230°

Hiroki Totoki becomes interim head of Sony Interactive Entertainment

Hiroki Totoki is taking over today as interim chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment, filling the role of former head Jim Ryan.

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venturebeat.com
Dandalandan117413d ago

Hopefully lesser focus on live service games

KyRo413d ago

Hopefully just more of a focus on games in general. 4 years in I'm still waiting for something to wow me like Ratchet and Clank and Returnal.

Cacabunga413d ago

PlayStation will make or kill itself with gaas games.. we need the PlayStation from previous gens. It’s ok with gaas once in a while, just not change your whole vision and turn back to fans who made this brand what it is today..

bloop413d ago

More games would be great. This gen has been really disappointing so far. Great games have been too few and far between. And time to drop cross gen development for good.

Crows90413d ago

Wow...returnal...what a fantastic game. Demons souls was huge for me as I never got around to beating it the first time around.

-Foxtrot413d ago

Yeah hopefully

They have Helldivers for that, just focus on supporting that game as much as they can. Why oversaturate a market even more when you've just caught lightning in a bottle with a game already.

No point making more than one as it will just divide attention and player bases.

LucasRuinedChildhood413d ago (Edited 413d ago )

In the short term, I suppose we won't see any change.

I think they need to invest heavily in 2nd party games - we're seeing that a bit this year.

They can take more risks on those games (more unique) because they're not $200m+ and they can more quickly get out a variety of exclusives.

Helldivers shows how well that can pay off and probably Stellar Blade will as well. Returnal did too (Sony didn't own them).

Insomniac was in the top 3 best "PlayStation" studios decades before Sony ever owned them.

And if you think back on a year like 2015, none of the big exclusives were from first party studios (Until Dawn, Bloodborne, The Order 1886). Nobody saw that as a problem back then. We were happy.

People (even PS fans themselves) started acting like second party games are not "real" exclusives ever since Microsoft started buying up publishers and studios. People need to get over that. Buying up everything so people can chant "First party" and have list wars is not necessary or good for the industry. It's part of the reason Xbox have been forced to go multiplatform by Microsoft so that approach backfired.

If Sony's huge games are all going to take 5+ years to make, I think they need as many if not more second party games as they used to have.

Einhander1972413d ago

Helldivers 2 most successful live service launch of the year....

PlayStation doesn't make bad games, whatever they make live service or single player will be made to the highest standards.

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_Decadent_Descent413d ago

Live service I agree with, but I would hope that doesn't mean less focus on MP games in general.

Lightning77413d ago (Edited 413d ago )

I dunno about about that. I think he's sticking to that regime and seeing it all the way through. The same way Ryan stuck with Shawn Laydens plans and regime. Backtracking now would cause tremendous stress on developers and developmental pipelines.

Skuletor410d ago

With the focus on live service games, I'm surprised The Last of Us II: Grounded or whatever and that Multiplayer Spider-Man got cancelled. I've read what Naughty Dog's excuse was but if Sony were truly focused on live service games, they could have hired more people, so ND could work on more than just the MP game

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DarXyde413d ago

A bit worried.

As long as it's truly short term... Maybe it's fine...? But a CFO taking the reins is likely how creative passion goes to die.

Chocoburger413d ago

He needs to bring back Japan Studios and re-hire all that incredible talent that they lost. PlayStation needs to focus more on what made them incredible from PS1 to PS3 eras.

Einhander1972413d ago

This is misinformation Asobi was a team at Japan Studio, all that really happened is a name change of the studi.

Before the change even happened a few people (I think it was only 3-5 people) said they wanted to leave the studio to form an indie development studio "Bokeh Game Studio" which they did, and Bokeh is still making games for PlayStation just independently.

So at that time Sony changed the name from Japan Studio to Asobi, everyone from the staff except for a few people who left to form Bokeh stayed on under Asobi. Sony themselves called it a reorganization, which is accurate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

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Chocoburger413d ago

Hmm, I guess its not as bad as it sounded, then? I'll read that wikipedia article to get all the details.

Aphrodia413d ago

I wonder if Playstation will ever be like it was from ps1-ps3 ever again. Explorative. Ps4 is when they became more iterative than innovative. PS5 continues the iterative trend. Unless they have something hiding away then the Ps5 generation will remain iterative. With GTA 6 coming relatively soon the whole world is waiting to see what comes of that than anything else. Unfortunately it seems like we'll have to wait for ps6 just to see if sony will do anything new, innovative, and daring. So far the PS5 remains the only Playstation console I've never owned.

Chocoburger412d ago

As dev time increases, budgets ballooning out of control, and advertising costs trying to get the general public to know your game exists in an over crowded market, publishers don't want to take risks anymore.

I understand why companies have changed, but due to their changes in priorities, my focus has been on older generations these days.

Travesty413d ago

Okie dokie Hiroki Totoki. Get someone in there that loves the brand and listens to gamers. I kind of miss that reaction in the past.

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100°

Former PlayStation boss says 'stupid money' crippled the game industry

Shuhei Yoshida offers his take on the recent industry implosion and ponders whether there's light at the end of the tunnel.

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gamedeveloper.com
60°

An Interview with Sassy Chap's Ray Chase

Ray Chase is a voice actor, cofounder of a game studio, and lead designer on their debut. Today we chat dateviators and the ideas behind Date Everything!

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gamersocialclub.ca
320°

Neil Druckmann Reveals He’s Working on an Unannounced Game at Naughty Dog

Neil Druckmann, the creative director of The Last of Us, is working on a new, unannounced game at Naughty Dog.

RaidenBlack15h ago

I know they've expertise in third person games.
But given the lack there of in PS catalog, I'd want the other project to be a narrative first person ND game.
Look, there are lots of 3rd person Sony games in variety of flavors. And ND is already doing intergalactic. And since they're pretty expert at gameplay and tech wise in whatever they do, they can easily venture a new genre and ship a first person game/shooter.

VenomUK15h ago

Hopefully the lead character is a boss babe who will challenge the patriarchy.

RaidenBlack13h ago

So, judging from the dislikes, hardcore Sony fans here don't like first person games, anymore?

arkard12h ago

Let naughty dog do what they are great at, 3rd person games

crazyCoconuts7h ago

I don't really have a big opinion on first vs third person perspective. That's one of the least important things to me when rating how much I like a game

Flewid6384h ago

Sounds horrible. The downvotes are right on this one.

badz1493h ago

I actually hate 1st person. very hard to associate with a character you only see their hands most of the time.

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OtterX15h ago

funny thing is with failures like Concord and soon to be Marathon, Factions could have been Sony's guaranteed huge success with a shooter! I don't ever play online shooters anymore, but I would have come out of shooter retirement for a new Factions game.

darthv7215h ago

...Way of the Warrior 2: Electric Boogaloo

Amplitude14h ago

It’d be cool if they bought the Parappa licence and made Parappa 3 that’d be the real good timeline

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Lightning771d 2h ago

Wait I thought they cancelled a game? Or did they announce another project?

https://wccftech.com/naught...

pwnmaster300022h ago(Edited 22h ago)

I’m assuming it’s the unannounced game in the title you posted.

“Naughty Dog Reportedly Canceled a Single Player Game This Year, But Another Unannounced Game Is Still in the Works“

Lightning7711h ago

OK I gotcha. That makes sense.

jznrpg9h ago

Devs cancel games all the time early stages if it doesn’t turn out the way they envisioned it. We just don’t hear about every one of them.

badz1493h ago

so a 2028 release at the soonest

Lightning772h ago(Edited 2h ago)

Some speculate it could be Uncharted spin off. It's already 3 years in production so yeah 2028 maybe 2027 at the absolute earliest but most likely 28 release.

Also to add. kojimas next game that's not OD is said to be 5 to 6 years out for PS. That metal gear inspired game. These games are just too far off it seems.

pwnmaster300022h ago

This dude is busy.
So who is running intergalactic?

Knushwood Butt20h ago

'We have several directors on Intergalactic. I work with two game directors: Matthew Gallant and Kurt Margenau, [and] I have a co-writer in Clair Carré.'

pwnmaster30007h ago(Edited 7h ago)

Okay you got me, I skimmed the article and video .
Thanks lol

vTuro2414h ago

Cuckmann is going to be Naughty Dog's downfall.

itBourne5h ago

Going to be? The damage is already done lol.

Flewid6384h ago

Sunlight is good for you, I promise. lol

Flewid6384h ago

yall say that about ever developer and then they end up becoming more successful lol

mkis0072h ago

Downfall? If anything he is a huge reason they are on the map! A few apes don't like the material hasn't stopped his games from being massive hits.

DarXyde2h ago

I have grievances with Druckmann, but he does deserve some benefit of the doubt. He's been in crucial roles at the company through all of their successes.

Maybe wait and see?

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 2h ago
StormSnooper14h ago

Interesting. So they are working on more than we knew.

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