Kokoloko85
Member
I do miss games like Tokyo Jungle though
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Sony DID NOT fire Ueda, He quitted in 2011 because he didn’t want the game to be delayed to next gen PS4 (due to frame rate issues on PS3)
Punished Miku
Gold Member
Counterpoint:
This is one of my favorite series on Playstation. And this from a guy who came off of making a Vita game. It's a giant open world, and it's gorgeous. One of the best on the whole system.
This is one of my favorite series on Playstation. And this from a guy who came off of making a Vita game. It's a giant open world, and it's gorgeous. One of the best on the whole system.
Harlock
Member
An western studio that can't make a game that sells for over 10 years. But with this one Sony is fine.Ummm when was this taken and who are they?
Kokoloko85
Member
Lol which studio is that?
CamHostage
Member
It's Media Molecule. You can see the Imp toys and the BAFTAs.
Media Molecule gets a visit from Kojima - Metal Gear Informer
Yesterday afternoon Kojima arrived in London as the next destination of his 10-day technology tour with Mark Cerny. Earlier this
www.metalgearinformer.com
Still unclear what Harlock's point is, though. There's just over 30 staffers in that picture, they've supposedly been between 30-50 for their lifespan, so it's a small crew and they have produced 3 products in 10 years (plus they collaborated in franchising its brands on 3 more products,) they built a side-project for the greater corporation in developing a pillar title for a new platform (Tearaway for Vita was a loss-leading effort, so successful or not, Sony needed it at the time,) and are brand managers of one of PlayStation's most successful and franchiseable product lines in LittleBigPlanet. All in all, that is pretty good to earn their keep, even if Dreams is not a blockbuster.
...Not that I feel the OP's sentiments really needed to be shouted out either, though Yoboman did preface it as opinion with "Hot Take", so fair enough. We don't really know everything about Japan Studio's downfall aside from what's in the public. Yes, they produced tragically few games for a studio of that caliber, but to say it was "their own doing" may not be fair since we don't know what projects started/stopped, what priorities and budgets management gave, how many projects were in development, why there was such a gap in developments and a downturn in contracted outside studios, etc. We don't even have any insider accounts on how the rumored RaySpace project was going and why it wasn't deemed to be worthy enough to stave off the downsizing.
Ultimately, underperformance is underperformance, no matter the excuses or circumstances (and just to me as a game buyer looking for Japan Studio products as a fan, I have felt the underperformance from a consumer's perspective,) and any company that underperforms cannot be wholly surprised if a reckoning comes (be it Japan Studio, maybe some day Media Molecule, or whoever.)
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Virt McPolygon
Banned
That's just marketing.
Keihart
Member
Rean no Kiseki
Banned
Fine what about the rest then? Now who's grasping?TLG being done by GenDesing lmao.
Ladioss
Member
I don't think Japan Studio was lethargic - they just failed to get on the ongoing japanese dev renaissance bandwagon, and Sony's lack of interest (as they had alreadt moved on at this point) allowed them to fail.The pivot was probably 2010-2013, with the success of Naughty Dog's titles while Gravity Daze failed to deliver and SoTC was stuck in limbo. There was not much Japan Studio could do after that.
The strange thing is Sony not outright closing down Japan Studio during the latter half of the 2010s, but that's the strange world of corporate politics I guess.
The strange thing is Sony not outright closing down Japan Studio during the latter half of the 2010s, but that's the strange world of corporate politics I guess.
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Yoboman
Member
I just don’t agree. If your games aren’t being picked up it’s on the producers and directors and even studio heads
For example Sony Santa Monica had a huge project canned, they were in a troubled state after the failure of GOW Ascension but they pulled together and made a GOTG contender. Meanwhile the brain trust behind the canned game moved on
The producers and studio leads that couldn’t get anything off the ground at Sony Japan Studio are the ones that have been let go, and Sony will rebuild around Asobi who have been successful and competent
Its the right move especially when that team carries the moniker Sony Japan Studio, and you’d think with that name they would be leaders among Sony first party
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Ezquimacore
Banned
Are you Phil Fish?
CamHostage
Member
Japan Studio was also left without the familiar grounds of a handheld platform to work with. In the PSP and to a lesser extent Vita days, the company was a big fish in a small pond, making the small, quirky types of games it exceeded at, with production handed both internally and externally alongside the home office producers. It was producing games primarily for the Japanese gamer, by Japanese game designers, for release in Japan where portable gaming is a big need; the global spread of those products then carried on the success of the Japanese product to expand outward, with the often-neglected portable game fan being gifted top-tier 1sr Party product made for their machines and interests, and with Japan Studio (much like Nintendo) being able to market the specific, sometime peculiar qualities of Japanese as a perk for those not enraptured by the FPS killsim of the month...
Once that pond dried up, Japan Studio had a lot of trouble fitting in and finding its place. Japanese gamers went mobile, global "otaku" Japanophiles seemed to peak and fall off in numbers, indies found a way to fill in all the gaps between the big games, mega-blockbusters like Fortnite and Minecraft or GaaS games made the long tail of a successful game incredibly difficult to get around, and all the while production value demands in gaming continued to skyrocket. Every game development studio has felt the heat in the past two generations, but Japan Studio at least had a purpose to fulfill when it was producing LocoRoco and Freedom Wars and Soul Sacrifice and Ape Quest and Jeanne d'Arc, even Deracine and Kung Fu Rider for PSVR... the office not in the right shape to just make "regular games" like everybody else does, and when their specific approach hit a dead end, Japan Studio was in trouble.
Outrunner
Member
And why would they market it if they were dropping that market?
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
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Virt McPolygon
Banned
Sorry but Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow are terrible examples. It was shitty game journalists that hyped up their mediocre asses.
Publishing/marketing is very different from having in house developers. Just change your avatar already, clown. I've been playing Yakuza games since the original in 2005.
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Krizalidx11
Banned
Nah, it's simple: The Switch F them up, they couldn't compete with it
Outrunner
Member
Not sure if you think you are a badass or if you are straight out retarded
Rhazer Fusion
Member
Sony actually has plenty of non-Japanese games and franchises on their consoles. I feel Sony needs REALLY needs to strengthen their Japanese output because it feels like an afterthought to me. Then again, it seems like a good number of Japanese developers are catering to the West as well or see Japanese gamers are going portable/mobile, so maybe Sony figures maybe we should focus on the West as well?