a huge hat and say, 'Aha, world. You really don't realize what's going on.' And I do worry about them."
Perhaps that rabbit will come at next year's E3 when Sony unveils the PlayStation 4. Well, at least that's what is expected. Analysts have been predicting we'd see either the PS4 or the new Xbox (or both) in 2013, and multiple pieces of evidence prove that major developers are already working on next-gen projects.
So how do you rate Molyneux's appraisal of Sony?
Tags: peter molyneux, sony, playstation, gaming industry
6/12/2012 8:42:38 PM Ben Dutka
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Comments (59 posts)
frylock25
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 10:53:12 PM
2 up, 0 down
Jawknee
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 11:09:09 PM
2 up, 4 down
Temjin001
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 11:43:35 PM
don't know if those qualify as motion controls, though.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 6/12/2012 11:44:01 PM
0 up, 0 down
CH1N00K
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 10:09:16 PM
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That being said, their quality of games seems to be a little higher, even if they don't seem to attract the sales that MS seems to be getting.
2 up, 3 down
Highlander
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 10:13:18 AM
8 up, 0 down
jimmyhandsome
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 11:15:49 AM
0 up, 0 down
Mr_Sterg
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 11:20:09 AM
lol
0 up, 2 down
Lord carlos
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 10:26:11 PM
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No.1 reason why i bought a launch 60 gig even though resistance was the only good game out untill heavenly sword.
5 1/2 years later i have 17 exclusive PS3 titles in my collection & all of them are awesome.
4 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 10:31:45 PM
Reply
9 up, 1 down
Temjin001
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 8:25:31 AM
"XBOX, estimated time before RRoD system failure"
...
...
6 days 3 hours 32 min
Pubilsent boy: "Mom! gonna need another Xbox next week"
=p
3 up, 0 down
Highlander
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 10:15:03 AM
Last edited by Highlander on 6/13/2012 10:15:18 AM
4 up, 1 down
Mr_Sterg
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 11:25:44 AM
0 up, 1 down
FxTales
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 10:57:13 PM
Reply
6 up, 1 down
NiteKrawler
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 2:06:14 AM
4 up, 3 down
ProfPlayStation
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 3:17:07 AM
Sony is obviously much better than Microsoft when it comes to excessive meddling, but that's not to say that they let their developers do anything they want. They run a business the same as anyone else, and tend to bet on proven formulas. Their big releases don't see much experimentation.
Heavy Rain came from Fahrenheit.
Heavenly Sword from God of War.
Uncharted from Tomb Raider / Gears of War.
inFamous is a tame GTA adaptation.
Killzone was chasing Halo.
Warhawk..er, Halo.
MAG...CoD / Halo.
PlayStation All Stars... yeah.
They had a little burst of originality early on in PS3, with things Folklore and Eye of Judgement, but those tanked in sales and haven't been heard from again. Just about the only really *new* thing has been LittleBigPlanet.
Compared to Sony's earlier efforts on PS1 and PS2, the PS3 stuff has been quite timid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_published_by_Sony_Computer_Entertainment#PlayStation_3
0 up, 7 down
___________
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 6:19:10 AM
so then what are eye toy, eye pet, 3D, move, wonderbook, playstation eye and judgment?
im sorry, but $ony is one of the biggest gimmick makers out there!
1 up, 8 down
Highlander
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 10:34:01 AM
Let's see;
Heavy Rain - major innovations in terms of interactive narrative and augmented reality (especially with move based controls). Does it grow from something like Fahrenheit? Possibly, but it has evolved so much further that it's really not fair to say it's just a derivative of Fahrenheit. By the standard and logic you use, more or less any game could be accused of copying a predecessor in the same genre. I mean, all space fighter games could be said to have copied Star Raiders from Atari. That's a hell of a stretch, but you could make the case. It would be pointless and stupid though. Which brings me to the rest of your comparisons...
Heavenly Sword - didn't really come from God of War, it's considerably differnet, cosmetic similarities aside, you're dismissing the game out of hand?
Uncharted - references to Tomb raider perhaps, but I see no horribly muscular space marines with shiny armor here. Neither of the games you mentioned have anything like the depth of character or story, nor the depth of level and control.
inFamous is NOT a tame GTA adaptation at all. It's nothing like GTA. You're really stretching the fabric of space-time for this one.
Killzone was chasing Halo - except of course it wasn't, it was chasing Killzone and a target render that was stupidly described as in-game footage.
Warhawk..er so not Halo, have you ever heard of the original PS1 Warhawk? So, yeah, not chasing Halo.
MAG...Massively Multi-player online shooter. the multi-player online shooter is a genre. Neither CoD nor Halo ever thought of supporting party sizes as large as those in MAG. You can dismiss the game with your little Halo/CoD digs, but you know the first person shooter existed long before either of those games, and squad based shooters did too. So, who is chasing who?
PlayStation All Stars...is a mash-up fighter which means that everyone will say it's the same as super smash brothers. So be it.
Oh, BTW you forgot to accuse Gran Turismo of chasing Forza. LOL! Laugh all you like, based on your other comparisons, I'm certain that if you could have found the words I think you would have written it.
5 up, 0 down
jimmyhandsome
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 11:27:20 AM
What does the Last of Us rip off? And Beyond? The Last Guardian? Sony's first party games can't be beat in terms of quality, quanitity, and diversity. I have no problem with great games borrowing ideas from games that came before it.
You can make an argument about the motion controls of the 3 systems, and the new Wii-U pad/tablet market/Smartglass crap ripping each other off, but neither of those things really concern me much. I'm more interested in the games, and Sony's first party line up is the best, and I think that's what Mr. Molyneux was saying.
5 up, 0 down
kraygen
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 11:04:36 PM
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As for the move, Sony has always said they are about being the best, not at being first. From all of my experiences the move is far superior in quality to the wii and kinect. Granted not all devs take advantage of it, but that isn't the fault of the tech.
As for Molyneux, I suggest he stop worrying about Sony and start worrying about Fable. He started with a great game that I loved and over the past few years has slowly flushed that series down the toilet. It's horrible to see what he's done with it.
6 up, 1 down
Jawknee
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 11:14:04 PM
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MS= most shameless gaming company evah!
7 up, 4 down
PSTan
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 11:59:35 PM
Let's face it, everyone is guilty of accidental plagiarism and "inspiration", whether it's software or hardware.
5 up, 1 down
sawao_yamanaka
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 12:07:33 AM
6 up, 1 down
Axe99
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 6:55:02 AM
2 up, 0 down
Clamedeus
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 9:09:06 AM
3 up, 0 down
Highlander
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 10:57:48 AM
2 up, 0 down
Clamedeus
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 11:34:10 AM
1 up, 0 down
Lawless SXE
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 2:29:37 AM
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I like that he's spilt on that first point now that he's split from Microsoft. I mean, of course the Big 3 look to each other for inspiration but it's better to have it out in the open than having them try to spruik that the idea is all theirs. Even the blindest of consumers can see when "inspiration" is sourced from elsewhere. Too bad the same can't generally be said for fanfolk.
Sony obviously spent R&D on the Move and they're obviously trying to create engaging experiences with it, but the developers are falling short. Something is lost in translation, made all the more obvious by the linearity of Killzone 3, the peculiarities of Datura and Pixeljunk 4am and the failure of Sorcery to impress. I think we all expected to see some real core games to come out, exclusive to Move, but Sony does it see it that way. Instead, they see it as something that second-rate developers should work on and perhaps be shoehorned into what of their big titles is capable of utilising it in a straightforward way.
I mean, why haven't we at least the announcement of a major RPG that uses it? What about a strategy game in the vein of Valkyria Chronicles (which would be amazing if done properly)? How about an shooter designed from the ground up for the Move, rather than it being an option? Where is a more adept version of PSMove Heroes or a really strong AAA action game? It could be so much more if only Sony would get a AAA dev onto it on a big budget game.
As for pulling rabbits out of hats, The Last of Us, Beyond, what do you call them? But I can't wait to see the new IPs out of Guerrilla, MM and Sucker Punch. Particularly the latter two as they've done nothing but impress me thus far.
4 up, 0 down
FatherSun
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 6:34:17 AM
2 up, 0 down
Lawless SXE
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 6:40:28 AM
0 up, 0 down
harchibald1
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 4:40:31 AM
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sonys problem this gen has been lack of advertising, for there veta and ps3, x box advertising for gears 3 had me by my first x box, that is the support that sony lacks for there developers,
Also could someone shoot the guy who does decide how to advertise sony hardware, my god, the veta advert in england showed no functionality and hardly any footage of the actual veta in the advert, its a big reason for sonys failure, pinch microsoft or even nintendos advertising teams.
3 up, 1 down
VampDeLeon
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 9:13:39 AM
0 up, 0 down
Looking Glass
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 6:03:07 AM
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2 up, 1 down
___________
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 6:23:13 AM
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$ony has allot of companies to support but the worrying thing is all of them really dont rake in much cash.
makes me wonder how much money studios like ND have burned through bringing out the uncharted series compared to how much its raked in.
their first party library is one of their strongest points, but also one of their weakest!
one of the main reasons why the companies stock is the lowest its been in the companies history!
you can only spend more money making a game than it will bring in for so long.............
1 up, 6 down
Lawless SXE
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 6:39:13 AM
And just as a hypothetical, let's say that Sony/ND earn $15 from every copy of Uncharted sold. IIRC, there's 13 million out there in the wild leading to almost $200 million dollars. Even if the budgets are on the higher end of the spectrum, let's assume $50 million apiece (which I HIGHLY doubt), that's still a rather hefty profit. Admittedly, most of their other games don't sell as well, but Sony knows what does and it is to those projects that they will allocate the greatest portion of their spending. I really don't think that they would be silly enough to put $40m+ into SOCOM 4, considering that only about $35m went into GoW, and it is one of their most consistent sellers. Despite what most people seem to think, corporations are smart with their money.
5 up, 1 down
FatherSun
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 6:54:44 AM
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As far as MSs obsession with SONY that boils down to SONY being the giant to knock down from the last generation. MS came to the industry with their sights on SONY and I must say they did an excellent job. They went from the new kid to a formidable competitor. And that is strictly on sales. SONY wins hands down on actual GAMES! It is folly to think otherwise.
6 up, 0 down
Axe99
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 7:06:54 AM
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3 up, 0 down
DeusExMachina
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 9:41:44 AM
Plus I think alot of us PS gamers are aware of Sony's first party its why we support them and some of us also know that Sony is taking huge financial risks with so many 1st party dev's under their bel needing to perform and innovate the whole time but it's why we love them, they really are all for the gamers they stick their necks out to bring us as much quality games as possible.
THink thats why Ninty stick with the other route, they dont create new IP's they stick with the old as they are tried and trusted and known to bring in cash. M$ almost purely pries on 3rd party (exclusives including) while their 1st party hos one or two Giants and some lesser IPs.
3 up, 0 down
Excelsior1
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 9:25:42 AM
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This thought about Microsoft's obsession with Sony. MS targeted the console market and managed to overtake Sony this gen. That's almost unbelievable when you look back on Sony's past success. Like it or not MS has managed to take away a significant chunk of Sony's marketshare this generation.
This has been one strange generation. The Wi came out nowhere and had a lot of success. The less said about the PS3 launch the better. It fell flat on its face and Microsoft was able to take advantage of Sony's mistakes. If Sony hadn't totally blown that launch then I don't think MS would have gained so much marketshare this generation. I do have a lot of comtempt for the PS3's launch. I think it was a huge blunder that kind of just handed over marketshare to MS. Now Microsoft is entrenched and dominates the largest market in NA.
Okay, now we get down to exclusives. Are they really as important in today's console market? I would say no because if you break down game sales exclusives are just a tiny fraction of overall game sales. I'm not saying they don't matter because they do but I think there are only a few select exlusives that are true console sellers. I can count them one one hand.
I don't think Sony needs to pull any rabits out of their hats. They just need to do a proper console launch next time and sort out that mess in their HDTV division. Posting a profit would be nice as well. Maybe that it in itself would be
a magic trick.
2 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 9:36:01 AM
2 up, 0 down
Highlander
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 10:56:25 AM
Incidentally. Sony did not blow the launch of the PS3. If you go back and analyze the press coverage of game consoles from about Jan 2005 through Jan 2008 you can see a clear pattern. I've closely followed this industry and the tech industry for nearly two decades now. In early 2005 BluRay and HDDVD were beginning their battle. There were rumblings about next generation consoles.
The largely US based English speaking tech and game media coverage was already slightly tainted with an Anti-Sony feeling thanks to the morons in BMG who decided to to their CD copy protection thing. However, as we got closer to E3 and MS got closer to announcing the PS3, there started to be a stream of extremely negative stories questioning the PS3 and poking fun at Ken Kutaragi.
When we got to E3 2005, and 360 was announced, Sony didn't have a working system to show - more negativity. In the time that followed through to early 2006 there was a steady stream, if not a torrent of positive stories about the 360 and extreme negativity and skepticism about the PS3 and Sony in general.
By the time E3 2006 rode around, you really had to look hard to find neutral or positive coverage of Sony. So when they announced the Ps3 with all that it was capable of, the press didn't look for the positive, instead they went for the jugular over the sticker shock of the price. Worse still they all concentrated on the price of the more expensive system.
Everyone says that PS3 cost $600 at launch, except it did not, it cost $500. The 20GB system only lacked Wi-Fi and had a smaller HDD, other than that it was identical to the 60GB system. Never mind the fact that all the component break downs suggested that Sony was gifting buyers with $300-$400 by discounting the PS3 to $550 and #600. The extreme negativity of the media continued for at least two more years with every multi-platform game being gleefully dissected so that the PS3 would be shown to be inferior, and every superior exclusive discounted as weak or somehow just not as good as <insert 360 game here>.
Having been there through the entire thing, I can tell you that OK, a lot of early multi-platform games sucked, but other than that, the coverage was about as biased and negative as I've ever seen. It was largely in the English speaking US and UK game/tech media. Funnily enough it's in precisely those markets where the 360 leads and there is so much anti-Sony sentiment among gamers. Coincidence? I don't believe so. Regarding Multi-plat games, we all know that is not the hardware's fault, its crappy devs who did not implement a PS3 engine and merely ported a stripped down version of their 360 product.
But at the end of the day, Sony had a good launch. They brought state of the art hardware to the market for $500, which was a steal ($300-$400 below actual cost). they provide free online gaming, and their system came with a wireless controller and BluRay. But all anyone ever talks about is the ridiculous $600 price of the system.
What bothers me now is people like you Excelsior, that still buy into the biased BS that was pushed back in 2005/2006/2007.
Last edited by Highlander on 6/13/2012 10:58:51 AM
4 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 1:50:50 PM
=p
3 up, 0 down
Highlander
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 2:46:43 PM
2 up, 0 down
Excelsior1
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 8:00:02 PM
A proper console launch has a system priced at reasionable price that is heaavily marketed and not left to twist in the wind for 2 yr. The first two years of thr PS3 were not a lot of fun, Inferior muitiplats did a lot of damage as well, Sony, themselves have acknowledged the PS3 launch was a problem.
If anybody has any doubt about that PS3 launch then just google. You will find articles saying Sony blew it, I forget which magazine it was but time had a small peice on Sony's early problems stating Sony did an awful job of transitioning happy PS2 owners over to the PS3. I agree with that, MS did the better job of not only bring over XBOX but also a lot of those PS2 fans, Apparently a lot of PS fans bailed early on. When you launch a new system and watch 30 40% of your custumers bail on your brand then I can assure somebody screwed up.
2 up, 3 down
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 8:14:35 PM
Furthermore, the 360 launch sucked hardcore. The systems didn't work, the launch software was basically meaningless (at least the PS3 had one AAA title in Resistance), and it only offered crappy emulation as backwards compatibility, where very few Xbox games worked and those that did performed terribly.
You keep associating words like "catastrophe" with Sony when the PS3 has sold just as many if not slightly more 360 units in its lifetime, and has done so in ONE YEAR LESS TIME.
30-40% of PlayStation fans disappeared when the PS3 came out...? Wow. That's just...too stupid to even respond to, really. I knew you loved to bash PlayStation with stats that don't even freakin' exist, but I didn't realize you'd be so blatant about inventing such stats.
Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 6/13/2012 8:16:28 PM
1 up, 0 down
Highlander
Thursday, June 14, 2012 @ 4:05:55 AM
By your own words in your reply you confirmed everything I said, including the massive disrespect to Ken Kutaragi who is literally the reason we have PlayStations today. Thanks for backing me up. I know that there are lots of articles criticizing Sony, that was kinda my point, you know?
0 up, 0 down
Excelsior1
Thursday, June 14, 2012 @ 9:45:28 AM
Want to look up some surprising facts. The PS3 has never at any point in its lifecycle come colese to touching the success the PS1 and pS2. The first 5 years of both charted up CVG show how much the PS3 has struglled when compared to Sony's previos sysytems.
0 up, 0 down
Underdog15
Thursday, June 14, 2012 @ 10:46:48 AM
Just sayin'... it's a little early to count your chickens.
0 up, 0 down
Excelsior1
Thursday, June 14, 2012 @ 12:59:14 PM
Yes, I have some contempt for Mr Kutargagi, as well. He 's the man who dedevoped this amazing system that everybody learded hate. No eay task unsless you charde through the next for and then show up with no games.
0 up, 0 down
Highlander
Thursday, June 14, 2012 @ 3:08:02 PM
1 up, 0 down
Highlander
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 10:06:33 AM
Reply
Othe than that I do agree about the emphasis on first party devs, and to be honest, I think that Molyneux is indulging in double talk. What I mean is that if you look at the PS2, PS3 and Vita (PSP as well, but a little less so) launch windows and first years, you can see lots of innovation. Sony's 2st party studios always bring a blend of established staples and new innovation. Motorstorm was innovative, Sixaxis was innovative especially considering the crappy wired controllers the 360 had), LBP would seem to be a tad on the innovative side. The Eyetoy (which predated the Kinect cam by half a decade or so) and it's successor the PSEye both are used in innovative games, and augmented reality. I could go on, but I won't bother, because I think the point is made.
Perhaps Mr. Molyneux should forget his past loyalties and focus on games for everyone. Though I guess we must doff our caps to his greatness....Fable.... O_o
2 up, 1 down
FatherSun
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 6:39:20 PM
0 up, 0 down
Highlander
Thursday, June 14, 2012 @ 4:07:48 AM
0 up, 0 down
kay Oss
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 10:10:13 AM
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1 up, 1 down
Mr_Sterg
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 11:27:45 AM
Reply
2 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 1:40:52 PM
Reply
0 up, 1 down
Underdog15
Thursday, June 14, 2012 @ 10:52:13 AM
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I'm still waiting for a kick-a$$ move game besides Sport Champions. (I know it doesn't seem like anything special, but I adored that game. lol)
0 up, 0 down
Tanker9111
Thursday, June 14, 2012 @ 5:49:47 PM
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Wii-mote is slow, poor accuracy, and plainly poor shape.
Kinect as many have already said, Purely just a PS eye or Eye toy modified with the bells and whistles.
Sony has done an actually very good job i think this generation. Even after 1 year behind MS they have nearly matched the sales and are still in full stride with the most powerfull of the system, and sony made sure the systems would last this generation by adding the best FUTURE tech and not the -now- tech.
I have had my PS3's since launch day. a 20 gig, 80gig and the new Slim model when it first hit shelves, all working, but i dont use the 20 / 80s for fear of breaking them. And frankly, ive been fairly happy with all the games that have came out for the system, Resistance, Heavenly sword etc, i played them all, liked them all. But hey not all players get what "They want" right
0 up, 0 down
LimitedVertigo
Reply
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 @ 9:37:13 PM