-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
IGN: ~50 Layoffs at Sony Santa Monica, Project Canceled [Up2: Was Stig's New IP]
- Thread starter Jonboy
- Start date
- Status
LegendofDragoonLives
Member
If Stig leaves because of this, Shu has some fucking questions to answer. I don't see if the game came out in 2015 why it would be a problem if the series were similar. This just screams horrible decision all the way here from my expert opinion sitting in front of my macbook.
In all seriousness, this along with the Demons Souls failure from Yoshida, this is the second time he's disappointed me... Looks like we'll be getting 3 games max again this generation from one of the most talented teams in console development, thankfully Shu is on the job to make sure they only stick the same franchise they were working since the PS2 era. Thanks Shu, make sure they don't try something different!
It seems the only reason Naughty Dog can do what they want is because they're best 1st party studio around.
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
Dude, its not either of those things if the report is to be believed. The project had competent leadership, vision and was progressing efficiently.
God, this hurts so bad. I was so looking forward to this project. There are dozens of other projects out there I would've gladly seen canned in its place.
Okay, some good came out of this thread.
ZeroMaverick
Member
That makes no fucking sense. Ascension sales were soft. We need new IPs. What the hell?
True, but do you really see Destiny bombing?
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
If Stig leaves because of this, Shu has some fucking questions to answer. I don't see if the game came out in 2015 why it would be a problem if the series were similar. This just screams horrible decision all the way here from my expert opinion sitting in front of my macbook.
In all seriousness, this along with the Demons Souls failure from Yoshida, this is the second time he's disappointed me... Looks like we'll be getting 3 games max again this generation from one of the most talented teams in console development, thankfully Shu is on the job to make sure they only stick the same franchise they were working since the PS2 era. Thanks Shu, make sure they don't try something different!
It seems the only reason Naughty Dog can do what they want is because they're best 1st party studio around.
You know it is ridiculous about all this?
They've allowed TEAM ICO ....... WHAT? 8 1/2 YEARS NOW TO MAKE Last Guardian? That is how long its been since Shadow of the Colossus came out and I have to assume that production began shortly thereafter.
While I am a big fan of TEAM ICO, SSM has an even superior pedigree. Not to mention this game had the potential to be a huge success. At the very least, it would;ve been a bigger hit than Last Guardian will (if it EVER finishes).
Sheeeesh! This wound cuts so deep. If this is really Shuhei's doing then that guy could be given a prostate exam with a katana blade. What a reprehensible thing to do.
ZeroMaverick
Member
Not to mention the serious lack of GOOD Sci-Fi games. I've never been so pissed at Sony. I mean, shit man, they're already pulling ahead. Why not take a risk on a new IP? Especially if you have/had Uncharted planned for the same year?
gundamkyoukai
Member
There is no Team ICO , SCEJ guys jump form project to project from system to system .
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
they would never get it off the ground again. they could probably use the art/assets for something, but the game itself is probably not salvageable at this point.
also, if Destiny bombed, why would that mean that this game would do well?
Something that got me worried is that all of GoW3's senior designers seem to have been shifted over to Stig's new IP, Ascension's lead team seemed to be more junior guys. I mean GoW 1, 2 & 3's combat designer is been laid off but Ascension's combat designer is still with the company...
Hexa
Member
I think both Team Ico and Siren have like 3 dedicated people that do just that and the rest of the team moves around. But yeah, 3 people lol. Pocket change.
I feel there was a serious lack of thought that went into the culling process. Of course we don't have nearly enough to figure out the details. But like another poster said, you don't just fire that much talent, you create a place to cultivate their creativity. If it wasn't for Destiny, Sony obviously could have funded this. So why not throw them onto some small project.
Just seems like a very hasty decision was made. I wouldn't be surprised if it had to do with appeasing some shareholders on their board or something.
gundamkyoukai
Member
Shareholders not going to care about 50 devs no matter who there are .
That got much bigger things at Sony to worry about .
BlackBuzzard
Banned
This makes sense....same thing happened at Pixar with their film 'Newt' which had avery similar plot to the movie 'Rio'.
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
I hope Sony takes steps to bolster and supplement its upcoming lineup on PS4 because of this.
This loss is a major blow to a game lineup that is very uncertain at this point.
This would've been a major asset at E3 for Sony. With it gone, Sony needs to take steps to replace it. However, they can. You can't leave that void unfilled.
This loss is a major blow to a game lineup that is very uncertain at this point.
This would've been a major asset at E3 for Sony. With it gone, Sony needs to take steps to replace it. However, they can. You can't leave that void unfilled.
are you agreeing? Not sure if shareholders were involved to quickly move things along. But it seems a lot of good people lost their jobs who are vital to GoW's future, as well as pushing new grounds on new IPs. I'm worried the process just involved "welp we canned this project, and these people have nothing to work on now, so they gotta go..."
ramuh
Member
I just wonder how it all went down. Usually for firing they like to wait until a Friday. Was it an email or did they all put them in a conference room and tell them. Almost immediately after a firing you leave the building. I thought I heard all of SSM was given the day off today though (that could be tales of own ass). I hope that severance package is nice, so they can rebound.
vpance
Member
Anything's possible. Maybe they'll set expectations too high and only sell 3M, then pull a Bio Infinite move.
They could learn from their mistakes I suppose. Doesn't mean it would automatically do well, but they wouldn't look like complete fools coming out with a game that people perceive to be a poor copy of a popular IP. Like, hey you had your shot, now's our turn.
boredandlazy
Member
You sure those guys would have happy to just twiddle their thumbs over a small no-name project?
Not pointing the finger at anyone in particular but there are so many people here basing so many strong words and emotions on a boatload of assumptions it's almost embarrassing.
Yes, the cancelling of a new IP sucks. Yes, 50 people lost their jobs which sucks even more. But after everything that's happened at Sony over the last 30 months or so you'd think some people would be willing to give more of the benefit of the doubt to the higher ups at SCE. But all some of you can throw in as an argument is 'Shu didn't like Demon Souls'?
Of course I could be completely wrong and this is a rash decision which'll end up biting Sony in the ass, but at least I'm not pretending to know how to run a videogame development studio.
So let's see,since 2012:-
PSABR (SCE's flagship 2012 title) bombed
GoW:A had a lukewarm (to put it lightly) response
GT6 performed nowhere near GT5
Beyond flopped
Puppeteer bombed
Tearaway bombed
KZ:M bombed (though it was far superior to SF)
Only hit was TLoU & Sly 4 did modestly well I believe,I seriously don't know why Sony keeps putting resources into games which it either won't market or it already knows won't sell well (GT6 and GoW being the exceptions).
PSABR (SCE's flagship 2012 title) bombed
GoW:A had a lukewarm (to put it lightly) response
GT6 performed nowhere near GT5
Beyond flopped
Puppeteer bombed
Tearaway bombed
KZ:M bombed (though it was far superior to SF)
Only hit was TLoU & Sly 4 did modestly well I believe,I seriously don't know why Sony keeps putting resources into games which it either won't market or it already knows won't sell well (GT6 and GoW being the exceptions).
up until this very point, I thought it actually was Balrog
Compared to many other people in here, I feel I'm pretty generous to note that I'm spit-balling off of few details and some assumptions.
It's to generate discussion and maybe get some details from people more knowledgeable about these sorts of ordeals.
In particular I want to know how they managed to fire the lead gameplay director from the first 3 god of war games. The reasons why the justified letting certain people go, or letting people go instead of just canning the project.
Makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
Unfortunately, The closest I ever came to getting into the game industry was an over-the-phone interview with Iguana Entertainment way back when.
gundamkyoukai
Member
Shareholders care more about what Sony doing with there TV division with has near 40 ,000 jobs or stores they closing down which is 5000 jobs so far .
50 low level jobs is drop in a bucket compare to stuff like that and i certain they don't really care .
As for GOW future i don't think these people were vital since they were not working on the next GOW game but it going to hurt getting new IP out the studio .
LegendofDragoonLives
Member
Definitely. Well Shu didn't have someone keeping tabs on Studio Japan until just 2-3 years ago, 40 games for 400 people. Management skills yo.
This sounds like one of the craziest mistakes by some margin. How much money did Sony completely waste with this IP? Also the next question.. why the fuck would Stig stay at SSM (or with Sony) after this? The chains of Olympus have been put on these guys to stick with the GOW franchise only unless new IPs will magically work out. This along with the Gears example from Microsoft are just irritating, good job from both Sony and Microsoft showing faith in your development teams. High 5s all around guys.
I still can't wait for Barlog's GOW game and will be there day one. But this is by far one of the shittiest things I've seen Shu do.
dragonbane
Member
Those large scale battles man. Gimme dat on PS4 with mindblowing graphics SSM and we are talking:
Me too. It sounds so awesome, my brain wants it to be true.
boredandlazy
Member
Just to clarify, the second part of my post wasn't necessarily aimed at you. It just happened to be underneath of my reply to you. What you said wasn't outlandish or anything like that so I don't have any beef with you. I was more referring to people acting like the world is ending.
dragonbane
Member
ND is not the only studio with a lot of freedom working for Sony...
GoW PS4 is years away,Cory came back <6 months ago.
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
You know, just coming back to the whole Destiny angle thing, I just cannot fathom killing a game with such promise over something like that.
Lets take a successful Sony IP like Infamous. The newest game is coming out in less than a month and it looks awesome.
However, we never would've EVEN SEEN an Infamous game if Sony followed the logic it supposedly took under consideration when it discarded this title.
At the time of Infamous' release schedule it was going up directly against Prototype. Which was another game featuring a superhero in an open world environment. It was also, ironically enough, published by Activision, as I am sure many of you know.
The funny thing is both games released fairly close to one another. What happened to Infamous? Nothing! It was released and garnered considerable critical and commercial success. The series prospered despite having a direct competitor.
So why would Sony kill another project with such prodigious potential when in the past it has been proven that such a project can succeed with a direct competitor, so long as that project does enough to warrant it being distinguished?
Lets take a successful Sony IP like Infamous. The newest game is coming out in less than a month and it looks awesome.
However, we never would've EVEN SEEN an Infamous game if Sony followed the logic it supposedly took under consideration when it discarded this title.
At the time of Infamous' release schedule it was going up directly against Prototype. Which was another game featuring a superhero in an open world environment. It was also, ironically enough, published by Activision, as I am sure many of you know.
The funny thing is both games released fairly close to one another. What happened to Infamous? Nothing! It was released and garnered considerable critical and commercial success. The series prospered despite having a direct competitor.
So why would Sony kill another project with such prodigious potential when in the past it has been proven that such a project can succeed with a direct competitor, so long as that project does enough to warrant it being distinguished?
LightofRohan
Member
It is a total waste.
But from the article it doesn't sound like it was canceled because it was too much like Destiny, but the announcement of Destiny caused a radical shift in production (because it was very similar) which kind of started the downfall of the project. It is really too bad...
A new God of War MIGHT be interesting if they go with an entirely new setting/area/protagonist.
badcrumble
Member
At that point they might as well call it an entirely new IP. Kratos and God of War are pretty synonymous but I'd love to see SSM take on some other culture's mythology. Just don't call it God of War anymore, because it wouldn't be.
LookAtMeGo
Member
Off the top of my head.
They didn't have a marketing agreement for Prototype
It wasn't the "next big game" from a highly esteemed FPS studio
Both were announced and released around the same time, as opposed to having the competition release right around the time that they are announcing their game
There are quite a few key differences, not to mention Prototype was not a good game. Who knows, if Destiny ends up being crap and bombing they may revisit the idea.
LightofRohan
Member
Eh, maybe. But the God of War name still has some pull and it could be interesting to see them expand that to not just mean Kratos.
badcrumble
Member
That would be just as much of a cynical brand-name cash-in as continuing the God of War series with Kratos. Maybe even more so since it'd signal a fear to take risks while wanting to appear as if they were taking risks.
And besides, plenty of civilizations with fascinating mythologies don't even have a specific god of war, so the name wouldn't even make sense anymore.
Nightengale
Member
The Rocket Chainsaw piece mentioned troubled development, stemming from changes to product vision.
Things may not necessarily be as smooth as it was assumed.
Things may not necessarily be as smooth as it was assumed.
- Status