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Astro Bot is ‘very, very important’ as an IP for PlayStation, says boss Hermen Hulst

Draugoth

Gold Member
IMG_7710-1440x1080.jpeg


Speaking on the Official PlayStation podcast in a joint interview with Astro Bot director Nicolas Doucet, the head of PlayStation studios commented on the importance of Astro as a brand going forward for PlayStation.


“Astro is very, very important to PlayStation,” said Hulst. “Obviously we had the pre-install with the PlayStation 5 that millions have embraced and loved, and I think that’s becoming a little bit of a platform to launch this new game now.

“It’s remarkable that a very small team is able to deliver a game that is so big, it’s really become a great game in itself, and it’s become a celebration of everything PlayStation at this point.”

Source
 
It's so important for him that he scrapped a new VR game, where this IP became relevant.

Only when his friends in the media praise it, he acknowledges its existence.


Why wouldn't he recognize it?

It's only a certain group of people that claim Hulst is ruining Playstation.


Bungie + Haven + Firewalk = 4 billion. Literally, ruin.
 

No_Cartridge

Neo Member
game director literally asked pc fans if they were interested in a pc port one week before release and you think it's not gonna come to pc?
Have you played the game? Just out of interest. It has extensive gyro controls which is not in an Xbox controller the most common controller on PC. Its big sell is haptics also not on Xbox and adaptive triggers.

If it comes to PC it would need to be bundled in with a dualsense as the controller is about 50% of the game.

The game doesn't work without a dualsense.

That doesn't mean it won't.
 
Have you played the game? Just out of interest. It has extensive gyro controls which is not in an Xbox controller the most common controller on PC. Its big sell is haptics also not on Xbox and adaptive triggers.

If it comes to PC it would need to be bundled in with a dualsense as the controller is about 50% of the game.

The game doesn't work without a dualsense.

That doesn't mean it won't.
i mean playstation released a dual sense accessory app on PC like 2 weeks ago and you can fully costumize your dualsense on PC now . people can buy dualsense for PC use also its not something thats only works on playstation.
 

ShaiKhulud1989

Gold Member
It's so important for him that he scrapped a new VR game, where this IP became relevant.
People are so mad at Hulst for some reason that they are spewing pure delulu.

Hulst was the man who initiated Team Asobi separation from Japan Studio and was the main driving force behing them and Astro in general. Astro Bot was 2D game from the start too.
 

No_Cartridge

Neo Member
i mean playstation released a dual sense accessory app on PC like 2 weeks ago and you can fully costumize your dualsense on PC now . people can buy dualsense for PC use also its not something thats only works on playstation.
To ask a PC player to buy a new controller to play a game is a bigger ask then to say hey this game is coming to PC.

The price is now 70$ for a new controller plus the price of the game that applies to a large percentage PC players.


If it comes to PC great, I have zero reservations but to pretend its not an issue because a DS works with an adapter is nonsense.
 
People are so mad at Hulst for some reason that they are spewing pure delulu.

Hulst was the man who initiated Team Asobi separation from Japan Studio and was the main driving force behing them and Astro in general. Astro Bot was 2D game from the start too.


"Separation" is one way to say it. Another way is shutting down the whole studio but Asobi (who were already a team within Japan Studio)

Money speaks louder than words. If the IP were so important to him, he would spend 1/20 of the money invested in Bungie and would:

- Port the original Astro Bot Rescue Mission for PSVR 2

- Double the size of Asobi so they can work in the VR version of this one, too.

He didn't fund either cos he doesn't care. He's just bandwagoning after his epic GaaS failure.
 
He isn't smart for green-liting sequels and games after Horizon Zero Dawn sold ~25 million copies? 🤔
Never said anything about sequels. Rather commenting on the over saturation of the series due to Lego game( cool concept, excited for it), multiplayer game and mmo along with horizon 3. Guerrilla is involved with 4 horizon games, in an ideal world, one of those would be a new ip and another a killzone game.
 

Kotaro

Member
Didn't this dude actually shut down Japan Studio? ..now he's trying to sweet talk his ass back to Team Asobi???
 
"Separation" is one way to say it. Another way is shutting down the whole studio but Asobi (who were already a team within Japan Studio)

Money speaks louder than words. If the IP were so important to him, he would spend 1/20 of the money invested in Bungie and would:

- Port the original Astro Bot Rescue Mission for PSVR 2

- Double the size of Asobi so they can work in the VR version of this one, too.

He didn't fund either cos he doesn't care. He's just bandwagoning after his epic GaaS failure.

The studio director of Asobi doesn’t want a massive studio

Hermen never wanted to shut them down, that’s Jaffe bullshit

His GaaS success (HD2) exceeds his losses (concord)

The hate for Hermen is unfounded bullshit
 

nial

Gold Member
3 years ago all of you people were crying that Jim and Hermen ""killed"" Gravity Rush and Ape Escape to focus on a tech demo series. You're only now jumping into the Astro Bot bandwagon.
 
Sounds more like your personal wishlist (although I'd love a new Killzone game).

How about we just wait and see what they deliver, instead of hitting the panic button before we've seen anything?
Can agree to that. Honestly, I hope every project pans out, but over saturation can be a real issue. Even Marvel wasn't exempted from it.
 

yurinka

Member
Good to see him at least recognizing this. The game is brilliant and a breathe of fresh air. We need more of these types of games.
3 years ago all of you people were crying that Jim and Hermen ""killed"" Gravity Rush and Ape Escape to focus on a tech demo series. You're only now jumping into the Astro Bot bandwagon.
It's so important for him that he scrapped a new VR game, where this IP became relevant.

Japan Studio was not developing Gravity Rush or Ape Scape (at least for console) or any VR game, they were developing mobile games. Hermen (and Jim) did cancel all these mobile games, restructured the studio, did greenlight this game to put all of them to work on it.

They did a great job making a masterpiece that is selling very well, so obviously he recognizes their job.

Didn't this dude actually shut down Japan Studio? ..now he's trying to sweet talk his ass back to Team Asobi???
Hulst was the man who initiated Team Asobi separation from Japan Studio and was the main driving force behing them and Astro in general. Astro Bot was 2D game from the start too.

No, he didn't shut down Japan Studio and didn't separate Team Asobi from it.

He restructured and rebranded it. He merged the different internal development teams of Japan Studio into one of them, Team Asobi, and as SIE previously did in EU and US, they branched out their 2nd party publishing/support team XDEV from JP to become their own studio now part of the global XDEV team. Both teams got new and bigger offices in the same SIE Japan HQ building where the Japan Studio one was to grow.

Team Asobi, who released Astro Bot after the restructuring, are from Japan Studio. Before the restructuring they were working on different mobile games, which got cancelled by Hermen (and Jim). The woman in charge of these mobile games business / did put them to work on that was fired by them and now works for Xbox (the former studio boss was also fired).

XDEV Japan, who released Death Stranding Director's Cut, Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin after the restructuring, are from Japan Studio. They are now in charge not only of the 2nd party Japanese games, but also from the rest of Asia. They are working on Lost Soul Aside, Convallaria, Death Stranding 2 or Physint.

It is not the first time Japan Studio got rebranded, restructured, changes of divisio or that their internal development teams and 2nd party publishing team merges or separates. It happened multiple times before.

If he was that smart he wouldn't be commissioning so many horizon games
Horizon Zero Dawn was SIE's best selling game ever. It would be stupid to don't make more Horizon games.

Money speaks louder than words. If the IP were so important to him, he would spend 1/20 of the money invested in Bungie and would:

- Port the original Astro Bot Rescue Mission for PSVR 2

- Double the size of Asobi so they can work in the VR version of this one, too.

He didn't fund either cos he doesn't care. He's just bandwagoning after his epic GaaS failure.
Destiny made more money than all Japan Studio games together. Japan Studio was a money pit that in 3 decades wasn't abe to develop a single sales hit. He restructured that studio, cancelled the mobile games they were working on and greenlighted this game that seems is going to be the best selling internally developed Japan Studio game ever.

He gave to both Team Asobi and XDEV Japan (the two halfs of Japan studio, the one dedicated to internal developed games and the one dedicated to Asian 2nd party games & support) new offices where they could grow after there restructuring. Team Asobi was planned to grow until almost double in size and started to grow but decided to temporally stop.
 
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nial

Gold Member
Japan Studio was not developing Gravity Rush or Ape Scape (at least for console), they were developing mobile games. Hermen (and Jim) did cancel all these mobile games, restructured the studio, did greenlight this game to put all of them to work on it.
forwardworks was a different thing, tho, and that wasn't managed by hulst
The only mobile game Japan Studio made (in its later years) was No Heroes Allowed! Dash, and that was also in collaboration with ForwardWorks.
 

yurinka

Member
Bungie + Haven + Firewalk = 4 billion. Literally, ruin.
Hermen became head of SIE November 2019.

In 2020 started the current gen, which even being still at its half already became their (and also from any other console maker in gaming history) top grossing generation ever.

This current generation already generated more profit than all previous PS generations combined.

So it's literally the opposite of ruin.
 

yurinka

Member
The only mobile game Japan Studio made (in its later years) was No Heroes Allowed! Dash, and that was also in collaboration with ForwardWorks.
As I said, they were making multiple mobile games that got cancelled with the restructuring.

The Vice President of Japan Studio Business Development had moved to be VP of Japan Studio Mobile Business during a year but with the restructuring Hermen and Jim killed these Japan Studio mobile games and fired her, who now works at Xbox. And greenlighted Astro Bot to put all of these devs to work on it.

They merged all the internal development teams of Japan Studios into one of them (Japan Studio) and as they did before in EU or US they branched out their XDEV team of the Asian region out of a local gamedev studio to continue doing the same job working in games released after the restructuring like Death Stranding Director's Cut, Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, Convallaria, Lost Soul Aside, Death Stranding 2 or Physint.

image.png


And yes, No Heroes Allowed! Dash got released and did work with ForwardWorks. Forwardworks (A Sony team) has been recently absorved by Aniplex (another Sony team) and dissolved.
 
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