I think many people agree that the PS3 had at least decent exclusive support this generation. Some might affiliate against that, But I think everyone can agree that the PS3's exclusive support improved as the generation progressed. In the PS3's early years, quality exclusives were pretty uncommon compared to the PS3's mid to late years. And I also think we can agree that SONY's support was a lot better during the PS3's generation than the PS2's generation. My question is: Will this trend continue as we transition to next gen?
Developers are going to start next gen a lot more experience/talented/skilled than this gen. Naughty Dog went from making Jak to the much bigger Uncharted series, which is a much bigger success and with which many identify as the signature exclusive series for the PS3. They've even split into two seperate functioning studios. I feel confident in saying their output will be a lot more impactful on the PS4. Guerrilla Games went from making KIllzone 1, which was only a lukewarm success, to Killzone 2/3 which are both multi-million sellers with much better reception than the first. Between Killzone 2 and 3, I think the community is split on which was the better game. In any case, I think GG will have learned a lot from the changes they made with the series (aren't GG also working on a new IP). Then there's Sucker Punch who went from Sly to inFamous. They've stated that they're working a new new IP too. I wonder what it could be? And there are other big studios like Santa Monica, Polphony Digital, etc. This growth can likely be a sign of bigger games.
Sony has also been expanding. And they have a new developer with Media Molecule, the developers of what many believe to be one the most creative games of all time, LittleBigPlanet. Even they're working on a new IP now. Can't wait to see what it is. There's also Quantic Dream. Even though they're not owned by Sony, they seem to have a nice relationship with them. Will they continue making exclusives for Sony come next gen? We'll have to wait and find out. It's also worth noting that they just bought Sucker Punch. Even though SP were already strictly Sony, this could be a sign of things to come
The PS4 most likely won't start off as bad as the PS3 did. I don't know if many of you have noticed this, but to me, it looked like it took a lot of time for many develoers to get their games out on the PS3. For example, inFAMOUS and Killzone didn't reach the PS3 until 2009, three years after the PS3's launched. And God of War and Gran Turismo, two of Playstation's Biggest series, didn't reach the PS3 until 2010, an entire four years after the PS3 launched, when rumors about next-gen were already heating up. I even think it took Naughty Dog a long time to master the PS3. Look at the technological and content difference between Uncharted 1 and Uncharted 2; they're massive.
This is probably why the PS3 had such a weak start and had to rely a lot on third-parties for exclusives in the beginning years (MGS4, Valkyria Chronicles, Heavenly Sword, etc). This is one of the main reasons why the PS3 was selling so little in the beginning in comparison to the 360, which was pumping out way more exclusives than the PS3. I'm actually kind of surprised that the PS3 survived it's first few years.
As many of you may know, the beginning of a console's life is when games are the most influential to hardware sales. Unfortunately, Sony didn't maximize the potential of this window. Santa Monica and Guerrilla Games were just recently coming off other games, so I can understand why their first PS3 installment was a bit late, but I don't know why there was such a dely with the other developers. Was it Developer incompetence or was the Ps3 just really hard to learn/master? Or both? In any case, I don't see this problem happenning next gen as the developers have become a lot more experienced and Sony has stated that future Playstation products will be much easier to master.
TL:DR - I think it's very reasonable to believe that the PS4 will have much more influential exclusive support. Developers will be much more experienced than when they were on the PS3 and the hardware should be a lot easier. Not to mention any future developers that Sony may pick up. The PS4 should be a lot stronger imo. Though I can't be too sure on what happens during the PS3's lifetime, I'm very confident that the PS4 will have a much better first 2-3 years than the PS3 had. What are your thoughts?
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To those of you that think Sony's recent studio closings is sign of bad things to come:
My reply Here: Sony is only going to close down unproductive studios. That doesn't suggest that Sony will be shutting down quality studios. As counter evidence, look at last year. Sony just purchased Sucker Punch. Sony is building it's collection of productive studios. They're just shutting down the ones that aren't worth owning; something both Microsoft and Nintendo would do. If anything, the fact that those studios were running for so long should be evidence that Sony's financials aren't hindering Sony's gaming deivision.
If Sony does shut down another studio, it's going to be a studio that barely affected the PS3 to begin with...like some random developer that made one game that sold 250k. That's not a sign that Sony's financials are hindering their ability to grow (again look at the Sucker Punch example); that's a sign that Sony is making smart business decisions. If anything, that's a very good sign for Sony.
