Sony Playstation: First Party Studios & their Current Projects
- Thread starter JuanLatino
- Start date
Yeah, now I agree Cambridge is not working on Killzone 
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-01-12-guerrila-cambridge-to-close
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-01-12-guerrila-cambridge-to-close
Really wish I was trolling, but heard the news this morning from a friend who worked there who is now jobless.
Ah, looks like it made the press now. http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1332978
LastMinuteHero
Member
Oh FFS
Hydrargyrus
Member
Daaamn!
That studio was great. Their games, despite underperforming in sales, were very well received.
They were my last hope to see a decent Killzone.
That studio was great. Their games, despite underperforming in sales, were very well received.
They were my last hope to see a decent Killzone.
LastMinuteHero
Member
Oh shit there goes my kz sequel by cambridge
Heckler456
Banned
I wonder how big of a factor Microsoft's investments in first party titles are when it comes to Sony investing in first party titles. Like, does Microsoft's seemingly downward trend in that regard mean that Sony will start spinning down in that area as well?
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
This now makes me worry about my psvr if I'm honest. First party support isn't the best with that V.R gamefrom sony Japan and farpoint being the only ones known
DriftingSpirit
Member
Well, there goes one of my bigger predictions. :/
LastMinuteHero
Member
Jesus christ that fularu guy pisses the fuck out of me. So much denying evidence.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
Lol I left it alone
LastMinuteHero
Member
Javin if you're reading this you were right bud
Anyway, if cambridge is out, who's in charge on killzone now? Or is put on hold now
shinobiiiiiii
Isn't Guerrilla Games rather big? Maybe they will continue to handle Killzone.
Or Sony is just done with their own FPS IPs. Which i hope is not the case.
LastMinuteHero
Member
Yeah steven der heide and a few are at the studios cooking up or doing something based on the gameinformer interview with hermen
Jarod McChicken
Member
Guerrilla Games can still make a Killzone for the PS5 launch, I don't think they need more KZ than that honestly. And being a launch title is probably the best option for a Killzone to not fail in a crowded FPS market.
But shall Horizon Zero Dawn be successfull enough, I would not bet one penny on a new Killzone, I think Hermen Hulst was not afraid to suggest Horizon Zero Dawn could easily represent the birth of a new franchise.
But shall Horizon Zero Dawn be successfull enough, I would not bet one penny on a new Killzone, I think Hermen Hulst was not afraid to suggest Horizon Zero Dawn could easily represent the birth of a new franchise.
Kazuo Hirai
I really want everyone to know how much more Titanfall 2 sold than Nioh. It was a staggering amount.
So who is responsible for Rigs now? Or just stop update?
LastMinuteHero
Member
Lots of overreaction and hyperbole in the other thread
shinobi602
Member
That's the plan.
LastMinuteHero
Member
You quoted the wrong dude, dude
But yeah he did say that during the gameinformer series interview
Nightengale
Member
RIP Cambridge. You were a talented team.
I had hoped you be given the Bend treatment of given the opportunity to break into AAA, but alas.
I had hoped you be given the Bend treatment of given the opportunity to break into AAA, but alas.
I think they both just came to the same conclusion. Mid-tier titles are dead and first party exclusives are not that important. So they will refocus their efforts on a few marquee titles/studios.
Kazuo Hirai
I really want everyone to know how much more Titanfall 2 sold than Nioh. It was a staggering amount.
Andrew House seems not like to expand first party studio as Kazuo Hirai, and close some studios recently, VR just start and should be given more time.
After 2016 E3 ,there are more and more bad new for PlayStation ,make me feel a little sad.
I still miss Kazuo Hirai ,he is special ,the chosen one.
After 2016 E3 ,there are more and more bad new for PlayStation ,make me feel a little sad.
I still miss Kazuo Hirai ,he is special ,the chosen one.
Triggerhappytel
Member
I expect Killzone is more or less dead at this point; especially if Horizon is a big success.
RIGS is probably dead too. I don't think it has become the big substantial VR hit they had hoped it would.
HeisenbergWW62
Banned
I'll be interested to see how much first party support VR will continue to get. London and that other studio they formed will support it, but probably not much else. GTSport has some side mode I guess. Is Dreams confirmed to be VR compatible?
Exactly why I got in and out fast
Well, business wise its more interesting to fund third party developers to make VR games for them then to use your own studios to do it. Most of the SIE VR projects so far are like that.
About Dreams, it has a build running in PSVR so I figure its a given it will have VR support
HeisenbergWW62
Banned
I agree with this. If it never became a tentpole franchise in the other several games no reason to think it will be now
Ya I see them using third parties for VR support (for the most part at least). Doubt we see any first party studios other than London and Manchester (?) make VR only games
I guess it makes more sense to just leave FPS games to third party devs. CoD, Star Wars and so on.
I think Killzone never reached its full potential, especially with storytelling and this kind of stuff and it is pretty much the only shooter i am somewhat interested in, it completely disappearing would kinda suck. Maybe Sony will try again in the genre with a new IP in the future.
HeisenbergWW62
Banned
In other news, while it's pretty obvious at this point, shinobi confirmed in another thread yesterday that Sucker Punch is doing a new IP. Afaik this is the first he's specifically stated that it's a new IP
Nightengale
Member
Not sure if shinobi has any insight to whether or not GG is still a two-project studio.
Steven der Heide was mentioned by Herman in another interview as "he's helping out with management and the whole studio is on Horizon now", but the guy still list himself as a Game Director on Twitter and lead designer of SF, afaik, is not working on Horizon.
In the past year Steven was spotted travelling to Cambridge every now and then so I assumed there was a plan to develop a new Killzone with collaboration of Cambridge, but clearly that's not the case now. =(
Steven der Heide was mentioned by Herman in another interview as "he's helping out with management and the whole studio is on Horizon now", but the guy still list himself as a Game Director on Twitter and lead designer of SF, afaik, is not working on Horizon.
In the past year Steven was spotted travelling to Cambridge every now and then so I assumed there was a plan to develop a new Killzone with collaboration of Cambridge, but clearly that's not the case now. =(
I guess he is doing something new with a small team, just like the HORIZON team did, when Steven was working on Killzone 3.
Theslammer
Member
SolidSnakex
Member
I think that's probably what did it. Cambridge always seemed to struggle to get a hit. For most of the PS3-era they were even used as more of a support studio rather than a full on game development studio. RIGS seemed like the title that would finally move them up. But for whatever reason it didn't take off. I know many felt that it was going to be the PSVR game to get, I was among those, but it doesn't seem like that happened. Sony posted the best selling PSN seller from last year and RIGS isn't even in the top 10 PSVR games, even though Rush of Blood and VR Worlds are in it.
It's honestly bizarre that of all of Sony's VR games, that's the one that seemingly didn't take off.
DriftingSpirit
Member
DriftingSpirit
Member
I think PixelOpus was the latest one (sans VR studios).
Edit - Oop, looks like was wrong.
Edit - Oop, looks like was wrong.
DriftingSpirit
Member
It looks like things are headed that way. Big studios that can handle multiple projects instead of multiple studios that aren't big enough (whether in terms of studio size, weight of the project they are working on, etc...) to hold their own.
Just a note ont the last two of those if people dont know what they do
ForwardWorks is a mobile focused studio set in Japan, making mobile games for the Japanese/Asian audience
SIE San Mateo ATM houses smaller teams within SIE like Pixelopus and also handles the production and development part of Sony in collab projects they have with external studios (they are handling Spider-Man and Farpoint on the Sony side)
i am very happy to hear sucker punch is doing a new ip next. i think they could do one more infamous game after the new ip before moving on
I think Wattam is at Annapurna now.
I'm curious if Sony is still publishing WiLD given some of the other titles on that list.
Housemarque's next game for example is self published, even though they signed a deal with Sony for some exclusive money.
They mostly seem to be wheeling out their nearly done indie projects, finding new publishers for a lot of the remaining ones, and having people who still want to work with them self publish with a (presumably notably smaller) exclusivity payment.
Yeah, its a very different attitude from what they use to do in PS3 and beggining of PS4 era.
Santa Monica is the biggest example. They use to even house new developers in their office, now they dont have one single exdev project announced. The breakup with Giant Sparrow shocked me, since they had one more game after Edith Finch on their contract, and were the current developer housed in SMS
MatterFall and Nex Machina are both scheduled for release in 2017. It appears the former is going to be published by SIE. Nex Machina is going to be an exception to the rule, at least as far as the relationship with Housemarque goes.
LiquidSolid
Member
And what exactly are Guerrilla going to move over to once Horizon's done? Unless they're prepping for huge layoffs, Steven der Heide has to have something in the works for everyone to move over to and there's three options: Horizon 2 (which would be a horrible idea to give to a different creative team IMO), Killzone or another new IP. More Killzone is a safe bet.
Anyway, it's gutting to wake up to news of Guerrilla Cambridge's closing. Sony Liverpool closure sucked but I could understand why that happened, because they seemed to be stuck in limbo whenever they weren't working on WipEout. But Cambridge were producing some genuinely great games, I thought Bend were the ones who were next on the chopping block, depending on how well Days Gone did. It's just a baffling move to me. Even the idea Sony are getting out of the UK doesn't really hold up because they recently opened Manchester Studio.
I'm pretty sure Nex Machina was always going to be self-published, at least that's the way I took it whenever Housemarque mentioned their Eugene Jarvis project.