PSXEThe PlayStation is the most successful and widely played video game console in the world, owing much of its success to its impressive hardware that can deliver the mind-blowing visuals of their exclusive games that never fail to captivate their vast player base. The company has dabbled in many aspects of electronics and technology, but software games are its de facto main breadwinner.
A Transition From Traditional Games
Despite the outstanding success of its PlayStation games, Sony has decided to take a bold and risky move by shying away from their time-tested formula in favor of devoting more time and resources to producing live-service games, 12 of them, in fact. These types of games take longer and more resources to produce, further compounding on the risk that they are willing to take, but if it works, it will be nothing short of a windfall…that can last for years.
Live games are a rising trend nowadays, especially with timeless games like Grand Theft Online and Genshin Impact dominating the market. Casinos followed the same route, adopting live online casinos to not miss out on the wave of profit cruising the e-commerce ocean. There are so many of them that there are even websites dedicated to thoroughly reviewing and listing them down so players can conveniently compare casino sites and discover which one best suits their taste.
Foreign Aid: Game Edition
Given their decades of focus on PlayStation games and its sequels, it’s understandable that they are struggling to grasp the basics on how to first develop a live-service game, or even make a mark on the field of live games. In hopes of remedying this issue with inexperience, they bought an American game studio, Bungie, for $3.7 million. The developer of Destiny 2shares that while they are officially a part of Sony, they will retain their independence in the publication and creation of their games. Additionally, the games they produce won’t become exclusive games for PlayStation only, which is the norm for Sony’s games. However, they emphasized that their main reason for obtaining Bungie was to utilize their expertise in live games, which is a major segment of their future plans regarding software games.
The Best of Both Worlds: Virtualization and Augmentation
Aside from live-service games, they also revealed their interest in extended reality with their intentions of investing more than $2 billion in research and development for it by March 2024. This whopping amount surpassed their investments on other fields such as electronics and even their budget allocation for their entire game R&D during the previous fiscal year. They recently released PSVR 2, a virtual reality headset that generously improves upon its predecessor with eye-tracking sensors and a clearer than crystal resolution of 2000 X 2040 per eye, which is just barely enough to exceed those of Oculus Quest 2. There will also be no need for any external cameras to track your bodily movements as built-in cameras within the headset have already covered that.
With a hot new gadget out for virtual reality out in the market, that leaves only Augmented Reality to be tapped into. Apple recently announced their new creation, Vision Pro, a grossly expensive headset that simulates AR. However, the steep pricing and unexpected notion has led to an unpredictable and unfavorable response to the product, leading to a decline in stock prices. Some question whether a headset is even truly necessary, especially considering the current reigning monarch of the AR world, Nintendo’s Pokémon Go, reached that level of success with only a smartphone and a bunch of cute creatures.