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Sony PlayStation: First Party Studios |OT4| Because we're skipping 3
- Thread starter JuanLatino
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I don't really understand the point of console wars... Anyway I believe AstroBot/RE7 and Wipeout are VR worthy games.. Heck I ditched my Vive for the PSVR due to the lack of killer VR games in my view.
Yea I agree with you on that count, for most of those acquisitions.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-01-02-uk-physical-games-market-falls-2-8-percent-in-2018
While it should be slightly down year on year in USA and Japan, PS4 sold more units in 2018 than 2017 in the UK (over one million)
While it should be slightly down year on year in USA and Japan, PS4 sold more units in 2018 than 2017 in the UK (over one million)
They closed down Zipper, which wasn't exactly a struggling studio. That's what Sony thought of SOCOM.
Although Wipeout came back in the form of the Omega collection, and Medievil in the form of a remaster, so perhaps anything is possible.
What are your talking about, Zipper was a super struggling studio. They didn't have a decent selling or critically adored game a little over a decade before they died. Their last chance was SOCOM on ps4 but it sunk in part because the outtage happened right as the game launched but partly because the game was just okay and didn't get any eyes on it.
the Wipeout guys died because they didn't actually make a game for almost a decade and was just sitting there collecting checks without actually producing products.
SOCOM 4 didn't met with positive receptions with most of the old SOCOM fans + PSN outage in 2011.
Shame because the OST was kinda good; the same composer with God of War 2018.
Shame because the OST was kinda good; the same composer with God of War 2018.
I don't think M.A.G lit the world on fire, either, though I think a game like that, if Zipper were around, would have been more timely this generation.
Do some of you here really believe that Ghost of Tsushima and TLOUP2 will be delayed all the way until the launch of PlayStation 5? I don't believe that there's a chance in hell of this happening. My prediction is that all their major AAA titles will be out by June 2020. So basically, within the next 18 months.
I'm enjoying this generation and PS4 Pro so much that im no hurry for next gen to get here. 20-22 months from now is perfectly fine for me.
I'm enjoying this generation and PS4 Pro so much that im no hurry for next gen to get here. 20-22 months from now is perfectly fine for me.
Whoever really thinks that is just trying to start toxic discussion/trolling. You don't showcase games on PS4/Pro only to turn them PS5 exclusives. That is a really bad look. I think Sony being quiet is driving people nuts and I love it!
True and I agree on all counts. I don't mind Sony being quiet as it's the calm (2019) before the storm (2020). Besides, at this point, I care a lot more about Days Gone and future PS4 exclusives (Sony and third parties) than I do about any info regarding PlayStation 5.
I still believe that the last true major AAA game will be TLOUP2 in June 2020. With Days Gone being delayed from February to April and there already being confirmation of post-game content, I just don't see Sony releasing TLOUP2 by September 2019. It wouldn't make any sense to me. My prediction is still Death Stranding in September 2019 which would be perfect because im expecting Fall 2019 to be a lot less packed than Fall 2018.
For PlayStation 5, im hoping for September 2020 because it would coincide with the 25th Anniversary in NA but im expecting November 2020.
I can see at least one launching close to PS5 but I doubt any will be delayed for PS5's release, unless it's coming out in the first half of 2020.
Personally I'm predicting a late 2020 launch of Sony's next console with all the major PS4 games already released.
Any updates on what GG is upto? They hired a bunch of people who worked on Rainbow Six Siege and I really love that game. Anyone heard anything new?
I'm still convinced that closing down Psygnosis/Zipper/Evolution was a bad call, they would've provided good/great things, especially Psygnosis who was working on a new WipEout and a new stealth IP... But anything is possible with current creation and expansion of first party studios.
Nice, I didn't know Days Gone was gonna have post-launch content already. More Days Gone is always good and I'm looking forward to it. I still think that at least one of three (TLOU2, DS, GoT) releases in 2019. In regards to PS5, I am ready and day one once its released no questions asked.
Time will tell, all the existing studios that have been acquired are increasing their staff count to varying degrees, Ninja Theory, Obsidian and Playground I think can get there (you can even argue Playgrounds already at that level) if however Microsoft gives them time, I think that's the biggest luxury Sony gives their studios, theyll push games back to give the devs enough breathing space to polish and refine their games, whereas MS has always struck me as a lot more stricter with developers (although that does seems to be changing a bit with their recent games).
Yeah, it was said in one of their videos. I think from Game Informer. Perhaps plans of changes but I know for sure that it was said because it made me consider buying the game digitally despite me rarely buying games digitally if available on a disc. I'm hoping for a good long Boozer expansion. :)
We'll see. Except for Playground Games, I look at those studios as A or AA studios. They all SHOULD be elevated to a higher level because if not, I just don't see the point in acquiring them to begin with. Granted, I have been spoiled by Sony's exclusives and even some third party exclusives but Microsoft and Spencer need to up their game when it comes to their exclusives. I'm tired of the above average games outside of the big three. I just want to see them get better and give me better games. Like Kratos says in God of War - BE BETTER.
So im hoping but until it's proven, I'll remain cautiously optimistic.
It's a bit weird to me to have any expectations, honestly.
Staffing up doesn't mean much if the final product isn't great and would result in just more struggle for studios.
That said, NT specifically seemed to have a bigger project in mind and Obsidian has established brand that should help them stand out and make the Xbox platform more interesting than rumors of bringing back some old franchises like Fable.
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But this is a Sony first party thread! So that's my last thought on that.
They're at a world-class level for the franchise they made a spin-off for, which has built and built upon the same formula.
That studio is making an open world Fable RPG, it will probably be a reboot, and even though they have open-world experience you can't just spin out a Horizon Zero Dawn tier game in 3 years. The kind of game they have made so far are not as deep or interactive as Horizon is. Forza is not heavily story focused which I'm sure the new Fable is going to be and have to get right. Forza is relatively devoid of human life (NPCs) and huge scale enemies, compared to Horizon. There's a lot that Playground has to get right to make a great RPG style game, and if they manage to do that in 3 years and have it make the same impression that Horizon did, then I will be impressed. Guerrilla got so much right for a first foray, and Playground will have to prove they can do the same for the genre, on the same scale. The investment it takes to make a game of that quality, I don't believe they are on that level yet, but we will see.
I don't play a lot of online shooters but I'd guess that all of the Socom games would feel terribly dated by today's standards. The shooter genre is one of the most advanced and if Sony is really going to compete they'd need to come out swinging, and I don't think a remaster of a 15 year old game would suffice.
I think SotC is very different to any shooter or really most other games. It's extremely unique and despite sharing some similarities with other third person swords and sorcery adventures no other game has really managed to emulate its design, tone and feel.
Nah; I find stuff like that really distasteful and I'm glad people from Sony don't do it. In my opinion executives representing their company should be a lot more professional and Ybarra mixes with some fucking awful people on Twitter.
Rumour has it it's still alive but they're shifting to developing in Decima now. Could be an Until Dawn-style situation where they're reworking the whole thing in a new engine with a much bigger budget for next gen. I just hope it isn't dead as the trailers and gameplay looked really interesting.
I think Phil Spencer is a good guy and the right person to be in charge, but I don't like the rest of the team like Ybarra, Nelson, Medhi, etc.
Zipper had released three duds in a row though. MAG didn't seem to be all that successful even though personally I loved it, Socom 4 hit at just the wrong time with the PSN outage but also I don't think many series fans were all that happy as they 'casualised' it for want of a better term in chasing the COD market. Then there was Unit 13 and while I think it's unfair to tie to fate of a studio to new hardware I don't think the game was all that warmly received anyway.
I look forward to whatever they do next. I kind of hope it's another new IP as I think they should move on from Killzone, but I wouldn't be against another Killzone in principle. I kind of expect it'll be a multiplayer only title, but if it's going to have a campaign they should just reboot the whole series to be honest as the storytelling has always been fuckawful with shit characters.
I'm still bitter about Studio Liverpool but their closure was a result of years of mismanagement (despite being incredibly creative up to and in the PS1 era they were thereafter anchored to the racing genre which was a contracting market space) when they should have been expanding their horizons and been the hub for all first-party development in Europe.
I still think the order to close Zipper and Liverpool came from Kaz Hirai when he took over as head of Sony and he needed to cut costs quickly by shutting down unprofitable divisions.
Going by the the recent hirings, it's safe to say GG is working on a 1st person tactical shooter.
To be fair you could say exactly the same about Guerrilla with regards to Killzone before making Horizon (the parallels between PG and Guerrilla are quite striking the more I think about it), the difference goes back to my earlier point about Sony studios being given enough time (7 years iirc for Horizon Zero Dawn?), Playground are opening a second studio and they're hiring people from places like Bioware, Rocksteady and Rockstar North, so they're obviously getting the investment, but if MS dosent give them enough time then it's all for naught, but if MS follows through then there's no reason why they can't follow Guerrillas footsteps.
I just bought it the other day. A faithful remake/master of a unique game. SOCOM isn't unique and would be scrutinised if it stayed the same.
I can't believe we're talking about SOCOM in 2019. Can we not link to Tidux's bullshit ever again? :(
Yes, but the main takeaway from my point was that it will take time (many, many years of it), so they aren't at that level... yet.
Playground needs to make and release the game and then they can be considered, but after that, Guerrilla will continue to push onwards and produce a sequel which is expected to be more impressive than the first in a number of different ways. Even more so, they have a solid base to create a sequel that should take significantly less time to make, and they are also expanding to be able to pump out games in 2-3 years without a drop in quality. If Playground makes a masterpiece that can sit alongside Horizon Zero Dawn, there's nothing stopping Guerrilla from releasing their sequel around the same time and blowing people away all over again. At the moment it's Sony studios that are competing with Sony studios, but if MS can start competing with Sony again in that area, that would be a great thing to see.
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I'd agree with you.
Main reasons being we saw what happened to GT6 when it released around the PS4's launch. The hype of a new console will destroy the sales potential of an older platform game. Then there are other factors to consider which would cause problems. With a new console release, you'd expect there to be some noteworthy releases, and among them has to be a first party release, which is going to be obviously take any shine from a PS4 game. Then you have another issue in that these games have been announced for a long time and are expected as PS4 releases. Even if there was hypothetically a separate PS5 version, it would be held against them if that was the premier release for the new console because it's an "old game", and it would also make little sense if the console is backwards compatible like everyone is expecting. We have to keep in mind this ain't like Zelda, and Sony doesn't quite command that kind of zealotry with its fan base despite having franchises that are bigger. They'll get shredded and peeps will be disappointed. They'll be expecting something new for PS5.
Basically, if PS5 is late 2020, then the last major first party release needs to be out in the first half of that year. The second half of the year shouldn't have any major first party releases aside from PS5 titles. From purely a business perspective, that'd have to be the case.
Personally, I think The Last of Us 2 is late 2019. It's the biggest exclusive Sony has and can more than hold its own if it released in October or November 2019. I'm more curious about where Death Stranding fits since Ghost of Tsushima is likely the 2020 game if it was only 50% done as of E3 2018. So if Death Stranding is indeed a 2019 title, we'd have to be hearing about its release in the next 3-4 months. So we'll know soon enough.
Days Gone releasing in April, I think we're likely to see a preview event in late March. Concrete Genie being a Spring title, it will probably have its release date announced rather soon. Death Stranding is currently being localised, the English VO and mocap looks to have concluded, and they hired a Head of Marketing & Communications so it appears that the marketing for Death Stranding will be ramping up fairly soon (maybe the next couple of months). With The Last of Us Part II also being localised, them hiring for QA and being at a very advanced stage with the performance capture, it is also likely that we will hear about a release date a bit later in the year, but I agree that it will be a late 2019 title (my guess is November). It won't get lost in among the third parties - Uncharted 1-3 did incredibly well launching around those late months, and that was with a smaller install base.
Doesn't look like Sony is gonna be very quiet in 2019 :)
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Now that's interesting. These are usually 8-12 months. I've seen them quite often with Sony positions. Do you know when they hired?
It was in early December last year that we heard the first about the position. He accompanied Kojima, Ayako and the production team to NYC to capture the remainder of Norman Reedus's performances, and gain insight into the game.
Guessing starting in the NY must mean January. Although that's a Japanese placement so not sure if it's the same as Sony's general positions in terms of contracts. That's a good sign they're in the late stretch though. Most big companies start looking at marketing campaigns and whatnot around 8-12 months out. If they needed one now, that could give us a window of anywhere from June this year to early next year for release.
The only question now is where Dreams fits if it's still coming in 2019. This year and next year are gonna be pretty stacked between PS4 releases and the launch of PS5.
I honestly don't see that way.
If Sony is planning to have BC and if any of the 'Big 3' has a release target maximum 6 months close to PS5 launch I'd be totally ok with Sony delaying it to match PS5 launch.
I will go further and say that if the last of the 'Big 3' is Ghost of Tsushima and it will be released in the same year as the PS5 I hope Sony pushes it to be a cross gen release.
I mean The Last of Us and Death Stranding will move units no matter when and where they release it...Ghost of Tsushima I'm not so sure, if the timing between its launch and PS5 launch is not a good one I can see it being "hurt" in a way the other 2 wouldn't.
Remember puppeteer or GT6?
Also putting Ghost of Tsushima as a launch title could be a really good move not only for the PS5 but also for Sucker Punch when it comes to sales!
I would accept it with no problems if this means more success for SP and for the IP.
A small vignette from a conversation I had with a dev regarding PS5 launch timing:
Original plan was Nov 19, pushed back to Spring 2020 earliest to ensure adequate launch window titles available.
Launch window in 2020 is still wide open due to unexpected PS4 sales performance, 2019 sales will have a greater bearing on timing than Sony thought even 6 months ago.
Comment to dev from another with a confirmed PS5 project was 'You will have time to meet launch window timeframe'. Given that's usually considered to be launch date +6 months that's a window of Q4/20 through Q1/21.
PS5 dev environment (not physical hardware, software simulation) is 'out there' for devs with confirmed PS5 projects.
No BS, not seeking 'insider' fame, just felt the convo highlighted an interesting point about timing.
Other stuff - DS & TLOU are on track for this year IMO.
Original plan was Nov 19, pushed back to Spring 2020 earliest to ensure adequate launch window titles available.
Launch window in 2020 is still wide open due to unexpected PS4 sales performance, 2019 sales will have a greater bearing on timing than Sony thought even 6 months ago.
Comment to dev from another with a confirmed PS5 project was 'You will have time to meet launch window timeframe'. Given that's usually considered to be launch date +6 months that's a window of Q4/20 through Q1/21.
PS5 dev environment (not physical hardware, software simulation) is 'out there' for devs with confirmed PS5 projects.
No BS, not seeking 'insider' fame, just felt the convo highlighted an interesting point about timing.
Other stuff - DS & TLOU are on track for this year IMO.
Hm that's a bit worrying that it was originally a 2019 machine. I hope they overhaul the specs appropriately and we aren't left with a Frankenstein 2019/20 console that ends up launching in 2020.
Why would they pull the trigger in 2019 (at one point) when the PS4 was/is firing on all cylinders still? Doesn't seem likely.
Final specs won't be fixed until just before the manufacturing sign off (witness the 8GB GDDR surprise), and IIRC there were 3 prototype iterations on the Pro, so there's room for some changes but TBH 6-12m won't represent much in the way of h/ware upgrades but might enable more more movement on pricing.
Presumably they expected PS4's sales trajectory to be in a different place by mid-2018, and this this impacted in their predictions for 2019. I mean, the 2019 date being the initial target but then moved isn't exactly news since it's been reported on quite widely.
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That matches what Benji heard. Buisness and software reasons led to a delay of the PS5.
The mods will certainly try to verify your info first.
God of War and Spider-Man will give us 2020.
Bless Insomniac and SSM.
Lol, NY = New York, that's where they were. He was an official KojiPro employee at that point. :)
With the beta available starting last year, Dreams is definitely making 2019. You don't tend to see betas happening >1 year before the game comes out. I see Dreams as releasing in May.
Guess we have to hope that Kojima and Naughty Dog don't give us 2021 lol.
15/16 months minimum, so not that far.
I'd also say that Fortnite is probably more responsible for the above-trend hardware sales across the year than the bumps received by GoW& Spidey
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There are still too many interesting games coming out for me to really care about PS5 right now. Never mind the games I already have and still need to play.
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