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Resistance 4 was apparently cancelled due to post-apocalyptic saturation in Sony's line-up

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
Resistance.jpg


The report comes from Colin Moriarty on his 153rd episode of the Sacred Symbols podcast at the 02:03:37 mark.
Moriarty notes that he was told the overload of post-apocalyptic games in the first-party — Killzone Shadow Fall, Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and The Last of Us were all being developed or in pre-production at the time — was an issue that PlayStation was 'cognisant' of during the PS3 era.




The three mainline Resistance games in the series had done well (ignore Burning Skies, please) and so another in the series was pitched by Insomniac.
Remember, this was before Sony had bought the developer, so the studio held a little less clout over what projects it could make:
"Resistance 4 was pitched to [PlayStation] and [...] they declined Resistance 4 because it sounded too similar to The Last of Us and they didn't want the two games overlapping with each other. So, Resistance was shut down at that point."

Moriarty is a reliable source with friends who worked at the studio and rarely speaks about the deep bowels of the industry unless he is saying something with absolute certainty.

 

Editaur

Member
That's disappointing to hear. The Auger and Bullseye are some of my favorite weapons of any fps to date.

They should test the waters with a Resistance 3 "remaster" cause the resolution on that game took a serious hit on PS3

Would be another great game to take full advantage of the Duelsense.
 
Well, hopefully now that they are literally carrying PS5's launch window Sony might give them a little more control over what they can develop. Spider-Man, Sunset Overdrive, another R&C, Resistance or maybe a new IP, what could they be working on right now?
 

elliot5

Member
Imagine releasing a total of one first person shooter all gen and then rejecting the second one because it's too similar to a third person stealth action shooter.

Bizarre decision making over at Sony.
While also continuing working on another third person shooter post apocalyptic zombie game named Days Gone when you have TLOU and had a sequel on the way... Tf
 

Raekwon26

Member
Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me. Rubbish reason to cancel a game.

Goddammit they are aliens. Move the fight to space.

counterpoint, it should be green lit due to shitty game oversaturation in their lineup... maybe greenlight a good game once in a while?


Uh.......
 
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MastaKiiLA

Member
I actually see no fault in that. I think Sony first party has a good amount of thematic variety in its games. Yeah, they're very much story-driven single-player games, but they cover a bunch of different themes. Saturating the channels with similar themes is one way to induce fatigue, and increase the chances of a sales bust. That said, there should be an opening for R4 now. That or reboot the franchise (though I'm wary of reboot fatigue).
 

MakarelBoi

Neo Member
i think sony needs a mp fps or tps game.

sorely lacking one in face of too many 'cinematic' sp titles.
Lmao, I prefer more quality single-player games rather than fully focus mp game that can't guarantee its survival unless you are Fortnite. Also Sony has been creating a lot of third-person game this lately, just not shooter oriented.
 

Agent X

Member
I spent around a 1000 hours on Resistance 1. Man I loved that game. A new Resistance game is my most wanted game.

I also invested a crazy amount of time in Resistance: Fall of Man.

Back when the game first came out, we had a rather active clan here on NeoGAF, with some seriously skilled players. I would play at least three or four nights a week, for a few hours at a time. I'm not typically a big online multiplayer guy, but that was one game where I was hooked. I truly enjoyed it.
 

Chiggs

Member
I’d take Resistance 4 over TLOU2, but hindsight is 20/20, and it’s not like TLOU2 bombed or anything.
 
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Spidey Fan

Banned
Too similar to TLOU, wtf did the decision makers ever even see Resistance?
this was the gears of war for PlayStation, and they ruined it. This would have been a solid ps5 exclusive. This and siren blood curse would have made me buy ps5 early, despite my brother having one.
 

Trogdor1123

Member
Loved these games. So much was never explained to my knowledge. Would love some kind of proper wrap up. 3 was just awesome and 2 had some of the best coop stuff ever. Series needs another go.
 
Imagine releasing a total of one first person shooter all gen and then rejecting the second one because it's too similar to a third person stealth action shooter.

Bizarre decision making over at Sony.

yeah I really hope they bring some FPS games back, maybe new IP

imagine an open world gritty/futuristic FPS with RPG elements and production values as high as Horizon?

game would be insanely popular imho
 
Some posts here are ignoring the big picture, Resistance never did that well. Like Killzone it was a failed Halo Killer that struggles to sell over 1 million.


The real reason for no Resistance 4 is no one was buying the series. At least Killzone 2 and 3 hit the 1 million mark so there was hope for ps4 launch title Shadowfall. But even being a headliner couldnt get that game to sell too well.

Sony dropped FPS for a reason, Destiny was enough.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
yeah I really hope they bring some FPS games back, maybe new IP

imagine an open world gritty/futuristic FPS with RPG elements and production values as high as Horizon?

game would be insanely popular imho
GG were apparently working on a fantasy shooter with those elements. they benched it in favor of horizon. Wasnt gritty though.
 

ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
This is SEGA levels of stupid if that is the reason

I bought and still own Resistance 3 good game
counterpoint, it should be green lit due to shitty game oversaturation in their lineup... maybe greenlight a good game once in a while?

sony doesn't seem to care about fun games anymore and cinematic, qte riddin, wokebs
 

Spidey Fan

Banned
Some posts here are ignoring the big picture, Resistance never did that well. Like Killzone it was a failed Halo Killer that struggles to sell over 1 million.


The real reason for no Resistance 4 is no one was buying the series. At least Killzone 2 and 3 hit the 1 million mark so there was hope for ps4 launch title Shadowfall. But even being a headliner couldnt get that game to sell too well.

Sony dropped FPS for a reason, Destiny was enough.
if xbox can keep gears of war at their worst time, i will have hard time believing sony will just drop it. The new management found their perfect golden egg. its why all the recent exclusive have been the same, just different skin. Resistance was disturber of that flow. No way, they will give up the story narritive for a game like that. Last of us 1 had strong narrative, but shit gameplay. Its sequel fixed those issues. but still, that thing got a sequal. and is getting a remake.

at least ps5 had fresh start. hope i can see different genre, and not the same story narrative games with different skins. I want games like returnal to make me forget the flow of god of war, while ratchet makes the spiderman fun to play (portal to web swinging).
 

CamHostage

Member
The real reason for no Resistance 4 is no one was buying the series. At least Killzone 2 and 3 hit the 1 million mark so there was hope for ps4 launch title Shadowfall. But even being a headliner couldnt get that game to sell too well.

Also, I'm confused why people are angry that they "canceled" the game? It was never a game. Insomniac pitched it, Sony didn't go for the pitch, they went on to try other things instead (this looks like it was around 2011/12/13, back when TLoU1 was in production and at the end of or after Resistance 3,) so instead Insomniac moved on to Fuse, R&C Into the Nexus, and Sunset Overdrive.

Looks like there are Resistance fans here, but that franchise faltered badly (Resistance 3 itself was something of a reboot after R2 was not the blockbuster/online phenomenon it was built to be,) and the third game especially was a dour product that really needed fans to love it for itself because from the outside it was selling a depressing experience compared to the big-monster thrills of even the second game.

maxresdefault.jpg


So we got Shadow fall instead of Resistance 4, that's not a good trade

I don't enjoy Shadow Fall either (KZ Mercenary is the only FPS in that franchise that I love,) but look at what it is: a bright, shiny object. Nothing like TLoU, nothing like Killzone before, certainly nothing like Resistance; a real attempt to stand out after some good fan response in 2 and 3 but still not breakthrough sales. After a number of games from Sony (and competitors) that all kind of looked one way, Killzone Shadow Fall was an attempt to make a game that was not "brown".
 
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GG were apparently working on a fantasy shooter with those elements. they benched it in favor of horizon. Wasnt gritty though.

horizon still makes sense, it’s extremely unique

but stuff like Days Gone…loved the game but definitely too much overlap with TLOU and I’m glad they are working on a new IP

it’ll be interesting to see where insomniac goes from here. With ratchet released, they probably may have the NC team working on a new IP for later in the gen….or they bring back Resistamce which I’d be on board with

GG’s second team is definitely working on an FPS too, so that’s encouraging
 

Kerotan

Member
Hopefully we get a resistance collection at some point. Would be cool to get the Multiplayer from resistance 1/2 along with the Co op. I'd prob but a resistance 4 as well.
 

Amiga

Member
Resistance world was bland and boring. Insomniac are great programming and game design but bad at world building. Spider-Man worked because he was an established character.
 

yurinka

Member
It was the right choice.

They already had too much of these games and if had to cancel one, the correct was Resistance. Killzone always was way better than Resistance, and there were better pitches: Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and The Last of Us all were better concepts than another Resistance.

Insomniac's talent was wasted with Resistance and Sunset Overdrive: they are better spent on Spider-Man and Ratchet, series where I hope they continue working, in addition to create a new IP after Spider-Man 2 in addition to tiny VR projects they could use to maybe revive some old Sony IPs (like Parappa or Loco Roco) without being too risky because they would be lower budget, short games.
 
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