As a PlayStation fan of 28 years I don’t feel Sony care about me anymore

We all saw the latest State of Play and we were all hugely disappointed by it. Astro Bot looks good (although apparently Sony doesn’t consider that a major franchise) but Concord looked like the most boringly generic thing I’ve ever seen. The absolute textbook example of why everyone is so worried about Sony focusing too much on live service games.

I’m sure there were plenty of people at Sony who realised this, and warned against it, but whoever is in charge nowadays (apparently PlayStation has two new bosses but neither of them bothered to show their face in the State of the Play) just didn’t care. Apparently the outside chance of a live service game being a hit is worth destroying everything they’ve built up over nearly 30 years, and to hell with anyone that doesn’t like the new direction.

The PS1 was my first console and ever since I’ve bought nothing but PlayStation. Not because I’m some rabid fan but simply because they’ve always catered to what I want from games. I had second thoughts when the Xbox 360 was outdoing the PlayStation 3, but then when Kinect came out I felt assured I’d made the right choice.

I’m not someone that’s obsessed with nostalgia and I believe the PlayStation 4 was the greatest generation ever, with the greatest games. I certainly don’t think the PlayStation 5 was though. It started off good but the last two years have not only been a desert in terms of first party games but Sony has gone radio silent for no reason they’ve ever explained and it’s increasingly obvious they’re going to stay that way.

And I’ve about had enough. Astro Bot is the first thing that’s appealed to me as a long-time PlayStation fan in pretty much two years. Not only does Sony not consider it a major release (their interim boss said nothing important was out before April) but it’s clearly the exception to the rule, as it’s a very Japanese game and Sony only has one Japanese studio left.

If I was an Xbox owner I’d be feeling cautiously optimistic right now. Yes, they’ve fumbled the ball multiple times, but their showcase is probably going to be the best one this year and Sony’s is clearly the worst, even before any others have happened. Xbox keep messing up, but they also keep trying to do better and they have plenty of games in development that they’ve shown or at least announced.

For Sony we have nothing. Just Wolverine and… I’m not even sure if they’ve announced Ghost Of Tsushima 2? I think it was just job ads confirming it, which is pretty much the same thing but, as usual, Sony themselves can’t be bothered to say anything.

I feel like I’ve been used, really. For the last four generations Sony was desperate for my custom, and those like me, and now that their poor lack of forward planning has caused them trouble they immediately abandon their original audience in favour of one they hope exists, but don’t even know.

It’s not so much that they’re not doing anything for their existing fans, it’s that they’re not even acknowledging that anything has changed. That is what I will look to from Xbox. If they admit their mistakes and talk about how the industry has changed they’ll earn a lot more respect from me than Sony just cutting and running.

By reader Lester