PlayStation Studios Development

[Horizon]

That's depressing but probably realistic.

I don't really understand why Sony's sequels have been so slow. GOW Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West have the pandemic as a pretty good excuse, but how is something like ghost of tsushima 2 probably taking 4 years? Infamous to got was only 6 years and that included time spent on a cancelled game.

Sucker Punch are much smaller than Guerrilla and Santa Monica. They're like Sony's 7th biggest studio I think.

Talking of studios I was checking Linkedin and Insomniac now has over 500 employees. I know it's not completely accurate but I think they could end up being the biggest Sony studio at the end of the gen. They're basically two AAA games in dev simultaneously and you see the way devs at Insomniac refer to themselves as the Wolverine team or Spider-man 2 team.  

[Legend]

Sucker Punch are much smaller than Guerrilla and Santa Monica. They're like Sony's 7th biggest studio I think.

Talking of studios I was checking Linkedin and Insomniac now has over 500 employees. I know it's not completely accurate but I think they could end up being the biggest Sony studio at the end of the gen. They're basically two AAA games in dev simultaneously and you see the way devs at Insomniac refer to themselves as the Wolverine team or Spider-man 2 team. 

Employee counts don't tell the full picture since support studios are not counted. For example Naughty Dog has under 500 employees yet over 2,000 people are credited for TLOU2: https://www.vg247.com/the-last-of-us-part-2-cast-crew

But maybe part of Insomniac's success is from relying on support studios less. I don't know what they're doing, but they're pumping out games.

[the-pi-guy]

But maybe part of Insomniac's success is from relying on support studios less. I don't know what they're doing, but they're pumping out games.

I feel like a lot of it is just better scoping.

If you remember that Naughty Dog dev talking about how doors are a lot of work (so they swing properly and so AI is appropriately responsive, etc.)

Whereas in Spider-Man 2018, there are like no dynamic doors. They're always cutscenes or loading screens.

I feel like if Naughty Dog and Insomniac were to try making the same game, the Naughty Dog version would have like twice as many animations where all the added ones only show up like once in a blue moon.  

I really wonder about their engine stuff though. Maybe what I'm seeing is just due to marketing reasons or something.
But:
Ratchet and Clank came out with a better ray tracing implementation, and Insomniac patched that implementation into Spider-man Miles Morales like two weeks later. And they did a similar thing with the 40 FPS modes.

Whereas it feels like some other studios really struggle with that kind of thing. Taking months to update their previous games with new features.


I don't know, maybe it's just different priorities for scheduling or something.

[kitler53]

I agree so much Pi

ND's attention to detail excited the crud out of that small subset of people that visit gaming forums.  not saying the vast majority of people don't notice it but they certainly don't need it to enjoy a game. 

insomniac makes fun games and don't fret the unimportant details.  I think it's a good trade for getting more games. 

I do think insomniac benefits greatly by working with a known IP like spiderman.  their quality is good enough to make a great marvel game but not good enough to get the world to take notice of a new IP. 

This is where ND shines.  say what you will but ND may be the only studio in the world that could create something so detailed and special that it becomes a massively successful HBO show. 

[the-pi-guy]

We are doomed, no chance a secret SIE project stays secret all the way until the showcase airs

[the-pi-guy]

Era post


Well that was a weird bug.

[Legend]

My brother isn't too happy with the destiny expansion. Says he thinks it was released super early since a lot of content was cut and lots of the new weapons are reskins. Wonder if this was always going to be the case, or if Sony's purchase impacted things.

[the-pi-guy]

My brother isn't too happy with the destiny expansion. Says he thinks it was released super early since a lot of content was cut and lots of the new weapons are reskins. Wonder if this was always going to be the case, or if Sony's purchase impacted things.

It was kind of strange. I got the impression that it started strong and then like 3 days after launch I started hearing how bad it was.

Heard a lot of complaints about the story as well.

[the-pi-guy]

Just going to throw this here.  

Modiz

Sony's CFO (soon to be president) has now talked a bit about gaming to investors (not a whole lot of new stuff):

Gaming, Pictures and Music are the strategic investment areas for Sony in his eyes.

Repeats the strong PS5 demand and expects to catch up to PS4 this year (no surprises), no comment on if they expect FY24 or FY25 to be the peak year of PS5 sales, however says MAU is also a very important KPI for them to focus, hence why they are looking to reach PC and mobile audiences.

He didnt speak of PSVR2's current performance, but said he thinks theres a good chance for PSVR2 to surpass PSVR1's sales on the PS4.

Bungie was acquired to help their studios adapt to make live service games.

Sony has 0.7 trillion yen left for their strategic investment guidance ending March 2024, due to the weakening of the yen that's roughly 5 billion dollars. In the fiscal year starting April 2024 they'll have new guidance for investments.

Seems Sony still intends to spend ~0.7 trillion yen/$5.14 billion on investments in the next 12 months.

[kitler53]

$5.14 billion isn't all that much especially spread between the 3 areas of games, pictures, and music.  

we're talking like maybe 2 more small studios.  

[the-pi-guy]

$5.14 billion isn't all that much especially spread between the 3 areas of games, pictures, and music.  

we're talking like maybe 2 more small studios.  

It's not a tiny amount. (I think it's a pretty good indication they're not going to buy a publisher).

Sony bought Insomniac for $229 million. Even now, I doubt that Haven, Bluepoint cost half that.

[Legend]

He didnt speak of PSVR2's current performance, but said he thinks theres a good chance for PSVR2 to surpass PSVR1's sales on the PS4.

Well I'd certainly hope so!

[BananaKing]

$5.14 billion isn't all that much especially spread between the 3 areas of games, pictures, and music.  

we're talking like maybe 2 more small studios.  

Most studios don't cost that much, specially if they don't own the IP, or the IP they own isn't that big.

[kitler53]

It's not a tiny amount. (I think it's a pretty good indication they're not going to buy a publisher).

Sony bought Insomniac for $229 million. Even now, I doubt that Haven, Bluepoint cost half that.

and bungie cost $3.6 billion.   

i wouldn't use insomniac as the yard stick,.. they waaaaaay undervalued themselves.    

[the-pi-guy]

and bungie cost $3.6 billion.  

Bungie isn't a small studio though.

They are more than double the size of Naughty Dog employee count wise, and they own a major IP.  Or like 12x the size of Bluepoint/Housemarque.  


Even Sony's own financials showed that compared to Bungie, all the other studio acquisitions (Bluepoint, Housemarque, Firesprite, Nixxes, Valkyrie) were pretty much rounding error.