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[Perrott]

I'd be incredibly, incredibly disappointed if Bluepoint is all they are going to buy.

There needs to be something substantial bought. We need something exciting.

I have on good authority that there are various acquisition moves Sony is planning to pull off in the (near?) future, so you'll most probably get what you want unless the negotiations fall apart or they get outbid. Have some patience, because Sony is not sitting around doing nothing behind the scenes.

Edit: Yeah, give me all those "LOL" reactions, you morons, let's see who's laughing in some months, assholes.

 

[Bryank75]

I have on good authority that there are various acquisition moves Sony is planning to pull off in the (near?) future, so you'll most probably get what you want unless the negotiations fall apart or they get outbid. Have some patience, because Sony is not sitting around doing nothing behind the scenes.

But also, thank you for giving me a bit of hope.

 

[White-fire]

Things do not happen in a vacuum, San Diego and MLB are not bad things taken on their own, Japan Studio could even be spun positively if the surrounding landscape and PR was different to how it went down.

However things do not happen in a vacuum.... Jim and co raised prices exclusively on PS5 while Xbox offered games at the same price and then offered many launch games including MLB for no added cost through Gamepass, he also spouted that bullshit about 'believing in generations' and then made all the big titles crossgen, while he will also charge the extra amount for the privilege of playing on PS5........ it is this all out greed of wanting to put the games on PS4, PS4 and then PC on top of that AND charging the PS5 tax that is unacceptable. Not one thing in isolation.

Zenimax happened, maybe they couldn't counter it.... but that also did not happen in isolation. They shut down Manchester and Japan Studio, lost exclusives left and right such as Yakuza, Kingdom Hearts, MLB and several others and Xbox got Octopath Traveler before PlayStation, which is downright insulting.
This is after Xbox gobbled up Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Double Fine and many other decent studios.
Mm is not working on anything new... so count them out too.

Maybe you got confused on who is expanding??? It is Xbox that have expanded their offering.... PlayStations has only shrank since Jim and Hermen took over and I like PlayStation too much to lie to myself and others.

These things are just the tip of the iceberg..... I mean, the PR has been disastrous and words cost nothing. It doesn't cost anything to show your passion and it would come a cross in an instant if the person was authentic.

PC is NOT PlayStation, it is a competing platform, heavily aligned with Xbox / Microsoft.
I posted on another thread..... That PlayStation now dont care about the details.... they dont care about losing a few million customers in Japan, they Dont care about losing a few million due to Zenimax, they dont care about losing a few million due to Gamepass, they dont care about losing customers due to MLB going multiplat, they dont care about losing customers because they dont put on a show to create anticipation and excitement, they dont care about the hardcore fans and they dont care about losing a few million customers to PC since if you buy a PC, you have PC games, Xbox games, Gamepass and potentially most PS games if they go ahead....

How many will it add up to in the end???? How many are they willing to lose?

Competition is good and exclusives increase competition. If competition is so low that PlayStation doesn't need REAL exclusives anymore then it paints a very poor picture of the state of the industry. But I always suspected that the meeting between Ken Yoshida and Nadella had something behind it....... and it really looks like Sony are trying to throw this generation in MSFT's favor.

Either that or Jim and co are so incompetent that I think that is a possibility.... you decide which is worse!

I'm almost sick of these pricks and I'll just go back to Nintendo only if this bullshit keeps going on, where they have real fucking exclusives and they don't lead you on to buy hardware promising exclusives and them do the bait and switch later.

Edit: Then when it came to acquisitions, they buy Nixxes to further devalue what we buy a PlayStation for..... an absolute insult, nothing but a slap in the face.

The only thing I can say is that I don’t agree with how you are processing their moves. We cannot be sure of the MLB deal and how it went down, if it was facilitated by the MLB there’s not much Sony could have done to keep the license. As it stands, Sony gets to keep the license and increase their revenues at the same time, I’m sure they would rather it be this way.

Sony is in the business of making money, they are not in the business of losing customers and devaluing their platform, that doesn’t make any sense and I don’t believe any of these moves will lower revenues and engagement. Time will tell but I’m confident a company that relies on fans for money will not just suddenly not care about said fans. Thats literally business 101.

Sony cares about long-term growth and engagement. Porting older games to PC, renewing a favorable MLB license, and closing seriously troubled/under performing studios (while also buying new ones and expanding thriving ones) aren’t moves that hurt the brand.

Also outside of enthusiast boards most PlayStation owners don’t give a rip if Horizon is on PS4. If the game takes advantage of the PS5 and is GOTY that’s all they care about. Sony cares about not sinking 300 million dollars into a game with only 10 million consoles available to purchase said game. That’s the curse of big blockbusters early in a generation, and that’s a serious hurdle Sony needs to figure out for the PS6. Casual fans also would think that switching consoles makes no sense either as they bought a PlayStation for PlayStation games, not Nintendo or Xbox games.

Next years, especially VR will show Sony’s hand 100%.

 

[sublimit]

VR is a mistake.

 

[SaucyJack]

This is a little disingenuous. The Japan article was about Playstation's anaemic software sales in Japan not even charting in the top 30 for the first time since the days of the Famicom.

The IGN guy comments were on his Youtube channel not posted on an official site.

I can't speak for the rest, but Studio's closing and the Japan article were definitely newsworthy.

Manchester Studio closing was newsworthy …..



…… and was reported on 18 months ago when it actually happened.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Damn. 5 yrs of organic growth wasted...

 

[Panajev2001a]

Damn. 5 yrs of organic growth wasted...

Oh look a dig .

 

[Panajev2001a]

Manchester Studio closing was newsworthy …..



…… and was reported on 18 months ago when it actually happened.

Need to keep forums with negative PS news on the front page. Rumors, blog posts, random YouTube videos, old articles, etc… it is all fair game .

 

[jigglet]

Allow me to rephrase:

Developers spent five years mismanaging a new PlayStation VR studio, which abruptly got shut down

 

[fermcr]

Sony supported a studio for 5 years and they didn't deliver. Sony did a "good job" by shutting them down.
Microsoft supported a studio for 4 years to make a game called Scalebound and they didn't deliver... so naturally Microsoft did a "bad job" by telling them to take a hike.

BTW, like I said before VR gaming is a gimmick. Most people won't even bother with it.
You purchase the product all excited, play with it for a couple of weeks, then move on (with your VR equipment gathering dust in the attic)...

 

[mrBandoza]

Well seems like a good descision to close the studio if employees didn’t like to work there. The leadership was vreating a tocic workong environment and progress was non existent.

Feel bad for the people that actually wanted to do something great there but got a toxic workong environment instead. 2 solutions to the situation as I see it. Replace management completely or shut fown the studio.

 

[Outrunner]

The issue is that they are cutting and cutting and cutting over the past decade and there is little to no expansion and a dilution of the brand through putting games on PC.

There needs to be some big acquisitions soon. It cannot be all regressive.

Xbox isn't doing as well as PlayStation yet they have expanded massively in their 1st party. Sony need to show they are building the ecosystem, building the vision of PlayStation.

We did our part as customers...they have never been so profitable and recently it's all been take, take, take with them.

False. They have grown several of their AAA studios in size so they can work in several projects at the same time.

There is no need to acquisition since they already have a better output than the most direct competition.

Xbox NEEDED to do acquire studios since their inhouse studios seemed uncapable of producing games that people wanted to pay for.


You can also look at it in another way. Xbox has spent 7.5B dollars to buy Zenimax, is offering consoles with a subscription service through all-acess, is giving away Game Pass subscription with literally everything, including pringles cans, has a cheaper console on the market and is still third place in the race.

Acquisitions just to please the internet warriors would be the dumbest thing in the world.

 

[Bryank75]

The only thing I can say is that I don’t agree with how you are processing their moves. We cannot be sure of the MLB deal and how it went down, if it was facilitated by the MLB there’s not much Sony could have done to keep the license. As it stands, Sony gets to keep the license and increase their revenues at the same time, I’m sure they would rather it be this way.

Sony is in the business of making money, they are not in the business of losing customers and devaluing their platform, that doesn’t make any sense and I don’t believe any of these moves will lower revenues and engagement. Time will tell but I’m confident a company that relies on fans for money will not just suddenly not care about said fans. Thats literally business 101.

Sony cares about long-term growth and engagement. Porting older games to PC, renewing a favorable MLB license, and closing seriously troubled/under performing studios (while also buying new ones and expanding thriving ones) aren’t moves that hurt the brand.

Also outside of enthusiast boards most PlayStation owners don’t give a rip if Horizon is on PS4. If the game takes advantage of the PS5 and is GOTY that’s all they care about. Sony cares about not sinking 300 million dollars into a game with only 10 million consoles available to purchase said game. That’s the curse of big blockbusters early in a generation, and that’s a serious hurdle Sony needs to figure out for the PS6. Casual fans also would think that switching consoles makes no sense either as they bought a PlayStation for PlayStation games, not Nintendo or Xbox games.

Next years, especially VR will show Sony’s hand 100%.

I have a key question... why are Sony wasting their time adding value to the PC platform, buying a studio for that purpose and not even charging them equal to what PS5 owners have to pay for new games when they could be porting PS3 games to PS4 and PS5 and makiing 100% instead of having to share profits. It would add value to both PS4 and PS5 and renew interest in IP's from that time like Infamous, GOW Ascension, Warhawk, Resistance, MGS4, the old R&C games etc????

There are loads of ways to make money on PlayStation platforms....people are also begging for a new Portable playstation that can play PS3/4 games.

Sony better be aware that Steam Deck arrives next year offering PC, Xbox, Gamepass and any PS game released on PC..... it is priced the same as PS5 and can play on any large screen. The value proposition should be making Sony rethink their PC plans....

For me, the whole thing is a sad state of affairs... I never expected to go from the highs of the PS4 to these lows. They make great games but serve them to us customers with a slap and an insult..... that's how I feel right now about them and I own 2 PS5's.

Steam Deck is about to come along next year and guess what! It can play PC, Xbox and any PS games released on PC...... and it is the same price as PS5 and it has a TV mode. Sony better be thinking about these things....cause it looks like their value proposition is about to look a bit weak beside that.

They are just lucky that the brand is so strong from the past.....

I feel this management team have shown nothing but arrogance and they have certainly shown the opposite of caring about their fanbase so far this generation.
Mobile, cloud and PC are things their fanbase either do not care about or hate.... and they seem to not understand this.

 

[BattleScar]

Also outside of enthusiast boards most PlayStation owners don’t give a rip if Horizon is on PS4. If the game takes advantage of the PS5 and is GOTY that’s all they care about. Sony cares about not sinking 300 million dollars into a game with only 10 million consoles available to purchase said game. That’s the curse of big blockbusters early in a generation, and that’s a serious hurdle Sony needs to figure out for the PS6. Casual fans also would think that switching consoles makes no sense either as they bought a PlayStation for PlayStation games, not Nintendo or Xbox games.

I would like to add, that given the circumstances with console availability, it would be a massive slap in the face to loyal PS4 owners to completely dry up the supply of exclusives for them, when its so hard to buy a PS5 in the first place.

Steam Deck is about to come along next year and guess what! It can play PC, Xbox and any PS games released on PC...... and it is the same price as PS5 and it has a TV mode. Sony better be thinking about these things....cause it looks like their value proposition is about to look a bit weak beside that.

The Steam Deck is also weak hardware. Its about 5 times weaker than a PS5 and nearly 6 times weaker than a Series X.
Its amazingly cool hardware, but at its price its niche as fuck. The cheapest PS5 equivalent price has 64GB of eMMC storage for heaven's sake - its a huge amount of compromise.

 

[RJMacready73]

How is this a negative for Sony? It reads like a negative for the actual studio and it's management, sounds like Sony basically said go make a great game and give them the all the freedom of an individual studio but with the backing and expertise of Sony as a publisher and after 5yrs they had nothing worth a shit to show so where shuttered, I'm I missing something here? This is pretty much standard business practice, you don't keep throwing money at a wall hoping it'll stick, you strategically invest where you'll get the biggest ROI and this studio simply didn't cut the mustard.

 

[LordBlodgett]

5 years in pre-production is ridiculous. Seems like this closure might have been warranted

 

[Bryank75]

False. They have grown several of their AAA studios in size so they can work in several projects at the same time.

There is no need to acquisition since they already have a better output than the most direct competition.

Xbox NEEDED to do acquire studios since their inhouse studios seemed uncapable of producing games that people wanted to pay for.


You can also look at it in another way. Xbox has spent 7.5B dollars to buy Zenimax, is offering consoles with a subscription service through all-acess, is giving away Game Pass subscription with literally everything, including pringles cans, has a cheaper console on the market and is still third place in the race.

Acquisitions just to please the internet warriors would be the dumbest thing in the world.

Well since Xbox is doing so bad, I guess we shouldn't expect anything from PlayStation....that's great.

It's all pathetic.

They will never get higher sales this gen with the attitude they have now.....

I've never seen a brand sabotaged so thoroughly by the people running it.

 

[reksveks]

It’s an interesting article. I don’t think it’s a hit piece like some want to think. The industry likes secrecy and keeping things hush hush which makes these kind of stories feel more grandiose than it is. They had 5 years to create a game and had nothing to show so the studio was closed.

It's a new stories cause no one knew about this studio. But anything that's not positive to some people feels to them to be a hit piece.

 

[Bryank75]

I would like to add, that given the circumstances with console availability, it would be a massive slap in the face to loyal PS4 owners to completely dry up the supply of exclusives for them, when its so hard to buy a PS5 in the first place.



The Steam Deck is also weak hardware. Its about 5 times weaker than a PS5 and nearly 6 times weaker than a Series X.
Its amazingly cool hardware, but at its price its niche as fuck. The cheapest PS5 equivalent price has 64GB of eMMC storage for heaven's sake - its a huge amount of compromise.

The point is that they are losing popularity it seems in Japan, they lost Zenimax games, they lost MLB, they lost Yakuza and Kingdom hearts, they are more expensive to buy games on, they have less studios, exclusives going to PC, the PR is bad, theres no show all year and a million other small things......

Each one of those points may lose only a few thousand customers or some might lose a few million..... but they will all add up.
Seems like they do not value customers. I don't feel valued by them and I see many fans angry about how things are now.

 

[Gameplaylover]

You can also look at it in another way. Xbox has spent 7.5B dollars to buy Zenimax, is offering consoles with a subscription service through all-acess, is giving away Game Pass subscription with literally everything, including pringles cans, has a cheaper console on the market and is still third place in the race.

With all first party games coming to PC, smartphones, tablets and so on day1 it's logical that you can't sell the most hardware. You are losing, i would say, 20-30% potential buyers wih that strategy and Microsoft knows it. It's their long term business plan.

 

[Perrott]

Sony supported a studio for 5 years and they didn't deliver. Sony did a "good job" by shutting them down.
Microsoft supported a studio for 4 years to make a game called Scalebound and they didn't deliver... so naturally Microsoft did a "bad job" by telling them to take a hike.

Microsoft cancelled Scalebound after actively promoting it for more than two years and selling hardware units to people under the promise that Scalebound was going to launch on Xbox One in 2017. So yeah, they did a bad job because with the cancellation news they disappointed all those Xbox fans who had an interest in the title.

 

[fermcr]

Microsoft cancelled Scalebound after actively promoting it for more than two years and selling hardware units to people under the promise that Scalebound was going to launch on Xbox One in 2017. So yeah, they did a bad job because with the cancellation news they disappointed all those Xbox fans who had an interest in the title.

Didn't Sony promote VR for a few years and sold units to people under the promise of VR?
Come with another excuse... 3, 2, 1...

Sometimes, if something doesn't work, might as well just cancel it and move on. Scalebound after 4 years simply wasn't working.

 

[Outrunner]

Well since Xbox is doing so bad, I guess we shouldn't expect anything from PlayStation....that's great.

It's all pathetic.

They will never get higher sales this gen with the attitude they have now.....

I've never seen a brand sabotaged so thoroughly by the people running it.

 

[Gameplaylover]

They will never get higher sales this gen with the attitude they have now.....

I've never seen a brand sabotaged so thoroughly by the people running it.

They don't have to. Let's just say Sony sells 40 million former PS exclusive games on Steam this gen. And let's just say they make 30 bucks profit each. On how many PS5 buyers can Sony shit for that easy money? Millions.

 

[BattleScar]

The point is that they are losing popularity it seems in Japan, they lost Zenimax games, they lost MLB, they lost Yakuza and Kingdom hearts, they are more expensive to buy games on, they have less studios, exclusives going to PC, the PR is bad, theres no show all year and a million other small things......

Each one of those points may lose only a few thousand customers or some might lose a few million..... but they will all add up.
Seems like they do not value customers. I don't feel valued by them and I see many fans angry about how things are now.

They didn't "lose" Kingdom Hearts. It was never theirs to begin with. Kingdom Hearts 3 was multiplatform back when Andrew House was in still in charge. And before then, there were several Kingdom Hearts games released on Nintendo consoles.

Yakuza has also been multiplatform since 2010. They haven't lost them.

MLB is a loss, but was it a system seller? I really doubt it.

 

[Clear]

" But five individuals close to the studio and the project told us more about its development, speaking anonymously as they had signed NDAs regarding their work. They say that, despite being in development for roughly five years, the game they were making lingered in pre-production for much of that time, in part due to endless iteration and a lack of pressure from Sony leadership."

That was the story of Liverpool studio in a nutshell. Outcome the same too.

Shitty management leaving teams in a limbo of endless cycle of prototyping and refactoring.

 

[zedinen]

Kaz Hirai first big decision as Sony CEO

Sony confirms 10,000 layoffs as part of 'One Sony' initiative



Jim Ryan learned from him: Focus on your core strengths, don't spread yourself too thin, and don't be afraid to evolve.

He knows that the console-centric business model has an expiration date, and w/o changes, PlayStation will ended being a relic, just like Walkman and Trinitron.


Unit sales peaked in the 2000s, cost of development has increased between 200% and 300% and network sales won't be able to hide the fact for much longer.

Not to mention that Sony's most profitable game ever has nothing to do with PlayStation.

 

[Bryank75]

They don't have to. Let's just say Sony sells 40 million former PS exclusive games on Steam this gen. And let's just say they make 30 bucks profit each. On how many PS5 buyers can Sony shit for that easy money? Millions.

That is not how Sony makes money...... you do realize PlayStation is way bigger than Steam in terms of revenues and profit!?

If they sell 40 million games on Steam and get 30 profit, that is 1.2 Billion

Lets say because of this and a confluence of other factors with it PlayStation loses 15 million customers.... on average they buy 11 games in the generation and Sony gets a cut of 20 dollars / euro..... that is 3.3 Billion.

Then add PS+ @ 60 for 15 million customers is 900 million, almost a billion per year.

Then add MTX.....

So IF you lose 15 million customers, you are losing potentially 10 Billion across the generation for just 1.2 billion.... and lining Steams pockets with a cut too.

Makes no sense.

 

[Bryank75]

Kaz Hirai first big decision as Sony CEO

Sony confirms 10,000 layoffs as part of 'One Sony' initiative



Jim Ryan learned from him: Focus on your core strengths, don't spread yourself too thin, and don't be afraid to evolve.

He knows that the console-centric business model has an expiration date, and w/o changes, PlayStation will ended being a relic, just like Walkman and Trinitron.


Unit sales peaked in the 2000s, cost of development has increased between 200% and 300% and network sales won't be able to hide the fact for much longer.

Not to mention that Sony's most profitable game ever has nothing to do with PlayStation.

PlayStation just came off their most profitable generation ever..... games may be more expensive to make but they have various new revenue streams. MTX is almost half of the revenue now and 3rd party sales along with PS+.

How does it make sense to weaken the entire platform and potentially lose customers and thus MTX and 3rd party sales (where they make their money) so they can try and make exclusives a small bit more profitable????

The whole idea for exclusives is to attract customers in to then spend on MTX, PS+ and other games......

Do you not see how that is self destructive??? It destroys the model that made them the top dog.

Nintendo still uses the model to excellent effect, nothing has changed....it's just an excuse to justify absolutely cuntish behavior.

 

[Gameplaylover]

That is not how Sony makes money...... you do realize PlayStation is way bigger than Steam in terms of revenues and profit!?

If they sell 40 million games on Steam and get 30 profit, that is 1.2 Billion

Lets say because of this and a confluence of other factors with it PlayStation loses 15 million customers.... on average they buy 11 games in the generation and Sony gets a cut of 20 dollars / euro..... that is 3.3 Billion.

Then add PS+ @ 60 for 15 million customers is 900 million, almost a billion per year.

Then add MTX.....

So IF you lose 15 million customers, you are losing potentially 10 Billion across the generation for just 1.2 billion.... and lining Steams pockets with a cut too.

Makes no sense.

Yeah, but most buyers that buy a PS for exlusives are only interested in those exclusives. Why should a Pc owner buy worse looking 3rd parties or pay for online gaming? Those are the "customers" Sony mainly would lose. There are more than enough people buying a PS and only get some used disc games and no PS+ or Now. That doesn't make Sony any money. Ryan is no idiot, he knows this will pay off.

 

[Bryank75]

They didn't "lose" Kingdom Hearts. It was never theirs to begin with. Kingdom Hearts 3 was multiplatform back when Andrew House was in still in charge. And before then, there were several Kingdom Hearts games released on Nintendo consoles.

Yakuza has also been multiplatform since 2010. They haven't lost them.

MLB is a loss, but was it a system seller? I really doubt it.

No, Yakuza came to Xbox in 2017 as far as I can tell.

Somebody just told me the other day that he knows many people who bought a PS4 just for MLB.....and if they are like me, I bought a Switch for myself for Mario and Zelda but got many more games since I had it there..... so that could be loads of sales gone.

The problem is that it's the complete wrong attitude to sell consoles.... they are aiming the nose of the plane at the ground and pushing the throttle up to full basically.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

At the time, a PlayStation representative told GamesIndustry.biz that the closure was “part of our efforts to improve efficiency and operational effectiveness.” But five individuals close to the studio and the project told us more about its development, speaking anonymously as they had signed NDAs regarding their work. They say that, despite being in development for roughly five years, the game they were making lingered in pre-production for much of that time, in part due to endless iteration and a lack of pressure from Sony leadership.

This is some odd phrasing.

After 5 years of development they had nothing to show for themselves as a studio and the problem was "lack of pressure from Sony leadership"?

Don't they mean, lack of studio leadership?

Playstation WWS doesn't micromanage their studios. Surely the Manchester studio heads would have thought after 5 years they could have zeroed in on a game concept that they could move into full production on. The lack of decision-making at the studio is the problem, which in effect relates to a lack of creative vision. I don't see how the publisher can be blamed for that.

 

[Bryank75]

Yeah, but most buyers that buy a PS for exlusives are only interested in those exclusives. Why should a Pc owner buy worse looking 3rd parties or pay for online gaming? Those are the "customers" Sony mainly would lose. There are more than enough people buying a PS and only get some used disc games and no PS+ or Now. That doesn't make Sony any money. Ryan is no idiot, he knows this will pay off.

Nope, I got a Switch for Mario and Zelda but ended up getting lots of other games. My brother is a PC gamer and bought a PS4 for one particular game but then bought loads of others like MK11, Sekiro and others.

If you have a console, you feel inclined to buy stuff since it's there.... sometimes to avoid cheating, sometimes because you want to try another exclusive etc.

This whole notion of a person buying a console and only having one game is such bullshit, you'd have to be an idiot to think that it's a valid argument.

I mean, why make consoles at all if you're gonna have that attitude???

 

[RoboFu]

The only one who are creative enough to make vr mainstream is Nintendo and we have about two more gens before the tech is to a cheap enough point that they even think of trying.

 

[SaucyJack]

This is some odd phrasing.

After 5 years of development they had nothing to show for themselves as a studio and the problem was "lack of pressure from Sony leadership"?

Don't they mean, lack of studio leadership?

Playstation WWS doesn't micromanage their studios. Surely the Manchester studio heads would have thought after 5 years they could have zeroed in on a game concept that they could move into full production on. The lack of decision-making at the studio is the problem, which in effect relates to a lack of creative vision. I don't see how the publisher can be blamed for that.

Totally agree.

This wasn’t a big studio either, 15 devs the article says. So a small team was spun up to make VR games, they didn’t deliver anything and after 5 years they were closed.

 

[Perrott]

Didn't Sony promote VR for a few years and sold units to people under the promise of VR?
Come with another excuse... 3, 2, 1...

Like it or not, if a thing doesn't work, might as well just close it and move on. Scalebound after 4 years simply wasn't working.

Sony sold PSVR units under the premise of VR games in general (of which there were plently during the headset's lifecycle, both by Sony and third-party developers), not of Manchester Studio's project specifically because that game was never shown to the public.

That's clearly not the same as announcing that Xbox One would receive a game called Scalebound, then promoting the said title for various years as one of the exclusives to look forward to in the future and then cancelling the project in the year it was supposed to finally come out.

 

[Mr Moose]

Didn't Sony promote VR for a few years and sold units to people under the promise of VR?
Come with another excuse... 3, 2, 1...

Like it or not, if a thing doesn't work, might as well just close it and move on. Scalebound after 4 years simply wasn't working.

Did they promote this studios game for a few years?
Didn't MicroSoft try to add MP stuff to Scalebound?

 

[Gameplaylover]

Nope, I got a Switch for Mario and Zelda but ended up getting lots of other games. My brother is a PC gamer and bought a PS4 for one particular game but then bought loads of others like MK11, Sekiro and others.

If you have a console, you feel inclined to buy stuff since it's there.... sometimes to avoid cheating, sometimes because you want to try another exclusive etc.

This whole notion of a person buying a console and only having one game is such bullshit, you'd have to be an idiot to think that it's a valid argument.

I mean, why make consoles at all if you're gonna have that attitude???

Well, guess Ryan and i are idiots then. Going multi will pay off for Sony in the long term. Maybe there won't be anymore hardware sale records, but who cares? Jim doesn't.

 

[yurinka]

I think it's understandable to shut down the studio if they weren't able to release even a small VR game in 5 years. This team was made of experienced devs and being in Manchester the cost of this project and studio may have been too expensive and unprofitable for VR games. Specially now that PSVR game sales must be pretty low and PSVR2 seems to be at least a year away.

I assume they expected to deliver the game in a couple of years and saw that after 5 years the game still sucked, and saw that in any case the sales were going to be crap and PSVR2 was still far away, so they thought that their resources were better invested in other, more profitable projects and teams.

Sometimes games work and sometimes they get canned. And well, studios get shut down.

"Why the PS5 Sucks'
"Concern in Japan about ps5 sales" (Its sold 200k more than the ps4 did at this point launches aligned
"Its bad that the ps5 is the market leader"- IGN guy
"Sony closed down a studio after 5 years with nothing to show for."

All of this in less than a week. Clearly theres an agenda here.

I think there isn't an agenda, it's just a mixture of random tabloid clickbaity articles and fanboys using them in forums as fuel to spread fud in console wars. I mean, this studio nobody cared about was closed a year and a half ago. I don't see what's the point of making the article and thread today.

Another Sony victim. How many now? 6/7 studios shut? As this point is almost at EA level.

According to wikipedia Sony has 17 studios inside SIE Worldwide studios plus the mobile gaming one that is outside Worldwide Studios and closed 8 studios including this one. EA closed 29 studios.

 

[Bryank75]

Well, guess Ryan and i are idiots then. Going multi will pay off for Sony in the long term. Maybe there won't be anymore hardware sale records, but who cares? Jim doesn't.

Of course he doesn't...he just wants the quick cashgrab to be able to say 'highest profits ever' before he retires to his bonus will shoot up and it really doesn't matter to him if PlayStation collapses after that.

That was always my impression of his strategy.

 

[RJMacready73]

The only one who are creative enough to make vr mainstream is Nintendo and we have about two more gens before the tech is to a cheap enough point that they even think of trying.

Not everyone likes Nintendo games, I view them as kids games and would have zero interest in anything Nintendo VR related tbh

 

[mckmas8808]

It's the publisher's job to make sure their studios deliver and their investments pay off. It's on the employer to make sure their investments payoff not the employees (through competency in proper project assembly, guidance, and support).

This is 100% WRONG! Jesus, it's so wrong that it makes me wonder if you're trolling.

 

[Dabaus]

I have on good authority that there are various acquisition moves Sony is planning to pull off in the (near?) future, so you'll most probably get what you want unless the negotiations fall apart or they get outbid. Have some patience, because Sony is not sitting around doing nothing behind the scenes.

Edit: Yeah, give me all those "LOL" reactions, you morons, let's see who's laughing in some months, assholes.

Like BIG moves like a publisher moves or just just individual studios?

 

[Perrott]

Like BIG moves like a publisher moves or just just individual studios?

Both actually

 

[Dabaus]

Both actually

Jeeze, I hope your right. Sqaure or capcom are the only publishers I could see sony going for. Mayyyybe take 2 if they wanted to blow all their profits from the last few years.

 

[Bryank75]

Both actually

 

[Bryank75]

Jeeze, I hope your right. Sqaure or capcom are the only publishers I could see sony going for. Mayyyybe take 2 if they wanted to blow all their profits from the last few years.

They could go half and half.... half debt, half cash. But I would assume Ubisoft, Square or Kadokawa would be more likely.

Dunno if I mentioned here but Ubisoft is very cheap right now for a company of their size and could go cheaper due to the issues they have.

 

[Zekra Dezivad]

New article on a old news?

 

[RoboFu]

Not everyone likes Nintendo games, I view them as kids games and would have zero interest in anything Nintendo VR related tbh

and you are the one person who determines if something is mainstream or not? All you have to do is look at the history of video games ot see that Nintendo is at forefront of each eveolution. Sorry that hurts your adult feelings.

 

[reksveks]

Dunno if I mentioned here but Ubisoft is very cheap right now for a company of their size and could go cheaper due to the issues they have.

Not sure ubisoft works for your vision of playstation at least in the short term, 33 of their revenue is on Sony platforms, 8 is on mobile and 58 is on other platforms.

https://lb-aps-frontend.statista.com/statistics/269679/breakdown-of-ubisoft-sales-by-platform/

I can't see Sony buying them and then killing the majority of their revenue stream in the hope they increase revenue on the Playstation platform.