00:02Death, the end of all things, but the dream is not over.
00:10Welcome to MojoPlays and today we're counting down the recent incidents that haven't only
00:15painted PlayStation in a bad light, but have also contributed to the gaming industry's
00:20current volatile state.
00:37Crazy production costs.
00:40Modern PlayStation blockbusters cost an astonishing amount of money.
00:44The Last of Us Part II cost approximately $220 million to develop, while Horizon Forbidden
00:50West reportedly reached around $212 million, and both took roughly 5 years to make.
00:56You think you can hurt me?
01:03Both are arguably fantastic games, so what's the harm?
01:06How about 2026's Wolverine?
01:09Five years in the oven, and with an estimated budget of over $300 million, the results of
01:14which were overall lukewarm across the board.
01:17And just like that, the conversation steers towards sustainability.
01:25When every major release needs hundreds of developers, half a decade of production, photorealistic
01:31animation and Hollywood-sized budgets, publishers naturally become more conservative.
01:36Familiar franchises become safer, smaller experiments become harder to justify, and just one commercial
01:42disappointment can suddenly endanger hundreds of jobs.
01:45Time to finish this!
01:54Needless remasters.
01:56Sony owns decades of incredible games.
01:59It belongs to them.
02:03The machines.
02:06Resistance, Ape Escape, Killzone, Sly Cooper, Infamous, Legend of Dragoon.
02:11And yet while many of these gems are left gathering dust, other more recent titles are being relaunched
02:16for the umpteenth time.
02:18Case in point, Sony has revisited Horizon and The Last of Us ad nauseam.
02:31To be fair, these aren't lazy ports. Horizon added significant visual and performance work,
02:36while Last of Us went all out with new features.
02:39That's all well and good, but you can only polish the same thing so many times before the sparkle
02:44starts to fade.
02:45We aren't saying we don't want remasters.
02:47We do.
02:47We just want variety.
02:49If certain IPs are trapped in limbo without a snowball's chance of getting a sequel,
02:54the least you could do is give us a remaster of Syphon Filter instead of The Last of Us Part
02:582
02:59remastered Deluxe Edition Director's Cut.
03:01You don't even realize you've already lost!
03:06We haven't lost yet.
03:07Losing star players.
03:09PlayStation has historically benefited from relationships with distinctive creators,
03:13which makes losing Hideo Kojima's Fizzant especially remarkable.
03:22The action espionage project was originally announced as a major PlayStation collaboration,
03:27effectively reuniting Kojima with the genre he revolutionized through Metal Gear.
03:32Then, in 2026, PlayStation stepped away from the project.
03:36Kojima Productions subsequently announced that Xbox would publish Fizzant instead.
03:46As an isolated incident, it's immensely damaging given Kojima's pedigree,
03:51but it also speaks to a wider issue.
03:54The choice to cut ties with a respected partner like Kojima for fear that his latest project may
03:59not measure up as a financial slam dunk clearly highlights that the bottom line is all that matters.
04:05Stifling the chance of even big name developers being allowed any kind of wiggle room to create
04:10something fresh. If it can happen to Kojima, it can happen to anyone.
04:18Helping establish the AAA baseline.
04:21When PlayStation 5 launched, Sony confirmed that first-party games could cost as much as $69.99,
04:27with Demon's Souls and Destruction All-Stars among the early examples.
04:38While Sony can't be crucified as the sole mastermind,
04:42it sure as hell put the nail in the coffin for many a gamer's wallets.
04:46They've also wholly embraced the Deluxe Edition model,
04:49and aren't shirking away from amping up the baseline a further $10 now that GTA 6 is on the horizon.
04:57Well, look who's back!
05:00Inflation and booming production costs play their part,
05:03but it's become painfully clear that Sony and their ilk are all too eager to become trendsetters
05:08with pushing up the price tag across the board. Consequences be damned.
05:13Trust?
05:14Trust.
05:15PSN account creep. Remember the Helldivers 2 account linking disaster? Sony certainly does.
05:22Together, we must take back control of freedom.
05:26After severe backlash over requiring PC players to connect to PlayStation Network accounts,
05:32Sony eventually changed its approach. For several single-player PC releases,
05:36PSN became optional, which is absolutely an improvement. But Sony also began offering
05:42exclusive incentives to players who sign in, often via exclusive cosmetics.
05:49Enlist in the galaxy's elite fighting force.
05:53It's obvious that Sony's tactic moving forward is normalization,
05:57likely in the hope that by the time another Helldivers 2 incident occurs,
06:01its fanbase will have become desensitized to its practices.
06:05Together, together, together, together, together, together.
06:09Longing for the days when PlayStation was a beacon of industry progression and passion?
06:14Scan the QR code to hop on over to Mojoplay's 24x7 livestream for more gaming content.
06:20Become a legend.
06:24Dynamic Pricing.
06:26Dynamic pricing is a strategy businesses use to change their prices automatically.
06:30Imagine recommending a discounted game to your friend.
06:33You pay $27.
06:35They log in. It's $40.
06:38Well, buckle up, because apparently that's the future Sony is aiming for.
06:42And ensure that they are offering the optimal price at any given moment in time.
06:46In 2026, price trackers and multiple outlets found Sony testing personalized PlayStation Store discounts,
06:53with different accounts receiving different sales prices for the same games.
06:57Reports found the experiment spreading across more than a hundred titles and dozens of regions.
07:02Consumers, understandably, were furious at discovering somebody else receiving a much better deal,
07:07simply because of an algorithm.
07:09This becomes infinitely more concerning when you remember that PlayStation is set to move to an
07:14all-digital landscape, but more on that later.
07:17There's some obligation to tell between me!
07:19Threatening access to purchase content.
07:22Because apparently, your hard-earned purchases don't mean jack in the face of licensing arrangements.
07:28Whether it's the Discovery TV fiasco back in 2023, or the Studio Canal debacle of 2026,
07:34movies and shows you bought via PlayStation's online store are now in immediate danger of being snatched away.
07:40And it's gone!
07:41It raises the uncomfortable question of,
07:44if a customer pays for something but access still depends on continuing agreements between
07:48corporations they have absolutely no relationship with, do they really own it?
07:52Nothing encourages confidence in an all-digital future quite like discovering the word
07:56purchase apparently comes with invisible quotation marks.
08:00Is it dead?
08:03Terminated.
08:03Mass Layoffs.
08:05In February 2024, Sony announced around 900 layoffs across PlayStation.
08:11Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Gorilla, Firesprite and several teams were affected,
08:15while London Studio was slated for complete closure.
08:18We've now heard from the studio about why it made the tough decision to reduce its workforce.
08:24Sony is of course hardly alone in this, it's an industry-wide epidemic,
08:28but obviously still needs to be held accountable for its part.
08:31Reviews aside, Sony generates hugely successful games, sells tens of millions of consoles,
08:37and STILL treats experienced developers as expendable whenever financial priorities change.
08:43This of course shakes the faith and potentially ruins the lives of the talent that made PlayStation
08:47such a Goliath.
08:49While executives get off scot-free, the creative hands that could have given us the next Expedition 33 equivalent
08:54are brushed aside.
08:56For those who come after.
09:02Right?
09:03The Live Service Gamble.
09:15Sony didn't merely decide it wanted a couple of online multiplayer games, it went all in.
09:21The company once projected live service development reaching around 60% of PlayStation Studio's
09:27investment by fiscal 2025, and planned more than 10 titles for release.
09:32Only for reality to intervene.
09:35Time to show them the big guns.
09:38That's me.
09:40After the Concorde incident, Sony went scorched earth and multiple projects were cancelled.
09:46It was such a bullish course correction it arguably did more harm than good.
09:50All those projects with nothing but wasted time and talent to show for it.
09:55It's the kind of trend-chasing mismanagement that Sony is still paying for to this day.
10:10Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's Adia, Songs from Iran, reimagining
10:17Persian melodies as modern rock, metal, and pop songs.
10:20Check out the full track and album below.
10:23Come to me and save me from this wretched place.
10:29Come to me and hide me in your sacred space.
10:34Seal me with your praise.
10:35Ending physical production.
10:38This is the big one.
10:40This is how you share your games on PS4.
10:42Sony has officially announced that physical disc production for all new games releasing
10:46on PlayStation consoles will end starting January 2028.
10:51With all future releases beyond that to be distributed digitally.
10:55Which means in a couple of years time, you can say goodbye to reselling, borrowing,
10:59or collecting any new titles bearing the PlayStation brand.
11:08Not to mention see an end to independent discounts by competing retailers or any guarantee said games
11:15will be preserved when these digital storefronts eventually disappear.
11:19Digital distribution is undeniably convenient and Sony says it's responding to changing consumer
11:24preferences.
11:25But removing physical releases also concentrates significantly more control over pricing and
11:30access inside the platform holders ecosystem.
11:34Combine that with store closures and experiments involving personalised discounts and the concern
11:39becomes obvious.
11:40The future may be convenient, we just won't own any of it.
11:51Do you think PlayStation is pushing gaming in the wrong direction or are these simply
11:55unavoidable changes?
11:57Let us know in the comments below.
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