Sony has enjoyed a spree of highly successful releases throughout 2018. Both God of War and Spider Man have seen enormous success with record-breaking sales and high review scores. The creator and director of the first God of War, David Jaffe, recently explained what he believes is Sony’s recipe for success.
David Jaffe’s Thoughts on Sony’s Recent Success
David Jaffe was the director of the very first God of War, and was also a director for God of War II alongside Cory Barlog. After that release, Cory Barlog took over the franchise as its director, while Jaffe moved on to other projects. He founded the studio Eat Sleep Play in 2007, with a multi-year deal to develop games for Sony. However, he left Eat Sleep Play in 2012, citing creative differences. He then founded The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency, in 2014. At this new studio, he directed Drawn to Death; another game with exclusivity to PlayStation. Unfortunately, the game’s mixed reviews and the cancellation of the studio’s next project led to the company closing down.
Recently, Jaffe spoke to fans about what has made Sony so successful of late. According to him, the key reason is their management; “They’ve got that management of video games down,” he says; “it is about the teams, sure, but it’s about, ‘how do you manage creative teams well so you can get the best out of them?’ That’s the secret Sony sauce. You can get a good studio… but it’s not always about the studio. It’s about how you manage it.”
Wanna know one of the BIGGEST secrets of Playstation's success? Here ya go! pic.twitter.com/6wU7875sjH
— David Jaffe (@davidscottjaffe) September 13, 2018
Jaffe goes on to cite notable individuals at Sony like Alan Becker, Shuhei Yoshida, and Shannon Studstill as particularly skilful managers. It’s hard to argue that Sony hasn’t been very successful at producing video games of late. They have also controlled a far higher number of console exclusives compared to Xbox. Jaffe himself also recently stated that he had no desire to play the latest God of War; he still believes that it is a very good game, however.