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[Zen]

Yet Team Ico and Polyphony are allowed to take all the time they want to make games, whilst the UK studios are closed.

So pissed off with the running(into the ground) of the UK studios.

To be fair, Polyphony produces by far their biggest IP.
Team ICO has a small team a relatively small costs, however if Ueda leaving is any indication, the 'take all the time you need' treatment for Team Ico may have come to an end.

 

[Agent X]

It's sad to hear about Bigbig's closure. Their PSP games (Pursuit Force, Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice, and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge) were excellent.

If I recall correctly, Bigbig is a satellite studio of Evolution Studios. Is it possible that at least some of the team members could be retained by Evolution? Perhaps they could help out with MotorStorm RC, as Spiegel suggestion earlier.

Really? It's not like Sony was exactly known for supporting the PSP well. Axing one of its dedicated portable developers is hard to see as a good sign...

I realize, most of their games weren't widely known, but is that a problem with the studio, or Sony's craptastic marketing of anything PSP related?

I would pin it on the latter. Although the Pursuit Force series and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge aren't hugely popular PSP games, those who have played them generally hold them in high regard.

 

[Raoh]

Zipper always made the worst looking games on the Playstation systems.

(Time to switch "Zipper Interactive" with "Ready at Dawn Studio")

As a former Zipper/SOCOM fan, we never cared about graphics. It's all personal opinion but the socom series was one of the best on the ps2 against any third person shooter. On the ps3 we never really cared if it looked better than the other shooters we just wanted an upgraded version of socom 1 and 2.

Just like what halo gets, nothing radical or special just more tweaks to what they fans want. Instead Zipper went completely in the opposite direction of the series.

MAG may have looked generic but the idea of having that many people play together was one of my favorite experiences this gen.

What bothered me was they had some great ideas in MAG and none of those things were used when making socom 4. (I hate calling it socom in the first place looks and plays nothing like a socom game) S4 would have done a lot better had it not had the socom name, forget people that hate sony or sony games, hardcore socom fans were insulted and walked away from zipper.

If they want my money in the future they will have to rename their company and make games other than shooters.

 

[ProfessorMoran]

I'd say that Arctic Edge is easily in the running of the best Motorstorm game (better than 2 and 3 to be sure). It's a real shame that BigBig was shut down, but hopefully they're getting rolled into Evolution as much as possible.

It's also a shame that Cambridge is now seemingly a satellite studio for Guerilla (but also other big first party outputs). Not that such a move is much more than publicly admitting what has been the case for years now. Cambridge has been a dedicated (and crucial) support studio for Sony for years.

But what's surprising about that, is that they did an awesome job on LBP PSP, and we'll likely see a repeat with their Killzone Vita game. I don't know if this means that them producing their own releases is completely dead, but it sounds like they won't be doing anything else besides Killzone support/titles and helping the other studios from here on out.

Really a shame. As much as I liked/loved Liberation and Killzone 2, the franchise isn't worth that much focus anymore following Killzone 3, not that I'm not interested in the Vita game.

Big Big doesn't deserve to be shut down, as they are a quality top notch dev, the problem for them, and evolution, is that they're very good at a genre no one cares about, and Motorstorm RC will probably flop as well.

Didn't the head of Evolution say that he was worried the studio would be shut down after the dismal failure of Motorstorm 3 (they blamed it on worldwide events, I disagree), I guess BigBig felt the fallout instead.

So here's a question who here feels that what Shu is doing will ultimately result in a leaner but more effective and focused SCEE, or is he shitting the bed and why?

Why does Sony even need Cambridge to be a support studio? Just beef up Guerilla if they need better programming or design, or even hire contract people to beef up production if necessary, you're not getting actual products out of a support studio, what they need to do is get Cambridge to start making games.

I feel bad for Big Big, they do good work, the market just isn't there for their games, I feel really sad having Big Big join Sony and then getting shut down like this.

Zipper has got to shape up or they will share the same fate, either the quality or the sales have to be there.

Shu needs to put together a small studio to iron out new ideas for the Vita.

 

[Basch]

Sony's UK division sucks. So does Japan's. They need to beef up both territories. Currently, America's offering most of the goods. This makes me worry for Quantic Dream. I was hoping Sony would pick them up but with the way Shu is just destroying everything, maybe it's best they stay independent.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Sucks for the people working at BigBig, and I hope they'll be able to find new jobs ASAP, but looking at the list of developed games at Wikipedia I can sort of see why Sony shut them down. As for Cambridge, my heart cries. This means no new Medievil, no new Primal, no new Ghosthunter, but MOAR!1 boring Grayzone

 

[Hyuga]

but with the way Shu is just destroying everything, maybe it's best they stay independent.

So Yoshida is "destroying everything" now?
Wow

 

[AranhaHunter]

What are the chances that BigBig is being shut down but the people, i.e. the important part, are actually being moved and shuffled around to other Sony studios? Maybe it's a means of cutting costs while keeping the staff. At least that's what I am hoping for....I hate seeing people getting laid off. One of the worst feelings one can have, especially if they have a family they need to provide for.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

What are the chances that BigBig is being shut down but the people, i.e. the important part, are actually being moved and shuffled around to other Sony studios? Maybe it's a means of cutting costs while keeping the staff. At least that's what I am hoping for....I hate seeing people getting laid off. One of the worst feelings one can have, especially if they have a family they need to provide for.

I don't think the chances are all that big, sadly. Liverpool are doing fuck all nowadays it seems, Cambridge is supposedly helping Guerilla make more Killzone games no one will buy, and London Studio are basically Singstar Studio by now, I guess.

Edit: There's Media Molecule I guess, but who knows what they're up to these days besides R&D. Also, Evolution making another Motorstorm game no one will buy.

RIP Sony UK.

 

[Takao]

I don't think the chances are all that big, sadly. Liverpool are doing fuck all nowadays it seems, Cambridge is supposedly helping Guerilla make more Killzone games no one will buy, and London Studio are basically Singstar Studio by now, I guess.

Edit: There's Media Molecule I guess, but who knows what they're up to these days besides R&D. Also, Evolution making another Motorstorm game no one will buy.

RIP Sony UK.

Liverpool makes WipEout.

A brand new WipEout game comes out next week in Japan.

How is that fuck all?

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Liverpool makes WipEout.

A brand new WipEout game comes out next week in Japan.

How is that fuck all?

Shit, you got me there. There's the WipEout game for Vita which I completely forgot about. My bad.

Spoiler

It's for Vita so it'll bomb anyway

 

[Zen]

Why does Sony even need Cambridge to be a support studio? Just beef up Guerilla if they need better programming or design, or even hire contract people to beef up production if necessary, you're not getting actual products out of a support studio, what they need to do is get Cambridge to start making games.

I feel bad for Big Big, they do good work, the market just isn't there for their games, I feel really sad having Big Big join Sony and then getting shut down like this.

Zipper has got to shape up or they will share the same fate, either the quality or the sales have to be there.

Shu needs to put together a small studio to iron out new ideas for the Vita.

You can't just say you're going to hire talented programers and have everything work out, company philosophies, individual corporate cultures, and accrued group knowledge are hugely important. I think with news of Naughty Dog and the other big time and very successful Sony studios getting second teams, that something else had to give, but BigBig and Cambridge should be making more Vita games as oppose to being shut down and minimized respectively.

I agree with you about Zipper, it's insane to think how far they've fallen, is it really so long ago that Socom II was logging more daily player hours, and therefor people playing it than all of Xbox live combined?

]http://ps2.ign.com/articles/534/534576p1.html[/url]http://www.gamezone.com/news/socom_ii_logs_more_player_hours_than_all_of_xbox_live

Yes, it is.

It's really unfortunate that Killzone 2 didn't capture lightning in a bottle, because it came close, and had they had good aiming (for the mass market) and not messed up things like netcode and input delay, Killzone could have been a brand worthy of Cambridge being relegated to a support role for. Killzone 3 shit the bed though, and no one aside from Sony fans pay attention to it now.