Launch week push sees Sony dominate multi-platform titles
Sony’s PS4 has become the UK’s fastest-selling console at retail, surpassing the previous record held by the PSP. The new record was attributed by the Chart Track figures for last week’s UK sales, but doesn’t detail actual sell-through figures for the machine.
The impact of the new machine is evident in the sales breakdown of individual titles on the UK chart, however, as Sony’s machine outsold other platforms on nearly every multiplatform title. Nonetheless, this week’s number one, Call of Duty: Ghosts sold best on the huge install base of the Xbox 360, which took 37 per cent of total sales compared to the PS4’s 28, the PS3’s 21 and the Xbox One’s 12 per cent.
Last week’s top dog, fellow hardy perennial FIFA, slipped down to number two in this week’s chart, but showed a huge swing towards PS4, which accounted for a massive 42 per cent of total sales. Xbox 360 took 22 per cent, Xbox One 19 and PS3 14 per cent. Whilst that lion’s share is an impressive statistic, it should be remembered that it is at least partly due to Microsoft bundling FIFA in with pre-orders of its machine at launch.
Showing even greater favouritism, and with no such caveat, was Battlefield 4, half of all sales of which were made on the new PlayStation. Xbox 360 made up a 21 per cent share, with PS3 following on 13 per cent and Xbox One making up the final 12 per cent. Killzone: Shadowfall is unsurprisingly the highest charting platform exclusive this week, securing fourth place just above Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 4.
To find the next single platform title, you’ll need to track all the away down to thirteenth place, where the poorly-reviewed Knack sits just above fellow new release and platform exclusive Super Mario 3D World – a relatively grim prognosis for Nintendo’s console and flagship franchise.
Over the last eight years, Sony’s internal studios and third-party partnerships have produced a famously long string of artistic, off-kilter, experimental console games. In a slightly abstract way, that trait is an extension of the platform holder’s philosophy since the days of the PS1. Who else was putting out games like Parappa the Rapper as triple-A releases back then? Who else would let a studio like Team Ico take 12 years (so far) to (not) complete a trilogy? And of course, there’s now Sony’s forward-looking indie focus for the PS4 which, at this year’s Gamescom in particular, earned the platform-holder widespread plaudits for seemingly presenting the most modern, progressive approach to next-gen.
But how much of Sony’s open-minded, creative persona is genuine, and how much is PR bluster intended to score early jabs against a Microsoft now often perceived as unswerving and out-of-touch? Recently I had the chance to sit down with Richard Haggett and Richard Hogg–both of Honeyslug studio–designer and artist on upcoming PS3/PS4 indie game Hohokum. As creator of early Vita hit Frobisher Says, Honeyslug already has a decent amount of experience working on the more creative side of Sony’s line-up, and so seemed a prime source to talk about the current state of the company’s outlook. So talk we did. At length. And it rather turns out that Sony’s bright, new democratic future of ‘interesting game design for all’ feels like a very real thing.
Hogg, for example, sees Sony’s conspicuously game-focused direction with the PS4 as an important statement of intent itself.
“One, they’re definitely putting the focus back on video games rather than all the other Netflix bollocks, which is, I think, amazing. And also, I think indie games and unusual types of games are a big part of their message. Look at how big a part of both the E3 press conference and the Gamescom press conference that was. Mark Cerny talking about indie games. I don’t think that’s just lip-service either. I think they’ve realised that it is the future.”
Indeed, I myself was heartened by SCEA President Jack Tretton’s early comments regarding the PS4’s online marketplace, which seemed to imply an organic, non-compartmentalised storefront featuring games in all their forms, with price being the only distinguishing factor. Haggett seems to agree:
“Yeah, the absence of ghettos. We definitely don’t need any more Xbox Live Indie Games type channels. Because it’s insulting. It’s meaningless as well. When the biggest selling game on Xbox Live is Minecraft by an order of magnitude, and yet they have this thing called Xbox Live Indie Games… But yeah, it’s great to see Sony just rolling it into one place.”
Of course, it’s easy for a cynical, world-weary journo to find less altruistic reasons for Sony’s move towards independent developers. Sony of course, does not have access to the almost limitless coffers enjoyed by Microsoft, and with several of its divisions in a fair bit of trouble over recent years, it needs to be more frugal about the way it launches a console. And it’s surely more cost effective, in terms of creating superficial impressions at least, to spend a publishing and marketing budget across a lot of small games to than risk it all on two or three big ones.
But while that may or may not be the case (or part of it, at least), there is an unmistakable sense when talking to the Hohokum team that Sony’s brave new indie world stems from a place of genuine care for video game design, and is part of a progressive overall view on the changing shape of gaming. As Haggett mentions, while we discuss the evolution of gaming culture moving into next-gen:
“I think the other thing that’s happened over the last couple of years is that the power of large marketing budgets to command attention on games has been neutered somewhat by the ability of people to put Let’s Play videos on Youtube. And it’s about ‘Ah, what’s interesting to watch someone play? Is it Call of Duty, or is it Minecraft and Spelunky?’”
Indeed, it does feel like Sony is hitting this stuff at exactly the right time. There’s been a definite shift in the way that even the mainstream perceives games over the last couple of years. Perhaps fed by ennui at an over-long passing console generation, perhaps the product of developers’ increasing dissatisfaction with the rigidity of console publishing possibilities, PC gaming has made a major resurgence, and the eclectic mix of gaming that has resulted cannot be ignored by anyone. In fact, as a result of online gaming culture’s increasing shift towards YouTube, it’s almost impossible to avoid.
Hogg continues, with an anecdote to chill the average Activision suit to the bone:
“I was talking to a friend of mine’s son, who’s 12, maybe 14, and I asked him what games he plays. And he plays Minecraft and Spelunky. He’s just a normal kid. He’s not got arty-farty left-wing parents. He’s not been influenced by someone who’s into indie games. They’re just the games he’s found that he likes. I think he plays some more mainstream games as well, but his favourite games are Minecraft and Spelunky.”
In short, the gaming community is now telling the publishers what they want to see, not the other way around. Traditional models of marketing and asset distribution are giving way to more organic, empowered conversations among the audiences that stuff used to be aimed at. A PR contact of mine recently lamented the way that some of his less forward-thinking clients complain about a news story not making it to Google, yet completely ignore the global Twitter conversation that might have been going on for hours.
But again, whether you take the cynical view that Sony has quickly latched onto a new game marketing tool, or interpret it as a more benevolent, community-building feature (in truth, again, it’s probably both), the DualShock 4’s Share button could not have come at a better time. It might well be a way to get players to do a publisher’s marketing for free, but the communication and discoverability boost it will bring to more left-field console gaming will change the landscape of the kind of games people play.
As we discuss the way that games in general are evolving, particularly in regard to the rise of less pressured, more exploratory experiences like Gone Home, Dear Esther and the playful giddiness of Hohokum’s reactive, abstract worlds, we naturally cover the ongoing argument regarding what modern games actually are and the boundaries of terminology that define them. We all agree that it doesn’t matter, and that gaming’s diversification is both inevitable and utterly positive.
Says Hogg, “I love the idea that in 10 years’ time the mainstream of video games will be the sort of thing that we’re championing, [the games] that–at the moment–are quite marginal”. And Haggett is thoroughly adamant that this future is something that Sony is working towards on a software level, beyond the increased shareability afforded by its system architecture. “That’s a big part of what the team at Sony Santa Monica are doing”, he says. “They’re trying to move the centre line. Even if they can only move it a little bit, it will help”.
That philosophy has been clear in the aforementioned Sony studio’s journey of diversification over the last 12 years. Initially making its name with futuristic racer Kinetica, and then God of War–arguably its best-known franchise–Santa Monica has since been involved in a huge number of the PlayStation brand’s more experimental games, from Fl0w onwards. And it’s now helping Honeyslug with the development and audio design of Hohokum. That’s one hell of an impressively eclectic back catalogue, and one few would have foreseen when Kratos first burst onto the scene through a Harpy’s exploding ribcage in 2005. Indeed, some are still unaware of the studio’s full body of work, as Hogg points out.
“I guess it’s got to the point now where they’ve got a reputation for supporting [this kind of thing]. It’s funny though, in my [GameCity 2013] presentation this morning I asked how many people associate Sony Santa Monica with that sort of stuff, and not many people put their hands up, which was interesting.
“…I guess Fl0w was the first game that felt like something different. I was like ‘Weurgh, Sony Santa Monica? They’re the God of War people’. And that continued with the other ThatGameCompany games, with Flower, Journey and Linger in Shadows.”
“And that bit of Sony Santa Monica”, he continues, “which is their external development team, it’s a small group of really passionate people who are trying to make interesting, high-quality games happen. They’re now working with The Chinese Room on Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture. And also The Order is another one of their external things, so they’re into the more conventionally-playing stuff as well. Yeah, they’re great to work with”
Haggett continues the appreciation, telling me about the tertiary bonuses of being an indie under the Sony wing by explaining that Hohokum’s collaboration with record label Ghostly International just couldn’t have happened any other way. But it’s not all about deals and corporate clout.
“On a practical level they’re both funding the game and also allowing these opportunities to happen. But we’ve also been out to LA a couple of times and just sat there and chewed things over with people who are really into what we’re doing and really understand what we’re doing, but are one step removed. Their faces aren’t right up against it, and they’re able to have a bit more perspective. And it’s good to have that relationship with someone who’s giving you money, but they’re also giving you advice that isn’t connected with the fact that they’re giving you money.”
That last point feels like an important one to emphasise here. Just before some of you rush down to the bottom of the page to drop “OMGBIAS!” comments (perhaps understandable, when the developers of a currently Sony-exclusive game are saying nice things about Sony), know that the tone of our hour-long pub chat felt anything but. In fact Hogg, quite early on, flagged up a fear that “I almost sound like they’ve got to me, and that I’m a shill. But it’s true. I’ve only had a positive experience with them.”
Because it seems that Sony’s culture of outreach doesn’t take the form of helping a chosen few from an ivory tower. Instead, it seems that Sony does in fact see all elements of gaming equally and, crucially, sees itself as part of the spectrum.
“There’s a bunch of those guys,” says Haggett, “all over America and they UK, and they’re kind of part of the indie community. They’re on Twitter and they’re following a bunch of indie developers and getting involved in those conversations, so when games emerge–whether they emerge on Twitter, or on Kickstarter or wherever–those Sony guys just know anyway because they’re part of that community. There’s no need to fill in a form. They’re just part of it.”
As an example, he cites Nick Suttner, ex-journalist and now Account Support Manager at SCEA. “He’s just a guy who you meet at indie parties who just happens to work for Sony. That genuinely is how it is. And there are people like that at Nintendo and Microsoft, but I think there are just way fewer of them, and I think the corporate culture at those companies is just a bit different. They’re just behind in terms of having a corporate culture that supports it.
“The nice thing about Sony is that if you look at them, if you follow them on Twitter, you’ll see people like Scott Rhode and Shuhei Yoshida tweeting about making Soundshapes levels. So it goes up the structure. Whereas you get the sense that at Microsoft and Nintendo maybe it doesn’t have that kind of love for indie stuff. There are people where who are totally into it, but it maybe doesn’t go up as far. And it’ll take time for that stuff to bed in.”
Indeed it might. But I can’t help feeling that as this new console generation develops, it must. Think back to the start of the 360/PS3 generation. Think of the culture and services built around the then-new consoles, and then consider where they and we ended up. We’re long past the days of the console experience remaining static between the launches of new generations.
The platforms our machines represent are now capable of rapid evolution, and they must make use of that ability in order to stay relevant and address changing audience needs. That dynamism is part of what helped the once ‘dead’ PC make a major resurgence recently, and consoles must follow its lead. I’m now confident that Sony is on the right path. If the other two can get up to speed quickly, then the most exciting console generation in years may just be starting.
FANS eager to get their hands on the sold-out new PlayStation 4 are already forking out almost double its retail price.
The new PlayStation 4 is going at almost twice the retail price [PA]
Desperate gamers are forking out over £200 more than the £349 recommended price in a bid to be playing the console by Christmas.
Online auction site ebay is full of the consoles today, and most are selling for over £500.
One console, which included two games, went under the hammer at £595.
The PlayStation 4, which was released at midnight yesterday is one of the most eagerly awaited products of the year.
Fans queued for up to three days to grab one of the products and sadly if you have not pre-ordered the game it is unlikely you can get one by Christmas.
Amazon said customers who had not pre-ordered before 13 November would not receive a console in time for December 25th.
The console, released yesterday, has now sold out over much of the UK [FameFlynet]
While GAME also said their stock was now extremely limited.
Ian Chambers from GAME said “We’ve hired 4,000 extra staff to help cope with the demand for the new Playstation. We’ll do our best to get a console in everyone’s hands, although stock is extremely limited.”
The PS4 is 10 times faster than it’s predecessor and includes the new wireless DualShock controller.
But it’s not only the PlayStation that is selling out fast; the Xbox One has also had some healthy figures.
Phil Samuels, category director for consumer electronics at Currys and PC World in the UK, sated, “We believe the Xbox One and PS4 will revolutionise the market.” He said that shoppers had already put in more pre-orders than expected for both but “so far the Xbox is nudging into the lead”.
Playing Tearaway is like folding a piece of paper in three parts and jumping from one part to another at odd intervals. Two of those parts are filled with intricate details, a fascinating use of narrative which includes the person actually playing the game, and one whole part is a bible on how to use the Vita to its fullest extent. The last part has some bad pointers on how to use the camera, what appear to be some glitches in the pulp of the paper, and some notes regarding an average platformer. Thankfully, the majority of the time with Tearaway is spent on the good parts of the paper.
Tearaway is a platformer in the vein of Media Molecule’s earlier LittleBigPlanet. Unlike the 2D running and jumping involved in LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway uses 3D worlds found in most post-PSOne platformers. Tearaway opens with the game’s two narrators happy to see you. Players are then greeted by, well, themselves. As stated above, Tearaway contains a bible on how to use the Vita’s hardware capabilities. Or rather, Tearaway is the bible. From the moment the Vita’s camera places your real-time face into the game to the final bits of moving platforms into place with the Vita’s motion sensors – Tearaway utilizes all of the Vita’s feature to their fullest and does so unabashedly and successfully. The use of the rear touchscreen to burst a finger into Tearaway’s world never feels forced. Sliding platforms into place becomes natural. Use of both cameras to find or unlock presents and confetti works both in and out of game. These features are all integrated into the game, and use of these features makes Tearaway’s world come alive.
Before players can get to the action, the game requests what struck as the friendliest gender and ethnicity survey ever to exist. This may feel out of place, but it is recommended to complete it with the closest approximation of how you see yourself. It really helps with the game’s integration of you as a character. Not only do players guide the in-game avatars of Iota or Atoi (whose names reflect a few puns – not only do they have meaning in regards to computer language, but a toi in French means “To You” and Iota is the Greek letter which forms the basis of “I”), playable letters made into characters by using some of the world’s paper; the players appear in the game as the sun. It is Iota or Atoi’s journey to deliver this message to You, the player. Players can manipulate the world by forcing their fingers through certain paper areas, tilting the “world” with their Vita, and other ways mentioned above.
Tearaway’s levels are entirely made from sheets of paper. It appears as if each piece is its own rendered object. It makes the locations players visit pop and allows for a lot of background and foreground pieces to move independently. The world-building of Tearaway is fantastic and it shows. However, due to the amount of objects on screen, there are a few instances where the game suffers from slowdown.
Tearaway rewards attention to detail like a good platformer. Carefully hidden pull tabs and good use of the camera hide away the game’s secrets and unlockables. Most of the time the camera can be freely adjusted to look around the environments – wherein each level is comprised of thousands of intricately placed pieces of paper – to collect all of the confetti, find all the presents and the photo opportunities the game offers. However, the flip side is that once camera control is taken away the game suffers. Bad angles hide the how wide a path is, fudge the jump angle on bounce pads, and generally become a nuisance. In a game like Tearaway, where the focus on freeing imagination is encouraged by the fact Tearaway is literally made of paper; you’d think the camera would be one of those freedoms.
The jump ability in Tearaway is discovered a few levels into the game. With it, Tearaway has its moments where it settles into an average platformer. The average part can make the Vita-driven platform elements really stand out, but also make the game a little dull when those parts are played. With the amount of stuff going on within the game there are a few glitches that pop up, typically when the game transitions to a cutscene. Three times little Atoi died without any reason. The most noticeable instance was a transition to a cutscene where she was snuffed out, causing a full minute of load time before the game finally realized how to process the need to get Atoi to a checkpoint, start the cutscene, and not lose anything in-between. Despite these deaths and that one minute of awkward silence, the pace of the game was kept up. This is because death is cheap. There are no lives to count, and often players start right next to or at the place their avatar died. There is also a checkpoint system in place.
Speaking of the avatars, the little guys are completely customizable. In addition to purchasing eyes, mouths, and other features or elements; players are able to bring up sheets of paper and draw new things on them. There does not seem to be a limit to anything, even size since items can be enlarged once brought off the cutting room table. Sheets can be stacked on top of each other for a multi-layered effect as well. All of these customizations carry over into the cutscenes. Finding myself in a large desert akin to a Wild West setting I decided to feather Atoi with little paper arrows. In a later cutscene, I saw each one of those little arrows shed from Atoi.
Tearaway’s greatest achievement is the ability to successfully bridge the disconnect between the gamer and the on-screen avatar. It’s not just the interaction a player is allowed to indulge in in Tearaway’s world, the customization of Iota or Atoi, or even the story of getting the letter to the player – it is also the way the game reaches out to the player. Tearaway often requests players to take a picture of their world with the camera and use it as a skin for a character or a background for a picture. Throughout the game, players can unlock papercraft models that players can make in the real world via the Tearaway.me website. Tearaway reaches out to players just as they reach in, and does a fantastic job both ways.
If there is one fault I found with this outcome, it is the game’s reliance on the player to achieve the connection between Tearaway and its players. I have no mind to spoil anything for players, but by the end of the game some players will be touched, others will cry, many will smile and still others will simply be unaffected. And truly, this is not a problem with Tearaway so much as it is the player – it’s not Tearaway’s fault I have the emotional investment in myself the average person has in their office chair. And yet, I still understood the message.
Though this review has made a point to ensure the reader is aware of Tearaway’s flaws, the positive aspects of Tearaway far outshine its shadow. The excellent integration of the Vita’s features into its gameplay, the way Tearaway reaches out to the player, the charming and well-developed world, the use of imagination in a medium where imagination is a precious and often forgotten thing – these factors stand above the negative to create an experience you should play at least once.
Videogamer.com posted an image claimed to be of a Sony ad from this week’s issue of MCV, and it shows the bundle dated for December 2013.
In a move that should come as a surprise to exactly no one who has been paying attention to Sony for the last six months, it looks like this holiday season there will be a PlayStation 4 bundle that will include the PS Vita.
Sony really wants you to buy a PS Vita. On its own, the portable console hasn’t done particularly well. The games are expensive, the storage options are expensive, the mobile data version of the console is expensive, and it’s really just not an overly compelling experience unless you are a huge fan of Sony exclusive titles.
Over the last couple of months, Sony has worked incredibly hard to change this increasingly negative opinion. They have dropped the price of storage, opened the door to a huge selection of low cost indie games, and created a truly impressive cross platform experience with the PS4.
According to MCV, Sony intends to run a £2.5m television campaign called “The Best Way to Play” to highlight how the PS Vita integrates with PS4, as well as promoting the handheld’s title Tearaway.
Leading up to the next-gen console’s launch, Sony has been highlighting PS Vita’s integrated features with the console. These features include second screen functionality through the official PlayStation smartphone application and PS4’s Remote Play capability, which allows supported PS4 games to be played on the PlayStation Vita via a wi-fi connection. Announced games that support the feature include Diablo 3, Assassin’s Creed 4: Back Flag, Resogun and many more.
To leverage these features, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia’s managing director Michael Ephraim recently told Polygon that Sony is “looking at ” Vita price drops and possible handheld/console bundles.
Given the $100 price gap Sony currently has with the other holiday console this year, the company has considerable breathing room for this particular play. Since the PS4 Remote Play feature already supports some of the bigger titles for the holiday launch, not the least of which is the big RP demo title Knack, if Sony could price this to be only $50 or $100 more than the Xbox One’s barebones kit it would still stand a reasonable chance of selling well.
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The console, released yesterday, has now sold out over much of the UK [FameFlynet]
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