PlayStation Studios Development

[the-pi-guy]

i did a search to see if i could find out how much money sony spent to aquire firewalk.

$200 mil is the number I remember but again it could be citogenesis.

There's no public number for that.

[BananaKing]

No way where they 200 million to aquire when Insomniac was 229. Insomniac has been around since the PS1 era, released spiderman, and had its own IP in sunset overdrive.

Firewalk has nothing of that sort. No IP, No history, No proven title they worked on.

[kitler53]

No way where they 200 million to aquire when Insomniac was 229. Insomniac has been around since the PS1 era, released spiderman, and had its own IP in sunset overdrive.

Firewalk has nothing of that sort. No IP, No history, No proven title they worked on.

in fairness,..  insomniac was the deal of the century. 

[Horizon]

I am trying to think of a single player game which has bombed as hard as Concord with the same budget and I just cannot think of one. Even the Order 1886 probably did a million or two with a budget of like $80m.

[Legend]

I am trying to think of a single player game which has bombed as hard as Concord with the same budget and I just cannot think of one. Even the Order 1886 probably did a million or two with a budget of like $80m.

Yeah this is the E.T. of our generation. Nothing comes close.

Haven studios can't be feeling good. Even if fairgame was going great, how would you not get a little worried from this? No second chances.

[kitler53]

Oh for sure.  Especially since the teaser trailer didn't exactly go well for fairgame$

[the-pi-guy]

Sony President, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki says that PlayStation are currently reforming their gaming business with the following steps:

- Changing business structure
- New look at game development approach
- Portfolio concept to be introduced
- Cost cuts in different areas
-… pic.twitter.com/4gOkDtiMW0

— Genki? (@Genki_JPN) November 11, 2024

[Legend]

Did Concord really hurt them that much? PS5 is still selling great and most of their games are still selling great, yet their recent statements feel like a company that is struggling.

[the-pi-guy]

Did Concord really hurt them that much? PS5 is still selling great and most of their games are still selling great, yet their recent statements feel like a company that is struggling.

Some of this might just be restructuring that has been in process for a while.

Sony effectively split the Hardware and Software branches of PlayStation into their own departments when Jim Ryan left in April.  


The guy who took over from Jim Ryan, who manages Sony Group as a whole, has been a bit critical of PS's business.

"Whether it's for games, films or anime, we don't have that much IP that we fostered from the beginning," Totoki said in an interview with the Financial Times. "We're lacking the early phase (of IP) and that's an issue for us."

Sony COO: "It's been four months since I became chairman of SIE. A big problem of SIE that I found is they don't necessarily have deep understanding of how their work is being translated to growth, generation of sustainable profits and higher margin for the unit as a whole"

— Takashi Mochizuki (@6d6f636869) February 14, 2024

[kitler53]

Did Concord really hurt them that much? PS5 is still selling great and most of their games are still selling great, yet their recent statements feel like a company that is struggling.

continuing off of that other conversation...

...just another brick in the wall of why i don't foresee myself buying a ps6 anywhere near launch.

[the-pi-guy]

Concord probably cost the company $400 million.

Say $220 million development costs, $50 million marketing, $130 million to buy the studio.

It's probably their biggest loss by an absurd margin.


Besides that, I think Sony wants to restructure what they're doing for AAA development.
I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news. Optimization doesn't exactly sound positive when they're also talking about layoffs.

But they've talked in their investment stuff about more experimental titles.





They talked very positively about Astro Bot.


I kind of feel like it might be a positive; because it feels like they understand that they need to have a wider net. They can't sustain PlayStation off of a couple big games every couple years.  

They need variety, they need to put out new kinds of games that can appeal to new markets instead of just the couple of big games like Uncharted/God of War.

[darkknightkryta]

Concord probably cost the company $400 million.

Say $220 million development costs, $50 million marketing, $130 million to buy the studio.

It's probably their biggest loss by an absurd margin.


Besides that, I think Sony wants to restructure what they're doing for AAA development.
I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news. Optimization doesn't exactly sound positive when they're also talking about layoffs.

But they've talked in their investment stuff about more experimental titles.





They talked very positively about Astro Bot.


I kind of feel like it might be a positive; because it feels like they understand that they need to have a wider net. They can't sustain PlayStation off of a couple big games every couple years.  

They need variety, they need to put out new kinds of games that can appeal to new markets instead of just the couple of big games like Uncharted/God of War.

The thing that Japan Studios was doing before they were starved and disbanded?

[kitler53]

The thing that Japan Studios was doing before they were starved and disbanded?

while i personally liked a lot of studio japan's work (puppeteer for instance) they had a lot of very quirky things that should be obvious that they have little mass market appeal.   astro bot is both appealing to a different market and also pretty palatable to the mass market.   not entirely sure horizon lego is going to be a big success but i think it has some good potential even if i don't have any interest in it.   

so while there are similarities to legacy studio japan,... sony's current strategy is also pretty different.   

[Legend]

while i personally liked a lot of studio japan's work (puppeteer for instance) they had a lot of very quirky things that should be obvious that they have little mass market appeal.   astro bot is both appealing to a different market and also pretty palatable to the mass market.   not entirely sure horizon lego is going to be a big success but i think it has some good potential even if i don't have any interest in it.  

so while there are similarities to legacy studio japan,... sony's current strategy is also pretty different.  

Puppeteer was great. Last Guardian and Gravity Rush were also great. As you said though, that doesn't mean they'll make money.

I think Sony needs an indie publishing label. These smaller games can't compete now that Sony first party games sell 10 million copies. Publish projects like Journey again and embrace that they are small games that can still win a lot of awards.

[kitler53]

Puppeteer was great. Last Guardian and Gravity Rush were also great. As you said though, that doesn't mean they'll make money.

I think Sony needs an indie publishing label. These smaller games can't compete now that Sony first party games sell 10 million copies. Publish projects like Journey again and embrace that they are small games that can still win a lot of awards.

puppeteer was better than great,.. i loved it.  but it was also a bit quirky in a genre and hasn't been known for many big hits when nintendo's name isn't on the "box".   still, it was probably a better attempt at being mass market than many of japan studio's efforts.

last guardian had "art house" written all over it.   i don't know if that means mass market success is impossible but the whole game oozes "critical darling" more than blockbuster hit.

gravity rush was pretty cool.   i cannot forget that it was originally designed for vita.   however, i think japan studio was a bit of a fool to give a sequel to a game that didn't do great in the first place.   


...what was my point again.   umm.. firstly yes i love these games and i personally wish for more of them.   but secondly in the new reality where sony doesn't care about making good games if they don't make a lot of money than i don't see these types of games getting made again.   i think the destruction of japan studio and the rise of asobii was to refocus them on titles that at least have a chance of mass market appeal and not art house appeal.


geez, bring up journey reminds me of how amazing playing flower for the first time was.