Which studio will Sony buy next?

[Dr. Pezus]

Shaddap you Grammar

Spoiler for Hidden:

Nazi

*banned for nazi reference*

[Legend]

*banned for nazi reference*

Banned for backseat moderation.

[Xevross]

Banned for banning people without consulting official rules

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

I still want them to buy drink box

[Legend]

I still want them to buy drink box

I loved there came a blob, but they feel almost too indie. Plus their new game is designed for smartphones.

[Dr. Pezus]

I loved there came a blob, but they feel almost too indie. Plus their new game is designed for smartphones.

Play guacamelee plox

[Raven]

The studio was just transitioned into a sister studio for Guerrilla games and took over the Killzone franchise. Kinda like how Black Tusk is now the gears studio. They wouldn't have done this unless Cambridge was already on the chopping block imo. Their first game under the new name was Killzone: Mercenary, which despite personally loving was a critical disappointment and financial flop. If their Killzone 5 doesn't rejuvenate the franchise, I could see them being fully absorbed into Guerrilla with tons of layoffs.

Actually, I think Mercenary scored them some points with Sony. Its critical reception wasn't actually that bad. A 78 is nothing to brag about but it's not something to be ashamed of either. Especially considering past games Cambridge has done. The important thing to note is that it scored noticeably higher than Shadow Fall which was made by the studio that started the franchise to begin with. It was also noted as being very well done for a handheld FPS title and it definitely did better than the Resistance and Call of Duty games that game before it on the Vita. Some places even awarded it as the best Vita title of 2013. As far as its sales, I would think that Sony would be well aware that Mercenary was put on a system that was already dying and that FPS titles don't usually mix well with handhelds.

I don't think Sony sees any reason to close down any of its PlayStation studios right now. The closure of Zipper, BigBig, and Liverpool back in 2012 was because Sony was losing its dog at the time and it needed to clean things up. From what I heard, Zipper had costed Sony a lot of money to produce games that never did well. MAG was a long development that flopped. The only reason Sony purchased BigBig in the first place was because it was Evolution Studios' satellite studio and likely came as a packaged deal. Liverpool was just making Wipeout and Formula One games. Wipeout always received good critical reception but Formula One struggled a bit and didn't sell well.

Plus, Sony already had Polyphony Digital and Evolution Studios to make racing games. Evolution could easily take over Wipeout as they've done those offbeat racing games before. The studio had become redundant. Sony didn't need three studios dedicated to racing titles. Though what some people don't realize is that Liverpool essentially became XDev. XDev existed before but it was a small branch of Liverpool. Former Liverpool employees were shifted to expand XDev's operations. The ones that didn't stay went on to make their own independent studio.

SOE wasn't really a PlayStation studio and was costing Sony way too much money. I'm sorry but when you have five MMO games that you're currently running and they're not enough to NOT lose your company $60 million in a year, your operations are sloppy as hell and too few people are playing your games. Which was probably making Sony insanely nervous considering that SOE had two more games on the way that they probably feared were going to end up costing them even more money to operate yearly.

I think all of Sony's PlayStation studios will be fine for now but certain studios, like Cambridge and Bend, will be the first to go if Sony finds themselves needing to trim fat.

[Xevross]

Actually, I think Mercenary scored them some points with Sony. Its critical reception wasn't actually that bad. A 78 is nothing to brag about but it's not something to be ashamed of either. Especially considering past games Cambridge has done. The important thing to note is that it scored noticeably higher than Shadow Fall which was made by the studio that started the franchise to begin with. It was also noted as being very well done for a handheld FPS title and it definitely did better than the Resistance and Call of Duty games that game before it on the Vita. Some places even awarded it as the best Vita title of 2013. As far as its sales, I would think that Sony would be well aware that Mercenary was put on a system that was already dying and that FPS titles don't usually mix well with handhelds.

I don't think Sony sees any reason to close down any of its PlayStation studios right now. The closure of Zipper, BigBig, and Liverpool back in 2012 was because Sony was losing its dog at the time and it needed to clean things up. From what I heard, Zipper had costed Sony a lot of money to produce games that never did well. MAG was a long development that flopped. The only reason Sony purchased BigBig in the first place was because it was Evolution Studios' satellite studio and likely came as a packaged deal. Liverpool was just making Wipeout and Formula One games. Wipeout always received good critical reception but Formula One struggled a bit and didn't sell well.

Plus, Sony already had Polyphony Digital and Evolution Studios to make racing games. Evolution could easily take over Wipeout as they've done those offbeat racing games before. The studio had become redundant. Sony didn't need three studios dedicated to racing titles. Though what some people don't realize is that Liverpool essentially became XDev. XDev existed before but it was a small branch of Liverpool. Former Liverpool employees were shifted to expand XDev's operations. The ones that didn't stay went on to make their own independent studio.

SOE wasn't really a PlayStation studio and was costing Sony way too much money. I'm sorry but when you have five MMO games that you're currently running and they're not enough to NOT lose your company $60 million in a year, your operations are sloppy as hell and too few people are playing your games. Which was probably making Sony insanely nervous considering that SOE had two more games on the way that they probably feared were going to end up costing them even more money to operate yearly.

I think all of Sony's PlayStation studios will be fine for now but certain studios, like Cambridge and Bend, will be the first to go if Sony finds themselves needing to trim fat.

Nice points, Sony isn't going to sell another studio any time soon. All studios in WWS are doing well right now

[Legend]

Nice points, Sony isn't going to sell another studio any time soon. All studios in WWS are doing well right now

Even Team Ico?

[Xevross]

Even Team Ico?

The Last Guardian could be the greatest creation of all mankind.

[Legend]

The Last Guardian could be the greatest creation of all mankind.

Too bad they stopped working on it 4 years ago.

[Xevross]

Too bad they stopped working on it 4 years ago.

Oh no you didn't

[the-pi-guy]

Oh no you didn't

Agreed.  We're not going to let Legend stop working on TLG. 
It shall be complete. 

[Xevross]

Agreed.  We're not going to let Legend stop working on TLG. 
It shall be complete.

Yup, we all know that Vizioneck is just code for TLG. Get yo dog to work, Mike

[Raven]

Even Team Ico?

Well for one, Team Ico was a small part of Japan Studio. Not even sure they had their own place. Definitely not the same situation as Cambridge. More importantly, I'm pretty sure Team Ico was disbanded a while back and Sony just never mentioned it. Probably around the time Sony "restructured" Japan Studio. Unless you're just saying this to get a rise out of us...