I'm in the boat of I don't like it, but I understand what led to these decisions.
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PlayStation Studios |OT18| Proud sponsors of Sony Music and Sony Pictures
- Thread starter JuanLatino
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At least everyone can agree on that. SoP's have already come a long way in overall presentation. The first few were basically "we have Nintendo directs at home". I still want my idea of Astro being part of the presentations though.
Post down below lol.
But that the things they were most likely given a chance it why they had a new studio head during the PS3 gen .
Like i said they had many chances but they did not seem to be able to turn things around .
Like SSM second team got cancel after 3 plus years and many studios got close after 2 low selling games.
This studio had 15 years without even a mid size hit they were just unlucky with IP and paid the price after so long .
Lot of people ignoring this part. I'm fine holding a grudge about Evo and Cambridge not getting a 2nd chances 1 or 2 flops.
But I feel Sony has been very fair and patient with Japan Studios; the writing was on the wall ever since Ueda left back in 2011 and hey look at that, it was almost 10 years ago as well :\
I will admit it, Sony does share some of the blame with the lack of marketing support and giving up on the Vita (which Japan Studios supported pretty heavily).
The crazy thing is even when you look at there Vita out put most of it was done with other devs .
Freedom wars was with dimps and shift for eg.
You really got to wonder what team that big was doing for so many years .
And I wholeheartedly agree. Cambridge made Killzone Mercenary which was an excellent game but had a very limited install base to sell too at a time when the Vita was already in vast decline. Zipper again made Unit 13, an excellent game but never given a fair crack after that. I did my Game Design degree in North West England and a friend of mine ended up working for the testing facility in Liverpool. He told me when they closed the studio that Evolution only stayed open because they were quote, unquote, brown noses. Apparently Matt Southern got on really well with the SCE UK bosses at the time and when recommendation came to close one of the two it was Liverpool, despite Liverpool consistently having projects cancelled. Declining sales didn't thrill Sony when it came to WipeOut as a franchise.
I felt bad for Cambridge for that. They did have MediEvil 3 in development during 2009 but that was cancelled because Sony didn't feel that it had the same power to sell as much as Uncharted, InFamous, LittleBigPlanet or Resistance which were the core franchises at the time.
I thought Bend were going to get closed to be completely honest after all the other studios but they were given a chance and look what they did. I feel like the other studios could have been the same. We'll never know what Manchester Studio was doing unless someone leaks it.
However, I must say it wasn't Brexit. The UK games development community has struggled so much from the days where small companies could thrive because of the soaring costs of development and the lack of relief in the UK. The European Union actually made that situation worse by not allowing the United Kingdom to introduce tax breaks that TIGA and other trade bodies were fighting for, claiming that A we didn't need them and B it was unfair on other member states. Even though France and Sweden had them, but you know. Politics.
That's well documented for me because it all happened when I did my degree. So many games studios closed in the UK and the opportunities just dried up. I believe in a five year period 4.000 people were made unemployed, the vast majority of which found new employment in North America or Asia. Less than 10% moved to Europe to find work. I remember when Bizarre closed their doors, I started my degree the year before and they University showed where their students got employment and they were so thrilled to say that their previous year had several employed at Bizarre. They didn't even work for a year bless them.
I'm not against bringing them for studio closures, whilst I think Liverpool, Cambridge, Evolution, Zipper and many others could have been given better chances, not necessarily given a one shot at a low budget title for new hardware with a very low install base.
My issue here isn't studio closures, it's because I feel like Jim Ryan is taking the business back into arrogant Sony days. I can see it a mile off.
Japan Studio struggled because it was mismanaged though. It wasn't in fairness given a decent chance for a very long time. Astro Bot is a great game but I loved Gravity Rush and Knack. When I went to pick up my pre-order for Gravity Rush 2 a girl who used to work at my local GAME store handed it to me and I specifically remember her saying, "Oh is this the one that was on the Vita? I didn't know they made a second one."
That was someone within retail.
Sony notoriously didn't advertise their Japan Studios title's very well to the best of my knowledge. I can't remember a time when casual gamers were like, oh yeah, it's that game from Sony. Like I can't remember how many people I've introduced to Gravity Rush who didn't know that it excited and they loved the art style and game play then find out there won't be another one so they don't bother getting invested in it.
Returnal isn't going to be a success, I'm sorry but I think it'll sell well at launch mainly due to a lack of titles coming out but it won't have legs to sell. Yeah there are a few nice titles coming up in the future but the number of development teams are going to struggle to keep up with consistent releases. That's why Sony have made more third party deals. Microsoft have Game Pass for that but Sony are now lacking in numbers but equally there's a lot we don't know about yet whereas the success of the PlayStation 4 was we knew what the company had planned for the next few years, now it's one year max. Hard to get excited really.
I thought Arkane games don't sell as well.
I was talking about Bloomberg having no idea
What are you on about? I was talking about Bloomberg have spewed a lot of bull crap.
I agree that the output of Japan Studio was not great but Sony never really tried to do better in Japan. They could have built another studio or made more partnership, i really fear that the investment of Sony in Japanese games is gonna be only Astro Bot and some timed exclusivity.
The difference is that Sony only has two japanese studios while having a dozen of western studios.
And that Japan Studio never really made a big AAA game, compared to those western studios.
Like Yoshida once said, Japan Studio is the one with those smaller, quirky, innovative games. Not those standard open-world Ubisoft games. And that's what I expect from a platform holder like Sony. Not a "didn't sell 5 million? You are already dead." mentality. Let those Naughty Dogs make your AAA US blockbuster games. All they have left now is an once-in-a-console-gen Gran Turismo factory and a small Astro Bot team. Just sad tbh.
It was given more than chance .
It had the whole of PS3 and PS4 gen to turn thing around and they did nothing .
Also no amount of marketing was going to make stuff like Gravity Rush sell more they just was no interest .
Which was a problem with Japan studio IP to begin with .
If you look at what Sony other studios have done in pass 15 years that were the same size as Japan studio the gulf is huge and some of them also had problems .
Why would build another studio in expensive place like Japan when they one you got already failing .
I agree that they should done more partnerships but i don't think they need Japan studio for that .
The partnerships over the years use staff from the 3rd party devs they were paying even in Japan .
There still some free Japanese devs that out there so pay dimps or Media vision or even Level 5 to make some games for you .
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I'm sorry but I have no idea where you even getting that Jimbo is somehow pushing Playstation back into "arrogant days".
I assume it means PS3 days where they told you to get 2 jobs to buy one lol
Yes it's a shame when you think about it that Sony, a Japanese company doesn't have a good studio to make Japanese games.
Look at the titles they developed during the PS3 and PS4 era. Then look how many of them they actually made themselves. Not as a collaboration studio. You'll narrow down the list very quickly.
I personally never said anything about partnerships but Japan Studio was clearly mismanaged. Consistently under new leadership and the clean that started under Layden clearly was never finished.
The actual developers within the studio were incredibly talented. Giving them a budget and support to make a big title didn't happen. It did for Sony Bend, it didn't for them.
If you can hand on heart tell me that Puppeteer, Gravity Rush, Rain and Tokyo Jungle got the same marketing and promotion as Uncharted, The Last of Us, God of War, Horizon, Days Gone etc. then I would agree with you. The fact however is that they did not and many of these games went unnoticed and disappeared.
Journey and TheGameCompany got more support than some of those games.
Late PS2 and the early PS3 era when Sony thought you'd buy anything because it was made by Sony. When Sony thought flat screen TV's were a fad and Samsung/LG were going to disappear to their superior CRT technology. When they thought having their name on it meant you'd buy it. Before they made stupid decisions such as the Boomerang PS3 controller and the PS3 dev cycle.
Time will tell. Some people seem doomed to make the same mistakes.
They are barely a Japanese company anymore though and haven't been for years.
You can hear them at this part (1:19)
this part as well (1:52)
It's just the trailer overlay music is loud and takes the main focus. I imagine we'll get some preview views in the spring with actual playthrough/gameplay/action footage with in game music rather than promotional music.
Of course they did not get the same marketing the sales potential was not the same .
Who is going to spend GOW money marketing on DD games .
It was under new leadership because they could not get there act together .
They had to many teams doing to many things that did not work out and that is why they get new leader ship in the PS3 gen .
You can read all about that when it happen and this was during Kaz and Jack time .
You using Day gone but a vita team grew enough to make a 5 million seller while Japan studio had that number of people for years and could not make a IP that sell 1 million.
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I really hope ASOBI becomes a Mario level developer. They've got a great IP on their hands and they're extremely good at making creative, beautiful, fun games. Both Rescue Mission and Astro's Playroom, despite going for completely different goals, perfectly encapsulated the thing they were trying to show off while being a genuinely great game (especially Rescue Mission, which contained less of a marketing component).
And yet here we are where none of this mistakes are being made. We have a competitive console at a fair price with a cheaper digital sku launching with strong day one games and a strong first year and you saying it is all going back to the arrogant days... I mean cmon are we serious with this?
Even if I don't like the 80€ games this not even close to be in the same ballpark as the PS3 days.
Nothing at all to apologize for! I'm always happy to help!
I'd love this, would love it if Astro became Sony's next big new IP and spans multiple genres.
I can confidently say you were living under a rock if you didn't know Legend of Dragoon existed lol. There was a sweet ass CG commercial that was constantly playing on tv. That game was EVERYWHERE and got a ton of hype. Even wound up selling a million copies. I'm actually not really sure why it never got a sequel.
So, Sony created XDEV as a global group? Japan Studio external development no longer exists and San Mateo Studio is not listed anymore in WWS site.
Late but...
Oh hey look at that.
Japan region actually only Asobi Team now.
And I don't give a f about ForwardWorks, lol.
Oh hey look at that.
Japan region actually only Asobi Team now.
And I don't give a f about ForwardWorks, lol.
Because that was not enough to cover it's budget .
They spend FFVII type money on the game and it sold poorly in terms of what the budget was .
I'm pumped for 2023.
Eiyuden Chronicles (Suikoden spiritual successor), Bokeh Game Studio's first game (Silent Hill/Siren spiritual successor?), FFVIIR-2, Spidey 2, RE4-Remake...whew!
Please. Take it from a Silent Hill fan. Don't do this to yourself 😭
Eiyuden Chronicles (Suikoden spiritual successor), Bokeh Game Studio's first game (Silent Hill/Siren spiritual successor?), FFVIIR-2, Spidey 2, RE4-Remake...whew!
Please. Take it from a Silent Hill fan. Don't do this to yourself 😭
That is a myth, apparently via multiple people it sold fine and had a sequel planned but Shu doesn't even know why it was cancelled.
Yeah, apparently the game cost around $16 million which was a huge budget for a game around that time and though it might have scrounged into the black eventually, the game reviewed fairly poorly for a game of its time. Had it been a critical success or a huge financial hit there would have likely been a sequel, but reviews and sales were a bit middling and they probably deemed a sequel too risky to pursue.
ok yea, i wasn't thrilled with the SoP, but the pre-show animation stuff was slicckk...same with the PS5 intro SoP from last year. Those things are on point
Well that super strange lol.
Got any interview on that i love reading that stuff .
All i knew it they expect more with budget it had since they spend so much on both it and marketing for that time.
Here is the Shu bit:
Sony Reveals Cancelled Legend of Dragoon Sequel - IGN
The Legend of Dragoon is coming to PSN in May. But even bigger news has been revealed; Sony had a sequel in production. What happened to it?
Apparently via wikipedia it sold 1 million copies when it released, I don't know what its lifetime sales are though.
I got to say I've really enjoyed the huge focus on indie / smaller games in all the big events/ state of plays going back all the way to last June. Huge 1st party AAA reveals in events are always amazing and I always look forward to them but it's nice that the smaller / indie stuff isn't just tossed to the wayside anymore and make up a growing, large focus of every event.
Sony's been doing a great job in that department for awhile now.
Sony's been doing a great job in that department for awhile now.
This is why y'all shouldn't be begging for Sony to acquire more studios lol. Good chance they'll be closed down after a flop.
Here is the Shu bit:
Sony Reveals Cancelled Legend of Dragoon Sequel - IGN
The Legend of Dragoon is coming to PSN in May. But even bigger news has been revealed; Sony had a sequel in production. What happened to it?www.ign.com
Thanks
Man that so weird lol.
I wonder if because the PS2 was coming out and someone thought it would not be worth the ROI with a PS2 budget .
Bruh
News of JS getting butchered made me sad.
But this LoD revelation just made me angry, lol
MUST...KEEP...BELIEVING.......NEED... MGS... REMAKES!!!!!
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