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Lets talk about Sonys First Party Studios and their upcoming Projects

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madrista7

Member
d0047c-1426014719.jpg


I know Guys...Tidux is not a reliable Source...And you shouldnt read to much into this....But I want to believe !!
ZOE3!!!YES!!!!!!
 

wapplew

Member
Colin Moriarty said it best on the Gamescast: Sony is sitting back, looking at the sales of the PS4 and thinking to themselves "why the fuck should we rush these games? We're kicking MS ass" and that's why not as many games are out there in the ether.

And they needn't worry in the future either. I am going to be very interested to see how many consoles Bloodborne moves because it is going to be a fuck tonne.

Just don't leave 20.2m PS4 owners out cold.
For smaller titles, PS4 are kick-ass, still, 3 AAA exclusive per year are bear minimum for me.
 
I think Tidux is full of shit, but I do think there's a pretty good chance of Dark Cloud 3 or a reboot of the series this gen. I'd fucking love that series to take on more of a Zelda style design too.
 

Drek

Member
ND and Sony Santa Monica (SCEA WWS's tentpole teams) both had 2013 releases. (TLoU and GoW)

Bend has been in an awkward limbo for a while. They're apparently trying to bounce back with their new PS4 title, but it's clear that their lack of output can be explained with LOL CANCELLED VITA PROJECTS.

Sony San Diego = MLBMLBMLBMLB.

Sucker Punch released a game last year. The earliest we'll hear from them next is in 2016/2017.

What? Bend was specifically moved to PS4 after Uncharted: Golden Abyss. That has been heavily rumored since damn near after UC:GA was completed and Yoshida pretty heavily implied it a few months later when he said basically all internal studios were working on new PS4 projects. Bend is too small to do multiple projects.

Their smaller studio size coupled with their low profile is also likely the reason they're taking so long to show anything. No one is looking to land the unveiling of Bend's next big game when it's still in pre-pro, Sony has gotten a lot of shit from showing games too early, and so they're likely sitting on Bend's next project until it is well fleshed out.

Also, I believe Sony San Diego has been building up a second team as well. Probably won't see anything from it until 2016 or 2017, but then we never really know when they started building it and what they're making, so who knows.

It is also entirely possible that Sony has some unknown or lesser known studio working on a new title a la Ready at Dawn with The Order that they plan to unveil at E3. We rarely hear about new 2nd party partnerships until the game itself is actually shown off.
 

Corpsepyre

Banned
Eh 2016 is not too early imo. Cory Barlog has started working on the project since 2013 and 3 years of development is more than enough for an AAA game. If the game doesn't come out in 2016, it's either the game will be insanely huge or Santa Monica being unproductive.

You're forgetting that they canned their sci-fi project in Feb 2014, after it was in development for 3 + years. Cory joined the team in August 2013, and I'm sure the bulk of the studio was dedicated to working on that canned IP. It was reported that the team shifted development PRIMARILY to GoW after the game was scrapped.

That's why 2016 seems a bit early. If they hadn't canned their game, it could have been out next year or this even as they apparently had a trailer prepped for E3 2014.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Any time I see a Tidux post on twitter quoted when it isn't accompanied with "Look at this phony and what he made up this time" I just have to shake my head.
 

sam777

Member
Colin Moriarty said it best on the Gamescast: Sony is sitting back, looking at the sales of the PS4 and thinking to themselves "why the fuck should we rush these games? We're kicking MS ass" and that's why not as many games are out there in the ether.

And they needn't worry in the future either. I am going to be very interested to see how many consoles Bloodborne moves because it is going to be a fuck tonne.

But don't you think this is how complacency sets in?
 

Allonym

There should be more tampons in gaming
What's complacent about giving projects more budget?

What he's saying makes perfect sense. Essentially he's stating that because of the runaway success of the PS4 without the aid of stellar games, Sony is ok with simply releasing maybe one or two somewhat big titles a year and coasting. I get that feeling as well but at the same time it's too early to say that without fully knowing their holiday plans. I personally think that if Sony had some truly great games, or at least a steady release of them, the PS4 would be even more successful than it is now.
 

Klossen

Banned
What's complacent about giving projects more budget?

Is that's what's happening though? Sony has shut down numerous studios in the past two years and they've also cancelled games that probably were meant for this time period. Do you have sources stating increased budgets for existing games? Because I do have sources mentioning closed down Sony studios and cancelled games. And I'm inclined to believe that to explain Sony's lower-than-usual first-party output over some podcast theories.
 

KAL2006

Banned
I think the games that are far in development are Gureilla Games New IP and Media Molecule New IP. Both games have been in development for a long time. Polyphony are slow when it comes to releasing a new game. Santa Monica had a canned project and it seems GoW4 started development just a year ago. Bend is a small team that were pitching game ideas for Vita after Golden Abyss before they went onto developing for PS4. Suckered Punch and Evolution would at least need 2 years before they release a game after their last release. London are busy making Morpheus tech demos, I am sure they will release the pack in game for Morpheus. And finally Quantic Dreams are probably not going to release their game for 2016 as well, perhaps a Beyond Heavy Rain remaster while we wait. Sony Japan are making small games or have partnership with a 3rd party such as Level 5 for another exclusive like they did with Bloodborne.

So if I had to guess the future of retail first party games.

2015
Tearaway Unfolded
Until Dawn
Ratchet and Clank
UnchartedRemastered or Beyond/Heavy Rain Remastered

2016
Uncharted 4
Street Fighter V
Hot Shots Golf
Guerilla Games New IP
Wild
Media Molecule New IP
Sony Bend New IP

2017
Quantic Dreams New IP
God of War 4
Gran Turismo 7
Level 5 JRPG
inFamous Third Son
 

sin2sin

Neo Member
I hope we get a karting game. I loved modnation racers and I know it wasn't a success but I would buy a game like that instantly (hopefully with better loading times!).
 
I hope we get a karting game. I loved modnation racers and I know it wasn't a success but I would buy a game like that instantly (hopefully with better loading times!).

If they do another karting game then the developer must have it running at 60fps. I don't know why it is that Nintendo seems to be the only one that goes for that framerate with kart racers.
 

Allonym

There should be more tampons in gaming
Fucking Wild is by far my most anticipated game. I hope it's similar to Don't Starve but more refined and fair
 

Shabad

Member
Just don't leave 20.2m PS4 owners out cold.
For smaller titles, PS4 are kick-ass, still, 3 AAA exclusive per year are bear minimum for me.

Isn't that what they are producing at minimum?
2014 was inFamous, DriveClub, LBP3 (and MLB14, and TLOUR)
2015 will be The Order, Bloodborne, Ratchet&Clank, Until Dawn (and MLB15, and probably more unannounced)
 
What? Bend was specifically moved to PS4 after Uncharted: Golden Abyss. That has been heavily rumored since damn near after UC:GA was completed and Yoshida pretty heavily implied it a few months later when he said basically all internal studios were working on new PS4 projects. Bend is too small to do multiple projects.

Their smaller studio size coupled with their low profile is also likely the reason they're taking so long to show anything. No one is looking to land the unveiling of Bend's next big game when it's still in pre-pro, Sony has gotten a lot of shit from showing games too early, and so they're likely sitting on Bend's next project until it is well fleshed out.

Also, I believe Sony San Diego has been building up a second team as well. Probably won't see anything from it until 2016 or 2017, but then we never really know when they started building it and what they're making, so who knows.

It is also entirely possible that Sony has some unknown or lesser known studio working on a new title a la Ready at Dawn with The Order that they plan to unveil at E3. We rarely hear about new 2nd party partnerships until the game itself is actually shown off.

We know from a former Bend employee that they kept trying to work on Vita projects but they weren't getting greenlit (eg, Naughty Dog shot down another Uncharted game). The PS4 project started later, once they realised that Sony just weren't going to greenlight any new Vita projects.

As for San Diego, they've had two teams for years (they made ModNation Racers: Road Trip for Vita). They announced their F2P action game at PSX, it's called Kill Strain.

Is that's what's happening though? Sony has shut down numerous studios in the past two years and they've also cancelled games that probably were meant for this time period. Do you have sources stating increased budgets for existing games? Because I do have sources mentioning closed down Sony studios and cancelled games. And I'm inclined to believe that to explain Sony's lower-than-usual first-party output over some podcast theories.

Really? Name one.

I don't think you understand how easy it is to figure out that a game is getting a larger budget. Naughty Dog's employees aren't slaves, so Uncharted 4 getting delayed == Larger budget. Same goes for every other delay they've announced.

I really don't see how you could come to the conclusions you are. Have you looked at their 2015 lineup? Bloodborne's coming out in less than two weeks and it's their fourth game so far this year. Seems like a pretty great lineup to me.
 

DevilFox

Member
Is that's what's happening though? Sony has shut down numerous studios in the past two years and they've also cancelled games that probably were meant for this time period. Do you have sources stating increased budgets for existing games? Because I do have sources mentioning closed down Sony studios and cancelled games. And I'm inclined to believe that to explain Sony's lower-than-usual first-party output over some podcast theories.

Maybe this.
 
For me, Guerrilla Games have made just one good game since the studio started and that was Killzone 2, that said it was fucking amazing and my most played MP game ever. Since then and before then as well, their game output in terms of quality has been pretty shit but IMO they still have the best gunplay out there. Whilst their game output is questionable, I have to commend them on the consistency in which they release their games, they seem to be the only studio Sony have that can release games on a consistent basis and stick with the release dates. Also I think they have the best tech within Sony, perhaps would put SSM ahead with the likes of God Of War 3 which still looks phenomenal to this day, cannot wait from a tech standpoint to see how GG handle Horizon which is suppose to be an open world RPG game. Going to be gorgeous, here is to hoping a change in genre helps with the quality of the game but the concept art at least looks amazing.
 
Sony has shut down studios, but it's not as if they've ever shown a notable decline in external funding/publishing to make up for the reduced output from their own internal efforts.

Granted all of these games are budgeted differently, but games like The Order, Bloodborne, Tomorrow Children, Wild, etc are exemplary of the fact that Sony has put a lot of investment with external partners to make up for potential decline in output due to shutdowns.

Even as they lose some development studios/partners, they work with new partners (Arrowhead, Chinese Room, Tequila Works), or expand the scale of partnership. (RAD, from making PSP games to console games, or Q-Games, from publishing western releases of PixelJunk to fully publishing Tomorrow Children )

This is something that's true with all first-party publishers, actually. We're seeing MS, Nintendo and Sony all work to establish first-party deals across the board, because as games become bigger and longer to make, you need external partners to maintain the same output as last-gen.

Expansion/Purchase of studios is definitely an option, but I don't see MS/Sony/Nintendo rashly deciding to buy studios either without first establishing a strong relationship.
 
Studio Cambridge, Studio Liverpool, Game Republic, Incognito Entertainment, Zipper Interactive and SOE

Cambridge is still alive.

SOE is still alive, they just sold it off. And it was never part of WWS. It was its own company, doing its own thing, by and large.

Game Republic was never part of Sony. Just because Sony funded 2 games from them doesn't somehow make them responsible for their closure.

Others are valid.

Also, they were closed three years ago.
 
I find it pretty strange how Sony has put out like 6+ first party titles, whereas MS has put out like 3 and Sony is the one that keeps being talked about as not making many first party games. It is kind of odd.

Driveclub, Infamous, Killzone, Hohokum, TLOU: Remastered, The Order, MLB: The Show 2014 / 2015, LBP3.

So thats 9 titles vs. 3 for Microsoft. Forza 5, Forza Horizon 2, and MCC. 2 of which are multiplatform titles.

Yet here we are.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Is that's what's happening though? Sony has shut down numerous studios in the past two years and they've also cancelled games that probably were meant for this time period. Do you have sources stating increased budgets for existing games? Because I do have sources mentioning closed down Sony studios and cancelled games. And I'm inclined to believe that to explain Sony's lower-than-usual first-party output over some podcast theories.
Games releasing later than planned and having visibly changes is using more budget than releasing games in the previous announced state without any changes to their preview build.

What do you call that if not giving a game more budget than what initially allocated?

Of course I'm at this point a bit skeptical about your arguments because of not using SCE subsidiaries and not using the Gregorian calendar when making points.

Driveclub, Infamous, Killzone, Hohokum, TLOU: Remastered, The Order, MLB: The Show 2014 / 2015, LBP3.

So thats 9 titles vs. 3 for Microsoft. Forza 5, Forza Horizon 2, and MCC. 2 of which are multiplatform titles.
This isn't about MS but if you count Hohokum and The Order, then you need to count Sunset Overdrive and Ori.
 

Docflem

Member
We know from a former Bend employee that they kept trying to work on Vita projects but they weren't getting greenlit (eg, Naughty Dog shot down another Uncharted game). The PS4 project started later, once they realised that Sony just weren't going to greenlight any new Vita projects.

As for San Diego, they've had two teams for years (they made ModNation Racers: Road Trip for Vita). They announced their F2P action game at PSX, it's called Kill Strain.



Really? Name one.

I don't think you understand how easy it is to figure out that a game is getting a larger budget. Naughty Dog's employees aren't slaves, so Uncharted 4 getting delayed == Larger budget. Same goes for every other delay they've announced.

I really don't see how you could come to the conclusions you are. Have you looked at their 2015 lineup? Bloodborne's coming out in less than two weeks and it's their fourth game so far this year. Seems like a pretty great lineup to me.

Thank you for jumping in and making this easier for me. I seriously don't understand posts like these. Do people really think that Sony, a corporation (like all corporation) designed entirely to make money, has all these games ready made and are just delaying them because they are like "screw it were making so much money why even realize more games and make even more money, were covered for this year." It literally costs them money to hold on to games, so maybe the actual reason behind the delays are that they wont to try and release good games that sell a lot and make them more money, instead of just shitting them out before they are done to meet some silly arbitrary number of AAA titles.

Maybe just maybe instead of the wild success of the ps4 isn't making them complacent, it is instead allowing them to buy time until they first party studios are ready to release great games.

Also this demand that they have 1 ultra mega blockbuster AAA game for the end of the year makes no sense when you stop and realize that they have a massive list of exclusive and console exclusive games coming out all year round.

Source: List of all possible 2015 games https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hgnISaSTMAteflfXb2vr0KJCazmJOu42P_XKL5yB8qE/edit#gid=0 (ignore uncharted 4 in that list lol)
EDIT:
This isn't about MS but if you count Hohokum and The Order, then you need to count Sunset Overdrive and Ori.
Hohokum and the order you can only get on playstation while ori you can get on pc, though I'd argue if were only talking only AAA both ori and hohokum should probably be taken off.
 
Games releasing later than planned and having visibly changes is using more budget than releasing games in the previous announced state without any changes to their preview build.

What do you call that if not giving a game more budget than what initially allocated?

Of course I'm at this point a bit skeptical about your arguments because of not using SCE subsidiaries and not using the Gregorian calendar when making points.


This isn't about MS but if you count Hohokum and The Order, then you need to count Sunset Overdrive and Ori.

Hohokum was created in collaboration with Santa Monica. Neither of the above titles for the X1 were created with any sort of collaboration with any internal MS studios. Pretty much the same thing with RAD, with collaboration from Santa Monica Studios.

But sure, technically not purely first party. So we can keep it at 7.

Point being, Sony has put out quite a lot of titles already this generation.
 
Maybe just maybe instead of the wild success of the ps4 isn't making them complacent, it is instead allowing them to buy time until they first party studios are ready to release great games.

That I agree with, PS4 doing well and in many respects the multiplatform games carrying a lot of the weight will be helping them a great deal. It's like GTA V, the game shipped 10 million and it's not a stretch to say probably a good 6 million were accounted for by PS4 alone. From a consumer standpoint I'm happy Sony are giving their developers the time they need to polish their games, I'd rather they take a year or whatever extra to get it right than them releasing a rushed game which I do not enjoy.
 

Kayant

Member
Studio Cambridge, Studio Liverpool, Game Republic, Incognito Entertainment, Zipper Interactive and SOE

Woow such facts! Where are the links to cancelled games and all these studios being closed and being owned by Sony? Good thing this isn't all is needed to be a fact those days.

Hohokum was created in collaboration with Santa Monica. Neither of the above titles for the X1 were created with any sort of collaboration with any internal MS studios. Pretty much the same thing with RAD, with collaboration from Santa Monica Studios.

But sure, technically not purely first party. So we can keep it at 7.

There are though given So/Ori are funded and published by MS like The order is funded and published by Sony and Hohokum. The difference is their relationship with these studios.

Point being, Sony has put out quite a lot of titles already this generation

That is true I think the only reason why it comes up so much is because how those games for the most part of been received for the press and a big chunk of gamers.
 

DevilFox

Member
Seems more about Sony shutting down mid-sized studios in favor of AAA production. Which is a huge bummer to me.

@LiquidSolid

Studio Cambridge, Studio Liverpool, Game Republic, Incognito Entertainment, Zipper Interactive and SOE

That's part of the point, resources have been moved. Mid-sized studio get closed, big studios get bigger, small studio stays small.
I'm just guessing but I think that for a good return of investment, you either have to push with marketing (big AAA, lots of money) or the development costs have to be lower (small studios). It's too risky to stay in the middle (mid-sized), especially if something goes wrong (delays, for example).

About your list, Game Republic was a second party to Sony and they have nothing to do with them shutting down.
SOE is also different, they were never part of WWS and they developed for Windows as well. It has been sold, not closed, and for a good reason if you ask me (underwhelming output).
Studio Cambridge is alive, it's now Guerrilla Cambridge.
You're right on Liverpool, Incognito and Zipper, all mid-sized I think, with Liverpool's closure being easily the biggest mistake.
 
@LiquidSolid

Studio Cambridge, Studio Liverpool, Game Republic, Incognito Entertainment, Zipper Interactive and SOE
All those that were actually shut down first party studios (Incognito, Zipper, Liverpool, BigBig) were pre-PS4's massive success, so complacency doesn't make sense. And it's obviously not Sony abandoning mid-sized games cause they put out more quantity and quality in that area than any other publisher.
 
I'm pretty wary of new ips from sony after how disappointing everything since The Last of Us has been. Hell not just new ips tbh.

I went from definitely excited to see what they are doing to eh, we will see if its any good. Guerilla Games working on anything doesn't give me much confidence lol.
 

Darksol

Member
What he's saying makes perfect sense. Essentially he's stating that because of the runaway success of the PS4 without the aid of stellar games, Sony is ok with simply releasing maybe one or two somewhat big titles a year and coasting. I get that feeling as well but at the same time it's too early to say that without fully knowing their holiday plans. I personally think that if Sony had some truly great games, or at least a steady release of them, the PS4 would be even more successful than it is now.

They didn't coast with the PS or PS2 and the gap was even more prominent then, what gives you reason to believe they will now?
 

DieH@rd

Banned
Point being, Sony has put out quite a lot of titles already this generation.

When someone starts talking about poor number of exclusives for PS4, I always have to remind them about the 2013 and what has Sony managed to release that year for PS3. They've supported PS3 like an absolute champs, even so much so that they've endangered the output of games for PS4.

2013 started with GoW: Ascension, and we got The Last of Us, Beyond Two Souls, Gran Turismo 7, Puppeteer and Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. Stellar output from 1st/2nd party studios [on the other hand, MS had almost nothing for X360 in the last 2 years of its life, one or two not risky games and lots of Kinect showelware].

[I still think Puppeteer would much better be suited to be PS4 launch title]
 
I find it pretty strange how Sony has put out like 6+ first party titles, whereas MS has put out like 3 and Sony is the one that keeps being talked about as not making many first party games. It is kind of odd.

Driveclub, Infamous, Killzone, Hohokum, TLOU: Remastered, The Order, MLB: The Show 2014 / 2015, LBP3.

So thats 9 titles vs. 3 for Microsoft. Forza 5, Forza Horizon 2, and MCC. 2 of which are multiplatform titles.

Yet here we are.
Sure if you ignore first party games like Project Spark, Max CoB, LocoCycle, Kalimba, Voice Commander, Kinect Sports Rivals...which you did.

And if you including titles like The Order and LBP3 then you'll need to count Ori, Killer Instinct, Sunset, Ryse, DR3, Magic 2015, D4, Dance Central, ect that MS published.

I'm not trying to do a list war battle but if yu are going to make comparisons and create lists then at least do some research before spouting blatant lies.

Hohokum was created in collaboration with Santa Monica. Neither of the above titles for the X1 were created with any sort of collaboration with any internal MS studios. Pretty much the same thing with RAD, with collaboration from Santa Monica Studios.

But sure, technically not purely first party. So we can keep it at 7.

Point being, Sony has put out quite a lot of titles already this generation.
You couldn't be more wrong.
 
And if you including titles like The Order and LBP3 then you'll need to count Ori, Killer Instinct, Sunset, Ryse, DR3, Magic 2015, D4, Dance Central, ect that MS published.

This doesn't make any sense, what does including The Order and LBP3 (both owned properties and trademarks by Sony) have to do with Ryse, DR3, Magic 2015 and Dance Central? (None of those are property of Microsoft)
 

KAL2006

Banned
When someone starts talking about poor number of exclusives for PS4, I always have to remind them about the 2013 and what has Sony managed to release that year for PS3. They've supported PS3 like an absolute champs, even so much so that they've endangered the output of games for PS4.

2013 started with GoW: Ascension, and we got The Last of Us, Beyond Two Souls, Gran Turismo 7, Puppeteer and Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. Stellar output from 1st/2nd party studios [on the other hand, MS had almost nothing for X360 in the last 2 years of its life, one or two not risky games and lots of Kinect showelware].

[I still think Puppeteer would much better be suited to be PS4 launch title]

Who cares how many games they have. Here are a ton of 3rd party multiplatform games that are better. Out of those above games The Last of Us was excellent if not one of my fave games of all time, that alone is good enough. God of War Ascention was underwhelming. Ratchet and Clank Onto the Nexus wasn't as good as the last 2 and had frame rate issues. Beyond was boring. Puppeteer just didn't appeal to me. And Gran Turismo 7 came out too late for me to care about as around that time next gen hit and the appeal of Gran Turismo to me is graphics. See what I mean people live to count exclusives but how many do you actually enjoy or are you actually going to buy. Personally for me it's multiplatform games that are more popular for me. The exclusives I am looking forward to on PS4 are Uncharted 4, Street Fighter V, Bloodborne and Persona 5. All other exclusives are not must haves for me including the stuff that has already released like The Order and inFamous Second Son. With Xbox One the only game that appeals to me is Killer Instinct.
 
Seems more about Sony shutting down mid-sized studios in favor of AAA production. Which is a huge bummer to me.

@LiquidSolid

Studio Cambridge, Studio Liverpool, Game Republic, Incognito Entertainment, Zipper Interactive and SOE

Let me get this straight:
1. You say Sony's been shutting down lots of studios and cancelling games in the last two years.
2. I ask you to name one studio they've closed down in the last two years.
3. You list three Sony studios that were closed down 3+ years ago, one bankrupt independent studio and two other studios that are still around.

So I'm taking it your answer was: No, sorry, I can't even name one.

Sure if you ignore first party games like Project Spark, Max CoB, LocoCycle, Kalimba, Voice Commander, Kinect Sports Rivals...which you did.

And if you including titles like The Order and LBP3 then you'll need to count Ori, Killer Instinct, Sunset, Ryse, DR3, Magic 2015, D4, Dance Central, ect that MS published.

I'm not trying to do a list war battle but if yu are going to make comparisons and create lists then at least do some research before spouting blatant lies.

Yeah, like I said earlier, Microsoft have released a comparable number of games if you include both internal and external developers. That said, DR3 and Magic don't belong on that list (just as I wouldn't include SF5 on Sony's one or Tomb Raider on Microsoft's once they come out) and I might argue that Microsoft's lineup is padded with 4-5 Kinect games.
 
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