The Studio Conundrum Of Sony

Ian Fisher writes: With the next-gen PlayStation console possibly being shown off later this month, Sony is obviously gearing up for a console launch within the next year and are of course they’re doing things that are required when spending truckloads of cash: trimming a bit of fat. Issuing lay-offs or making certain studios redundant is never a nice thing, but in the world of business it’s required to ease up the pressure one may feel upon their purse strings. Even then, the continued parting of ways Sony is doing with key 2nd party studios, the latest of which is SuperBot Entertainment, is distressing for various reasons.

[sinncross]

I think Sony got themselves into an unfortunate situation in regards to PS3 hardware pricing and adoption rate not being as quick as they perhaps wanted.

While I am against the fact that Sony had shutdown studios like Liverpool and have ended partnerships with studios like SuperBot, I can understand if its because they have decided to properly consolidate the games they will be making.

Hopefully things turn out much better with the PS4. Cant wait to see its unveiling.

[r21]

I still cant understand why they cut the ties so soon. PSASBR was well on its way to being a million if they gave it time. Heck, it probably was one of their best selling titles of 2012. Would've sold even faster had Sony used their freaking marketing department! I worry for Sanzaru games and Sly Thieves in Time :C

[Killzoner99]

Do a little research. The PS3 was a bargain at launch with the built in blu-ray and has passed the 360 in sales . Sony and the Playstation brand are stronger than ever. Have you not been online for the past week? The PS4 is about to be announced. Everyone has been talking about it.

[dcbronco]

Not a bargain if you consider they could have left Blu-ray out and had a $400 console. If they had done that, this article wouldn't have been written. Sony fans can't seem to understand that business isn't magic. You do need to have sales to advertise and keep studios open.

Just add this to the growing list of things that have hurt Sony since the launch of the PS3. Sony never had the 50 billion of free cash Microsoft has. They can't afford the mistakes. Gaming was the one thing Sony could count on. More than music, movies, phones or TVs. And that dependable income disappeared because of the PS3. That killed advertising, it killed the Samsung deal and it caused them to sell other parts of the company.

They have turned the income on gaming around. They have shrunk the company. And they have established Blu-ray enough for it not to be a liability. And it looks like they have gone back to a more traditional CPU. All of those things should bring them back to where they were as far as gaming financials. Not sure how they fix the rest of the company.

[DivineAssault]

If the games dont do well after sony publishes them, they get cut.. Thats the way it goes.. Not to say the games they made were bad but they didnt do too well in sales or didnt live up to sonys expectations.. Nx gen is going to cost way too much to risk publishing 1/2 assed games so they will keep the strong ones like Naughtydog, studio japan, Santa Monica, etc & probably divide those into other teams & hire new talent to work with them

[BrianC6234]

That was way too boring to read very far. They took way too many words to say anything. It could have been a quarter the size. You don't need to write a book to get your point across. I have no idea what the point is though since I stopped reading.

[BattleAxe]

SuperBot isn't much of a loss since they'have only ever created one game, and it isn't selling as expected.

Insomniac made their own choice, and it is well known that Sony tried to purchase them, but they want to do their own thing....bad move on Insomniac's part.

Eat Sleep Play isn't much of a loss with having only developed Calling All Cars and a couple of Twisted metal games.

Lighthouse Interactive made a couple of good multiplayer games, but the single player for Starhawk wasn't all that good, so they have nobody but themselves to blame for turning to the mobile phone market.

Zipper Interactive was my favorite studio during the PS2 days, but the people running the studio didn't listen to the fans, and ultimately screwed up one of the most popular franchises on the PS2....SOCOM. These guy were a bunch of morons and deserved to get shut down.

Sony Liverpool was just an unproductive studio, so ...whatever.

The best game developers in the entire industry are:

- Naughty Dog
- Polyphony Digital
- Sony Santa Monica
- Guerrilla Games
- Guerrilla Cambridge
- Sony Bend
- Sucker Punch
- Media Molecule
- Evolution Studios
- Team Ico
- Sony Online Entertainment

I'm sorry, what was this article written for again? What a waste of time lol

[DOMination-]

Team Ico don't exist anymore. They were shut down a while back and now their game is being finished by SCE Japan and co-developed by Santa Monica.

Anyway with the exception of Evolution and SCE Cambridge your point stands. They are great devs indeed but there are many others up there with them.

[dafegamer]

wrong. pls provide some proof before saying such garbage. Only because the creator left Sony, it doesnt mean that Team Ico is shut down. Stop spreading false statements

[DOMination-]

They have been merged and integrated with SCE Japan. The studio exists in name only now for if/when TLG ever releases, any future games will just fall under the SCE Japan banner.

It makes sense anyway. The creator will leave after TLG and most of the other important people there have already left anyway. The games development has been a joke and Sony are right to ditch a studio that has probably wasted a ton of money only to maybe release a game that will sell at most 800,000 units worldwide.

No publisher can afford to have devs take an entire generation to make a niche game.

[sway_z]

Sony have BIG name studios as it is...I never heard of Super Massive games before PS All Stars was announced, and Sony Liverpool only really made the Wipeout series this gen...

Sony Liverpool (formerly Psygnosis) were famed for the F1 series on PS1 too...

I will miss 'Wipeout' though...fond memories ;(