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David Jaffe: Herman Hulst pushed for playstation's Japan Studios closure.

Godot25

Banned
It's pretty clear that Sony's current mindset is "blockbuster" AAA or GaaS games. That's why they closed PixelOpus and Sony Japan. Because they did not make those types of games. I'm just surprised that they haven't closed Media Molecue yet. But I have a feeling that their next project will be "make or break" type of project.

In current gaming landscape you can "get" projects that Japan or PixelOpus made in past relatively easily through indie studios (Kena) or through publishers like Annapurna (Stray), so Sony doesn't see a reason to keep this type of studios in-house.
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
Wasnt the reports saying 'remake, plus a multiplayer in the universe of HZD?'

I must mistaking something with the old reports.


Jesus, why the hell would they even bother remastering that shit. The game came out barely a few years ago, you can still play it on your PS5. What is the fucking point?

How about remastering Killzone or Resistance you cunts?
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Jesus, why the hell would they even bother remastering that shit. The game came out barely a few years ago, you can still play it on your PS5. What is the fucking point?

How about remastering Killzone or Resistance you cunts?
Considering so many people loved and bought TLOU 1 Remake, there is clearly a market for these remasters/remakes/ports. Sony, being a business, is simply catering to that market.

If people were not purchasing these remasters, Sony wouldn't be spending millions of $$ into making them.
 
Let’s be real. Most successful Japanese game studios at this point make mobile games. The remaining few can make some profit but aren’t doing ridiculous numbers or consistent results.

Basically Japan is :

Fromsoft
Square ENIX
Capcom

Even the above release wet noodles like exoprimal and forspoken . Fromsoft doesn’t miss. Bandai namco tends to publish fromsoft games but everything else under them is low budget caca aside from what, Tekken ?

Then when we focus on specifically PlayStation exclusives from Japan all the good ones stopped long ago.

You can only shovel so many whack anime games that look like PSP titles.

P.S Atlus fans relax.
wat Japan is more mainstream than ever before, even your average normie knows Attack of Titan these days. Persona and Nier went from selling a few 100k to multi-millions. Team Ninja is bigger than they were, Yakuza isn't on the brink of cancellation anymore and every pedo-bait Nintendo JRPG will sell at least a mill these days. Just like every other generic animu game like Code Vein. Maybe Sony should've put their Japanese resources to channel some of the popular things rn instead of Knack 2 and then go pikachu-face and shut everything down for a deadend trend like GAAS.

Reminds me of the time when Nintendo thought they can just phone in lowbudget Mario and Wii Fit forever, because hey that's what sells now, lol who needs niche core games. Sony profits much rn from Xbox fumbling so much worse, but let's what happens happens after their first GAAS things underperforms.
 
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Neo_GAF

Banned
in the end, everything is directed towards money. traditional videogame companies will stop existing, if they dont stay sustainable.
SE was one of the first embracing this whole in-app/GAAS crap. does someone have a list of all games they ever released on ios/android who have already been shut down?
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
Considering so many people loved and bought TLOU 1 Remake, there is clearly a market for these remasters/remakes/ports. Sony, being a business, is simply catering to that market.

If people were not purchasing these remasters, Sony wouldn't be spending millions of $$ into making them.
I didn't say that people aren't suckers. I just said that this is a giant waste of resources.

The people who've been put on this assignment could literally be working on some sick new game or remastering something that's not very easily accessible today. But no, let's re-release Blake Griffin's Robot Dinosaur Adventure for the fifth time because we're out of ideas.
 

Sweep14

Member
Didn't Japan studio was closed before Hulst taking the reigns of Worldwide Studios ?

Edit : Ah, nope it was closed under his management
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
I didn't say that people aren't suckers. I just said that this is a giant waste of resources.

The people who've been put on this assignment could literally be working on some sick new game or remastering something that's not very easily accessible today. But no, let's re-release Blake Griffin's Robot Dinosaur Adventure for the fifth time because we're out of ideas.
That's what I was addressing. It's not, as long as the ROI is positive.

They spent a lot of resources in TLOU 1 Remake and they most likely got more out of it. So it wasn't a "waste" at all. It was most likely a very profitable project.

Sony must have done their research regarding Horizon's remake and project that as another profitable project, too, if they are investing in it. Not to mention that they'd like it to coincide with the Netflix's Horizon TV show.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Ever since Jim took over, the leadership has been making everything as European centric as possible.

Sony gaming has been US centric ever since the PS3. With the exception of Gran Turismo all their biggest hits were created by US or European studios: Uncharted, Last of Us, Horizon, God of War, Ratchet & Clank, Spider-Man, etc.
 
Ever since Jim took over, the leadership has been making everything as European centric as possible.
If that’d be true, games were not even 10% the amount of woke they are now. If Sony is centric at any place it would be the USA, you can see all the woke dripping from there.
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
That's what I was addressing. It's not, as long as the ROI is positive.

They spent a lot of resources in TLOU 1 Remake and they most likely got more out of it. So it wasn't a "waste" at all. It was most likely a very profitable project.

Sony must have done their research regarding Horizon's remake and project that as another profitable project, too, if they are investing in it. Not to mention that they'd like it to coincide with the Netflix's Horizon TV show.
It's a waste for games around the world. Why do you care about how much money Papa Herman is making?
 

BbMajor7th

Member
I mean, it's curious that Jaffe is making these complaints - he started the Bartlett Supernatural Detective Agency back in 2014 to build what was probably one of PlayStation's first service-based games (with Sony support): a free-to-play, online-only arena shooter run on a recurrent spend model. If he'd have hit it out of the park with Drawn to Death, it's not unreasonable to think Sony would've started down this path sooner.
 

Topher

Gold Member
The only thing you're going to miss out on are non-existent games on your wishlist.

And they're probably going to release those ~15 GaaS titles and once they got that going, focus on the most successful games and continue releasing singleplayer games.

I don't know any of that to be true, but I hope you are right. We will see.
 
So was multiplayer and subscriptions yet here we are. I wouldn't be shocked if the most played games on PS5 are all multiplayer games to start with that are all gaas based.

Good luck in investing in the PS6 area 400+ million for a single player game that can bomb at any moment.
This is a good point. What is the difference between Ico and Last Guardian? Production cost and development time.

The era of Sony funding passion projects are over.
 

Mr Moose

Member
Didn't generate enough clicks with his last "OMG! This is an outrage!" moment, I guess.

5fNP.gif
 
They made the last guardian, gravity rush, and helped with bloodborne, sstro botand Demon souls but sure.

xDev Japan can replicate the From Soft support, Asobi are making Astrobot. Ueda left so they wouldn't have made any more games like that anyway.

Alongside all those efforts were many cancelled internal games and a chaotic team management structure.

I personally think the xDev route is the best route.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
The heck you talking about bro?

The western studios have delivered the past two years with HFW, GOWR, and SM2
I have plenty of examples. I will repost them since you ignored them.

Cory has spent 5 years on his new ip with nothing to show for it and worse doesn’t have it ready to go into production so they are doing dlc he himself said he would never do because he wanted to tell the story and finish it in two games. Bend has only revealed a logo after 4.5 years. Bp and sucker punch have been mia for 3 years. Media molecule almost 4 years too.
Add in remakes and remasters being made by nd, not one but two, i mean who asked for a tlou2 remaster? And now gg is remaking horizon 1.

A tier studios should not be doing remakes, gaas, and last Gen games. Sorry. This is poor stuff from Herman. 1 next Gen game since ratchet 2.5 years ago is not good enough either.
 

Unknown?

Member
While Astrobot was nice and all, its kinda funny how its touted as a worthy substitute for the dozen of wild and memorable IPs Japan studio created and produced over the years. Its not even in the same ball park.


Really now? Did it get as strong a marketing exposure as, say, Uncharted? I don't recall anything remotely of that magnitude.

And that's just Gravity rush. How about The last guardian, Freedom wars, Tokyo jungle, etc. etc.? None of them went in that strong. Ever since the PS3, post Kutaragi's departure, Sony has leaned heavily in favor of their western studios.
Key word, years. Astro is better than Knack and one of Sony's best platformers ever. If you're going to compare it to the whole of Japan Studio, that isn't fair.

Also those games you listed got as much marketing as other small western games like Pursuit Force, Medievil, and Syphon Filter.
 
Jesus, why the hell would they even bother remastering that shit. The game came out barely a few years ago, you can still play it on your PS5. What is the fucking point?

How about remastering Killzone or Resistance you cunts?
TLOU Remake was a big seller when it came out and then with the show. Horizon has a TV show in the works. They want the same thing to happen with that game. Not a lot of work, not a lot of people involved like a new game. You make a few extra bucks, the studio and publisher are happy and guess what? No one has to buy it if they don't want to.
 

Neofire

Member
I knew Herman Hulst was bad news. God I hope he isn't the next Playstation CEO. He's going to run the division into the ground. How are you going to have the Japanese sector of a Japanese company to close?


You can't make this shit up.
 

Unknown?

Member
I knew Herman Hulst was bad news. God I hope he isn't the next Playstation CEO. He's going to run the division into the ground. How are you going to have the Japanese sector of a Japanese company to close?


You can't make this shit up.
He didn't though. It was restructured. Asobi was made the main studio and Xdev was expanded to Japan which is 95% of what that studio did anyway.
 

BootsLoader

Banned
There is no need for them to go big budget, I dont want them to......interesting AA games is more than enough for me.

Remember this game? This type of game I want to see comeback from Sony's first party games.
tokyo-jungle-1658846504447.jpg
Unfortunately, this Sony is dead long ago. I miss this Sony also.
 
I knew Herman Hulst was bad news. God I hope he isn't the next Playstation CEO. He's going to run the division into the ground. How are you going to have the Japanese sector of a Japanese company to close?


You can't make this shit up.
Yeah he sounds like an idiot and has no idea what he's doing. Imagine closing a studio that was flopping for 10 years. They should be opened just because they are japanese for sure.
Where's Knack 3?
 
I have plenty of examples. I will repost them since you ignored them.


Add in remakes and remasters being made by nd, not one but two, i mean who asked for a tlou2 remaster? And now gg is remaking horizon 1.

A tier studios should not be doing remakes, gaas, and last Gen games. Sorry. This is poor stuff from Herman. 1 next Gen game since ratchet 2.5 years ago is not good enough either.

Cory never had a second dedicated team

It’s a stupid example
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
That's what I was addressing. It's not, as long as the ROI is positive.

They spent a lot of resources in TLOU 1 Remake and they most likely got more out of it. So it wasn't a "waste" at all. It was most likely a very profitable project.

Sony must have done their research regarding Horizon's remake and project that as another profitable project, too, if they are investing in it. Not to mention that they'd like it to coincide with the Netflix's Horizon TV show.

Exactly. Remakes/remasters are attractive because they get a product based around a proven IP, with AAA production values in a time-span closer to that of a AA game.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Cory never had a second dedicated team

It’s a stupid example
So they just let their best director sit on his ass for 5 years and you don’t think that’s poor management? Sounds pretty stupid to me.

Nolan has made two movies since cory made his last game.

Glad you agree with me on the rest.
 

StueyDuck

Member
i'm guessing jaffe had a bit of a crush on this connie booth lady, the first reaction to the news of her departure that was apparently going to leave us all disrespected and disgusted and now with all the "burning things to the ground" comments from him.

teams move on, leadership changes, people get fired, people get hired, this is just life and business in general.

put me on team "well see what happens" , it's right between "Sony can do no wrong" and "Sony is doomed and dying, they are trying to kill us all"
 
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Drizzlehell

Banned
TLOU Remake was a big seller when it came out and then with the show. Horizon has a TV show in the works. They want the same thing to happen with that game. Not a lot of work, not a lot of people involved like a new game. You make a few extra bucks, the studio and publisher are happy and guess what? No one has to buy it if they don't want to.
Oh yes, I am so hyped for some rich people making even more money in the near future.

Truly my excitement is difficult to contain right now.
 
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Japan Studios probably didn't conform to their new ideologies.

I don't think people understand what an absolute shit show Japan studio was. Fluid teams that got fuck all done and had a lot of internal cancellations.

It was restructured around the one team that had a central purpose and then xDev Japan was hugely expanded (which was what Japan Studio actually had the most success with).

Now you have xDev Japan working with Team Ninja, From Software and others to actually being games out at a decent clip.

I'm not joking when I say that Astrobot feels like the most creative that Sony's efforts from Japan have been for a long time. The PS5 pack in was absolute joy.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Oh yes, I am so hyped for some rich people making even more money in the near future.

Truly my excitement is difficult to contain right now.
Why is there such a stigma around Sony (or any gaming company) earning money? Is that a bad thing somehow?

Where do you think the funding comes for games like Ghost of Tsushima, Returnal, God of War, Spider-Man? Of course, from the successful projects and the money consumers spend on PlayStation products.

It's a cycle, two-way lane. Gamers buy PlayStation products and spend money. In return, PlayStation ups their budget and makes even bigger games for their gamers.

It's a win-win for everyone, and there's nothing bad or shameful about it.

Some of these games cost more than $200 million. Look at other publishers and see how cheap their games often feel with cut corners everywhere, because there is no "Success begets success" cycle going on there. And then look at PlayStation Studios titles that are simply unmatched in their production values. There is a reason for that - money.
 

StereoVsn

Member
A variety that leads to success is far superior to a variety that leads to failure.

The games you listed didn't lead to growth. They led to studio closures.

The 12 GAAS projects are an attempt to lead to growth and are much safer bets than another Team ICO project.
Most GaaS projects fail, quite a few very quickly. This strategy absolutely has no guarantee of success and will be quite expensive to try.
 

blue velvet

Member
David Jaffe (ex God of War creator) says Herman Hulst pushed for Japan Studio closure (rip Bloodborne)







Thank god Kaz is the senior vice president of SIE and his games still selling well, I wouldn't be surprised if they shelve Gran Turismo too if that wasn't the case. Sony has abandoned the racing genre(except for GT) and 1st party Japanese oriented games and they have this weird fetish for derivative third person cinematic games.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Most GaaS projects fail, quite a few very quickly. This strategy absolutely has no guarantee of success and will be quite expensive to try.

The early Gatling guns were notorious for failing too. Very unreliable. The one's that succeeded changed the history of warfare forever. The designs just kept improving and improving at a rate the Samura could not keep up with.
 
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Drizzlehell

Banned
Why is there such a stigma around Sony (or any gaming company) earning money? Is that a bad thing somehow?
There is no stigma. I just don't care what motivates them to do what they do.

Think about what they could do with the resources that they're gonna put into remaking a game that's barely a few years old, is easily accessible on both last and current gen PS consoles, and on top of that, it still looks pretty great and there's very little that they can do in terms of visual upgrades that would make the game better in any meaningful way. All that effort just to drum up some interest in a TV show that I don't even give a shit about.

Just have those people make a new game, preferably something that's not GAAS. Are you saying it's more important to you as a gamer that Sony makes an extra buck while repackaging the same shit that we already have, or would you rather see some of their older IPs get ported to modern hardware, or even get a brand new game?
 

Flutta

Banned
Never liked Hermen or any of the heads in PS. Except for shu. I def don’t like Jaffe so theirs that. 😝
 
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