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PlayStation London Studio has officially close: We’ve had one wild and wonderful journey!
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Meanwhile at Media Molecule:
dead monkey uk
Member
Yeah MM better hope their next game is a big selling hit or they are likely in big trouble.Meanwhile at Media Molecule:
mansoor1980
Gold Member
London Studio was established in 2002 following the merger of Psygnosis's Camden studio and Team Soho.
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
London Studio was established in 2002 following the merger of Psygnosis's Camden studio and Team Soho.
Is this the last remnants of Psygnosis?
mansoor1980
Gold Member
yes , sony has finally completely vaporized psygnosis.
Games of Today
Member
Wow they made Eye Pet!? That game was fucking awesome!Always sad for the employees but honestly not a big deal, the studio was already dead long ago:
Hudo
Member
Kinda. They emerged from the merger of one of Psygnosis' studios and Team Soho.
The real Psygnosis died when Sony closed SIE Liverpool (I am still sad about that).
diffusionx
Gold Member
Always sad for the employees but honestly not a big deal, the studio was already dead long ago:
PlayStation Home would be so perfect for PSVR2 that of course they're not going to do it.
Perrott
Member
Actual Psygnosis (Liverpool Studio) then was reformed as Firesprite by some of the same people, which went on to be purchased by Sony again in 2021. That said, Firesprite has bled a lot of talent over the past few years due to poor and often toxic studio managers, so they may not be quite the same.
Considering that their Project Heartbreak might actually turn out to be an Until Dawn follow-up, I'd say they're closer to being a better Supermassive than the all-terrain developer behind Wipeout, Colony Wars and Formula 1.
mansoor1980
Gold Member
so when will sony kill the last remnants of psygnosis
Perrott
Member
March 2026
mansoor1980
Gold Member
EDMIX
Member
Agreed. I would have thought that IP would be successful during these times.
crackajack
Member
I guess the hardest part in all those music games where to get the license agreements signed, so not necessarily many game development going on.Always sad for the employees but honestly not a big deal, the studio was already dead long ago:
Seems like their first "true" game was Blood and Truth (with that one experience in VR-world being sorta a predecessor to that) and they probably had to hire a lot more and different people then in the years before. But very much like Guerilla Cambridge they were doomed by chosing or possibly being ordered to make a VR game, a VR only game. I would imagine having a flat mode might have helped, making it certainly more complicated to test and tune but maybe allowing for more sales.
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STARSBarry
Gold Member
So I know the casual playstation market has cleared up so singstar ain't what it used to be.
But these guys helped shape playstation home. Which is something that Sony really should have been looking at again if not this gen, then the start of next.
But these guys helped shape playstation home. Which is something that Sony really should have been looking at again if not this gen, then the start of next.
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hououinkyouma00
Member
Sad to hear. While I can't say I've really enjoyed anything they've ever done (Blood & truth seemed interesting enough) its still sad to see a studio close and people needing to find new jobs.
Media Molecule should have been shut down a long time ago. I enjoyed LBP and Tearaway but Dreams was a complete and total failure as well as a colossal waste of 7 years. I'm convinced that the studio is only open purely for the fact that they fill a niche that PlayStation doesn't really have anywhere else which is the quirky and artsy studio.Meanwhile at Media Molecule:
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
London Studio - Wikipedia
Their biggest claim to fame is Singstar and Eye Toy. They also made the Getaway sequel on PS2 back in the day.
Very sparse in the last bunch of years tho.
STARSBarry
Gold Member
London Studio - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Their biggest claim to fame is Singstar and Eye Toy. They also made the Getaway sequel on PS2 back in the day.
Very sparse in the last bunch of years tho.
They also did the wonderbook, which would have been fantastic in VR. Very interesting piece of kit, could certainly have seen some cross VR potential as it was an eye toy gizmo.
It was a very intresting concept, but it launched before VR took off, was alot more impressive in person to watch and use, could certainly see them working in the VR Space.
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SEGAvangelist
Member
Unknown?
Member
No. FireSprite.
That said, it's a shame of what they became. Last games they made were for PS2. Everything after that were party games and a VR game. Talent squandered.
nial
Gold Member
It's sad that their last game (Blood & Truth) was literally their best (and probably only good) work.
The real Psygnosis died in 2000 when it went from being a full-blown publisher to becoming a small department at SCEE (Studio Liverpool).
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Skifi28
Gold Member
I could even live with a remaster, but nothing.
solidus12
Member
Hudo
Member
Fair. I do think the Wipeout games by the Liverpool studio were dope, tho. So Psygnosis low-key lived on in that sense for me at least. But current Sony don't give a flying fuck about Wipeout (and other great IPs).
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
What are they even doing these days....? Last I heard of them was after they released Dreams, which feels like forever ago.Meanwhile at Media Molecule:
near
Gold Member
Hopefully, they're still not developing tools to sell to gamers to develop their own games.
Gamer_By_Proxy
Member
They should have at least got them to port Blood & Truth to PSVR2. I never finished. Now probably never will.
Unknown?
Member
It was their best but the first Getaway was pretty good too. It simply suffered the fate of anything GTA-like getting trashed while GTA got a fair pass regardless of flaws.
DonkeyPunchJr
World’s Biggest Weeb
PlayStation home was pretty entertaining. The character creator was amazing, you could make the most butt-ugly avatar imaginable with crooked nose, asymmetrical ears, etc.
I had so much fun playing as a hot female avatar and letting all the guys swarm around me like flies on shit. Then after they flirt with me for a while, I’d switch to my hideous male avatar and watch them run for their lives.
I wish I had a picture somewhere. Imagine this dude but even uglier and with cornrows + a wife beater:
I had so much fun playing as a hot female avatar and letting all the guys swarm around me like flies on shit. Then after they flirt with me for a while, I’d switch to my hideous male avatar and watch them run for their lives.
I wish I had a picture somewhere. Imagine this dude but even uglier and with cornrows + a wife beater:
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CamHostage
Member
Eh, but some game developers like making successful, well-liked products.
I'm not sure how the portions of SCE/SIE London that weren't with the casual-game switchover took to the change, but it's been since PS2 that this was happening. (London pioneered the EyeToy project, which led eventually to VR and them being both tech and gameplay spearhead group... doesn't feel good for the future of PlayStation VR, btw, there are other developers who could do further VR games but new hardware was labbed in London.) Most of the groups and leads behind the action stuff like The Getaway and Hardware (which were really their only big action franchises, London was never much of a hardcore studio on that front and was making sports or casual games from close to the beginning) were gone by PS3; London tried to be involved in hardcore with 8 Days and the pitch for Getaway PS3 but 8 Days died in development early in the console's lifecycle and Getaway likely didn't have anything but the trailer built of it. We got other studios out of it all, and London did get to indulge a bit with Blood and Truth as well as the London Heist section of PS VR Worlds, but that wasn't their focus. Meanwhile, their casual and experimental-tech stuff took off and built and audience and won awards and, for a while, did great business for Sony.
Singstar and EyeToy and PS Home and VR was what defined the studio and kept it humming along. If they were dependent on sales of The Getaway or Hardware/Fired Up, London would have been in trouble long before now.
What feels bad IMO is that, after 20 years of some great casual brands, there is seemingly no market left for what Sony London was good at.
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
They didn't even let them bring Dreams to PC, where it arguably could have thrived a lot, and just ended all support for it last year.
MM is literally on borrowed time right now.
SlicedBread3
Member
I loved Blood and Truth. But 100% of the appeal was basically that it's one of the few "AAA" feeling games designed and built around VR. It would offer nothing as a flat screen game.
Until recently they've been adding content and updates to Dreams (It was meant to be a GAAS service type of thing).
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
Media Molecule Kitchen | The Heart of the Molecule
Find out more about how we nourish our Molecules, with delicious, wholesome food, friendly conversation and laughter.
www.mediamolecule.com