[Yawnier]

I'd cut Team Ico and make them independent at this point. No sense in keeping a team buoyant that's produced nothing in the past six years, such a drain on financial resources and for nothing.

There is actually a member here on gaf (can't remember his name) who used to work at Bigbig Studios before it closed down, and he claimed that Team Ico has luxuries comparative to the Mario and Zelda teams at Nintendo.

[Takao]

As impressive as their roster of first party studios is,i think that if Sony wants to seriously support both their consoles and their portables (at the same time) they really need to either acquire new studios or to make some more exclusive contracts like the one they had with Insomniac for example. I think it will be impossible to support PS3,PS4 and Vita with enough quality exclusive games all at the same time.

Sony should look at investing in Japan. This is their first party studio split:

US:
SCE Santa Monica
Naughty Dog
Sucker Punch
SCE San Diego
SCE Bend

EU:
SCE London
Guerrilla Games
Guerilla Cambridge
Evolution Studios
Media Molecule
Novarama

JP:
SCE Japan Studio
Polyphony Digital

(I'm kind of surprised that they don't have a Canadian studio given the tax grants here)

There's a reason why many Japanese third parties doesn't consider SCE to be a Japanese publisher anymore.

[Grim1ock]

I hope Sony stick with Evolution. I don't think the Motorstorm brand holds that much traction anymore but the games themselves are all solid. Pacific Rift is easily one of the most underrated gems of this generation, in my opinion. I definitely think Evolution could and should be an asset to Sony. Possibly keeping the Motorstorm IP alive via smaller projects like RC (glad to hear that did well) while the main team works on a new alternative racing IP for Sony. But then I also thought the same of Studio Liverpool so..

problem with evolution is that its the same thing again and again and again.

where's the jet moto type of game? samething vastly different.

[Derrick01]

There is actually a member here on gaf (can't remember his name) who used to work at Bigbig Studios before it closed down, and he claimed that Team Ico has luxuries comparative to the Mario and Zelda teams at Nintendo.

That's completely stupid of Sony then. They really need to cut that entire studio loose. All they do is produce bombs and they take twice as long as everyone else to do it.

[Dusky]

Sony should look at investing in Japan. This is their first party studio split: US: SCE Santa Monica Naughty Dog Sucker Punch SCE San Diego SCE Bend EU: SCE London Guerrilla Games Guerilla Cambridge Evolution Studios Media Molecule Novarama JP: SCE Japan Studio Polyphony Digital (I'm kind of surprised that they don't have a Canadian studio given the tax grants here) There's a reason why many Japanese third parties doesn't consider SCE to be a Japanese publisher anymore.

How big is Sony Japan?

Also, I always thought Novarama were independent? They just have some exclusive deal with Sony right?

[Carl]

As impressive as their roster of first party studios is,i think that if Sony wants to seriously support both their consoles and their portables (at the same time) they really need to either acquire new studios or to make some more exclusive contracts like the one they had with Insomniac for example. I think it will be impossible to support PS3,PS4 and Vita with enough quality exclusive games all at the same time.

They've signed a few exclusive contracts in relation to Vita. Novarama, DoubleEleven and, just recently, FuturLab

[SolidSnakex]

What does that even mean, they were knee deep in development and couldn't really look outside? Why not?

As far as I know the relationships between studios didn't exist early on this generation. It really seemed to start to come together several years after the PS3 was already on the market. By that time PD already had their engine built. They had a very polished playable demo out a month after the PS3 was released, which was before most of Sony's devs had even shown anything on their games.

But outsourcing is still unlikely. There's a big difference between discussing techniques with other studios, like how ND worked out the V-Sync issue with Uncharted by talking with Guerrilla and Insomniac, and letting different studios actually build the content for their games. At the end of they day, GT is still far and away Sony's most popular franchise. It's also far and away the most popular sim racer on the market. So, obviously Kaz has a pretty good idea of what most of those consumers want.

[Callibretto]

It is, which is why Japan studio is in the assistance role. Soul Sacrifice has producers from SCE, developed at MarvelousAQL with input from Comcept.

Just wait after ss turn out to be a success, either comcept ot marvrlous will walk away from sony and make dark sacrifice for 3ds

[Radec]

- Naughty Dog - Uncharted 4 (PS4)
- Guerilla Games - Killzone 4 (PS3) / Aftermath (PS4)
- Polyphony Digital - Gran Turismo 5 (PS4)
- Sucker Punch - inFamous 3 (PS3)
- Media Molecule - LittleBigUniverse (PS4)
- Santa Monica - Limitless (PS4)
- Team Ico - The Last Guardian (PS4)

[Gadirok]

There is actually a member here on gaf (can't remember his name) who used to work at Bigbig Studios before it closed down, and he claimed that Team Ico has luxuries comparative to the Mario and Zelda teams at Nintendo.

I feel bad for that bigbig studio employee.

I really don't like the way sony managed some of its studios. Zipper is the most infamous case.

http://therealsocom.com/2012/06/27/e...realsocom-com/

I didn't really get the chance to try out socom, but MAG was okay in my books.

Liverpools closure was a questionable one, don't know why they did that.

And I am pointing fingers at SCEA for starhawk and Twisted Metal (2012) for their performance in sales. The layoffs and switch to iOS development for both Eat,Sleep, Play and Lightbox interactive is oddly suspicious of something that sony did too. I have no sources, but its obvious what happened.


I'm just worried nothing happens to evolution studios after liverpool's closure.


I love Shadow of the Colossus but Team Ico does not need nowhere near 6 years to develop a game. Even Gran Turismo 5 came out and delivered. They shouldn't recieve special treatment.

[Mario007]

- Naughty Dog - Uncharted 4 (PS4) - Guerilla Games - Killzone 4 (PS3) / Aftermath (PS4) - Polyphony Digital - Gran Turismo 5 (PS4) - Sucker Punch - inFamous 3 (PS3) - Media Molecule - LittleBigUniverse (PS4) - Santa Monica - Limitless (PS4) - Team Ico - The Last Guardian (PS4)

Did you just guess the Aftermath and Limitless names?

[sublimit]

Sony should look at investing in Japan. This is their first party studio split: US: SCE Santa Monica Naughty Dog Sucker Punch SCE San Diego SCE Bend EU: SCE London Guerrilla Games Guerilla Cambridge Evolution Studios Media Molecule Novarama JP: SCE Japan Studio Polyphony Digital (I'm kind of surprised that they don't have a Canadian studio given the tax grants here) There's a reason why many Japanese third parties doesn't consider SCE to be a Japanese publisher anymore.

This generation they probably felt that they had Japan "secured" and their main battles were mostly in America and Europe.
This time though they have more severe competition from Nintendo entering the HD console market and there's no Monster Hunter to save the Vita (or any other big 3rd party developers).

So i agree that it will be really tough for them this time in Japan if they don't make more acquisitions of Japanese studios.Even if they were to cancel Vita's production i don't think SCEJ as it currently stands is enough to compete with Nintendo.

[yurinka]

This would be really annoying if true.

As we know that's the case of the next Bungie IP.

[Evolution_1ne]

magic, a whole lot of magic

[SolidSnakex]

As we know that's the case of the next Bungie IP.

That might not actually be the case anymore. That leaked image had a PS3 and 360 logo on it. If it were timed exclusive then it should only have a 360 logo. It's certainly possible that the contract has changed since 2010.

[Dusky]

- Naughty Dog - Uncharted 4 (PS4) - Guerilla Games - Killzone 4 (PS3) / Aftermath (PS4) - Polyphony Digital - Gran Turismo 5 (PS4) - Sucker Punch - inFamous 3 (PS3) - Media Molecule - LittleBigUniverse (PS4) - Santa Monica - Limitless (PS4) - Team Ico - The Last Guardian (PS4)

MM have stepped away from LittleBigPlanet, so you can rule LittleBigUniverse out.

[sublimit]

I love Shadow of the Colossus but Team Ico does not need nowhere near 6 years to develop a game. Even Gran Turismo 5 came out and delivered. They shouldn't recieve special treatment.

I'm afraid you are comparing very different things.Team Ico is like a small indie dev inside Sony with a team of 40-50 people.
PD on the other hand (and other big Sony studios) have hundreds of people working for them.

[Takao]

How big is Sony Japan? Also, I always thought Novarama were independent? They just have some exclusive deal with Sony right?

I have no clue on staff figures for Japan Studio. I imagine they're one of the bigger arms of SCE though.

As for Novarama, the way they speak about their relationship is hard to decipher. They likely do only have an agreement with Sony though.

Just wait after ss turn out to be a success, either comcept ot marvrlous will walk away from sony and make dark sacrifice for 3ds

Haha, I honestly can say this thought has crossed my mind before.

[yurinka]

Also, I always thought Novarama were independent? They just have some exclusive deal with Sony right?

They became a '1st party studio' when signed an exclusivity deal with SCE.
http://www.eurogamer.es/articles/201...-party-de-sony
(Source in Spanish)
Right now they are an independent company but have an unlimited exclusivity deal with Sony until they decide to break it. But for everything they are treated internally as a 1st party studio and share all kind of stuff with the other SCE studios.
BTW here they mention to be working on Vita and 'other Sony platforms' (they help with their AR technology the other Sony teams who do AR stuff at least in both Vita and PS3).

[Marco1]

Out of all three consoles its Sony I'm more interested in next gen. Weird considering that I hardly used PS3 much.
I think it is because GT5 felt like a game that was waiting for more powerful HW, I am hoping Kaz realises this and is currently working GT6 into PS4, I'm also hing he still has the passion to work in all of those tiny, insane details and hasn't become like Turn10 were they just outsource and continually reuse shifty old, wrong models.

[sublimit]

Call me a pessimist but i think Soul Sacrifice will bomb.Even in Japan.

[lefantome]

Ready at Dawn is second party and they announced they were working on next gen more than a year ago.

[Gadirok]

Call me a pessimist but i think Soul Sacrifice will bomb.Even in Japan.

Well its obviously no monster hunter and I never expected it to deliver such numbers, but I think that it will do relatively well for the vita. Atleast give it a tidy bump for awhile.

[Takao]

Call me a pessimist but i think Soul Sacrifice will bomb.Even in Japan.

bigger/smaller bomb than Nino Kuni PS3?

[Dusky]

Call me a pessimist but i think Soul Sacrifice will bomb.Even in Japan.

Impressions have been relatively good so far.

[DXB-KNIGHT]

- Team Ico - making Last Guardian

The reason I bought a PS3 :(

[sublimit]

bigger/smaller bomb than Nino Kuni PS3?

How much Ni No Kuni (PS3) sold on its first week in Japan?

I think SS will not sell more than 100.000 on its first week in Japan and sales will drop significantly after that.I hope i'm wrong though. :)

[Dusky]

How much Ni No Kuni (PS3) sold on its first week in Japan? I think SS will not sell more than 100.000 on its first week in Japan and sales will drop significantly after that.I hope i'm wrong though. :)

67k on PS3, compared to the DS' 170k.

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/11/26...playstation-3/

[Kenshin001]

As far as I know the relationships between studios didn't exist early on this generation. It really seemed to start to come together several years after the PS3 was already on the market. By that time PD already had their engine built. They had a very polished playable demo out a month after the PS3 was released, which was before most of Sony's devs had even shown anything on their games. But outsourcing is still unlikely. There's a big difference between discussing techniques with other studios, like how ND worked out the V-Sync issue with Uncharted by talking with Guerrilla and Insomniac, and letting different studios actually build the content for their games. At the end of they day, GT is still far and away Sony's most popular franchise. It's also far and away the most popular sim racer on the market. So, obviously Kaz has a pretty good idea of what most of those consumers want.

Not sure how that precludes other Sony studios from creating assets for GT games or providing technical advice. They may have had a demo out early but GT5 didn't come out until the end of 2010. ND outsource, so there's no reason PD can't other than pigheadedness.

As far as Kaz knowing what consumers want, I don't think he entirely does. Most people I know who bought the game were bitterly disappointed. I bought the game based on hype and promises, plus it's the PS3's only flagship racing game. Didn't really get what I wanted though.

[BadWolf]

How much Ni No Kuni (PS3) sold on its first week in Japan? I think SS will not sell more than 100.000 on its first week in Japan and sales will drop significantly after that.I hope i'm wrong though. :)

Its a multiplayer game, the sort that Japan likes, so I think it will have longer legs than usual.

[Radec]

The reason I bought a PS3 :(

There's always a game that make us buy a system even if it's release date is unsure. But there are many games that make us stay using that system.

[sublimit]

67k on PS3. http://www.siliconera.com/2011/11/26...playstation-3/

Ok then maybe SS will sell a bit more but still i don't think it will be the success some people think it will be.

Its a multiplayer game, the sort that Japan likes, so I think it will have longer legs than usual.

I know that but many other portable (MH wannabes) games had MP and bombed.Like Frontier Gate for example.

[BadWolf]

Ok then maybe SS will sell a bit more but still i don't think it will be the success some people think it will be.

Its not a good comparison to begin with, Ninokuni is a single player RPG and the game failed on the 3DS prior to the PS3 game coming out.

[Gadirok]

Is there a US release date for SS yet? I know its March 7 or something for japan but with Inafune's frequent posts on the US PS blog I imagine a release date can't be too far away for a localized version.

[PhantomOfTheKnight]

Its not a good comparison to begin with, Ninokuni is a single player RPG and the game failed on the 3DS prior to the PS3 game coming out.

It was on the DS, not 3DS.

[BadWolf]

It was on the DS, not 3DS.

Whoops, my bad.

[sublimit]

Its not a good comparison to begin with, Ninokuni is a single player RPG and the game failed on the 3DS prior to the PS3 game coming out.

Blame Takao for the comparison. :p

[Rollo Tomasi]

One of those teams is probably making the new PS4 UI and Home 2.

Home 2? Is that necessary?

[Magic Mushroom]

The studio that did The Unfinished Swan, while not owned by Sony, has a contract for two more Sony exclusives. Similar to thatgamecompany in the past.

As for Team Ico, they are Sony's vanity studio. The games themselves are not profitable (I think), but they receive tons of critical acclaim, even outside the world of gaming.

[sublimit]

As for Team Ico, they are Sony's vanity studio. The games themselves are not profitable (I think), but they receive tons of critical acclaim, even outside the world of gaming.

Fun fact:
When SOTC came out a friend of mine who've never played a console game before in his life bought a PS2 and the game and asked me to go to his home and play it for him.
He was really impressed with the game's world and its visuals more than any other game he had ever seen.He also bought Ico after that. :)

[Hindle]

They are centennially preparing themselves for nextgen with full force. On the other hand, MS will probably buy off dozens of (timed) exclusives from 3rd party developers.

MS will provide just as many exclusives as Sony next gen.

In topic I'm interested in what Sucker Punch are doing. Both InfMous games were great fun and with a bigger budget they could make a really standout game.

[AranhaHunter]

I wouldn't be surprised if ND turns out to have 3 team in a 2 year period....

ND has 236 employees on linkedin, probably more. I can see them having a 3rd team if TLOU/Uncharted 4/New IP come out to critical acclaim and sales. I would guess the 3rd team would be smaller and mainly make PSN/Vita/Mobile titles though.

I reckon most of the studios that have 2 teams will eventually combine into 1 team. For example once Naughty Dog finishes Last of Us, they will help Uncharted 3 team on the PS4 project. Same with GoW:A team, Tearaway team, Guerilla Cambridge, Beyond team and etc.

Having 2 teams != being completely separate, people move around all the time. Mainly the directors and the people designing the game will stay on one team, but the programmers, artists, animators, etc will all get moved to help with a particular game whenever they are needed.

Sony should look at investing in Japan. This is their first party studio split: US: SCE Santa Monica Naughty Dog Sucker Punch SCE San Diego SCE Bend EU: SCE London Guerrilla Games Guerilla Cambridge Evolution Studios Media Molecule Novarama JP: SCE Japan Studio Polyphony Digital (I'm kind of surprised that they don't have a Canadian studio given the tax grants here) There's a reason why many Japanese third parties doesn't consider SCE to be a Japanese publisher anymore.

I don't think Novarama is 1st party, I believe they have an exclusive contract a la Tarsier and Double Eleven. I'm also surprised they don't have a canadian studio. I think their next acquisitions, if any, will be one of the 3 I mentioned above, QD, and/or RaD, depending on financials and how well their games do.

Japan is extremely though, who could they buy there? Clap Hanz should have been brought in to SCEWWS already, Nippon Ichi and Game Arts might be cheap and worthy purchases for niche games. Platinum or Marvelous (and similar sized developers) might be a worthy purchase depending on price and what they have to offer. From Software? Too expensive just for armored core IP (SCE owns Demon's Souls and Dark Souls IP is co owned with Namco). Atlus? Might be too expensive for just persona and smt games. Level 5? Way too expensive for games in series that are in decline, should have bought them long ago, during the PS2 days. Sega is rumored to be on the selling block and SE has been having financial trouble, after FFXIV v2.0 bombs, they will be worth even less. To get a majority (and controlling) share in either, Sony would have to invest at least the same amount they invested in Olympus or more (JPY50 billion). Given Sony's current financial situations and what they had to do to invest in Olympus and buy Gaikai, I just don't see that happening.

The situation in Japan for Sony is critical, but SCEJ is to blame, only recently they started their western IPs, Uncharted 3 outsold Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 1 LTD combined and GOWIII (first GOW game published by SCEJ, before it was published by Capcom) outsold GOW and GOW2 combined. They would need to have an in-house development studio that creates games for the JP market, including big budget games. If Marvelous and Inafune do go on to produce Dark Sacrifices for 3DS, then what? SCEJ can't make it themselves as they have shown with a lack of Demon's Souls 2 without From and Miyazaki. Not sure how they can fix their JP situation, but I wish them luck.

- Guerilla Games - Killzone 4 (PS3) - Sucker Punch - inFamous 3 (PS3)

Highly unlikely. After GOWA, Beyond, and TLOU, I think all major SCEWWS games will be on PS4. The exception being MLB The Show which will be on PS3 for the next 3-4 years or so

[Sid]

Just wait after ss turn out to be a success, either comcept ot marvrlous will walk away from sony and make dark sacrifice for 3ds

And vita.

[Takao]

Japan is extremely though, who could they buy there? Clap Hanz should have been brought in to SCEWWS already, Nippon Ichi and Game Arts might be cheap and worthy purchases for niche games. Platinum or Marvelous (and similar sized developers) might be a worthy purchase depending on price and what they have to offer. From Software? Too expensive just for armored core IP (SCE owns Demon's Souls and Dark Souls IP is co owned with Namco). Atlus? Might be too expensive for just persona and smt games. Level 5? Way too expensive for games in series that are in decline, should have bought them long ago, during the PS2 days. Sega is rumored to be on the selling block and SE has been having financial trouble, after FFXIV v2.0 bombs, they will be worth even less. To get a majority (and controlling) share in either, Sony would have to invest at least the same amount they invested in Olympus or more (JPY50 billion). Given Sony's current financial situations and what they had to do to invest in Olympus and buy Gaikai, I just don't see that happening.

That's the problem isn't it? Game Arts is owned by Gungho, alongside another studio I felt Sony could've bought, Acquire. MarvelousAQL has too many side businesses for Sony to want to buy them. I doubt Sony wants Index Holdings. SCE just doesn't seem like investing in Japan at all. Clap Hanz has only developed SCE published games for the past 15 years and they're not a part of SCE. Media.Vision made one of Sony's largest RPG franchises in Wild ARMs and now they're making iOS games for Square Enix.

[seventynine]

That's completely stupid of Sony then. They really need to cut that entire studio loose. All they do is produce bombs and they take twice as long as everyone else to do it.

They're a prestige studio, in a similar vein to Warner Bros. bankrolling Kubrick.

And in terms of what they are trying to do with AI it is easily one of the more ambitious games attempted this gen.

[BruiserBear]

Evolution expanding? didn't the studio manger say that he fear that Sony will close the studio or something similar?

I think that would be a good idea. Those guys had 3 chances to make a console exclusive racer, and all 3 times they produced a sub par product.

[KAL2006]

Updated the OP

[R_thanatos]

I must know what sucker punch is working on and AM dieing for an infamous 3. Please deliver it sucker punch, please. I know that infamous 2 was close to perfect and with infamous 3 they will get it completely right. My expectations are extremely high from sucker punch. I hope they deliver and not move away from the superhero open world game they made. Atleast one more before they start their new franchise...please. As for Evolution, I hope they have some workers from liverpool and they form a second team of liverpool members and create another wipeout or whatever they dream of. Liverpool deserves better.

Calm down .i want infamous 3 as much you but please keep your expectations in check... let them explode when we'll have a teaser or a trailer

[Kazuma Kiryu]

if at least 75% of those studios that are "available" aren't gearing up for ps4, sony's already starting on the wrong foot. i'm not even gonna talk about the vita because 2013 looks BAD.

[9thwonder]

If square enix continues to bomb I could see Sony buying them. Im not sure how much it would cost though.