Insomniac Games Cannot Develop Sunset Overdrive 2 Because Of Microsoft

Microsoft owns exclusivity rights for the next two sequels of the IP.

[porkChop]

That's a weird situation. Insomniac/Sony own the IP, but MS own the publishing rights to the next 2 sequels, any DLC, and any remasters. I don't see Sony allowing Insomniac to develop 2 Xbox exclusives, even if MS were to fund them. The franchise is as good as dead.

[Cacabunga]

This claim that MS makes no sense and contradicts with idea whyIG wanted to stay independent..
in all honesty this game is not great at all, it’s average and very repetitive. Was done and released at the same period as Fuse which was also a bad game.. IG is nothing without PlayStation

[crazyCoconuts]

81 Metacritic - not bad not great
Not my style of game personally, I didn't like it enough to finish it back then. I'm 100% fine without a sequel on this one

[itsmebryan]

@Caca

Sunset overdrive was really fun and t son ani I enjoyed the story. We recently started playing it again on XSX. Have you played it?
Also now Sony is forcing insomniac to layoff people and only make Marvel games for the next 10+ years it's no way a sequel will ever get made. I bet Insomniac is regretting going to Sony now. What a waste.

[Rocketisleague]

Insomniac is nothing without rocksteady you mean. Now they're stuck making the same game over and over with a new skin as it brings in money. And realistically spiderman was just a reskin of arkham series already.

[SyntheticForm]

Sunset Overdrive had a great sense of humor and was quite fun to play.

Insomniac losing SSO isn't the tragedy, it's losing their autonomy.

[Christopher]

Independence is but an illusion when you get in bed with any major publisher.

[Christopher]

***Also now Sony is forcing insomniac to layoff people and only make Marvel games for the next 10+ years it's no way a sequel will ever get made. I bet Insomniac is regretting going to Sony now. What a waste. ***

I love this jump to conclusion people are making from seeing "lower budget" for main games.

They're reducing budget on one game, but also now working on 3 games at once. That obviously translates to laying off people because you need less people to work on more games at once.

[DarXyde]

It doesn't rule out spiritual successors.

[zaanan]

Jet Set Overdrive, let’s GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! ;)

[CobraKai]

@Hilda
Why not both? Im loving Insomniac’s Marvel games but i ACTUALLY DO want original games from them as well. I don’t want such talented developers to be caged like Wolverine, only to make games like Wolverine. They need to be let loose.

[DarXyde]

Hileda,

Insomniac has two studios. If it is true that Sony wants them to do smaller budget projects, that is the perfect opportunity to make original IPs, don't you think?

[RaidenBlack]

Are there any xbox studio(s) that are capable of developing the sequel(s)?
Maybe Obsidian's writing team collaborating with Coalition's gameplay team .... but that's highly unlikely.

[Zeref]

Tango Gameworks is who you're looking for. HiFi Rush has a similar but less Mature vibe to Sunset Overdrive.

There's also some on the Activision side that could fit like Beenox who did some of the earlier spiderman games or Toys For Bob who are doing Spyro and Crash.

[Chevalier]

Why not Tango? HiFi Rush seems to be very much designed in the vein of Sunset Overdrive. They could write and develop them

[Profchaos]

vicarious visions would be my first choice given how well they handled both crash and thps 1+2

[badz149]

@RaidenBlack

MS only own the publishing rights, the IP is owned by Insomniac, thus Sony. MS can't have anybody else making it, because it's not their IP and Insomniac can't proceed with the sequels because MS has to fund the games as part of the publishing agreement but why would MS fund a Sony's 1st party studio to make a game? The IP is now in a deadlock situation, thus...unless a miracle like Sony suddenly feeling generous to let Insomniac takes MS's money to make 2 sequels that MS would not want to appear on PS5 because they are not a 3rd party publisher (yet), not going to happen!

[Zeref]

Good move to secure the sequels by Xbox.
Probably for this exact situation, where potentially Xbox fans would get left out of a sequel of a game they adored.

Ideally Sony and Microsoft would put gamers first and work together to bring the sequel to both platforms. But we all know that's never gonna happen.

[DarXyde]

"adored"?

There are many games on every platforms I wish were adored.

Sunset Overdrive was not adored. Great game, but hardly anyone gave it a chance. In this case, Microsoft went out of their way to advertise this game at major events and it was still ignored.

Game might be well liked by those of us who've played it, but in reality, it is like Gravity Rush. Great game, grossly overlooked, and no amount of sequels is likely to fix that.

My guess: it just didn't resonate with the Xbox audience at large. Whether people want to admit it or not, some games do better on some platforms. Microsoft knows this. Why else would Atlus JRPGs launch on XGP? They're trying to make it a thing and increase uptake on the platform. There aren't enough SSO type games on Xbox for people to care much about it.

As for a sequel where both parties come together... Well, Goldeneye was a whole thing, but it happened. I wouldn't say it can never happen.

[Rynxie]

Okay, then make sunset overdrive 4. There you go.

[EvertonFC]

Couldn't they get around it by doing a prequal

[porkChop]

Sunset Overdrive starts at the beginning of the outbreak. A prequel would literally not be Sunset Overdrive. It also wouldn't work that way. MS owns the rights to the next 2 games in the franchise, a prequel would be included in that.

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

What would even be the point? It's not like SO was a system seller anyway

[BeHunted]

Maybe not, but more games increases Xbox Game Pass catalogue.

[Lightning77]

Unfortunately you are right. Ms will Never employ a Sony employee to make the game. No way that's happening they have 2 very different buissness plans plus slitting shares and profits it'll be get messy.

Rip Sunset Overdrive 2014-2023

[-Foxtrot]

Hold on a minute, I thought the whole point Insomniac went to other people over Sony during that time was because they wanted to be independent enough to own the IP of the game they made.

Now MS owns publishing rights to the next two sequels?

Dosent that defeat the point of why they did it? Well, what they told us anyway at the time.

[Vits]

It was a bet. Insomniac owns the IP, but in exchange for the +40M in funding, they gave up the publishing rights for this game and two sequels. If it was successful, then after those two sequels, they would be free to do whatever they wanted. If it was not successful, they could follow a Bungie-like approach and simply negotiate to regain those rights back from Microsoft.

But they were acquired by Sony, and now, unless the latter makes a proposal that Microsoft can't refuse, it's very unlikely that they will sell those rights. The franchise is as good as dead.

[Eonjay]

Either Sony buys them out of the contract or we only ever see Sunset Overdrive remaster.

[crazyCoconuts]

Reviews and sales were just ok. I doubt anyone is going out of their way to resuscitate this

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

So they never had true control of the IP due to giving MS publishing rights. I remember them saying to ask MS if gamers wanted a sequel. Definitely defeated the whole point of denying Sony and being exclusive to Xbox.

[-Foxtrot]

Yeah that’s what I was trying to say, it’s silly.

Why not just make a multiplatform game or say to MS they could be exclusive for 5 years or something

Hell even say “if it’s a huge success keep the IP and we’ll continue making sequels for you, if it fails then it reverts to us after so long”

[gold_drake]

well that sucks.

[__SteakDeck__]

Can’t Mr. “When we all play, we all win” Nice Guy Phil Spencer sell the publishing rights to Insomniac? Lol Glad people can finally stop asking about a sequel to this game. Insomniac can just make a better new IP, that borrows some mechanics from Overdrive. But we’ll probably have to wait until at least 2031 for that. Lol

[Rockstar]

That's true!
Good guy Phil is "for the players" and "a gamer" so this is going to happen!

[GamerRN]

Well, isn't Sony ALSO a good company just trying to be about the games? Can't they allow Microsoft to make a sequel? Don't they want to make sure that no company is stopping the other from making games?

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Have you been living under rock? According to the most neutralist of gamers, Sony and Microsoft have reversed roles this gen. Sony is anti consumer and Microsoft are the good guys. Good Guy Phil better make it happen!

[badz149]

You're wrong on that. The ball is actually in MS's court. They have the publishing rights but not the IP, so if they actually gives a damn about the IP, they should buy the IP from Sony and let their own studios make a sequel.

Any crumbs of interest from Sony regarding the IP has vanished when they knew about the publishing agreement and the IP was never associated with the PS brand to begin with. Can't blame them letting the IP they can't monetize on rotting on the shelve. So it goes straight to MS now when it comes to salvaging the IP.

This is just 1 IP Phil, and shouldn't be THAT expensive considering how it went down. The fact that they are not even trying to get the IP showed they too don't care. Let's just say RIP to SSOD. It's as good as dead now.

[Einhander1972]

Who cares, Insomniac has their games laid out well into the next generation.

[Yi-Long]

Maybe just ditch the name/IP and make a ‘spiritual sequel’, so similar in concept, yet still different/original enough to not get Microsoft upset.

[badz149]

What do you think the Spider-man games are? A lot of elements in those games were inspired from SSOD as claimed by the devs themselves.

[bleedsoe9mm]

Sony and MS need to make nice and get a deal done SO needs a sequel

[andron]

That's to bad would love a sequel...

[z2g]

well... to be fair, they did pay for it. MS could have another developer make the sequel.

[SimpleSlave]

Just change the name to Sunset Hyperdrive or to Sunset Ludicrousdrive and change the color from Orange to Blue or Yellow or make it multicolored like Splatoon and done.

If From did it with Demon's Souls to Dark Souls and if System Shock changed into Bioshock, then so can Insomniac do the same.

[DOMination-]

They could but they won't because it's too much effort for no return.

This was a decent but niche game. Insomniac are a AAA studio now focusing on mega hits. The leaks show that previous games like R&C and Resistance weren't big sellers and didn't really make any money hence why their roadmap for the next ten years is multiplayer Marvel games.

Microsoft have plenty of studios capable of making a sequel but for the same reasons, it will never be greenlit. The only way this IP has a future is if one of MS studios picks it up as a small/side project like Hi-Fi Rush was.

[SimpleSlave]

I'm not commenting on the actual possibility or the economics of it all. I'm just saying that if Insomniac or Sony really wanted to they could is all.

[Pepsi_Man3000]

so lemme get this straight. Insomniac went to playstation for this game but playstation wanted to own the IP so insomniac said no cus _they_ wanted to own the IP. So they went to microsoft who said insomniac can own the IP but now we're finding out MS got publishing rights for it and 2 sequels, and now that insomniac is owned by playstation they basically cant make any sequels or remasters or anything cuz no way will playstation let them develop for the rival console and its probs not even likely MS will sell the publishing rights to sony or anything like that. But also If insomniac owns the IP that means MS cant make a sequel? Is all this correct? Cus if so it seems like insomniac fucked themselves over

[GamerRN]

Also seems like it's not Microsoft fault, but also Sonys

[ocelot07]

Insomniac should just do two asset flip games for gamepass. You know the ones you can get on steam and playstation. Cost about 79p.

Call them sunset overdrive 2 and 3. Then completely reboot the series on playstation.

[MightyHealthy]

is there a sony insomniac game on xbox

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

tbh, they're better off just moving on from that ip. everyone knows insomniac can make good games, and they don't need sunset at all.

[cammers1995]

Bully Microsoft at it again I see. Franchise is dead. Sony owns IP, insomniac is owned by Sony, Microsoft has rights to next two games. Franchise won't go anywhere.

[Demetrius]

Microsoft will only allow if they receive millions from Sony dam that's one game I gotta play

[Agent75]

Microsoft = We don't release a lot of games.

[ROCKY28]

They should use the (Spiderman Engine) and finally create Prototype 3 !!!

[northpaws]

Just create a game with similar gameplay and different name then.

[Profchaos]

I slept on the original game hard and I completely regret it.

The marketing for it sucked the CGI trailer told us nothing and we had no idea really what to expect

I played it when it came to gwg I didn't realise it was a insomniac joint back then I had just brought a Xbox one and Halo 5 / MCC to compliment my PS4 and as a long time fan of crash, Spyro and the games that sunset takes inspiration from like thps and ratchet it was right up my alley.

The game was hands down pure fun one of those rare gems that didn't take itself seriously and was just a joy to play.

It was a perfect game I think I and people like me were the problem we didn't know what we had until it was far to late.

[Binarycode]

I'd rather Insomniac got working on a remake of the Resistance games just for PS5. would be awesome. miss those games.

[Petebloodyonion]

OK... just curious on the logic of approving this topic as news.
On one hand we have a story about Sony pressuring studios for layoff being discarded as purely speculation despite many major outlet picking the story.

On the other hand we have this story where a Twitter user have discover via the studio’s internal documents, that Microsoft still apparently owns the exclusive publishing rights to the series. (despite Sony renewing Sunset Overdrive TM in 2021).

My question is what make this story qualify as legit news or valid and what make the layoff article discarded despite using the same leaked documents as a source?

[BanginTunes]

They probably should just make a Ratchet and Clank game with the open world and movement of Sunset Overdrive if they want to make a sequel

[ocelot07]

Sell the IP to Microsoft for $5 billion.

[LucidIllusion]

Lackluster IP. Definitely better franchises to be worked on.