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Japan Studio is Sony's biggest developer house and yet its most stagnant

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Memento

Memento

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
8,129
When will they ever step up?

They have 400 workers there, which makes it the biggest Sony studio by far if I am not mistaken.

Yet... they have never had any ambitious title. It is all about small to mid sized projects.

I mean, I love Team ICO games and all... but where is their Horizon Zero Dawn moment? Their Ghost of Tsushima moment? I want them to have their hands on something big. An JRPG would be the dream...

Do we have any idea what they are cooking? RaySpace...? Could it be something big finally?
 
NameUser

NameUser

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,980
They seem like more of a general studio, like hired guns that work on any and everything. So I'm fine with them not having a big, AAA title.
 
Mezoly

Mezoly

Jimbo Replacement
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,399
I don't think all of the 400 workers there are game developers.
 
LegendofLex

LegendofLex

Member
Nov 20, 2017
5,458
Isn't the whole point that they work on smaller creative projects? That sounds like the opposite of stagnation to me.
 
joshcam19

joshcam19

Member
Nov 11, 2017
948
They made The Last Guardian and Gravity Rush 2 and helped with Everbody's Golf and Bloodborne. I like that production so far this gen.
 

Imitatio

Member
Feb 19, 2018
14,560
As long as Sony doesn't step up their japanese first party side I don't think I'll ever be really captivated by any of their first party games.
Japan Studios being involved with Bloodborne was promising at first imo but the rest of the gen was really disappointing in that regard.
E: Ok, Last Guardian co-work is appreciated, too.
 
J-Skee

J-Skee

The Wise Ones
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,102
Funny, I was just thinking about this. Seeing as Gravity Rush is done, they do have the creator of Silent Hill & Siren on their team. They could go nuts with a huge horror game.

EDIT: Now that I think about it... if they took all the lessons they learned from Bloodborne & made the sequel all in-house without From Software, would people be upset about it?
 
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Zukkoyaki

Zukkoyaki

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,259
They've released 3 internally developed games (TLG, Knack 2 and Gravity Rush 2) and 2 collaborations (Everybody's Golf and Tomorrow Children) all literally in the last 18 months.

What more do you want?
 
fhqwhgads

fhqwhgads

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,534
Not everything needs to be a AAA game. Big budget doesn't equal ambitious. There's a loooot of AAA games that can be considered stagnant.
 
NediarPT88

NediarPT88

Member
Oct 29, 2017
15,078
I wonder in what Keiichiro Toyama is working on right now. I doubt we'll ever see another Gravity Rush, maybe he went back to Siren.
 
get2sammyb

get2sammyb

Editor at Push Square
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
3,006
UK
How is it stagnant? They've worked on Knack, Knack 2, The Tomorrow Children, Bloodborne, The Last Guardian, Gravity Rush 2, The Playroom, The Playroom VR, Badman VR, and Everybody's Golf this gen. I'm probably forgetting a few, too.
 
Elandyll

Elandyll

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
8,806
Isn't it because they work on several smaller projects at the same time instead of 1 big one?

In the past few years since 2013:
Gravity Rush
Pupeteer
Rain
Knack
Bloodborne
Tomorrow Children
Gravity Rush 2
The Last Guardian
Mina no Golf
Knack 2
... Plus the Vita stuff.
 
OP
OP
Memento

Memento

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
8,129
Zukkoyaki said:
They've released 3 internally developed games (TLG, Knack 2 and Gravity Rush 2) and 2 collaborations (Everybody's Golf and Tomorrow Children) all literally in the last 18 months.

What more do you want?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Their Horizon Zero Dawn moment.

BEND is having their opportunity with Days Gone. Sucker Punch is having theirs with Ghost of Tsushima.
 
JuanLatino

JuanLatino

Cerny’s little helper
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,372
They went trough a restructuring over the past Years with their new President Allan Becker and they had to release TLG (which was a last gen project) and Gravity Rush 2 (a Vita IP they didn't wanna kill off) Now that those are out and Knack aswell, they are free to do some new Ips and Concepts. (which Becker said)

We will get some new announcements from them this year (confirmed) and a new bigger IP is not far fetched.

Allan Becker afaik also said in an Interview that in this gen they were on track to step up their technology.


So to sum it up: I think now and over the next year, we will see the new transformed Japan Studio
 
Alex840

Alex840

Member
Oct 31, 2017
5,114
Their focus on small to mid sized projects is fine with me.

Almost every other studio they have is making big AAA games, so it's nice to have something different imo.
 
Demacabre

Demacabre

Member
Nov 20, 2017
2,058
Complete the trilogy. Finish the Fight. Knack 3.

Never played a second of either one of them and more than likely never will
 
OP
OP
Memento

Memento

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
8,129
JuanLatino said:
They went trough a restructuring over the past Years with their new President Allan Becker and they had to release TLG (which was a last gen project) and Gravity Rush 2 (a Vita IP they didn't wanna kill off) Now that those are out and Knack aswell, they are free to do some new Ips and Concepts. (which Becker said)

We will get some new announcements from them this year (confirmed) and a new bigger IP is not far fetched.

Allan Becker afaik also said in an Interview that in this gen they were on track to step up their technology.


So to sum it up: I think now and over the next year, we will see the new transformed Japan Studio
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That is nice to read

Hopefully we get to see it at E3
 
Het_Nkik

Het_Nkik

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,396
Stagnant? They're the most creative developer Sony has, always going against the grain. They give me games like no other. I want them to keep on doing what they do.
 
KrigareN-

KrigareN-

Banned
Dec 13, 2017
2,156
Sony seriously needs to release a jRPG to help diversify the tone of their first-party output.
 

Deleted member 15538

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,387
Elandyll said:
Isn't it because they work on several smaller projects at the same time instead of 1 big one?

In the past few years since 2013:
Gravity Rush
Pupeteer
Rain
Knack
Bloodborne
Tomorrow Children
Gravity Rush 2
The Last Guardian
Mina no Golf
Knack 2
... Plus the Vita stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Heh, that makes killing TTC even worse. I was directing all my anger towards q games.
 
DigSCCP

DigSCCP

Banned
Nov 16, 2017
4,201
I would love to see them working on more AA games instead of AAA.
A good flow of mid budget titles coming from a studio like Studio Japan would be wonderful.
Lets see what route they take now that Alan Becker cleaned the house .
 
Filament Star

Filament Star

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,817
Other people can make the big AAA games. We need a studio like them to make the more creative/niche AA games. Their output is consistently creative and fantastic.
 
wapplew

wapplew

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,163
As much as I want Japan studio to have their big game moment, but Sony doesn't have any studio left to make quirky out of left field titles except Japan studio.
I'm conflicted.
 
Wollan

Wollan

Mostly Positive
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,810
Norway but living in France
They seem to be doing a solid job. Lots of medium sized projects that mostly are pretty Good.
Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, SSM etc. can keep working on their large epics but we need the smaller sized efforts as well.
 
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