PlayStation has to stop keeping its best games a secret – Reader’s Feature

Returnal – very good, but not very well known (Sony Interactive Entertainment) A reader is frustrated that some of the most critically acclaimed games on PS4 and PS5 are not properly marketed by Sony and many fans have never heard of them. I was surprised to find that the State Of Play from the other week was fairly unpopular with a lot of PlayStation fans. I only realised afterwards that Sony only really announced one new game, but since that was Saros, the spiritual sequel to Returnal, I was more than happy with the showcase. In fact, I was ecstatic, even though they didn’t show any gameplay. It later dawned on me that it wasn’t just the lack of gameplay that had put people off, but the fact that the majority didn’t even know what Returnal was. In my opinion – and I know GC agree with this – it’s the best exclusive on PlayStation 5 and one of the absolute best games of the last decade. But it wasn’t a very big hit and Sony didn’t advertise it very well. It won the BAFTA game of the year, and five other awards, when it came out and yet I’m genuinely surprised Sony allowed Housemarque to make a follow-up (with an even weirder and more difficult to spell name). Then I thought about it some more and realised that they’re always like this with games that aren’t one of their big franchises. The obvious recent example is Astro Bot, which we know they don’t think of as a big franchise, because the Sony boss said there were no major franchises sequels coming out last year – because apparently Astro Bot doesn’t count. It won almost every game of the year award going and yet all that led to is a vague promise from Sony to make more ‘family games’. And then of course we’ve got Bloodborne, the best exclusive on the PlayStation 4 and another contender for best game of the 21st century, and apparently Sony has forgotten they published it. Not even a PlayStation 5 patch, even while every other game gets one and Bloodborne would’ve have especially benefited from it, given its technical issues. Speaking of FromSoftware, there was also Demon’s Souls, which Sony did such a bad job of promoting that From refused to let them publish Dark Souls. I’m not even impressed by the effort they made with things like LittleBigPlanet or Ape Escape, which they pretend are classic PlayStation franchises but which most normal gamers have never heard of. And don’t get me started about Puppeteer! Sony puts out some fantastic, best of the best, games but they never really seem to know how to sell most of them, if they’re not straightforward story or action games. They gave Shadow Of The Colossus a remake, for example, but I don’t feel they marketed either the original or the new version enough, to the point where normal people have never heard of them. I know my COD and FIFA playing cousin has heard of The Last Of Us and God Of War, even if I’m not sure if he’s really played them (he says he has), but writing this I asked him about these other games I’ve mentioned and he didn’t know what any of them are. Well, he recognised Astro Bot but knew nothing about the game or when it had come out. I feel Nintendo does a lot better job with this sort of thing than Sony, pushing even relatively minor games in order to give them the best chance possible. Worse than that I always get the feeling that Sony’s marketing teams are faintly embarrassed by some of their more imaginative and unusual games. That would almost be fair enough, but this problem has been going on for decades at this point. Sony has published some of the best games of the last several years and yet none of them have been big sellers and none of them are things that they’ve really tried to promote. Maybe they just see them as prestige products, only made to earn awards, but they can be so much more. These are some of the best games ever made and yet they’re completely flying under a lot of people’s radar. By reader Lofty What does Sony have against Bloodborne? (Sony Interactive Entertainment) The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at [email protected] or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email. ArrowMORE: Nintendo needs to bring back Zelda: Twilight Princess’ best character - Reader's Feature ArrowMORE: The 5 most perfect video games ever made - Reader's Feature ArrowMORE: Why Xbox will never beat PlayStation with its multiformat plans – Reader’s Feature