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IGN: ~50 Layoffs at Sony Santa Monica, Project Canceled [Up2: Was Stig's New IP]
- Thread starter Jonboy
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These things happen sometimes. Random game from big studio gets unveiled and devs suddenly notice that their project will come out later and will be carbon copy of that game. Having your project then drastically changed after years of focused development can be a hard thing to do. Shame Stig did not manage to do pull it off. Sony needs to have one fully coop-based FPS/TPS franchise, who knows when we will get one now.
Sony needs an wRPG before anything else, IMO. They've had mixed results with FPS titles (Killzone, Resistance) and massive success with TPS (Uncharted, TLoU).
Abdul Hafeez
Member
Man if Destiny really is the reason for this getting cancelled (and that seems way too ridiculous to be true), then this is some serious bullshit. Both games pretty much began development at the same time. It seems unfair for SSM to have to give up on their vision due to some retarded market realities nonsense. They should've announced the game sooner. That way people would've compared Destiny to this and not the other way around. Hopefully Sony just announces games sooner from now on. The Witness was fucking announced 4 years ago. And excitement for it has only gone up. People want to know what these developers are making. The indies clearly understand that engaging your audience is important. What do the AAA guys do? Give us 5 seconds of gameplay for The Order that only caused excitement to decrease cause it seemed like a generic third person cover based shooter with QTEs. Or remember Destiny and how ridiculous that reveal was? No gameplay. They were treating it as if it was the second coming. It's fucking tragic. To all the AAA studios out there: the players will not disappear if you show more.
So where are they? Why is Sony allowing MS to win the 2014 PR battle if they can do something about it? Aside from sales, MS has them beat this year so far imo.
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
How is that possible? My understanding is that BT only formed shortly before MS bought them.
The demo they showed at E3 looked like a concept piece. Not a real game.
Stig's team was ~50 people and Destiny team was ~500 people. While Stig was still prototyping, Bungie was finishing the game with the army of developers. Those two projects were in totally different stages of development, and Stig was most likely fired because he had epic troubles in finding new vision of the game. There is nothing wrong with killing games if they obviosly have no future or financial sense.
Firing them all was extreme, but killing off project was not. Shame they did not got tasked to do something else, for example port TLOU on PS4 at least.
BlackBuzzard
Banned
The only thing ive seen in PR from Microsoft is Titanfall this Titanfall that.
travisbickle
Member
And an adaptor so you can plug your own headphones into the controller, and Twitch. Sony's in trouble!
Sidewinder
Member
Fuu, love me some Sci-Fi and new IPs and now both are gone ;(
If they don't change the GoW franchise drastically, they'll be in a world of pain, that franchise is nearing its death. I loved it but now it's time to move on, at least give us an entirely new mythology, Egypt would be perfect.
I don't like what I'm seeing lately, UC4 as NDs first PS4 project instead of a new franchise, SSM Sci-Fi project getting canned, Driveclub coming out who knows when...what's next, killing TLG?
E3 or some real news about other Sony projects need to come soon!
Edit: and if you had listened to me and made a new Colony Wars or another Space Opera, this wouldn't have happened, because there is no competition in this genre anywhere to be seen on consoles.
If they don't change the GoW franchise drastically, they'll be in a world of pain, that franchise is nearing its death. I loved it but now it's time to move on, at least give us an entirely new mythology, Egypt would be perfect.
I don't like what I'm seeing lately, UC4 as NDs first PS4 project instead of a new franchise, SSM Sci-Fi project getting canned, Driveclub coming out who knows when...what's next, killing TLG?
E3 or some real news about other Sony projects need to come soon!
Edit: and if you had listened to me and made a new Colony Wars or another Space Opera, this wouldn't have happened, because there is no competition in this genre anywhere to be seen on consoles.
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
Well now this I agree with. Its a pity Sony didn't put SSM on something like an RPG.
There are enough shooters in the world and in Sony's own development for that matter. They have games like The Order coming out that are shooters.
I don't understand why Sony hasn't bothered putting some serious time and effort into an WRPG or even a JRPG.
Do we REALLY need more shooters or racing games? Too many genres are being left unexplored.
If Sony was smart they might consider taking the assets for this game and reinvesting them into a Sci-Fi RPG title. It would require a large turnover, but at least they could use a lot of the graphical, level and story assets. Besides, they could even keep the shooter aspect and make it like an alternative to Mass Effect. Unless, Sony feels it would be too much to compete with that game either.
They stated at E3 that they have more first party games in the works than MS, more coming in 2014 than MS, more new IP than MS.
They just haven't announced them all yet, and they seem to want to wait until they are more solid before doing so - rather than risk a repeat of the last guardian or other games that drag on. And that shouldn't be empty words, they've shown with PS3 that they are willing to invest in new IP and a broad range of games rather than just the safe stuff.
As for AAA, I think yoshida said something along the lines of one big title per quarter, supported by smaller and mid sized games?
This cancellation is disappointing but without any knowledge of what it was, how it played, or how close to completion it was, we are just arguing about nothing. The only thing we can agree on is that it is a shame for those that lost their jobs, and hope they find something soon.
Some Nobody
Junior Member
Forcing a reveal when they weren't ready could only have caused more damage. It's an impossible situation. If you don't say anything, places like GAF will put their detective force on the job and go looking for shit they really shouldn't know. Think about it: this game was never promoted anywhere. Magazines, trailer reveal, conferences--nothing. We pieced it's existence together through Twitter bios and job postings. Without that, if this had been canceled you would basically know nothing. Hell, technically this is only newsworthy because of the layoffs. Without them, this thread reads as: Sony Cancels Video Game, something that I'm sure happens far more often than any of us know.
On the other hand, if they HAD revealed it, gave us a ton of information, and we were all hyped...who's to say they wouldn't have canceled it anyway? Core gamers being hype is not the same as an AC/CoD/GTA fanbase. Then we would've really been pissed off. Why risk the bad PR?
Admittedly, for games we already know about like The Order or Destiny, the secrecy is fucking pointless. Once you announce, don't go silent--keep feeding us information instead of making us forage around the internet for new info.
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
Yeah. Sony has really been dropping the ball with news since launch.
They need to really lay on the line what their plans are with their WWS and restore confidence in their game development, because recent events have left it very shaken.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Oh man, I've just seen all the updates. It was a sci-fi game kinda like Destiny? This sucks. We get hardly any credible sci-fi games, and then SSM's is thrown off track and ultimately cancelled because it's similar to another. Balls.
Infinite Justice
Member
Well now this I agree with. Its a pity Sony didn't put SSM on something like an RPG.
There are enough shooters in the world and in Sony's own development for that matter. They have games like The Order coming out that are shooters.
I don't understand why Sony hasn't bothered putting some serious time and effort into an WRPG or even a JRPG.
Do we REALLY need more shooters or racing games? Too many genres are being left unexplored.
If Sony was smart they might consider taking the assets for this game and reinvesting them into a Sci-Fi RPG title. It would require a large turnover, but at least they could use a lot of the graphical, level and story assets. Besides, they could even keep the shooter aspect and make it like an alternative to Mass Effect. Unless, Sony feels it would be too much to compete with that game either.
So you missed white knight chronicles then? that was their JRPG attempt..
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
Yeah, I never heard this either. Plus, it is virtually unheard for a game to be secured as an out and out exclusive AFTER its been announced for other platforms.
OH dude! Come on!
That was one series from years ago and it wasn't even that great. Doesn't have much of a future to it either.
BTW what was that big someone mentioned earlier about Shuhei screwing up with the Soul's games? Was that originally going to be a PS exclusive series or something? know Demon's Souls was exclusive and then they went to Dark Souls. I don't know what the exact deal was there. Can someone elaborate?
Some Nobody
Junior Member
I really do want to know just how "similar" they were. Because again, if it's an offline game then we're talking about two different things here.
Infinite Justice
Member
HAZE (although that game turned out to be shit)
boredandlazy
Member
Some Nobody
Junior Member
SonyGAF may hate me because I'm the first to call BS when Sony does something silly. But this post is silly. "Aside from sales"? lol, what else is there?
I hate this "Sony's doing great compared to.." nonsense. You know who Sony has to beat? Themselves. They have to put themselves back on top, and what they have now is just a small lead--to return to PS2-levels of dominance they'll need more than this.
Still, my apologies to GopherD and other insiders who "know" about all the major video games coming out this and next year--we're all extremely frustrated. Very few new games, first or third party, have been announced since...TGS, really. And now we're constantly hearing news about games being canceled and studios being shuttered; basically the polar opposite of what we WANT to hear. Stuff like that turns frustration into fanboy rage, justified or not.
Still and all, GDC is just a month away I guess.
Kenshin001
Member
Demon's Souls is a Sony exclusive, Sony own the IP and it was co produced by Sony and published by Sony in Japan. Yoshida saw it and thought it was crap and never pushed to have it published by Sony outside Japan so it was picked up by Atlus and Namco Bandai instead. From Software then made Dark Souls for Namco and Sony for all intents and purposes lost the IP, since it just changed names and moved to a different publisher. People still cling on to the hope Demon's Souls 2 will be made though.
If there is anything positive to come out of this, let's hope they had good tech and assets that could be used by other teams to help speed up development. And after a pause, maybe they can go back and see what they can do with the game. It might have been too much to ask them to suddenly change direction to avoid destiny, but maybe now they can start again with a new direction, reusing as much as possible.
gundamkyoukai
Member
Thing is Sony has been on there own timetable since feb 20th last year and it work out great for them so far .
I frustrated just like everyone else but i can't blame them for sticking to it and with them selling so much there even less need to do so .
Rogue_Ledr
Banned
IS this true? Jesus!
That is without a doubt one of the worst decisions ever. Why the hell would they do something like that with a game with such a positive response? Even if Shu made the mistake of thinking it was a poor title initially, why keep it from Western hands? Plus even worse, not properly backing the title when it started gaining the support it did?
Oh yeah one more point, couldn't Sony legitimately sue From Software if they own the Demon's Souls IP? I mean Dark Souls is basically for all intents and purposes a straight knock off.
hodayathink
Member
The TGS build of the game was crap (and even people here were saying it when they saw/played it). Japanese developers don't do vertical slices, so the game didn't come together to be as good as it was until very late in development. And I guess by that point Sony had already passed on publishing it in the west and From were already shopping it to other publishers.
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
Predictions how many NEW AAA titles will be announced by WWS at E3? Yes including existing IPs, because who are we kidding? The brand new ones will be on half a hand if we're lucky. I'm predicting a conservative five currently unannounced titles, and most of those will probably be from existing IPs
Infinite Justice
Member
The game didn't get enough repsonse until Atlus pushed it to US and the word of mouth from japan/import players got bigger.
And at that point Sony already handed it off to Atlus (plus Namco got on board since Atlus couldn't do Europe at the time) so they couldn't do nothing anymore. Namco then went in with the checkmate by getting a followup that looks/plays really similarly
.Triggerhappytel
Member
Agree with all of this. Being forced into revealing the game before you're ready would have been an undesirable situation too. We'd then have at least 2 years to wait before release (I think Destiny was leaked then confirmed in late 2012), and we'd have been even more pissed off were it cancelled when we knew what to expect. It's just s shitty situation all around; their game might have been too similar to Destiny had they persevered with the original concept, and unless it were a better game - and bearing in mind Bungie are one of the best developers in the world - it probably would have suffered from being too similar.
Demons Soul 2 is possible and hinted at being in development for some time now. Also did any realize that this week is destination playstation.
It is true, somehow.
The problem was: Shu played an unfinished Demon Souls copy and it was total shit back then, with a lot of issues.
IAmRandom31
Banned
You must be high as fuck to think MS is winning anything.
You also haven't been around Sony during any generation. This is how they have always been. Starve the fans for info until BAM, they overload you with shit and you are left wondering why you ever doubted anything.
MS winning PR lmao. MS is dumb as fuck for letting Titanfall sniff the PC. I don't know of a single person who will buy a X1 for the only system selling piece of software hitting that system till Halo in 2015. Smooth move.
Mr. PlayStation
Member
This, In Sony I trust!
funkystudent
Member
Ah. Destiny eating their lunch makes some sense and really sucks because at least SSM's game would have the advantage of looking a heck of a lot nicer and being designed 100% for Next Gen.
But I get that they felt the need to change the game to make it different and I can see that causing a bunch of issues late into development.
I hope GG's new IP RPG is revealed before someone makes something similar.
But I get that they felt the need to change the game to make it different and I can see that causing a bunch of issues late into development.
I hope GG's new IP RPG is revealed before someone makes something similar.
BlackBuzzard
Banned
Yeah he passed on Demons Souls publishing in the west. But he probably learned a lesson from that. Cause now you see games like Soul Sacrifice,Gravity Rush and Tokyo Jungle hitting the western market. People learn from their mistakes
Other stuff he started was the whole Playstation indie intiative and the third party publishing studio, that could bring long requested games to the gamers.
Its nice to just keep screaming bububut Demons Souls, you also need to look at the good things someone has done.
Other stuff he started was the whole Playstation indie intiative and the third party publishing studio, that could bring long requested games to the gamers.
Its nice to just keep screaming bububut Demons Souls, you also need to look at the good things someone has done.
You realize 5 AAA is a lot right? And if they announced them then, they would be releasing within a year and a half. You're crazy for expecting more than that.Predictions how many NEW AAA titles will be announced by WWS at E3? Yes including existing IPs, because who are we kidding? The brand new ones will be on half a hand if we're lucky. I'm predicting a conservative five currently unannounced titles, and most of those will probably be from existing IPs
That's a retailer event. Expect nothing. Look for GDC if you're gonna hype yourself on something only to be left down because that's the GAF way.
It's rough because the more atypical your universe is, the riskier the entire venture. But in this case, there were punished for being too safe (too familiar).
Allegedly, of course.
lmao! Where have you been in the last two months?
BlackBuzzard
Banned
I doubt that will happen, Destiny is just gonna be so huge, Activision will make sure of that. Going up against that even with a studio like SSM is extremely risky, especially with the pedigree of Bungie.
FullMetalx117
Member
Titanfall IS is a big deal and whether or not your hardcore friends get it on PC doesn't matter, it's about getting the core and casuals on board and Titanfall will do it. As of right now the Xbox One has a better lineup and I really can't see that changing anytime soon.
bigboss370
Member
Three generations of Playstation consoles has taught me there is no need to worry. Although this news was disheartening, the reasons for the cancellation (too much like Destiny therefore having to try and force fundamental changes) make sense. Better to regroup and take their lumps now than have released a game that was not up to SSM's standards.
dragonbane
Member
It's not really a hope at this point, more like an unspoken reality. We had so many rumours and even insider confirmations it is without a doubt Sony's worst kept secret.
Well, a team of 50 has been let go.
A new team is getting assembled, around Cory Barlog.
Happens! Sad for the people who lost their jobs.
But...well... happens!
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
I wonder if the cancelled project is this:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...iter-working-on-secret-sony-santa-monica-game
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...iter-working-on-secret-sony-santa-monica-game
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