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Sony shuts down Bluepoint Studios
- Thread starter Hero_Select
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Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Their experience was in remastering well recieved games.
They were bought because Sony believed they could make them lots of money.
Two very different things.
Valt7786
Member
This. He's just hoping to stumble upon that cash cow live service game that will get Sony drowning in money and give him some kind of Hall of Fame nonsense but instead he's just greenlit failure after failure. He's a walking bad decision who saw an opportunity to boost his own ego and push his own studio's creation to the forefront as their mascot and none of it has worked.
Fuck him. Get rid of him Sony, please.
Hero_Select
Member
They only people who do that are Sony fans themselves though, they've been conditioned to only expect high-budget releases.
I dont think most PC or Nintendo gamers care that, when they pause their game, zoom in, and look at the dithering on a blade of grass that it's not running at native 4K.
AstroBot should have sold over 10 million copies with how fun and charming the game is, but it's not a super-realistic narrative driven third person action game.
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
At the same time, we're operating in an increasingly challenging industry environment. Rising development costs, slowed industry growth, changing player behavior, and broader economic headwinds are making it harder to build games sustainably.
Ooooft the modern games industry is just a miserable place.
The heart and soul has been ripped out of it and I only see it getting worse.
Ooooft the modern games industry is just a miserable place.
The heart and soul has been ripped out of it and I only see it getting worse.
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CowboyLou
Member
I feel like "remake studio" is a stretch. Bluepoint's output was firmly in the "remaster" camp until DeS. DeS also pissed off a lot of original fans. A lot of these big budget remakes seem to take as much time and money as new productions and then flop anyway (thinking of examples like Dead Space). Probably not a feasible path forward for a studio in the current industry climate so I'm not surprised they had wanted to pivot to working on their own projects. Still it's unfortunate they weren't allowed to just crank out Nathan Drake Collection-tier remasters of series like Infamous, Killzone, Resistance etc. Smaller and faster projects than betting the farm on more big budget remakes.
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HallowedFeast
Member
Hey, Mr Hulst. Who let you out of the office?
Topher
Identifies as young
Agree. Waste of a studio. Nothing I've seen seems to indicate that Bluepoint was acquired with the intent of being changed into a live service game studio.
Puscifer
Member
Nixxes is for ports. Bluepoint is remakes
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
When you think about it, SIE now only have six studios that you can consider as being more or less "safe": Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Sony Santa Monica, and Polyphony Digital. If you extend that to sports studios then there's Sony San Diego but, I don't think anyone's gonna try claiming MLB The Show is critical to PlayStation's identity.
And that's the thing: closing studios like Bluepoint is going to constrict PlayStation's core identity, it's inevitable. Who can provide for PlayStation what you can't find anywhere else? That list has shrunk significantly over the course of this gen between various studio closures and them bringing their games to other platforms. Outside of those six studios, none of the others are safe IMHO: Housemarque is probably one underperforming game away from being shutdown, same with Media Molecule. Team Asobi could go the way of Tango Gameworks for all we know; Firesprite is probably in the danger zone for sure. Bend Studio is also in that same danger zone, depending on how their next game performs.
If I can name almost half of your 1P studios as potential targets for closure because they "can't perform", then why should have any substantive confidence in you as a platform holder when it comes to your 1P output? When the "safe" studios can barely get one game out per gen, and their output being more or less very predictable (especially for some such as Guerrilla)?
It's stuff like this that's gonna crash into Sony like a freight train once PS6 gets here. Just another thing compounding onto a stack of self-inflicted problems over this generation, all in pursuit of "muh GAAS" and "line must go up".
And that's the thing: closing studios like Bluepoint is going to constrict PlayStation's core identity, it's inevitable. Who can provide for PlayStation what you can't find anywhere else? That list has shrunk significantly over the course of this gen between various studio closures and them bringing their games to other platforms. Outside of those six studios, none of the others are safe IMHO: Housemarque is probably one underperforming game away from being shutdown, same with Media Molecule. Team Asobi could go the way of Tango Gameworks for all we know; Firesprite is probably in the danger zone for sure. Bend Studio is also in that same danger zone, depending on how their next game performs.
If I can name almost half of your 1P studios as potential targets for closure because they "can't perform", then why should have any substantive confidence in you as a platform holder when it comes to your 1P output? When the "safe" studios can barely get one game out per gen, and their output being more or less very predictable (especially for some such as Guerrilla)?
It's stuff like this that's gonna crash into Sony like a freight train once PS6 gets here. Just another thing compounding onto a stack of self-inflicted problems over this generation, all in pursuit of "muh GAAS" and "line must go up".
phant0m
Member
Sony has 3 franchises (Killzone, inFamous, Resistance) trapped on PS3 they could have remade/remastered
Instead they had them work on a GaaS
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AtomicStarving
Member
what lol
Maybe not, but Sony put practically every studio on GaaS bullshit this gen while they were trend chasing and then eventually cancelled most.
There's a reason their output has sucked for the last 4-5 years.
Corporal.Hicks
Member
First Sony handed control of their Bravia TVs to China, and now they closed one of their best gaming studios. Are they expecting to go bankrupt soon?
AtomicStarving
Member
Remember when i said ps studios is a fucking mess..... just wait news about ND 
:
Almost 6 years without making money for sony
:Almost 6 years without making money for sony
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Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Nothing in life is guaranteed. Obviously if Sony had a crystal ball they wouldn't have made the deal.
BluePoint could have said no. BluePoint could have stayed making single player games.
BluePoint is to blame, not Sony.
BluePoint didn't want to do that.
uncreativename
Member
I mean, I don't like the Demon's Souls remake because they made lots of unnecessary changes, but from a technical perspective they seem like they were incredible at their work. Weird move.
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
You're an MBA... LOL.
What sort of demented argument are you making ? The "audience" aren't eating 5 years of burn-rate for no ROI. That's the fucking difference!
As a business leader handling multiple studios, when your CFO rolls out the budget for 2027 fiscal and there's a 8 digit hole based on projected costs, please explain YOUR decision making process ? Do you spread it out and potentially sabotage growth elsewhere by cutting everyone off at the knees, or do you look and see where all the red-ink is, and the likely prognosis for reversing that trend over the next quarters.
Or do you play favourites and spare an unproductive unit because they've done a good job *technically* in the past, but have virtually zero proven track record at developing their own creative and IP ?
Unless you have access/insight into the budget, portfolio, performance of all units in the studio, your arguments are in no way based in reality. Its just emotion.
Sorry, not sorry.
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spookyfish
Gold Member
I would love a Resistance Remastered trilogy.
OuterLimits
Member
Sony bought a studio with a track record of making excellent remakes/remasters and decided for some bizarre reason to have them in charge of a GOW GAAS game. Not surprisingly that didn't work out.
This is a failure of leadership to not take advantage of a studios strength.
FIREKNIGHT2029
Member
The 12 live service games era of jim Ryan will go down as the most idiotic and most disastrous era for Playstation. What a fucking joke.
Knight of the Round
Member
So the PC port of Demon's Souls Remake is fucked?
Topher
Identifies as young
How do you know any of that?
nial
Member
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Even if that were the case, they probably had to as a self-preservation mechanism since they seen Sony overcompensating with GaaS and not green-lighting remakes people have been asking for, for years, nor many single player games outside of Marvel contracts.
Execs should also have the foresight to know what they're good at and keep feeding them with that as well. Like Housemaque being fed with what they're good at.
notseqi
Gold Member
RaaS
Moses85
Member
Pimpollo818
Member
is this karmic justice for what they did to the Demon's Souls artstyle in the remake?
LordCBH
Member
Hermen: "can we add GaaS slop to them?"
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
BluePoint and Sony didn't want to remastered them. All 3 franchises sputtered out.
supersale88
Member
Was so excited about their next original game or remake. I guess it wasn't meant to be... Shame.
Zacfoldor
Gold Member
I think that is short term thinking next quarter thinking with no eye to long term brand health.
First party output should be seen as a loss leader that creates enough niches to broaden the appeal of the console so the platform holders can collect their 30% of all games.
Worrying about this game or that game losing a small amount of money is a problem next quarter, next year, in 10 years it is nothing. That's not what they are doing anyway. They are creating as many gaas as they can to see what sticks. They aren't wanting to make enough money for profit, they are wanting to make 10 gaas and have 8 of them fail, 1 do okay, and one be Helldivers 2. That will ruin their first party output. It's a trend chasing get rich quick scheme with all the witless guile of a child when they first discovered a cookie jar and imagined they were the only one to ever have the idea to steal from it.
Sony got into this zeitgeist and into this place they are now by building that coalition over time. It did not form up around gaas.
This move right here, closing Bluepoint, will mark a turn in Sony's fortunes in the years to come. I'm sure next quarter will be fine but what about in 5 years? They fucked their zeitgeist and took it for granted. People image the biggest can't fall but just remember Blackberry. Sony will rue this day actually, because it's gonna screw them eventually in the market.
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Saiyan-Rox
Member
Couldn't get them to make a Gaas so pulled the trigger
I do wonder what they have been working on though
I do wonder what they have been working on though
Lionel Richie
Member
Let me preface this by saying that I hope everyone affected land on their feet and that studios closing is never good for the industry. Fuck Snoy for buying the studio only to close it down and why the FUCK were they doing a live service game? This kind of bullshit is harsh.
HAVING SAID ALL THAT, and again I'm not celebrating this shitshow or defending Snoy, but I fucking hated what Bluepoint became and what they kind of pioneered even. They were great at remastering games somewhat faithfully up until Gravity Rush, but then they decided to mess with two absolutely legendary japanese games and the results gave me AIDS. I really, REALLY hope to stop seeing this kind of remaster/remake shit where they completely ignore tone and artistic intent of games. It's a shame too because their take on SOTC and DeS are the most readily available versions of these games but kid yourself not, playing them doesn't mean you played the original.
HAVING SAID ALL THAT, and again I'm not celebrating this shitshow or defending Snoy, but I fucking hated what Bluepoint became and what they kind of pioneered even. They were great at remastering games somewhat faithfully up until Gravity Rush, but then they decided to mess with two absolutely legendary japanese games and the results gave me AIDS. I really, REALLY hope to stop seeing this kind of remaster/remake shit where they completely ignore tone and artistic intent of games. It's a shame too because their take on SOTC and DeS are the most readily available versions of these games but kid yourself not, playing them doesn't mean you played the original.
dragonyeuw
Member
Yet we have an active thread here arguing over the viability of a $1000 PS6.
FoxMcChief
Gold Member
Wow. Sony just keeps failing upwards. They're truly adopting the American way!
nial
Member
Reminder that every single decision made on those remakes was fully on Japan Studio.
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DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Tiago Rodrigues
Member
- Buys studio known for making remakes and remasters;
- Forces them to make GaaS of God of Qar…something no one ever asked in the history of gaming;
- Backtracks GaaS initiative and tell them to do something else;
- Rejects all pitches;
- Closes studio.
Holy shit Sony!
They basically bought the studio to close it. They didn't release a single product since getting bought!
This industry is a shell of its former self. Hulst has to go.
Now im scared for Bend and Media Molecule tbh…
- Forces them to make GaaS of God of Qar…something no one ever asked in the history of gaming;
- Backtracks GaaS initiative and tell them to do something else;
- Rejects all pitches;
- Closes studio.
Holy shit Sony!
They basically bought the studio to close it. They didn't release a single product since getting bought!
This industry is a shell of its former self. Hulst has to go.
Now im scared for Bend and Media Molecule tbh…
Richard 92
Neo Member
I guess Next Step From SONY Bend Studio and Media Molecule…
Bojji
Gold Member
Their graphical engine go to waste. DS is still in top 5 PS5 games when it comes to graphics quality, rest of Sony studios are super underwhelming this gen.
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