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Sony closes Evolution Studios (Motorstorm, Driveclub)

How do you do this Sony? Fuck. I never cared for racing games but Motorstorm and Burnout Paradise got me hooked last gen. Sucks that we won't see more from them.
 
I wont fake shock like some people are but we kinda saw this coming after the driveclub launch... sony fired 60+ people, moved some to other studios and basically left a skeleton crew in place for the next year to fix the game.... i mean im sad for the people who lost jobs but it was kinda there the whole time no rehires no new game announcements, just dlc updates
 
I actually didn't realize there was a Motorstorm Apocalypse game until this thread. huh

I remember the first one because duh and Pacific Rift, then the one that came out for the Vita.
 
did not expect.
punished for creating best racer this gen (havent played forza horizon)

with the amazing continuous post-launch support, you would think they have sony's trust and backing.
 
etta said:
Did any of the Lionhead people follow up on that Sony recruitment fair?
Seems kinda weird they'd do that knowing their own people would need it first.
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It was clearly done for PR, it kinda feels weird now that they shut down their own AAA studio so close Lionheads announcement of closure.

Speaking as a UK game dev though, this month has been fucking horrifying. With Evo being shut down I doubt many people from Lionhead would be able to get a job in Sony's UK space; really saddens me.
 
Castef said:
LOL! :D See what I mean? :D
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What I read:

- Evolution Studios closed.
- Some Evos employees is now transferred to another project, or another studio, or now become under SIE, or simply finding for a new job outside Sony projects.
- Driveclub is now under SIE.
- Studio formed by ex-Evos are *helping* making a PS VR game. (Which is probably the Driveclub VR)
- So Driveclub is now under SIE but the actual people who worked on it is still Evos guys with a help from Sony guys too. I think of this because Rushy tweeted about total time to making a car (now 4-6 weeks instead of months first we heard). Including outsource team

Correct? :D
 
InsaneTiger said:
Nothing, we can be angry at both. People always find ways to excuse one and vilify the other.
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and he never said he isnt angry at microsoft or did he? We are perfectly aware that closing studios isnt exclusive to one company.
__

I hope they land on their feet I had some fun with driveclub even though im not the biggest racing fan
 
Damn, so sad to see Evolution go. I have brought every single one of their games since the first WRC game.

Wish each and everyone of them a speedy return to work in new jobs
 
Coming into this thread, I had totally forgotten Gran Turismo existed and thought that Sony had sunk their last first party racing studio. It's kind of damning that whoever makes those games still exists but we lost Studio Liverpool and Evolution.
 
gai_shain said:
and he never said he isnt angry at microsoft or did he? We are perfectly aware that closing studios isnt exclusive to one company.
__

I hope they land on their feet I had some fun with driveclub even though im not the biggest racing fan
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It sucks for all those guys. The games industry is too volatile for me.
 
Such a shame, Driveclub is my favorite racing game in years and one of the only games I still go back to once and awhile. I hope everyone at Evo land on their feet and find meaningful and fulfilling work elsewhere. :(
 
Papacheeks said:
Pretty much what I said earlier. Sony gave them free reign, and it just didn't work out.
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To me and many others it did. Evo ended up fixing the game and creating not only one of the best racing games ever made, but one of the most impressive audiovisual benchmarks available on the system.
 
mokalovesoulmate said:
What I read:

- Evolution Studios closed.
- Some Evos employees is now transferred to another project, or another studio, or now become under SIE, or simply finding for a new job outside Sony projects.
- Driveclub is now under SIE.
- Studio formed by ex-Evos are *helping* making a PS VR game. (Which is probably the Driveclub VR)
- So Driveclub is now under SIE but the actual people who worked on it is still Evos guys with a help from Sony guys too. I think of this because Rushy tweeted about total time to making a car (now 4-6 weeks instead of months first we heard). Including outsource team

Correct? :D
Click to expand...

Yep, somehow similar to what happened with Sony Studio Liverpool and Firesprite Studios.
 
nib95 said:
Of course it did. They ended up fixing the game and creating not only one of the best racing games ever made, but one of the most impressive audiovisual benchmarks available on the system.
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You know he meant financially. You can't run a business on prestige alone.
 
Shit, this sucks. Driveclub provided that PGR-esc type of racer that I was hoping for. Really enjoyed my time playing.
 
At this point I would expect the same to happen to Sucker Punch, Guerilla Games, Media Molecule, Rare, and 343 after they ship their next games.
 
Damn. I should probably play DriveClub someday, even though I'm not a big racing fan. Motorstorm was fun back in the day, goodbye Evolution.
 
This is depressing news. I liked Driveclub. I liked Evo. Sad, sad day.

Curufinwe said:
And lots of games that people assume have sold well never get to 2 million.
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It got to 2 million largely through bundling and bargain bin prices. That's not a healthy result. Just looking at total sales numbers doesn't make the game a success. Successful launches for AAA console games are very important in today's market. No matter how much people try to argue otherwise.
 
Terrible news, hope the staff find their feet quickly. Still really loving Driveclub as well, such a shame. Evolution and Studio Liverpool, man, fuck.
 
Krammy said:
Coming into this thread, I had totally forgotten Gran Turismo existed and thought that Sony had sunk their last first party racing studio. It's kind of damning that whoever makes those games still exists but we lost Studio Liverpool and Evolution.
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You're a fool if you think Driveclub had any chance of being a bigger series than Gran Turismo. Even it's most fucked up mainline edition did double Driveclub.
 
Fox Mulder said:
It's a joke when turn 10 can put out games like clockwork.
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Yep this is the part I don't understand. Sony pours so much money into Polyphony and it takes them years to get anything done. The best we can look forward to is a glorified "Lite" version of the game that should have come out at the PS4 launch.
 
digita1alchemy said:
It's crazy how quick Sony and Microsoft are to just up and close first party studios completely. It seems like such a waste. It's also interesting to me how Nintendo basically never does this.
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Nintendo will change a studio's project, and over time transition them to something either completely unrelated to games or small projects (where they'll either get downsized or slow burn until they find their footing with a new project). They also don't have all that many teams outside of the core EPD (or "not quite first party studios but they may as well be" such as HAL and IntSys).

About the only studios Nintendo can actually close with big projects outside of the core are Retro and Monolith... and a part of Monolith was long ago turned into an asset generation studio. And Retro is their lone western bastion, so it'd take some major shitstorm for that to be shuttered. Monolith and Retro are to a degree also maintained on prestige and catalogue.

Otherwise, they have contracted developers. So the situations of how studios are managed between MS/Sony and Nintendo are difficult to compare.
 
Ever since I bought the PS4 on day one, this is the first time Sony did something that truly pissed me off.

Driveclub is a goddamn masterpiece.
 
What's the cost of ownership of a British studio? With Lionhead and Evolution Studios' recent closures, I cannot help but think that it's an operational cost issue.
 
Courage to all the talented people that are losing their jobs. More power to them to start their own small studio as they clearly are talented.

Big loss for Sony. I mean, we will live in a "Gran Turismo only" world now?
 
Risette said:
You know he meant financially. You can't run a business on prestige alone.
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Sony take risks on weird new titles and concepts all the time. Unless Evo was hemorrhaging tonnes of money, they were worth it. The game sold 2 million prior to the PS+ version discount or release, and I'm sure it's sold a healthy amount since then. Hardly a complete failure, especially by today's ordinary exclusives sales standards.
 
Ninja Scooter said:
How do the facts line up with the idea that a developer that just released a super successful game with tons of community support for ongoing dlc was just shuttered? I'm not saying nobody cared about it, I'm saying enough people didn't. Not sure why it's so hard for people to separate their personal feelings in cases like this. You talk about pushing BS while at the same time trying to spin DriveClub as some sort of commercial success.
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Your "personal feelings" are behind the false claim it was only appealing to a diehard following. Again, games with popularity that limited don't get years of post launch DLC including a full $15 expansion.

"Super successful" are your words, so don't try and put them in my mouth. I merely stated the fact that it sold (not shipped) over 2 million copies.

Sony shutting down Evolution proves nothing more they don't think the ROI from a new racing game that would release in 2017 or 2018 would be worth the opportunity cost. But yet we still see posts claiming it proves DriveClub lost them a ton of money. No, it doesn't.
 
Welp, sucks for all involvolved. I hope everyone finds a new 'home' soon. I loved the Motorstorm games, and after the launch-disaster that was Driveclub they really turned things around and provided some of the best post-launch support I've seen for any game.

I guess I`ll buy Driveclub Bikes tonight as a token of respect.. (yes, I should have done that much earlier -_- )
 
Nothing to add except to thank the folks who worked there and wish them the best.

The Motorstorm series was without question, my favorite racing franchise of last gen. Pacific Rim had a ridiculous amount of content, and the track design in Apocalypse is absolutely insane in all the best ways.

If you somehow missed out on either, I highly recommend picking them up. No PS4 for me as yet. If so, Driveclub would have been a day one purchase.
 
Terrible fucking news.



Driveclub was the best driving experience I have had in years, and the post launch support was amazing.
 
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