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IGN: ~50 Layoffs at Sony Santa Monica, Project Canceled [Up2: Was Stig's New IP]

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Former lead level designer @ SSM. He was also working on a new IP and his comments almost certainly confirm it is canned.

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@jonathanhawkins 3m

@GrumpyGamerGuy I'm not sure. But the IP is canceled.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
If Sony is not commenting, then the chances of him doing so are next to nothing.
Yeah, I doubt he'll say anything and if he does it'll be little more than nice words for those that left and saying that there's still plenty of SSM involved projects to be excited about.
 

AAK

Member
I think it's more akin to SotC HD being the same design as SotC, they just didn't give us the original version this time.

We'll see, either another director has taken over, which I don't think is likely, or the game was complete and just being re-engineered for PS4, which makes a lot of sense given the only two snippets of gameplay we saw of TLG ran at like ten frames per second, and that team have a history of hugely overestimating their engineering competency.

You're making assumption after assumption. Give your sources of this 10fps and re-engineering, etc and how you came to the conclusion that Team ICO or whatever SCEJ team it's called has been disbanded.
 
I've never been to thrilled with their internal work, but there is no doubt they are top notch devs that have contributed a lot to many of the ps3 games I did love. Its sad to see them hit with layoffs, especially if a new game has been cancelled. I hope the devs land on their feet elsewhere.
 

B.O.O.M

Member
The new IP?

:( I hope it's not the Stig's game but I get a feeling that's the one. I have been looking forward to it for so damn long too

edit: nvm just saw the above tweet....FKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKkkk

what went wrong? I want to know. Did Stif ef up? Did Shuhei mismanage?
 

entremet

Member
People, could we stop throwing stones at Yoshida?

No one likes layoffs. Big decisions like this are also coordinated by larger executive teams. The fact is Sony as whole is going to need to trim divisions and jobs to regain some semblance of desirability for investors. Sony is not a charity. And while the PS4 is successful so far, gaming is a very low margin industry.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Any chance they canned it because it was a PS3 game (since it's been in dev for 4 years) and they don't want anymore first party major PS3 games after GT6 disaster?
 

Spiegel

Member
So they canned a new IP for another GOW game after Ascension middling sales?

How can a team (even if it's not a full sized team) work on a game for ~4 years and get it cancelled this late? They should have seen it if it wasn't going anywhere earlier.
 

FiggyCal

Banned
Why are they getting rid of these super talented people? I know that they've got an increased workforce compared to what they had just a few years ago, but you'd think that they'd keep some of the senior people.
 

Sulik2

Member
What the flying fuck? Why did they cancel Stig's IP?

Someone better leak something, I wanna know what they were working on damnit!

They have been working on it for about 4 years I think. If the game was bad and not coming together it was cancelled. This happens all the time. Shuttering the studio is the surprise.
 

Samyy

Member
So they canned a new IP for another GOW game after Ascension middling sales?

How can a team (even if it's not a full sized team) work on a game for ~4 years and get it cancelled this late? They should have seen it if it wasn't going anywhere earlier.

No one knows what they canned it for
It can get canceled if it sucked shit, they probably realized that regardless of any more work they do, it wouldn't meet certain threshold in regards to quality. Also sunk costs are generally not considered in these decisions - you look at how much more you have to invest vs. what kind of return you expect on the product.
 

B.O.O.M

Member
If a project gets cancelled after such a long time in development..part of the responsibility for the failure lies with Shuhei..I don't care how likeable he is as a PR person
 
So seeing at it is Stiqs new I.P
We won't see a new game from them for awhile



Just when the SSM twitter page was getting excited to finally showing it off..


Now what? Back to the drawing board and beinging a game waaaaaaaaaaaay later then expected... Or are they back to regurgitating GOW games




BAD CALL... Guessing it was the top brass at Sony who decided this and not SCEI
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Any chance they canned it because it was a PS3 game (since it's been in dev for 4 years) and they don't want anymore first party major PS3 games after GT6 disaster?

Not sure if it was ever confirmed to be next-gen so I guess this is possible.
 

ReaperXL7

Member
Such commitment to New IP, this is such bullshit. At this point I'm really starting to regret my PS4 purchase, they need to start pushing some positive news out there soon, and I don't give a fuck about how many units it's sold. I want to know what they plan to do about supporting their "successful" platform.
 

StuBurns

Banned
You're making assumption after assumption. Give your sources of this 10fps and re-engineering, etc and how you came to the conclusion that Team ICO or whatever SCEJ team it's called has been disbanded.
Firstly, I never said I wasn't assuming. And when I said 'Team ICO is over', I didn't mean literally the staff was disbanded, I meant I believe there will never be another Team ICO game after TLG, and they just exist to complete the project before separating.

The 10fps comment, if you mean you want me to download the video, and count the frames, you're in bad luck. It ran like utter shit, if it was 10, or 8, or 12fps, I don't much care, but feel free to find out yourself, it was in the making of featurette in the Ico/SotC Collection.

As for re-engineering...
Yoshida said:
the team has always been here. They're going through the re-engineering of the game, so the team size is smaller, because it's more engineering
http://www.destructoid.com/team-ico-is-re-engineering-the-last-guardian-262924.phtml

As for Ueda's design work being complete...
Ueda said:
In the case of The Last Guardian, my creative work was mostly finished a long time ago, but the details of when, where and how it will be completed are beyond my control.
http://www.edge-online.com/features...missing-deadlines-and-parting-ways-with-sony/

However, this is wildly off-topic, if you feel the need to probe further, please make a new thread or PM me.
 
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