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[Kurimao]

 

[Mibu no ookami]

How do you make sure that whatever art assets that get shown aren't stolen, either? I doubt they got these things sorted out so quickly.

Don't think that's as big a deal as people think. You pay the artist in question and you move on.

They have far bigger problems on their hands.

In my opinion you decide now whether to give this game another year and a half in the oven, retooling the entire art direction and maybe building a single player mode or you just cancel the game.

 

[nial]

Don't think that's as big a deal as people think. You pay the artist in question and you move on.

They have far bigger problems on their hands.

In my opinion you decide now whether to give this game another year and a half in the oven, retooling the entire art direction and maybe building a single player mode or you just cancel the game.

Yeah, again, the entire game is being set on a review process to determine what else was stolen. It's not as easy as paying (and how much, even?) the artist when people discovered even more stolen assets after the initial ones.

 

[schaft0620]

I need to know the exact number of games they canceled and how many games are in production right now. They used to give this.

I think it would make people sick if we got the full number of games that were canceled. I bet its 3 to 5 times what is rumored.

 

[Yoboman]

Live hanging?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Yeah, again, the entire game is being set on a review process to determine what else was stolen. It's not as easy as paying (and how much, even?) the artist when people discovered even more stolen assets after the initial ones.

That's exactly what you do and exactly what you'd have to do when settling in court.

You find a number that both sides find appropriate. We're not talking about millions of dollars worth of art here. A check for like 50-60K clears this up.

This is not what would hold back the game.

 

[nial]

That's exactly what you do and exactly what you'd have to do when settling in court.

You find a number that both sides find appropriate. We're not talking about millions of dollars worth of art here. A check for like 50-60K clears this up.

This is not what would hold back the game.

I don't know man, coming after that and Bungie realizing an internal review process sounds exactly what would hold everything back. Probably even delaying the game as well.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Will they reveal how much they actually spent on Concord??

 

[nial]

I need to know the exact number of games they canceled and how many games are in production right now. They used to give this.

I think it would make people sick if we got the full number of games that were canceled. I bet its 3 to 5 times what is rumored.

Unless you're an actual shareholder, you don't really *need* to know that. And it's not 3 to 5 times what is rumored, either. Don't be ridiculous.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I need to know the exact number of games they canceled and how many games are in production right now. They used to give this.

I think it would make people sick if we got the full number of games that were canceled. I bet its 3 to 5 times what is rumored.

They have never told us every game that was cancelled... People love to revise history.

We just recently found out about a canceled game at Sucker Punch before Ghost of Tsushima.

 

[adamsapple]

Will they reveal how much they actually spent on Concord??

hah, unless there are some SEC filing type requests, that's as secret Sony will take to their graves.

 

[ProtoByte]

I hope there is an investor or set of investor who is enough of a PS fanboy to ask the following questions:

• Why is Hermen still here?
• Why are you going down the MAU obsessed path that led the Xbox platform to destruction??
• Can you guarantee going forward that you will not make every wrong decision with your first party teams
• Why do you hate the success of the PS4?
• Why have you not committed the corporate (metaphorical) equivalence of seppuku, Hermen?

These dummies need to be reamed. Feel the pressure. PlayStation Nation demands better of its Sovereign.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I hope there is an investor or set of investor who is enough of a PS fanboy to ask the following questions:

• Why is Hermen still here?

Why is the CEO of the Studio Business Group there representing software and transmedia? Weird question.

• Why are you going down the MAU obsessed path that led the Xbox platform to destruction??

Because MAU is a mature way to look at platform based TAM...

Sony is going to have the PS4, PS5, PS Handheld, and probably even the PS6 all on the market at the same time... Individually do you really think that their individual hardware sales is what matters to Sony and not how many people they have collectively across devices playing the same games?

MAU did not lead to the Xbox platforms destruction. The lack of quality first party titles, combined with poorly executed hail marys to become relevant to the market again lead to its destruction.

• Can you guarantee going forward that you will not make every wrong decision with your first party teams

LOL. Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarok are two of the best selling games in SIE history. Astro Bot won game of the year last year.

• Why do you hate the success of the PS4?

LOL

• Why have you not committed the corporate (metaphorical) equivalence of seppuku, Hermen?

LOL

These dummies need to be reamed. Feel the pressure. PlayStation Nation demands better of its Sovereign.

dummies huh

 

[schaft0620]

They have never told us every game that was cancelled... People love to revise history.

We just recently found out about a canceled game at Sucker Punch before Ghost of Tsushima.

Sorry that was two different thoughts, they used to say how many games were in production not both.

 

[schaft0620]

Unless you're an actual shareholder, you don't really *need* to know that. And it's not 3 to 5 times what is rumored, either. Don't be ridiculous.

We find out about more every month it seems like. Plus at Insomniac it could be as many as 4 games. We know they canceled 2.

 

[nial]

We find out about more every month it seems like. Plus at Insomniac it could be as many as 4 games. We know they canceled 2.

How so? We only know about one that didn't even start production.

 

[Fake]

Will they reveal how much they actually spent on Concord??

Either reveal or get leaked.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Sorry that was two different thoughts, they used to say how many games were in production not both.

And people used to complain about Sony announcing games too soon and it increased crunch at studios which made retention and recruiting more difficult.

At the end of the day you can't make everyone happy, but the priority is pretty clear.

In the end you knowing how many games are in production does absolutely nothing. You already own a PS5. The number does nothing for you and the average person wouldn't know and if they knew they wouldn't care.

The impact on the actual studios on the other hand is tangible. Though I wonder how many people would like to be able to discuss what they're working on more publicly.

 

[SABRE220]

Yeah this should be fun,,,,

So, Herman, what's the plan?

Why have all of our first-party single-player studios delivered fk all this gen?
Why has the gaas inititaive that came at the cost of our whole first party output this gen resulted in only cancelled projects and billions in sunk cost?
Why has the premier multiplayer gaas studio that you put to spearhead your new gaas focused vision delivered such a hated beta? Have you even been keeping track these guys have been caught stealing for the third fkn time! and why are we allowing tencent to buy our only successfull Gaas sudio?
Why have our studios, respected as the leaders in pushing tech fallen behind even AA studios with 1/10th the budget?

"Don't worry, guys! We have a mmorpg horizon, horizon visual novel, rts and movie incoming to make aloy the new face of playstation and seven new remasters of our ps4 games coming out in the next two years, Also PS " Neil Druckman has decided to spend this gen dedicated to transitioning their Ips to Hollywood, so we might have to move Interstellar to align with the PS6 launch."

 

[NickFire]

I hope there is an investor or set of investor who is enough of a PS fanboy to ask the following questions:

• Why is Hermen still here?
• Why are you going down the MAU obsessed path that led the Xbox platform to destruction??
• Can you guarantee going forward that you will not make every wrong decision with your first party teams
• Why do you hate the success of the PS4?
• Why have you not committed the corporate (metaphorical) equivalence of seppuku, Hermen?

These dummies need to be reamed. Feel the pressure. PlayStation Nation demands better of its Sovereign.

Savage. But a couple are totally fair questions. Rest are hysterical.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Someone should ask "Years ago, you said all Sony needs is one successful GAAS to cover the rest. Can you show us how Helldivers 2 covers all the failed GAAS games, cancelled games and studios and spending $3.6B on Bungie?"

 

[ProtoByte]

Why is the CEO of the Studio Business Group there representing software and transmedia? Weird question.

You know what I mean. Ie why hasn't Hermen Hulst been summarily dismissed? He shouldn't be representing the studio that made Gollum, let alone PlayStation 1st party.

Sony is going to have the PS4, PS5, PS Handheld, and probably even the PS6 all on the market at the same time... Individually do you really think that their individual hardware sales is what matters to Sony and not how many people they have collectively across devices playing the same games?

It should, because purchases mean revenue. MAU doesn't mean anything by itself. Are those people playing Fortnite on PS4 right now contributing anywhere near as much revenue as the people on the PS5? The answer is no. Is the entire market on Steam, which beats all others in terms of MAU, generate as much revenue as PS or PS+Nintendo alone? Probably not, and no.

Sales of consoles and games are the egg, MAU is the chicken. No sales = no MAU.

By the way, if Sony is so confident and honest about chasing MAUs, why are they not committing to reporting PS+ numbers anymore? It's the exact same ploy as Microsoft - executives fabricate numbers and meaningless stats to get an easy bonus, pivot what's attach to the bonus when those numbers don't look so favourable.

MAU did not lead to the Xbox platforms destruction. The lack of quality first party titles, combined with poorly executed hail marys to become relevant to the market again lead to its destruction.

This is said so many times with no irony.
Patently incorrect. You're making it out like these things are disconnected.
The egg is the strategy MS employed. The problem doesn't specifically start with the XBO, but it becomes obvious there. They wanted a ubiquitous multimedia box that would attract people who had no interest in video games. They wanted the Xbox platform to become an extension in the windows ecosystem. When people didn't bite, they shifted towards Windows PC store in order to beef up numbers. When that didn't work, they reached for Steam. When that didn't work, they shifted towards being the "Netflix of games" talking about 2 billion gamers that don't exist. They paired this with a failed streaming initiative. Now, having bought out half the industry in order to beef up their service, they've shifted to trying to reach into every platform and device you can possibly think of, to the point of slapping an Xbox logo on a ROG Ally that won't even be closed in on their ecosystem.

By virtue of being occupied with being a service based multimedia box, Microsoft did not have the wherewithal, intent, and resources to actually incubate a solid games production pipeline. That's why there was a drought of solid first party games. They couldn't even make good use of the resources they had. They still haven't - their answer has just been to buy shit out whether or not it actually fits/works. The quality and pace is definitely up from where it was, but it's still not working because they're still being held back by the lack of ability and sensibility of their leadership, and by the fact that they're trading off selling games with offering them on subscriptions to claw at the highest possible number of "users" (see: The Dark Ages). Which does fundamentally change the calculus on what projects you greenlight and how much investment goes into them.

What did Sony do this gen? They started smelling the live service syrup, wasting anywhere from 4-9 years of studio time and money for the studios that released the SP games that gave them their record breaking success last gen. And their margins are lower this gen throughout. They wasted billions on buying Bungie, Haven, supporting Deviation and more. An entire generation has been washed because of their shit. And the primary concern of live services are MAU and "engagement". This is also how they were so fucking stupid they thought they needed to "test" what would happen if they put Forbidden West on PS+ and wound up losing money.

Now, they don't have enough first party games to muster up an even bi-annual showcase (and the last one was total shit), despite having more "first party studios" than ever before.

And the launch sales for SM2 and Ragnarok have less to do with those games and more to do with their PS4 predecessors. It's the Part II effect on a much smaller scale.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

You know what I mean. Ie why hasn't Hermen Hulst been summarily dismissed? He shouldn't be representing the studio that made Gollum, let alone PlayStation 1st party.

If Hermen was fired I wouldn't be shocked or disappointed, but I think too many people lay all the blame on his feet while ignoring accomplishments that would also be attributed to him.

How many Game of The Year Awards has Matt Booty brought into Microsoft? How many 10+ million selling franchises? Hermen was in charge of Guerrilla and that studio created from scratch in modern times a 20 million selling game with a follow up that sold over 10 million copies. His team put together Decima and his relationship and Decima brought in Hideo Kojima which also resulted in a 10+ million seller.

Under his watch Japan Studio was restructured and resulted in Team Asobi winning GOTY.

Transmedia has been a huge success under his watch with one of the most popular tv shows in tv history... that has contributed to selling millions more copies of software...

Killzone was also a major franchise.

It should, because purchases mean revenue. MAU doesn't mean anything by itself. Are those people playing Fortnite on PS4 right now contributing anywhere near as much revenue as the people on the PS5? The answer is no. Is the entire market on Steam, which beats all others in terms of MAU, generate as much revenue as PS or PS+Nintendo alone? Probably not, and no.

Sales of consoles and games are the egg, MAU is the chicken.

I know it hurts, but you should probably hear this. Fortnite whether on PS4 or PS5 brings in more revenue for Sony than like 99% of games... But the key thing there is there are people who only play CoD or only play Fornite. Whether they're on PS4 or PS5 it doesn't matter. They're more likely to play games like EA FC that are also cross gen. It's the casual market.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what device people are playing as long as they're playing it in Sony's ecosystem. You're stuck in the past.

By the way, if Sony is so confident and honest about chasing MAUs, why are they not committing to reporting PS+ numbers anymore? It's the exact same ploy as Microsoft - executives fabricate numbers and meaningless stats to get an easy bonus, pivot what's attach to the bonus when those numbers don't look so favourable.

PS+ isn't MAUs... You're conflating two different things entirely. One is a subscription service. The other is active users whether they're playing online games or not. PS+ classics or not. Cloud or not. Most subscription services are no longer reporting numbers because the reporting only serves to hurt your stock price, because subscription services are no longer growing. It's actually ANOTHER reason why you want to look at MAUs because MAUs tell you the overall health of your business much more than individual numbers like console sales.

That Sony doesn't care if casuals play on PS4 or PS5 really rubs a lot of fanboys the wrong way, but it's a reality. Sony could sell 50 million PS5s next year by dropping the price of consoles to 100 bucks. Obviously that would destroy their P&L, which is also what matters more than console sales.

This is said so many times with no irony.
Patently incorrect. You're making it out like these things are disconnected.
The egg is the strategy MS employed. The problem doesn't specifically start with the XBO, but it becomes obvious there. They wanted a ubiquitous multimedia box that would attract people who had no interest in video games. They wanted the Xbox platform to become an extension in the windows ecosystem. When people didn't bite, they shifted towards Windows PC store in order to beef up numbers. When that didn't work, they reached for Steam. When that didn't work, they shifted towards being the "Netflix of games" talking about 2 billion gamers that don't exist. They paired this with a failed streaming initiative. Now, having bought out half the industry in order to beef up their service, they've shifted to trying to reach into every platform and device you can possibly think of, to the point of slapping an Xbox logo on a ROG Ally that won't even be closed in on their ecosystem.

Look at the largest companies in the world and fine me one that is locked down to one device rather than services and platforms... Again... you're living in the past.

By virtue of being occupied with being a service based multimedia box, Microsoft did not have the wherewithal, intent, and resources to actually incubate a solid games production pipeline. That's why there was a drought of solid first party games. They couldn't even make good use of the resources they had. They still haven't - their answer has just been to buy shit out whether or not it actually fits/works. The quality and pace is definitely up from where it was, but it's still not working because they're still being held back by the lack of ability and sensibility of their leadership, and by the fact that they're trading off selling games with offering them on subscriptions to claw at the highest possible number of "users" (see: The Dark Ages). Which does fundamentally change the calculus on what projects you greenlight and how much investment goes into them.

What did Sony do this gen? They started smelling the live service syrup, wasting anywhere from 4-9 years of studio time and money for the studios that released the SP games that gave them their record breaking success last gen. And their margins are lower this gen throughout. They wasted billions on buying Bungie, Haven, supporting Deviation and more. An entire generation has been washed because of their shit. And the primary concern of live services are MAU and "engagement". This is also how they were so fucking stupid they thought they needed to "test" what would happen if they put Forbidden West on PS+ and wound up losing money.

Sony has launched several successful live service games, but people only focuses on the failures. Sony just announced what will probably be the biggest live service game of 2026...

Sony's not short of money. Spending money on startup studios isn't wasting time. It's buying time you otherwise wouldn't have...

Now, they don't have enough first party games to muster up an even bi-annual showcase (and the last one was total shit), despite having more "first party studios" than ever before.

And the launch sales for SM2 and Ragnarok have less to do with those games and more to do with their PS4 predecessors. It's the Part II effect on a much smaller scale.

Sequels always sell well right? That is news to me.

 

[Perrott]

I need to know the exact number of games they canceled and how many games are in production right now.

I'm not gonna count Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games here since they're too fresh off a project cancelation, and neither will Nixxes since they're too unpredictable and mostly focus on porting existing games to the PC platform.

• Bungie
  • (1) Marathon
• Dark Outlaw Games
  • (2) New IP
• Firesprite
  • (3) Until Dawn sequel
• Guerrilla Games
  • (4) Horizon live-service
  • (5) Horizon sequel
• Haven Studios
  • (6) Fairgames
• Housemarque
  • (7) Saros
• Insomniac Games
  • (8) Marvel's Spider-Man sequel
  • (9) Marvel's Spider-Man spin-off (Venom)
  • (10) Marvel's Wolverine
• Media Molecule
  • (11) New IP
• Naughty Dog
  • (12) Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet
  • (13) Existing IP sequel
• Polyphony Digital
  • (14) Gran Turismo sequel
• San Diego Studio
  • (15) MLB The Show
• Santa Monica Studio
  • (16) God of War sequel
  • (17) New IP
• Sucker Punch Productions
  • (18) Ghost of Yotei
• Team Asobi
  • (19) Astro Bot sequel (?)
• teamLFG
  • (20) New IP

That's as far as it goes for Sony-owned teams. Now let's look at XDEV produced PS Studios games as well as titles that carry the "SIE Presents" moniker:

• Arc System Works
  • (21) Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls
• FromSoftware
  • (22) New IP
• Kojima Productions
  • (23) Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
  • (24) Physint (working title)
• People Can Fly
  • (25) Existing IP sequel
• Shift Up (?)
  • (26) Stellar Blade sequel
• UltiZero Games
  • (27) Lost Soul Aside
• Velan Studios
  • (28) Midnight Murder Club
• ????????
  • (29) God of War 2D spin-off

And that's not counting any stuff that we might not be privy to, such as the recent Marvel Tokon announcement that came out of nowhere.