If you ever want to feel old, just look back at something from your childhood and remind yourself how long ago that was. PlayStation has already helped us do that themselves by announcing some 30 year celebrations. Yes you read that right, THIRTY years. To help celebrate the company has had a slew of announcements, some good,some bad and arguably their greatest game ever release. It’s left some fans with mixed feelings.
While PlayStation doesn’t technically turn 30 for another few months, the PlayStation launched in Japan on December 3rd, 1994, they have decided to use this month to celebrate the milestone. And at first glance it makes a lot of sense. They had a pretty big game in Astro Bot releasing, they were going to unveil the latest and greatest PlayStation console yet, the PlayStation 5 Pro as well as some other celebrations. Unfortunately for PlayStation not all of these things have landed how they had hoped.
It’s been a seesaw of highs and lows for PlayStation the last month or so. The low of Concord releasing and then quickly shutting down, which might be the greatest failure in the history of the company followed by the absolute high of Astro Bot, which might be the greatest success (at least critically) in the history of the company. Finally the announcement of the PlayStation 5 Pro which has been, at best mixed. What does it all mean, and how does it affect things?
The Good
I try to be a positive person so let’s talk the positive first with Astro Bot. Depending on how you feel about platformers, Astro Bot might be critically the best game PlayStation Studio’s has ever produced in its 30 years. We at Gamer Social Club gave it a 10 for what it’s worth. Considering this is a company that boasts franchises such as God Of War, Uncharted, The Last Of Us, Spider-Man, Ratchet & Clank….I think you get the point, that is saying something. Of course Astro Bot isn’t quite as popular as any of those major franchises, but it doesn’t need to be nor was it ever intended to be.
When gamers think of PlayStation they likely think of those huge financial success stories first, but having a game like Astro Bot is huge for any company. Having that mascot type character, a more kid friendly option will always have a place in gaming and its especially important for platform holders not named Nintendo. Younger gamers flock to Nintendo for its kid friendly games, so to be able to sell your console to both younger and older gamers will only add to the appeal of the console going forward.
Plus it just gives PlayStation another game to boast when it comes to quality. PlayStation not only sells a ton of games and consoles, but they rarely ever miss when it comes to software. I can probably count on one hand the amount of true misses they’ve had, at least in modern history. And even their misses are generally decent games, they just aren’t as good as the rest of PlayStation’s slate and come off as worse then they are. More on this later.
The Bad
Unfortunately for PlayStation the recent unveiling of the PlayStation 5 Pro didn’t seem to go as well as they had hoped. I think when they were planning this in the offices they had this great idea that Astro Bot is gonna be such a high (it was) and then we can drop this amazing new console and everyone will lose their minds. Well social media did kind of lose their minds, though mostly in a negative way.
Quite frankly social media has mostly crushed this announcement. The unveiling Youtube video is at 172k dislikes at the time im writing this vs 94k likes. For comparison sake, the PlayStation 4 Pro unveiling had 22k likes vs 5.6k dislikes. The PS5? 1.6 million likes vs 69k dislikes. Not good for the PS5 Pro.
The general consensus on social media has been that the price is too high for a mid-gen refresh and there’s some debate on how much of an upgrade it really is. I’m not super tech savvy when it comes to specs and things like that so I’m not sure on that, but it seemed impressive to me. Almost $1,000 Canadian impressive? No, but still impressive. The other thing people aren’t happy with is no disc drive and no stand. Both are available separately but people feel like at that price point everything should be included.
And I totally get it, it does seem like way too much to me. It also might just be the new reality of console pricing moving forward. Storage and graphic cards have come at a premium cost these days and as games expand you need both. There’s also the talk of how much it’s actually needed. It feels like developers haven’t even fully utilized the current consoles on the market. Last gen the pro consoles felt like a big leap by going from 1080p to 4K, the PS5 Pro at first blush doesn’t feel like that big of a leap.
Having said that, social media tends to be just an over reactive crowd and not fully in touch with the general public. So perhaps the Pro will sell great and be a huge success. I’m certainly not going to tell you how to spend your money and if you want to drop it on a PS5 Pro and get the best gaming experience possible on console then go for it. Many will likely trade in their old consoles anyway and knock the price down to a more sustainable figure.
The Ugly
While technically not part of the PlayStation 30 year celebrations, it is the current black cloud hanging over the company while it does celebrate so it’s hard not to at least mention it. Concord. It kind of feels like Concord never had a chance doesn’t it? PlayStation seems eager, perhaps too eager, to jump into the live service race. It is the easiest way to print money after all if you can create the next Fortnite. But it’s also not PlayStation’s bread and butter. They had great success with Helldivers 2, but it felt like a more traditional game that just happened to be live service.
With Concord they had a game that might have had a chance 6-7 years ago. Everyone I know that’s actually put some solid time into the game actually seemed to relatively enjoy it. Our reviewer certainly seemed to enjoy it. The problem is it is too similar to games already established in the market. It’s very very hard to take people away from an Overwatch or any of the other hero shooters on the market. You need to stand out, especially if you are going to jump into a market full of free to play games and ask for money to play it.
Ultimately Concord turned into maybe the biggest black eye in the companies history. I feel for the developers and for those that actually bought and enjoyed it, but that doesn’t change reality. There’s some hope they will repackage the game but I fear its past the point of being worthwhile. Lick your wounds and move on.
None of this really changes the trajectory of PlayStation going forward however. They are still the market leader and can afford a couple cracks in their armor. It’s just so rare to see them even get hit like this, let alone twice in the span of a month. But at least with Astro Bot they have a new star that shines so bright, it might just drown out the darkness of Concord and the Pro.
