PlayStation Studios Development

[the-pi-guy]

Firesprite seems to be winding down it's crazy growth rate.

Seems like hiring across the board is largely settled. With Guerilla and Naughty Dog being notable exceptions with lots of openings.

Well Insomniac has quite a few, as well.  But most don't seem to have as many as they did.

[kitler53]

i think everyone everywhere is worried about a global recession.  i'm hearing a lot of places either slowing hiring or outright pre-emptively downsizing (mostly via attrition) already.  gaming seems to have take a big hit and i wouldn't be surprised if sony is a bit worried.

[the-pi-guy]

Absolute blast to spend the last two days with #PlayStationStudios family!! Such an amazing group!@Naughty_Dog @Guerrilla @Pixelopus @SonySanDiego @SuckerPunchProd @BendStudio @insomniacgames @SonySantaMonica @mediamolecule ?? pic.twitter.com/k7iORzb0sy

— Collin (@shinyidol) October 8, 2022

[the-pi-guy]

i think everyone everywhere is worried about a global recession.  i'm hearing a lot of places either slowing hiring or outright pre-emptively downsizing (mostly via attrition) already.  gaming seems to have take a big hit and i wouldn't be surprised if sony is a bit worried.

For sure.

I wonder if this will change their acquisition plans. They promised to spend like ~$20 billion on acquisitions and I think they have only spent half of that.

[the-pi-guy]

Wanted to share a list of links that is or could be cooking under SIE.
Transmedia Storytelling across SIE stands out.
Rumored Code Names in quotations.

SIE's First Party Studios

• San Diego Studio with MLB the Show franchise
  
• Housemarque with A New IP building on Returnal's DNA
  
• Bluepoint Games with An "Original Game" for an Existing IP
  
• Haven Studios with a New AAA GaaS IP; A Studio Analysis
  
• Media Molecule with Dreams support & Possibly a New Game
  
• Team Asobi with "Our Most Ambitious Game yet"; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCnr-cSkVdc&#[/youtube]39;]Their Studio Tour[/URL]
  
  • Pixel Opus with a UE5 Game in collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation
    
  • London Studio with PS5%20Online%20Game/']an Online GaaS Game: "Camden", & The Soho Engine?
    
  • Savage Games with an AAA Mobile GaaS Action Game; Possible WIP Builds
    
  • Insomniac Games with Spider-Man 2, Wolverine & Possibly an MP Project
    
  • Bungie with Destiny 2 Expansions, A New IP "Matter", & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOXBvwpOJKo&[/youtube]t=102s']Multiple Future Projects
    
  • Sucker Punch with Likely A Ghost Sequel & a Sony Pictures Ghost of Tsushima Movie
    
  • Polyphony Digital with GT7 Monthly Updates & a Sony Pictures Gran Turismo Movie
    
  • Bend Studio with a New Open World IP & Possibly a Sony Pictures Day's Gone Movie
    
  • Naughty Dog with A Cinematic TLOU MP, Neil's Next Game, & a TLOU HBO Series
    
  • Santa Monica Studio with GoW Ragnarök, Cory's Next Game, & a GoW Amazon Series
    
  • Guerilla Games with HFW DLC, HZD PS5 Remaster, Horizon Online/Co-Op, Horizon 3 & a Horizon Aloy Netflix Series
    
  • Firesprite with Horizon COTM/VR, an AAA UE5 Horror Game: "Heartbreak", & Possibly a Twisted Metal Reboot
    
  • PlayStation Productions with a Twisted Metal Peacock Series & a Gravity Rush Movie.
    
  Announced SIE Publishing & XDEV Partnerships
  
  • First Contact with Firewall Ultra (PSVR2)
    
  • Shift Up with Stellar Blade
    
  • Team Ninja with Rise of the Ronin
    
  • Deviation Games with a New AAA IP
    
  • Firewalk Studios with a New AAA MP IP
    
  • Aspyr Media with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake; Possibly 2025
    
  • Wild Sheep Studios with WiLD; New Job Openings as of 10/2022 or Likely Dead
    
  SIE's Third Party AAA Exclusives
  
  • Luminous Productions with Forspoken
    
  • CB Unit III with Final Fantasy XVI
    
  • CB Unit I with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
    
  Speculated SIE Projects & XDEV Partnerships
  
  • Kojima Productions with Death Stranding 2?: "Ocean"
    
  • From Software with Maybe a Game with SIE?
    
  • Swizzle Kiss with a Narrative Horror Game?
    
  • Ballistic Moon with a Survival Horror Game?: "Bates"
    
  • Arrowhead Games with an AAA TPS Co-op Game: Likely Helldivers 2
    
  • Sumo Digital Sheffield with a new AAA IP focused on Expressive Traversal: "Carbon"
    
  • Ember Lab with Maybe Next Game with SIE?
    
  • JP Games with Maybe a Game with SIE?
    
  • Media Vision with Maybe a Game with SIE under Kentaro?
    
  • Enhance with Possibly a PSVR2 Game?
    
  • Camouflaj with Possibly a PSVR2 Game?
    
  • Tangent Games with Possibly a PSVR2 Game?
    
  • Flimsy Sources with a Bioshock 4 PS5 Exclusive?, Wipeout PS5/PSVR2 from Lucid Games?, & Half-Life: Alex for PSVR2?
    
  Plenty from SIE for a potential 2022 Showcase.
  But I can see them saving it for next year too.
  Focus on GoW Ragnarok, 3rd Party Content & PSVR2 launch while waiting for how the ABK Deal plays out.
  

All of the links broke when posting, but pretty solid list of what's going on.

[Legend]

All of the links broke when posting, but pretty solid list of what's going on.

Will be fun to see how well this ages in the coming years.

Firesprite seems to be winding down it's crazy growth rate.

Seems like hiring across the board is largely settled. With Guerilla and Naughty Dog being notable exceptions with lots of openings.

Well Insomniac has quite a few, as well.  But most don't seem to have as many as they did.

You said they cancelled their action shooter in the other thread. Sad.

Hopefully those devs are being reassigned, which would definitely slow down their growth.

[the-pi-guy]

Haven: Machine learning's potential for players and developers

In formally launching the studio's Montreal office space last week, Haven co-founder Jade Raymond said more than 30% of the studio is currently working on advanced machine learning, artificial intelligence, and cloud-based dev tools.

"We really have this vision to bring a new type of player-centric, community-driven game to life," Raymond said. "And to do that, these investments are very important."

While it's not quite clear yet exactly what kind of payoff those investments will have, Haven shared an early look at technology that it believes could potentially be used in game development down the road.

Cerny was particularly interested in how tools like Olson demonstrated could be used to create lots of content quickly that may not be "directly publishable AAA content," but is good enough to get an idea across.


"The first thing I see is before the game even begins, the whole process of conceptualization is going to get so much freer and faster," Cerny said.

[Legend]

Seems like a waste to have the studio itself working on that. The tech is coming incredibly fast regardless of what this specific studio is working on. Seams cheaper to go with a fast follower approach.

The tech itself is incredible though. Just describe a game asset and the fully textured 3D model will pop into existence.

[kitler53]

maybe it's just me because i'm an engineer but...

...i wish someone was pursuing a first principles approach.   at least for natural landscapes.  

[Legend]

This is a "chair" I produced on low settings using the first free AI I found on google. With better non free servers you can produce stuff like this:



Give it a year and nearly every studio will be using AI to generate non important assets in some form or another.

[the-pi-guy]

Sony's studio growth:

Naughty Dog - 53
Guerrilla Games - 38
Insomniac - 28 + 17 internships
Firewalk - 27
Sucker Punch - 21
Deviation Games - 20
Polyphony Digital - 16
Team Asobi - 13
Haven - 13
London Studio - 10
San Diego - 10
Santa Monica - 10
Bluepoint - 9
Bend Studio - 8
Housemarque - 8
Media Molecule - 6
Nixxes - 6
Valkyrie Entertainment - 6
Firesprite 1 + 7 Speculative

[the-pi-guy]

EXCLUSIVE: Bungie Set to Revive the Marathon Series In A New Wayhttps://t.co/MafWdhDbmt

— Insider Gaming (@InsiderGamingIG) October 20, 2022

[Horizon]

Let's get some predictions out here! Within the first year I think these will all be announced:

Wushu existing IP game (explains why Shinobi won't divulge anything on Sony), Bluepoint game/Demon Souls remake, Ratchet and Clank, Silent Hill, Housemarque new I.P and Horizon Zero Dawn 2.

Wasn't a million miles away just under 2 years though

[the-pi-guy]

Wasn't a million miles away just under 2 years though

He has returned.  

[Horizon]

I've been taking a look on linkedin (assuming numbers are close) it's clear Sony are going to lean on Naughty Dog, Insomniac,Guerrilla and Santa Monica for output this gen. ND have around 720 employees, Insomniac 480, Guerrilla 402 and Santa Monica 365. I suspect they plan to build Firesprite to be around 350 one day. Sucker Punch definitely would be up there but they seem reluctant to grow massively but I think they'll hit 200 soon. The rest of Sony studios are all under 150 and it seems we'll be lucky to get 2 games from some devs such as Bend. Housemarque and Bluepoint do seem very productive considering their size but Bluepoints new project might test them and we might not see it for years.

He has returned. 

You know what I forgot the name of the website lol. Vizioneck isn't the easiest name to remember.