According to our sources, a majority of layoffs consist of key staff that were working on Santa Monica’s new IP, the project now more or less scrapped into oblivion. While details on the project are scarce, we’ve been told it was a science fiction title not all that far removed from Bungie and Activision’s Destiny, and a very large project at the studio, with sources expressing very positive enthusiasm for the project’s vision and potential. We’ve also been told that after Destiny was formally revealed parts of Santa Monica’s sci-fi project underwent rather significant changes, the original vision apparently quite similar to what Bungie is cooking up, changes applied to distance the two. Based on information supplied, we’re lead to believe the choice to divert Santa Monica’s project away from Destiny comparisons lead to somewhat troubled development, the studio unable to fully get the project back on course, ultimately culminating in its cancellation.
http://www.rocketchainsaw.com.au/exclusive-sony-santa-monicas-layoffs-new-ip-00912/
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).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.
Ive had a tough couple of days and may come off a little cranky, but this is hyperbolic shit. There is more new ip in development than not.
There was at the very least a year of work on BT's game, probably more. I'm trying to stay positive on this. Maybe the game really wasn't coming together so now we'll get a new, better IP and the studio won't take more losses.
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.
The only thing ive seen in PR from Microsoft is Titanfall this Titanfall that.
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).
Sony are lucky they're the new hotness, because outside of UC4, they don't seem like they have much in the next couple of years that would inspire console adoption.
It is better to be in this situation and be able to can a multi-year project if it's not working rather than ship something below par.
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.
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!
S¡mon;102463040 said:Wasn't there a rumour recently, that Sony was trying to secure Destiny as an exclusive (e.g. PS4, PS3, PC)?
Maybe they did... and thus no longer a need for SSM's similar new IP.
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.
what rumor? where?
So you missed white knight chronicles then?
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.
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.
And an adaptor so you can plug your own headphones into the controller, and Twitch. Sony's in trouble!
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.
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?
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.
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.
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 back the title when it started gaining the support it did?
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 back the title when it started gaining the support it did?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.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'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).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.
lmao! Where have you been in the last two months?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.
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.
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.
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.People still cling on to the hope Demon's Souls 2 will be made though.
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.