If the PS4 sales are anything to go by, it’s quite clear that Sony’s continuous success with the PlayStation brand isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. However most of their first party games, except for Bloodborne, have been delayed. Several PS4 AAA games like The Order: 1886, DriveClub and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End have seen delays after delays, not to mention The Last Guardian which is in development for almost a decade.
Does this have anything to do with Sony being in the driver’s seat this generation? Could this mean that are becoming a bit complacent?
“I honestly think that each of these manufacturers is just overly ambitious,” Wedbush Securities’ analyst Michael Pachter said to GamingBolt in a recent interview. “They all hope that they can get things out in time. Of the three, I would say Nintendo is by far the worst performer in terms of getting things out on time. In all fairness, they don’t promise them, so unlike Sony, Nintendo doesn’t lead us to believe there’s a brand new Zelda coming at the Wii U launch. They haven’t done that.”
“Unfortunately, though, Nintendo has such a huge following that people just expect. I mean, they have like thirty different big franchises. But people expect that one of the top five will come out every year, and they just haven’t been able to deliver, and I’m not sure why.”
Pachter believes that games like The Last Guardian and Shenmue 3 are niche franchises and they won’t sell much.
“Whereas Sony… now, they don’t have as many big franchises, but they seem to get their big franchises out. The ones that get delayed are the lame ones. I mean, come on, The Last Guardian– however fun you think that’s going to be, it’s hardly Uncharted or The Last of Us. It’s a kind of a niche title. Shenmue is the same. It’s an okay title but outside of Japan, how many millions of units will it sell? Not very many.”
This brings us to the end of our month long coverage with Michael Pachter. Our full interview will be published next week. Stay tuned.