"We launched the PS Vita and saw few AAA titles to suit the Japanese market," Yoshida said. "Everyone got a wake up call." The solution was obvious and it was going to involve Sony's Japan Studio. "We really have to support our first party," Yoshida remembered thinking. That was 2011. And by the next year, Sony brought in Allan Becker to make sure that the studio could deliver.
Once Tearaway ships it looks like none of Sony's studios will be working on Vita games (outside of MLB I guess) so someone has to.
The article repeatedly makes mention of Rain, and that game was developed by Acquire. So I dunno what's going on there.
Brian seems to be under the impression that if you don't make console games you don't exist. Which is of course hilarious given he lives in Japan.
That said, it's not like Japan Studio is pumping out the Vita games either. They've only developed Gravity Rush.
I don't know if that's directly talking about the Vita. That's forgetting the fact that a few insiders say that there
are Vita games being made, they're just being kept really quiet.
Rain is a three way between Playstation C.A.M.P, Acquire, and SCEJ.
If you don't make
games, you don't exist.
Code:
_____________________________________________________________
| Year| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014|
|------------------------------------------------------------|
| PS* | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3^ |
| PS3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| PS4 | | | | | | | 1 | 2^ |
*Includes both PSP and Vita. PSP Support ended in 2012.
^Assumes that TLG and GR2 come out in 2014
[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCE_Japan_Studio"]Source[/URL]
Here's what I think Becker is doing.
Now obviously, SCEJ is goddamn massive. You don't have 40 projects going with just 4 people each or something. There has to be hundreds of people working there and they could only pump out 6 max a year? And with a split proportion of small and large titles at that. Obviously, Becker came in in 2011, ripped up what they were doing, and told them to focus down. I don't know if we'll be reaping the benefits in terms of quantity but, we will be getting it in at least AAA games. That JRPG they are doing has to be taking up man power. And they still have TLG and all those Vita titles in development. And, they just finished up on Knack. In about a year or two, we'll have tangible evidence of what he's been doing. And honestly, since he's taken over, we've had just as much (if not more) diversity and solid title ratio than any of those previous years. If what we reap from SCEJ and Becker is better AA titles and 2-3 AAA on a good basis, I think the refocusing was an extreme net gain.
"Last year, the sight of the name "Allan Becker" led members of the webforum NeoGAF to worry that a foreigner was taking over the studio."
Oh GAF.
QFT
Not enough, imo. Being their only eastern studio, I believe that Sony should expand it...
Well, I'm aware that the financial situation of the group is not rosy, but still, that would be a reasonable thing to engage in.
Enlighting article by the way!
You don't have 40 projects running at the same time without some insanely massive group. They don't need growth, they need focus. And it's happening. And they
are expanding their studios. Look at SSM and ND. Not to mention we don't know how many other studios are still 1 team or not.
Great article though I wish they had pushed harder for info on The Last Guardian. That's a journalist's job, right?
What? This is the most TLG info we've gotten in a long time. The fact that Becker and Ueda are having tussles is very good information. This is exactly the kind of information we want and look for. Did you want a release date or something?
