Is Jim Ryan fucking shit up at Sony? Maybe. Is it the end of Playstation? Not likely.
Numbers say they are doing a better job than the other console makers, and everyone who were in their positions before.
Do you remember how Sony royally fucked up PS3 at launch at the hands that created one of the most successful gaming brands in history and still came back before the end of the gen? Do you seriously think there is any opportunity Jim can fuck shit even worst than that and not be able to recover maybe next gen?
They made several huge mistakes related to PS3 launch. None of them were repeated again, and didn't have similar mistakes of that level. And MS was way stronger than is now.
Also, do you really think Jim Ryan is as stupid as some people are trying portray him? This guy was responsible for Play Station in Europe, probably the place in the world where the brand is best positioned. He is not a rando picked up from the street.
I live in Spain, an European country where PS outsells 11:1 Xbox in the relatively recent sales charts.
Depends. What was the cost dev of Days Gone? Are you counting Days Gone will have a PC version that will boost up the already dead sales figures?
We know Days Gone already was profitable since while ago, seems that it was one of the most played games of the PS Collection at least during the first week and people liked it now its properly patched and optimize some time after launch. They included it this month on PS Plus now that Jason is shitting it, so it will generate more money and more people will discover it and will generate more positive buzz, like with the PC port.
We know it sold over 5M copies, a great figure that not a lot of games achive. Pretty likely will sell some million more with all this positive buzz and the PC port. Knowing it was profitable, doesn't matter how much did it cost. It's a successful game.
If you want to get a reference of its development budget compared to TLOU2, you can check out the amount of people that appears on its game credits on Mobygames: 2331 people in TLOU2 vs 1679 people in Days Gone.
If Sony is putting Bend Studios down it has been happening for a long time now. Could it be that Sony sees Bend Studios as a B tier development studio or a studio focused on B productions? It very well could be. However, I personally think that if they do it's because there is a reason behind that. It could be that they just need that position to be filled (and someone has to do it) or because they have elements to believe Bend Studios is better off making those kinds of games because they lack the talent for more.
A Bend guy says in LinkedIn they are working now in the biggest game of the studio, which according to Jason is a new IP. How is giving them a new IP to be their biggest game putting them down? A new IP is more risky than a sequel. Specially a sequel of a game that sold at least 5M and has been the best selling game of the studio. That shows confidence in Sony's side, not putting them down.
In addition to this, the director of Days Gone was respectful with Jason but basically denied all the stuff related to Bend mentioned in Jason's article that he could talk about. He implied DG2 passed the pitch and that it was alive when he left 4 months ago instead of being killed in 2019 as Jason says. He also denied to have any problem with ND and that the studio never feared of ending as a ND support studio, that both studios collaborate when they need it: that is when one has a peak of work and the other one has people free, specially between projects and had nice words for Neil. He denied to have any problem with the heads of PlayStation Studios, SCEA or PlayStation, had nice words for them saying they were supportive, patience and provided good feedback about DG. Unlike what is mentioned in the article, he said he left Sony for personal reasons not related to their projects, strategy or leadership. Because he's 50 years old and wants to release at least a couple of games more before retiring, he doesn't want to work on these super long AAA games like Days Gone even if he's proud of DG1 and liked the idea of DG2.
Honest question. Whats up with the Jason hate around here?
Also the developer is under NDA and don’t want to ruin his career. He basically can’t say shit.
Jason or his sources made up a lot of stuff in another Jason article where (not the first time he does that) shit is thrown to ND & co. And does it painting a picture that (again) doesn't match with the opinion of devs involved.
The dev couldn't talk about the Uncharted and the multiplayer game due to NDA, but other than that he basically debunked everything else mentioned about Bend and Bend's top staff in the article. But he's nice instead of calling out Jason, and mentions the article is legit at least in other parts (which seems to confirm they did work on the multiplayer game and the Uncharted game, and that in some way it's understandable someone may thought in 2019 that DG2 was cancelled).