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UK/R.O.I GAF - Thread of geopolitical confusion

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L

Little Old Man

Member
SmokyDave said:
Sony Liverpool, man :(

The rise and fall of the UK games industry is heartbreaking.
Click to expand...

I am honestly gutted. As brilliant as the games are though, I don't think they have sold too well recently, and a big cause of that is Sony's poor marketing on the Wipeout games, and for the PS3 and Vita in general.

I also get the feeling that Sony didn't seem to trust them with many projects either given how little they've released this generation.
 
S

Suairyu

Banned
SmokyDave said:
Sony Liverpool, man :(

The rise and fall of the UK games industry is heartbreaking.
Click to expand...
Them and Bizarre Creations are my most strongly felt UK-dev deaths. Technical gods, both of them.

This feels like SEGA is dead all over again. My first Wipeout experience was on Saturn.
 
S

StealthGoblin

Banned
zomgbbqftw said:
No, Cambridge is bullet-proof. Without Cambridge SCEE falls apart. They have been working on PS4 for a while now, just as they were the first SCEE studio to break ground on PS3.
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They are the SCEE tech team, but a lot of the old guard left out of disgust. They are basically Guerilla Games Cambridge now. Cambridge have had so many games cancelled its unreal.

All of the SCEE studios have been working on PS4 games for a while. Liverpool had two games on the go simultaneously, Media Molecule have one, Evolution have two, Guerrilla Games (Amsterdam office) have three games on the go.

A family member of mine was doing next-gen software R&D for PS4 at Cambridge a few years ago (and did some work with Liverpool), he is incredibly bitter about what went down. He effectively said the place is soulless now.
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
Galvanise_ said:
They are the SCEE tech team, but a lot of the old guard left out of disgust. They are basically Guerilla Games Cambridge now. Cambridge have had so many games cancelled its unreal.

All of the SCEE studios have been working on PS4 games for a while. Liverpool had two games on the go simultaneously, Media Molecule have one, Evolution have two, Guerrilla Games (Amsterdam office) have three games on the go.

A family member of mine was doing next-gen software R&D for PS4 at Cambridge a few years ago (and did some work with Liverpool), he is incredibly bitter about what went down. He effectively said the place is soulless now.
Click to expand...

I've never understood SCEE's compulsion to put GG in charge of SCEE development, they are, IMO, a second rate studio well behind Team Soho (of old) and Cambridge (of old). I really don't get it at all.
 
S

StealthGoblin

Banned
zomgbbqftw said:
I've never understood SCEE's compulsion to put GG in charge of SCEE development, they are, IMO, a second rate studio well behind Team Soho (of old) and Cambridge (of old). I really don't get it at all.
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I'm unsure of why that is too. Herman Hulst is essentially overseeing four projects now. Insane. Cambridge were the ones that bailed out Guerrilla, Ninja Theory etc when they fucked up. Cambridge should have been the kingmaker.
 
Z

Zaph

Member
Hopefully next year's tax breaks will give the UK game industry the boost it needs. It's just a fucking shame that Labour's plans to do this in 2010 were scrapped when the Tories came into power.

Think of all those studios in the last couple years that may have been saved :( I know Bizarre Creations sealed their fate as Activision was budgeting with them in mind.

It's just too damn expensive to develop in the UK.
 
Musha_Soturi

Musha_Soturi

Member
EviLore said:
Yo, Kentpaul, when are we hitting the town?!
Click to expand...

What just happened here...

A) It's the fever talking
B) Evilore got hacked (highly unlikely)
C) Evilore is taking the piss
D) Evilore has been confused by our dry British wit and genuinely thinks Kent is an awesome guy who would be great fun on a night out

Just keep watch behind you when you go to the gents Evil...
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
Galvanise_ said:
I'm unsure of why that is too. Herman Hulst is essentially overseeing four projects now. Insane. Cambridge were the ones that bailed out Guerrilla, Ninja Theory etc when they fucked up. Cambridge should have been the kingmaker.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Cambridge are/were the tech gods of gaming (possibly the world leaders at one point) for them to be taking orders from the studio they bailed out, and whose games, given the level of investment, have sold poorly is something I will never understand. Unless Hulst has some kind of super Voodoo he is using on Yoshida and Jim Ryan I don't really get it.

I really would have thought Jim Ryan and Andrew House would have favoured Cambridge and Liverpool over GG (given their history), but maybe canning GG after all the investment in Killzone would be too much of a climbdown for corporate.
 
B

blahblah...blah

Member
Musha_Soturi said:
What just happened here...

A) It's the fever talking
B) Evilore got hacked (highly unlikely)
C) Evilore is taking the piss
D) Evilore has been confused by our dry British wit and genuinely thinks Kent is an awesome guy who would be great fun on a night out

Just keep watch behind you when you go to the gents Evil...
Click to expand...

You should know, Evil, that Musha here is sort of the Rachel to Kent's Ross. Every week, we UK-GAFfers tune in for the latest escapades in their on/off, will-they-won't-they romance. So, as much as you and Kent will likely soon be best of friends, you'll always be the third wheel!
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
Zaph said:
Hopefully next year's tax breaks will give the UK game industry the boost it needs. It's just a fucking shame that Labour's plans to do this in 2010 were scrapped when the Tories came into power.

Think of all those studios in the last couple years that may have been saved :( I know Bizarre Creations sealed their fate as Activision was budgeting with them in mind.

It's just too damn expensive to develop in the UK.
Click to expand...

The original tax breaks were not very well designed, don't get me wrong, they were better than nothing, but what is coming seems to be better than what was previously put forward.

An employment tax breaks for junior developers and graduates doesn't really keep high level development in the UK. The planned tax cuts are basically budget rebates like those that the UK film industry enjoys.
 
D

daviyoung

Banned
Musha_Soturi said:
D) Evilore has been confused by our dry British wit and genuinely thinks Kent is an awesome guy who would be great fun on a night out
Click to expand...

But he is an awesome guy

My-Dog-Collars1.jpg
 
S

Seanbob11

Member
Musha_Soturi said:
What just happened here...

A) It's the fever talking
B) Evilore got hacked (highly unlikely)
C) Evilore is taking the piss
D) Evilore has been confused by our dry British wit and genuinely thinks Kent is an awesome guy who would be great fun on a night out

Just keep watch behind you when you go to the gents Evil...
Click to expand...

You're just jelly he doesn't want to come to your London meetup! :p
 
Jedeye Sniv

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
IamMikeside said:
We need to sort out the games industry here.
Why aren't we looking at Canada and taking note?


Slightly related - My company actually sells all the desktops and laptops that Activision Europe use.

You should see the business park that Acti HQ has in Uxbridge.
GORGEOUS.




And Acti have recently opened/bought a studio in Leeds.
Click to expand...

Every time I go to Guildford I want to go to the EA/Critereon building and say wassup. I love Burnout, the fact that those guys were making the game a stones throw from my old work was both awe inspiring and frustrating. I would sell a testicle to work there (if they met my current salary obvs..).

I think loads of devs are based down this way, aren't Lionhead in Guildford somewhere? I remember the old Bullfrog building, my mate did his work experience there. This is why I love the UK devs, it feels so local.
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
Jedeye Sniv said:
Every time I go to Guildford I want to go to the EA/Critereon building and say wassup. I love Burnout, the fact that those guys were making the game a stones throw from my old work was both awe inspiring and frustrating. I would sell a testicle to work there (if they met my current salary obvs..).

I think loads of devs are based down this way, aren't Lionhead in Guildford somewhere? I remember the old Bullfrog building, my mate did his work experience there. This is why I love the UK devs, it feels so local.
Click to expand...

EA are based out in Guildford so it attracted a lot of other studios there. I think Konami are moving the PES team to Guildford as well now.
 
Jedeye Sniv

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
Musha_Soturi said:
What just happened here...

A) It's the fever talking
B) Evilore got hacked (highly unlikely)
C) Evilore is taking the piss
D) Evilore has been confused by our dry British wit and genuinely thinks Kent is an awesome guy who would be great fun on a night out

Just keep watch behind you when you go to the gents Evil...
Click to expand...

Musha you so cruel, girl. I would hang out with Kent in a heatbeat. We would do all the drugs and it would be beautiful. I wouldn't understand a word he was saying, and he would think I'm a soft southern jeremy (I am).

Evilore, if you do go to Scotland, make sure Kent sorts you out one of those Indian pizzas.
 
M

Mikeside

Member
Jedeye Sniv said:
Every time I go to Guildford I want to go to the EA/Critereon building and say wassup. I love Burnout, the fact that those guys were making the game a stones throw from my old work was both awe inspiring and frustrating. I would sell a testicle to work there (if they met my current salary obvs..).

I think loads of devs are based down this way, aren't Lionhead in Guildford somewhere? I remember the old Bullfrog building, my mate did his work experience there. This is why I love the UK devs, it feels so local.
Click to expand...

Yeah Guildford has a fairly vibrant scene -
Supermassive
Lionhead
EA
Critereon
Media Molecule
DoubleSix
Codemasters
and not too far away there is also The Creative Assembly and BigHead

I wish I had game development skills :(
 
S

StealthGoblin

Banned
IamMikeside said:
Yeah Guildford has a fairly vibrant scene -
Supermassive
Lionhead
EA
Critereon
Media Molecule
DoubleSix
Codemasters
and not too far away there is also The Creative Assembly and BigHead

I wish I had game development skills :(
Click to expand...

Supermassive are ones to watch. Big deals with Sony and the BBC under their belts. They are a Sony 2nd party studio. They've done well with Move so far. Hopefully they can get into Vita big time.
 
M

Mikeside

Member
Galvanise_ said:
Supermassive are ones to watch. Big deals with Sony and the BBC under their belts. They are a Sony 2nd party studio. They've done well with Move so far. Hopefully they can get into Vita big time.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they did a great job with Tumble as an incredibly fun tech demo for Move, essentially.

It turned out to be the one game I enjoyed playing with Move.

I really hope they come out with something for Vita soon
 
J

Juicy Bob

Member
Kentpaul said:
Then why not just make up new teams altogether? Sure as fuck beats the half assed man blue shit.
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Because everything is so brilliantly customisable in the game and people throw up fully authentic updates and option files to download for any system.

I'm not a big football fan, so the licence issue doesn't actually bother me. I vastly prefer PES' gameplay to FIFA's.
 
S

SmokyDave

Member
Jesus my perception of time is really messed up today. I feel like I can count to 500 in a minute. The last 49 minutes have taken so long I swear I can feel some facial hair growth. This seems to be the only unpleasant side-effect of quitting so far, but quite unpleasant it is.

Juicy Bob said:
Lack of licences does not a bad game make.
Click to expand...

Unless it's a 'licence management simulator'.
 
Jedeye Sniv

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
Galvanise_ said:
Supermassive are ones to watch. Big deals with Sony and the BBC under their belts. They are a Sony 2nd party studio. They've done well with Move so far. Hopefully they can get into Vita big time.
Click to expand...

Are those the guys that are making the Dr Who games? I think my wife's roller derby buddy works there.
 
K

Kentpaul

When keepin it real goes wrong. Very, very wrong.
Dave don't be a soccer mum. Pop a tube of pringes and stop thinking about the long white pleasure sticks and awesome conversations that are had round the pleasure sticks.

Serious question.

How are you going to remain smoke free when you are drunk?
 
Musha_Soturi

Musha_Soturi

Member
SmokyDave said:
Jesus my perception of time is really messed up today. I feel like I can count to 500 in a minute. The last 49 minutes have taken so long I swear I can feel some facial hair growth. This seems to be the only unpleasant side-effect of quitting so far, but quite unpleasant it is.
Click to expand...

Hang in there dude, you can do it. It gets easier.
 
S

SmokyDave

Member
Kentpaul said:
Dave don't be a soccer mum. Pop a tube of pringes and stop thinking about the long white pleasure sticks and awesome conversations that are had round the pleasure sticks.

Serious question.

How are you going to remain smoke free when you are drunk?
Click to expand...
Kentpaul said:
Once he gets a wiff of a lit fag in a beer garden its game over.
Click to expand...
Willpower, my man. This body and brain are mine to control. I've been nipping out to chat with the smokers at work to get used to being around cigs. It ain't bothering me...... yet.

I know it ain't going to be easy, but I've quit. That is that. It'll be harder to avoid relapsing on weed than it will on fags (quit weed too!).

Musha_Soturi said:
Hang in there dude, you can do it. It gets easier.
Click to expand...
Much appreciated, my good lady :)

Jedeye Sniv said:
You KNOW there's some sad git out there that would love the shit out of that...
Click to expand...
I am that sad git. I play Farming Simulator 2012 on my phone. Come. At. Me.
 
Jedeye Sniv

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
Juicy Bob said:
We should make a 'Real Licence Management Simulator 2012 |OT| 100% Authentic Authentication!' thread in Gaming just to see what the reaction would be.
Click to expand...

Kentpaul said:
Banned. Trolling is not tolerated on the gaming side.
Click to expand...

For a minute I got excited there imagining the epic thread filled with screenshots of an Excel sheet. And then I cam eback to earth with a bump.

Kentpaul, voice of reason. Save us from ourselves!
 
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