Sell what? The office buildings they were renting out? The people they were employing which are not their property? 🤷
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GamesIndustry.biz: Sony shuts down Manchester Studio
- Thread starter poklane
- Start date
Sell what? The office buildings they were renting out? The people they were employing which are not their property? 🤷
Does the current Sony management seriously hate UK studios or something?
SCEE Liverpool, Evo, Manchester, Cambridge. All killed this gen.
Is London next?
Needless to say their attitude towards Devs in the UK is putting me well off supporting them in upcoming generations.
SCEE Liverpool, Evo, Manchester, Cambridge. All killed this gen.
Is London next?
Needless to say their attitude towards Devs in the UK is putting me well off supporting them in upcoming generations.
Yeah it's odd. Perhaps it's expensive to operate UK-based studios? But Microsoft has 3 major 1st-party studios in the UK, so who knows.
For all we know they kept getting tasks assigned to them like helping London out or had management - or above - switching the scope of their project. There's no way they produced 'nothing' in five years time and were still hiring a month ago...
It is not that expensive compared to other places really and there is also a tax credit thing for game developers.
UK has a plethora of AAA studios, both indipendent and non; Creative Assembly, Codemasters, Sumo Digital (8 studios), Criterion, Rocksteady, Cloud Imperium, Media Molecule, Splash Damage, Hello Games, Rebellion etc....
As long as they do not release Dreams they are perfectly fine.
No, if the studio is meant to develop technology and not games.
As someone who would love to use his PS VR more, I do find it concerning that the only internal studio known to be working on the platform is shutting down. Kind of getting sick of 2 hour long $40 indie games when flat screen gaming is on fire right now. I am concerned that Sony will let PS VR 1 fizzle out with little to no first party support. The PS4 and Xbox One are dying with what could be their best years in terms of software. Meanwhile, the more recently launched PS VR is a big question mark with one major future game, Iron Man VR, originally scheduled for 2019.
Without that Iron Man delay, we would have entered this year with zero first party games announced. That is absolutely dreadful support by Sony for a gaming platform. Meanwhile, they have now shut down two studios with VR expertise. I'm more surprised that some people aren't concerned. Right now, Sony is not showing commitment to PS VR. Hopefully that'll change once Jim starts chatting but we're not there yet.
I voted Astro Bot as GOTY here in 2018 and wrote about the spider level in Until Dawn: Rush of Blood in the thread about best gaming moments of the gen about a week ago so I'm not some undercover Labo fanboy concern trolling. I am a PS VR fan concerned about the future of the platform. Showing concern is not always trolling.
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Actually, the last year's reports were NOT THAT good for Sony.
Here on Resetera we most probably have a distorted vision due to the success of PlayStation 4, yet reading reports like this one depicts an overall not exceptional landscape for Sony.
So, it makes sense for them to keep talking about efficiency, cuts and so on.
Maybe some devs goes to others Playstation Studios.
https://playstationlondonstudio.com/
https://www.mediamolecule.com/jobjobs
https://playstationlondonstudio.com/
https://www.mediamolecule.com/jobjobs
We're shifting into next gen, the last first party games are Ghost of Tsushima, TLOU2, Dreams.
The focus will be on PS5 and I'm not even sure PSVR2 will be released simulatenously as to not overwhelm consumers with costly hardware and to focus on one product (the PS5)
But again Insomniac's made VR games, there's a Horizon VR game in the works, the Astro bot director got promoted.
Unless they 180 and silently kill PSVR contrary to everything they've said, they're still committed. It seems natural PSVR support would fade out as we gear up for PS5. I sure as hell wasnt expecting two or three more first party VR games. Iron Man is honestly enough.
I'm hoping all future PSVR games are PSVR2 only, to take account a new controller; and to take full advantage of a new headset and console. It would be what's best for any new PSVR game especially Astro Bot 2, they'll be able to do so much more if they leave the old console and headset behind.
In the meantime I'd hope for some resolution and framerate boosts for previous PSVR games on PS5, through BC.
From what i remember, Manchester Studio was located in two offices (Manchester and Soho) according to their job listings. I don't know what is going to happen with the staff in Soho. May be they will be moved to London Studio.
Would you prefer the brutal truth? "We gave them four years of latitude to create a game and after that time they didn't create anything that we thought was even viable to the point that we could publicly announce it."
Could be something else but the truth will be the team didn't deliver what Sony wanted. EA has shuttered studios after actually delivering things, so this isn't as bad.
Hoping they can assimilate the staff into London studio, or they find jobs with other UK devs.
This is wrong though, London Studio is still working on its next VR title. The one in Manchester hadn't released anything anyway (not saying it's their fault necessarily).
Yeah that's the worst part, half a decade of your time wasted, it's sad to hear this.
How many devs do you think make VR games usually?
Astrobot was 32 people. Farpoint was 21 people. Boneworks was 26 people including voice actors.
This is such a bizzare post. Yes, games still have small teams, even ones on first-party payroll.
Yikes. Do we even know this is the reality? They might've been doing work with other studios remotely. I know we're not getting much info so it's easy to jump to conclusions but can we not do this?
The truth we know is that these guys had no idea as recent as a week ago and they were all made redundant and not offered alternative positions elsewhere in the company.
I find the situation a bit baffling from an outsider's perspective. How can there be such a disconnect in communication between Sony and one of its internal studios, or are they just that hands-off? It's not like a studio would be told to go off and make a game without there being any milestones, progress reports, budget proposals, etc. and then would come asking several years later where the games are, even if Sony had infinite money to invest. (At least, I would hope not.)
With the mentions of literally being hiring a mere week ago and that they were caught by surprise, is it just due to the studio head(s) trying to mediate things in the background and being naively optimistic? Either way, the team was done dirty. I have zero respect for poor communication when the outcome is whatever this is.
With the mentions of literally being hiring a mere week ago and that they were caught by surprise, is it just due to the studio head(s) trying to mediate things in the background and being naively optimistic? Either way, the team was done dirty. I have zero respect for poor communication when the outcome is whatever this is.
Just seemed like they couldn't get anything off the ground and the experiment ran its course sadly. Hirings for a "gameplay programmer" can be a bit telling too every now and then as thats a big gap to fill 4-5 years in with no visible project to show.
Of all the closures, Sony Cambridge getting done in remains the absolute worst decision possible. They helped out on so many other projects and RIGS was genuinely impressive on PSVR. Closing Liverpool is a close second, especially since its been a bit disgusting to see Sony promoting Wipeout like a core franchise over the last couple years.
Of all the closures, Sony Cambridge getting done in remains the absolute worst decision possible. They helped out on so many other projects and RIGS was genuinely impressive on PSVR. Closing Liverpool is a close second, especially since its been a bit disgusting to see Sony promoting Wipeout like a core franchise over the last couple years.
Sony so readily shutting internal studios is a big reason why I don't like them. This is a Sony management problem that innocent studio employees get punished over. This also comes while the gaming division continues to rake in money.
What title are they working on? Yesterday we thought Manchester was working on a VR game. Sony Bend were at one point prototyping Days Gone on the Vita. Naughty Dog have been working on PC titles since 2015 according to job listings.
I know they are in no position to announce games at this point of the PS4's and PS5's life but that doesn't change that no Sony studio is confirmed to be working on a PS VR title. London Studio is probably working on one but truth be told, that's not a lot either.
(And I have quoted one of them in my previous post)
This doesn't mean they will search in reserera for their next job. And only in MS in particular.
that indeed wasn't very subtle, as also the other member said.
Either way, you can easily recognize a genuine concern.
For example:
Ah that's right. I forgot that the Liverpool one closed down almost a decade ago
Aw man, that's so heartbreaking. Didn't some folks at Studio Manchester previously work on Rigs as well?
I can understand why many devs leave the game industry never to return.
I can understand why many devs leave the game industry never to return.
That is extremely harsh. Looks like they had no hint that they were about to be cut.
I wonder what they were working on, it must of been really bad for Sony to terminate them, Sony give a lot of chances to games that may not look that good.
I dunno if that logic holds up, could simply be that they didn't think the profit it would generate would cover the cost of completing development. Doesn't mean it would have been "bad".
doubt.gif
They studio has been working on the project since 2015, if the game as close to ready they whould just allow them to finish it, publish it and then shutdown the studio.
I made no comment about how close to finished the project was. Because I don't know (and I don't think anyone else outside the studio/Sony does either really).
Oh for sure and im agree with you, i also think they didnt think the project was worth the rest of the investmenet. It sucks for this peopel.