PlayStation Studios Development

[Horizon]

Media Molecule have surely accomplished what they wanted with Dreams and their share.create.play genre. They can't really push it any further so they should focus on cool and innovative platforms.I would kill for a tearaway sequel but I doubt the first game sold that well.

Sony have been very quiet for a long time but they pretty much revealed their entire line up in 2016 which they didn't need to do. What I hope this gen is games are announced closer to the time. I still feel they will announce Spider-man 2 or God of War 2 as at this point they will have had over 1 and 6 months development. They usually announce ND games after launching one of their games but I really hope they don't do that as they don't need to.

[the-pi-guy]

Media Molecule have surely accomplished what they wanted with Dreams and their share.create.play genre. They can't really push it any further so they should focus on cool and innovative platforms.I would kill for a tearaway sequel but I doubt the first game sold that well.

This is something I wondered about too.  They could certainly improve the tools, but there's no real fundamental advancement from Dreams like there was from LBP.  

It feels like they can only go back to focusing on game development.

[Horizon]

Also I do think Sony needs more AAA studios out of the 12 they have only like 8 of them do AAA:

Naughty Dog,
Insomniac,
Santa Monica,
Guerrilla,
Sucker Punch,
Bend,
San Diego,
Polyphony Digital

London do VR games and Media Molecule do highly impressive games but haven't moved the needle since LBP. Japan Studio are a wildcard as they produced a fair amount of games but none AAA apart from Bloodborne and possibly TLG. IMO I think they could do with another studios to enable a greater frequency of AAA games. Bluepoiint and RAD would be great additions.

[the-pi-guy]

Sony London is kind of weird.  They have pumped out lots of games in the past mostly tiny games.  They also do R & D, but on the whole they are a huge studio.

Based on the past couple years, I expect them to start making more larger games.  Maybe not fully into AAA development.  

[Horizon]

Sony London is kind of weird.  They have pumped out lots of games in the past mostly tiny games.  They also do R & D, but on the whole they are a huge studio.

Based on the past couple years, I expect them to start making more larger games.  Maybe not fully into AAA development.  

They're not huge though. They used to be massive in the PS3 days having over like 200 people but now they have as many as 80 people. They've downsized considerably. Shu did not do the best managing UK studios albeit Evolution might not have been his fault. London studio used to be ambitious with the Getaway and are now reduced to VR games.

[the-pi-guy]

They're not huge though. They used to be massive in the PS3 days having over like 200 people but now they have as many as 80 people. They've downsized considerably. Shu did not do the best managing UK studios albeit Evolution might not have been his fault. London studio used to be ambitious with the Getaway and are now reduced to VR games.

Sad, I didn't realize they downsized so much.

[Horizon]

Sad, I didn't realize they downsized so much.

European studios have done so much restructuring apart from Guerrilla I have lost count. Examples of restructuring and downsizing:

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-09-14-job-losses-at-sony-london-as-first-vr-project-wraps-up
https://www.godisageek.com/2014/03/sonys-uk-studios-restructured-staff-hit-redundancies/
http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/10/dozens_of_playstation_employees_laid_off_in_europe_as_sony_continues_company_restructure

[the-pi-guy]

SIE did not like UK this gen.

[Xevross]

SIE did not like UK this gen.

Yeah its really sad to see. Manchester gutted and shut, Evolution sold off, London halved in staff, Guerrilla Cambridge gone. Plus Liverpool were closed last gen as well. Its kind of horrible.

Honestly Sony are lucky they don't have the same reputation for closing studios that EA has, they're almost as bad.

[Horizon]

Yeah its really sad to see. Manchester gutted and shut, Evolution sold off, London halved in staff, Guerrilla Cambridge gone. Plus Liverpool were closed last gen as well. Its kind of horrible.

Honestly Sony are lucky they don't have the same reputation for closing studios that EA has, they're almost as bad.

Manchester had nothing to show for 5 years. Either what they produced wasn't good, wasn't what they wanted or strategy changed after Jim Ryan took over;VR games aren't generally that profitable. Evo is one I am still gutted about! Driveclub was awesome after its updates and I would have loved to seen a sequel or motorstorm reboot but driving games aren't big sellers I guess. I am surprised London are still going but they do have their uses. They could easily reboot singstar to attract casual and rebuild to focus on AAA but it seems they'll be doing VR games for a while. Guerrilla Cambridge is a dang shame as they did a brilliant KZ on the vita (apparently) and RIGS by all accounts was good fun and polished. They were underutilised and should have had a shot at making an AAA game like Bend did.Still I imagine a good chunk of them just moved to Guerrilla or Ninja Theory.

[Xevross]

Manchester had nothing to show for 5 years. Either what they produced wasn't good, wasn't what they wanted or strategy changed after Jim Ryan took over;VR games aren't generally that profitable.

By all accounts they had a game that was well through development and were even recruiting up until a week before they were shut. Sony just deleted the studio out of nowhere, a total sucker move that really didn't get enough bad press.

[SWORDF1SH]

I've said it before and I say it again, Polyphony should of had the chop before Evolution. I would of gave Evolution the Gran Turismo franchise to work with.

[Legend]

I've said it before and I say it again, Polyphony should of had the chop before Evolution. I would of gave Evolution the Gran Turismo franchise to work with.

Polyphony makes lots of money though...

[Xevross]

I've said it before and I say it again, Polyphony should of had the chop before Evolution. I would of gave Evolution the Gran Turismo franchise to work with.

If it was either or then sure. We have no idea what happened with Evolution, they did have their game delayed by a year and still massively iced up the launch. No matter how fantastic Driveclub became, that's still a big failing. I think they were done a massive injustice by Sony, since I believe the mess around the PS+ version is what hurt the game the most, but its hard to say they'd do a better job than Polyphony.

If Evolution were better managed they could have been the #1 racing game studio, Driveclub was truly phenomenal.

[Horizon]

By all accounts they had a game that was well through development and were even recruiting up until a week before they were shut. Sony just deleted the studio out of nowhere, a total sucker move that really didn't get enough bad press.

If it was either or then sure. We have no idea what happened with Evolution, they did have their game delayed by a year and still massively iced up the launch. No matter how fantastic Driveclub became, that's still a big failing. I think they were done a massive injustice by Sony, since I believe the mess around the PS+ version is what hurt the game the most, but its hard to say they'd do a better job than Polyphony.

If Evolution were better managed they could have been the #1 racing game studio, Driveclub was truly phenomenal.

Yeah that's why I think strategies changed as what Sony did Manchester was weird but I think they only had like 20 people at Manchester so it wasn't big. Evo from what I recall of the the UK documents showed their financials were in the red and weren't making money whereas compared to Media Molecule they continued to make money on LBP dlc.