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Sony closes Evolution Studios (Motorstorm, Driveclub)

Prototype Viktor said:
I blame you all for this.
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Blame Sony, the management of the game was appalling.

Announcing it even before it releases as a PS+ games, delays, releases the game without the PS+ version which end up being released 8 months after the base game.

As a consumer paying for PS+ why would I buy the full version first?
 
nib95 said:
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.
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Not saying driveclub didn't turn out great. I own a hard copy of it. But they had lot's of issues as a studio that lead up to drive club's production and launch.

I don't find it surprising is all I'm saying. Driveclube was great, and I loved Motorstorm:Pacific Rim.
 
This is fucking awful. I'm not a racing fan but even I bought Motorstorm:PR because it was damn fun and then I bought DriveClub at launch because I knew despite the rocky start that Evolution stands for quality (and there were hardly any good PS4 exclusives at the time). I even bought the damn Season Pass because I wanted to reward Evo for their excellent work on DriveClub and now this. Feels really shitty tbh. My best wishes to everyone at Evolutions
 
Jigorath said:
This is depressing news. I liked Driveclub. I liked Evo. Sad, sad day.



It got to 2 million largely through bundling and bargain bin prices.
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I watched the price of DC closely because I was waiting to buy it, and it was still $40 new right around the time they announced the 2 million number.

At least in America, the idea that DC dropped in price quickly and heavily is incorrect.
 
Fuck. 😞 Dreams of new Motorstorm shattered. So unfair too, because Apocalypse doing poorly was largely not Evolution's fault (although it wasn't as good as the amazing Pacific Rift). Guess Driveclub hasn't been doing great either?
 
This generation has been hard on developers and publishers. Higher expectations. Higher costs. Lower sales. Same amount of time to make the games.

It just seems like there's no room for middle developers. Either you're an indie studio, or you're making a 10+ million seller. Anything in between, that used to exist in previous generations, is just gone. It's sad.

Something really needs to be done to keep these studios up. We're losing good teams left and right, and it will likely just get worse.
 
Why Arcade racing getting niche? Is it because many open world games like GTA already provided enough racing for the market?
 
Nirolak said:
I think the hardest thing for publishers is figuring out what a good bet will bet 3-4 years down the road, and deciding if it's ultimately their product or consumer interest that's causing their game to fail.

I'm sure that greenlighting a socially connected, online oriented racing game for the launch of a new console sounded like a fantastic idea to stand out in 2010. Sometimes a genre just needs a breath of fresh air to really take off again.

As the clock went on, that idea probably looked progressively worse as racing games proceeded to fail and studios shut down, suggesting a deeper issue with the genre than the ideas just being stale. However, maybe your idea is the one that really works, right?

I think that's why Ubisoft hung on to The Crew for its full six year development cycle as well. Ubisoft really wants growth though and thinks they can dominate in a progressively less crowded genre, so they seem more interested in sticking it out (and actually ended up buying Ivory Tower instead of divesting from the series).

Sony seems to have come to a different conclusion. And frankly, Need For Speed and The Crew are as likely to attract gamers that don't want a sim racer or kart racer as anything Sony's making, so it's not broadening their audience in a way that justifies its risk profile.

I suspect publishers will start ramping up their retail game cullings again in general since it's clear the effort to try some more non-AAAA titles at retail isn't necessarily panning out.
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Excellent summary.
 
Pacific rift was one of the best racing games of last gen, maybe the best. I don't understand why they didn't just make another Motorstorm after the PS4 was a success.
 
ramparter said:
Nintendo should reopen them and assign them Wave Race & Excite Truck.
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Not sure that'd be a stylistic match, but I'm sure they could in principle produce something in a genre Nintendo isn't covering.

I do wonder in this sort of situation if the company is hinted at being up for sale in advance so a prospective purchaser could nab them and keep it alive or if - cynically - it's better for the parent to shutter them rapidly enough that they can't easily remain unified and produce for their rivals.

Rare remained (approximately) intact when they were bought out by MS, I wonder how the offer was initially floated. I don't get the impression they were under imminent threat of closure when that happened, though.
 
TheAutomator said:
Terrible news. I really enjoyed Motorstorm.

Sony will regret this.
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Even Apocalypse? I thought it was a big step back compared to Pacific Rift and basically killed the franchise (apparently not only) for me. Then DC happened and no matter how hard some here tried to hype it up week in, week out it just wasn't that good even after all the patches. Might have sold a bunch over time but it also was on sale a lot beginning shortly after launch so most likely didn't make Sony any money. In the end you could say that Evolution's last truly great game happened in 2008 which combined with the decline of racing game-sales (even NfS isn't doing so great anymore) makes this closure a reasonable decision.
 
It's most likely this was a longer time coming than most would like to think. Which is totally brutal. There was obviously real talent at the studio, before and after the restructuring they did after the Driveclub launch.

One cold-comfort here is that Sony gave the studio the chance to make Driveclub the best experience they could post-launch. Kudos are deserved there, for both the effort and the opportunity.
 
Boneheaded move by Sony. Yes, the studio fucked up, but they had insane talent where it counted.

The next project could have been much better.
 
nib95 said:
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.
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The game has very bad online issues for almost 2 months, and Sony themselves had to bring in help outside of EVO to fix the issues. These issues probably affected sales during that launch period (one of the most important sales periods for a game) and even then I'm sure it cost a crapton to fix whatever was going on with the Network. I wonder if we will ever hear the story of what happened during that time with the network issues cause whatever it was must've been pretty nuts to make the game's online as messed up as it was at launch.
 
I can't believe it... Driveclub was one of the best supported games this gen, if not THE best... I purchased all the major DLC... Looked forward to a Season 2 season pass... this game had all my money coming to it! Not only that, I was always expecting and hoping to get a new Motorstorm some day...

This is incredibly tragic news... not to mention Driveclub VR...

I'm absolutely floored right now. This is the most painful gaming news I've read in the past few years.

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
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If accurate, this does lessen the sting a bit... I don't know if there ever can or would be another Motorstorm though. I always hoped that would be Evo's next game. But I think the 3rd one did really really bad, and with how rocky Driveclub started out I can understand that the writing was probably on the wall for quite some time.

Driveclub VR needs to happen though... this game could be destined to still make money. And if it gets good VR support in the PSVR launch window, there could be a huge influx of sales for the game just for a quality driving experience.
 
I'd be lying if I said I was surprised. Regardless, best of luck to all those out of work and hope they find a new developer to call home very soon.
 
Well shit. Best of luck to all those involved. I had a fond hate-love relationship with Motorstorm and its rubberband AI but crazy intense races.

I'd be very, very interested to see statistics on developer team size in the past 10 years. It seems to me that just like mid-tier games, the amount medium-sized studios is shrinking. You either stay indie or get absorbed into a mega studio, with some exeptions.
 
It doesn't surprise me too much. Evolution has suffered too many commercial failures, most of which weren't their own fault. Best wishes to the devs and their families who were affected.
 
Really sucks. Obviously Drive Club was just a mess until a few months after launch. I didnt love it but I know that I lot of people did.
 
Sad times for European studios and fans of racing games. Can't say I agree with this decision. I hope everyone lands on their feet.

GusBricker said:
What was that bullshit about Sony hiring ex-Lionhead employees then? What a crock a shit.
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I think it was a bit of fairly innocuous PR that reverberated as "good guy Sony" within GAF - despite the not so altruistic reality. No doubt other parties were also there in equal capacity, for the same reasons. I expect the same thing to happen here, except without all the attention.
 
StifflersMum said:
Any developers left in UK after Sony Liverpool, Lionhead and now Evolution were closed?

Remember how the UK had a big software industry back in the eighties, not much seems to be left of that..
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I happened to be at a wedding on Saturday right next door to my old employers, Rebellion. They're still going.
 
Well fucking fuck!

Thats bad form, they worked so hard on DC and transformed it into one of the best racers of the gen so far. Probably one of the best turnarounds in a game project ever seen. Then sony say "thanks and fuck off".

Hope everyone lands employment in a place they are appreciated.
 
This is terrible news. Absolutely awful.

What happens to driveclub VR now?

Today is such a shit day :(
 
Peltz said:
Boneheaded move by Sony. Yes, the studio fucked up, but they had insane talent where it counted.

The next project could have been much better.
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Which is why it sounds like they are trying to reassign some of that talent within Sony. Even if there were say, 50 people left working at Evolution, it might make more sense financially to keep all 50 of them on staff at other studios than to keep the Evolition building itself up and running. This isn't a matter of Sony not having any job vacancies available.
 
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