Support NeoGAF

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

That's according to former SIE president Shuhei Yoshida, who this week revealed that the sequels were in development, but ultimately scrapped as Sony transitioned from focusing on the cult-favourite handheld to putting its resources behind the PS4.

Speaking on Sacred Symbols+, Yoshida said: "We were actually working on Soul Sacrifice 2 and Freedom Wars 2, but because of budget limitation we had to stop and move on to PS4."

Yoshida also claimed that the move to PS4 is the main reason that more Sony first-party IP didn't receive a PS Vita iteration, in the same style as Sony Bend's Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

More at the link:

Shuhei Yoshida claims 2 fan favourite PS Vita games were getting sequels before the transition to PS4 | VGC

The focus on PS4 marked the end of Vita…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[Deerock71]

 

[PauloRoberto]

Now that's a good example why these corporations 'need' to also have a more focused and more budget friendly dev team, for these cases!

 

[nial]

Now that's a good example why these corporations 'need' to also have a more focused and more budget friendly dev team, for these cases!

To be fair, none of these games were developed internally, but still a shame that they didn't move their sequels to PS4.

 

[Fake]

Yoshida need to be the Playstation CEO asap.

 

[nial]

Yoshida need to be the Playstation CEO asap.

You're in a thread about Shuhei Yoshida cancelling two first-party games back in the day.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

You're in a thread about Shuhei Yoshida cancelling two first-party games back in the day.

Jesus christ...

 

[Perrott]

You're in a thread about Shuhei Yoshida cancelling two first-party games back in the day.

All while moving ahead with the sequel to Knack.

Yeah, sounds just like the man who did not greenlit a whole Bloodborne franchise - with or without FromSoftware - out of the bat

 

[SkylineRKR]

If this is true, it means Vita budget went to the PS4 like yesterday as the Vita was released less than 2 years before the PS4.

 

[nial]

All while moving ahead with the sequel to Knack.

Well, I'm not personally mad with that. Knack 2 was great!

 

[CamHostage]

If this is true, it means Vita budget went to the PS4 like yesterday as the Vita was released less than 2 years before the PS4.

Yeah, there was a clear abandon-ship following upon the muted launch. By the second year, Sony was already pivoting to indies and signing deals for Unity support and promoting the Cross-Buy feature.

It was a startling and sad shift, especially since the VITA came out of the gate with I believe the most 1st Party support of any Sony platform launch. Uncharted: Golden Abyss, WipEout 2048, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, Little Deviants, Super StarDust Delta, ModNation Racers: Road Trip, plus Escape Plan and Hustle Kings all on day one (worldwide at least, but it did launch in Japan 2 months earlier with less stuff,) then Gravity Rush, MLB 12, Unit 13, and Reality Fighters came in the first couple "launch period" months. Even given some ports and cross-plats in there, that's a huge backing for a PlayStation system launch.

Yet you could see the pivot right away; 2012 started with a bang and ended in a whimper for Vita. Very little else came out to support the rest of the year (Resistance BS and LBP Vita plus PSN games, as well as the cross-platform fighter PS ASBR.) For their heavyweight franchise pack-in that Christmas, Sony oddly (and drearily IMO) went with Call of Duty BO Declassified. And I believe in the history of Vita, the only new Sony-made boxed exclusives which hadn't been teased in the pre-launch promo cycle were Tearaway and then little stuff like Invisimals and PS Vita Pets. (Killzone Mercenary was teased in almost the "NGP" days, and I feel like I remember Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars getting Japanese coverage in the pre-launch days too?)

As a Vita fan, I kind of can't blame SIE for shifting to PS4 so fast when all of us saw it thud on launch and all the anticipation was for 3DS taking over Monster Hunter. (BTW 3DS also dribbled at launch, and never ended up near DS numbers.) I actually think Sony saved it for a while and made lemonade of it all by making Vita a haven for indies and smaller games as well as having great deals for cross-buys. The lasting Vita fanbase was PS fans happily digging deep into the crates rather hoping for a megaton like a GTA or a MH or a GT to save our system.

Still, one of the fun parts of Sony's portables was all the smaller experiments and franchise-divergences and fan-fave games it got, and while the development money assigned to Vita shifted to PS4, I don't see that much of that alternative spirt transfered over anywhere except maybe to PSVR1? Some of Sony's studios who were in that "non-AAA" tier making portable games shifted over to VR. Ultimately though, if they didn't go down with the Vita ship, VR put them back on the radarscope for detonation. (Bend and Media Molecule both ended up not doing PSVR and maybe they lucked out from that era's cuts?)

 

[FreeY$L]

You're in a thread about Shuhei Yoshida cancelling two first-party games back in the day.

People idolize Yoshida as if he were the vanguard of japanese titles at Sony

 

[Mr.ODST]

SO many games were dumped by Sony, crazy how many people don't get to see even be announced

 

[Tams]

Just make a new Vita, you dinguses.

Especially with Nintendo having effectively abandoned the area.

 

[Sharius]

i just need they remaster/remake SS delta

 

[CamHostage]

People idolize Yoshida as if he were the vanguard of japanese titles at Sony

A: He's one of the few Sony game producers who is actually vocal about his time there and his knowledge of works there both existent and canceled, so it's better than nothing.

B; Many who had worked for Shu have talked about his influence and backing energy that helped their project through. He had an important role at the top at SCEJ and then later SIE WWS.

C: He's a cool guy and is fun to listen to.

So hey man, back off.

 

[nial]

People idolize Yoshida as if he were the vanguard of japanese titles at Sony

He arguably was that when he was the executive producer at the helm of producing internally-developed games at SCEI, including the likes of Ape Escape, The Legend of Dragoon, Fantavision.
When he became the head of WWS in 2008, though? Yeah, that's when the output of Japan Studio utterly collapsed.

He had an important role at the top at SCEJ and then later SIE WWS.

I think you're mixing things up quite a bit there; he was never at the top at SCEI, he was an executive producer who still had to report to Toshiyuki Miyata (head of the production department), who in turn reported to Akira Sato, the officer in charge of SCEI's game production business.
Shuhei Yoshida would also move to SCEA in April 2000 to lead its game production operations, so he basically had zero involvement in Sony's Japanese development for 8 whole years before becoming the head of global WWS in May 2008.

 

[FreeY$L]

A: He's one of the few Sony game producers who is actually vocal about his time there and his knowledge of works there both existent and canceled, so it's better than nothing.

B; Many who had worked for Shu have talked about his influence and backing energy that helped their project through. He had an important role at the top at SCEJ and then later SIE WWS.

C: He's a cool guy and is fun to listen to.

So hey man, back off.

I'm not denying his impact, he was with Playstation since its birth and conception, he probably produced all of the sony titles i enjoyed on PS2 and 3, but he also had missteps along the way, not publishing Demon's Souls was the gravest of them, since then their output (Japan studio) had dwindled significantly, he most likely had a say in the closure if Japan Studio as well. I'm just stating facts, he's a business man first and foremost, but blaming it all on Sony when they clearly had managerial issues at the too while he was there, is just weird.
You can cite his achievements and his missteps, and btw he's one of my favs at Sony as someone who's been there from the start.

 

[Fake]

People idolize Yoshida as if he were the vanguard of japanese titles at Sony

He is. You can prove otherwise, or even better, you can keep Hermen in your house.

 

[Unknown?]

To be fair, none of these games were developed internally, but still a shame that they didn't move their sequels to PS4.

They should have like Gravity Rush 2.

 

[nial]

He is. You can prove otherwise, or even better, you can keep Hermen in your house.

It's time to bring up the list once again:

Calling Shuhei Yoshida a massive reason as to why PlayStation was so Japanese centric is straight up history revisionism. Sony was, ironically, having a much better Japanese output under a Western man (Phil Harrison):
2008:
Coded Soul: Uketsugareshi Idea (February 7, 2008)
MyStylist (February 28, 2008)
Echochrome (March 19, 2008)
Nippon no Asoko de (May 1, 2008)
Bleach: Heat the Soul 5 (May 15, 2008)
Siren: Blood Curse (July 24, 2008)
Afrika (August 28, 2008)
Aquanaut's Holiday: Hidden Memories (September 25, 2008)
What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? 2 (October 15, 2008)
Bleach: Soul Carnival (October 23, 2008)
Derby Time Online (November 13, 2008)
Patapon 2 (November 27, 2008)
LocoRoco 2 (December 4, 2008)
White Knight Chronicles (December 25, 2008)
2012:
Gravity Rush (February 9, 2012)
Tokyo Jungle (June 7, 2012)