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[Lunatic_Gamer]

A MESSAGE FROM GUERRILLA STUDIO MANAGEMENT​

After almost an incredible 20 years at Guerrilla, our Studio Director and Executive Producer Angie Smets is starting a new role as Head of Development Strategy at PlayStation Studios!

"These past two decades at Guerrilla have been an absolute dream. I feel privileged to have worked alongside some of the smartest and coolest people in the industry. I'm so grateful for everything I've learned alongside all the other Guerrillas. We have accomplished so much as a team, and I'm incredibly proud of all the games we've shipped together.

A special shoutout to Jan-Bart van Beek and Michiel van der Leeuw. It feels like just yesterday that we were figuring out how to make and ship the first Killzone. Little did we know that we would eventually lead Guerrilla together. You've become like brothers to me, and there's no way to thank you enough. I will miss you dearly."

We are all so grateful for the leadership Angie has provided for Guerrilla and wish her all the best in her new adventure!

In terms of new structure, Guerrilla is happy to announce that our management team now consists of Joel Eschler (Studio Director and Production Director) and Hella Schmidt (Studio Director and General Manager), alongside Jan-Bart van Beek (Studio Director and Art Director).

We have full confidence in our new leadership as they steer Guerrilla towards a bright future, expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy's next adventure and our exciting online project. Michiel van der Leeuw (Technical Director) will be focusing on the future technology and strategy for the Decima engine.

A message from Guerrilla studio management

Guerrilla is one of Europe's leading game companies and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. We started in 2003, and have pushed the boundaries of technical and artistic excellence in our games ever since.

www.guerrilla-games.com

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Congrats! Now greenlight Bloodborne 2 and Bloodborne remake!

 

[Godot25]

"We have full confidence in our new leadership as they steer Guerrilla towards a bright future, expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy's next adventure and our exciting online project,"

Well. There goes my hopes for Killzone revival or new IP

Seems like GG will be a Horizon factory in near future.

And while I get that many people are happy with it, I was hoping for something new since Forbbiden West really overstayed it's welcome for me.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Seems like GG will be a Horizon factory in near future.

Horizon was always meant to be a trilogy. Ofc they're going to finish Aloys story and after they'll do other stuff.

 

[Godot25]

Horizon was always meant to be a trilogy. Ofc they're going to finish Aloys story and after they'll do other stuff.

Yeah. Considering it took 5 years to make Forbidden West, I can't wait for them to release new IP in...2033

at best

 

[Poltz]

Yeah Horizon Trilogy makes sense.

 

[lh032]

I hope GG will go for a new IP.
Does the majority out there really love the horizon franchise?

I mean the Horizon games are fine ,but i personally don't think this franchise worth to "expand" imo.
My issue with Horizon games is that Aloy....is just not a very interesting character, shes one dimensional

 

[Solidsnake_1]

herman hulst promoting his mates

 

[KaiserBecks]

Nepotisme.

 

[Coloress_Kafka]

Yeah. Considering it took 5 years to make Forbidden West, I can't wait for them to release new IP in...2033

at best

Is Sony no longer doing the two team strategy?? Or was that second team the one making Burning Shores?

 

[Varteras]

I hope GG will go for a new IP.
Does the majority out there really love the horizon franchise?

I mean the Horizon games are fine ,but i personally don't think this franchise worth to "expand" imo.
My issue with Horizon games is that Aloy....is just not a very interesting character, shes one dimensional

I don't mind if they keep going with Horizon. I really do like the franchise. Though I wasn't as satisfied with Forbidden West as I was Zero Dawn. I would like to see them do another Killzone, though. I think that's a franchise that could easily be one of your mainstays, even if it has rough spots.

 

[TheGodfather07]

"We have full confidence in our new leadership as they steer Guerrilla towards a bright future, expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy's next adventure and our exciting online project,"

Well. There goes my hopes for Killzone revival or new IP

Seems like GG will be a Horizon factory in near future.

And while I get that many people are happy with it, I was hoping for something new since Forbbiden West really overstayed it's welcome for me.

Can't blame them. Horizon sold like 4x what killzone did. Development is long and expensive. Going back to killzone makes no business sense.

 

[Varteras]

Is Sony no longer doing the two team strategy?? Or was that second team the one making Burning Shores?

They were working on Forbidden West and its DLC at the same time they've been working on an online game, assisting Firesprite with Horizon VR, and supposedly have something else cooking too.

 

[Ronin_7]

Is Sony no longer doing the two team strategy?? Or was that second team the one making Burning Shores?

Horizon 3 + online Project confirms second team.

Just like Naughty Dog is doing, PlayStation Studios are massive.

 

[Godot25]

Is Sony no longer doing the two team strategy?? Or was that second team the one making Burning Shores?

No. Second team is making Horizon online game.

That's kinda the point. I don't have a problem having a third Horizon game. But that second team should really make something new or revive Killzone.

 

[BadBurger]

Good choice, she helped turn things around for Guerilla and quickly transform them into a AAA developer.

I know it's a long shot, but cmon Killzone revival. Shadow Fall was great.

 

[gothmog]

"We have full confidence in our new leadership as they steer Guerrilla towards a bright future, expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy's next adventure and our exciting online project,"

Well. There goes my hopes for Killzone revival or new IP

Seems like GG will be a Horizon factory in near future.

And while I get that many people are happy with it, I was hoping for something new since Forbbiden West really overstayed it's welcome for me.

Why promise a new IP at this point? I'm sure they have more than just Horizon planned, but this wasn't the place to talk about that.

 

[Musilla]

Michiel van der Leeuw (Technical Director) will be focusing on the future technology and strategy for the Decima engine.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Apparently Decima is becoming a bigger thing, with multiple studios using it.

Wonder how that works and if it's now an integral part of ICE? (Iniciative for the common engine)

 

[Heisenberg007]

Organic promotion.

 

[solidus12]

Druckmann must be pissed lol

 

[ElCasual]

I think that there be someone better than her but Hermen is just taking staff of Guerrilla.

 

[mckmas8808]

Nepotisme.

Huh?

 

[mckmas8808]

Michiel van der Leeuw (Technical Director) will be focusing on the future technology and strategy for the Decima engine.

Who is this Michiel Leeuw guy and is he really that good?

 

[Dutchy]

I hope they do a new IP. HZD looks beautiful but after recently trying to get into the franchise for the third time ... it's got to be one of the most boring and generic AAA games out there. At least Killzone gave me stuff to shoot.

I now understand why I've never heard a single soul talk about ANY gameplay elements that they like in particular about HZD. Zero praise about mission design, level design, character design, enemies, npc's etc. It's just a console graphics benchmark, nothing else, apparently.

 

[ProtoByte]

Druckmann must be pissed lol

Druckmann fancies himself a creative type, and to be honest, he pretty much is. This ain't a creative role. This is more like producer/administrator.

 

[StealthGoblin]

Druckmann must be pissed lol

Ha. Well he isn’t a Sony employee in the true sense. Like Ueda and Cerny before him, he’s a contractor.

 

[Musilla]

Who is this Michiel Leeuw guy and is he really that good?

The creator of DECIMA engine, had combined his position as technical director with the co-direction of the study, now returns solely to technical direction to lead the ambitious plans they have for the engine.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Ha. Well he isn’t a Sony employee in the true sense. Like Ueda and Cerny before him, he’s a contractor.

Huh?

Where are you getting this?

Dude is President of Naughty Dog, which is owned by Sony lol

 

[Dick Jones]

Ha. Well he isn’t a Sony employee in the true sense. Like Ueda and Cerny before him, he’s a contractor.

I doubt the co-president of Sony owned Naughty Dog is a contractor.

 

[Tripolygon]

Druckmann must be pissed lol

Sometimes I wonder how old some of you are because of childish takes like this. The man is co president of a studio he started in as an intern. HBO and Sony gave him 100 million to co-produce a TV show of his own creation. With prestigious acclaim and potentially numerous TV awards. Yes I'm sure you're right, he's somewhere pissed that his fellow sister studio head was promoted to a high position within the company.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

The creator of DECIMA engine, had combined his position as technical director with the co-direction of the study, now returns solely to technical direction to lead the ambitious plans they have for the engine.

If Decima is that good, Sony needs to make it their standard engine for every one of their first party studios

I think it’s proven to be better than the ND engine, and it’s only rival is UE5

Insomniac has a good engine too

 

[Musilla]

If Decima is that good, Sony needs to make it their standard engine for every one of their first party studios

I think it’s proven to be better than the ND engine, and it’s only rival is UE5

Insomniac has a good engine too

The problem is that each studio has their own engine perfectly suited to their team and what they want from it.

No matter how good DECIMA is, Naughty Dog wants to use its own technology and would never agree to use an engine external to the studio, and this goes for every studio with its own engine, maybe Bend could agree to work with DECIMA since they don't have an internal one, although I I personally prefer that they use Unreal Engine 5 after how amazing Days Gone looks in Unreal 4

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

THE BEST ENGINE
THE BEAST ENGINE

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

The problem is that each studio has their own engine perfectly suited to their team and what they want from it.

No matter how good DECIMA is, Naughty Dog wants to use its own technology and would never agree to use an engine external to the studio, and this goes for every studio with its own engine, maybe Bend could agree to work with DECIMA since they don't have an internal one, although I I personally prefer that they use Unreal Engine 5 after how amazing Days Gone looks in Unreal 4

The big issue is that custom engines require knowledge of those engines and tech debt that’s hard to fix

By standardizing engines you get better support and can transfer resources between teams easier

UE5 is expensive so I’m sure they would prefer that Bend use an in house solution

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Seems like a logical choice after all the years of service. Continue the success.

 

[StealthGoblin]

Huh?

Where are you getting this?

Dude is President of Naughty Dog, which is owned by Sony lol

Jaffe mentioned it a few times.

And guys - Cerny has never been a Sony employee either. He is the sole employee of Cerny games, which hires out his services to Sony. So think about that - the system architect for the PS4, Vita and PS5 isn’t a Sony employee in the strictest sense.

Ueda did the same thing towards the end of TLG.

It’s more common than you think.

 

[Panajev2001a]

The big issue is that custom engines require knowledge of those engines and tech debt that’s hard to fix

By standardizing engines you get better support and can transfer resources between teams easier

UE5 is expensive so I’m sure they would prefer that Bend use an in house solution

On the other side EA has tried it twice with Renderware and then with Frostbite to standardise engines across teams (which is far more than the game renderer, but all the editors, content pipelines, plugins, etc…) with untold problems and pain.

I think there is already a lot of code sharing and low level tech sharing between SIE teams, but mandating a common high level engine would end up constraining teams like ND, SSM, Bluepoint, Housemarque, etc… while adding a considerable burden to Guerilla as they would need to dedicate bandwidth to supporting the other studios.

 

[Snake29]

It's funny that Sony has a license free engine which a lot of games have used in the past and even right now. The EGO Engine from Codemasters is based on Sony's PhyreEngine.

Codemasters - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Ego Game Technology Engine is a video game engine developed by Codemasters.[1] While it is primarily used for racing games, it has also been used in a few first-person shooters.

Ego is a modified version of the Neon game engine that was used in Colin McRae: Dirt and was developed by Codemasters and Sony Computer Entertainment using Sony Computer Entertainment's PhyreEngine cross-platform graphics engine.[2] The Ego engine was developed to render more detailed damage and physics as well as render large-scale environments.

PhyreEngine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

PhyreEngine is a license-only free to use game engine from Sony Interactive Entertainment, compatible with PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation VR, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Switch,[1] Microsoft Windows (for OpenGL and DirectX 11), Google Android and Apple iOS.[2] PhyreEngine has been adopted by several game studios and has been used in over 200 published titles

Maybe Sony wants Decima also being used more with partners which develop games exclusivily for their platform. Even some recent indie and AA(A) third-party games use Sony's PhyreEngine.

 

[Tommi84]

Going back to killzone makes no business sense

They better start doing something so when CoD is pulled from Sony platform, they have some nice fps game

 

[mckmas8808]

If Decima is that good, Sony needs to make it their standard engine for every one of their first party studios

I think it’s proven to be better than the ND engine, and it’s only rival is UE5

Insomniac has a good engine too

NO THEY DO NOT!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE GOD NO!!! Decima is a good engine, but forcing studios to use an engine is the WORST thing any company can do. Look at EA.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

NO THEY DO NOT!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE GOD NO!!! Decima is a good engine, but forcing studios to use an engine is the WORST thing any company can do. Look at EA.

Worked out fine for KojiPro

 

[Antwix]

Is she gay?

 

[IntentionalPun]

Jaffe mentioned it a few times.

Ehh... lol

 

[Panajev2001a]

Worked out fine for KojiPro

KojiPro was starting from scratch. Apples to Oranges and the game they were working on was still in the area Decima was built and optimised for (they still added improvements back to it too). Just a single smaller studio to support for Guerilla too.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

KojiPro was starting from scratch. Apples to Oranges and the game they were working on was still in the area Decima was built and optimised for (they still added improvements back to it too). Just a single smaller studio to support too for Guerilla too.

Well maybe if the transition is too difficult for the big studios they can always just use Decima for the newer ones (Firewalk, Haven) or ones that never had their own (Bend)

 

[El Pistolero]

Don't you think that with Playstation recent and future acquisitions, there should be three regional WWS heads under Hermen? WWS N.A, WWS Europe and, WWS Asia, who all report to WWS, and manage the pipeline and integration within that specific region?

 

[nowhat]

Wonder how that works and if it's now an integral part of ICE? (Iniciative for the common engine)

Honest question, I have no idea - how much of a success has ICE been? I'm sure some kind of technology exchange happens between the first-party studios, but pretty much every studio have their own proprietary engine (or in rare cases use Unreal, like Days Gone and Returnal).

 

[Panajev2001a]

Well maybe if the transition is too difficult for the big studios they can always just use Decima for the newer ones (Firewalk, Haven) or ones that never had their own (Bend)

I think that is a good use of it, they just need to allocate significant capacity and smart people at supporting other studios and integrating their updates as each will want to evolve it. There is a cost to it.
It might also be a play to set Guerilla up to offer Decima to studios developing exclusives (PS5 + PC).

Anyways, I think some studios might jump at the opportunity and for some of them it might be a good match in the future. Right now Sony is partnering with Epic for UE5 use so not sure they want Decima to compete with UE5 (it is a good partnership for Sony to have with third parties that also need to support Xbox).
Decima currently d’ore not support Xbox officially… I do wonder whether it should or not, it could have a niche alongside UE5 if it did not and it prioritised PS5 and PC in that order though.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Honest question, I have no idea - how much of a success has ICE been? I'm sure some kind of technology exchange happens between the first-party studios, but pretty much every studio have their own proprietary engine (or in rare cases use Unreal, like Days Gone and Returnal).

Might be old news, but from what I heard ICE is not really an engine, but a lot of low level components, libraries, tools, etc… much easier to share and reuse.

Then again, going back to the wider topic of tools and engines and approaches, for a company having lots of technically proficient internal studios and supporting third party ones as a key priority it is also fine to support multiple approaches / initiatives to ensure you are removing the friction for them instead of just making things easier for you. It is a good investment in the ecosystem.