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Sony has closed 4 studios in 4 years.

L11ghtman

L11ghtman

Member
Jan 19, 2022
1,795
DongBeetle said:
Development costs are not just a Microsoft thing. Sony desperately needs more revenue too, which is why there are hints at strategy change
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They need more profit, more specifically, which is their problem more than revenue. Their revenue is fine, these companies have more money than god. PC sales that don't hurt their hardware sales are a solution for them, because it's very low risk. Whereas Microsoft is one of the largest publishers in the world now but does not have the install base to justify development costs. There are differences here.
 
Sydle

Sydle

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,645
L11ghtman said:
It's true that PC sales can help offset development costs but this is really a Microsoft problem, because they can't move enough hardware. Sony overhired during COVID the same way Microsoft and everyone else did, and now their spending spree is catching up with them the same way it did for multiplatform Microsoft last year.
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If it was only an over hiring issue at Sony then the COO/CFO would just course correct on the number of people without also talking about aggressively trying to improve margins in the same breath as PC development.

The console market just isn't growing at the rate needed for Sony to ignore PC and mobile. They're doing it because they don't have a choice of they want growth.
 
DongBeetle

DongBeetle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,840
L11ghtman said:
They need more profit, more specifically, which is their problem more than revenue. Their revenue is fine, these companies have more money than god. PC sales that don't hurt their hardware sales are a solution for them, because it's very low risk. Whereas Microsoft is one of the largest publishers in the world now but does not have the install base to justify development costs. There are differences here.
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They can obtain higher revenue by increasing their profits thru wider audience for their games, or they can reduce costs by sacking employees and closing studios. It's obvious which one we should be in favor of
 
DongBeetle

DongBeetle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,840
Sydle said:
If it was only an over hiring issue at Sony then the COO/CFO would just course correct on the number of people without also talking about aggressively trying to improve margins in the same breath as PC development.

The console market just isn't growing at the rate needed for Sony to ignore PC and mobile. They're doing it because they don't have a choice of they want growth.
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If anything the console market will likely contract this gen. I could be wrong but neither PS or Xbox are gonna outsell their predecessors this gen
 
Sydle

Sydle

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,645
DongBeetle said:
If anything the console market will likely contract this gen. I could be wrong but neither PS or Xbox are gonna outsell their predecessors this gen
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It kind of looks that way at the moment. Normally we'd see price cuts at this point in the gen to help boost sales to a more price sensitive demographic, but they aren't able to do it effectively.
 
behOemoth

behOemoth

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,403
MrTomato said:
Definitely not. Literally every publisher/ studio that hired hundreds of developers 3-4 years ago is laying hundreds of developers off again.
The main issue is that almost the whole industry anticipated that the gaming boom with Covid was going to continue, and that's the real mistake.
I still have no idea how anyone could've come to that conclusion...it's puzzling.
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They probably didn't wanted to lose ground as well with the output and quality. Additionally, inflation is high and salaries increased.
 
LinkStrikesBack

LinkStrikesBack

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,386
DongBeetle said:
If anything the console market will likely contract this gen. I could be wrong but neither PS or Xbox are gonna outsell their predecessors this gen
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That depends what you mean by contract and "console", I suppose. Those can both go down and the market still expand because Nintendo is still a thing and is potentially going to have ended up with the best selling videogame console ever, at worst, they're going to get really close. It comes down to do hybrid devices count or not. Certainly despite the impression on hardcore spaces that the switch is outdated, the market has spoken pretty hard in favour of it.
 
Kobra_Zer0

Kobra_Zer0

Member
Oct 27, 2017
369
Damn that is a lot studios in a short period of time and people want Sony to buy Arrowhead Game Studios. I mean kudos to Sony for funding Helldivers 2 for 8 years but who knows what could happened if they were fully owned by Sony.

Also losing Japan Studio sucks, they just needed a restructuring :(
 
kendstryker

kendstryker

Member
Jan 23, 2024
132
I was really hoping that Sony would just use Japan Studio to create mid budget sized RPGs from their existing IPs but oh well.
 
digita1alchemy

digita1alchemy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
910
Outright closing a studio is one of the dumbest and shortsighted things these companies can do. The people working on games for you are your #1 most valuable resource. Just the experience of anyone who has been with the company 5 years or longer is worth vastly more than whatever salary you're paying them. Bringing in new employees whenever you inevitably need them is costly, difficult, and absolutely outweighs the short term gain of mass layoffs to make your balance sheet look better.

If a studio isn't producing hits, it's almost always a management failure, and that's where changes should be made. Closing an entire studio is just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Nintendo seems to have figured this out, not sure why so many others can't.
 
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