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UC4 Game Director Justin Richmond Leaves ND (And famousmortimer leaves GAF #1393)

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Or the rumor is true and Neil and Bruce made a power move inside the company.
Im starting to get a feeling that The Last of Us went to their heads or something and now the team on Uncharted is getting screwed over.

likely completely wrong but just a feeling im having.
 
What the hell? Whyyyy? Ugh.
Fair enough.
Please don't tell me that true. You mean past tense right? Love my Vita, but doing another Vita game on a single team studio isn't smart.
Sounds about right.
Exactly what happened.
And about the Xbox department. I believe you when you say it's happening. But why don't we get this news reported? Are there not enough sources? It wouldn't garner interest? Wazup?

They just don't have quite the talent heritage in terms of first party Sony do.

If Dan Greenawalt left, there'd be news. But I can't think of any other big names there - Corinne Yu was one. All the directors of their new stuff are relatively new names.
 
Druckman already pointed out who the replacement is.
screenshot2014-03-27agdk6s.png

Those red eyes, those demonic red eyes. All these resignations and layoffs... 'tis the work of the devil.
 
I don't know what cambridge is working on. I don't think they know. I think they slimmed down as they figure out what they are doing next. If/when that's approved, they will hire people again. Many studios operate like this. Especially lower-tier ones like GC.





I heard various numbers between 75mil and 90 mil for stig's game. I said "almost 100" because, well, both are almost 100 mil. They restarted the game, from scratch, THREE TIMES! And it sucked every time. The whole "it was too much like destiny" thing is bullshit. It was more horror-ish and like Dead Space than Destiny. That whole thing was sony jumping on the grenade to help stig save face. And help themselves save face as they wasted a fucking TON of money.

Yeah 75 million sound likely for a game in 4 years .
 

LastNac

Member
From what I played on Uncharted 3 I wouldn't be surprised. There's not much difference between a game that plays itself and one that gives you the illusion of agency and then fails you out whenever you try and employ some.

Yes, I stopped playing after the the young Drake rooftop chase.

I can only hope whatever creative issues are at play with Uncharted 4 lead to something less tyrannically directed than the last one.

Wow, all 15 minutes in...
 

Dr. Buni

Member
Nintedoome- oh wait.

Seriously though, I am not sure if the director of Uncharted leaving is something to be sad about.
 

Yoda

Member
Wonder if anyone at Sucker Punch will leave now that I:SS is out. There is clearly some structural reorganization going on here, I wish we had some kinda of glimpse (leak) to what it is. I highly doubt they are cutting these people because of their finances, they don't get paid that much in the grand scheme of things to begin with.
 

kevin1025

Banned
Could the new guy (new guy in terms of new title, since he's been with Sony a while) with Tretton's job be turning Sony America on its head and people are bailing before his new direction is revealed to investors and at E3?
 

StuBurns

Banned
They keep saying that (they said the exact same thing when Amy left). Sorry, but if the head writer and main director of the game leaves mid-production, how does that not impact the game's timeline? How about the actual quality of the game? Is that impacted? :/
Because they're replaced instantly?
 

shink

Member
Thanks mort. Perfectly reasonable explanations. The Cambridge vita game is news to me. I'd assume they would be on a ps4 project, but they might be now I guess.

I hope Cambridge are still making a Vita game though
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
UC4 has no director

Nor no writer. Nor no multiplayer.

Shhh... no tears. Only clouds now.

This doesn't bode well for Uncharted 4. And that was my tentpole/breaking my "no online fee" rule for the PS4. Shame, but I guess I can safely pass if the writer and leads are jumping ship over the Last of the Us writer being an asshole or something.
 

tanod

when is my burrito
The $100 million makes sense if you're talking opportunity cost.

Theoretically, the team could have have put 2 AAA games out in 4 years and if they were both 1,000,000 sellers, there's your $100 million.
 
It's important to note, that even before this recent exodus of talent and tound of layoffs sony are not what they were during the ps3 era

Team ico is all but kaput, insomniac are working with microsoft, zipper dead, sony liverpool dead, big huge games, incognito, superbot etc

Ninja theory is making cellphone games (i believe), united front are making watch dogs etc

This is worrying stuff

Mate, there's so much wrong in your post.
 

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
They keep saying that (they said the exact same thing when Amy left). Sorry, but if the head writer and main director of the game leaves mid-production, how does that not impact the game's timeline? How about the actual quality of the game? Is that impacted? :/
If they left over the direction of their next project instead of Uncharted 4, then presumably Uncharted 4 would continue as planned.
 

Gestault

Member
The reason any studio ends up being highly regarded is because of the talent behind it. If losing key personalities in this number of studios just in time for a generational transition isn't a problem for development calendars, I can't think of much else that would be. Each situation here makes sense, but based on how long almost all of these people had been with their divisions, this an uncharacteristically dense pocket of transitions happening in a short window.

Since Uncharted 4 was announced as the creative offspring of Richmond and Hennig, I'm deeply curious about what lead to the shift.
 
Do you have any more info to share on this? (Or have you already talked about this in some other thread? Or has anybody else?) Guerilla Cambridge did such a wonderful job on Killzone: Mercenary and I was really hoping that we'd see more from them. Having them do a new IP would be cool, but I wouldn't have minded them assuming stewardship over the Killzone franchise as Guerilla Amsterdam move on to other stuff.. Any more info about their fate or what they have been up to since handing in Mercenary would basically be much appreciated!



I had heard it was some sort of kid themed "party game" as the vita is actually doing decently with kids in europe. It wasn't good and wasn't going to sell... so they canceled it and slimmed down the staff as they figure out what they're going to do next.


Honestly... after KZ:M on the Vita I thought they earned a shot at something big. I personally thought KZ:M kicked the shit out of KZ:SF in everything other than MP (and that's mostly because MP on a handheld is gimped to begin with).
 

StuBurns

Banned
Sure, but if there were creative differences, that means that changes need to take place. Changes take time.

That's assuming you want to go with the evil overlord Druckman theory.
Personally I think ND are lying, but since they never told us when the game was coming, they never have to back up their claim.
 
If they left over the direction of their next project instead of Uncharted 4, then presumably Uncharted 4 would continue as planned.

That's a big "if". It's hard to not assume the creative differences were for Uncharted 4, though. Would they really be talking that much about the next project so soon? I know they start talking about the next game fairly early internally, but I can't imagine it would be a big topic of debate since I doubt Uncharted 4 is that close to being done.
 
Uncharted 3 was the worst of the trilogy, so i can live with that. That being that, what the .... is happening at Sony game studios?!

There is definitely going something wrong there.
 

Dahaka

Member
100 Million Dollars. Goddamn. Talk about eating up PS4 monetary success. Good thing (even though pretty late) the trim down.
 
I had heard it was some sort of kid themed "party game" as the vita is actually doing decently with kids in europe. It wasn't good and wasn't going to sell... so they canceled it and slimmed down the staff as they figure out what they're going to do next.


Honestly... after KZ:M on the Vita I thought they earned a shot at something big. I personally thought KZ:M kicked the shit out of KZ:SF in everything other than MP (and that's mostly because MP on a handheld is gimped to begin with).

That's not very fair to Shadow Fall. KZ: Mercenaries was the usual FPS campaign. SF tried some new things with stealth and abilities. The atmosphere and direction they went were pretty different from other Killzone or military shooters too.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I had heard it was some sort of kid themed "party game" as the vita is actually doing decently with kids in europe. It wasn't good and wasn't going to sell... so they canceled it and slimmed down the staff as they figure out what they're going to do next.


Honestly... after KZ:M on the Vita I thought they earned a shot at something big. I personally thought KZ:M kicked the shit out of KZ:SF in everything other than MP (and that's mostly because MP on a handheld is gimped to begin with).
I really hope Cambridge gets the opportunity to either continue Killzone or make a new FPS IP for Sony.
 
Yeah 75 million sound likely for a game in 4 years .

Keep in mind, also, it was restarted 3 times. So lets say the number is 75 mil (i will never be able to find out the exact number, i just said the estimates I was given). Lets assume they get about 3/4s of the game done each time. The vast majority of cost is upfront (building the engine. assetts, voice acting, etc) and then marketing. Marketing never happened. But 3 projects coming to 75 mil at a studio that has delivered the god of war franchise isn't really that much money. 25 mil per reboot, or thereabouts.
 

Bedlam

Member
We can only assume so. Which makes the whole situation pretty weird.



90 minutes of pre-rendered cutscenes. Embrace them!
You say that as if that's a bad thing. I enjoyed every single second of TLoU's cinematics - as opposed to those in UC3 or those from Cage's games.
 

coolasj19

Why are you reading my tag instead of the title of my post?
Why the hell would Sony allow this to happen three times?
I guess when you make one of the highest selling and highest rated games of a Gen, you get third chances too.
Sony is probably thinking that they have this gen locked up so there isn't a huge need for console exclusives anymore. Everyone knows multiplatform is the smart way to go anyways if you want to make money.
Stop saying that, everyone. That's stupid. It doesn't make any sense. The PS4 is such a success without exclusive games that it doesn't need them at all? Not only does that not fit their MO, it's awful business sense. I'd say that Sony doesn't just want to win this generation, they want to curbstop their competition into a position where going at it again next generation isn't good business sense. And no, your multiplatform thing isn't true. You get more money selling your own software directly through to customers. See, Nintendo.
They just don't have quite the talent heritage in terms of first party Sony do.
If Dan Greenawalt left, there'd be news. But I can't think of any other big names there - Corinne Yu was one. All the directors of their new stuff are relatively new names.
Fair enough. And they already went through their internal shuffle around November iirc.
Thanks mort. Perfectly reasonable explanations. The Cambridge vita game is news to me. I'd assume they would be on a ps4 project, but they might be now I guess.
I hope Cambridge are still making a Vita game though
He said that he doesn't actually know what they're working on. Dunno why he said that. Whatever.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
If they left over the direction of their next project instead of Uncharted 4, then presumably Uncharted 4 would continue as planned.
This is what I expect as well. Most likely there was a big debate over whether or not this will be the last Uncharted. I know Hennig said many times that she wants the series to go on for as long as possible.
 

StuBurns

Banned
Keep in mind, also, it was restarted 3 times. So lets say the number is 75 mil (i will never be able to find out the exact number, i just said the estimates I was given). Lets assume they get about 3/4s of the game done each time. The vast majority of cost is upfront (building the engine. assetts, voice acting, etc) and then marketing. Marketing never happened. But 3 projects coming to 75 mil at a studio that has delivered the god of war franchise isn't really that much money. 25 mil per reboot, or thereabouts.
So you're saying they had a full team the whole time?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
That's a big "if". It's hard to not assume the creative differences were for Uncharted 4, though. Would they really be talking that much about the next project so soon? I know they start talking about the next game fairly early internally, but I can't imagine it would be a big topic of debate since I doubt Uncharted 4 is that close to being done.
Usually you start planning your next game 6-9 months before your current one goes gold.

It's very possible the problems were with UC4, yes, though not impossible they got turned down for a new IP already or something of the like.
 
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