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[StuBurns]

I'd like to know what makes you so sure.

Well, never is a long time. But I'm sure because it can't possibly make money, or sell consoles, on a budget that makes it worth doing.

Sly 4 is an unusual situation, and when it under performs, and GAF rips Sony a new asshole for not marketing it, people should consider the game never had to be made in the first place. Sony really isn't going to benefit, and most importantly, were never going to. Next-gen is going to cost more, Sony's big 'art' experiment with Team ICO has completely fell on it's arse. The time for indulging is over, it's all or nothing. They can't be wasting money, and mindshare, and release windows, with games of such limited appeal.

Ironically, I really thought we'd see an All Stars 2. I thought it'd be a next-gen $20 PSN thing, but I thought it'd be so cheap, and easy to knock another one out, and very fast considering the big titles will take a while, that I really thought it'd happen. So who knows. I could be completely wrong about Sly too, we shall see, I hope I am, the demo is slick as hell.

/shrug I guess we can agree to disagree? If I love a game enough and it's an exclusive IP of a particular platform, I'll probably want to see something from it in a mascot brawler or party game, or w/e. I guess it really only works for Nintendo considering how easy it is to mix their IPs, and how lots of them are in the same universe.

You didn't answer the question, but sure, agree to disagree sounds good.

 

[neverknowsbest]

This is pretty much what happens in any creative business. Not every game can be a hit, and it's very hard to predict how good something will be from the initial pitch. There's also a lot of variation in the quality of implementation of ideas. SOCOM4 was a standard good idea, but the implementation was just not up to snuff to really capture people's imagination. Great games usually have great creators behind them, who have the creative energy to see a project to its fullest potential. These types of creators are rare, and they're difficult to fake. If you have it, you have it, and if you don't, you don't. No amount of money/marketing can make up for a lack of creative energy, and the quality of a game doesn't depend on the money or size of the team. Media Molecule and thatgamecompany are small, but highly creative, and they produce very impressive games. A lot of companies just don't have the right people. Of course, not every "creative" game succeeds, but it helps make the product appear to be a creative whole.

 

[stufte]

Idol Minds *NEARLY* closed, they had to lay almost everyone off when Ruin (Warrior's Lair) got pulled. They started doing ios games and were able to rehire some of the folks they let go.

 

[Duxxy3]

The way things are going, nobody is going to want to play in the bigs with Sony.

How is this any different from Microsoft, EA, Activision or any large publisher?

The only one that is different is Nintendo and that's only because they have a huge following and they don't release shitty games.

 

[Ridley327]

The one thing that bugs me about Ueda not allowing Ico or SotC characters in PSASBR is that he seemingly had no problems with letting Media Molecule handling them with Little Big Planet, and that game sure isn't any less silly than PSASBR.

 

[The Mana Legend]

I LOVE PS-All-Stars, my game of 2012 behind Journey. The Vita version was sublime. The best of luck for the guys at SuperBot and I hope they can land on their feet. If it wasn't for the leaks and terrible marketing, this game could have been something special.





That's fair enough until you look at the fact that without Sony, these studios probably wouldn't have existed in the first place.

Most of those developers are not owned and were not created by Sony and existed before their Sony collaborations. They got fucked over by Sony once they signed with Sony for development deals.

 

[baekshi]

It is mostly Sony's fault because no advertising was done for these games hardly. If they were promoting them like a god of war or uncharted and they still failed then you start to examine other reasons. But marketing is always the first reason to go to. Hell I didn't even see a commercial for PS All Stars until after the game came out.

Starhawk was doomed from the moment they said it was different from warhawk.

PASBR was also when everything got leaked. I saw plenty of commercials for All Stars before it came out, they were even in theaters where they showed trailers.

 

[Etzer]

I don't see how people are blaming Sony. Best of luck to those at Superbot, but honestly the game just wasn't the best. I'd feel ripped off if I paid full price for it (I got it for $10). The UI was awful, the game randomly froze, and we all know that the roster isn't what it could have been. While the roster might not be Superbot's fault, the least I expected was a Story Mode that brought all the characters together, but all I got was a slideshow for each character.

As weird as it sounds, I think I would've preferred something more like Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion.

 

[OldJadedGamer]

It is mostly Sony's fault because no advertising was done for these games hardly. If they were promoting them like a god of war or uncharted and they still failed then you start to examine other reasons. But marketing is always the first reason to go to. Hell I didn't even see a commercial for PS All Stars until after the game came out.

Seems they are wasting money paying for third party regional DLC instead of first party published games.

 

[Moosichu]

I've come across some article on the web indicating that SuperBot won't close, so maybe all is good .

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/04/sony-and-superbot-part-ways-superbot-excited-about-its-future/

We are very excited about beginning the next chapter of our future and invite all of our fans and supporters to follow our journey

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/02/04/sony-walks-away-from-playstation-all-stars-dev

Additionally, a source has indicated to us, contrary to a report linked to below, that the studio will continue to live on and is currently seeking publishers interested in working with "an award-winning studio" such as SuperBot Entertainment.

 

[Aquamarine]

This is pretty much what happens in any creative business. Not every game can be a hit, and it's very hard to predict how good something will be from the initial pitch. There's also a lot of variation in the quality of implementation of ideas. SOCOM4 was a standard good idea, but the implementation was just not up to snuff to really capture people's imagination. Great games usually have great creators behind them, who have the creative energy to see a project to its fullest potential. These types of creators are rare, and they're difficult to fake. If you have it, you have it, and if you don't, you don't. No amount of money/marketing can make up for a lack of creative energy, and the quality of a game doesn't depend on the money or size of the team. Media Molecule and thatgamecompany are small, but highly creative, and they produce very impressive games. A lot of companies just don't have the right people. Of course, not every "creative" game succeeds, but it helps make the product appear to be a creative whole.

Interestingly enough, that's why gaming enthusiasts (like myself) like to fawn over certain creative minds in the game industry, because often enough it's thanks to their leadership and creative drive that the game ends up being so creative and fun.

I've come across some article on the web indicating that SuperBot won't close, so maybe all is good .

The first article is all fluff PR speak. It doesn't really mean anything.

 

[TimeEffect]

So no sequel?

My problem is that I wished Sony would let them grow under their wings. You cant blame SB for not selling when Sony couldnt get them the big names. Is the game not profiting? How can they just cut ties... Sony seems to have expected to much, threw a pricey ad campaign that seemed to last minute, and let SB sink or swim. /assumptions

I am so massively dissapointed I LOVE the game, I dont know why a lot of features that were rumoured got dropped but was hoping a sequel would pay off

 

[BigBadShamoo]

Just about anything is freaking amazing compared to Brawl's netcode though

True but as a whole PSABR is leap and bounds ahead of Brawl Gameplay wise. As much as I hate saying this, I see Sony regretting this decision, when the new brawl comes out becuase I have no doubt that PSABR brought more to the table than the new Smash will when it debuts.

 

[mooooose]

This game was shitty, the idea was dumb, and Superbot was a decent company with some decent talent and some terrible talent. It's sad people lost their jobs, but I'm not heartbroken I'll never play another Superbot game.

It sucks what happened to Eat Sleep Play and Lightbox, but Idol Minds made mediocre games, Nihlistic sucked, etc.

Gaming isn't losing much by losing these teams.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I hope everyone at Superbot lands on their feet, but Sony has or has had too many B and C-tier developers in their stable (including pets like Guerrilla). They need to release fewer, better games and push them properly.

Pretty much my sentiments.

How GT5 was handled for example, they could've done so much better with regular paid DLC updates etc... the release itself was a mess to begin with. The series can use more focus (no ford focus indeed), like how MS handles their Halo for example.

 

[OldJadedGamer]

The company has potential so looking forward to their next project.

 

[Pie and Beans]

Big fan of a hell of a lot of Sony properties, felt no desire to even play the game let alone buy it. Way too many great characters relegated to backgrounds like LocoRoco's and Patapons (and Kat as super late DLC was not really forgiveable), while the main roster was dudebro'd up like a motherfucker.

Its only natural Sony's platter of game devs would start to contract/shrink a little. Honestly they had a preposterous amount of people under their wing, far far more than MS or Nintendo (possibly combined at one point).

Market just wasn't rewarding the swollen goliath, so can't really expect things to be run like some kind of charity.

 

[Moosichu]

Well, never is a long time. But I'm sure because it can't possibly make money, or sell consoles, on a budget that makes it worth doing.

Sly 4 is an unusual situation, and when it under performs, and GAF rips Sony a new asshole for not marketing it, people should consider the game never had to be made in the first place. Sony really isn't going to benefit, and most importantly, were never going to. Next-gen is going to cost more, Sony's big 'art' experiment with Team ICO has completely fell on it's arse. The time for indulging is over, it's all or nothing. They can't be wasting money, and mindshare, and release windows, with games of such limited appeal.

Ironically, I really thought we'd see an All Stars 2. I thought it'd be a next-gen $20 PSN thing, but I thought it'd be so cheap, and easy to knock another one out, and very fast considering the big titles will take a while, that I really thought it'd happen. So who knows. I could be completely wrong about Sly too, we shall see, I hope I am, the demo is slick as hell.

You didn't answer the question, but sure, agree to disagree sounds good.

Journey really payed-off though. Best selling PSN game of all time.

 

[Coxy]

You should see how far the Ratchet series has plummeted as well. Dear God. I don't know if it was Sony's or Insomniac's fault, but Insomniac has tanked hard the last couple of years.

Well how do you think FUSE is gonna do?

 

[Duxxy3]

Well how do you think FUSE is gonna do?

It will be lucky to break a million.

 

[Infinite Justice]

Surprised to see that Sony is going with the axe more often :O

 

[StuBurns]

Journey really payed-off though. Best selling PSN game of all time.

And Journey isn't a $60 retail game, so yes, it did. ThatGameCompany's three games must have all been very profitable, they reviewed well, they're very well liked, if not loved. An excellent deal for both parties I think.

I think, and hope, we'll see a lot more of that next-gen. Very low risk projects, very unique, they can be a lot more hit and miss and the repercussions are very small to the publisher.

 

[Treechopper]

When I think of Sony I think of Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, Polyphony Digital and now thatgamecompany since they promoted that like crazy. Great studios? Arguably the best in their respective genres.

Then I think of other studios like Media Molecule, Evolution, and Sucker Punch and wonder how they don't have a first party line up that uneducated consumers adore like Nintendo's.

Then I see Superbot getting the short end of the stick and don't wonder anymore

 

[Saty]

Dead Island was a negatively received game (71 average) that Deep Silver\Koch marketed heavily and got 3 million sales. PSABR and Starhawk both have a better average than Dead Island but probably haven't made a fraction of Dead Island.

 

[sense]

Most of those developers are not owned and were not created by Sony and existed before their Sony collaborations. They got fucked over by Sony once they signed with Sony for development deals.

i am sorry, what?they got a chance by a big company like sony to prove themselves and they failed. blaming sony on lack of marketing a game that wasn't carrying good word of mouth among critics is ridiculous . no amount of marketing would have helped this game. they could have maybe did better with a higher budget. if sony finds a potential in the game then they fund the sequel with a higher budget but they noticed a lot of bad word of mouth around this game especially the majority angry for being a rip off and critics not showing much interest and rightfully ended their ties. i own the game and it was fun to play but they could have done better with presentation and a better single player.

 

[BigBadShamoo]

I've come across some article on the web indicating that SuperBot won't close, so maybe all is good .

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/04/sony-and-superbot-part-ways-superbot-excited-about-its-future/



http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/02/04/sony-walks-away-from-playstation-all-stars-dev

Man after reading THIS. This is awesome news for SuperBot. They got their name and work put out there more so than it already was. They got paid, put out a great product with great gameplay. They say it ended well. NOWWW we're going to see what happens with the game now that santa monica has it. I just hope it doesn't take a turn like Spyro and Crash did after dev change.

 

[rdrr gnr]

I hope everyone at SuperBot finds a stable job and is successful in their future endeavors. A few employees in particular are worth keeping and I hope Sony realizes that.

That being said -- good. PSABR is a manifestation of stupid ideas that should have never made it to the production phase. The game was creatively bankrupt.

Edit: Apparently the studio is intact. Good luck to them.

 

[Tuck]

That sucks but after All Star's performances it had to be coming.

Well received game performs poorly, and they blame the developer, rather than the marketing department. Makes perfect sense.

 

[Dantis]

Damn, this is pretty saddening.

I have to wonder if it would have made a significant difference with the Smash Bros kill system. I actually think it could have.

 

[Deadstar]

that sucks. all stars was a pretty good game.

I didn't like it. It felt too floaty and not precise. Characters bounce off walls like crazy and you had no control over the action like you do in smash. I constantly felt like I was being juggled. They should have copied smash's formula exactly but with sony characters.

 

[StuBurns]

Dead Island was a negatively received game (71 average) that Deep Silver\Koch marketed heavily and got 3 million sales. PSABR and Starhawk both have a better average than Dead Island but probably haven't made a fraction of Dead Island.

And they're on one platform, not three.

 

[Ridley327]

Dead Island was a negatively received game (71 average) that Deep Silver\Koch marketed heavily and got 3 million sales. PSABR and Starhawk both have a better average than Dead Island but probably haven't made a fraction of Dead Island.

I would suggest that points to Dead Island being a far more desirable concept than a Smash Bros. clone with far lesser known characters and a quasi-sequel to a multiplayer-only game from early on in the PS3's life.

 

[msdstc]

I feel for the employees of Superbot, but the handling of this game was embarrasing.

- multiple delays on both Patches and DLC
- Poor netcoding and all sorts of glitches
- Poor presentation
- Horrible marketing
- Adding glitches when removing others.

It's been one shitstorm after the other. They promised the first DLC early January, here we are a month later and have yet to see it.

 

[Totobeni]

And Journey isn't a $60 retail game, so yes, it did. ThatGameCompany's three games must have all been very profitable, they reviewed well, they're very well liked, if not loved. An excellent deal for both parties I think.

I think, and hope, we'll see a lot more of that next-gen. Very low risk projects, very unique, they can be a lot more hit and miss and the repercussions are very small to the publisher.

it's really about the game quality,pricing sure help a lot for sure but good games will sell themselves.

Twisted Metal, All Stars ,Starhawk, Burning Skies were really bad and the devs made huge mistakes with them and funny enough all got bad SP and the fans were complaining before release but dev didn't listen.

 

[Metallix87]

Why's that?

Because if they release a mediocre game they won't get a second contract from Sony? I'd say that is an industry truth.

Because if the game they're making isn't guaranteed to be a mega hit, Sony won't market your game well, if at all.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Dead Island was a negatively received game (71 average) that Deep Silver\Koch marketed heavily and got 3 million sales. PSABR and Starhawk both have a better average than Dead Island but probably haven't made a fraction of Dead Island.

Dead Island had a very strong trailer, had some good commercials and is a gory sandbox game with zombies. Both PSA and Starhawk were a much harder sell.

The ratings for Starhawk aren't enough for the crowd it had to fight over (online gamers). Isn't the metascore on par with something like MoH: Warfighter? Starhawk was also very unconventional.

 

[Huff]

Well received game performs poorly, and they blame the developer, rather than the marketing department. Makes perfect sense.

except it wasn't well received

 

[TimeEffect]

Man after reading THIS. This is awesome news for SuperBot. They got their name and work put out there more so than it already was. They got paid, put out a great product with great gameplay. They say it ended well. NOWWW we're going to see what happens with the game now that santa monica has it. I just hope it doesn't take a turn like Spyro and Crash did after dev change.

So SMS acts as.its own entity? Sequel possible? Or will it go to a new dev team all together?

 

[Strike]

Damn. I had thought things might've been different considering there was word that they were hiring and already working on a sequel.

 

[StuBurns]

it's really about the game quality,pricing sure help a lot for sure but good games will sell themselves.

It's both completely. Journey would have been trashed at $60. It had to be cheap, and it had to be digital so they didn't need to do a print run, because something like that is going to be a wild guess at best.

Twisted Metal, All Stars ,Starhawk, Burning Skies were really bad and the devs made huge mistakes with them and funny enough all got bad SP and the fans were complaining before release but dev didn't listen.

But none of them were ever 'AAA', they still wouldn't have made the transition I think.

 

[Painraze]

Dead Island was a negatively received game (71 average) that Deep Silver\Koch marketed heavily and got 3 million sales. PSABR and Starhawk both have a better average than Dead Island but probably haven't made a fraction of Dead Island.

lol

Dead Island was an open world, 4 player co-op zombie game that looked fantastic. It was going to sell regardless. You are comparing apples and oranges.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I'm sure Jaffe wanted TM to be a cheaper PSN release (he's being saying it over here), but Sony pushed full retail through.

 

[pantsmith]

Its a shame that I guess we wont be getting a sequel now, or at least it looks like we wont.

All-Stars was very rough around the edges, but had a lot of great things working in its favor. Would have loved to see Seth take it on as a pet project and release a sequel down the road akin to the kind of sequel Melee was (an awesome, awesome sequel that catapaults a basic idea into greatness).

What are the odds of someone keeping the core engine and making a downloadable sequel down the road? I'd argue that it should have been a downloadable game to begin with, so that seems like a fitting road.

 

[DR2K]

except it wasn't well received

Except that it was.

 

[BigBadShamoo]

It's been one shitstorm after the other. They promised the first DLC early January, here we are a month later and have yet to see it.

They revealed that the DLC would be coming early February and it's for free.

 

[Kyon]

Good. Sony cant afford to fund all these studios' games only for most of them to be sub par and not sell. Trim Dat fat Sony.

Also hope they buy Quantic Dream. They proved to be top tier up there with Naughty Dog, SSM, SP and MM

 

[KalBalboa]

The one thing that bugs me about Ueda not allowing Ico or SotC characters in PSASBR is that he seemingly had no problems with letting Media Molecule handling them with Little Big Planet, and that game sure isn't any less silly than PSASBR.

I never considered that. Excellent point.

 

[Huff]

Except that it was.

Danger: Malware Ahead!

 

[Totobeni]

Also hope they buy Quantic Dream. They proved to be top tier up there with Naughty Dog, SSM, SP and MM

No,Sony already own Sony Pictures Animation.

 

[Gadirok]

Well, it was fun while it lasted.


Anyways, it appears that sony shoves these online components to Santa Monica Studios every time. Like here, deal with it, because we don't want to deal with it.


Not sure what Santa Monica exactly does with it, besides maintaining Twisted Metal, Starhawk, and now PSASBR after their retail bombs.

All of these titles were sent into die. Looking back, PSASBR could have been a better game. It nailed the multiplayer component but definitely needed further refining and WAY MORE content.

I had my fun with each of these titles.