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[SLB1904]

They're doing a remake of God of War?

News to me

 

[SilentUser]

I just read and failed to see what's wrong here, honestly. Sony is betting on big blockbusters, that was pretty clear years ago. Though I dislike not having smaller titles like Gravity Rush, that's some business strategy in motion. If I miss games like that, I could play 3rd party titles or even exclusives on other platforms.

 

[SLB1904]

On what world is this good news? Stop being a shill and learn how to think independently without Jim's hand up your backside.

So you saying sony doubling down on AAA is bad?

 

[Perrott]

Eh, I’m not that gullible.
It’s rumour until it’s not.
TLOU remake is a red flag of it not looking likely. He should have said Uncharted remaster, that would have been more believable IMO.

Again, this does not come down to what you consider "believable".

Jason Schreier has the finest sources in the industry, which means that The Last Of Us remake is a real thing.

 

[LisaMariaMartin]

Blows my mind that the performance of Days Gone was not enough for a sequel. Didn't it sell over 5 million?

 

[GHG]

So was Hulst the one holding the gun here? Or was he just not impressed and reported to Jim?

Hulst is doing to Jim what Phil did to Mattrick.

 

[ranmafan]

Another sign that Sony doesn’t care about it’s complete legacy anymore. They have so many great old ips that could be brought back, remade, or what not. But no, they just have to keep shoving more last of us down our throats. I get it, it’s a big franchise, but we don’t need another remake now geez.

 

[Spukc]

Who the fuck wants a Last of Us remake?

It's already been remastered. What's the point?

remake

remaster


two very different things


totally new fighting mechanics
redone animations.


bascially imagine the crazy good facial tech and animation + detail from TLOU2
now with TLOU1 story,

shit will sell crazy bananas.

This is a good call.

i rather have another ghost game instead of days gone. days gone / uncharted / tlou all same era,, bit too much imo.

 

[bitbydeath]

Again, this does not come down to what you consider "believable".

Jason Schreier has the finest sources in the industry, which means that The Last Of Us remake is a real thing.

I disagree.

 

[kuncol02]

Not surprised. That's exactly what I expected from sony this gen. It's exactly same trajectory european side gone in PS2/PS3 era where Studio Liverpool was basically forced to work on Wipeout and F1 games and when Sony lost license for F1 and Wipeout games stopped selling closed and how Evolution Studio ended

 

[Ellery]

I just read and failed to see what's wrong here, honestly. Sony is betting on big blockbusters, that was pretty clear years ago. Though I dislike not having smaller titles like Gravity Rush, that's some business strategy in motion. If I miss games like that, I could play 3rd party titles or even exclusives on other platforms.

Exactly. I buy a console for AAA(A) games and not 200 AA games I can play on PC when buying a humble bundle.

If the PS5 only had 10 games during it's lifetime and they all were as good as the average Naughty Dog output I would be the most happy.

 

[MonarchJT]

one team learn from the mistakes the other becomes overconfident and loses his bearings. Everything is cyclical

 

[Topher]

How about posting the text instead of giving clicks to the arrogant cunt Schrier?

Sony Corp.’s Visual Arts Service Group has long been the unsung hero of many hit PlayStation video games. The San Diego-based operation helps finish off games designed at other Sony-owned studios with animation, art or other content and development. But about three years ago, a handful of influential figures within the Visual Arts Service Group decided they wanted to have more creative control and lead game direction rather than being supporting actors on popular titles such as Spider-Man and Uncharted.

Michael Mumbauer, who founded the Visual Arts Service Group in 2007, recruited a group of about 30 developers, internally and from neighboring game studios, to form a new development unit within Sony. The idea was to expand upon some of the company’s most successful franchises and the team began working on a remake of the 2013 hit The Last of Us for the PlayStation 5. But Sony never fully acknowledged the team’s existence or gave them the funding and support needed to succeed in the highly competitive video game market, according to people involved. The studio never even got its own name. Instead, Sony moved ownership of the The Last of Us remake to its original creator, Naughty Dog, a Sony-owned studio behind many of the company’s best-selling games and an HBO television series in development.

Deflated, the small group’s leadership has largely disbanded, according to interviews with eight people familiar with the operation. Many, including Mumbauer, have left the company entirely. Mumbauer declined to comment and others asked not to be named discussing private information. A representative for Sony declined to comment or provide interviews.

The team’s failure highlights the complex hierarchy of video game development and in particular, Sony’s conservative approach to making games for the PlayStation 5. The Japanese conglomerate owns about a dozen studios across the world as part of its PlayStation Studios label, but in recent years it has prioritized games made by its most successful developers. Studios such as Santa Monica, California-based Naughty Dog and Amsterdam-based Guerrilla Games spend tens of millions of dollars to make games with the expectation that the investments will pay off exponentially. And they usually do. Hits including 2018’s God of War and 2020’s The Last of Us Part II are exclusive to PlayStation consoles, helping Sony sell some 114 million of the PS4. Rival Microsoft Corp. has taken the opposite approach, relying on a wide array of studios to feed its Netflix-like subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, which allows users to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to a variety of games.

Sony’s focus on exclusive blockbusters has come at the expense of niche teams and studios within the PlayStation organization, leading to high turnover and less choice for players. Last week, Sony reorganized a development office in Japan, resulting in mass departures of people who worked on less well-known but acclaimed games such as Gravity Rush and Everybody's Golf. The company has informed developers that it no longer wants to produce smaller games that are only successful in Japan, Bloomberg has reported.

This fixation on teams that churn out hits is creating unrest across Sony's portfolio of game studios. Oregon-based Sony Bend, best known for the 2019 open-world action game Days Gone, tried unsuccessfully to pitch a sequel that year, according to people familiar with the proposal. Although the first game had been profitable, its development had been lengthy and critical reception was mixed, so a Days Gone 2 wasn’t seen as a viable option.

Instead, one team at the studio was assigned to help Naughty Dog with a multiplayer game while a second group was assigned to work on a new Uncharted game with supervision from Naughty Dog. Some staff, including top leads, were unhappy with this arrangement and left. Bend's developers feared they might be absorbed into Naughty Dog, and the studio’s leadership asked to be taken off the Uncharted project. They got their wish last month and are now working on a new game of their own.

Emphasizing big hits can also be counterproductive because sometimes games that start small can turn into massive successes. In 2020, Sony didn’t put much marketing muscle behind the quirky video game creation system Dreams, by the PlayStation-owned Media Molecule in the U.K. As a result, PlayStation may have missed out on its own version of Roblox, a similar video game tool. Parent company Roblox Corp. went public earlier this year and is now valued at $45 billion.

For their first solo project, Mumbauer and his crew wanted to pitch something that would be well received by their bosses at Sony. Recognizing the risks and expense involved with developing a new game from scratch, they decided to focus on remaking older games for the new PlayStation 5. Remakes are considered a safe bet since it’s cheaper to update and polish an old game than it is to start from scratch, and they can be sold both to nostalgic old fans and curious new ones. The team originally planned on a remake of the first Uncharted game, released by Naughty Dog in 2007. That idea quickly fizzled because it would be expensive and require too much added design work. Instead, the team settled on a remake of Naughty Dog’s 2013 melancholic zombie hit, The Last of Us.

At the time, Naughty Dog was in the thick of development on the sequel, The Last of Us Part II, which would introduce higher-fidelity graphics and new gameplay features. If Mumbauer’s crew remade the first game to have a similar look and feel, the two games could be packaged together for the PlayStation 5. In theory, this would be a less expensive proposition than remaking Uncharted, since The Last of Us was more modern and wouldn’t require too many gameplay overhauls. Then, once Mumbauer’s group had established itself, it could go on to remake the first Uncharted game and other titles down the road.

But pivoting from doing finishing work for other games to making your own is difficult, since original development teams are “competing against hundreds of other teams from all over the world, with varying levels of experiences and successes,” said Dave Lang, founder of Iron Galaxy Studios, which has served as a support team and a development studio.

“The people funding the work are often risk-averse, and if they have to pick between a team that’s done it before, and someone trying to do it on their own for the first time, I can see why some people pick the prior developer over the latter,” he said.

That’s just what Sony did. Mumbauer’s project, code-named T1X, was approved on a probationary basis, but Sony kept the team’s existence a secret, and refused to give them a budget to hire more people, leading many to wonder if the company was really committed to letting the team build a new studio. Still, the small team kept working and by the spring of 2019 they had completed a section of the game designed to showcase how the rest would look and feel.

At that time, Sony was going through a management shuffle and the new boss wasn’t impressed. Hermen Hulst, the former head of Guerrilla Games, was named head of PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios in November 2019. He thought the remake project was too expensive, according to people familiar with the matter, and asked why the planned budget for T1X was so much higher than remakes Sony had made in the past. The reason was that this one was on a brand new graphical engine for the PlayStation 5. Mumbauer needed to hire more people to help rework the graphics on new technology as well as redesign gameplay mechanics. Hulst wasn’t convinced, the people said.

Just when it hoped to enter production on the remake of The Last of Us, Mumbauer’s team got called in to help when another big game fell behind. Release of The Last of Us Part II had been pushed to 2020 from 2019 and Naughty Dog needed the Visual Arts Service Group to polish it off. Most of Mumbauer’s team, along with some of the 200 or so other staff at the Visual Arts Service Group, was assigned to support Naughty Dog, slowing down progress on its own game.

Then, the roles got reversed. Sony sent word that after the completion of The Last of Us Part II, some people from Naughty Dog would help out with T1X. Mumbauer’s team saw this as their short-lived autonomy being stripped. Dozens of Naughty Dog staff were joining the project, and some had actually worked on the original The Last of Us, giving them more weight in discussions about T1X’s direction. The game was moved under Naughty Dog’s budget, which Sony gave more leeway than the Visual Arts Service Group. Soon it was apparent that Naughty Dog was in charge, and the dynamics returned to what they had been for the last decade and a half: The Visual Arts Support Group aiding another team of developers rather than leading.

To Sony, the move made sense. Naughty Dog is “one of the key studios” for Sony’s ability to sell PlayStations, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Kanterman. “Sony’s competitive advantage has always been exclusive content over Microsoft and more new games as well as remakes of classic titles from such a storied team can help sustain demand for PS5.”

But those who had wanted independence were disappointed. By the end of 2020, most of the T1X team’s top staff had left, including Mumbauer and the game’s director, David Hall. Today, the T1X project remains in development at Naughty Dog with assistance from Sony’s Visual Arts Support Group. The future of the remainder of Mumbauer’s team, which has come to be jokingly referred to as Naughty Dog South, remains unclear.

 

[SLB1904]

XBox Series X is looking more and more appealing.

Not really.

 

[TheDreadLord]

They could use the opportunity to fix Elie’s broke AI. It really detracts from the experience when you are playing stealth and she is bumping into every single enemy on the map.

 

[Ogbert]

So you saying sony doubling down on AAA is bad?

Yes.

It demonstrates a lack of creative imagination.

That said, as someone suggested, it might well be VR, which would tie in with the launch of the second headset.

 

[reksveks]

He's just spoiling what he has learned some teams are doing adding some drama elements that are his own interpretation of the facts to make hits on Bloomberg.
It's crystal clear.
A remake being handled by the (now expanded) team who made the game in first place is bad compared to let a small new team doing it? Quality wise no one would think that's the case but it's portrayed in an absurd negative way because he wants to focus on drama.
Within huge companies teams are reshuffled and projects assigned change all the time.
Also the fact that Sony wants to make huge blockbuster success stories and is not interested in niche things has been clear the whole PS4 gen.
He's just dressing spoilers as a scoop.

Firstly it's not a spoiler as it's not a fictional story that he is revealing the ending to. You don't 'spoil' the news.

His story isn't primarily about what Naughty Dog is doing, it's about Visual Arts Service group and Bend Studio. The fact that Visual Arts Service group wanted to effectively be a Bluepoint and got stopped. That Bend Studio was fearful of being merged.

The pro's and cons of naughty dog doing a TLOU remake is for consumers to decided.

 

[Lanrutcon]

I don't find this piece unbelievable at all. This is modern Sony we're talking about.

 

[Topher]

Blows my mind that the performance of Days Gone was not enough for a sequel. Didn't it sell over 5 million?

And the game has a lot of fans. Doesn't make any sense.

 

[Mmnow]

Blows my mind that the performance of Days Gone was not enough for a sequel. Didn't it sell over 5 million?

Yeah, it's blowing my mind a little that reaction to this article is "Sony is juts focusing on AAA blockbusters".

It's hard to see a situation where a sequel to the relatively successful Days Gone can't exist, but a slightly chancier new IP (like Ghost of Tsushima would've been pre-release) can.

 

[Calverz]

Not really.

Tough week?

 

[SSfox]

It make sens now

I never though i would say that, but after seeing what Jim Ryan is doing i think Don Mattrick wasn't that bad

 

[SLB1904]

Yes.

It demonstrates a lack of creative imagination.

That said, as someone suggested, it might well be VR, which would tie in with the launch of the second headset.

Wait a minute. You are implying make an AAA game demonstrated lack creative imagination?

You cant make this shit up.

See you in the next state of play making fun of the small games that will be shown.

 

[Perrott]

Man I'm so close to going mad at Jim again lmaooooo I cannot believe this

I feel sorry for making all of my friends play Days Gone and telling them to go for the secret ending.

God dammit, I cannot believe how they are going to let such an intriguing franchise die. Imagine if Capcom decided to stop with Resident Evil just after releasing the first game - because that's exactly what Sony is doing to Days Gone.

 

[ManaByte]

It make sens now

I never though i would say that, but after seeing what Jim Ryan is doing i think Don Mattrick wasn't that bad

Jim Ryan is arrogant Sony's final form.

 

[reksveks]

Those articles have sources, try search for the word source in his article, there is none mentioned, not even an anonymous one.

Deflated, the small group’s leadership has largely disbanded, according to interviews with eight people familiar with the operation. Many, including Mumbauer, have left the company entirely. Mumbauer declined to comment and others asked not to be named discussing private information. A representative for Sony declined to comment or provide interviews

Your anonymous sources would be the ones whom didn't want to be named.

 

[Withnail]

I just read and failed to see what's wrong here, honestly. Sony is betting on big blockbusters, that was pretty clear years ago. Though I dislike not having smaller titles like Gravity Rush, that's some business strategy in motion. If I miss games like that, I could play 3rd party titles or even exclusives on other platforms.

Exactly, I know there's a Sony dogpile going on at the moment but did anybody think this wasn't Sony's strategy?

The approach for some time has been to focus on the tentpole releases and then let third parties fill in everything else. It makes pretty good sense for a platform holder. Why are people bringing up games like Persona in this thread?

 

[DonJorginho]

I feel sorry for making all of my friends play Days Gone and telling them to got for the secret ending. God dammit, I cannot believe how they are going to let such an intriguing franchise die.

Imagine if Capcom decided to stop with Resident Evil just after releasing the first game - because that's exactly what Sony is doing to Days Gone.

I don't get any of this man, a remake to a game that got a good remaster in 2013, basically shutting down a talented studio in Bend and killing a franchise that was clearly beloved and sold well, it just makes no sense, imagine if Sony did this after the first Uncharted which wasn't universally adored?

 

[MasterCornholio]

Jim Ryan is arrogant Sony's final form.

Don almost killed Xbox though. I don't see Jim doing the same thing.

 

[SilentUser]

Exactly. I buy a console for AAA(A) games and not 200 AA games I can play on PC when buying a humble bundle.

If the PS5 only had 10 games during it's lifetime and they all were as good as the average Naughty Dog output I would be the most happy.

I don't understand... people could simply buy third party games and/or buy other platforms. I feel for the devs whom lost their jobs, but I think most of them will have another job down the road or, even better, start their on studio (Bokeh, for example). And if the strategy is wrong, opening smaller studios down the road is much easier than opening massive ones.

 

[Birdo]

How the world would look if Sony didn't close down Evolution Studios:

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Disclaimer: As long as Sony makes games people care about they’ll be fine.

 

[DonJorginho]

So you saying sony doubling down on AAA is bad?

They have literally killed a studio who delivered a great game that sold so well and had a great fan reception?

And they are forcing a studio to work on a remake which doesn't need releasing and a new entry to a series no-one asked for or wanted instead of allowing them to work on something new.

It screams lack of ambition.

 

[Elios83]

On what world is this good news? Stop being a shill and learn how to think independently without Sony's hand up your backside.

He's right, what's the actual bad news?
Naughty Dog is working on multiple projects confirmed (remake, new Uncharted, probably some new IP as well).
Bend has a main team and a smaller team that was helping ND. They will be working on new stuff if Days Gone 2 was not greenlighted, it's clear. I remember that Days Gone was hardly trashed here and other message boards when the press reviewed it like a 7/10 game.
Focus on big games has been a thing for Sony the whole PS4 gen, it's not something that is hapenning right now. They made their reputation with things like Uncharted, God of War, Horizon, Spiderman, Bloodborne and certainly not with Knack, Concrete Genie and Gravity Rush
This is called drama, Jason uses it to make hits and make his work at Bloomberg feel validated (while spoiling other companies plans in the process), others as console war.

 

[CertifiedKiwi]

Nintendo.

 

[Holammer]

Chasing blockbusters isn't a bad idea. AAA games already grossed more than Hollywood blockbusters did before ze coof. With GTAV, a game in a comparable budget range earning more than twice the money compared to Avatar.
With the movie industry currently in tatters, I wouldn't be surprised if your usual investors decide to back game development instead. It might even be a safer investment.

 

[Jaysen]

Yes.

It demonstrates a lack of creative imagination.

That said, as someone suggested, it might well be VR, which would tie in with the launch of the second headset.

Why are you wasting time on a fanboy?

 

[SSfox]

I'm a big fan of TLOU1, it's a masterpiece, but Sony can put both tlou1 remake and the tv show in their buttholes.

 

[SLB1904]

I don't get any of this man, a remake to a game that got a good remaster in 2013, basically shutting down a talented studio in Bend and killing a franchise that was clearly beloved and sold well, it just makes no sense, imagine if Sony did this after the first Uncharted which wasn't universally adored?

Days gone was hands down the most hated playstation game in recent years every conversation came down to generic open world game didnt review well. And the same people that were trolling the game now feel a disappointment that there wont be a sequel?

 

[Perrott]

I don't get any of this man, a remake to a game that got a good remaster in 2013, basically shutting down a talented studio in Bend and killing a franchise that was clearly beloved and sold well, it just makes no sense, imagine if Sony did this after the first Uncharted which wasn't universally adored?

The TLOU remake thing I kind of get it and I see it as a good move, especially now that they have the HBO TLOU show in production for a release in 2022/2023 (same timeframe in which I expect the TLOU remake to launch for PS5).

It's what they've done to Bend that bugs me a hell of a lot.

 

[Strategize]

I should've saw this coming with the upcoming TV show. It'll probably release like the exact same time. They saw the big boost TW3 got from the Netflix show and wanted to one up it.

It's smart business, but I just hope it doesn't delay the next ND game too much.

 

[GHG]

Remaking TLOU and asking for 70 dollars or 80 euro will be a very arrogant move....

I would prefer Syphon Filter to Days Gone 2 anyway, so...we will see.

No chance of a new Syphon Filter, most of the main guys behind that aren't even there anymore.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Sony fanboys would spend 100euros on a 60fps patch if they asked for it so they know what theyre doing evne if its idiotic. Hopefully Days Gone 2 can see the light of day as a PC/Xbox game.

 

[Hitchyhero]

I'm not defending this practice but full remakes tend to be a lot more work than a simple remaster in case you didn't know.

Does it really need a remake though. I could play the original or remastered version now and would think the game still looks great

 

[chinoXL]

don't get all the drama here...Sony has been big on blockbusters for a while but i will wait for official word, some of this seems suspect

 

[SLB1904]

Why are you wasting time on a fanboy?

Says you

 

[DonJorginho]

Days gone was hands down the most hated playstation game in recent years every conversation came down to generic open world game didnt review well. And the same people that were trolling the game now feel a disappointment that there wont be a sequel?

The most hated PlayStation games were Death Stranding and The Order 1886 btw. Those games had very little positive reception and sold very poorly (both games I am big fans of btw)

Days Gone had a universally positive user reception and sold more than both games combined.

 

[hemo memo]

Ironic isn’t. No wonder big names left the ship before it sinks.

 

[Nyxir]

 

[JimmyRustler]

But I have been told that Ryan is not the problem and we should just give the bloke a bit time?