Truly terribly sad when you think about it. The loss of Japan Studios is something that will leave scars on my gamer life forever.
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Sony has closed 4 studios in 4 years.
- Thread starter NovaChrysalia
- Start date
Truly terribly sad when you think about it. The loss of Japan Studios is something that will leave scars on my gamer life forever.
All of these hurt :(
Even Manchester Studio which was VR focused and afaik didn't ship anything, it was still exciting to consider what they'd do
Even Manchester Studio which was VR focused and afaik didn't ship anything, it was still exciting to consider what they'd do
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Studio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Studio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixelopus
The list of games across all three here - especially Japan Studio - is very painful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Studio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixelopus
The list of games across all three here - especially Japan Studio - is very painful.
It's really scary, At this point, should we expect one studio closure per year at Sony?
The fact that Sony is the market leader makes the whole thing even more frustrating. What the hell.
The fact that Sony is the market leader makes the whole thing even more frustrating. What the hell.
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Shit sucks, but going back further its more insane to me they closed Sony Liverpool, Zipper, Evolution, and Sony Cambridge back to back.
I mean, it was an indignity that Sony Cambridge was rebranded Guerilla Cambridge in the first place considering they saved the shit out of Killzone 2. Guess that rescue didn't end up being both ways and look at ol' Herman now eh.
I mean, it was an indignity that Sony Cambridge was rebranded Guerilla Cambridge in the first place considering they saved the shit out of Killzone 2. Guess that rescue didn't end up being both ways and look at ol' Herman now eh.
Once Japan Studio closed, I knew my time playing PlayStation was done. Skipped out on PS5, don't see myself ever getting one at this rate.
I still can't believe they closed Japan Studio and I'm sad to see this is becoming a trend. 4 studios in 4 years is far too many, they shouldn't be allowed to get away with this kind of thing scott free.
the uk/eu representation still expanded to other studios and/or campuses. as bad as it seems, most of us look at it way too simplistic.
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You know it's going to happen.
I feel like in the end, only Insomniac, Santa Monica, and Naughty Dog will remain.
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Yeah it fucking sucks, Japan Studios made so many great games and (to me personally) the other Sony studios haven't been able to match them.
Not really looking forward to the future of PS tbh.
Especially with all the "live service" talk (but those are getting canceled left and right so 🤷♀️).
Not really looking forward to the future of PS tbh.
Especially with all the "live service" talk (but those are getting canceled left and right so 🤷♀️).
You can be sad about studio closures but "shouldn't be allowed to get away with this kind of thing scott free." What? 🙄
.... MM is making a new game, why is Era trying to will it's closure into existence?
also, no, Sony will always have studios and not only those 3.
Thinks it's been clear for a while now that at least internally Sony has no interest in studios which don't make games which are pretty much guaranteed to sell 10mil+ units. As such it wouldn't surprise me if this number grows.
London Studio was making a new game, until yesterday. Games get cancelled all the time. It's pretty clear that MM hasn't released a commercially successful game since LBP2 in 2011 so I don't think it's strange to be concerned about their future in the current Sony studio landscape.
So to be clear, you are predicting the closure of:
- Polyphony Digital
- Sucker Punch
- Bend
- Guerilla
- Media Molecule
- Housemarque
- Bluepoint
- Team Asobi
- Firesprite
- Firewalk
- Haven
- San Diego Studio
It crazy people think that any company should have to keep a studio open that failing .
if you're to make a platform to get people to buy and plays on it, the last thing to do is shutting down studios
I hope I'm wrong, but yes, unfortunately I think so.
As someone pointed out, I'm afraid Sony might not be interested in studios unable to sell games over 10-15 million copies, even if these studios were there at the birth of PlayStation (Japan Studios). Sony considers that Days Gone, which sold 9 million copies, is a failure.
And we're talking about 4 studios in 4 years here, but just in the last 10 years alone, Sony has closed many more.
You replace them with something else. Sony's strategy seems to be: you're gonna get less games and you're gonna like it! Well I don't like it.
I remember back when I was at Zed Two in the early 2000s we'd joke that if Sony bought your studio in the UK it was as good as a death sentence.
Absolutely felt like this platform lost something vital (its heart and soul imo) when Japan Studio was closed down. Outside of a few Astro Bot titles, Asobi has yet to prove they're an adequate replacement, but given the state of affairs, I wonder if they'll even be given the chance to do so.
Isn't Team Asobi essentially the continuation of Japan Studio? I thought it operated as a division of Japan Studio and absorbed staff once it restructured?
They have? Sony have acquired a number of studios in recent years.
Yeah Asobi was an internal part of Japan Studio, Japan Studio was shut down but Asobi (basically the part of Japan Studio which made Astro) was kept alive as its own studio.
I'm primarily a PC guy but to see Polyphony and Guerilla close would be a death knell in gaming. Gran Turismo is the essentially the biggest racing franchise in gaming. Nuts.
That is accurate but the majority of the people (including all the leads except the Asobi ones) at Japan Studio left, only a small portion was absorbed by Asobi (which has since expanded with external hires).
This makes no sense at all. Games take longer to make but they've gained more developers than they've lost over the years.
As for Days Gone, I believe they consider that a critical failure more than a commercial one.
Sony has been taking pretty big Ls recently, even while they are on top and if you look across the gaming landscape (first and third party), has a pretty great line up. To me, it seems at the very least they should consolidate their tech across their studios. They have got some very, very good engines, particularly Decima...I think it is becoming too expensive to create and service all these advanced engines, while making games that are huge in scope as well. I love epic games, but a lot of the stuff off the critical path often seems unneeded or at least could be streamlined...
Been mostly a Playstation player since the early 90s and I really don't like what's happening to Sony right now during the ps5 life cycle.
From not making smaller non mainstream games, closing studios and reducing output of major first party studios to remakes or 1 game for the entire generation at best.
From not making smaller non mainstream games, closing studios and reducing output of major first party studios to remakes or 1 game for the entire generation at best.